Working with Triangles + Flower Detailing by Joan Bronson

My Creative Scrapbook design team member Joan Bronson is sharing how she worked with triangles and also has some flower detailing tips for you today featuring our September Creative kit!

Here's Joan:

If you are like me you flip though the pages of your scrapbook and see lots of rectangles and squares; even plenty of circles.  September’s Creative kit inspired me to work with a different shape – a triangle.  I’ve done a little with triangles in the past but typically I shy away from them because it is hard to get them in a uniform shape or to have the pattern of the paper look good with the shape.  This month we have a great paper in our kits with a triangle pattern.  I knew this was the month to do something different – to use a different shape on my layouts; triangles!

On my “Love This” layout I made some large triangles simply by following the pattern of the triangle paper.  Once I decided on how wide and how tall I wanted my triangles to be I just cut them out followed the lines of the triangles on the paper.  Once I cut my triangle paper I used it one triangle as a template to make my cork looking (packaging for my die cuts) triangles.

Here is how the layout turned out.

My second layout using triangles really challenged me but you should not be scared off by it!  Once I figured out what I was doing I couldn’t believe it took me so long to figure out.  This is not difficult nor does it  take as much time as you might think. 

First, I chose three papers to work with and cut a bunch of 1 ½” squares.  I cut my squares diagnally in half.  Next, I decided where I wanted the triangles to go on my layout and used a pencil to draw a line on my cardstock for the top row of triangles.  I drew a second line about half an inch below the first line as well.  Now I was ready to add my tringles.  I put the triangles on my layout before I added the yellow strip on the right as well as the pictures.  This way my triangles didn’t have to be perfectly placed on one side or the top row. 

 

I started on the right side of the bottom line and placed my triangle with the point down and the part I cut (where I cut the square in half) on the line.  Do the same thing with the next triangle but overlap the first triangle about half way.  Place the third triangle overlapping the second one half way as well.  Repeat this across the page and once you get to the end of your line, trim your last triangle as needed.  I started the next row of triangles between the two pencil lines and a little further to the right of the first triangle (in order to offset the points of the triangles).  Repeat as you did with the first row.  The third row of triangles should be placed on the to top line again offsetting the triangle points as you did on the other rows.  Once you add your yellow strip and photo any imperfections  and offsets on the right will be covered up.  Just finish assembling your page.

Lastly, I wanted to share how I created the carnation looking flowers on my “I love you” layout.  I have to admit I was scared of ruining my flowers when I started working with them but as I did, I got more and more excited about how they were turning out.

First, I poured a little pink colored glimmer mist on my craft mat and lightly dipped my paint brush in it then touched the tips of the petals.  Once I added the mist to the flowers I set them aside to dry (or you can use a heat gun).

Once my flowers were dry I added glimmer glam to the entire flower petals.  I find it best not to mix up the glimmer glam.  Just dip a fanned paint brush into the bottom of the glimmer glam jar to gather the glitter.  The mist may bleed a little so if you feel you picked up much mist on your brush you might rinse it before you apply more glimmer glam so you don’t spread the mist on other parts of the petals.  Again, let the flowers dry or use a heat gun to dry them before you add them to the layout.

I had fun trying some new techniques this month - I hope you will to!

Joan Bronson

My Creative Scrapbook Design Team Member

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Here's our September Creative kit:

(Click here to purchase our Creative kit)

Have a look at the rest of the beautiful layouts that Joan created using the kit:

Be sure to visit Joan's blog for even more inspiration!

We invite you to join us and experience the possibilities that our coordinated monthly kits offer. To purchase a kit, please visit our website, here.

Inking and Distressing by Kristin Greenwood

We have some inking and distressing tips along with some September Main kit inspiration today from My Creative Scrapbook design team member Kristin Greenwood!

Here's Kristin:

My favorite technique in scrapbooking is inking and distressing.  I just love the look and the dimension it gives to my projects (plus it makes me feel like its okay to use all the pretty paper for my boy when I do it)!

Here are a few tool that you can use to distress.

 

 

All scrappers have scissors, you can use the edge of the blade (you might have to work harder with the scissors to get a heavy distress look and you are more likely to tear your paper, but with practice your scissor can be a great distress tool).  The Close To My Heart distress tool (other brands carry similar tools)  is great for smaller embellishments (like stickers and die cuts).   The Prima tool is the one I use the most. I find it is the most comfortable to hold and control.

There are a few different ways that I ink and/or distress my paper...

One way is just distress the edges of my paper, no inking.

 

 
Another is to ink the edges of your paper first,

 

 

than distress the edges.

 

The last way is to ink the edges of your paper, distress and ink again.

 

 

The side on the left is ink and distress.  The side on the right is ink, distress, ink.

Kristin Greenwood

My Creative Scrapbook Design Team Member

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Here's our September Main kit:

(Click here to purchase our Main kit)

Have a look at the beautiful layouts that Kristin created using the kit:

Be sure to visit Kristin's blog for even more inspiration!

We invite you to join us and experience the possibilities that our coordinated monthly kits offer. To purchase a kit, please visit our website, here.

Carving a Custom Stamp to Match Paper Designs by Lydell Quin

Hope you had a great weekend! We have an awesome tutorial to share today from My Creative Scrapbook design team member Lydell Quin featuring our September Main kit.

Here's Lydell:

Carving a custom stamp to match Paper designs.

(*WARNING….Photo heavy post…..you might want to grab a cup of Tea and relax!!!)

I Love carving my own stamps.  I thought I would share how I carved a stamp to match the flower Print on one of the papers in this month’s Main Kit in The Chalkboard Collection from We R Memory Keepers.

Here is the original flower cut out and layered, creating an embellishment.  This is what I would like to replicate.

To start with, select the image you would like to replicate in a stamp.  Choose a nice wide open Image, which is not too complex and will be easy to trace and cut out.  Flip the page over and with a soft lead pencil (2B or higher) colour in the reverse side covering the back of the image well.

Now using an eraser or a carving block (found in most good Art stores-  Speedball makes some great blocks)  I found a large eraser from a specialty Stationary store and I sanded off the image a little with sandpaper (just so I can see my image better)  and placed the coloured-in side of the paper down on the eraser and started tracing the image.

You might want to go over the transferred image again with the pencil so its drawn clear on the block.  Do the same for all the components of the image.  Mine had several parts as I wanted my stamped image to be layered.

Using Carving tools (also available from good art stores, -Linoleum Carving tools-) and using the finest one, begin carving the outline of the pencil lines.  Carve on the outside edge of the line, leaving the pencil line still showing on the block.   Once you have carved out the fine lines, move up to a larger carving tool (I used the curved one) and carve off the rest of the eraser outside of the fine detail carving you just did.  Cut off the excess eraser with a blade or scissors.

Once you have done that, using black ink (making it clear to see imperfections) ink up your stamp and stamp it on scrap paper.  Look for problem areas in your stamped image and re-carve off areas that need removing.  Continue until you are happy with your stamped image.

Move on to the other images and do the process again.  Cutting them apart first if necessary.

Remember to stamp them to check if they need extra fine detailing

You will have a nice little mess to clean up!

Now stamp your images on good quality Cardstock, using coloured ink.

Then fussy cut them out and layer them together.

And here is the final result.

Now try to stop with just one…..  The sky is the limit.  Arrows, chevrons, hearts, stars…..

Have fun.

Lydell Quin

My Creative Scrapbook Design Team Member

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Here's our September Main kit:

(Click here to purchase our Main kit)

and here are Lydell's beautiful Main kit layouts:

Be sure to visit Lydell's blog for even more inspiration!

We invite you to join us and experience the possibilities that our coordinated monthly kits offer. To purchase a kit, please visit our website, here.