A Note From Our October Sketch Winner

We are always so delighted to receive notes of appreciation from our members, followers, and prize winners.

We recently received a lovely note from Nancy Hagen, who won our October sketch challenge.

Here's what Nancy had to say:

"Thank you very much for choosing my layout for October. The sketch was just what I needed for inspiration. Than you also for offering a prize. 

Thank you again!  Wow, this is an awesome prize.  I can't wait to play!"

Nancy included this fun photo of herself with her prize!

Thank you, Nancy, for your very sweet note and for sending us this photo.
Congratulations again, and enjoy your goodies!

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Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it, from our family to yours!

Our Holiday Give a Gift - Get a Gift Sale

My Creative Scrapbook Holiday Give a Gift-Get a Gift Sale!! 

Your Christmas lists are so long, let us help. Do you have a friend or relative that has always wanted a My Creative Scrapbook kit! Well now is the time to give them that special gift! Go ahead, get yourself a gift too!! 

For a limited time we are offering: Our Holiday Give a Gift - Get a Gift Sale! For the first time ever you can purchase one month of our My Creative Scrapbook  Kit Club as a gift or buy a subscription and receive our Holiday Surprise Pack full of paper crafting Goodies Free!!  If you buy multiple subscriptions you get a Holiday Surprise Pack for each new subscription you buy in the month of December!! Let us know where you want the kits and Holiday Surprise Packs mailed and hurry as this Sale ends soon! 

Click here and put one month in message box at check out. Any new subscription or orders will receive the holiday surprise pack! The Holiday kits photos will be up on the site on December 5th but sign up now to have a kit held for you. 

Happy Holidays from My Creative Scrapbook!  

Any questions e-mail us at MyCreativeScrapbook@gmail.com

How to Make a Mini Album Using a Manila File Folder by Kristin Greenwood

My Creative Scrapbook design team member Kristin Greenwood is up today with a tutorial featuring our November Album Kit!

Here's Kristin:

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Here is a tutorial on how I made my second mini album using a letter size manila folder!

You will need a file folder with the tab at the top.

Open the file folder so that the tab is in the top right corner.

**Open the file folder so that the tab is in the upper right corner.**

Fold the bottom of the folder up about 4 inches.

When you fold the bottom up, the left side of the folder must match up with the cut out tab.

Fold the left side of the folder to the center line.  The tab will hang over.

Fold the right side over to the left side until the "binding" matches up.

This is what it should look like from the top.

Cover with pattern paper.

Adhere each side to create the pocket. (The part you folded up on each side)

Adhere chipboard to front and back to finish mini album.

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Be sure to take a look at Kristin's beautiful work in our Design Team Gallery!

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.

How to Change Letter Sticker Color by Joan Bronson

My Creative Scrapbook design team member Joan Bronson is up today with a tutorial featuring our November Creative Kit!

Here's Joan:

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I absolutely love the November Creative kit from My Creative Scrapbook. The kit includes some chalk board style frames that I wanted to use. For my First Communion layout I wanted to use a frame for my title but my letters were black. I was temped to grab some spare white letters in my stash (you probably are too). Although the white letters would work I stuck with my kit and decided to use the letters I had. In the end I am so happy I did - I couldn't be more please with the look I achieved.

I gathered the letters from the kit, Gesso, a paint brush, and the packaging from the stickers in the kit. I stuck the letters I was going to use on the packaging and dabbed the Gesso on them until I felt they were well covered. By dabbing the paint on I could still see some black showing through.

Once the letters were dry I removed from from the packaging and added them to my layout - so cool!

Looking back, my tip would be to use a crafting mat rather than the packaging like I did. The letters stuck to the plastic more than I had anticipated and they were hard to remove. I peeled most of the sticky backing off of them and tore one letter in the process. I had to add adhesive to the letters to use them. Luckily, I didn't have to redo all the letters! I'm so thrilled I stuck with my kit and didn't reach for my white letters- my finished product turned out so much cooler and it really wasn't that much more work. I hope you'll give it a try sometime too.

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Be sure to take a look at Joan's beautiful work in our Design Team Gallery!

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.

Blowing Paint Effect by Guest Designer Renata Moni Bidin

My Creative Scrapbook guest designer Renata Moni Bidin is up today with an awesome paint technique!

Here's Renata:

 1- Spoon out a little bit of acrylic paint onto your paper. You can add some water if the paint is too thick.
2- Using a straw, blow on the paint to make spidery legs.
3- Moving your straw while blowing will make interesting patterns in the paint.
4- When dry, you can add glossy accents to make a wet effect.
5- Using a different paint color, you can add small splatters using an old toothbrush.

I used this technique on my 3 layouts made with the Limited Edition kit as you can see in the gallery.

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Be sure to take a look at Renata's beautiful work in our Design Team Gallery!

Watch for more beautiful creations from Renata as she continues to guest design with us with our December and January Limited Edition kits.

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.

How to Customize Backgrounds and Embellishments Using Gesso, Mists, and Paste by Nicole Doiron

My Creative Scrapbook design team member Nicole Doiron is up today with a tutorial featuring our November Main Kit!

Here's Nicole:

Anyone who visits my blog regularly know that I'm a big fan of the shabby chic style and I love to dabble in mixed media projects on a regular basis.  Playing with the Main kit this month, I absolutely wanted to show how versatile all kits from My Creative Scrapbook can be.  Starting with a white cardstock background and using different mediums like gesso, mists and paste on this background and on the various elements included in the kit, I was able to create a layout with a shabby chic look.

I first used a white piece of cardstock for my background.  The main thing to remember when working with mixed media products is that you're never quite sure what the final results will be.  You just have to have fun and not be afraid of experimenting.

I then used molding paste and a busy stencil design (you can use any you own).

Using a plastic spatula, I put a heavy coat of molding paste and smoothed it out evenly.

I did this stenciling work in all four corners of my background.

I then dried it with my heat gun.

I then added a pink shade of mist.

I removed the excess mist by dabbing a scrunched up paper towel on the mist splatter.

I mixed dark chocolate Liquid Pearls and Molding Paste.

Using a Script stencil, I added the mixture onto my background, then dried with a heat gun.

Since the mixture was a bit too liquid, the 'script' pattern didn't come out quite as clearly as I would have wanted.

I therefore put white acrylic paint on a sponge and whitewashed the script making it blend a bit more with my background.

This is what my background looked like so far.

A closer look...

Next, I decided to try to add some more texture with clear gesso.

I just squeezed some fairly large blobs of gesso onto my background and lightly scraped it around.

Again, I dried this layer with my heat gun.

Now was time to add some stamped dots to my background.

I pressed the stamp all over the page, using dark brown ink.

Next, I thought of adding even more texture, but this time, with white gesso.

 

While drying the gesso with my heat gun, I made sure to put the gun real close to my paper so as to make the gesso bubble up.

I wanted to add a little more color and I thought blue mist  would be nice.

 At that point, I considered my background to be done.

It was then time to modify the embellishments I had decided to use on my layout.  I started off by covered them with white gesso, drying it, and then spread molding paste unevenly unto each piece and dried it again with my heat gun.

Adding the cream ribbon and some of the kit's flowers, I then added a few layers of red mist until I attained the shade of reddish pink I wanted (red mixed with the white medium).

After my embellishments were all dried, I then proceeded on adding them onto my layout along with the rest of the elements, using the My Creative Sketches as inspiration.

Next, to soften my page, I then dabbed some white gesso all over my background, papers and embellishments.  It was then time to add the finishing touches like stitching, title and twine.

And there you go, shabby chic goodness!

To see more of my creations, visit my blog @ http://scrap-utopia.blogspot.com

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Be sure to take a look at Nicole's beautiful work in our Design Team Gallery!

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.

Accenting Your Designs with Handmade Paper Embellishments by Lydell Quin

My Creative Scrapbook design team member Lydell Quin is up today with a tutorial featuring our November Main Kit!

Here's Lydell:

I am a Project Lifer.  I love the idea of recording your every day stuff and I thoroughly enjoy the process.  I love making my own journal and filler cards, to pad out my spread and to use my enormous stash of papers! I thought I would share with you how simple it is to create some really easy accents to make your pages really stand out, using papers you have on hand.

I have the Main Kit from My Creative Scrapbook to use this time.  I went through the kit locating things that would suit Project life straight up......The 3 x 4 cut apart cards where ideal.  Next I cut up elements on some of the other pages that would suit them.  The ruler strips were good, so I used them and the word paper worked great too, so I cut apart some of those.  There is a letter sticker sheet in the kit too, deciding that would be helpful too.

Next I used my border punches and normal shape punches to punch out shapes from the patterns and colours I wanted to use on my spread.  I just punched out heaps.

Now for the fun part.  Now you try different combinations to create cute little layered embellishments.  Much like the layered stickers you can buy from many companies on the market at the moment.

Here is how I start......

layer strips and circles

add in foam tape for layer dimension

some stitching for texture

This one is a sticker from a sticker sheet

I wanted the white border around the edge, so I stuck it on some printer paper and cut it out again

(please excuse the blurry photo- you can see the idea)

Now I added the other elements.  I inked them all with Black soot distress ink, to make the layering stand out a little better

adding tiny details really finishes off the accents!

now some in action......

Not just for project life either.  This one was perfect for this LO I created with the kit.

So cards, canvas art, Layouts and Project life can be accented with these cute little paper embellishments.
So easy and very effective.

Thanks for stopping in today.  Hope you are brimming with ideas for your next project.

Have a great day!

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Be sure to take a look at Lydell's beautiful work in our Design Team Gallery!

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.