Sunday, July 31, 2011

WE'RE OFF

WE'RE OFF - May 2, 2010 - South Padre Island, Texas

JOURNALING: Pinkie's outfit here was actually a dog's outfit.  Sandie surprised us one day!  Although we have really enjoyed our stay in South Padre Island, it is time to start the trek north.  We left early on May 2 and drove over 700 miles to overnight in a rest area just east of Van Horn, Texas. 

SUPPLIES USED:  Roam papers by K&Co, Cricut Expression, SCAL basic shapes, Flamingo svg file, Vellum letters for title, Journaling cards

TECHNIQUES TIPS:  For those of you who don't know me well, you may not know that besides my hubby and myself, we have a pink flamingo, Pinkie, that travels with us across North America.  I can't say enough how much I love my Cricut and use it at least once on almost 95% of my layouts.  I wanted this layout to showcase our silly travel companion and an even sillier outfit that a fellow camper dressed her in.  I did not have a flamingo embellishment so I set out to look for one on the internet for a svg file that I could create my own flamingo. 


Saturday, July 30, 2011

FEELING FROSTY

FEELING FROSTY - July 14, 2010 - Fairbanks, Alaska

JOURNALING:  We visited the Ice Museum with its fantastic ice sculptures and watched a demonstration on how the ice is carved from huge chunks with power tools.  I could not convince Matt to take a nap in the ice house.

PHOTOGRAPHS:  Angela Shetzer of Shetzers Photography

SUPPLIES USED: BasicGrey Granola patterned paper, Kraft cardstock, Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Faded Jeans, Stampabilities Black Ink, Doodlebug Designs Paper Frills in Lily White, EK Success Corner Rounder, Gel Writer, Sheer Shimmer Spritz in Frost, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Denim blue, Liquid Pearls in White Opal, Stickles in Star Dust, Diamond Glaze, Letter Stencils, Cricut Expression with MSSeasonal cartridge, SCAL with snowflake and journal tag svg shapes

TECHNIQUE NOTES:  I'm sure you are like me and have lots of those plastic letter templates laying around.  I decided that I wanted to use on this layout so I went about "building" my title of Feeling Frosty.  I started out by tracing the letters on my kraft background paper with a pencil.  I lightly erased the pencil marks so they would not show through on my final image.  Then I traced all the outlines of the letters with small dots using my Liquid Pearls.  Once that was dry, I filled the inside of the letters with my Star Dust Stickles.  After even more drying time, I filled in the letters with Diamond Glaze to give them so dimension and shine.  Perfect title with no alphabets or Cricut needed.

Double Page Layout

Page 1 Detail

Page 2 Detail

Friday, July 29, 2011

ISLA GAIA

ISLA GAIA - May 1, 2010 - South Padre Island, Texas

JOURNALING: Isla Gaia, a female nesting Kemp's Ridley sea turtle was released with a satellite tracker attachment to monitor her movements.  We watched her release from Isla Blanca beach. 

SUPPLIES USED:  Roam papers by K&Co, Happy Trails borders by K&Company, corner rounder by EK Success,

TECHNIQUE TIP:  OK, so I broke my own rule about having white edges exposed on my photographs.  Here I actually decided to make the white edges stand out on my photos by taking a piece of sandpaper from my wonderful hubby's toolbox and sanding the edges of my photos to leave a nice textured white edge that helps them stand out from the beige background that I chose to mat them on.  This technique works well when you have mostly dark photos such as I have here to give an added separation from the background without adding paper and bulk with matting.

Double Page layout

Page 1 Detail

Page 2 Detail

Thursday, July 28, 2011

LARGE ANIMAL RESEARCH STATION

LARGE ANIMAL RESEARCH STATION (LARS) - July 10, 2010 - Fairbanks, Alaska

JOURNALING:  We walked around the L.A.R.S. to view all the animals

PHOTOGRAPHS:  Angela Shetzer of Shetzers Photography

SUPPLIES USED:  Bazzill Black cardstock, DCWV World Traveler patterned paper, Bazzill stitch templates, Stampabilities Black Ink, Fiskars Threading water border punch, American Crafts precision pen in Black, Tsukineko Goose Bumps, Sketch by Template Tuesday on JessicaSprague.com, Magnets, Floss

TECHNIQUE NOTES:  I think stitching is a great addition to almost any page and its well worth the increased time it takes to do the layout.  For this layout, I started off with the Bazzill stitch template for the long stitched border on the right.  As much as I love the designs for the Bazzill templates, I always feel that they are a bit blocky and produce an uneven stitch.  To fix this, I start by punching the template onto my paper and then when all done with the template, I go back and punch a hole in the middle of two template holes.  The result is a much smaller stitch and smoother lines especially on curves. 

Don't be afraid to modify your templates and add your own personal touch to your pages.


Here is the original sketch that this layout is based off of.  Please visit JessicaSprague.com for more great templates and great challenges.


Wednesday, July 27, 2011

LETS GO FLY A KITE

LETS GO FLY A KITE - April 30, 2010 - South Padre Island, Texas

JOURNALING: Ted gets a kite flying lesson from Matt. 

SUPPLIES USED: Font: Lucida Calligraphy, Roam papers by K&Co, K&Company Handmade paper ribbon (buttons), File folder svg shape, Cricut Expression, Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) software

TECHNIQUE TIP:  Probably my most common comment on scrapbook page layout design is that I hate to see white edges on anything.  You will see that about 95% of the edges of my photos, embellishments and papers have been either inked or painted to give them some dimension and to get rid of those white edges.  In this layout I decided that I didn't want to mat my smaller photos, but a liberal coating of dark brown paint gave them a faux matting and also got rid of those dreadful white edges.  In this example I used a large foam paint brush and dabbed paint all around the edges to soften the hard lines of this linear layout and add some interesting texture.