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Custom Embellishments with Shrinky Dinks

9/11/2013

Oh how I love Shrinky Dinks!!! When I want an obscure embellishment for a scrapbook page, I just find a good picture on the Internet (coloring pages are the best for this type of project) and print it out at three times the size I want the finished product to be. I then trace the picture onto the shiny side of my shrink plastic with a Sharpie.

Then I dig out the colored pencils and start coloring on the back, or the "rough" side.

Cut the picture out carefully and pop in the oven at 275 degrees until it curls and flattens out and you end up with the most adorable little characters!

And there you have it... Voila! ... exactly what the Voices wanted with no scouring the Internet or endless stores looking for something that probably isn't out there any way. And you can have these the very same day (or more, I don't really know how quickly you color.

Just a word of caution, my beloved Peeps... if you are going to get all anal and cut out in between minion's hair or Gumby's arms... use those little pointy scissors made for such fussy-work and not your big ole honkin' sewing scissors or your poor little character will look a bit chewed. Poor Gumby... I'm going to have to do some filing now. The price I pay for using what was easily on hand.

Still... I think they turned out pretty cute. Can't wait to finish up the Grinch and start on Elmo and Cookie Monster!!!

Playing with the Close To My Heart Artbooking Cartridge

8/31/2013

When I saw the project that our Close to the Heart representative had for us to work on this month, I was thrilled. It was just PERFECT for the pictures we had taken the weekend before on a jaunt to Pennsylvania.

She had everything already cut, from the woodgrain to the title, die cuts and photo mats.

I printed out my pictures and then realized that I was going to need more than the two pages our kit included.

So I emailed my friendly CTMH rep and asked if I could purchase a second kit. When she said yes, I started squishing my journaling into a 4 x 6 block.

journaling reads:

"We went to Cook's Forest in Pennsylvania and did some hiking. We climbed the fire tower, hiked on and around some giant boulders at Seneca Point, and hiked a couple of the trails at the Forest Canopy.
The Longfellow Trail has hemlock trees that are over 400 years old. The Ancient Forest Trail has some of the tallest concentration of old growth white pines in the Northeastern US and several "cork barks" in which the cork layer had grown so thick that it changed the appearance of the bark.
We also did some canoeing on the Clarion River. As the river was low, three people in a canoe would have involved a lot of bottoming-out, so Shannon went in a kayak. She loved it and wants to get one for our dinky little pond. The river was gorgeous and lined with rocks that only occasionally grabbed hold of the canoe and kayak and didn't want to let go. We were able to get through without getting out to push; I was worried that wouldn't be the case, so I left my camera in the truck. Spent the whole day in Pennsylvania and had a wonderful time! 8/11/13"

I love the woodgrain on this cartridge. It almost makes me wish that I had a Cricut... don't tell my Beloved Big Shot Pro. I wouldn't want to hurt "Biggie's" feelings.

Anyway, I have dies very near to the other die cuts included.. which was everything but the flowers. I swiped some of my daughter's Stickles to accent the branches, rather than trying to do it at the crop. I am FAR TOO MESSY to attempt hauling that home without getting it all over me and my poor truck!

The die cuts seemed a little flat to me, so I dug out my chalks and cut a mask from a grassy border die for the trees. I chalked them in a couple different colors and love the subtle texture that it gave. So I went further and chalked the branches too.

It still wanted something else, so I punched out some hydrangea flowers out of vellum and glued them down. They then seemed to scream for bling, so I put an adhesive rhinestone in the center of each.

I love these little monthly get togethers that our rep puts together for her "club girls"... especially when I can knock out a layout (well MOST of a layout anyway) in one night. As my beloved Peeps know, I am not a 30 minute scrapper by any stretch of the imagination.

Anyway, now that I have seen some of the things on this little ole Cricut cartridge, I'll be cozying up to my dear buddy, Lisa, and my favorite (don't say "only"... I'm going for some schmoozing here!) sister who both have it.

ps... Yes that really is me to the right, hugging a tree.

A Birthday Card

7/26/2013

Lots of Spellbinder and Lifestyle dies in this one... and a bit of lace & pearls. It was fun to put a bunch of different style die-cuts together and have it all work by keeping them in the same color family. I was happy to get to play with my new cookie cutter alphabet and I can see it being used in many more cards and layouts to come!!!

Attempting New Things: A collage shadowbox

7/11/2013

My beloved BFF of 30+ years has moved into a fabulous house that she and her honey are building. I love it and am massively jealous, but I think I’ll still keep my beautiful, beautiful barn. But I digress… I thought of planting her some daffodil bulbs as a housewarming gift, but decided to make her a piece of art for her wall instead.

I had done a collage background for a scrapbook layout a few years ago and loved the look of the small ripped pieces of patterned paper together to make a subtle picture. I decided to try it in a 3D format. I bought the shadowbox first. (This is very important, my Peeps!!! There is nothing worse than making a great piece of art and then not finding a frame to fit it.) I loved the long shape of this one: 9 x 20”. I made the sky background by layering 3 different patterns of paper and dropping one at a time for a lighter shade as I worked my way down the page.

The clouds were tricky. White paper just wasn’t working. The Voices declared that only mulberry paper would do… but neither craft store had them… and driving across the county to the scrapbook store wasn’t feasible, so I had to order some on-line in various shades (and while I was ordering, I just had to order some speciality mulberry papers to play with later. Right, Peeps???). Layering blue, lavender, and cream under white, gave me fun and fluffy clouds.

The tree, grass, and daffodil trumpets were made with more than 3 patterns in no particular order. The daffodil leaves and stems were made using a piece of cardstock the color that I wanted the leaves to be and layering paper over it while leaving sections of the background paper showing. The papers I had weren’t the color I wanted when I was done, so I added a couple drops of Distress reinker in a lovely bluey-green to my glue and brushed a layer over the whole thing. It took some of the white look off of the edges of the paper and darkened the whole thing up. I think it worked perfectly.

The daffodil petals were problematic. I had ONE pattern of paper in the yellow that I wanted… the plaid. Sooo… off to the craft store I went. I found ONE other, a polka dot, that was perfect and a couple other ones that I thought would do. I went back through my stash and dug out some additional papers that were “close”. The Voices refused to allow me to use it as it was. It just wasn’t “sunny” enough. So I layered some yellow tissue paper over the whole. Then I had the right color, but lost a lot of the collage feel; the layers were still visible, but it wasn’t right. Then I added pieces of my two perfect papers over the top of that and the Voices were happy again.

Hours of labor, lots of experimenting and learning as I went, some cutting and shaping and forming, and a couple jars of matte Glue ‘n Seal later and it was finally done. There are only a few people worth this much aggravation and she is one of them…. and she loves it… which is all that I wanted.

Two New Layouts!!!

6/12/2013

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my Spellbinder dies? No??? I went completely crazy on this one. I used a Grand Nestibility die and its prepunched holes to do a little string art for interest, a set of labels to cut out my pictures, and some flowers for embellishments. The pearl accents were almost over-kill, but I don't care... I like it!

This was a challenge... both the sketch and the colors. Thanks, Kathi, for putting the challenge together, it was just perfect for pictures of my newest Peep!

The following two-pager was from our "Club night" at a Close To My Heart consultant's. The solid colored cardstock, title letters, 7, and brochure* are my own. The rest is CTMH products. The floral paper was ivory and white; I made it match my color scheme with inks.

The seven was made with Shrinky Dinks. I found the font I wanted... printed it on paper 3X the size I wanted, traced it onto my Shrinky material, colored it with a variety of Prismacolor colored pencils... and VOILA! A custom embellishment!!! I love Shrinkies!!!

* School name obliterated to protect the innocent.

My Daddy and his bees

4/23/2013

This was a kit from my Creative Memories consultant from their Buzz and Bumble line. I reworked it a bit to change it from the 12 x 12 layout to my favored 8 1/2 x 11. When I saw what this month's project would be, I knew that I had finally found the perfect layout for my story. I've been buying bee-themed products ever since I made this lip balm, just knowing that I was going to record it. I even got the camera ready (but not with the "right" settings I'm afraid) to snap this one-shot-only picture. So it is out of focus and full of motion blur. But, as are most of my layouts, it is more about the story than the pictures anyway.

This is the first of two pages of journalling. It fits into a page flap over the top of the second page. The lovely little flip flap adheres right to my page protector to protect all of my layout from sticky little fingers.

I really love the simplicity of this layout, the clean lines and minimal embellishments that is so contrary to my normal style. As is the fact that this was completed in ONE SITTING! The only scrapbook products in this that were not part of my kit, were the black and gold acrylic bee bubbles that I picked up in the clearance section at Hobby Lobby. But they fit so perfectly here, don't you agree, my beloved Peeps?

Lunch With My Ko's Buddy: A Mixed Media Piece

4/16/2013

I had a lot of fun playing with this layout. I used some old favorites: lace, stamping, Stickles, and bling. I also tried some new things such as extending my picture into the background with paint, attempting Flower Soft, using rubons, and my first crack at pergamano (parchment crafting) for a fan.

I used green marbled vellum instead of parchment paper. I didn't find out until I was almost done that vellum is a poor choice. I still like how it turned out. Next time I'm at a craft store, I'll have to see if they have the "real" paper and tools for my next shot at it.

I just wanted something different and fun to remember these times. I really do look forward to lunch on Fridays. It's great to kick back and forget about the "real world" for a little while. Here's hoping that all of my Peeps have the same opportunity!

Don't Worry...

4/5/2013

This was a challenge to scrap a goal, either one you are setting or one you have accomplished. My goal is to quit stressing so much... it just ISN'T good for me. And I knew just the perfect one for the layout. Mark took this one of me with some chainsaw carvings... and it was so silly and happy and perfect for this - as there wasn't a real story for the cute picture.

I had fun pulling out cute embellies that don't really fit my usual style and "grounding" them to the page with the corkboard paper. I did a search for a title on the internet I knew the words I wanted, but I thought I could use the record label or a Tshirt of something. I saw the words written on a pile of Post-Its and recreated it myself. So YES, my Peeps.... that is my ACTUAL HANDWRITING, something that you don't often see in my pages.

I'm Still Alive!!!

3/10/2013

I'm sorry for not posting for so long... but I spent all of February doing Lain Ehmann's Layout a Day. It was a wonderful experience and I did all 28 on time! YAY ME!!! Most of them were done in the evening, so the pictures weren't the greatest. Some were digital, so I'll share those with you.

Making Embellishments with Shrinky Dinks

1/23/2013

As all of my Peeps know, I LOVE Shrinky Dinks. The above picture is a before and after baking... for those of you who have never had the pleasure of playing with them. I knew that I wanted evergreen branches on my layout... and couldn't find anyone willing to let me cut up their GOOD QUALITY Christmas tree. (And they call themselves "friends"!) So I grabbed my Shrinkies and my Prismacolor colored pencils. (THANKS AGAIN, Mom and Daddy for one of the BEST Christmas presents ever when you started my collection of those lovely pencils!!!)

I found an image online and printed it out. I then lightly traced it with the colored pencils until I had the shape and then I started coloring it in. I decided that I wanted the look of the needles, so I meticulously cut around the needles as you can see where I started that near the bottom of the lower branch.

They honestly turned out SO much better than I was expecting! My art professor would be so proud. He so wanted me to get into scientific illustration, but I just wasn't cut out for it. THIS is MUCH more fun!!!

See how nice they look on the layout? I chose colors for the branch to match the fabric patch near the top of the page. The alpha stickers were some I'd had forever. But I absolutely fell in love with the satiny embroidery floss that I used to cross stitch the border with. I bought it at Joann Fabric and then couldn't find ANY paper or cardstock to match it! Until I got home. It is hard to tell by the picture, but the floss is actually only a half-shade lighter than the cardstock... it is just really satiny and caught a lot of light in the picture.

I finally found some fabric that I loved anyway, so I used it in lieu of patterned paper. The circles were things found on the Internet: a Bible quote, a bit of song, a bit of subway art, a bit of story, a snippet from Wikipedia on wreaths, and a list to Santa that I typed up. A cut with a circle punch, a bit of staining with tea and they were all ready to Modge-Podge onto my fabric.

I also surfed the web for cross stitch patterns and found several that I made into a border along the edge. A note to self: Only do one layer of cardstock when doing cross-stitch, it is too hard to line up the holes on multiple layers.

This was a challenge layout. I really like the neutral cream and sage combination and may use it again and again. I also had fun making my text match the theme... if anyone doesn't read it, it takes nothing away... but if they do, it's another layer to the page.

So have you played with Shrinky Dinks (or other shrink film)? What do you think of it?

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About Me

Scrapbooking is the self-medicating therapy I use to deal withthe stresses of being a slightly less-than adequate housewife, mom of a pre-teen, and full-time laborer with great responsibilities but no real power.

So I take pictures of things in my life and tell funny stories about the memories and immortalize them forever in with various artforms into my scrapbook.