Film Strip punch - ek tools and 3M glue applicator

Film strip punch from Ek Tools used to show photos in a series by Crafterlala

Here's another little video I did. It's not the best quality sorry. I will get better I promise! You tube compresses it a lot so the original wasn't this blurry but it still gives you the idea of what I'm trying to show which is how you can use this film strip punch to show off a series of photos when one just doesn't tell the story. If you can give me a thumbsup click in Youtube it would be appreciated. Or comment under this post. Currently (16th April 2014) ( Martha Stewart punches are on sale at Scotties so if you get inspired stop on by the site and check out the deals.

Distress Marker Spritzer - Head in the clouds

Head in the Clouds - Full page Scrapbook layout using Graphic45 paper Mother Goose

I was excited about two things when doing this layout. You can laugh if you like but it was my first full page scrapbook layout. Up until then I had only done pocket layouts. I was a little nervous about breaking out from the neatly defined rectangles and going so free with my layout...but I think it turnned out ok. What do you think? (Please comment below this post). Secondly I was playing with the new Tim Holtz Marker Spritzer. It's fresh from CHA and very cool but I have a little disclaimer here. This layout is not the best example of it in use as I hadn't got the hang of it yet! More projects will follow. Just to show you it does work when you know what you're doing I will put a picture of a butterfly my son did as part of a lovely letter he crafted.

My son using the Tim Holtz Marker Spritzer

Now back to the scrapbooking, I started out with a base of blue American Craft cardstock 12x12 of course. I began experimenting with Graphic45's Mother Goose paper which I had nabbed a while ago and put in store knowing one day I would start scrappin my daughter's baby photos. So here I was inspired by the "Bedtime Story" line on the paper so I cut that out using my knife, ruler and self healing mat. I also cut the strip of nursery rhyme stamps and played around a while deciding which should act as the bed for the photo to rest on. I used the rule of thirds, more or less, in placing my photo on the page where the points of focus would converge with the points on the imaginary grid of the rule of thirds.

Glueing on strips of paper using 3M glue applicator

Then I glued the strips on using this awesome double-ended applicator glue tube from 3M.

These mini ink pads from Tim Holtz are new and oh so cute. They are designed to be just like the larger versions but more compact and portable. You can click them together to stack them up. Also available are new rounded mini blending tool and refill pads but I haven't splashed out on those yet so I can't show you what they look like. I can only tell you that they work better than the larger rectangle version (in my photo) because they don't leave the harsh edges when you're inking. I used some broken china ink and the mini black soot one to put some vignette edges around my photo and at the base of my layout on the corners of the blue card. 

I used the Marker Spritzer on the clouds to give some silver, grey, white or blue speckles to the various clouds. Some of the cut out cloud shapes were placed under a Tim Holtz Dot Fade Stencil and then Distress Paint applied over top to mask out some cloud areas in the background sky at the top of the page. Then I stamped with embossing ink and sprinkled on some clear embossing powder and used my heat gun to set the large star top right in the layout. Gem stickers were placed around the sky as stars. Clouds were layered on with dimensional tape.

Xyron Sticker Maker and Blank Journal Cards

Did you know a philatelist is not quite the term for a stamp collector it's more accurately used to describe a person who studies stamps. A philatelist may or may not also collect stamps. I was a bit of a stamp collector as a kid, a hobby picked up from my Dad. My Grandmother was one also and in the picture is a recently inherited box of some of her collection. I have two new aquisitions to my crafting arsenal this week, a Xyron Sticker Maker and some Becky Higgins Project Life blank journal cards. The stamps seemed like the perfect thing to turn back into stickers since they originally were! I love the idea of using some of these in scrapbook layouts.

Xyron Sticker Maker

Make your own stickers for your scrapbooking

The Xyron Sticker Maker is a nifty little gadget that allows you to make stickers out of ...well...things that aren't! I was dying to try it and this week I finally did. At first it took me a little while to figure out which way up to put things to get them to come out with the sticky on the correct side and that is why reading a craft blog will save you a few precious inches of your own sticker reel. You allow some other chimp to waste their stuff then tell you how to do it properly. There are very few instructions on the packet which is either because it is very simple or because it's made in China, I'm not sure which.

Basically you pop your item in facing up, pull it through by tugging out the paper at the other end,and tear it off the device.  Give the paper a bit of a rub to make sure it's adherred properly, remove the backing paper and stick to the object of your choice. Not much to it. The glue is non toxic and adjustable. 

The other object in my haul is a lovely thick stack of blank journal cards bought out by Becky Higgins for Project Life. Keep an eye out for an upcoming blog post more about those but I have to find the cable to get those pictures off a particular camera so for now you can see that I have used one here and the box can be seen in the background of this photo. I sprayed some ink on the journal card, stamped it with Kasiercraft's Now Boarding stamp and stuck on my newly created New Zealand stamp sticker and voila I have a self-made journal card for my pocket scrapbooking.

The ink I used to spray the card was Windsor and Newton which is artists ink that I have always loved because of the cute little pictures on the boxes but you could use Tim Holtz distress ink and a Mini Mister. (See my blog post I love my mini mister).

I also tried out making a sticker from a cut out butterfly from a piece of scrapbooking paper. I say tried because that was one of my early experiments where I got the thing the wrong way up but in theory this will work fine. I also experiemented with thicker objects like a felt flower I had cut out with the cuttlebug and a Sizzix die. You can see that in the background of the top photo stuck to my brown paper. Perhaps there are easier ways to stick felt to a layout but this did kind of work and I was impressed that I could put a thick object through the Xyron Sticker Maker.

The end result. A stamp sticker made using a Xyron Sticker Maker and a blank journal card decorated using inks and a Now Boarding stamp by Kaisercraft.

by Miss Crafter of Crafterlala

Craft Banner for 1 Year Old's Circus Party

Ruby blowing out the candles on her Circus tent cake at her first birthday party. Some clown holding her.

Shapes cut using Couture Creations nesting dies and Cuttlebug.

First Birthday Banner

Sunday was my daughter’s first birthday party with a circus theme. I had to create something special for her. Every month for the past eleven months of her life I have taken a photo of her with her teddy bear on our old oak, red linen covered armchair. Same bear, same chair, same girl one month older each time. From helpless bemused infant propped in a pillow to feisty, yelling character spilling out of the chair with energy I’ve watched her change. Now I want to celebrate it in a banner. 

Craft Banner Tutorial using Nesting Dies

Having never made a banner before I thought I’d do a practice banner. So I started with a four letter banner spelling out her name. Once I got the hang of it and realised how easy the cuttlebug makes it I was brave enough to commit to twelve more scalloped shapes for the backgrounds and twelve circle shapes for the monthly photos. Incidentally now would be a great time to buy a cuttlebug if you don't have one as the Scotties online Mega Mid Summer Madness sale is on till 2/3/2014.

Step One: First I cut out the scalloped circles in American Craft card stock in Rouge using Couture Creations scalloped nesting dies.

Step two: Next I cut out circles of  Die Cuts With a View mat stack  in two alternating  patterns using the Couture Creations plain circle nesting dies in a size smaller than the red scalloped circle. You could also use Spellbinders circle nesting dies. My circus theme colours were red, black, yellow and white so I was looking for anything in those colours in dots and stripes.

Step three: Finally  I stuck on poster letter stickers from my stash to spell out the name. Some that could work nicely are Kaisercraft Hello Sunshine stickers. Then I attached the smaller patterned circle to the red scallop shapes using dimensional tape so they would stand out and have a little dimensionality. Self Adhesive foam squares would be good for this. I used a hole-punch to put two holes in each circle and strung some ribbon through. Easy!

The first half of the banner showing months  1-6.

And voila! My party guests could see a little snapshot progression of my gorgeous little bundle getting bigger. And I found a way to celebrate her birthday through my love of craft.

The second half of the banner showing months 6-10. 11 and 12 not pictured here.

The name banner hanging on her cot with instagram filter on image.

More from this author can be found at: http://crafterlala.wordpress.com/