Botanicals Blog Hop

Welcome to the Club Scrap Botanicals Blog Hop! If you've reached my blog from Ink Stains with Roni then you're in the right spot! If you'd like to start from the beginning head on over to Club Scrap.

I just adore April's Botanicals kit!  The soft pastel colors and fun floral designs are a great way to welcome warmer weather. The wooden embellishments can be painted, stamped, inked or left just as is. This kit really got me thinking about my backyard.  It's so peaceful and filled with beautiful colors this time of year.

Photo by Jeff Wells

I had actually already planned what I wanted to create with this kit before receiving it.  I needed a garden journal.  Although,  I didn't want a full size notebook which got me thinking about a project that Karen did for the Cinema Blog Hop.  I have several graph composition notebooks from Retreat 2013.  I love the grid notebook vs the horizontal lined ones.  You can actually sketch with reasonably accurate sizing.

I started out by cutting the notebook in half. A strong hold and sharp industrial craft knife are a must! You have to make several passes front and back to get through all the pages.

I then covered the front and back with a print and the insides with a solid cardstock.

The next step was to decorate the front.  I just had to use the bird from the kit.  I wanted to give it a little dimension so I stamped an image from Equestrian in a light shade. I then stumbled upon the wooden sticks from Down to Earth. This was coming together better than I thought! What's a garden journal without flowers and feathers?!

You can't have is a garden journal without seed packets.   These beauties can be used to store seeds or gift extra seeds. I was able to whip these little dudes out fairly quickly with my handy dandy Envelope Punch Board by  We R Memory Keepers. Punching and scoring a 6 3/4 x 6 3/4 piece of patterned paper at 3.

I folded the sides a little different and trimmed one of the long sides to make a vertical envelope.

I then stamped the fronts and cutout tags included in the kit. 

Well now what?!  I have another half that needs some attention.  A girl can't have enough wine journals, right?! I usually remove the labels off a good bottle (or even a terrible one), adhere it to a page and then journal about who, what and where of that wine.

Products used: Doily (Hydrangeas), wineglass and title (Uncorked), ring stamp (Mocha Java). Unknown cork tag.

Thank you for stopping by. Please hop on over to Life Paper Soul to see what wonderful masterpiece Wendy has created!

Monthly Layout Cards

I am on a roll!  I've been getting some major scrapbooking done.  I want to get caught up with last years album before tackling my Southeast Asia vacation.  What helps me get in the groove are the layout cards that come with each monthly kit. I have them all in a binder so that I can easily flip through them.

I first layout all my photos in vertical or horizontal form.  I then scan through the layout cards to see what roughly matches the size and shapes of my photos.  I chose to use the Oopsie Daisy layout card. The layout cards come with detailed cutting instructions. If you're not a member of Club Scrap you can get layout ideas with the ALSB Idea Decks.

Time to decide what colors of paper to use.  This is fairly easy for me.  I keep all my papers on racks according to color.  One rack is all solids and one rack is all patterns.  I even have another rack for 8 1/2x11.  OUT OF CONTROL!

Cut the paper according to the instructions.  Pay close attention to vertical or horizontal placement.  I've cut the wrong way many, many times. You'll end up with a pile of cut up pieces.  Now start to assemble according to the sketch.  Place photos on photo mats. Note that the photo mats are 4x6.  So most photos will need to be trimmed to 3.75x5.75. Sometimes I forget until after I've applied the adhesive to my photo.  Really gums up my trimmer after awhile.

Now you can start adding your journaling (which I don't like doing so I stamp), title and embellishments.  I'm a sucker for the penny squisher machines!  I had one with Walt Disney's signature one one with the Disneyland logo.

I take a picture of my layout before I adhere everything down. That way I don't forget where I had everything placed.  As you can see, I've swapped the left and right pages. My title just didn't look right on the right hand side.  And like that, I'm done.  Took about 30 minutes!

Supplies: Club Scrap papers and stamps, Paper Wizard Title, Jolee's candy canes.

April Technique Challenge: Herringbone & Mosaics

Hetty from Craft Chaos posted a technique challenge over at Club Scrap.  The technique was an updated form of creating a mosaic or herringbone pattern with paper strips and carpet tape. There are many different ways to get this look.  Here are a few "older" videos and demonstrations for these techniques and some "older" cards using those techniques.

Carpet Tape Chronicles

Carpet Tape Chronicles Revisited

I have quite the stash of washi tape and wanted to create the same look. I completed these mosaic backgrounds rather quickly with no trouble at all, much easier than little strips of paper.  The next morning I went to take photos and most of the edges had lifted up. Bummer. I think a coat of glue on top should fix that. I used Reunion Greetings to Go for the bases and added some extra embellishments.

I also created a digital version of the herringbone technique using Botanicals. The first attempt was a disaster! Nothing lined up. Then I sat and really thought about the mathematics involved. I created layers with a 45 degree angle.

 

Then I made many layers as a 90 degree "V" and started filling up the spaces. 

The card came together more quickly with everything aligning.  I am very happy with the digi version!

Thanks for looking and have a fabulous day!

Botanicals Greetings to Go

I received my Club Scrap Botanicals kit on Friday...had it finished by Tuesday!  I was totally in the groove.  I love it when that happens!  I even finished my Blog Hop project, but you'll just have to wait for the reveal.

At first glance I thought the tent cards were going to be difficult.  Tricia posted a video explaining  how to assemble these.  Super Easy! They turned out to be my favorite.  Kinda fun how you can display them and see both greetings. I added pearls, Stickles and Flower Soft to the panels to gibe them a little extra oomph.  I was experimenting with backgrounds and trying different stamps and embossing plates For the mats. I think I like the rough edging the most.

The next set of cards was screaming ribbon to me.  I just felt that the flowers need some dimension. I was also playing around with some Impression Obsession large stamps and my PanPastels for different backgrounds with these as well.

April's Never Been Used challenge over on the Club Scrap forum is to use a flower stencil or stamp in your stash that hasn't been used before.  I went back to Interior Designs 2006 kit for this flower.  I actually bought the stamps for the home improvement items.  So, while I was looking for unsued items I came across this mason jar Sizzix die.  Mason jars are so "in" right now. Perfect!  

Bookbinding glue works perfectly to adhere the clean jar I cut out of acetate. The glue dries clear with a very strong hold.

Have a fabulous day and thanks for looking!

Gelli Plates

April's Tool Challenge over at Club Scrap is to use your Gelli Plates.  I've already shared my story about the Gelli plates and have never regretted my decision to purchase them. So, this week I got down and painty with my gelli!

This time I used my Gelli Plate as a stamp.  I adhered it to an 8x8 Grid Ruler.  Used my brayer to apply acrylic paints to the surface and started stamping.  I stamped a solid circle and then stamped a second color with a stencil on top of the solid.

I just kept stamping away to fill all the white space, knowing I was going to trim the 12x12 pieces into card panels. Black cardstock added a whole different look that I just fell in love with! I love how the metallic paints really pop!

I cleaned off the brayer after each application by rolling it onto scrap paper.  I would stamp the extra paint off on the same scrap and ended up really, really liking the "scrap".

After everything was dry, each 12x12 was trimmed to 4x6 panels.  I could use these as backgrounds for cards or for photo mats.

Here is just a sampling of the cards made with the Oopsie Daisy Greetings to Go. 

 

A sampling using Fire and Ice Greeting to Go.