Wood Veneers - What Do I Do With Them?

Happy New Year, World!

I hope you all had a very safe and fun New Year's holiday this year, and that you had time to spend on our beloved Crafty Hobby! This month I decided to talk to you about wood veneers. Have you seen them online or in the store? Do you wonder what you're supposed to do with them? I mean, they're cheap. They're cute. They come in many imaginable shapes. And they're little (usually). So what is their purpose? Why are so many manufacturers making them? Why are they so popular? Well, lucky for you, I have an answer: They're FUN. They're CUSTOMIZABLE. They MAKE A BIG IMPACT on your project. Want to see a few examples?

First up: Use them straight out of the package, just as they are. No altering. No fussing. Just adhere and go (a little tip: glue dots and liquid glues like Glossy Accents work best). 

2. Emboss: Cover the surface of your wood veneer with versamark or other embossing ink, sprinkle on the embossing powder of your choice, heat with a heat gun, and watch the magic occur!

 3. Colorize with your favorite ink or cover with glitter. In this next layout, I altered the veneers with Tim Holtz Distress Stain, let them dry, then covered them with a thin layer of Rock Candy Distress Stickles.

4. Stamp on them.
5. Paint them.
6. And most importantly, come into Scraphappy and find the inks and paints, glitter, and embossing powders you want to play with, pick up some wood veneers, go home, use your imagination, and HAVE FUN!!!

Supplies:
Patterned paper - Basic Grey, Simple Stories, KI Memories, Heidi Swapp

Cardstock
Spray ink - Studio Calico, Heidi Swapp
Mask - Studio Calico
Rhinestone stars - Jenni Bowlin Studios
Wood veneers - Studio Calico
Letter stickers - Heidi Swapp
Stamps - Studio Calico, Technique Tuesday
Embossing powder
Stickles
Distress Stain
Stamping ink - red, green, Versamark
Washi tape

Using Up Your Leftovers

When you scrapbook, what do you do with your leftovers? Do you put them away? Do you slide them to the side of your desk to think about later? Do you add them to a pile? Or even better, do you actually use those little bits and pieces? If you were to see my desk, you would know that I am an infrequent scrap cleaner. I tend to push my leftovers into a pile and stack them up until I can't stand it anymore and decide to do something with them. Often, this means that I will compile these pieces into layouts and combinations I never would have planned for if I had thought ahead. So what do I do? I go to Scraphappy, pick up 2 or 3 pieces of patterned paper, some letter stickers (especially Thickers...I am on a serious Thickers kick lately), and combine that with what's on my desk to make some layouts. And the Bonus? My desk gets cleaned off without any effort!

For my first layout, I used Studio Calico and Lilly Bee papers that I already had, combined with the teal thickers and butterflies that I got at Scraphappy. The leftovers? The Amy Tangerine stickers and teal woodgrain washi tape.

This next layout uses some new Shoreline papers as a background, combined with leftover Amy Tangerine stickers, an Amy Tangerine pocket, Shoreline sunburst scraps, and Heidi Swapp banner pieces cut off from a previous project. The hexagons are from a Studio Calico stamp set and are attached with some brads I found in my drawer.

The only new item on this final layout is the background paper and the teal letter 'P.' Everything else on this page was leftover. The light blue strip of Shoreline with the hot pink splatters? Leftover from the Baby Turtles layout. The My Mind's Eye transparency? Scavenged from my Valentine's Day memo board. The Heidi Swapp disco heart? The last of a package from this past spring.

So what have we learned today? Use your stash! Use those bits and pieces of scraps. Use pieces from different manufacturers and product lines to make your own combos. Need some patterned papers, letters, or cardstock to pull it all together? Head on in to Scraphappy and buy what you need! It's all there!

End of Summer with Shoreline

Hello World!

How was your summer? Any days at the beach? Any fun travel? Any good family time? Any time to play? And now the important question...Any time to scrap? The last time I was in the store, Christy gave me some of American Crafts' Shoreline papers to play with, and WOW, they are perfect for bright, happy summer events (or anything else bright and happy you may want to use them for). The colors are uber-saturated reds, blues, and yellows with some dark hot pinks and pool blues to accent. I have had the most fun scrapping with these papers, hoarding every little bit and piece to tuck here and there as color bursts on other projects.

I was blessed this summer with the opportunity to go with my father on a medical mission trip to Peru. At the end of the trip, we spent a day touring Machu Picchu. The Shoreline bright yellow sunburst pattern screamed 'Incas' to me, so I used it as the background for this layout about how much we climbed that day. I used some old kokopelli stamps I had in my stash to stamp on some canvas in teal, then stamped the words in black over the person kokopelli. I added some Mini Market letters from October Afternoon and some brads to finish off the page.

This next layout is about a shopping excursion I took with my daughter last month. We were separately scavenging a clothing store for clothes to try on. When we met up in the dressing room, we had both picked the same dress! Obviously, as a scrapbooking mom, this had to be documented on my cell phone so a layout could be made. If you look at the layout, and think about my typical style, you'll notice that I am a B-side scrapper. I prefer the backsides to most patterned papers. They tend to be more subtle, less busy patterns that recede into the background more than their typical trendier, bolder A-sides. This shopping layout uses almost all B-sides.

And then we come to my last layout for today. I made the background of this layout by spraying various colors of yellow and green spray mist onto shiny white cardstock then blending them with a paper towel. The sunshine embellishments were cut out from a separate sheet of Shoreline paper, as was the strip at the bottom and the 'sunshine' label.

I hope you've been inspired to pull out your summer pictures and spend some time creating. If you want any of the Shoreline papers, go see ScrapHappy and stock up! I think I might be needing some more for my own stash...Maybe I'll see you there?

Supplies:
- American Crafts - patterned paper, Thickers
- letter stickers - October Afternoon, Lily Bee Studios
- spray mists - Studio Calico, October Afternoon, Tattered Angels
- disco starts - Heidi Swapp
- wood veneer stars and camera - Studio Calico
- chipboard stars, brads, teal stamping ink, canvas fabric

Heidi Swapp Memory Files and Color Magic

Hello World!
How many of you have seen Heidi Swapp's file folders and thought, "What am I supposed to do with that?" I know I did, so this past spring when Heidi taught a 12 week online Memory File class, I signed up to learn straight from the master. Depending on your mood, you can choose from her patterned paper files that coordinate with her paper lines or her DIY Color Magic Files. For today's project, I used Color Magic. I love that I can make these papers whatever color I want. Each Color Magic item has a trendy resist pattern on a white background. I wanted a bright, happy, yellow and green background to coordinate with the Vacation Bible School (VBS) embellishments and some American Crafts Shoreline papers, so I gathered my yellow, green, and teal spray inks and happily sprayed my blank file (You can use any ink or paint you want. The choice is completely yours). After spraying, I used paper towels to wipe off the excess ink and reveal the chevron resist pattern. Being the ink snob that I am, and given my refusal to waste any of my precious spray ink, I used the excess ink on my paper towel (baby wipes work well for this, too), and rubbed the ink onto the inside of the file to colorize the inside.

Memory Files are designed for those moments and times where you want to scrapbook 20-30 (or more pictures), but you really don't want to make 3 or 4 (or more) layouts all on the same topic.With a Memory File, all those pictures and embellishments can all fit in one 'layout.' If you read Heidi's blog or get to take a class with her, she teaches various methods of incorporating more photos into your file. For this file, I used a baseball card page protector and some orange washi tape to add an extra 'page' to my Memory File. I then added my patterned papers and phots, and then embellished as usual. I plan to add more photos to the page protector, but I have to collect the photos from my friends first ;)

This year's VBS theme was Amazing Wonder's Aviation and focused on flight and the Wonders of the World. I used Studio Calico wood veneers to highlight the travel focus and to tie my layout into the VBS ephemera I want to incorporate into my Memory File.

I hope I've helped you learn how to get more photos into one project. There are sooo many ways to use a Memory File in your scrapbooking life. If you want to learn more, please leave a comment, or tell Christy that you want us to teach a special Memory File class in the store.

- Cori

Supplies:

- Heidi Swapp - Color Magic Memory File

- Studio Calico - Mister Huey's spray inks, wood veneers

- American Crafts - patterned paper, rub-ons

- brads, washi tape, baseball card page protector

- VBS ephemera

Using Themed Products in a Non-Themey Way

Hello World!

Another month, another blog post from me! Or 2 or 3, as the case may be this month, since I found myself with an abundance of layouts I have made this summer for Christy that I have not yet shared with you ;) Today we are going to talk about using those cute themey supplies for uses that have NOTHING to do with the theme. Sacriledge, right? I know. I know. We buy the cute themed supplies BECAUSE they fit the theme we want to work with. But what do we do with the leftovers after we have scrapped the theme??? We use them anyway!

How many of you have actually scrapped your July 4 pictures from this year? And how many of you have leftover 'July 4'-specific supplies left? Or you just love the red, white, and blue combo and want to use it over and over again? Today's layouts feature some Pebbles July 4 papers that I found at ScrapHappy but decided to use for several non-holiday pages. Honestly, I haven't even printed my July 4 pictures yet, but I knew I wanted to use the papers NOW, so I used photos I already had printed.

The first layout actually doesn't even have pictures at all. Many of you know my family went on a Great American Road Trip last summer. One entire month of seeing our beautiful country. Since then, I've been scrapbooking our trip. I have already filled an entire album (I file all my pages chronologically. I scrap whatever inspires me on any given day, but then I put them in albums by date), so I decided I needed an official Title Page to separate this section of layouts from the rest of my pages. I've been pondering a Title Page for months, and when I saw this United States map paper, I knew I had found the perfect background. Since this is a 'busy' paper, with lots of graphics that I wanted to use, I opted to focus on the map and not use photos at all. Instead, I put brads and star stickers on the locations we focused our trip around and connected them with string. Next to each brad, I wrote the location and sight seen there (ex. Mt. Rushmore in Rapid City, South Dakota). I inked and glued the bar code strips from the collection as my accent papers, and used Studio Calico wood veneers to indicate our family and method of travel.

This next layout features the entire Pledge of Allegiance. I didn't want to obscure the words, but I still wanted to use the paper for a traditional layout. I used a small Instax photo I took of my Niecelets together in Tennessee and added small embellishments on the diagonal. I wanted to emphasize certain words in the Pledge, so I highlighted them with Stickles. I'm not sure I'm thrilled with the results, but I wanted you to know why part of the layout sparkles and why part of it doesn't. Lol.



My final layout for today uses some of my favorite Disney pictures from this past Spring Break. We were fortunate to be there when the 'new' Dumbo in the Fantasyland expansion had just opened. My Girls rode late at night (no lines then) while I took pictures. When I saw the photos on my desk next to these Pebbles papers, I knew they were made for each other.

I hope I've given you some ideas on how to use your holiday papers for non-holiday layouts. From photoless pages, to tiny pictures, to Disney, I hope these inspire you to pull out some of your leftover supplies (or go buy more supplies!) and make pages to be proud of.

- Cori

Supplies:
- patterned paper - Pebbles
- cardstock - Bazzill
- letter stickers - October Afternoon, Jenni Bowlin Studios
- wood veneers - Studio Calico
- transparency - Hambly
- Disco Stars and Instaframe - Heidi Swapp
- shaped paper clips - Amy Tangerine
- Distress Ink
- number stencil, brads, thread, white Uniball journalling pen

Time for Tissue Paper

Happy New Year, Everyone! I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a safe New Year's. With all this extra time off from work, I hope you had a chance to play with your photos, paper, and glue!

If you need of some inspiration to jumpstart your creativity, I would like to show you a few projects I have made recently with Tim Holtz's new tissue paper rolls. These rolls come in a variety of patterns, including text and music notes, and are a heavier-weight tissue paper than you typically find to wrap presents with - almost as substantial as a light vellum. The rolls contain several yards of paper, so this is a good supply to split with your friends (hint, hint, hint).

First of all, a few layouts. On the first, Rebuilding Ground Zero, I used the tissue paper as part of my background, reminiscent of newsprint. I layered bits and pieces of Coredinations Kraft Core cardstock and scraps from my desk to complete the layout.

On this second layout, She Thinks It Is Called the Mountain of Rushmores, I used a piece torn from the roll as a mat for my title and journalling. You can see how well it layers over patterned papers to subtley mute their brightness.
                                              
After making a few layouts, I decided I needed some messy playtime. I pulled out my alcohol inks, a square piece of acrylic (You can find several different pre-cut sizes in the store. Perfect for ornaments, mini-book covers, etc), some modpodge, my tissue paper, and some random embellishments.

First, I dabbed some alcohol ink over my acrylic block to give it some color (I used Christmas colors since I was making an ornament).

Next, I dabbed some Adirondack Alcohol Blending Solution over the block. Can you see the subtle difference between the 2 photos? In the one below, the blending solution has 'pushed' the ink around, giving it a fun splotchy look.

The alcohol ink dries quickly, so I didn't have to wait to modpodge some of the Tim Holtz tissue paper to the back of my acrylic block. I sandwiched the (very old) brown leafy embellishment between the acrylic and the tissue paper when I did my modpodging.

Once the modpodge glue had dried, I decorated the front of my ornament with some metal Christmas words I had in my stash, as well as some layered poinsettia flowers that I had rubbed with Stickles.

I used my Crop-o-dile to punch a hole in the top corner, tied a ribbon, and hung the ornament on our tree at ScrapHappy.

And finally, I don't know about you, but I often wrap gifts with tissue paper. I was curious to see how well the tissue paper absorbed ink, so I used my Tim Holtz Distress Stain (fired brick) to colorize some of the tissue paper. I also used the stain to coordinate the ribbon, and then I wrapped a faux-gift to put under my mini-tree next year. The tag is my first attempt at Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas. I tied it to the top to make my 'gift' look pretty :)

I hope I've given you some ideas to stimulate your creativity. Until next month, have fun making creative messes, and come see us in the store! Many of us will be heading to the Craft and Hobby Association Trade Show later this month. If there's any companies or booths you want us to check out and post peaks of, let me know!