Patterned paper storage

For years, I've been storing my patterned paper in some winter boots boxes that I cut down and covered with kraft paper. I liked that they fit well on my shelf and that I had it sorted by manufacturers, but I found lately that my paper was curling over and I didn't like accessing it from the side.

At my garage sale in September, my friend had brought a bunch of hanging file folders to sell and told me I could help myself. I took all of the legal sized ones that she had, thinking of a new patterned paper storage idea.

I went to Staples and bought a legal sized file folder container that came with eight more file folders. I bought it home and used it like this:



Once again, I sorted my patterned paper by manufacturers, in alphabetical order. This system works well for me, because I have a good memory for who makes which paper and I like my lines sorted together for ease of scrapping.



I printed up circles that fit my 1 3/4" circle punch on my computer, with the manufacturer's name in each one. I punched them out, then attached them to a scalloped circle that I punched out of old sheet music. These a stapled to a 3x12" piece of cardstock, from my scrap stash.



I placed these in the folders, behind the papers of that brand. I have them staggered so I can read them easily, but they can be moved if I need to accomodate a new brand.



How do you store your patterned paper?

Another back to back layout

I wanted to share another set of layouts I made back to back.

It started when I wanted to punch a red butterfly from a sheet of Fancy Pants patterned paper for this layout.



Since I took it from near the top, I decided to cover the top part of my layout with another piece of patterned paper and create this layout:



Then, when I flipped over my completed layout, I felt that it would be a waste to let the pretty striped paper go unused. So, I made another layout on the back. The problem? The negative butterfly near the top (which was now a red floral from the patterned paper on the back). The solution, add a whole pile of butterflies soaring upwards.



I used up almost five full sheets of paper making three layouts, which I thought was pretty thrifty.

Thanks for looking!

The love of the game

I made this layout using mostly products from the May kit, with some extra Crate Paper products thrown in. I chose my favourite photo of my son from his soccer season and had it printed as a 4x6. Then I chose six other shots and made a collage in Picasa. I cut up the collage and alternated the photos with squares of patterned paper, added some stickers (and stitching, of course!) and voilà, a layout to forever document my son's love of the game, without having to use "sports themed" supplies (of which I'm not a fan).

Thanks for looking!

Tissue paper flower tutorial

I recently bought a new pair of Merrell sandals and like the tissue paper that it came with so much that I decided to use it for a scrappy project.

Here's what I did:

Cut a rectangle of the tissue paper (mine was approximately 8" by 5").


Fold it into a square (mine was six layers).


Cut out a circle (I tried punching out a circle with my punch, but it didn't even want to punch out one circle, so I used my scissors.)


Crumple them up a bit and layer them together.


Add a flower and a brad (I used Dear Lizzy product.)


Attach it to my layout.


And here's the completed layout.

Supplies used: Bazzill cardstock, AC Dear Lizzy pp, fabric paper, brads, embellishments, flowers & thickers, Pink Paislee letter stickers and a Little Yellow Bicycle journaling card, all from the Shoppe.

Thanks for looking!

Math time

112 pieces of patterned paper
111 piece of cardstock
111 set of foam letters
112 flowers
+ 2 brads
------------------------------
1 quick & simple layout









Supplies used: Little Yellow Bicycle patterned paper, October Afternoon patterned paper, American Crafts thickers, Pink Paislee & Creative Imaginations brads and Prima flowers, all from the Shoppe.

Thanks for looking!

Leigh's happy, I mean, scrappy place

Well, I need to start off by saying that there's nothing quite like a week of posting DT scrap spaces to get me to clean up my space! (And it was so well timed, too! When I started cleaning up my space, I took the time to go through all my stuff and set it aside for tomorrow's scrappy garage sale at Super Scrap Day.)

Okay, with that said, here's my space. It's located in the north west corner of my basment and is close to the computer, a fact that I love.

I have some shelving units which hold my stuff...



First shelf, from top to bottom: boxes with ribbon, old alphabet stamps (wooden and foam), envelopes, cards, etc. Then some 8x8 completed albums and a basket of punches and a really long stapler. Beneath those, my 8.5x11 albums and at the bottom is my daughter's scrappy stuff in a basket.

On the second shelf, on the top shelf, I keep my acrylic stamp binders, embossing powder and some containers with buttons and other little embellishments. Beside those is a basket which holds extra adhesive, scissors, pinking sheers and my CM circle cutting system.

Below that are my cropper hoppers that hold my cardstock, the storage containers I made years ago with dividers for my patterned paper (sorted by manufacturer) and my binders that hold most of my alphas and some extra rub-ons, stickers, etc.



I sort my alphas by colour and slip them into 8.5x11 page protectors with a sheet of white paper in them. This way I can flip through the binders to find the perfect alphas for my layout. I have one binder with black and brown alphas and another for my coloured ones.



On the next shelf, I store some things in rubbermaid containers: my wood mounted stamps and ink, my acrylic paint, cardstock scraps (& my heat gun) and some older Scenic Route and Heidi Swapp chipboard letters that I can't bring myself to part with.



On my table, I keep an according file folder filled with patterned paper scraps (also sorted by manufacturer), some baskets, my paper trimmers and an IKEA organizer.



In the baskets, I have one for photos & bits of ephemeria. I try to keep the photos sorted and in chronological order, but sometimes this gets away on me. Another basket is for journaling cards and paper embellishments and the third holds tools I use often, some ink pads and adhesive.



In my IKEA organizer, I store 8x10 photos, my large ruler, smaller rulers, scissors, white cardstock and pens. There are also some notes or ideas for layouts. In the basket beside it are embellishments for layouts. In the tiny bowl are small embellisments, like pins, brads, etc.



I store my sewing machine beside my stool, under the table and pull it onto the table when I need it.



Thanks for looking!

A little tip....

I was working on a layout last night and needed just a little something as an embellishment.

I remembered that I had recently purchased some Prima paper flowers (called "e") in pink and teal blue. The blue on my layout was more periwinkle, so I knew the teal wouldn't work well....

.... when it suddenly occured to me that I could flip the flower over to the plain white side!

Maybe it was just because it was late at night, but this struck me as an ingenious solution and felt I had to share its brillance with you . ;)

Here's the completed layout, which is part of my Congo album.


(I used Bazzill cardstock, Fancy Pants pp, the aforementioned Prima flowers, October Afternoon letter stickers and MOD buttons, all from the Shoppe. The yellow pp is SU!)

Valentine's Day Cards

I don't know why, but when I think of Valentine's Day cards, I always think of cute little "punny" sayings. And the one that always comes to mind is from an old Simpsons' episode, where Lisa give Ralph a Valentine that says: "It says I choo-choo-choose you." And there's a picture of a train on it. Very cute!

So, I decided, in the spirit of love and puns, (& because, well, I love puns!) to make some Valentines for those who are dear to my heart. And what better way, than to dive into my scraps!

For the first couple I made, I thought about using my tools to make shapes. So, I cut a larger circle and then trimmed it off and punched it with my scalloped edge punch. I made an umbrella...

Supplies used: Daisy D's pp (from the Feb. kit), Bella Blvd pp & an Autumn Leaves stamp.


And a cupcake...

Supplies used: Collage Press pp (from the Jan. kit), Pink Paislee pp & glitter brad.


Then, as I was digging through my supplies, I realized that I had quite a few chipboard shapes that could easily be used for cards. Here's what I came up with...

Supplies used: My Mind's Eye & Crate pp, an American Crafts bird and an Autumn Leaves stamp.


Supplies used: Pink Paislee pp & Cosmo Cricket cherries (from the June add-on kit).


Supplies used: My Mind's Eye pp, an American Crafts butterfly and an SEI stamp.


Supplies used: Crate Paper pp, My Mind's Eye chipboard mug and Bazzill cardstock.

So, what about you? Do you plan on making some Valentines this year?

Two for one

It's no secret that I'm pretty cheap, I mean frugal. I don't mind spending money on scrappy supplies and will splurge on pricier items, but if I do, then I want to get the most bang for my buck.

I love diecut papers and often prefer using them as the backgrounds for my layouts.

I snatched this Little Yellow Bicycle diecut patterned paper this past summer and finally made a layout with it:



And because I like to get my money's worth, and because I struggle with how to store these layouts in my albums, I used the back of the paper to created this layout:



Supplies used: Cosmo Cricket patterned paper (green), Little Yellow Bicycle patterned paper journaling card and stickers and Pink Paislee chipboard letters, all from the Shoppe.

To see other layouts that I've made using both sides of a piece of diecut paper, click here.

*By the way, I picked the winner from last week's challenge and the winner is...... Val! (I'll leave it for you the next time I stop at the Shoppe.) Thanks to everyone who participated!

Journaling cards

I love to used journaling cards on my layouts/cards and October Afternoon's journaling cards are some of my favourites.

The other day, when I was making a layout, I thought I'd use the top right hand card from this sheet:



But, then I felt the yellow polkadots weren't the right colour and with my white cardstock background the off-white of the card didn't work as well. So, I decided to make my own.

I opened up a text box in word and made it the same size as the OA journaling card. With some more text boxes, I made a title ("Take note:"), some red journaling lines by using the "shift+-" key and then added some computer journaling, adjusting my line spacing so that it would fit perfectly. I then printed it out on white cardstock, added a strip of red polka-dotted OA pp and adhered it to my layout.

Here's what it looks like:



And how it looks on my layout:



So here's my challenge to you.... I challenge you to make your own journaling card this weekend with the online crop. It can be with the computer like I explained or you could do it by hand-- it's up to you. Post it in the MSS gallery before midnight on Sunday, January 17th and I'll give a RAK to the person who's name I pick.

Can't wait to see what you come up with!

Letter trick

I don't think it's much of a secret that one of my favourite manufacturers is Pink Paislee. And since seeing it in the CHA summer sneaks, I have been itching to get my hands on some of the Pink Paislee Amber Road products.

I loved the patterned paper and rub-ons that Marcy got in. When I noticed that she hadn't ordered the coordinating chipboard letters, I figured, no problem, I have a pile of black letters at home.

However, when I started to work on my first layout using the Amber Road products, I didn't think that black letters would work so well. I needed something a little brighter.

I searched through my letter binder for the perfect red letters to use..... only to realize that they couldn't be found. Plan B: make them myself.

I looked through the rest of my chipboard letters and chose some chipboard letters that I thought were both a good size and the right looking font. And, they also happened to be Pink Paislee. Imagine that.

But, said letters also happened to be pink, which would not do.

Normally, I paint my chipboard letters, but I wasn't sure if the red paint I had would be the right shade, and it was running low. Plan C: use ink.

I started with a red ink, which I dabbed onto the letters with a make-up sponge applicator. I repeated this step for a second coat. Then, as a third coat, I switched the ink colour to orange.




I let them dry (probably for about twenty minutes. I didn't time it, but worked on cutting out the trees from this piece of patterned paper while they dried.)

And here's how they turned out:

A different kind of stamping project

I recently made a new quilt for my bedroom and got inspired by this piece of patterned paper to make some pillows to match.

(If you're thinking, "Leigh, this is a scrapbooking blog, why are you sharing a sewing project?", it's because I used a Red Star Stamp to make my pillows, and I love finding ways to repurpose my scrappy materials (& sharing about them!))

Here's what I did:

I ironed out some of the leftover scraps from my quilt and ironed some interfacing to the wrong side of them.



Then, I used some ink (which, in retrospect, I should have used something non-watersoluable, in case I ever want to wash the pillow cases), my stamping block and my leaf Red Star Stamp (this set would work, too.)



I stamped the leaf onto the right side of the fabric. And repeated this step many, many times, using four different patterns of fabric.



Then I cut them all out.



And arranged them on a square of fabric, that would become the front of my pillow. (The square was 17"x17" so that when sewed together, it would fit my 16" pillow forms.)



And pinned them in place.

With some brown fabric, I turned the edges under and slipped them in between the clusters of leaves, to create the branches and the trunk of the tree. Then, with brown thread, I sewed the branches, trunk and leaves (down the centre vein of the stamp) in place.

Then I repeated these steps and made a second pillow, a mirrow image from the first, with a few different details. I sewed them into pillows and am quite happy with the results.