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Thursday, February 28, 2008

I’ve been having so much fun designing and fooling around with the aspects of acrylic albums that I thought I would share a few tips and techniques that I have learned along the way ...



How to Create your own Acrylic Album




I usually keep the front page simple, with or without a title, so I can maintain the integrity of actually being able to ‘see through’ the album. For example, with the cover on this particular album, I used a Hambly Screen Print and Craft Bond Spray Adhesive to fasten the print without actually seeing any adhesive.
































I also love to use a lot of different size flowers, as can be seen with this album. The flowers help conceal the materials I use to adhere the supplies to the reverse side of each page. The flowers also provide a nice look when the album is closed.








Another product used to disguise the content is paint. I use paint to hide what is on a reverse page to permit back-to-back journaling with only paint being visible on both pages (refer to sample).



Florish rub-ons are another media I utilize as they can be seen from both sides of the page. I enjoy using the rub-ons because I believe they add a lot of colour and character to the page as well.
When you are beginning the design of your album, I believe the best way to initiate the layout is to continuously monitor both sides of each page to ensure you cannot see any adhesive or unwanted detail.
One handy tip is to use Mini Glue Dots and hide the dots behind buttons or similar embellishments.
Believe me, it sounds a bit tedious, but it is so much fun and the end result is absolutely spectacular.
So get out there and order an acrylic book today ~ get your flowers and lots of bling to add to your pages and show us what you do with your own see through album !!




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Saturday, February 16, 2008

Quote 'Em!

I've been scrapping for almost three years, and my biggest source of inspiration besides the photos and product are quotes that I've gathered in my memory over my lifetime. There are several places to pull quotes from, and most of our photos can be paired up with a number of quotes.

The most obvious place to pull a quote from is the subject of the layout. What is the person saying as your taking the picture? Does your child have a cute pronunciation of a word? Do they repeat themselves? Is it something they're "known for?" Listen while you look and you're sure to get a good title or starting point for your journaling on the layout. Here are some examples:
If I'm looking for a specific quote about a subject, I usually turn to Quote Garden. I found this quote when I was looking for one about happiness:
Two more sources of quotes are books and movies. I used a line from a popular children's book for this first layout and a quote from one of my all-time favorite movies for the next one:

And since music is such an important part of my life, the source for most of my quotes come from songs. I can usually look at a photo and immediately think of a corresponding song. And on some occassions, I carry that over into my layout about the person and/or event.


Pick a song that describes the event:

Pick a song that was used at an event (this song was played at my son's baby dedication):

Pick a song that describes your feelings:


Pick a song that describes the relationship:

There are endless resources of quotes available--use them as a starting point for your next layout or project!
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Monday, February 11, 2008

Let's get messy!

my absolute favorite thing to use on a layout or project is paint! ah, paint is lovely and versatile and MESSY!! oh, i see some of you cringing already! but i challenge you to try paint if you never have. it's unpredictable and can get all over the place, but it's a lot of fun.

here are a few different ways i like to use paint.

1- painting directly on the paper
my style is sorta go with with the flow. sometimes i plop some paint on my foam brush and have at it. sometimes i will pre-plan a page and decide where i want the paint to go. but most of the time, i will just guesstimate where the picture will be placed and then just go a bit crazy with the paint. in the page i did using Noel Mignon's Gingersnap kit, i used a heck of a lot of paint under all those layers! but then i decided to use a lot of things and most of it got covered up. but there's still some pink paint peeking out from behind the photo's. i also painted a red border, which leads me to the next technique


2- painting a border
i love to paint borders around the whole layout, but i also love giving a frame to pictures with paint. in this mini book i started, i used bright green paint over a black and white photo to make it pop! it really draws your eyes to the photo.


3- use unintentional items with paint
my new favorite technique is using bubble wrap as a stamp! if you haven't tried this yet, you have to! it's so much fun, and the effect is so cool. it never comes out the same way twice, and thats the beauty of paint!


(i love to use more than one color. my foam brushes get A LOT of use and our bathroom sink looks like a rainbow attacked it most of the time! all in the name of art though right??)

4- fingerpaint!
get messy! be a kid again! dont be afraid to stick your whole hand in and smear it all over the place! i love fingerpainting/hand painting for art journals. the freedom to smoosh paint all over the place is so liberating! in my "book of me" i did a lot of pages using paint. this is one where i used my fingers with a bunch of different pinks!


5- use paint to make something POP
if you use patterned paper as your background, sometimes the title can get a little lost. i like to just dash a little bit of paint that contrasts with my title color in the area i want to put my title, and voila! you have a title that pops!


6- use different things to apply paint
use the edge of a playing card to give it sharp lines
use an empty toilet paper roll to make circles
use cardboard as a stamp!
use a leaf
use newspaper
use anything! sky's the limit

and if using paint on a layout is too intimidating, try something smaller! i am currently decorating a card a day (a playing card). it gives me the opportunity to try out new techniques every single day.

it's small and easy and doesn't have to go in an album to be shared, so if you dont like it, don't show anyone! try your techniques out on a smaller scale and you will be surprised at how exciting it is! and once you've mastered them, you will be much more confident to try them out on a bigger scale. :)
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