Organizing inspiration

I love gettng my scrapbook magazines every month, but I don't like the space they can eventually accumulate. Usually, when I am skimming through my magazines I'll fold over a corner so I know that I can come back to something I found inspiring. I have found that eventually when I put the magazines away, I also forget about what I wanted to try.
Recently I went through all of my magazines and cut out the things that I really like and taped them to paper. I also tore out all the inserts for sketches that Scrapbook Etc provide. I then used a 3 hole punch and stuck all the pages in a 3 ring binder. I have all my inspiration right at my fingertips. Now, I don't feel so overwhelmed with magazines and trying to find that layout to lift or technique that I wanted to try.

ribbon storage

I have an organized and not so organized systemt to storing my ribbon. As you can see, my not so organized way is to stuff ribbon strands into this clear, glass jar. I like that I can quickly see the colors and what is availabe. A lot of times this is where I stuff a few inches of ribbon instead of trying to wrap it around the plastic tabs.

This is my organized ribbon storage. I store my ribbon on these tabs inside this plastic organizer. I got this for about $2 at Hobby Lobby...it's suppose to be for storing DMC floss.

Once I wrap my ribbon around the plastic dividers I store it in this plasic box.

The only problem I have with storing my ribbon this way is that the ribbon can have kinks in it.

But I can easily get rid of the kinks by getting out my handy dandy hair straightener.

I heat up my straightener and slide the ribbon through it slowly. It only takes a couple seconds for my ribbon to come out nice and straight.

I do this also when I get the ribbon that is packaged on a cardboard sheet...the ribbon can have kinks from that, too.

Making the most of your Kit

I know you all can agree that Noel packs her kits to the brim with all kinds of scrappy goodness - so there is never a need or a want for more (until her next kit comes out - hehe). But there are times when I only have one sheet of cardstock in that particular color and I need more (either for a photo mat or for journaling)---hmmm...well this is what I do.

And then here is the finished layout:

And you woouldn't have know unless you held it OR told you! Just a little tip that I find myself using! Hope you can too!

Michelle Lanning

Adding Texture to Your LO's!

The best thing about Scrappin is the chance to "play" and experiment with different mediums! Sometimes I like to stretch my creativity with products that were not originally intended for scrapbooking. I am going to show you how you can incorporate Gel Medium and Texture Paste in your LO's!

The first technique is with Texture paste. You will also need acrylic paints (Any color), a paint brush, stencil, tape, and a palette tray.

Glob some texture paint onto your palette tray.
Add acrylic paint. (The more you add the darker the color will look.)
Mix, but don't over mix, because you want it to remain lumpy!
Use tape to tack down your stencil.
Pounce the paint onto your stencil. Don't "paint" it on or it will seep under the stencil. Again, you want it to be lumpy!

At this point it looks kind of ugly doesn't it? Don't worry! It needs to dry for a couple of hours depending on the humidity in your house!
Peel stencil carefully off. (I was very impatient and didn't let mine dry thoroughly, so mine did peel up at the ends a bit!)
Cut out each petal and flower center. (I added a button to mine. ) They are ready to use on your LO! Here is mine!
Pretty cool 'eh?!

The next technique is using Gel Medium and reinkers. For my LO, I wanted the look of water. So I chose a blue reinker.

Again, you will glop some Gel Medium on your palette tray. Squeeze a few drops of reinker.

Here I didn't overmix because I wanted the variation of the blues to stay.


I cut my cardstock into waves and started painting on my Gel Medium.

As you can see, I had some areas of light blue as well as areas of dark blue!

When it dries it will dry very shiny and "wet" looking! It was a bit difficult to take a picture so you can really see it.

I think you can see it a bit better in the close up!


If you are in the mood to play.....get out those paints and experiment!!! I hope I've inspired you to try something new!

Make Your Own Sketches from Magazines

There's no question that scrapbookers LOVE to use sketches. (Including myself!) Just look at all of the books available featuring these little time-savers! But, you don't need to buy a book of sketches to gain inspiration, you can make your own Sketch Book by using magazines that you probably have stacked up around your home already!

I bought a cute notebook just for this purpose. After I read a magazine, I look through it again with different eyes . . . scrapbooking eyes. I look at the shapes of ads and articles and sketch down ideas for future layouts. Let me show you what I mean.



Below I have scanned in several pages from a "Penzey's Spices" Catalog and one Proactiv Advertisement. Below each page you will see the layout sketch I made from it.













For this final ad from the Penzey's Spices Catalog, I not only wanted to show you the sketch I made, but also a layout I made using the sketch. This layout was made using the Picnic Basket Kit.





If you happen to create a layout using one of these sketches, link us in the comment section, we would all love to take a peek! Thanks! Have a great week!

How to Enhance Titles with Colors and Doodles

Noel included this adorable "Sunshine" tag in the Picnic Basket kit, and because I can't ever leave well enough alone, I decided to add some more to it...

This is how I often do titles or my own journaling/word embellishments. It's really easy and has the whole handmade/artistic look to it.

Step one:

Outline the stamped phrase (I used the blue marker that came in the PB kit).

Step Two:

Add some random "highlights" with an orange colored pencil. (Please ignore how messed up my pencil is- woops with the sharpener!!)

Step Three:

Color in the same direction all around your word, making it more or less a solid "block."

Step Four:

Add some more "highlights" and a frame around the block in a bright, contrasting color. Go over the top of the highlights and the frame with a black marker, doodling and bringing more detail to it.

Step Five:

Add the rest of your embellishments and voila! A very unique and fun accent for your pages.
You can also see where I did a similar technique here. :) With that one, I wrote out the title on white cardstock, and did a very similar process with the coloring- then I cut it all out and added it to the page.

The cool thing about this is that you can do lots of experimenting on small scraps and not worry about "messing up." I did the title on the "Explore" page twice- nothing really wasted and I got the look I was wanting.

So get out those pencils and pens and color! :)