Ribbon for Parrots

My cousin has five children … all of them are African parrots. There are three I love (I’ve never really bonded with the other two) Ferguson, Rudy and Sydney.

Rudy is my favorite. He’s tiny and adorable and he likes to dance.

Sydney is the most lovable. But, she loves too deeply, so these days, she has to stay behind bars.

Ferguson is the biggest and he is beautiful. He’s shy, but I did get him to eat off of my finger during my last visit!

Anyhow, I put together a page of my three favorite cousins with pictures from Christmas. They are so bright and colorful, it’s hard to find a way to scrapbook them. I finally settled on some simple stickers and made a border as a design element.

Naturally I made a video to show you how to add ribbon to the border … you can watch it here

Mosaic Waterfall

While I work on Mosaic Moments Grid Paper most of the time when scrapbooking, I rarely create solid mosaic pages. Normally, I like to leave a lot of my photos large and uncut. But, with these photos, I decided to cut every photo into 1-inch squares.

My photos of this particular waterfall were not all that great. The falls were hard to photograph because we were on top of them and they cut back under us. I took lots of photos in the woods on our trek to and from the falls, but nothing was eye catching. By cutting my photos up, I actually made each one look better (its magical how this happens) and created an overall visual that was much better than any single photo. And, I managed to fit parts of 11 photos onto a single layout!

Yes, this can take hours if you are cutting with a knife, but if you have the MM Die from Mosaic Moments, it takes just a few minutes. The MM die cuts a 4″x6″ photo into 1-inch squares with a single pass through the Big Shot or other cutting machine. And, it holds the pieces together so you are not left trying to put nearly impossible puzzle pieces back together!

There are times when you will want to use this die to create a giant mosaic and times when you do not.

GREAT USES

Enhance less than spectacular photos

Fit a lot of photos onto a page

Uses parts of photos if the whole photo isn’t desired

Perfect for flowers, landscapes, scenery, crowds, sunsets, beaches

 

NOT-SO-GREAT USES

Close-up photos of people or animals (if their face doesn’t fit in a 1″ square, they will look like aliens when cut)

Spectacular photos (the mosaic grid will detract from the beauty)

Photos with important details (the details will blend in)

Signs with lots of writing (more than a word or two is hard to read)

 

Give this technique a try — either by cutting by hand or using the MM Die — and let me know what you think. I’d love to see your pages!

Throw Back Thursday: A Perfect Bullseye

Here’s a page I did back in 2012 … 

Last summer my husband sold a gun and used the money to buy a crossbow so he could go turkey hunting. He did it for me — I love the taste of wild turkey, but I hate the thought of picking out little pellets from my food. Matt knew with a crossbow, I could enjoy the flavors I love, peacefully.

The day he went to sight it in, I went with him and he let me shoot it a few times. It was the first time I had ever shot anything, so it was a big deal. More importantly, the day quickly became a special moment between husband and wife as we learned something new together.

Naturally, I was eager to scrapbook it and I began it several months ago using mosaic paper (click here for details …) but I got stuck on the title. I wanted something that reflected the importance of the day, but when my searches came up empty, I set the page aside.

Months later, I was airbrushing some flowers and leaves with Copic Sketch Markers. As I was putting away my supplies, I noticed the beautiful pattern created on the scrap paper I was using. The more I looked at it, the more I thought it would make a great background for my bullseye page.

I cut the scrap into a circle and then used my Cricut Gypsy to make the letters in the title a variety of sizes and then weld them together. Placed on a black background, I think the title really sticks out.

What do you think? Have you ever used scraps or leftovers to make something new?

You Make Me Smile

This challenge for Mosaic Moments was to show the things that make me smile. There are so many things that make me smile, it was hard to pick … so I opted for the biggest and most important things …

And, yes, that is one of my new baby turkeys. Isn’t he/she cute?!

To see how I created this page, click here …

Chopping up the Sleeping Bear Dunes

 

 

 

The latest challenge for Mosaic Moments was to create a page on Bahama Blue Grid Paper. I chose to record the memories from our day at the Sleeping Bear Dunes, along with paper and stickers from Webster’s Pages.

Click over to my Journella entry to read the story behind the page and cheer me on!

Inspired by Audubon

The challenge for the Mosaic Moments Design Team was to pick an artist and then use that person’s art as an inspiration for a mosaic page.

I chose Audubon and this is my design …

 

Click on the image for a closer look. Then, click over to Journella to see how I created this page.

The Butterfly Garden

When we visited the Butterfly House at the Detroit Zoo, we got some amazing photos of the butterflies and the foliage they live in. I wanted to pick up the bright colors in the photos on my scrapbook page, but I didn’t want it to look like a child’s birthday party with primary-colored cardstock. So, I used Copic Sketch Markers to airbrush a design that was as elegant as the butterflies and I added homemade 3-D butterflies as an accent. Here’s what I came up with:

 Click on the images for a larger view.

SUPPLIES:

Cardstock: American Crafts (white textured & Black), DCWV (orange), Paper Accents (white smooth)

Copic Sketch Markers: G14, YR18, N9, Y35, colorless blender & Multiliner

Copic Airbrush System

Letters, stamp: Tim Holtz

Corner Rounder: Creative Memories

Thread: We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy system

Punch: EK Success

Mini Glue Dots

Other: Brads

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Airbrush butterfly flight path on cardstock.

2. On a smooth sheet of cardstock, airbrush with multiple colors then spritz with Colorless Blending Solution and let dry. (The Colorless Blender gives a pitted design where it lands on the airbrushed paper)

3. Cut into strips and round the edges with a corner rounder.

4. Adhere to page and then use Sew Easy to stitch edge.

5. Add letters for title.

6. Crop photos & use punch to crop small pictures

7. Mat large photo with black and then orange. Use N9 Copic Marker to edge orange mat.

8. Adhere photos to page as shown.

9. Add journaling block and brads.

10. Stamp butterflies, cut out (cut off antennae) and airbrush.

11.  Use a Mini Glue Dot to attach just the center of the butterfly to the page. Ink just the antennae portion of the stamp and stamp them on each butterfly. Then, bend the wings slightly to create a 3-D image.

Christmas Mosaic

I know it’s months after the holidays, but I’m just getting around to scrapbooking my Christmas photos.

There is a family near me that goes all out for the holidays with blow-up decorations. Over the past 8 years or so, I have watched each holiday as their collection grows and grows. It has become a bit of a tradition to drive by and observe the variety of characters they have. Trust me, they have them all — Pooh, Mickey, Dora, Scooby, The Grinch, Santa, trains, balloons, lighthouses, hippos and more.

This year, I decided to scrapbook them using a mosaic page. I used a 1″ punch by EK Success to cut out the smaller images and Tami Potter’s system for cutting out the rest. I used a bit of creative license to make up the word for the title, but I think it captured the magic. What do you think?

Making Mosaics

Don’t you hate it when life gets in the way of paper crafting?!? That seems to be what has happened to me lately … When I am stressed, I have trouble being creative. Thinking is just too hard and I have many more failures than normal, which causes frustration and more stress and, well, it is sort of a downward spiral. Since paper crafting is both my hobby and therapy, I never want it to become a chore.

So, when things aren’t working like they should, I turn to one of my favorites — Mosaics!

OK. You can stop rolling your eyes at me now … these are much easier than they look — if you have the right tools.

Tami Potter is the queen of mosaics. While I have never actually met her in person, I have “followed” her for years.

She makes the process so easy with a cutting mat, paper and guide with grids. An idea book (one of my favorite scrapbooking books of all time) offers tons of examples, suggestions and tips. Here are her directions, via a video on her blog.

Here are closer looks at my pages …

Click on the images for a closer look …

I added sticker letters from The Paper Loft and cardstock from American Crafts for the title and journaling blocks.

Keep in mind that I did these while chatting with my friends and spent absolutely no time planning what would go where. I just figured out which pictures I wanted to cut and started cutting … With a little planning, you can make absolutely amazing mosaics!

And, since Tami’s method is so simple, it’s pretty hard to mess it up, which makes it perfect for therapeutic scrapping.

 

My Life in Pictures

This week’s challenge for Scrap Wars was to create a two-page 12×12 “then and now” layout showing yourself as a baby, at graduation and today.

I loved this idea and immediately thought of photos I wanted to include.  I printed a few and then over the next few days, until I had time to actually sit down and create, all sorts of ideas came to mind.

What I ended up with was a mosaic page (using techniques and papers from Tami Potter) that shows the important events in my life and the people and things that contributed to making me who I am today. I also included some of the things I love — like hot-air balloons, Winnie the Pooh, scrapbooking and chickens.

I used papers by My Mind’s Eye to frame the empty squares along the border and to fill in journaling blocks, the title and extra spaces. And used my Cricut to cut out the title.

When I finished, my daughter looked at it and declared she had never seen so many pictures of me in one place her entire life.

She’s right. Most layouts do not feature me at all. In fact,  I had trouble even finding pictures of her and I together. It seems I spend too much time on the other side of the camera. With a timer and a tripod, there is no reason for that, so my new goal is to make sure I am in some of the photos — with and without my family.

For now, stop by Scrap Tales in Brighton and vote for my layout. I can use all of the votes I can get!