Christmas Visitor Layout with Kiwi Lane

Welcome Kiwi crafters!  Today, I have a single page layout with just one photo on it.  Yep. One solitary photo.  I tend to gravitate towards scrapbooking groups of photos from a single event, which then leaves me with a pile of single photos.  And that pile sits around while I figure out what to do with those somewhat random photos.  Most of these photos have at least a little bit of a story behind them- but some don't.  This is one of the photos that had a short story, but I still wanted to remember the moment.  So, what happens when you have a single photo and a short story??  You have room on your page to add lots and lots of layers!! This sounds like a job for my Kiwi Lane Design Templates!  Instead of trying to keep my layers somewhat simple because I have multiple photos on a layout (which can mean multiple focal points and craziness, if you're not careful), I'm free to add layers of embellishments to my templates without it feeling overwhelming.  

Here's what my page looked like after I framed it with my templates:

And my layout after I traced, cut, inked and replaced:

Supplies: patterned paper (My Mind's Eye); brads (We R Memory Keepers, All My Memories); glitter tape (American Crafts); sequins (Teresa Collins, Hazel & Ruby, glitter alphabet stickers (Making Memories); glitter glue, ink (Ranger); pen (Staedtler); 1" circle punch (Marvy Uchida)

Templates:

Abbie Road 3A

Mini Abbie Road 3A & 3B

Cedar Trails 1A

Winter 3

Christmas 1, 4

Tiny Holiday 8T

Tiny Bracket 1T

Originally, I had five templates on my layout.  I added and took away templates until I liked the layout and ended up with eleven templates.  That's one of the perks of using the templates- you can see exactly what your page will look like before cutting a single sheet of paper! And you can arrange and rearrange until you're happy with the look without wasting anything!!  

Let's talk about my page a bit.  First of all, the subject is a spider.  Yep.  We had a spider in our Christmas tree that was helping add to our decorations.  It would spin these perfect little webs that would span between the blinds, the ornaments and the pine needles.  (The web is visible in the photo in person, but didn't translate well as a photo of a photo.  Bummer.)  It was so beautiful that I wouldn't let anyone destroy the web or get rid of the spider.  It lived in the tree in our living room until we took it out after the holidays.  This seems like such an odd thing to document (and, it probably is!), but this was something I wanted to remember.  It was out of the ordinary and a bit strange- just like us! ;)

Next- layering.  Don't be afraid to layer!  Use your templates to plan your page so you can see what those layers will look like.  You can add more elements to your template shapes that add more visual layers.  I used hard embellishments on the ornaments (sequins and brads) so they sparkle and shine.  I also added sparkly glitter glue to the trees to imitate snow and bring some sparkle to the other side of the page.  I put the sparkle in one more spot on the layout (the title) for balance.  Another layer was added by simply popping the small ornament and small tree off the page with some foam adhesive.

So there you have it- a Christmas layout about a spider!  I hope you were inspired by something in this layout- not necessarily the subject matter. ;)  

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Scrapping!

Happy World Card Making Day!!

....well, it will be on Saturday.  But, around here, we like to get an early start on any party! ;)  And I think a giveaway is in order for this party, right?  Details for that part will be at the end of the post, so look at the pretty cards and then follow the instructions for the giveaway.  Got it?  Good!

Here are some holiday cards I made using my Kiwi Lane Designs Templates:

"Falling For You"

Supplies: cardstock (American Crafts); patterned paper, sticker (Doodlebug Designs); ink (Ranger); pen (Sakura, Staedtler)

Kiwi Lane Templates:

Mini Colter Trails 2A

Nature 4

Tiny Nature 4T

Tiny Holiday 2T

Tiny Brackets 1T

Autumn 2

"Spooky"

Supplies: cardstock (American Crafts); patterned paper (BoBunny); sentiment (Doodlebug Designs); ink (Ranger); enamel dots (My Mind's Eye)

Kiwi Lane Templates:

Autumn 1, 5, 6

"Cornucopia"

Supplies: cardstock (American Crafts); patterned paper, stickers, washi tape (Doodlebug Designs); ink (Ranger); pen (Sakura, Staedtler)

Kiwi Lane Templates:

Celebrate 7

Tiny Shapes 7T

Tiny Holiday 2T

Tiny Nature 1T

Autumn 3

"Let it Snow"

Supplies: card stock, glitter glue (American Crafts); patterned paper (Pebbles, Inc.); brad, twine (Creative Impressions?); ink (Ranger); pen (Sakura, Staedtler)

Kiwi Lane Templates:

Tiny Traditions 3T

"Joy"

Supplies: cardstock (American Crafts); patterned paper (My Mind's Eye); stamp (Studio G); ink (Ranger, Tsukinedo)

Kiwi Lane Templates:

Tiny Holiday 1T

Cedar Trails 1A

Tiny Traditions 2T

So do you feel ready to tackle the holiday card season now?  I hope so!

Now for that giveaway- simply leave me a comment telling me which holiday is your favorite to make cards for.  That's it.  If you want a bonus entry, become a follower of my blog and let me know in your comment that you have become a follower (or let me know that you're already a follower).  You have until Sunday October 5, 2014 at 11:59 pm MDT to leave me a comment to win.  The winner will receive a set of Tiny Holiday Templates like this one:

I hope you enjoyed my cards!  Don't forget to leave a comment to participate in the giveaway!

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Scrapping!

 

Write From the Heart with Kiwi Lane and My Mind's Eye

It's my turn to do an installment of Write From the Heart from Kiwi Lane- yay!  I will say that it feels like it has been a looooong time since it was my turn for this segment, though.  Hopefully I'm not too out of practice and can help you with your journaling.

Sometimes when I scrapbook, I feel like there needs to be some long epitaph to convey the story behind the photos, or even the story behind the people in the photos.  And this is true in some cases.  It's nice to tell a long narrative about how much we admire a person or how something came to be.  It's nice to tell part of our family's history by combining our new thoughts with a photo from long ago. But sometimes, just sometimes, we need to let loose and share more of our personality in our journaling.  If you're a fun person, shouldn't you tell the stories that show just how much fun you have?  I think so, too!  So today I'm going to focus on that-

Tell the silly stories!

Here's a layout that I did using the Milo collection from My Mind's Eye's Now & Then-
Before, using my Kiwi Lane templates to "Frame" my layout:

After:

Supplies: patterned paper (My Mind's Eye); brads, die cut, epoxy shapes (My Mind's Eye); epoxy dots (Teresa Collins); letter stickers (My Mind's Eye, American Crafts); ink, glitter glue (Ranger)

Templates:

Wacky 1

Tiny Wacky 1T

Paradise 1

Celebrate 7

Tiny Celebrate 7T

Photos

I love that these photos are part of a silly story about kissing some fish!  And I wanted to make sure that we remembered that we are part of a fun and sometimes silly family that likes to do strange things and have a good time laughing!  It's not a long, sentimental story.  And that's ok.  It's still a story that helps tell who we are.  And isn't that what scrapbooking is about?

And since we're here anyway, here are a few design tips:

- Use your photo templates as a crop tool, along with planning your layout.  They are translucent, so you can see exactly where you need to cut to make that perfect page.

- Cut down a shape to make a smaller shape.  If you notice, I have three sizes of water drops/splashes. I made the smallest one by tracing the Tiny Celebrate 7T template and drawing the same shape inside the traced shape.  It was about 1/4" smaller all the way around.  This made a smaller shape without needing a smaller template.

- Add interest to your pages using lines.  All my photos are on an angle, as are the bits of patterned paper. But, my words (title and journaling) are all on horizontal lines.  And my embellishments (the wave shapes and splashes) are all in vertical lines.  By having each element of the layout moving a different way, your eyes move around the page.

That's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by and Happy Scrapping!

Ideas to Inspire with Kiwi Lane

Good Morning all!  It's my turn for the latest installment of Kiwi Lane's Ideas to Inspire.... So are you ready to be inspired?  Good!  Let's get started!

This month at Kiwi Lane, we have the awesome privilege of working with the fabulous My Mind's Eye!  Eeeek!  I'm so excited!! Hence, the "Eeeek!"  Now, if you have never worked with any of My Mind's Eye's stuff, I suggest you find your nearest crafting/scrapbooking store and get your hands on some- you won't be disappointed! 

Now, I don't know about you, but I seem to put off scrapbooking birthdays... I think it has something to do with the feeling that I do the same thing over and over.  Well, this time I took that feeling of doing things over and over and ran with it.  Here's the theme for today's ITI:

~Use numeric repetition as a theme throughout your page.~

Here's the layout I came up (using My Mind's Eye's Now & Then Milo):

Supplies: patterned paper (My Mind's Eye and Scenic Route (background)); die cuts, chipboard, washi tape, letter stickers, epoxy stickers (My Mind's Eye); stamp (7gypsies); ink (Ranger, Tsukinedo); twine (Lilybelle's Paperie on Etsy)

Templates:

Spook Alley 3A, 3B

Wacky 3, 3T

Celebrate 1, 2, 5

Tiny Shapes 6T

The photos are from my son's 3rd birthday.  I used the number "3" in the title, but also used other three's throughout the page... can you find them all? ;)  Here's the list, in case you missed any:

- Three "3"s- one in the title, one at the top of the right page and the candles on the cupcake that resemble III (Roman numeral 3)

- Three burst shapes from the Wacky Accessory set along the bottom of the layout

- Groupings of three things: 2 balloons and a cupcake; small burst shape from the Tiny Wacky set (top of left page), "3" and "cute" die cut; title grouping that has a chipboard shape, the large "3" card and the tiny letter stickers

- There are three groupings of three things

- Three lines of journaling

That's right, peeps!  I even went so far as to emulate the theme in the number of lines for my journaling!

I will point out that I didn't use three photos on my two page layout (and really, when have you EVER seen me use so few pics on a two pager??).  But, I did keep the number of photos in an odd numbered grouping, which is aesthetically pleasing and worked well for the layout.

While the method of using numeric repetition can be quite effective, use it in small doses.  Meaning, it works better for small single digits, rather than larger numbers.  I love the look of this, but I'm certainly not going to use it for my hubby's thirty-something birthday pics. ;)

Now, can I just mention the paper and embellishments from My Mind's Eye's Now & Then Milo collection!  It is SUCH a versatile collection!!  The colors of blues, grays, greens and yellows make it pretty much the perfect pallet for both girl and boy themes, not to mention everything in between.  There's also a touch of metallic silver in the collection- both on the paper and in the embellies (brads, die cuts, printed chipboard, epoxy shapes).  It's not that over powering blinged out silver, though.  It's a soft, subtle touch of silver.  And it works for everything!  The paper itself is that heavy card stock that we have come to know and love from MME and, let's face it, we expect it from them.  The prints in the collection range from classic damask to small floral to geometrics to anchors- seriously.... so versatile!!  I LOVED working with this collection!  So much so, that I chose to use my leftovers from this project to do my Write From the Heart with Kiwi Lane  at the end of the month.  So be watching for that one!

I hope this inspired you to do something repetitive on your pages!  I'd love to see what you come up with-don't forget to post your creations to the Kiwi Lane Facebook page!  And link it here in the comments, too, please!

That's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by and Happy Scrapping!

Ideas to Inspire with Kiwi Lane and Hemptique

Happy Wednesday!  I feel like I was just doing a blog post... maybe because this is my third one in four weeks... a rarity, for sure!  Hope you're not too tired of me yet! ;)

For this installment of Ideas to Inspire for Kiwi Lane, I was given the opportunity to work with a company I've never worked with before. Gasp!  What?  A crafting company whose product I don't already have in my stash?!  Seriously.  It happens.  And much more often than people may think.  Especially after they view my wall-o-supplies that lines the dining area in our house.  One day I should share that with the world.  But not today.  Today, I get to share with you wonderful product from Hemptique!

I was, oh, so happy when I was sent some of Hemptique's metallic hemp cord!  This is what it looks like:

I had lots of visions of the billions of projects I could do with it, but then realized that I had to narrow it down just a bit.... to one project, to be more accurate.  So I decided to use it like I would use embroidery floss and stitch on a layout.  Hemp cord is a little bit thicker and stiffer than embroidery floss, but it's still fairly easy to work with.  Here's the layout I came up with:

I framed my page using the Kiwi Lane Templates:

And then after I traced, cut, inked and replaced:

Supplies: patterned paper, cardstock stickers (My Mind's Eye); sequins (Teresa Collins Design); cord (Hemptique); stitching template, letter stickers (American Crafts); paper flowers (Prima); pen (Staedtler); ink (Ranger)

(I used My Mind's Eye's Lucky in Love collection.... and yes, I changed my mind about the background paper after I had everything laid out- it happens a lot.  One of the advantages of using the templates!)

I started working with my Hemptique cord and realized that it wasn't quite the color I wanted- all the hemp was natural color and the metallic strings are intertwined.  I knew I wanted the metallic, but decided to see if the hemp would take color.  So I conducted a little experiment- I put a length of cord in a plastic baggie and sprayed some ink in the bag and squished the cord around in the ink.  And it worked!  A little too well, actually.  I ended up rinsing the cord to remove some of the blue color because it was so dark it looked almost black- pretty, but not quite right for my project.

So what was I going to stitch?  I wasn't sure, but then I saw an advertisement for a sale on fabric at a craft store.  Muslin and tulle.  I thought that they would be fairly easy to cut and stitch, so off to the store I went!  I made my huge purchase of 12" of white muslin and 12" of pink tulle (a whoppin' 56 cents worth of fabric) and ran home to get to work!  Seriously, kids, I don't remember the last time I was this excited to work with fabric and string.... probably never.

I started by tracing the flower shape from the Sweetheart accessory set onto the muslin, cut it out, then realized that I didn't really want to stitch around a flower shape.  That's too complicated.  ;)  So I opted to use the larger circle in the Shapes Tiny Accessory template set.  I cut a layer of muslin and a layer of tulle (netting) and also a circle of pink lightweight cardstock to add some stability.  I used the smaller circle from the same set to pierce holes to stitch through.  Towards the end of stitching the circle, I thought it would be fun to make the circle into a shaker box... sort of.  So I threw some sequins in between the muslin and tulle and finished stitching.  The circle became the middle of the large flower.  I tore strips of the white muslin to run through the entire layout and stitched some pink x's on the border.

While I never would have thought to use hemp cording on a scrapbook page before this, I'm certainly glad I got to try it!  I love the way it turned out!!  Hemptique makes other cording, string and yarn out of natural fibers like cotton and bamboo- some are natural colored and some are dyed.  They even have some cute looking bamboo bakers twine that I'm looking forward to getting my hands on some!

Thanks for stopping by and happy scrapping!  Don't forget to come back tomorrow for the announcement of the winner from the Kiwi Lane blog hop!

Templates used:

• Sweetheart 1, 3
• Clara 1A, 1B, 3A, 3B
• Tiny Shapes 3T, 7T
• Thoughtful 2A, 2B
• Strips
• Photos
• Tiny Photos

February Blog Hop with Kiwi Lane

Happy Blog Hop Weekend!!  I hope you've been having fun along this hop and have been gathering lots and lots of scrapbooking inspiration.  You should have made your way here through Kristy's blog.  If you happened to wander over from another location, I highly suggest you mosey on back to the Kiwi Lane blog and start from the beginning- I'd hate for you to miss any ideas!  Here's the line-up if you get lost along the way:

1. Kiwi Lane 
2. Charissa Miller 
3. Claire Spielman
4. Lissa Mitchell
5. Kristy MacKeen 
6. Gail Owens (You are HERE!!)
7. Arin Flynn 
8. Holly Gagnon 
9. Jennifer Blomquist
10. Christine Meyer

Don't forget- there's a prize involved in this blog hop!  One random commenter from ONE of the blogs on the hop (including the Kiwi Lane blog) will win a $25 gift certificate to the Kiwi Lane Shop.  You have until Sunday night (February 9, 2014) at 11:59 p.m. MST to comment.  The winner will be announced on the Kiwi Lane blog on Thursday, February 13th.

Alrighty... here's what I came up with for my project:

Supplies:  patterned paper, journaling cards, title, stickers, brads, washi tape (My Mind's Eye); cardstock (craft supply); flower (Doodlebug Design); flower punch (American Crafts); black pen (Staedler); white pen (Signo); ink, glitter glue (Ranger).

These photos were taken at the beach on Tybee Island in Georgia a few years ago.  It was really misty and cool the morning we went, so all my photos turned out gray and tan.  I decided to use the subtle blue, gray and greens of My Mind's Eye's The Sweetest Thing- Bluebell collection.  I layered the border designer templates on the bottom of the layout to echo the water meeting the sand.  I used a navy blue cardstock to mat my photos and really have them pop- did it work?  I think it did! ;)  And I used some accessory templates from both the Paradise and Sweetheart sets to add a few embellishments. 

 I find that sometimes outlining the template shapes helps to add another layer of dimension without adding bulk to a page, so I outlined the blue shapes (the swirl on the left page and the splat on the right) with just a white pen.  I outlined the flower and shell shapes with the same white pen, but I also did an outline with a black pen on top of the white when it dried (not right on top of the white line, but close) and then some "Frosted Lace" Stickles on top of the pen outlines.  Sounds kind of complicated, but it's really a fast and simple way to add some more interest to your pages- give it a try sometime!

Templates used: 

Clara Lane 1A & 1B
Abbie Road 3A & 3B
Aspen Court 3A & 3B
Sweetheart 4
Tiny Sweetheart 1T
1/2" Strips
Paradise 3, 4, 5, 6

I hope you enjoyed my layout today!  Don't forget to leave a comment on my blog before you leave- you could win a $25 gift code to the Kiwi Lane Shop, remember?  And next on your hop is the blog of the ever so talented Arin Flynn!  

How would you like a chance to win another prize?  I have a few sets of templates hanging around my craft table and I would love to give one of those sets away to one random commenter on this blog post.  Just tell me where your favorite vacation spot is, and you'll be entered to win.  That's it- easy peasy!  Your vacation spot comment doesn't have to be a separate comment.  I will choose a random commenter to win their choice of templates from my desk.  You have until 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, February 9, 2014 to leave a comment and I will choose a winner on Monday, February 10th.  Don't forget to check back to see if you've won!  Or, better yet, follow my blog!!

Have a great day and happy scrapping!

DT Doodles for Kiwi Lane... with My Mind's Eye!!

Happy Monday Kiwi Family!  Do you know what the best part of Monday is for me?  Sharing a Doodle!  Here's what I came up with for today's doodle:

Here's what it looked like when I laid out my templates and before I cut anything (assuring me that I didn't do any accidental cuts and ruin my beautiful new paper!):

And my version using the awesome new Collectable collection called "Memorable" by My Mind's Eye:

I absolutely LOVE My Mind's Eye!  I really don't think they've had a collection in recent years that I didn't fall in love with immediately, and this was no exception- I loved working with their high quality papers and embellishment, including brads, chipboard stickers, buttons and cardstock stickers.  Pair that with some of my favorite templates and some great photos waiting to make their way onto a scrapbook page, and I have a beautiful layout!

You may notice that this page doesn't have any journaling visible, and you'd be right.  It was kind of a mistake on my part,  as I was enjoying the beautiful papers and embellies soooo much that I forgot to leave room for the journaling.  I put a super cute chipboard banner there instead- oops!!  Easily fixed, though, with the help of a journaling card stuck under a photo.  Yep, that cute little butterfly border under the photo of li'l ol' me is actually a journaling card that can be pulled out.  So what does it say?  It just talks about working with the Kiwi Lane ladies at a show in Del Mar, California a few years ago (yes, I'm not even close to caught up with my scrapbooks!!) and how we took a few minutes after the show to go down to the beach and play.  Nothing spectacular, but still a cherished moment that now has a home in my scrapbook.

Templates used:

Scallops 2A & 2B, 3A & 3B

Adorn 3B

Madison Avenue 2A & 2B

Accents 1, 2 & 4

Tiny Accents 1T & 2T

Brackets 1 & 2

Tiny Shapes 3T

Strips

Photos

And last but not least, I have a card to share with you:

I made this card using the same paper and embellishments as the layout.

Templates used:

Accents 4 (cut in half)

Mini Scallops 2A (finely misted with water and scrunched and folded)

Tiny Strips

That's all for today- thanks for stopping by and happy scrapping!