Be Inspired by April in Paris

Hi, it's Julie Ann here with some spring inspiration. Coming up in our April Issue of GingerScrapStreet Magazine, my article will feature projects on the theme of April in Paris. Here is a storyboard of inspiring Paris photos for you to enjoy by in the meantime!

1. L'Artiste, 2. Monet's Roses, 3. Monet's Garden in Giverny, France - The Pond (V), 4. A, 5. Clock #2 Musee d'Orsay Paris (2005), 6. Fancy Sign, 7. Lovely French Postcards, 8. Metropolitain., 9. Paris Kiss 2, 10. Psyche Revived By Cupid's Kiss, Paris, France, 11. France - Paris - Louvre - Kissing Couple, 12. Ile de Re, Holiday Romance, White-spotted Bluethroat, 13. monet's window, 14. Monet Waterlilies, 15. Sunday morning at the Champ de Mars, 16. The Cloisters, Paradise Island, Bahamas, 17. Le hameau de la Reine Marie-Antoinette..., 18. April break, Paris, Ladurée, quartier Madeleine, 19. French break, Toulouse, 19.04.08, 20. Marie Antoinette's Bath, 21. IMG_3240.JPG, 22. Cherub Planter, 23. Versailles Gardens, from the queen's apartment (?), 24. La Concorde et La Madeleine, 25. Bienvenue à la Tour Eiffel - Torre Eiffel - Eiffel Tower - 巴黎鐵塔 (Paris, France)

Multi-Photo Mayhem

Hi everyone Casey here with some more information on multi-photo layouts.  In case you have not read my GSS article this month you can catch it here.  It gives inspiration and tips on creating multi-photo layouts.  I wanted to take this chance to showcase several template designers that I love and how there products can help guide you through Multi-Photo Mayhem!

First off one of my favorite template designers...Yin from Simply Yin. Her templates are always so well thought out and allow you to incorporate lots of photos for maximum punch!  Take a look at one of my latest layouts using her Template 219.  Be sure to check out all of the oodles of freebies that Yin has on her blog!!!  Oh and she has lots of great template packs in her blog store too!

Next up in my go to list of multi-photo template designers is ChrissyW Digital. Chrissy creates simple symmetrical templates and funky asymmetrical designs too!  Some of my favorites are her Gridz pack!  Also keep check on Chrissy's blog for great freebies too!  This layout is one of my favorites because it shows off my little one's shoe style...she loves shoes.  Well, she does not love wearing them but she does love playing with them!

OK now lets talk about Manda Girl!  She also creates versatile templates that help you create mulit-photo layouts that are Wow!  Be sure to keep up with her blog for great freebies and inspiration. I used one of her blog freebies to create this layout...yes I said free;)  I broke this up into two pieces so you all could see how the journaling flows with the photos.

So now you have three great resources of templates, tons of freebies to get started and hopefully a little inspiration...so what are you waiting for...get scrapping!  I hope you and yours have a great rest of the week!!

How to Recycle and Alter Your Valentine Candy Boxes in 8 Steps

Hi, it's Julie Ann bringing you a tutorial today on How to Recycle and Alter Your Valentine Candy Boxes! It's easy and fun, and good for the environment too!!! These are inspired by Lisa Kettell.

SUPPLIES
To start, you need a few supplies:

• heart-shaped candy box
• liquid adhesive (I used gel matte medium, and I also really love Fabri-Tac by Beacon)
• pop-dots adhesive
• digi printables- vintage valentines vignettes: I Heart You by Tangie Baxter (Scrapbookgraphics)
• pen or pencil (for tracing)
• scissors (one with fine tip is preferable)
• vintage music paper or patterned paper of your choice
• crepe paper aka streamers
• flowers
• wing and jewel (Prima Marketing, Inc) *optional
• glitter
• silver pipe cleaner or garland
• ribbon
• hole puncher or Crop-A-Dile

TUTORIAL

1. Trace on wrong side of music sheet paper or patterned paper around the heart, and cut out. Adhere to the top of the heart lid.
2. Add adhesive around the edges of  the heart on the paper.

3. Gather and scrunch/pinch the crepe paper together as you adhere it to the edges of the heart. Go all the way around the heart in this manner.

4. Adhere silver pipe cleaner or silver garland in a heart shape over the edges of the crepe paper where it meets the music paper. I find Fabri-Tac adhesive works best.
5. Sprinkle vintage glass glitter over the project and it will adhere to the glue left over from the pipe cleaner.

6. Adhere the three cut-out digi printable hearts, overlapping, as shown above, using pop-dots for dimension.

7. Embellish with flowers, a wing on the angel, and a jewel at the bottom tip of the heart.

 

8. I punched two holes, one on each side, of the candy box - with my Crop-a-Dile (or you can use a hole puncher). Pull ribbon through and tie a knot. It's now ready for hanging when you put both sides of the candy box together!

And here are a few others I've made this year for additional inspiration..........

Have a blessed and creative Valentine's Day!!!
xoxo,
Julie Ann Shahin

Inspiration and Getting from Memory to Layout

Inspiration can be a very elusive thing.  Since, discovering digital scrapping in 2009 I have learned a lot but  I still consider myself a bit of a novice.  I struggle with inspiration and sometimes lean on templates for help.  Having no formal design training...except elementary school art...I do not feel bad about this.  I am still very pleased with the layouts that I make.  For me whole point scrapping is to preserve memories.  So getting from memory to scrapped layout is a rather free and loose process--template, page map, quick page, or original creation it does not matter to me.  Below are some of the resources that I use to start my layouts...I hope you find them helpful.

Page Maps:  Page|Maps Blog is a great resources for page maps and inspiration layouts. All sketches (maps) are free and the blog is updated regularly.  Here is an example of one of the maps available.

Gallery Inspiration:  I find that sometimes the best inspiration for a layout is browsing online scrapping galleries.  I frequent DigiShopTalk, Scrap Orchard, GingerScraps, and Scrapable.  Each one of these galleries provides a Search feature.  So if you have a specific topic that you want to scrap...just look it up to see how others scrapped it. Browsing a gallery or two may give you that creative spark you need.  But don't forget to credit the original layout in your credits if you 'lift' a layout from a gallery...good manners and also a big compliment to the original artist. Gallery browsing also helps me find digital goodies.  I can shop numerous stores at one time...that is if credits are present in the gallery uploads.

Templates:  As I admitted above I love templates.  Some scrappers feel guilty for using them...they feel they stifle the creative process.  For me they are the springboard that I need to get started.  Remember that templates are just a starting place.  You can delete layers, add elements that the template does not 'call' for, and really make the design your own.  So don't let the template 'stigma' take away the usefulness of these design tools.  Take a look at a recent layout that I made using a Simply Yin template  for my Project 52.  The template is basic giving only photo placeholders and drop shadows for the photos.  I embellished and journaled as I wished.

Digital Supplies: Kit:  Sweet Siblings by Stacy's Backdoor Door Designs and Sarah Bennet  (no longer available), Template: Template 186 by Simply Yin (SimplyYin Blogstore), Software: Adobe Photoshop Elements 9, Fonts: Impact Label Reversed, Underwood 1913.

Design Notes:  I am loving Project 52.  The details of our life that are being captured are great.

Journaling:  Week four was another great one here in Thompsonville.  Ella continued to walk more & more on her own.  This mean more exploring & learning about what is OK & what the big NO-NOs are.  Travis surprised Ella & I with fried pork chops & gravy for supper one night...might I say that man is an artist with a frying pan!  Later in the week Ella & I went with Nana & Shannon to Cracker Barrel.  While there Nana gave Ella coffee for the first time...she was not impressed at all.  Nana also ate lots of cherry pancakes & put five pounds of sugar in her coffee...wonder if the the dear Doc was watching?  Later that day I put together Nana & Shannon’s new kitchen island & Ella rode around in her wagon (Powered by Nana & Shannon).  Travis, Ella & I also found a new restaurant that we really enjoyed...Azariah’s.  Travis had Shepherds Pie for the first time. I made some the next night and he promises mine tasted best...he is such a sweet Husband!  Speaking of firsts Ella also had a first at Azariah’s...cucumber.  It was a hit!  Since, Ella is walking so well we decided it was time to put the Chicco walker away. It was a favorite for a while but Miss Ella just no longer needs it Sunday Travis surprised his girls again...pancakes for a second week.  We are getting so spoiled.  Then Ella took some time out to help me be the Marsupial Muffin Makin’ Mama...notice how she is inspecting my work over my shoulder.  One of her favorite thing to do is to come up behind me in Travis’s arms & then flop over onto my back.  Just like Yoda & Luke from Star Wars! 

Miss Ella also had one other first this week.  She instructed me to let her drink form a Big Girl glass with a straw.  She did great & there was no mess!  Oh & check out that pic of her playing with my heels.  Those are the shoes I wore at the Wedding.  She fished them out of the closet & proceeded to try the on.  She is growing up too fast. And on other Kodak moment checkout Miss E using the mouse (bottom left).  She is on her tip-toes sliding the mouse around & watching the screen!  Our Little Genius!  What a great week!

Challenges:  Another creative way to find inspiration is via challenges.  I recently started participating in my first ever Progressive Scrap.  This is where the challenge leader gives specific instructions on what to add to your layout in steps...you interpret these instructions and go from there.  Thus far it is a neat experience.  There are also challenges that are more topic specific...such as the Out My Window Challenge hosted at Scrappin Digi Kreations.  This challenge follows the same subject (person, plant, etc.) for twelve months.  You are able to note the changes over time...very cool idea.  I am doing our yard...we recently moved and the yard needs some work.  It will be neat to track it over the coming twelve months.

Hopefully the next time you are hitting that proverbial creative wall one of these suggestions will help get you over the hump!