Three Scrap That! layouts and one just for fun!

OK, now this month's Scrap That! kit SERIOUSLY rocks. It features the spectacular Pink Paislee Parisian Anthology papers combined with some of the MME Portobello Road ones... then mix in coordinating Pink Paislee embellies, gorgeous Prima flowers and bling, plus ink - the list goes on and on and on! Please bear with me, It's been cloudy and foggy for three days now so these are the best of a million layout shots I could get.

My first layout "Lucky Me" was a challenge that I gave myself - to scrap with mostly PLAIN cardstock. This was pretty easy to do given the amazing embellies I had to work with and the beautiful blue cardstock in this kit. This is a picture of me at 8 months pregnant with the little girl I had always dreamed of having. The string pearls were a gift from my friend and fellow DT member Ivana. The handmade bling was actually featured in the October kit and you can find Sandi Smith's tutorial on the Scrap That! Blog to make your own paint flourish.

Design Tip: Use high contrast/bold colors when scrapping black and white pictures so that your picture doesn't just fade into the layout.

My second layout "Happiness" is my husband the night before our wedding at sunset in the Bahamas (where we got married). I used the gorgeous MME papers, cut the banner out of it and added a wealth of embellies from the glorious kit. Please note, the butterfly and pleated ribbon were from past kits.

Design tip: Layer ribbons to add extra dimension and contrast.

My third layout "Pretty Darling" is of my mom and I on my wedding day. The MME paper was the perfect color to go with this picture. The over the top gorgeous Prima bling and large flower plus the amazing Pink Paislee broach brad were enough to frame the picture that I didn't bother matting it with cardstock. The butterfly was bought at my local dollar store.

Design tip: Add pleated ribbon to the bottom of paper to "anchor" the page.

This last layout was a design I had brewing in my head for quite a while and the November kit had the right paper and embellies to finish it. It's my mom on her wedding day. I used half kit contents and the rest from my stash for this one. I combined the Pink Paislee Papers from the kit with some K and Co (ancestry) and Pink Pailsee (queen bee). The three brownish roses and the beautiful white frame were all from the kit. I wanted a true vintage/shabby feel and am glad I waited for the right supplies to work with.

Now let's talk about the large handmade flower (yes I will do a tutorial this week, LOL). I was inspired by Donna Salazar's layered flowers but wanted a softer look with more textured layers and used an easier technique to put it all together - stay tuned for the flower tutorial in the next day or two!

Thanks for stopping by see you soon!

Scrap That! Mini Album Available Now!

You've gotta check out the amazing mini album that Tara Orr put together this month for Scrap That! All the incredibly designed pages can be viewed at http://scrapthat.ning.com and the Halloween kit is now available for purchase too - with full step-by-step instructions!

Oct. Scrap That! Contest - Win a kit!

It is that time again for the monthly contest and the best part is that you can scrap with your stash. Just be sure that the main three colors of your project are the three main colors of the Scrap That! October kit... see details below and good luck!

Sweet Rose Tutorial

I adore the look of all the cabbage roses people make but I find them too bulky for a scrapbook album and they get easily crushed... so I decided to take inspiration from the Prima tea roses and create my own with an extra layer (and for about a tenth of the price, LOL!) that are a little more durable in an album.

You will need 3 two-inch punched flowers and 4 one-inch flowers. Any flower punch or die with separated petals will do. I used my retro flower punches (by EK Success). Ink for the edges, water to mist, glue, a foam mouse pad, three sizes of pen thickness with rounded ends (or paintbrushes) and glitter glue to polish off (if desired). If you want your flowers to look exactly like the Prima tea roses, then only use two large flowers. I like a more ruffled look.

Step 1: Ink all your flower edges, lightly water mist (or glimmer mist) them all and press the centers into the foam mat with a rounded pen end. Here is a close-up of a few. If you over wet them, they will rip in the next step.

Step 2: Cup the large ones around the end of your sharpie thickness item and roll against the side. Use the smallest sized pen for the smaller flowers. They should all look like this and now you let them dry 100% before moving on.

Step 3: Once all dry, roll a small flower between your thumb and index to create the bud center. Slightly open the 3 larger flowers and one small one. Glue the small ones into each other (opened one at the bottom) and set aside. Do the same with the large ones and remember to off-set the petals. Let glue dry completely before moving on.

Step 4: Once dry, gently fold back the petals of the large flower and then press the large glued flower into the mat with the mid sized pen to ensure the "cup" shape.

Step 5: Glue the center flower and arrange petals if necessary. Also, the center can be used as a flower on its own like you would a baby Prima rose (just add a green star punch to the bottom for the leaves). You can add another punched flower layer to the bottom for more fullness too.

Step 6: Once the glue dries, pinch each large petal to give it a realistic look. Some people may just prefer the perfect look above though.

Step 7: This part is optional depending on your project style... add glitter glue to the large petal edges for a dewey polished look and add leaves to the bottom. I just used a daisy flower punch and inked and pinched the ends. Martha Stewart makes a really nice rose leaf punch too.

That's it, you're done! Here is a close-up of the finished 2-inch diameter rose... the same size as a Prima tea rose!

To prove this works with any punch, here is the flower I just made beside two others I did with my Marvy brand 3 petal pansy punch (3 inch) and my McGill heart clover punch (2.5 inch). I used a pre-made rose for the pink center and my simple flower tutorial for the white center to better match the flower styles. Experiment and have fun with any die or punch you have. I bet some of you with the Tim Holtz tattered flower dies will end up with flowers looking like the new Prima sugarplum roses. And if you used 8-petal daisy punches/dies, you'd get a peony style flower.

Thanks for stopping by and remember to leave some love if you like these. Also, if you happen to give these a go, I would love to see your results. All I ask is that when possible you give credit where due to any artist's tutorial because they do take a bit of effort to do. Thank you.

Scrap That! October Reveal

It's the 26th, my favorite day of the month - our Scrap That! design team reveal! This was a really cool kit called "Autumn Rain" to work with. The combination of fall/rustic colors in the Scribble Scrabble "sweet shoppe" papers with awesome G45 "steampunk" papers. Love the rust and teal in this kit with the punch of black embellies.

For my first layout "Life's beautiful", this is my mother-in-law in her twenties, just before having three boys. How cool is it that the October kit features acid-free doilies and shabby flowers from my Etsy shop products? (http://www.etsy.com/shop/vickyalberto). I used chalk ink to lightly brush color on the doily and twigs from a flower arrangement in my house (nobody will miss them, LOL). The butterfly is gorgeous Prima.

Design Tip: Add a string at the bottom of a circle design to anchor the page so your circle doesn't look like it is "floating".

For my second layout "Real Life", this is my dad with my mother's father in the kitchen - many moons ago. I just love this real rustic picture of them. OK, so we got this cool piece of cork in the kit and I used my nails to pick the edge off to make it look jagged. We also got a cool feather and Prima flower. I made my layout look like a journal by adding chipboard and lace from my stash.

Design Tip: Use walnut ink spray to stain your chipboard and lace for a beautiful matte finish on heritage layouts.

For my third layout "sixteen", that's my mom. When I saw the whacky G45 paper I knew immediately that this picture was perfect - you'd have to know my mother to understand. I used the ribbon flowers and Prima centers to create the black skirt and kept the rest of the design simple to let the picture shine amongst the chaotic paper.

Design tip: Play up the paper design by making elements into 3D features.

Lastly, I paired my leftover papers and embellies from the kit with a G45 "Le Romantique" paper. The black die cut in the kit is Kaisercraft. I did some fussy cutting and inserted the picture of my mom and dad at their engagement party so that it blends with the papers. I also used my hole punch to make the white edge mimic the stamp images on the paper (used an original picture since the scan looked too "new" for these papers). The four peach roses are handmade. Check back here this week for a rose tutorial.

Design tip: Make your own flowers to match your layout out of coordinating pattern paper in the collection.

Here is a close-up of one of the mini roses.

Well, don't forget to check out the rest of the design team's work at http://scrapthat.ning.com and thanks for looking!

MME Sketch Challenge 15

While waiting for my new DT kit to arrive, I did this layout for the MME "thank you" sketch challenge but I sat on it for a while because it needed a title and something was "missing" - Dusty Attic chipboard (bought from Tracy @ www.staytruetogod.com) and a tag/journaling! Now I love it. Me and my dad snuggling on the couch about 8-10 years ago.

The papers are all from their Bella Bella "French Market"collection (heavily distressed with my awesome new Zutter) and here is a close-up of the flowers. The bright white ones are handmade from my shabby crinkle tutorial and the other 4 smaller white ones are like I sell in my Etsy shop (http://www.etsy.com/shop/vickyalberto).

I actually didn't glue down the chipboard so I can turn this into a class layout at my LSS this Fall. Thanks for taking a peek!

A little sneak peek

Here is a little peek at what's in the upcoming Scrap That! kit. I'll be posting my layouts on Sunday and then a brand new flower tutorial sometime next week!

Scrap That! Launches Mini Album Kit

Scrap That! is pleased to present their very first mini album kit! This album has been beautifully crafted by our very own design team member Tara Orr and features the BasicGrey vintage inspired Cappella paper collection. Rich browns, sweet cream and soft neutrals are the stunning palette of this kit. Old world elegance, ripe with tradition. Perfect for your pages.

Visit the Scrap That blog (http://scrapthatchat.blogspot.com) for more information and detailed photos will be posted on September 15th.

Our mission is to nurture your creativity by providing the best products available, at a reasonable price so you get the most out of your scrapbooking budget. We hope we have succeeded!

Blog Candy Winner!

Thank you so much to everyone that participated. I feel very fortunate to have such great scrappy support!

The blog Candy winner is #22...

Lesley Langdon said...

BEAUTIFUL kits, love those flowers! I like Victorian Rose kit the best and love to use FLOWERS on MOST of my layouts, and I will definitely follow your blog. ;)

SEPTEMBER 3, 2010 7:29 AM

Congrats Lesley! Please send me your address so I can mail out your Victorian Rose kit prize. You can either leave it in a message post here on this blog or I am on the Scrapbook.com site and you can send me a private message that way if you prefer.

Scrap That! Win a Kit Contest

Well, I loved the Scrap That! September kit so much that I had to squeeze out one more layout by using my scraps (and a little help from my stash). Plus, I needed to let you know that Scrap That! is running a scrappy contest and the prize is a September Kit!

This layout "Delightful" is my daughter around 9 months old. I used the FANTASTIC sketch in the kit by our very own LG Belarmino. I also used the help of a few of my Etsy shop items on this one (the 4 smaller pink flowers and white fabric rose petals - http://www.etsy.com/shop/vickyalberto).

These are the 3 colors (blue, pink and brown) you'll need to scrap to enter the contest... see more info below.

While you're here on my blog, don't forget to enter to win some easy BLOG CANDY! The winner that is randomly drawn on September 7th gets one of my Etsy kits of their choice plus I will add some little goodies from the September Scrap That! kit too. Good luck!

Scrap That! Kit Reveal (& blog candy)

Let me start off by saying the mix of papers in the Scrap That! September kit are glorious to work with. This kit has a fun something old, something new, something blue, vintage kinda feeling to it. The kit features papers from the Shabby Green Door "wings of a dream" collection plus papers from My Mind's Eye "lush" and "bella bella" collections. There are tons of great embellies like Prima flowers, Green Tara flowers, Zva flourishes, Stickles, lace, velvet ribbon and even a jar of Ranger crackle paint! This is truly a designer's dream kit.

My first layout "Smile" is me at about 6 months old. I used my newly purchased MS punch - love it, did a little tearing and paper rolling, added tons of flowers and gorgeous velvet ribbon. The only thing from my stash were the little cream flowers on the circle. I just love these Shabby Green Door papers!

Design Tip: roughly pleat and glue thick ribbon under a circle to "anchor" the page.

The second layout "sweet girl" is a picture taken at the hospital the day my girl was born - with all my kids together. There was a lot of ugly stuff in the background given it was taken in a hospital room so I designed the layout around the circular picture I cut out. The white acid-free paper crafting doily was from my stash (available through my Etsy at http://www.etsy.com/shop/vickyalberto) and the two smaller flowers were from the Scrap That! August kit. Gotta love the Prima and Zva products in this month's kit! So much distressing on this layout too!

Design tip: Layer papers doilies and crochet/ribbon items for tons of texture.

My third layout "Always Love You" is my oldest son feeding his baby sister. He has always been so good with her and loves her to death! The pink apple blossom flowers on this page from Green Tara are so cute and that MME paper frame was a perfect touch for this kit. Note: The two pressed wood flourishes were from my stash (available through my Etsy at http://www.etsy.com/shop/vickyalberto) and I just glimmer misted them in Cream de Cocoa color.

Design tip: Stamp, scrunch and ink paper to give it a vintage feel including rolling the paper edges to finish the tattered look.

My last layout "precious" is my daughter who fell asleep on me in a photo shoot. Since this MME paper had a beautiful border, I decided to keep it simple and just add a few tears. The only thing on this one from my stash was the butterfly glimmer chip (again from one of my Etsy kits)... I even used the Stickles included in the kit.

Design Tip: Make a freestyle bling flourish by using distress Stickles.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to scroll down to the previous post and enter to win some BLOG CANDY! The winner that is randomly drawn on September 7th gets one of my Etsy kits of their choice plus I will add some little goodies from the September Scrap That! kit too.

Blog Candy! Easy to WIN!

To celebrate my Etsy opening, I am hosting a blog candy giveaway and the winner gets to choose one of my kits as their prize, plus I will include a few little embellies from the upcoming September Scrap That! kit. Here are just a few examples of my Etsy kits... but please visit the shop listed under my full name vickyalberto at http://www.etsy.com/shop/vickyalberto to see all that is available. Read the details in this post to find out how to win one too!

VICTORIAN SKY - $8.75

All the kits feature a handmade flower and acid-free paper crafting products. My goal is to offer high quality items at reasonable prices. I have taken great lengths to ensure all items are archival safe for scrapbooking - especially when it comes to paper doilies.

THE HERITAGE - $8.75

A lot of the products are unique finds like crocheted lace & flowers, others are popular brand name items such as Prima & Tattered Angels. Some of us love certain products but can't justify buying the full box or spool it comes in. Now, you can buy a little bit of everything to your taste for that special project. Plus, adding a second kit to your order only costs and extra 25 cents!

BABY GIRL - $8.75

Each kit is designed to embellish two scrapbook pages and they come in a variety of themes. Every new customer gets an extra embellie added to their kit too!

BABY BOY - $8.75

So how do you win a kit of your choice?

Simply go to my Etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/vickyalberto to view all the kits listed so far... then, come back here to my blog and leave me a message telling me:

1. Which kit you would like to win and why you like it the best

2. What kinds of embellies (i.e. flowers, bling, chipboard etc.) you use the most in your crafting projects

3. Don't forget to become a follower of this blog too!

The winner will be drawn on Tuesday, September 7th, good luck!

In the meantime, check out this sneak peek collage of the upcoming September Scrap That! kit projects to be revealed by the design team (this week on August 26th). This kit has been a BLAST to design with and I think my FAVE so far.