Great Design Tip for Cards

Do you ever find yourself needing a card at the last minute and no time to make one? Here's a great design tip from Tara Lehmann that might help you out.

Whenever you make a layout (either from scratch or from a kit) save your scraps. Before you put everything away, you can make a card from the leftovers. Tara likes to recreate the basic design of the layout in a card-sized version.

Here's an example from one of our class kits:

The layout features stitching, scalloped edges, die cut tags, and a stamped bird.

Notice the stitching on the left of Tara's card? She also mimicked the scalloped edges and torn strips of paper. While she was making her layout in our scrapbooking class, she stamped an extra bird and die cut another tag to go on her card later.

So before you clean up after your next project, take 5 minutes to make a quick card. Before long you will have a great collection to give away.

Scrapbook Class Preview

Here's a peek at our scrapbooking classes that will be held on Thursday, March 11th from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. Sign up in our Rexburg store today to reserve your spot!

by Kathy Davis

by Stephanie Frisby

Life Stories by My Mind's Eye

Life Stories is a beautiful collection printed on kraft cardstock for a muted, vintage look. It's perfect for heritage and modern photos alike. There are two collections complete with floral and damask patterns, ledger-style papers, matching die cut sheets, and journaling cards for every occasion. Take a look:









I love these cards! They make great journaling prompts for a layout. You can also use them as a decorative element on a page or card:




Here are some layout ideas:

Tim Holtz products work so fabulously with this collection! His metal embellishments, paints, grungeboard, and inks are perfect.

Here's a close up of grungeboard letters painted with crackle paint and then distressed with ink.

A journaling card is tucked underneath the photo for a nostalgic accent.

Using distress ink, sponge a mixture of color onto grungeboard butterflies. Then spritz lightly with "Pearl" Glimmer Mist for a subtle shimmer.

Create a pocket for hidden journaling.

Do you like the look of distressed edges on your papers? Try this handy little tool by Making Memories. It has a small blade in the center that scrapes away the edge of your paper. It protects your fingers and allows you to distress as little or as much as you want!

Cut a simple tree trunk from a piece of cardboard. Punch various sizes of circles from plain white tissue paper then spray with "Olive Vine" Glimmer Mist. You can speed up the drying process with a heat gun. This causes the edges to crinkle slightly, adding to the worn look.

In this example, some of the circles were hit directly with the Glimmer Mist and show a gold shimmer. The color soaked through to others, while the circles were layered together, which gave them a little different look. It adds a nice variety. Attach each "leaf" with a tiny dab of liquid glue.

If you are worried about keeping your layout photo safe, spray the tree with Archival Mist to neutralize any acid in the cardboard and/or tissue paper.

Here are two more examples of layouts using Life Stories by My Mind's Eye. They were designed for our scrapbooking classes, so you may have noticed them on our blog already.

Check out these beautiful collections in our scrapbooking department!

Scrapbooking Class on Thursday

Scrapbooking Class
Thursday, February 25th
6:00-9:00 p.m.
Rexburg Store

For this week's class, we are focusing on using different types of inks.

Kathy's layout uses Stazon ink on surfaces like felt and flowers:





Stephanie's class uses alcohol inks on grungepaper:





Join us for a girl's night out!

March Calendar Kit of the Month

Pick up your March calendar kit in our Rexburg store. There are only a limited number and at $4.99 they are sure to go fast!

All the die-cutting and stamping is already done for you. All you have to do is assemble the pieces...so easy!

This beautiful page, designed by Tara Lehmann, works great in our 12x12 shadow box frames. You can place an acrylic calendar in front or display the page as is. When the month is over, place it in your scrapbook.

2nd Saturday Recap

This month we learned about the different uses of Distressing Inks and the effects they can accomplish.

Above the flag was inked after being dry embossed. The stars and the "USA" were made by rubbing the ink pad on a flat sheet of paper and then die cutting the desired shapes from it. The edges of the white paper were torn and all the edges where inked using a sponge to apply the ink.


Using distressing ink can soften the edges and make elements of design blend (as above) or it can define the edges and make them more obvious as below.

With distressing inks you can stamp as well. The difference between stamping with permanent ink and distressing ink is that the distressing ink is more subtle, as in the title below.

Below, the brown card stock was spritzed with water and wadded up and then flattened. Then the distressing pad was rubbed over the creases of the paper, thus creating the look of leather.

Below the photos on this layout were printed onto textured card stock and then rubbed with a sponge using distressing ink to create a tattered and worn look.

You can also create this effect on photos printed at the stores. It is not recommended to use this process on photos printed at home on photo paper. It may cause the inks from the photo to smear.

Remember you can use distressing inks on flowers, ribbons, buttons and other embellishments as well.

This month's assignment is to use distressing inks to create a background layout for your March calendars.

Good luck! We look forward to seeing you at class!

Candi

New Products from My Mind's Eye

Our buyers recently returned from CHA and now the new products are rolling in! Quite Contrary is one of the new releases from My Mind's Eye. It's the perfect line to get you in the mood for Spring!
Quite Contrary consists of four mini collections. Here's a look at"Jack and Jill."

As usual, MME prints their designs on cardstock-quality paper. There are 10 double-sided papers per mini collection.



It wouldn't be complete without all the matching accessories. Here's a peek at just a few:







Here are some layout ideas using "Jack and Jill":




Since everything is designed to match, these collections work great for mini albums. The accessories are just right for accenting small pages.








We are receiving new product every day, so come in and check it out!