Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Two Tutorials on Tuesday

Today we are sharing with you two fabulous tutorial by Romy and Tara!

First up is a tutorial by Romy who is sharing with us today the process she goes through when creating one her layouts using the new Crazy Love Collection.

ROMY: Behind the Scenes
by Romy Veul

Instead of offering you a product tutorial, I thought it would be nice to give you a peek behind the scenes and show you how my layouts usually come together!

I always start by combining a few papers (mostly with contrasting colours). I stuck a few sheets of paper (cut in different sizes) on eachother and then matted the picture on a piece of red paper and put it on the left of my layout.
As you can see on the picture above, I'm a real economical scrapper. I always cut away the pieces of paper that you don't see on the front, so that I can use it another time. The back doesn't look that beautiful, but luckily you won't see anything of it when you put your page in an album.
Then I choose a few (chipboard) embellishments to put in the left corner of the picture. Since I'm a bit afraid they wouldn't stick really good, I put a bit of Tacky Glue on them for extra strong attachment.
Then my corner looked like this.
After that I took the Olivia petal (I'm completely in love with them!) and cut a little birdie from a sheet of paper. I cut away his belly (poor birdie...), so that I could stick it in the middle of the petal.
Just like this.
Then I started making my faux stitches. I've used Mireille's awesome faux stitching technique for this. I think her stitches are the best:) I started drawing lines with my black marker around the edges of the pink polka dot paper.
I then punched holes with a trinket pin (I think these pins from Maya Road have a very nice grip).
And at last I drew lines with a white pen in between the holes. I still haven't found the perfect white pen that isn't very temporarily...so I use to repeat my action and draw a white line over the other white line. That works great for me...though it's a little time consuming;)From the 'cut-outs' paper I cut out two tickets. I stitched 'through' them for a special look.
For some more dimension I attached two brads to the left side of the tickets.
And then I placed the small left-over part of both tickets on their sides. To make them fit under the brads, I simply cut away a small part of the tickets.
After that I took the pink ribbon. I tied it, so that I got this little pink bow. To attach it to my page I took a brad and put the bow 'into' the brad. That will make it really easy to attach the bow to the paper.
Then I took my scissors (my best friends:)) and hand cut two of the flowers from a piece of paper. To hand cut such small details from the paper, it is important to find a good and precise pair of scissors. For me those are the scissors from Tim Holtz. They have a very wonderful grip and are great to cut out small things.I stuck the two fussy cut flowers to the white strip on my layout. For sticking them I used Tacky Glue. It won't give your flowers a real 3-dimensional look, but it does show a little bit of depth.
And then my page was almost finished. I just needed a title to go with it. I have to admit I'm not a real 'title star' and that my titles aren't very innovative usually...but hey, I think this title says it all, LOL. I love to layer my alphas for a little bit dimension and so did I do with this title.
Then it is part for my last (and favorite) step: adding Stickles, gloss and Liquid Pearls to my page. I used a lot of them on the flowers and the birds and couldn't resist using them on the edges of my petal too.
And this is the final page. It took me a few hours to complete, but I think I'm pretty happy with the final page. I hope you enjoyed this step by step tutorial.
Supplies used:
Crazy Love Crazy Love, Crazy Love Fudge & Flowers, Crazy Love Happy Together, Crazy Love Cut-Outs, Crazy Love More Than Words, Crazy Love Kisses, Crazy Love 12" Chipboard, Crazy Love Pink Rose Wraps, Crazy Love Layered Chipboard, Crazy Love Dimensional Stickers, Crazy Love Brads, Olivia petal

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Next up is a tutorial by Tara who is sharing with us how to use the new Noel Collection die cut paper pads with their Edgy albums to create a mini album perfect for recording your upcoming holiday memories.

Mini Album Tutorial
by Tara Orr

For those of you who don't normally do mini albums because they seem too intimidating or time consuming, you're in for a treat! Bo Bunny has come up with fantastic die cut paper pads to coordinate with their Edgy albums. Not only do you have each page cut to fit properly with each die cut album page, you have the background paper already chosen for you! Yippie!! The hardest parts are already done! All that's left to do is add your photos and desired embellishments and your mini album is complete!

This adorable mini album only took 2 days (not STRAIGHT - but 2 evenings) to complete - a record for me actually! I was so pleased with the end result and the fact that I could complete such a wonderful keepsake or gift for someone in such a short amount of time. We all know how crazy our lives can get right around the holidays!!

The cover page is actually an acrylic die cut - so neat to work with!! Simply treat it as you would any other page - keeping in mind that whatever you decide not to cover, will act like a window onto your next page. I decided to add some flowers around the edges of my cover to frame the opening in the next page. My flowers were originally white but were easily transformed with a little gold paint - to coordinate with the Noel paper peeking through. Add a gold bow and we're all done. Tip: You may choose to use a clear adhesive such as Glossy Accents or Tape Runner for Velum to secure your papers or embellishments on the acrylic piece.

Page 1: How easy was it to assemble this page?? The die cut was already prepared for me (thank goodness as its got a bracket window!). I simply used the smaller bracket shape, included with the album, to trace my gold paper piece and adhered directly to the page (you will be adhering to the back of page 2 actually). The oval title "Home for the Holidays" was fussy cut from one of the patterned papers in the album paper pad. To finish and to tie in with the gold on the front cover, I added some gold distress stickles around the title piece.
Page 1: How easy was it to assemble this page?? The die cut was already prepared for me (thank goodness as its got a bracket window!). I simply used the smaller bracket shape, included with the album, to trace my gold paper piece and adhered directly to the page (you will be adhering to the back of page 2 actually). The oval title "Home for the Holidays" was fussy cut from one of the patterned papers in the album paper pad. To finish and to tie in with the gold on the front cover, I added some gold distress stickles around the title piece.
Page 2: The majority of my photos were slightly smaller than 4x6 - which is the general size of these album pages. For this page, I traced another patterned paper just enough so that it was peeking through the photo and trimmed off the extra - still showing the background paper. I added some of Bo Bunny's Cardstock Stickers along each side of my photo and finished with more fussy cut tags from one of the patterned papers in the album paper pad.
Page 3: Don't be afraid to go outside your album shape with your layering papers and embellishments. For this page, rather than cut my paper in the die cut shape, I chose to layer with some of Bo Bunny's Noel Cut Out pages and left some of the tips over the edge. The bird was fussy cut from one of the Noel Cut Out papers. All the pages in this album are inked with distress ink for a more vintage finish.
Page 4: A very similar design to page 2. I decided to highlight the photo by centering with a different patterned paper down the middle. I used my border punch and added to each side of the photo to showcase it further. The Happy Holidays title at the bottom was from Bo Bunny's Noel Cut Out page. The Rejoice tag was also fussy cut from another piece of the patterned paper in the album paper pad - I simply finished by inking around the edges and adding a few pearls.
Page 5: When in doubt, layer, layer, layer! The only embellishment on this page is paper! The diecut background page is already done for you. I simply took two additional pieces of patterned paper, that coordinated well with one another, distressed the edges and layered under my photo. To create the tags, I simply took a piece of patterned paper, drew a tag shape, cut out and layered with a slightly smaller sized tag. Distress all the edges, fussy cut your titles from that famous page of patterned paper we've been using for the majority of the album, and you've made yourself some tags! To make mine look more 'finished' I punched a hole added an eyelet and completed with a little twine bow.
Page 6: For this page, I used the same patterned paper cut in half and staggered with one another to highlight my photo. I distressed all the edges and applied to the lower half of my page so that the photo would stand out a little better when layered on top. You can also choose to mat your photo with patterned papers before adhering to your project. The chipboard snowflakes were painted with the same gold paint that I used to paint the cover flowers and finished with a pearl.
Page 7: More layers! For this page I cut a simple square shape out of my chosen patterned paper, distressed the edges and centered on my die cut album page. I loved the look of the peppermint candies in one of the Noel Cut outs so when I applied this to the page I staggered my photo slightly to the right to ensure that these cute little pieces acted like embellishments. I added coordinating peppermint candies from the Noel Combo Stickers sheet and fussy cut out the title from patterned paper. Tip: Because the area in which you are working is so small, little details make a huge difference on your page. The border around the photo and the red pearls on each corner add just the perfect finishing touches.
Page 8: Another layout where I've centered the photo with a coordinating piece of patterned paper. As you can see here, I've left some of the background paper showing through each side again. I've added an additional piece of patterned paper under my photo in place of embellishments and framed the photo with some delicate lace on either side. Once again, the tags have been fussy cut and layered with the patterned papers. Tip: It doesn't take much in terms of embellishments or design when you have striking photos. Be sure your photos are clear and capture that perfect shot! I often choose black and white or sepia over coloured photos as they are easier to work with when paper matching. In addition, they will not compete with your embellishments or papers.
Page 9: For this page, I cut out one of the shapes in the Noel Cut Out page and staggered to the left of my photo. I added some lace to bring more of a softness to the page and to coordinate with the previous page. Fussy cut out a title from our handy dandy patterned paper page and this page is done!! When you have busy background papers, your embellishments need not be too overwhelming. The design of the papers act as embellishments all on their own!
Page 10: I've horizontally centered this page with coordinating patterned paper. By positioning my photo to one side I've created some space for a title or for a cluster of embellishments. Before applying my fussy cut out titles, I first layered with a piece of patterned paper. I finished by adding several borders of different papers on the bottom and top of my page.
Page 11: If you have issues with cardstock or plain patterned paper (like I do) - cover it up! The die cut piece on this page was too plain for my liking so I layered with one of the pieces of the Noel Cut Out page. It covered the majority of the die cut page but left just enough around the edges to offer a nice frame and contrasting colour! I layered two pieces of patterned paper horizontally, like page 6, and framed my photo with some flower embellishments. Again, all these flowers were originally white and painted gold. The brown swirls are from the Noel Combo Stickers sheet.
Page 12: I added those adorable peppermint candies to all the scallops of this page. I used the candy border on the Noel Combo Sticker sheet and cut out each one. Using two pieces of patterned paper, I created a decorative border on the first layer and simply distressed the edges of the next layer. I then applied horizontally to my page before adding the die cut Santa (this comes with the die cut paper pad). To finish this page and to highlight Jolly Old St Nick, I added a bling frame and called it a day.So there you have it - a 12 page mini album in a few short hours!! Easier than you thought and perfect for the upcoming holidays and heaps of photos you'll likely be taking! Happy Scrapping!

Supplies:
Bo Bunny Mini Edgy Album with acrylic cover, Bracket, Chiffron
Noel Mini Edgy Album Paper and die cut Pad
Noel Cut Outs
Noel Combo stickers

We hope you enjoyed today's tutorials and thanks for stopping by!!

15 comments:

  1. woohoo wowzer this is fabulous, I don't like doing mini due to lack of storage space, but this is awesome.
    Maggie
    http://passionatelyartistic.com

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  2. Your mini is absolutely stunning, Tara! I love it to pieces!

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  3. Thanks girls for showing lovely work.
    byebye,Lean

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  4. oh thank you both for your time in sharing these tuts.. i love seeing how people do their creations.. both the layout and the book are gorgeous.. thanks again..

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  5. I hope this isn't a really dumb question, but what's an Olivia petal? I loved the little flower you made with the little bird inside (too clever!) but when I looked up "Olivia petal" online, I didn't get any matches. Darn!

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  6. Beautiful work ladies, thanks for the great detail behind your work.
    ava

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  7. Thanks for the great explanation about the composition of the layout!!

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  8. Awesome tutorials ladies!! Thanks for taking the time to share this with us!

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  9. Loved Romy's tutorial about how she puts a page together. Very helpful. And Maggie, that album is lovely!

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  10. Romy and Tara, your work is just beautiful!! Thanks for sharing the details with us!!

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  11. Beautiful LO and mini album. Thanks for the tutorials.

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  12. Both projects are just sooo beautiful...so much talent here! TFS!

    ~Sharon C.

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  13. Gorgeous work ladies!! and Romy thanks for showing us how to do the faux stitching!! (wanted to know for a LONG time!! LOL)

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