Full Circle Friday

Before I begin my last Full Circle Friday of the year, I have a big announcement for the store...

Gift Certificate Redemption Days*

December 26th & 27th, 2008

If you were lucky enough to receive a holiday gift certificate or have a certificate you haven't redeemed yet, come shop on December 26th or 27th and receive 30% off your entire purchase when redeeming a gift certificate! More special gift certificate redemption days will follow in 2009! Watch our website for more information!

*Does not apply to gift certificates purchased after 12/24/08.

I started a little annual project last year for the grandparents. Every year I make a 2-page layout for each month featuring my two little beauties. This year I did it all 100% digital but this project could easily be completed traditionally with papers and tactile embellishments. Even if you do no other scrapbooking throughout the year, you can complete this project for your own family in as little as a week. Here is the process:

Step 1 (1-2 days) - Develop 2-4 different templates using anywhere from 8-15 photos each. My 3 templates each have a different number of photos to accommodate months with lots of photos and months with not so many photos.

Step 2 (1-2 days) - Gather your photos. Edit them, print them and organize them into the months.

Step 3 (1 day) - Gather your supplies. To make it easy, chose one set of papers from a manufacturer and the matching embellishements. Make sure to get an album too.

Step 4 (4-5 days) - Assemble, assemble. Put those layouts together and put them in a book.

For my 2008 book, here are my three templates:

Okay, now for the final outcome:

You can do it! You can record your memories for an entire year! Ask our staff if you have any further questions on how to get started. Good luck!

Full Circle Friday - Well, sort of

We are going to take a break from the sketch this week. I am working on a ton of gifts right now and thought I would share a couple. This week I created a bucket for my girls to hold all their hundreds of little plastic animals. The collection is outgrowing the little tupperware where they are currently stored. This concept can be adapted to hold small toys of all kinds... cars, princess, Barbie accessories, crayons & markers, etc. The ideas don't stop at children. Use the bucket to hold a spa set for a friend or teenager, a family-movie-night kit for a neighbor, or just use it as fun gift wrapping!

Supplies:

• Metal bucket by EK
• Patterned Paper by Basic Grey
• Stickers by American Crafts and Basic Grey
• Rub Ons by Creative Imaginations
• Ribbons by Maya Road and unknown
• Super Tape by ThermOWeb

(Did you know W.C.S. sells this particular white bucket and other plain paint cans? They come in gallon, quart, and pint sizes.)

The first thing I did was measure the diameter of the lid and cut out a circle to adhere to the top. Then I cut paper strips to go on the sides of the bucket. My bucket took 2-12 inch long strips to go all the way around. In the end, however, I only used 3 sheets of patterned paper! When adhering the paper to the metal I recommend using ThermOWeb's Super Tape and place it completely around the edges of the paper. It is strong enough to keep the paper in place despite some wear and tear. After the paper is on, embellish with stickers, rub ons, Stickles, or whatever you would like.

My animal toy bucket took only about 30 minutes start to finish. It was a great quick and easy gift with a big impact. I know my little girls will love toting it around the house. With busy schedules and a shrinking time frame, quick and easy is the way to go!

Full Circle Friday

I hope you all had a fun and safe Thanksgiving!

Windy City Scrapbooking was busy, busy this morning. However we still have a couple QuicKutz Silhouettes at the special sale price of $149.99 (regularly $369.99). This price is good for TODAY ONLY (Friday, November 28, 2008)! We are also offering 20% off your entire purchase for the rest of the day. And we have some of our albums on sale for just $12, again today only. Hurry if you have your eye on something special for yourself or a loved one!

Our sketch today is a display of 4-4x6 photos, one is trimmed down to 4x2. The title is split in half and runs across the top of the photos and then continues down the side. The split title is unified with an accent.

For my layout I decided to go festive and work with photos from last year's Lincoln Park Zoo's ZooLights. I took a minimalist approach and used only 1 piece of older paper by Scenic Route, glitter letter stickers by Me & My Big Ideas, a chipboard star by Heidi Swapp, stamps by Luxe and Maya Road, and finally the Uniball White pen.

I don't pull out my stamps for scrapbooking enough. I use them a lot for cards and other smaller projects but they are great for layouts too! I used the fun Luxe border stamps with a bright silver ink to outline my photo box. To make sure I didn't stamp on my photos I put down a piece of scrap paper that covered the photos and stamped away.

There are a great line up of stamping techniques that can be used on scrapbooking pages. To learn more about your stamping options take Acrylic Stamp Challenge at Windy City. In that class you will make 4 cards and 1 12x12 layout using different stamping techniques. There are dates coming up in 2009; check the website for more details.

Full Circle Friday

Well I am back from my recent travels and adjusted back to normal life again. Though it can be a big effort I do try to make scrapbooking part of my normal everyday life. A recent way I have been making that happen is scrapbooking with my 4-yo daughter. She is very interested in scrapbooking! After our Disney vacation I got her an 8x8 scrapbook of her own to work on. She chose her own papers, some stickers, chipboard and other embellishments. Because she is only 4, I do help her trim photos and apply the adhesive but the page design and product selection I leave up to her. Even if I make some suggestions, she makes the final decision. It is so cool to see her take ownership for this project and care so much about it. So onto my proud mommy bragging, here are a few of Ella's Disney scrapbook pages:

This holiday season try making some gifts with your children... a card for their teacher, a mini album for the grandparents, a frame for dad's desk. There are many great ways to include the kids and they will have a great time too! If you are having trouble coming up with kid-friendly ideas, just ask the staff at Windy City Scrapbooking to point you in the right direction.

Ok, now onto the sketch! The November guest designer sketch didn't happen last week but there is no reason to waste a perfectly good sketch. Plus I had to stick to my challenge of starting my Disney photos. This one is a 2-page layout, 8.5 x 11. There is one focal photo and journaling on the first page and then a series of smaller photos on the second page. You will see I chose to change some of those smaller photos to blank space and embellishments.

Because my photos were pretty busy and intense, I went with a plain white cardstock background with a few bursts of color. I love the new flocked dot paper from Doodlebug and they were perfect for my design. The flocked alphabet stickers are also by Doodlebug (they come in glitter too!). The EK Disney themed embellishments are perfect for our vacation memories as the characters were the main focus of our trip. The new Technique Tuesday stamps designed by Ali Edwards are really fun and versatile, I just had to find a way to use them on my layout. The last embellishment I used was a sticker we collected from the Magic Kingdom while waiting in a line. They give away a ton of stickers there. Some the kids plastered on their shirts but I was able to hide a couple for the scrapbook.

Using memorabilia from a vacation is a great way to add a personal touch to your pages. Every vacation I take I designate a plastic bag as the "paper bag". I pick up brochures, ticket stubs, receipts, etc throughout and put them in the paper bag for safe keeping. When back home I pull out the bag while I scrapbook to incorporate the goodies into my pages. Try the paper bag on your next trip!

If you recently took or are planning a trip to Disney be sure to check out Angie's new class "Doing Disney". In the class you will complete a 2-page layout featuring Disney themed pattern paper and stickers. The class will also discuss an organizing principle for scrapbooking an entire trip to Disney World. This class is coming in January and is not to be missed by Disney vacationers!

Full Circle Friday

Boo To You! Happy Halloween! Of course I had to do a Halloween page today but I did something different this week... I created my entire layout digitally! Digital is a fun way to change up your scrapbooking style. Digital scrapbooking includes everything from adding text to a photo, to creating photo blocks, to creating an entire album. There is a lot of flexibility and you don't have to give up the traditional paper, stickers, rubons, etc. There is a creative, fun balance between digital and traditional scrapbooking.

If you are interested in learning more about digital scrapbooking, Windy City Scrapbooking now offers digital scrapbooking classes. Sesil teaches our "Get Digi" class with Adobe Photoshop Creative Suite 3 and I teach the same class with Adobe Photoshop Elements 6. Right now we offer this intro-to-digital class; in the next several months we may consider a more advanced class. Check out our website and class calendar for more details!

This week's sketch has a 5x7 focal photo and 2 smaller accent photos. The cool thing about sketches is that they are adaptable. I decided to flip the entire sketch vertically so it was facing a different direction.

Most of the supplies are from Designer Digitals, a great digital scrapbooking website run by Katie Pertiet. She also graciously donated all the digital elements we use in our Get Digi class at WCS. (I created the orange cardstock background myself.)

Don't Forget!

We are having another Guest Designer Sketch for next week. Use the sketch in this link to inspire a layout (the sketch at the bottom of the post). Email a scan or clear photo of your completed layout, 500K or less, to classes@windycityscrapbooking.com by Wednesday, November 5th. All entries will be posted on next week's Full Circle Friday. Blog candy will be given away too!

Full Circle Friday

Hello! This week's sketch is a 2-page layout focusing on 1-5x7 photo with several smaller accent photos. This week I am completely going against tradition. Where are the rules that say you have to use certain colors and themes for events. I wasn't in the mood to scrap my pumpkin patch photos with the traditional orange, green, and browns. I found an old piece of Basic Grey Perhaps patterned paper on my desk and I challenged myself to use it. The colors reminded me of fall even if they are muted. I set to work and found several embellishments to work with my muted theme.

Supplies:

Scenic Route background texture patterned paper

My Mind's Eye chipboard sticker, rub ons

Maya Road sequin ribbon

Basic Grey patterned paper, Perhaps collection

Micron pen

I added a couple of horizontal elements to the top and bottom of the photos to emphasize the horizontal flow of the design. The journaling is toward the top of the design, which is different from my norm.

Tag, You're It!!!

Time for another Guest Designer Challenge! This one is due Wednesday, November 5th. Please send a scan or a clear photograph 500K or less and a supply list to classes@windycityscrapbooking.com. Again we will post all entries as long as they follow the requirements. Blog candy will be awarded too!
The sketch is for a 2-page 8.5 x 11 layout but you could easily change it to a 12x12 spread. Turn grid of elements/photos to 3x3 and change the focal photo to 8x10. That brings me to my next point... not all the rectangles on page 2 need to be photos. They can also be patterned paper, journaling, or whatever! You're creative, you'll figure out what is best!

To give credit where credit is due, I got this design from Ali Edwards. She posted some pages from a recent album on her blog and I was instantly drawn to them. She is fantastic!

Full Circle Friday

Hello and welcome to our first guest designer challenge! I have some fantastic layouts to show you inspired by this sketch (shown in order of submission):

"Perfect" by Cheryl H.

Papers and chipboard alpha letters from the KI memories travel clipboard kit
Making memories tiny alphabet
Office supplied cool columns ivory by imagination project
Stick pin
brads
SNU twine

"Pretty Young Thang" by Sylvia S.

Background - a recycled postal service priority box
Patterned Paper - Heidi Swapp
Letters - Thickers - vinyl
Butterflies - Making Memories
"Love" Journaling Block - Maya Road
Flourish - Made using The Crafters Workshop stencil, Stickles and recycled transparency from an acrylic stamp set.

Journaling reads: "I'm beginning to see less of my precocious little girl and more of a young lady".

"Apple Picking" by Alexandra M.

Supplies:
solid cardstock: Bazzill
stickers:Basic Grey's Beat It
red flocked paper and crushed velvet red brad: Doodlebug Design
acrylic stamp: Autumn Leaves
inkpad:Versa Magic ( Jumbo Java)
title:Quickutz Chemistry.
3 red brads:American Crafts

"Nemesis" by Christina V.

"My Angel" by Melissa B.

Bazzill Bling Cardstock
Basic Grey Patterned Papers, Rub Ons, and Brads
Creative Imaginations die cut paper
Tim Holtz Grundge Board
Heidi Swapp Flower
Making Memories journaling notebook
Uniball white pen

Thank you to all who submitted a layout! I think it is so wonderful to showcase the talents of our customers. As promised I will have some blog candy for you at the store. It will be available after Sunday, October 19th.

There will be another guest designer challenge posted soon, watch the blog for details! Have a great weekend!

Full Circle Friday

I will admit it, I really don't look forward to scrapping big events like birthdays and holidays. I always have a ton of photos with a lot of distractions and noise in the backgrounds. So I tend to stuff those photos away with plans to do it later. Eventually there comes a time when I just need to get it done! Today was one of those days. I chose a sketch that used 6 photos, enough to give an idea of my daughter's 3rd birthday party (which was actually over a year ago, she is 4 1/2 now!) My photos were full of distractions (toys, tops of heads, piles of wrapping paper, etc.) so I cropped my 4x6 photos way down to show just the subjects. With this sketch I used 2-3.5x5, 2-3x3, and 2-2x2 photos. The photos are unified by following along a center line. In my layout I used a ribbon as the center line.

We had an aquarium themed party so instead of heading to the birthday section of W.C.S., I headed to the tropical vaction section to find my aquatic supplies. Sometimes the most obvious theme isn't the only theme. Great supplies can be found in many different sections of the store.

Supplies:

Heidi Grace patterned papers

Heidi Grace rub ons

Heidi Grace chipboard letters

Doodlebug glitter paper

Bazzill cardstock

Bazzill die cut cardstock

Micron pen

QuicKutz Blossom alphabet die cuts

Supplies from my stash:

Karen Foster ribbon

I added some patterned paper behind the photos but I also followed that center line. I used the scallop die cut paper because it reminds me of bubbles. I didn't have any aquatic accents other than my border rub ons so I made my own by cutting out shapes from the patterned paper. Cutting shapes from patterned paper is a great ways to use up your paper scraps!

Don't forget about the October Guest Designer sketch. Email your layouts by Wednesday, October 15, 2008 to be published on our blog. I will have some blog candy for everyone that enters!

Full Circle Friday

Greetings! For today's sketch we are working with 3 4x6 photos... no enlargements or smaller prints. A couple of those photos will get trimmed but start with 4x6 photos. The challenging part is fitting 3 4x6 photos on a 8.5x11 layout! It can be done. If you want to add more embellishment just convert the sketch to 12x12, keep all the photo sizes the same, and shift all the elements to the left or the right of the layout.


You will notice some flowers in the sketch. That doesn't mean you have to use flowers, that is just my way of denoting an embellishment. In my completed layout you will notice the "flowers" in the sketch turned into unicorn rub ons.









Supplies:


Bazzill Cardstock
Maya Road Maya Mists
American Craft Thickers
Maya Road Rub Ons
Heidi Swapp Bling
EK Success 1.25" Circle Punch
Micron Pen



Supplies from my Stash:

Scrap paper
Heidi Swapp Flower Mask

I have a major problem in my scrap space... I have way too much scrap paper. All those papers the get cut off and unused from a prior project do have a home in my space but my drawers are getting VERY full. One of my current goals is to use my scraps more. For this project I matted each photo in a different patterned paper scrap. The only thing that unifies these scrap papers is that they all have a dark pink in them. The patterned or theme didn't matter to me.

I tried a new product and technique as well. The new Maya Mists are so much fun. I dug out an old Heidi Swapp mask and placed that on my blank white cardstock. Then I started playing with the mist. You don't need to have a HS mask to make a cool image with the spray. Use any die cut or sticker you can easily peel off. I may even try leaves and small branches from outside on a future fall project.

I do have one tip for the Maya Mists... if you can, take the project outside to spray! Either that or have a large protector covering your table/surface. I got a little carried away and sprayed a little on my rug. (At least it was just my scrap room rug! That thing gets all kinds of crafting abuse... burned with the heat gun, etc.) Don't let this scare you, just properly prepare your work space first. Maya Mists are a lot of fun!

You Go Girl!

I just wanted to take a second to post a link to a layout inspired by a past Full Circle Friday by Alexandra M. You Rock Alexandra! I love how you stitched in the title.

Okay, Now It's Your Turn!

Want to be published on our blog? This is your chance to let your creative genius shine! (It's there even if you don't believe it, trust me!) Send us a completed layout using this 12x12 sketch as inspiration and have your creation posted in the Full Circle Friday for Friday, October 17, 2008. All complete entires following the described guidelines will be posted!

Email a scan or clear photograph no larger than 500k to classes@windycityscrapbooking.com along with your name and supply list. Layouts can be 12x12 or a different size. We will not publish any content that we decide is inappropriate or vulgar. Entries are due Wednesday, October 15, 2008.

I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Full Circle Friday

Sorry Full Circle Friday is a little late today! My camera battery died this morning and I had to charge it before I could get my photos uploaded. Anyway, I am back in business.

This week's sketch pushed me outside of my comfortable creative box. The first creative stretch was working with a large circle. All of the elements of the layout fit nicely inside a circle; a bit different from the squares and rectangles in which scrapbookers usually work. The second is putting the title right over the top of the focal photo. Just keep telling yourself it is okay if you cover up part of your photograph.... it is, it really is okay. In my layout you will notice the cute chubby face and hand are perfectly visible while the busy patterned shirt is the part covered up by the title. The busy pattern was distracting anyway. The main focal photo is an uncropped 5x7 photo. It may look smaller in my finished layout just because I overlapped my accent photos and embellishments over the top of the focal photo. The small photos are 2.5x3.5. Then of course there is the giant circle and then a thin strip across horizontally to add stability to the entire design.

Supplies:

Luxe Designs: Sprinkles Collection patterned paper

Bazzill Cardstock

Maya Road Butterfly Chip Coaster

Me & My Big Ideas Butterfly Rhinestone sticker

Luxe Designs journaling sticker

ThermOWeb Zots and Glue Stick

Uniball Signo white pen

American Craft Slick Writer

Supplies from my personal stash:

American Crafts Thickers alpha stickers

Making Memories brads

For the giant circle I used the super extraordinary circle template.... a kitchen dinner plate. I traced it on the paper. Then I took a second smaller plate and traced that inside the bigger circle. Cut with fine-tip scissors. I also used the fine-tip scissors to cut out the circle patterns from one of my patterned papers. I love to cut out designs from pattern paper. Sometimes you love a paper but using the entire piece is too overwhelming for the layout. The smaller circle accents are scattered around the large circle and reinforce the whole circle theme.

I covered the butterfly chipboard with patterned paper. See Sesil's Tuesday Tip from this week to get detailed instructions on covering chipboard. To give the butterfly a little "pop" I outlined it with a white pen. The butterfly houses my journaling sticker, which if left by itself would be lost in the layout. The journaling sticker needed that butterfly to bring your attention to it.

As I mentioned before, the title is big and bold right across the focal photo. I used the rhinestone butterfly mostly because I thought it was cute. But it did help balance my big, bold title. Sometimes I just need a little bling!

As always you can adapt the 12x12 to a different size layout. And please post a link to your version of the sketch after you give it a try!