September's My Creative Scrapbook page instructions

Hello everyone!

Here are my instructions/tips/techniques for September's pages from My Creative Scrapbook.

Back 2 School Today:

I chose a neutral background to match skin tone making the colors of the clothing pop more.

 

I cut down the pink tack paper to around 11x11 and then cut out the inside. This is easy to do because the other side of the paper is a graph with nice, straight lines.

I kind of arranged everything how I thought I wanted it before I sewed it down. I first inked up the edges of the paper and then used my sewing machine. I ripped and bent the pages around the sewing.

I arranged and inked up the edges of the background mats. I sometimes like to use the tear off sheet of the paper which I did in this case. I left "creative agenda" in the design.

I added "8" and "5" stickers to the corners of the photos to indicate which grade my kids were going into this year.

I decided to use part of the graph I had just cut out. I used a paper punch to make the edge.

and then I used distress ink and a dauber to rough up the edges.

After sticking down the photos, I added stickers here and there and arranged my title as shown.

Strawberry:

This was an easy page.

The photo was already printed in a sepia kind of tone. I cut each square 2.5x2.5 inches and inked each edge with a brown instead of a black to match the color of the photo.

I measured in from the top and left of background about an inch and made a pencil line so I could keep my squares straight.

Of course, it never always works out that way, so the little tiny ripped blue dot not only helps ground the picture, but it also covers over part of the squares that didn't match up perfectly.

For the title, I started the "B" right under the strawberry my daughter is holding. After setting that up, I went backwards for "straw" and added the "w" to the edge of the "B".

I poked a hole in the flower with a paper piercer and added a brad.

To make the visual triangle, I used the pink "straw" and the other two pink stickers.

Good Morning:

I never feel like a project is complete without some sort of paint or messy material thrown on it.

 

 The first thing I did was to paint the background a bright blue.

After the paint drys (OK, not really. I rarely wait for the paint to dry), I added the photo to the mat, rounded the corners and inked the edges. As I usually do, I tape the long edges of the mat so I can add a removable tag behind the photo for journaling. Staple a ribbon to the card.

 I used some scrap pieces to add this little cluster at the top corner. It doesn't show here, but I did use a paper piercer on the flower to add a brad as the center.

The page seemed like it still needed something, so I played off the "Good Morning" title and made some additional sun bursts. I just cut them out by hand with scissors.

And here is the biggest tip of all...Spray ink the paper before you cut them out. *sigh*. I had the great idea of misting them with glimmer ink but not until I had already cut them out.

After gluing the pieces on around the top of the frame, I pulled out a bottle of Stickles and added glitter to the title, the buttons and then made little dots of glitter around the page.

School starts tomorrow:

Each year on the last day of summer vacation, we go out to breakfast to celebrate. Usually the kids want to go to Wafflehouse (which btw, I think my daughter plans on having her wedding there) but this particular year they chose Ihop.

The pictures were really, really busy and not that good so I didn't want to add too much patterned paper to the background. I decided to emphasize the title.

I ripped off the "s" on "Days" so it was just "Day". I arranged my photos as show, and the taped them down. I very carefully moved the title around until it was just how I wanted it. I never stick the alpha stickers all the way down when deciding on title placement. Sometimes I use wax paper to temporary hold the stickers while I move them around, but after years of making sticker titles, I don't bother doing that anymore. If a sticker rips while I'm moving things around, I don't worry about it. I just think it adds character. ;)

I added other stickers to help move the eye around on the page. I really like those tack stickers.

To add just a little more detail, I used a white pen to add dots to the black font and then I used a black pen to add little dots around some of the photos.

Again, I taped down the yellow piece on the bottom on the long ends so I could add a removable tag for journaling. Staple a ribbon to the card.

That's it! Thank you everyone.