Thursday, July 30, 2015

Home State Pride

This is a personal blog. All editorial content and projects are intellectual property of Taylor Stamped. I do receive financial compensation and material product from  A Walk Down Memory Lane to develop my craft posts, but all ideas and opinions are my own. Some links are affiliate links.

 I'm a proud Wisconsin native who hasn't lived in Wisconsin for 15 years now, so when my sister and I found these cool t-shirts from My State Threads while shopping in Wisconsin, I knew I had to have one! They had a number of different designs, but the Packers will always be first in my heart.


I snapped this picture just to post on my personal Facebook page, but decide the shirt was too fun, so I scrapped the photo. A Walk Down Memory Lane's Brick & Mortar store has a bunch of custom papers in the colors of our local high school sports teams. Lucky for me one of the local teams colors are green and gold.


I kept the layout simple by using my Silhouette Cameo to cut the state of WI. I layered it out behind the photo, added the date and a title, and decided that was all the layout needed.


I'd love to hear which state has all your home state pride. Give your state a shout out in the comments! 

Monday, July 27, 2015

Fuse & Heat Wave

This is a personal blog. All editorial content and projects are intellectual property of Taylor Stamped. I do receive financial compensation and material product from American Crafts and A Walk Down Memory Lane to develop my craft posts, but all ideas and opinions are my own. Some links are affiliate links.

Today We R Memory Keepers is debuting a new tool that I am so stinkin' excited about: The Heat Wave. I've had my hands on it for a few weeks now (one of the perks of being on the Design Team), and it is just so fun. I've already been using it on layouts and cards, and now that the release is official, I can share some of my projects with you. Today I have a card that uses both the Fuse & Heat Wave tools.


I needed a birthday card for my mom. She's a paper crafter too, so her  birthday present was the Photo Fuse tool. I decided to make her a card using the Fuse to give her an extra idea for things to do with her present.
When I make a card with the Fuse, I make it a single layer card (just a card front), and write a greeting on the back. Then, I like to slip the card front into a little pocket (made from a page protector trimmed down to card size), fill just the front side with sequins, and seal it up. It's kind of like sending confetti in a card without all the mess.
I created this card from WRMK's Hello Darling papers and Die-Cuts. I thought the bright colors were great for a birthday card, and the little jar of flowers is just too sweet!
  

I used the brand new WRMK Heat Wave to  create my sentiment. If you haven't check out the blog post on just what the Heat Wave is, I'd encourage you to check out this post at WRMK. The post shows how beautifully and perfectly you can apply foil to your card. I, however, like to push the boundaries with my tools and see what else they can do. I found out that you can sort of scribble with the heat wave on the foil, and you get a fun scribble-y, shabby chic, greeting on your card. I alternated between the pink and the gold foil on my greeting, because I was having too much fun with the Heat Wave to stop at just one "happy"!


I think cards are a bit more fun when they come in a matching envelope. I created this one with the WRMK 1-2-3 Punch Board. Remember, you can mail pretty patterned envelopes just the same as you mail a white envelope. Just make sure to use an envelope wrap or mailing label.

Thanks for stopping by to check out how I used the Fuse & the Heat Wave on the same card. Have a great week!

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Crazy Roads of the Wild Atlantic Way

This is a personal blog. All editorial content and projects are intellectual property of Taylor Stamped. I do receive financial compensation and material product from  A Walk Down Memory Lane to develop my craft posts, but all ideas and opinions are my own. Some links are affiliate links.

I love that scrapbooking helps me look at how I take photos differently than before I scrapbooked. When we were on our recent trip to Ireland, so many of the roads were scenic, but also really crazy. It's something we'll never forget, but I'm not sure I would have taken photos of some of the crazy street signs if I wasn't a scrapbooker. In fact, I had enough crazy road photos for a 2 page layout all about our drive time on the Crazy Roads of the Wild Atlantic Way.


I actually printed these photos out and took them into A Walk Down Memory Lane to wander among the papers and find the right ones. I walked past Simple Stories Life Documented and decided the colors would be perfect.


 Lots of miles of grey, so the grey in the collection complimented it nicely. The reason I really picked the collection, though, were the pops of blue and yellow. The bright colors really help the photos pop, and even make the yellow road signs stand out more.


Most of the time we were too busy staring at the scenic views, being slightly terrified over the narrow roads, and laughing about the cray road signs (seriously, the picture below shows the Irish version of a caution sign. It's just a big exclamation point!) to take photos, but then I remembered I might want to scrap about this later.


I'm always in need of places to jot down some journaling. For this layout I created my own journaling card from  a piece of striped paper that was part of the collection. 


I also used a few stickers form Life Documented to create some journaling space as well. 


Does scrapbooking help you look at the world in a different way?
Thanks for stopping by!


Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Sweet Boy Dog Layout

This is a personal blog. All editorial content and projects are intellectual property of Taylor Stamped. I do receive financial compensation and material product from American Crafts and A Walk Down Memory Lane to develop my craft posts, but all ideas and opinions are my own. Some links are affiliate links.

Last month a 7 year old black lab named Steve came to live with us. He is the sweetest boy, and fits so well into our family. We're all in love with him, so I decided it was time for him to get his own layout and become "scrapbook official". Here's my Sweet Boy Dog layout:


I finally got to use these adorable dog papers from American Crafts. I love that these papers are a bit sophisticated and a bit playful all at the same time. They're part of a larger mix and match collection. The plaid is my favorite, and is called Bones. I really loved the Dog Sentiments paper as well, but since it was a little busy, I decided to just use it as an accent behind the photo.


Since there aren't any embellishments that go specifically with this paper, I cut some of the cute icons out from the Doggies paper. I layered them up with some foam adhesive to make some cute embellishment clusters.


I finished up with a title, and now Steve finally has a layout in the scrapbook. I'm sure it's the first of many, as he goes just about everywhere with us and has definitely become part of the family.


Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Red, White & Awesome

This is a personal blog. All editorial content and projects are intellectual property of Taylor Stamped. I do receive financial compensation and material product from American Crafts and A Walk Down Memory Lane to develop my craft posts, but all ideas and opinions are my own. Some links are affiliate links.

We always go to my parents' lake home over the 4th of July. There's swimming, fishing, lots of eating, boating, shopping, fireworks...but the best part is we get some awesome family time in. My sister (who I only get to see a few times a year) and I were sitting in our favorite place on the boat to watch fireworks, definitely a good time to have our photo taken. Here's my Red, White & Awesome layout using that photo. 


Jillibean Soup Yellow Pepper Soup isn't a 4th of July collection, but it's just so fun that I had to use it. I kept if feeling a little more festive by making the red and blue patterned papers framing the photo.


I love mixing and matching patterned papers. I've found that when patterns feel a bit busy together, cutting them into large  simple squares or rectangles on the layout keeps things a bit more toned down.


Busy paper usually ends up lending itself well to simple embellishments. I stuck with 2 embellishments clusters and the title. To make the layout feel a little more patriotic, I used embellishments from Pebbles Inc Americana and created my title from red and white alphas.

 
Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, July 13, 2015

Create Magazine and How to Make a Memorabilia Pocket

This is a personal blog. All editorial content and projects are intellectual property of Taylor Stamped. I do receive financial compensation and material product from American Crafts to develop my craft posts, but all ideas and opinions are my own.

The July issue of (the totally free) Create Magazine is now available. It's a beautiful magazine full of ideas, sketches, and lots of pretty projects and you won't regret taking some time to check it out! This month We R Memory Keepers is one of the companies being featured, and I have 2 projects in the magazine. You can find this layout:


on page 95, and you can also find a card I created on page 106. On the layout above, you'll find that the O'Brien's Tower pamphlet is actually in a memorabilia pocket I created with the WRMK Photo Fuse. You can easily slide the pamphlet out to read the whole thing. I thought I'd share a quick photo tutorial of how I managed to make this pocket. This pocket is a bit different than a standard Photo Fuse pocket as it sits on top of the page protector and doesn't go all the way through to the back side of the layout.

Here's what the finished version of the layout I used for this tutorial looks like:


The Cliffs of Moher pamphlet is what is in a memorabilia pocket. To make a memorabilia pocket you'll start by creating you layout and adhering all your photos, but not your item to go in the memorabilia pocket. 


Above is my layout with everything laid out and attached. You can see I've placed my memorabilia where I want it (but not attached it), so I can get the layout of my layout correct.


The next step is to measure the memorabilia. Add about 1/4" to your measurements for the size of your pocket. So if my memorabilia measures 4"x 8", I'll want my pocket to be about 4 1/4"x 8 1/4".


Cut a page protector down to your measurements. I used a regular 12 x 12 WRMK page protector and cut a 4 1/4" x 8 1/4" piece from it. You just need a single sheet of plastic, you don't need a pocket of plastic. 


Your plastic piece should now be just slightly larger than your memorabilia. 


Put your finished layout in the page protector that it will live in in your scrapbook. Place your memorabilia on top to get your spacing right. Use a piece of washi tape along the top side of your piece of plastic to temporarily adhere it in place, where you will be creating the permanent pocket.


Remove your memorabilia, but leave your piece of plastic taped on. 


Slide a piece of scratch paper into your page protector on top of your layout. This will protect your layout from any damage when you fuse your pocket in place. 


Now you can use your Photo Fuse tool to seal the bottom and sides of your plastic to your page protector, creating a pocket that is open on the top. 


Remove your scratch paper and washi tape and slip your memorabilia into the pocket. 


If you have any questions about creating a memorabilia pocket of your own, leave me it in the comments and I'll be sure to get back to you. Thanks so much for stopping by, and don't forget to check out July's issue of Create Magazine

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Treasure Map Layouts

This is a personal blog. All editorial content and projects are intellectual property of Taylor Stamped. I do receive financial compensation and material product from A Walk Down Memory Lane to develop my craft posts, but all ideas and opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

I had some ship and island photos to scrap, which was a great excuse to finally use the gorgeous October Afternoon Treasure Map collection. I have two, 2 page Treasure Map layouts to share today.


First, can we take a moment to admire the plaid in this collection? I think I'd use it on every layout if I could. Yellow, blue, grey, a pop of red...it just doesn't get any better.


We took the Happy Hooker out to the Aran Islands. The photos were a perfect excuse to use some anchor paper in my scrapping! For this 2 pager, I incorporated the map of the island as a big part of the layout and also threw in the receipt from our ferry ride. 


My second layout has a lot of photos on it.


Since the photos were of an island and some dolphin watching on the island, I figured I'd keep with the nautical theme of Treasure Map. I especially love how the blues of the paper really make the blues in my photos pop. 


Thanks for stopping by to check out my nautically inspired Treasure Map layouts!

Monday, July 6, 2015

2 Page Camping Layout

This is a personal blog. All editorial content and projects are intellectual property of Taylor Stamped. I do receive financial compensation and material product from A Walk Down Memory Lane to develop my craft posts, but all ideas and opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

I love having my kids home in the summer! We keep pretty busy, and try to sneak in as many camping trips as we can. I'm loving Bella Blvd Camp Out for scrapping my camping photos this year. Today I'm using it for a 2 page camping layout.



I tend to keep it a bit more clean and simple when scrapping 2 page layouts. I seem to put a lot more photos on 2 pagers, so less is more when it comes to embellishments.



The  "Home is where you park it" card is one of my favorite pieces from this collection, so  I made it a focal point by placing it in the center of my photos and popping it up with a bit of foam adhesive. 



Since the plaid and polka dot papers together are a bit busy, I only added a stripe of polka dots on the right hand side of the page. This way you get some continuity from left to right page without the layout being over the top busy.



I also played around with the "Camping" title on this page. Usually I keep my titles nice and straight and tucked into a corner, but the playfulness of Camp Out lent itself to having a bit more fun with the title.



Do you do much camping in the summer? Are you a tent camper or a vehicle camper? I'm definitely a vehicle camper, and am not sure I've have these fun photos to scrap if we didn't have a camper! Thanks for stopping by.


Thursday, July 2, 2015

Blarney

I have a simple single page layout today. This Blarney layout accommodates a couple of photos, some memorabilia, and a lot of journaling.


I wanted to save the memories of a fun time out, including one of my favorite souvenir purchases from our trip to Ireland, so I created a layout with some photos and a tag from my purchase.


I used paper and stickers from Pebbles From Me to You collection. I had more journaling than would fit if I hand wrote it, so I decided to type up and print out my journaling. I kept my embellishments pretty simple with a few stickers and some washi tape.


Have a great 4th of July weekend!