Keys to a Happy Home Mini Album

All Cracked Up

Here's another technique from our key album project. We used a chipboard house and heart from this cute set from Maya Road:
The house shape was painted with Ranger distress crackle paint. When the paint dries, it leaves a crackled finish. The thicker the paint, the deeper the cracks will be. One the paint dried, the house was lightly brushed with chalk ink to further accent the crackles. The smaller heart was covered with pink chalk ink and pink Stickles:
The final result:
Hope you'll give this technique a try!

Twinkling H2Os

Have you tried Twinkling H2Os on your stamping and scrapbook projects? These are watercolor cakes of shimmery color. All you have to do is add water, dip your paintbrush and watch your project take on a whole new look. When you're finished, simply close the lid. The water evaporates, leaving the ink cake ready to go for your next project. For stamping, these are a great way to add color to a stamped image. Just be sure to use a waterproof inkpad when stamping. On our key album, we started with these lovely white Prima flowers:

We painted a few with a light green Twinkling H2O watercolor ink, and this was the result:


Just imagine all the possibilities with these shimmery "twinkling" watercolor inks!

Thinking about "Thickers"

Recently while working on a mini album, American Crafts Thickers chipboard letter stickers were the perfect size for the project. Unfortunately the black ones we had didn't match the chosen pink and green color scheme! We decided to try an idea noted in a Creating Keepsakes magazine article by Jennifer McGuire. She suggested peeling off the top layer of manufactured chipboard accents, then changing their color. We started with these chipboard Thickers:

Once added to the mini album, the top layers were carefully peeled off:

Next, a paint dauber was used to paint the exposed chipboard white (Dauber= No mess!) : Once the paint dried, we covered each letter with pink Stickles glitter glue.
Then spread the glitter evenly across each letter and any other matching accents such as the white photo corner:

Take a look at the finished product and imagine it with the original color vs. the altered one:
So much fun we also used it for our album cover!
For some other pages of the mini-album, we had these foam Thickers in white. For this title, chalks were used to tint them light green to match the background paper.

This time, we tinted the white foam Thickers with pink ink, then added pink Stickles glitter. Fun! Hope you'll give some of these techniques a try next time you use your Thickers! Stop back soon to see more techniques from this fun key mini album as well as the completed project.

Move your scrapbooking to the wall

Ever feel like sometimes you spend time creating scrapbook layouts and then all your work is hidden away in an album on the shelf? Here's a project to get your scrapbooking out in the open for all to see and enjoy! Try shopping your local discount or dollar store for unique photo frames or home decor frames. This one was found on clearance at a local discount merchant for only $4. Even though the picture and the frame color didn't match the current decor, the detail in the frame as well as the glass backing were amazing.

If you would like to alter a project like this, here are the simple steps: first, decide if you are going to leave the frame as is or change the color. For this project, ivory better matches the existing decor. Sand the frame:

Next, paint the wood areas of the frame with acrylic paint. For this project, Making Memories acrylic paint was used. Several coats are needed and care should be taken not to paint the glass areas.

Once the frame is painted, you're ready to create your scrapbook page! Measure the dimensions of the area to be covered and create a scrapbook page using the same dimensions. Attach the page with removable adhesive. This way, you can change the page as often as you desire. Just think how fun it will be to update this project as the seasons change. (The "Home is where the Heart is" saying was created by inking Grungeboard letters for "Home" and "is" then using EK Success letter stickers for "is" "where" and "the".) Take a look at the finished project:
Hope you'll give this a try!

Fill the Frame

With Spring just around the corner, we can't wait for all the great photo opportunities that lie ahead--Easter, budding trees, Spring Break trips, and daffodils. Just think of all the new scrapbook pages we'll be able to create! Here's a photo tip you can try as you capture all these great memories: fill the frame. What does that mean? Try filling the entire camera frame with your subject and see what kind of results you get. Here are a few examples:

Kitty before:

Fill the frame:

Often by filling the frame, you can eliminate distracting objects in the background and focus completely on the subject. This technique often results in very striking images.

Statue at Hoover Dam (notice the distracting signs in the background):

Fill the frame:

Landmark before:

Fill the frame:

If you're a little hesitant to try this when you're taking the photo, this effect can be simulated at a digital photo processing kiosk. Simply choose the customize option when uploading your photos to be printed. Use the zoom and crop features to "fill the frame" with your subject. You can also have fun trying other kiosk customize features such as black and white or sepia tones.

Sweet baby before:

Fill the frame with sweet baby's face (also converted to black and white):

We hope you'll give this a try and let us know if it works for you!

Fun new goodies!

We're getting lots of new goodies arriving daily and just couldn't wait to share them with you! Take a look at a few of the new papers from the Basic Grey Porcelain collection: Just imagine the beautiful layouts you could create with these papers! We also have the new Basic Grey Marrakech collection featuring vibrant oranges and royal blue.

One of our favorite new arrivals is the "Mommy and Me" line from Prima. Owls are the latest craze in paper crafting and we think this cutie from Prima is one of the best we've seen! This collection also features some very cute glittered papers and rub-ons.

Prima has also released some amazing embellishments. Stop in to see these lovelies in person; they are simply stunning! The butterflies are approximately 3" wide and are two to a package.

These glittered star sprays have so many possibilities:
And Graphic 45 has done it again with their new lines of vintage inspired double-sided papers. Here are some of our new arrivals from their Fashionista Collection.

Front:

Back:Front:
Back:

Be sure to stop in soon to see the rest of these paper lines now in stock. And we also have new product releases arriving daily!