I’m into color right now. Not sure why. Maybe it is the snow that fell on us in Denver last week and imagining a long winter ahead of us. Earlier this week I checked out our Design Team projects to see what colors of flakes they are, I mean what color flakes they created…Julie Overby made this beautiful Merriest Wishes card with turquoise, white and silver…yummy!

Jennifer Davis‘ layout, I Heart Snow, is outstanding in the color realm. It perfectly matches her daughter’s winter jacket.

I find that once I break out of a mold, it’s easy to keep doing it. Today, I’m sharing a journal with some really hot colors and snowflakes. To begin, I had hot pink printer paper that I printed journal lines on, but I had no idea how I would match colors to it. The Color Wheel is a great place to start and I just happen to have a Color Companion which is really helpful. In this photo you can see the journal pages in the back and the cover just to the left. The other colors are those I used to cut the snowflakes.

I used the S4-222 Create A Flake One to cut/emboss snowflakes from purple, red and pink. I inked them with silver metallic ink and then layered them using Glue Dots by Glue Dots International and 3D Foam Squares, SCRAPBOOK ADHESIVES by 3L. Here is a close up of one of them.

I adhered them to the journal cover and then felt like a border would bring the whole thing together. I chose the S4-218 Lattice Borderabilities® to coordinate. Since this Borderability® is Petite, I cut it twice from one long strip of paper. After cutting the first side, I carefully lined up the second side and ran it though the Wizard™.

In the same way, I embossed one end and then the other. The place where the two border cuts came together can be left alone as a design element

or covered with a little embellishment like I did.

To finish up the journal, I bound it, added a few more flakes and ribbons.

Ingredients: Wizard, S4-218 Lattice Borderabilities, S4-222 Create A Flake One; Core’dinations Color Core Cardstocks; SCRAPBOOK AHESIVE by 3L, Black 3D adhesive squares; Copic Sketch V09 Violet, Air Brush System; Glue Dots International Scrapbook Glue Dots; Ribbons; Silver ink; Binding System; Purple patterned paper
Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you’ve gained some confidence to use color in a new way. Eli

World Card Making Day is Saturday (tomorrow), October 3rd!! We’re having a little fun over on Facebook:

Post a card using Spellbinders Die Templates on Spellbindersâ„¢ Facebook page on World Card Making Day and be entered to win a Spellbinders Die Template. We will randomly draw a name from all the participants!

Hey there scrapbooking fans! Here’s one for you today. I just had to share these pics of my family enjoying a Fall day in the park. I love the feeling of movement in them. Design-wise, I tried to include a variety of shapes to keep things interesting: ovals, lines, circles…These ideas can be applied to any card or layout.

I started by printing my photos at home and cutting them using the Oval Nestabilities®. The first attempt yielded an oval that was too big. As you can see below, the top and bottom edges of the photos’ white frame show… now, we can’t have that!!!

Not to worry…

The brilliant thing about Nestabilities® is that you can increase or decrease the size by just an eighth of an inch increment, providing a great deal of flexibility when designing.

So (now stick with me here), I began with S4-138 Petite Ovals, LG #6. (When counting die numbers, start with the smallest die template and count out to the largest.) This happens to be the largest in the set. If I went to #5 in the set, I would have a 1/4″ decrease. I thought that would crop too much of the photo. So I chose the largest in the coordinating set, S4-140 Petite Ovals, SM #5 which was 1/8″ smaller. It gave me the  perfect size.

And guess what? Since I wanted a 1/8″ mat around the photo, I used the first die template I used, S4-138 Petite Ovals SM, #6, to cut pink cardstock. Boy, these Nestabilities® sure are handy!!

If you want to try your hand at this layout or use it for inspiration for another project, you’ll need the following supplies: W-001 Wizardâ„¢, S4-138 Petite Ovals LG, S4-140 Petite Ovals SM, S7-017 On the Vine Borderabilities® Grand, S4-235 Fancy Tags from Spellbindersâ„¢

along with Chatterbox Fabulous bird rub-on, green patterned ribbon, epoxy sticker; The Paper Company Chocolate Brown, Sable papers; Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday patterned paper; Core’dinations pink cardstock; Creative Impression pink ribbon; SCRAPBOOK ADHESIVE by 3L, 3-D squares, Photo Tape; brown ruched paper, white opaque pen, sewing machine and thread

Now go out and PLAY!! Eli

We’ve had almost a whole month of awesome posts on Impressabilitiesâ„¢ and I thought it would be fun to remind you of a few techniques you might have learned this month, teach you a new one and use it all on a card…with Partial Impressabilitiesâ„¢, Impressabilitiesâ„¢ Letterpress, Chalk over Ink and using one of our most popular Limited Edition die templates…all in one card. Sound like too much?

Naaaaah, we like to put it all together.

So, just to remind you, Beth put together this tutorial on how to use Impressabilitiesâ„¢ as a Letterpress and Margie put one together last Saturday on how to use a Partial Impressabilitiesâ„¢. So I used both those techniques but also want to share with you a technique that Stacey Caron created. It is simply called “Chalk over Ink”. It’s not too challenging but gives a great “wow” effect. Let’s check it all out, step-by-step.

Gather your supplies: Wizardâ„¢, S4-227 Pumpkins Nestabilities®, I2-1001 Impressabilitiesâ„¢ Paisley, S4-235 Fancy Tags, The Robin’s Nest Halloween Swirl patterned paper, Cosmo Cricket “Girl Friday” patterned paper, Clearsnap ColorBox cat eye inks in Chianti and Picante, Taylored Expressions sentiment stamp, Creative Impressions ribbons, 3L SCRAPBOOK ADHESIVES–Black 3-D Adhesive Squares and Photo Tape, Decorating chalks, Hole punch, Green staples, Stapler

Next you might want to go review the techniques in the links above. You’ll need to cut one of your Impressabilities templates and letterpress some paper using a slow-drying pigment ink. I started by using green ink as in this example but tried orange and used it for the final card.

Then just color away with your decorating chalks. I like to use my bare finger to rub color over the inks and around on the smooth cardstock. You’ll notice the ink seems to grab onto the chalk, intensifying the color. I used several colors–red, orange, green and yellow–on this to get the desired effect.

Next, cut the letterpressed paper using the largest Pumpkins Nestabilitiesâ„¢ so that the letterpress image shows right where you want it. I do not emboss over letterpress as it tends to flatten the image.

The rest is up to you…After creating the Letterpressed pumpkin, trim a background mat to 5-1/4  by 5-1/4″ and add it to the card base (11×5-1/2″) folded in half. Punch a hole in the stem of the pumpkin, thread the ribbons through it and staple to secure. Stamp a sentiment onto paper and cut/emboss it with S4-235 Fancy Tags. Adhere the pumpkin by placing a double layer of 3-D adhesive squares down the middle. Add 3-D squares to the sentiment tag and add to the card: VOILA a lovely, fall friendship card, using several techniques.

Eli