Scrapbooking Made Simple

O.K here is the final layout I did on my retreat weekend and I have to say it's my favourite. I love the sewing! Which my new scrap buddy sharon did for me (those of you who know me know that sewing machines don't like me ... hence the reason I don't have much sewing on my pages). The ways I saved on this page... I used ribbon and stitching as my background... I also stamped onto the page and then stamped and embossed onto my chipboard letters to make them seem different to the last time I used them ( on JOY). oooh I also saved on the journaling page as this was on a discount rack as you only got a few as someone had opened the packet before so instead of $11 I paid $3. Also the little lady bugs were a find at a discount store $2 for a packet of 10. It is a fairly busy layout but I like it anyway! I also saved by sewing elements to the page rather than glueing them. (ie. the journalling page and the ribbons). As well as being practical and saving me money it creates anot

For those of you who've seen my videos on You Tube you'll recognise this photo. I used this photo on a tutorial on how to pick your backgrounds and colour schemes. I hadn't actually put the page together until the retreat weekend and then I threw all those ideas out the window because these papers were on special for 50cents each..... what can I say? The miser in me won out... I also created the flower embellishment by using other paper flowers as a template to cut out from these papers and then edging each flower with my puffy velvet markers. I did use some thickers for the "beary" but as I was using them on other layouts that weekend I knew I was getting my money's worth. (Sometimes you can buy an alphabet and it takes years to use up the rest of the packet... if at all).

I've been hanging onto these photos for a while (DD1 just turned 5 LOL) .... anyway as it was a butterfly party I used punched out and stamped out butterflies to embellish my page... very cheap embellishments as they use my patterned papers as the embellishments. I also punched out of the cardstock to add another depth and lucky me used my new scrapbuddy sharon's cricuit to cut my title out of patterned paper. Cutting your title out of patterned paper, whether using a scalpel, cricuit, slice, cuttlebug or sizzix is a very thrifty move!

Well here's a really simple layout. I used the store's fiskars border punch (must get one of these.. LOL) to make the edge of the page interesting. I used a piece of patterned paper from a pack I got at one of the discount stores and the chipboard letters were actually a gift, but are rather cheap and come from K-Mart. The butterfly and journalling circle are stamps I then cut out and I have stamped onto the page the swirl along the left side. My saying was again printed on acetate at the retreat.

I really love this layout too! It's so simple and cheap as I haven't used much but I think it's very effective. I have a sheet of cardstock for my background and two patterned papers from the DCWV Nana's Nursery range. I used a fiskars border punch on one (courtesy of the daisy chain scrapbook tools supply) and cut out pieces of another and layered them onto the first with foam tape. I love that the embellishments on this page are all just pieces of the patterned paper cut out and layered on top. If you wanted to make them stand out even more you could cover them with dimensional magic. I then used the store cuttlebug to cut out the swirls and swirly heart from one of the papers and after stamping a journalling square on some scrap paper I attached it using a pin as these were on special at the front counter. The letters from the "Sweet" was my lash out spend here. The glittery thickers were I think $9? for the packet. I also used the retreat's computer t

I did this layout on my retreat weekend and you can see the influence of the class with all the layers! LOL I saved here by stamping the journalling circle and then cutting a larger circle with a circle border punch. I also stamped an image on the layout once and then stamped it again and cut out elements of the stamp and raised them up with 3D foam tape. I also saved by sewing my title. As you can see I haven't used much paper apart from my background. There is one small strip of patterned paper which I punched with a fiskars border punch and a strip of plain paper. So not alot of "stuff" on this layout.... I put all my time into sewing the "Love"!

This layout was done on the first night of the retreat. It was actually a class. The kit for this layout came free with our weekend. I love this layout! I love the layers! It has influenced my layouts since. I am now using alot more 3D foam tape than ever before. LOL I think if you use different layers in this manner you can use simpler less expensive materials. Another thing I got out of this class was how to destress the paper of the paper flower to make it look better. My best scrapbuddy added some bling to this which looks really cool!