Right at Home Scrapbooking

No Tricks, All Treats

Fancy Pants's Halloween line is just that--all treats, no tricks!  Vibrant colors, fun patterns, sparkly glitter cuts, and coordinating stickers.  Combined with all the buttons, bling, dotted swiss cardstock, Thickers, and ribbons that Lisa sent me, I had a ton of great supplies for scrappin my Halloween photos.  Wanna see? 

 
Don't you just love those little monsters?  Aren't they a hoot with those ugly teeth in their mouths?  Oh, you meant the monsters on the paper?  Yeah, they're pretty great, too!  To attach that glittery die cut, I backed it with paper and added foam adhesive where you couldn't see it.

 

This fun paper had two little pumpkins in the corner.  That just would not do, so I paper pieced a couple of pumpkins....one large and one small, just like my kiddos.  To make the leaves, I looped a piece of twill and attached it to the back.

Those little monsters hanging out around the parenthesis sticker were cut from the orange patterned paper.  I mounted them on some of the leftover stickers that I cut into squares.  Use up every little scrap, ladies, every scrap.

 
Here's my son consorting with monsters at the Halloween store.  How funny, hun?  To add some dimension to this layout, I handcut those bats from the paper and then added some orange bling for their eyes.  I'm loving all the warm colors on this one.

Hope you're feeling ready to scrap.  Print out your Halloween photos and head on over to Right at Home Scrapbook Store!  Be sure to post your layouts here in the gallery, so we can all be inspired!

Aphra    

Update...

Real quick post to keep everyone updated...

Our PineCone Press Options meeting is scheduled for tonight, Wednesday, November 4th from 6:30-7:30pm. 

Our store will close a little early tomorrow night, Thursday, November 5th at 5:00pm...we're headed down to Newport, RI with Croptopia Getaways weekend Scrap Pink Crop.

Our store will be open Friday, November 6th 10:00AM-5PM; Saturday, November 7th 10:00AM-4:00PM and on Sunday, November 8th, 12:00-4:00PM...even though we're in Newport.  Rosemary will be holding down the store on Friday and Saturday and Holly on Sunday...so make sure to stop by to say hello to them!

Streeeetch the Sketch!

Hi ladies...Frances here!  Hope all is well as we approach the busiest time of year.  Today I am going to share with you just how versatile my new sketch is.  First...take a look at the sketch...

Pretty cute huh?  If I do say so myself.  Well, with all of the holidays back to back, I find that sometimes a single page layout just is not enough.  Because of the amount of pictures I take this time of year, I usually need a double page layout to fit them all in.  And besides, who doesn't want to stuff as much of the holiday, scrappy goodies we have on our layouts?  Anyhoo, here is how I made the October sketch stretch to what I needed.

    

I basically kept the exact sketch, but with some minor changes.  The circle and focal pic is in the same place.  I also nestled my row of pictures under the focal pic and patterned paper.  One change...I moved the title.  Do you see the cupcake...look hard...I felt the it would have been to heavy on the left of the layout with the tiny cupcake and short title...haha! 

Hope everyone is enjoying the Fall season and Happy Scrapping!

So Thankful

It's that time of year when I like to shower my kids' teachers with little treats.  To let them know that they're appreciated.  And to teach my children to show their gratitude.  Reminisce's Autumn Forest line is just perfect for all your Thanksgiving layouts or gifts.  Here's what I came up with.

To create these little treat bags, I cut four 4" by 12" strips from some Bazzill Tootsie cardstock.  Then I made three folds:  one at  3 1/2", 4 1/2 ", and 8 1/2".  I placed my gourmet candy corn (YUM!) into a 4" by 6" jewlery bag.  Then, your carstock bag just wraps over the candy bag.  I stapled the candy bag into place under the flap.  Finally, I border punched the front edge, attached some paper strips, stickers, and my paper pieced candy corn. 

I plan to have my son write a little note to each of his teachers to thank them for their hard work.  We'll attach his note to the inside of the bag.

Hope this inspires you to share your gratitude!  Aphra

Fall, Fun and Fabric !!

I was soooo excited to have the opportunity to use Basic Grey's EERIE collection for my projects this month !!! The collection is AWESOME for fun Halloween layouts and can also be used for fall projects !! On my first layout I used some silly pictures I took of Scarecrows at Phantom Farms, Cumberland R.I. I really enjoy using Fabric on my layouts lately and here's a few fun ways to incorporate fabirc into your layouts.

 

I used a piece of fabric as an accent behind the photo. I frayed the edges to give it a "ragged" feel to go along with the scarecrow !! For the next layout I went with a fun Halloween photo. These papers are screaming for ghost, goblins and our little trick or treaters !!

 

The fabric on this page was frayed to go along with the distressed look. I also used the fabric as a place for my journaling. Fabric is a fun way to add texture so give it a try on your next layout !!

The next layout was just for fun ... 

 

 
 

 I added a little silvery glimmer mist on the dark cardstock to make it look more like nighttime !! So check out the EERIE collection and loads of other fun Halloween products at Right At Home !! Lynn :)

Incorporating Stamps into your layouts

When you think of stamping.. you generally think of creating cards like the card I made here. Stamping is a fun and easy way to add embellishment to any project, including altered projects or layouts.

I wanted to share with you today how I incorporated this amazing acrylic stamp set from Pink Paislee AMber Road collection into the layout shown here

First, I usually create the layout... and then add my stamping afterwards on the top most layer. Since these acrylic stamps are clear... you can pull them off, stick them onto a clear mount and be able to see exactly where you are stamping!! It makes it nice and easy to add to a page that needs just a little something extra!!

I chose a chocolate brown ink by colorbox (you can get many other assorted colors at Right at HOme) to create a more subtle embellishing...

Here are some close ups of the finished stamped images
  stamp right onto a photo.. just be careful not to rock the stamp as photos tend to be more glossy and wet and you don't want to smear the ink

this tag looked just a bit lonely so I added the word Fall to the bottom of it... the F stamped too dark.. but that is the charm of hand stamping... don't fret if the image isn't crystal clear..

for most of us  stampers, the imperfection is part of the charm In this example, I stamped along the bottom of the journaling tag with a fun border from the stamp set... pulls it together nicely!Pink Paislee also makes the stamp sets for their upcoming holiday lines and Halloween as well as the stamp set I used from Amber Road...RIght at Home also has many other fun stamps to add to your projects, cards and layouts!!

Happy Stamping!

Teresa Collins Friendship Line

Hello Everyone! This is my first post as a member of the Design Team here at Right at Home Scrapbooking! I have been so excited about this opportunity to work with all these talented ladies! When Lisa gave me my 'first' bag of goodies to work with I was SO excited to see that it was the latest line from Teresa Collins. I love every single one of her lines. Something about the almost simple lines and use of color has always drawn me right to them. Not only was excited that I got to work with this paper, but it was also about Friendship - something that is so very important to me. My friends play a pivotal role in my life and to be able to put together a book honoring them was great fun. Along with the book I also did a lay-out featuring my sister-in-law, who will always have a huge part in my life, and my new niece. These papers are based around a beautiful light blue color with accents of black, white and cream. My first instinct was to get some black & white photos to work with. This would allow me to work with the papers and bring some sort of accent. I decided that accent should be red. I love red along with an aqua bluish color and black. What I decided to do was go through my stash of Teresa Collins papers and see what else I could use - sure enough her recent papers had red with black and cream or white! You will see those papers and accents integrated into these projects.

First is my lay-out... The minute I saw this actual sheet of paper, I knew that I wanted to use it for this picture I had had printed of my sister-in-law and niece just days after she was born. I really didn't have to add much to it b/c that black border is already on the paper. I accented the side of the photo, double-matted the photo, added some flowers for a feminine touch and just a few extra embellishments. 

Next I got to work on the album. My kit had come with the latest 7 x 13 covers for the Bind-It-All machine. Teresa Collins has designed her last few lines around these covers so it was really fun for me to work with. She includes some beautiful quotes that require just your simple touch - or you can leave them plain and include them in your story. For the cover I picked out one of the papers that I thought defined friendships as see it. I glued that to the cover (I put the front tab at the bottom) and added some of the ribbon that was in my kit. Another item in my kit was a favorite embellishment - the Kaiser gems! These papers have lots of great things to cut out and I chose 3 bigger words to put on my tabs to sort of define my book as a whole. 

These tabbed covers would be great as a little (I guess not so little) book by themselves, or Teresa has also put out page protectors that are designed to fit the 6 x 12 papers. I included a few of these to make different parts of my book. On each tab I used one of the bigger quotes on one side and then on the other side I used some of the smaller elements to include some journaling and to leave room for some more embellishments. As you go through the pages, I told a little story about friends that come from different parts of my life and play a big role. One of the most important parts is my scrapbooking - I have met some of my best friends through this wonderful hobby. I pretty much kept to using the papers, the extra elements in the papers, adding stickles, gems and titles.  
 

I hope you enjoy these projects as much as I enjoyed doing them!  Ashley

Getting Shabby

I have had many people stop and ask me "just how much to distress" their pages to get that shabby, aged and old fashioned look.
 Today,I am going to take you through my process for creating shabby.

1.There are many tools on the market today to give your pages a torn, weathered look.

My favorites are here... the edging/blade tool by Making Memories, the distressing tool from Around the Block is cool.. its a sandpaper grid on one end and a inked pad on the other... and my favorite is the distress inks and blending sponge tool from Ranger/Tim Holtz... There are many other brands and types out there.. play around and see what you like best..

 2. Begin to design your page...
Once I know what papers I want to use... I start edging the papers to give it a frayed look... Then I ink the edges using inks and the blending tool... (you can also just add ink directly to the edge for a deeper, more bold look of distress!)

 

Then I start adhering my papers and bringing my design together...
Shabby styles look great with lots of layers so I begin stacking my papers and adding layers

   you can also roll up the edges with your fingers to give the page dimension

Then I begin to add layers of my embellishments  
 

adding things such as rub ons, laces and punched borders or any other vintage items from your stash such as book pages or buttons which add to the texture of the page for a finishing touch.

Then the title and journaling in a whimsical or elegant font to finish off...

Here is my finished page

and of course, I created a shabby card to go with it!  FOr this card (and my layout) I used PInk Paislee Amber Road products. They have pattern papers, rub ons, brads, and some very cool fabric patches...

I frayed the fabric edges a bit more to give it a more autumn weathered feel.

  
 

Hope you all find something fun to make shabby!!!

Basic Grey + Maya Road = YUMMY

Yes, that's right, mix some Indian Summer papers from Basic Grey with a Maya Road mini album and you will LOVE the results!

As I said in my previous post these are the perfect papers for some photo's from a Fall Festival or a Harvest Fair.  Every year we go to a Harvest Fair with some family and this year I decided to document the entire day!  

For the cover I used a few different pieces of the paper to add some fun color.
I covered the ring with some velvet ribbon to add some fun texture!

Using my Slice (Noteworthy) I made some journaling tags with some graph notebook paper to use throughout the album.

Some pop dots on Basic Grey chipboard circles was the perfect embellishment.

Using mini wallet photo's is the perfect way to fit lots of pictures in a mini album.

Enjoy your Fall, take lots of photo's and stop in at Right At Home and pick up some Indian Summer!

Yo-Yos Tutorial

As promised in my last post, here is my tutorial for making those fun fabric yo-yos to embellish you pages.  They are easy to make, and really add dimension to your pages!

You’ll need some fabric (cotton is best), circles to trace, scissors, thread and a needle.

On the wrong side of your fabric, trace around your circle pattern. Use a water-soluble pen or chalk. Following your traced line cut out a circle of fabric. Your yo-yo pattern needs to be twice as wide as your intended yo-yo, plus about 1/2" for seam allowances. Fold under a scant 1/4" along the edge of your circle, as you stitch close to the folded edge. Use strong thread and make sure it's long enough to go around the full circumference of the circle, with some to spare.

Note: Shorter stitches create a larger, more open center on your yo-yo, longer stitches make for a tighter yo-yo center.

 
 Once you've stitched around the entire perimeter of the fabric circle, gently pull your stitching thread until the edges gather to the center. Make a couple of stitches to secure your gathers, then knot and trim your thread. Squash your yo-yo flat, with the gathers centered on the top of the yo-yo. That's it!

 

All that is left is to add a button for a flower center and place them on your page using pop-dots.

I used these yo-yos to create the layout below.  I thought the flowers worked well with the theme of “growing”.  The picture shows my daughter and friends walking to school on her first day of middle school.  The grass and leaves are hand stitched.  The background paper is Henry’s Brilliance, “writing 101” from Nikki Sivil’s paper line which is available at Right at Home.

 

I'd love to see any pages you create using yo-yos.  Make sure to post them in the gallery.  Happy Scrapping! Kathy