Clear Scraps Blog

The birds are chirping!

Well, not really....where I live anyway. We went to Arizona for Spring Break and enjoyed some lovely warm weather. However, since returning home we have enjoyed nothing but dark gray and rainy days. Rain all day long. Every day! :(

So, to brighten things up a bit around here I made this cute little wall hanging. Using the XL Bird Chipboard Shapes and some brand new October Afternoon papers.  

I simply glued the birds to the backside of the papers that I wanted to use and then trimmed them out with a craft knife and sanded the edges. Next, I stitched around them with my sewing machine. I free handed the wings  and then covered them with buttons and popped them up with pop dots on each of the birds.

Next I cut a little slit in the big birds mouth and inserted the banner. The letters were bare chipboard that I covered with "Petal Soft" in snow white and then spritzed them with some hot pink Glimmer Mist from Tattered Angels. Lastly, I just assembled the birds together using the jump rings and Heidi Swapp Crystals.

You can get the birdies here in acrylic... http://www.clearscraps.com/product_p/csxlbrd.htm

or here in chipboard.. http://www.clearscraps.com/product_p/cbxlbrds.htm

Thanks for stopping by!

Tonya Dirk

Clear Scraps Design Team

How about another basket album?

 

Hi everyone! It's Irene here again. Hope everyone is having a great start into this amazing season of the year, "Spring"! Since it's Spring now, I thought I would share my version of the Clear Scraps acrylic basket mini album.

We don't actually celebrate easter here in Malaysia. Therefore, I've created this album based on a fun day that my daughter had at the school field.

Here are some details in it.

  

 

I've used the gorgeous and cute papers by My Mind's Eye, the beautiful flowers by Accent Creative Designs, the overlays by Hambly, the stamps by My Stamp Box and some ribbons by Creative Impressions to create this album.

Hope you all like this project and start one of your very own Spring album soon! Happy scrapping!

Scrapperlicious

Clear Scraps DT Member 

Spring banner

 Hi everyone, it's Grace and I'm here to share a fun Spring banner that's a "breeze" to make.

I started with Clear N Chip Little Miss Molly. Instead of putting them together as a minibook, I combined the acrylic and chipboard blocks to make the base of my banner.

I layed them out and then pulled out some chipboard letters to spell out "spring". I used some very old Making Memories one. I also added two more blocks on each end of the letters to add some embellishments.

then I pulled some My little shoe box papers and trimmed them to fit inside the blocks with about 1/4" smaller on all sides of the blocks. This way you can still see the base of the banners.

Then I inked the edges of all the paper blocks.

After a few changes of pattern here and there, I then pulled the film from the acrylic pieces.

After that, I adhered the papers to the banner foundations.

Then I glued the chipboard letters. Since chipboard is a little heavier and I wanted to make sure that the banner last a while, I used some tough liquid adhesive.

Next, I started working on some of the embellishments that I will add to the banner. The Little Miss Molly pack had flowers in it so I grabbed a couple of acrylic ones and one big chipboard flower to add to the banner. With the acrylics, I added glitter glue on the edges of them. This way, they show up against the papers but you can still see the acrylic shape.

then I painted the big chipboard flower with blue pastel color. A hue that will go well with the Spring theme.

After painting it, I decided to add a little bit more shine to the flower so I spritzed it with glimmer mist.

I pushed the embellishments to the side to let it dry then I worked on putting the blocks together. I punched out holes on the chipboard and acrylic blocks. The ones that had tabs on them, I punched the holes on the tabs.

I picked some silk think ribbons to tie the blocks together.

I alternated the yellow and purple ribbons.

 

Now comes the funnest part of the project (for me). I have a small container where I keep odds and ends of embellishments. I went through this stash and picked up a few things to decorate each block/letters.

after I was done with that, I added key rings to both ends and tied more ribbon on them .

And after the embellishments dried, I had a fun, easy Spring banner to decorate one of my walls with.

Here's a close up look of the banner.

Hope you guys enjoy my little project. Till next time.

Products used:

Clear N Chip Little Miss Molly Product Code: CNCMOLLY

 

Guest Designer - Janaina (Jana) Oliveira

We had such an amazing response on our Design Team call last month that we decided to ask a few talented women to join us as Guest Designers throughout this next year. Please join me in welcoming our first Guest Designer, Janaina Oliveira

My name is Jana Oliveira. I live in Central New Jersey with my husband, my 1 year old son and my beagle. My first passion was to do cards. I became a  stamper, but then I started to tell my story using mini albums, mixed media and  layouts. I have an attraction to use  a  layered look and mix different products when doing my mini albums and altered art and a more simple photo focus designs for layouts.

I would like to talk  today about  the fear many of us have using different mediums in our projects. Usually the fear to use products designed for mixed media, such as acrylic paints, gesso, crackle mediums, alcohol inks and the list can be endless.
Even for myself sometimes these mediums can be overwhelming especially if we want our project to be perfect. But something I'm learning everyday is to let it go. I always start to think if my son twenty years from now will care about perfect lines or acrylic paint applied without any stroke marks. I want him to know I had fun and used my creative self to tell our story. 

One thing I like to do is to use a lot of layers.

In this piece I've used many layers: paper, acrylic paint, sprays, die cuts, fabric, stamps . So, in the end we can see that it's possible to achieve harmony among so many different mediums , you just have to try it !

 

One tip for a start point: when you want to start a project like this, start with the color you want as your focus point. In this particular project my base color was Lucas' socks that were blue. You can use a color wheel or search color combinations on the internet and from there  separate papers, little embellishments and die cuts based on the colors to use on your project. Don't think too much - just let it go !

  Soon I will be showing how to use these techniques with Clear Scraps acrylic albums.  They have so much possibilities and different uses, so you can be confident that you are going to have a unique album to tell your story !

Jana
http://www.with2worlds.com

Thanks Jana for sharing this project with us and some tips on using different mediums!

Keep an eye out next week for an amazing acrylic Owl album that Jana did using some of these same techniques!

 

Easter Tutorial

Hi everyone!  I haven't blogged on here in a while so I thought I would do a Tutorial on the Clear Scraps Basket album!  This album is such a GREAT idea and what perfect time of year for it as we are getting ready to celebrate Easter in less then 2 weeks!

Here is the Easter Basket I made and is shown on the website:

So to make this album I used the Clear Scraps Basket Album and the Dear Lizzy line from American Crafts.

To start:

1. You will need Tim Holtz Alcohol Ink in Latte.  I tabbed some drops on the blending tool and covered the entire basket.

 

2. Then you will need Staz On in brown and a Rolling stamp from Glitz Design.  Ink you roller stamp and cover the handles and add two rows at the top of the basket.

 
 
 
 3. Repeat this step for both front and back cover. (on the back cover I used the roller stamp all over the basket...

4. This step is up to you if you want to cut your album.  I wanted the eggs to show ABOVE the basket so I cut off about 1" of the bottom of the covers.

5. Trace the fabric paper and cut out and adhere to the front side of the front cover.

I lined this fabric paper up with the little lip under the basket rim.

6. Adhere some ribbon (mine is from May Arts) with Tacky Glue to five the fabric paper an edge.

7. Trace each "egg" page with your favorite papers and adhere to the BACKSIDE of each page.

 
 
The using a Sizzix, I took one of their flower dies and cut out 4 flowers.  PLEASE NOTE: To make a mirror image of the flowers, you will need to die cut 2 with the fabric facing up and 2 with the fabric facing down.

 
 
This is another fabric paper from the  Dear Lizzy line at American Crafts.

9. Once you have your flowers diecut, adhere one large one to the frontside of the cover and then turn over that page and put the other large flower directly over the backside of the first flower.  They should line up perfectly if you've die cut 2 flowers face up and 2 flowers face down.

10. I wanted the smaller flower to have some dimension so I did not peel off the whole backing.  Instead, I ttok an exacto knife and cut out only a portion of the adhesive, crimped the flower a little and attached on the large flower.  Then I added another Dear Lizzie embellishment.

11. I used a Dear Lizzy stamp and only inked the "celebrate" portion and stamped it on one of the stickers from her line.  This is the title of my album and I may go back and say Easter on the cover as well.

Here is the album BEFORE I added some Easter Grass.  You can either leave it like this or adhere some "grass" with Zip dry to the inside of the front cover. 

Now enjoy adding your own "STAMP" to this album with your photos and embellishments!!

Happy Spring,

Laura McCollough

http://akissonthechic.typepad.com

  
 

I am blessed

Hi everyone, this is Grace. It's my very first post here in Clear Scraps blog and hope you guys welcome me and my ramblings.

Today I wanna share a layout I made using an acrylic mini tag album and decorative frame.

I am blessed

I mixed up these Clear Scraps products with some My Mind's Eye papers and Hambly transparencies and rubon.

I used the acrylic tag album pages as my foundation for the hambly tranparencies. It's a little tricky to add glue dots to the tags since they're mostly clear but thankfully the dots didn't show. I also added the frame to hold a felt flower. To dress it up, I added some hambly rubons on it.

I continued the rubon action with another of the tag acrylic. Added some flowers and a journaling and viola, a page done!

I love that the acrylic provided my page with texture and dimension.

So there you have it. What do you think of my first post and project for Clear Scraps?

Till next time. 

Products used:

	Decorative Frames Mini Tag Album

Spring has Sprung!

Good morning, it is my first official post for Clearsnaps.
I am just too excited.
I don't know about you but I am ready for some SPRING weather and some Springy projects!
For this Spring Sign (which proudly hangs on my front door) I took a 12X12 sheet of Clearscraps Acrylic and using my Purple Cows 1040 trimmer I cut it down to 6X12.
I used the new line All a Flutter from My Little Shoebox and it came together in under 30 minutes!
For the grass I used my Fiskars decorative scissors (Heartstrings) and then snipped the grass blades and for the border I used the Fiskars Apron Lace punch.
I hand cut all the shaped from the My Little Shoebox Papers, they totally inspired me,
I used Zapdots for the little ladybugs to pop them out and stickles to make it all jazzy!

I hope you enjoyed my first post, and if you decide to make your own Spring Hanger, please do share because I want to see it!
Have a beautiful Sunday, and Happy Spring!

~Pinky~
Clear Scraps Design Team Member

Be Loved Scrapbook Layout

This layout is created using a Clear Scraps acrylic sheet as the base. Layered on top are papers and embellishments from the Be Loved collection by My Mind’s Eye, plus daisies and acrylic gems by Accent Scrapbooking. I crocheted a beaded heart shape and used it as a photo frame. The acrylic slide is by Clear Scraps.

I just made a list of what I think are the best scrapbooking embellishments ever, and Clear Scraps acrylic slides are at the top of the list. If you’ve been following this blog for awhile now, you might remember having seen me rave about them before. I never get tired of using them, and they appear on zillions of my pages.

You might also recognize the scalloped heart-shape, which I blogged about before.

Why Isn’t There Journaling on This Layout?

You might have noticed that this layout doesn’t have a title, or journaling. If you’re curious about why that is, you are invited to read my new article, Should Every Scrapbook Layout Have Journaling?

Thanks for dropping by! We really appreciate your interest in Clear Scraps products.

Posted by: Amy Solovay

Minis Albums!

  Hi everyone! This is my first post here a Clear Scraps and I am so excited to be a part of this team! This is me,

Rita Barakat! Today I am going to share a mini album I made with Clear Scraps Scalloped Tabbed Album! The slide show below shows a variety of techniques you can do with your minis! Here a few close ups of the pages... 

  Here is the slide show...
 
 
 
  

I hope you try some of these techniques! Have fun!!!

How about some fresh Spring colors?

I don't know how your weather is where you live, but here in the Pacific NW we have been having some very grey and RAINY days. It poured all day yesterday and today seems to have the same theme. This weather makes me long for some sun and spring flowers and happy colors. So if I can't have the real thing, why not create it on my own? The My Mind's Eye Ooh la la for Her line was perfect for this layout. I started with one of the XL Deco shapes as my base. 

Then traced the shape onto the polka dot paper and cut out inside of my lines with my pinking shears, inked up the edges and applied it to the Clear Scraps page. Measured out the green polka dot page and the turquoise paper behind the ribbon and applied those. Put my photos on next. Next, I cut out all of the circles for that fun border, fold the side edges of the circles up and line them all up. Creates a really fun dimensional border that shows of both sides of the paper. Now the white card stock page I created on my own using floral stamps, Copic markers, Spica markers and buttons. Adhered that slightly over lapping the circle border and popped it up a bit with pop dots. Used Scor-Tape for the strips of glitter. Sewed down my ribbon (yes through the Clear Scraps, it works great!) TIed my bow and embellished with a button and rhinestone. Added my journaling and Thickers title and there you have it. Something to make the days around here brighter!

Here are some close ups...

Oh and the last thing that I did was to outline the edge of the XL Deco shape with a ZIG painty pen. 

THanks for stopping by!

Tonya Dirk

Clear Scraps Design Team Member

Sun is shining!

Hi! It's Hilde from the Netherlands again. The sun is shining so brightly I just needed to scrap the Flower Tab album. It's such a cute happy album.

I had photos of Fenna celebrating her birthday at kindergarten. So I decided to add those to the album. I used Cosmo Cricket papers

The flowers are all sponsored by Accent Scrapbooking. They match perfectly with the papers I used.

If you have some nice photos laying around, you should create a mini like this. The Flower Tab album is a fave for sure!!

 

 
 
  
 

Hilde Janbroers

Another Brag Bag to inspire!

 

Hi everyone! It's time for me to blog for you all again. Today, I'm going to share this little brag bag album that I've created using Clear Scraps acrylic "flower brag bag". This is an album that I've created to document some of my "2010 Resolutions".

Here are some of the pages inside.

 

 

 
 
  

To create this album, I've used quite a number of journaling pieces to create some areas for me to write my resolutions. I believed most of us has tons of journaling tags or papers lying around and we don't know what to do with it. Try using it to create a resolutions album, a planner, a weight watcher album or technique documentation album. Have fun!  

Scrapperlicious

Clear Scraps DT Member

Enjoying the snow!

Last month I took some gorgeous photos of the girls playing in the snow. We hadn't had snow for a long time, so the girls were all excited!

I used the Christmas mixables album. Perfect for non-Christmas photos as well. I had this Mica stuff which was perfect to create some fake snow around the edges.

The flowers I used were sponsored by Accent Scrapbooking. Thank you so much!!

 

 

 
  
  
 

thanks for looking!

Hilde Janbroers
 
 

Coffee Cozie anyone?

Today I am showing you my acrylic Coffee Cozie.  I love taking the 12x12 acrylic sheets and using them as the base of my projects and turning it into a great gift for family, friends and even teachers.

 

1.  I used a cardboard coffee cozy from my local coffee shop and took it apart to use as my template.
2.  Using Purple Cows Freestyle Mouse and wavy click blade trim across the top and bottom of the template to get the scalloped edge look.
3. Then using the straight click blade for the sides. 
4. Emboss the acrylic using a Sizzix embossing folder and Big Shot. 
5. Peel off both sides of protective coating from the acrylic
6. Wrap around a cup and use zip dry to adhere the ends together
7. Once dry stitch the ends you just glued. (if you like)
8. Now feel free to embellish as you like.  ( I stamped a flower image and used water colors to get the colors and effect I wanted.  I then laminated it with Purple Cows laminator.  Trimed it out and then ran it through the laminator to seal the edges I just cut and adhered it to the front of the coffee cozie.)

Since this is a gift I decided to take my left over acrylic from my 12x12 sheet I just cut my coffee cozie from and make a simple card.

1. Trim acrylic to 3.5x9 and score in half
2. Apply lace at the top
3. Apply rub-on to bottom right corner (Thinking of you)
4. Embellish the inside of card as you like.  (I stamped the same flower and used water colors and adhered to the inside of my card.

Thanks so much for looking and I hope to see what you are creating with your 12x12 Acrylic sheets.

Elisa Kammerdiener
Clear Scraps Designer
My Blog

The new 2010 Clear Scraps Design Team

Please help us give a big warm welcome to

the 2010 Clear Scraps Design Team!!

Returning from last year:

 

 

Cathy Schellenberg                         Elisa Kammerdiener

 

Irene Tan                                                 Hilde Janbroers  

  

 

Tonya Dirk                                                    Amy Solovay

  

Laura McCollough (Clear Scraps Educator)

and new to the team:

 

Rita Barakat

Cristal (Pinky) Hobbs

Grace Tolman

In addition, because we had so many amazing applications, we decided to have a few Guest Designers as well.  Over the course of the next year, you'll be seeing these talented ladies here on the blog as well:

Jana Oliveira   

Kathy Northup  

Bree Tetz   

Tracy Taylor  

Virginia Wong    

Marci Knecht