Shopping for Scrapbooking Supplies 101

Good Morning, Happy Tuesday! Thanks for stopping by for Let's Talk Tuesday!

When shopping for scrapbooking supplies sometimes (most times) it can be a little overwhelming and expensive. There are so many choices. There are so many manufacturers and within each of those manufacturers there are a ton of different products within each of their collections. While shopping it's helpful to know your style and what supplies you will and won't use. It's important to know your own personal style.

If you don't know your own style it's easy to buy lots of the latest and greatest supplies that may sit in your stash unused. If defining your style and what supplies you use is difficult for you you may want to look through your stash as well as evaluating the pile of supplies that you've discarded. Another great way to see what you do/don't use is to flip through your completed albums and paying special attention to items that you use over and over again.

I've got a list of supplies that I know I will use and therefore I buy often. I also have a list of supplies that I don't buy and a list of supplies that I will sometimes buy.


My must list of supplies that I always buy:

• neutral cardstock (white, black, kraft, and sometimes grey)
• patterned paper (it's also helpful to know whether you prefer the A side of patterned papers or the B side. I'm almost always more drawn to the B side.)
• letter stickers (lots and LOTS of Thickers find their way into my stash. You can learn more about that HERE)
• wood veneer
• paper doilies
• small stickers
• ephemera packs 
• enamel dots 
• chipboard stickers 
• washi tape

 My list of things that I don't buy:

• colored cardstock
• huge (bulky) embellishments (like the Crate Paper Pinwheels, I LOVE them but I've never used them because they're huge. I'm determined to find a use for them though.)
• flower embellishments
• large stickers
• stickers with a lot of words
• stick pins 

My list of things that I occasionally buy:

• 6x6 paper pads
• journaling cards
• stamps
• frames 
• die cuts 

Although this isn't a comprehensive list of supplies I hope that it gives you an idea of how you can make your list of supplies when you making your next scrapbooking purchases. 

If you're wondering where my favorite place to shop for scrapbooking supplies, it's Paper Issues. They're shipping is the fastest and their customer service is unmatched...true story!
If you do head over there to do some shopping you can use the code becki20 to get 20% off your entire order.

 Good Luck on your next shopping trip!

Let's Talk Tuesday: Video Tutorial

Good morning! It's Tuesday again and you know what that means! It's Let's Talk Tuesday.

 Thank you for the overwhelming response to last weeks post on Gelatos. I have loved chatting with all of you about that tutorial. If you missed it you can find it HERE. I can't wait to see what all of you create with your gelatos. Today I thought we'd change things up a bit and try a process video for Let's Talk Tuesday this week. 

I've been working on a super-secret, super-exciting project (I can't wait to tell you about it... in a few more days). While I had my video camera set up I shot this process video. I'm excited to share it with you. Let me know what you think.  I'd love to know weather you enjoy photo or video tutorials or both.

Without further adieu here's my video:

 I also have one more video on my youtube channel that you may have missed:

I promise I will have more process/tutorial videos coming up.  Thank you for stopping by today and for all your support!

Let's Talk Tuesday: Gelatos Tutorial

Happy Tuesday! Thanks for stopping by for Let's Talk Tuesday. I'm so excited about today's post. I've been working on these projects off and on for a few weeks now.

Right now a huge trend in scrapbooking is mixed media/artsy looking projects like Wilna Furstenburg is so amazing at creating. Her beautiful scrapbook pages could double as a piece of art work. Confession time: I love the look of these more "artsy" projects but I don't like getting messy when I'm scrapbooking. I typically don't like to use paints and other art supplies because I'm not the most careful person and inevitably will smear something across my photos; that's just how I roll. I stayed away until, I found gelatos. I love my gelatos! They allow me (a not so artsy person) to achieve the look of watercolors with much less mess.

Let me show you how easy gelatos are and how much fun they are to work with.

First of all, for those of you that don't know what a gelato is, let me explain. A gelato is kind of like a very thick watercolor paste in a tube, very similar to a tube of lip balm. 

 They are so easy to work with. All you do is write or draw with the gelato onto a piece of cardstock. (For all of these examples I used textured cardstock. You don't have to use textured, smooth cardstock will work just fine. It's really just a personal preference.)

On the first project I used gelatos to create a rainbow background. Here's what my cardstock looked like right after I colored on it with the gelatos:

And here's what it looked like with just a little bit of water brushed on with a paint brush:

I just brushed water on the top portion (the blue portion) so you could see the difference.

And here's what my background paper looked like right after I got done brushing the water on:

I didn't blend the colors very much on this project because I wanted them as a distinct rainbow, but gelatos blend beautifully.

And here's the layout I created with this rainbow background:

 And here's a detail shot of the gelato background in action. Doesn't it look like I used some fancy-schmancy watercolors?

On this next project I drew lots of different colored hearts with the gelatos, brushed them with water, let them dry, and then cut them out.
Before water:

Before you add the water they look like crayon drawings. (They don't act like crayon though, they will smear if you run your finger across it.)

After the hearts were brushed with water (still wet):

And here's the layout I created with the hearts:

I had a few little hearts left so I created a super simple card:

 I used an orange gelato to highlight the area behind the title to emphasize the title on this layout:

What do you think? Are you ready to try some Gelatos?
Here are a few more links to projects I've created with gelatos:
There are so many beautiful reasons to be happy
All About Me
Wave & Smile

Thanks for stopping by. Happy Tuesday!

Let's Talk Tuesday: 3 Tools You Should Dust Off

Recently, I've been looking at my ever growing stash of scrapbooking supplies and realized that I have more than just useable supplies (i.e. paper, embellishments, and adhesive). I also found a few tools that I don't want to get rid of but that I haven't used recently either. 
I decided that I would use all three of these tools with the July Paper Camellia kit and add-on. 

• Decorative Scissors
•  Paper Crimper
• Circle Cutter (Coluzzle)

 

The first tool I dusted off was my decorative scissors. Most of my decorative scissors have been slowly weeded from my stash but I can't part with these big old scallop scissors from Provo Craft. They make the most perfect scallops (not to big and not too small). I haven't found a border punch that will make scallops like these scissors will.

I used these scissors to create the scalloped border along the bottom of the layout. These borders ground the layout.

 (This layout is created with the Paper Camellia July Main Kit)

The second tool I dusted of was my Paper Crimper. 

I love this tool! You can created your own corrugated papers without spending the extra money to buy them premade.
Down the center of this layout is a piece of patterned paper I use the paper crimper on. It added just a little bit of texture and interest to the background.

(This layout was created using the Paper Camellia July Main Kit Add-on.)

The last tool I dusted off was my Coluzzle, also made by Provo Craft. I used to have a whole bunch of these templates but just like my decorative scissors the templates have gradually disappeared from my stash. The only template I still have is the ones to cut circles.

I used the circle cutters to cut lots of different sized circles. I then cut them in half and used them to create the wonky scallopy borders on both sides of this layout.

 (This layout was created using both of the Paper Camellia July Main Kit and Add-on.)

Are there any tools you haven't used in your stash? Are they the same ones that I dusted off?

Let's Talk Tuesday: Combining Fonts to Create Eye Catching Titles

{If you're looking for the Hip Kit/Elle's Studio blog hop and giveaway, you can find it HERE)
Combining fonts to create bold, eye catching titles is one of my favorite techniques. I use it all.the.time. I have a secret recipe for perfect font combinations:

1. Use a script font (one that looks kind of like cursive handwriting) combined with a block font.
2. One font must be thicker and bolder than the other one. I usually use the script font as the thinner font and the block font as the bolder one.

Let me show you what I mean. This Turkey Dinner layout is a perfect example.

The "turkey" part of the title is created with a chipboard alphabet from Bella Blvd and the "dinner" portion of the title is cut from dark brown cardstock using my Silhouette Machine.

Here's an example of a premade die 0cut title that uses the same guidelines that I adhere to. Gotta Love This

This diecut is from Kerri Bradford Studios. Notice that the "gotta" portion of the title is in script and the "love this" portion of the title is a block font.

The last example I have for you today is the title of a mini album I created for American Crafts (there's a tutorial with this album too, you can find that HERE)

Do you have a secret (or not so secret) plan for combining fonts? I'd love to hear your method. 

Let's Talk Tuesday: 61 Everyday Page Titles (with a printable list)

 Welcome to Let's Talk Tuesday! I hope you're enjoying this new series here on my blog. I'm having so much fun with it and love hearing all your comments.

Today we're talking about Everyday Memory Keeping. Everyday moments are my absolute favorite thing to document. Most of my scrapbooking is centered around everyday moments. In fact, I don't scrapbook a lot about holidays or special occasions *gasp* I know, it's something that I need to work on. For today I created a list of 61 page titles that you can use as inspiration to get more of those everyday moments captured and in your scrapbook or Project Life albums. 

I've grabbed a few of my favorite projects that document everyday memories.

This project I created for Bella Blvd and it's all about what my typical day looks like.

 This is documenting my love of this photo...nothing super exciting about this photo it was just taken on our front porch but I love love love it.

This one just documents how we were so excited to see the first signs of Spring while sitting at the bus stop.

This one is all about going to the library, nothing out of the ordinary there...although it's still one of the most exciting things for my kiddos.

 On this project I just used a few snapshots of my nieces and talk about how much I love them and how lucky I am to be their aunt.

And here's the complete list I created. (I don't keep a pen and paper in my purse for nothing).

 

*If you have any questions, suggestions, or comments. Please, click on the contact me button to your right* I'd be thrilled to hear from you*

If you'd like to print this list you can find the entire document HERE

What are your favorite memories to document? Do you document everyday moments or do you tend to document holidays, birthdays, and big events?