creating keepsakes Archives

Mixed Media Scrapbooking Volume 2

I’m super excited to say that I have a mini album published in Creating Keepsakes new Mixed Media Scrabooking special issue! If you pick up a copy of this magazine, please turn the to pages #63 and 64 and take a peek at my album.

This issue is full of super inspiring techniques. I want to try so many of them, this magazine is going to be sitting on my desk for a while. 🙂 Here’s a peek at my mini album, I created a muslin base, and used Gelatos and Aquarelles by Design Memory Craft to color it, and using PITT artist pens to hand write my journaling.

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Spring Garden Layout

There are always fun challenges going on at ClubCK, Color challenges, Sketch challenges, Card challenges, etc! and every now and then they post the 1 hr Challenge. These are my favorites.

The goal is to complete the challenge in less than 1 hr, which is fun for me. The most recent challenge was to follow this sketch.

I resized the sketch a little bit so that I could make it work for a one page layout instead of a two-pager. I printed my photos small so that it wouldn’t feel too cluttered, and I think it worked. 😉

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Holiday Gift-Wrapping with Mou Saha

Hi
everyone, Mou Saha here from
Creating Keepsakes magazine. Holidays are
here and it’s the time of gift giving. Any gift becomes extra special when it’s
wrapped with love and some creativity.

For this little pocket, I used kraft
wrapping paper, dress pattern tissue, some patterned tissue from Tim Holtz,
book paper, Diecut border, lace trim, tissue tape, chipboard letters, decoupage
medium, sewing machine, and a gift topper.

First,
decoupage some dress pattern tissue onto kraft wrapping paper. The sizes will
depend on the size of your gift. Layer small pieces of decorative tissue and
book paper on top and seal with a coat of decoupage medium. Let dry.

Once
the piece is dry, fold it in half and machine stitch the left and right edges.

Now
with the pocket structure complete, decorate with trims, diecut borders, and
chipboard letters. Attach a gift topper with some tissue tape for extra cheer.

Put
your gift in with a special note and it would surely make someone very merry
this Christmas!

Happy
Holidays J

—

A note from Katie:

I think this is a gorgeous way to wrap presents. So much more texture and more layers than plain wrapping paper. Thanks for guest posting, Mou! -Katie

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Creating Keepsakes Jan/Feb is Out!

I’m excited to say that the Jan/Feb issue of Creating Keepsakes Magazine hit newsstands yesterday!

I contributed to this magazine and although you won’t find my layout inside the pages of the magazine, it is featured online in the extra content. So, check it out here.

I used yarn to hand stitch hearts around my photos and little hears here and there on my page. If you look closely, you will also see that I used a pink sharpie just a shade darker than my paper to doodle/zentangle hearts onto the background.

“As seen in the Jan/Feb of Creating Keepsakes magazine.
Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the
publisher.”

There are a ton of inspiring layouts in this magazine, and it looks like the upcoming trend in scrapbooking is vintage. 🙂

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Scrapbooking: SMASH Style!

Today’s guest post is brought to you by Mou Saha.

—

Hi everyone, Mou Saha
here from Creating
Keepsakes magazine!

Today I’m doing a scrapbook spread in the SMASH style. recently I took a
short trip St. Charles, Chicago and like always, brought some mementos from the
show: a show booklet, the sleeve from my drink cup, a napkin from the resort
that was the show venue, my badge, etc.

I decided to put the booklet on the left page almost as a
focal photo on a scrapbook page. I planned to create a pocket with the embossed
paper to hold some of the stuff.

When I laid the elements out, their sizes, however, were too
big to fit in my sketchbook. So, I decided to switch to a bigger journal. But
first, I colored the front page of the booklet with color pencils.

I also stitched my pocket out of the embossed paper and
paper napkin.

I attached the booklet and the pocket to my journal and
tucked some mementos into the pocket.

Next, I journaled on the right page and added the date with
a stamp.

Hope you enjoyed today’s post and will SMASH in your scrapbooks too!

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Creating a Fiber Paste Card with Mou Saha

Hi everyone, Mou Saha here from CreatingKeepsakes magazine.
Let’s talk about Fiber Paste today.

If you are wondering what Fiber Paste
is, it is a texture paste that looks like handmade paper, has the
consistency of cake frosting, can be applied with a palette knife or
with your fingers, dries fast, and takes colors well.

If you follow the CK editor’s blog,
you might have read my post about Fiber paste. In that post I
mentioned that I’ll use the left over textured block in another
project. So, here it is with a slight recap from the original post.

I laid a favorite stencil on a thick
cardstock and applied fiber paste in small quantities using a palette
knife. I removed the stencil and cleaned it off immediately.

The paste dried pretty fast.

I cut out a block from the textured
paper where my photo went and saved that block for a future card.

I colored the cut out block with pink
Twinkling H2O.

Next, I started building my card, one
layer at a time, as shown below.

And here’s my finished card using
fiber paste.

Hope you enjoyed and would try fiber
paste in your art!

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Styling a Composition Book with Mou Saha

Hi
everyone, Mou Saha here from
Creating Keepsakes magazine. Summer’s
almost over and it’s time to go back to school! My daughter’s 9 and going to 5th
grade this year. She is into art journaling in her own way. So I thought I’ll
style an extra composition book for her to do her own thing. Let me show you
how.

Start
with a plain regular composition book like this one.

Use
a sanding block or sand paper to tone down the glossy surface while giving the
covers some tooth to grab the adhesive in the next step.

Do
this on both the front and back covers.

Wipe
the dust off with a towel to get the book ready for the next step. I used gel
medium to layer some old book paper and library receipt on the cover.

Once
it’s dry, turn the book over and trim off the excess papers using a sharp craft
knife. Repeat on the back cover.

Well,
now comes the most fun part of this project! Gather washi tapes, paper tapes,
sticker borders, etc.…my daughter’s favorite color is blue, so I picked blues
and greens with touches of white, black, and red.

Start
attaching strips of washi tapes starting near the spine. Wrap the tape around
at the top and bottom for a neater finish and to avoid lifting off later.

Keep
adding tapes till you have reached the right edge of the composition book. If
you are wondering why I went through the trouble of sanding and layering the
book papers, let me explain… washi tapes are not thoroughly opaque—you can see
what’s underneath. The black stripes of the notebook cover would have made the
tapes look darker and streaky. Plus, I wanted the book papers to peek through
just a bit to make it look more interesting.

Now,
draw a label on cardstock and cut it out with scissors. Attach it to the front
cover and seal the whole surface with a light quote of gel medium. You can
still write on the label with a Sharpie.

Before
I take your leave, let me share some info about my upcoming Mixed Media
workshop at CKU.

Class Description:
Get your art on mixed media style as you collage together two scrapbook layouts
while learning to use some of the hottest and trendiest products in the
industry. Come and explore techniques using gelatos, canvas postcards , spray
mists, modeling paste, dress patterns, chipboard, stencils, watercolor pencils,
and more. You’ll leave with enriched artistic technique skills that you can
apply at home to your scrapbook layouts and other creative projects. Featuring
latest products from Faber-Castell Design Memory Crafts, 7 Gypsies, Canvas
Corp, Studio Calico, and The Crafters Workshop. See you in class!
Class length: 1.50 hours

San Jose, CA – September 6-8, 2012

Dallas, TX – October 11-13, 2012

Stamford CT- November 1-3, 2012

You can find the class
details here.

Registration is now open for all three events.

You can find more helpful information here.

-Thanks, Mou, for doing a wonderful guest post on my blog! I love the look of this altered composition book, I’m sure your daughter will love it! -Katie

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Inspiration from Mou Saha

Hi everyone, Mou Saha here from Creating Keepsakes magazine. Recently, I came across a wonderfully inspiring book called Mixed Media Girls with Suzi Blu where Suzi teaches how to draw beautiful faces and shares her process of creating amazing collage art. Today, I want to share the first art journal spread I created using her inspiration as my starting point.

I started with a drawing.

Then I colored around it with watercolor pencils and blended the colors with wet brush.

Finally, I added some details with colors, doodling, and journaling.

Hope you enjoyed today’s post and would create something with an inspiration as a starting point.

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I Love Swimming- Summer Scrapbook Layout

There is a fun scraplift challenge going on at ClubCK, so I thought I would join in. I loved the large circle on this layout by Heather, so I decided to scraplift it.

Instead of cutting a circle out of paper, I doodled one, and instead of a paper strip, I layered some mint fabric paper and some washi tape for the horizontal strip.

I also got to use some white Mister Huey mist that I got at the convention. I love Mister Huey, and I’ve been eyeing the white mist for some time. 🙂

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I’m Guest Posting at the CK Blog

As you know from my last post, I have a mini album published in the new July/Aug issue of Creating Keepsakes. Today, I’m guest posting over on the CK blog with more pictures of my Clue Mini Album!

I’d love it if you hopped over there and took a peek! -Katie