Kaitlin Sheaffer

Frame love

 

Good Sunday morning! 

I'm back this morning with a quick, simple home decor project. I love frames, and have amassed quite a collection.  It seems like everytime I take a trip to Ikea, I come home with a few more.  The frame I used for the project below is a 10x 10 shadowbox from yep, you guessed it... Ikea.  I recycled it from a project I did for American Crafts a few years ago, as it was in need of an update.

I started off by cutting the circle grid template on my Silhouette, and trimmed it down a bit,  just eyeballing it freehand. I think this template was the first thing I downloaded when I got my Silhouette, there's so many possibilites. Nothing like a great grid!

I printed off some photos of us from this year so far, & resized them to fit behind the circles. Then I just filled in the remaining spots with a few flair buttons, and chose some beautiful muted papers, as I wanted a soft, quilted look for this.  I cropped one of the Ormolu dots and spots into a circle ( chicken wire!) and added the bird tweet on top, in homage to our cockatiel Petie, who joined our family this year. ;)  I punched more circles from the kraft tags, and added those in the diamonds between each circle, then I popdotted the entire grid and glued it onto the background. To finish off, I added the sweet quote sticker from Jillibean underneath, along with a little heart veneer from Studio Calico.

 

I love with how this turned out, and it's now hanging proudly in my stairwell. :)

 

Have a beautiful rest of the weekend....

 

Melanie

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Comfort zones

 

Good morning! I'm back with a layout that took me a little out of my comfort zone. I'll admit, I have issues with messy and crooked, and I'm not sure that I'm totally enamoured with this page, but it was fun to experiment with a few things I don't usually do. I'm often ribbed at work for buying a lot of patterned paper ( my scrappy vice) and not using more than a sliver of it on a layout, so I tried mixing a few recent purchases together here for a more eclectic look. The background, while subtle, is also patterned, and a change from my usual white or kraft. I love the patterns in this Sass/SC paper, and I love how the Fact or Fiction flair plays off the circles in the paper. In keeping with the circle theme, I added one of the Bungalow dots & spots as a base for my flair button,  and as a place to anchor the 'break time' label, which I cut into a little banner. I knew I wanted a circular accent above the photo to balance out the lower right side, so I used the circle mask ( another technique I don't usually use in my layouts|) and inked with yellow to mimic some sun rays. And as much as I don't like handwriting on my layouts, I resisted the urge to type out my text, and just went ahead and added it on the fly without thinking about it. It's messy, but I can live with it. ;)

 

 

 

I don't think I'll be permanently swayed to the 'dark side' after this, but as the saying goes, a change is as good as a rest. :)

 

 

 

 

 

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using enlargements

 

Sometimes when I'm editing photos, I see one that really pops out at me, and I know instantly that I want to use it BIG on a layout. I took this photo of my son fishing last summer during a camping trip, and I knew that if I cropped it down to a smaller size, it would lose the impact I wanted it to have. I really wanted to preserve the calm, quiet and vast feel of the image, and decided to print it out to 8.5x11 on my home printer after converting it to black and white. It helps if you have an image with some white space if you're going to be adding directly onto your photo. The bold summer subway wording pattern paper strip I used was perfect for my theme, but I wanted to keep the rest of my embellishments minimal so as not to compete too much with that. I sprayed one of the Kraft tags with some yellow mist, cut it down a bit, and ran it through my printer. I added a tag sale tag, stamped with a little title, and then layered a custom flair with my son's initial on top. By keeping my embellishments to a minimum, I think the photo really stands on it's own, and I love how this turned out. I encourage everyone to try scrapping with an enlargement, it's really addictive. :)

Happy Canada Day weekend to all my fellow Canadians!! And a joyous 4th to those of you in the USA. :)  

 

 

~Melanie

 

 

 

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Happy mistakes

 

Good morning! Melanie here, sharing a layout that came together nicely, despite a few mishaps along the way. 

I took hundreds of photos during our mini vacation to NYC a few months back, and wanted to put several of them on one page, which is always a challenge when you scrapbook 81/2 x11, single page layouts. ;)  I decided to resize some faves to 2x2, but for some reason, ( which I still haven't figured out ) my photos kept printing out at 1x1 inches. After 3 failed printing attempts, I got fed up and decided to use the photos 'as is'. They're tiny and hard to see on the layout, but I liked all the white space it left me on my page, so I just took the whole sheet, trimmed it down into a square, and made a grid design in the middle of the page. I knew I wanted to use these Studio Calico vacation themed stamps on my layout, so I decided to stamp my title under the bottom of my photos- I was a bit over zealous with the ink pad, because my text didn't stamp out very crisp. At this point, I'd already glued down my photos, so I decided to re-stamp the 'week' word, cut it out, and just pop-dotted it on top of the messed up version. I love how it looks with some dimension, much cooler than the flat text I was originally going to use. This is a simple trick I learned through error, and I love it.

I don't know about you, but everytime I stamp on a page, I end up with ink somewhere where I definitely DON'T want it. I managed to get a blob of black ink in the bottom right hand corner ( courtesy of my forearm, which I somehow stuck in the ink pad unknowingly...*note to self* - put cover on inkpad after stamping!) so I grabbed one of the 'tag sale' tags and layered  it on top of a bit of washi tape, which covered up my blob nicely. ;) Finally, I added my title on top of the photos with a perfectly worded tag sale flair button, and a little subtitle stamped on top of one of my favourite sale tags. 

Here's the final outcome:

I love when making mistakes turns into something good. :)

 

 

 

 

 

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Instagram mini

I've been wanting to do something with the gazillion Instagram shots I have on my stream, and decided on doing simple mini album. I should say that I'm not usually the mini album type, but seeing as how IG lends itself to a smaller sized print, I knew I had to go that route.  This is something I put together super quick in the past 2 evenings, and I'm really stoked with how it's coming along. I highly recommend printing out your IG pics- I'm loving the progression of seeing my year so far as I flip through this book, and if you're like me and can't commit to starting Project Life,  this is a fast way to do a very simplified take on that. 

I'm chooing to use 4 photos/month, so this book, once it's done, will have 52 pages, give or take.  The book I'm using  here is a 3x4  holiday mini from Jamaica that I've been hoarding since last year- I'm happy to have put it to good use. :) I'm resizing all my photos to 3x3, and adding a few bits of journaling under each one. 

I used my favourite tag sale tags along with one of the custom flair buttons to make my cover title. The Instagram stamp is from Studio Calico, I knew I needed that as soon as I saw it. 

 

 

 

 The inside page is covered with this perfectly worded journaling block from the new Bungalow collection. I added a stamped camera image, and layered another custom flair on top. 

 

Here's what the pages look like, grouped by month.

January:

February:

March:

April:

Once it's all finished at the end of December, I'll punch a hole at the top corner of each page, and just add a simple ring to hold it all together. I'm feeling like this is one project I won't have any problem finishing- I've loved putting it together so far and can't wait to see it all done at year's end. :)

 

 

 

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Father's Day & Tag Giveaway

The month of June is right around the corner, and with it brings Father's Day, and my Dad's birthday too. May  has been a whirlwind of end-of -year activities for us, and June promises more of the same- crazy!  I always give my Dad a handmade card, and he's kept every one,  so I know he really appreciates them. :) I  realize that Father's Day is a month away, but let me tell you, it felt so good to have this card done early, and not have to scramble the night before to get something made. Anyone with me on that?  ;)

I recently got some of the adorable custom flair that Kaitlin offers in the shop, and used the 'Dad' button as my starting off point for this card. I stamped on one of the package tags, and used that as a base for my elements.   Also, one of my new favourite items from her new collection are the 'Tag Sale' tags which I probably should have bought several bags of... they're perfect for gifts, cards, layouts, and a bit of journaling.  I love the grid pattern, as well as the kraft that also comes in the mixed bag. I will be using these A LOT.  Here, I  stamped the 'XOXO' sentiment on it, and layered it on top of some cute striped paper.

If you'd like to win a pack of these tags, leave me a comment in this blog post by 8 p.m. PST today and a winner will be announced tomorrow. Good luck!

 

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The winner from yesterday's giveaway for the Bungalow Dots n' Spots is...

Please email Kaitlin at ormoludesign (at) gmail (dot) com to claim your prize. 

Thanks everyone for the comments and stay tuned tomorrow for another giveaway!

On finding the perfect embellishment

 

 

 

As a clean & simple scrapper, I have some 'issues' about adding a lot of stuff to my layouts. ;)  I wish I could, but it just doesn't work for me. I'm pretty content to make a page that focuses on my journaling and photo(s), and adding one or 2 embellishments that mesh well with the theme of my layout.  I went looking through my Ormolu stash, searching for something to go with this layout, and to my great joy, I found this 'Legendary' fabric tag from the 'Fact or Fiction' line that I'd totally forgotten about. Seriously?!  It's perfect.  I remember loving it when I first saw it, but thinking it would have to be something pretty specific for me to be able to use it. I think this photo of my son photographing the Empire State building ( which is iconic and legendary, right?)  works perfectly.  I layered the tag on top of the map strip, glued on a camera image that I hand cut from a piece of patterned paper, and then sewed it on.  Instant title, and my layout was done.  Love when that happens! I'd love to hear your thoughts on embellishing your layouts... do you embellish a lot, a little, or not at all? 

 

 

 

 

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sneak peek

 

Good morning! 

I know a lot of you have been anxiously awaiting some new Ormolu products, and I have a little sneak peek for you today of what's coming up soon- you will not be disappointed, believe me!

 

The frame I used on my layout here is from an upcoming line called 'Bungalow'. These print & cut frames are to be used in conjunction with your Cameo or Silhouette, but not to worry if you don't have one, as they can be easily printed out on your home printer, and cut out with an exacto.  And I'm not sure yet, but I think Kaitlin may also offer these  for sale in the shop as a printed & laser cut physical card. The inside of the frame comes with two tickets, which you can use as an added bonus to journal on. I love how Kaitlin has designed these, a really brilliant touch to use up that wasted space inside the frame. 

On my layout here, I backed the cut out letters on the frame with some striped patterned paper, and tucked the 2 journaling tickets underneath. I've been buying a ton of great stamps lately, so I put those to good use by using them as part of my journaling/title ( a French quote that I LOVE) and as a subtle background for my photo frame. Sorry for the shadow-y scan, I would have prefered a photo, but we're in the midst of a  mini- hurricane here this morning (!) and it's just too dark & dingy to get a better shot.

Stay tuned for shop updates & new goodies in the next few weeks!

 

~ Melanie

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simple memory keeping

Good morning!

Since I haven’t yet jumped on the Project life bandwagon, (even though I’m terribly tempted) one of my favourite ways to document the little things about my children is to make a short recap of things they love, and put it on a layout. I usually just make a quick list in bullet form,  simple reminders of what they are ‘into’ at this moment. I absolutely LOVE re-visiting these pages a few years down the road.   I can’t tell you how happy I am to have done them, as we all know how fast it flies by, and how our memory gets a tad foggier every passing year. ;) I’ve done this type of layout for both of my boys a few times a year since I started scrapbooking, and they are really the most rewarding for me.

 For this page, I started with my text, placed my photo, and used the flair button ‘15’ layered on one of the dots & spots to highlight my son’s age. I stapled the fabric tag on top to add in some of that beautiful blue, ( which irl is really the same colour!)   and also as a spot to add in the heart button.

Hope this inspires you to jot down a few things you’ve wanted to document about your children, yourself, or your spouse- it’s a fast way to get a meaningful page done that you will cherish years from now. 

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Spring is in the air...

Yesterday was a gloriously warm, sunny day,  a surprise gift after a long Canadian winter.  I even opened up my windows and let some fresh air into the house, and it felt SO good.  The nice weather got me in the mood to do a Spring themed page, and I decided to scrap this photo of myself on Easter Sunday, WAY back when. ;p I usually have trouble using soft, pastel colours, but I liked how the papers played up the vintage, feminine look I was going for,  and matched perfectly with the Ormolu flair button and number dot & spot I used as my embellishments. This set of Line & Letter  flair is one of my favourites- perfect for a sub-titles or left to shine on it's own.  I'm not seeing the 'number 3" I used in the shop, but it's from the MerryMaker line, which was a huge hit this past holiday season.

Hoping Spring has arrived, wherever you are- it's my favourite season of all, and I can't wait to get outside ( after the snow has finally melted)  and breathe in that wet, earthy smell! 

 ~Melanie

 

Line & Letter Flair Buttons

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