"Scrapbooking on a Budget"

Добрый день! Сегодня вернулась с новой идеей. Хотя идея в общем не новая. Давно собиралась сделать серию каких то отдельный постов посвященных определённой части нашего любимого хобби. И чем делиться как не тем что меня более всего интнресует?

Как всем известно, скрапбукинг относится к ряду не самых дешевых увлечений и далеко не каждый может позволить себе роскошь в приобретении желаемых товаров. Особенно самых последних и популярных. Я тоже относилась к этой категории людей. Но интерес к этому хобби был сильнее скромного бюджета который могла выделить на развлечение такого рода. Поэтому меня всегда интересовали различные способы как можно было съэкономить, перехитрить, импровизировать...

Грустнее всего что многие именно по финансовой причине и боятся окунуться в этот сказочный мир искуства. Так вот и родилась эта идея делиться своими маленькими "секретами" под названием "Scrapbooking on a Budget". Может быть кто то для себя сможет найти здесь что то новое, а кому то это послужит просто напоминанием.

Sharing little secrets, I discovered along the way and wish I knew when I first started scrapbooking. Today I would like to share first three.

Secret #1: Don't use a whole piece of paper for the first layer. 

Especially if you know you'll be layering things on top. We all have our favorite supplies. Pattern paper has been my favorite from the very beginning and it hasn't changed. The type of papers I like changes all the time, and right now diagonal stripe is my favorite pattern of all!

When I started making a card, instead of gluing that pretty stripe paper in one piece, I cut two strips from it and added one on each side.

By the time my card was done, no one can tell what's underneath, but I was able to save that paper and make three more cards with it! 

Secret #2: Always stitch with white thread. 

I never ever change the thread color. White goes with everything. It is visible on bright and dark colors, and it adds texture to white and light colors. What I love about it is that I never have to worry about my thread matching papers! Plus, it saves so much time and you don't have to purchase thread in every color.

Secret #3: Make a few cards of the same style at once. Budget your time.

Chances are, they will all go to different people. By repeating the design, you save a lot of time! It's always faster to make something second time around. You can change the color while still using similar supplies - die cuts, punches, design.

Last week, I needed to write a note to my friend. Using a scrap piece of paper looked very cheep. I checked my box with cards and all I could find was - Birthday, Thank you, Congratulations... Nothing seemed to fit. That's when I knew I needed to make a few cards in very simple designs.

That's how these four were born. They all share same design with a slight difference in color or sentiment. The idea of placement of the butterflies was seen on Pinterest.

These are just the first three "secrets" I use to save my time and money. I'll be back to share many more that might help you too! Thanks for stopping by!

Have a wonderful day and I'll see you next time!

Anya

Updated: You can check more "secrets" HERE and HERE!

"Pause Cafe"

Hi! It is such a gorgeous day outside today, so I'll be very quick today.

I just made a page last night and quickly wanted to share it with you. I used Pause Cafe paper collection from Les Papiers de Pandore. This time around page totally started with their cute journaling cards I was craving to use...

and then came everything else - design, photos, story...

 

 

Pictures were printed at home. It is so much easier to make a collage on your computer first and then adding them all at once as one big piece. That's in case you have a lot of photos for one page.

A little closer look of cluster of embellishments:

I must admit, I missed making layouts. I love making cards, but it felt good to finally make a page! There's another one I almost finished earlier, but I was having a trouble figuring out how to add journaling to it.

Got to go enjoy this perfect weather today!

Hope you have a great day and I'll see you soon!

Mother's Day cards...

Good morning! I made a few more Mother's Day cards last week that I like to share with you. First two are in pink and silver, using My Mind's Eye papers. Here they are in the order they were made. Number one:

a little close up

I was carrying the idea for the next one for a very long time and I finally decided to use it. And if you look a little closer you will probably realize that flowers in the vase on the background look a little too similar with the flowers on a card, well that's because they are. Card number two:

Those silver letter stickers by Recollection is one of my favorite things to use! I just love them. By the way, you can get them at Michael's.

The next two card were done in shades of yellow plus brown or grey. Also My Mind's Eye paper. Mostly the same 6x6 paper Pad. Here is number three:

And the last one:

  

Adding the hand cut leaves is one of my favorite parts of making a card lately. Maybe because it reminds me of my previous job in flower arranging.

That completes today's post. Hope you've found something here for yourself. Questions? Comments? I  would like to hear it all! Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Until next time!

Holiday card...

Hi! I'm keeping up with idea of making a Holiday card every month for a year. It's April, I know, but today I have a winter card to share with you. There was this pretty pattern paper with leaves on it in Lovely Birds collection. It was one of the first papers I cut when I received the pack. I made a flower with those leaves, but just today I decided to make a card using that flower.

 The flower reminded me of Poinsettia, that's where idea of making a Holiday card came to me. 

I used a calendar card by Simple Stories "Sn@p" collection. The clock shape was cut with Silhouette. I designed it in the Silhouette Studio recently and wanted to share with you, but I have no clue how to do that. Please let me know if you are familiar with it. Thanks!

Ribbon, pearls and glitter finished this monochromatic card. 

There's another layout and a few Mother's day cards that I have to share. Just didn't have time to get it all ready for today's post. But that gives me a good reason to come back soon!

I'll leave you with a picture of a little man, that grows up too fast...

He was enjoying his cousin's swing. He even fell asleep in it.

Well, I better go now, before today becomes tomorrow... Until next time!
Good night!

Enjoing quiet moment...

It's finally nice and quiet here after a long day. Enjoying this moment. I sat down to check email and went through some pictures that needed to be ordered. A few things I noticed (since I don't have many handmade thing's to share today).

1. We really enjoy warmer weather around here!

2. She loves him so much:

3. And he loves her back:

4. You may think where do I find time to blog... Well, that's because my kids took over cleaning:

4. If you order something online, make sure you tell your husband, or it may end up in the recycling bin. I checked the tracking number - it said DELIVERED. Checked our door step - nothing there. Then I decided to search for my box and found it in the recycling bin by the door. Glad it wasn't Friday when they pick up our trash...

5. It's getting late and I start feeling a little like this:

 

 6. Oh, I just remembered that I made one card last week for Mother's Day. It's round one for a change in pink and white and brown...

7. I missed my 300th post last week. It may not sound like a lot to some people, but it's a pretty big number for me:)

Good night and I'll see you soon!

Surrounded by love...

He sure is. And that's what my page was about. I thought I only needed a little space for journaling, but the longer I worked on the page, there was more I wanted to say, which made me include journaling on the back.There was a sketch challenge on the Les papiers de Pandore blog:

We were allowed to adjust the sketch if needed to fit our style, so I flipped the sketch on it's side,

 ...used a cluster of photos in place of a circle photo, substituted banners with a title in a curvy way and arranged everything on a 8.5x11 size.

And a little close up:

You can see more pages from other design team members for this sketch HERE. All the paper used on this page are from Les Papiers de Pandore, green border sticker - Scenic Route, letter stickers - Sn@p by Simple Stories. Hearts were cut with Cameo.

I wanted to round this post up, but how can I not mention our weather? It seems like we totally skipped Spring this year. Seriously. We went from Winter to Summer in two weeks!

We were waiting for this weather to come for SO long! And now we try to enjoy every moment of it! Even though some of us seemed to enjoy any weather...

Now, I have to say Good night! It's finally quiet here...

Thank you for stopping by and I'll see you soon!

Two cards and a TIP...

Hi! Back on Tuesday! My niece had a birthday last week. She loooves animals, so that was the theme of two cards I made and let my kids choose one they like better.  They chose green one, since it's her favorite color as of now.

Side view:

For this card I used papers by Les papiers de Pandore plus cardstock. For the other one I added other pattern papers too and the other one is a pretty similar just in a different color scheme.

And a pretty much same side view here:

For the images on both cards, that were cut with Cameo, I downloaded a free font from Dafont site, installed it and now my Silhouette is able to read it. This particular font is called Can Dog and had all type of dogs there.

So, there's your tip of the day. Download a font and cut an image with a Silhouette for your next project! Just be careful not to get a virus with some of them.

I guess that's all for today and I hope to be back tomorrow! Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Birdhouses...

Good Monday morning! I love Mondays. It's a new beginning, and feels a little like a mini New Year celebration. On Monday mornings I always feel like I'm going to be better, faster, kinder, get more done, have more patience, ... and then Monday afternoon comes. By this time I'm glad there might be another Monday soon.

Last week my four year old enjoyed placing a birdhouse on a tree in our backyard. She loves to check it a few times every day to see if it needs to be filled with more seeds. Glad there's something to do for her. Also, her older sisters helped her do a few more of the bird feeders that we saw on Pinterest.

Yes, these came from toilet paper rolls. These were covered in peanut butter and rolled in seeds. I was surprised that first day birds weren't interested in them at all and a few days later all four of these rolls were completely clean!

Speaking of birdhouses, there's this sweet paper in a Lovely birds collection that I wanted to use for some time:

From the moment I saw that paper, I was tempted to cut these birdhouses out. And I finally did. Lots of birdhouses plus lots of pop dots equal to this little card:

 Side view:

I've added a few glitter stickers and rhinestones that seem to go well with a grey wood grain background paper. 

I have a few more cards and a layout to share, so that's going to be a great reason to come back tomorrow! Thanks for stopping by!

See you soon!

Birthday card for a girl...

Добрый день! Племяница попросила сделать открытку для подружки на день рождения и вот что у нас получилось:

Добавить что то в горошек было единственной просьбой. Остальное было на моё усмотрение.

Для платья использовала ленточку с проволкой. С нижней стороны её вытягивала, а с верху, благодаря этой проволке, очень легко слаживались складки. Вешалки на Silhouette не нашла, пришлось рисовать и вырезать от руки.

И наверное оставлю одно фото для родственников (особенно тех кто обсыпает поцелуями нашего сынулю)...

Это от снедает яблоко... У него правда только два полных зуба, но он умудряется откусывать кусочки а потом их выплёвывать. Пусть лучше яблоко кушает, а то на днях открыл язык, а он у него весь сиреневый... и я вспомнила что он игрался баночкой с сиреневыми цветочками... Не знаю где он делся, но мокрый цветочек мы не находили...

Спасибо что зашли! Спасибо всем кто радует своими отзывами! И до новой встречи!