Using your patterned paper as embellishments....

A fun and easy way to add your unique touches to your layouts or cards is to cut the patterns out of your scrapbook papers and use those pieces as embellishments rather than leaving it as part of the patterned paper.

In my layout ‘first football uniform’ I cut the football from Scrappin’ Sports & More’s Football Reflection paper, distressed the edges a little bit and adhered it to my layout then die cut my letters for my title from the black paper left over. This allows me to show off more of the football in my layout than had I used the Football Reflections paper as a background paper.

You can also cut images from patterned paper and use it in place of an embellishment as I did here on my “8 second ride” layout. I wanted to add a little something with the photos and a cut out steer from Scrappin’ Sports & More’s new Steers paper worked perfectly.

Your cut out images do not have to be perfect, I think imperfection gives it more of a personal touch … or maybe I just say that to make myself feel better for not being able to cut perfectly! J Start with easier shapes such as a large football then work your way down to smaller more detailed shapes such as the steer. Have fun!

CHA Update

All I can say is WOW! It's that time again for the Craft & Hobby Association's Winter Trade Show in Anaheim, California and it is packed full of inspiration! There is fabulous new product everywhere and the booth at Scrappin' Sports & More is no exception!

Coaches vs. Cancer

Yesterday, our local high school basketball coach asked me to come out to the gym to take a team picture. The pictures I shot inspired this layout. The new "On The Edge Sports" basketball paper was a perfect choice.

Coaches vs. Cancer is something that started at the collegiate level to raise money and awareness in the fight against cancer. In Iowa, the state high school athletic agencies have encouraged local school districts to join this battle. Our student body, our school family, was dramatically touched by the ravages of this disease just last March when our long time high school principal lost his battle with brain cancer. That’s Mr. Cosens, or Cuz, as he was known around town in the upper left hand picture.

In an effort to raise money for Coaches vs. Cancer, the basketball team designed and sold these shirts.... the pink ribbon symbolizing breast cancer, the gray shirt symbolizing brain cancer. We’ll all be wearing our shirts at Friday night’s basketball game. Here's to Cuz and everyone else whose lives have been affected by this disease.

Supplies:
#1305 On The Edge Sports, Basketball
#1300 Down on the Farm, Pigs
#1175 Defining Competition
#5527 Sports on Fire Basketball Cardstock Stickers

No turning back...

One of the things I love most about Scrappin Sports and More papers are that they are 2-sided! Sometimes the back has another image, and sometimes the back is mostly one color. At times I take some very busy pictures and need a more subtle paper to match. Scrappin Sports and More has me covered!! Not only are the backs perfect for a more subtle look, the different lines coordinate perfectly with each other. For this layout, I used papers from the Family and More Line and the Young and Active line. Because the papers were mostly one color, I could even die cut my letters for my title to achieve a perfect match.

Products Used:
Item: 1271 Brother-Sister
Item: 1101 Balancing Act
Item: 1273 Grandpa-Papa

More Layouts from CHA new releases

I just love this time of the year when all the new products are hitting the market at CHA.  One of the things I like best about being on the DT is getting to work with the newest product hot off the presses!!  Below are a couple of layouts that will be in the Scrappin' Sports & More Booth 2988.  The first two layouts use the new On the Edge Sports line.  I just fell in love with the little campers & the fish paper.  The fishing paper is a perfect match for swimming paper from the Game Day line too (stripped paper).  A few circles to mimic the bubbles in the water & some wire for the finishing line and hooks and the layout practically made itself.  This is just one of the reasons I love this product, you don't need a lot of extras to make a nice looking page.

Next up is my camping layout, Smore Great Moments.  Again, I keep things pretty simple and let the wonderful new paper speak for itself.

Last up is a layout I created using the new Down on the Farm line.  My daughter loves everything about horses, so this paper was a perfect fit.  This was her first official ride on a horse, not walking in a circle at the fair. 

Adding dimension by Carolyn Lontin

Pop dots are a fun and easy way to add dimension to your layouts by allowing certain items to stand out on your projects. Pop dots are fairly inexpensive and come in a variety of shapes and thicknesses as well as different styles – some can be foam or some can be a blob of glue … they all have the same effect of making an element on your project stand out.

I love highlighting an element or elements on my pages and cards with pop dots, here are some examples:

On my ‘Quack Quack Quack layout’ I decided to highlight stickers, I used pop dots on one sticker in each cluster of stickers on my layout.

On my “hay there card’ I cut the hay stacks out of the patterned paper and used pop dots to emphasize the stacks of hay. I also used pop dots to add dimension to the ‘hay there’ saying so it did not get lost in the background of the patterned paper.

Have fun experimenting on your projects with pop dots!

Think Outside the Box by Kim Holmes

Cheerleading papers should only be used for cheerleading photos and karate papers should only be used for karate photos, right? Wrong!

I agree that they are perfect for those activities, but they are also versatile enough to use for all sorts of events and activities!

Take this layout for example:



It's a layout about soccer, but guess what? Only one of the papers is actually a soccer paper! This layout includes paper from soccer, karate, cheerleading, competition and volleyball!

How about this one:




This one contains paper from hunting, softball, golf and karate!

What about this card:




This adorable baby card is made from papers from the soccer, cycling, football and baseball lines!

So when searching for paper to use - look beyond the originally intended use - color outside the lines!

Journaling by Peggy Nardini

I'm a journaler. I like to journal. There's an old saying, "A picture is worth 1,000 words", well I like to use 'em all! So let's talk about ways to get creative with journaling and incorporate a couple of different ideas into your next layouts.

We've all seen examples of journaling written on strips of cardstock and then adhered to the page, typically along the side of a picture. A fun variation of this style is to use the strip under a row of photos as in this example from a recent layout, "Roommates". A second row of journaling could easily be added above the row of photos if you need more room.

This second layout shows images from the NCAA Regional Championship my daughter's college softball team won last spring. I've done a number of layouts about the tournament with quite lengthy journaling, so I've already written a lot about the experience, but still have some great photos to include on my scrapbook pages. Here, I made tabs to go along the sides of the pictures, including just a few words of journaling.

This final example is a more traditional style of journaling, the journal block. The plain, simple block containing your journaling is sometimes all you need to finish off a layout. In "Alley Cats", that's what I did. But don't be afraid to step it up a bit and add an additional design element (die cuts, stickers, rub-on, etc.) to your journal block. Here I included small black circles representing bowling balls to tie all of the elements together.

On your next layout, don't be afraid to write it all down! Include those words along with your photos. Whether you computer journal or use your own handwriting, the written word is important in telling the complete story. It's even more fun when you get creative with it and use the new lines of paper Scrappin' Sports and More will be debuting at CHA later this week. All of the layouts in this article used our newest sports line On The Edge Sports. You're gonna love it.

Creative Titles by Shannon Blinn

One of the most eye-catching features of a layout besides great photography is a great title. On this layout, I used the brand new farm line. I cut the word "chicken" from the sticker and added it to brown cardstock to make it stand out more. I then added some black dots with a sharpie marker. Because my other word was made of chipboard, I added pop dots to the back of the sticker word so that the title really stands out on the page. Add a little sizzix die cut with coordinating cardstock and a little mesh for effect and there you have it...a fun, eye-catching title. You can even do this with your journaling. Our stickers and papers are so much fun, that you can cut out words and elements from the stickers and paper to add a little extra to your title and journaling. If you'll notice...I even added a sticker BEHIND the letter "O". Subtle...but effective.

So let's see your creative titles!! Want to see this one up close and personal? It will be at CHA in Booth #2988.

Products Used:
#1292 Chickens (Down on the Farm)
#5553 Chickens Cardstock Stickers

New Releases for CHA!!!!

It's that time of the year again.  The scrapbooking industries best time of the year, the time when all the fun, new & exciting products are released at the annual CHA-Winter show in Anaheim, CA.  Scrappin' Sports & More is excited to be releasing not one, but two new lines!!!  It's a busy time for designers everywhere getting their projects ready for the booth.  Keep checking back next week as you will see some great new projects from the Design Team using these new products.  Okay...here they are....hot off the press today & ready to ship to your store :)

The first line was created by Ronnie McCray and is called On the Edge Sports.  This is an amazing new line; I mean who doesn't like those dotted swirls!!  Make sure you take a close look at the camping one...how fun is that little camper?  And the fishing paper....such a cute little blue fish :)  Okay, I'll stop writing and just let you judge for yourselves.

Pretty amazing, don't you think?  Well, that's not all.  The next line was created by Steve and is called Down on the Farm.  This line has so many uses.  For those of you involved in 4-H, you will be all set not matter what animals you brought to the fair.  Did you ever take pictures of your kids or grandkids feeding the ducks, well we have some paper & stickers for that too.  Do you have a couple of furry companions that live in your house like I do?  Well, check out the dog & cat papers & stickers.  You get the idea, so take a look for yourself.

And here are the stickers that coordinate with the Down on the Farm line.

And last but not least, we have some cardstock sports stickers being released at the show.  These coordinate perfectly with the Name of the Game line.  There are 3 different sizes on each cardstock sheet.