Crate Paper

Make it Crate :: Window Heritage Album w/Katie Ehmann

This is Katie Ehmann on board with a beautiful, vintage heritage album. Beyond it's red bow is a window filled with flowers surrounded by exquisite pages from years long ago. Today, I'm going to show you how to create an album like this of your very own. It's truly magical and a treasure trove of memories - come take a look!

The materials needed are as follows; vintage book, ruler, pencil, craft knife, self-healing cutting mat, ribbon, sewing machine, old family photos and your favorite Crate Paper collection. I opted to use the DIY Shop collection because of it's vintage feel - matches wonderfully with my old photos from the 1930's and 1940's. 

 

The start of the album begins with a special touch - an altered title page with a window, exclusive to a Crate Paper Stand-Out Embellishment. To recreate this page, gather up a group of pages the same approximate width as the embellishment it's to hold. Position a craft mat just beneath the group of pages to protect your work surface.

 

Next, use a ruler to find the middle of the page and then with a pencil, draw a square that is slightly larger than the soon-to-be encapsulated embellishment.

 

With a craft knife, carefully cut along the pencil markings, making sure to cut through all of the pages. Remove the squares to reveal your window! 

 

Machine sew the group of pages together to reinforce your "window" and create one very thick page! 

 

Add patterned paper, letter stickers and embellishments to your title page, sewing across your chosen letter stickers. 

 

For the remainder of the album pages, cut various patterned papers sized slightly smaller than the book pages and machine sew them into position.

 

Add photos, embellishments and journaling to each page, including names and dates (mine have been covered for privacy purposes).

Depending on the number of pages you've created, you may want to remove additional "book pages" in order for your book to close properly. Wrap your album in ribbon and add a decorative CP clothes pin to the top. Now, watch as your family enjoys the album for years to come! 

 

Make it Crate :: Embellished Eggs w/Michiko Kato

 

Hi CP Fans! Even though Easter has come and gone, today, I want to share with you an egg-adorned layout fashioned from a multitude of artsy techniques I'm confident you'll want to try. Quite frankly, Easter isn't nearly as prevalent as is Halloween in Japan. Most people aren't familiar with the holiday. Of those that do celebrate the special occasion, they have the option to enjoy it outside the home at Universal Studio Japan and/or Tokyo Disneyland. I often go to USJ with my family because it's nearby and there is so much to look at that is colorful and cute! This year, we made the trip once again to USJ on Easter day. While there, I took many pictures of my daughter. Upon returning home, and reviewing the photos up close and personal, I knew right away that I wanted to create a layout from them - this is the final result, eggs and all!

In crafting the layout, I chose the above supplies from the Maggie Holmes collection. The photo size is 3" x 3".

Now, I will not discuss in great depth the construction process of the layout itself. Your welcome to mimic the layout as "shown". Mostly emphasized in today's post are the techniques used to create the eggs - the main Easter attraction!

So in delving further, I cut three different sized eggs (ten in total) from white cardstock with my Silhouette Cameo.

 

The first egg design is the "Flower Spotted" egg. Using a mini flower punch, I punched several flowers from two medium sized eggs, including along the edges. I adhered the eggs to patterned paper, pink & yellow, and then trimmed them out; Adorable as can be!

 

The second egg design is the "Dotted" egg. Using Party Day's clear spotted stamp, and blue and red ink, I positioned 'dots' on small and medium sized eggs. To give them greater personality, I stuck a Maggie Holmes bow to the top of each one (of a similar hue as the ink color). As a finishing touch, the sticker "Smile" was added to the larger of the two eggs. More cuteness!! 

 

The third egg is the "Striped" egg. After positioning a random assortment of patterned paper strips on top a medium egg (mix and match whatever you like!), I trimmed the excess off to match the shape of the egg. For a bit of extra detail, I stitched borders along some of the strips. Easy & oh so playful!

 

The fourth egg design is the "Washi Tape" egg. I placed a mismatched assortment of washi tape strips onto a small sized egg. Just as the last design, I trimmed the excess off. This is by far, the easiest technique of those shown today. Layering/overlapping washi tape can lead to seriously cool effects! Lots of combinations, too.

 

The fifth egg design is the "Watercolor" egg. To prepare the surface of the large sized egg, I painted a layer of water across it. Be careful as too much water can cause paper to easily curl. Less is more. Bit by bit, I painted the egg with yellow and blue watercolor paint. Don't be afraid to soften up the colors - it's one of the medium's main attractions. If the colors blend into each other, that's ok, too.

Because I wanted the egg to dry out quickly, I took to it, a heater gun. Worked like magic! 

I added a small set of eyes and a fancy mustache to the creation and officially titled it, "Egg Man".

 

The last egg design is called "Broken Egg". I cut the egg in-half with pinking scissors, opened it up and positioned a balloon embellishment inside of it. The balloons look as though they're jumping from the egg, don't you think?

You might see a few more decorated eggs scattered about my layout based on some of the techniques described. Go ahead and make them if seeking to replicate the layout "as is", or, wanting to perfect the techniques shown. 

Even if you're not in the market for egg decorating, you might still give these ideas a try using alternative shapes - that's what is so wonderful about a tutorial like this; you can apply it any way you like no matter the project! 

Thank you for stopping by the Crate Paper blog - I'll see you next month!

 

Project CP Life :: April 2013 w/Janna Werner

 

 

Hello Everyone, this is Janna with a Project life double spread of week fifteen, 2013. I used Crate Paper's new scrapbook collection, The Pier, to create the pages. I don't think I need to tell you how much I'm in love with this new line -- balloons, popsicles, sequins, tickets, gold, kraft, mint and pink; a 100% Summer!

I went on a mini-cruise to Oslo, Norway recently, so my week 15 is all about that trip. Sadly, the weather wasn't that great and most my photos turned out rather dark and grey (at least there wasn't snow!).

Using The Pier patterned papers and embellishments helped very much to add a happy and summery touch to the double spread. I mounted the patterned papers on white cardstock to let the pages appear even lighter. 

I think I'm finally getting used to not using too many layers. It's still challenging to me to forgo the extras, but I'm starting to enjoy the "flat look". I mixed photos and memorabilia with the help of 6" x 6" patterned paper (Mini Paper Pad) for journaling about the vacation.

When I started Project Life, journaling was the hardest part for me. I don't journal a lot, but a Project Life album definitely requires it. I'm getting better at making a habit of jotting down words and love looking back and reading text from previous weeks. 

What is the hardest part of doing Project Life for you? Keeping up with the day-to-day activities, or journaling, like myself? What is your favorte part of Project Life? Tell us more about your Project Life likes and dislikes. Have a lovely weekend, wherever you might be!

April Creative Weekly :: Color Collage + Challenge Reminder!!

Naomi Atkins

Naomi here with a color collage for this week's Creative Weekly. I love the color pink, and a lot of Crate's collections have lovely pink papers in them! When I saw "The Pier" collection's polaroid frames in all kinds of colors, including pink and gold, I knew I wanted to make a pink color collage and use some gold accents! I dug out all of my papers and found some to fill the spaces of the polaroid frames. I love the gold accents in a lot of the new collections, and I'm really obsessed with gold right now! Gold was also the theme of my daughter Camille's 2nd birthday party. So, after pulling out all of the pinks, I pulled out as many gold accents as I could from the DIY Shop collection, the Maggie Holmes collection, and The Pier collection. I made a banner at the top and used some AC Thickers in a various pinks and gold for the title. I love zig zag stitching the tops of banners, and then I attached some clothespins with pink accents at the top of the banner...they clothespins and sewing make it look real. I placed all of the accent down the left side of the photo and added a few more pink small embellishments and stickers. I hope this inspires you this week to make a color collage for yourself!

 

Michiko Kato

I love Spring - it's my fave of the seasons. If I had to compare Spring to a color, I imagine it would have to be red. Red is the color of strawberries and in Japan, picking strawberries is an annual Spring event in my family! Of all the fruits, we love strawberries most. Already, we look forward to going strawberry picking. :)

This picture was taken when my daughter was just five years old. She'd taken a strawberry with both her hands and ate it as a little girl would. Both her hands and clothes had been completely stained the color "red". I remember it being really hard to clean her hands and clothes thereafter. In memory of this unforgettable "childhood" moment, I created this layout using an assortment of red papers and embellishments from the Party Day collection. The Party Day collection has ample to offer for Spring crafting! It's one of my favorite Crate collections!

 

Sasha Farina

Creative Weekly this month couldn't have come at a better time! I'm in love with the gold/tan/yellow shades right now and The Pier is just the perfect collection for what I had in mind! The selection of embellishments are darling - I absolutely adore the ready-made banner from the Ephemera Pack. It's just the right "pop of colors" needed for my layout. Creating the golden collage as the main focus of the project was an immense joy. I highly recommend the collection if a gold fan like myself!

 

Evelyn Pratiwi

So, as you know, yellow is my favorite color amongst other bright colors, but for today, I decided to go the more "neutral" route - black. Yes, there's also a hint of grey. I gathered all of the supplies from both DIY Shop and Fourteen. So, you might be wondering, why choose this color? Because I wanted to create a layout that was timeless and that best highlighted the feel and theme of the layout; my personal wedding images. In creating it, I played with gesso by applying it to the background; white cardstock. After that, I sprayed black mist onto the painted area. Because of the gesso, the black mist looks subdued; more gray than black. Finally, I layered tags, cards, chipboard, washi tape, stickers, a flower and black sequins to bring to life the magic of that special day.

 

Sophie Crespy

I love paper collage; it's my favorite technique because I really have a lot fun combining various shapes, colors, textures and so forth. For this layout, I chose "Blue" as the main color (with a tiny bit of pink) because it's central theme is my daughter's amazing blue eyes. There are plenty of blue's to pick from given the plethora of colors made available via Crate's Spring collections; take for example the vignette dark teal polaroid photo overlay from the DIY Shop collection - to bring out it's cooler side, I embellished it with a navy blue die-cut and light blue pinwheel. And finally, to keep predictability at bay, I threw in a splash of "fuchsia"!

~

The Creative Weekly challenge is still in progress - you've plenty of time to join in on the fun!! For the full scoop, visit this week's first Creative Weekly post; HERE. We anxiously await your entries, and as an extra incentive, we're adding our favorite entries to our brand new "Creative Weekly" Pinterest board! Not yet a Crate follower? Click & Follow HERE. 

 

April Creative Weekly :: Color Collage

Ashley Cannon Newell

Me and the color yellow are joined at the hip. I love this color during any time of the year, but especially in the Spring and Summer. For this week's Creative Challenge, I had to use the yellow color family to create a layout. With all of the colors on the houses in the photo from New Haven in Copenhagen, the yellow tones just makes it all pop. I pulled out all products I could get my hands on in the yellow color family and got to work. I layered a piece of vellum over patterned paper to mute the tones a bit. I also misted patterned paper with white ink to break up some of the patterns. I just love how gold pairs so well with yellow, so I use those sparkly Thickers for my page title. 

 

Deb Duty

The Pier collection has the most beautiful shades of blue and green that perfectly compliment the sky and water in my beach photo. For part of the background, I used a mask with acrylic paints that I mixed to match. I added fun elements all around the photo. I especially love the slide frames from The Pier. The blue and white frame is a nice addition to my layout and helps draw attention to the photo.

 

Katie Ehmann

I started this project with the gorgeous bokeh paper from the Maggie Holmes collection. The colors really complemented my photo of a crazy Chicago sky. I then used additional pieces of patterned paper, tags and ephemera to create a collage surrounding my photo. Finally, I cut a title from my handwriting with my Cameo from white cardstock, and sewed it down. 

April Creative Weekly :: Color Collage

In case a reminder would be of help, this week's Creative Weekly is hosting the theme, "Color Collage"; an intricate assembly of layers using both shades and tints of a single color family. Take for instance this first layout from our brand new team member, Jeanette Lee. Her floral bouquet of peach, pink and reds is a bold, sweetly-crafted collage reminiscent of Spring with lots of layers of prettiness and warmth. 

 

Jeanette Lee

Red; it's boldness intrigues me, and it's the perfect color for any occasion. Wanting to achieve a spectrum of 'reds' in my layout, I chose different shades of red embellishments and papers across the Party Day and DIY Shop collections. The white background has splatters of red mist to highlight the color even more. 

I cut out several die-cuts found in the double-sided die-cut sheets and accent cards from the ephemera packs. I placed them either horizontally or vertically, completing the collage design. This helped to achieve clean and simple lines throughout the layout.

This layout talks about the common traits shared with my niece. In this case, it's love for a particular type of biscuit.

 

Megan Klauer

We are in the potty training stage at our house; which as many of us know, it's a day-to-day challenge. Many days, we are singing the "potty training blues", so I wanted to document the "real" in our life right now. I used a combination of the Maggie Holmes collection, as well as bits and pieces of Acorn Avenue to pull the blue themed layout together.

 

Marie Lottermoser

When I first received the Color Collage challenge, my first thought was to use my favorite color, aqua, but then I kept reaching for embellishments in this soft green color. It went really well with my canister of mint tea. One thing I did in making this collage was to use a lot of vellum. I typed my journaling straight onto vellum and then layers it throughout the page. I think it helps to soften the collage and gives it more of a vintage look.

   

April Creative Weekly : Color Collage + Challenge Details

Image Credit :: Eva Black Design

Just one glance at Pinterest, and within a matter of seconds, a breathtaking "color assembly" steals your attention. Sound familiar? Happens to us all. the. time. Color compilations are the spice of life. Based on any number of factors, their creation is the ultimate means at which to see color through "designer" eyes. They're inspiring, to say the least, and each is as unique as the designer who created it. So, pinning them is a must.  

That said, we put our design team to the task of conjuring up a project around the idea of a "color assembly"; taking varying values of just one color and collage it. Easy peasy. Before we get to showing you the first project set, note that today's CW gallery is dedicated to "yellow" - the official color of Summer!

And incase you're waiting for the usual CW Challenge details, here ya go!

- Fresh Handmade Wares encouraged - at least 75% Crate Paper goods (old and new).

- An Original Design following this week's CW theme; Color Collage (One Color in varying tints & shades - collage composition)

- Winner & Runner-Ups published at Crate blog. Supply a blog link if applicable.

- Open to most project types; layout, mini album, card, etc.

- Submission deadline is May 6th, 2013 (5:00pm Central Time) - [email protected]

- Winner will announce on May 7th, 2013.  Late Submissions will not be accepted.

- Prize: The Pier - all of it!

~

Anabelle O'Malley

Yellow is the perfect color for Spring. Right now, as I step out my front door, I'm greeted by a bed of beautiful daffodils. They're the truest sign of Spring that I know. I decided to use a white background with a vellum cut title to complement the photo and yellow papers and embellishments that I chose. I wanted the yellow to pop off the page. The little clusters along the bottom are each their own collage and are placed together in such a way as to create a certain look and feel. I finished the layout by sprinkling several gems along the page, too. It was a lot of fun to mix yellow bits from a variety of Crate Paper lines. I used a lot of paper, ephemera and chipboard from the DIY Shop along with elements from "The Pier", Maggie Holmes and Paper Heart. One of my favorite things about Crate is how all the lines can be mixed with great results!

 

Magda Mizera

When I first saw this month's theme, I thought immediately about last Summer. For the very first time, I went to the seaside with my fiance. We have such a wonderful time together. The sand was a warm yellow, the sun was shining and we took long walks during sunset. The photo on this layout I took the first evening we went out together - do you see how bright, shiny and marvelous it was? I hope you can feel it just by looking at my Summer collage!

 

Piradee Talvanna

For this week's assignment, I couldn't resist selecting the yellow/gold color family to work with. I've always loved this sunshine color and when paired with gold, well, need I say more? First, I started out by going through all the latest Crate Paper collection I own. I quickly found that most the items could be found in the DIY Shop collection. then, I set out to work on the collage aspect of the assignment where I combined different elements to create the banner along with some vellum paper that helps all layering details without overwhelming the page.; And when I thought I didn't have enough elements to work with, I altered one of the dimensional stickers (lovely) with gold glitter (to hide the original lettering).

   

CP Project Life :: April 2013 w/Piradee Talvanna

Hi Everyone, Piradee here to share another week from my Project Life album.

A few weeks ago, we celebrated my birthday with a simple lunch, me and my hubby dearest. I haven't been feeling really well the past few weeks and therefore wanted something simple and light, and lunch was just perfect. Not only did we have a chance to chat with the chef (I found out that he and hubby were boy-scout buddies back in the day), but the food was exactly what I needed (wished I had taken pictures of the dishes - was in awe of the presentation and taste. LOL).

Then, I had one of the biggest surprises the next day when a bouquet of flowers showed up at the door. For a moment, I thought I had a secret admirer because they surely weren't from my hubby (hate to admit it, I can't remember the last time he got me flowers, but to be fair, he did get me some "girl's best friend"). Surprisingly, the flowers were from my parent-in-laws in Belgium, wishing me a very happy birthday and congrats. Wow. Speechless and aren't they the best :)

With this week (and the week after) being about birthday celebrations, I automatically reached for the very fun Party Day collection. I just love it's lively, bold color palette and also, all it's cute coordinating embellishments. The 6 x 6 paper pad is perfect for PL card making as the designs are shrunken down. Another must have item when I'm working on PL cards are Crate's accent stickers - I especially love the quote "older, wiser and way more attractive" written on one of the Party Day stickers (Oh yeah, still struggling with the old part though. LOL). Which types of products do you guys usually reach for when working on PL cards?

In putting together this week's spread, I tried to keep a balance between the two pages. All the items that I used are from the Party Day collection. Sprinkled throughout are hints of gold via gold glitter thickers and gold sequins. Also, to balance out the color scheme of the spread's right side, I added the collection's multi-colored vellum paper. It works on bringing the colors together without being overly distracting. As a whole, the pages work and blend seamlessly!

Here are a few of the individual cards alongside one another and a quick close-up...

I enjoyed a wonderful birthday thanks to family, and my sweet spouse - this Project Life spread captures it all! Thank-you for stopping by - have a great weekend!

Crate Style :: Circles Round Two w/Sophie Crespy

 If you follow my work, you may have noticed that I'm quite fond of using circles in my designs. And indeed, CIRCLES are great for creating a simple, yet catchy look with your projects. You can use them via grid as explained in my last post (Pink in November), or take advantage of them through other means using techniques of all varieties.

Here are two FUN designs that you can easily re-create using a circle set-up...

For this page, I started by cutting different sized circles from the Maggie Holmes patterned paper collection. 

*Note: When working with a variety of patterned papers, make sure you have a range of different patterns; floral, graphic and colors to create a dynamic look with your page. 

I wanted the circles to be on the top portion of my layout. I noticed after placing some of the circles that the arrangment took on the appearance of tree foilage. This sudden surprise suited the project wonderfully because it fit well with my photos, and layout theme; Spring, blooms and my sweet girl's happiness (thanks to the arrival of a new season).

I then went ahead and cut a trunk shape out of a piece of patterned paper using a die and embellished some of the circles with brads and other matching elements.

Note: This kind of design is better set on a neutral background such as Kraft paper so that the colored circles stand-out and literally, pop off the page.

In order to maintain the focus on the page's foliage design, I kept the remainder of the layout "simple" and framed it in white cardstock. 

Tip: My journaling is written on a note card that I tucked inside a Kraft rectangle popped up with foam adhesive.

Again, this is a very doable design that caters well to Spring, which I love!! It's also a fabulous way to use your scraps!!

~

Another fun thing to try using a circle arrangement is to cut your photos for tucking inside "circle frames". In order to achieve this look, you'll need a die-cut machine such as a Big Shot or Silhoutte. There are a bunch of circle electronic die-cut files out there, including freebies!

To create this fun circle background, I simply put my Cameo to work with white cardstock. In the process of preparing it, I added a title - love short-cuts!

If without a premade circle file and electronic die-cut machine, you still have the option of punching various sized circles from white cardstock and then adding paper/photos directly on top of them.

I selected a range of patterned papers that best complimented my photos while once again, mixing different patterns and colors.

I also used some of the pink polka-dot washi tape to fill in one of the circles. I truly love the patterns from the Maggie Holmes collection - aren't the birds the prettiest? They were the exact combination of my girl's pink outfit, and my boy's blue trousers and shoes!

I left some of the circles empty and positioned either cardstock stickers or journaling sentences behind them.

I attached the whole grid to the page with staples before securing the edges down with glue. This gives the page a hand-made look and complements it's carefree appearance.

I highly recommend giving circles a try - truthfully, you can't go wrong!

Make it Crate :: Fabric Frames Minibook w/Deb Duty

The Maggie Holmes fabric frames are one of my favorite parts of her entire "beautiful" collection. I decided to feature them as the base for each page in a minibook about a monarch we watched go from caterpillar to butterfly last year.

I wanted the fabric frames to look like they were the actual pages of the book, so I used a magazine cut down slightly smaller than the size of the frames. That way, my pages were already bound for me, but you can't tell it's a magazine once it was finished!

Here's what you'll need: 

1. an old magazine

2. heavy-duty scissors

3. adhesive

4. Maggie Holmes Fabric Frames

5. square photos

6. patterned paper

7. washi tape

8. paper piercer

9. twine

 

1. Use a heavy-duty scissors to cut out the top corner of the magazine at just under the size of the frames. My magazine was 80 pages long and a bit difficult to cut. The pages came out a little jagged and messy, but that's ok - they don't show! Divide the magazine pages evenly into six sections and staple the pages in each section together at the bottom.

2. Adhere a frame and photo to each page, positioning the frame all the way to the center. I used tombow mono multi liquid glue because it allowed me to reposition the frame before it dried if I needed to. I adhered the inner edge first, added the photo underneath the frame and then adhered the rest. 

3. Cut a piece of patterned paper to fit the last page of the album and adhere it inside the last section of magazine pages. I added a label and some journaling to this page. 

4. Cut two pieces of patterned paper at about 4.25" x 5" and adhere to front and back of minibook even with the outside edges. Cover the spine with washi tape so that no part of the magazine shows. After this step, you'll have a nice little minibook. You could embellish the cover, add a title and be done!

5. I decided to add one more thing - a separate cover. The patterned paper is 10.125" wide by 5.125" tall and is scored 4.75" in from each side to create a spine. I decorated the front with thickers and embellishments and rounded the corners. The cover is attached to the minibook with twine. I used a paper piercer to punch a tiny hole through the binding and cover about half an inch from the ends. Then I used a needle to thread the twine through the holes and tied the twine into a bow. 

And now here's the completed minibook about the butterfly that emerged from it's chrysalis in our backyard!

This was a really quick and easy way to make a lovely little minibook. I didn't embellish much because the fabric frames are so beautiful on their own. I encourage you to try turning an old magazine into a minibook. It was a lot of fun, and I'm very happy with the little book of butterfly photos!