Scrap Skills

I LOVE using large characters on a digital scrapbooking page, don’t you? Chelle’s Creative Team members have been making pages with such features to inspire us. Let’s take a look!

First, Kimberly used a font on her computer for her “&”. She sized the font up to around 200, simplified the layer, and then adjusted size with the aspect ratio turned OFF to make the letter a little more customized. She also recolored the sunburst paper using a hue/saturation adjustment layer. She used Chelle’s At the Park kit for her page.

Next, Jan used a large “&” in her title. She used Chelle’s Lovin’ from the Oven and the matching {stripes & plaids} for her page about a delicious treat at a very magical place. I love the way she made the “&” stand out by making it larger than the other letters in the title.

Heather used a large “C” for emphasis on her page since the page was about making cupcakes with her daughter. I love the fun feel of her page and the way the elements seem to pop off the page.

Finally, Jenn wasted no time in making a page about her son’s pi day birthday this year. You know, it was ONLY last week – way to go Jenn! She used Chelle’s One Year Older to make her page, and she used her son’s age as the large numbers on the page. I absolutely adore the way the numbers look like tissue paper stapled and stitched to the page. 

Feeling inspired? If you make a page with Chelle’s kits and this technique, be sure to post it to the gallery at Scrap Orchard and tag your page with #chelle. I would love to see it and leave you some love.

I’ve been thinking about the various ways to use stitches on a digital scrapbooking page. Chelle’s Creations Creative Team members have played with her stitches and have some great pages to share with us.

Check out what Jenny did with stitching. She used Chelle’s Gone Fishin’ Kit, and she used the included stitches to anchor her papers to the page and frame the main section. I love the way she mixed straight and zigzag stitching, too.

Did you know Chelle has some stitched creations in the market separate from kits? Leah used Chelle’s Stitch Me Up Grids with lots of Chelle’s other products. Added to the Oh Snap kit were some banners, and flowers, and she used the Stitch Me up Grids as a backdrop for all the goodies on the page.

Finally, Jan made some custom stitching for her page using Chelle’s stitches included in the Yeehaw Bundle. She took the small length of tan stitches and made them into one long seam, then made it into double rows of stitching to frame her page. It’s a creative way to mimic the stitching on jeans, so it’s an adorable addition to the denim paper background. Way to go, Jan!

Stitches are included in most kits, but if you want to add that extra sewn emphasis, you could also use Chelle’s Stitch Me Up Grids like Leah did or the Stitch Me Up Frames, also in the market. Do you have a creative way to use Chelle’s stitches? Upload you page to the gallery at Scrap Orchard and tag your page with #chelle. I would love to see what you’ve done.

Here’s a fun thing to do on your digital scrapbooking pages: use paint splats! Lots of kits and collections come with paint splats and splatters. Chelle’s Creations even has some CU paint splats in the market. Last week, Jenn wrote a blog post about using paint to highlight a title, and today Chelle’s creative team has been playing with different ways to use them on pages.

Jenny used the Apple of My Eye bundle to make her page. She used the paint splats as part of a large cluster of elements highlighting her adorable photos. (I absolutely LOVE that buttoned alpha in the bundle).

Jenn was feeling creative and headed to the bay to take photos on a really cold day. I like that idea! She used At the Beach, and she used the paint splat as a base for her journal tag.

Finally, Jennifer used Berry Berry Sweet to make a birthday page, and she used Chelle’s CU Paint Splats to show you how to add them to a page. They are very versatile being easily recolored to match any kit.

Digital paint – so much less messy than the real stuff, and yet it still feels like playing with paint when I add it to my page! Have you tried it? I think you’ll agree with me, if you do.

I love to see arrows on a digital scrapbooking page. They let me know what is important on the page or the direction my eye should follow. Chelle’s Creations team members have some pages to show you different ways to get the effect of arrows on a page.

First, Jenn used Norlandia and the Norlandia {alphas} by Ziggle Designs and Chelle’s Creations to make her page. The arrows are large chevrons that are part of the Little Green Frog Designs template, and they are placed behind the photos. They create a great flow for the page.  

Jenny also used a Little Green Frog Designs template and Chelle’s In the Backyard kit for her page. Again, the flow is obvious, and the page is fun to read.

Tammy used Chelle’s newest kit Out of this World for her page. She has chevrons on her page, like the others, but she also has a large curved arrow framing an adorable young Buzz, and there’s another carefully placed arrow pointing to the hero in the top photo launching to infinity and beyond, I’m sure.

Melissa has made a page with Love Grows, and it’s the perfect kit choice for her sweet little baby girl’s photo. She has used triangle paper pieces to form an arrow pointing to that sweet baby face.

Finally, Donna has used lots of arrows for her double page layout. On a recent trip along the Blue Ridge Parkway, she took photos of signs she encountered and photos of the views those signs described. On her page, she has used arrows to point from each sign to its respective view. It’s the perfect way to use arrows to help journal. By the way, she used Chelle’s Great Outdoors Bundle and the arrows are from Vrooom!

I hope you’ll consider adding some arrows to your next page. You can use chevrons or triangles instead of actual arrows, or you could even use drawn arrows like the ones in Chelle’s Creations Mark My Words.

Several members of Chelle’s Creative Team love to make double pages for digital scrapbooking layouts. I asked them what they liked about it, and several of them, including Chelle, said they like to use lots of photos on the pages and have both sides of the spread be “matchy matchy.” Helen said, “I like that I can scrap lots of photos without having to make them smaller to fit on a single layout or have to ‘ditch’ some off the layout all together.” Besides being cohesive in theme, Melissa also said she prefers to use only a few photos on her pages, so having a double allows her to use more photos and not have a crowded look.

Personally, I like using double page spreads for vacation books when I have lots of great scenery photos that I want to print in large size. Jan must agree with me because she made a double page with some photos from her trip to Yosemite. The views of El Capitan and Half Dome certainly warrant large photo spaces. She used a template by Little Green Frog Designs and Chelle’s kits Let’s Camp S’more and On the Trail.

Next, Jenny made a double page from photos of a zoo trip. She also used a double template by Little Green Frog Designs, and she used Chelle’s Prehistoric with her Bedrock Alpha. Because she used 2 pages to tell her story, she was able to enlarge her son’s photo on the left side of the page and still have room for photos of the animals at the zoo.

Tammy was able to use no less than 9 photos on her layout because she used a double spread, and she was able to show off her little cuties at the beach while still having lots of room for her story and cute elements from Chelle’s At the Beach kit. I love the sand castle in that kit, and it looks great as an anchor to the photos on the left side of the page.

Heather also loves to show lots of photos on the page at time, and family play time at the bay was the perfect reason to do so. She chose to have the title extend across the middle of the page, which works well since several printing companies now offer lay-flat pages with no gutter. She used At the Pool and a template by Little Green Frog Designs.

Like Jenny, Donna used a double page spread for her zoo pictures so she could include lots of animal photos. She has used a template by Scrapping with Liz and Chelle’s Bluebird on My Shoulder for the main kit and a few elements from Zoopendous and Forrest Friends.

Finally, Kimberly has a great tip to share with us regarding the making of a double page spread. She started with a template from Fiddle-Dee-Dee Designs and used Chelle’s Anchors Aweigh kit. She also mixed  the use the styles on the template with Chelle’s  Me & My Shadow styles for added elements for a huge time saver. She doesn’t like to see seams on the background papers, and since the papers are generally only large enough for a single page, the combining of papers is necessary for a double. But, Kimberly uses three papers on the background layering the third paper on top in the middle of the spread. Then she blends the outside edges with the eraser tool into the 2 papers behind. That way, no seams show and the background appears to be one long 24 inch paper.

I hope you’re inspired to double a page now. I know I am!

Chelle recently released some new glitter styles and her creative team members have been playing with these and other glitter elements on their digital scrapbooking pages. Take a look!

Jenn used a template by Fiddle Dee Dee Designs (Center of Attention) combined with Chelle’s kit Love Grows and her CU Iridescent Glitter Styles to create her page. She used the glitter styles to add sparkle to a bracket paper shape included in the template and to several hearts used for embellishment around the page. It’s the perfect touch for a page about a favorite princess.

Next, Lisa shows us that the glitter styles look fantastic with a snowy page. She used glitter to embellish this magical snow scene she created using Chelle’s Snowlandia kit which is full of sparkly elements. I love the sparkling frames around the photos to draw attention to the focus of the page. She also has a small strip of glitter paper peeking out in the layers at the bottom of the page.

If you don’t want to use the glitter styles, or if your program doesn’t allow use of them, you can still add the sparkle. Several of Chelle’s kits come with elements that are glittered for you already. Helen has used one of them for her page. She used Pearly Whites for her creation. This kit includes a glitter frame in three colors, so it makes it quite easy to add a touch of shine to your project.

Finally, Kimberly show us how to add lots of shine and sparkle to a page. In addition to applying the CU Iridescent Glitter Styles to several of the paper mats, Kimberly used a gem from Girlfriend and utilized the same glitter style and CU Metal Style to create different looking centers to the flowers. She also added the purple glitter style to the white stitched border from the kit Mane Event. One great feature of the two styles is that they work nicely with the Me and My Shadow styles. It doesn’t matter which style you apply first. Now take a close look at the silver metal flower in the bottom left cluster on the page. Kimberly used a doodled flower from Girlfriend and added the CU Metal Style to it to totally change the look and add another element of sparkle to her page.

That’s a lot of bling, right? I’m inspired to dress up my next page as I’m sure you are.