Posts from ‘Albums’
Vintage Baby in a Box Album
I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again, I have a soft spot for all things vintage. Seriously vintage styles, old time-y inspired, anything with a history… it makes me a happy girl. Another soft spot I have? New babies. The smells, the skin, the coo’s and cries. Seriously? Is there anything better? I think not! I think I’ve made at least six baby albums over the last four years and four of those have been vintage inspired. Maybe it’s the contrast between old and new, or the timelessness of a newborn but, whatever it is, I love the combination and they always end up being my favorite projects. This week’s album is unlike any album I’ve done before but, I love it! It’s almost 5×5″ and tucked inside a small vanity box I found at a boutique store years ago. It’s all made with Graphic 45 paper… a little bit from every one of their lines. Whatever had creams, soft blues, pinks and greens in it. Thankfully I had tons to choose from and the album came out as beautiful as an old comfy quilt!
Check out my latest video on our YouTube Channel for a step-by-step on how to create the vintage paper roses and to see the entire album put together. Don’t forget to comment, winners will be announced tomorrow!
Stefan G. Bucher is a writer, graphic designer, illustrator and creative genius behind design studio 344 Design. He has received accolades worldwide for his amazing designs and illustrations, and he’s spent two years writing and illustrating “ink & circumstance,” a column on life, love and graphic design, for STEP inside design magazine. Imagine our surprise when we learned that his artist arsenal contains Tombow Dual Brush Pens! Pretty impressive, right?
Even more impressive is Stefan’s Daily Monster website. For 100 days, he filmed himself drawing a new monster every night, based on random ink blots. Visit Stefan’s website or his YouTube channel to watch as he transforms ink blots into frighteningly cute monsters.
Setting the scene; Not only have I had this chipboard mini album for years in my stash but I’ve also had the pictures for this project sitting on my desk for months. The inspiration to get it all pulled together just wasn’t there. I was boo-ing myself off the creative stage. Enter stage left; PINK PAISLEE’s 365 Degrees. BEAUTIFUL colors, amazing accents and ta-dum! I know I could get it done! I’m now officially convinced that nothing inspires me more than fresh fun product. The cork accents are my fav. Love the texture, the prints… they make me drool. Each page on this is simple. One Picture, One Cork accent attached with MONO Adhesive POWERBOND and some hand-drawn flourishes with our MONO White Gel Pen. In fron of each page is also a journaling spot from the 365 Line as well. Perfect for writing private thoughts about such a memorable day. Curtain Down; Standing ovation! (I’ve been watching too much High School Musical haven’t I?) 
So… Pink Paislee week has been awesome!! (insert jazz hands here ) Check out THESE (link) designers from Pink Paislee as well. AWESOMENESS! I have to say I have loved, LOVED working with them and and so excited to share an AWESOME TOMBOW-PINK PAISLEE PRIZE PACK! (try saying that three times fast! talk about a tongue twister! back to the point..) To be eligible for the prize leave a message (or two or three) on any of the Pink Paislee Posts from this week. We’ll announce the winner by noon tomorrow. It’s also National Scrapbook Day we might have to throw in a few extra surprises for that as well! Be sure to become a fan or ours on Facebook too! We just might happen to be having a special giveaway over there for National Scrapbook Day tomorrow too!
Tombow’s Dual Brush Pens and Cosmo Cricket’s ‘The Boyfriend’ collection team up to make this six page, 5” x 5” mini accordion album. I was inspired by the paper to feature Katelyn and boyfriend Curtis in this fun and funky gift scrapbook.
Inside; Tombow Dual Brush Pens not only added the journaling and heart accents, but also colored the photographs to match the papers and embellishments.
Dual Brush Pens that match the Boyfriend collection:
312 Holly Green
126 Light Olive
N57 Warm Gray
993 Chrome Orange
847 Crimson
946 Gold Ochre
N25 Lamp Black
The photos are printed on matte photograph paper and the clothes colored with the pens. It the photographs now match the paper and give the photo a funky element that also works well with the collection. Hold everything together with Tombow MONO Mega Adhesive DOTS.
The journaling pages are accented with hearts – made by simply pressing the brush point onto the paper and making a teardrop shape. Add another teardrop shape right beside to create the heart. Make sure the paper is upside down when making the hearts.
Sarah made his fun Easter mini album with just a chipboard mini book, Mono permanent Adhesive and some leftover spring paper.So cute! Oh! and let’s all notice how I just barely got my 2006 Easter scrapbooked and Sarah is making empty ones, ready to just insert her pictures on Sunday night so that she can show her class on Monday morning all about her weekend. Yeah, when I grow up I want to be that organized and think ahead! Good Job Sarah way to show me up! 
Have a happy holiday weekend from all of us at Tombow!
I’ve never been one of those scrapbookers that scrapbooks something that happened *anytime* recently. I post layouts from 2007 (or earlier!) up here because *gasp* I’m just getting to it now! Part of me is okay with this because I also blog. So much of my current life is documented in my blog and every year when that is printed out, it’s saved much like if I had scrapbooked it. But another piece of me feels like I am missing out on the NOW. My life is good, NOW and I have memories and stories that need to be shared NOW- not just two years ago. So of course when I heard about Becky Higgins new concept; Project Life, I was intrigued. I ordered mine the first week in January and I’m already hooked! I love the concept! I love documenting the NOW. I love saving things like hotel keys and children’s notes. I’ve never done that before because I knew I’d loose it by the time I got to scrapbook it! If you haven’t heard of it before it’s a scrapbook kit that makes it easy to add to week-by-week. I’m actually not just using the products included in the album, it’s the concept I’m embracing.
While we were coming up with the Design Team, we tried to get a variety of styles and talents. Marie’s is our artist and ‘pen professional’, Sarah is our modern, classic and clean girl. Debbie does the altered and unexpected. Then there is April. April Stanfield is very detailed and technical. Her work is always top-knotch and always inspiring sometimes it’s her journaling that will make your cry just reading it, or she’ll have some crazy technique that will be simple enough and work perfectly, leaving you scratching your head thinking “why didn’t I think of that”. April uses details and embellishment unexpectedly and her mad photography/photoshop skills are something I will always be jealous of. She’s taught every class you can imagine over the last 5 years and she still loves it! April lives in a houseful of boys in Washington State. Welcome to the Tombow Team Girl!
What’s your most used item when you scrapbook? Besides adhesive and basic card stock, I didn’t think I had one. It’s funny how you just do things and don’t realize you’re doing them until you notice your supplies diminishing one by one. You start hoarding them, yet are still forced to use them anyways because a layout or a project isn’t complete without it! Suddenly, it’s 11pm and you’re in the middle of a creative rush, you start stressing out because you can’t get your projects done because you just realized that you are out of an item that apparently you can’t live without! That happens to you to, right? …. right?!
After last weekends stress-fest I realized that basic white Photo Corners are that item for me. I really had no idea how much I used them until they were gone! I use them on everything from cards to layouts and albums. I even have some in my hybrid albums, calendars and planners. Of course, not everything in my scrapbooks is white. But I have my trusty Dual Brush Pens to fix that! EVERY color patched perfectly and smoothly. I love it! Lately I’ve been adding another dimension to my corners, spraying a little glimmer mist on my scratch plastic and then using a paintbrush to smooth it over my color. Dual Brush Pens, white photo corners and glimmer mist… oh the happiness. Yes, I went out and stocked up on photo corners first thing in the morning and now I’m ready to roll.
Sarah made these AWESOME little love notes using our MONO Adhesive DOTS. Everything is held together by that adorable cherish clip and Sarah can write her Family Valentine’s thoughts and notes to her cute little family (and still have them write her some back!) I love cute, quick projects that turn into treasures!
I have tried being a digital scrapbooker, I have! Promise! Cross my heart. My brain (and my budget) tells me that it would be so much easier. Easier to reproduce, Easier to save, Easier to clean up! Less messy, Less expensive, Less space in my house, More portable, maybe even More professional. The list of pro’s for digital scrapbooking huge. I love the look of so many inspired designers going digi lately. I do! So…. I’ve tried learning it, I’ve tried printing it and I’ve tried, really tried to enjoy it.
And I’ve failed.
I can’t do it! The layouts are okay but to me there is always something missing. Yes, I am left feeling accomplished that I got something done and even happier it only took me 15 mins. per layout but I’m also left feeling empty. My heart is not in it. The creative void just isn’t filled for me. It’s like a PICTURE of a beautiful quilt that you can’t cuddle up underneath you or feel it’s softness. When I create 100% digitally I don’t feel like I’ve touched anything. I know it’s important that the memories are preserved (and ultimately that’s wonderful) but, I don’t feel like the creative outlet side of me gets to come out in quite the same way.
A few weeks ago I got an email from Creating Keepsakes. Telling me that CK has a promotion with Shutterfly through the end of February! A free 8×8 scrapbook! All your digi pages printed and bound. My brain told me to do it. My heart told me I’d hate it. Since I’d only be out the $3.50 in shipping I ordered one to at least try it out. I spent less than an hour and made a 2009 year in review album. Not only did I love it but I found a way to satisfy my head and my heart! Once it came back, I wanted to infuse a little more of my personality into it. So I pulled out a few flat embellishments, my favorite adhesives, a dual brush pen for journaling and got busy! I love the finished look and think I’ve learned that I love hybrid layouts! I’ll definitely be doing more of these in the future. What are you waiting for- go order yourself one and show us your own ‘add-ons’!
