Pages

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

MINI Album with Lace & Fabric Tapes!

Hi there!  
My name is Jenni Calma and I am one of the new DT members here at Love My Tapes.  
Even though this is my second post, this will be my official introduction!
So, before I show you my project, I wanted to share a little bit about myself.

I was raised in the South and am married to my best friend, no really, we were best friends, 
for years, about 9, before we were married...We met in Architecture school and have been married 
for almost 12 years!  I worked for 8 years before taking a (possibly permanent) sabbatical to stay 
at home with 2 super cool little people who call us Mommy & Daddy; Sofia (9) and Samuel (6).  
And one hairy black dog named Lola...

We kept sketchbooks all through college and they became more like my first scrapbooks.
After our wedding, I started making mini books and shadow boxes of memorabilia that 
eventually  took a more 2D form after our daughter was born...
I read Cathy Zielske's books and was immediately obsessed!  
Other than scrapbooking, I love to cook, paint, garden and hang out with our family!
You can check out more projects and info on my blog HERE!

Ok, enough about me!! Onto the project!
This was a wonderful collision of timing, products, photos & everything else all rolled into one.
  I have been planning a mini album to document my daughter's First Communion for exactly 
one year now.  But, I couldn't make up my mind or get motivated.
After getting the gorgeous selection of tapes from Love My Tapes, I got really inspired!


I am not a super "lacey" person, or so I thought...this lace fabric tape may totally turn me around!
First of all, as I was working on this project and now looking back at the photos, 
I think that the lace is what I was missing, without knowing it!  I needed something special, 
something I could carry through as a theme with the book, and something feminine.


This is the outside of the mini album where I used the lace for leaves
 on a flower I punched and layered.

This page didn't have any fabric or lace tape but I used the doilies to help tie it in.


These pages both used a fabric tape that are small diamond shapes in colors that 
matched this Serendipity collection perfectly.  That fabric tape comes
in a really cool package of 3 that coordinate but have different patterns.




This is where the lace tape starting coming into the album and I couldn't stop...
I thought it was a perfect addition, since you can the see the color behind it, 
but it is still a nice visual border and offers texture...I love it! 
I used the wide white lace tape throughout the album.


I was a little worried about punching through the lace, chipboard,papers and adhesive...
No problems!  No tearing or frayed edges...it was great!

 


 One of the nicest surprises about this tape is the adhesive...
I have piles of washi but didn't know what to expect from the fabric tapes.

The fabric is a nice heavier weight, not transparent, but still removable with the
same characteristics of washi.  The lace tape, since it is lace, is what was so wonderful.  
It comes on the roll with a removable backing and it is so easy to use.

I was worried it might be a big mess of gluey bits through the lace, nope.  
It is easy to put on, easy to remove for adjusting and retains its adhesive very well.  
I moved and moved and moved this piece of lace on the page 
below about 5 times (Indecisive Girl!), never tore the paper, & stuck to it over & over!



No tape on this one, doilies again.

The back cover with a little envelope & note for my daughter for later.

  I know this is a long post! :)  Thanks for sticking with me!
I was so pleasantly surprised and grateful to have found such a perfect
product to use for this special project...
I hope this inspired you to try something new and be creative!

The other DT members are all really talented and have lots of fun projects coming up...
come back and check out their work on the BLOG or on the Love My Tapes Facebook page
You can see all the products for sale, washi included, HERE.

Happy crafting & have a wonderful day!! 














Monday, April 15, 2013

Vintage Inspired Pen Holder

Hi, everyone!  I'm so excited to share my first post as one of the new Love My Tapes Design Team members!  Woo hoo!  ;)  

First, a little about me.  My name is Janice Whiting and I'm married to a wonderful man name Luke.  We with have three amazing kiddos, Elijah (6), Judah (4) and Isabella Wren (1).  I kinda consider myself a jack of all trades (Jane of all trades?) in the crafts world since I dabble in pretty much anything my hands can create with including card making, scrap booking,  home decorating, sewing, crocheting, jewelry making, cake decorating, and yeah, the list goes on!  :)

Here I am!

Today I wanted to share with you a cute and easy project that can be done in no time, yet still look super fun and shabby chic. 

 But, before I share my project, I have a confession to make.  And I'm kinda thinkin' (and hopin') that I'm not the only one. Here goes.  I hoard packaging. There.  I said it.  Anyone else wanna confess with me?  I'm not a "real" hoarder, I promise.  BUT, my crafty self just cannot throw away a perfectly good and sturdy aluminum foil roll or even the nice sturdy roll that some of my bamboo silk yarn came wrapped around.  And, since I'm the all in or all out type, here is a pick of my stash to go along with my confession.  I limit it to what can fit nice and sorta neat (not) in this lovely little space in my desk where I think shelves might have gone at some point in its life:


Ok, so do you see the short, wide roll in there?  I thought that it would be the perfect size for a pen holder!  Here are a few step by step pics:

  
First, I took my roll and traced the inside of it onto a spare piece of foam core board I had in my stash.

 Cut it out using a craft knife.

Next, I hot glued the foam core circle inside and close to one of the roll's ends.

 I was then ready to add my lace tape!  That's right, lace tape.  No glue necessary since it has an adhesive backing to it already.  Just cut and adhere!  Easy peasy with no having to deal with messy glues!

I layered two of LMT Jambo Lace Roll Tapes and then, simply added a satin ribbon and fun shabby flower to finish it off.  :)


 Here she is workin' it with pens inside.  ;) 
 (Don't ask me why I'm personifying my pen holder. Lol!)

I wanted to include a pic of the back because many times us designers want to hide our, ahem, rougher edges but not this time!  Yes, you can see the seam but really, it is pretty faint and still gorgeous besides.  It will, of course, be facing away from me on my desk but it's nice to know that they layer so well!

Well, thanks so much for stopping by!  It has been my pleasure to bring you a fun and easy project you can do using these super fun lace tapes!

Have a wonderful day!
Janice :)

Friday, April 12, 2013

Creating a washi tape background

Hey there, scrappy friends!  I'm Missy Whidden, and I'm one of the new Design Team members.  I'm so excited to be here and share some fun projects with you.  Before we get to that, I'd like to introduce myself.

I've been married to my college sweetheart for 13 years, but we've been together for almost 19.  We have two beautiful daughters, Reese (6) and Paige (4).  We live in a very small town in Central Florida.  We both grew up here, and both of our families live here, too.  Before becoming a mom, I was a high school English teacher.  Now I'm a stay-at-home mom, but I also teach Spinning and Body Pump classes at the YMCA.  I've been a fitness instructor for over eight years, and I love it!  I love working out and helping others get fit and reach their fitness goals.  Exercise is just as much a type of therapy for me as scrapbooking! 

I began scrapping the summer before Reese was born, and I immediately became addicted.  I love to get messy with mists & paints on my pages...whether it's smearing, smudging, dripping or dabbing, I love it.  I've been on several design teams over the past two years, and I love every minute of it!  I have a serious addiction and love for washi tape.  Sometimes I create pages using only tape...like the one I'm about to share :)

I'm so happy to be a part of this wonderful team, and I hope you'll be inspired by my projects in some way!  If you'd like, you can visit my own personal blog HERE.


I created this page using only one piece of plain white cardstock and one piece of patterned paper.  The rest is washi tape & lace tape.  I pulled out several patterns of black & teal tapes and just started layering them down as a background.  I love this technique because it's fast, there isn't a lot of cutting involved, and you can really mix up your tapes.  Mist up the background, or drip some paint, and your plain white cardstock is plain no more.


The LMT lace tape is so cool and easy to use.  Just snip off however much you want to use, peel off the backing and stick it down!


I love that the washi tapes are so versatile...I used a small piece as an accent here.


I hope you'll give the washi tape background technique a try!  I'm so happy to be here on this amazing team...I know you'll love what everyone creates and shares here with you.

Have a wonderful day!

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Two Cards; One Sketch

Hello everyone. This is Annette Witherspoon and I'm back with a couple cards. Before I show them to you, I'd like to officially introduce myself.





I started dabbling in paper crafts a several years ago - shortly after receiving a handmade wedding card. I fell in love with the idea of creating one-of-a-kind cards made straight from the heart. Two-and-a-half years ago, I ramped up my crafting endeavors when I started my blog, A. Spoon Full of Sugar, which is a play on my real name. A is the first letter of my first name, and Spoon is the last half of my last name.

Since then, I started doing design work, entering challenges and submitting to magazines. I have been fortunate enough to design for
  • Stampendous
  • Pink by Design stamps
  • Frosted Designs challenge blog
  • Joy’s Life stamps
  •  Currently for A Jillian Vance Design and Eyelet Outlet

I also wrote for ScrapStreet Magazine, an online scrapbooking and papercrafting magazine. My work has been published in Paper Craft’s Magazine and Scrapstreet Magazine.

Before becoming a mother to my two children, I worked in public relations/marketing for 10 years.

Now for the fun part - cards!! I made two cards for you today. They both use the same sketch from Card Maps, but they are very different. One is a Mother's Day card and the other is a Birthday card. The colors and the orientation are very different, too.





The first card uses a color palette of red and white with small touches of green and black. You'll see it's a vertical card. It features fabric tape from the red ribbon value pack, which includes three styles of fabric tape that coordinate well together. The sentiments and dies are from A. Jillian Vance Design.

Now let's take a look at the second card.


You can see I switched the orientation of the sketch from vertical to horizontal. You may also notice that I didn't follow the sketch precisely. I rearranged a few things, but the same basic design is the same. This card also uses fabric tape from the value pack, as well as pink lace tape. 

I love the texture of the fabric tapes. The photos really don't do it justice. The fabric adds a different texture, but the adhesive is still low tack making the tapes very easy to reposition. The value packs are great because they include three different tapes that coordinate together.

I hope you enjoyed this post. Stay tuned because you will get to meet another design team member on Friday. As for now, I am going to leave you with a side-by-side view of the two cards.



Monday, April 8, 2013

A Nautical Card

Hello everyone! I'm Heather Adams, one of the new design team members! I'm so excited to get started showing you new and FUN ways to use Love My Tapes!

First of all, let me tell you a little about myself.
I am an eighteen year old scrapper. But don't let my age fool you; I have been scrapbooking for over 3 years. I would describe my scrapbooking style as cutesy and clean. I cannot stand a messy page, although I admire those who can create artistic projects. My ruler gets used a lot in my scraproom. I love layering and machine sewing on my pages is definitely a must. One of my greatest accomplishments is that I was a finalist in Creating Keepsakes' Teen Talent contest in 2011. I am on Pretty Little Studio's design team and also Thinking Through Design's team as of right now. I have been  I am graduating from high school this year and I plan on pursuing graphic design in college. Oh- one more little fun fact about me. I'm the Valedictorian of my graduating class! Yippee! Other than scrapbooking, I enjoy photography, shopping with my younger sister, baking, and swimming.

Ok- now on to the fun stuff! I made this card with the awesome Nautical Fabric Tapes from LMT. Nautical is pretty "big" in trending right now, so I thought it'd be fun to make a little nautical card to share with you today. Basically I just used the fabric tape like I would have strips of paper. I lined them up and then layered a piece of lace tape on top. I love the combination of elegant and nautical. 

I thought I might mention that this fabric tape is so easy to use. I have never used it before, so when I picked it up to use, the tape came right off the backing! Good thing, or I might have tried to glue the backing with my ATG! They really are so super easy to use. Just like washi, really. But a different texture! 



Well, that's about all I've got for you today. I'm so happyto be on this team and I hope you will stop by later this week to see what the other gals have going on! :)

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Hello! My name is...

Hi there!!  This is Jenni Calma.  
I am a new DT member at Love My Tapes and am super excited to
share the first layout I did using a couple of my favorite tapes...


I LOVE wood grain in everything, but wood grain tape!??  Awesome.
I made my own 'garland' using the washi on card stock, 
punched it out and sewed it together on my machine...
I used my other favorite tape to highlight the "HAPPY" behind the die cut for my title.


Here are a couple closeups of those details!


Thanks so much for checking it out and be sure to come back and see
all the new projects coming up from the other talented ladies here!

Wishing you all a 'happy place' at some point today!!

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Hello!

Hello fans of Love My Tapes. My name is Annette Witherspoon and I am one of the new design team members. We'll be gradually introducing you to the new team in the next week or two. In the meantime, I thought I'd share a quick card I created with some Love My Tapes product I already had in my stash. Some of you  may  have seen it on my blog last week, but I thought I'd share it with everyone over here.


I look forward to getting to know all of you and seeing the wonderful projects you create!! Please continue to check here for inspiration, challenges and prizes. We'll start posting regularly next week. I'm sure you'll be impressed with the new team's creations. I've visited all their blogs and they are amazing!! You're in for a real treat!