My Mind's Eye Blog

Lori’s Style

It has been a complete thrill to be the Guest Designer here at My Minds Eye. These very talented ladies are a huge inspiration to me and I'm honored to be a little part of that inspiration to others. But when I was asked to define my "style" I honestly felt a bit stumped. I'm always trying out new ways of scrapbooking and paper crafting and so putting a label on it was very difficult. My crafting time is very limited so I would like to say I'm drawn to anything that makes scrapbooking quick and easy. Once I discovered how easy scrapbooking the 4x6 way could be you would think I'd be all caught up...but I'm not. However, I find that I'm the most drawn to creating less traditional scrapbooking and doing more of the altered items, home decor and any type of paper crafted gift project. Here are two that I thought I would work on as the holidays are soon upon us.

Christmas Countdown Advent Flip Frame

I originally taught this idea at Scrapfest a few months ago with another "cutesy" product collection and received a great response. However, the end result was not one I would typically display in "MY" home. So the first thing you must know about me is I love RED...anything red, glittery red, dull red, shiny red...I even married an All-RED because of his name (not really, but it so worked out in my favor). As a result I took my previously designed class and recreated it with the beautiful Lost & Found Christmas Collection to create this fun advent calendar.

It's amazing what red glitter, mod podge and an $.99 Ikea plastic frame turns out like.

This is what the frame looked like before I got a hold of it. And these frames take spray paint colors wonderfully. Simply remove one of the plastic sheets from the center of the frame and punch holes using a Crop-A-Dile tool in the remaining piece and thread binder metal rings through the holes to create a place for advent calendar pieces.

Simply flip over each day as you count down to Christmas Day. Most of the pages were created from using the Lost & Found Christmas 6x6 Pad, chipboard stickers, brads and layered stickers. You can create this fun home decor project in a couple hours for yourself or as unique gift for a friend. And I'm even sharing the printable of the text I used to create my Christmas Countdown Advent frame.

BONUS: Download the printable word art used to create the Christmas Countdown Flip Calendar

http://www.box.com/s/p5oqa650v10fg2qy4ohr

Candy Jar

We're not done yet.... I thought it would be fun to share another one of my favorite projects I have been making lately for friends and family. After a quick stop at the DI or your local thrift shop looking for glass candy jars and glass candle sticks, you too can create the same type of project. You'll simply need some rustoleum spray paint and E6000 glue and you're ready to create your own unique candy jars. To learn how I created these jars, visit my blog <http://www.allreddesign.net>. I'll walk you through the step-by-step process to create the jar and you can take your left over Lost & Found Christmas products to create the fun pinwheel on dangling off the front and fill it with yummy goodness.

That's my style in a nutshell...anything RED makes me smile and sums me up! Thanks again for letting me be part of the My Minds Eye inspiration this month. It has been a blast and a great opportunity!!

Christmas countdown

I love the build up to Christmas - especially the wonder in the eyes of small children.

I thought this little project might be a different sort of countdown to the day - it could be used instead of an advent calender and then at the end of it, you have enough ready made photos to start a Christmas layout or album.

As most of us have digital cameras and printers, it would be easy to take a photograph every morning or night and print it for that day, replacing the photograph each day until Christmas.

I was inspired by an embroidery hoop but decided to make this with card but keep the general style. I used the awesomely cute "12 days of Christmas" range as my girls are full of giggles.

You can download the PDF of instructions * here*

You could easily redo this for birthday or wedding countdowns or just make one for your favourite photos of 2012.

Enjoy!

Blog Challenge 29 winner

WOW!  We are still reeling from all the amazing entries we received this month.  We are grateful to you for taking the time to shear your time and talents with us.

Our winners this month are:

Layout Winner: Cathy Harper

 

Layout Honorable Mention Winner: Christin G

 

Card Winner: Tracee Provis

We look forward to our next blog challenge beginning in early December!

If you haven’t had a chance to look at all the entries, be sure to check out all the layout and card entries.

Time to Create Christmas Cards!

Thanksgiving is almost upon us - and before you know, it will be time to start sending Christmas cards to loved ones. Thank goodness My Mind’s Eye has a festive and bright new Christmas line that will make card making a breeze – “12 Days of Christmas”. This line is complete with chipboard embellishments, brads, fabulous 3-D stickers, a die cut sheet, beautiful rhinestones, and adorable trims.

I had a delightful time creating these three cards. It was amazing how easily they came together as I combined these wonderful dimensional elements to make my cards.

I used the blue and white twine from the “trims” to hang the ornaments on my card, then inserted brads for a finishing touch. I embellished the chipboard presents with rhinestones and pearls to make them pop!

Have fun creating!!

Lost & Found Christmas

Hi, Everyone! Jana here! I've been dying to play with the Lost & Found Christmas Collection, but sadly, I didn't take very many photos last Christmas. I wasn't going to let that stop me from digging into one of the prettiest collections out there right now! This past weekend my daughter wore one of her new winter dresses and posed for some pictures with our pup. As I looked at the colors of the photos I knew that the Lost & Found Christmas collection would go beautifully with the pictures! Yay! I love doing that . . . finding unconventional ways to use themed products . . . it really helps me to stretch my stash of supplies!

I love the Lost & Found Glittered Chipboard Accessories with this collection. How fun is it to construct a banner of different shaped pennants. Such a fun and playful way to accent your page. I added a stitched line on my page to anchor the banner pieces and then added a decorative brad to each one for additional detail and dimension. I used the rhinestones to add interest to my title, as well.

I adore the rhinestones in this set. The colors are so rich and beautiful. I lined them up along the scalloped chipboard piece . . . don't they look just like Christmas lights shining along a snowy rooftop?! Beautiful!

Thanks for letting me share my non-Christmas, Christmas layout with you today!

Jana Eubank

Stamping in the Rain

The UK is known around the world for its rainy days and its certainly been proving that these last few weeks. So to pass the time, i've been playing with the stamps from the My Minds Eye Christmas releases - Lost & Found Christmas and 12 Days of Christmas.

As you know by now, I love using stamps on layouts to make backgrounds nearly more than using stamps for feature images and that often is the way it works for my cards too!

I tend to try and keep things very simple with my cards as they are often sent through the postal system so they need to be as flat as possible but that doesnt mean completely flat - I am addicted to foam adhesive and a little can go a long way.

I have been lucky to have great friends who gifted me a new heat gun as I had to leave mine in Canada (different power supplies) so I've been a bit embossing powder happy :)

Often I get an idea and play with it to see if it works as well on paper as in my head - I think I've working on a 75% success rate - the biggest thing with stamping is to play and play with the images and textures you can make.

This is one of my favourites becuase it took a round image but instead of me using a circle punch, I went with a heart punch to try and create a theme with shapes rather than the actual image.

I am though addicted to this Tree stamp from the Lost and Found Christmas set - It is just perfect to me and doesnt need much to set it off to be gorgeous.

But if you struggle with whole sheets to stamp with, start with tags - I do this a lot and often they can make a card or layout just that little bit special.

Also you can stamp backgrounds and then cut them to shape - like these baubels.

Please remember if you are doing cards for Operation Write home - NO GLITTER or sparkles.

and if you are sick of christmas cards, here is something using the butterfly from the Lost and Found Blush stamp set and a tiny shrinkiedink (aka shrink plastic) tag.Thats also just one stamp pad - basically ink up your stamp, stamp and then stamp again (and again if you want) - this gives you a dark and a light image from one inking.

So I hope you have a little starting point to use your stamps - I'd love to see what you have done with them either here or on the My Minds Eye Facebook page.

Thank you!

Designer: Suzanne Sergi; Featured Collection: Kraft Funday – Happy Day

 

Designer: Amber Packer; Featured Collection: Lost & Found 2 – Sunshine

I have family members who have served in the Marines, Army and the Air Force.  I am grateful for their sacrifice and the sacrifice of so many others.  Thank you!

Proud

Featured Collection: 6x6

I am grateful for every single one of the men and women who put themselves out there to give us the rights we quite often take for granted. Thank You So Much!

“In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . .
And by that time there was no one left to speak up."
Pastor Martin Niemöller

Anam Stubbington 

To our friends…

Many of you have noticed the misspelling of "December" on the bracket die cut in the Lost & Found Christmas Accessory Sheet. We know how frustrating this error can be to those of you who wanted to use this piece.

If you purchased the Accessory sheet, we would like to send you a replacement piece for free (the piece with the misspelled word). Please send an email to: [email protected] and include: your name, mailing address, email address and the store you purchased the accessory sheet from.

We anticipate being able to ship the replacement piece to you mid-December.

Thank you for your support of our company. We apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused.

Your friends at My Mind's Eye

Thank you for your sacrifice…

Today is Veteran’s Day in the U.S. and Remembrance Day in Canada.  We would like to thank those that serve in the armed forces and their family members for their sacrifice to serve their country.

Throughout the day today we will be sharing cards by a few of our designers.  We will begin with this darling card by Jana Eubank using our new Kraft Funday Happy Day collection.

Take the time to thank your service members today.