My Mind's Eye Blog

Use a Pattern Paper to Begin Your Design by Jana

TGIF everyone! Today I want to talk about how to use a fun patterned paper as a jumping off point for a layout.

 

I was immediately drawn to the large checkmark pattern of the "Be" Live paper from the Cut & Past Adorbs collection. I decided to cut a section out of that paper to begin my page design for this next layout.

 

Supplies: Cut and Paste

Hello” Greet Paper

“Special” Striking Paper

“Be” Live Paper

“Loved” Devoted Paper

“Adorbs” 6x6 Paper Pad

“Special” 2x6 Journal Card

“Special” 4x6 Journal Card

“Special” Tiny Word Stickers

Story” Enamel Shapes

“Hello” Decorative Brads

“Be” Chipboard Stickers

“Be” Label Stickers

After I cut out the checkmark, I held it up to several of the other papers to decide which one to adhere it to. I chose to use the "Special" Striking paper with the gradated green and blue. I especially like the way the green shows above the checkmark and then fades to blue underneath the checkmark. I trimmed the paper to a smaller square, matted it with white cardstock, and then adhered it to a 12x12 sheet of "Hello" Greet paper.

 

I adhered my photo and the journaling cards to the polka dot side of the "Loved" Devoted paper. I used a couple of patterns from the 6x6 paper pad as accents. Finally, the page gets a finishing touch with a mixture of decorative tape, enamel shapes, decorative brads, and a variety of chipboard stickers. I love how it came together!

 

 

Thanks for taking a look!

Jana Eubank

 

Sleepy Dog by Tina

Hi!  Tina here today with a layout using one of the latest collections, Chalk Studio!  Chalk Art is such a fresh, fun, and totally hip range, I couldn't wait to start creating with it.

The color palette is wonderful,  with true black and white, delicious chalk designs, and pastel pinks, greens, and grays.  It's a range that definitely catches the eye and can be used for so many projects.

One of my favorite bits to this collection is the banner kit.  It (of course) can be used and customized to make fantastic banners for your home decor, but it can also be used on your scrapbooking layouts.

For this layout {of my little Flikka}, I choose 3 of the striped pattered banners and layered them on my page for a fun geometric look, while subtly adding color.  Another thing that is so awesome about these banner pieces is that they are reversible.  One side is a wonderful chalk look, while the other side is full of pastel goodness.

So next time you see a paper kit that you think has only one use, think again.  :)  The sky is the limit when it comes to this collection!

Thanks for stopping by today!  I hope you have a great one.

August Sketch Challenge!

Hey there, it's Ronda here with you today bringing the August Sketch Challenge! This month's sketch is all about layering those gorgeous MME patterned papers.  To really give them the spotlight, I layered them in the center of page. This page also has lots of white space letting the photo be the focal point. 

Supplies:  Cut & Paste: Adorbs  - Hello: 'Greet' Paper, Journal Card; Adorbs-Be: Labels;  Flair-Small: Enamel Shapes;  Phresh-Beautiful: Tiny Word Stickers; Phresh-Good Times: 'Tribal' Paper, decorative buttons;  Phresh- Right Now: Chipboard Stickers, Label Stickers;  Misc: Koi watercolors, black pen,

i met my husband while he was attending commerical pilot school.  I didn't set out to marry a pilot but fell in love at first sight.  His career has always been a big part of our lives for it takes him away from home quite a bit.   I cannot help though to be so very proud of him when I see him in uniform, especially when we get to fly on his planes. 

I started by painting the background with some watercolors.  On my layout I used mostly black & white photos with very colorful papers from Cut & Paste. I cut out rectangles of various colors that I liked and started layering them on top of  the watercolor background. 

I used the label sticker as my title letting the picture be my focal point.  I love the repetition of words around the layout.  The orange arrow points the way to the title as does the geo tag.  Group emebellishments in meaningful ways, keeping in mind odd numbers are pleasing.

I often think of journaling as a design element as well as a way to tell my story.  On this sketch I placed the journaling right under the title and main photo, keeping that vertical line.  I find that black lends to grounding layouts so I love to journal in black adding lines underneath it. 

Now it's your turn to play with this layered sketch.  Have fun and remember you can always change the photo sizes to met your needs!

A random winner will be chosen and shared with our next challenge on September 2nd . You have until the end of the day on Sunday, September 1 to share your project.

Please link your sketch via the InLinkz tool at the bottom of this post. Your layout must feature MME products. Only one entry per participant, please. The prize is any MME collection.

 

Mixed Media with Karen- August Edition

Hi everyone!

This is Karen, back with another Mixed Media with Karen page. This month, I decided I wanted to use the chipboard pieces from Find Your Wings and Fly. I started by covering my page with tissue paper:

After I glued it down, I was a bit scared. I thought it looked terrible and wasn't sure if I should continue but then I reminded myself that many pages go through an "ugly" period and it doesn't mean anything. So I moved forward and lay down some of the chipboard pieces I wanted to use. I didn't fully press on them in case I decided later that I wanted to squeeze something under one.

As you can see, I also cut the flower one. I like having my elements come off the edges of the page so I decided to cut it to accommodate me.

Then it was time for my title. This one came from another zen podcast I was listening to. She said that compassion starts by thinking "What is it like for this person." or something along those lines. I decided to make a thought bubble, so I used Sky's the Limit - No Limit paper and created something that looked like what I wanted. I drew in pencil and didn't overthink it.

I cut that out and added two small circles and I had my thought bubble.

I decided the paper needed some ink to stand out more and then decided to ink all the other elements too. I added a few small things here and there. Some enamel dots, some stamps and I had a bunch of texture. Then I added my title and my page was done:

For this one, I also added some journaling which is some rewording of what Tara says here:

Because we are conditioned to pull away from suffering, awakening a compassionate heart requires a sincere intention and a willingness to practice. It can be simple. As you move through your day and encounter different people, slow down enough to ask yourself a question. “What is life like for this person? What does this person most need?”

If you deepen your attention, you’ll find that everyone you know is living with vulnerability. Everyone is living with fear, with loss, with uncertainty. Everyone, on some level, needs to feel safe, loved and seen.

"To be kind, we need to slow down and notice." source

And there we go. Another page done, another good reminder-to-self and I am no longer worried my page is too ugly. As always, thank you for letting me share my page and I look forward to seeing you next month!

Enamel Shapes in Action!

Hi!  Tina here today with enamel shapes! 

Okay, I must confess....I totally and obsessively love enamel dots.  BUT, when the new Enamel Shapes came out my obsession level went sky high.  Can these seriously be any cuter?

Supplies: Cut and Paste-Flair:Forever Always paper, 6x6 paper pad,Today Present paper,4x6 Journal Cards,Small Enamel Shapes, 5x7 Bits & Pieces,Enamel Dots, Decorative Stamps ,Labels, Decorative Buttons;Misc:Cardstock:  American Crafts Ink:  Staz-On Pen: Sakura Adhesive:  American Crafts (tape runner), Imaginese (foam tape) Doily:  Michaels

And do you want to know what is even better?  When you combine the Enamel Dots WITH the Enamel Shapes!  Whoa...shut the door!  ;)

Enamel Shapes include some of my favorite styles... 

Quotes?  Who doesn't love quotes?
Geo-tags?  With our use of social media today, these are perfect for documenting our daily lives.
Large floral shapes?  Timeless and endless options with these.
Triangles!  MY FAVE!  I am {slightly} triangle obsessed and these are great to group together or use individually.

For this layout, I used each one of the enamel shapes,  plus a few extra enamel dots.  Isn't is so cute when you use an enamel dot with the geo tag shape?  Love this look.

The Cut & Paste Flair Stamp set is also a perfect match for the enamel shapes.  I used the small heart bubble and frame stamp which is a great way to carry the enamel shape theme throughout a layout.  I really love the frame stamp which is awesome with our IG and phone camera images.

I hope you enjoyed my layout today and you will try out the new enamel shapes on your next project!
Thanks for stopping by.

Cut and Paste Flair with Jana

I fell in love with the eyeglass icons the minute I saw the new Cut & Paste Flair collection. Maybe it has something to do with all the bad eyesight in my family, and the opportunity to scrapbook their eye doctor appointments ... but I know I will also be using this collection for some fun Back-to-School pages!

 

Here is a page about my daughter's first time to the eye doctor.

 

This page is created primarily with the Flair collection, but I did insert the "Did You Hear the News?" 2x6 journal card from the Presh collection to use as my title. The Flair chipboard quotation marks frame it perfectly and draw the eye to the top of the page.

 

I printed all of the photos of my daughter trying on glasses the same size. All of the photos are also black and white ... except for the picture of my daughter in the pair of glasses she decided to get. On this photo, I stamped the "#picoftheday" phrase using the Flair Decorative Stamps. Perfect!

 

The NEW Cut & Paste collections are filled with darling icons ... flowers, clouds, banners, mason jars, eyeglasses, hearts, flowers, asterisks, and more! Which ones have caught your eye?

 

Jana

 

Project Life with Shelly - August Edition

Hello everyone! This is Shelly back this month with another installment of Project Life inspiration. Today, I am featuring an average week in the life using beautiful Collectable Collection.

Supplies: Collectable-Notable: ‘Love This’ Adore paper, ‘Love This’ Tiny Word Stickers’, ‘Love This’ Journal Card, ‘Memo’ Documented paper, ‘Memo’ Label Stickers, ‘Memo’ Reminder paper, Memorable ‘Hello’ Title. Other:  Becky Higgins Design A page protectors, Basic Grey micro mono stickers, Bohemian Typewriter Font, Corner Rounder, Date Stamp, ink.

My inspiration for this week came from ‘Love This’ Adore pattern paper with its fun Polaroid collage. I thought it would make a perfect date and subtitle card.

I cut the bottom right corner of the pattern paper into a 4x6 keeping the one Polaroid whole and centered. I had to trim a small strip of the bottom first to keep the look that I was going for. I just used one of my pictures to guide me with my cut.

As always when I do one thing to one side, the other side also gets a similar look. I did the same thing to the top left hand corner of the same pattern paper to create a subtitle card. This was the first full week of summer vacation and that needed to be highlighted, of course!

To bring in a little more of the floral look, I matted the plant card that came from the bush my husband gifted me for our anniversary. At first, I was going to have the picture of him planting it as a 4x6, but then I thought it would be really handy to have the card documented too. I tend to forget what the names of some of our plants are around our house, so this will serve as a handy reminder.

As a nice side note, when I opened up my album to see that this was the week I was documenting, I was happy to realize that it was a perfect match for the August Challenge to document your summer. It was very fitting that I was documenting our family’s first week of summer vacation in which we kicked off our summer’s weekly traditions. This summer we had lots of reading, loads of swimming, ate way too much ice cream, and enjoyed our weekly trips to the theater for the Summer Movie Express. So, if you haven’t had a chance to jump into this month’s challenge, I encourage you to do so!

Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you have a wonderful day!

Color Inspiration

 

 

Welcome to the August edition of Color Inspiration! Each month I select an image, email it to a couple of MME designers, and ask them to show us a project inspired by the image.

This month Tamara and Danni are joining us. Enjoy- and please feel free to join in! Link your interpretations in the comment section below!

original source

 

Sparkle by Tamara

Supplies: Collectable - Remarkable: Dates patterned paper, Adorable patterned paper, Daily patterned paper, brad, title; Collectable - Notable: journal card; Collectable - Unforgettable: decorative tape; Find Your Wings and Fly: sticker and alpha/letter stickers; Lost and Found 3 - Oliver: decorative tape (yellow and blue); All is Bright; decorative tape (red); Lush: red chipboard alpha; Misc: white cardstock, black ink, pen, and thread, glitter glue, red, blue, and gold ink spray.

Tamara says:The fresh, bright colors of this color inspiration reminded me of a summer party.  I had just taken some pictures of my kids and their cousins playing with sparklers at our family 24th of July Celebration (also called Pioneer Day in Utah, commemorating the founding of our state on July 24, 1847). It is almost as big as the 4th of July around here, complete with BBQ's and parades, and fireworks.  I resized my photos into two "filmstrips" so I could easily fit 8 photos on my layout.

I wanted to capture the bursts of light emanating from the sparklers on my page.  I used red, blue, and yellow spray inks to echo the look of sparklers and a celebration.  I also hand cut the starburst shapes and the "24" out of the Collectable - Remarkable collection.  I used glitter glue to accent the letters, starbursts, title, and "24".

I used decorative tapes along the side of my page.  I used two strips of the yellow to create a wider chevron pattern. I layered the starbursts around my page to echo the sparklers.

 

Hello Card by Danni

Supplies:  Find Your Wings and Fly Sky's The Limit: Tiled, Flowers For You, Up and Away and Layered Ephemera patterned papers, Find Your Wings and Fly Up and Away chipboard and enamel dots;Misc:Cameo Silhouette sentiment, Bazzill cardstock and Tim Holtz mini staples

Danni says:Good morning, Danni here with you today to share a card for this month's GORGEOUS color inspiration.  I love every last bit of this color inspiration piece and know that you too.  I chose to use the Find Your Wings and Fly line of gorgeous papers and embellies for this card, and I love how soft and beautiful the patterns are together.

I love to layer, however the patterns in this line are so beautiful I wanted them to showcase along with a fun chipboard and some enamel dots.  I can not wait to see what everyone will create with this gorgeous color inspiration.

Mix and Match with Karen- August Edition

Hi everyone!  It's Karen back with another Mixed and Matched layout and another attempt at making a 6x12 page that doesn't look too cramped or too empty.

This month, I decided to use a photo of my husband and I and mix it with two of my favorite lines: Find your Wings and Fly and The Sweetest Thing. I love the lime green, the shades of pinks and yellows and the contrast with the dark black. It all makes me very, very happy. So here's what I ended up with this month:

My husband and I are about to celebrate our 19th anniversary of being together. We started dating back in 1994 when we were both in college and I can't believe that, next year, I will have spent exactly half my
life with him and after that, each year, I will have spent more time with him in my life than without. Quite amazing, if you ask me. I am deeply grateful.

When trying to figure out what to do with this page, the lime numbers in the Up and Away - Always paper just jumped out at me. So I cut them out and glued them down. I then found the white numbers in the Big Top page and decided they had to go there, too. I purposefully put them upside down. I think it creates a more interesting dynamic.

I then added a strip of Krafty Floral simply because it might be my favorite paper of all time and I had to use it. Before I glued them down, I snuck a piece of the yellow fleece banner from the Kraft Funday line because I loved the bright yellow. I then topped it with a chipboard banner from The Sweetest Thing. And a word sticker from Find your Wings and Fly word and alpha stickers because I loved the contrast of the black.

On the opposite corner, I cut out one of the large (and amazing!) chipboard flowers from The Sweetest Thing and couped it with a yellow butterfly. I added the year and an enamel dot in black.


I wanted to do something fun for my title so I mixed the word stickers from The Sweetest Thing and the alpha stickers from Find Your Wings and Fly and then added some more to create this long and colorful title that was almost like journaling.

The word amazing was too long and wasn't going to fit in the line so I decided to just break it into two lines and created a little cluster. It's still easy to read the word and I didn't have to stress. (If it were a 12x12, of course, I wouldn't have to worry. But this is the whole point of trying new sizes, so you can
stretch creatively.) The full title reads: I am so thankful for 19 amazing years of deep love and perfect moments.


On the bottom where I added the photo, I put some layered stickers from The Sweetest Thing coupled with the heart and chipboard from Find your Wings and Fly. I then added all the arrows to push the viewer's eye back to the page and the photo.  I like layering the buttons and the chipboard and the enamel. Adds a ton of little colors and creates my own personal embellishment that fits my page perfectly.


I then did some fun stitching in black to tie the whole page together and I was done!

I have to admit I've grown to love the 6x12 and I am very glad I decided to give it a try. The lack of white space is a challenge for me since I love my white space and I have yet to make a page with several photos so I am not sure how that would work out. (Hmmm, maybe a future challenge...) But, so far, I like the unusual ratio of this size. If you haven't tried one, I hope you take the plunge along with me this month.

Thanks again for letting me share my page, and see you next month!

Summer Fun Cards with Tonya

Happy Monday morning to you all! Tonya here to share with you some cards that feature all things summer...flowers, butterflies, and of course the sun!

I've pulled out three different collections, one for each card. That is one of the things that I love about My Mind's Eye...it is so versatile. None of these collections are summer themed, but they all were super simple to make summer cards with!

This one was made using Boy Crazy...

Supplies: Boy Crazy- 6x6 paper pad, decorative buttons, chipboard elements, enamel dots Lime Twist: Fly a Kite "Everyday" Twine Find Your Wings and Fly - Sky's The Limit: Alpha & Word Stickers

This one uses Cut & Paste - Presh...

Supplies: Cut & Paste - Presh: 6x6 paper pad, decorative buttons, enamel dots

This last one was made using My Girl...

Supplies: My Girl- 6x6 paper pad, felt stickers, enamel dots, decorative brads, decorative buttons Lime Twist: Fly a Kite "Everyday" Twine

Hope I have inspired you to pull out your supplies and make a few cards, summer themed or not! Enjoy the rest of your week!

Tonya