My Mind's Eye Blog

Mini Albums with Stephanie | February 2014 Edition

Before we share Stephanie's mini we want to tell you that we are SO THRILLED to be a part of this month's Scrapbok Generation CREATE magazine. The issue is absolutely lovely and the inspiration is nonstop. Go check it out HERE.

Hi there!  Stephanie back with you again this month to share another fun mini album.  This is an easy little album to assemble.  It took me about 30 minutes from start to finish to make the book and decorate the pages!

Supplies needed:
Patterned paper: Cupid's Arrow, Chalk Studio, Collectable, The Sweetest Thing
Paper Trimmer
Bone Folder
Brad
Decorate Tape
Twine or string
Adhesive
Photos and your favorite MME embellishments


1. Start by trimming four sheets of patterned paper to 4 inches x 8 inches.  These will be the inside pages of your album.  


2. Score the trimmed paper at 4 inches (right down the middle).


3. Fold your paper at the score line to create a small "card".


4. Adhere your "cards" together.  
Start with the first card, place adhesive on the back side and then adhere it to the front of the next card. Repeat for the remaining papers.


 When you have finished adhering them all together, you will end up with a cute little folding book.


5. Make a cover.

Trim another piece of patterned paper to 4 inches x 12 inches.  This will be your cover piece.
Score your paper at 4.25 inches, 4.5 inches, 8.5 inches and 8.75 inches and fold.  The right side of your paper will fold over the left side to create a flap.  

*Note: if you are adding more than the pages shown here, you will likely need to increase the distance between your two score lines shown above to allow for more pages/space.*


6. Grab your folded/adhered pages and glue onto your cover.  You are only adhering this bottom side into the book.


7. Add a strip of washi tape for color and a brad onto the middle of your flap.


8. Wrap a piece of twine around the brad and tie a knot, tucking the ends in under the brad.  The twine will act as the closure for your book.

And that's it!!  Easy peasy!  Now you are all ready to decorate.  I decided to include some of my favorite things in this sweet little book.  Let's take a look...

I hope you enjoyed this month's mini. Thanks so much for stopping by. TGIF!

Anatomy of a Double Page Layout | February 2014

Hello everyone! This is Shelly with another behind the scenes look at the makings of a double page layout. This time around, I went with the easy route of all 3x4 pictures along with the new 3x4 Now & Then Cards.  

With another year under our belts and a new one well underway, I went back to my 2013 memories to pull together a brief month by month overview of my two little munchkins together. I always have a plenty of pictures each month of them together doing something special. I think it is fun to take a look at all the fun things we did over the year.

Supplies: Now & Then – Izzy: “Happenings” Celebrate Paper, “Good Times” Range Paper, “Smile” Bloom Paper, “Dream Big” Chipboard Elements, “Good Times” 3x4 Cards, “Dream Big” Decorative Buttons, “Boys” Decorative Brads, Mixed Bag; Dorothy: “Celebrate” Alpha/Word Stickers; Other: string, stapler, kraft cardstock


Like I said before, I went the super easy route with all the same size and orientation pictures. This always makes things super simple and easy to pull off a block of pictures. With my pictures in place, I knew where my openings would be to fill in with some of the new 3x4 Cards.

There was no question to which papers I wanted to work with. The moment I saw all of the Izzy papers and embellishments from the Now & Then Collection, I knew they were going to have to be the first on my list to use! The toned down primary colors are just too perfect for all of my pictures that I take of my kids; so very fun and playful.

Next up, choosing which papers would work best from the collection. With so much happening with the pictures, I went with the subtle dots on white and the yellow strip for the bottom. These are two great patterns that don’t have a lot going on and are neutral enough to work with so many pictures.   

For the title, I really loved that there were numbers in the Mixed Bag sets, perfect for creating my “2013” title. I just put those pretty silver stars in the “zero” place and embellished with a chipboard button. Since the numbers were all different patterns, they weren’t standing out on the polka-dot pattern enough for me.

I created a nice little home for them to stand out on with a piece of light kraft cardstock and grounded them with a banner strip.

With the title fun happening in the upper left corner of my page, I wanted to bring a little fun to the bottom right corner too. I added the silver bookplate die-cut from the Mixed Bag set. I also liked how that brought some silver to the other side of my page too.


Last but not least, I wanted to add a little extra something to the 3x4 Cards. I like that these cards can stand alone, but still so easy to add a little extra to! With so many fun embellishments from the Now & Then Collection, how could I not this time around?

I was so happy to see that the Decorative Buttons made yet another return for this collection! I think my favorite part of those pretty little packages is those little banners. They were just made to embellish a nice small canvas like the 3x4 cards.

Have you created a double page layout using any of the loveliness from My Mind’s Eye lately? Link them up; I would love to see them! Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you have a wonderful day!

 

Mixed Media with Karen | February 2014

Hi everyone!

This is Karen and I am back with another Mixed Media with Karen. Since 2011, I have been setting yearly projects for myself in order to keep up  with learning new things and practicing art regularly. I tend to pick
2-5 art projects that I do on a weekly basis for a year. One of my projects this year is called Remember This.

It's an art journal I am keeping for the sole purpose of important messages that I want to remember. Ideas and thoughts that resonate with me or that I know I will want to remember.

For this month's Mixed Media project, I decided to make a page in my journal. The first thing I did was to cut out some of the hearts from the Lost and Found Record It! Heirloom Adored Glittered paper. I just loved all those hearts and I knew I wanted to use them. I cut them out and lined them up in my journal:


Once I had my hearts down, I highlighted them with black outlines and then used the chipboard "Sweet" from the same line to write out my title. A little black arrow, some yellow paint and a bunch of stamps to add some noise to the background and I had this:


I stared at it for a long time to decide if it needed anything else but I couldn't come up with anything that would add to the page. I feel like sometimes I put more just to put more and the extra bits end up taking so much time because I sit there and look for the "perfect" embellishment when, of course, there's no such thing.

So instead of just piling on and on, I decided this was lovely in its simplicity and it gave the glittery hearts and title more room to shine.


The title says: give up that there's something wrong. life can be so sweet if you let it.

A reminder I need all too often.

I wish I could show you this page in person so you can see how shimmery these little hearts are:


Coupled with the warmth of the orange-y yellow, the page is soft and shiny in person. Another reminder that life is sweet and lovely.

That's it from me this month. Your turn to share: what's something you'd like to remember?

Pretty Things Card

Happy Tuesday everyone! This is Laurel here with you today.

 

I just couldn’t wait to dig into the Record It Pretty Things collection.  The shabbiness, the woodgrain, the roses all make my heart happy .  I could just sit and stare at them all day!  I would absolutely love a craft room decorated just like these papers!

 

To create the card I just layered and stitched some of the patterned papers.  Then I fussy cut some of the rose clusters adhered one under the die cut and one on top to create dimension. 

 

 

The sentiment is cut with my Silhouette and then I stamped and paper pieced the garden tools, stapled on a twine bow and mounted to the card with foam squares.

 

I also thought that the rose clusters were so pretty, they would look nice on the inside of the card as well, so I adhered one of them to the inside of the card.

 

Have a great day!

 

Laurel

 

Now and Then Love-Filled Layouts

Valentine’s Day has come and gone, but I’m still celebrating with a couple layouts using My Mind’s Eye Now & Then collection. I’m so in love with this collection! I love the rich, vibrant color palettes and fun patterns. And as always with My Mind’s Eye, the embellishments do not disappoint.

 

 

Supplies: Now & Then collection— Dorothy “Pretty” Blossom paper and “Wild & Free” Spirited paper, Dorothy “Celebrate” chipboard elements, Dorothy “Wild & Free” enamel dots, Milo “Documented” decorative buttons, Dorothy “Celebrate” and Mildred “Oh Happy Day” alpha/word stickers. Record It, Just Splendid collection—wood dots. Other—Silhouette Cameo and Studio Calico Mister Huey.

 

This first layout uses my most favorite photo of my husband and I……he was just my fiancé at the time. Shout out to my college roommate Laura Love ,the crazy talented photographer. Thank you, Laura!

 

Because I decided to use both a color photo and a black and white photo, I decided to split the page in half. I backed the black and white photo with lots of color, and placed the color photo on plain white for balance.

 

I love fun titles like this one—song titles are always fun to incorporate into layouts (song title thanks to Queen). I actually cut the word “crazy” onto that pink and white striped paper, but it didn’t stand out enough for me.

 

Instead of going to find some colored cardstock and cutting again, I decided to just spray it with a coordinating ink color. If you look really close, you can still see the stripes.

 

I used the matching chipboard flowers on top of the patterned paper and added a few of those awesome wood dots from the Record It Just Splendid collection. Don’t be surprised if you see them on every single one of my projects until I run out!

Supplies:Now & Then collection— Izzy 6x6 paper pad, Izzy “Happenings” enamel dots, Izzy “Boys” label stickers. Record It Just Splendid collection—wood dots. Other—Silhouette Cameo, Studio Calico Mister Huey, Amercian Crafts alpha stickers, and pen

 

 

Stripes can sometimes be completely boring, but that’s not the case with this collection. I love the stripes in  Now & Then. They are perfectly distressed and colored.

 

I pulled three coordinating sheets from the Izzy 6x6 paper pad. I arranged all three sheets on my 12 x 12 Cameo cutting mat and cut all the hearts out at once. I went straight to my sewing machine and just sewed on the hearts one by one instead of adhering with adhesive first.

 

I didn’t want to overthink the placement, so this method worked really well for me. I love the simplicity and all the white space. And there’s those wood dots again!

 

Anyone else still in the mood to scrap that gushy love stuff? Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Charmed Album

Hi! Tina here today with another Sn@p Binder project, using one of the new Record It collections, Charmed.

I fell in love with the Record It collections when I created my first Sn@p Binder, A Day in the Life (of a dog), so I knew I had to create another when I saw the new collections.

The Charmed collection includes one of my favorite, go-to color combinations, gold, white, and black. I am seriously addicted to anything gold, and this was a perfect collection to fulfill my obsession.

 

Just like with my original binder, I embellished the 3x4 and 4x6 journal cards with glitter, tape, and digitally cut images from black cardstock.

The patterns on the journal cards were so fantastic, not much embellishing was needed.

And the Charmed enamel dots?? Oh my word...LOVE THESE! I used almost the entire pack in my binder.


Instead of embellishing all of the 6x8 paper inserts with product, I typed 2 favorite dog quotes. These are great for journaling and sharing your thoughts and wishes.

Lastly, I wanted to get my mixed media on, so I covered each chipboard insert with super heavy gesso, then painted them with water color paints and sprays. I really love how they compliment the colors of the collection, but added my own personal touch to the binder.

I can't wait to see what you create with the new Record It collections. Be sure and share your projects with us on Facebook. Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!

Layouts by Tamara

Wow - MME's latest Winter release is amazing!!! Just when I think I have seen it all - MME astounds me again with incredible new designs and innovate products. I had such a delightful time designing these layouts to display at CHA.

 

Supplies: Chalk Studio II: Remember patterned paper, Word Soup patterned paper, Shine patterned paper, 6x6 papers pad (blue and dot), tags, sticker labels, decorative brads, decorative alphabet, enamel dots, sticker icons, chipboard; Misc: Black ink, pen, and thread, white gel pen.

My first layout is"Happy Today", using the fabulous Chalk Studio II collection.  I just love the fresh yellow, pink and blue colors mixed with chalk art.  I used a fun photo with all the same bright colors (of my daughter playing at the park 9 years ago).

The background paper already had a great blue border and "today" title printed on it.  I added strips of paper and banners across the bottom of the page and matted the photo with a 6x6 polka dot paper. I accented the photo with a large label sticker, tag, chipboard, and sticker icon. Aren't the epoxy letter stickers great?  

 

 

 

Supplies: Now and Then - Milo: Shimmer patterned paper, 6x6 pad, sticky notes, enamel shapes, decorative brads, label stickers, mixed bag die cuts, enamel dots, accent stickers, journaling cards, chipboard, and decorative tape; Misc: Cream thread and black pen. 

 

My second layout was designed with the "Now and Then" Milo collection.  I used a fun photo of my 2 year old son playing in the sunshine.  The 3x4 journaling cards provided the perfect titles for my page.  I only used a 12x12 for the background paper, the rest of the papers came from the 6x6 pad.

 

I used the awesome, new wide decorative tape with the beautiful medallions for the border and anchor for my page. I LOVE the giant shiny silver ampersand and silver chipboard elements. I embellished my page with enamel arrows, enamel dots, chipboard, word stickers, brads, accent stickers, and a cool "Friday" sticky note.

 

 

 

 

Supplies: Now and Then - Izzy: Regard paper, Smart paper, Dapper patterned paper, 6x6 pad, flair pins, enamel shapes, mixed bag die-cuts, enamel dots, accent stickers, journalin cards, decorative brads, label stickers, chipboard, decorative tape; Misc: Black ink and pen, teal thread.

 

 

I can't believe how perfectly the colors of the new "Now and Then" Izzy line go with my recent family portrait.  The title: "Joy, Love, Laughter, & Smiles" captures the feelings we share as a family.  I framed the photo with a 6x6 paper and a strip of blue patterned paper.  I tucked a journaling card under the edge and used another one for the title.  I embellished it with an enamel dot and fabulous blue enamel shaped ampersand.

 

 

I created a cascade of horizontal elements under the photo with decorative tape, chipboard, stickers, and a banner paper.  I embellished it with a huge orange flair pin, silver chipboard key, brad, and enamel dot. I added a double row of stitching around the page and used it to attach three banners from the mixed bag die-cuts and the cool wide decorative tape with colored label frames.

 

Thanks so much by stopping by today, have a wonderful Thursday!

 

Tamara

 

 

I Spy with My Mind's Eye // February 2014 Edition

Good morning blog readers! Today it's time for the February installment of I Spy with MME. Every day we scour blogs, online galleries, Facebook, and Twitter to find examples of layouts, cards, and other projects using our products.

Once we find eye-catching,inventive projects...we pin them to our Pinterest boards. If you need some majorly inspiring eye-candy to get your mojo going,then head on over! We promise that it will be just the thing to get you creating this weekend. We have some RIDICULOUSLY talented customers and fans! :)

Today we have seven projects that we wanted to share with you. Each designer's name is linked to their blog. So make sure to stop by, say hi, and see more of their talents!

☆☆☆☆☆

Designer: Laura Whitaker

Why it caught our eye: We adore Laura's creative use of Cut and Paste on this layout. Everything is spot on here. The colors and patterns, the circle motifs, the layering and dimension...just pure perfection.

 

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Designer: Rebecca Keppel

Why it caught our eye: We are crushing on this sweet tray big time. We love how Rebecca has used Charmed in such an innovative way.  And that line of enamel dots? So darn adorable.

 

☆☆☆☆☆ 

 

Designer: Joanne Burton

Why it caught our eye: What a happy and love-filled layout this is. Joanne simply rocked the Cupid's Arrow line. We especially like the way she utilized the background paper as her layout title, and that sweet banner at the top is the perfect finishing touch.

 

☆☆☆☆☆

Designer: Stacey Schafer

Why it caught our eye: In a word...WOW. This card is like a pretty little gift all wrapped up in a lovely bow. The vellum, metallic touches (that glitter!!!) and sweet scattered sequins caused us to fall in love with this project.

 

☆☆☆☆☆

Designer: lil gik

Why it caught our eye:  Because it's just plain FUN. We are big fan of playful, happy layouts and this most definitely fits the bill. Love the cut peices of paper combined iwth the enamel dots. We just can't get enough of this page.

Thanks for stopping by today, MME fans!

Remember, keep sharing your beautiful creations and you might just be featured in next month's edition of I Spy with MME!

Albums Made Easy | Utilizing Pre-Made Pages

Hi!  Tina here today!  I don't know about you, but I love to create projects that are easy and are almost pre-made.  I work outside of the home, so my crafty time is limited and I want to make the most of the time I have.

Supplies:Lost & Found, Record It-Heirloom:Pockets, Chipboard Accessories, Layered Stickers, Journal Cards, Alpha Word Stickers, 12x12 Sticker Sheet,Die Cut Embellishments, Enamel Dots, Decorative Brads; Misc: Adhesive - Tombow (tape runner), Scor Tape, Imaginesce (foam tape)

Today I'd like to share a great little mini album that uses pre-made (pre-cut and designed) 'pages', so all you have to do is add a some embellishments and your own unique touch.

I used the Record It Pockets and Journal Cards for my pages.  These are great because they are pre-cut and only require a quick touch to finish them off.  

You can also layer the Journal Cards on top of each other and on top of the pockets to really stretch your creativity.  

Once the album is done, all that is needed to finish it off is adding your Instagram sized photos to each page and pocket.  This type of mini album is also great to give as a gift.  All of the 'hard' work is done, so the lucky recipient just needs to add photos for a family memory.
So next time you have limited crafty time...use those pre-made and pre-embellished items to create a fun and super fast mini album.   

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great day!

Cut and Paste Cards

Hi everyone, Laurel here today.  I am loving the hashtag trend popping up everywhere.  The Cut & Paste Presh collection is so fun to work with.  I love the colors and of course the fun patterns.

 

 

I decided to create some teen themed cards as my youngest daughter just turned 16 and my nieces and nephews are not far behind!  I created a couple of simple cards because I wanted the fun paper to take center stage. 

 

The ‘cell phone’ is mounted on foam tape for dimension and lately nothing seems finished to me without stitching or staples – today was a staple day.

 

Love the diversity of MME 6x6 pads. They make my cardmaking projects so easy!

 

Thanks for joining us today!

See you soon. :)