My Mind's Eye Blog

Mini Albums with Monika | March 2015 Edition

Welcome to the Spring Break edition of



Hi, I'm Monika and today I'm going to share with you a travel journal jotter. It's quick and easy project that you'll be glad to have with you on your next adventure!

supplies used | Just Sayin' "Beauty" Paper, Alpha Word & Stickers, Enamel Dots and Shapes; Jubilee Mint Julep "Ride" Label Stickers, Jubilee Sticky Notes: Wild Berry "Wonder," Sherbet "Peace," Tangerine "Fantastic," Mint Julep "Live It Up;" Jubilee Label Stickers: Wild Berry "Love," Tangerine "Honor," Mint Julep "Ride;" Jubilee Mint Julep "Journey" Journal Cards + Rub-Ons; Decorative Tape, Other: sewing machine, bond paper, paper clip, stapler

When we travel, my family knows that I'm going to collect bits and baubles and shells and sand and tickets and menu's and, and, and. But, sometimes in all the collecting I forget the details. And where we went on each day, because it seems that there's not as much down time as I think there's going to be on a trip...so less time scrap than to get everything ready for the next day.




For our all girl Spring Break adventure to Charleston to visit my son, I grabbed a scrap of one of my favorite papers, some bond paper from my printer and pulled out my sewing machine. That's right, we're going to sew together a travel journal jotter.

This isn't meant to replace the mini book I'm going to make, only to serve as a place to jot notes as you go along each day.

Take the time to embellish your pages with some sticky notes, labels, journaling cards and rub-ons, they make such charming additions to your jotter. And who knows, you may even add your jotter as an insert into your mini album once you get home and have the time to print photos and document your travels.

Be sure to include the restaurants you ate at, in case you want to go back again. And again.

What travel adventures will you soon be documenting?

 

Mixed Media with Karen | March 2015

 

Hi everyone!

This is Karen, back with another month of Mixed Media with Karen. I am still continuing to have fun in my collage notebook. For this month, I chose a wonderful quote I loved and coupled it with lots of awesome My
Mind's Eye papers and ephemera. I liked combining some of the brighter lines with the dimmer ones.

Here's what my first layer looked like:

I moved things around a bit more and finally settled on this configuration:


Then I added paint along the edges and on some of the papers. I tried not to overthink the process and just added color wherever it made me happy to do so. I generally pick my colors from the papers. I loved the
blue and yellow in the collage paper so I used more of those. I really liked how much they brightened my page.


Then, it was time for details. I grabbed a black pen and drew borders around my page, my picture, the flowers, and wherever else I felt like. I loved the way the black added both definition and some contrast.


I also highlighted the word "kindness" with my pen.

Here's a look at the page sideways so you can see the beautiful shine in those papers!


I find the patterns, mixed bags, and washi tapes are my go-to items when making my mixed media pages. I love pulling several random pieces and challenging myself to find a way to create cohesion with them on my page. There's nothing some pretty papers and yummy paint can't make magical.

Thank you for letting me share and have a fantastic day!

Wild & Free

Spring has finally arrived here in the Midwest. Hopefully most of you are enjoying some warmer temps as well. I’m anxiously waiting for everything outdoors to turn green. I scrolled back a couple years in my photo archives to find the photos for this spring colored layout. This layout combines my two latest obsessions (1) all things black and white and (2) bold handwritten script fonts.

 

 I have a bit of a font obsession and when you’re a graphic designer as well as a scrapbooker, it’s easy to justify all the font purchases. Bold, handwritten script fonts are popping up everywhere. I couldn’t wait to use one of my new favorites on a layout.

 

I chose three coordinating papers from three of the different Jubilee lines. That black and white tribal paper is one of my favorites as well of course. The die cut letters weren’t standing out enough against the white cardstock, so I sprayed them with some Mister Huey to make the title pop. 

 

 

SUPPLIES :My Mind’s Eye Jubilee Wild Berry “Life” Tribal paper, Jubilee Tangerine “Honor” Traveler paper, and Jubilee Sherbet “Happy” Ombre paper. Jubilee Sherbet “Peace” chipboard elements, Jubilee Tangerine “Fantastic” sticky notes, Jubilee Wild Berry “Life” mixed bag, and Jubilee Tangerine “Awesome” mixed bag. My Mind’s Eye Necessities wood shapes, Record It “Here is Happy” decorative tape, and Emerald & Blue decorative tape. Other: Silhouette Cameo (font: Heartwell), Studio Calico Mister Huey, white cardstock, Tim Holtz tiny attacher, American Crafts phrase stamp, date stamp.

 

 

Don’t you love the Jubilee sticky notes?! I love that there’s a whole little pad of them which is perfect for if you happen to mess one up. I also found some decorative tape that coordinated perfectly with the color palette and the Necessities Wood shapes really add some great dimension!

 

My son’s spring break is coming to a close, so we’re heading off on another little local adventure today. This time it includes pants! Thanks for stopping by!

 

Enjoy the Journey Today

Supplies: Now and Then - Izzy: Regard patterned paper, Celebrate patterned paper, Smart patterned paper, flair pins, enamel shapes, journal card, decorative brads, and chipboard; Now and Then - Milo: Shimmer patterned paper; Notable - Cute patterned paper, Cheery patterned paper; Misc: orange and navy thread, black ink and pen.

 

I was looking through an old box of photos and found these fun ones of my kids from 2005!  They attended a free class at Home Depot and each of them got to create wood projects.  I can't believe how cute and little they were!!  

 

I love the title "Enjoy the Journey Today" - I am so glad we have great family memories and we had many fun experiences.  Time slips by so quickly. I blinked my eyes and now have 4 teenagers!!

I wanted to capture the excitement of the day and the joy of childhood.  I used the colorful chipboard banner border (from the Now and Then - Izzy collection) as the inspiration for my page.

 

I used the striped orange paper to frame my layout and make their orange aprons pop.  I placed a strip of teal paper above the banner chipboard to anchor my page.  I layered yellow and blue papers behind the photos. I added the journal card and layered it with chip board, an enamel "&", and a circle cut from patterned paper.  I embellished the page with chipboard stickers, a "One of a Kind" flair pin, and a decorative brad.

 

Tamara

 

 

Neutral Card Set

Hey there, MME friends!  Lea here today with a couple of cards featuring neutrals & metallics!!  As much as I love color, I am a huge fan of neutrals as well!  So today I've combined some of last year's My Mind's Eye collections to create this matching set!

Supplies: "Necessities" - Metallics "Dot" foiled vellum, Black & Grey "Confetti" foiled vellum; "Market Street" - Ashbury Heights decorative tape, Nob Hill decorative tape; "Now & Then" - Izzy decorative tape; "Jubilee" - Mint Julep transparent frames, Mint Julep enamel dots, Tangerine transparent frames, Wild Berry enamel dots; "Record It!" - Charmed enamel dots; Other - cardstock, watercolor, paper clips.

I picked two of the printed transparent frames to work as my sentiments!  I've gone with encouragement themed sentiments for both of my cards today, but they could also be used for birthdays.  I'm a big fan of creating cards with interesting sentiments, and you can find lots of them packed in all of the amazing MME goodies!

To create my first card, I adhered two strips of washi tape to the left side of a kraft card base and then flicked black watercolor paint droplets to it.  Once dry, I adhered a block of foil pressed vellum & the transparent frame angled to the card front.  Then I accented it with enamel dots, and embellished it with a silver paper clip.

The second card uses the exact same design process as above, except on a landscape card base.  On the first card I focused on using more gold, but this card features both silver & gold together!  Each card came together quite quickly (even with the paint drying time), and they are ready to mail out to special friends & family!  They will easily slide into envelopes, and shouldn't need additional postage!

Mixing neutrals & metallics made these cards seem really elegant, even with the artsy feel & painted script fonts used.  I hope you will pull some out from our My Mind's Eye stash of product & try it with me!

Have an awesome rest of your day!

~Lea

Card Set

Hi everyone Laurel here with some more cards.

I use more cards than ever so I am trying with my limited crafting time to get my stock built up again. With the start of spring, I thought the Just Sayin’ collection would be a perfect way to bring it in. I love the pretty colors and of course the flowers.

I love to fussy cut from patterned paper and that is just what I did to get the clusters of flowers for this first card. I then mounted them with foam squares for dimension.

Next up as a tea lover I just had to use the tea pot die cut. Of course the word enjoy just seems to go!

Finally, I couldn’t leave all of those pretty scraps so I layered them on, added some die cut tags some fussy cut flower clusters and I love how it all went together.

Now that spring is here I can’t wait for my flowers to bloom... especially the lilacs. What about you, what is your favorite spring flower?

Laurel

Mix and Match with Karen | March 2015

Hi everyone!

This is Karen, back with a Mix and Match for March! This month, I wanted to try something different and fun. When I first started designing with My Mind's Eye products, they had very few alphabets. As someone who
loves alphas of all kind, I kept hoping they would make more and, little by little, my wishes came true. Over the last few years, there have been more and more products in My Mind's Eye lines that have alphabets or
words that can be used on your pages.

So, this month, I decided to give center stage to all those products. And came up with this lovely page:



Everything on the right side is made by My Mind's Eye. Isn't it awesome what a variety of styles, colors and words there are? And this is a tiny subset of what's available!

When I made this layout, I wrote the journaling on the left side as usual which you can read here  and then I knew I wanted to print a lot of small photos to show all the laughter my son provided for me.

Once I'd made the decision to use all the words and letters, I went through my chipboard pieces and picked out words that spoke to me. Then I put my words on the table and rearranged them until some sentences began to emerge. Once I decided what I was going to say, I put my big words down first to ensure everything would fit on the page and then filled in all the holes with my little words.

The right side says: sweet Natheniel: Today was such a lovely day. We  spent the morning together and you made me smile and laugh.  You are one of my favorite people in the world. I love you!

For punctuation, I decided to use the enamel dots, which were perfect for colons and periods:



and then I added a few little hearts and tiny stickers on the left side of the photos to ensure each side had some common elements:



I knew the other side of the page needed something to tie the whole thing together so I added a little sticker with a heart and I was done:



But one of my favorite parts is all the texture and shine:



That's my page for March. I really like how whimsical and fun it turned out to be and it goes wonderfully with my son's happy photos and the theme of my journaling.

If you haven't played with the My Mind's Eye alphas and chipboard words, yet, I highly encourage you to give them a try. I hope you have as much fun as I did!

 

Thank You Cards

Hi everyone Laurel here with a couple of Thank You cards.  I combined the Market Street Ashbury Heights with some Record It Pretty Things.

 

 

 

First up, I love the look of clipped tags, it gives a sense of country casualness to the project (my favorite look), so I added a chipboard element to one of the tags and voila and easy, layered card.  The little tabs of

woodgrain paper were created  using some of my Record it Pretty Things scraps – so keep those scraps!

 

 

Next, I created a more simple card, but added dimension to it by mounting the flower bunch on foam squares and then embellishing with some of the Enamel Dots.  Even simple cards can have a lot of interest, simply and easily!

 

 

What is your favorite embellishment?

 

Laurel

Product Spotlight | Decorative Tapes

Hey there, MME fans!  Missy here today.  I was in the mood to use some decorative tape on the day I created this layout, and there is quite a variety to choose from in the different MME collections.  The good thing about tape is that you don’t really run out of it quickly.  You may use up your papers, chipboard and stickers, but it takes a while to use a whole roll of tape. 

I went through my years MME stash and pulled out all the tapes I had.  I love rainbows, so I chose all the rainbow colors I could find.  I simply put them in the order I wanted and tore off strips to make my background.  Some pieces I tore to give it more interest.  I chose several stickers, flair pins and chipboard pieces to coordinated from various collections to finish it off.

Supplies:Decorative Tapes—My Girl, Sweetest Thing, Cut & Paste Presh, Collectable, Record It Just Splendid, Record It Here Is Happy, Record It All Things Chalk, Cupid’s Arrow, Lost & Found Record It Heirloom; Decorative Tape Sets—Coral & Aqua, Pink & Yellow, Mint & Grey, Emerald & Blue, Pink & Charcoal; Record It Here Is Happy Cardstock & Overlay Cards; My Girl Sticker Accessory Sheet; Jubliee Wild Berry “Today” Flair Pins, “Wonder” Chipboard Elements; Mint Julep “Live It Up” Chipboard Elements; Sweetest Thing—Honey “Perfect” Chipboard Elements; Now & Then Izzy “Dream Big” Chipboard Elements; Other—cardstock, Liquitex Gesso, Faber Castell Gelatos, Brother Sewing Machine, Coats Thread, October Afternoon Date Stamp, Ranger Archival Ink, Pentel Slicci Silver Pen, Heidi Swapp Color Shine.

Remember the My Girl collection?  It screams bright rainbow, so I used that yellow flower sticker.  I also pulled from the Jubliee Wild Berry collection.  Mixing and matching is so much fun!  I had to spice things up with a little messiness, so I added some white gesso over some of the tapes surrounding my photo and then went in with gelatos and did a little smudging.

These cute chipboard triangles are from My Girl as well.  I love the colors.  I machine stitched through them and layered my title just above it, overlapping a bit.  I didn’t have a lot of green tape, so I improvised with a green gelato.

There are tons of blue shades and grey/black tapes throughout all the MME collections.  I chose some of my favorites to layer at the bottom.  I topped it off with this Live It Up chipboard piece from Jubliee Wild Berry…because that’s what she’s doing in the photo, for sure!

I even dug into my Sweetest Thing stash and found the Happy Day chipboard banner.  It’s a perfect match for the pinks in the tapes and describes the photo.  And it layers nicely with the die cut flower from Jubliee Wild Berry.  I also used one of the transparent frames from the Record It Here Is Happy collection….I love the subtle look it gives the photo.

I hope this gives you some ideas on how to use up your tapes.  If you’re like me, you have a ton of it lying around.  This is a great way to use some of it up and get a great design effect!

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Market Street Layout by Alexes

Hello there MME lovers! It’s Alexes here with you today and I’m sharing another sweet layout of my little girl! I’ve got to tell you that the Market Street collection has got to be one of my very very favorites!

I’m in love with the soft color pallet and I love the mix of the florals with bold stripes. Mix in a little gold and bam, you’ve got yourself a timeless collection. I have no doubt in my mind that I’ll be able to use up every. single. bit. 

I took this photo of my daughter when we were doing some summer sightseeing up here in the Anchorage,Alaska area and I just love this photo so much I thought it deserved to be on a layout all on it’s own.

One thing I’m also obsessed with is the chipboard phrases… they really add so much to a page. I love the handwritten feel of it and the pop of teal really adds to the page.

I wish I had a thousand of them so I could use them on every page!!

I’m also in love with that chunky gold striped paper… isn’t it to die for! I could use about a thousand of these too.

Thanks again for stopping by the MME blog! We sure appreciate you coming and hope you’ll visit again soon for more inspiration!

Alexes