My Mind's Eye Blog

Project LifeⓇ with Shelly | February 2015

Hi everyone! This is Shelly with some Project Life inspiration. I am sharing another average week in the life using the Jubilee “Wild Berry” Collection.  What a great collection of colors perfect for summer!

Supplies: Jubilee: Wild Berry – 6x6 Designer Paper Pad, “Hey You” Journal Cards, “Hey You” Rub-Ons, “Life” Mixed Bag; Other: Becky Higgins Design A Page Protectors, pen, date stamp, ink.

I am still plugging along with my 2014 album. I am happy to announce that with this week right here, I am half way through the year. This is week 26 of 2014. I am over the hump, and headed back down the hill. I am so excited to see my progress. Anybody else out there still working through 2014 memories? I have to say that it has been a very enjoyable process… this Jubilee Wild Berry Collection was just meant to be for warm summery weeks like this one!

 

For my title card, I trimmed down the paint strips. I really love when a sheet of pretty paper can hold its own when it comes to title cards. Those colorful stripes are perfect to hold my date or even journaling too.

As for the “Love” rub-on...I tried a little experiment.

I created my very own transparencies. I trimmed down a page protector to 4x6 size, and then rubbed away. It does take a little more time, but it worked! I know it is very possible to use those fun rub-ons right on top of your pictures, but I really like to keep my photos clean. When a photo is needed for a project, most o f the time with my children’s school projects, I just pull them out of this album. I don’t have to worry about ordering a picture last minute. I just write a note to myself to order another copy when I get around to ordering pictures.

I just placed them on top of my picture and slid them both into the pocket. They are crystal clear, but that added glare makes them very difficult to photograph. 

I added a few pieces from the Mixed Bag to label and add a little extra something to a few of my pictures. I never found a label I didn’t like and those Mixed Bags are full of them! They have such a great assortment.

Thank you so much for stopping by today. Have a wonderful day!

Shelly

 

Valentine's Day Gift Wrap

Hi there, MME friends!  Lea here today to share some ideas for using your My Mind's Eye goodies when you wrap gifts!  I LOVE to give gifts, and I LOVE to make the outside just as pretty as whatever might be on the inside!  And I am always raiding my scrapbooking product whenever I have to put together a gift!

Supplies: Jubilee "Mint Julep" - "Ride" 12x12 paper; Market Street "Nob Hill" - chipboard elements, chipboard buttons, flair pins; Necessities Metallic - alpha & word stickers; Now and Then "Mildred" - "Today" accent stickers; Record It! "Charmed" - enamel dots; other: wrapping paper, glitter cardstock, twine, bow die.


Valentine's day is right around the corner, so I went with a love theme for my gift wrapped projects today!  But, I didn't use the traditional red & pink.  I actually used gold, black & white, pulling goodies from different My Mind's Eye collections to accent the boxes.  These would be great for the man in your life because they aren't super girly, but he might not love all the glitter from the glitter wrap.  :)

I started by wrapping the larger box with glitter wrapping paper.  After that I added added a doily to the side of it, then tied twine around it.  I threaded the gold chipboard button to the middle of the twine bow, then layered a heart sticker & polka dot flair piece underneath it (tucking them under the twine as well).

I added the chipboard piece to the lower corner, added the word love in letter stickers & then accented it with enamel dots.  Are you wondering how I got everything to stick to glittered paper?  HOT GLUE.  It will be your best friend when embellishing gift wrap.  It still makes the package easy to take apart, but everything should stay on perfectly until they open it!

Next up is the smaller box, which I wrapped in some 12x12 MME paper.  After wrapping it, I diecut the bow from gold glittered cardstock, then assembled it & adhered it to the top.  I accented the middle of the bow with a gold chipboard circle.

To finish the small box, I layered a heart sticker & word sticker to the front and then embellished it with some enamel dots.  Easy peasy!

Be sure to make your valentines feel extra special this year by wrapping their gifts up in super pretty products from My Mind's Eye.  They will for sure feel loved by added touch of beautiful packaging!

Thanks for checking out my projects, and I hope that you have a wonderful rest of your day!

Lea

Toning Down Busy Patterned Paper

Hey there!  Missy here with you today.  Do you ever go through a collection and find a gorgeous piece of patterned paper, but it’s just so busy and colorful that it feels overwhelming?  I know that happens to me a lot.  I want to share with you how I use really busy papers as a background.  My main focus of a layout is always my photo.  I never want the papers to drown the photo out or overpower it.  So this is just a way that I use those busy papers without it taking away from the pictures.

The Jubilee Wild Berry collection is full of busy patterns and loud colors.  (Two of my favorite things!)  I chose to start with the “Life” Diamonds paper.  The first thing I did was take two less busy papers (the black & white stripes and the blue) and cover up about a fourth of the Diamonds paper.  This tones it down right away but still leaves quite a bit. 

The next thing is to use gesso.  It is perfect for fading out patterns & colors and toning it down.  I used white, and I just used my finger to keep smudging it around until lots of the pattern was faded.  It kind of creates a “cloud” and if you blend it just right, there isn’t a line separating it from the pattern.  It’s a gradual fade.  Once the gesso dries, you’re able to add paint or mist. 

I added some watercolors on top of the gesso to give some solid and soft colors.  This helps to make all those embellishments to the right of the photos pop.  If I had just adhered them on top of that busy background as is, they would blend in to much and make it look even more busy.

Supplies: Jubilee-Wild Berry:“Life” Diamonds Paper, “Love” Stamped Paper, “Hey You” Gardens Paper, 6x6 Paper Pad, “Life” Mixed Bag, “Wonder” Transparent Frames, “Wonder” Chipboard Elements, “Today” Flair Pins, “Hey You” Rub-Ons, “Love” Label Stickers, “Love” Decorative Brads; Jubilee-Tangerine: “Story” Rub-Ons; Cut & Paste—Decorative Stamps; Decorative Tape Sets—Pink & Charcoal; Sweetest Thing—Decorative Tape; Collectable—Decorative Tape; Other—Prima Chalk Ink, Mister Huey’s Color Mist, vellum, Liquitex Gesso, Coats thread, Brother Sewing Machine, Artist’s Loft Watercolors, StazOn Ink, Sharpie Black Pen

Here you can see how the gesso does double duty.  It helps cover the background, and it also creates a surface for color to go.  It helps to not warp the paper when you add liquid to it.  It even made it easy to write my journaling right on to the page.  The busy background is muted there, so it’s a solid spot to write on.  I was also able to use one of the transparent frames for my title.  It really pops on to of the gesso.

Another key to making your photos pop against the busy pattern is to layer less busy and solid colors under them.  The solid pink anchors the photos.  Then I added a piece of orange, black & white and aqua polka dots.  Not too much of each paper, but just enough to break it up.  Raising up your photos with pop dots also puts more space in between the paper and the photos, and this helps to make them really stand out as well.

Here’s one more shot.  I was also able to stamp here after I applied the gesso and watercolors.  It would be difficult to read any kind of sentiment on top of that busy background.  Even though I added a lot of other busy elements, they don’t compete with that busy diamond background because of the gesso fading it out. 

I hope this helps give you some ideas on how to use those busy backgrounds.  Don’t be afraid of them…just make them work.  I use this technique a lot, and the key is to choose other papers that aren’t as busy for your layers under your photos.  Cover some of the busy pattern up.  Use gesso to help blend some of the pattern out.  I know it looks complicated and can be intimidating, but it’s really not.  You just have to be willing to get your hands messy!  It’s fun, I promise!

 

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!

 

Missy

Motivational Wall Hanging

Hi everyone, Laurel here.  I decided to create and inspiration project to hang above my work desk.  I love quotes and sayings so I chose ones that will help keep me on track for my goals.  My one word for this year is Thrive.  I hope to Thrive in my health, fitness, family and career goals.  We all know that there are times when we need a little push.  I will be using this to jot little notes and such.

 

Supplies:Jubilee Sherbet:  6 X 6 pad; Mixed Bag; Flair buttons;  Rubons;  Journal Cards, Decorative Brads, Sticky Notes;  Chipboard Elements

 

I have used the Jubilee Sherbet...Such a lovely blend of colors and patterns, one of my favorites.  Makes me happy because I used a lot of scraps for this too!  Yay me!

 

 

First I cut a bunch of panels at 3 1/2 X 5 1/2 and 3 X 5 then just went about layering them, adding the embellishments, stamps and whatever else would work (and fit, LOL!) 

 

I love layers, stitching and anything else that I can incorporate when making fun projects like this for myself.

 

 

Now I feel like eating some chocolate, so I better get this project up on the wall... need the reminders!

 

Laurel

 

Masculine Card Set

Hi everyone! This is Tonya here today. A couple of days ago I was noticing that my card stash was in need of some cards that were a little more on the masculine side. When I think about manly cards the Jubilee-Tangerine line immediately comes to mind, the colors are perfect and what says ‘man’ more the a trophy head of a buck?!

For this first card I simply took different strips of patterned paper and layered them on the front of the card making sure to slight tilt them a bit. Then it was embellished with a die cut popped up with some foam tape and one of the buck head enamel shapes.

Supplies: Jubilee-Tangerine: 6x6 decorative paper pad, ”Awesome" mixed media bag, “Adventure” enamel shapes, “Honor” Up & Away Paper 

This next card was pretty simple to make. I cut out the letters for ‘you’ and then layered behind the negative space of the ‘o’ with a bunch of enamel dots. I varied the font of the two words to add some visual interest to what is a rather simple card.

Supplies: Jubilee-Tangerine: 6x6 Decorative Paper Pad, “Awesome” Enamel Dots,”Honor” Traveler Paper

 

This last card was made by layering a trio of 3x4 journal cards. I love the look where a small decorative clothes pin is used to hold a variety of things to the front of a card, but I don’t like the bulk. So, I decided to use a little bit of decorative tape and a brad instead.

 

Supplies: Jubilee-Tangerine 6x6 Decorative Paper Pad, “Awesome” Enamel Dots, “Awesome” Mixed Bag, “Honor” Label Stickers, “Honor” Decorative Brads, “Story” Rub Ons, “Awesome” Arrow Paper Decorative Tapes: Green and Navy

 

I finished off the card with a white arrow rub on, some numbers from the mixed media pack and of course some enamel dots.

 

 

My favorite thing to do lately is to make coordinating envelopes for my cards. It’s such a great way to use up any extra paper you may have on hand. You’ll see a matching envelope for each card in the above photos.

 

Hope I have given you all some great ideas for making a card or two for the men in your lives!

 

Tonya

 

Product Spotlight | Transparent Frames

Hey there, MME fans!  Missy here.  I hope you are all having a great New Year so far.  Today I’m sharing a layout that features some of the Transparent Frames from the Jubilee collections. 

 

There are many ways you can use them, and the gold, silver, white and black colors make them easy to coordinate with any other colors.  Since we are all getting ready for some awesome new releases, I decided to dig into my stash for this one.  I pulled out the Now & Then Milo collection, along with the silver transparent frames from the Jubilee Sherbet collection. 

 

I used them as layering pieces as well as embellishments.  I used two of them behind my photo, and then I cut one up.  The “shapshot” piece above the photo is part of a frame, and so is the silver camera in the lower right corner.  I just hand cut it out.

 

Supplies : Now & Then Milo – “Little Things” Anchor Paper, “Friends” Fallow Paper, “Inspired” Forest Paper, 6x6 Paper Pad, “Documented” Chipboard Elements, Decorative Tape, “Documented” Alpha & Word Stickers, “Little Things” Decorative Brads, “Friends” Accent Stickers, “Documented” Decorative Buttons, Enamel Dots, “Little Things” Label Stickers; Jubilee Sherbet – “Peace” Transparent Frames, “You” Rub Ons; Decorative Tape Sets – Emerald & Blue; Other – Liquitext Gesso, Artist’s Loft Watercolors, Coats Thread, Brother Sewing Machine, Black Sharpie Pen, Thickers, Vellum, Heidi Swapp Color Shine.

 

Here you can see how well they layer in with paper and chipboard.  I even added decorative tape over it.  I love the silver border it gives my photo.  I basically treated it like another piece of patterned paper.

 

 In between all the layers, I added in some thread and watercolored up the background a bit.  I also threw in a few little circles I punched from vellum.

 

Here’s another angle of the top transparent frame.  I just stapled it in place.  I love that you can still see the stitching through it as well as the patterned paper.  It gives a nice subtle touch without blocking everything behind it.  I also layered a button underneath the bigger frame. 

 

This little camera was too cute not to use, so I cut it out just like I would patterned paper.  Very easy to place and embellish on top of it. 

 

Now there are also gold, white and black frames, so you could create so many different looks with all of them.  I found them fun and easy to use.  If you haven’t tried them, I high recommend giving them a shot!

 

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a wonderful day.

 

Missy

Project LifeⓇ with Shelly | January 2015

Hello everyone! This is Shelly with some Project LifeⓇ inspiration. I am sharing another average week in the life using the Jubilee “Sherbet” Collection. 

Supplies: Jubilee: Sherbet – “Pretty” Bubbly Paper, “You” Journal Cards, “You” Rub-ons, “Peace” Sticky Notes, “Peace” Transparency Frames. “Happy” Mixed Bag, “Happy” Enamel Dots; Other: Becky Higgins Design A Page Protectors, pen, date stamp, corner rounder, Bohemian Typewriter font

Yes, I am a little far behind in my family documenting for 2014. BUT I am totally okay with that. I got a little tied up with a very special bundle of joy, which was well worth it! The bonus is that I get to still play with fun spring colors of Jubilee’s Sherbet Collection in the dead of winter.

I started my title card off with the “Pretty” Bubbly Paper. Those cute little water colored circles were the perfect home for my dates. I also prettied them up with a few enamel dots.

The transparencies are such a great way to highlight your favorite pictures. I said this before, they do not photograph very well, but no need to worry they are crystal clear in real life.

The “Good Times” banner is kind of a sarcastic move on my part. Actually, it was my husband’s idea. Isn’t putting things together always a good time? The funny thing about this is that I had two more weeks before I was to be induced, but if you flip to the next page in my album you would see that my water broke and baby was on his way. It was quite the miracle that we finished off our last of our “must do” list before the baby came. 

To mimic the same transparency look on the right side, I added the “Lovely” transparency over my belly picture. I am kind of laughing at it, because it is a lovely thing… but at the time, I was saying it in a very sarcastic way. I was struggling to move most days and my belly was feeling like it was going to pop at any moment. I guess I was feeling a little sarcastic with this week.

The small sticky notes are the perfect touch to add in a little journaling over a picture. I also repeated the same water color dots, layered with enamel dots, which I did on my title card to bring the two sides together.

Thank you for stopping by today. I hope you all have a wonderful day and a fabulous new year!

Shelly

Mix and Match with Karen | January 2015

Hi everyone!

Happy 2015. I am Karen and I am back with a new Mix and Match layout.

This month, I decided I wanted to celebrate my oldest son, David. He has recently started taking guitar lessons and I absolutely adore listening to him practice. I can't play any instruments so it brings me a lot of
joy to see him learn.

I asked him whether he wanted gold or silver on his page and he chose silver. Since my instinct is to always go with gold, it was a fun challenge to accommodate his request.

Here's what I ended up with:


I love how wonderfully the chipboard from Jubilee - Sherbert integrated into my title seamlessly.


and it's so shiny (so is the paper behind the photo):


Since the guitar is made out of wood, I decided to primarily focus on brown, yellow/orange, and silver for this page. I used the wood flair from Jubilee Tangerine on top of the whitespace in my photo:


and then a little wood paper on the opposite page:


To unite the pages. I also used these small white enamel dots all over.

I also created two small clusters. One on the top left:


and one on the bottom right


And that was it.

Here's the long journaling from this page.

In the end, I loved the silver page. Sometimes, it's fun to ask others to pick a main color for your page, or some embellishment that they definitely want you to use. It helps you get outside your comfort zone and try new things.

I hope you try something new this month, too!

Product Spotlight | Enamel Shapes

Hey there, friends!  Missy here today.  It’s almost time to celebrate a new year, so today I’m sharing a fun and festive Happy New Year layout with you. 

The Jubilee collections are full of fun enamel shapes, so I focused on the shapes from the Wild Berry collection.  It has a lot of fun geometric shapes as well as hearts and dots.

I had some excess white space on my photos, so used the geometric enamel shapes to create a fun little border pattern on them.  I love the design they create and the pop of color they give to the black and white pictures.  When I know I’m going to have a lot of color in my background, I like to print my photos in color…especially when there are a lot of colors going on in the photos. 

When I think of New Year’s, I think of confetti.  I found this fun confetti die cut in the Silhouette store and cut it on black cardstock.  I used the “Love” Paint Paper to back it, and I love the effect that it created.

Supplies: Jubilee- Wild Berry: “Love” Paint paper, 6x6 Paper Pad, “Today” Enamel Shapes; Sherbet – “Happy” Enamel Dots; Necessities – Black & Grays Enamel Shapes, Black & Grays Decorative Tapes, Black & Grays Alpha & Word Stickers; Lost & Found Record It! “Antique” Ephemera Pack; Other – Martha Stewart punch, Silhouette Cameo, cardstock, Stampabilities Ink, DCM Silver floss, Coats Thread, Signo Uniball White Gel Pen, Brother Sewing Machine, pop dots.

Here you can see those fun little enamel shapes.  There are so many things you can do with these.  They really added a fun element to my photos.

These enamel hearts are so tiny and adorable.  I added them to the sides on my photo cluster to add some fun details on the black and white striped paper.  I love creating layers, so I used several patterned papers in various colors & patterns to do that.  I also wanted to add some silver shine and glitter elements, so I layered in a lot of silver thread.

Here you can see more enamel shapes.  These little black arrows are from the Black & Grays Necessities collection.  I also dug into last year’s Record It! collection for this awesome silver Happy die cut.  Perfect for a New Year’s layout!

I hope this inspires you in some way to pull out your enamel shapes and create something fun with them.  Think of this idea the next time you have a photo with extra white space in it.  I know a lot of the time I’ll crop out excess space before I print the photos, but sometimes you can jazz up that extra space with ideas like this. 

Thanks for stopping by, and have a Happy 2015!

 

 

 

Wall Art Trio

Hi!  Tina here today with my final Design Team project for My Mind's Eye.  I have been so lucky to be able to share my passion for creating with y'all and being on the MME team was a dream come true.  I will still be around, so I will see you in cyber-land!

  Supplies:Jubilee-Tangerine:Adventure Flair, Awesome Mixed Bag, Fantastic 12x12 Chipboard Sheet;Other:Burlap Canvas, Michaels, Adhesive: Tombow (liquid), Scortape, Ink: Distress Ink

For my final project, I thought I share a super easy and super fun wall decor project.  It is no surprise that I LOVE MME flair and I wanted to create one more project using this fantastic product. 

 

This project was so easy to create, you could create multiples for a great gift idea.  Using small burlap canvases, I layered pieces of chipboard and mixed bag die cuts.  I topped each one off with a piece of flair. 

Note:  I removed the pin from the back of each flair so it would lay flat against my embellishments.  Using a simple wire cutter, it can be removed easily.

I adhered the 3 smaller canvases to a larger burlap canvas.  To finish the look, I added some Distress Ink to the edges of each canvas.  Voila!  Done!

Thank you for stopping by!  Big hugs to everyone!

Tina