My Desiderata Journal and the Love Affair with Wordle.net

I LOVE Wordle.net. I think I even love the guy who created it - even though I know nothing about him except for this creation :) . If you haven't tried it yet, you must run over and give it a whirl. It takes any text, scrambles the words, and creates a word cloud. You can change the font, colors, layout - you just have to play with it and you'll get very cool results. It's got great applications for scrapbooking and other crafts. Here is a journal I made using Wordle.net and Magistical Memories Chipboard:



Supplies: Magistical Memories Fancy Frame
Magistical Memories Flutterby's
Magistical Memories Window Tabs
Magistical Memories May Apple Bloom
Magistical Memories Folk Art Star
American Crafts patterned paper (pocket and divider pages inside)
Hambly transparencies
My Mind's Eye rubons
American Crafts and Bazzill brads
Staples No Snag notebook

The Staples No Snag notebook is great because it comes apart so easily. You can alter your cover and add pages if you want. I added a pocket page and divider pages. Here's a look at the divider pages. The Magistical Memories chipboard shapes are the divider tabs. I covered them with solid AC paper and added an abstract rubon.



I love the last paragraph of Desiderata most, and I used just the only the last paragraph to create the Fancy Frame plate on the front cover. The cover and the plate are covered with Hambly transparencies.



Here's a hint for putting your book back together. Your instinct would be to put the book together as you see above and fit the spiral ring back into it, but the covers won't stay on well that way. Instead, do this:

1. Put the back cover on top of the front cover - right sides together.
2. Stack up your inside pages in order under the front cover.
3. Fit your spiral binding back into the book from the bottom.
4. Gently squeeze the binding shut.
5. Then flip the back cover around and you're all set!

Have a creative week!

The Potty People!

When my oldest son was 3 years old, he told me how he thought he and his brother were born. I've wanted to scrapbook this for such a long time (he's 16 now), but a layout never materialized in my head . . . until I saw the Potty People by Magistical Memories! Playing around with the Potty People and some frames inspired me to create this layout:




No photo really needed, right? I think my 16 year old will be mortified when he sees this layout!

Supplies: Magistical Memories Potty People, Fancy Frames, Scallop Plate
American Crafts Sixth Avenue Riverside Park patterned paper
Doilies
Fonts: Sierra Print Artist First Grader and 2Peas Stop Sign

That American Crafts paper has got to be one of my favorites.
And here are two supplies I MUST have when working with chipboard:



How 'bout you?

Have a creative week and thanks for reading! - betsy

Chipboard and the Shadow

Here's a layout using Magistical Memories chipboard! I did a little computer technique - I call it a chipboard shadow - on the background behind the chipboard leaves. I'll try to explain that below!

Here's the layout - autumn is my most favorite time of the year:



Used Magistical Memories White Oak Leaf and Window Tabs. Yes, those tabs can double as a belt buckle or hold some ribbon in its end! Used Basic Grey patterned paper, fabric scraps, and ribbon.

And here's a closeup of the chipboard shadow technique. The words in the background disappear around the edges of the chipboard:




It's easy to do in Photoshop Elements.

1. Fill a canvas background with a background color. Fill it with your text.
2. Scan your chipboard piece.
3. Trace your chipboard piece with the magnetic lasso. This will be easy since the scanned chipboard has a lot of contrast and the lasso will cling to its edges.
4. 'Copy' the selected chipboard shape.

5. Paste the shapes into your background as below:



6. Chose the move tool and enlarge each shape.
7. Using the color selector tool, choose the background color of the background you created in step one.
8. Use the fill bucket to completely fill the chipboard shapes:



There you go! Do you see the possibilities here?! I can see lots of ways to graphically highlight your chipboard pieces with this technique.

Thanks for reading and have a creative day! - betsy

Part Two and Stepping Outside the Box

I've been looking for a design team job that would fit me - and my LOVE of chipboard brought me over to Magistical Memories and their DT call. I first saw Magistical Memories chipboard at a class taught by Cheryl Mezzetti and fell in love with their stuff! I'm so excited to have been chosen to proceed to part TWO of their DT selection process. OK - it's not the DT gig, but it's a step closer and this step will be a lot of fun! I'll have fun with it, and whatever it brings, it brings!

Other news: I've been taking an online class at DebbieHodge.com with Dina Wakley that has really been forcing me to step outside my comfort zone. I'm actually painting, getting messy, handwriting my journaling, and not worrying about things lining up! Amazing!

Take a look at this transformation of a simple 4x6 piece of paper: I learned how to do this:



Then added images to make this:



And then added some journaling to make this:



If you EVER have a chance to take a class from Dina - online or live - DO IT!
Thanks for reading and have a creative week! - betsy