AWDML Design Team Blog

{March} I love the 80's Crop

I love the 80's Crop at A Walk Down Memoy Lane

Are you ready to go back in time with us with some awesome challenges that our wonderful designers have come up with? if you are lets get ready to party the 80's way. 

The designers will be posting challenges from March 1st to March 10th.

You have till March 31st to enter your enteries in Mr. linky or AWDML Gallery. You will recieve one entery for every challenge you post.

Here are the Rules:

* Challenges will be posted here in the blog and in the forum each day

* One entry per challenge

* Brand new creations for this crop

* Deadline for this crop is March 31 at 11:59 PM EST 

* Winners will be done by random drawing and will be announced on the Blog/Forum on April 3rd

So you want to see what the prizes will be?? Here you go:

Bella Blvd and Lizzie Anne Stamps will giving goodies away for this crop

 

January and February Challenge Winners

The winners of the Jan and Feb Winners are...

Jan-Krystle

Feb- Bev Code

Thanks ladies and please send your mailing address to Lisa@awalkdownmemorylane.net with title Blog Challenge winners ( please let her which month you won from)

Stay tune to our 80's Crop here at the blg for the month of march

Friday Card Recipe Challenge

Happy Friday Everyone!!  I am coming to you today with a yummy card recipe challenge that is quick and easy!

Your Recipe:

4x4 card

2 - Patterned Papers

1 - Journaling Card - should be the focus of your card

1 - Witty Sentiment

1 - Button

Easy Peasy, right??

Here's my sample for you and I kid you not when I say I made this card in about 15 minutes!!

I used a 4x4 kraft cardstock base, Jillibean Soup Soup Staples patterned paper, October Afternoon Farm Fresh patterned paper, letters from October Afternoon and Jillibean Soup, and a Jenni Bowlin button.

Hope you enjoy this recipe and I cannot wait to see what you create with it!!  Remember to link up your projects here, as well as upload them in the gallery!  And don't forget we have oodles of fun in store for you all starting on March 1st with the I Love the 80's Crop!!  It's going to be, like totally radical!  For sure!!

Happy Scrappin'! - Scarlett

Product Review: The Slice

The Slice is Making Memories excursion into the world of digital die cutters.  The unique thing about their cutter is it's size.  At just under two pounds and with a footprint of 5" x 5", it's extremely portable and leaves plenty of room on your scrap table to, well, scrap!  :)  It's not only much smaller than the other die cutters out there but it's also much cheaper.  Bonus!

The Slice comes with a design card loaded with shapes and alphas and there are plenty more to choose from.  There are designs on the cards that coordinate with Making Memories paper lines.  I love this!  You can cut out a pink giraffe from the Animal Crackers Design Card that coordinates perfectly with the Animal Crackers line.  It cuts shapes from half an inch up to 4 inches. 

The Slice comes with a 6" x 6" glass mat and there is a 12" x 12" one available as well.  You can use the glue that comes with it or you can use a spray adhesive to stickify your mat.  That's a technical term, folks.  ;)  The spray adhesive is totally worth it as it saves quite a bit of time and it's much easier to get an even coating of adhesive on your glass mat.

Here are a few things I've made with just my Slice and some cardstock. 

The star and the banner were both cut out by the Slice.  I embossed the red paper with stars to match the die cut and inked it with cream ink to make it pop.  I also used a Hero Arts stamp set with Colorbox ink to stamp the sentiment and embellished it with some Doodlebug buttons on the banner.

This card was made by cutting out the flower stem twice.  Once out of the green paper and again out of the blue.  I cut the flowers off of the blue stem, glittered them up a bit with my glitter pen and adhered them to the green stem with dimensional adhesive.   Adhere the piece to the card, glue a piece of ribbon to that, stamp your sentiment and add a bit of glitter pen to it and you're done!

 
You can also make some super cute embellishments for scrapbook pages.  I made this cute little ribbon for a future page about my son.  "#1 son" and the wreath base and top piece were all cut with the Slice. 

I hope you enjoyed this sweet, little review of a sweet, little machine.

Erica  :D

Altering Adhesive

For all of you ladies who simply love to alter items this is for you.  I do not alter alot of things, but when I do there is one thing I grab for!!!  My ModPodge.  I gotta have this super sticky stuff.  I have found in the past regular adhesives do not work as well for altering items.  I came across the Mod Podge one day and now that is all I ever use.  Another use for Mod Podge besides adhesive is you can use it to seal the things you alter them.  After you have finished your altered item put a coat of this over the top and let dry for a couple of hours and it's all sealed!  

I thought it was time to alter a notebook since I seem to have loose papers all over my scraproom with notes on them.  Now I can have all my notes in one place.

This is a picture of everything I used (excpet my embellies)

First you pick your pattern paper that you want to use.  My choice was My Minds Eye -Garden Party . Then  grab your Composition Notebook .  Cut your pattern paper in half so it's 6 x 12.  Next  trace one side of the notebook onto the pattern paper to try and get it as close as you can  to fitting evenly.  This will help cut down on the need to file the edges.  You also need to cut a piece of Cardstock to 6 inches wide by however long your notebook is. 

 Once your paper is ready to go it's time to put it on your book.  It's easiest to do one side at a time.  I usually start with the pattern paper.  So you want to place Mod Podge on one side of your book, just enough for the pattern paper and now place your pattern paper on top.  Press down firmly all over the paper then let dry for a little bit and do the same for the other side (don't worry about covering the binding yet). 
Once you have your pattern paper on then you can adhere your cardstock for the binding. Once you have all of your paper placed let dry for awhile before decorating.

Once your notebook is dry it's time for the fun stuff.  EMBELLIES!!!!!!  This is what I used to decorate my book.  Ric Rak, Thickers, Buttons, Pearls, Prima Rub-ons.  I also made a flower out of the pattern paper thanks to Erica 's tip on the blog a couple days ago, and this is my finished product.

 Hope you have enjoyed my little altering tip for you.  Now you have a fun idea to help you keep all of your notes in one place also!

Happy Scrappin'

~~Stacy~~

Made Ya' Look Monday

Today - my go-to tools are my border punches!  I find myself using them on almost every card & layout I create.  My stash of border punches started out with the ever popular "Treading Water" punch and has grown to include almost 10 fabulous border punches!

My current favorite arrived in a box of goodies from the store here at A Walk Down Memory Lane. It's the Martha Stewart punch - LOOP!

This punch adds tons of fun to cards and to layouts --- I love the finishing touch it gives!

The store also has the coordinating corner punch and I can't wait to get my hands on that one!

Share your border punch creations with me! Leave a comment and a link to your gallery or blog where I can be inspired and tempted to purchase yet another fun border punch! Have a great week --- Kim :)

Tutorial Challenge: Use your 2-D punches to create 3-D embellishments!

Hey everyone, it's Erica again!  :)

This week's challenge is about making dimensional embellishments using your punches.  I've got two tutorials for you showcasing this technique, so let's get started!

First up, creating flowers using a scallop circle punch.

We are making a template first so punch a circle out of some scratch paper.   

Then, fold the circle in half, unfold it and fold it in half the other way. 

Next, poke a hole using your paper piercer where the two creases intersect.  This is your template.
 

Now, punch another circle out of the paper that you'd like your flower to be made of.  I recommend using either cardstock or a two-sided patterned paper for this as one-sided won't look as nice at the end.

 

Lay your template over the circle you just punched and make a dot with a pencil through the hole in your template.

Starting in the dip between two fo the scallops, cut one line from the edge of the circle to the center of the circle.

Cut between each of the scallops but stop about a half an inch from the center of the circle.

This is what it will look like when you are done cutting.

Grab your Glue Dots and place one near the middle of the flower along the first line you cut and another on the back side of the circle on the other side of the first line.

 

Roll the flower up, using the Glue Dots to adhere it to itself.
 

Now make another flower but twist this one tighter than the first.

 

Glue the smaller flower inside the larger and curve the petals outward with your fingers.

Here's your finished flower!  Make them with smaller punches, larger punches, experiment to your hearts content!

Here is a project that I created using the flowers. 

(Patterned Paper-Fancy Pants, Pearls-Kaiser Craft, Frame-Dollar Tree)

I embellished the centers with some pearls. 

Now for our second tutorial.  We're making half rosettes using a border punch!

Cut out a strip of paper that is six inches by 1 1/4 inches and punch all along one edge.  Accordion fold along each dip between the scallops.

Using a very strong adhesive, like glue lines, adhere one side of the strip to your base paper.  Then curve the strip around and, lining up the other end, adhere it to the paper as well.
 

I used this half rosette on a Valentine's card to my husband.  I thought the rosette on top of the stamped love sentiment looks like a bow on a package so the interior of the card reads, "Your love is a gift."

(Patterned Paper-Daisy Bucket, Cardstock-DCWV, Stamp-Autumn Leaves, Pen-Sanford Uni-ball, Ink-Colorbox)

I also used the rosettes on a layout and lined them up to create a border for my photos and journaling/title block.
 

(Patterned Paper-Crate Paper, "sweet" die cut-Slice Big Kids Design Card, Letter Stickers-Making Memories & American Crafts, Pen-Signo Uniball)
 
To participate in this challenge, create a project (layout, card, altered item, anything!) and upload it with the Mr. Linky above by the end of February to be in the running for a prize from AWDML.

Thanks for playing along!

Erica

:D

Product Review: We R Memory Keepers Album

Hey there everyone Stacy here.  Today we are going to chat about scrapbooks.  There are so many to choose from out there.  Some are bound, 3 ring, canvas, or leather.  Not to mention the many different sizes and companies to pick from.

Ok, so you have just spent and hour or more on your page.  Everything is PERFECT and placed exactlly where you want it!  You love the way your layout has turned out and now it's time to put it in your book......only it doesn't fit right!  Have you ever had this problem????

This is why I only use the We R Memory Keepers 3 ring albums.  Since I started using these I have not had this problem.  Not to mention the fact that I can fit 40 - 50 finished layouts in one album.  The super great thing is if you want to move a layout and place it somewhere else in your book it's super easy, all you have to do is open the rings, remove the page (protector and all) and place it elsewhere.  How easy is that!  No more trying to take your layout out of the protector and shove it into another protector.  There are so many different colors to pick from which is just FABULOUS!!!  Check out this beautiful red color....

I am 100% hooked on this line of scrapbooks.  If you haven't tried one yet, grab one from the AWDML Store today.  You will be so glad you did! 

Until nex time....have a great day!

~~Stacy~~

Sewing Tips!

I seem to use my sewing machine on every layout I complete these days.  All of a sudden, my art just doesn't look complete unless I have sewn on it!  Most of us have a sewing maching tucked away in the closet somewhere collecting dust!  I challenge you to get it out and put it to good use!  Let me share with you some things that I have learned to make stitching on your layouts easier! - I use a inexpensive, basic sewing machine that I purchased at Sears for under $75.  It only has a few stitch options and I leave it set up at all times on a little shelf right next to my croppin table.

- For stitching through multiple layers of paper and thickness, I use a strong,  heavy needle intended for stitching material like denim.  For stitching through single layers or ribbon, I use a thinner needle that leaves a smaller hole - the basic, average needle size is perfect. - Apply adhesive in very tiny amounts to an area of the paper that WILL NOT be stitched.  This is very important.  You want the adhesive to hold your paper in place while you stitch but you do not want your needle to go through the adhesive.  Sewing through the adhesive will gum up your needle and cause the thread to break, causing major frustration!  If you do get adhesive on your needle, use UNDO, fingernail polish remover or Goof Off to get it off. - Keep your stitch length fairly long.  Too many short stitches will just look messy and make too many holes in your paper.  You will end up with something that resembles a perforated edge instead of a neat sewing stitch.

- Find yourself a visual guide either on your paper or on your machine to help you keep your stitches straight.  When you get to the corner and are ready to turn, use the manual wheel to place your needle into the paper, lift the guide foot, turn your paper, replace the guide foot and continue to sew. - Complete all stitching before you trim and secure the thread ends.

- After all stitching is complete, turn your layout over.  If you gently tug on the bobbin thread from the back of the layout, the top stitching thread will be pulled toward the back of your layout.  Use something pointed to grab the top thread and gently pull it to the back of your layout.  Trim both threads so they have about 2 inches left and then tape them to the back of the layout.  Do this with all loose threads.  Avoid cutting them off too close as the stitching will fray and leave empty holes on your layout.  There is no need to tie the ends together using this method.

Have fun ladies!  Remember to use combinations of different thread colors and stitch types to add interest! Kim :)

Made Ya' Look Monday!

Happy Monday Everyone!!  Are you getting just as excited as I am for all the new goodies to be arriving in the store??  I can hardly wait!  In the meantime, though I thought I would share a trend that seems to be popping up lots of places in the scrappy world..... banners!  I have been seeing these cutie little things everywhere done up in all sorts of ways, so I thought I should check the store and see if they have any.  I headed straight to the Maya Road section and I found this:

There is also this one:

I chose the first one, with all intentions of getting the smaller size now that I have worked with the larger. 

The triangle shape is super easy to work with.  Just place one piece onto the paper you are going to use and trace.  I used my cutting board and angled the paper to get nice clean cuts.  Any extra on the sides was taken off with a craft knife.

For my project I chose to use up scraps of some of my favorite lines to create a banner for my scrappy space.  Here are a few of the pieces:

I used the Cherry Hill October Afternoon line for this one.

Bungle Jungle Sassafras Lass dolls this one up!

Cosmo Cricket Earth Love line for this one.

Can you guess what word I am going for and where this will be hung? LOL!!  Make sure you head on over to the gallery to check out the rest of my banner and be sure to share your own while your there if you've created one!  Happy Scrappin'! - Scarlett

Friday Challenge.....Sketch Challenge

Hey there fellow scrappers.  It's Friday...WOOHOO!!!   Hope you all have had a wonderful week so far.  Here's a little something to get your scrappy weekend started.  This is my very first sketch I have ever designed.  I am so excited to see what you all do with it.  Make sure you have it uploaded to Mr. Linky and you'll be entered into the monthly drawing for a fabulous prize!!  Just be sure your layout is uploaded by the end of the month.  Don't forget to come on over to the forum and post your layout in the gallery.  Here is your sketch challenge.....

This is my take on the sketch.  I put my journaling inside the kraft envelope.

I had so much fun with this sketch!  I used  Fancy Pants  Kraft Kuts pattern paper,Bazzil Cardstock,Thickers, Ric Rak ,Maya Road mists&Clear Tickets, Rinestones .  

Hope you all have enjoyed my sketch and my take on it.  I look forward to seeing your layouts!  Have a wonderful weekend.

Stacy

Product Review: Imaginisce I-top Brad Maker

Imaginisce is one of my all-time favorite scrapbook manufacturers and they definitely hit a home-run with their i-top Brad Maker!

This tool is more than meets the eye! It not only creates one-of a kind brads, but Imaginisce has just recently released new backs that will make magnets, buttons and pins too! But, what I love about this tool is all the different materials you can use to make your embellishments! You can use paper, photos, felt and basically any kind of material you can think of! I had some terrycloth samples laying around and sure enough --- they made super fun textured brads! Check out my layout:

The brad basics come in 3 different sizes and there are punches to fit each size to make it super easy to create the brads! The punches aren't a necessity, but I love mine! I even use my i-top punches to create fun unique flower shapes!

Just think about layering those fun flowers and then adding a homemade coordinating brad to the center! Fabulous!

Enjoy, Kim