Of all the things I blog, tutorials have to be the most fun posts for me. Sure, photographing a tutorial is time consuming, and kind of slows the process of the actual craft making, but when I sit to type up my blog post– everything makes so much more sense since I have photos to explain what I mean

Today’s tutorial is one I did for the Creating Keepsakes Blog a couple of weeks ago. Hope you enjoy it!

As scrapbookers, you are sure to have a paper stash. Many of us also have a bin filled with scrap pieces of paper, those tiny bits that are just too pretty to throw away but never make it onto a scrapbook page ever again. Today I’m pulling those out to create a few fresh, new accents to use on my pages.

First, I trimmed scraps of various papers and adhered them onto a plain white paper using archival-safe glue. These scrap paper strips can be as narrow or as wide as you want, and can be monochromatic or span a palette of colors. You can see that I chose a totally colorful option here below.

After I had adhered a whole row down, I trimmed it using a paper trimmer to form a long strip.

While this could be used as a border all by itself, here I chose to punch out evenly spaced circles and use it as a border to frame small embellishments. I chose a circle punch, but you could totally use any punch in any shape to amp up your border here.

I love the pop of color this border provides, and yet since I punched out a major portion of it, the colors are not too overwhelming.

Here’s a look at the layout I created using it. I placed the border beneath my photos and used it to frame some animal stickers.

Now, those scrappy circles I punched out were perfect to use as embellishments to create another quick fun layout.

This layout is all about how my little baby is trying to get out of her chair. She is all set to start crawling soon. The circles imply motion, so they reinforce the page’s theme here.

Another thing I did on both these layouts was mix up colors for my title. This is a great way to use up those leftover alphabets (I always seem to run out of the vowels and S’s), so this way you have plenty of letters and can create a long title!

I hope you are inspired to use up those paper scraps and create something fun! Happy scrapping!

© Smitha for smiling colors, 2012. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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This layout has such a hodge podge of colors, and yet for me it looks pretty

If you have been reading my blog awhile now, this layout may seem familiar to you. This was the layout I described in my “10 fresh scrapbooking ideas for you to try” iBook. Many of you have downloaded the book and left such sweet comments about it for me! Thanks so much! You guys are just SO awesome!

I have been thinking/conceptualizing a second iBook, for a few weeks now actually. Lets see where that goes. Summer just keeps getting in the way!

Happy Wednesday to you all!

© Smitha for smiling colors, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Four projects to share today– each of them are like my new favorites. A lot of yellow.

First, a two page layout, with photos from our weekend getaway in April. I cannot believe how relaxing it was to be away from home for just three days. I tried to reflect that in this layout– clean lines and lots of white space (literally!)

Second, a bright yellow layout with photos of Nidhi and the hubs– taken last year– no wait the year before that. Lots of Echo park here and above too.

Third, another two pager, that sat unfinished on my computer for way too long! Love these photos to pieces!!! I cannot believe how much this little  baby has grown already! She is gonna be 10 months old now

(click on image to see enlarged version)

Fourth, is a hybrid card. I love the look of the stamped alpha here. So perfect for me. Stamping black on a white card is really not my forte– I always end up having smudges, and nothing aligns perfectly. Doing a hybrid card is more me. Printed the sentiment and some of the stars onto cardstock.  Folded the card and added more stars and confetti– punched from cardstock, patterned papers and plastic onto it…

And now after all the talk of digital scrapbooking, if  you interested to learn more about it, here is an amazing FREE photoshop technique class for you all…

Click here or on the image to see more details.

Also, here is a nice, handy useful link to one of my all time favorite digi freebie by Jessica Sprague. This kit is so amazingly pretty! And did I mention free? Click here and here to see what I made using it.

Now  I need to go upload all these layouts so that I can get them printed and then into their albums

© Smitha for smiling colors, 2012. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: digital layouts, hello summer, relzx, two page layouts, yello

This week I am decorating some flip flops with felt and hot glue. Mine is girly, and I have felt flowers…

I started with this purply striped flip flop, which in itself is pretty, but my daughter and I wanted to decorate something and this was chosen. I pulled out a bunch of flowers, felt, twine to start with…

We finally chose to make our own flowers with two shades of purple (Yes, we are not yet 3 yrs old, but we have opinions– strong opinions!)

So I spiral cut into the flower, and rolled it up. Cutting into the flower is an adult step. Sharp scissors here.

Just in case you are wondering where is the kid in this project, here she is, trying to roll those flowers

I added a little bit of hot glue on both the felt and onto the flip flops…

At the end, we added some bling onto the flowers and called it done. She loves these flip flops now and is always excited to wear them!!!

If you have little boys– try adhering felt fishes, or trains onto some inexpensive flip flops. Let me know how it goes!

For more Make it with kids Mondays click here.

© Smitha for smiling colors, 2012. | Permalink | 6 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: decorating kids flip flops, felt flowers, kid crafts

Welcome to my Freebie Sunday. Each Sunday I have a FREE printable for you– many of them perfect for Project life, but sometimes there are other fun stuff too

For this week, I have some more 3 by 4 printable journaling cards…

 Down­load here

If you are inter­ested in dig­i­tal free­bies,   like/fol­low me on face­book or twit­ter and get the lat­est updates!

As usual, link me up to any­thing you cre­ate using these in the com­ments sec­tion below, I love mak­ing new scrapbooking/crafty friends!

Want even more Free­bies? Read all pre­vi­ous Print­able Free­bie posts by click­ing here.

© Smitha for smiling colors, 2012. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: arrow, arrow journaling, journal cards, journal in arrows, journal prompts, journaling freebies, project life freebies