ConisuCreations

PINspirations

Happy Saturday everyone! I often spend at least some part of my Saturdays on Pinterest. I absolutely LOVE it! I get so many great ideas for everything from food to decorating to gardening to - of course - scrapbooking! There are so many wonderfuly talented scrapbooking artists whose work has been pinned there for all to see. I find it so inspiring.  I love looking at their work and reading their blogs, seeing what supplies and techniques they have used.  I decided that every Saturday I will celebrate some  of my Pinspirations here and share them with you. So lets get started...

This is a gorgeous layout made with the BoBunny Clockwork Timepiece paper. The inking and whitewashed paint effect on the background paper is really beautiful.  papergirlcrafts.blogspot.com

I absolutely LOVE this card - the layering, the inking, the stamping - this has my name written all over it - don't you see it there - Conisu, Conisu, Conisu! LOL - I have a butterfly similar to this one on one of my Cricut Cartidges so I plan to scraplift this idea very, very soon! http://piquenique39.tumblr.com/

MORE distressing with some really heavy, dark inking, not to mention the Tim Holtz stamps and his super cool Regal Findings.  I also love that this is matted on a vintage piece of music. I bought an old hymnal at a garage sale for just his kind of thing. If you don't have old sheet music lying around there are many scrapbook papers with music printed on them. This tag is gorgeous! pinkleart.blogspot.com

Love the lacing and the sewing on this layout! Scraplifting worthy ideas include the turned back edge with metal fasteners revealing the title underneath. Check out the spatters of ink droppings on the page - makes it look like something found in the attic in an old trunk.                                     moments-of-tranquility.com

AGAIN with the BoBunny Timepiece collection, which she then embellished with clock hands and bling. There is  so much to love on this layout - the layering, distressing and inking - natch. But look at the rolled pieces of paper behind and to the side of the photo. Beautiful and so simple anyone can do it with paper scraps. Did you see the Tim Holtz film tape - I have this but have not found a way to use it yet. It looks great place on top of the rolled papers and then adheared to the paper behind.bobunny.blogspot.com

All I can say is WOW! This is simply (or not so simply) beautiful! There is so much to see here that you have to look at it a number of times to catch it all. Yet it doesn't overwhelm the picture. It looks like an illustration in a magazine. This beautiful paper is from Graphic 45. One of my all time fave companys. Their lines have such a vintage feel. She has also used Prima flowers and a inked doily on 2 sides of the layout. g45papers.typepad.com

Ok I could go on for another hour pinning and talking about the beautiful layouts, tags, and cards that areon Pinterest today but I will save some for next Saturday edition of Pinspirations!  Go get Pinspired!

 

All About Me

Hey ladies I know so many of you have lots (and lots) of albums - you have a family albums, an album for each child, a wedding album, a heritage album, a Christmas album, etc -  BUT do you have an ‘All About Me' album? How many pictures do you even have of yourself? How many pages dedicated to you? If something should happen tomorrow would your children know your favorite color, your daily routine, what your favorite board games were, etc.? As moms and keepers of the scrapping tools not to mention the family chief photographer we are so busy documenting the lives of everyone else that we rarely even consider these things about us and we typically don't scrapbook them either.  But this is an important point to consider. If we look at ourselves as the family historian, we really need to make sure to include a very important piece of the family - US! Sooo, maybe you don't want to have a whole album that is "All About Me!" but a page here and there is something that we all need to do. So here are a month of ideas that can be scattered through your current work. 

30 Topics and Titles

1. 10 Things about Me
2. The Chef in Me (love it or hate it)
3. Circle of Friends
4. Crafts & Hobbies
5. A Day in the Life
6. My Faith
7. Favorites
   • Activities
   • Clothes
   • Games
   • Movies
   • Music
   • Books
8. Favorite Foods
   • Restaurants
   • Drinks
   • Snacks
   • Desserts
9. Favorite Job
10. Fears
11. Growing Up
    • Where I was born
    • Where I lived
    • How many houses I lived in
12. Hairstyles through the Years
13. High School Years
14. Hopes and Dreams
15. Housework & Me
16. I am Blessed
17. I am Grateful
18. The Last 10 Years (how I have changed over the years)
19. Making My House a Home
20. Man of My Dreams
21. My Parents 
    • What we do together
    • What our similarities are
    • What our differences are
22. My Emotions
    • What makes me happy/sad
    • What makes me laugh/cry
    • What makes me angry
    • What makes me nervous
23. People That Inspire Me
24. Pieces of Me
25. Self Portrait (a personal photo  or drawing and journaling about the photo)
26. Uniquely Me (things that make me unique)
27. Vacation Favorites
28. My names (maiden, married, nicknames)
29. My Purse
    • Favorite purse
    • What's in it
30. My quirks

These topics cover a wide range and can be funny or serious. Comment your own ideas for topics here! I challenge everyone to make a page about YOU next time you sit down to scrapbook.

I did a 2 page spread earlier this year about my wake up call. It was fun to do and was good to write down my thoughts about  life, aging, and just what I wanted to do with the rest of the time I have here on this earth. Thought provoking and I was very pleased after I finished it. So come on - accept the challenge, you and your children's children will be glad you did.

Technique Tuesday

Lets talk DISTRESSING!!

One of my fave techniques is to "distress or grunge up" my mats and embellishments. To me it just adds an extra layer of texture and dimension. I know some of you love this look and some are just a teensy bit scared to even try it. Here are a few hints and tips to give Distressing a try.

On most of my favorite pages you will see I have used Tim Holtz Distressing Ink in a wide range of colors. This ink is wonderful and rarely do I complete a page without using them somewhere. Yes I admit I LOVE all things Tim Holtz and don't tell anyone but he is my scrap booking boyfriend! LOL If you have seen rubber stamping projects that use wonderful distressing techniques and have wondered how they are done, read on! Distressing paper creates unusual and interesting results and is great fun to do. These special inks help to make sure your results are great.

Tim Holtz Distress Inks by Ranger Inks have been specially formulated to give an aged finish to projects. You can use them in many different ways, from creating unique aged backgrounds for your pages and mats, to rubber stamping on, to adding color to photographs and much more. The water soluble dye inks have been designed to bleed and blend on the paper. It is so much fun to see what great effects you can get. These effects can be easily and quickly.

Here are 3 easy steps to get started using them.

Go to your paper stash and get a light colored piece of scrap paper for this first try. (ok if you count this as a step - then there are 4 easy steps)

1. Crumple your paper. Yes, I mean REALLY crumple it. Wad it up like you are a 5th grade boy and are going to make a trashcan basket while your teachers back is turned! Crumple it up, smooth it out, crumple it up, smooth it out. Try not to tear the paper, but if you do have some tears - no worries! Just proceed with step 2.

2 Take the Tim Holtz Distressed Ink pad of your choice. There are many choices of colors, but a good first choice is one of the brown ones. They give an aged appearance and really complement most layouts. Remove the lid of the ink and just rub the pad all over the paper. Keep pad flat to paper in order to give a consistent application. Ok that's it! Unless you want to go one step further!

3. Using a mister or a spray bottle - spray the paper with a light misting of water. Because the inks are water soluble you will get a very interesting effect as the ink bleeds and blends on the paper. You can vary this technique by spraying your paper before you ink it.

 

Don't be scared - give this a try. Distressing is all the rage and soon you too may be inking everything in sight

Welcome to ConisuCreations!

Starting out in the blog world is a little overwhelming. I keep thinking "What am I going to write???" There are so many people in the scrapbooking world that have wonderful blogs - what am I going to add to that? But on the advice of an industry leader I am taking the plunge! Getting out there and digging in. I will have all the info regarding classes, crops and weekends posted here. There will be reviews and examples of products and lines - should be fun!

Let me know if there are things you want to know about. Techniques you want to research. I am open for business and suggestions!