Tip Day Tuesday - discovering new techniques

Hey Newbies, I've been so busy today with appointments and trying to finish this baby album that I almost forgot...

IT'S TIP DAY TUESDAY!🗣

Todays Tip is brought to you buy the letter (haha just kidding, bringing back memories or Sesame Street...showing my age).  

Today's tip is about discovering new techniques by actual mistakes. 

One of my photos in this baby album looks like I used the tear technique when in actuality I had used some mixed media and of course impatient me didn't let it dry before putting on washi tape. After I put on the tape (and used all of that expensive and really pretty Shimmerz and Mists on the background) I decided I didn't like the tape so I pulled it off.

Now, most of you who use Washi tape knows it pulls off pretty easily and doesn't rip a page...UNLESS YOU ARE IMPATIENT AND DIDN'T LET THAT PAGE DRY. So it took every bit of the color off down to the white of the page.

I was so upset and then I looked and thought to myself, self, it kinda looks like the tear technique. So I did it again ON PURPOSE! I liked it that much.
So today's tip is, if you screw up but like it keep it...don't even try to cover it up!

Well there you have it...Tip Day Tuesday!
Happy Scrapping🤗🤗

Tip Day Tuesday - Digi Downloads

Hey guys! It's Tip Day Tuesday👩🏻‍🎨

Today's Tip is all about digi downloads. I didn't even know it was a thing until the blog hop I joined! What is a digi download? It's a downloadable PDF file that you buy, say on Etsy (and pretty cheap I might add) to use for scrapbooking or card making.

What's the point of a digi download? 
Well, it's basically a stamp you don't have to buy or if you can't find that particular stamp by itself (think stamp sets that you would never use any of them but the one and only one that you want).
It will never go bad;You will never lose it; You will never have to go out and buy that special (expensive) pen/copic marker...as long as your printer has ink you are good;
No hours of coloring just to start over because you didn't like how it turned out - - because most of them come already colored for you (some only provide the black and white (think black stamp on white paper) but 90% of them that I have looked out have both; 
Last but not least...Once you downloaded, it's yours to use as many times as you want. 

You can print them in different sizes (depending on what you want to use them for -I used mine for the holiday card challenge - see my attached pic below). You can use different papers to print them on and then you fussy cut them and DONE! (ok, fancy word for cut it out of the paper).

I purchased mine from Pink Gem Designs on Etsay, she has the cutest stuff! 

So there you have it guys...Tip Day Tuesday!
What are you scraping today? 

Come on over to our FB page and Show us your stuff🤗🤗

happy Scrapping, 

Kimberly 

Learning lessons with a Pink Fresh Studios Challenge - 2019

Hey guys, thanks for following my blog posts about being a Newbie in the Scrapbooking World.  I just want to say, when I'm writing these blogs, it is more of a lesson on what not to do or how I managed to do or what I have learned to do, so far.  I will always try to give the exact products of what I used in case you want to try any of the layouts I blog about.  

I also write these blogs 1)hoping they will help you guys in this big community of scrapbooking; 2)challenge you guys to go out of your comfort zone; 3)let you know what is going on out in the scrapbooking community, like, challenges, sales, new products and techniques; and 4)to let you know this is a hobby that is meant to bring enjoyment.  If you find yourself getting all stressed out over it because you make mistakes, we all do.  The best of the best do.  So remember to keep this fun and enjoyable!  You can find other tips and posts on my FB page.

So yesterday I was going through IG and found that Pink Fresh Studios was having a January challenge.   It is their "2018 challenge in review", so you get to pick any of their challenges from last year and go for it!  So I went through the challenges and found this one.  It's a simple layout, but I liked that it was on an all white background.  I tend to stay away from a lot of white space (yeap, apparently that is a term in the scrapbooking world).  This layout also let you choose any shape you wanted (if you aren't into stars), which for this layout I was not.

So I picked a photo of my sister and I in 1986 (yes, I said 1986)!  We were so young (but old enough to drink).  It was New Years Eve and we decided to dress in black and gold sparkle (I didn't have my jacket on in this photo but TRUST me, it was black and gold, it sparkled and it had big shoulders to match the big hair).  If you were from the 80's you will get the big shoulder and big hair reference.

I started to pull all of my stash together and liked what I came up with and got started!

I picked an off white colored card stock and used some clear Gesso on it before starting since I was using some acrylic paint (black - and really cheap from Target).  When it comes to acrylic paints you don't have to spend a lot of money.  I used my heat gun to help the drying process because I'm a bit impatient.  Once it was dried I sprayed the Perfect Pearls Mists from Ranger on it (and right here comes lesson 1, LET YOUR MISTS DRY COMPLETELY.  Mists are mostly water and if you don't let it dry COMPLETELY any other medium that you use that is water based, say like the acrylic paint I was using, it will run!

Apparently, I didn't let it dry enough and when I did the splatters of black acrylic paint (again, water based) it ran instead of blotching or splattering as the pro's say it.  It was pretty bad.  I thought I was going to have to trash the card stock but I took my heat gun, dried it and turned it around so my photo would cover that part. (and that was lesson #2) if you can cover a mistake with a photo or sticker, do it! No one can tell and you will save some time and money, and a bit of frustration.  It happens to the best of scrapers!

After I re-did my Mist and splatters and the paper was dried I started with laying my gold boarder.  I don't remember where I got it it was part of my stash from my "borders" drawer and not in the packaging any longer.  I really liked the waves in it and it was gold and shiny so I used it.

I also found these circle chip board that have the same hues as my layout.  I used the Becky Higgins Project Life Kit, I believe it's called Midnight Edition Core Set.  After gluing those on top of my wavy border sticker, I placed some tissue paper with cold flakes in it behind my backed photo and glued it down (covering up my first mistake).

I have this amazing gold foil paper, in 8 1/2 x 11".  It's pretty thin and delicate so using it is a challenge some times.  I used this paper for 1 of the photo backing and also to cut out a 3" heart from my Cricut machine (I have the dinosaur of Cricut machines but it works and it was free from a friend who used it once so I'm good with that).  Cutting with that foil paper was a bit of a challenge.  The Cricut machine cut it fine but getting off of the mat was not fun.  I cut 2 of them and ended up throwing the other out because it just ripped and tore off of the mat.  Yes, I have had to trash a couple of my projects when using it. 

I glued the heart down along with the additional tiny hearts (made from my heart punch).  I backed my photo with the additional piece of gold foil paper and Pink Paislee's  TURN THE PAGE collection.  I also backed the photo with some tissue paper with flakes of gold in it that I had left over from a Christmas gift (lesson #3, don't throw away stuff you think you might use...think tissue paper for backing of photos, a Starbucks sleeve you can cut and make a sticker out of, ribbon...you get the idea).  I always say waste not want not and hey, this is a pretty expensive hobby!

My title I did out of the gold foil paper as well and ran it through my X-ryon stickers machine...AND here comes lesson number 4, make sure you have ALL of the alphas BEFORE you go sticking them on a layout.   I managed to leave out the "R" in Sparkle the first go around...2 words....PROOF READ! 🤦🏻‍♀️

So, this black and gold theme came together pretty well with what I had in my stash.  Unfortunately for me, I wasn't able to use any of my awesome stuff from PinkFresh Studios was the backing of my photo so that basically disqualified me from the challenge.  I do love their stuff and have quite a bit of it from my Christmas Sale buys but nothing that matched this layout other than that backing.  But I had a great time making it and I think it turned out pretty good.  I will list all of the stuff I used below just in case you saw something you liked.

Thanks for following my blog and learning all of this amazing and fun scrapbooking techniques and layouts!

Items Used:

1. 8 1/2 x 11" gold foil paper - Michaels.com (it goes on sale for $2.50 a pack so if you can... wait for it go be on sale)
2. chipboard stickers - Maggie Holmes - CRAFT PAPER COLLECTION
3. Perfect Pearls Mist - SUNFLOWER SPARKLE - by Ranger
4. Acrylic Paints - Target.com
5. Pink Paislee - TURN THE PAGE - collection
6. Clear Gesso - Amazon.com (a little goes a looooooong way)
7. Off white card stock - Michaels.com

Thanks again for joining me on this blog, hope to see you guys on IG and FB!

Happy Scraping🤗

Hip Kit Club January Challenge

Hey there Newbies!  Today I completed a layout challenge from the Hip Kit Club and wanted to share it with you.

I like doing challenges with the Hip Kit Club because they don't require you to use any of their products (which I'm finding out a lot of others do).  I just so happen to have some of their products...Christmas Sales make me so happy🤗

Here is what the layout challenge looked like.  

For this challenge I used this adorable photo of my grand daughter and myself when she was just a couple of months old.  She totally has my heart💜

When I do challenges, (especially LAYOUT challenges) I like to stick to pretty much the EXACT layout.  You might think that is odd for me to say but I see scrapers do layout challenges that doesn't look anything like the layout that was presented.   

I started off with some card stock paper from my stash.  It's a very pretty, light lilac color and matched perfectly with her little stockings and bow.  I backed the picture with another very light green color that matched her, oh so cute outfit! I also glued a foam backing onto the photo to give a little dimension to the layout.  I used some of the scrap left over from backing my photo to cut these adorable flowers and made some tags to add a bit of color.  Yes, I am a big believer in keeping 99.9% of my scraps.  You can use them for other things and we all know... this isn't a cheap hobby.   

This Washi tape was also in my fairly new stash I just purchased a few weeks ago and I L-O-V-E it!  The "HELLO" on it went beautifully with my title, "hello sunshine"!  

I happen to have bought some stuff from the Hip Kit Club over the Holidays (can you say SALE!) and used some of the ephemera packs from PinkFresh Studios and the Vicki Boutin collection.  The "So Lovely" and "Sunshine" have gold foil accents on them and you know me and bling/shinny things.  You just can't have enough bling! 

I also added 2 foam dots to the "Hello Sunshine" to give it the same height dimension as the photo.  

On the green flowers, that I cut myself with my cricut, I added black brads from BoBunny.  To finish it off  I added the 'SMILE'  epoxy  flair from ScrappinHappyStudio!   

Thanks for joining me on this January Challenge from the Hip Kit Club!  I hope you liked it.   Come join us on our Facebook page ScrapbookingForNewbies.  It's all about sharing your creations, learning new techniques and doing some challenges (and you don't have to be a Newbie to join us...we love to have experts on our page to guide us through all that this scrapbooking world has to offer!)  We love giving shout outs to you guys!

Happy Scraping!

Kimberly 

Post Christmas Sales!

Hey guys! Do you ever have one of those moments when you just want to kick yourself for not waiting?  Well this is one of my moments.  Who knew there would be SO MANY post Christmas Sales going on in all of the scrapbooking, mixed media stores that I love?  Not me that's who!  

I figured that Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the couple of days before Christmas was the prime time to hit the stores that I love and get the best deals, but low and behold it was not.  It is the after Christmas sales that one should wait for when restocking all of your shimmerz, tools, papers, specialty papers, stencils, dies and cool machines!  Although on the machines (think Cricut Air 2 because that's what I've had my eye on for a couple of months now), they pretty much have stayed the same sale price since Black Friday.  Still an awesome deal but I haven't taken the blunge and if I don't do it within the next couple of days I will have to wait until next year.

I guess I will chalk this up to experience...but hey, don't think I didn't buy anything on these awesome after Christmas sales...because I did!  Now I just have to find a place to hide all of those boxes from the husband!

So what are some of your favorite one line or big box stores to restock your scrapbooking and card making craft room?  Leave me a comment below.  I will post some after Christmas Sales on my FB page as well so make sure to join it so you can find the best deals fast before they are gone!

Happy Scraping!

Kimberly 

Why choose a name like Scrapbooking for Newbies?

Hey Newbies, I hope your day has been filled with lots of scrapbooking layouts and card making for the special people in your life!

I wanted to touch base on why I named this Blog and my FB and IG pages Scrapbooking For Newbies.  Well, I don't share this on my pages but I have MS (Multiple Sclerosis) which basically is a disease that makes your body attack itself. In the case of MS it's the Mylan sheath (which is what surrounds your central nervous system (CNS)) that is being attacked.  When your body attacks itself, it puts holes in the Mylan which is what protects your CNS.  When this happens your spinal cord and brain start suffering, become damaged and don't communicate.  There is no cure and the meds only slow down the progression.  There are lots of symptoms to MS (let me say that again...LOTS of symptoms), one being cognitive.

Some times my cognitive issues go from non existent to mild to I'm not sure what my name is.  So naming my Blog Scrapbooking for Newbies sounded fitting because even though I'm learning new stuff, I'll pretty much be a Newbie the entire time.  I may learn new stuff but may not retain it all which means I have to go back and read notes, watch videos or just jump in and hope I get the technique right (or maybe make a new one, which would be awesome)!

The second reason is, I know that there are a lot of new scrapbookers who get a little intimidated by the other sites because most are experts creating these awesome layouts and cards and have fancy cameras and picture boxes so that their finished product looks amazing.  I'm not knocking them for this, I actually want to become one of those experts one day!

Also, some (most) sites won't let you do challenges or post your layout (because come on, don't we want to share our awesomeness, our one of a kind creations with the world)?  I know I did and since I couldn't find anywhere to do that at I started my Facebook group - Scrapbooking for Newbies.  I also put the word out that anyone can join not just newbies!  We love to get feedback from other scrapers and learn new things, like mixed media!  Who knew!?!?!  

So those are the reasons for naming my Blog and other social media platforms Scrapbooking For Newbies.  I'm hoping you come join us on this journey of learning new stuff, meeting new scrapers and getting some answers to questions on new techniques.  I can tell you, my IG page is full of experts who love to give great advice and helpful hints when ever you ask, so feel free to join me there as well!

Thanks for visiting my Blog and hope to see you on my IG and Fb pages!

Happy Scraping!
Kimberly

Blog Hops and what are they?

  

Hey there Newbies, so today lets talk about Blog hops.
This month I learned about blog hops from Amy Tsuruta  at Coffee Loving Cardmakers! This site is all about card making and Coffee loving and who doesn't love that combo?  (Click here for the link to the actual hop).  They put hops on a couple of times a year, so if you sign up for their news letter or follow their facebook page you will be able to join them next go around!

I stumbled upon Amy's blog via Facebook and was intrigued!  I've never heard of a blog hop nor have I ever made a card so I said to myself, self, why not.  So I did and how fun was it... so much!

You make a card, submit it by uploading it to their site and then winners are randomly picked.  You hop from card to card and make comments (which was one way of winning a prize) visit the sponsor sites, join in on conversations via facebook and keep in touch via her blog and facebook.  The best thing of the entire hop...seeing these beautiful handmade cards that really inspire you.  

I didn't think I had a chance being a newbie and all but I had so much fun figuring out how to make one and learning about digital downloads (that's for another blog another time) and getting to know all of these awesome, coffee loving people on this hop!  Amy was so helpful and took time out of her super busy schedule to help me!

There were thousands of cards (I believe the final count was a little over 1,300!).  There were over 70 sponsors and are you ready for this...I actually won a prize!  I couldn't believe it!  The sponsor I won from was Whimsy Stamps and I was so excited!  This is my entry...

Not too bad for a Newbie (if I do say so myself).  

Well, that's a little info on blog hops and I hope you take some time to visit Coffee Loving Cardmakers! Blog site and learn some awesome ways to make cards.  Oh, one more thing, their Facebook page is always posting S-A-L-E-S from a lot of different crafting sites and who doesn't love saving money!

I hope you enjoyed this blog about blog hops.  Be sure to follow me for more info on scrapbooking and card making stuff for Newbies.  Come join us Newbies on Facebook (it is a closed group only because most of us are working on scrapbook pages that we intend to give as gifts and don't want to spoil the surprise).

Happy Scraping!

Kimberly