Tuesday Tutorial with Mel B

Hello friends!! Today I’m bringing you a fun and quick tutorial using the diecuts from the Heartbreaker Pocket Life kit. The diecuts are always one of my favorite items to use with the kits and I was thrilled to see the diecut frame this month. 

The frames are so versatile from framing a picture, to creating layers and being a focal point for journaling. I used the frame in this month’s kit as a focal point for journaling.

To do this technique I simply traced the outline of the frame along with the chipboard element I wanted to layer on the frame. By knowing the perimeter of the frame I am able to add journaling that will perfectly fit within the frame. 

I then used my vintage typewriter for the journaling, handwriting and computer journaling would also work but might require a bit more tweaking. Afterwards it was only a matter of cutting out the journaling and adhering it to the frame.

This is one of my favorite method for using a frame diecut. It’s a perfect way to showcase journaling and make the most of the diecut. Hope you are inspired to use this method on your next project!

3-to-inspire with Melanie B

Hello everyone! Melanie B here today with a 3-to-inspire challenge which features the fabric die-cut stickers from the August 2018 Pocket Life kit. My prompts for the challenge are as follows;

1.      Use the fabric die-cut as a date marker;

2.      Customize a PL card with the fabric die-cut;

3.      Embellish a picture with the fabric die-cut. 

Easy enough, right?!

To recap my prompts, first up I used a die-cut as a highlight to my date marker card. There’s a lot of flexibility here as most the die-cut designs would fit this purpose. I opted for the “life” die-cut as it was more fitting to the overall design of the spread.

Next up, I customized a 4x6 card with the “this moment” die-cut. It supported to the design of the card, love how it created a unique title “this moment, it’s okay I guess” – so fun!! I also enhanced the card with journaling and a cork embellishment. I really love how this card turned out. 

The last prompt is to use a die-cut on a picture, when using embellishment on pictures I look for white space which is ideal for journaling and embellishments. In my case the white space was the group and it served as the ideal background to the “fun time” die-cut. 

I hope you are inspired to create a project using these prompts. Make sure to share with us on social media, we can’t wait to see it.

TN Challenge with Melanie B

Hello CTK friends! I’m happy to be back today with a quick and fun TN challenge. With summer being upon us in the northern hemisphere I have very little time dedicated to crafting. We are too busy being outside making memories, sadly my memory keeping is sorely neglected. But I do try to make some time, a couple of day a week, even if it just for 15 minutes, to create a TN spread. That’s the beauty of TN, you can create a spread in very little time, which is ideal for me right now.

My challenge to you today is to create a TN spread in less than 15 minutes using the following elements, a tag, ephemera and one picture. When creating a TN spread my go to design is grid, which I created using various diecuts, stamp and a ticket stub ephemera. Love the look of these fun little clusters of embellishments.

To create this spread I used the gorgeous Skyland Pocket Life kit, along with the Conversation Starter stamp set and the Daily Routine stamp set. I love incorporating various stamping elements in my TN projects, I find that stamps are the perfect complement to the journaling, they help to highlight the theme of the picture.

I also modified a 3x4 journaling card into a tag, to do this I simply trimmed the edges of the card on both sides and the corners on the top of the card, this is a fun way to use a journaling card.

I hope you are inspired to create a quick and fun TN spread. Make sure to share on IG and in our private Facebook group! Happy crafting!!!

Tuesday Tutorial with Melanie

Hello friends! Mel B here today to share a fun TN tutorial. I love working with TNs and will usually use small pictures to create a spread, but what about using a standard size such as 4x6? Can one still create a TN spread with a large picture, of course they can! So if you aren’t able to print small size picture I will give you some tips on working with a 4x6 picture. To create this spread I used the Skyland Pocket Kit along with the One of those Days stamp set. 

Today I am using a vertical 4x6 picture (for my next blog post I’ll use a horizontal 4x6 picture). I did want to use the full size, I didn’t have much editing to do for this picture, the only thing I did to modify it is cut off a ¼ inch from the left size, as I wanted to leave some white space to the right of this picture.

The beauty of working with large picture is that they can be used as is or trimmed down, a 4x6 picture could easily be converted to a 4x4 picture or even smaller, especially if you have a lot of white space in the picture.

Since my picture is rather large and dark in color, I wanted to keep the rest of the design light and airy. I opted for a grid design (my go to!) and kept the focus on a light color palette.

I hope you are inspired to use 4x6 pictures in your TN spread, maybe this is even an opportunity to go back and use older pictures that might not have been documented!! Happy crafting friends!