DIY Shadow Box with Studio Calico Wood Veneer Cameras

Sometimes inspiration strikes right there in the middle of the scrapbook store!

When I was in the store one day, checking out our new arrivals, this package of tiny little cameras from Studio Calico practically jumped out at me.  Being a HUGE fan of cameras, I knew I had to use them for something special.  With their unique shapes, I wanted to create something where I could see each one.  And being a designer who LOVES color, I wanted to make each one a bright, vibrant color.

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So, as I sometimes do, I wandered the store, waiting for the idea to jump into my head.  Just being around so many papers, embellishments and creative products tends to inspire me.  I have the very best ideas in the store!  Try it sometime, I'm sure your scrapbook store can work magic too!

As I passed our display of Luminarte mists, it came to me.  I should use the mist on the cameras.  Over the last couple of years, I have taught workshops, designed projects for the store and written blog posts on the versatility of mists.  When I came up with this idea, I hadn't used the mists as paint very often.  So, I thought this would be a perfect project to venture into new territory.  Mist, whether Luminarte, Mister Hueys, or made by other manufacturers, comes in a multitude of colors and finishes.  For this project, I love that the Luminarte mists have a sparkly, metallic finish.  If you'd like a similar look using Mister Hueys, just grab the SHINE bottle and apply it over the top of the matte colors.  It will look great!

After coming up with a way to get my little cameras all colorful & sparkly, I thought the best way to display them would be to mount them in a shadow box.  I picked up an 9" x 9" shadow box at IKEA.  I liked the white frame so the cameras would really be the focal point.

With a rainbow in mind, I arranged my mists by color.

Then I opened the lid and used a brush to drip a little mist onto a regular sheet of printer paper.

The actual color of the mist is often different than it appears in the bottle.  I was also sure to shake the bottle vigorously before opening it.  The metallic flakes settle to the bottom of the bottle very quickly, so be sure to shake your mist often.

Next, I sorted through the veneer cameras putting them into little piles by shape and size.  I wanted to be sure to include a variety in my final product.  Being a big fan of symmetry and having a square shadow box, I decided to use 16 cameras in my design.  Originally, I had planned to use more, but when I laid out the cameras on a 9"x9" sheet of white paper, the white space between them was perfect with 16 cameras.  My original layout was approximate, I would use a ruler later when it was time to apply the photos to my mounting paper.

After letting my dots of mist dry, I chose the 16 colors I liked best and began to paint each camera.

I used a small paint brush to apply the mist, letting it sink into the wood veneer for a few seconds, then applying more, until the color reached a vibrant depth on each piece.

After applying a few coats of mist, I let each camera dry a bit so I could check the shimmer.  The Luminarte mists I used sparkle more as they dry, so it's necessary to wait until your project is dry to see if you like the amount of shimmer.  Apply another coat or two if your project isn't "shimmer-y" enough.

As I completed each camera, I placed them back onto my printer paper to see how the colors looked next to each other.

After all the cameras were painted and dry, I used a ruler to place them.  I started with the right column and placed the largest camera 1" away from the edge.  Since all the cameras differ in size, I moved up the right column, centering each camera in an area of space dictated by the largest camera.  As I measured the rows, I tried to keep the bottoms of the cameras in line with each other, as if they were sitting on a shelf.  I liked the look of this, except when I placed the tiniest cameras.  For those, I felt lining them up with the bottoms of the other cameras left too much space above them.  So, I moved the tiniest cameras up a bit centering them more in their spaces. (Feel free to message me if you would like a more detailed explanation of my spacing.  It was much easier to do in reality than it is to explain in writing!)

After placing the cameras, I used a pen to trace their "lenses" onto my printer paper.  If you're using different veneer shapes, you could trace outside the shape instead.

In order to attach my cameras to my mounting paper, I placed my printer paper with the circles down onto a light box.  Next, I placed my 9" x 9" mounting paper (Bazzill Basics Swiss Dot Cardstock in Salt) on top.  I used mini Glue Dots (about 2 per camera) to attach each camera over the circle.  I kept my ruler handy to make sure the bottoms of the cameras were straight.

After applying all the cameras, I placed the paper inside the shadow box...and VOILA!

A simple, vibrant, graphic piece of art!

I'm in the middle of designing some fun products to sell in scrapbook stores and on etsy!  My company is called Creatively Custom and I'd love it if you'd stop over and LIKE my new business Facebook page.  My first products will be custom Project Life style cards for high schools, complete with names, colors & mascots!  I'd love to know what you think of them.

Thank you!!

Check out my fun idea and TONS of other amazing ideas over at the link party on Today's Creative Blog!  Tuesday is 'Get Your Craft On' day!  You'll find SO many cool ideas there every week, you'll wonder why you hadn't found it before!  Oh, be sure to tell Kim (Creator & Diva of TCB) HI and that Julie from JulieChats sent you!

Layout of the Week - Quick & Colorful

Some projects are just for fun!  This is one of them.  I've always been wanting to try more of the fun tints on the Costco Photo Center website and this seemed like a fun photo to use.  I love the whimsical look of Andy Warhol's pop art and so does Delaney.  She took an art class last year where she got to create some very cool pieces of pop art!  Thanks to her, I have all sorts of fun, bright pieces around my home.

Since she turned 10 this Spring, I used this photo where a "10" appears to be coming out of her head...don't even remember where this was taken, but it's a fun photo!  Then I used the tints in the editting menu on Costco's Photo Center website to change the colors, saving a copy of the original and then going back to the original and doing it all over again for each color.  I printed each tint as wallets (you get 4 of the same photo, wallet size, for 39 cents...a GREAT deal, if you ask me!)

Next, photos in hand, I headed to Whimzee's to see what I could find.  I knew that my layout needed to be a simple one, with simple papers & embellishments.  I started this project with my ribbon chosen...we needed a sample at the store using this fun white felt flower ribbon from Creative Cafe, so I started with a couple pieces of it.  To add a little texture, I chose the white Bazzill dot paper with it's embossed texture.  Finally to mix in just a bit of color, I used some KaiserCraft rhinestones in colors that matched as closely as possible to my tinted photos.  I ended up with green, blue and red.  I was hoping to find an orange or gold rhinestone to match my sepia photo, but we didn't have any at the store.  So I used what I could find and spaced them out in the centers of the flowers with a few spaces in between.

For a simple layout design, I decided to arrange my photos "Warhol Style" in a square (I know it's a rectangle, but square just sounds better.)  I added a few rows of the ribbon and filled some of the flowers with the rhinestones & I was finished.  I love the look and the layout was super quick.  It's a fun design to use with any photos you have.  Just print out some wallets or crop your photos to wallet or small square size, grab your ribbon and you'll have a finished page!

I know some of you purists will notice I don't have any journaling...but I don't think every photo or layout needs journaling.  Sometimes just a photo or 4 photos tell the story!

Have fun scrapping!

Stop & visit me on Facebook, where I'm putting together a new page for the JulieChats Blog!

Tips

Use a group of 4 small photos and some ribbon or paper strips to create a simple, quick layout.

Try some tinted photos on your next project!

Don't feel like you always have to use tons of printed paper or lot's of color, sometimes neutrals & a little burst of color is all you need.

And DON'T worry if you don't want to journal every page!!!  It's YOUR page after all, there are no rules to scrapbooking!!!

Supplies

Bazzill Dot Paper

Creative Cafe Felt Ribbon

KaiserCraft Rhinstones

Costco Tinted Wallet Photos

Layout of the Week - Family with Graphic 45 Papers & A Special Annoucement!

This week, as the sun shines outside here in Oregon, I want to share my family with you.  Dave, my wonderful husband,  is a sports fanatic who loves to play with his kids.  He managed to combine those this week...he got Delaney to fill out an NCAA bracket and then had Jake do one too.  Dave used blocks with the first letter of each team and had Jake pick his favorite of the two.  Yes, it took quite a while and Jake's bracket is full of M-named teams (his current favorite letter).  Poor Jake didn't fare well with Montana last night, but he still has a chance to beat his Daddy.  I keep telling Dave that knowing about sports really has nothing to do with winning with these tourney brackets.  On to Delaney, my beautiful, talented, creative daughter, will be 9 on Sunday.  Delaney is so well-rounded, she loves participating in all sorts of sports (those talents come from Dad), creating original, eye-catching art pieces and she's a "bit" of a perfectionist (that, I'm sorry, comes from me!).  She is thoughtful and loving, especially to her little brother.  So that makes Jake last.  Mr. Jake is now two and FULL of ENERGY!  He loves the movie "Cars," any every character in it.  We're missing Sally right now and he asks for "Yaddy" every chance he gets...I'm sure she's around somewhere, probably in one of Delaney's shoes.  We all love to hang out together and are very excited that the weather's warming up here!

So that's a bit of our story!  On to my layout...this design idea came to me a bit backwards.  Usually I have a photo and then come up with a layout.  OK, sometimes I have a paper collection that I love and take photos to go with it.  This time, I was inspired by a pile of mismatched Graphic 45 papers laying all over my counter while I was creating projects for the Graphic 45 design team call.  Seeing these papers, most are the backsides, reminded me of a patchwork quilt.  I thought & thought about how to combine them and came up with using a brown background and my favorite sepia tone photos.  I didn't shoot a new photo for this page, I remembered that my mother-in-law shot some photos of us when she was visiting in early December.  This one was almost our Christmas card photo, but it didn't quite make the cut.  We were very excited at the time, being huge Duck fans and having just attended one of our most exciting games ever...the Civil War win over the dreaded Beavers!  So we decided to have a Duck theme Christmas card.  Even though we didn't use this photo, we found some even more fun Duck photos of all of us.  My trusty sepia tone came into play because dark green and almost neon yellow don't exactly match the Graphic 45 color scheme.

Since I had been thinking of this project as a patchwork quilt, I searched the internet for patchwork quotes.  I found a few that combined the quilt idea with the family idea.  I didn't find one that fit my thoughts exactly so I made up my own.  I didn't want a big wordy journal box or title on this one, so I used photoshop to print my quote right on top of my photo.

For the patches, I cut my papers to 2 1/2" square and then used a ruler to gently fold the edges in 1/4" on each side.  I tore upward along these folds so the white would show on the edges.  Next I inked the edges with brown ink.  I used one little Hermafix square on the back of each square and placed them on the brown background, leaving an area in the bottom right corner for the photo.

This was my very first attempt at machine stitching on a layout.  I'm pretty excited with the results.  I had been planning to give it a try.  Dave put a table in the laundry room for my sewing machine and I dug the poor thing out of one of the "holes" or storage closets in the bonus room.  It had been in there more than 5 years.  I was surprised it worked at all.  I searched the internet for ideas on machine stitching and found tons of them.  So I experimented with an extra sheet of my background paper and extra little squares.  I adjusted the tension, stitch width and lenght, writing each of the number combinations next to that particular stitch on my sample sheet.  When I found one I liked, I used it.  I chose ivory thread for this project.

After sewing around the page twice, I decided to create my own embellishment for my title.  I cut a piece of patterned paper twice as long as my photo, tore it leaving a white edge, inked it with the brown and folded it into pleats.  I used the same straight stitch I used on the whole page to stitch my pleats together.  I went over the pleats twice.  Next I stitched down my brown ball fringe ribbon.  For the title, I inked the edges of the Graphic 45 letters with black and adhered them with pop dots.  To attach my homemade embellishments, I used glue dots.

I was very happy with how this layout turned out.  I loved machine stitching and can't wait to use it again!  Next time you're together with your family, shot a photo and remember to create a layout to celebrate these special people!

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SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!

I want to share some exciting news with my readers!  I am now a featured writer on the Oregon Women's Report website.  I am writing a series of fun, anecdotal stories about scrapbooking.  I'd love it if you'd stop by over there and read my first one!  I'm planning to post each article here also.  I'll post one in both places every two weeks or so.  If you're from Oregon or just interested in all the cool women writers on the site, sign up to receive updates from OWR in your inbox.  Thanks! :)

Don't Forget!  Join me at Ann's tonight for Virtual Girl's Night Out!  Stop by to join in the fun, meet lot's of great women bloggers (and sometimes some male bloggers too!), hop around the internet leaving comments and getting some for yourself too!

Tips

Of course, use sepia tone or black & white to help your photos blend with your chosen papers.

If you're looking for a new way to include journaling in your layouts, give photoshop a try!

Look at the backsides of your papers, they might inspire a layout all by themselves.

Think about creating your own embellishments.

If you've got a sewing machine, try machine stitching!

Supplies

Graphic 45 papers...from all different collections, most are the backsides.

Graphic 45 alphabet letters

Bazzill brown ball fringe ribbon

Dark Brown Ink - Cat's Eye ink pad

Ivory thread for machine stitching

Layout of the Week - Valentine Card #2

Well, it's finally Friday!  It's sure been a busy week around my house...Jake's birthday last Sunday and our niece visiting for the weekend...Delaney out of school on Monday and lunch with my parents...Lot's of homework, housework, preparing for my Valentine card class on Sunday...And then last night two burglaries in our neighborhood.  I'm housesitting for my neighbors, who are on vacation this week, and someone broke down their door, but didn't end up stealing anything.  At least the alarm was set and seems to have stopped the guy at the door.  But just knowing that someone was next door to my house, breaking down the door is unnerving!  The police officer who responded last night and the detective I spoke with today said that both houses were dark with outside lights on.  So now I'll be sure to leave lights on inside my house whenever we are gone at night.  Sure hope they catch the guy soon.  I was asked recently if I thought of my neighborhood as safe and I said yes.  It sure seems safe to live in a nice neighborhood with nice houses and nice yards, close to a nice school.  But I guess I would have to answer differently the next time I'm asked....

OK, I'm going to force myself to think about something more fun right now!  I'm getting ready to teach my Valentine card class on Sunday at the Hillsboro Library.  If you're in the area, it's free and we'll take the first 15 people who come to make 3 cards, a gift tag and a gift box.

I hope you are all getting into the Valentine spirit, making Valentine's, helping your kids with theirs, or maybe picking out fun decorations for their Valentine boxes.  At Delaney's school, the kids make their boxes at home and bring them on Valentine's Day.  I'll have to share a photo of hers with you, once she's done with it!  If you're looking for Valentine ideas, there are some very cute ones that you can download, just check down the right column of my blog in the "Get Your Creative On" section for some of the latest Valentine blog posts.

I'm in the middle of a lot of great projects right now!  I can't wait to share them with all of you!  I should have some fun Layout of the Week features over the next few weeks.  I'll share some fun details with you, so you have something to look forward to...I'm making Delaney a Bo Bunny Chipboard album full of memories from her last birthday party...I'm creating 2 travel layouts with Reminisce's new Passport collection...I'm putting together a layout about me, yes ME, we really do need to have a photo or two of ourselves in our albums every so often...and for one last Valentine's Day surprise, I'm excited about a layout featuring photos of my two sweeties and Bo Bunny's Love Bandit Collection, one of the sweetest Valentine collections out there!

So if you're a scrapbooker or papercrafter, or if you know someone who is one, please sign up to follow my blog or subscribe to my feed to get my latest posts in your inbox!  I'm on a quest to get to 200 followers, and I'd appreciate any help you can give me!

In a trend I've seen on tons of other scrapbooking blogs, I've chosen 2 words to be my Theme for 2010.  I'll share them with you in my next post!  But part of choosing these 2 specific words, is that I have to put myself out there and ask for what I want.  One of my goals for 2010 is to become part of a design team and another is to find scrapbook related sponsors for my blog!  If you have any ideas to help me reach my goals, please leave me a comment!  And thanks for helping me attain my goals in 2010!

Card Supplies

Patterned Papers - 3 Bugs in a Rug, Smitten Collection

Cardstock - World Win, Bazzill

Sticker - 3 Bugs in a Rug, Smitten Collection

Cardstock Strip - Bazzill, Just the Edge

PS-If you're looking for a fun party tonight where you can hang out in your pj's & meet some other fun bloggers, join me at my friend Ann's Virtual Girls Night Out!  Ann is certainly the Hostess with the Mostest...and she needs a little company while she's home tending to a sick little one tonight!  As usual, she's sharing a yummy drink, some party music and a little game...just for fun and perfect for the chilly middle of our Oregon winters.

My Mighty 3

3 places I'd rather be right now:

1-Mexico....can't wait, I'm lucky enough to be spending a few days down there with some friends celebrating our 40 birthdays!!!!!! YEAH!  More on this later!

2-Sunriver, Oregon....the thought of a little snow and a toasty drink in the lodge...ahhhhhhh

3-Kauai....the Grand Hyatt, a lounge chair & the red dirt margarita, I'm drooling!

3 things I'll never drink again:

1-Boones Farm Wine....freshman year in college, YIKES!

2-Cream Soda

3-OK, this isn't a drink exactly, but never and I mean NEVER EVER consider trying a Cuban cigar when you've had too much rum or any other liquor for that matter...worst Jamaican memory!

3 people I'd like to have dinner with, not necessarily all at once:

1-Patrick Dempsey...you know why...

2-George Clooney...duh!

3-Rachel Ray...she'd be fun at a party and she could cook for me!

(I wasn't sure if the people had to be living or not, if they don't have to be, I'd put my Grandma Muriel at the top of the list.  I'd love to get a chance to ask her all about her life and being a mom!)

OK, now head on over to Ann's, join the party and let me know your Mighty 3!

Layout of the Week - Christmas Folding Mini Album

I've been busy this last week working on tons of different things for the store and trying to sneak in a few holiday projects. In between working on the email newsletter and trying to get the Pazzles cutter working, I created this cool little folding mini album. I'm teaching a workshop on this format on December 5th from 10am to 1pm, in case you're in the Portland area and want to learn to create these fun albums. The scrapbook store where I work is Whimzee's Scrapbook Studio, check out the blog I write for them, if you're looking for more scrapbook inspiration. I do occasionally post some of the same projects on both blogs, but I have created some step by step classes over there, so click on Classes in the list of labels.

OK, back to this project! Using 6 12 x 12 cardstock pieces, up to 14 different coordinating patterned papers (I used doubled sided sheets), a yard of ribbon and lot's of adhesive, these little albums go together quickly. I used a grassy green Bazzill cardstock and the Season's Greetings patterned papers from 3 Bugs in a Rug in my project. This album is a great way to finally use that little black blade that came with your Fiskars cutter! (That's a scoring blade!) Or you can use one of those cool new scoring boards. I saw one at the EK Success workshop last week, putting it on my Christmas list!

I used the Cricut at the store and the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge to create the little die cut holly for the album cover.

I plan to create a couple more of these albums to display during the workshop. These would be great to make to commemorate a special vacation or birthday!