Posts from — November 2009

Introducing our new range – Flutterby!

Bright, cheerful and full of girlie butterfly images and brushes, Flutterby is just as enjoyable as a facial before a big night…only a lot easier on the bank balance!

Gorgeous birds, swirls and a very summery mixture of pinks and orange give this collection a bubbly, lively feel – and we’re certainly not complaining about the adorable FREE quick page we’re giving away with every mega kit purchase either!

Flutterby is now selling for just $9.99, so head over to the digital page, place your order and get scrapping! Whether you’re looking for the perfect complement for baby pics, little girls or happy moments with close friends, Flutterby has everything you need to preserve that special moment.

We’ve been hanging out to share our digital creative team’s brand new Flutterby layouts with you all, so here we go…Brittney’s kicking us off today with a cute layout featuring her daughter Alicia’s cheeky little smile, called “In My Daughter’s Eyes”.

She said the name was inspired by a song by country singer Martina McBride to bring focus to Alicia’s beautiful eyes.

“Flutterby was a very girly and frilly kit, perfect for my daughter,” Brittney said. 

“I used an action to give it the burnt edges on the papers.  I also clipped some pattern paper to a shape to create a scallop trim. I went in and warped each butterflies shadow separately to give them more depth.  I added photo effects to all the photos to make them stand out more.

“And - my favorite - I added stitching in several places to anchor down my papers and pictures.”

We’re in awe of those amazing tattered edges and light flourishes down the bottom and side of the photo – love it!

Chrissy has also offered up a little girl layout, “Garden Play”, that melted our hearts straightaway – she said her love of butterflies meant Flutterby was her new favourite collection.

“I created the title using two different fonts, an ornate one and a chunky one for contrast,’ Chrissy said.

“I then erased a small amount of the corner of the ‘Y’, and added the white butterflies using one of the brushes.”

We think Amy is the sweetest little creature and we’re intrigued by the butterlies seemingly flying out of the “Y” in “play” – Chrissy, nice job!

And last (but certainly not least) we’d like to show you something of Katharyn’s that will resonate with anyone who shares a special bond with their grandfather.

“My Grandad Loves Me” used photos Katharyn took on Sunday and fixed up to remove rupples, shadows and discoloration.

“I also changed the background colour of some of the photographs by using the “magnetic lassoo” tool. Fiddly, but worth it! You need to zoom right in on your photo and apply the lassoo with a very steady hand,” she said.

“Then, when you’ve carefully made the selection around the person’s head, Select > Inverse to highlight the rest of the photo, and then Enhance >  Change to black and white.”

Katharyn also enlarged a journalling spot and reduced its opacity to softe the color for the background paper, then cut up part of the overlay and “clipped” her patterned paper to it, creating a warped shadow.

“I wanted to create the impression of “tucking” the storyboard of photos into the page’s pattern. I added a few more pieces of torn and stitched patterned paper, and inked around the outside of the layout.

“I added some random thoughts with a few text boxes along the shape of the journal spot.”

Thanks to all our girls for their enchanting family pics and layouts…if you’re not loving Flutterby yet, you must be harbouring a heart of stone!

Been on a holiday or got one planned this holiday season?

Make sure you’re prepared – scrap-wise that is!!

Our Design Team show you their travel layouts, and share with you some tips on how to get the most out of your holiday photos!

We love Nancy’s layout, here’s what she had to say about it,

“For this page about our recent trip to Yellowstone National Park, I wanted to convey the ruggedness of the mountains in the park as well as the beauty, so I distressed and inked the edges of the cut-out road sign patterned paper and added layers of flowers. This really created the balance I was looking for.”

Yellowstone layout by Nancy Burke: Pack Your Bags Collection- patterned paper, stamp, tickets, rubons, brads, clear embellishments. Other: Sage green cardstock, brown ink for distressing, sewing machine, thread, white string, ribbon, adhesive, brown pen for journaling, buttons.

Next up we have a super cute layout from Fran:

Here’s an excellent travel tip (scrapbooking related) from Fran,

*Take a photo of the ‘title of your scrapbooking layout (to-be)*

“While travelling, have a look around and see if there is a photo opportunity to use as a “title” photo – something with the name of the place on it so that you can use this on your page instead of actually adding a title. Either a road sign or even you writing something in the sand makes a great pic and serves a purpose too!”

Next up is Alicia’s cute layout:

“Brooklyn Bridge” layout by Alicia Barry: Pack your bags paper, brads, embellishment pack (tickets and sheers).

And Tanya created a stunning layout of her trip to Amsterdam:

“Memories of Amsterdam” layout by Tanya Tahir: Pack Your Bags Collection, die cut elements, embroidered badge, letter stickers.

Tanya’s travel tip – “Keep a Journal”

“While travelling on my round world trip last year, I kept a journal and recorded all the places we visited at each destination.  This journal has come in handy for me to look back on and include what we saw in my scrapped layouts.  Without this journal, I am sure I would have forgotten what half the places were called so my one travel tip would be to keep a journal to record all the things you see and do so that when it comes time to scrap your photos (and if you’re anything like me almost a year later) you have a handy reference guide”.

And last, but certainly not least, a layout from Pamm we love her ‘snow capped’ title!

“It’s all about the view” layout by Pam Thorburn: Pack your bags paper, brads, embellishment pack, alpha stickers. Other: labeller, ink, white pen.

So we have the ‘scrapping your travel photos’ sorted but what about the actual travelling part?

Nancy shared some of her ‘family holiday tips’:

*General tips*

We have traveled all over the United States, most often by car, and one of the things we never leave home without is the kid’s favorite games and snacks and a comfortable pair of shoes. Before our travel date, we take the kids with us to pick out the snacks for the trip and chose treats that they normally never get to have on a day to day basis. This makes the journey a little more special, but don’t forget to take along bottled water and fresh fruit, especially when riding in a car for several hours. Nothing can put a damper on a vacation like an upset tummy!

*Games*

Having traveled to most of the major National Parks in the United States, we have found a fun game that we like to call “the license plate game”. This is a fun game for all ages. The national parks typically have travelers from all over the country, so there are always cars with license plates from the various states they have traveled from. Our family tries to see how many different states’ plates we can find. On a recent trip to Yellowstone National Park, we found 48 of the 50 states!

*Teach your kids about the places they’re visiting*

As our kids have gotten older, they have learned to read maps and enjoy helping with navigation. You can look online and find visitors information about locations before you visit them and request information brochures that include detailed maps. Our kids really enjoy looking at the maps and reading this material along the way to learn about the places we are driving to. This helps them look forward to the destination as well as enjoying the journey a bit more.

*Record your families memories*

Our kids also keep travel journals and enjoy writing down the family’s travel experiences in their own words. Each family member will have a different point of view of the events, and will remember things that other people may not, so it is fun to look back and see what each other remembers and wrote down about the trip. Also, small inexpensive or disposable cameras are a great way for older kids to capture images from their own perspectives.

*Remember*

Remember that traveling with your family is about making memories, not just about following an itinerary and getting from point “A” to point “B”. You must be prepared to deal with unexpected events and know that plans can change at a moment’s notice. Being prepared to just “go with the flow” can result in unexpected, yet pleasant experiences that may just make for your best vacation memories ever!

This week we have one sketch and TWO fantastic layouts!

We love both Fran and Elizna’s interpretations of this sketch!

Why don’t you have a go and upload your layout into our NEW December sketch gallery!!

Check out just a few of the amazing layout that have been loaded into our November sketch gallery!

Above layout by Belinda Spencer.

Above layout by Hilde.

Also – you only have three more days to have a go at our monthly be inspired challenge – a $25 Kaisercraft pack is up for grabs (including a Q2 collection of your choice)! Currently there are only four entries! You gotta be in it to win it!!

We always love seeing what YOU create with our goodies!

Almost everday we come across something amazing… so today we’re showing you just a few of the ones we love!!

Feeling a little scrapping your family heritage?

Check out this November’s Swirlydoos kit - “Antique Linen”.

This kit is gorgeous – and while it is sold out! We love how our Duchess patterned papers, alpha stickers and black rubons are paired with gorgeous Prima flowers, May arts lace and 7 Gypsies rubons!

Here’s the kit, and what some scrappers came up with – we coudn’t not share this with you!

Featured Kaisercraft products: Kaisercraft Duchess – heiress, dynasty, regal and royalty, Kaisercraft Alpha Stickers, Kaisercraft Duchess Rubons.

We also found these projects and layouts…

Above: Give it a toss layout by ‘happayscrappay’ (as seen on SIS). (Reminiscing collection)

Above: Christmas Cards by SkyeMJ (on twopeasinabucket) (Dear Santa collection)

Above: Star Wreath by indy500 (on twopeasinabucket). (Star Wreath)

Above:Aubaine layout by Agata Dag’s photostream on Flikr. (K-bots collection)

Circle of Friends (an online kit club) are also featuring the ‘Dear Santa’ collection in their December kit

Featured Kaisercraft products: Dear Santa paper (bicycle, doll house, train set, pony,billy cart), die cut elements, rub-ons, brads and chipboard alphas.

So keep sharing your work, with us, in galleries, email it in, add to our own gallery and we just may feature it here on the Kaisercraft blog!

Hi there!

We know you all love taking photos – after all that’s why we scrapbook!

But how on earth do we fit them all on the one page?

That’s where double page scrapbooking comes in!

Let Christine and Fran show you how!

‘Jokers Tunnel’ layout by Fran Tynan: Pack Your Bags papers (Tickets, Travel Map), embellishment pack, Alpha stickers, Clear stamps, Die-cuts elements

Next up is a gorgeous layout by Christine Rumley, here are a few tips from her how she created the layout:

“I had lots of photos that I wanted to use as well as quite a lot of journaling to tell this story about my husband and his family farm.  I wanted to create a layout that focussed on the photos and the story without looking too busy.  To achieve this I used the reverse sides of most of the papers and I chose one favourite photo to enlarge as a feature and then 7 smaller photos that I aligned in a really simple grid design.  The left and right pages are very different in design, but I have maintained a cohesive look by using the blue paper as a background that forms a border around the entire layout and then the cream grid paper as my main paper on both pages. Simple straight machine stitching was used to further unite both pages and zig-zag stitching was used as a subtle embellishment to help move the viewer’s eye around the page.”

‘The Farm’ layout by Christine Rumley: Pack Your Bags paper collection, die-cut tags, clear shapes, alpha stickers, alpha chipboard; Other: thread, buttons, staples.

‘CandP’ layout by Fran Tynan: Dear Santa “billycart’ paper, die-cut elements, alpha stickers, rubons, Belle alpha stickers.

Next is another layout by Fran, obviously she loves scrapping doubles! Here’s what she had to say,

“I love to scrap double 8.5”x11” LO’s as I often have too many photos for one page but not enough for a double 12”x12” LO. I tend to make one side quite busy with photos and then have the other side quite plain, with either just one focal photo or even just my journaling.  I like the way this looks – as it allows a lot of photos to be shown without having them spread all across 2 pages. Another design I like to use when scrapping doubles, is to have my photos simply running in a row across both pages. In short, I like to display a lot of photos whilst trying not to overwhelm the page so it doesn’t hurt your eyes to look at it!LOL.”

‘First Ride’ layout by Fran Tynan: Rewind paper (Reverse), embroidered badge, alpha stickers, colour rubons, black rubons, brad pack, embellishment pack.

So Fran and Christine have showed you a few 8.5 x 11 inch layouts…. I’ve also created a couple of 12 x 12 inch layouts…

‘Deb Ball’ Layout by Alison Wood: Loire Valley patterned paper. Other: buttons, American Crafts thickers.

‘Sydney’ Layout by Alison Wood: Pack your Bags patterned paper, alpha stickers, die cut elements, embellishment pack.

How do you scrap your hundreds of photos? Do you make double page layouts?