Tag Archives: tags

Nov 26

Us 3.

I had a dream, the other night, after looking at Studio Calico‘s newest kit…The vision of Ormolu‘s number tags was in my head, and in my dreams, I saw a vision of the number 2 tag with spray mist in white on it. The minute I woke up, I tore into my Ormolu drawer, and found the tags I had…which did not have the number two. I think I used it. But, I found the number 3, and while the dream was still fresh in my mind (am I that crazy?), I got out my Mr. Huey’s white mist, and went to work.

2" circle punched from scrap kraft paper

I wanted to use the open ’3′ on the tag as a template, so I punched a piece of scrap kraft paper to a similar size, which is 2″.

Putting them together,

I would normally have used repositionable tape to hole the pieces together while I sprayed.  I didn’t, but I would highly recommend it.

I like the look of the spray with the spottiness, but if you don’t , I would paint the tags with an acrylic paint and brush for a different, less mottled look. This is okay for me.

I then gave myself a personal challenge: find 3 unused papers, and 3 embellishments to match, and make a layout with these products. I wanted to use some of Amy Tangerine‘s papers, and more Ormolu embellishments in similar colors. Uncanny, how they matched so well.

This is what I came up with, with the idea of 3 in my mind.

Thanks go to Ormolu and Amy Tangerine for the inspiration! See you soon with the December Daily posts!

I am so very thankful.

 

 

Nov 12

A new trend: white on kraft

I am loving a look I came up with while creating Christmas cards and tags: white ink (with snowflakes or stars) on kraft paper. I stamp images onto a kraft tag or card and emboss with Stampendous detail white embossing powder. The look, to me, is very Nordic, simple, earthy, and classic. I can’t get enough of it right now. I am hoping you like it as well, too, because I have some items for sale on Etsy that are created with this beautiful style in mind.

White Noel Christmas cards

Snowflake stickers

small white star tags

medium snowflake tags

scrap paper chain

There’s no end to what you can do with these items. I will be starting my December Daily in a couple of weeks, and I intend to use these tags and stickers to embellish my album; the cards I’ve made (not showing are the red star and green tree cards) are meant to be simple in order to let your words and sentiments shine. Let your Christmas be merry and bright with white-on-kraft by Retrospect!

Nov 6

One Little Word, November

I can’t believe it’s already November! Whoa! So, a new month means a new assignment for my One Little Word class. My word, imagine is a great word, in my humble opinion. I’ve enjoyed using my word, and I think that’s because I’m good at imagining things…..which may or may not be a good thing when stated that in that way…

Anyhoo, here is this month’s assignment:

Nothing fabulous, nothing special. I kept it simple; simple is my mood for today. You’ll notice I used one of my Christmas tags with the star sewn in a different direction. I promised I would use it in a project to illustrate one of its many uses, and here ya go. These tags can be used as ornaments on a little Christmas tree, tied to gifts, added to a card, or put into a December Daily book. Add things to it (A name, a gem, a decorative brad, etc.) to make a unique creation. They’re for sale in my shop should you be needing any odds or ends for the Christmas season.

I’m hoping this One Little Word class will restart again in January so I can choose another word and continue with this next year. It’s been a great class; each prompt has been easy to follow, it’s been fun and enlightening, and it doesn’t take tons of time out of a busy schedule in order to complete each assignment. I hope to see you there next year, if that’s a possibility! Thanks for stopping by!

Nov 5

Seeing stars.

I love stars. I always have; looking at the stars in the sky as a child, and seeing anything shaped like a star now, catches my eye. I made some new tags for Christmas with stars, and more in a bigger size, with snowflakes (almost like a star, right?).

My goal tomorrow is to use my tags in some projects. See you tomorrow! Happy Holidays!

Oct 23

The holiday seasons are coming!

I am super excited to introduce some new items to the Retrospect shop! My mom visited me yesterday, and while talking about Christmas and scrapbooking, some ideas came to me that I had to make for my Etsy shop! I know that I want to do a ‘December Daily’ album this year, and looking around I came up with some things I know I would like to have available to me, and I thought perhaps, some of you would, too.

Advent calendar tags

to-from tags

small fabric star tags

All my tags are hand made and come with baker’s twine to make your gift or project unique and special! If you’re looking for some help with making your holiday festivities look their best, come see me! Next up, I’ll be making Christmas card packs. See you tomorrow!

Jun 19

Bookmaking and scraplifting: guilty as charged.

I completed four more books yesterday, and I feel so good about it. Just a few more to go, and we have accomplished our goal. My husband’s printer went on the fritz, so I could have made more, but we don’t have enough photos right now. That gave me a little extra time yesterday to do a layout I’ve been dying to do. I saw an Ali Edwards layout on the 10th showing off her latest stamp set, and I thought it to be the perfect way to do a layout of our bookmaking adventures. I loved the unique way she used space on the cardstock to journal and tell the story, while also having enough room for the photos, so I scraplifted it.

you can pull the page protector with tags to see the journaling and the back of the tags.

The main journaling under the tags says:

“Micha has been working on these pinhole camera photos, plus many more from Lost Lake, for several years. This has been his love, his passion, his hobby, and now a dream for him. I was with him for many of his photoshoots…an adventure I’m so happy I was able to be a part of. Fast forward to recent history, and I purchased a kit from Erin Zamrzla on Etsy to learn book-binding techniques. I really enjoyed being able to do that, and when Micha saw what I could do, he saw an opportunity for us to collaborate in making a book of his photos. I liked the idea, and agreed right away. We both had a vision of a fabric-covered book with Japanese binding. I began researching techniques and styles of bookbinding on the internet and in books, and found what I wanted to do. The next step was to plan the design of the book, order the necessary supplies, learn the techniques first hand, and jump right in. We came up with the title, “Lost Lake, Impressions in black and white”; the size (11×8.5”), and the number of copies (12), and the colors. We discovered Bookmakers, Inc. on the web, and instantly fell for the warmth and friendliness of Jim there. It was not easy at first; we made many, many mistakes in the beginning, after declaring to ourselves that we could not afford to. I think it is unavoidable when you are doing something new for the first time. I was able to practice my stitching on my own scrapbook, and we spent countless hours putting energy into covers and pages that ended up being too flawed to be counted. I think it took that time and those mistakes for us to finally get into a comfortable groove with what works, and how to do things in order to come up with a routine that made the process so much easier. Making each book was still not easy, don’t get me wrong; it is still a painstaking process to cut and punch and measure and stitch just right to make the finished book look just right. Of the 12 books we decided to make, 11 were sold very quickly, even before they were made, and each one was not inexpensive. Besides, these books are a work of art to us, and certainly a labor of love. This is a legacy for us; a statement of our love for art and each other.”

I cut the tips of the tags off since they served no purpose and obstructed more view than necessary. Ali hand-stamped the title and hand-wrote her journaling, but I found it easier and quicker (lazy me) to do it all on Photoshop and print it out. The measuring tape border is from Tim Holtz; patterned paper is Scenic Route (cream grid background), and Basic Grey (Cabriole, from the Curio line); the stamps are from Ali Edwards (Technique Tuesday-The Observant traveler) and Stampin’ Up (small red letters). I cut a third of a 9-pocket 8.5×11″ page protector for the tags, and I used Bazzill Basics cream cardstock and a Sizzix tag die.

And something also occurred to me after my last post: I have not shown any of the inside pages of our book! While I cannot show all of the photos, here is an example of one of the pages (my favorite; all of the pages have a 6×4 black and white photo which Micha took).

one of 27 photo pages

Thanks for letting me share, and to all the fathers of the world: Have a wonderful and happy day!!

May 15

Gypsy for a day!

Yesterday, I had the awesome privilege to attend a 7 Gypsies class at my local scrapbook store, Pocketful of Treasures. What a great day it was, creating wonderful keepsakes with Paula and Debbie, of the 7 Gypsies team. We made portfolios, and tags for their new, small library drawer. Although we spent 3.5-4 hours on each project, the time flew for me, and it felt like we only spent 1 hour on each! I will do classes with 7 Gypsies again, any day!

library drawer

portfolio

I can’t wait to add my own journaling and photos to both of these; I know these will be treasured keepsakes I will enjoy for a long time. Who knows, perhaps I can make these for you, too.

Friday night we met Paula and Debbie at the store, and had a make-n-take…I cheekily call this the “hors d’oeuvre” before the good stuff! This what we made (for free!)

mini journal

Check out the 7 Gypsies site for more ideas and great products! Please let me know if you have any questions or ideas, and have a scrappin’ good day!

May 10

Let the bookmaking begin!

thank you, Mr. UPS man!

Yesterday I found presents on our porch from the friendly UPS man (nice guy; he knows us pretty well by now…): big stuff that took two trips to get inside the house! My kind of presents!! We received our first shipment from Bookmaker’s Inc.; an awl, waxed Irish linen thread, PVA glue, book cloth, and davey board (book board). The needles and photo tissue will hopefully be coming today or tomorrow (fingers crossed), but I don’t see why I can’t go ahead and start cutting the fabric and starting the planning since Hubby has already taken the board to a framing place to get it cut to size. Boy, are those boards thick and sturdy! I know what kind of stab binding I want to use, I just need to get some more directions on how to

make the extra stitches. I am SO nervous! I have never done this before, and I am so afraid to make a mistake! I suppose the only way to get over that is to roll up my sleeves and just get on with it! So today, after this post is finished, I will. I’m having fun

The hubby and I liked this color fabric best.

documenting the process just for my own sense of posterity, so I will more than likely have more photos and progress notes here tomorrow. Please: if there is anyone out there reading this that has any advice or thoughts to send my way, by all means, DO! I can use all the encouragement/help/advice/ideas/warnings etc. that I can get!

I also did manage to get one more layout completed before I get too involved in book binding. We had gone to dinner at a friend’s house last Saturday evening, which was our first time there, and we had a really great time. Of course, being myself, I had to take some photos. There were just too many things I wanted to capture and document! I forbade myself from bringing the camera since I know it always irritates my family when I become “mammarazzi”, but I just couldn’t help myself, and used my iPhone, instead. Ha! The pics I got are not the best, primarily because I was trying to photograph quickly and covertly. At least I have a sense of the evening and the good time that we had. I first put the photos into a template, then I made another hybrid version for my scrapbook. Just for fun, here are both versions:

digital version

hybrid version, and yes, I did change the 8!

In both, I used Ormolu tags–she now has digital ones available on her web site, which is so awesome, I think. For the title on my non-digital version, I used a white Sharpie poster paint pen and a stencil right on top of the photo. So Ali Edwards! Not much else used, except kraft cardstock; I just wanted the layouts to be about the photos. I am hoping to sneak in some time to do a Mother’s Day layout at some point, I know Hubby is going to be cracking the whip here, about this book we’re doing! Anyway, thanks for dropping by, and happy crafting!

Apr 21

Hello, my name is Avoidance.

paper love!

I am a huge fan of Ormolu products. I have so many that I have a dedicated drawer labeled, “Ormolu”. I use her tags and paper embellishments often, I follow her blog, and she’s a favorite of mine on Etsy. So recently, Kaitlin, the owner, put out a call for design team members. How exciting! Anyone may apply, and must simply send in a little bit about yourself and three items with Ormolu products featured on them. I have many, but are they good enough? Of course not. I want to submit something absolutely fabulous and mondo beyondo perfect. Can I do it? I’m nervous. I’m anxious. I’m….stumped. Where do I begin, and what do I do? Ormolu does not just make products for scrapbooking; she also caters to those who love stationary, cards, and more. More? Well, I’ll try…but I’m apprehensive, and thus I have done literally nothing. My deadline is May 14, and I can come up with no ideas. Zip, zero, zilch. I tell myself each and every evening that I am going to do research and planning to get concrete ideas together, and then actually begin to make something the next day I am off. But I haven’t. I think my nervousness has become a mental block preventing me from doing anything. I am rather good at avoidance, as I am proving to myself right now. So, I have taken all these supplies I photographed above, and poured them onto my bed so I will have to do something with them, hopefully soon. The tags, paper chains and flappers are so pretty and unique, there’s no way I can let this opportunity pass me by; anyone chosen to be on the design team will get freebies bi-monthly, and more chances to get our creative endeavors published. Quite an honor! I just have to do it. I have to find the faith in myself, and, like Nike, just do it. Sigh…I’m taking a deep breath, and I will be back again with an update. Wish me luck, and if anyone has any ideas at all, I am open for suggestions….and feedback, as well!

Apr 16

Today has been a very busy day. Completed an order of 60 tags for a wedding, and started a class by Mary Ann Moss: Remains of the Day. I took some photos of my progress so far, but I don’t have time to post them tonight because I have decided that I’m taking the night off to spend some time with hubby watching my favorite thing: British comedies on PBS. Yes, I’m gonna kick back, relax, and laugh to my heart’s content this evening. Have a good weekend, all!