Paper Piecing Tutorial

Supplies

• Kallioppe (2x2, 2x4 acrylic handles)
• Uptown Girl Wing It™ Kit
• White cardstock
  
• Black ink
  
• Mega rectangle punch (or you can trim pieces to 1-1/8” x 2-1/4”)
• Silver leafing pen
• Silver Stickles
• Black marker
• Gray marker
• Scissors
• Dry adhesive
• Pop dots
• Paper trimmer
• Scratch pad

Instructions

1. Shake the leafing pen well with the cap on. Remove cap, and press the marker tip up and down several times on scratch paper to start the paint flowing.
2. Place a 4” x 5.25” panel from the Uptown Girl paper on the scratchpad. Line up the flat side of the leafing pen with about half the marker tip on the edge of panel and half on the scratch paper. Draw a straight line along the edge of the panel. You should have an even silver border. Pick up the panel and turn it to do the next side, till all four sides are complete. Let dry.
3. Ink the lady holding the purse from the Kallioppe stamp set with black ink and stamp her once on a 2” x 3” white rectangle, and once on the dot/stripe print from Uptown Girl. Let dry.
4. Stamp the shoe greeting on a rectangle punched from Uptown Girl. Let dry.
5. Being careful to cut directly on the black stamped line, cut out just the dress from the dot/stripe stamped image. Don’t worry about the curls on the design. You’ll want just the dress as shown. For best results, turn the paper and keep the scissors straight as you cut.
6. Apply a bit of adhesive to the printed dress and adhere it to the stamped image on the white cardstock. It should line up perfectly. If you have any scissor marks showing, fill them in with black marker.
7. Outline the entire image with the brush side of the gray marker.
8. As in step 2, use the silver leafing pen to outline the white stamped image and the greeting. Let dry.
9. Adhere the 4” x 5.25” to the white card base, leaving an even border around all sides.
10. Adhere the white image to the card as shown.
11. Use pop dots to adhere the greeting as shown.
12. Add silver Stickles glitter glue (up and down motion makes dots, or smear slightly for more coverage) to accent your card. I added glitter to the woman’s flowers, shoes, nails and purse, the letters on the words “shoes” and “skinny,” and finally the horizontal line that goes across the card on the printed panel. Be sure to let the Stickles dry completely.
    

How to deal with your photographs

When you're first getting started, it can be overwhelming to deal with your photographs. Fortunately, many people have gotten into digital photography now--using programs like iPhoto to store, sort and label your photos is a great way to stay organized. You print out just the best shots for your layouts. A word of advice: it's worth the investment to backup your photos regularly. Use a secondary disk drive--even if you just periodically make a copy of all your photos onto a CD--so you have a copy of them in case of a hard drive failure or a fire.
Most of us, though we may be living in a digital age, still have some prints. What do we do with them? If you're like me, I had a huge box (or two) of photos, in something close to chronological order--when the film was developed. It can be a daunting task to go through these prints and figure out what to do with them. Here are some tips:
Make a list of the albums you'd like to make, and make notes as to which photos to include and as to how you'd eventually like the pictures sorted. Here's a sample list:

• Baby David (birth - 2 years, chronological)
• Baby Kate (birth - 2 years, chronological)
• Wedding (professional and friendly photos, plus honeymoon)
• Christmas (by year)
• Personal Growth (high school, college, other artistic education years, chronological)
  
• Book of Us (milestones in our marriage relationship, chronological)
• Best Shots (artistic photos and favorites shots, no order)
  
• Family album (any other photos, chronological)

Start sorting! You'll need some temporary containers for this process. I use a two-step sorting technique:

1. Sort by the general album. Put every picture into an album pile. As you're sorting, it might become clear you need another album, so add another pile. As painful as it is, if you find a shot that is out of focus or blurry, throw it out. If you can't identify who or what it is (and you don't know anyone who can), throw it out. (Make a help-me pile, if you need to.)
2. Sort each album pile by its theme. Sort each album pile into three piles--to be scrapped, to be kept elsewhere, and to be tossed (in case you missed any the first time through). Store the extra photos in a box or an acid free photo album. When determining which photos to scrapbook, start considering the size of your album now--how many photos will easily fit on the page, how many shots of a particular occasion will you need, and which are the best shots to use. Sometimes, a memory can be enhanced when you use multiple shots of a particular event (see my July 2007 page).

If you're anxious to get started, you can go through this process box by box and start scrapping right away. However, you may find more photos of an event you've already scrapbooked in other boxes. If you find more than one, great: add another layout. Most albums will allow you to insert and rearrange pages. But you may just find a single photo. A great shot. Then what? So I recommend you do step one with all your photos, and step two with just your first project. Then start scrapping.
Just a few basics on photos: First, you should store your photos where you live--not too hot or too cold, not too wet or dry. Don't put them in your garage! Second, if it's your only copy, consider cropping carefully. Or, if you aren't the original photographer, do not crop the photograph. In my experience, it can be offensive to people to crop photos. Especially with older photographs, just leave them whole. Third, if it's a Polaroid, make a copy (preferably a digital copy) to use in your scrapbook and never cut the original. Fourth, acid content (and the lack thereof) is very important in scrapbooking. If an item is touching your photo, make sure it is acid-free, or it will fade your photos over time. Finally, if you print your photos, be aware that most printer inks fade faster than photographs do. You can buy printers that archival ink, but it wouldn't hurt to include a CD in the back of your finished scrapbook that includes digital copies of all the prints you used.
Hope this helps you--don't be too overwhelmed. If you hesitate to go through that big box of photos, start small with a theme-specific album that doesn't require that you collect all your photos in advance. Have a good time and make great art!

Shopping list for new scrappers

Are you tempted to get into scrapbooking, but are confused with what supplies you need? Are you on a limited budget or do you have limited storage space to add your supplies to your home? Are you a new scrapbooker who needs down-to-earth advice and a shopping list as to what you really need to start scrapping? This post is for you.
To get started, you will need photos. If you can print them, that's easiest: you can edit and crop them before printing, plus you can resize them to fit your needs. If you already have a box of photos handy, that's great, too. I'll do another entry on the what to do with your photos later.
When you're first starting, I recommend you start buying your supplies slowly. Here are the basics:

• adhesive (acid free, wet or dry--your choice)
• trimmer (or scissors)
• embellishments (acid free of your choice--my current favorites are coordinated paper packs, ribbon, Stickles glitter glue and spiral paper clips)
  
• scrapbook (such as a postbound album, mini album, matchbook kit, or chipboard album)
  

Choose coordinating products for the best results--for beginning and advanced scrappers alike, coordinated products take the guess-work out of matching for you. I also recommend that you buy the colors that you like best, even if you think these won't "match" your photos. You can always print your photos out black and white, and most people find it easiest to work with colors and prints that they like, rather than ones that are currently trendy. Shop for paper by color scheme (or theme, depending on your first project), and try to stay within that theme. Staying within the theme will help your projects flow more smoothly--from page to page.
Once you've been scrapbooking for a while, you'll find your style developing. Then, you can add embellishments and paper to match what you have, and you won't accumulate supplies you don't like and won't use.
You might want your first album to be a smaller size, at least 8x8 or 9x9 or even a smaller gift album. This size is much easier to complete. Many crafters find that completing a smaller project (for example a mini mother's day album, a year-in-review, or a Christmas wish-list album) encourages them to go on and tackle larger or open-ended projects (such as a baby book or wedding album). Keep in mind that you can have more than one project going at once--this will often free your creative space and spirit, so if you get tired of one project, you can work on another.