Snippets By Mendi

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Create Magazine: Doodlebug Fruit Stand Spring Fairy Layout

Hello there! I'm excited to finally be sharing a couple projects with you which are featured in this month's CREATE magazine. If you haven't heard of this publication before, it is a completely free online magazine brought to you by the team at Scrapbook Generations. :)

This month Doodlebug was the featured manufacturer so they asked us to play along with their darling sketches.

Up first I have a layout using a sketch designed by Debbie Sanders and Doodlebug's happy Fruit Stand collection.

There's a bit of a story on how I selected the collection. I started my creative process with the sketch calling for a single vertical photo which led me to an old favorite photo of my daughter which I never got around to scrapbooking. From there I needed a collection with Doodlebug's lilac color which I didn't realize until now is actually a bit hard to come by. In fact the only one I could find in my stash was the darling Fruit Stand collection, however I decided fruit images didn't really fit for this particular page. In the end I was able to carefully omit the fruit images using the "B" sides of the papers so I could focus on my flower fairy inspired theme and I think it works. ;)

This collection has so many happy colors, but I made the design decision to keep my colors to Doodlebug's Lilac, Bubblegum pink, Bumblebee yellow & Limeade green as a compliment to my photo.

The sketch called for an embellishment of some kind in the top right corner, but after lots of searching I was unable to find just the right winged creature in my sticker collection to fit the space and colors. An old Doodlebug die by Sizzix came to my rescue! I love that with some basic patterned papers in my color palette, I was able to create my own that matched perfectly!

For the bottom corner grouping, I cut one of Lori Whitlock's tag and pocket cutting files on my Silhouette and grouped it with a die-cut title using the Olivier font (love this and best of all it's free). For my flower cluster, I used a combination of flowers which I fussy cut from one of the patterned papers in collection and cutouts from the Hello Sunshine Kraft Kit.

My second project in the magazine is a birthday card using another great sketch by Allison Davis and Doodlebug's Hip Hip Hooray collection. This is really a versatile sketch that I know I will be turning to over and over again--As you will see in the magazine, I love that there are so many different ways to interrupt it!

You can view more of this cool issue filled to the brim with inspiration HERE. Also these fun sketches as well as a couple extras can be downloaded for free HERE.

Supplies Used (available at Simon Says Stamp)

Supplies Used (available at Scrapbook.com)

Monday, March 16, 2015

Pebbles St. Patrick's Day Treats with Gift Tag Pockets

An early Happy St. Patrick's Day to you! How do you celebrate this holiday? Personally we don't usually do much more than try to remember to wear green, but this year I thought it would be fun to tell my family how lucky I am to have them with some special "gold" treats.

To create these fun little treats, I filled up inexpensive clear tubes with Rolos candies (a.k.a. perfectly sized gold nuggets) and decorated them with Pebbles Gold Glitter Pocket Tags from the Home+Made collection.

For this tag I thought it would be fun to cut out a pot from Pebbles gold foiled cardstock and then add some jewels for the gold. I love how it sparkles and ties in with the candies inside. :)

The pocket tags were especially awesome because they allowed me to decorate the outsides with the fun stuff and still leave room to put another tag inside with a message telling my family how fortunate I am to have them. :)

Thanks so much for stopping by and for all the sweet comments left. They always make me so happy! :)

Cutting Files:

Other Supplies (available at Simon Says Stamp)

Other Supplies (available at Scrapbook.com)

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Doodlebug Rainbow Washi Tape Scrapbook Page Background

Today I have a Doodlebug layout to share which puts a spotlight on washi tape! Doodlebug has so many fun patterns and I have been wanting to do something cool with them to make a dent in my stash for a long time. :)

I decided creating a page background would be just the ticket. I cut my page background on my Silhouette using a variety of basic flower shapes arranged on the diagonal. For my title I paired Doodlebug's adorable sugarcoated Shin-dig alphabet stickers with the word "life" which I also cut out on my Silhouette.

I wanted to highlight the transparent properties of the washi tape so I sandwiched my tape strips between two identical sheets of cardstock cutouts and one layer of vellum. I have put together a little photo tutorial sharing how I achieved this fun look.

To start off, you will need to cut (2) 12x12 backgrounds of your choice. For the bottom piece, adhere vellum to the backside and draw horizontal guide lines across to make lining up your washi tape easier. These lines don't have to be a precise distance apart, but I found them so helpful since as I worked I discovered my natural tendency was to make them start to slant one direction or another.

Working from one end, alternate your washi tapes, cutting off or tearing any that may encroach on the nearby flowers of another color.

When you lay the duplicate die-cut background over the top, it gives you a clean-cut flower.

I snapped a picture to share a view of the back of my page when my layout was complete. It's hard to tell, but the vellum has been adhered and pieced together (since I only had 8-1/2 x 11 sheets on hand). I found my two 12x12 backgrounds were difficult to adhere around the delicate edges so I chose to stitch around the perimeter to keep them from pulling up and getting snagged as I worked on embellishing the rest of my page.