design each moment

A "Monumental" Experience by Shannon Johnson

Recently my family took a trip to Washington D.C.  I became very interested in taking pictures of the beauty and amazing architecture that engulfs the city.  I used a full uncut sheet of Mosaic Moments RTC 4x4 Grid Paper. I used one picture for each 3 x 3 square space.  I like the space between each picture. It makes it feel like it is framed.  It was a fun way to scrap the whole experience and what that city represents without adding a lot of journaling.

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I wanted to keep the mosaic simple as not to take away from the beauty in the pictures.  For the middle space I stamped a "DC" and then put in vellum over the top the "Washington" affixed with brads. I added a few "punched" stars and used this stamp from the clearly travel set to finish it off. 

Splish Splash by Nicole Pasquini

My second page is done.  We made a trip to a new section of a theme park near us and it didn't disappoint!  When I started snapping pictures there I knew these would be photos I'd want to use in a mosaic.  And I learned a few new things:

1.  Use the Mosaic Moments Quick Glance Cutting Guide.  It's especially helpful when using pics with people in them.  I rarely take pictures of scenery, so I'm not sure how I'd be able to format without it.

2.  Print doubles.  I ran into a few kinks this time, one of which is very obvious, and a duplicate photo would have saved me. 

I used 7 photos for this page.  I thought this layout was great because of the flexibility.  I could have used more pictures on the right and left, but chose to stick with two.  In the top right and top left a portion of each picture is left whole and a portion is tiled.  That took a little more calculating because I wanted the images to line up, especially since it involved body parts.  But again, comprehending "squares and gaps" keeps it far from rocket science!

Can't wait to go back and splash!

Page Pattern: see Designing Photo Mosaics and more page 48.
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A little Book of Sunshine

When my best friend, Jaime, became a grandmother I think she was the happiest woman in the world. Little Adelyn is Jaime's pride and joy.

A couple of weeks ago I called Jaime to see what she was up. I found out she had a terrible accident and had just arrived home from the hospital. Her pinky finger was pinched off in a door!

Thanks to modern surgery, the finger was reattached and seems to be doing well so far; however, she has lost the ability to do many things until her finger heals.

Sadly she won't be able to scrapbook for awhile. So, I decided to make a little something for her.  A little Grandmas brag book seemed like just the right thing.

I used my Mosaic Moments 4x6 RTC grid paper for the inside pages and Basic Grey patterned paper (Urban Prarie collection) for the cover and inside embellishments.

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I added a "LOVE" CornerStone to the above page.

and a 2008 CornerStone to this page.

The only thing left to do is add a little Journaling and send it in the mail.

I hope she will like it.

Here are patterns for creating your own book:

1. Score  2. Cut   3. Fold

Janine gives more detailed directions for creating this booklet on her valentine post.

Share your Smile!

Can you believe it is June already? My mother always told me time flies by the older you get. Now, I see what she means. Time sure has flown by as I look at the photos I've used for this months project. The photos are of Brandon when he was younger and to look at him now, I can't believe how fast he has grown up.  My baby is now a teenager.

I created the mini book using one sheet of the 4x4 RTC Mosaic Grid Paper. I gathered left over photos that had not been used in layouts. This is a great way to use photos that otherwise would be forgotten about. I'm going to give this mini album to Hal for Father's Day. 

You need (2) 4x4 RTC Grid Paper. You will get (4) 4x8 pages out of one sheet and one 4x4 square for the cover. Cut one 4x4 square from another RTC 4x4 for the back cover. 

Fold the 4x8 page in half, embellish your pages with photos, Paper Tiles, Clear stamps and patterned paper. 

Cut (2) 4x4 squares from patterned paper of your choice and adhere to back of single 4x4 squares. One for the front cover and one for the back cover.

Bind with your choice of binding. This mini album could have more or less pages depending on how may photos you have. What a great summer project for the kids while school is out. 

Supplies used:

• Mosaic Moments RTC 4x4 Grid Paper
• 1" Punch  
• Clear Stamps: I wish for you, Create a Cupcake, TypeStacks- Family, Juicy Words, All Season, Vacation 
• Basic Grey-Mellow collection 
• Binding system by Carla Craft  

Have fun with this project and be sure to leave me a link to your blog showing how you used this idea. I love to see what other are doing with the Mosaic Moments products.

Have a great summer!

Janine 

 

... it's not always black and white.

All solutions are not black and white, but with a little black, white, and gray great solutions are a snap and a crop away!

Last year we introduced Granite to our line of Mosaic Moments Grid Papers and I have to admit, I have been loving it. Granite is a great neutral that is very friendly to my outdoor photos. Sometimes black is just too dark and white just isn't speaking to me. It is wonderful to have a shade that falls between our two most popular "neutrals."

Put your stamp on it...

Many scrapbookers shy away from stamps because they think the process is too complicated. However, if you look at the corners of the above page, you will notice that I used a little flourish stamp (by Technique Tuesday) to add a decorative accent to my Mosaic Moments Granite Grid Paper. I am no Tim Holtz. I don't own all the fancy stamping products; However, I love using clear stamps with a basic "ink it and press it" technique.

My designing focus is always on my photos, so when I add any kind of embellishment I want it to work with my page. So many embellishments are only available in one color. The best thing about clear stamps is the flexibility. I get to choose the color that will work best.

With TypeStacks clear stamps (shown above) not only can I choose the color, I also get to choose the words or phrases, and in what order I will stack them.

Stamps, like this "Clearly Fun" set, can be stamped in layers to get multiple colors. On the above page I stamped on a PaperTile. Step one - the navy rectangles, step two - the red "now playing."

When you are stamping on PaperTiles don't be afraid to go off the edge. With a few dabs and a little pressure, you can create your own custom patterns.

There are tons of stamp designs available. My designs can be found at snapncrop.com.

Thanks for reading,

Tami