It’s always nice to be “green” whenever we can and I think this funky pen holder takes the cake. It is made out of an old phonebook! Isn’t that a wicked idea? I tell ya, some people are so great at thinking out of the box! If you are intrigued and want to make one of your own, head over to Chica and Jo and see the tutorial here.
I know what you’re thinking: “SC Johnson: A Family Company?” . Yup, that’s the one. I stumbled across their site and found this really cool tutorial on how to make a ziploc bag tote.
Isn’t it cute? You could stash cards in their or embellies, anything really. Too sweet!
See it all here.
Written by Mary Chong
http://www.marys-creative-zone.blogspot.com/
When I’m on holiday or just out and about taking photos I often take shots of unlikely things like textures, brickwork, sand, stones etc. These make awesome backgrounds for titles, journaling blocks and mattes or just when you need that “something”.
Simply print out your textural photos and stick alpha stickers or die cuts right over top.
You can also use these photos for when you just want to add some texture : cut your photos into geometric shapes for embellishments. This is an easy way to add extra flavour and interest to your layout.
Another thing you can do is to use your photos in your die cut machine. Cut your title directly out of the photos.
If you are handy with your photo editing software you can type your lettering right over top of your texture and then print it out – fast and easy – and you don’t have to mess around with glue!
Here are some examples:
On a recent trip through the Mediterranean I took photos of marble tile work from the floor of the Pantheon and the stone walkways surrounding the Coliseum in Rome. I manipulated these in Photoshop to create the following title blocks.
Here’s a layout using the photos traditionally. As you can see, I’ve taken photos of the brick walls of the old buildings in the area and used them as a background for my journaling. The added bonus is that the colouring matches perfectly with the rest of the photos and I didn’t have to worry about matching cardstock.
So, the next time you are out and about take some photos of the sand or the boardwalk or the grass and use them in your layouts.
Give it a try – I’d love to see how this technique works for you.
