Invite & Thank You

Jennifer combined papers from the Silver Valley and White Elegance collections to created this formal New Year's Party invite. She also used the Silver Valley collection to create a "Thank You" card.

"The beautiful papers included in the SEI Silver Valley collection are perfect for an elegant invitation to a New Year's Eve party. What better way to catch your guests' attention than with a formal appearance and eye catching embellishments. And the black ribbon reminds me of the tie on a man's tuxedo!"

Happy New Year!

New Year's Invite & Favor Box

What are your New Year's plans? Anyone hosting a New Year's Party? Patricia Kumfer (we're going to start calling her Patty, cause we're tight like that) made a lovely New Year's party invite and favor for her guests.

"This little box I filled with mints and a post it note that has a wish on it for my friend or family member. Instead of thinking of resoulutions I wanted to wish my party guests things like 'Have a great Year'. The invite has '2012' all over it and I stamped snow flakes covered with glitter to add a little touch of sparkle."

Patty's unique-shaped box is adorned with a bow. She made it by cutting and folding Silver Valley paper like ribbon.

Reflect

Pearl definitely has a talent for combining paper collections in creative and beautiful ways. In this layout she used Silver Valley, Holiday Cheer, Homestead, and White Elegance.

"It's hard not to reflect on the year around the holiday time and that's what I did with this layout. To create a frame for the photo strip, I sewed folded white tissue paper streamer to the paper. To create the ornament streamer, I sewed small punched circles and to store all the journaling and 'reflections', I created a pocket and journaling strips."

Snowman

We love to hear the story behind a photo. Isn't that what scrapbooking is all about? Here's Patricia's story. "Last years snowman was made by my son. He wanted no help. I thought it was so cute how he claimed his independence. lol. I wanted this page to be all about him and boy it up a little."

"The Holiday Cheer collection is perfect for those bright cheery pages or a fun grunge look as well. I started with printing out the tile with my printer. I then used a bar-code font and printed it out large enough where I could punch out circles. After putting the layout together my finishing touch was the Holiday Cheer die-cut mittens that I finished with twine."

Isn't it cool how she used the barcode font to make those textured circles? Love it!

Thank You Cards

Jennifer has a great idea! "When I'm busy creating holiday cards, I make sure to make a few thank you cards as I go along. It's a great way to use up scraps and when the time comes, you are ready to send out your thank you cards with no extra effort!"

It may be too late to make your "thank you" cards as you create your holiday cards. However, it's not too late to send them. So, don't forget.

"I love that you can mix and match SEI products to create a winter themed card that doesn't instantly say 'Christmas'. These papers are so versatile!"

Thank you cards don't have to be extravagant. Just use some pretty papers, stamps, punches, ribbon and a few embellishments.

Kim's Holiday Layouts

We hope you had a wonderful day yesterday and Santa brought you something special. Now you have all those photos, are you ready for some scrapbooking ideas? Don't worry Kim is here to give you two!

"This first one is a simple project using the banner shapes that I love to use. It was a combination of all the collections, silver valley, holiday cheer and a few from the homestead collection. I made the little presents from using my square punch and hand cutting the little ribbons."

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"The second is called 'Sprinkles'. I used a photo of my son eating a donut! This layout was made mostly using the holiday cheer collection. I placed all the little die cut accents around the photo. The title was made using the silver valley sticker letters cut out of white card-stock."

Altered Photo Album

Amy used the Holiday Cheer collection to alter a preservation album. This 4 x 6 size is great for holding photos or recipe cards.

"I started with one of the SEI Preservation albums--which are perfect for altering. I covered the outside covers with this beautiful foiled paper and then chose a coordinating paper to cover the insides of my front and back covers. I chose a few diecuts from the Holdiay Cheer Diecut Pack and arranged them on the front cover using foam squares to create a pop-up effect. I accented my diecuts with numbers for this year from the Silver Valley Collection and added the pearl pebbles for a nice finishing touch. And finally I added a hand-drawn loop-da-loop border around the edge of the front cover for a splash of fun!"

Club SEI January 2011 - Let's Doodle 101

Hand written design is very in right now. Or may have never left...who knows these days. The good news is, we are here to help your doodling skills along! Yes, even if you think you're bad at stick figures. Cause guess what?

via roadkillshirts

Now, doodling is featured in our January Club SEI kit in that fab kraft journal-and we want you to doodle! If you are terrified to even start, let's start with some inspiration and tips to get you going.

Typography is a great place to start. Letters, words, fonts, whatever you want to call them. Next time you are writing a note to yourself, draw the letters pretty. Your grocery list? Make it super fancy. And a bonus is you'll be extra excited about buying that toilet paper. Try it. Every individual alphabet letter you write is now an opportunity to experiment.

specials / live love / school / tacos

Chalkboards are a great way to practice-they tend to be forgiving and you can erase. Plus they just look super cool. It keeps you loose as well-dare you to make a perfectly straight line without any ruler help. Can't? Good. You'll just have to let it be curvy and imperfect. Have fun with that mess! Don't wear black and draw on a chalkboard though...thank us later.

sunshine / jolly / balloon / amazing

Elements of what you write can be fun to add into your doodles. The first image has little rain drops coming out of it. Jolly has some holly doodled and that balloon shape really adds to its quote. Or you can make what you're writing the center of attention by surrounding it with pretty little doodles. Notice these all have color? Don't be afraid of that, either! Grab your kids watercolors, colored pencils, highlighters, colored pens, whatever you've got around. Color can be a great way to add emphasis and interest to what you're creating.

recipe / magic / doodles

Cross the line. You heard us-this is one place where it is not only acceptable, but down right encouraged. Two pages! Make it big, bold and totally you.

can toppers

And a last little bit...have fun. Be silly. Don't judge yourself too harsly. It's your journal so create it just how you want it! And if you haven't signed up for your January Club SEI kit and still want to, click that link. We'll make sure it gets to you.

Yummy!

We love the look of craft paper with bright color punches on top. That is exactly what Melissa did with this Holiday Cheer layout.

One of our favorite parts of this layout is the layered section with all of those great borders sewn on.

Melissa explains how she did it, "For this layout, I used a variety of punches to create the layered part on the right side. I placed the photo to the left of all of the punched papers and then stitched down some random rows of paper. My title was placed on the journaling card and then used some dimensional dots to adhere on top of the rows of paper. I tucked a couple of trees up behind the title block and scattered some little embellishments around it."

Snow & Noel Holiday Cards

Today Amy is going to show us how to make unique holiday cards. If you have a lot of extra supplies and don't want all of your cards exactly the same, this is a great idea!

Amy says,"My SNOW card utilizes paper from the Holiday Cheer Collection, leftover alphas from my stash and a few of the tags from the Holiday Cheer tag collection. This card features a bright and cheery color scheme, dimensional color blocks with individual scenes created inside of them and a baker's twine and button wrap to finish things off."

"My NOEL card uses papers and accents from the Silver Valley Collection. The foil paper and the glitter-accented sticker add a beautiful glow to the card that I just love. I used a good mixture of light and dark colors and small and medium prints to create a sense of balance and some contrast. Then I added a length of leftover ribbon--which I v-cut and some stitching for added charm and dimension."

So, there you have it. If you want to make unique cards, use different paper collections. Thanks, Amy.

Merry Card

Only one week until Christmas eve! If you are planning to send out Christmas cards but haven't done it yet, you'd better hurry. Maybe Melissa's Silver Valley card idea is just what you have been waiting for.

This is how she did it, "I punched out a bunch of stars with two different size punches and randomly sprinkled them across my card. I then used my sewing machine to stitch them all down. I placed a sticker in the middle of the card and layered the word "Merry" on top. I used a epoxy on top of my alphabet stickers to give it a glossy look!"

The stitching really makes this card feel made with love, don't you think? We will give you two more card ideas on Monday. If you don't have your cards sent by then you are probably going to be out of luck!

Art Studio Picks: Jessica

I love to look at blogs for inspiration! There are so many creative people out there. I always am finding a new favorite blog. Here a few I visit often (probably too often)

Party Hat / Snowman Box / Green Purse

These are the colors that I am obsessed with this season –rusty orange, rich golden yellow & deep teal blue. I look for these colors in everything apparel, home décor & scrapbooking.

Orange Handbag / Teal Shoes / Yellow Coat

We are finishing our basement this year so my brain is thinking about our family room down there. I am thinking of a sofa covered in soft grey men’s suiting. I have to have zebra print in there somewhere. I trying to talk my husband into a damask wall stencil or wallpaper on one wall. I love the look of these big drum shade lights and lastly I want to add a touch of bling with a chrome coffee table or side table.

Wall Stencil / Zebra / Gray Sofa / Drum Shade Light / Chrome Table

Wrapping Ideas from Club SEI

Do you enjoy wrapping gifts? What is your favorite way to wrap a holiday gift? We love craft paper. All of these gift ideas from Club SEI use craft paper and a little white sparkle. The contrast is beautiful and unexpected.

The supplies came from the Club SEI December scrapbooking kit. Isn't it awesome that club provides alternate projects? This idea would work great for someone too busy wrapping gifts and celebrating to scrapbook this month.

Layer a thick ribbon or paper cut into a strip with something unexpected like a sparkly chipboard key.

Cut fun shapes out using a paper punch and sew them together. Wrap the thread around the gift.

Spice up a plain tag with a word cut from a cutting machine and randomly grouped embellishments.

Layering is key! Use tags, tickets, torn paper, ribbons, sparkly chipboard... The embellishments from the December Club SEI kit were specially selected to layer perfectly together to create beautiful layouts or packages.