All of Ella's eBooks are fantastic, but I have to say that this one ranks up there in my top three favorites! You don't want to miss this one! I was inspired by Heather's Thank You card on page six. Before I had children, I dabbled in quilting with a sewing machine that my Mother-in-law picked up for me at a thrift store. I no longer have time for quilting, but I do love to sew on paper. When I saw Heather's card with details of sewing throughout, I knew I had to pull out my machine!

Instead of using squares, I turned to my circle punches.

The sizes I used for this card are as follows:

• 3/4"
• 1 1/8"
• 1 1/4"

For this card I mixed several of my favorite patterned papers. Punch your smallest circle first, then your medium and finally your large. Be sure and hold your punch upside down so that you can see what you are doing and get a perfectly thin circle. I used liquid glue to adhere my thin circle.

Next I lightly tacked my 3/4" circles with my mono adhesive. I stitched a straight stitch through all of the circles and then pulled up the sides of the 3/4" circle to add dimension and interest to my card. I added a birthday sentiment and I've got a simple card ready for giving!

Photo coasters are such a fun gift to give to grandparents, teachers or friends! What grandparent wouldn't love pictures of all their grandkids to look at as they are drinking their morning coffee? Or you could make a collage of students for your favorite teacher . . . the end of school is just around the corner! In the past I've made photo coasters with tiles and placed just one picture on each tile. Since I only have three kids, that seemed an odd number of coasters to give as a gift. I decided to try the mosaic look! I found these tiles on clearance at Lowes for just eighteen cents each! The backing is sturdy enough to hold them together and is a neutral enough color that is does not detract from the blue and green tiles.


You'll need very minimal supplies for this project. A foam brush, Mod Podge (I used a Matte Finish, but you could use gloss as well), a square punch or paper trimmer and your photos. I sized my photos so that some of the tile would still show as a border. This also helps to ensure I am able to get a tight, flat seal on the tile. For these particular tiles, I resized my photos in PSE to .75 inches and I just happened to have a punch that size. If you don't have a square punch, just use your photo trimmer.

Next, apply Mod Podge over the entire backside of each photo and adhere.


Once that dries, apply Mod Podge on the front side of each photo making sure that you apply the glue all around the edges to seal them down tight.


For this project, I did not edit my photos beforehand. They are small and I converted them to black and white; you will not notice any imperfections in your photos at this size. Between choosing and editing my photos, and putting the coasters together, this project took me about an hour. Simple. Easy. Done. Now I have a great gift for the grandparents . . . that is, if I decide I want to give these cute coasters away!
 

1. Paper Flowers

I am in love with these paper flowers by Hampton Art—the Ditto line. They come in a variety of bright colors sure to fit your most festive page!

2. Doilies

These doilies by Kaiser Craft would make any girl swoon. They have such a feminine feel to them.

3. Doilies flowers

Need more doilies? Check out these by Petaloo.

4.  Clear Scraps mini albums

Has a mini album been on your mind? Check out these cute options by Clear Scraps. I especially love the little tree and the owl.

Favorite Projects

I have to show this ticket mobile just because. I’m not sure that I need a ticket mobile in my home, but it sure was fun to look at and think about how long it took someone to put this together! These are all fun new embellies from 7 Gypsies!

Canvas Home Basics was a new company to me, though they have been around for a little while I was told. They have some fabulous canvas, tags and décor making supplies. I am currently in the middle of hosting a heritage challenge for 12 weeks at the store I design for, so anything “heritage” jumps out at me. Check out this amazing wreath!

p.s. Check out these cute little elephants that I eye-spied during my CHA travels!

Welcome to the last day of Versatile sketches- pretty amazing how different these layouts turned out.

The sketch we use comes from the latest eBook, Double-page Design.

Have a ton of photos you want to include? Detail shots? Check out how Valerie included extra photos on this layout by including six small detail photos in the place of four photos. If you have a story to tell, don’t let the number of photos that a sketch gives you prohibit you from using more photos! Valerie had a house story to tell and she told it well. I love layouts on kraft cardstock—especially a layout that you really want your photos to shine in and be the dominate focus in your storytelling. Well done Valerie!

Francine stuck pretty closely to the sketch, but used three wallet sized photos in place of the four 3x3 and six wallets in place of the four 3.5x5.5. Since Windows photo wizard prints out nine wallets on a letter or A4 sheet this worked out perfectly. When she does a 2-pager she always keeps it really simple, and uses a neutral cardstock, and just a few embellishments. otherwise she feels to overwhelmed with too many possibilities. It works great!



What are you going to do with all of those scraps from the cute layout you just made? I made a card using the same sketch that I used for my layout. I used the left side of the sketch. Instead of four photos, I used three pieces of patterned paper. Instead of a large photo, I used a large piece of chipboard as the focus of my card. This card came together in a snap and I feel good that I put some of my scraps to good use!

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing the various ways you can use one sketch! One sketch, twelve different looks. The book, Double Page Design, has 16 bonus sketches in it. Think of the possibilities! They are endless! Have fun with them.

Do you want to see how versatile one sketch can be? Join me and my Ella Friends as we show you one sketch with twelve looks over the next week. The sketch we use comes from the latest eBook, Double-page Design.

May has the gift of artistic flare! She knows how to make a layout sparkle! Here is what she had to say about her layout:


“While I rarely use sketches, boy do I love them! I find them to be inspiring – and of course open to interpretation! Since I have been playing a lot with my iPhone (Hipstasmatic application) and taking fun pictures with it instead of dragging my camera everywhere, I have come to add square prints (usually 4x4) to my print orders. This sketch was perfect for those! Never forget that you can easily substitute out more (or less) photos in a sketch so long as you keep the same general size/shape. I had a lot of fun with this cute holiday product and of course some sparkly glitter glue too! This sketch was fast & fun to work with – I had a blast!”

I love the theme of Jennifer’s layout! Doesn’t the ELLAphant just scream fun? Notice how she changed the photos on the right hand side of the page to include one more--she was able to get two vertical pictures included when she did this. Don’t let having the “wrong” orientation deter you from using a sketch that you love. Just improvise and make one horizontal photo into two vertical photos.

Keshet had five great photos to work with here. She filled the remaining four photo places with a BINGO card and made up some placeholders of her own with patterned paper and embellishments. I love the creative brain power here! And check out how she grounded her title—I love it! And I must admit the punch envy was coming on strong when I saw that big scalloped edge—I NEED one of those!

Come back tomorrow to see more versions of this same sketch. Get your fill of sketches check out Double-page Design and Stretch your Sketches.

Do you want to see how versatile one sketch can be? Join me and my Ella Friends as we show you one sketch with twelve looks over the next week. The sketch we use comes from the latest eBook, Double-page Design.

This little girl is too cute for words! I love how Jenni captured a ton of candid, everyday moments of her little girl playing. Notice what Jenni did in place of the 3x3 photos—she added the cutest butterflies complete with bakers twine to chart their path. I could spend forever looking at all the adorable details on this layout. Missing a letter? Never fear, just use the negative space like Jenni did with her “s.” Great look and economical!

Mary Jo shows us how Double Page Design can work for the single page gals out there. Here is what she had to say about her layout: “This is a great template that allows you to incorporate many photos on one layout. I’m intimidated by the double page layout so I chose to scrap (1) 12x12. I simply reduced the size of my photos, trying to maintain the same shape as the sketch, and incorporated them into a single page design.” Check out all the fabulous detail in this digital layout, right down to the lights that sparkle. I think she did a fabulous job!

Do you want to get more photos on your layout? Check out how Diana expertly added more photos to this sketch. Here is what she had to say: “Though I didn't follow the sketch exactly, it was my starting point. The one large photo, perhaps because it was of me, wasn't working for me. Plus I had so many other photos that I wanted to include on my layout to properly tell my story. So I replaced the big 5x7 with four smaller photos sized to fit the space, added another strip of 4 3x3s, and shifted everything around so it was symmetrical. Since I had so many photos I kept the embellishments pretty simple.” I love Diana’s simple layout and I love the large number of photos she was able to include!Come back next week to see more versions of this same sketch. Get your fill of sketches check out Double-page Design and Stretch your Sketches.

When I first started scrapbooking in 1999, I would spend hours on one layout—and if I showed you one of those layouts today, you would laugh and wonder why it took me three hours to mat five photos and throw down some Mrs. Grossman’s stickers haphazardly across the page. Looking back, I know why it took me so long—I didn’t have a starting point, a framework, a plan—what today we refer to as a sketch.

When I started using sketches, I was able to put together a layout in about half the time—something that is very valuable to me with three little ones running around! Sketches provide me with a blueprint so that I can spend more time on the fun stuff—color, embellishments and journaling. Before I even begin, I know that my layout it going to turn out great because I already have a well balanced design.

Do you want to see how versatile one sketch can be? Join me and my Ella Friends as we show you one sketch with twelve looks over the next week. The sketch we use comes from the latest eBook, double-page Design.

Because we homeschool, we have a lot of extra time to play games—this is our “recess” time! I wanted to document what our favorites are at this stage in the girls development. The girls love that did this!

I kept my photos to the size that the sketch suggested. I added a large circle in the background to help ground my photos. This was a very quick layout for me to pull together—I love clean and simple lines! The only thing that was a bit time consuming was stitching the letters—which I was able to do while giving a spelling test. I’m a multi-tasker at heart!

Monika is a self-declared single page gal. Though you would never know it, as she is clearly able to tackle the two-page layout as she did here. Can you transform a 12x12 double page sketch into an 8.5x11 double page sketch? Check out how Monika did just that!


Here is what Monika had to say about her layout: “I used the craft beads I had from art projects with my two girls to spell out Hilton Head. I strung them on some floral wire, but made it appear that I had strung them on The Twinery baker's twine. I made the envelope closures by punching a 3/4" circle and used my Crop-o-Dile to add a brad. I used the baker's twine again to string the shell we had found {in Aruba} so that it would hang from my chipboard frame...it already had a hole in it when we found it!

The title {at} comes from our middle child, Isabella, always saying we were going "at" the beach, not "to" the beach. The arrow is pointing to the word "at" and the } is pointing toward the daughter that coined the phrase. Little things we might forget. And since we generally go on vacation the week of our anniversary, and this layout is going in our "we" album, I added a heart to the collage of photos on the right side of the layout using pop dots for some dimension.

I used the white space at the bottom of our photo to place my title and used an arrow attached to the frame to draw attention into the page. The grid paper might be an unusual choice for a beach layout, but the subtle coloring of the graph lines in the colors sand and sea fit my theme without being too obvious.”



Lee Currie's layout next. This is a totally boy layout! The things that caught my eye immediately . . . the black and white contrast, the brads on the edges of the photo block and the title that is partially in the photo itself. This layout makes me focus directly on the event at hand—and isn’t that what memory keeping is all about? Love it!

Come back tomorrow to see three more versions and to get more sketches check out Double-page Design and Stretch your Sketches.

Day 8

Today Brenda made a photo bracelet using a kit by PhotoJewelrymaking.com. Leave a comment to win a kit for yourself.

(Comments close Monday, December 20 at 9:00 am MST)

Over the past couple of years I have noticed the trend in photo jewelry and have always admired it. I have never taken the time to look into and find something I like. Until now. I was so excited to receive this cute little braclet that I could showcase my three cuties in!

To get your tiny photos: The kit comes with software to help you easily reduce the size of your photos to 13mm square. Because I already have PSE on my computer, I simply typed "13mm x 13mm" in my cropping boxes. I put the images on a 4x6 canvas and printed them. The kit even comes with photo paper.

This took me miutes to put together after I had my photos in hand. You can put a picture on either side of the photo. Simply slide the folded plastic piece out, slide two photos in and slide back into the holder. They stay snugly in place. Attach your photos to the braclet and you have a piece of jewelry that people will ask you about!

Some other photo jewelry kits that caught our eye

Circle glass photo bracelet

Photo Lanyard

Check out their website for kits, jewelry supplies, and more.

Winners from past days

day 1 Crafty P
day 2 jenevang
day 3 scrapyoga
day 4 stinkyduddette
day 5 Casey11th
day 6 brown eyed girl
day 7 SaraLara