Tag Archives: scrapbook supplies

Introducing October’s Scrapbook Kit: Just for Today

Guest Post from Valerie O’Neall – Little Black Dress Kit Club Designer:

Not that I don’t always love the colors in the scrapbook kit each month, but this month I LOVE LOVE the colors in this kit. It might have to do with the simple fact that I have a son, a son whose birthday we got to celebrate a couple weeks ago. I used this month’s kit to make some birthday party decorations. A travel theme was chosen due to the contents of the kit (June 2012 Less Work More Play), and I also threw in some bright randomness and confetti just for fun. I used almost the entire package of Glitz Happy Travels Whatnots to decorate the table with, and honestly I didn’t know what else to do with them since I’ve never been to any of the locations featured (except for Washington D.C. back in eighth grade). But they are absolutely perfect for a travel themed party!

I used Silhouette Studio and my Silhouette to create a banner and some garland for the wall. The “Happy Birthday” banner is available for you to download (birthdaybanner.studio)**. The banner is only available in Silhouette Studio format right now. I used a Silhouette shape for the garland, but it is really simply just 1 1/4” circles folded in half and glued together. You don’t need a die-cutting machine for the garland—any circle punch will work. The twine was placed through the middle before the last circle was added.

The cupcakes were decorated with the pins in the My Mind’s Eye Miss Caroline pins & buttons package, as well as an airplane and clouds cut with a Silhouette. Information on the airplane shape can be found below in the supply list. The clouds I drew myself in Silhouette Studio. If you’re serving the cupcakes to young children, please make sure you remove the pins for them!!! I wouldn’t normally put pins in cupcakes, but I think they’re cute and they kind of look like little raindrops.

A confetti effect was created with the Glitz Designs Whatnots, as well as random shapes cut with the Silhouette.

**The studio file needs a download link. Only people with Silhouette Studio (people with a SilhouetteSD or Cameo) will be able to use it. Here’s a download link for the file: http://www.voneall.com/LBD/birthdaybanner_voneall.studio Compliment of Valerie. THIS FILE IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. Thanks!

Supplies —Little Black Dress June Kit—patterned paper: October Afternoon, Bazzill Basics, Crate Paper, Basic Grey, Pink Paislee | Glitz Whatnots: Happy Travels | straight pins (in cupcakes): My Mind’s Eye [non kit items: baker’s twine: Martha Stewart | font (for banner): Blackout | toothpicks & wood skewer | Silhouette SD | Silhouette Shapes: 9_starburst_seal_set_C01751_20509, circles_1580, 3d_airplane_C03108_1, scalloped_globe_garland_C03098_1]

It’s a birthday extravaganza! That’s right…we here at Little Black Dress Kit Club are all OVER celebrating our 1 year anniversary or “birthday” as we like to call it. (It could be that it’s more fun to celebrate the 1 year anniversary than it is to celebrate our ACTUAL ages…but there’s no need to talk about that). Besides my daughter assures me I could still pull off 18 and I can’t imagine her being biased AT ALL!

On that note…we’re celebratig this happy occassion by collecting several awesome prizes that we hope one of our lovely members wins. Tina already won the grogeous Betsey Johnson bracelet by posting a pic of one of her most recent LBD inspired (and based) 12×12 layouts on the LBD facebook wall. And I have to say…loved seeing the projects that were posted to Facebook and emailed in for us to check out. You ladies have some SERIOUS creativity going on!

So keep posting them to Facebook and emailing in for us to check out! It’s always fun to see what others come up with. Especially Little Black Dress Kit Club members…ya’ll are some of our FAVORITE people, you know!

So stay tuned and keep in touch. We’ve got fun prizes and giveaways coming up…to be announced on the LBD Facebook page, by LBD e-newsletter, to be announced by Heidi Swapp and more to be announced here on the LBD Blog. You see…we have a lot of favorite people and we didn’t want to leave any one out so we invited EVERYONE to the party. Happy Birthday to Little Black Dress…more prizes to come!

Sometimes I’m not happy with what’s happening on my scrapbook table. I admit it. It doesn’t matter what music I have on. It doesn’t matter if my friends are there hanging around or if it’s just me alone. It doesn’t matter if my magnificently inspiring sisters are in the house. It seems that nothing can get my head thinking in the right direction. It’s like my brain has gone stale.

And I HATE that! I hate that mostly because I hate wasting time. Who has time to waste?

So I’ve got a solution. When my brain is stale…I borrow someone else’s ideas to get my own creative juices flowing. I try to start by getting ideas for a few quick layouts. Once I’ve finished a few quick layouts I typically have my own brain back.

I gather ideas for quick layouts from a variety of sources: magazines, blogs, online forums, social media sites like Facebook, but my favorite place to find ideas for quick layouts is through video tutorials. The video tutorial is perfect for those times when you’re sitting there with all your gorgeous supplies laid out all around you and an empty spot right there in the middle where you fabulous and amazing newest creation should be sitting.

You can find quick layouts video tutorials online through kit club websites, manufacturer websites, YouTube, etc.

I’m not saying that you’ll get the best ideas that you’ve ever had from quick layouts video tutorials. I’m saying that they’ll get your hands moving. And once your hands are moving…your brain will catch up. That’s the point at which you’ll start to feel like yourself. And that’s the point at which you’ll notice that you’ve got the beginnings of fabulous and amazing sitting there in that previously empty spot there in the middle of the table.

And once you’ve got your video tutorial projects completed your brain will keep moving. And you are yourself again. And when you get there…share the love. Post pictures of your inspirational projects in some of the online forums and social media outlets that cater to scrappers like yourself. Who knows? Maybe you’ll create the video tutorial that will be the creativity magnet for some other scrapper down the road? It’s only fair.

Subscribe to the Little Black Dress Youtube channel! We’ll be posting March Black Tie Love Affair project video tutorials this week!

Can’t wait to see some project ideas using the Black Tie Love Affair kit? Well…we’re in the same boat! Impatient! That’s me every month. I just LOVE seeing what all the designers come up with. But you can’t rush perfection. We all know that. And we all know what happens when you do…less than perfection, that’s what!

But we DO have sneak peeks from Amy:

Ooooh….

Aaaahhhh…

More pics coming soon!