Tips and Techniques

Over at My Creative Scrapbook every month we have a "How Did I Do That" thread where all the design team share tips and techniques that we have used creating with the kits. The girls come up with some great ideas each month, I love looking through all their posts and picking up a few new ideas.
I thought I would share a few of my tips from the November kits...
I used this technique when I taught at Scrapstars back in April and I loved the look so I used it again with the gorgeous Glitz Peek A Boos. I love the Glitz transparencies but sometimes they can get a bit lost on a page but there is a really simple tip to really make them the focal point of your page.
1. Place your transparency onto a piece of kraft paper and draw around it in pencil including the middle.

2. Carefully cut around the pencil line and then add distress ink to all the edges, make sure you cover all the areas that can be clearly seen through the transparency.

3. Stick the transparency back on top of the kraft paper, only add glue to areas where it won't be seen ie directly underneath the printed pattern. I used glossy accents to secure mine into place.

 I love how the inked kraft gives the transparency a really aged look.

I have got a bit of a thing about edges, when I started scrapping I just cut and stuck, then that progressed to cutting and inking, then I added a bit of distressing and now machine stitching. I have to hold myself back from doing it to every edge! It does make a huge difference to a page though and I just wanted to show how by adding a bit  more to the edges you can achieve so much more depth and definition on a layout..
1. This photo shows the papers that have simply been cut.

 2. Cut and inked.

 3. Cut, inked and distressed.

4. Cut, inked, distressed and stitched!

If you are looking for a few new ideas then it is definitely worth popping over to the My Creative Scrapbook forum and checking out the "How Did I Do That" thread, there are so many inspiring posts!