Friday, February 26, 2010

Postcard Part 3

This is the last postcards technique this week, and my last post until March 13th! I will be working on the new blog...ooh la la!

You will need:
- a bunch of postcards from the same location, or same trip
- Gaffer tape, paper tape, hockey tape (yes!), masking tape, packing tape
- embellishments to finish your layout

Step One: Assemble your postcards. I am doing this layout on our trip to Vegas last summer, so I pulled all my Vegas postcards to choose from.

Step Two: Choose three postcards from your giant pile that you are going to use. I picked three that I like the most and said the most about my trip. We stayed at the Luxor, and I the Paris Hotel & Bellagio fountains were my favourites. You can now choose paper and embellishments to "match" these postcards. See my note about that at the bottom!

Step Three: Decide how your postcards will be layered. Think about what you want to see first thing, then layer the postcards from there. Think about which way you want them to fold and flip - up, down, left, right - and make sure there is enough room for tape in between them and along the edges. Here is my order starting from the bottom:

Step Four: Pick a non-postcard image to layer on top. This gives a place for your title, unless you want to use the words on one of the postcards for that. It also provides a little rest for your eye from all the busy-ness of the postcards below. I chose this packaging from an American Crafts buttons set. And since it had product description on the back, I covered it with some lined paper from Sassafras.



Just trace the shape and then cut out. Then glue it on the back. Same goes if you choose pattern paper or something else to adorn the top of your layout.

Step Five: Now we start taping. Grab your tape of choice - mine is the new 7Gypsies Paper tape. It comes in some fun colours and patterns and is really easy to use!


Start with the paper or postcard that is on the top layer. For me, that is my American Crafts packaging. Measure your tape so it is no longer than your paper/postcard. It can be shorter, just not longer...once you flip your postcard you will have a sticky tape end sticking out, and nobody wants that!


Mark the tape where you want to cut it (see the black arrow in the photo). Cut your tape. Then peel off the backing.

Stick the tape onto your paper/postcard and the background paper. Line up the paper/postcard so it's as straight as you can get it...you could use a ruler or measuring thingy, but I prefer to "eyeball it"


Once you get the tape down, fold open your postcard and press down along the crease. This will help the postcard fold better, and make sure the tape is nice and secure.

Now tape down the next layer. For this postcard I had some text that was right along the edge, and I didn't want it to be covered. So...I just mark my cut below the title.

Remember, that your tape can be shorter than the edge of your postcard, just not longer.

As you go along, keep closing the top layers to see where you're at. The postcards and paper can shift around and you want to make sure they all get into the right place. This also helps make sure you won't get stuck on the last layer and not have enough room for the last postcard!

Here are all my postcard layers after they've been taped down, but before I did any embellishing.

Embellish
When you pick embellishments for this layout, keep in mind that anything you add below a layer will add more depth, so you don't want any embellishments that have a lot of height to them. Rub ons and stickers are great to use inside your layers. And they come in lots of fun colours and shapes and sizes, so that you can't go wrong with whatever theme you are working on.

I chose Hambly lime green lace rub ons, and black American Crafts stickers. With some shiny stars to compliment the shiny lights of Vegas!

Here are some pictures of each finished layer, starting from the bottom. And of course Blogger picks now to rotate some of my pictures again...hoorah...



And the very front. I kept it simple and let the postcards be my title. You can see I carried some of the lace rubon detail between layers. 

The background is made using a Prima Background stamp and some "black" ink. Just ink and stamp...all over. It's best on this layout to use a simple background...plain cardstock or a really simple pattern work best. Otherwise it gets too busy.



Lisa's Extra Special Note: Regarding "Themed" Layouts
I know a lot of scrapbookers out there love to use themed products on their themed layouts. But I am here to tell you that it doesn't always have to be that way! We had a customer at our crop last week who was working on her Vegas pictures and she was really disappointed that we didn't have any Vegas embellishments for her to use.

From my point of view, most Vegas embellishments are "tacky" and are never the right colours for my layouts. And don't represent what I think of when I think "Vegas". But you can't tell a customer that...you have to help them find other options that might work for them! She went back and looked through her photos and was struck by how much yellow was in them...from all the bright lights. So she found some fun yellow embellishments to accentuate her layouts! YAY!

So if you want to scrapbook some farm pictures, you don't always need a red barn or a cow sticker...sometimes a nice leaf or flower in the right colour, with some gingham ribbon will do the trick! I scrapbooked a whole whack load of my Vegas photos without a Vegas-themed sticker in sight...and I love them all!

*****

So this is my last post for awhile. I will be back in two weeks on the new Blog. I'll put the link up here so you can find me there! I'm very excited! I haven't really customized this Blog since Juli and I first did it up. The new one will have all these "old" techniques for you to look through, as well as other interesting links and places to check out on your Internet Travels.

Until then...Happy Creating!!

1 comment:

Electra said...

OK, I'll be in Ottawa when you return. I'll bring back a bunch of postcards and do one of these then-be well, you will be missed!