Week 3- Thursday: Scraplift Challenge #3

I (Katie) love this layout by Heather I found while browsing the TwoPeas site. The sunburst, the stamping and all of the layering. I decided to use her layout for today's Scraplift Challenge.

Katie's Layout: I love the tone-on-tone sunburst that Heather used for her background. I didn't have a preprinted background, so I dug into my washi stash and made my own sunburst, but I decided to do it only on one half of the page. I think doing all of the background might have been too much of the hot pink washi.

Scraplift Heather's layout and link up your project here by July 4th.

Week 3 - Tuesday: Technique Challenge #2 - Sewing on Paper

For today's technique challenge, we're sharing a few of our top tips for using your sewing machine to stitch on paper. If you love the look of sewing but don't have the patience of hand sewing, this post is for you.

Emily's Tips and Tricks:

• Unplug your machine! My sewing machine's electrical plug and foot pedal are long-lost, so I do all of my machine sewing with the hand crank. You do have to practice a bit to get better at maintaining control of your paper with just one hand, since the other is working the crank, but you're also way less likely to sew across something you didn't mean to.
• Move the needle around! Many machines have an option to change the position of the needle. I like to sew around my pages to add a border, and I have my needle in the left-most position to allow me to easily sew closer to the edges of my layouts. Different positions work better for different techniques, so this is something to experiment with.
• Keep your machine set up and close by! Keeping your machine near you as you work and ready to go at a moment's notice will simply help you to use it more often.

Katie's Tips and Tricks:

• Stitch around your paper! I like to stitch around paper, especially on my cards. I think it gives the paper more texture and it acts like a border if you go around the edges.
• Use small amounts of adhesive. If you're going to be gluing a few layers together and then stitching through them, use as little glue as possible. The glue will stick to your needle and make sewing a bit tougher.
• Be careful! Like the glue, you also need to be careful if you're stitching through something thick. I'm pretty much the queen of broken needles. Go slowly over thick objects like chipboard.
• Try different stitches or feet! If you've pretty much mastered straight stitches, try doing something different- Most machine can do zigzag stitches, and some machines have other stitches like a blanket stitch or even fancier things. You can also try using other feet. I used a Free Motion foot in the layout below. It allows you to stitch in whatever direction you want, not just forward and back.

Make a project using machine stitching and link it below by July 4th!

Featured Projects

We love seeing your projects and as a thank you for joining our challenges we feature some of our favorites in a post! We hope you like our new schedule and if you're wondering what challenges are next, be sure to take a peek at the challenge schedule, here.

The Mini Album Challenge:

Cruise Mini by Taylor.

Week 1- Sketch Challenge:

Layout by Julie.

Week 1- Color Challenge

Frosting Layout by Saskia.

Congrats to Saskia, You're the winner of the color challenge and the kit from Scrapbooking From the Inside Out! We'll be emailing you! 

Week 2 - Thursday: Card Sketch #3

Today's card sketch is a pretty simple sketch, When I designed it I was thing multiple layers of paper and circle embellishments, but be inspired by it however you want!

Katie's Card: I made a 4th of July card for this sketch. I pulled out my spirograph stamps from the Stamps of Life as well as some fireworks stamps. (But I don't know who those are by.) After stamping them, I trimmed them into circles and arranged them onto my card. I did move my sentiment down to the bottom. I just liked it better there than where it was in the sketch.

Emily's Card: As soon as Katie sent me the sketch to work with, I knew I had to use some of my new stamps from Studio Calico's June card kit. The big circular sentiment was perfect for the sketch, and the little globe and compass stamps fit in well, too. You might recognize the papers from this layout - I love to use scraps and leftovers to make cards.


Be sure to link up your projects by July 4th!

Week 2 - Tuesday: Inspired By... Challenge #3

For anyone new, here's how the Inspired By... challenge works: We will provide the inspiration (usually something we found on Pinterest or elsewhere on the Internet) and some sample projects, and then all you have to do is link up a project inspired by whatever it is that inspired us!

On today's Inspired By... Challenge, you get two images to work from! We love these geometric gemstone shapes.


I found both of these on Pinterest and sadly, neither has a working source link.
Emily's Layout: In addition to being inspired by this challenge to use the lovely faceted sequin stamps from Studio Calico's June card kit, I was inspired by some beautiful mint green paint I got the other day to use a mint/gold/navy blue/white color scheme. I was able to pull that all together with one of my favorite photos from my trip to Disney last Christmas that happened to contain just the right colors and shapes.



Katie's Layout: I loved the doodled look of the gems in the first image so I doodled a few of my own onto chipboard, then I misted them with Heidi Swapp's gold Color Shine. The shape of the fountain at the Ft. Worth Water Gardens reminded me of a gem, so it worked great for this page too.

Week 1 - Freebie Friday #5: Sketch Templates

We offer free downloads every other Friday, which you can find here.

Today's freebie is designed by Katie:

I like to sketch out my layouts before I start them. It helps me choose a design, and decide what colors before I make a big mess. I designed these templates with spaces for sketching your layouts and a place to add notes.

I designed 3 sheets- One with all 12x12 layouts, one with all 8.5x11 layouts and one with half and half.

Click here to download the 12"x12" layout sketch template.

Click here to download the 8.5x11" layout sketch template.

Click here to download the Half and Half layout sketch template.

I printed out a couple sheets of the 12x12 as well as the half and half templates. I don't do 8.5x11 layouts very often, but at least this way I can sketch them if I feel like it.

Week 1 - Thursday: Color Challenge #3

Today's challenge is to use the following color scheme (found on Design-Seeds) on a project!

Emily's Layout:

I thought it would be fun to try out these primary and secondary colors on a layout, since they aren't colors I use often. I immediately broke out my paints to create a background to mimic the stripes of the color scheme graphic and then pulled out my sewing machine for the first time since last summer to sew it down to a piece of kraft card stock. I pulled out a photo from Disney World that matched and kept the layout very simple to showcase the fun background and the journaling.

Katie's Layout: I thought the colors Emily picked out were bright and fun. I fussy cut the bright swirls out of some BoBunny paper, and the orange flowers are by Queen and Co. When I embossed my arrows, my heat gun actually warped my layout a little bit, but i'm going to put it under something heavy for a few days to flatten it back out. ;)

GIVEAWAY! Create a project using our color scheme to be entered to win a kit from Scrapbooking from the Inside Out!

 We're not afraid of looking at the big picture, sharing our truth and putting it down on paper. Our unique blend of stylish, meaning-filled materials and our patented prompt-based approach to the inner journey will inspire you to be the real YOU.

Our monthly Inspiration Page includes a music playlist, deep prompts and quotations and a link to our awesome monthly Pinterest board will make getting started easy! Is your heart ready to speak? Are you ready to listen? We're excited to welcome you.
The Communication kit, designed by our Teen DT Leader, Sofia Ehrich, is a kitschy and stylish mix of fun paper and embellishments to help you explore and express how you connect with the world around you.
Want to see more kits from SFTIO? Stop by their website, and read about their teen program, CreateU.

The winner will be chosen on June 21st.

Week 1 - Tuesday: Sketch Challenge #3

We took some time off from the challenge blog last week to rearrange our schedule here at Paper Lovers Studio. You can find our new schedule here.

Today's challenge is a layout sketch designed by Katie. You can follow the sketch exactly or use it as a starting point for a grid and only use a photo for one of the squares and maybe use patterned paper for the rest. Make it your own. :)

Katie's Layout: When I designed the sketch above I wanted to place the photos in a grid with a few embellishments around it. For my layout I matted my pictures with papers from Basic Grey's Clippings 6x6 paper pad. I used a few older Love, Elsie epoxy stickers for my embellishments and then added my journaling on the side.

Emily's Layout: I had to adapt Katie's sketch a little to use just one photo and fit it all on an 8.5x11 layout. But I did it! I switched out the two bottom squares of the sketch for a single photo and filled the top two squares with patterned paper and a journaling tag. Everything in this layout came from the Studio Calico June Card Kit, Roundabout, except for the darker kraft paper, the sequins, and the journaling tag, which is from a pack by Elle's Studio.