Silly Time!

This week's Sketchy Thursdays sketch arrived about the same time as these cute pictures of my grandsons. The sketch calls for 3 photos on a patterned background as you can see here:

But since I had four photos I decided to blow one up, turn it to a green duotone and use that as my base for the other photos. The little cameras are die cuts from paper-intelligence.com and the clock face is a Making Memories Vintage Findings. It just happened to fit perfectly in the hole in the die cut.

Since I'm such a sloppy scrapper I had to use the white camera to cover a big glob of something-or-other that stuck to my page. I think because I kept it white it does not distract too much from the design of the page. LOL! A little black backing behind the die cuts, main photo and patterened paper grounds the page. The stripe is made with one of my favorite scrap items right now - MT masking tape. It's sold everywhere in Japan in about a zillion colors -- but if you have deep pockets, you can buy it online under the name of Happy Tape. Click on the link on the right to be taken to MT's home page. They do have an English Menu so you can translate and read all about the company. Kind of a fun read! Customer Service par excellence! (And while you are there, check out my LO in their gallery made with a rainbow of MT colors.)

I love that my daughter-in-law Jenny shares moments like this with me. She is a military wife whose husband is deployed and it helps me to worry a little less about her and the boys when I see their playful smiles. We must never forget that those who wait also serve. God Bless them all!

And thanks to Sketchy Thursdays, another page in Jenny's 2010 album is complete!

Create with Washi Paper Masking Tape

We all know that masking tape is commonly used when we are painting to cover up areas we want to avoid. But recently, I’m drawn to the delicious variety of colors and designs found in the stationery stores around Japan. Soon I was picking up a role of red here and a 3-pack of teal patterns there and in no time at all, I had amassed quite a collection of pretty colors and knew I had to figure out a way to use it on my scrapbook pages.

There are a number of companies that make colorful masking tape, but most of mine seem to come from Kamoi Paper. As I opened the packages of Kamoi's MT masking tape, I was immediately inspired by the gorgeous hues and the soft feel of the tape. This is no ordinary tape; this is made of rice paper! Intrigued, I turned to the company’s website. Using Kamoi’s English Menu, I began to read about the making of washi masking tape and how they came to offer such fabulous colors.

It seems this little company was contacted by a customer who made a little book out of their tape and requested more colors. Kamoi's aim was to please this artistic customer, so a partnership was formed and they set about with a passion to color the rice paper in hues that make a crafter sigh with pleasure! The site not only includes their history, but a fun factory tour where you will learn how they color the rice paper and add the sticky. There is also a gallery where you can see the myriad of uses their customers have found for the rainbow of colors.

Speaking of rainbows, let me share with you my ideas for using washi masking tape in scrapbooking. The first page is inspired by a sketch at Let’s Scrap and created for the rainbow challenge at Scrapbook.com. It is constructed of Bazzill black cardstock, masking tape and Thickers. I’ve include a tutorial below on how to do the washi blossom at the end of this post.



The next page is inspired by a sketch by LG challenge at MAF.





So let's get on with the tutorial. I was inspired to make this flower out of washi tape after viewing Helen Croft's beautiful page at Scrapbook.com. To begin, you will need washi tape in the color or colors of your choice, a ruler, a small pair of scissors, a pencil, a glue stick, and some rough-cut circles. My biggest circle is about 2 inches across.

Start by covering a few of your circles with washi tape, trim off the excess tape and glue the circles together with the smallest on top.

Now choose a color of washi tape and cut it about six inches long. Lay it printed side down on the table - the sticky side will be up.

Take another piece of washi tape in the same color and lay it down on top of your six-inch strip - sticky sides together. Trim this peice off the role about a half to 3/4 inch longer than the first strip. Trim the other end so that there is no sticky showing at all.

Now, turn your circles over and attach the end with the 1/2 inch of sticky showing to the back of the circle. Flip it back right side up and wrap the long end around a pencil until your flower petals are the length you would like.

Now cut a tiny square of matching washi and lay it part way on the roll and part way on the longer part of the flower petal. This will hold the roll in place. I left mine sticking up a bit so you could see it, but you will want to smooth down the edges.

And there you have it - a pretty flower to add to your scrapbook pages!