Fun with Acetate

I found a book in the library that expands the use of saved acetate.  The book is:  Create Greeting Cards with Glass Painting Techniques, written by Joan Dale.  Basically is describes how to use a fake stained glass liner (made by Plaid Paints in various colours) to outline borders of the templates provided on acetate pieces and then coloured in with acrylic paints.  The results, as shown, are stunning.  Although most of her projects center on card making, it wouldn't take much imagination extending this out to include Christmas decorations, or other holiday themed decorations.  Just as a quick example, I could see using some of the larger Sizzix dies as basic forms to add extra dimension to scrapbook pages.

I can't wait to try this new technique, but for now I'm taking a temporary break from both scrapbooking and Christmas themed ornaments.  (We just finished packing up and taking out the last Christmas crate for the year!)  The break won't last long, I'm already missing the daily creativity time after only two days.

Clam Shell Templates

To think one year ago today my scrapbooking supplies consisted of a few sticker packs owned by my granddaughter, a pair of scissors that cut zigzag lines and a Valentines Day corner punch bought a couple years before for some silly cards my son and I made.  I've been blessed to accumulate so many systems and materials over the past eleven months.  That said, there's still thousands of papers, cartridges, adhesives, etc available on the market I don't own.  (There are limits to spending, even if my husband isn't totally convinced I'm aware of this notion.)

Early into my Cricut cartridge collecting I found a tip that advised saving clam shell wrapping to recycle for other projects.  The acetate does go through the Cuttlebug wonderfully when embossing and cutting.  I haven't tried using this material on the Cricut, but it's probably only a matter of time.  It's also great for creating windshields and other glass representations.  Acetate's only drawback thus far concerns finding the right glue for more seamless applications.

I recently stumbled across Kiwi Lane Designs, a small business that offers a diverse line of scrapbooking templates.  I understand many companies sell templates, but the difference here is that the prices are very reasonable and they offer a fun line of easy to use, coordinating templates. 

Affordable doesn't always mean I can run right out and purchase, however.  I did easily adapt their photo templates by cutting various commonly sized photo squares and rectangles using the clam shell materials on hand.  

Sample of adapted photo templates

No, not very pretty, but it functions!  (Squares and rectangles are the limit of my copying abilities so Kiwi Lane Designs are safe from future infringement... at least from me!)

I used these for the first time last night when laying out my newest scrapbook page to decide what size to print the picture.  It took all the guesswork out and let me focus on a design with confidence.

As Martin always says:  It's called scrapbooking for a reason!


Happy Cutting