Seriously, Tomorrow is Labor Day Already

This summer just FLEW by, didn't it?  Let's take a second and savor those last days at lakes, cruises, pools and water parks, shall we?


This first three layouts were created by my friend and student, Erika:

This fun Slip and Slide layout is my sister, Tracy's creation!

Here is a pool themed class that I designed and a completed student sample from Renee:

I hope you get out and enjoy the last days of pool / swim season and take lots of pictures to scrap!

Aquarium Layouts

According to the Days of the Year website, today is "International Whale Shark Day" (Days of the Year) so I thought I'd share some aquarium themed pages.  

The layout below is one that I made using some custom-printed paper and a custom die cut for our local aquarium, Newport Aquarium.I really like the way it turned out on this bahama blue grid paper.

After I made that layout, there was a stamp set and a layout in a Close to My Heart catalog that really spoke to me and I thought it would "convert" nicely into a mosaic since it already consisted of a lot of squares, etc.

So, I designed this layout using those papers.  I LOVE IT.  But my friends, not so much . . 

When I shared that layout with my friends, they didn't like the muted colors or the patterned paper for that particular concept.  They said it was "noticeable" that the patterned paper was peacocks.  Personally, I don't think it would be that noticeable with pictures on the layout, but I conceded.  I went back to the drawing board, using some Paper Studio papers and designed the bolder, more child-friendly version of the layout.  

And a completed student layout from the class:

Still looking for inspiration?  Check out these cool layouts by Lori Hanson:

Lori Hanson Sea Life Park:

Lori Hanson Bahama Blue:

Lori Hanson's Circles:

Multiplication Fun?

So, I wanted to give another shout out to Andrea Fisher, who is a continuing member of Tami Potter's Design Team.

This multiplication chart can be found on Journella.com which is an online journaling site that is a sister site to Tami Potter's Mosaic Moments.  By joining Journella, you can share your own layouts and check out those of others.  It's a great place to find inspiration.

Andrea designed this great multiplication table mosaic which I thought was just PERFECT for the back-to-school season:

You can find this project on Journella at Just-the-Facts or check out Andrea's blog at: Five Pines Designs.

Happy Scrappin!

Preschool

While we're on the subject of school-themed layouts, I just couldn't help but share this adorable preschool layout that I found on Journella.  Billi Glenn's Preschool Layout

New RTC Papers and Page Protectors

For those of you who have been experimenting with any of the new scrapbooking projects like Project Life with Stampin Up, Picture My Life with Close to My Heart, etc. or any of the other myriad of similar programs, Tami Potter is now offering new RTC (Ready to Cut) sizes to fit in the divided page protectors and it is all ON SALE THIS WEEK!!!

 

The above RTC papers are 12x12, but intended to be cut into 4x4" - which makes them 3 grid squares by 3 grid squares and they fit into the We R Memory Keepers page protectors divided into nine slots.

  

The above RTC papers are 12x12, but intended to be cut into 6" tall x 4" wide - which makes them 4 grid squares tall by 3 grid squares wide and they fit into the page protectors divided into six vertical slots.

  

The above RTC papers are 12x12, but intended to be cut into 6x6" - which makes them 6 grid squares tall by 5 grid squares and they fit into the page protectors divided into nine slots.

If any of this seems confusing, please come out to my Mosaic demo day on October 5, 2014, starting at 1:00 p.m. at Stamping Buddies in Deer Park, Ohio.  

As always, if you wish to purchase any of these products, please contact me directly via email or facebook or order online using the link to the upper right of this post so that I will receive commission for your order.  Thank you!

Back to School Mini Album

I was trolling around over on Tami Potter's Blog and I came across this cool idea from Design Team Member Andrea Fisher.  Check it out:  Back to School Mini Album

Back to School . . . . College Level

Whether your children are going back to Elementary School, Jr. High, High School or college, you always have a lot of Mosaic Moments options.

Below is a layout I designed for college pictures at the Ohio State University or University of Cincinnati.  As you can see, I worked with the same page pattern for both and just changed up the color scheme and the patterned paper.  Please share with me on FB or via email.  I would love to see your school spirit.
 

Tips for Beach Mosaics

As you know, I've been sharing a lot of Beach Themed pages this week.  Here are some tips from the Mosaic Moments page on how to make your Beach mosaics even better:  Tips for Beach Mosaics

At the Beach . . .

Ok, so obviously, I'm not ready to let go of summer just yet.  Let's share a couple more Beach Layouts:

This is a layout my sister did to show her family flying kites at the beach.  It is one of my all-time favorite layouts EVER!

Here are a couple of beach-themed layouts I found over on Journella.com.

Shannon Nixson's Black Sand Beach:

Beth Glass's A Day at the Beach:

Beth Glass's Outer Banks

Nancy Saunders Makin' a Splash:

Nancy Saunders Summer Fun:

I hope you'll send summer out with a splash, too!  You can start with some great page kits offered by Mosaic Moments through this link:  Minerva Mosaics (Debbi's) Snap-N-Crop Shopping Site  Thank you for shopping with me!

  

New Page Kits on Sale This Week

Go Fish!



Crazy Daisy



Family Tree

Please visit the Snap-N-Crop site using the link to the right to shop for these pages kits or let me know by Sunday, August 24, 2014 if you want to buy them from me at the sale price of $8.95.

Minerva Mosaics (Debbi's) Snap-N-Crop Shopping Link

Tuesday August 19, 2014 is Photography Day?

Did you know that Tuesday, August 19, 2014 is Photography Day?  According to Days of the Year

"Photography Day is all about celebrating photography. Today is the day to embrace your love of photography, whether you see yourself as an Amateur, Hobbyist or Professional, it’s the day to show off what you can do. Photography has the ability to tell stories and inspire people and with the dawn of digital photography we can share memories across the world in seconds with the use of online galleries. Photography has changed the way we see the world and gives you the ability to share your perception on the world around you, so why not share it!ow off what you can do. Photography has the ability to tell stories and inspire people and with the dawn of digital photography we can share memories across the world in seconds with the use of online galleries. Photography has changed the way we see the world and gives you the ability to share your perception on the world around you, so why not share it!"

I don't know about you, but I find that my photography has changed dramatically since I started creating mosaics.  I thought I would take this opportunity to share some great mosaics inspired by amazing photography.


First up is a layout by Melissa Fulgham, which I found on Journella (click here to see her full post: Journella)

Next up is another post from DT member, Andrea Fisher.  You can find the page map and inspiration details here on Andrea's Journella:

Here's another Journella submission.  This one is by Lori Hanson (Lori Hanson's Journella)

And lastly, here is another Mosiac Moments layout by Lori Hanson, inspired by the black and white photography of Ansel Adams.  (Lori Hanson's Journella - Ansel Adams)

These Dies are Going to Revolutionize the Way We Do Mosaics!

Yes, yes, I know!  You can tell how excited I already am about the Mosaic Moments Dies, but in a new statement released over the weekend on Facebook, Tami Potter made this announcement:  "A little weekend preview of things to come... We've been showing you outlined patterns (like the one on the left). Along with our new Mosaic Moments Dies we will be introducing a new pattern system with colors to let you know, at a glance, which die sets were used to create it."

Now, seriously, THIS is a game-changer.  I have always been a HUGE fan of the page maps, but now they will be even better.  We'll be able to do our layouts more quickly and more precisely using these dies!  

Back to School Means Vacations Is Over . . .

Okay, so it really stinks that summer vacation is over.  Many kids are already back in school and Labor Day is just over a  week away!  But now is a great time to be scrapbooking all of those fun vacation memories.  Here are a few pages I've made from vacations.

For this one, I started out with a Mosaic Moments page kit ($12.95).

But on the left sided page I abandoned the page kit and used an 8x10 photo cut into 1" squares.  When I came to the piece with the kids in it, that I didn't want to cut into squares, I left it an even 2" square and used a photo mat cut to 2 1/8" square to make it stand out.

This a layout that I made by cutting up one of those laser die-cut overlays that I bought at convention. I really loved the overlay, but the holes it provided didn't work with the number of photos I had and the shape of my photos.  So I used a craft knife to cut it part and overlayed it onto the open spaces in my mosaic.

For this layout, I used a combination of Bo-Bunny papers and photographs.  My mom used to be notorious for either forgetting to take pictures or taking pictures from so far away that you can't tell who is in those photos.  On this trip, she managed to get a combination of great shots (love the reflection and the action shots) and some that were still a little too far away.  I used the small pics in the 1" squares around the border.  I cut some of the seagulls out of the paper and applied them to a second sheet of the same paper using pop dots.  I also used a healthy amount of my sister's favorite glitter glue to make those waves shine!

Product Highlight - TILES and CORNERSTONES

Tami Potter just released a new line of JUMBO corner tiles and I thought it would be a great opportunity to talk about some of the amazing products that you may not yet be familiar with.

TILES

First, a word about TILES.  Tiles are pieces that come pre-cut and measured to fit the grid.  You can buy packs of tiles in many colors and use them to fill in spaces on your grid or to serve as photo mounts/backgrounds.  All you have to do is punch them out and adhere them to your grid paper.  The measuring and cutting has already been done for you.

SQUARE TILES

Tami Potter's blog has this to say about paper tiles:

Each color of Paper Tiles™ contains four sheets,  laser cut into large mats, medium mats, title/journaling strips, and small pieces. 55 pieces total included in each pack.  Paper Tiles make creating great scrapbook layouts quick and easy.

Every piece is laser cut to the exact specifications necessary to fit Mosaic Moments™ scrapbook layout system grid papers. Paper Tiles™ are a great time saver.

 

Here are a couple sample pages made using square tiles:

CORNER TILES

Corner tiles are pre-cut pieces made to fit in the corner of each of your 1" squares to give your layout more depth and dimension using angles.

JUMBO TILES

Now, on to the new Jumbo Tiles:

As to these new JUMBO TILES . . . Make BIGGER designs with these great embellishments. Create a large chevron pattern (shown above) on a double page spread or other designs of your choosing. Right now we have bright summer and lovely autumn colors to choose from, along with the neutrals (black, white, ivory, pewter, and grey). The Gettysburg page above features Cocoa and Spice Corner Tiles.   Get the new Jumbo Corner Tiles On sale now for $1.25 (reg. $1.95).  Each pack comes with 24 Jumbo Corner Tiles.

  

SHAPE TILES

Tiles also come in a variety of shapes.  These shapes are also pre-cut to fit the exact measurement of squares on your grid paper.  They add some variety from the typical "square" mosaic grids.  Like other tiles, they are available in an assortment of colors.  Here are some examples of those:

  

Here is Design Team Member, Andrea Fisher's page sample using the heart tiles: 

BANNER TILES

Banner Tiles are another fun new product available for the Mosaic Moments grid system:

  

 

CORNERSTONES 

Most of you have seen the 2 1/8" x 2 1/8" cornerstones that I sometimes carry for sale at vendor events.  This is a line of products pre-cut to fill in a 2x2 square on your mosaic grid paper.  These are custom die cuts that are usually made with a fun decorative theme.  Here are some examples:

   

  

Cornerstones also come in a couple of other configurations.  One allows you to choose leave the piece intact and cover a 2x2 square OR break the individual pieces into 1" squares.   

    

The other is a 1"x 3 2/8" size for covering 3 squares in a row (horizontal or vertical).

Lastly, there are some great customizable monogram options.  Custom Letter/Number Cornerstones offer you the ability to get the exact letters or number you want for your pages.  All pieces are sized to fit the Mosaic Moments grid papers perfectly.  Use on any of your pages (not just for Mosaic Moments pages).

Use these letters for your initials, names, school name or mascot, places, and many other titles on your pages.  They look fantastic. 

Each pack includes the Letter/Numbers you choose in the sizes and quantities shown per the particular option you choose in the color of your choice.  In addition, each pack includes three 5"x7" card stock pieces - 2 pieces in the chosen background color and 1 piece that matches the color of your chosen foreground.

You Choose EACH letter/number in the package.
You Choose the foreground color for the package.
You Choose the background color for the package.

With all of these products, there are an assortment of color options to choose from.  Mosaic Moments product colors vary frequently, because they order their products by die lot.  If you see a product you like, grab it up before it's gone.  Shop for color options and pricing here:  Minerva Mosaic's (Debbi's) Snap-N-Crop Shopping Site or message me if you have any questions.