Layouts of Christmas Past - Santa Stamp

For the layout below, I was inspired by a page kit from Out On a Limb a few years ago.  I liked the belt effect and the Santa face.  Then, while I was digging through my stash, I came across a Santa stamp my sister had bought.  I stamped the image on a neutral/skintone, on white and on red, and cut out the individual pieces to layer to make the peek-a-boo Santa on the left side of the page.

Layouts of Christmas Past - Purple Christmas

Christmas 2005

Christmas 2011

Here are two layouts I created for purple Christmases we had in our family in 2005 and 2011.  Both are built on the now-retired eggplant grid paper.  In the second one, I took lots of photos of the tree, ornaments, presents, etc. to use as accent pieces.

Layouts of Christmas Past - Chimney Layout

I created this layout by putting some brick colored paper through the old-school paper crimper to give the effect of bricks for a fireplace and chimney.  The stockings were a die cut, as was Santa's head.  The fire came from a cricut camping cartridge.  I made up the body and the rest of the pieces.   The holidays are a great time to get creative with your mosaic layouts!

Christmas Photo Ideas

This is a re-share of a post I did about a year ago - just as a friendly reminder . . .

As we approach the Christmas season, stop and think about the photos you'll be taking.  Here is a list of photo prompts provided by Mosaic Moments:

And you can find even more inspiration over here at Mosaic Moments Blog- photo checklist.

Here are some close-up photos to inspire you: 

Cranberries

Holiday M&M's

Ornaments

Holiday Candy

Over the next couple days, I'll be sharing some layouts I've made to commemorate holidays in years past.

Gratitude Sale!

Hey Ladies - There is a big gratitude sale going on over at the SnapNCrop page.  Please use the link to the right when you go shopping so that I'll get credit as your consultant!  After you receive your order confirmation (from this sale or last week's page kit sale), email it to me and I will enter you in a drawing to win a free page kit!

Happy Fall Y'all!

It's that  beautiful, blissful time of year again, ladies.  FALL!!!   And Fall makes for the very best photo mosaics, in my opinion.  Be sure when you are out on your fall excursions that you're taking close-up and panoramic style pictures of all the great things you see: pumpkins, leaves, indian corn, etc.  I hope you will share your mosaic creations with me on my FB page:  Minerva Mosaics Scrapbooking with Tami Potter's Mosaic Moments

August 19th - Photography Day

Today is Photography Day - a 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!"



My favorite thing about mosaics is they way they allow us to "focus" on the photographs.  While I love die cuts and stamping and all the other fabulous scrapbooking layout concepts, something about mosaics just really makes my photos pop and I LOVE THAT.

What are you favorite photography subjects and styles?  Portraits of Family or pets?  close-ups? Landscapes?  Whatever it is, show your love with mosaic-style layouts!

Technique Tuesday - Adding Dimension

Over on the Mosaic Moments Blog today, Paije Rodriguez has shared a cool technique about how to use dimension and silhouettes to add depth to your layouts.

Here is her completed layout:

I did something somewhat similar a couple years ago for a design team challenge.  The challenge was to doodle on your photographs and in the "margins" of your grid paper.  I found this great brain image on the cover of a magazine that coordinated exactly with an exhibit at the COSI Museum in Columbus, Ohio so I popped the brain up in the middle of my layout and left it "off the grid."  The exhibit was crazy busy so I felt like the layout conveyed the activity and creativity of the experience.

Have you ever worked over or around the defined edges of the grid paper?  Please feel to share your samples on my FB Page!  Minerva Mosaics Scrapbooking with Tami Potter's Mosaic Moments

SALE SALE SALE!!! STAYVENTION SALE

Today through Sunday, Tami Potter / Mosaic Moments are offering their once-a-year STAYVENTION sale.  They are offering the same prices as convention, but from the comfort of your own home!  NOW IS THE TIME TO STOCK UP.

As always, please use the snapncrop link on the right side of my blog to place your orders so I will receive credit as your consultant!

July 25th - Needle and Thread Day

In celebration of needle and thread, I thought it would be fun to share some mosaic pages with stitching on them.  Whether you do your stitching with a sewing machine or by hand, this Stitch It Up Technique Tutorial on the Mosaic Moments page should be of some guidance.

Here are a couple of layouts I made with stitching:

In the layout above, I used the We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy tool to punch the patterned holes and then I used red DMC floss to create the baseball stitching effect.

In the layout below, I took 2 1/8" scraps of the fabric from the aprons I made and sewed them into the grid paper using my sewing machine.

Shark Awareness Day!!!

July 14th is Shark Awareness Day!

Here is a mosaic about my nephew's first visit to the Newport Aquarium in honor of this special day!

 P.S. Don't go near the water!

BASEBALL ALL-STARS!!!!

Tuesday, July 14th is the All-Star Game and Cincinnati has been celebrating for a week with a great assortment of grand-scale decorations, Fan Fest, and sooo much more.

This past weekend, I offered a Mosaic class with a baseball theme and we had an absolute blast!

The layout above was my class sample.

The layout above was a variation I had done at another time with some different reds paper (no longer available.)  And below are the layouts created in class by my creative and inspiring students!

If you are interested in taking this class in a make-up session on Sunday, July 26th, please let me know ASAP so I can order sufficient supplies!

Fridays with Friends - Summer Fun!

This is a continuation of my post from a couple weeks ago where I mentioned that I have a collection of photographs of mosaics made by my students.  The students approached me at various crops and granted me permission to post their layouts.  Unfortunately, I have since misplaced the paper where I noted to whom these layouts belong!  If they are yours, PLEASE contact me so that I can give you credit for your amazing layouts!

The first one is a spectacular example of using the strips on the left side page and using 1" square mosaic pieces along the bottom of the right side page.  I love all of the vibrant colors and they way you can just feel the action going on across the page.

The second one uses strips, in both horizontal and vertical arrangements and also incorporates some pops of color with pieces like the tiles sold by Mosaic Moments.  (If you've never used them, tiles are a product that is a package of colored cardstock pieces that have been laser-cut to exactly fit on the Mosaic Moments grid.  You can purchase them on the SnapNCrop link to the right on this blog.)   One of my favorite things about this layout, and mosaics in general, is the sheer volume of photos that the artist was able to get on the page.  

Chocolate Day? Again? Okay, If you Insist!

According to the Days of the Year Website, July 7th is Chocolate Day.  I thought we already celebrated chocolate day, didn't we?  Maybe that was just me ;)  The experts at Days of the Year say "There are a number of dates throughout the year promoting variations of local, national or international Chocolate Day – our research leads us to believe that this is the true, definitive, purist ‘Chocolate Day‘, so celebrate with some of the high cocoa, rich, dark chocolate that makes you go tingly inside… Or failing that, stock up on chocolate biscuits, ice-cream and enjoy a day of secret treats and indulgence…"

So, let's revisit this chocolicious layout, shall we?

Have you created any chocolate masterpieces?  Please share them with me on my FB Page:  Minerva Mosaics Scrapbooking with Mosaic Moments and I'll share them here!

Independence Day - UPCOMING FIREWORKS CLASS!

The Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays of the year.  And, double bonus, it makes for some AMAZING MOSAICS!!!

On Sunday, July 26 from 1-4 p.m., I will be offering the layout above as a combination beginner/advanced Mosaic class at Stamping Buddies in the Deer Park/Kenwood area of Cincinnati, OH.  Details can be found in my FB group for Cincinnati/Dayton papercrafters: Cropportunities.  

Happy Canada Day

July 1st is Canada Day, eh???  How will you be celebrating?

Technique Tuesday - White Grid Paper

Back in the day when I used to only sell the grid paper in 6-packs, each pack came with two sheets each of two different colors and then two sheets of white.  So, those of you who were regular shoppers may have ended up with what seemed like a disproportionate number of white pages.  But that's great news!  White is so very versatile.

Here's a Blog Post from the Mosaic Moments Page that is filled with fabulous ideas for getting more mileage out of your white grid papers.

And here are a couple of layouts that I have created on white grid paper.  The first features my scrapbooking room back in the days when it was clean. LOL.

And the second showcases my niece with her pride and joy, a collection of American Girl Dolls.  In order to earn each doll, she had to first read each book of that doll's series of historical fiction books.  In some cases that was 6-12 books.  So she put a lot of work into earning her prized collection.

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Fridays with Friends

Ok, so I'm not a very good friend.  In fact, I royally stink!  I took some photos of some students' mosaics at a crop I attended on March 7, 2015 in Northern Kentucky.   I had several folks bring me their pages and tell me that I had permission to share on my blog, but I have since lost the paper where I took down all the names that go with the pictures.  If these are your mosaics, PLEASE send me a message so I can give you credit (and, as I like to say, make you "famous on the internet" - in a GOOD WAY)!

But for the rest of us, let's just focus on the spectacular job on these pages!  I am absolutely in love with two features on the first layout.  The first is the amazing way the stripes all come together and the second is the way she broke up the picture in the center of the layout, to allow the horizon to show at the top of the page.  

The second one makes me happy because the student used the 4x4" RTC (ready to cut) grids as accents on a traditional 8.5x11 layout.  I love the classic arrangement with the subjects in the upper left corner and lower right corner.  The colors and lines are just all so perfect.  It is both understated and sophisticated.  

There's a Die for That!

Nowadays, we often say "There's an App for that . . "  when we find a way to do things more quickly or efficiently using our phones.  Well in the world of traditional scrapbooking, it would seem that the equivalent to an app is a die.  We love dies because they have eliminated a lot of the need for "fussy cutting" the old fashioned way and they are lighter and easier to store and carry around than the punches we used just a couple years ago.

Here is a prime example of what I'm talking about.    When I first started teaching mosaics, one of the first layouts I designed was this popcorn/movie themed mosaic that I taught as an introductory class.

I was in love with Riley the Moose and thought I just had to do something with these adorable stamps and my newfound love of Copic Markers.  I tracked down this Hot Off the Press Popcorn Paper and lovingly and enthusiastically designed this layout.  Well, that's all well and good for making your own special, one-of-a-kind, layout.  It's a-whole-nother issue when you want to teach this layout as a class!

For this layout, I cut out two strips that were slightly wider than 2 1/8" x 11 1/8" and then painstakingly used a punch along the sides of both of the film strip pieces.  The width of the punched image is about 2 inches - meaning for each film strip piece, I had to punch six times for the left side and then six times for the right side.  There were two such strips per layout, times 10 layouts per class, times two times I taught the class (once in Columbus, once in Cincinnati).  Yes, I punched those pieces out more than 500 times to get my sample and 20 layouts for classes.  That was a lot of cutting and a WHOLE LOT of punching!  (not to mention that the punch I used was actually the EK success punch designed for a notebook effect, so I then I had to go back and adhere the scrap/waste portion of the punched piece to close the holes to give them the film-strip effect!

  

I'm having flashbacks just typing this post!!!  

And now would you get a load of this??  

Yup, that's right, Tami Potter and those wonderful folks over there at Mosaic Moments have designed a die that cuts a Film Strip Die sized to fit the grid - 2.125 x 5.5 inches - so it covers 2 squares x 5 squares.   Whew!  I'm so glad there's a die for that - I wish I had had this years ago!

This die is available right now for pre-sale.  Please use the Snap-N-Crop Link to the right here on my blog to make your purchases!

DIES FOR PRE-SALE

Mosaic Moments is having a Pre-Sale on some new dies.  Like all of the MM dies, these are specifically designed to fit in a designated number of squares on the Mosaic Moments Grid Paper.  As always, I ask that you please shop using the snap-n-crop link to the right on this blog so that I will receive credit as your consultant.  Thank you for your order!

Dies On Sale This Week!

PRE-ORDER NEW DIES  25% Off!  NOTE: These dies are NOT in stock.  This is a PRE-ORDER sale. The PRE-ORDER Dies will ship by the end of JULY.

Four NEW Cornerstone Dies!

Pre-Order Sale Price - $5.99 ea. (Reg. $7.99) 

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Lattice & Daisy Die Sets

Pre-Order Sale Price - $8.24  (Reg. $10.99) 

Each die set comes with a CornerStone size (2.125 x 2.125 inch die) and two 1x1 inch dies.  Choose Lattice Set or Daisy Set. 

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Film Strip Die 

Pre-Order Sale Price - $14.99 (Reg. $19.99) 

Film Strip Die is sized to fit the grid - 2.125 x 5.5 inches - covers 2 squares x 5 squares. 

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Two New Strip Dies!  

1"x2.125" Strips Pre-Order Sale Price - $14.99 (Reg. $19.99)

1"x5.5" Strips Pre-Order Sale Price - $26.99 (Reg. $34.99)

PLUS, get the PRE-ORDER DISCOUNT 

on these three dies: 

Heart & Flower - Sale Price $10.49 (Reg. $13.99)

Corner Tiles - Sale Price $8.24 (Reg. $10.99)

Layering Banners - Sale Price $8.24 (Reg. $10.99)

CORNERSTONE DIES - 15% OFF 

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Get French Quarter, Encircle, Southwest, Beijing and 

all  other Cornerstone dies at a discount.

 

On Sale This Week ONLY!

Sale Price $6.79  (Reg. $7.99)

If you are looking for ideas and inspiration to "think outside the box" with cornerstones, check out Andrea Fisher's Mosaic Moments Blog Post about Using the French Quarter Die.