Thought I'd try something new and head back to my younger days when watercolor was a favorite medium of mine to work in. I have a six year old granddaughter that loves to paint, so I'm going to attempt to learn a few things to pass on to her. 

Sandy Allnock offers online classes in many mediums, the one I've just started is the Travel Sketches: National Parks. If you are interested in trying your hand at watercolors you might like to stop into her site and check all she has out. (currently on sale too!)

The first sketch class is Acadia National Park in Maine. 

The second is Tall Grass Prairie Preserve in Kansas. 

They are a long way from perfect, but at least I'm at long last trying to get back into dabbling with watercolors and picking up a few pointers from the professionals isn't a bad thing either!

Thanks for stopping by...

Andrea

#SandyAllnock, #TravelSketchesNP 

 Summer has arrived and I have a quick tip for adding a bit of fun to your scrapbook page layouts.

I'm using the tab die from the Mosaic Moments Arch and Tab Die, some bright colorful cardstsock (perfect for using up scraps) and Mosaic Moments Raspberry Grid paper.

Beginning with Pattern #632

This is my feature Popsicle embellishment 

The Arch and Tab Die set and an alternative color scheme

This was our Make It Monday for June

The completed project

The ingredients used!

If you are interested...the Big Sale starts tonight at midnight! Why not try out new ways to scrapbook?

Thanks for stopping by...

Andrea

 

If you are joining us today, I’ll be showing a series of scrapbook pages created using Mosaic Moments Grid Paper and Dies and the beautiful Stamperia collection of papers, Savana, 6x6 and 12x12 background papers.

I had photos taken last year on a road trip with my son, his fiancée and her little boy to a place she loved to visit, The Wilds. I was hoping to be able to shoot some great photos and we had a perfect day to do so. The Wilds is in central Ohio, near Cambridge, an extension of the Columbus Zoo.  

I love the Savana papers, they’re perfect for the theme, but sometimes the busy-ness of the backgrounds allow the photos to get lost. I could use mats but then, I’d be covering up the paper I wanted to show off. My solution was to do some stacking.

Using the Mosaic Moments Half Circle 3x6 die I cut several layers of the half circle portion in heavy weight black cardstock. I used liquid adhesive to stack the circle for top and bottom, as well as for the center photos of the layout. This created a lift and shadow without sacrificing seeing the paper.

I repeated this for the circle cut outs and photos. There is one layer under the photo and a slightly larger circle in black to mat. These circle sections were placed over the break in the grid pattern on each side.

In the next pair of pages, I’ve used a 6x6 page as my center focal point, and framed it with 2x2 squares of photos mounted on various pattern papers.

The giraffe print was just the right background for these photos.

The final two pages feature the bird house and feeding time. This time my ‘waste not want not’ upbringing kicked in and I used the leftover sections from the first page and this time it creates a recessed spot to lay my photo of the perching birds. I thought it was a perfect look.

The final page includes the historical markers with details of the land that the Wilds now occupies. The paper is one page, using both sides and alternating directions.

 

If you’d like to know more about scrapping with The MosaicMoment Grid System, or already love it and are looking for more tips and ideas, why not join us on Facebook at Five Pines Designs for our monthly Scrap-Along-with-Me this Saturday, June 4th, 2022 at 10 am Eastern for a live demo that you can join us as you watch.   

Thanks for stopping by...

Andrea

#MosaicMoments, #FivePinesDesigns, #Mosaicscrapbooking #Stamperia 

 Once again, I'm returning to the Blog to see what might become of this account of my creative journey. I am happily cutting back on my previous work load and yet, still keeping my hand in things. 

This may turn out to be the only post for 2022, but, who knows? Let's see where this takes us. 

Let's start with this year's Easter card...well, it's been a long time since I've found the time to make them and I was pleased to use dies from The Greetery to make it happen. I've used inks from Taylored Expressions for the beautiful sunrise effect. 

Then to document the growing children with an Easter Layout I have used Mosaic Moments Grid Paper and Dies, along with cardstock from Doodlebug Designs. The new Wright Corners Dies, butterfly and several flower border dies are found in their online store Snap-n-Crop  (this is an affiliate link, use it at no cost to you)  

If you are interested in joining in learning to use the Mosaic Moments Grid System, please join us on my Facebook page Five Pines Designs the first Saturday of each month for a series "Scrap-Along-with-Me" where we explore ideas and techniques, new dies and old and putting it all together. 

May 7th we will be doing our annual Camp in a Box in a bit of a modified online, on FB Camp. If you'd like more info on this Free, 3 class event, please check out the Five Pines Designs page for all the details.

 

I'm looking forward to sharing more in the coming days. Stop by and visit now and again!

Thanks for stopping in...

Andrea

Welcome to the relaunch of the blog!

I've put this off a long time but I think the time is right to start again. With the new Five Pines Designs Facebook page I'm finding I need a way to give a few more details about how to create some of these wonderful Mosaic Moments projects than just posting a few pictures and hope everyone "gets it". 

Today I'm going to give a few quick tips for creating an Advent Calendar for Christmas a bit different than you may have used before! I will be using the Mosaic Moments Nested Pocket Dies, the Basic Nested Dies and the number set from Alphabet 4 Die Set. All of these products can be purchased at Snapncrop through my affiliate link.

Ten Quick Steps

1.Let's begin with the middle size of the Nested Pocket Dies and cut out 25 in your choice of cardstock, I chose black because I wanted something neutral for the various colors of patterned papers I will be using. Plus this year the on-trend color combination is black, white and red!

2. Then I selected the 4.375" x 3.25" die from Mosaic Moments Set C for the backing, cutting 25 from black cardstock.

3. Then I cut each of these backings with We R Memory Keepers Tag Board for tabs right, center and left. After assembling them all, I decided this was an unnecessary step, but that's up to you how you'd like to make it. Next time I'd leave it solid with no tabs.

4. Now if you want to add a thumb notch this is the time to do it. I didn't because I planned on adding an insert into the pocket that would be higher than the front edge of the pocket. 

5. Score the pocket's marked sides, a bone folder will get a nice crisp edge.

 

6. Use a strong adhesive like Scor-Tape on the three side flaps of the pocket. Putting cards in and out of the pocket requires a good seal to hold up to the use.

7. Now the fun part. Pull a variety of patterned Christmas papers together and cut 25-3x3" squares to place on the front of the pockets. This is a great way to use up scraps or to coordinate a particular color theme. 

8. Prepare 25-1" circles to add the numbers to in whatever color combo you want. 

9. Now you will want to work on cutting out your numbers or maybe use stickers or even a hand-drawn fancy script number. Attach the numbers. The numbers can be attached directly to the pocket top or to tags inside the pocket. 

You may even want to add a little bit of glimmer with

 a Wink of Stella clear gimmer. 

10. The final step is to create the tags for each pocket. These don't have to be fancy, and it will depend on what you plan to write on each tag, will it be an activity and project to do or a devotional text for family worship time? They can be layered or not. On white cardstock or black and use a gel pen to write on. Finish them any way that suits your family the best!

I'm storing these for now in a small photo box I picked up at Hobby Lobby, but watch the Mosaic Moments Blog in December and I'll show you the box I worked on showing off several MM dies that also makes a perfect spot for these pockets and a few treats too! 

Thanks so much for stopping by, hope you'll come back soon!

         Andrea