Rowlux Illusion Film Blog Hop

A great big hello to everyone coming here from the Rowlux® Illusion Film Blog Hop!

Materials used:

Rowlux® Illusion Film

Adhesives - Glue Arts, Elmer's, Mod Podge by Plaid

Embellishments - The Robin's Nest and Recollections plastic beads, Basically Bare chipboard, Stampendous Pearlized Mica Fragments, KI Memories, Colorbök, Making Memories, and Advantus chipboard letters

Photo courtesy of Georgia Aquarium 

As soon as I saw the Rowlux® Illusion Film, I envisioned the ocean. It has that same beautiful, shimmery quality as the surface of water in the sun. So I couldn't wait to use it on a scrapbook page about a behind-the-scenes tour that I took with my friends at the Georgia Aquarium. 

I used the "Dark Blue Sea Glass" Rowlux® Illusion Film as the entire background, "Emerald Moire" as the seaweed, and "Gold Serpentine" on chipboard for the little fish!

I was so amazed at how easy the Rowlux® Illusion Film is to work with! My scissors just cut through it like regular paper, and my photo and embellishments adhered to it easily. It's very light and easy to put into a scrapbook album. I also really loved the reflective quality of the film; even when layered on top of other colors of film or on chipboard, it remained just as shimmery!

I could try to explain exactly what Rowlux® Illusion Film is, but to just say that it is reflective plastic doesn't do it justice, so here's how Rolux® describes this cool product:

"Rowlux® Illusion Film is made in the USA and comes in a diverse range of spectacular eye-catching colors and patterns.  These durable, translucent, 12" x 12" polycarbonate sheets add instant pizzazz to craft projects, seasonal accents, party decorations, scrapbooks, greeting cards, jewelry, furniture, frames, gifts, favors, accessories, art and DIY home decor projects.

 This revolutionary material has been utilized in award winning point of purchase displays, packaging, signage, artwork, footwear, lighting, interior design, retail display fixtures and beyond, but the new frontier is the craft industry! There's absolutely nothing like it on the market!

 Easily cut with scissors, Rowlux® is also the perfect material for scoring, folding, embossing and die cutting. The creative possibilities are endless. This innovative and inspiring new craft material manipulates light to create dazzling visual effects. The illusion of depth and motion is the result of thousands of tiny parabolic lenses that are molded into the surface of both sides of the material. These lenses create a pattern of light reflection and refraction resulting in stunningly brilliant optical effects.

To instantly add "POP" and "WOW" to your projects, just add Rowlux®!"


Want to try it? You can get your own Rowlux® Illusion Film here at Amazon!

And there's a giveaway! Just use the Rafflecopter link below to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you so much for stopping by to look at my project!

Continue to check out the Rowlux® Illusion Film Designer Blog Hop here!

New blog and new projects

Before we get to my newest projects, I just wanted to let everyone know that I have started a new blog. It is more of a "personal" blog about little ol' me, without all the crafts. So if you want to hear about me -- and frankly, who doesn't? -- head on over to A Staggering Work of Absurdity. To get your craft fix, I will continue to post my crafty stuff here on this blog!

Now on with the show!

Today, my latest layout is featured over at the Basically Bare blog. This layout is all about my awesome friend Twhyla. She is the sports gal in my life. She is all about Braves baseball and Colts football, and she's not afraid to get out there and play a sport herself. Here she is playing on a kickball league!

Patterned paper: The Paper Studio, Teresa Collins
Cardstock: Archivers, WinWorld
Chipboard embellishments: Basically Bare
Stickers: Making Memories
Tickets: SEI
Ink: ColorBox Fluid Chalk Ink in Charcoal and Alabaster, Krylon silver leafing pen

You're gonna shine!

This is my latest DT project for Better Living Through Scrapbooking. Since a new school year has begun, our challenge is to create a layout using a school picture.

This layout is almost like a letter to my eight-year-old self. I want to tell her that she'll get past the hurts, the disappointments, and the sadness that comes with growing up. She'll grown into those teeth (eventually!). She's going to find love, happiness, and passion for life. Don't worry, kid, you're gonna shine!

It's MY week at Scrapping Shoebox!

I am proud to be the newest member of the Scrapping Shoebox design team and I am totally psyched because it is MY WEEK! Yep, I get to post anything scrap-related so today I posted a very summer-y layout.

You can read about the materials I used and check out other coolness over at Scrapping Shoebox. Come back this week for more goodies from me!

Using patterned papers effectively

Are you sometimes intimidated by certain scrapbook papers? Do you like the color or pattern but you think,"Wow, that's a little "busy"?  No worries! The key to using patterned papers is to use in moderation.

In my early days of scrapbooking, I would use just one sheet of patterned paper as a background, no matter how bright or busy it was; now looking back, I see that my pictures were overwhelmed by the papers. I have learned that by pairing patterned papers with solid cardstock or with a related but smaller/cleaner pattern, I can use the "busiest" papers around, yet still have my photos be the focus.

A great example of a company that has wild patterned paper is Sassafras Lass. I love their paper and embellishments. It makes my heart sing to look at them. However, I know that I have to use their products in a different way so that my layouts are not overwhelmed. Here's one of my favorite layouts that I made using Sassafras products:

By using a black background and by using the papers as borders and accents, I was able to still get the fun, whimsical look, but my photos are still front and center.

Another company that I love is American Crafts. They too have some awesome papers that may need a little tweaking.

If I had used an entire sheet of the stripes, my pictures would have been lost. However, by breaking up the stripes with some solid cardstock, I was able to still get the fun pattern but without all of the clutter.

For more examples of patterned paper layouts, go to my "Gallery" page here on the blog!

So don't be afraid of those wild papers! Just use them in moderation and you will have a layout that you are proud of!

The story behind the layout

Too often in scrapbooking, we document only the good events. But how many of us have only good days? So today over on Better Living Through Scrapbooking, the design team girls (including yours truly) reveal some layouts about the things that didn't go as we had planned.

*One note about this layout. I know that most people see this picture and think, "What could be so terrible about going on a great vacation in the Caribbean? Are you that spoiled?" NO! As you see in my journaling, it was the fact that my plans were changed that led to this layout.

One of the elements that we were challenged to use this time was hidden journaling. The journaling on my layout is behind the picture so you have to lift the picture to see it. Since you can't do that on the site, you can read it here:

I admit it. I am a travel planning junkie. I plan every single little detail on every trip that we take. Where to stay, what to do, even where to eat are all things that figure out months in advance, and our cruise was no different. I had our entire day in Cozumel all taken care of. We had never been there before so I was kind of excited about it. I was even going to try helmet diving (a big deal for someone who is afraid of water)!

Then came the swine flu.

It hit Mexico first just a couple of weeks before our cruise. This was an illness of epic proportions and Cozumel was soon a hot-bed of disease. Of course, all of the cruise lines stopped going to Mexico and we were told (just days before the cruise) that we would be going to Nassau, Bahamas instead. All that planning down the toilet. All that work planning our trip was just wasted and I was completely thrown for a loop. Messing up my travel plans is guaranteed to totally ruin my day. I didn't want to go to the Bahamas. I had heard from many people that it wasn't that great. Boy, were they right. We were not impressed and I was still bitter about having my plans foiled. Oh well, at least we can say "Been there, done that". Maybe on our next cruise, it won't be during a flu epidemic!

So if you haven't seen the layouts from the other design team girls, go check them out. Maybe it will inspire you to scrap a not-so-perfect event!