Aloha Mint Fans, it’s Bossy Joscie checking in with a super cute, super easy little project. On one of my daily trips to Pinterest I spotted this super cute little Gift Card iPhone Holder.

I thought to myself, hey I bet I could make that, and make it cute!
Here’s my version:

I started with an old iTunes gift card and folded it into the holder shape.

I printed up 3 patterned papers from Miss Mint’s Miss Mint’s Spring Garden Kit on label sheets.

I traced a gift card on the printed sheet and cut it out with coated scissors.

I applied the sticker to the holder.

I trimmed around the edge. Apply sticker to other side of holder and trim.

Enjoy! I hope you like my easy iPhone holder.

Love Love,
Joscie, rhymes with Bossy :)

Purple Petals | Gabby
Ahhh just GORGEOUS! I love all that purple. It makes for such a sweet rich page. I love how Gabby added in her own word tags (in purple, of course) listing the different colors in the bouquet.

Our 1st Wedding Anniversary | Oliko
Such a clean and classy page! I love the list of word tags in place of journaling – they really do say it all. I also love the color tone of the photo which ties in perfectly with the gold from this kit.

bubbles | Stacey
This page is gorgeous on its own but what really made it stand out for me is the faded/blended photo in the background. How neat! What a great effect.

summer camping | hmlentz
Ok, 10 points for pulling out that funky yellow frame. I LOVE IT! I’ve always wanted to take a shot like that. What a fun idea. Note the use of the yellow paper framing the  set of papers behind the photo which really pulls things together well.
 

cottage Yakovtsy – 2 | Nastasja
At first glance it’s the crisp, gorgeous photojournalistic style photos that catch my eye and I love how they are really the star of this page. The scrap supplies are merely a supporting character and I also love how that yellow doodle circle was used as a frame.

Love You Forever | Cherry Limeade
So beautiful! Black and white was the perfect choice for this page. The journaling is lovely as well. It’s nice to dig out some old photos. Take the time to scan them in – they are bound to inspire you to create something fantastic.

OneOneThousand | JamWest1007
You will have to click on this page to read to journaling to truly appreciate the power and sentiment of it beyond that stunning and completely relevant photo of the rainbow coming through the clouds. Visually I also liked the unusual choice to use circles. It certainly makes this page stand out.

4th of July Bucket | crystalcangel
It’s hard to believe that this was made at home – it looks like something right out of a catalog but indeed that is Tay Silver’s Commercial Vector Word Art on the front of that bright red bin. The perfect party time accessory. Looks fantastic!

Sand Castles | Scrappie Irene
I love how that square frame and how it was used with all the squares, elements and photo inside makes it look like a sandbox!

Where The Heart Is | rjcjme
I’m always impressed by photo-less pages. It can be a little intimidating to attempt but this page is just great! I love the 3 little houses!

Freedom is Sweet! | crystalcangel
Another crafty gem! This really gets me itching to use my Silhouette more often! I just love how professional and polished these vinyl projects look. Fantastic!

What the heck IS hybrid scrapbooking?
Good question.
Hybrid scrapbooking refers to the integration of both digital and traditional items in the creation of a single project. Digital items like the ones we sell here at Peppermint Creative are printed out and used  in combination with traditional store bought products like  rhinestones, buttons, ribbons, fabrics etc. So if you were to design a card on the computer and print it out and then glue on a fabric flower with a rhinestone in the center to it, BAM! You have yourself a hybrid card. But while that may seem like a pretty specific definition, there is a ton of room for interpretation which is what makes it fun. Because there is no right or wrong way to create a hybrid project. Which brings me to this week’s feature project from Mint Chick and hybrid crafter extraordinaire Alaina Erickson. She’s put together a quick tutorial for a fun hybrid project and shares some insight on her take on hybrid:

Hi Everyone! Alaina here.
I love the textures and ability to create “heavy” layouts using embellishments with traditional paper scrapbooking. I also love the ways I can change elements (colors, sizes, undo, redo, etc.) with digital scrapbooking. My interpretation of hybrid scrapbooking is really to create a base layout using digital techniques and products and print them onto paper.  Once I have the layout in hand, my over embellishing tendencies want to come out to add dimensions that will make the page protector not lay flat and my album definitely won’t close because it’s over stuffed.

Whether you have converted from traditional to digital, vice versa or somewhere in between, you can create fabulous shaped layouts usually achieved by the use of purchased die-cut papers, digital cutters, or paper punches.

I used the Classic Wedding Kit from Peppermint Creative to create my base page. I decided to design the entire page in Photoshop and print it out and add my flower embellishments afterwards but certainly if you don’t mind cutting and have some patience you could print out certain embellishments like the paper word tags and glue them on or adhere them with pop dots to give some depth after your page has been printed.

Here is how I constructed my Base Page in Photoshop:

Layer 1: The base canvas was 12” and transparent.

Layer 2: I placed the Blushing Bride paper over the layer.

Layer 3: Next I  resized the Scalloped Frame 01 to fill the page.

Layer 4: I filled Layer 3 with Black Tie paper.

I then went back to Layer 2 and erased around the outside of the scallop to reveal the transparent layer. (You can also achieve this effect by using a clipping mask) From there I added my photo and a few essential digital elements and printed my page.

Once printed, I went back into the PSD file and removed all of my elements to prepare a JPG image for my Silhouette to cut.  If you do not have a digital cutter, you can hand cut around the scallops of the frame by hand.

If you have a digital cutter like Pazzles or Silhouette, you can begin to remove your elements off the layout and create the JPEG image to import into your cutter software. Click here to view Joscie’s tutorial on how to Print & Cut with the Silhouette machine.

Here was mine.

If you follow Joscie’s tutorial above you will be able to print out your entire layout first and then run it through the Silhouette Machine and have it cut the scallop shape for you.  Once it’s done, you are ready to embellish. I wanted to keep this layout simple so I added all white Prima flowers with Creative Imaginations pearl brads (a touch of Stickles onto the center of my flower brads).

And that’s all there is too it! Most of the dirty work was done on in Photoshop but the added flowers add depth and texture to really make this layout come to life. I hope you venture to take a step away from the traditional, square digital layout and try your hand at creating shaped layouts and more importantly, at hybrid crafting!

I’m thrilled to finally have Wedding, Engagement & Bridal Shower Themed Digital Scrapbook Kits finally added to the collection here at Peppermint Creative. These were such a joy to create. I just love when kits come together so well they practically design themselves. The fun thing about these kits is that not only do they cover a WIDE range of themes beyond just ‘Wedding’ to include Anniversary, Wedding Showers and Engagements but that they are totally mix and match. They coordinate well so if you want to add a touch of color to the Classic Wedding Kit, you can toss in a few papers or elements from the Blushing Bride Kit.

And for you hardcore Mint Fans, here’s a fun fact…I actually borrowed (I don’t think it’s technically called stealing if you steal it from yourself) the color scheme for this kit from…can you guess which Mint kit from many moons ago?

It’s the color scheme from Peppermint Creative’s FIRST freebie EVER. It was called Spring Jellybean and I’m not going to show it to you because it’s been retired and for good reason. However the color scheme was delicious and I couldn’t resist reinventing it in this way. So if you’ve picked up this kit you can say you have a little piece of Peppermint Creative history.

I’m also LOVING these adorable Printable Wedding Bingo Cards. You can add them to your layouts but you can probably come up with something even more clever to use them for. You can print them out to create adorable cards, invitations, party favors or maybe even use them as part of a table display at your event! I’d love to see pictures of whatever you come up with.

I’m obsessed with this Classic Wedding Alphabet. It looks STUNNING with this kit and is perfect for your classy wedding pages. It comes in GOLD and SILVER.

I know, it’s all so delicious it’s hard to choose what to get so I’ve assembled it all in a Wedding Bundled Collection and if you grab it all you save 15%!

And now for my favorite part…check out these STUNNING pages the team created using these products. Seriously! They are so talented.

Together Forever | Gabby Covey

You & Me = pure happiness | Sarah Harbuck

Mr. & Mrs. Tag | MJ Johnston

Mr. & Mrs. | Natasha Akers


I Love You | Megan Whitney

Engaged | Keela Fox

The Note | Jill Van Dijk

Because of You | Jill Van Dijk

Ready To Tie The Knot | Natasha Akers

Hitched | Megan Whitney

Newlyweds | Natasha Akers

Dreams Come True | Natasha Akers

This Is Love | Tiffany Keetch

Mr. & Mrs. | MJ Johnston

Wedding_1 | Trisha Burton

Feeling inspired? If you’ve got some special memories to document I hope these pages have given your creativity a kick in the creative tush. Whatever you create, don’t be shy! Please share it with us in the gallery we LOVE to see new faces!

Until next time, keep scrapping! ;)

Happy Monday! I’m back from vaycay and spent the day settling back in, catching up on emails etc. I haven’t even plugged in my camera yet (oh the horror!) It’s usually the first thing I do. I’ll get to that later today and I’ll be sure to share anything interesting. Despite the fact that I took two cameras, my dSLR and my Olympus point & shoot, I took a slew of pictures on my iPhone using Instagram. I’m slightly obsessed. Not only is it a super quick and EASY way to share your pics right from your iPhone by email or by virtually any social media outlet of your choice (Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, Foursquare etc.), BUT it also has these awesome one-touch post-processing effects that make you look like a photographic genius. It’s turned some pretty shoddy photos into impressive works of iPhone art. When I got home I was inspired to scrap this picture that I shot while road tripping. Note that I was not the one driving – not to worry.

Road Trip | Miss Mint

This was meant to be my submission for the current Minty Mixed Bag Challenge which is a Blind Scraplift Challenge. That’s where you have to put together a page based on written instructions. Halfway through my page the whole thing kind of went in another direction but to be honest I’m not sure I was on the right track in the first place. The whole ’9 squares of paper’ thing had me scratching my head. Click the link above if you want to give it a try. If you post your page by Aug. 15th you have a chance to win a $5 gift card to the Peppermint Creative store. Hopefully you’ll get a lot closer than I did. In any event, I like how this page turned out and it came together SUPER quickly which always seem to be my favorite pages.

While I was gone the gallery was a flurry of activity. So let’s take a peak at what was posted this week!

Backyard Summer 2011 | Cherry Limeade
Totally love this page! It’s fresh, it’s FUN and the b&w photos are a nice contrast to the colorful papers. Love the cool split down the middle.

Off To Grandma’s | AmieN1
Gorgeous! I just love the way this page was put together. Great use of elements as well as this month’s PMP template. (Grab yours FREE here).

Goodbye | jen10510
I love the way the mood was captured by the colors used plus that photo is so gorgeous. Great typography on the title as well.

Grow | LeeAndra
It’s hard to resist a little cutie in pink Crocs. I mean, seriously. Adorable. Love the layering here. Great use of elements and negative space.

Simple Thing | Cupcake Jamie
Too cute! Love the diva sunglasses!! Great page design. I love all the elements tucked away behind the photo.

Summer – Not So Much | Juno
Gotta love a good pictureless page. It takes guts! And this one is great. What a clever idea.

M&M Wedding | cmdenise94002
Gasp! Just stunning. I just love love love that silhouette in the background of the bride and groom. What a creative touch!

Summer | Lijezz
This page just SCREAMS summer. Love the flowers floating about and the way the larger photo was used slightly lighter in the background instead of just another paper.

Summer | glumirk
That photo is just delicious. Love the layout and love the way the title at the bottom right was put together.

Thanks everyone for sharing your work! I absolutely love to see it so keep posting.

Until next time… ;)

Happy Monday! Today is an extra special edition of Mint-spirational Monday since I’m away on vaycay (how dedicated am I?) so instead of  typing to you from Toronto, you are getting an exclusive blog entry from the depths of New Hampshire. I know, like it makes any difference to you – it all looks the same but I will be brief it’s because I’m working on a laptop which I’m finding very challenging to type on. I keep hitting the CAPS LOCK and I don’t have the luxury of working with two screens. I know, poor baby, right?

So on that note, I will just post the pages for you to enjoy minus my usual commentary. The team made some INCDEDIBLE pages with the new wedding kits that I will have to post  later – there are so many but I will include a few below.

ENJOY!:

4th of july fun by: hmlentz

i heart my camera by: Miss Mint

The Note by: Juno

 To the moon and back by: mj.johnston

Together Forever by: Gabby

Kinder-Grad by: jen10510

You & Me = pure happiness by: shutterspeed

Summer by: ScrappieIrene

Newlyweds by: my2monkeys

Everyday Play by: CherryLimeade

kickboxing by: topcat

Hitched by: Glumirk

 Sooo much more awesomeness in the gallery so head on over and take a peak.
Until next week..keep scrapping ;)