Mendi Yoshikawa Archives

Winter Wonderland Layout with Mendi

Jan

Hi there! It’s Mendi here with a couple of fun winter themed layouts using more of Pebbles darling Winter Wonderland collection.

For my first layout I knew when I saw the stickers with princesses on sleds that I had just the right photo to use with them! I wanted to draw the viewer‘s eye through the page so I chose to position my embellishments in three different corners to form my visual triangle.

For my snowflake, I wanted to give it a little extra dimension so I cut apart a second glitter snowflake die-cut and layered it over the large snowflake with foam tape and then topped it with a circle sticker from the collection and asmall rhinestone. After I was done I felt like my snowflake was sort of getting lost with the pale blue paper below so to give it a bit of punch I cut some navy blue paper to layer below it. I think it made a huge difference.

For my bottom, right corner I die-cut some white cardstock to form a slope to create a little scene with the second princess & snowflake stickers. For my pennant border along the bottom I cut various papers from the 6×6 pad and strips of washi tape (mounted onto cardstock for stablity).

For my second layout, I wanted to create a layout using photos from that same week that could stand on it’s own, but also look great next to my other page in the scrapbook album.

For this layout I wanted to primarily focus on all the yummy patterns in the washi tape book. I must say I am pretty smitten with this product! You get so much bang for the buck with all the variety and options in one book with 6 full pages of 12″ washi tape!

I am also loving the beautiful glittery Thickers. Foam Thickers have always been my favorite to work with and these are absolutely gorgeous in person! To add a little interest to my washi tape strips, I decided to stitch them on in coordinating colors of thread.

Once again, I turned to the same glitter snowflake die-cuts to form my visual triangle, mixed with some of the smaller snowflake stickers from the collection. I had fun mixing it up with different layers including the fun puffy snowflake stickers.

I hope I’ve inspired you to pull out your own snowy pictures and scrapbook them using this pretty collection. I had so much fun playing with all the pretty patterns!

Supplies:
Winter Wonderland Winter Walk 12×12 patterned paper
Winter Wonderland Shiver 12×12 patterned paper
Winter Wonderland Toasty Warm 12×12 patterned paper
Winter Wonderland Flurries 12×12 patterned paper
Winter Wonderland Frosty 12×12 patterned paper
Winter Wonderland Bundled Up 12×12 patterned paper
Winter Wonderland 6×6 Paper Pad
Winter Wonderland Icons Glitter Stickers
Winter Wonderland Princess Glitter Stickers
Winter Wonderland Glitter Snowflakes Chips Die–cut Shapes
Winter Wonderland Washi Tape Booklet
Winter Wonderland Imprint Aqua Foam Glitter Thickers
Winter Wonderland Iridescent Foam Glitter Thickers

Winter Cards with Mendi

Dec

Beach Fun in the Sun

Aug

1 Comment

Hello there! It’s Mendi here today with a quick and simple summer themed layout using more of my favorite Fun In The Sun collection!

I created my visual triangle groupings using the adorable die-cuts and layered stickers from the line. I like to reduce the white outlines when possible around my cuts so I chose to fussy cut them a bit with my scissors.

My title was made easy by one of the great titles provided in the Chips pack. I paired it with some flip-flops from the layered sticker pack which I dressed up with some punched flowers and enamel dots.

For the third corner of my visual triangle I turned to We R Memory Keepers Banner Punch Board. Not only does this fun tool create large banners, but it can make them as small as one inch wide for your cards and scrapbook pages! Isn’t that cool? For mine I thought it would be fun to add a pair of die-cut sunglasses “hanging” from the line. To add some more dimension to coated the lenses with Glossy Accents. I love the detail this gives them in person.

I thought I would share some close up photos of how I used the newest punch board to make my banners. For the flag style, I cut my paper strip to 1-inch wide and set it down on the board using the 6.5″ guideline in the board.

I closed the magnetic lid and inserted the blade into the channel and cut from one outer edge to the center and then from the other outer edge to the center.

For the Pennant style banner I used the second end, lining it up at the 1.5 inch mark.

I then repeated the same process, starting at the top right corner and then down again for the top left corner.

In just a matter of seconds I had little banner pieces that look like these that were made to perfectly match my layout. 🙂

Before I go, I have a quick card to share using a few scraps I had leftover from the collection. The card’s sentiment serves as sort of a pep talk for myself today. It is with a very heavy heart I have made the decision to step down from the Pebbles team in the coming year. I am sooo thankful to everyone at Pebbles for taking a chance on me and allowing me to work with this amazing company over the past year. I just love the Pebbles family & all their darling products so it’s really hard to say goodbye… I hope you will stop by my blog as I share some news about the next exciting chapter of my life. 😉

Supplies:
FUN IN THE SUN SUNSHINE CARDSTOCK 12″X12″
FUN IN THE SUN SUMMER DAYS CARDSTOCK 12″X12″
FUN IN THE SUN FLOWER BASKET CARDSTOCK 12″X12″
FUN IN THE SUN BEACH TOWEL CARDSTOCK 12″X12″
FUN IN THE SUN BEACH BALL CARDSTOCK 12″X12″
FUN IN THE SUN ENAMEL DOTS
FUN IN THE SUN CHIPS DIE-CUT SHAPES
FUN IN THE SUN LAYERED STICKERS
FUN IN THE SUN PUFFY PHRASE STICKERS
WE R MEMORY KEEPERS BANNER PUNCH BOARD
WE R MEMORY KEEPERS FILE TAB PUNCH

Summer Layout With Journaling Tutorial

Aug

1 Comment

Hello there! It’s Mendi here today with a Fun In the Sun summer layout that’s all about yummy BBQ comfort foods! I love nothing more than hanging out with my family and eating (with a little more eating) so I decided to create a layout celebrating every day moments like this one.

To tie my theme together I turned to all the adorable ephemera shapes in the chips pack and grouped them all together in one big border across the center of my page for extra impact. To create some depth, I popped some of the shapes up with foam tape and embellished with some enamel dots.

For my journaling I used one of the 3×4 cards found on the “Summer Days” cut apart sheet. Ever want to know how to get your journaling to fit perfectly on pre-printed lines?

For my journaling card I wanted it to be a semi-circle (based on a sketch by Nichol Magouirk which inspired me) so I grabbed my We R Memory Keeper nesting circle dies to cut it.

I then used photo splits cut in half (because I’m cheap and it doesn’t take much to hold it). 😉

I then adhered my journaling card to a piece of basic office paper and set to work measuring so I could know where to set my 4 page margins within Microsoft Word. For your top margin you will want to measure to the top of first line and to the bottom of the last line for your bottom margin.

I knew I wanted to layer a cute die-cut on mine with some foam tape so I set the die-cut in place to measure my right margin. When all the margins are set, type out your journaling. Now the fun begins. Sometimes you must get creative in your spacing by playing with your font style and size. I started with Arial, but it took up too much room so I switched to Arial Narrow. It is important to count how many lines you have to fill and to not exceed that in your typed journaling. When I got it about right, I had a little extra space that I hadn’t used for bottom margin, but I was at my 12-line maximum so I played with my line spacing settings until the words lined up from top to bottom. All of this sounds complicated, but I swear it gets easier. With a little practice it can be done in a matter of minutes.

After I had my spacing just about right I chose to print it out on a piece of scratch paper so that I could hold it up to my other sheet and make sure my spacing was good. This is always extra helpful. In my case I decided to move everything over an extra 1/2 inch and to manually indent a couple of the lines to help them follow the curve. In hindsight I’m wishing I had moved everything up one line as well to account for the lines being printed lower on the card, but it didn’t occur to me until I had everything sewn down. 😉 I hope I’ve inspired you to try a little computer journaling on your next summer layout or project! 🙂

Supplies:
FUN IN THE SUN SUMMER DAYS 12×12 CARDSTOCK
FUN IN THE SUN SUNSHINE 12×12 CARDSTOCK
FUN IN THE SUN WATERMELON 12×12 CARDSTOCK
FUN IN THE SUN CHERRIES 12×12 CARDSTOCK
FUN IN THE SUN BEACH TOWEL 12×12 CARDSTOCK
FUN IN THE SUN CHIPS DIE-CUT SHAPES
HAPPY DAY EPOXY STICKERS

Fun In The Sun Shaker Gift Bags

Jul

3 Comments

Hi there! It’s Mendi here with some fun ideas for summer gift bags using Pebbles Fun In the Sun collection along with the new Fuse tool & Gift Bag Punch Board by We R Memory Keepers. I don’t know about you, but I rarely think to prepare a fun gift bag on the actual day of an event so I love having some ready to go when I’m headed out the door to a special occasion.

I thought it would be fun to experiment with different shapes of shaker windows for each of my bags. Up first I have a circle shaped shaker that I created. To achieve this I added all my sequins to the circle shape before closing it up. I then slid the sequins over to create citrus slices by using the little metal ruler that comes with the fuse tool.

My next bag features a star window filled with multi-colored sequins. I cut an extra band of patterned paper to go along the top of my bag which I punched with a scalloped edge using a border punch. Make sure to keep reading because I share step-by-step instructions on how I created this fun window using the fuse tool.

My last gift bag is my favorite. It uses some of the fun watermelon print papers from the collection so I thought it would be really fun to create a heart window and punch out little raindrops to pose as watermelon seeds for my shaker.

I was amazed at how easy it is to create these little windows with the fuse tool and some basic supplies I already had on hand! Using an old page protector I snipped off a small section just a wee bit larger than my die. I then used the die as a template and traced it with the fuse tool, making sure to leave a small section open to slip my sequins and punches into.

After filling up the little pouch, I re-positioned my die and fused the remaining two edges with the tool.

I then trimmed around the star leaving a small border around it and added sticky adhesive tape to the side that I wanted to face out on my bag.

Using the same die I die-cut a window out of my gift bags. This was a bit tricky for my largest gift bag due to the width so I had to fold the bottom flaps under while running it through my diecutting machine.

I then taped the fused star pouch to the inside of my bag. Using the same sized die works well for this technique since most dies have a slight border around them.

Here’s one last look at my three different summer bags. I hope I’ve inspired you to create some shaker gift bags of your own. I am really loving how many different techniques that are possible with the fuse tool! 🙂

Supplies:
FUN IN THE SUN SUNSHINE 12×12 CARDSTOCK
FUN IN THE SUN WATERMELON 12×12 CARDSTOCK
FUN IN THE SUN LEMONADE 12×12 CARDSTOCK
FUN IN THE SUN POPSICLE 12×12 CARDSTOCK
FUN IN THE SUN BEACH TOWEL 12×12 CARDSTOCK
FUN IN THE SUN CHIPS DIE-CUT SHAPES
FUN IN THE SUN LAYERED STICKERS
PREMIUM SOLID GROSGRAIN RIBBON VALUE PACK
WE R MEMORY KEEPERS PRECISION GLASS CUTTING MAT
WE R MEMORY KEEPERS PHOTO SLEEVE FUSE TOOL
LIFESTYLE CIRCLE NESTING DIES
LIFESTYLE STAR NESTING DIES