Keep It Simple Sweetheart, should be our motto during the holidays!!  It can get overwhelming with all of the holiday festivities taking place, and most of the time we sacrifice our crafty time to make it through the month of December.  But there are quick and easy ways to squeeze in some creative time during any busy season in your life.  Here are my two biggest suggestions: grab a Kit or coordinated products and pull out a couple or several rolls of your favorite Washi Tapes.  Then, keep it simple...don't try to over-think what you're doing or worry about if your keeping up with the latest trend or embellishment.  I had fun incorporating two different Love My Tapes Washi Tapes on my layout and got it finished in an hour.




 
The kit I used gave me quick access to the paper and embellishments I needed, and then I used my favorite LMT Washi Tape as a border at the top and bottom of my layout.  This kit included a few chipboard stars and I thought it would be a good idea to use the Red and Pink Washi to cover the stars, for a different look.  I just placed the strips of tape over two of the stars and then used the craft knife to cut away the excess.  How easy is that...easy peasy, I say!!

So don't let all of the Christmas cheer cut into your craft time!!  Look for fun and quick ways to use your tapes on your next layout.  I'm sure you will be surprised with what you come up with!!


 

While we were vacation in San Diego this past summer, we visited a cupcake store that was so very yummy! Of course I took photos while we were there ;)  Guess what washi tape was just perfect to use on the layout?

Yes, Love My Tapes even has washi tape with cupcakes! So very cute!!

I also snuck in a small piece of one of my favorites, the teal diagonal stripe washi. I love that just a tiny piece of washi like I used can add just the right pop of color!

Thanks for stopping by today, we love to inspire!

Hello and Happy Wednesday Love My Tapes Friends!

Today, Svetlana is back with us to share another adorable and simply fantastic project with us!


Yes, they are actually called "matryoshka's" and not "babushka's" ;-)))
I had this set of unpainted "matryoshka's" already for a couple of years. I wanted to decorate them but never got to it - until now!
The self adhesive lace was just perfect for it. It gave the look I tried to achieve and it was so easy to apply. The decoration is very simple but I like the happy bright look of it with a little touch of dimension. My collection of these wooden dolls is growing!



I just LOVE these!  They are so creative and love how she used the lace tape!

Thank you again Svetlana for sharing your talents with us.  Be sure and stop by her blog and say HI!

Have a wonderful day!

Hi friends!  It's Mary Ann here with a cute little holiday gift... so quick and easy to make, just perfect for a friend or neighbor that drops by.


I've seen so many different versions of these on Pinterest, some quite detailed, but for mine I just used cardstock for the hat and holly, a few rhinestones and washi tape (on a piece of white cardstock) for his scarf.

These battery operated tea lights can be found almost anywhere, and are fairly inexpensive.
Such a fun project, the kids could even help on this one ;)

Thanks so much for dropping by today!

Have you stopped in to check out the Banner Challenge for this month?  Tina always does such a great job choosing fun challenges and you even have the chance to win some Love My Tapes goodies!!  Who doesn't love free stuff??!!

I created a layout this month based on the Banner Challenge, just to give you a little more inspiration.  The great thing about Washi Tape, is the ability to reposition it.  I used it to fold over little strips and cut a triangle in each end, to create banner pennants. If it wasn't lined up, I just unpeeled the tape and reset it, until I had it just where I needed it.





I played with different lengths and cut the triangle into some of the pieces and left some of the other edges straight.  To finish off the banner and make it more fun, I added the pieces of Washi Tape over embroidery floss and then mixed in some triangle pieces cut from patterned paper and a couple of buttons.

I always have the worst time taking photos of the kids decorating the tree, because our dining room is painted a Terracotta Orange.  So the color of the photos always comes out looking awful.  I decided to fix that problem by just turning them black and white and I love the effect that it creates with the non-traditional Christmas colors I like to use on my layouts.

I hope you will come play along with us this month at Love My Tapes!!  Make sure you link up your Banner project/layout for the chance to win some awesome Love My Tapes goodies!!

Hello and Happy Tuesday!

Tina here today with some exciting news!

We would like to welcome Annette Allen to the Love My Tapes family!  Annette joined us as a Guest Designer back in October, and we fell in love with her projects, so we decided to ask her to join our Design Team permanently.  :)

If you missed her introduction in October, here is a little about Annette.

It's Mary Ann with a project to share today that started with another project I found on the Love My Tapes Off The Page Pinterest Page. In Rita's original post, she used a paper sack as gift wrapping, and added washi tape to dress it up just a bit. I love the kraft color of the paper sacks, so I used them too for a little Christmas surprise I wanted to make.

This idea has been around for awhile and I've seen many versions of the poem, but this one is my favorite!

I started with a sandwich size bag, filled it with uncooked oats, then added in
gold and red colored cake sprinkles.

Next I cut a circle from the front part of a brown paper sack, then added the bag of food. I folded the top of the sack over, and stapled so it would stay together, and hold the bag of reindeer food, then added a strip of washi tape to cover the staples. I typed the cute poem on a tag, added a strip of washi and used a paper punch. To finish it off, I made a small medallion out of the washi tape (I added the washi to a strip of cardstock before folding), a larger medallion out of patterned paper then added the fun reindeer sticker. Of course the reindeer needed a red rhinestone nose! I can't wait until Christmas eve to see this sprinkled all over our yard ;)

Here is the poem in case you want to make your own Reindeer Food!

Hello and Happy Friday Love My Tapes friends!

Today, we are highlighting a special designer, Svetlana Austin, our December Guest Designer.  Let's get to know her a little better.


Hi, everyone! My name is Svetlana Austin. I am a Russian girl who ended up living in hot South Africa for the last 11 years. I met my husband while he was doing mission work in Russia. We have 2 beautiful sons who keep us busy and fill our lives with sunshine (not that we have lack of it in the northern part of our country). I was always creative. I tried many different crafts but once I was introduced to scrapbooking by my friend, I never stopped. It was 8 years ago. I defiantly love to create layouts about my little boys the most. My aim is to reflect their personalities through my work. I love to make real boy’s layouts full of colors and details. I like to use paint and sprays in my projects, as well as hand-stitching. Sometimes I like to make very romantic and feminine layouts about myself or about my girl-friends. It allows me to express the stuff that I personally like. My scrapbooking style is always determined by photographs I use and what kind of story I would like to tell through my project. I had a pleasure to design for various Russian and international challenge blogs. Also I was honored to be part of Kaisercraft's DT 2011-2012. You can visit my blog at Colourful Memories (http://www.colorfulmemories-protea.blogspot.com/)
I am very thankful to Tina for inviting me to be a Guest Designer at Love My Tapes this month!

Svetlana's first project is an absolutely gorgeous card.  Here's what she had to say about it.


I made this card as a gift for one very special person - for no specific occasion. I decorated it with antique self adhesive lace. I also used floral fabric tape to make little decorative banners. For that I applied two rows  of the tape on a piece of cardstock overlapping it a little. After that I just cut the banners in the size it needed them to be. This allowed me to achieve more dimension on my card.


Svetlana's second project is a stunning layout. 


Layout:
Though most of my projects are about my boys I actually like real girly stuff - flowers and some frills. I am so much in love with the lace tape I received that it became the main inspiration behind all of my projects I created for LMT.
This lace has nice shabby feel to it and it is a pure pleasure to be able to stick it on right away.For this layout I made some alteration to the lace by cutting it out to create softer round look on the lacy border.
I also used washi tape to make a little corner matting for my photo. I sticked it on a piece of cardstock and then cut it out. It gave nice contrasting accent to my layout.



WOW - aren't her projects beautiful? 

Thank you Svetlana for sharing your talent with us today!

Hellloooo and Happy Wednesday!

Tina here today with the latest LMT challenge.  Who is ready??

Let get right to the details!

2. The challenge is open until December 28, 2012.


I kept the paper backing on the fabric tape cut banner shapes in several colors and adhered them to my layout.