Techniques!!!

It was my turn to post an "All About Me" challenge on Scrapdango today (www.scrapdango.net). So in honor of the National Football League's first official game of the 2009/2010 season tomorrow night I chose the theme of "Your Favorite Team". I used a two-page LO I created a couple of years ago about my favorite NFL team - The Washington Redskins. I had fun playing with lots of different techniques on this layout and thought I'd share them with you. Here's the LO -


The layout is created in the maroon and gold team colors. I downloaded the pictures of my favorite players off the internet along with their biographies. I made pockets with 3-D tape and put a tag behind each picture with the printed bios on it. (A GREAT hidden journaling technique!)

(Sorry the picture's a bit fuzzy.)
Creating a pocket for hidden journaling:
To create the pocket I bought some Scotch 3-D tape. You can find it at any craft or hardware store and even most drug or grocery stores. Create your pocket to the dimensions you desire. Measure three sides of the inside of your pocket and cut the tape to fit those three sides. You are going to leave the fourth side open to allow your hidden journaling to be pulled out. In this case it's a tag with a fiber pull. The 3-D tape has adhesive on both sides. Take one side of adhesive off and place your tape on the outermost edges so that the tape will basically "pop" your pocket off the page. Once you have your tape adhered to your pocket, remove the second side of the tape and adhere your pocket to your page in the desired position.
Printing on a Transparency:
I used a football style font to create my title which I printed on transparency film. I also typed my journaling onto transparency film. You can download many, many fonts off the internet to create whatever style of title you desire. The one I used here is Creating Keepsakes' "CK Sports Football".

To create this title I used an 8 1/2 x 11 plain old office transparency film. You can purchase them at any office supply store where the overhead projectors are sold. (Remember those things ladies?) Be sure you get the proper type of transparency for your printer style! I simply chose the landscape setting in my Page Setup and then typed my title. I sized it to fit my page (in this case it's 10" wide which leaves a 1/2" margin on either side of the transparency). Then you need to make sure you print it properly. The box containing the transparencies will tell you which side to print on. Then in your printer settings you'll want to choose the transparency setting. Once your transparency is printed leave it sitting on the tray for a minute or two so it will dry and you won't smear it. Cut it to fit your project and there you have it!
The best way to adhere transparencies that "I" have found is the Glue Dots Vellum Adhesive. Or you can use brads, eyelets, stitching, etc. to adhere it to your project.
Sometimes your printing won't show very well on your project. Painting on the opposite side of your printing is an easy and awesome way to make it stand out. On the left page I painted behind the title so it would show up against the dark background.

I had a maroon football helmet button so I used some paints and created the stripes to match my team’s colors. Believe me I'm NOT an artist - these are simple painting techniques! If I ruined it I could throw it away and not use it on my page.

This has been a very long post but it also includes several different techniques. I'd love your feedback on them. If you'd like to see more instructions on techniques please let me know. I've been considering a weekly or monthly instruction but didn't know if there would be any interest... What do you think ladies?