Saturday, March 31, 2012

A couple more cards for the Craft's Meow Birthday Celebration



A couple cards to share today for The Craft's Meow's birthday bash.

This first card is for the sketch challenge.



I used one of the free digital stamps that Karen Baker designed for this card, but opted to use only a portion of the image, the large bloom. I printed the digital image multiple times, so I had an extra. I cut out an extra stem to use as a mask. Then using sponge daubers, I added Honey and Holiday Red ink to the image. Once I had the color intensity where I wanted it, I cut the image out.

The lines didn't print as crisply as I expected, but this could be because I don't actually have photoshop (I just inserted the .jpg into powerpoint and printed it from there), so I went over the lines with a black marker and also added some definition along the cut edges. I knew that I wanted to curve up the edges of the flower for some extra dimension, so I used the sponge dauber to add the Holiday Red to the back edges of the flower also. I colored the stem in using my blending pen and Topiary ink.

The rest of the card is pretty self explanatory. I'll list all the supplies I used at the end of this post.

My second card is for the Birthday Celebration Challenge. Here is the inspiration photo:



I was really inspired by the colors and the banners in the photo, and I just love how the card turned out. Can you tell what stamp I used for the banner? It's one of the Christmas trees from The Merry Best set. I have lots of fun papers, and could have die cut the banner pieces, but I love being able to get more bang for my buck with my Christmas stamps.



This was an easy card to put together. I knew I wanted to layer/overlap the banners, so I actually freehand stamped the two that are in the background. I used second generation stamping for this card to get a softer effect. The string that holds the banner together in those two background banners is drawn on using a blending pen.

For the banners in the foreground, I stamped more trees and pieced them. The row on the bottom was adhered directly to the card, and I used Lemondrop twine from the Twinery to string it together. I popped out the banner at the top using dimensional foam tape and also added some twine to that one. The sentiment is from the Elemental Workshop on the Go kit (kind of perfect for the occasion, right?) and was stamped in first generation.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you like the cards and are having a great weekend!

Supplies Used

Sketch Card
Paper/Cardstock: Black, White Daisy, and Holiday Red Cardstock
Stamps: TCM - Grateful Flower free digi; CTMH - Say it in Style
Ink: Honey, Holiday Red, Topiary
Other: EK Success Black Zig Marker; CTMH - Sponge Daubers, Dimensional Foam Tape, Bonding Memories Adhesive; Tombow adhesive; The Twinery - Buttercream twine; Creative Memories - Custom Cutting System, Circles

Birthday Celebration Card:
Stamps: TCM - The Merry Best; CTMH - Elemental Workshop on the Go set
Ink: CTMH - Goldrush, Twilight, Sorbet
Other: CTMH - Blending Pen, Dimensional Foam Tape, Bonding Memories Adhesive; The Twinery - Lemondrop Twine

Friday, March 30, 2012

Flashback Friday 22.0 - First Die Cut Card



I'm very honored to be the guest designer for Flashback Friday 22.0, which is a special Flashback Friday because we're doing a hop. You should have come here from Sylvia's blog (this week's sponsor). If you get lost, I have the hop order listed below.

If you've never played along at Flashback Friday before, the premise is this: you go back to the beginning of your blog and find your first creation that fits the challenge and repost it. Worried that the project isn't your best work? Chances are it isn't, but half the fun is seeing how far you've come/grown. So what are you waiting for, come play along!

If you need a little more motivation, how about a prize?

This month's sponsor is

Sylvia's Corner http://www.etsy.com/shop/sylviascorner



The prize is composed of a Stampin'Up! Sale-A-Bration package she put together. There is a Everyday Enchantment Tote, a 12"x12" package of Everyday Enchantment Designer Paper(12pieces), 10 card bases, two of each of these colors, Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, and Wisteria Wonder, 20" of Baja Breeze satin pleated ribbon, 2yds each Everyday Enchantment Organdy Ribbon Lucky Limeade and Calypso Coral, 10 Everyday Enchantment brads and 10 shaped clear buttons, and the Sale-A-Bration Fresh Vintage stamp set(wood mount, unmounted). This collection is sponsored by Sylvia's corner Etsy shop, where she sells her handmade cards, banners, gift bags and albums.

Ready to play? This month's challenge is to post your first project using a die cut.

Here is mine:



I made this shortly after getting my Cricut Expression and was experimenting with it and learning the ropes. Needless to say, I made a lot of unintended cuts (not that I still don't do that....). I put this card together for several challenges using some of my 'mistakes' as well a a few intentional cuts. I even put the card to good use, it went to my grandfather-in-law after he had been in the hospital.

Now it's your turn, find your first project using a die cut and link up over at Flashback Friday. Can't wait to see what your projects!http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

Now you're off to your next stop on the blog hop, Jessi.

Here's the full list in case you get turned around:

Flashback Friday blog: http://flashbackfridaychallenge.blogspot.com/
Sponsor: Sylvia http://syviastamps.typepad.com/sylvias_stamping_corner/
Miriam: http://mprantner.blogspot.com/
Jessi: http://onecraftymama-onecraftymama.blogspot.com/
Nance: http://soulstampin.blogspot.com/2012/03/flyin-by-flashback-friday.html
Amy: http://tsurutadesigns.blogspot.com/

Thanks for stopping by and have a GREAT weekend!

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

A Perfect Match for Sweet Stamp Shop Challenge



I've been contemplating this card in my mind for about a week or so, and was finally able to get it done tonight. The inspiration is the matching worksheets that Ellie has in her workbooks. Sweet Stamp Shop's new A Perfect Match set was 'perfect' for this.

This is for Sweet Stamp Shop's new monthly challenge:


I'm not going to list all the papers I used for this card since I'm not exactly sure what they all were at this point - many of them came from my scrap bag. That's one of the big benefits of paper piecing, you can use up lots of those little bits of paper that you have lying around.

It was actually lots of fun to choose the paper bits for this card, and I also used my blending pen on a couple of the images (dip/hot dog).

The alphabet stamps are my very first stamps ever, a retired CTMH set that I love and which works so well with the SSS stamps.

I also used one of the sentiments from the A Perfect Match on the inside of the card.



Hope that you like the card...I'm off to bed!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock - Various
Ink: Black
Stamps: Sweet Stamp Shop - A Perfect Match; CTMH - Playful Lowercase
Other: CTMH - Bonding Memories Adhesive; Kaiserkraft Tiny Alpha Stickers; EK Success - Red Zig Marker

Monday, March 26, 2012

Brown paper packages tied up with string for TCM Birthday and RCC45



Just a simple little card to share with you today.

The Craft's Meow is celebrating their first birthday, and as part of the celebration they are hosting a bunch of challenges. This is for the color challenge. Here is the inspiration picture:



I love those great spring colors, and was also inspired by those baskets which kind of reminded me of kraft paper.

That little group of gifts is from TCM's The Merry Best stamp set, and while the set is a holiday one, that present stamp can be used for any occasion you would give a gift to someone.

As I started contemplating the card, 'My Favorite Things' from the Sound of Music started running through my head, and what better to wrap a brown paper package with than some baker's twine? Which makes this card perfect for this week's Ribbon Carousel Challenge, RCC45, 'Baking with the Twinery'.

I thought about using multiple gift images, but I opted for the clean and simple look, and I like how it turned out. The twine is from the Twinery: Buttercream, Peapod, and Denim, and I used Liquid Glass to adhere it. I first put the small strip that goes around the gift on, and then tied a tiny bow to match the bow on the stamp and adhered that separately.

I'm off to do a little more stamping before bed tonight. Hope your week is off to a good start!

Supplies Used
Cardstock/Water: CTMH - Kraft, White Daisy, Chocolate cardstock
Stamps: The Craft's Meow - The Merry Best; CTMH - A Typeface
Ink: Desert Sand
Other: CTMH - Desert Sand Marker (used to add a little extra definition to the edges of the gifts), Liquid Glass; The Twinery - Buttercream, Peapod and Denim twine

Friday, March 23, 2012

Meant to be Friends Layout for Courtney Walsh's Sweethaven Scrapbooking Challenge



I've been following Courtney Walsh for a while now. She's a fellow scrapbooker who recently published her first novel, A Sweethaven Summer. As part of her publication celebration, she challenged her readers to complete some layouts based on ones that her friends created using themes from her book.

I planned to complete a few layouts for her challenge, but am only managing to squeak one in under the wire. I could not for the life of me find the other photos that I wanted to use for the other layouts....I know exactly what the envelope they are in looks like, but I clearly should never try and clean because then I lose things.

Anyway, one of the inspiration layouts/topics was about friendship, and there was one titled 'Friendship that was meant to be."

This layout is about my daughters, who, at 4 1/2 and 1 1/2 are actually wonderful friends and playmates. I'm praying that this will continue to be the case and that they will only become better friends as they grow up. I love to see the two of them together (they do fight, but for the most part, they get along really well), and this layout celebrates the first 18 months of their friendship.



I wanted to use a kind of color/quilt blocking technique here, and to give it a little extra emphasis. I used my sewing machine to 'stitch in the ditch' between the photos and the cardstock pieces.



I really like how it emphasizes each of the elements. The papers are some of my favorites from CTMH's Spring/Summer catalog, Stella, and I used the Just a Note stamp set as well as my large and small Friendship alphabets.



I'd write more, but I actually have to clean my house because the cleaning ladies are coming tomorrow....I know, I have to clean so they can clean, crazy, but it's really just straightening up and putting things away.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you had a great end to your week and enjoy the weekend. Ours is crazy with all sorts of activities, but should be fun.

Supplies Used:
Paper/Cardstock: CTMH - Stella Level 2 Papers, Sunset, Tulip, Cocoa, Colonial White, and Lagoon cardstock
Stamps: Just a Note, Friendship Large and Small Alphabets
Ink: Cocoa
Other: Pigma Micron Brown pen, Sewing Machine, Cocoa Grosgrain Ribbon, Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

CAS-ual Fridays 1-2-3 Challenge with CSS



This week's challenge at CAS-ual Fridays is a 1-2-3 challenge: create a project using a pattern, an image, and a sentiment. Clear and Simple Stamps is the sponsor. I recently won their Love Cupid set and wanted to ink it up and play along.

I stamped the cupid (which has a pattern on it, but I didn't know if you could double count something, so I'm also using a patterned paper), and then used my paper trimmer to cut from the top and bottom just down to the image. Using my cutting knife, I then did the delicate trimming around the cupid image...LOVE my cutting knife, gives me a ton of control and the confidence to cut out even the tiniest areas (like the inside parts of the bow) without worrying about slipping.

The sentiment/frame are also from the Love Cupid set. That piece I just cut using my CTMH scissors which are also great for precision cutting.

Once I had those pieces completed, the card came together very quickly. I was originally going to put the cocoa and white pieces right up against each other, but when I was assembling it, I liked seeing that bit of the patterned paper peeking through, so adjusted the design a little.

Thanks for stopping by, hope your week is going well!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock: American Crafts Hollyday Whiskers paper; CTMH - Cocoa and White Daisy cardstock
Stamps: Clear and Simple Stamps Love Cupid
Ink: CTMH Cocoa
Other: CTMH - Cutting Knife, Scissors, Bonding Memories Adhesive

Monday, March 19, 2012

I Want Candy for RCC and Paper Issues



Sweet Stamp Shop, one of my favorites companies is sponsoring a sketch challenge at Ribbon Carousel, RCC44 this week. By sheer happy coincidence, Paper Issues' theme this week is "Welcome to the Candy Shop" so I'm linking this card up there too.

I love this card, because it was so much fun to put together, and it's so true. I do want candy, all the time. It's often the first thing I eat in the morning and the last thing I eat at night. I know where all the candy jars are at the office, and my colleagues have learned that I am easily bribed/appeased with tasty treats. I have a total sweet tooth....which I am sure is not why you are here, so let's get down to business.

There are a bunch of companies selling eye chart stamps (which I love, but haven't gotten a chance to purchase yet), and I wanted to do something similar with this card. I played around in Microsoft Word, trying out different fonts/sizes/spacing until I got the right look.

The glasses are from Sweet Stamp Shop's Spectacle set, which just came in the mail on Saturday and I was psyched to ink it up so soon. I also used their Sweet Tooth stamp set for the candy piece as well as to create the pattern on the circle piece. That was created with the bubble border stamp. I wanted it to be a little more solid, so I stamped inside the larger circles with the closest small round thing I could find....the end of a crayon. Kind of neat, huh?



This is for the Ribbon Carousel challenge and I used two trims. First, some Lemondrop Twinery twine. I pierced holes in the corners of the Lagoon cardstock piece and then threaded the twine through. For straight lines, this is a great way to 'adhere' the twine since you don't actually need to use any adhesive. I often find when I'm working with twine that it gets rather messy....I get adhesive in all sorts of places I don't want it, or the twine gets stretched/twisted too much or too little, so eliminating the need for adhesive is a big deal for me.



I also used some red grosgrain ribbon with white accents that I got at Christmastime from Michael's. I used red thread to tie the ends to kind of mimic the wrapping on a piece of candy.



So there you have it. What do you think? Make you want to have some candy too? I'm in trouble since I just finished my bag of Haribo Peach Gummies.....must get to the store.....

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock: CTMH - Cranberry, Lagoon, and White Daisy cardstock; Creative Memories - Red cardstock (candy piece); Bella Blvd - Winter Wonder, Icy
Stamps: Sweet Stamp Shop: Spectacle, Sweet Tooth
Ink: CTMH - Cranberry, Black
Other: The Twinery - Lemondrop Twine, Michael's - Red Grosgrain ribbon; CTMH - Dimensional Foam Tape, Piercing Tool

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Tuesday Morning Sketch #137 with TSG



Thought I would try out a new challenge (new for me at least) this week. The Tuesday Morning Sketch challenge is being sponsored by There She Goes stamps this week, and the cards need to be monochromatic.

I don't normally work/think in monochromatic, so I thought this would be a good stretch for me, but it ended up coming together much more quickly than I thought it would.

To simplify, I used one of the CTMH pre-cut cards as a base, so the card size is 4 1/4" x 5 1/2". I cut 10 1 1/8" squares of cardstock from American Crafts Hello Sunshine, Gossamer paper. I used the pattened side on the top and bottom rows, alternating the direction of the chevrons, and then the solid side of the paper for the two squares in the middle row.

For the image pieces, I cut two ovals from white cardstock using my CM custom cutting system. I used a sponge dauber with Desert Sand ink and then Chocolate ink to add color around the edges of the inside oval, carefully working the color in towards the center of the oval. Then I stamped just the top portion of one of the large image stamps from TSG's Little Moments stamp set. I also used the sponge dauber to add just a hint of definition on the edge of the outer oval.

The faux stitching is a stamp from the You & Me stamp set. I thought it kind of anchored the card a bit.

The twine is from the Twinery, and it's strung through some Designer Wooden Buttons. They are adhered to the card using liquid glass. I first threaded them through the small button, and used liquid glass to adhere. The threads of twine go around the inside of the card and then are threaded through the larger button. Once I had the tension right, I adhered the button with liquid glass. Once it had dried, I tied the bow.





I had a good time making this card, and will definitely be playing along over at Tuesday Morning Sketches again.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great rest of your weekend!

Supplies Used:
Paper/Cardstock: American Crafts: Hello Sunshine, Gossamer; CTMH - White Daisy Cardstock
Stamps: There She Goes: Little Moments; CTMH - You & Me
Ink: CTMH - Desert Sand, Chocolate
Other: CTMH - Sponge Dauber, Designer Wooden Buttons, White Daisy card base; Creative Memories - Custom Cutting System, Ovals; The Twinery - Cappuccino twine

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Market Street Stamps Paint theTown Challenge



After all the layouts I've done lately, I'm kind of in a card mood these days (although I still have a few scrapbooking projects that I'm finishing up). I really liked the color story for Market Street Stamps' current Paint the Town Challenge, so I thought I would play along.

This card uses the Faith in You set. I stamped the flowers from that set multiple times on two strips of Gray Flannel cardstock using a mask in order to overlap the stamped images. By just showing a portion of the repeated image on both of the strips, I think you get an art deco feel that I really like. (Hint: for complicated images like this, where it takes a while to cut out the image, I save my masks for future use.)

The rest of the card is pretty simple, layering different strips/thicknesses of the cardstock colors to get the end result.

The sentiment piece is lightly sponged on the edges for a bit of definition and also popped up with some dimensional foam tape.

Hope you like it and are having a great weekend. We're enjoying the great weather here on the east coast.

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock: CTMH - Juniper, Colonial White, and Gray Flannel carstock; Creative Memories - Navy Blue cardstock
Ink: CTMH - Outdoor Denim
Stamps: Market Street Stamps - Faith in You
Other: CTMH - Dimensional Foam Tape

Monday, March 12, 2012

Card for CASE Study and Play Date Cafe



I haven't played along over at CASE study in a while. Laura Bassen is this month's muse. I love her work, it's so clean and graphic, modern but whimsical. Here is the inspiration card for this week:



I'm usually pretty literal in my CASE cards, but this one is a bit of a departure. I was really inspired by that large kind of wonky rectangular die - it reminded me of a butterfly, and that was my jumping off point. I also loved the color story from this week's Play Date Cafe challenge, and thought that the two challenges really went well together.



That fun yellow print was in a goodie box that came from Cath at Moxie Fab World. It's from the Hello Sunshine AC collection, and the print is called Brilliance. I love how bright and bold it is, and of course the name of the collection sparked the sentiment. The yellow is layered over Amy Tangerine's Oh Happy Gray paper.

It took me a while to find the right charcoal color for the card. I have a lot of gray papers, but when I think charcoal, I think dark, dark, dark, gray, almost black. This is an old Creative Memories color that I found in my stash.

I pulled out the sewing machine to stitch the layers together using both a straight and zigzag stitch.

The butterfly is from the Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge. I cut a solid white butterfly, and then from the charcoal color one of the butterfly accents. It's actually a frame, and those dark pieces are the negative cuts from the image, but I wanted to highlight the white of the die cut. I was a little afraid that it wouldn't stand out enough against the yellow, so I cut the outer edges of the frame and adhered them just on the edge of the underside of the die cut to add a little definition. The letters were cut from the Wild Card cartridge.

I wanted to mimic the ribbon on the original card. I cut two small pieces of 1/2" white cardstock, trimmed one end to create the pennant shape and folded the other end under, securing it with a little brad. They were then adhered to the card with some dimensional foam tape. The butterfly was also popped up with some foam tape.



I had a great time making this card. Something about that yellow paper and the sentiment just makes me happy, and with the coming of spring, and more daylight hours, it just feels like the right card at the right time.

Hope your week is off to a great start!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock: American Crafts - Hello Sunshine Brilliance, Amy Tangerine Oh Happy Gray; CTMH - White Daisy cardstock; Creative Memories - Gray cardstock
Other: CTMH - Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge, pewter brads, dimensional foam tape, Bonding Memories adhesive; Cricut Wild Card cartridges; sewing machine

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Customizable Card using Pemberley Papers



Just popping in to share one of the cards we made at my card workshop last night.

The Pemberley Paper Pack is another one of my favorites from the current idea book. Some really gorgeous patterns and I love the color combinations. This card is very simple, but the addition of some generational stamping, piecing, and personalization makes it special.

The stamp set used is Card Word Puzzle. There are so many different words on it that you can make your card say just about anything, so while I made my card an anniversary card, the workshop attendees each chose different sentiment. Since the card layout is so basic, you can easily pre-make a stack and then depending on your particular needs later on, add the sentiment to suit.

For the sentiment piece, I stamped the flower image in second generation using Desert Sand ink. The leaves were stamped in first generation, and I used both a first and second generation image of the butterfly. Then I stamped a leaf, flower, and butterfly in first generation on another piece of cardstock, cut them out and layered them over the previously stamped images to add some dimension.



These images are great because you could personalize them further using a marker, blending pen, or watercolor pencil to add some more color, but for this card I prefer the basic lined images.

Hope you have a great rest of your weekend....we're still recovering from that lost hour here....

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock: Pemberley Level 2 Paper Pack, Colonial White cardstock
Stamps: Card Word Puzzle
Ink: Outdoor Denim, Desert Sand
Other: Colonial White Card Value Pack

Friday, March 9, 2012

Sending Hope and Love (My Tapes!)



This is not a normal card for me, I don't consider myself and girly girl, and I tend towards the non-frilly/lacy in life. BUT, I received some fabulous goodies from Love My Tapes about a month ago which included both their pink and green lace tapes, and I've been waiting for the perfect project to use them on. When I saw that the Love My Tapes challenge for this month was all about lace, I knew I had to play along.

It was easy as pie to create these flowers since there is already adhesive on the lace. I punched out two circles (1 1/4" and 3/4") and just turned/pinched/stuck, and it was done in a jiffy and my hands weren't covered in glue.



To create the flower centers, I used chocolate twine from the Twinery. I tied a knot in the twine, and then another knot over that, repeating this several times until I got a big enough ball/knot....maybe about 1/8" in diameter. The next part is kind of hard to describe. I should have taken pictures, although I'm not sure how I would have done that since you need two hands for this and everyone else was already in bed, but anyway, it's kind of like making a frosting rose. I used the knot as the base, added some liquid glass to the sides, and twirled the twine around it until I got it the right width. I really like those flower centers....they might be my favorite part of the card, so I'll definitely be doing that again.



For the flower stems and leaves, I used pieces of the green tape. The great thing about lace crochet which already has adesive backing on it, is that you can cut it without a lot of, if any, fraying. I used the thin portion along the straight side of the lace to create the stems, and then cut out some of the curved shapes for the leaves. The green lace tape was used as is for the grass.

The sentiment is from the All Things are Possible Ippity by Unity stamp set.

Like I said, this is a different sort of card for me, but I like how it turned out, and it actually looks a lot better in person than it does in the photo....one of these days I'm going to have to come up with a real photo set up at home.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great weekend!

Supplies Used
Cardstock/Paper: CTMH - White Daisy and Kraft cardstock
Stamps: Ippity by Unity - All Things are Possible
Ink: Chocolate
Other: Love My Tapes - Pink and Green Lace Tape; The Twinery - Chocolate twine; CTMH - Dimensional Foam Tape, Liquid Glass

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Flashback Friday 21.0 - First Paper Pieced Card



This month at Flashback Friday we are sharing our first paper pieced card. This is a technique that I have come to love, much to my surprise. For a non colorer like myself (I would dearly LOVE to be able to color in my images like so many of you, but I just can't quite stomach the investment in those markers right now when there's so much other stuff I want, plus I'm a little intimidated by it, if you want the truth) this is a great way to kind of get that affect without actually having to color or own lots of markers.

Anyway, it was fun to look back over my paper pieced projects since they are some of my favorites, and I'm so excited to share this card with you again because I really love it.

My original post was about how you can use non-Christmas stamps to make Christmas cards, and this was just one of the cards that I shared in that post. I love this PS stamp set, and have used it many times, but this remains one of my favorite cards. I had a great time putting it together, and hope you enjoy it the second time around too.

Supplies Used
Paper: White Daisy, Topiary and Cranberry Cardstock
Stamps: Paper Smooches Hot Concoctions
Ink: Black

Monday, March 5, 2012

Cute is Cool Layout



Another layout to share today. I'm definitely in a scrapbooking groove these days, and since that doesn't happen that often, I've been letting myself go with the flow because goodness knows sometimes it's hard to sit down and get myself to finish some layouts!

This is kind of a different layout for me. I tend to scrap events, and this is more a moment. Still, I can never choose just one photo, so my simple solution is Flip Flaps. I just love these and in this instance it allows me to keep my page uncluttered.....just two photos, but actually incorporate five of them.

There's a lot going on in this layout, I did some experimenting, so let me walk you through it all.

The background paper was created using the negative image from some flower cuts for this card. I had actually die cut the whole sheet, but didn't want to have the pattern on the full sheet of cardstock, so I used some scrap paper to mask the extra cuts. To make sure that the sheet stayed in place when I was misting it, I just applied Bonding Memories adhesive and let it dry slightly. This makes it kind of tacky and not permanent, so I could put it down and then pull it up. For the mist, I used chocolate reinker and a spray pen.

The little flower embellishments were additional die cuts cut at 1 1/4" and 1". In order to get a more defined stitch image (and cut down on the amount of threads I had to cut, I used my piercing tool to mark the center of the flower. Then I started sewing from that point out to the edge, lifted the presser foot and turned it around, and went back over those stitches.





Since the stitching adds bulk to the embellishments, I ran them through my Xyron. This helps to flatten them a little and ensures even coverage of adhesive.



I also ran the letters through the Xyron. Cute and is were cut with the Art Philosophy cartridge and the cool is the font/shadow combination from Teresa Collins' Sophisticated cartridge.

The first photo of this post shows the base layout. Below are photos of the layout with the Flip Flaps open and closed. Sorry for the glare - it's always hard to get good photos when the page protectors are on.





For the journaling, I misted another piece of 4x6 cardstock and added a decorative element to that and the bottom photo on the 'closed' layout using some additional negative scraps from the flower embellishments and a fancy stitch on the sewing machine to dress them up.

A helpful hint for Flip Flaps: instead of just sliding the pictures/journaling in, add a little adhesive between them so that they are flush and you don't see an inside edge peeking out.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock: Colonial White, Hollyhock, Chocolate
Ink: Chocolate
Other: Cricut Art Philosophy and Teresa Collins Sophisticated cartridges, Sewing Machine, Xyron 5" Creative Station, Bonding Memories Adhesive, Love My Tapes Adhesive, 4x6 Flip Flaps, Pigma micron pen

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Exploring the Solar System Layout


One more layout for Bella Blvd's challenge week. This one was to use circle punches, and as you can see, I went a little punch crazy.

The photos are from a playdate we had with some of Ellie's preschool friends at a nearby park. There's a sprayground there (which wasn't on as we were there in October). It's modeled after the solar system, and there are these big planets sprinkled around the area.

I thought it was a perfect event to scrap for this challenge since some of the photos lent themselves to being 'rounded'.

My punches are Creative Memories shape makers. I have both the large and small ones, so the circles range from 3/4" to 1 1/2". I also used CM's custom cutting system circles on the photos/mats in the bottom corners. The large partial circle shape at the top of the page was made by tracing a plate on the cardstock.

The letters were cut using the Wild Card Cricut cartridge. I really like the script font from that cartridge. The letters were run through my Xyron (in retrospect I should have run all the punched circles through there too).

This layout was a lot of fun to do, and I've been kind of re-energized in my scrapbooking this week, and I'm enjoying these one pagers. I've even got my next one all planned out.

I was thinking about how I don't normally do scrapbook challenges, and was wondering why since I had so much fun with these last two. I think that a lot of it is that most of the scrapbooking challenges out there are sketch challenges, and while I LOVE card sketches, I'm not a huge fan of scrapbook ones. I feel like they're often just so impractical. I don't have the luxury of owning a printer and home and being able to print photos in any size/configuration I want. I work almost exclusively with 4x6 photos which I print every couple of months from Shutterfly in large batches. Plus, I dont' think I've ever scrapped only one photo on a page, I think three is the 'minimum', and I generally like to have at least four.

I think that's why I enjoyed these challenges so much. It was more a technique/product challenge that allows you to scrapbook in the way you normally do, and the two week time limit made it a lot easier to complete some projects. I had a great time, and I hope that Bella does it again. And, I'll be on the lookout for some more scrapbooking challenges of this type.

Looking forward to a weekend with no sick kids!

Supplies Used
Paper/Cardstock: Bella Blvd - Winter Wonder Blizzard and Toasty papers; CTMH - Hollyhock and White Daisy cardstock
Other: Cricut Wild Card cartridge; CM - Large and small circle makers; custom cutting system circles, Zig black marker, Xyron 5" creative station