Scrapping Simply and Designing with Silhouette

Hi, it's Cathy here.  Happy New Year!!!! Over the past year, I've not had a lot of time for scrapping.  I've stayed creatively active. I'm still making cards and home decor, but I just didn't get much time to scrap.  Which is really disappointing to me.

I love to preserve the many memories, big and small, that my family experiences. Looking back through the scrapbooks is always so comforting and fun.  I decided that I needed to add scrapping back into my life. So I've made it a goal for this year!

But, I tend to get side-tracked from the task because I become overwhelmed. I want to record the memory, but I also want my page to be very appealing.  When I look around for inspiration, I start to turn my page into something more. More artistic. More full. More graphic. More involved..... which makes me feel more pressured! And then, I end up not getting the page made.

I read this article recently, Why I Stopped Scrapbooking by Lisa Moorefield. It made me re-think how I've been scrapping.  I don't need each page to be innovative and worthy of hanging in an art museum!  I just need the page to capture our memories.  So, I'm scaling back, I'm purging supplies, I'm getting more simple, and I'm going to scrap more!

I Got this year off to a good start by already getting a page done!  Using a photo from our New Year's Eve fun, I designed this page in the Silhouette software.  This is another thing that helps keep it simple for me. Simple shapes, easy layout, easy cutting!

We had fun using some props for photos. I made those with the Silhouette too. So I incorporated them right into the page design.

I'm not a fan of my own handwriting, so I typed out the journaling and used the print-and-cut feature to add that to my page.

Using a sketch pen, I added some simple details like the date and drawn circles.. I really like the diversity of the Silhouette Cameo tool.

After I had everything printed or cut out, I added adhesive to put it all together.  Ta-Da!  One page completed!!  May not sound like much, but, that is an accomplishment for me!

All of us at Ideas For Scrapbookers wish you a very Happy, Healthy, Fun and Creative New Year!

Silent Night Canvas from a Digital Stamp

Would you believe this canvas was created using a digital stamp? It was!  Seriously!  The digital stamp that inspired me is Silent Night Digital Stamp from Arty Pants Digital Stamps and is available at The DigiChick. It just released today!!! So it's on sale right now!  Hurry to grab it for yourself!

The wonderful designer created these stamps in several sizes so they can easily be used for cards, scrapbooking or even to create wall art. She also provides layered versions of each stamp, so you can easily clip digital papers to them!

The canvas I used is a 9x12, it was already stretched on the wood base.  I mixed a few paints to get a blue color that I was happy with, then painted a few layers on the canvas.  While that was drying, I used the 8x10 version of the stamp. I brought it into Silhouette Studio and traced it to create cut lines.  I cut it from matte white Oracal vinyl (outdoor).  The stars are from 2 different Silhouette shapes available from Silhouette. Nativity (shape 52103) and Wise men still seek him (shape 35315). I cut the stars from gold vinyl.

I wanted the canvas to have a slight aged/primitive look to it. So I took some white ink and dabbed it around the edges to give it an aged effect.  I then layered the vinyl, the gold stars first then the white letters on top.

Now I've got a beautiful holiday wall art to help us stay focused on the true meaning of Christmas!

Eggtravaganza of Cards

Happy Sunday! 

Today, Im sharing with you a bunch of cards that I made for this coming Easter for your inspiration. With Easter coming in one week, it is not too late to make some fun cards to give to your family and friends and loved ones.... 

This first card has an adorable bunny just stamped on cardstock and colored only the flower part. 

This stamp is from Stamps By Judith

 This next card can be used pretty much for anything in spring or even a get well card. 

The stamp Simple Filler Stems is from Heartfelt Creations. 

The same goes for this pink card, since there is no title to the front. 

The stamp Scenery Builder is from Heartfelt Creations. 

This card has NO patterned paper, only embossing and the flower was made with Rose creations from Spellbinders. The sentiment is just printed from the computer. 

Here is a fun and fast Chocolate Easter Bunny Card...who doesn't love chocolate! 

The tutorial for the wreath can be found here. 

Here is a beautiful cross made with a Heartfelt creations diecut, Cross and Lilies Die and flowered stamps, Malabar Clemitis Stamps

The sentiment is also from the computer. 

This last but not least Chocolate Bunny Card was made using lots of Donna Salazar's Artistic Papers and only too minutes to make! Love when that happens! 

Hope you enjoyed and are inspired to make some Easter cards for the upcoming holiday!
Thanks for stopping by!

Easy Easter Basket Tutorial

Happy Saturday!

Today I was browsing around trying to get an idea for a Easter basket made out of paper. I ran across the Martha Stewart Page and seen a cute little Easter basket. However, it was a bit larger than I wanted so I changed the size around and skipped a few steps to make this basket faster and easier to make. :)

Here is the supplies you will need:

Scoring Board

Paper Trimmer

Garden Trellis Punch, Flower Punch, Leaves Punch

Scissors or Kraft Knife

Glue

Cardstock: Kraft, White, Green, & Any Color

First, cut a piece of kraft cardstock 6 x 6 inches and score at 2 inches and 4 inches both ways

Next, cut the corners out with a kraft knife or scissors. Then fold edges inwards.

Using the MS garden trellis punch, punch and cut white cardstock, 6 inches x2 and 9 inches x 1

Cut a piece of kraft cardstock, 1 x 6 inches. Then layer 6 inch trellis on top of each other and glue down to the kraft paper. Place aside.

Starting on the top of the edge glue down as you go wrapping the 9 inch piece of trellis all around the box. It will keep the box together.

As you can see there will be an edge. That edge will wrap around the last edge and should line up with the rest of the trellis.

Slightly curl handle and glue in the inside of the basket.

I used my fiskars small flower punch and a vine punch from Punch Bunch, but you can add premade flowers and leaves if you want....I used my scraps.... :) I placed the flowers on the side that has the finished edge and the opposite side.

Here again is the finished baskets. They are really fast to make and perfect for little gifts or table settings. Sorry I don't have any candy in them yet.....soon! You get the idea! lol

Hope you enjoyed my tutorial.....thanks for stopping by!

Kissing Ball

Hi everyone, Nancy here with a fun holiday project for you.

As I am sure you know that when you step under the mistletoe you are inviting a kiss; but did you ever wonder where the tradition came from?  Like many of our current traditions, this one comes from the middle ages, but was updated during the reign of Queen Victoria.  I found a detailed story here if you are interested, but here is an excerpt....

People would take a potato or apple and tie a pretty ribbon around it as a hanger.  Then they would stick sprigs of evergreen, holly and sweet herbs into the potato or apple until it bristled with them.

The herbs in the sweet ball took on the highly romanticized symbolism common to the Victorian area. Simon and Garfunkel weren't the only ones singing about "Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme".   Each of those herbs plus dozens and dozens more flowers, herbs and plants spoke a unique and private symbolic language to Victorians.  The choice of herbs, flowers and boughs could state love, affection, charity, piety and more.

I decided to create my own version of a kissing ball using some beautiful flowers, distress inks, glimmer mist, a bit of seam binding and a styrofoam ball. 

I used Festive Berries from the Tim Holtz LE Winter Distress Inks to color each flower. (a handful of flowers was all I needed.)

 And then spritzed them with a bit of Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Mist to give them some sparkle and shine.

 I cut a few holly leaves with my Sizzix....

And inked them with the other two colors of Distress Ink that were in the kit, Evergreen Bough and Iced Spruce.  (hint, a quick fold down the middle, run the fold directly over the pad, and you get a nice vein)

I attached the flowers to the ball using liquid glue.  I find liquid glue works best when gluing items that may still be a bit damp.

To finish off my project I ran a bit of seam binding across the Evergreen Bough,  and added a coordinating rose.  A few pearls in the center of each flower and my kissing ball was ready to hang.

I hope I have inspired you to create a little holiday magic in your home this season.

Hugs.

Designer Showcase: Halloween

Hallowe'en, Hallowe'en,

Strangest sights I've ever seen,

Witches hat, coal-black cats,

Ghosts and goblins,

Mice and rats!

This weeks Designer Showcase is all about Halloween.  We've got scary, spooky, fun and sweet treats for you! 

Cindy is sharing 4 pages with us. This first one really captured the fun of this Halloween party.  The block design gave her plenty of room to include several photos and jounraling.  She even put in some scary bats!  The way she tilted the large block is a really clever way to add interest and whimsy to the page.

Check out all the fun that Cindy packed into this page!  This clean and simple style lets the photos tell the story.  I'm a sucker for pages with multiple photos, and I just adore the mixture on this page.  The little striped trim and curved corners to the title/journal block are just the right accent for this page.

Look at this trick. Cindy has used a similar block style as the previous page, but she has included one larger photo on the bottom row.  And she balanced her page with the scattering of pumpkin embellies.  In her title, she has mixed alphas together. I think that really adds even more fun to this page!

In this final example, Cindy has laid out the story in a sequence of photos. What a great way to really capture that memory.  I love the torn edge of the paper mat, makes me think of all the scraping to get the seeds and gunk out of the pumpkin.

Heather has a few pages to scare with us.  I mean share with us!  3 Spooky pumpkins?  I don't think so. Now that spider? That's another story!  That gives me the creeps!  I love how it really looks to be hanging from a cobweb on the page.  I also really like the use of the Kraft colored paper background with patterned papers as the accents.

With a title like "Spookie - Pookie" there's nothing spooky about this page. It's all cute through and through!  From the adorable photos, which look great in black and white, to the cute little embellies, this whole page just "eeeks" with cuteness.

Dolores made this adorable digital page. The curved green and purple strips look just like a pathway for her little trick-or-treater to skip along.  I love the way she positioned the gorgeous flourishes. They are like the magic dust blowing in the Autumn wind coming off the little faerie in the picture!

Vicky has shared this Halloween page. Her title is an appropriate description of her page "cuter than most". This is about the most shabby chic Halloween page I've ever seen.  What an adorable photo, that costume is just too cute! I love the way Vicky has place a flower as if the baby is holding it.  The lace embellies are so perfect a match for the fuzziness of the costume.  This is total eye candy!

Nancy is sharing a couple of seasonal cards to get us inspired. Isn't it great how she combines the vintage images with modern embellies? Really darling.  These would be a sweet greeting to send out, or great journaling spots for a Halloween layout.  That's double sweet!

A little something creepy to leave you with.... I used digital goodies to create a wall calendar. Once I have all the months made up, I'll print it out, bind it and I've got a wonderful Christmas present.  What's so creepy about that? It's for the 2012 calendar and there are only 74 days left in this year!!!  Time is flying by like all these little ghosts and goblins.

We hope we have inspired you to get creating your Halloween projects!  

Decoupage a Pumpkin

I saw this neat idea in a magazine. To decoupage a pumpkin!  I thought it would be a really cool thing to do using scrapping and craft materials.

Yep, you read that right. I decoupaged a pumpkin!  OK, so no, it is not a "real" pumpkin. It is one of those craft pumpkins. Which is even better, cause this baby will last way past when all the Halloween candy has been eaten!

As I said, this was not completely my idea.  I saw this on the cover of Country Living magazine.  But I decided to take it hybrid and kick it up a few notches!

I used papers from a digital kit.  Which was great, I could print out as many copies as I needed. I printed them onto cover card stock paper.  I have an ink jet printer and this worked well for me. I let the papers dry thoroughly after printing.

I cut the papers into strip of varying sizes, between .5 inch and .75 inch wide. I decoupaged the papers on to the pumpkin. Working on half the pumpkin at a time and allowing it to dry. Once all the paper was adhered,  I   then sprinkled glitter as I added thin layers of the sealant.  I also sprinkled some gold embossing powder and heated it up. Oh it's so pretty up close. Wanna peak?

The glittery stuff never shows up as well in my photos.  I also took a part a Fall floral bunch and adhered them at the stem, placed a rhinestone flourish and added a few paper roses.  This is definitely not a scary pumpkin! I was surprised that my guys actually like it!  They usually go for the blood and guts Halloween decor.

Now I've got a pretty decoration that can last through the Autumn holidays.  I hope this inspires you to give it a try too!