Fussy Cutting

Fussy cutting - can I get a show of hands for those of you who wondered just what the heck the term "fussy cutting" meant when you first heard it?  If it makes you fussy, why in the world would you want to do it?!  Well, for those of you who are still just a little unsure what fussy cutting is - it's not something that makes you mad, it is taking a piece of scrapbook paper - or any paper - and cutting specific images out of it, following very closely to the outline of the image.  Think of it as creating a die cut without the machine.  And today, we have lots of wonderful examples of fussy cutting from our On Trend team - everything from the sweet and simple "just right" embellishment to the intricately detailed...take a look:

 

Practical Scrapper Wendi Robinson fussy cut out scallops and added pop dots to make a layered effect, she also fussy cut the heart and lil elephants.

Practical Scrapper Mary Pat stamped several elements, fussy cut them, and turned them into embellishments (banner, just be you, love).

Practical Scrapper Lanette fussy cut lots and lots of Bo Bunny flowers and clustered them together to create this romantic card.

Practical Scrapper Audrey Yeager fussy cut the flowers and doilies on her page to create embellishment clusters.

Practical Scrappers Claude used letter stickers on a piece of cardstock and then fussy cut around the title. She then pop-dotted it to make it stand out.

Practical Scrapper Marcia Dehn-Nix fussy cut the victorian lady and rose from patterned paper in this A Ladies Diary Collection by Graphic 45. Then she adhered them with foam tape to give her layout dimension.

 

Practical Scrapper Krissy Clark McKee fussy cut her arrows along the top and bottom of her layout.  She then fussy cut additional matching pieces that she sewed on top in several places to create extra dimension.

Getting Messy with Masks, Mists, and Splatters

Happy Monday, Practical Scrappers!  Remember how fun (and messy) fingerpainting was when you were a child?  Well today, our On Trend team is showing you the grown-up equivalent of finger-painting fun to create beautiful layouts.  How?  By getting down and dirty with masks, mists, and splatters!   

Practical Scrapper Wendi Robinson used gesso over her mask.  She then created a second layer by misting over her mask.

Practical Scrapper Mary Pat applied her mists onto a Studio Calico mask to create the large sunburst on her layout.

Practical Scrapper Jenn C used digital splatters on her layout to create a water effect!

Practical Scrapper Charissa used white mists over a triangle mask to create a subtle background on her page.  She then splattered an iridescent mist to add a water droplet look across the layout.

 

Practical Scrapper Julie used modeling paste with her mask to add dimension to her layout.  She then misted her layout with Ranger dylusion ink.

Practical Scrapper Caz Hancock used a Studio Calico mask to make her back ground.  She achieved her colour by mixing an iridescent medium with silver metallic Martha Stewart paint. She then added spatters using her Mister Huey mists from Studio Calico.

Practical Scrapper Malika Kelly used a mask and two different-colored mists.  Then she splattered drops of ink in a third color onto her layout.

Practical Scrapper Audrey Yeager used a mix of watered down mists and dripped them from a sponge brush onto her page.

 Practical Scrapper Nicole Laha went crazy with ink splatters to create the appearance of rain. She also sprayed a bit of mist onto a craft mat, using a paint brush to pick up the ink and color in the stamped image.

Practical Scrapper Danielle de Konink applied a yellow mist to a confetti mask by The Crafter's Workshop to create the background of this layout. This mask has splatter and heart shapes.

Practical Scrapper Marcia Dehn-Nix applied distress ink to jar lids and bottle caps and stamped rings on her background. The grass background was also stamped using the same distress ink. Then she splattered misting spray by uncapping the spray bottle and flicking the ink off of the plastic tube.

Practical Scrapper Lanette used Dylusion  mist with a mask to create her background.  She then added a few splatters to accent the page.

Manufacturer's Challenges

When I have time to scrap for "me", one of the first things I do is pick a certain collection or line of paper that I want to work with, and then go scope out that manufacturer's blog for challenges. Not only do I find some inspiration, I usually end up putting a dent in my stash, too! The other great thing is that many of them give away prizes and give you recognition like pinning your project to their boards.  It is also fun to see what others have done for the challenge as well.

Some of my favorite blogs that have recurring challenges are: My Mind's Eye, Lily Bee, and Crate Paper, to name a few. (And YES, I have done a challenge for each of these blogs this month!)

I worked with this month's sketch from the Lily Bee blog and a mix of their latest "Pinwheel" and "Sweet Shoppe" collections.

I don't usually work with photos this large (or if I do, there is usually only one of them) so I kept my page fairly simple.

I stuck closely to the design of the sketch, except I changed it to two larger photos (although you can see behind the photos I still stitched the four squares. I even dug into my stash and found some older Lily Bee products to use on my page, too (the journaling card and the chipboard buttons).

So next time you want to slash some of your stash, pick a collection, and head over to the manufacturer's blog to get some ideas and find a challenge or two!

Thanks for stopping by today!

-Audrey Yeager

Somewhere Over the - Rainbows!

Happy Monday, Practical Scrappers!  Whether you are searching for a double rainbow or something that says there's no place like home, look no further because today our Practical Scrappers are showing you how they like to brighten up their layouts with...Rainbows!

Practical Scrapper Mary Pat used a pre-made rainbow die cut from Imaginisce on her layout.

Practical Scrapper Wendi Robinson fussy cut the rainbow from Bella Blvd's Kiss Me Collection.

Practical Scrapper Malika Kelly used a rainbow of colors behind her sunburst.

Practical Scrapper Audrey Yeager used a piece of rainbow paper from Echo Park as a focal point of her layout.

Practical Scrapper Marcia used twine in rainbow colors to fill the negative space on her card.

Practical Scrapper Nicole Laha used strips of patterned paper to create a rainbow-inspired background.

On Trend- Triangles

We've seen recent trends in papercrafting using circles, squares and hexagons, it's only natural that geometry has led us to triangles. They started appearing in arrows and banners as pennants, now triangles are all over the page. Don't believe me? check out these great pages by our designers:

Practical Scrapper Audrey Yeager created a triangle starbust pattern in her die cutting software (SCAL2) and then cut the design out of white cardstock and backed with patterned paper.

Practical Scrapper Danielle de Konink made herself a triangle mask with the Silhouette Cameo and misted the background. She also used triangle wood veneer shapes and washi tape with a triangle pattern.

 

Practical Scrapper Kylie used triangular chipboard banners by Teresa Collins and rotated them around various points on her page.  based on a STUCK sketch by Sara Noendeng.

Practical Scrapper Wendi Robinson used triangles to create a pattern running down the page and then overlapped triangles to create an arrow directing viewers to her photo.

 

Practical Scrapper Malika Kelly
used triangles as the mat for her pictures as well as to direct attention to her photos.

 

Practical Scrapper Mary Pat Siehl made triangles to create an arrow.  

  Practical Scrapper Caz used triangular wooden veneers to make sun rays behind her picture.

 

Happy Monday!

On Trend- Polaroids

There's no doubting that scrapbookers and paper crafters are nostalgic people, if you needed more proof, just look at the immense popularity of polaroid picture formats on projects these days. With our instant technology of digital and phone photography, I believe we are simply holding on to the essence of the polaroid so it's novelty isn't lost forever. 

 Check out how our designers used polaroids and preserved a bit of history on their projects:

Practical Scrapper Malika Kelly

Polaroids are very trendy right now, but hard to come by these days!  Make your own by using white cardstock and a frame cut file.

 

Practical Scrapper Mary Pat Siehl 

also created her own Polaroid frames using her Silhouette.

Practical Scrapper Marcia Dehn-Nix created a Polaroid Frame and used it for her card base.

Practical Scrapper Danielle de Konink created Polaroid frames with her Silhouette and used them behind her photos and as embellishments in the top left corner.

Practical Scrapper Audrey Yeager used a Polaroid stamp and some white embossing powder to create frames on her background.  She then layered some die cut frames around her page for her photo and journaling.

 Practical Scrapper Cathryn Hanson chose these unique brown Polaroid

frames that also created her title.

 

 Practical Scrapper Wendi Robinson

 created her own by cutting out square photos and then mounting them onto white cardstock and doodling a black outline.

 Practical Scrapper Erin Morehouse
also chose a Polaroid stamp, and cropped her photos to fit.

So if you haven't yet tried this trend, you can find plenty of pre-cut Polaroid type frames, chipboard, wood, stamps and stickers. There are also dies and electronic cut files widely available, but making your own is also simple and practical.

Happy Monday,

**Designer projects are not always linked in our posts, but you can always find their blogs in our sidebar or in the staff tab**

On Trend- Valentines

Love is in the air! At least when it comes to getting crafty... If you are anything like me, the abundance of red white and pink, coupled with all those hearts just makes you giddy around Valentines day. It could be that they remind me of happy days as a kid with a huge book of punch out Valentines, deciding which ones I was giving to each school friend. For many of us, the love of paper "stuff" begins young, and translates into beautiful creations like these now that we're all grown.
So if you still have Valentines projects to work on, let our designer's "love"-ly projects inspire you!

 

Practical Scrapper Audrey Yeager use the Crate Paper 'Fourteen" collection to document her kids current favorite thing they love.

 

 Practical Scrapper Danielle de Konink made a quick and easy Valentine's card. The arrow stamp and flair button are from Cre8tive Cre8tions. The word Valentine is cut out in different fonts with the Silhouette Cameo. For the background she misted a heart shaped doily.

  

Practical Scrapper Marcia Dehn-Nix created her Valentine's card using the Imaginisce Love You More collection.

Practical Scrapper Mary Pat Siehl also used the new collection Love You More from Imaginisce.

 

 Practical Scrapper Liz

 created this sweet Valentine with a great heart shaped doily.

 Practical Scrapper Nicole Laha used untraditional colors to create this Valentine. The layers are a mixture of supplies, including washi tape, cardboard, and doilies.

 Practical Scrapper Wendi Robinson

created a Valentines page about her love for her husband of the past 14 years

Practical Scrapper Kylie
used a STUCK sketch by Sara Noendeng.

 Practical Scrapper Erin used non-Valentine papers, some OLD My Mind's Eye die cuts and cupcake liners to create the ruffle and faux washi tape on her layout for an LCOM challenge.

**Designer projects are not always linked in our posts, but you can always find their blogs in our sidebar or in the staff tab**