Negative Space

So... Babycakes is not one of the kits I'm featuring at a crop.  So I started playing with the paper pack that I have.  My 'baby' is 15, but I'm expecting my first nephew in December.  So whether these pages stay in my no-photo's album until I get that first grandchild, or if they are pictures of my daughter and nephew I'm covered with this great paper.

I also tried out the new Artbooking cartridge.  It's taking me a little while to get used to it and see what I can use from the pages.  One of the great consultants at convention mentioned using the reverse spaces of background cuts, and I tried it out.

Frist I cut the lattice background from page 50 of the book - (no shift).  The items on this page are designed to perfectly fit a 8X6 mini album, but I work in 12X12's.  So I set my Cricut for 11" and got this:

I was left with these negative spaces still on my Cricut mat.

From my test run with white paper, I had noticed a triangle pattern when cleaning it off, so I removed some of the brown squares to get this:

I used glossy accents on the squares and triangles for one corner:

and then placed my colonial white paper over, pressed down and then waited about 10 minutes for it to set well.   Then I picked by cardstock up slowly and most of the squares stuck to the paper.

For the ones that didn't I just peeled them off the mat and glued them back down.  The newer your mat, the more this might happen.

In the end, I have two pretty cool bases for a double spread.

After I finished I had this:

I can't decide if I like the negative space even better than the main cut!

White paper

When I buy a new album, the covers come with a very thin piece of white paper in them.  It's not good enough quality to actually use in my scrapbooks.  I hang onto the piece and use them to test cut items on the Cricut or for those first few images of a new stamp.  They are also great as place holders for pages you don't have the perfect pictures for just yet.   I marked the size I will need to cut my photos in order to fit the mats or spaces.

This is Babycakes paper pack with the matching canvas sticker set.  Canvas stickers are really cool and add some nice texture to the pages.  The lattice work at the bottom of the second page is from the Artbooking cartridge, page 50, 11".

Color Dare #54

I chose Pacifica as my additional color in the Color My Heart Dare.  The paper is Champagne, the background stamp from Geometric Backgrounds (D1559) in Cashmere.  I spritzed on some Pacifica/alcohol mix in a spray pen (Z1380) after stamping the background. I wrapped it in natural hemp (Z280) before adhering the birds with 3D foam tape (Z1151) .  The blue birds are cut in Pacifica cardstock from the Artbooking cartridge, page 59 (real dial size 1 3/4"), distressed with Cashmere and shined up with Stardust Glitz (Z1313). The small buttons are from the Wooden embellishment collection (Z1837).  The sentiment, one of my favorites, is from All the Details (D1555).

Giraffe Box

How cute is this?  One of our lovely scrappers is headed to another city and to an exciting new job.  We will miss her.  As a going away gift I made her some change of address cards, and put them in gift box I cut from the Artiste cartridge.  (She loves giraffe's!)  As a note to anyone else trying this cute box, the booklet says max of 6.5", but I found you could only cut the top at a maximum of 5.75".
The box is stamped using the Wild Wonders stamp set (giraffe is an auto cut from the Artbooking cartridge, don't forget to set it on real size) and the cards were stamped from a prior SOTM, using black pigment ink and embossing powders.  The bottom just slides into the wrap around top. 

Frames

Join me on Thursday, August 15, 5:30pm - 7:30pm for a card workshop.  Three cards for $3.   I worked with frames this time, and the Buzz and Bumble paper pack. Hope to see you then!

Color Dare #53

Some colors you love, some you don't.  Purple's not on my favorites list, but this combo turned out better than I thought.  That's one of the great things about the color dares.  They can get you out of your normal color box.

I used old paper packs on this one, but a new stamp set - Stitch Wonder (C1564 $13.95).  A little glitz and some stamped color ready seam binding ribbon.  I'm trying to keep my 'Love you' cards very flat, as they usually go to my daughter at camp.  Check out the other cards, or show off your own at Color My Heart.  New dares are posted on Fridays.

Laughing Lola

The 9-9 Crop will be on August 24.  The featured kit is Laughing Lola and there are three options to choose from, a paper pack ($9.95), a scrapbooking kit ($29.95) and a card kit ($24.95).

CTMH Layout for Laughing Lola Kit

CTMH artwork from paper pack

CTMH Laughing Lola Card Kit


Place your orders with me by the 4th.  It is Ink Club Month for those participating.  An order of $50 won't get you the stamp of the month for $5 in August - it'll get you the SOTM for free!



Cubbie Class

Great job on  your cubbies ladies!  We had a great time with one everyday box, one Halloween and one Christmas!  If you didn't make it to the class, let me know if you need to pick up your kit, or if you will be completing it at our next crop, on August 24th.  Thanks and happy scrapping!

Color Dare

I pulled a lot of old for this Color Dare, but used a new stamp for the words, and tried out the pigment inks and clear embossing powders.  I love the look and that I don't get little specks of colored powder on everything!  I did find soap, water and an old toothbrush were the best ways to clean my stamps after using the pigment ink.

Try your own hand at the Color My Heart Dare. 

Destination Fun

Just a layout for the week - working on getting back to finishing and getting pictures down on a double spread per week.  Good luck on your own pages and see  you on Saturday!

Crop this Saturday!

Come join us and get a sneak peek at some great new stuff from the Fall Catalog - including a new Cricut cartridge!

 In keeping with the 4th of July, this is the Freedom crop -

• free of charge
• free up space for new stuff
• free Fall catalog
• free make and take!

3X3 gift card

Crop is from 9am until 9pm on Saturday July 13 or anytime in between.  It's also potluck - so bring your favorite dish to share. 

Cubby Workshop July 18

If you didn't order a cubby for the workshop on the 18th, you can still make your own at home.  You will need the cubby, 13 sheets of cardstock, one pretty D&T, liquid glass, the Artiste cartridge (page 80, 2.5").
Cut your 25 cubby boxes out of the Artiste cartridge.  Trim your choice of D&T paper into 2 3/8 inch squares (you will have to trim 3/16 inch off the final strip to keep all  your squares the same size).

 Keep your squares in the right order, or else your cubby will become a puzzle box, or you might glue your squares on upside down, depending on your pattern.  With bonding memories glue, attach your pretty square to the dipped side of each square before you build them (it's easier to attach at this stage).  A tip I learned at Convention - grab an old magazine and use it as the paper behind your cardstock to keep from getting glue on your table.  When you finish with one, just flip the page and you have a clean slate to do the next one.  No glue on the back!

 After gluing the pretty square on, trim the dip to match the cardstock.

I then folded the box, flattening with the bone folder.  Before gluing, I stamped the inside of the box, just for some added interest.

Then glue all the tabs on the inside of the box, and make sure all leaks are dry before inserting in your cubby.  Embellish as desired! This set is for my friend, to hold small embellishment or starter ideas for when she gets stuck or has trouble getting started.

Note:  The workshop on the 18th includes, cubby, adhesives, cardstock for the boxes and a pretty sheet of D&T for your box.  Decorate with your own embellishments!

A little Steampunk

I love some of the steam punk stuff out in the world these days.  I tried pulling some of the Close To My Heart products together to come up with this double spread and card. I did the card first, then expanded on it to create the double spread.  This is one of the layouts I entered in the contest for the Convention.

 

 

Surf's up

Here's a cute, super easy card to just say hi this summer.
It's one inch wide strips by 4" long.  I cut the strips and then stamped the images.  The stamps are from the Surf's Up kit (G1059), Tropical Paradise stamp set (C1531). I used ink colors Indian Corn Blue, Ruby, Honey and Ponderosa Pine.  I've added a little stardust Glitz Glitter Gel (Z1313) on the sun and turtle.

Hello with a song

This card has a pink standard base, 5 1/4 by 4 inch blue base and 5 by3 1/2 inch white base.

From the Hello Blooms (C1540) stamp set, I stamped the music notes bloom in Buttercup all over the white base.  Using Versamark and the bird and HELLO fromthe same stamp set, I embossed the images with Dutch Blue embossing powder.  This was my first time using CTMH embossing powder and I'm very pleased with it - it was easy to get rid of the little extra dots from around the image by blowing them away. The corner piece is a scrap from the Chantilly paper pack (X7163B).

I cut 4 ribbon roses (Z1800) and inked them with Cotton Candy re-inker.  If you don't have re-inkers try rubbing the roses across your ink pad (disposable rubber gloves are a good investment if you do this much).  I put the roses on a wet wipe, dropped a single dot into the center of the rose and then used the edges of the wet wipe to smear the ink around.

 If you take the edges and try to get the ink out of the roses, it doesn't work, but give  you good coverage. Let them dry thoroughly before adhereing them with a small drops of liquid glass to the card.  Adhere the white, blue and pink bases with tape.

Note: when using ink on a stamp you can see when you have extra ink on your block.  With Versa-mark it's much harder to tell, but take care to wipe the edges of your block before you stamp.  This will help prevent getting extra embossing powder on your card in places you don't want it.

Scrapbooking spaces

Just a little fun post - I love looking at other blogs for ideas and have recently seen a few with fabulous scrapbooking rooms.  Just thought I'd share mine....

LOL - no so neat, clean and fabulous as some but any scrap room is a great place to be!

Happy Creating!

Sunny side of Surf's up

Thanks to everyone who came to the crop on Saturday.  It's truly more fun to scrap with others who enjoy it as much as I do.  This is a layout I did from my Surf's up kit. 

The suns are in Honey ink, the footprints are in sorbet, with a couple of wooden shapes from the color ready garden wooden shapes (Z1718) and some square durables (Z1705).  With a little trimming of your photos (about 1/4" each), this will hold 7 photos - three horizontals in the gold on the left page, and on the right page, one horizontal in the flower square and three verticals in the gold section. 

For a closer look at the sides:

Gold is 6.25" wide, then 1/2" strip of flowered print, then stamp a row of suns.  The ribbon pieces were just scraps I had left over, in an eye pleasing arrangement.

 

The gold in this one is 5.75" wide - the other part of the paper left after you cut the 6.25" strip.  1/2" flower strip and a matt for another 4X6.

Buzzy Good Wishes

The Bumble Bee (A1135) is in Cocoa ink on a 3X3" square of honey comb paper from the Buzz and Bumble paper pack (X7164B), mounted on a 3.25X3.25" Cocoa paper from the same pack. On Goldrush paper for the base, stamp the word stamp from Universal backgrounds (D1477) in Cocoa second generation (randomly).  The honey combs (C1537) are in Goldrush on Colonial paper, just hand trimmed.  I added a bee from the  embellishment pack (Z1831) and some gold rhinestones (Z1753).  I did two of these cards, one with smooth edges and one with distressed edges (Z1297).  This is the dristressed one, because I liked it better!

 

June Workshop

In our June workshop, you'll create this neat little card case.  It looks like a magazine case, but it's just the right size to store your cards in, or fill with cards and present to someone as a gift.  Workshop is Thursday June 20th, from 5:30 pm until 7:30 pm.  Pieces are precut, just stamp and assemble.  Cost is $3 per case.  Please RSVP by June 18th.

June Crop

Just a few days left before the next crop!  June 15, 9am until 9pm or anytime in between.  It's Carnival Day, with hotdogs, cotton candy, and snow cones.  The featured kit is Surf's Up and it has such potential.  Great limited edition colors to co-ordinate with pictures like no other kit does.  Come join us for some fun - out of the hot sun - this Saturday!

 

I'm also entering this is the Color My Heart Dare!.  Check out their page and all the great ideas.

Spray Art

Trying something a little different.  I cut a flower on Colonial paper (Artiste cartridge, 3.25" page 74, Z1790)  I filled 3 spray pens (Z1380) with rubbing alcohol and added re-inker in Pacifica, Cotton Candy and Sweet Leaf.

 I took my papers outside, placed the flower on a card stock base and experimented with the colors.

  The alcohol actually let the colors blend. I ended up with 3 card bases and 3 colored flowers to make cards with.  I left the cards open and let the color fade on the top, so it colors the back of the card as well.Another good thing about alcohol instead of water is that it dries fast.

 

 

Just a butterfly (Z1463) popped up with foam tape (Z1151) and a small flourish (Z1812) with black sparkles (Z1754) on the butterfly.  The sentiment is from the stamp set that comes with the Art Philospy set (Z1686).

 

The black base for this is from the Always paper pack (X7165B), cut to 5.25X4".   I sprayed 3 of the paper butterlies with the alchohol mix. Using thin lines of liquid glass (Z679), I adhered the flower over the edge of the card and trimmed it. Another small flourish and another simple completed card.