Parisian Anthology #3

Hello again! Here's my 4th page with the Scrappinista Scrapbook Club kit from the store I work at, Scrapaganza!
For this page, I used a piece of taupe cardstock as a background, then cut down a piece of the printed paper. I misted the paper with Meadow Green and Red Velvet glimmermist and wiped off the excess to reveal the paper's embossing.  Then I adhered the paper to the background cardstock, then sewed it down for that extra touch. By the way, both cardstock and printed paper were edge distressed before getting sewn.
Then I used my Cricut and Gypsy to cut out a tree from Create a Critter cartridge but I used the Gypsy to stretch it taller without making it wider. I cut the tree out of acetate packaging (recycled from a cartridge clamshell, cut at depth 6, pressure 5, multicut 2). I used the negative of the tree as a mask, but what I did to make it work was put my background stamp on the table, stamp side up. Got it inked up. Then I put the mask over the stamp and then the paper on top and pressed the paper down on the stamp. I did this because the acetate is thick enough that pressing the stamp down on the mask and paper did not leave a stamped image so I had to flip them over to get the image.
Now, because I did not practice this in advance, I ended up messing up my paper. However, there are no mistakes, only creative opportunities! So rather than pitch out the whole thing, I tried to think up a way to hide the mess up, which was that some ink had gotten smeared around the tree that I had stamped.  So, I got that acetate tree that I had cut out (remember, I'd used the negative) and I put the actual cut out tree over the stamped background that I like to mask it, then took a silver paint dauber that I'd only squeezed a very little paint into, and painted some silver very lightly around the tree mask, radiating out from the tree. When I took the mask away, it left the tree image looking as if it were glowing in silver radiance... hence how I came up with the title "tree magic"

The little bit of silver paint covered up the ink smudging and I really liked the effect. So, there's a lesson here! Don't give up if you make a mistake. :)
I also used Artisan Element borders on the left, they had been sprayed with Red Velvet, Walnut Gold and Graphite glimmermist and carefully wiped off so that the only glimmermist left had remained in the debossed patterns. I did the same with the parenthesis framing the journaling.
The Flair flower I colored red with red alcohol ink so it would look like a poinsettia. I glued that on top of a pleated "flower" made with Tim Holtz tissue tape, which is layered over a "doily" that I cut from another sheet of the printed paper. Glued to the center of the poinsettia flower are two jingle bells I found in my jewelry making stash. I love raiding that stash for scrapping. lol The title is in American Crafts Thickers.
Shortly after I took this picture, I added tiny Artisan Element stars to the tree. I decided not to take another picture, so you'll just have to imagine them there! :)

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look!

Parisian Anthology #2

Here's the second layout I've done with the Scrappinista Scrapbook Club kit for this month. I am so lovin' this Parisian Anthology line! 
When I saw the dressform chip embellishment, I remembered my getting-dressed wedding pictures and realized they would be perfect together.
This printed paper had embossing on the side, so I only inked the edges of the paper to reveal the embossing. The color I used is Pumice Distress ink. In addition to using the Parisian Anthology embellishments (chips, flair, tickets, Artisan elements) I also added a few of of my own... I took a piece of acrylic packaging and stamped it with a Tim Holtz stamp and stazon ink. I also cut out a doily type shape with my cricut and misted it, and added a few maya road pearl pins.  The title is silver glitter Thickers and MM mini alphas.

I've watched some scrappers sit and pile embellishments on like this, but sometimes when I try it, it doesn't seem to work right. However, this time I feel like my "pile" of embellishments worked well. I am very happy with this layout! I think this line has really sparked my desire to create!

Parisian Anthology #1

This month's Scrappinista Scrapbook Club kit is one of the new lines from Pink Paislee and House of 3: Parisian Anthology.

The printed papers come in neutral colors with printing and an embossed layer. If you ink up the papers, paint, spray with mist or whatever, you can wipe off the color from the embossing, and reveal the pattern that is embossed. This allows you to custom color your projects!

In addition to the papers, the line has corrugated chip pieces that have shapes like birds, tables, branches, banners, flowers, eiffel towers, dressforms and butterflies. The line also has ribbon, flair, bling, fabric flowers, tickets, stamps and artisan elements (rubbery sticky backed embellishments that can be colored or left in their natural off-white color).

On this layout I took a single sheet of the printed paper and cut it into strips so that I could make it look like I had two sheets for this two pager. A taupe colored cardstock sheet takes up the rest of the space with some strips of off-white cardstock that are border punched to fill in the space. I inked up the printed papers with Aged Mahogany and Black Soot Distress inks to reveal the embossing pattern.  On the left is a doily I got at the dollar store. I cut out letters on my cricut and used them as masks with Licorice Maya Mist.  I embellished with the Parisian Anthology chip birds and flowers, the Flair and cut up and inked one of the Artisan Element borders to highlight a few of the pictures. A few spiral 3D roses added as well.

Love this line from Pink Paislee!!! If this kind of stuff might be your style, you definitely need to get your hands on it! And if you are local and not in the Scrappinista Club, you need to join! The kit is awesome and you'll learn great techniques with it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Playing with my Imagine

I've had my Imagine since October. :)  I was one of the lucky ones who attended the launch party at CHA in the summer, and got a voucher for a free Imagine from ProvoCraft. I have to admit, it would have been way out of my price range so it's a good thing I got one free, or I'd never have gotten it!

I had done a couple things on the machine to make sure it worked, when I first got it. But I have to also admit that I haven't done much with it since. I can't afford the extra cartridges for it right now, and there's only a couple I would be willing to buy anyway. I'm also leery of the cost of replacing the printer cartridges. However, I had to come up with some to do with it, because I promised to take it to Scrapaganza where I work to demo it.

I discovered a few things while I was playing with it that I wish were different. You can break images out into layers which is cool, but to combine layers, you can only do that in one way, the predetermined initial image. You can't combine just a couple of those layers, which disappointed me. In the finished project above, I wanted a layer that had the birds and banner combined with the "simple joys" title, but you can't combine just 2 layers. 

The image the banner and birds came from had a different background shape and colors, so I went to another image and used it's background instead. The red shape layer is the same as it's original, but the oval layer shape I changed the pattern to go better with the banner words.

I printed and cut all my different layers, and then pop-dotted them all together to make this embellishment. I will probably slap it on a card when I take it to the store for the demo.

If ProvoCraft could add more manipulation functionality to this machine, so that we could combine some of the layers, and even combine layers from different images, this would be a really powerful tool. I'm hoping that they add a lot more manipulation tools to it or to the gypsy so we can do more with these images.

Thanks for stopping by!

Gift Packaging - Poinsettia "bow"

I found this idea on the Custom Crops website, in their designers' how-to section. The link to the tutorial for the 3D Poinsettias is here. There's also a cut file you can download but it was simple enough that I made this without the cut file. You just need Plantin or a similar leaf on another cricut cartridge.

The original tutorial was for 5 leaves of 3 different sizes, plus 3 green leaves of the largest size. I ended up not using my smaller leaves though, and I had cut extra of the larger size (due to technical difficulties) and when I started putting my poinsettia together, I ended up liking the way I made it with more of the larger leaves and less of the smaller anyway.  So, here's my recipe. You can do yours like Tanya's on the Custom Crops site or like mine or do it your way! :)

10 leaves from Plantin cut at 4 inches in red printed paper
5 leaves cut at 3 inches
3 leaves cut at 4 inches in the green for the non-flower leaves
pearls/beads for the flower center
pop dots and ink to ink edges if you like

The first layer is 5 leaves, pop dot the second layer on top of that. I overlapped the second layer in the center more to make the petals look smaller than the first layer. Pop dot the 3rd layer on top. Glue beads or pearls or use self-adhesive flat-backed pearls in the center. Adhere the green leaves at the bottom. Affix to your gift package. All done!

I remember when I was a kid, my grandma used to dress up her gifts by crafting the packaging. These days, it seems like everyone gives gifts in gift bags and the care and love in the packaging has given way to convenience and speed. I hope to add a little more care to the gift packages that I give this year.

Thanks for visiting!

Gift Packaging - Box Bag

One of the customers at the scrapbook store brought in a project for show and tell, and I loved it. She sent me the link for the tutorial, it's at Split Coast Stampers here.  Totally easy and so cute!  So I made one. Go check out the tutorial, and give it a shot!

True Love

The store I work at, Scrapaganza, just received the next line from We R Memory Keepers! Be My Valentine!  (I know right? valentines stuff ALREADY? I wish they'd slow down over there at WRM).

Anyway, it's a gorgeous line of papers and embellishments!  And yes, there's lots of hearts and valentine theme in it. But I decided to show that it doesn't all have to be Valentines. WRM always has a couple sheets of sewn cardstock, and I LOVE this one, that says True Love if stitching! I had to use that with this photo of my son the day he was born. I also adore the little typewriter stamp!

So check out this line at Scrapaganza if you are in town!  Thanks for stopping by!