Practical Scrappers Sketch Friday (March 19)

This week's sketch at Practical Scrappers comes from the very talented Ann-Katrin. I LOVE her work!!! Here is her sketch:




And here is my "Rock Out' layout based upon her sketch:



I did take some artistic freedom with the sketch as you can tell... I omitted the horizontal and vertical paper strips because it just wouldn't work with my background paper (DCWV "Rockstar Stack") or my Cricut cuts.

The entire layout was designed and welded in Cricut DesignStudio, which made placement of the photo and all of the paper-pieced die cut layers SOOOOOO simple and precise! I used the Hannah Montana Cricut cartridge for the funky guitar and the word "ROCK", George and Basic shapes for the photo mat, Home Decor and Home Accents for the swirls. and Black Letter for the letters "OUT". You may not be able to see in the picture but I inked the edges of the "Rock Out" letters with "Tattered Rose" Distress Ink and the guitar with "Broken China" Distrss Ink. I love the contrast between the tattered rose and yellow CS (in real life).

The photo is my DD Alyssa when she was about 4-years-old... she's going to be 17 next month - Guess I'm a little behind on my scrapping, LOL!

Thanks Ann-Katrin for another AMAZING and INSPIRING sketch layout. I can't wait to see what you come up with next, and thank YOU for visiting my blog. Please leave a comment and become a follower, if you are not one yet!

Thanks and happy crafting,
Barb!

Cruise Word / Shape Book

I am submitting this Word / Shape book as an additional Practical Scrappers project for the Chipboard Challenge:


This is a book that I made for my Cricut DesignStudio 102 class that I will be teaching later this month at Scrapbooking Goodies in Cape Coral FL. In this 2-part class, I will be showing students how to create their own unique word / shape book. This is an example of one of the many different formats that they can use and I will have other types on display at the store so they can decide which type they would like to make.

The cardstock is all Core'dinations and I chose that because of it's thickness - something that I think is very important for these shape / word books. I used recycled cereal boxes and Pepsi can 12-pack boxes for each page, spraying each piece with Archival Mist to make it acid free. Each page was cut twice from CS and once from the recycled box "chipboard".

The first page is the welded title letters for the book - in this example "Cruise". I used George for the rectangle on the left side of the page, and Life is a Beach for the letters and wave. I used a new type of Core'dinations for the wave - "Gemstones"... be sure to look for these beauties at your LSS!

The second page is pockets that hold tags that I made from tags bags boxes and more and my ship credit card. You may not be able to tell from the photo but there are actually 2 rows of pockets. The back side of every page (not shown) also have "Gemstones" waves that act as a pocket for photos or tags.

Page 3 is a cruise ship from Life is a beach (LiaB). Simple page, no real plans for photos or journaling, but they could be added.

The next page is dolphins from LiaB - again, nothing special here except flipping an image, adding some welded circles & rectangles so there isn't so many cut-out areas and basic layering / paper-piecing. I wanted more uncut areas on the back to hold more pictures / journaling tags.

Here are the happy dolphins:


I decided to add a full page after the dolphin page with a beach and palm tree. The "beach" is another pocket. If you look closely you will see a new product that I just had to try - Mudd Puddles! You can get more information from their website, but it is pre-mixed glue and sand that you spread with a knife on your project, just like frosting a cake. Once it is dry, it will not crack, flake, or peel off and it's extremely flexible PLUS it's acid-free... very cool stuff!

I used 2 different colors on this page: Malibu (sand) and Marine (water).


Finally on the last shape page I used more Mudd Puddles on a sandcastle cut from Everyday Paper Dolls. This time I chose "Bahama Beach" sand and after it dried, I inked the edges with some walnut stain distress ink applied to a fantastix, as well as adding a few faux shadows on the turrets and towers.


To finish the book off, I ended with a blue full page that I can adhere photos to.

Thanks for visiting my blog. Please leave a comment and let me know what you think about my book.

Happy crafting,
Barb

This week's challenge at Practical Scrappers was to use a die cut machine (any type) so I chose to use my Cricut Expression. I love all the choices I have at my fingertips with my Cricut machines and cartridges.

Here's my layout for this week's challenge:

The photo has been sitting in a box begging to be scrapped since 2004 - yep, I'm a little behind. My son Zack, the little guy in the front, turns 10 today so I guess I better get that entire trip scrapped soon!

I used Animal Kingdom for the animal blackouts and just adhered them to the page. The funky palms were cut from my Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge (cave girl) inked, cut apart and 3d dotted on for dimension. The title letters were welded in Design Studio and cut using Don Juan.

The tag was crumpled and distressed with Tim Holtz Distress inks then spritzed with a perfect pearls mixture. You can't tell in the picture but there is a little shine on the tag when light hits it - fun!

Be sure to stop by Practical Scrappers and check out all the projects that the talented ladies on the Design Team have created and submit your die cut project before Saturday at 5pm ET.

See you next Wednesday on Practical Scrappers, but I have a lot more to share in the meantime here on my blog so be sure to become a follower and visit often.

Happy crafting,
Barb!

My entry for Cricut "Cropping with the Stars" contest

Family Recipes Book

I created this book as a birthday gift for my oldest daughter who will be turning 20 on January 19. She also moved 1,500 miles away this month, from Florida back to Massachusetts. I wanted her to bring a little bit of us with her, and remembering how often I called my mom after moving out to ask her how to cook EVERYTHING, I thought I would help her out.

The book was created using just the "From my Kitchen" Cricut cartridge, with some of the additional lettering done with "Simply Sweet" and "Hannah Montana" cartridges. Because the contest rules stated the project had to use cartridges released in 2009 ONLY, I could not use my "George and Basic Shapes" or "Plantin Schoolbook" cartridges as I normally do to create the base pages. Instead I turned to the "hide contour" feature in Design Studio and used the shift/tabs feature with the fish platter index tab on page 68 of the handbook, hiding the inside rectangle.

Each page was created welding the shadow of the selected image to the shift/tabs , cutting them out from heavy white cardstock and then adhering the image onto the cut pages.

The book was held together with 2-piece steel fasteners (compressor and base, 1 inch capacity – available at office supply stores), and I used ordinary 4" x 6" index cards for the recipes. By using the steel fasteners, additional pages can be added behind each section divider page.

Sections include: Soup and Sauces, Pasta, Beef, Pork, Poultry, Seafood, Cookies, and the last section has the phone image (pg 28 in handbook) followed by a pocket page to hold take-out menus - I'm sure she'll use this section the most :).

On the inside front cover I adhered a measurement conversion chart and on the inside back cover I cut out "I'm only a phone call away" using my "Simply Sweet" cartridge.

She loved the book and now I just have to put all the recipes in it and mail it to her.

Thanks for looking and...

Happy crafting,
Barb!

11/09 Scrapbooking Goodies' DT Challenge: create an "About Me" layout

This was such a fun challenge and something that I have wanted to do for a very long time!

I chose to do a spinner page for the left page and tags tucked in to a pocket for the right page. I am a HUGE fan of hidden journaling, so these 2 techniques had to be included in an "all about me" layout :)

I created the spinner element in Cricut Design Studio (CDS) using George and Basic Shapes and Accent Essentials cartridges, but I hand cut the pie shaped spinner opening. The title letters were welded in CDS using Alphalicious and shadow feature, then layering the base letters after they were cut. I used my CuttleBug and the Swiss Dots folder to emboss the center circle. The paper flowers were ones that I had in my stash that I just had to use!

The pocket page was also created in CDS using Alphalicious for the letters, Everyday Paper Dolls for the pocket (it's actually a road on the cart!) and Tags, Bags, Boxes and more for the tags and flowers on the top of each, but then more paper flowers from my stash were attached to the top using brads. I handstitched the edge of the pocket and in between the tag sections using embroidery floss (more stash that I need to use up!).

I love these Doodlebug Design Inc. papers and use them (in all of the color combinations) in a lot of my layouts and projects! I also used a lot of Core'dinations cs in this layout.

Next month's SG Design Team Challenge: create a layout using a Fairytale Creations Chalking Template.

Happy crafting,
Barb!

10/09 Scrapbooking Goodies' DT Challenge: Using Core'dinations Cardstock

This was my Scrapbooking Goodies (SG) Design Team submission for October 2009.

The challenge was to use a non-scrapbooking tool to distress or alter Core'dinations Cardstock. I used one of my son Zac's lego blocks under the cardstock and sanded the surface, leaving a very cool checkered design.

I welded the title words in Design Studio using the Alphalicious cartridge and shadow feature, then layered the base letters on the welded shadow. I love that cartridge... it's just so fun and playful! The circles and triangle in the corners were the negative pieces left after cutting the "o"s and "4" - I love to use my scraps!

Next month's SG Design Team Challenge: an "About Me" layout.

Thanks for stopping by and...

Happy crafting,
Barb!

I'm a Grand Prize Winner!!!

(originally posted December 1, 2009)

WOW! I won the Grand Prize for the Cricut + YourStory Design Challenge - a fully loaded Gypsy (and ALL the Cricut Cartridges to go with it!!!)

You can find the details about my winning entry, the Disney shape book pictured above, here: http://www.cricut.com/yourstory/

I can't wait to get my Gypsy and start creating some cool paper crafts and scrapbook layouts!!!

Happy crafting,
Barb!