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

Practical Scrappers DT Challenge: Use a white pen

This week Practical Scrappers wants you to get out your white pens/markers and use them. They will have a Grand Prize Winner again that will get two digi stamps from The Stamping Boutique.

My personal favorite white pen is Inkssentials Opaque Pen (I use them quite often) and this week I had a lot of fun doodling with it.

Here's my DT submission for this week - "Snow Day"


I have to thank my boyfriend Tom's Aunt Ann for sending him some spectacular winter photos from her home in New Jersey. As soon as I saw this photo, I knew I had to scrap it. Growing up in southeast New Hampshire and moving to northeast Massachusetts as an adult, I remember storms like this well and to be honest, I was never a big fan of snow. I remember always thinking as a child that my parents were living in the wrong part of the country. Watching Rex Trailer's "Boomtown" every weekend and hearing all about the wonderful February Vacation trips to Florida with Rex that our family could never afford (one of the show's sponsors was a travel / tour company) convinced me that I should have been born in Florida. 30 years later I finally made it "home" to Florida where we never have to shovel snow. I've often said scenes like this photo are perfect - in a postcard or a calendar, but now I think they're best in a scrapbook layout!

Back to my layout... The cardstock I chose to use is Core'dinations Black Magic Amulet, Whitewash Cellar Door, and Core Essentials Marine Blue.

Starting with the black magic, I sanded the edges to reveal the "Amulet" blue core color. I matted the photo on white CS which I then placed on a larger piece of Marine Blue that I had added torn and layered peices of whitewash cellar door. I love how the blue torn edges give the effect of piles of snow! I decided to overlap a torn piece of the whitewash on top of the photo to tie it all together.

After adhering the oversized photo mat on to the black magic CS, I doodled icicles on the top edge of the mat. When I was happy with their appearance, I added some Ranger Glossy Accents (LOVE THIS STUFF!) to give them more of an icy look. Because I didn't want the icicles just dangling there by themselves, I anchored them by applying Ranger Liquid Pearls in White Opal above them, replicating the snow on the roof. Below is a closeup of how that looks. Notice that the Liquid Pearls is on both the mat and the background CS because I wanted a bumpy edge - just like snow drifts:


I used the white Inkssentials pen for my journaling on the right of the photo. I'm not thrilled with the way it came out, but because of the texture in the CS, it really couldn't have been much better. To add to the winter scene, I doodled random snow flakes on the black magic CS and added some doodled white dots to create the illusion of falling snow in the distance.

The large snow flakes were cut using the "When it's cold outside" seasonal Cricut cartridge and the title was cut from Winter Woodland cartridge. I added Distress Stickles in "Rock Candy" to the snowflakes, including the small one in the title, to further the glistening snow effect. I like the way Distress Stickles aren't as glitzy as regular Stickles...they have a subtle appearance yet offer a dramatic impact - well done Tim Holtz / Ranger! I added the large snowflakes to the layout using 3d foam dots for dimension:


Make sure you share your white pen / marker projects with us at Practical Scrappers. We'd love to see how you use these tools! And leave a comment here on my blog to let me know what you think of my icicles - it's been a while since I've seen real ones :)

Thanks for visiting my blog and...

Happy crafting,
Barb

02/10 Scrapbooking Goodies' DT Challenge: Black Magic, Whitewash & Core Essentials Core'dinations

For February 2010 the Scrapbooking Goodies Design Team challenge was to use Core'dinations Black Magic, Whitewash and Core Essentials cardstock on a layout or card, but the REAL challenge was to use as many different techniques as possible with the cardstock: antique it, sand it, tear it, emboss it - don't JUST use it as CS.

With all that in mind, here is my layout using all those techniques, with one additional trick "sanding using a template" added in that I will explain a little further in this post:

The CS colors I chose for this layout are Whitewash Window Pane, Whitewash Cellar Door, and Core Essentials Marine Blue. I did another non-related layout using Black Magic that I am submitting for next week's Practical Scrappers' DT challenge but I can't go into the techniques I used on that page until Wednesday...

To create the background image, I cut a road sign from my "Street Sign" cricut cartridge at fit to page. I used a repositionable adhesive to keep the shape in place on the Whitewash Window Pane CS and sanded around the outside edge of the paper, leaving just the sign shape as white and revealing the black core along the outer edge (additional technique: sanding using a template). To give the shape of the road sign more definition, I traced the outline with a Zig Millinnium black marker. I felt that it made it stand out better.

To give the photo mats a little variety, I ran Whitewash Cellar Door CS through my Cuttlebug using a D'vine Swirls embossing folder, then I sanded the embossed areas to reveal the blue core (technique: embossing).

The subtitle letters (headin' down) were cut on my cricut using the Sans Serif cartridge and the title letters (US1) were cut using Street Sign. "Wish you were here" is a phrase from the Going Places cartridge.

The oversized mat was done by tearing and layering whitewash Cellar Door and core essentials Marine Blue CS. The tag was created by adhering scraps of the embossed, and torn CS as well as a small scrap that I crumpled up, smoothed out and then sanded (technique: antiquing) to a store bought tag. A scrap of sheer ribbon was looped through and the tag was 3d Foam dotted onto the layout.

While this layout is simple and basic, it does show a lot of different uses for Core'dinations cardstock. Check back on Wednesday to see another layout using Black Magic, Whitewash and core essentials CS.

With the DT submissions all in at Scrapbooking Goodies, it is now time for the store customers to take the challenge. We're challenging the customers to bring in their Core'dinations project using as many techniques possible with these 3 types of CS. One lucky customer will win a package of Core'dinations CS from the store. No email or online submissions accepted - in-store only.

Next month's SG DT challenge is Embossing - dry, heat, Cuttlebug, whatever...

Thanks for stopping by and...

Happy crafting,
Barb

Practical Scrappers DT Challenge: Use Inks or Chalk

Arrgggg me hearties and welcome t' me blog!

No I haven't been watching too much SpongeBob and I'm not practicing for "International Talk like a Pirate day". I'm just setting the mood for my Practical Scrappers Design Team Project: "Pirate Girls".

This week the challenge at Practical Scrappers is for you is use either chalks or inks (any kind of inks: alcohol, dye, pigment etc), and this month their sponsor is Stamping Boutique! One Grand Prize winner will receive 2 digital stamps of their choice. Check out Stamping Boutique to see what they offer and we look forward to seeing what you create!

Last week I mentioned how excited I was about this week's project - inks! If you had asked me a couple of years ago what I thought about inks I wouldn't have had much to say... I wasn't a huge fan. Well now I use ink on almost every project I create, especially Tim Holtz Distress Inks. I love how they can turn a piece of blah paper into something amazing. If you have never tried distress inks, I highly recommend checking out Tim's website and watching his demo videos. I bet you'll be running to your nearest LSS or craft store to pick up a few. But watch out... the colors are amazing, the look you'll get from these inks is fabulous and soon you'll be back buying every color available. I know... I'm now an "inkaholic", which brings me to my DT submission for this week:



The brown background paper is from HotP's "Leather" Papers. The name is deceiving because these papers just look like tanned and branded leather. I added to the leather-look by inking the edges with Walnut Stain distress ink. The burlap looking paper is from AdornIt Carolee's Creations "Western Collection" and is called "Heroes and Cowboys". I love looking for paper in unexpected sections of my LSS... I found this paper with farm/4H/horse papers, but I knew I wanted to use it for my pirate layout. The paper has words down the right side and some very light scroll designs in 2 corners, which the distress ink covers a bit. I tore the paper on two sides removing the words, then I made little slits along some of the edges to give the paper a frayed look. After I was happy with the shape, I used Tim Holtz Distress ink in Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain to give the edges a burned and aged appearance. The close-up below shows the details and how the inks really add character to the papers:


The title letters were cut with my Cricut using the Black Letter cartridge. If you like the look of that font, you better snag that cartridge quickly - Provo Craft recently announced it is retiring that Solutions Cartridge (and a few more!). I rubbed a little black ink on the letters to tone down the red cardstock just a little. While I'm talking about the red CS, if you notice the little scull and crossbones welded next to the "s" in "girls" you may see a hint of pink in the color. Being the silly girl that I am, I mistakenly cut it out of red when I was cutting the letters (d'oh!). Not wanting to waste paper (save the trees) I decided to cover it up with Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint in "Picket Fence". As it dried, the red from the paper bled into the paint, giving it a pink tone. Ok so what's a girl to do (still trying to use that cut!) with a pink skull??? Walnut Stain distress to the rescue. The ink covered enough of the color to make me happy while bringing out more of the cracks in the crackle paint. Problem solved.

That skull was cut from my Indie Art cartridge and there is also another skull on the lower right corner that was cut from Life is a Beach, coated with distress crackle paint and inked with Walnut stain, only I popped it onto 3D foam dots to make it stand out a bit.

My absolute FAVORITE part of this page is the tags...




















Don't they look like aged leather with funky piratical words and images branded into them? Want that look? Grab some brown Bazzill Basics paper, the kind with just a tiny bit of texture yet still on the smooth side. I wish I knew what it's called but here's a close-up of what this texture looks like:


This is NOT the color that I used, which was actually a little lighter and I can't find more of it. If you know the name of this CS can you leave me a comment and let me know so I can run out a buy a stack of it? (hehehe!)

So back to my tags... the key to getting this look is to start with a non-stick craft sheet. Working with an ink blending tool, dab onto a walnut stain distress ink pad several times until you can see the ink on the foam, then gently rub in a circular motion beginning on the craft sheet and up onto the edge of the paper. You want to have a darker edge on the tag. Then as the amount of ink decreases on the blending tool, start to move a little further onto the tag to blend the ink with the paper. The subtle texture of this Bazzill CS allows the ink to kiss the bumps leaving just a trace of color. I added a lot of walnut stain to the edges to really age them. I used the same ink technique with the photo mat and small journal tags. The stamped images were from Inque Boutique Savoir Faire "Savvy" (Adventure, Treasure and the pirate ship on the large tag) and Stampendous (palm tree island, compass and treasure map). I used black Stazon to stamp the images and words on my tags. The tags were all cut from Tags, Bags, Boxes and More Cricut cartridge. The key and fibers were all from a HotP fiber pack.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think or if you have a question about these inks.

Thanks for visiting my blog and...

Happy crafting,
Barb

Moriarty Girls

I've been procrastinating doing this layout - not knowing exactly where to begin. I feared not being able to do it justice in a classy vintage style. After taking the "heritage" plunge with Dad's sisters, I jumped into "Moriarty Girls" without looking back (no pun intended)!



Before I get into the details of the layout, I have to describe the telephone conversation I had two days ago with my 84-year-old mom Dorothy (pictured in the back row far right in the photo above). I had told her about the layout I did for the photo of my dad's sisters and told her that the next page I was working on was using a photo of her and her sisters. Without me going into much detail about the photo with her, she began to tell me this story:

"It was Easter Sunday and my sisters and I were at the (Lawrence) Common. Anna was wearing a large hat because Lance had accidentally closed a door on her hand and she had been crying so she wanted to hide her eyes. Mary was wearing a brown checkered suit that she had for a while, but the rest of us all were wearing brand new outfits. It was before your father and I got married so I was able to afford an expensive outfit. I really loved that one... the jacket came to a point in the back, almost like tails. Grace had her hair up in a rat's nest - that's what they called it back then, you know. It was like a roll with cotton batting in it that we would wrap our hair around. Joan was standing in front of her mother, Rosemarie was sitting next to Mary and Annemarie was sitting on Mary's lap. Lance took the picture and it had to be around 1946 because your father and I got married in '47."

WOW... all these details without having the photo in front of her. She actually went into more detail describing the colors of each of their outfits but I was blown away by her recollection of a brief moment nearly 64 years ago and didn't write it all down as I sat looking at the black and white photo.

These sisters were the strongest women I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. They endured hardship, suffering, health issues, as well as enjoyed good times all while remaining to be best friends throughout the years. My Mom is the only one left to tell these stories and I hope to document as many of them as I possibly can on layouts such as this to share with my family and relatives.

Here are the materials used in the layout:

Patterned papers: Hot Off The Press "Busy Scrapper's Solution Vintage Papers"

Inks: Tim Holtz Distress Ink: Walnut Stain, Pine Needles & Aged Mahogany
VersaMagic: Pink Petunia

Paper Roses: MyMoments (Pink)

Sheer ribbon: unknown

I used an Anna Griffin technique for the pleated border as well as the photo corner treatment.

The journaling was placed on top of more paper pleats and I used 3D foam dots to adhere it to the layout. The journaling was done on my computer using "American Typewriter" font. I also added additional 3D foam dots inside some of the pleats to give it more definition.

I hope that I did these remarkable ladies proud with this layout.

Thanks for stopping by. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

Happy crafting,
Barb

Practical Scrappers DT Challenge: Use Stamps

It's Wednesday so that means it's time for me to post another project for Practical Scrappers!

This week's challenge is Stamps! You can use any kind of stamp - digi, rubber, acrylic, foam - we want to see all of them! This week there will be a top three and a Grand Prize Winner. The Grand Prize winner will receive bonding powder and a Stampee foil of their choice. What's Stampee foil you ask? Go to Practical Scrappers and check it out - they are a brand new sponsor of ours and we are delighted to have them! PS will be featuring projects with Stampee Foil every day this week!

For my project, I decided to get my green on in anticipation of St. Patrick's Day and here is what I came up with:


The polka dot paper was from Hot off the Press. All the little Irish themed stamps were from Studio G. I stamped the images onto green CS with black Stazon, then heat embossed them with clear embossing powder. After I had enough of the little images stamped and embossed, I pulled out my trusty craft sheet, tapped a tiny bit of green Perfect Pearls onto it, then misted my craft sheet with water. I mixed the pearls and water, then painted inside the embossed areas - the embossing acts as a resist so it rolls right off the stamped image plus it also contains the pearly paint mixture inside the embossed lines... cool! I continued the process with white and gold Perfect Pearls until I had all the images painted. At this point I chose to hit the painted images with a heat gun just to speed up the drying but you can just let them dry on their own.

Here is a close-up of how shimery and fun the Perfect Pearls look:


I cut the images out in 1 1/4" squares then matted them onto 1 1/2" black squares. Now what would a St. Patrick's page be without a wee litte bit o' the gold??? I had some leftover gold coin confetti and matted 4 pieces onto green then black squares of cs, then alternated them with the stamped images onto a white strip of cs, which was also matted on black leaving just enough room above the blocks for a little journaling. Three of the stamped squares were adhered to the border with 3D pop dots and the gold coin blocks were just glued straight onto the border, adding a little variety.

I used 3d foam dots on the remaining 8 stamped images and put 4 on each side of the page giving the layout a very symmetrical look - very different for me!

The title letters were cut using my Cricut and San Serif cartridge, the shamrock was from Paper Doll Dress Up. To get the shading and shadows just right on the shamrock I went over the edges of the cut BEFORE removing it or the leftover paper from the mat with a fantastix loaded with black ink. This is such a simple way to achieve an inked edge look to any cut without having to try to run an inkpad over the edges. All you do is simply trace the cut with the fantastix until you get the desired look. I remove the image, check it to see if the ink covers the edges enough and if not, replace it on my mat where it was cut and add more ink. As the ink is removed from the fantistix, I like to blend the inked edges up onto the cut very subtly to give the cut a more realistic 3D look. I also use this technique to add shadows to my cuts, which you may be able to see on the right side and bottom of the shamrock's stem.

I'm very excited about next week's challenge at PS... but I can't tell you what it is yet! Make sure you come back and visit my blog next Wednesday and check out my DT challenge layout... I really LOVE it and am looking forward to sharing how you can get a very cool look using just a few supplies and some Bazzill CS.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy crafting,
Barb