Sharing a Sketch

Cindy here!  The contributors at Ideas for Scrapbookers had such a great time working with Pam's sketch two weeks ago that we're at it again! This time, I designed the sketch.

I actually made the sketch by working backwards from this layout:

As you can see, I made a Then & Now layout featuring photos of my son next to our stuffed snowman in 2009 and again in 2013.  What a difference four years makes!

Check out the amazing creations the rest of the designers made from my sketch.  I was absolutely blown away by the beautiful pages each person sent me.  You're going to love them too.

First up is Cathy.  By coincidence, she also did a Then & Now page featuring her sons!  She followed the sketch closely, but by rotating it 90 degrees she was able to make it work beautifully with horizontal photos.  I love her use of pattern and color.

Next is Gael.  She followed the sketch almost exactly, so it is amazing how different her layout is from mine!  The page is so feminine and beautiful and suits her photos perfectly.

Here is Tanya's page. Tanya almost always scraps two-page layouts, so I was eager to see what she would do with this sketch. I love that she turned the two vertical photos on the sketch into one horizontal picture.  She also changed the 12x12 sketch into an 8.5x11 layout.  I love the happy colors and patterns she used, as well as how much journaling she fit in!

Next, here is Sharon's layout.  Like Tanya, Sharon used one photo instead of two like in the sketch, but she chose to split the photo to add visual interest. The whole layout is so powerful.  Each time I look at it, I see new things to love.

Finally, here is Lesley's two-page version of my sketch.

If you look closely, you'll notice that each half of the two-page layout follows the sketch!  Here's the left side.  It uses the sketch as is.

For the right side, Lesley rotated the sketch 90 degrees, but still used two vertical photos.  She used the same die-cut on each side (horizontal on the left and vertical on the right) to tie the two sides together.  I love that she created two different (yet totally cohesive) pages from the same sketch.

So there you have it... six artists' interpretations of the same sketch.  If you use the sketch, please let us know!  We'd love to feature your work.

 VISIT THE CONTRIBUTORS' BLOGS/GALLERIES

Cathy Dippolito

Dolores Schaeffer

Cindy deRosier

Lesley Walker

Gael Spence

Sharon Fritchman

Tanya Ham

Pam Callaghan

Reader's Pages

We LOVE sharing our Reader's pages with you. Hi there! It's Cathy here and I have an adorable project to share with you today.

Karen created a wonderful invite for baby shower using the Baby Dress Card Template that I shared a few years ago.

Isn't this gorgeous?   Karen used cardstock, tule, ribbon, pearled trim, and rosette ribbon. I really like how she created a dainty and darling accent using the pearled trim at both the neck line and hem line.  The card opens to display the details of the shower invite.  Absolutely adorable!

Karen is a blogger, but she doesn't blog about crafts. She blogs about life as the "mom" to cute golden doodle named Abbie. You can see beautiful photos and read about her antics at her blog MyDogAbbie.

Thanks for sharing your creation with us Karen!  If you've created a project using our templates, cut files, sketches or techniques, and would like to share them on our blog, please email us (scrappycath @ gmail.com)

Cathy's Favorite Projects of 2013

Happy Friday!  It's Cathy here. My turn to share my favorite projects from 2013.  As I went back through the year to find my fav's, I could really see that I did far less creating in 2013. I've got to work on that! I'm a much happier person when I get to create!

Wanted: Lost Socks

Wedding Favor Tic-Tac covers for my niece's wedding. (Apparently I never posted this to my blog!)

Spring Bouquet Box

Never a Dull Moment

Sketching with Silhouette

A Little Hello Card

Mixed Media Journal

Silent Night Canvas

They are each linked back to the original blog posts so you scan see the details on how they were made. Except for the wedding favors, which I apparently never shared. Ooops!

Pam shared her favorite pages from 2013 HERE. Over the next week or so many of the other Contributing Artists will also be sharing their favorite pages and projects too.  We hope this gets you inspired to create!

VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S BLOGS/GALLERIES
Cathy Dippolito
Dolores Schaeffer
Cindy deRosier
Lesley Walker
Gael Spence
Sarah Routledge
Sharon Fritchman
Tanya Ham
Sheila Burns
Pam Callaghan

Scrapping Simply and Designing with Silhouette

Hi, it's Cathy here.  Happy New Year!!!! Over the past year, I've not had a lot of time for scrapping.  I've stayed creatively active. I'm still making cards and home decor, but I just didn't get much time to scrap.  Which is really disappointing to me.

I love to preserve the many memories, big and small, that my family experiences. Looking back through the scrapbooks is always so comforting and fun.  I decided that I needed to add scrapping back into my life. So I've made it a goal for this year!

But, I tend to get side-tracked from the task because I become overwhelmed. I want to record the memory, but I also want my page to be very appealing.  When I look around for inspiration, I start to turn my page into something more. More artistic. More full. More graphic. More involved..... which makes me feel more pressured! And then, I end up not getting the page made.

I read this article recently, Why I Stopped Scrapbooking by Lisa Moorefield. It made me re-think how I've been scrapping.  I don't need each page to be innovative and worthy of hanging in an art museum!  I just need the page to capture our memories.  So, I'm scaling back, I'm purging supplies, I'm getting more simple, and I'm going to scrap more!

I Got this year off to a good start by already getting a page done!  Using a photo from our New Year's Eve fun, I designed this page in the Silhouette software.  This is another thing that helps keep it simple for me. Simple shapes, easy layout, easy cutting!

We had fun using some props for photos. I made those with the Silhouette too. So I incorporated them right into the page design.

I'm not a fan of my own handwriting, so I typed out the journaling and used the print-and-cut feature to add that to my page.

Using a sketch pen, I added some simple details like the date and drawn circles.. I really like the diversity of the Silhouette Cameo tool.

After I had everything printed or cut out, I added adhesive to put it all together.  Ta-Da!  One page completed!!  May not sound like much, but, that is an accomplishment for me!

All of us at Ideas For Scrapbookers wish you a very Happy, Healthy, Fun and Creative New Year!

Photo Memorial Ornament

This is by far the most precious gift that I gave this Christmas. I created this for my mother-in-law.  My father-in-law passed away several years ago. He is greatly missed by all who knew him.  When the gift is this special, it really is a treat to create. The more work involved, the more time I got to spend reflecting on what made this man such a special part of the lives he touched.

You may be wondering how I got his photo on the ornament. I have a beautiful portrait of my in-laws. I scanned it into Photoshop. Next I created a black and white, high contrast image.  I then worked to get just him isolated.

I brought that photo into my Silhouette Design Studio software and traced the image. I then worked to smooth out all the little dots and such to create a usable image. I cut the image from black vinyl and applied it to a glass ornament. I had already glittered the inside of the glass ornament before applying the vinyl pieces.

On the other side of the ornament I placed the "Little bit of Heaven" phrase that I also cut from vinyl. Applying the itty-bitty-tiny letters was a bit tricky. Even using transfer paper, many still needed to be placed individually.  To be sure that this will last a while, I sprayed it with a coat of decoupage sealing spray.

Ribbons helped to finish off the cap and dress up the ornament a bit.

To present this gift, I made a special box. I used a box shape available in the Silhouette online store by Samantha Walker. I modified it to make it large enough to fit the ornament with the bows attached.  I used an acetate sheet for the window, some Christmas paper cut with a lace border punch and more ribbons on top to dress up the box.

This was the one gift I was really excited to give this year. I think she liked it!

Silent Night Canvas from a Digital Stamp

Would you believe this canvas was created using a digital stamp? It was!  Seriously!  The digital stamp that inspired me is Silent Night Digital Stamp from Arty Pants Digital Stamps and is available at The DigiChick. It just released today!!! So it's on sale right now!  Hurry to grab it for yourself!

The wonderful designer created these stamps in several sizes so they can easily be used for cards, scrapbooking or even to create wall art. She also provides layered versions of each stamp, so you can easily clip digital papers to them!

The canvas I used is a 9x12, it was already stretched on the wood base.  I mixed a few paints to get a blue color that I was happy with, then painted a few layers on the canvas.  While that was drying, I used the 8x10 version of the stamp. I brought it into Silhouette Studio and traced it to create cut lines.  I cut it from matte white Oracal vinyl (outdoor).  The stars are from 2 different Silhouette shapes available from Silhouette. Nativity (shape 52103) and Wise men still seek him (shape 35315). I cut the stars from gold vinyl.

I wanted the canvas to have a slight aged/primitive look to it. So I took some white ink and dabbed it around the edges to give it an aged effect.  I then layered the vinyl, the gold stars first then the white letters on top.

Now I've got a beautiful holiday wall art to help us stay focused on the true meaning of Christmas!

Hybrid Mixed Media Journal

It's been a while, but I finally got to do some more She Art work!!  I love doing this type of art. The mixed media is so very pleasing to all my sensory needs!  It allows my creative process to flow, while I think through some deep thoughts and capture some!  It's an art journaling process.

For this one, I got to also play a bit digitally. Arty Pants Digital Stamps has released some really awesome digital stamp goodies that help make Femme images a real breeze!  Check them all out here.

I laid out my design in Photoshop, then printed the background. That got Mod Podged to a composition book.  I then printed the girl, the word strips and the embellishments separately. I fussy cut the girl and pieces and Mod Podged each layered on the journal. I used paints, bubble wrap, punchanella, inks, pens etc to shade, color and highlight.

Some areas got built up with gesso and modeling paste. Glitter got sprinkled on various layers including the lace, and the girls hair. Unfortunately we did not get any sun today to help with the photographs, so you'll just have to trust me that the bling is really nice!

Some gems were added to the flowers on her dress and in her hair. I doodled around the word strips that are layered on the journal.  Can you see how much fun this is?

I didn't need to add any rub-ons since the Extras by Arty Pants include some awesome stamps to make this super easy!

This beauty has already been delivered to a friend.  I hope she enjoys exploring her dreams and releasing her true beauty!

Etching Glass

This isn't a scrapbooking craft, but I did use some of my scrapbooking tools to do this. I've seen so many wonderful glass etching projects and had really been wanted to try it myself.  Then along cam an opportunity. My sister was getting married this past summer and I wanted to make something special for her shower gift. The shower theme was to stock the pantry. I decided to make her a customized casserole dish. This way when she makes all her yummy food to share at parties and gatherings, everyone will know which dish is hers!

I didn't think to take photos as I was doing this. So I just have a few that I took with my cell phone.  I bought a glass casserole dish that had a fairly flat bottom with not much writing or impressions on it. Then I took a measurement of the space I had to work with on the bottom of the dish.

I used my Silhouette Cameo for this project.I laid out my design in the software, being certain to constrain myself to the measurement of the casserole dish bottom. 

 Before cutting the design, I mirrored it in the Silhouette software. I then cut it out of vinyl. And weeded out the portions where I wanted the glass etching to take place.  This part can trip you up. Typically you weed out the waste areas and keep the design. But for this type of project you'll actually weed out the design elements so that those areas of the glass are exposed.

Using transfer tape, I applied the vinyl to the bottom of the casserole. I used a squeegee to make sure the vinyl was tightly adhered. The bubbles in the vinyl are fine. The vinyl will not be staying on the dish. It is just acting as a stencil.

Once the vinyl is in place, you apply the glass etching cream. There are a few on the market. I used Etchall. I only had a small jar and it was more than enough for this project. Plus you can gather the excess and put it back in the jar to be reused.

Spread the cream liberally to cover ONLY the areas that you want etched.  Be very careful to not get it on any other areas.

Now you just wait.  15 minutes. Then you can scrape the cream off the project and put it back in the jar.  Then remove the adhesive vinyl under running water.  And enjoy your permanently etched glass!

The vinyl left a bit of residue on the glass. I used some Goo-Gone to take that off.

I was so happy with the results. Especially since this was my very first time using this technique. Now I'm thinking of lots ideas for using etching cream!

Another Way to "Color" Digital Stamps

Hi everyone! It's Cathy here with a post for you today!  It's been a while!!  Life has taken on some new directions for me and crafting has not had very much time in my life. It feels so good to be getting some creative time again!  And for that I am really thankful!  I got to play with a brand new digital stamp by ArtyPants Digital Stamps called Butterflies and Filigrees, come on that name alone shouts "beautiful"!!  There are so many things that you can do with her digital stamps. She includes a layered file too! So you can clip digital papers or colors to them. You can incorporate them right into your scrapbook or photos designs!

I chose to make a card with this stamp. I brought the .png image into my Silhouette Designer software and resized it for a 4.25"x5.5" card.  I offset it to allow an area for the ribbon. Then I print and cut the card.

So. I'm not so great at using markers to color in digital stamps. But I thought I would share some things I did with this stamp to create a shiny (wish I could photograph the glitter better so you could see just how shiny!) card with texture, color and a bit of grunge.  I got out my copics, glitter and embossing materials.  I used some transparent glitter on the main filigree frame in the design. I wanted to keep it kind of grungy, but add a little dressy to it.

I also traced the 2 butterflies and created cutting shapes for those. I cut them out of vellum.

Each of the butterflies got a sparing layer of glitter on the card face and a rim of opaque glitter on the edge of the cut vellum. I set the vellum on the card with the wings lifted.  The greenery in the stamp was enhanced with color and texture from some gritty moss embossing sand.

Hope this gives you some ideas of how you can use digital stamps in your designs!