Sunday, July 15, 2012

What Goes Up?

Last month I had to go out and buy a couple of birthday cards. It was really frustrating because obviously, as a scrapbooker and cardmaker, I can make cards with my scraps for a fraction of the price. So, I've spent the last few days making a few cards. And of course, in the process, I found three cards that I had made already (so I didn't really need to shell out the bucks for the cards I bought last month!).

Here's my favourite from today.


I'm using up my older Echo Park paper to make space for the new release. I don't know what it looks like yet, but based on past experience, it'll be awesome and I'll NEED it.


I really like the Inky Antics stamps as they're so cute and unique. LOVE the 3D honeycomb shapes. The only issue I have is that when I colour the stamped image in on the card inside with Copics, the colour bleeds through to the other side, so I always need to put another layer on the outside. A small sacrifice, but worth noting.

I'm thinking I should make a list of birthdays through the year with type (adult male, girl child turning 8, etc) so that I can make my cards accordingly. But for now, I'm just having fun with my scraps. After all, isn't what this hobby's all about?


Supplies:  Inky Antics stamps (elephant and tiger) and honeycomb paper, Copic markers, Papertrey Ink stamps (sentiment), Echo Park Little Boy patterned paper and stickers, Bazzill cardstock

Thursday, July 12, 2012

When life gives you shrinky dinks...

So, I was working on a layout, having fun with shrink plastic, and got totally stuck! Luckily I came across the Sketchabilities site and found a great way to finish off my page.

Here's the sketch from the site:


And my layout:


I had the background of the page completed before I found the sketch... all of the horizontal strips of paper were on, the title, the fussy cut strips of flowers at the top and the bottom and the lemons. But it looked a little bare, so I'm glad the sketch fit well with my layout. I think the frame helps break up the horizontal lines and adds some interest to the layout.

The most fun part (my kids would say "the funnest") of making the layout was making the lemon and lemon slice.


I started off by finding a lemon image in my Silhouette Studio library and I traced it with a Copic marker onto the plastic sheet over my monitor. Again, washi tape to the rescue as a lightly sticky tape to hold the plastic to the monitor.


Then I cut out the shape


Used my cropadile to punch out a few holes


and coloured in the lemon with my Copic marker. I coloured both sides to add extra intensity to the lemon.


Then I used my heat gun to shrink it.  This part is soooo fun. :)






For perspective, here's the original size with the ending size. The orignal piece was about 4 1/2" wide, and ended up about 2" wide. I used lots of Beacon's glue to stick it to the layout. I freehand cut out some leaves and twigs from glitter cardstock.


Because I spent more than a week fussing over this layout, I added lots of little details. Such as dots with my Viva Gel. I managed to do this without making a giant explosion. (Yeah, last time I used it, I squeezed too hard as the end was clogged, and the whole lid came off and made a giant mess! Even worse, it was brown and colorfast. Looked nasty on my capris. :(  )


I used the Kraash font to make the STAND title. I used more of the lime green glitter cardstock and used my Cameo to cut it out. Each letter has an inside and an outside cut. I coloured the outer line of the letters with dark brown Copic and popped them back together. I like the font on this page... it's cartoony and matches the bright colours.

LEMONADE is made from Heidi Swapp Color Magic letters. I tried colouring them with Copics, but the white part didn't stand out because they're alcohol inks. I resorted to using my kids' Crayola markers. The white stood out perfectly.

I made a mistake in cutting the frame so I wanted to cover the mistake... washi to the rescue again. I ripped it into little bits and covered it in a decoupage manner.



Supplies:  Copic markers, shrink plastic, BoBunny "Ad Lib" patterned paper, Technique Tuesday chipboard frame, Heidi Swapp Color Magic Letter Box Alphas, orange Crayola marker, various washi tapes, Viva Gloss gel, Bazzill cardstock, Smash date stamp, glitter cardstock (manufacturer unknown)

Monday, July 2, 2012

Some New Fonts

Every now and then, I like to just surf for new fonts.  Oftentimes, they'll inspire me to start a new layout. I just downloaded three new ones, two of them I think will work great with my Cameo.


Hayseed is the equivalent of Quickutz Strawberry. I have a few Quickutz dies, and they always had the greatest fonts. This one looks nice and cute. I might thicken it up a bit before cutting it (use the offset feature).


This Kraash! font comes solid or in an outline. I can imagine doing a layout using this font incorporating some kind of accident involving my son done in perhaps a graphic novel format. This font would be great for that. 


This one is too detailed for cutting, but I think that Simply Glamorous will be a great journalling font. Will it give my favourite, Rockford, a run for its money? Time will tell. :)