Artbooking Made Easy: Everyday Layouts (S01E08)

This is a video showing just how easy it is to make beautiful pages using the newest Cricut cartridge  ;Artbooking' available exclusively through CTMH.  Enjoy the video!

Give Thanks - The Brae-er's October Blog Hop

Welcome to our October Team Brae-er Blog Hop that focuses on "Giving Thanks" in anticipation of the Thanksgiving holiday. You will see creations from our team that may include stamp sets, patterned paper, inks, embellishments and more from the Close To My Heart Autumn Idea book.
We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we really love feedback from our blog viewers....whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn how to do....by leaving us comments we get to hear what you like, and what you want to see. Thank you… now on to our hop!

If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop.  If you came from  Michelle's blog of The Right Hugh  then you are in the right place! I am sure she had some fabulous creative work to show you.

I love this time of year.  Days are for the most part still beautiful and the nights are so much cooler - great for sleeping.  But better yet, most of the garden produce has been gathered and in the fruit cellar or freezer waiting to be consumed this winter.  The colors on the trees are a feast for the eyes...God has His paint brush loaded with some brilliant colors.   Gratitude is the word I like the best for this time of year...God has once again blessed us abundantly.

I made a few cards to reflect those thoughts.

 

For this card, I used the Huntington paper and the Always Grateful stamp set.  I did some 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation stamping with the tree and came up with the depth that I was looking for.  It doesn't show up on the picture as well as on the card though. Two self adhesive Durables Artisan Studs finish off the card.   I like the very minimal but  great masculine feel to the card.

 

 

 

 

This  second card I did for Thanksgiving uses the same stamp set for the tree.  I used the puddle pad technique for the tree.  This is the way that many of the trees in my area look now and I love the color and splendour they are displaying.   I am so thankful for that burst of color before the drabness and whiteness of winter settles in.  I used an ombre look on the side of the card by tearing strips of cardstock and layering them.  I finished the card off with a few brown sparkles and some natural hemp.

 

 

 

For this card I used the same technique with the ombre cardstock only placed them in opposite order.  I used black hemp and few Just Blooms  as well as some more of the brown sparkles.  The banner is made using the Keyboard Uppercase  stamp set.

 
Your next stop on the Braer's Team Hop is Carol of "Crafty Carol's".   I am sure that she will, as usual,  have some fabulous artwork to share with you.

If you get lost along the way, you can head to Brae Montgomery's blog http://thebrae-er.blogspot.ca/2013/10/october-team-blog-hop-thankful-for-so, as she has the complete blog list.

Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope we were able to inspire you to get creative using some of the designs, products and techniques seen along the way. Join us again in November when we will be featuring gifts to make for the Holidays . 

Enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday.  I for one plan to and I am so thankful for living in a country like Canada where we can celebrate in such freedom!!

Lucy :)

 Crafty Carol's

Brae-er Team Blog Hop - Cricut Inspired

Welcome to the Brae-er's September Blog Hop.  This hop is circular in nature, so if you started here, welcome.  If you came from Rosalynd's blog and saw her great art then you are in the right place.  This month we are featuring projects that are cricut inspired.  CTMH came out with another Cricut cartridge in July called ArtBooking and I absolutely love it.  I had so much fun playing with it and creating this mini album that you are about to see.  I do not have any pictures in it yet...have to get them printed in different sizes that I currently have...so you just have to use your imagination.  I will warn you that this post is very picture heavy.  Have fun looking what my imagination came up with.  Everything in this album except the picture mats is cut with the Cricut ArtBooking cartridge (set at 6") with the exception of some of the pink snowflakes.  They are cut with the Art Philosophy cartridge.  The album itself is made with the Frosted paper pack and a sheet of Cotton Candy cardstock and Cocoa cardstock,  some small flourishes, bitty pearls,  bitty sparkles and rhinestone clusters from the new rosewood mini medley collection.

Front Cover

 

Inside Front Cover

Pink Overlay is from Art Philosophy.

Room for 3 little photos.  Snowflakes are from the overlay in a later page.  I love that you can use them for other parts of the project.

 

Room for 1 photo.  I used liquid applique to puff up the word SNOW.

 

Overlay for a photo.  Snowflake is one of the crocheted flowers CTMH carries.

Room for an oval photo.

Room for two 1.5 x 2" photos.

 

Envelope for storing memorabilia.

 

Filmstrips hold lots of little photos or 2 long narrow ones.

 

Pocket that holds 3 tags - great for more pictures or for lots of journaling!

Overlay and paper hinges to 'hide' the picture and to show the snowflake effect over the picture.

 

Three 3" flip flaps to hold more pictures.

Page for journaling or more pictures. The flip side is exactly the same but for the pattern on the paper.

Inside back cover.

 

These are just some of the pages.  There are 21 pages in total, but some of them I left very plain so that the pictures would take the show.  I do not have any pictures developed yet as I said earlier, so I did not include those pages.

I hope that you have enjoyed my mini album.  Please leave any comments that you may have...I would love to hear from you. 

Now it is time to go on to the next blog in this blog hop.  And that blog belongs to Tamara.  Go and check out her wonderful artwork.  Thanks for stopping by!

 

Enjoy your day and your long weekend, Lucy :) 

 

Ombre Technique

Do you like the look of liquid glass and a rainbow of color? Check out this video and see just how simple it is to use this technique.  I love it and will use it in one of my upcoming projects.

Enjoy the video and have a wonderful day.

Lucy :)

Summer Has Arrived

Today is the first day of summer and with it comes lots of thoughts of picnics, family reunions, holidays and relaxation for most people.  This is a circular blog hop with the Brae-ers so if you just came from Cheryl Peyton's blog at  http://peytonspaperplace.blogspot.com/2013/06/summer-fun-welcome-to-this-months-blog.html you are in the right place.
  Going on a picnic one thing that I love to do but never seem to be able to do much of.  We are in our busiest season as far as work goes, and with that comes many packed lunches. So in light of that I thought I would do a project that would help me to pack a picnic lunch so much easier, especially for Canada Day.  

I do not have the special Canadian military stamp set yet so I had to make do with getting a Canada flag from the internet.
The clear pillow boxes were the starting point for this project.  I wrapped some ribbon around them and then used a mini clothespin to fasten the Canadian flag and the little banner.  Find some red and white napkins and some plastic cutlery and my project was complete.  This came together in 15 minutes for me - one of the fastest projects I have ever done. I hope you like it and that it is a springboard for some picnics of your own.

 

Now it is time to see what Michelle at  http://therighthugh.blogspot.com/2013/06/blog-hop-summer-fun.html has created,  Enjoy the rest of the blog hop!

Have a great day, Lucy :)

The Brae-er's May Blog Hop

This month is an exciting one for me.  I love Pinterest  and it has some pretty amazing things on there. This month the Brae-er's team is doing a Pinterest inspired hop.  If you are coming from Heather's blog then you are at the right place.  This is a circular blog hop so you can keep going following all the wonderful work that our team is showing you this month.  If you get lost, you can go to Brae's blog for a complete list of all the participants.  Have fun and enjoy!!

This scrapbook layout is one that I spotted several months ago and wanted to do a layout that was inspired by it.  Thanks Jules,  for the inspiration!

 

 

 

 

So this is my version of that layout.  It took me longer to do than I anticipated but the finished page was so worth it.

  

 

 

 

A closer view of the flower clusters.  I used lots of foam tape to give the flowers more depth and dimension. (It is a little hard to see on this picture though.) 

 

     Materials used in this layout are totally CTMH, even the thread used on the edges of the layout.  I used black embroidery floss.   But first I used our great distressing tool to rough up the edges.  This tool made it so easy to make these rough edges.(Be prepared for a mess on your clothing when you do this).  Making the space for the photo was somewhat more challenging than I thought it would be but I was pleased with the end result.   I also used the Girl's Rock stamp set for the flowers.  The script scattered throughout the layout is from Universal Backgrounds and Distressed Backgrounds.   Leafy stems throughout the layout are cut from the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge.  Other product used in this layout include mini medley accents, chevron ribbon, small clear flourishes and canvas shapes.

  

      The next stop in this hop is Tamara's. Go and see what she has created for us this month.  I am sure that you will enjoy her artwork.  As usual, we hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our viewers....whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn how to do....by leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like, and what you want to see. Thank you… be sure to come and visit again next month when we will feature summer themed projects.

 

Have a wonderful day!!

 

Lucy :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Scrapping with For Always Fabric

         Welcome to the Brae-er's Blog Hop featuring favourite techniques.  We hope that you will take the time to leave comments on our posts, as we love to get feedback from our viewers....whether it was something that you really liked or some new technique that was used that you would like to learn how to do....by leaving us comments, we get to hear what you like, and what you want to see. Thank you… now on to our hop!
 If you have just hopped onto my blog, you can start here as this is a circular hop, but if you get lost you can find your way but going to Brae's blog at http://thebrae-er.blogspot.com for a full list of participants. If you came from  Alyson's blog  then you are in the right place! This month I have chosen to work with the beautiful fabric that co-ordinates with the 'For Always' paper pack.  In addition to that I have also included the ever popular flipflaps.

 Picture 1

This layout uses 3 12" flipflaps...the 4x12", the 6x12" and the 8x12".  To give this layout some stability I attached all the flipflaps to the inside back side of the main page protector.

 

Picture 2

(Sorry this picture is crooked)

 

I added fabric to the bottoms of the 6"and 8" flip flaps.  To do this I stitched a running stitch along the top of a folded 2.5" piece of fabric cut the long length of the fabric pieces.  I then gathered the fabric with a running stitch,  giving it a ruffled look.  I attached the ruffles to the flipflaps using the strongest glue dots I could find.  (Picture 2)

 

Picture 3

 To keep it looking neat and tidy I adhered a strip of black glitter paper to the back side over the ruffle. (Picture 3)

 

Picture 4

The use of the small flipflaps (3x4") allowed me to add 6 more pictures without a whole lot of extra bulk.

 

Picture 5

The same was done for the ruffle of black For Always fabric as on picture 2.

 

 

Picture 6

For the last page of the layout (the full 12" page) I took a piece of 12" white daisy paper and wrapped it with the white print fabric and adhered it at the back of the page.  That was the easy part.  To make pictures and paper stick to the fabric, I found that I had to use glue dots.  So as a result the page is more simple in nature except for the Cricut Artiste cut flowers and fussy cut leaves and flowers from the For Always paper pack placed on the journalling tag. (Picture 7)

 

Picture 7

 

I had a lot of fun putting this layout together and I am pleased how it has all come together. I hope that you enjoy it too. My daughter had graduated from Grade 8.  That is almost 4 years ago now; she will be graduating from Grade 12 in a couple months.  Time goes by so quickly.  I am just glad to have this done before the next big milestone in her life.

 Now it is time for you to go to our next stop in our blog hop and see the fabulous art Cheryl of peytonspaperplace has created for us.  
Thanks for hopping along with us - we hope we were able to inspire you to create your own projects using some of the techniques that you have  seen along the way. Join us again in next month when we will be featuring pinterest inspired ideas.

Have a great day and enjoy looking through the rest of the stops in this blog hop.

Lucy :)