Sketch Challenge #8

Welcome to our Sketch Challenge.  

This is Amy from Amy's Digi Scraps and welcome to the another Sketch Challenge! On the 20th of each month, I will post a sketch for you to enjoy!  I generally post a card sketch with a card that I create, but you can make it a layout as well.  Please visit the Sketch Challenge link for more information about our monthly Sketch Challenges.

Here is the sketch for today:

And here is the card I created for it:

This sketch was created as part of a class I will be teaching locally.  It is similar to what is known as a One Sheet Wonder, where you create several cards from one sheet of printed paper.  This class will allow the participants to create 17+ cards using very minimal supplies, adhesive, inks and stamps.  I will have the entire class and patterns available on my blog after the class has finished.  My purpose for these cards and the class is to encourage new card makers who want some creativity without having a lot of bulk or "extras" on their cards.  To show that simplicity can be beautiful.

 In addition, I am asking those who take the class to consider donating one or two of the cards they create in class to Operation Write Home (OWH).  This is a wonderful organization that sends blank cards overseas to our military so they have cards to send home to their loved ones.  Stationery supplies are not a priority there, so the cards really do fill a need.

I used paper that I bought in bulk from Tuesday Morning for both the printed paper and the solid color paper.  The stamps and ink are from Close To My Heart.

Now - what makes this class - and card - so fun for the Cricut Fanatics blog is that all the cuts are done by the Cricut Expression machine and George Cartridge!  Again, once the class is finished, I will share the information, but I drew out the cuts I wanted and then designed it on my Gypsy machine to cut with my Cricut.  The cricut doesn't cut all the way to the edges of the paper, but this is a simple cut with my scissors to finish separating and this saves a lot of time, measuring, and errors!!

If you've ever been in a class that requires a lot of cutting, you know how easy it is to get lost and make the wrong cuts, even with the diagram in front of you.  Having taught these classes before, I know how it can slow down the class, as well as create problems with paper waste.

By using my Cricut to cut these multiple, simple cuts, I am able to keep the class moving forward, plus promote the Cricut machine and Gypsy.

Some edge inking, a little bit of stamping, and glue everything down and presto! 17 different cards (or more) in under an hour.

We would love to see what you can do with this Sketch.  Please create a card or layout and upload the image to this post in the InLinkz!  Remember that you must use your Cricut in creating your project for the Sketch Challenge.

Life is Beautiful Layout

Hello crafters. Cindy here from Scrap-Obsessed. Sorry I'm late today. I was trying to finish up today's project and realized I didn't have the right pictures to go with it. It was originally supposed to be a layout for Mother's Day, but I didn't have pictures of my mom that I could use. What I did have sitting on my desk were lots of pictures of our new puppy, Coco Puff.

Sorry the picture is crooked. I was trying to hurry and used my phone instead of my camera.

With this layout today I wanted to show how you can take a paper kit and add few Cricut elements to dress it up a bit. All the paper and stickers are from a paper collection called La Belle Vie at Close to my Heart. It was in last year's catalog and I've had it sitting in my room collecting dust until now. I really need to find more time to use my supplies.

On the left side of the layout I added a butterfly and flourish from Art Philosophy. On the right side I added another butterfly, flourish, a couple corner flourishes and our puppy's name.

Close-up of a flourish and Coco that was added.

Here is a close-up of one of the butterflies.I cut the bottom and top layer with the same paper just to add a little dimension. Then I added a few pearl accents.

All Cricut cuts were made from the Art Philosophy cartridge.
Butterflies were cut at 1.25" from page 55
Long Flourish's were cut at 1.25" from page 59
Corner Flourish's cut at 3" from page 58
Coco cut at 1.25"

Halloween Home Decor

Hey Everyone, Laurie (welajo) here from Creations by Laurie with a canvas Halloween decor project.

My inspiration for this project came from the October 2010 issue of Paper Crafts magazine.  The card with the house and tree just screams Halloween to me.

I used several reinkers to create the background.  Applied using felt applicators.

I started with Buttercup.  I then applied Creme Brulee over the top, not quite covering all the Buttercup. 

I continued up the canvas with progressively darker colors, Honey, Goldrush, Sorbet, Cranberry, Barn Red, and Black.  Again slightly covering the color below.

The canvas was really wet, so I took a rag and wiped off the excess reinker.  I went in a horizontal motion so the colors wouldn't smear.  Every time I wiped the ink, I used a clean area on the rag, again so the colors wouldn't smear.

I used a heat tool to finish drying the ink.

I cut all pieces from Recollections black card stock.  Happy Halloween is cut at 2 inches from Martha Stewart Seasonal Cakes, phrase-poison key.  The house is 5 1/2 inches from Holiday Cake, shift-plain base key.  Tree is 6 inches from the October 31st cartridge.  The fence is 1 1/2 from Happy Hauntings, the fence key.  I used Scotch Quick Dry glue to adhere the pieces to the canvas.

I didn't glue all the branches of the tree down to give it a little bit of dimension.  I'm so happy the way this project turned out.  

Cricut Info & Other Supplies:

Designed By:  Laurie with inspiration from Paper Crafts magazine

Cricut Machine Used: Cricut Expression

Cricut Cartridges Used: Holiday Cakes, October 31, Martha Stewart Seasonal Cakes, Happy Hauntings

Other supplies used: Canvas, Reinkers from Close to my Heart, Tim Holtz Felt Applicator 

Pumpkin Place Settings and Home Sweet Home

Happy October 2nd. This is Cindy from Scrap-obsessed.blogspot.com with a couple of fall home decor projects. Before getting to my projects today I'd like to say 'Thank You' for having me back. Not only is it an honor to be able to come here and share some of my projects with you, but I also love coming here to look at all of the wonderful projects made by the other designers. They are all such an inspiration.
For my first project today I wanted to use my new Close To My Heart Artiste cartridge. I just got it in the mail a couple of days ago and I absolutely love it. There's an image for just about everything. With Thanksgiving in mind, which will most likely be at my house this year, I was looking for a way to make place settings. I found the perfect images on page 78. I cut the 3D pumpkins at 4" and 5". The patterned papers I used are from an old paper stack called Femme Fatale by Recollections.

Before assembling them I inked the edges with Pumpkin Pie ink by Stampin' Up. Once the pumpkins were put together I cut the leaves at 4" and 5". I inked the edges with Old Olive ink by Stampin' Up, added twine and a button.

I then cut some of the very cute tags on page 32 at 2". This cartridge has some of the cutest tags, not just the ones I used. Again I inked the edges and then stamped the names of family members using the Close to my Heart Type Face letter stamps.

For my other project today I would like to share an idea I found on Pinterest. (love that site)

This front porch planter was super easy to make, but was a big hit at my son's housewarming party. I used three planters stacked one on top of the other in 3 sizes (largest on the bottom). I then added the words Home Sweet Home cut out of vinyl from the Quarter Note cartridge. Each word was welded  using my Gypsy and cut at 3 1/2", 3 3/4, and 4" respectively. I then added my plants of choice and that was it. Super easy.

Sketch Challenge #1

Welcome to our Sketch Challenge.  

This is Amy from Amy's Digi Scraps and welcome to the first of our Sketch Challenges!

On the 20th of each month, I will post a sketch for you to enjoy!  Then, I will post a card variation and Debbie will post a layout page variation.  Please visit the Sketch Challenge link for more information about our monthly Sketch Challenges.

For this month, and the start of our Sketch Challenges, I made a very simple sketch, primarily for a card, but can easily be adapted for a layout as well.  Intended to allow you a base to jump from, this sketch includes mostly blocking areas that you can change to be wording or images or embellishments.

Card Sample by Amy:

My son just turned 17 and I needed a card to celebrate him.  He is a musician and has his own local band, so naturally anything music related would work.  Hannah Montana happens to be one of my favorite cartridges, and it is versatile enough to use for masculine cards and layouts.

For the electric guitar, I cut it in black and blue and sprayed two layers of Goosebumps to give it a glossy, textured look.  Then I layered the image and use a black fine tip pen and a silver metallic pen to add highlights and dimensions.

I cut "Rock" for the Hannah Montana cartridge, but I used the Old English font from Blackletter to make the "on" and welded a small flourish with my Gypsy onto the "n" so that it would match.  I used my silver metallic pen to highlight the letters.

I have two different thicknesses of pop adhesives.  I used the thicker one for the guitar element and the thinner for the words.

Inking with Close To My Heart ink pads was added around the card edges and the paper layer, which was distressed slightly with my scissors first.  (Silly me, I adhered the card form to the layers upside down and had to cut it apart and redo the card form - so check your orientation before adhering!)  Perhaps I should have used a slightly darker ink for the layer so that it would have popped a bit more?

Layout Sample by Debbie:

 Hi everyone, this is Debbie of Debs Eclectic Thoughts Blog.  I love to take sketches and make layouts with them.  For Amy's sketch, I made it into a one page 12X12 layout.  (sorry the picture is a little off, I was having trouble photographing it at night and keeping the shadows off of it.)

To start the sketch process, I used a white cardtock base then added the bright orange cardstock to the center.  For the title/journaling spot on the sketch I used Birthday Bash Cartridge to cut out the Birthday Wishes title and Lacey Labels cartridge to cut the title background shape. Next I followed the sketch design and added some of the yellow polka dot patterned paper to the bottom to create that bottom block but instead of laying it over the center square as in the sketch, I layered it slightly under the center square instead and used it to anchor my embellishments for the page of various patterned papers cut into ribbbons and some buttons with twine. A couple of stickers completed the bottom portion.   After looking at the layout, I felt like I wanted to add a little bit of balance to create a stronger visual triangle between the title and lower embellishments so I added a grouping of patterened paper strips and a large button with twine on the upper right of the page.   The great thing about sketches is that they are a jumping off point for your design and you are free to change it up to make it your own design.  Isn't that cool about sketches ?

We would love to see what you can do with this Sketch.  Please create a card or layout and upload the image to this post in the InLinkz!  Remember that you must use your Cricut in creating your project for the Sketch Challenge.