Thursday 21 November 2013

Inspired by Artbooking

I don't have a Cricut (yet), but I love the artwork I've been seeing using CTMH's Cricut Artbooking Collection. CTMH posts a new video every week with ideas and how-to for Artbooking projects. Follow me on Facebook to see them.

The Artbooking look is very heavy on intricately cut backgrounds. For my Artbooking inspired layout, I turned to my Silhouette and cut a 8" x 11" herringbone background from Cocoa cardstock as well as the title. At first I thought I'd add patterned paper or cardstock strips behind the open areas of the herringbone pattern, but decided that would take way too long--this page was a 30-minute project.

Instead, I repeatedly stamped flower images from the Happy Autumn stamp set, using Crème Brulee, Goldrush and Olive inks, onto a 8.25" x 11.25" piece of Champagne cardstock. The affect reminds me of looking through a window, which is what this page is about.

The page is finished off with Huntington My Stickease (border, tab and banners) and canvas stickers and wooden button from the Huntington Assortment. The gems are from the Sparkles Brown and Tan Assortment leftover from my Huntington Workshop on the  Go Kit, but can also be bought separately.

This page came together very quickly and is a great example of how you can create beautiful pages with a lot of style without using patterned paper!

Monday 4 November 2013

Merry & Bright!

You may remember, when I first signed on as a CTMH Independent Consultant, I became enamoured of Studio J--CTMH's online scrapbooking tool. I still love it. At the time, I was years behind in my scrapbooking and challenged myself to complete two albums: one in Studio J and one in traditional paper. Well, it's been 22 months and I've finally completed the traditional paper album!

Last page for my 2010 album.
Of course, the Studio J album (2011) was completed much more quickly. That one took about nine months. It was fast, easy and fun and I will keep going back to Studio J, but I'll never give up traditional scrapbooking.

So, what's next? I've been working on my 2012 and 2013 albums in Studio J on and off for a while, but now I think I'll turn my attention back to my heritage album. It has sat on the back burner for a long while--in fact, I don't think I've done one page for it in the past year. But then I've got to get cracking on my yearly albums again--I don't want to fall so far behind again.

There are a few things worth mentioning about the Merry & Bright layout above:
  • I didn't follow a sketch! You know how much I love my sketches, but after spending some time looking for a double-page layout that could handle several 4" x 6" photos, I gave up and decided to "wing it"--so many double-page layouts today rely on small photos. It was fun, and easier than I thought it would be, to get my creative juices flowing once, I'd figured out the layout for the photos.
  • This layout is made of scraps! I used the leftovers from my Sparkle & Shine kit, but I never had to cut into a new sheet of paper. The scraps I'd saved from previous layouts made with this kit (four and counting) were enough to add colour and interest to this page.
  • Bling! Bling! I got out my new Shimmer Trim, in red and silver, to add sparkle and shine. I love this trim! It's as sturdy as glitter cardstock, has a strong adhesive backing (which isn't difficult to remove) and the glitter stays on the trim--it doesn't rub off on your fingers! I also added some rhinestone gems and Bitty Sparkles. (I find myself using Bitty Sparkles on everything these days--pages, cards, tags, everything!)
  • I dusted off my Silhouette. I haven't used it in a very long time, but my love for die-cuts is ramping up again. Die-cuts are a great way to add fun titles and shapes to a project. Once I start merging die-cuts and stamping, watch out!

Looking ahead, I already have a few pages completed for 2013 (as well as 2012). It's going to be a great scrapbooking year!
Opening and closing pages of my 2013 album done using Studio J.