4th of July card

I needed a card for the 4th of July. I decided to use my Cricut for most of it, just out of laziness, so I used the Independence Day cartridge. The two stamped images at the bottom are Studio G stamps I found at AC Moore at least a year ago. The embossed background is the script Cuttlebug folder.

I don't know if you can see this in the scan, but I used metallic rub-on to give the liberty bell a metallic bronze appearance. It's a really, really old product from my stash. I have no idea who makes it.

GASC, plus the layout info

I promised to post the materials I used for the GASC layout shown in in my post from earlier today:

The patterned papers that I used were the Adorn-It line by Carolee's Creations, Bazzill Basics cardstock (Heidi color), Accu-Cut die (large label shaped black cardstock), Sizzix die (flourish), Cuttlebug die and embossing folder (butterfly-I used a different folder than the ones that come with the butterfly, though, a brocade pattern also by Cuttlebug), Bazzill Basics white paper flowers, Kaiser Scrapbooking lavender pearls, and a white scroll patterned sheer ribbon.

GASC had a lot more stamp vendors than I remember there being in past years. I'm addicted to stamps as much as to scrap supplies/tools, so I was delighted. Heartfelt Creations, a stamp vendor, had designed stamps that coordinate with Nestabilities--a very smart idea that proved to be a hot seller. Since I have quite a few Nestabilities, I came away from there with 5 sets of the coordinating stamps. They also had some amazing punches at the same booth. The punch would do borders, circles, ovals, squares, and rectangles--just one punch. You didn't have to cut the paper to any particular size, either. It was a very well engineered design. However, I'm not using my punches very often, and I was running out of money by then, so I didn't buy any of them, although they had lovely designs. And they were also selling quite well, I think.

Another of my favorite vendors was Art Gone Wild. They had very cute stamps that were well suited to some really fun cards. I will have to do some cardmaking soon, because I spent quite a bit at their booth, too.

I got a few fun templates, at another booth, and I got some of Darcie's clip art CD's and one of Darcie's stamp sets.

And I found a Bow Easy. It's a handy little tool that helps you to make bows for cards and layouts. I haven't found anyone locally that carries it, but I now own one.

I actually passed by the Stampers Anonymous booth--where they have all things Tim Holtz. I just have so much TH stuff, though, that I didn't linger there, even though they do have some wonderful things.

It's always a little sad when you see that some vendors have hardly anyone stop by their booth. I know they paid a lot of money to have the booth, and I wonder if they will make enough to even cover their costs. Then there were others that did a brisk business the entire time.

As for our Make & Take--the crown journal spot, we got a late start because one of the stamps just did not want to work with the chalk ink. That was really weird because I used the chalk ink to stamp the original one used on the layout itself. After several unsuccessful attempts to make the sample, I finally just had to run home and get one of my CTMH inkpads. Unfortunately, it's a color that I don't have a re-inker for, so if it runs out before the end of the day tomorrow, we'll have to substitute a darker color. I'll be spending the morning staffing the table tomorrow. I refuse to do any more shopping.

GASC is a lot of fun, but it's also very tiring. I'm sure husbands will never believe this, but it's hard work to spend money, LOL!

"If the Crown Fits" Layout for GASC

It's time for the Great American Scrapbook Convention, and I'll be there!

Each year the scrapbook store where I design the Make & Take projects has some kind of a table at Great American Scrapbook Convention (GASC) for a little Make & Take. This year we are doing things slightly different, since we will be at the table of Joanna Campbell Slan, author of scrapbook murder mysteries. She is teaching journaling classes at the Convention. She also taught a journaling class at the LSS two nights ago. Because her special focus is on writing, our Make & Take this year is a journal spot, which is stamped by combining two different stamps using the masking technique, and embellished with rhinestones.

Last year we also had a layout at the store for customers to see how the Make & Take project could be used on a layout. This year we are doing the same, along with complete instructions, and the store has all the papers and supplies for the customers to buy, so they can go right ahead and make the layout immediately.

Someone else designed last year's layout after I had designed the Make & Take, but this year I designed the layout, too, so I can post it here. I am getting ready to leave for GASC, so I don't have time to post the materials list, but I will post later all of the items that I used to make the above layout.

However, I wanted those who visit my blog to be the first to see the layout. I hope you enjoy it!

Masculine Pioneer Trek layout using Cricut cartridges

Being a fairly new Cricut owner (less than a month at this point), the number of cartridges I have is somewhat limited. I still have a teenage boy at home, but I also have grandkids. They're usually more fun to do scrapbook pages of than my teen, so naturally my first cartridges that I bought were with grandkiddie layouts in mind.

However, I do also occasionally scrapbook my other children. Since I have mostly boys, I realized that masculine Cricut cartridges seemed in rather short supply, especially among the few that I had. However, I had bought the Pooh and Friends and Paper Doll Dress Up cartridges, and they actually had some promising possibilities for this pioneer layout. A friend also had given me the Pooh font, which has a wooden board font option.

Winnie-the-Pooh and Paper Dolls may not seem like the first cartridges you'd grab for a masculine layout, but they did quite well in this case.

The real journaling has not been added yet, so I typed a note or two on the scanned images. The third page of the layout has a wagon wheel tag peeking above from behind the wood frame. That is a pull-out tag. The wagon wheel was cut with an Accu-Cut die. The shading of the die-cuts was done with chalks.

This layout is a fairly simple one, but simplicity fit the theme.

While most of my layouts are two page spreads, if I have a lot of really good photos that I want to include, I will occasionally make a four page layout as I did here.

File Folder Purse Stationary Set

We needed an inexpensive gift for a pair of twin teen girls. I had picked up some matching file folders, notebooks, note cards, and self-stick notes (circular) at Michaels awhile back, but hadn't done anything with them, so I decided they would make a nice little gift if I could dress it up a bit. The file folder was used for the purse. I used a Tim Holtz "On the Edge" Alterations die to cut the purse top. The rest was just cutting, scoring, and gluing. Although I'd seen altered file folders, and stationary sets, I couldn't find any project on the internet that was quite what I wanted, so I had to make it up as I went along. I'm happy with how the project turned out, though. The notebook can be removed, the notecards are in a pocket under the self-stick notes, and it closes with velcro. I used a Stampin' Up slot punch to make the holes for the ribbon handle. I wanted to dress up the inside and outside a bit more, but I ran out of time.

Friendship card

A friend of mine is moving this week. She's the only one who has consistently wanted to scrapbook with me, as well as shop for scrapping stuff. I'm going to miss her, of course. I made a simple card to give her as a farewell.

The little girls were a Penny Black stamp from years ago. The flower pot & flowers were Stampin' Up stamps. Inside the card I used another SU stamp that said, "Little by little, Day by day, Friends and flowers Grow that way." The butterflies are a punch that is part of the Tonic punch system (it's a way of lining it up and punching to make a border) that I found at Great American Scrapbook Convention a few years back.

Like I said, it's a pretty simple card, but it was made for a very special friend.