Crate Paper’s Peppermint Collection at AC Digitals

Here’s the description of Crate Paper’s Peppermint Full Collection from the AC Digitals blog:  “The Peppermint Collection by Crate Paper is full of traditional holiday elements and patterns with a distressed trendy feel. It is perfect for documenting your precious memories while you drink some peppermint hot chocolate. This collection contains 2 paper packs and 3 element packs (each available for purchase separately).”  Click on the above collection image to be taken directly to the product pages at AC Digitals.

I’ve been wanting to make some 3D barn stars for my door this holiday season.  I used my Cricut to cut the stars at different nested sizes using prints from the Peppermint collection and textured cardstock from American Crafts Christmas Cardstock.  Since they were going to be outside enduring the winter elements, before putting them together (but after scoring them), I brushed a layer of matte mod podge on each of them, even the cardstock.  If you’d like to make some yourself, just google barn stars tutorial or 3D stars tutorial.  Also, there are some tutorials on Pinterest as well.  Happy decorating!

Soho Garden and Walnut Grove at AC Digitals!

Here’s the description of American Crafts Soho Garden Collection from the AC Digitals blog:  Urban café meets country flowerbeds in Soho Garden from American Crafts. This cheerful collection teems with bold, rich colors, and abounds with hand-drawn teacups, florals and feathers, accented by a deep green. Coupled with clean geometric and typeface patterns, Soho Garden combines all the magic of city and country life. This collection contains 2 paper packs, a brush set, and 2 element packs (each available for purchase separately).  Click on the above collection image to be taken directly to the product pages at AC Digitals.

This is an absolutely gorgeous collection and prints out beautifully.  Here’s a flip card I made (using the CTMH Cricut Artiste cartridge) with this collection.

Here’s the description of Pebbles Walnut Grove collection from the AC Digitals blog:  Stroll through fields of prairie flowers and wrap up in the textures of the homestead with Walnut Grove from Pebbles. Teal, blue, yellow and pinks, ranging from blush to cranberry, are accented beautifully with black, making the perfect palette for patterns inspired by textiles and nature. This collection contains 2 paper packs and 2 element packs (each available for purchase separately). Click on the above collection image to be taken directly to the product pages at AC Digitals.

You will want to print and touch every bit of this collection!  Here’s a layout I did showcasing the camera-ready personalities of my two daughters, Brandi and Gwendolen.

Go to the AC Digitals blog to see peeks of the rest of the new products releasing this week!

ACDigitals Grand Opening!

That’s right!  Beginning today, December 3, 2012, digital products will be made available to the public, from the following phenomenal brands:

American Crafts

Becky Higgins Project Life

Crate Paper

Pebbles

Be sure to stop by for the Grand Opening sale.  Click below to be taken to the blog for further details!  Now!  Don’t wait!  The freebies (and the sale) are awesome!

Below are some hybrid projects I’ve put together using these kits available at acdigitals.

I printed some digi goodness from Amy Tangerine’s Ready Set Go kits onto Photo Fabric and put this coffee cozy together in no time! I’m so proud to use this.

I pieced this card together using Kringle & Co kits. The design of these kits will blow you away. It’s a sophisticated kind of whimsy.

This card was made using Crate Paper’s Acorn Avenue and Sleigh Ride kits. That little tree is so cute!

And just a little more information . . .

For the past few years, I’ve been beyond happy and content creating hybrid projects with digital supplies and will continue to do so, very happily, with ACDigitals!  Recently I was invited to work with their digital products and become a part of their creative team.  How cool is that?  Very cool—I couldn’t believe it!  I’ve been using and adoring their products for years.  I’ve collected Becky Higgins’ sketches and books forever.  I’m so proud to be a part of this amazing venture.

Fall Snapshots Album with Holder

I’ve been wanting to use the card holder and file folder cuts from Cricut CTMH Artiste cartridge since I got it!  This time of year would give me the perfect opportunity.  This little album is for the favorite pictures I’ve taken in October.  There will be two more albums, one for November and one for December, that will fit in this holder and complete my favorite Fall Snapshots for 2012.  I wanted to make this adventure easy, so the layout is simple with just a picture (using the picture frame from Spellbinders Snapshot set), a star punch stamped using a Unity Stamp from one of the their KOTM, and other Unity Stamp Company stamps here and there.  Also, I used a file folder fastener to hold pages in place so that I could add or subtract from the album if I wanted to.  The holder and album are sturdy, built using chipboard, put together with printed digital papers and elements from Lori Whitlock’s Fall Fling Collection and Office Oriented Collection(available at jessicasprague.com), and then binded using my Bind-It-All (the file folder).   

Faux Polaroid Rosette Turkey Door Decor

Last year I made a small rosette turkey for a greeting card and admired it all year long.  I couldn’t wait to get started this year for the next installment of . . . Rosette Turkey!  I used the same cut and sentiment from Animal Kingdom Cricut cartridge.  I inserted an ultrafine sharpie into my Cricut Expression 2 and had it draw the sentiment and turkey legs onto some watercolor paper.  My Cricut also drew the turkey body which was then cut.  I then colored the background and turkey body, legs, etc., using a combination of Tim Holtz Distress Ink markers, pads, and Stampin’ Up watercolor pencils.  Then I sewed the clouds (digital patterned paper from Lori Whitlock’s Fall Fling Collection) onto the background.   Twine was tied into a bow and adhered to the top of a piece of 12-x-12-inch chipboard. The watercolor paper piece (background with sentiment) was trimmed and adhered to the white side of the chipboard, so that it resembled a Polaroid.  The rosette (digital patterned paper also from Lori Whitlock’s Fall Fling Collection) was from Close To My Heart’s Artiste cartridge.  This was assembled and hot glued onto the background.   I hot glued the turkey body where shown, added a black cardstock bow tie with button (also from CTMH Artiste cartridge), and applied glossy accents to the turkey’s wattle (because every wattle needs dimension!).  Black pearls were added to the Turkey’s eyes.   Then . . . I hung it on my front door!

Cricut & Distress Markers

I like to color!  Sometimes, I like my Cricut to draw, especially on watercolor paper. Using my Gypsy to do this is preferred. I create a file on my gypsy--one mat for drawing and the other mat for cutting. A micro tip Sharpie is used in my Cricut when I watercolor as the ink needs to be permanent, so it won't bleed. Then I use the Cricut to cut out the outlined images. This, to me, looks a lot like a stamp-and-cut type of image. A waterbrush is used with my distress markers on a craft mat to color my images. The cartridge used for these images was Art Philosophy.

Mixed 4 Media Canvas Cards

With some of the scraps leftover from the Farm Day Mini I made last week, I put them to good use in the cards below.  The scraps were just too beautiful not to use! 

Digital Supplies:  Mixed 4 Mixed Media Canvas by Nancie Rowe Janitz available at jessicasprague.com. 

Hope you’re having a good week!

Amador County Farm Day

Recently I had the honor of chaperoning my daughter and her class at our county’s first Farm Day--what a treat!  Gwen was so taken with the chickens that we might just have to get a couple for our backyard next spring.  I think it will be a great learning experience for the kids and maybe we’ll get a few eggs a week out of it.  By the way, you DO NOT need a rooster if you just want eggs.  I’m sure if you think about it, you’ll understand why.  The reason I’m bringing this up is that initially, after explaining to more than a few people that I just wanted to have some backyard chickens for eggs, they kept explaining I needed a rooster.  Being the understanding person that I am, I just nodded my head and walked away.  Trust me, I don’t want to BREED the hens, I just want their EGGS.

That day, instead of lugging around my big DSLR, I decided to just use my iPhone to take pictures. I couldn’t help but take the pictures and combine them in an album for her as a keepsake of our day together.  The Spellbinder’s Snapshot set came in handy as well as Cricut’s new Mini Books cartridge.

Hopefully I will have the opportunity to go with my son, Raiden, next year.  Maybe after that trip, we’ll plant a vegetable garden, too—Lol!    

The tag above lists all the children that were in our group during the Farm Day tour at the Fairgrounds.

The children were given a swag bag at the event.  Gwen gave me permission to use the ruler she received in the bag as an embellishment in her album.  You’ll see the rest of it at the end.

The tag on the right side includes the folded itinerary for the day that we received at school before leaving on the trip.  Each activity was given a letter on the itinerary which explained the nature of the activity.  Most of the pictures I included in the book after this page will have a letter on the tab which refers back to this itinerary.   The picture below shows the itinerary unfolded.

The picture above shows the other side of the tag with attached itinerary.  Below, you will see how this side will unfold and show a map we used that day of the Fairgrounds to get to each activity.

In the above picture and in the picture below, you see that ruler again!

This entire album, almost every page (except for the manila tags) was constructed with chipboard.  By the time I was done assembling my pages, I noticed it was quite bulky.  With that said, I did have to remove some pages (not pictured above) from the album.  One of the things I had removed was a cardstock folder assembled using that new Cricut cartridge called Mini Books.  Our name tags from the day were going to be nestled in that pocket.  I just loved it but it had to go. In the future, I think most of my pages will be constructed with cardstock instead.  Also, the spine originally was closed---another cut from Cricut’s Mini Books cartridge, but it was just too bulky, so I had to cut it in half.   

All in all I am very proud of it, but most of all, so is Gwen.  It’s hers after all is said and done.  This did take quite a bit of time but we just had Fall Break and Gwen helped me in the planning of her album while we were off. 

Below will be a list of items and tools used to assemble the album.  If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at cammie1971@yahoo.com.  TFL!

Supplies

All patterned paper and some doodle elements by Nancie Rowe Janitz available at  jessicasprague.com items:

My Doodle Book

Mixed 4:  Mixed Media Canvas

Mixed 3: Backgrounds

Die Cutters, Tools, Inks, and Stamps

Cricut Mini Books and CTMH Art Philosophy Cartridges used with Cricut Expression 2 and Gypsy for album structure

Spellbinders Grand Calibur and following dies for frames, etc:  Snapshot, Nested Lacy Pennants, and Labels Two, Twenty, and Twenty-Five.

Jenni Bowlin For Fiskars Tab Punch and Butterfly Punch

WRMK Crop-a-dile 2 and large eyelets on binding of book and pages

I-Rock and crystals by Imaginisce

Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher

Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pens and Pads:  Black Soot, Vintage Photo, Mustard Seed, Wild Honey, China Blue, Faded Jeans, Barn Door

K&Company Smash Tape and Smash Clips

Stamps by Unity Stamp Company:  Summers Best by Simple Stories, Travel Notes, Slow & Steady, and 1/12 and 9/12 Kits of the Month

8-1/2-x-11-inch Layouts and Some Cards

Wow! Summer is just melting away—literally.  I think what I’m going to remember most about this summer is making pancakes for the kids (quite a lot actually), going to the movies on Thursday, enjoying fresh-squeezed lemonade, the kids discovering the game, Minecraft, and just how happy it felt to have our house full on Independence Day.  ALL of my kids were under one roof!  Since the oldest two have become adults, it’s very hard for us to all get together other than for Thanksgiving and Christmas. This past Independence Day was one of the brightest ones yet.  We also discovered S’mores Pizza.  We feasted on that just after the fireworks—what a treat!  What have you been up to this summer?

Seems like it’s been quite a while since I’ve done some power scrappin’.  This time I decided to focus on the 8-1/2-x-11-inch format (portrait and landscape) for motivation and it worked!  I was able to complete three layouts within a few days. 

Here goes:

My oldest daughter is quite the character when posing for pictures.  She posed for this using her own iPhone, wearing a pair of frames she found thrifting.  I just had to scrap it!  I used Glitz Design’s Pretty in Pink Paper Kit and Pretty in Pink Element Kit available at jessicasprague.com. 

Is July too early for Pumpkin Patch photos?  For some reason KI Memories’ Good Folk Paper Pack and Good Folk Brads (available at jessicasprague.com) got me in the mood to scrap this photo of my youngest son at The Davis Ranch Pumpkin Patch last October.  We go every year for pumpkins and their sweet corn.  What a great time!

This past June, my youngest daughter turned 9.  I was so excited to see her and her friends still playing with dolls during her birthday slumber party the night before she turned 9.  Sometimes she seems so grown-up but most of the time, she’s still my little girl—whew!  I used KI Memories’ Sweet Life Paper Pack and Good Folk Paper Pack, available at jessicasprague.com,  in this layout.

The other thing I’m definitely going to remember about this summer is Spellbinders Dies!  A few months ago, I started out with a couple because of how friendly they played with digital elements.  Then at the beginning of the summer, I purchased the Grand Calibur Machine and have been smitten ever since.  My collection of Spellbinder dies have grown—needless to say.  TIP:  When I get a new spellbinder die set, I trace them onto paper and then scan the trace into my computer.  When I’m ready to use a digital element or paper, I fill the digital image into the scanned trace of the die, and I only have to print that element, perfect size and everything to cut with the nested die.  I’m saving time and printer ink using this method.  For this card, I used Echo Park’s Homemade Mini Theme available at jessicasprague.com.  I just love that little jar!

Don’t you just love that sentiment!  It’s from the June 2012 Unity Kit of The Month.  I love getting these kits delivered to my door every month.  Recently I joined the Stamp of the Week with Unity and get a stamp delivered every Saturday.  These are the things that make me giddy—LOL!  I used a print from KI Memories’ Good Folk Paper Pack available at jessicasprague.com centered in this card. 

Binded ATC-Style Mini Album + Cards . . .

We had lots of seriously fun activities going on at school and in our household this past May, from field trips to an annular eclipse.  So I decided to make a mini album.  I didn’t want anything too complicated, just iPhone pictures with page titles.  No fuss.  Jodie Lee’s Art Journal Printable ATC Cards (available soon at jessicasprague.com) were just what I needed.  I printed the PDF twice for the pages and went to work creating this simple mini by cropping and adhering the pieces to chipboard and binding it with my Bind-It-All using 3/4-inch rings. This size was fun and NO STRESS.  Best of all, it fit in the hands of my children and they loved flipping through the pages.  Also, the title/page titles were pretty easy, too.  I printed the title/page titles out, placed the paper on a light box, and adhered popsicle sticks to the back.  Then I used my craft knife to cut away the excess paper and filed the sides, etc., to give it a shabby-like look.  The popsicle sticks gave the album just enough weight and dimension.

Below are some images of cards I completed recently but just haven’t posted to my blog yet.  I hope you enjoy looking at them.  The one just below this uses my favorite Jenni Bowlin papers from her Farmers Wife Collection at jessicasprague.com.  The second card uses papers from her Tangerine Dream Collection at jessicasprague.com.  TFL!

Vintage Tray Goodness

Finding treasures in thrift stores is a vital part of my creative process.  Sometimes these treasures are purchased long before their hybrid rebirth.  Mostly I wait for inspiration to come my way before altering.  That’s the case with THIS tray. Jodie Lee’s Vintage Collage Papers are P-E-R-F-E-C-T for this type of project.  They will make you look like a decoupage collage genius.  I printed three 8-1/2-x-11-inch collage papers on Epson Presentation Paper, one for the top right of the tray, one for the top left of the tray, and then I cut the last paper into strips that would fit the middle and bottom row of the tray that was not covered.  It was an excellent fit and I know I wouldn’t be able to make a collage as pretty as these on my own—what a great combination!

A Package Deal for Dad

Almost Father’s Day! This year I decided to make Dad’s gift fun for me, too. I’ve always wanted to admire my husband in a bow tie, so I made him one with a little help using Photo Fabric and digital scrapbooking supplies from jessicasprague.com. This is why digital reigns supreme—not only can I make paper supplies like scrapbook pages and cards but I can also make a useful, fun, and inexpensive keepsake ensemble using coordinating supplies for a bow tie, card, and box!

Jessicasprague.com Supplies

Dapper Dan Complete Kit by Designs by Dani

Other Supplies

Photo Fabric, thread, fusible interfacing, Spellbinders wonky reverse rectangle die and small scallop circle dies, Cricut Tags, Bags, Boxes, and More 2, Bakers Twine, and cardstock.

Have a Happy Daddy Day!

Bohemian Bliss with PhotoFabric and some Cards

The above projects is what you can get when you combine Pink Paislee’s Bohemian Bliss Paper Pack and Element Pack (available at jessicasprague.com) with Photofabric!

Below are some cards I put together using the following digital kits available at jessicasprague.com:

Get Happy Full Kit, It’s A Start Template Pack 8, and Free Spirit Paper Pack by In the Making Designs.

The weather has been perfect all week!  I’m looking forward to all of the end-of-the-year activities planned for school—hope you are, too.