It's Monday! Hopefully...

you enjoyed your weekend. To start your Monday off on the right foot, I have a video for you today! That's right, Jenn has put together a video for you to show you how to die cut on a fold. Now, this video was shot a while back and it refers to some dies as "new" that are, well, not so new anymore! But that's okay because this is a "technique" video. So, check it out:



So, what'd you think? I like the idea. It works great with the Spellbinders Nestabilities. Here's a quick card I made using this technique:

To create my card base, I followed Jenn's tutorial and used my Spellbinders Long Scallop Rectangles. Just for fun, I used my paper piercer to poke a tiny hole in the center of each of the scallops all the way around the card. I created the blue mat with my Long Classic Rectangle and embossed it after it was cut. The sun and sentiment were cut using my Making Memories Slice and Seasons Design Card. After I cut the sun, I inked the edges and added the face. I covered it with Diamond Glaze and allowed it to dry. This gives the sun a glossy look. Then, I attached the sun with dimensional adhesive to create the shadow behind it. A touch of twine in the seam and that's it! A super simple and quick card. On the inside you could write "You brighten my day!"

Veronica loves the Easter dies! Look at this adorable layout:

Veronica used Chick-a-Dee for her title which translates to "What a cute Easter Witch". She also used the new Easter Egg Border. I love how you can easily "decorate" each egg! Great layout, Veronica!

I hope you enjoyed today's video! We are working on some others that will be coming very soon! If there's something specific you'd like to see in a video leave us a comment and we'll add it to our list! Yaritza, I haven't forgotten your request for a video showing how to shade the faces of the Boss Kut peekers. I have my lamb and it's on my list of to do's for next week! We'll see you back here Wednesday! Until then, happy scrappin'!

Katie

NEW CONTEST!!

Read the end of Katie's post today for details!!

It's Friday! The end of...

the week and the beginning of a CHALLENGE! I have not one, but TWO sketches for you today. The first one is a card sketch from Page Maps.


Each DT member created a card based on this sketch. Jenn and Tammy went with the St. Patrick's Day theme. Take a look at Jenn's card...

Jenn cut the Shamrock with her Silhouette and created the mat with the new offset feature. She used some Scenic Route paper from the Grafton collection along with the Bead Border.

Tammy also used a Shamrock...

She used her 2x2 Shamrock, Banana Split font, and her Spellbinders Scallop and Classic Squares Nestabilities. A touch of American Crafts ribbon finished it off! Cute cards!

Veronica went with an Easter theme. This card is just adorable...

She used the Revolution Chick and Egg, Chick-a-Dee font, and Scallop Border. That chick just makes me giggle!

Now, I have to warn you I went a whole other direction with mine! I used my Making Memories Slice Spellbound Design Card to create a non-Halloween card.

I inked the edges of my card base, patterned paper strip and the skull and cross bones with my 'Midnight Confessions' Quick Quotes Powder Puff Ink. I used a 24 guage wire from the jewelry department at the craft store to create the barbed wire. I just LOVE that Spellbound font! There's actually multiple choices for each letter!

The next sketch is a scrapbook sketch by our very own Veronica!

And here's her layout she created based on this sketch...

Veronica used the Revolution Tree, the sun from the Revolution Weather and the Supermarket alphabet. Here's a close-up of her title...

What a great layout!

Wow! How's that for some Friday inspiration?! We want to see what you do with these sketches. I have heard from a few of you that you need more time. So, I am extending the challenge for a week (almost!). Email me your projects to Katie@scrap-mart.com by noon Thursday, March 19th and I will share them on Friday the 20th! This time, we're offering a little incentive...that's right a PRIZE!!! You can participate in either OR both sketches and you will receive a ticket for each. Plus, if you post this challenge on your personal blog and link it back here you will receive another ticket. You have to leave me a comment in the comment section of THIS post so I can see it. And, if anyone reads about it on your blog and plays along you will receive another ticket (one for each participant...they have to tell me they read it on your blog). I won't actually send you a ticket...I'll put them in a hat with your name on them and draw. The more tickets you have, the better chance you have to win! How's that? We hope you have a fabulous weekend and we can't wait to see what you create!

Katie

I don't know about you...

but one of the things I love the most about papercrafting is being able to personalize and share! I'm proud to have our friend, PJ, with us this Wednesday.

Here is an How-to for this Cute Gift bag



She has prepared a step-by-step tutorial to show us how to create this wonderful gift bag.

To get started, this is what you'll need:

Small paper sacks (3 1/2" x 2" x 6 3/4")available at Walmart, Michael’s or Hobby Lobby.
Matching Ribbon
Small Velcro Dots
2 or 3 pieces of coordinating patterned paper
Decorative Scissors to trim down paper bag
QuicKutz Border die
Spellbinders Nestabilities Circles, Squares or Rectangles
Slice Cartridges with scalloped circles or squares
Scor-Pal

Take your small white gift bag and fold the loose part of the bottom of the bag down to meet the bottom of the bag. This will make the bottom of your bag look like a tent when turned sideways.

This allows your bag to open flat on the bottom. Now trim the top of your bag with decorative scissors so that the bag is 4 3/4" tall.

Cut a strip of Cardstock 3 5/8" x 12". This will serve as your base to make your bag stand up. You can make it out of cardstock or a double-sided patterned paper, both work great.

Create the back piece to your bag by cutting your strip 3 5/8" x 6 1/2".
Then score your bag with the Scor-Pal at the 5" mark and fold.

At the fold line punch a small hole 1/2" in from each side.
This will allow you to attach a ribbon handle to your bag.
Run ribbon handle through holes and glue the ends to the back before you adhere the paper back to your back piece. This will hide the loose ends of the ribbon.

Create the front piece to your bag by cutting your strip 3 5/8" x 5".
You can leave this part plain or jazz it up a bit with patterned paper.
Glue this piece to the front of your bag making sure the bottom is lined up evenly.

Add your scalloped border to the front flap of your bag and decorate the front flap as you like. When you are finished, add a small Velcro dot under the flap to keep the gift bag closed.

As you can see, these bags would be great for any occasion! Thank you PJ for sharing this with us. I can't wait to try it!

You may remember playing the Memory Card Game when you were younger or you may even play it now with your own children. Veronica has taken this game to a whole new level by creating her own set of play cards for her kids.

She used a variety of Boss Kut and Quickutz dies, cut the shapes and mounted them onto black cardstock. Then she added a patterned paper to the reverse side.

Once she had all her cards completed (2 of each shape) she laminated them so they could be used again and again! What a fabulous idea! You could even make cards with sight words, numbers, colors and more!

I don't know about you...

but I had a very busy weekend! The weather here was PERFECT for being outdoors! Spring can't arrive fast enough for me!

Did you see Sunday's Copic Tutorial post? Veronica did an awesome job showing us how to get amazing results with her step-by-step instructions. Here's a card Veronica made using a stamped image she colored with her Copics.

Veronica used the Magnolia font for her '80' and she stamped and heat embossed the background using the Quickutz Triplet Flower Stamps. Here's a close-up of the image...

You can see all the great detail and shadowing! And again, Veronica used her white gel pen to add some highlights. Cute card!

Tammy created this pretty layout using her Quickutz Nutmeg font and some American Crafts cardstock.

What a beautiful photo of her daughter and those delicious Basic Grey patterned papers really make the photo pop!

Scrap-Mart received the Making Memories Slice Wedding Design Cards in last week! This is a really great design card...even if you don't need wedding stuff! Here's a quick card I made with it...

I decided to go with a black background and added the shades of pink and red for some color "pop". The bird shape is actually a single bird with the heart on it's beak. I cut my first shape and simply turned my cardstock upside down (because I used a textured cardstock) to cut the second one. I cut a third in red to get the red heart then layered them together. For the border, I cut one of the decorative edge label shapes at 4" then trimmed the center out until I achieved the desired size. I used the ribbon across the center to hide the seam and attached it at both ends with some Making Memories Shimmer Brads. I snipped the ribbon ends and allowed them to overhang the card just a bit (this card is only 3 3/4" wide so it'll still fit in a standard envelope even with the overhang!). I cut the "amour" with the same red cardstock as the heart and attached it to the ribbon. This card could be given to your sweetheart or even as a gift to newlyweds! The Wedding Design Card has a beautiful script font and some great shapes that would be nice for multiple occasions!

Thanks for stoppin' by today! Don't forget to email me your sketch projects so they can be included in our "With us Wednesday" post. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and that this finds you starting off a great Monday! We'll see you back here Wednesday!

Katie

Copic Coloring Tutorial

Okay, I promised a Copic Coloring Tutorial and here it is! Veronica took step-by-step pictures to show you just how to do it.

I always start with the face and color a pink "blush". Then I start to draw the outline with skinwhite before I go on.


Then I color the rest of the face moving in a circular motion. The pink circles will blend in with the skintone and make a nice blush. The ink was still wet when I took the photo. It will look softer when it dry.


I draw some grey lines (warm grey 3) for shadows...


...and the grey will blend in with the color and make great shadows. You can also use the pen that you use and make som extra drawings to make it darker. I also use some darker pen in the same color (see the shoes later) but mostly I start with the grey and if I´m not satisfied with the result I use the others.


Here I started to use the grey for shadows...


..and then added some darker brown for the shoes...


which turned out like this. It dosen´t matter if there´s some color outside the lines because I always finish it with a light grey line to make a shadow and it sure makes a great difference.


The final result!


You can see how Veronica addes some "highlights" with her white gel pen. It just helps to give the image a little more detail! Thank you Veronica for sharing that with us!

Jenn and Tammy both worked on layouts with Friday's sketch. Take a look at Tammy's...

Tammy used the QK Scallop Border, Revolution Label, Doublekutz Heart Pendant, Revolution Heart, and Banana Split font. What a cute layout!

And here's Jenn's...

Jenn decided to condense the sketch down to an 8x8 size. She used the Chick-a-Dee font for her title. See, it's not just for girly stuff! It looks great on her boys' layout! To create the scallop behind the label, Jenn used the new Sunburst Border. She used her Silhouette to cut the label. Jenn also used the Folded Tab and the retired Star Doodads. I'm glad to see Jenn put the masculine twist on the sketch!

Okay, you still have time to get yours in! Next Friday you'll see a card sketch so get ready! I hope you enjoyed today's post and hopefully you've learned something about coloring with Copics. Maybe now they won't seem so intimidating. If you have some projects you'd like to share send them to me at Katie@scrap-mart.com! Thanks for stoppin' by today. I hope you enjoy what's left of your weekend! We'll see you back here for our regularly scheduled Monday post!

Katie

Friday Sketch Challenge

I think that's what we should call it...easy enough. I don't know about you but sometimes I find it hard to come up with something I feel I haven't already done. That's when I turn to a sketch. There are tons of places you can get FREE sketches. Pagemaps is one I frequent as is Better Homes and Gardens Scrapbooks Etc. This weeks sketch comes from Scrapbooks Etc. Take a look...

You can view the sketch on their site here. I loved this sketch the minute I saw it. Here's my take on it...


I didn't have a 6x6 photo so I created a large photo mat area and mounted 2 smaller photos in that space. The patterned paper is Making Memories Love Notes. I used the Scrap-Mart exclusive Flourish Border in place of the scallop in the sketch. I moved the Scallop Border to the bottom and tucked it in with my other borders. The other die cuts were cut with my Making Memories Slice. The label is from Noteworthy and the hearts are from Basic Shapes 1. In case you're wondering, the top polaroid photo is of my dad and me when I was about 2 and the other is my daughter with my dad late last year. I LOVE these photos!

I want to share a few quick tips with you too. I had the 8x8 Love Notes paper pad but I really wanted my strips to run the full 12" so I cut them to size and butted one 8" piece and one 4" piece of each strip together. The seam is covered by the label and I got my full border along the bottom of the page! My next tip has to do with photographing your layous/projects. When you attempt to take pictures of your layouts do you have trouble getting them to stand up without bending? I usually do. So, I take my layout and stick it to my Making Memories Slice 12x12 glass cutting mat and stand it up! I can position it however I want and the layout doesn't slip or crumple! Try it and let me know how it works for you!

When Veronica sent me the following pictures I asked myself "Why didn't I think of that?" Look at how Veronica uses the Quickutz Vinyl...

This is such a great idea! I especially love the labeled pantry items. You could even do this with your scrapbook supplies! I'm going to give this a try for sure.

Jenn is really enjoying the welding feature with the new Silhouette software. Look at this cute layout...

Jenn used a variety of die cuts on this page. She started with the Boss Kut tulips, hedgehog, and Licorice Stick font (for "Our little"). To create the sun she used the Spellbinders Pinked Circles. Jenn used the new Yogurt alphabet for the "critter" part of her title and the Quickutz Grass Border for the background grass. To give her layout some added dimension, Jenn used the new Silhouette software to weld together two of the free grass downloads and added them to the top of her other grass border with dimensional adhesive! I really like the layered look of it.

Our friend, PJ, is getting ready for her vactation to Hawaii! She knows there will be important moments, places, etc. she will want to remember so she's created this project to take with her to help her keep up with and document it all.

And these little tags tuck inside so she can keep everything together. Plus, she can put them directly onto her pages!

PJ used some Scenic Route Grafton patterned paper and American Crafts cardstock. The stamps are Unity's Time for Travel and The Details. The tags were cut using the Revolution Reinforced Tag and she used the Boss Kut Postage Stamp on the fron of the file folder. PJ took the idea one step further by suggesting using this to give a bride to help with wedding planning or even to a mother-to-be to help her remember the special moments and feelings before and after the baby is born. What a great project!

Well, we hope you've enjoyed what you've seen today. If you'd like to play along in this week's sketch challenge, simply email me your finished project to Katie@scrap-mart.com by midnight Monday and we'll share it on our "With us Wednesday" post. Also, if you have a favorite sketch you'd like to share, send it to me along with your version of it and we can use it for a Friday Sketch Challenge. Tune in this weekend for a great Copic tutorial from Veronica! She'll show you step-by-step how to color an image with amazing results! We hope you have an awesome Friday and we'll see you this weekend!

Katie