I created this card with a few of the leftover pieces that I had from my One Week scrapbook page. This fun little card was also shown on HSN, although it was difficult to see amongst the other beautiful projects.
Supplies: Yellow Dots Patterned Paper: Jennifer Davis Happy Spring & Branch stamps: Taylored Expressions Labels 1, Nested Birds, Petite Scalloped Ovals, Petite Classic Ovals: Spellbinders Ribbon: Creative Impressions Impressability: Spellbinders Marker & Airbrush system: Copic Brad: Chatterbox Corner Rounder: Creative Memories Brown & green ink: Clearsnap
Filed under Cards, Digital Scrapbooking Freebies, Hybrid Crafting, Spellbinders by on Jun 1st, 2009. Comment. 
I thought I’d share with you a card from my Spellbinders Design Team entry today. I love the bracket shape that is so incredibly popular right now. It just adds a bit of elegant whimsy to everything. By looking at it, this project may not seem like a hybrid card, but it is.
The 5×7″ body of it, as well as the scalloped edge was created with the Silhouette, which works really well for cutting large, unique card shapes.To create both shapes, I drew the vector outline in Adobe Illustrator, plugged the Silhouette into my Mac, and cut it right out. I’ve played with both my Windows PC and my Mac with the Silhouette, and they both work fine, I do like the software that is available for Windows better than the Illustrator plug-in. It has better pre-sets for cutting different types of material. Using the Mac gives me greater control over my designs… or at least it saves me a few steps. To create your own designs in Windows, you have to design it in Inkscape or Illustrator, export it, then import it into the Silhouette software. Cutting straight from Illustrator is a bit easier in that sense.
I love the Silhouette and the ability that it gives me to cut designs from my computer. It really appeals to the techie part of me. As shown in this card, there’s definitely room for both the digital cutter and the hand cutter. The textures (blue dot circle) and the embossing (tag) just aren’t possible with the Silhouette alone.
The stamp that matches the Spellbinders Reflections Butterfly is now retired, which is kind of a sad thing, because I really love the stamps that coordinated so well with the various Shapeabilities. They were just my style.
The dot stripe stamp has been my go-to stamp for almost a year now. I love Impress Rubber Stamps, and I definitely need more.
Inks: Stampin’ Up Brads, Ribbon, adhesives: Unknown
Thanks for looking!
Filed under Cards, Hybrid Crafting, Spellbinders by on Jun 2nd, 2009. 2 Comments.
Today, my friend Debbie Seyer from the Spellbinders Design Team posted two beautiful cards that she made using the damask paper from my Inauguration Digital Paper Pack. The cards were fabulous examples of using digital scrapbook paper on paper cards – true hybrid paper crafting!
As Debbie mentioned, printing and using digital scrapbook papers can be super addictive, and there are literally thousands of free papers and embellishments out there in the blogosphere, just waiting to be found. My favorite spot to find them is the Digifree Search engine, an automated search blog that gathers up all the freebies you can imagine and lists them in one place. They update daily, or very close to it. Here are a few tips for printing digital paper:
- Use cardstock: the better quality cardstock you use, the better your paper will look. Most printers have settings that will allow you to print on heavy or thick paper.
- Set your printer quality to “best.” Otherwise, your paper may come out looking dull and less vibrant than on your monitor.
- Be careful not to resize it, unless you mean to. Depending on how you print, some applications will automatically resize things to fit them on a page. With 12×12 papers, they won’t fit onto an 8.5×11″ piece of paper, but if you let the computer automatically resize it, you may end up with something different than you intended, ie REALLY tiny little damask ornaments. Make sure that whatever application you use to print, you do so at 100% of the original pattern size.
- When I’m printing a number of papers or an entire layout, I opt for full size prints using 13×19 Matte Photo Paper from HP. I’ve yet to find 8.5×11″ paper that I’m crazy about. I sometimes use the Wal-mart stuff (Georgia Pacific) but I’m going to try some Neenah Solar white later. I’ll let y’all know how it goes.
Here’s a hybrid project that I did using the same damask paper that Debbie used. As with my last post, this was also a Design Team entry project. I loved putting all the separate little elements into this. It was a blast!
Supplies: Damask Paper: Inauguration Paper Pack Red Mulberry paper Red, cream, white, black cardstock Green patterned paper: Making Memories Arrow patterned paper: Scenic Route
Circles, watch face, charm, symbology, doodle dies: Spellbinders Stamps: K&Company, Stampin’ Up, Spellbinders Black Paint Inks, ribbon, staples, jump rings, brad
old sewing pattern baseball card protector, cut up
Thank you again to Jennifer Furlotte at Pixels & Ice Cream for the original damask pattern that I used to create the red damask paper. She does great work.
Filed under Digital Scrapbooking Freebies, Hybrid Crafting, Spellbinders by on Jun 4th, 2009. 1 Comment.
Lately I’ve been seeing blog posts that focus on how you started scrapbooking, or what your first projects looked like. I’ve always been an advocate of being proud of your past work… after all, preserving your world is what scrapbooking is all about. It’s a great way to relive the memories that you intended to capture and it also serves as a snapshot into trends, lifestyle, and art from your past. Seeing one’s past evolution can be a bit haunting at times, but just like other parts of life, it’s important that we be at peace with our past and forgive ourselves for our mistakes, transgressions, and most importantly, bad taste!
So, each Friday I’ve decided to post a little something from my paper-crafting past. I cherish the gifts that my hobby has brought me and celebrate the chance to relive the memories. So, without further ado, this was my very first page. My mother gave me the beautiful embossed paper and stickers when she found out that I was going to start scrapbooking. The layout literally took me weeks to complete. It was done in June, 2003.
Filed under Forgotten Friday, Scrapbook Pages by on Jun 5th, 2009. Comment.
Today I wanted to share a recent Spellbinders DT submission. This card has a couple of notable techniques in it, including air brushed Impressabilities, and the simple, but fun, method of filling a nestability shape with buttons, beads, and other findings. My favorite part of this card though is the chipboard shape. It was a scrap I had laying in my stash and the last thing I added on, just to pull the whole thing together. I used my copic markers to color directly onto the chipboard and I love the faux suede look that resulted.
Filed under Cards, Spellbinders by on Jun 6th, 2009. 4 Comments.
Happy Monday!
The page I’m sharing today is another Hybrid page made with the Express Yourself free Digital Scrapbook available at ShabbyPrincess.com along with several now-retired Spellbinders dies. The circles in this layout really pull the whole thing together as well as help draw attention to sweet baby Hannah’s face.
At the time this layout was made, we were just barely starting to make some progress in getting Hannah to eat solid foods. She’s turned out to be very stubborn in that department and her weight stayed constant at 16 pounds for several months – to the point of worrying our family physician.
Finally now at 13 months, she is eating larger volumes of select foods and gaining weight. We’re looking forward to her next check up next month to see if she’s come back up onto the growth chart.
Circle Sticker: Unknown
Filed under Hybrid Crafting, Scrapbook Pages, Spellbinders by on Jun 8th, 2009. 4 Comments.
I’m generally not very good at sending cards appropriate for the current holiday. I fail at Mother’s Day completely, and it’s a rare thing for me to actually mail a birthday card. I rarely forget birthdays or holidays though. I have come to believe that it is the perfectionist in me that keeps me from sending cards or gifts. I believe, subconsciously or otherwise, that the gifts have to be the coolest, most perfect item and that the cards have to be over-the-top.
In an effort to repent of my slacker-hood, I’ve created three Father’s Day cards for the dads in my life. I’ve kept them quick, simple and to-the-point. The first of the three shown here is for my stepfather. He’s amazing, supportive and an all-around great guy.
I’ve included the sentiment for you to download as well, just click on the file, download and unzip. I used Spellbinders circles and pinking circles to outline the sentiment before covering it with buttons. Check back in the next couple of days for the other two cards!
Filed under Cards, Digital Scrapbooking Freebies, Hybrid Crafting, Spellbinders by on Jun 18th, 2009. 3 Comments.
Last Friday, I was absolutely swamped in house painting chaos and I’m not sure I even really noticed that it was Friday. Obviously I didn’t make a Forgotten Friday post.
So this week, I’m sharing two layouts about Cleveland. After graduating from college, three months before Adam was to start his PhD program at Case Western Reserve University, we high-tailed it out of Utah and drove our tiny U-haul truck and our two cats to Cleveland without a home or job waiting for us. We were a little bit crazy, with just a tad of newlywed stupidity, but we were full of excitement and faith. We found a place to live on Daleford Road, in Shaker Heights, Ohio and I began teaching 9th grade science at SHHS the same fall that Adam began his grad program.
Adam and I both loved living in Cleveland, and we would have stayed there if the opportunity had arisen. (Amazingly, we feel that way about many of the places we’ve lived.) I loved the suburb of Shaker Heights and I greatly appreciate the life lessons I learned while teaching high school there. We had a blast exploring Cleveland’s culinary offerings and every day we miss the wonderful food we experienced.
Both of these layouts were created shortly after we left Cleveland. While I was happy that Adam and I were both done with grad school, I missed our home, friends and my job. The first layout was published in Scrapbooking & Beyond magazine in December of 2005. The second is one I’ve never really shared before. Through creating these, I was able to come to terms with my “homesickness” and move on and appreciate living in Lincoln.
Enjoy these two “Forgotten Friday” layouts and scrapbook your home or city sometime soon!
Check back soon for another quick and easy Father’s Day Card idea!
Filed under Forgotten Friday, Scrapbook Pages by on Jun 18th, 2009. 2 Comments.
My friend Karen Hunsaker needed some red polka dots for a project. I threw these together really fast yesterday in 8.5×11″ size, not really knowing exactly what kind of polka dots she was looking for. Here’s hoping these will work for what she needs!
Have a great weekend Karen!
ETA: Here are the black on white dots you requested. HUGS! ~Jen
Filed under Digital Scrapbooking Freebies, Hybrid Crafting by on Jun 19th, 2009. 2 Comments.