Random Ramblings of a Scramping Addict

More about Art Philosophy Cricut Collection

I told you a couple of weeks ago, that debuting in the Autumn/Winter 2011 Idea Book was the exclusive CTMH Art Philosphy Cricut Collection.  I posted a quick video, and gave you a brief introduction, but today I wanted to take a bit of time to tell you a bit more about it.  You see, just as I expected, I've received a few questions on this topic!

First off, let's have a look at the whole collection so you can see just what is included in the Art Philosophy Cricut Collection.
First and foremost, we have the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge, that contains over 700 shapes which coordinate with Close To My Heart stamp images.  Any stamp you see featured in the Autumn/Winter Idea Book that has a 'red oultine' around it, has a coordinating 'cut' on the Art Philosophy cartridge.  The shapes range from the relatively simple circles and pendants, to the fabulously complex lacy motifs, borders and tags.   You'll even find elegant rosettes and several other 3-dimensional objects on this cartridge!  The creative possibilities are absolutely endless! Here's a quick peak at all of the shapes.

Next, in the Art Philosophy Cricut Collection you'll find three (3) 'D-Sized' My Acrylix Stamp sets.  These stamps sets are exclusive to the Art Philosophy Cricut Collection and cannot be purchased separately.  The sets are called: Art Philosophy Tags, Art Philosophy Celebration, and Art Philosophy Seasons.

Lastly, although tricky to see, in the very back of that first photo are your three (3) 9" x 12" sheets of chipboard shapes.  These shapes work in tandem with the shapes on your cartridge.  Simply cut your desired shape from a cardstock or B&T Duo of your choice and adhere it to the coordinating chipboard piece for added dimension.  Additional chipboard Dimensional Elements can be purchased from the Idea Book as you 'use up' the ones that came with your cartridge and there are additional coordinating Dimensional Elements shapes as well.

Think holiday tags.....cut your cardstock using your Cricut machine, layer on the coordinating chipboard element die cut, and stamp a coordinating image on top.  You'll hae all of your tags ready to go in no time and all, and with no scissors required!  You Gotta Love That!

Here's a few other quick FAQs

Q   Is the Art Philosophy Cricut Collection compatible with Cricut Design Studio?
A.  Unfortunately not yet, but this is expected in a future Design Studio update.

Q.  Is the Art Philosophy Cricut Collection compatible with the Gypsy?
A.  Yes

Q.  Do I need the 'large' Cricut machine to cut the shapes on the cartridge, or will the smaller one suffice?
A.  Some of the 3D items (like the boxes and totes) are too large for the 6" x 12" Cricut mat - but everything else should be fine.

So hopefully that clears up a few questions, but remember, I'm here to help so if there is more you need to know, simply ask away.  Either leave me a comment here on my blog, or contact me by email at [email protected] and I'll get back to you with an answer as soon as I can.

For now, I'll leave you with a quick pic of a page that was created with the help of the Art Philosophy Cricut Collection......can you tell which elements were Cricut-Cut?

Autumn Projects to Fall For

I'm a little slow on the draw posting this one, but if you haven't yet checked out the latest episode of Art & Soul on CTMH TV -- you definitely should!

Believe me....You’ll fall head over heels for the techniques featured in this episode! Add subtle texture and a variety of colors with tissue stamping; create layouts, cards, mini albums, and home décor with Flip Flaps™; and learn how to cluster embellishments and move or resize them in Studio J®. With all this inspiration, you’ll be unstoppable in all your autumn artwork, so tune in now!

A Stunning Colour Combination

Today, I'm sharing the final 2 cards that I taught last Sunday!

This colour combination: Lagoon, Smoothie and Pear and is completely outside of the box for me, especially for Christmas Cards!  I took it right from the Idea Book and low and behold it works (I guess that's why they pay the art department the big bucks.....to get us excited about all things new!)

 
The card on the left features an image from C1420 "Snow Days" hidden behind a glitter window.  This technique is super fun - albeit a little messy getting yourself and your work area covered in glitter - and works particularly well in winter, simulating snow.  It's really easy to do though - here are the steps.

To create a Glitter Window:

• Cut 2 pieces of cardstock to roughly the same dimensions.
• Stamp your desired image on one of the pieces.
• Cut a window (using a die or punch) in the other piece that your stamped image will show through.
• Now take packing tape (just the regular old stuff you use to seal boxes) and cover the window ON THE REVERSE SIDE,
• Sprinkle Prisma Glitter all over the window (on the sticky side of the tape which is now on the front side of the window) and rub it around to get full coverage.
• Brush off any stray glitter -- note your window will no longer be sticky and then adhere your two pieces together.
• Mount your glitter window focal image on a pre-prepared card base and you're all set!

It's that easy!

The sentiment is from the D1380 "Just For the Holidays" which was released last year but I just picked up. I totally love this set and think if affords of ton of possibilities ~ creating borders, tags, scrapbook page embellies and so much more.

The card on the right hand side is again stolen directly from the pages of the Idea Book and features an ornament from D1446 "Adorn-Able".  To put this one together it's a bit more involved, with the Smoothie panel being embossed before inking, but I'll leave that discussion for another day.  For now, let's just relish in the beauty of this stunning colour combination and be encouraged to think outside of the box when you're creating.  You just never know when you might find a winner!

If you have any questions about the Glitter Window - don't hesitate to shout them out and I'll do my best to answer them.  You can leave me a comment below, or you can call me at 905-317-8823, or you can even email me at [email protected]!  I'm here for you!

One Kit Different Looks - Studio J Class Act

Today, I want to explore the flexibility of scrapbook kits.  The layouts I'm showcasing are from the new CTMH kit Class Act which is exclusive to Studio J, but the theory behind what I'm saying could just as easily be applied to classic scrapbooking.

I think that sometimes it's easy to 'dismiss' specific scrapbook kits that we have already used in our albums as options when creating a new layout.  After all, unless you're building a theme album, who wants their entire album to look the same, page after page?  Instead, we want things to be unique!  While it might be easy to think that scrapbook kits are for one-time use, I want to prove to you that that shouldn't be the case at all.  Just because you've used a kit in the past, doesn't mean that it's 'done'.  There are so many options in the classic My Reflections Paper packs and Studio J kits that you can create layouts from the same kit again and again without compromising their uniqueness.

Here is a layout that I created using the Class Act kit from Studio J.

As you can see, my layout is not School Themed as the kit theme would originally dictate.  I loved these papers and immediately thought they would be appropriate for scrapbooking my trip to Buffalo to see Tim Holtz.

On the flip side, here is a layout created with the same kit by the amazingly talented Melissa Laverty (or Fancy Melissa as she is otherwise known), a Close To My Heart consultant in Northern Virginia.

Melissa's layout is very obviously school themed - as these are photo's of her son's first day of Grade 3. But don't you agree that Fancy Melissa's layout looks completely different than my own?  But yet we used the same scrapbook kit!  {You can visit her blog for more info on this layout if you like but keep in mind that all of the pricing she quotes is in US dollars!}

In my mind, seeing these two layouts side by side is proof positive that you can use the same Scrapbooking kit in your albums and the pages can look COMPLETELY UNIQUE!  Melissa used the notebook paper from the kit in it's original form, I on the other hand coloured it green to better coordinate with my photos.  Melissa used many of the My Stickease stickers to embellish her layout, and I used only the 'star'.  Melissa chose a red background for her layout, and I chose black - which completely changes the 'feel' of the layout.  Melissa chose to accent her page with black buttons, I chose red.  All of these differences contribute to the uniqueness of the pages.

So keep this in mind the next time you scrapbook.  Don't be so quick to dismiss a scrapbook kit because you've used it before.  I think you'll be surprised at how much flexibility is still there in the papers, patterns and colour you haven't used yet.

If you like more information about Studio J, or the Class Act kit, contact me at [email protected] or by telephone at 905-317-8823.  If you're local to me, I'm hosting an information night on Tuesday September 21st.  If you'd like to come by and see a live Studio J demo, just let me know that you'd like to attend!

Linkworthy: Journaling 'on' Your Photos

Every once in a while, I like to share something that I deem 'Linkworthy'.  Today's link is an article, which is all about taking photos specifically with the intent to journal on them, and is written by Ali Edwards.

Digi scrappers should see the relevance of this information immediately, but if you're a paper scrapper, don't discredit what Ali has to say.  You too can incorporate this technique into your scrapbooks. All you'll need is an image editing program like Adobe Photoshop Elements that you can use to add your text before you send your photos to print.  Even Picasa, the free image software by Google gives you the ability to add text blocks to an image, although the formatting options might be a bit limiting in comparison.

One of my goals for this week will be to take on Ali's Creative Challenge and take some photos with the intent to journal on them.  Will you be taking the challenge also?

Link:  Creating Room To Write With Photos

One More Mother's Day & A Paper Rose Tutorial

I hope that all you Mom's out there had a terrific day yesterday and that you were spoiled as you surely deserve to be.  In celebration of the day I had a lovely lunch and then a fantastic dinner spending loads of time with many of the important 'Mom's' in my life.

Before we move on to other things though, I just needed to share one more Mother's Day card - the one that I made for my Mom!  Here it is - it's another Easel Card (I just love these!)

Now, I can't take credit for this one entirely, because I had a little help.  First off, the card was cased from a fellow CTMH consultant, the very talented Eileen Murray and she ever so kindly pointed me in the direction of the tutorial (below) for creating the paper roses. So I'm also giving a big shout out to Tonya Dirk who was kind enough to post her paper rose tutorial on YouTube for us all to see.

These roses look complicated at first, but please do give the tutorial a view and you'll see just how easy they are to make ~ and I'm not embellishing at all here.  In fact, I made my first one and then immediately after walked my 8 year old daughter through her own attempt - and she rocked it!  I did have to help her out a wee bit, but for the most part, she did the job solo.

The only thing that I did differently than Tonya was that I trimmed off the bulky back of the roses before I adhered them to my card (with a glue dot). As it is now, the card still won't fit in an envelope safely and this is not a 'mailer' for sure, but it definitely has big impact.

Here's the tutorial.

I didn't see Tonya's original post at the Bo Bunny blog about this wreath, but was super curious to take a peak after watching this video, so if you're as interested as I was you can find that post here.

Have a great day!

Crisscrossed Kits: Combining Paper Packets

Since it's been such a hectic week, I don't have an art share for you today.  Sorry about that.  But.....since I didn't want to go without a blog update, I thought I would share instead a little video.  Now I warn you, it's not a 'new' video, it was actually posted on YouTube last October, but I think there are some good tips here to help you maximize your stash ~ and we all need those!

Check it out!

I hope to have some art to share tomorrow.  The list of things-to-do keeps getting longer, but Mother's Day cards are first priority for sure! Have a great day!

Two Takes on Soul Mates

Creating Mood with Colour

I came across an interesting article the other day while reading a graphic design website.  The article (here) was all about the psychology behind colour and how different colours make us feel, even when we don't realize it.  Interestingly enough, I have a share for you today that I think demonstrates this exact concept very well.

A couple of months back, I hosted a card swap and this is the card that I created.  I used another of my all-time favourite stamp sets, CTMH (D1254) Soul Mates.  I can't take total credit for the card design, as I based my creation on a card I had seen elsewhere; I simply switched up the colours and the focal image and made it my own.

Now, fast forward to a few weeks ago.  I took this same concept again and created this card.  The cards, as you can see are essentially identical except for a change in colour and sentiment. Wouldn't you agree that this simple colour switch gave the card a whole new mood?


Now let's look at that article I mentioned and see if we can't tell why that is.

According to the Bloomsburg University Virtual Training Help Centre humans tend to respond emotionally to certain colours.  Here is what they had to say about Black & Green.  I have highlighted what I think to be the key words from their definitions that apply in my example.

"Black" is the absence of light and therefore, of color. is the absence of light and therefore, of color.
It represents power, sexuality, sophistication, formality, elegance, wealth, mystery, fear, evil, anonymity, unhappiness, depth, style, evil, sadness, remorse, anger, underground, good technical color, mourning and death."

"Green, one of most-often cited favorite colors. It represents nature, environment, health, good luck, renewal, youth, vigor, spring, generosity, fertility, jealousy, inexperience, envy, misfortune.
"Its cool quality soothes, calms, and has great healing powers."

Now granted, there are some words in those definitions that don't apply to the moods I have achieved, but for the most part I think they are bang on.  It's interesting to note that I had not read this article before creating my cards.  I was naturally drawn to these colours because they seemed to express the mood that I was after at the time.  It was automatic - proving that the colours you choose help send the overall message, even when we don't know it.

Here are the two cards again, together side-by-side.

Artwork Recipe (Card 1)
Card Stock: (X5642) Cocoa, (X5752) Juniper, (1388) Colonial White
Ink: (Z2165) Juniper, (Z2114) Cocoa
Stamp Set: (D1254) Soul Mates
Accessories: (Z1316) Designer Ribbon Rounds Cocoa Collection
Other:  Swiss Dots Embossing Folder (Provocraft), Cuttlebug
Finished Size: 4.25" x 5.5"

Artwork Recipe (Card 2)
Card Stock: (1386) Black, (X5636) Ocean, (1385) White Daisy
Ink: (Z2136) Ocean, (Z2105) Black
Stamp Set: (D1254) Soul Mates
Accessories: (Z1034) Designer Ribbon Rounds Black Collection
Other:  Swiss Dots Embossing Folder (Provocraft), Cuttlebug
Finished Size: 4.25" x 5.5"

Do you have a similar example of how colour helped you send the message.  If so, I'd love to see it. Leave me a comment, or send me the link below.

Summer 2010 Idea Book Sneak Peak Blog Hop

Welcome to our Close To My Heart New Product Blog Hop!  Over 40 Fabulous Close To My Heart consultants are celebrating the upcoming release of the Summer 2010 Idea Book by giving you a sneak peak of some of the great products available in the new Idea Book which goes live May 1st!

If you have come here from Emma Hubert's blog you are on the right path!  You can also find a complete list of participants here.  To participate in the blog hop is simple.  To see the next sneak peak, you need simply follow the link at the end of this post to move on to the next one and so on.

Are you ready to be inspired?  Here we go!

This cute gift card holder was made with the new (X7126B) Passages Level 2 paper pack and the coordinating stamp set (C1408) Live Inspired.  This is my absolute favorite new stamp set released for Summer 2010 and the paper is so earthy that it was a must-have for me.  The patterns and colors in this collection have a masculine appeal, and would work great for showcasing travel photos (especially European I think) or heritage photos.

On the front of the card I used the Chalk popping technique as described on page 21 of the Summer Idea Book.  The technique is super simple and gives your finished piece a unique look.  To chalk pop you need simply.

1. Ink your stamp with Versamark Ink
2. Stamp the image onto the paper and,
3. Brush chalk with the applicator over the Versamark ink.

The chalk 'sticks' to the Versamark.  It's that easy!

While I used the technique with dark chalk on dark paper, you get some really great effects using a dark ink on a light paper too!  Due to the nature of the medium, some of the chalk will automatically stick to the background paper almost 'clouding your image', but the areas that are stamped with Versamark will stick more - making your image 'pop' off the page.  You can even use more than one colour of chalk to make a multi-colored image.  Click here to view a card in my gallery that employs this technique.

Here are some alternate views of my gift enclosure card - first the back which is the card opening, held shut with an arrow shaped photo turn.  And next the inside which is only modestly decorated and holds the gift card.  I designed this card with a graduation in mind, but the cover sentiment could easily be used to celebrate a promotion, a new job, or quite simply 'just because'.

   

Artwork Recipe

Card Stock: (1245) Olive, (X5637) Barn Red, (X5642) Cocoa (Barn Red & Cocoa are included in the Passages Paper pack - I just added the Olive)
Patterened Paper (B&T Duos): (X7126B) Passages My Reflections Paper pack 
Ink: (Z891) Versamark, (Z2114) Cocoa
Stamp Set: (C1408) Live Inspired, (D1187) For Every Occasion
Other:  (Z904) Autumn Soft Chalks, (Z668) Gold Embossing Powder, (Z555) Craft Heater, (Z1275) Mini-Medley Accents Antiqued Copped Collection
Finished Size: 4.25" x 3"

Now, hop on over to Amanda's Blog to see what she created with the new Summer 2010 products!  Be sure to visit all the consultants participating in the hop to get some great crafting ideas and inspiration - and of course get a sneak peak at more new paper packs and My Acrylix stamp sets at the same time!

Remember, the Summer Idea Book goes live on May 1st, and that's just 3 days away! Contact me to find out how to get your copy today.

**Link to working? Missed a Blog? Click here to find a complete list of the Summer 2010 New Product Sneak Peak Bog Hop participants.

Linkworthy: Dry Emboss with a Crop-A-Dile

You know it's amazing what you can find on the web when you're not looking for it. I was surfing for something entirely different this evening and found this great tutorial from Sue Madex on a site called Aussie Scrapbooking. How To Dry Emboss With a Crop-A-Dile. Who knew? Maybe it's just me but I've owned this tool for eons, and never knew it had this kind of functionality! I've only ever used it to punch holes, set eyelets and grommets. Go figure! Thanks Sue for the great tip!