Artbooking Made Easy (S01E06): Designed Décor Flip Stand Album

This video shows how pairing the Designed Decor Flip Stand with the CTMH Cricut Artbooking Cricut Cartridge results in a wonderful, and easily personalized, home decor item what will display your photos for everyone to enjoy.  You could even create pages with seasonal themes and pictures and change the display throughout the year in order to keep it fresh and timely  Imagine beach photos displayed during the summer, Thanksgiving pictures from previous years on display during the month of November and Christmas pictures from previous years on display during the month of December...each year just add a page that features memories from the previous year and your family is sure to enjoy reminiscing about the great times spent together.  The Flip Stand is a simple and fun way to bring a few pictures out of your scrapbook albums and right into the center of the fun.

Project Inspirations: Background Stamps

Lisa explores some "out of the box" uses for background stamps.  I am always looking for ways to expand the creative functionality of my supplies and this video provided a couple of fun ideas.

Artbooking Made Easy: Everyday Layouts (S01E08)

The CTMH Artbooking Cricut Cartridge is a dream cartridge for this scrapbooker.  It has so many amazing cuts that can be used to embellish any type of layout.  Of course, the professionally designed layouts that are are already planned and contained on each of the scrapbooking themed keys are wonderful in and of themselves, but they are only a drop in the creative bucket.  In this video, Monica demonstrates the versatility of cuts from several of the themed layouts, showing how beautifully many of these cuts can be used in everyday layouts.  My only complaint about this cartridge (or the other two CTMH cricut cartridges) is that I don't ever have enough time to scrapbook!  But when I do, I almost always pull creative elements from one of my three wonderful CTMH cricut cartridges to add creativity and variety to my layouts.  With 700 images/cuts on each cartridge - I will never run out of options :-)      

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures!

I believe that it is very important to include all aspects of a scrapbook page in each layout...design (over all layout, composition, pattern paper and embellishments), pictures and journalling.  But, for me, the pictures are the most important part and often dictate all other aspects of my design.  In other words, when planning a layout, I always select my pictures first.  Based on the number of pictures I want to include in a layout, I then proceed to pick a layout that will accommodate this number of pictures.  I almost always have a lot of pictures on each layout and often this means there is little room left over for embellishment :-(

Today's layout is no exception - it includes 12 pictures!  After getting all of my pictures on the layout, there was very limited room for embellishments.  This is one reason that I like to treat the journalling area like an embellishment.  Today's layout uses two journalling boxes that were cut using the CTMH Artbooking Cricut Cartridge and then stamped using Ruby Exclusive Ink and the coordinating stamp from D1571, Sweet and Love, which is one of the three stamp sets that come bundled with the Artbooking cartridge.  I love how the journalling blocks on this layout do double duty - telling the story and embellishing a picture-heavy layout.

The trio of heart's were cut using the heart on page 71 of the CTMH Artise Cricut Cartridge handbook.  I welded 3 hearts together for for the base of my embellishment using my Gypsy - but the weld can also be accomplished using the Cricut Craftroom.  I then stamped the heart from D1571, Sweet and Lovely, using Ruby ink on a scrap piece of cardstock and then trimmed it out using my micro-tipped scissors.  I layered it over the center heart of the trio of hearts using 3-D Foam Tape.

Finally, the title was cut (page 69 of the handbook) using the CTMH Artiste Cricut Cartridge.  The pattern paper that served as the base of this layout was from a glitter stack called Laundry Line, by My Mind's Eye. 

Artbooking Made Easy: Fall into Artbooking (S01E07)

Watch the video and see the Autumn/Harvest themed keys in action.  Jill will show you what beautiful cuts are included on pages 72 and 73 of the CTMH Artbooking Cricut Cartridge.  I love how the photo mats, when cut as a part of the layout, are already sized for my photos, but when I use real-dial size to modify their size, they suddenly become an accent element for my page.  In this video, Jill used 3 different sizes and different colored cardstock and the result was the photo mat cut also became the base for two accent clusters and a title.  The resulting design continuity was subtle, but effective, because the shape repeated throughout the layout, but the variety of sizes and cardstock colors gave enough diversity to keep the layout interesting, but cohesive.

Mother's Day Scrapbook Page

Today's layout is from Mother's Day a couple of years ago.  I used contraband cardstock from my stash.  The lighter colored textured cardstock is from Bazzill Basics line called Two Scoops, Irish Mint. and I have no idea what company the darker cardstock is from.  This layout is a slightly modified layout from CTMH Reflections Scrapbook Program, page 124, Sampler - Pieced, 10d.

I also stamped using Washi Wonder (an exclusive Hostess Rewards stamp set, D1558) and Olive Exclusive Ink on a scrap piece of Colonial White Cardstock.  I then used my micro-tipped scissors to trim the pieces out and then attached them to my layout  The Washi Wonder stamps set combined with scraps of cardstock and ink of your choice is like having an endless supply of washi tape to match almost any layout/color/card - so much fun!

My title was cut from CTMH Artiste Cricut Cartridge, page 74 of the handbook.  However, I used my micro-tipped scissors to carefully cut away the word "Happy" because I didn't want that in my title.

I also cut the lace medallion using the CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge, page 66 in the handbook.  I added some bling from my stash (Gemstones from the Paper Studio) to finish off this layout.

Project Inspirations: Mixed Papers

I really enjoyed learning a bit about how the CTMH paper packs are designed - with hero papers and what I'd call the side-kick papers (those who play a supporting role in the layouts and let the hero papers take the center stage.)  In this video, you will see how easy it is to combine these side-kick papers from various paper packs to get many new design options. Watch and learn....