Hi, Connie here today. This layout was inspired by the February sketch in the Canadian Scrapbooker It’s a Sketchy Challenge and the new Kaisercraft Shine Bright collection. The latter turned up in my mailbox as part of the latest Scrap Shotz monthly kit and the colours were so striking – bright yellow and black and gray – perfect for some older soccer photos in my collection. I knew I wanted to create a soccer ball to use as the circular element suggested by the February sketch and quickly realized that my Sizzix Eclips2 electronic die cutting machine could make that soccer ball an easy thing. I simply googled ‘soccer svg’ and found a lovely free soccer ball cut file on the internet. I imported the file into Ecal (the software used with the Eclips2) sized it appropriately and then cut it out on a couple of different colours…
Graphic 45 has a brand new collection that features images that are perfect for us that love to cook, garden and farm. When I saw the paper and saw pictures of seed packets with carrots and peas, I went weak at the knees. I have a lot of gardening pictures! The colours are rich and vibrant and so fun to work with. You can buy this collection in individual 12×12 sheets or in three different sizes of paper pads. Graphic 45 has also designed matching chipboard, stickers and stamps. Look for it at your favourite scrapbooking stores – it should be arriving any day. I used the January 2015 sketch from the Canadian Scrapbooker sketchy gallery as inspiration and created this layout. I like scrapbooking summer pictures in the depths of January. It makes me hopeful that winter might end someday soon. Think happy summer thoughts! Then, when I had…
Hello everyone! Today is my turn to share some scrap happiness with you. As usual, the weather was cold and snowy last weekend, so I sat down with the Canadian Scrapbooker Sketchy Challenge for February and came up with this layout: Here is Sue Sykes’ February 2015 sketch: This is the first winter in a very, very long time….since my kids were little and playing outdoors a lot…that I have gone outside. And it’s all because of our pup Finn, who is fanatical about snow and is always too hot inside. Finn takes me on walks at least twice a day, every single day. I still can’t believe it myself! I’m even enjoying it. I just LOVE the colours in this year’s winter collection from BoBunny. Altitude has fabulous patterns and stickers! I cut the title from a piece of patterned paper and made it into a banner: My journaling is…
Enjoy Local Scrapbook Activities A few times a year, which is all I can squeeze into my schedule, I take great pleasure in attending an evening crop or class at a local scrapbook store. I usually try to round up a few friends, but I don’t mind going by myself either. It is just lovely to be surrounded by fellow scrapbookers and their creative energy while working on a project uninterrupted by the details of home. I always meet some new people and learn some new things. Inspiration is everywhere! I am lucky enough to live in an area that has a number of scrapbook stores within a reasonable driving distance. Treasured Memories, in Edmonton, has late night crops running throughout the year and often has special themed weekend crops. These typically include dinner, dessert and many snacks, goodie bags, door prizes and a photo booth. I was able to…
Hi everyone! Karen Ellis here. If you know me, or my articles in the magazine, you’ll know that I love my Gelli Plate. I love creating one of a kind papers for my cards, collages and projects. It’s an incredible amount of fun to make your own designs and I love discovering new ways to make marks and uniquely designed prints. Recently I spent the weekend in the studio channeling my inner kindergarten student… creating texture tools out of some items I had laying around the shop. Here are some examples of what I created and samples of the prints they made. 1. Buttons – glue buttons to some foam and stamp away!! 2. Elastic Bands (and a little Saran Wrap) – Wrap the elastics around a play rolling pin (I got mine at the dollar store). Tear off a bit of Saran Wrap and wrap that around the…
Hi everybody, Connie Nichol here. Halloween is fast approaching, bringing to mind ghouls, goblins, ghosts and all things spooky. My kids love this time of year, especially the dressing up in costumes part, although the abundance of treats collected door to door doesn’t hurt either. Stampin’ Up! has so many cute Halloween themed products in their holiday catalogue. I especially adore the Motley Monsters designer series patterned paper. The patterns and colours are fun and bright, so the resulting projects are cheery and upbeat. Here’s the layout I created using some of these papers. I cut a few cardstock leaves with the Fun Fall Framelit dies but most of the interesting stuff on the page is from fussy cut elements from the patterned papers themselves. I cut out extra tree trunks and layered them onto the base sheet of patterned paper using dimensional adhesive (doubling up the adhesive to add…
Pull out your Sizzix Eclips2 There are thousands of different free fonts that are available on the internet and they can be easily installed and cut with the Sizzix Eclips2 using the free Ecal Lite software that comes with the machine. I can see that I will soon need to upgrade the ‘lite’ software so that I can cut svg files, but that will be the topic of future blog posts. Today I am focused on installing, resizing and welding a font to make a title for a scrapbook page. This blog post isn’t meant to be a comprehensive step by step tutorial but will give you an idea of what is involved. I found it easy and wanted to share my first attempt. I’m sure, like anything else, it will improve with time and practice. If you’re interested, there are some excellent videos on the internet that will guide…
Eeek!!! I have always wanted to join the world of DIY electronic cutters but have been a little intimidated by what I feared was a steep learning curve. Although reasonably computer savvy, I am a busy working mom who lacks any skill at putting machines together and doesn’t have a lot of time for fiddling with details or learning complicated software. Well, I have jumped into the electronic die cutting water with a Sizzix Eclips 2 and I will write a series of blog posts describing my adventures right from getting it out of the box to cutting simple shapes, importing cut files and maybe even create and modify my own designs. We’ll see how it goes. It looks sleek and powerful and sounds like an awesome machine. The Eclips 2 has an enhanced motor with industrial strength gears for speed, precision cutting and reduced noise. It will cut all…
Hello everyone, Karen Ellis here! I am so excited to be able to attend ScrapFest in Richmond Hill, Ontario on behalf of the Canadian Scrapbooker Magazine. Jodi Wilton, my daughter Emily and I will be in the booth promoting the magazine, selling subscriptions and sharing the love of this uniquely Canadian paper crafting magazine! One of my favourite parts of attending shows (in addition to getting to meet all of you) is being able to teach some fun techniques IN PERSON much like we do in each issue of the magazine. We call the showfloor classes Technique Tasters and at ScrapFest on September 27 I will be offering TWO FREE Tasters to attendees on a first come, first serve basis. I hope you all take advantage of this and join us at the show! One of the techniques I will be showcasing is Packing Tape Transfers using the Gelli Plates…
I am just loving some of the new Spellbinders Shapeability dies that were released this winter. The die set “Shoot”, a set of five arrow dies, actually inspired this layout. Because arrows made me think about directions, I googled ‘direction quotes’ and found a perfect quote for a scrapbook page. There were a lot of great quotes to choose from but I’m thinking that arrows are the perfect touch for many projects. A very versatile die set. Spellbinders also manufactures my favourite alphabet die sets – the font one upper and lower case sets are the perfect size and style for many projects. Just love them. When you make your own letter stickers, you never run out of ‘a’s. Adhering small or delicate die cuts can be tricky, but a Xyron Create-a-Sticker makes the process incredibly easy. I turned all of my Spellbinder die cuts into stickers so that they…
