A Silhouette Scrapbook Layout

Hi everyone!  Here's a fun fact about me - I married my high school sweetheart...come to think of it, so did my mom, and so did my son :)  The pictures below are older -- well, one is much older (1988) ... check out that hair!   That's actually pretty tame compared to most of my 80's years.  The other photo was taken on our 20 year anniversary, in 2008.  I finally got around to scrapbooking these pictures and I'm sharing this layout over on the Silhouette blog today.   Head over there to get tips on using their new vellum -- I love it!

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

A Mini Album with Lori Whitlock Designs

Hi everyone, today I am sharing a project I did with one of Lori 's mini albums.  If you've never played with her Silhouette mini book files, I would encourage you to give them a try! So easy, so fun, and every one of them is super cute! Check out my mini on her blog here.

You can find all of the cutting file links over on Lori's blog today.  Please visit www.loriwhitlock.com to download these shapes for your own album!

For my album I created the cover first using white card stock and an older, but fabulous, paper line that Lori designed for Echo Park called This & That.  

I added a cute scallop border, a doily, some twine and chipboard that comes with the paper collection, to finish off the cover.

For the inside pages, I actually cut the shaped pages out of Silhouette chipboard first, and then out of the pattern paper so that each page would be extra sturdy.

I decorated the pages with some more of Lori's cute cutting files, and a few stickers and chipboard from the paper collection.

Thanks so much for letting me share this album with you!  It might be one of my favorite projects ever!

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Hip Hip Hooray! We Are Memory Keepers

Today I just want to share a new paper line that came out this month from We R Memory Keepers.  It's called Hip Hip Hooray and it's a perfect collection for all of your birthday projects!  Scrapbook pages, birthday cards, party banners and decor, and even mini albums like the one I created below.

Visit We R Memory Keepers to check out 'Hip Hip Hooray', and all of their other new collections and tools!

Oh Boy! A New Mini Album with Carta Bella

Good morning Artsy friends,
It's been a few weeks since I added a new album to the kit collection, so I'm excited to share this one with you today!  It's the perfect little keepsake for pictures of that adventurous little boy in your life.  No bows or ribbons on this one -- it's all boy!  

The 6x6 inch chipboard binder album includes 12 6x6 sturdy chipboard pages (6 front and back) including 2 pocket pages, a fold-out page, an extra 4x6 page, and lots of colorful embellishments!

Blues, red, and yellow colors with great titles, cars, planes, boats, tags, and other wonderful embellishments -- these are just a few of the things that adorn the pages of this fun album.

I always create my albums so that photos can easily tuck under embellishments, and I always use only acid-free, photo-safe supplies. The title on the cover says "Oh Boy! Crazy for You!" and other pages say "Adventure!", "Busy Boy" and "Keep Calm and Try Not to Laugh".

The album has paper and accents from Carta Bella (Rough and Tumble) and a great binder album by Bo Bunny. The pages include photo mats, stickers, and space for at least 24 photos!! In addition to photos of your busy boy...other ideas for this album:
A gift for grandparents
A birthday album 
Fill it with photos for your desk at work

A Valentine Scrapbook Idea

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!  Be sure to get some pictures of you and your sweetie today, because I have a fun and easy layout to share with you.

For this page I started by sketching the cute doodled lines around the whole page to make a border.  I used a black sketch pen in my CAMEO and two of the borders that come in this set of three.

Next, I cut out the title with the new Silhouette corrugated paper.  This is such a fun new product and will really give some texture and dimension to your project.

I cut the heart and ticket once out of card stock, and twice out of Silhouette’s chipboard.  I then layered the three pieces to create my own chipboard embellishments.  Finally, I added some pattern paper, my photos, and a few Silhouette rhinestones.

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!!

Shapes from the Silhouette Online Store:

Doodle Border 12 x 12

You Melt My Heart

Heart

Ticket

Make Your Own Chipboard Embellishements

Hi everyone!  I'm sharing this fun and easy tutorial over on Lori Whitlock's blog today so please visit her site to get all of these cute shapes and more!  

Have you ever been working on a project and didn't have the perfect embellishment you wanted?  Happens to me all the time!  I'm a big fan of chipboard embellishments -- I love the dimension they give to a project. So today I'm going to show you how easy it is to create your own chipboard embellishments with your silhouette machine using Lori Whitlock's fun shapes and digital papers.

The first step is really fun -- go through all of Lori's cute shapes and pick out a handful of fun designs.  

These will be print and cut shapes so be sure to size your mat to 8.5x11.

Since we are going to print these out, we want to "fill" them with colors and patterns.  Go to the "Fill Pattern" window and with your shape highlighted, click on some different colors and patterns for each shape.  Lori has some great digital papers too.  You can find them at www.jessicasprague.com   If you purchase and download them to your computer, you can drag them right into your shapes.  Many of her digital papers match her Echo Park designs so you can create embellishments that go perfectly with your paper!

I'm using Lori's "Sweet Memories" papers for my embellishments.  

For more information on importing digital papers into your Silhouette software, check out this tutorial.

Tip:  If you try to fill a shape that has a space cut out (for example, the ticket with the star above) the fill pattern may cover the entire shape, including the star.  If this happens, just right click on the shape and click on "make compound path".  This will usually fix that problem.

If you have any shapes with printed words (see my banner shapes), you will also need to increase the line thickness for the lettering.  Just highlight the word, click on the "Line Style" window, and increase the thickness.  I set mine to 1.25 so that the words print clearly.

Once all of your shapes are filled with pattern, color, or digital paper, it's time to print.  Be sure to click on the Registration Marks window and "Show Reg Marks".  You may also have to move your shapes around a bit to make sure they all fit within the registration marks on your paper.   

Now that you have everything printed, send it through your Silhouette to cut everything out.

Next, cut the same shapes out of Silhouette chipboard two times (I like the thickness of two layers of chipboard, but one layer would work too).

Glue all of your shapes to their matching chipboard pieces and voila! Adorable chipboard embellishments!

Happy crafting!!

Shapes:

Heart

Tickets

Butterflies

Banners

This & That Life Cards

Sketch Sentiments

Home Shopping Network & We R Memory Keepers

Hey friends --
Check out HSN all day today -- We R Memory Keepers will be showing off their fun new tools and paper collections! One of my favorite We R tools is the Cinch Binding tool (airing on HSN around 7pm).  We R Memory recently asked me to create a few projects for today's show.  I was able to play with the Cinch tool and a new paper collection that's due out in June.  It's called "Indian Summer".  The browns and blues are so pretty...and I love the sheet that looks like leather!   

  
So tune in to Home Shopping Network today!  Andrew will be cinching up my minis around 7pm, and showing off lots of other great products all day long!

Valentine Coupon Book - Lori Whitlock February Blog hop

 

Welcome to Artsy Albums and your next stop on Lori Whitlock's February Blog Hop!  If you're starting here, be sure to head over to Lori's site to start from the beginning!  You won't want to miss the creative Valentine ideas at each stop!
 

For my project today, I created an adorable coupon booklet using Lori's cutting file called Valentine Coupon Book 2 (link below). It' so easy to make and your special someone will 💗 it!!

 

To make this, simply print & cut the tickets. Then cut the album pages and adhere everything together.  Add a ribbon and ... your done! What an adorable gift!  The tickets are pre-printed with 9 ideas and the booklet also comes with blank tickets to write your own sentiments.  

 

 

 

So cute, right!?! I love it. Thanks so much for stopping by. Below is the link for Lori's cutting file and happy scrappin'!

Now back to the blog hop -

 

Lori Whitlock

Brigit Mann 
Christine Ousley 
Corri Garza 
Mendi Yoshikawa 
Natalie Graham 
Traci Penrod  (You Are Here)
Chrissy Guido >>> Next Stop :)
Ashley Cook
Lorrie Nunemaker 
Smitha Katti
Stephanie Chavers
Mary Moseley 

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A Valentine Ticket Book with Silhouette

One week until Valentine’s day!  Are you ready?  Here’s a fun little project with so many possibilities.  This adorable ticket book can be used for valentine coupons, photos, or even little notes!

The ticket book comes with different pieces for the cover, but I decided to create a stenciled background.  This was my first time using the new Silhouette stencil material and I love it!  It cuts out beautifully!  The first time you use it, the back is really sticky so you may want to stick it to a piece of fabric first.  This will cut down on the stickiness just enough and the stencil will peel off of your card stock more easily.  I used a cute heart background for my stencil and then just sprayed the cover with opaque white mist.  I let it dry for a bit and then easily peeled the stencil off of my cover.

Now for the tricky part.  Have you ever cut out all of your pieces, only to be stumped by how to put it all together? Me too!  Well I learned a trick today.  If you right click on some shapes in your software library, a menu pops up.

Click Show properties and look what you get!  Some details and instructions!  This isn’t available on every shape, but if your file has lots of pieces, it’s worth checking to see if more details for assembly are available.   It may save you the step of hunting for a video on the internet.

Okay, back to our cute little Valentine ticket book.  For mine, I decided to add photos to each of the ticket pieces.  But these spots would also be a great place for:

• Love notes to your sweetie
• Coupons (breakfast in bed, dinner out, etc)
• Notes or drawings from the kids
• Teacher coupons (Clean the chalkboard, pass out papers, etc)

I added photos and pattern paper to my little tickets.  It makes a cute little gift and you could even get the kids involved in assembly!

I would love to hear your comments about ideas for this cute little book!  Have an awesome week!

Shapes:

Valentine Ticket Book

Heart Background

Heart on Cover