Polk-A-Dot Scrapper

True Scrap, Project Life, and Groove Book all in one!

I tried my first on line scrapbooking class today.  I LOVED IT!!!  I think my favorite part is that technically I don't have to sit there I get to own the videos forever and watch them anytime I want.  I did love the question and answer portion with the instructor at the end of each video lesson, so that's definately a plus to being online for the live instruction.  I absolutely learned a ton!!  Mostly stuff I just never thought of that I know I will incorporate into my scrapbooking.  Of course I was finally motivated about halfway through and ended up at Hobby Lobby last night to pick up a few things.  I think I just needed to get out the house, but I was out of a few things so it was a nice drive.  I did get 2 project life pages done.  I used a couple techniques from the videos.  Who ever thought of using the cards as patterned paper?? Totally makes sense with all the cards you get.  So I die cut a couple things and punch a couple things.  I also finally used my new Ali Edwards stamps from Technique Tuesday that I grabbed before they were no longer available.  So perfect for Project Life.  So yes 2 super easy Project Life Layouts that took entirely too long, and why do you ask...I had these picures printed by GrooveBook, this great company that prints pictures straight from your Iphone or Ipad.  Well, the problem when you go to use them for your Project Life layouts is that the pictures don't actually fit in the pockets so every single pictures has to be matted to fit, hence the time consuming part.  I'm sure it's still faster than a traditional layout, but it's still annoying.  Oh well, it's not like there are 400 pictures and I get to use all my new techniques so I"m game!!!

Quick tip - don't staple your punched item to the picture on the back AFTER you've put a picture on the front of your 4x6 card.  Yeah, I did that.  Good thing I found something to cover the front side so you couldn't see the staple that had come through from the back.

CRICUT EXPLORE HAS ARRIVED!!!!

Ok, so I FINALLY, bit the bullet and bought the Cricut Explore, OMG am I so glad I did!!! So, the purple that was available for one day only on HSN had me sold, but after receiving it, I have to say, it's pretty cool!!! I am getting used to the software. The concept is great, but it is different from Craft Room.  Design Space is actually a lot cleaner and fresher in my opinion.  My absolute favorite feature, BLUETOOTH!!!! I have one less USB cord in my craft room.  Gotta love one less cord.  So here's my very first project..

 

Super cute gift box to give ornaments that I've made this year.  Very easy to make. I cut the box from the Artbooking Cricut Catridge.  The Explore even creates the score lines for you so there is no guess work.  I cut the lid and then ran it through my Ebosser with the scalloped rectangle die to cut the hole in the lid.  I used transparency film to cover the hole on the inside.  The bow was created with the My Creative Time Scalloped Bow Die and a glue gun.  Here's a close up of the bow just because I think it's so cute!!!

Supplies:

Close to My Heart Artbooking Cricut Catridge

DCWV Kidlet Paper

Kraft Cardstock from JoAnn's

My Creative Time - Stitched Scallop Bow Die

Life Style Crafts Scalloped Rectangle Die

Transparency Film

It's time for a Birthday Card

Woohoo!!! My other half is getting older, he's 36 today!!! Sounds like a great excuse for a birthday card for me!!! Normally I make him cards that look like they're for a 36 year old, but this year, NOPE! I had to use this cute owl print and cut image from the Silhouette store!!! A few balloons cut on my Cricut Machine, some stamps, an enamal dots made for a quick A2 size card!!  Can't wait to give it to him today, he's gonna love it!

Supplies:

DCWV Box of Cards

DCWV Celebrations Stack

Close to My heart Cricut Artiste Cartridge

Cricut Expression 2

Silhouette Cameo

Close To My Heart Birthday Celebration - D1529

Close To My Heart Little Princess - C1414 (retired)

Enamel Dots

DCWV Stack-a-holic Challenge

I'm playing along with the DCWV Stack-a-holic Challenge this month.  I loved the sketch and immediately had a page in mind.  On my trip to Florida with my Mom we got to meet the Cat in the Hat.  All the characters met in a specific area in Suess Landing so we got a bunch of great pictures.  We also had a little fun in one of the shops trying on hats.

The Cat in the Hat is a print and cut design that I created using Silhouette Studio.  I used the My Sunshine DCWV Stack for this layout.  You can play along with the October Stack-A-Holic challenge too!! Check out their blog for the this months sketch and all of the directions!

The Lorax

So on our trip to Florida a couple of years ago (talk about behind) we got to get big hugs from The Lorax!!!  While I was away scrapbooking this weekend I learned a new tip for print and cut with the Silhouette!!! Print your image twice on photo paper and pop it up on pop dots!!! So now my Lorax looks 3D  and it's just a better printed image.  This is definately something I think I'll do more often, I love the look of it!  I used foam tape instead of dots so it was faster to take the backing off.

Supplies:

Simple Stories Good Day Sushine

Echo Park Splash

Bazzil Borders

Christmas Ornaments

So this project is even great for little kids! How much do they love making a mess, well this has a fabulous mess factor.  You should see the carpet in my scrapbook room after this one!

Painted Christmas Ornament Tutorial

What you need:

1) Acrylic Paint (cheaper at Walmart)

2) Typical round glass ornament

3) Vinyl

4) Contact Paper (cheaper at Walmart)

5) heat tool (even a blow dryer works for this)

 

I picked up the ornaments from AC Moore there were 4 in a box. Take the silver cap off of the ornament.

 Pour in the acrylic paint and swril it around until it covers the entire inside of the ornament.  Turn the ornament upside down and sit inside a plastic cup so the excess pain can drain out.  

Create your vinyl designs with Silhouette or Cricut and cut them out.  Peal off the excess vinyl around the design.  Cut a peice of contact paper and get some of the sticky off, by sticking it to your clothes, then stick it over the top of your vinyl design.  Peel the vinyl design from it's backing and place it on your ornament.

One tip to make this easier, cut small slits in the contact paper so that it has some mobility when adhearing it to the round ornament.  Use your scrapper to rub the design onto the glass.  Peel off the contact paper.  make sure that all the air bubbles are out of the deisgn.  Use your heat gun to heat up the the vinyl and then rub over the vinyl again to be sure it is stuck to the glass.  Tie a bow in a coordinating color and you're ready to give your gift at Christmas!

 

Glittered Christmas Ornament Tutorial

So this is the stuff you'll need.  All of it can be found at Walmart, with the exception of the ornaments. They're the same ornaments used above from AC Moore.  Although I'm sure Walmart has them too, I didn't look.

Take the silver cap off of the ornament and pour in the pledge floor cleaner.  Pour the floor cleaner in the ornament and swril it around to coat the inside.  Turn it over in a paper cup to drain out excess floor cleaner.

Put the funnel inside the ornament.  Pour in the glitter.  Over the coffee filter swirl the glitter around to coat the inside of the ornament.  The more glitter you pour in the more glitter affect you'll receive.  Dump the excess glitter into the coffee filter and use the filter to pour the glitter back into the container.  Put the silver cap back on the ornament and you're done!  I will be cutting vinyl for this and I'll heat set it as I did in the above tutorial.  

 

 

Silhouette Design Studio and Printed Burlap

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas every where I go, LOL!!!  Yes,  it truely is entirely too early to be talking about the subject of Christmas, BUT, I did get a few gifts completed for this year while I was watching my Redskins win yesterday.  This will be a long blog post full of pictures and  a little tutorial. 

PRINTED BURLAP!!! How cool is that! A sign printed on burlap and framed! Talk about cute and cheap!!! Quick tutorial...Open Silouette studio:

Pick the font that you want and start typing.  Center your phrase where you want it on the page.  Be sure to also set your paper size to the size of the paper that's in  your printer.  I used regular letter size.   Use the fill color (the bucket) option found at the top of the screen to fill the font with a color, I chose black.  The flourish was purchased from the Silouette Store and I used the same fill feature to fill it in red.

This is the brand of burlap that I used. I picked it up at AC Moore.  I cut it down to 8^1/2 x 10^1/2 and taped it with painters tape to a piece of white cardstock, but you could use any color, just whatever is laying aorund.  I put it in the printer tray and printed it from the Silhouette Studio.  No registration marks, just print with your default settings.

A few Tips:

1) Iron the burlap.  It comes on a role so after you cute the peice that you're going to use (I got 2 8x10 signs out of one roll) turn you iron on to the highest setting and just keep it moving aorund until the creases come out.  

2) Make sure it's taped to the cardstock especially if there is a stubborn crease.  The crease will get stuck in your printer and make the ink run.  

3) After you tape it be sure to cut off any stragling pieces so they do not get stuck in the printer and cause a jam.

4) You can use regular scotch tape, but I found that the painters tape held better in the printer.

Here's the finished product.  I haven't found a frame I liked so it's not framed yet.

Super easy and cheap!! I can't wait to frame it!

2ND HAUL VIDEO

I received some happy mail so I thought I'd do a quick haul video.  I of course had to do something wrong in the video.  The FREE stamp from My Creative Time says Friends Make Everything Better.  That's not exactly what I said.  Be sure to check out My Creative Time and My Favorite Things to pick up any of these goodies that you just "need" to have too :-)

 

 

The Story of Us

At the last Scrapdoodles retreat sometime last year. Teresa Collins taught a class called Us "Love is a good thing."  As usual I really didn't feel like sitting through a class so I bought the kit.  It has sat on the shelf since then collecting dust but after cleaning my room I had to do something so I went with this! OMG am I glad I did.  It'll take me forever to pick through 15  years of pictures, but I'm going to go through a bunch and see what I can find so I can fill it with pictures.  Anyway, so yeah, it was super easy to put together.  I changed 1 page and I did the cover completely different because I didn't feel like stenciling last night.  I didn't want to create that much mess in my nice clean room.  So I've posted pictures below! Enjoy :-)

Cleaning & Organizing

So I've spent majority of the summer trying to figure out how to enjoy my scrapbook space again, so I ....CLEANED IT!!!!  I've sold a bunch of small stuff that was easy to ship and gave a bunch away to a friend.  I went through every single piece of paper, sticker, scrap paper, vinyl,  EVERYTHING!!  I had to  get this place cleaned out.  I reogranized some things and moved some stuff around to make my space more efficient and finally, not only do I want to make things, I LOVE just hanging out in my space again!! I still have some changes I'd like to make and some organizing that I need to finish, but it has worked out very well.  Here are a few pictures!

A huge change other than my new drawers, is my sticker storage!  I watched a great video from Jennifer McGuire (you can watch it here)  where she used Job Ticket Holders to store her 8 1/2 x 11 paper.  I didn't need that, but I thought it would be a great idea for my stickers.  So that's what I used it for and it works great!!!! They are no longer just thrown into my Longaber Basket.