Graduation Cards

We had two great-nieces graduate together this year, so I made the same card twice, but personalized each with a chipboard letter for their name.

One of my most favorite types of cards to make is a criss-cross card. You can do so much with these cards - they can be very simple or quite elaborate. The final outcome looks a lot more complicated than it really is. :) There is a great tutorial by Beate Johns on the SplitCoast Stampers site - http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/criss_cross_card/.

Let me give you an extra hint about making this card. The instructions call for "One 4" x 5" piece of patterned paper". This paper is cut in half diagonally and used to decorate the front of the card. In the tutorial, Beate uses double-sided patterned paper. You MUST use double-sided patterned paper to make this work correctly. If you do not use double-sided patterned paper, you will need to have TWO pieces of 4"x5" patterned paper. Cut in each in half diagonally and use half of each to decorate the front of the card. With this in mind, it makes sense to make two of these cards at once; the extra one will come in handy!

For graduation cards, I always like to use the school colors, so these cards were made with black cardstock and a patterned (single-sided) paper pack from Hobby Lobby. On the belly-band, I used a Stampin' Up! graduation set (Go, Graduate) - I just love this image of the different graduating 'feet'. I stamped the image with Versamark and then embossed it with Stampin' Up! Cherry Cobbler embossing powder. For the embellishment on the belly band, I used some retired Stampin' Up! chipboard letters, pushed them into my Versamark pad so they got really well-coated with the ink, then embossed with the Cherry Cobbler embossing powder. While the first layer of embossing powder was still wet, I poured more powder over them for a second coating. I then took a red marker and outlined the edges so they wouldn't be the bare chipboard.

Hope you're enjoying the Memorial Day Week-end; thanks to all that have served our country!

Grad Card

I made this card for a Prairie Grove graduate. I used yellow glittery paper from Hobby Lobby and solid black cardstock.

This is a great technique for all those straps of paper we have.

Cricut - Paper Dolls

In the last couple years, Cricut has come out with so many cartridges that it's tough to keep track. It's always easy to go for the newest cartride, and sometimes I forget about some of the great older cartridges. For a 2010 Halloween layout, though, I decided to use the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge. Our youngest two grandchildren dressed as Mario (Super Mario Brothers) and a Pumpkin Fairy. By combining different cuts from the cartridge, I was able to create both images.

This first picture is of the grandchildren, and their respective 'paper doll' images follow. The faces are stamped with face stamps from Peachy Keen stamps (www.peachykeenstamps.com).

Cricut - Glitter Cardstock

For the Spring Croppin' Train Scrapbook Retreat, we created a "JOY" banner using a beautiful red glittered cardstock from Hobby Lobby. Here's a couple hints about using glittered cardstock in your Cricut:

1. Buy it on sale! At almost $2.00 per sheet, you'll definitely want to use either a 40% off coupon or wait 'till it's on sale for 50% off.

2. The glitter doesn't allow the Cricut blade to cut through the cardstock. The blade hits all that thick, crunch glitter, and isn't able to cut - sometimes it will just stick, and sometimes it will 'jump' and skip cutting lines. You'll need to turn your glitter cardstock over, so that your cutting blade is touching the reverse side of the cardstock, where there's no glitter.

3. Now the problem is that the glitter won't stick to the Cricut mat. You really need to tape this cardstock down. I was cutting an entire sheet of letters, so I taped down all 4 sides - I did not want that paper to move! I had a brand new mat, but I still used masking tape on all 4 sides.

4. The last clue here is - if you're cutting letters, don't forget to reverse your letters before you cut them. Unfortunately, yes, I do speak from personal experience - that's one sheet of glitter cardstock in the trash (at least I bought it on sale!).

This first picture shows the really pretty, thickly coated, red glitter cardstock that we used for this project.

The second picture shows a completely cut piece of cardstock, where you can see that the letters were cut in the reverse, and all 4 sides are taped. The tape, of course, took a few extra minutes to get off of my mat, but I'd rather spend a couple extra minutes peeling tape than re-cutting and wasting cardstock because it moved. I used my Gypsy, so I was able to get a couple extra letters on the mat.

Finally, you'll see a picture of the completed JOY banner.

Fall Retreat

Registration for the Fall 2012 Weekend Retreat is open. 
We will be returning to the Embassy in Rogers.

We have expanded the hours... You can now crop from noon on Friday until 2pm on Sunday. That will give you 50 hours to scrapbook. Who needs to sleep anyway!

Check out the Pricing Post for more info on changes. *

Sign up now with the registration form here.

Pay your $50 deposit by July 1st.

Pay in full by September 22nd and receive the Early Bird Layout Kit at retreat.

Otherwise, registrations must be paid in full by October 15th. 

*Due to rising costs, we will no longer offer food as part of any of the Retreat packages. If we were to accept the rate increases from area hotels, we would have to raise the registration fee to at least $295. We’re certain you can each eat for less than $80, so we chose to exclude any food options.   Remember, however, that breakfast is included if you are staying at the hotel.

We will provide Dining Car delivery service from a designated location for anyone not wanting to leave the Retreat. 

We have some exciting things planned for this Fall Retreat. Some new activities... some updated activities... and more surprises... 

You will not want to miss this!

Type Ruler

Here is a link to a handy Type Ruler
Type Ruler on Creating Keepsakes