Hi! I'm back! How has everyone's summer been going? Got to be honest, ours has gotten off to a rough start. Mama doesn't do good with routine change but I think we are getting there. Since my last post I have been crafting up a storm. I've had several baby showers so I've had some sewing to do but I really have been working with more paper lately and having a ton of fun learning and experimenting with different techniques. I can't wait to share them all with you.
It all started about 6 months ago, I needed a serious break from the structure of sewing. Sewing will always be my first love but sometimes you just want to throw paint around and get messy. So I pulled out all of my random craft stuff that I've collected over the decades (yes folks I said decades) and my kids craft stuff and went to town. Most of what I produced is not worthy of sharing but this turned out to have some potential.
I adhered craft foam shapes from the kids stash to pieces of cardboard. Then I applied acrylic paint with a brayer to a 12x12 sheet of white cardstock. Then applied a different color acrylic paint to my stamp creation again with the brayer and stamped away.
It's nothing spectacular but I rather like it for a background on scrapbook page for my daughter.
The patterned paper is scraps I had left from Nana's Nursery by DCWV. The embellishments are odds and ends that I have collected over the years.
The last time I scrapbooked anything was when I was pregnant with Noah 2 to 3 years ago. I am so ridiculously behind. Oh well, one down a few hundred to go. At least they are fun to do!
Thanks for stopping by the nest!
Darla
My baby Noah is turning one next month. It just doesn't seem possible. He has turned into quit the little man and his little personality is exploding. He even does stuff just to make us laugh. To celebrate this little life I am putting together a sailboat themed birthday party for him. This has given me another excuse to pull out the scrapbook supplies.
For invitations I always use a 8" x 6" no fold card. Over the years I have accumulated a ton of envelopes leftover from photo cards that fits this size perfectly.
I used basic solid card stock for all layers. The base is a natural paper grain, navy blue for the layer base, deep red for the boat, pale blue for the water, white for the sail and portholes and bright yellow for the boat strip.
For the invitation text I printed on standard white printer paper and over laid it on the white sail. This worked out but aesthetically I could have done better. I should have just printed on 8.5" x 11" white card stock and then cut out the sail. Oh well, live and learn.
All but the water was cut using the free Cricut Font and Basic Shapes. The water is on the When I Was a Kid cartridge (on the frame tab, called comb).
I am sharing my craft room file which can be found below. The craft room cut file is setup for 10 invitations. The base that was cut on the natural paper grain was cut by hand and is 8"x6". Same with the invitation text, that was cut to fit the sail. Everything else is on the Cricut. I have no idea if this file works in the Cricut explorer design studio. If it does could someone leave me a comment to let me know. I tried looking it up but didn't find anything.
Cricut Craft room File Link
The base cuts two at a time so that will need to cut 5 times to get the 10 count.
The sail cuts 6 at a time so that needs to be cut twice and you will have a couple left over.
I take the term "scrap"book pretty seriously. I have a hard time parting with paper and fabric that is leftover from a project especially when I know I can do something else pretty cool with them. I am always trying to maximize what I have. I have even gotten pretty good at it. For this project I challenged myself to come up with creative ways to eliminate as much waste as possible. The way I designed the craft room cuts the left overs will look like what I have pictured below.
DON'T THROW THESE AWAY! and do your best to be careful when you remove them from your mat. I have plans for these scraps and will show you have I have used them in a future post. As you can see with the natural paper I already assembled the 1/2" wide remnants a lattice piece that I thought might be cute on an apple picking scrapbook page.
A lot of times I find that I like the negative more than what I was actually cutting out. Its fun to challenge myself to use them. I hope I can inspire you to do the same.
Thanks for stopping by the nest!
Darla
I know this post is a bit unusual for me. I have never posted anything about the paper crafting that I do. So far most of my posts are about sewing and recipes. Well this is another craft I like to do when I am not being a wife, a mommy or a seamstress. I usually only get to do this when I "need" to since I am rather busy and in this case I "needed" two birthday cards.
What inspired these cards was an outfit Lady Grantham was wearing during this seasons Downton Abby (am an addict!). It was during her trip to London. She wore a striking combination of deep blue green with a coppery orange. When you put those colors together they typically put me in mind of Morocco or India and places in between. I just couldn't stop thinking about it. When that happens I know I won't get it out of my head until released creatively. This did the trick. Sadly none of the pictures did the colors justice. (I really need to come up with a better lighting strategy for pictures.)
I used my Cricut and did all of the design work in the craftroom software. I love the fact that you can sit in a comfy spot with your laptop and come up with a complete design all at once. The you just pick your papers, turn on your Cricut and just start cutting. I feel confident that the size of my cuts are just the right size too. No more guessing the size and holding your breath. I've wasted too many papers that I liked doing that. All that's left is gluing it together and embellishing.
I used the craftroom basic shapes for the card base and the rectangles I stamped, The Edge to Edge cartridge for the lattice work and the Elegant Edges cartridge (my favorite cart so far) for the base of my stamped pieces. The tree stamp is Flourish Fall Tree by Inkadinkado and the "Celebrate" is a clear stamp that came out of a bargain bin too long ago to remember. All of the paper came out of the core'dinations Super Assortment Nostalgia Stack.
Thank for stopping by the nest!
Darla
