American Crafts Projects: More Info

Back after two days' worth of tornado warnings and sirens and calming down anxious children. Thankfully, our part of the city was not directly affected, and the parts that were affected suffered only minor damage, hail damage, and flooding.

If you missed it, on Wednesday I shared my American Crafts guest designer projects for Vintage Week. Today, I'm back to share them again, but with additional details. 

Let's start with my "New York" layout:

I love this vintage New York map-print patterned paper and used it in two ways on this layout. One use is obvious: the two blocks of patterned paper. As for the less obvious use: I die cut an apple from the paper and inked it red. If you look closely you will see that I die cut the apple stem from woodgrain patterned paper and the leaf from the same green ledger-print paper I used to die cut the Statue of Liberty. I used American Crafts hemp baker's twine in solid red and green on the kraft DIY Shop tags to balance the color across the two halves of the layout. 

Next up is my "Let's Go Fly a Kite" project, which is a framed 8" x 10" art piece:

I recently rectified a parenting fail by showing my kids "Mary Poppins" for the first time. The kite song got stuck in all of our heads. Here, I used my die-cutting machine to create a kite image. I first die cut the diamond of diamonds from scrap cardstock and placed it over dictionary-print patterned paper, inking each of the diamonds a different color. I adhered the inked patterned paper behind the diamond shapes on the cardstock I had run through both my printer and my die-cutting machine. A black twine kite string is adorned with burlap bows inked to match some of the diamonds. A small key detail here: the center diamond contains the word "fly," and yes, that was intentional! :)

My "Travelers" layout is a simple layout with a fun twist: map-print patterned paper dolls:

This is one of those layouts that evolved slowly. Initially, I die cut the paper dolls from the background patterned paper, backed them with the map-print patterned paper, and had color photos, all with Thickers geotags anchoring them to the layout. The layout wasn't sitting right with me so I let it sit. Three "a-has" struck that improved the layout. First, I die cut the paper dolls again from black cardstock and laid the strip of cardstock over the paper dolls on the layout, making the colors in the map print pop. Second, I changed the photos to black and white to create a more uniform look, correcting the clash of colors between photos and between photos and paper dolls. Next, I varied the "anchors" for the photos, keeping one geotag, but swapping out the other two for a clothespin on its side and a chalk badge. My edits made for a more cohesive and visually pleasing layout.

I had a lot of fun creating a card with this line:

I used five different patterned papers here: a whitewashed text collage print (it comes printed with the whitewash effect - isn't that cool?!), a woodgrain print, a dictionary print, an airmail strip print, and a denim print. I die cut or punched all of the elements, elevated the heart with a foam adhesive dot, and finished the card with more of the twine.

Last up is my most meaningful project. When you look at it you will see why:

I would recommend buying the DIY paper pad for the family tree diagram paper alone! It is the perfect size for writing names (even long ones - there's a Tabachnick side in my family!) and is a great document to either fill out on its own, or, as I did, to use as part of a two-page spread. I documented our ancestry in general on the left side of the layout, creating a collage of some of my favorite family photos going back to my great-great grandparents and my husband's great-grandparents. (Don't worry, none of those are the original photos - all are printed from scans!) I added pops of color and a "who's who" key by punching stars from colored cardstock and adhering them to the photos, with circles punched from the same colors of cardstock adhered to the family tree page. I don't have the entire family tree filled out - still missing some great-grandmothers' maiden names, but I plan to finish filling that information in once I can track it down. 

So...there you have it...the stories behind all of my projects! Be sure to visit the American Crafts blog for additional Vintage Week fun!

 

 

American Crafts Guest Designer

I had the honor of guest designing for American Crafts for this week's Vintage Week feature. I had the privilege of working with their fabulous DIY Shop collection. DIY Shop includes a great mix of vintage-print papers with embellishments in neutral colors and materials (black, kraft, burlap, cork, etc.). I had a lot of fun working with the papers and embellishments from this line!

While I am sharing my projects here, please be sure to check out the American Crafts blog for additional information. I'll be sharing additional information here about my projects later this week as well.

"New York" layout:

"Travelers" layout:

 "Memory Ancestry" layout:

 "Let's Go Fly a Kite" art piece:

"Hello" card: 

Be sure to head on over to the American Crafts blog for more information and to check out the rest of Vintage Week!

A Layout About Friendship

I have a layout up today on the October Afternoon blog for today's sketch feature:

This layout celebrates important friendships in my son's life. There were some tough times for him in elementary school when it came to friends. Initially, Eli gravitated towards friendships with girls and all was well. Once he started branching out and forging friendships with boys, however, things got a little more complicated. Unhealthy competition entered into the fray, as did kids who were growing up too quickly, making Eli feel uncomfortable. I was so glad that Eli settled into this trio. 

A good reminder for us that it works out, especially given that Sadie is navigating some of this now. I know she will come out stronger on the other side of things.

Be sure to check out the October Afternoon blog for the sketch and for a layout by the ever-fabulous Jill Sprott.

 

Cocoa Daisy Grey Street

Now that the cat is out of the bag, I want to share all of the projects I did for Cocoa Daisy with the March Grey Street kit and add-ons.

First up is my "Breakfast with Shel" layout (fun title, no? :)), which uses the Grey Street main kit and the Blue Ridge add-on (love those Elle's Studio Everyday Moments Bits & Pieces die cuts!):

Next up is another layout that combines the main Grey Street kit with the Blue Ridge add-on (and the fun "So Much to Love" sticker that came on one of the bags in my kit box):

 

Next up are two cards I made. The first one combines the Grey Street main kit with the Emerald Isle add-on:

 

My last project is a card that uses the main Grey Street kit and the Blue Ridge add-on (still love those Elle's Studio Everyday Moments Bits & Pieces die cuts!):

 

Be sure to check out all of the Cocoa Daisy design team members' awesome work with this month's kit and add ons here! :)

Unblocking Creative Block

I have a layout up on the October Afternoon blog today as part of the weekly Thursday sketch feature. (Stay tuned, as I will also have a layout up as part of next Thursday's sketch feature.) There's a fun story behind this layout. Read on...

I've been swamped lately with work, my family's schedule, etc. and haven't been feeling very creative. At the last minute, right before this layout was due, I posted on Facebook about how I had complete creative block. Two of my super-talented paper-crafty friends, Melanie Louette and Emily Spahn, responded to my post. I took that as a sign and decided to do what those two do so well: 8.5" X 11" layouts. Immediately, ideas emerged, and this layout was born:

So...without further ado...thank you, Melanie and Emily, for getting me out of a rut just by reaching out! Much appreciated! Thank you also to Alex Gadji, who created the fabulous sketch I used here.

Be sure to check out today's post on the October Afternoon blog for more info and to see the sketch and Alex's beautiful layout.

 

Guest Designing For...

Cocoa Daisy! 

I've long been terrified of kit clubs. What if I didn't like the products in a kit? What if I didn't like the color scheme, or only having bits and pieces of a line rather than a line in its entirety? What if the kit came with stamps and I had to...gasp...stamp? Well, I can say that my attitude has now changed! I hesitated a little when Emily asked me to be this month's guest designer, but decided to push past my hesitation and am so glad I did!

I finished all of my projects with this kit in one day. I stamped. I used products I would never have bought on my own. I combined products I never would have thought to combine on my own. End result? Fun, and projects I love!

March's kit, Grey Street, was in many ways outside of my usual box. I don't tend to scrap with a lot of grey, but this kit was full of it (don't worry, lots of colorful products as well!) and now I think I am going to add grey to my list of go-to neutrals, along with black, white, and kraft. Here's an official Cocoa Daisy kit sneak, showing the main kit and the add ons:

 

So far I've created two layouts and two cards, but hope to get even more done before the full reveal on the 26th! Here's a peek at my projects:

 

 Be sure to check back at Cocoa Daisy on February 26th for the full kit reveal!

Need Some Giant Arrows?

I have a layout up on the October Afternoon blog today:

Please be sure to check out the post over there, where I show you have to make these giant arrows: