Card Sketch December #2

Ready for another midweek card sketch challenge? Really enjoyed going to look at everyones creations, need to double check the blog comments as my email notification went a little wonky last week. I am assuming blogger hiccups as I've changed nothing in the blog set-up! This weeks is slightly similar to last weeks with a few little changes. Sometimes that happens when I'm sketching, one sketch will spark another, then another, and so on. As usual the digital template can be downloaded here.

I'm betting that regular readers are going to be sick of this paper soon! Don't worry I think I only have one more card to share with this paper! Which is a sketch for another week so you'll see it eventually. Using my stash again (go me!). These alpha letters have been in there a while! I think I got them the time my parents visited back in 2006, we got these huge DCWV bumper packages from JoAnns. The epoxy was in a set from Michaels dollar bin. I realized recently though that I buy these things and rarely use them, so that's one of my new missions!

Supplies: Cardstock: DCWV; Patterned Paper: Luxe; Alpha Stickers: DCWV; Epoxy: Horizon

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Ok onto the sketch girls cards! First up this week is Jo! Love the fun paper on this! Would be a good for any occasion and the colors make it great for a masculine card (I struggle with those!). Great card Jo!

Card by Jo Willis
Supplies: DCWV cardstock, Sassafras Lass paper, Sizzlits Graffiti die-cut alpha, sizzlit stars, Colorbox chalk ink, black Sakura Micron pen, unknown ribbon.

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Cindy opted for digital this week! Love how she switches things up. Great use of the patterned papers, and elements. Really liked how she used the ribbon across the card, and putting the sentiment on it almost like a gift wrapped package!

Digital Card by Cindy Gilchrist
Supplies: Digital Papers and Embellishments from Traci Reed and Dani Mogstad's "Sleigh Bells Ring" kit, Fonts are Stamp Act and CK Cursive.

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First thing I have to say about Angela's card is I love this script font! Perfect for holiday cards where you may want a little bit of a traditional feel. Fun papers and I love the little gifts snuck in behind the sentiment!

Digital Card by Angela Shetzer
Credits: Christmas Memories kit by Chigger Lane Designs; Font: Edwardian Script

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Love this card from Kelli! Everything just ties together beautifully. The music sheet paper, the music note and the "fa la la" sentiment, just perfect!

Card by Kelli Smith
supplies: stickles from ranger, Love ELsie pp, LOve ELsie rubons, Plain Janes musical notes, Martha Stewart snowflakes punch

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I have to say this is how *I* envision the card. Straight lines, with an almost graphic feel, yet Jolene manages to turn that into this lovely floral card. Beautiful!

Card by Jolene Johnston
Supplies: Die Cuts With a View card, Bazzill cardstock, My Mind's Eye Wild Asparagus papers, Colorbox chalk ink, Basic Grey Lily Kate ribbon, Karen Foster rub on, My Moments paper flower, Michael's silk leaf

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My Mom opted for some girly girl fun this week. Purple accents pulled from the floral paper, paired with a fun teddy bear embellishment.

Card by Linda Flinders

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As usual if you do the sketch hook me up in the comments as I love to come check them out!

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Hybrid, starting with the digi

Over the last few months I've talked about how to infuse your traditional scrapbook pages with hybrid elements. There are many ways to use digital elements in hybrid projects, but for this topic I am going to discuss ways to add traditional touches to your digital pages.

As someone who does traditional, digital, and hybrid, I love mixing all the different mediums. For me, digital pages are a quick and easy way to get a page done. Digital pages will always be easier for me, and they are definitely more 'error friendly' with Ctrl Z to erase mistakes. For my traditional pages, I like depth, and whilst there are some realistic elements in the digital world, I prefer the real thing.

There are many ways to add REAL elements to a flattened jpg, digital layout. Once printed you could add extra real stitching rather than digital, add real buttons rather than digital buttons, or brads, the list is endless as most digital elements mimic traditional supplies. Maybe you are even inspired to do a layout based on a traditional scrapbook embellishment and that is the basis of your digital page, adding the element after printing.

When I do these kinds of hybrid layouts from a digital page I first design the whole page in Photoshop, including the elements I will eventually replace. I will hide these elements before I print. In this layout I decided to hide the staples and buttons.

Supplies: Digital kit: Summer Fun by Shelle Pukas (www.designsbyshelle.com); Font: Wonderful Wendy.

Once I hid the layers and printed I had a flattened image, which I could embellish. I added real buttons, staples and handstitching.

I could have gone further and JUST printed the patterned paper and title, and added the pre-printed photos, and hand journaled, assembling the layout traditionally. There are just so many options when it comes to hybrid scrapbooking.

I hope this has inspired some of you digital scrapbookers to print and embellish your pages, and some of you traditional scrappers to dabble in the land of digital!

Copyright Di Hickman 2007, published in Scrapstreet.com Ezine November 2007

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RSC Oct/Nov & Stuff

Well it's the start of another week and I have lots to do this week! I hope to get the card sketches done for over the holidays and out to the sketch girls, plus the January Layout sketch. At some point I hope to finalize details on the card sketch call, I plan on having that up sometime this week, so keep checking back.

Working on digital stuff too, and just want to thank everyone for their input/emails regarding some decision making I mentioned in the newsletter. I've made a decision, and things are progressing *smile* will keep you all posted!

The new Dec/Jan issue of Ready Set Create is available for purchase so that means I can share projects from the October/November issue! I had 2 layouts in this issue, both of which are below.

Look forward to sharing some more Ready Set Create published projects soon!

hugs

Di

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Scrapworks scrapbooking projects

The manufacturer sponsor for December at Treasures to Scrap is Scrapworks. They were super generous and sent us their latest Christmas line "seasons of joy" complete with papers, stickers, chipboard and foam stamps! If you haven't seen this holiday line you HAVE to go check it out! When my package arrived I ripped it open and just dove in! The obvious choice for any holiday themed paper is cards and you all know I am ALL about the cards!!! I remembered this lunchbox style tin that I bought at Walmart a while back and decided it was time for me to alter it. The colors of the tin just went PERFECTLY with the blues in this collection.

Supplies: Paper, stickers & Chipboard: Scrapworks; Cardstock: Bazzill; Alpha: Miss Elizabeths; Rub-ons: DCWV; Tin: Singer; Misc Ribbon

The ribbon on the handle is from various sources, most of which I have no idea as it's just from my stash. Once I was happy with the tin I set about doing the inside. My plan for this is to have 3 tabs. One for a card list, one for blank cards, and one for stickers and envelope seals, just stuff I use to decorate the envelopes.

Supplies: Paper & Stickers: Scrapworks; Alpha: Miss Elizabeths; Various supplies from stash;

I have to say that I've had these Miss Elizabeths alpha stickers in my stash for a LONG time and they just went PERFECTLY with the colors in these papers! Other than that the embellishments were all just random stuff from my stash, clips, ribbon, brads and some unknown rub-ons.

Obviously no card tin is complete without cards. If you remember I made a TON of holiday cards in October with the Reminisce papers but I ran out! Can you believe that? So I've been making more. This is one I made which uses this weeks card sketch.

Supplies: Papers & Chipboard: Scrapworks; Alpha: American Crafts; Rub-ons: DCWV;

I love that the chipboard shapes are a perfect size for cards! Also, you can't tell from the photo's but the chipboard is all sparkly with glitter sheen to it and I am all about the BLING lately! If you don't have this line you should check it out! It is simply awesome!

These projects were published in the new Ready Set Create Holiday Edition ezine which you can purchase here. If you're looking for holiday idea's for home decor, gifts, cards and more it's all there!

I hope to have more projects with the Scrapworks "seasons of joy" to share soon! Mostly because I need to make MORE cards to fill that tin!

Hope you're all having a great weekend!

hugs

Di

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Hybrid Holiday Ornaments

Went to a little party at Sriki's place last night. I took food, made a veggie masala, which I kinda overestimated the amount and we have a ton left. Good job we love it! Sriki made mushroom curry which was lovely, need recipe for that next time I'm there. Gautam came up from Irvine so was good to catch up with him and see how his new job is going. By the time we got home, walked and fed the dogs, it was early morning before we got to bed. Needless to say, little bit tired today!

This week on the Everyday Digital Scrapbooking blog we're featuring hybrid holiday ornaments. I made this little chipboard "joy" ornament, and you can find out details on how to make it in my tutorial on the EDS blog.

Supplies: digital papers: Melothria "and then it was winter" kit; photoshop CS3; font: Sexsmith; Chibboard: Provocraft; Alpha stickers: American crafts; ribbon: Offray; misc buttons from craft store; pen: white signo uniball

So quick and easy to do. I'm actually considering making more, if we ever get a tree up! We didn't bother decorating last year, and not sure if we will or not yet this year.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Off to create!

Di

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Review: UHU envelope sealer

Last month I noticed a new sample on the UHU blog so I applied and waited patiently, knowing I still had a few more holiday card to make, and how I could give this a thorough testing. On the 24th Nov I received my samples and set to work. This blog post will review the UHU Envelope Sealer.

First I'll start off by saying I loved the UHU products I've reviewed in the past, and was looking forward to this sample on the envelope sealer. Unfortunately once I started using it, I hit on a design flaw almost immediately. As you can see the top has a handle, that's basically the "plunger" to push the glue through the stick. Well this works great BUT it doesn't give you anyway of storing the stick when in use other than sideways on the table, which can result in sticky situations. Obviously not designed by someone who crafts!

I had a few cards made up that needed envelopes and so I chose some co-ordinating paper and using my one heart... one mind envelope templates, I traced and cut some envelopes. I assembled the envelopes using the UHU envelope sealer. Then I set about taking the photographs of the projects as usual!

Supplies: Papers: Cosmo Cricket; Rub-ons: Cosmo Cricket: misc: snowflake & gems; adhesive: UHU;

Once photographed I wrote inside the card, picked up the envelope to insert the card and the flaps lifted up. So I picked up the envelope sealer again and reapplied the glue, a little thicker this time and left it for a while before testing the results again. Meanwhile I wrote more cards, then labeled and addressed more envelopes.

Supplies: Papers: Cosmo Cricket; Rub-ons: Cosmo Cricket: misc: snowflake & gems; adhesive: UHU;

Supplies: Cardstock: DCWV; Paper: Paper pizzazz; Sticker: Target; buttons: misc; Adhesive: UHU;

I came back about 10 minutes later and the envelope was very secure. So I guess a thicker application was needed, going over the area an extra couple of times really made a huge difference.

Now the big question:- would I buy it? Honestly? Probably not. Sorry UHU, I guess just don't see a need for a special envelope glue stick. Yep once it stuck it did stick well, but I really didn't see a huge difference between the envelope glue and the glue stick. In fact I tested both, sticking scraps of paper together and each stuck equally as well. For value for money, I'll stay with the UHU glue stick and UHU tape runner I think...

I know some of my blog readers signed up for a sample so get your reviews done, tell me what you think, hook me up in the comments when you do your review! I still have the photo glue stick to review and a couple of other samples I need to review so keep checking back for my honest opinion.

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Got it pegged

Having email issues apparently today, that's never good. We're gearing up for a storm heading in today. Supposed to bring heavy rains, flash flood warnings and all that. It was definitely colder this morning. Yesterday was gorgeous! Today I plan on making some cards for an upcoming call, preparing the blog sketches for December, and then organizing my computer files! Thursday is also the day I chat online with my Mum so I have that scheduled too. Thought I'd share some Boxer stuff today...

Every so often on the Boxer Design Team blog we have challenges, where Angie will challenge us to use a specific product, and the last one was these oversized pegs!

Not much of a supply list because everything is by Boxer, aside from the paint I used to paint the peg with. Boxer supplies: Dotted paper, grosgrain ribbon, white buttons, transparency, slidemount. This is one of my favorite papers from Boxer, you all know I am a dotted addict! I did take the peg apart to paint it, and they go back together again pretty easy.

You can see all the DT pegs on the Boxer DT blog!

more creations coming soon!

hugs

Di

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