Friday, November 30, 2012

SOU Sketches Reveal: Making Christmas Gifts

Stuck on You has a new Die Cut challenge being revealed today.  The task is to make something using a "gift" die cut.  I make a lot of my Christmas gifts.  I always liked receiving hand made gifts so I like playing that joy forward.  I thought I would scrap this to help me in giving them up...lol.  Sewing projects can be like your children.  You just hate to let them go. 

 
 
 I used my Silhouette to make these die cuts incluing the title, mat, gifts and even the journaling block which is a print and cut item.

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Gift Grin

This is our, normally very serious, grandson's response to our question of whether he was ready for his brother to open his birthday gifts.  It was really refreshing to see a two year old happy for another who was about to get toys, when he wasn't.  His grin was priceless to us.  They share very well, so I think he knew that whatever his brother was to get, he would be able to play with too.


I wanted to use a big gift on this layout emphasizing the size of his grin.  The story tab is placed to emphasize the journaling that is to be placed in the bow. (The journaling is not there yet.  His mother doesn't want his name posted anywhere on the web and the journaling will have his name.)

I used the Cricut Imagine to create the papers using the Hop Scotch patterned paper.  The gift was cut from Slumber Party.  The title was cut from Cricut Craft Room Basics using solid colors from the Hop Scotch Patterns cartridge.  The mats were cut using Cricut Craft Room Basics and Hop Scotch as well.  I covered brads using my i-Top tool using the scrap papers I had left over from the die cuts and I placed them with the flag and word stickers, from Teresa Collins Fabrications collection, in various spots and colors to create my visual triangles.  It is rare that I limit my page to two big items like this, but that grin was really big.
 

Monday, November 26, 2012

Gift Bags

It is time to get my ho ho ho on and start wrapping gifts and making them special with some home made embellishments.  These two bags are my start.  I use traditional and non-traditional colors in my holiday wrapping.  We live in a log cabin which is very dark inside.  I decorate in red, white, hunter green and burgundy and then use all sorts of colors for the gifts to make our tree really pop.  Being eclectic by nature, I just love how it all looks when pulled together with the room.


 
I bought some cheap bags at Dollar General (2/$1.00) and decorated them.  This is a favorite gift wrapping tactic that I often use.  I took a basic sketch and applied it two ways.  On the red bag the design was an embellishment on the bag on the green bag the design was used on the bag itself.   
For the red bag embellishment, I made the borders from a Martha Stewart Punch. The die cuts of the snowman and the snowflake were from Gypsy Wanderings.  The red wood look tag was cut from the Forever Young Cartridge using the pattern from Greetings Inside and Out  . The matting was cut using paper from the Teresa Collins Fabrications collection. I sprayed white seam binding in Frost from Tattered Angels to dye the ribbon.
 
 On the green bag, I used the same punch on the tag, but raised it up behind the tag more, to give it a different look but similar shape as the border on the bag.  I used images from Santa's Village to make the die cuts The red wooden look tag pattern came from Greetings Inside and Out.  I scattered 20 mini snowflakes punched from an old EK Success punch I bought years ago.  I put them on the bag and the tag to pull the design together better.   Both bags took about 20 minutes to do, so if you decorate your gifts, you will find this overall layout to be very versatile and fast.  Enjoy!
 
 
 

Saturday, November 24, 2012

SOUS Card Sketch Challenge: Wish

This is a card that I made for the Stuck on You Card Challenge.  This one was totally out of my element for my style is very linear and this required curves in my mind..  I love these challenges for they make me stretch myself.  Here is the sketch...


This is my creation:




I used my Silhouette die cutter to make the embellishments and the card element papers.  The card itself was a scrap I had in my ever growing scrap basket.  I need to start using this stuff.  It runneth over.  I added a bit of Prima bling and die cut the title, again using my Silhouette