Reflections Layout Using Veranda

I had a gathering Saturday, and we made two projects using the CTMH Veranda paper pack.  This was the second project, a layout from Reflections titled "Bottom Border - Title".  I used direct-to-paper ink distressing around the edge of the Juniper B&T paper, and cross-hatching on the Cocoa and Garden Green cardstock.  I stamped the little bird from the Follow Your Heart stamp set, which is only available as part of the Veranda Workshop on the Go (item G1007, only available through April 30, 2010).   This definitely needs a title and some journaling, but since my stamps and my Silhouette are on their way to Okinawa, those will have to wait.

This is a close-up of the ink distressing on the various papers.

Papers: CTMH Cocoa, Garden Green, and Vanilla Cream cardstock, CTMH Veranda

Inks: CTMH Cocoa, Garden Green and Juniper

Tools and Techniques: Direct-to-paper edge distressing, cross-hatching
Stamp Sets: CTMH Follow Your Heart

Sneak Peek at Studio J

Soon, you will be able to create fabulous digital scrapbook layouts from Close To My Heart.  There is a wonderful selection of paper packs (including some retired favorites and a Studio J exclusive pack for each new Idea Book).  I played around with it a few weeks ago, and will be sharing some of my layouts.  Studio J should go live later this month, and you will be able to access it from my CTMH website.  In the meantime, while almost all of my scrap stuff is on the way to Okinawa, I will share my digital scrapping with you.

This is our annual Christmas Eve tradition, baking cookies for Santa.  I love that I was able to use that close-up of the cookies the same as you might use a patterned paper.

We also open one gift on Christmas Eve, and this layout is of that tradition.  I love that I didn't have to cut the circle picture myself.

The little bits of gray you may have noticed at the top don't print, they are part of the tools for when you are creating your layouts.  You can switch left and right, rotate each layout, and rotate the papers within the layout, among other effects).  There are lots of embellishments you can add, including ribbon, buttons, threads, metal (brads, photo clips, etc), My Stickease, and even various distressing techniques.  One thing I forgot to do on the left page (after I rotated it) was to rotate the papers so that both sides matched.  But did you notice that before I pointed it out?  That's EXACTLY how I missed it.  I'm going to make myself a quick little checklist of things to verify when I approve my future layouts.  This won't entirely replace paper scrapbooking, but I can definitely see it having its place (especially when I want to create multiple copies of a layout, either for gifts or for others involved in the event).

I have other layouts created, but I will post those at a later time.

Pastel'd Christmas Card

I made this acetate Christmas card following the Friday Sketchers Challenge #96 sketch, Sparkle's Christmas Card Challenge #18 (inspiration photo), and Christmas Cards All Year 'Round April Challenge (at least one soft pastel).  Instead of buying acetate card bases, I just bought a package of write-on transparency film, and cut it with my paper trimmer.

This is the inside.  I haven't chosen this year's Christmas card sentiment yet, so I'll stamp it later.

Papers: CTMH Blush and White Daisy cardstock, DCWV Holiday Collection The Christmas Stack

Inks: Brilliance Graphite Black, Copic Markers, Prismacolor marker, Sakura Gelly Roll White

Tools and Techniques: Nestabilities Classic Oval Large, Nestabilities Labels 1 (inside), unknown ribbon, 3-D Mounting Foam
Stamp Sets: CTMH Snow Friends

Lots of Christmas Cards

Today I used a sketch from 365 Cards and followed Sparkle's Christmas Card Challenge #17 (Snowflakes) and KL's Stampin' and Scrappin' (1-2-3 Recipe Challenge) to make a card.  Then I just decided to make a bunch of the same card, so I ended up with a total of ten.  The first five are mostly identical (I ran out of white snowflake brads, so I used embossing powder to cover silver snowflake brads to use--directions at the end of the post).  The next four, I kept the positions of the two papers the same, but on two had to use buttons instead of brads (because I ran out of snowflake brads), and the ink color for the sentiment and the distressing were reversed.  The last card has the paper position the opposite of the rest of cards, but I used the reverse side for some more variety.  The last five all received sparkles in the centers of the punched-out snowflakes.

Papers: CTMH White Daisy cardstock, CTMH Evensong Creative Basics

Inks: CTMH Cranberry and New England Ivy

Tools and Techniques: Nestabilities Petite Oval Large, Martha Stewart Snowflake punches, unknown white snowflake brads, unknown silver snowflake brads, Stampendous embossing powder (Winter Wonderland), Horizon Group USA sparkles, CTMH Craft Buttons (Holiday), direct-to-paper ink distressing (around the oval), Zots glue dots
Stamp Sets: CTMH Christmas Scripts

To use embossing powder to color your metal brads is fairly easy.  You will need a Craft Heater (CTMH product number Z555 is what I use), embossing powder, and some tweezers (I use CTMH Z1205, as they have a fine point, rubber grips so your fingers don't get hot, and reverse action so you don't have to squeeze to hold on to your item).  Grasp the brad by the "flaps" with your tweezers.  Using your craft heater, heat the front/top surface of your metal brad.  This may take some adjusting, depending on the size of your brad as well as the powder you are using.  I held these snowflakes fairly close to the heater for about 20 seconds, but a regular brad wouldn't require as much time.  Once heated, dip immediately in your embossing powder, tap off the excess and then heat again with your craft heater until the powder is melted smooth.  If a second coat is necessary, simply put it immediately back in the powder and repeat the tap and heat.  Voila, perfectly colored or matched brads for your project.  Keep in mind, some powders don't handle too much heat well, so err on the side of too little heat (which you can fix by heating more) rather than too much heat (which can cause your powder to discolor).