StuckOnUSketches: February 2011

Friday, February 25, 2011

Hand made Chipboard Letters..

Good Friday to you lovely ladies and what a great Friday it is, we get to share something new with you today... I get so excited when I get to share..LOL

So, how many of you lovely ladies have spent your hard earned money on a box of Chipboard letters and eventually you will not have that one letter you need to finish a project? Been there, done that..

Well, we want to share a way for you to be able to use your left over boxes from your kitchen pantry, to make any size, any color and/or any print Chipboard Letter using your Cricut..

So, any box that hasn't come in exact contact with food can be used.. a cake box for instance or cereal box is great.. Pizza boxes are great as well, if the pizza was originally wrapped in plastic.. You really don't want to use a dirty box..

ok, so for supplies you will need and I promise this list will be short :

a cereal box for instance, I cut this 4" x 7", cardstock or printed paper of your choice, distress ink and tool and last but not least fast drying glue.

Stick your "chipboard" down onto the mat, I reinforce mine with some scotch tape.. I also switched from my normal blade housing to my deep cut housing.. You can use your normal blade housing, just cut it several more times to make sure its cut through (for basic cereal boxes cut at full depth and pressure and cut twice).. this "chipboard" isn't too thick..

My blade housing was set at 5, debth was at 6 and I cut it twice.. I also cut this SHADOW..

here it is all finished cutting..

be careful taking the chipboard off of the mat, I got too excited and ripped the leg off of the E, so I had to re-cut that one..LOL

and then for the next step:

for some reason the rest of the photos are on their side.. I've done everything in my power to try to figure it out why its doing it that way, but it just dont' like me today.. I apologize for that..

so, now that you have the chipboard cut, place your cardstock (green paper) onto the cutting mat and now cut only once, using your normal blade housing..but make sure you are still cutting it SHADOW..

once they are cut, use your ink application tool and ink the edges of the chipboard and the cardstock.. This step of course is optional, if you dont' like the inked look then do not ink..

here they are both inked.. I like to messy ink, nothing perfect!! LOL Now, once they are inked, start glueing them together..

I then cut re-cut the letters in Normal mode, which I won't ink and then I will glue it on top of the cardstock, which has been glued onto the chipboard. LOL (yea, I laugh out loud a lot)..

So, this is what the chipboard letters look like.. I'm using these in a mini album, so I didn't want to cut them really big.. These are cut at 1.5".. and finally here they are in my mini album:

You can add dimensionals onto the backs if you want them popped up more.. I just glued them down onto the pocket..

and I will be posting this whole mini album on my blog soon, so be on the look out..LOL

I certainly hope this little tutorial has been useful and money saving...LOL and I hope to see this technique used on a layout in the future.. We always love to see what you have come up with using our techniques..

Hugs

Nanné

Friday, February 18, 2011

February 18th

Did you feel the love on Valentine's Day? Honestly, not sure what I think of the holiday, other then a stressful day for most men out there. I do like the concept of a day dedicated to showing people you care for, just how much you love them. But not necessarily by needing to buy jewelry for them (craft supplies, maybe! LOL!) Whatever the case may be, we hope you are having a wonderful week! Enjoy this great sketch from PageMaps

Today is a big day and we have so much to share! First...today marks the last day that Debbie and Lisa will be joining us. Thank you both so much for having joined us and we hope only the best for each of you in your next crafty adventures!!!!

I can't help but to think...you win some, you loose some. And even though we are sad to loose two incredible ladies we are extremely excited to announce 4 new designers onto the SOUS team!

We are pleased to introduce you to Vaness (Ness) Waller, Wanda Boardley, Dawn Gallop and Bonnie Friesen! Here is a little bit about each wonderful lady in their own words...

Ness

My name is Vanessa but everyone calls me Ness. I'm 40 years young and live in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. I live with my husband, Andrew (happily married for 20 years) and our 3 girls - Sarah 19, Shannon 15 and Chloe 12. I love them to bits! I am definitely a girly-girl and love to have fun just being myself (crazy at times LOL!!). I have had a love for arts and crafts for as long as I can remember. Have tried almost everything over the time but have found that Scrapbooking is my passion. I started scrapbooking in 2001. I am thankful I have a very understanding and wonderful husband, and girls who support my passion. My girls are almost always my main scrapping subject.
I am so honored and excited to be a part of the Stuck on U Team.

Wanda

Hi my name is Wanda I have been scrapping for about 8 yrs and I love it!

I have been pretty crafty all my life and enjoy most crafts.

I am a Christian, stay at home wife to a wonderful husband that supports my habit

Mom to 2 grown children a son 34 and a daughter 31 Grammy to 2 beautiful grand daughters that are my inspiration.

I love Disney , enjoy traveling and spending time with my family. Enjoy blogging and making new friends.

Dawn

Hi my name is Dawn Gallop I am the mom to nine children, and one grand baby. I have been creating my whole life the earliest I can remember was around four I was making the loop pot holders....and continued until for several years. Always evolving.....I always test myself....lets see what I can do with this and with that. MY style is eclectic...never know what you will get. I mostly enjoy a rustic, vintage style but that doesn't always apply. So be prepared for some fun and interesting layouts. I am so glad to be apart of the team and look forward to all the creations you will make. Hugs.

Bonnie

Hi! My name is Bonnie Friesen and I'm from Manitoba Canada. My hubby and I have been married almost 25 yrs and we have 2 wonderful adult children. Our son is 18, and working, and our daughter is 21 working as a hairstylist [like her mom] and recently engaged to her high school sweetheart! I work casually at a salon where I live as a hairstylist , and enjoy having a lot of free time for myself. There are a few things you need to know about me... I am a Christian woman, I LOVE slurpee's and the color pink! In any form! I started scrapbooking in September/08, after my dear Mother passed away from cancer. It has been a life saver for me as I work through my grief and allow my creativity to flow. Scrapping has become a big part of my life, and it is something I love to share with anyone who is willing to look at my work. I consider my scrapping as art. I am very detailed orientated and therefore have great difficulty keeping my layouts simple with alot of "white space". I love doing sketches as they stretch my creativity and prevent me from getting stuck in a creative rut! I think I'm in the perfect place, don't you? ;)

And now let's see what this killer team has done~

Hungrin? She is!

Leah Schaeffer

Beeing Creative and Feeling Cherry

"Share in Our Joy"

Sandi Clarkson

Soft Side of Sandi

My Valentine

Lisa McIntyre

http://bugjunkie.blogspot.com/

Scooby Doo

Wanda Boardley

My Happy Place

Madelyn...precious in His sight

Bonnie Friesen

prettylittlesomethings

Winter and Snow

Stine Ursin

http://egen-hobbyblogg.blogspot.com/

Change of Colour

Ness Waller

Crafty Ness

Sisters

Annette Gearside

Moment in Time

Butterflies

Dawn Gallop
http://www.flipflopsandpoptarts.com/

Nature's Gift

Beatriz Guzman

Amazing Grace

Learning to Share

Fern Riley

http://texasstampinmamaw.blotspot.com

Timeless Memories

Debbie Burns

http://lovelifeslittlepleasures.blogspot.com/

Oh and we are not done with all our exciting news! We have another sponsor! Our new design team member, Ness owns a store in her home country of Australia. Her store was the first to sell scrapbook kits in 2004 for the entire country, now how cool is that! So thank you so much Ness and we look forward to seeing the goodies, thank you for the generosity! Please check out Scrap with V! Thanks again!

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Friday, February 11, 2011

Embossing Die Cuts Tutorial

We would like to bring you another tutorial today! Nanne started us off last week with a

wonderful ribbon flower tutorial and we'd like to continue bringing you new and some not

so new ideas but hopefully ones that will give you a ton of inspiration and ideas!

Remember our entire design team will be bringing you tutorials each week

in between our sketch/challenge weeks!

So something new to see each week!

It was brought to my attention that some people do not use their Cuttlebug (or other

embossing machines) as much as they would like. It really is such a neat tool

and can add so much detail to papercrafting projects that I decided to show you

how much it can add to die cuts.

The layout above is really cute, really simple and shows you what a bit of embossing

can do, the small flower and scallop border for example.

Here is a list of basic tools:

Cuttlebug (or any embossing machine)

inks, chalks, etc

sanding tool (keep in mind that these

will really add more dimension and bring the embossing to life)

shimmer sprays (mine was made with mini misters

and Perfect Pearls)

I also wanted to show you what you can do when die cuts do not fit, like in the example below....

Since this piece was the background, I just cut the branches off and then carefully taped

it back together. For the trunk, I rotated the die cut to make sure I embossed

the entire shape. Now keep in mind how the embossing folder and the die cut

hanging off the edges will fit into the machine.

Now here is the layout completed but without any embossing...

you can really see the tremendous difference the embossing details make!

And now all the elements embossed and inked!

For the little worms body, I only put the body inside the folder and

kept the head out. But be careful what folder you use because this

one tore so I needed an itty bitty piece of tape to secure it back together.

The flowers were embossed by choosing a embossing folder with a flower on it (like Floral Fantasy), I then centered the die cut right in the middle of the flower and got a

flower design embossed on the flower die cut (those are for

the two smaller tulip flowers).

And lastly, some details of the completed project...

I truly hope this gives you some ideas and will help you to

incorporate embossing with your die cuts as well as just into

layouts in general!

xoxo, Leah

Friday, February 4, 2011

February 4th

A month into the new year and we have another great sketch for you! This one comes from Scrapbooks, Etc. magazine. They have an interesting mix of sketches, busy to extremely simple and this is somewhere in between. We always want you to come by and let us do the work of finding great sketches for you but you just got to love Google Images for giving you an easy way of finding these! That is how we came across this one.

Now before we get to the wonderful projects we would like to share a bit of news. We are sad to announce that we are loosing Debbie from Love Life's Little Pleasures and Lisa McIntyre from Bug Junkie. It breaks our heart as we so do love both of these designers but understand life it taking them another direction. You've got another chance to see them at Stuck on U Sketches as February 18th will be their last day with us!!! Thank you both Debbie and Lisa SO much for having joined us these past months!!!

So let's see what the DT has been up to....