I heart templates!!! Part 1

I love anything that jumpstarts creativity and for me templates do just that. They also help save time and as a busy mom that is always a bonus so I thought I share my favorite resources for scrapping templates(sketches) for both paper and digital scrapping.

Let's start with paper. (I will cover the wealth of digital templates out there in Part 2)

There are LOTS of great places to find sketches. The three major scrapping magazines, Memory Makers, Creating Keepsakes,and  Scrapbooks etc., all have a monthly column in which they have new sketches and offer a few originals where they show how a scrapper made it there own. My favorite is Scrapbooks Etc and their website is incredible!
http://scrapbooksetc.com/

I want to tell you a little about all the fantastic things I found on their website. First there are the page sketches(click here to take a look) 
You can scroll through the sketches and then when you find one you like click on it and download it. I love to print out these download because the format is awesome! It gives you a large photo of the sketch, an original and a box for notes. I printed out dozens and put them all in a 3-ring binder and anytime I feel blocked I grab it and can find a great sketch to get me started. I rarely literally interpret it but instead I usually switch it up a bit.
Another thing I found on the Scrapbooks Etc. site was photo collages, they are GREAT! These are blank  collages which hold multiple  photos, they look like this

and here is the link to where you can find them. http://www.scrapbooksetc.com/layouts/collage/downloads/

I adore these! Seriously, I love the look of mutiple photos but get  bogged down in trying to place them all and keep my creative flow, these are the answer. Once you download them you can use them with your photo editing software and fill them in.( I use Photoshop 8) Easy easy easy, simply drag your photo in, Ctrl G and marquee the excess out. I sometimes use a slot for journaling, which I put in either using my software or by hand after it is printed out. I also like to reserve a spot to put patterned paper or cardstock. Here is a sample of a page I made using one of their collages.

I resized it to 8X8 and used the largest spot for patterned paper to unify the look of the page.(all products in this layout are My Mind's Eye) They have square, rectangle and shaped templates.

I also have  several books that I rely on for inspiration when I need help getting started. Below are the titles, if you click on them it will take you to the site to take a closer look and purchase.

Scrapbook Page Maps by Becky Fleck
Best of Becky Higgins Sketches for Scrapbooking
Designing With Recipe Book- Autumn Leaves Books

Of those my favorite is Page maps. It is very cool, the first half of the book shows all the sketches and shows several originals for each sketch, the second half is punch out laminated cards and pouch to hold them. Each card has a sketch on one side and an original on the back like this.....

So there you have it, some of my favorite resources for paper scrapping templates. Part 2 will cover a few of my favorite digital scrapbooking template resources and will be here soon. Have a great day!

A Pirate's life for me!

My latest projects are appliqued baby gifts. I have recently learned of the millions of designs for embroidery that are available almost instantly via download at thousands of sites. Oh boy, I have to restrain myself! I could sit and browse designs for days. There is a never ending supply of adorable girly designs however finding cute boyish designs is way more difficult. My favorite site at the moment, The Embroidery-Boutique, has many cute designs for boy items and I recently purchased all their pirate themed applique designs. Here is a shirt I made today using the Pirate Hat design.

I did something a little different on this shirt, rather than applique the design directly on the shirt I used two layers of thick stablizer and made an applique patch then adhered it using my favorite fusible material, Heat N'Bond.  I decided to try this because my daughter will not wear the items I've made her using machine embroidery because the stitches in the back irritate her skin. This way the stitches are not touching the child's skin only the soft cotton shirt. It worked great, I just did the whole design on the black and whit gingham then very carefully cut it out with very sharp embroidery scissors.

http://embroidery-boutique.com/index.php

How to- Cut fabric with your Cricut

I've had lots of people as me how I cut fabric with my Cricut, well it's easy but it took lots of trial and error to figure it out. I had been told and read some incorrect info on the subject but I did eventually figure it out. Here's how I do it.........

1) press your fabric using a bit of spray starch.
2) adhere your fabric to HEAT N BOND ULTRA, this is the most important thing, make sure it is ULTRA. I tried every type of fusible material and had no luck until I used Heat N Bond Ultra strength.
3) peel of backing
4) stick to NEW Cricut mat
5) use NEW blade(i reserve a blade and mat I use only for fabric)
6) cut your design

Voila!

A blog about all things crafty!

I decided to turn my personal blog, as opposed to my family blog, into a place where I can talk and share endlessly about my passion for crafting.

I am a huge craft geek, you name it I've tried it. Through trial and error I have found a few that I truly am passionate about. Paper crafting is my first love as far as crafts go. Cardmaking and scrapping I find to be more than just a hobby, I honestly find them to be theraputic. I picked up scrapbooking at a very difficult time, during the diagnosis and early treatment of my son's Autistic Spectrum Disorder. It was a way to focus on my son in a very positive and uplifting manner when most days were hard just to simply make it through.

I use scrapbooking not really as a way just to catalog and caption our family photos but to capture moments in time both big and small. I normally use only one or two photos in a layout and tell the story of a moment in time. I know some people see shoeboxes of photos and simply want to scrap them in order to "get it done" or because they want to "catch up", and that's cool for them but I know if I looked at it that way it might feel like an obligation or chore and I know I would never be caught up! I scrap whenever and what ever I feel inspired by at that moment meaning never in chronological order and or one project or album start to finish. Sometimes I find a photo from my childhood and a story and scrap that, sometimes it a photo from yesterday that inspires me or often times it is products that inspire me!

Oh how I love paper! I plan on using this blog to also share my favorite new paper crafting products and tools and which sites and stores I'm loving at the moment. Right now I'm all about my Cricut, I recently purchased the cartridges "Sweet Treats" and "A Walk in My Garden" both of which I'm using at the moment for making fabric appliques for children's wear, T's, bibs, burpie cloths and onesies.

About a week or so ago I sort of became burned out on scrapping and cardmaking and decided to bring out my embroidery and sewing machines. I was inspired to do so by BABIES!!!!!! Honestly babies and children are my biggest inspiration in all my crafting but reecently it seems like all my friends are either pregnant or have just had a baby. So out came the racks of threads the bins of fabric and the packages and packages of plain baby products to embellish.

I plan to share all the details of crafting for whoever shares my passion, so here we go......................