A Double Spoiler!

The warehouse is buzzing with activity this week. Deb is collating and boxing September's Blueprints collection and Beth is preparing your "with kit" orders for shipping day next Tuesday. Let's take a look . . .

Some of my favorite details include the stunning masking stencil, the beautiful color palette, paper textures, and the cool stamp images. Kay had some wonderful success when stamping the UM images onto the Blue paper with White Pigment ink. The fourteen pages fell together like a dream. You are going to love this kit!

The release of a new collection is no reason to put our feet up and eat bonbons! We have a second project making its debut today. It was inspired by a popular kit from a while back and is called Autumn Harvest. You still have time to include this gem with your Blueprints shipment!

If you've been working hard in the garden all summer and have tomatoes and zucchini coming out of your ears, take some photos of your success and scrap them with this gorgeous kit! The neutral tones will also work with just about any outdoor photos.

It's going to be a creative month!
Tricia

Digital Stamp Shadows

Recently, Julie wrote a blog entitled “Stencil Shadow,” showing a great technique using stencils and two different colors of ink. If you missed it, you can read it HERE. Since the inks have a bit of transparency to them, a third color is created where the inks overlap.

If you look closely, you can see the third color where the two inks overlap.

This technique is easily replicated digitally. Since we don't have digital stencils, we'll just use stamp images. Here’s how . . .

1. Create a new square document with a white background.

2. Open a stamp image and drag it onto the new document. I’m using an image from the Versailles Digital Kit.

3. Resize the image so it fills the document; rotate it slightly.

4. Reduce the image opacity to 60%. This mimics the CS Ash ink nicely.

5. Duplicate the layer.

6. Command+Click (Mac OS) or CTRL+Click (Windows) on the new layer thumbnail in the Layers Palette. You’ll see marching ants around the image.

7. Use the Fill command to change the color; I used turquoise.

8. Press Command+D (Mac OS) or CTRL+D (Windows) to deselect the image.

9. Use your arrow keys to nudge the image a few pixels up and to the left. Because the opacity is reduced on the two image layers, a third color is created where they overlap - just like the paper version!

10. Merge the layers together and save your file.

To use the image to make cards . . .

1. Create a new document - I made mine 4.25x5.5".

2. Add a background. I chose a shade of turquoise to match the art.

3. Using the Marquee tool, grab a section of the newly created file and drag it onto your card.

4. Resize as needed.

5. Add a sentiment.

Wasn't that easy?

Sentiment from Oopsie Daisy

Sentiment from Hydrangeas

Make these in several colors and you can whip up a bunch of digi-cards in no time. You can also print out your original art, trim it into panels like Julie did, and make some easy hybrid cards!

Until next time, thanks for stopping by!

-Ron

Cinema Blog Hop

Welcome to the hop! Today's blogger projects star Club Scrap's August Cinema collection.

Last year at our annual Retreat, I taught an altered composition notebook project. Ever since then, I've been enamored with the concept . . . how something so simple, so utilitarian, can be easily transformed into something special and fun. And with it being back-to-school time, these handy notebooks are readily available at a great deal.

My children spend many a Friday night with my parents. It's a tradition started long ago when they were babies. Mom said the key to a healthy marriage is "date night" and her gift was Friday night sleepovers. (Thanks, Mom and Dad!) Friday night at Gma and Gpa's usually involves watching the latest DVD releases or playing board games--or both!

I thought it would be fun for Hunter, Emma and Max to keep record of the movies they've seen, maybe even jot down notes or "reviews" of the movies. That's where this twist on the typical altered comp book comes in. Here's how it's done:

Use a craft knife, cutting mat, ruler (and lots of elbow grease) to cut comp book in half.

Spread bookbinding glue onto front cover surface with foam brush; add paper.

Flip cover over and trim away excess paper with craft knife and cutting mat.

Spread bookbinding glue on inside cover. Add paper, leaving
a 1/2-inch gutter between paper and spine. Trim away excess.

Embellish as desired.

I decorated the front cover by adding CS Cinema ribbon near the binding, washi tape along the bottom edge, and Cinema Lite Alphabeans stickers matted on a black strip. I also added the beautiful blue velvet ribbon to create a "bookmark" of sorts.

I used the other half of the comp book to create a log for game nights, using papers and fibers

from our Big Deal collection, Cinema Lite Alphabeans stickers and scrabble tile stickers from my stash. 

There you have it! Two fun-sized journals/logs for the price of one. Are you ready to see what our other bloggers have in store for us? Julie at Cape Cod Scrapper is up next. If you get lost along the way, there's a complete Hop list below. Enjoy!

Julie at Cape Cod Scrapper

Ink Stains with Roni

Deb Duz Scrappin'

Jill's Place

Tricia at The Efficient Crafter

Hetty at Craft Chaos

Kay's Keepsakes

Cathy at The Artful Gamut

Anne at Crzymom's Tidbits

Debby at Masculine Inspirations

Dishing with Janet

Tiare Smith Designs
Lisa at Carpe Memoria

Marya at A Notebook Novel

Annette at Digital Musings

Donna at The Crafty Colonel

Made by Wendy Bellino

Super Stacked Box Project

Creative Greetings!

Have you checked out the Stacked Box Project in the store? I'm crazy for projects of any kind, but I especially enjoy constructing these useful, "stuff"-storing, home decor boxes. I just can't help but brag a bit more about them. The boxes measure 5x7, 6.5x8.5, and 8x10". (All are 2" deep.)

Stacked Box Project - Spine

I have this one on my desk at home. It stores all kinds of odds and ends, including coupons and mail.

Stacked Boxes Project

I used all of the included materials: pre-cut wrapping papers, wooden feet and twill ribbon closure. All I added was some rubber stamping, a metal label holder, CS cutaparts, key charms and a mini tag from my stash.

 

All embellishments were added after the boxes were constructed. Here are a few details:

Big & Tall Numbers stamped with White Pigment and India Inks.

Age twill ribbon with Earth CS Hybrid Ink. 

Adhere the metal label holder to spine with Glue Lines.

Attach metal key charms with waxed linen thread.

Mini tag glued between cover papers.

Lock & Key Cutaparts added to each box.

As you can see, it's super-easy to embellish the project kit because the color scheme is so versatile!

But if you like to do your own thing, the Components Kit is fun with all its infinite possibilities. I put the one pictured below together for the Oopsie Daisy Blog Hop. You can use any papers you like with the components kit!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope your day is "stacked" with good fortune and fun!

Kay at Club Scrap

Stencil Shadow

Picnic - "I love you so much I could squish you."

Make your stencil images pop with this clever shadow technique!

Here is how it's done . . .

1. Stencil the Tin Tiles image at an angle onto white paper using Ash Ink.

2. Move the stencil slightly to offset the image.

3. Fill in the stencil with turquoise chalk ink.

The ink was a goodie in the Artifacts Lite kit.

4. Remove the stencil to reveal the shadowed art.

5. Cut the art into four 4x5.25" panels.

6. Attach the panels to four Salsa Blue 5.5x8.5" folded cards.

7. Time to add your sentiments. Don't be afraid to mix up your kits. I chose stamps from PSL Bugs and Picnic.

8. Too much white space? Stamp a sentiment onto white paper and layer with a coordinating mat.

Picnic sentiment

Take Wing - "Make today ridiculously amazing."

There have been many amazing stencils created by Club Scrap during the past fifteen years. Which one is your favorite?

Julie