Loving the Material Girl Goods

I've been having so much fun with the February kit this past week. Seriously, the Cosmo Cricket Material Girl line is fabulous. We included all 6 of the paper designs in this kit because we just couldn't narrow it down.

Here's a look at one project I put together with the kit.Love the big Jenni Bowlin die cut paper? So do we and it's in the kit. The label stickers and jewels are in the kit too!

Hope you are looking forward to getting your kit!

Ribbon Pleating

Well, I just got the Scrapbook Circle FEBRUARY kit in the mail today! I'm SOOOOO excited to play with it and if I get a chance TODAY, I'll post an entry later on, but I wanted to show you a fun technique I sort of picked up at CHA. One of the big new 'things' is ribbon pleating. You will be seeing some in a kit coming soon to a door near you (hopefully YOURS). But, in the meantime, this is my attempt at ribbon pleating.Now, the ones we'll get in the kits are very orderly and nice and elegant. Elegant just didn't work for this page. I wanted fun, and colorful. So, I just cut a piece of ribbon much longer than what I wanted it to show on the page, and then bunched or pleated it haphazardly as I sewed a straight stitch. It was lots of fun and I love the disorderly look it gave my page.
I also made the title with my Silhouette and black vinyl. It is so easy to combine all sorts of fonts and size it to fit your layout perfectly, then cut, peel, and stick! So fun!

Hopefully I'll make it on later today for a post about February's kit!

Enjoy

February Kit is Up!

We are very excited to share our February kit with you. We filled it will all of the paper from the new Cosmo Cricket Material Girl line. We loved all of the paper so much that we just couldn't exclude any of them. There are also pieces of Basic Grey Origins, Making Memories Flutter plus brand new goodies from Elle's Studio and much more.We are also happy to let you know that we have some February paper add-ons available for you this month. This kit has 10 patterned papers and you can get an extra set for yourself. We love this paper so much and figured you would love it too!
Here's another little peek at what I've been up to with the kit.
(The paper and tag are from the kit and the alpha is from my stash.)

Hope you are looking forward to this kit!

Are You Ready?

Who's ready for Valentines Day? It's coming up here, only a little over two weeks away! I don't know about everyone else, but I have already started on Valentines Day cards. There is nothing better than giving your loved ones a gift from the heart like a handmade Valentine!

Here are a couple Valentines that I have created so far, hopefully they will inspire you to get started on yours as well! If you have already started making yours, please share!


I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

The First February Peek

The products in our February kit are hot off the press and we are so happy to have them here and we are ready to share them with you.

Here's a little look at what you have to look forward to in next month's kit.Are you ready?

An Exceptionally 'Easel' Card Tutorial

Hey guys! Happy Thursday! Only one more day until Friday!!! Whoo hoo! So how about a way to pass the day away to get to the weekend quicker?!!! I'm all for that!!! Also, it's so easy and fun!!! Let's make some cards!!!

I have had many people asking me about the recent 'easel' cards I have been making. I found the written instructions for these online, but thought I would do a simple little picture tutorial for you guys. The finished size of this card will be 6x6".

Supplies Needed:
1-solid 12x12 cardstock
bone folder
patterned paper of your choice
embellishments of your choice
rhinestones, pearls, brads, OR buttons

Step One:
Cut solid cardstock to 12" x 6 ". Score at the 3" and 6" line. When I score lines, I like to place my cardstock on my paper trimmer and score along the groove in the trimmer using a embossing stylus.

Step Two:
Valley fold as shown to create a triangle, smoothing out the creases with a bone folder. This will be your card base. At this point, if you want to decorate the card base, go ahead and do so. I waited and did that last, so it's really up to you how you would like to do it. Set aside.

Step Three:

Cut solid cardstock to 6x6". Embellish as desired. I used the January SBC kit for mine. This will be your card front. When you are finished embellishing as desired, you will want to attach this card front to the card base. Apply adhesive to the front flap of the triangle and adhere the bottom half of the card front.

Step Four:

To create easel, you will need to place some sort of dimensional embellishment (such as a button, rhinestone(s), pearl(s), or brad(s). I chose to use the rhinestones from the kit.

Your finished product should looks something like this....

This really is so easy and so fun! There are so many ways to make your card unique! So be sure to give this a go and upload your creations in the gallery here at SBC!!! We'd love to see what you can do!

Happy Scrappin'!!!

Our Fun Finds at CHA

Jennie, Diana and I returned late last night from two full days at CHA in Anaheim. Wow, we had so much fun finding product for our upcoming kits. It's a hard job, but somebody had to do it!

Here's a look at what we found and what we were up to while we were away.

We loved all of the new Jenni Bowlin goodies. The butterflies and banner alphas were definite favorites.The new Dear, Lizzy line by Elizabeth Kartchner & American Crafts was really playful and fun. We met Liz and talked to her for quite a while. She was very sweet. We're excited to be bringing you a bunch of her product in an upcoming kit! (Hopefully the April kit.)The two new lines from October Afternoon very fabulous (as usual.) We ordered pieces from both the Fly a Kite line and the Vintage line. Here's a look at some of the Fly a Kite paper and some sample projects they had up in the booth.We branched out a bit an ordered some really fun fiber products with both burlap and canvas. We can't wait to play with them and see what you do with them too.The Prima booth was full of yummy goodness.
The Brrok Collection from Crate Paper was antoher one of our favorites. Here's a layout created with this line.While we were walking around (most likely near the American Crafts booth because they has the best chocolate!) we ran into Stacy Julian, Rhonna Farrer and Janet Hopkins. We talked to them for a while. They were all very nice and full and energy.Another great kit find was the two new lines by Margie Romney-Aslett. We loved both of her lines and you will be seeing some of each of them in our upcoming kits. Thickers? Need I say more? Racks of thickers. Ahhhh.
We put our Cosmo Cricket order in before the show so that we could be sure to bring you the newest product right away. Out Cosmo Cricket goodies have already shipped and they are on their way to us!We are so excited about what we found and put together into kits for you! Can't wait to share more peeks with you.

If you want to see even more of what we were up to at CHA, you can check out Diana's blog and my blog.

what about all of that punctuation?

If you're like me, and you love every set of chipboard letters you have, you will find a way to use every single piece. And the punctuation marks are no exception!

Here I used one end of the parentheses to simulate a smile to go with my "grin" title. And above that, I used periods to frame the edge of the journal spot and the edging of the paper. Had my journaling been a list, they easily could have been bullets at the front of each sentence.

So, look through those Thickers and letters that you love... you're hanging onto each last letter aren't you?! Is there any potential there with your punctuation marks?!

Have a nice Tuesday!
-Diana F.

tip of the day.....

Fussy cutting? What is it? Curious? Simply put it's cutting out a shape or object from a design pattern paper for example. here is my example:

I really wanted to accentuate the cupcakes from the paper because this was a layout of my girl's birthday party. The results are fun! FYI I used a different color of perfect pearls for the edges...Here is a look at the final layout:

CHA Updates

Want to see what we are up to at CHA? We are posting updates to our Twitter account. You do not need to have a twitter account to see our feed.

Scrapbook Circle Twitter Feed

Use Those Scraps!

Hi Everyone! TGIF! :) Who has already gotten their hands on one of the Scrapbook Circle January kits? I don't know about you, but I have already made a bunch of layouts with mine and I still have a ton of scraps and supplies left over! When I see a pile of pretty patterned paper scraps I feel like they are practically calling out to me to create cards with them. I can't resist! Here are a couple that I have made with my January kit scraps so far:



Now we want to see your cards, especially the ones that you have made using your scraps!! Make sure to link them to the blog or upload them to the Scrapbook Circle Gallery so we can all admire and praise them.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Lifting from the BLOG

Hey fellow Scrapbook Circle scrappers! I just wanted to share with you my latest project. I was so impressed with Aymee's tutorial on the blog last week that I wanted to try my own hand at paper pleating. Also, a long time ago, Diana gave us a tutorial on making her fabulous flowers. So, I combined the two, and using scraps from past kits and other sundries from my own stash, I made a few of these cards.

Paper pleating on the side is courtesy of Aymee's post. It was lots of work, but I like how they turned out! I had to sew it to get it to stay down.
Then, the flowers were lots of fun. I used my Silhouette and a fabulous font that is basically flowers. I cut out about 80 different sizes and colors of flowers (I made 10 of these cards for my group). It took all of 3 minutes to cut that many flowers. I just put all the cut flowers in a bowl and crumpled them up to my heart's content! Then, I settled down in my chair with my TIVO on to watch the new season of "24" and distressed the flowers and assembled them per Diana's instructions! I put them all together with a brown brad.

Hope you like these. They were a bit time-consuming, but I was watching Jack Bauer, so time just flew by! :)

Need Some Inspiration?

Hey guys! Happy Thursday! My blog post is a tad late today. I have my days mixed up and was thinking today was Wednesday! LOL!!!

I don't know about you, but I have been needing some serious scrappy inspiration lately. I'm not sure if it's the weather or what, but I just need a boost. I know we all get like that from time to time, so I decided to hit the gallery at Scrapbook Circle to check out some of the projects. This always does the trick for me. Check out these super cute projects!!!

I adore this card from Stacy. That owl is too adorable and the stitching is awesome! It really is so 'tweet'!!!

Next up, look at this gorgeous page from JennE. I love how she has turned the pictures and alpha's. It adds so much visual interest. I definitely want to give this a try!! Also, how could you not love the goodies that she used from the January Kit? Yummy!!! Beautifully done JennE!!!

Here is another card that I just found too cute for words from Diana. Valentine's Day is just around the corner and this has definitely gotten me in the mood to create some Valentine's projects. Awesome job Diana!

Last, check out this page from Claude! She used some goodies from the January kit as well and totally rocked it! I love the whole design to this one. Fabulous job Claude!

I hope these projects will give you some inspiration if ya need it. I know they sure did the trick for me! I'm off to scrap!

cute card from the January kit

Betcha didn't think I had any scraps left after my last post, huh?! Well, I do! So, I made this cute card good for celebrating almost any moment.

Except for the ribbon and the gem hat pin, this card was made using the January kit from Scrapbook Circle.


I also followed the lead of the other DT members here that were altering their Thickers. It worked out well for this card. Tinting the 'H' and 'I' by stamping them with ink and then rubbing the access off, worked out well to highlight the word separate from the brackets.



Thanks for looking! I hope everyone is enjoying their January kits. Don't forget to show off your work in Scrapbook Circle forum! We'd love to leave you some love for your gallery!

tip of the day.....

Last week I talked about the letters included in the January kit, I wanted to continue and share another idea that I tried. Here's a closeup:

I lightly sanded the letters for better grip, then distressed them with ink, really well (vintage photo), I let that dry. Then I painted with crackle paint. What's neat about this combination is that the distress ink seeped through the paint giving it more of an aged look. Here is the final result on the layout:

Faux Paper Pleating Tutorial

Hello everyone! Aymee (southernbellescrapper) here! I am so glad to be doing my first blog post for Scrapbook Circle! This is exciting! Today, I wanted to share a technique that several of the SBC members had asked me about....paper pleating. There are so many ways to paper pleat and I have tinkered with many of them. But this is how I have been paper pleating lately and have found it so much easier for me. I hope it will be easier for you too.

Now, this is one of my first tutorials, so bear with me. I hope I can explain everything to you well. If you have any questions at all, please feel free to comment and ask me. I will do my best to help in any way that I can!!! :)


First, I wanted to share with you the layout that I had so many comments on asking me how to do the pleating so you can have an idea of what we will be reviewing in the tutorial. The red behind the die cut paper is my pleating.

Now, here recently, I have preferred to stagger my pleats, but this is just a personal taste. If you do not want to stagger them, you do not have to. You could just as easy line them up all in a straight row. Both ways look great!!! Whatever you like...go for it! I know it will be awesome!

To create this look on your pages you will need the following:
2"x2" squares (cardstock or patterned paper)
Bone Folder
Decorative Edged Scissors (if desired)
Ink (if desired)
Adhesive

Now, you can choose any decorative edge that you like or none at all. Again, it's pure personal preference. I have tried to do this with a border punch a few times and not had the best success. If the paper is thin, I believe it would work. But if you are like me, you like thick paper, and the border punch is just not feasible in this situation.

Step One:
Turn your paper over and fold in the right hand side as shown. Smooth the fold with a bone folder. How far you fold in is up to you. If you fold in more, your pleats will be smaller. If you fold in just a tad, your pleats will be larger. I personally just wing it and go for all different sizes.

Step Two:
Repeat same process on the opposite side. After I have each side folded over, I like to take just a tiny strip of adhesive and adhere each 'flap' closed. Again, this is just personal preference. You do not have to adhere if you do not want to.

Step Three:
Using your decorative edge scissors, cut the ends of the pleats.

Step 4:
I chose to ink my individual pleats with some Color Box Chalk ink to help each individual pleat stand out more.

Step 5:

For this next step, turn over whatever paper you are wanting to add the pleats to. Above, I added them to some decorative edge paper. But in this example, I chose a strip of patterned paper. Lay down 1-2 strips of adhesive at the edge where you will be placing your pleats. You will want to stagger the pleats evenly as shown.

Step 6:

Now it's time to fill in the spaces with the remaining pleats. At this point, you may stagger them as I have chosen to do or you can line them up evenly. Either way will produce a beautiful result.

Add to your layout and voila'....the end result.....

Now how simple and fun was that?! I hope you all will give this a go on a future papercrafting project! We'd love to see what you can do so be sure to post your ideas in the gallery here at Scrapbook Circle!

Have a beautiful day and Happy Scrappin'!!!