It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I have eventually got my act together and made a start on Christmas cards. I know it is already November and so I really am going to need to get a move on and produce a lot of cards. I have been cheating a little and using SCAL and my Cricut to cut cards. It is certainly much quicker this way. I have used KJtagsXmas font to cut both gift tags and cards. I didn’t come up with this idea myself, check out Denise’s Blog for this and other great ideas. Denise has a heap of SVG files she shares so if you have a cutter and SCAL take a look.

Also went to the Albury Botanic Gardens yesterday for the Fairy and Dinosaur Stomp. I took the camera along, of course, and took some cute pics of the girls and couldn’t resist sharing a couple.



I also made have the SCUT file to share for the scallop I used on the November Scrapaholics layout. I usually make things in Inkscape but for some reason I did this in SCAL so sorry no SVG this time. You can go to the following link to download it http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=b38accfabc050c8bd2db6fb9a8902bda

Kaisercraft papers

Had a play with some new Kaisercraft papers last night. Monday night is the only night I watch tv and so while I sat in front of the idiot box I did some card making. It must be a mum thing - doing more than one thing at a time! The papers were from Kaiser's latest release and they are the Waterberry and What a Hoot Ranges. The papers are so new you won't even find them on the site yet! They are a great paper to work with as they are thick, double sided and have great colours and patterns.


These 4 cards were made using a half a sheet of the Brood paper from the What a Hoot Range and a half a sheet of the Enticing paper from the Waterberry Range. Don't you just love the names given to Scrapbooking Papers, who comes up with these?

I really like their new Sakura Park range too so keep your eyes out for upcoming posts with cards made using these papers.

Scrap the Day Away


Saturday was full of laughs, relaxation and scrapping. The walls of Scrapping Away were bursting with the happy sounds of ladies relaxing and reminiscing. I'm not sure how much scrapping got achieved but it was a lot of fun. I know I only managed 3 pages in the 12 hours Cool. Two of mine were for the November Scrapaholics club meet.




Pretty sure the award for achieving the most goes to Nicky, I do remember at one stage early on in the evening hearing her say she'd completed 9 pages.I do know we all wished we could spend 'just a little longer', but don't you always? There never seems to be enough time to scrapbook. Luckily at Scrapping Away there is always a table to scrap on and a bed to sleep in. We'd love to have you join us at the next class, All Day Scrap or Retreat.

Til then, scrap whenever you can

Cheers

Ruth


Card Making with SCAL


I have been having so much fun lately learning how to use Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL). I love my Cricut cartridges, don't get me wrong! I wish I owned Graphically Speaking and Wild Card. But SCAL opens up a whole new world of fonts, dingbats and image files. In this economic climate SCAL gives you more bang for your buck. Here are a couple of cards I have made in the last few weeks using SCAL.

Thanks to Linda for the use of the card pattern shown here




So far I have only used SCAL for titles in my scrapbooks. Can't see me needing to buy many more chipboard alphabets in the future.

I have found SCAL to involve a fair bit of practise in order to use it properly. One site in particular has been invaluable in my learning is http://susanbluerobot.blogspot.com/ This lady is absolutely amazing and anyone purchasing Design Studio or SCAL would be wise to bookmark her blog.

Boys Word Book

I have been having fun this week working on a word book for my friend Susie. She has been looking after the girls for me while I tutor on Wednesdays. I got this word book from MOSD, they have great products. If you have been reading my blog a while you may remember the acrylic album I did that I got from them. I absolutely love the Word Book. It was really easy to work with and the Basic Grey Archaic papers that I used are really striking. Hope you like it too.

Cricut just keeps getting better

Have you heard the news? Cricut just keeps improving and maintaining a competitive position in the die cutting business. They have just released information about a new blade which can cut chipboard.

Slice thicker material with ease! Shorter housing provides greater clearance for heavier materials, allowing you to cut material up to 1.5 mm thick. Use it for chipboard, wood veneer, magnet sheets, vinyl, and much more.

This product will work with either the original Cricut machine or the Cricut Expression. This product will also work with all international versions of the original Cricut machine and Cricut Expression.

How cool will this be? I can't wait to give it a go, believe me I have already got my preorder in!

12 Hour Crop

We had a great 12 hour crop at Scrapping Away yesterday. It was one of those days that was relaxed but productive. I managed to catch up on some of Em's baby layouts that have been waiting to be finished for the last 3 years. Most of us managed to complete between 8-12 pages while having a good catch up. We had so much fun using the Accent Essentials cartridge on the Cricut. We cut 12 inch snow flakes and nested circles to use as backgrounds for our layouts and we also found the coolest alphabet on the Cuttin' Up cartridge - Wholly cow is awesome so check it out.

Our next event is a Scrap Night on Friday and hopefully I will manage to get a few more layouts caught up. I am planning to finish some birthday pages and also make a start on some new baby pages.

Ranger Glossy Accents

I seem to be working my way through Ranger products lately. This month it is glossy accents. You are all no doubt familiar with similar products to Glossy Accents eg. Dimensional Magic. My main complaint with the similar products was their drying time. There is nothing worse than going to a workshop and creating a gorgeous layout that isn't dry for the trip home and then ends up getting damaged in the car. Glossy Accents has over come that issue as it has an exceptionally fast drying time.

When using the product I wanted to try something different from the usual - you know giving chipboard a glossy look or creating water drops on a pool layout. What I ended up doing was using the glossy accents to doodle on a plain piece of Bazzill. It really gave the layout a lift and added dimensions. I also used it to add glossy to a chipboard letter that had been inked.




Next month using glossy accents and Tim Holtz Fragments to create embellishments.