Fabulous Finds Friday: September 30th

A short list this week because we are busy busy working on picking the finalists for the card contest.
Modge Podge Pumpkins:  Messy fun...totally could do with kids
Halloween Mobile:  I love how classy this looks
Paper Leaves:  Easy Peasy
Everyday Card:  So simple and creative
Shadowbox:  This is just gorgeous
Halloween Banner:  I might just make this with my kids tomorrow!

Core Cardstock Projects

With so many options today for Color Core and White Core Cardstock it's easy to find yourself using it in nearly every project.  Today we've got some projects to share with you showcasing ways to really make it stand out in your creation.  We featured this previously and you can find links to a whole bunch more ideas in our Idea Central area.

Courtney created this set of cards for a challenge over on the C'oredinations site.  I love that it is clean and simple but still totally eye catching.

Practical Scrapper Sarah

There's more....click on the Read More button

Challenge Me Tuesday: Fussy Cutting ( with video tutorial)

**Next week we're taking you far far away from fussy cutting...We want to see what you can do without patterned paper! Send your creations to practicalscrapperslayouts@gmail.com .We'd prefer if you sent us a blog link to your project, and sent submissions for the challenge with CMT in the subject line.

Today's Challenge Me Tuesday technique focuses on fussy cutting. Fussy cutting is the process of meticulously cutting out or into a design from a piece of patterned paper ( or stamped image) in order to embellish, or to incorporate elements as you would when cutting into a background paper. We have a tutorial from Practical Scrapper Bev on fussy cutting backgrounds at the end of this post.

The technique can be used for layouts and cards alike, and is a great way to add layers and interest to a project. I enjoy cutting out the odd design, but it's the "meticulous" part that probably keeps me from being great at this technique. Here are some great examples to inspire:

 Debbie Burns

Debbie's technique is all about fussy cutting, and it makes for stunning pages!

Practical Scrapper Audrey hand cut the branches of flowers from a patterned paper to make a unique statement on her page.

Be sure to read on!!

Authentique Goodies Winner

The winner of the goodies from Authentique is....
Savannah O'Gwynn

Shoot me an email at practicalscrappers@gmail.com to claim your prize!

New Sketches

Pia has created a new card and layout sketch for you!  If you haven't already noticed it, we have a tab at the top of our page just for our sketches.  We've got sketches and samples for them there.  We'd love to have you link your interpretation there or send it in to us at practicalscrappperslayouts@gmail.com

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Fabulous Finds Friday: September 23

First Weekend of Autumn and amongst others there are some fabulous finds celebrating the season...
Tag Banners:  So simple and fun!
Relax:  Amazing layers
Apple out of Book Paper:  Cute idea and entertaining post
Pretty Flowers:  The Color Combination on this one caught my eye
Authentique Halloween Layout:  The flow of this layout is fantastic
Wendy McKee:  Every single item in this post is stunning
Altered Heart:  I especially love how she hung the photo
Autumn Card:  Great layers and mix of rich colors
Nuts About You:  Obviously I am in a fall mood...
Back to School Layout:  Creative border using alphabet letters

Altered Projects

Wow, you ladies sure do love altering things! What a fabulous round of submissions which is bound to inspire everyone in some way. Today, we have a wonderful array of projects ranging from the simplest of skill levels all the way through you hard core altering machines. Check them out...

Practical Scrapper Fern

Dee Dee Catron

Practical Scrapper Patricia

Masking Layouts

Masks and mists just go naturally together. If you find you have collected a few bottles of mist, and aren't sure how to incorporate them onto your pages anymore, masks might just be the right direction to go.  Masks are also great used with inks or paint (depending on the thickness). The following pages illustrate how you can use mists alone, or how to use inks or mists with store bought masks like those from Crafter's Workshop, Tattered Angels or Prima Marketing (to name a few). Of course we're always Practical Scrappers, and have also shown how items such as chipboard shapes, doilies, silly bands or mesh can also be used as masks. Let your imagination run wild with items you have lying around your scrap space, and don't be shy to show us your masterpieces! The participation for this one was so amazing, I really could have done 2 posts! Feast your eyes on all these amazing creations!

Practical Scrapper Erin

Khristen Foss

Practical Scrapper Claude

Bonnie Friesen

 

Practical Scrapper Pia

Keep Reading!!

Challenge Me Tuesday: border strips

**Send us your projects using fussy cutting for next week's challenge feature!

send your post links to: practicalscrapperslayouts@gmail.com

I love border strips! Preprinted, diecut, stickers, hand punched, stamped, pleated, thick, thin, you name it- if it's a strip I love it! It seems I'm stockpilling them. It doesn't hurt that in order to create the border frame on most of my pages, I'm always cutting at least one sheet of patterned paper or cardstock  by 1 inch on either side. I keep some of my favorite scraps sorted by plain or pattern, and try to grab them as I create cards and pages. 

I'm always on the lookout for fun ways to incorporate them on a project, and I think we've found a few here today.

I love the way JJ uses the Doodlebug  Frills on this layout. It just goes to show, border strips don't need to always be placed on the horizontal or vertical. 

 

JJ Sobey

 

Practical Scrapper Kerri cut up her 12" Bazzil border strip here to create the matting for a 2.5" x 3.5" photograph on this mini album.

 

Practical Scrapper Kerri

For this layout, I embellished the Basic Grey sticker border by studding it with flower shaped brads.

Practical Scrapper Erin

Bev punched her strips with Just Imagine Crafts Kreaxions Punches and used them to create her background:

 

Practical Scrapper Bev

Border strips/stickers are perfect for cards, just look how Sarah used them to create her background, punched one, and made the medallion flower!

Practical Scrapper Sarah

Just look at this sweet tree using Doodlebug Frills!

 JJ Sobey

Cards Using Masking/Misting

It's Monday ladies and it's time to get down, get busy, and get messy with some misting and masking.  There are lots of fun products out there to play with when it comes to these techniques...masks, screens, templates, inks, paint, sprays; whatever the combination clean up is always interesting.  So, are you one of those scrappers who won't give these techniques because you can't handle the mess?  We have the perfect solution for those of you who cringe at the though of cleaning those shimmer mists and paint off your walls and floors.  Here's what you do...
Step 1:  Get (or make) yourself a box that 14"(length) X 14" (width) X 6" (height)
               * I say 6" because that's what I prefer.  I've found that with misting on cards and layouts this distance allows for a more even spray (if I want splotches I move it closer, and if I want more shimmer than color I move it up higher than the 6").
Step 2:  Lay your paper inside the box and spray or splatter away!

Very simple, easy, controlled mess--there is no clean up (you can just let the over-spray/splatter dry on your box) except to put your box away for the next project.

Now that you don't have an excuse to not give some misting and masking a try, here's some card inspiration to get you started...

Practical Scrapper Michelle

   Rachel Kokes

Designers Wanted...

We are starting something new here at Practical Scrappers - we'll be adding a new designer (maybe even two) to our team every month.  Think this might be for you....here's the details!

-The term will be for three months (not long term...so it's less of a commitment)

-You will be required to submit three projects each month

Here's how to apply:
-Participate in one Challenge Me Tuesday and submit the link to us
-Submit two other projects to us for publication.  Project submission details and calls are found in our sidebar.
-Lastly send me an email at practicalscrappers@gmail.com letting me know that you are applying and where I can find your blog.

We will be basing our decision each month on the following things:
-Style...what fits our current needs
-Uniqueness...we're looking for you to do something innovative.  It doesn't have to be earth shattering...but we don't want boring :)
-Traffic...how can you generate traffic for us?  We'll be looking at numbers filtering to us from your blog (so yes you should let your fans know that you are applying and link to us), new followers that you bring in, facebook fans.  Any way you can have your fans let us know that they are around because of you will definitely get our attention

The deadline for the first round of applications is September 30th.  And if you don't make it the first time, it's easy to apply a second time...our needs as far as style goes will be constantly changing!  We'll be looking forward to your applications!  

-Christine

Fabulous Finds Friday

Happy Friday everyone! I decided to hijack today's post from Christine. With a little help from some of my fellow Dt members, we've found some fun things for you!

German Paper Stars - Stellar!
Doily Decorating-  borders taken to a whole new level!
Geography Lesson - just how many states are there?
When In France- Bon Appetit!
Crafty Storage- bookmark this blog!
Sounds of Home- Love the grey with bold colour!
Whimsy!  if you don't know about Stephanie Hart's sweet creations check this out!

Have a great week-end!

Pin It **Designer projects are not always linked in our posts, but you can always find their blogs in our sidebar or in the staff tab**

German Paper Stars

Authentique Feature and Giveaway

I have been waiting for this feature for awhile...I'm a design specialist with Authentique and think they have some of the most stunning products on the market.  They just broke into the market last spring so there may be some of you out there who haven't even seen their stuff!  They have a relatively new blog and a booming facebook page.  Today we'll get you introduced or reacquainted to them.  Our designers and readers put together some beautiful projects (I've grouped them by their collections...you can see more of the collection by clicking on the title links), check these out and then find out how you can win your own goodies from Authentique.

Journey Collection

Practical Scrapper Christine

Practical Scrapper Christine created these monogrammed coasters - to find out how head over to her blog

Debbie used the Journey line

Irit

Practical Scrapper Sandi

T Uncommon Collection

Practical Scrapper Christine

Practical Scrapper Sandi used the Uncommon Line

Amanda used some of the Blissful collection on this too

Blissful Collection

Practical Scrapper Christa

Cheryl

Practical Scrapper Christine

Debbie 

Practical Scrapper Christine

Practical Scrapper Christine

Splendid Collection

Debbie

Amanda

Would you like to get your hands on some Authentique?  To enter do the following:

1)Make sure you are a follower here

2)Make sure you are either a follower of their blog or their facebook page (double entry for both)

3)Leave a comment telling us your favorite collection from them.  You can see all their collections here.

Deadline for entry is Septemer 21st!  Have fun!

-Christine

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 **Designer projects are not always linked in our posts, but you can always find their blogs in our sidebar or in the staff tab**

Hexagons and Chevrons

Chevrons and Hexagons are two shapes that have been gaining popularity in the papercrafting scene. I for one love this trend!  We've seen them before (I've had a hexagon punch for years and almost got rid of it about a year ago)...but they are BIG now.  They add an interesting graphic feel on cards and layouts, today we've got a load of examples to show you!

Paige Evans created this stunner using hexagons in combination with triangles and squares in her tessalation.  You can read all about the approach on her blog

Practical Scrapper Audrey

Practical Scrapper Christine cut up her hexagons to make flowers

Challenge Me Tuesday: Colour Challenge

This week we decided to challenge you with color.  Let's see what everyone did with the yellow-red- grey combo that we put out there...keep reading to find out about our next challenge!

Practical Scrapper Carolina

Practical Scrapper Christine used items from her Lucky Girl Crafts Kit

Practical Scrapper Kerri

What is the big deal about Pinterest?

Have you ever seen a project online and thought it was a great idea...only to lose it because you

 A) slept

B)got interrupted by a child

 C)can barely keep track of your own thoughts let alone a project

D)there's a million great projects out there

E)some other great reason I didn't list here

I was constantly finding amazing ideas and my bookmark list was out of control and frankly I've got enough other things to remember that a unique way to use buttons (albeit extremely cool) is not going to stay front and center in my brain!  Over the last few months I have started using Pinterest and it has done worlds for my organization of not just my crafting inspiration but other mom/wife inspiration!  I like to describe it as a virtual filing cabinet for everything great I come across.

On Pinterest you can set up categories of things you pin (they give you standards and you can edit those).  Some of the categories I have set up are: layouts, cards, embellishing ideas, food, for the home, kids stuff, blogs I love, great words...and probably a few others but those are my main ones.

Pinterest allows you to put a "pin it" button in your browser bar.  So if you are on Practical Scrappers and see something amazing...you can click "pin it" and it will take you thru a 10 second process choosing the exact picture you want and the category you want to put it in.  Then voila...it is saved there!  Both the picture and the link will be saved - so there's no difficulty to finding your way back.  We're also going to be adding a widget to the bottom of our posts so that you can pin right from any post of ours.

The other thing Pinterest does is allow you to look at what other people have pinned.  When you sign up and start following people it shows you their stuff first.  But it also allows you to look at everything posted by everyone recently.

I've tried a variety of searches to find ideas on specific topics such as misting, chevrons, etc...there is a wealth of ideas available already on there!

My only caution to you is that Pinterest is very addicting...you could look at it for hours.  I have gotten to a point that I only look a couple times a week...otherwise I lose valuable actual crafting time :).  One really big thrill of Pinterest for me has been when I stumble onto a project that I created that has been pinned by someone.  You never know what someone may have pinnned of yours too!

I've been able to connect with several of you already on there and would love to connect with more.  I love seeing what is inspiring y'all!  Several of us Practical Scrappers are on there if you wish to check us out.  Here's the list of those of us on there - if you click on the name it will take you right to the board allowing you to follow us if you wish!

Christine

Erin

Carolina

Jayma

Claude

Caroline

Teresa

Sandi

Technique Feature: Double Embossing

Double Embossing or Embossed Embossing is a technique that uses both heat embossing and dry embossing.    I recently ran across this technique and challenged Erin, Kerri, and Aymee to join me in trying it out.  We tried it out in a couple different ways.  

The first way we tried it was to heat emboss first and then dry emboss.

For my card I used silver pigment ink and sprinkled it with black embossing powder.  I then heated the embossing powder and ran it through my cuttlebug machine to get the diamond dry embossed design.  I sanded it a little bit to bring out the silver.   I was going for a classy look and it turned out to look very Halloweeny to me...so I went that direction instead.

Aymee used the same technique but used a clear Versamark pad.  Her color choices really make that cute Momenta sticker pop right off the card.

Kerri played around using different types of cardstock for this technique and found that her two favorites were  Bazzil solid cardstock (since you could actually tell that she  heat embossed over dark green cardstock), and the more subtle Core'dinations color core cardstock for the exact opposite reason (you couldn't tell that she heat embossed over color cardstock).

The second way to do it is to dry emboss first and then heat emboss.  

Erin added Top Boss ink to the raised areas, and then added the embossing powder and heat. This left open areas of paper that she was able to mist and ink. you can't even tell she used a patterned paper underneath!

-Christine