WATCH FOR IT WEDNESDAY #31

Detailing Diecuts

The CottageCutz broom die was used on this card and boy is it a great die to detail, and easy too! All of the markings you see come through when you cut out the die.

First I took my Copic Ciao markers and colored in the markings on the cut out pieces.

Then I took my Distress Ink and a dauber and shaded around the edges. I used the Scotch Mounting Tape to make this piece raised on the broom.


I glued the pieces together and wallah! You have detailed broom ready for your card, layout or other project. I couldn't resist using this cute little spider from the Witch Hat die...again!

Check back tomorrow for Ruth Ellen's project!

WE HAVE A WINNER!

We have reached 500 followers tonight on the blog. The Random Generator picked number.......

220!

Congratulations Theresa Pollack you are the winner of the $250.00 shopping spree!!!!

There are 2 more lucky winners of a free CottageCutz die up to a $19.95 value for leaving consistent comments on the blog.

The winners are:

bluepoohbear75

dragonlady

email Joanne at scrappingcottage@cox.net with your choice(s)

Spoooooky Trees

Shadows of a thousand years rise again unseen,

voices whisper in the trees,

"Tonight is Halloween!"

Dexter Kozen

To make this card I used my brayer and some ink on glossy cardstock to make a night glowing scene. Then I cut out the Cottage Cutz Spooky Tree three times and glued these to my glossy piece. I had to have this cute little CottageCutz ghost peeking out from this haunted forest.

Remember when you are using your diecuts that you can cut it out multiple times and create a scene rather than just using it once.

I was so impressed how this tree punched out. Each piece cut perfectly and I used my paper piercer to help punch out the curly parts of the tree from the cardstock.

Whether you're using these wonderful CottageCutz Halloween dies to make your Halloween projects or saving them for your layouts after the big day you're sure to love them!

Holly Jolly Cottage Cutz Release

The Christmas Cottage Cutz are now available for pre-order!!! I just don't know which ones to order first! But I definitely do not want to miss the limited edition Gingerbread House and Christmas Shoppe!! And of course, now is the best time to start ordering so you can take advantage of the special pre-order pricing!

Go check out all the new Christmas Dies at the Scrapping Cottage!!

Only 27 more followers!

This is getting exciting - only 27 more followers and we'll get to have our random drawing for our $250 shopping spree!!!

Win a $250 Shopping Spree at The Scrapping Cottage!

How would you like to win a $250 shopping spree at the Scrapping Cottage? That's right - the winner will get to choose $250 worth of products at The Scrapping Cottage!

Our goal is to reach 500 followers of the Cottage Blog and we need your help.

It's pretty simple. Here is what you need to do:

1) Become a follower of the CottageBLOG. (If you are already a follower you met the first step).

2) Post a link to this contest on your blog. If you don't have a blog you can start one at blogspot.com.

3. Leave a comment on your favorite CottageCutz die with a link to your blog using Mr. Linky so we may visit you.

We will use Random.org to select the winner as soon as we reach 500 followers.

Remember, Mr. Linky is there to help you!

ATTACHING THE FOAM TO YOUR COTTAGECUTZ DIES

Are you like me that sometimes has trouble separating the foam from the backing sheet??? Or are you new to using CottageCutz dies and are not to sure how and where you are meant to use the foam. Well then, this tip is especially for you.
I was just about to foam my COTTAGECUTZ HAUNTED HOUSE die, and thought I would share this tip with you.
Please excuse the dirty nails…. Its just ink – I promise!!!!



STEP 1- Firstly, put the CottageCutz die flat on the table – smooth side down with the picture facing up.

STEP 2- Take the foam that is supplied with the die and hold it so that the foam section is at the bottom and the backing sheet is on top.

STEP 3- Because I don’t have long enough nails to use, I use a pair of fine sharp point scissors to carefully wedge in between the Foam and the backing Sheet. It doesn’t have to go in far, just enough for you to be able to see the foam and backing sheet separate.

STEP 4- While my scissors are still in between the foam and the backing sheet, I very gently slide my scissor blade along until I have made enough of a split to hold just the backing sheet with my fingers and then pull it to separate if from the foam. You can know throw the backing sheet away.




STEP 5– I carefully line up the sticky foam with the picture side of the die and stick them together.


STEP 6- Use your fingers to carefully and firmly push the foam down onto the die and rub gently to make sure its attached properly . A good indication that it is attached properly is once you have rubbed the die, you seen the picture indentation show on the foam.

For those of you that are beginners in the die cutting world of COTTAGECUTZ DIES, I hope this helps. And for those of you that are well educated on the subject, I hope you enjoyed the trip down memory lane.

Click link below to see a short video on how to use CottageCutz products...
http://www.scrappingcottage.com/index.asp?PageAction=Custom&ID=20

Today I would like to share a layout I did of my daughter Emily dressed in a Witches Halloween Costume. I have to say that she did NOT like being dressed as a witch and cried the entire time because in her words “Emmy not a witch, Emmy mommy’s princess”.
Don’t look too closely at her face painting, as my face painting skills are Non Existent. It didn’t help that the Green Face paint turned blue when I put it on Emily’s face – Who knows!!!! I think I will just stick to doing my die cuts and leave the face painting to the kids as I’m sure they would have done a better job.


In this layout I have used the following Dies & Products-

COTTAGECUTZ WITCH LEGS CC3x3-018,
COTTAGECUTZ WITCH WITH CAULDRON CC4x4-079-D,
COTTAGECUTZ WITCH HAT (spider only) CC3x3-017,
COTTAGECUTZ CREEPY TREE CC4x4-080-D,
COTTAGECUTZ GHOST WITH LEGS CC3x3-015,
QUICKUTZ PUMPKIN KS-0969,
QUICKUTZ BATS REV-0241-D,
QUICKUTZ REVOLUTION 4x4 SPIDER WEB
QUICKUTZ HAUNTED MINI ALPHABET 4x8-HAUNTED-M
TIM HOLTZ DISTRESS INKS



We love it when you leave comments as your feedback is very important to us. It helps us know what you do and don’t like, and what you would like to see more of on the Cottage Blog. We are here to help you as much as we can so if you have any questions or suggestions we are happy to try and help you as much as we can.

Pass the Cheer!!

My dear friend Ann, who is an amazing artist,

gave me the delightful idea of turning a

Starbuck's Christmas sleeve into a work of art!

These sleeves are already so adorable that
when you embellish them with a whimsical
CottageCutz die they become irrestistible!!


Next time you stop by your favorite Starbucks for
a Peppermint Mocha Twist or a Caramel Apple
Spice, grab a sleeve or two....

The Possibilities are Endless!!

If the broom fits - FLY IT!!!

No, you are not seeing things and I did not misspell the word "witch" for my page title. When my oldest daughter was 2, she called witches, "itches". It was really the cutest thing! So, when we found this fancy witch costume, we knew it would be absolutely perfect for her for Halloween. In an effort to not be too scary, we called her a Glitter Witch. The Cottage Cutz Flying witch is the perfect addition to Halloween pages and projects where you don't want a scary witch! Actually, as I was putting her together, I kind of had the feeling she might be a little bit of a Diva witch with a little outfit tweaking!

Watch for it Wednesday #30!

Seeing WHITE!!!!!

I love so many things that are white......

Snowflakes Falling

Baby's Breath in a Bouquet

A Soft Fluffy Pillow

A Warm Cozy Sweater

Twinkling Stars in the Sky

White is a wonderful color and it can make

your paper crafting projects delightful!!!

White embellishes paper in a unique way that

no other color can! It can give a foggy, misty

look and it can make things look weathered.

It can also bring a dark background to life!!

To create this Halloween tag, I used a

variety of white products. The Spider Web

was drawn with Ranger's Inkssentials

White Opaque Pen....one of the best on

the market and available at The

Scrapping Cottage! The edges were

inked with a white ink pad. There are many

great brands and varieties available. I also

used some white chalk on the tag to add

some character and charm!

White is a fun,versatile color

that can bring those dark shades to life!

The Witch is in......

I'm loving these Cottage Cutz Halloween dies! I know I've said this before, but I really do love them more and more as I work with these. I love that you if you just want a little spider accent that you can get it off the Witch Hat die or if you just want witch shoes with out the legs you can still get them off the Witch Legs die.

I think as women, wives and mothers we feel like a witch now and then. After all what would our husbands, kids and bosses do without us nagging - I mean reminding them of what they're supposed to do? This card/sign tells it all with a little humor doesn't it?

These are the two dies I used as well as the Quickutz Haunted 4x8 Alphabet.

Rochelle is up tomorrow with Watch for it Wednesday!

Halloween Card

This week I have made a Halloween Card using the
COTTAGECUTZ WITCH WITH CAULDRON CC4x4-079-D,
COTTAGECUTZ CREEPY TREE CC4x4-080-D,
QUICKUTZ BATS REV-0241-D and the
QUICKUTZ FENCE 12” BORDER CC-BDR-041




I have made these COTTAGECUTZ dies up and love the sizes that they are once they are made up.
As you can see in the bottom photo, the made up die cuts are a lot larger then the picture on the front Of the packaging and are the perfect sizes for cards and scrapbooking pages.
Once made up the Witch measures aprox. 5 ½ inches x 3 ½ inches and the tree measures aprox. 5 inches x 4 ¾ inches.

Cottage Pumpkins

CottageCutz are so much fun and they

they can be used in a million different

ways! Our imaginations are the limit!

We carve so many pumpkins for
Halloween that I thought it would
be great to decorate a few of our
pumpkins in a unique way! My
CottageCutz always help me out!

CottageCutz

are not just for your

cards and pages!

Halloween Haunted House :)

Well, I decided after all this playing around with Tree Houses and Haunted Mansions, that it was high time I made a Haunted House out of the Cottage Cutz Haunted House die! I mean, it is a fabulous spooky house so really, how could I resist much longer?! So, I decided to make a fun and spooky Halloween card with my Haunted House. I used the same color grey cardstock to cut out the majority of the pieces of the house and then just inked them heavier or lighter based on whether it was a trim piece or house piece. This method made cutting out the house much quicker as well as actually assembling the individual parts to make a house. Purple is my absolute favorite color, so I just couldn't help but keep the shutters and door purple on my house, too.

Did I mention how fun this Cottage Cutz Haunted House die is??! These Cottage Cutz Halloween dies are shipping out NOW so click on over to the Scrapping Cottage online store and pick some out today for all your Halloween projects!!

Watch for it Wednesdays!! #29

For my Watch for it Wednesday tip this week, I wanted to get you thinking about ways to have more fun with your page titles and card sentiments. There are lots of different ways you can spice up your titles. For instance, if you are making a Halloween-themed layout, you could have a little ghost flying out of a letter, maybe some spooky eyes peaking out from the inside of a smaller letter, or a spooky cat perched on top of your title letters. On my example this week, I added the Cottage Cutz Mini Pumpkin inside one of the O's from my "Boo" page title. Since my title font has such nice large letters, this adorable little pumpkin sits perfectly inside the O. If you want to take your creativity one step further, you could actually replace a letter with a shape that matches the theme of your layout or card. For instance, if you were using Halloween as your title, change the o to a small pumpkin, the n to a screeching cat, the l to a witches broom, and so on. You can have equally as much fun with lots of other themes and holidays.

So, get your creative juices flowing and try to really mix things up on your next paper crafting project!!

My Favorite Halloween Saying....

I used to be in a card group with some friends where we'd each make 12 cards the same and get together once a month and exchange cards. My friend Joy made a card I will never forget. It had a big witch shoe that said "If the shoe fits....." I thought that was so funny and I couldn't resist making this card when I saw the CottageCutz Witch Legs. They are too cute!

(this card is cuter in real life, for some reason purple doesn't photograph real well for me)

I also used this cute little spider from the Witch Hat die which comes complete with tiny eyes that make him so fun to use.

I am so impressed with this Witch Legs die. All of the pieces you need are on the die, each stripe on the sock and both buckles are on the die. You don't have to keep cutting this out over and over again to get the pieces you need to complete the diecut. They've thought of everything and I love it!


I couldn't resist showing you this. The leg is indeed a leg, not just a straight piece. You actually slip the foot into the shoew - how cool is that!?

If you haven't ordered any of these CottageCutz Halloween dies, don't wait any longer and miss out on all the fun!

Vote for Natasha!!!!

Our very own Natasha is one of the finalists in the Quickutz World Card Making Day Contest!! How great would it be to have a designer from The Scrapping Cottage win this Quickutz contest!!!! In order for her to win, her card has to have the highest number of gallery votes so let's get to voting!! Click here to cast your vote for Natasha's adorable Christmas card. You can vote once everyday!!

76 more followers to go!!!

As of this post we need 76 more followers and we can have our random draw for the $250 shopping spree - woo hoo! Some lucky follower is going to have the time of her life shopping in the Scrapping Cottage store. Just a reminder that you have to leave a comment and have the link back to our blog on your blog to qualify. I would hate to have one of these items missing if you get chosen and then have to pick another number.

My Blog Post today is a double page layout using some beach photos that were taken a few years ago on a Day Trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. It was so magical out there that no photos seem to capture the true beauty of this amazing wonder of the world.
I have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use my COTTAGECUTZ ‘UNDER THE SEA’ dies and thought these would be the perfect photos to use with them.




On my layout I have used the following COTTAGECUTZ dies & products-
COTTAGECUTZ Sea Weed Forest CC4x4-068
COTTAGECUTZ Peek-a-Boo Clam CC2x2-010-D
COTTAGECUTZ Octopus CC4x4-057
COTTAGECUTZ Sea Turtle CC4x4-061
COTTAGECUTZ Shark CC4x4-060
COTTAGECUTZ Mermaid CC4x4-062
KAISERCRAFT Self Adhesive Pearls
TIM HOLZ Distress Inks

Don’t forget that COTTAGECUTZ DIES are sold exclusively at THE SCRAPPING COTTAGE. They work exactly the same way as your Quickutz dies do and the only difference is that the COTTAGECUTZ DIES are now pink and they have more detail to them – which I L-O-V-E.



I also used the following Quickutz dies-
QUICKUTZ 2x2 Crab RS-0020
QUICKUTZ 2x2 Rocks KS-0439
QUICKUTZ 2x2 Skeleton KS-0186
QUICKUTZ 2x2 Monkey & Barrel KS-0232
QUICKUTZ 2x2 Treasure Chest KS-0782
QUICKUTZ 2x2 Anchor RS-0033
QUICKUTZ 4x4 Pirate Ship Rev-0081
QUICUTZ 4x4 Chalkboard Rev-0045 (for the small photo frame)
QUICKUTZ Clouds Border Die CC-BDR-032
QUICKUTZ Limited Edition EXOTIC ISLAND Alphabet

Trick or Treat!!

Happy, Happy Halloween!!

In our neighborhood we have a tradition

of "BOO"ing each other's houses during

the month of October before Halloween!

To "BOO" a neighbor, is to surprise them

with a special treat of some kind. Our

family always puts a gift on a neighbor's

doorstep, then we ring their doorbell,

and then we RUN!! lol It is a fun way of

showing neighborly love and it is a great

surprise for all of the people who are

"BOO"ed!

This year, I made a few of these fun

little treat bags to "BOO" around the

neigborhood, with the help of

The Scrapping Cottage.

CottageCutz
Trick or Treat Phrase
Witch Legs

I think one of my favorite dies from each Cottage Cutz release has to be the different "house-type" designs. So far we have had the cute Two-Story House and Flower Shop from the April release, then the Tree House in June, the Surf Shack in August, the Haunted House from September's Halloween release, and of course the latest September Autumn-themed release that has that fantastic Old Red Barn plus the Chicken Coop! I am having so much fun collecting all these different shapes and even more fun putting them together on my layouts and other crafting projects.

Right now though, it is all about the Haunted House for me! As promised, here is page two of my Disney Haunted Mansion layout from last week. There are lots of different ways to create two-page layouts. One method to use when doing a two page layout is that you can put a lot of focus on one page as a sort of "title" page and then use the second page to house lots of pictures.

On my second page, I used a grid pattern to include lots of pictures. I broke up the rows by using different shaped pictures and also by adding a square of patterned paper and then the square containing my Haunted Mansion using the Cottage Cutz Haunted House die. I love how it really resembles the actual Disney Mansion!

It is amazing how different the house can look by using different papers and leaving off some of the different embellishments that this die has. I can't wait to use this Haunted House on a fun Halloween card, too!! Oops! Did I just give away my next post?! ;)