The Versatile Wise Old Owl

Today I'm using the Stylized Owl. The one thing I just love about owls is that they're so versatile. You can do cards for just about any occasion, male or female, young or old because there are so many cute sayings. I did a post last year where I shared some of my owl sayings, but I'm going to do it again since we have some new followers and a new owl die to play with.

I chose to leave my card without a sentiment so I could quickly add whichever suited my needs when I need a quick card. Here are a few to choose from:

Owl Always Love You

Hooooray! It's Your Birthday

Look Whooos Having a Birthday

You're Such a Hoot!

Owl Always be there for you

Whooo Forgot.....

Thanks for Giving a Hoot

Just to name a few, there are so many more.

Have a great Wednesday!

Friends. . Birds of a Feather

Birds, Friends of a Feather . . . This week I decided to try out one of the new bird dies from Cottage Cutz, They are the most adorable birds. They have a lot of uses. I used the Cottage Cutz, Bluebird, Lace Doily and Flourish #2 Die to create a collage type of look on this friend card.

There is a lot of detail in really two cuts. The bird comes out complete in just one pass in the machine, and a second pass will cut the wing and tail feathers again to create dimension.

When you cut the bird a second time, cut snip the wing out, it is only connected in three spots, and snip the center tail feather in four spots. I cut two scraps of paper, one to fold and use as a hinge for the wing. than put a foam square at the end of the wing. When you glue the wing to the paper hinge, it will create the slant of the wing, than just stick end of the wing down onto the foam. This will give the wing a nice dimention. Than take the really slim scrap and fold once, and glue to itself, than fold again and glue to its self. Than glue to the end of the center tail. When you glue the tail feather down. This will create the lift on the tail feather. (The foam tape/dot is to thick to use on the tail).

The flourish on the card was done by cutting three flourishes, (from the Cottage Cuts Flourish #02) gluing them together to create a chip board thickness. Than using the Sakura Gold Metallic gelly roll pen, paint the flourish really well. Coat with Glossy Accents, If you do it directly after you ink, the glossy accent will pick up part of the sparkle and allow it to swim in the glossy coating. This create a really shinny, almost metallic embellishment. The three layers of card stock keep it from curling as it drys. The Lace Doily was sponged in two colors of inks. Genuine artificial diamonds were added to the doily.

Hang In There!

Good morning friends! For today's card I used Frog with branch, and Snail. I tried Lorie's suggestion and cut out my image with white cardstock. I used Copics to color the die cuts. I freehand cut the clouds with scissors and inked the edges in blue. There are so many adorable dies at The Scrapping Cottage! Click here to take a look.
I apologize for the poor quality picture. The card looks much better in real life.
Have a great day everyone and thanks for stopping by!

Craft Queen

Hello! My name is Nikki and I am really excited to be on the Scrapping Cottage design team. I figured for my first posting I'd just go ahead and let the cat out of the bag...I am addicted to kraft cardstock! So, that having been said, here is my card for today.

I used the adorable Kitty Princess die. Isn't she just the cutest?! She has a little collar with a heart tag, but I chose not to use that this time. I wanted to focus on blinging up her cute crown. A girl HAS to have her bling, right?!

I also wanted to share with you one of my favorite ribbon techniques! I simply cut a slit on the fold of the card to slide my ribbon through. Then to finish, just tie a strand of twine or embroidery floss into a bow to secure it. I always add a little dot of zip dry adhesive to the knot of the bow to ensure it stays put.

I hope you like my card for today. I look forward to seeing you back here every Sunday. If you would like to see more of my work...Please join me over on my personal blog ScrappinNavyWife. I post a project nearly everyday, so pop on over to see!

I hope you all have a WONDERFUL week!

Nikki

Bloom Page

Good morning!  Welcome to The Scrapping Cottage Blog on this blooming beautiful morning!  I have a scrapbook page to share with you today.  I'll be honest with you and say that working on this page reminded me why I don't scrapbook nearly often enough.  You see, I have a hard time knowing when it's time to stop, and my pages kind of take on a life of their own.  I seriously need to learn that I don't have to use every die or stamp made to do one page.  Oh well, I had fun, and that's all that REALLY matters.  Here's my Bloom page ready and waiting for some wonderful pictures to finish it off.

 For this page, I used the following Cottage Cutz dies:  Flower 1 Layer, Flowervine Edger, Daisy with Swirl, Watering Can, and Scalloped 3 Edger.  Yes, I did get a lot of them in there, but I was having so much fun!  The Bloom sentiment was cut with my Cricut using the Storybook cartridge. 

All of the die cuts, except the sentiment were cut with white card stock, then colored with my Copic markers except the sentiment.  The sentiment was cut with pink card stock, then outlined with Copics and highlighted with a white gel pen.  

I added some rain drops as an accent for the page.  I've actually got some pictures in mind that will work beautifully for this page, and if I can only find them I'll be one happy scrapper  Thanks for stopping by today.  I wish you a blessed day filled with happy scrapping!!

For my first trick....

Please let me first thank Scrapping Cottage for giving me the opportunity to join your fabulous Design Team! I'm so thrilled to be a part of such a creative and talented group of crafters and I only hope to be as good as you think I am. ;)

For my first project I've done a fishing layout. (I do a LOT of fishing layouts!) Who likes to fish??? My grandkids do! And penguins do too, of course. I couldn't resist using the adorable snowskiing penguin on this page, giving him a fishing pole instead of snowskis. It's plenty warm so he doesn't need his hat and scarf on this trip. I also used the scallop/dot edger. Scallops and dots are two of my favorite things....could you tell by my choice of papers?

Here the little penguin holds the fishing pole and net from the fishing set and, without his ski cap, you can see the cute little tuft of hair on top of his head (which is actually one of the lily pads from the boat and dock die).

I love this fishing pole. It's fun to embellish. I've used cork paper for the rod handle, silver paper for the reel, and invisible thread/monofiliment for the line. It seemed to work because Mr. Penguin has caught two fish and seems pretty happy with his catch!

For the net, I used mesh I've had in my stash for ages. It's perfect for this use! I love how it turned out. Cute, huh?

Then, to balance out the large embellishment on the bottom of the page, I've added a clump of cattails in the opposite corner. These are the cutest!

After finishing the layout, I used leftover scraps to make this quick card. Simple bracket shape embellished with flowers, bling, ribbon and Cottage Cutz scallop/dot edger.

Add a rubon sentiment and you're good to go!

For this second layout, I used the cute little love birds and tall tree. I also used Ruth Ellen's idea and made the scallop/dot edger a 12 inch length. Great tip, Ruth Ellen.


Added a little stickles to the birdies to make them sparkly, like their adorable personalities.

And for fun, used my eyelet hole punches to make Swissy-looking letters for my cheesy title.

and another card using scraps from the layout. My daughter and son-in-law will celebrate their 10 year anniversary this weekend. The love birds are perfect! Add a heart or two, some ribbon and bling, and celebrate!

I'm really looking forward to my term on the Cottage Blog team and working with some of the cutest dies on the market, not to mention some of the craftiest people out there! Thank you for viewing my first projects and for the warm welcome. :)

Shar

Feeling a little "Krafty"

These are the CottageCutz dies I used for today's post. The Lovebirds, Whimsical, Stylized Tree and the mini Simple Tree.

It's been a long time since I made a card and didn't have at least 2 layers of cardstock and patterned paper behind my design. I just loved the look of these diecuts against the raw Kraft cardstock.
For the trees I inked the edges in a mixture of Walnut ink and Peeled Paint Distress ink.
I cut the leaves out of a patterned paper that matched my cardstock.

For the Whimsical birds I inked them with Walnut Stain also and added some white paint dots to the eyes and a few on the wings.
I thought this would make a cute, but simple Anniversary or Congratulations card for a newly engaged couple or even a baby card with the mini nest die inside the card.


Be sure to check out the blog each day of the week as we have a brand new Design Team that is sure to please!

Cat's in for the Day

Funny thing how this idea came about, The Cat's in for the Day. A Friend asked me to make a sign for the door (that they could flip) so when she and her husband went off to work that they both knew that the cat was let back in for the day. I asked . . why, I thought you had a cat door? Well come to find out, they live on the edge of a wooded area and the cat had decided to bring home presents for them. Opp's twice the cat brought home. . . well. . I just will say it. . SNAAAAKE. The cat door has been closed . . for not.

I started with A card shape, cut a window in both sides. I wanted to use the Cottage Cutz Die with the Cat Front & Back. I thought this was a perfect use. The outside was 4" x 6" and the window is 2" x 3 1/2". I used acetate in the window.

By using acetate I could put both sides of the cat die in the window. I also used the Cottage Cutz Die, Half Daisy on the Front as a full daisy and the back as the half daisy. Mounted on a lattice stripe. The cat die turned out very cute as a orange tabby. I stated with a melon color card stock and highlighted in a burnt orange ink and dabbed a little white. The bow was done in burnt orange card stock. This all pops against the white door.

The half daisy was also added to the cloth ribbon hanger at the top of the front. Remember when gluing card stock and other materials like beads or cloth ribbon, I have found Glossy Accents to hold the best.

I added a dangle at the bottom of the sign using the Cottage Cutz Die, Fish Skeleton along with a few beads.

As an added note, I would also like to welcome all the new DT members, we all look forward to more fun idea's using Cottage Cutz Dies. Thank You B

Good Morning Friends!

Good morning everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful and safe 4th of July weekend!

For today's post, I am going to show you how I re-purposed the Shih Tzu die cut that I used on Thursday. I like to think outside the box and see other ways I can use a die.
I hope you like what I have made.




While looking at the die cuts I saw a hairstyle and a sweater. I cut the hair of the dog off to create the neckline of the sweater. I used several colors of die cuts to make the little girl. The snout of the die cut had the perfect shape for the little girls hair.


I will let the pictures speak for themselves. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.


I cut the green snowpants, added some black boots, and added a cute little Panda Bear to the winter sweater to cover the eyes of the dog die cut. I finished with a scarf, a bow in her hair and some white stitching, using a white gel pen. And of course, her cute little face was stamped with a Peachy Keen Simple Sallies face, PK-531.



Thanks so much for stopping by! If you re-purpose your die cuts and would like to share them, leave a link in the comments so I can come and see. Enjoy your day! It is in the 90's here. I will be staying inside today.

Something To Crow About (...see rooster below)

Hello, and happy Friday!! My name is Lorie Souther, and I am thrilled to be able to share a card with you today as one of the new design team members for The Stamping Cottage. This is indeed great news for me to crow about!! I am looking very forward to working with the rest of this talented design team, sharing creative inspiration, and making new friends.

For my card today, I used some wonderful 4th of July themed Cottage Cutz dies from The Scrapping Cottage. American Rooster, Firecracker, Patriot Bunting, and Stars Edger dies all went into this fun and festive creation. Since my stamping and scrapping experience started with my love for painting and coloring images, I decided the best way for me to work with what I know was to start with a blank canvas, if you will. I cut each of these (except the stars edger) with regular white card stock, assembled the pieces using Zip Dry paper glue, and then colored each die cut with my Copic sketch markers. For me, this was the easiest way to achieve the color, highlighting and shading that brings everything to life. The white highlights were added using a white gel pen. I did quite a bit of distressing on the edges of the oval background using Tim Holtz distressing ink in the Tea Dye color. My sentiment for this card is simply "Sparkle", and I added a little bit of sparkle to the stars on the firecrackers, although it doesn't show up so well in the photo.

Here's a little closer look at some of the details. Notice that I used the stars from the Stars Edger and randomly glued those around the image. I like to find ways to use as many of my scraps as I can, and in this case, it worked out just dandy.

The technique I used to color the rooster is one I call the "stippling technique". I guess that term comes from my tole painting days, and while I'm not sure that's the official term for it using markers, it works for me. I just pounce the color into the desired areas with my marker layering the color from lightest to darkest.

I'm so happy you could stop by today. Please feel free to visit me anytime at my blog The ThINKin' Spot . Have a wonderful day, and a safe and Happy 4th of July! See ya soon!

Hello Everyone! Happy Thursday! Let me introduce myself.

My name is Janice Wilson. I am thrilled to announce that I have been asked to join The Scrapping Cottage design team. I am looking forward to getting to know the other designers and to share my designs with you. I hope that we can be an inspiration to each other and learn things along the way. Most of all, let's have FUN!! I primarily make cards, but on occasion I like to step out of my comfort zone and try something new. For today's card, I used CottageCutz Shih Tzu Peeker and CottageCutz Daisy Seeds. I had a lot of fun making this card. I love the Shih Tzu die. It is so cute! I used a couple shades of brown cardstock to assemble the puppy. I didn't have a picket fence die or a grass die so I just cut them myself. The picket fence was very easy. I cut strips of white cardstock, 1/2 inch wide. 2 of the strips were 5 1/2 inches long. The pickets are about 2 inches tall. I cut one of the points on a picket to use as a template to cut the rest of them. I cut the strip of grass, free hand. I inked the edges and the centers of the daisies with Dandelion Memento ink. I free hand cut the bone sign as well, because I don't have a bone die, yet. I used a twist tie that I stripped the paper off of, coiled each end, and used it to hang the sign.





Thanks so much for stopping by. If you have any questions just leave a comment and I will do my best to answer. Have a great day!