Watch for it Wednesday #37

Christmas Star Mini Album

Star albums are my favorite of

all mini books! They are amazing

and are not very difficult to create!

These wonderful books open

up into a star shape that can

be beautifully displayed on your

mantle, your coffee table, or

anywhere your heart desires!

You can leave these out for the

season and when it is time to

clean up you will be so

thrilled that you can just fold

them up and put them away!

These sweet little books have

lots of space for wonderful

Christmas pictures and fun

holiday embellishments!

For step-by-step instructions on

how to make these bright and

merry books, see the very next post!

Instructions for the Star Mini Book!

1. Cutting pieces of paper to create your album!

You are going to need:

6 "back" pieces

6 "middle" pieces

6 "front" pieces

Cut papers as listed

in dimentions in

diagram below

(if you click on the

picture below it

will get larger!)

2. Fold each piece of paper in half.

3. Place double sided tape (any

type of taper runner will also

work) on the side edges of the

"middle" panel. Adhere "middle"

panel to the "front" panel. (see

step 4 in the diagram above).

4. Place double sided tape on the

side edges of the "back" panel

and adhere the "middle" panel.

(see step 5 in the diagram above).

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 to

make 6 complete triangles!

6. Adhere sets together to form an

album! (see step 7 in the diagram)

7. Attach some ribbon between

the panels of the front and

back cover of the album or

a cute paper clip can also be

used to hold the book open!

Deck the Halls Penguin

It's finally here! The Christmas season is upon us which means I get to create with these cute CottageCutz holiday dies. For this card I used the Deck the Halls Penguin, some gems, silver Stickles, Distress ink and some mounting tape to pop the penguin off the ladder just a bit.
There are lots of Christmas and winter shapes available only at the Scrapping Cottage so be sure to check them out.

SNOWY DAYS

There is no time, like snow time. We don't have snow where I live so we head to the mountains for snow time! This is a picture of Jack's first trip to the Snow!!!





Star Light, Star Bright, Please don't let me melt tonight! I love this adorable CottageCutz Snowman with sign shape. To add to the fun, I used Snow Tex to give my snowman and snowballs texture.

The First Christmas

Remember, if Christmas isn't found in

your heart, you won't find it under a tree.

Charlotte Carpenter

Christmas is such a magical, wonderful

time of year. For us scrapbookers and

card makers, there is so much to create!

I was so excited to enhance the
QuicKutz Nativity scene with one
of the precious lambs from the
CottageCutz lamb die. I love how he
fits perfectly and is looking right at
Baby Jesus in awe and amazement!

Holiday Hugs

I know we are just barely through with Thanksgiving, but can you blame me for not being able to wait any longer to play with these fabulous Holly Jolly Cottage Cutz dies!! As soon as I saw these adorable Elves I knew I had to have them. For the past couple of years, we have had our own elves come to stay with us during the Christmas season. My oldest daughter absolutely LOVES them!!! She named her elf Candy Cane Red and named her sister's Candy Cane White. Our elves are playful and happy and would never make a mess in the house! They mostly like to move around at night or when we are gone and play with the girls' toys and stuffed animals. Last year, my oldest daughter insisted that we take a picture with the elves in front of the Christmas tree and this is one of the pictures. I added the Elf with List die to draw attention to the little elves that the girls are holding in the picture. These Cottage Cutz Elf dies are going to be so fun to use to document the stories of our elves for years to come!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Watch for it Wednesday #36

My tip today is a fun way to use Perfect Pearls and a Mini Mister. You will need Perfect Pearls, a Mini Mister (they normally come in sets of 3), and some Ranger Re-inker (I used Peeled Paint - great neutral base with just enough die to make the Pearls show up). Now, you want to pick a couple colors of Perfect Pearls that you want to use. I chose Perfect Bronze and Sunflower Sparkle because they both said Autumn to me. Put a tiny scoop of each color into your Mini Mister. Then drop 3 drops from the Re-Inker bottle into the Mini Mister (FYI - You MUST use a re-inker and not regular alcohol inks. Alcohol inks are not designed to be aerosolized and are TOXIC if used in this manner!!) Now, just fill the Mini Mister up the rest of the way with water and mix it all together.

You are now ready to start spraying!!

Here is a before picture of a whole bunch of leaves that I have cut out to be sprayed with my Perfect Pearls solution. I have gone ahead and inked the edges and also outlined the leaf veins with my Copic markers before I spray them with my solution.

When you are ready to spray, make sure you have the area surrounding your pieces covered unless you want your work surface to have a new Bronze coating ;)

Hold the Mini Mister about 12" or 14" above your pieces and give it a couple of sprays. When you are first starting out, you are going to be tempted to over-spray. It will take a few minutes for the spray to dry so that the color will show up. Spray it a couple of times and then let it dry before you spray again. You can always add more color - you can't take it away once it is there! You may even want to practice on some spare sheets just to get a feel for it and to see if you like more or less color.

I gave this leaf a heavier coating than my others so you would really be able to see the change. The spray really gives the leaf such a wonderful sheen.

Here are the rest of my leaves. I know it is hard to see the bronze flecks on the leaves but hopefully you get the idea. Once all of my Perfect Pearl leaves were dried, I added them to my layout. I used the Cottage Cutz mini maple leaf die from the August Cottage Cutz Release to cut out all of the leaves. Then before I sprayed them with my Mini Mister, I inked the edges and then outlined the inside veins of each of the leaves with my Copic Markers. I also used the Cottage Cutz Raking the Leaves Die as another Fall accent to my page. And once again, the November Pagemaps were my inspiration for my page design.

Another really cool effect of spraying the leaves with the Perfect Pearls mixture is that as the leaves dry, they tend to curl up just a little. This curling makes for much more realistic leaves. I mean, when have you ever seen perfectly flat leaves, right?!!

This technique would also be great to use on your Winter layouts to make snow glisten and shine! Just change your Pearl colors! Really, what projects couldn't use a little something extra ;)

Here are a couple of close-ups to give you a better view of some of the details :)

I hope you liked this tip. Now, run out to the store and stock up so you can start spraying your cards and layouts!!

It's hard to say "I'm sorry"

If you're like me every once in awhile I say something stupid that offends a friend, family member or co-worker. I feel terrible of course and want to apologize and clear the air. I hate the feeling inside when this happens, luckily it's not very often.

I like to find fun sayings to go with my cards and thought this old saying about ruffling your feathers was perfect for this CottageCutz Rooster. I cut the large feather combo out twice in two different colors and inked the edges with similar colors of Distress Ink. I also inked the rooster's body and added some pen markings to make him stand out a bit more.

Whether you're sending an apology or not this rooster is a fun die to create projects with and goes together quick and easy.

The Barn

Spending the day at barn with your family is just a fun way to spend a gorgeous FAll Day. The CottageCutz Barn is so detailed but so easy to use too.

And the CottageCutz Turkey completes the layout and gives me the opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Some more cards from our blog followers

This card was made by Lori Z. one of our followers who is just loving the CottageCutz dies.

These two Thanksgiving cards were sent from Rita N. using the CottageCutz Turkey.

Very cute Rita - thanks for sharing with us!

Whimsical Thanksgiving!

I am so in love with whimsy!

It is one of the things in life that

goes to the very heart of me!

There is nothing more sprightly

or fanciful than a cluster of

Thanksgiving tags to add cheer

and help us celebrate this

blessed and precious day.

The CottageCutz sweet

"Basket of Apples" die is

perfectly whimsical and fun!

When it comes to Thanksgiving, I am
so very grateful for the many blessings
that have been so generously showered
upon my family and I. We are deeply
moved by the gifts and love of our
awesome, gracious, and amazing God!


God Bless you this Thanksgiving.

Have yourself a Moo-ey Little Christmas!

I just love this little Cottage Cutz Calf die from the Autumn release! He is the perfect size to use on cards or layouts. Since I figured it was a no-brainer that this guy is a fabulous addition to any kind of farm-related layouts or other projects, I decided to come up with something a little different for my post today.

I thought he would be the perfect addition to an otherwise traditional looking Christmas card. You know - kind of catch people of guard and have a little fun while you're at it!

I hope this card gets you inspired to try to something fun and different with your Cottage Cutz dies! They are truly perfect for any occasion!! :)

WATCH FOR IT WEDNESDAY #35

Today's tip is faux stitching. I don't know about you but I love the look of stitching on my cards and layouts but I've got to admit I'm not much into sewing these days. Faux stitching looks like you stitched on your project when you really didn't.

You just simply poke small holes and connect the lines with a pen.

As you can see below I poked holes into my cardstock and used a white gel pen for one side and a black pen for the other.

You can use a paper piercer or a push pin to make your holes. Make sure you have something underneath that you can poke into. You can do it free hand or use a ruler, make straight lines or wavy, the sky is the limit to your design and color of stitches.

Here is my finished card. Just like my real sewing I have a few crooked lines because I chose to do it free hand rather than use a ruler.


CottageCutz Country Turkey

Happy Thanksgiving with the CottageCutz Turkey

I'm so glad the Scrapping Cottage decided to put out a realistic detailed turkey. You can make your Thanksgiving turkey in a variety of colors to match your patterned papers.

Whether your wishing someone a Happy Thanksgiving, making placecards for your table or doing a layout after the big day this CottageCutz turkey is sure to please.

BASKET OF PUMPKINS

PUMPKINS, PUMPKINS EVERYWHERE YOU LOOK THERE ARE PUMPKINS.............

A TRUCK FULL OF PUMPKINS AND BASKETS OF PUMPKINS TOO!!!!

WE MUST BE AT THE PUMPKIN PATCH!!!!

I AM A FAN OF FALL COLORS AND THE COTTAGECUTZ AUTUMN DIES ARE THE BEST PART OF MY LAYOUT. I USED THE PUMPKIN PATCH SIGN, the TRUCK WITH HAY, THE TRUCK ACCESSORIES and the BASKET OF APPLES. But...I filled the Basket with pumpkins from the PUMPKIN PATCH SIGN!

Happy Fall!

Autumn is a second spring

when every leaf is a flower.

Albert Camus

I found this adorable little orange
crate-a dear leftover from Halloween!
I thought it would be fun to embellish
it with some sweet CottageCutz!



CottageCutz
Harvest Frame
Build a Jack


Have a beautiful weekend!

Silly Scarecrow

The Cottage Cutz Autumn release has so many fabulous dies to add to your papercrafting projects. One of my favorites from this release is the Cottage Cutz Scarecrow Die!! It comes with so many different pieces and ad-ons that enable you to make the Scarecrow in a variety of different ways! It is the perfect addition to any Fall layout.

I had so much fun creating my scarecrow for this layout! I wanted him to resemble the scarecrow in the picture, but not match it exactly. I couldn't decide what color cardstock to use for his pole so I decided to mount him onto a Popsicle stick. (Well, actually, it is a rub-on tool I had laying on my scrapbook table). This method allowed me to really pop the Scarecrow off the page and also add a fun new element to the overall layout. Instead of using the cardstock cut-outs of his arm ties, I used real thread to tie around the Scarecrows arms. Here again, another easy way to add some extra texture to your die cuts.

On a side note, for today's layout, I used one of the new November sketches from Pagemaps. Sketches are a great way to get your creative juices flowing. Some sketches may have all the elements you want and your layouts can closely resemble the original sketches. Other times, sketches can be a great starting point as you let your own vision take your layout in a totally different direction. Either way, they can be a fun tool to use with your scrapbooking.

God Bless our Troops, our Veterans and

all who gave their lives for our freedom.