Blog Hop with Lori Whitlock Designs

Welcome to Artsy Albums and your next stop on Lori Whitlock's March Blog Hop!  If you're starting here, be sure to head over to Lori's site to start from the beginning!  You won't want to miss the creative ideas at each stop!

For my project, I created a few of Lori's adorable 

cards for some upcoming baby gifts. 

Lori's new pop-up box cards are all so cute, and fit perfectly into an A2 envelope when they fold down.  The baby bottle card is also super cute and can be combined with any sentiment on the front.  I found a cute label with the word 'congrats' to add to mine, and I've included all of the links 

for these here on my blog today.

In addition to all of the fun creative projects on today's hop, Lori is also giving away a great freebie at each stop.  The freebie here on my site is a wonderful "My Blessings" graphic that can be layered over any photo before printing.  

As you can see from my photo, I easily added the graphic to my photo in photoshop, changed the color to white, and then adjusted the opacity a bit.   

These two boys truly are my blessings...I'm one proud mama 

To download this free graphic, follow this link:

"My Blessings"

Lori is also having a sale on her site so be sure to 

visit Lori Whitlock 

and use this code to get 30% off!

And how about a giveaway??  I would like to give one lucky Lori fan a $10 download card to the Silhouette online store :)

Enter here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Wow!  So much fun stuff....now back to the blog hop!

Lori Whitlock

Brigit Mann 
Corri Garza 
Mendi Yoshikawa 
Natalie Graham 
Traci Penrod  (You Are Here)
Chrissy Guido >>> Next Stop :)
Ashley Cook
Lorrie Nunemaker 
Smitha Katti
Stephanie Chavers

Lisa Bell

By the way....when you have time, come back to Artsy Albums to check out all the brand new page and album kits we added to the online shop last week!

Facebook:  www.facebook.com/artsyalbums
Online Shop:  www.artsyalbums.etsy.com

4 New Scrapbook Kits This Week

It's been a busy week at Artsy Albums and its only Wednesday!   I have 4 new kits in the shop -- 2 mini scrapbook albums and 2 12x12 scrapbook page kits.

They are all available as a DIY kit, or pre made.  For details, visit the Artsy Albums online shop here.

A Silhouette Scrapbook Layout

Hi everyone!  Here's a fun fact about me - I married my high school sweetheart...come to think of it, so did my mom, and so did my son :)  The pictures below are older -- well, one is much older (1988) ... check out that hair!   That's actually pretty tame compared to most of my 80's years.  The other photo was taken on our 20 year anniversary, in 2008.  I finally got around to scrapbooking these pictures and I'm sharing this layout over on the Silhouette blog today.   Head over there to get tips on using their new vellum -- I love it!

Thanks so much for stopping by!!

A Mini Album with Lori Whitlock Designs

Hi everyone, today I am sharing a project I did with one of Lori 's mini albums.  If you've never played with her Silhouette mini book files, I would encourage you to give them a try!

So easy, so fun, and every one of them is super cute!

You can find all of the cutting file links over on Lori's blog today.  Please visit www.loriwhitlock.com to download these shapes for your own album!

For my album I created the cover first using white card stock and an older, but fabulous, paper line that Lori designed for Echo Park called This & That.  

I added a cute scallop border, a doily, some twine and chipboard that comes with the paper collection, to finish off the cover.

For the inside pages, I actually cut the shaped pages out of Silhouette chipboard first, and then out of the pattern paper so that each page would be extra sturdy.

I decorated the pages with some more of Lori's cute cutting files, and a few stickers and chipboard from the paper collection.

Thanks so much for letting me share this album with you!  It might be one of my favorite projects ever!

Hip Hip Hooray! We Are Memory Keepers

Today I just want to share a new paper line that came out this month from We R Memory Keepers.  It's called Hip Hip Hooray and it's a perfect collection for all of your birthday projects!  Scrapbook pages, birthday cards, party banners and decor, and even mini albums like the one I created below.

Visit We R Memory Keepers to check out 'Hip Hip Hooray', and all of their other new collections and tools!

Oh Boy! A New Mini Album with Carta Bella

Good morning Artsy friends,
It's been a few weeks since I added a new album to the kit collection, so I'm excited to share this one with you today!  It's the perfect little keepsake for pictures of that adventurous little boy in your life.  No bows or ribbons on this one -- it's all boy!  

The 6x6 inch chipboard binder album includes 12 6x6 sturdy chipboard pages (6 front and back) including 2 pocket pages, a fold-out page, an extra 4x6 page, and lots of colorful embellishments!

Blues, red, and yellow colors with great titles, cars, planes, boats, tags, and other wonderful embellishments -- these are just a few of the things that adorn the pages of this fun album. 

The album has paper and accents from Carta Bella (Rough and Tumble) and a great binder album by Bo Bunny. The pages include photo mats, stickers, and space for at least 24 photos!!  I always create my albums so that photos can easily tuck under embellishments, and I always use only acid-free, photo-safe supplies. The title on the cover says "Oh Boy! Crazy for You!" and other pages say "Adventure!", "Busy Boy" and "Keep Calm and Try Not to Laugh". 

In addition to photos of your busy boy...other ideas for this album:
A gift for grandparents
A birthday album 
Fill it with photos for your desk at work

Pre-made:
If you order the album pre-made, it will be shipped completely assembled and ready for photos or gift-giving. 

Do-It-Yourself Kit:
The pre-cut scrapbook kit includes all of the materials and instructions to make this colorful album! 

Visit my shop at www.artsyalbums.etsy.com to purchase 
"Oh Boy, Crazy For You" today!

A Valentine Scrapbook Idea

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!  Be sure to get some pictures of you and your sweetie today, because I have a fun and easy layout to share with you.

For this page I started by sketching the cute doodled lines around the whole page to make a border.  I used a black sketch pen in my CAMEO and two of the borders that come in this set of three.

Next, I cut out the title with the new Silhouette corrugated paper.  This is such a fun new product and will really give some texture and dimension to your project.

I cut the heart and ticket once out of card stock, and twice out of Silhouette’s chipboard.  I then layered the three pieces to create my own chipboard embellishments.  Finally, I added some pattern paper, my photos, and a few Silhouette rhinestones.

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!!

Shapes from the Silhouette Online Store:

Doodle Border 12 x 12

You Melt My Heart

Heart

Ticket

Make Your Own Chipboard Embellishements

Hi everyone!  I'm sharing this fun and easy tutorial over on Lori Whitlock's blog today so please visit her site to get all of these cute shapes and more!  

Have you ever been working on a project and didn't have the perfect embellishment you wanted?  Happens to me all the time!  I'm a big fan of chipboard embellishments -- I love the dimension they give to a project. So today I'm going to show you how easy it is to create your own chipboard embellishments with your silhouette machine using Lori Whitlock's fun shapes and digital papers.

The first step is really fun -- go through all of Lori's cute shapes and pick out a handful of fun designs.  

These will be print and cut shapes so be sure to size your mat to 8.5x11.

Since we are going to print these out, we want to "fill" them with colors and patterns.  Go to the "Fill Pattern" window and with your shape highlighted, click on some different colors and patterns for each shape.  Lori has some great digital papers too.  You can find them at www.jessicasprague.com   If you purchase and download them to your computer, you can drag them right into your shapes.  Many of her digital papers match her Echo Park designs so you can create embellishments that go perfectly with your paper!

I'm using Lori's "Sweet Memories" papers for my embellishments.  

For more information on importing digital papers into your Silhouette software, check out this tutorial.

Tip:  If you try to fill a shape that has a space cut out (for example, the ticket with the star above) the fill pattern may cover the entire shape, including the star.  If this happens, just right click on the shape and click on "make compound path".  This will usually fix that problem.

If you have any shapes with printed words (see my banner shapes), you will also need to increase the line thickness for the lettering.  Just highlight the word, click on the "Line Style" window, and increase the thickness.  I set mine to 1.25 so that the words print clearly.

Once all of your shapes are filled with pattern, color, or digital paper, it's time to print.  Be sure to click on the Registration Marks window and "Show Reg Marks".  You may also have to move your shapes around a bit to make sure they all fit within the registration marks on your paper.   

Now that you have everything printed, send it through your Silhouette to cut everything out.

Next, cut the same shapes out of Silhouette chipboard two times (I like the thickness of two layers of chipboard, but one layer would work too).

Glue all of your shapes to their matching chipboard pieces and voila! Adorable chipboard embellishments!

Happy crafting!!

Shapes:

Heart

Tickets

Butterflies

Banners

This & That Life Cards

Sketch Sentiments

Home Shopping Network & We R Memory Keepers

Hey friends --
Check out HSN all day today -- We R Memory Keepers will be showing off their fun new tools and paper collections! One of my favorite We R tools is the Cinch Binding tool (airing on HSN around 7pm).  We R Memory recently asked me to create a few projects for today's show.  I was able to play with the Cinch tool and a new paper collection that's due out in June.  It's called "Indian Summer".  The browns and blues are so pretty...and I love the sheet that looks like leather!   

  
So tune in to Home Shopping Network today!  Andrew will be cinching up my minis around 7pm, and showing off lots of other great products all day long!

Lori Whitlock February Blog hop

Welcome to Artsy Albums and your next stop on Lori Whitlock's February Blog Hop!  If you're starting here, be sure to head over to Lori's site to start from the beginning!  You won't want to miss the creative Valentine ideas at each stop!
For my project, I created Lori's adorable coupon booklet!

This project is super easy to create -- just print & cut the tickets, cut the album pages, and adhere everything together.  Add a ribbon and your done!  What an adorable gift!  The tickets are pre-printed with 9 ideas, and the booklet also comes with blank tickets to write your own sentiments.  

 Valentine Coupon Book

Fun stuff: not only is Lori offering a coupon, a freebie, and a giveaway..but here's another goodie -- a Designer Edition Upgrade for just 29.99!!! Details:

Go pick up the Silhouette Studio Designer Edition for $29.99 while you can!! This is THE BEST price I've seen (reg. price $49.99)!! Use promo code: LORI www.silhouetteamerica.com/designer

Lori is having an awesome sale and a freebie on her website today...

And there is a GIVEAWAY here on my site!
One winner will be announced on Facebook and here on my blog on Tuesday, Feb. 11.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Now back to the blog hop --

Lori Whitlock

Brigit Mann 
Christine Ousley 
Corri Garza 
Mendi Yoshikawa 
Natalie Graham 
Traci Penrod  (You Are Here)
Chrissy Guido >>> Next Stop :)
Ashley Cook
Lorrie Nunemaker 
Smitha Katti
Stephanie Chavers
Mary Moseley 

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