Throw-back Thursday for Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I decided to do a throw-back Thursday project today since, well ... I’m cooking turkey and don't have a chance to make a new Thanksgiving project :). But hey, this one is super cute thanks to a 2015 Doodlebug release called Fall Friends!

First of all ... can we all just agree that this little turkey is adorable?!

I love Mr. Turkey so much he got to be on the first page too!  

What would Thanksgiving be without Pilgrims?  The Doodlebug pilgrim people are almost as cute as Mr. Turkey! 

Well I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!  Visit my new shop this weekend ... I'll have some things on sale for Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday! Oh, and look, I found a few pieces of this darling collection still available at my fave online supply store ... 

Supplies:

Affiliate links are used in this post at no additional cost to you. I receive a small amount of compensation when you click through and shop using the provided links. This helps me to continue building my small business. Thank you!

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Tuesday Tutorial: Silhouette Sketch Pen Card

'Tis almost the season for sending out Christmas cards, and if you're like me, the task can often be so time-consuming that I lose sight of the meaning for sending them out in the first place.  With that in mind, I remembered that I made this card for a blog post over at Lori Whitlock Designs a few years back.  I wanted to revisit the tutorial and share it with all of you because it's going to make creating my cards a lot more fun this year.

I used my Silhouette machine and some sketch pens to create the front of my card. The sketch pen technique involves cutting a shape from inside an offset that's been drawn with the pens.

First I started with Lori's adorable Christmas Tree Pop Up Card.

I ungrouped everything and moved everything off to the side except the front panel with the tree.

Next, I ungrouped this one shape so that I could move the tree over to the left side of the shape.

Once I moved the tree over to the left, I had space to put a sentiment. Using Lori's Dot Sketch Font, I typed in the sentiment that I wanted to use and centered everything the way I wanted it to look once it was sketched.

In addition to the sentiment, I also wanted an offset drawn around the tree cut out. To do this, I highlighted the tree, and opened the offset window. I clicked offset and set it to .05 distance.

For the next step, I moved the inside tree shape, and the outer card shape, off to the side. These portions will be cut out, so I didn't want them to get sketched when I insert my pen.

Next, I loaded white paper into my silhouette cameo machine and removed the blade. I replaced the blade with a red Silhouette sketch pen and locked it in place. Then I made sure my cut settings were set to Silhouette Sketch Pens, and I clicked "Cut".

Here is an important step! Once the sketch pen was finished drawing my lines, I didn't remove or unload my paper. The reason for this is because I want it to line up perfectly again when I go to cut the inside shape out of my tree. So I left the paper loaded exactly as it was when it was finished, and went back to my software.

I highlighted everything that I had just sketched, and clicked on the Cut Style window. I chose "No Cut" so that when I replaced my red pen with a blade, everything I just sketched didn't get cut out.

Next I moved my card shape (which IS highlighted to cut) and the inner part of my tree (which IS highlighted to cut) back in place. I made sure that I replaced my red pen with my cutting blade, adjusted the cut setting to card stock, and hit the cut button again to tell my machine to cut out just those areas around my sketch.

For the inside of my card, I repeated the steps above to create a personalized "sketched" message inside the card before I cut it out.

One last tip -- I used a large needle to help thread my twine through the holes in the front of the card.

Thanks for stopping by the blog today for my "Tuesday Tutorial"!  If you plan to make your Christmas cards this year, I hope you have fun and enjoy the process :)

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Gift Card Stocking Banner

My kids always like getting gift cards in their stocking, so when I saw this adorable stocking cut file, it gave me a fun idea.  I'll hang this banner up on Christmas morning.  It will be a festive decoration, and a cute way to dress up these little cards.

To make the stockings, I downloaded the cutting file from Lori Whitlock's SVG shop here >> Doodlebug Milk & Cookies Stocking. I separated the pieces and just kept the stocking base and white cuff portions. I enlarged the pieces so that the stocking measured 6.3" wide x 9.8" long.  

I cut out 4 stockings from thin chipboard, and 4 from white card stock. I made an internal offset of the stocking (set at 0.125) for the pattern paper and cut out 4 different patterns. I layered the chipboard, white card stock, and pattern papers, and then cut out and adhered the white cuff to the top.  I added names to each stocking using my cutting machine and this font file by Lori Whitlock. 

I adhered Doodlebug's 3x3 scallop envelopes to the back of the stockings so that gift cards could slide in, and then had lots of fun embellishing each stocking with Christmas Magic odds & ends, doodle pops, and jelly clips.

Finally, I strung a ribbon through the stocking loops and secured it to the chipboard with help from the jelly clips.  This was a really fun project and I can't wait to hang it up on Christmas morning!

Supplies:

Affiliate links are used in this post at no additional cost to you (the Etsy links are from my shop and are not affiliate links). I receive a small amount of compensation when you click through and shop using the provided links. This helps me to continue building my small business. Thank you!

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New! Safari Baby Journal

What's New Wednesday

I have an adorable new addition to the shop this week! 

This baby scrapbook journal is available as a do-it-yourself kit or preassembled. It's super cute, full of baby animals, is gender neutral, and will make a wonderful keepsake for all of those treasured newborn memories and milestones!

It's a beautiful little journal album for a new baby. Give it as a gift for a newborn, or fill it with all of the memories of your own little bundle of joy. Pictures and details of a sweet little baby will be treasured for years to come in this precious book.

The album measures 8x8 inches and includes 12 heavy chipboard pages (6 front & back). Page details include space for:
Birth information
First Photo
Family Tree
First Home
Growth Chart
Hand and Footprint pages
Memorable Firsts
and space for 25 photos.

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:
You can also order this album as a do-it-yourself kit!
The pre-cut scrapbook kit includes all of the materials and instructions to make this adorable mini album!

Included in the Kit:
8x8 Chipboard Album (by Prima)
Precut pattern paper (by Paper Studio)
Pre cut photo mats and card stock
Pull-Outs, Journaling cards
Coordinating Stickers
Layered embellishments
Full Color instructions

Tools & supplies you will need to complete this project:
Paper trimmer and/or scissors
Adhesive -- wet and dry
Pop Dots or other dimensional adhesive
Thin glue pen

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To stay up to date on new product, coupons, and giveaways..."Like" Artsy Albums on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/artsyalbums or instagram @artsyalbums

As always, thank you so much for visiting my shop! My goal is to create scrapbooks, memory albums, and kits that encourage people to share their stories, preserve their photos, and document their everyday lives.

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Tuesday Tutorials: Winter Waterfall Album

Welcome back everyone!  With the launch of my new shop website  last week, I'm also planning fun new things for the blog!  One of the new features will be "Tuesday Tutorials" and I'm excited to share my first one with you today!

Winter Waterfall Album

Here are a few pictures of the album, and then if you scroll down a bit you will find the step-by-step instructions.  The paper I used for this album was designed by Lori Whitlock for Echo Park.  It's called My Favorite Winter and I just love the colors and cute little snowmen in this collection!

When you open the folio-style album, there is a pocket on the left side and the waterfall pages on the right.  The pocket is a great place to put journaling, extra photos, or a note if your album will be a gift.

Here are a few of the waterfall pages.  They each flip up to reveal fun embellishments and lots of photo mats.

Here are the instructions for making a waterfall album like this. For simplicity, I didn't include directions for placement of each pattern paper or embellishment.  That's where you can add your creative touch, but all of the measurements are included :)  And remember ... any collection will work with this project!  It doesn't have to be winter.  Have fun!

Winter Waterfall Folio Tutorial

12x12 Dark Blue card stock:

1. Cut blue card stock to 9” x 12”.
2. Position card stock on your score board so that the 12” width is at the top.
3. Score the card stock across left to right at .5”, 5.5”, 6.5” and 11.5”.
4. Turn the paper 1/4 turn to the left and score at .5” and 8.5”.
5. Trim out the corners as shown below.

12x12 Medium Weight Chipboard:

1. Cut chipboard into 3 pieces — 8” x 4 3/4” (2), and 8”x 1”.
2. Adhere the chipboard pieces to the blue card stock as shown.  Be sure to leave some space between each piece so that the album cover will fold properly.
3. Adhere the folds of the blue card stock down on the chipboard.

12x12 Dark Blue Card stock (not shown):

1. Cut blue card stock to 10 3/4” x  7 3/4”.
2. Adhere this piece over the chipboard on the inside of your album cover, making sure to crease the card stock so that it folds at the spine and covers the chipboard.

12x12 pattern paper:

1. Cut the pattern paper for the inside cover — 4 5/8” x 7 3/4” (2), and 1” x 7 3/4”.
2. Adhere them inside the cover as shown.

12x12 Pattern Paper / 12x12 Blue Card Stock / Ribbon:

1. Cut the pattern paper for the outside cover — 4 5/8” x 7 3/4” (2).
2. Cut a piece of pattern paper 1" x 7 3/4" for the spine.
3. Cut another piece of pattern paper to 4” x 4 1/4”.  Set aside.
4. Adhere a 20” piece of ribbon across the center of the cover.
5. Adhere the pattern paper over the blue card stock and ribbon as shown. Adhere the 1" piece down the spine also (not shown).

Cut Blue Card stock for inside of album:

1. 4” x 7 1/2” — base of waterfall
2. 4” x 4 1/2” (7) scored at 1/2” to create seven 4x4 squares.
3. 4 1/4” (width) x 4 1/2” (height) — pocket (see next set of instructions to complete pocket)

Create the Pocket:

1. To trim the corner of the blue card stock for the pocket, measure 3/4″ over from the top left hand edge and make a mark.  
2. From the right hand bottom edge, measure up 3/4″ and make a mark.  
3. Draw a line from mark to mark and cut off the corner piece. 
4. Locate the pattern paper you set aside earlier.  Lay the pattern side up and match the long and short sides of the pattern sheet, with the long and short sides of the blue pocket piece.  
5. Once you are sure you have the correct sides matched up, measure 1/2″ over from the left hand top edge and make a mark.  From the right hand bottom edge, measure up 1/2″ and make a mark.
6. Draw a line from mark to mark and cut off the corner piece.  Adhere the card stock and pattern pieces together.
7. Adhere the pocket to the inside left panel of your album ... be sure to put adhesive on the left and bottom sides only so that your inserts will slide behind.

Assemble the Waterfall pieces:

1. Apply glue to the scored and folded tab of each 4x4 square.  Adhere the first “tab” along the top edge of the waterfall base.
2. Adhere the second square by lining the “tab” up along the bottom edge of the previous tab. Be sure not to overlap the edge of the previous square.   
3. Adhere the waterfall element to the inside right panel of your album.

6x6 Paper Pad:

1. Cut 6x6 pattern paper for each of the squares — 3 3/4” x 3 3/4” (15)
2. Cut 6x6 pattern paper for the spaces in between the squares — 3/8” x 3 3/4” (7)

I hope this gives you some fun ideas for creating a unique mini! Have fun mixing and matching papers and embellishments ... that's always my favorite part!

Have you heard that I have a new shop website?  

All of my NEW products will be on my NEW site (only a few of my kits are on Etsy now) ... 

www.artsyalbums.shop!  

I hope you'll visit the new site and let me know what you think!!

Supplies:

Affiliate links are used in this post at no additional cost to you. I receive a small amount of compensation when you click through and shop using the provided links. This helps me to continue building my small business. Thank you!

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