Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Artbooking... and a card

Hello crafty friends! 
 
I finally got my hands on the Close To My Heart/Cricut Artbooking cartridge and oh my goodness.  I seriously think this is one of the best cartridges that Provo Craft has ever put out.  It has a great font, a ton of pre-welded titles, pre-made mini books (or LOs) where everything is designed for you already, basic shapes, banners, accents, backgrounds... I could go on and on but I'd rather show you!
 
Here is just one LO I made (click on the picture to enlarge). 
 
 
This uses the "Teen Layout" pre-made, pre-figured-out layout on page 81 of the
Artbooking handbook.  I used my own colors and made the page about my 10 y/o,
of course.  No teens here yet, thankfully!  :)
 
Left-sided page:
 
 
Right-sided page:
 
Now, originally I made my Cricut cuts and was going to leave it all as is, just add an embellishment or two.  But the boring cardstock just about demanded (LOL) that I stamp on it, distress it, something, to make it less boring.  So I did stamp on it.  Normally I draw dashed lines around the perimeter of photo mats or the 12x12 paper, but I found a stamp and used that instead.  See the sun rays above with all those lovely dashed lines?  Yup.  That's a stamp, and the circle part with the chevron pattern is another stamp. 
 
Here are a few accents.  This banner with "about you" was cut from the Art Philosophy cartridge.  The alpha is CTMH's Keyboard Kraft Alpha.  The wooden piece is from the wooden Mini-Medley Accents.  And there's bling too- Opaques Mocha adhesive gems.  On this banner I did the stitching with a marker, by hand. 
 
 
This stamped border is from the set called Love Life.  It really
brightened up that boring corner of my background cardstock.  I also used my pen to outline the whole title.  There wasn't a shadow of the shape to be cut and I can't just leave it like that... when there's no shadow I always outline the cutout for just a bit more depth.  You can see towards the bottom of the "1" where my marker became possessed and I messed up.  I will ignore my OCD and leave it as is.... :)
 
 
 
Another shot of the accent pieces and bling. 
 
 
This twine is also part of the wooden mini-medley accents.
 
 
The cool part about the frames on the LO above is that I still have
these two mats left over for another project.  :) 
 
 
Here's the sun part on the left-sided page.  I stamped from the same Love Life set and added bling, more wood, and the twine.
 
 
Here's a view of what I used; click on each name to go to my CTMH website for ordering purposes. 
-- Love Life stamp set
  
 
So, I had that Love Life stamp set out and decided to make a card with it.  It's a fantastic stamp set.  Here's a picture of it along with the paper I wanted to possibly use.
 
 
These are all the stamped and cut elements of my card.  I used the three-circle
thingie as a background on my Topiary cardstock, using Topiary ink
too for a tone-on-tone effect.  The orange flowers are stamped with Sunset. 
I decided not to use the rose flower side of the patterned paper, only the green dots.   
 
 
My completed card.  Except for the small flowers, I inked the edges
of everything in either Topiary or Sunset, and I added some bling too.
 
 
Don't forget to stamp the inside!  I made two of this card and on the right one
I didn't ink my stamp properly so I had to do damage control by adding another
 stamp... I like the only on the left better, the one where I inked the green swirly
stamp correctly.  My sister likes the haphazard-looking swirlies on the right card... go
figure.  I used the Topiary ink and the stars and hearts are stamped with Sunset ink. 
 
 
 
Detail shot:
 
 
 
That was my Artbooking adventure for today.  Stay tuned for
more as I explore this cartridge even further!  Until then,
stay crafty, my friends.  LOLOL
 
Topiary ink pad can be purchased HERE
Sunset ink pad can be purchased HERE
 

3 comments:

  1. Wow, impressed again...as usual!! Great layout and really like the card. I think my favorite thing is the attention to detail on both, all the little bits you do here and there to pull it all together. Keep 'em coming!

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  2. Love that card! It's gorgeous! Great stamping on both projects!

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  3. Fun to see your cardstock demands inking and stamping - glad it hear it isn't just mine then ;) I like the haphazard stamping but like both cards too!

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