July 29, 30, & 31, 2010

Valley Forge Convention Center

King of Prussia, PA

 *CKC-Charlotte*

August 13-14, 2010

Charlotte Convention Center

Charlotte, NC

 *CKC-Cincinnati*

 September 10-11, 2010

Duke Energy Convention Center

Cincinnati, OH

 *CKC-Virginia Beach*

August 27-28, 2010

Virginia Beach Convention Center

Virginia Beach, VA

*Scrapbook Expo*

August 20 & 21, 2010

St. Charles, IL 60174

 October 22 & 23, 2010

*Ontario, CA*

November 5 & 6, 2010

Sacramento, CA

This month we did it again, only I had the opportunity to create first (muah ha ha) and send it to Alyssa!
Here is what she received from me…

I absolutely adore this photo. Last summer, Alyssa and her family came to visit me in Alabama, and this image is of our 4 kids standing together at a local park. After having some photoshop fun with the picture, I used the colors of the balloons as inspiration in creating the background. I used my Trash Bag Technique, lots of glimmer mist, and some painted bubble wrap to give the page the Heidi-esque artsy feel. I then added strips off to the side like Alyssa often does, only using chipboard and felt for added fun. I could not wait to see what she would come up with!

Here is how she finished it!

(Cardstock used: Frosted Felt, Pumpkin Vine, Temptress)

Didn’t she an amazing job? I LOVE that she kept the bit of green (hmmm… sounds like what she said about the last progressive!) and added more. Her use of foliage and hand-cut details add so much eye candy to the layout and I am just in love with how it turned out! What do you think?

xx Heidi

ps. Don’t forget to leave a comment on my Font Challenge, Take 2 post earlier this week, by midnight tonight…. I have a stash waiting for a winner!

However, my patience ran out a couple months back and I decided that I was going to make my own orchid, and today I am going to share it with you!

Here is what you are going to need:

Your favorite scissors

A circle template/stencil

An oval template/circle

Distress ink and sponge

Glimmer Mist

Couture Cardstock

Pop dots

Adhesive

Bling or beads (optional, you can use so many things for this step!)

1. Draw templates like below, onto a pale colored cardstock. Both my circles and ovals were 1.5 inches and I overlapped them slightly. For the cardstock, I used Couture Cardstock’s “Baby Blanket”, because my finished flower was going to be a dark pink, and I wanted the pale pink to show through in the center.

2. Cut out your flower pieces, flip over so that you don’t see the markings, and ink with Distress Ink. (I used “Vintage Photo” for mine.)

3. Then scrunch up a small piece of scrap paper, crumpling into a ball. Place this into the center of your circle template. This will be acting as a mask for the center of your orchid.

4. Mist with your favorite color. I used Tattered Angels “Bubblegum” and “Red Velvet”.

5. While still slightly damp, scrunch the edges of both flower pieces. After you have achieved your desired scrunching glue the circle template onto the oval piece as follows!

6. Now, cut a small heart from your leftover cardstock. Then cut out the bottom and center, like in the photo below.Keep this piece, you will need both to finish the center of the orchid!

7. Slightly mist this with the same color that you used on your orchid pieces, and then attach to your orchid. You want to place the top, thick portion of the heart, onto the bottom of your flower. Orchids have  a unique little center with tails that point up, and the bottom of your heart will be used for this. After the heart is attached, slightly twist the tails of your heart so that they point up and in.

8. Take the tiny center of the heart that you cut out, and glue pointed up, just above where you cut it out. Bend the tip of that heart up as well.

9. Add a teeny bit of bling or beads, teeny flowers, scrunched up paper, etc., to the center of that… and there she is!

I have made several of these, while making the tutorial above (hence the reason the masked center all appears the same!), but you can alter as you’d like and change the size based on what size shaped circles and ovals you initially start with.

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial!  Tomorrow, I will be bringing you another progressive layout that Alyssa and I worked on together, you won’t believe how she finished the craziness that I sent her.

xx Heidi

PS- Here are the winners we promised!

Angie Vallejo, you are the winner of our poll and you will receive some Couture Cardstock!

Laura Stewart, you are the winner of our Font Challenge, part 1 post and have won some flowers!

Congrats, ladies, please email me at amcgrew@couturecardstock.com to claim your prizes.

Don’t forget, you have until the 1st to comment on Heidi’s Font Challenge part 2 contest to be entered to win another prize pack!  :)

~Alyssa~

This week the coordinating Couture cardstock colors are Suspect, Curry Spice, Gumshoe, and Watson.

The background to my card is the color Suspect, mounted on top of Curry Spice. I used Watson to create the faux ribbon detailing underneath the lace, and I rubbed rub-ons on top of the color Suspect, creating a couple of strips across the card. The card is finished in the inside by saying “is empty without you.”  And of course, there is a bit of messy, grungy, detail made by ink and molding paste. (Did you think my cards would be clean lined? I am guessing not! I just can’t seem to help myself…)

Don’t forget to answer Alyssa’s poll question for Saturday, she will be announcing the winner on Tuesday!

Tomorrow I will be posting an orchid tutorial, I hope you will come back and take a peek.

xx Heidi

This is me and Cheryl, The Scrapbook Shoppe owner. What a wonderful, bubbly, fun, woman, she is! And these two, Claire and Jill, kept me going… that is for certain. I didn’t even have time to get nervous, they were able to ask all the right questions, at all the right times! (All the ladies here were so sweet, and just made me feel so comfortable!)

Cheryl was great about taking some photos, so here are some “action shots” during the class!

I taught the ladies how to make their own orchid flowers and a dimensional starfish out of Couture Cardstock, and then we created a layout and card using Couture Cardstock and Websters Pages “Seaside Retreat”.

Here is the layout we made! Aren’t the colors beachy and vibrant?

So you see the orchids and starfish? By the time we were finished with this class, I had everyone inked, misted, sanded, and sparkled!

If you like those orchids, come back and visit us on Tuesday.  I will be posting a tutorial on how to make orchids of your own, but these will be the non-beachy version!

This was so much fun. Thank you Cheryl and ladies for having me over to play! I hope I get to see you all real soon.

xx Heidi

Supplies used: Couture Cardstock: Winter White, Nomad, and Umbrella

- What blog post (from this blog please from the last month or two stands out in your mind the most?  Why did it stick in your head, and did it inspire you to create something?

Tomorrow, Heidi shares the projects from the class she is teaching today.  I, for one, wish I was AT her class today, but at least we get all the details tomorrow.  :)

Go create.

~Alyssa~

Here is what you will need:

A sheet of cardstock (I used Winter White)

Assorted Mists

A Brad

Stencils or a die-cutting machine

1. Mist cardstock randomly.

2. Choose the area you want to use for your flower, and trace flower stencil on the back.  In the center of the flower, trace a circle.  (note: My flower stencil measures 5′ across and the circle measures 3-1/4″ across)

3. Cut out both the flower and the circle.

4. Spiral cut your center flower, and then fold your spiral in half length-wise.

5. Roll your spiral into a flower center.

6. Take the scalloped edge, and wrap it around in a circle, folding a bit as needed.

7. Glue edge to scrap cardstock.  Add flower to the center.

8. Add a brad for the flower center.

9. Turn flower upside down and mist with a dark spray, allowing the mist to “ink” the edges of the petals.

10. Wrap petals up and scrunch until you love it.

11. Let dry.

~Alyssa~

P.S.- You have until Sunday night to leave a comment a both “Font Challenge” posts for your chance to win!

Using my Cricut Expressions, I cut the first font using the “Plantin Schoolbook” cartridge. After cutting it out of Couture Cardstock’s “Baby Blanket“, I cut a rectangle around the word hello and then mounted on top of Couture Cardstock’s “Brandenburg.“  This added a fun, tag-like appearance, while giving the word some dimension.

I then cut the word out using the cartridge “Alphalicious”, again mounting on the dark pink color for shadowing and dimension!

Finally, I used an old standby of mine, the “Opposites Attract” cartridge. This font is quite swirly and I find that it adds a feminine touch to whatever I am creating.

I decided to go with font number 2 above, I think that it appealed to me because of the casualness of the font… it gave a little bit more whimsy to the card.

Which font would you have picked?

Leave me a comment letting me know and I will randomly pick a winner on the 1st of July… you will get a stash from MY stash! 

xx Heidi

(Cardstock used: Brandenburg, Baby Blanket, Snow)

**There is a chance to win at the bottom of this post!**

So, I first partially created a layout, until I got it to the point where I would normally add the lettering.  Then I cut out my title using 3 different fonts, and Sprinkle cardstock.

Then I laid each title on my layout to see which one I liked best.  I used several different placements too.  By the way, this is hard for me to show you a partially completed layout!

This font (above) is called “Freestyle Script” and although at first it seemed appropriate, once I saw it on the layout it seems too light and insubstantial to work well.

This one, called FAFERS Handwriting Font, is better, and closer to what I was looking for.  While I like the look of it, it feels a little too sporty for my artsy, graphic layout.

This one is Impact, an old standard.  It doesn’t have the flair I usually prefer in my fonts, but it does stand out more then the others, is easily readable, and complements the graphic nature of this layout quite well.

Here is how I finished the layout:

So, what do you think?  Would you have made a different choice?  Leave me a comment and let me know what you think and why.  I will send one random commenter a few handmade cardstock flowers! (leave your comments by Friday night at 11:59 EST to be eligible for the drawing).

Come back tomorrow to see Heidi play with a few fonts of her own.

~Alyssa~

Supplies used: Couture Cardstock “Alabaster Columns, Canvas, Sprinkle“