Technique of the week - Dry embossing using embossing folders

There are 2 techniques that have the word "embossing" in them.  One way is using pigment ink and embossing powders - that I will cover later.  Today it is the use of embossing folders with paper in between and using a machine that will use pressure to push a design in the paper.

Close To My Heart paper has a white core.  That means when you put paper through an embossing folder/machine you can sand the paper and it will appear as a white design.

The right side has the impression of a heart and the left has been sanded.  You can leave it like that or you can use a sponge and add color with ink or chalk.  The Close To My Heart embossing folders are 5" x 7" but you can use any size of paper.

The embossing folders come in a variety of images.  How can you use them?
1. in the flip flaps on a page
2. on a page itself as a mat for a photo or cut out image
3. just as decoration on a page.
4. for cards in all the same ways as for pages
5. for the cover fold of a card

Here is the card with the embossed hearts.  In order to use the embossing folders, you need a machine.  I used the Sizzex Texture Boutique for a long time.  I have a number of folders that are 2x3, 5x1, and 3x5.  When Close to My Heart came out with the 5x7 size, I had to get a new machine.  I chose the Sizzex Big Kick as it would do 12 " things as well as a multipurpose platforms that would do the metal embossing, small nested metal and other things that I had. It came with some texture folders to use as well.

You can choose darker paper for cards and emboss the front.  Then you can put a white piece on the inside ( 1/4" smaller all around) so you can write a note or stamp a saying.  There are a variety of embossing folders with Close To My Heart - Arrow, floral, honeycomb, woodgrain, dot, chevron, quatrefoil, damask, stripe, vine, diamond, scallop and of course the heart.  You can use a variety of embossed images on the same page.  You can sand them or leave them.  Note: you need to be careful as you pull off the paper so you don't tear the piece you just embossed. 

Technique Tuesdays will now be "Technique of the week"

I am changing the name of "Technique Tuesday" to "Technique of the week" as it seems Tuesdays come and go with life happening in the way.  During the week I will do a different technique each week.

Technique of the week - Photos

This week I want to talk about photos.  One of the biggest things used in scrapbooks are photographs.  Most people get 4x6 photos.  Most of them are "Landscape" which means the 6 inches is horizontal and the 4 inches is the vertical.  (The 4 inches horizontal and 6 inches vertical is called "portrait".)  You can go to stores or online to get photos printed.  Note that Close To My Heart does digital scrapbooking where you don't need to print the photos and it is called Studio J - more on that later).

With 4x6 or 6x4 photos, you can often cut down easily to get a 4x4 for use in a layout.  There are other sizes in the Close To My Heart Workshop on the Go or idea books and you may wonder how you can get them.  There is a program called FotoSlate 4 which is free to download which will allow you to print your own photos in a paper saving mode as well as in any size you wish.

Here are some tips that will help you as you use your camera:

1. Know your equipment - don't wait until the "big" day to play with all the settings. This is true for a camera or a cell phone.  There are different programs, magazines and web sites that will help you know how to use all the stops and settings. Play with all the settings.  See how the photos look.  Take some time to write down what you used and what you like.  Try getting images in the dark, in the shadows, in full sun, indoors and outdoors.

2. Your phone can be enhanced by apps.  Cell phones can give you good images.   Sometimes apps can help give the program more power and options.  There are also applications that can help you manipulate the image after the fact.  If you want some ideas - message me.

3. Try the same photo at different settings as well as different angles.  There is something called the Rule of Thirds.  Imagine a Tic Tac Toe board.  Where the lines intersect is where you should focus your image - not dead center.  You can also follow along the lines 1/3 in any direction will make the images more interesting. Sometimes you can put the "grid" on so you can see as you are doing it where the focus will be.  Try seeing same image from high, low, different angles and in as many ways as you can. If you bracket -that is take more than one of the thing you are trying to take - if one way doesn't work you have a good chance that another will.

4. Watch your backgrounds.  You may not see until much later that the pole looks like it coming out of someone's head.  Our eyes focus on the subject we want to see and the brain ignores pretty much everything else.  Sometimes your image is in front of a "busy" background and you can hardly see what you want to see.

5. Be creative.  Use mirrors or windows to help frame what you are looking at.  See the colors and try to use them to your advantage.  There are people that know what paper they want to scrap with and choose their families attire accordingly on vacation trips or gatherings.  There are settings that allow you to do "sepia" tone or "black and white".  Try changing how fast or slow (speed ) or how wide or narrow ( aperture) the lense in the photos.

6. You can also try different programs that help you change your image: One of the things that you can do when you print your own or get photos printed is called "crop".  This means that you have a chance to "cut out" the things that distract from what you want to focus on. Many of the programs let you lighten or darken the image or "fix" red eye or other things that didn't work out for you on the first take.

7. Don't hide behind the camera.  Remember that you are in relationship with people around you. You want to remember moments of the event but you don't want to miss the event in real time.  Have your phone or camera ready to catch the great shots that happen in the moment but don't stay behind the camera all the time.  Also if you are the family "official" photographer, remember to hand the camera to someone so you can get in some shots too!

8. Figure out what system you want to store your digital images in or your physical photos.  There are many programs you can use to store your images.  You can also use an external hard drive so that they are in one spot for your use.  Even if you have real photos, you need some system to store them so when you want to use them in scrapbooking, you can find them.  Many program are free or inexpensive and will work well for you.  One of the simplest is to keep them by date.  Many programs will allow you to tag more than one thing for each photo.

What do you do with "leftovers"?

In our family we usually make more at a meal so we can have leftovers.  When you scrap either for pages or cards or projects, what do you do with leftovers?  I have been working on pages and cards.  as I was putting things away, I began to sigh.  I hate to throw out paper - even a small size.  I was putting aways stamps taking time with other things so I didn't need to make a decision about whether to throw or to keep when I spotted a consultant stamp that had "thank you" kind of things.

I went through all the little pieces and decided that I could make some 3x3 cards that can have the cost of someone purchase or even just something to hand them ahead of time if they are paying.  I do have some large pieces to put away.  I used to put the pages I made in the same bag as the pieces so that I could embellish or make more pages if needed.  The pages I worked on have photos and they are already in an album.  I might make some additional pages or I may not but now I have to know how to reunite the paper packet pieces and the pages that are done.  That will be left for tomorrow.

Technique Tuesdays - sewing

It seems that Technique Tuesdays will sometimes be Technique Wednesday!  Today's technique is sewing.  There are different ways to do holes, thread and sewing into cards and pages.

1. The Sewing machine
I got a Quik Fix Singer sewing machine that does 8 different stitches. (I have tried some cheap craft sewing machines and had no luck.  I didn't want to use my really good sewing machine so I thought I would try this little Quik Fix.  It is working out fine. )  One thing to remember is that paper is not forgiving like cloth is.  Once a hole is made - you have a hole.  On paper I don't knot off the thread which means that you have to be careful when cutting the ends because if you pull the thread out of the hole, it is hard to get thread back in.

This card has both straight stitch and zig zag.  There are a variety of threads you can get in small spools that will last you for a long time.  

2. Making holes by hand

Close To My Heart has a neat Stitch guide and Ruler that go over a Foam mat. You can choose which guide to follow.  There are straight stitches, zig zag, circles, stars, hearts, and other shapes.    The Stitching Guide has half of a variety of sizes of shapes and you can flip the guide and get a complete shape when you punch.  There is a Piercing and Embossing Tool kit that helps get the holes in.  1- you can use floss in the holes 2- you can use markers to make lines between the holes.  It appears that it is the holes and not the thread which makes you see this embellishment.

You can see the hand stitching on the bottom.  The guide is on page 181 of the Annual Inspirations Close To My Heart catalogue.  

Hint on Cutting:

One of the basic things to do is to "cut" your paper.  You can use a paper trimmer or scissors.  More about that in a later blog.  If you notice the butterflies on the first card are 3-d as well as cut close to the image.  Large scissors are important as well as small scissors but sometimes when you want to cut closer, it is best to use a craft utility knife on a cutting mat.  Close To My Heart has a great VersaMat which has one side for cushioned stamping, self-healing and easy-to-read grids and the other side is for cutting.  It is 13x13.  

Hint on mailing:

When you use "bling" you need to check with the post office as you may have to pay more for hand-stamping.  Going through the machines can tear up the envelop and your hard work on the card.  The people at the post office will be glad to test as see if it can go regular mail or if it needs hand stamping.

Lollydoodle Cards

I had a packet of Lollydoodle paper and decided to see the different kinds of cards that I could make.  I am still deciding if I will do multiples of the ones I have done or if I will do some more.  It is fund to try and see all the combinations that you can come up with 

How do you work on a theme?

I have some stamps that are hexagons.  I have the embossing folder of hexagons - called Honeycomb.    There are cricut shapes that match.  I used the Wanderful paper for 4 - 2 page layouts with a pocket card.  Becuase I use neutral paper for the background and use that as well for special stamping, I outlined the 'flags' and the hexagons with black ink with a _._. pattern.  It helps delineate the edge and helps the design.  If anyone wants to get the directions, message me and I will send what I have.  There is a special pocket card that is also in the photos.  In Arftully sent, there are "sleeves" and "pocket cards".  This is a great way to hide journaling but also add other photos.

Technique Tuesday - Masking

There is a Stamp of the Month in March called "Choose Happy".   It has cute frames. Often you have an idea but the frame which turns out to be either not large enough or too large.  Masking will help you put images together or allow a larger image to fit in a smaller space.   The card on the left is stamped from the set called "Lovely Birthday".  There is a big flower, a little flower and a leaf but they are all separate. The biggest flower gets lost in the frame and needs more - like the little flowers and leaf.   If you want them to look like a group, you need to mask. I stamped the frame and cut it out.  I stamped the largest flower in one corner.   I stamped the largest flower on a piece of scrap paper and cut it out.  I put that cut out flower, which is now my "mask", on the paper and I stamped the little flowers and the leaves over it. (The image was small enough that I could hold it and stamp at the same time.  See the note on the bottom if holding doesn't work. )  They now look like they have always been together.   I then used markers to color them.

Likes wise, the cute cupcakes from the December Stamp of the Month - "Cutie Pie" were just a little big for the frames that I wanted to use.  I stamped the frames and cut them out.  I stamped another frame on a piece of scrap paper, and used a craft knife to cut out the middle.  I placed the cut out frame over the stamped frame and stamped the cupcakes slightly off the frame on the bottom so they looked cute in the frame.

You can see the masks I used.  Also I used these masking images to try the ShinHan Touch Twin Markers from Close to My Heart to see what would look best on the images.  Although the example for masking is with cards, you can use this technique to stamp images for scrapbooks or other projects.  Masking allows you to group objects together or to use objects that wouldn't fit exactly in so many different ways.

For example, if you have a fence stamp and want things it to look like they are "behind the fence", you will stamp the fence twice - once for your project and once to cut out. When you mask you need a good craft knife and self healing cutting mat.  You need to cut out as much detail as you can so that the stamp you stamp over the mask can show through.  The more detail, the thinner the mask paper needs to be.  You take your cut out mask and put it directly over the same stamped image.

When you mask, you need your image not to move when you are stamping on it.  You can use CTMH's Bonding Memories Glue.  When you use this glue directly it has a permanent hold.  If you put it on something and let it dry, it has a temporary hold - like a 3-M sticky note.  Once the image is place over the other image and is secure, then you stamp the other things over the mask and they appear as if they are behind the fence.  There are sometimes that 3-M sticky notes are great for masking as well.  If you need great detail behind the mask, you need to stamp using thin paper - either copy paper or something like a sticky notes. Post-It makes a full adhesive note so that you have adhesive all over the back.  You need to have something to stamp on and cut out that covers the image you are using.  I often use the Bonding Memories glue for large images for ease of use.

Don't forget that in being creative, you can use stamps from different sets to make something new all together. 

What Cricut Cartridge do I buy from Close To My Heart?

Close To My Heart has 4 great cartridges and they each have different strengths.  Art Philosophy, Artiste, Art booking and Artfully Sent.  The following is an overview of each so you can make an informed decision of what to get.  They come with different stamp sets that match the work of the cartridge. There are more stamps available that are compatible with the cartridges.  You can see what stamps go with the cartridges in the catalog by their outline in red.  Even if the stamps are not in the current catalog, they are still available.  (Usually stamps are only available 1 year after they appear. ) Go to barbarapagekell.ctmh.com and under  Shop, My Acrylix Stamp Sets you will find Cricut Compatible Stamp Sets.  For those who use the online Cricut Craft room there are some charts that have all the numbers to find all of the CTMH images. You can find it at thenoncraftycrafter.com or Google it.   There are advantages if you can connect your cricut to a computer/laptop vs just using the machine.

Art Philosophy
The Categories are: Layer, Decorative Layer, Tag, Card, Font and Font Layer
In the back of the booklet you will have a view of the Icon Gallery which is each category both regular and shift.

There are 2 images on each page that the layer and decorative layer works with.  The Tag  with a rectangular hole can be for sliding on ribbon or paper and the other tag can have a ribbon in the hole or a brad.  There are 2 cards on each page.  You can use some of the layer/decorative layer combos but you decide the size.  The Font layer has 3 holes in each letter/number  for bling/ embellishments a well as when you shift, you get a box to build.

You get to decide what size everything will be.  To have things match you need to keep the same size when you cut or experiment.  It is great that there is an icon with the button placement for each page.

Artiste
It has a regular booklet and an “Assembly Instructions” booklet. There are 3 D projects which need help on folding and gluing instructions and the booklet provides pictures with arrows and glue so you can put them together.  The categories are: Accent 1, Accent 2, Accent 3, Accent 4, Card and 3D Objects.  Each page is color coded on that page for the projects that fit together. The upper left corner shows the finished projects and the color so you can see what coordinating things you have to work with.  Where size matters, it is listed in inches and centimeters as to what cuts will work.  Most of the Accents are matched by color in the same square with regular and shift.  If the image is gray or black, they are not coordinated with any project.  If there is a card, there is usually an envelop to go with it.  You can decide what size the card/envelop to the size allowed on the page.

There are many great tags that can be used in a variety of ways.  There are also different shaped tabs to use in booklet projects or on pages.  There are a couple of booklet projects.  There are things that act like bookmarks or tabs that can go on pictures or booklet projects.  There are images and a few sayings as well. There are also white chipboard dimensional elements 1- 12 x 9 page of 6 album pages matching the cut album in the cartridge.  You can make a booklet in combination of these chipboard pages or adhere the cut pages to the chipboard.

Artbooking
The Icon Gallery is in the front.  In this booklet Real Dial Size matters.  The icon gallery is divided not by pages but by image type.  You can see by color which image is on which page.  It has the projects by color for booklet and photo mat.  There are also images with layers and the finished images creation is shown.  The Categories are: Title, Photo Mat 1, Photo Mat 2, Icon, Border and Overlay.

Take for instance page 38.  It is for an 8x8 Travel Mini Album.  The Overlay on that page will fit 8x8 size.  If you want to have it for any other size, you need to turn on the Real Dial Size.  If you want the borders to be 12 inches, it is easier to work online in the Cricut Craftroom where you can melt images together rather than cut separate ones and put them together.  There is away to trick the cricut to cut 12 inches when you have a 24” mat and start the 12” paper ¼ inch down from the top.

Artfully Sent
The is the newest one from CTMH.  This has an “Assembly Instructions” booklet for the pop up cards.  The Categories are: Pop-up, Icon, Scene, Sentiment, Sleeve, Pocket card.  The front of the booklet has the icon gallery by category.  First are the fonts and then the different envelopes.  Here you can find any shape envelop at a quick glance.  Next are the Pop-up cards with how they will look opened up.  They are all in red. The next are the green Scene cards.  Usually you fold them first in the middle and then front half out.  You can also cut a second card and cut it at the fold to cover the first card with different paper for a layered look.

The red Pop-ups say either 5” or 7”.  These are all 5x7 cards for finished size.  If you want 5.5x 4.25 purple cards in the Sentiment shift area.  If you want the pop-up cards 5 ½ by 4 ¼, you put the 5” at 41/4 or the 7 at 5 ½ and then keep it at that size for all the proportionate things and the envelopes for everything to match.  You can find in the Icons the things to cut for all the cards.  Remember that the whole cricut cartridge is proportionate for that page so if you are trying something different do it on scrap first.  The Scene cards have their own insert which is next to it.  The Sleeve is the first one that will fit a 4x6 pocket size.  This is just right for a gift card on the pocket insert.  It is wise to line the Sleeve with a 3 ¾ x 5 ¾ piece of paper.  The Shift on the Sleeve is another 7x5 card.  The Pocket Card is great for Picture My Life albums or regular pages or inserts in the sleeves.  You can also use them as photo mats.  The dark purple are all 4x6 either landscape or portrait.  The lighter lavender are all 3x4 cards either landscape or portrait. On page 50 is a plain 4x6 and 3x4 cards for you to cut but you can also cut paper that size and use the corner rounder.  All the cards have these great cut out pieces on them which can be backed with all the scrap pieces you have saved.

Tips: use the blue mats for overlays and for small items.  The Medium and hard ones often help with the larger cuts.  Turn the mats and change to Portrait to have a longer life on the mats.  Make sure the Triangle on the knife is forward on the cutting blade.  Go only as much pressure as you need for the cuts.  Faster is sometimes better for heavier and slower for lighter paper.

 Remember that when you use Paper saver you can get more things on the page but if you want to use the “negative space” for titles, you can’t use the paper saver and you need to put spaces where you would have them when you type.

When you have smaller pieces of paper, put them in the lower left had corner and use the “set Cut area” button to get the cut on the paper you have.  Don’t forget “last Load” for when you want to start cutting where the blade left off and Repeat last buttons to cut the same thing you just cut.  You can always find the Cricut instruction book online.  You can find videos of all the CTMH books and more on YouTube.  You can find things to do on Pinterest.

You can go to barbarapagekell.ctmh.com and under Products you can see the 4 Cricut cartridges and the stamps and other things that come with them.  Also you can find on the website 2 helpful charts:  Different Machines which helps you decide what the best machine is for you.  Tips and tricks give you a chart for the speed, depth of blade and pressure for all different material you might cut.  Scroll down and you will find all the images from each of the cartridges.