I've mentioned before that I'm not much of an off-the-page scrapper- layouts are more my thing, and it's very rare that I'm inspired to work on a more dimensional product. This Christmas, though, I've caught the ornament-making bug, and I pulled out some glitter and die cuts to make a set a couple of weeks ago.

I have to admit- this project was more inspired by the fact that I wanted to play with glitter than anything else, but when I got my new box of Christmas at Home goodies from Pretty Little Studio in the mail and spotted the new vintage die cuts in the collection, I knew I could combine sparkle and vintage to make some fun ornaments.

I started by coating the bottom portion of some plain glass ornaments from Michaels with a thick white glue (any adhesive that bonds to both glass and glitter will work here as long as it doesn't run- you don't want it dripping off the bottom while the ornaments are drying). I kept my glue line messy and uneven on purpose- I wanted it to look a bit like hills covered in snow.

After coating with glue, I sprinkled glitter over my ornaments and then hung them to dry (and though you can only see one side of the ornament in my photos, I did coat them all the way around and on the bottoms, too).

While the glue was drying, I turned to my Pretty Little Studio die cuts and selected three that I wanted to use, along with some star shaped journaling tags and few other smaller bits from both the Christmas at Home collection and the older Jingle Bells line.

I grouped the die cuts into clusters, then adhered them with dimensional adhesive to give a bit of space between the layers.

After the glue dried on the ornaments, I used a soft, dry brush to remove the excess flakes before attaching the die cut clusters to them. At first I was just going to hang the clusters from the tops of the ornaments with baker's twine, but I found that a couple of strategically placed foam dots on each ornament helped secure the cluster exactly where I wanted it to hang.

And now I have an ornament to hang on my tree, and the other two have been given to my parents and my brother for their own decorations.

If you wanted to skip the glue and glitter mess with these, you could just as easily paint the bottom of some clear ornaments, or you might even have some pre-painted plain ornaments in your Christmas collection already- this is a great way to dress them up!

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Supplies (click on images for product links):

InLinkz.com

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layout | zen beri {lawn fawn}

Lawn Fawn is giving everyone a glimpse at two of their newest stamp sets, due to be released at CHA Winter 2013 in Janauary (so this is quite possibly one of the first sneak peeks of the CHA season!), and today is all about the ice-cream themed Here's the Scoop. There's tons of inspiration using this new set over on the Lawn Fawn blog, including one of my layouts that combines it with the Dewey Decimal collection!

I loooooove ice cream, and while I normally stick with my gluten- and dairy-free Almond Dream Bites (I don't have a gluten allergy, I just prefer to eat that way), every once in a while (okay, a lot in a while- especially when I'm stressing) I like to indulge in something that's a lot less healthy. Thanks to Groupon, Darren and I have tried just about every frozen yogurt shop in town, and we both agree, hands down, that Zen Beri is our favorite. It's not too sweet, and they have an amazing selection of toppings!

I also filmed this layout as I was putting it together, so if you watch below (email subscribers can click this link) you can see me fuss with paper layers and try out lots of frilly bits behind the photo block until I finally decide to use the die cut arrow background that I've had laying in a pile of similar cuts on my desk for months. So happy to finally put it on a page, and I definitely need to dig into my paper scraps and cut up some more random backgrounds to keep around- you never know when they'll come in handy!

You know, as much as I like ice cream, it's a really good thing that I also love running...

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Supplies (click on images for product links):

InLinkz.com

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american crafts announces new ac digitals shop

 

The news broke on Becky Higgins' blog this morning that American Crafts has entered the digital scrapbooking world by opening their own digital shop, AC Digitals. AC Digitals will be carrying both past and current collections from most of the American Crafts family of brands in digital format, starting with a small selection being introduced this week (including Amy Tan's Ready. Set. Go. full collection) that will be expanded in the weeks to come with new products being announced on Mondays. Brands included in this new venture are American Crafts core collections (including the Dear Lizzy and Amy Tangerine signature lines), Crate Paper, Pebbles, and Becky Higgins' Project Life. Noticeably absent from the lineup is Studio Calico, who maintains a production-and-distribution-only relationship with American Crafts while retaining full rights and control of their own artistic properties.

 

I'm pretty much a paper scrapper (though I dabble in digi now and then), but I have reasons for getting quite excited when I hear that another scrapbooking manufacturer has opted to release their existing paper lines in digital format. Being able to print out just the small section of paper I need without having to store a whole collection and the ever useful Print and Cut feature of the Silhouette cutter are two big ones, but there's a third (and perhaps more peculiar) one at play that I think at least a few of you might share with me.

 

I like pretty paper. A lot. And sometimes there's a sheet so pretty (ummm, the map print above from Crate Paper's Sleigh Ride collection, anyone?) that I hesitate to cut into it for fear of never being able to get hold of that pattern again. Having a digital copy of those same patterns makes it much, much easier for me to chop up paper and use it on my layouts, knowing that all I have to do is go into the Lightroom catalog where I store my digital supplies to be able to see it again in all of its whole, uncut glory, and I can even have it printed again in 12x12 format (though it's not really cost-effective to do so, simply having the option gets rid of all the anxiety for me) if needed. It also eliminates the ever-popular "buy two sheets just in case you ever want it again" way of solving the problem, reducing the amount of money and storage space used for duplicate physical supplies. I admit that this quirk may be unique to me, but it's my main reason for doing a little happy dance every time one of my favorite manufacturers adds digital to their existing line.

And that map print paper? It's available in either the individual digital paper pack or full digital Sleigh Ride collection, and this week it's even 25% off as AC Digitals celebrates its grand opening!

American Crafts joins popular lines such as Echo Park, Carta Bella, Glitz, Fancy Pants, Jenni Bowlin, Pink Paislee (all available at Jessica Sprague), and others I'm sure I'm missing in the joint digital/paper frontier. Now, will someone please call up October Afternoon and politely ask them to join the party so I can chop up some of their lovely papers that I'm hoarding right now?