"Cherish The Day" SOTM Blog Hop

Welcome to this month's Stamp of the Month "Cherish the Day" Blog Hop. I'm sure you loved visiting the fabulous Katy Donaldson's blog to see her fun creations with this unique and clever stamp set, available for only $5 with a $50 purchase (or $17.95).

Even better - if you spend at least $25 of your $50 purchase on stamps, you'll also get a Stamp Set called "Holiday Wishes" (featuring images that coordinate with CTMH's Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge) for only $5 too. That's two great stamp sets for only $10 this month!

If you just can't wait another minute to get your hands on these great deals, click here!

Ok, on to my creation with this stamp set.  When I sat down to craft a fun card on Saturday, it was snowing like crazy here.  Snow . . . in Virginia . . . in October? 

So, when I saw the October image with "so chilling", I loved the double meaning of frightful Halloween paired with snowflakes. Maybe my friends in Colorado wouldn't think it's a big deal, but it's totally crazy for us!

I started with CTMH's new 4 1/2" white Circle Card, used the Wonderland Paper Packet, Top Coats Icing Overlays, "Snowflakes" stamp set, Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge, silver embossing powder, twilight cardstock that I distressed, and twilight and chocolate inks with one of CTMH's new round cards.  I hope you like it!

Now, on to the wonderful Mary Eisen's blog to see what she's come up with! 

Elemental Makes Perfect Sports Layout

My daughter's cheer season is almost over - heading into the playoffs. It's been so much fun watching her cheer. It doesn't get old, even now in her fifth year of Upper Loudoun Youth Football.  With so many different cheers and stunts throughout the season and the many cute opportunities to capture the team's commaraderie, it's so hard not to take a lot of great pictures. 

I loved how Elemental worked so great with these pictures - fun adding in other colors when most of my layouts are just "green and gold". 

Lots more to come . . . working on a 6 x 6 Mini Album for the team to put together with their own pictures, for them to treasure this super fun season!

Neat Studio J Tricks with Layout

This is one of my favorite Jeanette Lynton patterns of all times called "Sidelines", and with the intricacy of sizing the pictures on the top right, Studio J is the perfect tool to use to highlight this gorgeous layout!

I used the Olivia papers from last year - so beautiful. Some techniques I used with this layout include increasing the size of my picture (see bottom right with corn field) until our family was out of it and it was just the corn field background. Then, I put a journaling box on top with the vellum background.  I was so happy how it turned out. 

Another technique is using one of the many tag choices and putting a title box on top to create my own unique title rather than using the Quick Title Tool.

Again, like yesterday's layout, this one was part of the batch that I missed my JPEG download window, so I just took a picture with my camera.  Except for my lousy camera skills (nice centered picture, eh?), I'm kind of glad this happened.  It really shows with my photography that you cannot tell if this layout is digital from classical unless you could touch it!  Studio J is so  FABULOUS!!!

Roxie Too Perfect for Girlie Cheer Pages

So, still completely addicted to Studio J and have been consistently ordering a mininum of 15 - 20 layouts a month.  When the weather is nice, love sitting on the porch watching the kids play and whipping up a couple of layouts.  When I'm wearing down for the night, love laying in bed watching one of my shows and working on my layouts.  Some are super simple - just want it down and figure I can always add journal boxes or any embellishment later, if feel it needs more.  Some pages, I'll admit I'll spend quite a bit of time on but then so excited with the results that I have to keep showing everyone.  I'm sure my family is so sick of me asking, "look at this!".

This is an example of a layout that I spent much more time on.  It was neat trying out using the different tags and adding journal boxes to them, and then adding embellishments to further jazzing up the box.  I also had fun mixing up the fonts and styles for my title, then layoring some of the stickease throughout the titles.  Best of all, CTMH's Roxie paper is just perfectly girlie and gorgeous!

Note:  So sorry for the image quality - this is not a jpg of my Studio J - so in person it looks much crisper.  I learned a big lesson with Studio J - after 7 days, your JPEGS are really not there for downloading and seven days goes so quickly. Best thing to do is download as soon as you get the email, or you'll forget!

Fall Harvest and Halloween - Mischief Double Teaming It With Remnants and CTMH's Art Philosophy Cartridge



I had fun making this layout using REMANTS - Mischief Level 2 Paper Packet, Midnight Felt Shapes, Mischief Complements Rub Ons, old Antiqued Copper Accessories, and Kraft Borders. Even more fun? Adding NEW CTMH Cricut Art Philosophy shapes like the scallop circle cut in half and title box bottom right corner, and shapes for the one of my favorite stamp sets for the season - Harvest Happiness C1463, which coordinates fabulously with the Art Philosophy cartridge ( see all different shaped leaves and branches). So fun!!!

Close up of the gorgeous branches from the Art Philosophy cartridge that coordinates so great with branches and leaves from the Harvest Happiness stamp set!

Another fun layout with the remaining pieces of Mischief (even after two layouts, SOTM box, cards, and layout above - wow, less paper and still so much to create . . . ) Look at those super awesome zip stripes on the new paper and how fun that cutting out the shapes on the Mishief paper gives you die-cuts!   This layout also used accessory remnants from the Midnight Felt Shapes, Mischief Rub Ons, and I added some Black Hemp.  Funny thing with this layout - the giant tag shape on the right side was a mistake when I was cutting out shapes for my Level 2 Mischief class as well as the barn red shape with the cat  - I thought both looked great on this layout so the mistakes came in handy!

My Creations 9" x 9" Memory Showcase

CTMH's offers a huge assortment of My Creations options.  Perfect for displaying fun family pictures around the house or create to give as present.  Here is a fun example of a My Creations 9" x 9" Memory Showcase using an old Wings Paper Packet, Stickease, coordinating stamps, inks, and embellishments!

CTMH's Level One Studio J Offers So Many Options

I have been so determined to get caught up on my family's scrapbook for the last year.  Studio J has made it so easy to fill in a page here and there.  So quick, easy and beautiful!  What I love the best - just like classical scrapbooking, you can make your layout as simple or embellished as you want!  CTMH is calling Studio J it's Level 1 Scrapbooking because the online program is so intuitive but it offers so many options that it pretty much could be labeled Level 1 up to a Level 3!

 I loved how this "Blizzard of 2010" page came out using the new Wonderland paper packet. One of my favorite features of Studio J is being able to scale the pictures and embellishments to really focus on what matters most in the picture!

This layout is using the super fun NEW Manmade Paper Packet, exclusively on Studio J. The papers are so perfect for boy pages - so many choices within one paper packet! 

Gorgeous Art Philosophy Cards

I am so excited to share these absolutely gorgeous and stunning cards that my friend, client and Scrapi Traci sister, Maureen Sherrill, made using CTMH's Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge!

CTMH's Founder Jeanette Lynton did a fabulous job choosing the 700 designs that went into this cartridge.  The options for cards, layouts and projects is limitless.

This month on Jeanette's "Make It From Your Heart" blog, she is doing a project a day using this incredible cartridge.  That's thirty-one days and thirty-one different designs.  Check it out by clicking here!! The projects that have been created already make you want to RUN to your scrapbook room and lock yourself in there to make them all yourself!!

Princesses Are So Special - They Deserve A Party

Last Spring, I put together a Princess Party and had a blast pampering eight little princesses. with my pre-teen and teen helpers.  It was such a hit that I was asked to do it again at our local Loudoun Valley Community Center this month.  The party is all about the princesses but a treat for the parents is a 12" x 12" Studio J scrapbook page of their Princess' Photo Shoot during the party that they will receive two weeks after the event.

Here are a few of those adorable layouts:

For any local folks, here is the information for my upcoming Sept. 28th party. Sign up is limited but there are a couple spots available.  I'd appreciate you letting any friend's with potential princesses know about it!

Calling All Princesses!!!

Every girl dreams of being a PRINCESS, and here's her chance!

Deluxe Little Princess” Party

Friday, Oct. 28, 3 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. (AGES 3 – 7) 101164-01, PRCS Activity #

Loudoun Valley Community Center, Purcellville, VA

Girls will be treated like royalty! There will be magical fun for all Princesses, including hair, makeup and nail stations, games, dancing, craft and snacks. In addition, all Princesses will receive a 12” x 12” digital scrapbook page with their beautiful portrait two weeks after the party. Girls are welcome to wear their favorite Princess costume or beautiful dress!

Click here to access the online PRCS Guide (see page 62 - 63)! (see activity code number above.

My Teen Scrapers Got Talent!

Last Saturday night, I had my first official Scrapi Teen Crop from 6:00 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. The eight teens started by putting together the following layout that I designed and cut out for them.

For this "hip hip hooray" layout, I used the Cherry-O Creative Basics paper packet and ribbon that I picked up from my CTMH' "While Supplies Last", combined with Sky and Smoothie cardstock.  The flowers and tags are cut from the Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge to coordinate with the "Hooray Bouquet" stamp set (D1491),  Topiary, smoothie and chocolate inks were used with the stamps.  The layout took a while with so many details but the girls were thrilled with their final layouts.

Throughout the night they talked and listened to music, had pizza, snacks and game breaks, and either worked on designing their own pages or adding pictures to their "Scrapi Summer Camp" scrapbooks.

It was so much fun teaching them to use Jeannette Lynton's fabulous "how-to" books when I'd get "Scrapi, will you help me design a page", showing them all the fun things the new Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge can do (let's just say my Cricut got a good workout and has some new teen fans), and teaching them different techniques (embossing, glitter and punches).

It was a super fun time and seemed to be a success - the girls want to do it again next month!

Take a look at some of the finished layouts these talented girls put together!  I was so proud!!

So impressed that they came up with using the reverse of the cut out Cricut letters as their title!

Dreamin' Offers Beautiful Layouts for October Classes

I love the gorgeous, versatile papers from the Dreamin' Level 2 Paper Packet.   Pretty much perfect for scrapbooking any event throughout the year.

 Here are the two Dreamin' Level 2 layouts and a bonus Level 3 layout that we'll be putting together in classes this month.

First Day of School

Family Vacation in Smokey Mountains

"Jockey's Ridge" in Outer Banks

Classes will be Fri., Oct. 14 at 7 p.m.; Thurs., Oct. 20 at 7 p.m.; Wed., Oct. 26 at 9:30 a.m. and 7 p.m.  Cost is $28 (or $29 if you need to include two sheets of colonial white).   In addition, because I'm using the "Unscripted" stamp set (C1465) for my bonus Level 3 layout, I'm offering it to my clients for 20% off, if they'd like their own copy.

If you aren't local, and want to put together these pages too, email me at traci@scrapitraci.com, and I'll send you the cutting directions.  The materials used are the Dreamin' Level 2 Paper Packet, Dreamin' Level 2 My Stickease, Harvest Charms, and Honey Mini-Medley Assortment.  To order these materials for yourself, click here, or if you want the discounted stamp set, shoot me an email and I'll order for you!

And if you are as in love with these papers as I am, perhaps you'll also want to put together the Dreamin' Workshop on the Go layouts and bonus projects. Several of my clients are purchasing both, and attending two classes to get it all done! 

Guess what? With that additional purchase of $29.95 of a WOTG kit (Dreamin' Level 2 Paper Packet, Dreamin' Workshop Stamp Set, Shimmer Brads, and Bronze Glitz Glitter Gel), you'll then be able to get the October Stamp of the Month for $5, and could make the gorgeous project below:

For more great ideas using this stamp set, check out my earlier post and a fun Blog Hop with nearly 60 creations using this stamp set by clicking here!