Paper Crafting Cre8time in Our York Community

Hello, Gorgeouses!

We had a wonderful time sharing Cre8time together at York Street Baptist Church's free monthly scrapbooking crop.  Thanks to the terrific support from paper crafting industry leaders, I was well stocked to present the four-and-a-half hour "Cre8te and Take" marathon!

Sizzix sent a STACK their Bigz Pro full-page layout dies, BoBunny filled a box FULL of their gorgeous "Forever Fall" premium collection and Imagine Crafts / Tsukineko continues to support our efforts by providing their luscious "Memento" and "Brilliance" designer ink pads.

I prepared three layout kit options for the "Cre8te and Take," featuring {NEW} interpretations of the Sizzix Bigz Pro full-page layout dies.  For step-by-step instructions on how to prepare these layouts, I encourage you to click-through HERE, HERE, and HERE ~

Fully organized and READY!  **The Sizzix Big Shot Pro (foreground) was a HUGE hit!

Here I am with one of the best event coordinators I have ever worked with.  Sherry Boyd, along with her crew of energetic volunteers, organizes this free monthly community crop with space, set-up, refreshments, tool tables, Make-n-takes, inspirational message and experienced scrapbookers dedicated to answer questions or demonstrate techniques!

The "Cre8te and Take" seats were completely booked SOLID until 11:30pm!  The ladies did a wonderful job with the layouts.  Many recreated them step-by-step.  Others were inspired by the amazing variety of supplies, that they customized their layouts to perfectly personalize the pages for themselves.  It was certainly great to see their creative process of these experienced scrapbookers!

Sherry Boyd was generous enough to invite me back to host "Cre8te and Takes" at the York Street Baptist Church's free community scrapbooking crop in 2014.  I look forward to working up {NEW} concepts with paper crafting industry leaders to share with them!

Thanks, again, to my wonderful sponsors!  Sizzix, BoBunny, and Imagine Crafts / Tsukineko.  Not only am I grateful for their support of this free event, but I'm thankful for their continuous work to develop wonderful quality products that keep us wanting to {make more Cre8time!}

** If you know of an organization that is looking for some fresh crafting inspiration, I encourage you to get in touch.  Museums, Bridal Shows, Home Shows - I look forward to hearing about the wonderful opportunities available to get boots on the ground and "Get OUT there!" and share my paper crafting inspiration with others!

We'd love to hear your volunteer stories.  Leave us a comment and tell us what you've been sharing with others!

Happy Day, Laurel

Laurel Lee Pollard, Online Publisher, Promoter

New England Paper Crafts
"Ensuring the inspiring world of paper crafts continues to bloom."

www.NewEnglandPaperCrafts.com

Let's connect!  Find me at:

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"Gratitude" Layout Kit for York Street Baptist Church "Cre8te and Take"

Hello, Gorgeouses!

Today is the day!  I'll be hosting the free "Cre8te and Take" at York Street Baptist Church's monthly scrapbooking crop tonight from 6:30pm - midnight.  Find out all the details HERE.

This is the last of three posts revealing ways to reinvent your Sizzix Bigz Pro dies for your layouts.  They've really come alive with the BoBunny "Forever Fall" designer paper collection and "Memento" and "Brilliance" inks by Imagine Crafts / Tsukineko! Find the the complete details of the first two layout options HERE and HERE.

We'll be featuring a 3 x 5" photo as we work with Sizzix's "Frame, Ornate" Bigz Pro Die.  We begin by cutting and 8.5 x 11" semi-opaque paper in half and and laying it over each end of the steel-ruled design.  As you can see, the design is angled on the die, so the paper needs to be placed accordingly.

Place the BoBunny "Forever Fall Stripe" on the die.  Place the striped piece of paper face down on the die, angling the pattern to follow the steel-ruled "Frame Ornate" design of the die.  (If this was a randomly patterned paper, we would just square it off even with the die.)

We make our "Sizzix sandwich," ensuring the cutting pad comes out over in front of the die.

BoBunny is premium, heavy-weight paper, so we tape the excess over the top of the cutting pad in order to run it through the Sizzix Big Shot Pro.  (This step would be unnecessary if the paper was squared off with the die, which we would do if this was a randomly patterned paper, versus the stripe we're using here.)

We're doing a bit of paper-piecing here, which is one of the wonderful attributes of using the Sizzix dies.  The patterns will all cut exactly alike, so they layer beautifully and easily.  We add our semi-opaque paper with tape adhesive as shown, being careful to keep away from either sides.

Flip the layers over and bring them together, so the scallops are just touching.  Begin creasing both sides by pressing out from the middle, over the fold.

Continue the crease by running up and down the fold from our mid-point.

Crease both sides.

We turn our folded layers over and complete the crease both sides with a bone folder.

Using the edge of our table so that we don't have to open the layers flat, use the smaller hole punch of your Crop-A-Dile . . .

 . . . to punch holes in our design, as shown.

Add coordinating BoBuny "Forever Fall Brads" to the punched holes.

Run a 5.5 x 8" BoBunny "Forever Fall Leaves" through the Sizzix Big Shot Pro, face side down, over the top middle of the Sizzix Bigz Pro "Frame, Ornate" die.

Trim the excess off the sides, so just the five scallops remain.

 We trim our choice of large journaling box from "Forever Fall Cutouts" to 5.75" x 6"

Die-cut Sizzix Bigz Die "Branch with Leaves" from BoBunny's "Turquoise Journal," taking advantage of the Sizzix Big Shot Pro so that we do not need to trim our paper to fit a smaller die-cutting machine ~

Trim BoBunny "Forever Fall Impressions" to 3.75 x 5" and mount our 3 x 5" photo, leaving it weighted at the bottom.

Adhere our BoBunny "Forever Fall Foliage" by first aligning it to match across the top of your Sizzix "Frame, Ornate"die-cut.  Attach our "Forever Fall Cutout" by aligning it to match across the bottom of  the "Forever Fall Foliage."

Mount the photo in place, across the bottom only.  Slide the "Branch with Leaves" die-cut in behind the top of the photo, bringing the top branch over the front of the photo.  Tack the die-cut in place and glue the top of the mounted photo down to the page, ensuring the top of the branch is still out over the front of the mount.

Slide a sleeve of adhesive dots to each of the three top branches and secure to the page.

We pick our embellishment strip of choice from BoBunny's "Forever Fall Noteworthy" collection and mount across the bottom of our photo.

We pick our quote of choice from BoBunny "Forever Fall Cardstock Stickers" or "Forever Fall Combo Sticker" sheet, mount on BoBunny "Forever Fall Impressions" and trim corners.

 Add dimensional mounts to the back.

Adhere quote to the bottom of your layout.

Use a 1" circle punch to cut two BoBunny "Forever Fall Stripe" covers for the back of each brad and align the grid pattern to blend in with your layout.

We prepare a BoBunny "Forever Fall Trinket" with a ribbon.  Adhesive mounts may be necessary to even up the layer around the knot of the ribbon so that is able to be attached to the layout securely.

Using Imagine Crafts / Tsukineko "Memento Rich Cocoa," prepare additional embellishments with BoBunny "Forever Fall Noteworthy"

We finish our layout on BoBunny's "Forever Fall Sunflower" with our choice of a large die-cut from BoBunny's "Fall Foliage Noteworthy," add string for a closure, embellishments from "Fall Foliage Combo Sticker" and additional customized embellishments we customized ourselves . . .

 . . . changing this Sizzix Bigz Pro die "Frame, Ornate" layout . . .

 . . . into this {NEW} interpretation!

Oh, yes, I'm excited to join my friends tonight, October 18th, 2013, at our monthly community scrapbooking at York Street Baptist Church!  Find out the complete details about the event HERE.

We all dearly appreciate the amount of volunteer hours that go into preparing these events - the scheduled make & takes, the tool tables FILLED with Sizzix dies & cutters, stacks of inks and stamps, and plenty of scrap-worthy paper to work with.  The registration, the set-up, the take-down.  The inspirational message and the array of pot-luck refreshments available to everyone. It's all coordinated by the Ladies' Group of York Street Baptist Church.

I'm thrilled to be joining these fine ladies by hosting the "Cre8te and Take."  I look forward to seeing you there - but, don't forget, the ladies appreciate hearing from you if you're joining us so they can ensure they prepare a spot for you in advance of your arrival!  Contact Sherry Boyd directly at: Sherrilla (at) aol (dot) com.

Again, thanks so much to our sponsors: Sizzix, BoBunny, Imagine Crafts and Cre8time.  It really has been a pleasure for me to work with these industry leaders to bring the newest tools and techniques to engaged paper crafters in our community.

Do you have a community crop that you attend?  We'd love to hear about it!  Leave a comment and tell us how the community of paper crafting enriches your life ~

Happy Day, Laurel

Laurel Lee Pollard, Online Publisher, Promoter

New England Paper Crafts
"Ensuring the inspiring world of paper crafts continues to bloom."

www.NewEnglandPaperCrafts.com

Let's connect!  Find me at:

Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest / Instagram

"Fair Season" Layout Kit for Cre8time at York Street Baptist Church with Sizzix Big Shot Pro

Hello, Gorgeouses!

I'm preparing three incredible layouts for the "Cre8te and Take" at York Street Baptist Church's monthly scrapbooking.  I'm using the Sizzix Big Shot Pro full-page layout die in {NEW} ways with the luscious "Forever Fall" collection by BoBunny and highlighted with "Memento" and "Brilliance" inks by Imagine Crafs / Tsukineko.  Find all the details of the event HERE and the first layout kit option HERE and the final layout option can be found HERE ~

For this "Fair Season" layout, you will need FOUR 2.25" x 3.5" and ONE 3.5" x 5.25" photos:

Pick your journaling box of choice from "Forever Fall Cutouts" and round the corners.

Die cut "Forever Fall Blaze" from Sizzix Bigz Pro die "Heart, Scallop"

This video quickly covers the details using the "Heart, Scallop" die, which is outlined step-by-step, below ~

Count over 9 scallops from the top middle edge of the heart, on both sides.

Create a crease at the mid-point across each of the 9th scallops.

Create a crease after the second scallop at the top to the third scallop at the bottom.  Repeat on opposite side.

Turn the heart upside down.

Fold and crease both sides.

Open the heart, fold and crease the top to the bottom, open flat and cut along the crease lines to meet the horizontal crease & fold up middle section as shown.

Keeping the middle section folded up, bring the sides back together.

Flip the entire project over.  Leaving a small space, crease across the bottom of the fold.

Fold the bottom up and over.

Leaving 5 scallops, leave a tab as you cut across the bottom.

Glue down the tab, reserving the two scalloped pieces.

Flip the pocket right-side up.  Pick your choice of "Forever Fall Buttons."

Add a dab of glue and roll the end of a string between your fingers, in order to make threading the button easier.

Glue the button to the top flap, and add a dab of glue beneath the flap.

Press and hold.

Cut two 4" x 12" pieces of "Turquoise Journal."

Take the two reserved pieces from the pocket, score across the very bottom of the scallops.

Cut along the score line.

Fold the "Turquoise Jounal" strip in half and glue one side to the scallop section as shown, centering on the middle scallop.

Trim off the edge of the scallop, straight up from the edge of the "Turquoise Journal."

Add "bling" of choice from "Forever Fall Jewels."

Add embellishment of choice from "Forever Fall Noteworthy" across the bottom of the front of the pocket (I used half of the sunflower strip).

Flip over pocket and trim off the edges.

Lay the pocket and journaling box in place on your "Forever Fall Sunflower" page and mark the corner where they intersect.

Attach the "Forever Fall Stamps" to a clear block and load & stamp separate images with Imagine Crafts / Tsukineko's "Brilliance" and "Memento" inks.

Stamp the multiple images using the mark as an indicator of where you need placement.

Add the dragonfly "Forever Fall Stamp" to the stamp block, load with "Memento" ink and stamp image  flying toward the sunflower.

Set up layout and add a dragonfly trail to the page.

Reinforce the back of the journaling box by gluing on smaller piece of card stock to the back.

Die-cut "Forever Fall Impressions" from Sizzix's Bigz "Artist Trading Card" die.

Layer your choice of "Forever Fall Sticker Combo" with the Artist Trading Card die-cut onto the front of one of the sleeves.

Cut two 5.5" x 3.75" mounts from "Forever Fall Impressions," add two 2.25" x 3.5" pictures to each.  Mount inside each sleeve.

Mount the large 3.5" x 5.25" photo to the front of the last sleeve.

Add mounting pads to the back of the journaling block, save the corner that will rest over the pocket, which should just need adhesive.

Align and mount the pocket and journaling block to the layout, just covering the markings on the layout.

With a bit of folding and cutting, you can change this scalloped heart die-cut layout:

To this {NEW} pocketed interpretation!

Be sure to register in advance to join us THIS friday for this free "Cre8te and Take" at York Street Baptist Church.  We'd love to welcome you!  

** Find all the details of the event this Friday, October 18th, 2013, at York Street Baptist Church HERE and the first layout kit option "Brave," featuring BoBunny's "Forever Fall" collection, HERE ~

Happy Day, Laurel

Laurel Lee Pollard, Online Publisher, Promoter

New England Paper Crafts
"Ensuring the inspiring world of paper crafts continues to bloom."

www.NewEnglandPaperCrafts.com

Let's connect!  Find me at:

Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest / Instagram