Lately, as you can tell, I have been completely obsessed with scrapbooking.  I have not started dreaming and eating it yet so that’s good!!  But, I have been thinking about templates, ideas, themes, colors, embellishments, tools, and such almost every minute of every day!  So, because of my frenzy with scrapbooking, I found another challenge that I will be submitting a layout to.  The challenge is on Sketchy Thursdays by Diana’s blog and and it is based on templates.

Here is the template from Sketchy Thursdays.  If you click on the image, it will also take you to the site.

And here is my layout.  To view larger, click on images.

When I first looked at the challenge template, I wanted to create a layout with splatters just as it shows on the template.  I had no idea how to go about it such as what was used (ink, colored water, paint, etc) and how to get it to splatter.  I just couldn’t imagine throwing paint on a 12×12 cardstock.  There would be a big mess to clean up.  So, I did some researching and found out that a computer keyboard dust off (the cans with the straw that blows air out) was the tool.  I also found that the appropriate (I think) ink/paint was the alcohol based kind but I didn’t have any so in place, I tried it with my acrylic paints and they worked!!!  The problem with the acrylic paints is that they are thick so they don’t splatter as much and they take longer to dry but I was fine with that because as the page was drying, I was working on the other pieces.

These are the items I used for the layout:  The Paper Studio 12×12 in Texture-Royal Blue.  The Paper Studio 12×12 in Vintage Blue Snowflakes (I used this paper for the circle at the top left of the layout and for the bar just below the zigzag ribbon), The Paper Studio ribbon, Stampabilities Pigment ink pads in black and baby blue, snowflake stamps, Anita’s All Purpose Acrylic paint in black,  and Crafts, Etc. Brush Pens (mentioned here as ‘paint markers’) that I used to doodle around the edges.

Cuttlebug

A couple of days ago, I bought this Cuttlebug machine.  I’ve been eyeing this for sometime but the price was just too much for me to afford (around $80 and up).  While looking around at Provo Craft’s website (the creator of this cute machine), I found out that the stores that sell this machine sometimes will sell it at a discount so I decided to check  a few of the  craft stores I shop at and to my luck, Michael’s was having a 50% off on all Cuttlebug items !!!  So, I got myself a machine and love it!  I also got some extra dies too!

About this machine.  It is a manual machine so there is nothing to be plugged in or downloaded.  On one side is a handle in which you turn to feed the dies and embossings through.  This machine is tiny, about the size of a small toaster.  In the previous post (with the layout for the pink, blue, and brown challenge), I used this machine to cut the flowers.  This was a really good investment and will definitely help me out with many future craft projects.

♥