Author Archive for CCAS

Making Christmas Decorations – Getting Ideas

by CCAS
August 21st, 2010

Have you ever tried making Christmas decorations before?

You might think that is is difficult, but in reality, there are some really simple homemade Christmas craft ideas for making Christmas decorations. I have been making homemade Christmas ornaments and handmade Christmas tree garlands for years. But the Christmas decoration ideas don’t have to stop there.

Baking and putting together a gingerbread house is another fun way of making Christmas decorations. Gingerbread Christmas decorations can be elaborate or simple depending on your own desires. And they are always a lot of fun to build.

What about making your own wrapping paper to use to wrap your handmade Christmas gifts? There are a ton of things just from around the house that can be used to enclose and cover your handmade treasures from paper bags to old newspaper.

Coming up with creative craft projects now can save you a lot of time as we rapidly move from one holiday season to the next throughout the year. That is why I like to start planning early.

Making a homemade Christmas wreath decoration is another great idea. Wreath projects can be fast and easy… and perfect if your are involving the children. It is always more fun to make handmade Christmas gifts by involving the entire family. And making your own handmade Christmas gifts can save you the money that always seems to be scarce during THAT time of year.

Don’t forget about the Christmas table decorations. Candles, glass jars and bulbs and a few sprigs of pine bough adds a great accent to any Christmas table top or centerpiece. Kids can easily learn how to make weaved place mats to add just the right accent to your dinnertime display. When making Christmas decorations, Christmas table decorations are some of easiest projects to think of and put together.

Moving outside opens an entirely different perspective and a number of additional homemade Christmas crafts that can be made for outdoor Christmas decorations for the yard. Some examples might be wooden reindeer, lighted boxes made to look like gift boxes or you can go wild and build an entire Christmas nativity.

As you can see there is no shortage of examples when thinking up the creative crafts ideas for homemade Christmas decorations. Making Christmas decorations has become a sort of family tradition in our home. There is just something warm and fuzzy about creating beautiful and unique little treasures. I love the family time spent making homemade Christmas decorations and simply just being together.

Categories Christmas Table Decorations, Handmade Christmas Gifts, Homemade Christmas Crafts, Homemade Christmas Decorations, Homemade Christmas Ornaments, Making Christmas Decorations

Sketch Puzzle for August 8th, 2010

by CCAS
August 8th, 2010

Victoria is from the WeScrap Inspiration team and made this sketch for Tara recently. It looks like Tara had some fun using this sketch for her “Feeling Sexy” layout and created a really fun scrapbook page. To see Tara’s great use of this sketch just solve the puzzle and hop on over to WeScrap.com to find it.

Here are some hints to help you to solve this weeks puzzle. A wide strip separates the page into thirds and could be filled with an interesting pattern that can compliment the color you choose for your background card stock. Add some edging to the bottom of the stripe to draw your attention to the 3 photo focal point. An arch adds interest and balance to the page above the photo area and an area for journalling in available below the arch and the photo area. The title area completes the page balance opposite from the arch.

Enjoy!





provided by flash-gear.com


Categories Sketches

Sketch Puzzle for August 1, 2010

by CCAS
August 1st, 2010

A nice, clean and simple sketch contribution from Sara Nolan.

Sara’a sketch features two photos nestled together over a background with some simple shapes. A large journaling area flanks the photos area. The title can be placed as shown or use your own creativity and enlarge it above the entire focal point.

Enjoy!





provided by flash-gear.com


Categories Sketches

Sketch Puzzle for July 25, 2010

by CCAS
July 25th, 2010

This sketch was designed by Tara Thynner and featured on the WeScrap site earlier this month. The puzzle’s focal point is a single large image or photo area matted with striping. The title area overlaps some of the design to give the sketch an extra pop. There is plenty of room to add extensive journalling to add your personal touch, writing stlye and stories. And there is even room for extra embellishments if desired.

Enjoy this week’s puzzle!





provided by flash-gear.com


Categories Sketches

Balancing Your Scrapbook Page

by CCAS
July 20th, 2010

Spacing is a difficult matter. There is a fine line between having a balanced scrapbook page and a gaudy mess.

If items are too closely spaced your reader will feel overwhelmed. If your items are spaced to far apart your viewer will feel short changed.

Look at your page.

Close your eyes.

Open them again.

Does your page look cluttered? Does your page have more photographs than background? Are your embellishments drawing the focus away from your mementos?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, then you need to simplify your page a bit by increasing the space that you have between the objects. Once you increase the space, if anything is extending over the edge of your page, remove that object and save it or use it to start another page! OK, now you done adding space.

Look at your page.

Close your eyes.

Open them again.

Is your page bare? Is your page uninteresting and colorless?

If this is now the case, think about adding back some more mementos and colorful embellishments decreasing the spacing between objects making your page more energetic. Be cautious to not add back too much and having to completely re-do this process. Adding a few items at a time and taking time to study your page before adding more can be a helpful and time saving technique.

Categories Scrapbooking

Sketch Puzzle for July 18, 2010

by CCAS
July 18th, 2010

This puzzle has awesome details. It is presented by Ally Cope. Thanks, Ally for the contribution and your wonderful work over at the WeScrap site.

The sketch is designed to highlight two photos. The photos are offset from what could be an eye catching accent color. Embellishments and designs are randomly placed above, on and to the side of the images or photos as well as strategically placed along the side of the color accent. A generous journalling area is available near the centered title area.

Let us know what you think of this weeks sketch or better yet, send one to us using our Get Featured form and we can show off some of your work and get you entered into this month’s drawing and giveaway.





provided by flash-gear.com


Categories Sketches

Font-astic July 2010

by CCAS
July 16th, 2010

This featured font is not just one font but four! One representing each week during the month of July. This collection is a compilation of featured font deals and values, including some exclusive offers that we have been able to find for you across the web.

So, on with the show…

The first featured font is called:

ITC Matisse font was created by International Typeface Corp. As an international leader in typeface design and marketing for over 30 years, ITC teams up with world-class designers to provide an adaptable selection definitive typefaces and fresh new designs. ITC licenses its typeface library throughout the world.

Next we feature:

Arnold Boecklin font is a Linotype creation. For over a hundred years, Linotype has successfully produced, marketed, and licensed superior fonts. Linotype, in alliance with both designers and typographers, promotes global transfer and open discussion using fonts as a vehicle for visual communication.

Our third featured font is:

Monotype designed and created the Windsor font. Monotype Imaging specializes in fonts and font technologies for graphic professionals, software developers and manufacturers of printers and display devices.

And Lastly (but certainly not the least) we feature:

The Bernhard Bold Condensed Font is licensed by Adobe. One of the largest type distributors, Adobe has greatly influenced the evolution of digital type. Many designers consider Adobe fonts to be graphic standards. PostScript, Multiple Master and OpenType formats are just some of Adobe’s other key contributions to the graphic world.

So, how can you get all of these great fonts? Well, for a limited time (only until the end of July, 2010), you can get these these awesome fonts, as well as ANY Art Nouveau font at Fonts.com for 20% off! All you have to do is click on the coupon, find the Art Nouveau font that you want and use coupon code F2GRZ in your shopping cart during checkout.

Our partners also wanted us to remind you about their Deal of the Day promotion where you can take 80% off on any one preselected, high-quality Monotype®, Linotype® or ITC® font.

Categories Fonts
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