I found these great Card Making Tips in the Resources section. They were submitted by Kate

Beginning Card Making Tips 

• It can save you a lot of time to buy pre-scored or folded cards (and yes, they do even make them in square sizes). This will obviously cost you more money than just making the card base out of cardstock yourself, but it can be a real time savings. AND you can buy packs of them that also come with envelopes, so you don’t have to worry about finding the right size of envelopes for them.

• When designing for quantities: keep things simple - don’t do things that require several steps. For instance, I tend to avoid heat embossing if I’m making more than 15 cards (unless it’s for something special like a wedding and I have lots of time to do it!), because of all the steps involved in the process. (If you do want to do heat embossing, do it in steps like in my first suggestion) I also avoid things like rub-ons and dry embossing, because they tend to take a lot of time to do.
• Things that work GREAT for making quantities of cards: punches, colored staples (glue can be annoying if you have to leave a lot of time to dry), stickers, decorative edged scissors or punches, and rubber stamps.

• Avoid tying bows with ribbon, because they can charge you extra for mailing something with a bump. Instead, consider just stapling ribbon down, or weaving it through slots.

If you have any tips or techniques you would like to share with us please email me at thynner5@yahoo.ca and put “CCAS Blog Tips” in the subject line. Everytime you do you will be entered into the monthly draw.

~Tara~

This week’s challenge is to complete a layout using the following list of items;

• 3 photos (any size, any colour)
• use the colour red somewhere on your page
• use a die cut image (any shape, colour, etc.)
• use a punch of any kind (shape, an edge punch, etc.)

Here’s the page I created using all of the things above…

Be Free

I used the Fiskar’s punch to punch the slots in the red paper and then backed the strip of paper with white cardstock.

Please send your page creations to Tara at: thynner5@yahoo.ca and put “CCAS Blog Challenge” in the subject line. You will earn a ballot for this month’s Blog Prize Draw!  Good luck!

I have a couple DT Calls I would like to share with you today. I have been privledged to work with both of these wonderful sites and I wanted to let you know that both The Scrapping Bug and Scrapdango have a Design Team Call right now.

You can find the info for The Scrapping Bug DT Call at their site here: DT Call

Scrapdango is combining thier call with a fun contest where you are issued challenges weekly. It is going to be alot of fun! You can find the info here: DT Contest

I also wanted to give you a peek at the new kits at Scrapdango. They are awesome!

Sugar Kit

Spice KIt

For more info on these great kits please check out Scrapdango!

Happy Scrapping!

~Tara~

I am a font-a-holic!! I can admit it. I love fonts!! All types of fonts. I am contantly looking through the web for new, fresh and funky fonts. I thought I would share my addiction with you gals.

I love a good font and this one is fontastic!

This week I have chosen a cute one called: Scrubble

If you would like it on your computer you can download it for free here: Dafont

If you require instructions on loading your new font, they can be found in the Resources section of the blog: Resources

I would love to see any creations you make using this font. You can send it to: thynner5@yahoo.ca and put “font friday” in the subject line. You can also link you creations here as well. Anyone who does this will have a ballot for this months draw!

Enjoy your new font!

~Tara~

Here at CCAS, we have a fabulous Resources section and I found this great tutorial today that I wanted to share.

Carrie Bolduc’s: “Altered Box”

To see how Carrie made this gorgeous little altered box, check her step by step tutorial here.

Enjoy!

This week’s word is: SWEET

1: pleasing to the taste

2: pleasing to the mind or feelings:

3 : marked by gentle good humor or kindliness

4 : delicately pleasing to the ear or eye

This word can be used in so many ways. It is such a sweet word I used it in the following layout of my niece Chloe in my title. I also used a rather sweet photo of her as well. This layout was based on a sketch that Ally designed for The Sisterhood of Scrap Blog. I used a wonderful collection of papers from The Scrapping Bug.

 I would love for you to be inspired to create something using this week’s word. It can be in your title, your photo(s) or your subject. Don’t forget that if you complete any sketch puzzle challenge, Monday challenge, wordy Wednesday challenge or submit a tip for Tip Tuesday then you will automatically be entered to win this month’s Blog Prize!! So get scrapping and either send them to me at( thynner5@yahoo.ca ) or link them in the blog.

~Tara~

Since Tara’s challenge this week is all about stitching, I thought some tips about sewing on your pages would be appropriate.

• Don’t have a sewing machine, no problem! Poke holes evenly using a ruler as a guide and connect all the dots using a pen for faux stitching.
• When using your sewing machine, dial the tension down to zero so the thread doesn’t rip through the paper.
• Test your sewing machine BEFORE you use it on a scrap piece of cardstock.
• Tape the ends of your threads on the back of your page so they don’t pull through to the front of your page.
• Use a set of stamps or rub-ons that look like stitches to get that sewn look.
• Not enough adhesive in your stash, sew on your papers instead of gluing things down.
• Use you sewing machine without thread and make dotted patterns as a page design element.
• Do not reverse your sewing machine at the start or finish of your stitching. This will cause the thread to punch unnecessary holes that may cause your paper to tear more easily.
• Sew all your page elements before you put on any 3D elements like flowers and brads. You break your needle or worse, your machine if you were to run them over accidently.

Happy stitching!!!

It’s time to start the week off with a challenge.

On of my very favorite elements that I love to see on a layout is sewing. I love the texture it adds to a page or card. I am embarrassed to admit that I have a sewing machine that my Mother in Law bought me that I still don’t know how to use. At least I have taken it out of the box. Now…. I just need a few lessons on how to use it.

In the meantime, I am addicted to hand stitching on a layout. I love how it appears more rugged than when you use a machine. I like to free hand my stitches and I also have a few templates that I use as well.

Here is a layout I created a few days ago. I received a great paper collection from The Srapping Bug to play with. I love WRMK’s White Out lines. I am so fortunate to have had the Frenzy Line from Scrapdango and the Hoopla Line from The Scrapping Bug. Love… Love these lines!

For this layout I used a sketch from Ally’s So Sketchy Blog. It is sketch #12. It is an 8 1/2 x 11 sketch that I flipped and stretched for this layout of my darling neice, Chloe. I used a stitch template from Bazzil for my stitch design.

My challenge this week is to sew on your layout. You can do it either free hand, using a template or a sewing machine. Please send them to me at: thynner5@yahoo.ca and put “CCAS Blog Challenge” in the subject line. You will earn a ballot for this month’s Blog Prize Draw!

~Tara~

Here’s a sketch for you multiple photo users out there!  Enjoy!!