the boo crew | iris fox

Hello friends, Iris back with a Traveler's Notebook spread for my October Daily from last year that I am finishing off.  If you know me, you know I'm a maximalist, wanting to do and add all the things. But sometimes I just want a quick solution to getting something done. Most of the time Halloween products come in certain colors, and they might clash with the photos. That's when going hybrid makes things easy. 

For this spread I started off by printing elements from the Boo Who Digital Stamp and Moments Captured Digital Stamp sets onto vellum, which is a nice neutral and allows easy layering.  

 

I also re-colored the "Boo Crew" stamp in Photoshop. I did this by opening the individual .png file, clicking on one of the black letters, going up to the menu and clicking on Select, then Similar. That automatically selected all the individual letters, stars, and the thin line.  In the left hand toolbar, I chose the Brush tool, changed the size of the brush all the way up, made sure my color was set to white, then clicked on the canvas.  That made everything white.  Then I hit Command-C, went over to my open photo file, and hit Command-V to paste at the bottom of my photo and resized so it fit between my daughter and I.

Along with those stamps, I'd purchased the Ghouls Like You digital papers and elements from Traci Reed Designs last year, which I knew had the perfect colors to compliment the costumes my daughter and I wore. I picked four papers to create contrasting backgrounds on each side of my spread, keeping it simple with a neutral base and adding a colorful 1/2 inch strip on the outside edges. Then I decorated around my photo with fussy-cut florals and coordinating wood veneer from Color Cast Designs.  At the top left I stuck the "Strike a Pose" sentiment from the Moments Captured set onto one of the labels.

On the right side of the spread, I stapled the "Oct 31" vellum printed stamp onto the top edge of a journal card.  I clustered another floral and a sugar skull die-cut, another wood veneer word strip, and the "Happy Halloween" sentiment around the journaling area.  A sprinkling of sequins ties it all together.

This was a really fun and quick spread thanks to the hybrid elements and the Digital Stamps from The Cut Shoppe that allowed me to match my photos and custom print to the sizes I needed.

Friends, I am sad to say this is the last project I will be making for my term here at The Cut Shoppe.  It's been a lovely time.  I will not stop being a fan of Ashley's cut files and now the Digital Stamps, and while I won't be representing the shop, I'll still be scrapping with the fabulous designs! :D

sweater weather wall hanging | iris fox

Hello friends, Iris here back with more fall love using my new favorite supply, the Fall Favorites Digital Stamp set! And this time I was inspired by the "sweater weather" sentiment to make this cute, little wall hanging for the upcoming season.

I gathered my supplies: a Jillibean Soup Mix the Media 6"x6" wood and canvas panel, Simple Stories Say Cheese 4 stamp set (because it has a sweater), Sulky Water Soluble Stabilizer, Hero Arts Shadow Ink in Soft Brown, Post-it brand removable tape, an embroidery needle, and a selection of threads.

The Sulky Water Soluble Stabilizer comes in printable sheets that are sticky.  I resized the word to 1.25"x 2.5", printed it on the stabilizer sheet, cut it out in a small rectangle, peeled away the backing sheet, and stuck it to the canvas. After the stitching is done, the stabilizer is washed away!

For the sweaters, I used the sweater stamp 3 times, but after I stamped the hoodie in the middle, I stamped the image on the Post-it tape and fussy cut the center so that I could use it as a mask.  I also cut a piece to mask off the hood.  With the masking pieces on the stamp, I inked it, removed the mask pieces, and then stamped onto the canvas.

After all that prep, it just took some time to stitch it all out.  This proved a timely project for me because I was sick, so I just sat and stitched for two days.

Look at how awesome the word art looks.  I love adapting scrapbooking products onto fabric to create unique pieces!

I hope sharing this project inspires you to use scrapbooking products off the page!  Thanks for stopping by to check out my wall hanging.  Don't forget to check out the latest releases at The Cut Shoppe, including the Fall Favorites Digital Stamp set, and all the fabulous new stamp sets.  I want to use them on all the things, and I'm pretty sure you will too!! :D

fall favorites | iris fox

Hello friends! Iris here ready to shed summer and head into my most favorite time of the year, Fall. So when Ashley designed the new Fall Favorites Digital Stamp, I couldn't wait to play with them.  Nevermind that it's just the end of August. And since Fall is my love language, it was completely fitting that I document my love for fall with the new cut file called Love Language.

A heart with a bunch of speech bubbles, how fab is that?!  To begin, I cut the Love Language cut file out of white cardstock twice, because I had plans to tuck some elements under and knew it would look better if the whole cut file was raised.  In the Silhouette Studio, I decided where my pictures would go, which gave me the dimensions I'd need to print them at. I also opened individual PNG files that come in the Digital Stamps, copied my favorites to the same design space that my cut file was on, and resized them into the speech bubbles I wanted them on.  Then I moved them onto an 8.5x11 space and sent them to my printer directly from Silhouette Studio.  

To add a different element, I printed the Digital Stamps on vellum.  I absolutely love how crisp the black words look on the vellum, and how they still let the background show through.  

With the whole layout planned out in Silhouette Studio, it all came together easily.  It took some time to cut everything and back the file, but as usual it's totally worth it! 

I tucked some fabric leaves from my stash in 3 spots, and added embellishments from Ashley's Oakley Avenue Collection from Pretty Little Studio. Totally unplanned but totally perfect!  This includes the flair along with the title acrylic and little word strip.  In my clusters I added and a few misc brads and enamel dots.

I did add white splatters onto my background before settling the cut file on top, and to tie everything together I added more splatters in aqua and orange, concentrating on the areas around the embellishment clusters.

This layout, with the super fun Love Language cut file and Fall Favorites Digital Stamp set was such a treat to work on!  Stop by The Cut Shoppe to check these out and the other fabulous digital stamps that Ashley just added to the shop.  They add a whole new dimension of fun!

too cool for school | iris fox

Hello fellow cut file fans!  Iris here with a back-to-school layout using not one, but two recent cut files: School Days and Too Cool for School.

It's not easy to find school products that compliment the purple both my daughter and her boyfriend are wearing in the photos, but I happened to have this multi-colored lined paper from Shimelle's Sparkle City.  It was kismet.  I left the branding strip to ground the page and cut off from the top to make it 12x12.

My idea was to create a doodley background, having the two cut files cut in black to be part of the doodles, so I cut both from black cardstock. Too Cool for School is cut 6 inches high and the backpack is 3 inches high.

I strategically placed the backpack diagonally from the title, and a speech bubble-shaped clip at the top, giving me a visual triangle of deep black outlined elements. Then I gathered lots of fun embellishments that would go with teens at school and complemented the colors, from a variety of manufacturers. I scattered them them along the diagonal starting from the bottom left going up to the top right.  

I nestled my journaling under the photos between a cluster of embellishments and the title.  I then stamped some doodles and phrases from Crafty Jen Schow's Here for It stamp to fill in spaces between embellishments and to add a little bit of layering.  The date fit snuggly within the speech bubble.  The final touch was to sprinkle purple acrylic paint.

With back-to-school season in full swing, you'll want to stop by The Cut Shoppe to grab some fabulous back-to-school cut files!

december daily traveler's notebook inserts | iris fox

Hello cut file enthusiasts!  Iris here, and I'm getting some more #scrappychristmasinjuly scrapbooking done thanks to several fabulous holiday files in the shop: Tis the Season, Christmas Magic, Tree Farm, and Tinsel Town.

I made myself four custom December Daily inserts for use in my Color Cast Designs wood veneer Traveler's Notebook covers with binder rings.

I finally brought my WRMK Foil Quill out to play!  In order to use it, I opened the ‘Tis the Season cut file and used the Internal Offset function to thicken the lines.  In order to do that, I selected the top four words, clicked Internal Offset, chose 0.010 inches, and hit Apply.  That added a line just inside the original outline.  I did that once again so most of my letters were 3 lines thick.

I selected "Sparkle" and did the same thing, but this time I continued to click on the Internal Offset until it was filled in completely. Then I chose the Sketch function before pressing the Send button.  The heated Foil Quill tip traces all the concentric lines.

I traced the ‘Tis the Season with gold foil onto vellum, and one of the trees from Tree Farm in green foil onto another piece of vellum.  I cut each to 4.25”x8.25”, the standard Travler’s Notebook size, and for the gold insert, I used a Fiskars border scallop punch on the right edge.

After that experimentation, I decided to mix it up and switch to traditional cutting, using Felicity Jane papers that I pre-cut to TN size.  I cut the "be merry be bright" out of the buffalo plaid so the sentiment is the negative on the page. For "Ho Ho Ho", I first welded the three together, then cut.  I used the positive piece, adding two tabs made from the same paper with my Tiny Attacher, then I handstitched all around the outline.

Now I have four cool TN dividers for my December Daily!  If you're finishing up holiday projects from last year, or you've started thinking about prepping for this year, stop by The Cut Shoppe to snag some fun Christmas cut files and get creative!

christmas magic | iris fox

Hello friends, Iris here with a layout I made for #scrappychristmasinjuly using the fabulous Floral Leaf Cut and Fold file. I am usually too busy during the holidays to do much scrapbooking, so I like to get some Christmas projects done in the summer.

I started off by cutting the Floral Leaf design out of a Bazzill Swiss Dot Cardstock in Salt, which is one of my favorite cardstocks because of the texture. I added foam dots to every single leaf and to ensure I that when I glued it all down to the backing green cardstock, those leaves would really pop. I added lots of adhesive in the spaces between the rings.

I made sure to press down to get maximum adhesion, and those leaves did pop!

Then I built up a bunch of layers from scrap pieces of paper and vellum I have in my Christmas stash. I added a title made up of scripty puffy alphas from Freckled Fawn and a "magic" chipboard from one of the past December Daily kits. One of my layers is the top piece of a tag that I added twine to.

I also added a couple little stickers from a December Daily word sheet, a star clip from Felicity Jane, and I made a holly cluster out of felt balls from Amy Tangerine and two loops of ribbon. 

I wanted the cut file background to be the star of this layout, besides my photos, so I sprinkled just a handful of acrylic shapes from Color Cast Designs and gold Heidi Swapp Colorshine. Then I typed up my journaling in Photoshop by making a circle path, saving and opening it in the Silhouette software, drawing two cut circles around the journaling, then doing a print and cut on vellum.  That worked awesome for tucking the typed journaling within the leaf rings!

I had so much fun experimenting with new techniques to get the look I was going for with this cut file, which you can find in the shop! I made it look like Christmas wreaths, but you can line it with any color to get a whole different look!

Thanks for stopping by.  I do plan to have a tutorial on how I created my journaling up on my youtube channel after I get back from vacation, so I invite you to bookmark this and come back to check it out in a couple of weeks.