Back to School with Kira

Hey there!  It's Kira and I am back with a layout in my son's school album.  My oldest son started kindergarten this year!  It's a very exciting time for all of us, but probably none more than Fish.  I got a ton of pictures on his first day, and am trying to narrow them down so I don't have entire album of his first day.  Ha!

I really wanted to use the School Days cut file.  So many of The Cut Shoppe's designers have already used it, so I thought it would be fun to alter it a bit! 

I started by cutting the cut file on white cardstock at 7.5" high (I am working in a 6x8 album for my son's school album). 

After the cut file was cut, I knew I wanted it to look like my photo was hanging out of the lower backpack pocket.  So I cut off the zipper part of the pocket, and folded it down like it was just falling open. 

Then I cut a thin strip of white cardstock, and added it to where I felt the "inner lining" of the backpack would stop.  Then I backed my cardstock with patterned papers, making sure I left the pocket as an actual pocket so I could stuff my photo inside. 

After adding my photo, I added three clusters around my page.  I kept with a blue and yellow color scheme using yellow and blue flowers and other elements from the September Citrus Twist LC kit.  I decided against adding a title to this page since I will probably add a coordinating pocket page in the future. 

Thanks for stopping by!

"Skateboard" with Kira

Hey there!  It's Kira and I am back with another 8.5x11 scrapbook layout using a cut file from The Cut Shoppe.  I've been in a creative funk lately so I really wanted to use a product that excited me.  I realized I hadn't used the Secret Garden cut file yet, so I knew that needed to make it's way onto a layout!

I started by cutting the cut file out on white cardstock (for a really bold design, see how Erica used this cut file in black!).  I pulled out a few patterned papers in some colors I thought worked well together.  Since my photos are pretty neutral, I didn't feel like I was limited by a certain color scheme and just chose what made me happy, which ended up being pink, yellow and a bright lime green.

I sized my cut file at 10" wide, because I knew I wanted part of it to hang off the page.  I backed the entire cut file with foam and then adhered it so the right side was hanging off the page just a bit.

I had a few photos of my son playing at a skate park (he for sure doesn't realize it's a skate park and seems to think it's some sort of slide playground for littles, ha!), so I printed one photo at 3x4 and the others as 2" squares.  I tucked the larger photo under the cut file, and scattered the smaller ones underneath.

I added my title "Who needs a skateboard" with some woodgrain chipboard alphas, and added a few embellishments around the page.  I finished it off with some typed journaling strips.

Thanks for stopping by!

Kira

Artistic Cat | Kelly Janes

Hey friends! Kelly here today and I have a new layout to share using the Pretty Pottery Cut File!

I started in Cricut Design Space by ungrouping the cut file and selecting 2 of the pots. I then resized and welded the pots together. I duplicated the welded image and then selected the contour feature. After the contour feature was selected, I hit the "hide all contours" icon. This turned this cut file into a solid shape so I could easily back the detailed cut file that I cut on white cardstock. [You can find a step-by-step tutorial in the process video below.]

I added hand stitching to the cut file after I had it backed with the patterned paper. I tucked my photo under one of the flowers on the cut file and went onto embellishing.

I used a lot of the Pink Paislee Paige Evans Whimsical Collection for this layout. It's all about my cat who invades my craft space every chance she gets. HA! This was the perfect layout to use all of the crafty themed embellishments from this collection!

Now you can take a look at my process video!

Remember to visit The Cut Shoppe Store to check out all of the cut files! And you want to know the best new about the new shop (for us Cricut users)? All of the cut files now have a SVG format which means no more slicing to separate the images! YAY! Happy crafting, friends!

"Farmhouse Goals" with Kira

Have you had a chance to plan out what you're going to make for this month's challenge?  If you haven't seen what the challenge is, you can read about it here.  I made a super cute piece of decor with a vintage milk can...and I was so obsessed with how it turned out, that I HAD to document it!

I started my layout using the same Farm Fresh cut file from The Cut Shoppe that I used for my milk can.   I had almost decided to use this cow on the can, but decided on the "farm" cut file instead.  So now was my chance to use that cow! 

I cut it out on some black and white paper, to mimic the look of a cows spots, without being so literal.  Then I used a piece of wood grain paper as my background.  I added some handstitching around the cow in some white DMC embroidery floss. 

I had a million pictures of my milk can since I was so obsessed with it, so finding one that would work wasn't a problem!  I fussy cut around the can and decided to use it as a sort of embellishment. 

I used the Brush Up Alpha cut file for my title, cutting it out on some blue floral paper.  I am really digging a vertical title on my 8.5x11 layouts lately, so I attached it going up the side of my page. 

I used some black alphas to complete my title. 

The Make a Pretty Life June kit was perfect to embellish this page.  I added different die cuts and textural elements to complete the page.

Thank you so much for stopping by!  Make sure to join us on Facebook to play along with this challenge!

xo, Kira

"Home Brew" by Kira

Hello friends!  It's Kira and I am back with a layout for our very first Facebook challenge!  If you haven't heard, The Cut Shoppe Scrap Spot is now hosting monthly challenges, which gives you the opportunity to win some cut files!  Kelly is hosting this month's challenge and you can read all about it here.

I decided to go big with my title.  I love big titles on a page, so this challenge was perfect for me to make another HUGE title.  I started with this photo of my husband's very first home brewed beer.  I recently purchased him some home brew supplies so he could have his very own hobby (which we all know is so important, right?!).  Since there's no beer themed cut files in the shop (hint, hint Ashley), I used the Brush Up font to create my title, "Home Brew".

 

I cut the title out vertically on my page, using a patterned paper background.  Then I added some foam behind my background paper, around my title before adding some white cardstock behind my title.

I used the newest Amy Tangerine collection, Shine On, sticker book to fill up my letters.  I love all the little flowers and leaves peeking out from my title.  I also added other tiny elements like sequins, puffy hearts and flower ephemera.

I added my photo next to the word "brew" and added some more embellishments to the page.  And I just love how this turned out!

Make sure you join the Facebook group so you can join in on this challenge as well!  Thanks for stopping by!

xo, Kira

"Party Animal" with Kira

Hey crafty friends!  It's Kira and I am back with a 12x12 scrapbook layout with all the tropical feels!  Did you see this adorable toucan that was released on May 31st from The Cut Shoppe?!  The second I saw him, I knew he was going to go on one of my scrapbook layouts. 

The picture I chose to scrap is sort of far fetched in the connection to the toucan...but bear with me here.  When we moved into our house back in November, my husband and I were being woken up almost daily but this loud hooting owl at around 2-3am.  We had never had an owl live in such close proximity to us, so instead of being irritated, we were actually kind of intrigued!  So I search the internet trying to figure out what kind of owl it might be.  And based on the sound of the hoots (the owl call? I'm not sure what you'd call them!) we figured it was a Great Horned Owl.

Fast forward to May, no more hooting, the owl must have moved, right?  Maybe not!  While playing with my kids outside, I came across this large brown and white striped feather.  I thought at first maybe a hawk?  But the internet is super helpful when trying to identify birds, and it looks like it is possibly a feather from a Great Horned Owl!  Cool, right?!

Back to the layout, I wanted to scrap this story of our very own resident owl and thought this toucan would be such a cute touch!  I sized him to about 8.5" tall, backed him with papers from Confetti Wishes and stitched around him with coordinating embroidery floss.

I originally attempted to watercolor the branches/leaves, but was unsuccessful so I just cut them off, and re-cut the branches on some smooth white cardstock and sized them even bigger than they were originally.   Since I was used a patterned paper background, I opted to keep them white so they would really pop off the page.

Since I was using the Confetti Wishes collection, and it has sort of a birthday party theme, I decided to play off of that for my title.  "Party Animal" seemed fitting since it reminded me of the owl that is awake at all hours of the night and morning.  To really play off the party animal theme, I added a little party hat to my toucan and a balloon sticker right behind my title.

And that's it!  Thank you so much for stopping by!cx

xo, Kira

"Our Life is Paradise" by Kira

Hello friends!  It's Kira and I am back with a 12x12 scrapbook layout featuring the In Paradise cut file.  This cut file is such a great addition to your summer stash, seriously, go grab it at The Cut Shoppe now!

 

 

I started off by cutting this to 11.5" wide because I wanted to fill up one of the letters with a photo so I needed it as big as I could cut it.

I wanted to scrap a photo of the San Antonio river which is truly paradise to me and my family.  We visit every Sunday and do a walk along the water.  It is so gorgeous and tropical, it almost blends right in with the papers I used from Wild Heart!

I used the photo to back the first "a" in paradise.  Then used the Wild Heart 6x8 paper pad to back the remaining letters.  After all the letters were backed with patterned paper, I hand stitched with white embroidery thread.

I placed the cut file at a slight angle on the page to add a little interest.  Then I used pieces of chipboard from Flourish and ephemera from Wild Heart to embellish the page.

I finished it off with a little bit of Heidi Swapp color shine and called it done!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

xo, Kira

Coffee Makes Everything Better with Jennifer

Hi Everybody,

Jennifer here with a new layout for The Cut Shoppe!

For this layout I used the Outburst cutfile. I cut it from white cardstock and backed it with a single sheet of patterned paper. I added fun foam between cardstock and patterned paper for added dimension.

I am a bit of a hoarder - my stash is so much bigger than it needs to be because I always think "No, let's keep this embellishment/die cut/etc. for a later layout". And then I never get around to using it. You peepz probably know exactly what I'm talking about. 

So when I made this layout I decided to do some stash busting and went a bit over the top with the embellishing. And it was so much fun! I really need to do this more often. 

I really pulled out every kind of embellishment - die cuts, stickers, wooden epoxy stickers, enamel dots and sequins. Every flat piece got the fun foam treatment so it wouldn't just disappear into the background. 

I kept adding pieces until my cutfile was filled in nicely. It was really hard to stop because I just wanted to keep adding stuff to the background. But I think I stopped myself at the right time. 

That's it from me for today. Have a great week!

xoxo