Craft Inspiration From Our Gallery -

We're like proud parents when it comes to 'bragging' about all of the talent you can find in our A Cherry On Top Crafting Gallery!

Here are just a few we'd like to highlight.  Let us know what you think or even better yet - leave the creators a comment by visiting their gallery.

'Homecoming'

scrapbooking layout by Joannie

featuring these products:

 

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'All Good Things'

greeting card by Lisa S.

featuring these products:

  

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'Friends' 

scrapbooking layout by Tena

featuring products from:

 

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We'd love to feature YOUR creation!  Start loading your projects into our Craft Idea Gallery.  Be sure to let us know the different products used and who knows - Your project may be featured here on our blog or our Facebook page!

Happy Creating!

CHA - Winter 2013 Wrap-Up!

We're Back From CHA!

For those not familiar with what CHA is - here's a little info:

'CHA' is an acronym for Craft and Hobby Association.  In general, the CHA hosts a conference and trade show twice each year.  The Winter 2013 conference took place in California - USA making the city of Anaheim 'the happiest place on earth' for more than one reason!

Manufacturers, retailers and various media gurus from all over the globe flock together to share new, soon-to-be-released products, inspiring ideas and tons of resources.  We ♥ CHA!

Watch Jared from Fancy Pants

We were excited to see the new paper crafting collections from companies like Basic Grey, Fancy Pants Designs, Simple Stories, Echo Park Paper and so many more!  Here are a few pics:

Fancy Pants Designs

Heidi with Cynthia Sandoval,
owner of Doodlebug Design

One of the highlights of the show has to be touching base with those friends we normally only visit with by phone or email.  Cynthia from Doodlebug Design, Inc. always has a smile and a hug ready!  She's incredible and she makes CHA that much more special!  

I wish I had time to take snap shots of all of the designers and manufacturers, but we were busy buying, buying, buying!

Watch Byron tell us about BasicGrey's Mint Julep collection:

We're expecting more new product the next coming months than ever! 

We hope you like what you see in the ACherryOnTop.com shoppe.  As always, we're working hard to provide the item selection, service and shipping speed you come to expect from us.  Thanks for helping us do what we love to do!

Welcome Jenn - Our Feb 2012 Guest Creative Team Member!

Hi Cherries. My name is Jenn and I am so excited to be the GCT for this month. I have so much in my life to be happy about and am thrilled to be able to share a little bit of that with you. I am engaged to the most wonderful and amazing man who has taught me so much about love. Between us we have 3 awesome children, one little angel in heaven, and 3 cats that are just as spoiled as our children are! 


My family keeps me busy and is usually the focus of my scrapbooks. If I am not hanging out with the family, you can usually find me scrapbooking, reading, watching sports, or baking. I started scrapbooking as a young girl. I loved to cut pictures and articles out of magazines and glue them into other books. Thankfully my scrapbooking as evolved greatly since then. I love all styles of scrapbooking, but tend to gravitate towards more simple and clean pages.

When I think of February, I instantly think of love and Valentine’s Day. So for my reveal I wanted to showcase some of the people and things that I love. What better way to do this then with Basic Grey’s Kissing Booth collection? I love the colors of this line and found it to be very versatile. I love how the colors and designs blend and coordinate with each other, making it very easy to work with.


For my first layout, I wanted to share with you the love of my life. I choose the background paper (Oh Darling) because of the outdoor feel to it. The picture was taken while we were camping so I thought it was perfect. I used the back of xoxo, the back of we belong, as well as the back of kiss to help accent the picture. 


To add a little bit of depth I used stickers from the Kissing Booth Elements sheet. I love that the alphabet sheet came with three different fonts in three different colors. I used all 3 alphabets from the alphabet sheet to make the title. In order to help make the stickers and alphabet pop I outlined them with a fine tip marker. 


I also wanted a little bit of contrast between the papers since they blended together so nicely. In order to create that effect, I inked all of the edges using Chestnut Cat Eye pigment ink by Colorbox.

For my second layout I wanted to focus on my love of my children. I am so blessed to have 3 awesome kids. I really wanted the focus to be on the pictures of the kids so I chose to work with more subtle papers and only 1 pattern paper. I used the back of Hugs for the background. I also used the front of We Belong, the back of Kiss as well as the back of XOXO. Once again I used ink to help contrast the papers. 


I used Chianti Cat's Eye ink by color box. The deep red helped to bring some pop of color to the dark subtle papers. In trying to keep the focus on the pictures, I used the lovely mini pink alphabet to add names to the pictures while using the browns for the title. Did I mention how much I love this alphabet sheet? I used the element sticker sheet and the layered banner sticker sheet to create a couple of accents on the page. The flower stickers were a great way for me to hide my adhesive on the vellum!

For my final layout, I wanted to do a snapshot of things that I love. Pink is my favorite color so I wanted to incorporate lots of pink into this layout. The way these papers coordinate are awesome. I used the back of Truly, the back of Kiss, the front of Butterfly Kisses, the back of XOXO, the back of We Belong, and the back of Butterfly Kisses. I inked all of the edges using Chestnut Cat's Eye pigment ink by Colorbox. Using the element sticker sheet, the alphabet sheet, and the layered banner stickers I created a visual triangle to help bring focus to the list of things I love.

When I was finished with my layouts I realized I had some nice sized scraps to work with. I hate to throw anything away so I used the scraps to make a couple of Valentine’s Day cards.

 

Products Used in this Reveal:

Creating Artist Trading Cards - ATCs

Posted by ChrissyTina (Christina):

A lot of people ask what the point of an ATC is.  An artist trading card is kind of like your “calling card” only without the contact information.  Other artists actually trade and collect them and it’s not hard to find swaps going on involving ATCs.


This is my first time making ATCs, and I’ll be honest with you.  For me, it was a challenge to work on such a small “canvas”.  I’m accustomed to 12x12 or larger altered items. However, these are great to try out new techniques, experiment, and just go wild! 


I chose to do six of these mighty miniatures to try out different styles and techniques that I wouldn’t normally use on a regular scrapbooking page.

My first ATC has a mix of techniques and details.  I sewed, added trim, used gel medium, and stamped.  The flower is fussy cut from paper from the Basic Grey's Indie Bloom 6x6 paper pad.  The victorian image is from my stash.  


I turned it into an acrylic embellishment by using Diamond Glaze or Glossy Accents and gluing a Tim Holtz acrylic "Fragment" on top of it.  My blingage and gold beads are from the orange and gold multi-media kit by Art-C Studios.  The background paper is by Prima from their "Alla Prima" 6x6 pad.

My next several cards are a bit more straight forward and simplistic.  I used a flowers and 7 Gypsies overlay from my stash.  The patterned paper is by Prima as well.  


The bling is from the red and purple mixed media kit by Art-C Studios.  To add visual interest and a bit of subtle color, I colored the overlay using Copic markers.  I finished of the card by trimming the edges with Kaiser Craft's Natural Lace pack.

For the next card, I cut the papers into fine strips and adhered them to the ATC using Mod Podge.  Collaging is an amazing way to add unique visual interst and depth.  The purple bead trim and overlay are from my stash.

The banner used on this card is from my stash, as are the beads.  The patterned paper is from Indie Bloom by Basic Grey.

This next card is more whimsical and fun.  I wanted to play with paints and twine.  I wanted to keep the illusion of a canvas so I didn't add any trim around the edges and I roughed up the acrylic pant using a sanding block.  Twine was used to add accenting and highlighting.

The final ATC I made uses more layering and some framing.  The frame, gray flower, and circus tent die cut are from my stash.  The flower is from Basic Grey.  The beads, mah jong die cut, and elephant are from my Art-C Studios kits.  


I cut the frame out from another ATC and mounted to my foundational piece.  I used a foam pad and dabbed Glimmer Mist  onto the background and hand painted some yellow scroll work, which got covered up.  I accented the flowers on the corner of the frame using regular acrylic paint.  My circus tent is painted and sanded.  I added some green swirls and a bead to keep it interesting.

I find that ATCs are a great tool to explore different art stylings and techniques.  Thank you for taking a look and I hope you picked up some inspiration and an idea or two!


Products used:

Paper Crafting With The Oxford Collection By Basic Grey

Posted by ScrapGoo (Jess):

When it comes to patterns Basic Grey is top of the class! Their new collection, Oxford, is straight from the pages of a college yearbook with plaids and sophisticated yet masculine prints that have a touch of yesteryear combined with typical Basic Grey whimsy.  Naturally, the collection is full of fun embellishments made of everything from chipboard to brads to stickers and they will definitely make you smile!  

How can you not love the old school glasses and all the great academic icons?  This collection definitely has a lot going on!  There are patterns galore and a lot of different colors.  It can be intimidating to work with all that but not if you remember that you don't need to use *everything* on one page.  Simple is good and a little goes a long way.  

Take a look at what I created with Oxford-hopefully I make the grade!

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The Apple of His Eye

I decided to pick out just a few colors for this layout.  The reds and blacks worked well with my photo and allowed me to not be overwhelmed by all the pattern options.  My title was inspired by the cute apple chipboard!  I tried to keep the design clean and easy on the eye by matting most of the main area with the cream lined paper.  It draws the eye in and unifies the rest of the elements.

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Sleep Cheeks

I went in the opposite color direction with this scrapbooking page.  Again, I drew the cues from my photos and chose blues for this layout.  A PageMaps sketch made this page come together quickly.  Although the prints of Oxford are sophisticated they can still be great for the little guys too!  I used the chipboard stars to bring some youth to this page. 

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Smart: It's in the Genes

This is Oxford in all its glory!  I used an old college photo of my dad here.  He is a smart cookie!  And I have to thank him for passing on his smarts to yours truly.  ;-)  I really fell in love with the chipboard elements in this collection; the science stuff, books, writing instruments, and of course the glasses!  (I can assure you that boys DO make passes at girls who wear glasses!) I just layered the crud out of this page- fun!

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Oxford Congrats

This cute dotted paper is one of the more fun papers in this line and probably my favorite, of course I needed to make a little card with it!  This would be a great graduation card but I think it could be given to a guy for nearly any important achievement.  I used several layers of journaling bits and chipboard here to build up a mat for the sentiment.  And some natural twine is a great masculine embellishment!

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You Da Man

Okay, okay... I could NOT let this article end without using these AWESOME moustache stickers!  Moustache images are pretty trendy right now and these make me giggle!  Again, around here I can never have too many guy cards so this will definitely come in handy.  I think this simple card will bring a smile to the receiver. 

So, you can see how many different sides this collection has.  It is both serious and silly.  I hope you take a trip to Oxford like I have... only THIS Oxford won't involve pop quizzes or crotchety professors! :-P

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I used the following products on these projects: