Meet Sharon - Our February 2013 Guest Designer!

WELCOME SHARON

Screenname: Sherelm
First Name:  Sharon (Sher)
Favorite Color : On the warm side, Orange, on the cool side, Teal
I mostly create: 12x12 single pages
My Guilty Pleasure: Watching Old Law & Order repeats while snacking on cheese
Bio:  I am a sixty year old retired X-ray Tech working for the PA gov't in Child Support. Being long timed divorced my household now includes two Siamese cats "Clarkie" and "Pearl" and  my dachshund "Scully", but I am foremost the mother of a grown son Joey.  My home is now in Harrisburg PA, but I grew up in the town famous for the largest nuclear disaster in the US  - Three Mile Island – Middletown.

Check out Sharon's complete interview here!

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Sharon worked with products from Authentique Paper, October Afternoon and KaiserCraft.  We love this layout which captures memories from yesteryear mixed with a bit of today's flair:

Teen Years: featuring KaiserCraft

Suggested Products:

   

Sher will be hosting a few contests and challenges throughout the month of February on our Message Board!  Be sure to stop in for some fun and inspiration and maybe a giveaway or two!

Click to view more of her project ideas by clicking here.  Leave us a comment to let us know what you think!

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Click here to find out how to submit

Welcome Becky - August Guest Designer At ACherryOnTop.com

Screenname: blitz

Name:  Becky

 

A Bit About Becky:  My partner Trevor and I live with our two kiddos; Olivia 9 and Sullivan 1 in Cranbrook BC in the heart of the B-E-A-U-tiful Canadian Rocky Mountains. I am an Elementary School teacher but I am taking some time off to stay home with our son, and while I’m at it I look after two other little boys the same age.  Papercrafting is my passion and I am so excited to be able to share it with you. I am thrilled to be the guest designer this month at A Cherry on Top!! Please stop by and visit my blog at www.scrapcircus.blogspot.com.

 

Q & A Section:

 

Favorite color: turquoise

 

I mostly create: 12x12 layouts (usually single page)

 

My guilty pleasure is:  sour chewy candies

Visit our Contests & Challenges forum for inspirational fun throughout the month of August!

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'Hello' card featuring the 9 to 5 Collection by October Afternoon:





Products Used:


   

Click HERE to learn more about Becky and to see all of her great projects!

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Click here to find out how to submit

How To Create Four Layouts From One Sketch

Posted by SarahA

Sketches can be a scrapbooker's best tool when it comes to getting layouts done when you're short on time. They can give your creativity a jump start and encourage you to try design ideas you may not have thought of before. 


Sometimes though, searching for just the right sketch that speaks to you can be difficult. Sometimes you may find a sketch you love, but you don't want to use it more than once so you don't have layouts that all look the same in your albums. 


I'd like to show you how you can stretch just one sketch into four very different layouts.


I started with this sketch from PageMaps that I really liked for several reasons. I really liked the 3 patterned paper pieces, the stitching and the little cluster in the bottom corner.

Holiday Greetings
The first layout I did was a pretty close to exact interpretation of the sketch. I kept all the design elements in place. The main difference is changing the presents out for snowflakes on my layout. I even used the same photo dimensions given on the sketch. I really liked the October Afternoon Holiday Style line- it went perfectly with my photos and were bright, happy Christmas colors.

Before & After
 A few weeks ago I was talking with a friend and she mentioned looking for a sketch, but not having the right size photos listed. When using a sketch, there are no rules! On this layout, I followed the sketch pretty closely for the design, but used 2  4x6 photos instead of the 3 smaller photos on the sketch. 


I also placed the title differently and added some journaling around the edges. You can see the basic sketch in my layout, but I've made a few changes to suit the photos I had. The My Mind's Eye Kraft Fun Day line has a lot of great, trendy designs. I especially liked the number paper for this layout about the first day of school. I used my white pen to give the kraft pieces a little dimension.

Family of Four
I've really been into doing 8.5x11" pages lately. I am able to easily include them in my D-ring albums amongst my 12x12 layouts. Actually, the first 8.5x11 I tried was earlier this year using a sketch! I would say the majority of sketches are 12x12, but that doesn't mean you can't use them to create a different sized page. 


You can always scale it down if you're doing an 8x8, a mini album, or an 8.5x11 like I did here. I shrunk the size of the paper pieces and used one large photo. I kept the title placement, cluster at the bottom of the page and at the bottom  of the right-hand strip of paper.  


The Sidewalks line from October Afternoon was just perfect for this photo of a newborn baby and happy family! You can't beat October Afternoon's vintage whimisical style when scrapping a baby!

 
Two Months
This layout deviates the most from the sketch, but you can still see how they are related. The 3 patterned paper pieces were my favorite part of the sketch- I really love the uneven number design principle! I had an 8x12 photo I had been wanting to scrap, and decided now was the time! 


 I cut three 4x4 squares and used zig-zag stitching to adhere them to the bottom of the layout. I placed the photo at the top. The sketch had stitching around the title, so I stitched my title alphas to the layout. A few stickers under the title reflect the "date" clusters from the sketch. 


So, you can see that there were elements of the sketch that I used in this layout, yet the layout doesn't resemble the sketch much at all.

You can see how if you have one sketch you really love, you can make several layouts from it without feeling like you'll have four of the same layout in your album. Just by using different size or number of photos, rotating the sketch, or by just pulling several elements from the sketch that you really like will let you stretch your favorite sketches further!  Even when they're all lined up together, you still see 4 distinct layouts.




Products used in this reveal:

Meet Our January 2012 Guest Paper Creative Team Member!

  Posted by carrie123

As promised...although a little late...I want to introduce our Guest CT for the month of January! Please give it up for Janet..AKA...scrapy1967:

I am married to a wonderful man and we have a very spoiled boxer named Zoe! My husband is very supportive of my hobby! I have been scrapping since I was in high school that is when I made my version of a smash book.

I started scrapping for real in 2002 after I bought my first house and then I stopped for a few years and started back up after I was married in 07.

I don't think I have a particular scrapping style. I try to make all my pages look different.  My favorite scrapbooking companies are Pink Paislee and October Afternoon! I also love making cards and many other crafts.

I knew when I saw this collection it was the one for me! For my first layout I started with the back side of Warm Mittens then I cut a piece of Cozy Sweater and layered it with the front side of Warm Mittens and the back side of the Hot Cocoa paper. I used several pieces of the Ephemera pack and the Bundle Up was from the dimensional sticker pack.

For my second page I started with snowball fight and I used a piece of Bazzill Bling. I took Blossom Pink Bakers Twine to make my banners then I used the Snow Day Ephemera pack and one of the stacked stickers to hang on my banners.

For my 3rd layout I used Hot Cocoa for the start of my page then I used a piece of Snowball Fight. My title came from the Pink Paislee Wood Shapes and I used October Afternoon Strawberry Creme sprinkler to color it. I used lots of the Ephemera pack on this page. I used bakers twine in Blossom light pink for my stitching.

Be sure to visit the Message Board for Janet's January Challenges!

Products used:

Scrapbooking With 5 & Dime By October Afternoon

Posted by 4peasinourpod (Pam):

5 and Dime.  The name of this line reminds me of the old Woolworth's store that my brother and I would walk down to when I was a little girl.  We would pool our change, and walk to that magical place.  There was a counter where you could get the best grilled cheese sandwich,  and aisles of drug store items.  

Then...there was that section that the kids all hovered by...the candy, the bouncy balls, and for me...the baseball cards. 

October Afternoon made this line as wonderful as those memories.  The papers are gorgeous, double sided, and are classic October Afteroon.  

The patterns are bold, the colors are complimentary, and they are true to the concept of the corner Dime Store.

Here are the layouts that I created using this wonderful line!

The first two are from our vacation to South Dakota last summer.  My children spent most of their time outside, so I had to use the blues of the line for an outdoor shot.  I LOVE their labels, as they can be used for accents as well as journaling.

Of course, I HAD to use this line to document our visit to Wall Drug, which is the epitomy of the 5 and Dime!  I layered rub ons, and cut out sayings from the patterned paper to try and duplicate the feeling of being in a store like Wall Drug...a very visual experience.

I LOVE big bold patterns, because that means that I can hand cut it, and make it my own.  Here is a super simple layout of Kiley from Easter Sunday.

In second grade at Delaney's school, once you master your math facts, they have a ceremony in which a cape and hat are presented.  Here is a layout of Delaney's ceremony.

Lastly, here is my favorite layout of them all...I just took a few of all the embellishments and layered them all together.  This is the perfect example of the versatility of the embellishments.

I rarely say this...but this is a MUST HAVE line of papers and embellishments.  I already have more in my cart, and I cannot wait to play some more with it!

Products Used: