Welcome Kelly - April Guest Designer!

We're excited to welcome Kelly Shults as April's Guest Designer!  Kelly has been a member of the ACherryOnTop.com community for many years!  We love her style and we think you will too!


Kelly worked with some great products from Sassafras Lass, Jenni Bowlin and My Little Shoebox.  Keep reading to learn a little bit about her and to view some of her fantastic layout ideas!

A Bit About Kelly:  I have been a traditional scrapbooker since 1998. I began Digital Scrapbooking with Photoshop early in 2004. Yes, I am bi-scraptual. :) I have called ACOT my scrapping home and have been a Digital Designer here since January 2006. I love this creative community and have gained so much inspiration here!

You Make Me Smile - Kelly Shults

Kelly's Favorite Color: If I had to narrow it down to just one, I would say aqua-blue.  I have been using that alot lately when I scrap. 

A Lovely Day - Kelly Shults

To read more about Kelly, click here.  Also, be sure to join her all month long on our Contests & Challenges Message Board for inspirational challenges to get your creativity flowing!

Paper Crafting With We R Memory Keepers' Autumn Splendor Collection

Posted by carrie123 (Carrie):

I am sure many of you are feeling the same way that I am...sad to see summer come to an end.  Although I am sad, I am happy to see fall arrive.  Fall is my favorite time of the year.  Not too cold, not too hot.  I love the crisp air and that certain smell that fall brings, not to mention how beautiful the trees look with all the leaves changing colors. 


Fall brings me back to my childhood and all the fun times I had.  My mom would almost every weekend take my sister and I driving around just to see the beautiful artwork that nature produced.  Along those rides we would look for the forest preserve that had the most leaves on the ground so we could stop and collect them all into a huge pile and jump right in them!  When I saw We R Memory Keepers Autumn Splendor line, all of these memories came flooding back to me. 


It is full of those rich wonderful colors that I would see on our nature adventures.  The patterns were so fun to work with so I wanted to create some fun layouts to show them off.  For all of these layouts I used the Autumn Splendor 12x12 Scrapbook Pad.  


This pad has everything you need...heavy duty patterned cardstock, die cuts, alphabets and chipboard.  Tie this in with the Autumn Splendor 12x12 Cardstock Pad and you have the makings of some awesome layouts.  I love that We R Memory Keepers makes these cardstock pads with pretty much all of their lines - really takes the guess work out of picking the right cardstock!
 

For my second layout I wanted to show that this line is just not for fall layouts.  In sticking with the fun memories, I chose to do a layout of me and my sister.  I don't think we have many good photos of the two of us...but we sure do have a bunch of fun trying to get them!

My third layout is an older group of photos.  I have such vivid memories of the fun I had with my mom going on these adventures, I decided to carry on that fun and wonderful tradition with my kids.

Products used:

Paper Crafting With The Ashtyn Collection From 3 Bugs In A Rug

Posted by megamay (Megan):

This month I got to work with 3 Bugs in a Rug's Ashtyn.


This line is just adorable! I love the mix of colors and the mix of prints. It's great because there are solids, small prints, big prints and even a faux die cut paper. 


I couldn't wait to fussy cut that big floral paper. I started with this gorgeous faux die cut paper and this adorable photo. The fussy cut flowers and the added pen details are just the right touch. 

Next I had to move on to these two adorable photos. I wanted to keep the focus on the photos and use the papers and embellishments to make them more, not detract. The simple pink background helps center the page.

For this page, I loved the pinwheels on the one scrapbooking paper so much that I wanted to recreate them in 3-d. 

Finally I had to make a card. I used a sketch from Moxie Fab world, and just kept it simple. The colors are so great that it doesnt need anything more!

 

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Supplies used in this reveal:

Paper Crafting With October Afternoon's Boarding Pass

Posted by 4peasinourpod (Pam):

I have been traveling a lot lately, so when I saw Boarding Pass by October Afternoon, I was excited to use it for my reveal.  (If you look closely, however, you will see that only one of these layouts is about a recent trip.  Apparently you need to actually PRINT the pictures from those).  


The line is in true October Afternoon style.  There are a few travel related papers, and then they compliment the rest of the line with versatile and complimentary papers.  As always, the embellishments from October Afternoon are incredible. 


I bought almost everything that they carried, and used almost all of it in my layouts. (Well, except the things that said PARIS, as I have never been there.)


My first layout is of a trip that I took in January.  I met up with three AMAZING women and we stayed right on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico on Captiva Island.  Even though the trip was in January, we set up a Christmas tree in our cottage, and one morning exchanged gifts.  


Jules gave us all stockings with different "toppers" .  Mine had a reindeer, Janet got a sock monkey and Clare's had a COW.  (Which I think I should have gotten, because I am from Wisconsin, but apparently she loves Clare the best.)  The "Palm Beach Girl" from Florida was perfect for this layout. 



 
This next layout is from last year's family vacation to South Dakota.  I LOVED the car chipboard, except it reminded me of the 16 hours in the car each way.  Then I didn't like it so much.  (Actually, I still did love it!)  I also loved the little touristy guy with the mountains.  I loved ALL of those chipboard guys, as you will see.
 



This layout describes a trip to visit Jules and Gene a couple years ago.  When I looked at the variety of stickers, rubons, and other embellishments, I got the idea to do a fun and different kind of layout - telling a story through embellishments.  Here is the story:  I went to the airport. (airplane).  I got stopped in security, and got frisked because I was bringing a gift of spices to them for letting me stay at their home.  


Security thought I was a drug dealer, and searched me, my bag, and wiped all the spice containers with a special wipe to see if I was traveling with illegal drugs.  Me.  The mom of 4 who doesn't even have time to breathe, much less deal drugs.  So...I got to go.  I had to run to the gate; got on the plane, and arrived in Paradise (see the palm tree?)...and was picked up by my friends.  See how much fun a layout of mostly embellishments can be?
 

This next layout is about a girl that is near and dear to my heart.  She has drive and ambition, and strives hard to achieve every goal that she sets for herself.  She is an inspiration to me and to all of my children.  She set out to get her motorcycle license and then bought a motorcycle with money that she earned.  I used the world map paper to signify that she's able to go anywhere with her determination.   

 

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October Afternoon has kept their usual quality and diversity in this line.  I highly recommend it for any traveling layouts that you are going to be scrapbooking soon.  Just remember to print out those pictures.

Meet Our August 2011 Guest Paper Creative Team Member!

It's August already!  Can you believe that?  We would like to welcome our August Guest CT'er -- Retiree3!  Donna got to work with the Creative Imaginations Sakura line.  She did an amazing job and created SIX beautiful layouts!!  Check out her layouts and learn more about her!

Name:  Donna Broussard

Favorite television show?   I really don't watch much, but I love any Hallmark movies.

Name 3 musical artists you enjoy.   George Strait, Linda Ronstadt, and Diana Kroll

Name 2 of your favorite colors.   blue and red

Favorite thing to do with your family?   My favorite thing to do is go camping with my family.

What's your favorite scrapping tool to use when scrapbooking?   My Creatopia

Name 3 of your favorite SB companies/lines.   Creative Imaginations, My Mind's Eye, and BoBunny

What are your favorite adhesives?   Xyron and Pro Glue Glider

What's the one thing you must have readily available when you sit down to scrap?   My Fiskars' Cutting Board

What would you like the ACOT members to know about you?   I am a retired teacher. I have been married to a wonderful man for 36 years. We have one son and he is married to a wonderful woman that we adore. We have been blessed with 3 beautiful grandsons who light up our lives. I have 5 siblings that I am very close to and nermerous nieces and nephews that I adore.  I am a scrapaholic and totally forget the time when I am scrapping. I love to crochet, go to garage sales, get together with famly and friends, do crafts, make jewelry, and travel.  I love ACOT because I have learned so much by being a member. Thank you ACOT!

'Delight' by Retiree3

When I saw this Blossom and Butterfly paper, I knew I had to scrap this photo. To make a frame for my photo, I used Lovely Lantern Die-cut Paper and embellished with gold Stickles. I also used the Stickles to accent the purple flowers on the page. My title is from Blooming Paper that I cut out with my Slice machine and heat embossed. I used Sakura Cardstock Stickers for my journaling spot and embellishments. I want to thank ACOT for allowing me to work on this beautiful line of paper.

 'Bloom' by Retiree3

 

 

View Donna's complete article/reveal by visiting our Resources Page!

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: