Scrapbook & Cards Today Blog

It's all about those kits! Sneak peeks are here!

Good evening SCT friends!  I'm sorry we were so busy kitting yesterday that we didn't hit "publish" on this post!  Such a fun day with the kitting crew we had and with a second kit, there was plenty to do!  A second kit you ask?  Why yes friends, many asked for a, exclusive card kit so we are pleased to share a sneak peek of our brand new card kit!  With an exclusive stamp set and die, a gorgeous selection of papers and embellishment and instructions for card created by Kim Kesti, we could not be more excited to release Summer Lovin'!

"It’s the season for strolling and sipping lemonade! The newest addition to our Crop & Create: Delivered line up is Summer Lovin’, a kit designed with card makers in mind. This collection includes the same bright hues as our scrapbook kit, but includes a 6x6 paper pad, exclusive 3x4 stamp set and matching metal die, and lots of embellishments, papers and trims, all ideal for the smaller canvas of cards. It’s sure to spark a summer romance with crafting!"

Our Summer Lovin' card kit will be on sale this Tuesday, June 2nd at 9:00 pm EST.  We didn't produce many so be sure to order it while you can!  

We also have our beautiful Heat Wave kit making its debut on Tuesday evening too!  Here's a little sneak at the flavour of this fun kit...

If you look closely at the first image up there, you'll notice one of the fun new exclusive acrylic shapes we've included this time around too!  

"Temperatures are rising and the latest Crop & Create: Delivered kit, Heat Wave, is sure to heat up your creativity as well! It’s a bright collection of summertime prints in all the vibrant colors of the season. And we’ve packed in plenty of fun embellishments like stamps, tags, bows, die cuts, journal cards and ribbons that will make your projects shine. Grab your sunglasses and flip flops - a Heat Wave is arriving at your doorstep soon!"

We will have a great shipping deal (and an exclusive treat!) for those that wish to purchase both kits too.  Mark your calendars (or planners!) to join us on Tuesday, June 2nd at 9:00 PM EST!  

For more information about our Crop & Create Delivered kits, click HERE!

Giveaway: Week in the Life kit by Ali Edwards!

Happy Friday SCT friends!  Has it been a good, productive week? Hopefully you're settling in for a great weekend ahead with some crazy fun planned in there!

Today we are excited to share an amazing giveaway with you from contributing SCT writer, Crop & Create instructor, designer and story teller Ali Edwards.  If you know Ali, have taken a class with Ali or taken one of her amazing online classes, then you know she is a brilliant memory keeper and loves to share her philosophy to capturing the every day.  Today's giveaway is the brand new Week in the Life™  kit!  

A seven-day documentary project, Week in the Life™ began in 2005 as an annual opportunity to capture the simple everyday details of life with photos and words. This year's kit includes everything you'll need to craft the story of your week. You'll get a 6x8 inch album of your choice, a paper pad, perforated sentiment strips, labels in different styles and sizes, alpha stickers, an exclusive stamp set, and more! Here's a little peek...

Later this summer, Ali will also document her own Week In The Life™, sharing her words and photos on her blog during her chosen seven days. She will also use this kit to bring together her content into a completed project. And you can follow along! 

Would you love to win one of Ali's kits?  Are you ready for a fun project documenting your daily life? Then just leave a comment below by June 4th!    A  Week In The Life™ will be a great project you and your family will love for years to come!  Good luck!

Join us tomorrow for a sneak peek of our brand new Crop & Create Delivered "Heat Wave" kit and our brand new "Summer Lovin" card kit!  Exciting days ahead!

Have a great weekend!

~  Catherine

Guest Designer Kim Jeffress is here!

Good morning SCT friends!  We're so glad you're here!  It's been an exciting week around the SCT offices. Our Crop & Create Cornwall, ON event opened for registration (and sold out in record time!), we announced last night that sweet Amy Tangerine will be joining us at our Markham, 2016 event (see her sweet announcement here!) and we also announced that we have a brand new Summer Lovin' card kit releasing with our summer Crop & Create Delivered Heat Wave kit!  We'll have more on that tomorrow.  But also exciting this week is that designer Kim Jeffress is here!  We love Kim's great style and having met her at CHA this past year, she is as sweet as she is talented.  So let's hand it over to Kim...

"Hi everyone, its Kim Jeffress here and I am excited to be joining you on the SCT blog today. I have always been a long time fan of Scrapbook & Cards Today magazine and some of my all time favorite scrappers are right here on the design team so I am doubly excited!

Today I want to share a layout i created recently for my oldest son who completed his first ever nation wide testing …I wanted to let him know the most important  thing for him to remember is that we will be proud of him as long as he tries his best!

I am totally in love with my Heidi Swapp Minc Machine too! I love that it can add a touch of glamour or a touch of fun to my layout just by changing the color of the foil. 

Here on my layout I used some of Heidi’s pre-made items in the Minc collection and coordinated the foil colors with the colors in my layout…a perfect way to customize embellishments for your projects.

I also love to use fun and unusual items on my layouts, here I have used some of the new Heidi Swapp project Life cards on my layout, I thought the sentiment on the card was perfect for my layout.

Thank you for popping by today!"

~  Kim Jeffress

You can find Kim:

• on her blog, http://www.glasshalffull-kim.blogspot.com
• on the Heidi Swapp blog http://www.heidiswapp.com/blog/ 
• on instagram https://instagram.com/kimjeffress/

We R Memory Keepers FUSE tool giveaway!

Happy Friday friends!  To all our friends and readers in the US we hope you are getting ready for a safe and wonderful, long weekend!  

If you joined us earlier this week, design team member Nancy Damiano shared a fabulous project she created with the We R Memory Keepers FUSE tool.  You can see the full post HERE.  Nancy created these amazing pocket letters to create the title for her layout using the FUSE to create these pockets.

We had so many readers love this project that our friends at We R Memory Keepers thought it would be awesome to send one FUSE tool to a lucky reader!

"Create custom pockets, sleeves and DIY projects using the Photo Sleeve Fuse. The Fuse welding tip creates a clean, strong micro-weld seam that will not tear or separate, capturing memories and goodies alike!"

To learn more about the FUSE, be sure to visit their YouTube channel to see it in action!

For an opportunity to win this tool SCT friends, be sure to leave a comment below by Thursday, May 28th! Good luck!

Have a fabulous weekend everyone!  We'll see you next week!  And don't forget ,if you have any great organization tips (see THIS post), be sure to send them today.

~  Catherine

Organization tips from the SCT design team!

Happy Wednesday SCT friends!  Thanks for stopping by. A while back we asked our talented design team for some of their tried and true tips to organize their craft space! Here are some of their great ideas that just may help you too!

I don't have a huge stash of washi tape, but came up with an easy way to organize the ones that I do have. I wanted a way to know what manufacturer each roll of tape came from. Most tapes, once out of their package, don't have any markings on them to tell you where they're from, and I don't want to have to rely on memory to keep track of them. So I sorted out my tapes by manufacturer, and then put them on rings together.

Some manufacturers might have just one ring, some might have two to three rings. They're easy to add too, if I get new tapes. And they're easy to take apart, if I want to remove a roll or two for something. To label them, I took out some really old vellum tags, scribbled the manufacturer's name on, and added the tag right to the binder ring. Then I just toss all of the binder rings into a big basket. Easy peasy." ~  Laura Vegas

"I love using clear plastic canisters and mason jars for storing and organizing supplies. Some are kept in open view, while others are stored away behind closed doors. Either way, I like how I can easily see what’s inside at a quick glance. I have a large one for tags, die cuts and miscellaneous bits and pieces from ephemera packs, as well as several for washi tapes, bakers twine, small stamps etc.  I also have several pretty ceramic bowls throughout my workspace. Some store smaller embellishments, while others are there to simply hold all those little unused odds and ends until they make it back to their proper home."  ~  Sheri Reguly

 
"I love using glass ramekin bowls to hold my glitter, embossing powders, sequins, buttons etc.  I purchased these ramekins from the dollar store and love they come with lids (and they secure tight too) and are stackable.  These bowls are not only pretty they are very practical.  

Applying glitter or embossing powder is super easy because I can just hold the object over the mouth of the bowl and spoon out the glitter letting the excess spill back into the bowl.  No messy clean up or trying to funnel glitter back into a tiny bottle. Another benefit is because they are glass bowls, there is enough weight to them to sit sturdy on your craft table and won’t knock over too easily.  Yes I have cried over spilled glitter, thank goodness that’s all in the past!” ~  Virginia Nebel

 

"Keep often-used tools and supplies together in a divided bin or box. I found this wooden compartment at a thrift store and it holds my most-used items: scissors, hole punches, writing utensils, date stamps, erasers, & adhesive!"  ~  Lisa Dickinson

I am always taking photos of my finished cards, layouts, and paper crafting projects. To keep those photos looking fresh, I've collected several photo props over the years. I thought you might want a peek at how I organize those items. You can see like items are typically placed next to one another, making the job of taking photos a lot easier than it once was when items were stored all over my house." ~ Jen Gallacher


"My organizational photo is nothing fancy but I think it's SO important. If you scrapbook or make cards, you have scraps.  And over time you can literally drown in them (I speak from experience).  So this box lives under my desk.  Again, it's nothing fancy, I have chipboard dividers with a color chip attached.  It keeps me organized."  ~  Marla Kress

We also asked our readers to share some of their ideas a while back and would love to see yours too!  Be sure to send any images to us by Friday, May 22 and we'll select a few to share right here next Wednesday!  Sent images not larger than 1MB to [email protected] and put "organization tip" in your reference line.  We look forward to seeing your tips and tricks!

 

 

3Ts Tuesday with Nancy Damiano!

Hi there SCT followers, its Nancy with a fun pocket tutorial using the Fuse tool from We R Memory Keepers. This nifty little tool lets you create custom pockets and sleeves in divided page protectors. It welds seams that are strong and easy to create.

I practiced sealing some odd-sized memorabilia in my Project Life album. I was impressed by how easy and well the Fuse worked. I quickly realized that I could create so much more with some old page protectors and this little tool.

To create the letter pockets:

1. Start by using your electronic cutting die cut machine to cut out 4” letters for your title. You can certainly make them smaller, I went “big” for impact. You can also easily cut these letter out by hand by printing them out. 

2. Cut a square out of an old page protector making sure you have a top and bottom layer together. Place the letter (in this case the Y) under both layers of page protector. This is the template you will trace to make the letter. 

3. Use the Fuse tool to seal about half way up the letter. Before sealing the top fill the letter with sequins. Place it back on the “Y” template and seal it up. The trick here is to move the tool firmly and quickly. If you hold the tool down to long it will burn a hole through the seam and you will have a leaky pocket! Practice a few times and you will get the hang of it.

4. Use scissors to trim the letter out.  The Fuse also comes with a cutting tip that you could use, but I found that just trimming with scissors was easier to control with shapes.

5. TIP: For letters with an inside hole – like the “O”, start by sealing up the center first. Then fill the pocket. Place the template back underneath and finish sealing the outside last.  Sounds tricky, but it’s really not. 

I think I’ll be getting a lot of use out of my Fuse not just in my Project Life albums, but creating custom embellishments of all kinds!

Thanks for joining me today!

~  Nancy Damiano

Scrapbook & Cards Today design team member