Cartwheels In My Mind

Reader Submissions Thursday.

So it's Thursday...and that means it's time for a new batch of art shares from readers that took the time to post to our flickr group. Don't know about it? Just click here and check it out...it's easy and everyone is welcome! Today I decided to share art from two different contributors whose work I love. We've got three pieces of art apiece, so prepare to be inspired! 

First up, Miss Kate O'Brian. Kate was one of our very first guest authors here on the site (you can see her AMAZING mini-album tutorial here.) There is this subtle edge to Kate's work that just draws you in and makes you want to make some art straight-away. The colors, the white space, the minimalistic appeal? Incredible. Intriqued? Then let's see some art! 

See what I mean? Just incredible! And this is just a sneak peek...be sure to check out her other work. I swear you will thank me later for linking you up. :)

To see more of Kate's work, check out her blog: diaryofarenegadescrapbooker.typepad.com;

or you can find her on flickr under the name artsychic75 here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/44928072@N00/.

Next up we have Julie Ann Shahin. I feel like in two words I would describe her style as ABSOLUTELY FEARLESS (ok, that's actually 3 words). The colors and the way that she mixes patterns and textures is way beyond what alot of us would be able to pull off, but she does it flawlessly and to perfection. Even without reading what it say or looking at the photos, everything is so inspiring. But when you do get close, you realize that there is meaning and heart in each of her pieces as well. LOVE IT!

Want to see more of Julie Ann's work? Let me tell you how:

blog: julieannshahin.blogspot.com 

flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/julieannshahin/

Thanks so much, ladies, for sharing your art with us!

What are all of you working on today? Don't forget to post it to the group flickr site. We are always looking for new talent...whether it's to share for a reader submissions post, a guest designer spot or even to join our team. :)

x's and o's,

Cheryl

Scrapbooking With Wallet Sized Photos.

Happy Thursday, my friends! Or is it Friday? The days are kind of all blending together for me this week year. Anyways, I have some inspiration to share with you! I know that alot of you first knew me as a scrapbooker, and I'm not going to lie...as much as I love me some handmade art, scrapbooking will always be my first love. The heart of that entire art just grabs me and holds me captive. Which is why I'm going to try to bring a little more of it back into the site (and my life) over time. Starting with a couple pages today.

So...how many of you print your own photos? I tend to print my own until I get a big batch that I can't narrow down to my favorites and then I head to Walgreens. But to be honest, I very rarely use printed photos on my layouts. I just love the fact that I can print whatever photo I want at any given time...and more importantly, I can make it any size I want. Which, in my case, is almost always wallet sized. There is just something about a miniature photo that inspires me so much. 

So I decided to share a little post that shares 2 different types of layouts using the miniature photo...one that covers the entire background page, and one that leaves a ton of white space.

First up, this little photo of gracie just makes me heart smile for days. She has a certain magnetism that draws people in wherever we go (and makes her very shy daddy quite uncomfortable...he says it's like going out with a celebrity, you can't go anywhere without people stopping and wanting to gush over her.)...and I wanted to capture that for her to see when she's older. The Bruno Mars song was just the icing on the cake. So perfect for who she is... 

Next up is this very minimalistic layout of one my my favorite photos of my kids. I wanted the focus to completely be on them and the words I typed up. And I feel like in a very different way it highlights the photo just as much as the Gracie one above.

So what do you think? Have you used wallet sized photos on your layouts? If so, I'd love to see them! And if not, you should definitely try it...it's incredibly liberating to throw away what you normally do and just work outside your comfort zone!

x's and o's,

C. Amet

P.S. Next time I'm sharing some fun ways to use photostrips in your projects...and where you can make your own strips for free!

Scrapbooking: Holiday Mini Journal.

Tis the season to make christmas cards... fa la la la la... la la la LAAAAAA. Hello again and welcome! I'm just loving our month-long winter wonderland/christmas shadoobee fest/holiday awesomeness. Aren't you?!? Hey, speaking of awesome do you remember Cindy Ruijgrok? Yeah?Well, guess what I have for you? Another mini scrapbook from her very cute etsy shop. {in case you missed the one that Christy did you can check it out here}

Would you like to know what my top 10 favorite things about Christmas time are? 

You may be slightly confused on why I included "shopping" instead of only gift buying. Well, I like to always include a little "to me from me" nifty gifty. And I may or may not wrap it up {don't judge me}. Don't get me wrong, I LOOOVE to buy for others but you never know what deals you'll come across {and if it so happens to be in my size then I guess it's meant to be}.  :D

A special thanks goes out to Cindy for sponsoring Cartwheels and allowing us to share with our viewers your products! :) YOU ROCK! 

If your wondering what gift to give this holiday season you should definitely check out her etsy shop!

Handmade gift : headbands

  
 

The countdown is on and you still need a few stocking stuffers or a simple gift?  We've gotcha covered.

Here is a rockin' little idea that will just take a few minutes of creativity but will be a great handmade gift.  All you need are some stretch elastic headbands, ribbon, felt scraps, a hot glue gun and some flowers.  I got my headbands at Target.  The ribbon & flowers I had in my scrapbooking supply stash that often doesn't get used for scrapbooking.  So this project was a perfect way to use up some of those supplies.  Some of the ribbon is from Hobby Lobby and the rose ribbon is from American Crafts.  Flowers are from Prima, often found in the scrapbooking section of most craft stores.

American Crafts has this great rosette ribbon that's pretty sheer.  So lovely!  Simply handstitch the ribbon onto a handband, tacking it on here and there, for a super simple & fast headband.

 

For these next several headbands , I used Prima Flowers and some felt.  I cut out two felt circles that would fit the back of each flower.  One circle is hot glued onto the headband.  The other circle is hot glued to the back of the flower.  Then I just hot glue the circles together, sandwiching the headband in the middle to create a good solid base.  I have a photo of the back of the flower below.

 
 I used the same method here on these Prima Flowers.  Just a felt sandwich with the headband glued inside and the flower glued on top!

 

These headbands with the ribbon and beads were a bit more time intensive but still only took about 15 minutes each.  That tells you how fast and easy the others were!  First I cut a felt circle about the size that I wanted to flower to be.  Then I applied hot glue a little at a time, starting on the outside of the felt circle, glueing the ribbon a little at a time in a spiral shape toward the inside of the felt circle to create the flower.  I used a toothpick to help me glue the edges of the ribbon easily without burning my fingers.  There's no real science to this.  It's just glue as you go and it'll turn out just perfect in its own way!  Then you can hot glue beads in the middle or handstitch a few sequins if you'd like.

 

And there ya go.  A little preview of the felt sandwich on the back of the flowers.

Seriously so simple, I'm telling ya!  Fast and easy and a great way to create a few last minute handmade & thoughtful gifts to share! 

Enjoy!
Merry Christmas!

Digital frames from Andie Smith Designs. 

25 Days of Christmas :: Photo Card Set.

Hi there, friends! I hope that all of you are doing better with the whole gift gathering thing than I am...because I'm running about 2 months behind schedule. And considering Christmas is just around the corner, I don't exactly have 2 months to make everything. 

Which brings me to this quick and easy gift idea :: the photo card.

Remember this photo that I shared a couple months ago?

Ok, so probably you don't remember it considering the number of photos that have been shared on this site in the past 6 months alone, but it's one of my favorites. It was one of those photos that I thought of and executed within about 5-10 minutes flat...my favorite. :) Anyways, I like to give my mom a few handmade cards each Christmas since she is so good about sending cards to people...and this photo seemed to be the perfect fit for the image on the cards.

To make the cards, I just printed the I LOVE YOU photo at 5x7 inches onto the right side of a piece of 8.5x11 cardstock and then cut it out and folded it at the exact edge of the photo.

Next, I just added 1 little pop-dotted flower/button sticker to each card along the word clothesline and then placed each card into a craft colored envelope.

And just like that, within 1 hour I had a set of 10 cards for her to send out this year. 

Easy right? And cheap...and not very time consuming. My kind of project. :)

25 Days Of Christmas...A Cindy Ruigrok Mini :: Harry Potter Edition.

I'll admit it that this mini book sat on my table for a while.  I don't often use a black and white color scheme so I wanted to make sure that I thought it out and did the mini book from Cindy Ruijgrok justice.  Add to it that I don't do mini books that often and you can see why I wanted to sit on it a while (so to speak).  And then a couple of days later it dawned on me!  The red, black and white color scheme would be perfect for documenting my daughter's Harry Potter obsession...and just in time for Christmas!

Once the topic was decided the rest of the album came together marvelously!

I love that all the mixed sizes of pages let all kinds of upcoming goodies peek through.

The envelope is perfect for keeping movie tickets and other memorabilia in.

The great thing is that there's still a lot of extra pages that I haven't even used yet.  I'm anticipating some Harry Potter stuff coming her way for Christmas and a trip to Universal to see "Harry Potter World" in Spring... so I'm going to need the extras!

P.S. Don't forget that the give-away for one of these mini-albums is still open here. This is your last chance at winning since we want to make sure you the winner receives it in time for Christmas so be sure to leave a message on Cindy's give-away post today!