Posted by karooch on
August 24, 2010
Scotch Brand Most Gifted Wrapper Contest
How would you like to win $10,000 for wrapping some presents?
Sound good? Read on . . .
The 3M Company who own Scotch Brand are holding their 14th annual gift wrapping contest in December this year. Entries close 18th October 2010 and the winner of the Scotch Brand Most Gifted Wrapper walks away with $10,000.00.
Now that would buy a whooole lot of scrapbooking supplies.
So if you’re someone who extends their passion for scrapbooking to off-the-page gift wrapping projects, or if you know someone who does, then click over to the competition website and find out more about it.
Scotch Brand Most Gifted Wrapper for 2009
To enter all you need to do is complete a form telling the organizers why you or someone you’re nominating, are a gift wrapping guru and share your best gift wrapping tips. You can upload a couple of photos if you like, but that’s not mandatory.
And you’ll need to tell them whether the nominee is a professional or an amateur gift wrapper. I’ll be honest, I didn’t realize there was such a thing as a professional gift wrapper, but apparently a professional is someone who has earned an income as a gift wrapper at a department store. Hmmm . . . I once worked in a garden nursery and we used to gift wrap the potted plants. Does that make me a professional gift wrapper? I don’t think so.
Anyhoo, even if you’re not so great in the gift wrapping department yourself if you’re the person who nominates the winner you get $1000 for just putting in the nomination.
So check out the competition website This might be the opportunity for you or a friend to actually get a cash windfall from your papercraft creativity.
And wouldn’t that be very satisfying to point out to your significant other?
Posted by karooch on
January 30, 2010
Cuttlebugs and Creativity
Well Summer is in full swing here in Oz. And I’ll be honest with you; I haven’t done much in the scrapbooking line for a few months.
But I haven’t shut up shop entirely. My Tuesday night craft group ensures that I still keep projects on the go.
Last year I introduced Marla to the concept of Artist Trading Cards and I’ve never seen someone embrace anything with as much enthusiasm as she has with ATCs. She’s joined several swap groups and in a few short months she’s built up a huge collection, filling two binders already. She makes beautiful ATCs as you can see here.
At the moment she’s got a couple of swaps which she’s organising herself, so in a fit of buddy support I’ve volunteered to contribute to them. Here’s one of my efforts on the theme of ‘birds and feathers’. It’s called Soar.
Like many of my ATCs it’s a hybrid of digital and paper/scissors techniques. I find this approach especially useful when I have to make 7 cards all the same. I can design the backgound, duplicate it and print out 7 identical versions. Then add the cut outs and three dimensional stuff. In many cases I’ll print out digital elements, cut them out and mount them with foam tape, mixed in with ‘real life’ embellishments, as I’ve done here.
Cuttlebug Crafting
The group has recently clubbed together and purchased a communal Cuttlebug. I wasn’t that excited until I gave it a try myself.
What a bunch of fun it was! Quite ordinary looking card or paper embossed a gorgeous patterned texture which looks fabulous in card or scrapbooking projects. Or you can create embossed embellishments using card or papers that coordinate with your scrapbook layouts. Here are a couple of cards I made for my niece’s birthdays and one for another niece’s engagement. I just love the effect.
If you are a user of one of these babies and have some cool ideas for ways to use it, I’d love it if you could share them in the comments below. Often something that seems quite straightforward to one person can sound like a revelation to another. We’re all still pretty new to the world of Cuttlebugs so we’d welcome any suggestions that help to get the most value from it.
What is your favourite scrapbooking tool?
And whilst on the subject of scrapbooking equipment…do you have a favourite piece of equipment that you just love?
Even though I’m in love with the Cuttlebug at the moment, I think I would have to say that my fine cutting scissors are really my favourite piece of scrapbooking equipment.
I love my little embroidery scissors but I recently bought a funny looking pair that have now taken first place on my scrapbooking ‘must have’ tools list. They have no normal handles and you work them by squeezing the single handle which works a spring which works the blades. They really take the effort out of cutting and there’s no more red indentations on my thumb and fingers when I have to do a lot of cutting. And best of all, they make doing really fine and detailed cutting so easy.
Well as you can see, I seem to be drifting back to the more tactile side of papercrafting, after spending the last 18 months immersed in the world of digital scrapbooking. I still like to combine the two wherever possible. Most of my cards and ATCs are hybrid creations. And I think that I’ll always prefer the freedom that digital gives me when creating scrapbook layouts. But I’m really enjoying getting back into the ‘glue and paper’ stuff again.
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Posted by karooch on
October 27, 2009
Artist Trading Card (ATC) Swaps
You might remember me writing about a Christmas Card Making in July event I went to that was a whole bucket load of fun. Well following on from that, Marla invited me over to a regular Tuesday night craft session that she and a few friends hold each week.
I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I tend to be a solitary scrapper as I don’t have any like minded friends nearby. My sister does card making but she doesn’t live so handily as to catch up for regular card making sessions. So you can imagine how pleased I was to be included in this group.
So now Tuesday night is a craft catch up night and I really look forward to it. There’s usually yummy treats and lots of chat.
I’ve just bought myself a little mini notebook computer so I can also do some digital stuff whilst I’m there.
So as the Newbie to the group, I brought along some of the stuff I had done. The others are stamping card makers and fabric crafters but not scrapbookers. Anyway one of the things I brought along was my ATC (Artist Trading Card) album. Marla was intrigued. And in next to no time she became a total addict and had joined several on line ATC Swapping Groups.
She’s pulled me along in her wake and I’ve started making ATCs for some of the swaps myself. Mind you, Marla has gone from 0-60 in an instant. She’s completely by-passed the learning stage and jumped straight to advanced. Her ATCs are absolutely gorgeous (check some of them out here). So the pressure is on!
One of the swaps I joined was for the theme of Orange and the second was a Mystery Image swap where the image was mailed out by the coordinator and you had to design your ATCs using it.
Because you need to make a run of the same ATC for each swap (a limited edition run) I like to use digital techniques as the basis for my design. That way it’s easy to repeat the design. I like to print out some of the design elements separately and cut them out, mounting them on the card using foam tape to add some extra dimension.
And of course there’s usually a brad or two somewhere in there.
I enjoyed making the cards for the ATC swaps but I can’t see myself becoming as involved as Marla. One of the attractions of ATCs for me is that I can make individual projects on a whim when the fancy takes me. And I don’t need to make several of the same thing. I don’t mind doing the occasional limited edition but I don’t want it to become the norm.
But it’s definitely a fun thing to do whilst in the company of like minded friends.
PS. Only two more sleeps before Purple and I are on the big silver bird to Budapest. Oohh I’m starting to get excited.
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