Better Together | Bramble Fox

It's my turn on the Bramble Fox blog today. Here's my post:

Hey, Bramble Fox friends! Today I'm sharing a delightful layout using products from the June Fox Box, plus a whole bunch of other goodies you can find in the shop. (Please remember that since I scrap 8 x 8, the products look a bit larger on my layouts--but of Bramble Fox products are a perfect fit for any size project, from cards to 12 x 12 layouts, and beyond.)

The New Day collection from Echo Park Paper goes really well with the Bramble Fox products and complements the photos.

How gorgeous is the title Perspextive from the Fox Box? That beautiful font and the rich raspberry color are divine! That was my starting point, and I picked these delightful pictures of my friend and her daughter. I used some coral pink stamp ink with the Brick Wall Fox Cut Stencil #49 to mimic the brick path in the pictures. The phrases and butterflies were cut from the Paper Snips from the June Fox Box, but you can also buy them in the shop--Butterflies & Blooms - Paper Snips 027.

I layered the photos over top of a film strip I made with blue cardstock and Fox Dies #14 | Film Strip. I find myself using this awesome die so much because it's versatile and neutral, I can make it in any color, and it just adds an interesting layer. The large flowers I used are also from the Paper Snips, and the leaves were made with green distress ink and the Leaves Fox Cut Stencil #23. I stamped them on white paper, fussy cut them, pinched them with my fingers for added dimension, and drew some veins with a fine-tipped pen. Another very versatile product that I highly recommend!

There's a sweet raspberry heart that coordinates with the title in the Fox Box, and I added it to a tag ('cuz you know I always add a heart to the layouts I give away). Both tags were created with Fox Dies #6 | Tags, which I use on the majority of my layouts. They just add that extra little something anywhere on any page. You can see I topped some of the flowers with some brads that have been in my stash for eons. I was looking for a bit of yellow to go with my flower border. By the way, I used my Torn Edge Border Template, an indispensable tool for getting that perfect torn edge that I have a hard time achieving on my own.

Speaking of indispensable tools, the Blending Brushes in the shop are so perfect for detail work, like making the trails for my butterflies, which I made with the Fox Cut Stencil #67 | Butterfly Trails. These blending brushes are smaller than regular blending brushes, so perfect for smaller stencils or details on any stencil. I used blue ink for the trail I made on the white cardstock and white embossing powder to make the trail visible on the dark blue paper.

The Bramble Fox Products are all so beautiful, versatile, and of amazing quality. I hope I've given you a few good ideas today! Please do share what you create by tagging us on Instagram and adding your creations to our Bramble Fox Friends Facebook Group. We love to see what you make with our products!

Until next time, have fun scrapping!

Science Lesson | Paper Issues Free File Friday

I'm up on the Paper Issues blog today. Here's my post:

Hey, everyone! Aren't we just so lucky that Paper Issues gives  us all their hundreds of cutfiles for FREE? It's Free File Friday, and I'm here to share a layout I made using two cut files and Echo Park's new Plant Lady collection:

My friend is a teacher and during our school closure due to COVID-19, so she's doing all sorts of fun activities as she's homeschooling. I found the perfect cut files to go with this page about the kids planting seeds to learn about what plants need. The potted plant is from the Succulents cut file. I cut it with white paper, backed the pot, and then cut it again (just the greenery) with the green patterned paper and glued it on top of the white.

The #teacher mom is from the No Germs Allowed cut file. I cut the little windows out of one of the Plant Lady papers and added tiny brads to the hanging plants.

I'm loving the Simple Stories foam alphabet stickers that come in so many colors. The coral stickers are a perfect match for the Plant Lady collection. And I'm so in love with the Nuvo Drops! If you haven't tried them, you must give them a try! 

With so many FREE cut files to choose from, you can always find one that will work for your layout. While you're browsing the cut files, be sure to check out the all the wonderful new scrappy products, and please use my discount code, Debbi (no e on the end), and you'll get 20% off of every product, every day!

So Cool | Paper Issues Scraplift Sunday

Today it's my turn on the Paper Issues blog. Here's my post:

Sunday is my favorite day of the week for so many reasons, one of which is...Scraplift Sunday. My heart skipped a beat when I saw Mary-Ann's layout that I got to scraplift. Here's my page, which I've made for one of my students.

Here is Mary-Ann's amazing layout, which is complete perfection, so I pretty much decided I wanted to scraplift the entire awesome design. I was tempted to go monchromatic because of how beautiful hers looked with all those shades of green, but I decided to use multiple colors so as not to copy TOO much!

Like Mary-Ann, I used the Stitching Star Galaxy free cut file and backed it with a Vicki Boutin Mixed Media paper.

I used Echo Park Teen Spirit collection and a few odds and ends from my stash. I had to use triple layers of adhesive foam to mount my photo because the straw was so thick.

That rainbow-burst paper is this sheet from Vicki Boutin's Kaleidoscope collection.

I used pop dots to lift up the stars, and added Nuvo drops here and there. I'm seriously in love with those things!

I always love the opportunity to add some buttons to my page. I probably have a million of them.

Mary-Ann's page is truly a unique masterpiece, and I was so lucky to be picked to lift it. I hope you'll give this challenge a try. And make sure you share it with us in our Facebook group for a chance to win a gift certificate to the shop.

While you're checking out the free cut files, be sure to hop over to the store and see all the cool new stuff. Please use my discount code, Debbi (no e on the end), and you'll receive 20% off of everything in the store.

Far Out | Paper Issues Scrappy Telephone Challenge

Last week at Paper Issues, we had a Scrappy Telephone Challenge--you know, like the game we'd play as kids, where you'd whisper a message in one person's ear and go on down the line, and the last person's message was nothing like the original? It was so fun seeing the evolution. Basically, Kelly chose one of her layouts and sent it to someone and they'd scraplift her and email their layout back to her, and Kelly would send that layout to the next scrapper, and so on. Here's what I made:

Here's the layout that was sent to me to scraplift. I tried to stay as to Katherine Blue's layout as I could, given that I was only working with one photo, but hopefully you can see the elements I lifted.

Here are some details from my page, and then I'll show you the original layout and the progression. I started with a paper that had an embossed image on it, like Katherine's and then looked for a circular frame that would work with the Echo Park Imagine That collection I was using. I couldn't find one, so I decided to make my own by heat embossing a raw chipboard piece that I had. It matched the orange in the collection.

I didn't have a cut-apart card with a phrase, so I made my own. I noticed Katherine had used paper clips on her page, so I found one to use on my page too. Katherine had word stickers below that, and I cut some words out of one of the Imagine That papers and added a dog in the place of Katherine's circular embellishments.

I found a title that was similar to Katherine's cursive title and went with the theme of my layout. In place of the two words to the left of her photo, I used a flair badge that had a message.

Katherine had a whole bunch of embellishments on the top right of her layout, so I added the airplane and clouds.

Here's the entire lineup. You can check out the other teams and see larger images that everyone posted on this thread in our Facebook group.

This was so much fun! I know they're planning to do it again some time, so stay tuned, and be sure to join Paper Issues Friends & Fans group for lots more fun and challenges.

When you shop at Paper Issues, please use my discount code, Debbi (no e on the end), and you'll get 20 off your entire purchase every time!

You're Awesome | Paper Issues Scraplift Sunday Challenge

If you've been reading my blog, you know I'm on a mission to make 29 layouts, one to give to each of my students. Here's my latest, created for Paper Issues Scraplift Sunday challenge:

Here's Amanda Ulmer's awesome page we got to lift:

Here are some details. I used Echo Park's Imagine That collection, one of my favorite boy collections of all time! I just love the colors and motifs. How cute is that little dog flying the plane?

I used Amanda's basic design of the 3 long rectangles in the back but made mine a little thinner and positioned them wonky. I used the packaging technique in the background, which I love but often mess up, but it looks okay here, I think. I added texture paste with a stencil over top of that and partially outlined some of the stars. The car looked funny with no driver, so I cut a little dog out of one of the patterned papers and stuck him inside.

My title. I added some old Studio Calico wood veneer chevron arrows. Those word stickers are really old K& Co. stickers. The enamel dot looking things are actually Nuvo drops. I'm seriously in love with those.

I had the SUPER HERO words cut out of a patterned paper an was just going to place them sort of overlapped, and then it came to me that the airplane should be trailing them like you see planes doing at the beach. I always put a heart on each layout I make for other people, and I found a wood veneer one for the cloud.

I hope you'll come play in this or one of the many other challenges at Paper Issues. You could win a gift certificate! And if you shop at the store, please use my code, Debbi (no e on the end), and you'll get 20% off your entire purchase!

You Rock | Bramble Fox DT Layout & Paper Issues Free File Free-for-All challenge

When I received the very cool "You Rock"  from the So Cool Perspextives from Bramble Fox, I knew I had to scrap these awesome pictures of my friend's son.

I used Echo Park's Teen Spirit collection and an awesome free Paper Issues cut file as well as some French stamps I had recently gotten from my husband's trip to Paris. How cool is that You Rock title? The font is perfect!

The Musical Notes were a perfect accent to go with the title. How fun is that panda stamp?

And the rabbit! I just love him! How awesome is the cut file? It's called Right on Target, and it's FREE! Paper Issues is so generous with their cut files. I backed it with some patterned papers from my stash that went with the colors of the Teen Spirit collection (the red paper is from the collection).

And I found a black Perspextive star in my stash which was a perfect piece for this page.

Movie Time | Paper Issues Roll with the Punches Challenge

It's my turn on the Paper Issues blog today! Here's my post:

Hi, everyone! I'm here with a fun little challenge called Roll with the Punches. Do you have a stash of punches that you never use? How about straws? Maybe you have some mad quilling skills that haven't been put to use recently? This is the challenge where all those ideas and more can really shine!

I have a ton of punches, and I always forget to use them, so I was happy to put a couple of them to use. I have this fun picture of a friend and her daughter at the movie theater, and I remembered I had this popcorn bag in my stash because, well, I'm a packrat--you just never know when you might need something for a layout! I had the idea of filling it with a bunch of punched stars in place of popcorn, but then I thought of having the popcorn stars bursting out of the bag. I found some old ticket embellishments in my stash and added those coming out of the bag too. That fun little speech bubble was cut out of this Doodlebug I Heart Travel paper.

I used the "Life in Pictures" free cut file--the film strip seemed a perfect thing for a movie layout. The "Today" background paper is from Pretty Little Studio's Document Life collection, as is the star paper. The fun stickers I used are from Echo Park's Teen Spirit Boy collection.

How awesome are those Curious Thickers from Shimelle's Field Trip collection? The pack has red and blue alphas! Those pennants were cut out of this Echo Park Teen Spirit paper.

So dust off some of your punches and come play with us! Share your creation in our Facebook group for a chance to win a gift certificate to the Paper Issues store! Please use my code Debbi (no e on the end), and you'll get 20% off of your entire purchase!

I can't wait to see how YOU roll with the punches!