June KOTM

This project is a great one for make and takes. The cubes are a fantastic price anyways at just $4.oo for a pack of 2! I used the "About a Boy" papers, rub-ons and ribbon from the June kit and a White Unibal pen which is also available from the store!






Then I made this layout of my son wearing his "Hayden Potter" glasses. This kit had so much paper and supplies that I can easily make 2-3 layouts more!

Give me some sugar(ed)!

This month I got to work with Basic Grey's Sugared papers, stickers and buttons. They defianatley say "girly" and it was fun using them! First I made a photo cube for my sister's friend who just had a baby girl. It was made using one of the large Making Memories photo cubes.

Then I used it to make this layout of my daughters blessing dress.

Like that font used for "dress"? It's called ACB Sunnyday Hand and it will soon be available in the ACBailey store!

Summer Camp at AC Bailey Designs!

Summer Camp officially begins July 1st and runs through August 31st! Are you ready?

Each month we will have 5 challenges (listed below). For each challenge completed, you will earn 10 points. At the beginning on the month we will also be posting a Bonus Point List, with point values assigned to each item. For each item you include on your project, you will earn that amount of points. For every 10 points you get a ticket in the monthly drawing. The winner of the drawing will get a lovely prize pack from Erica. There will also be prizes awarded for each challenge. Each challenge will be due at the end of the month. There will be two drawings (one for July and one for August). There is no requirement on the number of challenges you have to complete to win - but the more you do, the better chance you have to win.

Challenges with post date
1st: DT Monthly challenge
5th: Sketch Challenge
10th: Guest Camp Leader Challenge
10th: Card Sketch Challenge
15th: Bonus Challenge

Check out the official rules and sign up here!

Making Memories and Urban Lily Goodness

These photo cubes by Making Memories were a lot of fun to make! I love the paper I used by Cherry Arte, Girl Power. You can find both of these in the AC Bailey store.

Making them was quite simple.

Instructions:

1. Paint all edges the color of your choice. I chose black because it matched my papers.


2. Cut your paper to fit fit each side of your cube. Cut your paper about 1/4" smaller than the sides of the cube so that the paper is about 1/8" from the edge all around.

3. Adhere the paper to each side of the cube. I used Modge Podge, but any other adhesive would work as well.

4. Once the adhesive has dried lightly sand each side of the paper to make sure that there are no loose edges.

5. Add ink to the sanded paper to blend them into the edges of the cube.

6. Add embellishments as desired. I chose to use an assortment of flowers, buttons, stickers, rub-ons, and ribbon. I used paper covered chipboard flowers, Prima flowers, and printed acrylic flower stickers backed with patterned paper. In addition to the embellies listed, I chose to add my girls' names to them as well using chipboard letters.

This project is very simple and lots of fun. You can find all that you need in the AC Bailey store!

Get over to the store and grab up your supplies! Oh, and have fun!

Much love!
Brandy

My love/hate relationship with all things BASIC GREY...

..is being tested! I have always said, when it comes to Basic Grey lines, I know right away how I feel about them and I either LOVE them (mostly) or HATE them (rarely) right off the bat. But, when it came to the Sultry line I just could not decide! So, I was a bit aprehensive when Erica asked me to use this for the June DT layouts. I even signed up for a Basic Grey class in May at CKC Manchester, NH (sponsored by the staff of EmbellishIt!) to try it out and that is where I made this layout.

But I have decided that I now LOVE the Sultry line.

So I made this too....

and this...

I think the colors are rich and bold and this line works welll for many layouts as it is neither girly or all boyish. Many floral patterns are included and many non-floral pattern papers are provided as well making this set very versatile. I love how my new layouts came out - almost as much as I love the Sultry embellishments! The elements stickers are awesome, they have many shapes and borders that I found real easy to use and the chipboard stickers are great too! I used them all (sorry, no leftovers from this pack to share ladies)-I inked the edges of mine with Stazon ink in Brown and they look TERRIFIC that way. Speaking of Stazon Ink - have you seen the Inspire Me acrylic stamsp that match this line - BG did a great job with these, you can see them on the Awesome layout....clean up was a breeze and I have tons of plans for these incredible detailed stamps, watch for them on future layouts!

Want to see more of the BG Sultry line?? I hope you are all signed up for the AC Bailey customer newsletter because I made a cute Sultry min-album and it is featured (with directions to make your own) in there as well!

Scrap On!

Gail

A fun little project with Crate Paper Sweet Branch

First let me say that I love this line! The colors are so soft and the patterns are beautiful, but not too feminine. So if you don't have this line yet, you can check it out here, along with the other 3 Crate lines Erica has in stock. A good friend of mine is having a baby in a few weeks and I thought it would be fun to make here a little door hanger for the nursery. And it was so easy! You can pick up the hanger at any craft supply store. And here are your super simple instructions for this project.

1. Using the hanger as a guide cut the background paper and adhere to the hanger.
2. Attach flower die cut.
3. Add some buttons and the alphas (I used AC Jewelry Box Thickers).

And there you go, easy peasy!!



And if you want to check out some more projects using the Crate Lines check out our gallery here!

Meet Brandy Cumberland!

Each month we will feature one of our talented members!



This month we'd like you to meet Brandy Cumberland of Houston, TX. She is a very talented scrapper with a great style and unique ideas!


Let's get to know you! Tell us a little about yourself.
I live in Houston, TX with my awesome 3 year-old son Dylan and my snarky, funny husband, Jason. I'm always trying to figure out what is next for me -- I quit banking to be a 12th grade IB English teacher and I quit that to be a SAHM last year...next up is grad school for English while Dylan is in preschool and then back to the classroom I go!! Family is big with us -- as kids of divorce we have like four sets of parents between us and we see them all the time. I have lots of opinions on the world around us and I am open with them, but I *try* to always respect the other side too. Other than that, we're just always looking for a good time and a reason to laugh.

Besides scrapping, what do you do for fun?
I am a huge television and tabloid junkie -- it's hard to find shows or scandals I am not up to date on. I'm on the internet all the time and I use that to fuel my other interests like photography, politics, reading and gossip.

Fave food/drink?
I could live on refined carbs. If I had the metabolism to do it, I would live on Chili's and candy, but instead it's Diet Coke and low carb fudgsicles. Wah.

You think of some really fun things to scrap. What inspires you?
I just try to build a life for my family and friends where we don't take things too seriously and my scrapping just reflects that. It's a combination of my lack of maturity and a sense of humor about the good and the bad things in life. I am inspired by the laugh I get at the time being silly, the laugh I make when I scrap that memory and then the amusement of my online buddies when they see it.

You really seem to have a knack for putting together fun color combinations. What process do you have for choosing the color combos you use on your pages?
Um...just grab. Don't feel obligated to stick to one line of papers and their embellies. Plus, I am usually working off of some challenge or sketch and that usually sends me off in some fun direction.

Let's talk titles. I love the titles you come up with for your layouts! They are always different and very clever. Where do you get your ideas for them?
I had to actually go back and look at some to answer that. I think that that's just the way I talk, and really I try to shy away from the one word titles like "miracle," "lovely," and so on. They work for so many scrappers, but they don't capture my life or my family the way they capture the lives of other scrappers. Too often someone is naked, silly or just plain crazy in photos and "perfect" isn't usually the title that pops into my head.

You recently started digi scrapping. How does it compare to using paper, glue, and scissors in your book? Which do you prefer?
It doesn't really compare, they're like two completely different hobbies. Digi feels more like graphic design, it puts me in a totally different direction with my projects. I've found that since learning digital I am doing more gifts, not so worried about making ornate, unique designs. I don't mind cheating here or there with my digi designs whereas with my paper scrapping, the design is a lot more sacred. That feels like art, like a creative masterpiece that shows off who I am a person and the things that are most special to me. I love the utility of digi, but I still love the inefficient, time and product consuming art that is scrapbooking.

Finish the sentence:

I feel most creative when I can spread my junk from one end of the room to the other, when my Thickers and paper packs runneth over, and when I've just gotten a USPS box with more goodies from Erica. That's when I am ready to roll...

Some more Sugared

This is just a quick card I put together using some more Basic Grey Sugared paper and chipboard stickers sold at AC Bailey. I love the rich colors- so beautiful!

It's so simple and only takes a few minutes to make. All you need are some cardstock, patterned paper, ink and foam adhesive.

Instructions:
*cut cardstock to 8 ½ x 5 ½ and fold in half
*cut strips of Basic Grey patterned paper to ¼ inch x 4 and ¼ inch x 5 and ink edges
*adhere strips to cardstock
*choose chipboard embellishment and center on card (I used foam adhesive on the top of the flower to add dimension to the card)

You can leave it as is or add a stamp/rub-on/sticker of your choice. See, nice and easy!

A little Basic Grey Sugared

Wow! It's so fun to have this blog up and running now and to see all of the fabulous things already posted by our talented design team girls. Are we having fun yet?

I have been anxious to get to post my projects- it's been hard to wait until almost the middle of the month, but hopefully for you it will be worth the wait. I loved being able to work with the beautiful and oh-so-versatile Basic Grey Sugared collection papers, chipboard stickers, brads, etc. I love the florals and stripes but what really got me with this collection, and why I wanted it so badly were the elephants, pink flamingoes and the giraffes. So perfect for these pictures of my newborn baby girl, don't you think? Have I mentioned that I love the stuff?

Here are a some pages I put together for your viewing pleasure.

Basic Grey Archaic

YAY!  My first post to the AC Bailey Blog!  How FUN!

I've had a chance to work with the BG Archaic line and as soon as I saw it in the store, I couldn't wait to play with it.  Those little dinosaurs are just toooo cute, and I envisioned many cute "little boy" layouts done with it.  But when I actually got playing with it, I kind of went in a different direction and am saving those adorable dino's for another time.  Here's a few layouts I did.

On the top half of this layout, I used a hobby blade and ruler to cut out a "square-ish" shape to see through to the white cardstock.  I love the new Archaic Buttons and Glazed Brads are just awesome!!

This next one, I used a combo of my favorite white gel pen, and my sewing machine to add accents to the photos and papers.  I just love these photos, they're my husband playing the very addicting Guitar Hero with our daughter.. hee hee.. cute!

Thanks for stopping by!

Amanda 

Some "Playground" cd Digital Inspiration

If you frequent the AC Bailey message board or gallery, you've already heard me raving about how versatile this cd is but the more I play with it....the more I see it. Here's a little page that I did of my daughter. I have to say...I played with adding other patterned papers and embellishments but I just love that green paper all by itself. I did do a little adjusting to some of the items to make it suit my taste and that is one of the wonderful things about digital scrapbooking. You're not stuck with what you have...you can adjust colors, shapes, sizes...pretty much everything. I should also mention that all of the papers on the cd are 12x12, I just adjusted this one to make an 8.5x11 layout. The green paper is from the Megan's swingset category as well as the swirl, stitches, and patterned paper for the butterflies. The paper for the butterflies is black on the cd and I liked the pattern but I wanted something a little softer so used a color overlay to make it sort of magenta, used the cookie cutter tool to make the butterflies, and added a little drop shadowing to help with the dimension. The stitches had a little adjusting, too. I didn't need all of the stitching that was on the cd so I just copied and pasted a little portion and then used the liquify tool to warp it a little so that it wasn't just straight across. The tag alpha is from Zoe's Merry-go-round and the frame is from Benjamin's slide but I did use the cookie cutter to make it a little thinner. And finally, I used some text brushes and texture brushes to the green paper that I picked up from photoshopbrushes.com and aerthereality.net. If anyone has any questions about what is included on the cd, please feel free to ask. I do some altering but I try to make sure that I mention it when I do. Thanks for checking out my page!! I have some more new product inspiration layouts in the AC Bailey gallery as well. I hope everyone has a great weekend!! Thanks so much for stopping by to check us out!!

June Sketch Challenge

Each month on the 5th we will be introducing a new sketch created by one of the DT members. This month I created a sketch for 5 photos, or less, depending on what you want to do with the four squares on the left. I hope you have fun with it, and we would love to see what you create. Please upload your layout in the challenge gallery and link it back to the thread on the MB by the end of the month. I will pick one person to win a little prize from me. And next month we will be posting our favorite member-created layouts here on the blog! Happy Scrapping!
Lisa

Basic Grey Sultry - Altered Tray

This paper set is so lovely! Basic Grey never fails to disappoint though do they? When I alter anything, I almost always reach for a BG line - it's so rich and gives any project such class. So, when I saw this paper line available in the store, and it just so happened to go perfectly with my guest room decor, well it was settled! I'd finally tackle one of those cute little wooden trays you can find in any craft store (check near the bird houses).

Here's how you can make one too:

Products used include:

Sultry Paper Set

Sultry Glazed Brads

Bazzil Paper Flowers

Other:

Paint in any color you choose

Mod Podge Adhesive (which I've found works best for me on wood items)

Glue Dots

You will be amazed at how fast this will come together for you! The instructions are really quite simple.

• Paint all portions of the tray you do not wish to cover with paper. You could cover the whole thing if you wish, but I chose the easy way out of doing those tough corners.
• Trim your paper to fit the inside of your tray, and attach with Mod Podge.
• Do the same with the sides, or do as I do and guess on the length, attach it with Mod Podge, and trim it up later.
• Use sand paper or a file to get those clean edges.
• To attach brads to something that they won't necessarily "punch" through, simply twist the back spokes off first and attach with Glue Dots. A quick trip to your hubby's tool box to grab his pliers makes pretty quick work of this step.
• And finally, attach flowers or whatever embellishment (if any!) you'd like to the inside with Glue Dots.

This tray will mostly be decoration in our guest room... but the possibilities to do more are endless. Here are a few ideas to spark your imagination:

• Add pretty stationery and a nice pen set to carry with you when you're in the mood to do some letter writing.
• Keep your bottles of Prima Flowers on it for a nice display.
• Add a few sample size toiletries, a magazine, and a few mints as a guest room welcome gift.
• Make a kitchen themed tray and add recipe cards and a few utensils as a wedding shower gift.
• Or some baby powder, wipes, onesies, etc as a baby shower gift.
• And finally, use it as a unique display piece on your wall - hey why not add pictures! :)

The trays cost around $5.00 to $8.00 in my area depending on the size. I do believe I'm going to have to go grab a few more. Thanks so much for visiting us today, and have a great day!

All the best,

Jess