Tips and Tricks for Making Embellishments “Pop”

Another tip that I created for the CX blog.

I love to make my embellishments “pop” off my pages and cards. It so easy to give more dimension to your embellishments by simply using foam tabs. These tabs will add a little bit of extra visual interest to any project and will certainly make an eye-catching statement. Pick one vital element on your creation and add foam tabs or tape on the back before you place it on your page or card.

Tips and Tricks (Finding Vintage Images)

For the last year, I've been creating blog entries for Creative Xpress about different tips and tricks that I use.  I thought that I'd start sharing them here too.

I’m often asked where I find all the vintage images that I use on my ATCs and greeting cards. I'm always on the search for new (to me) images and I employ a couple of different methods for finding them.

One of the easiest ways to obtain these images is to do an online search. There are many sites that have images available to download or copy for free. Type the words vintage postcards, vintage images, or vintage photos into your browser search. It is very important to include the word free in the search. Many images are copyrighted and require a fee to use them. Once you have found an image you like and are sure that you won’t be violating any copyrights, either download it or copy and paste it into your picture library.

The other place that I look for images is in antique shops. Many shops have postcards and old photos available for about a dollar. After I have purchased them, I scan them and edit or print them as needed.

Country Life Cricut Cards

I got to play with the new Country Life cartridge this month for Creative Xpress. I love the images on this cartridge. They are different from any other cartridges that I own. I also played with new paper packages from American Crafts: I Do and Adobe. Love these new papers.

Halloween Outdoor Decor

My assignment for last month at CX was to create some outdoor decorations for Halloween using the new Cricut Cartridge October 31st. There are some really great images on this cartridge. Instructions for creating these projects will be published on the Creative Xpress blog in the future.

Latest card for ATC swap

The theme for this swap was "time." Had fun creating this card used a page from an old book and cut my image from the Forever Young Cricut cartridge and then colored it with pens.

Summer Camp fun at Cropperin Paradise

I signed up for this and it looks like it will be a fun time.

Music Theme ATC

My most recent creation for a swap.

Cutting Fabric with Cricut

I was terrified to try cutting fabric with my Expression. After I messed around for a while, I got more comfortable with the idea and it became fun. I created this T-Shirt using the Indy Art Cricut Cartridge, a $5 shirt from Kohl's (love that store lately), and Ranger's Smooch Accent Inks.

Graduation Center Piece

This is a set that I created using one of the new Cricut Solutions cartridges. I was asked to create something for a new infomercial. Hopefully you will see it soon.

Major Computer issues!

Grrr....my old computer bit the dust last week. My hard-drive just up and died! I cannot remind you of the importance of saving your files somewhere else besides on your hard-drive. I lost over a year of photos, music uploads, and documents. Makes me sick that I was just too darn cheap to buy more on-line storage. I will admit that Norton was excellent about helping me restore the files that I did have saved on their site. Thank you Norton for all those hours of working with me and then just finally taking over my computer and doing the job yourself! :)

All Purpose Card using Scraps

I found a leftover cut-out shape from the Cricut Home Decor cartridge in my scrap paper drawer and was inspired to create this card.

ATC Card (Coffee and Hairspray)

This was for a swap I'm in this month. The theme was friendship. I cannot wait to see the other cards in this swap.

Almost forgot how to post here!

I have been neglectful! Here's one of my CX assignments from January. If you haven't tried altering these bottles...you should! They're fun!

Travel Journal

This was my CX project for November. I used the Designer's Calendar cartridge for the journal itself and also the decoration on the divider pages. The divider pages were made using the From My Kitchen cartridge. You can see more instructions and a product list on the blog at Creativexpress.com.