It's a Creative World

Keep Calm

Hi Joy here,

In the summer we discovered a wonderful second hand bookshop in Alnwick, Northumberland. It is called Barter Books and it is the sort of place you could spend an entire day in.

It was there I discovered the Keep Calm And Carry On poster.

The poster was originally designed in 1939 as a propaganda poster for World War 2.  It was to be only displayed if the Nazis invaded Britain. In 2000 a copy was discovered in Barter Books. Since Crown Copyright on Government art work expires after 50 years the image was now in the public domain and Barter Books produced their own posters which proved very popular. You have probably seen variations of the Keep Calm philosophy on t-shirts, mugs and posters.

I decided to create a few of my own to use on cards and have had great fun thinking up all different ideas.

This was for the noticeboard at work to advertise our staff lunch.

This one was for my friend Carol who is very excited about going to New York next week - I am going with her!  

I attached this on to a bunch of daffodils for a friend.

I thought this would be great for a card containing an itunes card.

Copy the images above and print them as a photograph, size 6x4.  Pop them on the front of a card blank or put them up on the wall in a clip frame.

Let me know if you have any other ideas and I will have a go at making them.  Once you start thinking about it you can't stop.

Enjoy your Easter weekend and I hope the sun comes out for you where ever you are.

 Joy xxx

Tyger Tyger Burning Bright

Tyger Tyger Burning Bright

Hi .... Dolly here.

 

I know that there are a fair few digi scrappers who enjoy the creative inspiration that is on here every day. (And isn’t it amazing that there is inspiration of so many different kinds every single day!!!! I am so chuffed to be a part of the site where so many girls share their creativity. I for one have learnt so much.)

So, for the digi scrappers out there …. and for those who don’t digi scrap but would like to or those of you who would like to use a sketch for anything they want … this is a post for you.

One of the quickest and easiest ways to create a page in no time at all is to use a sketch and/or a template.

Papers scrappers out there, you will no doubt find sketches really useful when you want a bit of inspiration. It is a great way to kick start the old mojo and make a great page.

Digi scrappers can use sketches too, but they can take it one stage further and use a template. Templates are quick and simple to use and a lot of the ground work has been done for you so you just need to add your own papers and photos. Templates are usually psd files, as this one is, and make scrapping in limited time a real breeze.

There are lots of tutorials out there to help use learn how to use templates if you don’t already know – just google for them.

I created this template in Photoshop Elements and it is a quick easy one to use. I hope you have fun with it. Either download the template and use it digitally or just use the idea like a sketch and make a paper page.

 

You can download the template  HERE

 

This is a page I made using that same template.

 

 

The papers and elements I used are all by Dawn Inskip (apart from the journalling block)  from her store at Pickleberrypop and the gorgeous tiger, resting after a long photoshoot, is Tamir.

 

I hope you have fun using the template or the sketch and create some fast fun pages.

 

Dolly x

Gift bags with a difference

There’s no such thing as junk!

Hi - Dolly here again.

 

 

I own up – I am a hoarder and hate throwing things away.

When I was sorting out recently I came across this little gift pack from the Body Shop. I had used the toiletries inside but this little plastic box was just begging to be used.

I decided to ‘prettify’ it – that’s for another time – but before I did I took it apart and made a template from it.

 

 

The package was slightly too big to fit on an A4 sheet (or even on a 12 x 12 sheet) so I modified it slightly and made it look more like a little bag than the original.

I thought it would make a lovely gift bag for all sorts of things. Imagine how nice they would be as teacher gifts for example.

 

At the end of this post there is a link to the template so you can download it. It is a PDF file

 

You could pop in some little gifts or sweets or, what I am planning to use them for, you could put in a gift card. I buy quite a few gift cards at Christmas for people who would rather pick something themselves. I am not always keen on the cards stores sell with them. How nice they would be wrapped and popped in one of these little bags.

You need ….

one sheet of A4 card (I actually used a piece of 12” x 12” as it was the colour I needed)

One sheet of patterned paper

Ink

Journalling pen

Scrap of ribbon

Stamps and punches or other embellishments

Sharp craft knife

Glue

Print out the template which is included at the end as a PDF. It is sized to A4 but you could reduce it to any size you wanted.

Cut out the template carefully and use it to draw round on your card.

 

 

You could print it directly on the card but I prefer not to have the lines on my card so would rather cut it out twice.

Use a scorer to mark the score lines so you get sharp edges.

 

 

Assemble the box as shown in the pictures

 

 

 

 

Decorate with patterned papers (I used the first printed off template that I had cut out to get the sizes right for the patterned papers.)

 

 

I inked the edges of my patterned papers and also used faux stitching on them.

Add whatever embellishments you want and then fill with goodies.

  

 

And finally - here is the template

 

Download Bag box template

The last page of our A to Z Journal....

Can you believe we have actually finished this project? It just seems like yesterday that we launched the A to Z Art Journal project and a whole year has passed. We hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have.

And what have we learnt from this year long adventure?

Caz says - "I will NEVER do double pages again"

Lemon says - " I have learnt a lot about my daughter, she contributed a lot to the journal and changed quite a few things."

Di says - "I will not bind the journal up front - it is so much easier to work with a single page rather than a book! And its easier to photograph or scan"

Here are our pages:

Lemon book of growing up

After browsing all two pages of the dictionary this seemed the most appropiate for my daughter....I hope she never looses her ZING

Di Book of my life

The dictionary tells me that zany means - "Comical because of incongruity or strangeness; biZarre." Well I guess that's me! biZarre so my life must be Zany... And my DD caZ is Zany too!

A message from Di:

As we arrive at the end of the alphabet, I must confess that I have enjoyed the journey so much that I commit to making an Art Journal for my dear sister Linda. Maybe I can share bits and pieces of this new journey next year. X

Caz

For some reason or another I can't seem to upload my page. I will try again tomorrow (saturday). This is what happens when you leave everything till the last minute!!

And finally Karen Leahy (AKA Scrapdolly) has sent her Z page already!

Finally, Z is NOT an easy letter so here are just a few suggestions:

• Zealous
• Zeal
• Zoo
• Zip
• Zany
• ZZZ's
• Zesty
• Zippy
• Zutter

And if you want to see loads of strange words starting with the letter Z - try here

http://www.crosswordsolver.org/definition/Z

Thank you for joining us on this wonderful journey.  To mark the end of this project the fabulous Kate Hadfield has created some rather festive digi goodies for you to download absolutely FREE.

     

Simply click on this linkie dink and help yourself.  Not only can you snaffle the doodles but there is a discount voucher for you to use in her shoppie shop . 

The cReative giRls XXX

Our Jakey had some problems with the link on Mozilla.  If you can't get it to download drop us a line at [email protected] and I'll whizz it over to you this evening - Maria x
 

Welcome to our Guest Annette

I started making cards around 5 years ago and my sister Soo is my biggest influence and encourager. My love of card-making soon became a love of making mini-books and albums too, I even make the odd 12x12 layout

I still predominantly make cards and I’m very lucky to be a member of Di Hickman’s card sketch team. I’m also very lucky to design for Jackie and Kim at Make The Moment Last and for Angela’s Ribbon Kit at Angel Crafts.

I have developed a love of making hybrid cards and Andrea is one of my biggest influences and a regular visit to her blog gives me stacks of mojo

Cutting a digital image using the Craft Robo

 

 

 

One of the main reasons I bought my Robo was to cut out digital images as my cutting skill with scissors and craft knives is not so good.

I’ve put together a quick guide on how I do this… I understand that others may have different methods but this one works for me

What do you need?

Digital elements that can be easily cut – think along the lines that if you can cut it with scissors, the Robo will be able to cut it quite well. These images need to have quite well-defined outlines if you want a clean cut.

The elements need to be JPG extensions (this means the .jpg on the end of the file name ie. The file type) if you have any other type of extension, you may need to make a copy of it, open it and save it as a .jpeg)

A second edition Craft Robo (model number CC200-20) and Robo Master version 2.40. If you’re not sure what version of the software you have, when you have opened the software ready to use, click on Help and then About and this will tell you the version of the software you are running. If it’s lower than v 2.40 go to a reputable website to download version 2.40

All the bits you’d expect to need such as the carrier sheet and some card/paper (as heavy duty as you need) to print and cut.

Right, let’s get started….

1. Open Robo Master and then open a new GSD file. Select File Then New and then select the size of paper you’ll be using. Make it easy on yourself the first time around and print to A4.
2. From the top menu, select Insert and then File from the dropdown

3. Select the .JPG file you’d like to cut and a rectangle will appear on your screen, wherever you click will be where this image sits on your paper.
4. You can resize the image at this point by dragging it in or out.

5. If you cannot see the image when trying to insert it, it could be that it’s not in a format that the Robo likes. The best way to remedy this is to open the image in your chosen graphics editor software and select File then Save As and chose to save it as a copy and in the format drop-down field, select JPEG
6. Back to Robo Master J We need to make this image so that when it’s printed and fed into the Robo, the Robo will be able to ‘see’ the image. To do this select Edit then Registration Mark Settings then tick the box for registration marks and click on Ok
7. Next we need to give the image and outline for the Robo to cut. To do this, click on the image so that the blue box around it is visible, then click on the green box that sits in the top tool bar. If you haven’t got this green box, you’re not running version 2.40 or above.
8. Next, click on Convert to Outline and this will give you an idea of where the Robo will cut. To get this just right (this will depend on whether you just want the outline of the image or the detail in too) use the Threshold slider and Edit Image button (which alternates as the Convert to Outline button) until you have it just right
9. I keep the Thickness slider at it’s minimum as this dictates the amount of border or outline your image will have when it’s cut and I like it to have none most of the time
10. When you’re ready, click on Paste then Exit and the cutting border will be transposed onto your image

11. Next, set up your output settings for printing by clicking on File then Output Settings. Make your required changes to you printer and print options here before clicking on Ok
12. Now we’re ready for printing – yay! Click on File then Print and make sure your printer is switched on ;)
13. Once your image has printed you can adhere your paper onto the carrier sheet and you’re ready to cut.
14. You then follow your usual cutting process making sure that registration marks are selected when you open the Cut window
15. It may well feed your paper through the Robo a few times more than when you’re cutting a non-printed image. This is just to ensure that it can see the registration marks.
16. If you have selected an image that doesn’t have well-defined lines, you may have a slightly jagged edge to your cut image.

          Now all you have to do is ink, glitter and stick!

 

Once I had printed and cut my images, I started putting together my card and having some fun. The images I’ve used come from The Lilypad and I just added some lovely Crate Paper, ribbon from John Lewis haberdashers (got to love that place) and some Kaiser Pearls. I also had some acetate hearts that I’d forgotten about too. These were stickled before they could get away.

 

We have put this post into a pdf file for you to downlad and keep

Download digi_cutting_with_a_robo.pdf

Thanks Annette for being a great guest  you can see more of Annette's work here on her blog.

 

house!

Houses are all the rage at the moment, theres chipboard shapes, books and rubons everywhere at the moment.

 

One of my friends has just moved so it was the obvious choice for a card. She lives in an all male household so I know she will appreciate the card being all girlie.

 

I was going to hand cut it but because I am hopeless at cutting straight lines I did it on my craftrobo. Once I got started I couldn’t stop and then next thing I knew I had a house, door, windows, roof and a fence.

 

I did hand cut the flower stem and the leaves as they can’t really be seen behind the fence on which I used foam pads.

I hope you like it and I have included the gsd file for you to download for the craftrobo.

Download housecard_iacw.GSD

love lemon

Matching Cardstock

Hi Everyone!

Well, a while ago you may remember that i posted about matching your patterned paper with Bazzill cardstock?
I uploaded a file and was overwhelmed byt the amount of people who downloaded it so thankyou!
Anyway, as it was a while ago i have been busily updating it.
Now, it is by no means a complete list. Some newer lines aren't on there and i'm sure there are lines on there that are obsolete. It is however, in my opinion, the most comprehensive list you will find on the world wide web.
Now i know some people don't necessarily use Bazzill CS but i happen to believe it is the best and also has the most amount of colours to choose from.
If you have any questions then please feel free to ask away and also if you know of some matches that aren't on there then send me an email at [email protected] and i shall update the list so it continues to grow. I have done the list in excel this time as it's easier to make little tabs for each company. If however you want it in a different format or need help then feel free to mail me.

Just click the link below to download.

Many thanks and happy downloading!

Bazzill Matches

Cath xx

A non fattening Easter treat for you

The girls at It's a creative world are so excited to be joined by the uber-talented Kate Hadfield today.

Kate has created these fabulous Easter digi doodles for YOU and they are absolutely FREE.

You can download the doodles by clicking on the Linky dink and have fun creating.

So, what are you waiting for? Get creating!!!

We at It's a creative world would like to wish you a very happy Easter.

Thank you so much to Kate.

The Wonderful World of Fonts!

Do you love using different fonts on your layouts?

There are so many to choose from aren’t they.

Today I’m going to list a few sites that I think are the best for fonts and also give you some tips on organising them.

Firstly here are the sites I like to use for my free fonts.

1001 Free Fonts

Dafont 

Font River

SharkShock

Urban Fonts

Disney Fonts

ScrapnFonts (chargeable)

Create your own font

Free Scrapbook Fonts

If you are a Quickutz/Sizzix Fan then you can get fonts that match all your fabulous die cut alphabets, how cool!

Find them here

Quickutz

Sizzix Fonts

Now some of you may be a wiz with fonts but other people simply don’t know how to install them which is fair enough. I’ll try to explain very briefly how to do it.

The easiest fonts to download are TTF (true type fonts). These don’t need any unzipping or anything. You simply download the file, locate it and place it in your fonts folder.

Your fonts folder ‘should’ be in your control panel but may be different depending on your operating system. Click start and control panel. You should find a folder labelled Fonts in here but if not then go to Appearance and Themes and it should be in there. Some files are downloaded as Zip files which means you will need to extract the files from it with something likeWinzip and once extracted you would just do the same and put the file in your Fonts folder.

I hope that makes sense?

As well as downloading them there are programs that you can buy to help you manage them. The predominant ones are -

XFonter

The Font Thing

AMP Font Viewer

I personally have XFonter and love it but you do have to pay for it although a free trial is available.

XFonter

X-Fonter is an advanced font manager, especially created for web-designers, graphic artists and font fanatics.

In a simple user interface you can quickly find the font that you need. Even with thousands of fonts on your computer, with X-Fonter they're just a few clicks away.

• Supports TrueType, OpenType, Postscript Type 1, Raster, Vector Fonts
• Organize your fonts in custom Collections
• Preview and Use Fonts without installation
• Install or Uninstall any TrueType Fonts
• Search for fonts on any drive/directory
• Font Filtering by Font Family, Codepages and Font Style
• Adjustable Colors, Styles and Sizes
• Character map (ASCII and Unicode)
• Image editor with nice effects (JPG, GIF and clipboard output)
• Very simple and intuitive interface
• No extra DLL's required
• Uninstall option
• Compare fonts in Dual pane
• Print font overview
• Font Manager

Font Thing

• Browse installed and uninstalled fonts
• Browse fonts in subfolders as a single combined list
• View sample text and individual characters in your choice of colours
• Change sample text "on the fly" or easily switch between your own standard text samples
• View detailed font information
• Print font samples
• Associate notes with fonts
• Install or uninstall any number of fonts at once
• Load (and unload) any number of fonts for temporary use
• Copy or delete any number of font files at once
• Rename font files to avoid file name conflicts
• Filter fonts according to their type
• Group fonts into collections for easier management
• Use multiple font windows simultaneously for easy font comparison and management.

Amp Font Viewer

This program is an easy to use but powerful font manager, which allows getting a quick overview of both installed and non installed fonts. It can install and uninstall fonts, and organize them in categories. Some of its features are:

• Supports TrueType and OpenType fonts (Windows 2000/XP required for PostScript OpenType fonts)
• Supports Type1 fonts (Windows 2000/XP required)
• Installation of fonts from a folder (one by one or from a list).
• Installation of fonts temporally (until the program is closed).
• Deletion of installed fonts.
• List of all installed fonts with several display options.
• List of the fonts from a folder with several display options.
• Several options for organizing fonts in categories and managing them.
• It can print a list of all or some of the installed fonts with an example of each font.
• Scratchpad area for testing the look of any font (installed or from a folder).
• Dual English/Spanish version.

Well I hope this has given you a little insight into the wonderful world of Fonts!!

Cath x

Layout Class

Good Morning everyone! Are we all looking forward to a wet weekend? Why not stay inside and do some scrapping instead of venturing out then!! Today is a layout class that shouldn't take you too long to do, ideal for doing when you have an hour or two spare :)

So, todays class is an 8.5 x 11 layout. This however can be interpreted into a 12x12 or 8x8 layout or whichever size you scrap in if you wish.

Supplies list –

Bazzill Cardstock – Yam
Bazzill Cardstock - Chocolate
Crate Paper – Crush, Longboard
Crate paper Crush Tag
Pressed Petals Chip Chatter
American Crafts Felt Flowers
3 brads
Chalk Ink pad, Dark Brown

I cut my Yam Cardstock to size and inked the edges. Then cut the Crate paper to 7x9 inches, inked and attached to the cardstock slightly off centre, leaving a bigger gap at the top.

I used a 6x4 photo and also one slightly smaller 5x3.75 inches. I sandpapered the edges as it makes them stand out a bit more and then matted them on the Chocolate cardstock. I then adhered my photos, one to the left and the other to the right, overlapping near the bottom.
I sanded the edge of the chip chatter letters ‘PARK’ and attached these to the top just off centre. The word ‘LIFE’ was printed onto an off cut of blue paper that matched the flowers and stripes in the paper using the font 2 peas weathervane which you can download here.
I used the Crush tag to write my journaling on but wanted it as more of a little card so the little tag hole I kept in and taped across the back so it didn’t fall out. I attached the card on a slant to give the layout a quirkier feel. Then I simply attached the 3 flowers with the brads and cut a piece of the left over cardstock that I wrote the date on and attached to the bottom.
A really simple layout that shouldn’t take too long to do. So while the weather is wet, SCRAP! I hope you’ve enjoyed it.
If you do decide to have a go, please don’t forget to send us a link to your layout.