I just want to wish everyone a Happy Halloween!  I am dressing up today for work...not sure what you can call my costume, but it was fun to put together!  I will share photos soon!
If you are still craving Halloween inspiration, you can see another project I created that is being featured on the Cricut Circle today as the final project for our 13 days of Halloween. Until then, I leave you with one of my past favorite Halloween projects that I created for Bo Bunny!

I am quite excited to share today's layout with you and I hope you are inspired and excited to give it a try too! Just like last Wednesday, I am going to share a layout with you and some of the process behind the why, what and how.


INSPIRATION: zigzag / chevron

WHY: I keep hearing everyone referring to chevrons.  They are everywhere right now.  Clothing, decorating and of course they have invaded scrapbooking.  I look at most of the designs however and think they look more like what I would call a zigzag, so I decided to do a little research.

Here are the definitions I found on Wikipedia...
A chevron is an inverted V-shaped pattern. The word is usually used in reference to a kind of fret in architecture, or to a badge or insignia used in military or police uniforms to indicate rank or length of service, or in heraldry and the designs of flags.

A zigzag is a pattern made up of small corners at variable angles, though constant within the zigzag, tracing a path between two parallel lines; it can be described as both jagged and fairly regular. Traditionally a "zig" points in the left direction (/) and a "zag" points right (\). From the point of view of symmetry, a regular zigzag can be generated from a simple motif like a line segment by repeated application of a glide reflection.

I also found this nice image to help discern the difference visually between the two... The top images are of a chevron and the bottom are of a zigzag.


So now that we know the difference, I went looking for some specific inspiration and I found this super cool image on my new favorite time busting site...Pinterest! Hours can be gone before you know it as you cruise through all the inspiration there!  When I saw this image I immediately thought of a nice big zigzag border with some fun accent colors.


I decided to try to keep the creation of a zigzag easy and quickly found a great image on the Cricut Essentials Cartridge included on the new Cricut Expression 2.


I first cut out a large zigzag from white cardstock to play around with the size and placement of the border. The next thing I did was find a photo and went to work picking out papers and embellies to go with my zigzag pattern.

As the colors started coming together, I quickly realized that the photo I had originally wanted to scrap just wasn't going to work, so I dug through my photos and found another one that went with the colors much better.  I then started playing around with a different placement for the zigzag border and this is what I came up with.


Once I added the white grid like paper as a large mat for my photo, I knew it needed a edging to it.  That is where the twine came into play.  I taped it to the back side of the layout using Provo Craft's Terrifically Tacky Tape.  I then began adding the buttons and brads.  I also used the packaging piece from the buttons as a decorative element...






Here you can see how I adhered the twine to the backside of the layout.  I also like to use Provo Crafts Terrifically Tacky Tape to hold the thread from my buttons.  Tying knots works well too, but they leave little bumps on the back that I don't always like.

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately and I realized that I wanted to share more.  I want to share more on my blog with everyone who loves paper as much as I do.  So I came up with the idea of doing a post (hopefully once a week) on Wednesday's where I would share "The Works" with you.  Just like Papa Johns'...everything is included!!!  This will include a project and all the details I can think of to share with you on how I created it.  I hope it will be inspiring for those of you who visit me and I hope to get some of you to play along and share how it inspires you.


I played around with their placement and this is what I came up with.  I also love that sewn on look, so then they got stitched down to the background paper as well.



Now...what do you do with all those loose threads on the backside? Here is my solution...Glue strips of extra paper to the backside of your layout to "hold" them down.


Next came the photos...Look, it's a rainbow cake!  How perfect for my rainbow inspiration!
I matted them with white cardstock to help them stand out more against the busy background.


The title was easy..."Rainbow Cake".  I mixed up the fonts for the title.  I like this look, but I can NOT do words with mixed up fonts.  One word...all the same letters.  I am not a random letter kind of gal! LOL!!!
Then I had fun cutting out some clouds from some Jillibean Soup patterned paper - Corn Kernels/Blossom Soup.  You can not have a rainbow without clouds and the sun.  That is were the yellow butterflies come into play.  They are the sunshine that the rainbow needs!


Back to the finished layout.  No, there is not a lot of embellishing going on.  It almost seems plain compared to some of the layouts in the galleries these days, but this is more my style.  Don't get me wrong, I love all the layering and texture and flowers, but I struggle doing this.  So I return to my simple side, and have fun adding little techniques and textures that make me happy.

So, what do you think?  Is this something you are interested in seeing each week?  Would you like to play along?  If so, let me know!  I would love to hear what you think and see what you create!

Today I have a Halloween home decor project to share with you.  I love Halloween! I love home decor!  So of course this was a perfect combination for me to have fun with!  As I began to decide what to make, I knew I wanted it to be more on the cute side of Halloween as compared to scary or spooky. 


I used two of my favorite Cricut Halloween themed cartridges including October 31st and Happy Hauntings to create this project. This project is also being featured on the Cricut Blog today too. 


I also used Mother's Day Bouquet to create the black roses!  I love making my own flowers, and Cricut has 2 great cartridges that will help you create them too. The other one is called Flower Shoppe.  Both of them are perfect for creating gorgeous flowers with dimension!  If you are interested in more information on how I created this project you can head over to the Cricut Blog to check out all the details. 

I hope your week has started off well, but if not, at least tomorrow is hump day and we will be half way through the week!  We are getting some rain here today and it is making it feel to much like a dreary fall day for me.  But we do need the rain, so I guess I can deal with it!  Now on to something that will hopefully help brighten your day...a card I created using the Bo Bunny Garden Girl Collection and a sketch.


I created the sketch for the other Bo Bunny designers and you to play along with and if you link your card up on the Bo Bunny blog HERE, you could be the lucky winner of a fun Bo Bunny prize package!  So get your craft on and share what you got!!!


I love sketches, as you know, and I pretty much stuck with the sketch for my card.  I always love to see how a sketch inspires other people.  A few fun tips from my card are that I hand cut the butterfly and flower from the Garden Girl. And to make them a bit more sturdy, I actually cut 2 of each image and then glued them together before I adhered them to the card with some double sided foam tape. I also added a bit of Stickles and Bo Bunny Jewels to dress them up.


The ribbon was made by Kristen Swain and I absolutely love working with it!  It is all hand dyed and she has tons of gorgeous colors in her Etsy shop.  When I attached it to my card, I used my craft knife to cut a slit in the cardstock sticker (which is a tag/label image) and then I just slid the ribbon through it and tied it around the front of the card.



That's all for now folks! I can't wait to see what you all create with the sketch!
HUGS!
Juliana

I was just asked to be a sketch designer for Creative Scrappers!!!  I have been wanting to spread my wings a bit...try something different and I think that this is just what the doctor ordered!  I have always loved sketches!  I almost always draw a sketch for every layout that I create.  I just find them helpful in figuring out where I want things to go.  So getting to create them and then share them with others is so exciting!!! I am really looking forward to inspiring the Creative Scrappers designers and followers and I can't wait to see how my sketches are interpreted by everyone. My sketches will start appearing on the CS blog in November, so make sure you stop by and check them out!  They post a new sketch each week and they always have wonderful giveaways! Doing the happy dance!!!

In other news, for all you Bo Bunny lovers out there, make sure you stop by the Bo Bunny blog today and the next few days!  You are sure to get an eye full of their latest mid-season releases!  And as always, Bo Bunny does not disappoint!!!  I would love to hear which one is your favorite.  I know which one I am loving!!!

Thanks for stopping by!
HAPPY DANCE HUGS!!!
Juliana