Saturday, September 30, 2017

October's Free DeskTop Calendar

Welcome to The Cherry On Top's hybrid Saturday!

I thought for sure I wasn't going to blog this Saturday because Sunday's blog is going to be SO huge, but I had already scheduled this one in so you can have your calendar before the month officially starts.  Hehehe...Thank goodness I had it already planned and scheduled in.  The brain is a real mess. Hehehe...

As usual, our free monthly calendars are sponsored by the delightful Jodi from Throwing Some Scraps Around.  She supplies us with the gorgeous goodies and we design the calendars.  Thanks to her fabulous yearly membership program, you too can get all of Jodi's fantastic designs at a spot on price, that is a Cherry of a deal.  Check it out here.

The kit I used for this month's calendar is called, Autumn Joys.  You can find it in Jodi's Etsy shop, here.  Simply right click and save this image to your downloads.  As always, are freebies are for PERSONAL USE ONLY.



Here is a page I made showing off my new templates Falling and Jodi's kit, Autumn Joys.


These awesome template are under $2!!!

 Falling Templates

You HAVE to come back tomorrow for an EPICALLY LEGENDARY blog full of jaw dropping inspiration, new releases and of course, freebies!  See ya then!

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Traditional Card Making With Digital Templates

Welcome to Traditional Tuesday with The Cherry On Top.

I've got a step by step tutorial for you, today.  Friday I gave away this free, digital template on the blog and Saturday, I gave away the free example showing how you can use the template digitally. Today, I've got the same template and used it traditionally.

Check out the step by, see what you missed Friday and Saturday and I've got some other scrapbooking goodies that might make your crafting faster and easier, too.

free card making template in action, traditionally


Here's the template I used to make today's card.  It's on Friday's blog and it is a digital template.

 free template

Once you've scrapped up your project digitally, it will look like this when you print it.


All you have to do it cut out the squares if you set it up like this in your scrap program and adhere back to back or adhere on to some rigid card stock if you prefer or if you didn't print on rigid paper.  Easy right?  Especially, if you don't have a lot of time to scrap traditionally or if you don't have just the right traditional scrapbooking materials.

quick and easy

 really cute, fast, easy and cheap

I've also got some free printable word bits on the blog from a few weeks ago. In one of the traditional scrapbooking Facebook groups I'm in, someone was asking for something like this and I thought I'd share them with you.  I've got several sets on the blog.  It was asked of me, by a traditional scrapbooker that I make these and I love and use them all of the time.  Especially, since I can customise the look, size, font, colour...

 free word bits

I have these set up so it's SO easy to cut.  You don't even need a special cutting machine to do it easily, neatly and quickly.  I just used my scissors and a basic paper cutter.


Voila!  All of my word bits are ready to use!  At virtually no cost!

 free word bits

On to our tutorial...How to use our templates to make your own traditional cards.  Ahh, the beauty of using layouts and pages as a kind of sketch to customise your very own pages. I do it all of the time and so should you.  I have a Pinterest board I go to when I need some inspiration before I head up to my scrap table.  I want at least a few ideas of how I might layout the pages I want to work on.

Here's what I'm using.  These papers are from one of those cheapy paper tablets I got from a discount store. I don't have any scrapbooking stores where I live, nearby.  So I just grab things when I find them if I think they'll work for scrapbooking.  Collections really help make beautiful pages and you can scrap a lot faster with them as well because you don't have to go through your entire stash looking for coordinating goodies.


Let's take a look at how I gathered my goodies.  The pages came from the same book so that's easy. Even those borders came with the papers, but I didn't end up using them.  The ribbons matched beautifully, but I didn't use those either. Hehehe...And the washi matched super, too.  Then, the grande finale were these Christmas tags my mother sent.  They totally fit and brought glitter, dimension and was an easy element to add.  Keep reading to see how I used them.

 an inexpensive touch of glam

These are super cheap rhinestones or gems from the discount store.  I love the clear background.  I can see which size fits best before I take them off the backing.


Here's another tip.  I'm still experimenting with adhesive.  Like I said, I can't just stroll into a scrapbooking shop or even a paper craft store and buy the best. This is double sided tape from a local discount store.  I already ruled out a discount store's double sided tape because it was terrible.  I like to keep things very positive here, but ya might want to double think the double sided tape from Boekenvoordeel.  Hehehe...This is from Action. I wrote it on the inside so I remember.  Some scrappy friends say it's ok.


This is going to be my back page.  I want to be able to set this card on a table and want it to look good from all angles.  A paper from the tablet, inked around the edges.  Then I cut out this journaling from an old Christmas card I received and layered that baby up, inking around the edges and then added the gems in the corner where it was a touch blank and to add some Christmas glam.


I'm showing off the brand because so far, I find them to be superior than the junk at the discount store. The ink is from Tim Holtz and it is FAR better than the cheap stuff. It's over a year old and works like the day I bought it.  Tesa is a pretty big brand name for adhesive here and this is one of the first times I'm trying it.  So far, so good. I love the duo tip.  One tiny and one large.  Perfect for paper crafting.  I use the Elmer's brand mostly, but have to have it shipped from the States.

I've inked around the outside of my pages as well.  It just ties the whole look together and gives a more polished finish.


I'm mega lazy when it comes to journaling and alphabets and stickers.  I've got stamps and tons of alpha stickers, but meh.  Hehehe...  I go to my bag O' cards and look for just the right wording.


There we go!  The inside of the card.  The sentiment all layered and inked up to match the rest of the card. Then we will get started on the front of the card.


Cut some matching or coordinating papers for the strips.  This is a 6x6 square, by the way.  I chose to ink my borders as well.  Make them the same size width or differing.  You could even cut a thinner strip and start layering the borders as well.

Here are the shapes resembling my template.  You can see that it really isn't such a perfect square shape because my squares are a touch too small for the size of my corner punch.  You don't have to corner your squares if you don't want to.  Check your corner punch if you don't want shapes like this.  I inked around the edges for all of the layers.


Let's move on to those tags and how I used them.

See the three different inks I used?  From a light metallic, than a warmer brown and the really dark and dramatic near black/brown for the very edges.  I added a drop of water onto my dry ink pads.  It's kind of cool to work with them when they are dry because you can control the ink easier. 


Have you ever sanded around your edges?  It adds texture and an aged look. If you do all of the layers this way, you'll have cohesion, too.  I just use an old nail file to soften my paper and then ink around with gentle, short strokes and use my finger tips to blend.  The green colour on my lettering here, was not matching so I filed most of the colour away and inked lightly over it as well.


I showed off this tip before in a previous blog.   I have these largish flourishes in a few different colours and most of the time, they are too big.  No worries, though.  There is a perfect spot for separation.  I use my very sharp, fussy cutting scissors and carefully make the cut.  Now, I have TWO smaller flourishes that fit perfectly.


Tuck in your flourishes behind the elevated tag.  Once again, the adhesive to these are terrible.  I couldn't even get the backing off.  I used good glue to adhere them to the page.  If I'm not sure about the quality of my adhesive, I use the good stuff to make sure.  If you can get good adhesive, by all means don't skimp there.


I like the gold everywhere.  In my papers, on my tag and now added glittering gold with my flourishes making it feel like all of this stuff came together in a kit.

Let's finish up the cluster.


I found a tiny bag full of these coated berries in a local discount shop.  I use a small paint brush to wrap the green wire around and shape to my desire.  Then I tucked the berries behind Santy as well, leaving the green bits.  You could snip them off with a wire cutter if you don't like them.  I used a good glue dot to adhere the berries.  The Zots brand of adhesive works really, really great.  I had to order them and have them shipped from the Sates.


I originally wanted to use washi tape to adhere my two pages together, but the quality of the washi wasn't good enough to do this successfully.  Thank goodness washi is designed to be taken off without destroying your paper when done carefully.  Hehehe...

So what did I end up doing?  I carefully scored across the top of my cover page or front of the card about a 1/4 of an inch from the top.  I used double sided tape on the inside, lined it up perfectly with the back page and pressed gently to adhere the pages together.  Very, very easy to do.  That's it!

Here is what my new templates in the shop look like.  They are just 1,99 for all four templates. Included in the templates are separate png formatted shapes, the exact size needed to make the cards. You could print those out and use them or trace around and use as an actual template.

 Sentimental Sentiments

This is what the png shapes look like.  See how they can be used traditionally once printed?



This is another example of a traditional scrap, up cycled Christmas card following the template-ish.  Hehehe...I chose to weave some of the strips for more added interest.


Here are a few digital versions using the templates.




Shoo!  That was a doozy!  Hehehe...

Thanks so much for dropping by The Cherry On Top.

Happy crafting!

Saturday, September 23, 2017

Free PuurFectly Printable Card from The Cherry On Top

Welcome to The Cherry On Top.

Today, I've got a really fun free printable for you, some new, unique templates and a look at Tuesday's blog.

Do you enjoy making cards?  Traditionally?  Digitally?  Hybrid style?  All of it?! That's me, too.  It totally depends on the project at hand.

I get asked the question all of the time, "When you do use multiple methods of scrapbooking or craft making, when do you use which form?"  Let's talk about that briefly.

Ask yourself these things: 

How much time do I have?

How much $$$ do I have for the project?

Who is the project for?

If you've got a lot of time, traditional scrap is certainly an option.  Digital scrapbooking is a real time saver if this isn't the case.

If money is an issue, you can always consult your existing digital or traditional stash.  With a digital stash, you can use it over and over.  It never runs out and there are a lot of free resources out there. Like here!  Hehehe...Printing also costs a few cents and something to be kept in mind as well.  If you make a digital card AND send it digitally, it won't cost you a penny, IF you use something from your stash.  I find traditional scrapping to be a lot more costly, but some projects call for it.

Who the project is for is a big question.  Will they appreciate all of the time, love and expense of a hand made good?  Another reason I LOVE doing digital/hybrid gifts. Even if I'm not sure, I go digital.

For me, I go traditional for very precious moments, for my mom and aunty who totally love my hand made things and for close friends.  All of the rest get done digitally.

On a side note, I do not use APPS for scrapbooking.  I barely print ALL of my pages now.  I can imagine I would do it even less in an APP.  I also have an old phone and it doesn't appeal to me.  If you are constantly on the go though, it may be a good option.

I hope these tips will help you decide.


Yesterday, we showed off this FREE card making template.  You could use it for a lot of other projects.  Check out yesterday's blog for more information, tips and ideas and get that download.

 free card making template
 free card making template from The Cherry On Top

This is a close up of the template.  The left side image is not a part of the template, but I wanted to include an idea of what you can do.  You might also note that I added another layer that isn't pictured.


I always choose a printing format that will suit all standard paper sizes and make an effort to use lighter colours or no colored backgrounds to make printing more money/ink saving.  

Here is your card.  It appears that when you save a project in PSE in a lower resolution or if you pay no attention to the resolution while saving and it automatically saves at a lower resolution, the size somehow changes.  I have no idea.  Enlighten me if you know.  

I did notice this AFTER I had the entire project finished.  I designed 4 more templates for in our shop and saved at 300 resolution and they came out perfect.  Go figure!  Hehehe...Saying that, you may have to enlarge this card.  I did and it came out really great.  You can do this in your printer and or preview program, more than likely.

right click and save to your downloads

Oh!  How cute would it be to shape a few pics to fit in the square of you and your friend?!  I LOVE that idea.

If you are wondering what collection I used for this card, it's our very own PuurFect collection and all FOUR packs are just over a buck each!

 Kreative Design Studio
The PuurFect Collection, Papers, Ellies, Journal Cards, Stackers and Templates

Here are the new, card making templates in the shop.  There are FOUR different templates in a 5x5 format.  I chose 5x5 inches so that you can place the template AND the inside page of your card on a standard sheet of paper. This way you don't have to make the card even smaller or use two pieces of paper from your printer.  I also include a 5x5 template in the set for the inside of the card.

Sentimental Sentiments card making templates

I bet your mind is working out how you can use these templates to make gorgeous cards or other crafty endeavours you may have.  Inchies, journal cards, mini albums, project life...all possibilities with these templates.

 card

Excuse the dated design of the above image.  Hehehe...I wanted to show you how you can place your pages on one page to get a smaller card all complete on one page by just folding. You would print it like shown above, fold it in half and then half again.  You could do this as well with our templates.  (This is no longer available, but those steam punk goodies are a dream and I've got some pretty fabulous inspiration there, too.)


On Tuesday, I'll have this printable template ready so you can make our card traditionally.

Next week, I'll be skipping the Saturday and Sunday blog, BUT I'm going to have a mega awesome SUNDAY blog that you will NOT want to miss.  Make sure you follow us here, on Facebook and receive our newsletter so you stay in the loop.

Thanks for checking out The Cherry!

Friday, September 22, 2017

Free Card Making Template

Welcome to The Cherry On Top's Freebie Friday.

I've got a fun, free template, new templates in the shop and a bit of layout love from Throwing Some Scraps Around.

Grab a cup of something lovely and enjoy today's blog.

 free card making template

I love making my own cards.  For one, I do not like going out shopping, card shopping included.  I've got so much stuff, both digital and actual that I might as well save some $$$ and just make it myself. Designing a card from scratch is pretty easy, but when you've got a nifty template to follow, you can save even more time.

I'll have a traditional template ready for you on Tuesday so you can use it that way if you prefer.  We'll have a step by step tutorial, too!

These are 5x5 sized pages saved at 300 resolution so if you do want to enlarge them, they come out great still.  I had to enlarge the free template to get just the size I wanted.  Keep that in mind.  The ones in the store are all set.

So, it's up to you!  Will you scrap it all up digitally, traditionally or go hybrid style?  There are so many possibilities.  I was also thinking of these other uses with these templates for inchies, journal cards and project life pages.  Use the templates as a guide or use them literally increasing or decreasing the size as needed.

Here are two I've done so far.

traditional scrap with up cycled Christmas cards

the hybrid version, made digitally and printed


 Sentimental Sentiments Templates

The templates in the shop come with a 5x5, plain template for your inside page. Since the templates are 5x5, you can rotate the direction and place it and the inside sentiment on one sheet of paper, then print.  For the best printing results use a rigid paper.  Preferably with glossy or semi glossy paper.  If your printer has a "best" option, select it.

Check out the gorgeous cards Dana from Made By Keuntje made with the new templates!  Mega wow, right?!  The first is with a pirate themed kit from Laurie Scraps.  It's an invitation for her son's pirate themed party.

 Sentimental Sentiments Templates

 Sentimental Sentiments
Sentimental Sentiments Templates, Blue Heart Scraps A Little Help From My Friends

This is no longer free. Make sure you sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date and so you don't miss any free stuff.


Did you see the cute card I made on the preview, above?  That's going to be your freebie for Hybrid Saturday, tomorrow.  Make sure you come back to get your free card.  Consider supporting The Cherry by buying something from our shop and sharing our blog posts and other social media posts with your scrappy sisters.

 Falling Templates

Have you seen our new templates from last week?  Falling templates are on promotion for just 1,50 for three, lovely templates.  Add them to your stash and scrap your favourite pics.


 Falling Templates
Falling Templates and Autumn Joys from Throwing Some Scraps Around

I've scrapped up this page with my crazy husband, the templates from last week and Throwing Some Scraps Around's new release, Autumn Joys.  I made a delicious, from scratch cranberry sauce.  If you've never made it yourself before, you'll slap your forehead when you find out how easy it is to make and how few ingredients there are.  I've got the recipe right here for you.

Thank you so much for allowing The Cherry into your day.

Happy scrapping!

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Our Finished Scrapbooking Challenge. Where Is Your Page?

Welcome to our third and final installation for this fun, digital to traditional scrapbooking page.

I am not here to talk you OUT of traditional scrapbooking.  I still traditional scrapbook, too.  Just a lot less these days.  As I go through today's step by step tutorial, I'll also chime in on the many advantages to hybrid and digital scrapbooking to make you a more rounded, efficient and better scrapper.


Here is a very good reason why I scrap more digitally.  

Hello!!!   I mean seriously, all I did was remove my lunch to take this picture.

What a disaster, above!  That's exactly why this area is in the attic.  Hehehe...


Back to our tutorial...

This project has quite a lot going on.  It's a part of our digital to traditional challenge and it isn't our first.  To see more click here. (We've got a really fun, free template for you there, too.) There are several tips through out today's blog.  Great for beginning scrappers AND the kind of cool part, I'm using all mega old and cheap scrap stuff.  I'm not only on a serious budget, but there are ZERO scrapbooking stores in my area.

These items are not at all coordinating together in a pack.  I LOVE purchasing coordinated collections, though.  They save SO much time!  I probably spent more time sifting through my old, immense scrap stash trying to coordinate colours and subject matter than it would have taken me to scrap this digitally.  Hehehe...

Let's just dive right in there with the steps, tips, tricks and our final result.


In our first installation, we offer this free template.  In the second installation, we explain how to use the template and we give many examples and tips on the BEST way to use the template.

free template to get you started

As I mentioned above, I don't have a fun, summer, vacation collection.  So I had to rummage through all of my stash.  Stickers, papers, embellishments, etc.  These are what  I grabbed.  I thought I'd show you a bit of the process in case you too are not blessed with boxes of prepared collections.


I loved the blue in my son's swim trunks and since water and sky are a part of the photo, it seemed fitting to go with blue.  Take a close look at my colours.  Primary, basic colours in relatively, the same hue.  (I didn't end up using all of these papers.)

I also matched up the papers as closely as possible to my embellishments.  When you use colours that are not similar, your page will look miss matched and busy.  A good tip to prevent that is to use less colours.  I went with the blue, yellow, white and green.  I had some fun embellishments with pink and other colours, but when I put them on the paper, it all looked way too busy, distracting from my pretty picture.


I see a lot of people's pages out there with miss matched matting and thought I'd give my two cents about how to do this best.  Above, I show ya what my photo looks like on the yellow and the blue paper.  Do you see the difference?  My photo looks a little...ill on the yellow paper and the mountains look even less green, but on the blue the photo looks much better.  Keep reading to see how we pulled it all together.


I loved this flowery paper, but it was missing that splash of yellow I wanted to make it all more cohesive.  I guess, I kind of forced these things together to fit.  As you can see by the next image, the flowery paper doesn't play a large roll in the overall page.  I thought it'd be cool and fun to add some of the yellow colour the paper missed by colouring it myself.  I only needed to do it around the edges so it wouldn't be a big time suck.

As I was colouring, I was shaking pretty bad which got me to thinking of another good thing about digital scrapbooking and that it's less physically demanding.  If you're shaky, you won't ruin your entire project or send those tiny gems flying into the air and all over your work space and the floor.


In the above image, I'm showing you two things.  The detail work of the coloured in yellow around the edges as well as my placing technique once I've adhered my adhesive.  I use TWO different kinds of adhesives in almost all of my pages and projects.  Adhesive often loses it's stick and when ya double it up, you have a better chance of things staying put.  I also want to explain how I plop down my layers once I've applied my adhesive.

I'm super, super stingy with my adhesive.  Like I mentioned, scrap stuff is VERY hard to come by.  Hehehe...  For the blocked image, I put a large piece of double sided tape across the middle and used glue around the edges.  To place it on my blue layer,  I lightly press one of the edges until I've eyeballed it into place.  When I got it right where I want it, I press gently on the entire thing.  Voila!

Above, you'll see the outside edges of my yellow layer are flayed upward because I used the opposite adhering method, using double sided tape on the outside of my blue page and glue in the middle.  For this way, you push very gently in the centre where the glue is (glue has give and double sided tape does NOT).  Gently slide or nudge your layer into the desired place and press gently over its entirety.


Above, I show off how I test my stickers.  I don't pull them off until I'm sure I know where to put it.  I also wasn't sure if this sun was going to be too big.  (I did find it a bit big, though.  Hehehe...)  I cut around and test.  I'm not taking any chances! 

Digital scrapbooking allows you to resize, alter, duplicate and even recolour your embellishments allowing for a PERFECT page.


I love a page with dimension.  When the embellishments are lifted off the page, it gives it more pop and it's fun.  Digitally, this is done with shadows.  Small darker shadows are used for less dimension (like one layer of paper or a paper clip) and when ya really want lift, you add a larger, light shadow (for a balloon or butterfly).  There are even "effects" you can install in your software where it's done for you!

Use foam double sided tape for this effect, traditionally. I'd also recommend having a separate pair of scissors for cutting adhesive.  They will get all gunked up.


What often makes a page look awesome is its layers.  Layers add lift, polish, cohesion, contrast...When in doubt, add another layer!

I had these fun, what I call wordies.  (I've got some in our shop for only ,99 cents. Print out as many as you like on sticker paper, the size ya need and use them over and over...)  I layered them on the scraps of my yellow paper to add more contrast and dimension as well as make my miss matched stuff match better.


In one of my embellishment sheets, were these circles.  I cut them in half to make them go further and spread the coordinating colour around my page.

You can note those awful little nubs where the element is attached to the page.  You certainly don't have that in digital or when you use your cutting machine.  To get rid of them, use your fussy cutting scissors, a nail file or rub gently with your finger nail until it isn't so visible.

Many of my elements had those tiny gems so I added a few more of my own to bring it all together.  I so did not want to add pink, but those glasses were just perfect.  That's why I added a touch more of the pink circles.  I tried several things to cover up the stars, but was not crazy about the result.


So there is our finished digital to traditional challenge.  I sure hope you'll join in, too!

Head over to our scrapbooking group on Facebook and show us what you've done.  You may gladly show us any of your family friendly pages and paper projects.  Feel free to ask questions there as well.

Thanks for hanging out with The Cherry.

Happy scrapping!