Challenging yourself... for no reason apparently

 So I have decided that for the month of September I am going to try and do a project a day, or at least a total of 30 different projects by the end of the month, because lets face it life gets in the way of our crafting time and we cant always do a new project everyday... yes even those of us with no kids and who don't work outside of the home still have other commitments. But I digress.
   So today I am sharing with you the first item that I made for my 30 day challenge... already starting off badly since today is the 3rd. I can probably get a few totally different cards out of the scraps from this layout on my desk that would eat up the days that I missed. What I used were the Hello Today patterned papers and the embellishment pack from Heidi Swapp. I have been hanging on to this collection and love the muted tones which are great for masculine layouts. I also used one the mask that you can, or could, get from Micheal's from her as well to do some water coloring on the left side of the paper.

What I did was cut the blue polka dotted paper in half, and so as not to waste any of the white paper I cut it down to 8x12, I think that this helps in cutting down the bulk in your albums as well. Then adhered that blue piece onto the 2 inch overlap really well. I watered colored the white side before attaching them and ran the gold washie tape down the middle to not only hide the edge of that paper but to also reinforce the seam a little as well. I wish I would have had a navy washie though, it would not have stood out so much, or at least that is what I think. I took the arrow paper and laid it across the approximate center of the page, that piece is 4x12 by the way. I used that piece to ground the photos and the title, laid down some of the journal cards that were in the cut apart sheets inside the paper pad and some embellishments on top of that , did my journaling and called it done. Hope that everyone likes it... please excuse the work out nastiness that is me in this photo

Love and Hugs

Cherry

"Home" Layout

Have you ever gotten an item that automatically triggers inspiration. That is what happened when I say the Little Yellow Bicycle sticker set. It included a sticker that said home is wherever I am with you. This is a lyric from the song "Home" by Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros. This is a song that is very special to me and my husband. I knew that I had the perfect photo for it and how I wanted it to look. Done and Done.
     I love the background that I created. It is the simplest background to do of course, I wrote the song lyrics as my background image. Making sure to write the chorus in white so that it pops off the kraft background. I wanted to do this because that is where the quote appears in the song. I think that this looks so awesome and it makes me very happy.
     I am linking my YouTube video below that will give you a great description and look at the page


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VY3DBpIXyjw

Single layer Kraft card

So over the weekend on Pinterest I saw a tutorial for a single layer art journal page using Kraft cardstock and brown ink for the images and I fell in love with the look. Of course the art journal that I work with has white pages so that would not work well for me, but I have Kraft cardstock and I love to make cards on it so, there you go Cherry make a card with it.

I used Kraft cardstock from Michael's which is kinda thin, but hey its what I have. I used the Brilliance ink in Coffee Bean from Tsukineko, and color pencils in bright neon shade to color in the images and white to accent everywhere.

I really like the look of this and will probably make a few more like it....

Now for the big giant fail... because lets be real not everything we make is going to be outstanding and perfect, well nothing I ever make is perfect, but that is ok to. I thought that I would get a cute rainbow effect on this card and I drew my lines nice and neat with a brown marker and everything... Well even thought the markers were pastel colored they were still to dark for the paper... I may try using colored pencils next time, because I am not giving up on it, just this attempt was not great... Right! I thought that you would agree.

Yeah not a big fan of that look... and here is the link to the inspiration post http://michelleward.typepad.com/michelleward/2014/01/new-stencils-a-giveaway-and-a-hop.html. I would like to thank you for stopping by today and we will chat again soon.

Love and Hugs

Cherry

RANTS

I know that I have not posted in a while, and that is ok, life gets in the way of things sometimes and we cannot always do what we would want to do. However, I find it necessary to do a rant today about the Recollections brand cling stamp, which have no names, that is with the black and pink collections in stores, the dollies stamps to be specific. I have stamped these in several mediums onto different surfaces, and I will be honest I thought they would be great to make a copy cat version of the Maggie Holmes dollies in gold velum sheet. They are not, I repeat not, anything like I would have expected from Recollections brand at all. Yes I have a lower expectation for this brand, but come on. I find that unless I push the stamps into the mount the cling only attaches in sections, not all over like it is suppose to, and I use a Fiskars clear mount for my stamps. Then it does not fully stamp, again no matter what the medium that I am using to stamp with, i.e. dye ink, pigment ink, or embossing ink. And to that it always seems that the ink misses in about the same spot in the stamp, there does not seem to be any ridges or bumps on the stamps to explain why they do that. I am just very unsatisfied with this product and would not recommend it to anyone else.

Here is the link to my Instagram for a sad photo, http://instagram.com/p/mTHA_kE6cO/

But I would like to end with a positive thought on this, even though it does not meet my expectations I can still use them, until I can get different ones, I will just hide the bad parts by layering over them, humm maybe an idea for a new post.

Thanks for stopping by
Love and Hugs
Cherry

Monogrammed Note Cards

So I was watching a YouTube video earlier this month about making monogrammed note cards as gifts for holidays and etc., well of course now I can't find it to link to. Oh, well. I do know that she used the Wplus9 alphabet stamp set to create her cards. Well I don't have that stamp set, but I do have an older, so old that I don't know who made them, stamp set that I wanted to try first before spending the money on those to see how well I liked making these cards. These are very simple to make and I get bored with simple sometimes. Not the case here, these are super fun to do and come out really cute. My one suggestion would be to get extra thick card stock since this is a one layer card so that it will be very sturdy on its on.

  So I used Mustard Stayzon for the foliage around the initials and for the letters I used London Fog Momento ink. I love the combination of grey and yellow and I think that this came out great. And yes I will be investing in the Wplus9 stamps because this was so much fun and would be great quick gifts.


Love and Hugs
Cherry

Valentines' Day Card #1

Welcome back to Creatively Cherry!

Today I am making a gorgeous Valentines' card using the Vintage Collector Mat pad. I cased this from another card that I had found on Pinterest. Here is the link to the original card from the DCWV site, http://www.dcwvinc.blogspot.com/2013/11/vintage-collector-cards.html.

Here is the card that I came up with, similar with a few differences that make it "Cherry"

 All of the card stock used, craft and bright pink are Recollections brand, the hearts were cut from the pattern paper as well as the chevron piece that is turned sideways. The flower and the bling are both Michales' $1 bin items, yes my Michales' still has $1 bins. The burlap was a by the yard purchase from Hobby Lobby. The letter stickers are from Target's $1 bin. I am loving the colors in this as well as the layout.

Thanks for stopping by,
Love and Hugs
Cherry

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone!

Today I will be sharing cards that I have made for the New Year Celebration. These are quite simple but carry a big punch.

I used the DCWV stack, Christmas creations, this is one of the photo real pages that are in the stack. I liked that it had the faded lights in the background, which is very trendy right now. I heat embossed with white Zing powder Happy New Year from the Hero Arts set CL498, which is year round greetings.

For the red card

I used the American Crafts red glitter tape as the accent piece with red cardstock from Michales' as the backing paper. The card measures at 5 x 5 total and the backing paper is at 4 3/4 x 4 3/4 with the image paper measuring a 4 1/2 x 4 1/2. This makes the edges pop out really well and of course gives room for the faux stitching. I used red gem stones from Michales' as well as the only real embellishment on the card                                                                                                                   

For the green card                                                                                                           

I did the same with this card, but I had to make my own green stones by using a green Bic marker on clear stones.                                                                                                               

A side note on this, I always show my cards to my husband to see if he likes what I made. He said that the paper reminded him of Saturday Night Live and that I should put a picture of Bill Murry in the upper left hand corner. He is so funny, however I do not wish to be sued by Bill Murry for the use of his likeness, so no I will not be doing that.                                                                                

Thanks everyone for stopping by today, hope that you have a wonderful New Years' Celebration