DieCutCrazy Valentine Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Die Cut Crazy Magazine Valentine Blog Hop. I and the other designers have made some wonderful Valentine projects to inspire your own  crafting with your die cuts. If you just joined our hop, be sure and go back to the Die Cut Crazy Magazine Blog to learn how you can enter to win a prize from Die Cut Crazy Magazine when following the hop from designer to designer.  

 I have two projects to share with you, first, a scrapbooking process video using a square punch to dress up a background:

This is a two page layout- the half you can't see is where I used my punch (of course)!

 Next, I'm sharing with you a Memorial Scrapbook page! 

What A Guy 12x12 Scrapbook Layout

Now, scrapping about a departed friend may not be the typical way to lovey dovey up your albums, but I was inspired around 6:00 in the morning on Thursday to create this for my best friend and her daughter, who I know continue to love and think of this amazing guy all the time. I hit facebook and pulled off some pictures from his sister's album, and then I found some really nice comments and rememberances that seemed to sum up some of my own memories about him.

You can see that I also used a few heart punches and die cut letters as well.

Here's a fun tip: when you're pulling your die cut letters off a big sheet, pull Towards yourself. That way if the paper tears (as it always seems to do) the tears will be on the back of the letter instead of across the front.

Another fun tip: go around the outside of your letters with a coordinating marker. In this case I used a black marker around the edge of the black letters. It's a very subtle way to get rid of those chits left behind without using your scissors :-)

I wanted to show you how I went about printing on my 3x4 die-cuts by Me & My Big Ideas. First, I added the photos and phrases to a word processing document. Once printed, all I had to do was adhere my die cuts over those printed areas with some repositionable glue. I used Herma dots. Put the printed-on paper back in your machine with the die cuts stuck down, push print again, and Voila! Custom die cuts!

Sometimes I get a bit lazy when it comes to technology, so in some places I just punched out the space I desired and glued down the cut journaling strips or pictures with my trusty square punch you saw me using in the video.

My last little tip today is also a bit of a lazy admission: I love the look of sewed paper, but I don't want to get my machine out. So what do I do? Well sometimes I use some rub-ons, but usually I can draw some very nice dash lines and I get a terrific effect! You can see below here how I just set my Tim Holz ruler down on the page, and with a red Creative Memories pen, I drew dash lines. I usually turn or angle the ruler a couple times to make it look like I ran it through the "machine" a couple times. Most times, people looking at an embellishment like this won't be able to tell its not actually thread!

Thanks for stopping by the Die Cut Crazy Magazine Valentine's Blog Hop. I hope my projects inspire you to create your own lovey- dovey Valentine project.  Please leave a comment to let me know you stopped by.

I'm hoping you will  give me some ideas about what product I should feature in every project this month!

Next up in the hop is  Allie. Go see the amazing project she has prepared for you to enjoy!

 If you just joined the hop, here is a list of designers so you don't miss any. Remember, if you leave a comment on each blog, you will be entered to win a six month subscription to Die Cut Crazy! Good luck :-)

Debbie http://www.scrapmequickdesigns.com/

 Anna http://craftwithanna.blogspot.com

 Allie http://mycardparty.com

 Nancy www.scrapperatheart.com

Melissa www.cardtreasures.wordpress.com

Carlyann  www.sweetncrafty.blogspot.com

Die Cut Crazy Magazine  http://diecutcrazymag.com/