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Easier Die Cutting with Cricut and Cara Miller

Today’s blog post is from Guest Blogger and Die Cutting Expert Cara Miller.

Her goal is to help you make your Cricut die cutting easier! ScrapbookingDirections.com is very excited to have her share her “laser sharp” expertise and we do hope to have her contribute more in the future.

BTW: Your comments below will help both of us know that you want to hear more from her too.

Here’s what Cara has to say about today’s share Step Up Your Die Cuts:

“Hi Cara Miller here. I am a scrapbooking teacher, plain and simple. I love helping folks fall in love with their Cricut in particular.

I teach classes online and in person and I have created Whispers too! A Whisper? Yes, a whisper in the scrapbooking world is set of “cheat” cards that help you use your Cricut easier…With my Whisper cards, you will feel like  I am sitting next to you “Whisper-ing” the instructions your ear.  It’s my hope that this one will help you experience Easier Die Cutting with your Cricut!

But before I get to that, let me ask you something?

Have you ever struggled with your Cricut …trying desperately to make it cut things the way you want them cut but got so frustrated you wanted to pull your hair out?   If so, you should know that you are not alone!  We’ve all been there. Did you know that you can ALSO step up your Critic cutting experience and the projects you create by combining images (if you can just get your Cricut to cut the image the size you want)?  This is where the Cricut becomes your best friend in Scrapbooking!  The more unique your projects are the more people will love what you make!  Afterall that’s why we do this right?

So how do you get there?  Well, many times the images that you see on your Cricut cartridges are a bit too simple to make your combinations conceivable and they don’t show you all of your options in the booklet…that in and of itself is the problem. Too little keys, too many functions, not enough guidance (at least not all the time).  The bad news is, this won’t necessarily change because the Cricut is built to have multiple functions for each key and there are too many options for them to share everything they can in their basic package!  It’s quite a brilliant machine really, but complex.  And I get that.

The good news is , there is a simple fix and I am going to help you get through it RIGHT NOW! You just have to think outside the box that’s all. If you are ready for it, I have the perfect whisper to help you do that!

This video Whisper I am about to share is the next best thing to having me email or post mail my own personal whisper cards to you so that  you can create the most wonderful expressions with your Cricut and take your die cutting to the next level.  With this Whipser you will fee like I am sitting right next to you whispering in your ear while you Cricut!

You just have to see for yourself what I mean.
But first things first, gather your supplies: You will need your Cricut ( The Original, Expression, Create or E2 or Imagine), your card stock, your choice adhesive(s), a mat and ruler and your favorite cartridge.

BTW:   For this video I used the Walk in My Garden cartridge but you can use any cartridge with a card creative feature. Also, I was cutting a daffodil card so I used green and yellow cardstock and my favorite inks for edging. One more thing:  I love foam dots to add dimension to my cards too – so these were also used in this video.
Step Up Your Die Cuts

Step up your Cricut Die Cuts from Cara Miller on Vimeo.

Please comment below to let me know what you think?

Mom Quotes for Scrapbooking

Looking for some digital papers, flowers and brads for your next mother scrapbooking project?  These mom quotes and scrapbook images would be perfect for ANY mom!

OR….are you simply looking for some Mom Quotes to put in your existing Scrapbook?

Will any of these work?

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.  ~Tenneva Jordan

Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn,
Hundreds of bees in the purple clover,
Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn,
But only one mother the wide world over.
~George Cooper

Being a full-time mother is one of the highest salaried jobs… since the payment is pure love.  ~Mildred B. Vermont

The sweetest sounds to mortals given
Are heard in Mother, Home, and Heaven.
~William Goldsmith Brown

A suburban mother’s role is to deliver children obstetrically once, and by car forever after.  ~Peter De Vries

If the whole world were put into one scale, and my mother in the other, the whole world would kick the beam.  ~Lord Langdale (Henry Bickersteth)

All mothers are working mothers.  ~Author Unknown

It would seem that something which means poverty, disorder and violence every single day should be avoided entirely, but the desire to beget children is a natural urge.  ~Phyllis Diller

The moment a child is born, the mother is also born.  She never existed before.  The woman existed, but the mother, never.  A mother is something absolutely new.  ~Rajneesh

Woman in the home has not yet lost her dignity, in spite of Mother’s Day, with its offensive implication that our love needs an annual nudging, like our enthusiasm for the battle of Bunker Hill.  ~John Erskine

A Freudian slip is when you say one thing but mean your mother.  ~Author Unknown

Sweater, n.:  garment worn by child when its mother is feeling chilly.  ~Ambrose Bierce

Women’s Liberation is just a lot of foolishness.  It’s the men who are discriminated against.  They can’t bear children.  And no one’s likely to do anything about that.  ~Golda Meir

All women become like their mothers.  That is their tragedy.  No man does.  That’s his.  ~Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, 1895

When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts.  A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.  ~Sophia Loren, Women and Beauty

Mothers are fonder than fathers of their children because they are more certain they are their own.  ~Aristotle

Mother love is the fuel that enables a normal human being to do the impossible.  ~Marion C. Garretty, quoted in A Little Spoonful of Chicken Soup for the Mother’s Soul

Mother – that was the bank where we deposited all our hurts and worries.  ~T. DeWitt Talmage

A man’s work is from sun to sun, but a mother’s work is never done.  ~Author Unknown

A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest.  ~Irish Proverb

The real religion of the world comes from women much more than from men – from mothers most of all, who carry the key of our souls in their bosoms.  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes

God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers.  ~Jewish Proverb

Motherhood is priced
Of God, at price no man may dare
To lessen or misunderstand.
~Helen Hunt Jackson

Biology is the least of what makes someone a mother.  ~Oprah Winfrey

You don’t really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around – and why his parents will always wave back.  ~William D. Tammeus

Now that… my kids are grown, I understand how much work and love it takes to raise and to keep a family together.  The example of your strength, devotion, and patience is now rippling through the generations.  Thank you!  ~Forest Houtenschil

My mom is a neverending song in my heart of comfort, happiness, and being.  I may sometimes forget the words but I always remember the tune.  ~Graycie Harmon

Making the decision to have a child is momentous.  It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.  ~Elizabeth Stone

Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children, and no theories.  ~John Wilmot

Parents often talk about the younger generation as if they didn’t have anything to do with it.  ~Haim Ginott

Are we not like two volumes of one book?  ~Marceline Desbordes-Valmore

It kills you to see them grow up.  But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn’t.  ~Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams

Who fed me from her gentle breast
And hushed me in her arms to rest,
And on my cheek sweet kisses prest?
My Mother.
~Anne Taylor

On Mother’s Day I have written a poem for you.  In the interest of poetic economy and truth, I have succeeded in concentrating my deepest feelings and beliefs into two perfectly crafted lines:  You’re my mother, I would have no other!  ~Forest Houtenschil

Children are a great comfort in your old age – and they help you reach it faster, too.  ~Lionel Kauffman

Sing out loud in the car even, or especially, if it embarrasses your children.  ~Marilyn Penland

Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.  ~Charles R. Swindoll, The Strong Family

Now the thing about having a baby – and I can’t be the first person to have noticed this – is that thereafter you have it.  ~Jean Kerr

There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it.  ~Chinese Proverb

Never raise your hand to your kids.  It leaves your groin unprotected.  ~Red Buttons

If nature had arranged that husbands and wives should have children alternatively, there would never be more than three in a family.  ~Lawrence Housman

Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.  ~William Makepeace Thackeray

Insanity is hereditary; you get it from your children.  ~Sam Levenson

The one thing children wear out faster than shoes is parents.  ~John J. Plomp

Setting a good example for your children takes all the fun out of middle age.  ~William Feather, The Business of Life, 1949

Your responsibility as a parent is not as great as you might imagine.  You need not supply the world with the next conqueror of disease or major motion-picture star.  If your child simply grows up to be someone who does not use the word “collectible” as a noun, you can consider yourself an unqualified success.  ~Fran Lebowitz, “Parental Guidance,” Social Studies, 1981

This heart, my own dear mother, bends,
With love’s true instinct, back to thee!
~Thomas Moore

Getting down on all fours and imitating a rhinoceros stops babies from crying.  (Put an empty cigarette pack on your nose for a horn and make loud “snort” noises.)  I don’t know why parents don’t do this more often.  Usually it makes the kid laugh.  Sometimes it sends him into shock.  Either way it quiets him down.  If you’re a parent, acting like a rhino has another advantage.  Keep it up until the kid is a teenager and he definitely won’t have his friends hanging around your house all the time.  ~P.J. O’Rourke

I don’t care how poor a man is; if he has family, he’s rich.  ~Dan Wilcox and Thad Mumford, M*A*S*H, “Identity Crisis,”

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness blow the rest away.  ~Dinah Craik

Where we love is home – home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.  ~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out.  It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being.  We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.  ~Albert Schweitzer

You can always tell a real friend:  when you’ve made a fool of yourself he doesn’t feel you’ve done a permanent job.  ~Laurence J. Peter

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.  ~Marcel Proust

If I had a single flower for every time I think about you, I could walk forever in my garden.  ~Attributed to Claudia Ghandi

Source: http://www.quotegarden.com/mom-day.html

Scrapbooking Sayings

Many avid Scrapbookers know that your Scrapbook Pages are not just about the layouts, photo’s or elements on page – but also the words and how you say them.  Some people struggle to find the right words, others struggle with how to lay out the words on page. Often famous quotes or sayings from well known authors or poets will do the trick.

Sometimes even reading the sayings of others is enough. Perhaps you just need the inspiration to get you started.  Then what you say is far more true to you than someone else’s borrowed words.

Below are 3  very popular book suggestions that include great collections of words, poems quotes and sayings that might be of interest to you:

The Ultimate Guide To The Perfect Word

 Embellished Emotions 

The Write Baby And Toddler Words

 

You can also search Google for more sites and products related to scrapbooking sayings; here are some suggestions.

Exclusive Scrapbooking Videos

We trying very hard to improve your visitor experience here at Scrapbooking Directions.  As part of this, we are testing new methods of delivering great Scrapbooking Ideas for Paper and Digital Scrapbooking.  When available, our ad sponsors will display their Scrapbooking Videos here.  If you visit often and do not see the video’s – please let us know via the comments form below.  We want to be certain you find something you want and enjoy your time here. Enjoy.

Be A Guest Blogger Get Free Marketing!

If you have a great Scrapbooking or Card Making Project that you have done and you want to share it with the world, we are more than excited to help you do just that.

As of Nov 2011, Scrapbooking Directions is offering FREE promotion on our site to Scrapbookers, Card Makers, Photographers and Paper Crafters.  If you have a business OR you are trying to promote a portfolio of your work, we want to help you.

When you become a guest blogger here on Scrapbooking Directions, you can have your scrapbooking articles, scrapbooking video’s, scrapbooking instructions, scrapbooking tips and cool paper craft techniques posted here and you can even LINK that content out to your live site or gallery.

This is FREE Marketing for Scrapbookers and similar artists!

All you have to do is  contact Cijaye DePradine (site owner) – via email at cijaye @ scrapbookingdirections.com and she will guide you through the process.

 

NOTE: All users and their content will be held in moderation until approved. ScrapbookingDirections.com reserves the right to refuse/ remove any and all content from our website.  We will not accept submissions from irrelevant sources. **Please do not submit if your content is not in some way beneficial to paper crafters or digital artists.

 

 

Romantic Scrapbooking Ideas

Romantic Scrapbooking 101
by Cijaye DePradine

There is a common term that a photo can say a thousand words, but Scrapbooking your photos can provide more than just words, it can preserve memories and momento’s much more profoundly than a photo ever would on it’s own.

Scrapbooks are a way for people to reminisce about their past (forever) and to share those memories with their children, grand children, great granchildren and onwards!

Do you know how your parents, grandparents or even great grandparents met – or how deep their love really was? Wouldn’t that have been a heartwarming story to read?

What about you? What about your love story? Nothing is as impressive or a more fitting compliment to a partner than a scrapbook that is created just for them or about the two of you and your profound moments together.

Think about it for a second, a scrapbook that creatively tells a story with pictures and journalled memories of the time you have spent with your partner – is much more than a box of photos and a few cards or letters.

The person you feature on your Romantic Scrapbook pages could be your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your wife or husband. It is not subjective to certain people.

A scrapbook is an amazing gift for any occasion, and is probably the most personalised present that one person can give to another.

Now…if you are new to Scrapbooking, you may be like many other people who believe that scrapbooks are just another way of putting photos together with a few titles, captions or summarized details.

But once you have been exposed to the exponential opportunity of this craft, you will know simply that this is not true. There is so much more that an individual can do with a scrapbook.

Your scrapbook album can be a way of saying ‘I care’, ‘I love you’, ‘You mean more to me than you know’ and then some! It can help you express you love for someone in ways you never could before.

Romantic scrapbooks can provide the voice for you if you need one and they can bare the soul for you if you are afraid to show yours.

The first step in making a scrapbook for your partner is choosing the right scrapbook album; there are so many different types of scrapbook albums available but depending on what you plan to do with the album or put onto the scrapbook pages, you will need to choose a scrapbook album that will be just right for you. *To learn more about this…please preview Lesson One of our Scrapbooking Tutorial.

Step two: Once you have bought yourself the right album, the most inspiring step is putting your scrapbook together.

There are no restrictions on what you can put in the scrapbook. All you need to do is gather everything that means something to you and then let the pages reveal themselves.

A typical scrapbook will most likely have photos, cards, letters, stories and the like.

Sounds easy enough doesn’t it? But what if you want to be really creative, and not just create a standard Scrapbook like everyone else. What if you really want this Romantic Scrapbook Album to mean as much to your partner as it does you?

Here are some quick ideas on how to make your romantic scrapbook something to talk about!

Much of Romantic Scrapbooking is creating the scrapbook together as a couple. You could decide together what goes into the Scrapbook and what that means to each of you. You can even tell he said / she said stories.

*My wedding Scrapbook does exactly that. In fact we started out that way.

With the engagement party photo’s – we built up the story of how it all went down (it was very romantic and a complete surprise to me). I even included a digital disc of the engagement itself and then in the later pages – the wedding disc was revealed.

NOW…we never have to look for those videos again, we always know where they are – and the photo’s, journaling and accents tell the rest of the story!

In your Couples Romance Scrapbook you may wish to include some of what I just mentioned and / or all of the following:

• Flower petals from the first bouquet shared between you
• Gift wrap from the first gift shared between you
• Media clippings of events you have been to together (or tickets or reciepts)
• Flyers or business cards from places you frequent together
• Favorite recipes
• Favorite song lists (or lyrics) or poems

But if this romantic scrapbook is about the person you love – and not so much about you…you may want to take an “About You” approach and dedicate an album to them – profiling their life!

For example…if your partner is a big community player and is in the press frequently – or just so happens to have a lot of photo’s with him / or her in it (like my husband – the sports coach), a scrapbook of all his / her events/ appearances would be an ideal way for you to say that you love him / her.

OR…If your partner has a big family – maybe a scrapbook including photos of his / her family members and stories of why they love him / her is just the right sentiment!

The most important point is that there are no restrictions on what you can put in the scrapbook, the only limitation is your imagination.

Bottom line is: scrapbooks are a great way to say you care and are a fantastic way of showing love and affection, as they are personalised and are a very initimate means of sharing past memories with your partner.

The next time you are planning that next romantic gift for your partner, maybe you can make it a scrapbook!

It might just be the most sentimental gift you have ever gifted to your partner, and is guarantee to be one of a kind!

Happy Scrapping.

Cijaye DePradine.

P.S. Do you have any other Romantic Scrapbooking tips to share?  If so please click on “leave a comment” in the top right hand corner of this post and leave your comments here.  In fact, if your comment is BOOK WORTHY – we might even publish it in the “Romantic Scrapbooking Secrets” book we are currently working on!

Scrapbooking Ideas – What to Scrapbook.

Want to scrapbook but don’t know WHAT to scrapbook?  Do you have too many ideas and need some direction or do you simply need scrapbook ideas because you are fresh out?

Why not…consider creating a scrapbook around the following:

1. Graduation Scrapbook Ideas (supplies / quotes):  Make the cover of the scrapbook a grad cap with the tassle, or make the entire scrapbook digital – print the pages  & then present it as a scroll with a nice graduation style seal on it.  You can also select your titles, journal entries or simply get inspired from one of the many inspirational graduation quotes we found from quote garden.
2. Love Scrapbook Ideas (supplies / quotes):  Make the album from heart shaped chipboard (bought at any scrapbook supplies store) or form the album from a 3×6 album with the letters LOVE on the front. (You can even use thin wooden letters (or chipboard) and make some of them bleed off of the edges).  Of course you can also go wedding album style if you are already married or are planning to share your love scrapbook at your upcoming wedding.   Don’t forget to include old cards, photo’s of gifts or precious moments shared on valentines, birthdays or holidays. Of course you could also add a few traditional love poems or love quotes to your romantic scrapbook album too.  Don’t forget another option (if your significant other is willing to be crafty) is to create a couples album.  That’s a nice way to celebrate your love too.  The two of you working together on a he said | she said album can be a LOT of fun! For more romantic, love scrapbook ideas – click here.
3. Baby Scrapbook Ideas (supplies / quotes):  Make a diaper album!  Yes, that’s right – you can get really creative with your next baby album by lining a diaper (yes, I said a diaper) with a chipboard album, wrapping the front and back covers with ribbon and tying that ribbon and fringing it on the tops and bottoms of the covers….!!!  (A crop-a-dile will do the trick of punching the wholes through all materials quite nicely too (yes, some trimming might need to take place depending on the make of diaper – but if you are a creative person, I am certain you can figure out how to make that work .  Then, you can use a hot glue gun to stick titles and / or embellishments on the front.  If you wish to ditch the diaper for a moment, you can also create a vertical baby bottle shaped scrapbook – or even a simple 3×6 album with the word BABY on the front. For more baby scrapbooking ideas – click here.
4. Travel Scrapbook Ideas (supplies / quotes):  Traveling is way too fun!  And scrapbooking about travel is even more fun.  You can take any old daytimer / calendar and turn it into a scrapbook (as long as it’s built well).  You can also shape / decorate your album like luggage or beach towels. (I would wrap my cover in beach towel if I were scrapbooking about travels somewhere hot and sunny).  Furthermore you can use a whole string of luggage tags and make an album out of those together (very small pages mind you – but different).  Don’t forget to include your ticket stubs, local brochures and any other memorabilia you collected on the trip as well.  The travel quotes are endless as well – but here are a few to get you started.
5. Disney Scrapbook Ideas (supplies / quotes): Now who doesn’t absolutely adore Disney.  Okay – maybe if you have never been to disneyland or disneyworld the novelty of it all fades to gray most days…but if you have been there…you know that it truly is one of the most magical places on earth!  I fully comprehend why so many people want to work there…but I actually want to LIVE there!  I would love to spend my weekends riding the coaster at space mountain or enduring the journey of Indiana Jones and breaking the mystery of the big ball (and how they do that!!! ????)…so why not preserve the memories of it all in a scrapbook?  I can not think of any valid reason why not.  It’s scrapbookers heaven! The photo’s are full of life, adventure and color!  The theme packs and paper packs and even albums are one of a kind (literally).  You can go full bling or totally earthy and there is still a place for disney amongst it all.  Disney is for everyone.  Just take a peek at any Disney Travel website and you will not.  For all intents and purposes your disney scrapbook can be anything you can dream of. You can create a mickey mouse album shape (a little harder than pancakes mind you – but creative nonetheless) and call it a day or you can simply gather everything and anything disney scrapbooking related  that you can find and let those supplies guide you!  The ideas and supplies are endless.  You can find something disney in your local scrapbooking store or even on ebay.  I do recommend searching the supplies first and then building from there. Or you could start with Disney Quotes too.

Happy scrapping….

Easy Handmade Christmas Crafts For Kids

It’s no secret to those who know me that Scrapbooking Directions is a hobby site.  I would love to be able to devote all of my waking hours to making it MUCH more than that – but in all honesty, I would miss the other work I do, too much to do that.   So I do a little of this and a little of that to make myself complete.

So if you are asking,  what this other work is…I will share it with you. For starters, I help Small Businesses get more traffic, more leads and more sales on their websites.  I do this in many ways – which are (on the most part) customized to the needs of each unique client.

But I also author and co-author a lot of educational eBooks as well.  One of the most recent that I worked on was for one my client Ornaments And More - they specialize in Personalized Christmas Ornaments  — and their ornaments are amazing.  So amazing that I personally order somewhere between 10-15 new ornaments every year.

Anyhow…the eBook I worked on for them was Easy Homemade Christmas Ornaments - this book is remarkable!  It’s probably one of the best ones I’ve ever worked on.  Now I don’t take full credit for that by any means…in fact, I give most of the credit to my editor and all of the elves at Ornaments And More who provided their input, did all of the crafts with their children, took photo’s of the supplies and finished products and designed the fun and cheerful layout of the book.

I mean it – this Christmas Crafts book is probably one of the coolest Christmas ebooks on the planet!  We took the best Christmas Ornament Crafts we could find and made them current and easy enough for kids between 2-6 to make (let alone the whole family).  Some of the ornaments in this eBook are absolutely adorable!  They have button wreaths, snowglobes, glittered Popsicle snowflakes and so much more!  I highly recommend it if you are starting to get into that holiday spirit and want to involve the kids!

I am certain everyone will love making these crafts!  PLUS all of the supplies used in the books can be purchased for $70 or less at your local dollar stores!

Christmas Planner to Keep You Organized?

Today one of my nearest and dearest business collegues announced one of her most awaited products EVER! A Christmas Planner!

Veteran Scrapbooker & Professional Organizer, Sherry Borsheim has devoted her outstanding organization skills to help all of us stay organized during this busy holiday season. Now more than ever, while many spend more time at work to KEEP their jobs, and others try to plan better so they can spend less money because they have no jobs…this Christmas Planner is just what is needed!

She’s even made a very special offer to the first 50 buyers so that you can get it while its hot…

Check it out…

Christmas can be a very stressful time for many people with more commitments and things to do than any other time of the year.

The Christmas Planner is a place to organize all your lists, ideas, thoughts and plans and is reusable year after year.

The Christmas Planner is made up of:

• 21 tabs to organize all your Christmas lists, plans, baking, menus, entertaining, Christmas card list, traditions, favourite quotes, decorating measurements and so much more
• An evaluation process to help you create more meaning and less stress during the holidays year after year
• Printable forms and title pages ready for you to use today!

Simplify the holidays and focus on the things that really matter. Avoid last minute stress and be more relaxed this Christmas!

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