Scrapbooking Challenge #8 and Page Layout Inspiration

 Hey there, crafters.

We are just trucking through these challenges, aren't we? Today, we've got Challenge #8 for you and it is a Shape Challenge. You'll need to choose a shape, just one and use that shape at least 7 times. Of course, I'll give you some examples. You can use ANY kit and any template. Maybe you want to use up some of those Plus points from Design Bundles with your FREE Gold Membership you've just acquired?  Don't know what I'm referring to? Go back to this blog and get that link so you too can get a free MONTH long membership.  I know, right?!

I just posted in our group. It's for another kind of challenge/game where the more people who participate, the more free goodies you get. It might not be up for too long. There are four NEW designs to be had. If you love them too much to wait, then grab them from the shop while they are 50% off.

Let's get into some page inspiration for the Shape Challenge.

Love Your Selfie Template

Stitches and Starbursts Templates

Below, I took one of our newer templates, added a few pics and then added some texture and bevels with styles for a very fast page layout. It's got loads of circles.

Creative Templates

Here are a few templates from Plus. If you've got points left, go grab'm!

Got the gist?

Now, go scrap your page and get it in the correct album in the group. Show it off in our forum post if you like or if you're not on FB.

If you are just joining us, you'll have to pop back to where it all began. Grab your free template and free challenge tracker and pretty tokens. The image below will get you there.

I'll be back on Friday and will have challenges throughout the weekend. Including our Speed Scrap on Saturday at 3:00P.M. EST.

Until then and happy scrapping!

Round N' Round Digital Scrapbooking Templates

Welcome to The Cherry On Top.

It's the most perfect weather to be settled in my office space with a hot cup of tea and my Photoshop Elements.  Rain and cooler temperatures are bringing me in.  So sorry sandals that we must yet again, part and for SO long.  Hehehe...

Are you happy with the thought of bringing out your favorite boots and scarves?  Not me!  Though, I am getting better at dealing with colder temperatures.  The jump from the sunshine state to soggy, grey Belgium wasn't the smoothest of transfers, but it gets better everyday.

A lot of today's scrapbooking inspiration mirrors outside's falling leaves and pumpkins perched on porches around the neighborhood.  The apples, pears and plums are ready to eat and the hazelnuts are littering my drive way.  The squirrels will be thrilled!

You know me.  I just love layers!  Showing off gorgeous papers are also something I love to do on my digital scrapbooking pages and today's newest pack of templates are great for both of those.  Check out Round N' Round and read over a few tips that might help enhance your pages to perfection.

The ladies have done stunning work and I think you'll agree.

I'll start off with my pages and walk you through some techniques we've used that you might want to conserve using as well.

You'll begin to notice pattern in my pages with these templates.  As you also might know, I've got this thing with busy pages.  When there are too many colors or too many designs, my brain spazez out!  Hehehe...I'm not saying it's a good thing, but it's like a flashing light meaning, "change me, now!"

It did take me a bit to get my papers just right with these templates so I didn't get that overwhelmed feeling and to help give me pages a more cohesive feel, I used the same color stroke around each layer.  It was like, "Ahhh...that's better."

Our doggie just got a hair cut and was the victim of yet another photo shoot.  Did ya see Aimee's roodborstje?  He's so cute.  One of my favorite birds.  They are so dainty and sassy, too.  I have one that gives me hell when the bird feeder is empty.  He jumps up and down and makes so much noise.

 Frog'n Around Aimee Harrison Designs

This collection might look familiar.  I knew I was going to go back to it. I love it so much.  The colors are so bright and fun and the froggies are frog-tastic.  (Frog-tactic spell check, really?!). You can see I added the same color stroke again.  You can always copy paste the layer and increase the size a smidge and clip in a paper if you prefer.  It will add more texture to your page.  I've got a video on how to add a stroke, change the size and color....if you need.

J if for Joy By River Rose

I've used this pretty kit before, too.  Bada BOOM colors that awaken the soul!  I'm teasing dear ole mom with a bottle of her favorite, Peach Bellini.  Which is not a favorite of mine, but I'm keeping it cold for her incase she stops by.

Check out my outlines, again.  I added some paint, stitches and scat on the sides to give my page a little more depth and interest.

 Let Rock Rule By Blogovesta Gosheva

Tammy gal kept her layers in a solid color and used a design in the background.  That certainly is an awesome way to keep the busy down.  Like the use of a record for one of the circles, too.  Perfect!

Hello Autumn By Ponytail Designs

Cherry baby always rocks her pages.  Whoo whee!  How about these fabulous colors and that texture rich background?!

Autumn Night By Dandelion

Ngoc added some depth on her top circles and clustered up a gorgeous grouping around her frame.

 Better Together By Jennifer Fehr

If you love dramatic shadows, Ella is you're gal!  Her pages present depth in a uniquely fantastic manner.  Her layouts just come right to life and jump right off of the page.

Fox Holes and Fall Leaves from Thrifty Scraps

A repetition of patterned paper will also simplify the look of your page, like Jarmila did.  Most of the ladies added all of the clusters in the template, but I didn't.  The beauty of templates is to make them your own.  If there is something you don't like, just ditch it.

Funny Indeed by Clever Monkey Graphics 

Silly, sill boy!  Hilary's scrap star seems to not mind the camera one bit.  Pretty cool with the dark background and bright colors.  With the repetitive use of like colors, you can also give a more cohesive look to the page you are working on.

 Serendipity from The Cherry On Top

Theresa is a printer!  She is known for her double pages.  I'm also a fan of coordinating, side by side pages in my books, but it isn't a rule by any means.  She used our newest One Word Wonder kit, Serendipity.  Check out how she broke up her patterned papers with solids and her repetition of papers.  Came out just great!

  Serendipity from The Cherry On Top

What a fun font in that one.  Boys having fun!

Serendipity from The Cherry On Top

Another tip I think worth mentioning if you do add these templates to your scrappy stash, is picture choice.  If you choose a photo or photos with like colors of your kit or collection you are working with, your page will also look less busy.  Keep that tip in mind for any page you are working on.  I love when the colors in my pictures match the kit or collection, but sometimes it just doesn't work out, right?!

Have you seen Dana from Made By Keuntje's awesome new, Commercial Use freebie?!  She is so talented!

Awesome Commercial Use Freebie from Made By Keuntje

Last week was a freebie blow out!  If you love freebies, pop back to last week's blog or previous blogs.  Don't forget our group and page where share freebies, daily.

Thanks so much for checking out The Cherry.

Happy scrapping!

Hybrid Scrapbooking With Lissy Kay Designs and Echo Park

Howdy, Happy Hybriders!

Today, I'm wrapping up the digital to traditional to hybrid challenge we started a couple of weeks ago.  I strongly feel it essential to mingle all three forms of scrapbooking to give you the edge to the best projects.  I'll show ya what we've got so far for this particular challenge.  We've got others and have some in the future planned, too.

Check out how we took this digital page and bought it to a hybrid one using the Happy Days collection from Lori Whitlock and Echo Park.  Here is the first part of the tutorial.  Here is the second part if you want to do this totally traditionally.

The PuurFect Scrapbooking Kit from The Cherry On Top and template from Lissy Kay

Here ya get a look at the collection I'm using.  Are you like me and always use the packaging?  I found the packaging for today's project better than the goodies inside.  They were not only smaller and fit better on my page, but the colours were different and worked better as well.

As you can see, I took the basic components of Lissy's template and filled them in digitally and printed it out.  I knew what colours were in the collection because I used it to make an awesome mini.  It's mega great and easy.  I chose the craziest pics I could find and we do crazy really well, here.  Check out the step by step for it, here.

More really fun photos in today's project, too.  I used plain coordinating colours in the hybrid part of the page.  What a great collection from Echo Park.  If you hit up Scrapbook.com you'll find that Echo Park has over 50 pages of scrapbooking fabulousness even dies!  There were a lot of sale items, too.

I took out the papers from the Happy Days collection and played around until I found a combination I liked.  I'll be adding the green and orange later. I liked the basic black and white papers with the blue.

Layering adds depth, interest and often contrast to your pages.

Use your paper cutter for the desired size you want, adhere your layers together and place them on your page.  So easy, right?

All we have to do now, is cluster up our corners with lovely embellishments and almost all of the ones I'm using are from the packaging.

See how simple it can be.  I took a journal pice or word art from the collection pack and matted it for contrast, depth and interest. I did use foam tape for extra dimension on the word art.  The banners I cut out from the packaging and matted them to match as well.  I used their paper preview from the packaging as borders for my page.  I needed to get those greens and oranges from my hybrid piece into my page.

For a bit of blingy, pow and wow, I cut out a section from this stuff I got in a Webster's Warehouse Box.  I used my fussy scissors and could cut just what I needed.  I used liquid glue to adhere.  I love Elmer's liquid glue pens with dual tips.  Check out CreateForLess for options.  They got Cherry prices over there.

 See all of the cool goodies on the packaging?  The paper strips, cake and flag?

Voila!  Easy stuff!

Making your own embellishments is a great way to save money, use up your scraps and get a custom item.  I used a simple flower punch, my large hole puncher and a red rhinestone for an interesting element.

There's some green and orange and my flower.  I duplicated the rhinestone to bring the cluster together.  Repetition will help keep your pages cohesive and balanced.  There's more of the metal bling and more paper borders.  The pack contained a page of journal cards, but they are really large.  I cut it down to fit better on my page and filled in some journaling.  Finally!  Hehehe...

I'm a bit sad because that handsome gentlemen there recently passed. :(  I do LOVE that about scrapbooking though.  It's a nifty way to feel close to people who are far or waiting for us on the other side.

So, we've layered up our hybrid paper, clustered up the top right and bottom left corner of our page and that's a wrap!  It took me just under 2 hours to do this page and I really, sat back, took my time and enjoyed every step of the process.  I hope you did, too.

If ya dig hybrids, I've got two free Project Life cards.  One is offered in the newsletter and the other on yesterday's blog.  They are in png format so you may use them digitally or print them out and use them traditionally.  I'll be doing both of course.  Wait until ya see what I've got on tap!

Two of these cards are offered for free on the blog and in the newsletter.

I'll have these printables in the shop very soon.  They coordinate with our Trolla Bolla Collection.  Fun, eh?!

I hope you enjoyed our hybrid project and that you try it out for yourself sometime.

Happy scrapping!

A Sneak Peek, Scrapbooking Inspiration and Freebies from Around DigiLand

Welcome to The Cherry On Top.

Get a look at our up coming release, Trolla Bolla, possibly win it, sign up for our newsletter for awesome freebies from the collection, see some new releases from your favourite designers and get ready for some serious downloads for your digital stash of freebies.

Where else can ya get all of that in one spot?  Why The Cherry, of course!  Enjoy my scrappy sisters.

Click here to see our Social Media Templates.

Wouldn't it be awesome to WIN this huge collection?!  

Leave a comment here or in our group for your chance at winning The Trolla Bolla Collection.

We've been giving away free mini's that coordinate with The Trolla Bolla Collection.  This week was the second instalment and there are still 2 more to go.  Make sure you sign up so you don't miss out!

newsletter freebie #2  sign up right here, in the side bar

Let's take a look at some new goodies going into the shops today.

First, is my gal, Aimee Harrison.  Last week, she released a kitty inspired kit and this week it's time for the doggies.  We have both a cat and a dog as well as chickens.  Haven't seen a chicken themed kit yet.  Hehehe...

I used a free template from Laurie's Scraps that I downloaded from GingerScraps Challenge Forum.  Look for the link further down, under my page.

free template from Laurie's Scraps and Wooftastic from Aimee Harrison Designs

You may have noticed, that I use Aimee's word art ALL of the time.  She designs some of the best word art I've seen, around DigiLand.  Just look how cute!  I'm not the best journaler so her word art helps me tremendously.

word art from Aimee Harrison Designs

free template from Laurie's Scraps

Here's another free template you can get in Ginger Scraps forum.  See what I've done with it and join us in the forum with your own page.

 free template from MagsGraphic Designs

This is MagsGraphics free template with her awesome kit, Space Race.  This kit is definitely at the top of my list of favourites.  Out of this world colours, fun elements and the journal cards are cute, too.  My oldest looking seriously silly.  Hehehe...It is what he does best!

Space Race from Mags Graphics

Speaking of MagsGraphics, she's also got a new release coming out some time today, Outlander Love.

Just look at this wonderful colour palette.  Are you not swept back to the olden times of Scotland?  I'm busy with the Outlander collection, as you can see by my photo. I'm on the second book.  Though the main character is not my favourite, I just love the rest of them.  Leave a comment with your favourite book series if you like.  I'm always up for a good book!

How about this template?  Is it not totally fabulous?!  That's my super scrappy sister, Jodi from Throwing Some Scraps Around.  They have received quite a response in our scrappy circle and they will look great in your digital stash, too.

Outlander Love from Mags Graphics and Come Together Templates From TSSA

Come Together Templates from Throwing Some Scraps Around

Lissy Kay has been plugging away with new templates despite the health problems at home.  She's got some fabulous new templates in the shop.  Click on the image or the link below it to support your friend, Lissy.

 framed Frames templates from Lissy Kay Designs

Made By Keuntje and several other designers from Pixel Scrapper have a hop of free Commercial Use.  That's really awesome, don'cha think?  I love Marisa's contribution as well.  Hop over to the Pixel Scrapper and download the Commercial Use.

 free commercial use from Made By Keuntje

I love Cutie Pie Scraps and not just for the freebies.  Her kits are so wonderfully colourful and fun.  Just what The Cherry relishes in.  Go over to her social spot and grab the latest freebie.

Freebie From Cutie Pie Scraps

My gal Andrea has a fun freebie on her blog using our stacked badges templates.  Check them out here.

Built Up Badges Templates

My gal Grace...OH!  I like the sound of that.  Hehehe...She's another one of my favourite, super scrappy sisters.  Look at what she's designed for you.  Simply click on the image or the link below for the direct download of her uber cute cluster freebie.  Thanks, Grace!

Freebie From Heather Z Scraps

Kathy is another mega scrapper in my circles and she's been designing lovely printables with Aimee Harrison Designs goodies.  Click on the preview below or the link there under and download the many sheets she has for you, over on Aimee's site.

Freebie From Aimee Harrison Designs

I'm assuming that you're here because you love freebies. right?  Of course!  Hehehe...How's this for some mega freebie fun?  Blue Heart Scraps has been offering coordinating freebies in her group on Facebook.  Zoom over and join us in the group for scrapbooking inspiration, chatter and freebies.

Freebie from Blue Heart Scraps

Last, but not least are these free printables from the blog.

Free printables from The cherry On Top.

Jump back and download those printables.  If  school already started, you can at least use the last day of school one or cheat and photograph the kids with these for your scrapbook's sake.  Hehehe...

We don't start school here until September first.  I don't know about your kids, but mine are dreading it.  They are both starting at a new school, pretty far from home.  It's a special school dedicated to Autism.  We are so, so lucky to have gotten them both in the school.  We are over the moon and also uncertain of how it will change things. It's quite a commute there and back and my little guy is prone to car sickness.  It will definitely be interesting.

I'd say you've been updated and loaded with a lot of new scrapbooking freebies.

Next week, I'll have a free quick page for you, from The Trolla Bolla Collection.  You won't want to miss.

Thank you so, so much for joining us here at The Cherry.  I'd love to have you in our group, too.

Happy scrapping!

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