Saturday, May 1, 2021

International Scrapbooking Day Celebrations Starting Now

Welcome to The Cherry On Top.

The celebrations for International Scrapbooking Day start earlier and earlier, every year.  From one day to celebrate to two weeks on some sites and shops.  That gives you an even longer time to get great deals, a lot of freebies, tutorials, play games, participate in challenges...

We don't always have that kind of time to dedicate to what might just be a hobby or a passing fling and there is just so much out there to check out, it can be really overwhelming.  I'd suggest picking a favorite site or shop or two and stick with those.

A couple of reasons you may want to choose The Cherry is that although we do sell in two different shops, we support several other digital shops because we love the products, service, quality, user friendly platforms and fun they provide.  You get a LOT more than The Cherry's designs here and that's pretty unique for a blog.  Of course, we are well known for our digital scrapbooking templates as well as our own freebies and great freebies we find around the web.

Perhaps this is your first visit to The Cherry.  If so, thanks so much for joining us.  Take a good look around because we are full, full, full of projects both digital, hybrid and traditional.  We got lovely step by step tutorials and videos to help you get started digital scrapbooking or to help you pimp up your scrap skills.

Today, we're hitting all of that up and more.  We've got the famous, Love For Layout Templates train of free digital scrapbooking templates.  We've got a huge new collaborative collection in the GingerScraps Shop that is going to knock your socks off.  Like any other week, you'll find pages and pages of gorgeous scrapbooking layouts.  We're showing off new kits from our designer friends, too.  There is a 50% off sale shop at GingerScraps.  The perfect time to grab those products you've been longing to scrapbook.  We save the best for last.  That's the freebies from us and other awesome stuff we find in our searches.

Let's dive into the fun!


If you can't read the small print, it says there are THIRTEEN packs in our collection.  I know, right?!  That is a lot of scrap stuff.  We'll take a closer look!


My original thought for this collection was to make it youthful.  I really feel for kids, teens and young adults these days.  Especially, for those living behind masks and lockdowns.  It's very, very unhealthy and psychologically devastating.  Personally, I find it cruel and extremely unintelligent.  I wanted to give people an opportunity to express any anger, frustration, anxiety, depression...any form of emotion really.

A Smash Book is just a loose format to jot down things.  To stick pictures, clippings, phrases...anything at all, but kept in a book to reflect on, to add to and embellish if desired.  There's a printable pack you'll see further down to make it insanely easy.

Cindy from Art & Life Scraps has provided a vintage pack for our retro fans, as well.  You may purchase it separately, if you're not digging the bold and bodacious modern side.  It's rather sassy.  Consider yourself warned!


This is a great example of Smash Booking.  Eclectic, expressive, messy...There are NO RULES!


If you like a simple, neat and tidy page, no worries.  You can use this collection for so many projects.  Off of the screen included.




Now that you've got a good idea for the awesome vintage side of the collection, here's the modern side.  When I first started gathering my goodies in a folder so I could get started, it felt so chaotic, but after just a little bit of recoloring and coordinating, it started to look amazing.


You will find a lot of totally unique items in this collection.  Designs that Cindy and I have created from scratch, making it even more unique.  I scrapped!  Check out my pages and those from my totally amazing team.


My gorgeous kitty!  I tried out all kinds of techniques for this page.  I'm pretty much a joke when it comes to extractions, but there has been improvement.  Tip:  I've found that if I use a more opaque brush for the eraser, closer to the edge of my image I want to keep, it looks a lot cleaner.  I sometimes run it through a jagging action to help smooth it even further.  I used a super high shadow and changed the color from grey to a bluish color to match my page better.

Tip:  I'm always a fan of repeating elements for unity or cohesion on my pages.  It helps with balance and overall aesthetics.


Cindy's paper in the background is so, so cool.  I just love it.  I went a bit mad with the bits and bobs and feel it is an excellent representation of my brain.  Hehehe...It's really a mess in there!  When I saw my folder of flowers I colored and paired, I was over the moon.  They are totally different than Cindy's and gives the collection a sweet contrast.



We made this collection, keeping everyone in mind.  Now a days, it is essential that we remember that we ALL want the same things.  We want to be happy.  We want to be loved.  We want to belong.  We want to be free.  It seems the world is continuously trying to pull us apart.  This kit, is bringing everyone together. Guys, girls, teens, tweens, Boomers...You are appreciated!  You are who you are and we love you for that.




Allow me to show off the templates.  They are only to be found in the collection and the Design Bundles shop, Kreative Design Studio has them separately.  There are so many options with these templates.  You'll love it!  First, you can simply print them as is and write over the top, add pictures or papers and embellish or not.  Second, you can make any adjustments necessary in your software and then print.  Third, you can just keep it all digital and use as normal.


I want you take a good look at the above image because the templates were really tricky to get in the GingerScraps shop due to the 50 mb limit per folder.  Some are larger than that!  You're going to see a LOT of folders and I tried to name them so you can download exactly the ones you want.  What you see pictured are the "journal" sized templates.  There is a jpg folder for super easy printing and of course tif and psd.  There are NO PNGS for the journal sized templates.  There are pngs for the 12x12 sized templates.  Each "page" on the journal sized templates is two 12x12 inch templates in the downloads.  I hope I've made that clear because it certainly is confusing.  You'll get THREE sheets at 8x11 for the journal sized templates and you'll get 6 templates for the 12x12 inch.





You can fill in the boxes, print and you've got something to hold in your hand in minutes.  I thought this would also be a fun game to play.  You can fill in what you think your kid will put and they can tell how right or wrong you are and they can do the same.  What a great way to get to know each other and hopefully show off just how much you pay attention or them to you for that matter.


Tip: For a more realistic effect, choose a font that is in handwriting.

Here is an example of a page not changed with the exception of adding 4 pictures.  Obviously made in seconds.  Like seriously, once you have your images or pictures, it won't even take you a minute to get them in there.


Now, here is my page where I changed out some of the elements with those from the collection. You can go in and change the paint colors in the background, too.  This page is also made in just a few short minutes making a project you or someone else can easily finish.


I totally changed up the template for this page, but you can also see how you can use them over and over, again.


This collection is just perfect for Project Life styled pages, too.  Clip in a few papers, pictures, add a few ellies and BOOM!  You're scrapped up!  


The printables can be found in the collection or separately in the Design Bundles shop.  They are also 50% off.


I think people will really enjoy the sticker sheets and journal cards.  Below, you'll see another fun example of what a Smash Book might look like.  If you don't want to show off friends, family, selfies...no problem. They can still look amazing.


Cindy's designed a great alphabet that coordinates with the collection and it's free for you.  Click on the image for the download link.


Only $2 in the shop this month is Mosaic.  A really versatile pack of templates.


Marie H Designs

Neia


You don't need a bunch pictures to scrap with these templates.  Tip:  Use papers in the photos spots or add photos spots on top of that.

Aimee Harrison Designs

JoCee Designs

I love orchids!  I've a window full.  Roxana loves them, too.  How about you?


LouCee Creations

See!  You can use any kind of pictures.  Any kit!

Kelly Bell

We also collaborated with Key Lime Digi Design.  I used her pretty palette and finally got around to designing ice cream themed, sweet templates.  They are so fun and scrap up really fast AND beautifully.


I scrapped two pages in about 30 minutes due to the templates and ease of use of Sandy's goodies.



Can you imagine what the ice cream template would look like with effects or styles?  Go crazy!

LDrag



A collection for only $5!!!


Sandy always has nice freebies in her newsletter.

More goodies from other designers.  This time, Clever Monkey Graphics Designs.  She's got two new collections and of course, they are full of fun.






Now, for those of you here for the free template.  Enjoy!  I'm thrilled you stopped by.  Keep scrolling for more free stuff.




Don't forget our group to post your pages and check out what others have scrapped up.


How are you liking Theresa's change up of the template?  Awesome Sauce and she used our collection.  It is mega bright and fun. I just love it!

Tip:  Although, the stripes are different colors, they are all on one layer.  There are a few things you can do.  You can do what I did and just use your paint bucket on each stripe then add some texture or you can crop in a paper and just slide it over the stripe you want and create a clipping mask, merge those two layers and do it for each other stripe.  I just figured you'd use a design paper.  I did multiple colors to make it look more interesting.  Hehehe...




I was the Spot light Designer For April at GingerScraps and I designed and gave away most of this huge collection.  It's on sale at a great price with the sale!


You get a LOT of stuff for only $7!


I promised I'd re share the two freebies from the GingerScraps FB page.   They were not that easy to find for some and of course there are those who don't use FB.  Good for you!  Hehehe...I'd love to ween myself away from the absurd censorship.

Click on the image for the free template.

Pop back to this blog for this other freebie by clicking on the image.

Here is what is going on at GingerScraps for iNSD. 


Shoo wee!  You made it all of the way through.  I'm so, so glad.  Enjoy all of the fun and thanks so much for checking out The Cherry.

Happy scrapping!