Adorable Valentine's Day Mailbox Printable, Step By Step Tutorial and Free Lovable Gnome Scrapbooking Mini

Welcome to The Cherry On Top.

I've got a super, craft-a-licious blog set for you. First, a mega awesome pack of Valentine's Day printables that includes this paper mailbox template printable. There's some cheeky Anti Valentine's Day printables in the shop, a new gnome themed digital scrapbooking kit freebie, Chai 18 Designs new newsletter freebie and a scrapbook page from a friend that I just had to share.

Here's the link for the step by step tutorial.

Y'all! This mailbox template took me hours to design and get together. What do they call it? A labor of love? Hehehe...It's not too tricky to get together and the tutorial will definitely help. As I always advise, any time you start a paper craft, breeze through the tutorial first, then get started. This way you can gauge the difficulty of the project and see that ya have everything you need for it.

This is no longer free. If ya miss it, you'll have to grab it from my shop. It is available alone as well as a part of this huge printable bundle, shown below.

I've put all things related to love and Valentine's Day on sale at 50% in my shop. How about showing The Cherry some love and grabbing something you've always wanted?

I designed the stickers and cards below for my boys. It is most fitting and a great way to be more objective about February 14th. This sassy shark with Love Bites quote is great for boys and girls.

An Anti Valentine's Day Twist for Those Not So Kind at Heart

I wanted to offer you something special for the holiday besides my mailbox template and had these cute gnome designs in my stash. Ya gotta watch out for that Ai stuff. I'm tell'n ya! There's always something off. The eyes and hands are the first place you need to look. These designs were quite ok. I hope you like them as well.

Click on the preview, grab the download and show us what you create in the group.

I've got a lot of free designs on the blog that are ideal for sublimation projects. Here are a few examples of what you can do with today's new Valentines Gnome Freebie. Cards would be super simple.

Speaking of freebies. Isn't Chai 18 Designs new newsletter freebie so cute? I just love the little mice. I used one of the designs to make a paper. It'd be easy to whip up a paper pack, journal cards, printable stickers and cards of course. Join her newsletter and get the cool free stuffs.

Cute, eh?

Here's my friend's page. I laughed so hard when I saw her post.

Let me leave you with a few Valentine's Day scrapbook page ideas from the Love Bug Collection in my shop that's also 50% off for a few days.

Above, is my page with my youngest. This page scrapped crazy fast. I simply clipped in the papers to the template and added my photos. 5 minutes is all you need. If you know nothing about digital scrapbooking, you need to check out this video. There are plenty of videos to get ya go'n.

I hope you enjoyed today's freebies. Let me know in the comments if ya do.

I'll be back with more travel blogs and more free Dutchie freebies, as promised.

 

Visiting Monschau Germany A Fairy Tale Historic Village

Welcome to The Cherry On Top.

Today, I'm showing off some old pages I designed many years ago from a trip to Monschau, Germany. I quickly looked through the blog and could not find anything on this album I scrapped. Shocking! Hehehe...

The main reason I'm showing these off is to write about my latest trip to Monschau that I took, last week. As you may know, we travel quite a bit and I'm often doing research on where to go. Looking up places and what's to do there. Often, I can't find enough information. So, I thought I'd start blogging our travels so that others can get a better idea of the area and decide if it's enough.

Above is a fairly simple page with two lovely pictures of Monschau's high lights, the river running through the village and fabulous architecture including fachwerk. Monschau is a very charming, old, smaller village not far from the Belgian border. You can walk through the village in a few hours. It's full of shops and restaurants that are open in the warmer months, but much to our disappointment, closed in the colder ones.

We were there towards the end of November and nearly everything was closed. Some of the cafes/restaurants were open. Though the village is full of shops, nearly all of them were not open. That being said, it is still worth a visit.

Here's a close up of the cluster.

Below, I cut some designs from a design paper. My skills were a bit limited then.

The temperatures were much warmer for the trip I'm showing off. Just wait until you see the next installation!

In the pictures above, is a nice square with all of those tables. We went to that restaurant shown on the bottom. The prices were pretty good and so was the food. Flosdorff has a typical German menu and there's quite a lot to see when you're sitting inside. We were watching people set up the Christmas market much to our dismay. We missed by one week!!! Grrrr...

The page above and below are side by side or double pages. 

Look how simple the pages are. Square shapes, some layered text boxes and that's it.

The colors are mimicked on both pages lending to cohesion and uniformity.

I love the black, bordeaux and beige. They are classic colors which I thought fitting for such an old village.

All year, you can find plenty of places that serve drinks and sweets like beer, gluhwein, apfelstudel and caffe.

The title on the page below is kind'a cool. Note the contrasting colors for poppage. These pics are actually from Butchenbach, Belgium. The area of Belgium that used to be Germany.

Mmmm...pretzels! My favorite and fresh baked, too.

Below, you can see the fachwerk. I wonder why they don't design houses like this any more? Personally, I find today's architecture exceedingly unimaginative, boring and flat out ugly. The mental stimulation of beauty and craftsmanship is sorely missed, but in the alt stadt, Munschau.

Through the photos you can see that there is plenty of nature in and around Monschau. If you're into outdoor sports like hiking, hunting, biking, etc this would be a great place to visit. It's quiet. There isn't a lot of anything around this area which was exactly what I wanted.

Another simple page with contrasting matting and the same color palette. Look how the text boxes stand out against the busy background.

The red house is worth a gander, too. It doesn't cost much to visit. You can stroll several rooms, tastefully decorated from centuries ago. The theme is fabric because they used to make it there. There's only a tiny bit of history to learn and it doesn't take long at all to go through it. They close over lunch!

Here's a close up.

If you don't have a lot of time, keep your pages simple. Above, I simply rounded the corners of my photos with a punch, cut a few strips of paper and used a huge paper flower with a button center and done. Easy, right?

I designed a large pocket for my last scrapbook page so I could put all of my ephemera in it. I cut around the fun design of the paper and adhered it around the three sides. For pretty pages, use repetition and don't introduce too many colors and or patterns.

I threw this blog post in this spot because I got the dates mixed up for the Love for Templates train. I thought it was this day, not the Friday after. Duh! Hehehe...

Since it is Friday, I did come up with a fun freebie for ya. I'll have another one for the second part of the Monschau posting. Ya have to come back and check it out to see the difference between spring and fall visits. It will take your breath away!

I made a fun, easy digital page and I'm sharing the cluster with text, Germany across it. You can click here to download it. 

Make sure ya come back next week for the regularly scheduled blog, the train, the chicken freebie and more.

Keep looking for the second part of the Monschau post. It really is a magical place no matter what time of year you go. 

Thanks for stopping by the blog. Happy travels!

Love For Layout Templates Train of Free Digital Scrapbooking Page Layouts for February

Welcome to The Cherry On Top, Blog Hoppers!

This year we're going with the same palette for the entire year. This was an idea I brought to the group. Can you imagine how pretty the year's collection is going to be? I'm really excited. Maybe more designers will contribute more templates since we can keep using the same elements, save a lot of time and work ahead.

I love these colors. They are fresh and bright. I hope you like them, too.

Download the template and jump to the next stop.

Theresa made a great page with her pup. The black touches look perfect.

Share your pages in our Love For Layout Templates group.

If you are in it for the freebies, you'll love the upcoming GingerScraps NewsLetter Hop. Sign up for our newsletter and get this template along with many other designers, next week.

Feel free to scroll back through our blog for hundreds of freebies.

Again, there will be more big changes coming up. That's the way I roll! Hehehe... I get bored and like to shake things up, often.

My plan is to put Freebie Friday back on the map. I've got THREE Valentine's Day freebies ready for the next three weeks. I also just had an idea to start a kind of marathon of cooking related freebies. I'll be closing my GingerScraps shop soon and I want to still stay busy.

This is the first free Valentine's Day pack. There will be two more. One from yesterday and one more, next week. Pop back to last Friday's blog.

I've always loved writing and have been ignoring that passion for far too long. I'll be combining blogging with cooking, household helpers and more. It's how this blog started more than 10 years ago. This is my aim for now. Something else awesome might pop up! Stay with us for the roller coaster ride. Hehehe...

Are you more of a hands on crafter? I've got a lot of paper craft projects and recipes on the blog, too. Here are an example of each.

A really fun paper top hat tutorial made from a cereal box.

Check out this amazing array of super fun food for the Super Bowl. There's printable ideas, too!

Enjoy the freebies, the blog and consider following our newsletter, leave comments and pop over to the group.

Happy scrapping!!!

The Cherry is Selling Wonderfully Creative Scrapbooking Designs in GingerScraps, Again

Welcome to The Cherry On Top.

Have you heard the great news? I'm selling my templates in GingerScraps, again. The shop was always left open so that those thousands of links I had out wouldn't take viewers to a dead link. Ginger is such a sweetheart for letting me do that and for letting me sell my templates in her shop, again. If you know me, you know she has to put up with all of my antics, too. What a star!? Hehehe...

You know me, crafters! I wanted to open the shop with a celebration of new, incredibly creative templates and other design goodies. I've got 11 items in the GingerScraps shop that are new to GingerScraps. Some are NEW NEW and some just new to GingerScraps. So, check your stash before you buy.

Let's get into these new goodies in GS, peruse gorgeous page inspiration from the team and get a few tips and tricks along the way. 

My team seemed to love these new, new templates. If you do, too then you should also check out my Awesome Edges templates. I went with that artistic vibe and used the elements from them for these templates.

 

A fantastic kit or collection will make any scrapbook layout, gorgeous.

Pairing up a template with a kit isn't always easy. Kim's page is a great example how to do it well. She used a super fun and quirky digital scrapbooking kit with a modern, edgy template.

Kate mixes her goodies so well with my templates. She did a bit of old meets new. The colors are modern. The temple has a modern vibe and she coupled that with a vintage photo. There's a touch of vintage in her elements, too. All of these qualities lend to the cohesiveness of her page.

Hilary went all modern. The colors are super fresh and fun, too.

Michal usually does wonderfully modern pages and she's a pro with colors. Matching photo colors with your digital goodies always make a more visually appealing scrapbook layout.

Cherry Products from the Yearbook Collection

Take that tip I just gave you and check out Evelyn's page. Perfection! If it's tough getting those colors just right, pull out just a few colors from your digital goodies.  Here's yellow, black, white and a splash of green for pop.  Brilliant!

Craft Fair Collection from The Cherry

Black is an awesome way to give your pages a modern look. Pair up black with bright colors for a fresh vibe.

I saw an image on Pinterest where someone took old paintbrushes and turned them into a stunning wreath. What a super idea! I saw a lot of beautiful sewing wreaths, too.

How brilliant is Kate's page?! I love the way she used that fabulous thread texture for the sewing spools. This is exactly the kind of page I pictured with this template.

Craft Fair Collection from The Cherry On Top

Evelyn is knocking her pages out of the park! She even used all Cherry kits for her pages. I've linked them all up. Pretty great if you want to lift her pages. Cool how she did the wood paper over the spools, too. Are you getting all kinds of ideas, now?

Craft Fair Collection from The Cherry On Top

The title is really fun and the colors totally grab your attention because of the black background. If you look carefully, you'll see she didn't use that many elements, but blew them up nicely and changed the colors of some of the elements from the template to finish off her page. All great digital scrapbooking skills.

Craft Fair Collection from The Cherry On Top

I've provided so many elements on the template that you don't even have to add your own. Easy, right? We don't all have hours and hours to scrapbook a page layout, right? Look closely again, at Eve's page. See the same hues in the pictures? See how she color picked the green from the green on the painting and sprinkled it all around her page? A matching green blob, a green brush...this evens out the color balance making her page look awesome. Yours will too when you use these tips.

I am sadly abysmal at knowing what my fans love.  Isn't that so sad?! Hehehe...After all of these years, I should know better, but alas...I really love these desktop style templates and I was so uber pleased to see that they top my "Popular" category at GingerScraps. Finally! I often design something thinking my fans are going to love this only to have the opposite occur and vise versa. I think I'm cheating by designing such a super simple template, quickly and it's a big hit! Hehehe...

If you want a more realistic look for the notebooks and planner, use a puffy style or action. In PS and PSE it's called a Bevel. Adjust it to perfection for just the right look.

Spring Stickers from My Design Bundles Shop

What do ya think of my Spring Stickers? I actually sold a few of these. If you were part of that, thanks! I really appreciate your support.

My Pumpkin Spice kit and Scissors from Craft Fair.

Fabulous vintage goodies found in Revel in Retro from yours truly.

I left the template with a realistic metal binder. I love this idea!!! I don't know about you, but I am not great at playing and tweaking metal styles. I think Eve's notebook looks so realistic thanks to the texture paper she used and the shadows.

Yearbook Goodies for Spring

I did it, again! I kept a realistic looking planner on the template. This will make your page layouts look incredibly real. Use the color picker and adjust that color to perfection. Don't forget to "clip" those layers onto your planner only. Maybe this video will help. 

Spring Goodies from the Yearbook Collection

I loved Evelyn's idea of using my Yearbook Collection for her two pages. They look fantastic! My little design papers are so darn cute! It took me a few minutes to figure out it was my kit. Hehehe...

These are templates from Kreative Design Studio. Check your stash!

The ladies made stunning pages!!!

Are you applying some of the tips I gave with these other fab pages? Notice the patterns? Repetition is another excellent tip for you. Repeating colors and elements around a page will give you a great result.

You can go simple or go nuts with your ellies!

Here's another lot from Kreative Design Studio. There's nothing new in the Very Vintage Collection. It is HUGE though. So, if ya want. bang for your buck this is the way to go. EIGHT templates, printable sheets, papers, ellies, an alpha...

The Very Vintage Kit

Very Vintage Kit and Template

These two pages, above and below, are using both the templates and kit. There are EIGHT templates.

Very Vintage Kit and Template

Flowers N' Butterflies Templates & Very Vintage Kit

Very Vintage Kit & Love for Literature Template

The above page is insanely creative. The Love for Literature template coupled with Very Vintage was a great combination. I love how Evelyn made her book a scrapbook. Genius! Why don't you give it a try?

Kate's pages show off more excellent color usage and balance.

Isn't her butterfly effect so cool? Wink, wink... The shadows on her photos are pretty epic, too.

I love how Michal shows off my templates in a manner that is so approachable. Some of my ladies make pages that make me shake my head. They look SO hard to scrap! Michal has a totally functional, simplistic style that is very appealing. They are super, super clean and encourages people to give scrapbooking a try. I love that!

Ashley joined in for just a bit of our Scrap-A-Thon with her super pretty page. You can still go through our blog, grab all of the crazy freebies and peruse the album from our group and add your pages there.

You don't always have to have realistic aspects on your pages. That's the beauty of art. Mix and mingle styles, elements and concepts to stir the mind.

This pack of templates is also from Kreative Design Studio.

Mixing realistic with whimsical is always fun! Jenn sure knows how to make a gorgeous page.

My super fun mailbox paper template.

I'm finally growing a bit...bored with scrapbooking after more than 20 years. Hehehe...lately when I scrap, I keep it simple to just show off my templates or to show different, easy ways to use them. Above and below, I've simply added styles and photos to my pages and it lended a quick result.

See how these vintage designs will make great printables?

Above, the white sticker aspect of the elements has been removed. Did ya know you can do that? Watch a couple videos with the lasso tool or even the magic wand. You can ditch the outline with a simple click or two. I do this a lot. Above the sticker outline is gone and below she left it.

is Kim's page not THE best page idea?! I LOVE it!

You can scrap your pets in a really fun and unique way...

or just use the adorable animals for any subject.

Have you noticed how my ladies use their shadows? I like a rather intense shadow. Other scrappers go for a more subdued shadow. It's all a matter of preference and effect. Above, Theresa use a smaller, subtle shadow for her elements.

The shadow behind hedgy is my shadow. Dark, intense...it gives my little guy lift.

Did you make it all the way through?! You rock!!! This was one heck of a blog. I need a break! A long walk through the mountains should do. I'm sure I'll find all kinds of wonderful to inspire me for my next set of templates and designs.

Thanks so much for your visit. Enjoy all of the new products from this blog at a 30% discount for one week. See you at GingerScraps!

Happy scrapping!