Welcome to The Cherry On Top.
I'm so super happy to be bringing you a Hybrid Hipsters blog, today. We're are on our 901 blog entry. Apparently, I started blogging in January of 2012. I had to go back and look because I had no idea how long I've been blogging. I was thinking it would be around 6 years or so. As usual, my math was off. Hehehe...
The blog has changed so much since I first started, but a few things have stayed the same. For one, I still mostly write about scrapbooking. There are still tutorials, tips, tricks, freebies and sometimes we take a more personal turn and try to inform our fans about healthy eating and the importance of mental health.
When I first started this blog, I wrote about everything. As you can see if you scroll back. From menu planners to Autism. From laundry tips to digital scrapbooking templates. I kept reading articles on how to grow a successful blog and realized that I had to pick a subject and stick to it. That's so tough for me. I get bored fast. I chose design and craft because I've always been passionate about creative things and certainly get bored with the day to day household happenings.
I'm not sure if you've ever noticed, but on this blog you will NOT find ads every few inches. You will not experience pop ups of any kind. Just a good ole fashion blah, blah, blah blog with a few pretty images, inspiration and some motivational prose. I have a few affiliations, but make about $10 a year for those. The only money I make from this blog is from your purchases in my shops. So a huge, huge thanks to all of you who say, "thanks for all of this awesome free stuff", by your purchases or involvement in our social media and your generous sharing of our blog and social platform links.
For me a successful blog isn't one that will make me rich financially. I've been homeless and starving so I do not require much to be happy. Success is a steady increase of fans and readers. Knowing that I'm providing something that keeps people coming back is my whole reason to keep blogging.
Make sure you read all of the way through for the awesome free printable, new products from our Design Bundle shop that are Commercial Use friendly as well as a bunch of other free stuff from us and other places around DigiLand.
Heart Made Scrapbook's gorgeous kit!
All of these pages combine our templates with this kit.
Give your templates a twist!
Glitter is a must!
Design fabulous backgrounds to make your pages pop.
Layer up those clusters with varying shadows intensity, distance and size.
Add styles like the unicorn, above. Puffy styles, thinker styles or bevels will give the "paper" a more dimensional effect.
Sassy pictures are definitely a plus!
Get creative with how you use your glitter.
Fun APPS add brilliance and cuteness overload!
Check out the effect or styles used on this page from Jenni. That shiny effect is way cool!
Don't let my Creative Team's pages deter you from get'n digi. There's nothing wrong with keeping it on the simple side. Crop in your papers, add pictures and a few elements.
When I first moved from the States, over to Belgium (the black hole of scrapbooking), I went to a few crops, if I could even find them. Often having to drive a long way to get to there. My "style" of scrapbooking is apparently, "American" style. I've never heard of this before, but I assume they mean containing a lot of layers and elements on the page. The pages we were instructed to make were simplistic and often very geometrical in aesthetic. I can see how that is appealing. It certainly saves time and money. (Insert winking emoji.). To each his/her own.
Theresa went opaque with our clouds and switched up the rainbow layers. Great idea!
A sparkling background seems most fitting.
Here's a clever way to use the strips on this template.
Show off all kinds of pretty papers in the strips. Keeping the background more muted will make the strips pop and give your page a less busy look.
Don't shy from using design paper for the unicorn. Looks how fab Danica's page is.
I'd like to take this page and break it down a bit for a few reasons. I want to talk about shadows as well as point out everything I love about this page from Lisa. (Not me.)
We were talking about shadows in my team, just yesterday and I've learned that we all like different shadows, which didn't help me a bit. Hehehe...I want to provide shadows on my templates, that people want to use most. I recently changed them up and wondered if anyone cared.
Initially, I used and still sometimes use the shadow styles from SnickerDoodle Designs or Karen Shultz. They are at 45 degrees, are a touch lighter in shade and come in a pretty sweet range of distance and width. I always assumed that the further an elements is from the page's background, the wider and more distant the shadow should be from the element. Most of the team liked that a shadow falls exactly the same. So if you nudge a shadow, all of the shadows will nudge. I, being the freak that I am, like when I can move or nudge my shadows independently. I suppose there is a rule for this, but you know me. The thick headed rebel!
So let's look at Lisa's page's shadows. Personally, I dig the darker shadow. It gives the page more depth and contrast from the elements or paper that lie under it. Now, you can go crazy and tell yourself, there are no rules in art. Some people design gorgeous pages with items that seem to float. I'm cool with floating clouds and flying elements like bugs and balloons. I might not use a floating type of shadow for word bits, but a paper like shadow that is intense and that barely comes out from under the elements, unless that layer is leaning or on top of several other elements.
Scatter is a tough call. I use different kinds of shadows for scatter depending on "where" the scatter is. If it is sitting directly on the background paper, I'll use a paper shadow. Sometimes my paper is falling from the sky. In that case, I'll use a floating shadow.
I'd love if you pop over to our group or leave a comment on your shadow preference. Feel free to leave links to the shadow styles you use as well.
I wanted to provide a totally kicking freebie this week. Something I don't always do and something I thought would be hugely appreciated by our fans. I decided on planner printables. I went through my Commercial Use stash and even designed a new template for these. The template and the printable will end up in the Kreative Design Studio at Design Bundles soon. I plan on designing some coordinating papers and more sheets of stickers.
I used a mock up I designed for crafts and specifically printables. I've got a few mock ups in the Kreative Design Studio if you're looking for a really fun way to show off your projects. I'm a terrible photographer so this is a great thing for me.
Enjoy the freebie and consider Pinning it or sharing our blog link with your friends and family that you think might like it, too. Thanks!
Let's move to another designer in DigiLand, Clever Monkey Graphics.
Here's my page. I was obviously inspired to design a coordinating template for my page and yes, they will end up in the shop in a few weeks with a release of a cooking kit.
Check out this super sale on some really fantastic products!
Free In The Group.
Free In The Group.
Free In The Group.
If you are all about cuttables, templates and designing gorgeous papers, then you'll love our newest addition to the Kreative Design Studio, Flower Fever. I'll tell ya, right now, that I will be releasing these and two other coordinating templates in the GingerScraps shop in a few weeks. Those will be Personal Use Only. These are Commercial Use friendly and will work awesome with your cutting machine.
Needing adorable Valentine printables? We've got that! Stickers, cards, tags, papers...and we've put a lot of the shop at 50% off!
Go crazy with these wild papers!
Here's a look at that mockup. You get two different backgrounds. The blue stone one and a warm wooden one. You also get these templates to make stickers.
You can have a lovely image made in minutes.
Not enough free stuff? Get this free template in our group.
Still not enough free stuff?! Click on this image, below and get zapped back to a previous blog that shares the link to all of these freebies from The Cherry.
Seriously?! You're as bad as I! You can download free stuff like crazy over at Design Bundles. If you know me, you'll know that this is exactly the kind of t-shirt I'd wear. There are so many freebies there and amazing deals on wonderful products for all of your crafting and designing needs.
If you're curious at what we've got on tap, here are a few screen shots.
Thanks so, so much for giving The Cherry a bit of your time, today. I'd love to have you join us in our group and our other social platforms, which you can find in the side bar. Our Pinterest is so awesome. I'll bet we've got plenty of boards that you'll love.
The world is bat crap crazy, these days and I certainly won't go into how I feel or think about the current situation. Being in some form of lockdown for nearly a year has not put me in the happiest of states, lately. If you feel the same, you are not alone. Anxiety is running high, but you can control it. Eat right (if you don't know what the means, check out this blog series), get outside as much as you can, make sure your Vitamin D levels are on par, exercise often (especially if you don't like it, like me) and continuously remind yourself of the things that are ok. A bunch of little stuff can add to a great relief. Got running water? Great! A warm bed to sleep in?! Super! Can you dress yourself?! That's pretty darn awesome, too.
Try to stay optimistic, learn about mindfulness, smile in the face of adversity and take care of yourself.
Have a super weekend and happy scrapping!
