"Enjoy the Moments" Blog Hop featuring Above Rubies Studios products - July 10

It is my great pleasure to participate in the first "Enjoy the Moments" Blog Hop, held to introduce you to the unique and special products of Above Rubies Studio (ARS).

ARS, owned and operated by the sweetest Megan Elizabeth, first came to my attention for its instructional DVDs. At about the same time I got my first ARS DVD ("Cricut A-to-Z"), I signed up for the site, and now I receive weekly Tuesday Tutorials, and Tips and Tricks on Thursdays. 

I have quite the collection of ENJOYED MOMENTS to share with you here today... Grab a cuppa'Joe, kick back and have fun. And don't miss the BLOG CANDY I'm offering to those who follow/comment (see far below!).

PROJECT # 1

I have to tell you -- I had so much fun working on this challenge that I couldn't stop myself!  Megan Elizabeth at Above Rubies Studio has so many great products that I wanted to try it all ...

First up.... my ZENTANGLED SVG CUT...

I got re-hooked on ARS when Megan started selling SVGs -- she also sponsors Freebie Fridays! I've collected a few of these freebies in my ARS Library. One of the SVGs available now for sale at ARS is the beautiful butterfly I used for this project. (The SVG is just the outline of the butterfly.)

Using my Silhouette Cameo, I cut the SVG using plain ivory cardstock.  Then, I went crazy with a black pen and a technique called Zentangling, which is a meditative form of doodling. Zentangles are typically in black and white (says Certified Zentanglers -- who knew?!), but I love coloring mine with Copic markers.

So that's my first project for today, Enjoying the Moments, with a cool beverage through a straw made beautiful with an SVG from Above Rubies Studio and enhanced by me ...  What do you think?

PROJECT #2: The Single PAPER LAYERZ sheet challenge!

Truth be told, after I finished my SVG project for this post, I received my order of PAPER LAYERZ from Megan Elizabeth. I wasn't really sure about Paper Layerz, as I'm a pretty good paper piecer. But this unique paper makes piecing fun, simple and less time-consuming.

The concept for PAPER LAYERZ is nifty -- 9 coordinated colors have been expertly selected and appear in 4" blocks together on one page. The sheet is double-sided, with a single complementing color on the reverse of the 9 color blocks.  Let me show you....

Select your paper from the stack ... lay it on your mat ... decide what layers you want to cut from where. To cut (I used ProvoCraft Cricut's "Create A Critter" cartridge), I used the blade arrows on my Cricut Expression  to move my blade housing to go each "start corner" and cut each image from the appropriate color block. This saved a lot of mat load, cut, unload, reload time!  In image #1 (far left), you see the whole stack; in image #2 is the paper I chose, affixed to my Cricut mat. Image #3 (center) shows the remaining paper after I cut the images I wanted and lifted the off-cuts from the mat. Image #4 shows the cuts left on the mat, and also shows that my first try here wasn't 100% successful ... my larger alligator's tail ran off the color block (I later paper-pieced it to fix), and two of my reindeer I accidentally cut too small.  In Image #5 (far right), you'll see my finished cuts, pieced and ready to use!

I think one of the very clear advantages to using Megan Elizabeth's PAPER LAYERZ is that you can keep all of your paper pieces together on the mat while working on assembly. With other papers, you have to remove your cuts from the mat to switch to the next color. Thus, you risk losing those itty-bitty little pieces of a cut, e.g., the reindeer's nose.  With PAPER LAYERZ, I kept the first layer (base, shown in Image #1 (far left, here) on the mat and applied my glue directly onto the cut while it was on the mat.  Then I layered the second cut (Image #2) and the third (brown) layer (not shown). Next -- and again, my initial Layer #1 has never left the mat -- I adhered the itty-bitty nose and scarf. At far right (Image #5), you see the reindeer cut used on my Christmas card.  Can you say Caaaa-ute?! 

Now, if you're anything like me, you HATE the notion of wasting even the smallest amount of designer paper!  For instance, it unnerved me that I didn't think of something to cut with that left'/center salmon color paper.  Here's a question for you -- What's the smallest bit of paper you'll save for reuse?  For me, I must say, I use practically all of it.  I trimmed down the leftover scraps into squares and rectangles and then I punched (circles, snowflakes, flowers) the smaller pieces. I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with these scraps until I decided to challenge myself to only use ONE piece of Megan Elizabeth PAPER LAYERZ for as many projects as I could muster.  By the time I was said and done, the scraps (Image #2) had been used up to the point that the leftovers (Image #3 here) were the tiniest amount for the recycling can. And even still, I'm thinking about retrieving those colorful scraps from the trash can and mulching them up in my paper shredder to use as padding in things I mail ... am I completely nuts!

The first card (Image #1, left) I made incorporated the square-and-rectangle cuts that were the largest. I arranged them in a mosaic pattern. Again, from scraps, I punched leaves and built a tree branch for the birdie to sit upon. This bluebird has a little movement, courtesy of the Action Wobble on which she sits.    The second card used the smaller bits that had been punched into circles  For the third card (Image #3, right), I punched Snowflakes and "snow flowers" out of the smallest bits of paper I hoarded. The sentiments here on all three cards are computer-generated and printed. Which is your favorite card and why?

 Here are each of the cards, close-up:

 

Believe it or not, I made all three cards (including their embellishments) with just one sheet of designer MEGAN ELIZABETH PAPER LAYERZ(12x12"), 3 blank cards, and one sheet of plain white cardstock for the sentiments.


I hope you'll try Paper Layerz and that you find it just as easy and FUN to work with.  AND HERE'S YOUR OPPORTUNITY:

BLOG CANDY!!!  Just for YOU, I bought an extra pack of 24 sheets of Paper Layerz from Megan Elizabeth, and I'm offering it up for grabs to a randomly chosen person who follows these three steps:

1. Follow my CardMonkey blog (you're here!) by any method, and just let me know which way you do...

2. Leave me a comment on this post (yup, you're still here!) that includes a way to contact you, AND answers...

3. ...one of the three red/bolded questions in the photo captions above. No need to answer all three (but you can if you want!), just pick one...

Thank you for sticking with me on this long post ...

Once you're done here, hop on over to your next blog stop at the fabulous JEN.  When you're all said and done hopping, BE SURE to go over to see all the fabulousness that Megan Elizabeth has in store for you at Above Rubies Studio!

Here is the entire blog line-up:

Shawn: http://craftychicsblog.blogspot.com/
Ellen:   http://www.cardmonkeyspaperjungle.com/
Jen:     http://www.javajencreations.blogspot.com/
Cheri:  http://www.djssundries.blogspot.com/
Paulette: http://scrapalette.blogspot.com/
Court:  http://www.courtscraftcorner.com/
Cara:   http://caramiller.com/
Britten: http://www.twoatatimedesign.com/
... and finish off by going to see all the new wonderful crafty stuff at Above Rubies Studio @
Megan Elizabeth: http://aboverubiesstudio.com/
 

Wait ... before you buy ... did you see that I'm now an Above Rubies Studio Affiliate?  Click on the ARS link at my sidebar to be taken to shop. When you do, I'll get a small commission for the referral, and it will keep me in paper for another day, YAY!

DeFiaNtLy DiFfeReNt & CreAtiVeLy Yours,