Friday, 15 August 2025

American Crafts Vicki Boutins Cut & Paste - Follow Your Dreams

I have another layout using the vibrant Cut & Paste collection by Vicki Boutin for American Crafts. The bright colours in this collection are so versatile and are perfect for any scrapbooking project.



I began the layout with a 12x12 sheet of black cardstock. On top of this, I layered pieces of white and teal cardstock, leaving a thin border around each.



Next, I used black thread to machine-stitch a zigzag line where the white and teal cardstock met. This detail adds texture and interest to the page.



Then, I used a mini brayer and teal acrylic paint to add three short horizontal stripes to the layout. I intentionally kept the application a bit messy to create a more textured, relaxed look.



Using paper #7 from the collection, I fussy cut some scallop border strips. I used these to create "shelves" beneath each of the painted stripes.



I matted three photos with pink cardstock and placed one on each shelf. To embellish each shelf, I used a combination of die cuts from the Ephemera Icons pack and fussy-cut flowers from paper #2. I added 3D foam underneath some of the elements to raise them slightly.



Using my Silhouette machine, I die-cut the title words from black cardstock and placed a word next to each of the three photos.

Finally I added a scattering of acrylic dots and sequins to the layout.

Monday, 4 August 2025

American Crafts Vicki Boutins Cut & Paste - Beautiful

I've been spending some time recently creating with Cut & Paste, Vicki Boutin's final collection for American Crafts. As expected from Vicki's signature style, this collection is full of vibrant colors. and what I particularly like is how many of the patterns and elements are reminiscent of decoupaged or layered paper-pieced images.

Today, I'm sharing a layout I created using one of my absolute favorite papers from the collection -Paper #3. This paper has a sunburst / pie shape design on it and I challenged myself to use it in an original way. This layout features a technique I have used before, but with a twist.,



I began by carefully fussy cutting the pie shape from the paper. Then, with a circle cutter, I created concentric "rings" by cutting them from the center. I arranged the rings on a sheet of graph paper from my stash. The two larger rings were nestled in the centre of the layout, while the two smaller ones were placed into the bottom right corner. To add interest, I rotated each ring to mix up the patterns.



I machine-stitched a zig-zag around the circles with black thread. This added texture and made the colors pop.



My photo, matted on black cardstock, was attached on the right of the layout. For embellishment, I layered on flowers and leaves from the Ephemera Icons Pack, giving them dimension with 3D foam underneath.



I found some older Vicki Boutin Thickers in my stash with words that were perfect for this layout, so I added them too.



The colours of some of the Thickers matched the layout perfectly.



I incorporated a title from Cocoa Vanilla Studio near the bottom of the layout, though a phrase sticker or alphabet stickers would have also worked well.



Journalling strips were printed on the computer and tucked beneath the title.



Finally I trimmed down the layout slightly, mounted it on a sheet of black cardstock leaving a narrow border and added a scattering of black sequins and paper punched stars.