Cardstock Challenge - Paper Succulents by Tya Smith

 Hello Doodlebug friends- it's Tya here with my take on the Cardstock Challenge that we were given as a design team. When I heard that Doodlebug was coming out with their own cardstock I was giddy! You mean I can get all the amazing colors that I love in Doodlebug's pattern papers in a cardstock?!? Sign me up!

So - I have a confession ... I was not born with a green thumb... in fact I think I was born with the exact opposite of a green thumb... I can't keep plants alive for anything!! Even the ones that they say are low maintenance. So when I was looking for a project to do for this challenge - I stumbled across these adorable paper succulent plants on the Silhouette site and I knew I had my project! I love the look of the real ones so I knew I needed to make these - and because they are made from cardstock- they will stay alive!  Let me show you what I did!

 So I picked up a few real succulents from my local greenhouse for inspiration ( I will be giving these away as gifts as soon as possible! Lol!) I thought the paper ones looked pretty realistic! And the cardstock that I used was the perfect shades of greens for different types of plants.

 This one below was more of a house plant looking cut file - but  I thought it was pretty close to the succulent on the right.

 To make the leaves stick up on this plant I adhered a thin piece of floral wire to the back of the cut out. Then you can bend the leaves to whatever angle you want to make it look a little more realistic. I also trimmed a few of the leaves down to make a few varying sizes.

 A few more close ups of the plants. I just put all of these in some terra cotta pots that I picked up at the craft store and then added some moss to the pot.

 

Here are the links to the files that I used. They are on the Silhouette Design store. There are also a few templates out there as well that I didn't use but if you do not own a Silhouette machine you could still make something similar. I just did a search for "paper succulents". 

-3D Succulent  (plant pictured just above)

-3D Succulent  ( plant with 2 in the pot)

-3D Wavy Houseplant ( tall dark green)

As you can see, and I echo my fellow design team friends- the textured cardstock really does cut so smooth and so easily! My 13 year old has figured out how to use my Silhouette and she always asks me if she can use my "good" cardstock to cut with - and even though its hard to share - I know that she will have no problems cutting any shape out that she wants with the Doodlebug Textured Cardstock. If you love to use your cutting machines as much as I do - go pick some of this awesome cardstock up! You will thank me later - I promise! ;)

Thanks so much for stopping by and taking a peek at my project today - and thank you for all your kind comments! It means so much! Happy crafting!

Cardstock Challenge: Time for School Layout by Traci Penrod

Hi Doodlebug fans!  It's Traci and I'm back with a layout that really made me step outside my square box :)  I usually don't use lots of circles on my pages, but when all of my Doodlebug card stock was spread out on my crafting table, circles seemed like a fun way to go.

To create my white background, I designed a cutting file in my Silhouette machine software and then cut the pattern from a 12x12 sheet of Lily White Doodlebug card stock.  If you have a cutting machine that will cut SVG files, I have this file available as a free download over on my blog today at www.artsyalbums.com.  

Doodlebug's cardstock is super easy to cut using my CAMEO machine, and I love all the colors that perfectly match my Doodlebug paper collections!  

In addition to card stock, I used Teensy Type stickers for the numbers and title, a bit of sprinkles star vellum, and shaped sprinkles for the little stars, pencil and glue.   If you haven't tried Doodlebug's textured cardstock, give it a try!  You will love it! Traci

The ULTIMATE Cardstock Challenge Project by Jennifer Beason

Hello Doodlebug fans. Jennifer here with my take on the cardstock challenge. For my project I decided to create a small wall hanging, using some of my favorite Doodlebug colors.

Doodlebug cardstock is perfect for cutting images out on your die cutting machines. So that's just what I did. The birds, fence, shrubs, border, text and feather were all cut using my Silhouette.

A house shaped album page was used as the base of my project. The house was covered with wood grain textured strips of cardstock. Then lightly colored with a teal Gelato. The roof was also covered with cardstock and then embellished with a border sticker and some trim.

The cardstock birds, a chipboard heart and some heart sprinkles were then attached to the house.

The green leaves are die cuts. They were bent slightly along the center and some were hand stitched with embroidery floss. The branches are wood embellishments that were covered with a dark brown cardstock. Then some flowers were added for a splash of color.

As you can see the base of the sign was treated in the same way as the house. Then a smaller piece of cardboard was covered with cardstock, stitched and layered onto the embossed piece. Cardstock letters were cut and applied to the sign, along with heart, flower and letter stickers.

A chipboard heart was covered with green cardstock then embellished with a cardstock leaf and feather.  A  leaf sticker was then layered on top and sprinkles were added. Jump rings were used to attach all the chipboard pieces together and a hook was hot glued to the back for hanging the piece. Thanks for joining me today. Happy crafting! Jennifer