Artbooking Made Easy: Teamwork Layouts

Wow, you have all taken and planned some amazing trips! Thank you for sharing your dream vacations with me—I almost felt like I was there! I'm happy to announce the winner of not a dream vacation, but a dream cartridge: the Artbooking cartridge! Congratulations Julie Steele! Please send me an email with your mailing address to me@jeanettelynton.com, with "Dream Vacation Artbooking winner" as the subject line. 

No matter if you’re a baseball, football, basketball, or soccer fan, or just know someone who is, you’re going to want to cheer for today’s episode of Artbooking Made Easy! We’re going to be looking at the teamwork layout keys found on pages 82 and 83 of the Artbooking booklet.

See what I mean? Doesn’t that make you want to race over to your crafting table and get started?

We are coming up on Little League season, so this is the perfect layout! You saw in the video how to make the most of this chevron overlay by backing it with different colors. I also loved to tip on cutting out the little stars from the “score” cutout to use as accents around the page.

Let’s take a closer look at the title here. The artist cut it out twice, once in Honey and once in Outdoor Denim, and then layered it to give it the shadow effect. She went one step further and added in that extra detail with a journaling pen, and the result is a home run in my book!

Also, look at how the artist has used the banner border—upside down! It blended in so well with the other elements on the page that I almost missed it, but it’s definitely a winning element on this page, especially since it’s used in a way that you wouldn’t expect.

One thing I want to point out with the baseball, as well as the other balls on the teamwork layout keys, is that there are two ways to cut out these shapes. For example, with the baseball, you can either cut out the shape in white and lay it on top of a red circle to have the stitches show through from underneath (the baseball shown here on the right), or you can cut out the shape in red and lay the cutouts of the red stitches on top of a white circle (the baseball on the left). Whichever look you prefer!

Now that we all have sports on our mind, time for a curve ball! This page isn’t extremely sport-themed, but it still includes many of the fun elements from the teamwork keys.

Don’t you just love how the simple white-on-white overlay is set off ever so slightly by the black Shimmer trim border? I love how this neutral color palette was given a girly flair with just a few splashes of shimmer, and a few fun patterns like the polka dots that even match her uniform!

I love these chevron arrows with the ombre effect. The artist chose to use Whisper, Slate, and black inks to match the color palette, but you could use any mix of colors in coordinating shades (for example, try Sweet Leaf, Pear, and Topiary, or Buttercup, Honey, and Goldrush). Start by first inking the whole stamp in the lightest color—in this case, Whisper. Then, holding the stamp at an angle, ink only the middle of the stamp with the middle color (Slate) using the edge of the stamp pad. Finally, ink the end of the stamp in the darkest color (black). You can see how this creates a nice transition from one color to the next and makes the arrow pattern really stand out. Experiment with this technique and see what you can come up with!

Let’s take a time-out from layouts and move over to home décor. I love simple pieces of home décor, and it’s always a bonus when it’s something you get to decorate yourself!

Did you notice the glossy black chevron-patterned paper behind the “All Star” cutout? By just backing the star with some Pacifica cardstock and adding a white enamel heart shape, this window is simple yet stylish.

I love this pennant banner! Especially with the Honey triangles washi tape behind it—those coordinating patterns look great together. The actual banner cutout on page 83 of the Artbooking booklet has only 6 pennants, but you can cut out the border twice and piece them together as needed.

For soccer balls, basketballs, and baseballs, the circle shape on page 83 is perfect for backing the cutout in a solid shape of a different color. To get that exact football shape, though, you can either just cut the solid shape out by hand, or use the “hide contour” button with Cricut Craft Room^® to hide the middle cutouts for a solid base shape.

One little tip as you’re using your Cricut^® machine for smaller, intricate cutouts: try using the “flip” function key to cut out your shapes in the mirror image. This will often give you cleaner cuts, especially on the front side of your shapes. Just make sure that if you’re using the double-sided B&T papers, you load the side you want to show face down on the cutting mat.

I look forward to all the projects that you will all be able to tackle like pros with these teamwork layout keys!

Recipes

Baseball Layout:

Z1906 Cricut^® Artbooking Collection

B1452 My Acrylix^™ Funky Blossoms

X7181B Jubilee Paper Packet

X7182B Timberline Paper Packet

Z1751 Baker’s Twine Harvest Assortment

Z1825 Keyboard Kraft Alphabet

Z1961 White Marquee Enamel Shapes

Colors used: Slate, Outdoor Denim, White Daisy, Honey, Barn Red, kraft

All-Star Layout:

Z1906 Cricut^® Artbooking Collection

A1150 My Acrylix^™ Charming Chevrons

C1464 My Acrylix^™ Blue Ribbon

D1578 My Acrylix^™ Flight of the Arrows

X7172B ProPlayer Paper Packet

Z1809 Black Shimmer Trim

Z1799 Silver Shimmer Trim

Z1928 Durables Triangle Studs

Colors used: White Daisy, Lagoon, Honey, Ruby, Whisper, black

Hinged Display Tray:

Z1906 Cricut^® Artbooking Collection

B1431 My Acrylix^™ Reel Life

C1575 My Acrylix^™ True to Life

C1573 My Acrylix^™ Do Your Best

Z1939 Paper Fundamentals Basics Assortment

Z1751 Baker’s Twine Harvest Assortment

Z1961 White Marquee Enamel Shapes

Colors used: black, White Daisy, Sunset, Honey, Pacifica, Slate