SCT 12 days of giving !

It's the 12 days of holiday giving over on the Scrapbook and Cards Today Magazine blog!

For 12 days we are giving away TONS of prizes, so you want to check it out daily for your chance to win some great stuff from our sponsors.

I am up on the blog today with a fun DIY home décor project, using a Jillibean Soup wood plank and a cut file from my digital die cut store - JustNick studio

I am not a huge home décor person, but once the holidays hit, I love having some small homemade projects around to decorate our home. We don't have a lot of wall space, so this makes things difficult, but a project like this can hang our even be sent out on a ledge or lean against a wall, if it's big enough!

I started with the 12x12 wood plank from Jillibean Soup and sanded it lightly. This helps any paint you want to add "stick" a little better and prevents the paint from bleeding under your stencil too much too.

I die cut the Holiday Wreath from JustNick studio out of Silhouette stencil material. I laid the entire thing in place and then removed the portions that I wanted painted. I like to use a paper piercer for this, so it's easier to remove. Now, it's time to paint! I dab it on in layers so that too much isn't applied all at once - that makes the paint sometimes bleed under the stencil and can create quite the situation.

After 2-3 coats of white paint, I set it aside to dry and then created a small bough out of some craft materials from the local craft store along with some ribbon to add a little color. I die cut a sentiment from gold foil adhesive backed paper and I was done !

I really love how this one turned out. It's really a simple project that would make a great gift too!

Scrapbook and Cards Today Magazine - free cut file day!

Good morning! It's the first Tuesday in December, and that means that it is free cut file day again on the Scrapbook and Cards Today blog!

Since it's the holiday season, this one is holiday themed. Check it out:

 I used the new Fancy Pants collection - Merry and Bright - for the die-cut ornaments. I cut out one of each from the set, using the Merry as my title for the page.




As you can see, I backed each of the open areas of the ornament with different patterned papers from the Merry and Bright collection, along with a little gold glitter cardstock too for some sparkle.




You can grab this file for FREE over on the Scrapbook and Cards Today blog today!

Don't forget that the new winter issue of the magazine is out this Friday December 9, 2016... and it's free to view online!

November FREE cut file!

Each month, I create free cut files for the Scrapbook and Cards Today Magazine blog.

This is the freebie for November, a fun and funky background design:

There are a lot of ways you can use this cut file, I chose to use it for a masculine page about my teenager who rarely lets me snap his photo these days.

I used a lot of the Crate Paper Cool Kid collection for this one - proof that a little kid collection can go a long way and work outside the intended audience. I love the bold patterns in that collection and so perfect for this teenager in my house.

You can see that I cut strips of paper to back the cut file with, alternating the colors randomly. The main thing I like to do is make sure that no two colors are not beside each other. Mix it up, use one collection and it all works!

I added some bits of black to the project, which works perfectly with my Dear Lizzy chipboard title.

This is one file I will definitely use over and over again. I want to make a bunch of cards with this file as the base! How cute would those be!?

To snag this one for FREE, just head over to the Scrapbook and Cards Today blog HERE. As always, there is a full list of all the freebies on the SCT magazine website too!

Enjoy! If you make something with this cut file - please tag my in Instagram (@nicolenowosad) or post it here in the comments so I can sneak a peek!

SCT Magazine cut file freebie!

 Yes, it is that time of the month again, time for another FREE cut file over on the Scrapbook and Cards Today magazine blog!

Since school is basically back in session now for most kids, I thought we should do a school themed cut file for September as it was only appropriate!

Here is this month's freebie:

This bundle comes with several different icons and so many possibilities! I really loved the star aspect and used some stars in a row for my project, the apples to decorate and of course "star student" for my title!  I love that you could use this set again and again with many different results.

I just love how cute those apples are with different papers backing the empty hearts with a few Simple Stories clear stickers on them. Pop those leaves up with some low profile dimensional adhesive and blammo! fun!

Here is how it all came together, with a little stitched border from some icons cut from a Crate Paper Cool Kid 6x6 paper pad along the top of the page.

Now, head over to the SCT blog to grab your FREEBIE today! As always, you can download all the free cut files on the website HERE

SCT May cut file freebie time!

This months' cut file freebie that I created for Scrapbook and Cards Today magazine is a new favorite of mine. I have THE hardest time with  titles and so when I come across something that would be a great title, I get all giddy. lol I am a dork.

Here is this month's freebie:

I kept the title simple, and just diecut it from black cardstock, using foam adhesive to pop it up on my page. The foam adhesive is the perfect way to add some dimension and natural shadow to your project.

I used white cardstock for my base as I wanted to add in a ton of these fun frames from the Life In Color collection by Simple Stories to the bottom of my project. I added some stickers and bits of paper to the open areas of the frames and love how it turned out.

It was a really easy page to bring together, mostly because that title does a lot of the work for me!

To download this file for FREE, just head over to the SCT blog HERE and grab your file!

As always, all the freebies for the magazine are available, so you can catch up on our downloads at any time HERE

SCT April freebie

Hello hello! Two posts in two days...I am shocked how about you! :) Lots of good stuff to share over the coming weeks/month, but today I am stopping by to share a FREE cut file over that I created for the Scrapbook and Cards Today blog this month.

Check out this month's freebie:

This one was a lot of fun for me! It's my kind of project. Cutting out all those little bits and fussily adding them to the back of the cut file allows me to add in lots of patterned paper! I love that :)

I used a combination of different Amy Tangerine collections on this one page. I love the color and bold patterns in her collections and they seem to be one of the things I pick up on my own. Here is my completed page:

I am loving the addition of black lately, the foam thickers are the BOMB and had to use it for the title.

That's about it for me! Now, to grab this one for free, head over to the Scrapbook and Cards Today Magazine blog HERE to get your freebie and check out my guest this month - the talented Audrey Yeager... you will LOVE what she did with this cut file too!

Scrapbook and Cards Today FREEBIE cut file day!

Hello Hello! I am excited to be sharing another FREE cut file on the Scrapbook and Cards Today blog. This one is one of my new favorites! I love some good phrase/titles so anytime they are fun too, I enjoy using them!

Here is this month's FREEBIE:

Obviously, I used this freebie as my title for my page. Quite simply, I cut the sentiment out twice - once with the orange/red patterned paper and a second time with the pink/orange/red patterned paper and layered just the HAPPY to the bottom edge. I trimmed off the "choose" with my scissors before hand. Use a couple pop dots and BAM! Easy peasy title.

Here is how it looks on my completed project, using lots of Amy Tangerine papers and embellishments:

Now, do you want to snag this one for FREE? Just click HERE and it is all yours :)

I am always interested in hearing what sort of freebies that people are interested in.. so if you have an idea or suggestion, please leave me a comment.. and who knows it could show up on either the JustNick blog  (my cut file store) or SCT blog soon for FREE!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Scrapbook and Cards Today cut file FREEBIE time!

Yep, it's that time of the month where I offer up another FREE cut file over on the SCT blog!

Since it is the month of love, I created a quick and fun heart background for today's freebie:

I actually created two pages for this month's freebie. Here is the first page:

You can see that I backed the heart cut file with different Crate Papers and then adding some bits of hand stitching to a few of the hearts for fun :)

For the second page,I used the cut file quite simply for my page, cutting it from white cardstock and layering it over some scraps of patterned papers by PinkFresh.

 I added in some stamping (also PinkFresh) to some of the empty heart areas I left open.

I kept the rest of the page quite simple, adding my title along a strip along the top of the page and a small cluster of embellishments to the bottom right corner to balance it out a little.

You don't have to get super fancy with a cut file and sometimes that is O.K! I hope you like this one!

To download it for FREE, just click HERE and go to the February 2016 freebie. (there are also a TON of others I have designed up there for free too!

Scrapbook and Cards Today FREEBIE TIME!

It's time for another cut file freebie over on the Scrapbook and Cards Today Magazine blog.


Here is what this month's freebie look like:

This month, I asked my friend and fellow designer and Canadian Lee-Anne Thornton to guest on the blog! Lee-Anne is also part of my DT for my website JustNick!


We both used the cut file, here is what I did with it:





It is a pretty simple design, but one that you could use over and over in different ways. I also added in some leaves and vines from cut files from JustNick (Leaves, Sweater Weather) behind my photo. The leaves are part of a freebie coming up this month at JustNick (stop by the website on Nov 13 to grab yours)

I hope you like this freebie!


To grab your FREE design, stop over at the Scrapbook and Cards Today Magazine blog HERE ! Enjoy!

Awesome - JustNick Cut Files

Good morning! I am just stopping in to share a page using one of the new cut files from the JustNick store called Under the Stars and Moon

 I actually only used the stars from this cut file to create this page. I took the star design and adjusted the size and even the angle of the star "lines". I welded several of the stars together to create the star design here:

I cut it out of some plain white cardstock and then painted on some gold Heidi Swapp Color Shine mist in a few different areas around the design. I heated it up with my heat gun to create a slightly bubbly metallic effect. I really love how that turned out and will be doing that again !

I love how easy it is to take 1 shape and create a unique page of your own using a cut file. The best part is doing it all over again you may get a different result!

To buy the Under the Stars and Moon cut file - just click HERE