Dear Santa...

This was just a quick and easy layout. The paper was TimHoltz which I bought last weekend (see... Had to HAVE it... have to use it). I love the paper but didn't know how to use it without covering up the great Santa face on it. So I just grabbed one of the mall Santa shots of the kids (from 2000) and added it with the title, Dear Santa, cut from the Winter Frolic cartridge. I ended up chalking the white of the title to "dinge" it up abit.


Funny story on the Winter Frolic... I have looked at this cartridge since it was released and just haven't found the NEED to have it. Each time I found it on a good sale I passed it by. Today when I was entering Christmas phrases (ie, Dear Santa, Christmas Wishes) into my Gypsy search, each time it came up with the Winter Frolic cart. Thankfully a friend of mine owns this one and had it loaded on her Gypsy (thanks, Em!). Now has it become a "NEED"? Not quite yet... but I see more potential for it now than I have previously.


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Scrapbooking and Packers...

Today the Green Bay Packers were playing in the NFC Championship Game against the Chicago Bears but would I watch? Nope! You see every time I have watched or turned on the tv during a Packer game this season, they have either lost or started to when I tuned in. So I decided that I would not be watching one of the biggest games in football history (at least for Packer and Bears fans). I was not gonna have it on my head if they lost. So a couple of friends and I got together and planned a "Craft Day". It was a great day because I got 4 layouts done and the PACK won!! See how that all worked out... now I just gotta figure out what to do on Super Bowl Sunday!

I rushed home to take a pic of my first layout so I could get listed as it was inspired by not one but two challenge blogs I discovered in my perusings last night. I discovered a neat blog where the challenges are inspired by songs, Scrap it With a Song. The song this time was Sara Evans, Born to Fly. I also used a sketch from a sketch challenge blog, Stuck on U Sketches, for my base of the layout. I took a picture came here to blog about it and enter in the song challenge only to discover that the top 5 were picked today... not sure why I thought entries were until tonight. Oh well, maybe next week as it was fun to scrap inspired by a song.

Here's the sketch posted by SOUS...

And here is my take on it...


This is my first time entering a sketch challenge but I've used sketches before sometimes I follow them exactly and other times they start as a base and then go off on a tangent from there. This time the sketch was simple enough and worked perfectly for my layout that I stayed true to it.

When I watched the video and listened to the lyrics I thought of my middle child. She is always on the move, always social, can't wait to become an adult. I remembered that her friend had taken a series of picture of her and this one just seemed like she was leaping into flight. It felt perfect for this layout.

I used the the refrain of Sara Evans' song for my journaling...
How do you wait for heaven?
And who has that much time?
And how do you keep your feet on the ground
When you know that you were born,
You were born to Fly.

The title was cut from Elegant Cakes cartridge and the red flourish is a cut from Martha Stewart Elegant Cake Art. I hadn't used EC in quite awhile and the MS one is fairly new and hadn't been used at all yet. Plus the black plaid paper is from a new stack DCWV, Dots, Stripes and Plaids. Feels good using items that I HAD to have but hadn't used yet.

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Spent the Afternoon with Tim Holtz

Since the New Year I've decided to add some new goals to add to my scrappin' this year (in addition to the ones the I listed earlier). If I buy paper or any other scrappin supplies because they are cute or neat or "Oh, I just have to have that".... then I am going to use them. I am also going to try to use all of my carts this year (or at least the ones that I have NEVER used).

With that in mind I was able to carve out a bit of time this afternoon to do a layout. Out came the new Tim Holtz Halloween papers that I bought. I really love the distressed look he has as a small sampling. I don't think I could scrap solely that way but this is a nice change to my usually more brighter style. I wasn't going to bog myself down with finding the perfect pictures... this year I am going to spend less time heming and hawing and just get down to work. Easily accessible were pictures of the kids right before trick or treating in 2000. They aren't even favorite pictures but they are all I have of the 3 of them from that year so they needed to be scrapped. I decided to cut some of the words out of the paper and use them on the reverse side of another sheet. I even used my new Tim Holtz distressing tool to scrape the edges and then inked them in brown. After adhering the words and the matted pictures I felt like something else was needed. I decided to use the pumpkins from the Pumpkin Carving cartridge. I cut them out of the Core'dinations Color Core Cardstock and sanded them a bit to have the reddish orange come thru. I also added green stems and inked the edges for a little definition since the seasonal cart doesn't come with a shadow option. I added a few journaling strips commenting on the beautiful unseasonal weather we had that Halloween (temps were in the 60's during the day). And for a finishing touch I also distressed the edge of the layout and inked that in brown as well. I am pleased with the final product. My first layout of 2011...



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Long week...

So I got absolutely nothing done this week... creatively anyway. My youngest was sick and missed 3 days of school (the only nice thing about the hubby being laid-off is I didn't have to miss work). I finally got her into the shower today and took her to the mall for some $10 jeans (thank you Aeropostale) and a trip to The Scrapbook Store. I bought some papers from the new Graphic 45 Once Upon a Springtime. So cute! I absolutely love their papers but have a hard time doing a layout with them. I still have some of the Alice in Wonderland papers that I haven't used yet. I also picked up a couple of Tim Holtz Christmas papers which I hadn't seen yet. I would really love to do something creative tomorrow but I really need to go into the office. Otherwise I think I will try to take some pics of my layouts from last year and to post here. Let's see what tomorrow brings...

Christmas Projects ....

Finally I have some pictures to post! We had our family Christmas yesterday and managed to finish our gifts to pass. I even completed my ornaments for the ornament exchange.


I hadn't planned on doing ornaments for our ornament exchange however I came across this idea on the Cricut MB (sorry! don't remember the poster) and thought they might be quick to put together. These were cut from the Winter Lace Seasonal cart at 2 and 3 inches. I then glued 3 like pieces together for thickness. After putting three together I then applied watered down glue and sprinkled Martha Stewart's flocking to each. After they were dry I then used my I-Rock to apply the colored gem stones to each. It was my first time using the flocking and the I-Rock. I had nothing but problems with my I-Rock. It wouldn't hold and stay powered on. The battery door kept being pushed open. I finally picked up another one at Michael's on Friday.... tried it... loved it! Worked like it was supposed to. I am taking the broken one back to M's tomorrow and returning it as defective.


This was another floating frame that we did. Our first attempts at them were done for Jeff's family using their last name and the year of their marriage. Since we didn't know who would be the recipient of this gift, we decided to go with a nice quote for the home. This was one of my favorites. We cut the phrase using SCAL and the flourish was from Dang! I forget the cart... we were looking at Picturesque, Cindy Loo and Elegant Cakes but I can't find it on those. Eventually I will find it and then edit here. It seemed to be a big hit. My sister-in-law put in a request for one as a housewarming present.

Our second gift to pass was a Glass Block. I bought the glass block from Michael's using a 40% off coupon. If I remember correctly they sell for about $16 regular price. I wasn't sure if this was going to work because there is a big cutout on the side (nice for putting in the lights) but it had a big plastic tab to close it off. It actually worked really well and I think I will buy more when M's has a 50% coupon. Jeff applied glass etching cream to one side to "frost" it. This worked like a charm and nicely diffused the light. We didn't bother with the back side mainly because we didn't have enough etching cream left but I don't think it mattered. The vinyl cutting was a free svg file from Denise's Scrapbooking Room. We originally put in a set of 35 lights but I didn't like how they all sank to the bottom of the block so I swapped it out for a set of 50. Jeff preferred the 35 thinking it was softer but I over-ruled him. I then wrapped the ribbon around the block and tied a double bow up on top. This was our first attempt at the glass block and I definitely think that I will be making more of them.... they were fun, easy and pretty... with the lights off and on...


I think this week I will get back to scrappin'. I love the crafting but need to try to get a layout or two in. We had craft night at work on Friday and I pretty much used the time to organize my cricut cartridge boxes. I hate to even admit it but I have 91 cartridges!! When did that happen??? But at least Jeff is using the cricut with me now and sees its potential. However I think he would prefer I quit altogether with the carts and just use SCAL and svgs. But there's no way I could give up my carts... we will just have to continue with both.
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Vinyl, SCAL and Tickets... oh my!

I am still working on one of our gifts for Saturday and needed to use SCAL since I couldn't find an image I like on one of my cricut carts. Well, actually, there were a few of them but the problem is that I've seen them used in the same way on the Cricut MB so I wanted to try something different. At the start it was nothing but problems... cricut would start cutting and then stop in the middle of the design and just sit.... frustrating! Note to self: Double check the size of the cutting mat listed on SCAL and make sure that it is the same as what you just put into the bug... it makes a difference.

So after I enlisted the aid of Jeff and he got it cutting, I did finally manage to cut two designs (first in paper) to see which I liked best... I picked one, cut the vinyl and now it sits waiting for Jeff to adhere it. Pictures will follow when all is done.

On a side note, I had an awful day yesterday and no one is to blame but myself. My license plates are expired on my car and I was stopped by a cop on my way home from work... result: $88 ticket for expired plates or a February court date (where I was hoping that I could get it reduced or eliminated showing that it is taken care of). Well, I was trying to figure out how to tell Jeff last night when he took my car to go help out my aunt and uncle. He came home and yep... you guessed it... he was pulled over and given an $88 ticket. Two tickets... one day... same violation... is that even possible??? Well getting the sticker is not as easy as I thought... car needs to go for emissions testing first, found out from Jeff that there is a "knock sensor" going off and it won't pass emissions until that is fixed first. Needless to say, he was not happy (and he still doesn't know about my ticket yet). Friday night is craft night at work and honestly, I NEED it. I will hopefully finish my ornaments tomorrow so Friday night I can scrap for fun. I have some sketches picked out... some challenges I am interested in... even some cards... I don't care... I just want to scrap.

Just tired...

Last night I worked some more on the ornaments for this Saturday. Still not sure how they will turn out or if I am even gonna like them but I will finish them.... just not tonight. I also tried finding a nice winter and/or Christmas image to use on our second gift to pass. Found a few svg files since there wasn't anything I wanted that hadn't been done before on my cricut cartridges. The plan was to cut some out on paper tonight before taking them to vinyl but again... not tonight. I really am tired. I think the last 6 weeks of work have caught up to me and now that I am no longer against a deadline, my body is saying... REST! So a little time on the computer and then off to bed for me!

Bugging Away...

After working 60 plus hours a week for the last 6 weeks, throw in Thanksgiving and Christmas plus my husband losing his job, I haven't had much time for crafting (other than the Christmas presents we made). Today I cleared out a spot for my cricut and cartridges in our craft/computer room then I turned it on!!

We still have one more Christmas party to go to next Saturday and it is tradition to have an ornament exchange. I didn't have an ornament last year (and maybe not even the year before) so this year I am determined. I wasn't sure what I was going to make until I found a post on the Cricut MB featuring a snowflake. I should be able to complete 20 of them by Saturday. I will be sure to post pics when I finish plus look for the post so I can give proper credit to the lady I am lifting the idea from.

I also decided that this year I am going to complete a full year scrapbook. What I plan to do is do a calendar page, a journaling page and a layout(s) of pics for each month. I have Designer's Calendar that I used my Cricut rewards points on last year so why not use it and make the calendars, right? I made January's today. It's a little plain right now but towards the end of the month I plan to write details from the month on it.


Completing a full scrapbook... sounds like another goal to add to my list for the year. Speaking of which I went through my overflowing inbox of emails and picked a few to look at challenges. I am contemplating ones featuring song lyrics, sketches and cards. Have to see which I decide to do... maybe all 3?

A New Year.. A New Start

I can't believe that it's been almost a year since I last wrote here. I used to enjoy it so much and then just fell off the wagon. So it's time to start again... if for no other reason than to post my scrappin' projects.

I managed to do a few layouts last year (maybe 30 or 40). I posted the ones from last year's craft weekend but will slowly pull the ones together that I have done and take pics of those as well and post them when I have nothing else to share.

I also took on a few new projects last year. I organized a few card making sessions with the ladies from work and we made 225 cards to send to the Cards for Soldiers group on the Cricut Messageboard. I've made some cards in the past but never like that before. There may be more cardmaking in my future.

I also made some Christmas presents this year. This year one of the fantastic blogs I discovered was Scrap~A~Doodle~Dee (Papercrafts by Candace). She is really talented. One of her projects was a set of flash cards that I thought would be perfect for the triplets. Thank goodness I started early in November because it took me right up until Christmas to finish them. I think I spent about 40 hours working on them. But I have to say that they turned out absolutely adorable. I didn't get pictures of them but I plan to when we go to visit in 2 weeks.

And another Christmas project was floating frames. These are all the rage on the Cricut MB and look pretty darn awesome. Plus this was a project Jeff and I could work on together. I bought ugly pictures at Goodwill strictly for the frames. Jeff sanded and painted them black. We then cut last names and the years of marriages out of black vinyl (bought from Expressions Vinyl) for Jeff's parents and two sisters. We then cut out the names and years using Sure Cuts Alot and my cricut and placed them onto a glass for each frame. One of the frames already came with 2 pieces of glass so we had 2 more pieces cut to match the other two frames. The vinyl names and years were then "sandwiched" in between the two pieces of glass and placed into the frames (with no other backing). Again didn't get pictures...yet. Another thing to do when we next visit.

Since I don't have any pics of the presents we made, I will share two layouts that I did this last year.
Whoooo's Crying - This one I am actually making a companion page to in order to focus on the journaling. Poor Kendra was so devastated when she didn't get to go to school with her brother and sister. This was my first time using the Create a Critter cricut cartridge and I loved it! Isn't that owl adorable? I ended up using this cartridge many more times on the flash cards.


Bee Happy - And here was another simple layout (my style of late) of Kaitlyn picking apples. Not sure why I went with the whole "BEE" theme except that I had the bee patterned paper (words) and had fallen in love with the Bee on the Sentimentals Cartridge and had desperately wanted to use it. The title is cut from the Pooh Font cartridge.

So I'm not very good at making New Year's Resolutions and one blog I read today mentioned setting goals rather than resolutions. That sounds like a great idea. The following are my goals for my crafting this year...

1) Keep this blog fairly current - I won't pressure myself to blog everyday but a couple times a week would be nice.

2) 50 Layouts - This should be a manageable goal. I still have my craft weekend in April plus we are trying to schedule 2 craft nights and 1 craft day at the office each month.

3) Submit my Work - Doesn't necessarily have to be for a magazine submission but even for a challenge blog. I have a hard time sharing my work and this will help me to overcome that.

4) Make Cards - Send homemade cards to loved ones this year instead of buying them (or even worse sending none). I have the ability, the materials, I just need to plan ahead and make the time.

5) Try Something New - A new product... a new technique... a new style... or even a new craft... who knows? Maybe that something new will become my something usual.

Okay, those aren't too bad... they shouldn't be too difficult to manage. And since I am posting them here publicly it will help hold me accountable to them.

Here's to a great 2011!