Saturday, January 15, 2011

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...

Sunday, January 9, 2011

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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