Playing With New Toys

I was so happy to see UPS arrive at my door today bearing my Custom Crops order. In addition to some really pretty Valentine Paper I also received the Mother's Day cartridge. Initially I was not very excited about this cartridge, but upon closer inspection I discovered that it contains some really pretty cuts. And I discovered that it does not have to be all about mom.

As I looked at the pretty cuts, I noticed this really pretty floral vine. When I placed the cut on the mat in Design Studio I realized that when I turned the vine upside down it resembled a floral heart. Given that Valentine's Day is just around the corner, I decided to make a card.

I used five colors of Core'dination cardstock to create this card: Jenni Bowlin Core Impressions embossed black, white washed red, white washed pink, plain white, and gold. I cut the shadow of the vine in plain white. I cut the vine cut twice, once in white washed red, once in white washed pink. I used scissors to trim away the flowers on the pink cut. I then attached the pink cut over the red cut. I used a 1/4 inch hole punch to create the gold flower centers. Finally I cut the tag, using the hide select contour feature, in black.

My First Glass Etch Projects

I have been so intrigued by the glass etch projects made with vinyl and Armour Etch which I have viewed at various blogs that I decided to have a go at etching.  After Christmas I purchased 9 inch tall hand blown candle sticks on close-out sale.  I thought they would be perfect for etching as there is a 1 inch rim at the top edge.  I also thought the close out price was a plus as this was a new craft for me.

I used Design Studio and Storybook to cut a design in scrap cricut vinyl I had in a drawer.  I used the negative part of the cut and applied the vinyl pieces to the glass.  I then filled in the vine-flower design with Armour Etch. 

I did not realize that the Armour Etch cream would drip, but it did.  Right down onto the bulb area in the center of the candle stick.  I tried a couple of fixes but found all attempts to deal with the drips lacking.  So finally I realized that I could etch the whole bulb area.  I am actually quite pleased with this effect.

I purchased candles at Hobby Lobby and now I am all set with cute Valentine gifts for my daughter and my son's girlfriend.

Cricut Cake Machine Cakes Sneek Peek

Have you seen what the Cricut Cake can do???  I am so impressed with what can be cut with this machine... It makes me wish I were more of a baker! This is a reprint of a Twitter photo from CHA that I wanted to share.  Yes, YES, I am enabling.....

Gypsy Spot Tuesday - Super Bowl Themed Challenge

This week the Gypsy Spot is getting ready for the Super Bowl.  The challenge of the week is to use the Gypsy (or just the Cricut or the Cricut with Design Studio if do not have a Gypsy) and create a Super Bowl party themed project.  I chose to create a center piece with which to cheer on the New Orleans Saints. 

This is the first time in the history of the team that the Saints have made it to the Super Bowl.  If that wasn't reason enough to cheer on the Saints, my husband and I lived in New Orleans the first year we were married (28 years ago).  And that same year, the Saints drafted a friend from college. 

I used three different cartridges on my Gypsy to create this center piece:  Everyday Paper Dolls, George, and Sweathearts.  This was the first project made with my new blue Expression and I have to say, I was having some difficulty with the mat sliding.  If this continues to be an issue, I may have to switch back to the regular Expression.

Before I close I am going to confess that my husband is from Tennessee and Peyton Manning was quarterback for Tenn prior to being a Colt.  So in our home this Super Bowl is truly a win-win.  We will be happy no matter which team wins.  But let's be honest, the Saints made for a better center piece.  Geaux Saints!!!!

BBTB2 Love Stamp Cut

I am running a bit late today on getting my BBTB2 project loaded to both the BBTB2 site and to my blog.  The challenge this week was to use the Love Stamp cut from the Sweethearts cartridge.  I made this sweet valentine which includes cuts from five different cartridge:  Sweethearts, Calligraphy, Love Struck, Easter 2010 and Tie the Knot.

I used Bazzill pink bling cardstock, smooth white cardstock, one sheet of Basic Grey Sugared cardstock and two prints from SEI's Juliette line.  I love the shimmer in the SEI paper!!!

I finished off the front of the card with Prima flowers and American Crafts ribbon.  Inside I added the phrase "Be My Valentine" from the Calligraphy cartridge.  I also cut a an extra heart from Sweethearts and sweet border from Easter 2010. 

I love this couple on Love Struck.  Speaking of Love Struck, WHAT A GREAT CARTRIDGE!!!!  I am so enjoying the 2010 seasonal mini carts.  Be sure and get your before they are gone!!

Last of the Weekend Layouts

This is the last of layouts that I will be sharing from last weekend's crop at Lake Murray (thank you Sally & Beth)!! Let me see... We featured Aaron, then Bethany... So it must be time for Ian. I must tell you that my photo stash of Ian has declined significantly since he went away to college. I am going to have to speak to him about being IN the photos he takes and posts.

The photos in this layout were from January 2009 when the Carolina Panthers were in the playoffs. I was excited that I had a reason to use the Carolina-Like Panther cut that I designed a couple of years ago.  Sadly they were destroyed by the Cardinals.... and it rained… And the quarterback threw a zillion interceptions…. OUCH. My poor guys - there they were in the rain watching their team loose. My husband assured me that except for the game the guys enjoyed their trip to Charlotte. That is one of those "huh" statements. They only went to Charlotte for the game!!! Yes they did spend the night and have dinner, etc. But they went to see the game!!!

I think the look on Aaron’s and Ian’s faces in this photo says it all - they look so annoyed with the game. I will add that Ian was better trained as a scrapper child - I not only got photos, he also brought me his game ticket to go on his page. Alas, now I would be happy to just have photos!!

And finally I will share this layout of Doug and me on New Year’s Eve. Not my best layout design, but I loved the paper. Note that the dancing couples in the back ground match my dress and Doug’s sweater. … I really did not insist that he wear that color…. Honest. This was a great set of paper that I found at Scrap Your Trip. Thanks Julie.

Weekend at the Lake Scrap Peek #2

Today's peek at my weekend crop projects will feature my daughter and her activities.  Do you detect a pattern here?  Yesterday was the older son, followed by my daughter - the middle child - today.  Hmmmm.  Who do you think will be featured tomorrow?

This two page layout features Bethany and her friend Bailey who attended the Charleston Green Fair.  I was especially excited to be able to use the letter G from Tie the Knot cartridge for my capital letters in the page title.  I welded lower case Plantin to the Tie the knot caps.

 

Bethany and Bailey were photographed with the event "mascots" and the picture appeared in the local Charleston paper.  For those who may not be familiar with our State, Charleston is three hours away and we do not get the Charleston paper in Aiken.  Silly us, we get the Aiken Paper.  Bethany did not get a copy of the actual newspaper for me, but she did send me a link to the on-line pdf of the article.  I was able to the save the pdf article and print it onto cardstock.  I also was able to right click the photo, save it and print it and create this double page layout.

You may recall the first page of the two page layout below - the left page was created for a BBTB2 challenge using the phase cut In Style from Graphically Speaking.  I also designed a second page for the layout.  I have found that 99% of my layouts are double page spreads.   When I used the left page for BBTB2, I printed the photos out quickly with dying toner.  For the final scrapbook version, I printed the photos at Shutterfly and cropped them to fit the layout.

I really like how this layout came out. I was especially pleased with the dress stands and the spools of thread.  The dress stands were made using a key cut on JOTS and Belle's dress from DCT.  There is a spool of the thread with a needle on the other Disney princess cartridge, but of course I do not have that cartridge.  So I used George and created my own spools.  The spool was made by welding two round corner triangles together with a barrel cut in the middle.  I then cut the barrel in the color I wanted the thread to be.  I had cut a snip of silver paper for the needle and used my markers to draw in the thread.

In my ususal style, I finished both layouts with doodles and dots.  I will add that I do use a ruler to draw the lines on my layout... My hand is not steady enough to trust lines to free hand style.

As Promised - The First Peek at my Weekend at the Lake

Here are the first two layouts from my weekend at the lake - both layouts feature my older son or his activities.  The photo above and immediately below are of Aaron and his sweet, sweet girlfriend.  I used SEI Moravia paper, including one of the shaped pages in the kits.  I cut the shaped page in half-ish (60/40) and used part on each of the two pages.  I love this set of papers, they are so rich looking and they worked wonderfully for this late fall photo shoot.

The next two photos are from the Fleetwood Mac concert layout that I did for my older son.  Aaron, his girlfriend and his roommate saw Fleetwood Mac in Charlotte sometime last summer.  They came home with lots of photos of the band and no photos of the themselves.... Insert a big sigh here if you are a scrapping mom.  

These two pages were scrapped on Crate paper that I purchased at last summer's scrapbook convention - also in Charlotte.  I love this set of paper - the colors and the shaped cuts area wonderful.  There were lots of embellies included in the kit, but I suplimented with those by adding my own crocheted flowers and brads.  I think the flowers match so well that they look like they came with the paper!! 

I photographed several layouts as well as a new craft technique on which I have spent two afternoons this week.  I will share more on that later in the week.....   Yes, that is a tease to bring you back!!!!

Gypsy Spot Tuesday - Black & Gold Challenge

It's Tuesday and that means the challenges are up at the Gypsy Spot blog. This week Nilda challenged the team to use the colors black and gold to create any project of our choice. Since I had missed the BBTB2 challenge last week where they used the boy and girl Valentine cuts from A Child's Year, I decided to use that cut.

I used three cartridges, A Child's Year, Sweethearts and Winter Woodlands to make this vintage looking Valentine card. I cut the hearts from Sweethearts, including welding two shadow hearts together to form the base card. The base card was cut in a cranberry colored Swiss dot Bazzill cardstock. I cut the top layer of heart, with the eyelet scallops, in a lacey gold paper that my friend Kathy shared with me.

The two layers of silhouettes from ACY were cut in cranberry cardstock for the shadow and texturized core'dination cardstock for the top layer silhouettes. I enhanced the Valentine couple with white gel pen dots and doodles.

I glued ecru vintage looking lace around the inner edges of the scalloped heart and added Prima flowers to the top edge of the heart. I also added a double layer of the word love from Winter Woodlands cartridge to the upper left front of the card. I again used the black cardstock and gold lacey paper to create the two word layers.

I added an additional lacey heart inside the card so it is all set for me to stamp my St. Valentine's message.

Snow Fun with Doodlecharms Snowman

I had a wonderful long weekend at the lake with my scrapping girlfriends scrapping, laughing, eating (!) and catching up. The productive MOJO was flowing and we all accomplished a great deal. I will share more with you later in the week, but I will begin with today's Bitten By The Bug 2 project.

The assigned challenge cut for the week is the snowman from Doodlecharms. We had to use the snowman to create any project we wanted. I made this cute snow card.

I used my gypsy so that I could include the pre-welded Snow with snowflakes title from Gypsy Wanderings. I embellished with additional snowflakes from Gypsy Wanderings and Jolee's. And of course the tag background was also from GW.

The bottom border was created using a Martha Stewart punch and the strip was topped with a Let it Snow! ribbon.

I dressed my snowman in clothing from Everyday Paper Dolls and finished him off with black pearl accents. And of course the final touch was an assortment of doodles and dots.

I will be back tomorrow with the Gypsy Spot challenge and later in the week I will share some of my weekend projects.

It's a Party at the Gypsy Spot

Okay that may be a slightly misleading title... But it is PARTY FAVORS at the Gypsy Spot!!!  This week's Gyspy challenge was to design a party favor.  I created a party favor bag for a tobogganing party - doesn't it just scream winter chill and fun in the snow?

Now this tobogganing party - it will NOT be happening here in SC!!  But these great little favor bags would be perfect for those in snowier climates to give the kids at the tobogganing party as well as to take along for members of your ski weekend!!! 

I used a number of different cartridges to create this bag, welded shapes, and topped the design off with the frosty snow couple cut from Gypsy Wanderings.  Mr. and Mrs. Snowpeople look adorable on thier snowy background.

Cuttlebug Folder Storage

This post is in response to a thread on the Cricut message board. Some posed the question of how to store their Cuttlebug embossing folders. I must say there were a lot of creative and interesting ideas posted, but I like my storage system. I use the Cuttlebug binder system.

Before I detail the system let me share the benefits: the binder stores easily on a shelf; it holds a variety of sizes and shapes of folders; the system is awesomely transportable so I can easily grab my binders and head off to a crop; and best of all, everything is in one area.

The binders come with a few pages already in them but additional pages with varying pocket configurations are available. I purchased my sets from Custom Crops, but the products are readily available from a number of craft providers.

I know that the binders were created for the Cuttlebug products, but I find that they work equally well with my sizzix embossing plates and my nestabilities. In fact I love the Cuttlebug binder for my nesties... Even the tall nesties fit in the binder with no problem.