Watercolor Trio

A while ago I had to make a bunch of thank you cards for a gift package.  I knew I wanted something simple, but elegant.  Something that would be easy to make a lot of and not want to rip my hair out.

This is what I came up with:

The base size is a standard A2 size - 5 1/2 x 4 1/4.  I used my scor pal to make the embossed border, and out of everything that was the most time consuming out of everything.

Materials:
cardstock: kraft, white
ink: SU craft white, SU classic crumb cake
stamp set: SU Watercolor Trio

Organization: Paper Scraps

Like many things I have organized and re-organized, my paper scraps were one of those things that I just couldn't seem to find something that worked for me.  Whenever I would mat a photo or use a sheet of paper for a title I didn't want to just waste the rest and throw it away.  At one point I tried throwing all my scraps in a bin, but quickly grew tired of trying to dig through the pile of paper to find the color I needed.  I then tried drawers, but at that time there were only the smaller sizes and I scrap 12x12 mostly so some of my scraps would be 12" in length and they wouldn't fit in the drawers.

Then came the sterilite 12x12 drawers!

1 set consists of 3 drawers so I bought 2 of them to stack on top of each other.  I then assigned each drawer a specific color

My drawers are divided into these colors:
1. red, yellow, orange
2. green, blue
3. pink, purple, peach
4. white, cream, and gray
5. black, brown
6. metallics, misc., and patterns

Now I can fit even my 12" scraps and whenever I am looking for a certain color I can just go to that drawer.  Before I cut a whole piece of paper I look in my scrap drawers to see if I have something that may work instead.

I did this a long time ago and am too lazy to change things around, but if I were to categorize my colors today I probably would do it a bit differently.  I probably would put reds and pinks together since some of them can overlap in color and some I have a hard time deciding if it's more on the red side or the pink side.

This is the way I store almost all of my cardstock and patterned paper scraps.  The only scraps I don't stick in these drawers is my Stampin' Up cardstock and Papertrey Ink cardstock.  I keep those scraps with my full sheets in a different system.

Grammy Countdown Calendar

Still haven't had a chance to make anything new, so here is the countdown calendar I made this summer for the trip to see my mom in NC.  She lives on Ocracoke Island which is known for the pirate Blackbeard and that's where the pirate theme comes in, along with the beachy theme since Ocracoke is part of the Outer Banks.

The colors I used were two of the retired colors from Stampin' Up! Taken with Teal and Cameo Coral, plus black and white.  The orange was Bazzill cardstock, but I don't know the specific names of the shade.  The grid, title, days of the week, and numbers are all from Designer's Calendar cartridge and the fish border, beach/sea accents, and pirate cuts are all from Life's a Beach.  For the fish border I used my Gypsy to connect the border together to make it the length I wanted, but to keep it the same height, I think it was 1" or 1 1/2" -  I can't remember.  The little red car was to signify my husband's car and that was the day we would be leaving.  I think that cut came from Going Places, but for some reason I didn't write that one down!

For the countdown circles I used Life's a Beach cartridge and selected the tag feature.  I think I did this before the hide contour feature was added, so I just cut out a bunch of the seagull tags and cut off the little loop on top that would make it a tag.  At night before bed my sons would take turns and put one seagull over the day that just ended and that way they could see how long they had left before we left to see their Grammy.

I enjoy doing these calendars for my sons and making them all different depending on what we are doing.  This fall we will be going to the Smokey Mountains  and I am hoping to do a calendar for that trip as well, maybe with a woodsy, nature theme!

The Evolution of Cartridge Storage

It felt like a never ending quest: find the right storage solution for my Cricut cartridges.  I don't have a whole room to myself, I only have a craft space.  I am always reorganizing my things, trying my best to fill all my supplies in a tiny little space.  Sometimes I even feel like I am organizing and re-organizing more than I am crafting!

It started out simple enough when I had just a few cartridges.  I had them on a shelf in their original boxes behind where I sit:

Then my cartridges somehow multiplied and outgrew the shelf.  I had this space on the side of my table that my husband built me and it seemed like such wasted space.  We had some leftover foam core board from the ink pad holder the same wonderful husband built me, so he also built me a shelf for my cartridges to store them in that wasted space:

All was fine and dandy for a while, but as you can see, the bottom kinda gave out and somehow my cartridges multiplied again!!  They just keep doing that! ;)  So I again ran out of space.  This began my latest search for a way to store my cartridges.

Now, I am picky when it comes to the way I store certain things.  I know how I work, and I know what would get on my nerves in terms of using something!  So when looking for ideas I had certain criteria:

• It didn't necessarily have to stay in the original boxes, but everything had to stay together: handbook, overlay, and cartridge.  There are a lot of wonderful ideas on how to store handbooks/overlays together and then cartridges seperately.  However, for me, I knew this wouldn't work because I didn't want to have to go to one place to grab the handbook or overlay, and then open up something else for the cartridge.  Also, even though I have a Gypsy, I still use my cartridges in the machine and wanted ti keep everything together.
• I had the idea that my new storage would involve keeping the cartridges in alphabetical order, but the storage had to be something I could easily add new cartridges in alphabetically, without having to move everything around all over again
• Last, I wanted the new storage to be something where I could store the seasonal and solution cartridges along with the regular cartridges.  I hated having those types seperate from the others because I would forget about them and hardly used them.

So the search began....  I did google searches, and message board searches, and ended up on You Tube trying to find videos on organizational ideas.  And that's where I found it!  So, keep in mind, I am not the one you came up with this idea, but once seeing it, I knew it would fit what I was looking for perfectly!

While searching You Tube, I found this video, which also led me to her fabulous blog you can find at Scrappin with My Bug.  She apparantly go her idea from this video!  So now you can add me to the list of those who've adapted the idea!  Here is a picture of my system:

I bought the Clip it Up Mini by Simply Renee, but didn't get the upper tier because I didn't think I would need it just yet.  HA!  Silly me!  I should know by now how these cartridges love to multiply!  I also bought the zip top bags in size 5x8.  I created the labels with the cartridge names in Publisher and made it so the name would be on both sides of the bag.  I also color coded the labels as well to help identify what type of cartridge they were at a quick glance:

• Shape cartridges: blue
• Font cartridges: orange
• Classmates: green
• Solutions: pink
• Seasonal: yellow
• Licensed: red
• Lite: purple
• Cake (which I don't have any yet): white

I really love this system because it seems to fit each of my criteria I was looking for.  I have 50 cartridges on this one clip it up and they are kinda smooshed in there, so I know I will have to get the upper tier for any more cartridges.  I'm so happy I finally got this project done...now it's off to the next project - stamp organization!

Thank you card

Tomorrow I have some family coming over for a little BBQ and I am really hoping Mother Nature will be kind and have the rain pass us by!  We don't get much company, don't know why, so when it does happen I get very excited that for once we aren't the ones doing the traveling.  Anyway, I've been pretty busy getting ready for our company, I only have this card I made a while ago to share.  I can't even find where I wrote down the details about it so I am going to do my best to remember what I used.

All the supplies I used were from Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla
Patterned Paper: DSP from Occasions Mini - can't remember the name, Sending Love maybe?
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip
Stamp Sets: Teeny Tiny Wishes, With All My Heart
Other: Chocolate Chip 5/8" satin ribbon, Fancy Flower punch, Curly Label punch

My first Scraplift!

I love going around and looking at everyone's ideas and I scraplift a lot!  So it was so nice to hear from Sarah who made her own Disney countdown calendar based on this one I made.  You can see her wonderful calendar here.  You can also read more about my calendar by visiting my past post here.  We recently took a trip to NC to see my mom and I made a countdown calendar for that trip as well.  As soon as I get the chance I will share that one too!

Disney Layout

I know I have been missing, and I really regret that.  I haven't had much of a chance to actually get any crafting/scrapbooking done so therefore I've had nothing much to post!  I am going to make sure I make some time for myself by giving myself some personal challenges.

In the meantime, here is a layout I did a while ago from our 2008 Disney trip:

Hopefully I will be back with more soon!!

Happy National Scrapbook Day!

I joke with my husband that today is my holiday!  It's National Scrapbook Day and I didn't even get a layout done.  Boo!!  It figures that we would actually have nice weather (although a bit hot for May!) and it was hard to justify keeping myself holed up in my craft corner all day.  Oh well!  Maybe tomorrow I will try to get some pages done.

I am a bit disappointed, though.  For being National Scrapbook Day, I sure didn't see a lot of scrapbooking going on.  I did see a lot of cards, though.  Now, I do my fair share of cards also and am starting to get into that more, but it seems lately that is all I am seeing and I am missing some inspiration in the form of a scrapbook page.  I guess I'm just a bit disappointed.  It's also not just today but it seems like it's the latest trend.  I love seeing card ideas, but I do miss my layout inspirations. :(  Anyway, speaking of cards, I have a bunch of cards to share with you coming up soon.  But today, in honor of the holiday (tee hee) I have a 2 page layout I did for our Disney 2008 trip.

I just used some paper scraps to fill in the spaces that there were no pictures and I also used some stickers I had in my stash.  I love using things from my stash that I haven't used in a long time!  I really should challenge myself more to do that.

I am really trying to catch up on this particular album (Disney 2008), because now I have Disney 2009 to start doing! 

Fun! A scrapbook page

So far I am having a pretty busy week!  My sons had Kindergarten orientation on Monday.  Yesterday I worked on painting their room, and I hope to finish this weekend.  Today they had preschool, my one son had speech, and then we had to get them registered for this safety program our town offers for incoming Kindergarteners.  So now I am just being a complete couch potato and wanted to share another layout.

It's a 2 page layout and I wish I took a picture of them next to each other also.  I used my Cricut a lot for these pages, along with some stamping.

Title: genuine and arrow - Graphically Speaking;  fun - Sweet Treats

Butterfly: Graphically Speaking

Wheelbarrow:

Dragonfly and Bee: Pooh and Friends

The 2 flower stamps: Hero Arts

Snail: Stampin' Up - Picnic Parade

I also used a white gel pen to draw the dashes around the wheelbarow, and I used Stickles on the arrow, the butterfly trail, the butterfly wings and the bee wings, even though you can't see it very well.

Bringing scrapping back!

I know, I know, I disappeared again.  I have had such a busy couple of months that I haven't even had a chance to get into my craft room and create!!  So technically I haven't had much to share.  Recently I was able to get in there and get a couple of layouts done, and I also went back and dug out some other layouts as well.

It seems like there isn't much about scrapbooking out there anymore and would love to see more about it, so what better place to start than with my own blog! 

These 2 layouts were when my sons were about 15 months old and I did a page on their milestones at the time.  Yes my boys are 5 now, but I am waaaaay behind!

Sorry about the glare at the bottom!  I didn't even realize it until I uploaded the pics to my computer.  The title "adorable" is from Lyrical Letters and I welded the letters together on my gypsy.  The "great boy" is from Graphically Speaking.  The patterned paper is some I had in my stash from a while ago, but I think it's from Scenic Route.

For this layout I believe the patterned paper is from Junkitz...remember them???  I have a huge stash of their paper I just haven't used it yet.  The title is a font on my computer, but I can't remember the name of it right now.

It feels really nice to be posting again and I really hope I can keep it up.  Even with the stuff going on that's keeping me busy I really just want to make the time to get in my craft room and create!  Today I had Kindergarten orientation today for my sons.  I can't believe how time can go by so fast and they are going to be starting Kindergarten in September.  We are also still in the process of trying to get my one son the extra help he needs.  So lots of things going on!  But I do have a bunch of ideas in my head that I would love to share and I hope to be able to do it soon.

The Snowicane

You would think that if the view from my front door looks like this

and the view from my back door looks like this

that I would actually have time to scrapbook or create something since I've been pretty much stuck inside at home!  Alas, not the case.  Instead, time was filled with catching up on laundry, baking, playing in the snow, drying out from being in the snow, making hot chocolate, watching movies (kid movies that is), and taking pictures of course!  I am still holding out hope that tomorrow I can steal a little time for me to do some scrapbooking.

In the meantime I will share this reference sheet I made for myself and I never posted.  This was for my cartridge spotlight.

I cut out each of the different fonts, at size 1 1/2,  that are offered on the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge.  It's amazing the difference in size some of the fonts are even though they are all cut at the same height.  I usually do this for all my font cartridges as reference and it helps me judge the size better when I go to cut.  Although now I have the Gypsy, so it is easier to get the right size I need.

A look back to Valentine's Day

I'm still trying to catch up on a bunch of projects I've done in the past, so today I want to share some projects I did for Valentine's Day.

When I received Love Struck Cricut cartridge I knew I wanted to make some of the hearts as decorations, but as soon as I started it turned into one of those "what was I thinking" projects!  But I powered throught it and involved my sons in the decision making process and even though this picture isn't the greatest, I think they came out pretty cute

I actually used the thin generic cardstock for the intricate cuts and it worked great!  I then dressed them up with things like Glimmer Mist, Stickles, Perfect Pearls, and some had a bit of flock.  Some are turned around so you can't see the front, and I'm sorry I don't have a close up of any of them.  I think by the time I got to the picture taking I was just done with these hearts!!

I also made my sons Valentines for their preschool friends.  Since they are twins and in the same class, I wanted them to each give a different one, and on top of that I made different ones for the boys and the girls.  I also kept it fairly simple because I didn't want to make myself crazy putting them together.

These are the ones I made for the girls:

Image from Hello Kitty Cricut Cartridge; Happy Valentine's Day is from Stampin' Up! Teeny Tiny Wishes; To/From is fron Stampin' Up! Christmas Punch; the colored cardstock/ink is SU! Melon Mambo

Cupcake from Sweet Treats Cricut Cartridge; sentiment is SU! Something Sweet set; to/from is from SU! Christmas Punch; colored cardstock/ink is SU! Pretty in Pink and Chocolate Chip

These are the ones I made for the boys:

Image is from Mickey font Cricut cartridge; the stamped sentiments are the same as the Hello Kitty one above; colored cardstock/ink is SU! Real Red

Cupcake is from Sweet Treats Cricut cartridge; stamped sentiments are the same as the cupcake one above; colored cardstock/ink is SU! Close to Cocoa, and Chocolate Chip (cupcake wrapper)

I also made their 2 teachers different Valentines as well:

All products used are from Stampin' Up; cardstock: dusty durango; ink: whisper white pigment, soft suede, crushed curry, dusty durango; stamp sets: I {Heart} Hearts, Christmas Punch, Whimsical Words; other: heart to heart punch

all products are Stampin' Up!; cardstock: rich razzleberry, basic black; ink: rich razzleberry, basic black; stamp sets: I {Love} Love jumbo wheel, Grateful Greetings, Christmas Punch; other: 1/4" basic black grosgrain ribbon

My last projects was also made with the Sweet Treats cartridge and I made my boys little Valentine treat bags.

My husband put the little stuffed animal cat in the back!  One of my sons likes chocolate and his favorite color is purple, and the other one likes vanilla and his favorite color is red!

I used the D'vine Swirls embossing folder on the cupcake frosting and just used generic cardstock for the pieces.  Inside are some lollipops and heart candy and I set these up for them to see in the morning when they woke up.

This past Valentine's Day my mom offered me a great oppurtunity!  She manages a very cute bed and breakfast and they were having a special valentine package for their guests.  She had certain ideas on what she wanted to do and asked me to help her out in creating a few things.  I got to work right away!

One of the things that she wanted was a way to package up some truffles that she can put out for the guests.  After cleaning out a closet I found a box of little favor boxes from my wedding almost 10 years ago!!  They were perfect to use for the truffles, but they definitely needed a bit of decorating.

The first idea I had was to put a band of patterened paper around the outside of the box.  I searched my stash and found some that would work perfectly. 

I also created a circle to go over where the paper meets, that way you can't see the seam

I used a stamp from SU! with versamark ink and clear embossing powder, then I spritzed the paper with some Glimmer Mist.

Once that was done I needed to work on the tops because it was way too plain!

I took plain black cardstock embossed with an embossing folder.  Layered on top was a cut from Storybook Cricut cartridge, which was then sprayed with Glimmer Mist (will need to go read my notes to find out the color).  The heart is also from Storybook, and the L is for Love is a SU! stamp.

Another request was a little valentine greeting card to leave in their rooms.

I did 5 cards each of 4 designs and colors.

Items used:

cardstock: whisper white, rich razzleberry, dusty durango, crushed curry, melon mambo (all SU!)

ink: basic black, rich razzleberry, dusty durango, crusged curry, melon mambo (all classic, SU!)

stamps: SU! I {Heart} Hearts, SU! Grateful Greetings (not available anymore)

Other: night and day speciality dsp (SU! not available anymore); 1/4" black grosgrain ribbon (SU!)

That last thing I had to do was make hearts for the guests so my could write their names on them.  Unfortunatey I don't have any pictures of them, but I used my Cricut to cut them out, sprayed the red cardsock with some Glimmer Mist, and then layered that on black cardstock.  I was so happy I was able to help my mom out and I hope I get more opportunities like this in the future.

Dusting off the ole' blog

Remember me sweet blog??  I know, it's been a long time, but you have been on my mind every day.  I promise to pay more attention to you this year.

I don't know where to start.  Many things have happened over the past months that needed to take priority.  It was a time when I didn't even feel like crafting or writing in here.  I was getting into a funk and everything was completely stressful.  I can't say that things are "better" per se right now, but I have a better grip on things and right now I need the distraction.  I need to create, I need to go into my craft room and leave everything else on the other side of the door.  It always seems to make me feel better.  I also realized that I really missed my blog.  I know I don't have many visitors, but I think I was putting too much emphasis on that before.  I realized that I liked having this as a place for me.  It was nice to be able to have an organized record of my work!  When I wanted to see what I made using a certain Cricut cartridge I was able to come on here and look it up according to the category.  So as I return now I am taking a different approach and a completely different focus.  This is my own little personal space on the internet and if I feel like putting up a Christmas project in February, I am going to do it!  Which, by the way, I am...and that is why I mentioned it! :)