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! :)