A Winter Wonderland Valentine

I mentioned a while back that I had to make my mom some little Valentine's Day cards to give to her guests at the B&B, and since her theme is a winter wonderland Valentine's, I made he some snowflakes as well.  I'm sharing today what I made for her.

This is the mini card, and she will put these in the guest rooms.
Details (most products used here are SU unless otherwise noted):
Base - 4"x3" Bashful Blue cardstock
Layer - 3 7/8" x 2 7/8" Night of Navy cardstock
embossed snowflakes - Serene Snowflakes set, versamark, Ranger Bridal Tinsel embossing powder
Ribbon - Real Red 5/8" satin
Label on front - decorative label punch in bashful blue; wide oval punch in night of navy then embossed with vintage wallpaper embossing folder; I {heart} hearts stamp set, stamped in real red, then punched out with heart to heart punch.  This label is then attached to the card using dimensionals.

Inside the heart is stamped with I {heart} hearts stamp set in bashful blue ink, but stamped off once and then stamped on the inside.  The quote is from Occasional Quotes.

I made these snowflakes using my Cricut and the When It's Cold Outside cartridge.  I made 4 different snowflakes in 3 different sizes: 2.5", 3", and 3.5"  They are double sided so the outside snowflake it cut with just plain white cardstock, and the inside is bashful blue cardstock.  My mom will hang these from the ceiling in the dining room and throughout the lobby, along with some hearts that I made her last year.  I hope she takes pictures, I would love to see it all put together!

First Day of Kindergarten Layout

I am slowly coming out of my comfort zone and I just posted my first layout to the 2Peas Gallery.  I did this because I wanted to participate in the Scrapbook Stamping Class because I knew that would help me use more of my stamps which is one of my goals this year.  My style isn't exactly like the rest you see there, but I am trying!!  Most of my layouts are multiple photos, and I have a linear/clean line type of style.  I know there must be others out there that have this type of style.  Anyone???  Bueller?  Sorry, couldn't resist.

Anyway, I thought I would share my layout here since I can add a lot more detail about the stuff I used and what I did.

The layout is based on my sons' first day of Kindergarten.  After I started doing this layout I realized that their clothes for the day even matched and I didn't plan that!  I had them pick out their own shirts.  All of the stamps I used are from Papertrey Ink - School Time.

"First day of" is from a stamp, but the actual stamps says, "First day of school."  I just masked the school part so I could use the rest of the stamp.  Kindergarten is cup with the cricut cartridge, Plantin Schoolbook.  I layered some paper to make it look like chipboard.  The border of "I love School" is also a stamp.

The stamps on this page are the embellishments on top, the ABC paper in the middle, and the year, age, and teacher on the bottom piece of paper.  The patterened paper I used on this layout is an old one I had from my stash.  It was from the Junkits Brights line.  Using my stash was another goal I had, and I can say so far so good!

After I stamped these images, I used my 1 3/8" circle punch to cut them out and then I popped them up on dimensionals to give some depth.

Here is a close up view of my faux chipboard letters.

Supplies used:
Patterned Paper: Junkitz Brights
Cardstock: SU! Whisper White textured and smooth, real red, brilliant blue, daffodil delight
Ink: SU! real red, brilliant blue, yoyo yellow, daffodil delight, garden green
Stamps: PTI School Time
Other: 1 3/8" circle punch, dimensionals, computer journaling

Bags from Plantin Schoolbook

I tend to be a visual person and I like to see how things are, so I seem to make myself a lot of reference type sheets.  A while ago I needed to package up a gift quickly and had nothing at home to use.  I thought I would make myself a bag from one of my cricut cartridges, but I had no idea how each one would turn out or how much room inside there would be.  So I thought once I had the chance I would cut out each bag and make myself a little reference sheet.  If I am going through all this work for myself, why not share it!

I started with Plantin Schoolbook since they only had a couple, and I already posted my font reference sheet and end cap reference sheets in the past.  I might even do the envelopes for this cartridge as well.

I cut these out with an 8.5x11 sheet of paper and chose fit to page to cut at the maximum size, but I got the maximum size cuts for 12x12 and 24x12 as well.  I also included the measurements of the put together bag, but on my reference sheet I forgot to mention that the size of the completed bag was for a bag made with 8.5x11 paper and not the bigger sizes.

This is the main bag
Maximum cut sizes:

8.5x11: 6.5"

12x12: 7.25"

24x12: 11.5"

Height to top of bag: 4 3/8"

Height to top of handles: 5 5/8"

Shadow of main bag - this one has no cut lines or score lines.  I had to make my own

Maximum cut sizes:

8.5x11: 6.25"

12x12: 7"

24x12: 11"

Height to top of bag: 4 1/2"

Height to top of handles: 5 5/8"

Tall Ball

Maximum Size cuts:

8.5x11: 9"

12x12: 12.5" (don't know how, but that's what it gave me!)

24x12: 13"

Height to top of bag: 3 5/8"

Height to top of handles: 4 3/8"

Italic

Maximum size cuts: 

8.5x11: 6.75"

12x12: 7.5"

24x12: 11.5"

Height to top of bag: 5 5/8"

Roly Poly

Maximum size cuts:

8.5x11: 5.75"

12x12: 6.25"

24x12: 11.5"

Height to top of bag: 3 5/8"

Height to top of handles: 4 3/4"

I took this picture to show that pretty much all the bags have the same size inside of them, which is about 1 1/4" except for Tall Ball, the round on at the end.  That one is about 1 3/8"

This is a picture of what the reference sheet looks like.  I am going to attempt the put a link for the PDF here in case you want to print it out for your own reference.  Since I never tried to link to a PDF before, please be patient if it doesn't work.

Also remember that the size for the height of the completed bags is based on a cut from an 8.5x11 sheet of paper.  I forgot to put that on the sheet.

PDF: Plantin Schoolbook maximum size cuts

Toy Story Birthday

My sons are HUGE fans of all things Toy Story.  We have watched Toy Story 1 and 2 countless times, and Toy Story 3 was the first movie they saw in the movie theater.  We've had to role play Toy Story characters and they both had to be Buzz Lightyear for Halloween.  So of course for their birthday it had to be a Toy Story theme.  You can imagine my excitement when Provo Craft announced a Toy Story cartridge this past summer!  I just knew it would be perfect for their birthday and couldn't wait to get it.  Even with all the delays in getting this cartridge, it still managed to get to me on time, although my work time was cut short.  So I had to work some magic to get everything done, but I did it and I love how everything turned out.

I used my Gypsy for most of the cuts because I had to make everything a certain size and the Gyspy makes everything so easy for that!  Plus I was able to use the hide contour feature on a couple of things, which helped save an enourmous amount of paper.

This is just an overview of the kids table

I made 2 toy story signs and we taped then back to back so no matter what side you were on you could see the sign.  We then hung it from the ceiling in the middle of the room.  Hanging from the sign is the 3D alien cut.  We used a piece of a toy from my one son to be "the claw" and had the alien hanging from the claw.  He had been chosen!!

Beneath that on the table I had 2 aliens from the trio alien cut (I didn't cut out the middle one), and had one on each side of the alien in the claw pointing up, almost like they are saying "oooooohhhhhh, the claw!"  The aliens are taped to a covered up wooden block to hold them up, and there is an alien on the opposite side as well so both sides of the table had a view!

Here is a view of the whole thing together

On another wall I had Jessie, Buzz, Woody, and Bullseye.  The Happy Birthday letters were cut from the Old West cartridge.

closer view of the gang

Here are more cuts I did that we just put up as decoration.  The only thing I didn't cut was Zurg, because I needed him to be bigger than what I was able to cut.  Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head was part of the game "pin the parts on the potato heads"   I also cut out the individual pieces from Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head and then the kids had to try to stick the part where it belonged.  Zurg was a "defeat zurg" game where the kids got to throw balls at Zurg!  I made him by tracing a picture from a projector onto poster board and then coloring him in.  Then velcro sticky tabs were stuck to him for the felt balls to stick to.

This sign obviously has nothing to do with Toy Story, but I made this little sign to hang in their bathroom so it was the first thing they saw when they woke up the morning of their birthday.  All the cuts for this sign was from the Celebrations cartridge.


The boys loved all the decorations for their party and now all the cuts are in their room.  I am so happy that it worked out and they had a great party, and I loved seeing everyones reactions to all the things I made

Random Projects

I think I may actually get a chance to scrapbook tomorrow!  My husband said he would watch the boys while I had some "me" time, but they both mentioned about wanting to play in the snow tomorrow and that means hot chocolate afterwards.  That means mommy has to make it, but maybe I can get some scrapbooking in before and after.

In the meantime I still have some projects from last year that I would like to share.  This first one is a sign I made for the boys for their first day of Kindergarten! 

I used Locker Talk and My Community Cricut cartridges for the images on the sign.  I kept it fairly simple, well because I did at the last minute!  I worked on it the night before their first day.

I think I am going to have to make a sign for their first day every year now!

This next one actually has a story behind it, one that I think i will remember always.

It's raining chocolate chip cookies!  This all started when my son "C" was makign wishes.  Whenever he saw the first star at night or threw a coin in a fountain, he would say, "I wish it would rain chocolate chip cookies!"  Well, the more tell it like it is son "B" would say, "that can't happen!"  Well, I was determined to make it happen for my sweet little dreamer!

So one day while they were in school, I cut the cloud and cookies from my cricut and baked up a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies.  I tied the cookies to the cloud to make it look like the cookies were coming out of the cloud, and then I tied it to the light in the dining room.  Then I put the plate of real cookies underneath so it looked the plate caught the cookies falling from the cloud.

When they got home and walked into the dining room, I heard a lot of laughter and squeals of happiness, and then the best thing of all.  Son C ran up to me, gave me a hug and said, "Mommy, you made my wish come true!"  Sometimes they can definitely test my patience, but this one statement makes all the effort worth it.  The cookie cloud is now hanging up in their room.

The cloud was made from the cartridge Mickey and Friends, and the cookies are from From My Kitchen.

Teacher Card

Still have some projects I would like to share from last year.  This one was made for my sons preschool teacher when they graduated in June.  I had all the kids sign their names on the inside and then on the back I typed up a list of what their favorite thing about that teacher was. 

I used Locker Talk Cricut Cartridge and I tweaked it a bit with my Gypsy.  I chose the "my teacher" image from the cartridge but I didn't want it to say my teacher, I wanted it to say #1 teacher.  So I used the board and teacher from that image and then used the hide contour feature on the Gypsy to get rid of the "my."  Then I used the #1 from the #1 student image on another page and cut that to put with the teacher.  The size of the card is 5.5x8.5 - basically a sheet of 8.5x11 cardstock, scored and folded at 5 1/2. 

A new year, a new start

Happy New Year everyone!  The beginning of a brand new year seems to be a time of new beginnings and starting over - almost like getting a fresh start on something.  For me, I am determined to prove something to myself this year.  I am so tired of starting something and then somwhere along the way, I stop.  I also want to make sure I take more time for myself this year, especially to scrapbook or do some sort of creating.  This past year I scrapbooked less than I ever have since I started this hobby.  So with that...

• I am going to do my best to blog at least 3 times a week.  At times it may be more or less, but I really don't want a week to go by without me posting something!
• Because of the blogging, that means I need to make sure I create something!  So I am going to try my best to make time for that every week.
• I would like to try all the different techniques I have seen but have never tried, but have really wanted to!  As I try each one I will share it here.
• I want to use my stash!!!  I know this is a big one for a lot of scrapbookers and cardmakers.  We are always talking about using the stuff we have more and buying new stuff less.  For me, I have a bunch of stuff that I bought but I haven't used yet, and I would like to take this year to challenge myself to use the stuff I have bought at least once!  For example, I bought alcohol inks because I really wanted to try them out, but I have yet to use them.  So they have been sitting in my drawer for a year :( 
• I am also determined to make at least 1 project with each of my cricut cartridges.  I have cartridges I haven't used yet, and I don't want to feel like I wasted my money buying them just add to my collection.
• I feel the same way about my stamps.  I have stamp sets I had to have, but haven't used.

Whew!!  I hope I can do it!!  I want to look back when it turns to 2012 and say I did what I set out to do, or at least I gave it my best shot!

With that, I will share a layout I wanted topost last year but never got around to it.  Since I don't have anything new yet, I will be sharing a lot of older projects I've done for the next couple of posts.

This was from our Disney 2008 trip:

I am going to try my best to remember what I used:

cardstock: SU basic gray textured cardstock

star border: SU star wheel with black ink and some are outlined with black stickles

Title is cut with Make the Cut and a font I had on my computer

Stars are cut from cricut cartridge Hannah Montana

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!

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.