Thursday, July 31, 2014

Throwback Thursday - Fancy Border

Welcome to another week of Throwback Thursday.  I was looking at some old layouts and remembering how hard I worked to create things the way I wanted them to be and was thinking about welding- placing images together and having them cut as one.  It used to panic me and drive me crazy until I conquered it with this layout.
When I set out to make this layout I knew in my mind what I wanted, but I did not have the right cut so I challenged myself, took my time and created the circle border by welding many of the smaller rings sections together.

I use the welding feature all the time to create the cut I want now and am so glad I did not give up on it.
Thanks for visiting.

Original post on layout is HERE

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Under Construction - A New Image

Thanks for visiting today. You might notice I am changing things around and creating a new blog design.  Stay tuned for the final touches to be completed this week.

I am keeping my pink and green base colors but decided after 2 years it was time for a new look. I would love your thoughts.

Be on the look for a new blog button soon.

SURPRISE!!!

On Saturday we held a surprise party for my sister's 40th birthday. The major surprise...her birthday is not until October.  She lives in Nashville and will not be home again until the holidays so we had to get her Illinois friends all together to celebrate. I made a banner for her nieces to hold up when she arrived.
I had some large white banner paper leftover from the school year to use as my  base.  I cut the large letters out using a 12 x 24 mat and some adhesive backed paper (so much easier to glue down).
Once  I had the letters the way I wanted them I cut out a cute birthday cake and some balloons to add on as well. I actually designed everything on Design Space before cutting just zoomed out so I could see everything in one place.
We had a wonderful time and she did not get to mad at me for planning this for her.  She was generally happy to see everyone and no one leaked the surprise before it was time for her to know!!  Have a great day.

Supplies
- Birthday Bash Cricut Cartridge - Surprise and 40
- Celebrations Cricut Cartridge - balloons(modified)
- Sweet Treats Cricut Cartridge - cake (modified) 
- KG Always A Good Time Font - Jenny
- DCWV Adhesive Pattern Stack 12 x 24 paper, red glitter sheet

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Anything Goes with Die Cuttin' Divas - A Baby Bag

Good day to everyone. This week at Die Cuttin' Divas it is ANYTHING GOES!!  Shoe us what fun projects you are creating featuring a wonderful die cut. For my project I have a cute gift bag I embellished for a baby gift.
I started with the cute bag I bought. I added an sweet heart embossed circle as my base and got to work on the  cute Bath time ducky.
Isn't  he a sweetie? I love the bubbles with him. I added the cute little bow around his neck and was all set.I hope you will play along with us this week at Die Cuttin' Divas - Anything Goes!

Supplies:
- Cuttlebug Cross My Heart Embossing folder
- Miss Kate Cuttables - Bath Time set

Monday, July 28, 2014

Princess Baseball Night with Fantabulous Cricut

 Happy Monday and welcome to another Monday challenge with Fantabulous Cricut!
Challenge #221 Take Me Out to the Ball Game
Create a Sports inspired project

 For my Take Me Out  to the Ball Game project I decided to create a layout from a fun night out at the baseball field. It was Princess theme night at our local minor league team.
I have been having a lot of fun working with sketches lately and seeing as I have 2 books dedicated to this and a lot of back pages to  get done it is always helpful to get  inspired.

I started the layout with the base layers and rather than a scalloped edge for the large polka dot piece, I selected a fun cut form the Lovely Floral cartridge. Once I had the layout as matching the sketch as I wanted I choose fonts for my title and a fun baseball image topped with a crown for inside the journaling box. 
I was pleased with the overall look and liked the twist on my baseball project for this week.  My little girl loves to go to games and it is fun to think of different ways to complete the layouts for the memories we come away with.

This Weeks Sponsor
To qualify for the prize, be sure to use at least 1 Cricut cut on your project and if it's not obvious, let us know what cartridge you used.

Looking forward to seeing what you create this week.

Supplies:
- Lovely Floral Cricut Cartridge - picture perfect frame cut enlarged
- All Sports Cricut Cartridge - baseball in mound
- Hello Kitty Cricut Cartridge - Princess letters
- Disney Princess Happily Ever After Cricut Cartridge - crown
- Franklin Gothic Heavy Font - Baseball letters
- Becky Fleck Page Maps sketch on page 107
- Sweet Nectar Papers by K & Company - patterned papers

Sunday, July 27, 2014

My Birthday Project Life

This year, in May, I turned 36!  No I am not ashamed to say my age - I LOVE my birthday and this year our small celebration was just what I wanted.
I did not have a million photos so I select Pocket Page G from Project Life. It is one of my favorite pages because it has both horizontal and vertical 4x6 photo spaces. 
I selected the cards from the Sunshine Edition. The "I love" card comes in a few colors in this edition, but green is my favorite color.  See that awesome candle on my cake and my Mom's reaction when it sparked up so high? It spun in a circle and played Happy Birthday!!
This edition also has these fun list cards. I layered one onto a 4x6 and pulled out 10 fun things form my birthday. That was all I needed for this simple spread. Hope you are enjoying your weekend.

Supplies:
- Project Life - Sunshine Edition cards
- Project Life Pocket Page G

Friday, July 25, 2014

My Heart is With You

Happy Friday everyone. Today I have a card I made for the new challenge over at My Creative Time. This new challenge is a photo/color challenge. Here is the inspiration photo and colors:
I had a hard time coming up with an idea for this one. The colors sort of cried holidays to me, but the photo with the ice stumped me.  I went simple with inspiration from the stamps I own by My Creative Time.
The pattern on this embossing folder reminded me of the ice and so I started there and layered on the colors using patterned papers and the heart die. The ribbon and sentiment were my final touches. Just a simple card for a fun challenge. 

Thanks for visiting with me and have a lovely weekend.

Supplies:
- Cuttlebug Traffic Jam Embossing Folder
- My Creative Time stitched heart die
- My Creative Time 100% Sweetness Stamps
- Recollections All Occasions Paper Pad - patterned papers

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Thowback Thursday - You Can be Anything

Happy Thursday everyone. I am guessing many of you on Facebook have seen the Throwback Thursday pictures people have been posting lately. I decided I was going to do the same thing with some of my older projects that never got posted or that did and I loved.
This layout is one I did in my first months as a blogger and I still love it.I did t for a challenge going on at the Cricut Circle Blog. Gotta love those Paperdoll cartridge.

This one of the first layouts I made that was just for fun and using a photo I loved. It did not showcase a certain time or place I just got an idea and went with it.

Thanks for visiting and revisiting an old layout with me. Here is the link to the original post in 2010 - HERE.

Supplies for layout:
- Everyday Paperdolls Cricut Cartridge - various outfits and hair
- Paperdoll Dress-up Cricut Cartridge - various outfits and hair
- Cherry Limeade Cricut Cartridge - font
- Varsity Letter Cricut Cartridge - letter on cheerleader.
- Lacy Labels Cricut Cartridge -  large scalloped circles
- DCWV The Spring Stack (circa 2010) - butterfly paper

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Craftin' Desert Divas Sneak Peak Day

Today I'm lucky to be joining the Craftin Desert Divas July Stamp Release with the members of the Die Cuttin' Divas Design Team!!
Welcome to Day 4 of Craftin Desert Divas July stamp release party!! Each day the CDD DT will be giving you a sneak peek at one of the five new stamp sets. Then, on Friday and Saturday, they will have a blog hop with prizes each day. 
Today we are showcasing the 
All Star Sports Stamp Set.
All of the new stamps are 4x6 and Made in the USA.
Stamps will be available to order on Friday.

Here are the projects I created:

First off is a fun card for your sports stars. I used a cute trophy cut from Locker Talk and fun shaped card. I had the perfect embossing folder to match my polka dot paper.

For my second project I used a cute volleyball themed stamp from the All Star Sports stamp set.
I really wanted the volleyball to pop on the card so I enlarged it on Design Space until I was happy with the look of the card. 
My Design Space screen capture
We hope you will stop by the Craftin Desert Divas Shop and the Craftin Desert Divas Gallery Facebook group. We would love for you to join us and share your creations with us using Craftin Desert Diva's stamps. In this group we show previews first, have giveaways and much more!!


They are giving away a Sneak Peak Prize at Craftin Desert Divas. The more blogs you leave comments on the better chance you have to win.  Thanks for visiting my blog. I would love for you to come again soon or become a follower. I always love hearing your thoughts. Thanks again.


Supplies:
- Craftin Desert Divas All Star Sports Stamps
- CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge - shape card base and layers,
   flag on volleyball card
- Locker Take Cricut Cartridge - trophy
- Accent Essentials Cricut Cartridge - star burst
- Sophisticated Cricut Cartridge - banner piece
- Sports Mania Cricut Cartridge - volleyball player and ball
- Glossy Accents
- Paper Studio Medium Polka Dots embossing folder

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Christmas In July with Die Cuttin' Divas

Happy Tuesday all and welcome to the Christmas in July Challenge with Die Cuttin' Divas. The challenge is pretty clear - create a fun holiday projects to share.
I made a gift tag for a fun present as my project. I started with a simple base tag (one that could be folded as a card as well) and added the torn snow layers using an edger
The final holiday touches was this cute image of children and a tree and a simple sentiment stamp that fit the cut I made for a banner piece perfectly.
Thanks for visiting today and I hope you will create a Christmas project to share with us for this week's challenge.

Supplies:
- Tags, Bags, Boxes and More Cricut Cartridge - tag card
- A Child's Year Cricut Cartridge - child tree image
- Wild CardCricut Cartridge - banner for sentiment
- Fiskars deckle tear edger
- Sentiment stamp from Holiday stamp set found at Hobby Lobby 2011

Monday, July 21, 2014

Dance Party Redo

Do you ever look back at a project - mainly a scrapbook layout and think - yuck...I could do better?  Often I see how I have grown and changed in style and do not care but every now and then I think, why did I do it that way and not this way or I see a chance to fix something and I go for it. That is the case with today's new layout.
I created a layout for this part of our Disney surprise trip 2 years ago. Now having only 3 pages left to finish the album (seriously been too long) I decided to destroy the old double spread and create a new 1 page layout instead - which works so well for the album.
OLD LAYOUT:
I kept the same color palette and the title cut basically in tack. I changed the circle title to a square with fun polka dot cuts outs ad used the left over dots all over the page.
Washi tape was the base of color and the pictures were pulled right off the first spread. Now the album is almost complete (2 or 3 more pages) and better organized and I like the page better.

Thanks for visiting this fine Monday morning.I hope your week brings joy and crafty times.

Supplies:
- Formal Occasion Cricut cartridge - dance  party title
- Stretch You Imagination Cricut Cartridge - square with cut out circles
- various washi tapes from stash 

Sunday, July 20, 2014

No Cricut Thursday on Sunday

Today I am at the Bristol Renaissance Faire for the first time in many years. So many years in fact that the scrapbook page for the last trip was pre-child, pre-wedding and pre-die cutting machines.
As you can see this is back when stickers meant everything and I traced the titles I wanted form other things with paper taped to sun-lite windows..crazy but such fun and great memories to look back at and see how things have changed in the scrap world (and Mine)

Have a wonderful day.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Summer Valentine

Happy weekend everyone.  I am seeing a lot of people start their holiday cards so i thought I would share the page I made featuring our 2013 Valentine.
We are a Valentine family because the holiday season between Thanksgiving and Christmas is just a little hectic with events so each year we send out a Valentine instead. Once again I decided to cut the card apart in order to place in into the pockets.  
I also added some simple little hearts that I cut out from one of the Project Life cards to add small little touches to the spread which shows the photo shoot pictures  took to get our Valentine picture all ready to go.
Thanks for stopping by.  Have a great weekend.

Supplies:
- Project Life Blush Edition cards
- Simply Sweet Cricut Cartridge - hearts

Friday, July 18, 2014

Holy Smoke Batman!

You have made it to Friday!!  Congrats and happy almost weekend to you. This weekend I get to celebrate a special birthday boy and help complete his Batman themed bedroom.
I wanted a simple Batman card so I used the fun hero image from Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbons to print and cut my batman.  I also added some simple text to a thought bubble and was ready to go for the birthday boy.
This birthday boy is getting a room makeover right now and I was asked if I could create the Batman logo somehow with vinyl...thanks to svgs everywhere on the internet and my Cricut Explore I was able to create this for his new room.
I got lucky when layering my two colors and the yellow cut was center just right. I am just glad I do not need to put it on the wall

Happy day to all.

Supplies:
- Pretty Paper Pretty Ribbons - Superheros Trio Cutting File 
- Pretty paper Pretty Ribbons - Speech Bubbles
- Polka dot washi 
- Cricut Vinyl Black
- Yellow craft store vinyl (bought at JoAnn) 


Thursday, July 17, 2014

Play - Smile - Fun

Today  I have a simple Project Life page to share with you. For the first time I tried cutting my photos and placing them into 2 different pockets of the page. I really like how this looks on a page and will be trying it over and over I think.
On this layout I also was able to use both sides of the cards (the other side will be shared when the next page is completed). That rarely happens for me when I use both sides of a card for  back to back layouts.
The final touches for this page with some great stickers. Craft brown is my favorite color right now for projects.  I love how it looks with colors and gives great accents.

Thanks for visiting and have a happy day.

Supplies:
- Project Life - Maggie Holmes Edition cards
- Project Life pocket page Design - Design Q
- Recollections Alpha Stickers
- Momenta - stickers

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Seeds of Happiness

Hello Wednesday. I went into my scrap bins for today's project.
I have 2 scrap bins for paper. One for smaller pieces of solid color that I keep on my desk. This one is perfect for those accent details on projects - I think I go into this bin first most of the time when looking for a color.
The other bin is a little larger and hold much larger scraps and patterned scarps that I might not get around to using as fast.  Funny considering how much paper I have I often go to the scraps first!
For this card I also used a tool that I have not used yet.  The Sew Easy from We R Memory Keepers.  I love stitching on projects which is why I bought this but had never used it.  I am glad I pulled it out.
Thanks Hiding in My Craft Room for reminding me to use those scraps for your fun Super Scraps Saturday Challenges.

Supplies:
- Cindy Loo Cricut Cartridge - flower
- Sew Easy by We R Memory  Keepers with Yellow - zigzag stitch piece
- Pink By Design - Life's a Garden Stamp
- Dew Drop Memento Ink - Rich Cocoa
- SCRAPS!!!

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Let's Get Beachy with Die Cuttin' Divas

Hope you are experiencing some wonderful sunny days and maybe even getting to enjoy the beach this summer? This week at Die Cuttin' Divas we are all about the beach. So let's get beachy!
I was surfing for beach related cuts and came across these fun postage stamp images on the Pack Your Bags Cricut Cartridge. I thought they would make a fun and simple card.
I started worked with only 3 colors of paper to make the whole things come together in a clean way. These cut nicely and layered well as long as I paid attention to which stamp went with each backing as they are all slightly different so you need to make sure you match them up.
The cut out flower was just what I needed for the inside of the card as well. Thanks so much for you visit.  I hope you an join in the Beach theme challenges this week. If you use an Cricut image on your project for Die Cuttin' Divas it can also be part of the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge as well this week!  Yeah for doubling up.

Supplies:
- Pack Your Bags Cricut Cartridge - all stamp images
- Recollections Soda Pop 81/2 x 11 papers