This weeks busy work

Every year I think I am going to get it together way ahead of time and every year I don’t. I either just delay or come up with inspiring ideas at the last minute. This year it was a little of both… I delayed on my Christmas cards and came up with inspiring ideas for small gifts for friends at the last minute. So here is what I made this week.

First off, I finished off my Little Book of Thanks album that I had showed you the beginnings of. Just wanted to let you see how I finished the inside. I put a photo of each family member opposite their personal word of thanks. Then I went online and found a quote that in some way fit that persons personality and added it to the opposite page.

Next…Christmas cards! I desgined these on the Gypsy and had a bunch of fun doing it. It was also nice that I could just attend the Cricut when it needed loaded/unloaded. All the other work (cutting all those elements!) was done for me while I worked on other things. Because I used just cardstock and a little stickles these cards cost me less than $2 to make 14 lovely, handmade cards. (Yeah, I know it doesn’t take the cost of the tools into account but that is another story!)

Then…9 votive candle holders out of vellum. I scored some really cheap electric votive candles at Big Lots before Halloween and then sat staring at them deciding what to make. Then inspiration struck! I used alcohol ink to blend a background, stamped my favorite trees (from Stampin’ Up) on there with StazOn, added a date stamp and a snowflake cut on the Cricut. Elegant yet simple.

And Finally, these little cocoa treat pouches. Again, designed on the gypsy and left to cut elements out while I was working on 0ther things!

Birthday cards

So I was reading My Pink Stamper blog yesterday and she had posted a Birthday card challenge in honor of her son’s birthday. Since I have several birthdays this month, I thought I would get to work!

This one I created for a friend’s birthday who is a beer brewer. He is really quite the fan and I thought I would make a card based on his passion. It is a bit simple and a bit plain but I had fun making it. I used my Gypsy to layout the card, edit and cut the images and create the phrases with the Cricut markers. It made it really easy to see exactly where my elements would fit on my card with the Gypsy! I’m loving this tool more and more.

And this card I just made for the heck of it. I will add this card to my growing pile of cards I will be donating as a raffle item for our family’s homeschool convention that I talked about in a previous post.

I was wanting to play with my Gypsy some more and made this card. This time I laid out my card so that I knew it would all fit just right together. Then I moved all my elements to their own space on the mat so I could load various papers for each of the elements all at once on one mat. I dug through all my scraps to find coordinating papers that would work for each element. I like the gypsy in that it is easier for me to see exactly what sizes of papers I need so that I can just cut up a scrap to the right size!

Crafting for a cause

There is a lot of buzz in the scrapbooking industry about using our crafting abilities for charity. That could be as simple as donating our scraps to our kids school, to as heart warming as making a scrapbook for a Make-A-Wish child. We all have ways we can help! I’ve decided what two of my charitable contributions will be for the next year.

As a small contribution I will be making lots of handmade cards. I will compile a stack of general occasions cards and donate them to a silent auction for a homeschooling conference that my family attends every year. The silent auction raises money to use as scholarship for families that can’t afford the conference otherwise. This idea started because I have been making cards for challenges, contests and just for fun and now I have some cards I don’t have a specific purpose for. So I made a purpose! It is funny that it took me so long to think of this idea because last year I did donate cards to the silent auction. But it was a last minute idea that I could just pull a bunch of cards that I hadn’t use in a long time to donate. Now I’ll be creating cards on purpose for this function. It should be fun.

The second donation I plan on doing this year is for my local YWCA. The YWCA supports women and children in domestic violence situations (among other things). This is a need that is close to my heart. I’m not sure how my donation will look yet. Will it just be donating supplies to help with emotional healing through crafting? Will it be teaching a class on scrapbooking a personal story? I’m not sure yet. But this idea has been on my mind for a while. I don’t know where it will go, but I know it will help someone, somewhere at some time.

So, what can you do to help? I’d love to hear your comments on causes you have helped or plan to help!

Day 4 of back-in-action

I love my crafting time. And this Love card is one of those things that came out of that time. I had made this card for a magazine call but did not get a response. So it gets shared with you! The call was a sketch based on a pennant design. I had turned the design on its side and added extra touches such as the circles over the pennants and the stitching which extends the pennants. It was a fun and relatively simple card. Enjoy!

RECIPE

cardstock, circle punch: Stampin’ Up
pattern papers, alpha stickers: Piggy Tales

I’m Back!

So you may have noticed that I took a hiatus for several months. Life and health have been crazy which had kept me out of my scrap space. But I have been doing projects again and feeling motivated again! I am glad to be back. I will be posting several items over the next few days, beginning with a few things I worked on before my break.

Let us start off with this older item. I made this for a magazine call and never got a response. So I am sharing it with you! Since the weather has cooled off here I thought it would be a fun one to share. I used yarn to braid a scarf-like heart and used a few other sewing notions to complete the look. Hope you enjoy!

RECIPE

cardstock, inks: Stampin’ Up
stamp: Technique Tuesday
yarn, safety pins: stash

My Pink Stamper Color Challenge

I made a quick card today for the My Pink Stamper Color challenge of Pink, Green, Brown and Orange. I had to think on this one a while as those colors are not something I would normally go to. Guess that is why it is called a challenge! Enjoy.

Design Team Entry

I just got the results back from a design team I entered and I wasn’t chosen. So now I am free to share the project I made for the entry. I decided to use a card I made for my 16th Anniversary. In entering this contest I wasn’t sure whether I should stick with something similar in style to what I usually see from this company or to go with something a little different. I decided to go with something different. I went with a more elegant mellower look rather than the colorful energetic look I often see. The main reason I did this was a brief mention I heard of wanting the designers to show a different style. After seeing the winning entries I don’t think my approach was a good one! Most of the winners were right up there in the colorful energetic and cute category. I’m sure that is not the only factor for their winning. A huge part of this team I think is the activity level on the blog and facebook page for this company. And that isn’t me right now. I knew I didn’t have a big chance of winning. But I tried anyway!

Cricut Lite Meow

I’m excited about the new Cricut Lite cartridges. I like having a sampling of images rather than a large cartridge full of images that I will probably never use. The only catch is that I usually pay $25-40 on ebay for a full cartridge and the new lites retail for $39.99 at WalMart. In the end I am getting fewer cuts for the same or higher price than I am used to paying. And I have to shop at WalMart, my least favorite store. Regardless, I like several of the new releases and will buy them. I already bought Meow and would like to share my thoughts and projects on this cartridge.

I found some of the small detailed cuts, such as tiny noses, hard to work with. When I used a nice sticky mat and a lower speed and pressure the cuts came out much better. Prior to making those changes I kept shifting and tearing my paper. Even with the troubles I think the cuts are so fun that I am willing to work with any troubles. See what I made…

Recipe:
pattern papers: Scenic Route
cardstock, ribbon, chalk: Stampin’ Up
Cricut cartridges: Meow (Lite), Opposites Attract
markers: Marvey
alpha stickers: from stash

One of the reasons I loved this cartridge is that we adopted two kittens back in April. These kittens were introduced into our lives after a very bad experience of being dog owners. The cats are such a joy compared to the troubles with the dog! I never thought I would be a scrapper of fur babies but these sweeties have converted me to a sappy pet-scrapper. The title was cut with the purr+cat image from the Meow cartridge then I used the Opposites Attract cartridge to finish the letter for the title. The paw prints and the two kittens also came from Meow.

Recipe:
pattern papers: Scenic Route, Bella Blvd., Piggy Tales
cardstock: Stampin’ Up, Bazill
punch: Fiskars
Cricut Cartridge: Meow (lite)

And the images on this cartridges are just so fun that I had to make a card. Don’t know how I’ll use this card yet, but I love, love, love it!

And if those were enough reasons to buy this cartridge, my girls love to play with the cricut with me. It is good time crafting together. My 8 year old made this project. It is a layout with pockets on it to hold her family of cats. Each family comes in each of the 4 colors. Cut the cats & embellish with markers. How fun!

Final NSD & LOAD Day 3

Okay, so I finished up my challenges for NSD today finally! And I worked on my LOAD layout for the day. Check them all out.

This was a NSD challenge to create a shaped object. It is a card I made for my SIL for Mother’s Day. I really had fun with this one. Making a card in the shape of a letter? It was great. Try it using the recipients initial.

The NSD challenge here was to create something with or for a child. Since my 3yo scraps with me all the time, this was a breeze. I mentioned the word Cricut and she came running. She decided she wanted to make a princess and viola.

Final NSD challenge was to create a monochromatic plus flower project. A Mother’s Day card for my MIL in her favorite color.

And my LOAD project for today…

Recipe:

pattern paper, rubons, stickers: Piggy Tales
cardstock: Stampin’ Up
punch: Fiskars
monogram letter: Circut (Opposites Attract)
brads: from stash
font: Times New Roman

Entering Contests

These past couple of months have been the beginning for me of trying to get my work out in the public eye. In an earlier post I said I was able to have one layout featured on a popular blog. That is a start! I’ve also tried to get a short design team position as well as entering a card making contest. Neither adventure turned into anything, but it sure was interesting trying. Here are some of the projects I used for the two contests.

If you have ever thought of publishing your work, don’t be afraid to try. The worst thing that happens is that you spend a little time and money on your work and they say no. Its not the end of the world!

Here was one of my entries for a Cricut-based blog’s short-term design team. I took a shape from the Storybook cartridge and turned it into a photo frame by cutting and gluing multiple layers of cardstock together. The final layer had the frame cut out of it and decorated with pattern paper.