National Scrapbook Day MPS Challenge #12

I was so glad when I saw Robyn's last challenge for NSD was to make something kid related. My nephew is turning four next weekend and I needed to make a card for him and get it into the mail with his present.





Right now he is like lots of four years and is into dinosaurs. I love the dinosaurs from Create a Critter and thought it would be cute to add a little party hat on top of his head. I used Robyn's Punnilicious stamp set for the "Dino-mite."

My First Mini Album

In an earlier post, I mentioned I am working on my first-ever mini album. It's taken me a little longer than expected, but I've completed several pages, so I thought I'd give you a look. Keep in mind, I still haven't added any of my pictures because the good pictures of the trip I am documenting are on my BFF Kim's camera.

The album is about my recent trip to NYC with my best friend, Kim. Neither of us have been in the city in years. Honestly, you'd think we lived half way across the country instead of just a few hours away, but I hadn't been to NYC since I was pregnant with my son and he'll be 12 in July! Yes, I know shame on me, but we had such a great time, I know we'll be back soon.


This is us at the Top of the Rock and that's the Empire State Building in the background. It was a cold day, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky and you could see the entire city.

This is the cover of the mini album. The paper is all from Cosmo Cricket's Circa 1934 line. I love all of the vintage colors of the paper. It was perfect for our trip. I made the lollipop flower myself and was amazed at how easy it was to do. I just cut out four different sized circles and then spritzed them with water and crumpled them up. Then I just stacked them on top of each other and secured them with a little brad.

I also really liked the little banner at the bottom. It says..."for the rest of the story." What's funny is this is actually just a little phrase that's at the bottom of each of their papers. I thought it would be cute for the album since it was documenting out trip.

This is page one. I wanted to keep it very simple. Obviously I'll add a picture into the black frame. I cut out the camera from the Create a Critter cartridge and the little sticker is from the Circa 1934 kit.

On this page, I created a little pocket using a legal sized envelope. I covered it with paper from the collection and then used my 1 1/2 inch circle punch to create the little notch at the top.

Inside I added a frame to include some more pictures and some journaling about the weekend. The tag on top of the pocket is from the collection. I added the "Good Times" from a Fiskars stamp I own. And, in case you can't tell, all of the edges are inked with the Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo to add to the vintage feel.

This is another pocket page created with a piece of 12x12 paper. I found the tutorial on YouTube by searching pocket pages. You actually create three different pockets, two in the front and then one on the left side. I thought it would be perfect to hold some of our ticket stubs, receipts, and miscellaneous things we grabbed along the way...see the little Magnolia Bakery business card? Yep, we stopped and had a little cupcake treat.

See my little cupcake tag? I originally made this because on our way home from NYC, we stopped in Hoboken to visit....

Buddy, the Cake Boss! Unfortunately, this is as as close as we got because the line to get inside was more than two blocks long!

So there you have it, the first couple pages of my first-ever mini album. I hope to have the rest completed soon and will be sure to post them once I do.

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy!

Down on the Farm Cupcake Toppers

As it says in my profile, I "dabble" in party planning. Mainly it's for family and friends for the usual birthday/baby shower/graduation parties.

I recently did a birthday party for a friend's daughter that had a barn/farm theme. One of the things I made for them were cupcake toppers using the Create-a-Critter cartridge.

I try to keep the toppers pretty simple. These toppers are cut at 2 1/2 inches. I then put a flat toothpick ( I got mine at AC Moore in the wood craft section) in between the bottom and second layers. These toothpicks actually have a round and a pointed end and I "try" to remember to have the rounded end at the bottom, but as you can see, I sometimes forget. :) Thankfully, I'm happy to report, no one poked an eye out. LOL.

Enjoy!

Sending You Sprinkles of Fun!

This is another Valentine's Day card I made. I'm also entering it in this week's Scrappy Mom's Terrific Tuesday Challenge, which we is to use the Sweethearts cartridge. I don't have that cart, but I do know it has an umbrella on it, so I used my Create a Critter cart for the umbrella. The "Sending You Sprinkles of Fun" sentiment is from the Scrappy Mom's Sweet Something stamp set.

The bottom part of the card is actually my favorite. What I did was use a bunch of strips of patterned paper that I had left over from some of my other Valentines cards and adhered them to a 2" inch piece of white cardstock. I then trimmed the edges and adhered it to the bottom of the card.

I can't take credit for the idea. I actually saw it on Kristina Werner's blog. She did this same technique on a acrapbook layout, but I thought it worked well for a card.

Great way to use up the end pieces of paper that we trim when making mats for cards or pictures!

Enjoy!

Birthday Card for Reese

So have you ever had one of those cards that no matter what you do, it just doesn't look right? That was this card for me. I like it now, but getting to this point was a real pain in the you know where! LOL.

The card is for my best friend's daughter, Reese. She's turning five this month and loooves elephants. She also loves to craft and the last time I went to visit, I took along my expression and we spent the whole weekend making cards.


I'm also going to enter this card in the Scrappy Mom's Stamps Terrific Tuesday Challenge. The sentiment I put on the inside is from their Sweet Somethings stamp set.

Happy Birthday Reese!

Holiday Cards for Co-Workers

I've been busy trying to get everything done for the holidays and for some reason, there never seem to be enough hours in the day! I did get these little holiday cards done for my co-workers. The cards are 3 1/2 by 3 1/2. You can get three of them out of a regular piece of cardstock.

The base is just simple kraft cardstock. The next layer is cut at 3 1/4 by 3/14 in a patterned holiday paper from DCWV. The ornament is just from Joys of the Season at 3 inches. I then used a Recollections Holiday Stamp set for the Jingle Bells stamp and embossed it with white embossing powder.

The Joy is from Create a Critter. It's the phrase on the reindeer cut. I added white stitching to both, just to give them a little more interest. On the inside I stamped "Merry Christmas." I made 10 of each card, one for each co-worker.

Now on to make cards for my family and friends...maybe this year everyone will be getting Happy New Year cards instead! LOL

Projects - Altered Notebook

So I haven't had time to post anything recently because I've been working on a few projects. The first one is for our school's upcoming "Santa Workshop." In addition to the normal items you find at these things, our PTO invites local crafters to bring in items to sell. I am going to be selling a couple of items, including these altered notebooks and the bookmarks I made earlier this year.

They are nothing fancy. I bought the notebooks back in August during the Back to School sales and bought all of them for either 10 or 25 cents a piece. The paper I used to wrap is a pack I've had lying around for a couple of months. I don't use it for cards because it is really thin, but it's great for wrapping items. It's a little thicker than wrapping paper, but not much.

I then used my ever growing scraps to make the little critters from my Create a Critter cartridge. The stamps are from My Pink Stamper and Scrappy Moms. Both of which I highly recommend!

The hardest part was actually wrapping the notebooks. At first I used my ATG gun, but it was actually too sticky and if you laid the paper down and it wasn't lined up correctly, there was no chance of getting it off without ripping the paper. I actually ended up using some double sided tape I had in the house and it worked a lot better.

I'm off to start making some of our dishes for tomorrow. I like to get a couple of them done early to free up the oven.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Little Birdie Told Me it Was Your Birthday!

I've been wanting to use this great paisley patterned paper for months and finally had a card and a person who fit it perfectly. I made this card for my friend Trish for her birthday. The bird is from Create a Critter and the stamp is from My Pink Stamper. I've always thought Trish had the coolest clothes and the funky colors in the paper really match her personality.

I also really like the turquoise and brown color combo together. Kinda like retro chic, but not too kitchy.

Something Cute

Make something cute...that's one of the challenges this week at My Pink Stamper. Honestly, I feel like I really haven't had a lot of time to jump on my Cricut this week and I actually made these bookmarks about a month ago, but haven't ever posted anything about them.

I actually saw the idea on Momo's blog, (thanks Momo) but tweaked it a little. So here are some of my "cute" or so I like to think, bookmarks.

I wanted to do an owl because despite all of the owls cards I've seen on the blogs, this is the only project I've made so far using this cut. The owl and monkey are from Create a Critter, the Strawberry is from Preserves, and the skull and cross bones are from Mini-Monsters.

Nuts About You

This weekend I wanted to make a card for my son. Since getting my Expression, I've been making cards for other people, but not for him. I've been wanting to do something with the squirrel in Create a Critter and using it for my son is a perfect fit. I say that because he LOVES squirrels. Me, not so much...LOL.

We have a giant acorn tree in our front yard which is usually home to at least one family of squirrels, so they are always in our yard. I also think he loves them so much because he and his buddies used to always sing the "Squirrels In My Pants" song from Phineas and Ferb on Disney Channel. I must admit after hearing the song, I had to laugh and of course it doesn't hurt that I think Phineas and Ferb are hysterical. It's a perfect show for kids and their parents.


Now onto the card. I decided to try out an S-fold and I think I actually got it right! I made the card a little bigger than I normally do since I wasn't putting it in an envelope. I know the paper is DCWV and it's one of their designer packs, but for the life of me I don't remember the name and am not at home to look. So without further adieu...my card.

When you open it up, it looks like this....

In Honor of Robyn at My Pink Stamper

So, I am a big fan of Robyn at My Pink Stamper. She has been instrumental at helping me learn how to use my expression and given me great ideas on cards.

One of the first cartridges I purchased after getting my expression was Create a Critter. I had also recently seen a Get Well card she made using this cartridge and her Punny-licious stamps.

So, in honor of My Pink Stamper, here is my pink Get Whale Soon card, using some of the techniques I learned from Robyn and of course my newly purchased set of Punny-licious stamps!

Too Cute to Spook

I love the little pumkin on Create a Critter and thought he would be adorable on a "Too Cute to Spook" card. I attemped to do a joy fold, but am not sure if I was successful.

Cards, Cards, and More Cards

When I told my mom how much I am enjoying making cards, she laughed and said, "Who would have thought you'd be crafty." I have to agree as art, while I appreciate it, was never my favorite subject in school. But each day, I become more and more confident and I'm sure it has a lot to do with all of the amazing blogs I've found that give me so much inspiration.

Here are some of my most recent projects...I thought he would be cute for a boys birthday. I know it's a very simple card, but remember, I'm still learning. I originally made this card because I thought the crab was really cute. Then my cousin got engaged (her fiance proposed on the beach) and I tweeked it to send to her. I removed the sun and added a big diamon ring in the crab's hand. Sorry I forgot to take an "after" picture.