A few of my favorite posts

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas.  This is why I have not been around.  My kids and I were all in a Christmas play at our church.  I played the mother to 7 kids!  With decorating the church and my own house and play and choir rehearsals( I sang the lead in the play as well) we haven't been home much.  Needless to say, my poor craft dungeon has been neglected.  It's been too cold to be out there anyway.  For those of you who are new around here, my scrap space is located in my garage where it can be very cold and sometimes dark.Since I have not been able to make anything new I decided that it might be fun to post a few of my favorite things that I have done since I started blogging.  It hasn't been quite a year yet, but there have been alot of exciting things happen around here.

Working for Provocraft was a dream job.  I was so excited to be a demonstrator and I wish the job could have lasted forever.  It was nice to acually be paid.  I love being a stay at home mom but it sure was nice to earn my own money too.  Mostly though this was just a super fun job and I never wanted it to end.
Sugar Sweet Paper Treats was my very first design team.  This post was the first project that I did for them as well as my first ever tutorial.  OK well I haven't done another one since, but at least now I know that I can.
Caps for Sale was the name of the layout that I did when Creative Inspirations wanted to feature me on their blog.  Now how cool is that?!!
Scrap Camp is always my favorite time of year.  Lucky for me it actually comes twice a year, once in the spring and again in the fall.
Euphoria is the feeling that lived in our house for at least a month after our favorite baseball team won the World Series for the first time in 56 years!

I am so glad that I started blogging and so glad for all of you.  Have a very happy New Year and I will see you next year with more fun projects, a new design team and whatever else I feel like sharing.

Christmas gifts for teachers and classmates

 It is the last day of school before Christmas break.  We have been so busy around here with rehearsals for our churches Christmas play. that I was working down to the wire on teacher's gifts for my children to give out today.  A few days ago we made homemade hand scrub.  I have seen this on various blogs lately but can't remember the exact locations.  Google it and you will find tons of recipes and you are sure to have most, if not all, the ingredients already in your kitchen.  We made a strawberry version and a coffee version.  I decided to make them matching in the pink and brown(just opposite
of each other) to make it easy and so the colors would work after the holidays are over.  I reused some Starbucks bottles to put the scrub in, and attached a tiny spatula that I had from my days as a spa product consultant.  I used the Stampin' Up Scallop Trim punch as the border for my band.  Then I cut another strip of cardstock and stamped it with some Close to my Heart stamps and Stampin' Up ink. The tag was cut with Just Because cards and my Gypsy to size it to fit.  I used Microsoft Word also.  The ribbon is from American Crafts and my Stampin' Up cardstock and ink are Chocolate Chip and Pretty in Pink.  I forgot to take a picture of the top, but I did circle shaped word art, then punched it with a circle punch, inked the edges, then backed it with a scalloped circle that was the same size as the lid and was cut from my Nestabilities.  Perfect to hide the logo. 

For the kids' classmates we made these.  Again, not sure where I got the idfea, but from somewhere on the web.  2 candy canes glued together, decorated with Rudolf from Doodlecharms(I hid the details on the Gypsy and added the google eyes and nose) and the Gingerbread man from Just Because Cards.  The stocking is also from Doodlecharms.  My son thought the candy cane idea was too childish for his 3rd grade buddies and came up with the Stocking idea on his own.  We cut two of them and they are glued together just on the edges so we could stick the lollipop in there.

Feeling Sentimental

Remember last week I showed you this card I made with some new sentiments from Joni over at Inktegrity?  Well I said that the images would be available in the store the next day.  Sorry, but I lied.  Not intentionally though, because Joni has decided to give them to you as her Christmas gift to all our friends and followers.  So head on over to the Inktegrity blog and snag your Christmas gift and if you use them for any last minute holiday items, please shoot Joni an email so she can showcase some of your work.

 Here is another card I made with one of the sentiments.

The First Noel

It's time for a new challenge over at Inktegrity.  This week we are to use non-traditional Christmas colors.  Joni made up a bunch of adorable sentiments that will be available in the store tomorrow.  These are so perfect for me because I love decorating my cards with things other than stamps, especially with Cricut cuts, but then I rarely remember to put a sentiment on them.  As soon as I saw this one, I thought of two things.

#1 I knew I wanted to use Baby Jesus from Paper Doll Dress Up for this card

#2 This would be the song that I sang for my solo at our church's trip to go caroling at a local area nursing home.  I just couldn't get the song out of my head.

I used DCWV Metallic stack for the background paper that I embossed with my Cuttlebug and the Divine Swirls folder.  The sentiment was matted with cardstock from American Crafts and inked with Memento Dew Drop Summer Sky, then pop dotted.  The cuts are all from Paper Doll Dress Up and the Cricut and make use of scraps.  The swaddling clothes have Memento Dew Drop London Fog inking as well as some zig pen doodling.  The face was hand drawn and then hay has ink and doodling as well.  The star was cut from (I think?) the Christmas cartridge with a scrap of metallic silver from that same DCWV stack.  I wasn't sure who this card was going to be for, but yesterday a woman from my church came over and gave me a very special Christmas blessing so I will be sending this card her way. 

Nativity Parade

When my son was a baby I was given a beautiful ceramic Nativity set, but I never displayed it for fear that it would get broken.  Now that my kids are a little older, I searched the garage for the set.  It is nowhere to be found.  I must have gotten rid of it on one of my cleaning rampages in the last 8 years.  Char over at Crap I've Made is hosting a Nativity Parade on her blog.  So at least I still get to enjoy some beautiful nativities.  This is the one my hubby bought me last year since I always beg him to put up more Christmas lights and decorations, but he doesn't want to do all the work.  This one you just lay out and plug in.

Come join the parade

Exciting News

I was chosen as a designer for Scrap Tiffany. This is so amazing because the team has members from all over the world!!!  I will be on the card team starting in January so keep on the lookout.  In the meantime head on over and see what the current designers have in store for this month.

Still Thankful

This is what I am thankful for.  I haven't posted any of my Thanksgiving projects yet so I thought I would do that now as well as share why I am thankful for these guys on Thanksgiving and every other day of the year.  My daughter came home from school on the first day back after the break and told me that a little girl in her Kindergarten class had lost her house and all her possessions in a fire over the vacation.  The homework assignment that night was to bring in something for the family be it something new, something used or just a drawing to cheer up the kids.  Well I started crying because I had spent that day felling sorry for myself because my husband is out of work right now and I have no idea if he will be working in time for me to buy presents for my kids this year.  So we found some blankets and a few toys and clothes to donate and both my kids were so excited and happy going through their things to help these people out.  I looked at my kids through my tears and my 8 year old son said to me "Who needs Christmas presents mom?"  And it is the little things like this why I am so thankful for my special blessings. 

 So onto the projects, these placecards were designed on my Gypsy and cut with my Cricut.  I used Blackletter solutions cartridge for the orangle shape, Gypsy Wanderings fopr the word Thanks and Don Juan for Give.  The orange and leaf paper were from my stash and the brown is Stampin Up Chocolate Chip.  I just scored it on the bottom to make a little stand for it.  These placemats were made by the kids.  I used my Nestabilities to cut out the scalloped circle and let the kids cut the feathers out of scraps from my stash.  We added a hand cut beak, some google eyes and my daughter drew on all the legs. 

This is a picture of the decorated table.  I used   paper that my husband uses for masking off the floors to prepare for texturing the walls (he's a drywall contractor) and placed a jar of crayons on the table for the kids to color with.  Turns out the adults had more fun with that as they all played hangman while eating pie.  I wish I had a picture of it after that.  The pumpkin in the center was one my son made last year in school, but is basically just fabric stuffed around and into a roll of toilet paper.

Scrap Camp

I wanted to share some layouts that I did at my crapbook retreat last weekend.  My scrappy girlfriends have been getting together at what we call "Scrap Camp" for close to 8 years.  We gather in a lodge at a campground in beautiful Albion, Ca.  We each take turns cooking one meal and we do need to bring our own bedding and bring in firewood, but we pretty much have the run of the place.  We love it.  Almost all of us have Cricuts too so we share carts and other supplies.  This time I spent alot of time helping some newbies with their bugs and Gypsys since I am the resident Cricut expert.I got 15 pages done.  This first one is from my son's first sleepaway camp this last July.  I was lucky enough to get some pictures since I followed the bus to the camp to bring some chaperones home.  It actually turns out that this is the same camp I worked at in college, just with a new name.  The background paper is from Die Cuts With a View Eco stack, the trees are a sizzix die that my friend leant me, and I used some ink with a blender pen to enhance them, the stems were colored with my Smooch chocolate ink.  The sweet little raccon is from Give a Hoot and the tent is from Camp Out.  Most of the other paper is just scraps from the stash.  The title was done with Pooh Font on some ivory paper, then inked, chalked and doodled. 

This layout was inspired by one I saw on a blog and I forget where.  I used my photo app on my Gypsy to store some projects to scraplift.  The blue background is DCWV but not sure which stack.  it has some shimmer to it.  The black and white print is from the paper i got from the Scrapmaster.  The black circles are DCWV All dressed Up stack and the blue ones are papers from Cosmo Cricket DeLovely mini pad.  The title is Plantin Schoolbook, then embossed with my Cuttlebug and sprayed with Vanilla Smooch Spritz.  Flowers are a random assortment from my stash, and the black one started out white but was inked.  The black flourish was one given to me by my Not So Secret Sister from the Cricut Messsageboard.

This one was another scraplift.  Background paper from Scrapmaster, blue pattern is My Mind's eye and the pumpkin was a scrap that I stole off my mom's table when she wasn't looking(shh don't tell her).  The banner was made with triangles from the George and Basic Shapes cartridge that were stretched out on my Gypsy.  The title is Hello Kitty Font the round feature.  I added some twine and some stickles to finish it off.   

This layount was fun to do.  You all know I am not a stamper but since my friends are I ended up doing alot of it this weekend since I was free to play with their goodies.  I made this background with Pretty in Pink cardstock from Stampin Up, a flourish stamp from Close to my Heart (from the westwern flourishes set) and two colors of ink.  The scalloped border was made with my Martha Stewart heart punch around the page edge punch.  I just covered the hearts with some more pink, then used another piece of purple over that.  I embossed that with my Swiss Dots cuttlebug folder using a technique I learned on Tim Holtz's blog to emboss a 12 inch strip.  My most favorite part of this though is the grandfather clock.  I made this on my Gypsy.  i first placed a clock from the Nursery Rhyme cartridge (that none of us own) on one mat, then went to another mat to place shapes to recreate it.  I made it much simpler than the original.  I mostly used the George cart, but used the clock from Locker Talk for the layer.  The mouse is from Doodlecharms.  This was also my first time welding a title long ways using the Storybook cartridge.

This layout also uses paper from Scrapmaster.  The title is (I think) Sans Serif and the adorable little pumpkin is from Smiley cards.  I had cut a candy corn from the cartridge for my mom to scrap these same pics and real;ized I should have done the same here as it matches my daughter's face in the candy corn cutout.  The eyes were too tiny to cut so I used some tiny black pearls. 

This one I used a sizzix die for the zig zag border, some random papers that have been in my stash forever and the George font.  I think I might go back and add some little soccer balls, stamped and punched to the straight blue border, what do you think?

On this one I wanted to match the Graduation announcements I had made here.  So I used basically all the same papers and just added the pink background from that Scrapmaster stack.  The title is all from Locker Talk and done with my Gypsy.  I plan to journal in the red box.  The funny thing about this is that I did not have enough of the purple for the title so I had to cut a piece out of the back ;eaving a gaping hole.  good thing noone will see it. 

This one I used ivory cardstock and some easter pages that i got on clearance at Beverly's for 10 cents each.  The flourish stamp is embellished with some doodling, coloring and bling.  The title does not show well here, but I cut brackets from Plantin Schoolbook and then hand wrote the words {Easter Baskets} on one page and {fileld with love} on the next.  The basket and eggs are from Doodlecharms.  I also used my piercing bugs for the first time.  I used a ruler to keep them straight, then used the holes for my faux stitching so it would be even.

This one was a burst on inspiration I got while scrapping all alone at 1 AM.  I told the other girls I would go to bed as soon as I finished the other page I was working on, but then this just came to me and I had to get it down before I forgot.  The font is Cricut Keystone, the large aple was done at Fit to Page on the Expression from the Doodlecharms cartridge.  The pencil is from Smiley Cards and if you look closely you can see that it wrote "2010"  And yes I know the {K} is missing.  this is not due to lack of sleep but rather lack of glue.  You can barely see the glue residue where this fell off.  Unfortunately I do not own this cart, nor do I have any of that paper left so I will need to fix this somehow. 

 Papers here are some more 10 cent easter stuff and more DeLovely.  Eggs are from Doodlecharms and I stamped the title.

This last one the papers are some I boughht at Joann's on a trip to my mom's last summer.  The title is from Sweet Treats and is enhanced with stickles.  The purple cardstock is from the stash and I used EK success candles edge punch and Martha Stewart loop punch.  I colored the flames in with Pumpkin Smooch.
Here is a close up of the tone on tone border I made by combining two different stamps on one clear block



Thanks for reading this super long post.  And if you just scrolled through the pictures....well that's okay too!

Hot chocolate on a cool day

It is finally starting to feel like fall here in Northern Cali.  I have been craving hot chocolate, but alas I am trying to shed some unwanted pounds so I had to settle for Slusser and his steaming mugs instead.  The base of my card is American Crafts textured cardstock, the white is my good old Waklmart stuff and I don't know what the pattern is but I love it and I got it from my friend The Scrapmaster when she was getting rid of an abundance of stuff in her scraproom.  The snowflakes are brads from the stash and I finished it off with a bit of inking, and a button and twine from the stash.  the tag is hand cut.  The image and sentiment are both from Inktegrity.  Did you know if you order right now, Joni will give you a free gift with purchase which happens to be the most adorable customized train digis.  This card is for the challenge over at our design team blog.  Go check it out for your chance to win $5 to the Inktegrity store plus a custom train name of your own. 

It's release day at Inktegrity!  You are going to adore this lineup of adorable penguins.  I created this card with Star Hana.  She is perfect for Christmas or to tell someone that they are a star.  This also fits our challenge this week which is to use ribbon and flowers.  The shaped card was cut with the Cricut Wild Card cartridge, the circle from George and Basic Shapes and the marquee shape behind Hana from Storybook.  I also used my Gypsy and Plantin Schoolbook to make the fan flower.  I know you have seen these and there is a Tim Holtz die to make them.  But did you know they can also be done with a border punch?  I had created an Apron Lace style border on my Gypsy awhile ago, so I cut that for the flower and scored it after every hump.  I also used my new I-rock on this that I picked up with my 50% off Michael's coupon this week. So would you like a chance to win Hana or some other digi images from the store?  Go to this post and tell us who your favorite star is for a chance to win Hana.  Play along with the challenge here  for a chance to win $5 to the store. 

Christmas Cards

I don't usually start on Christmas cards this early, but a friend had asked me to create some things for an auction/fundraiser.  Her nephew has Lyme Induced Autism and the family has no health insurance.  The Drs bills are getting to be way to much for the family so they are holding an All You Can Eat Spaghetti dinner and Auction.  This friend has seen some hair bows that I made( I haven't posted them here because I am just getting started and not really thrilled with them yet) and asked me to donate some.  I told her I would but then decided to also offer something that I know I'm good at.  I made 3 sets of blank cards.  The first set includes this swirly Christmas Tree from the Christmas solution cartridge that I got as part of the free gypsy download promo.  The white cardstock is from Walmart, the red is Wausau brand and I used Vanilla Smooch mist on the Swiss Dots embossed portion.  The green is Bazzill and the bling is from my stash.  I used a stamp from Close to my Heart for the tag as well as a scalloped circle nestie.  I made a belly band with the leftover red paper to make a pretty package for these. 

I used the same cardstock from the previous cards and added some patterned paper from last years American Crafts Christmas pack.  This cut was also from the Christmas solutions cart.  The marquee shape was altered on the gypsy from the Storybook cartridge and embossed with Divine Swirls and also sprayed with Vanilla Smooch Spritz. I added some Champagne Glitz Stickles and some grosgrain ribbon to complete these.

 This last set also uses white cardstock and American Crafts paper.  I also used a sheet of pink Gemstones Coredinations.  The snowflake is once again from the Christmas Solutions cartridge.  I did hide the contours to make this a blackout shadow.  I added a pearl from my stash and some Liquid Pearls as well as some Stardust Stickles for the snowflake.  The ribbon is from my stash and I used a scrap of the pink for the base of it. 

 

Euphoria and a sweet little card

Well I am still on a World series high.  I would like to think that this will not be the last time in my lifetime that I experience my team winning, but I know for some people(the ones who have been waiting since the Giants came to town in 1958) this will be it for them.  We went to the parade yesterday and the atmosphere was electric to say the least.  I laughed, I cried, I cheered!  Each and every moment of that day will be cherished in my family forever.  San Francisco really knows how to party, from the players riding in those famous SF trolleys, to the signs the fans had created, to the orange and black beach ball that made it's way through the anticipating crowd, these memories will have to be scrapped.  I know that a one or even two page layout will never be enough.  These memories will need their own album so if you have ideas for me, please share.  And if you are interested in seeing more of my photos from the parade please see my Facebook page.

Well, alas, life must return to normal at some point.  At least normal for me is something I love.  I made this sweet little card for the Inktegrity sketch challenge this week.  I hope you will all play along.  Ths sketch is super fun and very versatile.  This image was a freebie over the summer and the way I discovered Inktegrity.  Head on over and check out the challenge.  I used some new goodies that I got from Stampin' Up.  I am really loving this club that I am in.  The papers are from the Sweet and Sour Specialty pack.  The cardstock is a scrap from my stash.  The flowers are also random things from my stash with Stickle accents.  I used the Smooch Vanilla Spritz over my image to give it some shine.  This picture looks like the ink smeared, but I can assure you that it did not.  It is just hard to get a pic with all that glitz. 

World Champions

This is the hat that I am buying my husband.  That's right, the San Francisco Giants are now World Champions!!!!  If I am not around for a few days it is because I am still celebrating.  You had better believe that I will be in San Fran when the boys return with the trophy.  Can't wait to scrap these history changing moments!!!!!

Orange and Black Time

So I love Orange and Black and I do not celebrate Halloween.  This time of year Orange and Black is all over my house.  That's about the only colors I wear.  I even found my daughter a pair of orange and black striped tights that were supposed to go with a witch costume but I bought them for a different reason.  Yep it's baseball season.  It's World series time to be exact, and our team is winning 2 games to none.  Check out what I made to go over our TV when we cheer on our San Francisco Giants

Won't that look great with the game on that big screen?  Our kids usually go to a harvest celebration the night of Halloween but it is not happening this year so we are thinking about having an Orange and Black party of the baseball variety.  Game 4 of the World Series will be on that night and it is a possible clincher if they win Game 3 too.  So as for details on this, the pennants are just triangles stretched out on the Gypsy from George and Basic Shapes, the font is Sesame Street Sunny Day, all paper is just random stuff from my stash.  The I {heart} baseball, the baseball and bat, and the Home Run were all things that my Not so secret Sister from the Cricut messageboard had cut for me some time ago and I believe she used SCAL.  The scalloped circles and marquee shapes are Nesties and a QuickCutz die.  I also used some ink, lots of pop dots and the Swiss Dots Embossing folder.  Here are some close ups.

Let's Go Giants!!!!!

This is me and my baby watching Game 2 last night.  My 4 year old took this pcture with my rebel and other than the weird angle making me look like I have 3 chins, she did a great job!

Treat holders x2 and a layout

So I decided not to do a title on this page.  Can you guess the location of these pictures.  I am hoping it is obvious.  They are from my son's field trip last year to the San Francisco Zoo.  I was unable to attend, but thankfully his teacher was a scrapper too and made sure I had these for my album.  The blue background paper is from my stash(it's either from a Wausau pack or it's Bazzill Smoothies in Huckleberry Pie).  The pattern is from the All About Boys Stack.  I then took some white acrilyc paint and a brand new pencil (I used the eraser) to add some polka dots to the page.  The orange mat is also Bazzill smoothies in Tamgerine.  The Golden Gate Bridge was something I had made with the Destinations cartridge when I was demo-ing it at Costco.  I had kept it because I knew it would eventually be perfect for a page.  It was cut at 3.75 inches.  The monkeys were done with the New Arrival cartridge onmy Gypsy so I can't tell you the exact size but I know it was around 2 inches.  All layers were cut with scrap papers.

The Zoo entrance sign was cut from the Everday Paper Dolls cartridge with the Gypsy.  I stretched it out to fit over the picture.  This was only cut in grey.  I colored the word "Zoo" with a black permanent marker, then I inked the edges and then covered the whole thing in Crackle Accents.  After it dried I added a bit more ink.  I really love the effect.

I saw the most fab tutorial today from Joni at A Sticky Situation.  She is the owner of Inktegrity digi stamps, who I design for.  This tutorial however, has nothing to do with stamps.  it is a super cute, super fast treat holder.  I whipped up a couple just to try it out , but I will for sure be making more someday. 

Also after making the 60+ goodie bags for my kids friends the other say, they informed me that I needed something for their teachers as well.  This is somethign that has been floating around the web alot

recently although I remember making these 3-4 years ago with a group of preschoolers that I was teaching at the time.  They were made with orange scraps of paper and a few easy supplies.  I won't go into all the details as I am sure you have seen them before.  Then I just slid them open and scooted some candy inside, then slid them shut again.  I have never seen them with treats in them before but I think it works quite nicely.  The leaves are from Gypsy Wanderings and I cut the shadow as well as the regular layer.  On the shadow piece I inked it a bit since the scrap of paper I used was a bit too bright for this project.  The buttons are American Crafts and the twine is from the dollar store.  The darker green is Bazzill and I cut the strip at about a 1/4 of an inch before twisting it aroound my tweezers to make the vine.  I filled these with some Sugar Babies and mini Chic-O-Sticks. 

62+1

62 +1 That's how many goodie bage I made for this coming Friday.   This week the kids school will be having a costume party and parade for all the students.  Our family does not celebrate Halloween so I always volunteer to bring the goodie bage so I can make sure they are more of a Fall theme rather than Halloween.  So I made these little cuties.  They are inspired by, but not quite the same as some I saw at My Creative Time.  I used two different Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page sets for the toppers and some papers from my scrap stash along with a corner rounder for the overlay.  The pumpkins were cut with the Gypsy and Gypsy Wanderings with the shadow and I hid the lines.  The leaf is from Doodlecharms and then I stamped the faces with Peachy Keen Dolly Dumplins faces.  I added some stickles, white pen and Smooch paint for the stem. 

I loved these so much that I decided to do something for my hubby too.  Of course after making 62 of these I wanted to do something a bit different for him.  I decided to use one of the new fall images from Inktegrity.  This image is called Pumpkin House and is available in the store for just $2 and also includes an adorable little fence.  I cut a scrap of stampin Up Chocolate Chi[p with a QuickCutz die and scored it in the middle and embossed it with my Argyle cuttlebug folder.  The blue is a scrap of Core'dinations from the vintage collection.  I didn't have enough to cut a whole scalloped circle but I just folded it over abnd its only cutoff on the backside.  I then handcut the image that was colored with my random marker stash and some Distressed Stickles.  The pumpkin house is pop dotted.  I think this turned out masculine.  I am not sure if hubby will like it but I guarantee he will eat the candy!  This little gem was made for the Anything Goes challenge over at Inktegrity this week.  i hope you all decide to play along.  The winner gets $5 to spend in the store.