Multi-fold cards

These cards were actually timely (end of school and Father's Day). I'm just really late posting pics of them. I found the directions online for the "Teacher" one. The back was exactly the size I needed for a gift card. I loved the way the card folding hid some of the words and paper. Using this concept, I came up with the pull down card for Father's Day. From there, I needed a Thank You card, so I substituted picstures into the squares. The card was so stinking cute!

Hello, Mudder! Hello, Fadder!

Here I am at Camp Scrapbooking. (Do you have the snappy little tune stuck in your head yet?) Thank goodness because it was virtual camp, I didn't have any rain, alligators in the pool, or lost comrades, as the song suggests.

Here's how it worked. Each day, camp "counselors" would post entries with scrapbooking challenges, design ideas, photography pointers, etc. They also posted camp food recipes. There were a total of 10 different badges up for grabs by completing the suggested activities. Because my family was so good to let me have some time each day, I was able to get all 10 Camp CK Merit Badges (virtual badges I was able to post in my signature line on the website that hosted camp).

So, here is a sampling of the projects completed from last week's camp. The photo of the flowers was from a photography challenge. The Chip n Dale was for the 1st Aid badge - this layout was in need of some 1st aid to punch it up a little bit. The orange layout is from a "nature-inspired" layout challenge. The key ring photo album is Spencer's and features the places we went on vacation. He helped w/ the stickering. Now he'll be able to take it to school and show & tell about what he did this summer.

Anyways, look for CAMP CK again next year and sign up with me!

Don't burst my bubble!

Claire's birthday was the middle of the month of May. Our month was so busy we had to cancel a few things just to find time to have a party for her!

When we first moved to this house 4 years ago, I painted her room this yellow with a small section over by the windows the bubble gum pink. We decorated in Dora, but Dora was quickly outgrown. For the last 2 years I have been wanting to find a theme that would fit my decidedly less-than-frilly girl, but wouldn't require repainting. She adores Bobby Jack so this was a perfect fit for both of us.

I used vinyl in a teal, chocolate brown, golden, and bubble gum pink to create the wall decor. Obviously, the lettering and bubbles were simple cuts on the cricut. Bobby himself is made from circles and ovals as well. The only thing hand cut are his eyes and nose. But even the eyeballs were simple circular cuts. The lettering of the Bobby Jack signature came from the Opposites Attract cartridge. The caption lettering came from the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge, along with all the ovals and circles. I used the monkey on the comforter as my pattern. By employing some algebra, I was able to keep my ratios the same when I enlarged it onto the wall.

I had a lot of fun with this quick project. It took me about 4 hours to complete. Not a bad time investment to get a one-of-a-kind look!

A Whole Lotta' Sewing Goin' On!

I made the girl's flower girl dresses for a wedding this weekend. Of course, their American Girls needed matching dresses from the fabric remnants! The pails that I posted a couple of weeks ago are also from the same fabric as the sashes. There's nothing better than feeling like a Princess in a beautiful dress. And having your dolly match is the icing on the cake!

Wedding Tile

May is by far much busier than December ever thought of being! To add to an already full calendar, I have been getting ready for a friend's wedding that the whole family was asked to be a part of. So while I have actually been doing a lot of crafting and sewing, I've not had a chance to post any of it.

As the maid of honor for the wedding, I had to prepare a toast. Being the chatty one that I am, I made sure I wrote out my speech beforehand in order to keep the toast short. As part of the speech before the toast, I had a bible verse that I felt was particularly applicable to this couple. I used the Cricut to cut the verse from vinyl, along with the couples name and wedding date. I have learned that I must modge podge over the tiles or else the vinyl letters lift with time. This particular font was the "upright" from the "Opposites Attract" cartridge. On the back I tried something new. I modge-podged on a sheet of scrapbook paper to cover up the ugly back. Then I printed out a copy of the speech/toast to put on the back as well. I loved the way doing both sides of the tile turned out. I think the bride could even flip the tile over to the back and display that side if she ever wanted. Much better than the plain ugly back or adding just felt or cork!

Candles and flower Pails

I have been very busy with too many things to mention over the last month. But I wanted to take a moment to post a set of candles I was asked to make for one of my daughter's girl scout troop. The words come from the Girl Scout Law. There are 10 candles, each one containing a part of the Law. The girls used the candles as part of their Investiture and Rededication Ceremony. I cut Cricut letters from vinyl, used the transfer tape and lit the candle. Nothing complicated, but very unique!

I have also been helping a friend get ready for her wedding at the end of the month. I included a picture of the flower girl pails. These started as galvanized metal buckets with wood colored handles. Gotta' love spray paint, fabric and hot glue!

Same cut, 2 ways

I am working diligently on finishing my last few pages from our Disney trip LAST March. In playing around with the Mickey's house cut from the Mickey and Friends cartridge, I found out that my good friend Kelly has just moved in to a new home. While I miss her (she's now in Florida!), I am so happy for her. So, I began to wonder if I could kill two birds with one stone!?! I don't know that I am thrilled with the outcome, but it was definitely a challenge to see how different I could make the two look just by changing colors and finishings.

Simple Cricut Lettering

I wanted to share with you some very simple lettering with the Cricut. I only have 2 font cartridges for my Cricut. I keep thinking I am going to invest in the Sure Cuts A Lot software that would allow me to use any font program on my computer on my Cricut, BUT I haven't done that yet. So, this was an experiment to prove to myself - and all those who have EVERY cartridge under the sun, that less can be more. These pages have all been completed in the last couple of weeks. I am ashamed to admit that they cover a vacation that happened a year ago. In my world, less has to be more because I keep getting more and more and wishing for less and less! Can I get an amen?

Starting with the top left 'Backlot photos", this was done with the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge, using the basic font in red and the shadow feature in gray. Next, I switched to the Opposites Attract cartridge. For the word "Zaniness" I used the upright round feature and then the Trapezoid feature for "Muppets". Instead of using the actual trapezoids, I used the negative space from the cut. This created a really nice contrasting line across my page. In "POP Century" I combined my two cartridges using the Plantin Schoolbook for the POP, with the shadow feature as previously shown, and then the upright lettering on the Opposites Attract cartridge for the "Century". Finally, on "Disney World" I used the basic lettering on Opposites Attract and then went back over the lettering with a glitter pen. I loved how closely this mimicked the Disney font without paying for a whole new Disney font cartridge. The point of this lettering is to create a feel, a theme, a look, and not to be an exact replica. For me, keeping $30 in my pocket is worth the "knock off".

What I am most interested in is ideas for adhering the lettering to my pages and cards. I have tried the mini tape runner that Creative Memories used to sell. It worked OK, but my understanding is that they have discontinued that product. The glue pens from Zig tend to be messy in my opinion. What I am using right now that seems to be working very well is the Xyron 1.5" sticker maker. The only downside to it that I can see is the time it takes to get the letters to align in there so you are wasting as little sticker tape as possible. If you have any other ideas or suggestions I would love to hear your comments!

For those Cricut Addicts out there, I have a chalenge for you: How many projects or layouts can you do using only 2 cartridges before you get bored or hit a wall?

Cupcake Girl Scrapbook Layout

The gals over at the new BBTB2 blog have posted lots of cute cards using two different cupcakes from two different Cricut cartridges. So, I wanted to share my use of the cupcake with you. The cupcake is from the Celebrations cartridge cut at 4". After cutting all my layers, I spiced the frosting up by using Glimmer Mist - a newer product I was able to try out thanks to an Archiver's gift certificate from my bestest girlfriends in the whole world!!! (Hugs Jeana and Linds) The Minnie is made from my newest cartridge - Mickey and Friends - as are the lollipops on the journaling block.

These pictures are from our trip to Disney World last spring break. Considering that this Saturday kicks off Spring Break '10, I thought I should make those Disney pics a higher priority on the "to do" list. It's so much fun to relive the trip through scrapbooking. Somebody asked me today if we were doing anything as exciting as Disney for this year's break. Nope - going to my cousin's farm in Halstead, Kansas. But hey, she did promise me some scrapbooking time. So maybe it's a close second! Or not!

Thumbody Loves You!

And that thumbody is Me!!!
I must be a sucker! I got roped into heading up the valentine parties at the kids' school. Truth be told, I LOVE to plan parties. But I don't love trying to get 20 different personalities to cooperate with each other. It's like herding cats!

But, something fun has come out of the endeavor. A little silver in the cloud linings. One of the classes found an adorable foam craft project at Oriental Trading Company, but the cost of the kits, especially for being only foam, was cost prohibitive. So, I took it to the Cricut.

I am limited on my cartridges, so I had to improvise a little bit. The base/pot is from the Celebrations cartirdge. That's right - the birthday cartridge. I used on page 117 and then cut the bow off to become the flower pot. I did it again on my patterned paper cutting off the bow and the top lip to give the pot dots. The grass is from Plantin Schoolbook, p. 69. The stem is a lollipop stick that I stamped with ink to get the green color. The petal itself is from Accent Essentials . Although I did find quite a few other flower heads on other cartridges so look and see what you can find. I chose this one because it most resembled the flower on the OT piece and the shape was nice with the thumbrpints. The saying is hand done, but when I go to do 100 of these, I will be printing them out on the computer. The heart is from the Plantin SchoolBook again.

I hope this will delight our 100 second graders and their "thumbodies special."

Fast Room!

Little Man wanted a Big Boy Room for his birthday. So in lieu of a big party, we re-did his room. We had to - he'd taken taken his old stuff on his own! The bottom is Lightening McQueen Red, the top is a bright racing blue (it appears sky blue in the pics, but is actually more intense). We found some vinyl "stickers" with the Cars characters to put on the walls and dresser. I got a lamp/alarm clock combo off of Craigslist.

Someday this might be a pain in the rear to paint back over. But I just came from the hospital where we learned that a friend from my teenage years is brain dead. So in this moment, I couldn't be more satisfied with having taking the risk of the bright red. I love the room and so does Little Man. And I am incredibly thankful to God to have had the privilege of making him happy in this way! Take a risk and Start Your (creative) Engines!!!

in this way.

Ultimate Batman Cake

Little Man wanted a Batman Themed cake for the big #5. To keep costs minimal (since what he really wanted was a "big boy room") we had just a couple of friends and family over to celebrate and I made the cake. Not bad for 4-H learned skills! To add to the fun, we pretended the Riddler had stolen the cake and he had to search for his cake.