Sure Cuts A Lot

I just got an e-mail from CraftEdge.com for another coupon towards their software.  Here you go!

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Discount is for 10% off and will expire on 1/2/2010 11:59PM PST

Advent Calendar

My eye caught some fun Advent Calendars last year and I've been itching all year to do this.  I was happy with the way it turned out. I am alwasy looking for teaching ideas with my kids and this was wonderful way to create great family time and add some of the true Christmas spirit into the season.

I cut the bag out in SCAL.  Here's the link to the file. The nice thing about this bag is that there is no glue involved.  When the Christmas season is over, I can just unfold the bags and they will store flat! With as much work as I put into them, this was a big plus for me.

All the numbers come from the Celebrations cart. I actually Mod Podged each one to sturdy them a bit and give them a nice finish. The paper is from a holiday paper pack from Hobby Lobby.

In each bag is a little red piece of paper.   Every other day, there is also a little green piece of paper.  The red papers tells the activity for the day. The green ones tell which part of the Christmas story we will learn about that day.  Some of the green papers coincide with the red ones.  I was particular about which activities landed on certain days since I don't always have a hubby in the evenings.  A lot of the activities we do when my oldest boy gets home from school. 

I swipped some of my ideas from other websites online.  Then others came from our own family traditions, or things I have been wanting to do. 

The kids have loved doing this advent calendar!  Even my husband gets excited about what each activity is going to be.  I am so glad I made it!

Advent Calendar

Carlie's Birthday Card from Me

Well, since I gave my first card I made for Carlie's birthday to Jeffery, I needed to come up with one from me. Still has the bling. She is so royal, this card is fitting for her.

Gobble Gobble

It is Lauren's birthday the Monday before Thanksgiving. I wanted to make her a card and this one came to mind. It was pretty sick humor, the poor turkey, but Lauren and her husband, Eric got a good laugh.

Carlie's Birthday Card

Well, my little princes, Carlie had a birthday in November too. I began to make her a "Princess" card and saw this cute frog. Once I added it I then realized I couldn't give her this card as it was perfect for Jeffery to give to her. I called him up and told him I had a card for him he could give to Carlie for her birthday. He was thrilled! Jeffery is not one for shopping! For Carlie it is all about bling. She was not disapointed.

Emily's Birthday Card

The funny story about this card is that for once I made and mailed Emily her birthday card so she actually recieved it BEFORE her birthday. She called with excitement and much anticipation only for me to tell her she couldn't open it until her birthday. Carefully she placed it in a safe place. When it came to open the card was gone and worse, no where to be found. She went thought the trash and cleaned the house, no card. Just the other day nearly a month after her birthday she called me with jubilation the card was found... up in the top of a closet with the wooden puzzles! What do they say... good things happen to those who wait!

I love you THIS much!

Mom and I were talking the other night about all the cards she has made and never taken pictures of. So, I went through some of the ones I have kept and took pictures of them for you to see. The following few posts are some of her work.


This is one of two books she has made for my kids and sent to them in the mail. You can well imagine the delight of a child recieving something from Mr. Postman!

Do You Know?

Mom made this book and sent it to my kids one year when she was planning a visit to see us.  The kids loved it! 

Most all the animals except the turtle came from the CuttleBug for kids die cuts.  The turtle is from the Walk In My Garden cart and the grasses I believe are from the Zooabaloo cart.  Don't you just love those little animals?  She stitched the binding on her sewing machine to bring it all together.  I can tell a lot of time went into creating this!

Happy Birthday Emily!

Mom made this for me for my birthday two years ago next week! It was inspired from another card she saw online. I just loved it and of course kept it! She did not take a picture of it before she gave it to me, so I thought I would do the honors.

Here are the words to the poem that goes inside.  (I don't know if they wrote them themselves or copied them from somewhere.)

It's easy to find the days breezing by,

when there is so much to do.

Plans to make, dinners to take,

calls and visits, all without a break.

May you always know our love for you,

never have a doubt,

That will keep you happy and loved,

never down and out.

Yes, another year has passed as they

always seem to do,

Such fun and joy you'll have,

with many memories to chew,

May you always know our love for you,

never will you need a clue!

Just remember, we will always be...

right there for you!

Happy Birthday!

I'm discovering how much embossing really makes a card!

Cherry Oh!

In September we did another fun day for the ladies at church.  Mom flew out to be with me for that week and was there to help me with the last minute details.  While she was here, she helped me create this card as a "Thank You" to the ladies who helped.  I made some 16 of these and loved every one!

Details: the cherry is from the Hello Kitty cart.  Then embossed with two different Cuttlebug folders.  The inside is a Fabulous Finds frame stretched.

I really struggled with a cute saying to go inside.  We looked all over the internet and finally one morning I sat up in bed and this is what came out of my head. It's cheesy, I know, but I wanted something cherry, oh, I mean cheery!  hee hee Leave me a comment if you have any other ideas of sayings that would be perfect with this card!

Circle Birthday Card

Mom made this cute card for my little girl way back when she turned 1. She made this in the beggining days of her Cricut and I still love this card.

The little envelope on the left was a perfect spot to put a few birthday $$$!

Of course no card is finished without grandma's famous words!

Rose Thank You

Last March we did a Progressive dinner for the ladies at church. There were some 18 women who helped in one way or another with the event. Here is the card I came up with to say "Thank You". There are times when a cute card and even heartfelt words of gratitude just don't do justice. This was one of those occasions.

Details: Storybook cart (cut at 2" if I remember correctly.) The flower was also Storybook cut at 2", 1.5", 1.25", and 1".

Thanks for Sunday Dinner...

We just got back from California Sunday evening and our neighbor brought us Sunday dinner. YUMMY! This is a card I made them to say THANKS! I wanted to try out my new Martha Stewart "punch around the page" punches I picked up in California.

It's a Boy!

Just a simple baby boy card. Gotta love those little eyes!

Sing Your Heart Out!

I belong to a card club and our Stampin Up Demonstrator, Cheryl Curtis designed this card and we all made it. I have to give all the credit to Cheryl, but note that it is all made from punches, mostly ovals. Pretty cute huh? Are you all ready to sing your heart out for Christmas?

Birthday Card for my son!

Nathan loves airplanes and has some of those remote control ones that he flies often. So I thought I would make his card with some airplanes. On the inside it says, " Wishing you a SOARING celebration!

Thinks of You

This is a card I made a a while ago, but like it because I was able to use all the different parts of the die cut. The back ground paper with the diamonds is also embossed. Part of the die cut is used on the inside of the card around the stamped image.

Baby Girl

I wanted to use the embossing strips and this card is a sample of both embossing and stamping. I saw a card like this on one of my favorite sites, www.cutathome.com and thought I would give it a try.

Days to Remember Card Book

When we lived in Pennsylvania, a good friend taught me how to do these.  This is a book to hold my cards and keep track of all the important dates in my life.  This makes a perfect gift for the grandma, aunt, or mother in your life who is religious about sending you birthday cards each year!

It is made out of sheet protectors, a 3-ring binder (1.5") and some paper.  On the left side of the page you see the month with a place to write down the date of the month, the person's name, and the event being held. (For example, my brother Kimball's birthday is on January 11th.)  Then on the right side of the page, there is a half-page design to fit the month.  The sheet protector is cut down both sides half way to where it meets the design.  The top portion of the sheet protector is stuffed down behind the design to give you an "envelope" or pocket folder to hold your cards.  The top white portion that you see above the design is the next month's registry.  It is still protected by the other side of the sheet protector!

Jan and Oct I used the "card" option on the cart. Then I cut down the card so it left me with a nice wide border around the design. You waste a little paper this way (or call them scraps!), but I loved the border of "let it snow" and "boo" that went around the design.

February

For March I used my SCAL software, but there are some cute Easter/Spring things on the SYI cart that you can use.

April

May

June

July month header.  I created all the month headers using SCAL.  They coordinate with the matching patterned paper on the right side.  I love the font because it is designed to flow together and I didn't have to "weld" anything!  Super simple and not a lot of little pieces to insert in the middle of letters!

August I ended up just coloring the top of the palm tree green with a marker. Lots easier and one less cut.  This one, however is cut out and not colored.

September

October.  Sorry this one is fuzzy. Paper Dolls Dress Up has two very cute pumpkins too!

November

For December I ended up using a green ornament instead of cream and a cream leaf decoration instead of red inside the ornament. The leaf decoration is actually an ornament too, I just hand cut off the top of the ornament when I was all done.

This was the back of the last page.  It is a bunch of birthday quotes to give me inspiration for what to write inside my cards.  I found most of the quotes by just looking around online. 

The font I used throughout the book is CK Vogue.

You can do additional pages in the book that have some simple categories like "thank you", "anniversary", "get well soon", gratuation", etc.  It is always nice to have a few extra cards on hand!

Here are the monthly registries.  You will need 12 of these. Once for each month of the year! Days to Remember

 These are the quotes.  They don't fit on the page in this document because I used that CK Vogue font and Scribd doesn't recognize it.  You can pick your own font to fit your fancy after you have downloaded it.
Birthday Quotes

Here is the spreadsheet of all the cuts I made.  The only reason why this is as organized as it is, is because I massed produced 12 of these (with the help of several sweet friends) for a church craft day.

There were a few cuts where I goofed on my description. Like maybe I forgot to enter "shift" on the spreadsheet. (Don't worry, I didn't do this too often!) So, with each cut, just look at your book that comes with the cart so you can make sure you are cutting what you see from the picture.

Days to Remember Cricut Details2

It is fun to see what others do as variation on the same theme. You will have to send a link of what you do differently! I can't wait to see what you come up with!