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!

Yummy!

I was invited to a bridal shower and was asked to bring my favorite recipe. They provided paper and embellishments to make a scrapbooking page which would include the recipe and they would add the person's picture. Well that was great only I arrived without realizing I was to bring a recipe. Rush Rush, Go Go sort of days! So I promised the bride I would make her a page and bring it by later. This is how it turned out.

For my skier in the family

Nothing makes my son more excited than skiing.... well maybe his family too! It is close! So for his birthday, which is in January, I made him his own personal card with a skier and snow on the front. You can't see it very well, but I used the Martha Stewart zig zag embossed edge boarder punch under the skier so it looks like he is skiing down a hill. He was pretty excited. Yep, I got the smile I was hoping for!

A New Grandson!

We are so excited to add another boy to our collection of grandchildren. This was a shower invitation sent out to celebrate. Inside the card said, " We are SOARING with excitement for Nate and Andrea as they TAKE OFF on an ADVENTURE with the upcoming arrival of their new baby boy! Please join us at the High TERMINAL for a BONVOYAGE celebration before the SCHEDULED event." A light meal will be served by the CREW."
His room is all decked out in an aviation theme. Pretty Cute!

A Special Thank You

I have a great tech guy who always answers the phone when I need help on my job. I made this card for him to say a special thanks. This card was way over due so that is why it is "about time" that I said thanks! He is my one and only tech guy I use and I couldn't do my job without him.

Congratulations to the Bride & Groom

It doesn't get more romantic than hearts!

Happy Birthday To You!

Just a fun way to say Happy Birthday.

Happy Birthday

Emily had a card making gathering where everyone brought a card for everyone to make. We tag teamed on this and since she lives 20 hours away from me I made the cuts and mailed it to her. Well even with 8 days before the gathering and sending the package 3 day delivery, 16 days latter the package arrived! The post office could only say they don't guarantee their mail service! Fortunately she was able to use them at a later time. Maybe you were lucky enough to recieve one of these cards!

Happy Anniversary

My sweetheart is all these things and more, but wanted to make sure he saw the word "LOVE"!

Hats Off!

Here is a thank you card I made for a Christmas gift I received.

Paper Pumpkins

(In this post I've included links to some websites. I am not necesarily partial to the websites, I am just using them to try and show you what I am talking about.)

Here are the original instructions where I learned how to make the pumpkins. She gives them step by step, which is great.
Obviously, you won't be doing a photo, so you don't need to worry about fanning the strips out perfectly in order like she has in her instructions. In fact, when you go to fan out your paper stack, I recommend that you mix up the strips a little so you put some of the top strips next to some of the middle or bottom ones.

The secret to the paper is to buy double sided paper (meaning it has a print on both sides) and is the heaviest paper you can find. Ordinary card stock just won't cut it with the larger pumpkin. We ended up finding a paper called "imaginisce" and FELL IN LOVE. It was the thickest stuff around and hands down the most beautiful. Really, you only need the thickness for the largest pumpkin, the medium and small ones are not as much of an issue. We actually used the imaginisce for the large and small pumpkin and then a "Bo Bunny" paper for the middle sized one. You can have fun with corrdinating papers!

These two were our all time favorites and the ones we used for our pumpkins.

Favorite #1 and Favorite #2


Here are some aditonal paper ideas for you:

Paper oooo!   Paper ahhhh!   Paper la-la-la!

Here is a sampling of Bo Bunny Papers. The one we liked were in the "Beautiful Life" set. Though, I must forewarn you, we discovered Beautiful life papers to be last year's design, so it was a bit difficult to find them. You can still find them on scrapbooking websites if you look around. They are just as pricy as the imaginisce. We ended up finding all our paper in a little scrapbooking store in the middle of Missouri hidden in the back of a pharmacy and Radio Shack. Both inaginisce and Bo Bunny papers you will not be able to find in any Michaels, Robert's or Hobby Lobby.

For the cutting sizes, I cut the large pumpkin using the full 12 inch paper in 1 inch increments. The vine was from the Zooabaloo Cricut Cartridge at 2.5 inches.

The medium size pumpkin I cut at 8.5 inches, then sliced into 1 inch increments. The vine was from the Zooabaloo Cricut Cartridge at 2 inches.

The small pumpkin I cut in half (6 inches), then in 3/4 inch increments. I only used about 8 or 9 of the strips to make this pumpkin. Using more than 9 and you end up with too many strips and things get crammed. The nice part about this is that you can share 1 sheet of paper between almost 3 people! The vine was from the Zooabaloo Cricut Cartridge at 1.5 inches.

(You could do rafia or some other medium instead of cutting out a vine and get a similar look.)

The key to putting these together is using a crop-a-dial. Anything else is not worth your time. I used the smallest hole punch on it. I did not clamp mine together like she shows you in the instructions, but for those who are a bit wobbly with their hands it might be a good idea. I also just used plain, cheap, office brads (100 to a box at Walmart or Staples). I noticed with the decorative brads that often they have short prongs on them and you need longer prongs for grasping all the papers.

So, for supplies, you will need:

Crop-a-dial
12" paper slicer
Brads
Decorative leaves
Paper

Happy crafting!

Luminaries

These are super simple and so elegant for Christmas entertaining!  I swiped the idea from here.  For mine, I used a Martha Stewart border punch instead of the triangles they have on top.  To make the bags, just trace out one half of a Christmas tree pattern on your brown paper bag, insert a piece of cardboard inside the bag and then exacto knife your tracing.  Use a small and medium sized hole punch on the side you just cut out to make your "ornaments", then fold the flap back and glue it down.  Viola!  It is that easy! 

Bag topper

Here is a fun bag topper I made to fancy up some bath salts.  I used the Martha Stewart border punch along the bottom and New Arrivals cart for the bath tub.  The scalloped circle is from Graphically Speaking.

The soaps are handmade, all natural made from my father-in-law's beehives.  Click here to learn more. These make delightful gifts for any occasion!

Derek's Birthday Card

Here is a fun birthday card I made for my son in law, Derek.

It's About Time

This is a card I made for a couple of teen age girls who have been watching my kids for us for free here and there. We wanted to say "thank you" so my husband made them some brownies and we took them over with the card and a big hug!

(Graphically Speaking and Storybook carts)

Poof!

Now that I have my paper goods back in an organized manner, I have a few cards I have been meaning to do. Here are two that I did over the last couple of days.

A lady at church taught us how to make strawberry freezer jam so this card is for her. I had been wanting to use my rubber stamps and this was a great opportunity. (Martha Stewart border punch and Storybook cart for front.)

Here's the inside. (Graphically Speaking cart)

This card is for a family at church who are just finishing with residency in Radiology. They invited us to a dinner party, but we couldn't attend, so I thought of this card as a way to share in their celebration. (The graduating resident keeps a clean shaved head, so this guy is a perfect fit.)
(Paper Dolls Dress Up cart, and Fabulous Finds for the x-ray cover. "Poof" is from Opposites Attract cart.)

"Somehow those med school and residency years seem to disapear before our eyes. Here's to some magical years ahead!"

Some craftiness

It was my mom's birthday just after Mother's day and my aunt's 60th birthday around the same time, so I made them both this card. I'm hoping it got there okay since the card had several layers that pop out. The "B" is SCAL.  Lots of Cuttlebug embossing including the "Happy" on the outside and "Birthday" on the inside.  The rose on the inside is from Walk in My Garden cart.

The inside

I found these cute vibrating toys for babies at Carter's the other day and bought two for my two new cute nephews. Of course I had to find a way to package them! So, while I was visiting family, I dipped into some heaven and used my mom's goods to make this cute popcorn bin for the toy to go in. (Tags, Bags, Boxes & More cart and New Arrivals for the giraffe!)

Thanks 4 Everything

I made this one for our neighbor who brought over two different kinds of homemade soups, cornmeal muffins, chocolate muffins, and an entire salmon dinner! "Everything" was delicious!

I can't take credit for the design.  I swipped it from another blog, though I wish dearly I could remember where!  I thought the 4s across the front were really fun!  They come from Graphically Speaking. "Thanks" comes from Opposites Attract, and the flowers are Walk in My Garden.

I decided to spend a little more time on this one and added some distressing to it and black ink. I'm not very good at either technique, but it was fun to try! If only I had more time...hee hee! Oh well, I am my own worst critic, but despite its imperfections, I am happy with the results.

The inside

Top 'o the day to you!...

...And a happy St. Patty's day too! I didn't do much by way of preparation for this holiday, but I did make this cute sign to welcome the kids at the breakfast table this morning. Last night we talked about blessings we have vs. feeling "lucky" for family night. I cut out a bunch of 3 leaf clovers to do a game with the kids. With each clover they hang up, they can tell us of a blessing they enjoy.

The kids loved the idea of dressing up in green and are delightfully green from head to toe! (Though, my son has no understanding of how different shades of green don't go together. His shorts are olive green and his shirt is lime green!)

I found a website today that tells some of the tales of Leprechauns. Here's the link! I also discovered the holiday is named after the Catholic Priest Saint Patrick who used the 3 leaf clover to teach about the trinity. Each leaf representing one part of the trinity. I also learned that the Prodistants would wear orange on St. Patrick's day. So, if you see the Irish wearing green and/or orange, you'll know why!

When I worked as a nanny in medschool, I used to take the 4 year old to preschool. I guess they had spent the week telling the children about all the traditions of St. Patricks day. On the moring of the actual holiday, we arrived to see little foot prints on the floor, up the wall, across the ceiling, and down again where they ended in a little doll house. The night before the children had left some cookies for the little leprechaun and when they arrived, they all noticed that the cookes were gone and in their place were some little gold pieces. The kids loved it and the moment was magical! I was hoping to do something like that this year, but time got the best of me. It is definitely on the calendar for next year!

I hope you've not gotten too many pinches today and if you have, then call them LOVE pinches!