I Love Tinkerbell's Lilly of the Valley!

Ok,confession time...I bought a cart for one image: Tinkerbell. And the image I had to have...the Lilly of the Valley flower! This has been my favorite flower since childhood. I am still hoping to put it in my own garden, but it can be invasive so I need to find a spot where I can keep it reined in with some concrete.

So, I bought the Tinkerbell cart just for this image. I used it today in a sympathy card. I welded the shadow with the label image in Storybook and then cut the other pieces to put on top. The stamp is CTMH Best Wishes. The border is Martha Stewart punch around the page loop.

Lent Journal Pages

So, today I am sharing my Lent Journal pages. Nothing fancy, as I did not want to make this project a work driver. Instead, I just modified my December Daily pages to reflect the dates for lent this year. I also changed the color of the text. Now, to get out the stamps and stickers for Easter!
I also will try and pre-scrap some of the journal and plan out three days of activities for the kids ahead of time. So, Why Wednesday, we will talk about why we celebrate lent and Ash Wednesday. Thursday, we will think about what we want to give up and why we give something up for lent. I am interested to see what the boys will be willing to give up! And Friday is family night. The boys are really liking playing the games as a family. Just hope they don't cream us on Mario Kart again! Maybe they will give up video games!

Upgrade Your Chipboard

Been playing with my stash lately, trying to use my chipboard and bead supplies. When chipboard was big I invested in some and it has sat in the stash every since. Just not really sure what to do with it. Someone had a post on Facebook about covering their chipboard with beads and it seemed the perfect solution. So, I got out the chipboard, the acrylic paint, some liquid glass and some beads and got to work.
To get this look I have found it is easiest to use a liquid glue. Hot glue was unforgiving and hardened too quickly for me. I also, pre-strung my 2mm beads before trying to adhere them. This will save you a lot of heart ache and frustration. Now you may be saying you don't have time, but I have found that like crocheting, string beads is soothing to me. I also love something to do when I am watching TV and it is American Idol season! As you work around a detailed shape, clip your thread at corners and points and start gluing the next line separately and can get into those tight spots easier. I think this would look great embellished with some rolled roses and hand made flowers! I can't wait to get a working die cutting machine again! Don't have time to make your own and love the look? Find them at my Etsy store here.

Thanks Samantha Walker Fabrics!

I entered a fabric giveaway at Samantha Walkers Blog and won. She let me choose the fabric too, and while was soooo tempted by the Cowboy 2 line I knew that I wanted the Enchanted Garden line in teal. She sent me so much fabric I will have enough to make at least three items! Such beautiful fabric!
I was able to make a sweet little Baby Bug (Original Cricut) cover and it is listed at my Etsy store here. Don't you love the teal and chocolate combo? The only fabric I used that wasn't Samantha's were the white ruffle and the chocolate dot in the yoke piece. I used those to get a little more contrast. Love this look? You can find it in her scrapbook papers too: Blossom is pictured just below. Sorry for the small picture. I can't figure out how to enlarge these on Blogger. But you can see them much better on Samantha's blog!
You can see more of Samantha Walker's fabric at Riley Blake Designs Here. And did you know, she designs paper for Creative Imaginations and dies for the Silhouette?! Oh, I love her work! I'm gonna have to get me some of her Kokeshi Collection for some of my nieces pages! Don't you love the Japanese doll paper below?!
Thanks Samantha! I am so happy to have found you and your paper and fabric for both my passions!

Another Dress Form Skirt Idea

Here is another idea for a dress form stamp or die cut, a ribbon skirt! One of my Close to My Heart friends; Melissa Johnson, shared this idea with me, so I can't take credit. My version did not turn out as well as hers. As I understand the instructions, you loop your ribbon around a card the length you want your skirt to be about 5 times. Then tie a ribbon around the top to form the waist. Remove the card, and glue the skirt at the waistline and tack at the bottom with glue dots. Somehow, when I glued mine down one of the loops got longer. Melissa always has these tips for preventing mishaps. That'll teach me not to miss stamp camp!
Stamp, ink and ribbon are CTMH. I think the stamp is the January Stamp of the Month (2011) and I am not sure of the name. The sentiment is SRM Stickers #51005 Thank You.

Ali's Got Me Journaling Again! This Time for 40 Days!

This last December I made my 1st December Daily. This is a project Ali Edwards does every year and in 2010 did with the online community at Scrapbooks Etc. I did not journal as faithfully as I should have and my journal was not as beautiful as so many of the posted journals. But I loved the following about the December daily:
1) It reminded me of the reason for the season.
2) It gave me a tool to remind my children of the reason for the season.
3) It became a family builder as I had a theme for each day and got my children involved. For example, Make it Monday and Why Wednesday.
4) It held me accountable to sharing my faith with my children.
So, yesterday I got a bee in my bonnet about how I would celebrate the upcoming Easter holiday with my children. I want them to understand how important I believe Good Friday and Easter our to our faith, and Ali's December Daily was my starting point. So, I am planning on celebrating Lent by journaling all 40 days. We will do the themed days again too. They are Make it Monday, Try it Tuesday, Why Wednesday, Think about it Thursday, Family Friday, Simple Saturday, and Sacred Sunday. I use Try it Tuesday to encourage new foods, and on Why Wednesday we talk about why we celebrate and why we have traditions like coloring eggs. For Think about it Thursday, I will ask the children to give up something they love for the day or the week as a way of sharing the message of cross.
Not only am I sharing this idea with you today, but I am sharing my cover SVG! I was really happy with how this turned out. To find the Cross SVG, use this LINK. I hope you like this file as much as I do!

Tips for Decorating Your Craft Room

I am just finishing up two covers for a customer in black and white and loving the combination! Can't go wrong with the classics! When I first started making covers, I knew that craft rooms were really becoming part of our homes and saw my covers as part of the decorating scheme for every Cricut lovers craft room. But while some of us may be comfortable scrap booking and card making, we don't have the same confidence in decorating. So, today I am sharing some of my decorating tips for your craft room or craft space.

One of my favorite go to rules is the rule of three. Try repeating a pattern three times in your space that works with your color scheme. So, you might add an Expression cover like the one at the top of the post, a Your Story cover like the one above and a scrap bag like the one below.
My second favorite rule is the Gallon, Quart, Pint rule. So, now you choose your main color for the walls, that's your Gallon color in this case white walls. Now your Quart is black and you might use this on a large magnetic chalk board in the craft room. And for a pint color you might use burgundy, and scatter this in a few accessories in your room. Try your organizational items.
And lastly, I love a piece of whimsy in every craft room! I don't have one to match the color scheme above in stock, but consider a decorative bird cage, like this one in my Etsy store for storing your ribbon. I added a few embellishments and instant whimsical storage! I actually love this method of storing ribbons! It makes getting what you need easy too!

A Thank You Card to Share

Oh, I can't believe how long it's been since I posted! Seems that even though I can now get to my craft room, my crafty mojo is still recovering. But I have had a good week winning prizes. I won a prize pack from the Crop Out Diabetes blog hop at PS. I Love You Scrapbooking and one from Samanatha Walker Fabrics. I am so excited to get the fabric, that I made up my thank you before it arrived.
I used my Clear Art Stamps "You're Sew Special" Set to stamp the dress form and the sentiment. I gathered a bit of organza in the stash and hot glued it to the dress form, with some ribbon on top. I made the flower (isn't it sweet?) using some seam tape and a brad. I am not sure where to get the seam tape as it was a gift from Carrie at Greenbeancrafterole. I wanted to make one with some Terrifically Tacky Tape, but there was none in the house. So, it occurred to me to use a brad and just loop my petals around the base of the brad. The damask is Inkadinkado Bold Damask stamp set. Hope Samanatha likes her card! And I am off to work up another thank you card for my Crop Out Diabetes prize. Be warned it may include another dress form or sewing item as I tend to explore an obsession of mine over and over (ie. dress form images).

February's Featured Etsy Blogger

This month the Etsy Blogger team's featured blogger is: Bunnykissd. It looks as if she does a bit of digi scrapping and likes to read. I am so with her about negative books! My book club keeps stumbling in these negative books.
I stopped by her Etsy store: BunnyKissd and found this adorable Mummy necklace! I know it is not near Halloween, but I loved the whimsy of this piece! You might just want to stop by and see what other whimsical pieces she has for the rest of the year!

Spring Flowers Cricut Expression Cover

Have you ever had a trim or embellishment that you are holding onto for the right project? Well, I bought this American Crafts Ribbon Rose a while ago and knew I wanted to use in on a Cricut Cover.
But, I needed the right fabric, and design.
With all the snow and bitter cold getting to me, I headed down to my craft room yesterday with a mission to pull out some new Lake House Dry Goods fabric and see how it looked with my ribbon. And here is my cover, made to fit a Cricut Expression or Cricut Cake. I love the spring flowers and bright colors! What do you think?

Crop Out Diabetes Winner is...

I had four people enter my challenge for the Crop Out Diabete Blog Hop. I used Random.org to choose a winner and the winner is #4. That's you, Natalie! She said, "Hi Clare,
This is my first time doing a challenge, so I'm not sure if it is linked correctly. Thanks for sharing with us. Praying you have a speedy recovery.

Natalie
http://atimetoscrap.blogspot.com"

Well I hope you enjoyed your first challenge and your prize! Watch for my email on how to claim your prize.
Thanks to everyone who DONATED and participated! Let's do this again and invite more friends!

Celebrating Our Milestones Flower Winner is...

And the winner of one dozen flowers for the Celebrating Our Milestones Blog hop is:
# 60. That's you Becky Dunham! You said, "Sweet layout! I am praying for speedy healing for you :) Hope all goes well."
Please watch for an email from me about claiming your flower prize. Thanks for the prayers! And am doing well!