Wild About You Wall Decor

Sometimes it's great to scrap something that you can display on the wall and include all sorts of bulky embellishments and goodies! I just finished up this page which I
will hang on the wall and had a lot of fun with it!
I started by making my rolled roses. Both roses were made with paper printed on my Cricut Imagine. The large rose was cut with the CTMH Art Philosophy Cartridge and the small rose with My Favorite things mini rolled rose die. I made another mini rolled rose with the same die out of felt in hot pink and inked the edges in red to give it some depth.
The base page is The Robin's Nest Lobster paper. I actually wanted a Valentine's day paper and thought that the lobsters look like lips! On that I added The Robin's Nest Animal stripe paper. I used the Martha Stewart Loop Border punch on The Robin's Nest Red Paisley paper to make a border stripe at the bottom of the zebra mat. I also used the Robin's Nest Velvet Ribbon at the top of the white stripe at the bottom. And can you see the quote? It says, "There's no place I'd rather be, than with you." Isn't it perfect for a Valentine's day page or card?! It's from the Robin's Nest Time Flies Rubon. v
I also used the small swirl by the small rose from this rubon set. For the large rubon, I used The Robin's Nest Viva la France rubon.The leaves near the large rose are Creative Memories punch and near the small rose the EK Success Dahlia Border punch was used. I added some of The Robin's Nest Dew Drops after Still and in the center of my roses. I am just crazy for the Fairy Dust Dew drops. The pearlized silver ones are so fab!

Supply List
The Robin's Nest Lobster paper (black and glitter red background)
The Robin's Nest Glitter Animal Stripe
The Robin's Nest Fairy Dust Dew Drops (after Still)
The Robin's Nest Primary Dew Drops (center of flowers)
The Robin's Nest Time Flies Rubon
The Robin's Nest Viva la France Rubon
The Robin's Nest Ribbon Velvet Ribbon
The Robin's Nest Red Paisley paper (at the bottom of the zebra stripe mat)
Felt
My Favorite Things Mini Rolled Rose die
Martha Stewart Loop Border punch (under Zebra mat)
EK Success Dahlia Border Punch (leaves for small rose)
Cricut Imagine and Imagine More Cartridge (patterned paper on Rose)
Cricut, Close to My Heart Art Philosophy Cartridge (Large Rolled rose)
Close To My Heart Chipboard Alphas (S)
Anna Griffin Peyton Collection Chipboard Letters (black letters)
White Heart Doily Target
Making Memories Sheer Frame Flower Black
White Card Stock
Red Card Stock
Black Card Stock
K & Company Glitter Letters (Wild)
Creative Memories Leaf punch

Guest Designer at Exploring the Cricut: Snowflake Ballerinas

I'm the guest designer today at Exploring the Cricut. Check out this wonderful blog for great Cricut projects and links to blogs of other Cricut lovers! For today's project, I came across a blog by a woman named Lola possibly from Russia or the Ukraine with the most beautiful snowflake ballerinas! She hand cut them using a template but I had to try them with my Cricut! So, I got out my Gypsy and searched and found the Wall Decor has a ballerina. I then chose snowflakes from several carts including CTMH: Art Philosophy, Christmas, Joys of the Season, and Graphically speaking and created a Gypsy file. I am sharing the file HERE. Wouldn't these be perfect for a little girls birthday party!?

Once the items were cut, I used the McGill big ball stylus to give them some shape and carefully cut a slit in the middle of the snowflake. I folded the ballerinas arms in and carefully threaded her through the slits.
If the slit was too long to stay in place on her waist, I added a little tape on the underside. I tied some white thread around the snowflake and hung them from a chandelier. So, pretty!These ballerinas would also be wonderful made with Cricut flowers wouldn't they?!

Kiss Me Card

I am making a second entry for the Cricut Craftroom Blog welding challenge. I wasn't entirely happy with my first entry and wanted another. I am feeling very Valentine's Day inspired and made this with Indy Art and Graphically Speaking. I cut the lips with pink glitter card stock from DCWV and then inked it to give it some dimension. The pattern on the "me" is from the Audrey Imagine Cartridge.
As a long time Cricut Design Studio user, I find the flip and group functions in CCR to be much better and easier to work with. I just created the lips blackout and added the me. I then grouped the two objects, rotated it, copied it and flipped it, then welded and cut. What a fun card!

Butterfly Birthday Card

Today I'm sharing a card I made for the Moxie Fab Word Die Cut Challenge, a butterfly birthday card. For me this was different way to use die cuts, because it is one of my every first projects with the Cricut Imagine and the Cricut Craftroom software. I used Paper Lace and filled it with a pattern from Imagine More cards for the background mesh, the butterflies are some Indie Art Hannah Montana, and a Creative Memories Punch and the multi colored butterfly is an image from the Cricut Imagine More Cards Cartridge. The banner is made with the Art Philosophy Cartridge and matching stamp set by Close to My Heart. I wove a strip of glittered card stock embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss dot folder into the lace background and tied on a bit of ribbon.
Below is one of the Moxie Fab inspiration photos. Don't you love butterflies?!

Organizing my Cricut Carts

I am in the process of re-organizing my Cricut cartridges and thought I would share my system. Maybe you have one you'd like to share in my comments! I used the Jetmax cubes three drawer box, bought on sale at Michaels. I cut plastic needlepoint canvas to hold the cartridges only. I've run out of canvas and will have to make run, but it is snowing heavily here and I am in need of a post if I'm gonna keep up on my goal to post more. You get the idea. Somethings I am doing a little different are: I store my Imagine carts in the same drawer, can you see them in the back? And I have quite a few regular Cricut Cartridges and get frustrated when I have to shift over 30 cartridges after making a purchase. So, I am leaving the column on the far right open for new purchases in 2012. And yes, you can see that I have already purchased two. I get the round tags at my local hardware store and put them on the spine of my books. I am not sure how I will handle this on the newer books with no wire spine yet.
And speaking of purchasing new cartridges, you might be wondering how do I do it? I am frequently sharing how I try to save money and crafting can be expensive. So, here are some of my tips:
1) Coupons, you probably know this if you craft, but if you don't get them in your paper, did you know that you can get them online and print them out at home? Just try to google the store name and coupons.
2) Gift card promotions. My local grocery store and Target often offer gift cards if you fill prescriptions with their pharmacy. When I need something filled I use the gift card to purchase another gift card for Ebay and shop there for my carts.
3) Win them! Some of the places I find contests listings are: Facebook, and the Cricut Message board.
And since were talking about winning, I have an extra Imagine More Art Cartridge. When my Imagine broke and was still under warranty, PC sent me a new one with the new machine. So, if you'd like to win it just comment below and leave a way to contact you in a safe manner, ie cjsmith at hotmail dot com is safer then cjsmith@hotmail.com. I will draw a winner with random.org on February 2, 2012.

Another February Birthday Card for SASL Challenge

So, yesterday I entered my project in She's a Sassy's Lady's challenge after Sheila so graciously told me about the challenge. And today, I wanted to give the challenge my full attention and make up a birthday card for another February birthday card I need. I used my Cricut Imagine and the Imagine More Cards to print the text background. The red and white handkerchief fabric print is from my stash. On top of the text print I used the Heritage car and "Daddy" to make the black portion. I just dragged Daddy on top of the car and hid the last two letters. I then printed this ONLY. Next, I swapped out Heritage for Martha Stewart Elegant Cake and filled it with Red and using the Print ONLY mode printed again on top of the rest of the card. It is very trendy right now to print an image or sentiment on top of text. I tied a ribbon on the front and my card is done.

Work the Stash Wednesday for Two Challenges

Yesterday I came across a challenge via the Cricut Message board that is being hosted by the Cricut Craft Room Blog. The challenge is to use the welding feature while working in the Cricut Craft Room software. I love the prize: a Sophie cartridge! So, I'm using this challenge to get ahead start on my February birthday cards and work my stash! I'm also going to enter this in the challenge at She's a Sassy Lady to make a birthday card.
I started with some scraps of red and white card stock. I used Graphically Speaking and welded the card shape at the top to make a shaped card. I also used the Hide Select Contour to hide the insides of the car to make the back of the card. I used Close to My Heart stamps for the sentiments and a Stampin' Up stamp for the background of the car grill. I added some buttons for my headlights and highlighted the cut with a glitter gel pen. For the tires, I used my Imagine and Audrey with the Graphically Speaking cartridge. I loved the look of the Audrey print for the distressed tires. I was able to print and cut this all at once because I used CCR! To print and cut these items, I put a piece of red card stock on the card side of my mat and a white piece on the tire side of the mat.

Creative "U" 2012 Crop in DeKalb IL

The S.C.R.A.P. Guild of Northern IL will be hosting their annual fundraiser crop: Creative "U" in DeKalb, IL on March 10 and 11, 2012 at the University Plaza. Please click HERE for the event flyer. This is a two day crop, but one day croppers are welcome!
They currently have a Stampin' Up Representative and a Close to My Heart Representative, but are looking for more vendors! Interested consultants and or stores can email the guild at scrapguild@yahoo.com for more information on being a vendor.
Cropping fees include lunch and dinner on Saturday and lunch on Sunday. Fees range from $25.00 to $70.00 depending on the number of days you crop and whether or not you are a guild member. Guild members get a discount on their tickets! The first 20 croppers who sign up get a free gift. I got to do the shopping for the free gift and LOVE it! I'll be there!

Punches Challenge

Moxie Fab World has some wonderful Cool Tool challenges going on right now! I found time and inspiration for the the Punches challenge. So, what is my new take on punches? I'm using my punches as inspiration to stamp! I was inspired by the EK Success Dalahia border punch to make my own stamped border to quill a flower. Below is the EK Success border punch photo.I pulled out my Stampin' Up build a blossom set and stamped the smaller flower petal using the second generation stamp method for the solid portion of the petal. I used the first generation stamp in the same color for the detail portion of the leaf. I stamped the petals in a row every 1/2" and then fussy cut them to look like the punched edge in the EK Success punch. I rolled the flower and added an orange circle of paper in the middle. On top of the paper I glued dew drops by The Robin's Nest. The leaves are Bo Bunny and the stripe is The Angel Company. The sentiment is Pink by Design.

Happy Birthday with Pink by Design Stamps

Today I am sharing a card I made to try out for the Pink by Design Stamps Design Team. I used my Cricut Imagine and the CCR software to enlarge a patterned paper from Audrey. The circle holes were created with Cricut Craftroom Basic shapes. I ran out of ink just before I cut the black portion, and actually hand cut that circle because I wanted to make sure I made the deadline. I added a few dew drops by The Robin's Nest to the paper to high light the patterned paper. The Pink by Design stamps are called Labels. The stamp set is built so you can stamp the label portion and then add the word portion to fit your needs. I love this set! The ribbon has been in the stash forever so I am not sure who made it.

Trendy Red, White & Black Christmas Page

Every year I look forward to receiving my families photo Christmas cards. This year, everyone had black and white in their cards. The Robin's Nest was perfect for this trendy card! I started with a base page of Black and White Holly and fussy cut some of the white detail to slip my photo behind. Fussy cutting is a great way to high light beautiful paper and hold your photos in place. I matted my photo card on Red Paisley and used the Martha Stewart Skyland Snowflake border punch along one side. On the opposite side of the red photo mat, I tucked a Stampin Up paper doily that has been in the stash since 1999.
I cut the snowflake with Rebellious Red Glitter Cardstock using my Cricut When It's Cold Outside cartridge, a deep cut blade and housing, with a multi cut of two. Try using a printed paper with angular pattern or snowflake pattern to make a rosette and you'll love the effects. Here I used, Red Snowflakes. I just made sure to place the top edge of the snow flake pattern near the top edge of my Tim Holtz Rosette die when cutting. The effect is another snowflake when the rosette is finished! In the center I placed a flower sequin from Micheals and Fairy Dust dew drop in the center of the flower. The swirl is by Prima Marketing.
Supply List:
The Robin's Nest Black & Red Holly Paper
The Robin's Nest Red Paisley Paper
The Robin's Nest Red Snowflake Paper
The Robin's Nest Rebellious Red Glitter Cardstock
The Robin's Nest Fairy Dust Dew Drops
Cricut When It's Cold Outside Cartridge (red glitter snowflake)
Tim Holtz Rosette Die
Prima Marketing Glitter swirl

Winter Woodland House with Lights and Art Glitter

I made an extra project for Art Glitter that I did not need to, to fulfill my design team requirements. Guess, I like it so much that I just kept crafting. So, it never got published on the AG blog and I am sharing it today.
The house is cut with Winter Woodland Cricut Cartridge and K & Company paper. I made my roof shingles with buttons from Joanns and embellished them with Art Glitter. I cut a bottom for my house (the cart doesn't provide this piece), by cutting a rectangle and adding 1/4" to each side. I snipped into the corners and punched a hole in the bottom to poke my tree lights through. I used clear plastic packaging for my windows and embellished them with the Art Glitter to look like snow. I had some micro brads that were just perfect for the door handle!

What to do When Your Local Scrapbook Store Closes

Today, I'm gonna take a few minutes to share what to do when your Local Scrapbook Store (LSS) closes. Back in 2004 our LSS announced it was moving. It moved about an hour north and finally closed about 2 years later.
Being a quilter, I had been to my sister's quilt guild a few times, and had even checked out my local quilt guild. I wondered, why can't we have a scrap booking and paper crafting guild? So, when the store closed, I got serious and took the following steps:
1) Contacted a local artisan guild, such as a quilt guild for help on how to form a guild. and information on by laws and running a guild.
2) Got the book, "Non-Profits for Dummies"
3) Found a meeting location. Check your local library, ours offered a free meeting place when we started. They did add rent, but it was reasonable for non-profits.
4) Called a few paper crafting friends and asked them to join me.
5) Put a free add in the paper. Most local papers will list up coming local events. Write a blurb for this section. Now, you can create a Facebook Group to promote too!
6) Contacted my local scrap booking home sales reps for contacts, ideas and support.
7) Determined my first topic
8) Made a to do list and asked for volunteers at the 1st meeting.
All this happened back in 2006 and our guild is small but still going with around 50 members. We try and have one fundraiser crop a year, one make and take project a quarter (see photo above for our make and take for January), one free all day crop, meetings once a month, and we do some charity work too!
Now you may not want to go to all this trouble, so here are some idea for you:
1) Start a stamp camp, and rotate a hostess.
2) Contact your local sales reps and find out what events they host. For example, your Stampin' Up or Close to My Heart local reps may have regular events too!
3) Google your states name and scrap booking events.
4) Check out this site, they list events all over the US: http://papercrafterscorner.com/illinois/
And if you live in northern IL, near the towns of Sycamore, DeKalb or Genoa, please come check out the S.C.R.A.P. Guild of Northern IL! We meet on the 3rd Thursday of every month from 6:00-8:45pm in Genoa, IL. Every meeting is open crop time, even if we have a make and take or speaker. So bring a little project to work on! Want more information on the S.C.R.A.P. Guild? Just email them at scrapguild@yahoo.com.

Work the Stash Wednesday

I love to try and work my stash on Wednesdays to make something. I have some old supplies in my stash and have found the best way to use them is to pair my old with the new. So, for this card I paired my old silk flower stash with The Robins Nest Fleur in the color Ocean. The button is Papertrey ink. The micro pom pom trim was from a store near Champaign, IL that I can't remember the name off. They always have a booth at the Scrapbook Expo in St. Charles and sell trim by the yard. The sentiment is Close to My Heart.

Suddenly Sewing Again

After a dry spell at the shop, I suddenly have a three orders in a week. So, I am suddenly sewing again and you know, I missed it! This is a Cuttlebug cover I made up in Michael Miller fabric. It is the last of the fabric from Tammy Tadd Designs which is now closed. I miss TTD! They always had cheerful colored fabric and wonderful displays. They also carried hard to find supplies like the oversize grommet I used for the handle of this machine.
I am considering the following sewing New Year's Resolutions:
1) Finish Aidan's quilt! Oh yah, the second child is still grown up boy quiltless!
2) Make that back pack inspired dust cover for my serger machine. She is gathering dust these days and I want to keep her in working order!
3) Get serious about that pattern to sell!

Another Christmas Card Page with Pink Paisley

Here is another Christmas Card page I scrapped. This time all the products are Pink Paisley unless otherwise mentioned. I did have to use The Robin's Nest Rebellious Red Card stock behind my Close to My Heart Art Philosophy Cricut Die cut! Doesn't it make it pop off the page?! And I love using glitter and sparkle on Christmas pages! Chipboard letters are from Anna Griffin, Close to My Heart and K & Company.
I cut a piece of pink card stock with the Martha Stewart Seasonal Cake cart in the stamp motif and sewed the Pink Paisley Post card image on top. I then addressed it with the names of the people in the photo.

Lego Party Thank You Cards

So, last night after the party I worked on the thank you cards. I actually cut these babies by hand, and punched those circles with 1 1/4" Creative Memories punch. But it occurred to me, that I could add it to the CCR file and cut them all at once. So if you liked those treat boxes and need a thank you to go with find the CCR file HERE.

After making the new file, I started thinking about how good I feel about using all the 12 x 12 sheet of paper. I actually stress a bit about all the trees I may be killing for the sake of my passion. So, maybe I will make this one of my new year's resolutions: when I make a cut file, I will cut a card or embellishment and use as much of the sheet of paper as I can.

2012's First Moxie Entry

Did you see Moxie Fab World's Tuesday Trigger this week? The inspiration photo is called by the numbers (see below). It's this quilt fabulous?! Well, when Moxie's inspired by quilts, I'm inspired by Moxie! So I had to give this a try! Other excuses I am using to scrap this page and avoid house work are:
*my 2012 resolutions to keep up with scrapbooking 2012 events (today is my son's 8th birthday party, so I'm on target),
*post more often to the blog and
*use my paper stash!
I started with a piece of white die cut paper from a kit I got from the Scrapbook Rewards Card site. If I recall, it was a three month kit you signed up for and my have been by Creating Keepsakes. Of course when the ubber yummy dies arrived, I broke the kit up to file them by color. I left some of the punched piece in the page to get the look of quilting on the white portion. Behind the die circle holes I punched holes using my Creative Memories circle punch. Now, I have a whole lot of scraps in my stash, but be the quilter in me, so I gonna tell you the paper company names I know are in there and hope you can recognize some! There are papers by Bo Bunny, The Robin's Nest, DCWV, TLC, Me and My Big Ideas, Kaleidoscope, and Bazzil. I also used my Cuttlebug Swiss Dot folder on some of the yellow.
Underneath the white die cut I used the Creative Imaginations corrugated cardboard paper. It reminds me of the staging in the inspiration picture on a wooden table.
My title is made with the Graphically Speaking Cricut Cartridge. I just welded the Great boy and the circle b and then cut the boy of the cut. I added stickers for To from Creative Imaginations and the 8 is from TLC (yes I have been scrapping that long)! Now that library card was given to me as part of a swap, so you might try and google one!
Now before I sign off on this post, I would just like to encourage you to visit Moxie Fab World and check out all the wonderful entries in this weeks challenge. I have to admit that I was a bit intimidated to enter my page because there are so many wonderful artists participating in this challenge.

Dahlia Thank You Card

I just finished my thank you card to Heartfelt Creations and am sharing it today. I used the Dahlia die and the stamp set Moonlight Dahlia Set, both from Heartfelt Creations. I stamped it with CTMH White Daisy Pigment ink and used CTMH white embossing powder. I then colored it with Copic markers to add depth to the red card stock. I used a white sequin from Michaels in the center and a Fairy dew drop from The Robins Nest in the center of the sequin. The sentiment is Anna Griffin. The embossing is Sizzix for Stampin' Up.

Lego Party Treat Boxes with my Cricut Imagine!

This year, as usual, my boys want a Lego themed party. So, I pulled out my Sweet Treat Boxes cartridge that I got for Christmas and modified a box in the Cricut Craftroom to make Lego Ninjago Cupcake boxes.
You might be asking, why did she use the Imagine, aren't these boxes so simple I can use my Expression? Well you can! I just put yellow colored paper in the Imagine and printed the eyes in black. I did not want to mess with gluing the small black pieces, so I just printed them with my Imagine on the colored card stock. I'm in a hurry as usual and have a lot of boxes to make, so this seemed the smartest way to go to me!
For the box, I added a rounded corner rectangle from the CCR basic shapes that are free. This was used to cut a hole for the face. I had to mess with the size of the top and bottom of the box, as I was unable to get mine the to fit using the dial size. Once the box was cut, I used my paper trimmer to cut the scallops off of the box bottom. If you are working with this box you should note that the top segments must be assembled in a particular order to close. Look for the shortest set and start with that. Then work you way up to the longest segments. I showed my first box to my 8 year old last night and he loves them! Find the files for cutting the boxes and for printing the eyes HERE.

Cricut Mini Dust Cover Now Available!

Just a note to let you know that I now offer a dust cover for the Cricut Mini Machine! Since this machine's plastic cover, does NOT cover the entire opening in the machine, you may want to consider a dust cover to keep the dust out of your Cricut Mini and off your mats!
As with most of my covers, my clients like to custom order their covers in colors and prints to match their tastes and crafting spaces. So, I don't keep a lot of inventory. To see my current inventory and already sold covers, please visit my Etsy Scrappincover store or Scrapguild store.
Custom orders are welcome on the Cricut Mini and all of my other machine dust covers! I also make covers for the Cricut Expression, Cricut Original, Cricut Create, Cricut Imagine, Your Story, Silhouette, Pazzles and more. Just drop me a note with your machine type, color scheme, and pattern choice and I can send you photos of fabric for approval and a cost quote.
And if you visit my blog for my cards and or layouts, please scroll down to see my recent posts. For some reason blogger is listing them out of order. So the red work card is currently my third post down, when it should be my second. And the posts are not showing up in Facebook if you are following me as a Networked blogger.

A Change of Plans for My Planner 2012

This year when I went to Archivers to get my 2012 planner, they no longer carried my favorite planner. The sales associate showed me one by Pinecone Press and it was pretty enough to me to purchase. The papers are by My Minds Eye. I am still missing my old planner, but hope this years planner will be more of a keepsake for my boys.
My previous planner had drop in page protectors for each month. I would reuse the pages from last years planner when the planner changed. But this year, my pages won't fit size wise or color wise. So I will be scrapping as the year progresses. For January I am using the sketch from Once Upon a Sketch. See the sketch below. Now, my planner page is a bit pre-made. As a matter of fact the kit comes with sketches and supplies to finish the planner. But, even when I take a class or follow a sketch, I like to add my own touches. So, I am straying from the Pinecone Press kit and adapting the Once Upon a Sketch to fit my rectangular page.
To start, I pulled out my French Manor Cricut Cart and cut my clock face. The title is License Plate Stickers by the the Paper Loft, the swirl is Prima, flowers are so old I'm not sure where they're from,and buttons from the stash.


Some things I just can't live without in my planner are the month overview, and a pocket for receipts. So, I made those and added them Pinecone Press, if you could add these next year, I think I could be persuaded to get your kit again!