#embellishcreate Day 11 Thankful for Veteran's Families

I wrote my post and forgot to publish yesterday, so yesterday  I was thankful for the families of veterans!  You share your husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and children with our armed forces and I can't imagine how hard this must be for you too!  

The picture above is my Grandmother with the three sons, all of whom served in WWII and came home safely.  Today, if you get a chance, watch Saving Private Ryan and remember how hard having a family member that is a veteran can be!  Then thank a vet's family or send them a little love too!

#embellishgratitude Day 10: Thankful for Veterans!

Sometimes it takes a child to see truth, and this week as I read a book about Veteran's Day to the grade school students during library hour, I saw some truth!  After reading the book, I asked all the students who had family members who were veterans to raise their hands.  I didn't actually run the stats, but it had to be 90-95 % of students, who had a family member who was a veteran.  Thanks veterans!

#embellishgratitude Thankful for Anna Griffin Card Kits

Ok, if you follow my blog you can tell I am currently Anna Griffin obsessed.  It all started when I bought a card kit for my grandmother in law as a gift.  Her eyesight was not good enough to keep up her hand embroidery and she needed something.  I showed my Mother-In-Law and she said that my grandmother in law wouldn't like it.  So, I kept the kit and brought it to my next scrap booking crop.  The rest is history.  Most cards with envelopes are $1.00-$1.50 each and the kits always have what I need.  Just this week I had to make a bridal shower card, a sympathy card and a get well card.  I had all the supplies in my Anna Griffin's kits and my family and friends get an handmade card filled with love.

#embellishgratitude Day 7 and 8: Good Health and Modern Medicine

Yesterday was a busy day, so I only posted my gratitude item on Facebook.  It was good health.  Today I am thankful for modern medicine, which has helped me have good health!  

A few years ago I ended up in the emergency room with what I thought was dehydration from a stomach bug.  A scan showed I had an abdominal blockage and after 3 long days of hoping it would resolve I ended up with surgery.  So, today I am thankful for scans, and surgeons and medicines.

Here is my print out of the design from yesterday's post and as you can see I have run out of ink.  I still love that I can make my own pages as needed with Anna's designs!

#embellishgratitude Day 6: Thankful for Creativity

Today I am thankful for creativity!  It makes me happy to make something pretty, especially if it is a gift from someone.   I am working on my Christmas list for my Anna Griffin Planner using my Cricut Explore Air and my home printer.  I used Anna Griffin Printables, but I would still love this to be an add on I could purchase!  Just one more thing I need I can take off my to do list.  
If you have an Anna Griffin planner and want to make one, use this link.  Stop by tomorrow and I hope to have time to print it out!

#embellishgratitude Day 5: Thankful for my sisters

I have been fortunate enough to have six sisters.  Over the years, friends have come and gone.  They may have made new friends I didn't think I should hang out with, moved away or just drifted apart.  But I will always have my sisters.  They are my forever friends.

Everything on this is Anna Griffin!  The flowers are from the Anna Griffin Window Ledge card kit.  The gold embellishment is Anna Griffin Cut and Emboss Fretwork die.  The sentiment and border strip are from a card kit.  The circle from Anna Griffin Nifty Nested Layers. and the blue cardstock if from one of Anna's 12 x 12 paper packs.  All of it is on an Anna Griffin planner page.

#embellishgratitude Day 4: I am and Optimist

Today I am grateful that I am an optimist!  I have always seen the glass as half full!  The quote on this page says, "What we see depends on what we look for..."

I love that I can use some of my Anna Griffin Card Kit goodies in my planner pages!  I keep giving away my prettiest cards, and having a planner allows me to make something just for me.

#embellishgratitude Day 3: My Husband

It's Day 3 of the 30 Day Gratitude Challenge and today I am sharing that I am so thankful for my husband!  We will celebrate 25 years of marriage this coming March.  

I used Anna Griffin planner page for November and added a sentiment from an Anna Card Kit.  Some stickers and journaling and I'm done.  

#embellishgratitude Day 2: Thankful for Family

Today I am thankful for family!  My quote says, "Family, the secret to having it all is knowing you already do!"  The black die, and yellow framed image are Anna Griffin and this is a cover page for my October month in my Anna Griffin planner.  I made the frame with my Cricut, Cricut pens and Anna's Lace Cards and Embellishments.

You can join the 30 Day Gratitude Challenge here. 

30 Day Gratitude Challenge Day 1: Thankful for my In Laws

In the past few years I have noticed that many people post what they're thankful for every day in November.  Since I am not on Facebook every day, I have forgotten to start on the first of November and post something every day.  This year I joined the 30 Day Gratitude Challenge Group on Facebook to hold myself accountable and share some of the many things I am thankful for.  

On my first day of the challenge, I wanted to share that I am so thankful for my In Laws:  Pat Camalliere and Christ Camalliere!  They are beyond generous to us and this past weekend really helped me out!  I was the volunteer coordinator for our town's local Music Booster Pumpkinfest Craft & Treasures market.  I have to recruit student and adult volunteers to work over 4 days.  The final day of the event also happens to be the same day as our local Pumpkinfest parade, reported to be the 3rd largest parade in the state of Illinois.  Since so many band students march in the parade, and all the locals entertain on this day, it is difficult to fill most of the volunteer shifts.  I knew this was an issue and asked my in laws to work a shift for me on Sunday.  They drove an hour there and back and worked for 2 hours at admissions.  Thanks so much Pat and Chris!

My photos for this post are for a pocket page I made for my Anna Griffin planner using my Cricut.  This page is perfect for any planner with an 8 1/2" x 5 1/2" page and is a bit longer so that it can be seen.  I left off the holes, so that others can customize it to their own planners binding.  You can find the file here.  I added a bit of sticky velcro to close this pocket page.  This pocket organizer was used to keep my volunteer project organized and contained donation checks, so I wanted to make sure it closed!

And be sure to check out my Mother In Laws blog, where she posts regularly about her mystery books and other interesting topics!  She has published two books, Mystery at Sag Bridge and Mystery at Black Partridge Woods and is currently writing her third.  

Thank You Anna Griffin!

I recently won a prize package from Anna Griffin's blog.  So, I wanted to make a special thank you card to send to Anna.  Above is my card.  I used the clear cover from my Anna Griffin Planner and several sentiments from Anna Griffin Card kits to make a sentiment that says, "Thank You Anna Griffin For everything Beautiful in the Making that you do."  

Because even Anna Griffin's packaging is beautiful, I chose to emboss the clear planner cover sheet with an Anna Griffin Embossing plate called Oval Scroll Frame (which I don't think is available anymore).  After I embossed the clear plastic, I sanded it a bit to make it pop.  Since the clear cover had some pre-punched holes to fit in the planner, I used the flowers and scrolls to cover the holes.  The Blue card is from an Anna Griffin Vintage French Cards Kit.  I cut an oval out of the blue card front and strategically placed some card kit borders over the portion that said planner and dates.  The flowers and cream and gold swirls are also from assorted Anna Griffin Card kits.  I love that all her items coordinate!

Every beautiful card front, deserves a beautiful card inside, right?!  So i used some more Anna Griffin card kit embellishments to finish the inside too.  I am not sure if the paper on the right is AG as it was in my scrap stash.

Thank you Anna Griffin!  Be sure to check out Anna's blog as she always have generous give aways!  I love it so well, I subscribe by email and get an email notice whenever she posts!

Solar Eclipse Page

After the solar eclipse, I wanted to scrapbook this asap so that I could get my memories on paper before I forgot them.  I sat down last night and made this page.  I pulled my photos and realized the sun was too close to the edge and the developer (Walgreens) just cropped out part of the sun.  Aaargh! 

I wanted to store the glasses in the page and Anna's pockets were perfect!  I used the Bella Blvd. school paper because I experienced this event at school with all the children.  I used the black and yellow color scheme because of the sun and one of my favorite projects all year where I challenged myself to use yellow in a card.

Supplies
Anna Griffin Elegant Embellishments (white & yellow sun)
Anna Griffin Nifty Layers (black & cream die)
Anna Griffin Splendid Soirees (Green pockets)
Anna Griffin Patterned Card stock (Green Pockets)
Anna Griffin Card kit embellishments (bird, butterfly, moth)
Cream card stock
Me & My Big Ideas Yellow & Orange Patterned paper
Bella Blvd. Black & White Patterned paper

Chaperone Thank You Notes

Over Labor Day weekend, a group of 110 Sycamore Middle School Students went to Washington DC with 8 chaperones.  I have been working on thank you notes and stalking parent Facebook pages for photos and updates all day.  How can I thank the chaperones enough for all of these things:

• Making sure our children get where they need to: on the plane, the bus, in his/her room, back on the bus in the morning and for all the stops they make on the trip, back on the plane, the bus and back to the school parking lot.  For finding them bathrooms, drinking fountains and more while there.  
• Making sure he or she eats and sleeps.  Well the sleeping is unconfirmed, but they make sure they are in their rooms for lights out.
• Taking them on a trip their parents may be unable to or unwilling to make.
• The life lessons about service to others!  The students see the chaperones giving up their holiday weekend, getting up at 2:30 in the morning to make the buses and who knows what giving acts they see on the trip for themselves and other students:  a shared snack or meal, a jacket, holding an item, or taking a photo. The service to others they see when they visit the historic sites of our past presidents, soldiers, representatives and leaders.  
• The costs of war.  Our students visited the tomb of the unknown soldier at a time in history when many fear another war may be coming.  Hopefully, they are reminded of those who have served, are serving and may serve.  And I hope that they work to prevent war in their own lives.
• A sense of patriotism.  I remember watching the John Adams mini series and being amazed at the our founding Father's dedication to our country.  With all the division in our political system, it is a wonderful thing for these students to see Washington DC and all the sites, memorials and our country's seat of government.
• A hunger to visit again.  This is such a brief visit that the students may wish to return and see things in more detail or that they missed.
• For stretching them.  My son was a bit nervous about the plane or getting separated from his group.  I love that he is learning to do things he wants to that may be a bit of a stretch for his comfort level.  He is facing his fears!
• A chance to bond with friends and make new ones.  
• For saving me from hearing Mom 900 times this weekend.  Did you know your child will ask you an average of 300 questions every day?  Well I  know they are asking their chaperones many of my questions.  

Thanks you Sycamore Middle School, Washington DC chaperones for all that you have done for my son and all the students who attended the trip!  #WayToSpartan!

So, I went ahead and made them all a thank you note that will be from both me and my son.  I used my Cricut Explore Air to print and cut the flags, the thanks for everything banner and the Grateful for You sign.  I love being able to make multiple cards for just this kind of project with my Cricut!  I am entering this in The Rubber Buggy Challenge Blog #1.    I am always on the hunt for a great challenge blog and I love that they have page and card sketches.  Thanks for the inspiration!  Paper is DCWV.

Doodling with Your Cricut Pens

While I have a few Copic markers, I have never really gotten into coloring my stamped images or coloring pages for any great amount of time.  It's just seems too time consuming for my crafting goals, and too inaccurate.  But, I have discovered the joy of using the Cricut markers to enhance a page and the joy of doing a bit of doodling with the Cricut Markers.  Here are two examples of my Cricut marker and doodling projects.  

The first project at the top of the post is for my Anna Griffin planner.  Anna's planner page for March came with the foil gold butterflies but I wanted to add the radial details.  So, I used a sun image from the Cricut Close to My Heart Art Booking cartridge.  I created circles 1/2" bigger and centered them all around the central sun in the CMTH image and converted them all to pen images.  I then put my Anna Griffin butterfly paper on my Cricut mat and let my Design Space and markers do there magic.  Can you see the gold lines, made with the Cricut pen in the photo above?   I am circle obsessed!  I cut the chevrons by hand and added a few Anna Griffin butter fly dies from her card kits and the dark blue butterfly is cut with an AG die.  The flowers are also Anna Griffin and made with the print and cut feature to be the perfect size for my page.  I often, use the Design space to layout my page before I cut or draw anything!  

For the second project (pictured above), I wanted a lace look in tone on tone, and used Anna's Lace Cards and Embellishment cards cart for the blue lace.  Once it was drawn I added some hand doodling inside the lace to look a bit like engraving details and fussy cut the lace piece out, and colored some of the details with a silver Cricut pen to get the look of silver findings and add dimension.  I love how the details of Anna Griffin's lace pop now!

Supplies

Cricut Close to My Heart Artbooking Cartridge

Cricut Heritage Cartridge

Cricut Anna Griffin Lace Cards and Embellishments Cartridge

Cricut Anna's Roses

Cricut Anna's Print then Cut Volumn 1

Cricut Anna's Planner

Cricut Fine Tip Geode pen

Cricut Medium Tip Silver pen

Anna Griffin Card kit borders

Anna Griffin 12 x 12 patterned paper

Bead Landing jewels

Thanks You Heartfelt Creations and Cut It Up Challenge Blog!

Just a post, to thank Heartfelt Creations for sponsoring the Cut It Up Challenge and providing my prize.  I used my gift card to get the die Fleur Border and Pocket Die and I made my first card above with it.  The small flowers are also Heartfelt Creations, one of the first stamp and die sets I bought from them and still a favorite!

Also, I just want to make a comment about the packaging this die set came in, I LOVE it!  It is thin and sturdy and I want to buy more for my other thin dies!  Heartfelt Creations can you make these sleeves available for your other dies sets I have had in my stash for a while?  Thanks!

Supplies

Heartfelt Creations Fleur Border and Pocket Die

Heartfelt Creations Posy Patch Flowers Pre Cut Set
Heartfelt Creations Posy Patch Dies

Gold Gala Glitz
Blue Gala Glitz
White Card stock
Black Card Stock
Violet Card Stock
Yellow Ink
Purple Ink

Another Princess Card Idea with Cinderella

It turns out that I was not the only relative who needed a princess birthday card, so I made another.  This one features Cinderella.  Here is the Cricut Design Space link.  I am entering this in the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog #305 Birthdays.  

Supplies:
Cricut Disney Princess Happily Ever After (Snow White)
Cricut Paper Lace (Happy Birthday lace medallion)
Cricut Baby Boutique (Fancy Frame)
Cricut Circle Shape (pink oval inside frame)
Pop Dots
Pink RibbonWhite Card Stock
Computer Printer
Cricut Scoring Stylus

Princess Party Wands with Cricut and Straws

I have a little niece, who I enjoy making crafts for and today I am sharing some wands I made for her princess birthday party.  I started with straws from the dollar spot at Target, and added some blue glitter paper cut in flower shapes with six petals.  I used Tim Holtz's snowflake rosette die to cut the snowflakes and used a pink center instead of white.  

I added buttons to the larger snowflake, and Dew Drops from the Robin's Nest to the smaller snowflakes.  A bit of ribbon to finish and I glued them to the straws with my glue gun.  The larger flowers is made with the Starfruit shape from Preserves.  It is actually a five point flower, but I spliced it in half and duplicated the three petals side.  I then welded the two sides together to get a six petal shape.  The smaller flower is from Martha Stewart Elegant Cake Art.

Supplies 
Cricut Preserves Cartridge
Cricut Martha Stewart Elegant Cake Art
Blue Glitter Card Stock
White Card Stock
Tim Holtz Snowflake Die
Paper Straws
Buttons
Ribbons
Hot Glue Gun
Dew Drops

Princess Birthday Card with Cricut

My niece just had a princess themed birthday party with all things Disney and I needed a special card, so I pulled out my Cricut and here is my card.  I added some pink Stickles to highlight the Happy Birthday and some Mini dew drops from The Robin's Nest to repeat the colors in Snow White's Dress.  I am entering this in the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog #305 Birthdays.  

Supplies:
Cricut Disney Princess Happily Ever After (Snow White)
Cricut Paper Lace (Happy Birthday lace medallion)
Cricut Baby Boutique (Fancy Frame)
Cricut Circle Shape (pink oval inside frame)
Mini Dew Drops from The Robin's Nest
Pink Stickles
Pop Dots
White Card Stock
Computer Printer
Cricut Scoring Stylus

Link to CRS file here.  

Christmas in July Page with Anna Griffin

I am just getting around to scrapping the last of this years holiday card photos.  The page came together quickly with Anna Griffin and Kaisercraft.  The green die cut layers and the red and gold center layer are Anna Griffin Nifty Nested Layers.  The red and white layer is Kaisercraft North Pole Snowball.  I embellished both die cuts with some Stickles, a silver Sharpie pen, and Bead Landing jewels.  The holly die cuts and silver bow are all left overs from one of Anna Griffin's Christmas card kits.  

Pull It Together

I love how this page appears to have so much texture and depth.  All the time adding the stickles, jewels, and doodling make the doilies appear more lace like.  Don't be afraid to mix doilies from more than one designer and pull them together with the same embellishments on each doily and the same colors.  What are you scrapping with Anna Griffin's Nifty Nested Layers?

Fantasy Paper Carriage Centerpiece

One of the things I love about paper crafting is the opportunity to create my dreams and fantasies in paper for cheap!  Today I am sharing a paper carriage centerpiece I made for a princess birthday party with SVGCuts and Cricut Ornamental Iron 2.  

The SVGCuts directions actually call for another layer of patterned paper, but I wanted it to look like white wrought iron.  So, I searched my Cricut Ornamental Iron 2 Cartridge and found this lovely scroll with a heart motif.  I used some teeny tiny pop dots, pink paper and white paper and some Bead Landing Jewels from Michaels.  Inside the carriage lanterns are yellow dew drops from The Robin's Nest for my candle flame.  To repeat the hearts and fill some empty space, I made small hearts using the pearl jewels.  For the carriage window and the lanterns, I just recycled some plastic packaging from more scrap booking supplies.

Don't be afraid to mix you Cricut Cartridges with SVG files, because the results just might be your dreams come true!  What paper dreams do you want to make?

Supplies

Pink Paper

White paper

SVGCuts Enchanted Autumn Kit 

Cricut Ornamental Iron 2 Cartridge

The Robin's Nest Yellow Dew Drops

Bead Landing jewels

Clear packaging (Window and lanterns)

Quick Father's Day Card with My Kitchen Cartridge

Need a quick Father's Day card idea to make with your Cricut?  Try this card with the My Kitchen Cartridge. The Just for you Dad is free today.  You can find my Cricut file here.  I am entering this in the Cut it Up Challenge #124 Picnic.

SOS Tick Tack Toe for a Favorite Memory

I am using the Scrap Our Stash June Tic Tac Toe Challenge to get some pages done.  Along with the challenge I scrap lifted the paper color and page layout from a page in the Bella Blvd Booth from 2016 Scrapbook Expo, and made some modifications.  You can see the original page at the bottom of this post and their page had one photo centered.

The sticker and cuts say, "Grace for today, love forever."  Don't you love that little bow on the paper clip from BB?!

I got the circle cut file from the Cut Shoppe, as a plain circle with chevrons inside.  I pulled it into Design Studio and added the heart and love.  The small camera is from the Going Places Cricut Cartridge.  The title is made with amorie alpha stickers also by Bella Blvd.  I love that that they painted the bottom half and added the black stripe in the middle.  It has given me great ideas to embellish and color my stash chipboard letters.  My rainbow, is the use of the rainbow of colors and the puffy stickers are the "forever" under love.

For the second page, I used a 12 x 12 die from Die Cuts with a View that I have had in the stash forever!  The white die reminded me of the ceiling, and repeated the circle in the matching page.  Yes, I must always scrap a two page spread, unless it is the first or last page of an album!  The white ampersand it CTMH, and the Color and light were cut with my Cricut using Reminisce.

The original page at the Bella Blvd booth.

Happy Birthday with Summer School Challenge at Cut It Up Blog

If you are like me, you have a bucket list of techniques you want to try.  In fact I have a Pinterest Board just for that purpose.  So, when I saw this weeks Cut It Up Challenge:  Summer School:  Follow a Tutorial, I knew I had the perfect excuse to give one a try.  Here is my entry for the challenge using the Stamp TV Black Magic tutorial you can find here.  I can't get over Gina K.'s colors, but she has much better colored pencils than I do.  I had to try this technique because it reminds me of the folk painting I see at our favorite cottage in Palisades Park:  Balgownie (just south of South Haven, MI). The cottage is one of the oldest in the park and actually has the carriage house under the sleeping porch.  I sometimes wish that the folk painting will never painted over there.  

Along with my bucket list of techniques, I am in the midst of reorganizing and redecorating my craft room.  As I am working I have come across many items I had to have and haven't used.  I may have to use this challenge as a jumping off point and share my technique attempts...

One supply I have, are the flip card dies from Sizzix, and I needed a 5 x 7 card, so I pulled out my Anna Griffin Fantastic Flipcards cartridge.  If you're wondering what a flip card is, see the photo above, where the card has folds and cut outs that add dimension and interest.  I used an Anna Griffin die cut for the happy birthday sentiment.  

Supplies

Anna Griffin Fantastic Flipcards Cricut Cartridge

Anna Griffin Die Cut (Happy Birthday)

Cricut Machine

Black Card Stock

Silver Card Stock

Green Card Stock

White Pigment Ink

Colored Pencils

Mon Ami Gabi Green pearls

White Gel Pen

CTMH Tickled Pink Promotional Stamp Set (Daisy Flower)

Inkadinkado Wellspring Stamp Set (Flourish)

Joy Page with Creative Embellishments

Every time I see a page on Instagram or Pinterest lately that I love, I find it has an item from Creative Embellishments.  So, I checked out their site and did a little shopping for myself.  The order came quickly and had a few extra embellishments for free with my order.  I am trying out for their DT because I love their products so much!  Here is my first page with one of their chipboard circle embellishments.

Supplies
Rhonna Farrer Autumn Leaves (Red & White Paper)
Creative Embellishments Berry Wreath
Martha Stewart Snowflake Border Punch
Want2Scrap red rhinestones
Sparkle Burst Brad Karen Foster
Good Cheer Falling Snow by October Afternoon (Snowman paper)
Joys of the Season Cricut Cartridge

Step Outside Your Color Comfort Zone!

Yellow can be a difficult color to craft with and I don't keep a lot of yellow in my stash.  But one of my favorite perennials is my yellow tree peony (photo below) and I thought I would like to try an Anna Griffin card for Mother's Day with this yellow flower as inspiration.  I used Anna's Lovely Layered Cards Cartridge again and will put my sentiment inside.  Once again the darkest yellow needed some umph with distressed inks to pop and I didn't want to use a cream neutral with the yellow, so I added this small scale dot by Stampin' Up.  I am going to enter this one into the Fantabulous Cricut blog Mother's Day challenge as I see that you can enter 3 times.

Mother's Day Challenge Entry

Have you ever visited the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge blog?  It is a wonderful source of inspiration and ideas for the Cricut machine.  They have reached a milestone of 300 challenges and have a great prize this time.  So, I am in on the challenge 300:  Mother's Day!
My card is made with Anna's Lovely Layered Cards.  Even the sentiment is from that cartridge.  So easy to cut and put together with fabulous results!  And I'll give you a great tip when you don't have enough contrast in your three colors of pink card stock try to sand the lightest color pink (hopefully it has a white core like mine) and add some darker distress ink to your darkest pink paper to make your flower pop.  I have two boys and therefore don't keep much pink paper for scrap books.

Happy National Scrap Booking Day!

Happy National Scrap booking Day!  I have been enjoying my Anna Griffin planner for making my quotes to live by album.  This one says, "A skirt should be tight enough to show you're a woman, but loose enough to show you're a lady."  The green flower is Anna Griffin, the pink corduroy button is Stampin' Up, the pink flower is Mon Ami Gabby, the scissor and tape measure are Lori Whitlock For the Record2, and the pink patterned tag is Crate Paper.  The Burda Style card is some ephemera a got from a craft event at the Burda sewing pattern booth several years ago.
I am entering this is Queen and Co's National Scrap booking day Challenge # 2 Flowers on their Facebook Page.

Sunday Share with Anna Griffin

Every Sunday, I make sure to visit Anna Griffin, Inc. Facebook page and check out the Sunday Share.  I am always inspired by the beautiful cards and scrapbook pages!  This week I shared three cards myself.  Above is a get well card I made with Anna Griffin products.  
I think that each AG item is actually from different card kits, or products and they all coordinate!  AG card kits are so generous that I have lots of extra items to make new cards!  I cut the doily with a die.