Valentine Library Pocket

I'm in a Valentine mood and I'm soooo glad that the person who I made this for requested a Valentine themed Library Pocket with Card! I had originally offered up a Winter themed one but this turned out soooo cute I had to share. I used my Fabulous Finds Cricut Cartridge to cut the Library Pocket at 4". I cut it in white cardstock and then again in the heart paper (from Target's $ Spot last year). I stuck the layers together with my Xyron 500 and folded it on up. Then I stamped my Love Bug (from Michael's $ bin of wood stamps) in Black Close to My Heart ink and colored him in with Bic Mark-It markers. Next I matted it on black cardstock and attached them to the front of the pocket with some pewter heart brads. Then I used some silver staples to fasten the pocket and inked the edges of the pocket with Holiday Red Close to My Heart ink. I stamped the Library Card (from Close to My Heart - Library Card stamp set) on red cardstock with Black Close to My Heart ink.

Going Green with the Queen

For those of us who want to try to do a little something to help the environment you will LOVE the new Queen and Co idea: "Kiss costly packaging goodbye with our new 2009 product line! Queen & Co is rolling out a fabulous line of bulk embellishments which allows consumers to pay for what they want most - product, not packaging. Our 2009 product release is overflowing with fabulous embellishments including, big brads, shaped brads, glitter brads, flocked brads, printed brads, sequin flowers, felt flowers, and ribbon buckles! Also included in our release are self adhesive rhinestones, felt border and foam alphabet letters!" Check it out here: http://queenandcompany.typepad.com/queen_co_indulge_your_cre/2009/01/the-queen-goes-green-cha-releases-yay.html#comments and enter to WIN some great new embellishments yourself!

Snowglobe Shakerboxes

Ok, so these are the five Snowglobe Shakerboxes I made for a swap. I really like the way they turned out! I couldn't decide on one pattern so silly me decided to make 5 different ones!

Here's the basic instructions: I used the Snowglobe from the Cricut cartridge Joys of the Season for my base cut at 5". Then I used my Creative Memories Circle Cutters to cut the background and the top layers of the Shaker part. Then I cut a slightly smaller circle from the clamshell package a Cricut cartridge came in and adhered it to the top ring. Then I cut up the long strips of the 3D foam adhesive to form the circle and abutted them all abound the inside of the ring. Then I filled it up with glitter and stuck the base circle to it! Then I glued the whole thing to the Snowglobe cut out and stamped my saying! I really had fun putting these together and I can't wait to see what everyone else in the swap has done too! Sorry for the crazy picture placement but I couldn't make it work the way I wanted it too! Have to mess with it more later!

Splash! Layout

Ok, so it's been a few days since my last posts! Well, I haven't made any NEW pages but I did manage to make most of one snowglobe shaker box while my daughter was napping. Now I just need the finishing touches tonight. I will post a pic when it's done. The swap I'm in is one where you send in 5 and get 5 others back. I may actually send 5 different ones just because I'm having fun playing with my stamps!

About this page, I made this for a contest a while ago and I just LOVE the way it turned out! The only problem is I normally scrap 2 page layouts and well, this was a one page sketch. Now I have to decide if it'll just be an album starting or ending page or if I'm gonna try to find MORE of this paper (its from DCWV Nursery Stack) I used the other sheets on another layout previously.... like I need to buy more paper! I went a little crazy at Michael's during the 7 for $1 clearance paper sale and spent $40 on paper. And I bought 2 100 sheet stacks from Oriental Trading Company during their Winter Clearance! Oops. Anyhow, now I'm just rambling... putting off doing the laundry, I'm sure you can relate! Well, on with the chores... hopefully I can get back to my scrap table tonight and finish that shaker box!

Baby Cards

Here are a couple of baby cards I made for recent new arrivals. I used the Cricut's New Arrival cartridge to cut the baby carriage image. These we inspired by a card I had seen in Paper Crafts Magazine and I LOST the pattern (BTW, if anyone has the pattern, please send me a copy)! I had made the other baby carriage card last year for my cousin's baby and I loved it but this was a nice alternative. I found the pic of the original card I made, of course it's the top picture because I'm still learning this whole blog thing!

PDDU Aloha Card

I created this card using the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge for my Cricut. It's One of my favorite cartridges and I just love all of the cute things you can make! The Palm Tree and Island are from the cartridge as well as the doll. I made the sand by starting with a piece of beige cardstock and them using my Close to My Heart stippling brush and Close to My Hearrt inks I created this awesome sand effect! I used 2 greens for both the skirt and palm leaves for added dimension. The face is part of a stamp set from www.peachkeenstamps.com. They have AWESOME paper doll and tear bear faces at reasonable prices!

Paper Doll Dress Up

One of my very favorite cartridges for my Cricut is the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge! It has so many different features on it besides the obvious - dolls! It is also loaded with seasonal goodies too! Above is a layout done with the Jack O Lanterns (2 different ones) from the cartridge. I used 4 different orange papers to get the look I wanted. The font is the Storybook font, it reminded me of the pumpkin vines!

Monkey Tag!

I LOVE this tag and just had to share! The monkeys and sentiment are both CTMH stamps, notice a theme?

Thank You Card

So, I had some more paper scraps and the card blanks were staring at me so... I decided to make a nice Thank You card! I LOVE the way this turned out! I used several sets of Close to My Heart stamps to create the "Thank You"s on the background. Then I embossed the bottom "Thank You" with White CTMH embossing powder . The large flower is a Prima, the smaller one is CTMH. I hope the recipient of this card enjoys it!

Valentine's Day Card

Here's a Valentine's Day card I created for a contest through the Cutter's Creek Yahoo Group. It's a fun group to be a part of and you find out about secret sales and such for http://www.cutterscreek.com/! Kim stocks a great variety of products and she's always looking for new fun products to stock. Right now I am hooked on Stickles, I just wish they dried a little faster! Any how, I created this card with some pink glittery heart cardstock and some pink gingham patterned paper I had in my scrap bin. Then I used a piece of White Daisy Close to my Heart textured cardstock and stamped my heart image, also a CTMH stamp from the All My Love stamp set, with Baby Pink CTMH ink. Then I cut out both images. One image I cut to the inside border and the other to the outside border. Then I inked the edges with the CTMH Hollyhock colored marker. Then on the top layer I added pink Stickles to the dots. I adhered the 2 pieces together with Pop Dots after the Stickles dried. I used the "Be Mine" phrase from the same stamp set to stamp a plain piece of white ribbon. All in all, I'm really happy with this card, it's simple but pretty!

Christmas Card #5

Ok, I have been a busy bee tonight! This is my 5th card for the January challenge!!! Woo Hoo! I'm done! I used glitter rub-ons from K and Company for the lettering and the little stars . Even better, I used only a 12" x 4" piece of patterened paper to make all 3 of my cards tonight. I feel so good that I didn't "waste" any! I also used mostly scraps from my stash for the other colors!

Christmas Card #4

This is my 4th card for the Challenge and I think it turned out really great! The cut-out is Cricut cut with the Mini Monograms cartridge. This stamp is also from Hero Arts. I embossed it with gold embossing powder that is from Close to My Heart. One of my good friends is a CTMH consultant and if you ever need info about ordering any CTMH products that I may mention in my blog, her site is http://www.loribrown.myctmh.com/.

Christmas Card #3

Here is my 3rd card for the Challenge. I really liked the way it turned out. Funny thing is, it's a 4" x 4" card. It's so cute and little! The stamps I used are by Hero Arts.

Christmas Card #2

A second card for the 5 card challenge. The only challenge I'm having now is trying to get the green to photograph correctly! I need natural sunlight in the winter in Chicago... hmm, I might as well as for 80 degrees and sunshine, LOL!

Christmas Card #1

Here's my 1st card for the Red and Green challange from Christmas Cards All Year Round http://christmascardsallyearround.blogspot.com/ I stamped this sentiment in green then embossed it with clear, I think this turned out great! I am going to try to do all of the challenges so that I will have plenty of cards for next Christmas! I have a second child due in May so I really need to be WAY ahead of the game if I want to send out beautiful handmade cards. I look forward to all these new challenges! I stamped this sentiment in green then embossed it with clear, I think this turned out great!