Wednesday, December 31, 2008

AMEX Gift Card Holders

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Today we are having a pretty big snow storm...perfect day for crafting...the forecast was 3-6 inches but it's now noon and we've already gotten at least 5 inches and the snowflakes are getting bigger!

So anyway, I got this idea from a very good friend of mine, DeeDee...she made this great money or check holder with a 6 1/2" sq envelop. I didn't have any of those so I had to make mine from scratch, plus I needed to alter the size for the packaging of an AMEX Gift Card. She has a great tutorial over on her site here.

I also used some great New Years printable stamps from Regina's New Years Printable Stamps Sets 1 and 2 from her store The Cutting Café. You should go over to the designer team site to see all the amazing things you can do with these really cool printable stamps...check them out here.

Here's the 1st one which I made using the circle stamp from Set 1 and the balloons from Set 2:




I LOVE these balloons! And the stars and swirly things around them...


Confetti mix:
-CS: DCWV Glitter Stack "Black" and "Dk Red"
-PP: Black Market Paper Society "Ebony Ealabater Singing in the Rain"
-Prismacolor pencils: PC925 Crimson Lake and PC949 Metallic Silver
-Stickles: "Yellow" and "Star Dust"


And the 2nd one I did, I used 3 of Regina's New Years printable stamps from both sets...the Happy New Years frame, the Celebrate Hat and the Framed Sentiment:





I love this Happy New Year frame...it's also perfect to use to surround the edges of a quarter fold size card:


Confetti Mix:
-CS: TPC "Gold"
-PP: ProvoCraft "Juniper Checks on Fossil"
-Gems: Self-Adhesive from Michaels
-Fluid Chalk Ink: Colorbox "Creamy Brown"

TFL!! And be safe if you are going out for the New Year's Eve parties! :)

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

More Scrapbooking...A day at the beach...BBTB Challenge

Hi, last week's Bitten By the Bug challenge was to use the CIRCLDOT from Mini Monograms, so once again I decided to take advantage to use the challenge to do some work on my scrapbook for my soon-to-be MIL.

You should go over to the BBTB to see all the really great creations that were made using this challenge.

Here's mine:


Sand:
-CS: Bazzill Basics "Blue Calypso", "Rain" and "Tropical"
-PP: Paper Adventures "Baby Blue Scroll"
-Fluid Chalk Ink: Colorbox "Celadon"
-Stickers: Joann's Craft Essentials "Fancy Flops"
-Font: LDJ Fantastical at 46 pts
-Rub-on: Generations "Quotes - Travel"
-Cricut: Mini Monogram cart CIRCLDOT cut in various sizes using CDS

TFL!

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Christmas at home 2008

Hi, I thought I would share a few pictures with you of my holiday decorating and some pictures of the kids opening their gifts. It was a full house at my house, but it was great...it was with my amazing parents, my brother and lovely SIL (with a bun in the oven), my fiancé’s two children and my fiancé’s wonderful mother and stepdad.

First we had the kids, just the four of us and then everyone else showed up between noon and 1:00.

I'm so bummed out though, I can't believe this but I completely forgot to pull out the camera after everyone showed up!! So I have NO pictures of them this year AND I was going to have my dad take a picture of the four of us in front of the tree. Well the good thing is, I have a tripod and we have the kids again this weekend so I'll still be able to get that shot.

So anyway, here's some pictures that I hope you enjoy...

My fiancé’s mom and step dad own a cut your own Christmas tree farm. It’s a lot of fun to go up and help out. My soon-to-be mother-in-law makes the most beautiful Christmas wreaths, swags, mailbox cozies and kissing balls. Here's a tree from their farm with my large house village:


And she lets me make a wreath for my parents and one for myself and here’s the one I made for myself. It’s a 36” wreath and it takes an entire tree to make it!


And here’s the mailbox cozy:


Here's my little house village, which is located in my bedroom...that little door leads to the attic, kind of cute huh? We have it set up on a time for the lights to go on late afternoon to midnight.


Last year we put the artificial tree out on the deck of my bedroom, this year we didn’t get around to it but I thought I’d share this one as well.


Presents!




My fiancé and his son AJ:


And here’s one with Alyssa.


I'm a bit of a Disney nut, this is only a fraction of the Mickey Mouse Christmas decorations I have...




And the stocking were hung:


:)

Friday, December 26, 2008

Christmas party favors

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Mine was a full house and very nice, except for the fact that a few of us had bad colds, myself with a 2 degree temperature. But it was still very nice. :)

You've already seen some of the favors I made for my family in early earlier posts but here are the last 4 that I had to make.

The 1st three were made using Regina's Candy Box cutting file from her store The Cutting Café. This box is PERFECT for holding 12 mini Hershey bars. One I made was for my darling SIL who is a chocoaholic so this was a perfect one for her. The 2nd one was for my soon-to-be wonderful mother-in-law who loves mint chocolate and luckily for me this year Hershey came out with mint mini Hershey bars, including white chocolate! And 3rd one was made for my great manager.

And since this holds 12 mini Hershey bars I decided to go with the Twelve Days of Christmas Theme...Regina being as creative and smart as she is, she included in this set the perfect measured rectangles to make your own wrapper for each chocolate bar.

So here are the ones using the Candy Box and the paper is from K&Company:




I love this paper from SEI from their Alpine Frost collection:


Originally I was going to put everyone's names on the favors but I decided at last minute to do place cards.

I got these so too cute ornament place card holders from Michaels for only $1/pair, are they not gorgeous?!?:




This one I filled with Hershey's mint truffle kisses. I also used Regina's Christmas Circle printable stamps for the tag. This gorgeous paper is from K&Company.


This favor I made using Regina's Long Window cutting file from her store The Cutting Café.

This one was for my brother being the coffee junkie that he is (as well as myself):


This stamp is from one of my favorite stamp sets...CTMH Coffee Shop and I got to use my prismacolor pencils (PC946 Dark Brown & PC911 Olive Green) and the gamsol technique:


Here's another stamp I fell in love with this season from Inkadinkadoo's Snowflake Trail set:


TFL and happy holidays!

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Back to some scrapbooking

It's been awhile since I've done a scrapbook so I'm trying to do a couple pages here and there. I took advantage of being able to do a couple pages of pictures from Christmas last year with this past week's Bitten By the Bug challenge. The challenge was to use the gifts from the New Arrival cart. You really should go over and check out the beautiful creations made by the other design team members.

ALSO, don't forget that the BBTB is having another contest sponsored by Krista and Penny from SweetArts Paperie. They have put together an amazing kit, check it out here. And because of all the hustle and bustle going on for the holiday magic the contest has been extended to 1/10/09!!!

So here is my creation on this week's BBTB challenge (the gifts from New Arrival are on the 2nd page:




I so love this gorgeous paper from SEI:








I LOVE this Cuttlebug Embossing & Die combo Ice Crystal:


Wrapping Paper:
-CS: Bazzill Dark Brown and Dark Maroon
-PPs: SEI "Alpine Frost" collection and DCWV The Christmas Stack 2007 and DCWV The Christmas Glitter STack 2008
-Cuttlebug: Ice Crystal Combo
-Punch: Martha Stewart's Arctic Snowflake
-Stickles: Burgundy
-Fonts: SNF Classy Charm at 20 pts and DB Frilly Frames @ 400 pts (character "R")
-Cricut: New Arrival cart for the Gifts cut at 4"
-Misc: Adhesive, Mini Pot Dots, Buttons

TFL and Happy Holidays!
-

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Some Christmas cards for Friends & Family

This one I made using Regina's Santa Hat cutting file from The Cutting Café. For other pictures of cards I made with this adorable cut, click here.





This one I did with this adorable Changito stamp from Stampendous, colored in with my prismacolor pencils and gamsol:


I used some Glossy Accent on the glass of milk to make it look like a real glass...not sure if you can see it well in the picture:


This one use a Magenta stamp that I also colored in with my prismacolor pencils and gamsol and some stickles:




And another stamped image, this one by Lockhart Stamps and used quite few colors of stickles:




I Still Believe"
-CS: Bazzill Basics "Snapdragon", DCWV "Robin #3" and Blue Glitter Paper
-PP: DCWV The Christmas Stack 2007
-Stamps: Impression Obsession "I Still Believe", for the inside of the card Inkadinkadoo "Warmest Holiday Wishes" and in some others Impression Obsession "Merry Wishes" and on the back MSE! "Back of Card Set"
-Fluid Chalk Inks: Colorbox "French Blue", "Cocoa", "Brown" and "Creamy Brown"
-Punch: Martha Stewarts "Arctic Snowflake"
-Cuttlebug Snowflake Embossing Folder
-Misc: Adhesive, chipboard, mini pot dots, thread, sewing machine, ric-rac, Versafine Ink "Black Onyx" and gamsol

Bless Your Little Hearth:
-CS: DCWV Embossed Box of Cards "Brocade", "Stripe" and "Retro Square" and TPC "Classic Red" & "Fern"
-Stamps: Stampendous "Changito Hearth", for the inside of the card Inkadinkadoo Snowflake Trails (Warmest Holiday Wishes)
-Primascolor Pencils: PC945 Sienna, PC946 Dark Brown, PC911 Olive Green, PC925 Crimson Lake, PC937 Tuscan Red, PC943 Burnt Ochre and PC1034 Golden Rod
-Stickles: Star Dust
-Cricut Cart: Accent Essentials Accent13 welded to a rectangle box using CDS
-Misc: Adhesive, mini pot dots, glossy accents and Versafine Ink "Black Onyx"

3 Ornaments:
-CS: DCWV Christmas Box of Cards
-PP: DCWV The Winter Matstack 2008
-Fluid Chalk Inks: Colorbox "Dark Peony" and "French Blue"
-Stamps: Magenta "3 Ornaments", for the inside of the card Impression Obsession "Merry Wishes" and on the back MSE! "Back of Card Set"
-Primascolor Pencils: PC906 Copenhagen Blue, PC9904 Light Cerulean Blue and PC949 Metalic Silver
-Stickles: "Diamond" and "Waterfall"
-Misc: Adhesive, mini pot dots, Versafine Ink "Black Onyx" and gamsol

Snowman with Lights:
-CS: DCWV Embossed Box of Cards "Dots"
-Prismacolor Pencils: PC918 Orange, PC924 Crismson Red and PC911 Olive Green
-Stickles: Diamond, Xmas Red, Lime Green, Yellow, Orange Peel and Turquoise
-Stamp: Lockhart Stamps "Snowman with Lights"
-Misc: Adhesive, Versafine Ink "Black Onyx"

TFL!!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

From the bottom of my heart...

It was my birthday yesterday and my someday-to-be mother-in-law gave me an unbelievably generous gift...so the least I can do is make a Thank You card for her, which actually she loves to get. I got to again use this really cool stamp from Hero Arts called Collage Thank You. I used it once before for a card I made for my own mother who I could make her a Thank You card every week and it could never say how thankful I am for her, as amazing as she is and doesn't really know it.





Love shiny sheer ribbon!


The stamp in the inside I've had for awhile but have not used until now...$1 Studio G stamp designed by Kolette Hall (got to love those $1 stamps!!!):


Another item I've had for awhile that I don't use enough is this great embossing & border punch by Fiskars "Eyelet Lace":


Recipe:
-CS: TPC "Plum Tree" and "Parchment Ivory", MM "Smooth Grapevine"
-PP: DCWV Old World Stack
-Stamps: Hero Arts "Collage Thank You" and Studio G by Kolette Hall "Thank You"
-Ink: Ranger Archival Ink "Sepia" and Colorbox Pigment Ink "Black"
-Fluid Chalk Inks: Colorbox "Wisteria"
-Punch: Fiskars Eyelet Lace Embossing Punch
-Misc: Embossing powder, heat gun, bronze sheer ribbon, brown rhinestones, adhesive and mini pop dots.

TFL!!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Pretty in Pink

I'm late on getting my Bitten By the Bug challenge done, but at least I got it done! You should go over and check out what the other designers did here. The challenge was to use the Birthday Girl from the Storybook cartridge. I also used part of the wedding cake from the Wedding Solutions cartridge and made it into a shaped card.



I love all the uses for Martha Stewart's Drippy Goo punch!




TFL!!

My to do list...

*Become a Project Corner & Spotlight winner on the Cricut™ Chirp Newsletter (or at least a highlighted thread)
*Ongoing Memorial Journal for Morgan
*Scrapbook for my favorite moments at DisneyLand and DisneyWorld (my other obsession, big, big, big Mickey fan!)
*Scrapbook for my trip to Europe
*Scrapbook for the last two years of the kids for my DF's mom and one for his Dad.