Friday, November 15, 2013

60th Birthday Card - Easel Card

Hi all! I know it has been a long time since I have posted. I haven't had much craft mojo going on :(

Today is my day over at CricutDIVAS and I am sharing the first easel card I have ever made. I LOVE it! These are so easy to make and a lot of fun to design! This card celebrates the 60th birthday of a very special woman, my mom.

 The card measures 4"x4". It started with one 4x12" piece of black cardstock. The simplest directions for an easel card can be found HERE. From there I knew I wanted to use paisley so I stayed with silver, white, and black for my card. The white background shape is cut from Paper Trimmings at 3". The 60 is from Theresa Collins Sophisticated cart at 3.25".
  Image
 I threaded this Recollections Paisley ribbon through the numbers to bring the whole card together. I created the bow by using a brad and poking it through the ribbon as I folded it over. I used glue dots to adhere it to the page and also in between a few of the layers to get it to lay right.
  Image
 When you open an easel card, there will be a space that you can only see when the card is all the way open and a place that will be part of the display. It looks like this when all the way open:
  Image
I chose to use the upper portion to write my sentiment and the bottom portion, which will be displayed to put this awesome Pink by Design stamp! You then put a brad or button or something to hold the top portion of the card up. Mine looks like this:
  Image

And from the side an easel card looks like this:
  Image

 I hope you have enjoyed this card - I did! :) Easel cards are much easier to make than they appear so I suggest you try one if you never have! I know I waited way to long to try this myself!

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

School mini album

Hi there and welcome! Today I am on the CricutDIVA blog sharing a mini album with you! This mini was created for our in-home daycare caregiver as the end-of-the-year card from all of our families. Each year I make her something and this year I went with a mini album. Image
 This mini was made with my Cricut Expression and a regular cutting blade. I used a thin cardboard for the base of the shapes. I put my blade length on 4, pressure max, and multi cut 2. I've never had any problem cutting chipboard (or food boxes) with this setting.
  Image
 I used papers from the DCWV Grade School stack. I like to stick to one stack for these sorts of projects because while the papers can be greatly different, they all fit together somehow. Each shape had a paper cover the front, which matted the photo and a piece cut using the flip setting for the backside of the shape.
  Image
 I then chalked the edges in black and sealed them with Glossy Accents and added a sprinkle of white/clear glitter for fun.
  Image
 If the shape had an available place, I put the picture there, if not, I tried to make it fit with the shape as much as possible. Here is my daughter's page, which was the most difficult, getting the star shape to work with a 4x6 photo.
  Image
 The last shape was a notebook page and served as a place for me to write our thank you note. Image
 The shapes I used were: Crayon 2 - Locker Talk - 6" Pencil - My Community - 3" Puzzle piece - My Community - 5" Star - Doodlecharms - 6" Glue - Locker Talk - 6" Backpack - Doodlecharms - 6" Apple - Doodlecharms - 6" Notebook page - Locker Talk - 6" I hope you have enjoyed my mini and if you have any questions, please ask in the comments and I will try my best to answer!

Thursday, May 30, 2013

LOAD30 - Swing

Man, today's prompt was the hardest by far for me!! It was a weapon day and we were given the lead pipe. The only connection I could come up with for lead pipe was swinging a baseball bat so I went with baseball pictures.


Oddly enough I used the word swing as my title but I don't have any pictures of her batting!  Oops! :)

One more day to go!!

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

LOAD29 - Mr. Green

Today was the last character prompt and it was Professor Plum. Aw, boo! That means there will be no Mr. Green prompt! I had been waiting for that one.  Well I took today's prompt and twisted it so that I could scrap Mr. Green:


In the journaling box I put a resume of sorts. All of the papers are from the DCWV Grade School stack.

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

LOAD28 - Our home

Today's prompt was "where". I thought that was the perfect reason to scrap pictures of our home!

The journaling tag tucked between the pictures is the same shape as behind the title and house and says, "It's not fancy and there are tons of reasons why we don't like it but our house at .... works for us. It's where we lived when Ashlyn was born. It's where the girls started soccer, softball, and dance. It's where our family loves one another unconditionally. It's home."

The title and house are from the Cricut cart Nifty Fifties.

Monday, May 27, 2013

LOAD27 - Christmas Parade

Today's prompt was conflict. I didn't have pictures that dealt with my girls fighting or anything else that I could think of so flipping through my picture box I came to these photos and remembered that there was no conflict with the timing of this year's Christmas parade! That in itself is a small miracle!


In person, the big title letters on this layout look really good and match the paper colors better than in the photo. You'll just have to trust me that it looks good. ;)

Thursday, May 23, 2013

LOAD23 - Cincinnati

Today's prompt was candlestick and here's my layout:


Yeah, what? How did I get baseball?  Well I could think of essentially nothing for the original prompt so then I went to Candlestick Park, which led to baseball, and this game we went to in Cincinnati.

Since there isn't much room with the way this paper is, I put my journaling on the tags under the main photo.


I hope you are looking forward to the long weekend!

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

LOAD22 - Yeehaw!

Today's prompt was the character Miss Scarlet.  I went with the red color and scrapped pictures of my youngest riding her rocking horse all decked out.


The cuts are all from the Yeehaw Cricut Lite cart.




Tuesday, May 21, 2013

LOAD21 - What?

Today's prompt was simply the word "what". I went with photos of my daughter on a day when she wasn't feeling well and was giving off that "what" glower.


What? is Zoo Day font at 1".

Monday, May 20, 2013

LOAD20 - Suspense

This layout was to go with the theme of suspense. Do you remember when you were a kid the great suspense of the moment when you get to blow out the candles? Maybe that's stretching the prompt and not exactly the right use of suspense but it works for me.



This layout will be side by side with yesterday's in the scrapbook and together creates the full layout of her 4th birthday.



Sunday, May 19, 2013

LOAD19 - A is for...

Today's prompt was "A is for Alibi".  I decided to go with the A is for and chose Ashlyn.  I picked adjectives that all start with A and that describe her.


The A is 3" from Ornamental Iron.

Here is a closer look at the words I used:


Saturday, May 18, 2013

LOAD18 - Be Jealous

Ah! I have been terrible about uploading my pictures here to my blog. I've gotten into the habit of doing my layout as the last thing before bed so by the time I get to uploading my pictures to the challenge I am beyond ready for bed.  While I am still having fun, some nights I find that I feel like my inspiration and creativeness is running out. I also am missing a lot of sleep consistently and that's starting to not feel the greatest.  BUT here I am 18 days in and have completed a layout every single day!

I am going to go back and post layouts as if I were to post them on their original day so if you are interested, you can take a scroll backwards through my layouts :)

Today's prompt was about jealousy.  I really wasn't sure what to scrap here but then I rifled through my picture box and found these from when I won a Cricut Imagine at a Cricut Circle meet up.  It was when they were first launched and you couldn't even buy them yet. It was a very exciting day!


(I'm not in love with this layout but it is what it is and I'm leaving it for now.)

Friday, May 17, 2013

LOAD17 - Tiny Dancer

The 17th prompt was about the ballroom. I chose to scrap pictures of my daughter's first dance class.  All cuts are from Twinkle Toes Lite cart.


I even got out my sewing machine for this layout!  I love the sewing on the right, but wish I would not have gotten crooked on the left! :( Oh well, still cute.

Here's my little secret about this layout - I only had the one piece of solid pink and I wanted all of the pieces to match exactly so...
I cut them all out of the paper where it would be covered with the dark pink paper! Hee hee...

I used a Page Maps sketch to bring this one alive.


Thursday, May 16, 2013

LOAD16 - Home Improvements

Day 16's prompt was the wrench.  Hmm... what to scrap about a wrench?  Well I went with the home improvement idea and created a page that will be for my husband remodeling our bathroom.  I sent the pictures to the printer and will insert them once I go pick them up.



The cuts here are from the Handy Man Lite cart.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

LOAD8 - EAA

Ooh, today's prompt was a doozy - Colonel Mustard.  It took me quite awhile to get around to where I was going to go with that one.  I eventually thought of Colonel meaning military and one aspect of the military is it's planes.  Since I don't have anyone close to me in the service right now, I thought of the military planes that we saw at last year's EAA, which is an aviation convention. So I took the long way around but I arrived at scrapping pictures of us at EAA.




The paper is from the Travel set of AC Patterned Papers. The biplane is cut from Cricut's My World cart at 4".


Tuesday, May 7, 2013

LOAD7 - Why?

Today's LOAD513 prompt was "Why?" Just simply that. It made me think of two pictures I recently printed of my daughter's playing school together. It is really sweet to hear them play this but they play it in the middle of the hallway! I have no idea why but it seems to work for them even though it inconveniences the rest of us. Oh well... it's worth it. 



The journaling reads:

"You two like to play Miss Sunny School. I understand why you like to play - Sadie gets to be a teacher (complete with written out lesson plans sometimes), Ashlyn gets to try out going to school, and you can play it together peacefully. What I don't understand is WHY you have to play it in the hallway! Sometimes it seems as if you both empty your entire rooms into the hall! No one can pass through if class is in session. I love you girls but sometimes... :)"

The pictures are hard to see here on the computer but I know when my kids look at them, they will know exactly what they are. 

The papers here are from We R Memory Keepers, the Show & Tell Story Time line.  The font is Cricut's Pooh Font.  Why is 3.5" and Miss Sunny School is 0.5".  

One week in and I've managed a layout every day!  Phew! 

Monday, May 6, 2013

LOAD6 - Fishing

For LOAD513's sixth prompt of "red herring" I went with a fishing layout.  I have so many pictures of our family out on the boat. I always make sure to have the camera with because you never know when that giant fish might come along!


This printed paper is Gone Fishing Collection Caught B by Carolee's Creations.  It was originally a one piece 12x12 that looked like this:

I cut it and used a matching blue cardstock to expand it into enough for a two page layout. The mini title pieces are from the Fishing Adventure sheet in the same collection.

Today was also my day over at CricutFANatics so be sure to check out this baby card there!

Sunday, May 5, 2013

LOAD5 - First Haircut

Today's LOAD5 prompt is "And then there were none".  This is an Agatha Christie mystery book.  I had a hard time with this prompt but ended up thinking of something that resulted in the removal of something.  I scrapped my daughter's first haircut, which would be the removal of hair.



The papers and puff stickers are from American Girl.

LOAD4 - Can't Get Enough

I didn't get a chance to post this yesterday to my blog but I did get to make a layout on day 4.  The prompt was about greed.  I decided to make a layout about how my DD can't get enough of my friend's twin boys.  I think not only does my DD want a baby brother but there are two of them at once!  How cool is that to a ten-year-old?!



The thing I will really always remember about this layout is that I made it during a session break at a dance coach conference!  The conference was all day from 8-8 and I was also staying at a friend's house that evening so I had to find some time somewhere to complete a layout.  I did this one in the hotel lobby on a break before dinner :) That's also why I have a handwritten title, I forgot to bring any letter stickers with me!


Friday, May 3, 2013

LOAD3 - Christmas Cookies

LOAD day 3 was about the kitchen.  It took me awhile to decide what to do but my absolute favorite thing to do in the kitchen is bake and I have had this picture around for a long time, just waiting to be scrapped. This is all of the girls in my family and my sister's.  Who knows what the guys were doing at this time, but we girls were frosting cutouts!

I am the baker in our family and I especially love making all of the Christmas goodies! I am glad we captured this day on film.

Here is a closer look at the center of the layout.  The cuts are all between 2-3" from the Cricut seasonal cart Gingerbread.  I used Mr. Huey's inks to make the cookies look like they had sprinkles on them but it didn't come out exactly as I envisioned.  Oh well, sometimes that happens to our cookies too when too much of a good thing is dumped on!

While I was making this layout something just wasn't looking right.  I added the pen border around the edge and it instantly felt done to me.  Love when that happens!


Thursday, May 2, 2013

LOAD2 - Big Bear Hunt

Today was day 2 of LOAD513 and the piece of Clue we were given today was the knife. From this it went to "taking a stab at" something. I went with hunting, as that is a big part of our life. I have had these photos of my husband's bear hunt for a long time and while the pictures are all very similar, to my husband each picture is different. Therefore I put them all on this 12x12 double layout.


All of the journaling was done by my husband, a first for him. I thought the layout would be so much more complete and meaningful if he were the one to tell the story. I also think it will be a treasure to our kids when they are older. They will get to see his handwriting, hear his voice, and listen to his story. How cool will that be?!

The title was made with the Wildlife Cricut Lite cartridge at 3". The "hunt" was originally "The Hunt" but I cut "the" off to fit my layout.

I used hemp in the corners to add a little bit more to the layout.

Keep coming back each day in May to see layouts!

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

LOAD1 - Snow Dog

The first prompt for Layout a Day was Mrs. White. My take on her was snow. I scrapped two pictures of our dog playing in the snow this past winter.


I created this entirely with my Cricut Imagine using Mr. Frosty for colors and patterns, Paper Pups for the dog and title (used to be Show Dog, now Snow Dog), and Create a Critter 2 for the snowflakes.

*I wish you could see the bottom picture better, it's one of those ah-maz-ing dog pictures* :)

Yay for staying on track for Day 1!

Announcements

Hello everyone!  I have two announcements to share with you today!! 


First, I am joining the design team over at CricutDIVAs!  You can look for a post from me once a month over on their blog.  I am really excited and the group of designers will be sharing some really awesome projects in the coming months! 



Second, today is the first day of the May Layout a Day challenge with Lain Ehmann (also called LOAD513).  If I can keep up with this challenge, I will be posting a new layout every day for the next 31 days! I hope I can do it!

Happy May Day!

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Basketball Card

Hi!  I am so bad at remembering to share my work on my own blog!  April 6th I shared this basketball birthday card over on Cricut FANatics.  I made this for a nephew.  Hope you enjoy!

The basketball hoop is from the All Sports cart. 




Sunday, March 31, 2013

Easter Baskets for kids

Happy Easter to all of you! At the Pink By Design March stamp release, the mini project was to make adorable little baskets.  You can find the originating info HERE, including cut sizes for the papers you will need. During the live UStream, I saw how easy these baskets were and knew I could make 8 of them for the kids at daycare.  Here are mine:


 
I experimented a bit with the scoring and a few boxes are different sizes. 

These are my daughter's baskets and she wanted to help decorate them.  This egg one is her favorite: 

Here are a few of my favorites:
 

(This one I am entering in to the Cricut FANatics March challenge.) 
I am also linking up to PBD's Link Up Tuesday so Sarah can see my version of the baskets. 

I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday, however you celebrate!