Winter/Christmas Blog Hop

Welcome to the Winter/Christmas Themed Blog Hop celebrating my favorite time of the year! I love winter and snow AND it’s my birthday season!  :) You should have arrived here from Cindy.  If you are just joining us, you can go to Paulette’s blog, Around the Bock with Scrapalette.  

My project for the hop is a 12x12 layout.  I am IN LOVE with these pictures of my girls from last winter.  We went out to play in the snow and the whole family got involved, including our dog.  Often times we make the pictures black and white so that the colors aren’t clashing.  In this case, I wanted to try the opposite – make the layout black and white so that the pictures stand out.  Here it is!

I found this to be difficult and it didn’t quite turn out the way I had hoped but it’s still something that I will try again.   

For this layout I used:

Winter Frolic - Winter Fun phrase at 3"
                             Border cut at 1" twice (*they don't quite meet under the pictures, it's an illllllusion :) )
Jolly Holidays - Mittens with snowflakes at 2"
                             Mittens with String at 4"
"Skittles" on the string mittens instead of the button cut
Stickles on the mittens to give the snow look
Snowflake stickers that I had in my stash to make the row along the bottom 

I hope you have enjoyed my project and the hop this far.  I have some blog candy to give away!  

You could win this 'Tis the Season mini pack from the Kaiser Craft line!  Included is a stamp set, a 6x6 paper pad, chipboard pieces and a sticker embellishment pack.  To win, please leave a comment telling me your favorite thing about the winter/Christmas season!  You do not have to be a follower of my blog, but I would love it if you decide to!  (If you cannot see my follower list on the right, refresh your page.  I have found that this usually works to bring it up. Blogger can be so goofy sometimes!)

Thanks for stopping!  Your next stop is LISA.

Here is the entire Blog Hop list in case you need it:

1. Paulette at http://scrapalette.blogspot.com/

2. Debbie at http://bugginattheseams.blogspot.com/

3. Carolyn at http://cccscraproom.blogspot.com/

4. Brenda at http://happyscrapper64.blogspot.com/

5. Maria at http://stampcutcreate.blogspot.com/

6. Chris at http://scrappin-nanapuddin.blogspot.com/

7. Cindy at http://www.inlovewithpaper.blogspot.com/  

8. Michele at http://www.michelegreen.com/  <---You are HERE

9. Lisa at http://addictedtothecricut.blogspot.com  <---Go here next!

10. Dana at http://papermemories4u.blogspot.com/

11. Nancy at http://lanancyworkshop.blogspot.com/

12. Madylyn at http://inspiredbycolor.blogspot.com/

13. Wini at http://www.looneybugdesigns.com/

14. Renee at http://icameisawicreated.blogspot.com/

15. Tammy at http://www.scrapcavecreations.com/

16. Debbie at http://debbieduddles.blogspot.com/

17. Kim at http://blingdazzler.com/

18. Brandi at http://scubascrapperbrandi.blogspot.com/

19. Sharon at http://designsbysharon.blogspot.com/

20. Liz at http://liz-lavendarandroses.blogspot.com/

Halloween Hobgoblin

The other day at work I received a treat on my desk with this note attached:

You have been visited by the Halloween

Hobgoblin! Within the next 48 hours you must

pass the Hobgoblin on to six of your friends or

neighbors.  Copy this letter and give them a

little Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween!

What fun!  And for me?  A crafter?  Of course I'm going to pass it on!  I got out my Gypsy and pulled all of the Halloween pictures from Smiley Cards.  This is a cart that was a free download awhile back with a Gypsy promotion.  Many people, including myself, forget about this cart because it is only on the Gypsy.  

I used old Lia Sophia boxes, filled them with candy and wrapped them with some cute paper.  From there, I used some Halloween twine and attached my cuts with a pop dot. 

Each is cut between 2 and 3 inches.  

Don't forget about the great Halloween cuts on Smiley Cards! 

Happy Halloween everyone!

All Wrapped Up in Reading

I changed out one of my library bulletin boards at school for the month of October.  I didn't want to do a totally Halloween theme.  I decided on a mummy.  From there I came up with the title, "All Wrapped Up in Reading".  Cute, right?

I made the mummy by finding a piece of clip art that I liked.  I then used the copy machine to blow it up to a good size.  I used that as my template to roughly draw the mummy onto a piece of tagboard.  From there, I cut it out and wrapped him up in toilet paper!  Our school toilet paper is made from recycled material so it's not completely white.  I think that works out really well for this mummy project, as mummies are supposed to be a little bit dirty and dusty, don't you think?  :)

Believe it or not, there is not one single staple in this guy!  The paper is just all wrapped and tucked!  I cut the eyes from one of the Mini Monsters.  (Yes, I could have just cut circles but I had the Cricut on for the title anyway so I just cut out some good clean circles, rather than doing it by hand.)

The title is the shadow from Simply Sweet.  I went one step further by wrapping up the words "Wrapped Up" in tp too!

Students will get the chance to partake in this bulletin board if they complete a book review on a bat shape that they can pick up in the library.  I hope to see it filling up soon!

Simply Chamed cake

Hello!  I made this birthday card for a little girl who is turning three.  Perfect that this cake from Simply Charmed has 3 candles on it!

The cake was cut at 4".  The background paper was printed from the Imagine, Nursery Tails. 

I embossed with two separete Cuttlebug folders for the cake. 

I am entering this into a challenge on  the Cricut Circle blog.  You have to use the CuttleBug and two different Cricut cuts.  Guess what?  I put the birthday hat inside of here but didn't take a picture of the inside! Ah!!!  Hopefully I will still count...

Epic

I made my nephew this birthday card for his 16th birthday.  Definitely an epic one, right?  :)

I used my Cricut Imagine for this card and was finished in less than 15 minutes!  First I printed an entire sheet of the background pattern from JT.  I cut that down to A2 size and folded it.  I added a strip of black 1.25" just to ground the top image.  I cut the winged shield out at 2", with a few layer pieces as well to give it some dimension.  I cut the word epic using just the layer option on the Imagine.  It originally also had wings but I thought that would just be too many wings!

I love this picture of the card.  You can really see how the layers are all popped up using pop dots.

Boy cards aren't always the easiest to do but with the JT cart, this was simple!

I am entering this into the Cricut Circle blog challenge to use your Imagine.  There's a Cricut Cake up as the prize!  Being a Circle member is very fun.  If you are interested, you can look HERE for more info.

I hope you are having a great day!

Butterfly Garden

In my town, we have a little nature center.  It is typically a great place to go to hike around, look at museum items, and attend their programs.  In the later half of summer they have a butterfly garden.  That is definitely a hidden little gem!  I LOVE it and my girls do too.

(Remember you can click the picture to see it larger.)

On the left side of this double layout is the first time we ever went there.  On the right is when we went a few days later with some family and different friends.  It is so neat to watch all of the butterflies and the plants they prefer.

I got these wonderful embellishments from a discount store.  The moment I saw them I knew I wanted them for these pictures!  I used Opposites Attract for the title.  I was inspired by a post on the Cricut Circle blog awhile ago that mixed these two fonts in one layout.  It works out well!

I am entering this into the monochromatic challenge going on now at the Cricut Circle blog.  I really had fun playing with the oranges to make them work together. 

Love Binds Us

A few months ago, I was the lucky winner of a Pink by Design stamp set!  I recieved the stamp set called Material Girl and have just been itching to use it!  I finally got my chance with this anniversary card. 

I made this card for my in-laws who are celebrating 40 years together today!  That is so wonderful!  My mother-in-law loves to quilt and sew so I thought this card would be perfect.

I used Simply Charmed to cut the hearts at 5".  I layered them how I wanted and then sewed them together using my Sew Easy. 

The background paper is from KaiserCraft.  The finished size of this card is 5.5" x 5.5".  Simple, easy and cute!