My Sisters Baby Shower

Happy New Year my crafty friends!  I hope everyone had a great New Years Eve.  Our was pretty snowy and slushy.

I have a LOT of older projects and photos bumping around in my laptop that I really want to share with you guys.  I hope you don't mind a few posts of some not-so-recent creations!  I really wanted to make my first post of 2013 something that I did back in the spring of 2012.  My sister recently had her first child and I wanted to throw her a baby shower and flex my crafty muscles.  So I did!  I just wanted to share a few of the things I made for the shower.

These were originally going to be tags for the cake pop favors I was going to make, but between illness and a major baking fail they never came to fruition, so I added the tags as confetti on the tables.  The scallop, circle and tag are all My Creative Time dies, and the Precious Baby stamp is from her die and stamp set Teeny Tag Greetings.  I seriously can't get enough of miss Emmas stamps and dies!

The onesies for the banner came from my Every Day Pop Up Cards Cricut cartridge.  The actual pop up cards on that cartridge are kind of infuriating to put together to I rarely ever make them, but some of the images are actually useful for other projects.  The font is from A Childs Year.  I welded the letters into the onesie with my Gypsy, then punched holes in each arm and strung twine through each one.  The tiny clothespins were from Michaels.

I love making things with the glass craft blocks!  I cut different sized circles out of contact paper and placed them in a random pattern on both sides of the block.  I sprayed the entire block with frosted glass spray and then removed the contact paper for a cute polka-dot block!  The wooden cow cutouts were from Hobby Lobby, aren't they cute??

This might have been my FAVORITE part of the shower.  I wanted a fun activity for the guests to do, so I thought up a Onesie Making Station!  I thought it would be really useful for my sister to have a bunch of inexpensive onesies on hand, since I've heard newborns can be messy :).  My family was a little iffy on it when I told them abot the idea, but once we got to the shower and a few people started making them EVERYONE jumped in and had a great time.  I simply gave them puff paint and a bunch of different baby themed iron ons and they went to town!

My gift to my sister was a scrapbook (which I am MAJORLY BEHIND ON, ouch).  I provided her with 4 or 5 pages to get her started.  This is reminding me I REALLY need to make more pages for her!  Sorry sis!

I think everyone was really happy with the shower.  I only have one sibling, and my fiance is an only child so I figured this was my one chance to throw a family baby shower and I went all out!  My nephew is now 8 months old and getting cuter every day :)

Have a great rest of your week everyone!  Thanks for stopping by!

An (almost) totally non-Cricut card!

Hello everyone!  So, obviously, I've been absent.  Again.  This summer has been incredibly busy and fun, which has not left me much time to blog.  Also, I was hired by a co worker of my mothers to create a scrapbook for her sister, so that pretty much took up all of my crafting time for the past few months.  But it's done, and super cute, so expect a post on that later.  I'm going to try to ease my way back into blogging, maybe just a few posts per week, but I appreciate all of my subscribers sticking with me!


I made this card before I started the scrapbook project using a die-cut flower pad from K & Company.  I don't usually buy this type of thing, since I have my Cricut, but the flowers looked too cute to pass up.

I simply punched out each of the die cut flowers, and all of it's layers, and popped them up on pop dots to add dimension.

I added Glossy Accents to each of the flower centers.  I love the shine :)

The only Cricut cut I used was the vase from Pagoda.  I didn't have my Gypsy with me at the time, so I couldn't hide the flower in the center.  I wish I would have, but I think it still looks cute.

The butterfly is also from the K & Company pad.  I added Stickles to the outside of the wings.

I've really gotten into decorating the inside of my cards.  I would usually just leave them blank, but I've started using coordinating paper to give it a little extra touch.  The sentiment and flower stamps are both from a Pink By Design Stamp of The Month Set.  Seriously, if you haven't checked out PBD, please do.  She has the cutest stamps!

I hope you enjoyed this card, and it's good to be back :)

Handmade for the Holidays: More Word Books

Hey everyone!

I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas weekend.  Was Santa good to you this year?  He was extremely generous with me!  On top of some wonderful jewelry and clothes, I got the Stand and Salute cartridge, an i-Top plus accessories (Can't WAIT to play with that one) and....my Aqua Expression!  I already knew I was getting that (since I waited in line for it on Black Friday LOL), but it was great to finally be able to open that box!  I was also finally able to play with the two cartridges that came with it, Playtime and Classic Font.  Great carts!


I know Christmas is over, but I have a TON of projects I completed last week that I want to share with you!

I made two more word books for Christmas this year for family members.  I had full intentions of making FOUR, but I ran out of chipboard PLUS they are incredibly time consuming (and frustrating when your Gypsy won't do what you want it to do!), so two was all I could manage in one sitting.



I wish I had pictures to share, but I actually finished the books on THE DAY they had to be given to family so I didn't have time to snap anything!

"Boo" Recycled Mini Wordbook

Hi everyone!  I hope everyone is having a fabulous weekend.  Today I've got a video showing you my newest project, a mini album/wordbook using recycled toilet paper rolls!

I was browsing Cardz TV the other day and I saw a cute little fall mini wordbook she made for a blog hop.  I thought it was so neat that I had to try to make it myself.  It was so easy to make!

I can't wait to explore the world of mini albums, but, I have to ask:

Bind-It-All or Cinch?
I want to get a binding machine but I just CAN'T make up my mind! If you own one of these machines, and have an opinion on why it's the one for me, leave me a comment!  I'd love to read what you think :)

What you need:

• 4 toilet paper rolls, cut in 1/2 inch intervals
• Halloween Paper (I reccomend DCWVs "Midnight Spell" stack, it's fabulous!).  You need two pieces of patterned paper for each roll.
• Cricut Happy Hauntings Cartridge (Fence, Tombstone Tags)
• Cricut Birthday Cakes Cartridge (BOO font)
• Cricut Holiday Cakes Cartridge (Pumpkins, Happy Halloween)
• Crop-A-Dile and 3/16" eyelets
• Binder Rings
• Large Tags (cut to fit each pocket)
• Tim Holtz Distress Inks in Spiced Marmalade, Dusty Concord, and Black Soot
• Martha Stewart Halloween Clear Stamp Set
• Versamark Pad, clear and black embossing powder

• Stickles, brads, and any other embellishments you want to use

"Thankful" Fall Card Video

We are FINALLY getting fall-like temperatures around here (yay open windows and no A/C!), so I was itching to use my new DCWV Amber Autumn Stack, so I whipped up a cute Joy Fold fall themed card.  This is also the first time I've inked the edges of all of my pages.  I was TERRIFIED of not doing it correctly and ruining my paper, but it all turned out find and I love the look it gives paper.  I finally bit the bullet and bought some Tim Holtz Distress Ink (In Walnut Stain and Spiced Marmalade) along with the applicator to use in a future project, I've pretty much decided I'm going to have to collect all the colors because I couldn't decide which ones I wanted!



I hope everyone is having a happy Monday!  I'm in the process of working on a HUGE cupcake wrapper order that is pretty much dominating all of my craft time, but I hope to be done in a few days so I can play again!

This Weeks Hello Thursday Cartridge Releases

Hi everyone! I'm sure every Cricut lover already knows, but yesterday was Hello Thursday, and Provocraft released three new full cartridges. I wanted to post some images here and tell you my thoughts.

1.) Birthday Bash

 I think this cartridge is SO cute!  I also love the tag and card feature on this cart.  I love the animals holding numbers!

2.) Nifty Fifties 

I'm LOVING this cartridge as well!  The retro images are simply adorable, and I can see some GREAT cards being made with this cart.  Both this and Birthday Bash are now in my "must have" list :)

Finally...

3.) Shall we Dance?

 This cartridge is a Cricut Circle Exclusive, and I have to say, this is my least favorite cartridge to be released in quite a while.  The font is nice, but the dancers are just not my style.  There are a few of them who are supposed to be children dancing, and they look a little weird, to be honest. A fellow Cricut Message Board user pointed this out to me:

 It's spelled wrong!!!!  It should be Un-Deux-Trois.  Again, I'm not a French major, so if I'm wrong let me know, but I did take enough French in college to remember how to count :)  I truly hope PC fixes this before releasing it to their Circle Members.

So, in short, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE two out of three of these carts.  Which ones do you love?  Which could you live without?  Leave me a comment and let me know!

My HSN Day of Crafting Wish List

Is anyone else as exhausted as I am from staying up late for the Imagine launch?  I've been glued to the TV ALL day!  Cricut, Tim Holtz, Martha Stewart...I just can't stop.  I've also been extremely good and bought NOTHING.



That hasn't stopped me from doing some serious window shopping.  ;)

My Christmas list is slowly expanding, and I thought I would make a post showcasing everything I've wanted to buy today (if I had unlimited funds).

1.) Cricut Imagine

 

I think I may be the only Cricut lover on the planet that doesn't have a Cricut Expression.  My Cricut Cake was actually my very first Cricut purchase, and then I inherited a Baby Bug, which fueled my paper crafting obsession.  I've been on the fence about buying an Expression for a long time, and now I'm wondering if I should just get an Imagine and be done with it.  The price tag is kind of insane.  I'm hoping someone that loves me very much will buy this for me for Christmas using Flex Pay ;)  (wink wink, nudge nudge)

2.) Tim Holtz Distress Ink Pad Set

 

I also think I'm the only crafter on the planet that doesn't own any Distress Inks.  I see them in craft stores and I always pass them by, mostly because I'm terrified of inking.  I don't know why, I just am.  Tim did a demo today on HSN that totally sold me on inking.  These sets sold out ridiculously fast today, and I got a little depressed that I was being strong and didn't buy them.  I guess I'll have to start hoarding 40% off coupons and buying a few at Michaels.

3.)  Martha Stewart Halloween Foil and Flocking Transfer Kit

OK, I'm not going to lie, I may go ahead and buy this.  It's only $14.95.  I haven't flocked before, and I've always wanted to try, and these Halloween kits are too stinking cute.  Do I really need to make 500 more Halloween cards?  Probably not.  But I'm hoping once I start with these, I may be brave enough to buy individual pots of flocking and try them on other cards.  I don't know if I've ever seen these at M's, so I may be tempted to pick these up.

4.) Martha Stewart Halloween Glitter Set

That Glow-In-The-Dark Glitter gets me
EVERY.
SINGLE.
TIME.

I can't even count the amount of times I've walked into Michaels, grabbed the bottle, carried it around the store, and then put it back at the last minute.  The black tinsel glitter is really nice too.

5.) Anna Griffin Clear Stamp Storage Binder

I'm a damask FREAK.  My wedding was damask, when I finally get my own craft room, it will be damask, I love ALL THINGS damask.  These are GORGEOUS and I really want them, and you get 2 for $22.00.  Hopefully they stay on the website for awhile and I can get them eventually.

6) Xyron Create-a-Sticker Kit

                                             

I've seen this before (at Tuesday Morning, I believe, and it was cheaper) but I never bought it because I had NO idea how it worked.  Now that I do, I think it's a handy little tool!  Next time I'm at Tuesday Morning I'll have to grab one.

So, what did YOU see on HSN today that you would love to have (or bought)?  I would love to hear your comments.

P.S. I re-did my blog layout, and hopefully comments will work now.  So...this is the perfect opportunity to test it out!  Leave me a comment, my lovely followers!

Cricut Imagine Launch TONIGHT on HSN!!

It's here...TONIGHT!

The launch of the super-awesome Cricut Imagine is tonight at midnight on HSN!  Some pretty awesome bloggers are going to be having pre-parties on Ustream starting at 10 PM CST. 

Robyn (My Pink Stamper) will be hosting a Ustream party at 10 PM CST, and then at 10:30 CST, Creative Critters will be taking over the party up until the HSN Launch!  These two lovely ladies will be answering a lot of questions and giving away some pretty cool prizes.

As for me?  I will NOT be purchasing the Imagine tonight.  Unfortunately, even on Flex Pay a $499 machine is out of an unemployed teachers budget :)  However, it has quickly moved to the top of my Christmas list!  I will be glued to the TV all day tomorrow to watch the HSN Day of Crafting.  A little window shopping never hurt anyone, right? 

Thank You Cards with Create a Critter

I needed to make some thank you cards for a few special friends that have been a huge help in my life lately, so I decided to make some simple ones using Create-A-Critter.  Everywhere I go, people rave that Create-A-Critter is their favorite cartridge, and I can see why!

 

I don't wanna toot my own horn here, but...

oh who am I kidding?

Is that brown and purple terrier card not the CUTEST??!!??!!  I want to make about 75 more of that card and give it to everyone I know.  Sorry poodle card, I love you too...

Here's what I used to make these cards:

• Create a Critter Cartridge (Terrier and Poodle)
• DCWV Naturals Cardstock Stack (Terrier card base)
• DCWV Basic Cardstock Stack (Poodle card base and mat)
• Core'dinations Gemstone Stack (Terrier mat, Poodle hair)
• Core'dinations Foundations (Terrier)
• EK Success scallop border punch
• Cuttlebug Folders (I used Spots and Dots and Swiss Dots)
• Sentiments from Hero Arts Everyday Sayings
• Ribbon from JoAnns dollar bin
• Glue Dots pop up dots

The dogs are both cut at 3 3/4" and are both on A2 sized cards.

See that Yorkie's fancy little collar? I blinged that out using my new, had-to-have-it hotfix tool:

Note that it is NOT an iRock.  I wanted one (mostly because it would match my super sweet pink ATG there on the right), but I was hearing stories about how it would only work once, wasn't heating correctly, etc. etc.  I saw this $10.99 Jolee's one at JoAnns and snagged it.  I've only used it once, but it worked perfectly for me!  Maybe one day I'll give the infamous iRock a chance.  My Jolee tool can't last forever.  I DO love bling ;)

Monogram Black and White Cookies

This is one of my favorite recent Cricut Cake creations.  Damask is totally trending in the wedding world right now, and how great would these cookies be for wedding favors, or even a bridal shower?

 Here's my recipe for how I made them.  I apologize for not having step-by-step pictures, I made these before this blog was born.  I'll be better next time, I promise :)

Damask Monogram Cookies

• No-Fail Sugar Cookie Recipe (can be found here)
• Black and white Fondant (I used Fondarific)
• Something to use as "glue" (you can use anything from corn syrup, vanilla extract, or even water)
• Martha Stewart Elegant Cake Art Cartridge  

 ...can I pause for a moment and just say how OBSESSED I am with this cartridge??

If you haven't picked up Marthas carts at HSN, do it NOW.  Run.  Do not walk.  They are the BEST carts for the Cricut Cake.  Everything cuts BEAUTIFULLY.

OK, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

The first thing I did was prepare the cookie dough on my mats.  Yep, you heard me right.  I CUT THE COOKIE DOUGH with the Cricut.  This is a little more complicated then it seems.  Your cookie dough has to be pretty much frozen solid or you WILL NOT be able to cut anything.  It will just tear and smear around the mat and make you pull your hair out.

Not that I know that from personal experience or anything...

I prep my mat with shortening, put a glob of cookie dough on the mat, and cover it with a piece of wax paper.  Then I take my rolling pin and go to town.  Take note: your cookies will have to be pretty thin to cut on the cricut.  

After rolling out the dough, I throw the mats in the freezer and freeze them.  This doesn't take long, so while the dough is freezing I set up my Cricut Cake.

I cut the scalloped circles at 3", and the damask cookies at 3.5", using the Autofill feature.  Each image would cut 9 times on a 12x12" mat.  After I cut them, I froze them AGAIN, to make removal easier.  The frozen cuts slid right off onto a cookie sheet.

While my cookies were baking, I cut my fondant, using the Flourish Frame and Damask image and the shadow on the cart at the same size as the cookies.  "Glue" together with whatever you use, and VOILA!

Trust me, they taste as good as they look :)

Stay tuned!  I have more goodies coming soon!