Thursday, September 29, 2011

Disney Not So Scary Autograph Book

I'M GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!!!
Tonight my daughter and I will be getting on a plane and heading to Orlando. We will be spending tomorrow at Disney World and in the evening we will transform ourselves into Rapunzel (my daughter) and Belle (me) for the Not So Scary Halloween Party. The best part of this whole adventure:

MY DAUGHTER STILL HAS NO IDEA! 

I cannot believe I have pulled this trip off without telling her. I am so excited and have not been able to tell her why for the last 4 months. I have been shopping for fun things for the trip; including a Rapunzel t-shirt that we are going to ask Rapunzel to sign with a fabric marker and new princess pajamas (featuring Rapunzel and Belle).  
Simple 4x6 blank album from Hobby Lobby.
(Easy to work with and change the ribbon if you want)
We were at Disney (for her first trip) in June of 2010 and we got many autographs than, but I have heard you can get many characters that are not normally out during the Halloween Party so I made her a special autograph book for the occasion. There is only one simple Mickey Ear Cricut cut for the cover and the rest is all stickers I bought. My favorites are the EK Success Haunted House Mickey ones on the inside cover page. I am looking forward to getting these pages filled while we trick or treat through the Magic Kingdom.
I can not wait to share this trip with my daughter and I hopefully will get photos of the big reveal to share with you when we get home. Right after I made plans for the trip I made this Disney Surprise Page to use for the surprise photos...hopefully they turn out OK! Thanks for visiting. 

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Wedding Mini-Fold Album

Did anyone else pick up the Create: Mini Albums magazine by Scrapbook Trends? I looked at it in the store and had to buy it.  I am trying to make some fun mini-albums for gifts and wanted the inspiration. One of the projects that stuck out as something I could try right away (without a lot of planning) was made by Grace Tolman from In Her Shoes (this is not a link to the project just the designer). It is the simple folding album on page 72 of the magazine.

I wanted to experiment with this idea before I went crazy making them for people (thinking holiday cards/picture gifts). I went looking through my stack of odds & ends pictures and grabbed some of my wedding proofs to play with. I followed the directions on the page that basic say to  cut a sheet of 12x12 card stock in half, fold each half into 4x6 sections, gluing one section together to create the fold out idea. Than you are off and running to decorate and play.

I have not used my Fancy Frame cartridge yet and I thought it would be a fun way to highlight a few photos I selected so I picked out a few cuts and put them on my Gypsy. I selected more than I needed because I was not sure on sizing and shape.
I than had to cut the photos to fit into the frames I made...NOT EASY. I measured and cut for the square frames and got super lucky for the oval that my Creative Memories oval cutter worked out. I used Zig 2 Way Glue to glue the frames onto the photos.
When it came time to put it all together I used my ATG to place the photos and Scotch's Scrapbookers Glue for the fancy edges. Than I added a few other simple things for this basic practice album. A few gem brads (originally thinking I could close the album this way, but did not look right), and some stamps using silver ink. Again simple, but fun. It is nto my favorite project in the world, but as far as practice goes it works and my hubby thought it was super sweet!

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Clothesline Layout

I haven't done any new scrapbooking in a while and today I got out some photos and created a simple little layout.
When my daughter's Godmother found out she was going to have a girl we wanted to have a little celebration to get her ready (she already had 2 wonderful boys) for her little darling. We had a small shower with close friends and family and it was just a fun afternoon.
Her aunt had bought her all these adorable outfits for the new baby and attached them to a clothesline that just seemed to keep going and going when she pulled them out of the bag. I took that as my inspiration and used the cute clothesline from Wall Decor & More to create one for the top of this simple layout. I attached it using small little brads after punching holes with a 1/4 punch by Fiskars.
I also cut out the "sweet & precious" cut to add to my page. I just wanted a simple layout so I was happy with the way it turned out.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Simply Charmed: Lunch Box Cards

I am making lunch box cards whenever I have time so that i have a stash of them to use during the school year. I try and use one a week, but some weeks get more (or I forget..oops). having them o hand really helps. I usually pick a cart and go from there. Today's cart: Simply Charmed - which is perfect fr this type of card!

A fun sunshine with matching shades & a polka dot embossed card:
A sweet ice cream cone that says I Love You:
And for when the weather starts turning (brr):
I hope everyone has had a great week and enjoys a wonderful weekend as well. My daughter is going to her grandparents for a sleepover so maybe hubby and I can have a date night and I plan on getting all the last minute touches for the surprise Disney trip next week in order.  Enjoy yourselves and thanks for stopping by.


Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Laminate Craft Room Sign

Now that I finally used my YourStory machine I want to laminate things all the time. The other day I was putting things in my craft space away and found the Word Collage I made about Scrapbooking and knew I should try it out on that.
It was so easy to do and it look great hanging up on my wall in my room now. You turn the YourStory on, allow it to heat and when it is ready slowly push it through...awesome and quick and that is all. I am super happy I stocked up on the laminating pouches when they were on sale a while back, cause now I want to laminate everything (HA!) The sign is now hanging on my wall above my Expression and E2.

I added another wonderful sign I bought at one of my favorites stores awhile back and had not hung up yet. It was made by Charla at Name Portraits. My family has bought so many of name portraits for different reasons, but the store we used to buy them at is now closed, but I had the web address so i am sharing it. I do not know what to say except I love this sign. If you can't see in the photo it reads:

"Fond memory brings the light of other days around me. Scrapbooking preserves those days forever in picture, art and word."


Monday, September 19, 2011

What am I working on for Halloween?

So much great inspiration is out there and one idea that I have fallen in love with are these great boxes that hold little pocket sized anti-bacterial bottles. During a recent back-to-school blog hop, TX Scrapper Mom made these totally cute ones for teacher gifts and because she is so wonderful she linked to Pink Buckaroo Designs wonderful tutorial for making them. Both projects are just awesome (YOU MUST LINK TO SEE WHAT I MEAN  SOOOO...COOL!) and I had to try it out.
I went right over to my local Bath & Body Works and scooped up a bunch of the fun Halloween PocketBac bottles (on sale 8 for $5 right now) and am so going to get these made in time to give as teacher gifts (my daughters teachers and my coworkers)!

I want to make full use of the DCWV Ghosts and Goblins stack I bought as well as the wonderful CTMH stamps I got when I ordered the Art Philosophy set.
So far I have made a test run and a second one with just the basic Halloween vision I am going for....Here is my sneak peak:
I do not have an oval punch like the tutorial suggests so i used my Creative Memories Square punch (small size) to make the opening. I have a long way to go to add on the right Cricut Cuts and more fun details, but I have got the hang of making the boxes now and I will share more soon. These are super fun and I encourage you to take a look at both links to try them out yourself. Check back soon for my final results.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Hello Kitty Greetings: Lunch Box Cards

My daughter started full day Kindergarten this year and I try to put notes into her lunch box often. She likes when I make them using the Cricut, so I decided to make some using one of her favorite cartridges: Hello Kitty Greetings. I made 4 little lunch box sized cards using this cart.

First, a butterfly with some Cotton Candy Pink wings (Stickles!!) and blinged out antennae.
Next, A stack of books to encourage staying focused in school.
Finally, 2 cute Hello Kitty cards for special days.
 As always I am reminded of the great tricks I have learned over my crafting time and blog hopping. I use my Gypsy to layout everything the right size and cut all the pieces for each card at once.
Also, a tip I sometimes forget to use: keeping all those little pieces for your layers on the mat until you are ready to glue them on.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. I am posting these fun lunch box cards to the Patches of Pink Thursday Link-up Party as I get great ideas form that link-up and like to share mine. Also, I posted it to the CAS-ual Fridays Mini-card challenge. Cards had to be smaller than 4x4! More lunch box cards using Simply Charmed coming later this week.

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Teacher Thanks Bag

A few weeks ago, at the start of the school year I made my daughter a bag for a little
first day of Kindergarten gift we bought her. I actually started out in an entirely different direction before I changed my mind and used the pencil and paper idea instead.

I had already glued down this fun apple paper from the DCWV Grade School Stack before the switch and it was just sitting in my craft room so...

 I just added a simple white apple and the red "thanks" letters using Makin' the Grade to jazz it up for a gift I can send to her teachers later in the year. I felt it was a little plain so I used my Stickles to add some gold shimmer around the apple. Now I do not feel like I wasted a gift bag and got a simple project completed.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Just a Note Cards

I have been working on some cards for Operation Write Home. Recently I made some using my Art Philosophy Cartridge and stamps and had some left over layers that I did not use. I glued those down as a top layer around a simple "just a note" stamp to piece together these cards.
I needed something a little extra to make the card look more creative so I punched the holes in my red and white layer and glued in ribbon pieces (I did not go all the way through the back because I only had a small amount of this ribbon left in my stash). Next I layered them on the card before hiding the ribbon pieces with a solid red.
I wanted to have one more little touch on these cards so I stamped an "xoxo" from Stampabilities onto the inside blank writing space.

I am up to 14 cards in my collection (almost half way to my goal of 30 by the end of this spending freeze.) I am having fun making cards knowing they will be used for something good.
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I am posting this as my project for theMade It Myself Mondays Link Up party.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

After School Routine

My daughter, like many children, works best when a routine is set in front of her and followed. Now that Kindergarten has started her routine has been completely changed and there has been a less than great change in behavior. So...the new routine is now made and ready to be followed. She goes to my mother-in-laws after school, but there my be times when someone else is watching her before I get home from work so I made this sign and laminated it with my YourStory so it can be passed to the correct person.

First, I made a quick sketch of what I wanted and searched for all my cuts. I ended up using 7 different cartridges to get everything I wanted for this routine chart. I cut all the letters using Birthday Cakes and did them in all black. Next, I selected my cuts for the fun images and the simple colored circles from George and Basic Shapes for my numbers. Using the wonderful wonderful Gypsy, I was able to get them all on one 12x12 mat. I love when I can get all my cuts done this way. Didn't my mat look pretty with all those colors on it?
I put the whole chart together with repositional adhesive seeing as it would be laminated and just needed to stay put for the short time before that. I was pretty happy once I got all the letters and images put together..Lots of small pieces.
The school busses are from My Community
The apple is from the Disney Happily Ever After cart and the pretzel is off Smiley Cards, as is the Shhh.
The TV set is from Mickey and Friends and the box of crayons is from one of my favorites: Simply Charmed.

I added some of the little details of the routine in back pen and after typing them out I put some details about the routine and her behavior consequences on the back. I am pleased with it and she thought it was a fun way to remember her schedule.  Hope everyone with children is settling into their school year. I am adding this to The Paper Variety:Favorite Paper crafting company challenge. My favorite paper crafting company is Provo Craft and all things Cricut.