Baby Shower Album

In lightening speed, I created this baby shower album.  It was a very quick turnabout but it was to help a friend out.  I had travel plans and got sick along the way, but all in all, I got it done in the nick of time.  Thanks to the help of my SOC sisters with words of encouragement!  While the album has details, it's not my usual amount of details but I'm still pretty pleased with the outcome.  The new Parents were very excited to receive it so it makes it all worthwhile.


Also, for the shower I created a gift journal and a gift bucket (instead of a gift bag.)  The gift bucket contains an outfit for the new arrival and inside, there is another smaller matching jar with a gift card.  The gift bucket and outfit are both monkey themed.

Altered Journal Cover to include show invite and colors of Mother's sorority

The Album was a 12x12 Recollections brand from Michael's.  We wanted to keep the plastic cover on it so I made an insert to personalize the album.

The first page of the album was borrowed from a sketch in the 2nd edition of the Cricut magazine on page 33.  The original LO was a "DAD" layout and I made it a baby LO!  ;-) 

Daddy is a Kappa.  The colors were chosen to represent his fraternity as well as one of his hobbies.

Mom is always accessorized and is an AKA.  I wanted to make her page extra special.

To add a little extra bling, I added Stickles to the journaling spots and Glimmer Mist to the photo mats.  The Pink Petaloo Flowers were also stained with Glimmer Mist to great the great color combo for this page.  i-Rock gems were also included for a little extra bling.

This page was added to capture the colors of the shower invite.  i-Rock gems were added througout this layout for some visual interest.  Also a metal embellishment was added to page 2.  

Best Wishes page - guests at the shower were ask to complete 3x5 index cards regarding their best wishes for the family.  The edges of the journaling blocks were inked for a little extra pop.

The Sentiment was chalked with blue and green loose powder chalks.  

Second page of the well wishes cards.  The bottom layer was also chalked and heart shaped brads were added.

This page features a ribbon border offset with a Fiskars punch.
I used my Gypsy to make a custom title for the page and used store purchased embellishments to tie it all together.

The train from the New Arrival cartridge was added to include the family surname across a 2-page LO.  The wheels were embellished with brads.  

The tree was flocked using Zig 2 way glue and green flock.  

Cricut markers were used to outline the scalloped shape.
The safety pins were shadowed using Kraft paper.
The So Sweet sentiment was pop-dotted to add some dimension.

New Arrival Monkey on the gift bucket.
I used an Easter gift bucket from Jo Ann's with a green top to create a gift bucket for the new addition.
Within the gift bucket was an outfit and a matching canister with another gift inside.

Various ribbon cut at 5" adorns the handle.

Twine holds together the banner featuring the baby's name.
The grass is cut from Plantin School book.  The paper used to make the grass has a slight pattern.

K& Company flowers.

Thanks for looking!

Project #6: Valentine's Day and Blog Candy

Congratulations!  We have a winner!

I will email you!


Project #6:


February is one of my favorite months.  


Why you might ask?


Well, because it is the birth month of me and my brother!  It's the shortest month of the year, so it's unique.  It's Black History month.  Within the month we have at least 2 recognized holidays, Valentine's Day and President's Day!  I think that's a lot of activity for one small month, don't you?


If you'd like to learn a little more about Valentine's Day, here's an interesting article:
http://www.theholidayspot.com/valentine/history_of_valentine.htm

Thanks to everyone who has stopped by to offer comments and enter for a chance to win some blog candy.
We are in the home stretch and I have to warn ya, it will be a wee bit tougher to enter to win.


So before we get to the rules for this blog candy, let's talk about the projects, some are finished and there is one that I need your help on.


Projects:


The cards below were created using my Design Studio and mostly the Love Struck cartridge.  The rust colored card was created using the hide feature on my Design Studio (I honestly forget what cartridge I used!)  I added various bling such as brads, iRoc gems, 3-D stickers, heart confetti, ink, heart ornaments, ribbon etc to make the cards a bit more exciting.  They are intended to be on the less complicated side because we will be using these to show new scrapbookers how to make cards.


Ok, I need your help - I wanted to make a non-traditional Valentine's Day card. I started out with brown cardstock with a teal and white ribbon.  Then I got stuck.  When applying for the blog candy, please make recommendations as to how I can complete my card.  If you recommend a Cricut cut, please name the cartridge and the cut

This is a paper bag album my friend's daughter gave to me.  It's it adorable?  She is a beautiful young and talented lady!

Need your help, please suggest how I should finish this card.  See notes above!

Blog candy:


For all of this weeks give-a-ways, you MUST be a follower of my blog.  This is a blanket statement for the reminder of the week!  
(It's easy, Google offers a free account.  I believe you can sign in via Yahoo also and some other places.)


In your comments, please let me know how I can complete my brown card.  Please include specific product references, if you can.  Or, specific cartridge and related cut names as well.  Be creative!!!


Also, be sure to include your email address.  I'll need to know how to contact you when you win!!  I will notify the winners by the 30th of the month via email.  They will have 3 days to respond to me with their mailing address.  I want to be sure to get these packages out to you quickly!


To help you get jump started on your Valentine's Day projects, the blog candy is a paper pack from DCWV, rub-on letters from Heidi Grace, some cute heart ornaments and some heart glitter.  

Project #5 and Blog Candy: Baby, It's Cold Outside!

Congratulations!  We have a winner!

I will email you at lauermaa@gmail.com.  


Project #5 and Blog Candy.


I saw inspiration over at the Circut Circle MB's for this project.  I can't remember who posted the card using the snowman so I can't give proper credit (sorry!).  For this project, I wanted to challenge myself to create a fun LO using printed paper, a new Cricut Cartridge, which for me is Winter Frolic, old Cricut Cartridge, Doodlecharms and When It's Cold Outside and my ol' reliable GBS cartridge.  I also wanted to incorporate the Diamond Dust that I used on my Christmas Glass block project.  


Once I got started, this project came together fairly easily and was alot of fun.  I enlisted my Design Studio (prefer it over my Gypsy) to size the snowflakes from When It's Cold Outside and snowman from Doodlecharms and the sentiment from Winter Frolic.  I also used DS to easily create my mats using George and Basic Shapes.  I basted the snowman and snowflakes with glue from my Zig pen (I prefer the chisel tip) and then dusted the Diamond Dust over it to give it a glistening effect. The gems on the snowman are adhered using my iRoc tool.  I glued rhinestones in the center of the snowflakes to give it some bling.  The sentiment is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder and highlighted with chalk from Then Stencil Collection. Volia!!


The Blog Candy:
Do deviate from the Love Theme for just one second - I thought I'd share with you some items to correspond with this project!  For the lucky winner, I am sharing a sample size of the Diamond Dust and a cute winter stamp that was so cute, I bought two for I could share one!  (the stamp is used, but it's in great shape.)


For this give-a-way, please be sure to follow my blog, leave a comment letting me know about your "Cold Outside" layouts or projects.  The way the crazy weather has been, we all probably have more stories to tell than we would like.  If you have a blog, please link it as well.

If we hit 56 followers by this Friday, stay tuned for Cricut Cartridge give-a-ways!

Layout using Cricut Cartridges:  Doodle Charms, Winter Frolic and When It's Cold Outside

Sentiment:  Let it Snow - embossed and chalked then dusted.

My version of Frosty!

I'd rather have paper snow flakes than real ones!

Blog candy:  Sample jar of Diamond Dust and All Bundled Up Stamp (used, but super cute!)

Birthday Card

I had to challenge myself to use some of my Cricut cuts that I've been holding onto.
This card features a Cricut Cut that says "Birthday Blessings" from the George & Basic Shapes cartridge.
I used Stickles to add the bling factor.  The background is lightly embossed with a CB folder.  I added glittery starts and a party hat to make things festive. 

This really isn't one of my favorite or my best cards.  I think my creative mojo was on low the day I made it.  The picture didn't turn out so well.  I'm hoping Santa brings me a new point & click camera for Chrismas. 

Card - Music Notes

This card was inspired by a combination of wanting to create something "musical" and using my supplies on hand as well as scraplifting. I hope you like!

I used the Allegro CuttleBug Folder, Core'dinations paper from their Vintage Collection, the squares were cut from the George & Basic shapes Cricut cartridge (you can't go wrong with George!), the edges of the squares were ink for a bit of dimension, the heart and music note were both cut from the Designer's Calendar cartidge, and the ribbon plus the brad were in my stash of things.

For the current card swap, we are to make 5 of each card.  I'm note sure whether or not I'll enter this one into the card swap.

Card Swap - Hello Cards (Revised)

After toying around with these cards, I thought they did need a little something extra.  But what?  Hmmmm...
Then on my craft table I came across these butterflies from K&Company that I had used on the "Thanks" tags.  The butterflies added just the right bit of pizzazz to the card to dress it up some more.  These combined with the Prima flowers makes me one happy scrapper!  :-)

TFL,

Ms. Scrappy

Card Swap - Hello Cards

In my mind's eye, these cards were to be "Thank you" cards but I found I didn't have what I wanted to pull it off so the cards transformed into "Hello" cards.  I used my Cuttlebug, Cricut and Prima Flowers with jeweled brads for the center.  The paper is from My Mind's Eye.  It is not showing up that well on the photos but the card is embossed with the Cuttlebug "You" folder.

The cards are still a work in progress.  As of last night, I wasn't sure if I was too keen on them, but this morning, I do like them!  lol  I'm trying to decide if I should embellish the front more and whether or not to leave the inside blank.  What do you think?

TFL,

Ms. Scrappy To You!

Tag Swap

I just recently started to participate in swaps over on the Cricut boards. They are lots of fun. The challenge for me is to try new ideas I've learned along the way. This if the first ever Tag Swap that I completed where the tag was purchased and I had to decorate it.

I used the medium white tags by Paper Reflections. We were required to decorate just one side according to a theme. The themes I partcipated in were "Thank you", "Autumn Blessings", "Christmas" and "Birthday".

I inked all of my cards using a variety of basic ink products. I also began playing with Alcohol Inks by Ranger and their Perfect Pearls to create my own Glimmer Mist. (A lesson I learned on You Tube.)
All of my cuts were done on my Cricut Expression, which was a gift from my Hubby a few years ago. (He's the best!)

I'm new to the blogging space but have checked out many other people's wonderful blogs. In my blog, I will attempt to list all of the products I used in my Crafty Creations. This is definitely a work in process!

Thanks so much for stopping by to check out my new blog space! Stay tuned. . more to come!

Peace and Blessings,
Ms. Scrappy To You!

Tag Swap - Happy Birthday
Party Hats:  Jolee's (I believe)
Chalk colors on candles:  The Stencil Company
Highlight on flames:  Glazed Dimensions by The Stencil Company
"Happy Birthday" - Create a Critter cartridge outlined with Cricut marker
Tag: Paper Reflections (medium)
Ink:  variety of ink utilized, including distressing ink by Tim Holtz

Tag Swap - Christmas
Holiday Stickers:  Jolee's
Ink: Tim Holtz distress ink
Tree:  Cricut Cut
Glitter on Tree:  Stickles
Noel:  Pearl Lustre embossing powder

Tag Swap - Thank you
Small Flowers:  Flora Doodles
Large Flowers:  K & Company
Butterfly:  K & Company
"Thanks" - Mini Monograms cartridge
Tag:  Paper Reflections (medium)
(Technically, these aren't a part of the current tag swap)

Tag Swap - Autumn Blessings
"Thanks" - George and Basic Shapes Cartridge
Frame:  Stretch Your Imagination
Inks:  4 different inks used including TIm Holtz' distressing ink
Glitter on frame:  Stickles
Glitter of Leaves:  Glitter glue
Glimmer mist used on tag:  Homemade combination of Alcohol Inks and Perfect Pearls
Fabric Leave:  maker unknown