Mother

I truly had a wonderful day of scrapping yesterday!  I had so much fun seeing what the challenges were and participating in many of them.  I showed you a couple, but you would have been on overload had I shared them all!  On thing that Stacy Julian said in her opening video for the Big Picture Classes Creative Crop was that scrapbooking is "fantabulous memory-making coolness."  Don't you agree?  Gosh, I love all that I have learned from her!

The last project I made yesterday was actually a Mother's Day gift for my mother.  I had the pieces out all day, and I just kept thinking about how I wanted to put it together.  This is what I came up with...

I purchased this shadow box frame at Michael's a couple of years ago.  It has a brown tone to it, so I knew I wanted to use Buzz & Bumble paper.  I cut two sheets of flowers from the Artiste cartridge, and sponged them with yummy creme brulee ink before I rolled them.  Once I had them on the frame, I really had fun adding this and that - butterflies (from the Artiste and Art Philosophy), cocoa buttons, trinket pins, bling gems, dark chocolate striped grosgrain, and some little wooden bees.  I like the way it turned out, so I hope my mother likes it!

This is going into a few challenges:

• Cut it Up - Mother's Day
• StuckOnUSketches Die-cut Challenge -  The word Mother
• Pile it On - April Showers Bring May Flowers

Thanks for stopping by today, and I hope you have a most blessed Sunday!

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Stamp of the Month - Pinwheel

When I was a little girl, we always had pinwheels at birthday parties.  I'll tell you, it was hours of fun, wasn't it?  Simple fun  - and that's why I like this month's stamp of the month simply called Pinwheel.  I'll be showing you many examples of ways to use this set this month, but I wanted to show you a good use for a boy card first.

This is also the card that I sent to my downline for completing the April challenge I sent their way.  I had such fun creating these cards for them!

This is a tent topper card using Later Sk8r paper packet with a few embellishments.  I cut the circles and scalloped borders with the Art Philosophy cartridge, and I cut the pinwheels with the Artiste.

T
he Stamp of the Month is always just $5 with a $50 purchase.  I think you are going to love having this one in your collection!

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Sole Therapy

I have been working on a layout for a few days now.  I had the photo sitting out in my office for several days, and I just kept sitting back and thinking about the memories in this photo. After 23 years of scrapbooking, I've come to a place where I really want to think about the memory of the photo and scrapbook it accordingly.  I am in no way, shape, or form a power scrapbooker.  It's just so much more fulfilling for me to create the feeling along with the page.  I saw an awesome sketch at Sketchabilities that I wanted to work with, so I had the base of the page done with the photo on, but then I needed to think of a good title so that I could go about my embellishing.

The title was inspired by my husband.  I asked him what his feelings were when we were standing in the sand  on a Grenada beach, and his first word was therapeutic.  Perfect!  Don't ever be afraid to ask the other people involved in the photo what their feelings were because that's important to the story-telling, too.

Items used for this page that can be found on my website:

• X7168B  Surf's Up Paper Packet
• Z1841  Surf's Up Assortment
• Z1837  Wooden Mini Medley Accents
• Z1844  Wooden Trinket Shapes
• Z1753  Brown & Tan Sparkles
• Z1081  Colonial White Waxy Flax
• Z1701  Neutral Baker's Twine
• Z1686  Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge (Banners, Scalloped Border, Scalloped Circle)
• Z1790  Artiste Cricut Cartridge (alphabet)

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Thanks

I found a most intriguing sketch over at Cardabilities:

With this kind of elegant design, my mind went right to Florentine.

Banners and clusters of followers and gems - what could be better?  I used the Art Philosophy cartridge to cut the card base, banners, flowers and leaves.  Those are Mocha Gems (my all-time favorite) hidden amongst the flowers and on the banner.The light yellow flower in the middle is from the Bouquet Assortment.

I know it's a busy time of the year, but take a few minutes to make something pretty today.  It's good for your soul!

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It is Christmas in the Heart

I am still working on my Christmas cards.  I keep telling my husband that I may have to send some New Year's card this year!  I don't know about you, but this year Christmas came really, really fast for me!  So I sought out some fun challenges and went about making another Christmas card.

What could be better than red and green for me to work with for a Christmas card?  And that exactly what Dynamic Duos, Pause Dream Enjoy, and CWC Cricut challenges wanted.

And then I found this GREAT sketch at Heart 2 Heart that is wide open for possibility!  

So here is what I came up with:

I decided to use some long retired Mistletoe scraps to make this card.  I love the look of vintage snowflakes in the red paper.  This is one of our diecut cards, and I love them because that flap is fun to work with!  I cut the snowflakes with the Art Philosophy cartridge, and I popped the middle one up to add some good dimension.  If you look closely, I put some bitty green sparkles around the snowflakes.  The sentiment is from the Christmas Card Chatter stamp set, and it's my favorite sentiment from that set.  But my favorite part of this card is the layered ribbon.  It is colonial white organdy and crocheted ribbon, and I will admit that I have been hoarding both of these for almost 3 years.  I've used them sparingly here and there because they are my favorite ribbons of all time - especially when they are layered.  The ribbon slide works well with the crocheted ribbon.

With all the snowflakes, this will also go into the snowflake challenge at Eclectic Ellapu.  

How is your holiday season going?  I'd love to hear about it!  I've already told you that I think time is going way too quickly.  I have so many ideas for classes and personal artwork, and I really need 36 hours in a day to implement all of them!  Thanks for stopping to visit today!

Relax...With a Sweet Sunday Sketch

I have had T.I.M.E. in my scrap room this weekend, and that has made me a very happy camper.  I was able to get my December club pages done which I'll show another day, and I was able to sit down and look through some sketches.  I really like the one over at Sweet Sunday, so I grabbed some Victory scraps and got to work.

I so seldom make a masculine card, and my card rack is getting very empty.  My customers pick up cards when they come to a class, so I am going to be working on adding some cards this week.  The stamp set you see with the trees is A Journey.  It's one of our $6.95 sets, and it's great for cards and pages. The window is an Art Philosophy cut - so fun!  I added a little sentiment from a long retired set (Outdoor Thoughts), and some embellishment to finish the card.

I hope this finds you well - thanks so much for stopping by to visit!!

Cut it Up Challenge #5

What a wonderful month of gratitude!  With that thought in mind, at Cut it Up, we'd like to see you make a thank you card .  Of course, don't forget to use a die-cut!

I am all about using up my scraps, so I grabbed these Echo Park Times & Seasons scraps.  I finished off this card by making some rolled flowers from the Art Philosophy cartridge.  The vintage crocheted ribbon pairs very nicely with the flowers.

The random winner of this challenge will receive the Wild Horses stamp set from Mark's Finest.  Be sure to play along!!

Cut it Up #3

For this challenge at Cut It Up, we'd like you to make any paper project in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  Remember to use a die cut on your project!

I wanted to put a lot of pretty detail into this card.  Of course that included flowers, bling, buttons, and several types of ribbons.  I cut the breast cancer ribbon with the Slice Think Pink card.  The other die cuts - border, flowers, and banners - are from the Art Philosophy cartridge.

We would love to see you play along with us!  There's a wonderful "pink" prize package for this challenge.   I look forward to seeing what you create!

I am also entering this into the Link Up For Pink challenge.

Dream Big

I am taking part in the Big Idea Festival over at Big Picture Classes.  For 14 days, there are inspiring videos to watch from some of the most creative minds in the scrapbooking industry.  I am so thoroughly enjoying these challenges and the thought process behind them.  I think every once in awhile it's good to be reminded why we scrapbook, and this series is definitely helping me remember!

The challenge from Courtney Walsh for Day #3 was to focus on dreams.

My layout is done completely without photos, and I enjoyed completely this focusing on the imagery of the dream and the story behind my dream.

I was gifted with some Bo Bunny Weekend Market paper some time ago, so I used this opportunity to pull it out and create.

The Cricut Artiste and Cricut Art Philosophy did most of the work for me, and all I needed to do was bring it together.

This is an unusual layout for me - and not one that I accustomed to creating.  But I think I will really like looking back on this layouts and reminding myself of this dream that makes me very, very happy!

Heart Ornament

I am going to preface this post by saying that I wish I had better pictures of this ornament!  I had a Gathering last evening, and I made this for my Hostess.  She loves hearts, and I knew I had to do something with hearts for her.

To make this, I cut twelve 4" hearts with the Art Philosophy cartridge.  I folded six of the hearts with the blush pattern out and the other six with the floral pattern out.  I simply kept adhering them together until I had the heart ornament.  With a needle, I weaved the blush ribbon through the center and knotted the end.  I added a little grey wool baker's twine, a couple of doilies from the Bohemian Assortment, and some pink sparkles.  She loved it, and I'm so glad!

I have to share that I think CTMH has the best Hostess program and specials around!  Last night I was putting the orders in for this Gathering, and realized all the free products that were being given away!  With this Stampaganza special, CTMH gave away $158 in stamps, my hostess received $80 in rewards, and with our half-price program, she was able to get the Cricut Collection half-price!  I love that about CTMH.  They certainly make sure that the Hostess and her guests are rewarded generously!

I hope you've all had a crafty and blessed week!

Life is a Journey

I feel like I've been a very spoiled leader of the Rose Blossom team this week.  I showed you the banner that Sara gave me on Sunday, and now I have a card to show you that Marg gave me.  ( I took this lovely photo right from Marg's blog.)  She is fabulous blogger, so please stop by and visit her!  You will learn a lot from her awesome posts!

Isn't this so wonderful?  She cut the card base and tag using the Art Philosophy cartridge, and then she stamped with A Journey stamp set.  I love the simplicity and design of this card.  It is a keeper for my card box!!  Thank you so much, Marg!!

Make and Take

I have two Gatherings this week, so I decided to make the same make and take for both.  I used the Art Philosophy cartridge to show off what it can do!

Such a great box and so easy to decorate any way you'd like!  I can hardly wait to share all the fun things about the Cricut collection!

Soar

I was supposed to spend the day at 12-hour crop today, but something came up in our house and I wasn't able to leave.  Cars can be very frustrating when they end up in the shop!  So I decided that I would still spend that much time in my craft room, and I've been doing just that.  I've got piles of layouts that need to go into albums so I started sorting for that project.  But I also wanted to make my team Stamp of the Month cards for July.  Those that are participating in a challenge will be receiving this card form me next week.

I wish I could tell you where to find this pattern.  I received a card with these cuts several years ago, and I made a pattern from the card and have been using the pattern periodically.  So let me tell you what I did.

• Start with a 5-1/2x11 piece of cardstock
• Measuring 1" from the long edge and make a cut from the 1" mark to the 6-1/2" mark.  Do that on both long edges.  I will tell you that the handiest tool on the block for measuring this way is the CTMH clear ruler. Do you see the + sign on the ruler?  Those are 1" marks, so it was easy to line up the ruler to the edge of the paper and use my craft knife to make the cut while still being able to use the ruler.

  

• Next score from the edge to cut at 1", 2", and 6-1/2" on both sides.  Score in the center of the cuts at 5-1/2".

From there, you can decorate as you'd like!  This card looks very different from the original, so the sky is the  limit.   I've used Lucy paper with matching embellishments.  I cut the butterfly and layer using the Art Philosophy cartridge.  To make it form, I gave it a thin layer of clear paint and then shaped the wings with a pencil.  Now, it's time to get back to creating in this very messy craft room of mine!

Frosted Designs is having a challenge to create your own embellishments, and that is just what I did with the butterfly, so I will enter this in that challenge.

The Best Thing About Life

I love to take out my Florentine paper.  It's so pretty, soft, and vintage-y feeling.  So when I feel like creating for absolutely no other reason than to feed my crafting soul, I pull out Florentine.  This is a 7" piece cut from the Art Philosophy cartridge.  In my "extras" basket, I found all the pieces necessary so it came together relatively quickly.  Everything used can be found on my website.

I hope you are having a fabulous Sunday!  Jerry and I just returned from a week of vacation, and we are still so relaxed!  We were on a lake in northern MN, and there is nothing quite like falling asleep to the gentle waves and call of the loons.  Thanks for visiting and have a blessed day!

Notes

There are just two more days to get your Dotty for You paper packet!  Place a $35 order and get your Dotty for just $5!  I have been working with this paper since the middle of April in order to show you all the wonderful things that can be done with it.  Today, I am bringing you a clipboard that I made ~

I can't remember where I got this clipboard.  I just know that it was super cheap, and I knew that it would make a fun decoration.  The mats, letters, scalloped borders, and flowers were all cut with the Art Philosophy cartridge.  Boy does that make projects fun and easy!  I added a little embellishment, and it was done in less than an hour.  I love it!

I'll be putting this in the Dots & Stripes challenge over at Heart 2 Heart.

ScrapFit Workout #67

At ScrapFIT, we are taking the doilies off of our dressers and putting them on paper.  Doilies are back and put to good use on our scrapbook layouts and paper crafts.  Show use fun and unique way to use a doily!  It can be a pre-made or home made doily. Along with my example, please check out what the other design team members have to show you this week.

For this artwork, I created a doily using the Art Philosophy cartridge.  In fact, every bit of this banner was cut with the AP cartridge, and I used the Dotty for You paper (do you have yours yet?).


Our sponsor for this challenge is Simply Paper Dusty Attic.  You can find their Etsy store HERE.  Why not play along?  I'd love to see what you do with a doily!

Pemberley Heart Bag

I wanted to share the project that I've done as a Make and Take at my last few Gatherings.  Guests have had so much fun with this!

This is one of the many 3-D items that can be cut with the Art Philosophy cartridge.  It is the perfect size for a gift card or to adhere to a package.  When I've used these for packages, I tuck some chocolate inside.  The flower is one of the 3-D flowers, and I've stamped two flowers from A Blossom.  Such a great stamp set and only $6.95:

I hope you're having a good weekend!

Dream

Happy Easter to all of you!  What a blessed day to remember that we live in grace, love, and mercy because of the sacrifice made for us.  I hope you and your family had a wonderful day!

After dinner today, I sat down to make a banner with the Dotty for You collection. (I just couldn't get a clear picture today, so I am so sorry for the poor clarity.)

You'll see this exact banner on page 31 of your Idea Book.  Instead of Lucy, I used Dotty for You paper, but I cut everything the same size.  I chose to use the sweet leaf, creme brulee, and lagoon dots.  All of the banner pieces, letters, circles, flowers, and butterflies were cut with the Art Philosophy cartridge and then adhered to the My Creations Mini Banner.  I tied the banner together with white grosgrain, and I added some blue gems to finish this off. What a cute decoration for my craft room!

Card Box

It's a beautifully sunny day here in Minnesota, so I wanted to create something equally as sunny.  I took out some Dotty for You paper and a My Creations recipe/photo box.  I have been needing a place to store my thank you cards, so this is what I came up with.

I love that there are so many patterns in this Dotty for You packet.  It can be bright and sunny like this when a little ribbon, flowers, and sparkles are added.  I cut the letters and flowers using the Art Philosophy cartridge.  This is a pretty fast and easy project!

Dots and More Dots!

A friend gifted me with some lovely paper from Echo Park, so I put together a couple of cards.  Of course, I put my Art Philosophy cartridge to work!

I love flowers, and I so love making flowers with the AP cartridge!  If I could, I would roll flowers for every single project - LOL!!  Let me give you a little tip.  When you sit down to roll these flowers, have a bottle of Liquid Glass handy.

This is such an affordable product and has so many uses!  It gives "glassy" dimension to your images, makes beautiful water splashes, raindrops, and dew drops, and it is the best adhesive I've ever used.  When people look over the projects I've made, they can't believe how firm the rolled are.  That is Liquid Glass!

Okie-dokie, I cut the card bases, layers, and flowers from the AP cartridge.  On the yellow card, I've used Honey Mini Medleys (does this card remind you of sunshine?!)  On the pink card, I used some discounted pink blush ribbon that I've been hoarding (do my CTMH friends remember this?) and a blush ribbon slide.  For both cards, I've used some rub-ons for sentiments and I created a scalloped border using my corner rounder.  You can cut a scalloped border with your Art Philosophy cartridge, too!

It's Sunday, and it's going to be 80 degrees again here in the Twin Cities of Minnesota!  It is unseasonably warm, and it's just beautiful!  I've got lilies, yarrow, and catmint (does it surprise you that I have this?  Sassy and the neighbor cats LOVE this!) popping out of the ground, so I will be tending to them a little today.  I don't cut my flowers down in the fall rather choosing to leave the dried for protection.  Then I'll be back in my craft room creating more cards and designing some classes.  Originally, I was going to take a day off with Jerry, but he's got a terrible spring cold.  So I am steering clear of my hubby, spraying a lot of Lysol, and letting him get the rest he needs!  I spent a greater portion of the day running errands with Shane yesterday, but he is working today, so I have plenty of time to get some of my own things done.  I planned our summer vacation last night, and I am thrilled as to where we are going!  We will be heading up to Bemidji (northern Minnesota) in June.  We've stayed at this resort before, and we've chosen the same little cottage that is about 6 steps from the lake.  Bemidji State Park has the most beautiful bog walk, and if we are lucky we'll catch a glimpse of the elusive Lady Slipper (Minnesota's state flower).  We'll also visit Itasca State Park again.  This park is so rich with Minnesota heritage!  And of course, we'll head to Forestedge Winery where they make wine with the fruits of Minnesota.  In between, Jerry will get a lot of fishing in, and I'll get to spend some time sun bathing in the boat.  Sounds like an ideal vacation to me!

Off to catch up on a little blog reading to see what's up in your lives!