Last Minute Gifts

Merry Christmas everyone! If you are like me, you are still frantically making, buying, and wrapping presents. My UPS guy just delivered a few more packages! AAHHH! Here is a quick gift idea for those of you who need something special for someone but do not have a lot of time. They are candles and you can find out how to decorate them at Heidi Swapp's blog. I made several of these and forgot to take pictures but, believe me, they turned out great. Give them a try!

Rudolph

Christmas cards are one of my very things about the holiday season! I love sending them and I love getting them in the mail. It makes me feel so close to everyone, even when they are far away. This year, I decided to make a circle card so I used my Cricut Design Studio and made a circle card by welding two circles together. Then I cut all of these out and used a scalloped circle on the Storybook cartridge. Finally, I cut out several reindeer using Christmas Cheer. To make them just like Rudolph, I used some red stickles on the nose and gold and silver stickles on their collars. They make me smile and I hope they make you smile too!

Mysteries of Me!

Last month, I took an online class with Elizabeth Kartchner. She is an awesome scrapper who has so many great ideas to share. The class was called, "Mysteries of Me." We had to take a vintage book and cut a huge hole out of the middle of it to make a box. I chose Islands in the Stream by Ernest Hemingway. It was one of my Papo's old books. I hope he was not too mad at me, but it still smelled like him so it made me feel really nostalgic. I used rub ons for the cover and added a flower with a key hole. Then we made this little tag book out of cardstock, felt, and tags. The class also came with tickets that expressed different things. First, we had to dye the tags and sew pockets with cardstock and our sewing machine. We then had to choose a picture to match the ticket and journal about each thing. It was hard for me to write some things down but it was such a good way to remember how I am feeling right now about my life and how I feel about the people in it. (Sorry some of the pics are sideways, not sure why they did this, but I wanted to show them.) So turn your head and get inspired to journal about your life. Check out Elizabeth's blog for lots of inspiration.

I am thankful for . . .

I recently asked my students to finish this sentence: I am thankful for . . . They wrote down their answers on whiteboards and I took their pictures and put together a slideshow for our class webpage. You would be happy to know that most of them said their family and friends, although I think Pokemon and Spongebob snuck in there too! (A few even said they were thankful for me!)

Last night, it was my turn to host Bunco for the year. Along with serving dinner, we have to have a couple of gifts for prizes. Most of the ladies love my scrapbooking so I made these two books as prizes. The square one was a chipboard accordion book that I covered with paper from The Paper Studio from Hobby Lobby. It was so easy to adhere using Beacon's 3 in 1 Craft Glue. (You can find it locally here at Crop Girls.) Then I used stickers from K & Company called Autumn Days that I found at Target. They only had one package or I would have bought them all. The turkey on the front was from Animal Kingdom using my Cricut. The second book was a taller accordion album that I covered with the same paper but then I used lots of leaf stickers from Cathy B. I love the fall colors, especially since we do not see those colors here in the Valley of the Sun. (It was still in the 90s last week.) To cover this book, I cut a few hearts out of George, another Cricut cartridge. I think Vickie and Linda were very happy with their prizes. I hope they fill them with things they are thankful for this year and always.

So Hard to be a Scrapper

Don't you just love creative friends? I do, but then the pressure is on. They give you something creative and cute or they help you out and you want to thank them. You want to give them a thank you card but it has to be so cute because they are creative too and you remember the cute cards they have given you. Oh the stress we scrappers cause ourselves! It is a great dilemna to have though! Last week, I was pleasantly surprised by a Halloween treat from a former student whose grandmother makes the cutest cards. Then, I got some help in my classroom from two wonderful mothers who helped make 26 caramel apples for some very hungry and excited third graders. (They are both crafty too!) What to do?! Of course, I used the Cricut and cut out some one and a half inch ovals out of orange cardstock. I stamped a leaf and Give Thanks from a Will N. Way set I had. The ink is Color Box Chalk in Chestnut Roan. I then took one oval as the base and folded the other three ovals in half and glued them together to make them stand out. To give the card some color, I used some chalk on the leaf and quote and used some green fibers before I glued on the pumpkin. Now I hope I lived up to the high expectations - at least until next time! Thank a fellow creative one today!

Happy Birthday Mandy!

It is not only days before Halloween, but it is also my good friend Mandy's birthday. Mandy loves Halloween. Seriously loves it! She has at least 20 totes of decorations in her garage and gets all giddy every time she talks about it. Well, today is a day to celebrate Mandy so I made her this cute skull card. Those two words really do not go together but they fit Mandy perfectly. I used Indie Art to cut out the skull and cross bones. Then I tied a cute pink bow to it. Then I used some bling in the middle of the cross bones (what else!) and I stamped Party Time to the bottom with some Versamark Ink and used some glitter from Doodlebug Design. Every year, I have to try and outdo what Mandy would do for me because she is super creative. You should see what she does for her sons' birthday party. It is amazing! Happy Birthday my friend!

Published

As a scrapbooker, I get in a rut but I am also nervous to leave my comfort zone. What if I mess up? What if it does not look right? (I always tell my students, "No What ifs?") I should take my own advice. So, my bff Jamie was published in a magazine for teachers. Pretty impressive! They came to his school and interviewed him. When he gave me my copy, he slyly hinted that it would be great if I could do something with it so he could showcase it in his house. "Like what>" I asked him. He said, "Oh I trust you." No pressure!! Well, I had no idea what I was doing but I bought a shadow box at Michael's that had velcro along the back. Then I photocopied the article and put the original magazine in a page protector. I velcroed the page protector in the box in case he ever wants to take the magazine out. Then I bound all of the pages together with a brad and velcroed them to the board. Now, when someone looks at it, I wanted them to see his quotes and parts of the article so I copied those and backed them with some blue paper. Yes, those pieces are velcroed too. Finally, it just needed something. I was going to make some blue butteflies to match the cover but I thought that was too much so I just added some ribbon. All done! He gets it this Friday so I am hoping for his approval. He certainly got mine!

Gift Cards

Happy Columbus Day! Have you realized that Christmas is just right around the corner? Scary!! Well - last week was my Aunt Lil's birthday and I bought her a gift card but I did not want to put a gift card in a card. Kind of boring so I put a gift card in an Altoid tin. I covered the tin with paper on the top and bottom and around the edge. To cover the top and bottom, I used a liquid adhesive and to cover the sides I used tacky tape. Then I cut out flowers of different colors and sizes to attach to the top. I used a foam tape to add some dimension to each flower. I also cut out some hearts that I used as leaves. This is all from the George Cricut cartridge. Finally, I printed a little birthday saying to attach to the inside of the lid. Now she has a box she can keep. Can't you just see the possibilities with this? Start saving those tins. Enjoy your day!

Scrap Pink

Happy Scrap Pink Day! This is a day to celebrate scrapbooking and donating to a great cause. Many scrappers all over the country are raising money today to donate to breast cancer research. If you get a chance, head to your local scrapbook store and see what wonderful things they have going on today. I just got home from Crop Girls here in Peoria and made some neat make and takes. All of the procedes will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Last weekend was Jack and Jake's 4th birthday party. They are like nephews to me - they even call me Aunt Holly and we are grateful to be friends with their parents. (Sometimes they even call me "Not the Mama Holly" because their mom is named Hollie too!) Anyways, they were having a train birthday party and I wanted to do something cute for them but the teacher in me is always in there so I made them these counting books. I used two blank albums from Maya Road and covered them both with paper from Three Bugs in a Rug. (I bought all of this at Crop Girls!) Then I cut out trains, police cars, fire engines, and ambulances from the new Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge from Cricut. I cut out numbers from the Mickey Font that I then laminted and stuck velcro to. One book is a counting book for trains that goes from 1- 10 and the other one is the rest of the vehicles and it goes from 10 -1. The boys can count the number of cars and stick on the matching number. I love how they both turned out and I hope the boys have lots of fun with them. The characters on the covers were also made using the Everyday Paper Dolls. Don't worry boys, I will not test you on this. Not yet!!

Start Spreadin' the News

Does the title remind you of anything? I instantly start singing, "New York, New York." My sister Joy has been to New York several times and has taken many pictures of one of her favorite cities. She recently painted her office/craft room a green color and wanted me to add some New York flair with vinyl. We looked at her pictures and decided to do titles that represented the many places she went to on her trips. We used a matte black vinyl along with several Cricut cartridges. For the words, we used Hannah Montana and the Daddy's Girl font. I love this font! Then we decided it needed something more so we cut out the arrows and the Subway sign from Going Places. Once she gets all of her pictures hung, I think it will be a great place for her to remember good times.

And, don't forget! Christmas is just a few months away. If you are looking for some personalized gifts, let me know what I can make for you!!

Back to School!

With school starting again, my creativity has come to a standstill. Well - at least my scrapbooking creativity. My "free time" is being spent grading papers and writing lesson plans. Oh well, such is life. (Althought I did hang up some vinyl in my classroom that I will post soon.) For all of you faithful bloggers, here is a card I made a few months ago. The picture is not so great - what was I thinking, but I love the card. I have to admit, I scraplifted this card. Usually, I do not do a lot with Oriental inspired themes but I love this set of acrylic stamps from Hero Arts. They are called "Four Dolls" and are so cute to play with. I stamped the doll and the fan on white cardstock and then colored them with colored pencils. I then cut them out and attached them with pop dots. On the long strip of pink, I stamped some matching flowers in white ink and colored in some of the flowers. I attached everything to some flower cardstock and thought it still needed something so I stamped some smaller flowers, cut them out, and attached them under the quote. The quote says, "It's always GREAT being with you!" This quote was printed on my printer. I sent this to my friend Mandy who lives in Wisconsin. Even though she lives far away, she is always there for me and I appreciate her friendship more than I can ever say. Happy Stamping everyone!

Vroom! Vroom!

My dad celebrated his birthday about a week ago and he is so hard to buy for! What do you buy for the man who has everything? His card was not much easier. I always like to try new things for my dad's cards so I did the Iris folding technique. Basically, you use several pieces of paper and you layer them in a design to make a picture. It leaves a space right in the middle, just like the iris of your eye. (Circle of Crafters has a step by step guide with patterns if you want to learn how to do this.) For this card, I used some vintage looking paper to make the car look older. Then I cut out some wheels and used some brown paper to fill in the iris in the middle. I stamped Happy Birthday with some black embossing powder. These cards will be really thick because of the amount of paper you will use so I always try to use double sided tape to keep it all together. Let me know what you think!

Photoshop

Hello! Can you believe July is almost over? Parents are getting excited and teachers are getting nervous. Ahh - the first day of school is near. I only have a few weeks to get some of my summer projects done. Now if only I could find that list I made back in June!

One thing I did was to take a class through jessicasprague.com. She is the queen of digital scrapbooking. The class was to help me use Photoshop Elements. She does it step by step in language I can understand. Here is the first picture I did. It makes me laugh because Kate and I were at the park after her t-ball game and she just could not believe I was taking another picture of her. I told her she was sassy and the lady next to me started laughing. The picture uses a frame and I think it is called word art. Maybe I will figure out Photoshop after all! Stay cool!

Stories

Have you ever sat down to scrapbook only to realize you are a year behind? That is what happened to me recently. I have not exactly "scrapbooked" in so long. Last week, I finally did some scrapbooking. I am going to visit my friends in Wisconsin again for the 4th of July and I had not even scrapbooked last summer's visit. How can I take loads of new pics with the pile of old ones waiting here for me? This week, I just worked and worked and got so many pages done. (Almost 30 at last count.) For once, I did not worry about the latest techniques and trends. I worried about getting the story down on paper. Isn't that what scrapbooking is all about? Leaving our stories? Years from now, no one will care what embellishments I used or how much time one layout took me. They will care about the pictures and the people and places in them. Here are some of my simple layouts I finished this week. They are not the most creative, but they tell a story. My story with Kate and Drew who mean the world to me. I sadly did not finish all of last summer, but someday I will and I look forward to taking great pictures of them again. When I get back, I am going to work on my story too. My boxes of pictures are waiting to be shared! (Part of my story - a Happy Belated Birthday to my little sister Heather! Can't wait to scrapbook your story too!)

Is it vinyl or art?

There has been nothing above my bed for quite a while now. I used to have a huge picture but it did not match anything so I took it down. My sister gave me a large metal thing to hang up there but I imagined it falling during the middle of the night and crushing me. What to do? What to do? I know - cut something from vinyl and hang it up. So I tried it and this is how it turned out. I had always thought I would do four squares but I like the look of three. First, I cut strips of 1 inch by 12 inch in brown and made the frames. Then, I used the Storybook cartridge and cut the flowers out at 3 and 1/2 inches in red and beige. The middle beige one is hard to see in the picture but shows up well in person. (I would have done them all in red but I ran out!!) Not bad for a first timer and a girl who never makes straight lines. I have always done words, never objects in vinyl. Now, what to do on all of the other walls!!

Dressing Up

Happy Thursday everyone! A while ago, my mom and sister found some onesies over at JoAnn's and thought we could dress them up a little bit. (By we, they meant I.) I had read that you can cut fabric with the Cricut machine so I bought some cute fabric, onesies, and some wonder under. You iron the fabric onto the wonder under and then cut it using the Cricut. Well, the Cricut tore up the fabric so I know I am doing something wrong but I did not give up. I used my Cricut to cut out some templates and then traced those onto the fabric. The fabric was cut into various shapes and then I ironed those onto the onesies. Whew - I am tired but these turned out cute. They are for Brayden, our friends' Kathy and Justin's new baby boy. He is a welcomed and special addition to their family and he will look so cute in these. I think they look pretty cute on my clothesline. (Now to figure out what I did wrong in the first place!!)

Color Inspiration

Good morning everyone! I have always wanted to enter something into this challenge and I finally found a project to do it with. I posted this frame a while ago, but it matches this color challenge so I am posting it again. This frame was made for my friend Amy and I finally got to meet her son Vincent last night. He is definitely Baby Love!

Cupcakes Anyone?

One of my Bunco buddies is having a birthday soon so I made her this cupcake book. I used the Celebrations cartridge, which I never use, and the Cricut Design Studio to make a giant cupcake. Then I traced it onto chipboard and covered it with Sweet paper from DCWV. For the title, I used the Cricut markers to first make an outline and then I cut it out. Those are so much easier than I first thought. I then put some birthday quotes and some stickers in it. Delicious!

90s in June?

Good morning everyone! It is a gorgeous June day here in the Valley of the Sun. It is only supposed to get to 90 today. That is unheard of but so wonderful!!

Here is the final part of the word book. Sorry for the glare, I did not realize how the light was shining while I was filming this. I have also added a photo of the finished product. Let me know if you have any questions and thanks for checking in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeoDW7hyeow

Thanks Dr. Hipps!

Our beloved family doctor is finally retiring after almost 40 years of service. My whole family went to Dr. Hipps including my grandparents, parents, and sisters. Yesterday was his retirement party and I discovered that another lifelong patient is a friend of mine. Her whole family has gone to him too! He is such an amazing and wonderful man who was known for always running late because he spent so much time with each of his patients. When we hugged him and told him congratulations, he told my sister and I how proud he was of the both of us. Tears!! We are proud of him too! He loves to hunt, birds especially, so I made him this card using my Animal Kingdom and Doodlecharm Cricut cartridges. Congratulations Dr. Hipps! (And watch out birds!)

Sequel

Here is part 2 of the word book video. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ4-MWdy1hM

Now Showing

Happy June everyone! Hope you are enjoying your summer so far. It is only supposed to hit 104 today in Phoenix so we are all very happy.

Well, I finally did it. I created a video for one of my projects. Now remember, this is my first one and it is not perfect. It shows the first steps in making a word book. It took forever to upload so I do not even know how it is going to look. Please let me know what you think. Should I change the angle? Do I talk too fast? Do I say, "Umm" too much? (I know I do!) Isn't it weird how our voices sound so different? Ughh! I hope you learn a lot from it and I will post a new one soon. Get yourself some popcorn and enjoy!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOgzwzoax0Q

Off to a Good Start!

My friend Tina asked me to cut some vinyl for her house. She searched all of my fonts and found what she wanted. I cut it out and then she took it home and hung it herself. I used the Mickey Font, All Mixed Up, and Alphalicious. She did a fabulous job putting these on her walls and sent me these pics using her cell phone. I cannot wait to make some more for her. (A little hint - if you are thinking of quotes to hang in your house, just do a google search. For example, if you want a baby quote, just type in, "quotes about babies." You will be amazed.) Oh no, now I gave away a secret!! Hope you are enjoying June!

The Official Start of Summer

The school year is officially over and summer has begun. To kick off this wonderful season, my sisters and I headed off to San Diego to visit some friends of ours. (Our friend Kelli went too!) We have known the Cannon family our whole lives. There is not a childhood memory of mine that does not include them. Since I had not seen them in a while, I wanted to make them some scrapbooks. We made three different books, one for each family. I printed lots of pictures of their kids. Then, Heather and I cut 6 by 6 inch pages that Joy, Heather, and I covered with paper and pictures. We added a few embellishments and then I bound them with my Bind-it-All machine. We had to deliver them in person while sun bathing on Coronado Island. I think they liked them! The kids were excited to have books all about them! Happy Summer!