I just LOVE Birthdays!!

What better excuse to jump in my craft room and start creating than celebrating a special someones birthday! I have been so busy with school and family that my Mother n Laws birthday coming up finally got my butt in gear to make something. :) I had so much fun with her card that I kept going and made everything for her gift wrap too. Normally I might run to the store and get a nice bag and then jazz it up a bit. However, now that I realized what you can come up with when you use supplies from around the house... I don't know if I will ever want to buy regular gift wrap anymore! ( If I can help it)
For this card, I decided I wanted to go a little less traditional and tried to avoid using the always easy "Happy Birthday" for the front. When I stumbled upon this beautiful paper I have had stowed away for a while now; I knew it was perfect!! The line is Lost & Found from My Minds Eye. At first I thought it was a little on the "wedding" side but decided the elegance would set the mood for my theme on the card and wrapping. This is a little out of what I would consider my normal style. Now that I am done with this project... I think I found a new love for this shabby chic look!! :)
For the Main Card base I used a plain white cardstock and folded it in half. The white was some of my leftovers so the size is a little off from a standard card. To give you an idea of size my main base was 11" x 6 3/4" , so when folded in have that gave me 5 1/2" by 6 3/4". Next I took the dark gray side of Portobello Road "family" Brocade paper (lost and found collection) and cut a basic rectangle for my border. Then using my trimmer I made another basic rectangle shape with the blue and white side of Portobello Road "party" celebrate Paper to show as my main background. On the opposite side of that blue and white stripped cardstock you will find the main centerpiece for the card that says Celebrate. Using my Tim Holtz scissors (they are pointy to they work great) I simply cut out around the sentiment. Once this was cut out I used some silver Stickles and circled the date on the little calender to represent my mother n laws birthday. The Silver matches the glitter on the paper almost perfectly! Lastly, I cut a little 5" x 1 1/4" strip from the opposite side of Portobello Road "family". Once all of your paper is cut, you can attach your pieces in order (starting with the back dark gray rectangle) and glue with a dry adhesive. The only paper that I glued differently is the Celebrate... I used pop dots for dimension. Make sure you attach the pop dot piece last. You have to glue your small strip of paper with Ribbon and bow first so that its tucked back behind the Celebrate.
For the inside, I cut a simple rectangle out of the brocade that was used on the outside to tie the card together. This piece will act as a border for the plain script piece of paper that will work for your message so that its easily readable.
For the gift I made some flowers out of orange felt and the big flower out of cream felt and lace. The 2 orange flowers were super easy and required scissors and only a little hot glue. However, I will admit that even though the big flower was simple it was rather time consuming. Leave it to me to have it all together before I think to take picture of the process. If you want details on the step by step for this just send me a message and I will be glad to type it up for you. I will say that for the big cream flower, I did attach a pin to the back so that it could be worn or attached to a bag or purse later. Also if you look close to the orange roses you will see the prettiest little vintage stick pins that I got from Jenni Bowlin. These are one of my favorite finds ever!!! They are just the perfect accent!! To wrap my gift, I just used 3 sheets of plain white tissue paper to keep from seeing the gift through the paper. I then tied a thick piece of lace around the body of the gift to jazz it up! Once the lace was on and tied in a knot, I was able to attach the flowers with pins to really set it off.
I hope you liked this card and gift... I know I can't wait to give it to Leslie my Mother n Law. Happy Birthday Leslie!

Love of My Life Layout

I had so much fun working on this Layout! I have wanted to do one of my husband and I for a while, but it always seems like we never get pictures together because one of us is always behind the camera! Well this particular day I made a point to have my Mother-in-Law snap a few of us! I have been so excited to use this paper June Bug from Basic Grey... I just LOVE the rich colors! When I printed my photos I thought that the paper worked just perfect! I did use the June Bug for the entire layout with the exception of the very back base/border that you see in the blue pinwheels- that is Echo Park's (a walk in the park)
As far as putting this layout together, it was super simple. I cut some random square and rectangle shapes for behind the photos to add some dimension and patterns. I also cut some solid black and white cardstock to make a mat for my photos to mimic the look of Polaroids. I loved this because it was so easy to do and really became a focal point for me. To add some detailing I cut a heart out of the orange background in the bottom right hand corner; this way some more of that blue pinwheel paper makes more of an appearance. Then, I used my sewing machine to add a simple stitching around the entire orange base to create a second border. Last, I added a few personal touches by hand painting the word love and attaching a fortune in the top right hand corner. I actually got this fortune on one of mine and Joe's first dates! Its been something I have held on to for years and is finally getting put to a good use!

Since I am in the Birthday mood...

Here is another Birthday Card that I made back in May and never posted. I absolutely love this card because I got to use one of my favorite paper companies- October Afternoon! On this card I actually combined two different lines from October Afternoon; there is some Fly a Kite and Thrift Shop. (Both great lines) Other than that I used blue smoothie and valentine Core'dinations paper for some solids. The front of the card is so fun because I mounted the little pin wheel in a way that it actually spins! To me the "fun" aspect just screams Birthday!!

My favorite part of this card is the inside. On the occasions where I get someone a gift card, I love to have a fun/cute way to give it. So for this card I made a little pop-up envelope to hold the gift card. It gives that "wow" factor and is so easy to do! Hope you like it. :)

If you want more details on the card like Cricut Cartridges used, I will post that below the pictures. Hope you

If you want to make your own envelope like this one below, you can find this on the Just Because Cricut Cartridge pg. 68

To make this card you will need the Just Because, Create a Critter, and Sweet Treats Cricut Cartridge. The main card base, the card base liner on the inside, the envelope for the pop up gift card inside, and the main envelope can all be cut from Just Because.
Everything to make the pin wheel and the Happy Birthday phrase found on the inside can be found on the Create a Critter cartridge. Lastly, the little tag on front that is stamped with enjoy can be found on the Sweet Treats Cartridge. If you need specific details like sizing and page numbers... feel free to write me anytime and I will be more than happy to send you the information.

Happy 21st Birthday Amber!!!

My Best friend Amber Chylsta is turning 21 and so I had to make her card! I just LOVE this paper from Imaginisce!! The colors and patterns are too cute. This particular line is B-day Bash and I intend to use it again on a layout of her Birthday Party when we go out to celebrate! I had so much fun making this card and hope that she loves it!

A little Cricut Kitchen Decor'

This is something I created using some 8x8 Canvas, Acrylic Paint, Cricut Stencil Material, My Cricut, and the Preserves Cartridge. Once you have these materials you can follow these simple steps to create your very own kitchen wall art. It really has an art deco feel that will just make your kitchen pop with some color!

For the Pear, you will need to turn to page 26 in your preserves cartridge. From that page you can make the following cuts using your Cricut Stencil Material.
cut at 7"h
cut at 7"h
Layer cut at 7"h

Once you have these images cut you then start by painting the background of your canvas first! ( I learned that the hard way) LOL. Then you simply start to paint each part of the pear in sections. For the first layer (being the main base of the pear) you want to use the negative part of your cut so that you are painting the actual shape of the pear and the whole inside versus just tracing the actual pear cut and not being able to paint the inside with a stencil.
Side Tip- Make sure to remove the clear film on your stencil material so that the stencil sticks nicely to your canvas insuring that your stencil does not move while painting and gives you a much cleaner look. Also, use a dry brush with light coats of paint and then do 2 to 3 coats before you move on to your next pear layer. This is a little more tedious but makes your art turn out nice and clean! One more thing!- use a heating tool to dry each layer of paint to tons of time and get your project done in a jiff!
Now you can move on to painting the cream colored inside of your pear with one of your pear layers and then use the main pear cut out to paint in your brown or black seeds. You might find that certain cuts are easier for you to paint each of your layers so play around with it. :)

The steps are the same for the apple and cherries but here are the dimensions to get the correct sizing on an 8x8 canvas.

Apple- pg. 27
cut at 6 1/2" h
cut at 6 1/2"h
Layer cut at 6 1/2"h & Layer+shift key

Cherries- pg. 48
cut at 6 1/2"h
cut at 6 1/2"h
Layer + Shift key cut at 6 1/2"h
Layer cut at 6 1/2"h

A little bit more Summer!

This is a layout of my son Evan. I couldn't resist doing one on him at the water park this summer. We were there every week and he learned how to swim during the first month! He is only 3 so I was soooo proud when we got it down!! As soon as he figured it out he was off to the "big boy" slides; where he just went down them over and over until it was time to go home.

To get this layout I used the Bo Bunny Sun kissed line. The only paper that is from a different line is the main base that you see in brown. That is from Echo Parks- A walk in the park. I also used some Jillibean corrugated Alphas. They come in your basic cardboard color so I jazzed them up with come acrylic paint to match my color scheme. Next, I embellished up the page with some tiny Artisan Elements from Pink Paislee (those are fun too cause you can paint, spray, or ink them to match) in this case I inked mine purple. Last, I added some pop dots for dimension, a red button from Jillibean, and did some journaling with the oh so wonderful Uni-ball white Signo pen. Hope you like it!

Halloween is on the way!

Lately I have been so busy with my move and getting Evan settled in Pre-school! So far everything is working out great and we couldn't be happier with all the changes! However, I am packing up for our family trip to Texas and have not had the crafting time I so desperately need.
I still wanted to post some Halloween projects since it is one of my FAVORITE times of the year; so here are my latest Halloween projects that I made during the spring/summer. This first one is a Halloween Invitation... I have to make a new one every year! It is all done with the Cricut but I added a few twists to the cuts. You will notice that the front of the card is a fence that I cut using the Heritage Cartridge. I love it because I would have never expected to find a cut for Halloween on this cartridge but with a few added touches it really has a new spooky feel to it. I simply cut the fence in half to have it open like a gate and then covered it with Rangers black embossing powder. The embossing powder really brings it to life with the shinny look and texture. For the main base I used the Cricut to cut two basic rectangles with rounded edges. I kept the back piece intact (which is used for the inside info) and cut the top rectangle in half so that it could act as the back drop for the gate. I then used my sewing machine to attach the back base to the top front pieces by sewing the outer edges. This really made the card open and close perfectly without the worry of it coming undone like it might have with glue. Once the invite is opened... your guests will find all of the party details! Hope you like this one. :)







This next project is just a little counter top sign to bring in some Halloween Decor'. I really love this sign because it is double sided giving you the option to change it up a bit! This was done mainly on the Cricut as well and was super easy! Just a small tip... I cut the main base (rectangles) out with the decorative card-stock for the front and back as well as some chipboard to give it more sturdiness. I just covered the chipboard with the decorative paper so you never even see it! For the most part the cuts where just basic designs found on the cartridges but for the black spooky tree found on the Happy Halloween side I used a cool technique. I cut the tree from card-stock and then used the negative piece left over. (so I tossed the actual tree that was cut and saved it for another project, then used the piece that is left over that is just the outline of the tree). Once you have the outer cut you then spray the back side with repostionable glue to make it tacky. This keeps the paper from moving around while you are working with it. I then placed the sticky side down onto the cream colored oval and then brought out my Tim Holtz Black Soot Distress Ink and Ink Blending tool. Once you have this, cover your tool with ink and color inside your negative space. Once good and covered the repostionable glue then allows you to remove the cut out of the tree without messing up or tearing your paper underneath. Now you have an image that looks like its a part of the card-stock giving a totally different look! Put some pop dots under the sparrow and you will really have some dimension.