Graduation Card with the Silhouette

Hi all I am back with yet another post about school.  As we are starting school next week I can't help but feel a little scared and anxious.  You see my oldest starts Kindergarten next week.  This is a big milestone in hers and my life.  She is all excited, I am all anxious and a little sad.  My feelings run the gambit from 'is she going to be safe' to 'I am excited for her to spread her wings'.  So with that I thought that I would show you the graduation card that I made her back in May.  She was so excited to be graduating from preschool and soon becoming a real kindergartener.  Here it is ...

I think the card was 5"x 5".  The first thing I did was use the print and cut feature on my Silhouette to draw that cute stick figure.  I then used the stars and hearts stencil by Heidi Swapp and some gold lame color shine to spray the paper.  I used a stamp from Heidi Swapp as well on the front.  The grad was cut with the Silhouette as well. Some gold stickles and gold tinsel ribbon finished off the card.

She really loved her card.  Here is my beautiful girl on her big day looking all big and grown up.

Thanks for stopping by.  Remember to savor those precious moment!

School is Coming...

Hi all, how have you been?  We have been living up the last week of summer here.  As I write I am sitting inside a children's play area, letting the kids get out some of their energy on this rainy summer day.  With school fast approaching, for us it is next week, I thought I would share with you some gift card holder's I made for my kids teacher's at the end of last year.  I know, I know, why am I posting this now?  Well because once summer started I lost all track of time.  But this idea could also be used for any occasion, including the beginning of the school year.  So here they are ...

I used my Cricut and the Forever Friends cartridge to decorate the front of the card.  Both gift card holders were made by cutting a single 8.5" x 11" sheet of card stock in half.  I then folded the cards in half and added a pocket to one side.  I used a Heidi Swapp stamp to embellish the front as well as some ribbon from my stash.

So that is it.  It is really easy to create a custom gift card holder.  It makes a somewhat impersonal gift look and seem well thought out.  Thanks for stopping by!!

Swim Album Made from Scratch

Hi all, again it has been a while.  We have been living up summer with the pool and cool outings.  We just went to a Harry Potter themed event at an Apothecary Museum.  It was cool to learn that the actual herbs mentioned in the books and movies, such as Dragon's Blood, are actually real and where used in medicines.  So back to the title, as I mentioned previously, my daughter was on the summer community swim team this year.  She had a blast and learned a ton.  I actually feel comfortable letting her swim by herself this year.  On the swim team, she participated in a few of the meets and did do quite well.  So because she was getting ribbons and wanted to keep them safe, she asked me to make her a scrapbook of sorts to hold her ribbons and keep track of her times.  Here is what I came up with:

I decided to make a book from scratch.  I took two pieces of chipboard and cut them to 8" x 8".  I then covered both sides of the chipboard with some pretty patterned paper.  I tried to stick to the colors purple and teal, because those are her swim team colors.  I spayed some pre-cut chipboard triangles with Heidi Swapp color shine in teal.  I then used my Cameo to cut the letters out of white paper to attach to the chipboard.  I then used some purple and teal twine to complete the banner.  The photo frame was made using my Cameo as well, and I filled the letters with stickles.  Next I filled the book with plain and patterned paper.  To make sure the pages were sturdy, I used two pieces of card stock for each page.  To bind the book together, I used my crop-a-dile to punch two holes and used some metal rings to hold it together.  Here are some pics of the inside of the book:

This last page is pretty cool.  During the swim season, the team hosted some Olympic and Championship swimmers for a fundraiser.  The kids were able to get their autographs.  I decided to cover the signatures with some vellum that I printed on and attach it to the top of the page with washi tape.  This way you could still see the signatures and you were able to lift the vellum up.

So that is the book.  I hope each year to add more pages for as long as she decides to be on swim team.  Thanks for stopping by.  I hope I have inspired you to create your own books from scratch to make them what you need them to be.  Have a great day and enjoy these last few days of summer!!