Back-to-School with Circut Markers

Hi all

Hope everyone is having a great start to their Labor Day weekend.  We went to the pool today, probably the last time of the season due to the weather report this weekend.  It was a bunch of fun and of course I took lots of pictures to capture the last moments of summer.  (I haven't downloaded them yet of course).  So my kiddos go back to school in a week.  I am sometimes counting down the hours and sometimes hope to time goes by a little slower.  My oldest will be going everyday this year.  It is only half day so I am glad that I still get half a day with her.  I am excited to be spending some more one on one time with my little one since she will only be going two days a week.
So with school fast approaching I made my little girls some cards to stick in their lunchboxes on the first day.  Just want to make sure they know that I am thinking if them while they are away from me for a couple hours.  I went very traditional back to school with these cards.  Primary colors and common back to school motifs.  One thing I did do different is use the Cricut Markers for the first time.  I wanted to give them a test run, because I plan to use them on a really big upcoming project.  They worked beautifully as you will see in the pictures. 

Card Recipe:

• Card base is 4" x 4"
• Card frame is 3.5" x 3.5"
• School frame drawn with black Cricut Marker from Stretch Your Imagination 
• School bus from Stretch Your Imagination - Misted with Tattered Angels Mustard Seed
• Doodlebug twine for braid

So I used the markers twice in this card.  The first was on the school frame.  The second was on the bus.  I first had the Cricut draw the bus with the markers and then I reloaded the mat and cut the bus.  I used white paper and then misted it with the mustard seed mist.  I am entering this card in two back to school challenges this week. 

• Exploring Cricut
• Bitten by the Bug 2

Thanks for stopping by today.  I will share the other card in another post tonight.  Hope you have a wonderful weekend.  

Finished Heidi Swapp Live Class

Hey there, hope you are all having a great weekend.  I spent this evening participating in the final installment of the Heidi Swapp Color  Magic Live event.  It was a ton of fun and I learned a bunch.  I wanted to share with you the projects from the last two classes.  The project for Thursday night was a memory file.  Basically it is a condensed scrapbook.  I actually kinda like the ideas behind these because I am finding it harder and harder to find the time to do a yearly family scrapbook.  But with these you can just scrap the events that you want and be completely done with a project.  This is very appealing to me.  So anyhow here is what I created:

I think I am going to add the photos from my weekend with only the hubby (meaning sans kids) last year.  We really had a great weekend together and this album of sorts would suit the pics beautifully.

So the class tonight was about making a single page scrapbook layout.  I deviated from the instructions with my color choices but followed the layout pretty much.  Heidi was doing another black and yellow theme, but there was this beautiful piece of paper that they were covering up that I could just not let happen.  So I changed my color choices to show off the beautiful piece of flowered paper.  Here it is:

So I just need to add some great photos for this one as well.  I am thinking this layout speaks to photos of an adult girls weekend or something like that - no kiddies allowed in this one either!!  HaHa - I really do love my kiddos, but they don't need to be in everything.  Well I hope you have a great Sunday and thanks for stopping by. 

What Have I Been Up To??

Hi all hope your week is going well.  We have been hanging out enjoying the last days of summer.  Weather willing we will be heading to the beach next week for one last hurray!!!  I love summer but I am ready to get the schedule going again and have a little free time with the girls in school.  So here is what the girls and I have been up too.  Of course I have to get them started early with a love for crafts, and they do love being in mommy's craft space.

We created butterflies out of toilet paper rolls.  They really love using mommy's supplies and tools to create their very own butterfly.  It was a great 45 minute activity on a rainy summer day.  So here is what I have been up to.  I have been taking a live web-class by Heidi Swapp called Color Magic Live.  It uses her newest papers and inventions, such as the Color Magic papers and memory files to create cards, albums and such.  The first class was Tuesday and there are two more classes this week.  Here is what I have created so far.

It is a collection of cards.  The Color Magic paper is really great.  It has a pattern that you mist, or stain with ink.  The color only sticks to certain parts of the paper to create the patterns.  Basically you can create with any color you want.  I have to admit it is a little messy for my taste but I love the limitless of it.  Well there you have it, I am off to take the second installment of the class.  Hope you have a great week and thanks for visiting. 

Girlie Elephant Birthday Card

Hi all

Hope all has been going well.  I have been MIA for a while.  Last week my hubby took the girls and I to NY with him to work.  We had a great time exploring Central Park and going to Times Square.  We also made a stop over in PA to visit some of my hubby's family.  While in PA we took the girls to the Please Touch Museum in Philly.  This has to be the best kids museum ever!!!!  You really do get to touch everything.  I think the girls could have spent days in that place having fun.  So now we are back and while all the travel has been fun, I am really glad to be done with the summer travel. 

So I got into my craft room this week and made a birthday card for a special niece who is turning 2 next month.  I decided on a princess elephant theme for the card. 


Card Recipe:

• A2 sized yellow card base
• 5.25" x 4" DCWV Nanna's Nursery card stock pack
• Elephant cut from Create a Critter at 2.25"
• Crown cut from Once Upon a Princess at 1"
• Cloud cut from Create a Critter at 1.5" and misted with Tattered Angels Mustard glitter mist
• Purple twine from Doodlebug Design
• Sentiment from My Pink Stamper

I am really happy with how the card came out.  I love the festive feel and colors.  I am entering this in the challenge over at Bitten By the Bug 2.  Thanks for visiting and hope you have a great week.  

Scrapbooking Camping

Hi all

Hope your week has gone well.  We here have not been doing much, kinda looking forward to the weekend.  My DH is finally home so I am looking forward to some me time!!!  So tonight I have a scrapbook layout I did to capture the camping trip last year.  I say "the" camping trip because I do not really participate in the camping trips yet.  My DH took the older one camping while the little one and I slept in the comfort of our own beds and visited the campers in the evenings and mornings.  The campgrounds are about 15 minutes from our home, which is good in case you have to use the abort plan with the little ones.  Maybe I will go this year, only time will tell.  So here it is:

So for this camping layout I used a number of different cartridges.  The border to the left of the the photos was done by welding three borders from the Elegant Edges cartridge.  The tent and campfire were from the Create a Critter cartridge.  The "Lazy Days" was cut from a cereal box with the Just Because Cards cartridge.  The "Summer" was cut from a cereal box from the Stretch your Imagination cartridge.  The "OF" is from a set of Amy Tangerine thicker stickers.  I thought the pattern kinda went with the layout.  So that is that.  I am entering this in the camping challenge over at Fantabulous Cricut blog.  That was really the inspiration for the layout.  I hope you have had a wonderful week and will have a wonderful weekend to come.  Thanks for stopping by. 

A little Scrapbooking

Hi everyone, hope your week has gotten off to a great start.  We have been same old same old, just trying to find things to do to fill our summer days.  I plan to take the kiddos to a water park tomorrow, so that should shake things up.  So lately I have been trying to catch up on my scrapbooking.  Every time I do this I feel energized by it and feel a real sense of accomplishment.  So here are the pages I got completed last week.  I am finished with March now yeah!!!

So I wanted to keep this layout simple and symmetrical but layout my pics in funky angles.  I only used my Cricut for the title on this one.  So just to explain the pics on the Dailies page:  my little baby had gotten out of the bath and I got her dressed, while my older one stayed and played in the tub.  I turned my back for one minute (and forgot to close the bathroom door) and the little one climbed back in the bathtub in her pj's!!!  She is really sneaky.  Here is the second layout I completed:

This layout is, you guessed it, about our visit to the Cherry Blossoms.  I made sure the girls and I were all in pink so that we could get some good photos.  I am rarely in the photos, so this is special.  So there are two exciting things about this layout.  First, I finally figured out how to use my printer to print photos in any size I want.  The grid photos are printed out at 3" x 3".  Second, the title text is actually cut from a cereal box using my Cricut.  Instant chip board embellishments this way.  I used the regular blade, set the blade to 6, the pressure to max, the speed to low, and multi-cut to 2.  It cut like a charm.  Then I heat embossed the letters with linen embossing powder.  I love that I figured out how to do this.

So that is it for today.  I hope to get a few more scrapbooking layouts done this week.  Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great week. 

More Birthday Goodies

Hi all

So to continue with the birthdays, I have made another t-shirt and card for a little boys birthday this weekend.  It is along the same rainbow theme as both the siblings are sharing a birthday party with the theme Princess and the Frog at Rainbow Tree.  Here is the t-shirt:

This t-shirt was done with some more Expressions Vinyl heat transfer vinyl in blue, yellow and green.  I used the Once Upon a Princess cartridge for the frog and the Birthday Bash cartridge for the font.  Check out my earlier posts for how to cut the vinyl.  Here is the card:

Card Recipe:

• Sun from Create a Critter cut at 1.5"
• Frog from Create a Critter cut at 3:
• Doodle bug rainbow twine
• Cotton Candy Stickles
• Sentiment from My Pink Stamper

The little boy who will be receiving this card loves frogs so I think he will be pretty pleased.  I am entering the card in this weeks sun challenge over at Fantabulous Cricut.  Hope you have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by.