Monday, December 31, 2012

End of the Year Reflections

It is that time when we all start thinking about what was good and not so good about the past year and make some new goals for the upcoming one. I know I am doing a lot of reflection today as I spend time enjoying my family.
I wanted to reflected on my crafting as well so I thought about my best projects of 2012 and am sharing them here (Links to original are in the captions).  Lets start with some fun gifts I made this year. This top Teacher gift was my favorite project of the year!
Student Teacher Gift - Jan 2012
Teacher Gift - June 2012
Breast Cancer Flowers - Feb 2012
I also made some fun banners or decorations this year
Birthday Banner - March 2012
Disney Countdown - May 2012
I did a little card making.
Thank You Very Much - July 2012

Crafting Card - December 2012
And of course staying true to my first love I made a few layouts that I really love.
Disney One Day Layout - July 2012
For the Pink By Design 2-year Anniversary - July 2012
Thanks for being a visitor this year and I hope you will keep coming back in 2013. My number one goal for the year is to join a new Design Team (I have applied at a few) and be a productive team member. I also want to make sure the insides of my cards look good and this year I want focus on getting layouts done more often. Wish me luck!

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Christmas Carol Layout

One of my favorite challenge blogs is Scrap It With A Song and this fun holiday themed layout is all inspired by the current challenge they have going on: Choose a favorite Christmas Carol. 
I pulled out all my holiday photos and then looked up lyrics of some of my favorite holiday songs to match the words with my pictures. I ended up selecting, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas to created this fun tree decorating layout. The line in the song about putting the star on your tree just seemed a perfect fit.

I selected two fonts: Pacifico and Trebuchet to cut out my lettering using my Cameo.I added the lettering to the pages I had already laid out.
Some final touches were added with some star shaped brads, cut outs from A Child's Year and some trimming of a fun holiday paper I had in my stash of papers. A little journaling and my layout was all set to share with you. 
Scrap it With a Song is having a DT call right now and this will be my entry to them to let them know I am very very interested in being part of the team.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

You Rock!

I was super excited to see the art work on the fun Cricut Circle cartridge Animal Antics.  It is a fun surprise this holiday season for Circle members and because it is already available to us on Cricut Craft Room I decided to play with it right away  for a thank you note.
I selected this cute octopus image and sentiment and got to work laying things out on my mat. I am slowly getting more comfortable with CCR.
After cutting I put all my layers together and placed them on top of a bright pink card base that I had added some fun crafting tape to.
One of my goals for the upcoming crafting year is to have the inside of my cards look good as well so I made the tape go all the way around on the inside before adding some simple layered stars that I cut with my Creative Memories punch.
I am entering this card into the Pause Dream Enjoy: Anything Goes Challenge. This is the last challenge of 2013 and my first time taking part with them.  I hope to enter many more in 2013. Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Friday, December 28, 2012

Christmas Gift Tags

On Christmas Eve I decided that I did not like the way my holiday gifts were looking so I spent the afternoon creating some gift tags that would match the different wrapping papers I had used for my family. I started with my Mom and I made this cute little sliding snowman tag using my Doodlecharms and Art Philosophy carts.
Next, I used a tag cut and a different snowman off Gypsy Wanderings to make a simple tag for my sister's gift.
For my husband, I wanted to have some hanging ornaments that I could put his name on. I did found many that were really fancy so I ended up welding a circle and the number 3 off the George and Basic Shapes cartridge to create some that I really liked. I added his name using letters cut with Calligraphy Collection.
Next was my brother-in-law. I cut a simple snowflake off DonJuan and added his name using one of my favorite font cartridges, Billionaire. My adorable niece got a simple crown with her initial cut out using Once Upon a Princess.
The final tag I made for these gifts was this wonderful nutcracker I found in the Silhouette Store. I separated the pieces and set all the colors I wanted on my mat before cutting and pasting everything together. For a final touch I added some gold buttons using my I-Rock.
The pile of gifts looked so great with the tags all in place.  As you can see I did my best to really match the wrapping papers I had selected for each person. Hope you all had a wonderful day with friends and family.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas


I just want to wish everyone
 a wonderful Christmas 
and an early Happy New Year!

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Snowflake Lanterns

When I saw this fun snowflake lantern by Jennifer Wambach in the Silhouette Store I had to make them.  I had everything I needed (I got a great deal on the flame less candles a few weeks ago) except the velum which I got quickly at Michael's.  I made the design as large as possible on my mat, then copied and flipped it so I could cut two at once.

I opted not to cut the velum with my machine as it was simple rectangles, so I measured and cut the pieces for each opening then used my ATG gun to tape them on to the paper lanterns.
The final step was taping the box together, I used a combo of ATG tape and super sticky red tape for this process.
In went the flame less candles and I had some simple gifts for my coworkers to go with some homemade yumminess. I hope everyone is gearing up for a wonderful Christmas. Tonight I take my daughter to see Annie as one of her presents and she has no clue..super excited for this! Happy  Holidays.

Silhouette Store Snowflake Lantern Design ID #35985

Saturday, December 22, 2012

Quilt Frog's ETSY shop open

ThisFrogQuilts is a new Etsy shop opened by my friend at Just Call Me A Crafty Frog.
She made me this adorable checkbook cover and I get such fun compliments on it...I use checks more often because of it HA!! She has several quilted lunch bags up for sale and is making pillowcases as well.  I hope you will check out her store.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Crafting Friend Card for Cricut FANatics

Today is my day to post over at Cricut FANatics. I love seeing all the fun things made for this Cricut loving blog. I know that the holidays are so so close and everyone is making such lovely gifts and tags and cards, but I wanted to share a card I made with a crafting theme instead of a holiday theme.
A lovely crafter, Quiltfrog, made me this fun card around Halloween. It was such a sweet surprise. I love snail mail so much and had to return the favor right away (but I waited to share so it could arrive at her home first).
With fun Action Wobble Mickey
I knew I wanted my card to have a crafting theme so I went to the cart Cricut Everyday that was one of the Cricut Circle carts. When the card was put together I was so pleased with the results, I especially love the Pink By Design stamp that I used for this.  If you want more pictures and information please visit the FANactics site.

I know everyone is looking forward the weekend and the coming holiday!!  I know that I am happy that today is the last day of school before winter break!!  Enjoy!

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Hubby Birthday Treat Gift & Labels

My husband's birthday was this past Sunday and he told me he did not want me to get him a gift as we are trying to save our money so we did not need to spend it on things he did not..I decided pish posh and bent what he said in my favor.
I got him a box to hold his growing collection of Christmas Ornaments (something he needed).  My family is crazy about them and we get one or 2 a year each in honor of trips or events in our lives.  I used the Mickey Font cart and some adhesive vinyl to put his name on the front. Next, I filled it with a bunch of his favorite treats (something we would get at some point in time anyways). I wrapped each box or bag in solid color paper then I cut out some basic labels from Lacy Labels and attached these cute sayings on them..can you guess what treats I got him?
Mountain Dew, Milky Ways, Oatmeal Cream Pies (what food must taste like in heaven according to my hubby),Cheez-its, Pop Tarts, Rice Krispie Treats, Twizzlers Pull n Peal, Double Stuff Oreo,  Nacho cheese Doritos 
He loved his gift and is enjoying having some treats around the house..unfortunately so does our Elf, Conner, who did not wait  for permission before helping himself. I wish I had a photo of the box and put together before it was unwrapped, but he was just so tickled by the fun that I forgot. It really was a perfect gift for him.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

Holiday Lunch Box Cards

School may be getting out soon for the winter break, but I still have some lunches to add notes to. I wanted to have a few holiday themed cards to put in my daughter's lunch the last few days before break so I made this fun set.
This ribbon was used on the ornament I made for my daughter's teacher a few weeks back and she loved it so I knew she would love some bows on some lunch box cards using the same ribbon.
After I had the ribbon on I selected a few holiday/winter themed cuts to place on each card. When they were all set I added a little bling and glitter(via Stickles and my I-rock) to finish them up. They are all set for lunch this last week.
Snowflake off the Christmas Cartridge
Gift box off Sweethearts
Tree cut from Create-a-Critter
Have a Happy week. Only a few more days to Christmas and only one week left before my own winter break!