SSDS: Sketchy Holiday

This week's challenge at Scrap, Stamp & Doodle Saturdays was a sketch! When I saw it, I was immediately reminded of a present. As you can tell, I took that theme and ran with it!


I gained my inspiration from a Christmas tree, making the colors red and green and putting the star on the top! Now, I will admit, my original vision was to have the star be a shaker...but I could not get my thin acetate to work with the star! I will have to try again another time with a more basic shape. Regardless, I love the beaded star and maybe it was just meant to be! ;)

Stamps: sentiment (CTMH)
Paper: Real Red, Garden Green, Crushed Curry (SU)
Ink: Versafine Black
Accessories: Red Polka Dot Ribbon (SU), beads, eyelets, Cricut for the star tag

Happy December! Can you believe it is already the 1st?!

Imagine Birthday Princesses!

By an act of divine intervention (well, really our movers but there must have been a higher power involved...) my Cricut Expression died on the day of the HSN Imagine release. Really, I had to do it. My household would not function without an electronic die cutter. Period. :)

If you have yet to sneak a peek at one of these machines, you probably want to close your eyes! It is sooooo cool! It prints images then cuts them out to perfection! Admittedly, had my Expression not bit the dust, I would not have shelled out the money for it. But I am so glad I did. :)

On short notice, I was asked to make cards for 2 little birthday princesses. I decided to use the Imagine so I would not have to color anything. I chose the images, told it to cut, and viola! I just matched up the papers and had these done in like 30 minutes total. (The stickles actually took longer to dry than it did to make the cards!)

Rumor has it the princesses loved them...or maybe it was just the sugar high after the cake!

Supplies used are just Stampin UP paper, sentiment & linen thread, buttons, stickles and the Best Friends cartridge for my Imagine.

Thanks for stopping by today!

SSDS It is Fall, Y'all

...or really winter here in Alaska! We have snow on the ground, but nothing compared to what I am used to. It is like a really light dusting...and we only have a inch or so. It is the strangest thing! In Japan we had approximately 130" a year, so this is a break for me. Now, it is COLD! Highs of 30's...and it will get down to -50 in January! Bundle up and play with stamps, I say! ;)

Enough of my rambling...the challenge this week at Scrap, Stamp, & Doodle Saturdays was to make something in Fall theme! I had some extra notebook die cuts from an incorrect size I plugged into my Cricut Imagine, so I used one on this card! I just love the accent! And the ribbon was a Thrift Store find at 25 cents!

Stamps: Gifts of the Earth (SU), sentiment (PTI)
Paper: Crumb Cake, Elegant Eggplant, Really Rust, Old Olive, Watercolor Paper
Ink: Palette Noir, Elegant Eggplant, Really Rust, Sahara Sand, Crumb Cake, Summer Sun, More Mustard, Old Olive, Early Espresso inks for watercoloring
Accessories: Cricut Imagine for the notebook paper die, Robin's Nest Dew Drops, Stickles, Ribbon, Distressing Tool

Thanks for dropping by! I hope your week is going well thus far!

Tri-Fold Baby Shower

I have seen a lot of these cards posted on SCS, as well as on my talented friends' blogs. Let's just say making this was a love/hate relationship. I have a new found respect for those of you that did this with minimal foul language involved! ;)

Despite the "issues" I had, it was still made with a ton of love for a friend who is having twin boys!

Stamps: Admit It & Sentiments (SU)
Paper: Retired Creative Memories and some scraps
Ink: Bliss Blue & Chocolate Chip for shading
Accessories: Cricut, Googlie Eyes, Dew Drops, SU Buttons

I think we are packing out in 2 weeks. Yes, you did you just hear a bit of panic in my voice! While I did a ton of clearing out during Spring Break, you are never totally ready for the movers! My DH said I could hold some craft stuff out and then either ship it to myself or send it in our Express Shipment...but I think it would annoy me to be missing that one thing you really need to make the card perfect...and know it is packed away on its way to Alaska! Maybe I will just take this time to catch up on my reading and perhaps finally organize my pictures on the Mac!

Thanks for stopping by today!

HSS: Sakura

The challenge this week at Hand Stamped Sentiments was to make anything but a card. As we all know I am challenged by things out of the box, thus I have another scrapbook page to share!

This is kind of fun, because it is actually Cherry Blossom season up here right now! But alas...it is 2010 and those of you who enlarge the picture will note the date of April 2008. Yes, I am still 2 years behind...

For those interested in Japan, the pictures were taken at Hirosaki Castle. They have a big festival up there to celebrate the blossoms. Look at the fallen leaves in the water in the top picture...so beautiful!!! Festivals equal festival food, which in Japan is a variety of barbecued seafood and chicken, plus some yummy yakisoba. And the desserts...oh. my. gosh. I {heart} festival food!

At any rate, those who know my son in real life would describe him as a picky eater. As we were getting lunch that day, he ordered an octopus tentacle. Grilled. And ate it. With a thumbs up, no less! Craziness! And I spared you pictures of that...blech...but it is in the scrapbook!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies for the page are by CTMH and I used my Cricut for the font. :)

HSSSC8: Asian Lanterns

I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! Mine is almost officially over. **sniff, sniff** The weekends always seem to go by more quickly than I would like. At least I did manage to get some cards made (not to mention I finished 8 loads of laundry, got the hubby out the door for a business trip, and kept my kids fed and relatively happy all weekend)!

I am back on the horse, so to speak!

Until the kids are out on Spring Break next week...

Yes, please hum the Jaws music as you read that.

I took my allotted creative time this weekend and participated in some challenges! I am not really on a CAS kick, but this week's Sketch Challenge at Hand Stamped Sentiments really lent itself to a card I had been wanting to make for a long time!

This was so easy...I used the Cricut Pagoda cartridge to cut the lanterns and I heat embossed the saying in the upper right corner. :) I think it took me all of 15 minutes to finish. And, I tried something new. I cut Washi Paper with the Cricut! It worked like a charm. I was a little worried it would tear, but nope! Love fun surprises like that!

Stamps: Asian Artistry (SU)
Paper: Basic Black, Brushed Gold, Whisper White, Washi Paper
Ink: Versafine Black
Accessories: Cricut Pagoda Cartridge, Red Riding Hood Red Ribbon, Embossing Powder

Thanks for stopping by to visit!

007: Cricut Watermelons

My friend Carrie hosted a card swap recently. The mission: create a card using your Cricut! I chose to accept the mission, as I have never used my Cricut for anything but my scrapbooks! I know, I obviously need to get out more!

At any rate, I was literally shaking in my chair with the mere thought of not applying ink to anything on the card. I mean, is that even legal?? :) (To calm my nerves, I did manage to get some ink on there! LOL)

Here is my creation:



Stamps: PTI Vintage Picnic Sentiments
Paper: Kraft, Real Read, Basic Black, Whisper White, Glorious Green
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black
Accessories: Mike's Ribbon, Cricut Doodlecharms

I am also honored to have been given another blog award! Grace sent this one to me. Thank you so much Grace! I am blessed to have met you through our wonderful Blog group!!





I am honored to pass this along to 5 other bloggers who have become part of my circle of friends! Choosing 5 is difficult, but here it goes:

• Naomi
  
• Traci
  
• Heather
  
• Lou
  
• Laura

Paper Challenge: 8 swap cards created, so I am now at 48/100 projects complete!! :)

Almost over the hump!!

This challenge has been fun, in a self-deprivation type of way! LOL Seriously, I have really been loving it! I am excited to have inspired many of you to join in the challenge. I am feeling a great sense of appreciation for the paper that is slowly disappearing from my stash! How about you?

Kaper Chart

Last year I was a Daisy Girl Scout co-leader with my DD's current Brownie Leader. We made our own Kaper Chart with use of the Cricut and had the BEST Kaper Chart in the Girl Scout Hut, if I do say so myself! LOL

This year I am "just" a supportive parent, having given up my gig as a leader. DD's leader asked if I would consider making the Kaper Chart again this year. Of course, I said I would love to.

My instructions:

• use a theme of "Our Rising Stars"
• use a color scheme inclusive of blue and brown

So, I went and purchased a normal sized sheet of poster board (actually 2, because I needed one for when I messed up! LOL). After measuring it, I split the design into thirds going horizontally, taking into consideration a 1 inch top and bottom border.

Then I worked on the blue rectangles. I ended up cutting them to 5 x 6, mostly guided by the fact I did not want them to be square and my starting paper size was 12 x 12. From there, I made the stars, basing their size on the blue rectangles.

The stars were cut using the George cartridge, using both the star and the shadow set at 4". I also cut thin cardboard at 4" (not on the shadow feature) to reinforce the stars. They have Velcro on the back so they needed to be sturdy to stand up to repeated taking on and off. The cardboard is covered easily by the white paper. I decided to break from the brown and blue scheme at this point thinking that I needed an accent color. I chose yellow for obvious reasons!

I finished the stars by using my Cricut Design Studio (CDS) with the Street Sign font. The names were set at 1". (Looking back I think I could have easily managed 1 1/2" inches, but I did not want the names to hang off the stars. I think I got close on Samantha, so maybe the 1" was a good decision!) I welded the names together (as much as I could, anyway), ran them through the Xyron, and adhered them to the stars. I did those in the lighter blue to bring back the requested color scheme.

I then used the CDS again with the Street Sign Font to make the job titles. I chose brown to again get back to her requested color scheme. (IRL you can see the job titles easily...they are subdued in the picture.)

I finished off making the Brownie Troop info with Street Sign in brown, set at 3". I wanted the Rising Stars to be accented, so I used Making the Grade for a more whimsical effect. That, too, is done in 3".

Once I laid it all out, I decided to make a shooting star as my accent piece. Ahead of time, I thought I would do a string of stars, but quite frankly, I felt like it was going to be distracting. I cut a 10" star using George and CDS, putting it at a 25 degree slant. I then versamarked the star and embossed it with Iridescent Ice to give it a sparkle! Once that was down, I used a pencil to draw some lines and colored every other one with yellow Crayola marker!

I then adhered everything to the poster board using the Xyron and my beloved ATG gun! I finished it off by using stickles on the girl's names, so it looks like their name in lights!

I actually think the rectangles look like a movie star's name on their dressing room door!

Thanks for looking!

Something's Fishy

While DH was in Iraq a couple of years ago, the base sponsored a trip for all of us left behind. It was to the Asamushi Aquarium! I adore aquariums, as do my kids, so were in!

This was a smaller aquarium, but it did have a really, really cool feature: you could pose right next to a real life dolphin!!! How cool is that? I mean, we were literally inches away from it. I know, the littlest things excite me!

They also had a really cool dolphin show. Unfortunately for us, it was all in Japanese! Well, of course it would be...we are in Japan, after all! At the time we had only lived here for a few months and I will still adapting. See, although we live off base, we pretty much spend all of our time on base and interact with only Americans. It is really kind of strange, because at times I do have to remind myself that I am in Japan! Although we could not understand the narration of the show, it was cool to listen to the inflection...you could surely tell when something big was going to happen! LOL

Layout: Becky Higgins

Paper: BasicGrey, SU In Colors 08

Accessories: CM Circle Punch, Cricut Paper Dolls Dress Up, Opposites Attract, Cat's Eye for brown shading