holiday gift tag

Happy Christmas Eve Monday!  Are you wrapping a few last minute presents?  We are sharing some Christmas gift tags you can whip up to dress up your package or gift bag!  Mine is super quick and simple-a basic tag from Plaintain Schoolbook with a cute snowflake to pretty it up.  I made the whole thing in just a couple of minutes.  You can see the rest of the team's projects over at BBTB2 and link up your tag.

I am getting to spend some time with extended family before Christmas, which I am looking forward to, but it will be the first Christmas without all the boys home.  Son#1 is flying to London on Christmas Eve to see his girlfriend, who is studying at Oxford this year.  It's going to be a little quieter around here without him.  I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and get a chance to celebrate with some of the special people in your life!

Cricut:
Plaintain Schoolbook-tag
Joys of the Season-snowflake
stamps-unknown set
twine/ribbon-My Mind's Eye
Ink-brown chalk ink for edging, Stampin Up cherry cobbler for sentiment

Surf's Up layout

Happy Monday!  Summer is in full swing!  I took a quick overnight trip with the fam this week to an amusement park and had many rollercoaster riding adventures trying to keep up with our teens.  I think my head is still spinning.  It was a short trip, but lots of fun.  It is good to be back home in the air conditioning however, as it was hotter than Hades at the amusement park.  Many frozen lemonades and slushies were consumed trying to stay cool!

Our BBTB2 challenge this week is a beach theme (or lake, for those of us in the middle of the country).  While my first thought on a beach theme was summer beach fun, the beach pictures I wanted to scrap are from a December trip to San Francisco, so I went in a little bit of a different direction with my project.  I wanted to really showcase these winter beach pictures and went with muted colors for my background paper and very simple embellishments.  My Surf's Up title is from the Luau cartridge and I used cricut cut circles for my journal area and one picture.  (The other words and accents are puffy embellishments from Kaisercraft.).  The rest of the designers have some superfun beachy projects for you to see over at BBTB2 and you can link one up too.

Cricut:
Luau-surf's up title
Plaintain Schoolbook-circles
Paper-Kaisercraft Salty Toes prints and enhancements, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink for edging

Play Ball layout

Happy Monday!  Our BBTB2 challenge this week is to feature baseball or other spring sports on a project.  This was very timely, as I'm going to a KC Royals game for Nurse Appreciation Day with a bunch of my co-workers in a few weeks.  We are having a pre-game tailgate beforehand with lots of BBQ goodness (pretty much all tailgating in Kansas City involves yummy BBQ,  lol), so I know lots of fun pictures will be taken.  I am looking forward to it!

For my baseball themed layout, I used the Sports Mania cartridge for the title and 3 small balls decorating the other page.  The baseball trim along the sides is actually washi tape, not paper, that I got from Doodlebug.  And I made my journaling spot round to echo the shape of a baseball.  So we've got baseball going on all over this layout, all ready for some pictures!  The design team has projects featuring several spring sports, so go take a look over at BBTB2 and you can link a project up too.

Cricut:
Sports Mania-title, baseballs
Plaintain Schoolbook-circles
Paper-CTMH solids
washi tape borders-Doodlebug 

St Pats parade layout

Happy Monday!  I am hosting the challenge over at BBTB2 this week and instead of a specific cricut cut, I selected a color challenge to use green to celebrate the upcoming St. Patrick's Day.  You still need to use a cricut cut on your project, but it does NOT have to be related to St. Patrick's Day at all.  St. Patrick's Day is big here in KC, and Son#2 will be marching in a parade with his high school band.  Knowing there will be some parade pics taken, I made a layout.  I know the parade pics will be very colorful and busy, so I was trying to keep my layout relatively simple.  I hope you will go over and see the design team projects at BBTB2 and link up one of your own this week!

Cricut:

Birthday Bash-font
Artistry-horseshoe and clover

Plaintain Schoolbook-circles

Paper-Doodlebug Happy Go Lucky prints, CTMH solids

Labor Day-career

Happy Monday!  I missed getting my blog post up last week, as we lost power due to big storms in the KC area.  It makes me appreciate electricity!  My heart is going out to all those who have been displaced from their homes or are without power due to the hurricane.  Our BBTB2 challenge with Labor Day coming up is to celebrate careers in some way.  I made a layout highlighting nurses, as both my mom and I are nurses and my niece is planning to become a nurse.  She recently attended an event for high school students aspiring to be nurses put on by the hospital I work at and left even more convinced that nursing is for her.  So we will be a family with three generations of nurses!

I work as an RN in a cardiothoracic surgery ICU taking care of patients before and after open heart/valve surgeries and heart transplants, so my current job is truly all about hearts.  I thought the title for my layout "Nursing is from the heart" most appropriate in so many ways!  I used a couple of cartridges to make my layout for a picture of my mom, niece, and myself at the event my niece attended at my hospital.  There are lots of different careers on display over at BBTB2 this week and you can link up your project over at BBTB2.

Cricut:
Everyday Paper Dolls-stethoscope
Baby Steps-title font
Plaintain Schoolbook-hearts
Paper-The Paper Studio print, CTMH solids
Hearts embossing folder

Red, White, and Blue 4th of July layout

Happy Monday!  Are you having some holiday weekend fun?  I have been working all weekend at the hospital, including tonight but will at least be off for the fireworks on the evening of the 4th.  Our BBTB2 challenge this week is Red, White, and Blue.  Since I know I will be taking some pics tomorrow night, I made a 4th of July themed layout.

Cricut:
Create A Critter 2-title
Plaintain Schoolbook-circles, star
Paper-Doodlebug prints, CTMH solids
Stickers-Bella Blvd
brown chalk ink
square punch for photo corners

birthday layouts

Happy Monday!  It's a birthday theme at BBTB2 this week and I have a whole bunch of birthday ideas to share!  You can see more birthday goodness over at BBTB2 from the designers.  So let's get started....

 Project #1

This was for pics of Son#1's birthday this fall.  I wanted the picture in the star frame to be the focus.

Cricut:
Sweet Treats-happy birthday
Artbooking-photo frame with star
Artistry-numbers
Elegant Edges-scallop circle
Plaintain Schoolbook-circle
Paper-Doodlebug print, CTMH solids

Project #2

I was having some fun with the CTMH watercolors and made the cupcake paper on the right myself! I stamped the cupcakes and then watercolored them!  I also watercolored the Happy Birthday banner that I cut from the Artiste cartridge...probably would have just kept watercoloring if there was anything else left, lol!  My inner kindergartner was out to play.  The balloons are stamped from a CTMH set that corresponds to the Art Philosophy cartridge, so I cut them out with my cricut, then stamped the ballon image.  We were celebrating the November birthdays in the family (Son#3 and Grandma).  

Cricut:
Artiste-banner, balloons
Sweet Treats-make a wish
Stamp set-CTMH Artiste cartridge birthday set


The next few layouts go together as a set.  The Party Animals birthday layout from a few weeks ago is one of them.  The rest do not have any cricut cuts, but I decided to put them together with the other birthday layouts for one big birthday bonanza of layout ideas.

Project #3

Project #4

Project #5

The arrow is a cricut cut from the Artiste cartridge that has a matching CTMH stamp.

Project #6

I showed this layout a few weeks ago, but wanted to include it with the birthday theme as well.

Cute animal

Happy President's Day Monday!  Our BBTB2 challenge theme this week is cute animals, which inevitably leads me to create with two of my all-time favorite cricut cartridges- Create A Critter and Create A Critter 2.  I have several pieces of Create A Critter goodness to share!  As always, the designers over at BBTB2 have some wonderful projects to see and you can link up a project as well.

Project #1
This birthday layout will feature pics of my teens and their cousins, partying it up with birthday cake and ice cream!

 Cricut:
Create A Critter 2-party pig and party chick
CM Be Young-font
Paper-Echo Park

Project #2
This little card cutie was inspired by the sentiment.Isn't he cute?

Cricut:
Create A Critter-whale
Wild Card-card base
Plaintain Schoolbook-circle
scallop edge for the waves
Stamp-CTMH Animal Greetings
Ink-Tsueinko Memento Black
liquid glass on whale's spout

Project #3

 I made this layout of hiking pictures from last summer with some of the adorable critters.

Cricut:

Create A Critter-animals, stump and log

CM Be Young-font

Paper-Doodlebug

Thanksgiving layout

Happy Monday!  I think we can all heave a sigh of relief that last week is over and think about happier things like....the holidays!  I am hosting our BBTB2 challenge this week and have selected a Thanksgiving theme for the week.  For my Thanksgiving layout,  I used a CTMH paper pack called Swan Lake for the print papers and several different cartridges, including Artbooking and Artiste.  I had to add a pie (from the Flower Market cartridge), since Thanksgiving is all about the turkey and pie for my family!  Hope you will be able to have some fun this week and be creative.  You can link up a project over at BBTB2 and see the design team's creations.

Cricut:
Artiste-Thanksgiving title
Artbooking-polaroid photo mats, arrow
Flower Market-pie, With Love phrase
Plaintain Schoolbook-circle
Paper-CTMH Swan Lake prints, CTMH solids

Movie night layout

Happy Monday!  Fall is here with falling leaves and crisp, cool evenings.  What is more fun than having a movie night at home with some popcorn and apple cider?  Our BBTB2 challenge this week is movie night (or a movie themed project).  We do movie night fairly regularly around my house, bringing out the popcorn and root beer floats, so I made a layout for some movie night pics of the fam.  There's nothing better than being snuggled up on the couch in front of a roaring fire with my favorite peeps to watch something blow up (not a lot of chick flicks allowed with all my fellas around)!  I used a whole bunch of cartridges, but I love how it turned out!  I even hand-made my movie reel using circles from Plaintain Schoolbook!  Go see the projects from the design team and link up a movie project over at BBTB2 this week.

Cricut:
Family Album-row of stars
Artiste-Movie Night title
Locker Talk-ticket and clapper
County Fair-popcorn and soda
Artistry-filmstrip
Plaintain Schoolbook-film reel hand made using different size circles

The Big Apple NYC layout

Happy Monday!  It has been a rather busy and stressful last week, so I'm glad to be starting a new one!  And I will have a whole box of marvelous scrapbooking goodies (including the new cricut Flower Market cartridge by CTMH) to play with because it's my birthday this week!  Ideally my birthday would also be a national holiday where I could sleep in, but that MIGHT be asking a bit much, lol!

Our BBTB2 challenge this week is to use a cricut apple on a project.  I love apple season in the fall when the Honeycrisps are in our grocery store, all huge, crunchy, and delicious!!!!  However, I am scrapbooking pictures from the trip to THE Big Apple (Son#2 and I went to New York City with the high school band last spring), so I used my favorite apple from Doodlecharms as part of the title on my page.  The city landscape from Plaintain Schoolbook reminded me of the NYC skyline in Manhattan, so I added it to the bottom of the pages.  Go see all the marvelous apple projects at BBTB2 and link yours up this week.

Cricut:
Plaintain Schoolbook-city landscape, Roly Poly font
CM Traveler-taxi sign
Doodlecharms-apple
Paper-CTMH
brown chalk ink

It's a summer beach and pool layout bonanza!!!

Happy Monday!  Coming back to the real world after vacation is requiring much diet Coke to the rescue today!!!  We had a great trip to Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, CO and I took tons of amazing pictures.  While I make no claims to being anything special as a photographer, the pictures practically take themselves when you are someplace so beautiful with a nice camera and I can't wait to scrapbook all of our adventures!  So before I get to the crafty stuff, I'll share a little Rocky Mountain goodness…

My fellas

Having lunch about 4 miles into a hike, by Mills Lake in RMNP

Atlantic or Pacific?  It's the Continental Divide!

from Trail Ridge Road in RMNP

Hiking RMNP

Horseback riding in RMNP

and most importantly, the view from the hot tub at our condo!

So, the BBTB2 challenge this week is Fun in the Sun, celebrating the pool or beach.  I have lots of beachy goodness to share, as I've been scrapping pictures from our vacation last year.  So feel that ocean breeze while you browse my 8 summer themed beach/pool layouts here and go over to BBTB2, where the team has lots of fun projects to see.  (I have more beach/cruise layouts here on this post and more yet under the summer tab on the sidebar, if you are looking for ideas for a summer layouts.)

Layout #1

Cricut:
Life Is A Beach-bucket and shovel
Be Young-Be Free font
Paper/stickers-Echo Park prints, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink
square punch for photo corners

Layout #2

Cricut:
CM Traveler-title, flip flops
Paper-Echo Park print, CTMH solids
Doodlebug skittles
brown chalk ink

Layout #3

Cricut:
Pack Your Bags-all cuts
Paper-Carta Bella prints, CTMH solids
square punch for photo corners
brown chalk ink

Layout #4

No cricut on this one.
Paper-Carta Bella print/stickers, CTMH solids
square punch for photo corners
brown and navy chalk ink

Layout #5

Cricut:
A Child's Year-boy and beach cuts, title font
Plaintaitn Schoolbook-circle
Paper/Stickers-Echo Park, CTMH solids
square punch for photo corners
brown chalk ink

Layout #6

No cricut on this one
Paper-Echo Park prints/stickers, CTMH solids
Echo Park skittles
brown chalk ink
black pen

Layout #7

Cricut:
Pack Your Bags-flip flops/sunglasses, beach ball
Stork's Delivery-Frogs and Snails font
Paper-Echo Park prints/stickers, CTMH solids
square punch
brown chalk ink

Layout #8

Cricut:
Pack Your Bags-all cuts
Paper-Bo Bunny prints/stickers, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink

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Father's Day BBQ pop-up box card

Happy Monday!  I am hosting the BBTB2 challenge this week and it's all about the dads, since Father's Day is this coming weekend.  We have a man theme going-anything masculine with a cricut cut for Father's Day will fit the bill.  I saw a cute idea on Pinterest that sparked my project-a cooking themed pop-up box card.  Both my husband and my dad are kings of the smoker and grill, so this seemed like a perfect fit.  (Here in Kansas City, we are all about the BBQ.  There's an amateur pit master on every practically every corner!)

I followed this tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers to make my basic box card, and then used cricut cuts from Everyday Paperdolls for my cooking items, catsup, and mustard and Artbooking for my conversation bubble, which I stamped with the Love You and hearts.  We'd love to see your Father's Day projects over at BBTB2 and you can take a peek and see the rest of the design team projects for inspiration!

Cricut:
Everyday Paperdolls-cooking items, chef's hat
Artbooking-conversation bubble
Plaintain Schoolbook-circles for knobs
Paper-CTMH solids
Stamps-CTMH Hello, Life-Cardmaking and Hello, Life-Pocket Scrapbooking sets
Ink-Stampin Up poppy parade, Memento Tuxedo black
corner rounder
white and black pens for doodling

SaveSave

Two music layouts

Happy Monday!  We have a music challenge at BBTB2 this week and I have two music layouts for you.  Since all my kiddos are all very musical, I take lots of pictures from their various concerts and music events.  It's always kind of loud at our house, as someone is usually practicing.  I have two layouts to share today for our BBTB2 challenge and you can find many more projects under music on the sidebar (especially the 5 music layouts on this post!).  You can play along with our musical theme over at BBTB2, and the design team has a bunch of cute projects to get you started!

Layout #1

I used the Quarter Note cartridge for most of this layout of orchestra concert pictures with Son#3.  The banner cuts on the sides that I used as photo mats are from Artbooking (cut on real dial size).

Cricut:
Quarter Note-clef, notes, titles
Artbooking-banner photo mats
Paper-CTMH solids,
brown chalk ink
stamp-My Pink Stamper set

Layout #2

This layout of Son#2 playing with the high school pep band at a basketball game was inspired by something I saw on Pinterest.  The colorful paper is actually strips of washi tape that I layered so it looked like paper.  Bold and colorful (like the pep band), which was what I was going for.

Cricut:
Artistry-title and letter font
Artbooking-live out loud, arrows and heart
Plaintain Schoolbook-circles
washi tape
Paper-CTMH solids

A few Christmas cards

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving day!  I am very thankful for my family and the opportunity to spend some time with those I love.  It was a very relaxing day, as I didn't have to work at the hospital on Thanksgiving day or night this year (for which I am also thankful, lol!  As a nurse, working a lot of holidays goes with the territory).  My husband smoked a turkey, which was, in the words of the kids, epic in taste and my parents came over to enjoy the meal with us.  We ended the evening with a family movie night with a roaring fire in the fireplace, making me feel all warm and cozy!

I also got in a little crafty time in the basement to make some Christmas cards.  So here are a couple of them!  The first one is stamping only, no cricut.  I was feeling peaceful with a slate gray and white color combo.

Card #1

This next one did not photograph well…but it's a basic snowflake cut from Winter Woodland attached onto a Swiss dots embossed pair of circle with a brad.  I was going for an all white look (which I find really hard to photograph but looks really pretty in person), with slate gray ink for the sentiments.

Card #2

Cricut:

Winter Woodland-snowflake

Plaintain Schoolbook-circles

Stamps-assorted….not sure of the line

ink-CTMH slate 

Don't flip out layout

I had this adorable flip flop paper in my stash from the Echo Park Paradise Beach collection and couldn't resist making a punny summer project!  The title actually says DON'T flip out (the don't is in small sticker letters from the collection, which you can see better if you click on the photo).  I cut my flip flops, sunglasses, and sunscreen from the Pack Your Bags cartridge.  The other accents are stickers from the paper pack.    I'm going to link this to the Craftin' Desert Divas summer themed linky party.

Cricut:
Pack Your Bags-sunscreen, flip flops, sunglasses
Plaintain Schoolbook-circles
Robotz-font
Paper/stickers-Echo Park Paradise Beach collection prints, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink

Disney layout-The Liberty Inn (for BBTB2)

Well, I have returned from a few warm fabulous sunny days (which have been in short supply here in KC) in Florida seeing Universal Studios and DisneyWorld, so what better than a Disney themed layout?  As President's Day is this week, our challenge at BBTB2 is to make something with a patriotic theme.  I don't have any patriotic pictures waiting to be scrapped, but I did have some from our Disney trip last year that need presidential accents!  I made a layout for some pictures taken at the very patriotic themed Liberty Inn in the United States area of Epcott.  While we were eating lunch, a Colonial era band came marching through the eating area playing patriotic tunes on the fife and drums! (One of those totally random Disney magic moments.)  The silhouettes of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are from the My World cartridge, along with the constitution scroll cuts.

Cricut:
Plaintain Schoolbook-circles, fonts
My World-presidents, scrolls
Paper-Creative Imaginations print of building, Reminisce Washington DC print, CTMH solids
brown and blue chalk ink
White Signo Uniball pen

I hope you'll join our challenge and can't wait to see what you all come up with!

Craft til you drop tag (for BBTB2)

Happy 2014!  To start the new year, my wonderful DT sister Brenda has issued us an open challenge dedicated to our hobby, to celebrate National Hobby Month.  I had no idea there was such a thing as National Hobby Month, but I'm willing to celebrate it all year long if it involves scrapbooking!  My nieces have become crafters (they share a baby bug) and I help keep them stocked in paper on birthdays and Christmas.  One of my nieces has a birthday this month, so since the gift will be scrapbooking paper/supplies, I made a crafty themed tag to go on the package (I've totally been on a tag kick because the recipients really liked the Christmas tags I made).  The craft with scissors on the tag is from Nate's ABCs and everything else is from Plaintain Schoolbook except the star (which was just lying around on the craft table).

Cricut:
Plaintain Schoolbook-tag, cut at 4 1/2 inches
Nate's ABCs-phrase cut at 1 1/2 inches
Paper-solids CTMH, print Bo Bunny Surprise collection
ribbon-American Crafts
brown chalk ink

Link up your project to celebrate your hobby with us at BBTB2 and we look forward to lots of fun challenges throughout this year!

Book mark tags for the new year (for Exploring Cricut)

2014 is almost upon us and Diane has challenged us to make some kind of project related to the New Year at Exploring Cricut.  I belong to two book clubs, so I made some tags to use as bookmarks.  We have just finished planning all the books to read for this upcoming year, so on the back of my tags is room to write the list of titles for 2014.  I used Plaintain Schoolbook to cut the basic tag and it's shadow.  I then added the silhouette of the child reading from one of my favorite cartridges, A Child's Year, and used the font to add the year.

Cricut:
Plaintain Schoolbook-tags, cut at 4 inches
A Child's Year-child cut at 2 1/2 inches, font at 1 inch
Paper-kraft, CTMH for the blue paper
brown chalk ink
ribbon/twine from the stash

Link up your project with us at Exploring Cricut and we hope you will join us for lots of crafty fun in 2014!

More Christmas tags (for BBTB2)

Christmas is almost here!  We are having an inspiration only post this week at BBTB2, featuring more Christmas gift tags.  These are so quick and easy to make and just give a package that extra bit of special!  I made a whole stack, using the basic tag and shadow from Plaintain Schoolbook that matched the colors on some of my wrapping paper.  I added the clef and holly leaf from the CM Tis the Season cartridge to two of them, but the rest are simple and sweet.  (Son #2 is getting a little mini keyboard, so the tag with the clef is special for him!)

Cricut:
Plaintain Schoolbook-tags, cut at 3 1/2 inches
CM Tis the Season-clef and holly, cut at 2 1/2 inches
Paper-variety of scraps for the prints, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink