Snowflake card

Happy Monday!  Since it's been rather cold and frosty in many places all over the US this last week, my pick of a snow theme for the BBTB2 challenge this week seemed very appropriate!  (I even learned a new word- bomb cyclone!).  Anything snow related made with your cricut is perfect for this challenge!  I am in the middle of making some thank you cards for all our Christmas gifts and did a card with one of the snowflakes from the Winter Woodlands cartridge.  It was hard to decide on a single snowflake-I wanted to use ALL the snowflakes, but loved this pretty layered one on Winter Woodlands.  I'm looking forward to doing some crafting and trying to stay warm and toasty inside while it's cold outside!  Stay warm and have some crafting fun!

Cricut:
Winter Woodland-snowflake cut at 3 1/2 in.
Paper-Bo Bunny prints
Ink-Stampin Up Night of Navy
Stamp-so old, I'm not even sure where I got it!

So, moving to non-crafty matters-have you recovered from the holidays?  We went on vacation in San Francisco over the Christmas break, but came home to -12 degree temps the night we returned to KC.  It was a bit of a shock to the system, let me tell you!  San Francisco is supercool and I definitely want to go back again!  Here's a few vacay snaps for those who like travel:

 riding the open top bus for city tour

 Chinatown!

 of course we visited Alcatraz!

 the row of "Painted Ladies" famous from Full House

 the iconic Golden Gate bridge

 city lights of San Francisco at night

 the beach across from our hotel

the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate park

the redwoods in Golden Gate park

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 

Hitting the Slopes layout (for BBTB2)

Hi everyone!  I am hosting the BBTB2 challenge this week and I selected snowflakes for the challenge theme, since it has been ridiculously cold and snowy here.  You can link up any new project with a cricut snowflake over at BBTB2 this week for a chance to get picked as the project of the week.  There are a ton of cricut snowflakes to choose from for your project.  The design team at BBTB2 has some beautiful snowflake projects for some inspiration!

My project is a layout for snow skiing pictures.  It was inspired by this fantastic paper from the Carta Bella Warm and Cozy collection.  I was going for kind of a mountain lodge feeling-like when you are stepping into the ski lodge for some hot chocolate after getting off the lift at the top of the mountain and peeling down to just your sweater.  My snowflake is from the Family Album cartridge, which I just got for Christmas so of course I HAD to try it out!  The fun quirky font is from the CM Stork's Delivery cartridge.   The skis are from Winter Woodlands.

Cricut:
Winter Woodlands-skis
CM Stork's Delivery-Frogs and Snails Font
Family Album-snowflake

Be sure to share your winter snowflake project with us at BBTB2!

The magic of winter layout (for Exploring Cricut)

It's a cricut choice challenge this week at Exploring Cricut!  Here are the details:  use the color blue, at least 2 cricut cuts, and at least one patterned paper.  I've got some snowy pictures from the whole polar vortex snow event from a few weeks ago to scrap, so I made a winter layout with the Winter Woodland cartridge.  I added a little stickle to the snow on the house and the ice skater's dress for some sparkle, although it's really hard to see in the picture.  It's very sparkly in person though!  The bg papers are from an old Echo Park collection called Winter Wishes.

Cricut:
Winter Woodland-house and skater, both cut at 5 1/2 inches, title cut at 3 1/2 inches
Paper/Stickers-Echo Park Winter Wishes collection prints, CTMH solids

As usual, my DT sisters at Exploring Cricut have some amazing projects to share and we hope you will join our challenge!  And stay warm, where ever you are!

Snow Day layout (for Exploring Cricut)

Today is my day for the daily project for Exploring Cricut!  I have a Snow Day layout for today.  After having two very large snow storms in the last week, I had many more pictures of the kids playing in the snow!  (I am really ready to be DONE with snow now, but the weather does not seem to be cooperating!)  I used more of the wonderful Winter Wishes collection from Echo Park for my layout, along with the Winter Woodlands cartridge.  I absolutely love the paper from this Echo Park collection and the mittens and stocking cap from WW just seemed made for it! The stickers and journal box are also from the collection.   Hope it is slightly less cold and snowy for all of you!

Cricut:
Winter Woodland-title cut at 3 1/2 in., mittens and hat cut at 2 1/2 in.
Paper-Echo Park prints, solids are CTMH and CM
brown chalk ink

Note:  The Winter Woodands font with the cutouts is beautiful, but I find it prone to snagging and tearing while cutting.  I've found it best to use a slow cutting speed and reasonably sturdy paper for the best results. I've had bad outcomes when using thin paper.  

The Magic of Winter layout

It has been VERY cold here-which kept me in the mood to scrap some snowy New's Year's Day pics of the kids.  I used the Winter Woodland cartridge for all the cuts and the BBTB2 challenge this week, bird on a branch, inspired the bird.  I had wanted something with a pop of red and that was just the thing!  The beautiful background paper is from the Echo Park Winter Wishes collection.

Cricut:
Winter Woodland-all cuts
Paper-Echo Park Winter Wishes print, solids CTMH and CM
pop dots

I'm linking this to the Exploring Cricut challenge this week-Baby It's Cold Outside and the BBTB2 challenge- bird on a branch.

Winter Fun layout

This is a winter layout for some very old ski pictures!  I used the Teen Scene Paper Doll for the skier and Winter Woodland for the title.  The pretty layered snowflakes are from the CM Cheerful Seasons cart (had to slow down the cutting speed to cut these-tricky to get a clean cut, but so pretty when put together!).  The background paper is from the Bo Bunny Powder Mountain collection.  Sorry about the glare-no sunshine here for the last few days, so it was hard to get decent photos.

Cricut:
Paper Doll Teen Scene-skier guy
Winter Woodlands-title and snowflakes
CM Cheerful Seasons-snowflakes
Paper-Bo Bunny Powder Mountain collection, solids CTMH
Stamp/Ink-My Pink Stamper Winter set, Stampin Up Close to Cocoa ink
Stickers-Echo Park


I going to link this to the BBTB2 challenge this week to use a snowflake.  I'm also going to add this to the Little Scrap Pieces Winter blues challenge.

It's time to start the Christmas cards!!!

I made 27 Christmas cards this weekend!  My mom, nieces, BFF, and I got together Friday night and Saturday to make Christmas cards and projects-I think we made over 100 cards between us!  So you will be seeing some more of them over the next few weeks.  Today's card was made with the bird from Winter Woodland and holly from the CM Cheerful Seasons cart.  I saw a similar card on pinterest and changed it just a bit up to work with my supplies.  The background is embossed with a snowflake folder.

Cricut:
Winter Woodland-bird
CM Cheerful Seasons-holly
Accent Essentials-scallop circle, circles
Sizzix snowflake embossing folder
Paper- CTMH gray and brown card stock, Theresa Collins Christmas Cottage prints
twine, pop dots, button
scallop border-Stampin Up punch

SKI VAIL layout

I dug around for some old ski pictures of us with friends (from like 20 years ago!) because I had the perfect paper for a ski layout left over from my Echo Park Winter Park collection.  They were in a big box of pictures I plan to get to "someday".  My husband and I had a good chuckle when looking through the whole roll of pics-we were so much younger and thinner!!!!  The kids barely recognized us, lol!  I used Accent Essentials for the snowflake, circle, and large accent shape under pictures.  I used the Mickey Font for the title and Winter Woodland for the skis.  The rest is stickers from the paper collection. 

Cricut:
Accent Essentials-big shapes, snowflake (cut with image, blackout, and shadow at 2 1/2 in.)
Mickey Font-title
Winter Woodland-skis
Paper-Echo Park Winter Park collection
brown chalk ink in jumbo java
ribbon-Stampin Up cherry cobbler

I'm going to add this to the Exploring Cricut 123 challenge this week:  to use at least 1 ribbon, 2 cricut cuts, and 3 buttons or jewels.  I've got my cherry cobbler ribbon folded in half under the ski pass, my snowflake and skis (wasn't sure if the title counted), and my 3 buttons at the top for an accent.

2011 calendar month pages

This was my calendar that I had hanging this last year, with all the pages together.  I've shown a few of them separately.  I used Designer's Calendar for the grid and month/day names and numbers, and a whole variety of cartridges for the decorations.  Doodlecharms and Simply Charmed were the carts I used the most (besides Designer's Calendar).

January:

Stretch Your Imagination and Graphically Speaking

February:

Doodlecharms and Paisley

March:

Simply Charmed and Stretch Your Imagination

April:

Simply Charmed and Paisley

May:

Doodlecharms and Simply Charmed

June:

Doodlecharms and H2O

July:

Doodlecharms and Graphically Speaking

August:

Mickey and Friends and H2O

September:

Doodlecharms and Locker Talk

October:

Doodlecharms

November:

\

Doodlecharms and Simply Charmed

December:

Doodlecharms and Winter Woodlands



Warm Winter Wishes

This layout was inspired by the paper, which I found at Hobby Lobby.  The reindeer made me think of the reindeer on Winter Woodlands and it sort of went from there.  The pics are from a choir concert last year and I plan to journal on the tag.

Cricut:
Winter Woodlands-title, tag, reindeer
A Child's Year-scalloped photo mats
Paper-reindeer paper Hobby Lobby, plus assorted CM cardstock
brown chalk ink

December calendar page

Here's the December calendar page I have hanging up.  I'm going to do a post soon with the whole year together.  I used Designer's Calendar for the grid, numbers, and month.

Cricut:
Doodlecharms-stocking and present
Winter Woodlands-peace
Designer's Calendar-all other cuts
Paper-assorted cardstock

I'm going to link this to The Paper Varienty's anything goes challenge this week.

sock monkey thanks card

So son #2 had a sock monkey themed birthday party recently.  This is one of the thank you cards I made for him to write on.   The thanks is from Winter Woodland.  (I had kind of forgotten that cart had to/from, thanks, and some other words on it.)  The fun sock monkey paper I found at Hobby Lobby!  The stamp inside at the bottom (left him lots of room to write) is from Stampin Up.  The cardstock is Stampin Up creamy caramel for the base and cherry cobbler and very vanilla for the inside.  

Cricut: 

Winter Woodland-thanks

Paper-SU, Hobby Lobby sock monkey paper (don't know the brand)

Stamp-SU

I'm linking this to the Clean and Scentsible anything goes challenge.