Sending Love



   Love is in the air! This week I've been looking through some of the leftovers from my My Creative Scrapbook kits, and I found some bits and bobs from the Paper Hearts collection from Crate Paper that I hadn't used up yet. I love the punch out elements from this collection, and I decided to make this postage stamp style sentiment the focal point of a Valentine's Day card.

 

   I layered the letters over some strips of paper from the collection and some vintage sheet music. Some Prima roses and Diamond Stickles were the perfect finishing touches for this Valentine.

 

   Wishing you lots of love, my friends!

Shaped Happy Birthday

 

  I'm still replenishing my stock of birthday cards, and I found this cute image on my Birthday Bash Cricut cartridge. I made this quick and simple shaped card by cutting two 6" sundaes and adhering them together at the top. I wanted this to be a light and feminine card, so I chose some pastel scraps from my stash and some London Market 6x6 papers. A little white gel pen and some Diamond Stickles  top off my ice cream sundae.

 

  Thanks for stopping by today, my friends!

Jazzin' Up Cricut Cuts

   As you've seen in some of my previous posts, I've been experimenting with my Cricut lately and some techniques for embellishing my cuts. My card stash was running low on birthday greetings, so I broke out the Cricut and my Birthday Bash cartridge and got cutting!

 

  I chose some festive patterned paper from K and Company for this set of llama-rific cards. I cut the first llama from patterned paper and added some sewing lines around the outside edges. Googly eyes are always a must for adding some character to animal cuts!

 

 

  For this version, I added some shadows with my Copic markers and chose a different type of eye. I also added some highlights with a white gel pen.

 

 

  The last version just might be my favorite! The white gel pen stayed, but I added some shadows and rosy cheeks with a Q-tip and some chalk pastels. What a little cutey this little guy turned out to be!

Thanks for stopping by, my friends!

See Ya Later Sale-a-Bration Preview

 

 

  I'm really excited about the fun products Stampin' Up is offering this year for Sale-a-Bration! When I placed my last order I got to preview a few of the fun items for 2014, and this adorable stamp set called See Ya Later is one of my absolute favorites! All the images are so sweet, and these sentiments work wonderfully with the chalkboard technique that's all the rage right now.

 

  I'll be sharing some of my other preview products in the coming week. See you soon, my friends!

I Love Christmas Mail!

  I absolutely LOVE getting photo cards in the mail at Christmas from my friends and family, and I've always struggled to find a place to keep them all. I had a light bulb moment over Christmas vacation, and I decided to scrapbook them all on one layout to help me remember what year I received them.

  Grid patterns always work well for multiple photos, so I decided to fill every square inch of this layout with the adorable faces of loved ones. I used Old Olive and Real Red card stock from Stampin' Up for this layout, along with Simple Stories Christmas collection from my My Creative Scrapbook December kit.

 

 

  The varied sizes of the photos on the cards were a little challenging to work with, but I tried to cut my photos into 3x3 squares, or, in the case of very small pictures 1 1/2x3 rectangles. I cut the title with my Cricut using the Winter Frolic cartridge and the speech bubbles and hearts with Create a Critter, and jazzed everything up with a touch of white gel pen.

 

 

For my journaling, I cut a tag to place in a pocket located on the upper back side of my page. I just LOVE Christmas mail! 

Stuck on U Sketches January Challenge

   Hi, friends! I recently stumbled on a new-to-me sketch blog that I'm excited to play along with called Stuck on U Sketches. Each month features a die cut, project life, and scrapbooking sketch challenge, so there are lots of opportunities to use these sketches for lots of inspiration during the month.

  I decided to play along with the sketch challenge. Here's the January sketch:

 

And here's my take on it:

 

 

I decided to look ahead a little (February being the month of love and all) and work on a Valentine-themed page. This layout uses the Paper Hearts Collection from Crate Paper, a K and Company cork frame, and some die cuts from the Create a Critter Cricut cartridge.

 

 

 

Thanks for stopping by today, my friends!

Cricut Casing with Monique Griffith Designs

  Ever since I got my Cricut in 2010, I've struggled to make Cricut cuts "work" in my page designs. Granted, as a beginning scrapbooker, I didn't have a grasp of what my style really was, but I did know what I liked, and I found that I didn't like a lot of the projects out there that used Cricut cuts. Many are clean and simple, which I appreciate but just isn't "me," many are really cutesy (also not exactly me), and I struggled to make the images come to visual life in a way that appealed to me.

  About a year ago, I stumbled upon Monique Griffith's blog. Her page designs appealed to me in a way that many others haven't, and I find them just so charming! She finds a way to ground her cuts in a larger story, makes them visually interesting with patterned papers and textures, and fills her pages with lots of detail. When I saw her pattern for a layout using the Country Life cartridge, I knew exactly how I wanted to scrap my latest batch of farm pictures!

 

 

Designs like Monique's have many elements that appeal to me. They are visually interesting and colorful, they tell a larger story, and they are detailed. I love anything miniature and always have, and her layouts always seem like they are about to come to life!

 

 

I had so much fun cutting and assembling this layout, and I appreciate Monique's inspiration! If you have a moment, I encourage you to visit her blog for some wonderful design ideas and patterns!

 

Cartridges used:

Country Life, Mini Monsters, and Nate's ABC's