Family Scrapbook page

My daughter asked me to craft with her and we decided to do a layout. She chose the images for all the members of our family from the Cricut Cartridge Everyday paper dolls. My daughter picked all of the outfits and accessories. We used paper with a raised image in the background and patterned paper. The layout was brought together with "thickers" black leather letters. I added a picture from our vacation, stickers, journaling and placed it into a scrapbook frame. Voila! Instant home decor.

Recipe

dad cut at 4"

mom cut at 3.5"

sister cut at 3"

brother cut at 2"

La-Vie

Cricut Circle Monthly Challenge - March 2011

I'm proud to say that Provo craft is invested in helping the community and our education system. This month, the winner of this challenge wins a lightly-loved Cricut Expression machine and 4 cartridges for their child's school!

I am so excited because I use my Cricut a lot to lead the children in projects and would love for them to do even more with their own machine! We had to create a project for a child with the Cricut including at least 2 cuts.

I chose to make a 2 pocket folder for my daughter who is in kindergarten. She needs a new one often. It seems like every other week. I used the Tinkerbell and Storybook Cricut Cartridges.

1. tinkerbell - butterfly, flower cut at 5"


2. storybook - "Zora" cut at 3"


3. folder - pink Cricut 12/24 cardstock - hand cut to 19'x12" with two pockets for inside cut at 4 3/4"x 9 1/2"


4. bling from my stash

Wish me luck!

La-Vie

Jamaica Scrapbook for Crystal 11 - the finale

The scrapbook ends with the reggae king and queen dance contest with winners being my hubby and my bestie! And a special note to the birthday boy at the end. The journaling was done on a border strip, the mats were done with Die Cuts With a View adhesive mat stack. The jet setters stickers about Jamaica that I used throughout the album were backed with a large picture of the Jamaican flag. I cut off the name of the sticker pack and put a vellum sentiment on for a final embellishment. The titles were cut from Cricut Cartridge Cuttin Up. The crown is from the potpourri Cricut Cartridge. The neutral paper from my stash was also used throughout the scrapbook. The creative memories custom cutting system allowed me to make the picutes into circles and squares. I hope you enjoyed this scrapbook as much as I did.

La-Vie

Jamaica Scrapbook for Crystal 10

The paper from my stash depcits sand, as we were headed to a beach party for the evening. The resort looks different at night, especially the pool. Dressing up for dinner and heading out was an every day thing on the island. I used 3-d shells to accent this page and Jolee's titles as well as titles cut from Die Cuts With a View adhesive mat stack and Cricut Cartridge cuttin up. Instead of matting the pictures I matted the journaling to change things up.

La-Vie

Check out Disney Dreamer Designs - Blog Hop

http://disneydreamerdesigns.blogspot.com/2011/03/welcome-to-disneypixar-blog-hop.html I love a good blog hop and this one is all about Disney/Pixar. Check it out today!! There are about 10 blogs showing real style and real interesting projects. La-Vie

Jamaica Scrapbook for Crystal 9

The best spot in the resort was the pool bar! We loved how pretty RIU set up the area and decided to do a photoshoot. Jolee's titles set the tone for the page as well as the pool themed paper from my stash. By offsetting the focal picture I made room for journaling. The "&" was cut from Cricut Cartridge Cuttin Up. The oval picture and mat were cut with Creative Memories custom cutting system. The mats were made with Die Cuts With A View adhesive mat stack. Journaling is the most important part of the layout next to the pictures. In this layout 2 journaling blocks were needed to tell the whole story. Wish I had a pina colada now!!

La-Vie

Jamaica Scrapbook for Crystal 8

The finale of the waterfall climb!It was a great accomplishment to conquer the falls! I used decorative edge scissors to cut the 12x12 page. I also used Martha Stewart Punch around the page to create the blue circular embellishments. Instead of creating page titles, I decided to mat a vellum scenic route sentiment with blue allowing it to coordinate with the page. Short and sweet!

La-Vie

Jamaica Scrapbook for Crystal 7

Although my daughter and I could not climb the falls, I was pregnant and she was too short, we could tell is was a strenuous, yet very rewarding challenge. We hope to climb together sometime in the future. Since I could only see them at the end of the climb, I tried to capture as many aspects of their climb as possible. It was fun watching my best friend, her son and my husband take a ride on the natural slide in the rocks. With this natural setting I chose to use neutral colors found in the pictures with minimal embellishments. The real focal point is the beauty of the waterfall.

The title is cut from Cricut cartridge Cuttin Up and the mats were made from Die Cuts With a View adhesive mat stack. The paper is from my stash.

La-Vie

Cricut Circle Weekly Challenge #25

To enter this contest I had to make a creation with my Cricut Imagine machine with at least 2 cuts. I decided to make a baby card for my friend who recently had her third child, a baby girl (her others are boys) so I wanted to make something special.

I started with a glitter cardstock base made by Craft n Craftin' (GCS008 Ocean Blue 12x12). Using Bazzil white cardstock and Cricut Imagine Cartridge - Nursery Tails, I printed and cut the main image twice (once as a complete image and once as layers). Therefore, this card includes 5 cuts. I inked the edges of the white portion of the card and the butterflies adn dragonfly to make them stand out more.

As you can see in the second picture, I used foam adhesive to create different heights with the butterflies and dragonfly. I heat embossed each butterfly with clear embossing powder to give it some shine. I used my versamark pen to allow the embossing powder to stick and then heated it with a heat gun. Finally, I used smooch top coat to highlight the remaining smaller butterflies and added 2 colors of stickles to accent the message. No card is complete without ribbon so I added some at the bottom and attached it behind the bow with zots small glue dots. While the top 2 pictures are the stickles wet, The last picture shows the glitter glue (stickles) when it is dried.

Wish me luck! I haven't won any challenges yet but the winners are randomly selected so it's anyone's chance!

La-Vie

Jamaica Scrapbook for Crystal 6

These next two pages showcase more of the animals from the Dolphin Cover in Ohos Rios. Notice how mama and baby don't want to kiss the beast but hubby is in a full on kisseroo! LOL! We had a lot of fun.

I decided to create interest on this 2-page layout by color blocking with green and yellow. I also cut out one picture of the dolphin and journaled around it to break up the formalness of the previous pages. And insted of using a dark colored paper for the title shadow, I used a white multi-color printed paper for a subtle splash of color behind the words. The Cricut cartridge Cuttin Up was used for the text. I used Die Cuts With A View (DCWV) adhesive mat stack to cut the top layer of the letters and in this case I used DCWV travel mat stack for the title shadow. The expoxy stickers and embellishments were from travel sticker sheets from Jolees I believe at AC Moore.

La-Vie

Jamaica Scrapbook for Crystal 5

The whole trip was magical, but the most magical part was the dolphin encounter. If you have done it, you know what I am talking about. Next time I am going to swim with them, but the fact that I was preggers would've freaked them out so we only got to be in the water to our ankle to do the touch program.

Notice how the papers I used mimic the color of the scenery in the pictures. I used a marbled paper on the bottom half of both pages to mimic water moving. These subtle details come together to create an amazing layout. Layered stickers and chipboard stickers complete the look. Who wouldn't want to kiss a dolphin?

Tools - Cricut Font Cartriudge - Cuttin Up, Die Cuts With a View adhesive mat stack, Creative Memories cutting system, creative memories corner rounder.

La-Vie

Jamaica Scrapbook for Crystal 4

Doesn't this make you want to go on Vaca right now? We enjoyed the nightlife in Jamaica and the scrapbook wouldn't be complete without highlighting that. I used Die Cuts With a View adhesive mat stack for the journaling and mats and focused on highlighting our outfits, expressions and the feeling of the night. Aren't my hubby and daughter cute?! Notice that I keep the pictures of my family low because this book is for Crystal and her son. Sometimes simple is better when going with a theme. I used papers from the AC Moore clearance rack and a font from Cricut Cartridge Cuttin Up. I like to split up titles to allow the eye to center in the middle of the two page layout. That way someone can take in the whole spread instead of looking at them alone. What do you think of this layout?

la-vie

Have you seen this album from the beginning? Check the previous posts from the last few days.

Jamaica Scrapbook for Crystal 3

The third layout in Crystal's Jamaica book includes a palm tree cut with the Cricut from the Potpourri cartridge. The paper was from the clearance rack at AC Moore. I used the Creative Memories custom cutting system to cut the oval picture and the Creative Memories corner rounder - the BEST corner rounder on the market. All the other embellishements were bought at Tuesday Morning and Big Lots. It makes me want to hop a plan to Jamaica now!

La-Vie

Jamaica Scrapbook for Crystal 2

Here's the next two pages of Crystal's Jamaica album. Die Cuts With A View makes mat stacks that are adhesive. I love love love them. I made all the titles with it and all the mats as well. It save a lot of time. For this layout I used some beautiful patterned paper from my stash. I was able to find an embellishment that matches the paper. I cannot remember which cartridge I cut it from though. I used the Creative Memories custom cutting system as well. I like to place some items off center to create interest. I was 6 months pregnant on this trip with my son Aidan.

La-Vie

Jamaica Scrapbook for Crystal 1

As a surprise Christmas gift for my best friend Crystal, I made one of my first gift albums of a trip we took together to Jamaica. She loved it and cherishes it to this day. While she may take pictures she rarely displays them. So this was a great way to remember the trip.

I wanted to use a tropical color palate which is much different than my usually color choices. Tools I used are Cricut Cartridge Cuttin Up font, Martha stewart punch around the page stamps, destination stickers all about Jamaica, Creative Memories shape cutting system to make the large circle and circle shadow.

There are 4 fundamental parts of a scrapbook page: pictures, title, journaling, embellishments. I'll show you a few pages each day. I'd love some comments on this album.

La-Vie

Stamped cards

Believe it or not I create crafts sometimes without my Cricut. (Oooh! Did I say the wrong thing?) It's ok, sometimes I get stuck... crafters block. Especially when I make a set of 80 cards. It's exhausting. I got these large stamps from Repeat Impressions http://www.repeatimpressions.com/. I like the sentiments and tend to leave the inside blank. I used Coordinations card stock - it's double sided and color coordinated. Until I purchased a stamp mat, some of my large images would not stamp in the center of the stamp. SO ANNOYING.

This weekend I am going to a scrapbooking expo and will purchase a lot of cling foam so my stamps have the give needed to stamp evenly. Notice how I masked my mistakes with Copics markers or by popping images up. I believe most projects can be saved with well-placed embellishments. I'm going out to enjoy the warm weather and sunshine! TTYL.

La-Vie

Fruits of the Spirit

My daughter attends christian school and they had plans to give special awards to children who do outstanding deeds. The program is called "Fruits of the Spirit." I offered to make fruit so that when children do oustanding deeds their name and the deed can be written on the fruit and hung in the hallway til the end of the school year. It was a blessing.

I used the Cricut Cartridge Preserves to create the layered fruit at 8". Most of the card stock was the 12x24 paper studio and cricut cardstock. The layering was quite easy. I made about 70 fruit total in the varieties of canteloupe, banana, mango, apple, orange, pear, pineapple and apricot.

Have a crafty day!

La-Vie

Cricut Circle Magazine Challenge

I'm competing again in a challenge to win 2 exclusive Cricut Cartridges. The challenge is to create something with the Cricut Cartridge Everyday Cricut (only available to Cricut circle members). I created a 3x3 calling card for sharing with the new folks I meet at Cricut Circle meet ups. The cricut symbol was but at 2" and the scallop squares are cut at 3". The back (not shown here) includes my address and my ID number for the Circle. These cards also are used to win door prizes. Wish me luck!

La-Vie

Cricut Circle Weekly Challenge #23 - Guy Stuff

This week's challenge is all about the fellas! I don't usually craft with men in mind, so I struggled not to add all the frilly stuff to this project. In order to qualify for this challenge I had to add certain elements. In addition to 2 Cricut Image cuts I incorporated string, staples and a distressed edge.

I made this card for my husband. He is participating in the tough mudder race next month. He will run 10 miles with a team and encounter all kinds of obstacles along the way. He has lost 50 lbs and got super cut using Insanity and P90X workouts. Although he never did cardio before last year he has transformed himself into an althelte. To encourage him to "FLY" and win the race this card is for him.

Recipe

• Cricut Imagine - Lori's Garden (bird)
• Cricut Cartridge - Wild Card (flap from argyle card)
• cardstock, ribbon and letter stickers from my stash
• staples

The argyle part of the card was lightly distressed with an emory board. This was a scrap I had left over when I mistakenly grabbed my cutter instead of my scoring tool. I ruined an envelope I made but decided to keep this accent. And voila! It works well with this card months later.

Hope you like it...wish me luck!

La-Vie

Imagine week post 4 - flower power card

This card was inspired by a little oopsy I made with my Imagine. I wanted to print a lot of images for cards but I had not used my Imagine in a while. I cued it up and left the room. When I came back the images were so light and unusable and the blade was off a bit so the cut didnt match up perfectly. So I learned to clean the print heads and recalibrate the blade if I haven't used my machine in a while. The print/cut function worked well.

I decided to use the faded images to layer with well printed images to create dimension on my card. I used pop dots that were circular and cut them in half to fit in areas like the stem. I used 2 different flowers, embossing and ribbon. my favorite cardstock is bazzil premium. it's heavy weight and works well for cards. i used a piece for the layer. it held the embossing and punching quite nicely. my favorite punches are Martha Stewart punch around the page. I usually don't finish the inside of my cards but when its a dark card I like to have a light surface to write on.

Recipe

• Cricut Imagine Cartridge Lori's Garden
• Martha Stewart around the page punch - ribbon loop
• Cuttlebug embossing folder - floral screen
• bazzill premium cardstock
• ribbon from my stash
• pop dots

La-Vie

Imagine week post 3 - love you card

I created this card for someone I love. Maybe it's for you...

From Cricut Cartridge Lori's Garden I printed/cut the love you image at 3". Coordinations cardstock, Cricut cardstock and ribbon from my stash completes the look. To affix the ribbon, I used regular magic tape to tape each end down on the pink layer before affixing it to the blue layer. Most of my cards are blank inside. this one is blue inside. I am enjoying my exploration of Lori's Garden and making beautiful cards from left over scraps from previous projects.

La-Vie

Cricut Imagine week post 2 - bird card

I love this card! I am not sure what I will use it for yet, but it all started with scraps and this cute bird printed and cut from white cardstock in my Cricut Imagine machine. I love my Imagine because the detail and colors are so vivid and I have the opportunity to print a flat image like this bird or print all the elements of the bird so that I can layer it myself and create dimension within the design. so many options.... all up to my imagination.

Ok, so I decided to use my coordinations cardstock scraps, dry embossed it with my cuttlebug, used white ribbon from my stash and voila! Instant fabulosity! You may notice that the script is turned on its side. I wanted the piece of paper to be embossed edge to edge and it wouldn't fit the regular way. I like the effect. Do you?

Recipe:

• Cricut Imagine cartridge - Lori's garden
• Cuttlebug embossing folder - script
• white ribbon from my stash
• Bazzil basic white cardstock
• coordinations cardstock

La-Vie

Imagine Week - Thank you card

I promised to share the cards made from my Cricut Imagine and scraps. Here is the second card in the set. The reason I love my Imagine is because you start with white cardstock and your imagination can run wild! I printed the Thank you sentiment from the Lori's Garden cart at 3". I used coordinations cardstock that is brown one one side and green on the other. The great thing about coordinations cardstock is that you can create a coordinated look instantly, and if you distress the dark side the lighter color shows through. You can sand it, emboss it, etc. A glimpse of this is seen at the top fold of the card, there are little bits of green peeking out.

I also love my Provocraft Cuttlebug. It can cut as well but I use it most for dry embossing. The pattern on the green layer on the front of the card was run through the cuttlebug using the plum blossom folder. It adds great dimension to all projects. Finally, I got the ribbon from the $1 bin at Micheal's. Ribbon is my new obsession. I add it in whenever and wherever I can. It gives my projects a finishing touch I cannot deny.

La-Vie

p.s. If you are new to my blog, check out older posts using the archive on the right hand side of the blog. There are a year of posts to look through. All comments are adored, so please leave them as often as you can on past, present and future posts.

1st Creative Critterz Imaginations challenge

Greetings followers! And welcome to all my FB friends who have recently learned I am doing this and have subscribed! xoxox

I'm entering the first challenge on one of the blogs I follow faithfully Creative Critterz Imaginations. The blog is for crafts made with the Cricut Imagine machine (launched in Sept 2010). The Imagine was made in conjunction with HP so it prints and cuts images. It also prints full sheets of paper and has the ability to apply color patterns to images from the traditional Cricut cartridges. Basically, it's the bomb and I love it!

Just this week I had the urge to turn it on and play at bit. Luckily, something I have made is eligible for the contest. The rules are simple, make something with the Cricut Imagine. The prize is a cartridge for the Imagine called Blast Off. I really want this cart because I only have 5 Imagine cartridges and I would like to build up my library. Winners are chosen randomly so what do I have to lose? The odds are really great right now because only 14 other people have entered. However the contest closes in about 4 hours so who knows?

Scrapbooking is about making the most of scraps. So I decided to make cards from my scraps. I printed several images at 3" from the Cricut Imagine Cartridge Lori's Garden and had fun combining scraps of ribbon, patterned paper, Cuttlebug embossing folders etc. I am not sure what most of these cards will be used for, but I have categorized them in the "Just Because" file for now. I find it useful to have a stash of cards made for occassions that come up. That way I won't have to scurry to create items of the fly or have to spend big bucks at hallmark like I did for Vday.

Recipe:

• Cricut Imagine Cartridge - Lori's Garden
• coordinations card stock
• patterned paper from my stash
• ribbon from my stash

Wish me luck! I'll share the rest of the cards I made with scraps and the Imagine all week. Stay tuned!

La-Vie

p.s. I love comments!!!

Journals made with Your Story Photo

The theme for the Mocha Moms Lehigh Valley Mom's Night In for January 2011 was "favorite things." While we can never ever do it like Oprah, we came together and brought each other a few of our favorite things. For one of my items, I used my Provo Craft Your Story Photo binding machine for the very first time. I created these journals using Cuttlebug embossing folders - perfectly paisley and Sizzix embossing folder scrollmark (from the wedding #2 set) plus ribbon from my stash. I cut white cardstock pages to fit the inside and bound the book in a few mins. It was really easy! The ladies loved the journals and my instructions to write their heart's desires and plans within.

La-Vie