Using my Gypsy to Make Cuts That I Don't Have

Hello everyone!  I hope that you enjoying a wonderful holiday week.  We recently went to stay overnight at my parents' house, and, like every good mom, I made sure that we had everyone's clothes and pj's.  However, just before we left our house, the DirectTV guy had been late for his appointment with us and it was a little crazy at our house to say the least.  So, when we arrived at my parents, I realized that we had everything except my pajama's and change of clothes.  Ooops.  So I borrowed a pair of my dad's pajama pants and a white tshirt.  So I wanted to send them a quick thank you note for still taking care of me, even at 38.

I looked through all my cartridges, and I have about 15 great cartridges, but I couldn't find a tshirt and pants.  So I used my Gypsy to create them.  I found that the pants could be from a scarecrow on my Creative Memories Cheerful Seasons cart and the shirt from a dress on my Paisley cart.  But hide contour didn't work, so I ran the scarecrow off the mat so only the pants were showing, and then used hide contour to get rid of the buttons on the pants.  For the shirt, I ran the dress off the side, and then used hide contour to get rid of the heart.  (Ignore the other paisley shapes on the mat, I was working on two projects at once.)

A double mat under the shirt and pants finished off the card.  I've been so impressed about what I've been able to do using my Gypsy.  If you haven't checked out Emma's blog at www.creativetimeforme.com, she has a lot of fantastic gypsy videos.  Have a great day!

Finishing Up the Last Homemade Gift

I hope you are all enjoying holiday festivities.  I've finished wrapping everything except the seven gifts which haven't yet arrived from Amazon.  (Yes, I'm very worried about this.)  But my two little elves were wonderful wrapping helpers today.

My last homemade gift for this Christmas has actually been in process for several months now.  Thanks to some time to work on it early this week, it is now completely finished.  It's an ABC album for my youngest daughter who just turned three.  I made one for our older daughter several years ago and she still loves looking at it.

I used a retired Creative Memories 7x7 album along with my CM 1 1/2 inch circle and square punches.  The stickers are from the CM Primary Power Palatte.  Once I decided on which pictures to include, putting it together went very quickly.  I do recommend laying everything out before you begin though.  That was how I realized that I was missing two of her uncles for the letter U page.

I will be entering the 'W' page in the My Pink Stamper challenge.  It's a bit of a stretch since the only brown I could put on the page is in the leaves, but I thought I would go ahead and share.  I'm also sharing it on the Fantabulous Cricut blog.  If you are visiting from either site, I would love to have you as a follower and/or read your comments.  Have a wonderful Christmas everyone!

A New Twist on the Sock Cupcake...a Cherry on Top!

I love to look at the ideas other bloggers share on their blogs. In several places, I've seen sock cupcakes. They look so cute that I kept thinking about making some, but I wanted them to have a little something extra on top. After mulling it over, I came up with the idea of wrapping a tube of lip balm in the middle. And it turns out that Carmex makes a cherry flavored tube with a dark red lid. Perfect! It adds to the gift as well as making the cupcake look more authentic.


I don't own a cartridge that has a cupcake wrapper on it. But, after much trial and error, I discovered that I could use a rectangle and two triangles from George and the trees from the Christmas cart to create one. The actual cut file has been improved from the one in the photo. The edges are now angled to make it easier to wrap. Using the magic of the Gypsy to weld the shapes together, I was able to create my own wrap. (I just love my Gypsy!) You could also cut a sentiment or use a punch in place of the trees.


Once the wrap was cut, I rolled up the sock with the lip balm in the middle. A tight wrap seemed to work the best.






Then I wrapped the paper around the base. Wrapping a little more tightly at the bottom gave the cupcake a more realistic look.

A clear celophane bag from Michael's with a little curling ribbon finished the gift. I'm planning on making them for the wonderful ladies who help take care of my girls at preschool and afterschool.

Quick and Easy Gifts

I have been admiring all the cute gifts that Candace from Paper Crafts by Candace has been creating. These Post-It note holders for my coworkers are modeled after one of her ideas.

The pictures are a little dark, but the paper is Recollections Purple Daze in Lava Lamp, Flashback, and Seafoam that I picked up from Michaels. The purple cardstock is Grape from Creative Memories.

I welded a scallop circle from Gypsy Wanderings and a narrow rectangle from George to make the strip for the monograms. (I love the features of my Gypsy!) The monograms are from a variety of carts - I couldn't find one font that was perfect for all the letters. The holder itself is an acrylic 4x6 frame from Walmart.

I've got some other gift ideas in the works that I'll be posting later this week. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your Thanksgiving weekend!

Stylish Blogger Award

I'm so excited, just before Thanksgiving I received my first blog award! Even more exciting was the fact that I received it twice from two other bloggers whose work I really enjoy. Thank you craftymrs and Pigtails and Paper Trails!

The rules for accepting this award are:

1.Thank and link to the person who awarded you this.
2.Share 8 things about yourself.
3.Pay it forward to 8 bloggers that you have recently discovered.
4. Contact those bloggers and tell them about their award.

So here are eight things about me:
1. I am happily married and we have two beautiful little girls.
2. I am a middle school teacher.
3. I have lived in three different countries.
4. I love Creative Memories products and adore album making.
5. I won a Gypsy a month ago and am having fun learning all that I can do with it.
6. I wouldn't have dreamed of having my own blog if it wasn't for a dear friend and fellow crafter.
7. My husband helped me set up my crafting area, and we even included a lower table for my girls to use for their projects.
8. I was trying to get a plum Expression from Walmart on Black Friday, but missed out.

Here are the bloggers that I would like to pass the award on to:

Paper Crafts by Candace - She has fantastic ideas and is so wonderful about sharing them.
You Had Me At Craft - Great ideas for cards and home decorating.
Brown Paper Packages - So many great ideas on this blog for making gifts and she provides the links or PDFs so that you can make your own!
Craft Junkie - Great ideas for cards and more.
Teach Mama - Wonderful ideas to use with your children.

I really appreciate our blogging community. It's amazing all the wonderful ideas that everyone has to share.

Easy as Pie (or at least as easy as eating pie)

I recently went to a dear friend's house for a Jolee's House Party. We had a great time making jewelry, but my favorite part was a little extra something that my friend had planned for us. She had some beautiful cardstock colors, her Cuttlebug, and a set of monogram stamps. With just those supplies, we were able to make some beautiful cards. I used the paisley Cuttlebug folder to emboss the card fronts. Then the leftover paper from cutting down the cardstock, became a ribbon/stripe on a different color card. The last step was using a 1 1/4 circle punch to stamp on the monogram.

These are going to be part of my mom's Christmas present. She asked for a set of cards for all occasions. Hopefully these will be a nice start...only 28 crafting days left until Christmas.

A cure for the challenging family Christmas card picture...

If your family is anything like mine, we have a terrible time getting a picture where everyone is smiling and looking good all at one time. This makes it very difficult to get that perfect Christmas card picture. Well, this year, I think I've found the solution, Shutterfly has some beautiful collage frame cards that allow me to choose everyone's best picture! You can check out the choices by following this link.

I'm also a fan of sharing a little bit about our family events during the year, but I have to say that the idea of writing a full letter holds little appeal for me. So Shutterfly comes to the rescue again. They now have these great Holiday Story cards. You can see them here and then click to get a closer look. You can also see all their beautiful photo cards here.

I have often used Shutterfly's photo prints service and have always been very pleased with the quality of their prints. I've also ordered their photo books which are easy to make and beautifully bound. If you're interested, for the next two days, you can save $10 of a $30 order. That's in addition to their sale prices. Just enter the promo code YFM6-7WBM-WFF7-GPK9VO at checkout.

I'd love to see what you create. Please post a comment with a link if you decide to take advantage of the Shutterfly offer.

More Cards for Operation Write Home

I made a few more cards to send to Operation Write Home. I'm hoping that some soldiers may find them useful as Christmas cards to send to their children. They also fit into My Pink Stampers challenge from this weekend to make something for a child.

I made them using the Sesame Street cartridge. I cut the first Elmo a little too big. So one card is a little different from the others, but my daughters tell me that Elmo is cool no matter what.

I can't believe I won such a useful tool!

I received wonderful new this weekend! I won the most useful tool ever. Mixology Crafts was giving away a Gypsy on their blog and I won!!!!

I can't wait for it to arrive. It will save me from the problem that I was having in this picture. I cut the green flower shape card from the Hello Kitty cartridge. I wanted to cut the flower from pink cardstock and tried to size it to fit on top of the card. It took the four tries, and I still didn't get it right. (You can see my three-year old's eager fingers waiting to take the extra flowers to make something with.) I ended up cutting the card out again in pink and cutting out the flower. But...with the Gypsy, I'll be able to size the flower on the screen and get it to the right size before cutting it. My daughter may be disappointed, but I'll save a lot of paper! :-)

Thanks Mixology Crafts!

A Great Sale and an Operation Write Home Challenge

My wonderful friend Jessica (aka CraftyMrs) found cartridges on clearance at Joanne's earlier this week. They were less than $10 each!!! I was able to get Hello Kitty Greetings, Sesame Street Friends, and Base Camp.

So I've been playing with my newest cartridges and using them for a good cause. Christie from Creations by Christie has a wonderful challenge going on right now to create cards for soldiers to send home to their families. I used Hello Kitty Greetings and Creative Memories Candy Cane paper to create these cards. I'm thinking that a soldier may appreciate a Christmas card to send home to a little girl. Check back tomorrow for another card with a purpose.

Chance to Win a Gypsy

Mixology Crafts is offering a chance to win a Gypsy. I'd love to win one!!! If you would like to enter, head on over to their website. Good luck!

I had a wonderful weekend scrapbooking with friends and will be posting some of the 16 pages that I completed later this week. My crafty friend has already posted some of the fantastic things she made this weekend. You can check out her blog at craftymrs.

In the meantime, here's a card that I made for a friend's mom who is not feeling well after a recent surgery. If you are a praying person and would like to add her to your prayers, I know it would be appreciated.

Just Us Girls Challenge

Not every paper pack has to be used for what it was intended. These beautiful papers are from the Nana's Nursery Baby Boy paper stack from DCWV. It's a stretch for me to combine so many patterns, but they went together so well I couldn't resist.

I used the Cricut Paisley cartridge for the 'flower' circle and the sentiment is from the Peachy Keene Vivienne and Friends set. If you would like to enter the challenge too, you can find it at http://justusgirlschallenge.blogspot.com/2010/07/justrite-sketch-day.html

Ribbon Storage?!

Tammy at www.cricutcritters.com is asking how everyone stores their ribbons. I have to say that this is not an area of expertise for me. My slight case of OCD (not really) means that I have to keep the ribbons under control and lucky for me I don't have a lot. I have however learned a great deal from reading everyone's responses to her question.

Here's how I store mine currently. This is a Sterilite shoe box that I found on clearance at CVS for $.29. The regular size rolls of ribbon are lined up. The little boxes from reallyusefulproducts.com that I bought at Office Depot hold my Creative Memories paper ribbon (great for album making) and the tiny rolls of ribbon from Joanne's.

A Color Challenge

First, let me thank you for visiting my blog. It's so exciting to read comments that people leave!

I created this 12x12 page for Robyn's green, brown, orange, and pink challenge at www.mypinkstamper.com. I used Creative Memories Simply Beautiful paper and the Cricut Walk in My Garden cartridge. I cut the pot at 3", the flowers and stems at 1 1/2 and 2", and the words at 1 1/4".

The word 'smiles' is not in the cartridge, but 'smile' is and there is a border feature which cuts 'smilesmile'. So I cut that and then cut off 'mile' by hand leaving me with 'smiles'. I love the welded letters, but don't have a Gypsy so sometimes thinking outside the box works. Have a great Friday!

Cuttlebug Challenge

The mother of a good friend of mine is in the hospital and will probably be there for some time. So I'm trying to make a new card to send to her each week. This week I've used the Cuttlebug Challenge http://cuttlebugchallenge.blogspot.com/ for inspiration.

I love this easel card. I've seen several recently, but never been sure of how to make one. A little online research led me to a tutorial by Split Coast Stampers http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/easelcard/. This card was made using Creative Memories and Paper Company card stock. I used the Paisley Cricut cartridge and a Martha Stewart edge punch along with one of the small Cuttlebug folders in an attempt to make the blue cardstock look like water.

On the inside I'm going to write "Hop-ping that this card makes you smile." I know, it's awful but I'm a little cheesy at times. Have a great day!

Challenging Page for a Throwback Challenge

How do you create an album page when the only picture you have of the event is a Polaroid? You can't cut the picture or surrounding white because the chemicals inside will be exposed and the picture ruined, but it's not exactly an attractive shape to incorporate in a layout. I decided to try to deal with it by hiding it in plain site and at the same time participate in Emma's Throwback Thursday Challenge (http://www.creativetimeforme.com/2010/06/throwback-thursday-challenge-episode54.html).

Using the Doodlecharms cartridge, I cut the presents at 5 1/2 inches along with the bow and tag layer. The present on the top right became the spot for the title sticker. The present on the top left will be the journaling box. (I just used my scissors to cut out the main part of the present and then backed it with white paper.) I used the Polaroid to make the third present, tucked the base of the picture under the lower border to make it look like a picture with a white mat, and added the bows on top. By reversing the top layer of each of the bows, I felt like they had a little more dimension. The paper and cardstock are all from Creative Memories.

I'd love to hear how you might have dealt with a challenging album page!

Peachy Keen Stamps Challenge

I really am feeling very motivated by all the challenges people are posting on their blogs! This one is from Peachy Keen Stamps (http://peachykeenstampschallenge.blogspot.com/), and, while I don't own any of their stamps yet, I do have some on the way. I was a winner in a blog hop that they hosted last week. It's so exciting to win something! Adrianne from their office was wonderful about contacting me right away and sending the prize out as soon as I sent her my address. I'm hoping that they will arrive tomorrow. If the customer service was that good for someone who was receiving product for free, I would definitely buy from them!

On to the challenge, our family album for 2008 has outgrown one album and moved into a second. So I created this title page using the font and shapes from the George and Basic Shapes cartridge. After taking this picture, I added our last name to the tag on the bottom left. I have to say that I love the patterns and colors of the Creative Memories Primary Power Palate papers!

3-D Throwback Thursday Challenge

Emma at www.creativetimeforme.com is having another Throwback Thursday Challenge. I don't have the cartridge she suggested using, so I'm using some other oldies but goodies - Doodlecharms and Stretch Your Imagination. I made this card for my dad for Fathers' Day and added the 3-D element on the inside with a special message behind each acorn.

Each of the large acorns for inside was cut from the Doodlecharms acorn and leaf cut. I scored the acorns to make tabs and used Zig 2-way glue to attach the tabs to the card. My favorite part is that each acorn folds down and my dad will be able to see that we have written something that we love about him on the back of each one.

I used Stretch Your Imagination for the front of the card. The layers for the acorn stack were very easy to cut and put together. The letter stickers and all the papers are from Creative Memories.

Creating my own envelopes

So my favorite new tool is this scoring board from Martha Stewart Crafts. I used a 40% off coupon at Michael's and was able to get it for about $12. I've bought inexpensive white card stock on sale, and using the board I can make envelopes of many sizes for less than a nickel each.

The scoring board comes with an envelope guide which fits in a little slot in the base of the board when it's not in use. So convenient! The top of the board also flips open to hold the scoring tool which is even better than the bone folder that I already own.

I recently made a little 3x3 card and needed a small envelope for it. The guide on the scoring board has measurements for a 6x6 envelope, so I decided to try just halving all the measurements. It worked like a charm!

Happy Fathers' Day to all the dads out there!

Unexpected Color Combination

So this weekend I managed to squeeze in time for creating a card for Emma's challenge a www.creativetimeforme.com. Her throwback challenge this week was to use the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge and the colors blue, brown, and red to create a card.

I really struggled with the combination of colors. So I started by finding three papers in those colors that I felt worked together. Luckily, I found exactly what I was looking for in a retired Creative Memories Storybox. (I've found that card making is a great way to use up some of my older Storybox papers.) Then I used the foundation card in the Stretch Your Imagination cart to cut out the card base in cream cardstock. Then the Flrsh3 Shadow and Blackout cuts for the two layers and the birdhouse was last. I repeated the cream cardstock in the Layer cut of the birdhouse. I also made a matching envelope for this 3" card, but I'll tell you about that in a post later this week.

Cricut Animal Challenge

This week, Emma from www.creativetimeforme.com is having a Throwback Thursday Challenge. So I chose to create this birthday card for a little girl whose birthday party is this weekend. The zebra and his ride are from the Paisley cartridge. To the left of the picture, you can see that I cut the same flower from the car as a tag for the gift. I added a little sparkle using some glitter glue. (If I'd known how cute the glitter would be, I would have added it to the flower on the car as well.)

Have a great weekend!

Fathers' Day

This is a card that I created for my husband for Fathers' Day. We have two wonderful daughters whom he loves, so I thought it was perfect. The cardstock is from Creative Memories. The lighter blue is embossed using the Cuttlebug, and I used A Child's Year to cut the silhouette. Simple yet meaningful.

Step Card Challenge

Jessica over at www.craftymrs.blogspot.com posted a step card challenge last weekend. Despite my best efforts, I just didn't get the card finished until today. On the upside, my daughter Emma had time to make one today too.

This one was made using the Cricut Stretch Your Imagination cartridge along with Ashlyn's Alphabet. Jessica has a link to a great video of directions to make the step card on her blog.

Wow, what a prize!

If you'd like to own a Cricut or could use a few more cartridges, check out this contest at Everyday Cricut:

EXPRESSION GIVEAWAY! Contest open until 5/9/10.

We are featuring the Once Upon A Princess and Opposites Attract cartridges this week!

Giveaways this week are the Expression machine, TWO Once Upon A Princess cartridges (all from Provocraft) and a prize pack from Crate Paper, our featured sponsor this week!

Drawing will be held on Sunday, May 9, 2010.

You can see their blog at: http://www.cricutholiday.com/

Good luck!

My Pink Stamper Challenge #12

Phew, made it to challenge #12! Make a scrapbook page, card, or other project using an animal or critter. Simple and fun!! I have to say that I almost didn't post this one. It was very late on Sunday night when I made it. That said, I thought that this mouse from Doodlecharms was adorable. Unfortunately, I couldn't think of way to use it in a card, so I put it with a journaling box and it may eventually appear in an album. I am a big fan of using journaling boxes, because pictures in an album need a story to go with them. Without the story, generations to come will not know whose in the pictures or why they were taken.

My Pink Stamper Challenge #11

Wow, what a busy day! My husband was busy painting and hanging shelves in our basement, so my card making was squeezed in between family responsibilities. Challenge #11 is: Make a project using 1 or all of the colors of the rainbow (red, orange, yellow, green, blue).

Emma will be graduating from here preschool in a few weeks. So I created this card using Ashlyn's Alphabet and a Cuttlebug folder. The cardstock and paper are from Creative Memories, but the paper is from a discontinued Storybox.

My Pink Stamper Challenge #6

This challenge was: Make something WITH a child or for a child. This was right up our alley. So when Riley, who is 2 and a half, woke up from her nap, she and I spent about 20 minutes working on this card. Most of that time was spent with her flipping through the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge guidebook and informing me that "I pick, Mama. I pick!" She did a great job picking this and then helping me to glue the pieces down with our Zig 2-way pen. I think the most stressful part for me was letting her choose a Cuttlebug folder to use. (I didn't know that the folders could bend that way! :-)

My Pink Stamper Challenge #5

Create something for Teacher Appreciation Week OR for someone you appreciate.

One of the designers at www.mypinkstamper.com created the cutest coffee cup gift card holder for this challengs. Take a look when you have a chance.

We will be helping the teachers at our daughters' day care celebrate all week, but for Monday my daughter Emma and I created these gift bags. I found the little Crayola tins and doorhanger notepads on clearance at Michael's. The bags were leftover from Valentine's day, but worked like a charm.

The cards were cut from the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge. The purple card frame was easy, but the pink flower were a little challenge. Thanks to a suggestion I had seen on MPS, I knew to play with the size of the base cut and found that if I cut the card at 2 and 1/2", and cut the base design at 1 and 1/2", I could cut off the flower and make it work as a layer. Inside I wrote "Thanks for helping our girls to grow." Emma and Riley delivered them today, and they seemed to be a real hit.

My Pink Stamper Challenge #3

Oooh! The prize for winning this challenge is a set of Cuttlebug folders.

Think Outside the Box. Do something on your scrapbook page, card, or other item that you wouldn't normally do. Add something fun or crazy!!

I have discovered that some of the Doodlecharms borders, which cut in a row of three, can be folded to create a tri-fold card. For this one I used the foundation tag cut at 3" to create this thank you card for the cook at our daughters' day care. The cardstock and ribbon is from Michael's, while the red paper is from a discontinued Creative Memories pack. Cross you fingers for me!

My Pink Stamper Challenge #2

Ok, on to challenge #2. This challenge was:
Make a project incorporating your scraps! Super simple. Everyone has scraps, right?
Scraps, of course I have scraps! This adorable little bag was cut using the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge and cardstock from Michael's that was leftover from cutting bulletin board letters for my classroom. The flower and paper ribbon are from the Creative Memories Delightful Power Palatte. I filled the little bag with Crayola mini cards from Michael's.

My Pink Stamper Challenge #1

So while we spent last Saturday lost inside our nearest Ikea store, I was still able to enjoy some paper crafting on Sunday afternoon. I enjoyed completing some of My Pink Stamper's National Scrapbook Day challenges.

This is my entry for Challenge #1:
Make a scrapbook layout, card or other item with your mother or someone dear to you in mind.
Since my girls and I had already created our Mother's Day cards, I decided to make a card for my best friend who lives in Pennsylvania. The flower, sentiment, and purple cardstock are from Creative Memories along with the bubble punch. The white cardstock and ribbon are from Michaels.

Well, my family and I enjoyed a beautiful day today, and even squeezed in a little time for crafting. Robyn at mypinkstamper.com posted a challenge today. It was to use the Cricut and the colors pink, green, and black to create something. So here are our the results of our work.

I created the Just a Note card on the right using the new Simply Beautiful paper from Creative Memories, black cardstock and dollar ribbon from Michael's, and white cardstock from Stampin' Up. The envelope and heart were cut at 2 1/2 inches from the Doodlecharms cartridge. The Just a Note stamp comes from a set that I purchased from Joanne Fabrics. Emma, who is five, made the bottle card on the left. Riley, who is two, joined us after waking up from her nap and made the little flower card in the front.

Enjoy the beautiful weekend!
Victoria

My Own Blog

Wow, my very own blog. As a teacher, wife, and mother of two wonderful daughters, I'm excited to start sharing some of the fun activities we do at home. I have been a crafter and enjoyed all types of crafts from cross stitch to toll painting to album making. Now, I'm enjoying sharing my love of crafting with my daughters.