Teacher Appreciation Idea

A little snack for the teacher.

I saw an idea earlier this year where the blogger had used a Stampin Up door hanger as a drink hanger.  It was such a cute idea, but she said that Stampin Up had discontinued the door hangers.  Now that I have my Gypsy, I decided that I could make my own and use the idea for teacher appreciation week.

First, I welded together three rectangles and a circle to make the appropriate shape.  Then I cut it out and used my Martha Stewart board to score the six folds.  You can see here where I folded it.  I decorated the front panel at this point, before putting it together.  You can also see in the picture where I put my adhesive on the front two tabs (Look for the red arrows.)

Here are three of the twelve I made.

I used the frog from Create A Critter because the mascot at my daughter's school is a frog.  The 'Enjoy!' stamp is from My Pink Stampers Everyday Life set.  Once it was together I tucked in a Lemonade drink packet, a Diet Green Tea packet, and a pack of Lance cookies.  We made enough for both my daughters' classroom teachers and their music, gym, and art teachers too.  I think sometimes the other teachers get forgotten.  Hopefully they will feel appreciated this week too.

If you're interested in the cut file, let me know and I'll post it.  Have a great day!


I've shared this at

Some Decor for One of My Girls and a Little Card She Made

I saw a beautiful banner that a crafter made for her daughter which inspired me to create this for my daughter's room.  I tried hanging it just as a banner, but it just didn't have enough impact on a big wall.   So, while I was at Ikea last weekend, I picked up these 5 1/2 by 5 1/2 inch shadowbox frames.  I mounted each of the letters in a different box and was very pleased with the result.

I used my Gypsy to design the project.  The background is a Decor Tag from Gypsy Wanderings.  The circle is from George, and the letters are from Base Camp.  Using the layer feature on my Gypsy made it a lot easier to choose sizes for each piece.  The idea came from the Love 4 Stamps blog.  There you will find a link to directions for how to make the 'fan' that is under each letter.

This is a little thank-you card that Emma made to send to her great-aunt after Christmas.  She's five and would love any comments that you might have for her.  :)

MPS Blog Hop Project

Robyn, aka My Pink Stamper, is hosting a blog hop {here} and given us all a chance to join in.  Since I love to see what everyone else is doing and have people visit my blog, I decided to join in.  (I also love to read comments, so please feel free to leave one.)

This morning I used the Wild Card cart to make this little round card.  I cut the card once at four inches in white cardstock and then a second time in the printed paper to make the cover.  Then I cut it at 1 and 1/2 inches in cardstock to make a place to stamp the sentiment.  The second card is just paper on an A2 size card.  Both are stamped using MPS's Everyday stamp set.  (I love the fonts she chose for the sentiments on the stamps.)  The sparkly paper is from the DCWV Glitter Sweet Matstack.

Thanks for visiting and enjoy the rest of the hop!

A Quick Baby Shower Card

Thanks for all the wonderful comments you've been leaving recently, and welcome to my new followers!

So, this has been a crazy week in my little section of the world!  In between preparing my 6th grade students for the state US History test yesterday and taking care of my family, I needed to make a baby shower card.  On Wednesday night (yes, I waited til the last minute, the shower was on Thursday) I started to pull out my Gypsy and the four new carts that my wonderful friend at craftymrs helped me find for $10 each this weekend.  But then I spotted a  Creative Memories Baby Boy and Baby Girl Photo Album Kit and inspiration struck.

I found the star paper and realized my new My Pink Stamper "Welcome Baby" stamp would fit perfectly inside the large star.  Then I matched the paper up with a second coordinating sheet from the same pack.  I cut the background plaid at 5 1/4 x 4 and mounted it on an A2 size cream colored card.  Then I cut the blue star paper at 4 X 4 1/4.  I mounted it  with the brown ribbon hiding the right edge of the paper.  I stamped it, and I was done!  It turned out really well and it was so easy!

Have a wonderful weekend!

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!