2 New Pages for School Scrapbook

Band Demo Assembly-this page was fun because I was challenged to find music related things for the layout. I finally got to use my Cuttlebug embossing folder "Allegro" It looks like a sheet of music I ripped out of a notebook well, sorta! I used the notebook tab punch from SU.
The violin was cut from "A Child's Year" cart- under the icon tab. The girl playing the recorder was also cut from the same cart. I love this cart-it's so useful for children of all ages. The background paper I used on that page was from "My Minds Eye Academy" slab - for storytellers and phototakers-Glitter Book. Ooh-what great papers!
The title was cut from "Plantin Schoolbook"

Raising of Flag -The photos were on the busy side so I matted everything on more of a solid (well repetitive stars fall into that category for me today ; ) ) background to rest the eyes a bit. The star paper was already cut to that shape-it came from Target. It was a gift to me from a friend for having her over for 4th of July. The stars were punched with a CM punch and I added a food flag pick to finish it off! The title was cut from "Plantin Schoolbook" in Shadow feature.

Nothing crazy detailed but thought I'd share what I'm up to these days.

Holy Family School Scrapbook

Just wanted to post of few pics of a 2 page layout I made for a school scrapbook. It's the 2nd and 3rd page so far. "First Day of School" and "First Lunch". Nothing crazy here because it's an extensive project and it's needs to be turned in by Nov 7th so I am just putting a few accents on each page but really want to keep the focus on the kids and the events. It's just fun playing with my supplies and finally getting a chance to use some stash up. I love the "me & my BIG ideas" slab-it's all about school and primary colors. Perfect for this project.

Thanks for checking it out!

Don't forget if you want to see details just click on the image to get a better view.

Pirate Treats

Today is my son's 6th birthday so I made treats for him to take to school for his teachers. They are Oreos covered in chocolate. What a fun mold to use. It is policy at his school to provide safe snacks (peanut free) as opposed to baking from home. This is to ensure the safety of the children with allergies. Oreos are safe and so is the Wilton chocolate I used to cover the cookies, but I sent in Rice Krispy treats and Cheez-its instead. I am kinda grateful I didn't need to make 21 of these! They sure look cute though! I didn't have a food paintbrush to detail the spider or skull in a contrasting color but they came out ok anyway I think. I went to my local grocery store and bought the little clear boxes with lids (for olives) to hold the treats. Perfect size for a "little snacky snacky" and cute and easy to decorate too! The tag I made was from the
"Kitchen Circle Words" set purchased at the Cutting Cafe. I used a SU circle punch (1 3/8") and then backed it with the SU scallop punch in red. The skull gem was from Michaels dollar section.

All things pirate right now!! Arrrr!

Thanks for checking them out ; )

Don't forget you can click on the image to enlarge it.

This Kitchen is Seasoned

Two posts in one day! Woo hoo!!!

I made another kitchen card using yet another cut from my newest cartridge
" From my Kitchen" along with a cute sentiment from The Cutting Cafe's set of
Kitchen Circle words.
It is simple but I just love it. Can ya just hear the "ting" when you look at the accent on the plate!!

Like the dishwasher commercials - sparkling clean -ting!!

The plate and silverware were cut from the From My Kitchen Cart and the patterned paper was from the DCWV "Sweet" stack. I used my Martha Stewart edge punch for the scallop finish.

That is all form me today. Have a happy 2nd day of fall!

Jenn

Perfect Pumpkin Picking Day

I never thought I would say this but I feel like I enjoy making cards so much more than layouts these days. Cards are so much faster because there is less surface area to cover unless you are sewing and inking and crazy stuff like that. I guess it's really not that much faster for me because I am doing that too. Anyway, I made a 2 page layout today using the printable files from
The Cutting Cafe. Autumn Days is what it's called. So cute. The huge block of words helped me move it along and gave it a title in one chunk. Love that! The white printed background words is a set called all about autumn background.

I can't wait to actually go picking with the kids so I can lay down some photos.

Can you see the stitching along the title block on the left page? It is olive leaves falling down the right side. I try to sew on most projects for a home spun look or vintage feel. I like that look. The brother sewing machine makes it "sew" easy too! No pun intended ; ) I'm pretty sure it has over 100 stitch options. Ohhh! Fun! Moving on...Using my Cuttlebug swiss dots folder I quickly embossed the stack of pumpkins and left them white just because I like the look of it that way. I cut away the happy fall yall and made it into a broom stick handle. If it were a rake I should've cut up some leaves but the layout had to end somewhere ; )

Supplies:
Cricut Expressions,Paper Dolls Dress up cart: tree , broom
CTMH: chocolate hinges and brads, organdy ribbon-"Autumn Garden"
Michaels:rhinestones, patterned paper "Recollections-Autumn"
Can you look closely and see that the black crows are flocked and fuzzy! I bought this paper slab because of this little cutie! Each and every single double sided sheet is scalloped and cuter than the last sheet (total 24 sheets).

Hope you have time to leave me a comment if you drop by!

Jenn

From My Kitchen

Fall is about to be officially here any hour now so I have started making some cards that go with my mood. I love warm comfort foods this time of year, don't you? I don't typically make a lot of foods in crock pots but I would love to try more this year. I have loads of recipes that are perfect for crock pot meals I just need to make them. It was easier to make the card than to make the meal so I did just that! I have waited sooo long for Provo Craft to come up with a kitchen/cooking cartridge. Finally!!! I am super happy because I can use all the kitchen and food scrapping supplies I have collected!!
The cards I made use the cutting files from The Cutting Cafe as well as cuts from my newest addition "From My Kitchen" cart. Right now I could go for a chicken pot pie and for dessert warm apple pie with a cup of coffee on the side. How about adding butterscotch schnapps to it? Ooooh- how about Bailey's Irish coffee? mmm.....well not now maybe later ; )

Can you see how the steam from the hot coffee is off the card itself? I thought that added a little interest! I cut up an embossed scrap of swirl paper. The paper I used is from DCWV-Nana's Kitchen Stack, it's so retro isn't it?!

Thanks for looking at my cards and leave a comment for me to let me know what you think.

Happy Fall Y'all!!!

"Sweet" Baby

Yesterday, I found a challenge that I thought I would play along with.
The site is CPS- Card Positioning Systems. Very cool site full of tons of sketches. I rarely enter my projects in contests as I would much rather browse all those that do enter. Wow! So much inspiration comes from the participants it's almost overwhelming in a sense. After browsing I don't know where to start let alone feel my stuff would ever look like theirs. The purpose of card making for me though first and foremost is passion because I am usually creating it for somone I care about.
Playing with mediums I love and products that make me think and think and think is a serious outlet but I usually do have a purpose or a recipient in mind. Time to freely create and be artsy makes me happy and destresses me so regardless if I win or not I am using my materials up, having fun and taking a chance. I have nothing to lose.

If you didn't know Michaels had a sale on Cricut cartridges again for $40- each. I happened to get 2 more for myself. A Child's Year and From My Kitchen. Oh my gosh I can't stop playing!!! I forgot about the old simple Expressions and its capabilities. I get/got caught up with all the chipboard, embellishments,hardware, rub-ons etc... that I end up not making too many projects because of the small details that need to finish off a project. I had so much fun just cutting and playing and not going over board while playing with my new carts. I was more productive over the past weekend than I have been in a long time. Sometimes simple is good. I feel happy with my card.

Ok, I babbled quite a bit...sorry ; ) now for the project.

The boy in the tub was cut from A Child's Year cart then embossed with the swiss dots folder using the Cuttlebug. After I cut two additional bubbles out to place in the upper left corner and lower right corner ( the sketch dictated this) I added glitter to them to look a little irredescent like real bubbles. I placed behind the boy a sheet of blue acetate that had a dot pattern as well. I love the chenille baby blue ric rack most-reminds me of a fuzzy towel. I cut the oval "sweet" out from the same cart and used eyelets filled with organdy ribbon from CTMH.

I do not have a recipient yet but I just adore the card (and whole cart) anyway!
I have already cut out black images -that look like sihlouettes of my kids at this young precious age and framed them-looove them!

Thanks for looking!

Don't forget if you click on the image it will enlarge to show details close up.

Pirate Party Invites

Wow! It has been a looong time since I have posted. A lot has gone on in my world since June. I am happy to say though I am still crafting and scrapbooking when I can. I should have waaaay more time to do it now that my youngest in is full day kindergarten. Honestly, I do not know where the time goes all day every day. I feel like I have been playing "catch up" with the cleaning of the house, errands, grocery shopping, homework, soccer and my freedom of course! ; ) I almost forgot what it was like to shop without entertaining a little one or constantly having snacks in my purse! It feels good to not carry around a suitcase anymore. lol

Well, it's almost my son's 6th birthday (in Oct.) and of course we're having a party for him so I'm trying to get a jump start on things like invitations. The whole pirate thing kinda just happened to be my idea. We (both kids were with me at the time) were shopping in Children's Place and they had a few boy costumes hanging on the rack so I said, "Awww! look how cute this is!" My son said, "I'll be a pirate if ya want me to ma.....Arrrr!!!!" right there in the aisle with people around us!!! He's a bit shy so when this happened I was a little shocked. I nearly fell over laughing! I couldn't be happier that he sorta proposed the idea. I don't want to be that mom that says this is what you will be because I say so. He's very easy going but if he didn't love it he probably would not have suggested it on his own. I think he just want to carry around the cool sword and shout out Arrrr! Fine with me!

We all know how much pirate stuff there is out there to scrapbook with right?! Well, I saw quite a bit in the stores but didn't really "feel" any of it was for me.
I found on The Cutting Cafe a great set to use. Regina is absolutely amazing and so very talented over at the cafe. You should check out her cutting files and see the oodles of printable sets she has. I don't use a Wishblade (cutter-I prefer my Expressions still-for now anyway ; )) or I would have been able to cut these out. I printed the files out on my home printer. They come in .pdf format so it's super easy!!
I didn't go into too much fuss for the invites because the kids will probably just throw them out so -quick it was but very cute, fun and kid friendly pirate faces for them and they will not be found in stores so I like that a lot! Below is a variety of the invitatiosn I made using the set she created . I had to make 21 invites for my son's whole kindergarten class. I repeated only a couple but most are originals and one of a kind! I sure hope the kids like them as much as I enjoyed assembling them. I added a few stickers and rhinestones to them (from Michaels) along with a white pen and a black pen for a few touches of enhancement here and there. I couldn't be happier with the personal invites. I hope the party is as much fun ; )

Thanks for looking,

Jenn

Don't forget to click the image to enlarge it for added detail.

Happy Birthday Brett!

My friend Jessica has a son who just turned 4 and he loves firetrucks so I decided to make a
card for him that included a firehouse and a fireman on it. I made 2 of them because I could not decide which one I liked better so I sent both! Hope he likes them : ) May all your wishes come true little buddy!

The following materials were used:
Cricut cartridge My Community,Cuttlebug embossing folder Happy Birthday,free Got sketch 102 bonus designer labels,Creative Memories Star punch,ribbon from stash,Close To My Heart My Acrylix stamp set Everyday Life Family Ties-Children,white daisy cardstock and CM black. The zig zag edge is from the EK Success punch. The new flat black ones that collapse easily to store better. whew...I think that's it.
Hope you like them too! Thanks for stopping by.

Flower Soft Layout

Click on each image to enlarge-you'll want to see the detail of the Flower Soft product : )
My friend Kristy and I went away for the weekend in February to get some scrapbooking done. On the way to the motel we wanted to stop at a lss (Creative Inkling and pick up a few new items for the fun of it. Well, let me tell ya, I got a demo from the assistant manager on how Flower Soft works and I was sold baby!! I am a visual person and if I see it I am more likely to get it, buy it and use it. I had never even heard of this before. Immediately I fell in love. It's fast,fun and super easy to use. A little goes a looong way. The applications for this product are only limited to your imagination!! I have sonly used it directly on my paper the picture shown above is a package of wires you can also use. You would dip them or roll them in glue and flower soft will stick to it to end up looking like dried flower sprigs. Very cute for card making. That was what I intended on using it for but as you can see my head took me in a different direction all together!!
I thought a garden with some dimension would be sooo cool!
The title- "Sowing the seeds of Love" pops right off the page as well as the rising sun in Yellow!!! I also made the trees on the paper become apple trees by adding one dot of glue and one pinch of flower soft. that's all you need seriously!!! The rows of plants were raised up also-could be leafy lettuce or whatever you want growing in your garden!!
I plan on getting the pastel kit next-soft hues. I love the primary mix of this kit though-super playful and alive!! Anyway, I just wanted to share a new fun product that is addicting-so be prepared to have fun : )

Have a good day!

Jenn