Snow Tubing Fun - Scrapbook Layout

Hi everyone!  Well, school winter vacation is coming to an end and my kids are pretty much exhausted.  We've had a week full of activities and now they're doing all the homework and projects they've put off for the last 7 days.  And I'm tackling the laundry!  :-) 

Today I'm sharing a scrapbook page I made of some pictures I took of my kids and their Nana snow tubing this past week in New Hampshire.  The kids LOVED that Nana went tubing with them...and loved EVEN MORE that she screamed all the way down the hill...every time!  I squeezed quite a few pictures onto this page.  In hindsight, I should have done 2 pages.  But I'm very excited that I finally had a chance to use my new Peachy Keen stamps...the Critter Faces...to make four penguins, one for each of my kids.  Aren't they cute?  I was thrilled to find a PK stamp with glasses since my middle son wears them...isn't his penguin just adorable?  Oh, I'm going to have fun playing with these!

Recipe

Penguins from Cricut Create A Critter, stamped with Peachy Keen Critter Faces stamps

Snow tubes from Cricut Every Day Paper Dolls

Snow "hills" from Cricut Create A Critter; combination of various shapes welded with my Gypsy

Scalloped square background shape from Cricut Mini Monograms

"tubing fun" from Cricut Mickey Font

Used Cuttlebug Spots and Dots on penguins; D'Vine Swirls on snowy hill

Patterned paper - My Mind's Eye everyday tango

White glittered cardstock - DCWV

Cardstock - Recollections; Bazzill textured

Black Creative Memories marker for doodling/stitching

White Gelly Roll pen for stitching

EK Success dimensionals for popping up penguins

I'm entering this page into six challenges:

Cooking with Cricut: Swirls and Twirls Challenge - Create a project using swirls, flourishes, twirly embellishments and such.
Creative Sisters Monday Challenge - Embossing - Use any cartridge to make a project, but make sure it has some sort of embossing on it.

Fantabulous Cricut: Challenge #48 - Emboss It! - Make a project and incorporate some type of embossing.

Get Your Sketch On #8 - Follow this sketch: 

Scrappy Moms Stamps: Terrific Tuesday Challenge - Create A Critter - Use this cartridge to create a project.

The Paper Variety: Challenge #22 - Sew Much Fun! - Include machine, hand or faux stitching on your project.

Enjoy your weekend!

~Sharon C.

Four at Christmas - Holiday Layout

Good Monday morning!  Did you all survive the weekend?  We had a busy, but fun one.  Aren't they all?  :-)  Just a quick post today...the kids are on winter vacation and our schedule is booked.  Need to keep them busy!

I'm posting a layout I put together over the weekend for this week's challenge at The Paper Variety.   Here's the sketch...it's really a card sketch, but the rules allowed us to use it to create a layout if we'd like.  Well, it wasn't easy, but you know me....I'm determined to make more pages for my scrapbooks.

This picture I scrapped was taken in December, 2003...a few weeks before Christmas.  My twins had come home from the hospital at Thanksgiving and were about 6 weeks old here.  Their older brothers were 4 and 2.  It was a super busy time...we had no idea how crazy life would become!  :-)  This is the first holiday photo we have of our four kids together.  And it wasn't that difficult to stage...as you can see, the babies slept right through it all.  :-)

Recipe

Striped paper; light green cardstock - 3 bugs in a rug

Patterned paper on tree - DCWV Holiday stack

Other cardstock - Recollections

"four", "at" - from Cricut Birthday Bash font; with shadow layer

"Christmas" - from Cricut Gypsy Font; welded and sized with my Gypsy

Christmas Tree, mouse - from Cricut Winter Frolic

"Present" journaling box - from Cricut Mini Monograms

Bow - from Cricut Birthday Bash

Wired ribbon, paper flowers and button from stash

Cat's Eye chalk ink

White Gelly Roll pen for stitching

Black Creative Memories marker for journaling

EK Success dimensionals for popping up mouse, journaling box

I'm entering this scrapbook page into 2 challenges:

The Paper Variety: TPV Card Sketch Challenge - Use the sketch provided to create a card, layout or other paper project.

Scrappy Saturdays with the Bug: Challenge #2 - Something Lovey - Create a layout using something lovey...the word "love", a lovey sentiment/title, hearts, cupids, lips, pictures of someone you love, etc.  I chose to scrap a picture of my 4 little chicks...couldn't love them more!  :-)

Have a terrific Monday!

~Sharon C.



Sugar & Spice - Baby Girl Layout

Good afternoon!  Oh, the sun is shining brightly today...and it's 55 degrees outside...yahoo!  I just came in from outdoors and the sheet of ice that was formerly our driveway is slowing disappearing.  I have a feeling we'll see the pavement tomorrow...the forecast is a whopping 60 degrees.  Oh, spring might just come after all!!

Speaking of warmer times, today I'm posting a scrapbook page of my daughter at 8 months.  Yes, another one!  I'm so happy to have completed quite a few pages this year.  Those albums are filling up.  Anyway, my daughter was a very patient (she had to be...her twin brother was incredibly vocal when things weren't going his way), happy, sweet and funny baby.  We called her 'wild thing' because of the way her whole body would wiggle and bounce when she was happy.  Which was quite often!  :-)  She also had an early fascination with shoes...as these pictures show.  She LOVED to check out what people had on their feet...and always chose the brightest, shiniest, prettiest shoes for herself.  My sister bought her these sandals...hot pink...perfect.  She was (and still is) very sweet...we are so lucky to have her....one girl among three boys. 

Recipe

Patterned papers - My Mind's Eye everyday tango

Textured cardstock - DCWV brights

"Sugar & Spice" title from Cricut Alphalicious; letters and heart welded together using my Gypsy; cut from SEI Claire patterned paper and popped up for dimension

Martha Stewart border punch

Journaling tag from SEI Claire chiplet pack

Pearls - Recollections

Baby shoes die-cuts - Recollections

Buttons - WalMart

EK Success dimensionals

Black Creative Memories marker for journaling, stitching

I'm entering this page into 3 challenges:

Get Your Sketch On: Sketch #7 - Create a project using the following sketch as inspiration:



More Than Favors: Cricut Cartridge Chaos Challenge #6 - Rock Princess - Create a project using the Cricut Rock Princess cartridge, chosen as this week's challenge cartridge by the blog's followers.  If you don't have this cartridge (I don't), you can use a similar cut from a different one.  While browsing thru the images in the online Rock Princess handbook, I noticed the "Sugar & Spice" word art on page 41.  I attempted to create similar word art by using the Alphalicious font cartridge and the heart from George and Basic Shapes.  I sized and welded these with my Gypsy...I love the versatility that little gadget gives me!

Scrapaholic by Abby: SEI Challenge with Abby #3 - Use Pink - Create anything, but make sure you use the color pink. 

Enjoy the day!

~Sharon C.

Winter Bunny Shaped Card - "Pure and Simple"

This week's challenge at the CropStop Challenge Blog is called "Pure and Simple".  The challenge is to use only white or off-white with either black or brown only for stamping.  Yikes!  I love color and I've never made a card using just white.  So I pondered this for a day or so and finally came up with an idea (it came to me in the shower...ideas often do...this is strange, isn't it?).  Since winter and snow have been on my mind lately (my house is buried in white stuff!), I thought a winter white bunny might be appropriate...so here he is.

The bunny is from the Cricut Winter Woodland cartridge, a real gem.  So many pretty images on this one.  I welded two of the bunny's shadows together with my Gypsy to form the shaped card.  Another shadow layer cut in gemstone cardstock (can you see the sheen?) was placed on top.  Then the head/ears and leg layers were cut, embossed and popped up on top of that.  It was certainly simple....I spent much more time thinking about this card than I did making it!  "Warm Wishes" is stamped inside....I could use many of these!!

Recipe

Bunny from Cricut Winter Woodland cartridge

Top layers embossed with Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls folder

Recollections off-white gemstone cardstock

White Recollections cardstock

"Warm Wishes" stamp from Inkadinkadoo

Brad from my stash

EK Success dimensionals to pop up layers

I'm also entering this card into this week's  Challenge Me Monday #47 at Fantabulous Cricut: Weather Forecast - make a project featuring your favorite seasonal weather.  I've been complaining incessantly about the weather lately because this winter has been unusually difficult.  I acually love the winter...watching the snow fall (in small doses!), ice skating, sledding, building snowmen with my kids, watching them get rosy cheeks, drinking hot cocoa and snuggling together under a warm blanket...just can't beat it!  :-)

Enjoy the day!

~Sharon C.

 

Yummy Goodies in the Mail and a Happy Birthday Card for a Cool Chick!

Good morning!  And there are quite a few reasons why it is good:  my family is healthy, the sun is shining, the temperature is in the double digits, snow is not falling, dinner is in the slow cooker, a Paul Simon CD is playing, the house is clean (but a tad messy!), three loads of laundry are done and, last but not least, my husband returned home safely from his business trip last night.  Lots to be happy about today! 

I must also mention that I received an incredible package full of yummy, yummy goodies from the lovely and kind Stephanie from Always Crafting.  I was lucky enough to win an i-rock giveaway on her blog and not only did Stephanie send me an i-rock, but she included some i-rock jewels, some pretty handmade stick pins, an adorable card and a bag (beautifully packaged, I must say!) full of paper flowers she made herself.  They're so fabulous and the colors are just gorgeous!  She posted similar flowers on her blog not too long ago here.  Hey, I just realized that the stick pins she posted are the same ones she sent to me!!  Sneaky, sneaky, Stephanie!  I had no idea!  You'll be seeing these goodies on future creations...if I can bear to part with them!!  Thanks Stephanie, I LOVE everything!!

Today I'm posting a shaped card that I made for one of my niece's birthdays.  The chick and the birthday hat are from Simply Charmed (such a fun cartridge!) and the computer-generated sentiment is printed on two tags from Birthday Bash that I welded together.  I had quite a bit of fun making this card.  I embossed the chick with the D'vine Swirls folder (a personal favorite!) and tried to really do up the hat.  I made the fringe from textured green cardstock and added Martha Stewart micro beads to the band.  A circle of matching green felt made a fun topper.  A bit of black stitching and I have a hat worthy of a cool chick!  



Recipe

Chick from Simply Charmed; welded to make a shaped card; cut all layers and shadow

Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls embossing folder

Birthday hat from Simply Charmed

Birthday banner from Birthday Bash; welded two tags together & hid holes to form the banner

Patterned paper from Basic Grey Gypsy 6x6 paper pad

Green textured cardstock - DCWV

All other cardstock - Recollections

Martha Stewart micro beads

Green felt from stash

Googly eyes

Computer-generated sentiment

Black Creative Memories marker for stitching/doodling

EK Success dimensionals to pop up banner

I'm entering this card into three challenges:

Celebrate the Occasion: Challenge #1- Kid's Birthday - Create a card, layout or project with a kid's birthday theme.

Scrappy Moms Stamps: Terrific Tuesday Challenge - Simply Charmed - Create a project using the Cricut Simply Charmed cartridge.

Two Scraptastic Gals: Cricut Cartridge Chaos Challenge #5 - Country Life - Make a project using the Cricut Country Life cartridge, the cartridge chosen this week by the blog's followers.  If you don't have Country Life, use a similar cut from a different cartridge.  I don't have Country Life, but I did notice that it has a chicken and the word art 'Cool Chick'.  I used the chick from Simply Charmed and incorporated 'Cool Chick' into the sentiment on my card.  :-)

Enjoy the day!

~Sharon C.

Life is So Sweet - Baby Girl Layout

Hi there!  Today I'm posting a scrapbook page of my daughter at 8 months old (she's now 7 years!).  I'm always amazed when I look back at her (and her twin brother's) baby pictures.  They were just over 4 pounds each at birth, but within months they really put on some weight!  And that's a good thing!  This picture was taken outside during the early summer when she couldn't do much more than sit and reach...check out those chunky arms and cheeks...you'd never guess she was a preemie!  :-)

I have soooo many pictures to scrap, so I'm trying to focus on making layouts....with a few cards thrown in here and there!  This page was a fun one to make...I love the colors and the felt flowers and ribbon.  I'm getting better at using pretty embellishments, but with 3 boys at home too, it can be difficult!



Recipe

Patterned papers "borrowed" from my daughter's American Girl paper pad

Cardstock - Recollections

Stamp - Close to My Heart 'Kid Power' set; lilac ink from Michael's; black Marvy marker on bee

Tag cut from A Child's Year Cricut cartridge, p. 50; added a shadow; inked

Felt flowers - Target

Faux pearls - Recollections

Ribbon - Making Memories

EK Success dimensionals to pop up photo & tag/sentiment

White Gelly Roll pen for journaling

I'm entering this page into four challenges:

Abby's Scrappy Mom's Challenge: Anything Goes - Create any project, just be sure to use a stamp.

CropStop Challenge Blog: #5 Sketch! - Follow the sketch provided HERE to create a project of your choice...a card, layout or altered item.
Amanda's Crafts & More: Scrappy Saturday with the Bug - Challenge #1: Anything Goes! - Make a new layout using a Cricut or SVG cut...anything goes!

The Paper Variety: Yummy Hearts Challenge - Photo inspiration - Use the picture provided HERE to create a layout, card or other paper project.  As you can probably tell, I was inspired by the colors of those yummy candies!

Varoom! Valentine's Day Card for My Parents

Happy Saturday!  I've never been so happy to see a week come to an end.  Terrible weather, school cancellations, the kids stuck inside...thank goodness it's Saturday! 

I thought I'd share yet another Valentine's Day card with you all.  I made this one for my mom to give to my dad.  My dad works with cars so I thought a car would be a perfect image on a card for him.  Then I thought I could do two cars...one in black, one in hot pink, with 'Varoom!' to indicate how they still feel about each other after 45 years of marriage.  What do you think?  I think the 'Varoom' is really funny...I hope my dad will get a kick out of it!  :-)  And I love all the shiny, glittery papers...perfect for a Valentine.



Recipe

Patterned paper - My Mind's Eye Bloom & Grow stack

White glitter cardstock - DCWV Winter & Christmas combo glitter mat stack 

Black shiny cardstock - Recollections gemstones

Hot pink cardstock - Recollections

Heart and shadows cut from George & Basic Shapes; embossed with Sizzix Scallops & Lines folder

'Varoom' welded and cut with my Gypsy using Gypsy Font

Black ric rac - Michael's

Pink rhinestones - Joann's

White Gelly Roll pen for doodling

Martha Stewart corner rounder

EK Success dimensionals to pop up the cars

I'm entering this card into five challenges:
Always Crafting's Whimsical Wednesday  - Make a Valentine/love-inspired project, incorporating hearts and flowers and at least one Cricut cut.
Cricut Cardz Challenge #60 - Make a Valentine's Day card for a man, using any cartridge and any colors you'd like.
Cooking with Cricut: Shadow Challenge - Complete a new project with a shadow - shadowed letters, embellishments, etc.  I shadowed my heart twice.  :-)
Made by Momo's Tuesday Challenge #21 - Make something with the colors black, white and hot pink; it has to have at least one heart.
More Than Favors: Cricut Cartridge Chaos Challenge #4 - Nifty Fifties - Create a project using the cartridge chosen by the blog's followers, or a similar cartridge if you don't have that one.  This week's cartridge is Nifty Fifties...I don't have that one, so I used a car image from Holiday Cakes which is similar to a car on the Nifty Fifties cartridge.

Have a great weekend!
~Sharon C.

A VERY Quick, VERY Simple Birthday Card...Alien Sighting!

Wow...it's late!  Almost my bedtime, but I'm trying to get this one in before the day is over.  My 7 yr-old son needed a card for a birthday party for a classmate, so I thought I'd make a card and incorporate a couple of challenges too.  Double...or triple, really...duty!  So I decided to make a shaped card...a spaceship with an alien...fun stuff for that age group.  Lots of sparkle too.  I just LOVE the alien's face...too funny, isn't it?  It's the face from the star in the Nikkity Knack Cat Gang stamp set...I had to get real creative for this one!!  I used an Action Wobble on the alien too...first time using one...now that's fun!  The sentiment inside reads, "Hope your birthday is out of this world!"  Quick and easy, but mission accomplished!  :-)

Recipe

Spaceship from Everyday Paper Dolls

Alien from Paper Doll Dress Up (trimmed to fit)

Green and silver glitter cardstock - DCWV Christmas and Winter Combo Glitter Mat Stack (thanks Michelle @ Scrappin with my Bug!)

Blue cardstock - Recollection gemstone cardstock

Cuttlebug Distressed Stripes folder on alien

Peachy Keen stamp from PK-630 Nikkity Knack Cat Gang (used only the face of the star)

Black and green Bic Mark-ups, black Creative Memories marker and white Gelly Roll pen for stitching/doodling

Action Wobble

I'm entering this card into two challenges:

Cooking With Cricut: Peachy Keen Sponsor - Create a project to celebrate a birthday, using your Cricut and a Peachy Keen stamp, if possible.

My Creative Time with Emma's Throwback Thursday - Make a project using Paper Doll Dress Up or Everyday Paper Dolls and include either dry or heat embossing.

Have a good night!

~Sharon C.