Kirigami - Ballerina Birthday Card

Front of card

Inside of card

Hi everyone! Today is my fellow dancer and Nutcracker cast mate's birthday so I made her this Kirigami ballerina birthday card for her. I'm not sure how well the pictures turned out because I had to use my phone since my camera is packed in my car ready to go back to the theater.

Materials Used:

• DnC Sweets Paper
• Blue, white and brown card stock
• Glitter
• Glue
• Xacto knife
• Cricut Machine
• Cricut Cart - Beyond Birthdays

Let It Snow Christmas Card

Hi everyone! I was inspired by a card I saw on Stampin' Up and HAD to make it so I can't take credit for coming up with the idea. The opening for his belly is bigger than I would have liked but I don't feel like handcutting 60+ circles with an exacto knife ... call me crazy! LOL.

Materials Used:

• Paper - Stampin' Up - Baja Breeze and Pear Pizzaz
• Stamp - Let it Snow - Stampin' Up
• Treat cups (Stampin' Up)
• Glitter
• Paper cutter
• Coloring pencils
• Ink pad
• Glue

Congrats Card

Hi all. I made this card for one of my husband's passengers who is retiring today. He only told me about it last night, so it had to be super fast and easy since I had to rush the kid out to ballet! LOL.

Materials Used:

• Cardstock - blue
• Sentiment Stamp - "Congrats"
• Ink - Stayzon Black
• Paper petal flowers
• Brads
• Fiskar's Embossing tool
• Fiskar's Embossing templates

Birthday Cards - Presents

The cards with coordinating envelopes

The cards with their respective match books.

Hi everyone. Well, it's certainly been a most busy craft day at my house! And, we even managed to squeeze in a movie! LOL. Here are the birthday cards I made to go with the match book money holders. I can't wait to give these to my nieces. Have a great night everyone. I'm off to go make some tea and relax. :D

Materials Used:

• Cardstock - White, Black, Purple, Blue
• Paper - Parchment, Pink, Purple, Yellow, Pink Snakeskin, Light Blue, Light Yellow
• Martha Stewart Ink Set - Aquamarine Crystal and Gold
• Creative Memories Corner punch
• Cricut Machine
• Cricut Cartridge - Wild Cards
• Crop a Dile
• Brads
• Glue

Match book money holders

The front of the match books (the glossy accent was still drying)

Just under the flap

Each of the tabs was made with a pocket to tuck the money into.

Hi everyone! I modified these two match books to make them into money holders for my nieces' 8th birthday (twins!).

Materials Used:

• Card stock - Pink, purple, white, pink with stripes, blue
• Paper - Pink, purple, purple with polka dots, pink with hearts, pink grid, purple grid, yellow with stars
• 1" hole punch
• Glue
• Glossy Accents
• Cricut
• Cricut cartridge - Base Camp
• Light Blue glitter

Paperbag Mini Album

Hi everyone. Here's my first ever mini album made from paper bags! To say that I'm hooked is an understatement! These were so easy to make and I could not believe how cute they came out! This one was made as a birthday gift for my daughter's teacher's birthday. Her first born had recently turned one so I guess you could say it was two gifts in one. I'm going to attach as many pictures as I can on this on because it really came out too cute! Behind each full page is a tag. Enjoy!

The spine and unfinished front cover

The front cover, finished

Inside the front cover, pocket w/ 2 tags

One of the pages ready for a picture

The tag that was directly behind it, you can see the flower
peeking out of the edge of the previous picture.

Another page with a corner pocket to hold a photo mat.

The three buttons are a smaller page, some of these held
interesting pictures (like this one), some held journaling
pages and others held small tags.

This small page held journaling.

This is my favorite of the whole album! Waterfall pages
that spell out B-A-B-Y (you can see a smaller page on the left
of the picture holding a tag).

The last full page in the album. Little corner pocket holding
a picture mat. Note the button ...

Note the button at the top ... this was peeking out of the edge
of the last page. This is one of the larger tags to be found in
 the album.

Back cover. Journaling and another pocket to hold more little
tags.

I hope you liked looking at it as much as I liked making it. :) Have a great day!

Christmas Matchbook

Front of matchbook

Matchbook opened up with a tag pulled out

Hi everyone.  A friend of mine sent me a tutorial on how to make these cute matchbooks and I've been thinking about using one in my next mini album, so I wanted to try one out before I actually committed to it. My daughter asked if she could have it so I made it all Christmas-y, used my Crop a dile to add some eyelets at the top and used some yarn to make a handle. I will be making two more today that I'm going to turn into birthday cards/money holders for my nieces so there will be more pictures to come. :)

Materials Used:

• Card stock - Red
• Card stock - Green
• Card stock - White
• Paper - Red, Green (to make the pouches)
• Two sheets of coordinating scrapbook paper

Am I crazy?

Hi everyone. Just taking a moment to myself to read through comments and reply back. I'm so sorry it took so long on some. I do read them, but sometimes I miss questions because I never get alone time. (In fact, I can hear my goober yelling at the dog to get off her hair. Sigh. Another short post!).

I started a Facebook fan page. I hope you will all go take one look, fall madly in love and buy it all! LOL, okay, okay, at the very least "Like" it and let me know that I'm not going crazy to try and do this and that I'm not alone out here.

Well, that's all the time I seem to have because the dog has found me and now I have to play with her.

Have a great holiday to you all and for those us who are cooking ... many blessings on a moist turkey! :)
Ta!

Glass Ornament with Quilled Snowflake

The Ornament

Closeup of the Ornament

Hi all! This is an ornament I made to enter into the Michael's Holiday Craft Contest. We had to use all three of the mystery items which were an ornament, beads, and ribbon. I came up with this concept while I was falling asleep the other night. I basically quilled all the elements of the snowflake outside of the ornament then assembled it piece by piece inside the ornament (like a ship in a bottle). It was a lot of fun to make and my fingers are crossed that it wins something, however, it's up against some stiff competition!

Materials Used:

• Glass ornament
• Seed beads in various shades of blue, silver and clear.
• Acrylic discs decorative accents
• Alcohol inks in various shades of blue
• Quilling tools
• Bright white quilling paper
• White glue
• Overhead transparency
• Ribbon with "lacey" edging (to mimic a snowflake)

Veteran's Day Card

Hi all! Veteran's Day is this Thursday and I made these cards for my sister to thank her! She and her husband are both Majors in the Army and I'm so proud of them both. They have both done 2 tours in Afghanistan and 1 in Iraq. Anyway, enough bragging. :) I was inspired by the modge podge Thank You card I had made back in January. Same concept, tear the paper into small bits, chalk all the edges of each piece and modge podge them onto another sheet, cut and use. Here's my list of materials:

Materials Used:

• White paper
• Blue paper (I used two different ones)
• Red paper
• White Card Stock
• Chalking Inks (I used a black very lightly)
• Modge Podge
• Adhesive

Haunted House Cake



Front of Cake



Right Side of Cake



Left Side of Cake

Back Side of Cake

Well, here it is. It's finally done. The cake that I made for my daughter's class to enter in their cake walk. It came out  so cool!

Just some Stats:

• 6 lbs. of powdered sugar to make all the windows, door, shutters, ghosts, fence and roof points.
• 5 lbs. of buttercream icing.
• 4 cans of spray food coloring to get that nice purple color.
• 9 hours to pipe out all the windows, door, shutters, ghosts, fence and roof points.
• 7.5 hours to assemble.
• The only real layer of cake (otherwise it would feed 110!) is the second story.
• 3 hours to paint on the features for the door, windows, shutters and ghosts.
• The roofing is gingerbread.

What's coming up next ...

Hi all! I just noticed that I let a whole month go by without posting ANYTHING! That's never a good thing in the life of a crafter! But, I have been very busy. With moving and then working part time at my daughter's school (teaching PE ... being outside all day is very draining! I need to take a nap when I get home! LOL). But I wanted to give you all a little heads up on things to look forward to in the coming month.

Mini Paper Bag Album:
All my friend Lynn had to say to me was "Hey, do you know how to make a mini album?" and I was hooked!!! My daughter's teacher's son is either turning one or just turned one so I decided to make her a mini album to put all her photos in. So far, it's pretty bare, but I'm working on it a little each day.

Haunted House Cake:
My daughter's school is holding a Halloween Carnival on the 29th and each class is tasked with putting together a themed basket for raffle (we picked "Around the Campfire". The whole class smells like marshmellows!) and also entering a cake for the cake walk. I volunteered to make the cake and have decided (because I'm a glutton for punishment) to make a three tiered haunted house. I spent all day yesterday doing "sugar work" (well, not in the traditional sense of the term ... I was color flowing, but that sounds hokey!). I only got half of what I needed shaped and then I came home after having dinner with family to find tiny kitty footprints all through out the pieces. Lucky, I made extra! Phew!

So, needless to say that there will be lots of pictures of both coming up as they are completed!

Thanks for stopping by! :P

Happy Housecreeping!

How cute is this??! My friend ordered the Happy Hauntings cartridge for her Cricut and surprised me with the cutouts for not only the house but some trees as well! I accessed the booklet for the cart on Circut's website and proceeded to put it together. I totally recommend using a scoreboard to prescore your lines before bending only because some of the hash marks can get a little confusing if you're not sure where to fold. I also used my alcohol inks to color some acetate to put behind the windows so that when I place a light source in the house, they will glow. (Like in the second picture, I just held it up to the window to show you all how pretty it looks when it glows). Thanks for looking.
Materials Used:

• Cricut Cartridge - Happy Hauntings
• Cricut Expressions (unless you want a smaller house)
• Black cardstock
• Tim Holtz Andirondack Brights Alcohol Inks - Sunshine Yellow
• a sheet of acetate
• Martha Stewart Scoreboard
• eXacto knife and cutting mat (to get those pesky window pieces that refuse to come out)
• Tape
• Glue

The long awaited teapot invitation!!

After months of teasing you all about it. After a long vacation ... and packing ... and moving ... and unpacking ... it's here! The teapot invitation! I made these for a friend's daughter's bridal shower (they had a tea party). The colors were a bold purple with lime green accents. When you pull up on the lid, the invitation is revealed! They also requested recipe cards so made those with teapot cutouts to match.

Materials Used:

• Textured purple cardstock
• Lime green cardstock
• White cardstock
• Lime green glitter
• Cricut Cartridge - Ashlyn's Alphabet
• Craft knife
• Carpet tape
• Glue

Camp Rock 2 Invitation

Hello all! I made this invitation for a Camp Rock 2 movie premier party we're having with my daughter and a few of her friends. We'll be roasting hot dogs and making s'mores. I've got a t-shirt making activity planned. I've also been casting various "camp" looking objects in resin to make pendants for the girls to turn into jewelry. Then, it's time to pitch a big tent in the living room, pop some popcorn and watch the movie! :P

Materials Used:

• Cricut cartridges: (Sentiment) Beyond Birthdays, (Owl) Give a Hoot
• Rock 'n Roll themed paper
• Black Cardstock
• Lime Green paper
• Bright blue Cardstock
• Brown paper scraps
• Yellow paper scraps
• Orange paper scraps
• Champagne paper scraps
• Googly eye
• Gold glitter
• Glue

One loooooooong vacation ...

... Then we moved! My scrap room is a mess! There are boxes everywhere and to make matters worse, I went from having a walk in closet to store all my stuff in to a normal non-walk in kind! Trying to figure out 1) Where to put everything and 2) where is it all!? If you ask my husband, he gives you the same answer, "In a box". LOL. He's too cute!

So, I haven't forgotten about this blog, I promise, I'm just recovering from a long vacation (was only supposed to be 2 weeks and it turned into 2 months somehow) and then my wonderful husband found a house and moved us while we were gone so, yes, it is all in a box somewhere! LOL. I have a few birthday parties coming up so I need to find all my stuff to make some cards and get them posted! I have this one idea for a fish bowl that I'm DYING to get done and show you guys! :D

To all you new comers out there, welcome! If I start getting more interest in the cards that I make, I'll post instructions as well. :)

Have a great day! I'm off to bed because the monkey has a whole new school schedule that we're both trying to get adjusted too! Night all!

Desk Caddy

Hi everyone out there. I spent this weekend not only getting ready for the Farmer's Market that supposed to start this Thursday (oh, did I mention it's an outdoor venue and it snowed this morning?) but I also rearranged the contents on my desk to make them more accessible to me (I couldn't believe it took all day!!). LOL

Because I rearranged, I needed a place to put all my pens and pencils that could be moved with me where ever I went. I'm not a big fan of pencil cups only because I don't like all my pens mixed up (yes, I have issues) so I made this desk caddy instead. It's super easy to make, takes no time at all, and I can make it however I want it to look. My friend Lynn over at Lynn's Magnolia Haven (check her out) shared this template with me one night while I was over at her house. THANK YOU LYNN!

Materials used:

• 2 sheets of patterned paper
• 1 sheet of coordinating cardstock
• Glue
• Ribbon
• Scoring tool

Kirigami Teacher's Card - H

Outside

Inside

Ok, it's official ... I'm addicted to this! My poor fingers! LOL. I made this card for my daughter's third grade teacher, Heather, to go along with the end of the year "Thank you" gift basket we always give. I wanted to keep the outside very simple since it's the inside that's the wow factor.

Materials Used:

• Cardstock - White
• Yellow paper
• Blue paper
• Cuttlebug and plate (can't remember the design name, sorry)
• Prismacolor pencil - #PC905 Aquamarine
• Terpinoid
• Blending stump
• Kirigami "H" design
• Adhesice
• X-acto Knife
• Self Healing Mat

Kirigami Butterfly Birthday Card

I LOVE THIS CARD!!! It was so much fun to make. Although, I have to warn you, after cutting this whole thing out, my finger hurts from pushing down on the X-acto knife to get it through the cardstock. LOL. I love that the real surprise is not the outside of the card, but the inside! So cool! I think I just found my Christmas cards for this year (though, I am going to play with a lighter stock on the inside).

Materials Used:

• X-acto knife (the sharper the better!)
• Self healing mat
• Cardstock - White
• Colored paper - Dark Green, Light Green
• Patterned Paper - Creative Memories Sample Pack
• Adhesive
• Prisma Pencils - #PC904, PC956, PC932, PC905, PC931, PC944
• Terpinoid
• Blending stump
• Butterfly Stamp
• StayZ Ink pad - Black

Diaper Cakes - For Market

Hello out there in Internet land!! I've been busy getting ready for our annual Farmer's Market (my first time as vendor this year). I'm lucky enough to have someone to share a booth with so if I were to tank, abosrbing the costs wouldn't be as bad. LOL. I'm planning on selling some diaper items (Cakes, Kids, cupcakes), some scrapbooking items I'm making (flowers, tags, stickers), some corkboards, you get the picture. :P I will be posting pictures of the cooler looking items as they get made.

For this one, I wanted to show you the diaper cakes I made. I only made four and figured I would replenish as they went, that way I'm not stuck with a closet full of them at the end of summer. LOL.

Materials Used:

• Disposable Diapers
• Ribbon
• Flowers
• Tray
• Various baby items

Etched Apothecary Jar - Handfasting Ceremony

Hi all. I etched this jar for my friend's eldest daughter's handfasting ceremony at the Renaissance Fair this past weekend. All the guests would write down a note on slips of paper that had the same designs on them. The sun represented the "bride" and the moon represented the "groom".

Materials Used:

• Apothecary Jar
• Picture
• Etching Cream
• Vinyl

Seed packets - Handfasting Favors

Outside
Inside

Picture of contents

Hi everyone. Man, have I been BUSY this week! I have a friend who "hired" me to make favors for her eldest daughter's handfasting ceremony last weekend at the Renaissance Fair. She wanted seed packets because of all the meanings. The only problem was that they had to be made using materials that they would have had back then!! That meant I couldn't use coin envelopes for the seeds on the inside, I couldn't use any glue, tape or stickers. Thankfully, I was allowed to print on them (there was no way I could have handwritten 100 favors in a week AND hand cut 200 envelopes!).

**NOTE**: The Mom took one of the favors over to the lady who's in charge of coordinating the whole fair and the lady said that my work was "the most periodically correct favors" she's EVER seen at fair! Wow!!! And then, she told me that she wants to add me to the wedding book for people who book weddings at the fair! DOUBLE WOW!!!! How cool is that!? Okay, so, to get ready for next year, I'm going to start cutting envelopes now. LOL :)

Materials Used:

• Parchment paper
• White ribbon
• Rose stamp
• Ink
• Red chalk
• Brown paper (like a grocery bag, but on a roll like gift wrapping)
• Brown business cards with ivy design
• Sealing wax - Gartiner Burgundy wax shown
• Gartiner Rose seal
• Wildflower seeds
• Strawberry Clover seeds
• Sentiment