Holiday Blog Hop & Snow Globe Ornaments

Hello all! Today is the Holiday Blog Hop for the BugBytes Design Team. This is your last stop on the hop and you should have arrived here from Melissa's blog, and when you are done, make sure to go back to Pam at TheBugBytes so that you can add your holiday project to the linky! If you are joining this party already in progress you can also start the hop with Pam's blog!

Apologies to my regular followers for being a bad blog mommy lately and neglecting my blog, I have projects done just no time to write the posts! And more apologies to the hoppers because I really love this project but it totally does not meet the requirements of having red or green or silver or blue. So what my migraine medicine is telling me is that I should go with my inner lawbreaker and say since there is purple in this project and red + blue = purple then this project qualifies. Yeah - let's go with that!!

The details: 

This is a snowglobe ornament that I picked up at Michael's  - they come in two pieces and allow you to place something in the middle. I decided that they were dying to be made into snowglobes and I have had this idea for a long time - so glad it actually worked out! This is also another one of my "recycling" projects because I used my cartridge clamshells as the center of the ornament! (I have a few clamshell pieces....or perhaps a alot). My original photos are taken on my daughter's purple Christmas tree so I thought I would take some without the distracting background so the directions would be clearer.

 I cut a 3.05 inch circle out of the clamshell using my Gypsy - and yes it has to be that size - 3 inches is too small and 3.10 is too big and then placed a 2 inch snowman from Winter Frolic cut in vinyl with some of the layers on one side of the plastic circle. I flipped the image and all the layers and placed the other snowman on the other side of the plastic circle, layering it as exactly as I could over the first snowman. I stamped two different snowman faces using my Peachy Keen Stamps and Stazon ink and colored in the nose with an orange sharpie. I felt like he needed some bling and I especially appreciated I could use two different kinds - one for each side! Who wants buttons when you can have MS mini bling??

I added some Martha Stewart snowflake glitter to one half of the ornament, placed the circle over it, added glitter to the other half and sandwiched them all together. I did add some glue to the inside rim but I am not sure a) that it was necessary or b) that it really worked. Since this was going in my daughter's room I mixed some glow in the dark glitter with the snowflake glitter too, but you can only see it when the lights are out. Oh well - it was still fun!

This project just reinforced my love of vinyl + acetate - they are a match made in crafting heaven! My only regret is I only bought two of these ornaments which means a trip to Micheals is now a necessity and I don't know when I will have the time! I will strive to post my other snowglobe ornament next week.

Make sure you go back to Pam at TheBugBytes and particpate in the linky party! And in case you need it, here is the full blog hop list:

1. Pam 
2. Jeannie  
3. Jen 
4. Carole
5. Lisa Brooks 
6. Audrey  
7. Mila
8. Sheila aka sassylady 
9. Elizabeth 
10. Kelly Millet 
11. Dayna Sabrina 
12. Lori   
13. Denine Vajja
14. Melissa 
15. Allison - you are here! :)    

I hope you found lots of inspiration and have a wonderful holiday season! Happy crafting!

One of a Kind Card

Hello everyone! Today is my day on The Bug Bytes - I have a simple card to share with you today and for once I am not embarrassed by one of my cards.  I made this for a dear friend and I can't wait for her to get it in the mail!

The details: 

I have been dying for Preserves forever and I finally indulged myself in one of the last cricutmachine.com sales. I don't know why I wanted it so badly - this card must have been in my head wanting to get out! Then when I got the K and Company Citrus Bliss paper stack at Joann's I decided it was card destiny! That's a real thing right??

I cut out the grapes with all layers at 4 inches and used papers from my scrap paper stash. I wanted to add some more dimension to all the flat papers so I inked all of the layers before assembling. I was very pleased with how the leaves turned out. A closeup of the bunch:

 For my "one of a kind" grape I cut a circle at 0.70 inches from George and Basic Shapes. I used the layers feature on my Gypsy to figure out what would be the right size. Then I stamped with a Peachy Keen face stamp, added a touch of glossy accents to the eyes and pop-dotted it on the front. The card base from DCWV while the purple background paper as well as the sentiment stickers are from the K & Company Citrus stack.

On the inside I think I am going to add "...is the kind of friend you are!" and pop it in the mail with a little treat.  I haven't forgotten my promise to show you the recycled popcorn boxes - that will be next!

Fortieth Anniversary Extravaganza

I have a few posts for you this week - it was my parents' 40th wedding anniversary this year - and so I had a lot of fun creating table decorations and favors. Forty years is the Ruby Anniversary - which means a lot of red and white ahead! They are season ticket holders of the local minor league baseball so we had it at the ballpark under the party tent - they really enjoyed themselves and it was the perfect laid back party!

The details:
The focus of today's post is going to be the popcorn boxes, which are cut from Tags, Bags, Boxes, and More.

These were cut at a 6.50 inches which I rotated by 80 degrees on the Gypsy. By doing this I could fit one box on one piece of 8 1/2 by 11 paper. Then by trimming the paper 1/2 inch I was able to put 3 sheets on one 12x24 mat and cut them out 3 at a time. Since I was making 30 of them, this was an important detail.

The popcorn box has no layers, and when I cut it out in plain red they really didn't do anything for me. I really wanted to add the white border and it was not going to be productive to cut out each box twice just for that. Instead I put the popcorn box on one layer and then designed a border layer using circles and rectangles from George.

By repeating this pattern I made a pattern for a liner that ultimately resulted in a white border at the top of the box.

The "40" is cut from Elegant Cakes at 1.50 inches while the scallop is from Mini Monograms at 2.50 inches. I filled them with bags of peanuts and homemade cinnamon sugar popcorn. They were a great success and the peanuts went much faster than I expected. Don't worry though - I took care of all that extra popcorn.

In the end, I had made way more boxes than I ended needing, but don't worry - I found a great way to re-purpose them - and you should look for a post next week to see how they turned out in their second life. Stay tuned for more red and white!

Dr. Seuss meets Graduation Cards

I am super excited to share these cards with you today. I have done a few Dr. Seuss-related plays and when those students graduated this year I decided to add a Dr. Seuss twist to their grad cards. You can see my other graduation cards here; I followed the same recipe for an easel card and just changed the front of the card.

The details:

I began with a circle using George sized at 2.82 inches. The font I used is Cutting Up, which is very Seuss friendly and just the right style. I arranged the "Thing 1" on the circle and then cut it out with white paper. The letters ended up being .68 inches while the numbers were 1.20 inches. I cut a larger circle in black  at 3.20 inches which gave me the black letters and outside border.

I cut the grad hat from Locker Talk in turquoise at 1.50 inches with a white tassel and added a gem brad. For the year I used the Elegant Cakes font with the shadow layer at 1 inch. The inside of the card was done with a Studio G stamp and a Martha Stewart punch for the corners.

I was so pleased with the way that these came out. As soon as I can find red shirts in a toddler size, I want to make "Thing" matching shirts for a friend who has twins. And while I keep my fingers crossed for that Dr. Seuss Cartridge I will continue to make do with what I have!

Summer Fun Goody Bags!

Hi everyone! I am thrilled to be here at The BugBytes, and I decided to bring  you what else? Some goody bags that I created for my daughter's kindergarten class. The last two years I have been fortunate enough to find enough good deals on books that I could provide every child in her class with 5 books to take home for the summer, and these are what I designed to house them! (Can you tell I really really believe in summer reading?) And of course I threw in some other summer fun goodies like bubbles and mini paint kits and various other goodies.

This post must come with a disclaimer - do as I say not as I do! Why you ask? Because while cutting sandpaper is a good idea in theory - in actuality it is not only a PITA, it killed my first machine. She never quite recovered and no amount of resets could save her. *bowing head for moment of silence*

The details:

Now that I have given you the official disclaimer, you should know the sand castle is cut at 4 inches from Create a Critter, with the top layer being sandpaper (really people - steal it out of the kids sandbox and xyron it) and the bottom being craft paper. The whole thing is on an action wobble - because that made the packaging fun!

 

The wobble in action!

The sun is also from Create a Critter cut at 2.50 inches, except I replaced the top layer with a 1.5 inch circle from George and a Peachy Keen Stamp. I chalked the cheeks of the sun and also used stickles around the the outside layer for the sparkly effect. I finished the bags off with some MS word art printed on clear labels and adhered to the bag.

The best part is that I loved these bags so much I made coordinating tags to go with the teacher goody bags - which contained a class picture candle and a mini spa kit full of items to help the relaz and rejuvanate!

In the case of the tags, I only used the bottom layer of the sand castle cut on kraft paper (I was tired of fighting with sandpaper - remember -good for distressing, bad for machine) and I put the sun on an action wobble - because I really do love those things. They provide me with so much joy and entertainment! I finished the tags with a Fiskars stamp and had my daughter sign them and attached with some baker's twine. Easy and adorable! That's all for me this month at The BugBytes - see you in August!

My Twine Storage Solution

I should promise that no twine was harmed in the making of this blog post but that would be a big ole lie - there were some minor skirmishes but organization prevailed!

 Have I mentioned that I heart baker's twine? It has been finding its way into my projects more and more, but I have to admit - that stuff can be a PITA to get it unrolled when it is actually time to use it, especially since I only have it in smaller lengths (a sampler pack from The Twinery and one of Divine Twine....well, at least that's what I have right now). Anyway I needed a way to turn this mess.....

into something more manageable. (you should know - this is what happens when the 18 month old decides to "help" mommy). And what I came up with was a design for a thread bobbin that turned that mess into this...

And now all of my twine can be stored on a ring within reach on my pegboard or on the end of my Making Memories cabinet (haven't made up my mind yet). I was going to store them in a box except that enabler Caroline (from Caroline's Craftography) showed me some ribbon storage that made me remember I had binder rings. (Edited to add:) You can find the binder rings in the school supply section at Walmart or an office supply store like Staples - I happened to have some in with my school stuff.

The details:
The process was really very simple - I used three rectangles from George welded together and then cut from kraft cardstock - and I cut two for each thread bobbin and adhered them together to make the bobbin nice and sturdy for the twine. The final bobbin is just over 4 inches high and about 3 inches wide.

I was able to lay out 6 of the design one the mat to be cut out of one 8 1/2 by 11 piece of paper - which in the end would give me 3 total bobbins (assuming I put the paper on the mat correctly - can you guess why I said that??). Then I simply added a little slit at the top with a razor and wrote the brand and color name. A hole punch in the bottom and a large binder ring, and the bobbin was done ready for winding!

It really was a painless process and now I can look at all my pretty colors of twine and admire them on a daily basis. But how about a little giveaway?? I have a bobbin of Halloween Baker's Twine from Trendy Twine that I would love to give to one of my followers. I also heart Halloween so I will admit I splurged and bought the whole spool.

How much is on there? No idea - I would guess about 7-10 yards - enough to add that special something to your Halloween projects. Just leave me a comment and I will pick a winner on Friday, July 8th.   As always if you would like the Gypsy file for the bobbin just shoot me an email and I will send it to you.

Crystal Palace Shaker Layout

As I was working on this next layout  I found the Mickey confetti I had saved from our table at the Crystal Palace and wanted to incorporate it into the layout. After all, I thought why should shakers be just for cards??

The details:

The paper I used was from K and Company, and I used Storybook for the title and cut with the coordinating plain papers from the same stack as the print. The title was cut in green and shadowed with blue but I just was not happy with how plain they looked - and then it hit me! The "Crystal Palace" needed crystals! And since it had been so long since I used my I-rock I apparently forgot what a huge PITA it is, I busted it out. Eleven hours later (not really but it felt like it) I was done adding the bling and (since I am a glutton for punishment) I added it to all the photo mats too.

Here you can see the bling in the photo mat corners and in the pic you can see the confetti I used for the shaker part of my layout.

To create the shaker element I used the same welding technique I used in this post. It is basically a frame made using some rectangles from George and the silhouette cut of the Mickey shape  from Mickey Font welded together. I used a blank frame behind it so you could see the background paper. The plastic is recycled from a package of plastic easter eggs.

I used a double layer of foam tape to give it more dimension than my shaker post-it holders, and you can see from this picture how it is popped up.

So even though adding the bling was more time than I liked to spend on one project I was super pleased with the way this came out and I was able to incorporate our souvenir confetti right into the layout. I guess sometimes the extra effort (and swearing) is worth it!

Some flowers for thought

This week's Circle Blog Challenge was to create flowers so I finally had time to create some projects I had been wanting to get to for a while. I made headbands for my daughter!

 

The details: 



The first looks rather simple doesn't it?? Well, it was a huge PITA!! In case you were wondering if Adhesive Backed Felt would cut cleanly in your Cricut, the answer is NO!  However, I have decided instead of chucking it in the garbage I would call it shabby chic! Yep - that was my plan all along.



But anyway, the flower is from Mother's Day Bouquet and cut at 3 inches. I cut it once in pink and then twice in white with the contours hidden inside the petals. I stuck the two white layers together so that there was no adhesive on the outside, and then added the pink layer with a gem on top. It is attached to the plastic headband with a circle from George cut in the adhesive felt. If I hadn't had to go back and had cut all the petals because I couldn't get a clean cut I would like this a lot more.

Now this masterpiece (oh  it hurts to actually pat yourself on the back) was inspired and created a la Teresa Collins style and I have to be honest  - I saw it in a couple places so I don't have a direct link right now. When I find it I will link it here. What I did was use the 8 petal scallop-y flower from Mother's Day Bouquet, and cut it at the following sizes:

• 6 flowers at 3.5 inches
• 1 flower each at 3, 2.5, 2, and 1 inches

Then I scored 4 of the large flowers and folded into quarters, then stapled them on to one of the other large flower as a base.

Now I did manipulate the paper so the petals would curve up but I just could NOT crumple up my beautiful K&Co paper from the new Brenda Walton Spring Stack. That would just be.....WRONG! *shuddering*
Anyway then I layered the other size flowers on top, alternating the with the pattern on the opposite side and offsetting the petals for each layer. I hot glued all the layers together (getting in touch with my inner Kathy Orta tonight) and added a gem to the top. Then I hot glued that baby to an old beat up fabric headband and voila! Instant makeover! A closeup from the side so you can see the dimensions:

Well, I hope you enjoyed this post as much as my daughter enjoyed her headbands - she is quite the diva so she loves her flowers and bling! (Don't we all??)

Victory!! I found the original post I was inspired by - Teresa actually uses a different flower and it not so linear as I am but what can I say? That is just the way I am! Here is her guest blogger post on the Creating Keepsakes Blog.

Birthday Layout for the E2 contest

Hi everyone! Allison from Goody Bag Diva thrilled to be back at The BugBytes today. I decided to share with you my entry for the contest Jinger AdamsJinger Adams (spokesperson for Provo-Craft) is holding a contest for E2 (Expression machine 2) launch on HSN, which premieres April 26th. The only requirement really was that it was a birthday theme. I immediately wanted to incorporate some kind of pop-up, which didn't really turn out to be a realistic expectation, so I decided to incorporate a cut from Everyday PopUp Cards, and add a "pop-down" twist.

The details:
For the printed papers I used Basic Grey's cupcake line, and the rest is Bazzill cardstock. I used my favorite scalloped square from Elegant Edges cut at 11.30 inches for the background, which is layered on top of two more pieces of cardstock. The photo mats are 4.5 by 6 and 3 by 4 inches. The title is from Stamping and is sized at 2.80. The cake is from the aforementioned Everyday PopUp Cards and is sized at 4.30 inches.
A closeup of the cake:

Instead of cutting out the sprinkles that are supposed to go on the top layer of the cake I used brads instead and added some chunky glitter. I hid contour of the lines for the sprinkles and also skipped one of the extra layers for the flames.

The twist is located behind the cake, it flips down for some hidden journaling:

I did this by cutting two layers of the shadow piece, and on the top layer I welded a rectangle from George, scored at the bottom of the cake and adhered it to the back of the second shadow layer.

Some more details:

I added some doodling to the title and some faux stitching around the mats. I added some ribbon and brads to the bottom mat, and anchored the corner of the top mat with brads as well. I have no expectations of winning, but it was fun to try. I did make one more but at this time not sure if it will make it into the envelope as my children decided to give me their germs for Spring Break! Thanks for looking! 

TheBugBytes!

I am over the moon to announce that Pam aka TheBugBytes actually asked me to design for her blog! Isn't that just insane? Maybe okie smacked her a little too hard one day and she didn't know what she was doing....so until she comes to her senses I am going to run with it!

Today is my first day at TheBugBytes and I have posted this layout that I designed for baby's first haircut!

I hope you will stop by and check out the details! I am also sharing the gypsy file for anyone who wants to email me.

Cutest Pillowbox Evah!!

Forgive my channeling Kathy Orta here, but I soo love this next project! Sometimes I impress myself!! I really love pillowboxes, they have totally made my list of favorite things to make and I bought the Wrap It Up cartridge for all the wonderful containers. Unfortunately PC did not cooperate and include a design for a baby pillowpox (hmmph! the nerve!) so I had to create one myself.

The crafty details:

I began with the Poinsetta Pillowbox (row 3, button 7) and hid contour of all the poinsetta leaves in the center. I sized it at 10 inches because I wanted to be sure my onesie would fit. On top of that I added the baby buggy under the tag feature (row 1, button 3), hid countour of the outside line and sized at 4.50 inches.

On Layer 2, I used the same baby buggy tag (outside line still hidden) and added a circle from George sized at 3.80 inches. I grouped them together so they would cut as one. Finally, on Layer 3, I used the regular buggy cut, sized at 3 inches, and did a little cricut surgery (as Kathy would also say), cut off the handle and wheels, and ran it through the cuttlebug in the Swiss Dots folder.

Finally I tied a sheer ribbon in a bow around the white layer, and adhered it to the blue tag layer. The blue layer I adhered to the pillowbox and added some brads to the wheel spokes. On the inside of the pillowbox I cut a layer of thin plastic and adhered it to cover the empty spaces.

All done! This really was less complicated than it sounds - it took less than an hour to assemble and it turned out so nice I know I will be making it again. In fact I may be making sure all the baby gifts I buy can fit into a pillowbox! That's all for this week - please remember if I don't post for a while it doesn't mean I won't be back!

Baby Onesie "Little Squirt"

I have a colleague who is expecting her second child, and she really didn't want any gifts or anything shower-like, but I couldn't let the occasion just pass! So we organized a girls night out dinner and I had to create just a little something for the baby. She is obsessed with ketchup, eats it on absolutely everything - her wedding favors were personalized bottles of Heinz Ketchup! I put my thinking cap on for ketchup puns and came up with absolutely nothing, but another colleague came to the rescue with the idea of "Little Squirt".

The crafty details:

When I searched my gypsy, the only ketchup that came up was on Block Party Lite, which I do not own, and while I do look for any excuse to buy a cartridge, I just didn't love the rest of the cuts so much. I decided to use the shapes from George to create my own. There is a bottle layer of red, and the three white pieces, and a teeny tiny green layer for the top of the tomato. The tomato is from the From My Kitchen cartridge.

The entire bottle cut is about 6 inches high. I wish I knew an easy way to explain how I created it, but I don't think that is possible! I put the shape I want to copy on Layer 2 and then on Layer 1 I use my shapes, a lot of welding, and some trial and error to get what I want. The "Little Squirt" uses the font from Car Decals (which is what sold me on that particular cartridge in the first place) and it cut quite small at .5 inches.

If you haven't used Heat Transfer Vinyl yet, what are you waiting for? It is so easy! Once my cuts were done and weeded it took less than 10 minutes to iron all the layers on and let it cool. What actually takes the longest is letting the layers cool in between before peeling off the plastic. First I did the red, then positioned the layers of white and ironed those on, next came the green. Finally I added the text. When all the layers are complete, I usally run the iron over the design to make sure they are all set (with a layer of parchment over the design of course).

I was very pleased with the way it turned out and my friend really loved it - which was the important part! I actually loved the box I made to give it in, but I am going to be a tease and make you wait to see that!

Guest Designer today at Tuesday Treats

Although I have been busy, and sadly not getting in my daily dose of crafting, I did find the time to create one of my Post-It Shaker holders (this time with a Valentine's theme) for Tuesday Treats! Thanks so much to Pam aka TheBugBytes for having me!

This cute project was created using George and Gypsy Wanderings, and of course some Martha Stewart glitter. For all the details, please visit Tuesday Treats!

Memory Book

Well, as the new year appproaches, I have been thinking a lot about memories (really more about the thousands of pictures I am behind on printing) and I realized I never shared this memory book that I created as a hostess gift for a retired colleague. One of the stresses of my holiday season is to figure out what to bring to this party, since I hate choosing wine for people, and I already bought coffee last year,  and he has a thing about eating food he hasn't made, you get the idea. Well they just had their first grandchild, and I cannot tell you the joy it brings to my heart to know that there will be a child more spoiled by his grandparents than my children (seriously  - they brought in contractors to re-do their basement for his own area - he is two months old! Love it!!).

Caroline (Caroline's Craftography) had given me this idea by sending me one of LorraineB's videos (Card Creations by Lorraine) and I was hooked after watching the teaser video. She has a whole series of how to create these sweet memory books made with 3 sheets of white paper as a base, and you can see them all by clicking the link here. (As long as you are over there check out the rest of her videos if you have the time, she has the best ideas!) Now, my advice to you is to watch them all before starting (unlike some people I know who thought she would cheat and watch as she made - don't recommend it - oh the words my children probably learned that day). And so now I will shut up and actually post the project!

front - all wrapped up

front side - open

back side open

closeups of front paper

closeups of back paper

The crafty details:

For the front cover I used the candy cut on the Gingerbread Seasonal Cart, and cut it out in red and white paper. I used my Cri-kuts gel pens to draw the title using the font on Nursery Rhymes, and then colored it in with a red marker. The paper is all from the K and Company Secret Santa stack which I loved so much I may have had to go out and get a second stack for just in case. I added some sticker from my stash, but I don't know if I would do that again, because they add to the bulk of the book when you fold it up.

I totally can't wait to try this again, and I have a colleague expecting a baby soon, so I am looking forward to doing it in baby paper. My only complaint is the centers of the white paper started to get worn from the folding and unfolding even before I was done, but it must have been the paper I used. I shall have to ask Lorraine what brand of cardstock she used. Oh, and I didn't really like doing so much cutting with the trimmer to create the squares and trianngles so I created a file that uses George to do it for me! I am willing to share if anyone wants it, just shoot me an email. (....which reminds me my gypsy is not updated, so I better get on that)