My Craft Spot Challenge - Frosty Days

(((If you happen to be looking for my New Years Giveaway of the Unity set Snowflake Kisses, click HERE or just scroll down. I will be choosing a winner soon!)))

Good morning! It's time for the first My Craft Spot challenge of 2013! The theme this week is Frosty Days - anything winter themed! I don't know about you - but it is plenty cold in my neck of the woods...lately we have been lucky to hit a high temp of the mid-teens! So I haven't been out making too many snowmen - too cold! Still, it is pretty to look at! Here is what I made this week:

For this card, I pulled out my poor dusty and long forgotten Cricut, and cut the silhouette and shadow using A Child's Year cartridge. The sentiment comes from this set by My Craft Spot:

Think Snow

Isn't it such a fun set? And so perfect for this time of year!

I use my PTI Linen Impression Plate on it, matted it with kraft paper, then stacked it on a doily using foam adhesive for a 3-D effect.

All my pattern papers are from a Glitz Design 6x6 paper pad.  

Finished off with some natural jute twine (find it HERE at My Craft Spot) and a black button from my stash.

Thanks for stopping by! Looking forward to seeing YOUR creations this week! I hope you'll join us!!!

Friends with Flair - Adoption wall art

I have a very special Unity Friends with Flair post for today! A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to get a fun prize pack from Unity Stamp company, and in it was the new set - Born in my Heart - full of adoption sentiments! I was so excited about this, because my older brother and his wife are in the process of adopting a little girl from Ethiopia. The process has been long and trying, but they are getting lower on the wait list, and beginning to feel the anticipation more and more as the day grows closer.

(Edited to add: in the past week or two things have taken a turn...my brother has been out of work, and since he hasn't yet gotten full time employment, they have been dropped by their adoption agency. They are appealing the decision, but also know that the Lord has called them to adopt, so one way or the other, adoption is in their future. I know they would appreciate your prayers in this time of heartbreak!) 

So...I wanted to make a little gift for my sis-in-law, and my new someday niece! Even though I had the idea in my head for a long time, it took me a while to actually accomplish it, but here is the result of that effort:

I used my Cricut and Elegant Edges cartridge to cut the frame, embossed the top of it with my Cuttlebug, and inked the edges with Tim Holtz distress ink. Stamped the sentiment on the bottom, added some stick on pearls, and tied some jute twine from Ribbon Carousel around it, topped off with a PTI button. 

The silhouette was then cut with A Child's Year, and I inked the edges of that as well, before attaching it with foam adhesive to the frame. Finished off by inking the edges of the pink background paper with matching Tim Holtz distress ink to finish it off. 

I just love this beautiful sentiment! Soooo true...can't wait to meet my new little niece (Chloe) when she arrives - and praying for her now until the time comes! 

Baby shower invites

Silly me! Can't believe that I hadn't shared these on here before! These are the baby shower invitation that a friend and I got together and made for another friends baby shower to welcome her little boy, Wyatt. A name like that just begged for a cowboy these - so that is what we did!

Since we needed about 25 of them, we tried to keep them pretty simple. Used a silhouette from A Child's Year, cut with some October Afternoon paper. Used my Cuttlebug to emboss a background, then inked the edges with Tim Holtz distress ink. 

Finished off with a sentiment from My Favorite Things and one of the Pure Innocence sets, and a bit of Baker's Twine tied around the top of the stick horse.

My Craft Spot Monday Challenge - Invitations and Announcements

Hello! First off I wanted to give a quick reminder to check out my Moving Sale if you want to do a bit of shopping! Today is the last day to make a purchase and have a chance to win a little something extra...so click HERE or on the tab above called CRAFTY STUFF FOR SALE.

 It's that time of the week again - time for a new challenge over at My Craft Spot! This weeks challenge is Invitations and Announcements. I know this might be a bit of a stretch - but I thought this might make a really cute birthday party invitation! Here is what I made:

I started off this card with my color scheme in mind! As I was tucking my daughters into bed the other night, she had picked a tank top in that lovely apricot orange color, and turquoise knit shorts. I fell in LOVE with the color combo right there, and determined to make a card with it! She was pretty happy to see the finished project, and know she helped inspire me!

I used papers from Studio Calico, and Echo Park to find my color combo. The oval and scallop frame were cut on my Cricut using Lacey Labels. The silhouette is from A Child's Year. 

I cut the sentiment banner from the Theresa Collins cartridge, Sophisticated. I then stamped the sentiment using Tim Holtz distress ink, and the My Craft Spot stamp set called Birthday Wishes. (Click HERE to see all of the available stamp sets) I curled the banner a bit before attaching it to my card with two pieces of foam adhesive - so it gave it a bit of the look of a flag.

Even though this is for an announcement/invitation challenge, I will probably use this as a birthday card (shhhh...don't tell!) - so I added this sentiment to the inside:

Before I attached the silhouette and frame, I tied some Crinkle ribbon from My Craft Spot in Caribbean underneath, and added a bow on each side, topped with a stick on pearl. (Click HERE to check out all the crinkle ribbon available at My Craft Spot - it is all so beautiful!)  

Then...I used foam adhesive for the silhouette, and also the frame - so lots of dimension! 

I'm so glad to see you again this morning! Make sure and head over to My Craft Spot to see what the rest of the Design Team created for this challenge (and there are some adorable projects this time around!) - and to make sure and link up your own creation for a chance to win this weeks prize!!! Can't wait to see what you come up with!

My Craft Spot Release Party - Day 5 - New Arrival

Good morning again for the last and final day of sneak peeks from the new My Craft Spot stamp release! Tomorrow is the big release hop and reveal! Can't wait for you to see them all! Today we are sneaking the set called New Arrival - another great baby set! Here is what I made:

I feel like this is really simple...but life has been one constant spiral of busyness in our house - and this was the best I could put together! I used another silhouette from A Child's Year for this one, and added a pretty crown from the Theresa Collins cartridge called Sophisticated. The background frame is also from the same cartridge.

All the pattern papers are from October Afternoon, and the red cardstock is from Bazzil. I inked the edges of everything with Tim Holtz distress ink in Antique Linen, and added some faux stitching. 

Used some traditional red baker's twine from My Craft Spot (you can find it HERE) - and attached the silhouette, and then the entire frame to the card base with foam adhesive - so lots of fun dimension! 

Finished off with a bit of bling, and the sentiment stamped with some Papertrey ink red dye ink. 

Thanks so much for stopping by to visit! Make sure and come back tomorrow for the full reveal, and I will have a stamp set to give away to someone!

My Craft Spot Release Party Day 4 - Bundle of Joy

Good morning! I am so excited to share my sneak with you for the stamp set the My Craft Spot Design Team got to play with today! As soon as I saw this set, I zeroed in immediately on this sentiment! It is something my Mom used to say all the time, in fact I think she had a framed copy of it hanging by her kitchen sink. And it is something I repeated often to myself when my kids were little! Here is what I made with it:

I used my Nestabilities to cut out and emboss the frame shape, inking the edges with Tim Holtz distress ink in Antique Linen, then stamped the sentiment on it. 

Used some Milk Chocolate Crinkle Ribbon, and some Lemon Drop Twinery Twine (click HERE and HERE to purchase these at My Craft Spot) to make a bow behind the frame, then attached it with foam adhesive. Added a Kaisercraft resin flower to the center of it.

The pattern papers are both by October Afternoon - that yummy floral is from the new Cakewalk collection - which I got and am in LOVE with! I am trying to break my habit of hoarding stuff I love, so I cut right into it for this project! The yellow is from an older collection called Thrift Shop. 

I cut the baby silhouette using my Cricut and a A Child's Year cartridge, attached it with foam adhesive, and finished off with a couple of stick on gems from my stash. 

Thanks so much for stopping by to see me today! Hope you have a wonderful day - and take time to check out the rest of the peaks by the Design Team over at My Craft Spot! 

My Craft Spot New Release Peeks - Tiny Tags 2 and Metal Dies

Good morning! I'm so excited to be sharing the first of the sneak peeks for the new release at My Craft Spot! Make sure and start over there to read the details of the sneaks this week, and the new release Blog Hop that will happen on Saturday! There are prizes to be won each day! Today we are sneaking the new stamp set called Tiny Tags 2 - plus a set of matching tag dies! Here is what I made with these sets:

I started off by cutting the girl silhouette using my Cricut and A Child's Year cartridge. I inked the edges of them and the shadow using some Tim Holtz distress ink, and did a little splattering on them with some Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist - then covered them with Glossy Accents and coated them with Martha Stewart coarse glitter. 

All the pattern paper is from a My Mind's Eye 6x6 paper pad.  

Here is a close up of the tag and sentiment from the new release. Isn't that tag adorable?!?!? And they cut so smooth and clean - I LOVE it! The flowers and grass were cut with My Favorite Things Die-namics. 

The flourishes behind the doily are also from the new Tiny Tags stamp set - so pretty and fun! 

I used some crinkle ribbon in Buttercup and Milk Chocolate from My Craft Spot (click HERE to find it in the store), as well as some Cotton Candy Divine Twine (click HERE to see this).  

I used the Glimmer Mist on the doily as well, then attached the girls with foam adhesive for extra dimension. Finished off with a bit of stick on bling from my local Michael's store. 

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Make sure and stop over at My Craft Spot and check out the rest of the sneaks by the amazingly talented design team! See you here tomorrow for the next peek!

Valentine card with Cricut Craftroom Basics

Good morning! I wanted to quickly share a card that I made for the Cricut Circle Magazine Challenge, to create a project using the new online, and free, design software for the Cricut, Craftroom Basics. I still think I love my Gypsy far more, but part of that is because I have slow and imperfect internet, which is definately a drawback to an online based program! Here is what I made:

I used the free digital cartridge, Craftroom Basics, for the shaped card base, and for the heart. The silhouette is from A Child's Year - one of my all time favorite cartridges still! 

I inked the edges of everything with Tim Holtz distress ink in Antique Linen, and pop dotted the silhouette from the background. 

I used a black Sakura glaze pen for the doodling and stitching around the edges. The sentiment is from 40:31 creations, and paper is all from Echo Park's Country Drive 6x6 paper pad. 

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you are having a great day!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

Yep - I got that song running through my head! For some reason, I have had a little trouble getting inspired this year to put up Christmas decorations. However, this last weekend I had a moment of inspiration and jumped on it - so we now have some lights up around the house. Will be getting our tree later this week too - my girls are ecstatic!

Anyway, I have a card today that I made for several challenges!  The first is for the Cricut Cardz Challenge #97 - a Christmas card inspired by a favorite Christmas song (as mentioned as the title of this post!) Next is the Scrappy Mom's Stamps "Christmas" theme Terrific Tuesdays challenge. I am also entering this in the weekly challenge on the Cricut Circle blog - "Flower Fusion" - to incorporate store bought pre-made flowers on a project with at least 2 Cricut cuts. Lastly, I am entering this in the Basic Grey Flickr Pool Stitching December Challenge.

Whew! After all that, here is my card this time around:

I used A Child's Year for the ornament cut, as well as the tag. All the paper is from Basic Grey's Picadilly 6x6 paper pad.

Inked the edges of everything with Tim Holtz Distress ink in Vintage Photo, then smeared some Glossy Accents on the ornament, and coated it with Martha Stewart Coarse Glitter. I then attached the ornament to the card with pop-dots for some dimension.

Used some Prima Flowers, tied on with some Crinkle Ribbon and PTI twine with the tag, stamped with a Scrappy Mom's sentiment.

It is kind of hard to see in the picture, but I finished off with some faux stitching around the outside edges of the card.

Thanks for visiting! Hope you have a fabulous day - we are heading out to go for a drive in the snowy mountains! Fun fun fun!



Yourstory Project, mini album/journal

So since my two daughters saw me playing with my new Yourstory machine, they have been asking and asking me to make them a book as well. So, we sat down together and they picked the colors and cuts they wanted to decorate them. Here is what we ended up with:

Katie picked the cut from A Child's Year of a girl reading - because she LOVES to read! She also picked the embossing folder - because it had letters and words like a book. Her name was cut using one of the fonts from Hannah Montana cartridge.

Amy also picked a cut from A Child's Year - of the girl holding a kitty - because she is totally my little animal lover. And...we have a cat, so she thought it was perfect. She also picked a polka dot folder to emboss it through the Cuttlebug. The font for her name is also from Hannah Montana.

We finished off with a bit of stitching around the edges. Here they each are with their finished project:

I am entering this in the Cricut Circle weekly challenge - Mini Albums. They aren't entirely certain what they are doing with them, but I know at least some pictures will probably end up in them. So far, they have wanted Mommy and Daddy to write letters to them in their books, so they can wake up in the morning and be surprised to read what is written. They LOVE them, and it is such a sweet memory for them!

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!



Unity FWF - Welcome Baby - pinterest inspiration!

Good Friday Morning! Welcome to Unity Stamps Friends with Flair Friday!!! Make sure and head back to Unity Stamps blog to get all the details on how to join in the fun and win some free stamps!

I have had this card done for quite a while, but just waiting until the right opportunity to post it! I love how different and unique it is for a baby card - the colors are so completely non-traditional!

I found my inspiration on Pinterest - and fell in love with this framed art - isn't it great?

I started by stamping the background - yep, that red is actually not pattern paper, it was white, and I used Unity Stamp's background stamp Tea Time Pattern and red ink.Then I cut the frame in gray and white from Elegant Edges with my Cricut, and the silhouette from A Child's Year. Finished off with that beautiful sentiment from Unity Stamp's Welcome Baby set in yellow.

Once again, I submitted this one for publication, and no go. But I still love how it stretched and challenged me to try something unique and different! Hope you had fun - now head on over to Unity Stamp Co. to play along!