Reindeer Tote Bags

I had a blast putting these treat bags together! Sure my fingers were covered in Liquid Glass but it was the only adhesive I trust to be strong enough to hold the treats I planned to put inside.

I used My Mind's Eye Christmas paper pack from last year to make the bags, then adhered the reindeer image in front. I still plan to put on tags later on, after I put them in clear favor bags and tie them with a string. Given my kid's classmates age, I'm guessing they won't be handled gently so to be sure it makes it home in 1 piece, I'd feel better knowing it's in  plastic baggie.

These took time, but I had so much fun! I hope the kids will love it too!

My weekend well spent!

Christmas Cards Project

With what little time I have, I've been trying to make as much Christmas cards as I can. I thought I'd use the Snowhaven Cardmaking WOTG, but instead of following the 3 patterns to make 15 cards, I thought I'd challenge myself and come up with 15 individual unique cards. You can actually make more, as I have almost full sheets of cardstock left and 1 patterned paper left. Here's my take on it.

I am so in love with this winter themed colors and papers. I used a variety of Christmas stamp sets to add more flair to the cards. Below are the stamp sets I used.

D1610 Christmas Post

C1506 Flakey Friends

C1567 Santa Claus

And of course, here's the Snowhaven Cardmaking WOTG.

G1085 Snowhaven Cardmaking WOTG

It's Christmas Time!

I apologize for being absent for over a month. With Thanksgiving and relatives coming over to stay, I got so busy and put my crafting aside. Now that things are back to normal, (unfortunately a bit late), I'm scrambling to make things for Christmas.

When Close To My Heart came out with the Cut Above program this year, I swore I wouldn't be one to buy and use it, after all, I thought, when will I ever need that anyway? I make my own cards, take pride and time in designing, why would I buy the Cut Above Kits? But now I'm in a time crunch, I realized these Cut Above Kits Christmas Card will be my lifesaver.

For $11.95 the kit comes pre-cut and ready to assemble. You can make 10 cards out of it. It took me less than an hour to make them all, and voila, I now have Christmas cards to send out!

Z2064

I paired it with this stamp set, which has the appropriate sized greetings to go with the tag. This stamp set is so versatile you can also use them as sentiments on the inside of your cards.

B1468 Merriest Christmas

Happy Holidays everyone!

Give Thanks

Tis the season!! Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I am super excited! Gotta start planning Thanksgiving dinner soon! In the meantime, here's one of the Thanksgiving themed cards I made.

It's so simple, classic and really didn't take much time to do. But I love the colors, and just love how simply elegant it looks.

I used Kraft paper as card base, Champagne cardstock as layer, and stamped the flower from Happy Autumn stamp set in Goldrush. Sentiment is stamped using Chocolate ink and to top it, I attached a brown ribbon and made a bow.

Here's the image of the complete Happy Autumn stamp set. I love this stamp set! I am a big floral stamp collector and anything flowers automatically becomes my favorite. You can use these images not just for Thanksgiving for pretty much for any occasion.

Thankful

Pathfinding is one of my favorite papers in the whole Annual Inspirations book. Shocking since I didn't care for it much in the beginning. But after making lots of scrapbook pages using this paper packet, it has grown on me and now it's become my favorite.

I love how classic and simple this card turned out to be. I got my inspiration from one of the Cricut Explore's Make It Now projects, I just tweaked the focus so I could use the Pathfinding Scrapbook WOTG stamp set. I love this stamp set!

Enjoy!

Puppy Birthday Card

Tomorrow is the birthday of one of my daughter's teachers and we made this card for her. My toddler thinks the puppy is so cute she kept stamping it over and over again. We settled on this one and made a birthday card out of it.

It's my first time to try the Sarita paper pack. It has always struck me as weird, but today I thought I'd be bold and create something with it. Paper base and the small strip are from Sarita B&T, and I used the Puppy Party stamp set. I stamped the puppy using Chocolate ink, Happy Birthday using Smokey Plum, and the rest of the doodles using a mix of Cotton Candy, Hollyhock, Lagoon, Smokey Plum and Gypsy. I used the black journaling pen for the stitch border on the white piece, and then Sakura white gel pen for the white stitch on the blue B&T paper.

Here's the stamp set that I used. Ain't it just cute???

B1464 Puppy Party

Enjoy!

Trick or Treat!

Halloween's around the corner, and even though I've made so much Halloween cards already, this Scaredy Cat paper pack just can't keep me away. Seriously, I'm so in love with this! I can't wait for Oct 31st when I can take pictures of my kid and make layouts using this paper pack.

The card base I used was Bazzill, I can't remember the name, Purple Royalty I think. The witch and fence were cut using Cricut Autumn Celebrations cartridge, the bunny was my leftover 2nd piece from the previous card I made. It was from a Lawn Fawn Halloween stamp set. I added in the RIP from the Scaredy Cat complements, and embellished the stars from the Scaredy Cat assortment.

Enjoy!

Cricut Explore Test Cuts

Those of you who follow me on Facebook know I recently took the plunge and bought the Cricut Explore. For a week now I've been trying to learn Cricut Design Space, and testing the capabilities of the machine.

I am so in love with it! I also bought the bluetooth adapter, but I'm not sure if it's the adapter's fault or my internet's fault, but connection seems to be intermittent. When it works though I love how hassle free it is without having to move my laptop to be close to the machine then having plugs and cords around me.

So you saw the floral card I just made last week, and this week I tried cutting this Spider web card just to test how intricate it cuts. I didn't get around to decorating it, since I made it too small. I cut it at A2 size (even though recommended is A7) using the new Cricut Artfully Sent cartridge, just so I can test if it can really handle small cuts or if it will tear the web. I swear it did not. And believe it or not, it's a simple as pulling the cardstock off the mat, and it came out all in 1 whole piece. The cuts were precise, clean and it was super fast and easy, painless! I cut a few spiders to go with it, to test if the legs will tear when I take it out, but it did not. I love my new Cricut Explore!

My only regret is not getting the HSN special (Cricut Wild Orchid)!

Thanksgiving Recipe Box

Here's my take on Close to My Heart's Journaling Cards Box. Since Thanksgiving is around the corner, I thought making this recipe box will be a nice gift to someone. I would use it to store my favorite Thanksgiving recipes.

I used the Pathfinding paper pack to cover the box, with Champagne cardstock as my base. I stamped the word "Recipes" using Circus Alphabet stamp set in Olive ink, and but the images using Cricut Artbooking. For the stamp sets I used Pathfinding Scrapbooking Workshop on the Go stamp set. The acorns were cut using Cricut, I can't remember what cartridge they're from. I'm trying to use as much as I can with the free trial subscription that came with my Cricut Explore. The pumpkins were cut using Artbooking and stamped using Autumn Terracota ink, and after stamping I outlined them with gold glitter pen. Not sure if you can see it from the picture, but it has some glitter on it to make it stand out.

I have to say Pathfinding might just be my favorite paper line as of now. I love how the colors scream fall/autumn. Here's the Pathfinding Scrapbook WOTG.

G1082 Pathfinding Scrapbook WOTG

And here's the Circus Alphabet - July's Stamp of the Month. It is retired now, but if you want it, please feel free to send me an email, I do have some still available.

Enjoy!

Just For You Floral Card

I wanted to try just how good the Cricut Explore will cut intricate images and thought I'd try one of the floral sentiments on the Cricut Artfully Sent cartridge.

This card was done super quick, like really quick! I think it took me more time changing out the color of the raised flower I stamped and holding the ribbon down! And yes, I now get it. The new Cricut Explore does cut like butter, and is quiet compared to the old Expression machines. I still have to learn Cricut Design Space though.

Anyway, I used Hollyhock cardstock, stamped a flower in Thistle ink, and topped it with Thistle Diagonal Striped ribbon.

Now wouldn't you love to create a card this fast too? Simple to do, and pretty stylish! Grab your Cricut Artfully Sent now! For only $99 you can have this amazing Cricut cartridge which includes TONS of projects for you to create! Get yours now!

Z3017 Cricut Artfully Sent

Hoppy Halloween

I spent part of my day at the Scrapbook Expo today in Ontario and got me some buy 3 get 1 free Lawn Fawn stamps. I've been on the lookout for the Love You Tons die for quite some time now and was so glad to see it was available at the Expo. Part of my purchase was also a Hoppy Halloween mini stamp set. It was too cute to resist!

So I came home and made a quick and simple Halloween card. I know, I can't get enough of this Scaredy Cat paper so I created yet another card with it. This is a 4x4 card, and it was easy to put together. If you follow my blog you know i'm not 100% CTMH purist, so here goes, a card made with CTMH supplies and Lawn Fawn stamp set.

I colored the moon using ShinHan Y49 Pastel Green, Carrot leaves using Z2463 Sap Green and Z2454 Leaf Green, and the bunny cape using Z2453 Lavender and Z2462 Peony Purple. I also added a bit of glitter using Purple Wink of Stella glitter pen. The blank enamel stars are from the Scaredy Cat Assortment. I finished off the card using a black baker's twine.

Hoppy Halloween! Which reminds me, I gotta pick a costume for my little one! Halloween's just a couple of weeks away!

Autumn Cards

Now that I've done my scrapbook layouts, am back to making cards again! I've been hoping we'd get some nice cool weather out here soon, but that doesn't seem likely. So, I'll just pour my energy into these fall themed cards and hope that that cool day comes soon!

My first card uses my scraps from the Pathfinding Cardmaking WOTG, and I used the stamp from the Always Grateful set. I sponged the edges using Goldrush ink, and double dipped on both Chocolate and Goldrush ink to get a 2-toned effect. Don't you just love the color change on the sentiment "Ah Autumn"? I love it! The woodgrain washi tape I believe is retired. I love how it contributed to the whole nature fall look.

This second card uses the Beyond Measure stamp set, and I've added the leaves and vines from a retired set called Be Grateful. I added a tiny scrap of paper from the Pathfinding collection and gold shimmer trim to add some pop. And of course, to top the whole thing, I added it some brown and tan sparkles!

Here's what the stamp sets look like.

C1559 Always Grateful

A1161 Beyond Measure