Blog Winner!

Congrats to Ladybug!!!!!  She wins a cartridge!  I'm still disappointed it can't be European Decor, but at least it's still a cart of your choice. :)

Ladybug, I will be leaving you a message on your blog, but also if you are on the cricut message board, PM me (dancingarden) so we can work out the details of your cartridge win!

Ladybug said...

Michele, what an awesome blog! Very sweet of you to offer this blog candy! I'd love to win this cart. :-) I'm a follower and your site is on my sidebar. http://ladybuglair.blogspot.com

Little mini and happy scrappy room

The last time I re-arranged my scrap room furniture, I managed to free up some wall space in two spots, one for putting up some shelves so I can display some stuff, and one bit of wall just big enough for a memory board.  I had planned to paint my room before putting anything on the wall but I never got the painting done in the fall like I planned. I got tired of waiting so I went shopping yesterday and got shelves and a memory board!  Now I can display some of my favorite things on my shelves and the memory board is for displaying flowers that I make. Right now the board only has some grungeboard flowers I made when I took Wendy Vecchi's Funky Flowers class.

 

  

A few days ago a friend of mine contacted me, to ask if she could commission me to make a little mini book to fit in a trinket box she bought on Etsy. It needed to be small and not too ornamented in order to fit inside the box. But she wanted lots of pages for journaling and stuff. The trinket box has a mosaic lid, so I tried to incorporate that look into the covers of the book.

Here's the front cover of the book:

 

 I used my cricut to cut 3 inch circles from 4 sheets of cardstock and a sheet of grungeboard for the covers. Using my gypsy, I was able to get 10 circles per sheet of cardstock! Anyway, I inked the grungeboard with Distress ink in peeled paint, then stamped with Tim Holtz and Studio 490 stamps. I used Glossy Accents and Crackle Accents to make the raised "mosiac" pieces. The metal charm stuff is Tim Holtz.

  

Both covers have a grungepaper "hinge" that I cut on my cricut with Storybook, but you can't see the front hinge on that first pic. :)  the hinge has Liquid Pearls 'rivets'. Both quote stamps and the branch are Studio 490, the writing and swirl stamps are Tim Holtz.

 

On some of the pages I used Tim Holtz stamps for journaling spots. I bound the book with a binding ring which will allow her to open the book and rearrange the pages as she likes. I really like how this turned out and fortunately, so does she!  I'm going to remember this project as someday I may do one for myself. :)

Thanks for looking!

UPDATE on the Blog Give-away!

Provocraft has officially stated that European Decor will not be released. Oh My Crafts (where I ordered the cartridge) had told me when I asked them about it that they had not officially heard this, but now that CHA is over, I'm guessing they got the official news and have issued me a gift certificate refund on my order of two European Decor cartridges. 

I know that everyone is as disappointed as I am!!! I really looked forward to that cartridge.

But do not fear, there WILL still be a WINNER! 

Tomorrow night I choose the lucky winner, and whoever you are, you and I will work out which cartridge you want from OMC that fits as close as possible to the amount of money I already spent.  So the winner will still get a cartridge they don't already own!

For me, I think I might get Songbird.

Wolf Moon

I was at my LSS for the friday night crop and we saw this beautiful moon. So Alisa and I grabbed our cameras and snapped a few pictures (of all the people in the scrapbook store, only TWO of us had cameras??? What's up with that?).

 

Beautiful!

Thanks for looking. :)

This Boy

This was such a fun layout to do! I like when I get in the mood to scrap like this. It's fun to put these kinds of pages together. It took me two days though. LOL!

The papers are Graphic 45, Playtimes line. The round letters are also G45 but I think they went with another line. I knew I had to have the train paper, my son just loves trains. There's Prima bling, and I rarely put the bling down the way it comes... I tend to cut swirls apart and use them the way I want. :) Also some Making Memories mini-alphas. Some K&CO ephemera. I believe the 5 petaled flowers came from the cricut cart Lyrical Letters. The butterflies are from a Martha Stewart punch, and Kevin punched them out for me. I used the Tim Holtz tiny attacher stapler to staple the ribbon, I ruffled it myself and stapled every other ruffle. See the detail shot of the ribbon circle half done below. I cut the circle with my cricut and then stapled the ribbon on before putting the circle on the layout, so that I wouldn't have to worry about being able to reach with the stapler.

The layout was inspired by the sketch at Stuck On You Sketches blog, which is one of my favorite blogs to visit every friday, even if I don't get a chance to do the challenge. Those ladies over there are phenomenal designers. Love their stuff!

The heart on this layout was inspired by the flower technique on Happay Scrappay's blog, using twisted ribbon. Check it out! I like how the heart turned out.

 

I also created this layout for some challenges over at Scrapbook Dreamer. Come visit there! Some awesome stuff coming up in February too, fun cropping and contests. :)

Thanks for looking!

ICS #51 - Thank You Card

I felt like going back to a simpler card style this week. I also had a bunch of scraps left over from my Gypsy Spot layout. My son was playing with my Martha Stewart butterfly punch and some of the scraps, and I thought I'd do a card with butterflies, layering them in the same way I did with the previous scrapbook page. I had another leftover frame which was perfect for stamping the sentiment.

My son proclaimed that he too wanted to make a card, so he made this little card for his grandma. :)  (I inked it and stapled the ribbon, but he did everything else.)

I have to say that's one good thing about daycare, they've gotten my son more interested in crafting than I could, so now I'm able to get him to do stuff with me more... which lets me scrap more! hahaha!

Thanks for looking!

Centerpiece Layout

This turned out to be a good idea for these pictures as I bought these beautiful Basic Grey Wisteria papers a long time ago and ended up having no photos to use them with, I thought. But they went well with these photos.  The flower, dragonfly and title cuts are from Gypsy Wanderings, and the frame holding the journaling is from Home Accents, it's a leftover from another project.

The flowers I made with 6 cuts each. I stamped them with a Studio 490 background stamp and Versamark glittery ink for a subtle sparkle, inked the edges and curled them up for dimension. The dragonflies are 3 cuts glued together at the body with the wings spread to give the impression of movement.

I used a sketch over at Scrapbook Dreamer for this layout. :)

Thanks for looking!

Never too young....

They are never too young to start crafting!

What do you think?  The future Tim Holtz???  :) :)

I taught him to "ink edges". I'm so proud!!!

Folding flower card Gypsy file

I ment to post this tuesday! Life (and sore throats) just get in the way.

Here is the Gypsy files for the folding flower card (the Gypsy Spot Black and Gold post) below. See my post below for the carts I used!


Folding Flower Card

Enjoy!

ICS #50 - Elegant Valentine

 

This week I thought I'd try out my new Love Struck cartridge for the sketch over at Inspirational  Card Sketches. I went with an elegant theme since I needed to do something with these Reminisce papers. The fancy heart was cut with the cartridge, and I fussy cut the corners from one of the papers. It was very simple to do but I like how it turned out.

Thanks for looking!

The Gypsy Spot - Black and Gold

 
Our task this week at The Gypsy Spot was to create a project using black and gold.

Well I'd had this welding project on my Gypsy for a while, and I would tinker with it every now and then. I have to give Pam (aka TheBugBytes) credit for inspiring me, as she posted a 4 petaled version of this on her blog and when I saw it, I had a vision of it as a 6 petaled card. Well, it took me a while to get it to work right, but I'm satisfied enough with it to put it out in the world. lol

I apologize in advance if you can't use the file because you don't have one of the cartridges. I don't usually think about what others may or may not have, I just look for the exact shape I need and use it. Even if you don't have the carts, you can download this to your G and open it as a template, then build your own version if you really want to, from carts you do own.

The carts I used for this are Accent Essentials, Gyspy Wanderings and Walk in My Garden. There are NO score marks. You can see where I folded in the pics below.

Here's what it looks like open:

Here's the back side (which is what is visible when the card is closed.

A word of caution, if you make this card. Don't put your decorations too close to the folding line. It makes it too difficult to fold the petals in if there's stuff too close to the fold.

I used Home Decor flourishes to decorate the petals, I used Black Diamond stickles to make the black cardstock glittery.

I will be posting the cut file for this card tonight, but I am finishing up the posting of this away from home and can't upload the file yet. :)  Thanks for looking!

Give away update

I've gotten a couple reports that the cartridge I pre-ordered may not be released after all!   GRRRR!!!!

If this is the case (some folks are checking with PC and I will too if they don't get a definitive answer) then I will switch my $$ at OMC to another cartridge. 

HOW ANNOYING.

BLOG GIVE AWAY!!!

UPDATE!!!
After I posted this prize post, Tammy from the Calendar Girls told me that the scuttlebutt in the cricut world was that the European Decor cartridge would NOT be released. But we wanted PC to confirm this. I also contacted Oh My Crafts! about it, but they insisted the cartridge would be released, they had not heard otherwise.
Since CHA ended, OMC! has apparently learned that this cartridge is indeed not being released. BUT DON'T WORRY!!! I'm still giving away a cartridge! OMC has refunded my order in the form of a gift certificate. When I choose a winner, I will work with you to pick out a cartridge that you want from whatever OMC sells (that isn't too much over the price I paid for ED). That way we still have a winner and the winner gets a cartridge you don't already own!

Hello all my crafty friends!!!!  I am so excited to offer my very first blog prize! It's a biggie too! I've had an exciting weekend so far, being asked to join my local scrapbook store's design team and then realizing that I've over 100 followers already!  So I want to share some excitement!

All you cricut crafters lookie lookie! What can you win you ask???

EUROPEAN DECOR Cricut Cartridge!

That's right!  I have pre-ordered 2 European Decor cricut cartridges. One for me, and one for one lucky cricut crafter!!!   I pre-ordered from Oh My Crafts because with their 20% discount code (sign up for their email newsletter to get the coupon codes) I got a decent price on the cartridges.  This IS a pre-order, which means whoever wins will have to wait with me for the cartridges to get shipped to me, then I will turn around and ship the cart out to you the next day, okay? I even saved a box specifically for mailing out to you. :)

So, how can you win, do you ask?  Well, you can have up to 3 chances to win!  Here they are:

1.   Leave a comment to this post. If you are posting anonymously, be sure to leave me a way to contact you!

2.  Become a follower of my blog and leave a separate comment.  If you are already a follower, go ahead and leave a separate comment saying so, so that I can get you in the drawing for it. :)

3. Post on your blog or create a sidebar link to my blog about this give away and then leave a separate comment saying you did so along with your blog url so I can come see!

On January 31 I will use a random generator website to "draw" the winner, and will post that winner at approximately 5pm central time. I'm hoping by then we might have heard when the cart will finally be shipping. ha! Good luck my cricut crafty peeps!

Announcements! :)

Hey everyone!!! I'm so super excited!!!

First off, I've hit 100 followers!!! OMG! I never thought that would happen but I'm so grateful to all of you!  I'm going to give away a nice blog candy so stay tuned for that post, I will be posting about it tomorrow!!!!

And my big announcement for which I'm really super excited for!  My local scrappy store, Scrapaganza! has asked me to join their Design Team! Oh my gosh!!!!  I'm so honored to work with them, they have a SUPERB design team, which includes designer Kim Garner from the Rusty Pickle DT  and designer Penny Smith on the Imaginisce DT!! Not to mention my all time favorite heritage designer, Alisa, she's my hero.  Scrapaganza! has some awesome changes coming up, not just locally but they will soon be offering a kit club online that will be amazing!  So don't be surprised if I mention Scrapaganza in my posts. lol

Well, I'm off to bed. I am sick! I think I mentioned being sick over new years, well it all came back! Sinus infection, sore throat, pink eye! fun times at the Ramsey house. But I don't care. I have 103 followers and I'm a Design Diva at Scrapaganza! LOL

ICS #49 - Speedy scrap Valentine

Hello all!  This week's sketch at Inspirational Card Sketches practically made itself!

I was at my local scrappy store, taking my monthly kit class. After I finished the projects for the class, I looked at my scraps and realized I had just enough to whip something together for a card. The only card design I could think of to do though was the ICS sketch, which I had been looking at before I left home for the LSS.  Well I think I put this card together at record speed!! (less than 15 mins!) The sketch seemed perfect for my remaining scraps, which were mostly the cardstock journal cards and embellishments that goes with the Pink Paislee Cupid line (an AWESOME line of papers btw).

Now, when I was cutting the brown mat, I didn't cut it the right size initially, so there I am, slicing a tiny bit off each side till I get it the size I want. As I am putting the card together I'm looking at these really thin strips of brown cardstock. I pick them up and they feel a little like tiny twigs. So I tie them into the ribbon as a dimensional embellishment! Talk about using up scraps people! LOL

Hope you enjoy, thanks for looking!

Gypsy Spot - Party Favor

This week at The Gypsy Spot, our job is to show off our party favors! Any kind of party, doesn't matter.

My favor is a simple "sour cream tube" with a tag. The tag says "CPED Rocks 2010". CPED is the short form of the name of the department I work in, and we're having our staff holiday party this friday, so yeah, I needed a simple favor so I could make 50 of them fast!!! LOL  That's the key folks, when you have to make lots... keep it simple. If I only had to make a dozen, I would have gotten more elaborate.

I welded the words on my gypsy with Cuttin' Up, then outlined them with a marker. The scalloped tag is from Gypsy Wanderings, and it already had the hole for the ribbon. I embossed the tube with a cuttlebug folder using coredinations paper so I could sand the embossed design. Very simple and I am pumping these out in time so I will be done by friday! lol

Thanks for looking.

Oh my, almost 100!! and layouts :)

Oh my oh my!!! I just noticed that I'm almost to 100 followers!! wowzers!  Well ladies, when I reach 100, I will be offering a blog candy to celebrate. I'm excited about that!!!

Speaking of blog candy, there's an AWESOME fellow crafter, SassyLady, who started her first blog not too long ago so that she could share her lovely creations and cricut/gypsy cut files. She's offering a super generous blog candy right now!!! Go check her blog out, become a follower and comment so you can have a chance at her blog candy!  That's ShesASassyLady.

I scrapped a bunch last weekend, I already posted the cards so I thought I'd post a couple layouts. :)

I did this for a challenge over at Scrapbook Dreamer. I find using white as a background very challenging... I'm not fond of that much white. But the challenge was to use at least 50% white, so I did. I used some Basic Grey papers from last year and cut the borders with fiskars border punches. The "snowflakes" were cut on my cricut, and I've forgotten which cart I used. LOL... yes I know they are red, I wanted them red! But I also used my MS branch punch to cut branches in white, which I then inked the edges and stickled with Stardust stickles. The Wonderland title are some glitter alpha stickers I had in my stash. This was the first snow that hung around and my son was pretty excited about it.

I love going back to a simpler style now and then, especially with papers like this that need no embellishment.  This is from a new line from Bo Bunny... you have to find these papers if you like snowflakes and the blues/plums they use on these papers. They are so gorgeous!  I just added the picture, the title and the handful of snowflakes cut from cricut Winter Woodland. I stickled the snowflakes and the top of "snow".  I added journaling after I took the picture... this is a photo of the very first snow on October 9, 2009; which came as a bit of a shock. I was on my way to my LSS when it started, and by the time I got there it was coming down in big fat clusters. And several scrappers out taking photos in front of the LSS. LOL!

Thanks for looking!

ICS #48 Grazie

 

I just love Graphic 45 papers. When I saw the Renaissance line I had to buy a whole pad. For this week's Inspirational Card Sketch challenge #48, I was in the mood for these papers!  I sure hope you hop over to ICS and give this week's challenge a shot!

Thanks for looking!

BACK!!! And Gypsy Spot

Wow, what a holiday few weeks that was!  It started with a winter storm that kept us from visiting family, went into a week of me being sick sick sick with a sinus infection, ear infection and pink eye!!! I recovered just enough to make it to the two all-day crops I was signed up for on the 1st and 2nd. It took me a few days to recover from the "me days" I took to recover from the holiday! LOL

Happy 2010!!! From me and the Gypsy Spot!

Our challenge this week at the Gypsy Spot is to make a New Year's card. Rather than welding the numbers, I welded a shape (the bird) to the card base. This is all Gypsy Font, and I use K & Company, and Bazzill cardstock. I didn't embellish much more because the bird paper is already glittered. :)

Here is the inside, where you can see the shapes welded.

Thanks for looking!