My post for TheBugBytes Blog -- I am stepping outside of the usual designing box today. I have seen the incredible projects that the posters have been putting up lately and felt incredibly humbled by their talent!! I've been in some sort of creative slump recently and did not feel as though I would be able to put up something worthy of TheBugBytes Blog! I don't have the Robots cart, so I knew I was going to have to do something different anyway. So, when my daughter brought home her "About Me" project from Preschool on Monday I thought that I would use it to show another way to use our Gs.

The assignment was to take this doll blank and create a doll that represents her.

The doll blank looks like it was cut from a piece of construction paper 12X18. I used the Every Day Paper Dolls cart for her parts.

Hair - page 73 -- 6" wide

Glasses - page 41 -- 5.75" wide

Shoes - page 49 -- 8.18" wide

Dress - page 67 -- 10.5" height

Here we are picking out what parts she wants for her doll.

The parts cut out -

Cora coloring her dress and drawing her face -

Cora and her finished her doll - She was so proud!!

The brown spot on the face is supposed to be her nose. :)

So, here is Cora with her finished "All About Me" doll. :) I love that I was able to use my Cricut and G to help her complete her very first school project. I see many more in our future! :)

Just another idea for using our Gs. I know a lot of people wonder how to use the Photo App. I just wanted to throw out this idea. This is how I use the Photo App.

When I see a card, layout, project or any other craft item online that I want to recreate, I right click on the image and save it to a file on my computer called "ideas". I rename the item using the following code -

cards are saved as "crd_1", "crd_2", "crd_3", etc.

layouts are saved as "lo_1", lo_2", lo_3", etc.

projects are saved as "pro_1", etc.

If there are more than one pic for a certain project/layout/card I save them with the number and a letter -- "pro_4a", "pro_4b" and so on.

You can see below how I save them. All of the cards, layouts and projects are together in my saved images.

There it is - my input for today. :) I hope everyone is able to get something from my post! I am very proud of my Photo App system. I love how easy it is to find my pics since we can't save to folders - that would definitely be the way to go.

Thanks for popping by today! Please let me know your thoughts! I'm going to be posting some recent cards that I made soon. I need the inspiration of sharing to get my behind crafting again!

Long time no post????

Wow, it's been a while since I've been crafting!! I do have some pics of recent projects that i want to post. But, first.....

Here's a card I made for my Step-Mom's birthday. :) I love Mini Monsters!!

Sentimental Layout

My guest designer post for The Bug Bytes.

This time I did a Layout using the Sentimentals Cartridge. I have to be honest here, Sentimentals is one of my least favorite carts. I'm not sure why, I guess the images don't really strike me. A couple of the images that I do like are the hands on pages 24 and 25. I am totally picturing a wedding layout with those hands and the words - "With This Ring". I'm saving that one for a layout with my Grandparent's wedding photo. But, for this layout, I decided to do my Junior Prom photo. Wow, was that really 1989?!?! I can't really be old enough to have been at my Junior Prom in 1989!!!! My date and I look like babies!!! Well, those babies are now 37 and 38 and still happily together :) We've been married for 19 crazy years. This layout was so fun to work on. :)

So, on to the layout. I used the -

Frame, Layer and Shadow from page 30

cut at 6.12" x 8.12" for a 5x7 photo

Phrase and Shift Phrase from page 28

"Mon Amour"

Hand 1 and Layer from page 24

&

Hand 2, Shift and Layer from page 25

I started off by cutting a 1" mat around my black cardstock. I do this because I'm only using the black as a background color and would like to save the "inside" to use on the layout. (I'm cheap like that.)

Next, I cut off 1/2" from two sides of my base cardstock. This will leave me with a boarder of 1/4" around the base.

I am using a very pretty embossed ivory cardstock, but I wanted to hilite the flowers somehow. So, I used some Stampin Up! chalk to rub over the embossed flowers.

Next, I put together the frame around my photo with a 8 x 8 square of contrast paper under. I added a bit of ribbon to the top of the layout and the phrase "Mon Amour" with shadow. Don't forget dimensionals for that added depth.

Now, for my favorite part of the layout. :) I wanted to use the hands from the cartridge to mimic our hands from the photo.

I wanted to make a sort of corsage on the left hand. Of course, I didn't have any burgundy ribbon. So, I decided to make my own. I had some cream ribbon exactly the width I wanted and Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Fired Brick. Boy did I make a mess!!! I used the Cricut spatula to run the ribbon through the ink pad.

Unfortunately, the ribbon took forever to dry! I don't know if I used too much ink or what, but it was really messy! My poor Bow Easy is now stained a pretty red color :) Here is the tiny little ribbon with some Flower Soft.

For my finishing touch, as always, I make sure to handwrite something on each layout. For this one, I simply wrote the date and event.

and TA DA...... Here is a look at my finished layout.

Thanks for looking! Please let me know what you think. I love hearing comments and suggestions!

Layout using Heritage for the Tuesday Treats Blog

My second Guest Designer gig :)

I found this photo of my Grandmother when she was about 9 years old. I thought that this photo would go perfectly with the bicycle on the Heritage cart.

So, the cuts I used on this layout are:

Bicycle on page 63 - bicycle and shadow

cut at 5.56" by 3.5"

Accent on page 62 - corner decorations with shadow

cut at 2.22" by 2"

Frame on page 31 - bookplate and shadow with name and date

cut at 3.27" by 1"

Charm on page 52 - frame and shadow for the photo

cut at 4.9" by 7.6"

I started with my background base color and cut a 1 inch boarder from the inside of the 12 X12 sheet of cardstock. I'm cheap like that and want to save the paper for another project. :) Then, I cut the patterned paper at 11 X 11. That will leave a 1/2" boarder around the layout.

The first item I worked on was the bicycle. I cut it out and put the bicycle together with the shadow. Before adhering them, I added a small white Prima flower with a yellow brad to the basket. I used Flower Soft to create a flower bouquet for the basket of the bicycle. I used colored toothpicks for the stem of the flowers and put some Tacky Glue on the ends then rolled that in the Flower Soft to create the flowers. I made about 5 of them and put them in the basket of the bike. I then finished adhering the bicycle to the shadow. You can see how the blue top part of the bicycle puckers out a bit from the shadow to leave room for the bouquet.

My next step was the frames for the photo and nameplate. I cut all four pieces and used Tim Holtz Distress Crackle Paint in Tarnished Brass on the top layer of the frames. I love the finish this paint gives to the project. In case you can't get it from the name of the paint, you get a very cool antiqued crackle design to the finish of the paint after it's dried. It's a perfect effect for Heritage projects. You simply paint the surface of the frame and wait for it to dry. :) The thicker the layer of paint, the deeper the crackle finish.

Next, layer the corner accents top and shadow and adhere to the layout about 1/2" from the corner of the patterned paper.

About 4" from the left side of the layout run a coordinating piece of ribbon from the top to the bottom of the layout. I used the Bow-Easy bow maker to tie a bow to adhere to the top 1/3 of the ribbon. Somewhere I read that scrapbooking layouts should be designed in thirds. Don't remember where I read that, but it works for me :)

I always try to use my handwriting on my layouts. I think it adds a personal touch even though I really don't like my handwriting. So, I wrote my grandmother's name, the date of the photo and how old she was on the small bookplate frame.

And...... here is the finished layout. Hope you enjoy!

Be sure to leave me some comment love and let me know what you think!

My first Guest Designer Post!

Pam from The Bug Bytes asked me to be a Guest Designer on her Blog . After I composed myself - what an honor that was! - I decided to get working on something for her and her readers! One of the carts of the month is Accent Essentials. As I was looking through the handbook I fell in love with two of the accents. For some reason, they just jumped out at me and I loved the whimsical look to them. So, here's what I did with them.

Anyway, on with my project for today. I used the Acent Essentials cart to put some whimsical designs on the background paper for this very simple layout of me with my daughter. This is one of my favorite photos of us together.

I started with three designs from the Accent Essentials cartridge. I chose Accent 19, Accent 20 and Accent 24. Here they are laid out on my G screen. I divided the designs into quarters on the mat and changed up the sizes of each one. I wanted them all to be different so no two are the same size. Accent 20 is made of two pieces. I decided that I wanted them to be welded together so I used an "I" from George to connect the bottom of the "heart".




I found four colors that went along with my photo and laid them out on the quarters of my mat.



After I put all of the designs down on my layout I realized that I should have gone back and taken some pics of the in between, but I had already glued them down. Sorry! To prepare the cutouts for the layout, I very lightly brushed a bit of color over them. I chose a coordinating plain piece of Bazzil Cardstock and placed the designs randomly around the cardstock.


Here are some closeups of the cutouts. I used Stickles (who doesn't love, love, love Stickles!!) to add a bit of bling on each design. I also used some gems I've had laying around forever for the center of the flowers.

One rule that I make myself adhere to with all of my layouts is that I try to use my own handwriting on each one. I dislike my own handwriting, but I think it is a very personal touch to add to each layout. I absolutely love looking at my Grandmother's handwriting and it brings back wonderful memories of her. I hope that my kids will look back at their scrapbooks and feel the same way with this little touch. :)

Here is the completed layout! I am very happy with how it turned out. Very simple and basic - just my style. :)

Thanks for stopping by and please let me know what you think!

Monochromatic Challenge

I absolutely love this layout I did of my Mother. There are various shades of teal with black and white. I am so happy with how it turned out!

First page -

Second page with hidden pics.

Second page with the hidden pics showing -

This is one of my favorite layouts ever! Thanks for looking and please let me know what you think!

Challenge #9 Take Shape

I used a large Circle on this layout of my dd.

NSD Challenge #10 May Day!

Use Flowers or Something Springy!

I used Prima Flowers on this layout. The pic isn't the best, sorry about that! The title says "Sweet Innocent Face"

The main pic lifts up to show hidden pics.

These 4 pics open to show my dd after she got into my lipstick :) The journaling says "Don't fall for it!"

Again, thanks for looking!

Challenge #3.

I was able to get a few more of the NSD challenges done today. Here they are :)

Challenge #3 - Think outside the Box

Think Outside the Box. Do something on your scrapbook page, card, or other item that you wouldn't normally do. Add something fun or crazy!!

I decided to use some stitching on this layout of my daughter compared to pics of me and my grandmother at the same ages. I love this layout.

Close up of the stitching. This was the first time I've ever used stitching on a layout.

My Pink Stamper Challenge #5

Thankfully, Robyn over at MPS is giving us Sunday and Monday to complete the National Scrapbook Day Challenges that she hosted over on her blog on Saturday. I hope to get some more done tomorrow while the kiddos are at school.

Here's one I did this morning before our trip to Busch Gardens today. This was for Challenge #5 - Teacher Appreciation.

Ewe Rock! :)

Thanks for stopping by and please be sure to leave me some love! :)

My Pink Stamper Challenge #4

I Like You Least (or your least used Cricut Cartridge)

This one was a good one to go back and look at all of those carts I have and don't use anymore. I chose to use the Disney Mickey Mouse Font for the title of this very simple layout.

NSD My Pink Stamper Challenge #2

Getting Scrappy!

Boy, have I got some scraps. I actually just organized them into this file system during last week's episode of Lost. :) It makes them so much easier to use! If I want pink, I just got to the pink section! Gee, can't believe I hadn't thought of this before!

So, when I read Challenge #2 on My Pink Stamper today and read Getting Scrappy, I knew this one would be an easy one for me.

I created this little guy. I'll probably use him as a small gift tag for a gift.

Thanks for looking!!