Friendship Bag Favors

A few weeks ago, I teased you about the friendship favors I was making for my Women's Group using the new CTMH embossing folders. Here they are all finished up!  I used extra papers from For Always (black and white) and Arianna (purple). The flowers were made with Ruby, Hollyhock and White Daisy cardstock embossed with the Quadrafoil folder and finished with a pearl from the Dakota embellshiments (retired). The leaf was embossed with a non-CTMH folder; everything was attached to the burlap ribbon and glued together. The bags were cut from the Artiste Cricut cartridge.

I found some inspiration on Pinterest for filling the friendship bags with little things a woman would need to maintain her friendships.

Here is the text I used to make our tags: 

Candle .............. Friends Light up your life

Paper clip.......... To help hold your friends together

Button.............. To button your lips, when tempted to gossip

Tissue............... To wipe away tears of joy and sadness

Gum................. To help you stick with your friends

Toothpick.......... To pick out the best in everyone, including yourself

Puzzle piece...... Because you’re an important piece in a friend’s life

Marble.............. To replace the ones you’ve lost along the way

Starburst........... For when you’re bursting to share a secret

Cotton ball........ For cushioned support on those rough roads

Band-aid........... For hurt feelings, either yours or someone else’s

Tootsie Roll....... To let things “roll” off your shoulders

Rubber band..... To remind you to be flexible

Happy (almost Belated) Valentine's Day!!!

I know it's almost at the end of the day, but I wanted to share this post with you -

I had the best intentions of planning a relaxing, fun, enjoyable Valentine's Day for the kids, but we've been buried under so much snow lately that I haven't had much time to myself to create. I managed to get the valentines made for Little Man to exchange at school only to have 12+ inches of snow fall and cancel school for two days - right before a three day weekend. I was able to wear the kids out by creating a massive sledding track complete with a spine-jarring ramp so that I could create some time to myself tonight before I go to bed. And here's what I came up with:

Tshirt using CTMH Artbooking Cricut cartridge and Cricut Glitter Iron on Vinyl by LavendersageDesigns.blogspot.com

This is my Valentine's gift to my husband, and he got it right away. He he, it's like I know him or something!  

Baby bodysuit using CTMH Artbooking Cricut cartridge and Cricut Glitter Iron on Vinyl by LavendersageDesigns.blogspot.com

 This was supposed to be my gift to my daughter this morning but due to a phone call from the school changing a two-hour delay to school closing this project didn't get completed till after she was in bed. Oh well!

Tshirt using CTMH Artbooking Cricut cartridge and Cricut Glitter Iron on Vinyl by LavendersageDesigns.blogspot.com

This shirt I made for myself to remind me to "speak love".

I raided my closet and found my two favorite shirts (from H&M for less then $5 each) to make these shirts and from beginning to end, I made all three shirts in less than 1/2 hour. I used my Artbooking cartridge for each image, flipped the image when cutting and made sure to "kiss" cut (cutting through the vinyl but not the transfer tape). I had to find my iron (he, he!) but it was simple to iron the images on to the shirts. I made sure to model each shirt for my hubby to get the final seal of approval!

Happy Valentine's Day to you! I hope you got to spend it with your loved ones!

Easter Treat Bags, part 2

This is another treat bag I made up for the benefit sale this weekend though it's not really specific to Easter. I used the February 2011 Stamp of the Month, Thoughtful Tidings, for the bag header since it went so well with Hershey Hugs (yes, I have a serious thing for Hershey's chocolate!)

I used Gray Twine to embellish the header but I also used a small star stamped in Desert Sand ink on the Chocolate card stock to provide a little visual texture. This would make a great teacher's gift or a thank you gift for a friend - who doesn't like chocolate?

Secret Sister Gift

This is the gift I made for my Secret Sister in my Mom's Group. She might figure this out if she knows me, but we'll have to wait and see!

 All wrapped up!

 She will get 4 of these blank cards.

She will get 4 of these 3"x 3" gift cards.

Christmas Advent Calendar

This post has taken me awhile to do, simply because I have been oddly uninspired after the initial thought of making an advent calendar. I really hate when that happens because the project will just sit on my table mocking me. Some projects I can set aside for months and months until inspiration will strike but my son was the driving force to get this finished. I'm still not 100% happy with the project but I have a whole year to redo it if I choose to do so. In the meantime, I have something that my son is happy to work with for the season, and really, that's all I care about. Though if you have any suggestions on how to better embellish the box, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Here are some photos of the box and a few cards for your reference.

Here is a list of the 24 activities I used:

Christmas Money Card

I designed this card based on a Wishes card design (Classic Closure, page 62) but with a little twist. I made the card base 8"x8" out of White Daisy cardstock and scored at 2", flipped the card over and scored again at 2.5" leaving 3.5" between the score lines. This will create a "C" fold. I cut the tag and border using the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge and used the stamp images from the September Stamp of the Month: Limited Edition in Holiday Red and Sweet Leaf. I used a brad to attache the ribbon to the tag and the tag to the card. I used adhesive to glue down the inside flap on the outside edges to create a pocket to put a money gift inside. I used a little repositionable adhesive on the inside flap to keep the card closed.

This could easily be adapted for other occasions as well that a money gift would be appriciated - graduation, wedding, birthday. Simple and handmade - that's a gift that gives twice!

Gift boxes made from Art Philosophy cartridge

Here are two examples of gift boxes I made from the Art Philosophy cartridge:

 This is a pillow box I made using Kraft paper. I cut the box out at "Fit to Page" to make it as big as possible. I used the December Stamp of the Month: Mad About You" which is compatible with Art Philosophy (which means don't cut something out by hand until you've double checked the stamp carrier sheet for more information!!! Learn from my mistakes.... I cut all of these out by hand and all of them are on the cartridge!) I also stamped Juniper cardstock with Juniper ink with an image from the stamp set to make the band that goes around the box. I used Sorbet ink to make the hearts and bamboo and chocolate ink on Colonial White cardstock to make the rest. I accented with an arrow from the new Milestones Shapes.

This is the "Fry Box" in Olive cardstock. I accented with chocolate grosgrain ribbon, a pewter ribbon slider (new), some Bling, and some pin clips that I just love. I am getting used to big embellishments (I'm rather plain in most things) but the new accessories are so darling I want to use them all!

I am addicted!

I am so totally addicted to the new Cricut cartridge from Close to My Heart - and here's why:

This is a display board I made up to show just what one button can do on the cartridge. There are over 700 different images on this cartridge and that's not including all the sizes you can do based on your machine. One button made this board (except for the letters) but there are tags, cards, solid shapes, filigree shapes, frames and so much more! The butterfly at the bottom was made using different sizes to showcase this additional option. Here is another example of what the cartridge can do:

I made this from the Idea Book - it was too cute to just look at in a picture! I made the bag "fit to page" which came out to be 11.25" but when it's folded, it will hold 3x3 cards. How cute! The stitching on the bag was done using the new ruler to punch the holes. The new ruler has two lines of holes in the ruler to use a paper piercer to punch a hole through your paper to make either a zig zag stitch or a straight running stitch. I was not a big fan of stitching before because it was too time consuming to line it all up but this ruler takes the thinking out of the project. So easy!