It's Crop & Share Time Again!

The only redeeming factor of winter, in my humble opinion, is its when I get to go on weekend crops. Specifically two each year. My husband, who is an on-the-road truck driver and thus not home more often then he is home, is forced to be home and play Mr. Mom. Don't misread this, he does a great job as their father but when I'm gone ... I really don't know if I'll ever know the truth of what happens, what they eat, or wear, or play with. I try not to think about it and just lavish all my creative energies into getting as much scrapbooking done as inhumanly possible because let's face it, this is the only dedicated time to scrap I get. Sure I have a wonderful creating space at home. But there are no doors and I have to share it with the kids' play space. Great for sneaking in some "me" time during playdates but not conducive to getting lots done on a regular basis. If they see mommy, they want mommy's attention.

Sigh ....

But when I go away ... well, scrap happens! :)

Over the next few weeks, I will share with you some layouts I've done this past weekend. I still have another weekend coming up so I'll add them in too.

This past weekend is a wonderful time away at a local retreat center. The accommodations are lovely, the food is wonderful (I gained 4+ pounds this weekend!), and I never have to leave the building so I get to stay in super comfy clothes (read: workout clothes all weekend and no judging!!). I actually was all packed up when I realized I had not seen my sneakers in three days and had to go looking for them. Thankfully, the cleaning staff found them under the bed and returned them to the front desk for check out. My goal this weekend was to get from January through August of last year because that was as far as I had sorted my photos. And I actually accomplished it! I am so proud of myself! Even better, I love all the layouts I did! Usually there are a bunch I just throw together just because. Crafting all weekend can be draining and there are just hours where my brain refuses to work. This time however, I rarely had that feeling and was able to power through and get 70 pages done (about 35 two page layouts). Since about half of them need some sort of Cricut cut to finish them completely, I'll only share the completely finished ones now. I'll add the others in later.

First one up ...

CTMH Scrapbook layout using PML page and Frosted (retired) paper pack by Stephanie Huber

The first page of the album I'm using as a title page, but I still need to add the numbers so this is the first full layout and features all the snows from last winter (one snow looks like the next one, right?). I'm learning how to use my DSLR to take the photos I want to use on mys scrapbook pages so I'm liking my pages better. Maybe that's why I didn't have any problems designing, I liked all my photos! Designing with a mix of traditional pages and PML (Picture My Life) pages took some thinking ahead but I'm really happy with the results. I tend to be photo heavy and I want to document *everything*. PML pages and Flip Flaps are my most used accessories!

CTMH Scrapbook layout using PML page and Frosted (retired) paper pack by Stephanie Huber

 This is the next page in the album and I continued using the Frosted papers since the pictures were mostly blue. The Stickease from the paper pack made it easy to decorate. Add in some gems and a Cricut cut as a journaling card and done!

CTMH Scrapbook layout using Frosted (retired) paper pack by Stephanie Huber

This was a quick layout of my daughter. She is so expression-full and I had to document it! I used a scrap piece of Frosted to highlight the sleeping photo and a chipboard border from the Chantilly (retired) Complements pack. I absolutely love how our colors work together so you can mix and match from each paper pack! The letters are from the Fundamental Sticker Packs - these are a new addition to our product line and I was so thrilled with it when it was announced at Convention.

I'll be back Wednesday with a new layout for the Joyful Stars Blog Hop.

:)

Stephanie

Joyful Stars January Blog Hop

Hi All! Welcome back to January's version of the Joyful Stars Blog Hop!! If you're coming from Krista's blog then you're on the right track. If you're picking up here, then you'll find the link for the next blog in the hop at the bottom of this post. All blogs are posted on Joyce's blog if you get lost. Let's get started!

This month is a wrap up of the holiday paper pack "Sparkle & Shine". I bought the WOTG (Workshop on the Go) so that I could take advantage of the all the goodies that come along with the papers and get the exclusive stamp set. After making the first layout from the WOTG I decided to venture out on my own to use up the paper pack (only because I put more pictures on a layout then the second one uses). I used the Make It From Your Heart vol 1 # 6 (pgs 16 & 17) to make this layout:

I used the Sparkles flair and pin banner from the Sparkle and Shine assortment to jazz up the left bottom corner.

I combined two images from stamp set to make a pretty corner decoration for the top right corner.

On the second layout, I used Pattern #2 from the MIFYH vol. 1

I used the Ruby (light) alcohol marker to brighten up the sparkles to create a contrast from the houndstooth pattern paper.

Using the Cricut, I cut a full page of  the stars for this stamp set out of White Daisy paper. I stored the left over stars in the stamp envelope for the next time I want to use the stamp set.

I also cut extras of each of the Cricut compatible stamp shapes to store in the stamp envelope.

Now you're off to Helen's blog. Have a crafty new year!!

Joyful Stars December Blog Hop

Welcome to the Joyful Star Blog Hop for December! If you're coming from Krista's blog you're on the right track. It's a circular hop so if you're just starting here then you can just go 'round till you end up here or you can check out the whole list on Joyce's blog.

My projects for this month's hop are the table decorations I made with the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge.

For Thanksgiving, I used the cartridge to make little turkeys for each plate. Darling, huh? And so simple!!!

I cut leaves at 2 1/2" from 3 colors of cardstock and the center image from CCR to get it to the right size (sorry, I don't know what it ended up being because I didn't save it, darn!)

For my church's Women's Christmas Coffeehouse, I used the Art Philosophy cartridge and cut ornaments out of black cardstock. 

I then used white pigment ink to messily sponge the edges to resemble the chalkboard effect so popular right now. 

I used some baker's twine to tie off the tops and the Chalk Marker to write the dishes the ladies brought to share so we could tell the onion dip from the spinach dip (which look eerily similar sitting next to each other on the table...).

Thanks for stopping by! Now you're off to Helen's blog.

Little Miss is One!

I can't believe my little girl is a year old already! We celebrated her birthday this past weekend with family and I wanted to share some of the decorations with you.

This cute little battery tea light is decorated with CTMH's washi tape - it's so cute and so easy to use and best of all - the adhesive is tacky so it's easy to remove from the tea light when I want to change it up for the next party.

And since washi tape is available in so many colors and designs (non-CTMH) I used other fun designs in my color scheme to make little toothpick flags for the food trays.

Then using the Art Philosophy Cricut cartridge, I cut four pages of flowers in Hollyhock and Gray Flannel (retired) and adhered them to some garden twine to make a garland. I used the soft set eyelet punch (retired) to cut the circles out of Glitter paper for the flower centers.

Also using the washi tape and Art Philosophy cartridge, I decorated clothespins to make another banner full of monthly pictures of the birthday girl.

I hung the banner up over my china closet for guests to look at while they waited in line for the food. (Little Man helped me decorate, he wanted his toys out on display too!)

I did make the invitations for the party, but I used my computer skills for this one. I wanted to go super trendy and I knew it would be faster and easier to just make it in Adobe Illustrator.

My sister was a great big help getting this whole party ready. She and the kids came the day before to help clean the house and even assemble some of the decorations. She also made the fondant flowers for the cupcakes. Here's a picture of Little Miss's cupcake - so cute!

Here's a shot of the table. It was a storybook theme - guests were asked to bring a book as a gift to build her library (since Little Man doesn't want to share *his* books) and all the food was from a storybook: Jack & Jill's water, Strega Nona's spaghetti, "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs", "Peter Rabbit"s veggies, Snow White's apples and "The Little Boy Who Shared His Lunch" (bread).

Everyone had a great time and while they were asking when the next party is going to be, I was patiently waiting to go to bed! I am now done with my long list of parties, gifts and such so I will be recuperating in my craft room for a few days.

Disclaimer: I apologize for the horrible quality of the photos. I pulled my camera out of the padded camera bag to take pictures and it wouldn't focus on anything. So I had to use my cell phone to take these photos. Not the best start to the party... but it got better from there! :)

Le Belle Vie Christmas card

This is the last card I submitted in my application; it is also the card I designed for the Christmas Card Workshop last fall. You may remember it from here.

I used Le Belle Vie paper pack, burlap ribbon and "Merry & Bright" stamp set.

Christmas Tags, part two

You may remember my recent post where I showed you the tags I made to put on my gifts. Unfortunately, my dog chewed them all up so I couldn't use them. Which forced me to find something else to use. On December 23rd. So back to my Art Philosophy cartridge I went. And I came up with something even better. I had browsed through Lisa Stenz's blog for some ideas and well, I still ended up doing my own thing.

As you can see, I cut the tags from White Daisy cardstock and the snowflake tags from Outdoor Denim. I cut twice as many white tags as I did the snowflake tags so I could use the snowflake cutout too. I just wrote the gift recipients' name on the back side and attached to the gift.  Just a little glue and cardstock, what could be simpler?