Not-so-mini Book ;)

Happy Thursday!  I promised that I was going to post this other graduation gift I have been working on and off for my niece who is graduating 8th grade at the end of this week.  I must warn you though....picture heavy!  

I started out with this cake platter because I couldn't find any cardboard to serve as the cover for a mini scrapbook I planned on making for my niece Julia.  Hard as I tried (and I tried a lot, even with a deep blade!) I couldn't cut them with my Expressions without getting a heart attack because of the horrible noise that was coming out of it while cutting unsuccessfully (I think my Expressions was calling out for help hahaha!). 



So I just went ahead and cut  two with a ruller and my utility knife to get straight edges.  I then covered the shiny sides with cardstock and punched the holes with my new Cinch (I love this tool!).  I bound all the pages together before decorating them.

I couldn't find an exact scalloped image in all of my 140+ carts to match this cake platter so I just went ahead and used a circle from George and Basics Shapes cart at 10.5 inches and offset it in my mat on the Gypsy so it doesn't cut the whole circle.  I ended up with 34 pages - not by design, but because I ran out of the particular cardstock stack I was using ;)

So here goes.  I am not going to bore you guys with all the details of how I designed each page, but will post on the bottom the carts and supplies I used.  I  made it easy for this 13 year old to just drop pictures in this not-so-mini album using the designated mats.  I even used journaling stamps so she could jot down whatever she wants to remember pictures with.   

Carts and supplies used

* my trusted Gypsy

* Expressions

* various sentiment and journaling stamps

* various MS punchers for the picture mats

* Peachy Keen stamps

* irock gems

* stickles

* some Prima flowers

* various Cuttlebug embossing folders

* some twines, ribbons and glass beads

* George and Basics Shapes

* Bags, Tags, Boxes and More

* Lyrical Letters

* Straight From the Nest

* Disney- Princesses Dreams Come True

* Stretch Your Imagination

* Create a Critter

* Gypsy Font

* Paper Lace

* Gypsy Wanderings

* Celebrate With Flourish

* Once Upon A Princess

* MS Elegant Cake Art

* Rock Princess

* Forever Young

* Boys Will Be Boys

* Dude!

* Blackletter

* Smiley Cards

* Wild Card

* Quarter Note

* Life is a Beach

* Everyday Paper Dolls

* Locker Talk 

* Home Decor and More

* A Child's Year

* Elegant Cakes

This is by far the most extensive project I have ever made and I enjoyed every minute of it, especially the look on my niece's face when I handed it to her!  Thanks for looking! 

Mickey Graduation Cap

Hi there!  Just wanted to share the Mickey Mouse Graduation Cap I decorated to give to my niece as an early 8th grade graduation gift (I made her another gift which I will post later this week).  On our trip to Disneyland last month we grabbed this Mickey Mouse graduation cap and really wanted to have it embroidered with her name on it but Disneyland was not offering this service at the time of purchase.  So....I went online and ordered a white iron-on vinyl from expressionsvinyl.com.  This is the first time I've ever done an iron-on vinyl and I like how this turned out! 

Here are the before pictures of the graduation cap:

I was able to cut the vinyl on my new E2!  My settings were blade at 5, speed at 3, pressure at 5 and multicut at 2.  I made sure that I flipped everything before cutting.  Here is a pic of the pieces after I weeded the unnecessary parts.

Here are more pics of the graduation cap after I've decorated it. 

I enjoyed altering this cap to fit her personality! 

Details:

* "Jules" - Gypsy Font, welded

* "You rock!" - Quarter Note, some letters welded

* star - Home Decor and More

* Butterfly - Kate's ABCs

Thanks for looking!  

Ryan's First Communion Banner

Happy Monday, bloggers!  Here is a banner my son and I worked on for his first communion last Sunday.   I am also entering this project for the Cricut Circle Monthly Challenge "Tic Tac Toe."   Here are the details for the challenge:

*image copied from CC blog

The Challenge: Create a project of your choice using the Tic Tac Toe board above to choose THREE challenge prompts in a row. Project must include atleast 2 different Cricut Image Cuts.

Details of my project:

* white foam base from Michaels 12x 18, folded to size 12 x 14 so I can thread a string of twine to hang it
* paper dolls with layers from Everyday Paper Dolls and Paper Doll Dress Up, girl paper dolls' tops embellished with ribbon ruffles and one of the girl doll's top embossed with D'vine Swirls folder.  Peachy Keen Stamps were used for their faces. 
* scroll banner and layers from Creative Memories Reminisce Accents, embellished with irock gems
* "Ryan" from Blackletter cart, with shadow cuts welded in my Gypsy, top layer embossed with D'vine Swirls folder and then blinged with diamond stickles
* cross and layer from Easter 2010 cart
* table from Sentimentals cart
* wheat from Thanksgiving cart
* bowl from Pagoda cart
* small circles from George and Basic Shapes (inside the bowl)
* wine glass from French Manor cart, added burgundy stickles to imitate wine
* grapes and layers from Preserves cart
* pair of "scroll pillars" achieved by welding the same images together from Heritage cart
* bird cut from Beyond Birthdays cart, embossed with D'vine Swirls folder and then embellished with diamond stickles


Some close ups:

Embossing

Welding

Ruffles

Thanks for looking and have a great week! 

PS:  I LOVE my Cricut!  This banner got rave reviews at church from our priest and the cathechist ;) 

Versatile Blogger Award - Thanks JenL!

Thank you so much JenL at 3catsandabug for giving me this blog award earlier this month - so sweet of you to pass this award on to me ;) ! 

I'm supposed to tell you 8 things about myself and then pass this award on to 15 bloggers, so here goes!

Uhmm.....8 things about myself?  Arrrghhh - LOL I'm pretty boring so bear with me......

1.  I'm a SAHM to two wonderful kids, a boy and a girl.
2.  I love dogs and will be getting a new puppy in a few weeks, when he's 8 weeks old! We lost our last dog to old age last year and it hasn't really been the same at home without him. 
3.  My favorite food is Italian.
4.  I would love to have plants inside my house but I don't have a green thumb - somehow I manage to kill potted plants given to me by my friends and family :(  no matter what I do!
5.  I spend way too much time on the Cricut MBs, the Cricut Circle Blog, other craftblogs I follow and then now the Cricut Blog!  I have the hardest time as it is to keep this blog up ;)  I THANK all the crafty blogs for inspiring me and BLAME them for the pile of dirty laundry and dirty dishes!
6.  I'm addicted to watching Dancing With The Stars! 
7.  My favorite color is PURPLE!
8.  I struggled to put down 8 things about myself - ok now I know this is cheating but I told you guys I'm pretty boring LOL!

Now onto passing this award to more talented bloggers, in no way particular order:

http://icameisawicreated.blogspot.com/

http://scrappyrn-scrappyrn.blogspot.com/

http://girliascards.blogspot.com/

http://okieladybugsscrapnmore.blogspot.com/

http://gotscraps.blogspot.com/

http://hooscrafty.blogspot.com/

http://jrugg.blogspot.com/

http://janiceaeschliman.blogspot.com/

http://laneyslegacys.blogspot.com/

http://paperboutique.blogspot.com/

http://www.owlbescrappin.com/

http://paperandi.blogspot.com/

http://going-buggy.blogspot.com/

http://pattilynncreations.blogspot.com/

http://lindascreativity.blogspot.com/

Thanks again, JenL!  Cricut hugs to you!
 

First Degree Blackbelt

A good friend's 11 year old son just had his taekwondo black belt graduation last Saturday so I made him a card to help celebrate this milestone.  We are so proud of this sweet boy!  This card was 5.5 x 5.5.  I seem to be liking this size card lately since I can put more Cricut cuts in it. 

The martial arts image was from Car Decals cart.  I added a small strip of white cardstock to highlight the first degree strip on his black belt as you can see here.

The blue background was embossed with one of the Asian Bundle CB folders (I think it was called Lanterns) and I just added faux stitching around with white Sakura gel pen.  I used the same pen to doodle on the "Ayah!" (Lyrical Letters cart) to make it stand out a bit.

The wood cut was from Old West cart and embossed with Branches CB folder and inked and then cut in half in zigzag fashion via scissors to simulate a board broken in half.

Here's a pic of the inside, "Way to go!" sentiment was cut using 3 Birds on Parade cart.

Simple envelope was cut using Sweethearts cart.

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful week! 



Post Mothers' Day

Phew!  Hope everyone had a wonderful Mothers' Day.  Here's the card I made for my Mom .  The card was 5.5 x 5.5.  I've been dying to use cuts from the Paper Lace cart and I'm so glad I finally had the chance!  I used some irock gems to embellish the cut.  "MOM" was cut using the Lyrical Letters cart.  I also used some twine and strung some glass beads at the ends before I attached to the card. 

The envelope was cut using Sweethearts cart.  The mom and child silhouette cut was from A Child's Year cart and the 3 flowers were from Mother's Day Bouquet cart.  I've embellished the flowers with half pearls from Michaels.

Here's the inside of the card.

"You're the best!" was cut using Lyrical Letters cart. 

I wanted to show you guys the tags I made for the little bags of Lindor Truffles I handed out to some of my sister in laws and my sisters on Mothers' Day.  I used the tags from the Picturesque cart - so easy!  Love this cart! 

I realize I could really have blinged out the tags if I had more time but I had to produce about 10 of these tags in under 1 hour,  attached to the truffles and ready to go!  I think I'll go make some more just so I can have them on hand cuz these tags are so versatile!  

Thanks for looking and have a

great week! 

E2 Challenge Entries

Ok, so I don't have a prayer in the world of winning but I thought I'd play along.  Cricut and its lovely spokesperson Jinger Adams are launching a new version of the Expression on HSN on Tuesday, April 26th, called E2 in honor of Cricut's 5 year anniversary.  If you haven't yet heard or seen this new machine, just google it.  Anyway, Cricut is having a challenge contest and wanted participants to create and send in up to 3 12x12 scrapbook layouts with a birthday theme for a chance to win an E2 machine.  Since I will be somewhere in Disneyland for a few days I thought I'd post my entries here, just in case they don't get any "face time" (LOL) on national TV - what with all the other wonderful LOs by more talented crafters out there, I'm sure!  Good luck to all who are entering the challenge!!!

Sorry for the heavy post of pics - wanted to take as much pics as I could so that I could possibly recreate these for my own use later.  The picture quality is not great either  :(  I don't know what will happen to all the entries though...

I opted to include photo mats and/or photo frames for where I imagined the pictures will go.  When I do scrapbook pages my photos typically take center stage - just my style.

This one is called Fairy 1st Birthday

Details:

* "Our Little Fairy is 1!" title - Elegant Cakes cart, stuck some irock gems on them

* Tinker Bell image - Disney Tinker Bell & Friends, wings embossed with D'vine Swirls and sticked

* butterfly - Disney Hannah Montana, pop dotted top layer and stuck some irock gems

* 2 grass cuts - Disney Pooh and Friends

* mushroom - Disney Tinker Bell & Friends

* picture frame - Lacy Labels

Here is the second one called "Slumber Party aka Pillow Fight!"

Details:

* "slumber party" cut - Slumber Party cart

* "Pillow fight!" title - Disney Hannah Montana, embossed with Swiss Dots CB folder

* pillow - Paper Dolls for Everyday, embellished with white sheer ribbon

* eye mask - Slumber Party, embellished with red sheer ribbon and red narrow ribbon, and embossed with Swiss Dots CB folder

* pajama shirt and shorts - Slumber Party, embossed with Swiss Dots CB folder

* popcorn box - Carousel cart

* notepad stamp - Oriental Trading Co.

* picture mats embossed with Plum Blossom CB folder and ribbon from Target

And here is the third I call "Sweet 16th Birthday"

Details:

* "Sweet 16" title - Gypsy Font, letters welded and embossed with D'vine Swirls CB folder

* 2 picture frames - Lacy Labels, middle layers embossed with Plum Blossoms CB folder and embellished with buttons from my stash

* rose - Disney Princesses Happily Ever After

* girl - Forever Young, dress embellished with irock gems

* journaling stamp - Oriental Trading Co., trimmed with shaped Fiskars scissors and embellished with irock gems

And there you go!  For those who are going to be able to watch the E2 launch on Tuesday (or on Monday at 9pm PST) on HSN, have fun and happy shopping!!!  And good luck to those who have sent in their entries! 

My DVR is set to record and that's what I'll be watching when I get back from Disneyland ;)! 

As always, thanks so much for stopping by!