A Gift for Her Baptism

Yesterday we had the privilege of attending a baptism of an 8 year old little girl that used to be in my Primary group. But her family moved close to an hour away, and we no longer see them much...other than through Facebook. ;) I was so excited to be invited to her baptism! She is sweet and her family is the best. So we went,...but I had to take a gift to just let her know how special I think she and her family really are. So I crafted this scrapbook album. It's a big step for a child to be baptized and take on the name of the Lord, so I wanted her to remember this special day with details, pictures, and a book to hold the memories for the rest of her life. Thanks for looking!

"Smile" Handmade Card

Here is a card I whipped up today (looks it, right?!) for a friend. I just used what I had on hand as I have not bought scrapbooking supplies for over a year now! I've been busy sewing and crocheting, you know. ;) Anyway, I think the papers are Bo Bunny, My Mind's Eye, and some yellow vellum. I used my Cricut George cartridge to cut the balloon, and I used red Baker's twine for the balloon string. Other ribbons I have bought at Hobby Lobby from time-to-time. The lettering are just random stickers, and so are the corner stickers. Thanks for looking!

Pirate Party!

Adam's 7th birthday is coming up, and the boy has never had a big birthday celebration, other than his 1st Birthday. So this year, after a long, traumatic summer of a tonsillectomy!, I've decided we're going to do a little more for my little man. We (Adam and I) decided together on a pirate-themed party, and we're getting really excited for it! And I lucked out and have found pirate-y things at the Target dollar spot, as well as the Dollar Tree here in town. Here is the cover of the invitation I made for him, using my Cricut "Gypsy Wanderings" cartridge and some scrapbook paper and stickers already on hand. I also crumpled up old world looking paper and printed out the details inside of the card to look like a map. The inside of his card reads: "Ahoy there, matey! Ye be invited for some birthday spirits at Captain Adam's 7th birthday bash. He needs some shipmates to swab the deck and hunt for long lost treasure. Chart yer course for (time) on (day) at (our address). Wave yer flag if ye be attendin; if not, ye'll have to walk the plank! Yo ho ho, let us know! Call deck hand at (phone #) by (date)." I have to admit, I googled for some ideas and used most of it. :)

Valentine's Gifts

So I've been crafting here and there...over the stretch of days, by doing a step each day on most of these. Like for the crocheted envelopes -- one square a day...then sewing them up one evening...then adding the button one day. It's all a process! I usually have very limited time to sit in one day and create something from start to finish all at once. Anyway, I made these Valentine envelopes that I think are super duper cute! I found the pattern on the Lion brand website. I think Jayna will be able to recycle them as "mail" for her cardboard playhouse mail slot, and for "mail" this summer in her Step 2 house outside. So it's worth the time spent for me. Also, the kids helped me design each of their Valentine's shirts on my Gypsy, then I painted them (again in steps) while they were either sleeping, napping, or at school. They wore them to their class parties today. There is a picture of Adam creating his homemade Valentine's cards...and the end result on most of them. He did a good job, and came up with the smiley face idea without my input. Then on the back he wrote, "Love, Adam Criser." Too cute! And then I took some snapshots of Carly making her daddy's Valentine...paperweights for his desk at work. We got the kit at Barnes & Noble bookstore. I think it's cool that you can see Carly's reflection in the glass weight while she was working on it! Thanks for looking!

Crafting Christmas Gifts - Part Three

Pulling an Oprah, I decided to gift some of my favorite people with my favorite thing for the Christmas tree. (Do you watch Oprah and know what I'm talking about?) With limited time due to the "Crafting Christmas - Part Four" that I'll post next week, I didn't have a lot of time to really make something wonderful for my three good friends. But they mean so much to me...they give me insight, friendship, service, kindness, and support on many different levels. So I wanted to give them something I feel is special to me. Well, when we moved to Ohio five years ago, it was still early in my marriage and consequently Brent and I were still collecting things here and there for our Christmas tree ornaments. I decorate in turquoise blue (one of my top favorite colors); white; pearls; snowballs; snowmen; white lights; silver bells; etc. When we to the mall that first winter here, we discovered an old man who would create glass pieces to sell at Christmas time. I loved watching him, and found out that he made icicles. Real glass icicles. They are absolutely beautiful!!! They are hard to capture the beauty of on camera, but they are really stunning on the tree in person. So I bought my first dozen that winter. That's all I could get at the time. And every winter since, I have bought another dozen to add to my tree. So this year, with five dozen, I have finally filled up the tree from top to bottom (on the front side) with my other "snowy cold" ornaments. (The funny thing is that even when we lived in California, I decorated with snowmen for the tree and winter months...even though I never wore a coat at all. It wasn't ever really that cold there...not compared to here in Ohio or WV. I definitely missed that about the East Coast when we were on the West Coast.) ANYWAY, back to my gift, I felt like it's something really special to me, so I decided to take some old cigar boxes bought on E-bay a couple of years ago, alter the boxes, and fill them with a dozen icicles each for my sweet friends. I hope they enjoy them. I think the boxes turned out lovely, but I think they will like the shiny icicles on their tree at night the most -- I hope! Thanks for looking!

Crafting Christmas Gifts - Part One

Giving Christmas gifts to friends is always exciting for me! Gifts to friends can be whatever I want to make them...and there is no pressure. For friends it's the thought that really counts because there really was no expectation in the first place...in my own opinion. So I like giving handmade Christmas gifts that are personal and not overly expensive. This year, Carly was able to get in on the crafting magic. We have been friends with a certain church family over the last five years since we moved here, and they have a daughter close in age to Carly. Though the two girls are two years apart in age, they get along well and we try to remember to include Carly's friend when we go on special trips or outings. Such as to the Littlest Pet Shop part at WalMart; snow tubing at the ski park for Carly's birthday; and we always go trick-or-treating together. So I had several pictures of the two of them together and we decided to use one of these new 7Gypsies drawers with individual frames to make her friend a gift. We just chose coordinating patterned scrapbook paper for the backgrounds. I have a mountain of stickers I have collected over the years for scrapbooking (before I got my Cricut!) and used some of those for the flowers. But then we also used the Cricut to make the 3-D flower. Carly inked the edges and adhered all of the bling to the designs. It was a lot of fun and something we could enjoy doing together. And since Carly's friend has a little sister that has a crush on Adam, I had a few pictures of them as well...so I decided to make her some hanging tags so she wouldn't feel left out. Thanks for looking!

Slowly Catching Up

Here are some recent layouts I did for little Jayna's scrapbook. I was able to go to a crop with a friend at Archiver's (my first time there - WHOA! Loved it!) I used my Gypsy for the first time really and I enjoyed not having to swap cartridges and just plug away...I believe I got more pages done because of it. Anyway, I got a few more pages done for Jayna's book and I now have about 10-12 pages in total...which is not many. But it was fun to hang out with my friend Lisa and catch up since we had not seen eachother in quite a while...um...and she lives two streets over. :) But we are busy mommys and doing the best we can! Thanks, Lisa! I found some time during Jayna's nap today to get some cards done and I will post later. Did I mention I need to clean house? Well, I do. But today sanity came before cleanliness. haha

Super Saturday Crafts

This year for Super Saturday crafts at our church, we did the following:

1. Book of Mormon covers - We took the cheaper Book of Mormon that missionaries hand out and recovered them with patterned scrapbook paper. You can find a tutorial here: http://www.u-createcrafts.com/2009/11/creative-guest-craftaholics-anonymous.html. If anyone wants a free copy of the Book of Mormon, please let me know! :)

2. We made Recipe board holders for those pesky little index cards that seem to either get lost or dirty during our cooking. I don't have a tutorial for this one. Sorry!

3. We also worked on "Families are Forever" blocks. These were very easy. The letters were cut using the Opposites Attract cartridge on a Cricut. Then we sanded, painted the blocks, and then glued the letters on. I finished mine with a layer of Mod Podge to complete the look. Some people chose other colors, but I liked the neutral look of shades of brown and cream together.

4. Lastly, we made cute little post-it note holders. If you are like me, you are always looking for a pen/cil and paper when out of the house for a quick note. I have given a few away but this one will be kept in my purse. Here is a link to that tutorial: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/postitholder/.

Happy crafting!!!

NSD Challenge #9

"Take Shape!" is challenge #9 from Emma on the Pink Stamper Design Team. The requirement was only to make a project in the outline of a shape. So I made a card for my recently married cousin who also just bought her first home! I shaped it like a birdhouse (for the "love birds") and also because in our extended family we share a love for birds taught to us by our grandfather. He loves Purple Martins; so much, in fact, that his street was recently renamed Purple Martin Drive. We love you, Papa! Anyway, back to the craft shown, I used Stretch Your Imagination Cricut cartridge and also the George for the tag. The epoxy tags I got at Target a couple of years ago, I think. The rest is just paper and Cricut. Thanks for looking! PS - Those cute birdies are from Tomi Ann's Etsy shop, "Little Things" -- GO CHECK IT OUT!

Carly's Valentine's Box

This year the teacher issued an assignment for the children to make their own Valentine's box at home. Since I have a ton of paper, glue, ribbon and such, Carly was in craft heaven! hehe This is what she came up with for her 2010 box (which is a recycled shoebox). She used some paper from the My Mind's Eye that I also used on my Valentine's wreath. The birds and nest were on some patterned paper that she decided to cut out and use as decor on the top of her box, and we used pop dots to give it extra dimension. We bought some pink, red, and purple gem stickers and also crystal heart stickers for the bling at Hobby Lobby. And then she decided she wanted the hole on top to be in the shape of a heart instead of a plain old slot. Good idea, Carly! It turned out super cute. We cut her name with the Storybook font with my Cricut. She did everything except for the heart hole on top. I handled the glue gun for her as well. Thanks for looking! And stay tuned for her cute Valentine gifts we are making for her classmates!

Valentine's Day Tag Wreath

I made this wreath today during Jayna's nap and while watching my son play the Wii. (Carly was at school, of course.) Did you know that a mushroom monster can eat Mario's hat when it falls off?!? I didn't until today, and I used to play Super Mario Bros. on the Super Nintendo a lot while my honey was on his mission back in the 90's. Anyway,...back to the craft at hand. hehe I used my Cricut Expression to cut the hearts and circles, and then I hole-punched them with a Crop-a-dile. After that I purchased a grapevine wreath at Hobby Lobby (they are on sale there this week!), and took some scrap ribbons in coordinating colors and tied them to the dried vines. The paper is a My Mind's Eye paper stack also bought at Hobby Lobby. And the tile "Because nice matters" was made by my friend, Sarah, who is known as "hometypography" on Etsy and she also sells Scentsy candles. I hot glued the ribbon to the back of the tile she gifted me at one of her parties for bringing two friends along (score!) and hung it in the middle of the wreath. That's it! Let me know if you make one and send me pictures!