Fun little pendant

Yesterday, I was all by myself for lunch and a dear sweet friend had given me some coupons for Joann’s so guess where I went? Michaels, Silly!  Just kidding.  I went to Joann’s and I found the most awesome pendant supplies.  I went home last night and whipped this out for a friend of mine, whose birthday is next week.  Now I need to make one for both sisters too, and, well a whole bunch more too!  It was quick and easy and I had so much fun.

February 2011 Circle Challenge

Tuesday is my little girl's Seventh birthday!  Wow does time fly!

Well, I sent the family to the mountains to play in the snow and I set to work on this banner to celebrate her special day.  It's her name with a cupcake at each end.  The banner came from Tie The Knot and the little crowns and cupcakes came from Once Apon A Princess.

Here are a couple close up pictures too.

Behind each crown and cupcake is a rosette of ribbon.  They are so easy and quick to make.  I took an 8 inch strip of wired ribbon.  I removed the wire from one side of the ribbon and took both ends of the other side and pulled them out to gather the ribbon in the middle of the strip of wire. Then I twisted the two sides together to form a loop.  I glued the tips of ribbon that come together and I am done!

Aly loved the banner and she can't wait to hang it her newly decorated bedroom!

Happy Birthday, Aly girl!!

January 2011 Magazine challenge

Hello and Happy New Year!! Wow, we a third of the way through January already!! I can't believe it!

Well, My friends all got together and went to a crop today, but I had to stay home while my sweet hubby went and played mechanic on my daughter's car!  I didn't let that stop me though! I called my faithful scrappin' sidekick, Bethany over and we had an amazing time.

This is Bethers or Bethamy as my little little girl calls her!!!
I decided to work on the Circle magazine challenge today, so on the way home we stopped at the most awesome little thrift store near my house.  They had some really great finds in there, but Beth found this really cool box and we just knew it was made for this project. I have no idea what is supposed to be for, but it is really neat.  It looks like it holds pens or paint brushes or something.

Well, I had some beautiful sheets of wood veneer I had been saving for some thing.  I just didn't know what until... today!! I cut the two little fairies from A Child's Year! The Cloud with Dream is from Home Accents and, because I used my ever trusty Gypsy, I was able to put them in 6 inch x 5 inch rectangles from George so I didn't have to worry about centering them. Worked like a charm!  Love that Gypsy!

  
Finally I added paper to the sides, pearls as accents and the flowers on the top!

Voila!! I can't believe how good it turned out!  I wish you could see it in person! I keep looking at it and I still can't believe it!  I am soooo happy!

What did the litle one do while we were playing, you ask?  She played too!

Wow! She blows my usual projects away! I love that little girl so much!

Well, until next time!

Jodie!

December 2010 Challenge

Hello fellow scrappers! Obviously I didn't get a camera for Christmas.  Hopefully, I will get one for my birthday!  We'll see.  That's in March!

Well, on to December's Challenge.  I created an explosion box with a giftcard pocket in the bottom.  I always feel bad when I give someone a giftcard.  There is no present to open.  My project solves that problem and it is a great way to give family pictures to a loved one.  If I was doing this for a birthday present, I might take pictures of the recipient through out the year and include them in the box too.  It is really many gifts in one.

I had so much fun with this little box.  I actually cut the box and lid out on my Expression using a Gypsy file I created.  I just had to snip the corners where the E didn't cut and I had a perfect set of layers for my box.  The lid was cut at 5.125 inches.  I scored an inch all the way around, cut tabs at each of the corners and folded and glued the tabs down. Piece of cake.  The little cuts inside the box were made using my new favorite holiday cart -- Jolly Holidays.  It is soooo cute!!

So, let's see did I meet the requirements?

• Use atleast 2 Cricut Cuts - I sure did! and more!!
• Use a tag made with a cartridge (there are so many great tags on so many cartridges!) I cut a basic tag from George I think!
• Use the color red somewhere. Tons of red on this little project
• Use ribbon. Got ribbon on the lid and the bow on top of the box!!
• Use a phrase from one of the cartridges. Used Happy Holidays from Jolly Holidays!!

Yeah!!  I did it!! Well, I am so glad I got this one done.  Actually, I've had it done and I gave it away already, but I'm just getting to posting it. Better late than ever!

Happy New Year!!

Jodie

Christmas T shirts

Hello friends.  I just wanted to share a t shirt design I made for my fellow co workers for our holiday party last Thursday.  I used my new FAVORITE cartridge called Paper Lace and a 2009 seasonal cartridge called Very Merry Tags. Using my Gypsy, I welded the phrase on the front using PL and then I added the Ho Ho Ho tag from VMT. The font is oh so cool! It fits together beautifully.

Then I did our names on the sleeves.  I used Siser Iron Vinyl and cut it at a blade depth of 3 and medium pressure.  It was a piece of cake.

Of course I couldn't have done it without my dear friend Marcus and his sweet wife Monica!  Thanks guys! Marc guided me through every step.  He commandeered Monica's E several months ago and now makes all his own tshirts for his homeless ministry God Within.  Don't worry about Monica not having a machine now.  He got her a beautiful green one on Black Friday!  Yeah!

Thanks for looking! Remember, we only have 13 days 'til Santa gets here!

Cicle Magazine Challenge.

Wow, its been a while since I posted. I've been thinking about this project ever since they posted it, but I am just getting in before the deadline!  This was a challenge real for me. I wanted to do something no one else was doing.  I found some thin pieces of paper backed wood venere at Michaels and started playing.  The first cuts were perfect, but when I finally cut it the final time, the wood didn't cut smoothly. I used cherrywood and a white wood. It's still really cute. The flower on the top is embossed with the music Cuttlebug emossing folder.  The box is cut from TBBM, the tree is from CC and the snowflake is from JOTS, I believe.  It is decorated on all 4 sides and hangs from invisible sewing thread attached at the center of the red flower at the top.

So I ended up redoing it and this is what I finished with.

 I ended up cutting it out of metalic paper and glitter paper. I embossed the silver metalic paper with the music Cuttlebug embossing folder.   I like this ornament because it can serve a dual purpose.  It is an ornament, but you can hide a little treat for someone special too.

Again, I wish the pictures were better, but we can't have everything! Thanks for looking!

Jodie

October Monthly Circle Challenge Entry

First of all, I can't tell you how awesome the Circle has been for me.  I LOVE scraping and crafting, but I have a really hard time sharing my projects with others.  I guess I just don't think my work is something worth showing off. I know that isn't true, but I have discovered that isn't really the point of these challenges. To me, it is about dusting off my Cricut and making a point of creating something different each week that isn't tied to some project I'm already working on.  Like cooking, we tend to use the same recipes in crafting too.  These challenges make us think outside our normal "recipe box."

For the montly challenge, it really wasn't about a scrapbook page, which is generally what I work on.  We had to do something around being creative or in my entry's case, encouraging creativity.  My mother, who had more creativity in her little finger than most people have in their whole body, nurtured her creativity every day.  She had so many little projects going all the time and she was constantly thinking of ways to do more.  She read magazines, took classes, talked to other crafters constantly and, most importantly, she showed her work to everyone.  I never realized what she was doing until I started doing the challenges.  The way she shared her crafts was a challenge to find what pleased other people.  She really wanted to get good enough to start selling jewelry, but sadly, she passed away before she had a chance to fully develop that craft. She did however, spend many years selling handmade leather and knitted items. 

I never want to make a business selling crafts, but I do want to continue nurture my creativity.  Thus, the new sign that will hang over my craft desk.  I made it with butterflies from Serenade and the frame is also from Serenade, I believe.  The letters are from Calligraphy and the little crocheted flowers are from SEI.  I purposely didn't line up the letters perfectly because I wanted that handmade look.

At least one shadow feature - the letters are shadowed in cream cardstock

Embellishments to enhance one of the cuts - the butterflies have been glittered and decorated with rhinestones.

Patterned paper - background paper has a faint script pattern that is very hard to see in this picture.

So, thank you for looking and I love your sweet comments.  You all really make my day!

Jodie