Sweet Birdie Gift Bag

Our Challenge for March 1-14 at Frosted Designs is Chevrons.

I dusted off my Cricut Imagine and my Lori's Garden cartridge to create a decorated gift bag.

I printed a chevron page with pinks and oranges.  I first tried to print an 8x10 rectangle, but it was going to print the rectangle horizontally, and I wanted to use it vertically.  My solution was to print the entire page.

My paper went from white to chevron - super cool!

I printed and cut this bird image at 8 inches.  The small bird was printed and cut at 2 inches.  The butterflies are for another project.

Here are my cuts!

I needed something to mat my bird.  I grabbed Gypsy girl and cut out a scalloped oval from Lacy Labels and sized to 8.35 inches.

The tag is also from Lacy Labels and is sized to 3 inches.

Both were cut out of cream colored cardstock.

I added a kraft brown gift bag purchased in bulk at Michaels and got out my glue and ink! 

I used inked the pieces with Vintage Photo ink from Tim Holtz.

I used a strip of paper on the tag to coordinate. 

I adhered the bird and swing on the oval, and the oval on the chevron paper.

I have a darling gift bag and matching tag set!

Be sure to join us at Frosted Designs and link up your Chevron project!!

Bowling Layouts

I am plugging away on Tyler's senior year in his scrapbook - totally taking advantage of a snow day today!!!! 

Bowling season is coming to a close as the Varsity State Tournament is this Saturday.

Because Bowling is not a High School Sponsored sport, the teams do not get their pictures in the yearbook.  I have volunteered to take the photos each year and we create a Senior Page in our Yearbook (we pay to say congrats to our seniors as well as promote the bowling program).  I also take individual photos and put together a keepsake for the parents who want one.  I will post them next month as they are still in the works.

Every now and then, I want to make a personalized mat for a photo - especially a 5x7 or 8x10.

I start by putting a square or rectangle on my Gypsy mat.  I typically use George and Basic Shapes.  I unlock the chain between Width and Height and select Real Size (the box with the a and arrows in it).  

***Note the box should be yellow when you use Real Size - I took it off Real Size when I added the letters.

I size the Width to 7.25 inches and the Height to 5.25 inches.

I put the word Titans on my mat using Varsity Letter (shadow).  I sized the letters to 1.31 inches.  I typically put the word on my mat and grow the size until I like how it looks - it is that easy!

I position the word to overlap the top of the rectangle, then weld it together.

I cut the shape out in black cardstock.

This is a 5x7 of the entire group of bowlers.

I opened another layer (leaving the first layer open) to configure the rest of the layout.

  I put TEAM on my mat.  I sized the letters to 1.35 inches and placed them vertically to the right of my photo mat.

I added Strike from Baseball sized to 1.82 inches.

I added the bowling pin and ball (and layers) from Nifty Fifties sized to 2.65 inches.  I created a welded image with the pins and ball (shown below).

After I moved the bowling pin and ball, I spread out my images by color.

I used orange, red and blue cardstock to cut out the images.

I kept the extra piece (aka template) from the word Team.

I placed the template next to my photo mat.

I adhered the letters inside the template.

I gently peeled away the template - and I have a perfectly centered and straight word!!

Back to the pins, I copied a second image and rotated it a little.  I overlapped the bowling balls and welded the images together.

I cut out the pins and ball in white cardstock.  

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I had to use an orange ball since Tyler throws an orange ball!!  I glued the stripes on the pins.  I used my black fine point marker to draw in the side of the pin.

I adhered the pins onto the corner of the photo.

I love the paper - I did not want to cover up much of it!!

I made a coordinating page:

 I did not take the photos used for this page - these were taken by Kevin Keyser.  He took Tyler's senior pictures and did an awesome job!

I also did not create the pin border - I bought it at my LSS.  Cricut has very little bowling images in its library!!  I used red twine to represent the stripes on the pins.  I used my white gel pen to date the ball.

Here is to my bowler - good luck at State Tyler!!

Boy Birthday Card

One thing I forgot about when my older boys started elementary school was how many birthday parties there are!!!  Tanner is in first grade and must be pretty popular as we headed to yet another fun birthday party on Saturday!

I have such a hard time finding cards for boys.  I mainly scrapbook but have been making a lot of cards lately.  This one came together pretty quickly!!

For this card, I got out my Gypsy and Birthday Bash.  I really like this cart for the banner flags, font and phrases for birthdays.

I opened up a mat and sized a rectangle to represent my card face.  My card is 4 x 5.5.  I used a rectangle (can use a square) and Real Size (because the measurements are usually off a tad) and unlocked the chain between Width and Height on the Basic Menu.

I opened up another layer to size my pieces to fit the card.

The banner flag is 3.82 inches.  The 7 and shadow are 1.82 inches.  The Happy Birthday phrase is 6.54 inches (1.53 inches with Real Size turned on).  The starburst is 3.35 inches.

I cut the pieces out with cardstock and a scrap of striped paper.

I ended up cutting an extra orange 7 to glue to the green 7.

I pop dotted the top layers of the 7 to the shadow layer.

I ran a little twine through the banner.

I adhered the phrase inside.  I love how big it is!

Tanner had a blast at the birthday party - it was at a bounce house place!!

This was taken with my cell phone camera - not the best photo but it shows how much fun Tanner had!!!

Beach Bum - Bold Color Challenge

Today at Frosted Designs, our challenge is to Be Bold!  You can be bold in your colors, title or subject matter.

I took these pictures from our Mexico trip and scrapped them in bright bold colors.  We had so much fun in Mexico and I hope to return before my passport expires!!!  This page is for Tyler's album so the title is singular even though all three boys are in one of the shots.

I grabbed my Gypsy and found this image from Paper Trimmings.  I sized it to 11 inches to use as a backdrop for my photos.

I cut out this layer in orange cardstock.

I cut out the shadow of the image (also at 11 inches) and cut it out in bright polka dotted paper from Hobby Lobby.

For the title, I wanted Beach Bum but not the board shorts.  I grabbed this image from Life is a Beach and sized it to 2.65 inches.  I cut it out of blue cardstock (the same cardstock I used to mat my photos).

I trimmed off the board shorts.

I needed a bright embellishment and used my Epiphany Crafts square punch and punched a tag from Quick Quotes.

I ended up using the square of the larger flower.  I adhered it to the square charm settings (also Epiphany Crafts) and put a bubble cap on top.

I tied a bit of blue twine to the top.

I added some blue stickles to the title.

I stuck a little tissue tape below the yellow ribbon for a little bit of fun!

Here are my beach bums - the older two are burying the youngest one in the sand.  Bliss indeed!

What is your favorite vacation spot?

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

I made this fun wreath with a little help from my friend!!

I took a wire frame from Hobby Lobby and tied ribbon on it.  There are three wire hearts within the frame.  This was tedious work and I got bored.  Thank goodness my friend Jenny finished tying ribbon for me!!!

I took my son's shoe box with a flip lid and cut a hole in the lid.  I painted it blue.  I cut out 24 2" circles from watercolor paper and glued four of them together (one on top of another) and glued them to the top of the box.  I painted over them.  Tanner is obsessed with Legos right now and this was perfect for his Valentine Box for school!!!

I am looking forward to Tanner's class party this afternoon!!

We typically don't go out on Valentine's night as every restaurant is busy.  Tonight instead of dinner, we will be going to high school conferences.

How do you celebrate Valentine's Day??

Non-Traditional Valentine

I love making these swing cards from CTMH Artiste!  

I am entering this card in Quick Quotes non-traditional Valentine Card contest.

I sized the card base to 5 inches.  I cut one out of Kraft cardstock and the other out of blue cardstock.

I used my 1 7/8" punch to punch a 7 Gypsy tag and a small heart punch for the blue heart.  I tied a bit of twine around the circle (hugging the heart)!

As the only girl in the house, this card will be put to good use!!!

Have a Happy Valentine's Day!!!