Two Peas in a Bucket - Celebrate the Seasons October

I went to Two Peas in a Bucket education section and found these brilliant ideas for scrapbook layouts.  I am still in the process of doing our trip to San Francisco and I thought this month's was a great idea.  It was using diecut frames in your layout.  We were also supposed to theme it fall or halloween, but I didn't have any of those pictures.  It is really nice to see an idea that uses so many pictures because not all of my pictures need to be showcased but I would like to include them in the album.  This is my food page.  The opposite page says "Of Course There Was Singing" so this one says "and food."  Hope you like it.

I designed the layout on my Gypsy just using the blackout rounded square from All Mixed Up.  The ribbon in the middle is to hide the fact that I have a Create and can only cut 6X12.  I thought it came out well.  Michael looks so thrilled. :)

SheetLoad of Cards - October Challenge

This is my entry for the SheetLoad of Cards October Challenge.  The Challenge was to use the sketch in the October ezine and make it winter or holiday themed.  If you notice my witch Halloween card used the same sketch I love it so much.  I used DCWV holiday pack that I bought at JoAnn's.  The santa and bag were done with the paper doll dress up.  Did you expect anything else?  The balls are stick ons I got at Hobby Lobby.  The "Here Comes Santa Claus" was done on acetate that I stamped with Ranger alcohol inks.  Hope you enjoy the card.

Peachy Keen Halloween Challenge

Peachy Keen posted a challenge today to make a Halloween card with a Haunted House, a ghost, and a bat.  I of course turned to my favorite cartridge: Paper Doll Dress Up.  I also went to Big Lots today after watching multiple videos on YouTube about the cool stuff you can get cheap. (I'm going to do a post on all the cool stuff I got after this.)

I used a Jolee's sticker for the greeting.  I also found these cute rub-ons that look like stitching.  My ghost isn't a ghost but a trick-or-treater, but I thought it would still count.  Hope you like my card!

Polka Doodles Week 23 Challenge - Halloween Take 2

So I'm not sure if Polka Doodles allows more than one entry, but I finished this card and thought it was adorable.  This one is for my mom.  I got the sketch from SheetLoad of Cards.  Again I used the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge.  I am getting so much use out of this one.

 

Christmas Pocket Card

I got this idea from Dottiesworld on youtube.  It was made with the DCWV Christmas pack from this year.  JoAnn's had them on sale for half price last week so of course I bought two packs.  I got the ribbon from Wegman's and I thought it worked incredibly well.  I just got my Tim Holtz blender and Ranger alcohol inks yesterday so that's what I played with.  Still trying to get the hange of it.  I distressed the edges with Tea Dye Distress Ink.

Polka Doodles Week 23 Challenge - Halloween

I got the idea for the folding of the card from tomshackj on youtube.  I needed to make a Halloween card for my godmother, Elena, so I thought I would try it.  Also, Polka Doodles is having a challenge for Halloween. I thought I should use heavy cardstock for it, but the card is super thick now.

The stamps of Inkadinkado and the die cuts are from the Paperdoll Dress up cartridge.

I LOVE My Xyron!!

I don't remember which video I was watching when I first saw the Xyron, but I thought it was the coolest thing.  I couldn't believe that it was so simple and it saves so much frustration.  I showed it to my boyfriend who is the most logical person ever.  There must be a good reason for everything.  His most frequent question is "Why do you need to buy something new, can't you do the same thing with what you already have?"  Well his response to the Xyron was that it was really cool.  So I was pretty much in the clear to get it.  I found an amazing deal on Amazon.com that had the 5" machine and disposable sticker maker (it's like those X-shaped little ones but you can't replace the cartridge) and 25 plastic scrapbook page holders for albums.  It was only about $25 for the entire lot so I got it!  It came yesterday and I used it on my birthday card I made.  I couldn't believe how easy it was.  I love it so much and would highly recommend it to anybody considering it.  Those tiny cricut cuts as well as the really skinny outlines are so much easier to use now.

Bella Bug Creations Blog Candy

 

Bella Bug Creations is offering wonderful blog candy.  You can have a chance to win all of this!  It's ridiculously exciting.  You should head over and check it out!

Bitten By the BUG October Contest

This is a 25th birthday card I made for my boyfriend.  It's a little early, his birthday isn't until the beginning of December, but BBTB had a contest that needed to be central around a number and since 25 is a big birthday I couldn't really pass up the opportunity to get it done early.  I also wanted to try making a secret flap card.  So here is the card I came up with.

 

Front of the card

Card completely open on the inside

Secret Flap

I made this card with the Storybook, Stretch Your Imagination, and Paper Pups cartridges.  The paper is plain cardstock from JoAnn's.  The music note art work was actually done by a good friend's older sister.  It was on the back of a postcard for his senior recital.

Peachy Keen Stamps Challenge 14

I love Peachy Keen Stamps.  I don't own any yet, but I really want to get the package of faces stamps for the paperdoll cartridge.  I personally can not draw the faces of the dolls to make them look cute and not uneven try, so this is why this contest is wonderful, the winner gets $25 to Peachy Keen Stamps.  The rules were use Brown and Pink, use a stamped image, use ribbon and glitter.  I made a Christmas card and got the idea from Chicknscratch.  It is used to hold a gift card.  I thought we could give it to our tenants for Christmas this year since we normally get a gift card for them.

All of the paper was from a paper pack at JoAnn's.  The stamp is also one of those cute ones that they have as impulse buys by the register.  The ribbon is self adhesive ribbon also bought a JoAnn's. (Do you see a trend?)  I colored in the stamp with PrismaColor markers.  I used Perfect Pearls Pearl on the snow on the little tag and on the top of the card to add some shine.

I used my brand new cropadile to add the grommet so the card can open and close.  I think I did well for my very first grommet.

Magpie Club: October Sketch Competition

This is my layout for the Magpie Club sketch competition.  Her kits are absolutely adorable.  I tried out using someone's sketch for the first time.  All of the cut outs are done with the Cricut Storybook cartridge.  Wish me luck in my first contest.

Shout Out to SheetLoad

SheetLoad of Cards is a really cool blog that has a monthly sketch and a bunch of cute examples using that sketch.  It's really nice for me because I'm brand new at  making cards and it helps to have a start on being creative.  The cards are so cute and I absolutely love getting ideas from the creative team.  Check out this month's issue.

First Couple of Projects

First Halloween card ever!  This is my first trial ever of making a card.  I used the All-Mixed Up Cricut cartridge for the lettering and Stretch Your Imagination for the leaf and the pumpkin man.  (No it is not an altered snowman, that's what my boyfriend thought)  I learned not to use think textured paper in the Cricut.  It is a pain in the butt and keeps falling right off the mat.  The ribbon is adhesive and says "Happy Halloween" on it.

Definitely click on this picture so you can see it bigger.  Sorry for the poor picture but it was really hard to get a good one.  The name at the top was etched with EtchAll and the Cricut Storybook cartridge.  These are pictures of my niece, isn't she adorable.  All of the pictures were also cut out with the Storybook cartridge.

This is my brother's 21st birthday card.  It was really hard to find a non-girly combination of papers.  I used the sketch from  SheetLoad of Cards April 2008 edition.  The ribbon was adhesive and the stamps are done with perfect Pearls.

I'm still here!

I'm still here.  I have even done some projects classes have just gotten in the way.  My school runs on a quarter system (fall, winter, spring, summer) and I'm planning on graduating this spring.  It has hit 5th week, which is halfway through the quarter and of course that means midterms.  I have a really hard one around 2 o'clock today so wish me luck.  I don't have much homework tonight so I'm hoping to take pictures of my work and get it up online.  I am not happy about this whole situation because all I want to do is craft, but I have to worry about school.

On another note, yesterday I went to the only local scrapbook/stamp store in the area.  It's actually really close to my school, tee hee.  Of course that can be dangerous.  It is a cute little shop and has a lot of the speciality stuff JoAnn's and Michael's doesn't sell.  I finally got the Tim Holtz grunge board flourishes or whatever the package is called.  I'm working on a paperbag album that I wanted the fake book bindings added to.  I don't have any pictures to put on it yet because they are all at my parents' house, but I'll be going home for Thanksgiving and get them.  Anyway back to the store.  The store owner was very nice but it was a little odd that the store door is kept locked at all times and you have to knock to get in.

I am working on organizing my basement to make my craft area.  Of course it is surrounded by bugs and icky things because my basement is unfinished, but we don't have any other space since my friend is living in the spare bedroom for the time being.  I really want to by alcohol inks and learn how to use them, but there's no point at the moment since I have nowhere to do them.  Also, stupid no income is putting a damper on a lot of things.  I can't wait to graduate and have a job so I can just come home after work and deal with life things instead of life and homework and projects and meetings. Gah!

Anyway those are my thoughts for right now.  Any suggestions on organization would be much appreciated.  I should probably also ask for good slippers since basement in the winter kinda sucks.  Thanks for reading.