Point Sur Lighthouse

Hi, back with another scrapbook page on our trip to California last year. This one is of the Point Sur Lighthouse just near Monterey. We spotted it on our drive and we were lucky to be able to get a tour of it whilst we were there. We were also lucky as normally it's covered in fog and high winds but on our day we got a good view and no wind! I started with some light blue cardstock then some nice patterned paper from a K & Co stack my sweetie Greg got me when he was away. I used my Cricut Life's a Beach cartridge to cut out the lighthouse and the waves. For the title I used the Cricut Craft Room Basics font and welded them together, I added faux stitching. I do this a lot but I love the look of it. I used Straight from the Nest to cut out the yellow flowers in layers and added some pearls for the centres. I added a sentiment sticker and also some thick twine which I actually got in the bargain section at Michaels, It reminds me of nautical rope, I'll have to see if they have any more as I love it. I attached that with hot glue and cut out a label from Art Philosophy and completed my journaling on Publisher. Thanks for looking have a nice Wednesday.

Easter pillow box

Hi and Happy Friday and it is indeed a Happy Friday for me today as Greg is on the train from the airport as I type on on his way home after being in Seattle this week so I will be glad to have my hubby home : )
This morning I made a little Easter pillow box for my mum and dad to put their Easter Eggs in, I'm mailing it off on the weekend and I wanted to put the eggs in something nice rather than just the packet. I had a lovely sheet of Basic Grey paper sitting in my stash and I liked the soft colors which remind me of Easter so I cut that at 4.5 inches on my Cricut using the Spring and Summer Tablescapes cartridge. Greg bought me this one for Christmas & this is the first chance I have used it, it's quite cute and I think I might make a few Easter and Spring decorations for our table from it. I then used a scrap of the same Basic Grey paper and cut a scalloped circle at 3 inches from Art Philosophy. I then cut the cute bunny circle from the Tablescapes cartridge at 2.5 inches. I put some dark green card behind the bunny to make him green. For the ribbon label I used Art Philosophy again at 1.5 inches and I stamped using a CTMH set of stamps I use a lot for Happy Easter. I found a scrap of pink grosgrain ribbon to tie it on. A combination of making this cute box and awaiting Greg's arrival made me smile today, it has me thinking of Spring which I need after trudging outside in the snow and slush. Have a great weekend!

Wax paper resist card

hello one more project for you today and that's it from me for today, it's almost time to get dinner and I think I'm all papercrafted out for today! I wanted to try another technique I just learned and it's called wax paper resist, it's so easy yet so pretty and I love it. I'll explain the technique at the end. I started with a blue card and then layered some maroon patterned paper. I cut a label shape from Art Philosophy in two sizes in the Cricut Craft Room both in maroon and white. I used a set of Stampendous stamps I've had for ages that I got on clearance from Michaels, I love this set as you can interchange the stems and flower heads. I stamped this in black and coloured using my Inktense pencils, I'm still practising using these but I was happy with the flower. I added some striped ribbon. I decided not to put a greeting on for now, I'll do that when an occasion comes up as this could be a birthday, get well etc card. Now for the fun part. I took a Darice Embossing Folder which was a pretty flower one and then put a sheet of regular waxed paper you buy from the supermarket in the folder and ran it through my Cuttlebug, it comes out embossed. Then I took a piece of white cardstock and put it underneath the waxed paper sheet and also one on top. I got my iron and ironed over it using a hot setting but with no water in it so no steam came out, I did this for a little bit to allow the impression from the waxed paper to melt. When it came out it had left a printed impression on the white card. I think got a Memento ink pad in Desert Sand and rubbed the ink all over it and as you can see the floral pattern appeared in white through the ink. I then took a paper towel and just took off the excess. I let it dry and voila a pretty patterned paper for my card. I really enjoyed this technique and look forward to trying it again. It's wonderful what you can do with things around the house - yesterday bleach, today waxed paper and an iron (I always knew my iron was capable of more fun things hehe) Have a nice evening.

Yum

Hello I've been home most of the day today and now I'm glad to be inside before the storm comes later, chores are done so I've been able to do some scrapbooking. I'm still doing my Disneyland pages, I decided to do this one on the food at Disney and the Jolly Holiday cafe we went to where they had the cutest Mickey Mouse face chocolate tarts, Greg and I shared one and it was delicious and a lot of fun.
I used some white cardstock as the base then some Mickey mouse paper which I love. I added a large piece of red dot paper, this was actually from a Christmas stack but it was pretty generic and went well with the colors. I added a red dot border and a brown star border and a Mickey Mouse balloon sticker. I decided to make a little menu out of my chalkboard paper my lovely husband found for me last week at Michaels on clearance, I've been wanting to try this for a while! It was hard to cut in the Cricut though as it kept slipping but I persevered and it was ok. I am not normally a fan on handwriting on layouts but each to their own but for this time I made an exception as it was a "menu" after all so handwriting made sense. I cut the menu from Art Philosophy and added some eyelets and polka dot ribbon. For the font I used Tags Bags Boxes and More and cut that in brown, then I added white faux stitching with a gel pen. Hope you enjoy!

Easter chick

Good morning, I have a little card I made last night, I tried out a new technique which I really love and who would have thought bleach would make an appearance in papercrafting! I learned about bleaching recently and thought I would try it. This card is for my friend Claudy who loves chicks at Easter so I decided to make this for her. I started with a premade purple card, then I used a Sizzix border embossing folder my lovely hubby got me for when he was in Massachusetts recently, it's so pretty and reminds me of Spring which I really need reminding of now with the cold. So I ran that through my Cuttlebug and then used some Flower Soft in the centres of each flower. I used my Cricut (Art Philosophy) to cut out the circle and scalloped circle. I stamped my little chick in Versamark and embossed with black sparkle embossing powder heated up. Bleaching works best (so I learned) on similar coloured card to what you want your image to look like colored (hope I make sense) so I chose yellow as the chick is yellow. All you do is dip a little paintbrush in some household bleach and "color in" the areas you want so as you can see the chick is lighter in some parts. I then dried it again with the heat gun to speed up the drying process. I stamped Happy Easter to finish. I'm pretty happy for my first go a this but I do need an anti-static pocket. I did read that dryer sheets work and I tried that but still got some stray bits of embossing powder on the card. I found a great tutorial that shows you how to make your own anti static pocket really inexpensively using old pantyhose and baby powder, so baby powder is on my shopping list for this week : ), have a happy Thursday.

Mad Hatter Tea Cups

Hello I haven't put a blog post on for a little while, I enjoyed spending time with Greg ♥ whilst he was on vacation and of course our wonderful Valentines Day which I am very much looking foward to scrapping. Today I had chance to finish a page I started before Valentine's Day, it's continuing on with Disneyland. I decided to do a page on one of my favourite parts of Disneyland the Mad Hatter Teacup ride. Greg and I had such fun on this we were like big kids : ). I started with some lilac card stock and strips of floral and check papers. I cut the font in the Cricut Craft Room using Story Book and Holiday Frames and Tags in a cream color. I then cut a frame from Art Philosophy in pink and put that around my journaling. I cut the tea cups from Love you a latte and decorated these with flowers. I decorated the page with some flowers and a butterfly as well as some sentiments. I'm really pleased with how this page turned out, a lovely memory of a lovely day.

Dreams do come true

Hello happy Tuesday, I am excited as it's only 2 days to Valentines Day and my darling Greg is going to be making a fabulous cake and cooking me a romantic dinner so I can't wait for that. I am going to make Greg a  nice breakfast so it will be a good day : )
So today I had some time this morning before I go tot he gym with Greg and I finished a page I started on our trip to Disneyland last year. This page came together quickly and I love it. I used some black sparkle paper and then added a sheet of paper I found in California last year it's perfect as it's got the castle and fireworks on it. Greg was away last week in Massachusetts so he went craft shopping and came home with a  lot of goodies for me (what a man!) and included in these goodies was a cute sticker "Dreams do come true" and another packet of chipboard stickers so I added the castle and stars from these then just added my journaling and some puffy hearts. Thanks for looking.

Easter cards

Hello happy Friday I am glad it's Friday and even gladder (if that's a word : ) that my hubby is home now and all is well, I missed him soooo much this week but he came home bearing lots of papercrafting goodies. In the evenings he went to Joann's, Big Lots and AC Moore and got some great bargains, most were 80% off especially at Joann's. It was like Christmas here and I've been looking through everything i have embossing folders, clear stamps, scrapbook albums and papers as well as some Disney stuff for my Disneyland pages. I'm so lucky to have a thoughtful hubby like mine, he tells me gets excited hunting for bargains for me awwww.
So last night whilst I was waiting for Greg to come home I started a couple of Easter cards and finished them today. I made them not too elaborate as they will be going in the mail. I used  Art Philosophy to cut them at 4.5 inches and then added smaller plaid squares and then a scalloped blue circle on one and a green frame on the other all from Art Philosophy. I used Art Philosophy to cut out the eggs. For the first one I cut another layer underneath in lilac and then just added a scrap of green for the leaves and stem, I stamped and then added some white gel pen dots. For the other one I cut the egg and then some smaller dots in different colours for the egg. I used a tiny flower punch for the flowers and white gel pen for the centers. I love the colours, it does brighten up a dull, cold wintery day. Have a nice weekend.

Be Mine cute Koala

Hello again here is another project I started last night and finished today. I saw a great idea on another blog, the person had made a cute teddy bear card and he was holding a heart with a chocolate in the middle, I found out that the teddy was from a digital Cricut cartridge but the cartridge was $9.99 for just 4 images and I really only liked the teddy bear so I decided to come up with something similar of my own using cartridges I already have and I found this cute Koala bear on Create a Critter. This was even more perfect as we're both from Australia so I know my Valentine Greg will love the little Koala. So I went into the Cricut Craft Room and welded two Koalas together to make a card and cut it out in grey. I then cut out just one koala in black but used the software to cut it as a shadow so there were no eyes, mouth or nose cut so that went on the back. I then used Art Philosophy to cut out the hearts, I stretched them in the craft room to make it a bit wider so he could hold the heart and I added my own faux stitching with white gel pen. I cut a banner from Art Philosophy and stamped Be Mine.
As for the chocolate we decided not to give out chocolates for Valentines as we're dieting and some of Greg's cake will be our treat that day but I could not let the Koala be empty handed : ) so I walked up to Target today (it was sleeting and freezing and very icy on the ground but Greg is worth it!) and got these cute Dove hearts that are dark chocolate (which is good for you a little each day!). Isn't he cute? He's going to sit at Greg's place setting on Valentines breakfast which i am cooking, thanks for looking.

Friends card

Afternoon everyone I made this card last night, I wanted to try out my Inktense watercolor pencils Greg ♥ bought me for Christmas. I used a yellow card and some pretty daisy paper I love the paper it's so fresh and spring like (I wish Spring would arrive really early in Chicago!). I then got out a set of Inkadinkado stamps I got ages ago i found them really cheap at Marshalls or TJ Maxx and stamped the large flower onto the daisy paper then again onto white. I used my pencils to colour in the flower, it was fun coloring, it took me back to when I was a little girl : ). I then used my water brush to blend the colours a bit and it turned out good if I say  so myself for my first go : ). I added some diagnol strips of paper on the bottom right and added a flower and stamped friends.

Hurrah for Hollywood

Hi, I've got another California page for you today. I bought this paper in California and obviously its for Hollywood themed pictures with Hollywood being the main thing on this page so this is what I came up with. I sometimes wonder what to do with these pages as it seems a shame to cover up the image on the paper but I made it work and I decided to make the title part of the page. So I used Art Philosophy in the Cricut Craft Room and cut out some stars, 2 large and the rest smaller. I cut the font from the Cricut Craft Room Basics. I used some stickers both flat and epoxy down the bottom. Greg got me the epoxy ones last time he was away on clearance at Joann's (he's such a nice boy) so I was glad I could use them. I painted some chipboard frames that mum and dad sent in white and then some Martha Stewart glitter paint to give it Hollywood appeal. Thanks for looking : )

Sew Special Cards

Good afternoon from snowy winter wonderland Chicago, I feel like I'm in a snowglobe in our apartment with snowflakes whizzing past the window, glad I am inside and warm and at home. On my quest to keep busy whilst Greg ♥ is away I made these two cards today using some gorgeous stamps and papers I got with my first issue of  Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine. It's a U.K magazine and I used to love getting it in Australia then I found out I could subscribe to it here so I'm glad I did. The stamps were a vintage sewing set and the papers were also had a vintage feel to it. I'm not normally a huge fan of vintage as I prefer modern day but I did love the vintage feel of these stamps and papers it reminded me of what would have been the simplicity of life years ago with more people sewed and did hobbies like needlecrafts.
For both of these cards I used the Cricut Craft room to make the cards and the layers, it's really great and fast to do it this way. For the first card I cut a 5 inch square card and then a blue layer. I then cut 4 rounded corner squares in two of the patterned papers. I stamped the sentiment on one. then for the others I stamped the thread holders and cut them out, I winded some twine around these. I added some buttons on the third square and for the fourth I used Artiste to cut out some little scissors. I added silver glitter gel pen on the scissors. To finish I added some pink ribbon and made a loopy bow.
For the second card I cut a 5 inch round scalloped card then 2 circle layers one in blue the other in one of the patterned papers. I ran the blue one through my dots Cuttlebug folder. I cut 2 more scalloped circles slightly smaller one in cream the other in blue dot. I cut some off the blue dot one and adhered it to the cream. I stamped the sentiment and then the sewing machine. I went around the sewing machine with silver glitter gel pen. To finish I added silver ribbon and a bow and I used a tiny flower punch for the flower with a pearl rhinestone.

Love you anniversary page

Hello I made this page late this afternoon, I've been busy all morning with housework and then the Dentist so I had some time this afternoon. I miss my hubby Greg so I'm trying to keep busy till he gets back later in the week but I know he will love this page, hope you do too. This is one of our anniversary last October and the fabulous cake Greg made to celebrate it.
I used some lemon yellow cardstock for the base then some check paper. I used my Cricut to cut a scalloped square at 10.5 inches from Art Philosophy in the daisy paper. For the title I found this lovely LOVE word from Create a Critter so I put this in the Cricut Craft Room and made it the size I wanted. I cut that in some yellow dot paper, I then cut it again in red but only cut out the heart. I then used Opposites attract to cut out You in the same yellow dot paper. I ran the heart through my hearts Cuttlebug embossing folder to add something different to it. For the finishing touches I added a strip of journaling that I did in Publisher and added some stickers. I really like the black one which says "A dream is a wish your heart makes", which is such a lovely saying. I added some sparkle hearts and a LOVE button.

Bixby Bridge

 Hello Happy Friday, it's nice to think of the weekend coming even if it is freezing here but I've got my good man to keep me cozy and loved.
I did this layout today again continuing on with our California pictures. This one is of the Bixby Bridge along the coast road near Monterey. We enjoyed the scenery along here even if it was a bit foggy in some places but we enjoyed seeing this lovely old bridge.
I started with a blue page and added some blue floral patterned paper. I matted the photos on some ice blue cardstock that I had in my scrap box. I cut the font from Cuttin up on the Cricut Craft Room and welded them together. I went into my sticker box and found a lovely felt flower, a travel sticker and also a tab as well as a small Martha Stewart flower and a tab to which I wrote the date on. I added journaling from Publisher. Have a nice weekend.

Strawberry Surprise

Hello from a very cold and windy Chicago! As it's so horrible and cold here today I thought I would do another page on sunny California and our trip there last year. We found a lovely little strawberry farm on the way to Monterey so we stopped, it was so cute with lots of strawberry goodies as well as organic coffee, honey and other bakery items. We bought a strawberry shortcake which was so delicious, you could tell it was home-made. The store also worked on an honesty system which was so nice to see that people are still trusting people to be honest.
So this page started with a blue base and then I added a scrap of light plaid pattern paper and also some border strips, I bought this paper especially for this page for the strawberries, I remember it was only 20 cents from Michaels on clearance. I used a few cartridges for this page and all of them I used in the Cricut Craft Room. For the cute little truck I wanted to make it the same as in the photo so I used Just Because Cards for the truck and then Preserves for the strawberry. I wanted to put the yellow bits on the strawberry but knew a marker wouldn't work on the red so my lovely husband (I really love having him share his office with me as he is so helpful with suggestions) suggested I use yellow craft paint with a tiny paintbrush and this worked perfectly. For the font I used Preserves for the Strawberry word and then I used the Craft room font for surprise. I added journaling strips from Publisher and a Sweet sticker on top.