Christmas Sneak Peek

I've got a layout up at the Robin's Nest Blog today and wanted to share a quick little sneak peek with you.

Please stop by the blog to see the whole project and be sure to leave a comment.

Thanks for stopping by!

Debossed Christmas Card

I've got a blog post up at ScraPerfect today. I was playing around with my embossing folders one day and tried a new technique. I saw something similar to this using metal dies on Jennifer McGuire Ink's Facebook page. I don't have many Christmas dies so I decided to try the same technique with embossing folders.

I took an Anna Griffin wreath embossing folder and first wiped it clean using the Perfect Cleaning Cloth. Then I tapped the inside of the embossing folder with the Perfect Crafting Pouch. I took my embossing ink pad and swiped it on the side of the folder with the most raised edges and placed my paper in it being careful not to let it slide. Ran it through my Cuttlebug and carefully removed the paper and sprinkled the debossed side with clear embossing powder and heat set it with my heat gun. It came out beautifully! All the debossed areas really pop and it looks like the wreath is laying on top of the paper. 

To give it some sparkle I took my Wink of Stella Clear pen and just brushed it on the ribbon and then used a silver Wink of Stella pen to outline the pine cones in the center of the bow. Then added some candy cane Stickles to the berries on the wreath. 

I layered it on some red and white striped paper and rounded all the edges along with the card base. 

I love how this came out! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Card Set

I recently had a project up at The Robin's Nest Blog and wanted to share it with you. I've been busy making Christmas cards the last couple of weeks and I was asked to make a small set of cards to be donated to one of the local nursing homes in the area.

Robin's Nest Products

Hunter Green with Gold Glitter Cardstock

Winter Snowflakes Cardstock

Metallic Gold Dew Drops

Silver Bells Dew Drops

Other products used

Cricut

Cuttlebug and Embossing Folders

Stamps, Inks and Embossing Powder

To start I placed 4.25" x 5.5" pieces of the Hunter Green with Gold Glitter Cardstock and Winter Snowflakes Cardstock on the card fronts. I then designed the white die cuts using my Gypsy and Cricut. I used both the negative and positive parts of the die cuts on each of the cards. I attached the negative part on top of the cards. I popped up the positive parts on top of the negatives and offset them a bit to give the cards even more dimension.

As you can see from the close up, I embossed the trees with my Cuttlebug which just made them stand out more. I also stamped and embossed different  sentiments on each card.

And of course they needed a little sparkle so I added some Metallic Gold Dew Drops and Silver Bells Dew Drops to the tops of the negative tree die cuts.

These were fun and easy cards to make and I know they'll be going to someone who can really use them. I was honored to be asked to do this and I'm thinking I just might make some more to donate.

Thanks for stopping by!

I've got a layout up at the ScraPerfect blog today that I would like to share with you. It's a fall layout, my favorite kind to do since this is my favorite time of year.

I also tried something new for me. I had bought these little wooden leaves and I thought they would look really pretty if I added some glitter  or embossing powder to them. So I gathered my supplies and couldn't find my embossing stamp pad.....so I decided to try using the Best Glue Ever and it worked just as well as the embossing ink. I just lightly spread some of the Best Glue Ever over the wooden leaves, sprinkled the embossing powder and used my heat gun to set it. It worked perfectly. I did the green and orange leaves that way.

For the glittered leaves, I used a bit more glue and then really covered the leaves with the glitter.

I shook off the excess glitter and then took a piece of plastic packaging and pressed the glitter down into the glue. Let it dry and here are the results close up.

That photo doesn't do them justice. They came out very nice, but I just couldn't get a good photo of them.  Then I set them aside to dry and set about assembling my layout. And as you can imagine, my fingers were quite a sticky glittery mess so I just sprayed some of the Best Cleaner Ever on them and everything came right off. I love that stuff!

Normally my fall pages are mostly orange and browns but since all the flowers in the photo were pink I added the big pink plaid banner behind the photo to tie it all in. I cut some strips of dark cork into banners and layered the blue and copper paper on top of them. I also added a light coat of gesso behind the photo and sprinkled the background with some coffee colored mist. I even added a journaling  card, which is unusual for me, and matted that with the same colored papers as I matted the photo with. To top it all off, I then added the leaves I had made for a bit of sparkle. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Go For It

I've got a challenge up at the Mini Crop going on at Creative Inspiration. Our theme this month is banners, flags, pennants..... etc. My challenge is to use flags on your layout.

These are my two granddaughters who are both cheerleaders.  I love watching them cheer and dance.

My flags here are fussy cut from some Cheerleading paper I've had forever. I took a wooden skewer and attached the cuts and instant flags. Couldn't be easier!

Please stop by our forum and play along with some of our mini crop challenges or maybe even try our daily challenges. Lots of fun and interesting challenges going on at Creative Inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Themed Sneak Peak

I've got a project up at The Robin's Nest Blog today and just wanted to share a sneak peak with you.

Hope you'll stop by the blog and check out my project! Be sure and leave a comment there if you do.

Thanks for stopping by!

3rd Grade

We've got a DT sketch reveal today over at Creative Inspiration. I hope you'll stop by and check out all the different takes of the sketch.

Here's the sketch we had to work with

I was afraid all the busy papers would take away from the photos so I decided to mat them with some solid color cardstock. That seemed to work along with keeping the rest of the layout fairly simple.

Hope you'll stop by Creative Inspiration and play along with us!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cleaning Cricut Mats with ScraPerfect's Best Cleaner Ever

I've got a post up at the ScraPerfect Blog today about using the Best Cleaner Ever and I can't wait to show you how amazing the Best Cleaner Ever is at cleaning old Cricut Mats. I hate having to throw away Cricut mats when they lose their stickiness for a couple of reasons. First is the cost to replace them and second is the new ones are just too sticky and I usually end up ripping the paper when I try to remove it from the mat. So, I thought I'd try the Best Cleaner Ever on one of my old mats.

Here's what the mat looked like

Here are a couple of closeups

  

 It's hard to see in the photos but they were covered in glitter and little bits of paper. First I spread some newspaper over my work space because I knew there was going to be all sorts of crud coming off the mats. Then I sprayed the mat with some of the Best Cleaner Ever, rubbed it all over the mat with my fingers and let it sit for about 5 minutes. I then took an old gift card and started scraping along the mat. All sorts of crud came off! Once I got it all off, I washed the mat in warm water with some Joy dishwashing detergent and let it air dry. It looked brand new except for all the cut marks on the mat. 

I was going to apply some of the Best Glue Ever to get the stickiness back but I was very surprised to find the mat was still sticky. I tested it several times in the Cricut and the paper stayed right where I placed it on the mat and cut beautifully. It's not as sticky as a brand new mat, which is perfect for me! And if it loses it's stickiness I can always apply some of the Best Glue Ever.

Here's a photo of a brand new mat (L) and my recycled one (R)

Not much of a difference in my opinion!

Now onto a cute little Thanksgiving card I made for one of my granddaughters.

I embossed the background with a wood grain embossing folder and then used the Perfect Crafting Pouch over it before I gently inked over it with several different colors of ink. The turkey was a pre-made embellishment I picked up at Hobby Lobby but I took some of his feathers off and added my own. I stamped and die cut all the feathers and then using the Best Glue Ever randomly attached them behind the turkey.

Please stop by the ScraPerfect Blog and be sure to follow our blog so you can see all the amazing products we have at ScraPerfect.

Thanks for stopping by!