Anna Griffin Inspired Layouts

I've been making a series of scrapbook layouts inspired by the style of Anna Griffin.  My daughter did some modeling for a couple years and I thought Anna's papers and embellishments (along with her amazing Cricut cartridges) would be perfect to use with these photos.  Here are the first three layouts that I've completed for this series.

The ornate die cut backgrounds on all of these layouts are from Anna Griffin's Elegant Embellishments Cricut Cartridge.  All the papers on this first layout are also from Anna Griffin, along with the Embossing Folder used and the die cuts.  I've been hoarding Anna Griffin products for a long time and it's time to start using them!

The die cuts (flowers and butterflies) on this layout were also cut from the Anna Griffin Elegant Embellishments Cricut cartridge.  The background paper on this layout is from Echo Park.  The solid colors are Bazzill Cardstock.

                                          

I used Anna Griffin's 12" Gatefold Embossing Folder to emboss the long sheet of green paper on this layout.  

I have a lot of amazing photos of my wonderful daughter to work with for this series and I can't wait to keep working on it!

January 2017

Oh...my poor, neglected blog.  It's been years since I've given it any attention...life got in the way of crafting.  But...2017 is my year to get back to doing what I love and I'm excited to get back to sharing my little crafting world!

Let's start it off with my first project of the New Year...Mini Houses with Matching Boxes!  I recently moved my crafting space from my dining room into my very own craft room and as I was organizing all my stuff, I realized I have an unhealthy obsession with all things Anna Griffin and all things Tim Holtz...two designers at complete opposite edges of style.  So...I thought I'd challenge myself to come up with a project that embraces both designers and this was the result.

This is my very first project using a Sizzix machine.  My birthday and Christmas are near each other so this year I asked for Amazon gift cards as gifts...as I knew I was finally going to get my first Sizzix (the Vagabond 2) and, the first dies I wanted were the Tim Holtz Village Dies.    

Once I had my mini houses created I knew they needed something else...so, matching boxes was what I came up.  The houses fit inside the boxes so that now I can include a little tea light, and maybe a gift card, and use them as little gifts for family friends.  I used my Cricut to make the boxes and, in Cricut Design Space, welded on a different edge to the box lid to create 4 unique boxes.  To create the bow (also using the Cricut), I used leftover scraps of the same paper that matched each house.

Here's what the house looks like in the box.  The bottom of the box was a little too short (at the maximum size of a 12x12" piece of paper)...the little chimney stuck out too high...so I cut 4 additional rectangles of paper and lined the inside of the box to add the height that I needed.  It also gave extra strength to the box, which was an added benefit.

The little tags say:  Home is where your story begins.  It's from a sign I have in my house.  I used my Cricut to make the tags and also do the writing on the tags...which is a wonderful feature available on the Cricut Explores!

Reindeer Balloons

I wanted a fun way to give money to some of the older kids we give gifts to so I put these balloons together this morning.  I rolled up the money and put it in the balloons before blowing up the brown balloons.  I then used the Photo Props Cricut cartridge to cut the antlers from Kraft paper, and just used circles for the eyes.  I glued on a red pom pom for the nose. 

I made up 5 of these for my nieces and nephews kids and taped them up on the walls, which kept them out of the way...and the kids got to take them as they were leaving.  I probably should've added ears but I ran out of time.

Girl Tag Garland

I made this garland for the tacky gift exchange with my family!  The photos are of me and my 3 older sisters when we were young!  It's not really a tacky gift...it's more of a funny gift.  I think my Mom and my sisters are going to be fighting over this!

The dress is cut from the Children Around the World Cricut cartridge (the Dutch girls dress), the collar and bow are from the French Teddy Bear from Teddy Bear Parade, the hat is from Birthday Bash...it's the same hat on all 4, I just cut off the embellishments on 2 of them.  And, the wings are from the dragonfly on Home Accents (the pretend dress stand is actually the antennae from the dragonfly.

The completed Toy Soldier Army

I turned a hexagon box, from the Pretty Packages Cricut Cartridge, into a drum for my Toy Soldiers.  These were gifts for my co-workers.  The Toy Soldier box contained candy and the Drum held an ornament.

And a friend for the Toy Soldier

I used some pieces from Create a Critter to make a Panda friend for the Toy Soldier.

I really love this free svg file from SVGCUTS. 

Toy Soldier Box uisng Cricut Explore and svgcuts

I just opened and set up my Cricut Explore last night and this is the first project I've made.  It's a Toy Soldier box using the FREE SVG file from SVGCUTS.  I'm so pleased with how easy it was to upload the SVG file through Design Space and how easy it was to put the box together.  I'm a new fan of SVGCUTS and will be doing some shopping there today!

Every year I make four little gift boxes for the hostess gifts at a progressive dinner for an Old Car Touring Club.  This year I made these little cricut boxes with a winter white old car scene on the front of the box with a splash of color on the top.

 

The old car is from the Wrapped All Up cricut cartridge, the trees are from Christmas, the snowflakes are from TC's December 25th and the rosettes are from Ribbons and Rosettes. 

 

I used Bazzill Kraft paper for the 4" box and then ran the white panels through my cuttlebug to emboss them.  I tied bakers twine around the car just to give it a little color and set it off from the all white scene.  

 

It's been forever...

Let's see if I remember how to do this...

Here's an art project I made of my daughter using several cartridges:  Sophisticated, Victorian Romance, Formal Occasion and Doodlecharms.

 

The frame in the background is from Sophisticated.  I printed the words from Taylor Swift's song 'Love Story' directly on the kraft paper.  The metal crowns are from Tim Holtz.

 
The gown is from the Formal Occasions cartridge.  (I found it to have unrealistic barbie like proportions as my daughter is very thin and yet I still had to cut away her waist and hips from the photo for the dress to fit her!)  I cut two different colors of the top layer of the gown and then combined them to make the gown a little more interesting.  Then added bling, tulle and a ribbon.


For the prince I used the guy from Victorian Romance and then welded the cat head from Doodlecharms to him, cutting a 2nd piece of just the head to give him some dimension.  I also cut his arm and reattached it to position it to make it look like he was reaching for her hand.  I then added bling along with some tulle and a flower to his staff.

This was a fun, for no reason, project to work on.  I just wanted to see if I could create the vision I had in my head. 

Sweet Layout!

I made a layout for my February design team assignment for My Pink Stamper. We were challenged to use as many stamps as we could on our project. I used the entire set from the Sweet Goodness stamp set, all 15 stamps, to lightly stamp my background paper.



Materials Used:
Cricut Cartridges - Home Decor (Bird) and Wall Decor & More (Sweet)
Patterned Paper - Bo Bunny and Canvas Corp
Sentiment Stamps - My Pink Stamper Sweet Goodness Set
Flowers - Recollections
Red and Brown Pens to write and doodle in the word bubbles
Gingham Ribbon

Thanks for looking!

February Pinkalicious Blog Hop!

Welcome to my blog and to the February PINKALICIOUS blog hop from My Pink Stamper! You should have arrived here from Roberta's fantastic blog, TX Scrapper Mom! If you'd like to get back to the beginning of the hop...just click here: My Pink Stamper.

For my hop project I made a pink and red Valentine Tree decoration.

For the tree I used the 3D tree from the new Baby Shower cricut cartridge (I didn't realize until I had cut it out that there's a baby basket hanging from the lower limb...so, I snipped that off with scissors.) I cut each piece of the tree 3 times to make it sturdy enough to stand...which makes it a little challenging to put together. But, even though it isn't perfect, I'm happy with how it turned out.


I used wire on this project...just because! It's fun to experiment with new things. I wrapped the wire around a pencil to make it curly.



Materials Used
Cricut Cartridges - Baby Shower, Cricut Fonts and Basic Shapes
Cardstock - Bazzill (Pink, Red and White)
Sentiment Stamps - My Pink Stamper (Love is from the Flowers & Friendship set, Sweet is from the Sweet Goodness set, and Hugs & Kisses is from the Lunchbox Thoughts set)
Wire and Ribbon to embellish

Thanks for stopping by on the hop! You're next stop is to Shelley's wonderful blog, Cricut Cuteness!

Happy Hopping!

Love is in the Air...Blog Hop!

Welcome to my blog and to the Love is in the Air - Valentines blog hop (hosted by Paulette from Around the Block with scrapalette)! You should have arrived here from Sukie's fabulous blog, Scrappin Dhilly! If you need to get back to the beginning, click here to go to Around the Block with scrapalette.

My project for the hop is a teen inspired Valentine's frame for my daughter to give to her boyfriend for Valentine's Day.



I started with a very inexpensive plastic frame from Micheal's ($3.99) and then used vinyl and bling to decorate it! (Here's the before picture of the frame.)



I used the cricut cartridge Sophisticated for the black frame, cut in black vinyl. And then the heart with wings is from the Love Struck cartridge. I used a dark pink vinyl for the background layer and then a lighter pink vinyl for the detail layer.

I then added some bling and I was done. It was a very easy project!

Thanks for stopping by on the hop. Your next hop is to Renee's incredible blog...I came, I saw, I created.

Happy hopping!

My Sweet Valentines!

For my January project for My Pink Stamper I made a scrapbook layout!


This layout uses leftover scraps from my project below. I didn't want to throw out all the colorful pieces leftover from cutting the labels...so, I thought I'd use them to create a colorful layout. I know these aren't your typical Valentines colors...but...I like that it's different.

The photos are of my son and daughter when they were younger.

The font is from an older cricut cartridge called Printing Press. I'm trying hard not to forget to use my old favorite cartridges...even though we have so many fun new cartridges out now. I love all the crazy mismatched font shapes in Printing Press.

Materials Used:
Cricut Cartridges - Printing Press and George & Basic Shapes (for the Hearts), the colorful circles and strips were leftover scraps from cutting labels using the Art Philosophy cartridge
Patterned Paper - Kraft (The Paper Studio), Colored (Recollections), White (American Crafts)
Sentiment Stamps - My Pink Stamper (Love is from the Flowers & Friendship set, Sweet is from the Sweet Goodness set, and Hugs & Kisses is from the Lunchbox Thoughts set)
Buttons and Twine to embellish

Thanks for looking!

Pinkalicious Blog Hop!

Happy Friday the 13th...and, welcome to the first Pinkalicious Blog Hop of the New Year! You should've arrived here from Courtney's AMAZING blog, Court's Crafts! If you'd like to get back to the beginning of the hop...just click here: My Pink Stamper!

My 'clean slate' project is for a large whiteboard calendar at my office. My job is very technical...so, the calendar is filled with scribbled on technical information...dates, deadlines, milestones, etc. (I'm sorry I can't show you a picture of it...some of the information is confidential.) I'm finding that some of the 'FUN' information is getting lost in all the 'technical'.

What I've done is to create a variety of fun, colorful labels that we'll be able to use, and reuse, on the calendar to highlight some of the fun things.



'Celebrate' and 'Party Time' can be used to highlight events...but...they can also be used as a fun way to celebrate milestones that are accomplished and when deadlines are met. 'Birthday Goodies' and 'Enjoy' will help identify special days when treats have been brought in for the team.

Materials Used:
Cricut Cartridge: Art Philosophy for all the labels
Paper: American Crafts White Cardstock, Recollections Patterned Paper
Buttons, Ribbons and Twine for embellishing
Sentiment Stamps: My Pink Stamper - School Days and Yummylicious

Thanks for hopping along! You're next stop is to Carissa's wondeful blog - Sprinkled with Glitter!

Cricut Circle Challenge...Using Cricut CraftRoom

I've had this idea for a home decor item I've been wanting to try...so, when I saw the challenge to use the new Cricut CraftRoom design tool...I knew it was time to try it!

I love using the CraftRoom! It uses similar features of other graphic design types of software so it hasn't been too difficult to figure out. And now, with WiFi on my E2 machine...it's even more wonderful to use. I love that I can wirelessly send my CCR designs directly to my cricut!

My craft space is set up in my dining room. And, I've repurposed an old tv cabinet to hold my paper so that it doesn't fade in the sunlight. Since I'm always facing the end of the cabinet, I thought I'd use this challenge to add some creative inspiration to that space.



Using layers in CCR, I was able to create three 12x12 word collages to cut in vinyl and adhere to the side of the cabinet. I used a few different fonts to add a little variety and then added a couple of flourishes to the sides.



Below is what the CCR file looks like with all 3 font layers visible (looks like a mess!).


But, CCR makes it easy to turn off the different layers so you can clearly see what you're working on. Below is just the 3rd layer visible.



I really like how it turned out on the cabinet. Using CCR to line it all up, along with the ability to use text boxes, made this a fun and easy project to do. I know I'll be using CCR a lot more now!

Cricut Monthly Challenge - Gift Wrap

I've been so busy with family and the holidays that I haven't had a chance to post anything lately.

I just noticed I have a few hours left to add a project to the Gift Wrap Cricut Challenge on the Cricut Circle Blog. Here's a box I made for a special ornament that I gave as gifts. The penguin with the mustache matched our silly Christmas card photo!



The box was made using the Sweet Tooth Boxes cartridge, cut at 11.5".

The penguin is from Joys of the Season, as is the Santa Hat. (I welded them together on my gypsy for the background, cut in white.)

The mustache is from Billionaire.

Pinecone Snowball Ornament!

This was my first attempt at making a glitter ball ornament. I wanted it to look like a snowball so I used both the chunky glitter and the fine glitter on the inside...using 'Glitter It' for the adhesive.

The pinecone was made using a flower cut from the Art Philosophy cartridge. I added some chunky and fine glitter to the edges of it as well. The greenery was cut from the Christmas cricut cartridge.



Here's the flower cut before I rolled it up as a pinecone. I sanded it a bit first to give it a distressed look.


Thanks for stopping by and looking at my latest creation!

My Pink Stamper...12 Days of Christmas!

The 12 Days of Christmas starts today over at My Pink Stamper! You'll want to check out the videos each day and leave a comment to win the AMAZING prizes that Robyn has set up!!

The challenges are going to be really fun too! I'm going to try to make time to do some of her crafty challenges...I hope you'll join me!

Snowman Lanterns!

I just have to share........do you remember my snowman (or is it a snow-lady)? It's being featured in the current edition of Provo Craft's newsletter - The Chirp! I'm so excited!

Details on how to make my snowman can be found in my blog post HERE.

Below I've added a kraft ribbon tag to my snowman with the sentiment "Nice to SNOW ya!" stamped on it! The stamp is from the wonderful Robyn at My Pink Stamper...and it's from her Winter Treats and Sayings stamp set.





One more thing you can do with them is to add a battery operated tea light inside and you'll have some darling lanterns! (The picture isn't the best but you get the idea!)

Sophie Cricut Cartridge - Blog Hop!

Welcome to my blog and to my project for the Sophie Blog Hop! You should've arrived at my blog from Diane's wonderful blog...Diane's Daily Dribble. If you want to start back at the beginning, here's the link to get you back to Michele's blog.

I hope you've found lots of inspiration from all the projects along the hop. I wanted to participate in it because I absolutely love the Sophie cartridge...but...I never use it! I needed a challenge to get myself to use it.

For my project, I made a scrapbook layout of one of our adventures picking out the perfect Christmas tree. I used various sizes of the beautiful Christmas tree from the Sophie cricut cartridge. (Click the pictures to view them larger.)

Using my gypsy, I welded the different sizes of the trees together and then rimmed the design with 1/2" x 12" rectangles on all four sides, also welded to the trees. This allowed me to cut this top layer as one piece, out of Kraft cardstock. On a second layer, on my gypsy, I cut the green tree layers. I varied the trees using the outside of the cuts for some, and the inside of the cuts for others.

Here's how the design looked on my gypsy, showing it welded together.



I used buttons to top the trees along with wrapping the largest tree in bakers twine, and adding the sentiment 'Holly Jolly' stamped at the base. (The stamp is from the adorable Winter Treats and Sayings stamp set from My Pink Stamper!)

Paper used: Bazzill Kraft, Core'dinations (Beige), DCWV (Glitter), Teresa Collins (Christmas Words).

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog on the hop!

You're next stop on the hop is to Alma's incredible blog - Alma's Pink Life!