A Banner Year...

2012 is gone, and good riddance, the year was one disaster after the other for us, a bunch of hospital/Doctor/Dentist visits,more than any in my life. Despite all the awesome travel we got to do, we are looking forward to a calmer year. And to start the year off right it is my oldest daughters birthday in January, last year we had a princess themed party complete with all the Disney fixin's, this year we are amp-ing it up with a Rock Star theme. However, with 5+ birthdays in my family in January I think we shall have to theme this month for banners. All kinds of banners and pennants. First up is last years birthday banner for my daughters birthday, all princessed up.

I used my handy Cricut Expression to cut all the banners from Close to my Heart's Art Philosophy along with thier decorative elements at 5.5". The paper was Close to my Heart cardstock and Disney Mega Pack from EK Success. The letters were cut out of Colorbok glitter cardstock with the Cricut Paper Lace cartridge which has an awesome font on it. String it up with a fancy ribbon and we are ready to party!

Peachs' Art

March is here are we are ready for all our snow to melt...we have not been able to get out the back door of our house since last year. I know that was only three months ago but I am ready for a warmer change. I had a great coffee with some of the other expat wives here is Sakhalin and the day before I was looking at the spot between 2 light sconces where a previous Happy Birthday banner was hanging and decided that it is too open a space to have nothing in it, so the question is what do you do? Do you change it with the seasons? Do you find some art or make some? Do you leave it blank so it can stare at you day in and day out? While we were living in Denver I had a collage frame and wooden 'P' hanging on the wall, I really loved the 'P' but it did not make it in the shipment, I assume that it is in storage? Not quite Sure...So my solution was to whip up this peachy sign with my Cricut, something to fill the space and to bring more personality to our home, which till now has been kinda boring with out the Christmas stuff around.

I broke out my brand new Sophisticated by Teresa Collins cartridge out and cut out Font 2 with shadow to complete my wall art. I cut the shadows first as I have made the mistake before of cutting the regular font out as large as it will cut and then the shadow feature won't cut because the font is too big.

In this cartridge is also a welded 'The' which came in very handy that I didn't have to piece that together. I did have to use different patterned paper as I was running low on my other paper.

I added this key to the bottom, it is not completed yet but I will be putting an 'est. 2004' on the line of the key as soon as I get my new gypsy, so I can weld the words together. I used subdued metallic paper for the key from DCWV and 3D foam taped everything to get the dimension I was looking for.

This font is really awesome because it has this great scroll in the letters, one of that ladies at the coffee morning commented that it looked like wrought iron, which is a huge compliment as I decorated the house with wrought iron and it doesn't break when being moved 30, 000 miles away. The paper was all Close to my Heart, a discontinued paper pack called Silhouette, still one of the prettiest I think.

Do you see the great scroll in the 'P'! Even my husband was happy and impressed when he came home later that night, if he likes it then I hit a home run! Love to hear your thoughts,

A Princess of a Birthday

Here we are just after Christmas and Valentines, just waiting for the other holidays creep up on us. I am one of those lucky people who in my own direct family, between Christmas and Valentine's day have 10 BIRTHDAY'S to celebrate. It's a good things I am in Russia or good bye Christmas Cards, Hello, Birthday Cards. One of those birthdays just happens to be my daughter's 6th birthday, I know, it's a big one! So to each girl in her class we send out one of this too cute Princess invitations. Everyone loved the invites and asked me where I bought them....I said 'bought?'. NO, my handy-dandy Cricut and I made these cards. All the cardstock was from Close to my Heart, absolutely the best cardstock and cuts like a dream. The Belle paper on the front of the card was from a Disney Mega pack I bought, the inside had all the need to know information! I actually used the cut out crowns on the edge of the cards as the 'for', 'when', 'where' and RSVP information, no waste here. Belle was a little difficult to piece together because her eyes would be easier in a larger size, I ended up adding the whites of the eyes with a white gel pen, it works too! We had lots of fun with Crowns I cut on the cricut and let the girls decorate, each girl had a blast putting ribbon, jewels and flowers on thier crowns. A good time for all the girls, here is a picture of the 11 girls we had at out house!

We also served my last box of Duncan Hines Chocolate cupcakes and I made these great cupcake toppers for them. They were really easy with just and oval, sihouette, toothpick and some Stickles for the glitter. Girls were choosing their favorite ones and taking the toppers home.

Our centerpiece of the party was this cute 3D castle that you can find near the end of 'Once upon a Princess' Cartridge. It didn't take me too long to make, and it was just the right height for our table. It is only about 10" wide by 7" deep by 12" high. The girls loved opening the door to see what was inside...nothing!

I also made a banner that says 'Happy Birthday' with Princess's at the beginning(Ariel), middle(Belle) and end(Jasmine). Each pennant is only 6" high, perfect for such a long word. I used Glitter paper for the letters, Disney Mega Pack paper for the toppers and Close to my Heart cardstock for the base. It was easy to make and the banner is still up to this day! My daughter passed from 5 to 6 with all the grace and beauty of a real princess. It was worth it!

One Holiday down, One to Go!

What fun we had that the Harvest Brunch for church. I decided to decorate a table with my friend Kim. I had seen what Jeanette Lynton had done with her Thanksgiving placesetting and decided to base my design off hers. Check out Jeanettes post here. I had lots of fun making all the little items like, Glass Wraps, Napkin Rings and placemats, lots of other ladies brought some delicious food to feed us. I then used the items we made and put them on my own table for our Thanksgiving dinner this last Thursday, It looked great, I am glad I got more than one use out of them. However after our family dinner the placemats had to be thrown out...who knew we were soooo messy.

To Carry or to Capture?

For my next project as Guest Designer for Creative Cuts & More, I decided to take the basic Gable-Tall Box in Acetate and fashion it into a Phot Box. What better way to capture my daughter's boundless energy than by encasing it into this box. I wanted to create something with depth, color and fun techniques. This has eye-catching qualities and some great products helped that along. Of course we have the Gable-Tall Box in Acetate, Basic Grey Paper and Killer Red Tacky Tape from Creative Cuts & More. Rhinestones, Stamps, Inks and Ribbons are all Close to my Heart. I think this photo box is darling and only wish I would have found a way to make it rotate!

Good enough to Eat!

Just before comeing back from our 'visit' to Calgary, my VISA got stolen! Downer! And we got in too late to use the complimentary water park at our hotel! Sucks! But we are home and I can get back to life as usual. Got a new credit card and my brother and his family are visiting and we will be going to Water World here in Denver...the biggest water park in the USA. Exciting! Thought I would share some up and down moments, including my sweet treat which was originally made for my spotlight from GCD Studios, but then it got picked up by Scrapbook News and Review for the July issue. One of my 'UP' moments. This tasty morsel measures only 3 inches high and is made entirely of scrapbook materials including the inside. (no whip cream filling, sorry) But looks good enough to eat!

My First Independance Day Celebration

Soon enough it will be a fun evening as everyone is on thier decks and having a party while the sky is lit with hundreds of fireworks. At least that is the vision in my head. This will be my families first July 4th in the States and I am anticipating a HUGE celebration. All of my American friends had better not disappoint! But I am hoping not to disappoint them either as the great little centerpiece above will be given as a gift for the host. This centerpiece is actually my next class I am doing just in time for July 4th. Lots of fun and super cute. If you are interested on coming to the class, just click the link on the right hand side of the page that says 'Scrapaholics Unite' to see what is coming up here in the Denver Metro area or click here for a calendar of upcoming classes and crops. I hope Independance Day is as spectacular as the movies make it out to be! Looking forward to it!

It's all about Class

This was a class I did last night. Only Jessica showed up last night, but we had a great time playing with all the Close to my Heart papers, stamps and rub-ons. Ended up making a couple of really cool frames, the top 2 are mine but the 'Beachy' one is Jessica's. This is a super easy frame and with all the paper and embellishments on them they really *Pop*! I am hoping to make some more soon and possibly sell them at the county fair. Also if you are interested in taking one of my classes, and are in the Denver Metro area, you can check out my class schedule here. Looking forward to creating some more today.

All in a day's work.

Just wanted to show you all the cute little things I made today at the crop. I made this cute little Miss You card that I am going to be giving away today to our friends the Ratcliff's who are moving from Denver back to Calgary. This was made using my Cricut.

This adorable little purse is filled with chocolates for the girls...something cute they can play with. I think they will have fun with it! Also made using my Cricut.

And here we have some weird looking bottles for the bathroom that I had just bought. They looked so boring before I felt like I had to jazz them up a bit. All the colors match the fabulous wallpaper I have in my bathroom. Believe me the bathroom needs a bit of something cute! Hope you like them .

Stick a Pin in it!

I hae been having a lot of fun creating new and fun classes and layouts. The project above is my next class with my online meetup group. I think it is simple and cute...it does appeal to everyone. I hope that more people end up coming to my classes than usual (zero), but I am new to the area and don't know many people. I will keep plugging away and using up my substatial scrapbooking aresenal. Keep checking back for more ideas and designs.