Silhouette Cameo Projects - I love you frame & Pregnancy Card

Hello everyone!  I did a little crafting tonight (yay!!) and I wanted to share my two little projects.  I'm really getting the hang of my Silhouette Cameo and (trying not to jinx it) really liking it!  It's particular convenient  because I have it set up on my scrap table (doesn't take up much room) next to my laptop and when I get an idea, like I did tonight, I just open up the Silhouette Design window and start playing.

My first project was from an idea I saw on Pinterest last week.  Someone had created an "I love you because..." frame that can be used to leave notes with a dry erase marker.  So I found a frame, customized the inside and made one for myself!  One of my favorite features of the Cameo is that welding is easy - you simply type your words, adjust "character spacing" using the toggle button, which brings the letters together and then click weld and its done.  But even better than that is that you can then SHADOW ANY WORD by clicking ONE button and then using the toggle switch to make it a thinner or thicker shadow.  I really was able to make this frame in about 10 minutes.  I'm also able to cut very skinny fonts without the paper tearing, another huge plus.  Here is the frame...

Here it is with the message I left for my hubby to find when he gets home from work tonight...

My next project was a card for a friend who just told me today she's pregnant.  I wanted to make her something special and I had this idea in my head, so I went to the Sihouette online store and looked for some images I could possibly use.  When I saw this pregnant girl, I knew that was it.  So I picked the image and clicked shadow.  With my shadow active, I then clicked on the "mirror left" button, since I wanted to make a shaped card.  I moved them a bit closer together and welded them.  I also wanted a heart in the space on the belly to write a little sentiment, so I added that as well.  I moved the girl to one side and the card base on the other because I cut them out together (I put the pink paper on the left and the brown paper on the right).  Below is a screenshot of it...

Here is the final product...

I'm all about making use of scraps, so I created another card using the negative space leftover from my card to make this one...

Would love to hear from you, so be sure to leave a comment below!

Thanks for stopping by!

Album Covers, School Layout & Big Project Tackled!

Hello everyone!  It seems that the weeks continue to fly by and I keep running out of time.  Sorry if my posts aren't very consistent, lately, but I'm sure glad some of you keep stopping by!

Although I didn't get to crop much this weekend, I did tackle a project that has been on my to do list for quite some time now.  I have over 150 pages/layouts in a huge pile in my closet that didn't have a "home".   So after figuring out how I wanted to sort them (some by theme like holidays or some vacations, each of my kids have their own [multiple volumes, I may add, LOL!], the rest chronological), I began sorting them by albums (I have quite a few going at the same time), I finally sat down to put them in different albums.  I wanted to start a school album for my son but I couldn't seem to find one I like.  So instead, I decided to personalize the album cover to match the theme.  With some ribbon, cute school lined paper scrap, EK punch, my Cameo and a couple stickers, this is what I came up with...

Isn't it adorable?!  I filled it with all the school pages I've made for him since PreK 3 till now in Kindergarten.  I also created this layout from his recent "Sea Star of the Week" moment with the words he wrote that were put on the bulletin board.  His very sweet teacher took a picture of him in class in front of the bulletin board and sent it to me (she knows me so well!) so I could scrapbook it.  I also used pattern paper for the title to go with the theme.  Here is the layout...

Finally, I want to show you the final product of many hours of labor on this task...

And this is what I have left (I just ran out of page protectors)...

Or so I thought :(  After taking the pics and putting the albums on the shelves, I went to one of my carts and found a box that I had labeled "Completed Layouts" which was completely FULL.  So although I tackled my huge, overflowing pile from the closet, I now have another box of layouts to find homes for.  Luckily, I did sort them already, I just now have to get even more page protectors!!  

But I do feel quite accomplished, I must say.  

So I'm wondering, has anyone out there been in the same situation?  I'd love to know that I'm not alone!

Also, I'm curious, how do you organize your scrapbooks?  

Please leave me a comment, I'd love to know!

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Valentine's Layout, Centerpieces and Valentine's Box, oh my!

Hello everyone!  Wanted to kick off the Valentine's holiday by sharing a bunch of projects I've been working on - some on my own, others with students or with my own kids.  Warning:  this is a pic heavy post!!

First, I wanted to share a Valentine's layout that I scrap lifted.  I saw it at a local scrapbook store, the Paper Niche, and I loved it!  So I bought the fun Bo Bunny papers and recreated it, modifying it a bit.  I love the bright colors, polka dots and flowers.  Here it is...

Here is a close up of the ribbon strip...

Can't wait to add the pictures!  

Now, with one of the clubs I sponsor at school, we are putting together a teacher breakfast tomorrow.  For centerpieces, I decided to create paper owls with the kids.  We made them on both sides.  Look how cute they came out!

The students wrote sayings about teachers and we added them on popsicle sticks behind the wings as if the owls were holding them up.  Here is what the set up looks like for the breakfast...

Finally, tonight my son and I worked on his Valentine's project which was making a valentine's box along with cards for all of his classmates.  I wrapped a shoebox and he used my gypsy to cut out different words and images he liked.  I love that he picked them, spelled Valentine's and cut it out by himself.  To make it a bit more personal, we put his handprint on his box.  We also decided to make a ribbon handle for him to carry it to school.  Here are some pictures of the process...

 I'd love to hear your comments, so be sure to leave one and let me know you stopped by my blog!

Thank you for stopping by today!

Tray & Baby Mini Book

Hello Blogger Friends!  I'm back from my trip, Super Bowl has just ended, and I wanted to get back to posting!  So today, I'm sharing some of the projects I made as Christmas presents.  The first project is a tray I made for my sister.  She has a new house in the Keys and I wanted to bring in that color scheme.  It has a bit of glare, but that is because it has the acrylic liner on top.

For one of my best friends, I made a baby brag book for her with pictures of her beautiful baby girl.  Here it is...

Hope you liked today's post.

Wait, almost forgot to share some fun news, my entry for the DCWV January Sketch Challenge made the Top 10!  Woohoo!  

I'll be back tomorrow with more to share.  

Hope you have a great start to your week!

Birthday Crown and Cake Pops!

Hello again, blogger friends!  Please join in me in wishing my little boy a HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY!!  When he wakes up tomorrow, I have a crown that I scrapped today ready for him to wear all day.  I picked up two from Burger King and then personalized them.  I used my Cameo and I got it done in like 15 minutes - it was great!  Here, take a look...

Tonight the kids and I made our first ever Cake Pops!  I bought a Cake Pop maker about two weeks ago and have been waiting to try it out.  I used cake mix and let the kids stir it all up.  Then I filled the openings with the mix, closed the lid and in 8 minutes the first batch of 7 were done.  As they cooled, I inserted the sticks (which I dipped in frosting first to make them stick) and when they cooled completely, we dipped them and added sprinkles.  So they are ready to share tomorrow after the big "Happy Birthday"!  Now I will virtually share them with you...

The birthday celebration begins in the morning and continues through the weekend!

I hope you've enjoyed today's post, thanks for stopping by!

Beach Buds & Co-Captain Layouts

Hello blogger friends.  I'm trying to do better with posting and what better way than two days in a row!  Today I have two layouts to share.  For this first layout, I had this great wave paper that I wanted to use, but I wanted the details of it to be a part of the page, so I cut around a lot of the pattern and popped it in several places creating the left side of the page.  The title is from Life's a Beach cartridge, which of course I welded on my gypsy.  Here is the layout...

With some of the left overs from those patterned papers, I created this layout documenting my little boy's love of boats and his nickname, daddy's Co-Captain...

Thanks to Jen & Angie for your comments - makes me so happy to see you're still reading my blog :)

Also to my best scrap buddies Marylin & Maritza, thanks for the bloggy love!

Remember you can sign up for emails of my new blog posts on the top right of the blog.

Hope you all enjoyed the layouts.  More to come!

Thanks for stopping by!

I'm Back and Ready to Share! School Layouts & DCWV Sketch Challenge!

Hello my long lost blogger friends!  I've been away from the blogging world for quite a bit, with my crazy life, overpacked schedule, and the hectic holidays - I had so many other priorities to tend to and something had to give, so I've been unable to post.  But I'm Back and wanting to get back in the swing of things.  Although I haven't been posting, I have been creating quite a bit, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to post a bunch of my projects throughout this week and next week (but it is my little boy's birthday on Thursday and I'm going out of town this weekend, so bear with me!).

I have to first post this super cute layout of my little boy's first day of Kindergarten.  I had previously posted the layout of my daughter's 1st day of Pre-K in my last post, so this is the follow up...

This year he had his very first country project.  He was assigned Spain and told to include the title, flag, type of money and write two sentences.  I'm always one to go above and beyond and I pass that on to my kids, so we started brainstorming things we could do with this.  The teacher in me uses any and all opportunities to learn, so we researched and I taught him about the colors of the flag, the map and major cities, bull fighting, the "Euro", etc.  We created the title from napkins, rolling them into little balls and glueing them on the cricut letters (which he cut out himself :), we made the flag with beads and he wrote five sentences within another flag that we made.  When the project came back home, I took off all of the elements that we had created and used them on this layout with the pictures of him holding the project and the fully completed project.  This way I "saved it" without the clutter of the actual poster board around my house.  I see it as a win-win!  Check out the layout below...

Next I wanted to share a layout I made from this month's sketch challenge at the DCWV blog.  This was the sketch, which I loved...

I had just found this great DCWV travel stack and I used it to create a page opener for our Road Trip to Kennedy Space Center.  Take a look...

I will have another Kennedy Space Center layout to share tomorrow, I just realized I haven't uploaded those photos, yet! 

Finally, I have to share with you my fabulous surprise Christmas gift from my hubby - a Silhouette Cameo!

For those of you who have no idea what it is, it is similar to the Cricut (it's competition, actually), but instead of a cartridge system, it connects to your computer and can be used to cut your computer fonts, create your own shapes and also purchase images from their online store.  There's some things I love about it and also some things that I have issues with, but I'm hoping to post my very own review about my thoughts on it after I've given it another week or so to really test it out.  This does not in any way mean I'm abandoning my Cricut - it is still my love, but I'm hoping to expand my capabilities even further with this new machine.  We'll see how that goes!  Be on the look out for a future post about my experiences with the Cameo.  

Well my friends, that's all I have time for today.  I'm glad to be back and hope you'll be joining me again on these crafting adventures.  I'm not sure if anyone is still reading this, especially since I've been away so long, but if you are - please let me know...leave a COMMENT!  

Come back soon and

Thanks for stopping by!

Preschool Layout - Girl - Sketch Challenge

Hello again, everyone!  I'm so excited to share this page with you today.  I recently became a member of this scrapping community called Let's Scrap, but I'm new to the site and don't know how to navigate it yet. But they had this great sketch this week that I decided to use to create my daughter's 1st day of Preschool page.  I wanted to use some bright colors to match the theme and her personality.  I used some pre made embellishments that I had and decided to make my own embellishment as a journaling block.  I will explain more after I show the pictures.  I had first made the layout without pictures.  When I started printing the pictures to go on the layout, I had more than I had originally thought, so it worked to create the mini photo banner at the bottom of the left page.  Finally, when I thought I was done, I felt it still needed something, so I added buttons on the top border.  So here are the pictures...

I'm in love with my little embellishment.  It started out as a scrap of white paper.  I then punched one side with my EK success punch.  I drew the blue lines and the red line to make it look like a paper and corner rounded the other two sides.  I added the super cute brads that my friend had given me and wrote in the information under it.  I then used pop dots (of course, lol!) and added it to my layout.

Here's the original sketch

Here's the completed two page layout

I'm entering this into the following challenges:

Let's Scrap Sketch Challenge - 11-2

Whimsical Wednesdays - Anything Goes

I hope you liked my layout.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Be sure to let me know you were here - comment!!

Hope you come back soon!