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I can't believe that I was thinking of making Valentine things from the day Christmas was over.  At this rate, I now need to think about Easter, and then summer stuff, and when that's over Hallowe'en???  hahaha... Thinking ahead does make me more organized, and it does keep me going.   I guess that's good :)

I am not a big Valentine color person - personally, I tend to stick to more neutral, earth tone colors, so to do pink and red together was a little challenging for me.  However, I think that it turned out darn cute! and wanted to share with you all!  The train is made up of boxes, so you can fill them up with candies, little stuffed animals, or whatever your heart desires to give it to your special someone!

I used two (only two!) collections to make this!  They are: 

For more detailed instruction on how to make this, please visit SVGCuts blog!

I have been busy working on the new challenge by SVG Cuts, and excited that I'm finally done and now get to share with you all :)

For this challenge, we were given a scrapbook page template, and using at least one of any of the free or purchased files, we were to create a page "About Me." We were to give a title, and we were limited to using the two areas for the pictures, one area for journaling, and to use that specific border. Otherwise, we were free to do anything we want with the page - emboss, stamp, buttons, embellish, ink...

I wanted to create my page about what I'm passionate about. What I live for. What I can't imagine my life without...

First, I hardly get any pictures taken as I'm always the one behind the camera. So, I got my mom to do a photo shoot of me to capture that feeling of the page.

For my second image, I wanted to create a collage of photos that represent me. My family, my computer and camera, my Cricut, my espresso machine...

I decided to use pink, white and brown - my favorite color combination. I came across a perfect combination from the American Crafts metropolitan paper pack.

For the border, I decided to use two different ones, but in the same style. The first was the Annie's Edge (freebie from SVG Cuts). It occurred to me that if I weld these strips together, I can create the border that would qualify for the challenge. The second border was the Stitched Frame (another freebie from SVG Cuts), and cut this out a little smaller. I inked both of these frames with brown, and decided to use ribbon to actually stitch through the holes. For one border, I used pink ribbon, and just did a simple over and under stitch. The other border with a brown ribbon, I looped around the border. I made both stitching end at the bottom of the page, and tied into a ribbon and topped it with a pearl.

The title was stamped onto a vellum and also inked the edges. The journaling was done on a journaling stamp image, inked the edges, adhered onto a background cardstock with one edge having the Martha Stewart punched out border. I used eyelets for the holes, and embellished it a ribbon, prima flower and pearls.

I used daffodil frame (one more freebie) for my picture and added another border punch cutout on the bottom. I then made a windflower from SVG Flowers II Kit and adhered it where daffodil should go. I also inked the edges here, and added pearls and ribbons.

For my collage, I used the same Martha Stewart punch, but cut two, inked it and layered it and also used same embellishments.

I used pop-dots between the two borders to create more texture to the page, and the title and the journaling (added in white paper to the back of the vellum) was also adhered with pop-dots. I added in Making Memories tag "smile" embellished with a bow and pearls to complete the page.

Here's the completed page:

I think that this style of the layout, with these colors and embellishments, and the journaling, all define me.

Wish me luck :)

My friend Cely over at Creating in Carolina, has her first challenge going on and I decided to take a part in it.  For this contest, you need to use at least one of her wonderful SVGs to create a card.  She's got tons of great files, and she keeps inspiring us with creations she's made from them.  I love all her cut files, but chose her boutique and broom to create a witch house card to get myself in a Hallowe'en mood.  There's going to be two winners (one judged winner and one random winner) and will get a SVGCuts collection of their choice.  Here's my entry:

Wish me luck :)

I just finished my latest project for SVGCuts.com.  This time, I decided to use my new tool, the Cinch (it's awesome!) and make a book.  I'm so disorganized when it comes to remembering friends and families birthdays.  So - in hopes of being more efficient, I've decided to put together a book to keep all the special dates together.  I put in many hours of labor into this, probably making this the most elaborate project I've done.  However, I just love Mary's SVGs, I started cutting, and I wanted to include them all into my book. You can hopefully understand why I get so out of control when you see all her images!

So, here's the completed project:

For more detail on the specific collections used and the dimensions, please see SVGCuts blog.  Click here

I have put together a cheat sheet of all the recent SVG files from SVGCuts.com (all files from June 13, 2010).  I guess that I could have waited for 4 more files to make the page complete, but I just wanted it all in my hands now!  and I'm sure you do, too!  So, here it is - leave a message here with your e-mail address if you would like this sheet e-mailed to you. 

Here's the second creation of my mom's handbag series.  This is a smaller one - made from cotton fabric.  She put in interfacing between the layers to make the bag hold its shape, and I just love the way it turned out!  The flower is made from layers of handcut flowers, made stiffer by using cornstarch, and handcrumpled it to give it a natural look and was sewn together.  How cute it that???  I really think that she should start her own blog or her own store.  But for now, thanks mom - I LOVE the bag!

As for my project, it's about two thirds done - oh, can't wait to show you my newest project!!!

In Japan, it is part of the wedding decor to have a "welcome board" placed near the entrance or the reception. This is used to welcome the guests, and typically is made from a board/picture inside the frame/engaving on a mirror that has the groom and the bride's names, and the date of the wedding.

One of my close cousin in Japan asked me to make a "welcome board" for her big day. I was so thrilled to have this opportunity to do something special for her. I didn't want to do anything that had been done - I wanted mine to be different. I decided to make a wedding cake from round nesting cardboard boxes and satin fabric and ribbons.

I gathered some info about her wedding, like the colors and the style. I covered the round nesting boxes with ivory or espresso satin fabric, and decorated each layer of cake with yellow, ivory and tea green satin ribbons. I then used a rope-like ribbon to accentuate the bottom edges of each layer. The wedding info and "welcome" was printed onto a pearlized ivory cardstock and placed "welcome" in a heart tag using Making Memories tag maker. I also used the rope-like ribbon to give it a border. It still needed something... something to fluorish it with...

I hit Michael's the next day, and picked up some silk flowers and berries. I came home, decorated it, and I was really happy with the outcome. I purposely didn't attach each layer and was just stacked on top of each other, so it would be easy for me to nest those boxes inside each other to bring it to Japan. I also purchased a cake stand as well.

Here's how it looked at the wedding:

She loved it, and it was a beautiful wedding.

As I was cutting all my stuff on Cricut, I was losing patience watching all my beautiful cardstock gone to waste because of my old, dull, blade.  It would start cutting, and then it would tear and make the paper bunch up.  I didn't have any replacements on hand, and weather being so gloomy and rainy, there was no way I was going to take my 3 kids in the car to get a new blade.

Then it occurred to me that if I can sharpen a knife, why wouldn't I be able to do that with a Cricut blade?  I took the blade, ran it through the sharpening block just a few times and look at the difference:

I would recommend doing it only a few times, as doing too much would alter the length of the blade - and that would most likely create problems in setting the depth of the blade.  However, in the meantime, I do have 3 other dull ones - I'm going to pull all of them out and sharpen them before I decide to take my 3 kids out to buy a blade.

On one of the many daily deal sites that I visit, Crop Chocolate (https://www.cropchocolate.com) was looking for chocolatiers (designers) to design with their products. Their idea was to attach a picture of a project along with the product that they are selling, so that the scrapbooker would get inspired and would want to purchase that item. I sent my name in and I was picked! So what they sent me were these items:

I had two weeks to design and create something. Looking at those paper patterns, two images came to my mind - spring and princess. I also had recently purchase Once Upon A Princess Cricut Cartridge and I have not had time to play with it, so I decided to do the princess theme. Another decision maker was our recent trip to Tokyo Disneyland (in Japan) and we purchased a Minnie princess headband for our girl.

I was sent:

Making Memories Scrapbook Page kit (brooke)

- strawberries & cream textured cardstock for background

- brooke floral paper for the vine

- peapod velvet letters

- brooke gem stickers

Making Memories (note)worthy pastel paper pink flowers

pink and white ribbon

My additions:

more rhinestones and little glitter star embellishment

Cricut to cut princess (Once Upon A Princess) and oval, tiara (Storybook)

pop-dots

gold ink pad

corner punch

1. Printed my picture, cut it into oval through Cricut

2. Cut vine throught Cricut to surround my picture

3. Cut tiara on cricut big enough to place 'princess' letters, decorated with gem stickers

4. Cut princess on cricut, decorated with rhinestones

5. Corner punched my background cardstock and inked the edges

6. Ink-edged other pieces

7. Adhered my picture to the center of the page

8. Pop-dots to place vine around it, and princess on it (used glitter star for the wand)

9. Put the ribbon across the page, and used pop-dots to place the "princess" tiara

10. Placed flowers on some vines, and placed rhinestones in the middle.

Here's my final picture of what it looked like:

Close up (I love the 3-D effect):

Then I decided to enter my layout to the Cricut Customer Project Spotlight - and I won!!!!

I was featured in their Cricut Chirp Newletter on April 27, 2010. http://www.cricut.com/newsletters/volume.aspx?ID=250

I won a Cricut cartridge and I chose Create a Critter. Let's see what I can make now.

My son is 7, and we recently bought him a stitched dinosaurs duvet cover. The duvet cover is beautiful, and very simple. I knew that the wall decor had to have the clean, modern look to bring out this duvet cover.

Using the Cricut and SCAL once again, I used the Ding-O-Saurs font to cut white vinyl. I was happy with all the details on these dinosaurs. I also cut small dinosaurs out from 6 different shades of green cardstock and using pop-dots, aligned them in a shadow box frame. Voila!

My son loved how his room looked!