New Baby Book

Friends of ours are expecting their second baby and I made them a baby book to record all those miraculous first-year milestones. I was excited to find the album at ACMoore on deep clearance, so I brought it home and promptly took it apart to recover it. I used spray adhesive to adhere the new papers and sanded the edges for a better fit. Almost all the papers are from the new Songbird stack from DCWV - very cute. It's feminine, but not too girly. I think it turned out very cute and hope they enjoy it a lot. On the inside pages, the only real Cricut cut I used was for the names of the months (Designer's Calendar cartridge).

I had lots of little pieces left over after the album was completed, so I made some cute cards and gave them to our church card ministry to use. What a great stack of paper!

Fun with Cosmo Cricket

Cosmo Cricket has introduced several fun new lines. The colors are bright and the themes and patterns are just plain FUN! I picked up some double sided papers and the chipboard sheet (self-adhesive!) last week at Scrapdoodles in Fredericksburg and have had a blast playing with combining the patterns and oh-so-cute chipboard pieces. Here are 3 layouts I completed.
For the scalloped edge, I used my small circle punch to punch out starbursts from the "Sunday Picnic" paper and adhered them behind the border sheet.

Don't you love the e-i-e-i-0 border?

I had to use the chipboard chickies on a layout and figured our Easter egg hunt was an appropriate topic. I just cut skinny strips of paper and wove them in one corner to carry out the basket theme.

Check out the Cosmo Cricket blog for more great ideas with this line!

Templates from Crafter's Workshop

Thanks Scrapdoodles for giving me the opportunity to play around with some new 12x12 templates from The Crafter's Workshop . Here are some of the layouts I designed using the "Flower Shower" template. I used my stamping ink for each, but in different ways. I think the "Oh So Pretty" layout is my favorite - I used a makeup sponge with the inks. I put the template on white cardstock when I wiped it off using a baby wipe to see what kind of water-color type effect I could get, and that resulted in the background for the "Friends" layout. The winter layout was made with my white opaque ink and a dauber. The templates are fun to experiment with - see lots more ideas on The Crafter's Workshop website.

Spring Has Sprung!

I picked up some beautiful new papers at my LSS, Scrapdoodles, this past week with these photos of Hannah enjoying a beautiful spring day in mind. Scrapdoodles also happens to have a blog challenge going - to use a banner on a layout. I think banners are so fun! I've actually used them on 3 layouts since I saw the challenge last week, but this one is by far my favorite. I can't show the others yet because they are for a "super secret" project I'm working on - let's just say that project is 44 pages and counting! The papers I used here are from BasicGrey - the line is called "green at heart." I love the purple/green combination. The new Cricut cart "Tie the Knot" has this layered, scallop banner. Too Cute~

Scrapdoodles Layouts

I am excited to be a new Design Team member at Scrapdoodles in Fredericksburg! I went in to the store on Friday to pick out some of their new papers to play with. I chose the Dear Lizzy "Spring" line and some fun SEI "Happy" papers. I was also able to pick up a keychain chipboard album from Maya Road. I used the chipboard separately on a couple of the pages below. It was lots of fun to play with these new lines. Be sure to stop by Scrapdoodles if you live locally and see all the new products coming in.

Birthday Coffee

It's my birthday today and my fabulous hubby surprised me with a new single cup brewer. It's wonderful and it provided me with a great photo and layout idea that was perfect for Scrapdoodles first ever blog challenge. The challenge called for using some sort of household icons. I used paper from DCWV's Nana's Kitchen pack as a background and for some of the embellishments. I spelled out coffee with Don Juan letters and used Ashlyn's Alphabet for the coffee pot. Now I'm off to brew another cup - yummy!

Another Challenge at Practical Scrappers

I just had to double up this week at Practical Scrappers. The Challenge this week was to use a die cut. I already had made this cute turkey and squirrel back at Thanksgiving. I used the Stretch Your Imagination cart to make these cute cuts. Hannah wore the turkey headband during dinner. I saved it so I could use it to scrap a page for Thanksgiving. When I saw the Friday sketch, I decided the layout would be perfect for a quick Thanksgiving page. Gobble Gobble!

Practical Scrappers Sketch Challenge

Visit Practical Scrappers to see some great inspiration! The Friday Sketch inspired this layout of our Happy Hannah.

TIRE layout

I had this photo from last summer's trip to Wisconsin waiting to scrap. When I saw the challenge sketch on another blog (I can't remember which one!) I knew this photo would be perfect. It was a sketch from several weeks ago.

Another Diaper Cake

I just finished another diaper cake for a baby shower. I love making these for friends and family. I think they turn out so cute and diapers are always a great gift. I mean, you can always use a few extra diapers, right? Everything was cut with the New Arrival cart except for the butterfly - I used the Hannah Montana cart.

New Layouts and Practical Scrappers Challenge

I was in a scrappy mood the last few days. Here's a few of the layouts I completed... This week at Practical Scrappers the challenge was to use at least 2 patterned papers. Can I just say I love patterned paper???? The "1st Teeth" layout uses 3 patterned papers.

Cute Giraffe Baby Shower Invites

My niece is having a baby boy and I made the shower invitations. My first design had more animals, but I realized they would be too time-consuming to make 50 of them, so I simplified the design. I think they turned out so cute! I used MS Word to create the "baby shower" background sheet. The cute giraffe is from New Arrival.

Pretty Baby Book

I just finished this pretty baby book for a friend and thought I would share...

Christmas projects

Here's a couple of things I've been working on.

First, an advent calendar. I bought the kit/frame last year on clearance.I also used my Cricut to create a little nativity play set for my daughter. I used Paper Doll Dress Up and laminated the characters and put magnets on the back so she can play with them on the refridgerator.

Challenge x3

Practical Scrappers hosted a "Tri-Challenge" this week with two other sites: Frosted Designs and Stuck On U Sketches. It was fun to try to combine all three challenges into one layout. The challenges were 1: use 3 ribbons, 2: use an owl, and 3: use this week's sketch. Even better, by participating in all three and posting to all three sites, there may be a prize. I really like the combination of patterned papers I used (DCWV Fall Stack). The owl is from the Wild Cards cartridge and Autumn came from Stretch Your Imagination. The large mat is from the new Winter Woodland cartridge. I turned the sketch on its side for my layout. Here's the original.

Final Order!

It was a great mailbox day yesterday! A letter arrived from the courthouse which read, in part, "...the Court being satisfied that all the requirements of law have been met and that the best interests of the child will be served thereby, doth now by this Final Order of Adoption. DECLARE, ADJUDGE and DECREE that the child, Hannah Marie Hunter, is henceforth to all intents and purposes the child of David A. Hunter and Karen A. Hunter..." It was signed by the judge and we are so thankful and excited! I choke up just re-reading those words. I am so grateful to God and all the people He put in place to make this happen. Our girl is ours in every way.

Punch Challenge

Practical Scrappers this week challenged us to use our punches. I used my Creative Memories paisley punch on a birthday banner project. I embellished each letter with a paisley. On the "35th" part I made a flower with 5 paisleys and a circle punch. I also used my scalloped edge punch for the borders. The foundation circles are from Mini Monograms cart and all letters/numbers are from Don Juan. I attached them with folded paper scraps. The papers are from My Mind's Eye.

FaithKeeping

Hey Redeemer Friends - here is our next FaithKeeping Project! I hope you can join us on November 21st, 1pm-4pm in Redeemer's Fellowship Hall. This is a fun little project. If you want to add photos like I did, come prepared with small photos of things you are thankful for. I put my photos into a Word document, resized them to 1 or 2 inches, and printed them out on a sheet of photo paper. This is a great project to record your most treasured blessings this year.

Office Supplies

Practical Scrappers this week suggested using office supplies in a layout. I love office supplies and any scrapper should know that some of the same embellishments can be found in the aisles of your local office supply store for half the cost as your local scrapbook store - colored staples, fun paper clips, plastic, corrugated cardboard, pens, and inks, to name just a few. Back to school time is a great time to find serious bargains that can be used on pages. My layout includes staples, notebook-look paper (though I used a Cricut cut), and I was inspired by office tags. I hope you like it - I love the way it turned out!

Numbers...

Bitten by the Bug is hosting another challenge. This time Regina asked us to use number(s) in our layouts. I came up with two that I like. Of course my subject is my Hannah and I used my Cricut - Graphically Speaking mostly. Ten toes is my favorite. Enjoy!