September through December

Whew - my 2009 calendar is now complete. And what fun I had designing and putting this together. Needless to say, I saved all my files for future re-makes. And I had an epiphany this morning too. When a month is over - don't throw the calendar page away - use it for a month themed layout. Viola! the calendar will now serve a dual purpose. How great is that?!?

For these pages I used the following carts:

Paper Pups

Stretch Your Imagination

Pooh and Friends

Graphically Speaking

Making the Grade

Zooballoo

I also used a leaf punch that came with one of my many kits last year.

Oh, after completing this project I came to another conclusion. While the 5 1/4" tall pages work great and fit in the case individually - they do not allow for the page holder to recline enough when all pages are lying in the tray with only one month displayed. So for my next calendar I think I'll scale back to a 5" tall page and see how that works. But then again I might decide what the heck and leave well enough alone.......

May through August

Last night I was able to complete the next four months of my calendar. I didn't like the way June was turning out and scrapped what I had to start all over again. Then I realized that I was trying too hard to make the month look "pretty" when what it needed was to look masculine. And thus I was able to get over my little slump and get through these months.

For these four months I used the following carts:

Happily Ever After

Making the Grade

Graphically Speaking

Paper Doll Dress Up

Zooballoo

Locker Talk

CD Calendar for 2009

This is a project inspired by one I saw on the Cricut message boards a couple weeks ago. And since Thursday was the last day of my vacation I decided to sit down and give it a try.

With everything else going on - family in town, all the kids out of school, etc., etc. - I was only able to get the first four months completed......

For this project I used a regular CD case (not the slimline). All pages are cut to 4 5/8" by 5 1/4". So far I have used the following cartridges:

Graphically Speaking

Pooh & Friends

Paper Pups

Making the Grade

Stretch Your Imagination

Mickey & Friends

Doodlecharms

Rouse House

This was inspired by the January issue of Scrapbooks, etc. magazine which spotlighted a project for making a 'house' out of foam core board. So I spent part of my day today scraplifting this project and turning it into one of my own. The original directions can be found on the Scrapbooks, etc. website.

For my house I did not have access to a copy machine in order to enlarge the templates. However, I enlarged the pdf file to 125% and set my print options to print on borderless paper. Once printed I then measured the diagrams and drew them out on the foam core board for cutting.

I also used the following carts:

Accent Essentials for the picture frames (Accent 47 at 1.5"), rug (Accent 5 stretched to measure approx. 3"x4"), and the trim on the roof (4" and 4.5")

Happily Ever After for the chair (2.5" cut twice - one in blackout and one layer - for the back of chair and pieces. The pieces were then glued to other paper and cut to include 'tabs' for creating the dimension)

Paper Pups for the puppy cut at 1"

Making the Grade for the Rouse verbiage - R cut at 1" and the "ouse" were welded together to create the size needed.

The book on the chair was a piece of foam core board cut and covered with scrap paper.

First Christmas Layout

So Christmas is behind us and now it's time to start scrapping all the pics that were taken. Question is where do I start? Especially since I haven't done a layout in months - it's all been card making. And truth be told I still have a card or two that needs to be made for some upcoming birthdays.

Anyhow, I sat down today and just started creating a layout with Santa and a tree. As time went on it evolved into what is now the final product. For this layout I used Paper Dolls Dress Up and Christmas Solutions.

PPDU: Santa cut at 4" for the white portions of his outfit I painted with a white metallic paint and sprinkled with white glitter while it was still wet

Tree cut at 6" and decorated with lights and metallic dots

Solutions: Window was modified to create a 3.5" wide and 3" tall window. The snowflakes and snowman are buttons that I picked up at Walmart

Christmas Carousel

Last year one of the ladies on the Cricut message boards posted this wonderful carousel that she had created with whimsical reindeer and santa. It was such a great idea that I had to save the directions for the day when I owned the cartridge she used. Well this Christmas I have that cartridge but went for a different look all together.

For this project I used the Christmas solutions cartridge and cut the sleigh and reindeer at 2". The scallops are from Accent Essentials cut at 3/4" and 1".

The posts are wooden dowels that were cut to size and then 'painted' with my silver ink pad. The center post has metal dots adhered to it to give the effect/feel of the lights that are normally on the carousel.

Mrs. Potts Birthday Wishes

This is the second of the three cards that my sister needed for today. This particular card she needed to coincide with the "tea" theme she had going on for the recipient's gift basket she put together. So I thought what better than Mrs. Potts and Chip from Beauty and the Beast.

This was a very simple, clean card but I think that lends to the overall look. The colors of which are more vibrant in real life, but it turned out well and my sister was delighted with the results.