Love me some Hopscotch!

These last couple weekends I have been blessed to get away for 2 different scrapbook retreats and oh what fun it is!  I love it when I have 2 - 3 full fledged days to scrapbook, laugh, eat and not sleep the weekends away! :)

During these trips I was able to play with our new Hopscotch papers that are in our Seasonal Expressions catalog and let me say - I am in love!.  They are so playful and colorful!  So many possibilities!!! These papers are only available until the end of March so even if you can't join us for the workshop, and you love the papers, don't wait, order your papers and embellishments now before they are gone.

The workshop is coming up quickly so plan now! Join me February 7th, 1-4pm at my home to create these fun layouts.

There are two workshop options:

• Basic Workshop for $30
• Full Workshop Kit for $42

Workshop kits will include:

*

* Basic workshop does not include the stamp set shown above

Sign up to join me for the workshop using the link to the right. You must sign up by Jan 29th to guarantee your spot!  See you there!

Having fun "This Moment"

The other day I had one of those rare moments where I wasn't called into 5 different directions and I had some play time in my office.  I pulled this months stamp of the month - This Moment and decided to get creative.   Sometimes it is fun to have no plans in mind but just to see what you can do.  Here's a couple of the cards I was able to create.

I cut the frog using our New Artfully Sent pocket card. I hate waste so wanted to create with both the negative and the positive.  For both the eyes in card 1 and the pumping heart in card 2 I used the fun Adhesive Springs (Z1725).  I love how the target/bulls eye worked perfectly for the eyes and heart.

This stamp set is only $5 with your $50 purchase this month only so get yours today. 

Yuletide Carol Memories

I absolutely love Christmas - everything about it! The whole month of December is spent baking cookies, decorating the house and the tree and buying presents for family and friends. I love the act of really thinking about people and their heart and buying presents for each person based on who they are not just buying presents to give presents. But most of all, I love watching my kids do the same thing. They each love to think of the best thing they can make or purchase for each person. Many times they don't stop at immediately family either, they love to get the perfect something for their aunts and grandparents too!  It is awesome to watch their excitement on Christmas morning as they refuse to open their own gifts and they fight over who gets to GIVE their gifts first. I guess if you have to hear your kids argue - that's the best argument you can hear!  

If you are like me you take 250+ pictures at Christmas and then struggle to figure out how to scrapbook them all. I have decided that scrapbooking them ALL isn't a good idea or everyone gets bored really quickly looking through your album because they are all about the same event :) But I do enjoying creating several layouts to celebrate each occasion when we celebrate the Season of My Saviors birth with both sides of our family.

Join me January 31st for my Yuletide Carol Scrapbooking Workshop. We will be meeting at the Winchester Bldg in Spring Hill. We will create both the layouts shown above and one more original layout that will house several small pictures. 

Workshop attendees will receive the items shown here:

Their are two different workshop options to choose from. Both will have all the papers pre-cut and ready for assembly but the Better workshop includes the above exclusive coordinating stamp set with the kit.

You must register by January 10th for your items to arrive in time so click the link to the right and save your spot for this fun workshop to preserve this years favorite Christmas memories.

New Year and Old Paper = New Start

It's a new year, and if your are like me, your thinking of all the things you want to accomplish this year. All the things that I didn't accomplish last year and that I am going to try harder to accomplish this year.

Two things that I want to accomplish this year is to use up lots of my old scraps and to pay off some of our family debt. One of the ways I chose to accomplish this is by creating some cash folders for my wallet.

Using our Artiste Cricut Cartridge, I cut out file folder envelopes with some of our retired paper - Cherry-O.  These will allow me to put my cash inside but easily remove it from my wallet and not have to deal with a small opening.  I chose this paper, not just because I had lots of scraps but because the colors reminded me of  Valentines day.  If you are like me, you have lots of scrap paper and can change these out with the seasons.  To help the folders last longer, you can cover both sides with Contact paper and score down the middle where the fold is.  

What are your plans for the new year?  I would love to see your paper creations with old and new paper. 

Rudolph Says Merry Christmas!

I am sure none of you are like me but it seems like my brain has left me recently, leaving me to forget everything until the last minute or not at all.

As we all know Christmas is coming soon - and I mean soon!  Since we homeschool that typically means we don't have the normal school parties and craziness most families go through. However, since we are involved in two tutorials that changes things a bit.  I had been working on the teachers gifts and was about done when the kids asked me what they were giving their friends - their friends!  Augh! I totally forgot!   Luckily my two youngest are still pretty young and I was able to throw these gifts together uber quickly!

To make the heads I used the Artiste Cricut Cartridge and cut out the Owl head. I placed a circle in the bottom of the owl and sliced it out.  The "antlers" are the branches from a tree on the Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge.

Dash loved hammering in the embellishments for the eyes while

Tinker Bell added googly eyes to her Rudolph

I thought they turned out pretty cute for being so simple and coming together so fast.  Give it a try and see what you can create out of the ordinary with our cartridges.  The options are endless!  Don't forget to share what you create!

Making Gifts with Close to My Heart

As I recently told you, I got the new Cricut Explore and have been playing as much as I can. I had some Christmas gifts that I was wanting to create and thought the Explore would come in mighty handy and it did! 

Here is my most recent creation. I used Close to My Heart's Magnetic Chalk Board to create this fun Verse of the Week frame.  I love how it turned out and hope to make a few more as Menu boards too!  The frame is perfect as it is very elegant and the color can be easily changed with a can of spray paint if you don't like the red or it won't blend with your decor.  The board itself is (as the name describes :)) a magnetic chalk board giving it endless uses.  Love that!

I would love to see some of your recent creations!  Please share!

Pathfinding the weekend away

Yesterday I told you about our amazing retreat in AL but I also told you that we created a different workshop each day.  I wanted to show you two of our other workshops that we created. Both were created with the Pathfinding papers and Complements on the workshop  from Close to My Heart.

These cards were created using the new Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge. This cartridge is super easy to work with and creates so many cute interactive cards, tags and Picture My Life cards too!  I love the versatility of it and did I tell you they are SUPER CUTE too!?!

Here are two of the cards we created:

These cards were again, super easy to cut out with the new cricut. We just added some Shimmer Trim, embellishments and bling and were able to make really make these cards pop!  The picture definitely does not do them justice but... trust me they are cute!

Here is the layout we created to commemorate the weekend but also could be used for your Thanksgiving pictures too.

This layout idea was not my own but from another consultant, Dana Kessler.  She did such a great job that I just had to recreate it for our weekend.

 I hope you enjoy these Pathfinding projects and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Take lots of pictures and recreate this layout for you scrapbook. These are the moments that our scrapbooks are made of.