Polk-A-Dot Scrapper

Gift Card Holder

Ok, so I really hate those boring gift card holders that you get at the store.  I also just didn't feel like buying a box of cards to only give out 5 because we're putting a gift card inside, so I decided to make my own.  Well, all the ideas on pinterest and I just oculdn't make a decision.  I didn't want just a tag with the card in it.  I didn't like the cards with the holder on the front, because we all know teenagers aren't opening the card if the cash is on the front.  So, I decided on a normal A2 size card and I found an insert in the Silhouette store and cut it down to fit.  So the pictures were quick that I took with my cell phone, it was midnight after all an I needed to be at work this morning, but ya'll get the idea.

Supplies - 

MFT Fishtail Stax Dienamics 

Jillian Vance - Polka Dot Rectangle Backdrop Die

Pink Stamper - A Punny-licious Chriastmas

Stampin Up Key Tag Punch (Retired)

Silhouette Design Studio and Printed Burlap

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas every where I go, LOL!!!  Yes,  it truely is entirely too early to be talking about the subject of Christmas, BUT, I did get a few gifts completed for this year while I was watching my Redskins win yesterday.  This will be a long blog post full of pictures and  a little tutorial. 

PRINTED BURLAP!!! How cool is that! A sign printed on burlap and framed! Talk about cute and cheap!!! Quick tutorial...Open Silouette studio:

Pick the font that you want and start typing.  Center your phrase where you want it on the page.  Be sure to also set your paper size to the size of the paper that's in  your printer.  I used regular letter size.   Use the fill color (the bucket) option found at the top of the screen to fill the font with a color, I chose black.  The flourish was purchased from the Silouette Store and I used the same fill feature to fill it in red.

This is the brand of burlap that I used. I picked it up at AC Moore.  I cut it down to 8^1/2 x 10^1/2 and taped it with painters tape to a piece of white cardstock, but you could use any color, just whatever is laying aorund.  I put it in the printer tray and printed it from the Silhouette Studio.  No registration marks, just print with your default settings.

A few Tips:

1) Iron the burlap.  It comes on a role so after you cute the peice that you're going to use (I got 2 8x10 signs out of one roll) turn you iron on to the highest setting and just keep it moving aorund until the creases come out.  

2) Make sure it's taped to the cardstock especially if there is a stubborn crease.  The crease will get stuck in your printer and make the ink run.  

3) After you tape it be sure to cut off any stragling pieces so they do not get stuck in the printer and cause a jam.

4) You can use regular scotch tape, but I found that the painters tape held better in the printer.

Here's the finished product.  I haven't found a frame I liked so it's not framed yet.

Super easy and cheap!! I can't wait to frame it!

Addition to the Copic coloring book

A quick addition to the Copic coloring book that I made yesterday...I added a file folder to the back to make a pocket for the copic color chart! Now the whole books doesn't have to go to the store when buying new markers. I also added a piece is transparency film that can be taken out and placed behind the page that's being colored so there are no bleeding issues. I snapped a quick pic with my phone. It turned out great so I had to share. Enjoy!

Scrapping Away!!

Spent the entire weekend with some great ladies!!!  I was back at the Easterover Retreat Center to get some pages done.  I"ll be posting some gradually over the next few days.  But first is my favorite page of the weekend.  I used the Silhouette for the number and banner.  The footballs are washi tape by Queen and Company.  The sentiments came from the Paper Smooches Sugar Rush Stamp set. 

 

Super Fast Post

Just a quick second to post a couple more layouts from my trip. 

My Silhouette got a work out on these two layouts.  I just love that machine.  I also can't get enough of the Lawn Fawn stamps and dies.  The Giraffe on the journal block is from the Lawn Fawn Critters on the Savanna set and there are matching dies available.  I'm now on the hunt for the new Lawn Fun Summer release of stamps and dies.  I will be contacting my LSS this week to see if they have them. 

Have a great weekend everyone!!

Recipe Swap

So, as you remember from a previous post (which you can find here) I was involved in a recipe swap while I was in Surry Va at the Eastover Baptist Retreat Center.  There were 17 cards total so I'm super excited to have a bunch of new recipes to try.  Of course I had to alphabatize them because I'm a little OCD, HA!!  Anywho, I used the 8x8 page protectors from We R Memory Keepers for the pages and the 9x9 chipboard from Zutter.  I have found that the 9x9 chipboard is better for the 8x8 pages.  It just seems to cover the pages better.  To cover the book board, you know the fun part, I used the new Jinger Adams Sweet Tart paper pack.  The paper pack also came with chipboard titles and cardstock tags.  The delicious title on the front is one of the chipboard titles.  The cherry pies were cut using the Silhouette and popped up using foam dots.  The design is Sweetie Pie by PPbN Designs and available in the Silhouette Store.  The cardstock title on the inside of the book is one of the cardstock tags.  For the lined card that I will write the date and the name of the retreat on, I used one of the pre-cut cardstock sheets from the Jade Project Life cardstock pack and stamped it with Cornish Heritage Farms Lined Paper stamp.  I die cut the edge with the My Favorite Things Notebook Edge Die.  I binded the book using my Cinch.  It was super easy and so much fun.  I hadn't made a book in a while, so it was nice to do something a little different.

Eastover Baptist Retreat Center

What a great weekend away.  I spent it with 26 lovely ladies at the Eastover Baptist Retreat Center in Surry, VA.  The drive from my house was 5 hours, but it was well worth it and I think Mom and I have decided that it will be a yearly event.  So for Mom it was camping, for everyone else, not so much.  Yes we were in the woods, all the the way in the woods. No TV, no wifi (unless you had verizon hotspot) and limited cell service.  Thankfully I have Verizon so we were ok.  We rented a mini-van because we thought we needed to bring everything under the sun for 4 days of cropping with no store within 45 minutes of the retreat center, but it was worth all the packing. I finally got started on scrapbooking the pictures from Disney.  I have a bunch but I finished the majority of my Animal Kingdom Pictures.  Here are a few of the layouts.

My Cricut and Silhouette got a workout over the weekend.  I also managed to use up the Zoo paper from Creative Memories, I had 2 packs of that.  I also used up a few packs of old stickers I had laying around in my stash.  My goal over the weekend was to use up a few things and to use some new things that I had purchased.  I did use my new Lawn Fawn Critters on the Savanna stamps and the matching dies.  They were a ton of fun to color with my Copics. I also got to use my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher that I purchased from Scrapdoodles a few months ago.  The girls in the store were hilarious, they said that having the tiny attacher would be life changing. Well....I LOVE IT!!! I used it a lot over the weekend and it will be a "staple" for sure in my stash now, HA!!!

Recipe Card

So excited to finally make something, WOOHOO!!! So I'm taking part in a recipe card swap while I'm on a retreat.  So I picked a recipe by Rachel Ray.  I have her new book 365 recipes and drinks by her and her hubby.  Yeah, I love it!!!  So, since the recipe is for crab cakes I went with an underwater theme for the recipe cards.  I used the Cricut for the seaweed.  The tall piece is from the Lifes a Beach Cartridge and the smaller one is from Create a Critter.  The sand came from the Miss Kates Cuttables file Beach Day.  The large crabs came from the Silhouette Design Studio Crabby Word Image Set.  I deleted the word crabby and just kept the crab.  The smaller crabs are a Martha Stewart Crab Punch.  The little sea shells are a punch from the dollar spot in JoAnns.  All of the cardstock is also from JoAnns with the exception of the white.  The cardstock came in a pack called Minty Fresh, I really like all the colors together.  The sand is Krafty cardstock. Oh and I couldn't resist googly eyes on the crabs.

They CYC Design Team is ready for fall and winter

Sorry for the delay, but here is this month's CYC Design Team project.  This time I did a 12x12 layout.  Our challenge this month was a Winter or Fall project using the CYC Back to school stamp set. The idea came from my best friend.  She always takes her kids to the library to get books so I came wup with Winter Storytime. 

For this project I used 12x12 white cardstock. The silhouette cut the Winter title and the snowflakes on the 2nd page, Thickers were used for Storytime.  The small snowflakes came from a Martha Stewart and Creative Memories punches.  I used the Fall into a Good Book CYC stamp on the large snowflake on the 2nd page and the mat for the picture on the first page. The sparkles all came from silver stickles. The large snowflack on the 2nd page is really 2 snoflakes on top of each other.  I decided to cut two of them stickle them both and then pop dot one on the top for extra dimension. 

Don't forget to check out the other fabulous ladies on the design team for their super cute projects this month.

 

Heather - http://heatherettes.blogspot.com/

Lynda - http://blossomingbutterflycreations.blogspot.com/

Carol - http://lifecreativewithcarol.blogspot.com/