Lesson Plan Book Layout

I like to decorate my lesson plan book each school year and this time around I did a fun playground inspired theme. I couldn't bring myself to make a traditional school playground, I wanted a little taste of home. I grew up around cornfields and I pass some on the way to work so I had to have a field behind a fence. My parents had a tire swing when my children were small and we shared lots of giggles and family time on the swing. When I found the tree and swing on Pop-up Neighborhood I knew the layout for my planning book.

All the cuts are from Pop-up Neighborhood except for the school year numbers and the little dude gliding down the slide. The numbers are from Nifty Fifties cart and the little dude is from Winter Frolic (he's supposed to have some skis!)

I used some real twine salvaged from some rustic packaging and and untwisted the ends to make the hair/fringe on my sliding dude.

The same twine was used for the rope on the tire swing.
The yellow corn stalks are cut from bazzil paper, black and silver slide from my stash and the scarecrow and boy's clothes are from scrap stash.

The rest of the paper was My Minds Eye. I slicked up the tire swing with some Viva decor and added grass tufts with a green viva pearl pen. I get a nice happy feeling when I see the layout and hope it will serve to make me smile during the hectic school days to come!

Circle Monthly Challenge

This month for the circle the challenge was to make something for travel...I used an old baking cookie sheet and used the doodle charms cart to create a magnetic backgammon game.

My sister and her family will be moving from MA to MN and I thought this would be a good game to have in the car. I just returned from a trip out east and I know they will be driving cross country so my plan is to mail the game pieces (nice and flat!) and they supply the dice. And yes, I know they have some spare dice because I picked them up and told them to same it for the car ride! I used doodle charms to make a summer themed backgammon board. I use Maya Mist to create the game board on the back of an old cookie sheet and the cart Doodle Charms to make the game pieces. The watermelon and flower were cut at .98 for height and 1.24 width. For both game pieces (flower and watermelon) I used paper from Archiver's dollar spot scrap pack. To create the flower I sent the center layer through the cuttle bug useing the swiss dots folder. The watermelon seeds were made using Viva decor pearl pen dark brown. The magnet was cut using the blackout feature and I had a large selection of thing magnet sheets from a promotion. The gypsy was very handy to plot where to cut the images. the end result are some lovely game pieces that could also be used as tick-tack-toe game pieces or even checkers (but I am not sure how to "king" a piece).

I painted the cookie sheet on the parts where the magnets would not be placed for any long period of time so the paint wouldn't be hampering the adheasion. I thought magnets would be best for traveling in case of running over bumps in the road and the pieces would stay in place.

Valentines

I've been crafting, really I have! I just don't always post that quickly...so I made a few Valentines this weekend but of course I couldn't post in case my loved ones saw them before receiving the cards!

This first card was made using the guidelines for the Cricut Circle blog weekly challenge-use a heart, embossing and two cricut cuts. The shaped card is actually white card stock. Most of my photos are taken at night, I know it should be in the real sunshine of the day, but really?! I work during the sunlight hours so crafting occurs at night and thus picture taking is at night. Back to the card...I used the cheap card stock found in the office supplies and cut the heart shape with the cricut Wild Cards cart. Then I embossed the top of the card using the floral folder that came with my cuttlebug, and nope, there never was a name listed (or I didn't see it in my excitement of opening the gift at Christmas!) Next I used some colored twine to stitch around the heart (the holes were there from the cut!). Then on the wild card cart I found the hugs and kisses sentiment, cut that out of the white scraps. Adhered the hugs and kissed to a heart cut out from Wild Cards using shiny red paper from my scrap stash, popped up the heart with some 3m dimensionals and you see the results! The white "stitching" on the red heart is drawn with the white signo pen

Okay this card the color is really off! The embossed background is actually a light blush, pinkish color, and shiny. The paper is from my scrap stash (most of my paper was given to me from a card making friend who inherited it from a thankful parent of a student). I embossed the blush paper with the Persia Die/Embossing combo (the folder part of couse!) The layered cut is from one of my newest carts, Groovy Times. I just love that cart and have more fun looking at the book than creating (well that will change as I use it!) All the papers are from my scrap stash (I have a lot of scrap paper!) The ribbon was from some packaging, and the white stitching was part of the ribbon. In all a fun card with out any investiment! (other than time and cricut machine materials!)

Okay so now for this third card. The black background paper is Coredinations black magic.

I used the argyle cuttlebug folder and lightly sanded the black layer. I actually did this background piece to show my DS's girlfriend how the cuttlebug works. Being the paper horder I am, I saved the sample and used it to make this card. The cuts are several from Groovy Times and the paper is all from my (yep, you guessed it!) scrap stash! The silver letters that say Stay Cool are "shined" up with a bit by drawing small curved lines with the a light blue colored Viva Decor Pearl pen. The sunglasses have a bit of glossy shine from a clear Viva Decor pen.

And here is a photo attempt to show the dimension the viva decor paints have and maybe a bit lighter look to the card!

My son loved the card because it wasn't girly at all, and he had a pair of silver rimmed glasses just like those!

Shadow Box Decoration

I had fun making my first ever shadow box.  It was made to be a gift for a ladies dinner Christmas party where we play a game and the gift recipient is a surprise.  The frame/box was purchased at Craft's Direct (Waite Park, MN).  I wish the details of the items inside showed up in the picture but alas, this is all my limited photography skills could accomplish.  The snowflake tags were cut with the Very Merry Tags cartridge using the light blue glitter coredinations card stock.  The tags were shadowed with plain white paper.  The silver metallic ribbon is from Stampin' up.  The snowflakes were pop-dotted with stampin up dimensionals. The snow for the ground/background is the same blue glitter coredinations ripped to give it an uneven edge.  The pattern paper for the top of the background is from my paper stash. The snowmen are from Snow Friends cut out using white glittered coredinations.  I stamped the faces using peachykeen basic paperdoll face stamps.   The scarves are pop dotted (each of the two layers).  The goldenrod is cut from bazzil card stock and run thru the cuttlebug using the swiss dots folder.  The red and green scarves are from my Christmas scraps of paper purchased last year at Target.  The finished snowpeople were double popped using stampin' up dimensionals.  The dark blue vinyl was adhered to the out side of the shadow box using cricut vinyl and the let it snow phrase is from Christmas Cards cartridge.

Cricut Circle Blog

I have been trying to catch up reading my favorite blogs and was so excited to discover the launch of the Cricut circle blog!  They are open to all viewers but will close it to circle members only in a couple weeks, so head on over quick to take a look.  While there I found a challenge to try (open to members only) so had to give it a go!  Here is my 8 by 8 layout using cuts from the Cricut French Manor cartridge.
The papers are from Creating Keepsakes All in One scrapbooking kit, with the exception of the solid pink.  That is from a card stock pack I purchased at Target.  I used my gypsy to size the scalloped square to be 7 1/2 inches. The cut is found with the Tag 1 feature and shift/lock key.  The oval tag layers to be 2 inches by 3 1/4 inches (used hide contour to delete the two holes) for the pink shadow layer and the pattered layer was 1 3/4 by 2 3/4 inches.  The oval is found with the layer function.  I inked the pink paper edges with Color Box fluid chalk - creamy brown.  The green gems in the corners are from Imaginisce attached with the i-rock tool.  The clear crystal gems on the oval are also from Imaginisce.  The pink flourish is cut from the Cricut French Manor Cartridge.  The vintage lace is from a stash I received from my grandmother.

Creations with Christine Card Challenge #1

Saturday, Oct. 2 was World Card Making day...so I had to join in some challenges.  Here is my take on a card sketch from Creations with Christina.
The white snowflake and tag are from my paper stash, it actually has a slight shimmer to it, and they are adhered with stampin up dimensionals.  The rest of the paper is from Kaiser Craft, the Be Merry Collection.  The snowflake is cut using the Cricut  Christmas Noel cartrige and tag is from Very Merry Tags.

Menard's Cricut Cartridge haul!

Really, I bought three cartridges for my cricut at Menards!!

Cricut Circle

Yippee!  My first circle package with a cart arrived on Thursday.  I was so busy with school preperations that I didn't have lots of time to play and post.  Here's a picture of the goodies inside.

And the first thing I made was a 3 by 3 inch calling card to trade with other circlets at different events.  I used the card feature on the French Manor cart and with  my gypsy sized it so just the fleur de lis with the frame was a three inch square.  I cut the image out of pink glitter paper by colorbok.  The green base was white glossy paper scraps that I sprayed with Maya Mist color emerald metalic.  After spraying the paper I blotted it with a paper towel to give it the marbled look.  I printed from the computer my info (name, email, address) and cut a 3 by 3 square around the info and glued the  paper to the back.  I made several cards and had them ready for the My Pink Stamper class in Waite Park on Saturday.  I am glad I had at least 6 cards made because I met some circlets at the class!

Welcome Banner

I made a banner that says "Welcome" to display at my school.  I wanted to hang it in the hallway (students start after labor day) but didn't have the heart to do it the day the custodian finished washing the walls!  I'll hang it next week.  I tried to get a picture of the whole banner as it was out on the circulation desk.  I took a close up of one of the pennants so you can see the detail.  Okay, so for the "recipe" to this project...I used my gypsy and the base (yellow) was cut on a 12 x 24 mat.  Only four fit on a mat, cut at 9 inches high.  The yellow paper is laminated bulletin board paper (it's very thin and tears in the cricut if it isn't laminated).
The red scalloped ovals are scalloped circles from Mini Monograms with some changes to the size.  I had to unlink the width and height button and make the width narrow to get the oval shape.  the final size was 3.4 width and 5.2 height.  It was very handy to do each element on a different layer so I could get the proper sizes.  The letters are cut from Jasmine with the oval feature.  The measurements 2.66 width and 6.09 height.  Both the red and light blue paper are construction paper from school I had laminated knowing they were to be cut using the circut.  I haven't found a good setting to cut construction paper not laminated.   The purple lace looking boarder to the pennants was made by using my Fiskars border punch lacy days of summer (I thought it appropriate for the end of summer! heehee).  The deep purple paper is from a friend who had a box of scraps she received from a family she did some tutoring with the son, she shared the wealth and gave me a bunch of the papers (lots of diff. colors and sizes!).  The ribbon the pennents are stung on was found in the dollar spot at Target with scrapbook supplies, it took two pieces, which are three yards each.  I tied a bow on each end with the ribbon then strung it through the holes.  Everything was adhered together with Tombo permanent adhesive.  I think this will be a cheerful greeting for the students when the arrive at school!

dorm decoration

I made a whole page full of cherries for my daughter to put on the walls of her dorm room.  I started with black Cricut vinyl and with my gypsy was able to maximize as much space as possible.  The cuts are from Hello Kitty Greetings cartridge.  The green stems are from a pack of solid papers I have had for years and the red cherries are laminated construction paper left over from a school project I had done.  During the vinyl cutting my cricut was accidentally turned off so one of the outlines was cut twice but not exact (the gypsy was handy to remove the already cut ones on the virtual mat and I could begin the cutting again!)  So the goofed up outline was used to sample the final product.  I stuck it to a board used to place a laptop computer on for stability.  I wanted the finished project to be on vinyl so Emily could put the cherries on the wall of her dorm room and be able to remove them without any problem, so basically I made a sticker for her walls!  I glued the paper (green stems) with zig two way glue pen and the cherries (laminated paper) I ran through my xyron using permanent adhesive.  I think/hope Emily will like these!!