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!

apartment decor

Two of my children moved into their own rooms/apartment for college this month. My son had no interest in what I could make to decorate his walls but my daughter was delighted to have me make a vinyl cut out.

So I used my trusty Cricut and some black vinyl I bought at Craft's Direct and went to town.

The frames were cut using Ornamental Iron 2 and I did some hide contour with my gypsy.

I think the chandelier is from gypsy wanderings (we did this a couple weeks ago) and I made it a big as I could using a 12 x 24 inch mat. We added some self adhesive bling from creative charms after adhering the vinyl to the wall.
There is even a frame to jazz up her backpack hook.

My DD loves the fancy addition to her apartment bedroom and we even used some scrap vinyl to cut out her name. These we used to identify the cabinet and drawer she is using in the kitchen of the shared apartment!

Volunteering on Saturday

I did some volunteering on Saturday for Provocraft and met some wonderful Cricut friends. A few of us Circle gals ventured to Minneapolis to demo the E2 (love that machine!) at the Creative Memories gathering and had a great time meeting a some terrific folks from Provo. I just had to share a picture of Jinger (a very warm, personable lady/spokesperson for Provo) and me. The experience was very positive and rewarding and I wouldn't hesitate to do it again - it is always a pleasure to share to passion of paper crafting with an awesome die-cut machine and make some new friends!

and yes, Jinger had on some gorgeous shoes but the bummer is the photo doesn't show her Cricut green fabulous footwear.

Special Numbers

I have two crafty numbers I treasure...One is my membership number for the Cricut Circle and the other is my Fiskateer number. I was able to visit the beach while out east in Massachusetts and just had to take advantage of the sand and writing...here I am with a chignon in my hair with my crafty numbers

playing with shrink plastic

I signed up for a charm swap, Christmas themed. I have been having fun with "shrinky dinks" and I think I finally have my charm design. I used two carts, Give a Hoot for the inside triangle (found on the accent creative feature key)and My Community for the Christmas tree. The tree is cut at 2.7" high and the holes were punched with the crop-a-dile. I colored the shrink plastic with a Bic Mark-it permanent marker. Shrunk the plastic with my heat embossing gun and proceeded to use seed beads to give the tree some decoration garland. Now only 25 of these charms to go before mailing them off!

Pictures for Circle Christmas in July Online Swarm

I have been trying to complete a few challenges for the circle message board and the Christmas in July challenge.
so here they are...
Challenge #2: Theme Challenge
Create a card, LO, 3-d element that is Christmas or Winter Theme
Well, it is Christmas in July so I had to make a Santa with a swimming inner-tube.

I plan to add him to another family Christmas in July page, once I get it completed! Pictures are still in selection phase - in other words I have to go thru. the many pictures in the box!
I use dimensional adhesive to pop up the Santa coat, and beard and double popped the hat. The Santa and clothing is from Paperdoll Dress up cart cut at 3" and the inner-tube is from Everyday paperdolls, again cut at 3 inches.

Now Challenge #3 was to try a tutorial I haven't done...now don't laugh but I haven't been able to use my cricut markers and then cut the shape with much success.

So I gave it another try and here are two Christmas tree charms using the green cricut marker in the E2 and then tranding in for the blade. I used the Very Merry Tags and the tree is colored and cut at 2.10 inches.

Challenge #4: Fiber Challenge
*Use Ribbon, twine, fibers on your project

Okay, I used some shrink plastic that was scrap from the charms I am making for a swap. Saw the triangles and thought of a banner so here is my Merry Christmas banner using some beading string to sting the pennants to say "Merry Christmas"

The letters were written with the cricut markers (I used the markers again - I am so happy to utilized twice!) and alphalicious. The letters were "cut" (ie written with the marker) at .8" and I was careful not to touch the ink because it did not dry on the shrink plastic very fast. After I used my heat embossing tool to shrink the plastic, the marker became permanent.

Challenge #5: Simon says Challenge
Today I will be posting 3 challenges and you must use those items/themes in your project. You can wait till all 3 are posted and make it 1 project or 3 separate projects.
a. Simon Says to add 3 score lines to your project
b. Simon says to use the following colors: Red, Green, Gold (you can use other colors as well but these should be the primary color scheme)
c. Simon says to make a mini card/gift card holder/ mini envelope for journaling

I made a mini accordion book to adhere to a Christmas layout. I always have more pictures than room on a layout so I sometimes include pull out tags with the extra photos.

With the Simon Says challenge we had to use three score lines and instantly the folded mini book popped into my head. The trickiest part was making the gold reindeer because the glitter is of course all over me and my craft space! The paper is all from Kaiser Kraft. The accordion strip is cut 3" by 12" and scored at 3" intervals (3 score lines!)
The reindeer is from the Christmas cart and cut at 2.4 inches then I ran it upside down thru my xyron sticker maker and sprinkled the glitter on the adhesive side.


And now to share some things I made last week for the Fiskateers and the CHA online challenges...lots of fun there!

Christmas in July layout

We are having a bit of fun on the circle message board with some Christmas in July challenges during/ending of CHA. We were given the challenge to make a card or layout using the provided sketches and to keep in the Christmas theme. I chose the layout and being that is Christmas in July...I did a Christmas in July layout. My mother's family has been celebrating Christmas in July for over 20 years with a weekend gathering. It is tradition to have a horseshoe tournament, everyone brings their favorite holiday treat to share, and a small gift to exchange. There is a Christmas tree every year and sometimes we decorate our tents/campers. When I found this challenge I dug thru my many years of pictures and felt inspired to scrap a few from 2007. Now, will I ever do the other 20 plus years? :)

Recipe...
all paper is Stampin Up except the ivory shadow and journal is from my stash
Red ribbon from stash
Hay wagon 2" Pop-up Neihborhood
Horseshoes 2.38" Old West
Evergreen (Christmas) trees 3.2" Winter Frolic
Bracket square 7.2" square (used the gypsy to adjust w and h) Storybook
Numbers, Letters and shadow 1.3" All Mixed Up (gypsy to weld)