Butterfly Journal

Hi all!

I have a little project to share today. I made a journal to track all my progress on getting healthy this year. I want to lose weight and exercise more to help with my arthritis, and general well being.

This book has very little decoration on it, Just some patterned paper I received in a crop goody bag, some rick rack from my stash, a few stamped images, and an old butterfly fabric applique I had in my stash. The notebook is from the target dollar bins. (I LOVE those bins..so many great finds there!)

I also have this little stash of cards from a sheet of Archiver's Simple Stories 100 days of summer set, to add to the journal.

A project without using my Cricut..gasp! LOL I am sure its a fluke. LOL

anyway..that's all for now.

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Butterfly Charms

Hi all,

Today I am sharing a few more Shrinky Dink charms I made using my Imagine machine.

I used Ink Jet Shrinky Dinks and printed the butterflies using the Imagine and a Imagine More Cards Cartridge and the Black and White pattern Cartridge. Both charms were baked in my oven at 275 degrees and then I added a layer of UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel) on top and baked them until the UTEE was clear.

For this charm, I used a stock image from the Imagine and flood filled it using the Black and White Pattern Cartridge. I was so excited to finally add this cart to my library! In my opinion, it is one of the more versatile of the Imagine Pattern cartridges.
This image is one of the bonus icons on the Imagine More Cards Cartridge.
I really have been enjoying my Imagine lately. I really enjoy using the pattern cartridges the most, and I have a few more on my want list. :)

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Charm Swap- Shrinky Dinks

Hi all!

I participated in a charm swap on the Cricut Circle Message board. We were to make any type of charm. I decided to make mine out of Shrinky Dinks. I signed up for two separate swaps, and the second swap I have two slots, so when this is all said and done, I am going to have quite a few new charms! LOL

Anyway I chose a summery theme for my charms.

Here is the charm i made for the first swap:

I decided to make some sunglasses from the Paisley Cartridge. I cut them at 1.35" and colored them with a light green sharpie marker. I then colored in the lens part with a black pencil. I Shrunk them in a 325 deg oven. I sit and watch my SD's to make sure they are shrinking good. If they do not uncurl enough or are not flat enough I have a nice big wooded spatula that I stick in the oven and press them down with.

After the glasses were shrunk down I put a tiny Cricut Circle Logo on the lens area cut from Vinyl. I then covered that side with UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel) and popped them back into the oven until the UTEE was melted. After that I covered the lens area on the reverse side with a layer of black glitter. (I forgot to take a pic of that side of the charm. :) )

Here is the set of charms I made for the second group. I continued with my summery theme:

Both images were cut from the Life's a Beach cartridge. The chair at 2", the Drink at 2.3" I hand colored the chair with a white pencil, and stamped the word relax on it in StazOn ink. The pineapple was colored with some sharpies as well as a few Gelly Roll Star glitter pens. I also added a little sparkle to the beach chair with a Gelly Roll Clear star pen. Both of these charms also had the layer of UTEE put on after the initial shrinking to seal in the colors and give them a smooth glossy finish on both sides.

The waves were cut from Life's a Beach also.

I used my Stampin' Up slot and a hole punch to make the area where the charms attach to the cards.

I printed a tag for the back side that had my blog address and contact information on it.

Here are the charms I received from the swap:

There are so many beautiful charms! I am going to make a couple of bracelets with them!

Thanks for visiting today!

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Spring Placemats

Hi all,

Today I am sharing the placemats we made for March. This time we chose a more general spring theme, rather that a specific holiday like St. Patty's Day, as we have some fabric shamrock print placemats my Mom made for us.

The girls really enjoy picking out the papers we use for the mats every month.

This months papers are from the DCWV Flower Shower Spring stack from last year. I have used this stack quite a bit, and still have plenty of papers left. That is what is so nice about those 180 pages stacks of paper. The cardstock stacks are not as big.

The font we used this time is from Robotz.

Maddie noticed that a tiny piece of "schmootz" ,as she called it, was inside the lamination when we fed it through the Your Story. (she was quite annoyed it was there, but I swear, its the size of a pin head.- Sheesh!)

Anyway...These are the last two Your Story 12x12 Laminating pouches I have. Seems like my Hobby Lobby isn't going to carry that product anymore. I picked up some Purple Cow ones there, but I have never used those in the Your Story machine. I think they are close enough to not matter much. I will be posting on that when we make the next set of Placemats.

Well off to craft some more!

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Reconditioning my Mats

Hi all!

I have a large stash of mats that are not so sticky anymore. I decided to recondition a few of them.
My first step is removing lint and most adhesive from the mat using Goo Gone. I just put it on, spread it around with a scraper and then start scraping off. It takes some elbow grease to get the mat clean, but it works pretty well.
As you can see the left side of the mat is pretty clean. I know there are sprays out there that would probably so the same thing without so much scraping, but Goo Gone is definitely cheaper and more readily available. After I scrap the mats with the Goo Gone, I then wash them with dish soap and let them dry, just to make sure I get the Goo Gone off.

Now on to the resticking:

I used Aleene's Tack it Over and Over repositionable glue. I watered it down, and then spread it out on the mat using a sponge brush.
After you have brushed a coat of glue over the cutting surface, let it dry until clear. Then it is ready to go.

I didn't measure the water/glue ratio, I just winged it. It was a fairly thin consistency. I like this method as you don't' have to tape off the edges of your mat, like you do when using a spray. Brushing gives you more control.

My mats were a tad too sticky at first. I just patted them against my Tshirt a few times, and I didn't press my paper down too hard to the mats. After a few cuts, the mats are perfect now!

I also date all my mats with a sharpie so I can see how long they last. A few of those mats weren't that old. The "better adhesive" on the Imagine mats is a pretty big fail on Provo Craft's part if you ask me.

At least I know I can get a good sticky mat on my own. ;)

Give it a try!

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

The Grey tag

Hi all!

Today I am still playing catch up on the 52 Tags in 2012. This tag is from the week 7 theme: "What is the last movie you saw?"

I went with my BFF it see The Grey. I knew it was a survival movie, I just wasn't expecting the level of gruesome that there was. I'm not a particularly squeamish person, but I cringed quite a bit during this movie. Also, I was FREEZING during the entire movie. I don't know if it was psychological because you watch the character battle the elements in Alaska or if the movie theater actually turned the heat down to add to the effect. LOL You want to know the WORST part about that evening?? It was the sticker-shock! $10.00 for the ticket and another 19.00 getting popcorn and a drink! YIKES!!

Anyway...Here is my tag:

The wolf is from Old West, the Moon is a SVG Cuts file, and the font is from Cricut American Alphabet, which came pre-loaded on my Expression 2 Anniversary edition. Provo Craft finally released an update that allows linking of the E2 cartridges to your Gypsy!! Hooray!

Here is the back side of the tag:

This time I decorated the back side as well. I just loved this movie reel from SVG Cuts, from the Summer Blockbuster set. I added the movie ticket stubs and a little bit of journaling.

I have been crafting like a crazy woman lately! It feels good to have some mojo back and I am really enjoying crafting. I think its the change in the weather that has raised my spirits up.

Well off to craft some more!

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Lucky Girl Necklace

Hi all!

Popping in a second time today for a quick post on my entry into the Cricut Circle Weekly Challenge. This weeks challenge was to make something to wear for St. Patty's Day and that had green on it.

I made these necklaces for my two younger daughters to wear to school tomorrow.

Its very glittery! The large shamrock is from Designer's Calendar. The lucky Girl is from Once Upon a Princess and the little clovers are from Celebrate with a Flourish.

The Light green paper is Adhesive backed glitter paper from DCWV. I cut the large shamrock twice (one time was the reverse image) so I could layer them back to back. The other paper is from my stash and I just glittered the cuts using my Xyron.

I punched a small hole near the top and attached a jump ring to the cut. The ribbon is from my stash

Have a Great and Crafty Day, and a wonderful St. Patty's Day!

Jan

Bird Tag

Hi all!

I am trying to catch up on my tags for the 52 Tags in 2012 Challenge over at Pause Dream Enjoy. You can check out the challenge here.

This is week 6's tag. The theme is to make a tag with your favorite animal on it. I chose a bird, as I have always enjoyed bird watching.

The bird is printed from my Imagine machine, using Lori's Garden. I just received this cartridge and I just love all the soft colors and images of birds and butterflies.

I cut the image in layers, but I left out one of the layers for the swing. It was very delicate and I wasn't sure how I was going to layer that. Believe me, the scrolls on the bottom of the swing are thin enough, and are not even attached to the lower layer.

I dry brushed some Scrapbook Colors Paint by Making Memories, color: Shopping Bag, onto the base of the tag. I then stamped a swirl design over it in brown. The frame and tag were cut from Elegant Edges.

I don't have anything fancy on the back side of this tag, just my journaling about bird watching.

I have a few more tags to make to catch up to the current week's challenge, which is week 10! Boy its amazing how fast one can get behind with just a few weeks of downtime.

Well off to make more tags! :)

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

PuffBall Layout

Hi all!

Today I am sharing a layout I started at the all day crop I attended a few weeks ago. I didn't get time to finish the layout at the crop, so I brought it home and completing yesterdays layout has inspired me to finish more layouts so I pulled this one out and completed it.

I bought this sheet of dandelion paper a long time ago when these pictures were first taken. It has been sitting in my stash for YEARS! I am super pleased to use something that I bought so long ago, for what it was intended. I often forget I purchased a specific item for a project and then end up using something else, then I find the item later and am annoyed at myself for forgetting I had it in the first place. LOL

The large scalloped circle is from SVGCuts, cut at 11 in. The journaling circle I cut with my old Creative Memories Custom Cutting system Circle cutter. Boy I haven't used that in a looooong time, not since I bought my first Cricut. The piece of journaling paper I was cutting was only very slightly larger than the circle I wanted so I figured it was easier than trying to line it up on the Cricut. The title quotes I printed on transparency film.

.

The PuffBall was cut from Lyrical Letters. I think technically its supposed t be Queen Annes Lace, but I improvised. lol I used a Gypsy to weld a longer stem onto the flower cut, then I cut it twice in blue and again in white and layered them together. The falling seeds were from a first cut that was too small.

Here is a close up of the pics of the girls. I just love them!
I feel like I am on a roll! Two posts in a row and I have three more ready to go!

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Hiking Layout

Hi all! I am so excited to be sharing a layout today. I haven't made any layouts is so long, and I have fallen quite behind in my scrapbooking. My friend introduced me to a great website called Let's Scrap. Its a great community of scrappers, and they offer motivation in the way of challenges using sketches. I am looking forward to working on more layouts in the future.

Here is the sketch for the week of 3/7/12:

Here is my layout for this sketch challenge:

All the papers used were from my stash. The Happy Trails was cut from Camping Critters, the @ was from Graphically Speaking, and the font is Jubilee Runt and Jubilee Basic. I inked the edges of the orange titles. The trees were from a K&Co set from a while ago. I added some brads and twine for a little interest, and a charm from Karen Foster Designs.

Here is a close up of the charm:
Isn't that fun? The charm set also has a Dutch oven, flashlight, canteen, and Camp Lamp. these charms are nice because they are flat on one side.

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Scarf and flower pin

Hi all,

Today I am sharing a scarf I made using the small flower loom from Knifty Knitter. First of all I wan t to start by saying that I do not know how to knit/crochet or anything like that so I purchased the Knifty Knitter looms to give it a try. I have found that some of the directions are confusing to me, a novice when it comes to knit/crochet terminology, but I figured out how to do the very basic stitch on the loom.

Here is a skinny scarf I made for me and my friends in our favorite pink and green colors!
I loom knitted the scarf until it was 6 feet long, and then I cast it off the loom. I tied on some pink strands for the fringe. Its hard to see, but the hot pink yarn is sparkly. :)

Here is the loom I used and a close up of the flower I made to go on the scarf:

The flower was made by wrapping around the loom in a figure 8 pattern on pegs across from each other. Quite frankly I winged this, and all the flowers I made are a tad different. LOL

i attached a pin to the back of the flower as i was creating the center of the flower on the loom. I then just tied off the ends of yarn on the back side.

I am sorry that my knitter directions are not very clear. I recommend going to You Tube and searching for videos on Loom Knitting. I watched a lot of videos to help me understand what I was doing.

As I stated earlier, I am quite the novice at this, but i really liked making these and I am eager to try another loom project soon.

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

March All Day Crop

Hi all,

Sorry I have been MIA but my computer is dying and I have been having quite a bit of trouble getting it to cooperate until I can replace it. :( Hopefully I won't have to wait too much longer.

Anyway...On February 26th I went to an all day crop in Pingree Grove, IL. It was hosted by an Everyday Efficient, and event planning company from that area.

A few of my friends were there, as well as a couple of Ladies I knew from Online forums, but hadn't met in person.

Here's me at the start of the crop.
Here is Jan A. in the Pink and Missie in the green: Missie had a round table to herself.
Here is Leslie (in gray), and Laura (in Blue). Most of us shared these HUGE rectangular tables. We had lots of room.
In this picture: Laura talking to Tina W(in Pink), and Jan.
Here is Jan A. and Tina G., working hard.
You could tell who the circlets were, we were the ones with all the big Cricuts. LOL

Many of my friends were quite productive. I spent the day preparing shrinky dink charms for a swap I am in, and then I worked on one 2-page layout which isn't even done. LOL I did spend a great deal of time visiting with my friends, so all in all I consider it time well spent!

I hope to get back into a regular routine of sharing projects soon.

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty day!

Jan

Crop Goodies- Notebook and Charm

Hi all! I am so excited, because today I am going to an All Day Crop! Its from 9 am to 9 pm, and I am looking forward to hanging out with my friends as well meeting new friends.

There are going to be some circle sisters at this crop, so I made some little goodies for them.

I found this fun pom-pom pen in hot pink, so I searched for a little notebook that was hot pink too. I found this gem at Staples. Its a pretty chunky little notebook with blank pages inside.

I cut the title in vinyl from Cricut Everyday Cartridge which was a Circle Exclusive. The felt flower was from my stash.

I made this charm using my Imagine and Imagine More Cards and InkJet Shrinky Dinks. I printed the image at 2.5 inches, punched a small hole in the corner and baked it in the oven. After is shrank, I covered the top with Ultra Thick Embossing Powder and stuck it back into the oven to melt. I got this tip from Nadia over at With Glittering Eyes. It gives an awesome smooth and shiny finish to the charm. I then made a few bead strand with beads from my stash and attached it to a Cell phone charm holder.
I cut the Cricut Circle Logo from Cricut Everyday as well. Its hard to see in the picture, but I used lime green glitter paper.

I haven't had much time to craft this month, but I am hoping to get some things done at the crop, besides just chatting ;). Maybe I'll have some things to post later this week.

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Machine Covers and a Crop Night out!

Hi all! Sorry to be MIA for a while. February is such a busy month with Valentine's Day, two of my daughter's Birthdays and my Anniversary. It seems like every year February gets crazier and crazier.

So I am late in getting this post up. I went to an overnight crop at a friends house and we made covers for our machines. My good friend Jan over at Craft Place brought the pattern and showed me how to make these reversible covers. I am so glad to have friends that I can learn new things from. Jan helped me make these and taught me a few sewing techniques, as I am a complete novice at sewing.

So here are my Imagine and my E2 covered. My covers are all black swirls on one side/hot pink flowers on the other.
Here is the other projects I did at the crop after making three covers:

I made 22 ice cream cone valentines and 23 Peace sign valentines, and 4 of the larger Valentines cards for the teachers. The Ice Cream cone and Peace Sign were both from SVG Cuts - 24 Valentines set. the teachers valentines use a heart shaped doily I picked up at target, and two different sized hearts cut from Art Philosophy and stamped with the coordinating stamps from the Mad About You CTMH stamp set.
Here is a pic of my Expression cover:
Here are my Friends and I sitting in Tina's AWESOME crafting space in her basement. We had a great time. I look forward to the next time we can do this.

(LtoR: Me, Jan A, Tina L. and Missie T.)

Here are all my covers together set up at Tina's house, along with some of the projects we made.

I have an all day crop this Sunday and I am looking forward to hanging out with my friends and meeting some new crafty friends. As well as getting some projects done.

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Spring Layout

Hi all,

Today I am sharing a layout I made for a friend.

Most of the papers used were from a Finished in a Flash Kit from Paper Wishes that I have had in my stash for a while now. The only cartridge I used was Botanicals for the butterfly/floral cuts as well as the font.

Here is a close up of my butterflies:

I cut the images twice, once in patterned paper and once in vellum. I then hand cut out the butterflies so I could add some dimension to the them. I placed gems along the centers of all the butterfly cuts.

Here is a close-up of the Spring Title:

I used a Stampin'Up Sizzix Embosslits to make those tiny butterflies by the title. I then attached them to the paper using my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher for the bodies. I used a Fiskars Border punch for the edge.

I added a few gem swirls from Want 2 Scrap that I picked up at a Scrapbook Expo.

Recipe:

Butterfly 1 and its Shift @ 6.5 in.

Butterfly3 and its shift @ 4.0 in

Font and shift @ .92 in.

Fiskars Border Punch

Stampin' Up Sizzix Embosslits Beautiful Wings

Papers; Hot off the Press Finished in a Flash Kit. Paper Studio Vellum

Gems

Tim Holtz Tiny Staples

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Friend Tag

Hi all,

Today I am sharing the next tag for my 52 Tags in 2012 Challenge over at Pause, Dream , Enjoy. You can learn all about it here.

The Challenge for this tag was to make a tag in your BFF's Style. I chose my two closest crafty friends for my inspiration

Missie, from Created by Missie who LOVES to use glitter.

Jan from Craft Place who makes the most FABULOUS flowers.

I love hanging out with these ladies. We have the best time, and I am always learning new things from them.

So here is my tag:

I precut all my base pieces, and then I just cut all the layers each week for the challenge. I Saved a file on my gypsy with all the base, layers and frames all sized accordingly, so I can just open up that file and pick this weeks paper to cut.

This week I am using papers from a DCWV Dazzle stack I found on the clearance rack at JoAnn's earlier in the week. It was quite the score! I am telling you, this paper cuts like BUTTER on the Cricut! I am definitely getting more of this paper. It is so sparkly and it does NOT leave glitter all over the place like other glitter papers. I do not like have having glitter all over my mat, or worse, inside my machine. I cut this with a blase depth of 4, single cut, with an older blade. The white Bazzil used for the base I ALWAYS have to cut twice to get a nice clean edge.

I would recommend you getting a piece and trying it out!

Here is my recipe for today's project:

Tag - Elegant Edges - Page 38 Oblong Shadow @ 5 in.

Flower - Flower shoppe - Page 16 -Fun 3 6X z@3In. , Fun4 @3 in, Fun 2 @ 3in and 2.5 in.

Bookplate - Fabulous Finds - Pg.82 @1.5in.

Stamp & Ink - Stampin' Up.

Gem and Brads from my stash

Papers: DCWV Dazzle in Green patterned and Pink solid, and Bazzil Bling in White. Green scrap from my stash.

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Live Laugh Love Valentine

Hi all,

Here is a Valentine I made for my Hubby. It is my entry into this weeks Cricut Circle Weekly Blog Challenge. The challenge is to make a valentine with two Cricut cuts and sequins or gems and ribbon.

I used the Love is in the Air Word Art embossing folder. I used a some scraps of chipboard to make a base so that the hearts on the side of the embossing folder did not emboss. I then embossed a piece of white Bazzil Bling paper . I punched out many little hearts and placed them over the little hearts on the embossed image. I added some tiny gems around the embossed swirls.

The bow is a piece of burgundy ribbon as well as a bow from white glittery tulle.

I cut the lips and hearts from the Love Struck Cartridge in a shimmery burgundy cardstock, and adhered them to the card front with pop dots over the space that where the hearts would have embossed.

I then matted the embossed image on red Bazzil Bling paper and then onto a black card base.

I never really know the best way to showcase these types of embossing images in my projects. Its easier to use the repeating pattern embossing folders. I never mind layering things on top of them, but with these larger images without a repeat pattern, I often find myself struggling with what section to cover up with the top layer of the design.

Thanks for coming... I hope you enjoyed your visit today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan

Bookmark and Book Gift Box

Hi all!

Today I am sharing my entry into the Cricut Circle Blog Monthly Challenge.

The challenge is to make a gift for someone.

I made this Gift Box to look like a book to hold the bookmark I made.

For the box, I used Tags, Bags, Boxes and More Match2 blackout cut on pg. 65. I then sized some rectangles from George to fit slightly larger than the box base for the covers. I cut them out of chipboard, and covered them with a patterned paper from my stash. I scored a piece of Black Magic Cardstock for the spine. I cut the word Read from a font on Calligraphy Collection that I welded together with my Gypsy.

I scored the edges of the box to look like pages in a book.

I lined the box with a page cut form an old book. I inked up the edges with Distress Ink. I hand cut the tab that holds the magnetic closure on the inside of the box.

Here is a close -up of the bookmark I made.

I am a complete novice when it comes to beading, but I really wanted to make this bookmark using the book cut from Graphically Speaking.

I cut the base cut at 1.5 inches using Shrinky Dinks. I then hand colored the details on the plastic. I shrunk it with my heat gun. It may be hard to see, but the book isn't flat. While it was warm I bent it to a shape more like an open book.

I then covered the white areas with a fine white glitter and some diamond glaze.
I am making these for my daughter's teachers and aides. I am really excited for how they turned out. I will probably make them all a little different, as many of those beads are older ones from my stash and I need to make 8 of these.

Thanks for visiting today.

Have a Great and Crafty Day!

Jan