File Folder Swap

So, you may remember the File Folder I received a bit ago: File Folder Swap
This is my complete File Folder:

Among the possible Themes for the Folder, my partner made a request for a Christmas Tracking folder. Some of the things she was wanting were a way to list the gifts she has bought, gifts to buy, and a place to keep the receipts. I loved this idea and decided that would be the theme.
The front of the folder. I used Graphic 45 paper (I know my partner said she loved them but wasn't currently "into" them, but this time of year has a limited selected of Christmas papers, plus these did match what I had in mind.) The Santa image is from a punch out page, layered onto a red damask background. I used Prima flowers that I glittered with Stickles from Ranger. The flourishes are made with iron-on rhinestones that I hand placed and glued. I also used the Stickles to randomly accent a few of the designs on the background. All edges throughout the entire folder were inked with Cat's Eye Chalk ink in Dark Brown and roughed up with a cardboard nail file.A slightly different view as I open the folder. I didn't use a lot of dimension on the folder since she will probably keep this nearby or use it frequently.

This is the inside. Again, Graphic 45 paper for the two greens. But I also used Bazill paper. I needed lined paper and found this beautiful Family Page, that I cut up for the lines, and used the blank back side for the solid color. I also randomly glittered with the Stickles on the backgrounds again and inked the edging with Cat's Eye Chalk in dark brown.
I did not put any titling on the folder or the pockets or the pages because everyone is different. Personally, I would use this to list the gifts I needed to buy and the gifts I've bought; BUT my partner may have a different need as she listed a few things she would like to track, such as her Christmas Cards. So I decided not to title them so she could personalize it to her needs.

Now.

Here is where my projects becomes "Different"
I made an expanding folder out of the last two folds. She had mentioned wanting to keep her receipts and after playing with my prototype for a while I realized if I made all the folds just like the first two, the receipts tend to slide out of the top. I hate losing my receipts, or dropping them and having to resort them. So I thought that it would be nice to have a more secure way to keep them.
I cut the parts of the folder off that would have been pockets on the last two folds. The lining and sides are BoBunny paper. I cut a section of the paper out and accordion folded it then attached it to the folder underneath the lining. To ensure that the receipts would stay in the pocket, I attached three small circles of Velcro to the top of the opening. Those receipts aren't going anywhere now!
This is the back of the Folder. This is paper from Cloud 9 Design. Again, some random Stickles for accenting.
This is the back inside of the folder. This paper is from Graphic 45 again. And again, random Stickles for accent.

Like I said, it is different. I really hope that my swap partner likes this!
I know that I will be making one of these for myself as I love having the receipts together with my list and this would be nice to set up on a shelf for each year.
Thanks for visiting!
I hope you like it as well.

Ohio Roadtrip - Post 1

Okay, so at "some" point today I will be heading out to Ohio. So I decided that I would post the pennant I created for the Circle pennant contest. The guidelines stated we had to use the Birthday Bash cartridge for out pennant shape and the theme of the pennant should be based on where we live - I'm being general because there were more to the rules. Well, I'm from the south, born and raised (I trace back to the Native Cherokees), Georgia to be exact, so I considered peaches, peanuts, Atlanta, and other similar things. But I like to be different, so I started racking my brain for "different" and came up with Gone With the Wind. So, with that as my theme, here is my pennant:


Here is a closeup of the Magnolia tree I created. This is from a Martha Stewart border punch that I punched and the cut apart. I then hand glued all the pieces, last count was around 78 pieces. The blooms are made from tiny Prima flowers, from the milk bottle jars. I cut each petal off and then reglued to a small square of paper and cupped it as it dried. The centers look like Flower Soft don't they? They aren't. I went to a convention hoping to buy some, but no one was selling it this year. So desperation calls for creativity. I took a piece of brown scrap paper and using one of the dental tools I have, I scraped an area until enough of the paper feathered and shreddded then stuck it to glue in the center of the bloom. It gave it the perfect look.


This is Tara. I used the Circle Exclusive cartridge Pop-up Neighborhood for this image. I also used it for the trees. Cutting out a layer for a pop up tree and separating the pieces. I had used my version of Flower Soft, but I didn't like the look it had. The bushes are also the same pop up tree just in a larger size.
I added clouds and a fence. The fence is from the Old West cartridge and I can't remember just now where the clouds are from.

This is a closeup of Scarlet. The stickles on her jacket didn't show up well in this image, but you can see them better in others. I had drew her embroidery on the jacket and the feathered hat in made from scrap pieces. The girl image comes from the Circle Exclusive Shall We Dance. The dress is custom made. That is gold vellum for the underskirts. I did take a bit of liberty with her dress as this is not an exact replication of the drapery dress, but most people know exactly what it is when they see it.

I hope you enjoyed your visit today. This was a lot of fun to create. I can't wait to see all the pennants hanging around the room and I look forward to hunting for mine. I plan to post pictures of all the pennants hanging in a few days, so come back then.

Thank You Card

This is a Thank You card for a special friend. They invited us away on vacation for a week and we took them up on their offer. It was a wonderfully relaxing time.

The stamps and ink are from Close To My Heart (CTMH), the flowers arePrima, with Stickles for the centers. For the "thank you" I stamped it in green ink and decided it wasn't popping enough, so I went over it in orange with a gel pen from Sakura. That was the perfect touch.

Random Floral Blank Cards

Here is a card I created initially for Mother's Day, but decided that it would be great for an All-Occasion blank card. Once I settled on the design, it was super easy to produce a bunch of these in an hour.
It was really great because I was also able to use up a bunch of paper that I REALLY didn't like.

I had bought a big paper stack several years ago because it was on clearance and I quickly discovered that I did not care for the printed papers in the slightest. Thankfully, I only paid about $4 for a 250 sheet stack. The large white flower was from the George Cartridge that was run through the Cuttlebug machine and embossed with the Swiss Dots folder. The center flower is a Prima with a Skittle center.

I used another Martha Stewart border punch for the lacey trim. I love those punches.

Finished Flower Swap!

The flowers for the Flower Swap are finished!

I've given you a flower by flower post, so now I thought you might like to see them all together. As I stated before, I am participating in three different swaps, but thankfully they all go to the same hostess.
Here are the Pinwheel (aka Accordian) Flowers:

Here are the embellished Primas:

Here are the Floral Vines:

Which go with the shades of pink flowers:

Packaged and ready to go

I hope you enjoyed them!

Border Flowers

I'm still working on more flowers for the flower swap in which I'm participating.
This time I wanted something a little different.

So what can you do with this:

tacky glue
Martha Stewart border punch
Liquid Glass
little Prima flowers

First: Start by using the Martha Stewart border punch to create this lovely border


Second: Trim away portion of the border, as you like, to create a floral vine


Third: Using the larger of the little Prima flowers, adhere to the punch on top of the flowers already there


Repeat with alternating colors


Fourth: using the smaller of the little Prima flowers, adhere them by layering them, again alternating colors


Finish by adhering small rhinestones to the centers


All five finished floral vines:

You can also use Stickles or Skittles or any other bling of your choice.

Since there were 6 flowers on each vine, this was going to be my third submission for the swap, but it just wasn't enough. Come back tomorrow to see what I made to go with this vine, and soon I'll post a picture of each finished flower set for the swap.

More Flowers!

These are more of the flowers I am creating for my swap. This time, I am using tropical flowers from Prim. Now, do go out looking to find some of these - they are discontinued. I just happened to have several boxes around from when I got a good deal on a bunch of their flowers.

When I first received them, I had visions of cruise scrapbook layouts - until I poured them out...

Then I was stumped. How to use these? They just weren't what I had in mind. So many months later, I accidentally stumbled upon an awesome way to change the look of these flowers. I was just playing around and some of them "fell" a certain way and I got the lightbulb moment. So I created a few and that was that. Enter the swap. I was trying to think of some unusual flowers for the swap when I came across a bottle of these that I had made before. Click! Easy and gorgeous!

To start: select matching color pairs (you can do complimentary colors as well, this just creates a fuller appearing flower)

Add a touch of tacky glue or similarly strong adhesive to the center of one flower piece, layer the second piece, offsetting the petals.

Allow that to dry, then using glitter glue - my favorite is Stickles - add as much or as little glitter accents as you desire.

Once that is dry, attach a center. I like to use rhinestones or Skittles

Viola!

Quick, easy, and lots of bling!

This is the pile of 25 flowers that I created in under 4 hours tonight while my children were skating. Drying time was the hard work! Having to wait!

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

This layout is being entered into the Cricut Circle Blog Monthly Contest. In honor of Earth Day (April 22nd) we would like you to recycle, reuse or repurpose 3 items on your project. For example, cut a shape from junk mail found in your trash can. Reuse something found in a junk drawer, or whatever! Use your creativity! Create a layout, card, altered project, etc. The choice is yours ! I had to use at least 3 items that were "recycled" so I went digging in my trash can! I had just thrown some items out from a previous few cuts. The blue border around the page was left over from a design I created on my Gypsy. The title cut was being discarded by another scrapper at a crop and I rescued it, plus 3 more, from the waste bin. Also, the two curls behind the title were pulled from my trash can. The light blue paper I used to mat the photo was 100% recycled paper that I got at an expo. I "think" it was ele-poo paper. The silver medallion was cut from my Everyday Cricut cartridge (a Circle exclusive). Can you guess what I recycled that from? The packaging of a bag of Fig Newtons!!! Once the yummy-ness was gone, I cut the bag open and washed it. Then cut it to fit on my mat for my Cricut. After cutting the image out, I ran it through my Cuttlebug machine with the Morroccan Screen folder. The picture is our Christmas Picture from 2010 with my THREE children - lol. Yes, I have become one of those whose pet is their child. To make the page pop more, I used a silver paint sharpie to outline all the edges, then added bling on the Prima flowers and here and there around the page. Hope you enjoyed and Thanks for looking!

My Goofball!

My daughter has so much personality and is so full of life. I call her a "Goofball" quite frequently because she can be so fun and goofy. I recently printed a small stack of pictures of her posing and being silly, so I have selected a few that I will be scrapping over the next few weeks.


This layout is a stretch for me for many reasons:
First - I don't like pink. I'm not saying I don't care for pink, I'm saying I don't. like. pink. period.
Second - I made a girly page. I'm generally not a girly type of person, so this is definitely not my normal style.
Third - I combined many different layers and techniques.


I used the Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page Ribbon Loop punchfor a border on the pink paper. The title is cut from the Cuttin Up cartridge, although the heart comes from the Doodlecharms cartridge.
The scalloped circle is from the Mini Monograms cartridge. Prima flowers (discontinued) with colored skittle centers and stickled petals.


This closeup shows some of the rhinestones I used. They were a halloween clearance item a Michaels that I got for about 25 cents. I also used Hot Fix rhinestones on the humps of the scallop for additional bling.


I wanted a little dimension on the page to make the page flow visually so I used popdots to raise up the heart, "G", "F", and "A" and shifted some of the flowers for height variations.



This is a closeup of the heart. I layered three hearts of paper and topped them with an embossed heart from the plastic cut from the clamshells in which the Cricut cartridges are packed. I believe this is the Cuttlebug embossing folder "Swiss Dots".

This will also be entered into a Cricut Circle Blog Challenge for this week which require a Love Note, embossing, heart, and 2+ Cricut cuts.


Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoyed!