Winter Themed Birthday Card

Here's a winter themed card I made for a skating lover! I used Action Wobbles to make my skater look like she was really skating along the ice and I also used my go-to stamp set, Celebrate Men by A Jillian Vance Design. I love embossing my sentiments!

Supplies:
Cricut Winter Frolic cartridge (Skater cut at 3.5)
Versamark Watermark ink in Frost
Martha Stewart Embossing Powder in Dove
A Jillian Vance Design Stamps - Celebrate Men
Ranger Stickles - Silver
Action Wobble
Elmers Pom-Poms
Imaginisce Jewels (for the buttons)
Card Base - Recollections
Peachy Keen Stamps - Princess Faces
Cardstock and background paper - scraps from my stash!

Was Santa Good To You? Special News and My Crafty Christmas Stocking Stuffers...

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Although there wasn't much snow on the ground, it was still a perfect holiday!  I'm enjoying close to 2 weeks off work. During this time, I plan on catching up on my to-do list, which is growing longer and longer by the day!

I'm really excited about some of the crafty stocking stuffers I received from my hubby: Cricut Ribbons & Rosettes, Snow Day and Victorian Romance.

He also gave me a Martha Stewart book I have been eyeing: Martha's Entertaining - A Year of Celebrations.  It is a beautiful book with loads of gorgeous pictures, recipes and inspiration for all seasons.

But the best gift of all that I received is the little baby girl that is growing in my tummy!  I am almost 6 months pregnant with my first baby and hubby and I are ecstatic!  This is also the reason why I have been much quieter on my blog. I haven't had much time to craft since the fatigue and morning sickness took over.  But my second trimester has been much better and slowly I have been getting back into crafting. We've also had to turn my craft room into a nursery and now my craft room is in the office, which will take some getting used to. My supplies aren't quite organized and I'm not yet comfortable in that space. But you can expect lots of crafting coming soon:  I will be creating invites, banners, and all sorts of fun stuff for my baby shower :)

Did you receive anything for Christmas that was on your crafty list?

Cricut Circle Blog Christmas Card

Last year on the Cricut Circle Blog, Jana Eubank posted three super-cute Christmas cards as well as printable PDF instructions and downloadable gypsy files. I couldn't resist. I just had to make one of these cards. I didn't have all the materials that she used, but I was still able to pull it off with my stash at home and this card turned out just darling!

Supplies:
Cricut Christmas Cards cartridge
Kraft, Aqua, Brown and White cardstock
Martha Stewart Holidays Woodland Paper Stack
Martha Stewart Tinsel Glitter
Prima Calypso Flowers
Aqua Ribbon
Aqua Button
Ranger Stickles - X-mas Red
ATD - Christmas Party Chipboard Stickers Collection
Xyron
Adhesive
Gypsy file from the Cricut Circle Blog

- For the snowflake hills, my 2.5 Xyron came in handy. In fact any time I glitter, it's the easiest and fastest thing ever if I use my Xyron. I <3 my Xyrons :)  I always use Martha Stewart glitter. Her glitter is simply the best there is on the market.  For this card, I used her Tinsel glitter from the Holidays collection.

- For the poinsettia, I used the Prima Calypso collection.  To me, there wasn't enough glitter on this flower so I used Ranger's stickles in Christmas Red, dabbed some on the flower and spread it with my finger. It dries in a couple of hours.

- For the stitching, I brought the card over to my mom's to stitch for me. As you can see, we both need some serious help with stitching. But the point is that she tried really hard.

Cricut Imagine Santa's Village {Christmas Tags}

The Cricut Imagine Santa's Village cartridge is a MUST HAVE for all Imagine owners!  When Hello Thursday came around, there were a few photos and projects posted on the internet, but when this cartridge arrived and I flipped through the book, I just could NOT contain my excitement! There are some beautiful projects and bonus images never seen before. One of my favourite features on this cartridge is a 12x12 page loaded with 20 vintage Christmas tags! Heaven! The whole cartridge has a vintage feel to it.  As you can see by all the pictures I posted below, the tags were so gorgeous I couldn't leave out any pics!  Although these tags are breath-taking, I knew that by adding a few simple things could take them to the "next level". 


Here are a few shots of the tags before I jazzed them up:

Here are some after pics:

Without getting too detailed since there are sooo many tags, here's a general supply list of tools and embellishments that I used:


i-rock
various types of ribbon
vintage twine
buttons
stickles


I also backed each tag onto cardstock to give it  a thicker base and a more profound look and chalk inked every single tag.

Hope you enjoyed these beautiful tags. There is so much more on this cartridge and I think it is worth the money based on the content.

{Maria's Recovery} Breast Cancer Thank You Cards

On January 20, 2011, my mother Maria was diagnosed with Breast Cancer.  Two weeks after, a mastectomy was performed and she healed quite well (besides an infection, which she was treated for).  We have since found out that she is triple negative, meaning that her cancer is not hormonal, and further treatment is not available (besides chemo).  Since her cancer was detected early and because she opted for a mastectomy as opposed to a lumpectomy, she does not require chemotherapy.  Besides close monitoring through MRI's and Mammograms, all we can do is keep our faith and continue praying to God, who has been so good to our family!

From a crafting perspective, I was determined to try and find ways to craft my way through my mom's cancer.  I needed to find the much sought after Cricut "Pink Journey" cartridge.  After no such luck, and much research, I found many alternatives!

Below is the Thank You card that I created for my mom back in the winter. If you are desperately searching for a ribbon cut, you do not need to have Pink Journey!!! I redeemed 800 Cricut reward points and got Cricut "Stand and Salute" which has a beautiful ribbon cut!

Supplies:
Cricut "Stand and Salute" cartridge, Ribbon @ Page 30
Cricut "Christmas Cards" cartridge (for the card base and layers)
Rose, Baby Pink and White cardstock
Scrappy Mom Stamps
Pink By Design Stamps "Faithful Sayings"
Martha Stewart Border Punch
Martha Stewart Glitter in Kunzite

My mom chose the stamps sentiments!

Halloween Birthday Invite {Witchy Wednesday}

My niece's 11th birthday is coming up! And my favourite kind of paper crafting is making invitations. I love choosing fonts, colours, themes, etc. For these Halloween themed invites, I got to use my darling halloween stamps from A Jillian Vance design. The broom is from the Witchy Poo set and the adorable spider is from the Spooky set.

Supplies:
A Jillian Vance Stamps - Witchy Poo and Spooky
Cricut Happy Hauntings cartridge
Martha Stewart Fringe Scissors (for the grass)
K & Co. chipboard
Martha Stewart Embossing Powder
Chalk Ink

If you want more Halloween inspiration, check out what my teammates created over at A Jillian Vance Design Blog!

Stampin Daisies Design Team Day

Hello Everyone! Today's challenge for Stampin Daisies was to use our Ocean Buddies stamp set and we were also given a sketch to follow.  Here's what I came up with:

Like the way my Dolphin image looks even though I didn't colour it in?  I am not a colourer, nor do I have any copics, but I have a couple of tips for you to turn an image stamp into the best it can be without having to colour it:

1) Stamp your dolphin on blue cardstock
2) Trim the image to the shape of the dolphin
3) Stamp the dolphin again on white cardstock
4) Taking the white cardstock stamped image, trim around the belly of the dolphin only
5) Attach the white belly piece onto the blue based dolphin image
6) To give my dolphin more dimension and flare, I glitter glued the belly!


Supplies:
Stampin Daisies Ocean Buddies stamps
Martha Stewart Glitter Glue
Momento Cocoa Ink
Imaginisce Brown gems and I-Rock
Chalk Ink
Pattern paper and strips of paper all from scraps stash

Be sure to visit the rest of the team to check out their creations and enter the challenge!
Monica http://stampindaisies.blogspot.com/
Sherry http://patternsbysher.blogspot.com/
Linda http://www.fancyframework.com/
Jessica http://thecreativestamperspot.blogspot.com/
Jenny http://www.papercutcreations.blogspot.com/