Under $5 and 5 minutes St. Patrick's Day Decor

I haven't had much time for handmade decor around the house for St. Patrick's Day. So if you are looking for some great looking decor, look at what I made in under 5 minutes and cost less than $5.00. There are many fabulous free printable blogs (such as Eighteen25 and Lolly Jane Boutique, who created the art that I used below) and one of the new "hot" decor items these days is framed subway art. I picked up some cheap $2.00 frames at Dollarama and here are the results:

The frames and printed poster art before assembling:

To get your free printables, click HERE and HERE.  Enjoy! Hope this helps some of your last minute St. Patty prep!!!

Stampin Daisies - Exciting News!

Im happy to share some wonderful news: Monica from Stampin Daisies has selected me to be on her design team!  Click HERE to check out the announcement and to purchase her newly released stamp set.  This is my first ever design team and I couldn't be happier to showcase Monica's rockin' stamps.  Here's a list of her FIRST EVER DESIGN TEAM CREW:

Jenny from Paper-Craftying Crazy Me

Jessica from The Creative Stamper Spot

Linda from Fancy Framework
Nadia from Nadia's Beautiful Mess <<<ME!!!>>>

You can visit all the designer's blogs by clicking on their names. That will take you directly to their blogs, so go on ahead, check them out and show your support by following them!

This stamp set is available for pre-sale now! $12.50 + FREE SHIPPING for U.S. residents only ($1 for Canadian residents)

Click HERE to go to the recorded Ustream to check out a few sneak peaks of her future stamp sets.  If you want to keep up to date on her future stamp releases, follow her on her blog by clicking HERE.  Stampin Daisies also has has some blog candy to give away if she reaches 600 followers.  You can also follow her on Facebook by clicking HERE.  I'm honoured to be on her design team and super excited to share and show you all what amazing unique stamp sets she has planned for the near future :)

The Mess On My Desk (messy, but Beautiful)!

This is the current state of my desk: A Mess! But I must say, it's quite beautiful. At the top left corner of this picture is my carousel which holds my frequently used tools such as 3-D foam squares, Action Wobbles, ATG, corner rounder, zig pen, acrylic stamping blocks, Cricut spatula and so on. 

At the bottom left hand corner, underneath the glue gun and gypsy travel case is some top-secret information! They contain notes, ideas and good things for the future :)  See those Recollections embellishments? I love them. It's an essential for invitation making. It makes an invitation that much more classy and elegant. I stocked up on them since a current client needs menu cards, table cards, etc for her wedding. Underneath those embellishments is my container which holds all my Imaginisce I-Rock materials. I've been using my I-Rock to add crystals to the favor boxes I'm making a client.

Speaking of favor boxes, if you take a look at the picture above, those are two samples I created. Can you guess which one she liked best? Yep, the one with the Prima flowers. I will do a future post on the boxes once they are complete.

Also pictured above are breast cancer survivor embellishments/stickers from Me and My Big Ideas. So happy to have found them, it is difficult to find crafty related breast cancer items.  

Here's a peak at the "Thank You" cards I created for my mom to give to all the people who have been visiting and praying. I'm currently on a mission to get the Cricut Pink Journey cartridge, but in the meantime, I found a solution which I hope will help others.  Once these cards are good to go, I will do a post details, etc.  

Glitter trays are essential when glittering...otherwise your craft area will get messy.  I got the blue tray at Michael's and it's a huge help. To the left of the tray is my little pink Xyron. Xyron's are also an essential for glittering.

On the right hand bottom corner is my Gypsy. Thank goodness for this helpful little machine!  I do a lot of my "bulk" creations on it. In fact, I've been using it quite a bit ever since my mother was diagnosed. I take it to the hospital, my mom's house...it's so handy!

Lastly, at the top right hand corner is a Tim Holtz inspired mini-album and is really special to me.  Giselle made it for me to give to my husband for our 5 year (dating) anniversary. That too will be featured in another post. 

One last thing! It's made me really happy to see that a lot of people found my YourStory tutorial very handy.  I've had a couple of requests for a 5x7 tutorial.  I will be working on it shortly and hope to have it up soon, including a gypsy file for both 4x6 and 5x7 covers.

Stampin Daisies with Monica

Hi Everyone,
I wanted to share a crafty blog with you all.  Monica is super sweet and talented and her blog, Stampin Daisies, has lots of card inspiration. Stop by her blog and support her!
http://www.stampindaisies.com/

She is also releasing her own stamp line!!! Here is the link for the Facebook Ustream Event:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=171445699570273

Winnie the Pooh Baby Banner

My First time using  Winne The Pooh Font cartridge and it resulted in a banner!  A co-worker of mine was hosting a baby shower for her niece and of course I just had to ask “So, what’s her theme?”.  When I found out it was Winnie, I just had to make use out of my cartridge and volunteered to make a banner for her party.  The name of the baby was already known so the content of the banner was easy.  When presented to my co-worker, she loved it!

Supplies:

Cricut Winnie the Pooh Font cartridge
Cricut Martha Stewart All Occasions Cake Art cartridge
DCVW All About Boys Paper Stack
Recollections cardstock in purple, yellow, brown, black, orange, red and pink
Recollections 3-D foam squares
Colorbox Chalk Ink
Purple Ribbon
Divine Twine in Lemon

Mr. & Mrs. Anniversary Card

Not sure why, but I just love this card! It's one of the first cards I ever made with my cricut last year using the Sweethearts cartridge.  One of the best things about it is that it can be used for a wedding, anniversary and even Valentines.

Supplies:

Cricut Sweethearts cartridge

Black Shimmer and white cardstock

Martha Stewart Black Satin Ribbon Photo Corners

Corner Rounder

Cuttlebug - Divine Swirl

Lucky Charm Blog Hop 3/17 - NOW FULL !

Hi Everyone!

Cross My Heart Papercrafts and Nadia's Beautiful Mess are hosting a Lucky Charm Blog Hop in honor of St. Patrick's Day on March 17, 2011.  Instead of traditionally hand selecting bloggers, we've decided to give everyone a fair chance at participating in this one, since our last one was a hit!

We have decided to pick the first 10 bloggers to email us wanting to participate.  If you are interested in participating in this fabulous blog hop, please send an e-mail to me at nadiaspapertrail@yahoo.com with your name, blog address and Facebook name so that we can add you to our Facebook group. We will update this post to let you know once we have reached 10 bloggers each. 

Thank you :)

February 23, 2011 - Update:  Thank you everyone who e-mailed me to participate in the blog hop!  Spots are no longer available, they filled up pretty quickly! Giselle and I will be hosting more blog hops in the future so for those of you who weren't able to participate, there will be more opportunities in the future!

In the meantime, make sure you hop along with us for the Lucky Charm blog hop on St. Patrick's Day!