Gift Tags

We had a lot of fun making gift tags last night at my Tags and Bags workshop.

All the tag bases are cut on the Cricut using the Art Philosophy cartridge. The paper is Kraft.

This Santa tag was a lot of fun. I used a circle of colonial white. The cheeks are chalked and eyes are drawn in. The beard is a scalloped circle (cut in half) in daisy white paper. The fur of the hat was cut on the cricut -- a scalloped border. The mustache is cut using the Artiste cartridge. The hat is simply a triangle hand cut out of ruby paper. I added a little glitz. By the way, glitz is going to be discontinued. It is currently available while supplies last. I love glitz and hate to see it go so be sure to grab a bottle while you can.

This quick tag was again cut on the Cricut using Art Philosophy cartridge. The Art Philosophy cartridge has not only plain tags but specialty tags like this one. The holly was cut out. I backed it with New England Ivy and Ruby papers then backed the whole tag with a plain kraft card. I stamped it with New England Ivy ink. The stamp is out of the Frosted card kit.

My final tag is stamped with Daisy White ink-- sponged to make it look like snow and then I added a few snowflakes. Red glitz was added for the ornaments. 

The Art Philosophy Cricut Bundle is a great package for your basics. With 700 images to make cards, tags, and other icons, you will be able to do so much with your paper crafting. 

Decorate your gifts with personalized gift tags. If you need more ideas, give me  a call. I am happy to help. 

Season's Tweetings

I'm getting ready for Christmas. Cutting out my paper for my cards. Trying to get a good picture of the kids for that Christmas card. Shopping. Decorating. Running around to holiday parties. I love the Christmas season. I especially love hand crafting items for family members. I sometimes even hand craft the wrappings.

Most of my nieces and nephews are old. We only have a couple little ones left in the family. And the next generation has begun. My oldest nephew has given me a grand nephew. So, I don't give a lot of toys anymore. Mostly, I give gift cards. Not the most personal thing. But for a college student on a tight budget, a movie gift card can mean a social life. It works. Everyone is happy.

But I am not happy with just an envelope under the tree. I need it to look like a gift. So, I end up making little boxes with my cricut and the Artiste cartridge. This year, I am going to wrap a few in these cute little bags from Close To My Heart.

The Season's Tweetings set comes with 6 bags, blank tags and a stamp set. I am having a lot of fun decorating tags. After I finished the kit, I cut more tags on the cricut and made tags for other gifts. 

Make some gifts today and be sure to have fun with paper.

My Favorite Birthday Cards

I have been a bit behind for the past week. My birthday was last week. I was sick. And I hosted the whole family for Thanksgiving dinner. That was dinner for 25. I had a great week despite being sick but I was moving a little slow and was not always thinking straight.

So a week late, I would love to show off my favorite birthday cards. My daughter, Cait, often helps with my classes. She makes some fabulous cards. This past fall, she helped with the Holiday Extravaganza where I taught a ink blending technique. Cait decided to try a few colors for my card.

My niece, Beth, paper pieces a cat card for me every year. I have a wonderful collection. 

These young woman make me so happy. I received many cards for my birthday and I love them all. My life is filled with good friends and a loving family. But my favorite cards are these two handmade ones from two of my favorite girls. 

Hope someone touches your heart with a handmade card. 

The Pocket Album

Christmas cards are arriving in the mail now. What are you planning to do with them after Christmas? I keep all the cards and scrapbook them. I think this year, I am going to use the pocket album and showcasing them as shown in this video.

My Crush Book

I spent last weekend relaxing with my girl friends at a scrapbooking retreat in Carmel. Oh! How I love these weekends! This retreat was hosted by Scrapbook U. I truly recommend taking advantage of Monica and Veronica's fabulous service. They take care of all the details so you can just relax and work on your crafting.

And I did. I relaxed. I laughed with my friends. I took a walk to the beach and saw dolphins playing in the surf. I sat in front of the fire. It was a wonderful weekend.

Plus I worked on my craft. I made cards, finished a lot of scrapbook pages, and finished a My Crush album.

I am working on the My Crush Bluebird album to showcase my September photo of the day pictures. I follow a blog called Fat Mum Slim which puts out a monthly list of photo prompts.  I try to use that photo prompt sometime during the day and take a picture of my family. I usually get one or two a week. But in September, I decided to commit to getting a picture every day.

And I did. Some days were harder than others. Some days I just totally missed the perfect shot. But all in all, the set of pictures were great. I took pictures of things I hadn't thought of taking pictures of -- like my engagement ring. The prompt was vintage. My husband gave me a vintage ruby and diamond ring as my engagement ring. It was so beautiful and so different. I still love it more than anything I owe. However, I don't wear it. I wear very little jewelry and no rings at all. When I took the ring out to photograph it, I discovered that my daughter didn't know I had it. Being able to tell the story of the ring made my taking these photos all the more important to me. 

I took all those wonderful pictures and put them in the My Crush book. I gave an explanation of each photo.  This book ended up being a snap shot of my life. 

The pages of the My Crush book are in place and you can't change things around. This is a great book for a lot of different projects. I think I'd use this as a travel album. I can keep a journal and add postcards and ticket stubs. I am also thinking about this as a gift for a few teenage girls I know. 

There are two sets of paper embellishments that you can add to it. 

You can also stamp in the book. I added these flowers and then added a little glitz to put a bit of sparkle.

One of the assortments comes with little envelopes. Here I added our favorite cookie recipe which is really the recipe on the nestle chocolate chip package with a little tweaking.

I really enjoyed working on this project and think I need to do it again. December sounds like the perfect month for a photo of the day album.

Here are the products used:

My Crush Bluebird Book

My Crush Memories Assortment

My Crush My Favorites Assortment

Enjoy! And be sure to have fun with paper today!

Join Club CTMH

Close To My Heart is a great company to team up with to start your own business. Take a look at this video and see why.

I have more info on my Join CTMH tab above or go here to join now.

Getting Ready for Christmas

Here are two more projects from last weekend's holiday card workshop.

I love the look of the tri-fold card. I guess it is all the different papers that draw me to it. True- there is no good place for a signature. I have left that space next to the reindeer for the signature. But I know many card makers using this design just write on the back. Despite having little room to write, this card is a winner. People look at it with a wow. Yet, it is an easy card to make; it just doesn't look like it.

The base paper is 12 by 5 1/2. I used ruby card stock. At the 2 inch mark, I cut at 1 1/2 inch to the 10 inch mark. Turn the paper over and do the same thing. 

Next, score the paper at 2 inches, 4, 8, and 10. Then the folding. Basically you need to make sure that your fold are opposite. I think this is the only hard part. Take at look at the above picture to see the folds. 

Now it is time to decorate and embellish your card. You can go simple or elaborate. It is all up to you. This is the card flat on the table.

I used the Sparkle and Shine paper pack and the Santa Claus stamp set. The reindeer and believe are cut from the Artbooking Cricut cartridge. 

This treat box was cut out of Sparkle and Shine paper using the Artiste Cricut cartridge. The stamp is the Holiday Tags set (a must for all card makers!). I also used some bakers twine and silver shimmer tape.

Be sure to have fun with paper today!