Hello Thursday . . . on Sunday!

Oops!  I totally forgot to post about July's Hello Thursday releases last week.  The cartridge I was sent is called Art Nouveau, and it is a NEW style Cricut has not offered before. The images and fonts are absolutely Historical Elegance! The inspiration came from vintage jewelry, architecture and home décor, as well as a love for this specific style from the artist.

The cartridge includes: 50 full images with layers which includes corner designs, 2 full fonts with layers and a few themed phrases.  You can see images HERE.  In the meantime, here's my project.

Poppy Card

Thanks for stopping in today!  I'll be back tomorrow with my August ScrapRoom Gallery projects.

Little Birdie Gift Bag

Summer is a time for birthdays in my family.  We have breen celebrating since June, and we aren't quite finished yet.  One more to go this weekend.  So today, I thought I'd share the sweet little gift bag I made.  Such an easy way to spruce up a simple gift.  Like a gift card . . . seems I'm giving more of those these days. 

Little Birdie Gift Bag

I love these kraft gift bags.  I buy them in a large pack in a variety of sizes and keep them on hand to make quick gift and treat bags.  It's so easy to cover the front in a little scrapbook paper and then hang a tag off the handle.  And I don't know about you, but I would feel super special receiving a homemade gift bag.

All the patterned papers are Pebbles:  one sheet from the Happy Go Lucky line combined with some scraps from the Tree House line.  All the bright colors were perfect for my project!

To add a little dimension to the bag, I created this layered flower.  To start, I "gathered" a 1" x 12" piece of patterened paper.  Then I looped it around, attached it, and glued it to a small punched circle.  Then, I used some foam adhesive to add a 2" circle and then a sticker.  Add a couple of leaves and you've got a fun flower!

All I did for my gift tag was cut it from the 12 x 12 paper it was printe on, round the corners, and add a button and some baker's twine.  It's like it was made to be a gift tag.  Sweet!

Thanks for popping in.  I'm off to stuff this bag and get ready to celebrate!  Have a great weekend.

Sneak Week

Yep, that's right.  It's sneak week at The ScrapRoom.  You can see one layout with each line in the August kits by popping over HERE to the blog.  Some serious eye candy with all the new lines and fabulous design team projects.  You're sure to be inspired.  Here's my layout using Little Yellow Bicycle's Sweet Summertime. 

Happy

How about that giant pinwheel, hun?  That just screams summer to me.  Stay tuned because I'll be posting a little tutorial on how to make it (and a couple of other versions) later in the month.

Another banner.  I can't help it; I'm still loving them.  This one, though, is a bit different because of the mix of shapes.  My fellow design team member Jenny Moore did a fab tutorial on this type of banner HERE at The ScrapRoom blog.  Enjoy!

Alright then, thanks for stopping by.  I'm back to my scraproom table, so I can get the rest of my August kit assignments finished in time for the gallery reveal on August 1st.  See ya then!

Christmas in July with Imaginisce

Today is the first day of the release party for Imaginisce's new Christmas line, Santa's Little Helper.  Such a cute line.  You will love it!  Here are my projects.

My Best Gifts

Holiday Smiles

Gift Tags



I just love all the different die cuts in this line.  I had a good time stringing, popping, and combining them to create fun embellishments on my layhouts.  Of course, I also had to add a little bling to them all using my i-Top.

To create the gift tags, I used my Cricut Expression and the Birthday Bash cartridge, which has tons of diffferent card shapes on it.  This scalloped circle shape was cut at 4" from kraft cardstock.  Then I simply layered on some paper, a sticker, a bow, and an i-top brad.  I'll write the To and From inside. 

If you like this line, then you will certainly want to head over to the Imaginisce blog HERE so you can see more great projects every day this week.  Have a great day!

NEW from Cricut!

Introducing the Cricut Mini™ Personal Electronic Cutter—an all-new machine that makes home, school, business, craft, décor, party, and DIY projects simple and fun. The Cricut Mini™ machine is a small, lightweight, ultra-portable way to make almost anything you want out of many different types of materials, including thick and thin paper, fabric, vinyl, magnetic material, craft foil, and lots more. With the Cricut Mini™ machine, it’s easier than ever to make projects and be more creative!

 

FEATURES & BENEFITS

• Simply plug it in, turn it on, connect to the Cricut Craft Room Application – the online design tool where you can see and design with the Cricut Cartridge libary – and start making projects.
• Includes a cartridge port to link all your cartridges to the Cricut Craft Room Application.
• Cuts paper, cardstock, vinyl, magnetic material, fabric, craft foil, sticker paper, and lots more.
• Works with Windows and Mac computers with a standard wireless or wired Internet connection.
• Cuts on 8.5″ x 12″ materials. Cut small shapes and fonts from 1/4″ up to 11.5″!
• Small, portable, and lightweight for ultra space saving.
• Extremely precise and detailed cutting capability.

 

WOW!  I am soooooo super excited about this little guy.  Mostly because I love Cricut Craft Room.  Have you seen it yet?  No?  Well, here's a bit about it too.

The Cricut Craft Room Application is the must-have online design tool for any Cricut machine owner, and it’s also a great tool for those interested in learning about the bast library of Cricut cartridge artwork. The Cricut Craft Room Application allows you to design and personalize projects from any Windows or Macintosh computer with an Internet connection. Now you can design on a full screen with the entire Cricut cartridge libary. Finding a particular image in the Cricut cartridge library is simple with the application’s smart search capabilities.

 

The Cricut Craft room is Application expands your creativity – whether you’re a casual crafter or long-time Cricut machine user – with intuitive features that make tasks like welding, grouping, adding text, and adding color as simple as clicking a button. The application allows you to preview a fully designed project before you press cut to avoid mistakes and do-overs.

  

FEATURES & BENEFITS

• Access online from anywhere, anytime
• Intuitive, easy-to-use program
• Design on a big screen
• View and design with all Cricut cartridges
• Search to easily find the right image
• Storage for your cartridges and projects
• Share and collaborate on projects
• Windows and Mac compatible
• No charge

I don't know about you, but I can't wait until both of these products are ready for me to try out.  Stay tuned!

It's That Time Again!

CHA time, that is.  The blogs are full of amazing new products being released soon.  I have quite a long list of favorites.  BUT . . . before I allow myself to purchase a little lot of new scrappy supplies, I need to make a little room.  Good news for some of my scrappy friends who live nearby.  There are some bags with your names on them.  However, there are some paper lines that I just had to use one last time.  Today, I have a card made with one of my faves.

Be Mine

This card was made with Pebbles' Twitterpated.  I didn't have very much of this line left, mostly scraps.  I had saved all the little barcode strips,though, because they had patterns on the back.  Too neat!  And that is how the idea for this card was born.

I used my Cricut Expression and Plantin Schoolbook cartridge to cut a 3.75" heart from white cardstock.  Behind it, I added the barcode strips to a piece of brown patterned paper and then used foam adhesive to add the white heart on top.  LOVE the dimension it gave to my card.  A couple of stickers and a threaded button and all done.  Super easy, but oh so cute!

Now that I have made a little extra room in my Pebbles vertical paper holder, I can order this new line called Fresh Goods.  Yikes!  This one is CA-UTE!

Oh my stars . . . did you see the barcode strips on this one?  Sweet!

My FAVORITE!

Today I wanted to share my favorite Cricut Circle project that I've created so far.  (To learn more about joining the Circle, go HERE.)  This one uses My Mind's Eye Stella and Rose papers and brads and my Cricut Expression, of course. 

Brighter

These photos were taken at the beach last summer.  I think that's the one place my family slows down enough to take some group shots, and I cherish them all year. 

To create the sun, seagulls, pelican, grasses, and buoys, I used the Life's A Beach cartridge.  Being from Louisiana, I especially love the pelican cut.  In fact, that summer we saw a huge bird similar to a pelican at the water's edge at sunset.  Gorgeous! 

The title is a combination of letters and shadows from Plantin Schoolbook and mini alphabet stickers from My Little Shoebox.  To finish it off, I added some buttons, brads, and different colored twines.

So, what are you creating with the Cricut these days?  I'd sure like to have a peek.

Have a great day!

A CHA Must Have!

Imaginisce is releasing four collections at CHA.  All are super cute!  But the one featured on the blog today is my favorite.  Take a look at Geek is Chic.

You can see all the papers and embellishments at the Imaginisce blog HERE.  Oh, and for more of Imaginisce's CHA releases, go take a little look see at the Product Gallery at Imaginisce's website HERE. 

So, what's your favorite?

Birthday By the Shore

Every summer my family takes a trip to the beach.  Last year, we almost didn't get to go due to the oil spill in the Gulf.  We cancelled our trip scheduled for Memorial Day because we just weren't sure what the beaches would be like.  But by summer's end the beaches were nice and clean and our rental agency offered us a discounted rate at a different condo, so we were off just in time to celebrate my oldest son's birthday.  Today, I want to share the birthday layout that I created for Cricut Circle.

Birthday By the Shore

I used Girls' Paperie On Holiday papers and three fab Cricut carts:  Birthday Bash, Life's A Beach, and Create A Critter.  Not your typical birthday layout, but I think it captures our memory well.

You can find a variety of layouts and other projects at the Cricut Circle Blog and Magazine.  For information on how to join, go HERE.

Thanks for stopping by!

Thrifty Thursday: My First Coupon Haul

It seems that every where I turn, people are talking about couponing.  I've seen blog posts, news stories, and friends chatting about how much money there is to be saved by clipping coupons.  So, I've decided to take a stab at it.  Nothing extreme, mind you.  Just a chance to save my family a few dollars.

First, I got organized.  I put together a binder very similar to the one I saw HERE.  However, I don't plan to take my binder into the grocery store, so I used a regular three-ring binder with plastic pocket dividers and baseball card sleeves.  Simple.

I snagged this zipper pouch from my son.  He barely used it last year, so it was in good shape.  I keep my pens and a calculator in there.

These pocket dividers are for me to keep store specific items in.  This blue one is for Krogers.  It has the sales flyer, a list of all my digital coupons that are loaded onto my Kroger card, my shopping list, and the coupons that correspond to that week's list.  I have another divider for Target and Dollar General.

And these are the baseball card sleeves.  My son got a binder with 100 pages in it from K-Mart for $19.99.  He gave me about 20 of the pages and we were both happy.  I have one page for each of my categories, which I got from the Kroger website.  That's my main store, so it works to use their coupon categories.

Once my husband saw how serious that I was about couponing, he set about to giving me a brand new pantry that would accommodate all my stockpiles of food.  Ha ha!  Seriously, though, the pantry I was using was a whopping 26" x 38".  So, we converted a half bath into a new 58" x 67" pantry.  Yayy!!!

The wall you can see is the shorter of the two walls.  I can't get a photo of the other one, but it is larger and holds all my canned goods, baking items, extra sodas, paper goods, and much more.

Ok, so are you ready to see my first haul?  I shopped the Wednesday weekly ad at Kroger, and I used my e-coupons, Sunday newspaper coupons, and 10 for $10 Kroger specials to get all of this.

These 23 items would have cost $63.45, but I paid just $29.25.  That's a savings of $34.20 or 54%.  Wooo hooo!!!  Next time, I'll be able to save even more by purchasing more of the 10 for $10 items.  I didn't really get how much you save with those items, so I purchased 10 total by mixing and matching.  Next time, I'll get 10 of each item and see how that works out.

This was my first trip, so I'm feeling pretty good about my savings.  And, best of all, it didn't take me very long to organize my list and my coupons.  I'm hoping to keep learning more ways to save, quickly and simply of course.  Do you coupon?  Do you have any great tips to share?  I'd sure love to hear them.



July @ The ScrapRoom

This month's Flavors of the Month kit at The ScrapRoom is HOT!  Bright colors, fun patterns, and summer embellishments.  I had a great time creating my gallery items this month.  Here, take a look.

Cool in the Pool

For this layout, I combined some Lily Bee's This and That with Pink Paislee's Hometown Summer.  I thought the bright reds and yellows were perfect for this photo of my oldest son trying to beat the heat in the kiddie pool.

Ready to Ride

Yeah, he just thinks he's going for a ride.  Hee hee!  But this We R Memory Keepers Travel Light line had just the right colors for these cute pics of my little guy sitting on top of his Paw Paw's motorcycle.

Laugh

I think this is my Fav.O.Rite layout this month.  It's a mixture of papers from all four of the FOTM kits.  Anything with red, yellow, black, or blue was fair game.  I didn't really have any embellishments that worked, so I created my own.  Some stacked butterflies and a little banner type bow.

Tea Party 2009

And fianlly, a girly layout.  I've been waiting to scrap this photo of the girls at my tea party for a while.  And I never would have guessed that I'd like purple on a layout.  It helps that this Fancy Pants line is so whimsical.  Fun!

  Summertime Card

Sweet Card


Pretty awesome kit, hun?  You can see the kit and more gallery items HERE at The ScrapRoom.  Be careful, though, you are soooo going to want to buy it.  LOL!

New Sketch Challenge

Imaginisce just posted a new sketch challenge today.  Since I created the sketch, I was feeling like I should participate.  Ha!  Anyhoo, here's the sketch and my take on it.

This sketch challenge comes with a little twist, though.  Your project also needs to be monochromatic.  Good one, hun?  Well, for me, it was definitely a challenge.  I like bright and bold.  Anyway, I was able to pull it together using papers from Berrylicious and Happy Harvest, Roly Rosey packaging, and Happy Harvest die cuts and stickers.

Thankful Card

For all the details about the July challenge and to see more projects inspired by the sketch, pop on over to the Imaignisce blog HERE.  Can't wait to see what you create!