Freezer Paper Images

I haven't posted in a few days because I've been SUPER busy getting ready for SonQuest Rainforest Vacation Bible School at church. We've been hanging paper vines throughout the fellowship hall and I've spent hours upon hours painting the backdrop for the sanctuary. I did have a chance to play around the other night, however, with the freezer-paper technique of designing shirts. (I say this like it was fun, but in all honesty I was trying it out to hopefully use it for one of the crafts!)

Here is a sock-monkey from B is for Boy on scrap white fabric. Two layers was a little difficult; I still need to work on that. I didn't finish him... just trying it out.

Next is a white birdhouse from botanicals on scrap black fabric. (You can kind of see something else I was doing through the freezer paper background... disregard that! lol)

And here is one layer of the HM guitar. I tried this image because after watching a YouTube video (CleverSomeday- strawberry shirt) to learn the process, HappyHappyJoyJoy has a video posted where she's making this picture. I thought I'd give it a shot! Not too bad!

That's all for now. Hopefully after the kids decorate their tote-bags during VBS I'll upload some pictures to share. Maybe before then I'll get crafty again. Who knows!


Life has been VBS VBS VBS for the past week. After next Sunday I'll be absolutely exhausted!

New Baby Book- VERY GIRLY :-)

Here is a baby book I worked on last night and finished today (after helping the mothership make her pond look gorgeous!). I love love love the paper and almost didn't use it, just because it was so pretty. I used the same G file that I used on the last book, but with the different paper and accent pieces I think it has a completely different look!

Now that I look at the pictures, the pastel colors don't show up very well in the photo (and the fact that I took it in a dark kitchen at 1 am... It's really cute, though. I love the babies! (One is missing a belly button, though... I need to fix that!)

Next page... I used mostly New Arrival, but also threw in Sugar and Spice and Paper Doll Dress Up, too!) I inked the edges of everything, and used my bind-it-all (1 1/4 inch) to bind it. If you don't have one of these machines, you have no idea what you're missing. Even the husband loves it, and he is not a fan of crafting!

The paper is from Brenda Watson (In the same set I used to make the FM album in my previous post). There were 18 sheets of paper in this grouping, I think I used 17 and a half of them! Her designs are so beautiful, and the colors are pretty easy to match! (I love the safety pins... I used a silver marker to color the "metal" part. TOO CUTE!)

Next page... *sigh* I wish you could see the detail in the paper. The pictures truly don't do this book justice!

I LOVE the carriage on Sugar and Spice! And right now I'm addicted to the MS punch... it just sat on my table waiting to be incorporated into this book! I also used Stampin' Up blender pens A LOT. I've got a couple sets of the Stampin' Spots, and the colors i have seem to flow seamlessly into the design.

I put the MS border around the edge of the "giftbasket" which I thought was pretty cute! I colored the bottle and bear with the blender pens, the rolled towel is a different purple pattern from the set.

I love ribbon, too, if you haven't noticed! And this page is SO adorable! I love those dresses (cuts from PDDU). I thought the matted dresses matched the paper so well (the yellow one is the paper). Another example of bad photography: you can barely see the bottle in the corner. In real life, it really shows up nicely.

Here is the back page, I used one of the stork blankets to sign my name. I can't WAIT to get my stamp in the mail. It's going to be AWESOME :-) I do kind of like personalizing the books with an image that matches, though. And since I usually cut out about 5 times as many things as I need to, I've always got plenty of cuts to choose from!

And now my post at 3 am is finally finished. I think I rambled a lot, but it's because I'm kind of hyped up. The Martha Stewart Cake premiered on HSN tonight, and I won a cartridge through a contest they were having on Facebook. I can't seem to sleep, now!

Amore Album

Last night while using my Cricut to cut out pieces for a new baby book I'm in the process of creating, I decided to use my scraps to make a simple album using French Manor. The book is 6 inches tall and the longest page is 12 inches wide.

Pretty simple and classy, I think. The journaling spot on the first page is for explaining what's in the book, or to/from if it was a gift.

I used a Martha Stewart punch to do the borders in black. I just thought that page needed something!

I LOVE the furniture on this cart. And the borders! The next page is pretty simple... I might go back and add something. It would work great for a close-up portrait, though!

And the next page

I wish I had some different ribbon on here, but I don't think I've ever used black/ivory as my color scheme so I had to use what I had on hand. That consisted of skinny black, skinny ivory, skinny polka-dots, and thick polka-dots.

I LOVE the peacock. I didn't put his tail on straight on purpose, just to give it some depth. And the chair is just to cute. And I love the border... which reminds me how much I love my Gypsy!

And on the back I had this amazing frame left over (You can't see the ivory details, but trust me, they're there!) so I used it to write my name on, along with a cute little bird cut.

All of the paper came from a new stack I bought at ACM's by Brenda Watson. The new Baby Book is using her paper, too. I love her designs!!

New Baby Book

I started this a couple of months ago but I couldn't finish it for some crazy reason... It's intentions were to go to my mom's co-worker who was expecting, but I just could not finish it. So, I put it away for awhile and last night got it back out and poof! it's done! Luckily I had the gypsy file saved so there was no worry about sizing and pieces I had thought about using.

Here are the first two pages, where a little note for the mom/baby would go...

Next pages... the outfits are kind of hard to see, but I inked the edges so in real life it doesn't hurt your eyes like it does on here!

And then... some of the frames have little pearls on the corners, and you can't really see the cute green stork above the frame on the second page.

I just loved the presents and outfit on this page... there is a pearl on the flower of the shirt, and the rattle has pearls, too. One of the packages has stickles on the "ribbon" to make it sparkle!

Here is the matching page...

Here is a closeup of the pearls that you can't see on the other pictures... not that you can really see it on here, either.

More details that don't clash in real life...

And lastly, here is the back. I ordered a personalized stamp in the mail a few days ago to "brand" my work, but it hasn't come yet. Until then I'll continue my tradition of just writing my name. This little onesie says "Made with 100% LO<3VE" :-)

I think it's b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l and it will probably make a good gift one day.

New Project Stuff

Here is a pack of 12x24 awesome K&Company paper I picked up from Michaels on Monday. Guess how much it cost!?! $6.99... no joke! They only had 2 packs left, so of course I bought both of them! I love it! I can't wait to make something with it- it's so glossy!

And next is a book wreath I made using part of one of the husband's old police books. The pages were pretty big; next time I'll cut them first (or use smaller pages)! Not bad for a first try, I think!

The next project was a card I made using a new stamp I got for a dollar. I also got a chance to use my new Botanicals and Hannah Montana cartridges. Yay! I think it's cute. I used a water color pen thing to color the paper blue, and have a matching cut-out on the inside. I also got a chance to play with the pearls I got (also on sale at Michaels!)

And for my most proud project I've completed in the past few days... a layout using pictures from our Bermuda (2008) vacation.

I think it's absolutely beautiful! I scraplifted the design from someone on the Cricut messageboard, but of course added my own spin to it. Here's a closer look.

It looks SO much better in real life. I've got little golden gems hidden in the coral, and the treasure chest is filled with gems and pearls. I used pop-dots to make the layout 3-Dish, as well. I didn't have a 6x4 picture of the husband, so I used what I did have along with pictures of little fish he spent the day taking pictures of. I think it turned out really well. Now if only I could spend so much time working on each page... maybe I'll eventually get finished!

And that's all for now. It's not all I've done since my last post, but it's enough to share for now. I've got a couple other things in the works :-).

Fourth of July cake

I made a strawberry-flavored cake for my Children's Church kids for the 4th of July.

I thought it turned out okay. Some days seem to go better than others in cutting fondant! I tried cutting "God Bless America" about 50 dozen times, but to no avail, so it went without. The fireworks randomly cracked after I put them on there, I don't know what that issue was. The country cut-out and the stars turned out nicely, though! And I got some extra practice rolling fondant. My baking skills are... coming along! haha

Edible Glass

On Saturday I had a chance to play around with a few new things I've seen on the Cricut Messageboards. One of my newfound projects is edible glass! It's actually sugar, and clearly I still need lots of practice to make it see-through and tint-able, but it wasn't terrible for a first try! Oh- and this is AFTER i broke it apart. It did look better than that initially. :-)

Cricut Circle Welcome Kit: French Manor Cartridge

Yay! My Welcome Kit from Cricut Circle FINALLY came today! I couldn't wait to open the box and play with my new French Manor cartridge. Here is a beautiful birdcage I cut. Now off to play... just wanted to share!