Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas!!!  Can't believe I have not posted anything or crafted. I was sick for about two weeks, and the other time was spent Christmas shopping. Usually I have all my shopping done weeks in advance, so that I can wrap the presents and enjoy looking at them under the tree.  This year I was still wrapping on Christmas Eve, and making Christmas tags with my Cricut. 

 I used Very Merry Tags and cut every shape at 3".  I must have a coordinating tree from the ornaments, wrapping paper and tags.

I was so pleased that my husband did not mind me having a pink, black and silver tree this year.

Handmade Glitter Ornaments

Want to make a mess free sparkly glitter ornaments for Christmas? Then buy clear ornaments and gently remove the hanging part. Then I added some Mop & Glo and swirl it all around and empty into a glass. Leave ornament upside down until all the dripping has stopped.

Add any color of glitter inside. I prefer Martha Stewart fine glitter. She has so many pretty colors, and you can mix them together to create a new shade as well. Shake out excess glitter, and place top back on. The glitter looks clean and sparkly in the inside. I even added a some tulle bows to give it a little something extra. You can decorate with buttons, ribbons, rhinestones and so much more.

PS- Last year I glued glitter on the outside and it was messy and hard to hang the bulbs to dry.



Happy Thanksgiving 2010!

I hosted Thanksgiving this year for 26 family members.  We had a lot of fun, and since I am not a big cook, my MIL offered to make the Turkey, and I volunteered to decorate.  At the last minute (3 days in advance) my friend encouraged me to brine the turkey with her recipe.  She helped and did most the work since I hate to touch raw meat.

Before:

Doesn't it look pretty while brining? Soaking in apple juice, oranges, and a lot of fresh herbs.

After:

After an hour of cooking we pulled out the turkey and wrapped it with bacon.  I am so happy I did not burn it, it came out really juicy.

This is a cornucopia I put together for my head table.  I used Martha Stewart glitter on some of the vegetable to accent them.  We nicknamed the Turkey "red neck."

Dessert table set-up.  Valerie hand made all the mini-apple pies and they were delicious.  Poor thing was up until 3am the night before making 26 pies.  Each guest took one home.

This wreath was extremely easy and inexpensive to make.  I made two for the front doors.

Baby Shower Onesie Card

I made this card for Alison's baby shower and had matching colors as the diaper cake.  I used design studio to weld the onesie card from Wall Decor and More.  Since that cart did not have a shadow effect I cut a second onesie for the top layer a little smaller then hand cut with scissors to make it fit.  I then ran it through the Cuttlebug and embossed the dots.  The font was welded from Storybook, added Glossy Accents and rhinestones, and I was done.

My First Diaper Cake...For Baby Sophia

This was my first attempt at making a diaper cake for my good friend Alison's Baby Shower.  I loved the way it turned out, and I think it really helped that Alison chose pink (my favorite color) and lime green for her new baby Sophia.  I bought items from her registry and either used them on the cake or inside the cake for more support.  Look closely at all the pictures and you may see her items.

I also used mostly Wall Decor on my Cricut cartridge for the baby items cut out, and my Cuttlebug to emboss.  Hope you enjoy!

Baby bottles, bottle brush, toys, blankets, diapers, pacifiers and more



Halloween Costume...Barbie in a Box

In September we went to New York City and had an awesome vacation.  While I was there I went to FAO Schwartz and was able to customize my very own Barbie doll, she even came out on a runway for a fashion show.  Since I was creating the doll, I tried to make her look like me, and I even chose an outfit I might wear.

For our Annual costume party this year I wanted to be a little bit more creative (I refuse to buy a store bought costume in a bag).  I had the idea to be a life size Barbie in a box, and make her look like the doll I created in NYC.  After only having a week until our party I needed to move quickly.  Since I tend to be a perfectionist, and my box was having some issues, I realized I just had to deal with it.  

I bought the wardrobe box from U-Haul for about $12, then we cut it open and made a couple reinforcements with extra cardboard.  The piece on the left is going to become the door or the front to the box.

Then I primed the box and found Barbie wrapping paper, and lined the entire inside of the box (took 2 rolls).  I then took my NYC Barbie box to Home Depot to match the outside of the box perfectly the hot pink paint.

For the first time ever I figured out how to take an image into Illustrator and convert it into an SVG file for my Sure Cuts A Lot.  As you can see above the Barbie logo head and the Barbie font logo for the front were cut on SCAL, and backwards so the pink vinyl sticky side would be facing up as well as the Mattel logo (front and back).  I then used Martha Stewart Glitter and made a huge mess ;)  

We then added a clear shrink wrap package to the front, and a black belt for support to hold the box up and above my head, and the Barbie sign was to suppose to hide the black belt.  However, I forgot to make the belt smaller before getting into the box, so the box hung down low and rested on my head. As you will see I had to prop the box up with my arms.

And here is the final product.  I am really glad I did not spend more time making more details since I probably wore the costume for about 10 mins.

Out of my two brothers one really gets into Halloween as well and will get creative, the other one has no desire to dress up.  I really liked Derohn's Jack in the Box costume.  He made it out of paper mache, and even showed up with 40 tacos from Jack in the Box.

Here are some of the girls; Nas was Lucille Ball, Villy in black, was very clever as "static cling" and our very cute pregnant friend Alison was from Juno.  We had a great time!!!

Scrapbook LO

Here are a couple layouts...

 The black flower above, is just tulle wrapped around a brad

I love pink, black, skulls and rhinestones...

Happy Halloween Banner

I made a quick and easy "Happy Halloween" banner with paper from Target's $1 bin.  They had really cute glitter paper, but it was a little thin and my paper curled a little.  The orange is vinyl cut with SCAL.



I am Finally Back with Halloween Updates

I feel like I have been away so long, I went to NYC for a week came back and left for Washington DC soon after.  Then returning had to finish up on my Halloween Decorations I was trying to make for our annual Halloween party.  I have been so busy, and now am feeling a little caught up, and will have a lot to post shortly.

I found this video on Michael's website to make this cute mummy.  It required 3 plastic pumpkins in different sizes, Rigid Wrap, Cheese Cloth, wood board, paint, and I used my Cricut to cut out vinyl lettering.  This was a very easy project to make.

Mummy's sign says "You Scared Me Stiff"

I am Back....

I came back from NYC, and with in a short time left for Washington DC. I feel I am lacking sleep and have not crafted at all in the past month.  We saw Obama land in front of the White House.

Excited about NYC...

So my husband and I leave for NYC on Tuesday, and are super excited.  Today my husband received a phone call from the David Letterman show, asking him a trivia question about the show. He answered it correctly and then they offered us 2 tickets to the show.  It should be a lot of fun and we can't wait to see the show live.

Happy Birthday Sou

My friend Sou's favorite color is purple, so I had to make an all purple card.  I finally was able to use my new Cricut Lite "Celebrate with Flourish" cart that I had since they came out and cut the Happy Birthday.  I honestly can't remember the size I cut, I think around 3" and the card is 6"x 6".

Menu and Cards for Kristin's Party

Kristin asked if I could make a couple menu cards, guestbook card and another card for her guests to take home a special pin for a woman in their life.  I coordinated all cards to match the invitations.

Cupcake Birthday Card for Tracy

Here is a 5" x 7" hot pink, white and teal birthday card I made for my SIL using Sweet Treats cupcakes 1.  I cut 3 cupcake at 1.5" in three different colors.  Embossed with Cuttlebug Swiss Dots, and added some Stickels to the cupcakes.

Tickets using Cricut

For the surprise birthday we had rented a 45 passenger limo bus, from Cali Party Bus (if your in San Diego check out this company for your next limo).  We decided to hand out tickets to make sure that everyone made it on the bus, and some have cute sayings on the back telling people something to do while on the bus.

I used my new cart Summer Vacation and cut the ticket at 1.5" and added my own black backing.

5 Easy Steps to a Birthday Invitation...Fast and Easy to Make

I have been wanting to post this 30th birthday invitation I made for my SIL, but had to wait until her surprise birthday party was over, since she is a follower on my site.

This is a really easy birthday invitation to make. Here are the 5 simple steps.

1. Cut black cardstock at 5" x 7"

2. Cut white cardstock at 4.5" x 6.5"

3. Design wording in MS Word, run white paper thru printer

4. Use a punch out of a cupcake (I used the MS punch and cut black and pink glitter, then cut off pink tops and placed over black, also embossed black thru CB)

5. Adhere all layers

Invitations using my Cricut

Here is a quick explanation of how I made the invitations using my Cricut.  I cut the colored card stock at 5" x 7". I then cut the white card stock at 6" x 6" then ran the white sheets thru my printer for the wording.  I then placed (4) white invitations onto my Cricut mat and cut out my marquee at 4".  I then used orange and teal paper, and cut the shadow marquee at 4" as well.  The design was cut from page 55 of Storybook called swirl at 2" and some at 2 1/4".

PS- I did have everything on DS and my laptop crashed at that final moment, I then had to manual cut everything out.