Winter CHA 2012 In review...

Today I had the opportunity to visit the Craft and Hobby Association trade show and explore what is up and coming in the crafting world. This years show there were sever come backs to the industry that have been lying low for the past few years. Heidi Swap is back with new papers and embellishments following her classic patterns but with new twists. One "twist" was her line of mistable papers and embellishments that can be misted, inked, chalked, etc to make fun multi-color custom papers and embellishments. These items were a standout for me from her collection. I'm always looking for multipurpose scrapbook supplies that are versatile... and being able to pick my own colors is fantastic.

Something near and dear to me with my love of my Cricut, was Provo Crafts releases... they had 3 major things that were notable to me: 1. A new cartridge "tags, bags, boxes and more #2", 2. A scoring blade/tool 3. Gel pens with holder. These three items may not seem like anything too special, but it's the combination of them that make them spectacular! The TBBM2 cartridge has been designed to work with the scoring blade and gel pens! The cartridge will ask for the scoring blade/tool thing to be installed during the cut, it will then scoring the folding lines into the images, instead of those silly slits that had been previous included on cartridges where the item was to be folded. This will allow us to make far superior boxes and bags. Additionally they have added some fonts or perhaps they are just sayings... I didn't get this clarified, but either way you can have hand written looking messages on your products right from the cartridge! It certainly adds a personal touch.

Here is a look at the scoring "blade" as I call it, though it doesn't cut it only scoring...

A quick peek at the gel pens... these look strikingly similar to products that have been on the market from 3rd party companies for quite some time.

Thank you for taking a look. I have lots more to come, but it has been a long day!

Less is best

This year I have chosen to incorporate the word LESS into my life. This can lead to lots of things... less stress, less over sleeping, less late nights and not getting enough sleep, less clutter... I think you get the idea of what LESS means to me. I have fallen off the LESS wagon a bit with some sho

pping on ebay... I have purchased an excessive number of cartridges this month... but I have paid way LESS then retail price on them!

One focus I have for this year is to have LESS clutter in my scrapbook room and keep every thing tidy so I can spend more time scrapbooking and being creative. I have lost the passion in the past 6 months and am looking forward to getting back. As you can see in my previous post I have my scrapbook room pretty organized. Everything basically has a place... so now I am fine tuning all the storage and organizational methods to make me more efficient and to keep the clutter at bay.

I started with a small project organizing a bag of cut ribbons and trims I have. I had seen some expensive hangers for the ribbon and though I could make my own. With some cheap chip board, a paper trimmer, and my trusty crop-a-dile whole punch. I cut some 2.5" x 3" pieces punched a variety of holes some small and some larger, being sure to leave enough border so the chipboard didn't tear. I also punched a hole at the top so I could hold them together with some binder rings or metal shower curtain hooks.

Thanks for looking!

Happy New Year

In with the new and out with the old. With 2012 here, it was time to get my scrap room back in order. It's been a long process that has consumed most of my free time in 2011... but I'm finally happy with the outcome. Despite needing to go through my stuff and purging everything has a place!

Let's take a tour of my space.



Thanks for looking! Now it's time to get back to creating!

Cricut Case Covers

As requested through some members of the cricut circle... covers/inserts for solutions and seasonal cartridges to place into the new cricut plastic storage boxes. Below are PDF files of the cartridges I have completed so far. Please feel free to download them and print them out. The original images were taken from the cricut.com website information library, and shall only be used for personal use.




DOWNLOADS:
Blackletter
Christmas
Father's Day
Happy Graduation
Home Accents
Home Decor
Indie Art
Love Struck
Mother's Day 2010
Mother's Day Bouquet
Serenade
Stamping
Wedding

Download them all HERE.

Let's give this a try...again...

Well I fell off the blogging wagon once this year... let's give this a try again. Hopefully posting here will help me keep inspired and to keep creating. With winter approaching (though here in Southern California its not much of a winter) the nights come sooner and staying inside where it's warm and cozy is so appealing. It's time to get my studio organized and cleaned once and for all, which is this weekends project while its raining outside... and get back to crafting and exploring my cricut and all of my recent cartridge purchases that I have not had a chance to really play with! Here's to finishing off 2011 with lots of crafting and creative energy!

Valentine's Love

With Valentine's day tomorrow, I found a challenge on the My Mind's Eye blog that was perfect to get my mojo going on the perfect Valentine's Card. The best part was I had the perfect paper from MME I could use to get the job done!
This was the sketch they provided as the challenge:
With this sketch as my starting point here is the beautiful card I made for my Valentine.


I couldn't stop using this paper on just this card... so I decorated this little white mailbox from the $1 spot at target. I colored portions of the mailbox using Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks.


Thank you for looking! And have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Cricut Circle February Banner Challenge

I think it's time to bring back the good old scrappy blog... take a peak at all of my scrappy creations and scrappy happenings!This month the Cricut Circle is having a challenge for making a banner. As luck has it, I designed this wonderful banner that was a make and take at the Urban Escapes Retreat January 21-23, 2011 in Las Vegas. The banner was created using papers from Creative Imaginations, Prima, and American Crafts. It was embellished with flowers from Prima, and from the LA Garment District. The pink glitter ribbon was from Michael's Christmas ribbons, and the pearl bling from Want2Scrap. I used a variety of cartridges to cut the butter flies, bicycle, dress form, scallop circle, and letters.