When life hands you scraps...turn it into art!

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Thursday, April 28, 2011

Some Bunny Loves You

I know Easter has come and gone, but I forgot to post the cards I made up for the adults in our life.  I found the stamp in a bargain bin at JoAnn's Fabrics...I'm tellin' ya, keep your eye out, you'll never know what treasure you'll find in a $1 bin ;)  I used the Create A Critter cart (AGAIN) to make up the cute little bunny rabbits (2 1/2"), and included a personal photo of my son with the Easter Bunny.  Simple, yet thoughtful!

Enjoy!

From an army of bunnies...
...to this cute little Rabbit

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Who Dosen't Love Blog Candy???

My daily visit to K. Andrew's Blog has lead me to another really cool site...go check out Noah's Ark Two by Two and become a follower (and a couple other steps) to be entered for a chance to win an amazing package of Blog Candy!

Good luck to you all!!!

Monday, April 25, 2011

Winning an E2...dream come true!

The folks over at Everyday Cricut are giving away an E2...how awesome would that be to win!  Head on over to their Blog to see how to enter!  Good luck to you all!

Hoppy Easter Kiddos

What a great Easter we had yesterday!  Surrounded by our families, enjoying the company & great food that was prepared was so amazing!  We had 4 little ones hopping around the yard for eggs this year, and all so adorable in their own special way...these are the cards I made for each of the kids "treat bags" this year!

All four of the characters on the cards were cut at 3" from the Create A Critter cart (please don't mind the silly little phrases, LOL).

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Let's Play

Man, four days without a Blog post...I've really been slacking!  Well, I've actually been working away on a couple of really big projects, but I can't post about them because they are gifts.  I've also been working on some Mother's Day projects (which aren't going so well), and I'm SO behind on my Easter cards this year...there's just not enough time in the evening after I put my son to bed to get it all done!

Anyway...I thought I'd dig something out of the archives to share with you all today!  I made this invitation for my sons 2nd Birthday Party this past October.  I enlisted my mom to help me assemble the 20 invites, and boy was I glad I did, she had a great idea to use "googly eyes" instead of paper, turned out so cute.  While the character wasn't that intricate, it does help to have someone assembling while you're cutting with the Cricut.  It's good social time too ;)

Here he is...the roughest, toughest cowboy around, Sheriff Woody!!!


Saturday, April 16, 2011

Sisters are a girls best friends!

Tonight I'll be celebrating my middle sisters "Dirty Thirty!"  I wanted to make her a card that was fun...but not dirty ;)  Since I've had so much fun using the Create A Critter cart lately, I stuck with that, and came up with this little number.  I'm hoping this one makes the fridge, LOL!!!


Front - Hippo was cut at 3", pond at 1 1/2", grass at 2", phrase at 1 1/2"
Inside - Phrase at 2 1/2" and Tulip at 3"

Friday, April 15, 2011

It's a Zoo Out There

I had the pleasure of making a new friend at a baby shower recently, and she's expecting her first little bundle of joy in a few months. She knows she's having a boy (yeah for boys), and wanted me to make her a name book to showcase some special photos of her son-to-be!

The nursery theme is monkey's, and the colors are espresso, sage & yellow...so awesome! I wanted the book to have a little variety, so I decided on a zoo theme (and Mom agreed) instead of doing 6 monkey layouts, and here's what the Mommy-to-be received!!!












Now for some detail:
























Thursday, April 14, 2011

Love Link Up Party

So I'm gonna give this a shot...over at K. Andrew (and a few other sites), we've got this "Link Up Party" going on...it's a fantastic way for all of us creative crafty types to find other inspiring blogs to read & learn!  I've already found a ton of great people, and have found that I'm gaining followers myself everyday thanks to these Link Up's!  Have a blast checking out other Blogs, and make sure to leave them some love...I know it makes my day when I see great comments on my stuff here!

Have a wonderful day!!!



Wednesday, April 13, 2011

300 Follower Giveaway

Head on over to Diana's Blog for your chance to win a $15 JoAnn's giftcard & an adorable set of (4) chick cards!

Personalize It

I've previously posted the Autograph Book I made for my son to collect character signatures, but I put a little personal twist on the book this past weekend.  We were celebrating my niece & nephews birthdays and thought that since they'd be heading to Disneyland later this year they should have an autograph book no one else in the park could possibly have!

Here they are:













 

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

200 Follower Giveaway

Head on over to Crafting with Natasha, follow her Blog for a chance to win some awesome Blog Candy and to see her wonderful creations!

Grandparents x's Three

I grew up with the most amazing grandparents, so I really value the relationship between a grandchild and his/her grandparents.  My son is lucky enough to have 3 sets who love him very much!

Two Grandmas recently celebrated birthdays, and Mother's Day is just around the corner..so it was my goal to create something for each of them that they could treasure forever, and what Grandma doesn't love to show off her grandchildren???

No two, or three, Grandmas are exactly the same, so each of their books are a little different.


























K:

























I:

























D:

























S:

























Monday, April 11, 2011

More celebrations = More cards


It was a busy weekend, filled with celebrating not one, but FIVE birthdays!!! A few of them were overdue celebrations, but it's never too late to show someone you care, and are thinking of them, right?!?!


This first card was inspired by Monique Griffith Designs Blog Post back on March 29th, and I thought I'd give it a go. I was worn out after folding all that paper, so my center cut wasn't too elaborate. I'll be trying it again to see if I can perfect it a little better.




The next card was another attempt at incorporating buttons (the newest addition to my craft craze). If I had more time, I think I would have used a bigger base card, and had a bigger balloon bouquet, but I like it.






The third card was for my oldest niece, Sophia, who turned 8 in February (yeah, this one was REALLY late). I'm in love with the Create A Critter cart, and thought this one was just perfect for a young girl.






Using the same cart (Create A Critter), I made my youngest nephew a card for his 4th Birthday (just around the corner).






And lastly, my husbands step-dad, my son's Peppere birthday card...it's simple, semi-manly (LOL) and it gets the point across. The Celebrations cart was used to create both the words & party hat!



I know the quality of photos is lacking in this post, but when it's 12:45 a.m., and you've got an alarm (my toddler) that is set to go off around 6:30 a.m., you'll take what you can get! Happy Crafting, and thanks for coming by!!!

Proud Moment...1st Blog Award


Hi All!


I was so excited when I checked my e-mail this morning and found that a fellow Blogger, Kathlee, has honored me with the Versitile Blogger Award! I'm amazed at how supportive all of the crafters are out there of us all, I'm so happy to be in the mix with you all now. Thanks again to Kathlee, you made my morning!



So here are the rules...


1. Thank the person who presented me with this award (CHECK)

2. Tell 7 things about myself

3. Pass it on to 15 Bloggers



Here goes the 7 things about myself...



1. I've got 8 weeks left to go until I have my 2nd baby.

2. I hate eating noises (i.e. people smacking their food, or talking with their mouth open...YUCK)

3. I dream about my next layout.

4. I try and laugh more than I cry.

5. I never get tired of hearing my sons little voice.

6. I could eat ice cream after every meal.

7. I'm a reality TV junkie.


Wow, that was harder than I thought...I hope I didn't bore you, LOL!


So now, onto the 15 Bloggers! I'm finding so many cool people through this Link Up Party over at Made by Momo so it should be pretty easy for me to name 15 people I've been inspired by recently:


1. Meg - she's my sister, and fellow Blogger (and I think she's amazing, check her out)


3. Kim







10. Sue

11. Trish

12. Amanda

13. Jovan

14. Angela

15. Deena


I'm so lucky I'm able to dabble in the crafting world, and it's so amazing to see all of your work...it's truly inspiring! Happy Crafting all, now go out and spread some love to more fellow crafters!!!

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Button Up

I've been seeing buttons popping up all over cards & layouts these days, so I wanted to try and spruce up an early Mother's Day card I was making.



Here's the outcome:



I used the Plantin SchoolBook Cricut Cart to cut the grass/flowers at the bottom of the card (5" wide x 3" tall) and used small Zots to adhere the buttons over the flowers. The card title was also cut from Plantin using the Design Studio to weld the letters together. Background paper was from an old "stack" I had lying around.


All in all, I'm REALLY happy with the way this one turned out!

Friday, April 8, 2011

You're Invited

My youngest niece is turning ONE! I wanted to help my sister create an amazing invitation to send out to celebrate this very special day, and she decided on a Disney Princess theme! We bought the Happily Ever After cart, and decided to use Cinderella & Snow White as the 2 main characters. We couldn't very well let the inside of the invitation go out plain, so we picked Dopey for the inside of Snow White, and a glass slipper for the inside of Cinderella.


Snow White, Cinderella & Dopey were all cut at 5" and put on a glitter mat (any smaller and it becomes very difficult to place all of the layers together), and the glass slipper was cut at 3". The invitation stamp is combination of a Reflections set & a Stampendous set.


Here is the final product...while it was A LOT of hard work (12 hours to assemble 36 invitations, with 3 people working on them), it was well worth it for our little princess Marley:







Thursday, April 7, 2011

A Mermaid's Crafts Blog Candy

Head over to "A Mermaid's Crafts," she's got some awesome Blog Candy up for grabs. She does some awesome paper crafting too, so follow along and she what she's creating! All you have to do is click on the title of this post, and it'll take you right to her Blog :D

Big Love for my Little Man

My cup runneth over...I never knew my heart could love so deeply! Don't get me wrong, I love my family, I adore my husband, but the love for your child compares to nothing else in life! I think that's why I am so mushy about this post, LOL!



There's really not much you can do to celebrate an infants 1st Valentine's Day, so all I did was throw on his bib and snap a few pictures (okay, there's a TON)...it's still worth documenting in his scrapbook, right?!?! That's the first of the two pages in this layout. The second page, "Cupid's Cutie," has to do with a contest he won on my "Mommy Message Boards," What To Expect When You're Expecting website. I submitted that picture, and he received the most votes and WON! His first award, it was a proud Mommy Moment (still is I guess).



The pages were put together with a $1 kit I picked up at the Target Dollar Spot (you never know what you'll find, so keep your eye out). I placed the tags on with eyelets to add a little something, and did a double mat for the photos. The title for "Cupid's Cutie" was cut using Plantin on the Design Studio to weld the letters together (measured the empty space on my layout and adjusted the size, once welded, to fit).

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Cards...not my strong suit

So I know I had said I was going to post about "Love Day" today, but I realized that I haven't gotten a decent picture of the 2-page layout, so we're going with the 3 cards I've made recently. I try and be creative, but really, cards are not easy. I just haven't been able to figure out how to really jazz up a card, but not have it look like a complete mess. Here are the last few attempts I've had at card making:






First up is the card I made for my sister-in-law. I wanted to put her age on the front, but I think my mistake was making the numbers too big, and not leaving more room to embellish around it...it's a learning curve:


Numbers and balloons were cut using the Celebrations Cart



Next up is a Baby Shower card I made for my friend who's due a month before me. I like this one a little better, but I still think I could have done more...maybe a thicker ribbon perhaps?!?! If you look closely, the blue mat on the front is embossed with tiny hand & footprints:


B-A-B-Y was cut using the New Arrival Cart


Lastly, this is the card I made for my Gram's birthday. It says "Tutu," which is what my son calls her (it's Hawaiian for Grandma). Instead of creating layers for this card, I decided to cut out the frame in white and color it in, just to do something different...did it work???


"Tutu" was cut from George & Basic Shapes (welded together with Design Studio), the tulip frame was cut from the Stretch Your Imagination Cart (I think).



I've created a new birthday card, but it hasn't been given yet, so I'll wait to post that one...I have to say, the more I practice, the better it's getting. Still have a long way to go though! Happy Crafting all, and thanks for stopping by. You can always contact me at sandiegocoley@yahoo.com

Monday, April 4, 2011

Eggs-tra Special Easter

A baby's firsts are always exciting, but celebrating my sons first holiday's were such a special time, and I sure did try and make the most of them. Today's post is just one of the 2 layouts for Brody's first Easter. I didn't have to do much to put these together, I just pulled from my "box o' goodies" that I saved for the last 2 years and played with it until it fit the way I wanted. The only items I created myself was the Month & Year from the Designer's Calendar Cricut Cartridge. The other thing I really like to do with each layout, no matter the theme, is mat my pictures. It only takes a few seconds, and I just think it makes it look like you've taken some time with your layout.

Here's the 2-page Easter layout:



Thank you for taking a trip down memory lane with me. The "love" holiday is up next!