Organizing My Thoughts in 2013

On Pinterest I came across  a journal comprised of index cards.  There were 365 cards tucked into a bowl. Each day a person is encouraged to write one sentence about their day. The bowl with index cards was cute and I love the idea of journaling a simple sentence every day.  However, knowing me...I need to have my cards bound together. Plus, I want them to be reflective of me.  I wanted something that screamed, "Nacole made me!"  My sister and I headed over to Walgreens. They had the little Five Star Notebooks on sale, buy one, get one free for $2.87.  I looked at index card books, but they didn't quite have enough cards.  I decided this notebook would be ideal. Here is what I started with, a black little notebook.

This project was perfect because it happened to fit in with the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Get Organized Crawl! I started by designing the cover. I had some paper that I fell in love with and purchased on a whim a few months ago.  I didn't know at the time what I would use it for, but this project was the perfect use! The paper is from Simple Stories and is part of their Documented line. As I pieced the cover together, I added some ink to distress, a strip of brown rib, a gear to look like a flower, and of course used my Cricut to cut out tabs, letters, and numbers. The tabs are from the Elegant Edges Cartridge and the letters and numbers are from the Plantin Schoolbook Cartridge.  On the letters I did a shadow to match the tabs and topped with the letters I cut out in chocolate.

After the cover was done, I decided to add just a little more to the covers. This is the inside cover!

This is the back cover. See that last tab? It has a hidden surprise!

I added a secret pocket! You know, for those fortunes out of fortune cookies, special photos, clippings, etc. that sum up that year! I tucked a silly little card in to the pocket so you could see it.

This is how the tabs turned out. I staggered the tabs and the numbers.  Finally, I updated the first three days of January.  My biggest challenge? Just writing a single sentence about the day. I am a very verbacious person, so one sentence is a bit tricky. I planned to use a half of each side of the page per day.  I'm glad I did, because I have been filling up my space! 

This was a fun project and I'm so excited to have a fun way to organize my daily thoughts in 2013!

51 years of bliss

I whipped up this 51st Wedding Anniversary card for some friends of ours. They our ranch neighbors and the Everyday Paper Dolls just fit so well with the Alphalicious numbers. The heart is probably from George and Basic Shapes.  The paisley background was just the finishing touch to this bride and groom!

Card 4 of the 4 Card Blitz!

Sketch number four ended up being my personal favorite card. I have been using more scrap paper lately and these pink scraps were from my Grandma's birthday invitations, so they are extra special to me. I bought the stamp set from friend T. The pearls I had purchased to accent a page about our visit to Pearl Harbour and the beautiful necklace my now husband bought me. Cinderella is my all time favorite movie! I added pearls to the pillow, Stickles to the shoes, and distressed around the edges. My strip of print paper through the middle has been embossed for some texture. Oh and I dressed up my background paper with some Perfect Pearl Mists.

I am so very sad that Taylored Expressions is ending their sketch challenge series, I have so adored it!

Sketch 3 in the 4 Card Blitz!

The third sketch I went crazy with blue and green polka dots accented with yellow glittery paper. My friend T gave me some cute polka dot flowers as part of my Matron of Honor Gift last year, I have saved them for just the right card and as soon as I started thinking about what I wanted on my card, I knew the glittery and polka dot flowers would be excellent!

Sketch 2 of my 4 card blitz!

For the second sketch I used my beloved Basic Gray PB & J papers. I am in love with these papers! I happened to have just the right color ribbon & flower to match. I am not sure who the lucky recipient is of this card, but I sure think it is cute.

Four Card Blitz

I was checking my e-mail when I came across one from Taylored Expressions. I was sad to read this week is their last TE Sketch Challenge.  In order to go out like a bang, they provided four sketches! Of course I had to give all four sketches a shot! Below is sketch one and the next three posts each focus on a new sketch!

For the first sketch I distressed all of the pages of the card with coordinating Tom Holtz Distress ink. I added Stickles to my stamped butterflies, rounded all of the corners, and just had fun playing with a brown, orange, green, blue color scheme. Reminded me of nature and camping...very fitting for Memorial Day weekend.

Hoot Hoot for the Graduates!

This Memorial Day weekend we are celebrating a couple of graduates that we know! This week I decided to make a couple of cards.  One card is for a male graduate and the other is for a female graduate.  I have been able to use more of my scraps lately, because they are all nicely organized by color. Eventually, I may have to post a few pictures of my new craft room, but that will be another post.  For today we will talk about my Hoot Hoot Graduation Cards. To make them I used two different cartridges: Just Because Cards and Everyday Paper Dolls. I cut out the owl from Just Because Cards and the graduation cap and tassle from Everyday Paper Dolls. I used some designer series paper on each card to add a little oomph, some ribbon or twine for texture, and Stickles to make the graduation caps extra special.  I also glossed up the owl's beak and used my Tim Holtz distress pads to give my owls some character.  I think the cards turned out to be a ....hoot! Okay, I couldn't resist that one.  These cards are also being used for the CAS-ual Friday challenge for a masculine card using designer series paper and the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge asking for a "You Did It!" card.  Be sure to click on their links and check out their awesome challenges!

It's Raining, It's Pouring

Okay, so it's actually not raining out! We did have rain this week, but a couple different things prompted me to play with a new stamp set.  One of those things was the CAS-ual Fridays challenge that requested a person use a die cut or punch.  The second was that I have a brand new stamp set that has a learning curve to it.  I have the Just Rite stamp system.  When I bought it at the store, I was told you could use some Nesties to cut an oval, then stamp right in your oval.  Well, that is a tight fit! So, it takes some practice.  I bought the My Rainbow Set because it makes me think of my mom. She likes rainbows so much, that the colors of the rainbow were her wedding colors back in the 70's.  I have attempted to use this set once before, but the finished product wasn't pretty, so set it aside. Today, I cut out 12 ovals and have two beautiful stamped ovals to show you! Next time, I may cut my ovals just a tad larger so I have more grace room.  Once I got the stamped images cut, I was able to back them up with more ovals and sticky foam, some ribbon, and a bigger die.  I ran the bigger die through my Big Shot to emboss it.  On the dance in the rain one I used glossy accents to make my rain drops look wet. This all turned out so nice, I can't wait to show my mom!

Hula Time

The weather is warm here in Colorado and all I want to do is go find a spot of sand to wiggle my toes in! Good thing I have a comfortable new craft room, a challenge, and a beach themed cartridge to play with. Fantabulous Cricut's challenge this week was around the theme of dance.  I looked at my cartridges and right away thought of Life's A Beach! I was so excited to see a cute little Hula girl.  I cut her out, added Stickles, Glossy Accents, some pink chalk for cheeks, and popped her up on a pink oval that I distressed with some pink ink.  I thought the lime green floral print made a nice background, so mounted that on a peach cardstock.  Finally, whenever we have visited Hawaii, there are flowers abundant. So, I added a couple bright pink ones to remind me of the tropics!

Under Construction

A new craft room will be unveiled soon! Can't wait to share it with everyone AND a few new cards! Stay tuned!

Itty Bitty Love

This is a quick 3x3 card, all made on the Cricut for the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge this week. Used Just Because Cards for the base and Create a Critter for the cute heart and sentiment.  Popped each layer up with pop dots and added some Stickles. Used my hearts Cuddle bug folder to add some embossing to the background.  Short and sweet and full of love!

Odds and Ends with Bags, Tags, and Boxes

This week at work a co-worker pointed out a cute box in a magazine.  We got to talking and I remembered that I had the Bags, Tags, and Boxes Cricut Cartridge. I wanted to see how big of a box I could make sometime during my vacation.  Fast forward a couple days and I needed to wrap a gift card.  I decided to make my own box using the cartridge.  After looking at various boxes, I decided on the crayon box.  I had some heavy green metallic card stock, some green trees I had stamped using Tim Holtz distress inks on water color paper with a few flicks of water, and a piece of ribbon from Bath and Body Works when they gift wrapped something for me last year.  I dug through my scrap drawer and found some red and white scraps of paper.  I cut out my box at 8 3/4 inch.  I used some adhesive to put it together, wrapped the ribbon around the box and framed my stamped image of an evergreen tree.  I popped my tree up with some foam adhesive. I was happy this turned out to be fairly masculine, because the gift card is for a male.

I also knew that at Fantabulous Cricut they issued a challenge to trim with a tag in this week's project.  I used some of the same green cardstock to cut out a tag on my Cricut.  I trimmed the bottom of the tag and rounded the edges with a corner rounder from Stampin' Up! Next, I used some scrap paper and some seasonal Tim Holtz ink to stamp my message on my tag.  I added a little green gem to the corner of the stamped image.  I finished the tag off with my coordinating ribbon. Voila, a gift box and tag!

Scraptastic Holiday Cards!

I have been feeling the need to bust out my Cricut and make something fantastic.  I have been prepping for card classes and a scrapbook class coming up at Artsy, but haven't spent a ton of time in my own craft room.  I even took a two part 12 Tags of Christmas class - which was so much fun!  Anyway, I decided I needed to break out my own tools and get to work crafting.  I didn't have time to run to the store or even grab some coordinating papers, so focused on using scraps.  Fortunately, I had a couple pieces of paper I had purchased at a crop a few months ago that kind of coordinated.

I started by cutting out a tree using the Create A Critter cartridge, my tree was kind of plain, so I used Perfect Pearls Mists in perfect pewter to add some sparkle.  I continued to cut out strings of lights to piece together, then cut apart to dress up my tree.  I used dark brown distress ink to color the trunk and added a touch of fluffy white snow.

I topped the tree off with an over-sized Jolee's gem.  I didn't have a paper to back my tree with that matched...so I had to make my own.  I created a mosaic with little extra pieces of paper that I had used to cut out the lights for the tree.  I also cut out the word, "joy".  I had to spray this with glimmery mist too! I backed the cards in pink and added my ribbon.

Voila', a fun and bright holiday card!

Happy Holidays

Here are two of my holiday cards I created!  I am teaching a class on these tomorrow evening at Artsy.  I love the tri-fold shutter card, because it folds up cute and displays so nicely.  I also like that you can add a photo in on a panel, designer paper, buttons, twine, etc.  The options are endless!

Give Thanks

I bought some fun BoBunny paper at Artsy and whipped up this fun little wall hanging.  I simply cut around various leaves and patterns, stacked em up, and used foam adhesive to attach.  I cut out the Give Thanks part on my Cricut using the Cindi Loo cartridge. I loved that the word "Thanks" was already together.  To finish off the whole piece, I added some Stickles in Diamond to the dragonfly and a sheer brown ribbon tied with a bow.  Quick, cute, fun, and festive!  Works out great for this week's challenge on Fantabulous Cricut where we are sharing our blessings using the colors red, brown, and orange.

A different kind of card and creation

I'm proud to announce that this evening I published a new card creation. Okay, so it's not exactly like the cards I create and have posted so far.  This is actually a set of playing cards and brand new game that will entertain you for hours!  That's right, I published a new game called Twenty Six. It's a word game mixed with poker to create something incredibly fun! I started working on the game design just a couple of months ago.  My husband listened really well to my vision for the cards. I wanted cards that were distressed on the edges with stamp like flourishes and a typewriter font.  The cards are almost Tim Holtz-esque.  If you love to play games or enjoy playing with words, you will really like my game.  Fortunately, it's available for holiday gift giving!  Purchase a copy to play with your loved ones over the holidays and let me know what you think!  Hope you like playing the game, just as much as I liked designing it!

Card Classes in Colorado!

Guess what...you can see a sneak peek of my card class I am teaching this Saturday from 2-4pm at Artsy! Click here to see one of two butterfly cards we will be creating together, then call to reserve your seat!

Hey Chickee

Chick, chick, chickee!  Okay, it's another Create A Critter Cartridge, but I love, love, love these animals!  I am always hesitant to use patterns together, but wanted something that really sprung to life with color.  So, I did something outrageous (by my standards) and used double floral print patterns!  I did a solid ribbon ad solid frames to make the card less chaotic.  I used foam adhesive square to bump up the chick and the square the chick is mounted on.  These are great Easter cards or great "Hey Chickee!" cards!

Taylored Expressions: 3rd Birthday Bash

Happy Birthday to Taylored Expressions! Jump over by clicking here: Taylored Expressions: Taylored Expressions September Sneaks - Day 1. They are having a virtual party this week and announcing some new arrivals! Tons of fun!

Bee Mine

I made Valentine's Day cards using my beloved Create A Critter cartridge.  What's not to love about the adorable, happy, little critters on this cartridge?  I used a heart print paper to back my card.  Then I cut out a heart frame in red and base heart in white.  I ran them through an embossing folder to add even more hearts before using foam adhesive to bump it up!  Finally, I topped it all off with my sweet bumble bee and some bedazzled antennae.