Baby Elephant Card

I was playing around with my Cricut Imagine and my old cartridges recently and made the cutest little elephant card.

I used the elephant from Zooballo cartridge and filled it with pattern/solid from the Nursery Tales cartridge. The stamp and button are from PTI. I added some chalking, googly eyes and a pom pom to add some interest to the die cut. Enjoy!

Flowers in a Jar

This card was created after a shopping trip to Archiver's, where I bought some Zing embossing powder. I really like the results of the light embossing color on the dark cardstock. I'll have to do that again!

Supplies: Papertrey Ink Friendship Jar Fillers stamp set, Zing embossing powder by American Crafts, cardstock by PTI.

Traci

Halloween Treat Bags

I made these little Halloween Treat Bags a few weeks ago. Now, I've got to fill them with candy for Rachel's school friends and teachers. So easy and cute!


Used the Martha Stewart web punch for the spider web border. Used a Papertrey Ink mat stack die and the Tiny Treats Halloween stamps. The treat bags came from Michael's and the mini clothespins came from Walmart. (They have those in the office supply aisle with the paper clips! Weird, right?)

Have a spooky week!

Traci

Papertrey October Blog Hop Challenge

Welcome to this month's Papertrey Ink Blog Hop! The challenge this month was a little challenging (pun intended!) for me. I don't own any stamps or other supplies that relate to Hanukkah or Kwanzaa. I was stumped. I even thought about doing a card for Winter Solstice!

After I smacked myself on the head, I realized I was overthinking it. I think the one thing most religions have in common is a desire to promote peace.

So...I focused on Peace for this challenge. It is general enough to send to anyone, regardless of their religion.

The color combination of aqua mist and pure poppy is just divine and, I think, very peaceful. If you'll remember, this color combination was really hot last holiday season. It continues to be one of my favorites! This card and matching jar would be a great gift for anyone on your list.

Here's the card by itself. Here's a step-by-step for the card:

1. Stamp the snowflakes from Snowfall Additions in Versamark for the background. I love how subtle and beautiful this turned out. Let dry completely.
2. Die cut the Mat Stack 1 in Pure Poppy.
3. Impress the Mat Stack 1with the Polka Dots Impression Plate to give it more dimension.
4. Punch a 2" scalloped circle out of Aqua Mist cardstock.
5. Ink up the edges of the scallop circle a bit with aqua mist ink.  This makes it stand out from the background.
6. Punch a 1.75" circle from Vintage  Cream cardstock.
7. Stamp the doves from the 2008 Holiday Tags stamp set in Pure Poppy ink.
8. Adhere the mat stack, the scallop circle, and the dove circle together - use pop dots on the doves.
9. Stamp PEACE from the 2008 Holiday Tags stamp set in Pure Poppy ink on the bottom right.

I love using jars for holiday treats. You can fill these jars with cookies, Chex mix, roasted nuts, M&M's, Kisses, brownies, etc. I just adhered the Aqua Mist ribbon on with glue dots and popped on another dove circle onto the front of the jar. Simple. Beautiful.

These jars are from IKEA and I am in love with them. They're inexpensive, versatile, and fun. They also have a good seal on them so your treats will stay fresh.

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave comments or questions. Have a great Blog Hop!

Traci

Notepads

Michelle Wooderson is the queen of notepads. All hail to the queen :) They are fun to do, easy, and are inexpensive gifts! I tried my hand at them recently and here's the result:

It turned out great! I used Amy Butler paper from K&Co, PTI stamps, a felt flower from Creative Imaginations, and PTI ribbon. TIP: double sided patterned paper works best for this project.

Then I took it up a notch...and used fabric instead of paper!! Fabric will be so much more durable than paper. Just imagine that notepad above being in your purse for a while and what it would look like. Fabric makes sense, huh? Here's what I did:

Download the template Nichole Heady provided here. NOTE: this template is sized too small, so increase the widths and lengths by at least 1/4 inch on each side. How do I know that? That's the "Live and Learn" part of crafting I talked about last week.

I cut and scored my template, then sprayed it with some strong spray adhesive. I layed the fabric over it and smoothed out all the wrinkles. Move quickly before it dries! Then I used Scor-tape to fold the fabric down on the inside.

The only part I need to worry about covering up is the left side. I cut a piece of green cardstock to size and adhered it down with Scor-tape. You see where I put Scor-tape on the curved piece (which will be a pocket?) I wasn't thinking and had to take the tape off the curve. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have been able to use it as a pocket. (Live and Learn concept again.) So... just put tape at the bottom of the pocket and adhere down.

The notepad will get adhered with Scor-Tape to the right side. Don't be stingy with the Scor-tape. You DO NOT want it to come out.

Voila! A very cute and giftable notepad. Fabric is by Kate Spain. All other supplies are Papertrey Ink (Take Note), large scallop die with Simply Chartreuse felt, ribbon. Til next time,

Traci

Cricut Imagine Projects

I'm loving my new Cricut Imagine machine! Here are a couple of recent projects:

The Best Friends cartridge comes with some really awesome graphics. This kite is one of my fav images. I added a label cut from the Storybook cartridge, stamps from Papertrey Ink (Mixed Messages), and a little twine to the kite for added dimension. I also used the polka dots impression plate (from PTI) on the yellow cardstock.

What would I change? I would cut off the printed string and add my own with little ribbon pieces.

Here's another image from the Best Friends cartridge I like. You could use this on a scrapbook layout or as I've done here - on a card. What grandparent wouldn't love to get that in the mail?

I added rhinestones to the flowers, a cloud cutout from the same cartridge, and a stamp from PTI (Daily Design Sentiments.)

What would I change? I would pop dot the cloud, add a polka dot stamped background in versamark, and maybe cut out one of the flowers individually and pop dot that. Enjoy,

Traci

Myrtle Beach Layout

My first (crafting) love is scrapbooking. I've been scrapbooking since my teens, when I put little typed captions below photos in my photo albums. I've advanced a little since then. I still love it, although I find myself doing more sewing and stamping these days. I thought I'd share a layout I recently did about a trip to Myrtle Beach.

I'm fond of bullet-style journaling. It's easy and you can pack a lot of info into a small space.

I know. I know. I'm missing from a lot of the photos. If I could just convince Calvin or Rachel to pick up the camera... It's a work-in-progress.

Funny little story about this trip. We're driving down to Myrtle Beach and we see some bikers on the way down. Then we see more. Then we see some more. We look at each other and say "No. It can't be." Then we get closer and closer to the beach and we see bikes everywhere. Yes. It's Bike Week at Myrtle Beach. We had a lot of giggles about our poor planning (and yes, it turned out fine. A little loud, but just fine.) See ya soon,

Traci

Sympathy Mini Cake

Here's another mini cake I made a while back for a friend who'd lost her loved one. It's great to add a personal touch to show someone you really care. I hope it inspires you!

If you look closely, you can tell I didn't let the cake cool all the way before I put it in the cellophane bag. It sweat! That's the thing about crafting - you live and learn :)

Supplies: Papertrey Ink Sympathy Stamp Set, Spellbinders dies, Papertrey Ink ribbon, mini cake dish & cellophane bag from Michael's.

Til next time,

Traci

Picture Frame

Hellloooo! Hope your day is shaping up to be great. Here's a project I did recently using my Cricky (Cricut).

Using SCAL software, I create two files for the photo mats. One file was the background (the grey) - I just inserted a rectangle in the middle of the 8x10 paper in SCAL, so the Cricut just cut that out. I did the same thing for the patterned paper, but just made the rectangle 3/4" larger. I cut the label and the initials out with the Cricut, too. Makes for an easy, beautiful photo frame.

These make excellent gifts! Here's another tip: Black & white photos work best when you're using a busy patterned paper as the mat. See ya,

Traci


Patterned paper: Amy Butler by K&Co.
Frame: Michael's
Girl: Rachel. She's mine :)