Blog Candy Giveaway

Hi Everyone! Cindy over at the Scrapping Room is having an awesome giveaway at her blog. She is giving away 3 prizes to 3 different people which I LOVE because that means there's more chances to win something great!

First Prize: The Your Story Bundle-- which includes......

12" YourStory book binder/laminator machine
12-9x11.5 LaminationgPouch
12-4.5 x 65 Laminating Pouch
1-Paper Trimmer
1-8.5 x 11 black binder
1-8x8 White binder w/window
1- 4x6 black binder linen
1-8.5x11 Binder Brown
1-12x12 black binder
1- user manual

Second Prize is the Christmas Village Cricut Cart



Third Prize is the Precision Scissor Pack

What in the world is RAK?!

LOL, ok. So, I've been scrapbooking for years and recently started cardmaking. However, I've been a solitary scrapper. I don't have any creative friends or family. I don't know anyone who scrapbooks. I never go to crops or classes and until about 2 months ago I never really got into checking out things online related to scrapbooking. Well, through having this blog and looking through some youtube videos all of these scrapbookers keep throwing the term "RAK" around and no one ever mentions what it stands for. It was starting to irritate me quite honestly so I had to Google it. Before doing so it was obvious it meant something about getting nice goodies in the mail from fellow scrappers but I had to know the literal translation for my own sanity. Apparently it means "Random Acts of Kindness." And I guess it's a term that alot of people use outside of the scrapping world such as churches, schools, clubs and I even heard it was a show on Oprah or something too. Interesting. So I just had to tell everyone in case it was driving you crazy like me and needed answers. Night everyone :)

Love Struck Blog Candy Layout

Hi Everyone,

     My last post was about how I won the Love Struck Cricut cartridge from Melissa at Disney Dreamer Designs. I was in the middle of this layout when I received the cartridge in the mail and decided to try it out with the rose cut on there. The paper is from DCWV's Immortal Love stack which I love for the most part but some of the words are a little TOO vampire themed so it's hard to think of ways to use them. The paper is gorgeous though aside from that. I don't know what I'm going to use the pages for specifically yet so I left the title bar at the top blank. I'm thinking maybe an anniversary page or just pictures of me and my honey that were taken just hangin' out and not for a specific occasion.

     On the left page I cut out photo mats from immortal love and regular textured red cardstock. The red paper was a little too bright so I ran black ink over it. The paper is textured so it has a dirty linen look when you put ink over it. I used my scissors to distress the edges of both the red and printed paper layers. I've never really been one to use distressing so I didn't have any "tools" specifically for that on hand. But I was happy to see that just rubbing my scissor blade along the edge created the same look. I then added some black ribbon for embellishment. The corners of that page have some chipboard photo corners that look like splattered/dripping blood that were part of the chipboard collection for immortal love. The "love" is also chipboard with the same blood background as the photo corners. I used my Crop-a-dile Big Bite to punch some holes through the "love" chipboard and added some silver brads. *Gosh I love brads* lol. The paper is kind of the show stopper on that page so I didn't want to over embellish.

 The right page has background paper from Immortal Love. I used textured red and teal cardstock for the title bar at the top and distressed both layers with my scissors. I ran black ink over both layers because again, the paper was too bright for me and I wanted a tattered dirty look. I used my big bite again to punch holes along the top of the title bar and sewed black string through them. This was my first time using that string and I'm really happy with the look on this layout. The photo mats are from gray textured cardstock that I inked in black and distressed with scissors. I wrapped the string around them and added some silver brads on the sides. The word "friend" is from the Immortal Love chipboard collection. I punched holes in that and added silver brads also. As I said above the rose cut is from my blog candy win of the Love Struck cartridge. I inked it in black and outlined the layers in black sharpie to make it stand out more. I wrapped some black string around the stem as well.

I love this layout. I like that it's not so "cutesy" as alot of layouts can come out. Totally different look. You'll have to suggest some fonts that might look good for the title of this page. I only have a few font cartridges so if there's any you recommend let me know!

Blog Candy Winner!

So I'm really excited to say that I won my first blog candy prize ever! Not only that but I never win anything so I was quite surprised since I won right before my birthday which is coming up on Monday. Melissa over at Disney Dreamer Designs was giving away the 2010 Love Struck Cricut cartridge and I got it! 

I have to thank her EXTRA because she really went out of her way to contact me as I didn't see her announcement right away. She is also a fellow Michigander *I can't believe I just used that term as I hate it* and I received it only 2 days after she shipped it to me. Hopefully a lucky streak will ensue and this won't be a one time win because it's a whole lot of fun to get a little treat in the mail. I've already started creating some projects with it that I will post soon. I've been busy house-hunting after work these last few days so I haven't been crafting much. But everyone check out her blog because she always has really informative posts and introduces other interesting blogs to follow.

Valentine's Window Card

Hi Everyone,

     I wanted to do a Valentine's card for my boyfriend and I didn't want to use the stereotypical colors. I was excited when I found this "quite the pear" dollar stamp at Michael's becase pears aren't red or pink! The pears and the sentiment were both on the stamp set. The card base I picked up at JoAnn's in a pack on clearance. I cut a circle window out of the front of the card base. Originally the front of the card said "hello" but I cut that out. The paper accents on the card were just scraps from my left over scrapbooking projects. The circle punch is from Fiskars and I just bought it and LOVE IT! I used my Cricut to cut some other circles out the teal circle for the shadow.The ribbon is from JoAnn's and it's a dark berry color. I outlined the pears with a white pen and put the dots on one pear. The stitching on the front of the card was also done with a white pen and I put some dots on the stamped sentiment. I rounded the corners of the card with my We R Memory Keepers corner chomper. And finally put a little bow on the front which I adhered with Zots glue dots. Hope my Honey loves his card!

Love "Window" Card

Hi Everyone,

I'm under the gun trying to get this post up quickly before leaving to go to a super bowl party. I have lots of new projects to post but this one only requires 2 pictures so I thought this would be a quick one to put up. I've been having alot of fun using my Fiskars circle punch on "window" cards lately. The card base was something I got a package of 8 or so for a dollar at JoAnn's and just decorated with some DCWV cardstock in a slate blue and purple color. The stamps are also Fiskars that I got at JoAnn's. I used the Cricut to cut the other layering circles in purple. A black embossing pen was used for the stitches on the card and for the heart inside I used clear embossing powder over a black inked stamp. You can't really tell in the pictures but I lined the inside of the card with gray cardstock and added shimmer chalk on the entire inside. It's much prettier in person. Shimmer chalk is one of my new obsessions but it's really hard to photograph.