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.

Cricutless Scrapbook Layout

I wanted to share a layout I did before I got my Cricut about a year ago. This layout uses alot of inking, paper tearing and even some paper burning! This is actually the first and only layout that I've burned paper for but I think it looks really good and adds alot to the look. The title was written by hand with black embossing pens WHICH I SWEAR BY. I think they are amazing and I'm going to have to get another black embossing pen because I use mine so often. They're by Souffle and are called Glaze. The only downfall is that it takes awhile to dry. The brown paper on this layout is actually brown packaging paper that I burnt the edges of with a lighter to give the deteriorated look you see on the layout. The paper is all DCWV- The Far East paper collection. The paper all looked a little too bright and new for what I was going for so I just took black ink and rubbed my paper over the ink pad itself. I didn't use any tools at all. I literally rubbed the paper onto the ink pad. I really love the way it looks over the textured red cardstock because it makes the texture really POP. I hope you like it! Remember you can click on any of the pictures below to view them larger.

Scrapbooking Haul #4

Hi Ladies,

     I put together another haul video for you. I didn't get any super "exciting" treats. But I DID get some AMAZING DEALS. My favorite of everything in the video is my Darice Lock-Tight Storage container. I am not the cleanest person in the world. But I have a love affair with organization. I tend to micro organize. Like when I have to clean any room in my house, I'll start with the drawers and closets. So I'll basically be cleaning for hours and hours and it really doesn't even look like I did anything because once you shut all my immaculate closets it still looks like hell haha. I'm learning to be better at that. Although, I do think my calling in life would have been being a professional organizer. Any of you need help with those closets? I'll come to your house if you come to mine and do the floors, dishes and laundry. (all things I never make enough time for lol).

Halloween 2009 Scrapbook Layout

So, I wasn't planning on doing anything for Halloween in 2009 and at the last minute my childhood friend Lisa invited me to a house party that her friends were throwing. So, I threw together a completely unoriginal devil costume and wore some amazing shoes that I think bruised my feet for about 2 weeks. Literally, they were blue on the bottom. No joke. Anyways the paper is from the DCWV "The Fall Stack." I cut out the title with Plantin Schoolbook. All of the little spiderwebs were PAINSTAKINGLY cut out by hand to make little photo corners and page embellishments. I have no idea what I was thinking when I decided to do that because literally I probably spent and hour doing just that part of this layout. At least it turned out well. However, I doubt I'll do that again lol. The circles were also cut out with Plantin Schoolbook and I just adhered them off center from each other to make it look more "spooky" I guess. Enjoy :)

Haul #3

Hi Ladies,

I have another haul video for you! I got some really good stuff. I'm excited. You'll have to comment and let me know where you usually go for good trims and ribbons because I think I overpaid for the ones I got from JoAnn's. I paid 20% off of $1.29 per yard of the ribbon featured in the video (which seemed high to me).

2-Year Anniversary and Ellianna's Birth Scrapbook layouts

Hi Ladies,

     For these layouts I used (almost) entirely things found in the Exscrapaganza kit from 3-birds that I got from one of the shopping networks on tv awhile ago. I love that it has an aged look without looking "shabby chic." Anyone who knows me knows my taste generally is for very contemporary looking styles and I think this paper walks the line between the two genres perfectly. Okay, so for my 2-year anniversary with my boyfriend, Mike we went back to the place where it all began. Andiamo's Italian Restaurant on the riverfront. The food was MARVELOUS and we hadn't been back there since our first date in 2007 so I was so excited. The service there is impeccable so if any of you are around Detroit, Michigan you should definitely check it out. The flowers I cut out with my Cricut. It's either from Accent Essentials or Plantin Schoolbook. The blue paper you see on the pages is actually really cheap colored printer paper. It's really thin but the color matched the pages perfectly and I had it on hand so I used it for the lower layer of the flower and to mat the photos. I used brown shimmer chalk all over the flowers, the title and the blue mats to age the look of the stark blue paper and add some glam. It's hard to see in the pictures but in person it's gorgeous. The chalk really adds alot of the look of everything. The orange brads I just had in my stash. Remember you can click on all of the pictures below to see a larger more detailed view.

     The other page is about my neice, Ellianna Annie's birth. Her birth was the most exciting of all 5 (and counting) of the neice/nephews because I didn't know the sex of the baby ahead of time. So, we all had bets going of whether or not it was a girl (I guessed right!). And when we went into the delivery room there was a little blue hat and a little pink hat SO CUTE** and we didn't even know Rachel (the mother's) name choice until and hour or so after she was born. The middle name was inspired by Rachel's sister who she's really close with, Annie. Anyways, back to the layout. The glittered chipboard photo corners, the stickers, flourishes, "memories", the bracket sticker next to the journaling and all the paper is from the kit. I love how it all came out. It was actually really easy to put together because it was a kit and the hard work was done for me for the most part. And despite that it was from a kit it's one of my favorite page sets that I've done. I never use kits. Part of me disagrees with them because I feel like it's "cheating" on some level. However, if more manufacturers came out with kits that looked as good as this one I might invest more in those. It's the only kit I own and have ever owned because whenever I see the kits in stores the products always look really cheap and yet the kits are way overpriced. So if any of you have any tips on where to find quality kits at bargain prices you'll have to share them with me. I love all of your great ideas and learn alot from my crafting buddies out there in cyberspace. Thanks for stopping by!

Haul Video #2

Hey! I just made my second haul video...well that's a lie. I actually made the video a week or 2 ago but was messing around with some video editing software so it took awhile to get it up on here. Hope you enjoy!

MGM Casino Layout

I'm so excited about this layout and the way the ribbon border came out. All of the paper is DCWV. I used white, gray and ice blue for mats. I cut the title out with the Plantin Schoolbook Cricut cartridge and shadowed the letters in gray. I embellished it with some "ice" like clear rhinestones. The ribbon at the top is this gorgeous, rich teal blue color that looks perfect with this cool winter layout. I weaved the ribbon through the paper after making evenly spaced holes in the page using my crop-a-dile. It was a pain staking process but I love the way it looks. I inked the journaling tags with black ink around the edges and used silver brads to hold them on. I used some snowflake stickers that I've had forever and didn't have a page they worked with until now so I was happy I got to use some of those.

Remember you can click on these pictures to enlarge and see more of a detailed view. Thanks for stopping by!

Mike's 27th Birthday Layout

     For my boyfriend's 27th birthday (2 years ago) we got a big group of our friends to go to one of his favorite eateries, Osaka's. It's a Japanese Habatchi restaurant where you sit with a group of people around a large flat grill and they cook your food right in front of you. It's sort of a show because they do little things during the course of cooking the food to entertain the guests. I made cupcakes which I brought with me to share after the meal and sing happy birthday and then we all headed over to a nearby bar to continue the party.

     I really love how this layout turned out. The paper is all DCWV. I used pink ribbon to embellish, baby blue brads as the centers of the fabric flowers and a white gelly roll pen for the faux stitching and date. I cut the circle patterns out of the paper to make photo corners, as well as the striped paper to make photo corners. You can click on all of the photos in this post to view them larger if you'd like. Thanks for stopping by!

Golf Fundraiser Layout

My boyfriend is a golf fanatic and has been trying to get me to golf with him for years. I've held strong and been extremely stubborn though because he refuses to do any of the dorky activities I enjoy, like game night for example lol. But our good friend's father passed away and they have an annual golf fundraiser to help cover funeral expenses and to help support her mother now that her dad is gone so I was persuaded to go. It was my first time out on the course, despite having worked at a golf course in the past *sad, I know.* But I actually didn't do too shabby! My boyfriend was watching me from another hole and was quite impressed with my swing. Now, we won't mention the fact that I had to swing at the ball several times (and miss) before finally hitting it and it going a decent distance and relatively straight haha. But hey, what can you expect. I've never been good at sports so I was happy with my performance. Plus everyone knows that golf isn't about doing well, it's about fun in the sun with good friends and good drinks! The paper for this layout game out great. It's all DCWV. I used a brown Close to my Heart marker for the journaling, some chocolate ribbon to separate the stripes from the grass paper and my Crop-a-dile to add the chocolate brown grommets at the bottom. The "GOLF" at the top were just some stickers that I had in my stash. I don't remember what brand they are.

Niece Ellianna's Baptism

I am so excited for these pages! I feel like the muted gray, green, brown and maroon colors along with the background images and everything just came together so well on here with very little embellishment. The layout is for my niece, Ellianna's baptism last year. The "baptism" cut was the first thing I ever learned to cut out with my Cricut!! My boyfriend Mike just bought it for me a year ago so I'm still learning because I haven't really had the time to fool around with it much. The background paper is DCWV but I can't remember who made the paper with the baby shoes and Christening gown because I've had this paper for about 15 years and just now got around to using it. I knew I kept it for a reason! I didn't finish the journaling because I have to find out how to spell the name of the Church we were at. I used a black embossing pen on the writing I put in there so far. I love those pens; they really add a great effect to pages.

Ashley's in Michigan Layouts

My best friend Ashley moved to Arizona a few years ago but decided to come back to her home town in Michigan to tie the knot. The left page is her wedding shower layout. I used her candy bar favor wrapper, the invitation to the shower and her thank you note she sent me afterward on the page. I wanted an antiqued look so I used sepia toned ink to ink the edges of some of the elements and ink the invitation and thank you note because they were such a bright white that I felt they were clashing with my color scheme. I used burgundy ribbon behind the photos to add some color to what is a pretty neutral page without it. All of the paper is DCWV. The other page is a party her mom threw for family a few days later at her house. Afterward we went to watch some Fourth of July fireworks in Downtown Mt.Clemens which has been a tradition of ours since we were in middle school. Again, all of the paper is DCWV and I added some brown ribbon on the mats to accent.

St. Patrick's Day Layout

So, I finally got around to scrapping my St. Patty's day pictures from 2010. I haven't posted any of my scrapbook pages yet for you despite the fact that I've been a scrapbooker for years and only just recently started venturing into cards. That's because I didn't have a way to stand my pages up to take a good picture of them without alot of glare. But at long last, I bought plate holders! Waaa-hoooo! I bought some a few months ago trying to take the cheap way out and they were only about 4 inches high. I thought they would prop the pages up but when I put them in they just bent backwards so I had to buy the more expensive tall ones. RATS! I hate it when that happens. Anyways, all of the paper is from DCWV's Summer Dream stack. I just started using the paper from this stack and it's so versatile! It may just be my favorite, at least for the moment. I'm known to be indecisive lol. The brown solid paper is actually brown packaging wrapping paper that you would use to mail a box to someone. We re-modeled our bathroom last year and the contractor left a roll of it at our house and being the scavenger that I am, I gripped it for my stash haha. I love the color of it and didn't have anything like it to use. The only thing is that it doesn't really work with adhesive very well and kept popping off my page. I used some liquid and roll on and ended up using two sided tape which finally worked. I did faux stitching around the mats with my white gelly roll pens that you saw in my first haul video  and they worked really well which I love because they were so cheap! I used white ink around the tags and the font is from the Plantin Schoolbook Cricut Cartridge. The 3D stickers were 50 cents from Michael's. A nice little find if I do say so myself :)

Started 2011 off with THE FLU!

Well, I hope everyone else had a better New Years than I did. I was fine until about 3am when I woke up and found myself running to the bathroom to yack. I spent the entire night hugging the toilet, sweating, shaking and freezing no matter how high I turned up the heat. I don't get sick frequently; and when I do it's usually just a head cold. I actually have a pretty high tolerance for pain too. I'm generally a trooper when I'm sick and still go to work and get things done. This was unlike any sickness I ever remember having in my life. I literally couldn't stand long enough to let the dogs out because I was so weak. I found myself sitting on the floor by the backdoor leaning against the glass of the window only because the dogs had to go outside and I was on the only one home to do it. Today the stomach sickness is mostly over. I'm still a little nauseous but I can eat. The biggest thing is I still have a bad fever and extreme vertigo. I used to have really bad vertigo (the feeling of being extremely dizzy even when laying down) in high school. It was a condition that I had for months nonstop. It went away but sometimes I get bouts of it here and there. Alot of people find it's brought on after having a virus that affects your equilibrium in your inner ear. Anyways, it's terrible. Especially since I have a couple hours of computer work I have to do tonight before returning to work tomorrow. The only good thing about this is that when I hopped on the scale this morning out of curiosity, I happened to lose 5 pounds. SCORE!

Chris' 33rd Birthday Card

Ok, so my brother and I have never been very good at celebrating each others' birthdays. But since I just recently started card making I thought I would make him a card to show him that he's special to me and I thought this would be something that for him would be meaningful. I bought the natural card bases by DCWV and they've got some prints that lend themselves perfectly for the guys in your life. I just recently got my Cricut so when I made this card in November I didn't really have any cartridges that went much with my brother's personality. He's a body builder, Mr. Tough Guy, guitar player/singer who only really appreciates the color black and maybe some red. He's very difficult to please stylistically. BUT instead of driving myself crazy trying to think of something that fit him and probably failing miserably in the process I decided to make a card that said NOVEMBER. His birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year so I think what I came up with goes great with the season. I even decorated the inside for the first time. PROPS TO ME! lol. I hope you like it. I made it awhile ago so I don't remember exactly but I think I only used the Storybook cartridge for this one. I popped the leaf up with some foam adhesive but it's a little difficult to see in these pictures. I took them with my old camera.







What I love about this card is that it really isn't a "birthday card." Depending on what sentiment you choose it can really be for any occasion and male/female friendly. And even better, my brother's face lit up when he saw that I took the time to hand make a personal card for him. I was over his house at Christmas and he still has it displayed :)

1st Haul Video

Hi Everyone,
     I made this video awhile ago but never got around to creating a youtube account to share it. Well, last night I finally did so you all can see the fun things I bought on my little shopping trip!

Quick Walmart Run

Well I had to make a quick stop at Walmart for some potty pads for Marshmallow's cage and while I was there I couldn't help but check out the craft section. I never shop at Walmart but was happy to see a few inexpensive treats that I couldn't pass up. I got 3 packs of buttoms for $1.97 each, and 2 holiday sticker sheets for $1.50 each. I was surprisingly impressed with the quality of these stickers.