Not too soon to plan for next year!

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and excited to get back to crafting!  Diane here from http://happyscrapperdiane.blogspot.com sharing  a project  and celebrating my birthday with you. This is something you can make for next Christmas.  I am a lover of thrift stores and found this old frame for 50 cents with a terrible picture in it but knew I could do something with it.  I tried painting the frame, but it looked horrible so I thought of using paper and modge podging it.  I am pleased with the results.  I used the digital image from Teresa Collins Christmas Collage and used the negative piece which was probably a little easier thank trying to glue all the positives back in the same order! lol  This was a large 10 x 13 size frame so I made the main cut as large as I could fit in.  Below the pictures are the cartridges and cuts I used.  I was pleased how it turned out and next year will place it on the hutch.

Created by:                 Diane Kielman  http://happyscrapperdiane.blogspot.com
Machines Used:          Gypsy and Cricut Expressions 2
Cartridges:                  Teresa Collins Christmas Collage Digital -art cut at 9.75 inches used negative
                                   Birthday Cake-borders page 56 Christmas 3 sized in gypsy 11.5 x 2.25
                                   Winter Woodland-poinsettia cut at 3 inches
Frame:                        Good Will Find
Pattern Paper:             Hobby Lobby red musical print
Cardstock:                  Bazzill

Winter Wall Hanging

Hello Everyone!  Doreen here again from polkadotpaperprincess.blogspot.com.  Today I have for you a wall hanging I made for the Winter months. 

I started with a simple canvas that I purchased from the dollar store.  Guess what it cost me?  Ha, ha!  I painted it with Gesso so that it would be a solid white and if I wanted to add paint over it, it would be a good foundation for it.  I later decided not to paint it.

I then chose my image to put in the back ground.  I chose winter trees from the Holiday Cakes cartridge.  I wanted a simple design that I could repeat in different values of green.

I was more concerned with the tips of the trees being whole at the top of the image, so I allowed the stems to hang over the edge.  I later trimmed them off.    I then used Ultra Podge to glue them down.  I used a good, juicy layer on the canvas, but only one level of tree at a time.  If you cover the whole canvas at one time, it may not remain sticky enough to secure the papers down well.  You can use mod podge, deco page... any of those type of things work well.  I did not wait for it to try on the bottom before I covered the images with a layer to seal them. 

The rest was simple.  I cut out the house from Pop-Up Neighborhood, and the snowmen and saying from Winter Woodland.  I cut out pieces of lace and tucked them under the windows for drapes.  (That is why they look puffy!)  I fashioned a fancy metal embellishment with red bling to make the upper "attic" window.   I added shiny white twin around the brown "facia".  I used slick (sort of like stickles, but without glitter) to make snow.  I then added glitter.  The slick has been kicking around for a long time and needs to be used! 

The snowmen were embellished with buttons and pearls.  I added teenie, tiny little pearls all over the picture to mimic snow.  I just found these at CTMH.  Wow, are they tiny and a really good price!  The flower and brown roofs were sent through the Sizzix using different Cuttle bug folders.  All of the edges of the house were distressed with walnut ink.  I added stickles to the words to give them sheen, without added bulk and to soften the colors.  I added one of the papers along the outer edges to cover the staples, then fancy ribbon over that to make the edges look nice.

Thanks for stopping by today! Give one of these a try.  They are very inexpensive to make and also make great gifts!

Cartridges used:  Winter Woodland, Holiday Cakes Pop-Up Neighborhood
Machines used:  Expression, Gypsy, Sizzix
Other:  Cuttlebug folders, pattern paper, card stock, ultra podge, buttons, stickles, slick, gesso, canvas, bling, pearls, metal embellishment, lace, glitter

Little Boy Goes to School

Hi everyone. It's Sherry from http://www.macybella.blogspot.com. It's back to school time and my little one started Pre-K this year. I'm so excited to share this layout I made for him with you. I used Echo Park's Little Boy collection for this project.

The first thing I did was cut forty-five 1 1/4" hexagons in lots of different patterns to build a road. I thought this paper was so cute because a little boy's road in life is paved with bright colors and so many wonderful things like cars & trucks, sailboats, and airplanes. Next I laid them out on the paper and played around with the patterns until I was happy. Then I started gluing them down. I used Winter Woodland for the hexagons, but there are hexagons on many Cricut cartridges.
Once I had my road built, I cut out a little red schoolhouse. I don't have Recess which has a really cute schoolhouse, so I converted the dollhouse on Kate's ABC's to a schoolhouse. I cut it at 5" in blackout. Then cut the accessories, trimming off the chimney. I used a jeweled brad for the doorknob. I cut the school bell from the Liberty bell cut on Stand & Salute. This was cut at 2" in metallic gold paper layered over brown. I distressed it in a metallic pewter for an aged look. Then I cut pencils from Everyday Paper Dolls at 3 1/2" for the windowsills. I cut these in golden yellow for the pencil and orange for the eraser, then trimmed the eraser off and glued it to the yellow. I used my Copic markers to color the rest. The metal is N4. The sharpened part is E31 and the tip is E25.
The photo mat is cut at 3 1/2" x 5 1/2" in navy and 3 1/4" x 5 1/4" in light blue. The smaller navy mat is 3 1/2" x 2 1/2". The cute little guy is my son, Noah. :)
Little boy is a sticker from the Echo Park Collection. "goes" are rub ons from October Afternoon. The "2" and "School" are cut and shadowed at 3" from Base Camp. I also used crystal stickles on the yellow part of school. You can see how I popped up the schoolhouse and number two for some dimension in this picture.

Then I created a little book from some of the cards from the collection and tucked it in behind the house. I will use those to journal his first day.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you've enjoyed my layout.