Happiness Comes In Waves Layout; CutCardStock

CutCardStock papers and the Cricut is a great team for creating fabulous, quick and easy layouts. I found this great beach cut to use for a photo of my granddaughters clutching onto each other as a wave is coming in. The quote that I used as the title was perfect too!

I used Wedding Cake White, Black, Blastoff Blue, Orange Fizz, Lemon Drop and Robin’s Egg cardstocks for the pieces. All cardstock is from CutCardStock.

Check out the YouTube process video and pay attention to the tip on putting these image “puzzle” pieces together 

Here are some close ups and photos of the finished project. You can see that I also cut & inked some seashells to add a little something to finish it!

I love it and I hope you do too. Check out the CutCardStock blog for more paper project inspiration by clicking here.

TGIF; Thankful Friday #249

Happy Friday and another week to be thankful. In fact, this is probably the one week where everyone is giving thought to what they are thankful for. I'm going to stick to the ordinary this week and let you know that I'm thankful for family and family gatherings. 

Thanksgiving is my second favorite holiday due to all the great food but also the togetherness. I'm fortunate that my family is able to gather often during the year, but Thanksgiving is a gathering that we all sit at the table, share our meal and appreciate each other.

I'm thankful for God, prayers from friends & family, the Oncologist team and every other health professional that has been looking over my son and his cancer recovery. Honestly, this is the number one thing that is constantly on all of my family's minds, but we get relief when we hear good news, when we see him slowly improving and staying so strong.

I hope you were able to enjoy some time with family, friends and everyone in between.

I have never created anything for Thanksgiving before, but this year, I decided to make this cute banner giving homage to our favorite Thanksgiving movie. The cut file is from Auntie Tay's membership site. I stopped my membership earlier this year since I hadn't really been using the cuts but thankfully I decided to download this one before I cancelled.

Thanks to all of you that continue to check out my blog, comment and give me encouragement. I love being crafty and this is my place to show off my stuff!

Thank you!

Print and Cut Stickers

I've only used the Print and Cut feature in Cricut a few times to make stickers and every time I'm really happy with the results. Have you tried making stickers? It's so easy especially when you already have the image(s) uploaded into Design Space.

I created decals for our family's annual virtual marathon - TomKat Strut - last year and I wanted to continue with this tradition. You can see last year's decal peeking out on the right side. This is our second year for this annual marathon and I'm hoping to continue making decals. You can read more about the Strut HERE.

Since the intent is to use them on our water bottles, they needed to be waterproof.  In order to do that, I put a layer of clear vinyl on top of the vinyl sticker paper after they were printed. Be sure to place the clear vinyl between the black square guidelines so that your machine can still scan them.

Check out the YouTube process video to see how easy it is!

Using Older Paper Pads & a Tip For Recycling Papers

I don't know about you, but I have a pile of papers that I plan to donate to the Trash to Treasure pile at crops. It's slowing growing since I haven't attended a crop in a while, but there it is nevertheless.

There's nothing wrong with these papers, I just know I will not use them. Well, here's my tip and it's also on the YouTube process video for this layout...use those papers as bases for your layouts. 

I grabbed a particular paper because it was double sided and a great weight. The papers used in this layout were very thin and I was determined to use them and the embellishments provided in the paper pad.

I used this summer themed paper pad for my Month In Review photos from June, 2021. These are the random one photos that I took and printed (that's the key) that don't necessarily warrant a full 12x12 layout but certainly worth a layout.

I followed an additional sketch from Sketch n Scrap that was posted on their FB site.  I love sketches that account for using multiple papers and photos! As always, I adjusted the sketch to accommodate what I needed and turned out great.

Be sure to check out the video:

Fall Themed Thank You Card; Sketch n Scrap

You can never have enough Thank You cards and this easy card sketch by Sketch n Scrap made this card go together quickly.

I decided to make it a Fall Themed Thank You card by stamping this cute fox to copy the one on the patterned paper I used. Thankfully I used my MISTI since it took a few times to get a good impression from the ink pad. I've had them for over 15 years, I guess they are starting to dry out some.

Be sure to check out the Sketch n Scrap blog as they have two new single layout sketches and two card sketches each month. Sketches are a great way to give you a jump start on your projects and are especially helpful if you're in a creative funk.

I also posted a process video on YouTube.

TGIF; Thankful Friday #248

 

Happy Thankful Friday! This week has flown by and I'm especially thankful for friends and family that are encouraging me to walk...I mean strut a lot this month. Sure, we're right in the middle of our family's virtual marathon contest/fundraising event but it is so nice to get out and stretch my legs and lungs.

We have a lot of fun encouraging each other, participating in side challenges and struttin! There are three generations of our family that are involved and it's pretty awesome.

To read more about it, you can check out our IG page which is @tomkat_strut.  I also post this TGIF series on my personal IG which is @3sons_and_astar.

Be sure to leave a comment and let me know what you're thankful for this week.

Single Layout into a Two Page Layout; Birthday Party

I love social media for all the sketches, inspiration and ideas for all sorts of crafting! I saw this Freaky Fast Friday challenge by The Scrap Room on IG and decided to go for it.

I used the scraps from THIS layout and made a single layout into a two page layout.

Now, I had a limited amount of patterned paper scraps to accomplish this so for the 2x11 strip of paper, I cut two 2x1" pieces of the black/white buffalo print and tucked them under the 6.5x10.5 piece of paper to give the illusion of the full strip. Great trick, right!?!

Keep your eyes open for fun challenges and show them off! That's what I plan on doing!

Hello Love Card; CutCardStock

Hello loves! I purchased this background stamp from Altenew at least a year ago and finally decided to use it. I pulled out the Cougar Smooth White Cardstock from CutCardStock and stamped two different shades of purple.

After adding some gold splashes and a sentiment, I decided to mat this panel with Gold Glitter Cardstock also from CCS.

Originally I prepared a cardbase with the same white cardstock but decided to use Basis Dark Purple instead. What a difference! 

After doing all that, I felt like it needed something more so I added two skeleton leaves from my stash that were gifted to me from Rubber Paws (read more about her HERE) and a gold bow.

Wow! Don't you love it?! It is so unique and pretty. I can't wait to play with this background stamp some more!

See the YouTube process video here:

See the CutCardStock Blog post HERE.

Other products used:

Ink: SU! Almost Amethyst and Highland Heather

Stamp: Altenew Graphic Brushstroke

Color Splash: FSJ (Spellbinder) Gold

Skeleton Leaves & Gold Ribbon from my stash

Need inspiration? Go to the CutCardStock Blog to see so many cool paper projects from the Design Team!

Sketch n Scrap Sketch #261; Birthday Layout

Sketch n Scrap has two layout sketches and two card sketches a month and they are all fantastic! Being on the DT, I get to play with the sketches before they are posted and hope to inspire others to create their own. I love this sketch and am probably going to use it again soon!

As you know, I love multi-photo layouts and this one was perfect for my granddaughter's 11th birthday photos. I picked out the Kate and Ash set by Simple Stories specifically for these photos. I picked up a couple of papers (Girl Power and Good Vibes) plus the embellishment pack.

You have until the end of the month to link your layout using this sketch:

Check out the YouTube process video:

Photos:

The cute title was cut using the Rock n Roll Princess collection from Cricut Design Space. I used some images to decorate the 11 for her birthday decoration.

Be sure to click on over to Sketch n Scrap to check out their other sketches - they are fabulous!
 

TGIF; Thankful Friday #247

TGIF and Happy Thankful Friday! I have so much to be thankful for this week. I'll start with the ability and desire to vote. I am thankful that my daughter and I go to the polls together and do our voting in person. 

I'm especially thankful that the doctor's appt prior to my son's 4th chemo (he is scheduled to have six total), it was determined that he will stop chemo after this fourth one and then continue with a different - less harsh - medication. His oncologist team is very happy with the scan results and want to try something different. This is very good news! Prayers and determination sure do work!  Praise God!

The next thing I'm thankful for is a short week. Friday is Veteran's Day and a non-work day for me. Most of my family are heading down south to visit my son and nephew AND it's always a great time with them.

In respect of Veteran's Day, I want to also be thankful for my family members who are veterans - hubby, brother-in-laws, uncles, and lots of cousins. THANK YOU for your service!

What are you thankful for this week? Leave a comment below or on my IG account @3sons_and_astar.

Paper Crafted Christmas Gifts; CutCardStock Hop

I'm so excited to announce that the CutCardStock Design Team is having a YT/Blog hop! We're creating all things paper gifts.  Be sure to hop along by going to this LINK.

My project for the hop is this cute paper mug cocoa/gift card holder that I created using my Cricut. All papers except the double-sided patterned paper are from CutCardStock's website.

CutCardStock Papers Used: Pop Tone Sour Apple, Black Licorice, and Cotton Candy

Basis Natural, and Red and Cougar White Smooth cardstocks.

Be sure to check out my YouTube video and then hop to all the other DT members' projects by clicking on the link above.

I hope you're inspired to create your own projects for the holidays!

July Layout

My "use my paper kits" mission is still going strong. I saw this cute layout sketch and decided to use it for a 5x7 photo I have of my granddaughters last 4th of July.

My hope was to use scraps for it but I ended up cutting a few strips off full sheets of patterned papers. I'm ok with that since this is an older kit and I'm on a mission to bash them! I still have plenty of full sheets & most of the sticker sheet left.

Check out the process video here:

Here are some photos:

Products used:

Stars & Stripes Paper kit from Close to My Heart

Embellishments from Pebbles

Enamel dots/stars from my stash

Color Silk; Sparkle from Fun Stampers Journey (Spellbinders)

Sketch is from IG @christys_beautiful_life which was posted on @piececraftlove story.

Be sure to click on the subscribe button to see all my YouTube process videos. I post at least two a week with one always on scrapbooking and the other is whatever I'm creating in the Command Center.

Thanks for watching!

TGIF; Thankful Friday #246

Happy Friday and happy TGIF; Thankful Friday. What am I thankful for this week? I'm thankful for the ability to walk. The TomKat Strut, which is a 50k virtual marathon that my family and I started to raise money for the homeless in honor of my nephew, Tommie.

We started this week and I gotta tell ya, I don't know why I don't walk more often. It sure brings some peace and a spark of energy. Don't get me wrong, I'm super sore but it's a good sore. There are 25 of us that are participating in the Strut and we're from Central, Southern and the Bay Area of CA, AZ, AL and one of us is on vacation in NY!

It's been a great way to reconnect with family, create new memories and also honor my nephew.
Yup...I'm thankful that I'm able to participate in walking for our cause.

If you're interested in seeing more about it, we have FB and IG pages under Operation TomKat and TomKat_Strut.

What are you thankful for this week? Share in the comments below or on my IG @3sons_and_astar.

It's Great to Bee Spoiled Layout

I combined both Mother's and Father's Day's photos in this layout. I'm lucky to have taken photos of the flowers and gifts I received but of course, no photo of me & my kiddos.

I've been on a mission to use my paper kits as much as possible and this is a perfect example of making it work with themed paper. There were absolutely NO BEES in any of these photos but I love how I created a fun title that tied them in.

Be sure to check out the YouTube video to see and listen to my thought process.

If you're not already, hit the subscribe button. I post at least two videos a week and one will always be scrapbooking and the other is whatever it is I'm creating in the Command Center which is the name of my craft room and blog.