Etc, Etc, Etc.....

Vintage Wedding Gift Card Holder

2011-08-22T20:50:00.001-05:00

I have been busy trying to keep up with my Etsy shop this week. I had sold all the gift card holders so I was trying to get caught up with that.

I wanted to post a link to my Etsy shop here on my blog because a lot of people visit my blog searching for a ideas for using luggage for their wedding cards.

Here is one of the latest that I have made.

This one is for sale at my Etsy shop you can go HERE and see the listing. I have done a lot of searching on the web for anyone else who makes something like this. I am the ONLY person doing this so I have to say please don't copy this and try to sell it as your own idea. That would be stealing.

I am participating in a card exchange and our theme this month is birthday cards I will be showing you mine in a few days. Check back soon.

Hugs and Kisses!

Decoupage Train Case and Luggage

2011-08-18T10:22:00.000-05:00

I have been busy decoupaging luggage. While I love the finished product decoupaging in messy.

I did use my Cricut to cut 3 inch circles out of some K and Company paper and decoupaged them with Mod Podge over the entire piece of luggage. Here is the result.

I had seen this done with square paper but I like the effect the circle gave off. As soon as I posted it on Etsy it was sold!

A few weeks later I got the itch to decoupage again. This time I cut 2 inch circles and 1 and 2 inch butterflies. I didn't put the circles as close together and I did in the first piece because I thought I would place the butterflies in between but the spaces were too big and I had a lot of trouble getting the whole piece covered. Anyway it is done and posted on Etsy for sale. We will see how long it last!
If you want to visit my Etsy Store you can go HERE

I have some birthday cards to post soon and I need to do some spray painting today among a lot of other things. I hope this inspires you to try some decoupaging with Mod Podge and using your Cricut too!

Butterflies Are Free To Fly

2011-06-18T09:53:00.000-05:00

Who doesn't love a butterfly. They are lighter than air and flutter around all day long looking for zinnias and butterfly bushes to feed on.

I was just fooling around and made these butterflies to use for scrapbooking or for a card at a later date.

Every thing was cut from the Cricut. The circles are cut at 3 inches. The seal and the butterfly are from the Cake Basic Cartridge. (You have to Hide Select the inner circle) I used Tim Holtz distress ink around the circle. The paper is some music paper (which I thought I would never use) The butterflies are graduated and I did various things to them. Just kinda experimenting. Using the creative part of my brain.

Here I used a swirly stamp and embossed with white.

On this butterfly I used Shimmerz in the paint pot and a paint brush to paint around the edge and used distress ink to bring out the shimmer.

Then....................I made teensy tiny 1 inch ones. This circle is from Accent Essentials and I still used the same butterfly. Instead of using Shimmerz I used the Sakura Clear Star Pen. I LOVE this pen I use it all the time. I LOVE the glitz it gives off.

I did make a .cut file for this and I will share as usual you can go HERE to download.

My little shop on Etsy is growing

2011-06-14T22:19:00.000-05:00

J have been busy selling my "Just Married" luggage on Etsy. As soon as I put one up for sale it is sold right away. I haven't had a lot of time to scrapbook. I have been doing a lot of thrift stores and garage sale trying to stock my Etsy store. Stop on over and see what I have for sale!

Adventures at the Gypsy Caravan

2011-05-31T23:28:00.000-05:00

Every Memorial St. Louis Symphony has a fund raiser called Gypsy Caravan. It is a one day event that has over 400 booth of antiques, crafts, and flea market finds. There are over 20,000 people that attend this event. It is spread out over the parking lot of the campus of University of Missouri St. Louis. We call it UMSL (pronounced "Um-sill).

This was just one of the section. The booths went on and on. I was going to take tons of pictures but I got caught up in the shopping and forgot until we were almost done!

These are bird feeders made out of tires. This picture is for my dad he was a tire salesman for many years. Look at that purple tire! The ultimate in recycling.

You can't go to a fair with food. Grilled Chicken and a bowl of vegetables and Chinese Noodles. Yum!

These tin letters are so cool they made a wooden bottom with different kinds of tin nailed to the front. Love this.

Cute little salt and pepper shakers.

My son was the shopper. He was having a ball looking at all the "stuff". He bought this bracelet from the Pan Flute playing Indian!

The Lemon Shake-Up stands were very busy it was HOT on Memorial Day here in STL which is crazy because not 2 days earlier it was in the 60's.

Got to have my Lemon Shake-Up. It tasted so good. I got a nasty sunburn on my neck but it was great time. Lots of walking but love looking at all the treasures.

Turn your mistake into a creative opportunity!

2011-05-30T22:23:00.000-05:00

The High School graduations are upon us. We only have 2 graduation parties this year.

The first card I am going to show you is actually the second card I made and when I made the envelope it was too small to put the card in.

I didn't want to make another envelope so I turned my mistake into a creative opportunity!

What I did was fold the top part of the envelope to the front and covered with a printed paper and put his name on it and made a button with my Epiphany button maker. Problem solved.

Here was the first graduation card I made.

I was so happy to make a girly card. With 2 boys I there is not to much female stuff going in my house.

Who says your graduation cap has to be black. It is pink with white polka dots for this girl!

It gets better. I made a card holder for her too! I was at Saint Vincent De Paul Thrift store and found this suitcase.

Shelby is going to University of Missouri (Mizzou) in the fall and the gold suitcase is the perfect Mizzou color. I put Shelby's monogram and found a Mizzou logo to put on it.

It turned out fabulous!

"My friend Maggi" at the Inkspot

2011-05-10T16:04:00.000-05:00

You have to see this! "My friend Maggi" is teaching a class at the INKSPOT the end of May.

(1)

the idea is you will be using cut pieces of wood and decorating them as the basis for an interchangeable decorative piece for your mantle, table, window sill etc! the blocks will have a clothespin attached, so you can change the theme throughout the year! How adorable is this and you can leave it up all year decorate for each season.

(2)

Oh the possibilities. It looks like she used Storybook for the lettering!

(3)

The cost for the class is $35.00 but I just bet you if you don't live in the STL area you could contact the Inkspot and they would mail you the kit! "My friend Maggi" is so creative and she is fun too! I know you would have a blast at her class.

I have been crafting away but I can't share what I have been doing because it will spoil the surprise for some people I know so until then................

My little shop on Etsy

2011-05-02T09:07:00.000-05:00

Yes, I have the Etsy bug. I have found some fabulous gift at this little internet store. For those of you who don't know what Etsy is (where have you been first) here is Wikipedia's definition:
Etsy is a social commerce website focused on handmade or vintage items as well as art and craft supplies. These items cover a wide range including art, photography, clothing, jewelry, edibles, bath & beauty products, quilts, nick-knacks and toys.

You really have to see it to believe all the incredible items that are sold there. I did a little research on the internet before I decided to open an Etsy store. I think the key to success is to have something no one else does and no where could I find this little item for sale anywhere on the world wide web.

This is the item that started it all. When I posted this, it was purchased by a Marketing Firm in North Carolina for a photo shoot for a magazine cover. (They promised they would send me a picture and the magazine when it was published!) So now I am hooked. My store isn't brimming with merchandise right now just a few things but I am on the hunt and creating more things everyday.

So here is a link to my store here Carrie's Etsy Store If you haven't visited Etsy before try it out you won't be disappointed there are some fabulous things on there.

Angel Feathers ......A Yummy Goodness

2011-04-30T07:10:00.000-05:00

A few years ago I went scrapbooking for a weekend in St. Charles MO at the Lococo House Bed and Breakfast. Mrs. Lococo has the true gift of hospitality we had just a good time and we ate ourselves into food coma that weekend. One of the things she made was a version of this yummy goodness.

Our church is a having a dessert auction on Sunday to raise money for the High School Mission Trip to South Dakota to an Indian Reservation. Angel Feathers are my go to dessert for any type of dessert fund raiser. I call them Angel Feathers because one taste and you will think you died and went to heaven!

It is so simple to make and yummmy! It has cream cheese and butter in it, manna from heaven, right?

2 Cans Crescent Rolls
1-1/4 Cup Sugar
8 oz. Cream Cheese
1 tsp vanilla (I have dark vanilla here but I used clear vanilla in the recipe)
1 stick butter - melted
1 Jar Apricot Preserves
Cinnamon and Sugar

I buy the small aluminum pans in bulk from Sams they come in handy for taking things to peoples homes or church and I don't have to worry about getting my pan back.

Light spray bottom of a 9x13 or small pan

Spread 1 can of the crescent rolls on the bottom of the pan
Cream together 1 Cup of Sugar, Cream Cheese and Vanilla
Spread Cream Cheese Mixture on top of Crescent Rolls
Spread Apricot Preserves on top of Cream Cheese Mixture
Top with 2nd Can of Crescent Rolls
Pour Melted Butter over the whole thing
Sprinkle with 1/4 cup Sugar and Cinnamon
Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes


The yumminess has just begum. The reason I used Apricot Preserves is because they were available at Aldi. You could use any kind of fruit of jam that you wanted.


Ready to go in the oven. This makes the house smell like you are Betty Crocker.


The manna from heaven fresh out of the oven.

Well I hope they fetch top dollar at the Auction. I do make a label for the with my tag line......"so delicious one taste and you'll think you died and went to heaven."

I am off to garage sales. Yeah it isn't raining for once.

It is BuZZy Bee's Birthday!!!!

2011-04-28T07:12:00.000-05:00

BuZZy Bee is celebrating her birthday with some blog candy. This candy is calorie free! She is wanting 200 followers for her birthday so head on over and help her out!

You can click HERE and wish her a HaPpY BiRtHdAy to her.

DCWV Challenge....American Pickers

2011-04-25T18:33:00.000-05:00

I was up for a challenge....when I saw this layout sketch at DCVW Diary and the page that was made I wanted to join in. I am trying to branch out the Cricut realm.

sketch savvy

I do love DCWV paper stacks (Ok lets face it I love all paper) I had this pictures from Thanksgiving a from a few years ago thought it would be perfect for this layout.

Here is the DCWV "The Guy Stack" that I used.

(This pictures is not the greatest it looks red but it is really brown, it is raining again here in STL. Dave Murray said we are not going to see the Sun until Thursday or Friday)

Thank you DCWV for created this stack. I mainly scrap boys things (being the mother of only boys.....it hard to incorporate flowers on their pages)

Here are all the papers that I used. I love the moustache paper,

I also used all of these Tim Holtz Distressing inks. (Love the Distressing Inks how did I live without these for so long)

So here my page. I like it I hope you do too. I used George to cut the 4 long pieces, and Doodlecharms to make the little turkey tags
If you would like the file you can go HERE to download it.

How cute is this turkey. I cut it twice so I could pop dot the leg.

I bought another Martha Stewart border punch. IT WAS ON CLEARANCE. This is called a quilt border. I thought is wasn't too feminine to use on this manly page. The green paper is glossy and when I used the Peeled Paint Distress Ink on it then the image really came out. Looks great. The sticker is Me and My Big Idea (oldie but goodies)

Wish me luck. I may no win but I like how it turned out and I will be using this layout again and visiting Sketch Savvy to get some more great ideas.

Picture Perfect

2011-04-21T08:02:00.000-05:00

Inspiration comes from a lot of places when you are a scrapbooker, from a cereal box to an advertisement on TV. Nicole Petersen Design is the queen of making something new look old and doing her make and takes all last weekend inspired me to make my own new/old 12x12 page.

There were many steps to making this page.

First steps for the background paper

Ink edges with Tim Holtz Distressing ink. I used green and blue colors
Spray the whole page with a shimmering spray.
Dry with heat gun.
Spray back of paper with water saturate then wad up into a ball and then flatten out.
Iron paper flat
Use a light brown distressed ink over the entire page (I have to say I wasn't too keen on this out come and may skip this step next time.
Stamp flourished images on left side of paper. I used blue distressing ink.

These flowers that I made are super easy but really hard to describe how to make you really need to see it in action. I purchased some cream voil fabric and cut into graduating round circles (They don't have to be perfectly round circles) I sewed a button with some beads in the center and then sprayed with a blue glimmer mist and then put some green distressing ink over the top and spritzed with water. Then the magic happened. I hit it with my heat gun and the fabric melted on the edges and made these super easy and beautiful flowers.

The trim on the bottom is something I purchased from Nicole Petersen Design.

I stamped a beautiful label. I haven't glued everything down yet and I don't even have a pictures to put here yet. I am thinking about using Mod Podge and put it on a canvas. The pictures will come in May. I am hoping to get a good picture at an event I have planned.

I hope this has inspired you to use some or all of the techniques to create you own page.

PS......I just sold one of my Vingtage Suitcase Wedding Card Holders on Etsy and they are going to use it as a prop for a magazine cover. Excited to say the least.

Happy Day Y'all

I've been busy........................Distressing

2011-04-18T17:59:00.000-05:00

I know that I have been MIA on my blog but I have been BUSY crafting. Really I have. Last week I worked at the Creating Keepsake Scrapbooking Conventions here in STL. Man, it was hard work but I had so much fun. I worked for Nicole Petersen Design. She designs amazing scrapbook pages and other art work. I did a make a take on Friday and Saturday.

Friday was tag day. (Saturday was a 12x12 page I forgot to take a picture we were so busy) We did about 30 of these make and takes. Isn't this design that Nicole did fantastic

Here is the carnage from the day. They had to sand the black off the tags and it made a huge mess but it was totally worth it because everyone who made one loved it. They learned several new techniques too.

My friend Ellen worked at the Paper Wizard booth. He has these fantastical detailed laser cut dies for everything you would ever want.

Now it time for you to go and visit these fantastic people who travel all around the country with Creating Keepsake. Guess what you don't have to wait till a Creating Keepsake show to come to your area you can visit

Nicole Petersen Design HERE

and

Paper Wizard HERE

Stop by again and I will show you some of the great things I have been working on. Nicole Petersen definitely inspired me to make a distress 12x12 page I will show that to you real soon.

and..... I now have a shop on Etsy I had only put one thing on there and it sold so now I have to get busy and fill up my store.

Card Night at Gateway Christian Church

2011-04-01T15:46:00.000-05:00

I haven't been a good blogger lately because of an event that happened last night. We had a card night at church.

There were close to 30 women there. Here you can see someone using the amazing Bow Maker.

We had to make enough kits for the ladies to be busy for 2 hours. That is a lot of cards people.

You are never to old to paper craft. The lady in the flowered blouse just turned 80!

In this picture it looks like they are all busy working away but let me tell you the room was full of chatter and laughter. I think all of the ladies had a great time of fellowship and creativity. We made over 150 cards last night. Whew, I was tired.

This is one of the cards from last night. I love monochromatic cards the key to using a card with one color is texture. I totally scraplifted this card saying and all and I am sorry to say I don't remember where I saw it at to give credit. When I seen this card I knew I had to duplicate it.

The labels are made from Spellbinders Nestabilities "Label Four" set and I used 4 and 5 die.

This base paper is 4.5 " by 3.25" and is embossed with the paisley cuttlebug embossing folder. The butterflies are from the Basic Cake cartridge cut a 1" and only partially embossed. I just laid the edges of the wings on the edges of the embossing folder and ran it through the Cuttlebug.

Here a few of the other card that were made last night.

Next week is busy crafting week for me also. I will be working at the Creating Keepsakes Convention here in St. Louis (it is really in Collinsville) I will be working for Nicole Petersen you can go HERE to read more about Nicole and see some of her work. I am so excited!

Okay, now to clean up the craft room. Ugh.

It's Offical....I am the Queen!

2011-03-21T16:06:00.001-05:00

In STL every good West County girl has her initials on her back window. I had a simple monogram on my window for about a year but it was looking shabby and I knew I wanted to redo it. I purchased last Christmas at Target silver contact paper (on sale! SCORE!)

You cannot tell but there is black vinyl behind the silver crown. The crown is from Home Decor and my monogram is from Lyrical Letter. I altered the crown by stretching it some to make it fit my monogram more. If you would like the cut file you can go this CAR DEAL I do have my monogram in the .cut file so you can use the size to.

All A Flutter Challenge

2011-03-14T17:02:00.001-05:00

I have found a great blog called Getting Cricky with K Andrew. She has lots of challenges and lots of great video tutorials. Her latest challenge is doing something that has to do with butterflies. She has a video on how to make glitter coated wire flourishes. I had already made this card and when I saw how to make the glitter wire I was all over that!

I used a little heavier wire than what the video said to use. I just used what I had and I used a clear tacky glue. I wouldn't recommend that. It does need to be a quick drying glue.

They turned out great and I will defintly be doing this technique again. I love glitter but hate using it. It does get every where. My youngest son said that glitter is the herpes of the craft world. Once you get it you can never get rid of it. Truer word never spoken about glitter.

Here is where I am linking to this week.

Incorporating Origami in a Scrapbook Layout

2011-03-10T08:36:00.000-06:00

While I was away on my Scrapathon. One of the girls was busy not scrapbooking but making origami. She was making all kinds of cool creations. While I was making my last page, I asked her to make me an origami tie to go on my page.

The background is from the Wild Card Cartridge. Don't I have some handsome guys!

Isn't the tie great. I did create a tie with my design studio, but it didn't have the depth or the realism that this origami tie did.

My youngest son and I joined an Origami Club at the library that meets once a month to try our hand at it. We made a butterfly out of dollar bill. So much fun.

This is not for the faint of heart. There are a lot of steps to making this butterfly and I was guided every step of the way by my friend Barb. How she could remember every step was amazing to me. How cute is this butterfly. Barb make several of these with bills and made a floral arrangement incorporating real flowers to give as a wedding present. It turned out so very cute.

It is so easy to get in a rut with your scrapbook pages so look outside the box once in a while to spice up those pages.

If you want to try your hand at making an origami tie (so easy to make) I found a blog that has a video on how to make them. Go HERE . I am going to try to make a shirt card too. Have fun!

It is Mardi Gras Time (another cut file)

2011-03-04T07:36:00.000-06:00

Mardi Gras is a big deal here in St. Louis. We have the second largest Mardi Gras celebration in the country. I have already had a piece of King Cake and I didn't get the baby and there are beads everywhere you look. With all the celebration preparations I have fleur de lis on the brain again, so I thought I would share another layout that I used the fleur de lis medallion, but there is a bonus! I also created a fleur de lis border to go with the medallion.

This border in the pictures is actually the bottom layer there is a top layer that has more detail that I didn't cut for this layout. The paper lace under it is a Martha Stewart border punch. You can make a lace border if you cut it on both sides. A little tricky but it can be done.

Here is the fleur de lis medallion you can look back at the previous post for the cut file.

I have been using this butterfly a lot lately. I just love it. This is from the Cake Cartridge.

Oh, I guess you want the cut file for the fleur de lis. Here It Is. The cartridge used is Home Decor.

Happy Birthday Layout (Bubble Mesh Cut File)

2011-03-03T14:04:00.005-06:00

Don't you just love those meshes that people create with Design Studio, but how do you incorporate them with your layout. I created this mesh I call Bubble. I have used it several different times. Here I used it for a birthday page.

The cupcake is from one of the Cricut Cake cartridges. I made this layout around 3am on a Friday morning so I am a little bleary on the details!.

I am very protective of this .cut file I just don't like to give it out without some love shown to me: but if you would like it you may leave me comment with a way to send it to you and I will be happy to do so.

This layout has been enter in amandascraftsandmore in the Scrappy Saturday's with the Bug.

Quilt Border (Cut file)

2011-02-28T17:19:00.000-06:00

Here we are with another 12x12 layout. This time the cut file is from the Paper Lace Cartridge.

There are two parts to this cut file. First there is the quilt border then the layer behind it. The bonus is there is another cut for a card also. I have not cut the smaller card cut but you are welcome to cut it and let me know how it worked out for you.

You can see that it is very versatile. Of course I had to use some rhinestone (since I have so many). I am anxious to use border for the card, but right now everything has been put away.....till I get my scrap-room back.

To upload the file click Here.......and your welcome.

Hello Kitty (or Cleo that is)

2011-02-27T21:17:00.003-06:00

It has almost been a year since we gotten our kitty. We named her Cleo. The funny story about naming her is that she is a tuxedo cat (black and white) and I thought I was naming her after the cat in Pinocchio, but about a month later my younger son told me that the cat in Pinocchio was named Figaro the goldfish's name was Cleo. Oh well so much for my knowledge of Disney trivia.

This was made using the Hello Kitty Font cartridge. I plan on doing some journaling at the bottom of the page also. Our little Cleo is just as cute as this page is!

The Hello Kitty was easy enough to do but it helps using the booklet to see which elements to use.

Check back tomorrow. I will have another layout with a free cut file to share :)

Snow Princess

2011-02-26T09:30:00.000-06:00

This picture of me was taken on the first snow of the season. I was afraid we couldn't have anymore so I had my son take a pictures of me with the inflatable snowman we put on our lawn at Christmas time. Little did we all know that we would be totally sick of snow by the time winter is over. Yes, it snowed again here in STL yesterday. Yuck.

This was an easy layout to do I just use 2 of the same paper from DCWV Christmas stack. It is a 180 pieces of Christmas paper. Big mistake that is too much Christmas paper for me. I think I have 170 pieces of paper left in that pack. Anyway back to the layout. I cut out the snowman's and pop dot them on the same paper. Using 5 different colors of paper I just cut 5 different strips of paper and layered them behind the pictures. Easy, Easy, Easy. The snowflakes are from several different Cricut cartridges. I just used the keyword in Design Studio to find as many snowflakes as I could.

Now to the rhinestones on the snowflakes. My niece and I happened to be at Michael's at just the right time. They had 90% off all the left-over Christmas stuff and they had a lot of rhinestone packages for 10cents. Some were even a penny. I think I bought 50+ packages of rhinestones. I now have a lifetime supply of rhinestone to go with my Christmas paper.

Happy Scrapping and THINK SPRING!

Girls Rock

2011-02-15T20:22:00.003-06:00

Periodically I send a card to my son at college. It is funny that teenagers are so connected to everyone with Facebook, Text messaging , Email and this list goes on, but what does he ask for regular good ole-fashion mail.

In the previous post you see the card I mailed to him and some of the girls that he knows asked if I would send them a card also so here are the 3 cards I sent to them.

This is from Rock Princess the paper is from AC Paper (Teen)

This is from Rock Princess too! Isn't this paper perfect!


Hello Kitty Font Cartridge! Passionately Artistic

Valentine Card and A Special Valentine Dinner

2011-02-14T20:03:00.000-06:00

I have been keeping up with sending my cards every week. In fact I think I am ahead of schedule. This is the card that I sent to my son at college it is a little edgy for valentine but I thought he would like it.

The heart is from Rock Princess. I do love this cartridge it has a lot of very cool stuff and stay tuned because I made some really really neat cards using the Rock Princess cartridge

I was very busy today cooking, ALL DAY. I have wanted to make Julia Child's Beef Bourgnignon ever since I watch the movie Julie, Julia. Today, being Valentine Day, made it the perfect day to make such a labor intensive dish. When I say labor intensive I am not joking.

I started cooking at 10 am and the dish was finished by 4pm but I still had to cook the noodles and make the salad, set the table etc.

This is the finished product it smelled wonderful.

It tasted just as good as it looks

Here is our little family table if you look at the picture on the wall you can just see the bottom of the Eiffel tower in the picture. We could even pretend we were in Paris.

Happy Valentine Day everyone.
Please stay tuned for more things from the Rock Princess cartridge you won't be disappointed.

Fleur de lis Medallion (Free cut file)

2011-02-03T13:55:00.000-06:00

Since I have been snow bound I have been busy make some cute little medallion for cards. This fleur de lis medallion is made with the Accent Essentials Cartridge. I used another Sizzix embossing folder to show you the extra circle that is in the file. Enjoy.
*****If you download the cut file all I ask is that you leave a comment (that's not to hard is it?)*****

Here you go Fleur de lis Cut File