Folded Boxes

So my mishaps of this afternoon seem not to have affected my nightly crafting (although I did take a break to worship Jesus and learn more about how to respect my husband :)
When I posted earlier, I realized it had been 4 days since I had touched my craft stuff-yikes! Lea got me back in the game when I got really excited about all of her free svg files over at TuJ's and a Taco (her blog)-follow the link to check it out! Her file is the one I used for the boxes below. I was mostly testing out the size and the making, so I didn't put a great deal of work into decorating them, just used a bit of ink and some paper/vellum scraps. They were put together kind of quickly, but I LOVE the file, so I wanted to share it with you all! The first box is the mini one. It was the biggest I could make it on my personal cricut (6x12 mat) without piecing together. It measures 2 inches x 3 inches.
The next is the big box (the biggest I can do while piecing it back together, as the whole file doesn't fit on my little mat-should you have the expression, this isn't an issue). This one is 4 1/2 inches X 3 1/2 inches and is perfect for index cards (I'm thinking recipes)I had a picture of it open, but photoscape was acting up when I tried to watermark it and only saved 1/2 of it. It opens the same as the little one.

Challenges:
Do You Stack Up-anything goes
Digi Doodle Shop's Best- dots

Really?

I just want to share with you my frustrations in crafting today. I'm sure you've all had those days where you just want something that (should be) simple, but turns out to be a disaster and an hour later, it still doesn't look the way you want it to be. That is me today. I took pictures so tomorrow I can laugh at my misfortunes; and so you can realize you are not alone in this. I got this cool svg file of a crib and was so excited to use it as a pocket for journaling. I decided to make the pocket to go with it before cutting it (it still isn't cut). I had this piece all glimmer misted and was going to use it. Even though on my SCAL screen the lines went all the way across, my markers didn't draw it that way. Off to find more yellow paper.
I found some, but forgot to take the marker out and put the blade back in. Darn it! Tried to cut overtop of the marker, but it didn't work as well as I thought it would.
So I turned off the cricut, put the blade back in and hit 'cut' on SCAL. This is what it did:
Not sure where that came from! Finally, I got it to cut where it was suppose to and draw where it was suppose to, adjusted the lines so it should draw all the way across (I even over-extended them) and they still didn't go the whole way!!
I gave up and free-handed them the rest of the way, but they aren't straight :(
So I decide to cut a star border to go with it. But guess who forgot to reset the pressure on the cricut (after doing the marker)-me. So it didn't cut all the way through the first time. But I was able to cut it over the first cut mark and it worked fine (thank goodness!)

Sorry for the ugly carpet in the pictures. Didn't think they were worth setting up the right way.

Do You Sew?

Do you sew? No? Is it because you don't have a machine? If the last answer was yes, hop over here to get put in a drawing for a sewing machine and some other goodies!

Drats

Drats, I forgot my camera!! Today I drove 2 hours to help my sister set up her new dog grooming business and I forgot my camera. I guess I wasn't thinking at 7 this morning when I left... We did lots of cleaning, swept and mopped, went to look at a dog table (which she is going to get), set up her files for bookwork and we made her a proper sign for her front door. I cut vinyl with my cricut (for the first time all by myself) today. I think it turned out lovely. I took a picture with my phone, but wouldn't you know, my phone didn't come with a cord to plug into a computer (which I didn't realize until I got home). Anyways, her front door looks something like this.

Puppy *

L*ve

* Salon

Well, the formatting on here is giving me troubles. . . the S in Salon should be under love lined up with the P in puppy. In Ravvy font. With the astrics being paw prints. The 'Puppy L*ve Salon' is all in Black and the other two paw prints are in white. The paw prints are slanted so it looks like an animal is walking up to the right hand corner. . . . wish I had a picture to show you, but I don't :(

Should you find yourself near Kewanee, Illinois and needing a wonderful pet groomer, email me at brandicriminger@yahoo.com, and I will give you her phone number.

Woof and a Winner

My sister is opening her own dog grooming business! I am so excited for her! It's not until March, but I was really excited so, I made a card set for her. Now, I've never done a set before, so it was interesting to do that many of the same card (I kind of got an assembly-line deal going). The crazy thing was, I didn't even use my cricut (I know-gasp!) I had a difficult time making them all exactly alike, so I did end up dry embossing using 2 different folders (you can see them both in the picture below.
And the inside:
The Woof is a stamp from DMD and the inside is an alphabet from Studio G.

Challenge-
Do you Stack Up-Dots (see one behind one shown-embossing is dots-)
2 Sisters Challenge Blog-embossing (both wet and dry!)

Now for the winner of the blog hop dozen roses:
CONGRATULATIONS SANDY!

Daddy&Me

I'm making a just add pictures album for my brother's baby (due in June). I am finding it increasingly difficult to scrapbook without pictures to draw from for colors and style! It's crazy, I have found myself looking at online sketches and to see what others have done, since I don't have the inspiration I typically do-the pictures! I think the hardest part is that I want to make sure it can become an album that not only holds pictures, but also memories for mom and dad. Whereas I tend to do less journaling in my scrapbooking, I'm trying to leave room for journaling to be added as well. This is a Daddy and Me double layout (intended for right after birth). The first picture will be on the left side of the album.
The frames are embossed (although it may be difficult to see in the picture). The bird is from the Stamping Cartridge as is the branch (which is really a flourish)-done in vellum. The font is Broadway, cut using SCAL. I will NOT cut this font again! It has lots of places on letters that are really, really thin and a pain in the hind end to take off the mat and glue without ripping. The s's especially were a nightmare-hence the drawn in ones (I thought it added my own flair).

Challenges-
Maryanne's Valentine Hop-LOVE layout (large shape, one patterned paper, vellum, embellishments)
Do You Stack Up-ribbon

Reminder Blog Hop

I just wanted to remind you that the Creative Scrapbooking Blog Hop entries are due by Thursday the 17th! For my challenge, use 2 colors of glitter or the glitter technique shared in my blog hop posting. I am offering one dozen roses as a prize for completing my challenge or being a follower. Creative Scrapbooking Divas is also offering 2 additional prizes (which you can get in on by competing my challenge, or any of the other 11 divas challenges). More details are here.

If you are looking for the Creative Scrapbooking Divas Valentine Blog Hop, see this post.

I'm going to be an aunt in 3 months, so I took advantage of paper and album sales at our favorite hobby store and got an 8x8 album and double sided papers for just $10! And I made the first page tonight.I used a sketch from pagemaps, for a challenge at Creative Scrapbooking Divas.

Challenge:
Scrappy Saturdays with the Bug-I cut the brackets, title & buttons all made in SCAL.

If you are looking for the Creative Scrapbooking Divas Valentine Blog Hop, see this post.

I came across Sandy's blog It's a Colourful World and fell in love with her cute chicks rule digis. They are free, get them here. She is the president of Operation Write Home, which I have been participating in since this summer. You make cards to send to our soldiers, so they can have beautiful creations to send to their loved ones. More Info Here. Anyways, I emailed her to see if she would mind if I converted her digi to a cut file so that I can layer and do more fun stuff with it. She graciously agreed and so I made this card with the file. I left it up to her to whether or not this file is shared~it's not mine to share, folks! She asked for a sample card, this is what I came up with!

Please ignore the inky smudges, didn't realize my fingers were still wet! The grass is a marker outline with chalk to 'fill it in'. Just wanted

Wild 4 You

If you are looking for the Creative Scrapbooking Divas Be Mine Valentine Blog Hop, it is here!!

I just got these embossing folders for my birthday today and I just had, had, had to use them. I embossed strips of paper to see what they all looked like then decided I could use them all on a Valentine card. I'm pretty happy with the results-and love these embossing folders!The font is Wild Monkeys and the shape just one from SCAL. The flower (free) is by Beth and the SVG file can be found here. Then I just added a rhinestone!

Challenges:
Do You stack Up-red hot-it is a valentine
Digi Doodle Shop-valentine
All Sorts Challenge Blog-It must be love
Crafty Creations-use 3 words (does a number count?)
One Stop Craft Challenge-numbers

Flower Tag

If you are looking for the Creative Scrapbooking Diva's Valentine blog Hop, that post is here

Another one of the tags I've been working on.
Just using up some scraps I've had forever, and the roses are heat embossed.

Challenges-
Feb Diva of the Month Challenge-Creative Scrapbooking Divas
For Fun Challenges-Spring or Winter-I choose Spring

Be My Valentine Blog Hop

Welcome to the Creative Scrapbooking Divas Be Mine Valentine Blog Hop! You should have hopped here from Denine's blog. Wasn't her creation wonderful?! I love all the Divas over at Creative Scrapbooking Diva!! If you follow my blog, and you happened upon me, be sure to go back to the beginning, so you may be inspired by all and enter in a few RAKs along the way!

What is Creative Scrapbooking Divas?
"It is a place for Divas to inspire, create and enjoy the process! We encourage members to create, try different things, challenge themselves and enjoy the process. At CSDivas we don't sell anything, we have monthly challenges with RAKs offered, great camaraderie and we like to Spotlight our members and their fabulous creations. Most of all we want our Diva members to have fun!!!"

There are 12 blogs in this blog hop, several of them have prizes and Creative Scrapbooking Divas has a prize as well!

I'm going to begin by telling you I have the best Valentine ever!!! He is a loving and caring husband and is everything a woman could want! This is my Valentine for him this year (he won't check my blog, so I needn't worry about posting it this early). I know that it's a little elegant for a man, but I couldn't resist when I spotted the cut file awhile back. It is from Prob21, here is his site.

Details: I embossed the couple in the middle and added rhinestones. All the little hearts and dots and such were part of the cut file (see above link). Then I did the glitter. I learned a trick awhile back for glitter from my mother-in-law. I used this concept, so I'd like to share it with you. Use clear tape and put it behind your cut (so the tape is on the bottom and the sticky side is on the top) sprinkle the glitter over the top and tap off the excess. Super easy way to stick it and way less mess than glue! If you look really closely, you can see that I used mostly black glitter with a bit of silver (my original intention was silver, but I only had a little left!)

You might be wondering, "is Brandi offering a RAK?" Why, yes, I am! Since this is a Valentines Day Blog Hop, the winner will be My Valentine and receive a dozen roses (paper, of course!). What do you need to do? You have 2 different ways to be entered! 1. Make a card, layout, tag, or whatever else your heart desires using either 2 different colors of glitter or the glitter technique described above (you did read my entire post, didn't you?) and post it to this discussion page AND Creative Scrapbooking Divas gallery with the tag, VDhopBrandi~for one entry and/or become a follower of my blog for another entry.

To be entered into Creative Scrapbooking Diva's prize drawing (it is separate from the roses), put your completed challenge in the blog hop event, if you complete 3 challenges, you get three entries, just mine=one, get it?! Please only post new creations. If you have any questions about this prize drawing, post them here.

Please leave a comment for each entry for the roses. You have until February 17th to submit your projects (both here and at Creative Scrapbooking Divas)! Here is a link to the next stop on the hop, Pam's blog!

Oh, here is a picture of some of the prize roses! Penny Duncan's cut file.

Challenge-
Crafty Creations-Scottish Luv Poem
Do You stack Up-red hot-it is a valentine and my husband is red hot!
Digi Doodle Shop-valentine
All Sorts Challenge Blog-It must me love

Butterfly Tag 2

Another tag-no surprises there! Details, details! The charms I've had forever, along with the ribbon. The butterflies were cut out of a piece of patterned paper. Used a swirly scrap, the tag was a SCAL cut out of white cardstock which I stamped with a dollar clear stamp from Joanns (staz on ink) before soaking in tea, to color it. Inked the edges, and that is pretty much it!



Challenges:
Flutterby Wednesday-butterfly/fairy
Anything Goes-butterfly
For Fun Challenges- Spring or winter- I chose spring!

Butterfly tag

I will be showcasing a lot of tags in the next week or so, as I just completed 15 tags for a swap. I'm not huge on tags, I don't use them too much myself, but I enjoyed making them, non-the-less.
Background paper is a wallpaper sample, beads, ribbon, and charms from the stash. The butterfly was cut out of a patterned paper, not sure who by.

Challenge:
Flutterby Wednesday-butterfly/fairy
Anything Goes-butterfly
For Fun Challenges- Spring or winter- I chose spring!

Flapper Tag

Ok, so I'm trying to do vintage for a swap I'm a part of. I have 15 tags to do and this is the first. I'm not sure it really counts as vintage... but she is a flapper. . .
Unfortunetly I don't remember and didn't document where I got this darling image from :(
The 1920s was cut on my cricut and the brown is two bread ties that came stuck together, I inked them up and strung a ribbon from my stash.

Challenges:
All Sorts-recycle something-bread ties
Digi's With Attitude! Challenge (it's been awhile since I've played with you)- digi people
Do You Stack Up-patterned paper
Papertake Weekly-anything goes+ flower (flower on patterned paper)
2 Sisters Challenge Blog-girls just wanna have fun
Feb Diva of the Month Challenge-recycle-Creative Scrapbooking Divas

Giveaway winners and a blizzard.

The weather outside is frightful, but my dear, you're so delightful, since they canceled class, we can snuggle and relax! If you are in the vicinity of this blizzardish weather, you understand where I am coming from. I live in town and can't see the apartment across the street. I'm glad we still have power (my parents and in-laws don't).

So, it is February first, which means... 8 days until my birthday! And, of course, time for the giveaway drawing!

The winner of the papers:

is Angela R-Congrats!

The winner of the Stickers is:Stef H-Congrats!

Ladies, please email me brandicriminger@yahoo.com with your mailing address and I will get your prizes sent off as soon as the weather clears (hopefully by the end of the week).