Created by Missie: May 2012

May 16, 2012

End of the School Year Teacher Gifts

After a bit of a crafting break- thanks to this semesters classes kicking my butt- I have finally had some time to craft. I finished my school semester yesterday with my MicroBiology final! It is so nice to get a bit of a break. But the end of the school year means that it is time to put my crafting powers to work and get teacher gifts done. I have spent the last two days working my butt off to get the gifts completed for my boys 6 preschool teachers and the directors of the center. For the last three years my boys have attended the Early Childhood Lab school at the college I attend. The go when I go. So, the teachers and staff there have become our extended family. At the end of each semester I attempt to create something crafty for each of them to let them know that we appriciate all that they do. This year in addition to attending the lab school, my oldest son attends the public school PreK program two days a week, so I also created something for the two teachers he has there. Hopefully, they will like it!

The flowers were cut using the Cricut Art Philosophy Cartridge, the Apple, school house, and book are from the Recess Lite Cartridge, the "chalk board" was cut using George and Basic shapes. The "math" phrase was stamped onto the books using CTMH stamps. The flowers were cut using the Dotty For You paper pack available until the end of this month from CTMH, and the chalk board I used chalkboard vinyl for the top layer to make it an actual eraseable surface...so let me know what you think, because I love reading your suggestions and opinions!

May 15, 2012

I am being featured in a scrappy publication this month!!!

I am so excited to share some news with all of you today! I have been waiting a few weeks trying not to spill the beans so to speak, but today is the big day to share! Last month I won a contest through a blog that I regularly visit. The site is http://www.papersnpixels.blogspot.com/ and the blog is for a Scrapbooking/ papercrafting/ digital scrapbooking magazine that I subscribe too. If you have ever wanted to learn more about photoshop, digital scrapbooking, or are just looking for inspiration this is a wonderful publication. The format is digital, and new additions are posted monthly. With your subscription you recieve free digital kits and templates each month that make the subscription cost WELL WORTH ThE SUBSCRIPTION COST!!! The subscription is just $1.50 per month or $4.50 per quarter. When I signed up I subscribed for the year for just $12. They even have some free back issues on their site that you can download to see what it is all about and they are full of amazing tips and techniques.

Anyway, after I won the contest (the prize was a subscription to http://blog.papercrafterslibrary.com/- another amazing resource for crafting inspiration) I was in communication with a representative from Papers and Pixels. In our communications he asked me for my blog information, and asked if I would be willing to be featured in the May addition of Papers and Pixels magazine! How cool is that? Today, when the new addition launched it included a full page write up about me, my crafting, my blog, and even featured some photos of my creations. I asked for permission and have been granted access to repost the article here to share with all of you! Thanks for letting me be so excited and share this with you!

May 7, 2012

National Scrapbook Day- Art Inspiration Challenge

With lots of great inspiration (thanks to NSD) I have actually done a bit of scrapbooking today. It has been so had to find the time to do anything crafty, so this challenge was a great kick in the butt to make time to scrap. For the challenge we were to create a project using a specific inspiration piece (see details and photos below). You could make anything you wanted but needed to use the inspiration. I made a scrapbook page for Ian's album

All of the papers and most of the di-cuts are from the Lori's Garden Circut Imagine cartridge. I used the SongBird cartridge for the name and shaddow at the top. The butterflies and font shaddow were then glittered to add a bit of extra "sparkle" to the page. I really had two wonderful photos that I wanted to include in this layout, but there simply wan't enough room. So, I made a pocket and hid an extra photo behind the one you can see. It was really very simple, but I was also able to add a bit of journaling by mounting the "hidden" photo on white cardstock! I love the end result, and I especially love that it has an entirely different fell than most of the "BOY" pages I do, but somehow it doesn't feel too girly!