2 Sketches 4 You Cards week of December 29, 2008

This week I'm off work but it has been really busy. The kids have had other kids over several days and we got hair cuts (rescheduled from the snowy weather days!) and doing all kinds of other things going on! I thought I would have gotten the sketches done earlier being home!

The first card is based on Katie's Bonus Sketch at 2 Sketches 4 You. I know I didn't use 2 symmetrical things on the top and bottom but I saw the round thing in the middle as the world and since I'm going to need to make lots of valentines for the food drive at work, I thought I would turn it into a valentine! The world is from the cricut cartridge Locker Talk. All the paper on this card is from the Basic Grey Boxer Line. World is cut with the Cricut Don Juan font. The heart charm is a sizzix (metallic paper on chipboard) so it looks like metal! It is kind of a non-traditional valentine!





































My friend Jennifer and her girls came over last night. The kids play and we "play" with our die cuts! We cut out things with each others die cuts that we don't have. I had bought this cute little owl from the quickutz release in November 2008 and when she started cutting them out, I just had to also! I used Kaiser jewels for the eyes instead of cutting them out so that I could give them a little more dimension. I came up with "owl" always love you for a valentine and I tried with two type of paper that I had in my stash. Not sure either one of them came out quite how I had envisioned them using Laura's sketch but here they are.

The first one uses Cloud 9 patterned paper, owl cut from the cricut Don Juan font and a prima flower. The 3 jewels below "always love you" are also Kaiser jewels.



















The 2nd one uses SEI Cupid's Candy Shop paper, owl cut with Quickutz Sophisticate font , and brads from Oriental Trading.













Here is Laura's Sketch 16:

Happy, Scrappy New Year!

Some Fun Cards!

I was so excited to get some "printable" stamps from reginascutterdesigns.blogspot.com! The background words are from the Holiday Big Words Set and the round circle one is from one of the New Years Sets. They are totally cool. You just print them and out and can do all kinds of things with them!

February is when our state government offices have a big push for the food drive and myself and another gal make cards to sell all year but they really go during feburary for valentines so I've got a couple here to show. The cupid and love you are quickutz revolution cookie cutters!


The New Years Card also has photo corners from quickutz and the 2009 is cricut Don Juan - really liking that cartridge!












The next 2 cards are made with stuff in my stash and scraps ~ on scrapbook.com one of the things in the January card challenge is to do cards with mostly black. I've been really liking how black looks with other colors so this has been fun! The marriage saying and love and kisses came from a K and Company set of rub ons I bought several years ago when I did a wedding book for my parents (for the 50th anniversary!). I was cleaning some things up and found them and thought I would use them! I also found these flower stickers! It's good to go through things once in a while!

2 Sketches 4 You week of December 22, 2008

At first I looked at this week's sketch and thought how could I come up with something for the area with the 3 circles? And then I had all kinds of ideas but not enough time ~ maybe will get more at the end of the week and do some more!

At work, another gal and I make cards all year for the state food drive. The official time of the food drive is February so valentines go very well and we sell them for cheaper than stores so of course people buy them! So, I made one valentine to sell for the food drive. The paper is mostly K and Company. The "love" is a sizzlet and the "you" and "me" were cut with quickutz Eliza mini. The hears are also sizzlets and the "love" heart is on pop dots. The clear stickers with the sayings are from my stash. The rhinestones are also K and Company.

I have 7 managers that report directly to me and at the time of each person's birthday we all go out to lunch. I make every one of them a card and with these 2 made I actually have them all made for the year 2009. Some of their birthdays aren't till September but I feel really good about not having to scramble at the time of their birthdays! For once I'm organized! I just have to make one for my boss (but his birthday isn't till May!).

The balloons on the first one are from the cricut teardrop cartridge and the happy birthday is a sizzlet that I had borrowed from a friend quite some time ago and cut out a bunch of happy birthdays to use later! They came in real handy!



I've been using a lot of black and white with blue so this time I tried purple tones with it and think it looks great too! The black and white paper was scraps from other projects (I've got a lot of black and white scraps so there could be more cards using that combo coming!). The happy birthday and flourishes are quickutz revolution. The flowers are doodlebug and the rhinestone brads are darice.

Thanks for taking a look! It has been another wild weather week here. They stay this cold and snow storm is the worst we've had in 40 years (I was kid in Idaho then so I wasn't here). It snowed all day when I was at work Monday ~ 6 to 8 inches. But it was my lucky day, because I decided to go for a little drive at lunch to make sure I could still back my car out of the parking lot so I checked our local store, Scrapbook Fever on-line to see if they were open and read the story about the owner and her husband having to stay in a motel across the street from the store because their house had lost power (alot of trees and limbs came down due to ice) and decided it wasn't far from work, I'd go check it out! Her husband opened the door for me and said welcome 2nd customer of the day! I jokingly asked if there were any sales and she told me whatever I bought I'd get 25% off! Very cool! I bought some extra mats for my cricut, a scraping tool (think I'll need that), a nestibility die (been meaning to try them), some x-mas stamps (like I need more???), and some card stock but it was very cool to get 25% off that stuff!



Everyone have a great holiday!

More Winter Weather and Some Reindeer Cards!

The Challenge at Card-A-Licious this week was to make a card with a Holiday Icon. I think reindeers are holiday icons! Aren't they??? I found this cute reindeer on the Cricut paper doll cartridge as an accessory! My daughter really wanted the cartridge and I wasn't sure we would use it and then this weekend I have been cutting out lots of reindeers! The card with all the little reindeer faces was a DCWV holiday glitter card that I had in my stash of cards (I knew I was holding on to them for a reason!). 'Tis the Season to be jolly is all from the quickutz holiday gift set for 2008. I had bought a whole bunch of the red fiber for our x-mas cards and I tied it around his neck to look like a little scarf - hope it keeps him warm!

This other cute guy with the X-mas Tree (another holiday Icon!) was also made with the paper doll cartridge. The tree and wreath came from the Joys of the Season cartridge. Be Jolly and the x-mas lights are from the quickutz revolution 2008 holiday gift set. Patternd paper is from the Me and My Big Ideas Christmas Stack.

We still have some incredibly cold and dangerous winter weather ~ quite unusual for the Northwest but for the past week it has snowed, thawed, snowed, thawed....you get the idea but last night and today we had a new twist ~ FREEZING Rain! Yuck! I hate freezing rain! It is so treacherous. I went out today for awhile and took this pictures. Doesn't Santa look like he has a stole around him of snow (and ice), the ice on the tree looks pretty. I'm holding up a piece of the ice that I picked up off the top of the snow. Everything was covered with a 1/4 to 1/2 inch sheet of ice. When you walked, you crunched through it but you had to be careful not to slip or get your foot stuck in the hole that the "crunching" made. My yard and driveway are sloped so as I broke up the stuff off of the sidewalk and driveway, parts of it would skid down like it was on a sled! I'm crossing my fingers that it will warm up over night before it is time to head to work! I've been wearing jeans and snow boots all last weeks and it looks like this week is starting out the same way!

In a "Blue" Mood - 2 Sketches 4 You (week of December 22, 2008) and a picture frame!

At our local scrapbook store, Scrapbook Fever, they have make and takes every monday. A couple weeks ago, they had a cool little frame that we made using chipboard. I have a bunch of frame dies for sizzix so I made this one using the rectangle frame (cut once out of chipboard ~ I recycle cereal boxes and other boxes for my chipboard!) and once out of BoBunny polka dot paper. Then I used the Jelly frame to cute the other frame out of Me and My Big Ideas paper. The flowers are prima lace flowers. I cut Carl, Shaina, 2008 with the cricut DonJuan font. The brad is Darice. I made 16 of these and included one in my Christmas Cards for close family and friends - my parents, sisters, my aunts and uncles (that don't get to see us much).













































I thought about Laura's Sketch from 2 Sketches 4 You alot while I was driving up and down the freeway in the snow and ice (see below)! After making all those little picture frames I found myself going for the white, black, and blue combo (that is why I say a Blue Mood!) because it is so striking. I made a get well card a few weeks ago that had the same colors and loved it also! The card uses the same BoBunny Paper (lots of scraps from the frames), DCWV (the black and white striped), and another black and white scrap. the happy birthday is Quickutz Revolution. The blue and white flower is a doodlebug, and the black flower is another prima lace flower (I've used them all up now!), and the brad a Darice. This was really a fun card!

It has been an interesting week here. The week started out with snow and it is still working on more ~ it has melted off a couple times and then came back! Very odd for Western Oregon! No school all week! The kids were getting stir crazy! It took a long time to get to work most days and then when it did thaw out, the lines in the stores were incredibly long because everyone took the window of opportunity to do shopping and stock up on groceries. I also had an incredibly strange car problem ~ I rolled down my passenger side window to get some snow off and the window would not go back up! Driving on the freeway with snow blowing in was not very fun. I took it into the shop and the motor in the window was shot! $429 later I'm staying dry and warm in my car and got it done before the next wave of winter weather! The weather man says more is on it's way tonight and tomorrow!

Christmas Photo Shoot!

I was trying to get a good picture for our Christmas Cards and the kids had some fun with it!

Holiday Cards

I finally finished my Christmas Cards! I still have to snap a picture of the kids and put it inside but the fronts are done and the envelopes are addressed! I picked out the paper in July and thought I would be farther ahead but I'm still doing better than last year! I had the paper in my stash and I was trying to do them all like the one on the left (all the paper on that one is from the DCWV 2007 Christmas Glitter stack but had to use some other paper because I didn't have enough - part of the paper for the one on the right came from the DCWV 2006 Christmas Glitter Stack. All of them turned out pretty well. I had lots more "holidays" cut out so am trying to use them for other cards (guess I miscounted!). Anyway, the card on the bottom is one for my boss that we will all sign and give him a gift card to Borders as he loves to read.
"happy" is quickutz revolution from "happy birthday"

Holidays is cut with sizzlet "slim jim" font

the ornament is from the quickutz revolution 2008 holiday gift set.

It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas and Winter!!!!

Carl and I had breakfast at the Keizer Fire Station this morning. They do a pancake breakfast each December as a fund raiser. The weekend before X-mas they distribute candy canes throughout town on fire trucks so the breakfast funds this. Carl was a good sport and sat on Santa's lap and then Santa said we both could. Shaina was in Sunriver so she wasn't there (and told her grandma that she is too old to sit on Santa's lap).

It started snowing this afternoon. They had predicted it all day but it finally was really coming down about 6:00 pm. Shaina had spent all weekend in Sunriver so she had seen lots of snow but Carl was pretty excited so he and I went out played in it for awhile and walked around the block. It is very fluffy and dry so won't make good snowballs! It was so pretty with the snow falling and the Christmas lights - these are a couple of the lights we have in our yard!

A beautiful girl in Orchestra! And 2 Sketches 4 You (Kazan Sketch 15 and Heidi Bonus Sketch - Week of Dec 8, 2008)

This has been a very busy week! My daughter Shaina had her Orchestra Concert on Tuesday night. They played 3 songs and she got to introduce one! She is 10 and in 5th grade but I think she looks so grown up when she is all dressed up! She did awesome! My parents came back through here to see the concert (they had been in California seeing my sister and her kids). Then on Wednesday, Shaina was part of her school choir that performed at the state capitol. Our state capitol is always decorated beautifully for the holidays and it was nice that my parents got to see that concert too. I also got to show them around the capitol and the decorations! They left today because the weather is looking like it is going to get cold and snow. Shaina had her regular choir concert tonight and did awesome! Next week it is a band concert for my son!




I really liked the sketches this week at 2 Sketches 4 You! I thought they had very clean lines. For the bonus sketch (Heidi's), I used Cosmo Cricket paper that I got as a gift for being one of the first 50 shoppers the day after Thanksgiving at Scrapbook Fever (Salem, OR). The Merry Christmas and holly leaves are from the quickutz revolution 2008 holiday gift set. I used a fiskars border punch and embosser for the redish paper (it was really sticking so this was a lot of work today!).

Kazan's Sketch also had really clean lines. I used this paper from the 2007 DCWV Christmas Glitter Stack, the snowflake is made from DCWV glitter paper and the Don Juan cartridge for the cricut. The lace was used to tie up the cosmo cricket free package that I got the day after Thanksgiving!

I still don't have my christmas cards done! I have more letters to cut out and I need to take a picture of my kids! I can't believe I actually started part of them in July and still don't have them done! But this weekend I will have some time because my daughter is going to Sunriver with her friend's family and my son is inviting another boy over to hang out. We also might have snow this weekend! I like it a lot better when it snows on the weekend on not weekdays!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Laura's Bonus Sketch for ScrapStreet.com

This is my take on Laura's bonus sketch @ scrapstreet.com! These are kind of card/tags! I needed to make 12 card/tags for an upcoming award thing at work. There were 12 people who were an integral part of upgrading our accounting system and we are buying them bags with our agency logo and then we will tie these on the bags. I will have the director, deputy director, and my boss sign the tags and then we will have cake and a little speach! Can't do much when you work in state government! But I did something similar (with a different style card/tag) for a group of people who had worked on a project for more than a year and even though it wasn't a big expense, it was recognition and they loved it! So, I just knew Laura's bonus sketch would work and I replaced the 1/2 circle with a star! And I'm really liking the word Bravo (have you noticed!). Maybe it is the way that it cuts out on the Cricut (which of course I'm loving!).

The patterned paper is scraps (lower one DCWV Glitter Stack, upper one Basic Grey) from projects where I made 8 X 8 books and used 12 X 12 paper. There are only 3 women on the project so I will give them ones with flowers and the guys ones with stars!

Kazan's Bonus Sketch in ScrapStreet.com

This month, ScrapStreet.com had a feature article about 2 Sketches 4 You and had 2 bonus sketches from Laura and Kazan. They both are totally cool, but I decided to try Kazan's first because I needed to do some thank you notes ~ always need a stock of them during the holidays!

I used some Bohemian paper that I had "over" purchased for a project a couple years ago when I made my parents a wedding book for their 50th anniversary! I still have skads of paper and it is beautiful! The heart, thanks, and bow on the heart were cut with my new cricut (don juan font)!!! I'm loving the cricut! The photo corners and flourishes are Quickutz Revolution dies. From the heart is an autumn leaves stamp and the rhinestones are from Kaiser. Thanks for taking a peek!

2 Sketches 4 You Week of December 1, 2008

This is Laura's Sketch 14 at 2 Sketches 4 You and I had some fun with it. I made the Bravo Card for my son because I know he is going to get a report card really soon and it is going to be way better than ever! He has just started Middle School and this is his 2nd report card! He is really motivated and wants to get on the honor roll so I want to give him the card with the money I will owe him ($5 for each A and $3 for each B ~ we will see how much I'm out soon!). The paper is all scraps from a project I made a couple years ago. The 2 stamps are Autumn Leaves and the Bravo was cut with my new Cricut!!!! Don Juan font!

The "Special Delivery" card is the sketch upside down! Hopefully you can see it!!! For some reason I just pictured this card with it upside down! The sled and reindeer are Cricut dies again! Having fun with it! Paper is all Me and My Big Ideas Christmas Stack. Believer is also an Autumn Leaves stamp ~ I don't know the brand of the special delivery stamp. "Special Delivery" is quickutz sunshine font. This one was fun too!

We are having a busy week this week ~ projects for school, dentist appts, and lots of other stuff! Take care and I will see you here again!

2 Sketches 4 You Bonus Sketch for week of Nov 24, 2008

I was so excited to do a card for Hanneke's sketch. I love bracket cards! I made this card for my sister who just came to visit after many years. This card is also really special because she told me how cool the Cricut was and we went to Michael's on Thanksgiving Day at 6 pm and I bought the last Cricut Create they had! She said it was a great price and I would love it! So the many thanks and the accent were cut with my new cricut!!! All the patterned paper is Basic Grey Boxer. Thanks for taking a peek!