THANKS MOM BLOG HOP

Welcome to the THANKS MOM BLOG HOP. This is the final stop on the hop! Thanks for joining us to enjoy all the wonderful crafty inspiration in honor of mother's everywhere from the talented designers in this hop.

You should have arrived here from DARCY'S page http://dlmbscrapping-time2create.blogspot.com/. If you missed the beginning of the hop, please go back to the start of the hop at DEBBIE'S page http://www.debseclecticthoughts.blogspot.com/ to start so you don't miss any of the projects. There is a Grand Prize Blog Candy offered so you want to start at the beginning and read how to participate to win.


Hi everyone, Happy Mother’s Day! I'm Kelly, welcome to my blog!

Today I’m featuring one of my new favorite home décor items! I love to alter things, so it’s no surprise that I had to give the printer’s tray from 7 Gypsies a try. A friend requested that I make one for her to give to her daughter for Mother’s Day. The tray is 12” x 12” and comes in a variety of opening sizes. The one I’m using today has 12 openings, each 2 ¾" x 3 ¾".

I was given four photographs to work with, but very little direction. The only thing I knew was that she liked modern, clean lines. Well, that was kind of a stretch for me. I think that the tray calls out for more of a vintage look, but I accepted the challenge. I knew that her décor was black and white, with splashes of red, so that is where I began.



I’ll give a brief description of each square, but want to let you know that the paper is from the new Bella Armoire stack from DCWV. It’s all black and white and gorgeous!



I decided to put the four photos in the corners and work from there. I matted each photo on paper from the stack, as the photos were a little smaller than the openings. I kept all of the photos plain, with the exception of the wedding photo at the bottom left. Included in the stack was a page of journaling tags and sayings. I saw the “one beautiful day” and knew I wanted to use it with that wedding photo, so I added pearls along the sides of the photo since that this is the only photo that was in portrait mode. I then pop dotted the saying and added a pearl to each end.



Next I had to get busy creating the remaining 8 spaces. I knew I wanted to use initials, so I got out the Cricut and made the scalloped oval mats with Lacey Labels, then used Plantin Schoolbook for the “N”, which I cut out of vinyl. The M & M are also PS and cut out of vinyl then placed on rescued bathroom tile samples from my office.

I was told not to use flowers or butterflies (gasp), so I decided to use the bird from Cindy Loo. I used different 3 different paper patterns and instead of using the eye cut out, I inserted some bling! I placed it on a premade rosette from Michael’s Recollections line.

I needed something for the space between their two photos at the top, so I decided on a plain white heart. This heart was from Celebrate With A Flourish and is very elegant. I added the LOVE tag from Tim Holtz and some bling.



I had an empty space that I wasn’t quite sure what to do, so I took some black and white buttons, some black buttons and flowered crystals and made a simple design. It filled the space and I really like the way it came out.

Next up were the metal tags with words from Tim Holtz. I used the Live, Play, Love tags, backed with some red ribbon and more bling.

Right above the photo of the family, I wanted to cut out the word family, but happened upon this sticker. I punched out a plain white circle, so you could read the word “family” since the sticker was clear. I dusted the back part that was outside of the white circle with baby powder to keep it from bending down and sticking, since I pop dotted it off of the page. Of course, more bling was added.

Lastly, I had a single sheet of paper and I don’t know who the mfg is, but it was a page of white roses on a black background. (see 1st photo above) I decided to cut it out and it fit perfectly; so much so I left it plain.

I hope you enjoyed my project as much as I enjoyed making it!

Thanks for hopping along with us. Remember, if you leave a comment on every designers blog hop post, your name will go into the drawing for the Blog Candy that our THANK MOM BLOG HOP hostess, Debbie, is offering as a Grand Prize.

October Monthly Challenge - Celebrating Creativity

Here is my entry for the Circle's October Monthly Challenge - Celebrating Creativity. I thought about this for a long time wondering what I could do to celebrate my creativity. I decided that I didn't want to limit this to myself. My youngest daughter is really the creative one in the family. She has a natural talent, which we have tried to encourage for quite some time. She never really wanted to pursue formal training, but I wanted her to continue to develop her God given talents.

My DH got some wood and built a frame around some high grade plywood. We painted the frame white and used decorative corner molding so we didn't have to miter the edges! We then painted the plywood with chalkboard paint. We then hung it in her room.

I then proceeded to make an inspirational sign for her to look at daily. Here is what I came up with:



The patterned black and white paper is from The Paper Studio, the black and white stack. The white mat was cut from the Lacy Labels cartridge at 11.3 on my Gypsy. The fonts, cut at 1 1/2 inches, are from the Storybook cartridge, as well as the borders, cut at 1". The black paper used for the shadow behind the fonts, as well as the white paper for the mat is Core'dinations paper.




I used Viva Decor liquid pearls on the border.



I used Prima Flowers with black and white brads for additional embellishments.

Think Pink Cricut Blog challenge

Here is my submission for the Think Pink challenge. I've been thinking about what to do for Christmas cards, so when I saw this challenge I immediately thought of Christmas. Although I usually don't think of pink and Christmas going together I really like the way this came out.

I used the Joys of the Season and Lacy Labels cartridges. I cut the tree out at 4" and also used the blackout feature. Although it looks kind of red in the photo, I used a dark pink card stock for the blackout. I ran the top swirly layer of the tree through my Xyron machine in order to adhere it to the blackout layer. Instead of cleaning up the extra adhesive, I added clear MS glitter to give it a little sparkle. I then used flower shaped rhinestones for ornaments. The presents were cut out at 1" and I outlined the ribbon with liquid pearls.

The mats were from Lacy Labels. There were extremely white, so I just used some pink chalk and shaded it a bit to soften the look. All of the paper that I used were scraps so I have no idea who made what.

The sentiment was done on the computer, then placed on the mat exactly where I knew the mat would cut! I also chalked up that mat, just not quite as much.

Lacy Labels birthday card

Yet another September birthday card! I've been under the weather the past few days and haven't created anything and since I vowed to post everyday, I'm just going back into my stack.

I had just gotten the Lacy Labels cartridge, which I really had no interest in getting until I met Pamela at the Circle meet up. She had shown me the beautiful cuts and I just had to have it! So one month later, while browsing in Wal Mart, there it was, so I got it.

It really does have a lot of pretty cuts on it. I played around and for some reason this cut jumped out at me. Maybe because I love tulips.

I found this paper in my stack and honestly have no idea where it came from. I'm thinking it might have been in one of my stacks and then my daughter cut them into 6x6 pieces. There was about 6 different papers (4 of each), all in the yellow/brown/pink colors.

I cut the striped background down to the 5x5 to fit my card - I love doing square 51/4" x 5 1/4" cards! Then I cut the flowered background at 3", then the tulip ring at 2 1/2". I then cut out a smaller circle so I could stamp Happy Birthday and pop dotted that so it would stand out. I added liquid pearls, some crystal tulips and sheer yellow ribbon.