Love You Forever. Are any of you familiar with that book?  My Mom gave it to me years ago and it is one of my faves for more than one reason! It was also the perfect inspiration for the title on this layout.  I love this photo of me and my mom!  When I saw it in my pile of photos, I decided to scrap it because I have been missing her a lot lately.  All the stress I have had lately with work and then being so far away from her has just made things even more tough.  I am thankful that my work situation has leveled out and I am looking forward to starting my new job in January.  I am also really looking forward to spending time with my Mom over Christmas weekend!


This layout is up on the Bo Bunny blog today as we focus on their brads.  I used brads to hold those gorgeous Dusty Attic chipboard pieces in place (thank you Gabi!!!).  I also wrapped the little strips of tulle around them to hold that in place as well.  I had fun embossing the patterned papers using my Cuttlebug and various embossing folders. I then rubbed some ink over the raised images using a sponge dauber.  The Bo Bunny Enchanted collection is gorgeous in all it's black and white beauty, but it really just calls out to me to have a bit of color added to it.  I added color once again using a sponge dauber.


I also inked the chipboard pieces with some vintage photo distress ink (my favorite color!) and then added a nice thick coat of the Tim Holtz Rock Candy Crackle Paint.  It added a very subtle bit of texture, but I love to play like this with my scrapbook stuff!  Last but not least, I used this sketch...


I created it for Creative Scrappers.  I hope you will give the sketch a go and play along for a chance to win a fun prize from Niklin Designs.

Thank you for stopping by!  I hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas!

• 2" Circle Scallop Punch (mine is by Stampin Up!, but EK Success has them too and you can get them HERE)
• Helmar 450 Quick Dry Glue and Zap Dots
• Patterned paper of your choice
• Large button
• Small embellishment and/or gem for the center

I am trying to find it.  This year it has been difficult.  Thank goodness things have improved lately and I have been reminded that I have so very much to be thankful for.

S,o in an attempt to spread a little Christmas cheer, I have a quick Cricut gift wrap idea to share with you.  Details are posted on the Cricut Blog if you are interested. I love the colors of this gift wrap...not your typical red and green and it was so much fun creating my own custom dyed ribbon.  You can read about that over there too!



The second project for you today is a layout I created using a new Cricut cartridge created for Creative Memories called This & That!  Love this cart!  It contains a wonderful array of playful images and phrases that fit just about any theme. It contains 2 really great fonts as well.  The layout I created also uses papers from the Creative Memories Reflections Collection.  They are really pretty in person...quite a few of the papers have this gorgeous silver embossed design in them!


Those of you who know me will look at this LO and wonder who those adorable children are. Well, a gal I work with, who is a photographer on the side, took this adorable photo and was sweet enough to allow me to use it for my scrapbooking enjoyment.  Thank you Liz!!!  If you want to see more, stop by the Cricut Blog and /or the Cricut Circle Blog to see all the newly released cartridges and the fabulous DT projects.  I am sure you will find something to inspire you...plus if you leave a comment you have the chance of winning some Cricut.com credits and who wouldn't want those after seeing all these new goodies?!
As always thank you for stopping by and your sweet comments!

Just wanted to share that I have another sketch up on Creative Scrappers!


If you play along, make sure you link it up on the CS blog for your chance to win a prize from Niklin Designs, who is this month's sponsor. The more sketches you play along with the more chances you have of winning!

I hope you all will find some time to play along during this busy holiday season!

Things are starting to look up...thank goodness!  And thank you all for your comments, thoughts and prayers.  I think some of them have been answered and I am so very thankful.  It has been a rough few weeks and things are not totally over with the stress, but at least I am starting to see a little light at the end of the tunnel.
Today, I spent my afternoon relaxing.  For me that was doing some scrapping that was not an assignment.  I have taken a break from some of my DT stuff just to give myself a little time to deal with things.  Sometimes we just need a break...
So what did I do? I played along with Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas.  This is my first time to do this, and I must say, I really enjoyed the process.  I learned some fun new techniques and really tried to take to heart his encouragement to use what I had on hand.  I would LOVE to have all of his products, but I don't.  The only thing I did break down and purchase was the Archival Ink.  It just does things that my other inks don't do, so I had to have it.  I am also quite certain that I am going to have to get one of those craft mats as well.  Maybe that would be a good Christmas gift!!!
When all was said and done, I ended up creating 3 tags.  The first two are rather small tags, but the third one is larger.  I wish I had done the first two the same size as the last one, but I was just playing around when I started this today.  The first one is based off of his Tag #5.  I don't have any of those super cool Reflections stamps, so I just choose some images that I had that would be OK to be reversed.  I used a piece of clear plastic from some of my Cricut cartridges.  I just layered it onto cardstock to make it thicker and a bit more sturdy.


The next one I created used the same alcohol ink on clear plastic, but then I used the Crackle paint fun from Tag #4. The crackle was done on the snowflake image that I cut with my Cricut. I just don't have any Distress Stain, so I used my Distress Inks and "pushed" the ink into the cracks using a sponger dauber.


The final tag I made was inspired by Tag #6. This one was super fun.  And...I did not use the Metallic foil stuff.  I used what I had on hand, and that was heavy duty aluminum foil.  I just wrapped a piece of it around a tag, glued it in place with some glossy accents and then embossed it.  The painting, took some time, but the final outcome was definitely worth it.  It has such a fun distressed feel!

I hope everyone has had a chance to stop by the Official Cricut Blog and checked out the Cricut Craft Room and Cricut Mini this week!  I have been crafting away with it and it is wonderful to work with! There are so many cool things going on in Cricut land!  Seriously cool!!!  If you want you can check out more, see my post below.

Now on to today's share!  This project is also up on the Bo Bunny blog as we feature Father Christmas today.  I love the vintage feel of this collection and found it perfect to create a little Christmas decor project.


INSPIRATION: Wooden Spool Tree


WHY: This first project was inspired by a spool tree I saw in a recent issue of Paper Crafts Holiday Cards.  I knew I wanted to create one the moment I saw it, but I wanted mine to be a bit different.  I wanted to dress it up a bit more. Ornaments!  It needed ornaments and the Bo Bunny Trinkets were the perfect fit!  And so from this my Father Christmas Spool Tree was born.




I found the wooden spools and flower pot at Ben Franklin Crafts. And I found the dowel rods for the branches, the 1" wood strip for the trunk and the 5" round piece for the base at Hobby Lobby.




I created the tree and the branches and placed them in the pot before realizing that it was going to be too heavy to stand alone.  DH came to the rescue by suggesting that I attach it to a round wooden piece.  He then used some wood screws and counter sunk them so that it would be flat on the bottom.  It worked perfectly!




I covered each spool with patterned paper from the Father Christmas 6x6 paper pad.  Once everything was assembled, I hot glued the Trinkets to the front of the spools and embellished them a bit more with some jewels.


After I put it all together, and took the photos, I kind of think that I should have painted the spools a dark green.  What do you think? I just may end up painting them anyway...but very carefully! LOL!
Thank you for your visit!