A card for my Maid of Honor

I can not believe that my wedding is just 6 months away! Where have I been the last two months? LOL Planning update: we are meeting with the florist this week and the photographer next week. We don't have a wedding planner or anything and I refuse to go near a bridal magazine, so it's been an adventure! I just want everything to be simple and *real* and *us*.
You may have read on the Cricut MB that my planned MOH will be unable to take this role due to an unexpected pregnancy, so I've asked another of my Bride's maid's, my big sis from my sorority, to be my MOH. She excitedly took the role and when I told her I didn't want her to feel bad that I didn't pick her first she was , "oh please...let's get to work!" Gotta' LOVE this girl!
At any rate, I wanted to make her a card to tell her how happy I am that I am sharing this time with her and that she has been so supportive, so I made her a card using some of those KI Memories stamps I scooped up at Joann's on clearance. Now, you may be looking back at those photos and thinking to yourself "I don't see a dress in any of those sets," well how could I settle for only a few of those stamp sets at under a buck? If I am going to lose my job, I better jump all over deals while I can and stock up! I went back and bought another 18 sets (including a wedding themed set) because I couldn't believe the deal! LOL The clerk said "Can you believe you would have spent like $100.00 on these normally?"
Without further ado, here is my MOH card :)



I was amazed by the complete LACK of fancy, frilly papers I had available in my stash for this card! Based on this fact, I used my next coupon to get the mat stack sized version of the new DCWV "Linen" stack, so I'd have some appropriate wedding colored fancy papers for the future! I am sure I will need to make a lot of littel thank you notes along the way in the coming months! I love that little stack and am looking forward to playing with it soon.
I tried making a video tonight about making true 12" long borders using the gypsy, but my mojo was on vacation. I will give it another go tomorrow night, though...I have a couple techniques for getting your borders the correct length, which I have been meaning to share!
Supplies: Stamps-KI Memories, Paper-Green Bling Bazzil Cardstock, SU! Very Vanilla, DCWV Pink Cardstock, Patterned Paper-DCWV, Nana's Nursery Stack,Punches-SU! Scallop Square punch (4 overlapped for each, to make a larger sized square) Pearls-Hobby Lobby (not in CA), Misc: Ribbon, Dimensionals.
Thanks for looking! Have a happy week!
Hugs and HOOTS!
<3 Alicia

A positively perfect princess day!

You know by now that I am a HUGE Disneyland fan; I truely believe it is the happiest place on Earth! I must share with you an unfortunate tale, however. You see, I have always been an Ariel fan....she is *my* princess and try as I might, I have never been able to get a photo with her at Disneyland. :( I've come close....she's had to leave for this parade, or that, while I was still standing in line a couple times. I've seen her from afar more times than I can count, but an actual picture together? Not so much.
Now living so close to The Mouse House is a crime in this case, but not today! Christopher and I enjoyed a fabulous breakfast at Cal Baptist University, where I was able to enjoy both tater-tots and an ICEE (like honest yto goodness ICEEs in 3 different flavors), as well as many other typical breakfast foods together.HA!

After too many waffles and cups of magical ICEE mixtures, it was off to the mouse place by way of packed freeway. An accident slowed us down, but we still made good use of our time in the car chattering about random-ness (a favorite passtime). I so enjoy doing somethign and nothign with this man of mine, I can NOT belive I really get to keep him for a lifetime! :)
After taking a trip back to teh 80's with "Captain EO: The Tribute," Christopher and I took some lovely pictures around the wishing well, where we had never ventured before.

When the line was too long at Small World, we decided today might be a good one for facing the line at the Princess Walk. If you aren't familiar with this part of teh park, it is a photography opportunity where you can walk through various stations to meet/greet with a set of four mystery princesses. The problem with the walk is you do not know who is going to be in there by the time you get up to the front of the line beacause 1) you can not see inside and 2) they are continuously rotating them through so they can get a break from all that standing and smiling. :) We didn't bother asking who was inside, so we chanced it! My most amazing fiance was ever so patient in line for goodness knows how long, surrounded by wee princesses who were not so patient, or well behaved for that matter. I was SO excited when it was our turn to go in...in order of appearance:
Snow White was sweet and quiet.

Cinderella was chatty and enthusiastic.

Ariel immedaitely noted my red hair and said we coudl be twins :) I explained the whole Ariel/picture ordeal and she decided that for such an occasion, I needed princess posing lessons.

Jasmine was reserved, but not without attitude! LOL

I left just as giddy as the little princesses I stood in line with! To top it all off, I found this awesome "Princess Deluxe Scrapbook Kit" for $24.95 at the booth outside of the Princess Walk and I was able to use my Annual Passholder's Discount on it as well...WOOT!

The princesses included Ariel, Jasmine, Cinderella, Snow White, Belle and Aurora. Each princess gets a variety of letter/image stickers (will probably only use the letter stickers, a FABULOUS sheet of cardstock punch out die cuts, frames, and tags, and then several sheets of coordinating patterned paper. At the end of the book, there are also some papers with all of the princeses included together. Do you LOVE it?







I think the price was very fair for what I got in the kit and the quality was up to par. The only part that seemed "cheesy" were the stickers...the material wasn't very thick, though all of teh images are lovely and teh letter stickers for each character are totally useable. The image stickers did have a white mat around them, but the letter stickers did not. :) The contents of the kit are all bound together with a spiral binding with perforated pages within, and with a hard cover on the front and back...like a hard back book, which is fairly convenient for taking to crops. If you plan on visting Disneyland, keep your eyes out as I saw several other styles of these books/kits in Downtown Disney at "World of Disney" as well. The photo processing store on main street carries a selection of albums these days, but no longer the punches and eyelets and scissors that it used to. If you are on the look-out, you will do best for scrappy supplies at "World of Disney" in Downtown Disney, outside of the park.
I hope this helps a few of you out in the future!Thanks for dropping in and check back soon as the 2nd trimester has ended, report cards have gone out, and I am ready to get back to my new Gypsy and Cricut projects! :)
Hugs and HOOTS,
<3 Alicia

Just a little pick me up...

It's been TOO long, my friends! Thank you for sticking around in my absence and for all of your support and encouragement. Since then (read more here), I have spent the last couple weeks collecting some new scrap goodies to get me back on the horse. My bank account says I am sufficiently inspired!
I was completely shocked to find these little lovlies tonight at Joann's:

You will not believe the deal I got! Between the 40% off papercrafting supplies sale going on now, and my 15% additional teacher discount, I paid only $12.75 for each of the Nesties dies (reg. $24.99) and 82 CENTS for each of the stamp sets (reg. $4.99).
I was super happy to find these sentiment stamps because I was hoping they would fit inside my Stampin Up! Word Window punch.

Sure enough, they fit perfectly inside the punch! Take a peek:

I used Stampin' Up! cardstock in Certainly Celery and So Saffron (fav color SU! colors), some patterned paper by Basic Grey, some ribbon from last year's Sale-A-Bration from SU!, the previously mentioned word window punch, a scallop border punch by SU!, and a stamp set by, I believe Sandylion, for the little lion, in addition to the "snuggle" phrase from the above pictured KI Memories set, "baby verbage".

A little close up of this too-cute lion:

I am very excited to use some of these new goodies, as well as some other finds, in upcoming videos. I am working on a mock-up for a new A-La-Card video using the Paisley cartridge I bought back in November. I also have an idea for another video segment, I will be calling "E-Entrees," so be on the look-out...I'm back, friends! :)
Thank you for stopping by today...run to your local Joann's stores before this sale ends! HUGS AND HOOTS <3

Introducing... A La Card!

Boy, am I glad to see you today! I am so excited to share with you a new video series I've begun titled, "A La Card". Usually, my video tutorial sets include two segments, a part 1 and a part 2, which means twice the length and twice the amount of work. Because these tutorials take so long to complete, there may be days or weeks between tutorials...I am told by some of you that this is just far too long and that you need a fix in between,hence.."A La Card".

The "A La Card" series includes single segment videos and projects which can be completed quickly and require minimal technical instruction to accomplish. I am most excited about this series because of the introduction I have created for them, featured at the beginning of each video. I was thinking about this series being on the side, or A LA CARTE, and teh idea of a tiny paper morsel came to mind and I ran with it from there. I hope you can enjoy my silly humor as each video opens with a heaping serving of vintage buttons! ;)

This week's A La Card video features inspiration from Kristina Werner of K.Werner Design. If you have not yet met this delightful designer, you are sorely at a loss and I urge you to check out here blog immediately at http://www.kwernerdesign.com/blog !
I love Kristina's simplistic style and funky color choices; her designs are eye catching and feasible to accomplish with a minimal amount of time and supplies. I myself am not such a simple gal, so trying to create a project inspired by her style was a stretch, but it was a BLAST!




Please check out this week's A La Card Video: Inspired by K. Werner Design, and let me know what you think!



*HUGS AND HOOTS*
<3 Alicia

A new bewitching video!

Hello Friends! I am just a wee bit late on wishing you all a Happy Halloween, but seeing as how it is my very favorite holiday, I was so wrapped up in my celebratory festivities, I didn't get around to editing my latest video set in time for the 31st!
I am super excited to share this tutorial set with you as the technique and the project can be used year-round and are both quite versatile!
The pictured banner below was my attempted contest entry for the Gypsy contest, but to make a long story short, I missed the deadline time due to time differences and was unable to enter. Once I found out that I'd missed it, I spruced it up a bit more with a few additional carts to make the end cap pendants cuter.

Now that the newest Gypsy updates are available, it seems I will have my hands full over the coming weeks re-doing some of my previous videos, as the newest added features make things like word books so much easier to accomplish! With the first trimester of the school year coming to a close, October was a busy month for me, but I am hoping to be able to make videos more frequently for you over the coming weeks, so keep checking back for updates, friends! :)

And without further babbling, I present to you, today's video set:
Technique: Creating Shadows
Project: Banners

Part 1


Part 2


If you create a banner yourself, I'd love to see it! Please share your creations by e-mailing attachments to me at scrapperbug2002@yahoo.com, or leaving a link from my comments page here; I will feature any projects you share on my blog so others can see what variations you all come up with!
I hope you all have a fabulously wonderful weekend!

Hugs and hoots,
Alicia

I love boys who *SPARKLE*!

This card makes my heart swoon as much as Edward, himself does! This little locket card was a serious labor of love; you know, the ones that you work on just a little bit more each day, 15 minutes at a time. It all started with a few twilight stamps finding thier way to my home, them some Dazzling Diamonds from SU!, and a set or two of the scalloped nestabilities; once joined by a healthy serving of prismacolor markers and Copics, I was doomed!

The front of the card features Stampin' Up! and KI Memories papers, Prima flowers, stamps by Artful Inkables (colored with Copics), a lace heart cut from my Cricut and the Storybook cartrif=dge, a Heidi Swapp photo corner, KI Memories Ribbon, and an SU! Build-A-Brad. I created the locket in the center using the scalloped and oval nesties.


I have been building a Twilight-themed stapin arsenal, and teh real trouble began with this little buy from The Greeting Farm, named Edward. I colored him using a combination of Copics and prismacolor markers and added his dazzle with Dazzling Diamonds and 2-way glue from Stampin' Up! How adorable is he?!


This card was totally meant for my sister, as a JUST BECAUSE card, but I may have to keep it for myself....perhaps it will adorn a scrapbook page of the Midnight Release of New Moon next month instead? I also decorated teh inside of teh card, it says "Look after my heart-I've left with you," whihc is a quote from the book, turned into a stamp again, from Artful Inkables.

I hope you've enjoyed this bit of eye-candy as much as I have! I may have to do a tutorial on the locket design sometime soon, but it is fairly straight-forward!

Sweet Dreams!
*HUGS AND HOOTS*
<3 Alicia

New and Improved!

I am SUPER excited to share my latest videos with you, but am laughing at myself over my "operator error". You have to watch Part 1 to see what I am talking about, but I know you will laugh as soon as you hear! My finace and I are still smacking our foreheads over it! Perhaps a V-8 would have done me some good!

We have another busy weekend planned!It seems the school weeks are flying by, but in turn, my weekends soar past me without much time for vegitating. I am thinking like a carrot tonight, that is for sure! I am hoping to get in some time designing, grading this week's tests and writing from my second graders, and maybe an episode or two of Supernatural(I LOVE Paranormal entertainment!<3) with Christopher before he's off to work.

I will say, I am looking forward to more fun with the mouse tomorrow at Disneyland, but I hope I am not too tired! My BFF says the Halloween Fireworks are amazing, so i will have to get back to you on that!

In the mean time, here are this week's videos! Part 1 features welding, first with letters, second with images inside a frame. Part 2 follows the assembly of a 12 x 12 scrapbook page with the items created from part 1.
Enjoy!





Have a fabulously crafty weekend, all!
*HUGS AND HOOTS*
Alicia