Summer Bouquet

Happy Friday! I'm so happy to be Guest Designing for Everyday Cricut AND My Creative Time. Since I have created two separate projects for today's Guest Designer spots, I've posted them separately. You can click here to view my post for My Creative Time.

Being married to a Crafter/HGTV fanatic has taught my husband to expect the decor around our home to change...often. And while he's used to finding new knickknacks around the house, he doesn't always love them the way that I do.

Several months ago, I found a tutorial on painting/distressing ceramic tabletop items. I loved the look and decided to give it a try with a find from my favorite store (Salvation Army). As I was adding faux grass to my urn, I looked up from my project to the TV (I was watching HGTV, of course), and what do you know? I see almost the EXACT same urn on the television! It was uncanny!

The photo on the left was taken of my television screen. The photo on the right  is my urn.

I was so proud of my urn when it was completed. I couldn't wait to show my husband! His reaction was less than satisfactory...

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Though he likes the urn itself, he hates the grass. *giggle* I've been adding different floral arrangements to the urn throughout the seasons and now that it's Summertime, I put the grass back in (...it's seasonal!). Since I know The Hubs isn't a fan of the plain ol' grass, I've added a new Summer Bouquet to the grass using my Cricut!

The flowers were cut from the DCWV Spring Fling Premium Paper Stack using the Accent Essentials Cricut Cartridge. For the word "Summer", I used the same papers and the Stretch Your Imagination Cricut Cartridge.

All of the layers of the flowers are pop-dotted to give a lot of dimension! A kabob skewer is attached to the back of each flower and the Summer word and then stuck into the floral foam sitting in the urn below the faux grass.

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This project could easily be done for each season and individual holidays, too! I could cover the urn with Buffalo Batt and add snowflakes for Winter. Or keep the grass and add bunnies for Easter!

Here's a close-up of the flowers. You can see that each one is made up of several layers!

Thank you so much for joining me this week as I Guest Designed for Everyday Cricut! I've had so much fun getting creative with my Cricut and sharing it with you all!

I hope you were inspired!

- Veronica

A Little Chocolate Now & Then...

I'm lucky enough to be Guest Designing for Emma at My Creative Time AND Everyday Cricut today. This project was created for My Creative Time. You can click here to see my post for Everyday Cricut.

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Today's project is a sweet little 4x4 card I made to add to my stash of cards to give to The Hubs when he leaves on work trips or I leave for Scrap Camp. He LOVES chocolate, so the sentiment on this card is perfect for him!

After cutting my card base, I ran it through my Big Shot with one of the frames from the Stampin' Up! Designer Frames Textured Impressions Embossing Folders Set. I then layered my blue patterned paper (which I cut into a square frame) on top of the card base. The adorable sentiment and hot chocolate mug are from the Do The Cocoa Motion Stamp Set.

I shaded the cocoa mug with my Copics and added Marvy Uchida Liquid Applique to the foam spilling out of the top.

Liquid Applique comes in a tube (similar to a glue pen). After applying it to my project, I heated it with my heat tool and it puffed up to look like foam. This product is great for fur, frosting, snow and whipped cream!

I created the chocolate bar on my own using my paper trimmer and a black fine point marker for the corner marks. After tying my cute polka dot ribbon around the card, it was good to go!

Great News: STARTING TODAY, you can shop at the My Creative Time Online Store and SAVE 20% off your entire order using code: THANKU

This Customer Appreciation Sale is only good until Sunday, July 22nd, so be sure to get your orders in this weekend!

I hope you were inspired!

- Veronica

Mickey's House

Whenever I go to our semi-annual "Scrap Camp" with the gals in my family, I notice that my sisters-in-law, Mom and Grandma usually have several pages done while I'm still working on my first. Of course, the fact that I do more chatting than scrapping comes in to play here, but even when I am being productive, it just seems to take me much longer to finish a page than the rest of the girls.

This is why. *giggle*

Back in October 2010, my husband and I were lucky enough to be gifted my grandparents timeshare in Florida. Since we were as close to Disney World as we'd be for a long while, we decided to 'drop in' and visit Mickey and Friends for a couple of day trips.

We had a lot of fun touring Mickey's house! It's so neat that you can actually go inside and see how he actually lives! *giggle*

This layout uses Mickey's house, grass, walkway and clouds from the Disney Mickey & Friends Cricut Cartridge. I used several solid and glittered card stock to really make the layers come to life. Several layers are popped up to add dimension. I used my white gel pen to doodle on the trim and columns.

Since we were visiting Mickey in the Fall, the gang was hosting a Pumpkin Contest and several Mickey Mouse Pumpkins were growing in his yard. I placed the photos of Mickey's backyard behind the paper house to give the illusion of them growing on the page.

Of course, I wanted to share photos of Mickey's house in my scrapbook, too. But I didn't want to take away from the 'house' page. Since I had several photos to share, but not all of them were super important, I decided to layer them and make a collage. This technique wouldn't work for all topics/photos, but it certainly does the trick here.

You'll notice that all of my photos have a white trim. This is on the photos themselves. Did you know that when having your photos printed, you can usually choose to have a border put on them? I think the white border gives the photos a more 'professional' feel and I really love the look.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! I'm looking forward to sharing my last Cricut project for my Guest Designer Week at Everyday Cricut with you tomorrow.

I hope you were inspired!

- Veronica

Quick & Easy Personalized Frame

There are so many beautiful photo frames on the market today. From super ornate to clean and simple, there's something out there for everyone! But have you noticed how expensive they can be? I love to find cheap, simple items and make them something... more.

A couple of years ago, I found some very simple white frames on clearance at my local Target (I just LOVE perusing the end cap clearance section there!). They were dirt cheap, so I picked them up figuring I'd find something to do with them someday. I've used a few around the house, and recently noticed that I had one left. Since the frames were on clearance, they weren't in the best of shape. They had some scuff marks and scratches, but I knew I could freshen them up.

This project is SUPER simple and quick! I've taken photos threw each step to help you create your own personalized frame.

1. I started with my plain, white frame. I made sure to clean it first to rid it of any dust.

2. I cut the word "love" in adhesive-backed vinyl using the Home Decor Solutions Cricut Cartridge. You can use any color vinyl you have on hand - it won't remain on the frame. After cutting the word out, I stuck it to my frame. Time to brag: I stuck it on right the very FIRST time! Wasn't expecting that at all! *giggle*

3. Once my word was secured onto the frame (I used my fingers to smooth down the edges so no paint would get underneath), I spray painted it in aqua. Tip: Be sure to spray with short, even strokes. You don't want to 'pool' the paint in any one spot.

4. Once the frame was somewhat dry, I carefully removed the vinyl decal. The frame was still tacky as I was afraid if it dried too much, the paint around the word would come up with the word itself.

I love the way this frame turned out. In all, this project literally took about 20 minutes to complete. I used one of my favorite wedding photos in the frame and it now sits proudly in our foyer.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I'll be back again tomorrow with another Cricut project for my Guest Designer Week at Everyday Cricut.

I hope you were inspired!

- Veronica

Transition Scrapbook Pages

Scrapbooks have come a long way since the days of white pages with black photo corners, haven't they? But the concept remains the same: preserve photos, preserve memories.

I love to preserve my snapshots just as much as the next scrapbooker, but sometimes - a photo just isn't necessary. Throughout my scrapbooks, I like to take a break from the photos and insert 'transition' pages, if you will. These special pages allow me room to get creative with the entire canvas - no arranging the layout around photos.

Don't get me wrong: I scrapbook for the photos and memories. But every once in a while, it's nice to design freely.

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This 'transition' page was created to go between my engagement pages and wedding day pages in my wedding album (...which I am just now starting. And that's okay!). It serves to let the admirer know that we're moving from one section to another in the book.

The "K" was cut using the Tie the Knot Cricut Cartridge. I used my white gel pen to doodle around the letter (leaving the swirl blank). Well... I meant to leave the swirl blank.

Confession: I got a little carried away with my doodling and accidentally doodled on the swirly part between the legs of the "K" (now hidden by the flowers and tag). It'll be our little secret, okay?


The mistake-cover-up - *ahem* - I mean, fully intentional flowers are by Kaiser Scrapbook and were purchased from my local Debbie's Dollar Store (the BEST dollar store...possibly ever). I layered the different colors together, added the tag (from the Echo Park This & That Decorative Brads set) to better hid my doodle-oops and held it all together with a coordinating brad from the same Echo Park set.

The green layers on the page were hand cut and I paper pierced the top piece. Our wedding date was cut using the Stamped Cricut Cartridge. I tied some Stampin' Up! Pool Baker's Twine around the date layer to add a little texture.

This page really sets the tone for the wedding section of my album. And I urge you to consider adding 'transition' pages to your scrapbooks, too!

I'll be back tomorrow with another Cricut project to share here and on the Everyday Cricut blog.

I hope you were inspired!

- Veronica

Light the Candles...

I'm really good at shopping for girls' birthdays. My husband and I have 4 nieces (ages 18, 7, 6, 6), I've had a lot of fun buying pretty dresses, girly toys and sparkly shoes over the years.

But we also have 6 nephews.

The littlest ones are easy. Boy toys. And since my husband is still a kid at heart, he's great at picking out the coolest toys for them.

But as the boys get older, buying them gifts gets harder. Instead of asking what they want now (which usually yields an answer of "I don't know" anyway), we just give 'em cash. Easy peasy.

Today is our nephew, Zack's birthday - he's turning 9! To hold his 'present', I created a long vertical card (3.5" x 8.5") to fit inside a business envelope. This way, the cash can be unfolded inside.

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The birthday cake is from the Stretch Your Imagination Cricut Cartridge (cut at 6.5"). After cutting out all of my layers, I stamped the dots and zig zags from My Creative Time's Hello Spring stamp set in Versamark on the cake and embossed them in white. I used my white gel pen to highlight the candle flames and glittered the flames with Star Dust Stickles (my fave).

After layering my patterned paper (Nana's Kitchen DCWV Paper Stack) onto my card base, I hand cut the  turquoise layer behind the cake. I love using this funky, not-so-square shape on my cards. There is no real trick to it - just cut at angles! I then paper pierced the edges for some added flair.

After stamping my sentiment (My Creative Time's Celebrate Good Times), I cut it out with the same method as the turquoise cake layer and cut an orange piece to mat behind it.

If you're familiar with my style, you won't be surprised to know that most of the layers are popped up for dimension!

I'm sure this card will be a HIT with our nephew. Well, maybe not the card as much as the money inside! *giggle*

Thanks so much for stopping by today! Since I'm posting every day on the Everyday Cricut blog this week, you can stop by again tomorrow for another fun Cricut project!

I hope you were inspired!

- Veronica