Altered Letters for Christmas Presents

Happy Monday!!!!

Well, the good news that it is the end of Monday! I am really excited about this week because I have Christmas parties galore, I'm even hosting one at my house for some of the fire department guys and their significant others. It should be a lot of fun, but I am have to cook and to be honest, I'm not a good cook. Actually, I don't cook at all! It's a good thing some some of my girlfriends are coming to help- thanks Ashley, Meredith and Lauren- without y'all, I might burn my house down, and that wouldn't be easy to explain being married to a firefighter...

Anyway, I wanted to share this really fun and great Christmas gift. I made these altered letters for my girlfriends at work. We always say, every year, that we will not exchange gifts, but sometimes my creative juices get the best of me and I end up making things like these for them!

The letters stand for their last names and I tried to make each letter fit their personality.

Here's a close up of each letter.

Here is a quick run down on how I make my altered letters:

I start by tracing the letter. My trick to this is to use the back side of the paper with the letter backwards for tracing. This way the markings are on the back side of the paper and you don't have to worry about seeing it. Then I cut out the letter right on the inside of the line, although that is really hard to do. The great thing about these, is that it's ok that it's not perfect!

I paint the edge of the letters and then ink the edge of the paper, usually in the same color, however, the edge of the 'S' is painted blue and I inked the paper white and it turned out just fine.

I put on a thick coat of mod podge on the actual letter and then a thick coat of it after I put the paper down. After this dries (usually let it dry overnight), my creative juices have to really kick in, and sometimes it will take me a day or so to think about how I want to decorate the letter. I have been working on these letter for about 2 weeks, only because I needed to think about how I wanted to decorate them... and of course my other projects were starring at me to finish them, too.

If you notice the 'D' is different, that's because I tore paper into small pieces and dipped them into the mod podge and applied them one by one. Yes, it took a long time and it was REALLY messy, but I got the effect I was going for. Aimee will really appreciate my work on her letter, she is one of my scraptastic sidekicks! Here's a link to her blog. Check it out and tell her I sent you! : )

I hope the girls at work love their new letters! I've only made one other altered letter and it didn't turn out near this cute, so I'm not posting it! : )

One final look. This picture was taken on my table cloth- HA!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope your week is full of Christmas surprises!

--Ash

My First Video!! How to Make a Step Card

Well, I did it! I made my first video! AHHHH!!!! I can't believe I sound like that, and my hands... good thing I'm not a hand model! Well, I hope you enjoy my first ever video and learn something new!

To Be 95...

I wanted to share a special Birthday with y'all.  Last weekend was my Grandmother's 95th Birthday. Well, actually it's my husband's grandmother, but that makes her mine too! We had a card shower for her so that all of her friends from back in Kansas could send her well wishes and happy birthdays. Grandma even said that this was the best birthday she ever had and she had never gotten so many cards in her life, it was very sweet and I was so glad I got to celebrate her big day with her!

I made her a card, of course, and I wanted it be very vibrant! I'm new to stamping, usually I just cut out everything or buy embellishments, so this is the first card I made using stamps! The stamp is from Stamps by Judith. I have a few of her stamps but have never mustard up the courage to use them... until now!

I even used Judith's markers that she sells to color in everything.

I also used Glossy Accents over the swirls and stickles on the pink icing to give it some bling.

I used a stamp I got from Michaels and black ink from Stampin' Up.

Here's Grandma and I. I look horrible... eek!

But, she looks GREAT!!!

Here are all of her cards from her card shower. This was such a great idea!

Happy 95th Birthday Grandma!

We love you!!!

Christmas Challenge

Are y'all familiar with Flaunt It Fridays?? It's a blog that hosts challenges every week! You can click here to go straight to it.

This week the challenge is to create a project using the Santa sleigh from the Paperdoll Dress Up cartridge. I figured since I am in the middle of making my Christmas cards, I would make a card using the sleigh.

Ingredients:

• My card is 6" x 6" cut out of my favorite Bazzil shimmer paper in Diamond white.
• I have had the Christmas paper for a few years, so I'm not sure the brand or where I got it from, but it is cut at 5 1/2" x 5 1/2".
• The holly is Making Memories and I just added some stickles to the berrys.
• The ribbon I got from Michael's on sale.
• I cut the sleigh using my Gypsy and of course from the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge so I could use it for the challenge. I also added Stickels to add some shimmer bling.
• I cut out 'Santa' using the font from the Winter Woodland cartridge.
• Santa's presents are from 'Me & My Big Ideas, purchased at Michael's.
• Both the sleigh and the presents are adhered with pop dots.

I hope you enjoy this card, and maybe take a look at Flaunt it Friday for a lot of inspiration, or even to participate!

Thanks for looking and happy scrappin'!!!

FINALLY Some Christmas Cards

It feels so good to be back in my room scrappin'! It's been about 6 or 7 weeks since I sat in my room and had time to create. I decided that this year I would make all different cards to send out to family and friends as opposed to one card done multiple times... call me CrAzY I know!

So far, here is what I have created... enjoy!

Frosty Kisses 

The card is 5x7.

The snowman and "frosty kisses" were cut from

the Winter Woodland cartridge using my Gypsy.

Frosty's buttons are rinestones and I used my i-rock tool.

The background paper is from the

My Minds Eye paperpack, Wonderful Winter.

Snow Flake Scraps

I made this card with all scraps as a personal challenge.

It is a pretty simple card, but that was the point.

It does say Merry Christmas in the bottom corner,

 but my camera isn't very good and you can't really see it.

The card measures 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" (odd size, HA).

I used a new product, Sheer Shimmer Spritz, by Tsukineko, purchased at Joann's

to give it the snow spritzed look. The rinestones are from i-rock (my favorite tool right now).

I cut the snowflakes out with my Gypsy with scrap papepr from the 'Frosty Kisses' card.

The True Meaning of Christmas

I made this card specificlly for my mother- in- law who collects nativity scenes.

This card is bigger than most, probably because it has the most important message on it.

The nativity scene are chipboard pieces from K & Company that I purchased from Michaels.

The size of the card is 8 1/4" x 5 1/4".

I cut the Noel out from the Winter Woodland cartridge using my Gypsy.

The Merry Christmas stamp is darker in person, but once again my camera...

maybe Santa will bring me a new one since I've been so so good this year!

Tis the Season!

This is the first 'step card' that I have made and I must say, it turned out really cute!

I think I will be making more of these, it was time consuming but easy.

 I will create a seperate post on how to create a step card.

I used my Gypsy and Winder Frolic to cut out the Christmas tree and the title, and Christmas Cards (seasonal cartridge) for the snowflakes at different sizes.

I used the shadow feature on the tree and title, and I really think it makes it pop!

The border at the bottom is from K & Company and I used pop dots to adhere it.

You can see the same paper from the Frosty Kisses card that I used for the middle step.

And the blue snow flake paper is Reminisce, "First Snow" collection.

Thanks for taking a look at my first batch of Christmas cards. Come back soon for more Christmas inspiration and a "how to" guide for making a step card.

Happy Scrappin' and Cricuting!

Merry Christmas!!!

It's Been A While....

It's been a while since I posted anything on my blog, and to be honest I haven't even been in my scrap room much. This time of the year can get hectic and we all know how time flies when your having fun! I promise I will be posting some fun Christmas projects soon. In the mean time, I have a confession...

I sent back my Cricut Imagine. GASP!!!! Yes, I did. I was constantly frustrated with that machine. I said all a long that my Expression and my Gypsy have my heart won and it would take one heck of a machine to replace them, and well, why the Imagine is very cool, I feel like it has a long way to go. In a year or so, when the kinks have been worked out, I will look into buying another one... But, in the mean time, it is me, my Expression and my Gypsy!

I've also purchased some new furniture/ organization pieces, and need to share with you my revamped room. I will work on getting some pictures up of it soon!

Thanks for being patient! I have missed scrappin'

Happy Scrappin and Cricuting!

***Ashley***

P.S. Did you hear that the Cricut Swarm is coming to TEXAS!?!?! I hope its the Dallas area!!