Hello 2021!

Every year, at the end of December, I look back at my scrapbooking goals for the year and make new ones for the year ahead. Last year, my scrapbooking resolution was to go to more in person crops to catch up on my scrapbooking. *insert sad face* Well, I did enjoy the many virtual crops of 2020! So, I will make an effort to do more online to spark my creativity and connect with others! So far, it's been a nice winter but I think I will need to scrap more to overcome any potential winter/pandemic blues that may pop up in the freezing months ahead. (Our province remains in lockdown)

Here's to a better year 2021 with less cutting out of physical-distancing indicators!

Day Five of Christmas Projects - Holly Jolly

I love the clean lines of this style of a card. A local scrapbooking store posted a card sketch this fall for a challenge and I designed similar shapes on Design Space.

Day Four of Christmas Projects - Santa in 2020

I knew I needed to make a Santa card with him wearing a mask. I mean, how strange has this year been???

Day Three of Christmas Projects - Tea Towels

I love using heat transfer vinyl on flour sack tea towels. I think it's a great little gift. My sister-in-law is a talented baker who loves to bake and decorate Christmas cookies every year so these are for her.

Both designs are available in Design Space.

Day Two of Christmas Projects - leg lamp

My husband and I decided to buy a second Christmas tree this year and make it A Christmas Story theme tree. We have quite a few ornaments but I wanted garland that fit the theme. Therefore, my garland is leg lamps! I purchased the cut file from Etsy.

Once I had this great cut file, of course I needed to use it on cards.

Must be Italian!

Day One of Christmas Projects - Card Designs from Cricut

I don't know about you, but 2020 has been hard for many. Why not make one thing easy, your holiday cards? There are some fantastic ready-to-cut designs in Design Space. Here are just a few examples. How fun are these?

Cricut in 2020

It's been tough this year trying to be creative. Though, I have enjoyed many virtual crops, classes and challenges. Thank you to everyone who has hosted and participated in this type of event! They have been inspiring.

I would never have imagined a year ago, that I would use my Cricut to decorate for my daughter's drive thru graduation or to decorate the outside of my neighbours' windows to mark their quarantine birthdays. I'm grateful that I can easily do projects like this in 2020.

I have also spent much time this fall, using my Cricut to label all types of social distancing measures in schools. I have cut hundreds of vinyl floor arrows, hundreds of cohort identifiers, thousands of paper tangrams and thousands of vinyl chair place markers. My Cricut has been so busy that I borrowed one from a friend and had two going at once. (To do this, you need separate devices with design space running.) I guess what I may have lacked in creativity, I made up for in health and safety of students and school staff. I typically cut large quantities of diecuts on my machine but not like this fall. My Cricut Explore (first edition) owes me nothing and I will eventually upgrade to a Maker.

It has been a strange nine months.

Stay home, stay safe and craft.

Christmas Projects from 2019

Our province is in lockdown right now so I really have no excuse to get my Christmas cards done. I'm currently procrastinating by rounding up last year's projects.

Our Haunted Home

So, this is a layout about the decor in our home in October. Every October, our daughter pulls out the Halloween bin and decorates the house. She loves this task and I adore seeing what she comes up with. One day, when our kids are older with their own families, I hope they remember the fun we had at Halloween.

Pumpkin Carving 2019

I always need to scrapbook the kids' pumpkin creations! For this layout, I cut a bunch of different pumpkins in a variety of orange scraps of paper.

Pup-kin Spice

It's a good thing Chloe likes wearing costumes, well doesn't mind wearing costumes. This layout is pretty simple, all I did was leave out the letter M from a Cricut cut for the title.

Shopping at Spirit Halloween

It's an annual tradition for us! The pattern paper is by Close To My Heart with the best zip strip ever with Halloween sentiments! Zip strip is the bit on the edge of a loose paper for identifying the product name and number. Some companies take advantage of this and create patterns that papercrafters can use. Most companies just show what is on the other side.

Zumba Halloween Party layout

I have been busy this week scrapbooking pictures from Halloween 2019. The zumba ladies wore the best costumes for our class last year AND they danced in them!

Canada Day 2020

I realize that Canada Day may look a little bit different this year with physical distancing. I'm hoping that we can still celebrate our beautiful country at home or 6 feet apart. I have seen great starburst cut files posted on facebook. I knew I wanted to play with one of these cut files somehow. I love how this turned out and plan on trying again. What I love about these is that you can make Canada Day layout using red and white paper scraps. I also used two different brands of maple leaf paper pattern paper. One is Oh Canada by Photo Play and one is by Creative Memories.

I'm wishing you all a happy and healthy July the first, 2020!

International Scrapbooking Day!

Tomorrow, May 2nd, is interNational Scrapbooking Day! This year it will look very different than previous years without any in person crops, seminars or gatherings. I think it will be neat that everything will be online and virtual so everyone can participate. There are sales, classes, challenges, meet ups and crops. I intended to make a list of links of things you can take advantage of tomorrow but the list would be almost endless from American Crafts at SCRAPBOOK.COM to CLOSE TO MY HEART to SCRAPBOOK AND CARDS TODAY. This virtual version of the day will end up giving more people access to the activities and inspiration. I’m looking forward to video chatting with scrappy friends from near and far as well as taking classes featuring pros in the industry that I am inspired by. "See" you tomorrow!

“Yappy” Easter

I am continuing with my Covid-19 challenge of using my supplies on hand. There is a new dimension to this stay at home challenge - I do not print photos at home. (I live in walking distance to a Costco.) I even reprint my photos as I am scrapbooking to suit my needs. These days, I am just scrapping what I already have and being happy with it. Progress not perfection, I guess. The chick printed paper is from Close to my Heart.

Wishing you all a wonderful Easter weekend at home!

Social distancing and crafting

I'm going to try and see the positives in everything that is going on right now with the COVID-19 virus. I have always liked a paper craft challenge and have participated in many over the years. This will be the ultimate use up what you have on hand. It’s the perfect reason to use up the stack of paper I have in my scrap room. This is a great opportunity to finish projects that are collecting dust on my table. I will also have more time with my children for awhile as my daughter is no longer going to Europe or school for three weeks. I'm hoping the two of us can scrapbook our memories of this time. (Not all my scrapbook pages are of good moments.)

Another positive is that they will be more FREE cut files available on Cricut Design Space for all the crafters who are at home. Feel free to follow my link and see what they have made FREE. I’m going to imagine that other companies will follow suit and there may be printables available too. I say, get cutting!

If you are worried about your LSS, you could purchase a gift card this month so they have a sale. Ideally, you could buy the gift card online or over the phone. Your direct sales paper crafting companies like Close to my Heart, Stampin Up and Creative Memories are also small businesses you shop online or with a catalog.

I would love to see how you make out during this time and would love to see your completed projects! I promise to share mine.

Christmas gifts from 2019

I didn’t want to spoil any Christmas gift surprises so I waited to post these pictures. I did a few vinyl projects ordered by friends this holiday season.

I had an “oops” on the yellow mug that I fixed before I delivered the coffee mugs but didn’t get an updated picture. I just love how these coffee mugs turned out and I have all the Design Space files saved if you would like them.

Happy Valentines Day!

Don't forget to take a photo of your true loves this Valentines Day! Here is a layout of one of mine, our rescue dog Chloe. I love how you can create anything with Design Space even a dog cookie!

Wishing you and yours a "love"ly day!