Midwinter Christmas Crafting- Gift Bags

It is always fun to have gift bags on hand, and with the help of the Cricut I have created three gift bags for my last Midwinter Christmas crafting feature.



The first bag uses the Snowhaven paper with a cranberry cut sentiment from the Artiste cartridge.



The second bag uses a leftover card from the Holiday Happenings Assortment, which I then paired with a Love & Joy banner from the Artfully Sent cartridge cut on Crystal Blue cardstock. Remember that this month if you purchase the Holiday Happenings Assortment with the My Crush Holiday Happenings Book, you receive a free stamp set!



Lastly, I cut an overlay from the Artbooking cartridge using Ruby cardstock and placed this over some of the retired Sparkle and Shine paper.



Three easy and cute gift bags, perfect for Christmas presents!

Artbooking In April- Party at the Zoo Layout

This is the last post for my Artbooking In April series- using the Cricut Artbooking cartridge to create paper perfection!

In case you can't tell from my mini albums, I love overlays, and they work so well with 12x12 layouts too. Here I used a birthday overlay and title, paired with some animal icons from the Baby Album as we had my nephew's first birthday at the zoo.



Thanks for stopping by, I would love for you to leave a comment. Don't forget to check out the rest of my Artbooking in April series too!

CTMH supplies used:
Cardstock: Bamboo, Desert Sand, Goldrush, Topiary
Embellishments: Durables Square Studs, Jubilee Complements, Timberline Complements

Artbooking In April- What a Wonderful World

Today I am sharing another mini album for my Artbooking In April series- using the Cricut Artbooking cartridge to create paper perfection!

This album was inspired by the Heart 2 Heart challenge this week- What A Wonderful World. Travel certainly makes me look at all the different things my beautiful country of New Zealand has to offer, and at the beginning of this year we went on a family road trip to Cromwell at the bottom of the South Island.

I created this album using the Artbooking 8x8 Travel Mini Album as well as the 6x8 Summer Mini Album as I had a few pages! I cut the pages themselves in Whisper, Glacier and Canary cardstock, and used accents in Pacifica, Honey, Outdoor Denim and papers from Seaside, Tommy and Wanderful.

Here is the title page- off we go on our adventure! I love this overlay cut from the cartridge- it gives the page a definite wow factor!

I mixed a combination of 8x8 pages, half pages and 6x8 pages throughout the book. Here is the back of the overlay page as well as the back of one of the half pages with a family photo on it, and a 68 page with some photos of the boys playing during our lunch stop.



Cromwell is famous for fruit, so we had to get a photo of us with the giant fruit! I also got some great shots of my son playing in the mall, where I have photos of myself as a young girl. The Oh Snap and photo frame were cut from the Cricut, as well as the apple.



Another fun overlay and a notebook style page were great backgrounds for photos of our cherry picking, and the retired Jubilee button with a cherry on it was perfect!



Some more half pages are scattered throughout the book, as well as some small journalling boxes that I stamped.



The Cricut Artbooking mini albums even have some great envelope style pages, perfect for memorabilia. On this page I had some photos of us on the lake (our first time fishing and everyone loved it!) so I placed the fishing licences in the pocket. I also added a fish embellishment from the Seaside WOTG and some epoxy bubbles.



I was a bit of a big kid on this holiday, and loved the flying fox at the Dinosaur Park. My husband was more interested in the car museum!



One of the main reasons we went on this holiday was to celebrate my grandparent's wedding anniversary and their birthdays, so I also have some family photos throughout the book.



The last page is another fun overlay page, featuring some stickers from the Wanderful Complements and a little note about how much we loved Cromwell.



 This was such a fun mini album to do, and I really loved how easily it came together using the Artbooking cartridge.

Be sure to check out my other Artbooking in April posts, and if you have anything related to this wonderful world link it up with us at H2H!

Artbooking In April- School layout

This is the second post for my Artbooking In April series- using the Cricut Artbooking cartridge to create paper perfection!

My eldest son recently started school, and I am doing a whole Picture My Life album for his school years. However, I felt his first day of school warranted a mention in our family album, and the Artbooking cartridge came to the rescue with the perfect layout. I actually combined overlays and titles from the two different school themed layouts to create my own double page spread.



I used primary colours since those colours feature in the photos, and I loved the overlay as it allowed me to fit lots of photos on the page! All of those little moments captured that show an overview of his first day. These are the memories that might have been forgotten when he is a few years into his education, so it is nice that I will be able to look back on the snapshots and remember the nerves, the excitement and the anticipation.

Here is the layout completed with photos and some journalling. I used the Cricut to cut out this notebook journalling box, which I thought went well with the overall theme of the pages.



Thanks for stopping by, I would love for you to leave a comment. Don't forget to check out the rest of my Artbooking in April series too!

Artbooking In April- Love My Boys Mini Album

This is the first post for my Artbooking In April series- using the Cricut Artbooking cartridge to create paper perfection!

My first creation is the 8x3.5 Love Mini Album featured on page 46. Everything is ready to be cut at 8" so set the Cricut machine to 8" real dial size OFF and everything will cut in proportion for the album to be completed. The hardest part is choosing what cardstock and papers you want to use!



Instead of a typical love album for my husband, as I made him one earlier this year, I created an album for my boys to tell them how special they are to me.

Here is the front of my album- I have used the now retired Heartstrings paper, as well as Black, Lagoon and Ruby cardstock throughout the album.



The first page has some photos of me with my boys, as well as this wonderful envelope page. I have included a letter to each of my boys in this envelope, talking about their births and all of their wonderful qualities that make them unique. I printed all of the photos in black and white to keep the colours continual, as the photos I chose were taken over a time frame of three months.



I have wanted to use this poem in my scrapbooking for ages, and so this album was the perfect opportunity to use it! I simply printed it from my computer using white cardstock and adhered it to the album page. The blessed and bread tag were part of the mini album Cricut cuts, and I added some baker's twine.



On the back of the doily page I added one of my favourite photos of the boys together, and then on the sweet page I matted a photo of me and my boys during my son's 5th birthday.



These pages show more photos of my boys with their beautiful smiles, and all I added were some more Cricut cuts and a strip of washi tape. Did you notice the LOVE cut out on the side? It is part of the page and such a fun pop of interest to the page.



I can't have a project without my favourite shimmer trim, so that made an appearance on this page along with one of the stickers from the Heartstrings complements.



How awesome is this double heart page? I used this to share some photos of my boys playing together, and talk about why I love these photos.



A journaling tag from the Heartstrings complements filled the back of this space. and then the overlay on the right page was perfect for this photo of the boys kissing each other goodnight.



Some more glitter and Heartstrings complements are on these pages, as well as the Cricut cut Hugs frame. The stamp is from a special Convention stamp set- we get so spoilt as Close To My Heart consultants!



The back page has a bold title, as well as a recent photo of my boys on holiday. I love this photo so much that it is a canvas on our wall at home.



This mini album is so special to me, and I hope my boys will appreciate it. It was a definite labour of love but I had so much fun picking which photos to use, and the colour scheme was perfect for two little boys. I would love to know which page is your favourite!

CTMH suppplies used:
Cardstock: Black, Lagoon, Ruby, White Daisy
Cricut: Artbooking
Embellishments: Heartstrings Complements, Lagoon Hearts Washi Tape, Neutrals Metallic Baker's Twine, Silver Geometric Washi Tape
Ink: Black
Paper packs: Heartstrings, Teal Glitter Paper
Stamp sets: What A Day (Convention), Your Own Kind of Wonderful

Choose Happy Worldwide SOTM Blog Hop

Welcome to our Stamp of the Month Blog Hop!  We will be featuring March's SOTM, which is Choose Happy, a set of  14 stamps.

If you have come here from Jilena's Blog you are on the right path! The blog hop is a great big circle, so you can start here and work your way all around.  If you get lost along the way, you’ll find the complete list of participating consultants on Melinda’s Blog.

This month we have approximately 70 Close To My Heart Consultants sharing their creations using this month's SOTM and other great CTMH products on their blogs. This is simple to do - just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one! Here we go!

When I first saw this stamp I could see the potential for some flowery cards and layouts, but I knew that to justify a stamp set purchase in my boys only household it needed to work in masculine situations. I knew that the titles would be great, and the woodgrain frame was also a masculine element.

I created this layout to show the silliness of my two boys- I love them very much but getting them to pose together for a photo is a bit of a mission!  The layout was cut using the Friendship layout on page 78 of the Cricut Artbooking cartridge. I changed the placement a little, but kept true to sizes and layout design. 



I used the woodgrain frames to frame the 2x2 photos of my boys. I cut the scallop frame on the Cricut, then stamped the SOTM frame and fussy cut to place over the photos.



One of the swirls from the SOTM was used under the title. I love how it looks like a hand-drawn doodle!



I also used the "this day" stamp as I feel it makes a perfect scrapbook sentiment. I paired it with the mini calendar stamp.



I plan to add some personal journalling to this, as my boys can be goofballs when they are together and one of them is usually pulling a face, but when I get a nice photo of the two of them I treasure it.

Now "Hop" on over to Pam's Blog to see her work! Be sure to visit all the Consultants at their Blogs to get some great crafting ideas and other fun ideas! Remember, the March SOTM is only available until 31st March!  Contact your CTMH Consultant (or click here) to see how you can get this stamp set at a discount!

If you would like to see a card I have created using this SOTM, please click here.

CTMH supplies used:
Cardstock: Barn Red, Cashmere, Indian Corn Blue, New England Ivy
Cricut: Artbooking
Embellishments: Blue Shimmer Trim, Proplayer Assortment
Ink: Cocoa, New England Ivy
Stamp sets: Choose Happy, Mini Calendar

14 Days of Love- Day 9

Each day for 14 days I will be bringing you a project inspired by love!

Today's theme is all about Love, the CTMH Way, where I share the love of my favorite CTMH product with Heart 2 Heart Challenges,

I love the fact that the Cricut cartridges give you endless possibilities, especially the Artbooking Cartridge with pre-made layouts. These are so quick and handy for producing layouts that look amazing, yet require only a little bit of effort.


I celebrated my seventh wedding anniversary over the weekend, and so I used this double page layout to make an overview of each anniversary. I precut everything, ready to put photos in.

Once I had celebrated with my husband, all I needed to do was add the photos and some journalling, and I was done!


The left hand side has dates, and I used some wooden accents. Aren't those lovebirds cute?


The left features a photo from the weekend, backed with some paper and with a simple flower embellishment. The Artbooking pages are so detailed that you don't need to add many embellishments or extra details.


The Artbooking layouts are such a great tool, and I love how they make my scrapbooking have the wow factor! If you want to share a product you love, link up here.

CTMH supplies used:
Cardstock: Bamboo, Chocolate, Honey, Pear
Cricut: Artbooking
Embellishments: Brushed Assortment, Wooden Trinkets Shapes
Paper: Lollydoodle

Clean and Simple

This week, the wonderful ladies over at H2H have challenged us to create a “clean and simple” project- however you define CAS.

I define CAS as minimal layers, minimal colours and blocks of embellishments, photos and journalling.

With this in mind, I set about creating a layout that is CAS for me.



This grid layout is always pleasing to my eye as everything fits together so well. I added a bold title, and chose red as my "pop" colour. A few colour blocks from the old Jubilee paper pack and some gingham hearts from the matching complements were added to fill in the grid of photos.

I added the banner as the word FUN was already printed on the patterned paper with the banner shape, and I thought it went well with the layout but did not distract from the photos.

A block of journalling at the top was all I needed to complete this layout of my boys enjoying an afternoon at the park.

How do you define CAS? We would love to see your take on this, link up your CAS project here.

CTMH supplies used:
Cardstock: Cranberry, White Daisy
Cricut: Artbooking
Embellishments: Jubilee Complements
Paper: Jubilee

Running Resolutions for 2015

You may be thinking- what is a fitness post doing on my craft blog, but I have a good reason today. I have shared running pages here, here and here previously, and today I want to show you a page I have put in my Picture My Life running album to highlight my goals for 2015.

This page also corresponds with the current CTMH Facebook Challenge: "I asked Creative Communications Manager Jill Broadbent to put her New Year's resolution on paper—scrapbook paper! This is her interpretation. Now create a layout yourself that will help you keep your resolutions all year long. Be sure to post your project to Instagram and/or the CTMH Facebook page with the hashtag ‪#‎jrlcreativechallenge‬ by Friday (1/16) to be entered to win a terrific prize!"

Here is a photo of the full 12x12 pocket page using the Later Sk8r PML kit and pocket pages.

A close up of the journalling- I bullet pointed each goal using the Aqua Dots . This journalling card was cut in Lagoon cardstock using the Artfully Sent Cricut Cartridge, and I backed the cut out with Lagoon Hearts Washi Tape.

I really wanted to include this card on my layout but it didn't fit the pockets. I backed it onto White Daisy cardstock, framing it with a cut out from the Artbooking Cricut Cartridge using Paper Fundamentals. This way it still fits onto my layout and provides a fill for my pockets.

The title was cut from the Artfully Sent cartridge in Lagoon cardstock and backed onto White Daisy cardstock. I added some sequins, Durables Triangle Studs and some Teal Shimmer Trim.

Now every time I open my running album, I can check that I have met all of my goals for 2015!