Fall Pillow Box

Happy Fall Yall! Today I have a fall gift box to show you. Fall is definitely in the air here. We've had some really nice crisp, cool days. Of course summer is not over yet because warm weather is supposed to return this week. I made some pillow boxes for a CTMH gathering I held last week and they turned out soo cute I decided to do a fall one. These are the perfect size for a small gift or some candy corn and peanuts to fit inside. Yum, my favorite fall treat!

Details:
pillow box - Wrap it Up cartridge 6", inked with chestnut roan chalk ink
I used my gypsy and the hide contour button to hide the detail cut out of the center of the box so I could have a plain box.
pumpkin - Thanksgiving cart 2",added some stickles for some bling
leaves - Thanksgiving cart 2", cut from ivory CS and then I inked with green, orange, and yellow chalk inks.
scroll - Accent Essentials cart 2", cut from chipboard and inked green

I hope you enjoyed my little gift box today and make some yourself to give as gifts. Be sure to check back all week for more fall items from the design team at sweetsassydiva.
Hugz
Tina Gale

Flower Shoppe Bouquet

Hello again! Today I have a fabulous bouquet of flowers to share with you that would make a perfect gift for anyone but especially that special grandparent for grandparents day.

 I just got the new project cartridge Flower Shoppe from Joann's for the great sale price of $19 plus I get to use my teachers 15% off discount on top of that. I love bargains!! I couldn't wait to use it and since this week our challenge at sweetsassydiva was to create something for grandparents day I decided a bouquet would be a great chance to play with lots of flowers.

 I ended up cutting lots of different flowers and then just building my own instead of the way they show in the handbook. That is the great thing about this cart you can mix and match them all for countless varieties of flowers.

 After building my flowers I poked two holes through the center and ran wire through them for stems. You could add buttons or bling to the centers as well.

 A little crinkled paper makes a great filler. This actually came with my cricut circle cart when it was shipped. Recycle all that packaging instead of throwing it out.

Details:

Flower Shoppe Cartridge: 

Cut at 2 1/2", 

Basic 1

Daisy 1

Cut at 3 1/2"

Daisy 4

Basic 4

Heart 4

Fun 4

I'm entering this in the following challenges
Celebrate the Occasion Challenge 29 - Celebrate Grandparents
Be sure to check out CtO. They have some fabulous projects and challenges going on over there.

My Crafty Spot Challenge24 - Friends are the Best
Well grandparents are really the best friends but my bouquet would make a perfect gift for any friend. ;o)

Critter Challenge Blog - Anything but a card
This bouquet is definitely not a card. LOL

And thanks to Rhonda  I'm entering it in the Decorate to Celebrate Challenge
Be sure to check them out and join the challenge too.

Also entering it in the Basic Grey Challenge - Celebrate I used the Lemonade pack of paper from BG.

I hope you enjoyed my bouquet today and come to visit me at my blog for more great projects!
Hugz
Tina Gale

Frontier City

Hello all, I'm back with another layout for sweetsassydiva design team. This week is all about travel and vacation. Well as some of you know if you follow my blog my summer has consisted of chemo treatments for my hubby and no vacation so I went a few years back, ok I went several years back and scrapped some pics of a trip to Frontier City. It's a small amusement park but it was perfect for our little ones at the time.

 I've got lots of pics to show you all the details and cuts. Wow; did I do a lot of cuts for these two layouts!

 I used some twine from my stash to make a lasso to hang from a dew drop. I love the way it turned out.

 I used a wanted sign to do my journalling block and then used brads to mimic the nails you would see in one.

 Again I couldn't resist adding some rope for her lasso. It added some great dimension and detail to the layout.

And now for all the details for the carts, cuts, and supplies I used.

Old West:
Frontier City - font  1 1/2"
General Store - p. 41  Fit to page
Wanted poster - p.44  4"
Spur - pg 55  1 1/4"
Wagon wheel - pg. 63   2 3/4"
Branding iron - pg. 66   3"
Barb wire Frame - pg. 70  5 1/2"
Windmill - pg 76   7"  ( I wish I'd cut it fit to page as well)

Yee-Haw -
Cowgirl 2    4"
Fence  5"  (cut away the cactus and skull)
Skull  5"
Stars  3"

I hope you enjoyed my layout today and check out more great projects while you're here.
Hugz
Tina Gale

Special honour

I'm so pleased to find out I'm featured on Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog Scrappin Saturday posts. It's such an honour. Be sure to check the post and their blog out. They have some great challenges which I love because they keep me motivated and scrappin.

This is the layout they featured. I created it for the cricut contest to win the new E2. I didn't win but I did buy one!  You can see the post with all the close ups and details here.

Hope you're having a fabulous weekend
Hugz
Tina Gale<>

Grow Garden Grow

Hello everyone! I'm back again with another layout for sweetsassydiva Design Team. This layout was completely inspired by one Jana Eubanks did a few months back. I have wanted to lift it ever since I saw it and when we had a challenge to use apples I decided now was my chance. I think it turned out adorable.

I couldn't resist adding a couple of mushrooms. I chose some fun polka dot and plaid patterned paper. It made some great looking mushrooms

I cut grow which was for another sign just by itself in a couple of different sizes and then chose the garden sign to go with it. It made a great title when put all together.

I chose the little girl gnome for my page as I thought she was too cute to resist.

The apple tree was cute but really came to life with a little inking and penwork. I'm going to add the date on the tag tied around the bag.

I inked the sun with a couple of different chalk inks and then did pen work with a brown marker. The clouds I inked with charcoal and then did my pen work. I pop dotted the top cloud up for dimension.

I used one of the signs as my journalling spot. Leaving the words off the shape made a great journalling block. Of course I Inked it all up and pen stitched around it.

Details:
Freshly Picked -
grow - 1" & 1 1/2"  pg 60
Garden sign - 3"  pg 34
Gnome -  4"  pg 36
mushrooms - 2"   pg 34
Apple Tree - 6 1/2"  pg 28
Journalling sign - 3"  pg 48

Pop Up Neighborhood -
Sun -  2"
Grass -  fit to page   pg 45

I hope you enjoyed my layout today and be sure to check all this weeks post at sweetsassydiva for some great inspiration.
Hugz
Tina Gale

Best Wishes

Here's a quick little wedding card I made up for my mom to give. The cake turned out scrumptious!

I used stickles on the icing and a viva decor pearl pen for the flower centers. It really blinged it up. I used a glitter pen to go over the sentiment I stamped as well.

I used the wedding cake from Sweethearts and it is altogether on two feature keys which means you would have to cut it multiple times out of different colors of paper. I decided to use my gypsy pasting the image 5 times and hide the parts I didn't want to cut. by placing it further apart on the mat I could use my scraps of paper and cut only what I wanted on one mat. I also saved the file so I could use it again if I ever what to cut this cake again. What a timesaver!

Hope you enjoyed my quick little card today.

Hugz

Tina Gale

Keep on Truckin

Hello everyone! I wanted to give a quick update for everyone that's been following my husbands and I journey with lymphoma. June was particularly rough and July started that way. Hubby developed a blood clot in his jugular vein and arm. His blood pressure was dropping dangerously low and he even fell a couple of times bloodying his nose pretty good from lightheadedness. They have him on blood thinners. It's actually quite comical because dh passes out at the site of needles and I'm as queazy as they get around blood. But guess who gets to do his shots everyday in his belly? You guessed it! ME!! We have a pact and so far it's working well. He doesn't look at me or the needle and I don't look at him, only the needle and his belly. We are quite the pair! His blood counts are better so we're praying to only have to do one more week of the shots. Then he will only have to take the pills.

One of the nurses told us that they use cancer patients in movies to portray holocaust victims. After watching him go through all this I believe it. He lost down to 140 pounds. This last week he's made a huge improvement and is  gaining a little weight and his strength back. He has done great with chemo and feels great during and right after them. No side effects at all other than tired. We praise God for this. He gets his next CT scan Friday to see the effect chemo and prayers have had on the cancer. We are believing for great results. He's already the talk of the office for how much he has improved just in the last two weeks.

So that brings me to the card I have to share today. A very special friend knew how important it was for hubby to be drinking Ensure at least twice a day to get his strength back and gain some weight. She also knew how expensive it was so blessed us with a shipment of two cases! It was a true blessing and very appreciated. This little or should I say big guy caught my eye the minute I bought Campin Critters and I've wanted to make him ever since. I decided this was perfect to show my appreciation at helping me get my guy back to his go gettum self. He loves to go to Colorado and 4 wheel along with hike the mountains so this is to him getting back to all of that really soon.

I cut and chalked him up like I always do. The trees were run through my cuttlebug with the dvine swirl folder. I couldn't resist using some twine to lace up his boots. I think they're too cute!! Um handsome I mean. LOL

Details

Hiker - Campin Critters 3 1/2"

Trees - Campin Critters 2" Real Dial size

Cuttlebug Swirl Embossing Folder

Cuttlebug

Twine

Ink - Cat Eye Chalk Inks

I hope you enjoyed my card today and thank you again to all the ones that have sent your thoughts and prayers to us during this time.

Hugz

Tina Gale

Summer Blooms

This week at Sweet Sassy Diva the design team was asked to use a Christmas cart and put a summer spin on it. I was so excited about this challenge but for some reason it just wouldn't pull together for me. I think I just had brain overload the last couple of weeks and couldn't focus. In the end I did use the flowers that was part of the original idea but the whole layout to a life of it's own and is nothing like what I set out to do. LOL I hope you enjoy my Summer Blooms layout!

 My original idea was to do a card with these flowers made from the snowflake cut on Christmas Cheer. I loved the little flowers but the card cut just wouldn't happen. I started with snowflakes cut from 1/2" to 1 1/4" in two different colors of blue. I stacked them on top of each other and then curled up the edges with a button in the middle to create a flower.

 Here's a side view so you can see the dimension. Aren't they the cutest?

 For the bottom I used a Martha Stewart punch to trim a couple of borders then added a piece of ribbon.

 For the birdhouse I used a great little birdhouse from Winter Frolic. I added a piece of black card stock behind the opening and cut a blue piece for the roof to create different layers. Of course I inked it all up with my cat eye inks. You know I love them! I added more of my snowflake flowers over the branches and a couple more dew drops to create some buds on the branch help balance the whole design out.

I hope you enjoyed my layout this week and all of the other Sweet Sassy Diva designers.
Hugz

Tina Gale

Details:

Winter Frolic - Birdhouse cut at 4 1/2"  Pg 63

Christmas Cheer - Flowers cut at 1/2" - 1 1/2" Pg. 106

Ribbon - Karen Foster

Martha Stewart punch

DCWV paper stacks

Buttons

Dew Drops

So Fun Circus Layout

Hello! This is Tina Gale again with Sweet Sassy Design Team challenge of the week of a circus theme. I decided to work with photos from the Cricut Stampede in March. Our first night we had a wonderful dinner of fair food and carnival games. It was a great way to start a very fun weekend.

Remember you can always click on the photos to see them up closer.

I chose some fun paper from Imaginisce and let it set the tone for my layout.  

I cut the tent several times out of different paper to paper piece it since it didn't have layers. This is really easy to do when a certain cut doesn't have the layer button.
I cut the clouds twice with one being 1/4" bigger to layer them as well. This is another trick to add layers to your cuts.

The clown is popdotted up for dimension along with a couple of cute tiny buttons to add texture.

A tag for a secondary title or extra journaling. You can also see a little detail I added to the tent up close. I used my Sew Easy and a marker to add faux stitching to the tent. A couple of swirl clips give the illusion of holding the sides back and a couple of brads for the tent tie downs all adds dimension and that extra little bit to make the layout extra special.

The second page I kept pretty simple with just a few great cuts to tie it all together.

The sun is a favorite cut of mine and a couple of smaller tickets for extra journaling and notes finish the layout. I may also use the clouds for more journaling space if I need it.

Details:

Cartridges:

Paper Doll Dress Up - tent pg 58 Accessory 3 cut fit to page out of several different papers

  I used Daisy D paper for the blue strip and some Coredinations card stock

PDDU - Clown pg 58  5 1/4"

Create a Critter - Clouds pg 55 from 2" - 2 3/4"

Doodlecharms - Sun 2"

Paper:

Imaginisce - Animal Crackers, Come One Come All, background bottom

Colorbok - Red Rick Rac Border, mat and scalloped border

Die Cuts with a View - background

Misc:

Sew Easy

Swirl clips

Buttons

Cat eye inks

Creative Memories Black pen

Thanks for taking the time to check out my layout and be sure to visit me at my blog for more great layouts.

Hugz

Tina Gale

Fourth of July

Hello everyone! Tina Gale here back with another layout for sweet sassy diva design team. This time our challenge was a Fourth of July stars theme. I usually don't like to make my layouts before I have the pictures but because of how busy I've been lately with my husbands chemo treatments I decided to get a quick page together for photos that I'm hoping to receive of my son doing the fireworks for the kids camp that he and my daughter work at. I know I'm not the only one that gets things thrown at them that can put a halt on their creative time so I decided to share how you can put together a really quick layout that still has a wow factor.

I decided I'd try and walk you through my thought process when I design a layout and hopefully it will help some of you. Like I said before I never scrap before I have photos because it never works out for me. My photos are never the right size or their the wrong direction for my mats. I also get inspired by my photos so that is where I usually begin. Obviously that's not the case this time but I did start with what I know I want my photo to be of. My children work at a kids summer camp and my son works the activities. One of his biggest thrills of the summer is getting to set off the big fireworks for them on the 4th so I immediately thought of the great silhouettes on A Child's Year. This little boy riding the rocket was perfect! It reminded me of my son and the thrill he gets doing the firework show so that was where I started.

Next I went in search of paper. I had several different patriotic looking papers but this star background was perfect for my quick layout. Sometimes it's very difficult working with patterned paper that has a finished layout look to it. It can look very flat and uninteresting as well as scare some people to cover certain elements on the background up. The key  is not to be afraid of it but use it to it's full advantage. This paper with the glittery stars and fireworks at the bottom left corner was a perfect backdrop for my layout. It brought a lot of interest to the layout without doing anything else but to really give it the 'wow' factor you don't want to stop there and with your cricut it's easy to step it up a notch.

The next element is always a great title and you don't want to forget to leave a place to journal. I chose a great title from Graphically Speaking cut with red and gray for an extra punch.

For the journalling I decided to use some white cardstock cut in 1/2" widths at various lengths to jot down some quick thoughts. It adds some great design interest to a quick layout.

The next element are your photo mats. I chose this wonderful red with silver star paper cut at 4x6 for my photos and then tied some red, white, and blue bakers twine around it for added dimension and design.

Then to tie everything together and help pull the design in I cut stars out in various sizes from 3/4" - 1 1/4" from Graphically speaking and scattered them around the layout.

I also used my bakers twine again to tie around a couple of the stars for some extra 'wow'.

Recipe for Stars for the Fourth

Paper - American collection from the $1 spot at Target

Airmail Bakers Twine - available here

Cricut Cuts:

Fourth of July 1 1/2" - Graphically Speaking - p. 43 

Stars 3/4" - 1 1/4" - Graphically Speaking - p. 43

Boy on rocket 3 1/2" - A Child's Year p. 46

I hope you enjoyed my layout and find my tips helpful the next time you want to create a quick layout. Be sure to visit me at my blog for more great projects! 

Hugz

Tina Gale