17turtles

Stepping it up!

2012-01-25T15:22:00.001-06:00

Well, the move into the new house continues to progress along slowly but surely! Thank you for all the sweet comments about our new home and my new scrappy space. I have yet to be able to get in there to use it, but I know it is going to be wonderful with all of the natural light!

Today, I have a layout to share with you using the recent Bo Bunny Snowfall collection. As you can see, I did not use the papers for a snow related photo. In fact, the photo is of DH and I on the shore of Lake Michigan during a recent vacation. The colors just worked well with my photo and so I went through the papers and choose ones that did not have huge snowflakes or words on them. The striped paper did have some glittered snowflakes, however after I added the paper punching the snowflakes were no longer as noticeable and you just see the glittery blueness!

The addition of butterflies and swirls also help you step away from the notion of the papers being snow themed. I love when you can use a themed collection for more than one purpose!

When I was asked to design this layout it was for a post entitled "Step It Up". With that idea in mind, I showed how I took the layout from simple to more elaborate. If you are interested in my process, you can stop by the Bo Bunny blog HERE for all the details. While there, you can also check out all the new Bo Bunny collections that will be released at the CHA Winter 2012 show. Do you have a favorite new collection yet? I would love to hear which one you love the most! I have a few that are speaking to me loud and clear, but in all honesty each new collection has something that I totally love! I can't wait to play with them when they arrive on my doorstep!

Thanks as always for your visit and your comments!
HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

Letter Envy & The Move

2012-01-19T20:09:00.000-06:00

Today is Hello Thursday in Cricutland and I have a fun project I created for the new cartridge called Letter Envy! I made this altered frame piece for our new house. I choose the particular colors and patterns because they match the awesome wall colors in the house. There is not one room I want to repaint!

I used Lilly Bee's Memorandum papers and Teresa Collins Flocked Paper, which is part of her Timeless collection, for the detailed image. This cartridge is full of surprises. Yes, as the name implies it has some awesome fonts however it also has some great images as well!

Make sure you stop by the Cricut Blog to check out all the latest cartridges and the fabulous projects created by the design team. Make sure you leave a comment for your chance at a $100 Cricut.com credit!

Speaking of our new house, here is a photo of it! I love how old it is!!! Hopefully I will continue to love that about it!

And here is my new scrappy room. It is a sun porch area and look at that wall color! Doesn't it look like Cricut green?!

Here it is starting to come together a bit more, but still very far from being completed. I will keep you posted on my progress!

Thanks for stopping by!

HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

AND THE WINNER IS...

2012-01-16T17:22:00.000-06:00

Renee77!!!

Congratulations Renee on winning my giveaway!

I also want to thank all of you who stopped by, said HI and spread the word! I wish I could afford to send all of you a little something and make all of you a winner! But stay tuned for another giveaway next month. I am trying to down size my scrappy stuff a bit. And as soon as we get a bit more settled into our new house (and have internet access!!!) I will be stopping by to check out your blogs!

HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

Grandpa's Helper

2012-01-11T07:00:00.000-06:00

If you are here for the giveaway, it is still going on in THIS POST!

But while you are here, how about a little scrappy goodness?! Today I have a layout to share with you using some of my favorite Jillibean papers...Homemade 6 Bean Soup!I made this one awhile back, but I am just now getting around to sharing it online. This photo is so precious to me. It really captures the closeness between my niece and her grandpa! She loves to help him with the horses and on this particular evening, she was "helping" him water the horses.

Here is my latest sketch for Creative Scrappers...Sketch #189! It was posted up on January 1.

You have all month to play along with any and all of this month's sketches for a chance to win a prize package from this month's sponsor...The Paper Bakery Kit Club. I have a layout I created using it, but I need to get a photo of it. Hopefully soon, but no promises with the new job and moving into the new house this weekend!!! Once I get some time to do so though, I will share it here. Thanks so much for stopping by!

HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

Giveaway #1

2012-01-05T09:09:00.003-06:00

As promised yesterday, here is the giveaway!

Included is an inch of various patterned papers from Fancy Pants, Cosmo Cricket and My Little Shoebox.

I then have various embellishments and things as seen in this photo.

And last but not least, some awesome products from Provo Craft: including 3 cartridges, a Cricut hand warmer and one of the mini Cricut plushies! Who can resist?!

Now one of the carts is for the Imagine. If you don't have an Imagine but still want to play along, that is fine with me. (You could always just let me know you wouldn't use it and maybe I might just replace it with some more goodies. I still have an entire box full of patterned papers that I am not sure what to do with. I am thinking that I might donate it to my sister's school.) So now to the deets on winning the above stash...
Leave a comment. It's that simple. (This is only open to those of you in the US. I am sorry, but the box is heavy and shipping it elsewhere would be too expensive.) If you want to share the scoop with your friends, that would be great! But if you just want it for yourself, I totally understand! LOL!!! I will leave it open for comments until next Thursday, January 12.

HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

A New Year - Twenty 12

2012-01-04T11:34:00.001-06:00

Happy New Year! Happy Twenty 12!

I am looking forward to this year. Hoping it will be a good year and not full of the same sort of craziness as this past year. 2012 is starting off similar to last year in some ways, minus moving to another city. I am starting a new job and we are finally moving but this time into a real house!
The job change was not my choice. I loved my job and the people I worked with. It was one of the best settings I have worked in in a long time. Sad to say, but true never the less. The hospital however, decided to partner with a local therapy company and closed our location. Everyone I worked with, including myself, had to find a new job. We all did...that is the good news. I just don't like the idea of having to start all over again, but this is not the first time I have started a new job. It will probably be easier for me than some of the others. I just hope we can all keep in touch and get together now and then! I miss you all already!!! And I really hope that my new work group will be good. It makes work so much more enjoyable when you all get along! Here a couple photos of the crew from this past year!

As for the move, we have been living in a 2 bedroom apartment for a year since we moved here. And the walls and rooms feel like they are closing in on us some days. I am super excited about the house...it was built in 1893. Yes you read it correctly! When we moved here, I fell in love with the historic district. There are so many old homes here and so many of them are still well cared for. Well we found an old house and we move in next weekend! I can't wait to finally feel like I have my own place and I am looking forward to decorating and all that fun stuff. The great thing about it is that is is move in ready and I actually like the wall colors. So I may not do any painting! Eventually, and hopefully much sooner than later, we do want to update the kitchen. It is not horrible...the appliance are awesome, it is just not very pretty. It has blue counter tops. Nuff said!!!

Well now that you have made it this far how about something scrappy?!
First up, I have a layout that is up on the Bo Bunny blog today where we are featuring the new Snowfall collection! It is GORGEOUS and GLITTERY! For this layout, I scrapped a photo of my darling niece at her first dance recitial. She showed up before the recital what she had learned, but when it came time to perform, not much happened! Stage fright maybe?! Maybe it had something to do with the fact that one of her little friends totally freaked out and starting crying when they got in front of everyone. LOL!!! Anyway, she looked adorable and that is all that really matters right!?

As for the Bo Bunny Snowfall collection, I am actually going to be using it again today with a photo from our trip to Lake Michigan and I can't wait to see how it works. Even with the snow flakes, the colors are perfect for this photo. I can't wait to share it with you soon!
Second, I have a fun Jillibean Soup layout to share with you. I played along with their December sketch by the super talented Julie Bonner. I love that all of the Jillibean collections mix and match so well, and on this layout, I have quite a mix going on! This photo is of my sister while on vacay at Lake Michigan! I thought the title went perfect with her pose!!!

So...now that you are finished reading and looking at all this mess of a post, what do you think about a giveaway?! Stay tuned tomorrow...I am going to be giving away some awesome Cricut and other scrappy stuff. I am moving you know and this will be one less box that I have to worry about! ;)

HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

Love You Forever

2011-12-21T15:52:00.000-06:00

Love You Forever. Are any of you familiar with that book? My Mom gave it to me years ago and it is one of my faves for more than one reason! It was also the perfect inspiration for the title on this layout. I love this photo of me and my mom! When I saw it in my pile of photos, I decided to scrap it because I have been missing her a lot lately. All the stress I have had lately with work and then being so far away from her has just made things even more tough. I am thankful that my work situation has leveled out and I am looking forward to starting my new job in January. I am also really looking forward to spending time with my Mom over Christmas weekend!

This layout is up on the Bo Bunny blog today as we focus on their brads. I used brads to hold those gorgeous Dusty Attic chipboard pieces in place (thank you Gabi!!!). I also wrapped the little strips of tulle around them to hold that in place as well. I had fun embossing the patterned papers using my Cuttlebug and various embossing folders. I then rubbed some ink over the raised images using a sponge dauber. The Bo Bunny Enchanted collection is gorgeous in all it's black and white beauty, but it really just calls out to me to have a bit of color added to it. I added color once again using a sponge dauber.

I also inked the chipboard pieces with some vintage photo distress ink (my favorite color!) and then added a nice thick coat of the Tim Holtz Rock Candy Crackle Paint. It added a very subtle bit of texture, but I love to play like this with my scrapbook stuff! Last but not least, I used this sketch...

I created it for Creative Scrappers. I hope you will give the sketch a go and play along for a chance to win a fun prize from Niklin Designs.

Thank you for stopping by! I hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas!

HAPPY HOLIDAY HUGS!

Juliana

Christmas Spirit

2011-12-15T19:00:00.000-06:00

I am trying to find it. This year it has been difficult. Thank goodness things have improved lately and I have been reminded that I have so very much to be thankful for.

S,o in an attempt to spread a little Christmas cheer, I have a quick Cricut gift wrap idea to share with you. Details are posted on the Cricut Blog if you are interested. I love the colors of this gift wrap...not your typical red and green and it was so much fun creating my own custom dyed ribbon. You can read about that over there too!

The second project for you today is a layout I created using a new Cricut cartridge created for Creative Memories called This & That! Love this cart! It contains a wonderful array of playful images and phrases that fit just about any theme. It contains 2 really great fonts as well. The layout I created also uses papers from the Creative Memories Reflections Collection. They are really pretty in person...quite a few of the papers have this gorgeous silver embossed design in them!

Those of you who know me will look at this LO and wonder who those adorable children are. Well, a gal I work with, who is a photographer on the side, took this adorable photo and was sweet enough to allow me to use it for my scrapbooking enjoyment. Thank you Liz!!! If you want to see more, stop by the Cricut Blog and /or the Cricut Circle Blog to see all the newly released cartridges and the fabulous DT projects. I am sure you will find something to inspire you...plus if you leave a comment you have the chance of winning some Cricut.com credits and who wouldn't want those after seeing all these new goodies?!
As always thank you for stopping by and your sweet comments!

HAPPY HOLIDAY HUGS!
Juliana

Creative Scrappers Sketch

2011-12-12T08:15:00.001-06:00

Just wanted to share that I have another sketch up on Creative Scrappers!

If you play along, make sure you link it up on the CS blog for your chance to win a prize from Niklin Designs, who is this month's sponsor. The more sketches you play along with the more chances you have of winning!

I hope you all will find some time to play along during this busy holiday season!

HAPPY HUGS!
JULIANA

My version of some Tim Holtz tags

2011-12-07T21:03:00.001-06:00

Things are starting to look up...thank goodness! And thank you all for your comments, thoughts and prayers. I think some of them have been answered and I am so very thankful. It has been a rough few weeks and things are not totally over with the stress, but at least I am starting to see a little light at the end of the tunnel.
Today, I spent my afternoon relaxing. For me that was doing some scrapping that was not an assignment. I have taken a break from some of my DT stuff just to give myself a little time to deal with things. Sometimes we just need a break...
So what did I do? I played along with Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas. This is my first time to do this, and I must say, I really enjoyed the process. I learned some fun new techniques and really tried to take to heart his encouragement to use what I had on hand. I would LOVE to have all of his products, but I don't. The only thing I did break down and purchase was the Archival Ink. It just does things that my other inks don't do, so I had to have it. I am also quite certain that I am going to have to get one of those craft mats as well. Maybe that would be a good Christmas gift!!!

When all was said and done, I ended up creating 3 tags. The first two are rather small tags, but the third one is larger. I wish I had done the first two the same size as the last one, but I was just playing around when I started this today. The first one is based off of his Tag #5. I don't have any of those super cool Reflections stamps, so I just choose some images that I had that would be OK to be reversed. I used a piece of clear plastic from some of my Cricut cartridges. I just layered it onto cardstock to make it thicker and a bit more sturdy.

The next one I created used the same alcohol ink on clear plastic, but then I used the Crackle paint fun from Tag #4. The crackle was done on the snowflake image that I cut with my Cricut. I just don't have any Distress Stain, so I used my Distress Inks and "pushed" the ink into the cracks using a sponger dauber.

The final tag I made was inspired by Tag #6. This one was super fun. And...I did not use the Metallic foil stuff. I used what I had on hand, and that was heavy duty aluminum foil. I just wrapped a piece of it around a tag, glued it in place with some glossy accents and then embossed it. The painting, took some time, but the final outcome was definitely worth it. It has such a fun distressed feel!

Well, that's all for now.

Thanks as always for stopping by!

HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

Christmas Decor using a Mini Album

2011-11-30T08:00:00.021-06:00

I apologize about the break in posting last week, but life threw me a curve ball and I am still reeling a bit from it. With that being said, I may be taking a break with some of my crafting this month. I am just going to see how things go and how I am feeling mentally about doing a lot of creating. I am doing my best to keep my chin up and I am looking for that open door that God is so good about providing when one is slammed in our face. This experience has been one of the most difficult I have ever had to deal with in regards to my career. And we will leave it at that...

So, let's get on with something fun! I did get this little project completed before the craziness of last week and I hope you enjoy it! It was up on the Bo Bunny blog yesterday.

So without further ado...here is how to use a mini album to create your very own hand made Christmas decor! Yes, you read correctly, I used a mini album to create some festive Christmas decor for my home. I used the new Blitzen Mini Album to create five decorative pieces that can be hung anywhere, including on my Christmas tree. They could also easily be strung on a ribbon and used as a banner on a mantle (that is if you have one! LOL!!!).

I choose five of the chipboard pages from the Blitzen Mini Album to create them. I used the pre-printed image on some of them to inspire my decoration and embellishment.

Obviously, it would have been a lot faster to use these images as they were and just dress them up a bit with some glitter and jewels. I however, wanted to do more with my hands, so I decided to step it up a bit. I used various chipboard pieces from the Blitzen 12 x 12 Chipboard to layer and decorate each piece.

I dressed each on up a bit using pearl pen, jewels, ink, crackle paint, glitter glue and ribbon.

I used my Cricut to diecut shapes such as the holly leaves on the Two Turtle Doves piece, the snowflake on the Blitzen piece and the poinsettia on the Stocking piece. I also used various punches to create decorative borders on several of them.

I hope you enjoyed this series of Christmas decor pieces and that you found them inspiring as you create some fun Christmas decor for your home this holiday season! Thank you for your visit!

HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

Father Christmas Spool Tree

2011-11-16T08:00:00.050-06:00

I hope everyone has had a chance to stop by the Official Cricut Blog and checked out the Cricut Craft Room and Cricut Mini this week! I have been crafting away with it and it is wonderful to work with! There are so many cool things going on in Cricut land! Seriously cool!!! If you want you can check out more, see my post below.

Now on to today's share! This project is also up on the Bo Bunny blog as we feature Father Christmas today. I love the vintage feel of this collection and found it perfect to create a little Christmas decor project.

INSPIRATION: Wooden Spool Tree

WHY: This first project was inspired by a spool tree I saw in a recent issue of Paper Crafts Holiday Cards. I knew I wanted to create one the moment I saw it, but I wanted mine to be a bit different. I wanted to dress it up a bit more. Ornaments! It needed ornaments and the Bo Bunny Trinkets were the perfect fit! And so from this my Father Christmas Spool Tree was born.

I found the wooden spools and flower pot at Ben Franklin Crafts. And I found the dowel rods for the branches, the 1" wood strip for the trunk and the 5" round piece for the base at Hobby Lobby.

I created the tree and the branches and placed them in the pot before realizing that it was going to be too heavy to stand alone. DH came to the rescue by suggesting that I attach it to a round wooden piece. He then used some wood screws and counter sunk them so that it would be flat on the bottom. It worked perfectly!

I covered each spool with patterned paper from the Father Christmas 6x6 paper pad. Once everything was assembled, I hot glued the Trinkets to the front of the spools and embellished them a bit more with some jewels.

After I put it all together, and took the photos, I kind of think that I should have painted the spools a dark green. What do you think? I just may end up painting them anyway...but very carefully! LOL!
Thank you for your visit!

HAPPY HUGS!

Juliana

Felt Fun & the Cricut Mini!

2011-11-15T18:22:00.001-06:00

Have you heard the news? The Cricut Mini is here!!! The Cricut Mini is here!!!
It debuted on HSN today! Hopefully you had time to check it out and add it to your Christmas gift list! LOL!!! The Mini works in conjunction with the Cricut Craft Room and will seriously open up a whole new crafting experience for all levels of crafters!!!

I was lucky enough to get to work with it and the exclusive cartridge included with the HSN bundle called Cricut Font & Basic Shapes! It has a wonderful font that comes in both a regular and stretch version, wonderful titles and a huge array of funky and geometric shapes. I promise you that you are sure to find something that you can create with for just about any type of project on this cartridge! Here is a layout and a card that I created using it that were shared earlier today on the Cricut Blog. Make sure you stop by the Cricut Blog to check out some gorgeous 3D ornaments created by Jana Eubank using the Cricut Craft Room exclusive cartridge called 3D Ornaments.

Now look closely! Yes, the Cricut Mini even cuts felt. The felt I used is called Friendly Felt and is stiffened and even more cool...it is glittered!!! I used masking tape to hold the it in place around the edge and it cut like a dream through the felt!

And here is the card I created. I also used the Imagine Floral Emporium Cartridge for my patterned papers!

So, what do you think? Do you want a Cricut Mini now too?!!!!

If you are excited about the Cricut Mini here are some cute blinkies you can use for your blog, etc.

I hope you enjoyed seeing these projects and thanks for stopping by!

HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

Cricut Craziness!!!

2011-11-13T08:00:00.002-06:00

There are so many fabulous new things going on in the Cricut world that have gotten me super excited and I wanted to share the news with you!

First of all the Cricut Craft Room is live! Have you checked it out yet? I am loving being able to create with all the fabulous features! Here is a brief run down of what it has in store for you!

CRICUT CRAFT ROOM FEATURES:

Free to use
Access online from anywhere, anytime
Easy-to-use program
Design on a big screen
View and design with all Cricut cartridges
Search to easily find the right image
Digitally store all your cartridges and projects
Windows and Mac-compatible
Explore exclusive online content
Works with all Cricut Machines

You can learn even more about this fantastic new online design tool HERE! And you can see some awesome projects created by Jana Eubank on the Cricut Blog using the FREE online cartridge called Cricut Craft Room Basics.

The next bit of information I have to share with you is about a brand new creative machine from Provo Craft, called the Cricut Mini!

The Cricut Mini will be making it's world debut on HSN on November 15th.

Air times are 12:00AM, 5:00AM, 8:00AM, 12:00PM, 5:00PM, and 9:00PM EST

Provo Craft will be demonstrating all of the great features and the fun of owning your own Cricut Mini.
Make sure you join them on Twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/OfficialCricut) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/OfficialCricut) during the HSN airings for inspiration and giveaways! Use #CricutMini on Twitter to get in on all the fun!

Make sure you take some time to check it out on the HSN. Until then, you can find out more HERE!

I hope you all are as excited about all the wonderful new happenings as I am and I can't wait to see what you all create with them!

HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

Flower Shoppe Tutorial + A Sketch

2011-11-09T08:00:00.049-06:00

The Works on Wednesday continues!

I can't believe it, I am still getting it done! Blogging at least once a week that is, and giving you all a little share of things. I was not so sure about getting this one put together in time, but thanks to some help from my DH, I made it!!! He took all the photos you will see in the video below! Thank you baby cakes!!!

INSPIRATION: a card sketch (from the Bo Bunny blog and created by the super talented Gabi!)

WHY: Sketches are always inspiring to me. In fact, I almost always use a sketch. I usually draw one for every layout or card I make. It just helps me figure out where I want things to go before I start cutting and gluing.

I had fun playing with this sketch and mixing up two different collections by Bo Bunny...Welcome Home and Enchanted. I added some brown ink to the black and white pattern of the Enchanted paper to allow it to fit right in the with the Welcome Home color palette. Besides sharing this great sketch, I also wanted to share how I created the flower on my card. I used my Cricut and the Flower Shoppe cartridge to create it. If you want to see how I made my flower, please check out the video below. And if you have any questions, just ask!

I used a bunch of photos and created a slide show/movie. Maybe some day I will have a way to make a real video! Hope you enjoy and please feel free to leave me some feedback on what you think of it. I am still trying to figure out the best way to do these!

Thanks for stopping by!HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

Chevron Sketch

2011-11-06T09:44:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to share that my first sketch for Creative Scrappers is live! YAY!!! I was inspired to create this sketch after seeing so many chevrons and zigzags everywhere! I wasn't able to play along myself this time, but I am hoping to do so in the future!

So without further ado here is the sketch:

Now go check out what the fabulous CS designers did with it! I am positive that you will be blown away! Creative Scrappers has a monthly prize giveaway. This month the sponsor is C'est Magnifique! All you have to do is play along with one sketch (#180-181-182-183-184) for a chance to win a prize from them! Have fun and I hope you enjoy the sketch!!!

HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

Emma & Boots

2011-11-02T08:00:00.079-05:00

Welcome to The Works on Wednesday!

Today is a bit of a double dipper, but it "WORKS" out well! The layout I have to share with you is also being featured over on the Bo Bunny blog as well. We have a blog hop going on with Scor-Pal! This week, on the Bo Bunny and Scor-Pal blogs, we have been featuring creations using these products together and it has been a great match. Make sure you stop by each blog (starting November 1st through the 4th) for a chance to win some awesome prizes!!! And lucky me, Scor-Pal was awesome enough to send each of the Bo Bunny designers one of their Scor-Buddy's to work with! It is a smaller version of their Scor-Pal and is specifically designed to use for smaller projects such as cards. I had never used a tool like this and I will attest to the fact that it is way easier than what I used to do and I am sold on how awesome this tool is! I will be sharing a few tips on how I used the Scor-Buddy on my project as well as some other tidbits you might find interesting.

INSPIRATION: hand sewing/stitching

WHY: So anyway, my project this week was inspired by our Bo Bunny challenge to incorporate sewing or stitching on our layout. I love the home spun feel and texture that thread adds to a project, but I don't often HAND sew/stitch on my layouts because it is so time consuming. Well for this project I challenged myself to do some HAND stitching. I used the We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy to create my stitching guide holes around the outside edge of the Bo Bunny Et Cetera Die Cut paper. I then did my stitching while watching the World Series games ---Yay Cardinals!!!

As for my flowers, I created them using a border punch and the Scor-Buddy.

I cut a 1" strip of patterned paper and then punched along the edge with the border punch for the smaller flowers. For the larger flowers I used a 1.25"strip of paper. I then laid the punched strip on my Scor-Buddy and used the Scor-Tool to score the paper at 0.25" increments.

I then folded the strip, alternating the folds to create a fan shape.

I overlapped the edges of the punched strip so that the patterns matched up and glued the edge together. Trim off the excess paper.

Then hold the piece together and apply hot glue to the center. Continue to keep the center pushed together until the glue dries. Adhere a center of your choosing and your are done. I used a large pearl/jewel for mine.

Now, as you look a bit more at the layout, you may wonder what I did to create that large postage stamped paper. I am going to share the how to for that with you today too! It starts off by using a 0.50" circle punch.

What I did to the back side of the punch though is what makes this work so well. I drew a grid on it to help me line up the center of the punch on my paper using a permanent marker. See...

I then used a ruler to draw tic marks on my patterned paper at 1" increments all around the outside edge. This works perfect for a 12 x 12" piece of paper. But if you want a border around it, like on my layout, trim your paper down to 11.5 x 11.5" and then start at the center on each side of the paper and start your 1" increments from there. Hopefully that makes sense.

Then line up the back side of your punch, centering the grid on the tic marks you just made, and punch away.

So that's it! Simple and easy ways to dress up your layout using stitching, punches and the awesome Scor-Pal! I hope you enjoyed today's post! And thank you all so much for stopping by and leaving your comments! I really enjoyed having some many of you stop by this past week.

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And now for the winner of my giveaway from last week....

The lucky winner of the Cricut Happy Hauntings Cartridge is...
Tina

Congratulations girl!!!

HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T07:00:00.000-05:00

I just want to wish everyone a Happy Halloween! I am dressing up today for work...not sure what you can call my costume, but it was fun to put together! I will share photos soon!
If you are still craving Halloween inspiration, you can see another project I created that is being featured on the Cricut Circle today as the final project for our 13 days of Halloween. Until then, I leave you with one of my past favorite Halloween projects that I created for Bo Bunny!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN HUGS!
Juliana

The Works on Wednesday + A Giveaway

2011-10-26T07:00:00.003-05:00

Welcome to The Works on Wednesday!

I am quite excited to share today's layout with you and I hope you are inspired and excited to give it a try too! Just like last Wednesday, I am going to share a layout with you and some of the process behind the why, what and how.

INSPIRATION: zigzag / chevron

WHY: I keep hearing everyone referring to chevrons. They are everywhere right now. Clothing, decorating and of course they have invaded scrapbooking. I look at most of the designs however and think they look more like what I would call a zigzag, so I decided to do a little research.

Here are the definitions I found on Wikipedia...
A chevron is an inverted V-shaped pattern. The word is usually used in reference to a kind of fret in architecture, or to a badge or insignia used in military or police uniforms to indicate rank or length of service, or in heraldry and the designs of flags.

A zigzag is a pattern made up of small corners at variable angles, though constant within the zigzag, tracing a path between two parallel lines; it can be described as both jagged and fairly regular. Traditionally a "zig" points in the left direction (/) and a "zag" points right (\). From the point of view of symmetry, a regular zigzag can be generated from a simple motif like a line segment by repeated application of a glide reflection.

I also found this nice image to help discern the difference visually between the two... The top images are of a chevron and the bottom are of a zigzag.

So now that we know the difference, I went looking for some specific inspiration and I found this super cool image on my new favorite time busting site...Pinterest! Hours can be gone before you know it as you cruise through all the inspiration there! When I saw this image I immediately thought of a nice big zigzag border with some fun accent colors.

I decided to try to keep the creation of a zigzag easy and quickly found a great image on the Cricut Essentials Cartridge included on the new Cricut Expression 2.

I first cut out a large zigzag from white cardstock to play around with the size and placement of the border. The next thing I did was find a photo and went to work picking out papers and embellies to go with my zigzag pattern.

On the side there, you can see a small sketch that I created to start with, but I eventually when a totally different direction with things.

As the colors started coming together, I quickly realized that the photo I had originally wanted to scrap just wasn't going to work, so I dug through my photos and found another one that went with the colors much better. I then started playing around with a different placement for the zigzag border and this is what I came up with.

Once I added the white grid like paper as a large mat for my photo, I knew it needed a edging to it. That is where the twine came into play. I taped it to the back side of the layout using Provo Craft's Terrifically Tacky Tape. I then began adding the buttons and brads. I also used the packaging piece from the buttons as a decorative element...

and as a place to ground my title on the layout.

I used double sided foam tape to pop up the small letter stickers.

Here you can see how I adhered the twine to the backside of the layout. I also like to use Provo Crafts Terrifically Tacky Tape to hold the thread from my buttons. Tying knots works well too, but they leave little bumps on the back that I don't always like.

Here is the finished layout once again...

and some detail shots...

Supplies:

Patterned Paper: My Mind's Eye

Corrugated Letters: Jillibean Soup

Letter Stickers: Bo Bunny

Brads and Buttons: My Mind's Eye

Jewels: Bo Bunny

Kraft Cardstock: Jillibean Soup

Twine: unknown

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And now for the giveaway I mentioned...
How about a Cricut Happy Hauntings Cartridge?!

If you would like the chance to win this cartridge, just leave me a comment below.
I will leave this open until Tuesday November 1 and I will announce the winner next Wednesday during my next The Works post!

As always, thanks for your visit! I love reading your comments and I hope you are inspired to try zigzags or chevrons on your next layout.

HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

The Works on Wednesday

2011-10-19T08:00:00.073-05:00

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately and I realized that I wanted to share more. I want to share more on my blog with everyone who loves paper as much as I do. So I came up with the idea of doing a post (hopefully once a week) on Wednesday's where I would share "The Works" with you. Just like Papa Johns'...everything is included!!! This will include a project and all the details I can think of to share with you on how I created it. I hope it will be inspiring for those of you who visit me and I hope to get some of you to play along and share how it inspires you.

Soooo....since it is WEDNESDAY, I am going to share my very first

THE WORKS on WEDNESDAY

post with you today!

INSPIRATION: rainbows and circles

WHY: I liked the concept of incorporating multiple colors in a rainbow like pattern and I also wanted to use circles some how...I have been seeing a lot of circles on projects lately. They were eye pleasing to me, so I wanted to give it a try.

I started by selecting a "rainbow" of colors from my patterned paper scraps. I then punched out a bunch of circles from each color using my circle punches.

I played around with their placement and this is what I came up with. I also love that sewn on look, so then they got stitched down to the background paper as well.

Now...what do you do with all those loose threads on the backside? Here is my solution...Glue strips of extra paper to the backside of your layout to "hold" them down.

Next came the photos...Look, it's a rainbow cake! How perfect for my rainbow inspiration!
I matted them with white cardstock to help them stand out more against the busy background.

The title was easy..."Rainbow Cake". I mixed up the fonts for the title. I like this look, but I can NOT do words with mixed up fonts. One word...all the same letters. I am not a random letter kind of gal! LOL!!!
Then I had fun cutting out some clouds from some Jillibean Soup patterned paper - Corn Kernels/Blossom Soup. You can not have a rainbow without clouds and the sun. That is were the yellow butterflies come into play. They are the sunshine that the rainbow needs!

Supplies:
Patterned Paper, Letter Stickers and Corrugated Letters by Jillibean Soup

Punches by Martha Stewart

Back to the finished layout. No, there is not a lot of embellishing going on. It almost seems plain compared to some of the layouts in the galleries these days, but this is more my style. Don't get me wrong, I love all the layering and texture and flowers, but I struggle doing this. So I return to my simple side, and have fun adding little techniques and textures that make me happy.

So, what do you think? Is this something you are interested in seeing each week? Would you like to play along? If so, let me know! I would love to hear what you think and see what you create!

HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

Spooky Halloween

2011-10-17T08:00:00.025-05:00

Today I have a Halloween home decor project to share with you. I love Halloween! I love home decor! So of course this was a perfect combination for me to have fun with! As I began to decide what to make, I knew I wanted it to be more on the cute side of Halloween as compared to scary or spooky.

I used two of my favorite Cricut Halloween themed cartridges including October 31st and Happy Hauntings to create this project. This project is also being featured on the Cricut Blog today too.

I also used Mother's Day Bouquet to create the black roses! I love making my own flowers, and Cricut has 2 great cartridges that will help you create them too. The other one is called Flower Shoppe. Both of them are perfect for creating gorgeous flowers with dimension! If you are interested in more information on how I created this project you can head over to the Cricut Blog to check out all the details.

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Since I have a bit of a Halloween theme going on today, I also thought I would share another Halloween decor piece I made with you. I created this last year as one of my first Cricut Circle Blog projects. I will admit, that this was one of those projects that did NOT end up looking like what I had in mind when I started it. It was going to be a Halloween wreath (you know one of those 18" foam wreaths you can get at a craft store) and then one thing led to another and this is what I ended up with...a haunted house complete with it's own boo crew! You can see that the wreath was included, but this was no longer something that was going to hang on a door! LOL!!!

I even had fun naming the little spooks!

I introduce you to Wanda the Witch,

Vampire Val,

Scooter Skeleton,

and Frankie Frankenstein!

Aren’t they the cutest little boo crew ever?!

Those are strips of ribbon and patterned paper wrapped around the crepe paper covered foam wreath.

The house and the tree were first cut from chipboard and then from patterned paper. I adhered the paper shape to the chipboard shape to make them more sturdy for the diorama.

Haunted House
Cricut Supplies: Cricut Express Machine, Mini Monsters Cartridge, All Occasions Cake Art Cartridge
Paper: Echo Park Happy Halloween Collection, Bazzill and Bo Bunny
Other: Glitter Glue by Ranger, Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels, Gems by DoodleBug and Kaiser Craft, Black Glitter, Googlie Eyes, Cardboard or Foam: 18 x 10″, Wooden Kitchen Skewers

Well, I hope you enjoyed my Halloween home decor share with you today! Have you created anything for Halloween yet? If so, I would love to see it!!!

HAPPY HUGS!

Juliana

Friendship

2011-10-11T08:39:00.008-05:00

I hope your week has started off well, but if not, at least tomorrow is hump day and we will be half way through the week! We are getting some rain here today and it is making it feel to much like a dreary fall day for me. But we do need the rain, so I guess I can deal with it! Now on to something that will hopefully help brighten your day...a card I created using the Bo Bunny Garden Girl Collection and a sketch.

I created the sketch for the other Bo Bunny designers and you to play along with and if you link your card up on the Bo Bunny blog HERE, you could be the lucky winner of a fun Bo Bunny prize package! So get your craft on and share what you got!!!

I love sketches, as you know, and I pretty much stuck with the sketch for my card. I always love to see how a sketch inspires other people. A few fun tips from my card are that I hand cut the butterfly and flower from the Garden Girl. And to make them a bit more sturdy, I actually cut 2 of each image and then glued them together before I adhered them to the card with some double sided foam tape. I also added a bit of Stickles and Bo Bunny Jewels to dress them up.

The ribbon was made by Kristen Swain and I absolutely love working with it! It is all hand dyed and she has tons of gorgeous colors in her Etsy shop. When I attached it to my card, I used my craft knife to cut a slit in the cardstock sticker (which is a tag/label image) and then I just slid the ribbon through it and tied it around the front of the card.

Bo Bunny Supplies:

Patterned Paper: Garden Girl/Garden Girl

6x6 Paper Pad: Garden Girl

Jewels: Garden Girl

Stickers: Friendship Cardstock Stickers

Other Supplies:

Stickles

Hand-dyed Seam Binding: Scrapin Kris

Punch: Martha Stewart

Ink: Ranger Distress Ink

That's all for now folks! I can't wait to see what you all create with the sketch!
HUGS!
Juliana

Exciting news!!!

2011-10-03T22:10:00.000-05:00

I was just asked to be a sketch designer for Creative Scrappers!!! I have been wanting to spread my wings a bit...try something different and I think that this is just what the doctor ordered! I have always loved sketches! I almost always draw a sketch for every layout that I create. I just find them helpful in figuring out where I want things to go. So getting to create them and then share them with others is so exciting!!! I am really looking forward to inspiring the Creative Scrappers designers and followers and I can't wait to see how my sketches are interpreted by everyone. My sketches will start appearing on the CS blog in November, so make sure you stop by and check them out! They post a new sketch each week and they always have wonderful giveaways! Doing the happy dance!!!

In other news, for all you Bo Bunny lovers out there, make sure you stop by the Bo Bunny blog today and the next few days! You are sure to get an eye full of their latest mid-season releases! And as always, Bo Bunny does not disappoint!!! I would love to hear which one is your favorite. I know which one I am loving!!!

Thanks for stopping by!
HAPPY DANCE HUGS!!!
Juliana

Fall...

2011-10-03T08:00:00.016-05:00

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. ~Albert Camus

I just love fall! Don't you? The warm sunshine is still with us, but the air is becoming a bit cooler. And hopefully the leaves are changing colors to share with us their the other side of green. I am afraid however that this year our fall is going to be less than spectacular due to the lack of rain we have had this summer. Thank goodness for the world of online images...I can get at least a little dose of fall color to help satisfy my desire. I love the colors of fall...orange, green, yellow, brown and red. Warm, rich, inviting!

Speaking of fall, I have a fall project to share with you today. This was recently posted over on the Bo Bunny blog as an altered project. I love altered projects! I personally prefer to refer to it as crafting with paper! I love to make crafty projects and then when I get to add some paper to it, it really makes me happy. Now I know I used some traditional fall colors on here, but it needed a little pop of something and that gorgeous teal was the perfect accent color. It really makes things pop doesn't it?!

I found the tin at a local discount store (Big Lots) and knew it needed a little re-do!

Some of you with keen eyes or mad blog hopping skills, may recognize this from somewhere else! I posted a similar wreath on the Cricut Circle Blog recently using papers printed from various Imagine cartridges. I just used my Gypsy file to re-create a similar wreath using the new Bo Bunny Forever Fall collection. I love them both and now I have one to give as a gift!!!

So, if you didn't see it the first time or would like to create your own fall wreath, head on over to the Cricut Circle Blog where you can download my Gypsy cut file. Just a reminder though, you must be a Circle member to access the Blog.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

Whoo?

2011-09-29T08:52:00.009-05:00

Whoo is having a good Thursday? I am trying, but I am home sick with some sort of bug. Sore throat, stuffy head and nose and a nice wonderful low grade temp. Sure makes a woman feel good I tell ya! As I was laying here I thought I might write up a little blog post. Share a little scrappiness and then go back to resting.

The layout I have to share is one of my latest Bo Bunny creations. I used their new Garden Girl collection. I love the colors in it! This is my niece celebrating her 5th birthday last year. We just celebrated her 6th birthday this past weekend and I helped her mother put together her first "girlfriend" party! Stay tuned on the Cricut Circle blog in the near future for the details! And just to tease you, let's just say there was lot's of tulle and pink!!!

I created these gorgeous flowers using one of my favorite Cricut cartridges...Mother's Day Bouquet. Yes, they do add a little bit of bulk, but I was going for pretty here! Not practical! LOL!!!

See that pretty little ribbon there? My dear friend Kristen Swain sells these at her Etsy store. I had wanted to try my hand at making them, but just never got around to it. And why not let someone else make mess and clean it up for you?! LOL!!! I am loving these ribbons! They are so soft and easy to work with!

I also want to use the Garden Girl papers with one of the new Cricut cartridges...Art Nouveau. Don't you think this a perfect match?!

Well that's all folks! Garden Girl, flowers, ribbon and Art Nouveau. Now that liquids and rest are calling my name. Have a wonderful ending to your week!

HUGS!
Juliana
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Sugar and Spice

2011-09-19T07:00:00.003-05:00

What are little girls made of?
Sugar and spice and everything nice.

That's what little girls are made of!

At least that's how the nursery rhyme goes. Sometimes I wonder how true that is with my niece, but most of the time she really is as sweet as can be! LOL!!! Over on the Bo Bunny blog today I shared this layout using their new collection Sweet Tooth! This photo of my niece was perfect for one of the stickers included on the 12 x 12 Combo Sticker. I also altered the Sweet Tooth Die Cut by cutting out the middle image with my X-acto knife. I then backed it with some of their Double Dot Cardstock in Passion Fruit Flourish. I colored the stamen on the large cream flower using a Stampin' Up! marker and gave the other flowers pearl and jeweled centers. I also embossed the chipboard title letters using my Cuttlebug. The Swiss Dots embossing folder is such a great go-to tool for me. Do you have any favorite go-to tools that you like to use?

As for the move this weekend, the packing on our end of things is complete. The movers are here today to put all of our stuff in the van and move it to our new home town. Even though we have been living there for nearly 10 months, it feels like I am moving and leaving all over again. Change is hard, but this change has been good. There is no doubt in my mind about that. I just wish my Mom and Dad lived closer to us because I really do miss them! I know that this has been the biggest part of the sadness about moving for me...I really do miss them!

HUGS!
Juliana

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Week of Celebrations!

2011-09-16T08:00:00.002-05:00

The past week has been full of good times but also a few days of stress. But let's focus on the positive, because all is good!!! I had a little bit of a health scare, but all of the tests were performed quickly and the results so far are all positive and with no need for worries! So much to be thankful for indeed! So now back to the other good things...Danny celebrated his birthday last week and we have a wonderful friend who helped me surprise Danny with a birthday dinner complete with good food and friends. He was so excited to have his favorite things to eat and his favorite two desserts at one time...lemon cake and cherry pie!!!

Here is the card I made him using some of my favorite Jillibean Soup papers. I admit to not using the 6x6 paper pads much, but I pulled them out for this card and I can see how perfect they are for card making. It is just such a switch for me since I usually use scraps left over from my scrapbook pages to make my cards.

We also celebrated our 6th anniversary this past Saturday by going to Chicago for a long weekend. We took the train and enjoyed a peaceful ride to the big city without the hassle of driving and worrying about parking. It was my first train ride, so of course I had to have a photo of that!

While we were there we also took in the Art Institute. It was wonderful to see some famous works of art that I had only seen in my art history books while in college. All in all it was a wonderful weekend and we hope to return soon to enjoy more of the city!

We love to take "self portraits" and we do this on every trip we take!

Here are a few that we took during our weekend!

This one was taken in the reflection of the "bean" at Millennium Park as Julie referred to it. It is a really cool sculpture that reflects the city and is really fun to look at.

Of course, we had to eat while were were there and did we eat! Thanks to recommendations from a friend of ours, we ate at Pizano's, Nacional 27, Gage and Havana. They were all totally yummy and I would highly recommend all of them. We did loads of walking, but also lots of shopping too!

I enjoyed going into some shops that I don't have access to were I live. I just wish I had enough money to buy all the fabulous lovelies that I saw! LOL!!!

And this is the anniversary card I made Danny. Yummy fun play with Authentique. I am in love with the resin flower fad right now too! This one is by Prima, but I am contemplating getting some molds to try my hand at making my own. Have any of you tried this yet? I am just curious if they are really as easy as they sound.

Well, that's all folks! Long post today, but I had a bit to share too! This weekend we head to Cape to pack up our home. We finally sold our house after nearly 10 months of it being on the market. We are very thankful for selling it and we are so excited to start seriously looking for a new (larger than a 2 bedroom apartment) home to call our own!

I hope you have a fantabulous weekend!
HUGS!
Juliana

Crazy in a good way!

2011-09-07T14:28:00.000-05:00

OK...so sometimes life gets a little crazy! But in a good way!
We may have finally sold our home. It is supposed to close at the end of this month! Yay!!!
Now we can finally start looking a bit more seriously for our own home. Apartment living is just not for us. We are beginning to feel a bit cramped and it would be nice to have a place for all of our stuff so that it doesn't have to be put into storage. We are keeping our fingers crossed that things work out...at least for sure about selling our home. Any good thoughts are greatly appreciated!

As for scrapping, I have been doing a lot of it. Some for assignments and some just for fun. I am really excited to have had the opportunity recently to work with products from Grafix. They make all kinds of fun products including shrink film, metallic foil board, rub on transfer film and all kinds of plastic films. ALL of their products work really well with the Cricut and the Cuttlebug. I personally really enjoyed playing with their metallic foil board and shrink film. Shrink film by the way, is highly addictive!!! I would love to show you some of my projects, but they are going to be using them for things and so I can't share them right now any way. But hopefully soon.

For now I have a Bo Bunny layout to share with you. Carin McDonough (a fellow BB DT member) created an awesome sketch for us (and you) to play along with. If you are interested in playing along stop by the Bo Bunny blog HERE for all the details. If you do create a layout inspired by the sketch, make sure you link it up for a chance to win a Bo Bunny prize package. While you are there, you can also see how the sketch inspired some of the other designers.

So, anyway, here is what I created. I pretty much followed the sketch as it was. I loved the design and I had recently seen a similar layered scallop border on a layout somewhere that I had been wanting to try, so it all just went into place for me.

I used a bunch of trinkets and brads from various Bo Bunny collections. I love the texture they give to the layout without adding a lot of bulk.

I have also had a chance to play with Garden Girl, Sweet Tooth and Fabulous Fall! You can be on the look out for some projects this month from me using them.

In other scrappy news, I also just got some of the new Jillibean Soup papers, stickers and corrugated alphas and I CAN NOT wait to play with them! They are just sitting there calling my name and the lack of time to play with them is driving me crazy!

Hope you all are having a great week!
Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate your comments and your visits!
HUGS!
Juliana

Recent Cricut Fun!

2011-08-23T07:00:00.003-05:00

I have become such a bad blogger lately. Maybe I will just call it "taking a break" during the summer. Well now that school is back in session, summer is technically over and therefore the excuses are over. Right?! Since school is back in session, the Cricut Blog has been focusing on school themed projects all during the month of August. I had an assignment that went up last week to use office or school supplies on a layout. It was a fun challenge for me and I really enjoyed playing with something that was not just made for scrapbooking. The photos I scrapped are of my niece (who started Kindergarten yesterday and LOVED it!!!) playing with my scrapbook supplies to create her own little works of art! She always has a blast doing this, and I really wish I lived closer sometimes so that I could have her over more often to do this.

The office/school supplies that I used on my layout included: manilla tags, index cards, tabs from hanging file folders, Dymo label maker, and staples. I used one of the index cards as my journaling box.

If you are interested in my school related projects and ideas, make sure you stop by the Cricut Blog and check out the past posts and the upcoming posts for August.
Thanks for stopping by as always! And by the way...how much is enough or not enough when it comes to blogging? Any thoughts?
HUGS!
J

The winner is...

2011-08-08T18:23:00.000-05:00

AMY!!!

Congratulations AMY! You are the winner of my Bo Bunny giveaway! You will be getting a little something from Bo Bunny and from me for stopping by both of our blogs on my "Get to know" day!
Thanks so much to all of you that stopped by!

Bo Bunny Mini Album + A Giveaway

2011-08-03T07:00:00.003-05:00

During the month of August the Bo Bunny blog is featuring a different member of the design team each day of the week. Today happens to be my day to share a bit about myself. So make sure you stop by there to learn a bit more about me and to see some of my other Bo Bunny projects. If you are popping by here after being over there I want to thank you for stopping by!

I created a special project just to share on my blog using some of my most recent Bo Bunny favorites. I have had the Timepiece mini album for a while now just knowing that at some point I was going to have to find something to use it for because it is so awesome! I also had quite a few of my blog followers challenge me recently to do a mini album. I realized too, that I haven't done one for about a year now, so it is definitely well over do.

Like I said, I used the Timepiece mini album however I altered it a bit because I wanted to use the Gabrielle papers and embellishments with it. For some of the album pages, I actually covered the page with a piece or in some cases pieces of Gabrielle paper to help it "match" my photos and theme.

Now is the Time

On this page, I added a little shimmer with a spray mist!

I just love this quote by C.S. Lewis!

I added a bit of personal hand written journaling to offset the printed quotes that I used in the rest of the album. One of the cut out images was perfect for my journaling.

I incorporated a few of my favorite motivational quotes to inspire me.

I used the pocket watch piece to frame a photo of me.

I added the roman numerals to the edge and I actually misted them as well.

Mini Album: Mini Edgy Album Pocket watch/Timepiece

Patterned Paper: Gabrielle, Cameo, Dot, Flight, Fairest, Promenade, Romance, Stripe, Unwritten, and Cutouts /Gabrielle

6 x 6 Paper Pad: Gabrielle

Chipboard: Gabrielle and Timepiece 12" Chipboard

Jewels: Various Bo Bunny

Stickers: Gabrielle Combo Stickers and Gabrielle

So if you are still with me, make sure you leave a comment here on my blog and on the post about me on the Bo Bunny blog for your chance to win a fabulous prize package from Bo Bunny and a little something from me! You have until the end of today (11:59PM CST) to leave your comments. I will then pick one person at random to win!!! You must leave a comment on both blogs to qualify!

Happy Hugs!

Juliana

Art Celebration

2011-07-29T07:00:00.002-05:00

Happy Friday! If you happen to be a Cricut Fan then you know yesterday was Hello Thursday and you know what that means!!! If you are not, here is the low down...Once a month Provo Craft releases all the new cartridges for that month and shares them with the world on this special day. For those of you who are members of the Cricut Circle, you got to see your peaks on Wednesday! The projects I am sharing with you today are also up on the Official Cricut Blog. Make sure you stop by there for more details and to check out all the new cartridges and projects that were created by the Cricut Circle Design Team. You will also want to leave a comment over there as well by Midnight, Saturday, July 30th, 2011. On Sunday they will randomly select a WINNER from the comments to win $100 of Cricut.com Credit! How awesome is that?!

For this project I used the new cartridge called Art Nouveau! It is so unique and different from the other Cricut cartridges! It has a wonderfully grown-up, elegant feel to it. Taking that into consideration, I decided to try and stretch it's use and used it on a layout of my niece who is only 3 in this photo. I think the images are just gorgeous and call for a bit of glitter and glam. I ran out of time, but I am still planning on creating a card with one of the beautiful female images on this cartridge!

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My next project was created using the Something to Celebrate cartridge! It is full of great images for just about anything you want to celebrate. It also contains images to help you celebrate that special something including a super cute candle font, boxes/treat containers, cards, and banner shapes! I again chose to show its versatility and created a layout of my niece on her 5th birthday!

Thanks again for stopping by and I hope you all have a fabulous weekend!
Happy Hugs!
Juliana

Bo Bunny Challenges

2011-07-22T08:00:00.006-05:00

This week the Bo Bunny blog schedule was move around a bit so that we could feature the new releases last week. That left us with sharing both a card and layout challenge in the same week. Here is the card I created for the Card Challenge which was to create your own paper embellishment. I choose to create a butterfly and used my Cricut to cut out the butterfly image several times from the patterned paper. I then layered it and on the final layer added some glitter and jewels for a bit of sparkle and shine!

Thinking of You
Bo Bunny Supplies:
Patterned Paper: Promenade, Dot/Gabrielle
6" Paper Pad:Gabrielle
Stickers: True Friend Cardstock Stickers/Gabrielle
Jewels: Gabrielle
Wrap: Gabrielle

The Layout Challenge is to create a layout about you or your families favorite food. I created a layout about Danny's favorite food cherry pie and then included my Mom's recipe on a pull out card to include on the layout.

American Pie

Bo Bunny Supplies:
Patterned Paper: Fireworks, Freedom, Stripe and United/Liberty
Brads: Liberty
Stickers: Liberty Dimensional Stickers, Family Ties Cardstock Stickers, Liberty Combo Stickers
Noteworthy: Liberty

If you want to play along with either or both of the weeks challenges, all you have to do is create a project and then link it using the InLinkz link at the bottom of the post on the Bo Bunny blog. By entering, you will have the chance to win a fantastic Bo Bunny prize package!

Lastly, I have a layout I created toward the beginning of the month for a photo swap we did between some of the Bo Bunny designers. We all signed up and emailed our photo/photos to the gal in charge. She then sent the photos to another gal to scrapbook, so it was a fun surprise to see who got your photos and then how they scrapped them! I got to work with a gorgeous photo of Romy and created this layout with her in mind. She just recently finished school and this photo really seemed to capture the happiness she has about doing so and what the future holds for her.

This is Your Journey
Bo Bunny Supplies:
Patterned Paper: Zoology, Stripe, Wild Thing, Safari Die Cut/Zoology; Crossword/Learning Curve
Stickers: Zoology Combo Sticker; Wild Adventure Cardstock Sticker
Chipboard: 12" Zoology Chipboard
Noteworthy: Zoology
Brads: Zoology
Jewels: Zoology
Trim: White Rose Trim; Olive Zipper Trim

Thanks for much for stopping by today to check out my latest Bo Bunny projects!

Happy Hugs!

Juliana

Jillibeans and Watermelon!

2011-07-21T08:00:00.002-05:00

Before we jump into things, I want to give a BIG HUG to Kristine Davidson! She just re-designed my blog for me and I LOVE IT!!!! Thank you so much for your patience and talent! So, what do you think? I am in love the TURTLES she found for me (they are by designer Erin Bradley). I just love them!!!

Ok, so now onto the regularly scheduled program...
Or not so regular when you look at my recent posting schedule! LOL!

So about the Jillibean Soup...someone I know who is super sweet and totally awesome recently hooked me up with Jillibean Soup's new mid season release called Watermelon Gazapcho! As soon as I got it, all I wanted to do was hoard it. I wanted to look at it and touch, but not use it. It was just too gorgeous! AND...there is something just a little bit new and different about the papers...they are ever so slightly distressed and I am LOVING it!!! Anyway, I finally broke down and played with them awhile back. Now, I finally getting around to sharing some of it out here in scrappy land. These papers were perfect to scrap some photos from my trip to Kentucky Lake last summer! So here goes...
I used a sketch from Creative Scrappers to inspire my layout design and had fun playing with some of the Soup die cuts as I layered them on the page.

The Best Time

Paper, Die Cuts, Stickers, Corrugated Shaper, Letter Stickers: Jillibean Soup

Sketch: Creative Scrappers #159

With this layout, I totally had fun playing around a bit. Heck, I even busted out some acrylic paint and used it! I so rarely do that, so it was definitely fun to step out and play a bit with this one.

My Fave Thing

Paper, Stickers, Die Cut, Letter Stickers: Jillibean Soup

Pearls: Kaiser Craft

Die Cut Machine: Cricut

By the way....have you taken a look at the new collections they just released for CHA?! OMG! I really do want them all!!!
Thanks again for your visit!

Happy Hugs!
Juliana

Let the fun begin...

2011-07-06T17:52:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to make sure that you know that Bo Bunny started it's reveal of their new CHA Summer 2011 releases today! Yesterday you got a peak of the names of the new collections and today they began the full reveal along with their awesome giveaways! Make sure you stop by the Bo Bunny blog and leave some love for your chance to win!

They are all making me quite happy! Do you have a fave yet???
Happy Hugs!
Juliana

With Liberty and Justice for all!

2011-06-30T08:00:00.000-05:00

There is something about the red, white and blue that always helps to remind me about how fortunate I am to live in this country. Speaking of the red, white and blue, have you seen Bo Bunny's new Liberty collection? It is patriotic through and through! I know this collection might not be for everyone, but it certainly inspired me! Playing along with creating a 4th of July card and I got a bit carried away. Instead of creating one card I created 4! 4 for the 4th!!!

For this one I used the Cricut Elegant Edges Cartridge to create my stamp shaped card. I used my Gypsy to weld the two stamp shapes together.

Here I used two of the new Bo Bunny Noteworthy die cut shapes (the star and the label shape) to embellish my card.

For this one I had fun embossing the plastic packaging that Cricut cartridges come in using the Stars embossing Folder. I then stitched the plastic piece to my card with my sewing machine.

Here you can see it a little better...

For this one I used a strip of denim from the Learning Curve wraps and then layered some Double Dot ribbon in red and a brad on top.

I was also going through some photos recently and found this photo from the 4th of July last year. I took it at a local park that was celebrating the 4th. They had flags lining this entire section of the park, which is a memorial to veterans.

Seeing all of these flags inspired me to create a version of our flag as a home decor piece. I used pre-cut wooden shapes purchased at my local craft store as the foundation for the flag. The top piece is 6 x 12" and the strips are 1 x 18". I trimmed the strips to 1 x 16" and then adhered them to the backside of the larger piece to create my stripes!

I created a fun medallion for the center using a star I cut from the patterned paper, an accordion folded flower and chipboard circle and brad for the center.

Supplies:
Patterned Paper: Bo Bunny Liberty
Brads, Stickers, Chipboard Stickers: Bo Bunny Liberty
Double Dot Ribbon in Red
Denim Wrap: Bo Bunny Learning Curve
Embossing Folder and Elegant Edges Cartridge: Cricut

I hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July weekend and of course celebrate it safely with your family and friends! I know we will, because we are going to be spending it at the lake with my Dad!
Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Hugs!
Juliana

Hello Thursday

2011-06-23T20:11:00.001-05:00

If you are a Cricut Fan then you know that Thursday is an awesome day! Once a month Provo Craft releases all the new cartridges for the month and shares them with the world on this special day. A little side note, this announcement is made on Wednesdays for those who are members of the Cricut Circle! This month has been especially awesome, because Provo Craft has had THREE Hello Thursdays. Normally, they only have ONE! For this week's release, I was lucky enough to get to work with a new cartridge called Flower Shoppe! I knew I would be in love with this one as soon as I saw it! It is all about 3D flowers! And if anyone knows me, then you know that I LOVE flowers!!! The project that I am sharing with you today is also up on the Official Cricut Blog. Make sure you stop by there for more details and to check out the all the new cartridges and projects that were created.

As you can see, I created a treat container that can be used for a birthday gift along with a birthday card!

Here is an up close view of the flower I created using the Flower Shoppe Cartridge.

I created two of them, one for the card and one for the treat container.

I was also fortunate enough to get to play with a new cartridge called Word Collage and it seems to be causing quite the buzz. I really enjoyed it and found it a lot of fun to work with. I have noticed that some people are concerned about cutting the small letters and words. There is no need to worry about this. If you cut your image at the recommended size they come out wonderfully. Each image has a recommended size with most of the sizes being so that you can easily frame your project with a standard size frame. Anyway, I just wanted to share those tips with you in case you see it and were wondering about that too.

Thanks so very much for stopping by!
HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

Just You and Me = Happy Together

2011-06-16T08:13:00.003-05:00

Just posting up a layout today reminding myself about the really good things in life and how sometimes it's so easy to forget how good things really are...

I hand cut the flowers from the Ad LibWild Thing patterned paper and layered them with Scotch double sided foam tape to give them more dimension. The leaves are hand drawn with a black pen, cut out and adhered to the flowers.

Chase Your Dreams

Supplies: Bo Bunny Ad Lib Collection - Papers, 12 x 12 Chipboard, Jewels, Combo Stickers, Stickers

Die Cut Machine: Cricut - Give A Hoot Cartridge - used to create the scalloped border

Thanks for stopping by today and remember to take a moment and be thankful for all the good things in your life!
Happy Hugs!

Family and Fathers

2011-06-09T08:39:00.002-05:00

Today I have an altered project to share with you that I made for my Dad for Father's Day. I found this coat rack at a local craft store and then covered each letter using papers from the Bo Bunny Timepiece collection.

I used a transparency to trace the shape of the letter. I then cut out my pattern and traced the shape onto the patterned paper. Next, I cut out the paper and then adhered it the the corresponding letter. I finished off the project by adding a few Timepiece Trinkets and Buttons to match the doorknob.

I thought this line of papers went perfectly with the doorknob that was already part of the coat rack when I bought it.
I also made a matching card using the same collection. I also incorporated some of the brads and wraps to create the swag across the front of the card. I used the Cricut Elegant Edges Cartridge to create the large stamp shape.

If you are looking for more Father's Day inspiration, stop by the Bo Bunny blog today to see more projects created by the design team. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a great ending to your week and an even more fabulous weekend!

Bo Bunny - Hidden Journaling

2011-06-07T08:35:00.001-05:00

Today's I have a recent Bo Bunny layout I created to share with you. I used a combination of Blast Off, Timepiece and Learning Curve. In an attempt to distress the bright Blast Off paper I did some stamping, inking and paint splattering. Most of of the paint splatter got covered up though...oh well! I also incorporated a hidden journaling block. Can you find it?

I hid it behind the photo using a page from the Learning Curve Noteworthy.

Now I know, I too always wonder how are you going to read this when it's in the album. But at least there is some journaling. I have to admit, I sometimes create a layout and then have to try to squeeze my journaling in some where. That is not the best way to go, because then I usually run out of room to write everything I want to share! LOL!!! This was one of those layouts where I "forgot" the journaling until later, but the addition of the hidden journaling fixed my problem here and gave me a place to do plenty of writing.

I also had fun playing with some fun Bo Bunny embellishments. I mixed them up a bit between using Stickers and Chipboard from Learning Curve and Chipboard and Buttons from Blast Off.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all have a great day and are trying to stay cool. It is supposed to feel like 100 degrees here today! Yep, summer is finally here!

Bo Bunny Blog Hop Winner!!!

2011-05-26T08:36:00.001-05:00

Congratulations Karen L!!!!

You are the winner of my Bo Bunny giveaway!!!

Karen Lsaid...

OKay, I was sure I left a comment hours ago but I don't see it...so here I go again. I got rather distracted trying to figure out the 17 Turtles part of your blog name (I love turtles), LOL! Anyway, your layout is just incredible. I love the clean lines with all the open space and all the layering of those awesome Time Piece embellishments. I would love to see even more layouts from you, especially masculine ones, or maybe a mini album.

May 19, 2011 1:25 AM

Thanks to all of you who stopped by during the hop! I loved reading all of your comments and I got a lot of great ideas for upcoming projects. Layouts, mini albums and altered projects were the most requested. However, I have think I am going to focus on doing a mini album soon as I haven't done one in awhile AND they are a challenge for me. So look for that project coming soon!

Happy Hugs!
Juliana

And the Cricut Blog winner is...

2011-05-23T07:00:00.028-05:00

Christine Zook!!!

Congratulations Christine!!!

HAPPY HUGS!

Juliana

Bo Bunny Blog Hop + A Giveaway

2011-05-18T08:00:00.102-05:00

Hi Bo Bunny Blog Hoppers! I hope you are enjoying our second May blog hop! The hop started on the Bo Bunny Blog, so if you didn't start there, make sure you get back there and leave a comment. Leaving a comment there and on each of the design team members blogs will give you 2 chances for winning a prize package from Bo Bunny! And just in case you need it, here is a list with links to all of the designers blog! Each designer will have a link to the next designers blog too, so keep hopping and commenting until you reach the end!

Today's designers include:
Tomoko
Debbie
Juliana (that is me and where you are right now!!!)
And next you want to go to:Romy
Carin
Samantha
Tara

All of us have a Bo Bunny project we created especially for this hop and I am sure you will find something to inspire you as you hop along! Here is my project, a layout about Danny and how his dream of having a horse someday has finally come true. He finds such joy and peace working with and being around his buddy, that I knew I had to record this for him!

Supplies:

Blast Off Galaxy and Timepiece Stripe and Tic Toc Patterned Paper

Timepiece Brads

Timepiece Trinkets

Timepiece Wraps

Timepiece 12 x 12 Cardstock Stickers

Timepiece 12 x 12 Chipboard

Now, for those of you who have stopped by recently, you might remember me mentioning that you should stop by again soon. Well today is the day! Besides the chance to win a prize from Bo Bunny, you will also have a chance to win something from me! A fabulous Cambridge prize package, including patterned papers, a Mini Edgy Album with the coordinating paper pad, rub ons, stickers and Noteworthy journaling pages!

So leave me a comment and let me know what kind of project you would like for me to create in the upcoming month's using Bo Bunny products. It can be a layout, card, altered item, etc. My giveaway is open until next Wednesday, May 25. A winner will be randomly selected from all of those who answer my question and I will announce the winner on Thursday, May 26.

Now give me a challenge and Happy Hopping!
Juliana

The New Official Cricut Blog and your chance to WIN!!!

2011-05-17T21:58:00.030-05:00

Hey there Cricut Fans! I have some very exciting news for you!

Provo Craft is launching a brand new blog...

The Official Cricut Blog

Happy Mother's Day + Blog Giveaway Winner

2011-05-08T19:22:00.001-05:00

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom, my MIL, my Sister and to all the wonderful Mother's who make this world a little more special and fill it with love and joy!

And now I would like to announce the winner of my giveaway and the is:

Catherinesaid...: Fantastic giveaway - my most favorite thing this time of year is prepping my garden for planting and enjoying the blossoms of my spring bulbs that are now flowering.; May 4, 2011 5:18 PM

Congratulations Catherine!!! Please let me know how to get a hold of you so I can send your prize to you! And thanks so much to all of you who played along! I really enjoyed reading all of your comments telling me about what you enjoy most about this time of year!

I can tell you that if you didn't win this time, stay tuned because in about 2 weeks I will be having another giveaway during a fabulously fun blog hop! WINK! WINK!!!

HAPPY HUGS!

Juliana

Giveaway Wednesday!

2011-05-04T13:43:00.000-05:00

As promised, here is the giveaway you have been waiting for. I hope it was worth the wait! LOL!!! All you have to do is leave me a comment about what your favorite thing to do this time of year! For me it is getting outdoors and planting flowers or going for walks.

DETAILS: The winner will be selected randomly from all entries. I will leave this open until this Saturday, May 7th and I will announce the winner on Sunday! Good luck to all who enter. And please feel free to share this with your friends!

I have two images to share. The first here is a huge amount of goodies from the Melody Ross collection called Homespun Chic. I have included one of each sheet of paper and a ton of embellishments from fabric tabs, to borders, and glitter transparencies.

Second I am including one of each sheet of paper from Melody Ross's latest collection for GCD Studios called Soulfood. You can check out all the goodies that go with it on their website.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope to have some projects to post and share with you soon!

Happy Hugs!
Juliana

Cricut and Bo Bunny News...

2011-05-03T19:05:00.003-05:00

I have two super awesome things to share with you today.

First up, the Cricut Circle has a fabulous challenge going on this month in honor of National Scrapbooking Day which is May 7th. They are giving away a brand NEW Cricut Expression 2: 5th Anniversary Edition to FIVE lucky winners! Yep, you read this correctly! FIVE WINNERS! So, make sure you stop by the Circle blog today to find out all the details. And while you are there, you can also check out the project I created to help inspire you for this month's challenge. I hope you enjoy it!

For those of you who want to know more about the Expression 2, you can read more about it HERE.

Next, I wanted to share with you all little sneak of two of the three new collections being released by Bo Bunny this spring. One more will be released tomorrow. If you want to see more, stop by the Bo Bunny blog and if you are loving what you are seeing, then make sure you leave a comment over there for your chance to win one of the new collections. You can also leave a comment on their Facebook page for a second chance at winning! The winners are going to be announced on Saturday, May 7th, so good luck!

And as for the giveaway I promised ...I know I didn't do one for April or the one I promised to do last week. Can you forgive me? I sure hope so! Time just got away from me and I didn't have time to get a photo of the loot. I know most people want to see what they are going for! I know I do anyway. Well, I am off tomorrow and you will have the promised and long anticipated giveaway to check out by tomorrow. So, PLEASE stop back by and check it out!

Until then....go check out the Circle and Bo Bunny!!!

HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

Patterned Paper Eggs and Handmade Flowers

2011-04-22T07:00:00.001-05:00

Spring is finally here and I am so excited to see the green stuff popping out here and there! I prefer the warmer weather and I am quite pleased that I can now see that it really is on it's way! For our final GCD Studios project we were asked to create something spring or Easter themed so I went for the Easter theme. I was at my local craft store and saw these foam eggs and this wooden basket, the ideas started flying and here is the end result...a little mini Easter egg basket embellished with Chip Art Chipboard and patterned paper eggs and hand made paper flowers.
Melody Ross's new collection Soul Food is fast becoming a favorite of mine! I love the combination of orange, pink, green and brown and the fun text and floral designs. The wooden basket is covered with patterned paper as well.
As I mentioned, I used GCD Studios Chip Art products to decorate the front of my basket. I used the Squiggle stamp set to create the border around the tag piece. I distressed the Happy Easter plaque by painting the chipboard tag with white acrylic paint. Once it was dry, I applied a layer of antiquing gel and wiped off the excess, which leaves some of it behind, giving it a nice distressed feel. And don't you think the yellow glitter gives a bit of life to that cute little chick?!
I created some hand made flowers using die cut flowers and leaves to decorate the eggs.
Supplies:
GCD Studios
Soul Food Soulfield, Lovely Green, Soulful, Funky Soul, Soul Petit, and Brave Soul
Chip Art Chipboard Shapes: Birds and Tags
Chip Art Tools: Mallet, Block
Chip Art Ornamental Stamps: Squiggle
Now that you have seen my little basket, I thought you might want to know how I created the eggs. So I put together a little tutorial for you to follow so that you can create your own patterned paper eggs using your favorite GCD Studios papers.

Supplies:
Patterned Paper
4" Styrofoam Eggs
Hot Glue Gun
Modge Podge

How to make Patterned Paper Eggs:
Cut an 8" x 12" piece of patterned paper into strips of paper that are 1/2" in width.
Then adhere the strips to the egg in an overlapping pattern running the entire length of the egg.
I used a hot glue gun to get this started. Once I had added about 4 strips I began applying some Modge Podge to the sections were the papers were touching/overlapping each other. I found this to be helpful in keeping the paper more flat as you continue adding the layers. This does tend to make things a little messy, so consider yourself warned!
Here you can see that this egg is almost finished. Remember you want to continue to add the paper strips until all of the "white" areas are completely covered. Once you have the entire egg covered with paper, apply a coat of Modge Podge and let this dry. Once dry, apply a coat of Glitter Paint to give the egg a bit of shimmer.
Then feel free to embellish your egg with flowers, buttons, gems, etc.Thank you so much for stopping by today and I hope you have fun creating your own Easter Egg decorations!

HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

Precious Moments on Thursday

2011-04-21T08:00:00.000-05:00

If you are a Cricut fan then you know what today is! It's Hello Thursday! For those of you who are Cricut Circle members you were lucky enough to get a preview of the new cartridges that are being released. I was lucky too and I got to play with one of the new Imagine Cartridges called Vintage Damask. It is an all patterned paper cartridge and if you love damask than this cart is for you. The papers are a gorgeous mix of beautiful damasks combined with a very vintage color palette.

Now if you happened to see my layout on the Circle Blog, this is not the exact same layout. Yes, it is similar, but I ask you to take a second look and you will then see that there are a few differences between the two. I initially made two layouts using the same photo just playing around with a technique that I had been wanting to try and I realized that the scraps from my other layout would be perfect to give this a try. I had already printed several of the patterned papers, so I had a few of them to play around with too. Once I started playing, I thought it might be fun to share my other layout with you and the fun techniques I used when creating it. The scraps I used are the large green scalloped background piece, the small brown half circles and the large damask shape. I used the negative of the large damask as a mask to create the inked image on this layout. I simply positioned it over my background paper and used my magnets and my fingers to hold it in place as I applied the ink using a sponge and Ranger Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

Here you can see a close up of the masking.

The small brown circles are scraps from a smaller scallop frame that I created, but did not end up using on this project. I had them laying on my scrap table and thought they might add a nice touch, so I added them inside the larger scallops.

I hope you all enjoyed Hello Wednesday yesterday and Thursday today! I know I am super excited about some of those new cartridges. How about you? Do you have a favorite?

Coming up on 17Turtles:
Tomorrow, I have a my final GCD Studios project to share with you just in time for Easter! Foam eggs, chipboard and and patterned paper are a wonderfully fun combo of things to play with!!!

And now, who of you my wonderful readers is ready for a giveaway? I told you I would do one in April, and April is slowly slipping away from me. Next week, I will be going through my stuff and putting together some things to give away. I will be posting a giveaway next week, so stay tuned for your chance at winning!

Tomorrow, I have a my final GCD Studios project to share with you just in time for Easter!

HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

Easter Treat Baskets

2011-04-14T08:00:00.003-05:00

Today I have a little Easter project to share with you. I was inspired to create a pair of mini baskets, one for each of my nieces, using their favorite color PINK! You can never go wrong with pink and chocolate right now with them, so I am pretty sure they will love these little baskets. However, I won't be surprised if they want more chocolate than what the baskets are holding! LOL!!! If you are interested in creating your own little baskets, keep scrolling. The supply list, instructions and even my Gypsy file are available below!

Bo Bunny Supplies:
Vicki B Floweret and Loverly Patterned Papers
Double Dot Cardstock in Tutu
Vicki B Combo Sticker
Vicki B Petals
Vicki B Wrap

Other Supplies:
Cricut Cindy Loo Cartridge
(Flower Pot Box on page 75)
Scalloped Decorative Edge Scissors
Distress Ink (Vintage Photo and Peeled Paint)

Instructions:
Cut the basket shape at 5.8" x 11.46" from the Floweret and Tutu cardstock. (I layered the two papers to make the basket more sturdy, but it also gave a nice little edge to the top of the basket.)
Create the handle by cutting a 1" strip of Loverly and then trim the edges with scalloped decorative scissors.
Add the flowered border sticker and then attached the handle between the two basket layers. Embellish the baskets with the Vicki B wraps and flowers.
Create the leaves for the flowers using the green polka dot fabric which is one of the Vicki B Wraps. Cut the fabric into petals shapes and then scrunch the tip and hot glue it behind the flower.
Fill the basket with "grass" and chocolate and you are ready to go!

***DOWNLOAD MY EASTER TREAT BASKETS GYPSY FILE HERE!***

If you are looking for more Easter treat holders ideas, check out the Bo Bunny blog today. I am sure you will be inspired when you see what the rest of the Bo Bunny design team has to share with you!

Lastly, before I go, I wanted to share a little scoop with you regarding a fabulous class you can take. Heidi Swapp & Jessica Sprague are teaching a class entitled Mouse, Paper, Scissors: MOM and they will be using...get this...Bo Bunny's gorgeous Gabrielle collection!!! During the class they will be creating a stunning Mother’s Day Card, a 2-page interactive scrapbook page layout and a mini-book. The class runs from April 18-29. For more details, stop by Jessica Sprague's website. A direct link to the class can be found HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by today! And as always I enjoy your comments and if you ever have any questions, please just ask!

HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

Bo Bunny's Gabrielle

2011-04-05T16:40:00.006-05:00

It seems to me that every time Bo Bunny releases their latest collections, I find a favorite. The problem for me is that my favorite changes every time I use a new collection. One day it might be Ad Lib, the next day Gabrielle. Which is exactly how I was feeling when I created these two recent projects. Totally loving Gabrielle! But, I admit that has already changed since I made these! Can anyone blame me?

This layout is of my niece and my mom playing. I would have loved to have gotten a photo of them head on, but sometimes you lose the moment when they realize their photo is being taken, so I went with what I could get.
I did a bit of cut work on this, cutting out the vertical damask image and then layering it behind the photos and with the chipboard and butterfly pieces. I also added a bit of stamping using Versamark with both clear embossing powder and a sparkly powder. They are both subtle and add a small touch to the background. Stamping is one of those things that I enjoy doing, but never totally feel comfortable adding to my layout. I am always afraid I am going to "mess it up". I really need to get over that and just have fun playing with them.

The next thing I want to share with you is a necklace I created using the new Trinkets. I went to Hobby Lobby and found some jewelry hardware, beads and a chain that were similar and put this together. I have to admit, that this was quite fun and something that I would love to try again soon. I am actually wearing this piece of jewelry and it was rather reasonable to create since all the jewelry stuff was on sale for 50% off when I bought it!

Here is a link to the Butterfly beads I used on this necklace if you are interested: Butterfly Beads

Just a quick one today! Thanks for stopping by!
HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

Jillibean Soup - Owls and Birds

2011-03-24T08:00:00.009-05:00

And cards! Oh my!!! I have 2 of my recent Jillibean Soup projects to share with you today! I had so much fun using the Corrugated Shapes to dress up my cards! First up I have one of the new shapes which is an adorable little owl. I gave him a coat of orange paint and a pair of googlie eyes to help him stand out a bit more!
Here you can see a close up of how I created the "branch" he is perched upon using Jillibean twine and Sugar Picks. Surely with this card you can tell I am ready for spring to arrive! I can not believe that we are still getting snow around here. We got lucky this past weekend, but I fear what tomorrow may bring as the weather man is forecasting snow...
Anyway, I created some eggs from patterned paper and then set the little corrugated birds inside just like little chicks happily hatching out to enjoy the spring weather that has to be arriving soon!Thanks for stopping by today! I love your visits and your comments!

HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

More Jillibean Please! and the Lucky Winner!

2011-03-17T08:00:00.003-05:00

First off I have the LUCKY winner of my LUCK of the IRISH giveaway!
Congratulations goes to Sharla!!!

I loved all the thoughtful reasons given as to why each of you thought you should win, but I especially loved this poem by Mary O!!!
THE LUCK OF THE IRISH
THAT'S WHAT I SEE
GREAT CRAFTING ESSENTIALS
ALL GIVEN FOR FREE
JULIANA, SO KIND AND GRACIOUS TO HOST
THIS PROVO CRAFT GIVEAWAY
ON HER BLOG SHE DID POST.
THE CONTEST IS SIMPLE AND FUN JUST TO TRY
"WE'RE ALL LUCKY WINNERS" THE LEPRECHAUN'S CRY
FOR OUR PASSION IS CRAFTING
WITH SUCH FRIENDS...
WHOM ARE LASTING

Thank you all again for stopping by and saying HI! And stayed tuned for another giveaway next month!

********************************

Now on to the Jillibean....

If you asked for more Jillibean today then you've got it! I love scrapping photos of my adorable nieces and these photos are no exception! Here A is using her sign language to ask for more milk! She is about 18 months here and was fully able to use her words, but she still loved to use her sign language. She loved her milk then and still loves if very much at the age of 3 1/2. In fact, she loves it so much, she usually drinks all of it before she starts to eat her meal! And she inhales it!
This LO uses the new Jillibean Blossom Soup collection mixed with a bit of my favorite Pasta Fagioli! To create the flowers, I used the corrugated shapes as templates. I traced around them on the patterned paper and then cut them out of the paper. Once the flowers were cut out, I lightly misted them with water and then scrunched them to give them their shape.
Another little tip is that I used metal cutters to cut the tips of the Sugar Picks off and left just the beaded section. I then hot glued this to the center of the butterflies that I hand cut from the patterned paper.
Jillibean Soup Supplies:
Patterned Paper: Blossom Soup/Lime Wedges, Half Pound Blossoms, Fresh Cilantro; Pasta Fagioli/Romano Cheese, Shell Macaroni
Corrugated Alphas: Green
Corrugated Shapes: Flowers
Sugar Picks: Orange/Turquoise, Red/Brown, Green/Quartz
Cool Beans: Green

Other Supplies: Cardstock: Core' dinations for Jillibean Soup, Sewing Machine, Gems by Bo Bunny

Thanks for your visit and your comments!
HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

Are you feeling LUCKY?

2011-03-11T07:00:00.001-06:00

This week has been Luck of the Irish week over on the Cricut Circle blog and I decided that I would like to ad to that luck by having a little giveaway here on my blog!

This giveaway is for these 2 fabulous products are compliments
of Provo Craft and the Cricut Circle!

If you are feeling lucky, leave a comment below telling me why you should be the LUCKY winner of my giveaway and I'll throw you in the pot for a chance of winning! A winner will be drawn randomly from all the comments I receive on this post! You have until Wednesday March 16th to leave your comment! I will announce the lucky winner next Thursday, March 17th on St. Patrick's Day!

HAPPY GOOD LUCK HUGS!
Juliana

GCD Studios CHA Projects

2011-03-05T21:02:00.000-06:00

Hi all! Today I am finally sharing the projects I created for the fantastic GCD Studios award winning CHA booth! I had a great time creating all three of my projects and I hope, as you take a peak at them, that you find some inspiration you can use on your next crafting project!

First up is a Ferris Wheel party center piece that I found at my local craft store. Of course, I knew right away that the new Fun House collection was the perfect partner for this project!
To dress it up a bit, I added tickets hand cut from the patterned paper. I backed them with scrap chipboard to give them more dimension and durability. I also embellished it with Melody Ross ChipArt Chipboard stars that I dressed up using a gold leafing pen and gold distress Stickles.

On some of the stars I debossed them using the Melody Ross Chip Art tool and the Mini Shapes Ornamental Stamps. The final touch was an accordion folded medallion that I added to the center of each wheel and topped with a gold star!Ferris Wheel Fun
Supplies:

Fun House 12 x 12 Paper Pad
Chip Art Tool
Chip Art Ornamental Stamps: Mini Shapes
Chipboard Shapes: Stars

My next project is an altered painters tray that I altered using Animal Cracker for Girls! I cut out images from the fantastic die cut paper that is included in this collection and used them to "fill" some of the little openings.
I once again used some of the Melody Ross Chipboard Shapes and Chip Art tool to embellish this project. For these pieces I sprayed them with Glimmer Mist and then debossed them. Once dry I painted a light coat of antiquing gel and then wiped the excess away. I then added an edging of gold using a gold leafing pen.

Animal Cracker Tray
Supplies:
Animal Crackers for Girls 12 x 12 Paper Pad
Chip Art Tool
Chip Art Ornamental Stamps: Mini Shapes and Vintage Floral
Chip Art Alphabet Stamps: Bluebird Uppercase
Chipboard Shapes: Flowers and Basic Shapes/Small

For my final project I was inspired to create a cute little purse diorama using the new Material Girl collection! When I saw this purse at my local craft store, I knew it would be the perfect thing to alter with these papers!
More Melody Ross Chipboard love on this one using Glimmer Mist. This works the same as lightly misting it with the spray bottle of water if you let it dry just a bit before you deboss it with the stamps. When you open the purse you can see the little diorama I created on the inside of the purse. I cut the perfume bottles from the patterned paper and then adhere them to the bottom so they would stand up and look more dimensional.

Material Girl Purse
Supplies:
Material Girl 12 x 12 Paper Pad
Chip Art Tool
Chip Art Ornamental Stamps: Squiggle
Chipboard Shapes: Butterflies and 12"Borders

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed looking at the projects I created for CHA as much as I enjoyed making them!
HUGS!
Juliana

Twine flowers and leaves

2011-03-03T08:00:00.000-06:00

Yeah, I know it is March and not the beginning of the year, but I made a calendar! I have had this wooden set for probably a year sitting there waiting to have some love. And well it finally got the love it deserved! Jillibean Soup's Pasta Fagioli and Dutch Mustard Soup! I have decided that my dream scrappy room will be decorated with items altered using these 2 collections! I already have a clock (you can see it HERE) and now I have a calendar! What's next? Who knows, but I do have some ideas!!!
As you can see I had fun creating some fun little flowers for this project. I used Jillibean twine and created my own version of the new Bean Blossoms. I used Bean Stalks (twine), Cool Beans and Corrugated Shapes. I covered a piece of chipboard that I had cut into a circle and three leaf shapes with double sided adhesive. I then adhered the twine in the patterned I desired. I finished off the flower by adding the corrugated flower and button with my hot glue gun.
Jillibean Soup Supplies:
Patterned Paper: Pasta Fagioli/Clove Fresh Garlic, Romano Cheese, Meatballs, Shell Macaroni, Blended Beans; Dutch Mustard Soup/Creme Fraiche, Whole Grain Mustard, Gruyere Cheese, Cornstarch
Corrugated Alphas: Kraft, White
Corrugated Shapes: Flowers
Bean Stalks: Multi Stripe Ribbon, Stars Ribbon
Cool Beans: Brown

Other Supplies: Wooden Calendar by Hobby Lobby, Font Bernard MT Condensed

Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Hugs!
Juliana

Vicki B and some Trinket love!

2011-03-02T08:00:00.005-06:00

Today on the Bo Bunny blog we are focusing on the new Bo Bunny Trinkets! I am in LOVE with this latest addition to their product line! They are a great way to dress up any project and they are not too bulky. Below is a LO I created using them and make sure you stop by the Bo Bunny blog to check out what the other ladies created!

Here I used the new Vicki B collection and the Trinkets! I used a hot glue gun to adhere them to my LO. This was the best option that I had in my adhesive drawer, but I am sure other adhesives will work. I would love to hear what you find that works for you! I did a fun little stitch with my sewing machine along the right hand side and then dressed it up a bit more with some of the new Jewels.

Lastly today I wanted to remind you about the Bo Bunny Card Challenge. All you have to do is create a card using the sketch found on the Bo Bunny blog and share it with us for your chance to win a fabulous Bo Bunny prize package! The challenge is open until March 7, so you still have plenty of time to play along. You can check out all the details HERE.

And speaking of here, here is the card I created based on the sketch created by Romy.

Once again I used a little Vicki B. These are some of the scraps I had left over from the above LO. I can hardly ever bear to cut into a full 12 x12 piece of paper to create a card. Most of my cards are crafted from my scrap stash!

I hope you have more than just a good day today!
Thanks again for stopping by!
HAPPY HUGS!!!
Juliana

Ad Lib

2011-03-01T08:00:00.004-06:00

On the Bo Bunny blog today we are sharing with you projects created by the design team using the new collection Ad lib. Make sure you stop by and check out what the other ladies have created!
This release has fast become a favorite of mine! I love the bright, bold colors and the funky, hand drawn designs. This is the first layout I have created using this collection and I had a blast playing with it! I made another one while I had it all out , but it's not for sharing just yet! Sorry to be such a tease!
I thought the fun feel of the papers went perfect with these photos of Danny and Woody! Danny was happy to see this layout created, but it made him miss Woody even more since he has not made the move with us just yet. Unfortunately there is not room for him in our 2 bedroom apartment! We are hoping that he can join us very soon. It would certainly put a huge smile on Danny's face to be able to spend some time with him!
For the layout I did a lot of cut work. The circles are cut out of one sheet of the Ad Lib Stripe paper and then layered onto another piece of it to give it some more dimension. Now that I look at it I wish I had dome some more cutting to make it even more dimensional. Oh well! live, learn and have some fun in the process!!! And I did have fun as I paint on the circles in coordinating glitter paint by Folk Art. It is called Extreme Glitter! And extreme it is! I am in love with this stuff and for some reason I just love the smell of it!
In the process of creating, sometimes you have to take a "mistake" and "fix" it. I had to do just that with the stitching I did on this LO. I originally sewed it with white thread, however, after I finished sewing I realized you couldn't see it very well. What to do? What to do? Well, I decided to color over it with a black marker. I think it did the trick. What do you think? Here you can see a close up of the layering I did using the chipboard and wraps! Here's a little tip to share: I gave the stickers more dimension by adhering them to the top strip of the 12x12 Chipboard (you know the border piece at the top of all the lovely, fun cut out pieces) and then trimmed around it. And waa laa, I had my own chipboard sticker! And the wraps! I totally love that gauzy yellow trim that coordinates with the Ad Lib collection! I just wish I had yards of it to play with!!!The new buttons Bo Bunny has added to their most recent releases are so fun! They have a great mix of colors and textures in the packages and they should add a super fun element to any project you have in mind!
Well, that all for today folks!
Thanks again for another visit!
HUGS!!!
Juliana

CHA Final

2011-02-28T07:06:00.006-06:00

Finally getting around to sharing my final CHA photos! Like I said, I never seem to get vey many photos and very few of them are very good. Maybe it is time to get a new camera or maybe I need to take my good camera with me to CHA! LOL!!! Without further ado here they are....

Jillibean Soup!

The altered printers tray I created using Dutch Mustard!

Pink Paiselee!!! Love the Junque!!!!

Bo Bunny!

For my bff Rachel!
You would have loved these booths!

Cindy being silly!

Die Cuts with a View....
loved, loved, loved these life size paper dresses!

Girls Paperie...

Teresa Collins...

Viva Decor...I am in love with these Pearl Pens!

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you all are having a great week!
HUGS!
Juliana

Love is in the air!

2011-02-12T07:00:00.000-06:00

Happy Saturday! For all you Circlets out there I hope you stopped by the Circle Blog to check out the project I shared there today! It is a home decor project that has a bit of a love theme to it! I also hope you find some inspiration for your next project as you check it out!
For those of you stopping by here today I am sharing a couple of my recent Bo Bunny projects! This card and the treat box below are for my husband for Valentine's Day! Hopefully he won't check out my blog until after he gets them! I used the Crazy Love collection. I really love the pink and chocolate brown color combo!
For this treat box I covered a box of chocolates that my MIL sent us for Christmas and I filled it with dark chocolate Ferrero Rocher! Yum-mee!!! I used the Cindy Loo Cricut Cartridge to create the swirls and the Mother's Day Bouquet Cartridge for the flowers. These have definitely become 2 of my go to cartridges for crafting these days!
To create the flowers I cut out multiple flower shapes in gradually decreasing sizes. (The largest flower is 3 inches) I then lightly misted each flower with water and crumpled it. I then used my heat gun to dry them and help them keep there newly found shape. I then layered them and added the brad and glitter to create the centers.
Ahhhh...a up close peak of the yumminess!!!Here's hoping you have a wonderful weekend and a very Happy Valentines Day! Thanks for stopping by!
HAPPY VALENTINES HUGS!
Juliana

CHA in review: Cricut Circle Swarm & Day 1

2011-02-05T22:03:00.016-06:00

I know I am a little late with the CHA update, but the snow kept me there a little longer than expected and I just haven't had time to put this together until this weekend. I have a ton of photos, but for some reason I always seem to end up wishing I had taken more and feel like I am missing photos of some things I wish I had gotten a picture of. Some of that would probably be improved upon if I had a better camera. Maybe next time! Back to the photos I do have...since I have quite a few and I don't want to overload you, I am going to break them up into a couple of posts! Today's post is going to focus on my first 2 days in LA.

I arrived safe and sound in LA, but without my luggage! Thank goodness it went out on the next plane and I had it by the next morning. My brother picked me up from the airport and he insisted that I at least see the ocean while I was there. We arrived just in time for me to see a rather pretty sunset!
Friday was super fun as I helped out and attended my very first Cricut Circle Crop! I had a great time meeting some of my fellow Circlets and I was amazed at how much scrapping they got done! I usually end up doing more talking than scrapping at these things!

Cricut Circle Swarm

Here is the make and take booth! Gotta love green glitter and Mod Podge!

Jinger Adams stopped by and did a few giveaways!!!

Teresa Collins stopped by and shared the exciting news that she will be doing some cartridges!!!
You can read more about it on her blog HERE.
And this lucky lady won a fabulous giveaway of some of her new goodies!

CHA Day 1
Welcome indeed! And the sunshine in LA was glorious!!Once inside at the Provo Craft it was quite evident that they were celebrating!
It was the Cricut's 5th birthday!

And to celebrate 5 years Provo Craft designed a limited edition Cricut Expression.
Isn't it beautiful???

I just loved the Cricut in the carpet too! How cute!!!

This is a photo of the booth before all the mayhem began on Saturday!

Everyone wanted one of these little guys! Aren't they adorable?!
They gave these out to everyone that dropped by the booth.
(At least until they ran out!)The lovely Jana Eubank manning the Circle table!

Here is the fantastic Michelle Lanning helping out at one of the amazing make and takes they had each day!

Saturday evening Provo Craft held a party and the entertainment for the evening weredancers from the show "So You Think You Can Dance": Twitch, Josh and Comfort and several other dancers from some other dance shows! I absolutely LOVE this show and I was pumped to get the opportunity to watch them dance in real life! Dancers like that always amaze me with their talent and athleticism and it was so entertaining!
I got lucky enough to get a photo with Twitch and needless to say Danny was super jealous!!!

I even took a couple of videos of them dancing that you can check out here:

I leave you with a photo of some of my fellow Cricut Circle designers!

Michelle, Jana, Me, Amy, Cindy and Shantaie

These ladies are AWESOME and I really feel blessed to have had the chance to meet them and to spend some time getting to know them! I really felt a close to connection to them and feel like I have made some great friends!!! And these ladies made my CHA a truly wonderful and fun filled experience!

HAPPY HUGS and stay tuned for my next update where I will share some photos from some other booths and share some of my new faves!
Juliana

GCD Studios DT Call

2011-02-03T22:06:00.009-06:00

My time with GCD Studios will be coming to an end soon, but it has been a great year! It has been a pleasure to work with all of the talented ladies who have been a part of the team this past year and to work with the fabulous products created by GCD Studios. (My favorite has been the Chip Art Tool by Melody Ross!) But, as one thing ends another begins and that beginning could be yours! GCD Studios is having a DT call for 2011 that is going on now and will be open until March 5th. They are going to be adding 9 designers to their team and they are looking for altered item gals, card gals and scrapbook gals. You can stop by the GCD Studios blog HERE to find out more.

Also, they are having a contest for you to win a trip to the Melody Ross Brave Girl's Camp! You can check out all the details HERE!

And while you are hopping around their blog, make sure you take time to check out all the new collections they released at CHA! They are adorable and I had a great time playing with them and creating projects for the booth at CHA! I would love to post the projects, but I think they will be posted on the GCD blog in the very near future. So stay tuned over there!
Good luck and happy crafting!
HUGS!
Juliana

Bo Bunny Giveaway Winner!

2011-02-02T11:55:00.002-06:00

Hello! I am still "stuck" in LA after CHA because of that nasty blizzard that went (or is still going through), but at least the sun is shining here! I hope to return home sometime tomorrow or Friday. For now however, I will just have to suffer with the sunshine!!! I am planning to post up a few photos later from CHA. I had a great time and I especially enjoyed meeting some of my fellow scrappers and crafters from online! Hugs to all of you!!!

Now for the good news! I have selected the winner of the Bo Bunny Giveaway I held on my blog last week during the Bo Bunny Blog Hop. Drum roll please.....and the winner is...

{{{Kristy}}}

Congratulations girl!!! I sent you an email to get your contact info!!!

And thank you all so much for stopping by and all of your sweet and kind comments!!!
Stay tuned as I will be doing some random giveaways in the near future to those of you who are following my blog!

HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

Jillibean Soup - Dutch Mustard Soup

2011-01-29T07:00:00.001-06:00

Happy Saturday all! I am super excited about the projects I am sharing with you today! I used the new Dutch Mustard Soup collection by Jillibean Soup for all of them. I even added a little twist on a couple of my cards by throwing in a little Soup Staples for an added punch of color! These projects are on display in their booth at CHA and I of course am super excited to be here to see them being displayed! First is an altered 7 Gypsies Printer Tray. I am in love with all the new corrugated shapes, but especially the new trees and butterflies! The photos of those darling little girls are courtesy of Jill! Thanks girl!!!
Take a sneak peak behind the door of this home and you will find it is filled with love!!!
Here is the little twist of Soup Staples I mentioned! I think the Pink Sugar added a fun twist to these Valentine's Day cards!!!
I used a Silver Leafing marker by Krylon and Glitter Paint by Plaid to add a little sparkle and shine to the corrugated shapes!
My final card really makes me happy! I absolutely love the color combo of orange, yellow and green, so you can see why this card makes me feel quite happy!
I hope you enjoyed taking a peak at my Jillibean Soup projects! I had an absolute blast working with this collection! Thank you Jill and Jillibean Soup for making me one happy scrapper!!!

Happy Hugs!
Juliana

Bo Bunny Blog Hop + A Giveaway

2011-01-26T08:00:00.008-06:00

Welcome to the Bo Bunny blog hop! If you just happened to stop by my blog please make sure you start at the beginning on the Bo Bunny blog so that you can follow through for your chance to win a fantastic prize from Bo Bunny. Bo Bunny is going to randomly choose one blog hop participant that leaves a comment on each of the designer's blogs and if you "LIKE" the Bo Bunny Facebook page. You see, Bo Bunny is trying to reach 10,000 "LIKES" on their Facebook page. So when you are done hopping, head over to the Bo Bunny Facebook page and "LIKE" our page. Make sure to leave a comment that you "LIKE" us for your chance to win. If you already "LIKE" Bo Bunny, let us know that too! You have until next Tuesday (February 1st) 10 PM Mountain time to hop, leave your comments and "LIKE" us. The winner will be announced on the blog on Wednesday.

Now for some Bo Bunny scrappiness! The project I created for this hop came together so easily using the Winter Joy collection! I have to admit, I was recently inspired by one of my fellow Bo Bunny designers (Kathleen Glossop) to throw in a contrasting color (in this case the red) for a little added pop of interest. The Bo Bunny chipboard and wrap worked perfectly and I placed the red in a visual triangle to help draw your eye toward the focal photo.
Here you can see how I used the wrap. I used thread to create a running stitch along the top edge of the wrap. I then pulled the thread tight to gather the wrap and create the pleats. Once I was happy with how much gathering I had created, I tied the end and then hot glued it to my layout. Oh how I love my hot glue gun!!!
The chipboard letters where already brown, but I used some ink to make them a darker, richer brown. I then mimicked the white dot design on the flowers using a Signo white gel pen.
You can see here how I created some "faux" stitching. I used the We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy to create the holes/pattern and then used a Signo white gel pen to create the stitches. I used some Stickles to add a little glitter and shine to this chipboard flower and used 2 different flowers and layered them.

Supplies:

Patterned Paper: Winter Joy, Winter Joy Dot, and Winter Joy Stripe
12 x 12 Chipboard: Winter Joy
Chipboard: Chunky Chips Chipboard Alpha, Swirls and Brackets, and Circles and Arrows in Wildberry
Rubons: Learning Curve
Wrap: Crush Pink Ruffle Wrap

Before you hop on to your next destination I want to share with you a little something as my way of thanking you for stopping by today and every day you stop by! I am going to be doing a little something new this year for those of you who follow and/or leave me a comment! Stay tuned for more info on that! Now on to the important stuff...

A Bo Bunny Giveaway

To thank you for stopping by today, I am having a little Bo Bunny giveaway of my own!

I have included a ton of Bo Bunny products including paper, chipboard, stickers, brads and rubons! I will also be including some papers and embellishment from one of the Summer or Fall releases (the winner will get to choose which one) with the products below!
If you would love a chance at winning this package of goodies, please let me know as you leave a comment below. If you are already a follower let me know and if you are not please become one. You never know what might happen in the future! ;) I will throw your name in twice if you do all of this! I am going to leave this open until Tuesday (February 1st) at 1o PM Mountain time. Good luck and thanks again for stopping by!

Oh and don't forgot....you are still hopping!
Your next Bo Bunny designer to hop to is

Mireille Divjak

She is super talented and full of inspiration!
I just know you are going to love what she has to share with you today too!

HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

Cricut Circle CHA Crop

2011-01-25T07:00:00.000-06:00

I just wanted to make a quick shout out about the
Cricut Circle Crop
that will be going on this Friday (January 28th) at CHA.

I will be there and I can not wait to meet some of my fellow Criclets!!! If you are interested in attending or want more information, you can check out all the details HERE! Another exciting tid bit about attending the crop is that Provo Craft will be providing you a sneak peek of the products they will be releasing at the CHA show AND Cricut Circle sponsors will also be providing you a sneak peek of the products that will be unveiling the next day. How exciting is that?! I can't wait and I am looking forward to seeing you there!!!

HAPPY HUGS!
Juliana

New Year, New Goals

2011-01-06T08:00:00.001-06:00

So who set goals for 2011? I usually think about them and at times in the past I have scrapped them. I will admit however, that I might not have written them down this year if I had not had this as an assignment for Bo Bunny. The past few months have been busy and with focusing on settling into our new home, new town and new job this was kind of one of things that had gone to the back of my mind. I am glad I had this assignment because it allowed me to get these thoughts down and I now want to keep this layout in view as a reminder of things I want to accomplish in the coming year. Some of these are quite personal, but they are what they are!
And I have chosen a "word" for this year....HAPPINESS. This is something I want to focus on this year in a very different way than I have in the past.

Supplies:
Patterned Paper: Bo Bunny Winter Joy Snow Fall, Winter Joy Stripe, Winter Joy Snow Angels, Winter Joy Bundled
Journaling Cards: Bo Bunny Noteworthy Winter Joy
Chipboard: Bo Bunny Chunky Chips Alphabet in Chiffon
Cardstock: Bo Bunny Double Dot in Tutu Dot
Die Cut Machine: Cricut Expression and Gypsy
Cartridges: Martha Stewart All Occasion Cake Art

I have a little Gypsy action going on here and I thought I would share the files with those of you who are interested.
************

I had a lot of fun creating the butterfly "chains" with my sewing machine! All I did was run them through my machine and left a few stitches between each one to create the chain. I then attached them to my layout in a kind of flowing motion to mimic them flying around!

Just a quick reminder before I go, there is a Bo Bunny Blog hop going on right now. I am not a part of it this week, but it started on January 5 and will be continuing until January 12. Stop by the Bo Bunny blog to get started. This is the first of a series of Bo Bunny Blog Hops that will be going on all this month!

Happy Hugs and Happy New Year!
Juliana

Happy New Year!

2011-01-04T08:00:00.003-06:00

I know, a bit of time has pasted since my last post! Including Christmas! Christmas was great and my husband (who is the bestest ever) suprised me with a new Droid Incredible! I am now officially up to date on technology. (I had one of those ancient flip phones! LOL!!!) I really love my new toy!!!
As for the lack of posting, that will be changing this month! I promise! I have been working to get ahead and I actually have a few posts already scheduled to post later this month! Watch out world, Juliana is getting even more organized!
I saw the inspiration for this project at a trendy home decor store months ago and I knew that I wanted to try to create my own version of it. I also knew that some Jillibean Soup goodness was going to be my paper of choice! This clock now has a prominent place in my scrappy room and I can't wait to use it to inspire how I decorate my scrappy room once we have a new house.
I used paper mache book boxes from Hobby Lobby and just covered them with patterned paper. I attached the clock findings to the inside of the large book box and then adhered the other 2 books to it. I was tempted to add more "stuff" to the clock, but I thought that a more simple style would fit more with my home decor. All in all, it was a rather easy project to put together!

Wouldn't this make a fun little place to hide something?!

HUGS and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Juliana

Catching up

2010-12-16T14:31:00.015-06:00

The move, along with the super nasty virus my computer recently had, have put a major damper on my online life! I have felt so disconnected from the scrappy world and I really don't like it! This feeling also made me stop and wonder if I have some sort of addiction! LOL!!
I am hoping this disconnectedness will end soon and I can start hopping around once again a bit more.
I also realized that it has been WAY TOO LONG since I shared some scrappy projects with you! (I also realized it has been way too long since I did something else, but more about that later!) This is a long post with projects from Jillibean Soup and Bo Bunny, the new Cricut cartridges. and some news about GCD Studios. Let's just say "You have been warned"!

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First up I have some Jillibean Soup Christmas happiness to share using the Chestnut Soup Collection. I created this shaker ornament by re-purposing the sugar picks packaging. Before I glued the plastic top back in place, I filled the inside very carefully with the little beads. This was a tad tricky, but I finally got it to work!This is a card I created using the new Chestnut Soup Collection as well and the Santie image is from the Cricut Gingerbread Seasonal Cartridge. And don't you just love those mini jingle bells?!

My last Jillibean project is this altered frame I made. This was super simple and easy using the Chestnut Soup Collection and the Cricut A Child's Year Cartridge.

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I also wanted to share with you about Hello Thursday. On the 3rd Thursday of the month you get to see previews of newest Cricut cartridges that will be coming your way. For those of you who are members of the Cricut Circle, you get to see them on Wednesday on the Cricut Circle Blog and in the Circle PDF magazine. Yesterday we had an amazing post on the blog showing incredible creations using the 9 upcoming cartridges.

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Next up are my recent Bo Bunny creations. I seriously love the Noel Collection! These are the Christmas colors that really make me feel warm and happy! I created this ornament by covering a papermache ornament with patterned paper and then I embellished it with the trim and stickers!This card was created for a challenge to use a Christmas decoration on a card. I decided to craft my own ornament and attached it to the card to that it could be removed and hung on a Christmas tree.

Here I am lifting up the ornament to see the message below it!
Here is how I fastened the cord to the inside of the card. Just some simple tape will do the trick.
I wish I had gotten a photo of this hanging on the tree, but the day I took these photos I was in a hurry and just wasn't thinking! Can you forgive me?! LOL!!!
Next, a card with tons of fussy cutting (not sure if that is what I feel like I am doing when I cut things out, but that is what everyone seems to be calling it these days!!!) Anyway, lots of that and layering with my fave double sided foam tape...Scotch 3M. I seriously can not live without this stuff!
My final project for today is this ornament I made with the Winter Joy Collection! Love the greens and purples in this line! I got the ornament at Hobby Lobby and it came already filled with the fake snow! I simply added the rubons and trim and it was ready to go!

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My final bit of news is to remind you to stop by the GCD Studios blog to check out their CHA Winter releases! They are sharing images as well as having some fabulous giveaways. Donna Salazar has designed 2 new collections and Melody Ross has designed another one as well! All of them are fabulous!!!

HAPPY HUGS & HAPPY HOLIDAYS
Juliana

PS...If you have lasted this long you deserve to know that once I get settled into my new home, which will be some time in early January, I will be having a FABULOUS GIVEAWAY that you and all of your friends will not want to miss! So stay tuned!

HUGS AGAIN!!!

Teresa Collins and Heidi Swapp

2010-12-10T21:36:00.006-06:00

My computer is on the fritz...bad computer virus! I have been without one for over a week! Anyway...thanks to my sister I am sharing this with you today!
First up, I thought EVERYONE should know about the fabulous giveaways going on over at Teresa Collins blog! She started these on December 1 and they will be going on for 25 days! So you still have time to check them out! You can see all the details HERE!

Second up...Do you have a Yudu? Do you know what a Yudu is? Or maybe you have no idea what I am talking about! No matter you answer, you must check out this webshow hosted by Heidi Swapp on 12/8/10 using this super fun personal screen printing machine. You can check out her show HERE! She had a fabulous giveaway going on that day too, but since my computer was out of commission I wasn't able to get you hooked up for that.

I apologize for not having any projects to share today, but my time has really been limited lately due to our move/relocation and even more so by not having a computer! I am sure that 2011 will be moving a little slower! At least I sure hope so! LOL!!!!

Happy Holiday Hugs!
Juliana