JOY - Home Decor Frame

Hello blogging friends!

I recently went to a neighbor's Christmas party and was amazed by all her beautiful Christmas decorations. I counted 23 trees, 7 of which were full size. There was a tree in every room in her house.... yes even the bathrooms. In her living room, she had a framed letter that she wrote to Santa herself circa 1960. Next to it was a framed silhouette portrait of herself when she was about that age. What a neat idea! When I returned home, I looked around at my walls and thought, I need to step up my game here. I needed a framed Christmas print to hang on my wall instead of the usual painting. Not having Santa letters or Silhouettes here is what I came up with using some fabulous products from Clearsnap, my Xyron adhesives, and Imaginisce papers...

The striped paper is from the Imaginisce Happy Traveler collection. I cut the letters out on a diagonal so it would look more like candy cane stripes. Instead of an "O", I decided to create a 3D Star. I wrapped the star with twine and hung a Christmas tag from it to make it more festive. You can see I used my i-Rock to add some red gemstones to the tag. I love how it turned out.

Supplies:

Imaginisce : Pattern Papers (Happy Traveler), Die Cut (Christmas Cheer), i-Rock, Red gemstones

American Crafts: Cardstock

Xyron 9" Creative Station

Xyron Mega Runner

Xyron Double-sided High Tack Tape

Clearsnap:  Luxe Metallics Cats Eye Pigment Ink Pads (I used Gold Brocade)

Clearsnap Rollagraph Stamp Wheel with Crackle Background

Silhouette Cameo

Jingle Bell

twine

Let me show you how I did it.

Step 1.  The frame I had is a distressed window frame, It had no back, just the glass. I wanted my "JOY" to pop. Not blend into the wall, so I lined the glass with Kraft paper. If you need something bigger than a 12"x12", check out the office supply store. They sell rolls of Kraft paper in the packaging supplies.

Step 2.  I cut the "J" and "Y" out with my Silhouette Cameo and ran the letters through my Xyron 9" Creative Station.

Step 3. I cut the Star out with my Silhouette Cameo. Using the Clearsnap Rollagraph Stamp with the Crackle Background and my Clearsnap Gold Brocade ink, I ink the star panels. There are ink pads that will fit inside the handle, but I just dabbed on the ink and rolled it across my paper.

Step 4.  After running the star panel pieces through my Xyron 9" Creative Station, I adhered them to the Star base. 

Step 5. Embellish the star any way you like. I wrapped some twine around mine and attached a festive Christmas tag.

Step 6. Adhere the "J" and the "Y" in the frame, then using some Xyron Double-Sided High Tack Tape on the back of the star, adhere it to the frame as well.

I love how it turned out!  My husband says we are not going to my neighbor's Christmas party's anymore, lol. He is such a Scrooge!

Thanks for stopping by!

~Marcia 

Family Fun Reveal - Imaginisce newest collection.

Hello blogging friends! How many of you are planning a road trip around Thanksgiving or Christmas? Do you need ideas for keeping your little ones entertained?  Maybe hear, "Are we there yet?"  a little less. Well I've got a great idea for you. I have a fun busy box to share with you that I created with the new Imaginisce Family Fun collection. I decorated my box with paper and die cuts from the collection. It's about a 9"x9" tin. 

 My Xyron 9" Creative Station came in handy to adhere the papers to the tin.

Then I decorated the cover with some die cuts and thickers.

This box can hold plenty of snacks, games, crayons... I decided to make some magnetic dolls to put inside mine with the Family Fun die cuts. Since my box is actually a tin I am upcycling, the magnets will stick right to it!. To create the magnets, I ran the dolls and accessories I chose through my 9" Creative Station with a Laminate Magnet cartridge inside. I chose accessories that were not too small so their little fingers would not get too frustrated, lol. 

The Creative Station has a trimmer in the back to cut the magnetic sheet apart. Such an awesome idea to put the trimmer right there on the machine!

Then I cut the pieces out. (insert Hand Cramp here!)

Since the Safari hat had a slit cut in it for the doll head, I used my Clicut to cut through the laminate and magnetic sheets. The Clicut is one of the newer tools for Imaginisce. It's a retractable pen knife. Make sure to use it with a self healing mat so as not to cut into your table top. 

I organized my box with the girl doll and accessories on the inside of the lid and the boy doll and his accessories on the bottom of my tin. 

They can be moved around easily and dressed and undressed. 

I may need to add some of those adorable zoo animal die cuts to my busy box. To add to the creativity, I got a small dry erase board. The magnets will stick to this board too! and Did you know you can get dry erase crayons? No tops to get lost! No mess if they happen to fall out of little hands! Where were these when my kids were little! They work great and can be stowed away inside the busy box!  

Supplies:

Imaginisce : Pattern Papers, Die Cuts (Family Fun),Clicut, Self Healing Mat

American Crafts - Thickers

Xryon 9" Creative Station with adhesive cartridge and a laminate magnetic cartridge.

Xyron Mega Tape Runner

Crayola Dry Erase Board and Crayons

Thanks for stopping by.
~Marcia

April and May Pubs! For Real!!

Hello blogging friends! Wahooo its Friday! I thought it would never come. My kids are going camping without me, so I am planning a relaxing weekend of cleaning and scrapping. Maybe I can talk hubby into going to a movie :)

I realized I had not yet shared my April pub so here it is ...

I first made this Christmas ornament when guest designing for Little Yellow Bicycle for their Once Upon a Christmas collection. Cricut Magazine published it for a Butterfly and Birds call. The body of this bird is an ornament shape turned sideways. I cut sixteen of them, scored them down the middle and adhered them together to make it 3-dimensional. The feather trim is my favorite part :)

This Imaginisce layout using the Childhood Memories collection appeared in the May Scrapbook Trends Magazine. I love these pics of my daughter. Boy, did she love to swing. Do you think?

This anniversary card I made for my hubby (our 30th anniversary!) appeared in the May Cards Magazine. I used the Quick Quotes Dusty Rose collection and Cheery Lynn dies. That gorgeous ribbon is from an Etsy shop call Prairie Bird Boutique and the bling is from Want2Scrap.

I kind-of stole this card back from my hubby after I gave it to him, Shhhh.

Hope you have a greate weekend!
~Marcia

Imaginisce Introduction and Blog Hop WINNER!!!

Happy 2014 to you all. I have a winner from my blog hop ......

OlesyaKDecember 30, 2013 at 3:32 PM

gorgeous layouts all especially the fall Thankful one - sooo terrific!

OlesyaK can you send your mailing address to me at nixshaus@comcast.net and I will get your Outdoor Adventure collection mailed out to you.


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I have added a few more bells and whistles to my blog. One of my New Year's resolutions is to promote my designs on more social media outlets. I now have buttons in the side bar so you can find me on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Twitter! Another one of my resolutions is to delve more into digital scrapbooking. I upgraded my computer recently and have new photo editing software. It's taking a little while to learn where everything is. I've also been playing around with Kerri Bradford's digital 12 Days of Christmas freebies. My scrapbook room is undergoing a reorganization. I took the futon out, since none of my kids sleep in there anymore when they are home, and moved the computer in. I'll post pics soon. I still have some things to find places for and some things are being purged.

I am so thrilled to be designing for Imaginisce another year! I loved all of the collections last year and I can tell you that you are going to love the new collections being released at CHA. Sneak peeks will be released shortly. Here are my projects I submitted for my design team application ....

This layout was created with the Bushel O'Fall collection and features my sister-in-law's family . I added a strip of burlap for texture. I love the burlap with the fall colors. I used my Silhouette to cut out the flowers from the pattern paper. Let me show you some close-ups...

Here is the card I created ....

and my altered piece was a frame featuring my kiddos when they were little....

I was so glad to be able to spend some time with my kids over their Winter breaks. Not a lot of crafting time for me. Now my son is heading to Texas with the NDSU Marching Band to play drums in the upcoming bowl game. I am going to have to see if I can find it on TV somewhere. Hopefully they will show the half-time show.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope 2014 brings you health and happiness.
~Marcia

Christmas Card Mini - Quick Quotes

Hello blogging friends.  My last Quick Quotes project is up on the blog today. If you are looking for the blog hop and my GIVEAWAY, click here.

What do you do with your Christmas cards now that Christmas is over? I like to save them so I can remember who sent me cards last year. I am surprised some people still send me cards. I didn't send very many this year at all. I vow to do better next year though, ok, else some people will scratch me off their lists, lol. Here is a way you can store those Christmas cards ... inside a paper bag mini album. I like to pick out a few photo cards to decorate my album, then the rest go inside the bag. Let me show you ...

I decorated my cover with some Quick Quotes chipboard. The present was painted with gesso and then inked. The tree was finished with Inca Gold rub.

Lets look inside ...

What's great about paper bag minis is that you can add as many pages inside as you want. The rest of my cards can be stored inside the bag.

To keep the cards from falling out, tie a ribbon around your mini.

Quick Quotes supplies:
Cracklin' Rose 100, 300, 400, 500
Copper Kettle 200
Birthday Gift chipboard
Small chipboard tree - Club Q
Powderpuff chalk ink in Midnight Confessions, Java, Biscotti, Bloody Mary, and Maraschino Cherry

Other supplies:
Silhouette Cameo - poinsettias
Spellbinders scallop border die
Ribbon, brads, Inca Gold rub, paper bag

Have a great 2014 everyone!
~Marcia

School Year Desk Calendar - Quick Quote Club Q

Hello blogging friends. School is back in session and Quick Quotes has an amazing September Club Q. I get so excited when I get my box in the mail. I was thrilled with the Altered Kit this month. It's an amazing desktop school year calendar. I plan on keeping this beauty on my computer desk. The yellow, black and grey color combination with the gorgeous patterns gives it sophisticated elegance.

The kit comes with lots of die cuts for you to use for embellishing your pages. You can add some of your own touches too, like I did on my cover. I ran the calendar pages through my printer. I played with the numbers in a word doc grid until I got it just right.

Here are a few of the inside pages. I wanted note paper in my calendar, but you could easily use photos instead. Again, I added a few of my own die cuts. I couldn't resist using a spider web for October :) The album has some gorgeous natural pages, you won't want to cover them all up. I left pages with some bare spots.

In the back, There is a Year at a Glance Calendar page. I combined the Altered Kit Kicker Project on the back cover. I wanted a tear off note pad. I am so happy with how this turned out!

Quick Quotes Supplies:
Club Q - Altered Kit 
 Powderpuff chalk ink in Biscotti, and Midnight Confessions

Other supplies:
Silhouette
Cheery Lynn French Pastry Doily Die
Maya Road Transparency
Typewriter Wood Veneer - Studio Calico HeyDay
Doodlebug Stickers
Tombow Adhesive

You have got to check out the other Club Q kits this month. They are fabulous.
Have a great week!
~Marcia