Scrap Happy

I haven't scrapped in so long. I miss it. But, the hairbows and other things have taken over my crafting table and it's just so hard to drag all the papers and ribbons and stickers and glues out.

We did just that, though, for Christmas. After helping Mom put together a mini scrapbook for one of her fellow classmates for graduation, she got the scrapping bug and wanted to make some cards for different people. I had an un-opened pack of cute Christmas paper, so we got to it one evening!

I wish I could show you pictures of all our cute cards, but most of what we did was in a crazy rush at midnight. My brain doesn't function so well at that time of night. I did make a replica of a card from last year for my sister's fiance who couldn't be with us for Christmas. He is stationed at Fort Rucker during his Army training. We missed him like crazy, but got to put together a box of goodies to send to him along with our homemade cards.

This has been one of my favorite cards to make. It's so simple, but so cute! I know there's nothing new under the sun, but I'm pleased to say that when I made this, it all came from my head. I didn't see a picture or anything...I just came up with it!

Cut your red card stock to whatever size you want your card to be. Cut a strip of black, about 1.5" wide, the same length as your card. I made my black belt wrap around the back, as Santa's belt would do, glued the belt onto the red, then folded them together. Cut a rectangle of gold paper, the same height as the black, and a smaller rectangle of black. I used white vellum for the center piece, and just cut it to the width I thought looked best. Glue it all down, and you have a super easy Santa card!

My cousin had been wanting to decorate her son's room in trains, using the vinyl made for the Cricut, so I borrowed the Expression from a friend, and we had fun Christmas Eve!

We are messy crafters in this family!

She had a train cartridge (can't remember which one) and we set out trying to make the vinyl work. We had a little bit of difficulty figuring out the layout of how each piece should go, but we did about 10 thousand test runs and got it to work.

She doesn't have all the pieces up yet, but it's going to look awesome! Her son is absolutely obsessed with trains, so I know he's going to just love having his very own on his walls.

Since I had the Cricut, I wanted to use it for a project I've had my eye on from Pinterest. We are very close with our neighbors, and the husband is an avid fisherman. When the weather is good (and sometimes when it's not) you'll see his truck leaving with his boat attached. He LOVES being out on the water.

Before Christmas I picked up some paper and these perfect stickers.

I used the standard Cricut George & Basic Shapes cartridge to make the letters. My cousin helped with putting them through my Xyron, which is pretty much the coolest scrapbooking tool, ever. She was in awe. If you do much scrapping, or anything to do with stickers, invest in a Xyron. It will change your life!

If you don't know what they are, it's that little pink X in the picture. You can take any piece of paper and turn it into a sticker. It comes with long stripes of adhesive paper. All you do is put the piece into the top, and pull the paper from the bottom. Easy as pie! I LOVE my Xyron.

Mom helped me get the letters all level and even, and pinned the finished page to the frame back.

Because of the horrible lighting in our house I couldn't get a decent picture, but I love the way it turned out! We gave it to them on Christmas, and they liked it too. It's no secret I love giving gifts. It's the best part of the holidays!

Doing all these last minute projects has made me really want to get back in the scrapbooking groove. I love making hairbows and headbands, but my hands are wanting to paper craft. I have another opportunity coming up in the near future to set up a booth for a craft show, so I just might make some cards to sell!

-Jenn (With 2 N's)