First Birthday card

Hey! Well, I don't know about you but I subscribed to the new Cricut magazine (the online version) and I LOVE it! So much so that I got to the birthday party page and this centerpiece just called out my name! LOL. My husband's cousin's daughter turned 1 yesterday and I needed to make her a card and thought this was the most adorable idea!

I added my own little twist, by using a "stamp" shaped background, different patterned paper, my Imagine (Better Together) for the cupcake and Don Juan for the number 1. I then glittered my number 1 using my Xyron and MS Onyx glitter. I faux stitched the edges and voila! My card was done. I made my own envelope as well using the MS score board *BEST THING EVER!!* and I stamped the cupcake using My Pink Stamper's Simply Sweet (?) stamp set. (I'm sorry, it was one of her first and I don't remember the name specifically.) I've never really gotten into stamping but it truly does add that little cute touch to it! I decided to make a little "seal" using my Imagine. I print and cut the present from Better Together at 1 1/2" and ran it through my Xyron.

Hope you guys liked this! I can go through little "funks" and not care to use my Imagine as much, but then I get into the groove again and all of a sudden I fall in love with it each time I use it...LOL.

**Don't forget to enter my iRock giveaway post here and to vote for my little Julianne if you so choose! I have included both links under the pics!**







**Don't forget- Julianne's link changes each day as she moves up in the ranks so this link is good for Friday 12/31/10**

Giveaway post!

Vote for Julianne here! (Friday's link!)

Friday's link to vote for Julianne!

Here ya go! She moved up to #17! Yay! :-)

Julianne's friday link! Vote here!

Thank you guys SO much who have voted for her! Don't forget to enter the giveaway in the post below!

Giveaway!!! and other stuff!! :-)

Hey guys!! I hope you all had a wonderful and great Holiday! We sure have! I wanted to ask you all a great big favor! My daughter Julianne (who most of you have seen as my little "model" for the onesies I've made her) is entered in the Cute Kid Child of the week contest and I would truly, from the bottom of my heart, appreciate if you could vote for her!! Since her placement can change daily, it's also important to vote every single day to get her to the top! I sincerely appreciate it!

And to show my appreciation and excitement over her advancing daily and the upcoming new year, I'd love to have a New Year's Giveaway!! (Now, don't think this is bribery! lol. All you have to do is leave me a comment under this post with a way to reach you! You DO NOT have to vote for Julianne, but I would very much appreciate it and you do not have to be a follower. This giveaway is open to everyone! :)

The blog candy is: iROCK tool with jewel set!


Like I said- you DO NOT have to vote for Julianne as this giveaway is open to everyone OR be a follower but I sure would appreciate either/or! LOL. Just leave me a comment under this post with a way to reach you and that's that!
As always, if you'd like any extra submissions into the giveaway, just post it on your Facebook or blogs and let me know!

Here is the link to Julianne's page! It changes daily so I will keep "reminding" you all of her new link each day! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!

Vote for Julianne here! Thursday's link!

Video- How to Glitter :)

How to use your Xyron machine to glitter your cuts :)

Cricut-less layout

Hey guys! Sorry I've been a little MIA...I've been super busy with the kids and school so didn't have much time but I managed to get some time to put together a super easy and super simple layout with no Cricut! lol. I love my Cricuts but sometimes I get burned out so I will create something without a cut. All I did in this layout was use a punch out pad I got on sale at Joann's for $4.97 for the background paper, bracket backgrounds, So Beautiful embellishment and journal tag. The title was made using pink glittered Thickers (I LOVE them!) and that's it! Hope you enjoy :)

Sugar and Spice Layout and some TIPS i've learned along the way...

I am EXHAUSTED. My sister in law took me to a small scrapbook store that she loves (and now I do too) about 2 hours away and let me tell ya, it ain't easy traveling with 2 babies! (She just had my little niece about 6 weeks ago). Luckily, they were happy enough to enjoy the ride there and let us look around and browse. It's such an adorable store and it has so much stuff! They specialize in mini albums which I adore. (I actually made one and bound it on my Your Story...I will try to have that video up tomorrow!)

While I was making this layout, I started thinking of some tips I have found along the way since I have started scrapbooking. The first tip I have for you is DON'T WASTE YOUR PAPER! Seems obvious right? But let me explain really quick. I LOVE background cardstock on my layers. If you notice, I tend to use a lot of borders but my trick is that I actually cut out my borders from the 12x12 and adhere the smaller patterned paper on top of it so that it gives the illusion that there is an entire 12x12 background when in reality there isn't. (DON'T MIND MY GLUEY AND MESSY MAT IN THE PICS!!)

Step1: Cut out by starting your cut at 1"-11" on each side.


Step2: Cut out a second border, this time at 11x11.


Step3: Then you can add your patterned paper (I usually go with a 10x10 as I did on this layout) and you've got a background that looks like it's been matted 3x! ;)





Oh and here is what the back looks like once it's all done:


The squares that you cut out of the middle (since no one would ever suspect they are missing since it would be covered by a different cardstock) can be used for other parts of your layout such as other mats, embellishments, etc :)

That's my tip for today! Save paper and $$...I have to watch my budget now so this helps me get the most out of what would have been wasted paper anyways.

This layout is semi- scraplifted from a layout I saw on the Circle Blog but really has a lot of my own stuff to it. The title is Sugar and Spice from the Once Upon a Princess cart and that little cupcake was colored in by yours truly, then I put some glossy accents over it. The crown is colored in with Stickles and the Sweet sentiment stamp on the bottom is from a $1 stamps :) I used a white gel pen to make some embellishments on my letters and the background quarter note image is from the Imagine Best Friends cartridge. That is by FAR my favorite image ever! =) The pic was chosen for this layout because my little girl can be so sweet, but she has her sassy side already! :)




Hope you enjoy!

Holiday Wishes Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Holiday Wishes blog hop hosted by Kathryn over at Warm Family! If you happened along this hop through my post, make sure you start over atWarm Family so that you don't miss a project! =) If you came from All Things Crafty then you are in the right place!

For my Holiday projects I decided to make a layout of my daughter wearing a Santa hat for the first time ever and a few cookie boxes which will be given as gifts to my sons' teachers and bus drivers.

The layout is 12x12 using DCWV Holiday pack from last year, Hello Kitty Font for the title and Best Friends Imagine layout for the scalloped (?) background cut that my journaling is on and of course, a little 3D Santa Clause sticker :)




I got the idea for the gift boxes from Mary over at Cardz TV and she has a GREAT
tutorial on how to put them together. Click here for Tutorial! They came out perfect size for cookies and that is what we intent to hand them out for! The gingerbread ribbon was purchased at the dollar store (yay!) and for the other box, I had to use my favorite color becuase I still like having a Pink Christmas! =)





Hope you've enjoyed my projects! I absolutely LOVE the holiday season and of course, all the opportunities to be creative!

Now hop on over to Lisa at Cricuting with Lisa!

Your Story Photo tag book

Today for our SweetSassyDiva design team challenge, it was mini book week! So I busted out my Your Story Photo and came up with some small ideas :) The first is a recipe book for my desserts and the other is a Christmas tag book! Hope you enjoy!

Back to School layout-Take 2 :)

I had to redo my original Back To School layout for last year because after I completed, I realized that I hadn't taken the bottom 1" off the background paper so therefore, it didn't fit into my 12x12 album. So it's been sitting in the back of my scrapbook with no page protector until today. I went into our LSS and found THE CUTEST school paper and with that, of course, I got to work on my take 2. The background is corkboard background paper from Hobby Lobby and the chipboard letters are the extras left from my Christmas Cuties layout and I did save the bus and border on the bottom from my previous layout which is why the bottom corner is all bent and which you can find here: Back To School challenge

Educational Tuesday :)

As most of you know, my youngest son is on the low functioning end of the Austism Spectrum and my oldest has Aspergers. One of the main reasons (beyond my LOVE of scrapbooking) that I finally decided to invest in a Cricut a few years back was because I wanted to make flashcards and educational stuff for my boys. Well, for Christmas my dad bought me a laminating machine so today I FINALLY got to work on some flashcards! =) I kept it simple as my oldest is learning how to read so I wanted to focus on letters so I cut the pink background at 3 1/2x 2 1/2 with the letters being cut out at 2" using Mickey Font. I then ran them through my laminating machine (3M brand) and used my WRMK Crop a Dile to punch holes to put my ring through. THATS IT! I'm so excited because tomorrow i'm gonna start working on picture cards for my youngest (Brad) and put some magnets on the back and place them on the fridge! I'll post those up next Tuesday. :)

**And in case your wondering why they are PINK when my son obviously doesn't care for that color is because these will also be for his little sister once he "graduates" from them. Also, the laminating isn't perfect, but for a $30 machine, i'm not complaining :)**

Christmas Cuties layout

**This is THE LAST time I change my heading! LOL. PROMISE!**

**Thank you SO much to those who have responded to my request for cards for my sis, I'm so appreciative!**

Remember a few posts down how I said that I could NEVER get my middle son to take a pic? Well guess what? I got him to take a pic, WITH A SANTA HAT AND SMILE!! Yipee!! I'm so stoked because this kid rarely stops for enough time to hit click, but I absolutely adore his picture. (As I do of my oldest son as well!) =)

I don't know about you, but I LOVE sketches. I can spend hours googling layout sketches and I take the time to download onto my computer, then Gypsy because sometimes I just don't want to deal with how to arrange my pics and embellishments. So I let the sketches do the work! hehe ;) So for today's sketch, I followed a circle patterned one. (I'm sorry, I don't know who to give credit for this one but if I find out who, I will link them.)

Here is the sketch:


And here is my page:


The Santa hat was cut from Jolly Holidays at 4" and I used glitter and embossing powder on it to enhance it. Glitter is messy but I LOVE IT! =)


As you see, not as much going on in my layout but I just couldn't take too much away from the pictures because I think they speak for themselves. I also added a bit of faux stitching around the edge of the 12x12 black cardstock and used some $.99 chipboard letters from Target for the title Cuties.

Hope you enjoy it and have a great Monday!

My personal Card request...

Alright my friends, let me tell you a quick background story on my life. I come from a family of 2 kids and my baby sister Sarai joined the Navy last year and left this past week on her first 8 month deployment. I miss her TERRIBLY, but as much as I know how much I miss her, I know she very much misses her husband of a year (who is also expected to leave on deployment early next year!) and her family and just regular old life. She has been on the verge of and extreme anxiety (as would I if I were facing having to leave the country for 8 months) so I came up with a great idea to hopefully lift her spirits. :D

I will be sending her her first care package in 3 weeks and I would LOVE LOVE LOVE it if it included some cards from my crafty friends! She loves when I make her cards and scrapbook layouts with pictures of my kids so I know how much she will appreciate this! And to make it more enticing and rewarding for you, for each person who sends me a card, I will hold a drawing for some blog candy! (Still deciding on what exactly but I'll update!)

I know that this is so close to Christmas and i'm sure you are all burned out of making Holiday cards, but I would, from the bottom of my heart, sincerely appreciate it. Any simple card would do, I just want to show her that there are many people out there who truly appreciate what she and thousands of other troops do for our country. I don't think I've ever been more proud of her in my life! :) (My little sis is on the far right, meeting my daughter for the first time in November!)

**If you are interested in sending her a card, please email me at msalmabrooks at yahoo dot com so I can give you exact details on where to send me the card**

Thanks a MILLION!!

Vinyl-first time! :)

As some of you know, we've all been pretty ill in my house this past week, so my mother in law kindly offered to watch our baby for us so we could get some rest :) Of course, rest for me and my hubby equals out to PS3 and Cricut time and I have been dying to put some vinyl up on my walls so I thought tonight would be perfect to put my favorite bible verse up! :) Came out great if I do say so myself AND it was my first time too! My Cricut Circle sister Michelle at Scrappin With My Bug has an awesome Vinyl tutorial and she sent me some to try! I think i'm hooked! LOL



The pressure was set at low (2), speed at high and for me, I put my blade on 4 :) The words are cut out at 3" with Lyrical Letters :)

Post It Paper Blog Hop/SweetSassyDiva Design team! :)

Hey everybody! Welcome to part of the Sweetsassydiva design team blog hop! If you just happened by here and would like to start from the beginning make sure you click here!SweetSassyDiva 

Gingerbread Scrapbook layout

Hey guys! We've all been battling a cold over here but I'm feeling better now so I made you guys another video! hehe =) It's just a super simple scrapbook layout but hey, at least the pics are getting done! :D One more thing, I'd LOVE if you left me a comment and link me to your blogs...I'm always looking for inspiration! :D

Calendar layout and scrapbook area!

Package Video!