Back to School

Ah, school is back in session and Fall is on our heels! I took some great first day of school pics of the kids and couldn't wait to get their layout done. I finished the layout on my birthday retreat but still need to add the pics. But, I thought I'd show you the layout anyway...

(you can click on the photo to enlarge)

I love kraft cardstock and chose that for my background. The patterned paper is from the October Afternoon Report Card collection kit. Love this paper!!! ALL the die cuts were cut using my Gazelle. You can buy the files individually or you can get the school bundle, which is a great value! To see all the available Bosskut files, click HERE. I tucked some journaling cards in behind the red/white polka dot photo mat and added one next to the striped mat on the other page. Can't wait to get the photos in!

I'm glad you stopped by today! I'll be back again tomorrow and I hope you can join me.

Katie

Home again...

Hi all and happy Wednesday! For those of you who didn't know, I attended the Heirloom stamp show in Anderson, SC last weekend. Since I started working for Scrap-Mart editing the blog and coordinating the design team I have really enjoyed getting out and meeting those peeps who follow us online. It is so fun to hear someone say, "Oh, I read your blog every day!" or "OMG, I shop with you guys online all the time!" Both to which I respond, "Thank you!" My trip to SC was full of excitement...except the one + hour flight delay on the way home. Oh, and the soaked pants on the plane on the way there. Mother nature brought the Mid-West some much needed rain. However, it was a nice show and I met lots of people.

Today I thought I'd share how I make the korker bows like the one shown here (this is for you, Jennie ;)

I used 1/4" grossgrain ribbon I bought at Hobby Lobby. I found some pre-cut wooden dowel rods on clearance at Wal-Mart in the baking section (the ones used to stack cakes) but you could buy a small dowel rod and cut it down too. I wrapped 5 of the rods from top to bottom with the ribbon in a slight spiral dirction and held the ribbon in place with wooden clothes pins. Then, I put them in my oven and baked them for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Keep a close eye on them and you can leave them longer if they aren't set the way you like. I repeated with the next color and after they cooled down, I cut the strips into 2-3 inch pieces, stacked them in a pile over a piece of string then tied them up tightly. This korker was stacked on top of another bow but you could easily use them by themselves. Korkers look adorable in pigtails!!! If you have any questions, please feel free to email me. Also, if you are in the market for some bows, check out Carries Custom Crafts on Facebook or visit her Etsy store www.carriescustomcrafts.etsy.com. I make most of my own bows but Carrie does a fantastic job and Shelby has a few Carrie has made. You won't be disappointed!!

Thanks for joining me today! I'll be back tomorrow with a fun back to school layout I created. Hope you can stop by!

Katie

Friendship Card

Happy Tuesday! I hope your week is off to a great start! I am back again today to share a friendship card I made.

I used my Gazelle to create the card base and yellow flower. I simply used the framete file and shadowed it to create the card base then cut the frame out in the glitter cardstock. The sentiment was stamped on plain cardstock with Unity's Forever Friends set then placed inside the frame. The yellow flower was layered together using American Crafts This to That Foam Tabs. The blue flower was a white Prima flower I airbrushed with my Copics. For a little final detail I inked all my edges and tucked some flourishes under the flowers.

The new Framettes from BossKut are also available in die form. You can see all the new designs and pre-order them HERE.

Katie

Spirit Wear

I don't know about your houshold, but sports play a fairly big role in mine. All of my kids are now in public school and Shelby is eating it up!! She is totally amazed with the cheerleaders. Since our oldest, Brian, is playing Jr. High football, I thought I'd be fun to make Shelby some spirit wear for game days. I pulled out my trusty Gazelle and went to work. The school mascot is the rocket and it just so happens that BossKut has a rocketship digital image. I tweaked the image to meet what I was wanting, cut my template material and here's how it turned out...

And, spirit wear is NOT complete without a BIG 'ole bow! Right?! hehehe Shelby LOVES her new shirt and bow. I ended up making her a giant, fluffy tulle tutu to wear with it.

Being able to transform ANY digital image into a rhinestone feature is one of the great new functions of the Funtime Version 3 Software. Thanks for stoppin' by today! I'll be back again tomorrow with another project.

Katie

2011 Calendar

I think I shared the story before of the friend I had that gave me a great, handmade calendar. Once the year ended, I really missed my calendar so I started making my own. This year I decided to make mine 5x8. It will be bound on the 5" side using my Cinch Bindery Tool. So far, I've completed January, October and December. Here's a peek...

And to do ALL of this, I turned to my Gazelle. The calendar pages themselves were created in the Funtime Version 3 software. There's actually a calendar template in there so I opened it and tweaked it to fit my needs. Then I simply removed my blade, dropped in my 0.8 Copic Multiliner (black) and let the Gazelle do all the work for me. Once it was "drawn" I returned the blade to the holder and cut it out. It was really that simple!!

For my pages, I simply chose digital designs that fit what month I was working on. I did add one of the new Spellbinders 2010 Snowflake Pendants. I LOVE these flakes!!! As for my month titles, I used one of the 200 or so fonts in my Funtime Version 3 software!!!

You can see that my pages have already been punched with the Cinch. As soon as I have the other months finished up I'll bind it all together! If you have any questions regarding the Gazelle please feel free to email me anytime at katie@scrap-mart.com. I'll be back Monday with a fun spirit wear project!

Katie

Followers link removed....

Hi friends,

Today I removed my followers link. I appreciate each and every one of you who follow my blog because you are genuinely interested in the content. However, I noticed there were some relatively new followers I was in no way affiliated with and whose blog content WAS NOT something I wanted attached to my blog in ANY way. I DO have a Feedblitz subscription button, which I moved up on the page. If you'd like to continue to follow my blog please add yourself to the Feedblitz subscription and you will get email notifications each time I update.

Thanks for your understanding!

Katie

Hello friends....

Another week has come and gone. I'm back in the swing of things after being gone for the long weekend. My mom flew home last Friday. We miss her. She had a slight mishap and fell getting onto the plane. She broke the bone beteween her ankle and pinkie toe on her left foot. Today she is to meet with the osteopathic doctor to see if she needs a cast or not. Fortunately, the ER doctor told her that bone tends to heal well on it's own and usually does not require a cast. Any prayers would be greatly appreciated!!

Now, onto crafty fun. The "BIG" announcement I mentioned a few weeks ago was made over the weekend so now I can spread the good news. I was invited by the owners of BossKut to join their Gazelle design team!! Yeah! I'm soooooo excited! Stop by the BK Blog to "meet" the other new designers.

Here's one of my DT reveal projects...

The box, apple and sentiment were all cut using my Gazelle. I love that I can manipulate and resize the designs to fit my needs. For the ruler and library card I used my new Papertrey Ink stamps. It's hard to see in the picture but after I stamped the ruler, I ran it through my Cuttlebug with the PTI woodgrain embossing plate. I love how it turned out. I finished the box off by adding some ribbon to the handle. It's the perfect size to add some candy or notecards to.

Well, that's all I have to share today. Thank you for stopping by and sharing in the big news with me. I'll be back tomorrow to share another fun new project I tackled. Hope to see you then!

Katie

Check this out...

My mom is great at crocheting. She has crocheted as long as I can remember. Since crochet flowers seem to be super popular on projects these days, I asked and she delivered. Take a peek...

Sweet, huh?! And I bet you're wondering whey they're all white??? Well, because I thought if they were all white then I could mist them with my Glimmer Mists or airbrush them with my Copics to get the colors I needed. Yeah!!! I can't wait to play with them. Rest assured they will be added to at lease ONE project this weekend. ;)

Well, I'm off for my retreat. I don't know if I'll check in over the weekend but I'll be back next week for sure. Have a wonderful and safe holiday weekend.

Katie

My new pj pants

This weekend is my birthday and every year I go to The Scrappin' Pad for a weekend retreat. It works out great because Monday is Labor Day so I get to spend an extra night. ;) Some people think I'm crazy for not staying home with my family for my birthday but I always celebrate with my hubby and kids before I go.

Rocky usually buys me new pj's for my retreat every year. Nothing fancy, just some comfy lounge pants with a t-shirt. This year, since my mom fixed my sewing machine I thought it would be fun to make my own. Sooo, with the help of my mom I did. Here they are...

All my favorites combined: capris, zebra print and pink. hahaha I really do love them. I have a black t-shirt to wear with them and I'm pretty sure before the weekend is out it'll be blinged up.

Thanks for stoppin' by today. I'll be back tomorrow with a quick post to show you something awesome my mom made for me. See you then!

Katie

just checkin' in....

okay, pj pants NOT done yet. Pulling out sewing machine NOW!!! Be back tomorrow with finished project...hopefully!! :) Have a fab Wednesday!

Katie