Happy Turkey Day!

A lot of people have a fun holiday tradition of making their own Christmas cards over Thanksgiving weekend . . . wow, how much fun is that? I hope to have some family members some day to share this tradition with some day. (Right now, the boys are not so hot on it.) This week, my friend Kandi asked me to put together a kit for her to make her own Christmas cards. Pshhaw. . . you know me! I was more than happy to get right on it. :) First we looked at a few cards - and Kandi chose to make some ornament - looking cards for her friends and family. Being a newbie to scrapbooking supplies these days must be very intimidating. I can't imagine how it would be to have to stare down the aisles of the craft store - trying to figure out what to buy first? I am hoping that I was able to help Kandi out by picking the best of all of the essentials.

I made use of some patterned paper that I already had on hand. I bought some coordinating cardstock, and a few embelishments. I raided the dollar bins. . . I hit the dollar stamp baskets at Michael's, and used a few other things that I already had on hand. In the end I spent less than $25 for all of Kandi's supplies. All that was left was to cut her some cute sentiments and things with my Cricut. Did I tell you guys that I got a Cuttlebug this month too? I did! And I love it! I am still practicing with it. But I bought a few templates to make a few things for Kandi's kit too.

Somebody said something once - I believe it is in a movie, and it is real similar to a quote by General Patton. Don't show someone how to do a job, give them the supplies that they need to do the job, and let them suprise you with their ingenuity. I love it when a quote totally fits the situation.

Kandi I hope that you have a great time with your kit! Happy Turkey Day to all of you - happy card making and turkey eating and football watching and shopping and all of those great things that come with the weekend. . . . oh, and new video for you too. :)

Shiny Things

My days off are over and I am gently packing away all of my goodies that will be for sale at the craft fair this weekend. I would be telling a big lie if I said I wasn't nervous about this... but I am keeping in mind that it is all for fun and it will be great experience for craft fairs of the future, and who knows what else may lie ahead for me?

I spent today going over my inventory and adding a few things here and there. I made six of these cards at the last minute - to use up a sheet of really pretty ornament stickers that I found.

Here is a list of supplies for this card which used not one, but three different Cricut cartridges. Won't I be glad if I can afford to buy a Gypsy with my craft fair earnings? :)

The card base is a 5.5x7 in. plain white card base.

The bottom layer is a 5.5x7 black cardstock

The red mat is a 5x6.5 red cardstock with an oval window.

I cut the oval window by running the red cardstock through my Cricut using the George and Basic Shapes cartridge - I cut a 5" oval shape. The placement of the cardstock for this cut required a lot of practice with scrap paper, a bit of magic, and quite a few cuss words.

Next I cut a pine branch from the Joys of the Season cartridge on the 3" setting. The pine branch actually includes a pinecone hanging from the branch. I cut those little buggers off. I did not want green pinecones on my branches. Kthx.

The sentiment was cut using Winter Woodland - "Season's Greetings" on the 1.5" setting. I cut the background on black cardstock, the shadow outline on red, and the letters on a gold foil paper. Gluing these three layers together also took a bit of magic and even more cuss words.

Next, I made a pot of coffee and enjoyed some new chocolate mint truffle creamer.

I added glitter to the pine branches. ^_^ *glitter*

I added the ornament stickers and a green bow.

I stamped the insides of the cards with "Merry Christmas" and stamped the

corners of the envelopes with a holly leaf.

It occured to me, that you could make these cards or something similar - and instead of adding the ornament stickers, you could add a real christmas ornament. Something that isn't too huge and bulky - those flat, brass ones could be really pretty this way. Then you could send a card and ornament, all in one. Neat!

That is all for now - I will be working the rest of the week and thankfully, we have Friday night to set up the booth for the fair on Saturday. Wish me luck - I shall return with a lot of photos and hopefully, a lot less inventory. :)

Blog Hop Winner!

...Drumroll please....





And the winner of my blog hop prize for the Operation Write Home post from Saturday is. . .

Jeanna! Hooray! Thank you all for stopping by - I had great time with the blog hop. It's always fun to meet new friends and see what you have all been up to for our troops. It's truly inspiring and amazing. :)

Happy BlogHop!

Oh happy day! It's time for the Veteran's Day Bloghop for Operation Write Home. . . something that I have been really excited about! If you are just getting started or have stopped here by chance, please begin your hopping at the Homefront Blog!

Allrighty then. . . welcome to Scrap Happens. . . my little blog about everything scrappy in my life! I have a few fun card and layout ideas and even videos here. Stop by any time! I love visitors!

So if you are making Valentines for the troops, they are due by January 8th. Plenty of time to get those love notes made! There are so many of our deployed heroes have loved ones at home. I can't wait to send in my next box of cards. . . they are just so full of love! It gives me lots of warm fuzzies to think that their loved ones will recieve these little notes and have a special keepsake from so far away. I don't think that I will ever need any more reason to make cards for the troops than the ones you can find here. Go read. take tissue!!!

One of my favorite things is mixing and matching and finding products that compliment each other well. Here are a few that are perfect for making Valentines! Making Memories has a great selection of papers and embelishments called "Love Notes." (A neat thing about this collection is, it is from last year, so you can find them on CLEARANCE at scrapbook.com!) I also used the "Storybook" Cricut cartridge to cut out some coordinating letters and embelishments. They go together like pb&j. :)



You can also find these coordinating notebook looking pages, which are perfect for liners for the insides of your cards! See?



Does it get any better? Yes! There are also coordinating envelopes and guess what size they are. . . A2. Weeeee!



In no time at all, you can create a whole pile of cards with matching liners and envelopes and adorable sentiments and embelishments. . . it is like Valentine bliss.
Here are a few. . .



Now then, I have to add that I was first introduced to these products because they all came to me as part of a monthly card kit that I got last February from Express the Moment. I use these monthly card kits to make cards for the troops very frequently. I find it fast and easy because all of the supplies are already matched up for you and if you want even more, you can add on extras from the ETM store!

Here is my contest. . . leave me a reply to this post and on Monday evening (the 16th) I will use a randomizer program of some kind to pick a winner - the winner will recieve a Expressions Card Kit that I will purchase for you from ETM. I will also throw in a few goodies and embelishments and other treats. To qualify you must post leaving me a name or contact info of some kind. . . I will post the name of the winner here on Monday night!

I love making cards in general - but especially when they go to the people who will really treasure them - the troops and their loved ones - friends and family at home who are so grateful for all of their hard work.

Now then, there are tons of awesome blogs to move on to. So hop on over to the next blog. . . .

Sewcrazy by Aimee!

and thanks so much for stopping by!

November Expressions!!!

Wow. . . this year is flying by faster and faster each month! The November club kits are out from Express the Moment and there is a super cool suprise included with the Expressions Kits! The Expressions kits are for making cards, tags or other lovely things. They cost just $15.oo (plus shipping if you are not local) and boy are they worth every penny! You get all of these great papers and embelishments and envelopes for making . . . . anything that your imagination can create! Kim has asked me to help out by making a few cards for examples each month. She calls this being part of her design team. . . I call it, Ultimate Fun!!!!! Hehehe.

You can purchase the kits at the ETM website. You can even sign up to get them sent to you each month. Can you imagine going to the local craft store to purchase things to make 6-10 cards? I can garuntee you that I can NEVER get out of the craft store only spending $15.00. And even then, I am not so sure that what I bought will match very well. Kim has an incredible eye for detail and such great taste in matching patterns and embelishments and papers. You really have to see these kits to believe it!

Allow me to show an example. If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is a ten minute video? Oh, all videos for YouTube have to be less than ten minutes. Who knew! :D

I will showcase my Expressions creations here at my blog each month. For even MORE detail and instructions on how to make the cards, you will need to check out the photo gallery at ETM. Thanks for checkin' it out. And here are some fun cards for November. :D

This one's for the boys!

Ahh. . . the next few weeks are going to be just full of scrap! I have a ton of things to finish up to add to my inventory for the craft fair at Bonneville High School - it will be the 21st of November so set your calendars and alarm clocks and phone alarms and all of that jazz. :) I hope to have a lot of really unique an fun things up for sale for the holidays - including all of this last years' inventory that did not sell on ETSY and tons of really fun holiday cards and gifts.

Now then. Who says you can't find or make the perfect hand made card for the guys in our lives? It's not that guys don't like or appreciate hand made cards, I don't think. I'm pretty sure that it's mostly because they could just do without all of the glitter and ribbons and all of that fancy schmancy stuff. So here is one that will be in my inventory for the craft fair. . . just right for all of the Dads and husbands and brothers and grandpas out there, especially if they are the outdoorsy type!

Oh, and there is just one tiny bit of bling. I couldn't help it. (See nose.)



Card Day Clubbers. . . we will be meeting next Monday at Stephanie's house! Hooray for card day. . . who is ready to make Christmas cards?

I will have my November cards up for Express the Moment later this week. I owe a big thank you to Kim for allowing me to help her out with the Expressions Kits each month. . . they will always be featured here at my blog as well as at the ETM site for anyone who wants ideas and tutorials! I am so super excited to be part of Kim's design team! There are going to be a lot of really fun things to do with this in the future. I CAN'T WAIT!

I will also be participating in a blog hop later this month for Operation Write Home, in which we will be featuring Valentines for the troops! This will be a really fun event for Veterans' Day. Lots of great things headed my way, for which I am truly thankful. Times are good!

-Nancy