I live in Nebraska and expect to have the ground covered in snow for most of the winter. So far we haven’t had too much and even my kids are starting to ask me when winter will get here. We’ve got snow in the forecast but I thought we could cut out some snowflakes to get in the mood.

Here are some of my favorite tutorials for some really beautiful and unique cut paper snowflakes.

Origami-style snowflake

Elegant  paper snowflakes

I love Twitter. What does that have to do with card making? Everything. This little card making activity came to be because of a few tweets with some Twitter friends. Kashoan and Kelli came over last Friday to work on some Christmas cards with me at my house.

I wanted to make some simple cards with some glitter. Here is what I came up with:

The image stamp is from Schlosser Designs’ Out of the Box set. I stamped it using a versamark ink pad (watermark) and then poured on a bit of heat n’ stick powder.  I used my heat gun to heat it up and then sprinkled on some turquoise glitter. I stamped the word “Sparkle” (from Stampin’ Up’s Warm Words set) and that was it.

This card was made the exact same way using the same stamp sets. I just used green ink and glitter.

I’m thinking that I want to go with a super simple and clean design for my holiday cards this year.

Are you still sending holiday cards? Do you include pictures? Letters? Nothing?

I had some really great craft ideas surrounding the movie, Despicable Me.  Most of those had to do with the little minions.  My kids LOVE those little guys.  I thought I might be able to make a lot of little minions using thumbprints.  I was smart enough to practice.

When it was clear that my thumbprint minions needed some work, I changed directions and started going in the fluffy unicorn direction. You can see my amazing rendition of a fluffy unicorn.  Drawing is not one of my strengths.

Cricut to the rescue.  There is a sweet unicorn in the Once Upon a Princess Cartridge.  I cut that out and decided to cover it with fluff.

Recognize the card?  It was part of the Dinotalk Scrapbook Invitational.  The fluff is cotton layered on top of some tacky glue.  I also had to throw in a rainbow for good measure (also on the Once Upon a Princess cartridge).  The clouds received some fluff, as well.

It is all on top of some glittery paper and, because it is a product from Dinotalk, it talks!  The inside says, “It’s so fluffy I’m gonna die!”.

So, there you have it.  That’s how I went from thumbprints to unicorns.

Dinotalk is the sponsor of next month’s craft challenge.  If you’d like to try out their products, you can sign up for the challenge until Sept. 30th. I have a limited number of the products so when they’re gone, they’re gone!

Guess what?  I’ve got some of my projects in the Dinotalk Scrapbook Invitational contest.  Could you take a moment and vote for me or one of the other participants?  We are competing to win $100 gift card for us and $100 gift card for the charity of our choice.  Many of you know that my oldest son has autism.  If I win, I would donate my prize to the Autism Family Network.  It is an organization that provides support and help to families and friends of people with autism.  I can’t tell you what an amazing resource that has been for me and my family.

This is one of the projects I made for them a few months ago. It is still one of my favorite projects. Dinotalk products are really fun because you get to record a message. On this project I used some rub-on letters to write out the word “Play”. The picture I chose gives that word a double meaning because it shows my kids playing and also gives you a hint that if you press the frame, you’ll hear a message. You’ll just happen to hear my kids say, “We love you, Grandma & Grandpa!”.

You can vote for this project by emailing CN-3 to contest@dinotalk.com.

This was another frame I did for them.  I doodled on it a la Zentangle.  I used a Sharpie poster paint marker directly on the frame and it looks great!  I pretty much want to zentangle everything now.  I’ll be doing another post about that later.

This next project will also be part of another blog post, but wanted to show you since it was also a entry in the invitational.

This is a recordable paper greeting card and when you open it up it says, “It’s so fluffy I’m gonna die!  It’s so FLUFFY!“.  It’s a shout out to Agnes from Despicable Me and if you haven’t taken your whole family to see that movie yet…DO IT!  So cute.  My kids loved that movie and my daughter listened to this card at least 30 times before I packed it up for the trip to Chicago.

I hope you’ll take the time to vote for your favorite for this contest.  It’s for a good cause and it will give you a good idea of all the great things that you can do with the Dinotalk Naked collection.

I received all of the Dinotalk products featured here for free but was not compensated in any way for this post or my opinions on this product.  Those are all mine.

This was one of my favorite May Day projects.  We made a cone out of scrapbook paper and filled it with pixie sticks.  We made the pixie sticks look like flowers by adding some punched scallops and circles.  I also used some fun stamps to embellish the flowers.  I punched a hole in the back of the cone and added an eyelet to thread the ribbon through.  Super easy to make!

We made these little matchbook favor boxes last year for May Day.  Here is the tutorial on how to make those.

This year I haven’t decided on what we’re going to make for our baskets.  I have a feeling fabric and felt will be be involved.  I’ll be sure to post the finished results.

Speaking of finished results…want to know the winner of the April Craft Challenge?

You can use different materials to make these beads as fancy as you’d like.  We used some glossy paper that I had on hand.  Think about using scrapbook paper rolled up and finished with a clear lacquer and then mixed with glass beads for a funky bracelet or bookmark.  Maybe I should try that…

Supplies:

junk mail (magazine paper, brochures, etc…)
toothpicks (we couldn’t find ours so we used matches)
Elmer’s glue
scissors
string

1. Pick out your paper. We used  paper cut from one of those playground brochures.

2. Get your stick.

3. Cut your paper into triangles. The longer the triangles, the thicker the bead. Experiment with the size you like best. Then, starting with the largest side, start rolling them (right side down) onto the stick.

4. When you get to the end, put some glue along the tip and then keep rolling. You want to have a little excess so you can roll it across the rest of the bead. Your fingers will get a little messy—that’s what crafting is all about! Using Mod Podge would be a better option if you’re making beads for more than just play.

5.  Here are some of our finished beads. You can then string them onto string, yarn, or beading cord. We just used some old crochet thread I had lying around (turquoise/silver…oooh la la). The girls loved them!

Today is my last day doing Cricut demos.  I’ll miss hanging out with my crafty friends and cutting stuff out on the Cricut for hours and hours a day.  I won’t miss the being on my feet, lugging boxes, and Costco snack bar.  Over the next couple of days I’m going to show you some of the cool things I’ve been making.

The first day I focused on making these nesting dolls using the Paisley cartridge.  That cartridge has a whimsical style and involves a lot of layering.  I don’t mind layering as much when I have a large time to dedicate to cutting.  Also, I don’t mind when the finished product turns out as cute as these!

I cut the largest one out at 3 1/2″ and cut each smaller one out in 1/2″ increments.  That means the smallest is 2″.  These are a great project to use up all those little scraps of paper that you can’t seem to get rid of.

You know you have some.

Here is a little coupon book that I made for my husband three years ago for Valentine’s Day.  I used a few different Stampin’ Up sets to make it.  I’m pretty sure they are all retired now but I’m posting this now more for the idea and less for you wanting to make an exact replica.

The inside used the Create a Coupon stamp set.  Each coupon has a perforation on the inside edge for easy removal.  I did that using the perforation tool from the Stampin’ Up cutter kit.  I layered the coupons in between my front and back and then used my Crop-a-dile to add two large eyelets on the sides.  The ribbon is decorative.  It isn’t needed to hold the book together.

This is a relatively easy and very inexpensive gift to give for Valentine’s Day.  The best part is that it is super customizable.  You choose what you want to offer on the coupons so it is the ultimate thoughtful gift!

Punched paper flowers were all around at CHA Winter this year.  Almost every paper, punch, and scrapbooking booth had some on display.  The flowers shown in the picture above were made using Punch Bunch paper punches.

I love all the detail you can get in a flower using just a few different paper punches.  This last picture reminded me of the hanging bouquet I made for my daughter.  I may need to do another one using paper flowers!  It would certainly be less expensive.