How to Make an Owl Bedtime Layout

Good morning crafters Penny here to show you how I made a cute Owl bedtime layout using my cricut. '

This is a layout I did for a friend of mine's baby album.  It's not very fancy, but it was fun to do. The title, moon, star's and owl were all made using my Cricut cutting machine. IT was a blast to make, and cut. Below you will see a close up version of the owl. The photo mat was distressed with ink, and is really a baby shower invitation that had a fancy edge on it, so I turned it over, and used it as a photo mat.  That is my frugal tip for you today on this layout. 

For the owl I added google eye's to the eye's just to make him more fun to look at.
I also added glitter to the owl, title, moon, and star's. My only tip about using glitter
glue is that you need to use extra glue to hold the pieces down afterward's as they
tend to curl up after the glitter dries. In this photo you can see that the middle part
of the owl's yellow feather's are starting to peel up.  When this happen's to me I
use my Exacto type knife, and scrape some glue from my glue stick, and apply it
to those small area's with my knife. It's much easier that way than to try, and pry
it up in order to glue it. Then I hold it in place for a few second's till it dries.  It
make take several attempts to finally get it to lay flat. Easy as pie!

Supplies for this layout include:
Cricut Cutting machine
Cricut cartridge
Google eye's
DCWV - cardstock in orange, brown, yellow.
Pattern Paper - Unknown
Fabric Trim - Unknown
Stickers - Mrs. Elizabeth (Dollar Tree Brand)
Studio G - Glitter glue
Elmer's Glue
Spare Part's Brads
Sequin's - Unknown
Clothing studs - Unknown
Tim Holtz - Distress Ink
Baby Shower invitation - Unknown
Well till next time happy Scrapping! Love Penny

How to Reuse Scrabble Tiles.

how to make frugal but nice Thank You cards.

Well today I am up with a "Thank You" card made with a leather flower from 
a belt, and some great looking "Scrabble" game tiles. This is a simple little card, but I think the "Scrabble" game tile's give it a really cute look, and unlike other card's I've made I might actually send this one! 

Supplies for this card include:

Scrabble game tiles that I took from an old Scrabble game that only cost me $1.00 at a yard sale last year.  (Frugal Tip of the day!)
Pattern paper - Unknown, I maybe able to find the maker of this paper, but I
have had it for year's, and it came with the divided stitched pattern already printed on it. 
The small "Gratitude" quote on the card I think was made by K & Co. 
Deco Postage Stamp Scissors - Fiskers
Green bow I think came in a pack of baby shower cards - unknown
Brad's - Spare Parts
Glue Dot's - Therma Web Zot's
The Leather flower is one I cut off of a ladies belt I think.
Butterfly sticker's - Miss Elizabeth's
Well till next time Happy Scrapping! Love Penny 

How to Make Scrapbook Layouts with Wallpaper

Penny here to show you how I made a "Fairy" layout using wallpaper border.

This is page 1 of the Fairy layout I did for a friend's baby album.  The Fairy portion
of this layout was done with a wallpaper border that I loved, (There's a frugal tip for
you.) and had been wanting to use for quite some time now. I added sequin's, and
brad's to the flower center's, and glitter glue to the photo mat. My only regret about
this layout is I am really not liking the alphabet sticker's on these pages.  I think they
are too hard to read, cute, but hard to read.

I basically did the same thing's on page two, just added some punched out 
butterflies.  This was a fun, easy, and fast layout! Till next time Happy
Scrapping! Love Penny

Supplies:
Wallpaper border - Unknown
Pattern paper - My Mind's Eye, Frances Meyer -5306-009, and unknown.
Brads - Spare Parts
Sequin's - Purchased at Wal-Mart
Martha Stewart - Butterfly punch
Alphabet stickers - Mrs. Elizabeth's (I think)
Glitter Glue- Studio G
Bows - These were made with fabric binding that came off of a large roll.
"Lovely" sticker - K & Co. 
DCWV - Purple cardstock
Bling dot's - Studio G

How to Make Baby Layouts with Your Cricut

Penny here to show you how to use your die cut machine to make baby layouts.

 Good morning today I am posting another two page layout from my dear
friend's baby album.  All of these page's are pre-made so all she has to do
is glue her photo's in place.  On this page I left a large enough spot so that
she could use a photo as large as a 5 x 7 on top of the pink heart doily. The
title, and bunnies were all cut out using my Cricut machine. I also applied glitter
glue to the edges of the bunnies, flowers, and totally filled in the title. It looks
so much better in person, the glitter glue seems to affect my camera so that
the images are slightly blurry. Sorry about that. The flowers on this page
were made by my granddaughter, and I (Thanks Madison) She is only 10
so to those of you who say "you can't do this" I say you are wrong! We
made these flowers with a variety of punches.

There is a close up of the bunnies, and flowers. Super easy, super fun.
The hardest part is seriously waiting for the glitter glue to dry!

Page 2 of this layout uses slightly smaller doilies, a card, and a photo mount
placed on the outside of the card. More of the sparkly flowers, and some
pink lace. I hope my granddaughter, and I have helped to inspire you to
give your own punched out flowers a try, and to make a gift album for
someone in your life. Till next time Happy Scrapping! Love Penny
P.S. Making your own flowers is my frugal tip for you today!

Supplies for this layout:
Cricut cutting machine
Cricut cartridge - Sugar N Spice
Pattern paper:
Daisy D's - Sage Gingham 3083
Bunny paper unknown, checked paper used in flower's unknown
Doilies - These were purchased from Dollar Tree
Glitter Glue - Studio G
Lace - C & G Co.
Washi Tape - Dollar Tree
Brads - Spare Parts
Bows - Clothing binding
Card - Unknown
Small photo mat - Daisy D's
Glue - Elmer's , and Therma Web glue dots
Punches - McGill, Martha Stewart, and Paper Shapers
DCWV - Cardstock in pink, white, and green

How to Make Pre-Made Layouts as Gifts.

Today I'm going to show you some more pre-made baby layouts in case you would like to make a scrapbook album for a friend. 

Good Morning! Today I am up with another Cricut baby layout from the gift albums
I have been making. For this layout I used my Cricut to cut out the title " My
Favorite Things", and the large flower in the lower left hand corner, The cartridge
I used was Sugar N Spice which I love because it has a lot of fun easy to use
title's, and cut out's. The orange card on the top was from a Hallmark card kit,
and the lower card was also from a card kit, but it was just a simple fold out
card.  I love using those item's for hidden journaling, or added photos.  Quick,
and easy, that's my kind of style! I added the vellum quote's to both cards.

Page 2 of this layout also uses card's or invitation cards on it.  I loved
the scalloped shape of the lower card's, and that they were already
pre-cut into that shape. The top card was also pre-cut with the window,
it's a little hard to see but there is an embossed "B" in the window
which was probably supposed to be used for someone monogram,
but I chose for it to represent "B" for "Baby"! I applied the vellum
to the card on this layout as well.  I used clothing gem stud's to hold the
lower cards in place. Well till next time Happy Scrapping! Love Penny

Supplies for this layout include:
Cricut Cutting Machine
Cricut Cartridge -Sugar N Spice Title, and flower
Clothing Studs - Unknown
Pattern Paper -
Strip on top of pg 2 - Echo Park
Mrs. Elizabeth's
Doily - Dollar Tree
DCWV - Orange cardstock
Flower stickers - Unknown I have had these forever
Offray - Ribbon
Hallmark - Connections SKU 15012 68342
Gartner Studio's - Fold out card pg 1
Spare Parts - Brads
Vellum Quotes - Unknown
Other card accessories - Unknown
Glue - Elmer's

How to Make Scrapbook Pages for Babies Using Your Cricut.

Penny here today to show you how to make pre-made grand baby layouts.

For these layout's the pages were made almost exactly alike, with the only
difference being that one layout said: "The key to Nana's Heart, and the
other layout said:

 "The key to Pap Paw's Heart".  For page one on these layout's I used my cricut
cutting machine to cut out the title,and key then I applied glitter glue to them. The
lace doily started out as white, then I added some Brilliance ink to it to give it
that beautiful shine. The photo mat was from a wedding kit, but I added the
yellow glitter glue to each flower center, boring to do but really cute, and that way
it matched the background paper.  The tag on the right hand side was a tag sticker
that I purchased at "Dollar Tree". The striped accent is washi tape. The background
of the title piece is really the throw-away part of the photo mat which I then
chalked to give it some added texture.

For page 2,
I used more of the wedding invitation kit part's,  and more washi tape

and "Dollar Tree" stickers. The fold out card can be used for journaling or
for another photo, your choice. The tiny flower's on that card are from silk
flower's I tore off of their plastic stems. That is my frugal tip for you today.
Till next time Happy Scrapping! Love Penny

Supplies for this layout:
Pattern paper - Mrs. Elizabeth's - Found at Dollar Tree
Stickers - Dollar Tree
Alphabet Stickers - Mrs. Elizabeth's, and Makin Memories
Photo, and white journaling mat - Wilton Wedding Invitation Kit
Brads - Spare Parts
Washi Tape - Unknown
Doilies - Unknown
Ink - Brilliance Ink pad by Tsukineko
Fold out card by - Gartner
Silk Flowers - Unknown
Sequin's - Purchased at Wal-Mart
Ribbon - Holiday Time, and Offray
Glitter Glue - Studio G
Glue - Elmer's, Therma Web Glue dots
Tiny applique flower - I tore this off of a little girl's broken headband

How to Make Birthday Scrapbook Layouts

This is a layout of my grandfather during his 90th birthday celebration.  In the photo are my grandparents Reed, and Nancy, and my mom Frances.  The background paper, and most of the embellishments on this layout were made by My Mind's Eye.  I adore their supplies, and I love the quality of their paper! I don't remember who made the butterfly pattern paper, sorry.

The tiny flowers are from Prima, the doily is from the Wilton baking section that I distressed the edges with using Tim Holtz inks. ( my frugal tip today ) The tags on the title were from a sheet of scrapbook paper that had the alphabet tags printed on them, and you just cut them out, I have had them for years. The ribbon is from Offray.

I also used glitter glue by Studio G, and brads by Spare Parts. The arrow was made using a punch. I also added sequins under the brads on the main photo. I hope I am teaching you how to use up your older supplies instead of just letting them sit on your shelves. Well until tomorrow Happy Scrapping! Love Penny

How to Make a Heritage Family Scrapbook Layout

This is a heritage family layout I made of my aunt Rose, my brother James, my mom Frances, and my aunt's granddaughter Mary Elizabeth. I don't remember who made the background paper on this layout, or the butterfly paper, but the patten photo frame was made by My Mind's Eye. 

The flower in the bottom left was made with two punches.  The larger flower was made with a McGill Perfect Petals punch, and the center punch I think may have also been McGill but I am not certain of that. The flowers on the right hand side of the page were won in a blog contest from Evila French Evila TheCrafter French.  That is the name you will find her under on 
Facebook, she is a really sweet lady.  

The butterflies were made with two punches by Martha Stewart, and some Studio G 
glitter glue. The title was made using punch out alphabets from Colorbok.  The tag was 
made using a punch by Paper Shapers.  The ribbon is unknown. The buttons were 
bought at Wal-Mart about 2 years ago.  The bling dots were also from Studio G. 

The paper doily was made for a food tray by Wilton, and may, or may not be acid free, 
but they work for me. I have had the lace forever. It always feels great to use up your 
older supplies! 
Till next time Happy Scrapping! Love Penny

How to Make a Grandfather Scrapbook Layout

Here is a simple, fun, and easy layout to make for your grandfather. 

This started out as a full 12 x 12 page of the light green in the top right hand corner.  My favorite pattern on here is the swirl pattern in the top left, but it was overwhelming pattern for a whole sheet so I added the other colors to tone it down a little. 

The bottom journaling block is a fold out card that has plenty of  room for either more photos or lot's of journaling.  

The flowers are from Dollar General silk flowers that I removed off of their stems, and used studs to hold in place.  

The small checked square of blue paper on this journaling block comes from the sheet of paper that let's you preview what paper styles are included in the pack of paper you purchased, and most people would have thrown this away with their packaging.  I choose to use it instead, not because I don't have a huge selection of paper but because I am a "use it, don't waste it and put it in the land fill" kinda girl. 

Next I added the title which is from K & Co. I held it and the flowers in place with clothing studs. Then I added the top tag. I stapled these sheets together just to help make sure the glue held well. The blue strips are ribbon. 

Simple easy, and still leaves you plenty of space for photos. Till next time Happy Scrapping. Love Penny

How to Make A Beautiful Dress For A Scrapbook Layout

Penny here today to show you a layout where I paper pieced the dress on the page. This would be great for a wedding layout.

I had never tried to make an all white layout before, and this one put me to the test! I took this photo of my granddaughter Madison quite some time ago, and I was just waiting on the right layout to use it on, it was a little blurry but I loved it anyway. 

The layout had to be special since in this photo Madison was doing her best "Marilyn Monroe" imitation. This challenge seemed to fit perfectly with this photo so I went forward with the layout process crossing my fingers that I didn't screw it up. LOL

I ended up making almost all of my embellishments for this challenge myself because most of the supposedly "all white" embellishments that I already owned ended up having some other colors on them in tiny amounts.

For the flowers I used mainly McGill punches, a few tiny silk flowers, Versa Mark ink, and glitter with an assortment of brads, and sequins to hold them in place.  

To give this layout added texture I used mulberry paper, and various edged scissors on an assortment of paper strips. The bows on this layout were pre-made by Wilton. (Thank goodness because by then I was getting tired of making embellishments.)

To make the dress. I first hand drew, and cut out the dress. Then I used folded torn strips of paper to give the dress a ruffled effect. Next I tucked in bits, and pieces of lace, and then added the sequins, and brads. Not perfect by any means but my old Home Economics teacher would tell you it's the best piece of clothing I've ever made! LOL

I also added a piece of vellum which I had stamped flower images on with white ink. I wasn't prepared for the hardest part of this challenge however, which ended up being trying to take a photo of an all white layout! After several failed attempts I finally had to take it outside to get a decent shot, and even then the name portion of the layout which was made up with bling didn't quite show up as well as I wished it would have.  

Good luck on your own, "White" layout, and dress making! I think I may try another one as soon as my punches cool down! LOL Happy Scrapping, Love Penny

Supplies:
Flower punches - McGill
Ink - Versa Mark, and Studio G
Glitter - Studio G
Sequins - Unknown, flea market find
Brads - Recollections, and assorted.
Scissors - Fiskars
Wilton - bows, and leaves. 
Small scraps of assorted lace.
Mulberry paper
Title -  Mambi
Vellum - Unknown
Stamps - Still looking for MFG. name on these.

How to Make Men's Homemade Cards for Almost Free

Penny here today to show you how to make homemade cards out of calendars. It's super easy and frugal as well. 

When I made this card, I used a trick I have been using for years! The car photo was actually cut from a small monthly calendar!  Sometimes it can be hard to find good men's images for cards, but you can find GREAT men's images from these small calender's, and this calendar only cost me .50. So for .50 I have at least 12 car images. (usually its more than that because you can use the images on the cover and the back of the calendar as well) 

I have found these also with images of tractors, boats, travel themes, dogs, cats, flowers etc...  They are probably not acid free but this has no worry for me since it's used on a card, instead of in my scrapbook, and I get the pleasure of not adding to our local landfill, and saving a ton of cash at the same time! Hey that work's for me!

Supplies for this card include:
Maroon and white cardstock
Fisker's border punch
Maroon ribbon
Hello sticker - this is on the inside
Quote sticker on front - this was a "super old" part of my stash, and was supposed to be used as a photo corner sticker, but I cut it where is joined in the corner, and put in it back together in a straight line, and used it that way instead. 

Calendar image - Mine were were purchased at Dollar General for a total of $.50 plus tax. What a great investment, and I didn't have to spend a ton of cash or hours of time trying to color my own stamped images, or spend a bundle on scrapbooking paper!

Until next time Happy Scrapping! Love Penny

How to Recycle Items for Your Home

Good morning crafters' Penny here today to show you how to upscale a key holder. 

I bought this shadowbox key holder at a thrift store.  The door was broken, it was dirty, and the front photo was water stained, but it had great potential.

The inside was really cute, and had sections where you could have your house keys without anyone knowing they were there.

So to get rid of the dirt, and grime that had built up on it I used ScraPerfect's Best Cleaner Ever and the Perfect Cleaning Cloth . Together they made an amazing difference to the frame of this box as you will see in the last photo on this post. This cleaner works on a huge assortment of materials, and the Perfect Cleaning Cloth  cleans eyeglasses, laptop screens, electronic touch screens, camera lenses, and a multitude of other surfaces. Together they can tackle just about any dirty job with success.

This is the chipboard backing of the photo.  You can clearly see it has some pretty serious water stains, and needs to be replaced. 

So using the old piece as a pattern I cut out some thick white cardstock to replace it with. Wow, what a difference!

To replace the stained front section I cut a piece of pastel checked pattern paper, using the old photo as a template..

On top of the pastel check I added this cute quote, and added some bling gems to give it a little more color. I held everything in place with 4 pink brads. I couldn't add too many embellishments because there wasn't room in the area in between the glass..

Then I removed enough of the staples to reinsert the new front photo, and backing. At this time I also replaced the missing screws that held the door on properly.

I plan on giving this as a Christmas gift.  I hope you like it as much as I do, and you do your own "Trash to Treasure" remake. Till next time Happy Scrapping, Love Penny

How to Make a Fun, and Easy Summer Layout.

Good morning today I am featuring a lovely summer layout of my grandson Matthew playing in the water. Oh to be that young and carefree again! 

I've always loved Mind's Eye  papers, and this photo was a perfect match for their "Kaleidoscope" collection that I have had hoarded up for several years.  Yes, I freely admit I use their papers VERY sparingly due to my extreme love for them, and they are so hard to get now!

The handwritten journaling reads:
"While playing in the sprinklers Matthew found out he had a "New Smile".

Before you even ask Yes, I have a brad addiction....I seriously doubt that I have EVER made a layout that didn't include brads somewhere on the layout..... Note to self: Get on a "brad" DT before I go broke buying them...

The plastic bubbles were from a button pack for bathing, along with the word "splash". The flower leaves in this layout were hand cut by me, out of some textured materials that I recycled.  I loved them as they are translucent, and yet have a lined texture.

The border banner is also made from Kaleidoscope papers, using the "A" and the "B" side.  I used a circle punch and then cut the circles in half which made for a perfect scalloped border! Yah!  me it seems I do have some brain cells left after all.....

Supplies for this layout include:
Pattern paper - My Mind's Eye Kaleidoscope
Love To Swim - KS1063
On The Shore - KS3072
Cardstock - DCWV
Brads - Recollections
Pearl Stud - unknown (top right corner)
Splash and water spots - I believe they are from a button pack that was for "bath time"
Chipboard - New Smile - unknown
Flower - Elements
Ink - Studio G pads
Prima flowers
Letter Stickers - Makin Memories
Green flower leaves were cut from the backside of a special heat tape, the green part is what you would have normally discarded after using the tape.
For this layout I also used a sketch by Anam Stubbington

How to Make a Mother and Daughter Scrapbook Layout.

Good morning Penny here today to show you how I made this cute mother and daughter layout using chipboard from Creating With Infinity Engraving..

The chipboard that I used for this layout started out as a card box, closely resembling this one, but with a bird cage theme. Example I wanted to use my chipboard separately however so I cut mine apart. Here is the bird cage section getting ready to be glued down. Prior to that I used a gold wax on it to give it some shimmer. 

This square and bird were also part of the card box, and on this section I used both wax, and glitter glue. 

Then I glued them in place over the photo of my daughter and granddaughter. The small bird at the top of the photo was also included in the card box and also received the same glitter glue, and wax. 

I also added the bead trim, and bling dots on the outside of the frame to highlight my photo. The tape strips are actually vinyl stripes from StyleTech Craft. I added brads to them to give them some added gold. 

The jourlaing card on the right side of this layout was a premade card that I bought just for this purpose. I loved that it had the bird theme, and the same sparkle. I added a tiny blue flower to the inside of the card, as you can see in the photo below. 

To make the title "Love Birds" I used some plastic alphabets in gold, and then accented them with gold dove punched shapes in gold as well. Then I added the flower, brad center, and bling strips. 

Then I added the matching bows, and called it done.

Here is a photo of the card / journaling section open.

Again the finished layout. I hope this layout shows you that you can use chipboard in a variety of ways, and not be bound by what everyone else is doing.

Be sure and stop by Creating With Infinity Etsy Shop and check out their wonderful chipboard, metal, and wood assorted laser cut products. You won't be disappointed. Till next time Happy Scrapping. Love Penny

How to Have Fun With Photo Challenges

This photo challenge was to show various shades of blue, and green.

Yeah I know you thought the challenge was to show "how not to weed a flower garden" fooled ya!  If that was the case I would have been the winner hands down, but alas this was a different challenge!

This photo was taken of my flower garden right at dusk.  I love how the light made all the green leaves look blue, but still kept the yellow of the flowers intact! I'd like to be able to say I did this intentionally BUT that wouldn't quite be the truth!  The real truth behind this photo is the challenge was almost over, and I had to run out nearly at dusk, and quickly snap a photo if I wanted to play along! Yes, I know I am SO organized!

I'd like to report that I won, but someone actually had a better photo, and probably better planning skills, so maybe next time! I did learn however what a photo at nearly dusk looks like, so all was not lost! So I guess the moral to this story is to have fun with these challenges, and try to lean something at the same time.

As a side note these flowers were grown from seed that my dear neighbor gave me, and they have continued to come back year after year, despite their oblivious neglect!  Gotta love that!
 Happy Scrapping! Love Penny

How to DIY your Baby Shower Glasses With Vinyl

Penny here today to show you some cute baby shower glasses I made using transparent vinyl.

I started with two plain glasses like this one, I bought 6 altogether for less than $2.00 at my local thrift shop. . 

Then I used the following Transparent Vinyl from StyleTech Craft. It's great for glassware, windows, and lots of fun projects.  I used the following two colors on my project, but they have a huge assortment of colors including another line in Transparent Glitter. 

Sky Blue 451T

Pink 475T

So after picking out my viny colors I broke out my die cut machine, and starting working on my glasses.

This is what the back side of my glasses look like. I chose the baby bottle because my glasses were slender, and tall so that worked great with the shape of the bottle. These objects could be changed however if you have a wider glass.

To make it easier to apply my vinyl I used this Transfer Tape. I would be lost without it, it makes the applying of the vinyl so easy, and hassle free, especially for words, and intricate items. Below are close ups of the boy glass images. I loved that the milk made the transparent vinyl stand out.
.
Front side

Back Side

To make the vinyl cover the bottom of the glass I first cut out a round circle the size of my base, then I used a hole punch to cut out the center of the circle. Next I cut the circle so that I could wrap it around the base. To give it more detail I added the pearl embellishments, and the bow. These glasses should be hand washed only due to those features, and the bow should be removed prior to washing..

The girl glass was made exactly the same way except I used bling dots instead of pearl dots as embellishments along with the bow. As with the boy glass it is hand wash only because of these embellishments.  You should also remove the bows prior to washing.

Here is a close up of both glasses bases. 

After cutting out my designs, I was careful to leave the negative image remains in place on my vinyl sheets. I will later use these leftover images on other projects by cutting the shapes into squares or other shapes so I can use the negative designs. 

 Be sure and check out the following retailers for this incredible vinyl.

Transparent:
ATSMCRAFT (atsmcraft.com)(Southeast US & PR only)
 MidSouth Crafting Supplies (midsouthcraftingsupplies.com)

For other great product ideas, and product updates from StyleTech Craft check out their Facebook Page

Again the completed glasses front.

and back.

Boy

and girl.

Front 

and Back.

These glasses were a super fun, and easy project, and make a really cute DIY project for your next baby shower. Till next time Happy Crafting. Love Penny 

This blog is given product in return for projects, and honest reviews.