Pop Up Gift Card Holder

It's the season for giving! Whenever I give a gift card or cash gift, I like to find a way to make it a bit special. This years gift cards and money gifts are coming in the form of these pop up gift card holders. 

These cards are from a file you can cut with your Silhouette (340361 Hexagon Pop Up Gift Card). The fun comes in customizing them with whatever papers and embellishments you like. 

As you can see in the photo above, the card can be folded flat so it fits easily in an envelope.

To create this card, I chose a mix of patterned paper and embellishments from Paper House's new Christmas collection. The patterned papers are called Dear Santa and Merry and Bright. I used some flat holographic star stickers from Christmas Joy Mini Stickers, and the greeting is from Merry Sculpted Puffy Stickers.

It takes a bit of time to assemble the card, but it pays off big with a super fun way to gift cash gifts. 

Remember, you can always save 20% on your entire purchase at Paper House by using code PH21SAMANTHA when you check out.

I wrote this post while participating on the Paper House Creative Team.

Basketball Thank You Cards

 I seem to be on a bit of a card making kick these days. Last week I needed some thank you cards to give to my sons' basketball coaches. Here's what I came up with. 

 

I kept my supply list for this very simple: White card stock, two pieces of patterned paper from Paper House (Basketballs Double Sided Paper and Soccer Tags Double Sided Paper), Paper House Sports Planner Stickers, and my Silhouette Cameo.

I cut all 4 of my card fronts at the same time with my Cameo. When cutting out a greeting, I like to use a scripted font that connects. It's also helpful to pick a font that doesn't have too many centers that you'll need to add back in (For example the "a" and "o" on the card on the left don't connect at the top completely, so they get left behind. The card on the right looks just fine with the centers to the "a" and "o" missing.). 

Since the basketball themed paper has a lot of detail to it all on its own, I kept my embellishments simple. A few stickers from the Paper House Sports Planner Stickers book were all I needed. 

Remember, you can always save 20% on your entire purchase at Paper House by using code PH20SAMANTHA when you check out. 

I wrote this post while participating on the Paper House Design Team.

Winter Banner

I like hanging banners in my house to decorate for different seasons and holidays. I was in need of a new winter banner, so here's what I came up with. 

 

 Paper House has a collection called Stargazer. It's not a winter themed collection, but it is full of gorgeous blues and purples, which were perfect for a winter banner. I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the letters and snowflakes. 

I finished up by adding some snowflakes from Paper House's Baby It's Cold Outside puffy stickers and strung the entire thing on some purple baker's twine. 

Remember, you can always save 20% on your entire purchase at Paper House by using code PH20SAMANTHA when you check out. 

I wrote this post while participating on the Paper House Design Team.

Thankful Welcome Sign

I was in need of a new welcome sign for my front door for November. Here's the thankful welcome sign that I came up with.

 

I started with a wood letter T that I had left over from a different project. I decided it would be pretty covered in paper from Paper House Autumn Woods plaid paper. I layered it on top of a piece of wood grain paper from Paper House Christmas Joy. 

I cut the word "THANKFUL" with my Silhouette Cameo from paper from Paper House Southwest collection. 

I finished the frame off with gold foil 3D leaves stickers. 

I wrote this post while participating on the Paper House Design Team.

Use Code PH20Samantha for 20% off your entire purchase at Paper House Productions.

Star Scrapbooking Layout

It's June, which means there's a new kit over at the Scrapbooking Store. I'll be sharing a few layouts over on their social media this month, but I wanted to keep this one for my blog. To introduce you to this month's kit I have a Star Scrapbooking Layout.

June's kit features papers from 2 different Authentique collections. The collections have a patriotic and nautical feel. The base kit includes 12 patterned papers and a full size matching sticker sheet.

For the embellishments on this layout, I used stickers from the base kit and die cuts and foil stars from the upgrade kit. There are glitter Thicker Stickers included in the upgrade kit as well that I didn't use on this layout.

Make sure to follow the Scrapbooking Store on Facebook for lots of layout and card inspiration using June's kit!

I wrote this post while participating on the Scrapbooking Store Design Team.

Rap Sign

Sometimes something you crate just makes you happy. This simple rap sign is like that for me.

This sign was super simple to create with some vinyl. I cut some fonts I had on my computer with my Silhouette Cameo and then added them to a Jillibean Soup Mix the Media frame.

The saying itself is a little bit serious and a little bit silly, so it fit my personality well. Like I said at the beginning, the sign just makes me happy. I smile when I see it.

I hope you have a good day as well!

Dog Sign

I have something a little fun. It's been a while since I've made a home decor project for my blog. I've had the supplies for this project for months, but I finally got around to making this dog sign this past week.

We are definitely dog people. We especially love our basset, Kevin.

He's pretty goofy, and he just turned 1. The house definitely needed a sign to commemorate him.

The sign base is from Jillibean Soup Mix the Media. I used my Silhouette to cut the blue paw shaped words. The cut file also happens to be from Jillibean Soup. There was a lot of weeding, but the final result was totally worth it.

The wood basset hound was something I found on Etsy. I stained it with some Tim Holtz Distress Ink and attached it to the sign with some Pop Up Glue Dots®. This sign is now hanging on the wall in my living room, and I love it!

Simple Birthday Cards

Today I have some very simple birthday cards to share. These are my go to style for when I want a clean and simple card.

I use my silhouette to cut the top panel. I size a rectangle to 4" x 5 1/4". Then, I use any font on my computer to create the happy birthday cut inside the rectangle. Then, I cut it out. You can get 4 card fronts from one 8 1/2" x 11" piece of card stock.

These cards happen to be for my nephews, who are teen boys, so I stuck with fairly simple colors and patterns for my patterned paper. The beauty of these cards is that you can use up scraps from your stash for the patterned paper part.

I like to attach my patterned paper flat to the card base. Then I use dimensional adhesive (my favorite is Pop Up Glue Dots®), to attach the card front to the card. The popped up top layer adds some extra pizazz to the card. These cards sit flat enough to be mailed without any extra postage.

I wrote this post while participating on the Glue Dots® Design Team.

Valentine's Day Decor

Valentine's Day is right around the corner, so today I have a bit of Valentine's Day decor to share.

This past month at Creativation, Glue Dots® debuted a new product: Glue Dots Adhesive Sheets for die cutting. I've been having a lot of fun playing around with them. There are a ton of fun uses for them. They work beautifully with my Silhouette Cameo and my manual die cutting machine!

Just peel the paper backing of the adhesive sheet.

 Place it on the paper you've chosen to cut, and run through your die cutting machine.

Peel the liner off. 

If you peel slowly, the liner will do most of the weeding for you (which is my favorite thing about the new adhesive sheets).
 

I added my die cut heart and a die cut phrase to a simple Mix the Media frame from Jillibean Soup to create my Valentine's Day decor.


I wrote this post while participating on the Glue Dots® Design Team.

Fall Camping Layout

It's November, and that means a brand new kit from the Scrapbooking Store. I've already made a few layouts with it, and today I'm sharing a fall camping layout.

First, a little about this kit. You can find all of the details on the November kit reveal blog post over at the Scrapbooking Store. The kit is full of lovely fall themes and colors; rich golds, browns, reds, oranges, and a touch of blue.

My kit showed up while we were on our last camping trip before the camper went into storage. I knew this collection would be perfect for some photos from that weekend.

The Scrapbooking Store has a core kit and an upgrade kit. Usually I use a lot of embellishments from the upgrade kit, but this month I thought it would be fun to show what you can do with just the core kit for a few of my projects. Everything on this layout - every paper, every sticker - is from the core kit. The only additional tool I used was my Silhouette Cameo, which I used to cut the "CAMPING" title.

I hope your November is off to a great start, too!

I wrote this post while working on the Scrapbooking Store Design Team.

Welcome My Pretties Front Door Decor

My old Halloween welcome sign was getting a bit sun faded, so I decided it was time to create something new. I came up with this Welcome My Pretties front door decor.

I started with a 12 x 12 wood hanging chalkboard from Jillibean Soup's Mix the Media collection. I wanted to keep it simple so I decided to go with "Welcome my pretties." cut with my Silhouette Cameo. I used a font I had on my computer and used the offset feature to add a shadow/outline cut to the phrase.

I used papers from Paper House Wicked Good collection for the background patterned paper and for the letters. I added some card stock stickers (with pretty orange foil) from the collection for a finishing touch.

I hope you have some wicked good fun planned for Halloween. Remember you can always use my affiliate code PH19SAMANTHA for 20% off your entire purchase at Paper House.

I wrote this post while participating on the Paper House Creative Team.

Love in Action Layout

Today I have a layout about love in action. It's one of those moments that makes you proud of your kid, but one of those events you wish didn't have to happen.

My son's friend has cancer. It's a big thing for a bunch of kids to understand. They shaved their heads when their friend lost his hair, because it was the best way they knew to support him. At the end of their friend's year of chemo, their friend's mom put together a fundraiser for St. Baldrick's Foundation to celebrate chemo being over. Elias immediately knew he wanted to be a part of this head shaving event, and set to fund raising. He met his goal (and even though he got a little stage fright having to go up in front of all those people watching to have his head shaved), and got his head shaved by his friend (with some help from a professional) for the fundraiser.

I was digging through my stash and found this paper from Bella Blvd's Oh My Stars collection. It was just the right fit for this special photo. I paired it with a Silhouette cut file, and kept the embellishments simple to keep the photo and journaling the focus of the layout.

Unfortunately, this story doesn't have a happy ending yet. They recently found a new spot of cancer, and his friend has started a new round of chemo. We will continue to encourage these moments of love in action, and continue to pray.

All Star Basketball Layout

Scrapping sports isn't always the easiest for me, but I really love Paper House's All Star collection. Today I'm attempting an All Star basketball layout.

A little background to this photo. Every year our 4th grade boys scrimmage each other during half time of one of the varsity games. I'm always surprised to see how much the varsity parents enjoy watching these kiddos play. My sister-in-law who owns Taylored4You Photography was photographing the varsity boys and made sure to grab a few photos at halftime for me, too.

This photo of my son coming off the court will always be one of my favorites. He's always a great teammate. He loves the game, and win or lose, he loves to encourage his teammates. I wanted my layout to focus on that, so I created the giant "Team-mate" title with my Silhouette Cameo and then filled in the rest of the layout around the title.

There are lots of great sports themed papers for soccer, baseball, football, and basketball in Paper House's All Star Collection...and with football starting, I'm sure you'll be seeing me use it again soon.

I wrote this post while participating on the Paper House design team.

Grad Cap Card

We just got done with graduations (and a few graduation parties) in my neck of the woods, but I still wanted to share this grad cap card that I created.

I grabbed a fold-able grad cap card cut file from the Silhouette online store. I like that I can start with a basic idea from the store and the use the Silhouette Studio software to really customize my card.

I chose colors from the grad's school. I also used the Studio program to cut the graduation year and the word "Congrats!"
For those of you familiar with Silhouette, when using a file that has both cutting and scoring, the scoring is done with small dashed cut lines. I like to remove those lines whenever possible. Instead of cutting those score lines with my Cameo, I use a scoring tool to score them by hand. I just like the finished look a bit better.  

A cute little tassel I made from cross stitch thread and attached with a large brad completes the grad cap card.

Welcome Summer Sign

I'm over on the SRM Blog today with a Welcome Summer Sign.

Head on over to the SRM blog to find all the details on how to make your own Welcome Summer Sign.

Silhouette Birthday Cards

May is a busy month for cards for me. Between birthdays, Mother's Day, graduations, weddings, and end of the year teacher thank-yous, I feel like I'm constantly making cards. I tend to fall back on clean and simple designs. Today I have a couple of Silhouette birthday cards that use both the negative and positive cuts.

I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut "Happy Birthday" from a fun script style font.

I backed the negative cut with birthday paper from We R Memory Keepers Cakes and Candles collection.

Some Glue Dots® Pop-Up Dots help add some dimension to the card and helps make the greeting stand out more.

For my second birthday card I used the positive cut from my Silhouette. I used paper from WRMK Cakes and Candles again, but this time chose patterns that were a bit more colorful and busy.

These Silhouette birthday cards are a great what to send handmade greetings even when you are super busy!

I wrote this post while participating on the Glue Dots® design team.