FAMILY IS EVERYTHING!

Hello everyone! Java Jen here from JAVA JEN CREATIONS! This is my spot to share here this month and, as always, it is my pleasure! Thank you, Sheila!  I have chosen to share a frame I made to announce to everyone how I really feel! :-)

The phrase is from the Teresa Collins Sophisticated Cricut cartridge. The camera cut-out and "memories" are from Cheerful seasons.

Some close-ups:

I hot-glued buttons to the edge of the frame to hold up the twine to hang the images and phrases on. 

I added some Stickles to the corners of the frame as a finishing touch!

Thanks so much for stopping by today! 

Fourth of July Flip-Flops!

Hi Everyone, It's Sonya from Sonya's Paper Trail today and I'd like to start off by wishing my fellow American crafters a very Happy Independence Day!   I wanted to create a card that was patriotic, but a bit funky and fun...and flip-flops seemed to be the perfect combination.  

Check out my card for today:

 

The papers for this card are from a We R Memory Keepers 6 by 6 paper pad called, appropriately enough, "Red, White & Blue."  My wonderful neighbor gave this to me as a gift and I could hardly wait to put it to good use!  The flip-flops are from the Creative Memories Cheerful Seasons Cricut Cartridge and are cut at 3 inches.  The "USA" letters are from Base Camp, which is an older cartridge, but still one of my favorite font cartridges.

 

To add a bit of flair to my sandals, I pulled out some small Prima Flowers and adhered those to the toe strap with glue dots.  I used an adhesive gemstone for the center of the flower.

 

Here's a close up of the border I created.  I only have a couple of edge punches, but I sure get good use out of them.  This particular punch is by EK Success. Do you have a "go to" punch?  I'd love to hear your suggestions, perhaps I'll add another one to  my little collection. 

That's all I have to share today...just a simply summer card that mixes a lot of patterned papers for a fun look.  Hope you like it!

Have a safe and happy 4th of July!

--Sonya--

Christmas Gift Ideas

Hello everyone! Java Jen here from JAVA JEN CREATIONS. I hope you're having a fantastic week! Mine is full of packing and cleaning out! Can you guess what I'm doing........? That's right! A cross country move from Texas to Ohio! We are relocating back around our family including our 3 precious grand boys! This is exciting, but as some of you may know, moving really stinks!! I'll be so glad when we're finally settled again!  With that said, and because of the fact that ALL of my craft supplies and machines are completely packed, I decided to post some pics of some past gifts I have made for friends and family. I had so much fun making these and they really are quite easy! Thank you, Sheila, once again, for allowing me to share here! It is always a pleasure!  I am also posting this over at CRICUT IS CLOSE TO MY HEART so be sure to visit that site - always great CTMH things happening!

                                        This is a FIRST CHRISTMAS ORNAMENT made 

                                         with one sheet of Paper Layerz paper! I will have some 

                                         links at the end of this post to some products and/or 

                                         techniques used.

Here is an ALTERED FRAME ready for a fishing pic!

Here is a FIRST CHRISTMAS MINI ALBUM made using the

back-to-back book binding technique that Heidi Swapp 

uses in a tutorial on My Craft Channel. I used my Creative Memories Cricut cartridge,

Cheerful Seasons.

Now, my favorite projects were my COOKIE SHEET MENU BOARDS!

I used several Cricut cartridges: Country Life, From My Kitchen and Art Philosophy.

I used the Cricut Lite cartridge Chore Chart to make my nephew a 

CHORE CHART! :-)

Another cookie sheet project was for my Mother-in-law - a MINI ALBUM on a

cookie sheet! I used the Cricut Imagine cartridge, Kate's Kitchen.

I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane with me! :-) Now for the promised links:

PAPER LAYERZ paper from Above Rubies Studio: HERE

HEIDI SWAPP'S BACK-TO-BACK BOOK BINDING TUTORIAL: HERE

MY CTMH WEBSITE: HERE

MY CREATIVE MEMORIES WEBSITE: HERE

Thanks for stopping by! 

JAVA JEN

CHRISTMAS MEMORIES MINI ALBUM

Happy Saturday, everyone! Are we all ready for Christmas?! I'm gettin' there! :-) Java Jen here from Java Jen Creations !  Once again, I am so honored to be here and share my simple project with you all! Thanks, Sheila!

Back in October,  I made a mini album based on Heidi Swapp's tutorial on My Craft Channel. For her tutorial click HERE ! This time, I'm using what I think is the easiest version of her albums. Basically, you just pick papers and adhere them back to back until you have as many pages in your album that you want.

Here is a pic of my completed mini album:

I used a retired paper pack from Creative Memories called Candy Cane. All of the Cricut cuts are from the Creative Memories Cheerful Seasons cartridge. I also used the Creative Memories tag punch and corner rounder. 

For the cover, cut an 8.5"x12" piece of solid card stock. This makes the album size 8.5"x6".  The inside pages are printed papers from the kit and are cut to 8"x11.5" so that when the book is closed the pages don't hang over the edge.  

Here are pics of how I embellished the pages with photo mats made from paper in the Candy Cane kit. There were also card stock stickers in this kit. 

The Cricut cuts dimensions are as follows:

"memories" ticket and layers: 2.29"

present and layers: 1.59"

snowflake and layers: 1.59"

snowman and layers: 2.65"

tree and layers: 2.65"

See - told you it was a simple project! :-) Hope you are inspired to make some precious memories this Christmas season! 

Sheila here, didn't you just love Jen's Mini Album? Today I challenge you to share a Christmas Project with us... ANY thing Christmas, just link it up. This week I will be giving away another stamp set to one lucky person. I will use random.org to pick a winner from one of our link up entries. Now you can link up a new project each day if you want for more chances to win! I just love these link ups don't you? You can see so many wonderful projects and I have started following some awesome blogs too. Now be sure to link up!

Monthly Scrapbook Calendar Pages

Hello everyone! This is Java Jen from Java Jen Creations and I want to, first of all, thank Sheila for having me here today! It is truly an honor!

For my project today, I want to share with you something that I do each month to make it easier to scrapbook my monthly pictures.  As I have taught scrapbooking classes through the years, a common dilemma with my customers and friends has been what to do with those everyday pictures that are not part of a big event or holiday. I say that the everyday happenings in our lives are just as important as the big celebrations so why not recognize that in our albums!? Each month I create a calendar page that hangs on our fridge so that we can write our everyday comings and goings. When the month ends, I put it in our family scrapbook and simply create simple pages with all of the pictures that I took that month. It has been such a great way to remember our everyday moments that might have otherwise gone unnoticed and it makes for wonderful reminiscing when we sit down to review past years! More than once, we have been trying to recall when a particular "something" happened and one of my kids said, "Get the album! It's in there!"  (That made me feel particularly good!)  My, I've been wordy today!! I better get to some pics! Here are some pics of the calendar pages I have made recently - starting with this month's that is currently on our fridge. Under each picture, I have listed the cricut cuts and what cartridge I used for them. I'm not listing specifics, like sizes and papers used on all because this is a project that is so easy to personalize to your tastes and style. Obviously, all the pages are 12x12 and I used a calendar grid from Creative Memories. The Fridge Frame is also a Creative Memories product that I have had for years but sadly, they don't make it anymore. :(  You can simply hang your calendar page up with some strong magnets for the corners. Ok, on to the pics!

"APRIL" - Designer's Calendar

FLOWER and "spring has" and "Sprung" - Creative Memories Cheerful Seasons

All elements used on this page are from the November Club Ruby designers kit. To find out more about this club, check out Club Ruby Designers , a fantastic monthly club full of inspiration!

DECEMBER - Designer's Calendar

ANGELS and TREES - Winter Frolic

K & Co. - background paper

JANUARY - Designer's Calendar

printed background and snowflake paper - Mr. Frosty Imagine cartridge

snowflakes - Creative Memories Cheerful Seasons

stickles

printed background paper - Yummy Imagine cartridge

Die cuts - all printed and cut in layers from Yummy cartridge

FEBRUARY - Thickers

stickles

MARCH - Creative Memories sticker letters

all other stickers and accents - DCWV Spring stickers and accents

background paper from Club Ruby kit

Pumpkins from pre-loaded Imagine shapes and printed with Imagine

Sticker letters

AUGUST - Designer's calendar

"Happy Trails" - Going Places cartridge

Clock - Designer's calendar

background paper - DCWV

SEPTEMBER - Designer's calendar

"back to school", "Labor Day" and "school starts" - Designer's calendar

Apple - Makin' the Grade cartridge

"7" - Makin' the Grade cartridge

Thanks for stopping by today and don't forget to make those everyday moments ones to remember!  Stop by my blog: Java Jen Creations anytime to say Hi!