Baby Block Welcome

Well it is FINALLY Friday and two of my blog goals have been completed! The Sweet Scrapper has it's own Pinterest presence (click HERE to check it out) and a new banner and logo have been finalized! I would say it has been a pretty decent week overall, even after I broke out into a rant in Monday's post. I am still feeling a lot of sadness and anger but I am TRYING my best to work through it and not let it stop me like I have in the past. I have been repeating the same phrase over and over throughout the week and it has been helping me push through; 'accept the things you can not change because you can not change other people'.

So without further complaining let's discuss the card for today. Over the last several years I have made quite a few new baby cards for my ever expanding extended family. With each new pregnancy announcement I feel the need to rush off to my scraproom and make a brand new card. Since I usually don't know the gender of the new baby I just 'have' to make a card for each.

The card that I have for you today was made using some square scraps that I had laying around. I was able to color the stamped onesie image to match the color of the patterned squares perfectly.

For the inside I used one of my favorite quotes from a Fiskars stamp set that I have, and added the same square (only smaller) from the outside of the card. I really like this one!

Alright guys, I need some advice. What should I focus on next? 

- Creating a new Sweet Scrapper Instagram?

- A Sweet Scrapper Facebook Page?

- An Etsy store where you guys can purchase the items that I have posted on my blog?

Let me know in the comments below! 

Celebrate Everyday with an Announcement

I have officially made a brand NEW BLOG LOGO AND BANNER!!! And, better yet, I did it all on my own! I have to take a second to toot my own horn *toot toot* because I am really proud of myself. I hope that you all like it as much as I do!

My New Logo

My New Banner

The card for today is yet another one that I made a few years ago. Every now and then I simply sit down with some new supplies and decide to 'play' by testing the limits and new techniques to see what I might like. This card was the result of one of  my 'play days' where I was trying out some new stamps, dies and ink colors to see what might look good together. 

Let me know what you think about the new banner and logo as well has the card for today in the comments below. I love to get new comments, and it helps me know what you like! 

See you again on Friday! 

Bakery Window (plus a Rant)

I have a really bad habit of letting other peoples thoughts, opinions and actions adversely effect my personal feelings.  I shut down and internalize it all to the extent that it changes my mental and physical feelings. Do any of you suffer from this same affliction? I frequently ask myself 'how do I stop caring what other people say and do'? I have yet to find the solution.

I have been in a funk since Friday. Everything either makes me mad or makes me want to cry. I HATE it when I get like this. It also makes me start doubting everything I do, such as projects, blog posts, etc. It makes me shut down and become completely unmotivated.

*Rant* I am so sick of people not having my back but expecting me to always have theirs. It is not friendship to always put other people (aka men) ahead of the person who has stood by you through the difficult situations. And, when you finally pluck up the courage to ask your family (who have told you countless times that you need to start asking for help) for help with something, your family shouldn't make you feel like you are just a waste of their time and that everything you have already done is wrong, just because it is different from the way that THEY would do it.  *End of rant....hopefully*

I am trying to overcome my own self because that is all I can control. So,  last night I laid in bed with my eyes closed and prayed. I prayed until I cried that I could shut out the negativity and start caring about myself, for the first time in a long time. When I woke up this morning, a little voice inside my head (God, was that you?) was telling me that sometimes it's okay to be selfish and to put your self first, heck everyone else seems to have no problem with that. Now I just have to figure out how to do that. ☺

I know that my little rant has nothing to do with today's project but it was something that I needed to say and I am too...shy? Weak? Chicken? To say it to the people actually involved. Heck, maybe one of them will surprise me (and themselves) and read my blog because it's "never going to amount to anything or make me any money, so I should just give up". My goal is to prove them WRONG!!

Anyway, today I thought that I would share this cute bakery window scrapbook page that I made. It is another layout that was completely inspired by the pattern already printed on the background paper. I added a couple of 4 x 6 inch photo mats and then turned to my Cricut to find the awning to make it look like a window in a bakery. FYI, the awning was cut using the Cricut Family Album Cartridge. I added some foam dimension to the awning so that a photo can still be slipped under it and into the clear photo corner on the photo mats. 

Cake Card

Many of you are probably wondering why September has turned into the month that I share so many of my OLD cards that I made years ago. Well, there is a simple reason for that. At the end of August my grandpa had to come up to my house to stay for several days because everyone in the family who is acting as caregivers, either had a doctors appointment or was out of town for that week. The only solution was to bring him to our house. The only downside...I had eight MONTHS of craftroom mess to clean up and organize in just a couple of days (because my craftroom doubles as the spare bedroom).

Because I haven't had much time at home to work in my scraproom lately, what I have been able to work on was typically quick and I didn't have time to put the stuff I used away when I was finished. Hence the room was a complete DISASTER!!

I worked extremely hard for three days straight to get the room into a presentable state. While moving, shuffling, organizing and straightening the entire room  I came across a box full of old cards that I made back when my craft supplies were so small that they fit into a little corner of a desk in my bedroom. In the box, along with the photos was an old computer flash drive that contained all of the photos of the cards that I have been sharing with you (that is why the quality is so poor). It was really fun to come across this little piece of the past that I had forgotten about.

I first started making cards and other paper crafts back in 2009, after I received a Cricut for my birthday. Back then the only way to really get a feel (at least for me) of what an image was going to look like when cut at a certain size, was to actually cut it out. Today's card is one of those early cutouts. It comes from the Cricut Sweet Treats cartridge and I still like it a lot (and not just because it is the same purple, pink and teal of my craft room today, although that is a BONUS). 

Looking at the card now makes me want to play around with the cartridge again, maybe cut this cake card in a size that will fit a gift card? Maybe just use the cake (that isn't a card) and add it to the front of a gift bag? Hmmm, the ideas keep coming.

I hope that you are all enjoying this flash back to some of my early stuff and I think that I have a few more but I will try to space them out a bit more over the next couple of months so that you don't get bored. 

Flower Power Pudding

You would think by now that I would be better about posting things that fit into the SWEET part of The Sweet Scrapper, but I seem to often times forget to share the food (often desserts) that I have made. Let's make that one of my new goals (as if I don't already have enough) going forward: Make and share more sweet treats!

In order to meet this new goal (that I created today) I thought that I would share these super cute flower pots that I made for Easter a couple of years ago. While shopping at Michael's Craft Store I came across these super cute silicone flower pots. They are designed to bake cupcakes in and I just HAD to buy them and create a Springtime treat.

Now, confession....I am not the most....organized person in the world. After I brought these fun molds home, I...misplaced them and forgot about them until two days before Easter when my mom said something that reminded me that I had them. By that point I didn't have time to whip up a batch of cupcakes but I still wanted to use them....what to do?

When I was kid, my mom used to make a simplified version of a dessert called 'Dirt Cake" made with pudding and crushed Oreo cookies. Lucky for me, we had both items to make these dirty goodies in the house. I alternated layering the pudding and the crushed Oreo's until I reached the top and finished with the Oreo 'dirt'.

I also had some Wilton candy melts (which is often called fake chocolate and usually tastes like vanilla) on hand, so I made some candy melt flowers (using another mold that I have that I forgot about) to add to the flower pots for a more realistic look. Lastly, I made a quick run to the grocery store to get some candy decorations. As you can see in the photos, I bought gummy worms, jelly bean eggs, a candy coated leaf thingy and a box with mini rabbits filled with caramel.

I have to say that for a quick last minute dessert these flower pots turned out pretty great. They were a bit messy to eat though since the flower pots were made of silicone instead of the more rigid traditional tara cotta, so they wanted to collapse inward as you ate them. But, they were still DELICIOUS!!

You Are My Sunshine + Announcement

It is official! The Sweet Scrapper is now on Pinterest! I have been working this past week to get set up and as of Saturday, it is done. ☺ I have photo's of all of the projects that I have blogged about pinned to one board (with different sections) to make them easier to find. Here is my direct link if you would like to give it a follow, which I would greatly appreciate: www.pinterest.com/thesweetscrapper/.

Next on my list of things to do is a logo. For a while now, I have wanted to get a new logo but have been unsure as to how to go about it. Online video tutorials here I come. I have several ideas floating around in my head and now I just need to figure out what I CAN do and what looks the best. Wish me luck!!

I have made it my mission to be more focused on The Sweet Scrapper blog and 'business' (hopefully) as a whole. I want to prove not only to other people, but to myself as well, that I CAN make something of myself and by doing something that I love. So, in saying that...stay tuned for a LOT of new changes coming to the blog.

So for today's card, I used a sunburst/starburst technique that I have used before. It is a technique that I really like because it looks so much more complicated than it actually is.  For other examples of cards using this technique, check out my new Pinterest page. (wink wink)

If I were to make this card again I would probably change the stitched 'You are my sunshine' sticker to something more bright and colorful to match the papers of the sunburst, because I think that the colors in the sticker come across to muted.

Thanks for reading and I will see you again on Wednesday for a 'sweet' post. 

(Remember to check out The Sweet Scrapper on Pinterest.)

Typewrite Be Mine

I came across this card at my grandpa's house this week. I gave it to my grandpa for Valentine's Day back in 2014. I don't know if I have mentioned it before on my blog or not but back in the day my grandpa used to have a typewriter repair business in his garage and he was really good at fixing any problem that would arise. Even after he got older and retired he would still help people when they needed a repair. He only quit working on them a year or two ago when his eyesight worsened a bit which made seeing the tiny parts and springs too difficult. Keep in mind that he is 93 now so that is quite a feat.

So needless to say, typewriters have always held a special love and fascination for my grandpa, so I try to use them in cards and things when I get a chance.

This cute little card was made using an image cut with the Cricut (from the Suburbia Cartridge) a couple of stamps from Michaels and these fun little heart shaped brads that I found at Hobby Lobby.
It really warms my heart that he loves this card so much and he has kept if for so long.

Change It Up Thanks

I made a card for a coworker of my mom's several years ago to thank her for something, and from the minute that I completed the card it felt off to me. I was happy with parts of the card but with others I was displeased but unsure of how to fix it. I remember staring at it for quite a while trying to convince myself that I liked it. In the end I decided to just go with it and I went on to bed.

Here is a couple of photos of that card, what do you think? Was I being too critical of myself or is there something off designwise?

The next morning I came back and the card was still sitting on my desk. I grabbed an envelope and prepared to address it when an idea of how to fix it popped into my head. I CAREFULLY peeled up each of the flowers, leaves and mini buttons on the front of the card, which was difficult because the polka dot paper in the background was extremely thin, (about the weight of copy paper) and I had used a rather strong double sided tape to adhere them down. 

Finally, the floral elements were off and I am happy to say that the pink paper remained intact. I found a different flower that was in the same stamp set as the ones that I had just removed and stamped and cut it out. I placed the 'thanks' sentiment on the outside of the card and relocated the mini buttons. I was MUCH happier with the new look and it felt like it belonged there. 

But, because I had added the word 'thanks' to the front I now needed to change the inside of the card so that it wasn't just the same. I added the larger flower that had originally been on the front to the inside so that it didn't go to waste. 

So, what do you think? Did I make the right decision changing the card up or should I have just left it the way it was?

Thinking of a Floral Gate

Since the last couple of blog posts I have written have been about cards I made years ago, I figured that I would continue that trend for at least one more day.

I made this card at least 6 years ago. Back in my paper flowers phase, when I literally put paper flowers on EVERYTHING. To say that I was obsessed with them would be an understatement! I can still remember the day that I ran out of the flat, felt-like flowers that were used on this card. I actually cried and dragged my mom all over town to every big box craft store looking for more, only to discover that they had been DISCONTINUED and the stores wouldn't be getting anymore like it. They had changed to a different looking flower that was more paper-like and I HATED it! I wanted what I had not something new. Wow those were the days. Thank goodness I am past that now. 

The gate and fence were cut out using the Cricut with a cartridge that I actually forgot that I own. With the creation of the online Cricut design software, it is easy to forget each cartridge as a whole because I usually just search for the image that I want and then from there weed out the cartridges that I don't own to find the right fit. I will have to go and look up more images from this cartridge to see what else I might be missing from what I already own. One more item for my to do list that I will hopefully get to someday soon.

I could go in and try to modernize this card but I think that I will probably just stick it into a keepsake box to be "rediscovered" many years from now so that I can reminisce over it again. 

Masculine Card of Confusion

I made this card several years ago and thought that it looked pretty cool, until my mom asked me what occasion this card would be given to someone for...and I drew a blank. I have no idea what occasion would be befitting, maybe an new driver? or an over the hill card? Let me know if you can come up with a good reason for this card. But, even if it doesn't have a purpose I still like it and I will definitely have to do the inside stamping with the wheels again because it looks pretty cool.

Need A Little Encouragement

So, I have been in a bit of a mood for the last couple of days and I can't seem to shake it. Why is it that the people you love tend to be the ones that can shake your confidence the most and make you doubt everything about yourself? I have pretty low self esteem anyway but occasionally someone that I love will make a comment about something that I do, such as my crafting, and it makes me doubt even the simplest of things. Several days ago my 93 year old grandpa, who I assume was "trying" to help, basically told me that I  would never make any money trying to sell my crafts because people don't buy stuff like that. To say that it hurt me would be an understatement, but I am TRYING not to let it derail me this time like it has managed to do in the past when other people have pretty much told me the same thing in just about EVERYTHING that I have attempted to do in my life.

So, this time I decided to take a deep breath and respond to these hurtful remarks by resuming my blog, as well as looking into avenues to sell my cards and other projects. So if any of you would be interested in buying cards, scrapbook layouts, albums or other projects please let me know by emailing me at: Thesweetscrapper@gmail.com.

For today's card I decided to post an encouragement card to help not only just myself but to give any of you who need it a little bit of extra encouragement as well.

It is a bit hard to see in the pictures but the sentiment stamped onto the inside of the cards says:

           - Until you spread your wings you have to idea how far you'll fly

Framed Cupcake Card

Hey friends, did you miss me?

I can't believe that this is the first time that I have posted anything since December. Life has sure been busy this year. Back in January my grandpa became ill and was hospitalized with the flu, pneumonia and a whole host of other issues, including the fact that he hadn't slept more that an hour each night in over a month.

I am happy to say that he is doing much better now, although he can no longer live alone. Our family has been spending a great deal of time going back and forth from our homes to my grandpa's house to care for him. It has been exhausting and has left little time for crafting much less blogging, but I have made it my mission to try and dedicate more time to myself and this blog so I am going to "hopefully" try to post THREE times a week until Christmas. We will see how it goes, luckily for me I have quite a few older projects that I have never got around to posting that I can share with you until I can find more time to create.

Enough blabbering lets get to the card. I decided to share a birthday card with you in honor of my aunt whose birthday was on Saturday, and I also have a file full of birthday card photos to share.

Today's card came about as a way to use up some of the supplies around my craft room. Side note, do you ever find things in your craft room or around your house and say, where did that come from? I don't remember buying that, what am I going to do with it? Well it seems that after I have been stressed I say this A LOT more!! Anyway this card came about as a result of such a moment. I have to say though I really love how this card turned out.

In my stash of never ending supplies I found a chipboard picture frame (I can't remember now if it had the pink pattern on it or if that is something that I added) that I decided to put on a card and see how it  worked, and I was happy to see that it would fit. Next I had to decide what it was I was going to frame, and if you know me AT ALL you will have known that that was a no brainier. Cupcakes should ALWAYS take center stage! So, now I have a frame and a cupcake, what next? I should dig through some more of my stash of course, and see what else I can add to this card. In my search I found some alphabet stickers that I thought would look nice, as well as some pink rhinestones to match and some fun cupcake cardstock. In hindsight I probably would have changed the cardstock behind the cupcake in the frame because it has a lot of white in it and clashes with the cupcake paper behind it but ultimately I can live with it and the more I look at it the more I like it. 

Since there is SO much going on, on the front of the card I decided to keep the inside pretty simple, with a cute stamped cupcake that I colored in and then embellished with some more of the pink rhinestones.

Let me know what you guys think and I will (hopefully) be back on Monday with another card or project. Is there anything that you would like to see? If so, leave a comment below.