*~*~*~* SpantastiKreations *~*~*~*

I hope you all have a fabulous New Year. May 2011 bring you more joy and more happiness than you could have ever possibly imagined.

Keep Kreating,
Erin

Well, we finally hit 200+ stalkers err, I mean followers. I'm so happy to have you all, old and new. This has been an incredible journey for me and I'm so happy that I have had the opportunity to "meet" so many talented and inspirational crafters along the way.
As promised I have an ATG gun to give away in celebration of reaching 200 followers. And the winner is.....(chosen via Random.org) MadCrafter: Madison :) She had this to say...

Mad Crafter said...

Erin, your banner rocks! I want to try one. I keep seeing them them but I haven't tried one yet. I like the embossing yo did on yours. It looks really good. Thanks for the tip about the ribbon at the $ store. I have never looked for ribbon there but now I will:) My favorite Christmas decorations are the Christmas stockings that hang by the fireplace. Happy holidays:) ~Madison www.funkycards.blogspot.com Congratulations to you Madison. Please contact me with your mailing address so I can get your prize out to you. Stay tuned....I will be hosting my first blog hop on January 22nd and we have a fabulous line up of very talented ladies. There will be tips and tricks and blog candy (I got some GOOD stuff :) along the way. 

 

I hope you all have a wonderful and very Happy New Year. 

 

Keep Kreating, Erin

Welcome to all my followers old and new. I am so happy that you are a part of the family. I didn't reach my goal of 200 followers by midnight last night (Monday) :'( , but I am going to keep the giveaway open until I do. If you have already commented on the Fantabulous Crawl Post here you are already entered to win. If you haven't yet entered to win you can do so by commenting here or here. (Please only one entry per person)

What's the prize you ask?!? It's a Scotch PINK ATG gun like the one seen here:
I LOVE this gun SOOO much and I know that you will too.

MORE exciting news. I will be hosting my first blog hop (Scrappin Roots) on Saturday January 22, 2011. I am so excited about this you can read about it on Facebook (here). Many of us began our paper crafting obsession with scrapbooking our precious memories so this will be a hop to revisit were and how it all began. I have a fabulous line up of extremely talented ladies. I'm a little star struck to be honest with you. There will be tips and tricks along the way as well as blog candy. I'm SUPER excited because I received a generous donation of some blog candy you WILL love. You DO NOT want to miss out on this one.

Looking forward to exciting things to come.

Keep Kreating,
Erin

I LOVE this silly Christmas song. I have it set as my text ringtone and since I send and receive text messages ALL day long I get to hear this song quit frequently. My kids of course know this song by now and they love to sing along. :)

Any-Whoo....I've had this card in my mind (along with the song) for a couple weeks now and I finally got the chance to create it. I used the hippo from Create A Critter (LOVE that cart) and cut it at 3". I got my 3M prize package that I won from Paula's Birthday Blog Hop at More Than Favors. It included a whole bunch of 3M goodies and CRAFT paper which I used as the black "shadow" of the hippo. I LOVE this paper. It cut so easily and it's adhesive is just sticky enough. Thanks again Paula. The sentiment was printed from my computer and I punched it out with my scallop punch. Some googly eyes (which are 2 different sizes and I thought it was ADORABLE), some bling and some stickles and viola! LOVE how it turned out. She's too cute for words.

Hope you want a hippopotamus for Christmas too. :)

Keep Kreating,
Erin

Every month Melissa from Scrappy Jak offers up a Card Of The Month. She sends us a few very basic supplies and our challenge is to make a card using at least some of the supplies she's sent us.

This month she sent us kraft cardstock and a ribbon. As you can see I used the kraft cardstock as the base of this Z-fold card and tied the ribbon on the right thru holes I punched and eyelet-ed with my Crop A Dial. The leaf was cut from Stretch Your Imagination and the patterned paper was from an old, fall DCWV stack.
I gave this card to my son's teacher for Thanksgiving along with a jar of dry soup ingredients.

For this card she gave us the chocolate colored cardstock, the patterned paper and the ribbon.
I cut the rolling pin and the oven mitt from Everyday Paper Dolls using the Real Dial Size.
I inked the edges and used my Fiskars scalloped border punch. This card was for my daughters teacher for Thanksgiving along with a jar of dry soup ingredients.

Thank you Melissa for putting out the Card Of The Month. It's been such a blast and I look forward to many more to come.

Check out Scrappy Jack here on Facebook and check out the awesome cards from our fellow scrappers.

Keep Kreating,
Erin

Welcome to another Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog Challenge Me Monday.
I hope you all had a Fantabulous Thanksgiving with friends and/or family. This week's challenge is simply RIBBON.
Since ♫ ♪ "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year." ♪ ♫ I decided to knock out another Christmas card. I seen this ribbon wreath technique on YouTube a few weeks back and loved how simple it was to create and how really pretty it looked. (You can watch the video here.)
I made the wreath with 1/4" green ribbon and added red Stickles and a red ribbon bow. Who doesn't love a beautiful Christmas wreath on the front door?
The door was SUPER simple to make. I cut it from Stand & Salute using the shadow feature of the flag as well as the squares.
The lower rectangle panels were just cut on my Fiskars cutter. I then inked all the edges with brown ink.
The door knob is a black brad.
The sentiment was stamped from a wood block stamp I had in my stash.

LOVE how it turned out. This ribbon weaving technique is really simple, give it try. :)

I can't wait to see what RIBBON creations ya'll come up with this week.

Keep Kreating,
Erin

PS: If you are new to my blog or just haven't noticed yet I have a blinkie now thanks to Cristina @ Crafting with Cristina :)

Good Evening everyone.

I wanted to tell you all that I received TWO "Stylish blogger Awards" this week. :)
Thank you to Jamie from JME Creations and Amanda from My Scrappin Obsession.

These are my first ever blog awards and I am so honored to receive them from these two fabulous ladies. Check out their blogs and take a look at their gorgeous creativeness.



The rules for accepting this award are:

1.Thank and link a post to the blogger who you received this award from.
4. Contact those bloggers and tell them about their award.

Here are my 8 things:

1. I live it Buffalo, NY and have all my life and I HATE snow.
2. I LOVE Ryan Miller, Buffalo Sabres (G)
3. I have 2 beautiful children. My daughter is 5 and my son is 4.
4. I hate to hear other people eat.
5. I LOVE camping. :)
6. I am slightly obsessed with Tim Horton's coffee....dubba/dubba please.
7. I can wave my tongue.
8. I still have contact with one of the very first friends I ever had in daycare when I was two yrs. old.

Ok enough about me.... now here are the 8 blogs I am sharing this award with...

1) Amy @ http://www.perfectlyunperfectcards.blogspot.com/
2) Cristina @ http://www.craftingwithcristina.com/
3) Raven @ http://love4stamps.blogspot.com/
4) Deb @ http://craftydeb-ddscrafts.blogspot.com/
5) Kassidy @ http://www.inkingitupcrazy.blogspot.com/
6) Susan @ http://www.itsmesusanp.blogspot.com/
7) Erin @ http://www.erinleecreative.com/
8) Michelle @ http://www.scrappinwithmybug.com/

I am new to some of these blogs and some I am not but I LOVE each and every one of them. Check them out for yourselves. I PROMISE they will not disappoint.

Ok now ladies share the love.

Keep Kreating,
Erin

I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving. :)
We had a quiet day at home with turkey and all the fixin's (MMM stuffing...) My Granny came over today and we really had a wonderful time. I am thankful that my Granny was here to celebrate the holiday with us this yr. She took ill with pneumonia in August and spent a whole week in the hospital. It has been a long and slow recovery but she is doing great. :)
My daughter had asked my Granny to read her a Barbie Doll story book when I was finishing the dinner prep. and I just HAD to capture this picture. So precious, my Granny and my babies. :) They may never remember the story or the holiday but I am thankful that I have the memory preserved for myself and for them.

Happy Thanksgiving and remember to look for the little things to appreciate in life.

~Erin

Hey all did you notice? I now have a blinkie! Thanks to Cristina from Crafting With Cristina. She JUST learned how to make blinkies yesterday and she so graciously said that she would make me one. I LOVE it. I'm so excited to have a blinkie to share with all of you. Feel free to grab it and post it on your own blog if you wish.

Thank you so much Cristina. I am as pleased as punch. :)

Happy Thanksgiving ya'll.

Erin

This week's challenge at Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog was to create something that reflects something we are thankful for. There really is SO much to be thankful for especially being an American and living in this wonderful country isn't there? I am VERY thankful that where I live, here in Western NY, we get to experience and witness the beauty of all 4 seasons.

Winter: Most definitely my least favorite season. Snow and cold are not my friends however, that being said if it weren't winter we wouldn't see Christmas and that is my all time favorite holiday.
Spring: My 2nd favorite season. I LOVE to see the fresh new life on the trees and in the gardens. Sometimes winters are are so long and dreary around here it seems as if Spring will never come but when I see the first robin of the season I know it won't be long before we'll be enjoying the change in seasons soon.
Summer: I love the carefree feeling of Summertime. My families two most FAVORITE activities happen during the summer. #1-Camping! We love to camp at Allegany State Park here in NY. It's so gorgeous there. I have been going there almost yearly for over 20 yrs. :) #2-The Erie County Fair. We love all aspects of the fair, the animals (nothing cuter than a baby calf or pigglet), the rides, and of course THE FOOD. Yummy!
Autumn: My ultimate favorite season. I love the cooler, crisper weather and the beautiful changing colors. My kids LOVE to go to The Pumpkin Patch every year. It's such a fun time for all of us.

For my project I decided to make a wall hanging showing a glimpse of what I love about every season.
This wall hanging measures a total of 9.5"x9.5" I layered black and tan then divided it into 4- 4"x4" squares.
The titles are cut from Stretch your Imagination as well as the Christmas tree, The ice cream cone as well as the tree. The Robin was cut from Create A Critter.
I then punched holes in the top of the hanging and laced white satin ribbon thru for the hanger.

LOVE how this came out so much. It's currently hanging in my kraft kove. I think it's going to stay right there. :)

Hop on over to Fantabulous Cricut and check out the amazing projects posted by our talented design team. I promise you won't be disappointed. You can only be inspired. :)

Keep Kreating,
Erin

BTW: Once I reach my goal of 200 blog followers I will be doing a give away.... A PINK ATG!

The Scrapbooking Queen is hosting an incredible challenge. The task is to create a wedding invitation for her daughter who is marrying her FOX (that's his last name, lol) in March and really wants handmade invitations. The Queen not only allowed us the opportunity to have a small part in this joyous occasion but she is also offering the opportunity to win a Cricut Expression. :) WOO HOO *fingers crossed*
The colors for the wedding are black, sapphire and silver. As you can see I incorporated all 3 colors in the invitation as well as white and vellum. I am super duper pleased with how it turned out and I had so much fun planning and creating this. I hope Jessica likes it as well.

So what do you think? Do you think I should go into the wedding invitation business? LOL

Keep Kreating,
Erin

My mom LOVES her Little Aunt Dorothy. She is the cutest little 93yr old spit fire you could ever know. Just about every holiday my mom tries to send her a little card just to let her know she loves her and is thinking about her so this time around I offered to make a card for her to send. My mom asked that I put her name right on the front and here it is....
It's no secret that I LOVE Create A Critter and this Turkey is just about my favorite cut. I of course had to give him that pizzaz with Stickles :) and some faux stitching around the edges. The inside of the card reads:
The Turkey is a funny bird.
His head goes wobble, wobble.
But all that he can ever say is,
Gobble, Gobble, Gobble.

So cute....Are you ready for Thanksgiving?

Keep Kreating,
Erin

This weeks challenge over at Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog is to make a project that has something to do with being sick. As soon as we were given the challenge I had this card in mind. :) I LOVE easel cards. They are so easy and it's like getting a small little gift for your mantle or your desk top.

Card Details:
The base is red card stock I purchased from JoAnn's open stock (LOVE that stuff it's SO thick).
The patterned paper is from one of the $1 packs I purchased at Target over the summer
The pill bottle is cut from the Simply Sweet cart at 3". I cut a black shadow and I also cut the bottle out of red, white and blue just for the purpose of the layering. I used red and blue Stickles to give it that extra bling. :) Gotta have the bling right girls?
I added a little sheer ribbon I purchased at The Dollar Tree and some rhinestones.
The "Get Well Soon" sentiment is stamped from a $1 stamp I purchased at JoAnn's.

I am very pleased with how this one turned out (I hope you are too) and super excited because I had it done a week early. :) I hate waiting til the last.

I'd love to see your creations and entries this week over at FCCB's Challenge Me Monday.

Keep Kreating,
Erin

That's right....ATG.

I have a PINK ATG gun to give away to one of my followers. Once I reach my goal of 200 followers (I have about 90 left to go) I will be posting more information of how you can win. I know that my fellow crafters are more than willing and able to help me reach my goal by suggesting my blog to other fellow crafters like ourselves.

Thanks to all of you my fellow followers. You have inspired and encouraged me to keep doing what I do.

Keep Kreating,
Erin

I made this "Super Cool" card for a young man named Colton. He is going to be 11 yrs old on November 18th and has been fighting blood and bone marrow cancer. You can read about Colton and his story here.
Colton has made a bucket list of things he would like to do before he is old. :) One of the things he would like to accomplish/achieve this yr is to receive a TON of birthday cards and more specifically he would like one from every state. (He thought one from every country would be a little out of reach)
Well Colton, I know that you will be receiving at least one card from NY as well as cards from all over the country and then some.

If you would like to help Colton reach his goal this year and send a card you may send it to:
Colton Brandenburg
72 E Brooklyn St
Chilton, WI 53014

Let's all chip in and help make this young mans day.

Keep Kreating,
Erin

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas don't you think? I know Thanksgiving hasn't even arrived yet but in the retail world once the pumpkins are off the shelves they are replaced with Christmas trees. This is really my most favorite time of the year. I love the atmosphere and of course the decorations. :)
Anyway, this week over at Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog our Monday challenge was to create something using our Cricut (of course!), the color green and circles. I was feeling a bit festive tonight so I got out my Stretch Your Imagination cart and went to town. I love the white silhouette on the holly leaves. All the background papers are from an old DCWV Christmas stack and I punched out the sentiment using a circle punch and adhered it on top of a scalloped circle. Of course it needed a little bling so I used Stickles on the white silhouette and around the circle of the sentiment. I love how it turned out.

I hope this card got you in the Christmas and festive spirit, perhaps even motivated you to start on your own holiday cards or at the very least start your Christmas shopping.

Keep Kreating,
Erin

:) I was invited by Candace from Paper Crafts by Candace (Scrap-A-Doodle-Dee) to participate in a flash card swap. Each participant was assigned a letter of the alphabet (some were ambitious enough to take on 2+ letters) and we were to make 26 flash cards with the letter on one side and the image and word on the other. As you can obviously see my letter was O. I chose to use the Octopus from Create-A-Critter. LOVE that cart. Unfortunately I do not have a Gypsy or an Expression so I had to computer print the word but I think it looks just fine. The base of the card is a green and the octopus side is a really pretty striped paper with blues and greens. It reminded me of under the sea. I embossed the octopus with Spots and Dots and the back of the card with Divine swirls. Of course I just HAD to add the googly eyes. :0)

I'm REALLY looking forward to getting my complete set back in the mail. I know there are some pretty amazing participants in this swap. I promise to take pics and share with you when I get them back.

Thanks for checking in.

Keep Kreating,
Erin

As many of you know by now I am one of the newest design team members for Fantabulous Cricut. I am so honored and very excited to be a part of such a talented team of designers.

Each Monday the blog hosts a Challenge Me Monday. We, the DT and you the visitors/followers are challenged to create something using your Cricut and the theme chosen for that week. This weeks Challenge Me Monday is Bird Bonanza. We were to create something having to do with a bird (bird cage, owl, bird, etc.). I chose this adorable little owl from Create A Critter. This is my ultimate favorite cartridge. It's definitely a staple and go to cartridge for me. I love this little owl so much. I embossed the top layer of the owl and the leaves using my Cuttlebug "Divine Swirl" folder and then I inked (very carefully) the raised portion of the each layer. The background papers were just scraps I had in my stash and the ribbon was just a leftover scrap from a previous project.

I am so excited to be a part of this design team. Please go to Fantabulous Cricut and check out this amazing blog. It is jammed packed with amazing talent and a plethora of outstanding tips, trick and information.

Keep Kreating,
Erin

I am so excited to be able to share with you, my fellow stalkers ;) that I am now a Design Team member for Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog. YAY.....

For those of you who are likers/fans on my Facebook page SpantastiKreations you may remember back on October 13th I had declared that someday I WOULD be a member of a dt. It was at that time that my friend Candace from Paper Crafts By Candace gave the heads up and encouraged me to apply for the DT. Thank you Candace I'm so glad I did.

I am so looking forward to seeing what my fellow team members have to share with us. Check out the blog sometime. The challenges are posted every Monday.

SUPER excited to
Keep Kreating,
Erin

Fall....it's my favorite time of the year and Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Second only to Christmas. I wanted to share with you a non card project I made a couple weeks ago. It's a table top (or in my case an entertainment center top) decoration. The entire banner is one piece. I received this a few yrs ago in a lot of scrapbooking/craft goodies I bought at a yard sale. I never really knew what to do with it until I had seen a few other crafter/bloggers making some word "banners" using wood blocks. That's where my inspiration began and I went from there. These squares are approx. 4"x4". I chose 2 coordinating patterned papers from an older DCWV Autumn stack and alternated them on each square. I inked the edges of the banner and I also sanded/filed the edges of the circles. Gave it a little bling and embelishment and viola! I love how it turned out. I had originally wanted to give this away as a gift but I just fell in love with it and couldn't part with it. Selfish I know but sometimes you just love what you've created so much it's like one of your children and you couldn't bear the thought of parting with it.
I hope you liked my non-card project this week.

Keep Kreating,
Erin

Well....it's that time of the month again! NO! Not THAT time. >:) Provo Craft's Hello Thursday where they launch and announce to the general public all their goodies that they know we cannot live without. Of course in true PC fashion they have launched another 6 cartridges that are sure to please. This one, Wrap It Up is my favorite out of the new releases with Car Decals coming in a very close second.
Joy from Obsessed With Scrapbooking shared with the fabulous new carts and a few creations she's already made with them. Yeah, she's one of the lucky ones with the inside scoop. LUCKY. She's also hosting a giveaway in celebration of the new releases. She's giving away Christmas Card Mini and Christmas Village Mini.
Hop on over to her blog for her chance to win. Or not, only increases my odds of winning. LOL

Good luck, try not to drool too much and don't break the bank. :)

Keep Kreating,
Erin

Oh my gosh! Check it out ya'll. This is the new stamp set I just won from Momo @ Made by Momo. She was having give aways like mad on her blog last week in celebration leading up to her 10-10-10 birthday. This will be my first set of PK stamps. I have been wanting some for a while now. These will go AWESOME with my Everyday Paper Dolls and my Create A Critter. :)

In addition to being so generous on her birthday her hubbs gave her an Expression AND a Gypsy. She's already posted her first card and of course in true Momo fashion it's AWESOME. Hop on over and check it out.

Thanks again Momo. I cannot wait to get to creating with these adorable faces.

Keep Kreating,
Erin

Today is Throwback Thursday over on Emma's blog My Creative Time. Every Thursday she posts a challenge for us the "throwback" part is that she gives us one older Cricut Cartridge to use in the challenge. If we don't have that particular cartridge she usually gives us another guideline to keep within the game. Example: If you don't have Once Upon A Princess there must be pink in the project, etc. So this week her challenge was to make a shape card using Create A Critter and it must have the color orange in it. I LOVE Create A Critter and as soon as I read the challenge I knew exactly what I wanted to do. SUNSHINE....isn't she adorable? I don't have a Gypsy so in order to "weld" my card together I must do it manually. :) I simply cut 2 black suns @ 5"using the shadow feature in black. To give it some more stability I also cut a white sun using the blackout feature. I then scored the back side of the card at about 1/2"-3/4" and adhered the front to the back. And Voila! :) I had to give Sunshine a more feminine look so I gave her sultry googly eyes and an adorable orange bow. I'm thrilled with how she turned out. The finished card measures 5 1/2" round. :)

Hop on over to Emma's blog and see what she's got going on. She is absolutely amazing. If you cannot find inspiration in her work you simply don't have it in you to be inspired. :)

Thank you Emma for the fun challenge this week.

Keep Kreating,
Erin

I had the honor of winning 3 digi-stamps from Nicole over at Canadian Nickel Scrap'n. I was very unsure of these. Nicole does AWESOME work with these stamps. She's got the coloring (with her Stampin' Up markers) down to a perfection. I don't have nice markers like those or Copics but I do have a set of watercolor pencils so I thought I'd give it a shot. First I printed the image on card stock then I got to coloring. My coloring skills could most definitely be sharpened but I am pleased with the outcome. After I colored the image I cut it out and assembled this card. The sentiment (which was computer printed) says Sweet Birthday Witches. I have two more digi-stamps to work with and I'm looking forward to getting a little more creative.

Thanks again for the stamps Nicole.

Keep Kreating,
Erin

It's been bugging me for some time now that I haven't had a decent space/area to take pictures of my kreations. I didn't like taking them in the kitchen, the living room, etc. with all the extras in the "background". I know that some of my fellow crafters have photo boxes. I looked into these on eBay and Amazon but they are just not in my budget at this time so I got to thinking....."How could I make my own?" Well, I did it, sort of. LOL :) This is what I did.... I took a piece of foam board (You know like the kind the kids use for school projects and stuff?) and I cut it in half. Yep, that's it! One half is for the bottom and the other half is for the back. If you scroll down my blog posts you can see that I used this "photo box" when I took pictures of the holiday swap cards I made.
I hope this helped someone. With a little imagination we can quickly, easily and inexpensively use what we have on hand to be kreative.

If you kreate something like this or have kreated something like this please feel free to share.

Keep Kreating,
Erin

Candace from Paper Crafts By Candace hosted a Holiday Cricut Cut Swap. Here's how it worked:
I (along with many others) mailed her 15 holiday themed Cricut cuts (about 3"), I chose the turkey from Create A Critter , she divided them up and I got in return 15 holiday cuts from other crafters. Here are some of the cuts I received. You could use these cuts for cards, layouts whatever. I chose to make cards. :) What I really liked about this was that the cuts were already done so all I had to do was basically assemble. These cards were quick and easy and I must say I LOVE how they turned out. The "Happy Halloween" card is my favorite. I'm looking forward to participating in more swaps with Candace. :)

Keep Kreating,
Erin