Scrap At Sea 2012

I have started planning for the scrapbooking cruise I'm hosting on Feb.4-11, 2012.  Originally, I was going to plan an Eastern Caribbean itinerary, but am now going with a nice Southern Caribbean itinerary since it offers three days at sea and you can also visit some amazing ports - Aruba, Curacao and Princess Cays, Bahamas.
For anyone that's interested in more information, please visit my new website, www.scrapatsea.com.  It's going to be so much fun!

Join me for a Scrapbooking Cruise - February 2012

I am arranging a scrapbooking cruise for February 2012.  I know it seems quite far off, but it requires quite a bit of planning and it will also give everyone who's interested in going lots of time to save.  It will be a 7 day cruise out of Fort Lauderdale with at least 2 days at sea for some crop time.  The cruise line will be Princess.  If you are interested, please e-mail me at ckoch@cruiseshipcenters.com and I will send you more information such as dates, prices, etc. once I have more details.  
Non-scrapbookers will also be welcome, for those of you that would like to bring a spouse, family members or friends.  There will be plenty to do for both scrapbookers and non-scrapbookers and we will be visiting some amazing ports of call as well!  

Cuba Vacation Layouts

Here's some layouts I've made recently of our trip to Cuba last January.

Wedding Album

Wow!  It has been a long time since I've posted on my blog!  This doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything crafty though!  I have completed two wedding albums for friends that got married this month.  Here are some photos from the first one I completed.  I completed this whole album during a 12 hour crop that my neighbour hosted!

You are Invited to Join the Cricut Circle!

Are you interested in joining the Cricut Circle?  I have been a member for a couple months now and I'm really enjoying it!  As part of membership, you will receive exclusive Cricut cartridges (4 times a year with the yearly membership).  The new Cricut Cricle messageboard is also great... so much faster than the original Cricut messageboard!  One of the best parts of being a members is socializing with all of the other members!  There are also Cricut Circle swarms that you can participate in.  You will also be first to hear about the latest products.  Plus, there are lots of Cricut Circle contests!  There is also a great monthly e-magazine full of wonderful project ideas!
If you would like to join, please let me know, and I will e-mail you the invitation.  If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me at ascrapbooknook@rogers.com. 
This invitation is only available until September 13, so please e-mail me right away if you'd like to join!

Images from French Manor, the first exclusive full cartridge for Cricut Circle members

'Play' Layout from our Cuba Trip

Here's a layout I made tonight of the kids playing at the Kid's Club at the Sirenas La Salina Resort in Varadero, Cuba.  I think the Kid's Club was one of their very favourite parts of our trip!

For this layout, I used all TLC products.  I wish TLC was still around... I loved their scrapbooking products.

Cars Room Wall Decor

Last weekend, my husband and I took on the project of redecorating my son's room.  Our little guy is 2 1/2 now, so we thought it was time to change his room from the nursery to a big boy's room!  I bought him a Cars bed on Saturday, so Saturday afternoon we decided to start the room and we had it all done by Sunday!  I just wanted to share a picture of the wall art I made for his room.  I used the Cars Cricut cartridge to create these two wall hangings. 

Oh, and he loves his new room! :)

Cruise Contest

This is a little off topic for my scrapbooking/crafting blog, but I just wanted to share an awesome contest that is going on right now through Expedia CruiseShipCenters.  We are giving away 25 cruises to the Bahamas aboard Norwegian Cruise Lines! 
Each prize consists of one interior cabin (for two people) onboard a Norwegian 4-day cruise to the beautiful Bahamas! 
To enter, please visit my website and fill out the online ballot:  www.cruiseshipcenters.ca/christinakoch

Good luck to everyone who enters! 

Family Vacation/Pool Layout

Here's a two-page layout I did tonight of the kids by the pool on our vacation to Varadero, Cuba.  The kids were both wearing wetsuits with floatable padding in them and they looked hilarious!  It looked like they were both really muscular!!  After we got them all ready in their wetsuits, we headed to the pool and the water was way too cold to go swimming!  

I used my new Summer Vacation Cricut cartridge to cut 'Family Vacation'.  I used a lot of glittery DCWV cardstock on this layout and the patterned paper had a lot of bling too!  The palm trees were a dollar store find.  

My First Cricut Cake!

Here are some pictures of my first cake decorated with my Cricut Cake!  I experimented with some cupcakes last weekend and today I thought I'd do a cake for my mom's birthday.  I used Wilton fondant for the shapes and the cake is covered in a buttercream icing.  I'm thinking next time I'll try covering the cake in fondant.  The cartridge I used to cut the flowers was Elegant Cakes.

Stamping Bella Birthday Card

Here's a birthday card I made today using a Stamping Bella stamp, 'giftabella.'  I coloured the image with Copic markers.
When I got home from work tonight, the kids wanted to go to the 'craft room' to do some crafts, so while they made some paper towel roll creations, I made a card! :)

Cricut Cake - Cupcakes

My Cricut Cake arrived late last week and I finally had a chance to play with it today!  I made some simple cupcakes with chocolate icing and tried cutting both gum paste and fondant.  I found the gum paste was quite hard to work with, but the cuts turned out a lot nicer.  I mixed a bit of pink colouring with the Wilton gum paste and it was really hard to get it all a uniform colour, but it turned a pretty shade of pink after a lot of kneading!  The pink butterflies were made with the gum paste.  The green flowers were made with Wilton fondant.  This was so much softer and easier to work with, but the cuts didn't turn out as great.  It was fun experimenting though!

Scrapbooking Garage Sale Finds

I found some great deals at my local scrapbook store's garage sale!  Check out some of my great buys:

Scrapbooking Idea Books

Tons of paper, kits, primas, Martha Stewart Owl punch, Cuttlebug embossing folders/dies

I always have so much fun at scrapbooking sales and you never know what kind of items you will find!  Some of my best buys were new idea books for $6-7 and the Martha Stewart owl punch for $5!  

I also used my Cricut today to help make a 'crazy hat' for camp for my daughter.  The camp is a jungle theme so I cut some leaves from the Dinosaur Tracks cartridge and the monkey is actually from some children's playing cards that we use for crafts.  I think it turned out pretty cute!

Paige modeling her jungle-themed 'crazy hat'!

Cricut Cake On Its Way!

So.... I finally ordered the Cricut Cake yesterday!  I have been thinking about purchasing one for a long time, but wasn't sure, but the more I look at all the creations you can make with it, the more I wanted one, and now one is on its way!  I ordered the bundle through the Shopping Channel which comes with the cartridges Cake Basics and Elegant Cakes and some other bonuses including three packages of Wilton fondant.  I'm so excited for it to arrive!

Today, there was more exciting announced about the Cricut Cake.  There is a new Martha Stewart edition coming out, but it looks like it will just be available through the Home Shopping Network.  I'm not so interested in the machine (it's white, so I think it looks more like the Cricut Expression), but the new Martha Stewart cartridges look awesome!  Here are some pictures (posted on Cricut Cake Facebook site) of cakes, cookies and cupcakes that were created with the new cartridges.  Don't they look amazing?!

Tropical Beach Layout

Here is a quick beach layout I did tonight.  These pictures were from our family trip to Varadero, Cuba, this past January.  I've been trying to use up some older scrapbooking supplies, and this layout was made with a TLC kit that I've had for quite a while.