Giveaway!

Head on over to Alma's Pink Life for a chance to win the Martha Stewart All Occasions Cake Cartridge!

http://almabrooksblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/giiiiiveaway.html

Craft Room Makeover!

Happy anniversay to me! For our 30th anniversay, which is today, my wonderful husband gave my craft room a makeover. He painted the walls, rearranged everything, told me to go buy a new dining room table, so I could take the old one upstairs to use! It came out so great. I have so much room and now it's so much easier to stay organized.



I got some inexpensive fabric from Hobby Lobby and made some valances for the windows. I wanted the natural light so I didn't want to cover them up! I also took one of my bookcases and turned it on it's side. We then placed in under the window. I can store my paper in there - it stands up perfectly. It also allowed me to put things on top!



While we were hanging the valances, I noticed that the rods would make perfect ribbon holders, so I went back to Anna's and bought more rods to hang on the wall. I also got some picture ledges from Ikea for my stickles, distress ink, glitter, etc. I love having everything out in the open!

I'm back and have a new project!

After being sick for about two weeks, then having my craft room painted, then my DH going into the hospital, I haven't been able to do much the past several weeks, but everything has calmed down and I finally got a chance to go into my new craft room for the first time last night! When we had our Houston Circlet meet up, someone, and I apologize because I don't know who, gave Debbie a really neat desk mat. Well, while I was at Ikea, I saw these huge desk mats and scooped some up. Debbie's was designed with her name and her standard crown and it was adorable! I decided to do them for the kids I know - kind of like a place mat/play mat.



I used the Cricut pink vinyl and Storybook for the font and the flowers. The name is cut at 3" and the flowers at 2". I then added a little flourish from the French Manor cart, cut at 2". I flipped the image on my Gypsy so I could adhere it to the back of the mat.

The mat is actually about 25" x 18", so it's really a great size. I picked up a bunch and I'm actually using a few as a work mat. They help keep the table clean. Now all of the glue residue, glitter, etc. will get on the mat instead of the table!

This particular one is for a lady in my office building. She liked the idea so much she bought one for her daughter. Now hopefully I'll get orders for more! They are very easy and quick to do.

Blog Hop Apology

I signed up to do the Thanksgiving Blog Hop, but unfortunately I have been ill for the past week or so and consequently I have nothing to offer for the blog hop. Please accept my apology; I hope to be able to get back to crafting very soon.

Thanks for understanding.

Birthday Blog Candy Winner

The winner of my birthday blog candy is CRAFTOHOLIC!

Congratulations and thanks to all that entered!

BIRTHDAY BLOG CANDY!

Monday I will be celebrating my 49th birthday. The days of being "in my forties" are dwindling. What better way to celebrate than with a give away?

To qualify for the give away you must

1) Be a follower
2) Leave me a comment on this post

The winner will be picked at random on November 2nd!

**I have no idea why my photos are upside down. They are not that way on my originals**

October Monthly Challenge - Celebrating Creativity

Here is my entry for the Circle's October Monthly Challenge - Celebrating Creativity. I thought about this for a long time wondering what I could do to celebrate my creativity. I decided that I didn't want to limit this to myself. My youngest daughter is really the creative one in the family. She has a natural talent, which we have tried to encourage for quite some time. She never really wanted to pursue formal training, but I wanted her to continue to develop her God given talents.

My DH got some wood and built a frame around some high grade plywood. We painted the frame white and used decorative corner molding so we didn't have to miter the edges! We then painted the plywood with chalkboard paint. We then hung it in her room.

I then proceeded to make an inspirational sign for her to look at daily. Here is what I came up with:



The patterned black and white paper is from The Paper Studio, the black and white stack. The white mat was cut from the Lacy Labels cartridge at 11.3 on my Gypsy. The fonts, cut at 1 1/2 inches, are from the Storybook cartridge, as well as the borders, cut at 1". The black paper used for the shadow behind the fonts, as well as the white paper for the mat is Core'dinations paper.




I used Viva Decor liquid pearls on the border.



I used Prima Flowers with black and white brads for additional embellishments.

Circle clothing

Tomorrow I will be attending the 2nd Houston Circlet Meet Up. There will be 50 of us in attendance, 41 Circlets and 9 guests! Michael from Provo Craft will also be in attendance. In honor of the event I made this shirt to wear! I know we will have a wonderful time and will be posting photos tomorrow evening!

Creative Memories carts

I was asked to do a class this Saturday for a Creative Memories cropfest. It will be a Cricut class. In doing the demo work at JoAnns and Michaels I was so surprised to see how many people have the machines but rarely, if ever, use them! Most were intimidated and think it's too complicated. Many don't go online to look at videos or even the MB's, so the machine sits on a table or even still in the box.

So.....I met a lovely lady who is a CM consultant. From there I was asked to do a series of classes on the Cricut and the Gypsy and this Saturday is my first class. I wanted to do two simple make and takes that would incorporate several of the features of the machines so they would know what all those buttons do!

They sent me the Creative Memories carts, which I LOVE! I will definitely be purchasing both of those because they have such a variety and the fonts are lovely as well. I made two projects, one with each cart.

The first is the snowflake. I cut it out at 3" and used all of the layers, for a total of 4 cuts. I used different shades of blue cardstock and topped it off with white cardstock. This snowflake can be used as a gift tag, a LO embellishment or you can pop it on a card! This allowed me to use the multi-cut feature as the snowflake has very intricate cuts.



The second is an easy Christmas card. I cut this out at 4" and then used the fit to length feature to fit the sentiment into the frame opening. The whole sentiment read "Celebrate This Day", but I decided to just use "Celebrate". I also took the rectangle that was left over from cutting the frame and trimmed it with my paper trimmer to make it smaller. I adhered "Celebrate" to the middle, added some glitter and pop dotted it into the middle.

The frame could always be used on a LO, if they don't want to put the card together.

Both projects only took me about 20 minutes each. The thing that took the longest was having to cut each one individually since I had to do this without my Gypsy! I must confess - I can't design without my Gypsy! I played around with the carts for a couple of days before I decided to link them. Once I did that I came up with several designs in about 10 minutes! The Gypsy makes my life soooo much easier. Can't live without it!

As for the paper - the solid paper is all Core'dinations (both projects). The heart paper on the card is really old - like 6 years. No idea who the mfg is, but it's really cute!

What a giveaway!

DCVW Diary is giving away a stack of their new 12x24 paper and you will LOVE IT!

Check out her awesome blog:

http://dcwvinc.blogspot.com/2010/10/say-what-giveaway-today.html

Calling Cards

Here are my calling cards for the Meet Up this coming weekend. I couldn't decide on what to do so I just went with something that would say something about me! Even though the color doesn't show very well, the card itself is purple, the circle is green and the fleur de lis is gold! Now, can you tell I'm from New Orleans?

Autumn Splendor Challenge

My DD asked me to make a birthday card for her friend's birthday tomorrow. In picking out the paper to use, I kept in mind the Autumn Splendor challenge. I used paper from SEI autumn paper stack. I used the Lacey Labels cartridge for the mats and "celebrate".

Note - "celebrate" was part of a frame, but I didn't like it on top of the paper, so I decided to cut off the word from the frame and then put it on a white mat to make it pop. I did ink the white mat edges with moss green ink. I used a little glitter on the word to give it some sparkle.

I then used some really thin paper raffia to make a simple bow.

Houston Circle Meet Up

No project to post today. I spent the day with ScrapHappyDeb getting all of the things ready for the Houston Circle Meet Up next Saturday. Of course, Debbie had most of the work already done - she is so talented! I put together the name tags, which Debbie designed, and I must say - they are adorable. I also put together some little gift bags!

I'll be posting pictures next week after the meet up. I can't wait - it's going to be a blast!

3 Birds for 3 Nieces - Final card in the series

This is my final card in my 3 Birds for 3 Nieces series. This one is also my favorite! This card is for my beautiful godchild Dana. She will celebrate her 24th birthday on the 28th of this month.



I used the Imagine Nursery Tails cart for the background scalloped mat, as well as the patterns on the bird and the sentiment. I then stickled the sentiment as well as the pom pom on the birdies hat! I used a bright yellow Core'dinations cardstock for the base of the card and added some pearls to finish it off!

I really am starting to like the Imagine more and more! Did I also mention that the scalloped mat was from the Imagine? You have the option of choosing from several shapes that come standard with the Imagine, then you can flood fill it with any pattern or color from any of the Imagine carts or you can use any paper - solid or patterened - and just cut out the shape. I love that option.

All that is left is to stuff these 3 cards into a big envelope and ship them off to my beautiful nieces in Kentucky!

3 Birds for 3 Nieces - 2nd in series

This is the second in my 3 bird series. Again, this card was done with the Imagine. I used the Imagnie Nursery Tails cart for the pattern on the scalloped circle. I then chose colors and patterns for the sentiment and bird from the color wheel. I used two flower stickers from K&Company in the upper right hand corner. I used a dark olive green card stock from C'oredinations for the card base.

3 Birds for 3 Nieces - 1st in a series!

Another card today! I must say that I'm very proud of myself for actually sticking with the committment I made to post and create daily! I'm having a lot of fun playing with the Imagine.

Today I have a quick card using the 3 Birds on Parade cart. Last night I decided that I would do 3 cards with this cartridge. I'm going to send them to my nieces in Kentucky. (Morgan, Dana and Jody) I was a bad, bad aunt and did not send Jody a birthday card for her July birthday! Her sisters both have October birthdays, so I decided that I'd get three cards done with three birds and send them all together! Here is the first one.

I love the mat option in the Imagine and how you can use them with any Imagine cart! For the mat I used a pattern (the plaid) from the Imagine More cart. I also used a yellow plaid from the Imagine More cart for the wings, legs and beak. I used the polka dot pattern from the Imagine Best Friends cart for the birds body which, along with the "you're tweet" phrase, came from the 3 Birds on Parade cart.

I grabbed some sheer yellow ribbon and some buttons in different shades of green and put it all together on a 5 1/4" x 5 1/4" white card stock card base.

Come back tomorrow to see the second card in my 3 Birds for 3 nieces series!

Floating Frame

I saw this on the Cricut MB's a while back and have been wanting to try it for myself. I purchased the floating frame at Michaels and cut my last name out of black Circut vinyl. I used Gypsy Fonts.

I need to tweak it. The height of the letters need to be bigger, but since my name is so long, I can't really adjust the width much! LOL So, I'm going to play with it some more, perhaps add a fleur de lis or something, but for now I'm posting it as it is.

My first Imagine card!

Tomorrow is my DH's godchild's birthday and she is one of our favorite people in the world! We love her so much! This card was made for her. It is my first Imagine card.

I used the Imagine More cartridge and some new paper that I had gotten last week at Michael's that was on clearance! It is from My Mind's Eye - Life Stories 12" Kraft card stock paper pack. It kind of has a recycled look and I love it!

I actually used Winnie the Pooh font for "GRETCHEN" and flood filled the letters. I did layer the birds and then added some pearls. Although I like the card, I decided that the Imagine has much more of a learning curve. It could be because I can't use my Gypsy, but I don't remember the "E" being this time consuming to learn. We'll see. I know I will like it much better when it is compatible to the G.

Engagement Card

I wanted to make this card for a dear friends daughter that just got engaged. I used the Wedding solutions cart to cut out "LOVE". I had the rose stickers, I'm thinking they are from Recollections. I used white pearlised paper from AC Cardstock. the black and red card stock is C'oredinations and the sheer ribbon is Celebrate It.

Think Pink Cricut Blog challenge

Here is my submission for the Think Pink challenge. I've been thinking about what to do for Christmas cards, so when I saw this challenge I immediately thought of Christmas. Although I usually don't think of pink and Christmas going together I really like the way this came out.

I used the Joys of the Season and Lacy Labels cartridges. I cut the tree out at 4" and also used the blackout feature. Although it looks kind of red in the photo, I used a dark pink card stock for the blackout. I ran the top swirly layer of the tree through my Xyron machine in order to adhere it to the blackout layer. Instead of cleaning up the extra adhesive, I added clear MS glitter to give it a little sparkle. I then used flower shaped rhinestones for ornaments. The presents were cut out at 1" and I outlined the ribbon with liquid pearls.

The mats were from Lacy Labels. There were extremely white, so I just used some pink chalk and shaded it a bit to soften the look. All of the paper that I used were scraps so I have no idea who made what.

The sentiment was done on the computer, then placed on the mat exactly where I knew the mat would cut! I also chalked up that mat, just not quite as much.

Birthday card - what else!

I have so much going on today, but I want to keep my goal of posting every day, so I'm going back a few weeks to a birthday card I made.



The photo is a little dark - don't know what I did when I took it, but you get the general idea.
I was asked to make this card for the daughter of a woman that works with my husband. All I was told was that "she likes green". So, with that wealth of information I went about creating this card. LOL



The happy girl is from Beyond Birthdays cart. The present is from Joys of the Season. The background paper is from DCWV Flower Power stack and the aqua glitter paper is from DCWV. The green paper is from the Paper Studio mat stack. I cuttlebugged the present with the spots and dots embossing folder, added some generic green buttons, a green glitter brad in the middle of the girl, and some lime green brads around the sentiment!

Blog candy!

Not only blog candy, but a really cool blog.

Check it out:

http://kandrewdesigns.blogspot.com/2010/10/huge-blog-candy-650-followers-cricut.html

Please tell them I sent you over!

Thanks.

Paris LO

This layout is doing double duty! I will be entering it into the new Cricut blog's weekly challenge and will be putting it into a scrapbook page frame to give to my DH's godchild for her birthday. She just got back from France about two weeks ago; had to go for work. She was told she could bring a couple of friends and she choose her parents! How great is that?

The background paper is from 7 Gypsies. All of the cuts are from the French Manor cartridge. I cut the postage stamp frame out and decided to keep it together, using the solid middle for a picture mat and then I pop dotted the frame. You can't see it too well in the photo, but it gives it a kind of cool 3-d effect.

Of course I used my Liquid Pearl pen to embellish. I didn't have a nice journaling tag, so I made one with plain paper and some distress ink. Not sure if I like it, so I will be going to Archivers to see if they have a better option!

Pumpkin Patch

I had to come up with a "make and take" for the open house at JoAnns this weekend. I wanted it to be easy but something everyone would enjoy. This is what I came up with:


I decided to do a picture LO that could be framed in a simple 5 x 7 frame. That way it could still include those that don't scrap.

I used the October 31 cart and designed it on my Gypsy. I cut the green border at 1.29", the pumpkins at 1.70" and the pumpkin patch sign at 2". I also cut a moon, but forgot to put in on the photo.......DUH. It will go in the upper left hand side. It was cut at 2".

The background paper is Heidi Grace designs and all of the solid paper is The Paper Studio mat stack. I did pop dot the pumpkins and sign.

I used a photo of my oldest daughter. She was 3 years old back then. It's one of my favorite pictures.

I hope the customers at JoAnns like it!

Lacy Labels birthday card

Yet another September birthday card! I've been under the weather the past few days and haven't created anything and since I vowed to post everyday, I'm just going back into my stack.

I had just gotten the Lacy Labels cartridge, which I really had no interest in getting until I met Pamela at the Circle meet up. She had shown me the beautiful cuts and I just had to have it! So one month later, while browsing in Wal Mart, there it was, so I got it.

It really does have a lot of pretty cuts on it. I played around and for some reason this cut jumped out at me. Maybe because I love tulips.

I found this paper in my stack and honestly have no idea where it came from. I'm thinking it might have been in one of my stacks and then my daughter cut them into 6x6 pieces. There was about 6 different papers (4 of each), all in the yellow/brown/pink colors.

I cut the striped background down to the 5x5 to fit my card - I love doing square 51/4" x 5 1/4" cards! Then I cut the flowered background at 3", then the tulip ring at 2 1/2". I then cut out a smaller circle so I could stamp Happy Birthday and pop dotted that so it would stand out. I added liquid pearls, some crystal tulips and sheer yellow ribbon.

French Manor and Forever Young birthday card

Another birthday card! September explodes with birthdays for me. This was for a friend in my office building. I used French Manor for the dress form and Forever Young for the hat and shoes. The paisley paper was something I had in my stack. I swear I'm going to get better organized so I know what paper I use!

The form, hat and shoes were cut out of The Paper Studio stack. I inked the edges of all of the cuts and then added some little blue flower shaped crystals to the hat and shoes for a little bling and some ribbon to the waist of the form! The Happy Birthday stamp is from Hero Arts.

Hello Kitty Birthday

This was a quick and really cute card. I cut out Kitty at 3". All of the paper was The Paper Studio solid stack. The flower is a chipboard sticker by K & Company. The stamp is old, but I believe it is Hero Arts.

Mom's 80th birthday

My Mom turned 80 last week and I wanted to do something really different. First I had made a bunch of the paper flowers. I used the scalloped circle in Plantin Schoolbook and did them in 1/2 inch increments. I used pink DCWV card stock, inked the edges brown, wet and crumpled them and let them dry. I then layered them and used a bronze brad in the middle and applied Glossy Accents to give them shine.

I cut out the screen from the French Manor cart in a burgundy DCWV card stock as well as the bird, which was done with white card stock. I used Stickles on the bird. The branches were also on the FM cart and I used brown DCWV card stock as well as Glossy Accents.

I'm not sure about the background paper. I bought it a while back as a single sheet. I believe it is Bo Bunny. The gold paper that I used behind the screen and for the sentiment is from DCWV shimmer stack. I used a MS punch on the bottom of the sentiment, which was printed from the computer directly to the card stock, cut out, edges inked and bottom punched.

I really love the way this card came out. So did my Mom!

Blog give aways!

Every week there are wonderful blogs that regularly give away some really cool stuff. Today I'm going to tell you about two really great blogs that you should check out. Even if you just go there to for a chance to win, take a few moments to check out the blogs. They're really great!

First up is DCWV Diary. If you know me, you know that I own just about every paper pack made by DCWV. This week they are giving away some of the new Autumn paper, which have such fabulous colors.

Check it out - go to:
http://dcwinc.blogspot.com2010/09/well-hello-monday.html



Now for another one I discovered, thanks to Okie.

Check it out - go to:
http://www.disneydreamerdesigns.blogspot.com

Melissa has a really cute blog - lots of Disney stuff, which of course everyone loves! This week she is giving away a pink ATG!

Good luck and happy blog hopping!

Inkadinkadoo stamp "My Mother's Dress"

Wow! I can't believe it's been over a month since I've posted. I knew I was busy, I just didn't realize how busy until now!

Okay - so today I'll post a card I made with my all time favorite stamp from Inkadinkadoo. It was stamped on plain white cardstock and hand cut. Added a couple of layers of Tim Holtz' distress inks (Vintage Photo & Walnut Stain). After it dried, my daughter blinged it up with her favorite embellishment - STICKLES!



The background paper is gold and silver and is from the Simple Elegance Foiled Paper stack by The Paper Studio. I used a brown and tan solid C'oredinations paper which I cut with my Nestabilities scalloped circles. I added some Liquid Pearls and a gold ribbon, stamped the smaller scallop with my Happy Birthday stamp and there it is.

I did pop dot the dress as well as the Happy Birthday.

I hope you like the finished product. My friend did!

Give A Hoot Butterfly

My cousin, who is like a sister to me, had surgery on Monday. I wanted to send her a card to let her know we were thinking about her and wishing her a speedy recovery. I love all of the animals in the "Give A Hoot" cartridge! I chose the butterflies because, well, I like butterflies. (Unlike my youngest daughter who is deathly afraid of them.......that's a story for a different day)

So I grabbed some paper, tried to match it up, cut out the butterflies with the help of my Gypsy (so I have no idea of the size) and put the card together. Of course I had to use pearls - my favorite bling. (I think I need to buy them by the case!)

I added some stickles to the butterflies antennas, inked the edges of the paper, stamped the solid cardstock with a florish stamp, added pearls and this is the finished project. I didn't want to add a sentiment onto the front of the card because I liked it plain. I wanted the attention on the butterflies. The inside say "wishing you a speedy recovery".

Houston Circlets

The Houston Circlets met up Saturday night, for the first time, for a swarm at Archivers. Well needless to say I didn't get anything done! I was there for about 3 hours and talked the entire time, even while we did a little shopping! What a fabulous group we have! It was so much fun to meet in person and Provo Craft even sent some goodies for us! We all got the new Cricut Imagine sunglasses. Even though my kids and husband and mother, and well everyone that has seen me with them on, laugh at me, I wear them with pride! A shout out to Debbie O'Neal, our coordinater for the evening! She made everyone their own notebook, personalized with our names, cut out with what else - her Cricut! Here's to the Houston Circlets! Thanks for a great evening girls. I can't wait until the next get together!

Embossing, Nestabilities, Hero Arts Stamps, Wall Decor and More, Pearls for bling!

A friend asked for a b/d card for her daughter. She said she liked the shoe card. I don't like to make duplicates, so I played around to come up with something similiar that had it's own unique character and this is it! I embossed the background with my cuttlebug (swirls folder). I cut out the round shapes with my nestibilities, which is really neat since I can print out the sentiment (Happy Birthday Jennifer), then center it before I make the cut! I used some black ribbon with white stitching, my shoe stamps from Hero Arts, the MS border punch and added some pearls, my favorite bling!

I used the Wall Decor and More cart to cut out the shoe to place on the inside, then printed out the sentiment, cut it to size and inked the edges with a soft pink.

Twin girls - 1st birthday

One of my bosses twin daughters just turned one year old! I made these cards for them! I used A Child's Year cart, which is one of my favorites! The background paper is from SEI. I used a MS punch for the border.

Pelican birthday card

I made this card for my boss - he loves pelicans - and we're both from New Orleans originally. We still love our state bird!




The inside: