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.

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.