30 April 2010

Does this look like burlap to you?


I see burlap looking flowers/embellies everywhere these days. Well I was playing around tonight cutting some of the metal tape flowers for a friend and found this tape. I can't think of the name just now, BUT I cut two each of 1.75, 1.5 and 1 inch circles, layered, inked and stuck a brad through. I know the picture quality stinks but does it look like burlap? It is sticky on the back but not too sticky to play with. What do you think?

My last Practical Scrappers Layout


All good things must come to an end. This week that is my amazing time at Practical Scrappers Design Team. I have really stretched myself and loved my time on this talented team. I plan to keep playing with the challenges and I hope you will too.

This weeks challenge is BUTTONS. I love buttons. I have a HUGE sorted jar of buttons, I wish I had buttons from my grandmas but I do not. I however HATE threading buttons LOL! Here is my take. I used buttons for the photo corners, to highlight the photo, and threaded on the ribbon.

These pictures were this past winter when Caitlyn received her first trike. She now is wishing and begging for a REAL bike, but cannot even pedal this one yet! She will be riding a bike before we know it.

So what are your plans this weekend, specifically for NATIONAL SCRAPBOOK DAY! YAY! I have already informed my hubby that I will be unable to perform my wifely and motherly duties starting at midnight tonight! HA! We will see how that goes! Whatever you do have fun!

29 April 2010

Gorgeous only to a Mommy artwork

Today for Tot School we used a glue stick for the very first time. I also wanted to get her into tearing the construction paper but that was a no go! She sure does have HER way of doing things and on HER time. That is alright though, this is supposed to be FUN and learning along the way. I finally got everything organized out in the laundry room so we are good to go with doing different things. Some days we do not do it, but I always make sure we do SOMETHING educational even if it is only naming colors or doing counting. She is getting better and better with one to one counting by the way. Anyways here is Caitlyns masterpiece. I need more paper bags now! The tile is her Mawmaws Mothers Day gift, work of love that will be treasured I am sure.

27 April 2010

Ducks






A good friend posted this sketch on Face book with a challenge so I thought I would try it. I rotated the sketch to the right in order to make my pictures work with it. Not strictly the sketch but it was the basis. I used Create a Critter for the Duck at the top, then various stamps and punches for the rest. LOTS of ink! Hope you like it!

We made HATS!





Today for tot school we did foamies and making hats. I am trying to get her to do more stickers but she is not too keen on them sticking to her fingers, she tends to freak out. I did not think she would like to make the hat either BUT we were watching Special Agent OSO on Disney and HE made a hat so I guess that made it alright!

25 April 2010

Tot School today





I have been slacking with Tot School only because we were so busy last week. We were gone daily from about 8 to right before nap time, then outside to play and dinner and bath. However this week is calling for rain (will believe it when I see it!) so we have some fun "learning' things planned. I reused the Egg dying containers (ran through dishwasher first of course) and then cut up some scraps of card stock to coordinate with the color of the cup. The first time I tried this she wanted nothing to do with it. Then Daddy found her playing by herself so he sat down and showed her and she loved it. She got them all right too! Guess I will have to challenge her more. He would hand her a piece of card stock, ask the color, make her say it, and then tell her to put it in the cup of the same color. She did great!

Lollipop Love

Good afternoon. Hope you all are enjoying your weekend. We are slated for LOTS of rain but so far hardly anything :(. I know I am strange, but I LOVE the rain, especially right now since it washes away the pollen! LOL! Anyways this morning while making Mothers day cards I sorted and organized all my unmounted rubber and small inkadinkado and Studio G stamps into my binder. I found this awesome tree one and the journal tag that says 2009 on it. I love them! I also broke out my old school decorative scissors again! Glad I kept those! The pictures are from October 2009, Harvest Fest (a few more layouts of this day!). This was the start of Caitlyns love affair with Tootsie Roll Pops, any size, any color. She was so happy to "win" three lollipops and took quite a long time picking them out LOL! For the lollipop embellishment in the top right I unwrapped a NEW mini Tootsie Roll pop, glued the wrapper onto some heavy card stock and punched a 3/4 inch circle out of it, attached the unused lollipop stick and there you go! I inked it a little too (it is dual purpose, serves as a handmade embellishment and covers up the strangers in the picture LOL). Well that is about it. Hope you had a great weekend!

24 April 2010

Scrapbookpal.com Design Team Call












One of my favorite online stores is having a design team call. I am so excited. I bought so much from them at CKC 2008, I am still using some of it LOL! They carry everything that I consider staples in my crafting plus some. The design team call was to create something using products that they carry. I will list those below the post. First let me apologize for the pictures, it is raining and no sun at all here (and none slotted for a few days). I also took them in the frames since I forgot to take them before and well they are in there now.

I made these 12.5 by 12.5 framed art pieces for my friends new baby to be. She is having her second, a little girl. The nursery walls are yellow and the curtains are with cute bugs. I sure hope she likes this even though I made the background paper.

Every single cut is from Cricut Cartridge Walk in my Garden cut at 3.5 inches including all layers. The only thing that I cut by hand is some of the grass, where I whipped out my old school decorative scissors for it.

I cut the purple(3) and green(3) card stock into 4X6 pieces.
Using Fiskars Threading Water punch, punch three of the six pieces.
Using Walk in my Garden cricut cartridge and the Cricut Expression cut all necessary items, bees (two sets), bee hive, snail, snail tag (for baby snail), caterpillar, and lady bugs (flip one image to make them face one another)
Adhere all layers, ink and accent with doodle dots and googly eyes
Cut clouds from WIMG shadow Hycanith at 1.25, 1.5 2 and 2.5 inches,run through Swiss dots cuttlebug folder
Ink with VersaMagic Sea Breeze ink.
Adhere with ATG tape or Zig two way chisel pen.
Cut sun from WIMG shadow sunflower at 2 and 2.5 inches, piece together, add doodle dots and adhere to pages.
Add felt flower, hand cut grass and misc other embellishments as desired.
Ink all edges.
Make background paper using cream card stock and Tim Holtz milled lavender and peeled paint distress inks.
Adhere six pieces to handmade background paper, alternating purple and green backgrounds.
Frame.
Enjoy!

Products used:
Fiskars Threading Water punch
Cricut Expression, 12X12 mat
Cricut Cartridge Walk in my Garden
Glue dots (mini)
Zig 2 way Chisel Pen
Scotch ATG 714 dispenser
Scotch ATG Gold 1/4 inch tape
Cuttlebug
Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder
Colorbox Fluid Chalk Chesnut Roan (my FAV!)
Ranger Stickles Glitter Glue-Crystal
Fiskars 12 inch personal paper trimmer-orange
Honey Bee Scissors
Stardust Gel Pens
EK success Millennium .05 Pen
Tim Holtz Distress Inks-milled lavender
Tim Holtz Distress Inks peeled paint

Also used:
Signo White Gel Pen for all the doodling
Quick Quotes powder puffs green with envy
VersaMagic multi surface chalk ink sea breeze
Various Cardstock and Patterned paper from stash
Frames from Michael's

23 April 2010

Practical Scrappers-Floss Fibers and Ribbon


Good morning. The challenge this week at Practical Scrappers was floss, fiber, ribbons. This is my next to last week with them. I have truly enjoyed my time with Practical Scrappers and plan on playing along every now and then. For my take on the challenge I used brown gross grain ribbon to make a trendy banner with a twist. I punched my triangles out, stamped "Happy Birthday!" on them then glued/stapled them onto the ribbon. I think it is rather manly while fitting with the banner trend. I made the onesie that Caitlyn is reluctantly modeling in the picture. It was a quick one with fabric markers, the cricut freezer paper method, and it was not even all the way dry by the time I stuffed her into it LOL! I also made the shirt that Jon is wearing using the freezer paper method. Super simple and he still wears it today!

22 April 2010

Do you need to LAUGH!?!?!

Today was a rough day here at my house. Little Miss did not sleep well last night but somehow still managed to be full of energy and attitude! I SO needed this! I laughed so hard I snorted, almost fell out of my chair and had tears rolling down my face. THEN I went to You tube and watched MORE LOL! SO much for crafting tonight but this lady is HYSTERICAL!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YFRUSTiFUs

21 April 2010

BLOG CANDY WINNER!!!!!!!




So this is how I determined who won since I was not going to judge it. According to completed projects links, I used 1-9. Number 8 is the winner!!! So that is: MELISSA!!!!

Melissa said:

Melissa said...

How about BOTH of your favorite colors?!?! :-) I've made this same card a couple times in the past, but needed another baby boy card for a friend that's expecting and this is my go to card! Thanks for the chance Crystal!

Hope this works....don't think I've ever tried this before.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m29/disneydreamer98/Cricut%20Creations/100_5792.jpg

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR PARTICIPATING IN MY BLOG CANDY! MELISSA CONTACT ME WITH YOUR MAILING ADDRESS AT WKUCHEMO AT GMAIL DOT COM AND I WILL GET IT OUT TO YOU BY THE WEEKEND OR MONDAY!!!

Blog Candy Alert-worldwide!


I would love love love this! I have ALWAYS wanted some Sassafras and Pink Paislee! WOOHOO! Such yumminess! I love this blog so please be sure to check it out! CHECK IT OUT HERE!!

Blog candy reminder

Today is the LAST day to get on my blog candy. I will pick a winner tonight after Caitlyn goes to bed or first thing in the morning!!!!!

Blog Candy

THIS BLOG CANDY IS CLOSED!!!!!!



Hello out there. I meant to do this when I hit 225 posts but I forgot. So here we go! I just want to say THANK YOU to those that support me and leave lovely comments that make me smile, thank you to those that cheer me on, give me inspiration and enjoy this addiction uh I mean craft as much as I do! With that said, you are going to have to "work" for it just a bit! I don't want you to follow my blog or post on yours (unless you like my work and want to!).

To enter this blog candy you need to do THREE things.
1. Leave a comment on here about anything (be nice!)
2. Create a project of ANY type with either my favorite colors (blue/brown) or to do with spring!
3. Post that project here! (please do so by leaving a DIRECT link to your project under comments on this post!)

Easy Peasy right? I will draw a number from all that do ALL THREE STEPS on the 21st of April. I am going shopping on Friday so there will be more in this blog candy. I will ship to U.S. and Canada only, sorry!

In the blog candy are the following items:

Making Memories WHIMSY Journal Decorating kit with 219 pieces
Making Memories Tiny Alphabet in brown ledger 468 pieces
BNIP Martha Stewart embossed snowflake border punch
Bazzill paper flowers in Primula brown
Two packs of Scotch Thermal Laminating pouches
Nicole Build A Memory 2 pack of Clear Acrylic heart
Nicole build a Memory 2 pack of clear acrylic keys

20 April 2010

For Nancy



WOW! This is my third or fourth post for today. Please make sure you scroll down for the rest of what I got done today! Anyways, I have a wonderful friend that I met on the Rak board of Cricut.com. Nancy is so sweet, generous to a fault, creative and talented not to mention she keeps me laughing with all her antics! I wanted to make something just for her since she does so much for others. I hope she likes this. I tried to not make it too girly (the sheer ribbon on the side is removable!). I used Storybook for the marquee and the monogram (made to be like chipboard). There are two "pockets" in the inside front and back to store whatever she feels like. What do you think?

Scrap your song week one!

So a follower of mine started and led me to this blog. It is a pretty neat concept. Check it out HERE. This weeks song was one by Elton John, now I am not particularly a fan but I choose to use the line "Yours are the sweetest eyes I have ever seen". I used it in my journaling and spun my title off of it. I used Storybook for the font but no other cricut. Everything is from my stash and scraps. I am also entering this in CA spring challenge!

Tic Tac Toe

First please ignore the green polka dotted paper on the left side, it went with the card below this post LOL! I did not catch it before I took pictures! These pictures are from our day at the Harvest Festival this past fall (our favorite season). I am scrapping a bunch from there so I hope you do not get bored! These are of Caitlyn playing tic tac toe at one of the booths. She was so determined and methodical about her placement of the balls. The kids running the booths did wonderful with her and she was super excited to win a prize! I am not sure what font that is, but it is Cricut. Hope you like it!

Cricutters Anonymous Challenge 33

The challenge at CA this week is to make a spring themed project. I guess mine is more summer but it started out spring. I used gorgeous paper that someone sent me (I love polka dots!) and my Preserves cricut cart for the pears at 1.5 inches. Some ribbon, stamping, and doodling and there you go.

19 April 2010

Tot School

Introducing Caitlyn as Mrs. Square. I need bigger heavier craft sticks, she tore this one up!








Tot school today. She let me take pictures WOOHOOO! Today we worked on colors and the concept of big/small. She had three sizes of pom poms and three sizes of containers to put them in. We talked about big/small (needs lots of work) and worked on pouring (her favorite thing). She knows all the colors of the pompoms but has not mastered actually saying them yet. However, if you ask her to pick up all the white ones she will and etc etc.

18 April 2010

Farm Fun


I think this needs SOMETHING but not sure what. Any suggestions? The title is a mix of white vinyl thickers and plain chipboard that I ran through my paper crimper and inked up. Circles are various punches from scratch that I had laying around.

Fanatic, You Rock!




I made these for the cuttlebug blog Expression giveaway that I mentioned in the post below this one. For the cuttlebug portion I used several: "fanatic" is swiss dots, the guitar is distressed stripes, and the "border" for the main photo is from the Iron works border set. I also distress embossed on the side using coordenations paper. I simply placed the border folder underneath the paper and sanded where I wanted it. I think it looks distressed but I guess that is OK too. For the card I used the same Guitar cut (from EDPD) with distressed stripes and some ink. Hope you like them.

Expression Giveaway at Cuttlebug blog

Check it out HERE! You have to work for it a bit though! I like those type of challenges! LOL! Make any two coordinating/matching projects with CUTTLEBUG usage, follow the blog, post about it and put their blinkie and you could win a BRAND NEW EXPRESSION with two carts! WOOHOOO! Hope to see you over there!

16 April 2010

Not so happy Pumpkin




I used Practical Scrappers sketch for this week as my starting point. I had three pictures that had to go on there so I had to change some things around. I used Cuttin Up welded in Design Studio, then ran it through my pumpkin cuttlebug folder and inked it up. Felt flowers are from Nancy in the RRRak on the cricut messageboard. Sweet and simple!

I am also entering this is the FLOWER POWER challenge at HERE. I used the pumpkin embossing folder on the title that I welded in Design Studio using Cutting Up.

Practical Scrappers-BLING

This week at Practical Scrappers are all about the bling! In this fashion I used glitter thickers for my title and a jewel brad in the middle of the wonderful crocheted flower that my mother in law made! I stamped on gross grain ribbon with some KI memories stamps that I found for fifty cents at Joann's. I also did some doodling with a glitter pen below the word "Love".

15 April 2010

Tot School day one

I allotted an hour to do Tot School today but well I feel like a truck hit me so we only did 35 minutes BUT she did 35 CONSECUTIVE minutes! Today we tried plastic tweezers to pick up various sized pom poms and place them into a cup. She is getting it. She sat with the utmost concentration for the whole time! I was SO impressed! We tried tongs but I do not think we are ready for that yet. I wish I had pictures but she is OBSESSED with the camera now and if you break it out to get pictures, she gets distracted AND wants to play with it. So I did not try. I am so excited she liked this "tray" aka activity. OK off to plan for tomorrow.

14 April 2010

I am blessed.....


with a great family and great friends. Lynne and I "met" on the cricut board over three years ago over a CUTTLEBUG FOLDER! We fast became friends that chat almost daily! She is a true friend and I am so proud to know her. She was there for me during all the drama with Caitlyn (pregnancy) and showered her with lots of love and gifts (which I still have!); she has quit smoking since I have known her and her oldest is graduating soon! WOW!!!!! Three years! Well anyways here is what she made for ME!!! I love it! She used my FAVORITE colors and my FAVORITE cricut font! I have the PERFECT place to put this!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH HON!!!!!!

A new adventure-Tot School

Yesterday I spent almost all day doing online research on a theory of "Tot school" which is essentially purposeful play for toddlers. I am so excited about this. I already do most of it, had most of the items we need to get started. I hope to put together lots of themes/kits for Caitlyn to pull out and play with me on rainy days or just because. I went around the house last night collecting things to sort, paint, store, push, pull, pound, pour, etc. I have a ton already but need a few things, so we are off to the store today. Our first theme is going to be shapes/colors with emphasis on fine motor skills. I am in search of lacing cards/beads etc today. Wish me luck. I hope this goes well. She is learning square this week! I made a little square shaped mask and she loves it. I also made a Shape Tracing book based off of another one I saw online and she seems to like it, need to get dry erase markers now though! Wish us luck on our new journey! If you have any suggestions of activities that you did with your little ones let me know please! She is a little over two now. Also if you have any things that you would like to get rid of we will gladly take them! I am off to find alphabet beads, lacing beads/strings, funnels, tongs and more! Have a great day!

11 April 2010

Does this need a title?

I have to say I love how this one turned out. I usually do not scrap me or the hubby but I am making an effort this year! These are from October, we are ALWAYS so busy during that month as fall is our favorite season. Hubby and I debated on a title, what do you think? If so what and where?

I used George and Basic Shapes for the circle but everything else is punches, premade or just strips.

10 April 2010

As silly as you are long-Create a Critter

I took my inspiration for this page from Caitlyns pajamas. She has a giraffe on her shirt and the saying is "I love LONG hugs" so I played on that. This is VERY bright in person and not my usual colors but I think it works. I designed/stretched the cute giraffe in Design Studio using Create A Critter so he would fit in the space. The giraffe paper is from Colorbok Wild about you set. The title is puffy thickers that I drew random "spots" on. I used office labels to make journal spots, then drew giraffe spots and filled with orange glitter pen. What do you think?

09 April 2010

Adore shadowbox

SCROLL DOWN FOR PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS MARKER CHALLENGE!!!!!!!!!!!!




Our neighbors are having a little girl next month. I wanted to make them something small that they could put in her room. We also got them two gifts off one of their registries. Anyways, I picked this kit up at Tuesday Morning this morning while shopping for a friend. I switched out some embellies but the basic principle was with the kit. It is in light pink, green and creams with brown what do you think? I know the ribbon is bumpy, I will fix that. Anything else wrong?