I am so excited, honored and blessed!

I am so excited to share some awesome HAPPY news with you all! I was chosen to be part of the amazingly creative DESIGN TEAM over at PRACTICAL SCRAPPERS!!! I love love love the concept of this blog, USE WHAT YOU HAVE! I have "stolen" many ideas from the talented ladies over there. I am so honored that they want me! But I have to admit I am nervous! I am such a simple scrapper, but hopefully that is OK! I am so blessed for this new adventure in my life! Thank you ladies!

So come on over and play with us!!!! I promise you will NOT be disappointed!!! http://www.practicalscrappers.com/

Clipboard for a special friends daughter

Pretty simple. Painted it hot pink, the back is covered too but did not get a picture of that. I used George for the 2 inch circle and Learning Curve for the "S". Some pink pearls, ran the 1 3/4 inch circle though the crimper and inked it all. Added some ribbon to the bottom, and top and there you go.

Jon's Gruesome Cake

Jons office was having a gruesome, disgusting looking but yummy tasting potluck. He opted to take a dessert. This is made of Rice Krispie Treats, chocolate, fondant and red gel icing with EDIBLE eyeballs to boot! I forgot the inside of the brain is red velvet cake and his teeth are made of candy corn!

Chicken Cups-A sort of Recipe

I posted these on another site and several people wanted the "recipe". Well there is not one per say, not in the account of actual measurements and such.
Ingredients:
A package of won ton wrappers (can be found in produce/tofu area of grocery store)
2-4 skinless boneless chicken breasts
1 bottle of Wishbone Ranch Dressing
1 package of shredded cheddar cheese
paprika, chili powder if desired

Here is what I do.
1. Boil two to four skinless boneless chicken breasts until completely cooked through, making sure by cutting up and boiling in small pieces for five minutes at the end.
2. Place several chunks of chicken in a blender (we don't have a food processor) and pulse until shredded. Repeat until you shred all chicken pieces.
3. In a large mixing bowl, combine all shredded chicken, ranch dressing (about half a bottle for two breasts) and two handfuls of shredded cheddar cheese. Stir, you want it to be like a tuna salad texture. You want it to be a little more moist/gooey than you would think since some will bake off. Add more cheese and ranch dressing until you achieve this.
4. Spray non stick spray in a mini muffin tin.
5. Spoon mixture into individual won ton wrappers and place inside mini muffin tin until tin is full.
6. Top with sprinkle of cheddar cheese.
7. Optional: you may also top with chili powder, paprika etc
8. Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until won ton wrappers are golden brown.
9. ENJOY!
10. Refrigerate leftovers and reheat on cooking sheet at 400 for 5-7 minutes (you get the bottom crispy this way and is really good!)

We only use Wishbone Ranch Dressing but it is your preference.

Quick Halloween Shirt

I needed a shirt to wear to a kid Halloween party today. This is what I made in about 20 minutes, while I was cooking nonetheless. I used Learning Curve at 2 inches for the BOO and Paper Dolls at two inches for the Ghost, popped on some googly eyes to the ghost and there you go. Quick fast, and cute!

Child Inspired Tag for Swap

I used Paper Pups for the circle tag and the green silhouette. I think it is the dog tag cut. I had it on my table so figured it would work. I used swiss dots cuttlebug on the background red, stamped the penguin, colored and stickled him like crazy. His scarf and hat have little white pompoms for some dimension. I added some HAPPY HOLIDAYS red/green ribbon and there you go. I did run out of the ribbon so I will have to go look for some today to finish up the last 6 tags! What do you think?

Tag for Blue/White/Silver swap

I am not a fan of this one. I am not sure what it is, but NOTHING I did came out like it is in my head. I hope it is OK though for the swap since I made enough for that. I used Winter Woodland for everything (Thank you Amy for letting me kidnap your cart!).

Scrap Auction

This is what I won, I will take pictures of all of it out tomorrow.

This is what I bought! I am so excited about the diecuts, I plan on putting flock on them to make them soft!
Today my local scrapbooking store was running an auction so I decided to go. My good friend Elisa from the cricut messageboard blessed me with her "Scrap Bucks" (the money that you used). It was based on the amount that you spent at the store during a designated time. I was so happy to have 60 bucks of free money! LOL! Little did I know that 60 was like fifty cents today! LOL! The ladies were INSANE! Some had as much as 2500 dollars, that means that within one and a half months time they spent that much in the store! WOW!!!!!!! I was blessed by two other ladies that got sick of waiting and gave me their money so I was able to get three sets of goodies (plus the little bit that I actually bought). I got a BG Lime Rickey paper pack with bling and flowers! A Rusty Pickle Old McDonald Had a Farm set (very cute!) and a Rusty Pickle Christmas pack with embellishments. I bought some cute monster and farm animal paper and embellishments and the BG Eskimo Kisses paper pack! All in all it was a fun day. I was so proud of me for going alone and sticking it out! I hope to go to a crop there soon! They were friendly and it was so fun watching the ladies go at it for paper and stickers LOL! They also had a silent auction before hand on layouts that some design team members did and one layout went for 250.00 dollars!!!! Another for 200 all the way down to five (I felt bad for that lady!). It was just insane the amount of money spent and used today! I can't wait for next year!

Congrats Steph!!!

I love her site, and I love her work. She is the one that turned me on to Unscripted Sketches and TODAY IS HER ONE YEAR BLOGIVERSARY! Congrats girlie, please keep posting!
Check her out HERE: http://stephaniecastrodesigns.blogspot.com/
Hugs
Crystal

Cupcake Tag

I am making several of these for a swap. I have never used my Cricut Markers until tonight. I used the brown one to draw the cupcake from Home Decor at 2 inches, colored it in, stickled it to death LOL, and then cut it out by hand. I altered an office tag with Tim Holtz Tattered Rose Distress ink, added some cupcake ribbon and two more stamps. This is the first time I have let something go off the page/tag etc. What do you think? I am submitting this for my second take on Practical Scrappers for office supplies (the tag) and on Whimsical Scraps and Bugs! Enjoy!

Layout 245-Practical Scrappers Office Supply Challenge

I am not loving this one and the colors are off since it is nighttime here but it is done LOL!. I have been trying to find my mojo again. I used staples as decorations and to adhere the ribbon and the string that I took from an office tag on the bottom picture and on the binder clip that I altered. I used Stretch Your Imagination for the scalloped outer piece and for the tag. I also loosely based this on a scrapsketch sketch. I forget the number. I also used a ball chain that was in my drawer not sure if that counts as office supplies though! Please go and check out the amazing work at Practical Scrappers on this challenge HERE.

Layout 244-Sketchy Thursdays and Second Chance

I used this for the weekly sketch challenge at Sketchy Thursdays and their second chance challenge HERE. The challenge was to make a fall/family layout in primarily browns and oranges with a pop of teal or hot pink. These pictures are of my dog that my parents have, Caitlyn and my Dad. He loves her, she loves him, they love Gizmo, Gizmo loves her. The first time Caitlyn saw Gizmo she ran up and tried to pick him up to give him hugs; but he weighs more than her! LOL! It was really cute though.

Journal I made for a dear Friend!

Now that she has received it, I can post it! What do you think? I used my BIA, some spring paper, my cuttle bug, crackling solutions, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Cricut Ashlyns Alphabet for the "S", threading water punch, inking and there you go. I also made several journal cards for her to write on and stamped some images for her pages. I hope she likes it like she said she did!

18th Birthday Card-BBTB Challenge #1

I made this card for my cousins 18th Birthday and it goes well with the new BBTB challenge. I used Base Camp for the numbers cut several time to make faux chipboard. Some gems, ribbon, inking, buttons and patterned paper. What do you think?

Layout 243-Practical Scrappers

First, please excuse the poor quality of the picture. It is FREEZING here today and no sunshine and nothing I did was working! This was the best I got. The challenge was to use LACE CARD STOCK at Practical Scrappers this week. I did not have any (YIKES!) but I was able to get to Michael's and pick up this single sheet on sale. I have always wanted to try it just never bought some. So this was the perfect excuse to buy some.

3X3 notecards and box for our realtor

Well even though we did not sell our house (buyers were INSANE!); our realtor was awesome. We love her and she is going to get us in touch with a rental company/person so that we can rent it out or rent to buy. She was the Realtor that we went with when we bought the house and she is so much like me, sweet but to your face if need be. So I wanted to send her something as a little thank you for trying! This is what I came up with. I am hoping it looks classy and not cheap. What do you think?
P.S. I am still working on my stamping!

Layout 241-242

This layout is for the challenge at WSB HERE. We were to use orange, purple and black (not color combos I do often!), a stamped image (I have two the pumpkins) and two Cricut cut stars ( I have six, from Don Juan). I don't have pictures yet as I will use this for this year! What do you think?

This one was inspired by the sketchy Thursdays sketch HERE. the studded circle is the timer fit to page layer on From my Kitchen and the little squirrel is from Winter Woodlands that I am borrowing from a friend (Thanks Amy!). Lots of kaisercraft pearls, thickers for the title, misc scraps for all the pattern paper. What do you think?

YAY FOR ME!!!

I have worked out five days in a row! I know for some of you this is no big thing but for me it is HUGE! Since I got out of the Army I have not wanted to do more than walk a few miles a week if that. Well I started working out on Monday and already it is easier! Already I do not feel slightly winded walking up our monster drive way! Already I can hold little miss on my hip longer (she weighs almost 30 pounds now YIKES!) So already after only a measly five days I feel better and isn't that what counts? YAY me! Sorry just had to write how excited I am!!!!

Oh I started taking AcaiBerry dietary supplements yesterday so I will let you know how those work out!

Layout 239 and 240

Slide is a bunch of pictures from the park, there is even one with me coming down with Caitlyn and by myself! LOL! I wanted it to be fun so I used bright bling colors. I also used (for the first time) Liquid Pearls that I received in a trade on the cricut board! WOOOHOO!

Nana's Baby, lots of pattern paper, some stamping, nesties for the journal block, ink, rhinestones and leftover stickers for the title, colored in green.

I love Mickey Mouse and backpack girl

I know these are not good pictures but we are having a MASSIVE wind storm blowing through! Everything is going everywhere! LOL! So no hope of me getting good sunshine shots. I did the first one very quickly, just some distressing and inking on the photos, mats, and journal strips. I thought the paper was embellishments enough. The two page is different for me simply because I have never put the title on one page before LOL! I used Mickey font at two inches for the title "I love Mickey Mouse" and shadowed. All the 3X3 inch squares are hand cut, corners rounded and inked (took a WHILE!) they are from a clearance Martha Stewart pack, I love polka dots. I was playing off of the polka dots on Minnie's dress. I used a transparency over the bottom left picture, some Bazzill edgers across both bottoms, tons of ribbon and staples. Primas are from the clearance aisle also, and the journal tag is behind the upper right picture. I used an entire sheet of KaiserCraft pearls on this, all over the title, and the pictures. What do you think?

Trash to Treasure BEDROOM layout & some cards

The "lovely" layout uses three recyclable things. I used the tissue paper that came in the purse for the background, the tag as an accent and the receipt (to prove how much I paid and saved!) to make this layout. I also made the receipt into a pocket for my journal tag underneath.

The cards were all made last night, really simple but I USED STAMPS WOOHOO LOL. I love fall and most of these were made with scraps!

Last week for the Cricut Celebration!!!!

Help us celebrate our 100th Cricut cartridge—Winter Woodland! That’s right, we reached 100 cartridges. As a thank you for our great Cricut community members we want you to celebrate with us. So, we’re giving away 100 cartridges over the next five weeks (20 per week).

Here’s how it will work.

Each week we will be posting a thread. When you respond to the thread you will be entered to win. You can enter once by replying and you can enter a second time by posting on your blog about the celebration and linking back to the cartridge product page. Here is the link to include in your blog. Once you’ve posted on your blog with the link back you can post again to this thread.

http://www.cricut.com/shopping/ProductDetails.aspx?id=361&s=1&sc=2

Thanks for your continued support. Good luck

Trash to Treasure Kitchen layouts

I am not done with the first one. I am going to do some stamping with some awesome artwork stamps that Lynne sent me a while back but Caitlyn woke up from her nap. Thanks to Crystal for the encouragement to do the grunge looking flowers on the "addiction" page. The "artist at work" and the drawings were all found in my kitchen. The Dove bag and two single wrappers were also. What do you think?

Some kitchen ideas to share (trash to treasure)

So while reading this book it has some good ideas that I wanted to share. Remember this book is from 2002-2003 so the style of scrapbooking is different but we can always update it to today!

Clear plastic spoons (or really any spoons) painted to look like footballs, used as page pebbles, mounted on cardstock with quotes to look like acrylic (clear ones)

Cheesecloth/Texture bags (fruit bags) for backing, bows, texture

Salt-use cardstock to journal or whatnot then; put adhesive on them and immediately add salt for FROST! Looks pretty cool

Rice: someone used UNCOOKED rice for a funky border about Chinese Food (she also used the chopsticks and mat!)

Food labels into hidden journal boxes. For instance you could take the front label of your favorite good and make it into a card with hidden journaling underneath

Aluminum foil and mesh for a fun tinsel like background. Also used foil to emboss fun patterns and used ink/paint on them.

Painted Popsicle sticks used as a whole with stamped title/journaling and cut in half as embellishments. Painted to match page about love of Popsicles or summer fun!

Coke Can (I am going to do this one!) I am addicted to COKE ZERO so will clean, cut flat and adhere to page for background and use the tab to thread ribbon or as a zipper holder thing (yep that is the technical term LOL)

Bubble Painting Cardstock Mix 1/4 part dish soap with 3/4 part water in a cup add a few drops of food coloring or ink. Blow into mixture with straw to make a huge bubble mound, then lightly press cardstock against the bubbles to make a soft background

I am only half way through this chapter but there is TONS more LOL!

Blog Candy and a great Creator

Check our her creations ! Aren't they wonderful!
http://marciapringle.blogspot.com/2009/09/blogaversary-that-means-candy.html

Who is up for a challenge?

I am reading this book "Memory Makers Budget Scrapbooking". It is about finding things in your house to put on pages (using archival spray of course!) I was wondering if anyone wanted to do a Treasure hunt with me. In the book it says to get one small baggie (sandwich or quart size) for each room of your house, label it with the room name, and find your treasures. I think this would be so much fun! How freeing would it be to use "junk" that has some sentimental value for you on your pages? And it is FREE! We all have to love that during these times!

So who is with me!? I am going to start in the kitchen now! I will post pictures of what I find later on today during nap time. If you want to play link me to your post with pictures since I love me some pictures! Then I challenge you to USE IT ON A PAGE OR CARD!!!! I may even dig up some small blog candy for those that participate. So let's start with THE KITCHEN!!!!!!!

So this is what I found doing a QUICK sweep (we have only been in this house for a month so not a lot of stuff accumulated yet!) I figured I would use the door hanger in Caitlyns room but take a picture to use as an embellishment with her coloring pages. The dove bag will be used to do a page about my addiction to chocolate. I can use the straw to blow paint and can cut it up for a cool texture. The measuring tape will be used in pieces on various layouts about Caitlyn growing up. The two tops of the fiber one poptarts and regular poptarts will be used in a layout about my husbands tastes vs. mine. Pretty nice for a quick sweep huh? What did you find?

Future Diva-52sketches52weeks

I did this layout loosely based on the sketch 39 HERE from 52 weeks 52 sketches. What do you think? It was a pretty easy sketch to follow. I distressed some of my embellishments and everything is from a photo size pack of paper! What do you think?