Monday, February 28, 2011

Toad-ally Fabulous

This weeks Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Me Monday #49 challenge is to make a shaped card.  I was orignally going to make the tree from my favorite cartridge Create A Critter but then the mail carrier came with my new Simply Charmed Cartridge!  IT IS SO CUTE!!!   I had to use it.  I did still use Create A Critter for the grass and butterfly.  I stiched and stickled it and viola...a Toad-ally Fabulous Toadstool Card!  I just discovered the super cute Scrappy Mom Stamps this past weekend.  Their Terrific Tuesday Challenge from last week was to use Create A Critter.  I think this little guy will work since there is a cute little toadstool on CAC and I did use the cart for a portion of the card!




Products Used:
  • Stampin' Up! CS
  • Simply Charmed Cricut Cartridge
  • Create A Critter Cricut Cartridge
  • My Pink Stamper Punny-licious Stamp Set
  • Signo Gell Pen
  • Stickles

Challenges:
Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Me Monday #49 Shape Card
Scrappy Mom Stamps Terrific Tuesday Challenge Create A Critter
Jitterbuggin' Get Into Shape

Thanks for Stopping by Today!  I have some exciting news to share so please stop back later!





This card was a Top 5 Pick at Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog and at Jitterbuggin'!!  Thank you so much for all the love and encouragement!







Saturday, February 26, 2011

Hope

Some of these cards may be going to my SIL to use as thank you cards for contributors to her March of Dimes Team.  She liked these but I am also working on some with the March of Dimes ribbon for her.  Regardless of which ones she picks, I am also making a batch of these for one of my local Relay for Life team for them to sell to raise money.  The ones I make for Relay for Life are going to be Birthday cards in honor of the American Cancer Society movement for More Birthdays.  My father will not be celebrating his this year but I wanted to do something to help others celebrate theirs.


Products Used:
  • Stampin' Up CS
  • Wild Card Cricut Cartridge
  • My Pink Stamper Faithful Sayings Stamp Set
  • Cuttlebug Tiny Mosaic Embossing Folder
  • Michael's Ribbon
  • Signo Gell Pen
Challenges:
Crazy for Cricut Use your Cricut Challenge (1st Challenge for Dina's Blog)
Celebrate the Occasion Anything Goes Birthday Challenge 
Creative Sisters Monday Challenge Embossing Challenge...Thank you Linda for inviting me to submit my Fluttering By card for the challenge but I really wanted to submit a new one that has so much more meaning behind it. 
GAB Challenges Challenge #4 Wet/Dry Embossing 
Papercutz Challenge Challenge #80 Spring Theme   

Thanks for stopping by today!

This card was Top Pick at GAB Challenges


Friday, February 25, 2011

Preschool Projects

I just wanted to share two of the fun things I made with the preschool this month!  First, here are the 4-5 yr olds Valentine's Day boxes!  They were a lot of work but definitely worth it in the end!  When the kiddos passed out their Valentines, they placed them in the mouths!  They had fun feeding their pets!  The boys made dinosaurs and the girls made kitties and they each named their pet.  The kitties had names like "Felix, "Diamond" and "Pretty".  The dinos had a few "Franks", a "Super Dino", and even an "I Don't Knowa"!  My girls named theirs "Honey" and "Mimi"! 

 Today I took a bunch of my Stampin' Up! punches and my Big Shot in to make these cute little owl cards!  My girls love using my punches and especially the BS so I knew this would be a great project to keep the kids attention.  The body is made with the Stampin' Up! Top Note Die cut in half and flipped (there is also a cut very similar to the Top Note on the Accent Essentials Cricut Cartridge).  The eyes are a 1 1/4" circle, 1" circle, 1/2" circle, and the beak and feet are a 5 point flower cut in 3 pieces!  Then they stamped them with My Pink Stamper Punnylicious Stamp"Whoooooooo loves you?  The kids then decorated the fronts and insides with all their punched objects.  The kids had no problems making these and they were thrilled to be taking them home to their Moms and Dads!



I absolutely love crafting with my kids and it is even more exciting when we can share our crafts with their friends.  The kids get a real sense of joy and accomplishment by making them!  Can you remember being a kid and having that feeling of excitement to show your parent something fun you made?  I can still remember it!  I know sometimes as parents we are so busy with all our life issues that it can be tiring to be excited for every little thing our little ones create especially when they are at you all day "Mom look at this!"  Mom look at what I made!"  MOOOOOMMMM LOOOOOKKKK AT THISSSSSS!" but just remember that feeling you had when you had something to show your parent or even the feeling you get when someone leaves a comment on your posts!  It is a great self esteem booster for them to show off their little creations!  Give them the boost! 

Sorry for ranting on today.  I know most of you can appreciate the fun of crafting with your kids.  I get irritated with the parents at school who are too busy to acknowledge these fun little crafts their kids make and they are always the ones that make the snide remarks about them.  Thanks for letting me get it off my chest!  I'm done with my rant now!  Have a Great Day Everyone!!  IT'S FRIDAY!!!!

A Cherry Hello Card

Many days I find myself visiting Scraps 4 Fun not only because Sonia always post the most incredible cards but also because she has a fun list of challenges listed for each day.  Thank you Sonia for the inspiration!  Today I found the Colour Create Challenge Blog!   The challenge is to use the colors from 3 Fruits pictured for the challenge.  I chose to use the red cherry, pink watermelon, and green kiwi in  my card and I also used one of the fruits in my card!

I used Soft Suede for the base of my card to look like the outside of the Kiwi!  I also used my sewing machine again (although it does not show well in the photograph)!  My sewing machine is on a roll this week!   I do love how this turned out and I really enjoyed the challenge!

Products Used
  • Stampin' Up! Solid CS
  • DCWV All About Girls Mat Stack
  • Sugar & Spice Cricut Cartridge (Base, Scalloped and Circles)
  • Gypsy to weld the base
  • Country Life Cricut Cartridge
  • My Pink Stamper Fruit and Veggie Puns Stamp set
Challenge
Colour Create Challenge Blog

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Our Lil Firecracker

I found a fun mini hop today at Creative Cutter Room!   They are having Patriotic Themed Mini Blog Hop in honor of Presidents Day and all the Presidential Birthdays.  How much fun is that, short and sweet so you have plenty of time to create something the same night!!  You collect 4 required elements throughout the hop and use them to create a Patriotic Themed Project!  Here is my project that I made tonight to link up!  It is of course a scrapbook page, because I, like many of you, could do about 10 pages a day and still be behind!!  I am not going to share what the 4 elements are, so you will have to hop on over and see the beautiful projects the DT have created!


Products Used:
  • Stampin' Up Solid CS, Brad, Buttons, Vintage Label Stamp and Punch
  • Firework Paper is LSS Open Stock I had in my stash
  • Car Decals Cartridge for the font
  • Stand and Salute Cartridge
  • Sandylion USA Sticker

Challenge:
Creative Cutter Room Patriotic Mini Hop


This LO was top pick at Creative Cutter Room


Wednesday, February 23, 2011

I Love my Butterfly Girl

My kids are home sick again today!  BLAH...  I'm hoping tomorrow we can get back to preschool because Mommy is tired of looking at the walls of this house!  You would think since they are not feeling well that they would not be on their normal path to destruction through the house, but no...I am not that lucky!  The longer we are here, the worse it gets!  It looks like our tree tornado spread into the house today!

Well, since I haven't had to run anywhere, I've taken advantage of the extra time by doing a few scrapbook pages.  This is one of the pages I made this morning and as you can see, my sewing machine received some attention again!  She has been feeling neglected for the past few years (since Cricut moved in) so I thought since she is out, I am going to use her! 




 This is the picture that will be taking up ownership on this page.  I know it is printed but I have not been able to locate it!  I hope I didn't scrapbook it because I've already journaled this page!  My oldest daughter, like most little girls, LOVES butterflies.  She however has a very special connection to them.  Her Native American name is Memengwaa which is Butterfly in Ojibwe.  There is more to this story but that will be for another day.  She has a loving compassion for these creatures and they seem to know it.  For being such a young child she has a very gentle touch with them and can often attract one to her. 

Products Used:
Bo Bunny Petal Pushers Pattern Paper, Double Dot Paper & Buttons
April Showers & Accent Essentials Cricut Cartridges
Queen&Co Black and White Pearls
Stampin' Up! Solid CS
Stickles

Challenges:
Cooking With Cricut C-18 Challenge Swirls and Twirls
Scrappy Saturdays with the Bug Challenge #2 Something Lovey...Mine is a LO of someone I love, holding something she loves!
Paper Variety Challenge 22 Sew Much Fun

Two Hearts, One Love

I really love my Nursery Rhymes Cartridge.  I just love how easy it is!  These little love bugs are my favorite cut on the cart and I find myself using them a lot.  Especially when I feel myself drawing a blank!  Tonight I actually pulled out my sewing machine and blew some of the dust off to make a card.  The card was missing something (and it still is) but it looks better than what I had at first!  I had originally cut the silhouette out in the same color as the card base but didn't like it, so I colored it in with my Perfect Plum Stampin' Write Marker.  Do you ever get that feeling that everything you make is missing something?  I've been feeling that way a lot lately. 

Ingredients:
Stampin' Up! Solid CS and Punches
DCWV All About Girls Pattern Paper
Nursery Rhymes Cartridge
Martha Stewart Ribbon
My Pink Stamper Pink-alicious Stamp set

Challenges:
Die Cuttin Divas Challenge #4 Shadows, Shadows...
Peachy Keen Stamps Challenge #46

Thanks for stopping by today!



Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Fluttering By

I was so fortunate to win an April Showers cartridge from Nonna's Craft Corner.  Thank you so much Tanya!  I had the opportunity to play with it today as I was working on some scrap pile cards.  I came up with this "embossed" card for Cooking with Cricut's C-17 Challenge and Fantabulous Cricuts's Challenge me Monday #48.

Monday, February 21, 2011

My First Liebster Award

I am very honored to have received my first Liebster Blog Award from a very talented blogger Faith-Abigail!
Please take a moment to visit her awesome blog!  I have just fallen in love with stopping by her blog everyday to see her work!  You will not believe the awesome creations she makes and shares for our inspiration!  Thank you again Faith-Abigail.
So here are the rules of The Liebster Blog Award.  It is given to bring light to new blogs and it's a great way to share blogs that might not otherwise be seen or ones you want to share with others. 
As a recipient you must share the love and pay it forward by:
1-Creating a post where you blog about the Liebster award & reveal your 3-5 blog picks
2-Let them know you chose them by leaving a comment on their blog
3-Copy & paste the blog award on your blog
4-Have faith that your followers will rally & show their crafty love back out to those you awarded
5-Have fun!

I had a very hard time narrowing this list down to 5 bloggers.  In my short blogging time of 1 1/2 months, I have seen some awesome work.  I am very grateful for all of my followers and their sweet and inspirational comments!  Thank you ladies for sharing your love and I share my love with you by presenting you with this award! 

Paper Panther and Rayna @ Purple Peep Techniques
Kel @ Crafty Twilight Mom
Jennifer @ My Creative Crafting
Missy @ Quick Chick Designs
Cindy  @ Cindy's Little Creations

Please show these talented bloggers your love and stop by their blogs!   I know their support and their inspirational projects have meant so much to me and I would love for all of you to show your support to them!  Thanks again Faith-Abigail!

My 2nd & 3rd Stylish Blogger Awards

One of my most favorite bloggers, Ash at Cricut Crazed Lady, awarded me with my 2nd Stylish Blogger Award last week!  Thank you so much Ash!  I just love her work!  Her and her sister were some of my first followers and I have been truly blessed to have met them!  Her sister Angie had awarded me with my 1st Award several weeks ago and as I said on my first post, creativity really runs in this family!  Make sure you check out their awesome work!
Today, I received a 3rd Stylish Blogger Award from one of my newly found blogger friends Jani at Paper Compulsions!  I just love the beautiful flowers she makes and shares!!  They are just gorgeous!  Make sure you stop by her blog to check them out and leave her some love too!


 Upon receiving this award I must...
1) thank the person who gave this award to me and link it back to their blog
2) share 8 things about myself
3) pass this award to 8 other individuals that I have recently discovered
4) leave a comment so that they can pass along the recognition!
  
8 things about myself.  This is really hard for me, because as I said before, I am a shy and private person in my non-computer life. For some reason, I have found my voice online, possibly because I know that I am not talking to you face to face and online, I can disappear anytime I need to (not that I plan on disappearing anytime soon)!

1- I have shared before that I am a paper hoarder (see post Confessions of a Paper Hoarder) but I am also an adhesive junky!  I love to try every adhesive out there and I have my favorites to use for every different project/technique!  I have stashes of adhesive everywhere because I fear running out of it!
2- I am a Twilight Fan!  I really love the books better than the movies but the movies are nice to look at!
3- My kids average a broken bone every 6 months.  Just last year, both my middle E and oldest E broke the same arm, same bone, and had the same surgical reduction.  This last time I asked my surgeon if Social Services would be stopping by my house (not that I would worry if they did) and he just laughed and said these were not breaks that are inflicted and that they tend to see active families more often.  He also joked I may want to wrap the baby up in bubble wrap immediately and save the pins from the next break.  I did not find the humor in his joke because I would prefer my little monkeys to stay grounded and NO MORE BROKEN BONES!
4- I have a hard time telling people "NO" when they ask for help.  I just got myself into the dreaded position of being the coordinator for my area's U-6 AYSO program.  I don't know how that happened but it shouldn't be that hard.  Just a bunch of scheduling and planning which I am really good at (it is what I did in my past life before being a SAHM), just as long as I can do most of it on the computer!   I figure my kids are just starting in the program and it is better to be involved rather than just sit back and watch.
5- I am "one of those moms"!  I'm not completely sure what that means exactly but that is what I hear at preschool (and not always in a good tone).  I'm sorry if I enjoy crafting with my kids and seeing the smiles on them and their friends faces when they receive their special little treasures!  I also enjoy volunteering at the preschool, sharing fun projects with the kiddos and spending the time with them.  I am sorry they don't have the time to do the same with their own kids but that is the choice I make in my life!  If making every birthday/ holiday special for my children and theirs means I am "one of those Moms" then yes, I will proudly say I am!!
6- I blog because I am trying to fill a void in my life right now.  It is my therapy and it is working because I just love hoping around to see all you talented crafters out there and I love to hear from each of you!  I am doing it for fun and there is just so much to see out there! 
7- I have to clear my craft table after evey project just so I can concentrate!  I cannot work in clutter(part of my OCD)!
8- I love snow!  Yup, that is right!  I think it is God's Beautiful way of blanketing the earth and telling us to slow down and enjoy what he has created for us.  Ice on the other hand...EWWW.  I'll take a foot of snow over an inch of ice any day!
This is yesterday and no, I was not vandalized (see yellow brick road post)...
This is the same tree today!!
It was beautiful again outside this morning when we woke up!

Wow!!  I still can't believe how many talented people stop by my little piece of the blogger world and like my creations!  I am so honored to have received these awards and I really want to share the love with as many people as possible.  Since I technically have 16 of these to give away, I am going to do this a little differently.  I 've seen this before so I hope it is OK (I don't think anyone is going to take my award away from me)!  I would love to stop by each of my followers blogs today to see who has this and who doesn't but there are just not enough hours in the day!  If you are a follower and you do not have this award, I would love for you to have it.  If you decide to pick it up, please, please let me know so I can give you credit and send people your way!!  I truly do appreciate every one of your comments and I know how honored I was to place my first award on my blog!  If you do not follow me and would like this, let me know.  If there are any of the 16 slots left, which I'm sure there will be, I'd be happy to list you in one of those spots, no following required(but my faithful followers do get first choice on it)!  Next Monday I will do a special post for all my friends who are taking the chance to grab this award for themselves.   I don't want anyone to feel left out and if you are taking the time to share your talent then you are deserving of a Stylish Blogger Award! 

Thank you again Ash and Jani and thank you anyone who is still reading another one of my ridiculously long posts.  Like I said, this is my therapy!  Stop back today because I will be posting another new award!  I have not seen as many peeps out there with this one so I am going to go through my comments and try to choose my 5 recipients!  Make sure you stop by Cricut Crazed Lady and Paper Compulsions today and share the love! 

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Follow the Yellow Brick Road to Birthday Fun!!

Today is my oldest daughter's 5th Birthday!  I cannot believe 5 years have passed since she came into this world!  We've been so blessed to see her grow into a happy, healthy 5 year old girl!  She had a blast at her Wizard of Oz birthday party!  She asked everyone to dress up and it was so fun to see many of her guests come in costume.  She was of course Dorothy and her baby sister was a Flower Munchkin!  Unfortunately, Middle E came down with the flu and we had to send her to her GiGi's house for the day : ( .  She was supposed to be Glinda and since Glinda couldn't join in the festivities, Mammy ran to the local costume store and rented a Glinda costume for Mommy to wear.  Mommy was not too thrilled about the HUGE costume Mammy brought home but wore it with a smile for the Birthday Girl.  She was so proud to show her Mommy off to everyone who walk in the door!  Daddy was the Wizard and Nokomis (Grandmother) and Poppy were the Wicked Witch and the Tornado.  We also had a very cute Lion, Toto, and even a little Lollipop Munchkin who brought lollipops for everyone!  Our favorite preschool teacher was here with her camera and took so many great pics for "Dorothy's" scrapbook!  Here is one of my absolute favorites!


I had planned on rolling out yellow paper on the sidewalks for the yellow brick road and throwing a bunch of poppies out in the snow.  Unfortunately, it ended up being 60 degrees outside the days before the party and it actually melted the snow.  Then, for the day of the party, the cold blew back into town with incredible wind!  Since it was so windy, we had to revamp the outdoor decorations.   The weather was perfect tonado weather!  Here is the tornado my Mom whipped up out front!

And of course the tornado dropped our house on the witch!
Here is the Rainbow...

and the Emerald City!

After seeing the pics of a Rainbow cake idea Shannon at Cootie Creations suggested I check out, "Dorothy" decided she wanted Rainbow Cupcakes! 

We made these special party favors for all the kids who attended the party!

My Mother-in-Law made these cute little Toto dogs for the favor baskets. I didn't get the dogs started in time so I decided I would just print the dogs from Animal Kingdom on muslin with the Imagine and stuff them.  On Monday I told my MIL about them and she said she had gray fur fabric.  She told me if I gave her a template, she would cut/sew them for me (the template was the terrier dog from Animal Kingdom cut at 9.5")!!!  We spent Friday stuffing and putting the finishing touches on them!   The kids loved them!  They turned out AWESOME and I can not thank her enough for making these cute furry critters! 

My daughter picked these special treats out from the After Valentine's Day Clearance!  She gave everyone a badge of courage from the Lion, a chocolate heart from the Tin Man, bubbles from Glinda, and nail polish from The Horses of Many Colors as well as some other goodies!

Here is the Birthday Girl's favorite gift!!  She got her very own "Baby Cricut" as she calls it.  It is the Cuttlekids which I was not sure about getting her, but I am so happy I did.  She had it out of the box at the party and went to town showing all her friends how to use her "Baby Cricut"! 

She had no problem whipping out a few projects before her guests left!  This is the first card she made!

This is the "Grandma" Cricut she made for Mommy!  She is now working on her Thank You cards!

As usual I had more ideas then time and I did not get several of my projects done.  I hope everyone had a good time!  I was disappointed to hear someone thought it was little overboard for a 5 year old's party, but this smile is what makes it all worth it!!

Thanks for stopping by!



Friday, February 18, 2011

Fun from Birthdays Past and an Award

Hello everyone!  I hope you are all having a great day today!  I will most likely be MIA for the next few days but I wanted to leave everyone with some fun projects from Birthday's Past.  I was also awarded with a second Stylish Blogger Award this time from Ash at Cricut Crazed Lady.  Thank you so much Ash!  I plan on posting it soon but in the mean time, make sure you check out her blog!! 
So here are some fun birthday projects and I apologize beforehand for some of the terrible pics (they were before I figured out how to use my camera).  Ok who am I kidding.  I am still trying to learn how to use my camera to get the best pics! 

This was from my oldest E's 2nd Birthday.  Can you tell what the theme was?  Yes, this was the beloved Sesame Street Party.  This party was from my pre-cricut era so everything was cut the old fashion way!  It took me months to plan for this party.  I freehand drew and hand cut 45 Elmo heads for the invitations and I made each one of the characters from poster board and paint.  Big Bird was everyones favorite because he was life size!!  All 8'2" of him!  This picture was taken before I set his wings but I thought it was so cute when my daughter stretched out next to it to see if she was as big as him!

My 2nd E had a Care Bear  party for her 1st  Birthday.  Again, I made several of the Bears with posterboard. 

First E's 3rd Birthday was a Butterfly party.  This was my first birthday with Cricut.  I made these to look like each of the kids.   The monarch wings were cut from the Cricut and I colored the details on the wings.  I don't know how cowboys fit into the butterfly theme, but that is what she wanted for the boys! 
We had 2 parties this year, one at my Grandparents and one with all her friends and family.  This is the cake I made for her party at my grandparents.

I really wanted to make Monarchs for her friends party but she wanted purple/yellow and pink/green butterflies!  Birthday girl got her wish. 

We always have Rainbow Ice Cubes.  They're made with Kool-Aid (minus the sugar).  They are always a huge hit! 

Second E's 2nd Birthday was a Jungle Party.  These are the cupcakes I made.  I think I found the pattern for most of these on Betty Crocker's website.   Each of the different animals were a different flavor cupcake, Monkey's were Banana, Zebra's were Chocolate, Lions Vanilla, Tigers were Carrot Cake, Elephants were PB!  It was soooo hot the day I made them, can you tell?  The icing was melting off as I was trying to decorate them!


Second E's 3rd Birthday was a Beach Party!  We had this party at a nearby State Park that has a Lakefront Beach.  I made these buckets for each one of the kids!  They were made with Outdoor Vinyl so they were waterproof.

I put each one of the kids names on them so they have their own, personal bucket!

Beach Party Cupcakes.  Because of the heat (and my experience with the melting icing from the previous year) I purchased the plain cupcakes with blue icing from Sam's Club.  I then added the beach scene to them at home.  The little bikinis took forever to pipe on so I ended up making some cupcakes with just sweddish fish on them and of course, they were the ones all the kids wanted. 

Third E's 1st Birthday Party was a Kitty Party. 

The mini cake was made in a batter bowl and I cut the face with the Imagine. 

Goodie Bags to match the invitations!

We've had other great parties and there are lots of pictures (although my sister is usually the photographer, so I am at her mercy for the pics).  I've had loads of fun throwing these parties for my girls!  I hope they enjoy the memories (and scrapbooks) made at each one!  I hope you enjoyed some of the ideas.  I'll post some more party pics as I find them on the old computer!  Please leave me a comment with your email address if you have any questions about any of these projects!  I would love to help you re-create them for your own party fun!!  I'll be back next week with fun Wizard of Oz party pics!!  

Have a Great Weekend Everyone!!!