Deb's Eclectic Thoughts

2012 Organize your Stash Challenge-Stamps & Inks

2012-01-18T14:45:00.001-06:00

Another wonderful thing that comes from being a member of the Cricut Circle is the way all the members support each other on the message board. From inspiring us with their creativity, providing a needed shoulder to cry on when tragedy strikes to helping us celebrate achievements, this group of crafters really are a big part of my online family.

Now some of that support is a "wee bit bad" since they "enable" you by posting deals on scrap supplies they found. But then, that is balanced by also helping us figure out how to store those items in our craft room !

For 2012, we have an Organize Your Stash Challenge going. Each week the host post an area we need to organize. This week we are organizing our Stamps. I mostly had a system going but needed to straighten this area out and re-org how I was sorting them and all my inks.

This is my stamping station. My DH added a larger shelf

to some existing builtin bookcases in my craft room so I

had more room to stamp. Yeah !

I store all my stamps in CD cases. They are sorted and labeled

by theme and type. This works out great for me to easily

find what I am looking for when I need a certain stamp.

This is what they look like in their CD case.

As you can see, you can get quite a few in here.

I have a small wire basket

(it's cute & pink...I bought it at Target last year)

and I keep all my "new, need to be stored" stamps

in here until I get around to using them and putting in

a CD case. I even have some scrap white cardstock

tucked in the front to use when I need test a stamp.

My inks are stored with my stamps.

I found this wooded shelf set out for

trash in my neighborhood and re-purposed it

to hold some of my inks.

Starting at bottom: embossing inks and large acyrlic blocks

2nd shelf: stazon, waterproof inks and small acrylic blocks

3rd shelf: permanent inks & 7 Gypsy stamper

top shelf: Paper Towels, wet wipes

On the side wall , I hung my roller. And tucked in

between wall and shelf is Ranger Dry Foam and Felt Sheets.

I even have some 12X12 chipboard sheets covered in plastic to use

for portable stamping, painting, glittering when I need to set aside to dry.

My Distress and Chalk inks are stored temporarily in

some photo boxes...it ain't pretty I know, but

DH is gonna make me two little shelves across that

whole area for me to keep these most used items on

above the stamp cases. And my markers are stored here

as well in a folding pen holder I turned on it's side.

And my latest addition to this area

is my awesome 4 tiered revolving tray

where I have my mists, daubers, ink daubers,

blending tools, alcohol inks, ink refills, etc.

I LOVE this ! And I saw one on Pinterest and

hunted it down. For only $20 I can hardly

believe how much this stores !!!!!!

Well, I hope this inspires you to get your stamping area set up. It's nice to have everything handy

and a specific place to stamp.

Love is in the Air !

2012-01-16T01:42:00.000-06:00

My LOVE for mini albums is well known. And when Valentines Day is only a month away, my thoughts turn to making another mini album to showcase my love.

Today I am the designer on The Bug Bytes Blog and I wanted to share with you the paper bag mini album I made for my 2012 Valentines and Things I LOVE pictures that I will take next month.

Start with an assembled paper bag album using 6 lunch size bags.

If you don't know how to make one, there are a ton of videos on You Tube .

I trimmed mine to 6"X 5 1/4". And covered each page

with Valentine paper from my stash cut at 5 3/4" X 5".

Next I like to make a binding for mini album using

patterned paper cut at 3" X 5 3/4"and cardstock cut at 4"X5 3/4".

I used the Swirling Lace Martha Stewart Border punch

to punch the two long sides of the cardstock and then

adhered the patterened paper on top to create the binding.

I then attached the binding to the side of the paper bag album,

leaving about the size of a pen between the paper bag and the binding to

create a slight gap so the album lays flat.

Once the binding is secured, I then move on to the fun part...

decorating the cover. Here I used a heart shaped doily,

K&Co Medallion Dimensional Sticker, a Jenni Bowlin Ticket

and a Maya Road Wood Piece. I then threaded three different

ribbons through the gap of the binding and tied in a knot for a

finishing touch !

Paper Bag Albums are great to add a bunch of

different tags into all the pockets.

I free hand cut some hearts, added some faux stitching

with my journaling pen and attached a heart brad to

create this adorable rotating tag.

On the inside page, I adhered the mini flap on three sides and

left the side opened for the rotating heart tags.

I will also slip in a few 4X6 photos into this pocket.

On a couple of the pages, I created these half photo

pockets and a journaling tag.

On one of the little flaps, I adhered some ribbon

to create a holder for a tag.

Here it is with the journaling tag in place.

With a jumbo scalloped punch, some stamps and a heart shaped brad,

I created another rotating journaling tag for a small inside flap pocket.

I tied some cute ribbon to the little flap pocket and

placed the rotating scalloped tag inside.

On the last page, I made a pocket and added a tag

using cardstock. I adhered a sticker to the front

and some ribbon.

For the large inside pockets of the paper bag album,

I made large double sided photo mats for each pocket.

Alternating colors between black and pink cardstock, and

using the same Martha Stewart Swirling Lace punch

for the edge that sticks out of the pockets.

I do love how this mini album turned out with its

pretty pink, red, white and black color scheme!

Thanks for looking. Let me know if you have any questions about

how I made this. I am working on more Valentines projects

and will be posting them soon so please stop back by.

Happy Scrapping !

2012 COLOR OF THE YEAR IS.....

2012-01-09T11:59:00.000-06:00

TANGERINE TANGO !!!!

Defined as a "spirited reddish orange sure to provide the energy boost we need to recharge

and move forward in 2012" according to the Pantone Color Institute.

“Sophisticated but at the same time dramatic and seductive, Tangerine Tango is an orange with a lot of depth to it,” said Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Reminiscent of the radiant shadings of a sunset, Tangerine Tango marries the vivaciousness and adrenaline rush of red with the friendliness and warmth of yellow, to form a high-visibility, magnetic hue that emanates heat and energy.”

Well, I like it ! I wonder how long we need to wait before seeing this color pop up in the craft world? As you know, the craft world usually follows the Home and Fashion world's color of the year trend.

I guess I better start sorting out stash I already have in that color to get ready for it :)

What do you think of this color? Love it? Hate it? Willing to Try It ?

Use Your Stash Challenge ...oh yeah !

2012-01-03T13:45:00.000-06:00

I have decided to particpate in a USE YOUR STASH challenge on the Cricut Circle Message Board. Basically, you are challenged to only use up things you already own and not purchase more supplies to complete projects. The challenge is January 1 through March 31st. Now of course, there are few exceptions such as getting more adhesive,etc. so you can keep working along in the challenge. You also get to have 1 FREE PASS to purchase something during the three month period if you have a special circumstance such as a scrapbook convention or a special buy you can't resist but you do have to post what that is and justify it to the group.

After looking around at the piles and piles of stuff in my craft room that has gone unloved lately, I thought this was a great way to encourage me to use what I have and enjoy some fun while at it.

So, for USE YOUR STASH #1 I found two Basic Grey card kits I had in my stash and tackled those. I am nursing a bad cold and just didn't feel inspired to create from scratch but wanted to get something done this week. The card kits went together quickly and it was encouraging to see my stash pile go down into something that would be used.

16 cards for birthdays and other events too. I plan on adding a

stamped sentiment to the inside as I select each card to send out.

and from the scraps leftovers, I made 5 more birthday cards !

yeah, no scraps leftover and now I have 22 cards to send !!!!!

Okay, who needs a card? I have some ready for the mail !

Welcome 2012 !!!!

2012-01-03T13:28:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year to all of you in Blog Land ! It's been a whirlwind end of the year for us. Getting the house back under control after the holidays. Celebrating New Years Eve with good friends, going to the last regular season Texans game on New Years Day. And now, I have the mother of all colds !! NO FUN !! I am miserable and not feeling very creative a the moment. So nothing new to post just yet. Just wanted to pop on and say Happy New Year to you all.

Wishing you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2012.

Christmas Day Wishes

2011-12-25T00:01:00.001-06:00

From My Family to Yours,

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year too !

Day One Count Down

2011-12-24T00:01:00.002-06:00

Christmas Eve...Only one more sleep...with visions of sugar plums dancing in our heads until Santa drops in !

When I was a child, I saw a movie where Santa uses a "magic key" that lets him into everyone's front door when he stops by to deliver gifts on Christmas eve. Living in the south, with very few homes with Santa's traditional depicted fireplace access, this was a great way to explain how Santa could enter our home. I continued the story when my own children questioned how Santa got in our house with out a fireplace and now share that same story with my granddaughter.

It's important to have traditions that you share with your family. This is one of many that we have....another is decorating a Gingerbread House and yet another is driving around to see Christmas Lights while listening to Christmas tunes and eating candy canes.

This year, I hope you are able to share your traditons with those you love.

I wanted to show you a new Santa tradition I started a couple of years ago...by collecting and displaying some beautiful silver and gold Santas.

I love how the light catches their metallic glimmer and adds elegance to our dining room.

Enjoy your Christmas Eve...I have my side of the family coming over tonight for Christmas Eve dinner and gift exchance. I can hardly wait to see everyone and share Christmas with them!

Day Two Count Down

2011-12-23T00:01:00.001-06:00

WOW...it's getting so close I can almost feel it in the air now. Christmas is only two days away !!!

Today I wanted to share a few more special Santas I have displayed.

This is a Vintage Santa that a dear friend

gave me a few years ago. He is from the early 1950's.

And here is my Texas Santa...as with everything in Texas,

he is large size...too much to hang on the tree but

he gets a special place of honor on the buffet

table in the dining room.

And these Santas are also of the large size variety...

in fact they are so big I have to set them on the floor

in the dining room !

Still a few more special Santas to share

so check back tomorrow for final dose of Santa goodness !

Day Three Count Down

2011-12-22T00:01:00.001-06:00

Only Three more sleeps until it's Christmas Day ! Yipeeeee !

Today I wanted to share a few of my Woodland Santas. I love the more earthy colors of them in comparison to all the traditional red and white. I have them grouped on a large end table in the living room.

There are still a few more Santas left to share so check back tomorrow please to get

your daily dose of Santa !

Day Four Count Down

2011-12-21T00:01:00.001-06:00

One, Two, Three, FOUR....only FOUR more days until the guy in the red and white suit comes to bring us some gifts ! I have always told the kids when they ask about Santa that as long as they BELIEVE then Santa is REAL in your heart !

And I do dearly BELIEVE in the Spirit of Christmas !

Just a couple of more day before Christmas is here...be sure and check back to see a few more

Santas I have displayed in my house to bring some Christmas Cheer !

Day Five Count Down

2011-12-20T00:01:00.001-06:00

Only five more sleeps until Santa makes his way here !

Encase you haven't guessed by now, I am slightly Santa obsessed ! LOL I have over 300 Santa ornaments on my tree, along with assorted vintage glass balls to help add shine. And about 1000 lights on a real Noble Fir tree to make sure each Santa ornament shines on the tree ! The pictures just can't do it justice but I will let you judge for yourself....

This is what greets you when you enter my

home from the front door.

Makes me smile every time I come home !

Here is a close up of the Santa tree.

It shines brightly with the white lights and

mostly red and white Santa Ornaments.

And yes, I even have a Santa Tree Topper !

More to come tomorrow of other Santas around my house !

SIx Day Count Down

2011-12-19T00:02:00.000-06:00

Still counting down....we are at 6 days before Christmas....I can hardly stand to wait for the big day !

Today's Santas are a few more fun shaped Santas that I have collected over the years. Enjoy !

Antique Patriotic Santa

SANTA in a Box

Hand Painted Canvas Santa Star

Hand painted Real Pine Cone Santa

Tomorrow I will show you an overview of my entire Santa Tree....there are over 300 Santas on my tree ! You won't want to miss seeing it. Ho Ho Ho

Seven Day Count Down

2011-12-18T00:01:00.001-06:00

The days before Christmas are just flying by ! We are down to the last 7 days before Christmas. WOW....
I hope you all have your presents bought and wrapped and tucked away safely under your tree by now. If not I wish you luck in fighting the crowds to find the perfect gift !

Today I am sharing some of my favorite SHINY santas with you...

Pure Gold Santa Claus

Sequin Santa

Glass & Fur Santa

Hand Painted Glass Ball Santa

Check back tomorrow to see the last few unusual Santa Ornaments on our tree.

Eight Day Count Down

2011-12-17T00:06:00.000-06:00

Eight days only until Christmas gets here ! Yipeeeeee ! Continuing the theme of Santas on my Santa Christmas theme, here a few more treasured Santa ornaments. These are more traditional santas.

Santa hanging up a stocking with a puppy in it ...too cute !

Santa in his sleigh

Santa and one of his reindeer

And the jolly guy's beautiful coat !

Tomorrow I will post even more fun santas...

Nine Day Count Down

2011-12-16T23:56:00.000-06:00

Only nine more days before Santa comes to town ! Today I am going to share a few more of my santa ornaments with you.

BBQ Santa

Cookie Baking Santa

Gardening Santa

Golfing Santa

And one of my all time favorites,

Pirate Santa !

More Santa goodness to come tomorrow so be sure and check back to see more of my santa collection.

10 Day Count Down ...

2011-12-16T19:48:00.000-06:00

WOW...how did it get to be only 10 days before Christmas so quickly? Luckily I have almost all my shopping finished. I have spent the past couple of days getting the presents wrapped and under the tree so I am feeling pretty good about where I stand pre-Christmas wise !

I collect Santas and love getting to see all of my favorites that I set out around the house. For the next few days I am going to post some of my most special Santas to help bring some Christmas cheer your way too !

Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas ! And hope you enjoy your holiday time with your family and friends.

I am starting off with some of the Santas I have collected for our Santa Christmas Tree. These ornaments have all been collected when we have traveled on trips.

Paris Santa we bought at top of Eiffel Tower during

our 20th Anniverary trip to Europe

Hand painted Sand Dollar Santa bought on a

trip to St. Augustine Florida for my youngest brothers wedding

Candian Santa from a trip to Calgary for work.

Irish Santa from our trip to Boston

And the hand painted Maui Santa from our

30th Anniversary trip this past August

More to come.....

2011 Christmas Banner

2011-12-10T11:18:00.000-06:00

I LOVE making banners to display in my home. In the past few years I have made Birthday Banners, Easter Banners, Halloween Banners, Thanksgiving Banners....it was finally time to tackle the all important Christmas Banner !

I collect Santas...not just a few, at last count I had about 200 that I display in various rooms of my home and my Christmas tree is decorated with about 300 plus santa ornaments. So to say I like Santas is an understatement! So I naturally gravitated towards making a Christmas Banner featuring Santa.

Each banner piece was made from a shaped piece of heavy cardstock, covered with patterned paper with a crepe paper border and then decorated with lots of Christmas embellishment treastures. On three of the pieces I attached the glittered letters Ho...when hung up, it now says HO HO HO !

Without further ado....here is my Christmas Banner, piece by piece.

When I was little I asked Santa one year, " please define good?

Ha, Ha. I Found this metal piece that had that on it and just had to put it on my banner.

Close Up of this first piece. I added chipboard shapes and

added stickles to give them sparkle!

On this banner piece the Merry Christmas is suspended above

the background to give it a lot of dimension !

My favorite banner piece is this one!

I found the perfect vintage Santa paper for the background.

For the 25 I used silver german glass glitter to cover the chipboard,

it looks amazing up close. I used some vintage tinsel around the edges

of the crepe paper. I added more to the HO piece here...a glittered Believe,

a Santa and a red sleigh bell !

Again on this piece, I suspended the Joy over the

banner piece.

This piece is a tribute to Christmas Carols. I used

Joy to the World music paper as background.

And added titles from some of my favorite christmas songs.

Deck the Halls, Jingle Bells, O Christmas Tree, etc.

Close up of this piece. All the images are added on and popped up

for added dimension. And of course, more glitter !!

And here is the banner all strung up on a red and green tinsel garland.

Sorry the picture isn't so great but you get the idea of how it looks now all hung up !

Happy Thanksgiving Canvas Art

2011-11-22T00:01:00.001-06:00

Just two more sleeps until the big TURKEY DAY is here. Today I wanted to share an altered canvas art display I made to showcase a photo from our big Family Reunion Thanksgiving we did last year.

These are easy to make from scrapbook supplies you may already have laying around.

Here are some quick directions if you want to make one of your own:
1. Using acrylic paint of your choice, lightly brush a canvas of your size choice. I used a 12X12.
2. Set canvas aside and let air dry. Once dry, using a Distress Ink pad, I lightly inked the edges of my canvas
3. Select a patterned paper to match your theme and cut a piece about 4 1/2"X12" to run vertically and tear the edges on both sides. Ink edges as desired. Adhere to dry canvas about 1 inch from the left edge of the canvas. You should use a good quality, quick dry scrapbook glue such as Scotch Liquid Quick Dry Glue. It holds great to the canvas and is easily found at craft stores. It goes on white but dries clear.
4. Cut a different piece of patterned paper 3 "X 12" to run horizontally. Use a craft border punch of your choice to punch just the bottom edge. Crinkle the paper into a ball, unroll and repeat a couple of times until your paper is really crinkely (that's a word, right?). Lightly rub an ink pad over the top, catching ink on the crinkled pieces. Adhere to the canvas horizontally using the liquid glue.
5. Cut a 5"X7" piece of cardstock. Use an embossing folder and emboss an image of your choice. I used a Cricut Autumn Embossing folder. Using a sander (I used Tim Holtz sanding block), gently sand the tops of the embossed design. Adhere the cardstock piece to the canvas overlapping your vertical piece of patterned paper slightly.
6. Make a photo mat to fit the size of your photo and adhere overlapping the embossed cardstock. You can place your photo either horizontal as I have or vertical if you prefer.
7. Embellish as you like with title, sayings, bling, etc.

Here is a close up of the embossed piece.

Now I just need to add my photo and we are all set to display on our buffet serving table this year.

Hope you give this a try sometime. You can adapt to any theme and keep it simple like this or really go to town with your paper layering and embellishments. I am working on a Christmas one right now that will be much more elaborate so come back and check that out soon.

Wishing you each a very Happy Thanksgiving !! Gobble, Gobble

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

2011-11-21T10:07:00.000-06:00

Well, we are down to the final 3 days before the big Thanksgiving Feast in the USA is upon us. Time to start pulling out all the Thanksgiving decorations and getting them put up. Luckily, last year I made quite a few things to help bring the Thanksgiving feeling to our family dinner. Here are some of those projects from 2010:

The mantle banner says Give Thanks. I made it with

various chipboard pieces covered in fall themed patterned paper.

I added a ruffled crepe paper trim around some of the pieces

and them decorated with all kinds of fall ribbons and

embellishments I had collected over the years.

Loved how it turned out !

I made these special Thanksgiving candles

from glass jar candles I bought at Michaels

and then wrapped a strip of fall paper around the middle.

Then I used the Cricut Lacy Labels and Thanksgiving

cartridge to make these Thanksgiving themed

tags and hung from each with fibers.

A few pilgrims and indians and some fall foliage scattered

around the table and we had lovely table decor.

For place settings we used gold chargers with our Turkey paper plates.

LOL...how is that for elegance for a crowd?

My granddaughter and I made the napkin ring holders

our of cardstock and patterned paper rings, a scalloped shaped punchout,

and some felt pilgrims boys and girls in felt we bought at Hobby Lobby.

Tada !

So this year, all I need to do is unpack all these handmade gems and set the table ! Come back tomorrow and I will show you what I made for this year's Thanksgiving.

Finally, CRICUT CRAFT ROOM HELP

2011-11-14T09:23:00.000-06:00

WOW...finally some help with Cricut Craft Room for those of you that want to try it out and have been lost on your own. Narelle and Scrapalette have created a blog with all kinds of great tips just for Cricut Craft Room. Just go to Cricut Craft Room Blog. Thanks ladies !

Introducing Lady Cricut

2011-11-01T12:46:00.000-05:00

I have a new scrapbook buddy...Lady Cricut. She has a slight British accent and comes from a Royal Cricut Bloodline...or so she says. She has decided to take up residence in my scraproom and appearantly decided to steal my crown for her very own. We are going to have a talk about that...

Lady Cricut reigns over her scrapbook domain.

Lady Cricut is wearing her ever so fashionable Scrapbook apron.

She is a great example to us all since she keeps her camera ready for picture taking

so she doesn't miss capturing those specials moments to treasure and share with others in her scrapbooks.

I have a feeling Lady Cricut is here to stay and will want to tag along on all my own scrapbook adventures

so don't be surprised if you see me with her at my next scrapbook event.

Halloween Aftermath

2011-11-01T12:07:00.000-05:00

We enjoyed dressing up last night and giving out candy to all the cute kiddos that stopped by. Even though our kids are grown we both love carving a pumpkin every year to put out on Halloween night. This year's efforts were done about an hour before the trick or treaters showed up so not too elaborate but cute.
The kiddos seemed to really love them.

Let's face it...Halloween is ALL ABOUT THE CANDY !

2011-10-31T00:01:00.001-05:00

Since Halloween is "ALL About THE Candy" for the kiddos, and lets face it most adults too, here is a fun CANDY BANNER to get you in the mood.

This banner was made using the Tim Holtz Distress Halloween Kraft Resist Paper

and Distress Inks. Each tag is done using a different distress ink technique.

The Kraft Resist paper is so cool when you add

the distress ink over the top!

I used my Cricut to cut out the letters for each tag out of

the resist paper. I added distress ink and some distress stickles to make

then spooky sparklie !

As usual, Tim thought to have large, medium and tiny

prints in the paper pad. I used the tiny paper as

an embellishment and after inking with distress inks,

I outlined with stickles.

It was fun to find some unique embellishments such

as these orange paper flowers that I added stickles too,

the fun glittery epoxy spiders and bats and most of all

the Jolee's Skeleton which I touched with a little distress

ink to highlight his bones ...CREEPY !

If you noticed, I even distress inked the skeleton ribbon that

the banner will hang from.

NOW WHO WANTS CANDY ??????????????????

Halloween Treats...NOT Tricks

2011-10-30T00:01:00.002-05:00

There are so many yummy treats that can be made for Halloween....Caramel Apples, Popcorn Balls, Pumpkin Bread, Candy Corn, etc.

How would you like a way to put all your families favorite Halloween treats into one cute mini recipe album?
Well, I made this adorable Halloween Recipe album a couple of years ago and wanted to share with you.

The cover is made from chipboard cut slightly larger than

the recipe cards inside. And is hole punched on the top and bound

with binder rings and a variety of ribbons tied on.

The title is made with glittered chipboard Thicker alphas.

And the treat bags are patterned paper cut out and some stickles added.

I love to tie ribbon on to mini album covers for added texture.

Cute Halloween recipe cards go on the inside.

I added a spot along with each recipe card

so that there was room to add a picture

of the Halloween treats.

I added a few more pages to the inside

by cutting cardstock in same size as recipe cards.

Again, more pp cut out to make an embellishment

and added stickles.

A few more pages to show you.

This would also be an awesome way to do a Christmas or Thanksgiving

Recipe Books for your family or gifts. You can find lots of cute

holiday recipe cards right now at various stores. I know I saw some at

Michaels and Target recently. In fact I bought some Christmas ones myself.

Happy Halloween !

2011-10-29T12:01:00.002-05:00

With all the fun Halloween pictures we are sure to take tonight, I am glad I put together this layout to document all the spooky adventures.

More Halloween Cards

2011-10-28T00:01:00.002-05:00

Here are a few Halloween cards I made to send to the kids in our family. Of course, I am including a few Halloween treats along with these cards for the kiddos.

I don't usually make Halloween cards but I must say I have been having fun this year making them. And the selection of Halloween papers has been too hard to resist.

I just loved this Halloween paper together. The

ghost is a 3d glittered embelllishment from K&Company.

I used a Halloween wood $1 stamp from Michaels

for the Happy Halloween sentiment. It is such a cool font.

Who can resist a spider and his web on Halloween?

This paper looked like it was custom made

for the little 3D embellishment.

Again, I used a $1 stamp from Michaels

for the sentiment.

Getting Ready for some Halloween Treats

2011-10-27T00:01:00.001-05:00

I will be making some cupcakes to take over to my granddaughter for her Halloween party this weekend. Decided it would be fun to make some Halloween Cupcake pics to decorate them.

Since I didn't have the cupcakes ready yet, I bunched up some

spider web material and set them in it to show them off. LOL

I started out by making small paper medallions for each one in a variety of

Halloween patterned paper.

Here is a close up view. I added stickles around the edges

on some of the paper medallions.

Michaels craft store had a pack of the these glittered

embellishments that were perfect for some of the centers.

I punched a piece of cardstock, added some stickles to the

edge and then used a glue dot to put on the embellishment.

To make the paper medallions into a cupcake pick,

I used extra long tooth picks, a punched out circle out of

cardstock and my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher to

staple the toothpick to the cardstock.

I then used hot glue to glue the cardstock piece to the back

of the paper medallion.

And waaaalah ! My very own custom made Cupcake Picks.

You could do something like this for any occassion. It was so fun to

make these and didn't take much time. I made 24 (4) of each design.

Something Witchy in the Air !

2011-10-26T18:47:00.000-05:00

I made this Witch Halloween Easel Card to send a friend for Halloween.

Had fun using different cuts from cricut carts and some stickers I had in my stash.

Here is the Easel card opened up. I used black glittered half dome pieces to

use as the stop mechanism for the easel.

And the Winner is....

2011-10-24T22:50:00.000-05:00

Thanks for stopping by and leaving such nice comments on my Fall/Halloween Challenge Blog Hop post. Hopefully you were as inspired as I was by all the fantastic projects the other design team members created for this special hop.

Drum roll please...the winner of my Star Bucks $5 gift card Blog Candy is :

Carolyn/MamaC said...

What a fun, unique banner! Love all the "fluff"!! Great job!

October 23, 2011 5:46 AM

Congrats Carolyn. Please send me your mailing address to scraphappydeb2010@gmail.com and I will get your Star Bucks gift card in the mail this week. Enjoy !

Fright Night Paper Bag Album

2011-10-24T11:52:00.000-05:00

One of my all time favorite things to make are mini albums. I made this Fright Night Paper Bag Mini Album to capture this years Halloween pictures. I added a few twist to the normal paper bag album by making three different fold outs for more pictures to jazz it up a little and I have provided some directions for how I did that. If you have never made a paper bag album there are tons of videos on You Tube to show you how.

Cover of album. I used the DCWV Midnight Magic Paper Pad.

Loads of fun glitterly and bold printed Halloween paper!

I wanted to have a closure for my mini album so I used

some twine and a couple of buttons. Using a mini hole punch I

punched 2 holes in the cover and threaded the twine through that and the large button

and tied it on to create the front closure part. The small button in the picture

is actually tied to a long piece of twine and tied to the back cover. (see later picture)

Inside page 1&2 and the mini pocket that is created with the "bottom" of the paper bags.

Inside page 3&4 and mini pocket

Special Fold Out #1 is adhered to page 4

To create the fold, I used a piece of 12X12 cardstock,

cut in half to create a 6x12 piece (save the other half for Fold #2)

I used MS Spider Web border punch and punched along both 12 inch sides.

Then I scored at 4 & 8 inches to create the folds.

Added a 1 in strip of pp to bottom of inside fold.

I know have room for 3 more 4X6 photos and/or journaling.

Adhere the middle fold to the paper bag album page already covered in pp.

Fold up the bottom flap and let the top flap fold down over that.

Then I decorate the top piece of the fold with pp and some

embellishments for a finished look.

Special Fold Out # 2

This fold is created using the other half of the 6X12 section I cut for Fold Out #1

I placed it on an inside pocket tag I created by cutting a 12X12 piece of pp to 4.5 inches

by 12 inches and folding in half to create a front and back. I added a strip of pp

to the side of it to create a tab for my tag. This is how I made all the Large Tags

I used in the pockets of the paper bag mini album.

I scored the 6X12 piece of cardstock at 4 inches,

then flipped it over and scored at 8 inches.

Thus creating an accordian fold.

Using the MS Spider Web Corner Punch,

I punched the corners of each 4X6 section of the fold out.

Only the top 4X6 section is adhered to the tag.

The rest folds up and ready to pull down to expose photo spaces.

Shows the accordian fold of the 6X12 piece after scoring & folding.

the bottom 4X6 flap up towards the middle flap and

here I added a journaling block.

I then decorated the cover with some pp and a 3d paper embellishment

from Me&MyBigIdeas. I added another of those twine tied

buttons for some added pizzaz.

Inside Pages 5&6 with small pocket.

Special Fold Out #3

is added to page 6 of the paper bag album

after pp has been added to the page

This fold takes (1) 12X12 sheet of cardstock, scored at 4&8 inches along top side,

then turned to score at 4&8 inches along left side. This will create (9) 4X4 blocks scored

on the 12X12 page. Cut out the 4 corner blocks. You will now have a Plus Sign

looking piece with (3) 4X4 blocks horizontal and (3) 4X4 blocks vertical.

Adhere middle 4x4 square to the center of your mini album page.

Fold the bottom 4X4 square up to the middle, then the left to the middle

Then Fold the right 4X4 square to the middle

And lastly fold the top 4X4 square down over the top of all the others.

Adhere pp to the top square and embellish. Decorate each inside square as you like.

Example of anothe Large Tag decorated for inside

paper bag album pocket (front side). I hung an

embellishment from twine so it dangled on the front

and back side of the tag. I added a journaling

block to the front side.

Back side of the pocket above ready for more photos.

For the small pocket inside tags, I just cut double sided patterend paper and

added a 1" pp border for each of the small tags.

The back cover and closure

I hold punched 1 time on the back cover and tied

the long piece of string using about 3 good knots to hold it in place.

I added a little mini button to the loose end that will wrap around

to the front cover to secure the album.

I also added pp to the folded bag edge of the mini album

for a finished look. You can do this before or after you add your covers.

Hope you enjoyed my Fright Night Halloween Mini Album and feel inspired to create one of your own!

Welcome to the Fall & Halloween Challenge Blog Hop

2011-10-22T01:00:00.000-05:00

Hi everybody ! Welcome to our Fall and Halloween Blog Hop hosted by Pam of the The Bug Bytes. You should have arrived at my blog from Kelly at Kams Crafty Space if you just jumped in you might want to go back to The Bug Bytes so you don't miss any fabulous projects. All of on The Bug Bytes Design Team just love creating crafty projects this time of year. We wanted to share some of our special Fall and Halloween projects with you on this blog hop so be sure and stop by each DT member's blog to get inspired. Pam is offering some blog candy (special prize) so see her rules on her post at the start of this blog hop. I am also offering some blog candy...read on to find out how to enter.

I just LOVE to make banners to decorate my home during the holidays! A couple of years ago, I made a large Halloween Banner that I have already hung up in our family room that you can see HERE. This year I wanted to make a smaller Halloween banner to hang up in my Kitchen. When I think of Halloween, spooky Ghost always seem to come to mind first so I went with the Ghost theme for my banner.

I started out by making the banner pieces out of Bazzill cardstock

cut into triangles.

Next I used the Martha Stewart Spider Web Punch

to create a border to go across the top of each banner piece

in alternating background colors. And I added some fun

polka dot ribbon to hang the banner pieces from the garland.

I made the large Rosettes starting by cutting (2) 12" X 3" strips

of Halloween pp, scoring them each at 1/2" marks using my Martha Stewart Scoring Board

and adhering the two pieces together with redline tape, and folding to create the rosette.

I used a 2" circle punch to cut two cardstock circles per banner piece.

I hot glued one circle to the front of the rosette and another on the back

to create a more stable rosette. I then added a 1 1/2" circle punch piece in a different

color cardstock and added a Thickers Varsity Letter to complete the banner word.

For a finishing touch I hot glued some K&Company Halloween 3d embellishments.

Hope you liked my Halloween Banner...I am hanging it up in the kitchen window along with some cute ghost ceramic candle holders to keep the Halloween Spirit flowing through my house!

If you want a chance at my Blog Candy Give Away, just leave a comment on this post before Noon on Monday October 24th. The lucky winner will receive a $5 Starbucks gift card !! Perfect to getting a Latte or Hot Chocolate to keep you warm during the fall weather.

Thanks for stopping by. Okay, time for you to hop to the next blog for more inspiration! Please hop on over to Carole's blog at On My Craft Room Wall.

Halloween Tablescape

2011-10-21T21:30:00.000-05:00

Putting out more Halloween decor. These are some fun tablescape items that I created out of spools.

First I covered each of the spools with different Halloween patterened paper.

For this spool, I painted a chipboard cat and added some orange pearls and gold stickles.

Then I added some fun orange garland fringe to the spool for a finishing touch.

For this little spool, I used an orange ticket and stamped a Halloween image on to it.

I then added a 3d Halloween sticker to finish it off.

For the largest spool, I started off with some great black glitter on black pattern paper

to cover the spool. I then added the awesome orange fringe to the top and bottom of the spool.

I added some tulle to the center, then placed some Jenni Bowlin Halloween Bingo Cards

and a date embellishment with October 31st.

For a finishing touch, I die cut some black glitter paper with a scalloped punch,

layered some orange and black silk flowers and a blingy jewel

and placed it on the top of the spool. Love how it turned out !

Check back tomorrow for more Halloween decor and join us in the Fall and Halloween Blog Hop.

Let the Halloween Decorating Begin !

2011-10-21T20:56:00.000-05:00

I just love getting out my Halloween decorations.

This is another one of those Halloween Vintage Style postcards I coverted to a display piece.

I mounted it on chipboard, added halloween pattern paper to the back

and inked the edges to finish it off. then display it on easel.

I will post more Halloween decor later as I continue to decorate today!

Halloween is on it's way ! And so is a great Blog Hop

2011-10-20T16:50:00.001-05:00

I just love Halloween and all the fun the kids will have trick or treating.
I have created lots of new Halloween items for this Halloween season and will be posting pictures starting on Saturday, October 22 as The Bug Bytes Design Team members host a Fall/Halloween Challenge Blog Hop !
Be sure and mark your calendars to stop by and get some awesome inspiration to kick up your Fall/Halloween craftiness !

Most Wonderful New Craft Item Ever !

2011-10-15T00:01:00.001-05:00

Well, maybe it isn't exactly the most wonderful new craft item ever...but it comes pretty close to me!

I went to an artist retreat a couple of weekends ago that had all the crafters up to our elbows in spray mist, paint, ink and all kinds of adhesives. To say it was a "bit messy" is an under statement but what fun we had !

Well once we were done, we went to wash up and I discovered this wonderful item in the washroom.

With just a little liquid soap and some water, this Craft Scrubbie by Ranger got off all the mists, inks, paint, and even adhesive off my hands in a matter of minutes. I was so excited ! Usually I walk around for a few days with some inks and adhesive on my hands until they wear off. But no more. If you haven't ever used one of these, I highly recommend you get one. They were only $4.99 at Michael's craft store and I also saw them at Hobby Lobby too. And with a coupon even cheaper.

One of the ladies at the retreat said she often uses Windex and the Craft Scrubbie to get stubborn stains off her hands. I might just try that next time if the liquid soap and Scrubbie don't work the first time.

Cricut Circle Blogiversary - Cuttlebug Challenge

2011-10-13T22:34:00.000-05:00

I am entering another one of the Cricut Circle Blogiversary challenges...this time featuring the Cuttlebug and any two Cricut image cuts. The prize is a Yudu Cardshop which is a mini version of the Yudu silkscreening machine and great for making cards and smaller projects. My fingers and toes are crossed that my entry gets picked.

I am really getting excited about Halloween this year and decided for this challenge I wanted to make a Halloween Layout page. Cricut has several Halloween images and cartridges that I love so the decision on what to use was hard but I finally came up with a few fun images to use.

Here is the layout

I had so much fun making this layout from my stash of supplies.

Since I first saw this silly looking Spider with the long legs from the Stretch Your Imaginations cartridge, I have wanted to use him on a project but hadn't gotten around to it until today. I cut him out of black cardstock and then used Ranger Paint Dauber in yellow to color his legs. I used a black sharpie and added some stripes to make his long legs a little more comical. Next I used a small dot Cuttlebug embossing folder to add some fun bumps to his body and highlighted a few of his bumps with green Stickles and some orange Stickles to his hat. He was just screaming that he needed googlie eyes so he got those too!

Next I made a mat using my Cuttlebug and a Halloween embossing folder on some orange Coordinations cardstock which I then sanded to expose all the fun embossed images. I love to do that with my Cuttlebug folders!

For the lettering I used the awesome Happy Hauntings cartridge for the "Spooky" title and the EEK! on the layout. I also used Accent Essentials cartridge to create the circle backgrounds for the punched out pattern paper pieces that I used to make embellishments. I added a few Dress Up Buttons Halloween pieces for a final touch. Love how this turned out. And now I have one layout ready for some Trick or Treating photos this year!
Good luck to everyone who enters the contest !

Cricut Circle Blogiversary - Sketch Challenge

2011-10-13T20:49:00.001-05:00

One of the perks of being a Cricut Circle member is that we get to participate in craft challenges using our Cricut products for a chance to win awesome prizes. The Circle is celebrating the Blog Anniversary with an even more spectacular giveaway. I have decided to participate in a few of them and will be posting pics of my Challenge Entries to share with all of you too.

First up is my entry for a chance to win an Cricut Imagine (it's the only Cricut machine I don't already own) she says sheepishly.

We are supposed to use this sketch they provided and create any project of our choice using at least two different Cricut cuts from any cartridge we prefer.

Here is my entry based on the sketch

The Cricut cuts used on this card are all from the new Creative Memories Art Philsophy cartridge including the card base. And I also used my new Snowflake Cuttlebug embossing folder too. As you can see, I added some Crystal Stickles to add that special touch to the die cut snowflakes and the embossed piece. The card is gorgous in person but the shiny paper I choose was a little hard to photograph to get the luscious colors to show better.

Good luck to all others who enter the contest too!

Woohoo...I am on the Design Team at The Bug Bytes !

2011-09-30T00:01:00.001-05:00

I am so excited to join all the wonderful DT members at The Bug Bytes. I always get so much inspiration from the designers on Pam's blog and am honored to be included on the DT.

My first ever contribution is today. So head over to The Bug Bytes and check out the gorgeous fall card I posted. {And yes, it is a card I made last fall because of my current camera situation but I did include directions and supplies used to create it}.

Happy Fall Ya'll

Sweet New Camera Heading My Way

2011-09-29T22:49:00.002-05:00

I have been crafting like crazy...all kinds of Halloween and Fall goodies to show you all. But alas, my camera was broken on our trip to Maui last month (heavy sigh) so no way to take photos to post projects lately.

Well, hang on to your hats, because I will soon have a sweet new awesome camera so I can get back into the crafty blog world once again.

After a lot of research and soul searching, I decided I am still a "point and shoot" kind of girl but wanted a few SLR features without the weight of it...so I just ordered the Sony CyberShot DSC-WX9 camera.
It arrives the first of next week ! I am doing a Happy Dance and can't wait to start using it and posting
project pics again.

It's got all these wonderful features and more:

Exmor R CMOS sensor for low-light performance, 5x, bright lens
Full HD 1080x1920 with dual record of stills and movies
3D still image and 3D Sweep Panorama
Fast capture with 10fps at full 16.2 MP resolution
iSweep Panorama for one shot landscapes

So until next week, keep crafting and check back for more crafty inspiration from me!

New Look Under Way !

2011-09-28T15:25:00.000-05:00

As you can see, I am making some BIG changes on my blog !

The changes are intended to:

Help my readers find things easier
Make it easier to contact me to ask questions
And improve ways to continue to inspire your own creativity

Please let me know if there is anything you want me to see changed on my blog.
My goal is to have everything up and running by end of this weekend. So wish me luck !

My Birthday Wish

2011-09-12T03:14:00.000-05:00

Well my friends, it is that time of year again. Yes, I am talking about my birthday week !

I am lucky enough to share my birthday week with a couple of my dear friends and we will be celebrating with lunches out this week, maybe a shopping trip or two and lots of laughs and fun !
Total girl time ....I could use some of that for sure.

It's hard to believe another year has passed and once again it is time to reflect on what I want to wish for this birthday.

Even more than usual, I have a strong desire to make a plan to explore and learn new things,
to travel more ..both near and abroad,
and just in general enjoy and embrace life more than ever.

Maybe it is because as I crest over the 50 year mark, you start to realize that day-to-day life hassles such as working, cleaning, cooking, childrearing, etc. shouldn't be taken so seriously and that we are meant to experience life in a more soulful way.

So, my birthday wish for myself is to seek out things that feed my soul, that bring me joy, that expand my mind and touch my heart.

And I guess it is time to start thinking of making a bucket list and knocking them off that list one at a time !

I promise to keep you posted as I focus on these birthday wishes this year.

In Remembrance of 9/11/01

2011-09-11T00:19:00.002-05:00

It's been 10 years since our world was turned upside down with the events that happened on September 11th. I just wanted to take a moment and say a prayer for all those that lost their lives and to give a (((cyber hug))) to their loved ones who had to move forward through life without them.

And to all the brave men and women who courageously fight for our freedom every day, I humbly say thank you ! It seems not enough...but mere words can not express how thankful I am for the rights I have to live in the United States of America. We may have our troubles but we still have a strong society who values freedom, liberty and justice for all.

Rolling Out New Classes at Michael's Craft Stores Saturday

2011-09-09T23:47:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone....wanted to make sure you knew that tomorrow, Saturday September 10th from 1-3 pm Michael's Craft Stores around the country are holding a Class Room Open House to showcase all the new classes being offered such as Paper Crafting, Wilton Cake, Jewelry Making, Yarn Classes and Spotted Canary Scrapbook Basics Classes.

They are running a ONE DAY ONLY SPECIAL of 50% OFF CLASS FEE if you register that day for ANY class on the schedule ! Yipeee !!

I am the certified scrapbook instructor for the Michael's store on Bissonnet at Weslayan and having a ball teaching the paper craft classes and scrapbook basic classes there.

The new Paper Craft Classes are really something special and include classes like:

Cricut 101 to learn to use your Cricut Machine

Cricut Card Tricks using Winter Frolic cartridge

Cricut Off the Page to make holiday gift items using Winter Frolic cartridge

Tim Holtz Halloween Banner and Holiday Tags to learn distress ink techniques

Paper Bag Mini Albums perfect for one event scrapbooks or gifts

Card Tricks to learn different card techniques

Altered Canvas for decor or gift giving

Party Decor to make invite, banner, decorations, layout and cards to match

Sketched Out to learn how to use a sketch to quickly make a layout and cards

There are many more class offerings too..

If you live in Houston, please stop by and say hello and check ou these classes !

Would love to see you. If you don't live here, check out your local Michael's store as there are over 500 stores across the country offering these classes now.

We are Back !

2011-08-28T23:59:00.001-05:00

WOW...all I can say is MAUI is F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S !! We went for 10 days to celebrate our 30th Wedding Anniversary. We explored every nook and cranny of the island and had many adventures and once in a life time views.

Here is a quick snapshot of our trip:

Sunrise at Halelakala (10,000 feet in the air above the crowds ) than then we BIKED back down !

It was cold at 10,000 feet but wow what a view high ABOVE the clouds!~

This is a view of the crater we just watched the sunrise over

Lots of beautiful and yummy tasty drinks were had each day !

Gorgeous, picture postcard views of beaches everywhere you looked

Exotic plant life...this a rainbow eucalyptus tree

Waterfalls along the Hana Highway were spectacular

Dragons Teeth rocky point in Kapalua was so cool !

Sailing and Snorkeling sure was fun !

Golfing at PGA Plantation Course along with a Rainbow

A Luau at Grand Wailea was fabulous !

Can't go to Maui without having some Shave Ice...delicicous !

Cool Ride with my hubby

Gorgeous digs where we stayed

Lovely, lovely, lovely

Nice kitchen in the condo for snacks, etc.

Pretty view from our Lanai...Fresh Lei from the Luau

in my hair was so fragrant

And yes ladies...I even made it to the only scrapbook store on Maui...Island Paperie !!

As you can see, we had a fabulous time and really enjoyed ourselves. Now we totally understand why everyone said we should go to Maui. I will be working on my scrapbook pages and post more photos of our wonderful trip. Happy 30th Anniversary to my sweet hubby !

My Favorites so far from the Craft and Hobby Association Summer Show

2011-07-21T17:13:00.000-05:00

While I did not get to attend CHA this year, I have been closely following a few of my favorite companies new releases. I also love to get inspiration from how each manufacturer decorates their booths to showcase their products to the best advantage. One of the best displays I have seen so far posted is from the fabulous designers at DCWV....take a peek at this awesome detail ! Can you spot all the places they used PP?

well, do you see all the pattern paper opportunities in this display? I love the deer above the mantel...but the paper wrapped logs are beyond clever ! The stockings, frames and mantle decor are all made with lovely DCWV patterned paper and the cute little sleigh is also beautifully done up in patterned paper.

Another thing I spotted as I blog hopped through CHA photos today was this awesome display of kits
to make fantastic flower necklaces from Ruby-Violet ..a Prima spin off line. I can not wait to get my hands on a few of these kits. I wonder how much they will be priced?

Well I bookmarked a few other favorites that I will post later this week. What have you seen from this CHA you really want to get?

It's A Wrap Blog Hop

2011-07-16T06:01:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the It’s a Wrap Blog Hop hosted by Cool Beans By L.B.

Do you like to receive gifts? How about give them? Well this hop is all about the outside…the wrapping; Gift bags, boxes, baskets and more. There are several wonderful stops on this hop and

we hope you will take some time to stop in and see everything we have created to inspire you.

You should have arrived here from, CoolbeansbyLB , which is the start of the blog hop.

Here are a few different gift wraps I have made lately for special events:

There is one thing I am always needing when a birthday rolls around and that is a gift bag for the present. I like to stock up on plain colored bags in bulk from local craft store and keep on hand to create a unique gift back to fit the occassion and person. Most of the time I use my Cricut to make adorable die cuts in birthday themes.

All the designs for this project were created using the Cricut Birthday Bash cartridge. The big birthday cake on the bag was cut at 7 inches, the yellow cake base cardstock was embossed with the Cuttlebug, and I added some yummy frosting using Martha Stewart chunky white glitter. I even used foam dots to pop-up the birthday word.

Here is a close up so you can see the details better.

I made a matching mini birthday card as a tag using the cake card shape on the Birthday Bash cartridge cut at 5 inches. I added some "paper sprinkles" to the icing and highlighted them with stickles.

I also like to personalize the gift bag with a monogram, like I did here for graduation presents for a couple of special friends daughter's high school graduation. I used the colors of the college they would be going to in the fall as inspiration...they loved them !

But I don't stop at just making gift bags...I LOVE to make pillow boxes for gifts too.

I recently went to a wedding and made this as a bridal luncheon gift holder. The bride thought it was so pretty she didn't even want to open it to see the handmade cards that were the gift inside.

I made the box out of a shiny cardstock that I don't remember the name of but have had laying around for a long time by using a template. Then added ribbon trim to the edges. For the tag, I glimmer misted a manila tag, punched the edges with my Fiskars Apron lace punch. Stamped a frame and hand lettered the brides name. And then added a Prima flower that I glimmer misted in pearl. I tied it onto the package with some sheer ribbon.

Thanks for stopping by on this fun hop. Leave me a comment to let me know you stopped by please.

Your next stop on the hop is Cindy.

What an honor !

2011-07-15T16:38:00.003-05:00

My "Splish Splash" Layout was chosen as

on the Cricut Circle Blog today !

Thanks PC for picking the layout. I love it too! \

P.S. Our resident silly 8 year old was thrilled to see herself on the blog today ! That kid is such a ham :)

Splish Splash !

2011-07-14T09:04:00.000-05:00

I absolutely love ECHO PARK's paper collections. They are definitely one of my favorite paper companies. If you haven't checked them out, you really should do so. Their paper is a wonderful quality and their paper collections are a great mix of patterns and paper embellishments plus at a great value. Can't ask for more in a perfect scrapbook paper line.

When I bought the Echo Park Summertime paper line the colors just SCREAMED summer to me. And as luck would have it, I had the perfect summer photos of Bianca learning to swim to use with it.

I used the Cricut H20 cartridge for the titles, pool floatie and girl.

I matted the title and a focal point photo and used a Ranger Inkado

White Pen to add faux stitching. I cut the sun shape out of two different colors

and popped dotted one over the other for added dimension.

I then added a hidden Echo Park journaling

card sticking out of the top of one photo.

The pool float and girl were made separately and then

I just slipped her into the horse floatie.

I used my COPIC Markers to color her skin. Love how it turned out !

The H20 cartridge even had the perfect Jumpin! word phrase

to match my photos. How did they know! LOL

This is a fun, colorful layout that really helped make these pictures come alive. I just love scrappin' summer photos, don't you ?

Cindy Loo Magic...

2011-07-13T00:01:00.001-05:00

I just love the Cindy Loo Cricut cartridge and try and use it any chance I can get. Lucky for me, I stumbled across one photo I had not scrapped from when I was the design team lead at a local scrapbook store. Sadly that LSS has closed but the memories still remain. We had a fantastic time at the National Scrapbook Day Crop that year and took a photo of everyone in front of the store. Our store colors were black and pink so I used those colors on my layout.

I created the frame and flourish using Cindy Loo.

The title was made using Gypsy Font.

The flourish is a layer on the frame.

On a separate piece of paper, I made the flourish layer

and then added stickles over the top.

I love how it turned out and added a bit

of glam to the layout.

It's so sad that many of our LSS have closed. I do my best to support LSS whenever I travel. I think the LSS helps keep our favorite scrapbooking hobby going and we need them. I encourage you to also support LSS wherever you travel too.

So Beary Cute

2011-07-12T00:01:00.001-05:00

Well, as many of you may know, I make alot of layouts featuring my silly granddaughter, Bianca. She is a happy, joyous and creative 8 year old and an endless source of photo shoots. Over the winter we were at my dad's house and she started hamming it up so of course I had to capture her silliness once again.

Here is a layout I made using Twinkle Toes Lite Cartridge.

Bianca is fascinated with my dad's Grizzly rug.

Here she was making a "BEAR ANGEL" instead

of a snow angel. Silly, right?

I used Twinkle Toes Lite Cartridge to

make this adorable bear.

I tried to mimic Bianca's shirt on the

skirt of the bear using Copic Markers.

On the title I used some pretty half dome pearls in pink

to add a feminine touch.

Fixing Up The Place

2011-07-11T11:33:00.001-05:00

Here is a layout I made using the Handy Man Lite Cricut cartridge. This cartridge had perfect images to enhance the story I wanted to tell about helping my dad build his new house.

To add a little special touch to the title

I used Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher staples

This Handy Man Lite Cartridge even had an adorable

house that looked similar to my dad's Victorian house

we helped him build. I added some details to the

die cut using Copic Markers and black dome dot

for the door handle.

I used Fabulous Finds cartridge to make a clipboard

just like the one my dad used to keep track of

building the house. The yellow journaling notecard

was perfect to make the checklist.

My daughter and granddaughter and I had gone over to help my dad with the painting on the inside of the house. We had a great time together and it was fun to help. My dad's new victorian house turned out gorgeous!

Welcome Summer !

2011-06-29T23:12:00.000-05:00

Well, you know it's summer when I am too busy to post on my blog! LOL. Been keeping the granddaugther so we have been busy crafting, watching Disney movies and such. Don't know where the days just slip away.

My dad had two surgeries this month, happy to report he is recovering well from them but it has taken up some of my time as well.

And my Scrapbook classes at Michael's have been doing great and also taking up a bit of my time each week as well.

However, this past weekend I was able to sneak away for a 4 day scrapbook retreat at Elm Street Crafters Retreat in Denton, TX. It was a lot of fun and the place was fabulous ! If you are looking for a retreat place, definitely check this one out. Very comfortable crop room, comfy beds and great food...you can't go wrong with that combination. And the owner, Penni, is super sweet and funny ! We adopted her immediately in to our group as one of us. Next time we go up there to her place, she wants to take time off from work and do the weekend with us as a crafter since we really hit it off with her. She has been open since January and this is her dream. So far, she is making this our dream place too ! Thanks Penni.

Here are a few pics of our group thanks to the photgraphic talents of Crystal Kovach.

Bottom Row LtoR: Melissa, Crystal, Mary

Top Row LtoR: Me, Katie, Amy, Melissa, Lis, Jill, Lindsey

Even with a margaritas machine (thanks Lindsey) running round the clock, we all still got a ton of scrapping done. Or maybe that's the reason we got that much done...LOL. Check back tomorrow and I will post some pics of my retreat weekend creations.

This ones for Pam....

2011-06-10T22:11:00.000-05:00

There is a hotties thread on the Circle MB tonight {yes, we are silly women with nothing else to do on a Friday night}....my friend Pam posted a young male movie star as her hottie. I don't know about ya'll but I like more grown up men...those that shave daily and have gorgeous, rugged good looks.

So Pam, here you go.....this is what a REAL HOTTIE looks like....

I ask you......

Who in the world doesn't think that HUGH JACKMAN is a HOTTIE ?!?!?!?!?!

Daisy Crazy....

2011-06-07T16:11:00.001-05:00

Recently I went a little 'Daisy Crazy" making some items for a family member's bridesmaid luncheon that we attended over the weekend.

We wanted something to go with the daisy centerpieces for the luncheon tables to liven them up a little so I came up with making a placemat for each arrangement using Elegant Edges daisy shape cut at 10.50 inches.

To give them stability, I cut a solid daisy shape out of white cardstock, then the daisy cut out using shiny yellow cardstock, then the green polka dot is scalloped circle for the center. To match the polka dot theme, I then cut the daisy cut out using white cardstock and kept the petal center pieces only. I used the cuttlebug to emboss with the polka dot embossing folder to give them a little more dimension and then glued on each petal.

Next came the idea to make some matching "daisyfetti" using the the Cricut Quilling Daisy...after making a 100 of these, I am now a quilling pro ! They sure looked pretty scattered on the tables around the arrangements.

Here is a close up of a few of the daisys. I kept the yellow theme going but used different shades to give them more detail. I love how the polka dot leaves really livened them up.

Most importantly, the bride was really happy with them since she loves daisys.

I haven't downloaded my photos from the wedding events yet but will post pics of the entire table so you can see how they looked.

See Why They Call Me ScrapHappyDeb

2011-05-13T23:17:00.002-05:00

Ever wonder why my MB name is "ScrapHappyDeb"?
My DH took this picture tonight of me in my scraproom tonight for a contest on the Cricut Circle Blog that requires we submit a picture of ourselves in our scrap rooms.

We decided to ham it up a bit...I am wearing my "signature crown",

surrounded by some of my Cricut machines including my new E2 while

reading my inaugural copy of the Cricut Magazine.

Sadly my Cake Machine, YUDU and V1 didn't make it into the picture.

Now all I need is the IMAGINE

so I can have a complete and happy Cricut Machine family !

I have decked out my adorable Cricut Plushie in his own Scrap Apron courtesy of Build A Bear!

He loves being right un the lovely Circle Scarf serving dual duty as wall decor.

Since we are here, why don't I give you a little tour of the place that makes me so happy.

When you walk into the room, my scrap space is just to your left.

I use an old oak dining room table that seats 8 for my scrap table.

It's perfect for having friends over to scrap or

when I want to really really spread out myself !

In this picture you can see my inspiration station with projects and magazines,

my cutting station with Cricut and Cuttlebug stuff, cricut cart storage and ribbon storage.

If you scan around to the right, you will see my Stamp Station,

my Paper Station and My Small Embellishment Stations.

Here's a few close up shots and explanations method to my madness...

I store all my patterned paper sorted by manufacturer and kits

in 12X12 plastic sleeves in assorted baskets.

This makes it so easy to find just what I want.

I keep all my most current scrap buys in a 12X12 rolling hanging file bin under the scrap table.

All my small embellies I store in jars on this shelf.

Buttons, brads, fabric brads, metal tags, decorative pins, etc.

And hanging on hooks form the bottom is my extensive

Flower collection sorted by color in hanging bags on binder rings.

Here is how I store my large ribbon collection.

As you can see, I have sorted my ribbon by color, type or theme by attaching

each piece on a safety pin hung on a large binder ring.

Each large binder ring of ribbon is then suspended from a smaller ring on the rod.

The rod is just threaded through the shelf brackets above.

This system works great for me...I just unhook the large binder ring from the smaller ring

of the colors I want to try with my project, snip off what I want and then hang

back up on the smaller ring. This system cost me about $5 total.

Here is my stamping station. All my inks, glimmer mist,

Paint Daubers, Acrylic Paints and stamps are stored here.

I have a nice hard wood shelf that DH extended for me so

I have plenty of room to stamp and clean up here too.

Most of my stamps are acrylic so I store in CD cases.

Here is how I store all my many Cricut Cartridges.

These are large size Snapware containers with two tiers each.

I just expanded into my third Snapware container system for my Cricut Cartridges.

I love this system but I changed it up a bit from other's I have seen posted.

The top tier holds the booklets divided by alpha.

I have plenty of room to add more to this A-F Set.

For now, I am storing my E2 & Imagine carts separately

from my regular Cricut Carts.

On the bottom tier, I have placed 4 drawer dividers I bought at the $ store.

I used plastic needlepoint canvas to make a few dividers I slid between slots.

This gives me room to put 5 carts in each section and they don't fall over

when I take them out of their spot and makes it easier to replace them.

As you can see I have about 34 carts in this bin so far and

room to expand to up to 60 if needed.

On the tall shelf, starting at the top:

1) my extra trimmers and MS Scoring board and misc blank albums

2) Stacked boxes to hold my bling, all my Thickers in big box

3) Small Sterlite bins hold my journaling cards and epherma, twine,

doilies, gaffer tape, etc. I have my heat gun and ribbon iron on top.

4) Small Sterlite bins hold envelops, tags, bingo cards.

Large bins hold Rub Ons, Large Bling sheets,

Metals, Stickers, Mini Alpha Sheets

Rest of that shelf unit

5) All my cardstock, sorted by type and color

6) Specific Scrap Items sorted by Holidays in 12X12 Bins

And last but not least is our BIG SCREEN TV...woohooo....I can scrap and watch chick flicks too !!!

I do share this very large bonus room with my DH. His geneology area is on the right of the room when you walk in but it is just a big desk with a wall of shelves with boxes and boxes and boxes of Geneology stuff in them so not really worth showing you.

Now do you can see why I am "ScrapHappyDeb", right? LOL I love all my yummy scrap stuff and spend
most of my free time in this room creating. Hope something you see in my room inspires you !

And the Grand Prize Winner is.....

2011-05-10T22:06:00.000-05:00

Thanks to everyone who participated in the

Our Blog Designers really out did themselves with all the fantastic projects they posted for the hop ! Thanks to each of them for sharing their talents with us. It was truly amazing to see all the different ways everyone uses their Cricut to make projects.

After spending a bit of time going through all the blogs and making sure "a little love" was left on each bloggers site, we finally have a Grand Prize Winner to post.......

Congrats to KRIS DIETZ

You win the Mother's Day Bouquet Cartridge PLUS some other fabulous SURPRISE SCRAP items

that I will include in your prize package !! I will email you for your mail addy.

Thanks again to everyone who hopped along with us. Hope each of you had a Happy Mother's Day celebrating with the ones you love and found inspiration in our Blog Hop.

Thanks Mom Blog Hop Starts HERE

2011-05-06T00:03:00.006-05:00

Welcome to the "Thanks Mom" Blog Hop. Thanks for joining us. We hope you enjoy all the wonderful crafty inspiration in honor of mother's everywhere from the talented designers in this hop.

Besides loads of awesome Mother's Day projects to inspire you, I am also offering up a Blog Hop Grand Prize to one lucky winner. Just leave "a little love" {ie. a compliment about their project} on every Blog Designers "Thanks Mom" Blog Hop post. Then pop back to my "Thanks Mom" Blog Hop Post on this thread and leave me a comment that you posted on all blog hop designer along with your email address to reach you. I will will draw and post a winner on Tuesday, May 10th here on my blog.

Oh, you want to know what your prize will be? LOL Hang on to your Mother's Day bonnets ladies because you can win your very own
Mother's Day Bouquet Seasonal Cricut Cartridge !
Woo hooooo!

Alright, time to kick off all the inspiration by sharing my project...{don't forget to leave me some "love too" pretty please} :

I made this adorable Tri-Fold Gift Card Holder to give a Mom so she has a little extra little spending money...who wouldn't love that !

I used my new E2 and the two exclusive Just a Note and Cricut Alphabet Cartridges to create the tri-fold card. I cut the card at 5.50 inches.

I added the word "Mom" to the inside of the card with the Cricut American Alphabet cartridge

and outlined the lettering with a white ink pen.

On the inside of the card, I added a pocket and placed the gift card in the pocket. I added a tab so Mom knows to pull the gift card out. I also cut out the "I HEART You" with the Cricut American Alphabet cartridge. Again, outlining with white gel pen.

Now the card is ready for a signature and to make Mom very happy !

Here is the list of all Blog Hop Designers for you to visit.

If you loose your way along the hop, come back here to pick up the hop again.

1. Debbie Deb's Eclectic Thoughts - START OF HOP

2. Brenda Random Thoughts of a Scrapbooker

3. Dawn ScrappyRn

4. Chrissie Chatterscene

5. Cindy In Love With Paper

6. Suzanne Cricut Crafting Grammy

7. Paula Owl Be Scrappin

8. Maria Stamp Cut Create

9. Robin Scrappin Delta Diva

10. Heather Houses Built of Cards

11. Jami The Paper Farm

12. Dana Paper Memories

13. Claire Cricuty Doodah

14. Jenny Scrap With Jenny

15. Lauren All Things Crafty

16. Cassie Scrappin Palace

17. Stefani Styles By Stefani

18. Heather Paper Crafters Anonymous

19. Darcy Time 2 Create

20. Kelly KBien Designs - END OF HOP

Don't forget to leave some "love" and then come back here to comment for a chance to win the Mother's Day Bouquet Cricut Cartridge.

Your next stop is at the fabulous Brenda's Blog HERE

Girls Rule {Enough Said!}

2011-05-03T12:06:00.002-05:00

As many of you know, I have a granddaughter who I dote on and who loves to scrapbook with me!

She is now 8...time sure flies....and is at that great age where to her all boys are truly yucky and gross.

{Nonny says "Good girl..keep thinking that for a while longer!"}

Anyways...one of her favorite sayings is

Over the past year she has insisted we buy her buy t-shirts, cups, ball caps and even tote bags with this saying on it so I know I had to make her this sign for her bedroom door when I saw it on a cartridge this weekend!

It is printed from the Imagine Best Friends Cartridge at 10X10, then mounted on cardstock on top of a 12x12 piece of corregated cardboard so it would be lite enough to hang on her door.

{thank you Justice for Girls for encouraging this sentiment and keeping our girls "little" for just a while longer}....and thanks for my friend Kelly for letting me print it out on her Imagine!

Look What a Friend Made Me !

2011-05-03T10:54:00.000-05:00

I hosted a Pre-National Scrapbook Day Crop this past Saturday for about 20 wonderful scrapper friends. We had so much fun! Lots of scrapping, lots of talking, lots of laughing, lots of sharing inspiration with each other. In fact, I had so much fun that I forgot to take pictures ! I know, unbelievable, isn't it! LOL

I do have pics of a wonderful present to share with you that Charlotte aka Buggin' Out was kind enough to make me as a hostess thank you gift. I just LOVE IT !!!!

Is this not just the cutest thing ever?! And it was even filled with all kinds of bling and flowers !

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You Dear Charlotte !!!!!!!!!

Provo Craft E2 Contest Entry

2011-04-22T00:01:00.010-05:00

Well in honor of the 5th Birthday of the Cricut Expression, Provo Craft is coming out with a new Cricut machine called the E2. ooooh, aaaaaaah....this one is new and improved and uses both regular Cricut cartridges and Imagine cartridges too so you get the best of both worlds. It will debut on HSN on Tuesday, April 26th.

Provo Craft is sponsoring a contest to win a new E2 machine. Well of course, I just had to enter.

We had to make a Birthday themed 12X12 page using any Cricut cartridges. We could submit up to 3 layouts. I did two I was happy with and stopped at that.

Here are my two layouts I sent in: {the colors are very vibrant in the original...took these in a hurry}

TIME TO CELEBRATE

I used Birthday Bash and Create A Critter Cartridges

This was a fun, playful layout with vibrant colors and images.

Lots of embossing and stickles on this layout too.

SURPRISE BIRTHDAY GIRL

I used Best of Pixar, Elegant Edges, Sans Serif, Celebrations and Create A Critter Cartridges

Hard to see in the pics but there is embossing and stickles on several items too.

Well, keeping my fingers and toes crossed that at least they show one of my layouts on HSN. Doubt I will win a machine but it sure was fun creating something for the contest.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL OTHERS WHO ENTERED !

Hippo 5th Birthday Cricut

2011-04-20T13:12:00.002-05:00

I love creating projects with my Cricut machine....it is fun to add such wonderful images to my projects with such ease.

Well, the Cricut turns 5 years old this year and Provo Craft is celebrating ! There is a new machine called the E2 that will debut on HSN on Tuesday, April 26th. They are even giving away a few machines if you enter their contest with 12X12 layouts. I sent mine in already. Check back on Friday, April 22nd to see what I created for the contest.

While I was packaging up my layouts to send to Provo Craft, I decided I should take the opportunity to send a " Happy Birthday" card to to all the Provo Craft employees involved with the Cricut all these years.

Here is my little Hippo 5th Birthday Card :

I used this adorable hippo card that is on the Birthday Bash cartridge.

It was too cute not to use!

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the inside of the card but I embossed the inside back page with the Cuttlebug Happy Birthday Embossing folder and added a note wishing the Cricut and Provo Craft employees a wonderful 5th Birthday.

I hope they like the card...it was fun making it. Here is a little sneak peek of one of the 2 layouts

I sent in all wrapped up and ready to be boxed up to ship to Provo Craft.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL THOSE WHO ENTERED.

Hope we get to see many of the layouts on HSN E2 Launch Day, April 26th

It's Coming...Thanks Mom Blog Hop !

2011-04-11T18:58:00.005-05:00

Coming Soon...May 6th through May 9th, 2011

Mother's Day is coming up on Sunday, May 8th. In honor of all Mothers...be they your own Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, Friends, Neighbors, Co-Workers or any other woman with children...you get the idea,

I will be hosting a "Thanks Mom" Blog Hop starting on Friday, May 6 running through Monday, May 9th.

19 Cricut Circle friends will be joining me to showcase projects made for the special Mom's in their lives. We will have a huge variety of hand made projects using atleast 1 Provo Craft item.

There will even be blog candy {ie. a fun prize} to win for leaving comments on the blog posts of everyone participating.

So mark your calendars to come back to my blog and hop along from blog to blog to see all the crafty goodness for Moms.

Oh Goodness...I Won !!

2011-04-11T01:00:00.001-05:00

It was a great Friday for me ! Thanks to a few text messages from Circle friends, I woke up to find out that I had actually won the Cricut Circle Blog Weekly Challenge for my Birthday Joy Layout and Sketch . To say I was excited is an under statement :)

If truth be told, I was doing a "happy dance" all over my living room !

Thanks for all the well wishes I have received from everyone...and thanks to Provo Craft and Jana Eubanks of the Circle Blog too ! I chose to receive the $25 credit so I can get one of the new seasonal cartridges...now I just have to decide between Luau OR Father's Day. Which would you pick?

Hope you had a wonderful weekend! Make sure and create something that makes you happy this week.

Check Out These Blogs...

2011-04-08T08:41:00.006-05:00

Wow...so many generous bloggers out there in the crafty world.
Please check out these blogs and follow along
to win a chance for some fabulous blog candy too.

Elegant Cake Cartridge giveaway
at Nadia's Beautful Mess
Nadia is so generously giving away
an Elegant Cake Cartridge over on her blog!

Once she reaches 500 followers she is going to draw and you could win!

All you need to do is go visit her blog, leave a comment and become a follower too.

http://nadiasbeautifulmess.blogspot.com/2011/04/cricut-cartridge-giveaway-500-followers.html#comment-form

Luau Cartridge Giveaway
on A Mermaid's Crafts Blog
Lisa at A Mermaid's Crafts is doing a 100 follower celebration!

She is giving away at newly released Luau Cartridge!

Go visit her at http://indymermaid.blogspot.com/2011/04/cricut-cartridge-blog-candy.html?showComment=1302038140284#c1883211186668054629 for a chance to win!!

Circle Weekly Challenge #27

2011-04-06T21:00:00.001-05:00

The Cricut Circle Blog post a challenge each week for Circle members only to enter. This week there was a challenge I was interested in doing. This challenge encouraged us to make a sketch for a 12X12 layout and then make the layout.

I have made sketches by drawing by hand on paper before but I have been toying with the idea of making my own sketches for layouts using the computer. Today I figured it out. Here is what I came up with to enter for the challenge:

It only took a few minutes to create this sketch using powerpoint and exporting as a jpg file.

Here is the layout I made using the sketch.

The picture of the layout doesn't really show off the vibrant colors. I may take another photo tomorrow when the lighting is better but you get the gist of it here. I used Gypsy Font for the Birthday word and the cupcake is made with Doodlecharms. I used some stickles to add that gooey icing effect and to make the candle glow. And for the sprinkles I added glass dew drops. The Joy word is by Prima.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope this inspires you to create your own sketches too!

Did you see this at Michael's?

2011-03-25T09:35:00.000-05:00

I was in Michaels Craft Store yesterday and saw this new cabinet to hold your Expression machine. It matches all the other craft white modular furniture pieces they sell. It was $69.99 but with a 40% off coupon it might be worth getting if you are looking for something like this.

My Pink Stamper Class Update

2011-03-22T16:21:00.000-05:00

At the Stampede weekend, I finally got to take a class from My Pink Stamper, Robyn. I had met Robyn at CHA and of course, I follow her blog. She was a real sweetie and she made a couple of cute projects for us to make with our cricut machines. And her BFF/sidekick Karly was there supporting the class too. It was fun getting to hang out with them.

Here are the pictures from the class.

Robyn and Me...look how tan she looks? She said really enjoyed the recent Cricut Cruise.

This is the Texas Autograph Book Robyn had us make. We used a Star Cuttlebug folder to emboss

and all the cuts are from Out West cartridge. And I couldn't resist adding a little bling to my hat !

The other project was this cute stand up card with the cow.

We used Birthday Bash Cart to make the cow and

used a polka dot embossing folder for the background.

I decided to use a different My Pink Stamper stamp set, Punnylicious for the sentiments.

Robyn had these adorable stamp sets made just for the Stampede Class.

We all received one in the class. Isn't that fun !

We also all received the Star Cuttlebug Folder. Thanks PC !

The class was a little unorganized but we were the first for the day at 8 am. Robyn did a great job keeping things rolling until we got everything worked out.

Plus I was able to buy from the Stampede store three of her stamp sets I have been wanting so I was very happy about that.

Dallas Circle Luncheon PART 2

2011-03-21T11:19:00.000-05:00

There were so many great pictures of the Circle luncheon, I decided to post some more for everyone to enjoy. Again, it was fun meeting all of you. And Robin and Rina...enjoyed working with you on the event!

Mike loved his Cricut Sheriff badge I made him.

Was so glad the Janna B of PC Support could join us at lunch too !

Sandy looked so cute decked out in all her Texas gear

Jan was really super excited to win the coveted Pink Journey cartridge

Mike Wigton and me hamming it up

Some of the special goodies that Circlets made to hand out. So much talent !

The new collectible Circle State Flair Pins.

This is the Texas one that Mike handed out to everyone who attended

Cassandra made these adorable treat bags for everyone...where did she find the time to do all that?

Kelly Bienvenu made me this adorable canvas bag using the exclusive Cricut Everyday cartridge

Thanks Kelly! It came in handy collecting all those calling cards.

The bag I made for collecting calling cards for the door prize drawing.

Each shape is embossed using the Circle Heads embossing folder

Here is my name tag I wore at the luncheon

I received the new colorful Circle Scarf that I plan on hanging up in my craftroom

Rina and I at check in table

Mama C enjoying herself at the Meet Up

I will go back later and try and identify everyone in each photo. I was so busy helping Mike at the luncheon, I didn't take most of the pictures myself with my camera but appreciated Alisa doing it for me. As you can see we were having lots of fun mingling and soaking up all the Circle fun !

I also have pictures of the class I took with Robyn of My Pink Stamper that I will post later today.

Dallas Circle Luncheon and Meet Up

2011-03-20T22:47:00.000-05:00

WOW ! Did we have the most fun ever at the Dallas Circle Luncheon and Meet UP on Friday, March 19th in Frisco, TX. We had 97 people be able to make it to the luncheon. Lots of mingling, greeting, exchanging circle calling cards, swapping ribbons, eating delicious food, talking to Mike Wigton about Provo Craft and last but not least door prizes ! Whew...it was a packed 3 hours but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and the time just flew by.

Since a Picture is worth a thousand words...

La Hacienda Ranch restaurant

Blue Porch Room where we met

Circle Lunch Hosts: (LtoR) Debbie, Rina Salazar, Robin Marshall Clark, Mike Wigton

Circlets mingling and exchanging calling cards

All of the cards were unbelievably cute!

Calling cards I collected. If you don't see yours here, contact me to exchange via mail !

So many luscious ribbons were exchanged too !

Mike Wigton of Provo Craft talking about upcoming Provo Craft things and answering our questions

Then the door prizes were given out !

Lots of great items: circle scarves, cuttlebug folders, lots of cartridges, Plush Cricuts in 2 sizes plus more.

Many Circlets also made goodies to hand out as well. Here are a few I received...so fun !

Notice in the left corner is the Texas Circle Flair Pin Mike gave all of us. There will be one for each state.

Cassandra made these little gift bags with sweets in them for everyone at the luncheon. Too cute ~

And Kelly Bienvenu made this adorable canvas bag for me to collect calling cards in

using our latest exclusive Cricut Everyday cartridge. I love it !!!

I have lots more photos to post but I am exhausted after the weekend. I will post more tomorrow.

And thank you to everyone who came to the lunch and made it so much fun and shared your talents with us.

It's a Cricut Circle Stampede !

2011-03-17T10:13:00.000-05:00

Watch out Frisco, Texas...The Cricut Circle Stampede is heading your way ! Provo Craft is hosting a big event this weekend in Frisco (in Dallas area) this weekend. And guess what?!?!?! I am going with some of my Circle crafty friends to have a boot stompin' good time. The theme for the whole weekend is a western theme which is so appropriate this time of year with the rodeos in town.

I have been busy creating some fun items for the event. Circle members attending these events make "Calling Cards" to trade with each other. They are little 3X3 pieces of artwork that match the theme of the event or your Message Board Name. We use our Cricut machines and other PC products to make these fun trading cards. I made a 100 of these little gems to trade this weekend.

Since it is a cowboy theme, I combined my "Texas Background" with my "Princess Personality" for my Calling Card.

Each Texas shape is three different layers of cardstock. The Howdy is metallic paper. The Circle Head and Crown are cut on glitter paper...so fun and sparklie and I couldn't resist adding a little gem to the crown to finish it off. The background is Kraft cardstock I made and embossed with a cuttlebug star folder and then faux stitched to look like leather. I used Cricut Old West cartridge and Once Upon a Princess to do all the cuts with my Cricut. And yes, I made 100+ of these cards. On the back is my contact information.

And of course, I had to have a place to display and hand out my cards to other Circlets so I made myself this card holder.

It is made out of cardstock and acrylic using two cartridges, Old West for the westernt themed items and the Circle Exclusive EveryDay Cricut cartridge for the circle head, bug head and box shapes. I also embossed with cuttlebug folders the barn pieces and inked and sanded them too. I had fun making up my Cowboy Cricut on the front...he is so adorable !

Part of the fun for the weekend is that I am helping host the Cricut Circle Pre-Stampede Meet Up and Luncheon along with Robin Marshall Clark and Rina Salazar at La Hacineda Mexican Restauarant in Frisco on Friday. Our special Guest will be Michael Wigton, VP at Provo Craft who is incharge of the Cricut Circle among other things.

I decided to help Michael get in the spirit of the weekend by making him a special cowboy name badge.

I had so much fun making this for him. The Silver Star is embossed with the exclusive Cricut Circle embossing folders and the outside faux leather edge is also embossed with star cuttlebug folder. I made this using the Old West Cartridge including the letters. I sure hope he likes it !

Well, I better start packing and getting ready to go. Will be back on Sunday to post pictures of the weekend fun !

Time for March Counterkeit Kit Challenge

2011-03-08T16:39:00.000-06:00

It's time for the March Counterfeit Kit Challenge...YEAH ! This month's kit challenge is to replicate the March Kit of Studio Calico.

Here is Studio Calico Main Kit:

My Main Kit that I created with stuff from my own scrap stash:

I was inspired by the greens, orange, yellow and red and patterns in the Studio Calico kit.

And you know how I love my embellies so I pulled together these goodies to add more fun to my kit.

Stay tuned for some tutorials of things I made for my kit.

Look What I Found Tonight

2011-03-02T23:35:00.000-06:00

Most of you know I am a Cricut fanatic ! Well tonight I think I found a few of their new items they are releasing at the Texas Stampede event and later on their own website.

I was checking out Creativexpress.com, which is an online store owned by Provo Craft, and saw this...

New Pink Cricut Tool Kit includes: Scoop Tool, Knife Tool, Hook Tool, Spatula Tool, Bone Folder, Scissors and Clear Ruler all in a Tool Cup to sit on your desk. The MSRP was $14.99. It has similiar tools to the Cricut Tool Binder but in a cup for your desk top.

Green & White Polka Dotted Cartridge Binder: Holds 12 cartridges, overlays and handbooks

MSRP $19.99 These are so dang cute...Hmmm, I would have to order these in bulk though to hold all my cartridges :) sorry the pic is fuzzy, when I enlarged the thumbnail it did this.

The Binder also seems to come in Black too...but alas, no polka dots which would have been great too!

Creativexpress sites says COMING SOON for all of these items. I can't wait to see the binders and how they might help organize my carts.

Blog Candy Winner from Angela's 50th Birthday Hop

2011-03-01T10:28:00.002-06:00

Thank you all so much for the lovely comments about Birthday Bag and Gift Card set.
So glad you joined us on the hop to help Angela celebrate her 50th Birthday in style !

Now on to the moment you have been waiting for....drum roll please!

True Random Number Generator

Min: 1

Max: 44

Result: 32

AND THE WINNER IS:

Anna said...

Great project!!! Just adorable.

I'm a follower.

Thanks for the chance to win.

February 27, 2011 1:49 AM

CONGRATULATIONS ANNA....I have sent you an email asking for mail addy so I can get a set of fun birthday stamps in the mail to you right away. They will be perfect to use in making birthday card greetings.

February Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Hop

2011-02-28T00:01:00.002-06:00

Welcome to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Hop !

We are so glad to have you hop along with all the participants and enjoy all the inspiration we have for you from the counterfeit kits we made this past month.

You should have arrived here from Denise's Blog . If you missed the beginning of the hop, please go back to Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog to start so you don't miss any of the projects.

This Blog Hop is specifically to showcase the Scraps of Darkness Sketch Challenge using our Counterfeit Challenge Kit we put together based on Scraps of Darkenss February Kit.

Here is my Sketch Challenge Layout

My February Kit was focused on Pink, Red, Gray, Cream and Black colors and

was inspired by Echo Parks new Be Mine paper line.

I cut out part of the Be Mine journal sheet for the heart just like in the Sketch Challenge since I happened to have the same pieces. I added various color of beautiful sparkly Prima flowers and a jeweled Jenni Bowlin Stick pen to finish off the cluster of embellishments on the bottom left of layout. At the top left of the layout is a mirrored Bird from Heidi Swapp and Making Memories glittered chipboard swirls.

In the top right of my layout, I added the Faux Teresa Collins Blingage that I made for my kit.

And again, cut out some of the Echo Park journal cards and layered together

for this cluster of embellishments.

In the bottom right of my layout you will see a piece of Echo Park journaling strip that I stamped in red,

then used one of the Faux Frames that I made for my kit. Then I layered a small strip of Maya Roads gorgeous pink rose trim to complete the look. I couldn't resist cutting from the bottom of the

Echo Park Be Mine paper strip the paper line emblem that normally would have been tossed

except it matched my layout theme too much to toss!

I'd love it if you left a comment so I know you stopped by. Now head on over to Missues Wookie's Blog for more inspiration !

Welcome to Angela's 50th Birthday Blog Hop

2011-02-26T06:00:00.003-06:00

A friend and fellow Cricut crafter, Angela, is celebrating her 50th Birthday this weekend. She asked some of us to join her "My Fabulous 50 Blog Hop" by creating a Birthday themed project to help make her big day even more special. Stop by the blogs listed below and see the fun Birthday themed projects everyone created. There is even some Blog Candy along the way, including here.

If you jumped into the middle of the blog hop, be sure and go back to the start at Angela's blog http://angiespaperpassion.blogspot.com/ so you don't miss any birthday project inspirations.

Happy Blog Hopping !!!

Angela - http://angiespaperpassion.blogspot.com/ start of blog hop
Dawn - http://scrappyrn-scrappyrn.blogspot.com/
Janice - http://www.cricutconfessions.com/
Normea - http://mmdezigns.blogspot.com/
Nancy - http://lanancyworkshop.blogspot.com/
Michelle - http://paperaffair.blogspot.com/
Barb - http://craftinginparadise.blogspot.com/
Debbie - http://www.debseclecticthoughts.blogspot.com/ YOU ARE HERE
Marcia - http://scrappin-times.blogspot.com/
Veronica - http://www.iteachscraps.blogspot.com/
TinaGale - TinaGale - http://tiggersscrapplace.blogspot.com/
Monique - http://mixonthememories.blogspot.com/ end of blog hop

There is one thing I am always needing when a birthday rolls around and that is a gift bag for the honoree. I decided to make an extra special Birthday Gift Bag and Tag since it is Angela's 50th Birthday.

I made a matching mini birthday card as a tag using the cake card shape on the Birthday Bash cartridge cut at 5 inches. I added some "paper sprinkles" to the icing and highlighted them with stickles.

HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY DEAR ANGELA ! Hope you enjoy all the birthday projects posted in your honor.

LEAVE ME A COMMENT FOR A CHANCE TO WIN A CUTE MINI BIRTHDAY STAMP PERFECT FOR YOUR NEXT BIRTHDAY GREETING. Then hop on over to the next stop on the Blog Hop to see what Marcia has created at http://scrappin-times.blogspot.com/ .

BTW - I am participating in the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Hop on Monday, February 28th so be sure and stop back in to check out all the cool projects we are making for that Blog Hop too!

We HEART Our BIG Dawg!

2011-02-24T14:40:00.000-06:00

I have a granddog...yes, you read that right. I gladly claim this adorable big 200 lb Mastiff named Winston as my granddog. My daughter Crystal is his doggy momma. He really is a gentle giant and loves to be petted and give kisses back. He even looks hurt when you tell him he is not allowed to sit in your lap. I truly believe he only thinks he is as big as his head so he doesn't understand when you don't enjoy him laying on you :)

We took these pictures last year when he was visiting. He is such a happy dog that I just had to show him off in a layout.

I used my Cricut to cut out the title, the hearts, circles and paw prints. The scallop trim was made with a Fiskars punch. I am going to enter this in the Cricut Circle Blog Weekly contest that is about pet projects with your Cricut.

Add On Kit Yumminess !

2011-02-12T23:13:00.000-06:00

Hi All - Sorry for the delay in posting my Add On Kit for the February Counterfeit Kit Challenege. It's been a rough week at our house. To make a long story short...dad in hospital with collapsed lung (he's okay now, thank goodness), my car had to go to the auto repair shop unexpectedly (it's back finally) and then our refrigerator decided to up and die too (shopped for 2 days, got new one delivered today so back in business). To say the least, with everything going on, I just plum forgot to do the Add On Kit Post.

So without further delay....
The Scraps Of Darkness Add On Kit

While their Add On Kit was lovely....it just didn't seem to have enough goodies in it for me ! LOL So,
as I dug through my stash I just kept finding more and more perfect goodies for my Add On Kit.

As you can see, I added a few more yummy Valentines themed items to my kit...more bling,Jenni Bowlin buttons and chipboard pieces, vintage style Valentine Stickers, a few more luscious sets of Prima Flowers, adorable Maya Road Wood Bingo pieces plus some fabulous Maya Road flower trims in creme, pink and red and some lace. For my paints in my kit I added the Tattered Angels Bubble Gum Glimmer Mist and Luminaire Magenta paint.

Now in the original Add On Kit, there were some Teresa Collins Blingage Frames in silver...unfortunately I didn't have any of those yet :( So I had to find a way to make some of my own frames to use.
Here is how I got sort of the same affect....

First, I unearthed some Tim Holtz Grungeboard element shapes that had frames on them and selected a few to use.

I then layered them on a paper towel and misted them with water slightly just to soften them up a little.

Then I placed the grungeboard pieces in a Tim Holtz Damask embossing folder and embossed with my Cuttlebug. The slight misting of them helps make the embossing show up in it better. Tip I learned from Tim!

Once again I used some of my Ranger Dabber paint in Silver and covered both the front and back sides of the now embossed grungeboard. And now I have some decorative frames to use in my February Counterfeit Challenge Kit. I will probably use some rhinestone brads when I attach to my project.

Stay tuned for a few projects I am making with my February Counterfeit Kit Challenge.

February Challenge Time !

2011-02-08T15:58:00.001-06:00

I am so thrilled to be participating in the Counterfeit Kit Challenge for February. The ladies over at Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog have picked out an inspiring kit from Scraps Of Darkness Kit Club for us to "lift" for February challenge.

Here is Scraps of Darkness Kit Main Kit

And here is my Main Kit pulled together from my stash

As you can see, I went with a less dark look...I like a brighter happier look in my scrappy projects generally. I used pale pink, red, white, black and grey in my kit.

Many of the papers are from Echo Park's Be Mine Collection and papers from both Jenni Bowlin and Teresa Collins.

Now I came pretty close to having many similar items to the main kit with the exception of Teresa Collins Blingage. Not because I don't want them...I just haven't been able to get my hands on them yet :) And also some mirrored pieces that were in the inspiration kit.

As part of the challenge, we are encouraged to re-purpose, re-create or just plain make up a similar embellishment from our existing stash without buying the exact same item. I love a good challenge and really wanted some Blingage so here is how I created my own.

I started out by finding a Fleur de Les chipboard piece in the a pack of 7Gypsies CB. This pack has so many great shapes in it but the image I needed was the perfect size for the project. I then covered the front and the back of the chipboard with Ranger's Black Paint Dabber. So easy to do.

Then I punched a tiny hole in bottom of the chipoard, attached a black jewel with a jump ring.

Then to give it that final touch of Blingage...I added Black Distress Stickles on top of the chipboard.

And waaaalaaaaah........My very own "Faux" Teresa Collins Blingage !

I then needed to add some mirrored pieces to my kit but didn't have any in my stash. So I again made some "faux" embellies.

I had these Tim Holtz glass fragment pieces so I decided to see if those could be changed to look like mirrors.

I then covered the backs of glass fragments with a Ranger Silver Paint Dauber. I did two coats and dried with my heat gun. Then I covered the silver paint with a lite coating of Glossy Accents just to make sure the paint didn't flake off.

And the results....really cute, inexpensive mirror pieces that I made myself ! I am showing them here next to an actual Heidi Swapp mirrored bird that I am adding to my kit too so you can see how great they look.

Check back tomorrow to see the Add On Kit I pulled together to go with the main kit and the fun embellishments I made out of items in my stash. This is so stinkin' fun making up these Counterfeit Kits !!

Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Hop

2011-01-28T00:01:00.003-06:00

Welcome to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Hop !

We are so glad to have you hop along with all the participants and enjoy all the inspiration we have for you from the counterfeit kits we made this past month.

You should have arrived here from Susanne's Blog . If you missed the beginning of the hop, please go back to Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog to start so you don't miss any of the projects.

This Blog Hop is specifically to showcase the ROLL THE DIE Mini Challenge offered at Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog. What is the ROLL The DIE CHALLENGE? Well, the host on the blog have some hand made dice they use to give us inspiration to create a project for the challenge from the kit we put together from our stash at the beginning of the month. It is a genius idea!

This month the Roll of the Die Challenge was ...

C= Card, Inspiration=Fashion, Embellishment= Bling

And now for my interpretation of the Roll the Die Challenge. Drum roll please....

My "CARD" is made from die cut paper from Hello Sunshine by Cosmo Cricket as the base and layerd over a white blank card. I cut off the right side front of the card about 1 inch so that the lace border I added shows up really well.

My "FASHION" Inspiration was bold prints and lace. It will be all the rage this upcoming Spring according to the 2011 fashion websites I checked. Loved the look of adding a lace border made from Martha Stewart Laced Doily border punch to the bold printed pattern paper on the card.

My "BLING" Embellishment is shown on the hand made flower I created by layering a felt flower and crochet flower and then placing a black GLITTER Dome as the center of the flower and the shiny pearl pin.

The sentiment "Be Happy" is a Scenic Route Chipboard piece. This card was so easy to put together since all I had to do was "shop" from MY January Counterfeit Kit and follow the Roll of the Die Mini Challenge ingredients.

Thanks for stopping by. Leave me a little comment so I know you stopped by. Hope my intrepretation of of the Roll the Die Mini Challenge encourages you to try to make your own card using the challenge ! Happy Blog Hopping !!

Next stop on the hop is Gabrielle's Blog. Just click on the link and it will take you right there.

You Are My Sunshine !

2011-01-27T21:46:00.001-06:00

My adorable granddaughter, Bianca, celebrated her 8th Birthday in December. She was so excited to turn the big 8. Funny, how all of a sudden little girls start to look more like young ladies. She looks so grown up in her birthday picture.

This adorable layout was made using the items from my kit I put together for the January Counterfeit Kit Challenge hosted at Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog. You need to check out this Blog if you have not done so already and play along with us each month. The February challenge should be out soon!

Bianca is one of those little girls that is happy no matter where she is...at home, at school, visiting friends, going on a trip, in the car, sitting on the couch...she is our little ray of sunshine all the time! When I saw the "Little Miss Sunshine" tag from Cosmo Cricut in my January Kit, I knew it was perfect for her birthday layout.

Love you lots to our very own " Little Miss Sunshine"...you brighten all of our lives. Hugs from Nonny !

Yipee....It's CHA Sneak Peak Time

2011-01-19T20:54:00.000-06:00

I love to find out what each of my favorite manufacturers have in store for us with their new releases.
Since I am not going to the Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) trade show this time, the best I can do is keep up with their sneak peaks they post the days before the big show.

For the next few days I will post the products that I find and think are MUST HAVES ...well atleast for me ! Leave me a comment of the things you like too.

Today, I found some really great products from one of my all time favorites Maya Road .

Kraft Doilies...my head is spinning will all the ways I can alter these!

Kraft Scroll Frame Journaling Spots ...so fun ! Hmmm...I see a Krafty theme here.

And these wooden buttons are so awesome !

WOW...I'm the Guest Reporter on Craft Critique today !

2011-01-18T13:24:00.000-06:00

I am so honored to be the Guest Reporter on Craft Critique today! I submitted a report on Martha Stewarts Scoring Board a while back and was excited to learn it was selected to be posted today.

For those of you unfamiliar with Craft Critique it is a crafters blog with craft product reports made by real crafters. It has their opinions of the products along with pictures of them actually using the product. It is a great place to check out a product if you are thinking of purchasing something crafty.

Check out my article here Debbie's Craft Critique Article

Happy Crafting everyone !

My Contest Entry

2011-01-13T09:23:00.000-06:00

Jinger Adams, Provo Craft spokeswoman, is having a Card Contest for her HSN January 20th show.
I had the supplies you needed to use...Anna Griffin papers, etc plus two the cricut carts, Don Juan and Wall Decor and More so I thought what the heck.....I will enter.

Below is the card I made.

Front of card

Inside of card

Back of card

trying to show you the mylar overlay that is on top

Side view of card to show dimension of card

I wish you could see the textures on the card better. The Leopard print is flocked, the dark pink is glossy and then there is the transparency overlay that is black flowers and clear. The Enjoy is cut on cardstock and then has Glimmer mist on it to sparkle. And the Anna Griffin flower is velvety and puffy and oh so gorgeous.

Well, I had fun making it anyway whether I win or not. Have a wonderful day everyone !

New Product By PC...Yudu Cardshop

2011-01-12T13:03:00.000-06:00

Have you heard about the new Provo Craft Product yet?

Bascially it's a mini Yudu with pre-made screens to make cards with Yudu ink or pigment ink. Kinda cool !

It says the retail value is $59.99. And includes the YuduCardShop base, 1 pre-printed Thank You screen,
1 bottle of ink, 1 dauber and 1 pigment ink pad and an adhesive mat.

Heads Up if you are interested.....there is going to be a special on HSN on January 20th for this Yudu CardShop but I haven't seen the bundle yet or pricing.

There are also other pre-printed screens available for purchase. Here are few images I could find of these.

Cupcake

Fillagree

Check out demo if you want to learn more at http://www.cricut.com/yuducardshop/Home.aspx

What do you all think of this? I am kind of liking it and interested in seeing one up close and personal.