Fall Splendor

I am so excited that it is October !  I just love the fall and we have been having gorgeous weather in Houston for the past couple of weeks.  Long bike rides in the cool weather each morning, sitting outside and enjoying a glass of wine, putting out fall decor...perfect ! 

Fall colors are so wonderful.  And the food....I love fall comfort food.  In fact, I made these Cheese Enchiladas on Sunday evening...they were delicious and easy too !

I also made a fall paper necklace last week...I am calling it FALL SPLENDOR.

 I made the necklace to enter in the Cricut Circle contest. Lots of layered flowers that I cut out with my Cricut Expression, inked, rolled and curled to get varous shapes.  I also Glimmer Misted it so there is a nice little shine to it. 

I like it so much I do plan on wearing it at Thanksgiving Dinner! What do you think of it?    It was fun to make and inspiring to do something completely different with paper.

Isn't she lovely...Isn't she wonderful?

Well I just couldn't hold back any longer... I just HAD TO BLING UP my Pink ATG !
(Note: For those of you not familiar with ATG, it is a tape gun with adhesive I use to make all my wonderful crafty projects)

 ISN'T SHE GORGEOUS !   

I used some beautiful black and white pp on the inside of the lid. On the outside of the lid I added some Heidi Swapp Damask stickers I trimmed. And then of course, the best part....BLINGED IT ALL UP!

I was really happy that it was pretty easy peeling off the metal sticker that said ATG on the outside of the case so it didn't distract from the new decor.

I LOVE HOW SHE TURNED OUT !   

Hopefully this inspires some of you to step outside your box and dress up your ATG too.

Oh WOW....It's AWESOME !!!

What do you think has me jumping up and down?  The door bell just rang and the Fed Ex guy has brought me something I have been hoping to get for a while now.  Tada ................................

It's a lovely chocolate brown with pink polka dots rolling tote for my Expression.

A dear friend of mine knew I had been wanting one and ordered it for my Birthday.  I hope she could hear me sqeauling with delight as I ripped open the box !!

The inside of the bag is pink too !  he, he, he.

There is a velcro strap that goes around your Expression to hold it in place while traveling. Plus there is also an inside pocket to store things, plus the two outside pockets.

Nice sturdy handle that telescopes in and out of top of bag.

And easily rolling wheels on the bottom of the bag.  

 

The bag comes with a  Pink carry strap too. And guess what, I have had this cute cupcake luggage tag hanging around waiting for a home....I think I will use that on my rolling tote.

Best Wishes to My Friends Jill and CJ

Well folks, it was quite a weekend. Not only did I celebrate my 51st birthday with the family (I will post more on that later) but one of my best girlies got married this weekend !  Woooohoooo!!!!!

 Join me in wishing Jill and CJ

many many happy years together 

Jill is an avid crafter in her own right but she does admire my work from time to time. So I decided the best thing I could give them as a gift was one of my custom "Keepsake Plates" to display a photo of their beautiful event. 

Once they get their photos back, we will select a picture to display on the plate.

I used my Gypsy and Cricut to weld and cut out the black background images for the bling and sentiment stickers. I also cut out the letter "e" and glittered it since that is the first initial of their last name together.  Awwwwwwww.  The flowers are Prima with some added shine via Tattered Angels and Glitter.

I also made the reception favors for them.  Jill's colors were Purple and Silver so I used Hershey Kisses and purple ribbon to tie that theme together. I cut the tags out with my Cricut and found these perfect silver "thank you" stickers to add to them.  I love how these turned out.

My house smelled liked chocolate for days after I made 100 of these....well, that isn't a bad thing !  LOL

And so my friends, another couple is off on their wedded bliss adventure. 

And the Winners are.....drum roll please!

First I want to say thank you to everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday yesterday. It was a wonderful day indeed to know so many people were thinking happy thoughts about me.

I wish I could give a present to each of you...but unfortunately I don't have enough prizes to go around :(

Glad I can bring a smile to the following Happy Birthday Wishers :

VINYL WINNER
Janice A said...

I followed! Great Blog and Happy Birthday!
My favorite thing about birthdays is being swamped with hugs and kisses from family and friends! And Auntie Candy's spaghetti! LOL!

CUTTLEBUG WINNER
Sherri said...
Happy Birthday!! I just celebrated mine on the 9th. Hmmm.... the most favorite part of my day? Hanging out with my grandson! Glad I found your site - I'm now a follower!

MS PUNCH WINNER
MeganLynn said...
Happy Birthday!!! I hope you have a fabulous day. I love your blog and cant wait to see your upcoming creations! My favorite thing about my birthday is getting all scrapbook supplies as presents :)

CONGRATS LADIES  Please send me your name, mailing address and which prize you won to doneal1610@yahoo.com.  I will get the prizes in the mail the first of next week.  I have more birthday celebrations over the weekend so shipping these out has to wait until then!

Note: Please claim your prize by September 24th or I will need to select another winner.

THANKS AGAIN TO EVERYONE FOR THE WELL WISHES.  HAVE A FABULOUS INSPIRING DAY !!

Happy Birthday To Me ! And BLOG CANDY TOO !

Tomorrow ,September 16th is my 51st Birthday.  Where has the time gone?  It seems like a week ago I was a kid and I grew up during that week and just yesterday I got married and had a family.  And in the blink of an eye, now my girls are grown women and doing well on their own. Happily for me, DH and I are still going strong after 29 years of marriage so I still have him by my side on my journey through life.  And I have been blessed with many, many friends along the way.

I have decided to do something special this year on my blog to celebrate my birthday and share a little birthday joy with all my many crafty friends.  So I have some neat BLOG CANDY to give away!

LEAVE A COMMENT and TELL ME WHAT YOU LOVE ABOUT BIRTHDAYS to win. I will randomly pick 3 winners (1 for each prize) and announce them on my blog on Friday, September 17th by Noon.  Comments need to be entered by Midnight, September 16 CST to be eligible to win.

BLOG CANDY:

BLOG CANDY #1:  9 Assorted Sheets of Grafix Cling Vinyl in 9X12 sheets

    BLOG CANDY #2:  4 sets of Cuttlebug Dies shown above

BLOG CANDY #3: A Martha Stewart Floral Lace Edge Punch

It would really make my day if you also decided to follow my blog.  I am working on some wonderful projects and ideas to share with my crafty friends here and would hate to see you miss any of it. 

Thanks for helping make my birthday special by participating !  Hugs to you all!

Had a BLAST at a Cricut Crop Yesterday!

I got to meet some really nice ladies yesterday at a Cricut Crop I went to  hosted by Lori Brodnax.  It was so much fun with demos and door prizes and great food and wonderful crafty inspiration from everyone!

Lori asked me to demo the Cricut Cake and the Gypsy for the ladies. I was a lot of fun. A couple of people had bought the Cricut Cake machines and needed some help figuring out what they were doing wrong.  Hopefully my suggestions work for them...they seemed very happy with my suggestions.

I was also glad I was able to de-mystify some of the things the Gypsy can do for people who already own them but don't use them much.  Now they are Gypsy fanatics and enjoying the power of  the Gypsy. 
Plus I think I inspired a couple of people to buy a Gypsy as well :) 

Unfortunately, I was so busy making new friends, eating, laughing, creating and demoing that I completely forgot to take any pictures of the crop even though I had my camera with me. Bummer.

However, I did want to share with my new Gypsy fanatics some directions to make the Stylus fob they were admiring on my Gypsy.  

Note: If anyone wants a Stylus fob and doesn't want to make one, contact me at doneal16@gmail.com .     I do sell them and can customize one for you in whatever color beads you prefer.

This is an exampe of how the beaded fob looks when completed.  As you can see, it only takes a few beads.

Sorry for the dark picture...we are having thunderstorms here and it is very dark outside. 

This is a bit better picture I took on a good light day of my Stylus fob with my Gypsy.

Here are some simple directions:
I used the bead-a-lon beading WIRE (not the plastic stretchy one) that found in the jewelry department in any craft store. I picked one that wasn't the thinnest but not the thickets one either. Remember you have to slide the beads on the wire so that should guide you in which one to get.


I cut a length off that is about double the size I wanted the beaded part to be. Then folded in it half so you have a loop on one end and at opposite end is left open for now. Now you need to thread a jewelery crimp bead over both of the wires on the open end. Pull the crimp bead up towards the loop until it is about 1 1/2 inches from the top of the loop, then crimp (squish) the bead flat.

Next you thread your beads and findings on the rest of the wire. Remember to put the beads through BOTH of the wires. Once you get the beads and findings on there the way you like them, then add another crimp bead on the open end of the wires. Make sure you crimp it well so the beads don't fall off! If any of the wire is left sticking out on the end, I just snip it just below the crimp bead.

I added a little piece of gossamer ribbon to the top of my fobs just above the first bead on the end with the loop.

To use, just thread the loop through the hole on the top of your stylus. Waaaalaaaah!!!

You can make these for your Stylus and even make the loop larger and use on your scissors.  They are great to identify your stuff at crops and add a little bling to your life too!

Look What I Have Been Up To Today !

I am getting ready to go to a Cricut scrapbook crop tomorrow and take my Expression with me so I  decided it needed  a little something to identify it as mine.   I would hate for her to get mixed up and go home with wrong person :)

So I dug out some pink Vinyl and used the Elegant Cake Cartridge to make beautify my "E".

The two shades of PINK look great together. And yes, that is BLING on there too!

It just wouldn't be mine without the BLING, right?

And of course I couldn't just stop there....So I did a few more items for good measure.

Well. I couldn't stop myself.  My Cuttlebug was feeling left out so of course I HAD to give her a little love too.  Then my Pink Cricut Tool Set started to whine about feeling bare, so I had to include her of course.

And then wouldn't you now it, those darn Cricut Cartridges started demanding that they get some bling too and so.....

 

What do you think?  Will everyone know that these are mine ?  LOL

Happy Labor Day !

Around here Labor Day is for spending time with friends, enjoying some bar b que and crafting  ! May not be your perfect long weekend but it sure is mine.

I got my new 3Birds Cricut Cartridge and found some perfect images to inspire this layout that captures the spirit of the weekend.

I used the 3Birds cartridge for the adorable barbque bird and his amazing grill.  

I hope you can see the shiny red metallic paper better in the picture that I used for the cowboy hat, the apron and the top of the grill. And I like the added touch of the bakers twine on his chefs hat.

 Plus I couldn't resist making one little cowboy bird since he seemed so perfect with his little hat and boots.

The font on 3Birds is so cute ...it has these little bird feet as part of each letter. I used my swiss dot cuttlebug folder and embossed the letters for added dimension.

AND THE CRAFTING DIDN'T STOP THERE........ 

Part of being in the Cricut Circle is getting to meet new friends. Provo Craft asked us to create some 3X3calling cards to exchange with other Circle friends. Here are the cards I made to represent me..I just had to add "my crown" too!

 I found this great pp with various shades of pink circles on it...so perfect to represent the Cricut Circle.

 AND You just have to swing the cover image over slightly and find my contact information. I made 140 cards and can make more as the Circle grows and I meet more people.  How fun is that !!!!

Hope you found something to INSPIRE you over the weekend too !  

Took Kit Review

I recently received the CGull Pink Tool Kit for use with my Cricut die cut machine projects.  I was so excited to get this since I only had the Cricut Spatula.  And of course, since it is PINK , I am doubly excited !!!

The Pink Tool Kit includes:
*Pink Leatherette Case with Magnetic strap
*Bone Folder
*Large Scrapper
*Small Scrapper
*Hook Tool
*Scoop Hook tool
*Small Scissors
*Stainless Steel Tweezers
*Wide Blade Spatula
*Narrow Blade Spatula
*Exacto Knife
*2 Exacto Knife replacement blades

It arrived sealed in one of those blister packs which I thought was nice.

The case is a nice true PINK color and is made of a Leatherette material.  It has a lighter pink nylon binding trim and is stitched in place.  The CGull logo is a soft plastic piece that is stitched on.  The case is held together with a magnetic closure and works great to keep the case closed as intended.

The inside of the case is a hard grey foam and holds all the tools in place. 

When I flipped the case over when opened everything stayed in just fine.

You can see in the picture above the layout of the tools included.  The quality is good and similar to the original Cricut tools.  I like the fact that it has two different size scrappers and spatulas.  

The little pair of scissors is sharp and will come in handy to snip those cuts that need a little help.

The quality of all the tools is very good and similar in weight and style to the original Cricut tool kit tools.

The green tool in the picture above is the original Cricut Spatula.  As you can see, the blade of the green spatula is a little larger and angeled to be flatter.  The pink spatula blade is slightly smaller is angled up a bit so it doesn't sit completely flat.  It works just fine when I tried it and is sturdy like the green spatula.

I am very pleased with my new  PINK Tool Kit.  I know I will be getting a lot of use out of these tools. 

Houston Cricut Circlets SWARM !!

This past Saturday evening, I helped host the first ever Houston Cricut Circlets Swarm.  Provo Craft is hosting some swarms (meet ups) around the country throughout the year but I just couldn't wait for them to get around to us, so I decided to host our own mini swarm to kick things off for those living in Houston area.

Here are some pics of all the fun we had. As you can see, I brought some props for us to use to show our Circut Circle Spirit!

There were 14 delightful ladies who joined me. Everyone was so talented and willing to share their knowledge with each other. Our swarm embodied exactly what the Circle is all about...a community of sharing of knowledge and support of each other and our craftiness.

Standing Row L to R: Milissa, Yvette, Vanessa, Pam R, Demita, Margi, Kelly 

Sitting Row L to R : Pam L, Kristy, Debbie (we had a few that didn't make it for our group photo but joined us later)

  

 And of course it wouldn't be a get together with friends if we didn't bring snacks to share.

L to R: Kelly, Alisa,Margi, Pam, Milissa

 And Margi WOWED us all with her Cricut Circle Chicken Salad - YUM!

A few of us made gifts for each other.  I made these Circlet Composition books for us to keep track of all the great info we share within the Circle.  And that cute little bug eyed squishy ball is our Houston Circlet Mascot !  Isn't he CUTE?

Pam Ramesh aka The Bug Bytes MB Name

Vanessa AKA TXScrapper MB Name 

Milissa AKA Mili MB Name

 Yvette  AKA Gamma MB Name

 Demita  AKA Momsidsquid MB Name

 Debbie (me) AKA ScrapHappyDeb MB Name

 I am sorry I didn't get close ups of everyone but hopefully the other ladies will have pictures to share of the others. 

Looking forward to getting to know my Houston Cricut Circlet friends better over the coming months :)

*Encase you are wondering what is a Cricut Circlet, the Cricut Circlets are members of a club that Provo Craft host for people who use the Cricut electronic die cut machines and other product line items.  It has a message board community where we can meet in cyber space other people who share our passion for crafting with the Cricut.

Take a Peek at My Scrap Oasis

As most crafters know, your scrap space needs to inspire you AND most of all be user friendly.  After several incarnations of my space in various locations over the years, after trying many ways of organizing all the tools of my scrappy craft and after many purging and buying of organizers, I think I may have finally become comfortable with my latest Scrap Oasis. It is certainly not cutesy like I had in the past (mainly cause I share the space with DH and he doesn't 'do' cutesy) and I have recylced many items from other craft spaces or from around the house so it is a hodge podge but I love it and feel comfortable in there.
Take a peek and let me know what you think.

Here is my Scrap Oasis.  It is in the large bonus room I share with DH.  My part of the room is 10 1/2 ft X 11 ft.  The table is an old oak kitchen table which seats 4 to 5 scrapper friends comfortably.  The Burgundy and Gold curtains in the back ground hide a small storage area in this room for miscellaneous stuff...There is also a large 50" screen tv to the left in this picture for tv and movie watching.  The globe you see in the foreground is sitting on DH's desk where he does his hobby, Geneology Research.  We love spending time together in this room.

My Scrap Oasis is divided into stations.  These cabinets are my "CREATIVE INSPIRATION"station.  The cabinets on the bottom hold my craft magazines and books, my punches, my cuttlebug & folders, my xyron machines. On top I have a bunch of different project and storage holders.

Continuing around to the right of the previous cabinets, is my "CRICUT/RIBBON" station. On the shelf is the snapware container that holds all my cricut carts (I recently switched to this storage...just not enough room to display all my cart boxes) and so far I like it. And I LOVE hanging all my ribbon on the shelf underneath.  I will post more about my handmade ribbon system in another post. Above the shelf are three 12X12 clip boards were I post some of my LO's.

To the right of my cricut station is my "Get Messy" station.  I have all my inks, glimmer mist and paints  and acrylic stamps here.  My hubby made me a great extra large flat shelf area to give me plenty of room.  Ihave a large craft mat and my stamping pad there.  The blue cd holders have cd cases with all my acrylic stamps.  The light blue tin bucket holds my various acrylic blocks. And the little tin buckets on top of the cd holders have my copics, distress ink applicators, paint brushes, etc.  The big wooden tower was reclaimed from a neighbor's trash and I use it to hold all my paint daubers, glimmer mist, speciality paints, paper towels, stickles and cats eye ink containers. At the very top I have displayed the projects I made at CE last year.

Underneath the "Get Messy" Station is my "Paper & Kits" Station.  I have everything sorted into various baskets that hold 12X12 Generations plastic paper storage holders.  Some baskets are sorted by MFG, some by THEME, some by KIT CLUB and some by PROJECT KITS I made myself.  This makes it really easy for me to find things.  The Generations holders are slightly expandable which I love. I can add not only paper but also embellishments that I bought to use with that paper or for a particular project.

                                       

The shelves next to the "GET MESSY" Station is my "MISC STATION.  Starting from the top shelf...it holds large paper trimmers, MS Scoreboard,and some extra albums. The shelf below has containers of all my various bling, my thickers and rub ons. The next shelf holds containers with different kinds of journaling blocks and pieces of epherma like tickets, images, etc. I also have my heat gun and ribbon iron here.  After that are containers that hold large embellishments, small trim pieces, gaffer tape,doilies, etc.  You can see my cardstock on the next shelf.  I have it sorted by type and colors using cropper hopper paper holders turned on their side for easy access. There are also two containers of rolled ribbon and trims.  The final shelf has 12X12 boxes that contain holiday theme items...Valentine/Love, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving/Fall, Christmas, etc.  

                                           

Around to the right of the shelves is a walkway and then a 1/2 wall.  On this wall I have my "SMALL EMBELLISHMENT" station.  The shelves hold jars of buttons,brads, pins, snaps eyelets, clips, etc.  You name any small embellishment and I can find it in this section. Underneath the shelf I have bagged all my Prima Flowers and hung them on rings by type/colors on hooks I mounted on the wall.  It works great and makes it easy to find just the flower(s) I need to add that perfect touch to my projects.  This area is just right behind that chair I sit in while crafting so it is very handy.

And I am sure you spotted my IPOD player on the top shelf...I MUST have Scrappy Music to get in the creative mood :)

Well, I could go on and on and show you more hidden storage I have in there but will save that for another post.  Hope you enjoyed the little mini tour of where I spend my creative time. 

I'm Bananas About You 2

I was flipping through some photos this morning and ran across an adorable picture of my hubby and granddaughter monkeying around the pond when we went to the ZOO this spring.  Just seeing these pictures brought back a flood of happiness!  Seeing these two having such fun together brings me such joy. 

I made this layout to post for the Cricut Circle Weekend Challenge.  We were asked to make something using papers from our stash that we had been hoarding.  I have been hanging on to these really cute monkey papers - the yellow has bananas on it and the green says oooh, aaah...from Reminisce.  The button paper is from Recollections and the die cut red and white paper is from Cosmo Cricket's Hello Sunshine 8X8 paper pad.  I even used some yellow die cut letters from Reminisce I had also been hoarding. 

The adorable monkey and banana are cut from the Create a Critter Cartridge. I just love this cartridge...so many cute shapes on it. 

Have a wonderful Sunday afternoon everyone!