Locks of love

I recently (in December) cut 11" off of my hair to donate to locks of love.  This is only the 3rd time I have ever had short hair. I was nervous, and excited.  The hair stylist even took my picture afterward! :) She was so cute, I was getting nervous when she started to cut, she stopped and made sure I was okay to proceed.  YES, I love the new do!  Anyway, here is the layout I made using my Cricut and the January kit from Scrapbook Circle.

These resin flowers are AWESOME!  I was wondering how I was going to do with them.  Well..... flower centers for coffee filter flowers of course!  The hearts were hand cut.

I'm getting a new sink put in, I'm without water in the kitchen, that means no dishwasher.  Also, all of my dishes are dirty!  What to do?  Hmmmm.....where should we go eat?! :)  I'll have to show before and after pictures it's VERY exciting

Off to help with homework!  Thanks for stopping in!

Merry Christmas 1975

would ya look at cute little 2 year old me?  My grandma was cleaning out some things and she gave me two framed pictures that my mom had given her in 1976!  I was just waiting for the perfect paper and inspiration to hit.  And it did!!  I used the Winter Wonderland kit from Scrapbook Circle, the papers are SO yummy!  I also used my Cricut Expression to cut the snowflakes (they were on the Christmas cartridge)  Also from my stash is the glitter glue, pearls, number stickers, jewels and ruffle ribbon.

I've been busy working on my brags books for my Grandmas, one is almost all the way completed!  I just need to sew on the pages! :)

Gotta run, need to quiz a boy on his spelling words!  Thanks for stopping in!

another november reveal....

My goodness my day has been productive and QUIET.  Sort of nice after the TORNADO that was last week.  here is the layout:

Went crazy with the stitching on this one.  Just SO much fun!  I REALLY like the chipboard adhesive pieces that are in the kit (the measuring tape on the side and the apple button piece) Love the dimension without to much bulk.  

My daughter and I are off to see a community production of Les Miserables tonight at the High School.  We got invited by my friend Jennie and her daughter.  Should be fun!  That being said I have to run and get kids from school, take them to scouts, AND make dinner!  Thanks for checking in on me!  

Sun glasses

Some of my best pictures lately have come off my phone--I think THAT is cool! Saturday before the big meet my daughter and I had our annual Mother daughter date. We went to Denny's then to Ross for some shopping! We scoured the WHOLE store and found a couple of things but we just couldn't pass up the glasses department. Thanks again to the girls at Sketchy Thursdays for another AWESOME sketch and Scrapbook Circle for having a great Jenni Bowlin June add on kit:

Closeups:

For my sun, I cut up one of the journaling cards and added glossy accents--sweet affect!

I used some of my MAD misting skills and used yellow and some extra butterflies I cut with my cricut on my coor'dinations paper.

I'm still getting a handle on the coor'dinations paper--it sure is fun to "rough" up! I also did some sewing on this one too. (SURPRISE!)

I spent the day today creating a slide show for DD class. I added music--THAT was the hardest part! I think it came together well and I'm excited to see what she & her teacher think of the finished product! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Sketchy Thursdays, Girls Paperie, Scrapbook Circle

Don't you just love when the creative juices flow, you have fantastic product to work with and a FABULOUS picture to scrap? The planets aligned on this one:

This happens to be a picture of my parents. Aren't they cute? I was hoping for some great paper, and the June kit from Scrapbook Circle has it! Yes, I have permission from Lisa to share this with you! :) You are getting a sneak of just a little bit of what the kit entails. On my layout there is October Afternoon, Pink Paislee and Girls' Paperie. I'm LOVING this company! At CHA we met Margie--she is SO fun! And I LOVED all of their product--in fact Lisa ordered quiet a bit of it for upcoming kits.

For these flowers I punched a 2" scallop & 2 1/2" circle (which I then distressed), I then added the two flowers which are cutouts (from another project) from my cricut.

For the center of this flower I used some die cuts from Girls' Paperie. (I distressed but just with water.) (--the fancy pants lace ribbon, doilie- I bought at joann's for 99 cents, pearls, brad, American craft & cosmo cricket is all from my stash)

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope today is a GREAT one for you!

The Cricut Castle

Wow, has it been a while since I've posted! Life kinda took a blast off last week and we were SOOOO busy! Wednesday my girl got to present her Castle, she worked so hard. I was so impressed with her creativity and imagination! So here is her castle:

notice the alligators?

I helped with the draw bridge and the well. I cut the bottom of a crystal light container and wadded some paper and added stickles to make it look like water:

I love how she drew the face on this knight, this is also a great closeup of the distressing on the castle:

She got extra credit for the royalty:She made this catapult herself!

She got an A! And what was even better, only a few were chosen by the teacher to keep as an example. Hers was chosen, SWEET!

okay, one more thing about my DD:

That's her in the middle. yeah, it's a horrible picture, but I'm amazed I even got it. My camera focused on this dude's head not on the kids on the track. She did so well! She placed 7th out of 19 kids at the state meet. She was SO nervous, after the race she said she was shaking the whole time. Poor thing! I REMEMBER that feeling, the stadium was FULL with kids and people from all over the state. I embarrassed my whole family (except the 7 year old....) I yelled REALLY loud. Before the race began I did stand up and say to those around me, "I'm going to stand up now and scream really loud!" (I didn't care, I don't know these people--I'm never going to see them again.) After I screamed my guts out, I yelled, "that's my girl!" This guy turns around and jokingly said, "you could've warned us." I said, "I did, you weren't paying attention!" Then his wife laughed and said, "I'm going to be doing that in about 5 minutes!" DH a quieter person than me was SO embarrassed...ah well--you only live once. Life is like that, moments where you need a cheerleader and I was/am a PROUD mommy! :) DD came up after the race and said that she heard me. She NEVER hears me. I realized that's because when I yell that loud at a soccer game there are about 30 people yelling along with me.

Thank you for reading this far, I hope that you have a FANTASTIC day! I'm off to play catch up--making bread, doing laundry, doing dishes!

It's beginning to look like....

Mother's Day!

Yep, I woke up to some wonderful gifts/cards from my family. Sure LOVE being a mom!

Speaking of mom's these are the cards I made for my mom and MIL:

The flowers were created with my cricut, I just cut different flowers at different sizes. Waded them up--then unwrapped them and blew them dry with my heat embosser.

Also, my mom will be receiving this little beauty filled with her FAVORITE chocolate! :) This little pretty I've been saving since CHA--LOVED this make-n-take I'll be doing it again in the future. (they used the Mother's Day cartridge for this one.)

I best jet, gotta get to church! I'm teaching a new song today to the kids--I'm pretty excited about this one. It's one of my favorites!

Have a GREAT Sunday!

My Girl

Oh, how I LOVE this picture I scrapped today. This dog is GOOFY! She loves to sit on your lap like this--I'm SERIOUS! (She's a little bigger now but still loves it) And she LOVES her girl! She gets SO excited when she comes home from school, fun to see this special bond between girl and her dog. One more exciting thing I took this picture with my phone! I get SO excited when my "tools" give me gems like this!

So here is the layout:

Supply list:

(all paper if from the April kit at Scrapbook Circle)

pattern paper: American craft, October Afternoon, Girls' Paperie

fabric paper: American Crafts

chipboard: Fancy Pants

letters: American Crafts

butterflies & doilies: Cricut (Mother's Day & Hannah Montana)

glitter glue: Ranger

stickers: American Crafts & Jenni Bowlin

distress ink: Ranger

button: making memories

brads: American Crafts

jewels: offray

pearl: prima marketing

punches: fiskars

journal spot: 7 gypsies

sequins: unknown

sewing

I layout was inspired by THIS layout by Jen Jockisch her style is SO free and fun! I was also inspired by the challenge at American Crafts today. Use two brads--I did!

Thanks for stopping in today--hope your weekend and Mother's day is a GREAT one! :)

ScrapbookPal Design Team Entry

I have to tell you my GYPSY and CRICUT EXPRESSION got a great work out. I'm LOVING the combination!

Okay now for my home decor item:

supply list:

all paper: Scrapbook Circle May kit (my mind's eye, October Afternoon, Crate Paper, Glitz)

distress ink: Frayed burlap by Ranger

jewels: prima

button: unknown

frame: dollar tree

glitter glue: stickles by Ranger

Cutting tools: gypsy, Cricut Expression

Butterfly: Hannah Montana Cartridge

label, flourish: Home Accents

I LOVE how this turned out! The papers are all from the May kit from Scrapbook Circle--(excluding the jewels, button and stickles)

The frame I purchased at Dollar Tree for $1--a steal! For this project I removed the glass insert.

Cutting my project:

**For the cutting part, I test drove it through with a scratch paper to make sure that it was at the dimensions I wanted, I didn't want to waste my pattern paper.**

1. The Matte I cut the inner piece at 4 x 6, then measured a scratch piece of paper at 3 x 5 and put it on the back of the pattern paper and sewed around that piece so I would get straight edges.

2. For the next Matte I measure a piece of pattern paper to 2" x 4" and rounded the corners with my corner rounder.

**Because I had done a test cut I knew the area in which each piece would be cut and at what size, I then affixed my pattern paper according to how I wanted it cut.**

3. Using my gypsy I searched for a butterfly I liked, this one happened to be on the Hannah Montana cartridge. (this can be found on page 75 of the manual under pop Princess *shift*) the larger butterfly is cut at 2" x 2.65" and the smaller is cut at 1.50" x 2.01".

4. Again using my gypsy I searched for label it can be found on the Home accents cartridge. (On the manual sheet from going from the left to the right it is 3 down 7 over.) This cuts in two parts I used the inner part to matte my butterfly. This piece was cut at 1.50" x 3.81"

5. Next I searched for a flourish, this was also found on the Home Accents cartridge. (on the paper manual it can be found 3 down 2 over.) This piece was cut at 1.25" x 1.30"

Assembling my project

1. I distressed all the pieces with Frayed Burlap distress ink.

2. I applied glitter glue to the wings of larger butterfly--let dry.

3. I applied pop dots to back of the 2" x 4" piece. And the label cut.

4. I adhered the 2" x 4" piece to the center of the sewn part, then I adhered the label cut to the center of the 2" x 4" piece.

4. Using quick drying liquid glue I adhered the flourish to the bottom of the label cut.

5. Making sure that my glitter glue is dry I adhered the smaller butterfly to the center of the larger one. Then I glued the butterfly to the upper edge of my label cut. I then bent the wings of each up slightly.

6. Lastly I adhered the button using a GLUE DOT. I then applied the jewels which were self sticking.

There ya go! Hope everything was clear, if you have ANY questions please ask. This was a fun little project and my DD fell in love with it when she came home from school. Think it might end up on her wall--she LOVES butterflies!

Thanks for stopping by!

**Everything that is bolded can be found for a great price at Scrapbook Pal. I've told you about them before. They have great items discounted AND free shipping if you spend $25! Pretty sweet if you ask me.**

37--Sketch Inspiration, and BLOG HOP

Oh, my goodness have we been BUSY around here! Before sharing some exciting weekend events I want to share my layout based on a sketch from Sketch Inspiration. If you decide you want to participate there is a Scrapbook Circle kit up for grabs! Our design team was asked to create pages based on this sketch:

This is my take:

some closeups:

have I said how much I'm LOVING misting?! I started out with a white piece of paper and knew I wanted to use two of my three colors on this page. I cut out a lace piece with my cricut expression from the Mother's day cartridge and used it as a mask. Then I sprayed away and got this fantastic background. As for the tulle I just scrunched it up and sewed straight across it. I love how that turned out too. Of course I had to add pearls and stickles! When I look at this layout it just makes me happy, FANTASTIC paper and fun memory. This is all (minus the stickles and pearls) from the May kit at Scrapbook Circle.

Speaking of Scrapbook Circle....TOMORROW we will be having a blog hop! There will be more reveals and fun RAKS given away--stick around you don't want to miss out on the fun!

okay, I have some proud moments to share with you....I cleaned the toilet in my bathroom AND the sink AND the shower. If you knew me well you would know these are a few of my LEAST favorite things to clean and it's sort of miracle when they do get cleaned....

BUT that is now what I want to share with you. This past weekend my kids participated in the Hershey's track meet for our city. They all did well--I was VERY proud of them (especially since we only practiced at the track 3 times.) My daughter qualified for the state meet! It's in two weeks.....

alright, I'll end this post now seeing as it is becoming a book. Thanks for stopping by and REMEMBER to stop by again tomorrow for the blog hop!

Fruits of the earth and my hand.....

lame title I know but the creative juices for title making isn't flowing.....

On Tuesday I went to a baby shower as part of my gift I made some thank you cards---there were only ten. I offered to make how ever many she needed here are the cards I finished yesterday:

I'm loving dry embossing! It's so easy and gives SO much to a project. I'm also putting my old red sizzix machine to use. The thank you stamp is from Hero Arts, the pattern paper is DCWV baby girl line, and the butterfly was cut with my Cricut machine from the Hannah Montana cartridge. They turned out nicely and look SO MUCH better in person.

My garden is coming right along. My DD took these pictures for me yesterday... My strawberries don't like the heat so much but are producing a few berries.

I didn't kill my tomato plants! Man are they finicky....I learned not to give them so much water and they both have survived--luckily...I just give them a little water and leave them a lone and they're doing great.

Funny thing about this summer squash, it was the last plant on the tray at Lowe's. It was sickly and small--I REALLY wanted some, so I bought the plant. You would NEVER know that this plant was ever little and looking like it was going to die. Kind of exciting to see food in the garden. My Basil plant is just taking off too--smells GREAT. Not sure what I'm going to use it for, but I did read that they like the heat. I'll have to take pictures of our other experiments in the yard, so far we have only lost one plant! What's cool is that I can take this back to the store and get a refund. ALL plants have a year warranty even the annuals. SWEET!

Well, I've got to run to the school to help in the classroom. Thanks for stopping by! Hope your Thursday is a GREAT one!

Grandma's brag book

I finally am posting my grandma's brag book! Thanks so much for looking. Oh, and I had to add 6 more pages--so totally count = 46 pages.

Friday--FUN?

My kids have the day off today, it all started ok with a trip to Kohl's for much needed tennis shoes....while there we--when I say this I refer to one of my nameless children had a melt down, "No, I will not pay that much for a pair of shoes when your feet are still growing." Almost sounded like this person got their arm chopped off or something...we found acceptable shoes. Then it was off to the girls department to find an appropriate dress--translate that to something she and I both agree on.....(we've been looking on and off for a couple of months now) We found a skirt and blouse, which EVERYONE was excited about because it took about 30 minutes. The brothers just didn't find the girl's department all that exciting....

After that we went to a FUN birthday party for my niece. We laughed and had a great time for two hours:

Okay, I want you to take note, the ears DD is wearing were cut with the cricut.

The feet and ears were also cut using the cricut on these easter eggs--TOTALLY cute right?! My SIL is amazingly creative, and I told her I was going to blog about her creations, for those in the know she used the paper dolls cartridge...

Fast forward until we get home eating lunch. They ask me to go swimming, their dad tells them they need to clean their rooms, a chorus starts wailing....then one lone voice says, "we never get to do anything fun!" REALLY?

I just want to take a nap....