When Life Hands You Lemons....

It must be kizmet (or maybe an addiction). I was at Walmart today buying formula (last time) and I "happened" to go past the scrapbooking section and saw some of their Lite's on sale. I've had my eye on Block Party but couldn't figure out what to use it for. But since it was on sale.....  Thank goodness when I got home I saw I could use it for Scrapalicious USA's challenge:-) In addition to the Block Party Lite cart I also used some yummy bakers twine from The Twinery, cardstock from PTI, Recollections, and American Crafts. The sentiment is from MPS Fruit & Veggie Punnies set. Thanks for stopping by. Have a creative day:-)

Heartfelt Thanks

I sure must like working under pressure (not) because I'm always scrambling to get challenge cards uploaded before the deadline. So, short and sweet, the cut is from Freshly Picked, the patterned CS is DCWV Whimsy stack & the solid is S/U. The sentiment is MPS Simply Sweet Occasions. A little embossing, ribbon, buttons, and twine and I'm finally finished. Look for my card at the Simply Sunday Challege on the Getting Cricky blog and the Bitten By The Bug 2 challenge. Thanks for stopping by. Have a creative day:-)

Purple Birthday Cupcake

Yea! Happy Weekend everyone! I have a lot to do! Big party on the fourth for my {sniff sniff} one year old to be. Even though I've been through this twice before, I'm getting all emotional. I can't believe how quickly time goes! Well, back to "business":-)

I just had to enter Fancy Framework's Pretty Purple Birthday challenge. I love challenges that require purple:-) I used the Celebrations cart for the cupcake, Stickles to decorate, American Crafts ribbon, S/U PP, and various solids. The sentiment is S/U , also.
Thanks for stopping by. Have a creative weekend:-)

Warmest Wishes

Good Morning everyone! I made a quick card for Challenge Me Monday over at the Fantabulous Cricut blog. I started a card for this challenge but realized there was another crafter used the same cut and CS. Too funny. So I started over and came up with this rather bright card. All CS is from S/U, the sun cut is from the Simply Charmed cart, Traffic Jam embossing folder, and the sentiment is from The Charmed Life set by Scrappy Moms. Oh, yes, Stickles! Thanks for stopping by. Have a creative day:-)

Sweet Blog Award

Thank you my sweet friends! Tiffany at Sparkled Memories, Shelly at My Paper Love, Carissa at Happily Ever Paper Crafter, and Ana at Scrappy Pink Corner both gave me a Sweet Blog Award. With the acceptance of the award I'm asked to answer seven random facts about myself and pass the award to at least 8 other blog buddies.

So here it goes:

Random Fact #1: My favorite ice cream is mint chip
Random Fact #2: I use my turn signal 98% of the time
Random Fact #3: I really wish Pushing Daisies was still on tv
Random Fact #4: I used to be a figure skater
Random Fact #5: I married my HS sweetheart (and still am after 22 years)
Random Fact #6: I drive a black Honda Odyssey
Random Fact #7: I don't own a Kindle

Now I would like to pass this on to:

Juanita at Scraptacular Designs
Peggy at icrea8cards.blogspot.com
Suzanne at Cricut Craftin Grammy
Viviana at Vivij Designs
GiGi at The Cricut Bug
Jessica at Baking Up Crafts
Cathie at Cathies Cafe
Micia at Yellow Bird Creation

Go check out their sites. These ladies have fabulous ideas:-)

Sea you soon!

So let me just tell you, I have a 9 yob. What tv show do you think I've been watching after school for the past I-don't-know-how-many-years?! SpongeBob. Yes, I even know that song by heart! (Not sure if that's such a good thing;-) So, of course the first image that popped into my head for Tacky Tuesday's Challenge was..... SpongeBob. This cart was actually one of the first that I owned. My son had me make SpongeBob and Patrick as big as I could so he could put them on his bulletin board. Wow, there a lot of pieces! Don't try anything too small with this cart. You'll go crazy trying to put glue on all of those little pieces.

I made this card 4.5 x 6 so I could fit a bigger image on it. I have an absolute ton envelopes that fit this size card. (I bought up the entire load of Hallmark envelopes a local pharmacy was selling at a sidewalk sale for $10!:-) Other items I used was various DCWV and S/U CS, Stickles, ribbon (don't recall where), and a sentiment I printed out using SpongeFont SquareType font. Thanks for stopping by! Have a creative day:-)

Guest Designer At Inking It Up Crazy!

I am so honored to have been asked to be a Guest Designer on Kassidy's month long Birthday Bash (ok, truth is I begged her). Kassidy is giving away quite a few gifts just for leaving comments on posts. Even if you've missed a few days, I encourage you to comment on previous postings. She won't be drawing until the party is over.

Today is the day for patriotic inspirations. I was originally going to create birthday invitations because my son will be one (1) on the 4th of July. I decided not to do a "4th" theme for the birthday so I chose to do a layout for the Birthday Bash. I like doing 8 x 8 layouts because they are smaller and not as intimidating as a 12 x 12. I found I can get an 8 x 8 done much quicker and get the same satisfaction as doing a 12 x 12.

Yes, that's a toothpick pinwheel:-)

There is no shadow for the firework cut so I made my own by cutting them at two different sizes so it looks like a shadow (silver paper)

For this layout I used:

• K & Company "Americana" specialty paper
• Stand and Salute Cricut Cartridge
• Independence Day Cricut Cartridge
• Stampin' Up ribbon
• Stampin' Up Fun In The Sun
• Stampin ' Up Simple Serif Alphabet
• Pop Dots
• Stickles

Just Wordz Design Team Member

Good morning everyone! Well, I made it through the night with a little sleep. As my head hit the pillow at 3 my DD got sick (if you know what I mean):-P After a couple hours of that, I'm up and ready to let you know that wonderful Kimberly from Just Wordz has asked me to be on her design team for a few months. I think I've lost my marbles:-) I'm not sure how much kind of time I'll get to work on projects. I'll give it my best shot. Check out her site. She will be having tons of fun things going on in the next few months. I hope to not disappoint:-)

Birthday Invitations

Good evening fellow all night crafters:-) I'm just getting started with the weekend chores and it is 10:30pm! Looks like an all nighter:-( Before I head to Walmart (thank goodness for 24 hour stores) I thought I'd share with you a peak at my son's birthday invites. He will be one on the fourth of July so I incorporated some RW&B. He also likes turtles. I entering this for the Paper Playtime Challenge, too.

For this invite I used Create A Critter for the turtle and part of the hat. I used another cut from Everyday Paper Dolls for the blue part. The balloon cut came from George. The CS is a combo of Stampin' Up, PTI, and DCWV Baby Boy Stack (I like to spread the love<3), Stickles, and airmail twine from The Cupcake Social. Off to start the laundry then head to the store! Thanks for stopping by! Have a creative day or what's left of it:-)

Twine Storage Idea

Good Morning Friends! It's a little overcast and rainy here on this Father's Day. Hopefully we can still grill out. My DH loves his grilled brats:-) I thought I would take a moment to share with you how I store my baker's twine. You might already do this or have another way. If so, feel free to share your twine storage tip:-)

What I did was buy a pack of tags at Office Depot. They come in all sizes. I used to alter them but haven't in awhile so I have quite a few on hand. When I started purchasing bakers twine from The Twinery, it came like this:

I took the label off carefully and adhered it to the bottom of the tag. I then clipped the top "corner" and the side towards the middle (didn't show up in the pic, sorry). I slid one end of the twine in the side slot and wrapped it around the tag until I got to the end. I then slipped the end into the "corner slot so it would come unraveled.

While I was winding the twine it reminded me of all of the DMC cross-stich floss I used to wind and how I need to get working on my baby's announcement! Ugh! I need more hours in a day! Have a wonderful Father's Day. Thanks for stopping by!

I forgot the most important part:-/ I put my twine on an O ring (not sure if that's what they're called). Or you might want to hang them from a dowel rod.

My Mom's Etsy Shop

Good Morning friends! I just wanted to share with you my mom's Etsy shop. She is a very talented seamstress and has a passion for creating beautiful period doll dresses. If you or anyone you know loves dolls, please check out her site sometime. Here is an example of what she sells.

Simple Moments

Shhh.. the baby's still sleeping:-) Quick challenge card for Paper Cutz. I used DCWV "All Dressed Up" Stack, Paper Dolls for Everyday, and Stickles. The sentiment is a peel and stick. Not really fond of these because of the slight shadow it makes on the CS. I found it in a drawer so I decided to use it. Might be going back in the drawer;-) Thanks for stopping by. Have a creative day:-)

Sweet Birthday Wishes

I'm not sure where you live, but here in Illinois it's some wacky weather. I know I start out talking about the weather on my blog all of the time, but it is wacky! Last week it was in the 90's, this week it's been in the upper 60's and rainy. Next week it is supposed to be back in the 90's again. These 30 degree swings make my laundry room pile up!

Since it was too icky to be out today I was able to get another challenge card done. This one is for Crop Stop, Birthday Sundaes, Terrific Tuesday, and Wacky Wednesday challenges. The cart is Sweet Treats for the Terrific Tuesday requirement. I got a little emboss happy for the other challenge requirements:-) The sentiment is from Scrappy Moms "Sweet Somethings" set. Thanks for stopping by! Have a creative day:-)

You're The Cat's Meow

Oh I'm not even going to tell you how long I spent on this simple looking card. Let's just say I waited waaaayyyy too long to start it! I was waiting for my embossing folders to come in the mail (not here yet) and forgot to start the card. It got to be the principle of the thing to just get it submitted to the  Cooking With Cricut challenge by the deadline (less than 1/2 hour from now). So quickly I'll explain we had to use our favorite cart {Nifty Fifties} and our favorite color {duh!}. I did some purple Stickles but that was about it. I used S/U, PTI and DCWV Retro Mod  CS. Sorry about being so curt but I've gotta fly:-) Thanks for stopping by. Have a super creative tomorrow:-)

Father's Day Link Up Party

I just came across this fun party while I was looking through my Dashboard. Scrappin' with Cricut is hosting a fun Link Up party for father's day. Stop by Dusti's blog to see how to join the party.

Father's Day Card

I hope everyone is having a great weekend! I smell cooking on grills, kids laughing, and.... well I don't see the sun but at least it's not raining and it's not 100 degrees:-) I caught myself once again staying up past my bedtime working on a challenge card. Time gets away from me during the summer with longer daylight and more summer activities.

For this card I used the Holiday Cakes cart for the car cut, October Afternoon "5 & Dime" PP, Stampin Up sentiment, Diamond Plate embossing folder, Making Memories brads, and Doodlebug ribbon. I submitted it for Simply Sundays, Challenge Me Monday, Monday Challenge, The Paper Variety, and Whimsical Wednesdays . Thanks for stopping by! Have a creative day:-)

So Super Sweet! {and quick!}

Amazing! We went from 94 degrees to 64 degrees in a matter of minutes! Big storms scare me:-( They are quite different here in the country than in the city. I couldn't sleep so I decided to make a challenge card. This was quick and easy since I was too tired to be creative.

The lolly actually came from PPDU which I needed to use for CCCC. The colors are for MPS challenge to use orange, turquoise, and green. I can't tell you what solid CS I used because I keep all of the like colors together in clear holders. I did use Robyn's sentiment from her Everyday Occasions set as well as twine from The Twinery. OK, yes I used Stickles... I can't help myself. Well, it's late {yawn} and I have to get up and take the dog to the vet in the a.m. Thanks for stopping by! Have a creative day:-)

BLOG CANDY ALERT!

Jessica at Chick N Scrap is giving away all of this yummy candy just because she has 300 followers! Just follow her blog... how easy is that?! I'd make you guys do something hard like... oh I don't know... run around the block... wearing a chicken costume.. {hee hee}. But she's not, so click her blog name above and follow her if you want a easy chance to get all this yumminess:-)

Don't Look! Another embarrassing picture;-)

I'm only doing this for the upload on Creations with Christina's blog to show her my punch storage. So don't look unless you're Christina;-) Just kiddin' {snicker, snicker}! 

These pics show too much of my messy room. It probably won't get cleaned up until school starts again and my job as cruise director ends for the year.

I'm with Christina, I love my $1.99 Ikea rails. I wish I could find something better for my punches that don't have those nice squeeze handles. I know some people have "printer boxes" but I just don't have the wall space. I had the builder carve out as much space over one of the garages as he could. My wall only goes up about 3 feet or so and then angles. I am sooooo looking for a good idea, too:-) Thanks for stopping by even though I'm totally embarrassed, again. Have a creative day!

Thank You for the Award:-)

Cutey Pie Charity at The Bookin Room passed on this Cricut-tastic Award to me yesterday! Thank You Soooo Much! I started this blog for fun and as a way to enter my cards in challenges. Along the way I've met such wonderful people. It makes me smile to know such nice creative people. I hope to develop these friendships and continue to meet such great crafters like Charity.

By accepting this award I need to list five Cricut-related things about myself. Well, number one would be I really, really, really, really want the new Cricut E2! Number two, hmmm, I have 97 carts and my favorite is Simply Charmed (is that one or two things?). Number three, I have a treasured business card autographed to me by Robyn Cardon... which leads to number four, I learned how to use the Cricut from Robyn watching her Youtube videos. Number five, I started a blog over a year ago so I could enter challenges.

I also need to share this award with 10 other Cricut bloggers. These are only a very few of the blogs that inspire me:-) Please visit and follow them. You'll be inspired, too!

• Deb at Addicted to Cardmaking
• Justine at Crafts n Cards Cricut Corner
• Evanna's Paper Palace
• Gaby Creates
• It's Tori's Time
• Scrappin with Kimmy
• Tammy at Srappy Critters (I like her name:-)
• Ana at Scrappy Pink Corner
• Lacy at Zebra Palace
• Jessie at Scrappy Jess

Masculine Birthday Card

Busy, busy, busy here but had a little time to get a last minute challenge card done. The cardstock, ink, and golfing stamps are from Stampin' Up. The sentiment is from the Birthday Basics set from PTI. The layout was inspired by the Saturday Sketch at Stamping 411. I'm hoping I make the cut-off for Birthday Sundaes challenge. I haven't checked the cut-off time. The other challenge is Scrapalicious USA. This is the first time I've played at this blog. It looks like a lot of fun:-) Thanks for stopping by! Hope you're having a creative weekend:-)

Relax

It seems like I've used this title before... Hmmm, I wonder if it could mean something;-)

I saw this interesting technique at Splitcoaststampers.com and thought I'd try it out with a challenge card. I used the flip flop cut from Life is a Beach cart, baker's twine from The Twinery, Prima flowers, CS from DCWV Mod-Retro stack, brads from S/U, and, of course, Stickles!This card is for Scrappy Moms Terrific Tuesday Challenge, Penny's Challenges, Emma's Throwback Thursday challenge, Paper Cutz challenge, and Simply Sunday.

Thanks for stopping by! If you are new to my site I encourage you to become a follower and let me know you are new so I can follow you, too:-) If you use Facebook, please click on my FB link on the left and "like" my page. Thanks again and have a creative day:-)

Just for fun

Christina at Creations with Christina wants to know what's on my desk - no cleaning allowed. Well, in my defense I'm not quite done "moving in" yet. Yes, I know I moved last November, but I have an 10 mo that likes to "help" me:-) Okay, here it is... only because Christina asked;-)