Thursday, March 31, 2011

My 1st Attempt at a Corner Bookmark

As I was reading my morning email...another popped up from Papercraft Star. It was their Thursday Tutorial from Tracy. She showed how to make a corner bookmark.
There is also a tutorial on Splitcoaststamper that I linked here
I have always wanted to try it and have seen many other bloggers do it so here is my corner bookmark.
What do you think?
The picture is not the greatest but I think you get the idea.





This is an INVITE to all my blogging friends...Please join me and the rest of the Whimsical Wednesday DT for the kickoff of the Challenge Blog with our 1st Blog Hop!
There is going to be GREAT DT projects and lots of fun giveaways --including one here :)
Looking forward to seeing you here!

So until tomorrow..

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Alittle Birdie Told Me

Good Morning!!
There are so many GREAT challenges out there it is so hard to pick which one to do first!!

Here is a birthday card I made. I made this gate-fold card which is so easy and super fun! The paper is double sided Heidi Grace Designs paper from Colorbok. This for me makes things so much easier when I am chosing colors :)





Recipe:
Gate Fold Base: 4 1/4 x 8 1/2 scored at 2 1/8 and 6 3/8
Paper: Heidi Grace Designs cut 1/4" smaller for all pieces
Cricut Cut: Create a Critter-Bird cut at 2", Circle cut at 3" border punched to make scallops
extras: i-rock, printed sentiment

Entering into the following Challenges:
Getting Kricky w/K Andrews- Bird
Birthday Sundaes- Spring Birthday Card

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Blog Award and a Quick Chick Card :)

Morning blogging buddies!!
I received another award today! Whoo Hoo I love it when I get awards:
This one came from Julie over at A Little Bit of Bling. Thanks Julie!! Make sure you go over and check out her blog! I love it and I know you will also!

The rules of this award are:
1. Post about it on your blog with a link to the sender.
2. Pass it on to  those who visit your blog and leave comments regularly.
 
I want to thank these fellow bloggers who comment with such encouragement and who have also inspired me to blog daily. In no particular order they are:
 
Thanks ladies for all your kind words :)
 
 
Here is my Easter Chick card. The digi is so cute, isn't he. A Claudia & Co. stamp. I am still trying to use up scraps so this was in my pile. I colored him in with my bic markers. The sentiment.."Happy Easter to one of my Favorite Peeps" is from Studio G.
 
That's all for now. I will contact bloggers who I have passed this award on to later. Hope to get some more scrapping done later also. Now time to go grocery shopping :(
 

Monday, March 28, 2011

My 100th Post!! A Pokeball...Bottle Swap Goodies...Chicken Cake Pops

WOW! What a heading..right?!?!
I am so excited to say this is my 100th post! Such a big accomplishment for me especially since I was very hesitant about even starting a blog and sharing my projects with all to see. I am so glad I have and these last 3 months have been totally awesome for me. I have made some great blogging buddies...gotten tons of feedback and have learned so much and even got onto a DT. WHOO!!
I have a bunch to share today. 1st off is from my bottle swap. I have gotten 1 of the 2 bottles back and this one came on Saturday
Look at all this yummy stuff that came. I had so much fun filling my bottles and shipping it out and the even better part is receiving   bottles back with goodies. I definitely want to do this again. It is a great way to get rid of items you have and maybe will not use and get new stuff you could use! When my other bottle comes I will post its contents up. So excited to see what is in there :)





Next is my Pokemon Master Ball  birthday card I made for my son's birthday party. Unfortunately there is not a cartridge with Pokemon guys so this is what I came up with. My son told me that this Pokemon Poke ball is the best or the "Master" and this is what his friend would like. 

Little did I know it would be such a HUGE hit. He wouldn't let anyone touch it. So cute and it makes me feel AWESOME that he loved it so much! I put a pocket inside to hold the gift card and I have to be honest...I really like the way it came out!




Lastly are the cake pops I made on Sunday. OMG! How much fun were these! I do have to say that I went out and purchased the book and had to try it out. What design was the 1st must try? My chickens of course. So here are my 1st attempt. I know what to do differently next time but all in all they came out super cute. My boys each took one to school for lunch and they sampled on at home and the rest went with my husband to work. He said they were gone within minutes! I am going to be making these again for Easter and for the boys classroom treats. Probably eggs but maybe chicks. We will see but I will post them again.
They were super easy to make and I recommend  anyone to give it a try. I will be more than glad to pass on my learning experience with whoever is interested.


SO there you have it. My weekend condensed. I didn't post my card or the pops because of the blog hop and I don't know how to keep a post at the top when you post again so this is my catch-up. And for those of you who question me about my chickens here is a picture of one of my pretty girls hanging out, and my youngest with another girl.


Have a great night and I will be back tomorrow!

My Favorite Things Blog Hop Winner!!

Good Morning...
It's time to announce the winner of the My Favorite Things Blog Hop
 
True Random Number
Generator
28
Powered by RANDOM.ORG
 
And the winner is #28 Purple Lady Bug--Katie
She said :
Great projects Katie :) My favorite thing is my FAMILY!!!!
 
Congrats Katie...my favorite thing is my family also!! I will be contacting you shortly.
Thanks to everyone who visited!!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

My Favorite Things Blog Hop!

Hello Happy Bloggers! It's Saturday and Time to Hop


Welcome to My Favorite Things Blog Hop hosted by Krystal at krystals kreativity. If you came here from Gayle's then you are in the right place.  If you would like to start from the beginning, please hop on over to krystals kreativity and start there!

Krystal is turning 37 on Monday, March 28th so she thought it would be fun to host a blog hop listing some of our favorite things. 

This is my FAVORITE THING....my boys!
I did this layout not too long ago right before the end of basketball season. I was able to get good pictures of both boys and each picture of them really shows their personality. I love the simplicity of this layout and I chose to show this project because...well..they are my favorite!!

My other FAVORITE is the Valentines Day card I made for my Husband. It was my 1st Tri-Fold Shutter Card and I love the way it came out :) He did also!!


And now for the fun part... BLOG CANDY :)

It's a 126 Piece Scrapbooking kit...how much fun!
All you have to do to be entered to win this kit is:
1. Become a Follower and
2. Tell me what Your Favorite Thing is :)

I will drawn the winner on Monday March 28th. Please leave me your contact info in case YOU are the lucky winner

Thank you for stopping by my blog and make sure you hop around to all the participating bloggers. There are lots of Favorite things and creative projects to see.  And now, hop on over to Jessica's Blog  for more fantastic Favorite Things.

When you reach the end of this blog hop, head back over to Krystal's blog  and leave a comment there letting her know you've visited us all!!!


Here is a list of all the participants and their links in cases you get lost..

Krystal - Krystal's Kreativity - http://krystalskreativity.blogspot.com/
Cindy - The Scrapping Room - http://scrappingroom.blogspot.com/
Cherie - One Heart Scrapper - http://oneheartscrapper.blogspot.com
Darlene - Simple Southern Blessings - www.talesoftayandbay.blogspot.com
Jenny - PaperCut Creations -
http://papercutcreations.blogspot.com
Gayle - Grma Gayle's Corner - http://g-gayle.blogspot.com/
Jessica - Chick-n-Scrap -http://chick-n-scrap.blogspot.com/----That's Me :)
Jessica - You're Always In My Heart- http://www.barrycrafty.blogspot.com


Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed my FAVORITE things!

Friday, March 25, 2011

Patchwork Picture Tutorial---Dino Create a Critter Card

Hi blogger :)
As I wrote about yesterday I put together a picture tutorial on the patchwork. I LOVE doing this because not only do you use up scrap paper (which I have alot of) it is so fun to make and the possibilities are endless!
So here we go....I have my completed project at the bottom of this post


 You need to start out with sticky shipping label. I got mine at Target but any office supply store will carry them. These sheets are 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" and there are 2 per sheet and 20 labels per pack.
 Take any combo of scraps and cut them into strips. Mine were 1" strips...my other 2 projects I cut them into 1 1/2" strips. It all depends on the size of the design you are cutting. My Dino is being cut at 3 1/2" so I wanted more pattern to show.
 Here is the squares cut again 1" x 1". My paper happened to be 2 sided pattern paper so I was able to get 10 different patterns with 5 sheets of paper. You can use as many different papers or as few papers as you want.
 Next peel the backing off the label and begin arranging your squares on the sticky paper. Start at one side work your way to the other and don't think too much about pattern! You will drive yourself crazy...just make sure there are not 2 of the same papers next to each other. This is what it will look like when it is all done.
 Then you get to decide what cut you are going to do. I did the Dino from Create A Critter. He is cut at 3 1/2. Just put your patchwork paper on the cutting mat and cut. Nothing needs to be done different than you would normally cut. It does help to have a newer/ sharper blade. I was just amazed that the cricut cut these so nicely :)
 Once you have everything cut it is time to add your stitching...I used a LePlume fine point black marker. I add stitching around EVERY piece of DIFFERENT paper. And this is how my Dino came out. When I cut him I used Layer 2 as my patchwork cut. I hid the eyes and mouth with my gypsy and added goggles instead. Then for layer 3 I used only the polka dots so I hid everything else again with my gypsy.
Here is my completed card. I hope you like him and this picture tutorial. If you have any questions I will be happy to answer them. These are so much fun and like I said before a GREAT way to use up scraps.

He will be entered into the following Challenges:
M.A.G Challenge By the Page- Challenge 19 Create a Critter -Page 50
365 Cards- PQR-Polka Dots, Quilting, Red
Paper Cutz Challenge- #84- 3 Patterns of Paper

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Whimsical Wednesday Challenge Blog---Up and Running :)

The new Whimsical Wednesday Challenge blog is up and running!  To celebrate they are having two giveaways over on that blog!

They are giving away two prizes 

The first prize is: Peachy Keen Wide Eyed Kids Stamp set-

 
and  The second prize is:

Shabby Vanity Customized Header and Coordinating Badge!!
 
 
 Head on over to the new blog and take a look and become a follower and leave a comment for a chance to win these awesome prizes!!

And another thing they are having a blog hop on April 1st which I will be participating in :)
there will be lots of awesome projects and prizes!!
You are not going to want to miss this :)

I did it Again :) Patchwork Lion Birthday Card

 








I am loving this Patchwork pattern design! It is such a GREAT way to use up scraps and create something COOL!
Here is my second post of the day. My patchwork lion. Isn't he too cute. I really LOVE the way he came out.
I made this as a birthday card for my good friend son for his 1st birthday. I know she will love it and so will her son :)

I am going to try and put together a picture tutorial for tomorrow's post on the step by step to creating the patchwork design.

I am entering this into the following Challenges:
Birthday Sundaes- Anything Goes
Chloe and Her Clip on Koalas- Anything with a Smile
Cooking with Cricut- Lion or a Lamb
365 Cards- MNO

Be back tomorrow :)

Patchwork Bunny--Happy Easter Card

Good morning Blogger Friends!

I have a super cute card I made today using the patchwork design. I originall saw this done on Brigit's Blog-http://irishmist59.blogspot.com/ and had to give it a try. I am so impressed on the way it turned out!
I used scrap paper and followed the tutorial on youtube shown here and this is what I came up with.

I am entering this into the following Challenges:
Cricut Cards Challenge #67- pink, green white and a cut

Hope you like it :)

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

A Super Cute Digi and a Blog Award!

Hi all my blogger friends!
I was so excited to share my "Happy Spring" card yesterday and I'm thinking I jumped too soon to post :( I woke up this morning with it snowing! Yuck and it's cold and it's blowing and it's not going to stop for alittle while.
Anyways I made a card using one of Claudia and Company's Digi. She has the cutes images!
Don't you think? This one is Emma so cute and so perfect for Easter. I came across several challenges this week and I will be entering this into the following:
The Paper Variety- Tic-Tac-Toe
Claudia & Company #78- Color Challenge
365 Cards- Day 23- ABC's of Crafting GHI
Cardz TV- Bunny Challenge


Now I want to send out a special Thanks You to Donna over at Donna's Dreamworks for giving me this
Award. I really feel so honored that she thought of me to receive this award. So again thanks so much Donna!

The rules of this award are as followed

1.  Thank the person who sent it to you
2.  Tell 7 things about yourself
3.  Send this to 15 bloggers
OK---here are my seven things about me :)
1. I have a really hard time matching my colors when it come to crafting :( It takes me a while to "get it right" and even then it isn't right :)
2. My crafting journey just began in November when I got my cricut
3. I spend ALOT of time blog hopping and idea searching...My favorites are bookmarked and the list is HUGE
4. I would rather read a book than watch TV
5. My favorite color is black
6. My lucky number is 13 :)
7. I love my full time job...being a SAHM <3

Now to pass this along to 15 bloggers... They are as followed:
1.little bit of bling
2.Always Crafting
3.Brigit's Scraps
4.carsons cricut creations
5.Chloe and her Clip on Koalas
6.Crafting Misfit
7.Double Click Connections- AKA Abusybee
8.handcrafted simply by us
9.Id rather be making cards
10.karens-kakes-krafts
11.miss pink cricut
12.stars paper passion
13.tryin 2 craft
14.Imagine what you could do
15.glendas cards

So there you have it. Make sure you check out all these great blogs :)

Have a great day and I'll see you all tomorrow :)

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Happy Spring

Hi happy bloggers! Hope you all had a great day. I just found out I won some Un-du over at Karen's--
Karens-Kakes-Krafts-- If you haven't visited her blog you have to. She always has something funny to say and I look forward to reading her blog and getting a good laugh. So thanks Karen!

I was at our local stamping store--Buffalo Stamps and Stuff and I purchased their stamp of the month. I made this card with it but after many many trials of stamping and coloring and rearranging I finally came up with something I like.

I glittered the flowers with Martha Stewart glitter and colored the sentiment in with my ever loving bic markers...I don't own any copics yet...maybe someday when I win the lottery and can afford them :) I also picked up some twine while I was there and added that and a button. I pop dotted the two flower...after I cut the stamped image in 3's and scalloped the edges so you could see the pattern paper behind.

I'm thinking tomorrow I will spend some significant time crafting and catching up on my mini that I haven't had time to work on today. I also would like to get a head start on some DT projects.

So until tomorrow....

Monday, March 21, 2011

More Mini Book Pages---And Some Animal Pics from the Party

I wanted to post some more of my mini book that I have been working on along with Creations with Christina- I am so loving her tutorial videos on making this mini. If you want to check out her videos you can click here to view one video and her links to the others.
This is a page that has a pull up tag

Can be used for a picture and some journaling or two pictures

A small envelope with a journaling tag and space for a picture on the back
I hope you like what I have done so far. I have 5 more pages to complete...I'm alittle behind on following the tutorial but hope to have it done tomorrow.

So now for some animal picture from the birthday party yesterday. What a fun party! The animal guy---Nickle City Reptiles was amazing. He really knows how to keep the kids and the adults entertained.




Thanks for visiting and see you all tomorrow :)

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Whimsical Wednesday Design Team---Mini Album in the Works

Good Morning Happy Bloggers!
I have some exciting news to announce. I have been chosen to be on the Whimsical Wednesday Design Team.

I am so excited to be a part of this design team and share my projects with you :).
And I will be designing for both the scrapbooking and card making teams.
I will be  designing scrapbook pages the first Wednesday of every month.  And then the card teams with be designing the rest of the month, alternating between Team A and Team B. It is going to be a BLAST!!

You can hop over to Stephanie's Blog- Always Crafting and see all the other VERY creative ladies that are joining me on the DT,
 as well as Erika over at Cricut Love who will be teaming up with Stephanie to help run the this fun challenge blog!

So mark your calendars and get ready for the Grand Opening Blog Hop on Friday April 1.
Hope to see you all there!

Now onto my project...I have been working on a mini album following along with Creations with Christina as she does a step by step tutorial. I have not caught up yet with her tutorial but I am getting there. I am making a 4x6 mini using Bo Bunny papers I found at AcMoore.


my 6 pages with the Bo Bunny paper...all inked with Worn Lipstick


one of the completed pages. a simple matted page for a picture


A fun journaling page with decorative trim up on pop dots

This is the front of the book. Im not sure what I am going to do here yet.
So there is the start of my mini...I will update when I complete more.

Have a GREAT day and see you all tomorrow....maybe later with some animal pictures from the birthday party :)

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Hockey Puck Birthday Card

Hi happy bloggers!
It's the weekend and unfortunately I am still feeling under the weather...this silly head cold has really knocked me for a loop. I am feeling better than 2 days ago so hopefully tomorrow I will feel even better.
I have to because my youngest has a birthday party tomorrow and they are having a place called Nickle City Reptiles come and put on an animal show. I have attached their website here if anyone is interested in checking out this very cool group and show. They are VERY popular around our area and have even appeared on some popular TV shows. I have yet to see them and I am so excited for the chance to see them tomorrow. My son has also informed me they will be at his birthday party in June..only time will tell :)
Anyways here is the birthday card I made. The birthday boy plays hockey, just recently finishing his season and since I just got the Sports Mania Cartridge I thought I would give it a try.

I started out by welding two hockey pucks to make the card base. Remember one puck has to be flipped upside down so the card closes right. I cut it at 4" which is a perfect size, especially for an 8 year old to write inside his birthday message.
Once I assembled the hockey puck cut I slightly doodled around the name...which is from Cuttin Up.
I have a hard time trying to figure out what font to use and from what cart to grab it from...there are just too many cute and useful ones :)
To give the puck some "pop" I attached it to the card base with some foam dots.
I really like the way this simple card came out! And of course had the make the colors Sabres colors--gold and blue for the birthday boy's and ours favorite hockey team!

Hope you like this card....
I will be back later with some exciting news hopefully tonight if not tomorrow :)
Until then......

Friday, March 18, 2011

Bottle Swap and Card

I am so excited to be participating in a Bottle Swap with Tanya over at Scrappy Scavenger. My bottles are complete and ready to be shipped!!
I posted one of the cards that went into the bottle and forgot to take a picture of the other one.


This is the completed bottles. Hopefully the post office wont give me a hard time about shipping these :) Each bottle is packed with goodies in a 1 liter bottle.
Since this is my first bottle swap I am hoping I put good things into the bottle.
Enjoy Ladies!!

See you all tomorrow..or maybe later I have to make a birthday card for one of my son's friends.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

The Original Scrapbox Giveaway!!

This amazing company is giving away to 1 lucky follower a HUGE prize. When they hit 10,000 followers on their facebook page someone could win a scrapbox! I so badly want one of these :)


Click on the above facebook link and hit "like". Here is the form to fill out. When you go to their facebook page leave a message that Jessica Esch sent you :)

Wedding Favor Ideas

Happy St.  Patty's Day everyone!
I sit here with my corned beef cooking waiting until everyone is home to enjoy this yummy-ness (not a word, I know!)  and I can't wait. I am making my grandfather's recipe which is a HUGE hit in my family. Hope everyone has a very "lucky green" day and that the silly leprechaun didn't play any bad pranks on you :)

As I said in yesterday's post I am making sample wedding favors for a friend to show her niece. I ended up making 5 different things and I will show each of them :)
Here is the simple post-it note holder. I have made these before for the Teacher's Appreciation Luncheon
last month and they were a huge hit! Who doesn't like a decorated note pad :)
I was watching a tutorial on DoubleClick Connections-AKA A BusyBee on how to make these stick pins so Carri if you read this..Thanks a Bunch :)
What would a wedding be without a pillow box. This is cut from the Wedding cartridge and simply decorated with a purple ribbon and label cut. The nice this about this is it can be embellished anyway. Add the couples initials, the shower date, the possibilities are endless

Another simple project. The ever loving candle holder. Again I used a simple 99 cent votive holder. Added ribbon around the middles and attached the paper flowers with a pretty pearl brad.

This is a 2,5,7, 10 box. I got the tutorial from Splitcoaststampers here. These are so much fun to make and the ideas again are endless. Choose different papers, stamp the box part which is what the tutorial did. I left the middle open so the bride could see there are many ideas as to decorate. Maybe with a thank you quote, a picture of the bride and groom, their wedding flower...anything. And the best thing is there is plenty of room inside to add whatever yummy treats you decide.
This is my last project. I made my own bath salts. I got the recipe online but it is very simple!! All you have to do is mix: 3 cups Epsom Salt, 2 cups Baking Soda and 1 cup of table salt. Mix it all up and there you have it. You can add food coloring, which is what I tried to do. I wanted it more purple but it came out more blue. (I didn't have any purple food coloring so I mixed red and blue..didn't work to well) But you get the idea. The flower came from an idea that Creations with Christina showed us for her mini album tutorial. I am also doing a mini following her tutorial so I will post those pictures as I complete them. Her flower came out better, she distressed the edges, I just crumpled and inked.

So those are my favor ideas. I delivered them to my girlfriend today and she loved them. Hope the bride to be does also.

Have a great day and see you tomorrow :)

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Get well soon card- yesterday's card

I made this card for yesterday's post and when I went to load it up we were without Internet service. for some reason my husband had to call and have the Internet rebooted. So I had my card done just couldn't show it to you all. Sorry. This card was made for a friend who is recovering from surgery. I gave it to her yesterday with a care package of sudoku puzzles, a gift card for Barnes n Noble, and some yummy chocolate. Just alittle something to keep her busy on her road to recovery.

Plus on top of that I am fighting a really bad cold and felt like doing nothing yesterday!! It is raining outside today, yuck!! Can't wait until the weather gets sunny and warm!

I feel better today...still drained but I have some sample wedding shower favors to make for a friend who's niece is getting married. They are looking for inexpensive favors so I thought I would help with some ideas. I will post my creations later when they are finished :)

I will summit this card to:
365 Cards: Color Scheme Day 15