Cuddlebug Challenge...mini album

Sneaking in under the line before I need to leave here is my version of the Party-palooza challenge for this week.

We were asked to make a mini book that would go along with our party theme. I think by now you will recognize the theme...
Mini album cut with my Cricut (from cereal boxes no less) and the Fabulous Finds cart, the measuring cup, spoons and gingerbread boys from From My Kitchen Cart. Swissdots embossing, pp from Provo Craft and DCWV. Title cut with my brand new birthday gift A Child's Year cart. I am so lucky!

Happy Birthday Yesterday to Me!

It's me! I'm officially 54 and I wanted to step up and show my much better me...since May.
I am back on the Low Carb lifestyle an not only have I lost 31+ lbs I am showing much better numbers at my Dr's office visits. I had youngest DS take a few pictures for me and to use as a new Avatar and decided I would share my success and happy feelings.

I hate this picture as it shows all my flaws from the yucky double saggy chin to my apple shaped body. You can tell I am my Daddy's girl as I got this body shape from his mother! LOL Thanks, Grandma....NOT!

I wanted to wear my new sized jeans so I have a major muffin top but hey, I can zip and button them at it doesn't hurt! LOL
Onward and downward!

For Harry Potter fans ONLY!

Oh my goodness...
They are re-releasing the first two of the Harry Potter movies but with all kinds of great added features...
Check out this You-Tube to see a sneak peek at what's coming...
They are gonna get my $$$ but should I go for the DVD or Blue Ray even though I don't have a BR player LOL

Off to the Quilter

I should have taken a picture before I took them to the quilter but I was so pleased to get the final border on the pink and black Debbie Mumm BOM for my GrD's birthday that I just plum forgot. LOL
It was so nice to add that last strip and hang it on the design wall for a day or two and admire it. I forgot that I didn't decide on a back so this morning I zipped over to the local fabric shop and found a nice pink and black print that was on the half off section! Hurrah!
I also decided to take one of my oldest projects waiting for quilting...an applique apple baskets wall hanging that just never seemed to get quilted. I told her not to do much fancy stuff as it was one of my first applique pieces and there is much that I learned as I created. I will enjoy having it finished and finally be able to enjoy my hard work as I learned applique.
No pictures of that either but just wait until they are done!

Two Paper Challenges

Challenges are a way to try something different and or use supplies that you personally hadn't chosen to create with. I on the one hand, love challenges because it is often a way to get me out of my personal "box" and comfort zone. Sometimes however, they are kind of stressful when I try to be creative on someone else's time limit or supply choices. LOL
Anyhoo...at the recent Cricut Swarm TA gave a challenge with supplies, printed paper, ribbon and fiber and a stamp-all to be used on our challenge project. It was, as you can see, a halloween project. I didn't spend a whole lot of time on mine because I was working on some layouts I already shared the other day so this is what I came up with. I am not so fond of the tag and the words needed to be matted so that you can distinguish it from the background but I actually love it in the end.
TA put the entrants on the Cricut Message board chat and I didn't even get a single vote....LOL That's OK I didn't make it for others but for me and it was fun when I wasn't stressing to get it finished.

Supplies DCWV cardstock, pp Imaginese, ribbon, fiber and stamp provided, green Stickles, buttons from my stash. Cricut carts, Kitchen and Paper Dolls

Next challenge is for the Bitten By the Bug blog and sponsored by Peggy Loves Vintage.
This darling elephant is just one of the many, many vintage images that Peggy has collected and sells on her website for very reasonable prices. The challenge was to use one of two images and create something...making sure you use some sort of Cricut cut or more than one if you wish.

I made this cute card for my GrD C's birthday coming next week. I saw the stand card on Christmas Cricut blog and thought the image would be perfect for the idea. I printed it with my little photo printer and added the sentiment with Stayzon ink and a couple of stamps then used silver and red Stickles for bling it up a bit. You can see the corners I cut with my Cricut Storybook cart.

When you open the card and there is the Happy Birthday pop dotted up to allow the image to stand up. Ribbon from Oriental trading.
I messed about this for along time but I loved how it turned out. Again I don't care if I win anything but I enjoyed the process.

A card and layouts from Sat

One of my church friend's Grd is getting married and my neighbor J and I decided to go in together for the gift and since she will be gettin the gift I volunteered to make a card.

These are the pages I did on Sat. Kind of sad to spend that many hours and only get this much done! LOL

Gr'son I playing with his favorite toys, Thomas the Tank Engine and friends. DS A calls this I's congo line LOL

Supplies: cardstock DCWV spring stack 08, pp Basic Gray, twill tape and fibers Maya Road, poem Basic Gray, sticker letters Storytellers Club

More of Gr'son I that same day this time coloring. He loves to trace his hand or atleast the last time he colored he did! LOL
Supplies: card stock DCWV Spring 08 stack, pp DCWV Spring pp stack and K& Co, title cut with Cricut and Lyrical Letters, buttons from stash

I have been wanting to use this set from Storytellers but needed to wait for the right pictures and I finally had them. Both pictures were taken in the spring so they are mostly about the same time within a month or so.
Amazing how two little cousins can look so different! LOL
Supplies Storyteller's kit, cardstock from stash, title cut with my Cricut and a borrowed Hannah Montana cart. and ribbon from stash too


Last layout...St Pat's Day. I loved the pp that was in the DCWV Spring stack -08 and looked forward to creating a great layout using them. Pretty simple just added some buttons, ink and a title cut with my Cricut and my first use of stickles...love those things and can't wait to get a few more colors soon!
That's all for now but I have one more project to post as soon as I take the picture.

What We Did on 9-11

I opened my email a couple of days before 9-11-09 with a notice about a Patriotic Tattoo being held in West Jordan, Utah in honor of Sept 11 and Patriot's Day. I was spending much of the day at Scrapbook USA Expo in Sandy and West Jordan isn't too far away so I asked Mr Creative if he would like to go.
He picked me up a bit before 6 pm and we headed over. It was held at their rodeo grounds and thus the dirt in the arena. A Tattoo is a military term you might recognize as a song they play...Taps... which was a shortening of the word Tattoo. It began in Holland as a way to let the troops know it was time to leave the bars and the taps were turned off when the music was heard.
Over the years it has evolved into a show of military bands most especially Scottish pipe bands and there is a huge Tattoo held every year in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The organizers used the Patriot's Day as a way to bring together Scottish Pipe bands and one of the Army bands along with Scottish dancers and a song or two. Although it was a free event people were encouraged to donate to the Gold Star Families those who have lost a member of the military in war and of course we were glad to do so.
It was a wonderful concert but a bit too long for many of the children and older folks but I am glad we stayed for the whole thing. There was a moving ceremony near the end where the bands and color guards massed on the field with a symbolic coffin to offer thanks and love to all those who lost their lives on 9-11 and in the fight against terrorism! It was one of the most touching moments I have had for many years.

You can see the beautiful sun setting on the Wasatch Mts and one of the bands doing their set.
It was very late when we returned home and since I needed to prepare for the next day's scrapbook crop I wasn't in bed much before 3 am but it was so very much worth loosing a little bit of sleep.

A Fun Contest...join me

This is contest entry for those crazy folks at TodaysMama and Cricut. Be sure to check out Cricut's cool new cartridges and the chance at $30,000 in travel for you and your friends at the Great Gypsy Escape site!

Great Escape Meme

1. If you could escape to anywhere in the world where would it be?

2. What song do you play when you are by yourself in the car?

3. If you had a night to yourself, and money was no object, what would you do?

4. What is your guilty pleasure?

5. What is the farthest place you have traveled away from your home?

6. Last book that you couldn't put down?

7. When you want to escape into another time, what movie do you watch?

8. What is your favorite local escape?

9. How do you escape on a budget?

Copy the above and answer the questions on your blog. Then send a link to your post to....

info@todaysmama.com with "Cricut Meme" in the subject line.

If you win you can choose a Cricut Machine or all four of the newly released cartridges - what a great prize. - so here goes!!

My answers

Great Escape Meme

1. If you could escape to anywhere in the world where would it be?
I have always wanted to go to the Highlands of Scotland!

2. What song do you play when you are by yourself in the car?
The CD Goin' South with Sweet Home Alabama!

3. If you had a night to yourself, and money was no object, what would you do?
Have a full spa treatment with a massage, facial you know the works and then a superb gourmet dinner ending with the most decadent chocolate desert you can imagine.
4. What is your guilty pleasure?
Shopping for fabric for my quilt stash

5. What is the farthest place you have traveled away from your home?
Belize

6. Last book that you couldn't put down?
Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer

7. When you want to escape into another time, what movie do you watch?
Pride and Prejudice...the A&E version with Colin Firth LOL

8. What is your favorite local escape?
American Fork Canyon (when it isn't crowded)

9. How do you escape on a budget?
Using our timeshare locally instead of traveling too far to drive

Thanks to All My Blog Visitors

I topped 5000 visits to my blog today!
Wow! Who'd-a-thunk-it?
Anyway I plan to come up with some blog candy really soon for all my scrapping and quilting visitors and even my family and friends who just check up on what I am doing on occasion! LOL

So for now....
I will say a BIG Thank-you and watch out in the next few days for a candy post!

Recipe Swap Party bag-tag

For the second week's challenge for the Cuddlebug Party Challenge # 48 we were to make a gift bag and tag. If you remember the invitation I made for the Neighborhood Recipe Swap I used these little gingerbread boys and measuring spoons. I started with traditional red and green but I like the look of the brighter grass almost lime green too so I have added that to my colors. Since the invite was just a prototype I feel that I can tweak as I go along with the other challenges, right?
I had two Galaxy pens to do the white accents but can you believe they both were almost dry? LOL I went to a paper supply store, Xpedex yesterday to get the little bags for my challenge and just mentioned at the register that I was looking for a new one and voila!
They have them in stock. YEAH! So, the white shows up nicely I think.

Supplies: gift bag, cardstock, Cuddlebug folder Swissdots, ribbon, From the Kitchen Cricut cart, pp DCWV Christmas Glitter stack 08, ribbon stash.

More Paper Crafting

First I need to wish my oldest son D a Happy Birthday. We tried to celebrate yesterday but things didn't work so we will try today. LOL
I made him a card using the Wild Card Cricut cart. It is fun but I am glad I have the Design Studio to deal with figuring out the sizes to cut. It's not so hard once you figure out how big of an envelope can fit on the paper to then cut all the other parts. I thought this card and envie was a good choice for my son as he is a little but "kooky" LOL

Supplies cardstock, pp from that ever present Costco stack, glitter glue and a stamp from a set I bought from Costco as well. Inks from Stampin Up spots

This is a prototype of an invitation to a neighborhood recipe exchange I am planning for Dec. Cuttlebug Challenge is having a birthday celebration and having a month-long series of challenges around parties. I thought it would be a good time to do some preparation for my future get together. This will be the invitation and the theme will be carried out through the weeks.
I got the chance to use my brand spankin' new Kitchen Cricut cart but miss using the Design Studio to figure out how many I can fit on the page and tweak the designs a bit. I worked from my stash and I found I need brown cardstock LOL I would like to make the gingerbread boy cookie not so dark. LOL
I did use my Cuddlebug on the Mmmmm part (from the Graphically Speaking cart), and I found that it works quite well after it goes through the Xyron still on the Xyron paper backing. That is good to know. The folder I used was an old favorite Swiss Dots.
I need to make my plans for making about 15 or so more LOL

From the Center Out and Retreat 09

You might remember the center of this project a few weeks ago?
Our New Friends group is starting a project called From the Center Out lead by our very own CN, who is a wonderful quilter and teacher too. She wanted to do something in our next year that worked on borders and had a few books as examples. As we talked about it in our planning meeting it evolved into this project where she would lead us through a series of borders as we worked from our own center using colors and fabrics of our own choice.
I am loving the start of my little quilt...the first border as you see is a 1" finished sawtooth or half square triangles border. We brought our center up to 17" finished and then the border was added. Thank goodness she had us use foundation piecing with paper. I can't imagine piecing teeny tiny triangles like that. LOL
So here is my first border that I spent most of today working on and adding it to my center with corner triangles to set the center on point.
Next comes hour-glass blocks but I think I will take a break for now. LOL

Here ND shows a suggested Oct Retreat project...I have to admit it was my suggestion to do a table runner and she tells us it took her about 3.5 hours to do the top. As soon as I find out how much fabric for the focus fabric then I will shop my stash to make something that I will either give as a gift or maybe keep for myself! LOL

I See the Moon

I see the moon and the moon sees me
Down from above the old oak tree
Please let the light that shines on me
Shine on the one I love.

Over the mountains over the sea
That's where my heart is longing to be
Please let the light that shines on me
Shine on the one I love.

I promised my grson A that when ever he sees the moon in the sky that he will know his Nana sees the same moon and is thinking about him.
I took this picture as the beautiful moon rose over the mountains and headed up into the September sky.
I love you A!

Birthday Card Revealed

Happy Birthday to my darling girl! She turned 26 yesterday

Grandson Fun

Grandson I came over to our house the other day with his Daddy because D was going to help Mr Creative trim a tree that was shading one of the veggie gardens in the back yard.
I and Nana had several hours to spend together. I loves to play with the toys in Nana's toy closet and read books.

Today he discovered the joys of sidewalk chalk!
I thought he was old enough to try his hand with the chalk and he could see what was going on in the yard but still be a safe distance away. You can see he liked the color blue but ended up trying them all at least once. I think it turned out to be more fun than crayons because he didn't have to worry about running off the paper! LOL You can see Belle lost interest in this new project pretty quickly and sniffed around the yard instead.

I wanted to show off a "guy" he found in the toy basket to his Mommy and Daddy.
Gosh my little boy is growing up much too fast.

The Sneak Peek....Don't look B

As promised a sneak peak at the card I made yesterday!

Out of the Slump

There hasn't been much scrapbooking or cardmaking going on around my house lately. For some reason I would go in the scrap room and just not have any desire to play in my supplies. There are plenty of great events and pictures to work with and some wonderful supplies but for some reason I was not inspired.
I think a card class with the women in my church and getting my new Expression has FINALLY inspired me!
Here are a few new pages from my 2007 cruise and boy are they making me want to cruise again LOL

This is the beginning of a series of pages about our stop in Belize. It is an incredible country and so much potential for tourism and hopefully bringing it's citizens out of the very low income level. Our tour guide was a very interesting young man and he was very free with information about his country and his own family. I loved him!
The page on the left is a general page with photos from our tour and the second spotlights our "modes of travel" to the Mayan area Lamanhi.
Supplies: papers from a Costco stack and I love the bright colors and how they mix and match, glitter glue for accents, silk and Prima flowers with glittered brads. Titles cut with Life's A Beach Cricut cart

Here is the first four pages of our Playa de Carmen snorkeling day. that was one thing I never thought I would do but decided that since we had the perfect chance and the tour company we hired will teach us everything...Why Not? What a fun day and yep we did "swim with the rays, turtles, sardines and even a barracuda! YIKES! We got to try cave snorkeling, the beautiful ocean and an estuary as well with different experiences. We had a little scare when we couldn't find our driver to start with but after that it was all perfect including a beach side lunch.
Supplies for all four pages: cardstock ,patterned cardstock DCWV, more silk and Prima flowers, rhinestones, brads, charms cut from Life's A Beach Cricut Cart and title from Lyrical Letters Cricut Cart

There are two more pages done but I will have to share them tomorrow as I messed up deleting them from Picasa before sharing them.

I also made a Birthday card using my new Wild Card Cart and the Expression's 12x12 mat for the first time but as it is for my dd I can only give you a little hint until she gets it! LOL