Is it HOT & STICKY or what????

And if you can get past that, then there's that whole mosquito infestation to contend with! I can deal with heat & humidity - that's what we have a pool for, but the mosquitos are another story! All the rain we've been getting isn't helping in the humidity or the mosquito problem.

Unfortunately, when it gets hot like this, I can't even really craft in my craft room because it just gets too hot by 11:00 a.m., so I either have to get it done early or break it up into several days.

I did manage to get some stuff done before all the heat hit. I made my daughter's Kindergarten teacher a flower pot bouquet. She was retiring this year, so I wanted something different & special for her last class. I'm hoping she liked it.




















Then, there was my step-sister's birthday in May also. She's been battling leukemia for 3 years & has finally started to feel better & look great again. I made this card for her. This is the front of the card.















This is the inside. It reads: Count your life by smiles, not tears. Count your age by friends, not years.















This is the gift I made for my step-sister, it's a bowling ball I made into a gazing ball. She always seemed to really admire the one I made for myself, so I decided to make one for her too. I wish I could have done a better job on hers, but they always say that we're our own worst critic.

















Last, but not least....have you heard about the new Cricut Lite cartridges that are a Walmart exclusive? Oh dear! There are about 24 new ones I believe, & just about all are must have's, but some are a little less than necessary. Anyway, our Walmart didn't have the whole 24, but had a decent amount to pick from. Of course, at nearly $40 bucks a pop, I'll have to pace them out in my purchasing. This little notebook is from the Bloom cartridge. It's very cute! I still have to dig out my Bind It All and add the binding to the left side of this, but you get the idea of how it's supposed to look. It has a few words, but no font like some of them do.











Brooke went to her first day camp today at Earthworks with her friend Daniel & she had a blast! She's kind of whooped, but that's a good thing! The bad part is now she's so easily bored & so anxious to get in the pool that isn't quite ready yet. The kids made some strawberry jam today & got to pet the animals there & was able to do lots of "swimming" in the little lake there.

I also received some very sad news today. It seems that in an ironic, bad twist of fate, my cousin was killed in a car accident on Sat. morning. He wasn't driving, but was the passenger, so it was no fault of his own, other than he was there (and had been drinking). The twist to the story is that 20 years ago, he WAS the driver and was involved in an accident that killed his passenger, that was his best friend. He never got over that guilt & battled his demons all these years with the only weapon he knew & it too caused him even more pain - alcohol. I was never close to my uncle and aunt, but I would never wish this on any family or parent, no matter how old their "kids" are. Terry is finally at peace & perhaps back with his friend.

God bless & hug your loved ones everyday.

Scrappy Good News!

I was tickled to hear the news that Scrapbooking.com wanted to publish a two-page layout of mine for their June edition called "a sprinkle of fun." This is my 2nd time being published by Scrapbooking.com online magazine & it's such a thrill to be chosen!





































If you're not already signed up for their FREE monthly newsletter, you can easily sign up for that by clicking HERE. It's full of great inspiration from well known designers, as well as the "not-so-well-known" designers. It's fast, simple & did I mention? FREE!!!

Oh! And if all this isn't enough, if you check out Paper Trunk's blog to scope out their coolest new release called Rockabilly & pass the word about the new release, you have a chance to win the collection & they have got some cute stuff to go along with the papers too! One of the best things about Paper Trunk is that they are a green company & they use recycled materials in their packaging in order to help save the earth. One other little thing too, if you leave a comment before midnight on Wed. 6/2/10 you have a chance to win an iPod! How cool is that????

Since the day has started off gloomy & with heavy downpours of rain already this morning, it's perfect weather to try to finish up all the end of school projects
for my daughter's school year. I can't believe she's done with Kindergarten already. The years have just flown by. She only has to go until Thursday. I hope they don't figure in the snow days next year like they did this year. All the other schools in our area have been out a week already.

Well, that's all I have for today - as if it wasn't enough.

God Bless & have a great day!

Tis the season of giving....

I know it's Memorial Day, but it's starting to feel a lot like Christmas...At least that's what it seems like right now with all the birthdays, graduations & retirements happening at the moment. It seems like I have a ton of cards to make & gifts to buy for so many people! The only thing missing is the Christmas tree & the freezing temperatures & that's OK too!

Right now I'm working on an End of Year/Retirement gift for my daughter's Kindergarten teacher. She is having to retire this year due to budget cuts in the school. I'm making fair progress in it so far, but realized that I still have a long way to go on it & only 2 more days left to get it done. (insert rolling eyes here...)

But it's not like I haven't been doing anything creative lately. I did make the 2 Mother's Day cards in the previous post below & I even made another one just because, but I have no shots of it yet.

My Step-Sister's birthday was last Sat, so I made her this birthday card below. I grabbed my Papercraft Cards magazine for the inspiration on the outside of the card, but used my own idea for the inside (except for the sentiment used). My step-sis has had a rough 3 years in her battle with cancer & other problems that came from her treatments. She just returned from a 2 week stay in Boston, right before her birthday, where she was being fitted for special contact lenses to keep her eyes from drying out so bad because of an illness that attacked her eyes. The poor woman has been through a lot.
















Inside:















Bowling Ball Gazing ball - I would have liked it to have turned out better in the design. It's only my 2nd one that I've made. It still needs some perfecting. She loved it anyway, so I'm happy that she liked it enough to keep it at her front door! I may make her another one that will hopefully turn out better.










I also have my older sister's birthday, which was the 29th, but she'll be coming for a visit next weekend. She has Down's Syndrome & doesn't necessarily care if her cards & gifts are hand made, unless they're in a theme she's really into. I still plan on making her a card & will be pulling out my Indie Art Cricut cartridge to make that. Even though she's 46, she's really into what ever the teenage girls are into right now, so the skulls, roses & rock star is the look I'll be aiming for. Too bad I don't have the ability to do something for her in Twilight, she'd be ALL over that! LOL! She's so funny!

My sister & I are only 14 months apart & even though she's older, I've been more like the big sister - even to this day. My parents are both still alive (divorced), but it's always been up to me to be her caretaker. It's all part of that whole disfunctional family thing that I've learned to overcome through the years.

God Bless & hope you all had a great holiday weekend (in the U.S.)!

Mother's Day Cards

Here are two cards I made for Mother's Day. I thought they were quite pretty, but don't seem to be drawing too much attention from others, so they must be the kind that only the creator can love.

The first one is for my Grandma. It was also a going away card for her, as we had a going away party on Sat. for her & her husband. They have decided to move to Tennessee & are in the process of selling their house. I wanted to make a separate card for the "going away" part, but once the inspiration finally hit for her card & my step-mom's card, I didn't have enough time for a 3rd one. I took some of the tiny cuts from the 2nd card just to add a little pop of color on this one. I used the Wild Card Cricut cartridge for the card base & the Mother's Day cartridge for the rest of the card design. I also used my Cricut markers to create the outlines. I found that I had a more noticeable look when I went over it twice with the markers. I also discovered that I could get a different look if I swapped out different marker colors for a more customized color, like I did on the first card base outline. That was a green & blue & I got a sort of teal color. I wanted to emboss the frame behind the word "Grandma" but I got a little ahead of myself & didn't feel like pulling it apart just to do that, so I made sure I did the one on the inside of the card. LOL!












This is the inside of the card. Nothing like a little bit of Stickles & some Pearlz to add the right amount of bling to a card!









Below is the card I made for my step-mom. I have to admit to everyone that I did not make a card for my mother. She has caused our relationship to become quite strained over the years. I wish it could be very different than what it is, but her mental illness makes it very difficult to be with her, as she seems to feel like she's not happy unless she's ruining a perfectly good day for everyone. For anyone that may know or have dealt with a family member with mental illness, you can understand ... or maybe not.

Anyway, I was shooting for a more blue & yellow look with this card, but when I discovered this darker bluish-purple card stock in my stash, I thought it would stand out better, & then adding the dark blue Stickles just seemed to add even more to the wow factor equation.






I first have to admit the quality of this picture is poor, so I apologize for that. Also, the inside of this card didn't turn out as nicely as I would have liked, but time was running out, it was late, I was tired & she was still impressed. I have to say that the doily cuts on the Mother's Day Cricut cartridge are the BOMB!! If you get it for nothing else, get it for these cuts!




God Bless & have a creatively great day!

Working on the view from my window...

Well, the photo below won't be the view from MY window, but it will be for my step-mom. Even though I'm not into the cutesy kind of decor like this teapot planter, I do like how it turned out. Brooke picked out the pot & the Gerbera Daisy, but I selected the color & the other plants to go with it. There's not really much room to plant too many things in this planter, so you have to watch it & not go overboard. Fortunately, I found an asparagus fern that was growing to one side of it's container & that made it easy to break off some excess dirt that was necessary to make it fit with the daisy in that small opening. Then, I thought I'd try a little idea of sticking a bit of the sweet alyssum coming out of the spout. I will have to say that the key to putting this all together was using the Miracle Gro Moisture potting soil. It was pretty wet & held together well for packing.


















Below is one that went in a whole other direction than what I was thinking in my head. LOL! Does that happen to you? It happens to me on just about everything I do. I guess that's why I don't plan things out, they never work out that way & I have to start the thought process all over, or else I'm just a poor planner. Hmmmm....could be!(eyes rolling). I still like how this turned out & I'm hoping it fills out the way I'm wanting it to. I was initially just going to fill the planter with the blue lobelia, but then I thought how pretty the white alyssum would look & smell with it and the next thing ya know, I'm picking out red petunias & going for the Americana look & of course, I needed the spike in the center for the look of a firework exploding! I know, kinda corny, but that's how I am sometimes.


















I really like that planter, but unfortunately, since we live in the woods, the 1st year I had it a raccoon must have been intrigued by it & knocked it off the wall. Now it has a big hole on one side (on the right side), but it luckily doesn't affect the the interior of the pot. I should have been a little wiser in planning my photo op & took my shot from a different angle.

I h ave a few other planters that I want to put together yet, but need some more flowers to hopefully get the look I want. We'll see.

As for scrapbooking, I have to make some Mother's Day cards & a moving away card for my grandma. I need to get going on those, the going away party is tomorrow & Mother's Day is the next day. Not to mention that I'm supposed to be making a pasta salad & some brownies or cookies to take too.

With all that, I guess I should get off here & start on something!

To all the wonderful Mother's out there, I hope you all have a great Mother's Day & are able to spend it with your kids, big or small.

God Bless & have a great weekend!

Has 2 weeks really passed.....

since I last blogged?? Well, the weather has just been so nice that I haven't been doing much updating here, so that's probably why. We had a mostly rainy weekend though, but had enough of a break to get in Brooke's soccer game Saturday morning. Then I took DH out to dinner & to a concert by an Eagle's tribute band that was actually VERY good! This was a birthday Eve celebration for him and Sunday was his 45th birthday & it was totally rained out, so we went shopping!

I finally got to check out the new scrapbook store that sort of re-opened under new ownership a few months back up in South Bend/Mishawaka (never sure exactly which city Grape Road resides in, if you're from the Notre Dame University area). I didn't get to check it out completely, as we had other places to go on DH's list & the mall. I definitely want to go back there & see more! I like Pages In Time Forever & they have very current stuff & the layout is not overwhelming. If you're in the area, go check them out!

I don't have much of anything new yet to add for inspiration on here yet, just some little things, but I have been working on some stuff! There's so many ideas screaming through my head to do, I can't quite keep up with all of them AND my other duties around the house & now yard! I love flowers & gardening, but I plan to keep up on my scrappy projects through out the summer this year! I've been doing much better this year with that & I'm really proud of myself up to this point.

Here is a little notebook I made from a small cereal box using my Bind It All. I got the idea from a either a book or a magazine, but when Charity, one of my DT homies at The Memory Zone made some, I totally flipped over them & haven't forgotten the idea.


















Here is the inside to show that it's filled with paper. I have a ton of this old feeder holed computer paper that my MIL had, so I cut it to fit & filled the booklets with it. I think this is a way cool & very "green" idea!










This is one of those cute little gumball machines that the local Walmart was selling at Easter. My daughter isn't fond of gumballs, so I replaced them with M&M's (I actually used the pastel ones) & then personalized it with her initial & some swirlies in hot pink vinyl. How cute!

















This is a very simple birthday card I made for my DH using my Cricut Expression with the Wild Card cartridge that I just got, His 45th birthday was on Sunday, the 25th. I thought it was simple, but he thought it was over the top. It's made only with card stock, but the navy blue is a shimmery (not glittery) type from Canson & it's really cool! I just embossed the white inside with the star folder from Cuttlebug & added stickles to the green star frame & the white title. Inside simply says "Celebrate."












This Saturday is National Scrapbook Day. Do you have any plans to celebrate the day? There is going to be a local crop locally, but since Brooke has soccer every Saturday, I won't be able to participate in that. It is supposed to rain all weekend, so maybe I will actually get some scrap time in to honor the day! I'm sure I could even find something happening online too!

And, last but certainly NOT least....I am getting one of my layouts published in the Scrapbooking.com online publication for June!! It's titled "a sprinkle of fun" & I'm so excited about that! It's the 2nd time I've been published by them & the last time, I even made the cover! I don't think they do a cover page with a layout anymore, but I'm still happy about the pub!


God Bless & have a great week!

Out of my comfort zone.

I just got this new line from BoBunny called Paradise Collection and I have to admit, the colors are typically not colors I'm drawn to, but it was the perfect color pallet to match my pictures that we took of a beach we heard about in Florida. I think I need to tweak my pictures because they don't do the color of the ORANGE beach justice. I didn't do that when I had them printed, since I just requested a mass printing at Walgreens when they had a special.










I hope my little idea works out OK without any problems on the close up of the page below, but that remains to be seen. Ya see, I took the cool clam shell packaging that the buttons & bling comes in with the domed cover & used it like a shaker box for some of my daughter's favorite sea shells & some of the "sand", which is actually crushed sea shells & they must be stained like they've been in rusty water. That is what creates the orange look to the beach. I'm not sure what makes it rusty or what crushes the shells, but it was interesting to see!

Another cool looking trick I tried (which I only did because I already had quite the dimension going on with that shaker box! *snort!*) but I even layered my bling jewels. I used the Orange ones that come in this collection and I used the deep turquoise ones that come in the Flutter Butter collection. The center stones are the great big ones that I placed a smaller stone of the opposite color on. They don't look great in pictures, since the top stones seems to shade over the bottom stone, but they create quite an impact in the light!

**I updated this photo from the original post because I needed a better color quality photo of the beach, but since everything is stuck in place, I just cut the new photo a bit smaller & did a 3 dimensional layer over the old one. The old photo is like a frame for the new one!

















Under the family photo on the right hand page, I created a hidden journal tag that you can pull from the bottom that tells of our brief time spent at this beach. It was definitely interesting to see, but most likely not a place that we'd go back to hang out a lot. When we left there, we had what felt like a greasy film that was rusty colored (maybe the salt in the air?). You definitely would require a shower after walking on this beach. I will say that it was very private with NO solicitors for time shares, like you get when you're at Daytona! I recommend this place to visit at least once just for the cool experience. We even had a really nice local who offered to take our picture for us, but it was such a windy day that I had to hold my hair down & maybe it's really breezy along the ocean, I don't know, since I'm from northern Indiana. LOL!! That's what I used those cool looking chipboard swirls for, they reminded me of the wind & the waves.















The only thing on this project that isn't Bo Bunny is the small border punched strip above the family photo. I thought it sort of mimicked sea shells & it's from EK, but I don't remember what it's called.

That's what I have today.

God bless & have a greatly creative day!

One

This is the only thing I've gotten done for this posting & it's a nearly total scrap lift of the one done by Stmako111 at Scrapbook.com. About the only thing different from hers is that I used a bubble border punch along the striped velum at the center of the page & I used Goofy's head for the Cricut die cut instead of a full body, but only because I don't have the Mickey & Friends cartridge that he is on. I have the font one, which is really good to have too, by the way! My colored swirls are different & the "O's" in Goofy are a bit different than hers, but they're still the same effect. I'd still like to do a 2nd page for this, as I have another photo & his autograph that I'd like to include too. We'll see how far I get on that. I'm trying to clean my scrap room some so I can get around more. Geesh! It's never ending!






















That's it for today for me. It's sunny & a bit chilly after having the freezing rain overnight. Going to go outside & see how my flowers are holding up!

God Bless and have a great day!

I got it today!!

I was so thrilled to see the UPS man arrive at my door today with my prize pkg. from Pebbles, Inc. (American Crafts)!! I don't know if someone there was reading my mind or if I've posted some of my favorite lines somewhere on their site, but I received the full line from Lil' Miss AND lil' buddy - stickers included, coordinating chips for each line & coordinating candy dots & full sets of matching ribbons & rub ons!!! I probably forgot something in all the excitement, but I just can't wait to start going through more of my little miss & little buddy photos to create some pages that I'm desperately behind on. I really wanted the lil' buddy stuff because I didn't get any before my LSS closed their doors. It so stinking cute! So a HUGE THANK YOU goes to the people at Pebbles, Inc & American Crafts for a great prize!! It made a gloomy day so much brighter.

OK, now you all have got to go check out the new Cricut Cake give away on the Cuttlebug Challenge blog! Yes, they're giving away a Cricut cake machine and there's lots of ways to enter into the drawing!! While you're there, you also need to check out Provo Craft spokesperson Jinger Adams' video demo of the machine. She's also got some great tips for using the machine & other products. You don't want to miss out on this!!

I have been working on another Disney page, but it's a total scraplift of the lady on the Cricut messageboard who did 2 entire albums for Disney. I wanted to get something accomplished without having to try to think of something on my own & her one Goofy page is pretty cute & simple to complete, even though I don't have the Mickey & Friends cartridge, I'm improvising as much as possible. I do have the Mickey font & I'm really glad I have that one! I'll post it here when I'm done, but I'm not going to bother with putting on the Cricut site, since it is a nearly exact replica. LOL!!!


Now on to some spring flower pics, if that doesn't bore you too much. I just love spring & all the pretty flowers & smells they bring when they're in full bloom. They just make me happy! My small rhododendron is finally blooming the best it ever has in the 7 years we've been here. I'm lucky that it's even still alive after the deer chewed it to a nub one winter. That's why it has taken so long just to get to the point it's at today. I don't have a photo of it yet, but it's in full open bloom just today, but it's raining & I don't feel like trying to get a shot of it. I do, however, have this ginormous rhododendron that it taller than the gutters of my house! I just love this beautiful beast, but after it blooms this season, I will HAVE to cut it back hard because it makes it too difficult to clean those gutters out for my DH. I wish we could move this big thing without killing it, but that would be a challenge in itself. I hope to get some shots of it when it goes into bloom.



This is just a small section of daffodils that circle a huge boulder in our yard. I love the variety here. I just love spring & the more earlier the flowers, the better!





I just love daffodils & this particular variety is really pretty, but don't ask me if it's my favorite, cuz I don't think I've met a daf I didn't like!





This is my only Hellebore plant & this is the first year that I've gotten a bloom from it in the 3 years I've had it! The blooms are bigger than I thought they'd be, but that's a good thing!

Well, I think I'll go work on my Disney page & relax for a bit. I'm a bit tired from the yard clean up yesterday.

God Bless & have a great day!

Pebbles Inc. Spring Challenge! - WINNER!!!!

Holy mackerel!! I can't believe that I actually won something at the Pebbles Inc. Spring challenge with this page! That means I get some awesome Pebble goodies!! THANKS so much Pebbles!!























Pebbles Inc. is having a blog challenge this week in celebration of this being the first week of Spring. So the above page is one that I created using the Lil' Miss line. It worked really well for this sepia photo of my daughter, Brooke, when she was about 18 months old. I even dry embossed, then sanded the bird & heart die cut stickers to add a little more detail & interest. And, there's nothing like birds & flowers to make you think Spring! (and I'm thrilled to see my daffodils blooming now! YAY!!)


If you would like to participate, it's really simple. All you have to do is:

1. Leave a comment on their blog posted with a link where they can view your spring themed project. Please be sure to leave your email address in your post as well so they can contact you if you are a winner.
2. Projects must use at least 50% Pebbles product.
3. Comments and links must be posted by 9pm EST on Thursday, March 25th to qualify to win. The winner will be chosen at random and posted on Friday, March 26th. (This contest is CLOSED)

And even though I only had a few pieces of this darling line, I still had enough product left over to create this darling little card! Is that owl sticker the cutest???

So, if you have some Pebbles just laying around, try making a Spring layout with it!

~God Bless & have a great day!