Memorial Day Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to the Memorial Day Blog Hop! We have a great line up of bloggers for you today that are all going to share projects relating to Memorial Day. These ladies are great crafters! I hope you will join us for the hop and leave comments for everyone with your thoughts about their project.

You should have arrived her from Cindy. If you didn't and would like to start at the beginning of the hop, please visit Michele.
Now on to my project. I did a 2 page layout of my younger brother's retirement ceremony from the Air Force after serving 21 years.  I sure am proud of him and he was on some scary deployments, including Afghanistan and Iraq.

The background paper is Wausau Paper Crinkles Wheat  All other cardstock is Bazzill.  All the diecuts are from the Stand and Salute Cricut cartridge.  I cut the title, American Pride, at 11 1/2" wide, the Eagle/Star border was cut at 2 1/2" high and the Dog Tags were cut at 5" high (I cut the red dog tags on my Gypsy, used the hide/contour feature to hide the words then cut them so the red would show through on the blue dog tags).  I used my Perfect Layers tool to mat all the photos.  On the edges of the white cardstock of the journaling box, I used Tim Holtz' Faded Jeans Distressing Ink.

I have a little blog candy to give away.  One lucky commenter will win a Making Memories Spiral Journaling Book, 2 different Making Memories Woven Corners photo corners, Colorbok Layered Flowers and Colorbok Buttons.  Here is a picture (sorry it isn't better).

The winner will be drawn on Wednesday, June 1st.  If I figure out how those random drawing programs work to draw a winner, I'll use that.  If not, I'll have my grandson pick the winner. In your comment, please leave a way to contact you.

Thanks for hopping by!  I hope you enjoyed my project.

Your next stop is Roberta.

Here is a complete blog hop list for you:

1.  Michele - http://greengirlscraps.blogspot.com/
2.  Laura - http://lauras--piece--of--paradise.blogspot.com/
3.  Kristen - http://fantabulouslypink.blogspot.com/
4.  Rexann - http://ibecircled.blogspot.com/
5.  Jamie - http://www.myamusinglife.blogspot.com/
6.  Dana - Paper Memories - http://irwdanataft.blogspot.com/
7.  Cindy - http://www.inlovewithpaper.blogspot.com/
8.  Brenda - http://happyscrapper64.blogspot.com/  <------You are HERE!
9.  Roberta - http://www.txscrappermom.blogspot.com/  <------Go here next!
10. Renee - http://icameisawicreated.blogspot.com/

I've Been MIA

Sorry I haven't been here lately to update, but things have been extremely busy at work and home. Things are starting to settle down a little, so I hope to get back to blogging more regularly.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a nice, safe Memorial Day weekend! Stop back and see me tomorrow as I'm participating in a Memorial Day Blog Hop.

New Cricut Blog to Launch on May 18, 2011

I can't wait to see the new Cricut Blog when it launches tomorrow.  To get to the Cricut Blog, click on the button at the top of this post.

Used My E2 Tonight

I used my E2 tonight for the title 87 of this layout.  I used the Cricut American Alphabet cartridge.  I cut the 87 at a height of 2".  I used Hot Off The Press patterned paper for the base of the layout, and all the cardstock is Bazzill.  I used Martha Stewart ribbon and made the bow using the Bow-Easy tool.  I used the Perfect Layers tool to do the mats of the photos.

Scraproom for the Circle Blog

Here I am in my scraproom.  This is for the great giveaway on the Cricut Circle Blog.

Liebster Blog Award

The Liebster Blog award is given to bring newer blogs into the light.
Thanks so much, GypsyLady for thinking of me! It's a great way to share blogs that might not otherwise have been noticed and should be! As recipient you must share the love and pass it along to others, as well as these four things:

1. You must post on your blog and tell a little about the award and
announce your 3-5 picks.
2. Let those know you have chosen them.
3. Copy and post the award on your blog for all to see.
4. Have fun and continue to inspire

The 3 recipients I have chosen for this award are, in no particular order...
1) Cherie at Graceful Cardmakers
2) Lisa at Buggin at Lisa's Stuff-n-Such
3) Dale at Dale's Designs


So girls, collect your award and spread the love around!

Thanks Mom Blog Hop Winner

Sorry this is so late posting, but I've been having internet problems.

Anyway, here is the prize for the winner of the Thanks Mom Blog Hop:

My grandson drew the winner, and the winner is . . . . . . lisastuf!  Congratulations!

THANKS MOM BLOG HOP

Welcome to the THANKS MOM BLOG HOP.  Thanks for joining us to enjoy all the wonderful crafy inspiration in honor of mothers everywhere from the talented designers in this hop.

You should have arrived here from DEBBIE.  If you missed the beginning of the hop, please go back to the start of the hop at DEBBIE - http://www.debseclecticthoughts.blogspot.com/ to start so you don't miss any of the projects.  There is a Grand Prize Blog Candy offered so you want to start at the beginning and read how to participate to win.

My project is a Mother's Day card for my daughter from my grandson. Here it is:

Front of card



Inside of card:

Close ups of inside of card:

For the front of the card, the base is The Paper Company cardstock. The patterned cardstock is from the DCWV Blossoms and Butterflies Stack. 

I cut "Whoo loves  you?" from the Straight From The Nest Cricut cartridge at a height of 1.75", using Wausau Paper Royal Fiber Sunflower Bark Texture cardstock. 

The owl was cut from the Give A Hoot Cricut cartridge at a height of 4", using brown Bazzill cardstock and the following Wausau Paper:  Royal Fiber Sunflower Bark Texture cardstock (for the body), Crinkles Mustard (for the belly, wings, triangle between eyes) and Royal Metallics White Gold on Noble White (for the eyes).  The very light yellow for the legs and beak are from The Paper Company.

On the inside, the vellum quote is Tiny Tales Vellum by My Minds Eye.  The "I Do" is cut from the Sweethearts Cricut cartridge at a height of 1.75" using Wausau Paper Royal Fiber Sunflower Bark Texture cardstock.  Since I couldn't find my Happy Mother's Day stamp, I had to write that part. 

Here is a screen shot of my Gypsy, as well as the  paper on the mat:  (sorry the screen shot is blurry, but I haven't figured out how to get a better shot yet.)



I hope you enjoyed my card.  This is my first time participating in a blog hop, and I want to thank Debbie for asking me to join.  Since I'm new, I'd like to offer some blog candy, but I'm not sure what it is yet.  I'm actually at the Mega Meet and will pick up a prize there.  Not sure what it will be, but if you'd like a chance to win it, you will need to leave a comment on this post along with a way to contact you.  I'll write down the names of the commenters and have my grandson draw the winner.  (I'd use an electronic program, but I don't know where to find one and how they work.)  You are not required to be a follower to win, but I'd love to have you as one!

Thanks for hopping along wth us.  Remember, if you leave a comment on every designers blog hop post, your name will go into the drawing for the Blog Candy that our THANKS MOM BLOG HOP hostess, Debbie is offering as a Grand Prize.

Next up on the hop is the talented DAWN.



Mega Meet!!!!!

I'm going to be at the Mega Meet in Novi, Michigan on Thursday, May 5th, and Friday, May 6th.  Usually my friend Wendy and I drive back and forth both days, but this year we are staying for the crop Thursday night and staying at a hotel so we can just get up Friday morning and head back to the Mega Meet.

Won My First Blog Award

I want to thank Rebecca at Buzzy Bee Designs for choosing me to receive this wonderful award!  It is my first one and I really appreciate it!  Please visit Rebecca's blog and see the wonderful projects she has there.

I am to list 8 things about me and select 15 bloggers to honor with this award.

Here are 8 things about me:

1.  I turned 47 this year.
2.  I have a daughter who is turning 23 in August and a son who is turning 18 in June.
3.  I have an adorable grandson who will be 4 in October.
4.  I am a proud member of the Cricut Circle.
5.  It's been a year since I got my own scrap room, and I'm still trying to organize it.
6.  I go on weekend crops twice a year with some wonderful friends.
7.  I love to scrapbook and make cards, when I find the time.
8.  I've had my blog for a while, but just started posting more because I visit inspring blogs!

Now for the hard part. I have to pick 15 bloggers to give this award to.  Since I follow many blogs, this was very hard to narrow down to just 15.  Anyway, in  order to follow the rules, here are the 15 I have chosen (in no particular order):

Scrappers Anonymous
Life In Words and Pictures
Scrap-Obsessed
With Glittering Eyes
Stamp, Cut, Create!
Confessions of a Scrapaholic
3 cats and a bug
Soft Side of Sandi
Get Inspired with ChatterScene
ScrappyRN
N2 Scrappin 4 Fun
Cricut Croppin' with Cassandra
Creating with the Heart
Grammies Craft Room
Kreative Karla

Please visit their blogs, become a follower and leave some love.

Here Is An Older Project

Since I haven't been able to fit in any scrapping for a few days, I thought I'd post a mini chipboard album that I completed at a weekend crop last fall.  It's for my grandson Ethan, who just LOVES Toy Story.  The Toy Story patterned paper and stickers are Creative Memories, the white cardstock is from a pack I bought at Meijer and the chipboard I bought at the Mega Meet last year.  I believe I used George and Basic Shapes Cricut cartridge for the actual pages, and I used Storybook to spell out Ethan on the edges of the pages.

I have plans to cut and assemble for him each of the characters on the Toy Story cartridge, but I think I'll save that until I have a few days of vacation.

Happy Easter!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Easter!  I wish the weather was better so we could have the Easter egg hunt outside, but I guess we'll do it inside instead.  We are going to my Mom's for dinner today.

Happy Easter!

Scrappy Mail Today

When I got home from work today, this is what was waiting for me:

Yep, those are the Martha Steward faux pearl stickers.  I ordered them from HSN, but they were backordered.  I'm looking forward to using them on some of my upcoming projects.

Well, this is as close to crafting that I got tonight. My 3 year old grandson is staying the night, and when he's here it is sometimes hard to work on any projects.  I do have a long weekend coming up, so I hope to get a few things completed.

Another Easter Card

Here's another Easter card I put together tonight.

The base of the card is from The Paper Company Pastel value pack. the Easter egg patterned paper is The Paper Studio, the brown cardstock is Bazzill and the pink cardstock on the bunny is Bazzill.  The Oblong Circle (brown cardstock and patterned paper) were cut using the Elegant Edges Cricut cartridge at a height of 7 inches.  The bunny was cut using the Give A Hoot Cricut cartridge at a height of 3 inches.

My Newest Cricut Cartridges

Here is a picture of my newest Cricut cartridges:

Elegant Edges arrived on Friday, and I've already got an Easter card designed on my Gypsy with it.  I hope to make the card tonight or tomorrow and will post it.

I picked up Campin' Critters today at Michaels.  I was going to get it at Hobby Lobby, but when I took the "ticket" up to the register, the girl said we are out of that.  I told her there were 3 other tickets for that cartridge on display and she said that the display tickets don't match up with their inventory.  Oh well, it was cheaper at Michael's anyway.

My First Time Participating in a Blog Hop!

I will be participating in my first blog hop, which is the Thanks Mom Blog Hop from Friday, May 6th through Monday, May 9th!  I'm so excited to do this, especially since blog hops I've visited recently have motivated me to scrap more.  I hope you will join us!

Simple Birthday Card

I made a very simple birthday card tonight.  I used the Sweet Treats Cricut cartridge.  Here is the screen shot from my Gypsy (sorry it's blurry).

I ended up not using "may all your wishes come true" (the upper right hand corner) because it was too big for my card.  "happy birthday" was cut at at height of 2" and all the ice cream cone parts were cut at a height of 5".  Here is the paper laid out on the mat (I didn't use the pink in the upper corner):

All cardstock except the yellow is Bazzill.  The yellow is The Paper Company from the Pastel Value Pack.  The base of the card was from a package I bought at Hobby Lobby.  The patterned paper on the card is from a kit I purchased from QVC quite a while ago.  It doesn't show, but on the tan stripes, there are polka dots.  Here is my finished card:

The outside of the card

The inside of the card

Now I'm going to sign and seal my card so I can send it off tomorrow.  I hope you like my card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Easter Card

Here is an Easter card I made tonight.

This is an 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" card.  The cardstock used for the card base, Happy Easter, the base behind Happy Easter and both greens for the grass is The Paper Company pastel cardstock.  The patterned cardstock is from the DCWV Blossoms & Butterflies stack. The cardstock for the bunny, flowers and dragonfly is Bazzill.

I used the Easter 2010 Solutions Cricut cartridge to cut Happy Easter (title in pink and shadow in lavendar) at 2.5" high.  I used the Kate's ABCs Cricut cartridge to cut the bunny, grass, flowers and dragonfly at 4.5" high.  I used my Gypsy to arrange the cuts on a 12 x 12 mat, and here is the screen shot:

Now here is a picture of the mat with all the cardstock placed on it:

Here is a picture of all the cuts:

Here is a picture of the cuts assembled:

Sorry I don't have a picture of the card base before adding the cuts, but I forgot to take a picture of it before assembly.

Look What I Bought

So I keep telling myself that I don't need to buy any more scrapping stuff, but do I listen to myself - - - NO!!!  Here is what I bought today:

I really don't need another Cricut cartridge, let alone another baby cartridge, but this was just too cute to pass up!

I hope to get some cards made tomorrow night.  I have a birthday card and Easter cards to make.  I'm also thinking about making a sympathy card for my neighbor, whose dalmation passed away tonight.  As I complete my cards, I will post them.  Now I'm off to visit some blogs of fellow crafters.

April Showers Blog Hop

I'm doing another blog hop today since I had so much fun with the last one I did.  They inspire me to do more crafting and to start posting more of my projects on my blog.  Here is a list of the wonderful blogs I'm visiting during this hop:

http://www.creationswithkathryn.com/
http://www.kareljcreations.com/
http://www.craftyscentiments.blogspot.com/
http://www.beyondscrapin.blogspot.com/
http://ollieanddextersmommy.blogspot.com/
http://roxybonds-scrappin.blogspot.com/
http://www.cricutconfessions.com/
http://pattisscrapingtime.blogspot.com/
http://www.makinprettythings.com/
http://www.spantastikreations.blogspot.com/
http://lovescrapreflect.blogspot.com/
http://creativearmywife.blogspot.com/
http://agirlandhercraftbox.blogspot.com/
http://pammejo-scrapbookflair.blogspot.com/
http://peanutbutterandjellydesigns.blogspot.com/
http://leahscarddesigns.blogspot.com/
http://disneydreamerdesigns.blogspot.com/
http://mccalleyhouse.blogspot.com/
http://www.cricutingwithlisa.blogspot.com/
http://scrapaholicjen.blogspot.com/
http://thatzuneek.blogspot.com/
http://vindeeloosthisnthat.blogspot.com/

Doing a Blog Hop Today

This is my first time doing a blog hop, and I'm really enjoying visiting the great blogs and seeing their wonderful projects.  You should check them out!  Here are links:

http://www.craftychicsblog.blogspot.com/
http://disneydreamerdesigns.blogspot.com/2011/03/welcome-to-disneypixar-blog-hop.html
http://www.pinkcricut.com/2011/03/disney-pixar-blog-hop/
http://www.funkycards.blogspot.com/
http://cardmonkey-business.blogspot.com/
http://tamiscraftconnection.blogspot.com/
http://scrappinmystressaway.blogspot.com/
http://lenascrafts.blogspot.com/
http://www.scrapntoteblog.com/
http://www.snoflaks.blogspot.com/
http://amychomas.blogspot.com/

I have really enjoyed the blog hop and am inspired to do some crafting!

Sauders Weekend Crop March 11-13, 2011



I accomplished a lot during the weekend crop at Sauders March 11 - 13, 2011.  Below are all the layouts that I completed.

I used the Simply Sweet Cricut cartridge to cut 70th and Birthday.

I used a kit I bought from HSN to do this layout.

I believe I used the Pooh Font Cricut cartridge for this title.



I used the Wild Card Cricut cartridge to cut Get Better and the Everyday Paper Dolls Cricut cartridge to cut the doctor's bag.

I used the Don Juan Cricut cartridge to cut "Go Bucks!".

The Halloween title is from a 3 Birds borders kit I bought from HSN, the Buzz Lightyear sticker and saying are from Creative Memories and 2010 was cut from the Happy Hauntings Cricut cartridge.

The Krop For Kids cardstock was a gift for attending the crop.

The title "Let's Play" was cut from the Toy Story Cricut cartridge.

The Toy Story patterned paper and sticker is from Creative Memories.

My Dad's Birthday Card

I actually sat down and made my Dad's birthday card tonight. All the cardstock used is Bazzill. The card is a 5 x 7 card, whichI cut 10 x 7 and used my Martha Stewart scoreboard to score the fold line. I used the Mickey & Friends Cricut cartridge to cut Goofy at 3 inches, the Straight from the Nest Cricut cartridge to cut the birthday hat and shadow at 1.5 inches and the Doodletype Cricut cartridge to cut "happy birthday" and shadow at 3 inches. I used glitter gel pens on Goofy's birthday hat and the hat "A".

New Cricut Cartridges!

I have a lot of new Cricut cartridges to start playing around with. In the last week and a half, I got the following cartridges: Best of Pixar, Disney Classics, Tinkerbell & Friends, Dreams Come True, Happily Ever After, Celebrate With A Flourish, B is for Boy, Four Legged Friends, Kate's ABCs and Nate's ABCs. I guess I'd better get scrapping!

Lansing Swarm - February 12, 2011

I went to the Lansing Swarm yesterday and had a great time! I met so many nice people from the Cricut Circle message board. Mike from Provo Craft was there, and here is a picture of me with him.





I also made calling cards to swap with my fellow Circlets. I used the 50 States and Create A Critter cartridge, as well as a Cuttlebug embossing folder. Here it is:

New Year - New Beginnings

Wow, I can't believe we are in 2011 already! I have some goals for the new year.

First, I joined Weight Watchers yesterday to help meet my goal of losing weight. I hope to be down quite a bit by summer.

My second goal is to finish getting my scraproom organized and do scrapbooking at least 3 or 4 nights a week. This might help me get a little caught up on my albums.