Merry Christmas and a Happy 2009!

I just wanted to wish everyone who visits my blog a Very Merry Christmas (a little late) and a Happy 2009! I hope your new year is filled with love and happiness and lots of great crafting projects. =~)

A bit behind...

Ugh, I can't believe how far I have let this get behind. The last thing I posted was Halloween. I need to update soon!!!

I will post some of my Christmas gifts and cards as well as my before and after scrap space (I need to clean and organize better!) in the next few days.

Halloween Shadow Box

I found this idea in Paper Crafts October 2008 magazine.
I bought a plain shadow box from Michaels, painted it black, and lined the back with some CM paper from my stash. I cut 2 spiders from Doodlecharms. The stamp is from SU.
This was so fast and easy to make. I am going to try to adapt the idea for Christmas.

Note cards

I made these very simple cards with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder, some Prima flowers (I love these!) and some brads. Nothing fancy and very quick to make.

Embossing with Xyron...who knew?

I had cut an acron from Mickey and Friends. I was going to use it on a lay out but changed my mind. I didn't want ot waste it so I decided to go ahead and assemble it to use later. I keep a small accordion folder for this. I ran the top part through the Xyron but realized after that I had put itin upside-down. UGH!!! I have seen some beautiful things that some ladies on the Cricut MB have made by running their project through the Xyron on both sides and then sprinkling glitter on the front. I didn't have any glitter though (it's going on my list). I have some gold embossing powder and thought "what the heck I'll give it a try". I ran it through the Xyron again and put the acorn together the right way. Then I sprinkled the embossing powder on the top sticky part and used my heat gun. I was shocked when it worked! It even made a neat texture in the powder.

Not bad for a goof, right?

Card Candy for Halloween and Christmas

I made these card candies for a swap I am in on the Cricut MB. I had to make 10 of each set. I love doing this because I get to see what other creations others come up with and I get to make things I normally wouldn't think of.
The spider is made with Doodle charms and I used some bling for the eyes. The background is spiderwebs stamped on purple paper (Studio G stamp) and heat-embossed in silver. It was a bit of a mess but it was fun!



The Christmas lighbulbs are from Christmas Cheer. I cut them out of DCWV glitter paper. I think this was the easiest card candy I have made so far. I had to replace the blade on my Cricut after cutting all these bulbs. :)

My puppy

This is my Bear. He is over 100 pounds and thinks he is a lap dog! He is such a sweetie though. Who could resist that face?

Trace Adkins

Last night Jim and I went to the Trace Adkins/Alan Jackson Concert. We had incredible seats. We were about 4 rows from the stage. It was perfect.

James Otto opened. He sang a few of his songs, including Just Got Started Loving you, which I love.

Then Trace adkins came out. Whew!! He sang several of his songs, including Muddy Water from his new album coming out. It was so great. I can't wait to get the album. And of course he sang 2 of my favorites: Hot Mama and Honky Tonk Badonkadonk. Jim even said it was a great concert and he is not a big Country Music fan. That may change now...a little.

This concert was the kick off of Alan Jackson's Good Time tour. He sang so many of his hits. I cried at Remember when and Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning). I have always been very moved by these songs and seeing them performed live really hit me even more. We really had such a good time at this concert. Jim gave me the tickets for my birthday/our anniversary. He is such a good hubby!

Challenge!

I have just joined a personal challenge thread on the Cricut MB. I am hoping this will help me to stay on track. I have so many projects I want to do, I just do not know where to begin. I signed on for 3 things:
1. Complete our Disney album from our trip this past January.
2. Christmas cards done (I need about 50).
3. Halloween cards done

I have a lot of work ahead of me!!

Meet Scrapper

This is Scrapper. I got him from Build-A Bear while we were on vacation. He is my new scrappy companion and sits on my desk. He is just so cute!!

Card Candy

I made these cards with elements from a Card Candy swap I am in on the Cricut Message Board. I apologize but I did not write down the names of the wonderful creators of these elements. I will make an effort to do that in the future since I want to give credit where due.

Monkey card!!!

I just love this Changeitto stamp! I got the image from a stamped image swap and think it is so stinkin' cute! It was so fast and easy to color with the MCPT (Magic Colored Pencil Technique). The background paper is from a DCWV matstack. I like this stamp because it is universal. It could be for birthday, anniversary, thank you, just because, any number of occasions. And, of course, the simplicity of it is perfect for me and my scrapping and card making.

An award!

I won a blog award from MissouriScrapper! I am so excited! Thanks Missouriscrapper!

For those who I have given this award to, here are the rules:

1. Post the logo on your blog.

2. Add a link to the person who gave you tha award.

3. Nominate 7 other bloggers who you think deserve it.

4. Add links to their blogs on yours.

5. Leave a message on your nominees blogs.

I have awarded this to:

A.Go's Craftomonium

Scrappindad's Scribbles

Capadia Designs

LiveLaughScrap

The Barefoot Scrapper

Scrappin Cricut

Dsney Dreamer Designs

All of these blogs can be found in my blog list to the left.

Thanks for looking!

Card candy

I made this for a card candy swap I am in on the Cricut MB. The stamp is Happy Hoppers. I colored it with Prismacolor pencils and blended with OMS. I just love this technique! I cut the scallops with Accent Essentials. The dots around the scallops are Stickles - Black Diamond. No project is complete without some bling, right?

Ever seen an elephant swimming?

We took the kids to the NC zoo yesterday. I swear it was the hottest day of the year. And that is one huge, very spread out zoo! A lot of walking. We saw it all though. The best part was seeing an elephant swimming. I have never in my life seen this before. We all enjoyed ourselves despite the heat and Katie discovered she likes Icees!

What a wonderful prize!!

I am so excited!! I was notified that I won a prize from the Cards for Kids drawing. I didn't think much of it, just thought it would be something small. I think mine was 10th prize out of 11. My Father-in-Law brings a box to me from the mail that was huge! I had no idea what it could be until I saw CFK on the return address. It was so full of stickers and embellishments. I could not believe how much stuff was in this box!! I am going to have fun!!!

A sign for DH

This was a sign I made for DH's return home. I saw this saying on an avatar on the Cricut MB and thought it would be great to make into a sign for him. I was chatting with my friend Betty (Betty152 on the MB) and she suggested using the pair of boots to hold the sign. Thanks again Betty! He loved it!

I used some sand colored cardstock that I had and cut the letters with Opposites Attract (the upright feature) out of black wall pops. I found the Army stickers at A.C.Moore.

A card with Scor-pal

After making 100 cards for St. Jude Cards for Kids, I needed to make some birthday cards for my stash. I wanted something very simple that I could put together quickly so I came up with this.

Happy Birthday is cut from Paper Pups. The flower is from the Island Pastel Calypso Prima tin. The brad in the center is from Making Memories. I scored the top half of the cardstock diagonally with my Scor-pal. I love that tool.

HOME!!!

After a 13 1/2 month deployment my hubby is HOME!!!!! He came home on Sunday morning. Needless to say it was a very emotional day for my family. The girls are so excited that their daddy is home. Not to mention that all of the grandparents are visiting so that means even more fun for them! I will post a pic or 2 once things settle down around here. A couple more days I think.

While you are here...please take a moment to say a prayer for our troops and their families. The ones who are home and especially the ones who are deployed. It takes a lot of faith, love and support to endure a life in the military.

Thank you!

A recipe swap

This is a Lay Out (LO) for a recipe swap that I did a few months ago. I cut the grass from Plantin schoolbook and used Stickles on the flowers. This was my first swap so I had a lot of fun planning it out and working on it.

A Mothers Day present

This is a gift I made for my mom for Mother's day. I used some CM paper that I had on hand, the letters are cut with Plantin Schoolbook on my Cricut. The flowers are Primas. I found the frames at Michael's.

The countdown has begun.

Just a couple more days and hubby will be home. I am frantically trying to get things ready and should be doing that instead of being on here but...this is more fun!

Here areMellie and Katie in their masks. They got these as prizes from the library for reading 4 hours. Now they are working towards the 8 hour prize. I wonder what that will be...

After Katie got her mask she kept damcing around saying "Awesome, I am a cricket!" I think she thinks it is like the Cricut bug from my Cricut Expression. She spends a lot of time looking through my cartridges and the books figuring out what she wants me to cut out for her.

Getting ready for a Welcome Home

We are in the process of getting ready for a very special day. Daddy's coming home!!!! YEA!!!! It has been a very long 13 1/2 months and we are ready for this deployment to be over with.

My friend Betty from the Cricut MB gave me a wonderful idea for a sign to put up for him. I can't wait to get started on it. As soon as I have it finished I will post pics of it. Thank you so much Betty for the idea!

Bear with me

I am trying this out and will take some time to get it the way I want it to look. I want to use this as a way to update family and friends and most importantly my wonderful hubby when he is deployed on what is happening in our lives.

I also want to use it as an outlet for my crafting hobby. I have seen some other great crafting blogs and hope that this one can measure up.