Checking In

I know I've been MIA but I've had a lot going on and haven't had much of a chance to do anything. Still working on renovations in my house and my plan for a shared space for my scrapbooking and dining room. I've also been working on renovations in a home for one of the best friends a girl can have. AND I'm watching my year old granddaughter every day for the next 4 months. Soon I'll blow the dust off of all my supplies and take the time to sit and create. Until then, I'll keep checking back. Thanks for sticking with me :-)

Update on the Blog Award! - Thank you ladies!

2/24/11 - Today is my birthday and I had the nice surprise of another Liebster Blog award given to me by Debi at http://dizzylizzyscreations.blogspot.com/ Please take a minute to check out her blog and leave her some love. Thank you Debi! 2/20/11 - Thank you so much, Linda at http://thefruitofmyhands.blogspot.com/ for honoring me as a recipient of the Liebster Blog Award! Please visit her blog and check out her talent.

The Liebster Blog award is given to bring new blogs to light. It's a great way to share blogs that might not otherwise be seen or ones you want to share with others.

As a recipient you must share the love and pay it forward by:

1. Creating a post where you blog about the Liebster award & reveal your 3 - 5 blog picks.
2. Let them know you chose them
3. Copy & paste the blog award on your blog
4. Have faith that your followers will rally & show their crafty love back out to those you awarded
5. Have fun !

I am pleased to honor 3 - 5 others to bring awareness to other wonderful blogs!

Jacqueline at http://madebyjacqueline.blogspot.com/

Sue at http://suescricutandcrafts.blogspot.com/

Taylor at http://southernscrapper2010.blogspot.com/

Please check these sites out and give them some love. Their blogs are full of creativity and talent. Thank you all for sharing this talent and giving me inspiration.

Kathy

Had Some Time Tonight

Today didn't go as planned so we didn't get started on the destruction of my kitchen. Keeping in the birthday week spirit, I made a cute child's birthday card. I was able to do the lettering with MTC, I really love how easy that program is :-).  Here is the front and inside of the card.

 I also made this one. I used a little of everything - Walk In My Garden Cricut cartridge for the pot and stem, stamping on the front and inside, embossed part of the front then sanded the embossing and the edges of the card, ribbon and Martha Stewart emblishment. The inside of the card is blank.

Hope you enjoy the cards! For those of you up north, please stay safe and warm.

Goodnight all....

Start with a B-day card. End with a Cricut question... read on...

It's been a busy last couple of days. We're getting ready to put some sliding glass doors in my kitchen so my house is in a state of confusion. My dining table is now in my temporary crop room and everything else is moved into one corner of the kitchen. When I sat down to relax and watch House tonight, I felt like trying to make something, even if simple again. Well, I've got a birthday coming up this week so I thought I'd make a quick birthday card. Here's what I ended up with....

Embossing and stamping are both still very new to me so I thought I'd try something with that. I started with a stock white 4" x 5.5" card for the base. The paper for the front and strip in the middle is "Reminisce" from Creative Memories. I used the Happy Birthday embossing plate from Cuttlebug for the front and a nail file to age or add character to the card and the stamps were from Michaels.

I started out with a totally different plan but was having trouble with the cut out I chose. I tried so many different settings on my Cricut and no matter what I did, it kept tearing the paper. Too much pressure, not enough. Blade high, blade low. Speed low, speed high. Lots of combinations and wasted paper. The blade is fairly new and I tried a brand new cutting mat. It was regular patterned paper. Any suggestions??  Any ideas would be appreciated.

It's getting late and I've got a long day ahead of me. Goodnight all and have a great day tomorrow!

♥Scrappin_3rdeeschik♥: It Is Almost Time For A Spring Thaw And I Am Cleaning House Huge Giveaway

♥Scrappin_3rdeeschik♥: It Is Almost Time For A Spring Thaw And I Am Cleaning House Huge Giveaway

Check out this blog and leave some love. While you're there, become a follower to for a chance to win some great blog candy!

My First Blog Award! - Update!

2/24/11 - Today is my birthday and I had the nice surprise of another Liebster Blog award given to me by Debi at http://dizzylizzyscreations.blogspot.com/ Please take a minute to check out her blog and leave her some love. Thank you Debi! Thank you so much, Linda at http://thefruitofmyhands.blogspot.com/ for honoring me as a recipient of the Liebster Blog Award! Please visit her blog and check out her talent.

The Liebster Blog award is given to bring new blogs to light. It's a great way to share blogs that might not otherwise be seen or ones you want to share with others.

As a recipient you must share the love and pay it forward by:

1. Creating a post where you blog about the Liebster award & reveal your 3 - 5 blog picks.
2. Let them know you chose them
3. Copy & paste the blog award on your blog
4. Have faith that your followers will rally & show their crafty love back out to those you awarded
5. Have fun !

I am pleased to honor 3 - 5 others to bring awareness to other wonderful blogs!

Jacqueline at http://madebyjacqueline.blogspot.com/

Sue at http://suescricutandcrafts.blogspot.com/

Taylor at http://southernscrapper2010.blogspot.com/

Please check these sites out and give them some love. Their blogs are full of creativity and talent. Thank you all for sharing this talent and giving me inspiration.

Kathy

Playing with Vinyl

It's been a few days since I've been on, but since then my living room is just about complete, just need a couple of tables and some decorations and we're done! I hung some family pictures we had taken last year and decided I'd try some vinyl letter, I haven't done too much with that. I think it turned out pretty good. I used MTC (yes, that's the program I chose. I love it!!) and Cricut vinyl.

The room that was previously my living room and will eventually become a dining room is now being used as a crop room :-)  It was so nice to have everything organized when I did the layout for the lettering. No dragging things out and a simple little project becoming a big ordeal. My Cricut is out and hooked up and I was able to do the layout on my laptop, go straight to the desk and hook up and hit print. I can't wait until I will be totally set up and able to work like that all the time! Our next home improvement projects will be sliding glass doors for my kitchen. Painting the kitchen and "crop" room, then laying wood floors. After all that is complete, I'll have lots of time to sit and craft! Until then, I'll try to squeeze in a scrapbook/papercraft project every once in awhile.

Until next time.... enjoy the beautiful weather! Spring is on it's way!!

Home Improvement!

I haven't been working on any crafts, I've been painting walls and trim instead, but I see a light at the end of the tunnel! Soon I will have a temporary but dedicated, organized work space. We have a little bit of trim work to finish, the carpet to buy and lay and I'm still looking for the furniture I want without breaking the bank. As soon as I'm set up, I'm going to host a little crop for my daughter-in-laws and friends, I can't wait.

Until next time.... stay warm!

SCAL or MTC?

I have no projects for you today. Yesterday was pretty much back in the room working. Today, we actually picked out the paint so we're getting closer. When that room is done and my living room is moved in there, I think I'm going to set up the former living room as a crop station/room until I'm ready to turn it into a dining room. I need more organization so I can make more stuff! It's a job when I want to scrapbook or do any kind of paper crafts the way I'm set up now. I have no set place so I have to pull out a folding table and go back and forth every time I need something or forget something. I'll be so happy when I get a room dedicated just for my crafts! I did get to stop by Michaels during our trip to get paint and in between looking for furniture. I got a few more clear stamps out of the clearance bins and a Color Box Petal Paint pigment inkpad. Another new thing for me. I can't wait to try out all the new stuff and experiment more.

After doing lots and lots of reading and searching for comparisons of Sure Cuts A Lot and Make The Cut, I've downloaded the free trial version of Make the Cuts. I'm going to play around with it tonight and see if it's as easy as what I've read. I hope so. I don't have a lot of font cartridges for my Cricut so it would be nice to have a better variety of fonts to choose from without have to buy more and more cartridges. I'll let you know how it goes.

Quick and Simple Layouts

It was another beautiful day here in Central Florida. Our annual Country Arts and Crafts Fair was held and it was a hot 78 degrees walking through lots and lots of people and checking out the exhibits. I even got my first sunburn of the year. Yes, my favorite time of the year in Florida. In a few days, I'll probably be telling you how cold it is but for the most part, our Winter's are wonderful and the "cold" never lasts very long.

I thought I'd work on a few layouts tonight. As the title says.... they were quick and simple.

This 2 page layout is for my Northern friends. I used the Jubilee cartridge at 2" to print Snow Days. The large snowflake is from the Joys of the Season cartridge cut at 2 1/2".  The smaller snowflakes were some that I had left over from Christmas cards. On the left side, add 3 4x6 phots trimmed to 3 1/2 x 5 1/2. The right side fits a 5 x 7 photo. There is a journaling box below the 5 x 7 photo box and I added a few embellishments.

These two Baby Girl layouts were made from paper and chipboard embellishments that I put together quickly. The top holds up to a 5 x 7 picture or 2 smaller ones. The bottom is for a 4 x 6 and a 4 x 4 picture.

This layout was from a kit I had. Orginally, I was making these blank but this picture of my granddaughter looks cute with the flower so I couldn't resist. The picture box is for a 4 x 6 photo with a journaling box above.

That's it for me tonight. Thanks for following me and please tell your friends. I'd love to have input, comments, suggestions or even eventually guest designers.

Goodnight!

Blog Candy Giveaway!

UPDATE!

While reading other blogs today, I ran across Made by Jacqueline. She's having her very first "Blog Candy Giveaway" Click on her button on the left or here to enter!  After she gets 500  150 followers, one lucky winner gets all this:





Good luck!

Happy Friday!

Good morning! Welcome to the weekend (almost). I've spent the last couple of days working on the room addition, which is my future new living room. More taping and mudding and repairing some patches. I tried a spray texture for the wall, but I'm going to wash it off today and start over. Luckily, I only did half of one small wall. 

I ordered 2 new Cricut cartridges last week and they came in yesterday. Got to love the good sales Cricutmachine.com has. I got the Cindy Loo and I forgot that I ordered the Sweethearts cartridge!  I played around with Design Studio for the first time last night and made another card. I actually made 2 cards last night. I made the other (a quickie card) with my Sizzix Texture Machine and the Valentine set. 

I used cardstock, cut at 11" x 6" and folded to make a 5 1/2" x 6" card. For the frame, I used the Cindy Loo cartridge cut just a little smaller than the card. The word Love was cut using the Sweethearts cartridge at 2" and the inside phrase is from the Beyond Birthdays cartridge cut at 2".  A glitter pen for Love on the front and a few embellishments and punches and it's done.

I wanted to try out my Valentine embossing folder so I put this card together real quick.

I'll be back in the room for awhile today, only one more place to patch. We're getting there. Can't wait to see it finished!

Have a good Friday!

Valentine's Cards

I made this card the other day, my inspiration came from my daily e-mail from Everyday Cricut.

I made this one tonight. I used a blank card for my canvas and the red paper was from one of my scraps, so I have  no idea where it came from. On the front of the card, the lettering is from Nursery Rhymes, welded with my Gypsy and cut at 1".  The border is from K & Co. Inside I made a top border using the same paper as the front and the stamp is from Craftsmart.

Time to clean up my "mess" for the night. Hope you enjoy the cards!

Beautiful Day!

February 1st and it's 79 degrees here in Florida. What a beautiful day we're having. We're working on an addition to my house, so after a morning of checking out the thrift shops (got a nice little wooden shelf to put up in my future scrap room for $3.00), I've been taping and mudding drywall seams today.

My trip to Michael's yesterday was ok. They still haven't restocked the shelves from last weeks big sale. They were having 40% off on Valentine's supplies, so I got a few things. I also used my 40% off coupon to buy my first acrylic block for clear stamps. I've never tried those types of stamps before and I love it! I just bought one sheet of stamps so start me off and played with them last night. Oh no... more sales to look out for!

This and That - Part 2

My first real attempt at albums. I decided to make albums of each of my granddaughters following their first year. They were both born in 2009 (July and December) and I've finished the first, the second is still a work in progress and will be finished soon. Here are a couple of my more creative pages. :-)

A few pages from Taryn's scrapbook (grandbaby #1)

Pages from Alyssa's (grandbaby #2) scrapbook.

That's it for now. I'm working on Valentine's in between trying to finish Alyssa's 1st year album. I've made one so far but have been saving some designs on my Gypsy and Design Studio. I'll save that for another post.

I need to get moving. Heading to one of my favorite places - Michaels! 

This and That

A few pictures of some things I made for Christmas. I've used a mixture of paper and embellishments, cricut cartridges, stamps, etc. In the future, as I start a project, I'll keep track of how I've done things and the material/tools used and list them with the project for your reference.

My first attempt at Christmas cards. I only had to send out a couple of store bought cards this year.

I found this Christmas card holder as a kit. It is made out of wood and I decorated the front and back with paper and painted the ornaments before gluing them on.

Gift bags with matching tags. This was a very nice and easy project that I learned while at a Creative Memories weekend retreat in September.

This Photo Explosion box was also another fun project that was taught at the retreat. I waited until I came home to make mine. Each page, front and back is decorated with either paper/embellishments or photos or both. Mine is full of pictures of my two beautiful granddaughters.

This was a blank chipboard book kit I bought at Michaels for $1.00 at Michaels around Christmas time. I papered and embellished each page and made a photo album. I still have quite a few of these blank books in different shapes I need to work on. Always thinking..

I think that's it for most of the projects I worked on the last few months leading up to Christmas. The next post will be a few shots of my albums.

One Day At A Time

I've been reading blogs for years, but this is my first attempt at having one of my own. Bear with me as I go through the learning process.

I'm fairly new at scrapbooking.  Although I've been dabbling for a couple of years, on and off,  I've been addicted for probably a little over a year now. It got worse when I purchased my Cricut Expression last August. Since that time, I've gone from keeping what little supplies I had in a little box to putting a large bookshelf in my dining room and I'm in need of more space.

Like most addicts I know or have read about on their blogs or other websites or forums, the more I get into this "paper therapy", the messier the house gets, the more my teenager rolls her eyes, and the more my bank account shrinks every time I see a good sale. But.... we do enjoy this, don't we? I know I do, I just have so much to learn and explore. I'd love it if you'd learn with me or if you're experienced, share... please share tips and tricks from your knowledge base.

It's late now, but tomorrow I'll post some pictures of some of my projects I've already completed. My scrapbooks are rather plain compared to what I've seen, but I'm ready to branch out and make use of my Cricut, Gypsy, Your Story, Embosser and any other "must have" tools that I get in the future.