I just couldn't end the year without a challenge. My e-mail in box had the following challenge from Operation Write Home tonight.

 Holiday Vacation Challenge #11: Goodbye 2010!

Today's final holiday challenge is to say a fond (or not so fond?) farewell to 2010! You need to use TEN things or TWENTY things on your card. You pick which. Now we don't want a card slathered with sticker sneeze....still make it as nice and clean a card as you can. But the things that count in your TEN or TWENTY are the physical stuff attached (not the adhesives or card base)...things like:

• layers  
• paper (sentiments or stamped images on them don't count as a separate item)
• ribbon
• buttons, bling, etc count individually  

Here is my card for the Holiday Vacation Challenge #11. I have ten items on my card.
They are: five layers, 2 snowflakes, 3starburst jewels. The fifth layer is the square of vellum with the words on it.
This card is also going to be used for a sketch challenge in January 2011


I wish you all much happiness and prosperity in 2011.


Thank you for stopping by

 I finally got all of my Christmas cards completed and have mailed out the ones that were made for a Christmas Card swap. Whew, that is a fair sized project done and I feel less stressed since its completion.

All of the cards you see here have cuts from my Cricut. The two wreaths were cut using the Joys of the Season cartridge. The red "berries" are gell half baubles that I bought at the last Expo I attended. I don't know the real name of them, the manufacturer or what outlet I bought them from. But they are so pretty and they shine so nicely. The scalloped circles were cut using the nestabilities. 

The cuts on the card on the right and the one below are from the Christmas Cheer cartridge. I guess I got carried away using this cartridge because it is no longer any good. The last time I put it in the slot on my Cricut to make more cuts, it froze my Cricut. I had to remove the cartridge and turn off the machine. I put the cartridge in my Juke Box and it did the same thing, even tho I didn't have its button depressed. Again I had to turn my Cricut off and remove the cartridge. We tried it on two other machines and it did the same thing to them. Unfortunately, I didn't get it loaded into my Gypsy before it died.


 I absolutely love this card. The stocking is from the Christmas Cheer cartridge. The printed paper that I used has the "Night before Christmas" poem printed on it.
I had originally wanted to put a Santa on the card, but couldn't find my "believe" stamp, so I used the stocking which goes very nicely with the poem.
Thank you for stopping by and I hope you like my cards as much as I enjoyed making them.
Take care

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
I can't believe its been nearly a month since I have posted. Guess I had better start minding my "p"s & "q"s, I have just let things slip this past month. I did however, get my cards sent to my OWH shipper. Since I am new to this, I didn't have many Christmas cards to send, but did add some generic cards.
It is now time to start making cards for Valentine's day. I have five done. Lots more to do and only a few weeks left. All Valentine cards must be to the shipper by January 7. Since there are no swaps in my groups next month, I can concentrate on making some cards for OWH. I can also enter some of their challenges. Challenges are so much fun and they help me think "outside the box".
If you like to make cards; Valentine cards, Christmas cards, cards for all occasions, go here to find out about Operation Write Home. Its fun, its doing for others and can be very rewarding.
Hope you all had a very nice Thanksgiving. 
Take care

This is a very simple card and looks much better in person. I made this for the JoAnn.com/Craft for a cause 2010 challenge via the Stars and Stamps home page. I don't expect to win anything, I just wanted to make a card. The card will be sent to Operation Write Home group.
This card is also for the SCS card sketch challenge SC301 for last week. The print paper is a Heidi grace design. Its a real cute print and I cut it up to make several cards. The paper is double sided with the red on the back, the candy strip at the bottom is also from the paper. The green stripped paper is from a DCWV Christmas stack from a year or so ago.

This card is also a Stars and Stamps challenge. It is challenge #39 and can be found here. I used a Sizzix holiday embossing folder, Martha Stewart snowflake punch and Stampabilities stamp. The papers I used are from my stash.
This card is also my SSSD "word - stripe" card. My partner sent me a card using stripped paper, so I had to come up with something different. I think I accomplished that challenge. While this is a very simple card, I really like it.
I hope you have enjoyed your visit and hope you come back soon.  Take care

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I love the paper the little house is cut from. Its a Heidi grace design and is double sided. The red used here is the other side of the print. I used the Sizzix swiss dot embossing folder and the Merry Christmas is from Cloud 9. I made this card for the SCS sketch 302. I placed red and green bling on the eve of the house. I like this sketch and will probably use it for some other cards.
Thank you for stopping buy and I hope you have enjoyed seeing my card.

I read recipe books. I have all sorts and have never used a recipe out of most of them. The ones I have have no value, except maybe for the Searchlight cookbook. Its older than I am, and that makes it an antique.
Since I should stop buying cookbooks, I am making them. I join a recipe swap and when the pages come, I list the recipes, the contributors and their state in the front of the album. The recipe pages are in the same order that I have listed them.
My daughter loves to cook and I hope that someday she will have and enjoy these books as much as I have enjoyed putting them together.
The recipe on this page is for ginger snaps. It is an old recipe from the Watkins Products, Inc. Any one remember them? They use to come by the house selling their products (spices, personal care, liniments, etc.) much like the Fuller Brush man did.
JR Watkins is still doing business, but they are now online. That is a long way from a salesman going door-to-door. Hmmmm, I'll have to go see if Fuller Brush is still in business.
I'm glad you came buy. Oh, don't forget to check out the Operation Write home web site. The button is to the left.   Take care

I found a wonderful site. Its called Operation Write Home. They send handmade cards to our deployed heroes to help them keep in touch with their families and friends.

Christmas is coming and they need lots of holiday cards to send. Deadline for mailing the cards to  OWH is October 31. They take cards all year long, but for the Special Day cards they need 5 to 6 weeks in advance. 

I do card swaps and have finally found something to do with all the beautiful cards I get. There is only one real no-no for the cards and that is NO GLITTER. We all know what happens when we use glitter, and that can put our men and women in grave danger.
They also don't want hand written sentiments on the card. The reason for this is in the info they provide.
The OWH link above takes you to the mail room with info for mailing the cards. From there you can get to other areas with more info and even challenges.

As soon as I get my swaps completed and mailed, I'm going to make winter holiday cards to send to OWH. 

Will you join me? 
Take care

The challenge was to make as many (at least 4) different items using one 12 x 12 piece of printed paper. I also used cardstock for the foundations and embellishments. I made two ATCs, a joy fold card, a top fold card, a tag and a teabag holder.
The flower spray is cut using Cricut Bloom cartridge. The flower centers are buttons and/or bling.
I had never made an ATC and I don't really know what they are for, but it was easy enough. I also had never made a teabag holder, let alone, ever heard of them. I messed up a couple sheets of cardstock before I got the scoring measurements right on the teabag holder. I enjoyed doing this challenge.
Thank you for coming by and take care

I love that gate and the word "Beware" Everything on these two cards was cut with the October 31 cricut cartridge.


 My assignment was to make a card with a cutout that is popped. In this top card,  the "pumpkin patch" sign is put on with pop dots. The pumpkin outside the gate is also pop dotted. The spiders and that little tiny pumpkin is from a pkg of confetti.




This card is very simple still using the gate. This card is for the SSSD Oct. Mystery item, the item being the tag. I stamped the tag in Coca brown and chalked the entire tag orange. I then glued the two confetti witches and added the "ribbon" of sequins to the tag. I also placed purple gems on the diamonds in the center of the gate grill. I enjoyed making these two cards and there was a third one that is in an earlier post. I really like this cartridge and hope to make better cards in the future using other images.

I hope you enjoyed my cards and thanks for coming by.
Take care

This is clue 3 for the Bernat Mystery Afghan Crochet Along. I tried to put the two squares together in the same post, but this program wouldn't cooperate with me and I got frustrated.
This is a 12 week Crochet Along and the first clue can be found here.
Won't you come join us?
Take care

This is clue 2 for the Bernat Mystery Afghan crochet along.

I am so far behind and it seems that the faster I go, the behinder I get. I haven't posted in nearly two weeks. I haven't visited very many of you either. I don't know what I've been doing, but I've been doing it with great care.
Went to Simi Valley a weekend ago for a Future Stars boys gymnastics evaluation clinic. My grandson needed to place in the top six of his level to go to AZ for a gymnastics camp. He & I will be heading to Phoenix later this month.

While in Simi Valley, we went to LA to spend a day at Six Flags and I went on my second roller coaster. So what, you say. Well, I went on my first roller coaster ride about four years ago. I didn't like it and swore I wouldn't do it again. Never say never. I think I was the oldest person at Six Flags and I'm pretty sure I was the oldest to ride on any of the coasters. The water rides were great. Loved the Rapid Rapids. I came off that one soaked to the skin, took me hours to dry. And willing to go on it again; but the roller coasters...they lasted too long, had too many curves, too many drops and waaaay too fast.  Should have bought me a season ticket.
If you got this far, thanks for reading about my Six Flags day. Take care

Hi folks, I'm putting myself into another contest. DCWV is giving away a Midnight Spell Stack,  an Amber Autumn Stack & a  Happy Hauntings Cricut Cartridge. Go on over and check out their site.
Thanks for stopping by. Take care

I went to a Blog Hop and I won a door prize. The hop was sponsored by Stampingscrappingstore. The stamps that I won were contributed by Stampingscrapping. "Celebrations" is a bundled set of four set. I won one of the four. The set I won is so cute. It has darling froggys (a him and a her) a couple of dinos, frames, etc. This set of stamps work with the Nestabilities label sets 10 & 12.

Here is my card. I used Nestabilities lable set 12.
My card is very plain as I have never done a baby card. The stamp is actually two stamps, the frame and the froggy. I stamped her then used chocolate brown embossing powder. I added wiggly eyes. I stamped and embossed before I cut the labels. The letters are plastic and the tiny frogs are islets which I had in my stash. My first choice for the foundation was not purple but when I laid the green (accidentally) on this color everything changed. I just couldn't get away from it and I have no baby print paper that I could use with it. Next time paper is on sale, I will be purchasing some baby prints. I would appreciate constructive comments on improving this card. 

Thank you Cindy for this lovely set of stamps.

This is my entry to the third Lets Ink it Up challenge with a twist.
The stamp is from Inkadinkado and the charms are Funky chunky by Plaid. The paper and decorative piping are from my stash. I colored the cake tops with Twinklette pens. I also used a gold Galaxy Marker, a red Slick Writer and Stazon ink to stamp with. Now I was to use a favorite stamp, and this isn't necessarily a favorite, but I wanted to make a birthday card; and the cupcake charms worked well with the stamp. Or is it the stamp worked well with the charms? Which came first? The charms did.  I am going to have to play with this stamp because I think it has a lot of potential This is also my SCS299 card.

Go here for more information on the Lets Ink it Up challenge.

the lucky winner will win a £20 voucher from  CaroLines Rubber Stamps for her shop

Ever spend lots of time looking through the cartridge books for an image you would like to cut? Do you know what images are each and every cartridge you have? If you spend more than a few minutes finding an image you want to cut, go to this site:
CRICUT SEARCH CK THIS OUT PRETTY COOL TOOL!!!

You type in the image you are looking for, click the "search" button and all the cartridges that have that image come up. You click on one of the cartridge boxes and it brings up the image and the page number in the book. You can sit at your computer and find the image you want. Yeah, it takes some time, but you're not pulling out books and flippin pages to find the image. If you are looking for a dog, you see only the cartridges and pages that have dogs.
I'm not sure how up-to-date they are on the cartridges, I found this info yesterday on Cricut Green with Envie blog. I spent most of my time trying to get the button for the Cricut Search site on to my site. Success!! Its on the right about mid-way down. But you can get there through the purple link above.

I went on a Blog Hop and I won a door prize. This was my first Blog Hop and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It was: StampingScrapping Designs New Stamps Blog Hop!

4 Lucky winners would win their choice of one of the newCelebrations stamp sets.

The following are the Design Team"s blogs I got to go visit: 

Cindy E http://www.stampingscrappingstore.blogspot.com/ ,Wini http://www.looneybugdesigns.com/ ,Froggy http://www.froggaritavilleblog.net/, Stephanie http://www.mycardshack.blogspot.com/ , Mindy http://www.scrappyandpiggy.blogspot.com/ , Leanne http://createdbyleanne.blogspot.com/
Vivi http://handmadebyvivi.blogspot.com/ ,  Billie http://www.billiesscrappetique.blogspot.com/, Sheri http://twitterpatedwithpaper.blogspot.com/, Cindy 2 http://bluebirdflats.blogspot.com/, Anary http://www.anaryatelie.blogspot.com/

I went to one blog a day (the first one being the sponsor of the Hop) and had to leave a comment. Leaving a comment was not difficult at all as there were so many wonderful projects to comment on. Many of these offer challenges and/or candy.
Thank you, Cindy for the Blog Hop and the prize I won.

I joined in on the Mystery Afghan Crochet-Along sponsored by Bernat yarn. The first clue was given on September 22. This is the square I made according to the directions I received. Today I went through and read the post on the Bernat site and discovered that I had done mine wrong. I worked under one loop instead of two loops. My MIL taught me 40+ years ago to crochet and she never told me I was suppose to work under two loops unless stated otherwise. (My MIL was a wonderful person and among other things, she taught me to knit and crochet. Her method of teaching me is another post.)
So all these years I have been working under one loop. Now if you want to see what the square should look like go over to the site on Wednesday. They will post the square and give us clue 2. If one keeps up with the clues, the afghan will be completed before Christmas. Anyone can do this Crochet-Along, so go on over there, grab the clue and begin crocheting. You do two squares and they only take a couple of hours. If you decide to make this afghan, let me know. The more the merrier.  Take care

I have several Christmas paper stacks which I have never used. I pulled one out this month and decided to use a few sheets. Someone said that when you use a sheet of paper, use it all. Do you realize how many cards you can make out of one 12 x12 sheet of paper? The first card using the  green print is the crimped card on the right. The card on the left, I used the negative of the diamond. The two solids are from  8 1/2 x 11 sheets of CS. I used the red and beige papers for the foundation of the cards. The other halves will be used in other cards.

As you can see, that piece of green print is still being used along with the red and the green. I still have more of the green print which will probably go into the scrap drawer. 
I received the snowman images in a swap about a year ago. I have a stack of images (about 5" high) and have never used any of them. Today I did! All of the snowmen  I colored using pencils, Zig markers, Twinklett pens, Galexy markers and/or Slick writers. . The buttons and the eyes are black half pearls. On the print paper I colored some of the leaves with a green Twinklett pen and added the red gems. The two top fold cards were made for SCS challenges.

 I haven't used my Cricut in quite a while; decided it was time to pull it out and put it to work. I had my mystery item (faffia) to use and wanted to do something halloweeny. This card is what I came up with.
I used the October 31 cartridge to cut the word "Beware", the pumpkin and the gate. The spider is an embellishment that came in a package of Halloween pieces. I used the raffia to make the bed of straw for the pumpkin to sit on.
The October 31 cartridge has some pretty neat suff on it. There are only  50 images, but a good variety and some of them are very ornate. Really nice cartridge.
Take care

This is Carlie. I acquired him from Animal Control in August 2007 when he was six weeks old. We call him "garbage dog" because he will eat anything and loves to go through our trash looking for food. His favorite thing to find is chocolate. He likes chocolate almost as much as I do. Last Halloween, he found a bag of mini mars bars, and ate about 8 before we discovered he had them. He likes pop corn too and loves to get hold of the used bags; although I suspect he would rather have them full of popped corn.
He likes walnuts. We discovered this when we started finding empty walnut shells laying around. We give the nut to him in its shell, he cracks it open and eats the nutmeat. Unfortunately, he hasn't learned to clean up the shells. As with the rest of the things he eats, he leaves the wrappers on the floor for me to pick up.
I bought one of those unstuffed dog toys (as shown on TV) for him. Its true what they say, it will outlast the stuffed toys. It still squeaks, has all its extremities (is missing an ear) and he is still interested in it.  I bought another one and will give it to him for Christmas. I missed his birthday.
Well, that's Charlie, another member of our family.
Thank you for stopping by. Take care

Made this card for a CPC challenge and for SSSD Color of the Month swap. Colors to use are Black, Yellow and White. Yellow is one of my favorite colors. These colors work well together and with this sketch.
I tried to upload a picture of the CPCST73 sketch challenge, but the uploader didn't like something in the address from my files. So have put the link here
This stamp is one of my favorites, and I use it on a lot of my swap cards. I hope you like my card.
Thank you for stopping by.    Take care.

Sketch Tuesday @ Christian Paper Crafts

Original sketch

 

  The sketch on the left is what I tried to match. First, I tried to make it a card, but it didn't work for me. I decided I would make a scrapbook page.

I have the picture of my grandma sitting above my computer. It is the last portrait of her and when I saw this sketch as a scrapbook page, I knew it was for her.  I hope she likes the page I made.

The base paper is by Bazzill as is the yellow. The print is by Melissa Frances. I made the flowers from a heavy lace, placed an artificial daisy in each. I used my Cricut to cut the letters and numbers.

 

In my journaling, I mention a couple of houses and I think the companion page will be pictures of the houses. However, the pictures I have were all taken about ten years ago and someone had painted one of them purple and green! Wonder if I can change it back to white using Printshop? 

Thank you for stopping by. Take care

I haven't been very active here but I have been busy in the craft room. I got all of my SSSD swaps completed and mailed out, now I have time for other things; like challenges.
The card to the right is SC294. I don't think I like all the layering, but seem to be choosing challenges that have lots. Making a card with so many layers first of all, creates a color challenge. As I have noted before, I am color challenged. If I like it, I put it together. My next challenge is finding something as the focal point that will fit into my color scheme. Hmmm, is it suppose to be the other way around. Focal point then colors?
I started with the purple print which has bees and some yellow. I matched that up the other shades of purple and of course, one needs yellow for bees. Excepting the base, three of the four solid colors are an exact match to the print. Not sure the brand for the print, but the solids are Bazzil and DCWV. The stamp is from Judith. I hope you like my card and feel free to leave a comment. Thank you for stopping by. Take care.

This is my entry for the Lets Ink It Up's first challenge

Stamp by Stampendous
Papers: Bazzil and Basic Grey
I used ColorBox ink to color the tag
Stamp-n-stuff embossing powder
A doily and some bling

Challenge #1 - ANYTHING GOES with a twist - use the colour yellow somewhere on your project.
Evelyn owner of SCRAPBOOK BOUTIQUE is generously giving a prize package of a $20.00 voucher to Evelyn's store.

My next challenge is linking this to the Lets Ink It Up page or vise versa. It should be fun as I have never done it before. It took me a week and an e-mail to put a button with a link in my side bar.

 Card was made for an Image to Card swap which I think it should have the word "Challenge" added. This image posed quite a challenge for me. I was sent the image and it was my privilege to color and make a card using it. 

I used pencils, chalk, Zig & Twinklette pens and a little bling. The papers are Bazzil and Karen Foster. The yellow scalloped circle was cut with nestabilities and I used the Swiss Dots embossing folder by Cuttlebug. I cut the little pixie girl out as she wouldn't fit a card otherwise. I really enjoyed making this card (Thank you Rhonda for sending me this image) and I hope you like what I did with it.  

Thank you for stopping by. Take care

My toes are curling, my hands are shaking and I'm having an awful time making this post. This little person is my youngest grandson and yes, that is a horrible, horrible cockroach on his sleeve. His mom took him to the library and the project of the day was meeting bugs. This one tends to fly and when the docent let it go, it landed on Nick. Scared him at first, but he took to the bug like ducks take to water. He had the man send the bug to flying several times. Nick just loved it. Sure glad I wasn't there. I can handle snakes, lizards, spiders, etc, but not the cockroach. That is one bug that sends me up the wall. I understand that they grow them as big as Volkswagens in Hawaii. I have never watched Men in Black either. I have to quit this post, go get a good strong cup of coffee and relax a bit; but  I had to pos this picture. I think it is cute even tho every time I look at it my toes curl and I shiver. Thanks for coming by. Take care.

August Mystery item card

Mystery item card. I received a yellow napkin with pansies on it. I glued the napkin to a piece of cardstock and placed it on my card. The brown flower strip on the lavender is cut using EK Success edger punch, the flower on the lower left are three flowers I pulled from floral sprays, added a lavender brad and popped the flower for added depth. I stamped "thinking of you on a vellum circle. The layout for this card is SCS288 and while this card didn't turn out as I imagined, I really like the LO and I hope to make another to post on SCS288 card challenge.

Scrapbook Expo is this weekend and I have signed up for the all day & evening crops plus three classes. From now until we leave for Expo, I will be putting things together so I will have lots to work on.

Thank you for stopping by and feel free to leave a comment. All are appreciated.  Take care

 
I made this card for a swap "Color of the Month". The colors to play with are Brown, Blue & Green. The card is following the "Joy Card" format from SCS. Unfortunately, this swap was canceled. I will probably send it to my assigned partner anyway.

Inside of card

This card is the same format only with a Christmas flavor. I made it for a swap also. I will put an embellishment on it as required, however, I really like the card as is.
These pictures do not do these cards justice.

This is my Scripture page for August. The layout is from Sketch Tuesday at Christian Paper Crafts. It is missing an element so am not linking it to the page as my contribution. My other out to not posting, is that I don't know how.  I have made several "challenges", but since I don't know how to put them up, I don't, nor do I enter the contests for the same reason. But I do so enjoy doing the challenges. Maybe, someday ...

Thank you for coming by. Take care

This is my August sketch card, well, this one won't go because it has a noticeable flaw in it. However, a similar one is made and ready to be mailed when I know where it is going.
I spent today at a crop. Next Saturday I will also spend cropping. The crop starts at 8 am, classes start at 9. Showroom opens at 9, but I will be in a class so will hit the showroom about noon. I'm not certain why I'm going to go shopping as I have already spent my scrapping budget for this year, and next year, and the year after that...  I bought a Zutter DreamKuts machine today. I have wanted one since I first saw and used one in March. This is the first one that I had seen in a store so I bought it. It also happens that I had a coupon. I used it immediately. It is wonderful. No more 6 x 6 pages that are aren't true 6 x 6. No more 4 x 6 pages that vary in size. Oh, by the way, its pink. Now I have a pink Cricut, a pink Slice, a pink Dreamkuts and a purple cell phone. Just thought I'd throw that in to see if you were still with me. I think its time to close this, its been a long day. Tomorrow I will post the projects I completed today. Thank you for coming by. Take care.

Isn't she pretty? My first Surprise Lilly, Naked Lady or her real name, Amaryllis Belladonna. No mater what you call her she is pretty and smells soooo good. Normally we get them in September, but I have two in bloom and a whole bunch more poking their heads out. I absolutely love these flowers.
When I first saw them, I was 17 or 18. My sister, 3 or 4 yrs, brought my mom a handful of these flowers. Upon investigation, Suzie had gone next door and picked them, without permission. Mom took her next door to let the lady know what she had done. I don't remember if the flowers came back to our home or not.  I guess she really liked them because she had never done anything like that before. And, as far as I know, has never done it since. I fell in love with the flower that summer and have been enjoying them ever since. I didn't find out until today there real name. We always called them Surprise Lilly; this year, they really surprised me.

I finished my baby girl frame element. Now all I need do it get them in the mail. The baby, teddy and duck were cut using the Everyday Paper Doll cartridge. The thing on the baby's head looks really odd in this picture. It is a flower, like the ones at the top and I put a bow in the middle of it. A 4 x 6 photo will fit, the baby, etc. are not glued down at the top so a photo can be slipped in behind them.

This is my Mystery card for July. The mystery item is the numbers. They are grunge board and I painted them gold. Oops! the ink I used wouldn't dry. After two days of waiting, I finally patted it dry with a paper towel. At least it wasn't sticky. I hadn't used grunge before and not sure if I want to in the future. Of course, I could read to find out how to work with it, or go to the Tim Holtz web site for information on it.
I have my August mystery item and have absolutely no idea what I am going to do with it. It is very colorful and I love the colors. An idea is forming...

Its Friday night, the weekend has begun. Everyone have a relaxing and safe weekend. Take care.

Its Sunday night/Monday morning and I hope everyone had a safe and relaxing weekend. It was a nice, quiet one for me; I worked on swaps all weekend. 

I signed up to do an element for a baby boy page. My element is a poem. As you can see, that isn't a baby boy, but I don't think of tiny, fragile, and newborn when I think of baby boys. So, this is what I came up with. My Cricut and I worked for hours, Cricut cutting, me gluing. Ten of everything, hat, hair, face, body, need I go on? I enjoyed the hours I put in creating my work of art. I used the Everyday Paper dolls cartridge, flocking for boy's hair, brad for pup's nose and a piece of hemp for the leash. I also heat embossed the shoes. I assembled ten units with each  requiring 12 pieces to be glued together. 

Now I must go put together a frame for a baby girl page. I'm not too sure what I'm going to do, but I will use a little girl rather than a little baby. Hmmmm, a princess maybe? Will have to check the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge to see if there is a princess. 

Thank you for stopping by. Take care

I live in the city! My dog was acting (barking) strange the other night. I went to see what was wrong with him and as I passed my open front door, I heard a noise. I looked out on my  4 x 4 porch and saw RACCOONS. Yip, there were six (6) of them. A mom and her five kids. I shooed them off, but they came back. This pix was taken on her third trip down the stairs. The baby at the bottom of the stairs is brown. I had never seen a brown raccoon, but this little guy was a light brown, no black on him. I guess I did a good job of scaring them off as I haven't seen them since. But I am waiting for their return with camera in hand, and I'm ready for them.

I walked into the living room one afternoon and found my then eight year old grandson, Jeffrey, with spoons hanging from his face. I asked him how he had done it. He removed the spoons and I took pictures as he replaced them  on his face. He only has four in this series of pictures, but he is working on adhering eight of them. And, no, he didn't use any glue.
I picked the colors (from a color challenge) and the LO, (from a LO challenge). I was going to make it a two page LO, but he wanted all four pix on one page. He also decide how the pictures should be placed on the page. The next thing was the title. I requested help with the title and got about 10 wonderful suggestions. He chose one, changed one word and I added the My to come up with My Magnetic Personality. Hmmm "Self Entertainment" would have been a good title. Maybe next time.

The two boys and I flew to AZ for a gymnastics clinic last October. While there, we drove to the Casa Grande Ruins. I took these pictures of the boys before we went in to see the Ruins. I was disappointed in the ruins on this trip as I had visited the site about 20 years ago and one could enter the Casa itself. Today you can only view it from the outside. An amazing monument, but the desert heat and sun have taken their toll on the dwelling; its still a wonderful place to visit and there is a Junior Ranger program for the kids.
Jordan on the left turned 9 three weeks after this picture. Jeffrey turned 10 a month later.

Thank you for popping in and looking at the pages I did over the past few days. Take care.

 We went camping this past weekend. The weather was great and the lake water wasn't too cold. I dipped my big toe in to check. The grands went swimming and didn't complain, but then they never do. The deer and quail were well represented in the campground. I took a few pictures, however they aren't clear enough to post. I took three pages to work on and I worked on them! All in all, it was a nice weekend. Wish I could have stayed longer.
 
This mouse image was sent to me to color and make into a card. I was then to send it back. I kept putting off coloring the image cause I just didn't know quite how to do it. I ended up using my water pen together with Color Box Petal Point Classic ink pad for the mouse and the leaves. I still didn't like the mouse, he just didn't look right. I ended up flocking him. I also used glitter pens for outlining in the leaves. I was happy with the card when I sent it off.

The layout on the card to the right was a sketch challenge. I really like doing the sketch challenges. The print paper, of which there is very little, was a scrap. I really like it for the openness of the print and the variety of colors (of which you can only see the green). The colors I used for my card are a perfect match to the colors of the print. I don't have an eye for color and will often use a print to aid me in choosing colors to put together. It doesn't always work out, but if I like it...
 I hope you like my cards and all comments are appreciated. Thank you for stopping by.  Take care

My pink Cricut Expression has arrived!! and it works!!!  Provo did a very good job on this. I sent my injured Cricut back to them last Wed and I have the new replacement today, one week later.  Now I am going to go play with my new toy. 

Thanks for stopping by.  Take care

Three hours ago my new pink Cricut Expression was 100 miles from me. I almost have the tracking number committed to memory. In the morning I will know when it will be at my door. Do I sound excited? I can hardly wait. I won't really have any time to play with it as we are going camping on Friday, however I am so relieved that my machine will be here before we leave.

I made this card for a card swap. I needed a circle, a flower and something sparkly. The layout is from a SCS challenge. However, the original layout has squares not circles. The card I post to the challenge has the same colors, different print and I used the squares. Should I post both cards when I make two alike only different?
I used the George cartridge for the flowers, circles and the "its your day". I have used my "baby bug" more this past month than in the past 2+ years that I have had it.

This card is also from an SCS challenge. Didn't use my Cricut, but did use a Fiskars combo punch. I love the combo punches since I have figured out how to use them. I want to get a couple of Martha Stewart boarder punches and Spellbinders boarder dies so I have a better selection. When I learn how to use my Design Studio, I will also be able to make boarders on my Cricut.

While I have never had much luck putting "kits" together for crops, I am going to attempt to get some scrapbook page and card materials together in kit form to take camping with me. I am not an organized person, never have been and never will be; So getting everything I need together is going to be the real challenge.

Thank you for coming by. Take care

Its Monday eve and I have had a very quiet weekend. Didn't get any cards or pages done, but did get some materials together (like pictures) to make pages. I am going to use the pictures for the Scrapin' Silhouette 1 challenge. And there is another challenge coming tomorrow.

The card above was made for a sketch swap. I used my Bloom cartridge for the flower box and the large flower. I used a button for the flower center and black pearls for the centers on the little flowers. The stamp is from Judith. 

I am so glad I decided to start my blog. While I have a long way to go, I am learning and using what I'm learning. I enjoy visiting blogs and I pick up tips and "how to"s to help me in my paper crafting.  I love that some put their card recipes with their cards. Never again will I be stuck for a design. My big problem is color coordination. Its not one of my better points. I am enjoying myself and will continue this as long as it remains fun.     Thank you for stopping by and Take Care.

A pink Cricut left No. Salt Lake, UT this morning at 6 am on its way home to me. yeaaa. Should be here July 7. Whoopeee!

Thank you Jennipher! This is the first scrapbook page, with a picture, I have made in more months than I can remember.
This page was made using  Scrappin' Silhouettes 2 sketch challenge. The sketch challenge comes out on Tuesdays. This is the first one for July, hence one picture. The second week will have two pictures, 3rd week, 3 pictures, etc. through the month. I don't know how to get a copy of the original sketch into this post, but it can be seen at  jennipherlowery.typepad.com/scrappin_silhouettes
I changed the challenge layout as I didn't think Jordan would appreciate flowers on his gymnastics page. Instead I used the white circles each depicting a men's gymnastic element (pummel horse, high bar and rings), I also used a smaller picture which changed the balance of the page.
The picture on the page speaks for itself, but I will need to put the words "gymnastics season" somewhere near the year dates. The words, numbers and brown circles are from the George cartridge.