Creatively Counting My Blessings

The Most Wonderful Time of Year

2012-01-28T13:37:00.000-05:00

The new release of craft products are about to hit the stores. I'm not even over the excitement of this past summer's release yet! But get ready to drool because these items are AMAZING.
Your Memories Here has been offering pre-orders of Prima's new products for the past 3 releases now, and our orders for them seems to be increasing with each subsequent year - Why? Because more and more crafters are finding out how SUPER AWESOME they are and WHAT A GREAT DEAL it is to purchase this way.
We started out offering "Grab Bags" of random all new products from the release in 3 sizes to work with your budget - these are perfect if you just can't decide which new line you love or just want a sample of everything that Prima offers.
Last summer we added the option to purchase a "Complete Collection" of products from one individual line. We're doing that again this year so that if you know what you want - you will get what you want because it is all clearly listed on the products page in our store.
So you choose which option is best for you!
Prima is promising to have these products out early to it's retailers (like mid February) which is good and not so good - Good, because that means you will not have to wait long at all for these wonderful new goodies. Not So Good, because that doesn't give you much time to get your order in. See we have to place our orders with Prima ASAP so that we are one of the first to receive these products (since they ship on a first come, first serve basis).
So please don't delay in placing your orders, we don't want you to miss out on this fantastic deal. The deadline for the Prima pre-orders is going to be February 2, 2012 - yep Groundhog Day for those of you who live in the U.S.

Also for a first time ever, we are offering a pre-order on a highly anticipated new product - Tim Holtz Distress Markers from Ranger!

37 markers in all the glorious Distress Colors that Ranger has to offer. Each marker is available to be sold individually and retails for $3.50 - but who are we kidding, you know you want them all? So we are offering the complete set with storage tube at a discounted price of $110 (and that does include shipping to the U.S.)
This offer will be good until February 15th - so you can ask your sweetie for the set for Valentine's Day :)
And lastly, each and every pre-order (Prima or Ranger) will receive a gift from me because I truly appreciate you choosing to shop with us.

Ornaments, Ornaments and more Ornaments Blog Hop!

2011-12-17T01:00:00.003-05:00

Hi Everyone! I'm so happy you stopped by to check out my ornament for the hop. If you're not here from the hop I hope you'll check it out because there are a lot of goodies to be had! Each blogger on the hop is going to give away their handmade ornament featured AND there is a grand prize - a stocking full of surprises from Lindy's Stamp Gang, KinderStampO, Karlas001, Helmar, PYMII and Unity Stamps. One winner will be picked from all the comments left on all the blogs!
So you should have arrived here from Pam's blog If you didn't, and want to start from the beginning go here
This is the ornament I created, the products used to create this ornament can be found in my store Your Memories Here.

It's a little wooden birdhouse you can get at your local craft store for around $1. I decorated it by first spraying the main part with Tattered Angels Glimmer mist in Santa Baby.

It is red with a golden glimmer and works so well on wood, the color soaks in but the glimmer stays on the surface and shines. Next I punched out roughly 15 scalloped circles from a sheet of Prima North Country paper.

I inked all the edges with Iced Spruce Distress Ink (from the limited edition winter collection) and I glued them with Helmar 450 Quick Dry onto the roof of the birdhouse like little shingles. I added a bit of Distress Stain in Picket fence to give them a snowy look too.

I also added 3 Prima velvet holly leaves to the top of the roof. They are a light gray, but I sprayed them with some Trunk Bay Glimmer Mist to give them a more turquoise color to match the Prima paper.

No home for the holidays is complete without a Christmas tree - So I made this little fella out of a chenille stem, rhinestone star and a few dabs of Christmas Red Stickles. It looks so festive in the little birdhouse.

I finished decorating the outside with tinsel trim, Prima lace trim around the base Prima mini roses and some Crystal Ice Stickles on the eaves and anywhere else icicles might form.

So if you like my little birdhouse ornament and would like to give it a home on your tree just leave a comment telling me what your favorite Christmas song is and I'll pick a winner on the 18th. Be sure to leave a way for me to contact you if you are the winner ;)
Next up on the hop is Elisa's blog
Thank you for joining me today and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas full of Joy and Peace!

Tanya's Surprise Birthday Blog Hop!

2011-11-25T00:01:00.024-05:00

Hi, my name is Kristina, welcome to my blog! You should have gotten here from Zeni's blog so if you didn't be sure to visit her blog for the start of this hop! She is offering up this Yummy Blog candy :

My gift for Tanya is this little altered tin from Prima (and when you buy one they come full of flowers)

I painted it with a coat of gesso and then a coat of antique white acrylic paint. Once the paint was dry I covered it in Hayride Glimmer Glam (my personal favorite glam color) So it glistens like gold all over. To further decorate it, I added Prima felt d'vines, a Prima leaf and some Prima flowers. (the rosettes come white but I colored them with pomegranate glimmer mist to match the larger flower and more of the hayride glam because I LOVE the sparkle) And because every girl needs bling for their birthday I went over the top with some Prima Say it in Crystals on here too.
I sure hope Tanya likes her tin! and I hope you enjoy the hop :)
So what kind of goodies am I offering -
How about some Christmas themed Prima flowers and the Limited Edition Winter Distress Inks?

Just leave a comment here and on the rest of the blogs too :)
Now you are on your way to Kimi and Pamela's blog

I'm Still Here, I'm Just Not All There

2011-10-26T10:33:00.000-04:00

I'm not saying I've lost my mind ;) just that I've been so busy I may have forgot where I placed it!
Me and my family just got back from another vacation at Disney World last week (and I can definitely say that is my most favorite place on Earth) If you're a friend of mine on facebook you have already seen many of the pictures.
Here's a couple of my favorites:

My Cheshire Cat ear hat!

Marlee just loves to pose for the camera!

Relaxing at the pool

The really awesome kiddie pool at our resort...really awesome in so many ways. The girls loved it, it had 2 fun water slides just right size for them. The water wasn't deep at all, only like 6" max so they could play all they wanted and mom and dad could play too or just sit back and watch :)

Kevin isn't crazy about having his picture taken (hence no smile) But as you can see, I don't care I'm taking his picture dang it!

Amazing dessert from Tutto Italia in the Italy area of Epcot. I have mentioned that I love food before, right?

Kevin and the girls right after riding Star Tours...twice (it's a really fun ride)

Mickey ice cream bars...the perfect snack to cool off with.

We joined Mickey and Minnie for some Halloween fun at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, a special event held select nights in the Magic Kingdom. It was so much fun, I recommend if you get the chance to do it, GO! A really magical experience - but I think everything Disney is magical :)
I'm not going to make any promises - because I don't like to break a promise, but I'll try to be back soon with some crafty goodness to share or at the very least, some craft related news!

My Blessings

2011-08-09T12:15:00.001-04:00

Whoa, here I am posting a project, I know it's been a while. I really have been making things the truth is I just hate uploading photos from my camera to my computer, then editing and then adding to the blog...
For this post I was able to cheat a little and use my webcam to take the pictures (of my project in progress) and they are automatically uploaded to my photo file so it's a lot less hassle. I know you're thinking "how lazy can she be?" I really am THAT lazy!
Now on to my layout...

(clicking on the photos will make them larger/easier to view)

I used Prima's August build-a-page sketch for my starting point (if you go check out the sketch on Prima's blog you'll see I didn't follow it very closely) The back ground paper is from the Prima Pastche collection and this sheet here is "heart strings". The other papers that my photo is placed upon are also Prima, from the 6x6 inch Backstage paper pad. I chose relatively plain/monochromatic pages from that pad so that I could stamp on them with a couple of my large background stamps (one is a script, the other is from Prima called Hexagon - but I call it chicken wire :) ) I used Saddle Brown Staz-on ink so that I could use my glimmer mist and glimmer glams over top of the designs and they won't run or smear.

For my page title I used a Prima chipboard font and I painted the letters I needed with "Hayride" Glimmer Glam. I find it easier to paint them while still on the sheet - they stay put and I don't lose any letters before I get them stuck down (don't you hate it when you are trying to position your letters and one comes up missing, usually one that you didn't have an extra one to begin with?)

So I placed my title on the page using Helmar 450 quick dry. Yes, those alphas are self adhesive, but I don't want them falling off later on down the road. With Helmar backing up the adhesion I know those suckers are there for good!

Next I added the bling. A dress form shape cut out of chipboard with the "body" of it covered in linen fabric that I colored using Santa Baby Glimmer Mist. I dressed it up with some Prima Pearls and Crystals swirls and a little piece of Prima lace trim that I colored with the Hayride Glam. I also glued all that down with the Helmar 450 quick dry - it really is the all-in-one glue. I also added a couple of Prima flowers to the bottom of my daughters' photo.

Lastly, I finished it up with a couple more Prima flowers, a beautiful Prima vine and a couple of Pastiche pebbles that I tucked in beside the flowers on the upper left corner of the photo. All adhered down with - you guessed it Helmar 450.
I also wanted to mention that all the crystal and pearl swirls on this layout came from one package, I just cut them apart to make them go a little further ;)
I get nearly all of my supplies at www.YourMemoriesHere.com because I really like the owner :)
I hope you'll take the time to count some of your blessings today.
HUGS,

Totally Guy

2011-06-28T09:50:00.003-04:00

Hello! I'm excited to share today's post with you :) Your Memories Here is now carrying Tim Holtz and Ranger products and I had so much FUN playing with them! I've always been a fan of the Distress Inks and my love of them keeps growing with each project I make.

Here is a picture frame I decorated. It started out as a plain MDF frame that holds a 4x6 photo (the same on I used here) I covered it with some fabulous patterned paper from DCWV using my Helmar Acid Free glue to adhere it down (because that stuff will hold it FOREVER) and then got busy "decorating".

I used Vintage Photo and Black Soot Distress inks to grunge up the edges. Then came the really fun part, making those gears! I cut out the gears with the Tim Holtz Sizzix die and then embossed each one using the Distress Clear Embossing pad and various metallic finish embossing powders like gold, silver and a chestnut brown color. Then I got inky with them using the Vintage Photo, Tea Dye and Black Soot Distress Inks to achieve the desired old/grungy/rusty gear look. I gave them a quick shot of heat to set them a little before I coated them. Some I used Rock Candy Distress paint(coming soon to the store) for a crackled finish and some I used glossy accents on (but I hit those with the heat gun before they were completely dry to make the finish bubble and wrinkle) I was ecstatic with the results! Before I glued the gears down I used the negative of the chipboard from the Sizzix cut is a mask and sprayed it with a little Sugar Maple Glimmer mist for a rusty/graffiti look. Then I adhered all the gears down with Helmar 450 Quick Dry because it dries fast, clear and holds STRONG.

To finish it off I hammered a few over sized metal eyelets into the frame and added a chipboard bookplate frame that I distressed the same as the gears, to hold a title for whatever photo my hubby decides to put inside (still not sure if it will be a picture of his motorcycle or our girls ;0 )

Just a reminder, this is the last week to submit an entry for the YMH Design Team call, if you'd like to post your creations on YMH Designs every week and get awesome products a wholesale cost then this call is for you!
Also this is the last week to use the coupon code SUMMER to save 10% off your entire order at Your Memories Here.com

Have a great week!

My Take on a Topiary

2011-06-14T13:33:00.000-04:00

Hi all, hope your week has been off to a great start. I'm here today to show you a project that I have been wanting to make ever since I returned from my trip to Disney (more than a month ago!)
They had the most gorgeous topiaries and floral displays at the parks, especially Epcot because it was during the International Flower and Garden Festival that we were there.
So here is my tiny topiary:

Cute right? I made it with gorgeous Prima roses. Do you want to know how? Well, I'm going to do a LIVE class on it Wednesday, June 22 at 9:00pm EST on our Ustream channel! So you can watch and see (and chat too) and if you can't make it for the live show we'll record it so you can watch later.
There is also a kit for this so you can have everything you need to make one in a convenient bundle :) Check out the kit HERE and don't forget to watch the show next Wednesday evening!

Don't forget about the Your Memories Here DT call that we have going on right now. Enjoy the rest of your week!

Birthday Card for GG

2011-06-07T09:32:00.001-04:00

Hi All! Feels like I've been away forever (OK well, at least the month of May) So much to do and so little time, I'm afraid my crafting suffers the most from it.
Well, last Friday was my grandma's birthday ( I won't say how old she is but if you saw her, you wouldn't believe me anyway) So I just HAD to make her a special birthday card. I was reading my sweet and incredibly talented friend, Karli's blog where she made this card and said it was so easy! I thought 'really? easy? OK I gotta try it.' You know what? She was right! Now some of you are probably thinking, "duh I knew that already Krissy, I've made tons" Well, I've always been too lazy to try because I though it must be a lot of work. I was SO WRONG. So if you've never given these tri-fold shutter cards a try, please do. You'll be thanking me just like I'm thanking Karli now!

*Disclaimer: I must apologize for the poor quality of the photos and the distracting backgrounds (I tried to edit the best I could) but I had taken these photos at my Mom's house, with my cell phone, right before we left to go to my Grandma's*

The details: This card is ALL Prima!
I used the Sparkling Spring 6x6 paper pad for the patterned papers, the flowers are assorted Prima's the lace trim is Prima Alencon and I even cut it apart to use the individual flowers as centers for the hydrangeas! There are also a couple of Vintage Trinkets on there.

Wanna know a little secrete? I decorated this entire card while driving from central Ohio to Pittsburgh PA!
Here's the proof:

Yep, that's Helmar 450 Quick Dry you see sitting in my cup holder!

So go try something new today!
HUGS

Back from Vacation

2011-05-10T13:56:00.000-04:00

Hey everyone, I'm back from my trip but still can't get into the swing of things. Is it possible to have jet lag if you've only flown from Florida to Ohio?
While at Disney World we went to Epcot, which was holding their annual Flower and Garden festival and WOW how beautiful it is. All the different plants, flowers and topiaries. It was a treat for the eyes and the nose :) It also gave lots of inspiration for some projects using Prima flowers. While the Epcot Flower and Garden festival will come to an end soon this month, the beauty of Prima's flowers will last forever (and you gotta love that!)
So I'm sharing with you some of my family's vacation pictures until I can get my butt in gear and make a project.

Tea Party Tag

2011-04-26T17:19:00.000-04:00

I am participating in a tag swap over on the Facebook group "Artsy Addicts". The theme of the swap is Tea Party.

For my tag, I started with a manila cardstock base and colored it with Trunk Bay and Teal High Heal Glimmer Mist. Then I covered the entire tag with white lace and glued it down using Helmar 450 quick dry, because I knew it would dry clear and be undetectable behind the lace.

To embellish the tag I cut out a tea cup shape on my Cricut using SEI papers and decorated my cut with tiny pearls, Prima flowers and the gorgeous crystal swirl resembling steam is Prima e-line crystals.

The lace trim across the bottom of the tag is also Prima.
Hate to post and run but so much to do so little time - I'm sure many of you know how that is :)
Before I go, just wanted to remind you that this is the last week of the Tattered Angels sale so stop by Your Memories Here to save big soon!

Ladybug Love

2011-04-19T10:16:00.002-04:00

Hello and Happy Tuesday everyone! It's a soggy day here, perfect for staying in and working on something crafty.
Today I wanted to share with you a lamp shade that I made for my daughter's bed room. Do you remember Lilee's Ladybug room?
Well she needed a new lamp shade to match because her old one had farm animals on it :)
So I bought a plain white shade and dressed it up using red with black polka dot ribbon.

I glued the strips of the ribbon using Helmar 450 quick dry, covering the entire shade in ribbon.
Then I took a white Prima flower and sprayed it with Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Mist and glued it along with a Prima leaf to the lamp shade.
I finished it off with a yellow button center that I glammed up with some yellow Stickles and a cute ladybug button.

Lilee just loves it and that makes me happy! I love when I can make things for my kids and they appreciate it. I know someday they are going to prefer "store bought" like all their friends have, so I'll enjoy them wanting 'Mom to make it' for as long as I can :)

Addicted to Mists

2011-04-06T09:02:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone, my name is Kristina and I'm addicted to Glimmer Mists.
Did you see the canvas back pack I made on my Ustream show (either LIVE or the recording)? This one here:

Well, now I'm misting everything! I made two more little canvas bags for our upcoming Florida vacation. I'm thinking the girl's can use them to tote around their beach findings.

On this one I used Teal High Heal, Trunk Bay, and Hula Hoop glimmer mists. I used the sea horse Glimmer Screen from the "Under the Sea" set. First I sprayed the center of the bag with the light green Hula Hoop and then laid the sea horse stencil on top and sprayed with the Trunk Bay. I let it dry a bit and then I created a mask out of chipboard by tracing around the outside of the seahorse stencil and cutting it out. I placed that over top of my seahorse image on the bag and sprayed the whole thing with the Teal High Heal chalk mist.
When my bag was all dry I used some Prima Alencon lace and glued it around the top of my bag (you could sew it, but who has that kind of time?)
Can you see that gorgeous sparkle of the glimmer mist?
Well then I was on a roll and had to make another.

So on this bag I used the sand dollar Glimmer Screen and followed the same process as above except I placed the screen on the raw canvas first, then misted with Sun Sisters (which is such a beautiful warm yellow) then created my chipboard mask, as I had done with the sea horse bag and then sprayed all over with Alaskan Salmon chalk mist.

I made this canvas flower using the same method as those seen during my Ustream, by cutting the canvas out on my Cuttlebug with the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die and misted them with the Sun Sisters and Alaskan Salmon. I finished it off with a Prima gemstone center. This flower is pinned to my bag so that I can remove it if I want to.

I can almost hear the waves crashing in the background ;)
If you're feeling like creating a tropical getaway bag, grab some Glimmer Screens and some Glimmer mists and get spraying! All Tattered Angels products are on sale at Your Memories Here for a super, unbelievably low price this month (or while supplies last)

Today is the Day!

2011-04-01T08:19:00.001-04:00

Hi everyone! TGIF and Happy April Fool's for those who celebrate it. No foolin here. Just some great deals and a reminder that tonight is our first LIVE show on our Ustream channel HERE. You can all stop by and watch me make a fool of myself :) Seriously, I'm going to be decorating a canvas backpack with some Glimmer Mist and Glimmer Screens, and who knows what else. The Live show will begin at 8:30pm Eastern Time but for those who want to see it but can't make it, we'll record.
Now on to the deals!(that's what you all came for, right?)
All month long is the Misty Month of April - we are having a phenomenal sale on all of our Tattered Angels products. Stamps, Stencils, Chipboard pieces and yes the mists too. They are seriously quite a steal, some marked down over 75%!! So head on over to the store and check them out, I'm not sure if they will be around all month long.

Art for a Cause

2011-03-22T11:05:00.000-04:00

Hi All! Hope your week is going well. Today I have a piece of art and video to share.

Marion Smith (of A Piece of Craft) had a Ustream show asking fellow crafters to make a 4"x4"- 3 dimensional art piece in the style of vintage grunge-y and then send it to her so that she can place them all together in a collage of one (or more depending on the number of pieces she receives) large art piece to auction off for a very special charity called Reese's Rainbow. Reese's Rainbow provides assistance to special needs orphan adoption - you can read more about it HERE.
So my contribution is this tile:

It's not really a "tile" but a 4"x4" of chipboard covered in decorative paper. You can make one too if you want to donate it to Marion for her art collage.
And in case you wanted to know how I made mine here are the supply details along with a video I made while working on it (there is no speaking in the video since I sped it up for the sake of time - so you can mute it if you would rather not hear the music)

I used a K and company printed paper that I inked with Distress inks in Old Paper and Vintage Photo. I stamped the piece with the Prima 'chicken wire' Stamp and Stazon Timber Brown ink. The white wooden frame is Chatterbox and I inked it with Vintage Photo Distress ink. The Owl is a Tattered Angels Glimmer Chip that I colored with my art markers. The crystal flower vine is Prima and the little flowers are Prima velvet flowers leftover from a Live with Prima kit. The lace trim is also Prima and I sprayed it with Tattered Angels Vanilla Breeze Glimmer Mist.
I think that's all - but if you have any questions, please leave a comment.

Have a great day!

Perfectly Pink!

2011-03-08T13:58:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone! Happy Tuesday (Mardi Gras as a mater of fact) I have a really fun projectto share with you, but first the winner of my blog candy for Jenn's Birthday blog hop.
The winner is Katieo! I have contacted her and if she doesn't respond then we'll pick another winner next Tuesday OK?
Now on with the project:

My project today features a Live with Prima kit designed by Lolly Chessie. She made hers in a totally awesome teal for the Live with Prima class on December 30th and here I am over 2 months later finally making my version...in PINK!

Just a reminder, here is Lolly's terrifically teal version and here is the link to her recorded Live with Prima class showing you how she made it.

What I did differently with mine (besides the obvious pink color) is I painted my wood box white.
So here is what the box looks like, full of velvet Prima flowers:

First, you take all the flowers out and save them for another use :)

Then you take the wooden grid inside out. Now, it's glued in just a little bit so it takes a little gentle persuasion to pop it out but don't worry, it will come out.

Next, I painted all the edges white. Not a heavy coat, just enough to lighten it up. Of course you could paint yours whatever color you like or omit the paint and leave it wood.

I didn't paint the bottom of the inside because you're going to glue the patterned paper in there.

I cut my Prima patterned paper to fit the inside of the box and then for some extra pizazz I sprayed it with Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Mist and I stamped a script background in red ink.
Following Lolly's directions, I cut the remainder of my pattered paper to the shape of the felt boarder and glued it to the glass lid of my box.
And finally I made the flowers as Lolly showed in her class and decorated the outside (and a little of the inside too) with the flowers from this kit.

Your Memories Here has these kits available in both pink and teal. They include all the Prima products you need to make one of these boxes (or a version of your own) plus have lots of other flowers left over!
Just remember the Live with Prima classes are FREE and recorded (click here to visit the class archives) so you can go back and watch them whenever you have the time. It's never too late to try out one of these projects!

I hope you have a great day! I'll be back on Friday for the weekly steal.

Welcome to Jenn's Birthday Hop

2011-03-04T09:00:00.004-05:00

Hi, If you're here for the hop you've come to the right place, you should have just left Pam's blog. If you're just stopping by let me invite you to check out the hop for a chance at some goodies and to check out some awesome projects.
Here's the list of blogs in case you get lost along the way:
1. jenn http://creativearmywife.blogspot.com/
2. LISET http://hailemnat.blogspot.com/
3. kristi http://www.littlepapersprinkles.blogspot.com/
4. erin http://www.spantastikreations.blogspot.com/
5. nicole http://canadiannickelscrapn.blogspot.com/
6. giselle http://crossmyheartpapercrafts.blogspot.com/
7. lauren www.laurenscraps.blogspot.com
8. kristen http://www.pinkldycrafter.blogspot.com/
9.tracy http://luvmybabygirl.blogspot.com/
10.. madison http://www.funkycards.blogspot.com/
11. PAM http://pammejo-scrapbookflair.blogspot.com/
12. kristina www.yourmemorieshere.blogspot.com
13. jess http://www.kinderstampo.com/
14. corri http://www.buglvr.blogspot.com/
15. hailey & rebecca www.therockstarbugs.blogspot.com
16. nicolette www.beyondscrapin.blogspot.com
17. paula http://www.owlbescrappin.com/
18. katie http://www.kbstamps.blogspot.com/
19. meighen http://scrappin3rdeeschik.blogspot.com/
20. DDscrafts http://craftydeb-ddscrafts.blogspot.com/
21. theresa www.thescrapbookingqueen.com
22. jill http://thescrapoholic.blogspot.com/
23. jennifer www.craftycardgallery.blogspot.com
24. shannon www.purplelionpaper.com/blog
25. alina http://neverstopscrapping.blogspot.com/
26. faith http://faithfulecreations.wordpress.com/
27. sandra www.365daysofcricut.blogspot.com
28. Martha http://pattisscrapingtime.blogspot.com/
29. denise http://deesdesignsfrommyheart.blogspot.com/
30. bonnie http://ascrapabove.blogspot.com/
31. becky http://beckscricards.blogspot.com/
32. gloria http://gloriasgoofycraftspot.blogspot.com/
33. lisa HTTP://bitbythecricutbug.blogspot.com/
34. jessica http://thatzuneek.blogspot.com/
35.christine Www.scrapbookingtechnique.blogspot.com
My project to share with you is a birthday card! Because of course this is Jenn's Birthday Hop and she loves turtles.

I used some solid card stock as well as Prima patterned paper for the card (here's a little secrete...it's Christmas paper but you really can't tell huh?) I cut out the turtle on my Cricut using the Create a Critter cartridge. The Happy Birthday Stamp is an Imaginisce snag 'em stamp and the green happy birthday ribbon is American Crafts.
Now on to the goodies, would you like to win some Imaginisce stamps? How about 10 Imaginisce stamps? Well Just leave a comment here telling me when your birthday is for a chance to win them. But you have to leave a way for me to contact you in case you are the winner OK?
So now you're on your way to Jess' blog

Semi-Homemade Floral Embellishments

2011-03-01T14:02:00.000-05:00

Today I wanted to share with you some beautiful, yet easy, do it yourself floral embellishments. These embellishments start with Prima flowers, so you know they will always turn out beautiful.

For each one I took 3 Prima hydrangeas (we have several different colors of hydrangeas at Your Memories Here) and layered and glued them to create a flower. Next, I sprayed the flowers with some Glimmer Mist for a shimmery sparkle and I attached a Prima crystal to the center. I also added a Prima rose leaf to each one. Lastly, I glued some whimsical colored feathers to each flower for a little fun.
What a fun way to dress up your projects using inexpensive embellishments. Each package of Prima flowers, pearls and crystals and rose leaves has enough product that you could create many gorgeous embellishments.

Custom T Shirts - You Can Do It!

2011-02-15T16:04:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone! It's another quick, last minute Tuesday post for me. This project took only 10 minutes to complete - seriously!
I wanted to share with you a couple of T Shirts I made for my girls using my Cricut machine.

How do you use a Cricut to make T Shirts (I know you're thinking)? Well, I used one of the great images from the Wall Decor cartridge, the crown, and cut it out of a piece of freezer paper, yep that stuff you buy in the grocery store next to the aluminum foil and wax paper.
That becomes your stencil. Then you simply iron it onto your shirt - shiny side down and it adheres itself into place (but only temporarily) Using your favorite fabric paint or as I used fabric glue and glitter (Tulip Brand - made to be machine washed) apply it to your design. When you're done, just peel up the paper and voila! A custom T shirt.
Here are my lovely assistant's modeling their new fashions:

We still have some Cricut products left in stock at Your Memories Here, but they are clearance priced and once they are gone that's it!

Gotta Love Glitter

2011-02-01T09:59:00.000-05:00

I've been working on my mini album and have a couple more pages to share with you.
I got a little out of control with the embellishments and it's looking like it's going to be pretty thick, Oh well!

I've used some more of the DCWV Mariposa papers as my backgrounds.

On this page I used a Prima butterfly as my main embellishment, I thought the orange went nicely with the coppery glitter on the paper. I also added the word "dream" that I cut on my Cricut and then sprayed with Sugar Maple Glimmer Mist (I think that is my favorite color of GM right now) I inked all the edges of the page with spiced marmalade distress ink.

On this page I added a side pocket by edging some of the patterned paper with my Alterations On the Edge die (pst... it's a Sizzix die, but I totally use it in my Cuttlebug) and then adhering it to the edge of my page. The little leafy branch was also cut on my Cricut and then I hot glued some Prima mini roses in Sunrise Yellow. The larger flower is a Prima Lilliput rose that was all yellow, but I sprayed the center with some Pomegranate Glimmer Mist for a bit of contrast.

I'm almost finished with this mini and I can't wait to show it to you assembled with all my photos inside.

Recycling Can Be Pretty

2011-01-25T13:35:00.001-05:00

Well silly me, I posted this today over on the YMH Designs blog but forgot to post over here:) So I'm just a few hours late. Oh well, better late then never!
Today's project requires you to eat an entire carton of ice cream. Do you think you can do that? If your answer is undoubtedly YES! Then you're my kind of crafter :)

First I took said ice cream container and washed it out real good (we don't need to attract any bugs) Then I let it sit on my counter for about a week so my kids could ask me at least 3 times a day "Mom, can I have that ice cream?" and I would answer "no, it's empty" but still they asked every single day. So to end their torture, I finally came up with a plan as to what I was going to do with this container.
*little background story*
A couple of weeks ago the very crafty LollyChops made THESE and I was so inspired by her class that I wanted to make one too. But I keep putting off finishing up that box of cheese (and yes, I know I can wrap it up in plastic and steal the box) but this carton of ice cream came available much quicker ;)
So, an assortment of Cosmo Cricket "Hey Sugar" papers and paper embellies arrived at YMH this weekend and I was in love. Inspiration was born!

Measure your container (mine was 5" tall by 16" around) so I cut my Cosmo Cricket " Be Mine" paper 5"x12" and then pieced in another small piece of paper 5" x 6" to overlap.

I slathered up the sides with Mod Podge and wrapped the paper around. I used clothes pins (as a second set of hands) and rubber bands to hold it in place while the glue dried.

I painted the lid with several coats of pink acrylic craft paint.* At first I didn't think the paint was going to stick because of the shiny finish of the carton but after the first coat dried the rest went on with no problem.

Then I cut a strip of my patterned paper (this is the same paper as the body of the carton, just the reverse side!) I also glued it with Mod Podge and banded it till it was dry.

I kinda skipped ahead with the photos so let me catch you up:
Next I used the "strip tease" card stock with the various funny sayings and patterns on it and selected the one that says "Smile, it's the second best thing you can do with your lips." I used it to make a belly band to go around my carton (and had to piece another bit of paper to fill the gap - remember our circumference is 16" and our paper is only 12") I glued that on with my ATG gun. Then I used my Webster's Pages trims to make a soft aqua band around the lid and the sheer net trim around the belly band ( I used hot glue to attach both of those).

For the lid I cut a 4 1/2" circle out of the "Honey, Honey" paper and glued it in place. Then I added a large, pink Prima flower and gathered some Prima trim into a flower shape and hot glued that down on top of the pink flower and lastly glued an aqua Prima Fairytale rose on the top of that.

I whipped up a couple of beaded hat pins to stick in my flower stack for a little touch of "bling".

For this entire project I used 1 whole sheet of 12"x12" paper, a small strip of the "strip tease" paper and a circle from another sheet (which I could have gotten out of the fist piece of card stock, but I wanted a contrasting paper) So that leaves 10 and 3/4 sheets of card stock plus all the other embellies in the kit for many more projects! This $10 kit goes a looooong way!

This little cute doesn't have a designated purpose yet but since nothing about those papers say that it's for Valentine's day, I'm thinking I can use it for whatever I want!

"Free Bird" for all you Skynyrd fans

2011-01-18T10:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Tuesday! Did you all have a long weekend too? My girls didn't have school yesterday for Dr. Martin Luther King's Day so we kinda vegetated all day :)
I did a little more work on my mini album this weekend (it's a slow work in progress) Remember the cover page HERE

The background paper on this page is from the DCWV Mariposa stack. I'm using the 8"x8" stack for this since my mini album is only a 6"x6" so there is minimal waste and the images are more to scale than if I were to use the 12"x12" papers cut down.

The bird cage on my page was cut on my Cricut using the Bloom Lite cartridge. I cut out the first layer once in blue, then the shadow layer twice, in olive green and then in dark green. I inked all three layers with Peeled Paint Distress Ink and off set the dark green shadow layer just slightly from the olive green shadow layer. This cut also has flowers with it but instead of using those I added Prima flowers clustered and layered. And those little leaves you see peeking out from behind the flowers, those are a green "got flowers" style 5 petal flower that I cut into sections to use as tiny leaves. I wished I had taken a photo to better explain, but basically you cut it into 5 pieces at the natural separation down to the middle and each one looks like a little heart when it's cut apart.

My little "free bird" is a Tattered Angels glimmer chip. I inked it along his belly and tail feathers area with some Denim Jean Distress Ink and then sprayed it all over with Glimmer mist. The inking really brings out the embossing on the glimmer chips. I added a tiny black adhesive pearl for an eye and called him done!
Overall, I didn't do much on this page but that's because I'm saving room for a photo.
Who knows, maybe I'll even get this entire album finished this year?!

January Tag Swap Video

2011-01-11T06:00:00.001-05:00

Hey did anyone else notice today's date is 1-11-11? Fun stuff although my personal favorite date is 7-11-11 or 11-7-11 it has a nice ring to it ;)
As promised, I am back today with a video reveal of my project using the little peaches I gave you all a peek at.

I created these tags for the January KinderStampo tag swap. The theme this month is "Wishing you a Peachy Birthday". Since I don't own any Peachy Keen stamps yet (it's just so hard to decide which ones to buy!) I went more literal with the theme and created a 'Happy Birthday' tag with a peach on it!
To give my peach that real peach feel I used SEI velvet paper. I colored the peach with some Pebbles chalks for a more 3 dimensional look and finished it off with some Prima rose leaves.
The tag itself is made of Imaginisce All Kinds of Happy card stock cut at 4" on my Cricut using the Sweet Treats cartridge (with the tag feature, number 5 button).
The ribbons and trim are all random pieces from my stash. The Stickles color I used is Cotton Candy.
I usually stamp the back of my tags with personalized "created by" stamp but I thought I'd leave this one blank so that the recipients can use them for gift packaging if they like.

I think later this week I'm going to tackle re-organizing my ribbon stash (it's pretty obscene how much ribbon I have) Would anyone like to see a video on this?

Hugs,

Peachy Peek

2011-01-04T19:58:00.000-05:00

Hey every one! Today has totally gotten away from me and along with it went my crafty mojo. So I don't have a completed project to share with you but more of a "peek" of some pieces I working on.

Any guesses on what you think they might be for?
I can tell you that they are made of SEI velvet paper and I used my Cricut to cut them out. That velvet paper cuts beautifully in my Cricut on the max pressure setting. The leaves are Prima and I added the shading on the peach with my Pebbles chalks.
I hope to have a video of the completed project as well as the process of making it by my next Tuesdays post.

Making Time for Crafts

2010-12-29T19:13:00.004-05:00

Hi all! I'm enjoying a nice break from the regular day to day life stuff. My hubby has some time off work so he's sharing the "home" duties. That has given me a chance to get in my studio and play with some items I've had on hand, but haven't gotten around to using yet.
I was chatting with the girls during last nights Live with Prima class and Tim Holtz Rock Candy Crackle paint came up in the topic. I had bought a jar of it some time ago but never tried it out and really wasn't sure what to do with it. Well Cari and the other ladies said I really must give it a try so I promised that I would play with it today.
So I decided to start a mini album just so I could use the product. This is the cover of the album. I used some of my most favorite (and hoarded) Prima products on here. The paper is from the Pastiche collection- it's called Quirky. The flowers are Prima mini roses and fairy tale roses (which started out white and I colored them to match my project) and a Prima Lilliput rose (in yellow, but looks more like a cream). I also used some rose leaves as a foundation for the flowers. The lace trim across the bottom is from Prima too. It is also a creamy white and I colored it with antique linen and tea dye distress inks to get the desired color for my page. The magnifying glass is a Tattered Angels nature glimmer chip.It has an embossed design on it and I sprayed it with glimmer mist for color and shine.

For the "glass" of the magnifying glass, I used the rock candy crackle paint and then when it cracked and dried, I rubbed some broken china distress ink into the cracks for more definition.

I'm not sure what this mini album is going to be for yet, but I think it's off to a lovely start.
I hope I've convinced you to use some of those cherished supplies you've been hoarding and turn them into something even more beautiful.

Seasonal Cards

2010-12-14T08:55:00.007-05:00

The title of my post is because I expect there to be lots of post of other Christmas cards I make and I don't want the title "Christmas Cards" to be over used ;)
While these are both indeed Christmas cards, I think they could also be used for other occasions by adding the appropriate sentiment.

For both of these cards I used the same basic supplies, I just changed a couple of things.
The stamped image is the Unity Itty Bitty Songbird stamp. The textured background was made using a Tim Holtz wood grain embossing folder (which works perfectly in my Cuttlebug) I further enhanced the texture with some distress inks. The background paper/card base is the DCWV Handmade Christmas Stack.
To stamp my images I used Stazon (in timber brown and blazing red) I prefer Stazon when needing a clean crisp image and because Unity stamps have such amazing detail I wanted it all to show. The flower and leaf on the second card are both Prima, I just added a little bit of red glitter to the flower to make it a bit more festive.
Thanks for stopping by today.

Handmade Holiday Gift Hop

2010-12-10T09:34:00.007-05:00

Hi everyone! Hope you're enjoying the hop. If you've been following along the path you should have came here from Kim's blog. If you get lost along the way, just head back to YMH Designs to get back on track.
My handmade gift to share with you is a Christmas photo frame

To make this frame I used a blank frame I purchased at Hobby Lobby,

I took a sheet of Prima Christmas Fancy paper and cut it to approximate size of my frame.

Then I covered the whole front with Mod Podge and glued my paper to the frame.
Then I used my craft blade to cut out the picture opening.

I sprayed the frame with some Santa Baby Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist and glued some Webster's Pages Winter Trim around the picture opening.

To finish it off I decorated with tons of Prima flowers, Prima vines and Prima pearls and crystals. Oh and the stamp is a Unity Stamp.

I hope you've enjoyed my frame and if you have any questions just ask! Now you're off to Leah's blog to see what she has made.

Blog Hop

2010-12-09T13:42:00.002-05:00

Hey everyone! Just wanted to let you know that Your Memories Here is hosting a blog hop TOMORROW! But don't fret if you can't make it, you'll be able to visit all weekend and we'll pick the winners on Sunday night.
The YMH Design team is going to be sharing some handmade gift ideas just in time for the holidays.
I sure hope you'll come back tomorrow (or sometime this weekend) and see all the great projects our team has created to share with you.

Christmas Cookies (take two)

2010-12-01T10:39:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I posted this layout on the YMH Designs blog and the photo was just horrible. Well, I'm back with more (and better) photos.

Here is my two page layout using 2 Sketchy Thursdays sketches.

On this page you can kinda see the glimmery sparkle of the Tattered Angels New limited edition Santa Baby glimmer mist. We have several of the new winter colors in stock at Your Memories Here. I sprayed it on the solid red background paper of both pages.

I also used the same patterned paper on both pages to to keep them similar while using two different layouts for each page. This page is based on this weeks current Sketchy Thursdays challenge.

I just love the little cookie cutter embellies that I found, they are so perfect for these pages.

The title letters on the banner (and Cookies on the opposite page) are velvety flocked stickers. The beautiful green Prima lace trim has a nice Christmas feel to it. And the bright cheery colors are perfect for the fun photos and activity.
I know I say it all the time, but these sketches really help me get caught up on my scrapbook pages. It seems like the only time I'm creating layouts for my own personal use, is when I'm participating in one of these challenges! These photos are from 2008, so it looks like I have a lot more catching up to do!

December Tag Swap

2010-11-28T15:07:00.003-05:00

Hi! I have a tag to share with you today. I made it for the KinderStampO tag swap. The theme this month is "Wishing you a Pink Winter Wonderland" and your tag needs to have some pink on it. It can be just a little bit of pink or like mine, a whole lotta pink!
I had so many ideas in my head on how I wanted to decorate the tag so I decorated both sides.
On one side I decorated it with a jingle bell I cut out on my Cricut (which I just love this cut and didn't even know it existed till I saw it on FlowerDisco's blog) and I embossed it in my Cuttlebug with the D'Vine swirls folder. I also added a real jingle bell to the center of a Prima flower that I coated in UTEE. The little stamp is a studio g from last year (I believe).

The other side of the tag is a snowy embossed background stamp and a snowman Unity stamp (which is so much more glittery and shiny in person).
These will be going out in the mail this week, but you still have time to join in if you like. Your tags must be mailed out no later than December 15.
See you Tuesday for my YMH Designs post!

Hugs,

Is It Too Early?

2010-11-16T08:58:00.005-05:00

Hey everyone! I have been seeing some really great Christmas decorations, cards and tags lately. I keep telling myself *it's not too early to 'make' Christmas themed items, as long as I don't display them until after Thanksgiving.
So here is my first Christmas themed project for the season:

This is a wall hanging/wreath type decoration. I was inspired by the ornament made by Lolly (she gives an amazing tutorial for it HERE) Lolly's is ornament sized but I made mine slightly larger using 3" squares for the cones and a 5" circle for the center(which I sprayed with Snow Queen glimmer mist, one of the new winter colors) . The completed size of it is about 9". For the entire project I used only 3 sheets of double sided paper, 2 of the "Snow Day" and 1 "Winter Wisp" Both available at Your Memories Here with lots of other fabulous double sided papers.
I used thick chipboard letters to spell out the word "JOY". I painted the edges of each letter with purple acrylic paint first, then glued the patterned paper to the front. I added a coating of Mod Podge to each letter to make sure the paper doesn't lift up. Then I inked all the edges in dusty concord distress ink and added some icicle Stickles around all the edges too for a frosty ice look.

The letter "J" is embellished with some tiny jingle bells strung on light blue fibers, wrapped around the letter. I used a little dab of hot glue to keep each little bell in place.

The letter "O" has a few purple and aqua rhinestones embellishing it.

And finally for the letter "Y" I used some snowflake shaped brads, cut the prongs off then I smooshed (yes, that's a technical term) them into an embossing ink pad to get them well coated and sprinkled them with a light purple (Thistle from American Crafts) embossing powder and heated carefully with my heat gun. I used some hot glue to attach each one.

To attach the letters to my cone wreath base, I used the hot glue again. It seems to be holding up pretty good. Since the letters are made of chipboard they're pretty lightweight.

When it was all finished I proudly showed Kevin and he asked "Is that for someone named Joy?" Gosh he can be such a smart arse sometimes!

I hope to be back later this week with some Fall themed projects that I've been working on in my head :) I just got to get them out and onto paper!

Tag Swap Video

2010-11-09T10:17:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone, no I haven't lost my marbles, I know it's November. But we just finished up revealing the tags for the October KinderStampO tag swap so now it' safe to share the video without ruing the surprise :)

You can watch it in HD over on YouTube if you prefer.

You apply the techniques used in this video to any theme project, just change up the colors or stamps. Speaking of colors, we had a new shipment of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist arrive over the weekend and there are some new colors in the store (like some of the limited edition Winter 2010 colors) So pop on over to the web site and check them out, they are all on sale ;)

Flowers and Butterflies Mini Album

2010-11-02T12:58:00.000-04:00

Hi all! Today I have a bright cheery mini album to share with you.
It went together quite quickly because I used coordinating papers from the DCWV Blossoms and Butterflies stack.

The Prima flowers are the perfect embellishment for each page.

I also used my Cuttlebug embossing folders for some of the photo mats and it gives them great texture and visual appeal to the solid colored card stocks.

I misted some of the papers with Glimmer Mists so they have a beautiful shimmer, I only wish the camera could catch all the sparkle on these pages.

Layering different colored and shaped flowers is also a great way to add impact on the pages.

For the centers of the flowers I used rhinestones from the Prima Pearls and Crystals e-line collection (psst... you get 60 in a package for only $1.49)

Visit Your Memories Here for some awesome supplies to get started on your next paper crafting project.

Magnetic Memo Boards

2010-10-19T10:15:00.008-04:00

I'm so excited to share these. Not because I think they are something spectacular but because they were so simple and inexpensive that I hope everyone will give them a try! I found some steel baking sheets (it has to be steel so that the magnets will work- no aluminum) at my local dollar store. The round ones are 12" pizza pans and I also bought a couple of 9"x13" cookie sheets.

I used Mod Podge to adhere down some patterned paper that I cut to fit in the pans, then I embellished each one. I cut out the word "enjoy" on my Cricut in cream card stock, then sprayed it with sugared maple and a little pomegranate Glimmer Mist. I added a couple of Prima leaves too.

On this one I used Prima lace trim that I dyed with sugared maple Glimmer Mist and hot glued it around the edge.

The note holders are some regular clothes pins that I glued magnets to the back of, then I used some hot glue to adhere velvet ribbon on them. I made little grape clusters with some grape dew drops and a Prima rose leaf.

This one has a bit of a glare from the camera flash because the word is covered in glossy accents.

I painted these clothes pins black before I glued the ribbon on and added white Prima roses.

More Prima flowers and pearls accent this one.

I used Mod Podge to decopage the same patterned paper onto the clothespin magnets then added some Prima flowers and the Prima pearls.

I used Prima pearls and roses swirls to accent the swirls of the patterned paper.

You can cut the swirls apart very easily to get more out of a package!

This last one isn't finished yet, but I wanted to show you one of the rectangle sheets I've been working on. Since it is 13" long I had to use 2 sheets of paper. I used two different coordinating patterns and then covered the seam with some ribbon. I also used that ribbon on the clothes pins. But I've still got some more embellishing to do :)
I hope you've been inspired to give these a try!

Another Post it Holder

2010-10-12T14:10:00.003-04:00

So I'm back at it with the Post-it notepads. This time note stands.
I got the idea from HERE and it seemed so simple and easy I had to give them a try.

I made these two using some patterned paper from my stash of scraps! Then to dress them up, I glued some layered Prima flowers and a little button center to the acrylic stand.
Easy peasy, right? I also made matching pens too!

Another Digi for Sketchy Thursdays

2010-10-08T13:43:00.004-04:00

I just got some new digital scrapping software and had to try it out. I find the best and easiest way to work in a digital layout is by following a sketch. So of course I turn to my favorite sketch site, Sketchy Thursdays, for their latest sketch.

Now, I will NEVER trade my traditional paper and scrappy supplies in and go completely digital, but every now and then I just like to play around on my computer and get caught up on the overwhelming amount of photos I need to get scrapped. Plus there are a lot of good freebie design kits out there that are just so fun to play with and you could even do a little hybrid scrapping with them if you like.

Post- it Note Pads

2010-10-05T09:32:00.000-04:00

I have been making Post-it note holders lately. Once you start it kinda becomes an obsession. There are just so many wonderful patterned papers to use I just want to make more.
Here are a couple I've made but trust me, there are even more that I haven't photographed!

On this one I used the Prima hydrangea as my inspiration for the colors.

I found the instructions HERE. It's really quite simple, cut a piece of cardstock 3 1/4" x 7 3/8" and you score at 3 1/8, 3 1/2 and 3 7/8 fold on the scores and then snip a little piece out of the middle to make the pen spot. Then decorate the front piece and ta da!
Thanks for stopping by today!

Ghouls Just Want To Have Fun

2010-10-02T18:53:00.005-04:00

I participated in the monthly card swap over at Paper Crafting Mania. The theme was Halloween or fall. I went with the Halloween theme because I just love all the Studio g Halloween stamps I have and need to use them as much as I can before the season is over.
The sentiment on this card is actually two of those stamps, one is the spider frame and the other is the words "Ghouls Just Want To Have Fun" I crack up at punny stamps ;)
So keeping with the spider theme I used DCWV patterned paper (released a few years ago) and layered it on some bright purplish pink card stock and I FINALLY used my MS Drippy Goo punch that I've had since last year (but never opened til now) to edge the lime/neon green card stock.
The adorable spider (at least the cutest I've ever seen) was cut on my Cricut using my paper Dolls cartridge, then I covered her (yes, she's a girl, didn't you see her flower?) in black diamond Stickles and added a couple of Prima sweet n sassy flowers with a tiny little rhinestone, cuz ghouls are all about the glamor!

I made a matching envelope in the same shocking green along with little miss spider's cousin on the flap.

Hope you're having a great weekend. Thanks for stopping by.

Sketchy Thursdays

2010-09-29T21:02:00.004-04:00

This week's Sketchy Thursdays challenge is a two page sketch with lots of photos (head over to Sketchy Thursdays to see the sketch) That is perfect for me since I always have tons of photos for each event that I want to include on my pages.

Here is my layout featuring photos from my daughters' birthday party. Yes, this is an entire year behind, but at least I'm on my way to catching up.

Retirement Card

2010-09-24T21:55:00.004-04:00

This is a first for me, a retirement card. I wasn't sure what to put for the sentiment other than 'Congratulations on your Retirement' not at all original but served the purpose.
I apologize for the glare but the glimmer mist just catches the light of the flash no matter what angle I try to shoot it at.
I used DCWV Mariposa patterned card stock for the back ground. I stamped some plain ivory card stock with a script background stamp using sable brown Staz-on then sprayed it with Piece of Heart glimmer mist. I cut two ovals, the green one at 4" and the glimmer misted one at 3 3/4" The sentiment was printed on my computer then I went over it with embossing powder and heat embossed it. The three little roses are Prima mini roses in sunrise yellow.

Lilee's Birthday Button

2010-09-21T19:07:00.003-04:00

It's been a crazy busy day here. Lilee started pre-school today and Marlee also goes every day so I get to drive to and from the school 4 times a day every Tuesday and Thursday. Yesterday was Lilee's 3rd birthday, so I made her a birthday button to wear to school too (remember Marlee's from last Tuesday?)

I used my Cricut to cut out the circle base for the button and the number 3. I sprayed the circle with some glimmer mist for extra shimmer then I hot glued some pieces of Pebbles ribbon to it. Next I added a large pink Prima flower from a mini can. I added pink rhinestones to the 3 and glued it on top of the flower.

Here's our little Lilee, ready for her first day of school.

And here she is not really ready for mom to leave her at school.
But don't worry, she was fine as soon as I was out of sight (or at least that's what her teacher told me) Gotta scrap the good and bad memories right?
Thanks for stopping in today.

Happy Birthday Lilee!

2010-09-20T09:33:00.004-04:00

Hey everyone! Today is my little girl's 3rd birthday! I know you're probably thinking 'didn't she just write about her daughter's birthday last week?' and if you scrolled down to the last post you'd see you are correct. However I have 2 daughters and their birthdays are only 6 days apart (plus 2 years) So today Lilee is 3. We already had their birthday party (I combine the 2 parties and will continue to do so for as long as they'll let me LOL) this past weekend so today will be pretty much a normal day except we'll take her out for dinner tonight. Tomorrow is going to be her first day of pre-school and we'll have a little celebration with some treats and gift bags for her class mates. I'll be posting a crafty project for that tomorrow.

So here are some photos from the birthday party:

In case you had a few questions about these photos, Yes they both just had to get dresses up in "princess" dresses, the big hairy guy sneaking into the photos is our dog Foster, yes the 'Happy Birthday' banner in the first photo did fall down, the baby in the last photo is my niece :) Hope that covers it LOL.
I'll be back tomorrow with another post.

Happy Birthday Marlee

2010-09-14T10:28:00.001-04:00

Hi! Today's project has been inspired by a special little girl's 5th birthday - which is today!

My daughter is the stereotypical girly girl, she loves all things flowery, princessy, and sparkly. Her favorite colors are purple and pink (in that order) and she loves to dress up. So I made her this flower birthday badge to wear today, for her birthday.
Yes, it's as big as it looks! I used a huge Prima flower from a mini can as the base for my design and for some extra sparkle I sprayed it with glimmer mist. The number 5 was cut out on my Cricut with the Mickey font. I also sprayed it with glimmer mist (pomegranate) and then added tons of tiny pink rhinestones. The Princess crown is a snag 'em stamp that I stamped then embossed with glitter embossing powder, cut it out and added 3 purple rhinestones. To assemble the whole thing I cut out a 2" circle of chipboard, gathered some pink tulle and hot glued it to the chipboard then hot glued the flowers, then the crown and finally the 5.
It might be a bit much for some, but Marlee loves it and can't wait to wear it to preschool today!

Lilee's Ladybug Bedroom

2010-09-11T09:49:00.005-04:00

This week my little Lilee transitioned from her crib/daybed to a "big girl" bed. She wanted a ladybug room.
So we started with this quilt set as the theme and went from there.

Here is our cat Arney, demanding to be petted.

This wall has a mirror (obviously) with some flowers she picked out at Hobby Lobby and a couple of the vinyl ladybugs I made for her.

Here is her name cut out of vinyl and another ladybug I made her.

Here are her crazy beaded curtains, that also came from Hobby lobby. They were red so I said "why not?" and went with it.
Most of you may not know that her room was already painted blue like the sky with clouds and had a border of blue and yellow vinyl daisies around the bottom. It had been like that since Marlee was a baby and that was her room, but she moved on to another bedroom when I was pregnant and this became Lilee's room. I think the ladybugs worked out good with the "sky" walls.

Petal Fold Envelope

2010-09-07T00:01:00.004-04:00

I hope everyone had a great weekend, and for those of you in the States, I hope you had a nice long Labor day weekend.
Today I have a project and an scut file to share with you :)
This is a petal fold envelope that I decorated with some coffee filter flowers that I made using some Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, my Tim Holtz Alterations Die (with my Cuttlebug) and a THIS tutorial I found on YouTube by Laurel. You can use whatever color Glimmer Mist you like to match your project, for mine I used : Dragonfly, Pomegranate, Rose Tea and Olive Vine.

Once folded, the envelope measures 5 7/8" square, perfect for a square card, a small mini album or a great way to present a gift card.

This is the other side of the envelope. See how each flap folds in like a petal and you don't even need any adhesive to hold it closed. The beautiful paper I used is the Prima Watercolor Rainbow double sided paper. So for all of you that don't like double sided paper because you feel like you are "wasting" one side, this project is perfect since both sides will be seen.

Here is the envelope opened. In this view you can see where you need to score the flaps to fold in. You can also see the other side of this beautiful paper.

Click HERE to download the SCAL2 scut file. Don't have SCAL2 yet? get it HERE. I'm also working on creating a file for DS and an SVG too. If you'd like me to let you know when they are available just leave me a comment on this post.

Wanna Join Me At Sketchy Thursdays

2010-08-31T00:01:00.000-04:00

This week Your Memories Here is sponsoring the sketch challenge at Sketchy Thursdays.
Here is the sketch:

And here's my take on it:

I pretty much kept to the sketch except swapping a couple of Prima flowers for some of the circles.
The burgundy papers are from the new "Not So Traditional Christmas" kit and the other papers are from the SEI Windsor paper pad. I used my Cricut and the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge to cut out my title.
The prize up for grabs is this "Spooky" Halloween scrapbook kit from Pebbles Inc. And for more fun I've added two Hallowhimsy Snag 'em stamps and a bottle of the new Fall 2010 Pomegranate Glimmer Mist.

So head over to Sketchy Thursdays and submit your layout for a chance to win those spooktacular goodies just in time for Fall.
Be sure to visit the YMH Design team blog to see what the rest of the design team did with this sketch too.

Get Well Cards

2010-08-24T12:09:00.001-04:00

Unfortunately several of my family members have had some poor health issues recently so I've been making "Get Well" cards. On the bright side, at least they are on the mend ;)

For this card I used a Lily-Boo digi image that you can pick up HERE for FREE. All of the patterned papers are from the Pool House wall paper pack from Your Memories Here. I cut along the scalloped print of the olive paper and it gives the effect of a border punch!

This card also features the versatility of Pool House wall paper packs. For this one I made a masculine card using the front and back side of the blue paisley paper for my base and larger mat. Then I embossed a piece of blue card stock with the Herringbone Cuttlebug embossing folder (which are on sale right now at YMH). The "H" is a chipboard letter I covered with some more of the Pool House paper, this time the olive paisley. Then I gave it a glossy coating with some UTEE (ultra thick embossing enamel). A strip of crocheted lace trim from Prima finishes it off. The inside reads "Happy to hear you're on the mend". Since this card is for an older man I wanted to keep it clean without any images or frills.

Don't forget, you still have one week left to save 25% off your entire purchase at Your Memories Here with coupon code Follower

Sorry I'm Not Here

2010-08-16T17:33:00.003-04:00

I don't usually write the "I'm sorry for not posting" posts because I know you all don't really notice that I haven't been posting. If you're like me you have hundreds of blogs you follow and just read each new post as it pops up in your dashboard. But I do want to say to all the bloggers that I follow I'm sorry for the lack of commenting.
I have been without my own laptop for what is now 10 days, and I'm about to loose my mind from it. Long story short: my computer caught a virus, I tried to fix it, it ended up being far worse than I could handle so now it's in the hands of some computer geeks waiting to be looked at. Now normally I wouldn't call them names, especially since they are probably going to save me from loosing all my files and keeping me from having to buy a new laptop (I hope) but seeing how they were supposed to call me mid to late LAST WEEK to tell me what they expect the repair to cost and I still hadn't heard from them yet. When I called them today the guy said "oh yeah, it's on the work bench waiting to be looked at, we'll call you sometime soon." What the HECK!! So yeah, calling them geeks is being pretty nice.
Anyway, I've been using my husband's computer for some basic online stuff (checking emails, checking facebook, checking my bank statements) I have not been able to spend much time socializing with all of you in bloggy land and it's KILLING ME!
So that's my rant and excuse for being a horrible bloggy friend. I do hope you'll forgive me and please don't take my absence out on the wonderful girls on my DT over at YMH Designs. They are still posting their fabulous projects and would love to hear some encouraging words from you.

Girly Mini Album

2010-08-03T10:09:00.000-04:00

Hi all, I have a mini album to share with you.
I used a flower shaped chipboard album and covered it with some patterned paper (I found this one at Target for $1) You can start with any foundation piece because it's all about the embellishments when you're done :) I used lots of Prima flowers because this is a girly album and they are my FAVORITE embellishment.

The title "girl stuff" was cut on my Cricut using the Paisley cartridge on the word function and I cut out the shadow for it too. Then I sprayed the title with glimmer mist for some shimmery sparkle. The adorable little flowers sprinkled all over the cover are from the Prima spice shelf collection. There are over a THOUSAND flowers included in that set! On the larger flowers, I added a bit of stickles to the edge for even more glittery glam.

Here are all the pages with photo mats that I embellished with more Prima flowers (of course). In the center of each flower is a dew drop that I adhered with glossy accents, I like to use that for gluing my dew drops because it dries clear and remains flexible (less likely for your dew drops to pop off your flowers)

All of these gorgeous Primas are available in the new Prima "Hand Fulls" which you'll only find at Your Memories Here. I have a HUGE bucket of assorted Prima flowers and reach in to pull out a handful for you. You'll receive no less than 100 flowers in each bag and each handful will vary in colors and styles of flowers!

On this page of the album I made a tag pocket by covering a coin envelope with the patterned paper and slipped a tag inside. The fun fibers on the tag are from the ribbon and fibers assortment.

The album isn't done yet, but I think you've seen enough for today :)

August Lily-Boo Challenge

2010-08-01T16:38:00.004-04:00

Hi everyone it's August first and that means a new challenge over at Lily-Boo too Challenge blog.

For this month it's "anything goes" as long as you use a Boo! So you can make a card, a scrapbook page, an ATC, a post card, a piece of wall art, etc... Basically whatever you create as long as it has a Lily-Boo image on it you can enter it in the challenge. We'd love for you to play along with us, so if you don't have a Lily-Boo yet, there are tons of super cute images at Cuddly Buddly and there are even some freebies too! So no excuses, get over there and grab one so you can play along this month. You have all month to link up your creation over at the Lily-Boo Too Challenge blog.

I used my Fairy Cupcake Lily-Boo on a card for my niece. Her first birthday is next Sunday and I wanted to make her a special card. It has lots of glitter and sparkle from the Stickles on the fairy's wand-dust (is that a word?) and the star on her dress. I also sprayed the two Prima fairytale roses with glimmer mist after I colored them with my markers to match the card. I just love how you can make a white Prima any color you want just by spraying with mists, coloring with your markers, ink pads or paint. I stuck a chipboard number one (because it's her first birthday) down in the corner after I colored it with light purple ink and a thick coating of UTEE (yes, I'm still hooked on covering everything in UTEE).

I hope you'll stop by Liy-Boo Too and show us how what you can make with a Lily-Boo digi stamp.

Create to Create

2010-07-29T19:10:00.004-04:00

Hi friends! It feels like it's been so long since I've shared a project with you.

I've been getting pretty messy lately while creating and in the interest of saving my clothes, I decided an apron would be a nice solution. I was inspired by my friend Kim to decorate my apron before I totally ruin it with paints, inks and glimmer mists LOL

What do you think? Does it look familiar?
I used regular inexpensive acrylic paints to color it and then added sparkle with Dazzling Diamonds glimmer mist all over and some of the new yummy Pomegranate glimmer mist on the very bottom. I also painted the stars and stardust with silver and frosted lace Stickles. I wish you could see the way it shimmers, it's so pretty IRL.

One Year Anniverary!

2010-07-25T08:09:00.002-04:00

Today is a very special day for me personally. One year ago today I had LASIK eye surgery and went from a prescription of -8 to perfect 20/20 vision!
Everything about my procedure has been wonderful. I would recommend it to anyone who is considering having it done.
Even after a year, I still catch myself sometimes reacting as though I'm wearing my glasses. (like when it's raining, I shield my eyes so I don't get spots all over my glasses LOL) After all, I did wear glasses for over 23 years!
Some of the recent joys of not wearing glasses that I have noticed are: going swimming with my girls this summer and not worrying about just jumping into the pool. I can ride my 4-wheeler and not fight wearing my glasses under my goggles. I can wear any cute pair of sunglasses I want ;)
But my most favorite thing so far about not wearing glasses is waking up in the morning with Lilee at the side of my bed and I can see her!

Lilee's Hair Disaster

2010-07-17T15:19:00.003-04:00

I'm sure a lot of you have children, they may be grown now or they might still be babies. Well then you are also aware of the things they can do to make you crazy. Today my nearly 5 year old Marleen, took it upon herself to give her little sister Lilee (almost 3 years old) a new hair style.
I thought the two of them were blissfully playing in Marlee room, making a huge mess like they almost always do when unsupervised and quiet. It wasn't until Marlee brought me a crafty "project" she had constructed out of my address labels that I realized they had gotten into our home office (where they know they are not allowed to go). So when I went to see what else she had gotten into, I found various locks of beautiful curly red on the hallway floor. All I could do was gasp when I spotted Lilee sitting on the floor completely missing her bangs! i asked her why she cut her hair (assuming she had done it to herself) and she replied "Marlee did it". I surveyed the damage and found there wasn't much I could do to make it better because I didn't want to cut anymore of her hair off.

Here she is completely bangs-less

and from the side it's almost a mullet.

There is a nice size chunk missing right at the back crown of her head, there's no hiding that Alfalfa spike.

This was the best solution I could come up with. Here's Lilee and her new hair style that she'll be wearing until it grows back in

Marlee is still sitting in the living room recliner being forced to watch the food network until punishment has been decided.

A Lilyboo and Sketchy Thurdsay's

2010-07-10T10:08:00.004-04:00

Hi, I hope every one is having a great weekend. I'm having a fabulous weekend, actually my whole week has been great! Kevin has been on vacation since the 4th and we've just been busy doing things around here like riding our 4 wheelers and hiking at Old Man's cave.
So here's my layout for this week's Sketchy Thursday's challenge.
I colored up a Lilyboo digi "garden trellis" that is perfect for my layout, cuz I really do love my garden. It's not much (about 4'x9' raised bed) but that's all the room we have. I'm just happy I can have any at all :)

Since I had a couple of picks of my garden and wanted to include them all, I made a little fold-y flap to hide my other two photos behind my colored image.

See - when it's all closed up, you'd never know they are back there!

Dragonfly Card and Video

2010-07-01T10:01:00.003-04:00

Hi all! I finally got another video made. It's been a while since I worked on one. I made a dragonfly card using the new dragonfly color Glimmer Mist (seems appropriate, right?) Of course you could use any of your favorite colors of glimmer mist for this technique.

Visit Your Memories Here for Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in a variety of colors and Prima Pearls and Crystals (which come in various assortments for only $1.49)

Lilyboo July Challenge

2010-07-01T08:33:00.004-04:00

Summer theme challenge.

We have decided that the challenge cards should use a Lilyboo designs image. The prize for the winner will be a Lilyboo designs digi of their choice.

So if you haven’t got what you need for a summery card already pop over to our gorgeous new Lilyboo designs shop over on Cuddly Buddly and see if there is a digi you need in there, with prices at 99p (around $1.49 U.S.) you can’t go wrong.

There are 90 freebies over on Cuddly Buddly so if you haven’t popped over there to grab some yet, go now!!!

We can’t wait to see what you all create with these gorgeous summer days as your inspiration.

So, head over to Lilyboo's Challenge blog to see what the DT has come up with and link up your summery Lilyboo creation too.

Here's My Card (which I posted yesterday)

It Really is a Summer Card

2010-06-30T17:30:00.003-04:00

I know, you're looking at this and thinking 'she must have posted the wrong picture' But no, this really is my summer themed card for Lily-Boo's.
What makes it a summer card? The inside of course :) it reads: and enjoy the summer!
This little kitty image "cat at window" reminds me of my little kitty, Arney. In the summer he spends more time outside than in and when he wants in, you'll find him pawing at our glad door around back. It's funny to see his little mouth opening wide meowing to get in, but you can't hear him. It's quite a pathetic spectacle he makes. I inked up the background of the image and the sentiment with some distress ink (antique linen and tea dye)
The image, as I mentioned, is a Lily-Boo that I colored with my Touch markers. The card stock is from the Imaginice build-a-card pad.

A Sweet Challenge Card

2010-06-21T00:01:00.000-04:00

I made this card for the Cuttlebug-ers group on PCP. The Cuttlebug challenge #75 is this recipe:

1. Use these colors - green, pink, blue, yellow and you may include white and black.

2. Use 1 embossing folder

3. Use 1 ribbon

4. Use paper flowers

5. Use brads, charms or eyelets ( at least one metal embellishment)

Here's my card:

My background paper is DCWV Sweet Stack, Some of the colored squiggles look orange but they are yellow IRL. I cut out the popsicle on my Cricut using the Doodle Charms cartridge and I embossed it with the Swiss Dots folder. The flowers are Prima and they have a metal brad in the center. The sentiment (which is Studio G) was stamped on a little tag I cut with my Sizzlets tag dies. The ribbon is American Crafts.

This card went together so quickly I may just have to make a couple more :)

Happy Father's Day

2010-06-20T15:03:00.002-04:00

To all the Dad's out there, Happy Father's Day!

For my husband, I made a real simple card (cuz he's a no frills kind of guy)

This card shape was cut on my Cricut using the Wild Card cartridge. The paper is from the SEI Moravia paper pad and it is AWESOME for masculine cards! This paper has flocking on it (though you can't tell in the photo) it is fuzzy to the touch along the cream colored stripes. The solid blue frame around the cut out window is also part of the Moravia paper pad. I just love how all the papers coordinate in the paper pads! I attached the blue frame with some copper eyelets(they seem like a "masculine" fastener LOL) The sentiment is stamped inside and peeks through the window in the front of the card.

This is the card I made for my Dad. I used more of the SEI Moravia paper. The image is a Lilyboo digi stamp and I mounted it on some cardstock that I sprayed with dragonfly Glimmer Mist and then ran through my Cuttlebug using the Moroccan Screen embossing folder. I also added some Stickles to the booty in the treasure chest.

My First Digital Layout

2010-06-17T11:50:00.008-04:00

I used a freebie digital set from DCWV to create this layout. It is called the "the Guy Digital Kit" so I'm guessing it's like the paper stacks and accents you can buy in the stores all bundled up in a digital set. This is my very first time playing with digital scrapping and overall was pretty easy. Of course I must tell you that I was already pretty fluent with my Printshop software (which is what I used to create this) so that may be why it was easy for me?

I'm happy with the way it turned out, but I think I'll still do most (like 95%) of my pages the old fashioned way :) I love the ability to create whatever element I want for my pages, versus being limited to what's available in digital form. This does open up all whole new range of uses as far as hybrid scrapping goes.

For my layout I used this weeks Sketchy Thursdays sketch for my page. I definately recommend using a sketch when creating a digital layout. It makes it go soooo fast. Just drop the elements on the page as shown in the sketch! Why do I feel like I'm cheating though?

So, anyone else like to dabble in digital scrapping? I'd love to hear about it.

Lily-Boo's Is Moving

2010-06-16T19:45:00.003-04:00

Lilyboo has a new home. The boutique is moving to a new site and we hope all of our followers (and some new ones) will join us at our new blog site HERE
You will now be able to purchase Lilyboo digi's at Cuddly Buddly.

Freebies .....quick!! get on over to Cuddly Buddly!!!
To celebrate our move over on to Cuddly Buddly, Kim has been burning the midnight oil to get a great big bunch off boo's uploaded for freebies!!!

We are working hard on freeing up some space for when Sam's gorgeous new designs are ready to go!

There is an absolutely awesome selection so check out the new Lilyboo freebie page at Cuddly Buddly and snag yourself some treats to play with!!! There wil be more added daily.

Photo Display

2010-06-12T01:00:00.002-04:00

I made this photo display for my Grandma's birthday present (too bad her birthday was June 3rd and I just got this finished on Monday...oops) But she lives pretty far away from me and I won't be able to give it to her until we have a visit anyways.

Before I give it to her I'll add some photos of my girls to it.
The display itself is from Kaisercrafts' beyond the page line. It is made of MDF and I painted all the surfaces that aren't covered with paper with some cream acrylic paint. Then I went over the base with Tim Holtz fired brick distress ink.
The papers are all from the Prima Shabby Chic line. I just love the mix of the red and aqua colors. I glued the papers to the display pieces with Mod Podge and they are covered on front and backside in case she displays this somewhere that the back will be seen. I inked all the edges with more of the distress ink. The beautiful embellishments are Prima flowers, Prima pearls and crystals and Prima ribbons. The clear words are just printed on transparency sheets on my printer and then I cut them out and used my Tim Holtz Alterations edge dies to give them a decorative edge. I added a little white Staz-on ink so that they stand out a little more. The largest display (the one with the bird paper) has been sprayed with some Glimmer Mist to give it an aqua color with some shimmer. Also the rose ribbon trim that goes all around the base is Prima ribbon that I colored with the Glimmer Mist by dabbing each rosebud with a paint brush dipped in the Glimmer Mist.
I think that covers all the details but if you have any questions I'll be happy to answer them.
Of course you can get the Prima products in my store :)

Baby Shoes

2010-06-09T17:17:00.003-04:00

For today's post, I was able to wrap up a few challenges in one layout (I just love when it works out like that). For the theme of this page I played along with These Are A Few of My Favorite Things challenge blog. They are having a HUGE celebration over there with lots of prizes and all you have to do is make a project with your favorite shoes!
I used this week's Sketchy Thursdays sketch for my layout. I pretty much followed the sketch exactly because it really worked for this page.
And the last challenge is from Practical Scrappers, where they want you to bust out your eyelets and put them to use.

I used a solid, dove gray card stock for my background that I embossed using my Pebbles baby stencils to make the little foot prints ( I actually have a YouTube video for how to do this HERE) I splashed the background with some tutti fruiti Glimmer Mist (which it was so difficult for me to do, I was sooo worried I was going to mess it up) Then I sprayed all over the background with dazzling diamonds glimmer mist.
The title is part stamped pink acrylic paint with my Pebbles foam stamps and the "shoes" part is just hand written and heat embossed with some vanilla embossing powder.
The flowers are Prima Sprites and I attached them with a couple of pink eyelets.
I added a little journaling block at the top right corner which reads: "My favorites shoes weren't actually mine. They were Marlee's very first pair. Sure she had cutesy baby booties type shoes, But these were her first "real" walking shoes.
For my photo, I edited it on Picnik to make it all black and white except for the little pink flower accents.

Color Challenge Tuesday

2010-06-08T17:25:00.003-04:00

Today's color challenge at Paper Crafting Mania is Black, White, Gray and Green.

Here's my super quick, super simple card using those colors.

It only took me 10 minutes to whip this card up and the longest part was finding my package of gray brads :)

I left a sentiment off so I can use it for whatever I need to later on.

The papers are all DCWV, the flowers are Prima and the ribbon is American Crafts.

I hope you'll head over to PCM and give the weekly challenges a try.

My Girls

2010-06-06T10:47:00.005-04:00

Here's a few photos of my girls (this post is mostly for my family that doesn't live near by)
We went to Old Man's Cave (in Hocking Hills Oh) last Friday.

Lilee and Marlee like hiking through the hills and then cooling off in the water.

The next few photos are my girls and my niece Dalenee. All 3 girls are about 2 years apart in age. My sister-in-law and I have been planning since Dalenee was born to get them all dressed alike to take a photo of them. It only took 10 months to make it happen :) LOL

In this photo Dalenee has a handful of both Lilee and Marlee's hair!

I think this one might be my favorite! All dressed up with bare feet, too cute (if I do say so myself)

Lily-Boo Blog Candy

2010-06-03T16:55:00.003-04:00

I honor of Lou's birthday she gave us the whole month of June off from challenges (is she great or what!) and Lily-Boo's is having a birthday blog candy of 2 digi sets of your choice.

All you need to do is ....pop on over to the boutique (the Lily-Boo link is in my side bar) and scroll down the left hand sidebar to see all our super cute Boo's, then go to Lily-Boo's too challenge blog and pop a little comment on with which are your 2 favorites.

So, the blog candy will be open for entries until Saturday 5th June, when we'll pick a lucky winner!!!

I thought I'd share my favorite Lily-Boo image (so far)

Mini Album in a Box

2010-05-29T06:24:00.000-04:00

Warning, this post is very photo HEAVY! :)

Remember this little box from two weeks back? Well here is its all finished with the matching card. I made two of these to give as gifts to my daughter's pre-school teachers.

Here's the card. I used the same patterned paper for the card front and punched the corners with my MS corner punch. The lace is Prima and so are the little pearls on the sentiment. I inked all the edges with Tim Holtz antique paper distress ink and a little tea dye distress in on the sentiment.

Inside the box is a mini album.

I used Prima pattern papers to make the album pages because it is such a nice heavy card stock. Each little page is linked to the next with a jump ring and I added a couple of beads to them.

Each page has been embellished with either some Prima Sweet and Sassy flowers, Prima pearls, Stickles, Prima stickers or crocheted flowers.
I am in the process of making a video for this project, but I came down with a cold and haven't been able to finish filming it all yet. I'll post it as soon as I do.

Lily-Boo and May Swap Too

2010-05-27T17:21:00.004-04:00

Here's a card I made for a friend on the Paper Crafting Mania Forum. Over there we had a card swap and this is the card I made to give to my swap partner:

The butterfly image is a digi from Lily-Boo's Boutique. I colored it with my Touch markers and added just a little bit of Stickles for hints of sparkle. I cut out my colored image and mounted on top of some purple eyelash fibers. The card stock was embossed with a Sizzix EF and the butterfly ribbon was from my stash. I sprayed the card stock all over with some glimmer mist too (it just goes with everything)

Now We're Cookin'

2010-05-23T10:48:00.005-04:00

I was busy getting my garden planted yesterday:

It's not much, but we don't have room here for the size garden I'd really like to have.

These are my herbs; Parsley, Chives Oregano and Basil

And these are the peppers; Jalapeno, Hungarian hots and Sweet banana.

I also have a Roma tomato and cherry tomato plants.

So while I was planting my garden , my hubby decided to go shopping and he came home with this :

A new grill! We really were overdue for a new one and the previous grill was kinda rinky-dink and well, crappy, overall. It was all or nothing with the flame, which took a great deal of skill to keep from burning everything to a crisp. I'm so excited about the new one and did you notice it's BLUE (my favorite color) Kevin knows me so well! He did an awesome job picking one out, considering he doesn't cook hardly ever (which I don't mind cuz I love to cook)

Here's our first meal I prepared on it : Grilled Chicken quarters. Nothing special, just what we had in the fridge :) But oh it cooked them like a dream. Am I totally crazy that I get so excited about an appliance?

LIVE with Prima Class Tonight

2010-05-20T11:37:00.003-04:00

I just get so excited for LIVE with Prima class days :)

On tonight's class Marion Smith is going to be making an altered wood crate and mini book.

Let me tell you this kit is PACKED with flowers! We've got it in stock at Your Memories Here and don't worry if we sell out (cuz this is going to be fabulous) we'll get more!

I hope to see you tonight 6:30 PST or 9:30 EDT at livewithprima.com

Be sure to sign in and say "hi" my Ustream name is I_SKRAP (that's my licence plate# too, pretty cool huh?) When you join in the live chat you automatically have a chance at winning a prize!!!

A Peek at a Project

2010-05-15T08:00:00.000-04:00

Hope everyone is having a great weekend, I'm off on another 4-wheelin adventure on a hill side in Pennsylvania today! But you didn't come to hear about my ATV escapades, right?
I'm working on a project for my daughter's teachers and it's not finished yet but I thought I'd share a peek with you of the part that is complete.
This is a little paper mache box with a lid

I covered the box with patterned paper and then sealed the whole thing with Mod Podge. I added some Prima lace (Madeline) around the band of the the lid. And gave it a light antique color by rubbing a little antique linen distress ink over the lace with a sponge applicator.

The lid is embellished with some Prima flowers that actually come in white but I hand painted them all to match! There are also Prima leaves and the Prima pearls on there. I stamped a little sentiment that reads: "tell your story" with some Stazon timber brown ink.
There's going to be something included inside the box as part of the gift, but you'll have to wait and see what that is ;)
I'm also going to be making a video on how to create this project, but one thing at a time, I've got to get them done before the last day of school (May 26th!)

I Was Chosen, YAY!

2010-05-11T08:37:00.005-04:00

If you click on the image you can read it better.
I am so honored Audrey and her fairies chose my entry to be one of the 5 chosen. Visit Audrey's blog, Cute and Some to see what this contributor's showcase is all about

Canvas Art

2010-05-08T06:00:00.000-04:00

I made these canvases for my daughters' bedrooms (each personalized with her name on it)

I got my inspiration from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's Live with Prima class on April 19th. (you can watch the recorded class at livewithprima.com) First step is to paint a back ground color(s) on the canvas (I used an 8"x10" canvas that I got at Hobby Lobby for about $3 for a pack of 2) I painted this one with a light blue acrylic and a medium pearl blue acrylic. Let it dry and in the mean time take some patterned paper and tear it into strips and pieces (I used Prima Shabby Chic collection papers for both canvases) When the paint is dry, apply Mod Podge to the pieces of papers and a glue them down to the canvas leaving a little space in between to show the background color (kinda like tile grout) When the Mod Podge dried I then sprayed overall with some Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist (for this one I used Piece of Heart because of the turquoise/aqua blue color) Again, let dry. Now you're ready to embellish. I added some Prima lace that I had sprayed with Glimmer Mist (sunshine) to give it a shimmery gold color.

I also used Prima flowers (the large white one was colored with more Glimmer Mist (piece of heart and tutti fruiti) applied with a paintbrush for a more concentrated color and finally sprayed all over with dazzling diamonds GM.

This cluster of flowers is from the Prima Spice Rack collection. The larger daisies were red and I sponged a little white ink on them to give them a shabby chic look to match the papers I used. The leaves are Prima rose leaves.

The butterflies were fussy cut from the paper and i only glued them down in the middles of their tiny bodies so that I could bend up the wings for more dimension.

The letter's of their names are chipboard that I covered in more of the Prima Shabby Chic paper. I sanded the edges of each one and then inked them (these ones in white).

For Marlee's canvas I followed the same steps, this time using purple acrylic paint as my base color, spraying with tutti fruiti Glimmer Mist and the flowers on hers are Prima E line white flowers that I colored with Glimmer Mist again using the brush on technique (tutti fruiti and popsicle) The large flower is a Prima Wrinkle Rose (lightly misted with tutti fruiti GM) The tiny little purple roses are from the mini rose bouquets. The lace on this one is also made by Prima, that I Glimmer Misted. The chipboard letters were sanded and inked with purple.

Marlee's canvas seems to be a bit of pink and purple overkill, but those are her favorite colors and she wouldn't have it any other way. After all, I made these for them and their rooms.

Mother's Day Card

2010-05-05T16:57:00.005-04:00

moms day 101, originally uploaded by kbyers1903.

This is the card I made for my Mom this year. She usually doesn't read my blog until the week end so I should be safe, and she won't see here before she sees it in person.
I used a Page Maps sketch (from November of 2005) for the layout of this card. The background paper is Prima, from the Shabby Chic collection. I gave it a little spritz of Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, in Piece of Heart. The script strip in the middle is actually a background stamp that I stamped on pink paper, then clear embossed and finally rubbed ink all over to give it a vintage-y /grunge-y sort of look. This is so far from my normal style but I thought I'd give some new things a try. It never hurts to mix things up now and then and get out of your comfort zone.

Lily-Boo's May Challenge

2010-05-01T06:55:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone! It's May and that means another challenge is up at Lily-Boo Too challenge blog. The challenge this month is to make a card any shape but a rectangle or square. I know some of you make shaped cards often but this is a rarity for me.

For my card I used one of the cat images from Lily-Boo's Boutique. He looks quite happy with his giant ball of yarn. I used my Sweet Treats Cricut cartridge to cut the shape of the card. I know wild card is an obvious choice for shaped cards, but they are all themed and I wanted a clean slate to work with. I cut our my image after I colored it using my scalloped edge scissors. The I inked those edges and after I glued it down to my base I added an iridescent glittered embossing powder to make it pop even more. I wrote the words "HAVE A BALL" with my Ranger perfect medium pen and then added aqua embossing powder to it.
The inside of the card is lined with circles that are shaped like gears that I cut with my Cricut using SCAL (I wanted to use scallops but thought they were a little feminine) one larger then the card to peek out when you look at the front and one smaller to fit inside.

I used the colors aqua, red and white for the color challenge on PCM (I knew I could find that paper;))
This is a birthday card for my Dad who happens to be a cat lover, but don't tell him, his birthday isn't till the 20th.
This card also qualifies for the following challenges:
Cupcake Craft - Don't be square
CRAFT - challenge 48
Maljen's- #5 challenge
Penny's Challenges - #28 challenge

Live With Prima

2010-04-28T15:45:00.000-04:00

Do you enjoy creating with different kinds of mediums? Would you like to try some new projects with the help of extremely talented instructors?

I recommend you check out

Livewithprima.com is Prima's brand new website that offers free online Live Video Classes and Exclusive Video Project Kits!

Each class includes a project demonstration from start to finish featuring gorgeous Prima products. You will also be able to order a complete kit to recreate the project at home. Prima's kits are available on their website and through participating retailers (Your Memories Here is one of them)

It's the best place for fabulous ideas and to learn more about paper crafting!

Visit livewithprima.com to:

*see a complete schedule of all Live classes

*watch the Live Video classes! All participants can chat, comment, and ask questions during the class! (a Prima representative will be moderating to answer product and technique questions)

*learn more about the amazing instructors

*View the videos after the Live classes are over. If you miss a class you will be able to go back and watch it as many times as you wish.

I hope you'll join me tonight @ 9:30 EDT/6:30 PST for the next Live with Prima class. I do have the kits available if you want to create your own.

How to Make a Daffodil

2010-04-25T06:00:00.000-04:00

I just made this video on how to make a daffodil using two Prima flowers. The video also includes an altered tin I made using Prima flowers, leaves and lace and the daffodil.

Your comments are always appreciated.

Foster's Dream

2010-04-24T11:13:00.004-04:00

Happy Saturday! I wanted to share a layout with you today of our dog, Foster. He's such a goofy dog. He falls asleep in the middle of the room flat on his back like this:

He doesn't even wake when the girls come running in. About the only thing that will get him up is yelling at our cat, Arney. Then Foster jumps up for "duty" (he thinks it's his job to police the cat)

For my layout I used DCWV Nana's Kitchen paper. The great doggie image is a brand new release Lily-Boo's Boutique digi ( you can click those words or use the link in my side bar) I cut the "dream bubble" out on my Cricut using SCAL. The little bone cut is a Sizzix die.

Here's a close up of my colored image. This is one of the six in the dog set. I'm guessing this must be what Foster is dreaming about to sleep so soundly.

Strawberry Picnic

2010-04-23T14:39:00.002-04:00

I made this layout of my two girls sitting in their play house having a "picnic". They like to sit at their little picnic table and have snacks when the weather is nice.
For my layout I used Mimosa paper for the background. I love the gradient pink to light peach colors and the sparkle of the glitter (they look like little asterisks) The patterned paper squares are DCWV Sweet Stack mat. The journaling block and strawberry were both cut on my Cricut. I used some green Flower Soft on the stem of the strawberry for some different texture. The lace trim across the bottom is Prima lace and it comes cream, but I just rubbed a pink ink pad across it to make it match my page's colors. The little chipboard girls are Basic Gray and the title is Thickers they both were given to me by Suzanne (I won her blog candy).
I have been wanting to play along at some of my favorite challenge blogs so this week I got to it and covered a bunch!
Sketchy Thursdays - the page layout
Practical Scrappers - ribbon, floss or fibers
Bitten By the Bug 2 - From My Kitchen ice cream tab cut
Scrappy Frog's - Pick 3 I chose : die cuts (strawberry), no coloring (the raw chipboard shapes) and lace (Prima lace)
Cricutters Anonymous - picnic theme

Happy Earth Day

2010-04-22T15:34:00.006-04:00

Hi everyone, hope you're having a good day. We're having some beautiful weather here in Ohio. The girls and I decided to take advantage of the fair weather and do a little gardening since it's Earth day. We've got a little corner in the back of our yard just for Marlee and Lilee's flower garden because they like to pick flowers and these will be theirs so they can pick all they want (and leave mine alone).

First we had to dig up some weeds. Here's Marlee (sporting the Pocahontas braids) working on a patch.

And here's Lilee working the tiny shovel (as she calls it)

Marlee took over the camera work and snapped a few shots of me using the garden claw.

Marlee also took a bunch of other photos while she had the opportunity. This is a pretty good one she took of her sister (not bad camera work for a 4 year old)

And here is both girls waiting to add some wild flower seeds. When their garden blooms this summer I'll post some pictures of it.

CupCake Crazy!

2010-04-20T22:49:00.005-04:00

I know I've got a lot of cupcakes going on here. I just love this paper I found at Hobby Lobby (and it was 50% off this week!) It has little glittery accents but they just aren't showing up in the photo :( The image is a Lily-Boo's digi from the circles collection that I colored with my Touch markers. I added glitter embossing to the icing and clear embossing to the strawberry. The sentiment (a studio g) is stamped on the ribbon with timber brown Stazon ink. The flowers are Prima and they are actually a little more peachy colored IRL. The centers of the flowers are island blossom dew drops. Also, because I used a ribbon, I'm going to submit this over at Practical Scrappers cuz the challenge this week is ribbon, fibers or floss. Thanks for stopping by.

Lily-Boo's Wants You to Join Us

2010-04-15T13:52:00.002-04:00

Lily-Boo's Boutique, the place to get some really cute digital images has a group on SNR card universe and we'd love for you to join us. In fact, Lily-Boo's will give away a FREE Digi when we reach 50 members!

Who doesn't love to get something for free?

Time to Re-Fresh

2010-04-11T11:31:00.006-04:00

I've been feeling like my blog needed a good freshing-up. The old background had been there since I started my blog and was becoming quite stale.

I'm fond of this new design and color scheme. These are my happy colors, my favorite colors. I hope you like the changes. if anyone finds this difficult to read (maybe there isn't enough contrast between the background and text) please let me know. I'd rather it be legible over pretty :)

Speaking of fresh (how do you like that segway?) I'd like to share some pics. of my new blooms.

My favorite is my tulips.

This May Make You Thirsty

2010-04-10T07:30:00.001-04:00

Well, at least the colors made me want something fruity and tropical to drink.

I made this card for the Paper Craft Mania color challenge. We were challenged to use the colors green, orange and brown. Easy peasy with the SEI Mimosa paper. The beautiful citrus colors of that paper did make it a little hard to choose which one to use :) I love the pearl shimmer this one has. I also used the Prima Sweet and Sassy all about me flowers. I think the colors of those flowers compliment the Mimosa papers perfectly (click on those words to see all the colors in the assortment) I dotted the center of each flower with some orange Stickles. I stamped my sentiment with brown ink and a TAC stamp to take care of the "brown" requirement of the color challenge. I embossed the orange card stock with a Sizzix texture boutique embossing folder and my Cuttlebug (the Sizzix folders work beautifully in your Cuttlebug)
Before you go I'd like to remind every one that we are looking for next month's guest designer. over at YMH Designs blog. If you'd like to share what you can create with the FREE products I give you then send me an email (my email address is at the bottom of the page) with a link to your blog so the DT and I can take a peek at your work.

Lily-Boo Too April Challenge

2010-04-07T09:53:00.004-04:00

The challenge this month at Lily-Boo too challenge blog is to make a spring card with the colors yellow, light green and a blossom.

For my card I used one of the Lily-Boo's Boutique Mother's day digi stamp images because it reminds me of being outside enjoying the nice weather (even if you have house work to do).
For the card base I used SEI Mimosa paper chartruse dots and for my blossom I used two Prima flowers layered and a little yellow rhinestone center. The 'happy spring' stamped sentiment is a little Studio g on yellow card stock.

Cuttlebug Folder Storage

2010-04-06T08:53:00.003-04:00

O.K. I have a confession: I have only had my Cuttlebug for 3 weeks! You see, I had the old Sizzix system (the extremely heavy red one that you pull down on the handle) and I was able to use that for my Cuttlebug folders (with the adapter of course). I just couldn't justify buying another machine that would do the same thing. Then those wonderful people at Provo Craft created the blue Cuttlebug. Well, blue is my favorite color and I know someday when my Cricut chirps it's last time I will be replacing it with the blue version. So I saved my pennies and when there was a great deal on the Green Wednesday I snatched up my blue Cuttlebug. Let me tell you, I should have got one sooner because it does a much better job both embossing and cutting with the Sizzix dies I already own. The embossing is so much deeper and defined.

Whew, now that I've got that off my chest. Here's what I've created for you to peek at today:

It is my mini lunch box that I use to hold my embossing folders. (I got it at Hobby Lobby) The so super cute image is a Lily-Boo digi. Of course I had to make it match my blue Cuttlebug. Here it is before I decorated it:

It served the purpose but didn't add any pizazz to my work area, just hanging there on my peg board.

Now it shouts KRISTINA REALLY LOVES HER BLUE CUTTLEBUG!

I colored up the little cuties with red hair to look like my girls'. The blue bling is Prima adhesive crystals and the rhinestone flower is also Prima, from the Chelsea accents tin. If you fancy this image for your own Cuttlebug love, head over to Lily-Boo's Boutique in a hurry because they are only selling a limited number of the Cuttlebug Cuties images.

Happy Easter

2010-04-04T01:06:00.000-04:00

No project today. I just wanted to wish all of you a Happy Easter on this beautiful Sunday.

My New Gig

2010-04-03T23:04:00.007-04:00

I am so incredibly excited to tell you all that I've been selected to be on the DT for Lily-Boo's Boutique! If you could hear me I'm squealing with delight. Lily-Boo's are such fun digital stamps and I get to play with them as a member of their DT. I hope you'll come visit me and the other designers on Lily-Boo too ~ a challenge blog and of course Lily-Boo's Boutique to get some Boos of you're own.

Blog Candy!

2010-04-01T23:59:00.000-04:00

This post will be staying at the top till April 1st. Please scroll down for newer posts.
Who doesn't like to get something for FREE?

Well, here's your chance. I spotted these embellishment suitcases at Target on clearance and picked up the last two. I'm going to give one away to one of my randomly chosen followers. You don't need to do anything, just be a follower so that your name is in my list to pick from :) If you want to share this information, be my guest ;) I'll pick a winner on April 1st (for all you fools that follow my blog) I'm just kidding, I think my followers are great not at all fools. Why else would I give you goodies?

In case you're wondering this is what's inside the embellishment suitcase:

25 die cut shapes that look like postage stamps, journaling tags, tickets and mini post cards

30 printed paper blossoms

100 assorted color and size buttons

We Have a Winner!

2010-04-01T21:04:00.003-04:00

No Foolin! The winner of the April blog Candy is (insert drum roll here)

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KreatesKards! Mary, please send me your address so I can mail out your embellishment suitcase to you.

Thank you to all of my followers. I hope you'll stick around now that the give away is over. Who knows when I might give out another totally random batch of blog candy ;)

Bunnies in My Garden

2010-03-30T11:23:00.004-04:00

I've got a couple of cute bunnies for you this morning (it's actually the same one, I just colored him two different ways, thus two different cards)

His name is Rupert and he is a Squigglefly Digi stamp drawn by the the extremely talented Crissy Armstrong. I colored him with my Touch markers and mounted him on card stock from the Imaginisce Build-a-Card pad. I cut out the eggs on my Cricut with the Doodlecharms cartridge then I embossed each one with my Cuttlebug and the following embossing folders: Swiss Dots, Argyle, Perfect Paisley and D'Vine Swirls (all of these are in stock at Your Memories Here). I added a little bit of glitter to each egg for extra sparkle :)

In case you don't like gray hares (Sorry, I couldn't resist the pun) Here's Rupert in white. Again I colored him with my Touch markers and the background card stock is from the Imaginisce Build-a-Card pad. The flowers are all Prima (the tiny ones are Sweet-and-Sassy "tweener" collection) The pretty pearl in the center of the larger flowers is a Silverbells Dew Drop. I like to glue those on with Ranger's Glossy Accents, it seem to hold them the best.

If you like this little fellow and want to see more of Chrissy work (including her AMAZING coloring skills) check out her blog Crissy's Art & Heart and her new challenge blog Sundays with Crissy.

Here's a close up of little Rupert:

Since I love tulips so much, he'll be appearing on more than just my Easter cards ;)

Your New Place

2010-03-27T08:00:00.001-04:00

Here's a card I made for my Aunt who just got a new appartment.

You gotta love that cat squeezing through his little kitty door! It's a digi stamp from Lily-Boo's boutique. I colored it with my new ShinHan Touch markers. I am still learning how to color with them, but I'm loving them so far. The background card stock is from the Imaginisce Build-a-Card pad. The pretty blue embossed paper was done in my Cuttlebug with the candy cane embossing folder (it's not just for Christmas projects). I've got lots of Cuttlebug embossing folders in stock at Your Memories Here.

Lil Stinker

2010-03-25T11:14:00.005-04:00

Here's a little non-themed card I made because my stash of all occasion cards is dwindling.

It is a 5"x5" square card (I chose that size because it works with my new MS PATP eyelet punch set) The image is a TAC stamp that I colored with my new Touch Markers (I'm loving these, I just need to get some more) I wish it were sunny out because my flash on my camera isn't showing these colors correctly (they are actually a bit darker/deeper IRL) I dotted the insides of the flowers with some yellow Stickles. The ribbon is from my YMH ribbon assortment and the little dew drops are from the grapes and leaves collection. I embossed the green card stock with my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder. By the way, I'm so in love with my new blue Cuttlebug, but that's another story ;) What you can't see here on my card is the actual card part.

See, I made the "card" 4"x4" so that it is hidden behind the pretty front of the card so no white card stock peeks through those eyelet holes.
Thanks for stopping by today.

The Card for the Baby Album

2010-03-23T08:00:00.000-04:00

Here's the card I made to go along with the Baby's First Year Album (scroll down to my last post for that one)

The little baby feet are embossed using the Pebbles baby stencil set (there's a how to video for that on my YouTube channel) Then I lightly went over the embossed image with some Pebbles Chalks. I used my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder for the second layer.

The patterned paper is DCWV and the cute blue trim is from JoAnn's (I think it was only a dollar)

Thanks for stopping by.

Baby Album

2010-03-21T13:58:00.006-04:00

I am finally able to post the photos of a project that I've been working on.
My friend Brigitte is expecting a baby boy at the end of May. Yesterday was her shower and I made her a scrapbook album for his first year. I set the pages in order of "months" and "holidays" as they would occur in chronological order from his birth. I used K&Company's Itsy Bity Boy paper stack for most of the "month" pages and the other pages are probably DCWV patterned paper. The solid card stock is Bazzill and card stock packs from Joann's. I used my Cricut for all the cuts (some are from cartridges and some are SCAL) All the words are cut with SCAL using the Comic Sans MS font. Any embossing was done with my Cuttlebug. I am so sorry about the quality of some of the photos, I took these in a hurry yesterday right before I left for the shower and I can't re-take them because Brigitte has the album now ;)

By the way, this is an 8"x8" album and all the photo mats are 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" so she can easily fit a 4x6 photo on each one.

Swapping Paint Cans

2010-03-16T09:03:00.002-04:00

I participated in a paint can swap on the Cricut Message Boards. It was supposed to be an Easter themed can swap but after communicating with my partner, I learned she'd rather have her can decorated to match the theme of her scrap room. Her choice of colors were pink, brown and black and she likes vintage items. Well, here's what I created for her:

I cut out the words "dream" "imagine" and "create" on my Cricut using the SCAL software. The flowers are all Prima and some of the flower centers are dew drops (which are on sale). I embossed the paper on the top of the can lid with my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder. The flower on top of the can is hand made except for the two flowers in the center those are from the Chelsea accents tin from Prima.

I hope my swap partner likes her can. It's traveling with the USPS some where on it's way to her right now.

On a completely unrelated topic: My new markers arrived this morning (8:30am to be exact) So I can't wait to go play with them. I bought a new set of digi's from Lily-Boo's boutique last week and I think I'll play around with those :)

Holy Cow! An Udder Birthday

2010-03-13T00:00:00.001-05:00

I made this birthday card in just a couple of minutes.

I was packing up a batch of cookies to send off to a special birthday boy (OK really he's 82) when I realized I hadn't made him a card (I have a box of cards that I've previously made, but they are all feminine). So I scrambled to my scrap room, grabbed my Imaginisce Build-a-Card pad, selected the card stock you see here (cuz it's a cheery, colorful, birthday kind of pattern) adhered the American Crafts "happy birthday" ribbon, then picked out a stamped image that I had laying around, already colored, and found a sentiment stamp that coordinated with it. I stamped it, then inked the edges, adhered them and DONE! True story I swear. That is why I LOVE the Build-a-Card pad, it can make creating a card as easy or complicated as you want. A variety of great patterned, pre-scored card stock that you can jazz up as much as you desire or use the ready made sentiment stickers(that are included) and be done in no time.

BTW, the image is a TAC stamp and I colored it with watercolor pencils (just in case anyone was wondering) I'm still learning how to color (just like my 4 y/o ;) ) and I've got a new set of markers coming, so you might be seeing more colored images from me as I'll be needing the practice.

Shameless Plug

2010-03-11T09:32:00.004-05:00

The "not yet released" Cricut Robotz cartridge I have for sale on ebay is ending today. LINK REMOVED ITEM SOLD Of course you can wait till Provo Craft releases it officially, just don't know when that will be. If you'd like to see more images of what's on the cartridge my friend Samantha has them posted on her blog .

Cricut Clock

2010-03-06T08:30:00.001-05:00

Happy Saturday everyone. Your Memories Here has a special guest designer today that helped create this project. Her name is Marlee and she is 4 years old.

She wanted to build a clock for her bedroom so her dad and I helped her make one. Here are the steps: First we cut out a template on the Cricut using a 12x24 mat and paper. She wanted it to be an oval so we used the George and basic shapes cartridge at 14" and 13" on "portrait mode" Then her dad traced the templates onto a piece of pine. The cut it out together on the scroll saw.

After they cut it, Marlee sanded the wood smooth.

She painted the cut out pieces of wood purple to match her bedroom.

She chose the Opposites Attract font for the numbers from my Cricut cartridge and wanted them to be green to match her bedroom walls. Then she decided she'd like to have a daisy by each number (totally her decision) So I used the daisy from the Walk in My Garden Cartridge. She also chose the colors. (I'm so impressed with her design skills)

After we glued all the paper cut outs down we coated the clock face with 3 coats of Modge Podge. Between the second and third coat, I sprinkled a little purple glitter all over the face of the clock.

Here is her completed clock hanging on her bedroom wall.

7 Things You Didn't Know About Me

2010-03-01T21:10:00.003-05:00

I was given this blog award by Cindy at http://cpmemories.blogspot.com/ I feel it is truly an honor when fellow bloggers think of you enough to present you with an award. I am supposed to pass this on to 15 people and then share 7 facts about myself with you all. Here are my 7 facts:

I clean when I'm angry (I must be happy most of the time cuz my house is never clean, unless Kevin cleans it)

I'm afraid of closed spaces- not so much claustrophobic, I just don't like the feeling I can't get out of somewhere.

I don't like fish but I do like seafood.

I am an only child (well, not so much a child anymore), no brothers or sisters.

I have eaten alligator before, it taste like... pork (you thought I was gonna say chicken didn't you?)

I am originally from Pennsylvania, I live in Ohio and wish I were in Florida (most days)

I used to put on these lists that I wish I could get LASIK surgery, but last July my wish came true and I'm now FREE of glasses!

So, to pass this on to 15 bloggers is pretty difficult. I follow so many wonderful, inspiring blogs and I don't want to leave anyone out! So if you are reading this, go ahead and pick up this award too. You deserve it! Don't forget to check out Cindy's blog as well.

SEI Paper Giveaway

2010-03-01T09:58:00.005-05:00

So, who wants to win a 12x12 paper pad of Claire paper? With some matching embellishments?

Well head over to Obsessed with Scrapbooking for your chance to win.