My How She Has Grown!

Good morning! Happy New Year's Eve to you! I have had a lovely weekend away with my little family. It was an unexpected Christmas gift from my in-laws.  We stayed at a hotel in downtown Chicago, shopped, ate like kings, saw a Christmas musical, ate some more, and swam! With the kids getting older, it seems we fly in 800 different directions....so it was nice to reconnect once more. I took a few pics of our day together....

I have a love for photography and I am striving to get better at it.  I have been taking the camera off of auto and trying my hand at the manual settings. It has been a learning curve for sure, and sometimes frustrating.  But once in awhile the stars align and you get a shot like this one.  And especially when it is a shot of Cortney......

I am sure you didn't come here to see pics of my kids, so I will get on to business......scrapbooking! 

I created this layout over a year ago for the Cricut Circle of my little gal, Myla.  She was rescued from a mill and was 3 pounds of mischievous love! I used my Cricut, Kate's ABC's, Pretty Pennants, and the Cricut Font and Basic Shapes cartridges. 

I used a few stickers (SRM), some rub-ons, burlap, and rhinestones....

I love the Pretty Pennants Cartridge....such fun cuts!

Here's the little gal all grown up and a whopping 23 pounds! She has been a wonderful addition to our family, and I am so glad we were able to rescue her. 

I have one last thing to share with you!  I received an e-mail yesterday telling me that my card, Elegant Tiled Greeting Card, that was featured on All Free Papercrafts, was voted one of the most popular papercrafts in 2013. 

I was pretty excited! :)

May you and your family have a happy, healthy, blessed New Year!!

Grateful for You....

Good morning and happy Thanksgiving Eve to you! My house is quiet at the moment, but soon the kids will be up. Cort will head to school, Kyle is hanging out with friends, and this mama has to cook and clean for Thanksgiving tomorrow. I am so lucky to have the rest of this week off though, so I am happy to do the things I need to do!

I have a card that I made two years ago for the Cricut Circle.  For the life of me I couldn't find my cut info, so I can't remember the cartridge I used.

But hopefully, you can draw inspiration from it anyway. ;)

I love the leaves backed with black paper to really make them pop.  I added a few vintage touches....lace, twine, rhinestones.....

I am off to finish my coffee and then rally the troops!

Have a great day my friends!

Christmas Table Setting.....

 Every other year I host Christmas Eve at my house.  I like to dress up the plates with a little something, and this year decided on red stockings for the girls and Christmas trees for the guys.  I used my Cricut Expression, Winter Lace, and the Winter Frolic cartridge.  

I dressed up the stockings with a bit of lace, glitter, jingle bells, tulle, and a computer generated name tag.  

I slid the candy cane through the snowflake and tied the stocking on top of it.  

For the guys, I did the same thing, but used the Christmas tree cut from the Winter Frolic cartridge.  I still used my glitter (LOVE) and some jingle bells that had been sprayed with suede spray paint.  It gives it a cool rustic look! 

Some pearls were added along with a bit of twine.  

I am off today, and could use a few prayers.  Cort is going to the doctor for some issues she has been having.  I am hoping he can shed some light on the situation and get things under control.  

I appreciate your visits immensely, and I know I am a total booger about reciprocating.  I don't mean to be a slacker......it's just life....getting in the way.  I am going to try harder to visit each of you.  That's my early New Year's resolution.

Have a great day my friends!

XOXO

Baked With Love.....

I just dropped my youngest off for his first day of school.  He is a sophomore in high school.....and I am sure like most of you, I had a lump in my throat.  

I have also been digging through old photos for some DT projects I am working on.  Looking at photos of the kids when they were babies, toddlers, grade schoolers.....is somewhat bittersweet.  It makes you realize how fast life really does go.  And sometimes life can easily pass you by, if you let it.

Today I have a Cricut card to share with you.  It uses the apron cut from the Country Life Cartridge.  I think it is such a cute image!  I dressed it up with glitter, pearls, and a pretty silk ribbon from Sharon Johnson's Stamp Simply store.  I also found the spatula charm in my stash and incorporated that too!  I added a little heart bead as a final touch. 

The card base and scalloped circle were cut using the Cricut Font and Basic Shapes Cricut Craft Room Exclusive.  (Say that 10 times fast!) ; ) 

I have lots on my agenda today.....school, vet, therapy........my very last week off! I plan on making the most of it! : ) 

Have a great day friends!

JustRite Papercraft's August Christmas Release!

Good morning to you! Today is JustRite's last day or their August release! I hope you have enjoyed all of the new stamps! Today's set is a Christmas set called, Antique Christmas Tags One. I found this cute cut on my Cricut and thought the stamp would go perfectly with it!  It was stamped in traditional Christmas colors, red and green.  I used the Spellbinder's die, Antique Tags One to cut out the sentiment.  The poinsettia is from the Joy to the World Medallion Labels.  It was colored with Copics twice and cut out.  

I added a few pearls, rhinestones, and ribbon to dress it up a bit!

For more inspiration be sure to visit these designer's blogs! : )

JustRite Inspiration
Debbie Olson 
Sharon Harnist 
Marisa Job
Kathy Jones 
Darsie Bruno
Michele Kovack 
Angela Barkhouse
Sheri Holt
Barb Schram
Eva Dobilas
Heidi Blankenship 

Have a great day! Thank you so much for your visits!!!

Incredible New Product!

Good morning! I hope you grabbed a cup of coffee.....because today's post is a bit lengthy! A blogger friend of mine turned me on to this new product from Ten Seconds Studio.  It is just the coolest paint ever!  It gives the most gorgeous Patina'd look to your projects and it is super easy to do.  Let me show you what I've made first. I had this drawer shadow box I had picked up awhile ago and decided to alter it for my bedroom.  (My colors being purple and green. ; ) I chose the pictures from Cortney's photo shoot a couple of weeks ago.  I wanted to use this paint but wasn't sure how it would work with different items, so I just played a bit.  I "Patina'd" the two clay pots.....a resin piece from Melissa Frances, and a metal corner piece.  They all turned out beautiful!   

I added Spanish Moss and some flowers cut using my Cricut and the Flower Shoppe cartridge. And of course this sweet photo of Cort with her BFF, Patty. 

I found these dangling charms and thought they'd be perfect to tie around my clay pot.

So here is the paint in all of its zippered glory!  Sorry for the poor photo....that's what happens when you take pictures at midnight! ; )  I bought the "starter" kit that comes with 4 different colors and the Patina solution.  I purchased the spray bottle separately. 

Here are what the pieces looked like before I painted them.  Want to see what each color of paint looks like? 

The first color and my most absolute favorite color is the brown.  This is the one I used for my clay pots above. I think it is the most gorgeous color!!

The next color is black.  When sprayed it actually gives the appearance of rust.  So super cool I can hardly stand it!!!! 

The next two are so very similar....but the first one uses this copper paint.  Love the hues of green......

...and the next one uses the gold paint.  See? pretty similar to the copper, but still so pretty!

Here are all of my finished pieces.  I will be using them soon on my future projects!!!

Whew! Still with me? I hope you enjoyed my lil' "informational" post! 

Thank you for stopping by!!! 

Have a great weekend my friends!!!

Sweet Fudgsicle....

It is hard to believe that June is already coming to an end! This summer really needs to slow down just a bit! I've been trying to enjoy each and every day. I've been crafting a bit more, spending more time with the family, slowing down a bit to enjoy this way too short season. Nothing says summer to me more than ice cream, Popsicles, and Fudgsicles! There is nothing more refreshing than one of these cool summer treats!  I created my own version of a Fudgsicle using CCR (Cricut Craft Room) and the Sweet Shop Cartridge. It was cut at 5" and welded together.  I applied glossy accents over the entire dark brown layer to give it that chocolaty appearance.

I added flowers and leaves cut from the Flower Shoppe Cartridge. The tag was cut using the Sentimental's cartridge and the sentiment is by My Craft Spot. 

I even included some drip marks using the glossy accents.......you know....for "realism." ; )

I took about 6 more pictures of Myla yesterday.......um can you say "obsessed?" But I thought if I posted more here, people might unsubscribe to my blog! LOL! I do have a little photo album of her on Facebook, if you really, really want to see 'em! 

My older dog is finally coming around and they are "hanging out" a bit more together. This makes my heart happy!

Off to lunch with a few friends today and going to visit our local scrapbook store. 

Have a wonderful Wednesday! Thank you for stopping and allowing me to share those photos of my little pup!

Pure Beauty

Good morning and happy Monday to you! It has been a busy weekend filled with training puppies, swimming with the kiddos, and BBQ's! I forgot how much work a new puppy can be!

 I have a LO to share with you from Cortney's prom. I hope you aren't tired of seeing photos from her dance yet! ; )I used my Cricut and the Pretty Pennants cartridge to cut lots and lots of pennants. I covered some of the pennants with Washi tape because I happened to own some in the hot pink, black, and turquoise color scheme, and wanted to incorporate it into the LO.  I used a Hambly dress form sticker, some letter beads, and kraft circles sewn together.....but can't remember off hand who those are by!

Some of my LO's make it on Cortney's bedroom wall.  She is a bit of a narcissist and loves looking at herself! ; )  So I bought several 12 x 12 scrapbook frames and hung them above her shelves. I don't use the glass because my LO's are too lumpy! ; )

Here it is framed against her blue wall. 

Here are the other two LO's......the one in the middle is a really old LO....it will be swapped out at some point. The one on the left you saw awhile ago......

Cortney has a very busy, girly, girl bedroom.....and I thought I'd give you a little tour. Since Cortney still has "tummy" time I have lots of baskets filled with her toys and books.  She crawls to them, pulls the basket out, and takes out whatever toy/book she wants to play with. She has many, many videos......too many. She has a little hand-painted doll bed and armoire for her dolly, Gloria.

She has a huge bulletin board from Pottery Barn filled with her awards, pictures, and this banner I made for her awhile back. I spelled her name a bit differently when she was born, so it isn't easy to find personalized stuff for her.  Which leaves that task to me! ; )

I also made this frame for her with all her cheer leading gal pals using my Cricut. I even made real pom poms for my tiny cheerleader in the corner!

And last but not least.......Myla has decided she likes Cortney's bedroom.  Cortney has a door that leads to our deck, that leads to our pool.  And because the door is open much of the time, a lot of sun comes through.....perfect for sunbathing. ; )

Whew! Are you still with me?  I was a bit long winded today I guess! 

Cortney is back in summer school today, and I've never seen a kid who is soooooo excited to go back! 

Have a fabulous day!

:)