Joy

I hope you all have a had a great week!

I am so glad it is Friday!  Cortney has a photo shoot scheduled for tomorrow and Sunday we are having brunch with Santa.

I am trying to slow down a bit and really enjoy all that the holiday brings.

I have a card that is from my days of creating for the Cricut Circle.

I am terrible for not remembering which cartridge the angel came from, but I do not. 

If you know, please leave a comment. :)

As is typical for me, I added lots of "stuff" to her.  Like glitter. A sentiment. Ribbon. String. And a little button do-dad.  There was some embossing, and a snippet of doily and ribbon to finish off the card. 

I am headed out tonight after school for a bit of dinner and shopping with the girls! 

Have a wonderful weekend my crafty friends!

Total Craziness!

Right now I am the epitome of the expression, "Flying by the seat of your pants!"

My room at school is finished.  Today I am writing lesson plans for the first week.

Travel arrangements are still being made for next week's Runway LOUD event.

Packing has begun.

2 college visits with Kyle this week. 

Broken window in kitchen fixed.

Van taken in for low tire light. 

My life is total craziness right now. (In a good way)

So I am taking the next half an hour to enjoy a cup of coffee and write a blog post.

I feel like I've been a bit out of touch with you this week.

I created this card many moons ago when I was part of the Cricut Circle DT.

I used the Flower Shoppe cartridge, some dimensional foam squares for the basket and bit of white paint. 

A couple of week's ago my family went on a weekender to a resort in Wisconsin.  It was a much needed getaway.  We needed time away from life's stress and just reconnect with one another. 

Brian and Kyle took time to rent a wave runner and enjoy some "guy" time. 

Cortney and I watched from shore. :)

Have a great weekend my friends!

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!

Bon Voyage!

I wish I could tell you I was traveling somewhere, but I am not. (darn!)

 But I do have a card that celebrates retirement, a long awaited trip,  or a new pathway in life.  My card uses my Cricut and the New England Shore Cricut Craft Room Exclusive. I layered the lighthouse using dimensional foam circles and added glossy accents to the windows. The background was masked with cloud die cuts and sprayed with a Copic marker. 

I added pops of red with twine, machine stitching, and my sentiment from Papertrey Ink. 

It is Monday.....again........

Amazing how fast the weekends go!

Off to mold some young minds!

Have a great day!

Something About Fall......

With Halloween approaching next week, the time change coming soon, the colder temperatures, it can only mean one thing.......fall has definitely arrived. 

As much as I love summer, there is something about fall that I absolutely love.

There is a coziness to this time of year. 

I concentrate more on my house.....almost like an expectant mother who is "nesting." 

I relish my big bulky sweaters and my cups of coffee.

I love the smell of the furnace when it kicks on for the first time all season. 

My crafts start to gear now towards the holidays.

Halloween for me becomes the "kick off" to the holidays.

Such a fun time of year!

I know some may ask how this card was made.

 It was cut with the Cricut machine.

But I made it about a year ago and never posted it here. So ask me if I remember what cartridge I used.

Because this forgetful lady can't remember. ;) 

But hopefully you can still be inspired by it....

I am batting a thousand this week....

No giveaway yet...

Can't remember the name of the cartridge I used....

Sheesh!

Good thing it is Friday! 

;)

Thanks for putting up with my nonsense! 

100 Days of School Treat Cups

I have one last school project to share with you today.  Since most schools celebrate the 100th day of school, why not alter Dixie cups and fill 'em up with treats! I used my Cricut to create the stars and welded the number with the apple. I added a little tag that I had run through my printer. 

And of course I couldn't resist adding loads of glitter to my apples!

Today is bitter sweet for me.   I truly feel blessed to be spending the day apple picking with my family. But sad that it would have been my very best friend's 42nd birthday today.  I think about her everyday.  There has been a hole in my heart for the last 4 years.  They say that time heals all wounds....and I suppose they are right.  

The wound is healed, but the scar will remain.

She was a special person and never in a million years thought I'd have to say goodbye so soon. 

This was a LO I had created using the lyrics to P!nk's song, Who Knew......

Have a blessed weekend with your loved ones!

Conversation Box

Good morning my friends! Thank you all for all of the wonderful birthday wishes and e-mails! It brightened my day more than you will ever know! :)

With today’s kids living in a technology age, conversations seem to be an old art these days.  I do have a rule at my dinner table, or any dinner table, that they can not use their cell phones!  So we usually end up talking about our day at school/work, but there are times, when there is a lull in the conversation.  So here’s where I come in!!  A Conversation Starter box! All you need is a cheapo recipe box or something similar to alter.  Mine was from the dollar store. : )

What is a conversation starter box you inquire? It is a box filled with questions you can ask your kids at the dinner table that gets them talking…..thinking.  They can be included in the process by coming up with questions to ask you. I decorated the top of the box with the two kiddos from the Dr. Checkup Cartridge.

And I used a word bubble from the CCR Exclusive Cart called Word Bubbles! ; ) The words were done on my computer. I added glossy accents to their eyes and tongues…….

I’ve even included a spot inside the box for extra journaling bubbles.  Kids like to  participate in generating questions, so all they need is a pen and an extra word bubble to write their questions on.

Here is a sampling of questions inside the box. By the way, for all of you teachers out there, this would be great to use in the classroom too!  I know myself I find questions on the Internet, or a great quote and would love a place to write it all down….. so here is the solution! And once again, you can have your students come up with some of the questions and add them to the box.

 

My little box now sits in my classroom, where I add to it whenever I see a great question or quote from the Internet.  It's been a great place to organize my questions! 

 
  This was so easy to create and hopefully, your dinner conversations will be a bit more lively and fun! : )

I have our last golf outing tonight and then the rest of the weekend? I am planning on relaxing a bit and hopefully getting in my craft room.  I need a down weekend with no chasing! ;)

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend too!!!

Coffee Cafe'

Good morning friends! 

 I am finally in full swing at school. I met my 23 little people and I think it's going to be a great year! The downside is that being back on my feet all day is totally kicking my butt! I was so tired yesterday that I think I could have gone to bed by 8.  I didn't, but I could have! ;)

I have a little coffee shop card to show you today.  It was a card I created using the City Buildings CCR. I used bold colors that were a bit retro to me.  I added a large gingham bow to go along with the feeling of my card.  I placed a large polka dot brad and twine to the center of the bow.  I used a black scalloped sticker for the awning. 

I added a bit of glossy accents to my table and chairs to give them a bit of depth. 

Many of my cards don't have sentiments.  I like to wait until I am going to use it to decide what it should say.  

Any suggestions for this card?  

I am off and running this morning!

Have a great Wednesday!!

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July to you!!  

I am heading out today to take Kyle to work and Cort to the pool!  The sun is finally making its appearance today, and we are supposed to make it into the 80's.  A perfect day to swim! 

I have a patriotic card to share with you today using my Cricut and the Stars and Stripes cartridge. The sentiment was created on the computer and cut into 3 strips to emulate the trails from the star. 

For the star, I added loads of German Glass Glitter.  It is a heavier, chunkier glitter, but I love how it looks!

Our town had their annual parade and fireworks show last night.  It is always so cool to see our town come together and celebrate this special day. Even though we had rain most of the day and the sky was still overcast, it all turned out great! 

Have a wonderful holiday!!!