I Could Use One of These About Now!

After yesterday's uplifting and positive post, I found it rather ironic that I had such a terrible day! As I was driving to school yesterday, my van kept getting louder and louder......my exhaust pipe was coming off underneath my van! Many of you who visit me often know how many problems I've had with this van. It is constant.....and draining......and extremely frustrating! So a teacher I work with followed me to the auto shop and they were able to replace my catalytic converter and mid pipe for a mere four hundred bucks! And on top of that? My air conditioning has a hole in it. The mechanic told me he couldn't fix it because of the way the van was converted, he can't "get to it." So now I will have to take it to the mobility place.....which takes forever! They don't rush to get you your van back. I had this very same problem 3 years ago and they had my van for a week! Grrrrrr!

Anyway, enough of my griping...... I created a card that brings me back to Jamaica.....warm, sunny, no worries........

I made this fruity little drink with my Gypsy and the Pack Your Bags cartridge. It was welded together and cut at 5". I used papers from Pink Paislee and Imaginisce. The little lemons were cut directly from the Imaginisce paper, glossy accented, and sprinkled with glitter. I cut the flower using the Mother's Day Bouquet. The tag was cut from the Sentimental's cartridge and stamped on with a Papertrey Stamp. I cut a piece of transparency and inked and glittered the edges a bit. I placed a piece of yellow vellum behind it. : )

I think me needs one of these fruity numbers this weekend......if not maybe an ice cold beer will do the trick! ; ) Today is a new day......a better day. (knock on wood!) ; )

Have a great weekend!

Some Words to Live by.....

Hi there! I actually managed to stay up past 10 o'clock last night. Yay me! I got a few things done that I had been procrastinating on and now that they are done, I can spend some much needed time creating! When I uploaded my pictures here today, I realized I took really.....really lousy pictures of them. A bit dark. A bit blurry. I have no time to retake them, so just bare with me!

I created a mini card using some new papers from Pink Paislee. The sentiment is directly from their paper line and I loved the meaning behind it so I wanted it to stand out on my card. I cut some of the floral paper with fine scissors to use as accents at the bottom.....such pretty stuff! The negative slide is from the Crafty Secret's Photo Studio stamp set. It was stamped on a transparency with Staz On ink. I think it is such a fun little accent piece! I added a couple of glittery butterflies........a few rhinestones.....some lace.....twine......

Some wonderful words to live by no?

Have a wonderful Thursday! The weekend is quickly approaching! : )

Sweet

Good morning and happy Wednesday to you! My crafty time this past week has been a bit limited. For some strange reason I am so very tired in the evenings. This is so unlike me, because I can usually stay up pretty late and still get up early in the morning. Maybe it's a sign of old age! ( I will be forty this year! Eeek!) Anyway, I am definitely not cranking things out like I usually do!



I do have a Crafty Secrets card to share with you today that uses an image from the Creative Scraps, Farm Fresh collection. I surrounded this sweet image with a Tattered Angels chipboard frame that was sprayed in Silver Glimmer Mist. I then added a coat of glossy accents to it and sprinkled clear glitter over it. I inked the edges in black to give it a bit more depth. I used a scalloped Spellbinder's die to matte the image and a larger oval to create a shallow shadow box. I added a quilled daisy and some twine to dress it up a bit. The sentiment was stamped on a jewelry tag. I am heading to a class tonight as part of my continuing education classes.....so it's going to be a bit of a long day! Brian is on daddy duty! ; )

Have a wonderful day!

Enjoy the Moment....

Good morning! I want to thank you for all of your sweet words and kind thoughts on Friday's post. I was touched immensely! This weekend my mind and heart were in prom mode and we decided to take our girl shopping. Brian went with me to help. He is a good dad. Truly. He had to go into the dressing room with us to help me, help her stand up in the dress. Not many dads would have the patience to do that, but he does. It is not easy to have a non ambulatory girl who is 95 lbs of dead weight try on dresses. So needless to say, we both got our work out! ; ) After about 20 dresses, we finally decided on one. We couldn't buy a long prom dress because I was afraid it would get caught in the front wheels of her chair. The problem with the shorter dresses is my girl doesn't sit like a lady. But after all is said and done, I can't change how she sits, or who she is. So the shorter dress won out. ; ) I created today's card with dresses on the brain. I used the Cricut Circle exclusive cartridge, French Manor to cut the dress form. I added tulle to create the skirt, seam binding, and a quilled Cuttlebug daisy. I also added teeny pearls to the top of the dress form. The tag was cut from the Sentimental's cartridge and the stamp is by Papertrey. I created the frame using the Elegant Edges cartridge. I inked the edges, spread glossy accents over the entire thing with my finger, and sprinkled clear glitter over it. The piece of fabric behind the dress is by Basic Grey and was stitched on my sewing machine. See the pretty pink designer paper? That was printed off my Imagine Machine using the Heirloom cartridge. It has gorgeous vintage papers on it! I love a dress with a bit of "froof" to it! ; )

Have a wonderful Monday........and as always, thank you for stopping by! : )

My Heart is All a Flutter!

Sometimes life throws ya curves. Sometimes it surprises you. And sometimes it just simply is the sweetest thing ever. It doesn't happen often, so when it does.........savor it.

I had a moment that made my heart swell the size of the blimp.......because of this boy, and this girl, my girl. This boy, came into Cortney's classroom, dressed in his best, and brought this poster that his mom helped him to make.

And these beautiful flowers and heart shaped cookie.

And my girl said yes.

My girl going to prom......

Sweet.

: )

A Warm Hello! A New Release by JustRite!

Hello and happy Friday to you! I have one last JustRite set to show you before the weekend starts! It is a darling new set called, A Warm Hello. It is cute and has such a whimsical font! I decided to make a shaped card to show off this new set! I used my Cricut Expression and Gypsy to weld the teacup together. I stamped the image and circular border using my Color Box inks and clear embossing powder. I cut them as two separate circles using my Spellbinder's dies. I backed the smaller circle with a scalloped circle and stacked all of it with foam squares for dimension. I tied some of my dyed seam binding and tied my tag to the tea cup with some Papertrey twine.

I added a rhinestone to the center of my bow.......you know.....for that little bit extra sparkle! ; )

You HAVE to see the other projects made by the DT gals! They are awesome!

Kellie

Sharon

Barb

Angela

Sankari

Kazan

What is on your agenda this weekend? Nothing much here, a fairly quiet weekend. I am hoping to get caught up on a few assignments and maybe, just maybe clean my craft room. It is kind of a problem......since I can no longer see the floor......or my desk top.......or my couch.........

Have a great weekend in whatever you do! : )

New JustRite Set & a Tutorial!

Good morning! I have another brand new project to share with you......AND......a tutorial!!! A few months ago, many of you asked for tutorials. Sometimes I am just lazy and can't seem to remember or get motivated to take pics as I create. But this time.....I remembered to bring my camera to my craft room and snap pics. I can't promise that they are the most wonderful of pictures, but hopefully, you will get the idea of how I made my project! ; ) I used JustRite's newest release, Forever Friends to create a tag for my 3D cupcake. The sentiment was stamped in brown Memento ink and cut out with the small narrow Spellbinder's die from the Happy Everything die set. The frame was stamped in a green ink by Color Box and embossed with clear embossing powder. I tied the top of my tag with dyed seam binding and a vintage button. And just so you know....the tag pulls out of the middle of the cupcake! ; ) At the end of today's post I have a pic with the tag pulled out!

The cupcake holder was cut using my Cricut Expression and the Cindy Loo cartridge. I embellished my birds with little feathers, a button and twine.

Want to know how I created my 3D cupcake? Well......here ya go!

First, you need a styrofoam ball. You need to cut a rectangular hole in the center as wide and as deep as your tag. This takes a bit of patience to cut out the styrofoam, but well worth it in the end!

To cover your cupcake with vanilla "frosting" you will need modeling paste and my favorite glitter.......Martha Stewart's clear course glitter!

Take a popsicle stick or plastic knife and spread your "frosting" like you would real cake frosting. It will dry just the way you apply it.

While the "frosting" is still wet, sprinkle your glitter over it. Stick it in a real cupcake liner to dry.

Once your cupcake is dry enough to handle, hot glue it to a cupcake liner. I do this just so the ball isn't rolling all over the place and it will give you a place to attach your decorative liner to.

I cut my cupcake liner with the Cindy Loo cartridge and Pink Paislee paper. I glued vintage lace to the top and adhered the entire thing to white felt. I did this so my cupcake wrapper is heavier and more substantial to hold my styrofoam ball.

The white felt creates a liner on the inside of the paper. Now you will take your frosted styrofoam ball, with paper liner and glue it to the inside of your decorative cupcake liner.

Here is the project again finished and with the tag pulled out. I did add some pearls and tiny rhinestones for sprinkles!

I hope you enjoyed my tutorial today! I am hoping to create more in the near future!

For more ways to use this fabulous new JustRite set be sure to visit these ladies' blogs!

Kellie Fortin

Heidi Blankenship

Becca Feeken

Stephanie Kraft

Debbie Olson

Have a wonderful Thursday!!!