Scrap-Obsessed

Full of Wonder - Close to my Heart

2012-02-29T19:03:00.001-08:00

Happy Wednesday. I have another Close to my Heart Idea Book copy for you today. I can hardly wait to get some pictures printed to add to this layout. This idea book is THE best. Here is the picture of the catalog.

And here is my copy.

I really like the simplicity and the soft colors of this layout. The font for the words 'Full of' was the Close to my Heart Art Philosophy cartridge at .75 inches. The word 'wonder' was cut from Quarter Note at 1.75 inches. The small brown scallop circle was cut at 4" from the Art Philosophy cartridge and the large blue scallop circle was cut at 10" and also from the Art Philosophy cartridge.
Thank you for coming by and visiting me. Cindy

A late Valentine picture

2012-02-24T13:58:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday. Any good plans for the weekend? Nothing going on here. I haven't done much scrapbooking or crafting lately, but I do have a picture of my Valentine's Tree that I forgot to post.

I wanted to add some Cricut cuts of a cupid and some hearts and things, but never got around to it. It looks a little plain right now, but hopefully I'll be able to spruce it up and make it an Easter Tree.

Have a wonderful weekend and happy crafting.
Cindy

Valentine's Day card

2012-02-15T08:18:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day. A day of love. A day of chocolate and flowers! My sweet husband had mini roses sent to my work. We tried to transplant a couple of our large roses in the yard last year and they didn't make it, so he wanted to give me something to replace them.

For him I made dinner and a card. The dinner was D E L I C I O U S if I do say so myself. You see, I don't usually cook, but lately I've been trying some recipes I found on Pinterest and so far so good. I've made three things that I've never tried before and all three were winners. Last nights dinner was Taco Cupcakes. They tasted like nachos to me and I love nachos. I guess it was the Queso that's added in the layers. Here is a link to the website with the recipe: http://www.emilybites.com/2011/08/taco-cupcakes.html and here is a picture. Yummmm

For the card I made I used the new Cricut Circle exclusive Sophie cartridge. It was the first time I've used it, but it won't be my last. There are a lot of pretty frames on the cartridge. Here is the card:

Every cut on the card was from the Sophie cartridge. I embossed the lock with my cuttlebug and then pop dotted it to give it dimension and make it stand out a little more. I also inked the edges of the scallop oval behind the lock.

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day and that it continues through the year.
Cindy

Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-02-14T08:31:00.000-08:00

I totally forgot to make my post yesterday. Dealing with realtors, lenders, money and waiting for news on a house can be really stressful. Crazy thing is, it's not even for me! My son and daughter in law are trying to buy a house. They were outbid on two, waited for months on a short sale and now they have found another house they like better. The problem is that it is also a short sale and could be a long drawn out process. The only good thing about it is that they will be able to save more money while they're waiting. I just hope everything works out and that they DO get it. I have't seen the house in person, but I've seen pictures and it is absolutely beautiful. It will be perfect for them.

So as I said, I forgot to make my post yesterday. I wanted to make this post yesterday so that today I could post my Valentine tree. Well, my Valentine tree didn't get finished either )-:
I will try to get it finished when I get home from work and get it posted tonight but no guarantees.

What I did get done is this wall art for Khloë's room made with vinyl. I used pink and green because eventually (when I have time to do some more decorating) those will be the colors. For now the walls are pink and this vinyl is the only thing on them.

For the large K in green I used Kate's ABC's. For the K and the C in pink I used the Tie The Knot cartridge. The rest of the letters were cut using Quarter Note and welded together using my Gypsy. The dragon flies were cut from the Close To My Heart cartridge, Art Philosophy. The green one is actually the layer that would normally go over the pink layer, but I liked them by themselves.

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day.

My Jetmax Cube Contents

2012-02-11T21:45:00.000-08:00

So I actually had a productive day today. I did a little cleaning and organizing in my scraproom. I packed up empty Cricut cartridge boxes and put them in the garage. (I don't store my cartridges or handbooks in their boxes, but I can't bare to part with them either). I even tried a new casserole recipe for dinner. Here is a picture of how I store my Cricut handbooks.

I also made some wall art out of vinyl for my little Khloë's room. I will post that tomorrow. I'm still trying to decide if I want to add more to it. My rolls of vinyl are stored in one of my jetmax cubes along with my bind it all wires (that I haven't used yet!).

Here are some more of my jetmax drawers:

Stickles, sponges and pearl pens.

Pens, glimmer mists, Cricut pens, glue dots, red sticky tape, misc.

My cuttlebug folders and plates.

Clear stamps in CD cases.

One of my drawers is full of pictures that need to be scrapped.

I really like these jet max cubes and wish I could fit more into my room. One of the things I really like about them is that they are so versatile. I am always moving them around and rearranging them. I hope this gave you some ideas and help for organizing. I'll be back tomorrow with my vinyl project. Cindy

Close To My Heart Banner I made

2012-02-10T17:46:00.000-08:00

Ooops! I did it again. I fell in love again with another project from the Close to my Heart catalog. This time it was the banner. I think it is beautiful. The truth is I love the everything about the picture in the catalog. The little girls room in the background, the colors on the wall, the white dresser, everything. I would love to duplicate the entire room for my little Khloë.

I already painted the bedroom pink. Now I'm thinking of adding a chair-rail like the one in this picture. I also have some white shelves to put up on the walls. When I saw this banner I knew I wanted to make it to hang in her room. Again I had no idea what measurements and I didn't have any of the CTMH papers so I used papers from my stash. Yay me!
Here is my version.

I cut the banner pieces at 6.25" from the Art Philosophy cartridge. The letters were cut at 2.25" and also from the Art Philosophy cartridge. The rosettes behind the letters were made using one of the boarder cuts at 1.5". After I got everything cut out and put together I added a little ribbon and I was done.
Have a wonderful weekend scrappy friends. Hopefully I'll have some time in my scraproom so I can finish up another Close to my Heart scrap-lift.
Cindy

I copied and I LOVE IT!

2012-02-06T20:32:00.000-08:00

I recently got the new Close To My Heart Idea Book/Catalog and I fell in love with the layouts and cards inside. I don't have any of their papers, but decided to try making the layout on the cover.

I went through all of my papers to find the ones that were as close as I could get.

All of these papers are from my stash. Some of them are from the scrapbook expo last November and some of them are a few years old.
I started out by cutting some butterflies from my Close to my Heart Art Philosophy cartridge at 1". I used plain vanilla cardstock.

After inking the edges I stamped them with a background stamp from Stampin' Up. I used two differnt colors of ink and then did a little more inking around the edges.

After the butterflies were done I cut a couple of vines at 2" and flowers at 2". The flowers were cut several times with different papers and then pieced together to give each flower different colored petals.

The scallop circle in the background was cut at 10". The word Love was cut at 1". The two tabs behind the photo mats were actually one piece that was cut in half. All of the cuts on this layout were cut from the Art Philosophy cartridge. I obviously can't take credit for the first half of the layout, but I love how both pages came together. Here is a closer look of the second page.

Oh No! More Mini Album

2012-02-02T21:13:00.000-08:00

I love this picture of my niece.

It's so silly and definitely not a "professional" type picture, but it makes me smile. The picture on the right side shows the 3 girl cousins that are the closest in age. It was always fun when all the kiddos were together. They grow up so fast.

From kindergarten (uh oh, I see I spelled that wrong in the album. I'll have to fix that) to graduating highschool. So many wonderful memories along the way. I feel so blessed to have my family and to have spent so much time with each of them.
Tomorrow is Friday which means I'll be off work early and have extra time in my scraproom. Yay! I need to get more pages done. I also need to work on some birthday cards - before the birthdays get here! LOL.

Mini Album for Niece

2012-01-31T16:50:00.000-08:00

So tomorrow starts the month of February and I have 3 mini albums to complete by mid May. My husband and I have 2 nieces and 1 nephew that will be graduating high school this year. I have made it a tradition of mine to make a mini album for each niece and nephew when they graduate. The albums will include pictures from birth thru graduation. Nothing formal, just fun pictures of them that I have taken myself that I think show their personalities.

The front page of each album will have the graduates full name, a baby picture and date of birth. The album I'm working on first is for my niece Allie. I can't believe she has gone from a little baby to a beautiful young lady so fast. She's now around 5 feet 10 inches tall, getting ready to graduate highschool and already has her CNA license. She's taking classes part time at her local college and would like to become a nurse. I am so proud of her.
Here are a couple more pages:

I still have a lot to do, but I love looking back at these old pictures. I think the kids will really get a kick out of seeing themselves on the pages.
Happy Day!

Electric Slide layout

2012-01-30T07:00:00.000-08:00

Hello and happy Monday. I can't believe we're in the last couple of days of January. Today is my 24th wedding anniversary to my best friend. As they say, 'time flies when you're having fun'. It amazes me when I stop to think about all the wonderful things in my life and where I am today. I look forward to what the future might bring to my family.
One of my favorite things in life is spending time with my family and then scrapbooking the memories. It's so fun when we get together and look through the albums. My layout today is another one from almost two years ago when my niece turned 16. I am the oldest of 4 girls and when we all get together it can be one big laugh fest. In these pictures we were trying to do the electric slide. We quickly found out we all had our own way of doing it and probably none of them right. I know my version wasn't right because I kept turning the wrong direction!

All of the papers and chipboard are from my stash. The party dog is from Birthday Bash and the font on the right hand side is from the Cupcake font cartridge cut at 1 1/2". I colored the dog and the font on my Imagine with colors from the Blast Off cartridge. I'm getting a little better at using my Imagine machine, but still having a few problems. It's probably all operator error. I'll keep trying though.

Gotta go to work now and then off to celebrate my anniversary. Have a wonderful day. Cindy

Masculine Birthday Card

2012-01-27T10:45:00.000-08:00

Just a quick post today. Happy Friday everyone. I needed to make a quick birthday card last night for my nephew that is turning 22 this weekend. I used my Imagine and one of the standard images that come pre-loaded. I filled the image with a blue color from Blast Off and then cut it out at 2 1/2". The sentiment, the ribbon and the paper are all from Stampin' Up.

For the inside of the card I cut the same image at 4". Very simple and quick card to make. If I had more time (or feeling more creative) I probably would have added something else to it, but it is for a guy so less is probably better.

Sorry for the bad lighting and not so great pictures. I had to use my phone to take the pictures. Have a wonderful weekend. Cindy

Happy Birthday Layout

2012-01-25T16:30:00.000-08:00

Hello and happy Wednesday. I've been having some problems with posting to my blog this week, so hopefully this works. I guess if you're reading this it did work. LOL. I'm still trying to use the supplies that I have without buying more. I'm finding it difficult to use my older stuff. It's just not inspiring me. Maybe I'm just not feeling crafty these days. I know the cold dreary weather bothers me. I miss the warm sunshine.
Okay, so enough of my babbling. This is a layout I did using the same papers and chipboard embellishments that I used on my last layout.

The weather man says the weather is supposed to be a little warmer this week and no more rain for awhile. I know we need it, but I need my sunshine! As I'm writing this I have my Gypsy hooked up to the computer to run the latest updates. I have a couple of newer cartridges that I need to add to my Gypsy so I had to do the update. I'm hoping the new carts will inspire me to create something beautiful. Stay tuned to see if it works.
Cindy

Using my Stash

2012-01-16T17:40:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I have to warn you, the items on this layout are REALLY old. I have been trying to clean/organize my room a little more and came across this box of chipboard accessories. I've had this stuff for a few years. I had bought it from HSN and never used it. I'm trying to use what I have right now instead of constantly buying new things. This is just a start. I hope nobody gets bored with my old stuff.

I got a Scrap n Easel for my birthday and I love it. It makes a perfect stand for my layouts while I'm trying to take a picture. And just for laughs I thought I'd add a picture of myself in my scraproom working on this layout with my new Easel.

Happy Scrapping. Cindy

Personalized Drink Cup

2012-01-05T20:19:00.000-08:00

I love these drink cups with vinyl added. This one is for my friend and co-worker for her birthday today. I also made a few for Christmas, but I forgot to take a picture of them. I purchased these at Kohls the day after Thanksgiving during my Black Friday shopping. I made one for myself and have put it through the dishwasher a few times already. The vinyl heald up perfectly.

I used Quarter Note for the font and George to cut different size circles to add around the whole cup.

Quarter Note is my favorite font. I think it is so beautiful and elegant. It looks good with everything. I used my Gypsy to weld the letters together before I cut them out and used transfer paper to add the vinyl to the cup. Voila! All done. I will give this to her tomorrow. I hope she likes it as much as I do.
Happy crafting. Cindy

Khloë and the Kitty

2012-01-04T10:58:00.000-08:00

Happy Wednesday. We're getting closer to Friday (yay!). I was able to get a couple of pictures of Khloë with my sisters cat from my son. Luckily he is quick with his camera on his iPhone. He didn't get any when Khloë was trying to ride on the kitty, but you can still see how docile this cat is. Can you see Khloë's leg going up and getting in position to sit on the kitty? Also the look on her face knowing she's not supposed to ride the kitty? (Is anyone looking?)LOL

In this next picture Khloë was sticking her finger in the kitty's nose. Poor kitty, but he just stayed there and didn't run away. Luckily for him we were there and didn't let this continue. It was cute, but still scary for me knowing cats have claws that are quicker than I am. He was a good sport, but I would never recommend this.

And don't you just love his jacket? He loves it and struts around like he's a person. Can you imagine seeing that walking down the street? My sisters little girl cat has a pink dress and pearl necklace. She's very prissy and wouldn't let us take her picture.
That's all for today. Hope you enjoyed the kitty/baby pictures. Cindy

Making Progress

2012-01-02T18:04:00.000-08:00

Happy 2nd day of the year. How are you doing with your resolutions? Did you make any? I would love to hear about them.
I spent the day cleaning my scrapbook room. I've done pretty good so far. I realize I have waaaay too much stuff though. I already have a container full of stuff for the scrap-sale in March and I haven't even gone through my cabinets yet. Here are a couple of pictures to show my progress.

I can walk through the room! The top of my desk is cleared off! I even moved my Expression off my desk and replaced it with my Imagine. I am going to force myself to use my Imagine more and this is the best way to do it. I unplugged my old faithful Expression and put her on the guest desk.

As you can see in the picture above I still have some cleaning to do on the shelf under my Imagine and also a few things to put away on my guest desk in the background. For now I'm taking a break and will hopefully have some time to get a little more done tomorrow.

I also wanted to add a picture of my paper racks. They are not organized at all yet. The papers are just thrown up there in no kind of order at all. Once my scraproom is all clean and organized I hope to use up a lot of that patterned paper. Then I'll use one of the paper racks for just solid card stock (organized by color).

There's a New Years Challenge going on over at the Cricut Messageboard. The first item to organize in the challenge is paper. Maybe I'll start on that tomorrow. Of course I'll be back to work tomorrow, so we'll have to see how it goes. Happy Scrapping, Cindy

Happy New Year and a Resolution

2012-01-01T16:53:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year. I hope everyone had a healthy, safe and happy start to 2012. So far so good on my end. 2011 brought lots of joy for us with the addition of little Khloë at the end of 2010. 2011 brought first words, first teeth, first time rolling over and first time crawling. The last day of the year was just as exciting for us as we watched Khloë take her first 10 steps in a row. We cheered and clapped and Kholoë gave us that heart melting smile we love.

2012 started with getting a message from my boss that the office will be closed tomorrow and I don't need to go into work. Woohooo, Yay, Yippee, another day off! I could get used to this. And now that I don't have to work tomorrow I will hopefully be able to get started on my New Year's Resolution.......

Once upon a time my room was clean. Then the holidays and Khloë's birthday came. Presents were put in my room for hiding, supplies were put in there for decorations and favors. Baskets to fill for presents, new Cricut cartridges and supplies came in the mail and no time for cleaning and organizing. So yes, my New Year's Resolution for 2012 is to clean and organize my room.... AGAIN! As I do this I will also be purging things that I don't need or that have been hanging around for far too long without being used. My local scrapbook store will be hosting a scrappy yard sale in March. I will start a box of items that I can bring to the yard sale and hopefully make a few dollars (to buy more scrappy things!).

What are your Resolutions for 2012?

Penguin Gift Bags

2011-12-29T07:54:00.000-08:00

I'm back with another Penguin project we made for Khloë's birthday party. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. We had so much fun watching Khloë open her presents. Of course one of her favorite things was a box. She sat inside it while her Uncle pushed her around like a car. She was all giggles. Another favorite of hers was my sisters cat. I wish I had gotten a picture. My sisters cat is the most docile thing I've ever seen. He's this big boy cat that walks around the house with clothes on. Khloë pulled on his clothes, pet him (not very softly) and put her fingers up his nose. He just laid there and let her do it. Then she decided to ride him like a pony. Luckily I was close by and kept crazy kitty from getting smooshed. As I pulled Khloë off of him he still just laid there! Then she wanted to give him kisses right on the big ol' kitty smacker. No problem. Nothing bothered him. I'll try to have my sister send me a picture of him so I can post it.
Back to my project of the day.

Sorry for the poor quality of the picture. I took it with my cell phone and forgot to get one at the party with my real camera. I used Creat a Critter for the penguin to match all the other decorations. I ordered the skinny bags from Stampin' Up after someone on the Cricut Message Board let me know where to get them. Love them! The jelly beans are from the Jelly Belly Factory. We're lucky enough to have one in our city. Any and every kind of jelly bean you could ever want. They even have a new flavor called baby wipes. Trust me - don't try it. They taste exactly the way you think they would and you can't get the clean baby powder taste out of your mouth for the rest of the day. Not good.

Here is another picture with some more penguin bags and some that say Khloë on them. I got really tired of making penguins after awhile, even though I think they are the cutest little critters ever. I used Hello Kitty Font to cut out Khloë and Art Philosophy to cut out the background to attach the name.
Have a wonderful day. Cindy

Glitter Ornaments and a Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T11:19:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone. I wanted to come by real quick and share a picture of my Christmas ornaments I made for the family. I used the floor wax method and Martha Stewart glitter. Once that was done I used my Cricut to cut out everyones name with vinyl.

I used Quarter Note for the font on the girls names. For the boys names I used A Child's Year. Super easy to do and a fun project for kids.
I orded the wooden dowel tree off the internet. I think I will change out the star and use the stand year round for the holidays. Change to a bunny and it's an instant Easter tree. A clover and it's St. Patricks Day!

I'm not sure if you can see the little envelopes on some of the ornaments or not. I cut them out using the Walk in my Garden Cricut cartridge. I'll add a little something inside for the kiddos.

A little glue dot on the top to keep it closed and then tied to the bulb.

Happy and safe Holidays to everyone. Cindy

Birthday Cake

2011-12-22T08:00:00.000-08:00

First thing I have to say is a great big THANK YOU to my sister for making such an awesome cake for my little grand-daughters first birthday. She used the same penguin from the Create A Critter cartridge and tied in all the same colors as the other decorations.

The cake was so cute I didn't want to cut it. In the end we took the top layer off and cut the bottom layer. It was as yummy as it looked. Over the next few days I'm hoping I can post some pictures of the other decorations and favors. Somehow I didn't take close-up pictures of some of the things at the party so I'm hoping my daughter in law has some on her camera. Check back later. Cindy

Penguins everywhere!

2011-12-20T21:03:00.000-08:00

I have made so many penguins lately that it's time for a break. They are very cute, but those little feet and beaks are torture to glue on one by one. I thought I would share the way I put my pieces together after cutting them out with my Cricut.

I was cutting out 15 penguins at a time. I like to leave all of my pieces on my mat while I work so that I don't lose any of those tiny feet or beaks.

You can see in the picture above that I leave the back layer of the penguins attached to the mat and glue the other layers right on top. This helps hold the pieces still while I work and nothing gets lost.

And here are some of the finished penguins.

We used penguins for toppers on the party favors, on toothpicks for finger foods, the banner that I already showed and also for the birthday cake. I was very pleased with everything matching and because we're having such cold weather lately the penguins with their cute little scarves are a perfect theme.

Birthday Banner

2011-12-09T19:10:00.000-08:00

I just have to say 'I LOVE MY CRICUT!' Before having my Cricut I would have never been able to make such pretty personalized things. I'll admit that I spend a lot of money on my Cricut habit, but it also saves me a lot of money. Take for example this banner. If I wanted a birthday banner before having my Cricut I would have bought one. It would have cost me more money and it wouldn't have looked as nice. It also wouldn't be personalized with Khloë's name or have the perfect pink color and her favorite penguins.

I still need to add some more tulle and make it a little fluffier (LOL), but you get the idea. This was my very first time making rosettes too. I think I'm hooked. It was so fun. I want to add rosettes to everything now.

For the font I used the Monogram setting on the Gypsy Font. I really like the swirly cut-outs in the letters so that you can see the background color. The scallop triangle banners were cut using Birthday Bash. After cutting the pink triangle pieces I ran them through my cuttlebug and embossed them with dots.

Khloë likes penguins and they are the theme for her birthday. I found the cute little penguin for her banner on the Create a Critter cartridge. One of my favorite cartridges. There's a critter for every occasion.

Next I'll be making some party favors, but first I need to make a trip to the Jelly Belly Factory for some pink, black and white jelly beans. Have a great weekend everyone. Cindy

Family Layout

2011-11-30T07:00:00.000-08:00

Another Thanksgiving layout today. I really like this new paper. Now I just need to get my pictures developed.

Once again I used the Quarter Note cartridge for the font and Kate's Kitchen to fill in the color. It's so nice to be able to use my Imagine to flood fill my letters with the perfect color. I will be doing this alot now that I have the hang of it.

Thankful Layout

2011-11-28T07:00:00.000-08:00

I am so happy I finally got my Cricut Imagine replacement from Provo Craft. I wanted to try it out right away and make sure it works. It does and I am very relieved. I hope it continues to work because this machine is awesome. For my layout I used some of the paper I got at the Scrapbook Expo. I love the colors for Thanksgiving. I used my Cricut Quarternote cartridge for the font and the Imagine cartridge called Kates Kitchen to fill in the title with color. The colors and prints on Kate's Kitchen work perfectly for Thanksgiving.

Birthday Invitation

2011-11-26T21:40:00.000-08:00

First off I would like to send out a huge thank you to my Circle friend Linda, AKA Tulip Collector. She was so kind to send me some vellum and pink tulle so that I could start working on my little Khloë's birthday invitations. I love how they came out.

The theme for her party will be pink, black and white with penguins. I was so excited when I was able to get this picture of her with her favorite penguin toy.

Now I just need to get a bunch of copies of the picture printed at Costco and start assembling. Then I'll need to start on some party favors and decorations. Thank you for stopping by and taking a look.

Life is good layout

2011-11-09T17:20:00.000-08:00

Well, I still haven't started on my Thanksgiving decorations or my Christmas cards, but I do have another layout today.

Does this layout have enough color for you? LOL. I used more Echo Park paper. The title was cut from the Cricut cartridge Graphically Speaking at 2.45".

Oh Happy Day layout and a winner

2011-11-07T18:34:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday. I have a new layout today and a winner of my blog candy. First I'll share my layout. The paper is Echo Part and the title was cut from Don Juan at 4".

And now on to my Blog Candy winner. Picked by Random.org was Dedrah! Thank you so much for following my blog and the nice comments.

Dedrah send me your address so that I can get your prize package to you.

See you back here soon. Cindy

Blog Make-over

2011-11-04T08:10:00.000-07:00

***Update at the end of this post***

I am loving my new blog make-over. I had set it up myself awhile back, but then blogger had problems and I removed most of the graphics. It has been pretty plain for months and to tell you the truth I was very tired of it. Then I came across a blog make-over post on another blog and decided it was time to have something done. I contacted Chris at http://chatterscene-mom.blogspot.com/ and it was the best thing I could have done. Chris is awesome. She is so patient and helpful. When I started this venture I had no idea what I wanted, but Chris helped me through every step of picking graphics and colors. She did an amazing job and I highly recommend her if you're looking for a fresh look on your blog.

Check back with me later today to see a new layout and also to enter to win some blog candy in honor of my new beautiful blog. I'll have all the details later. Thank you for stopping by. Cindy

***Update***
I wanted to share my layout today. I'm still using the same papers I got from the scrapbook expo. For the title I used my Cricut cartridge Cupcake Wrappers. I think I'm going to use this cartridge for a lot of titles. I really like how it came out.
I wasn't able to take a picture of the blog candy before it got dark, but I will be picking a winner on Sunday night. So far in the candy pile I have some Creative Memories photo splits, some alphabet stickers, eyelets, buttons and a magnetic holder. I'll try to get a picture put up tomorrow. All you have to do is be a follower and leave me a comment about what you think of the new look for my blog.
My layout

Have a wonderful weekend.
Cindy

Happy Friday and another Layout

2011-10-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

Well, we finally made it to Friday again. Tomorrow is my Daughter in Laws birthday so after I get this post finished I need to get her card done.
I really like the way this layout came out, but I'm afraid I didn't take any pictures of our trip to the county fair this year. I know I have a couple on my cell phone, but they might not work. I might have to use these pages for another time.

I do have one tip for you. Do you see the strips of paper in different colors in the middle of the page? All of those strips were on the end of each piece of paper where it has the name of the paper company and the name of the kit. There are also these little strips to show a sample of the paper. I cut all of those off and used them. They are the perfect size for stuff like this. Hope you have enjoyed my layouts this week. I probably won't have much time to craft this weekend, but I'll be back soon. Take care, Cindy

Let The Sun Shine In

2011-10-27T07:00:00.000-07:00

Am I really back with another layout? You bet I am. I'm thinking that after I make as many layouts as I can with this paper I will use the scraps to make some cards. I still have a few more layouts to make first though.

Looking at these papers and the layouts I'm making, it makes me realize that summer is almost over. Our warm days are coming to an end. I'm really not ready for winter and rain. Cold is definitely not my friend! Okay, enough of that kind of talk. Back to summer pages.

That cloud paper is probably my favorite. I could use that stuff all the time. The stickers are great too and I don't usually use stickers. They're nice and thick though, kinda like cardstock, but sticky. Even the photo corners are stickers that came in the kit.
One more layout tomorrow and then I'll have to evaluate my paper situation to see if I have enough for more layouts or if I'll start my cards. Stay tuned.

Summer Fun layout

2011-10-26T07:00:00.000-07:00

I'm back with another layout using my new Echo Park paper. This particular paper pack is called Summer Days and it couldn't be more perfect. Well, maybe if I had more of it! The colors and patterns are so fun. Every page is double sided giving me double the options. It is a little hard picking which side to use, but by using pieces I can use both!

Doesn't it make you wanna go out for an ice cream cone? We just had a new ice cream shop open by our house. Maybe I'll have to check it out and take my camera.
Check back tomorrow for another layout. Cindy

Love my new paper!

2011-10-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

I cannot tell you how much I love this paper. It's so bright and cheery. I put this layout together in no time at all. It was so easy because the paper is so inspiring. I didn't even use my Cricut (yet). I will probably cut out a title for the top left corner when I pick out the pictures I want to use.

What do you think? When I look at this layout it makes me smile. Am I just weird? LOL.

I will definitely be back in a day or two with another layout using this paper. I'm glad I got two packs. Catch ya later.

Sacramento Scrapbook Expo

2011-10-23T21:17:00.000-07:00

Hello. I hope everyone had a great weekend. It certainly went by too fast and now we're back at Sunday night already. Ready or not, back to work tomorrow.
Anyway, I was able to go to the Sacramento Scrapbook Expo on Saturday morning. I usually go both days, but I had to work on Friday. It's probably a good thing though. Now I have to pay for everything I bought..... that I didn't need!
I was only at the Expo for a short time because afterwards I was going to look at houses with my Daughter in Law. I love to look at houses so it was a great day for me. We saw some nice houses and some not so nice houses. One of them didn't even have carpeting in it. I guess it had good "bones", but that was about it. LOL.
Back to my Expo shopping. Wanna see what I got? Keep in mind I didn't NEED anything. I was hoping to see a Scrap n Easel in person, but didn't find one. So here is what I bought:

Isn't it pretty? I found out when I flew to Las Vegas for the Circle Meet-up and Crop that I needed some scrapbook luggage that could fly with me. I already had plenty of scrapbook bags, but the only one with wheels was too big to check at the airport unless I wanted to pay extra, which I didn't. This set can be used together the way I have it in the picture or can be used separately depending on how much 'stuff' I need to take with me. Here is a picture showing the front organizers open:

Both bags have a drop down front with dividers for paper or layout kits. There are also loops to hold pens. I can hardly wait to go to another crop so that I can pack it all up.

I also got some paper. I REALLY didn't need paper, but it was such a good price :-) I got these SEI paper packs for $4 and $5 each.

Aren't they gorgeous? You should be seeing lots of layouts in the near future. I also bought some Echo Park paper kits. These are my favorite and I'll be using these first. Such fun colors.

So that's it. Some paper and scrap bags. I'm gonna go to my room now and get started on some layouts. Check back to see what I come up with.
Cindy

Pretty in Pink layout

2011-10-21T14:47:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday. Any plans this weekend? Tomorrow is the local scrapbook expo and I'm hoping to go. Today I'm taking my Imagine to Fed ex to be shipped back to Provo Craft. Hopefully it won't take them too long to send me out a replacement. Then I have some shopping to do. Just household stuff to buy today. Tomorrow will be the fun shopping.
For now I finally have my layout finished. This one took me forever because other stuff kept coming up. (like my Imagine not working)

These are pictures of little Khloe when she was just 2 months old. It's hard to believe how fast she's growing. I hope everyone has a good weekend. I'm gonna keep this post short so I can get my errands done. See you back here soon.

My Imagine must go back

2011-10-18T10:49:00.000-07:00

I'm so sad. I had just decided to do the updates for my Gypsy and my Imagine so that I could transition to using my Imagine full time instead of my Expression. I did the Gypsy update but the Imagine wouldn't connect. Then my Imagine totally stopped accepting paper. I called customer support at Provo Craft and a very nice gentleman tried to help me. He walked me through trying to update my Imagine with no luck. He then told me I would have to try to do a system restore and update in "safe-mode". Ugh. He got me started and then let me off the phone because he said it could take over an hour to finish. Well, an hour later it still hadn't even gotten the first of three steps started. It was just sitting there refusing to accept anything from my computer. I will have to call PC back when I get home today and probably need to send my Imagine back for a replacement.

I've had my Imagine since March, but I've never done an update on it before. I've only used it a handful of times and only with the Imagine cartridges. Now that I need to update I find out it doesn't work. I'm sure glad I didn't get rid of those huge boxes. Hopefully everything will work out and not take too long.

Have a wonderful week. I have a layout almost finished to post, but wasn't able to finish it last night due to my Imagine fiasco. See you soon, Cindy

Halloween at 2 months

2011-10-11T07:57:00.000-07:00

I'm back with a layout. It's been a little while since I've gotten a layout done using PageMaps. So far just a boy layout though. I'll have to work on a girl version tomorrow.

Here is the sketch:

And here is the completed layout with pictures of my son at 2 months old (almost 20 years ago).

Oh how I wish I had a better camera back then. It's hard to believe so much time has passed since those baby days. I used the Cricut Happy Hauntings cartridge for all of the cuts except the scallop under the pictures. For that I used the Art Philosophy cartridge. The papers I used were all from my stash that I've had around for a few years. I'm still trying to use what I have and not buy any paper. It makes it a little harder to scrapbook when I don't have the exact color I want, but I'm making it work.
See you next time. Cindy

Monday Morning After

2011-10-10T09:21:00.000-07:00

Good morning. I just wanted to stop in and say 'hi'. Monday sure did come too fast. The weekend was a lot of fun and I packed a lot into it for a change. Unfortunately no crafting due to the fact that I wasn't home much.
Friday night my Mom called and asked if hubby and I would like to meet her and her boyfriend at Cache Creek Casino for lunch. It's about an hour away for us and 2 hours for them. We didn't have anything important planned and I had never been there, so we decided to go. I played a little on the penny slot machines, but once I lost $30 I was done. (that could have been a cartridge!)LOL. I didn't feel too bad about it because when we signed up for our players card we each got a free $25 credit. I used mine to buy lunch for hubby and I and then I got a blended coffee before we left... all on the card. I'm justifying my $30 loss as I really only lost $5 after lunch and coffee. Heehee.
On the way home from the casino we took a little detour to find a Rite Aid store. I had no idea how hard it was to find those stores. I had the weekly ad with me and there were some pretty good sales and coupons. We ended up getting two nice size bottles of Listerine, two deoderants and two good sized bottles of body wash. They were both bonus size and one of them had an additional trial size deoderant with it. All of that for just over $5.
On Sunday I drove out to see the kiddos and baby Khloe.

We started out by going to a dog show. It was small and not too many dogs, but it was fun. Khloe loved all the dogs until a pair of gigantic Saint Bernards came up and one of them gave her a kiss. They were so mellow. The one that gave her a kiss just leaned in real slow, nuzzled Khloe and then gave her the sweetest little kiss on the cheek. Other than being absolutely huge (I think it's head was bigger than Khloe's entire body) it was the sweetest thing. They were so gentle. Khloe thought they were a little too big for her taste though. I wish I had my camera out at the time. It would have been a great picture.
After the dog show we looked at some model houses. One of my favorite things to do is look at model houses. They are always so beautifully decorated. Whenever I'm in the mood to paint or change something at home I go look at models to get ideas. Khloe had a lot of fun checking everything out as well.

I have a lot of pictures of my son at model houses when he was young. Now I'll have to scrapbook some pictures of Khloe at the models. She's such a good sport. Look at that cute little pose!

I'll be back soon with some layouts. Hopefully I'll get some craft time after work today. Have a great week. Cindy

Happy Friday and More Layouts

2011-10-07T18:50:00.000-07:00

I am so glad it's Friday. How about you? Any plans for the weekend? It's supposed to be nice weather for us so we're going to head out to a local dog show on Sunday. It should be fun. Haven't been to one in a few years.
Tomorrow I'm hoping to have a little extra time in my day for some cleaning and organizing. I've been getting some pretty good deals with coupons lately (not quite as good as the people on tv though) so I need to figure out where I'm going to store all of my goodies. Speaking of good deals, Cricut.com has a special right now when you buy a paper trimmer you get a free Yourstory machine. Yep, got it. Gonna give it away for Christmas. They also had a free Cupcake Lite cartridge when you spend $40. Got that too. I just wish I could buy crafty stuff for everyone on my Christmas list. LOL.
So I figured since I will probably not be crafting all weekend I should get my Vegas mini finished and posted. I still need to add some journaling and I'll probably add more pages at a later time, but for now it's done. Here are the last pages:

And the back cover looks like this:

I am so ready to go back. Of course I'm really looking forward to a Circle meet-up in Hawaii too. LOL. Have a good weekend.

My forgotten post

2011-10-04T21:20:00.000-07:00

Good evening. I'm home and finally able to post more pages for my Vegas mini. When I saw these mini playing cards I fell in love with them. Aren't they adorable?

Once again it was tough to pick out the pictures to add to these pages. I think these pictures are a good representation of the fun I had though. The picture on the left side was taken at the Friday crop. The picture on the top right was taken at the lunch on Thursday with my California Circle sisters. That's us again in the bottom picture. A little dress-up fun with the King!

Just a few pages left. I might still add some more pages after I finish the ones I have, but for now I'm just going to fill the pages that came in the kit. See you back here tomorrow. Cindy

More Layout Pages

2011-10-03T06:39:00.000-07:00

Wow, Monday again already? The weekends go by way too fast. Luckily I was able to get these two pages finished before I had to be back to work.

This mini scrapbook kit is making my album super easy to assemble. The shapes of the pages and the papers are wonderful. I inked all of the edges with black ink before glueing everything down. Then I added my pictures. Here are the two pages with pictures.

I don't have the binding rings in yet because I'm waiting to punch the holes when all the pages are done. You can see in the bottom picture on the left hand side that my hubby found his way to the Circle dinner. Of course he was the life of the party. I DID warn the girls before he showed up! Of course he was his normal sweet interactive self. He even bought a round of drinks for everyone. See you next time with a couple more pages. Cindy

Vegas Mini page 2 and 3

2011-10-02T05:48:00.000-07:00

It's so nice to be crafting again. Yesterday was a wonderful relaxing craft day. I almost got distracted in the morning and started cleaning, but we'll have none of that! LOL. I've started to use coupons for our groceries lately and it has become very addicting. The money I save by using coupons goes into a jar. I keep track of how much I save during each shopping trip. I haven't decided what I'll spend it on, but I'm sure it will be something to do with crafting. Maybe I'll be able to go on the Cricut Cruise and I can use my coupon money for extra spending. Now that would be awesome.

Okay, back to scrapbooking.... I have page 2 and 3 of my Vegas mini today.

Here are the two pages together with pictures. Going back and looking at these pictures makes me miss my new friends. I'm really looking forward to when there is another Cricut Circle function that I can attend.

See all those smiles? I really didn't get anything accomplished during our Circle Scrap, but it sure was fun spending the day with these girls. Angie was our host and what a great host she was. She kept us busy with Bingo and other games. We decorated candy tubes and had a delicious lunch. We also had a special cupcake treat made by Bethany's hubby.
Later at dinner (yummy Italian food) we chatted some more and had yet another delicious dessert made by Bill, Bethanys husband. It was one of the best tasting cakes I've ever had. Unfortunately I don't even know what kind it was. I'll have to ask her. Maybe she'll even share the recipe.
See you back here soon, Cindy

Vegas Mini Album

2011-10-01T17:40:00.000-07:00

Happy Saturday everyone. I finally got back into my scraproom today. When I was at the Cricut Circle Scrap party in Las Vegas I bought a Vegas Mini Album kit. I opened it up and dumped the contents onto my desk.

I then got started on the assembly. My biggest fear is that I have way too many pictures for a mini album. It will be tough narrowing them down. I may have to add more pages.

The front cover looks like this once the papers are adhered to the chipboard.

I chose a picture from the Cricut Circle lunch for the front of my mini. I had a great time meeting all the girls and having some relaxing time to chat. Oh, lunch was very yummy too.

That's it for today, but I'm going to keep working and I'll have page two ready for posting tomorrow. Be sure to come back and check it out.

Cindy

Cleaning up after Vegas

2011-09-27T08:25:00.000-07:00

Good morning friends. Sorry I don't have a project to post today. I can hardly walk into my scraproom at this point. It looks like there was a hurricane that came through.
After getting back from Las Vegas I took everything into my scraproom and starting looking at all the great souvenirs I got. There were so many talented ladies that were at the Circle functions. I came home with calling cards, ribbons, treats, treat holders, pins and so much more. I will try to come back later and post some pictures of everything.
As I was looking through all my goodies I kept thinking about Khloe's 1st birthday coming up in a few months and how I could use all of these ideas for her party. Gift bags, tags, and favor boxes galore. I want to make everything! You'll see what I mean when I get my pictures added later.
Until then, I hope everyone has a wonderful day. Cindy

Circlets take Vegas!

2011-09-24T19:05:00.000-07:00

I'm back home now, but boy did I have fun the last few days. We left on Wednesday for Las Vegas, Nevada.

On Thursday I had lunch with my Circle Sisters.

I had so much fun with everyone. During lunch I had to snap this picture of Cassandra, Linda (TulipCollector) and Angie as they showed us their matching bags. I think TulipCollector made these. They were adorable.

After lunch Rita and I went to Angie's room to check out the things she had planned for the Saturday Crop. Angie is so incredibly talented. Her room was full of things she made and things she was bringing for the girls to have fun with. Now that the crop is well on it's way I can share a couple of pictures with you. This first picture is Angie holding the Vegas Board she made to display at the crop. Did I say "talented"?!

This next picture is Angie, myself and Rita wearing the costumes Angie brought so that the Circlets could have a photo-op with Elvis! How fun is that?!

The next day (Friday) we met at a local scrapbook store and had a circle crop.

There were 20 of us girls there and I don't think we really got much done. (I know I didn't) It was so fun to meet eachother and chat.

After the crop we headed off to the Bootlegger for dinner.

Then it was time to take a group photo under the Vegas sign. It was perfect timing as there was a big group of good looking guys in texedos more than willing to take a picture with us. Only in Vegas Baby!

Thank you Angie for a great time. I can hardly wait for the next meet-up.

Khloe 8 Months layout

2011-09-16T15:15:00.000-07:00

I'm finally here with a new layout. I used the same sketch as I did a few weeks ago for my son's 8 month layout. I think I still need to add something to the right side page, but I'll figure that out later.

I used Art Philosophy for the Dragonfly, the pointy scallop trim and the rounded scallop trim. I also used Art Philosophy for the scalloped circles. George was used for the round cuts. The font is from Jubilee.

I'm working on my calling cards and stuff for Vegas, so hopefully I'll get those posted in the next day or two. Have a great weekend everyone.

M.I.A

2011-09-14T07:40:00.000-07:00

Yep, that's me. I've been missing from my blog for a little while now. I'm so sorry. I haven't been sleeping well (and still have to go to work), so when I get home I'm exhausted. I have a layout that has been ALMOST done for two weeks now. I tried to finish it up a couple nights ago, but then my printer ran out of ink.

I'm also trying to get ready to go to the Cricut Circle Swarm in Las Vegas, Nevada next week. I have a lot of things that need to get done and I'm not even close. Luckily there is still time and my vacation starts this Friday. I should have the whole house to myself to 'work' on everything after a quick trip to have some blood drawn and then a stop at Starbucks on the way home. Maybe I'll even get a donut or scone for some extra energy. LOL.

Okay, so that's the plan. If I don't have anything posted here sooner, I will definitely have something posted on Friday. Off to get some coffee now.
Cindy

Baby Boy layout

2011-09-04T14:29:00.000-07:00

Talk about perfect timing. I was working on this layout yesterday and got stuck in the middle of it. I couldn't find the Cricut cuts I wanted to use on the cartridges I already have. I needed a scallop circle and scallop border. I also needed a pointy border (not sure what else to call it). All of a sudden the doorbell rang. I went to check and it was my Close To My Heart order with the Art Philosophy cartridge in it! I was so excited, I immediately opened the package and looked through the booklet. It had everything I wanted. Yay!

I know this isn't the most organized layout. I was trying to add as many pictures as I could to the second page. The dragonfly is also from the Art Philosophy cartridge. The only thing not from that cartridge is the font for the title.
The sketch I used is another one from Pagemaps. It was a single page sketch so I was on my own to make the messy 2nd page. LOL.

Now I'm off to work on my girl version. I have the photos picked out. Just have to pick my papers and get started. Have a wonderful rest of the holiday weekend everyone.

Girl Version

2011-09-02T18:49:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday everyone. Any big plans for the holiday weekend? I had some time to finish my layout of Khloe and now a little time to relax. I haven't figured out what else I'll be doing for the next 3 days, but I'm sure it'll include some craft time.
Okay, so here is my layout. I used the same cartridges for this girl version as I did the boy version. Pooh Font for the font, Straight From the Nest for the scallop and George for the circle under the title. Oh, also Tie the Knot for the tag.

I can't believe these pictures are already 3 months old. Time is just flying by and Khloe is getting so big. She has one tooth now and doing a lot of teething. Her mommy isn't getting any sleep these days because poor little Khloe isn't sleeping very much. Boy do I remember those days from when my boys were little.

Happy Crafting everyone. Cindy

5 Months Layout

2011-08-31T16:02:00.000-07:00

I'm finally getting this layout posted. Sorry it took so long. I still need to do my girl version. Hopefully that won't take me so long.
This first picture is the layout following the sketch from PageMaps page 18.

I seem to have way too many pictures to scrapbook though, so I like to add more than 3 pictures to my pages. This next picture will show how I added an extra 3 pictures and a journaling tag. I used Tie the Knot cartridge for the journaling tag, Straight From The Nest for the scallop border, George for the circle with the title tucked behind the pictures and Pooh for the font.

And this is the sketch I used. It was made for an 8 1/2 x 11 double layout, but I stretched it to 12x12.

I'll be back as soon as I get some time to get the girl version done. Happy crafting everyone.

Mechanical Bull

2011-08-29T13:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday everyone.

I don't have a scrapbooking post for you today, but wanted to share a couple of pictures. Over the weekend my family went to the fair and we were brave enough to ride the mechanical bull. As you can see in the photo below, I ended up on the ground. I'm not sure if the bull was trying to give me CPR or make out with me after he threw me off. LOL. I was able to stay on for a couple of seconds. I'm actually proud of myself for even trying it. This is not something I would normally do. And let me just add - my entire body is sore today. I feel like I rode a real live bull.

This would be my dear husband thinking he's a tough guy - before it started! He ended up on the ground too.

And this is my sister. It was definitely more fun watching everyone else thrown off than it was getting thrown myself. But now I can say I actually tried it.

One more picture to add. This is my nephew. I think he did the best out of all of us.

I'll have a new layout to post later today or tomorrow evening. I need to print some pictures to add and then cut out my title. Hopefully I'll have time to do that after work today.

Cindy

Tiger by the tail

2011-08-22T20:43:00.000-07:00

Another layout completed. This is the girl version of the layout I posted yesterday. I love these pictures. Just to see that smiley face on Khloe brings a smile to my face. She loves her puppy dogs and she gets the giggles everytime they come up to her. In these pictures the dogs were licking her hands because she had baby food on them. Khloe thought it was the funniest thing and in the last picture you can see that she got ahold of the dogs tongue.

The font is from Don Juan and the circles are from the George and Basic Shapes cartridge. The buttons and flowers are from my stash as well as the paper.
Now I need to go pick out another sketch for my next layouts. Have a wonderful day. Cindy

I'm Back!

2011-08-21T20:54:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe it has been two weeks since my last post. It's been a crazy time with my family. My Dad had an allergic reaction to some of his medications and ended up in the hospital. Just when he finally got out of the hospital and was feeling a little better it happened again. This time it was even scarier because the doctor had taken him off all of his medications. They had no idea at this point what was causing his throat to swell shut.

Hubby and I packed some clothes and headed off to the hospital.... 16 hours away. We drove straight there, only stopping when necessary. I was very happy that I could be there when my Dad woke up. We stayed until he was out of the hospital and then had to make the long trip back home. He had an appointment with a specialist the next day and they think it was the first allergic reaction that was not fully out of his system. He was only told to take Benadryl for 3 days. Once the three days had passed the swelling came back. Now he is on a few different medications for 10 days. According to the doctor that should take care of it. I sure hope so.

Now that we are back home I had a little time to spend in my scrapbook room and unwind. I was working on a layout before we left, so I got that finished up and started on a second one. Here is the sketch I used. It is page 33 from PageMaps.

The layout includes pictures of my younger son again. For the Cricut cuts I used Don Juan for the title and George for the stars and circles.

I'll try to get the 'girl' version finished and posted tomorrow. I'm almost done with it. Hopefully I won't be missing in action anymore, but most importantly I hope everyone stays well. Take care everyone. Cindy

Sleeping Beauty

2011-08-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a crazy couple of days at my house. Way too much drama. Thank goodness I had time for a little scrapbook therapy. I was able to get another couple of layouts done using a PageMaps sketch from page 78. Here is the sketch.

I started with my 'girl' version and pictures of my grand-daughter Khloe when she was first born. I used Quarter Note for the Sleeping Beauty title, Straight from the Nest for the flower in the upper left corner and Baby Steps for Sweet.

I still need to do the journaling on both of my layouts and add something in the white area on the left side page.

For my 'Boy' version I used the same cartridges. Quarter Note for 2 months and Baby Steps for the Little Man title. The pictures are of my younger son Christopher.

Back to work tomorrow. The weekends go by way too fast. I'm going to go back and add a couple of pictures to some of my past posts, so check those out. When I posted them before they didn't have pictures. I have now added pictures so I'll update the posts. Have a wonderful week. Cindy

A Day of Firsts

2011-08-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, I have to say I really like my layouts today. I haven't finished the second one yet because I need to get some pictures printed, but I have them picked out. So the first one I'll show you is the girl version without pictures.

I'm still using the same paper stack by DCWV called Blossom Song. Very pretty papers in this stack. And now the layout with pictures. Oh, almost forgot, the titles are from Quarter Note.

These are pictures of my Grand-daughter when she was born and still at the hospital. The title on the left side says "A day of Firsts". The journaling tells how little Khloe is the first for everyone in our family. First baby for my son and his wife, first grand-baby for my husband and I, first great-grand-baby, first niece for my younger son and first great niece for my sisters. She is one very loved little girl.

My second layout will be for my younger son's baby book. I have the pictures I want to use, but I need to get one of them enlarged to a 5x7. Once I get them printed I will come back and edit this post with the finished layout. For now here is the layout without photos.

Update: I added pictures.

The sketch for both of these layouts is from page 61 of PageMaps 2.

Now I'm off to see what else I can create. Or maybe I'll check out some other blogs or the Cricut message board. See you soon. Cindy

Music Soothes the Soul

2011-08-01T06:35:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday. I hope everyone had a good weekend. On Saturday I got to spend time with my Grand-daughter so I had a wonderful day. Then Sunday I started with laundry, cleaned up after the animals, did some yard work and finished some layouts. The layout I want to share today was made using the Quarter Note cartridge and a sketch from page 17 of PageMaps.

These pictures are from last year. Husband and I along with our younger son went to the Billy Currington Concert at our local May Fair. The weather was perfect and the concert was fabulous.

I cut the brackets from the George and Basic Shapes cartridge at 7" and 5". The title was cut using Quarter Note at 4".
Tomorrow I'll have another couple of layouts. A boy version and a girl version again. Come back tomorrow to check it out.
Cindy

Car Decals and Kate's ABCs

2011-07-29T20:29:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday everyone. I finally got another couple of layouts done. I'm really enjoying making a boy version and a girl version with the same sketch.
Todays sketch is from page 112 of PageMaps 2.

I started out with my blue papers and the Cricut Car Decals cartridge. Can you believe I've had this cartridge for months and this is the first time I've used it? It's so stinkin' cute. There are a ton of things I want to cut out, but I couldn't decide what to cut first. I guess I got over that with this layout. The two little boys are adorable. Oh, and the Cricut cuts are too. LOL. The pictures are from 19 years ago when my older son was 3 and my younger son was almost 3 months old.

I would never put this quote on my vehicle, but I thought it was cute for this layout of my boys and their grandparents.

The kids on the cartridge are adorable. There are so many uses for this cartridge.

The brackets were cut from the George and Basic Shapes cartridge.

For my pink version I used the Cricut Kate's ABCs cartridge. I love the cuts on this cartridge too. They are so adorable. I also like that there are specific cuts for each letter of the alphabet.

The scallop cut on the top is from the Straight From The Nest cartridge. I think this layout came out so cute. I just realized in the top "boy" layout my son was almost 3 months and in this "girl" version my grand-daughter is just over 3 months. Wow, a lot has changed in 19 years.
I've had a few people ask me about the paper I've been using so I wanted to add a picture of it. It's a great stack because it has pinks, blues and greens.

Have a great weekend.
Cindy

Blue and Pink version

2011-07-25T20:33:00.000-07:00

As promised I have a layout to share using Pagemaps. A couple of months ago I picked up a DCWV paper pack called Blossom. I love the papers. It has pinks, greens and blues all in one pack.
I used the Pagemaps sketch from page 24.

I started out with the pink papers and made this layout.

The flower in the upper left hand corner, the butterfly on the right side and the small flower on the bottom left page are all from Kate's ABCs. The title was cut at 3" from the Straight From the Nest cartridge.

I really like the pink papers and the layout will be perfect for pictures of my grand-daughter. But, I am also working on my younger son's baby album, so I thought as a twist I would do the same layout in blue. Here is that layout.

Isn't it cute? The title was cut from Straight From the Nest, as well as the flower, flower pot, owl and the photo corners. I have pictures to put on this layout, but I need to scan them and re-size them before I add them. I couldn't wait to for the resized pictures though so I temporarily adhered them and took a quick picture. What do you think?

I will make the photos 4x6 and the photo on the far right with the photo corners will be a 5x7. Wow, these pictures are about 18 years old! My baby is all grown up now. Hope you enjoyed the layouts. I like this idea of making a blue AND a pink version. Have a wonderful week friends.

Monday check-in

2011-07-25T08:30:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe it's Monday already. The weekends always go by too fast. I did get some scrapbooking done yesterday and I will post the pictures later today. I used Pagemaps again, but with a little twist. You'll have to check back later to find out what I did.
See you later,
Cindy

Winner for the Blog Hop

2011-07-18T18:32:00.000-07:00

I had so much fun during the blog hop. I want to thank everyone that followed along and left comments. I read each and every one of them. It's so fun to get comments. I used Random.org to pick a winner for the blog candy.

And the winner is......

Jodie R said...

Cindy these projects ae super sweet!! I love them so much!! Now I want an Imagine really bad!!

Jodie R on Circle MB

Jodie send me an email with your contact info so I can get your blog candy to you. You can also send me a message on the Circle Messageboard if that's easier.
cpenfield@diablobenefit.com

Congratulations and thank you for sweet comment.
Cindy

Bloom and Grow Layout

2011-07-18T07:30:00.000-07:00

Monday again. I hope everyone enjoyed the Blog Hop on Saturday. I had a lot of fun hopping along with everyone. I wanna say Thank You to LB for hosting. I will be posting the winner to the blog candy later.
For now I'd like to share another layout I started at the Rocklin Circle Crop back in June. The girls are from A Child's Year. The words Grow and Bloom are from Kate's ABCs. Once I got that done I felt like it still needed something so I added the flowers from my stash and then put a dot of Viva Decor Pearl Pen in the middle of each.

Yesterday was spent in the yard cleaning, trimming bushes and trees, and making plans for future projects. We had a dog run in the far corner of the yard that wasn't being used anymore, so I took part of that down. Already the yard looks a lot bigger and cleaner. I guess this layout just made me want to get out and do some yard work. I really like to do yard work, but not when it's too hot or too cold. LOL. Yesterday was perfect and I got a lot done. Of course now my whole body hurts! It might take me a couple of days to feel up to scrapbooking again. Heehee. Thanks for stopping by. Cindy

It's A Wrap Blog Hop

2011-07-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the It’s a Wrap Blog Hop hosted by Cool Beans By L.B. Do you like to receive gifts? How about give them? Well this hop is all about the outside…the wrapping; Gift bags, boxes, baskets and more. There are 22 wonderful stops on this hop and we hope you will take some time to stop in and see everything we have created for you.

You should have arrived here from, Amy from Amy’s Digi-Scrapshttp://scrap-pix.blogspot.com/. If you are just finding our hop in the middle you can go to the beginning at Cool Beans By L.B.

For my project I made a gift bag with my stash. A few weeks ago I posted about a baby brag book I made for my mom. I decided to make a matching gift bag to put it in when I give it to her.Here is a picture of the book and the gift bag together.

The bag was recycled from one I got at my last dentist appointment. It was a nice white handle bag and only needed to be dressed up a bit. Here is a picture of the bag "before".

I used my Cricut Imagine and the Nursery Tails cartridge for the front of the bag. I chose the image I wanted to print and cut in layers and chose fit to page. Everything was pop dotted and then added to the front of the bag.

For the green and pink background I used the Storybook cartridge and embossed the green with the Divine Swirls Cuttlebug folder. Once that was done I used the Tags Bags Boxes and More cartridge to cut out a tag. Then I added a couple of Imagine - Nursery Tails cuts to the front of it.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing my project today and following along the hop.

I am offering some fun blog candy on this hop…

There is a Creative Memories corner rounder, some flowers and brads, some wackytac adhesive for vellum, a cuttlebug cut and embossing folder, a mini chipboard album and a few other things thrown in. I may come across some other things to stick in the box as well. In order to participate I would love for you to be a follower and leave a comment on this post. I will draw a random winner on Sunday night and post next week.

Thanks for stopping by on this fun hop. Your next stop is…TX Scrapper Mom http://www.txscrappermom.blogspot.com/

If you get lost, here is the whole list for this hop!

IT’s A WRAP BLOG HOP LINE UP

Cool Beans By L.B. http://coolbeansbylb.blogspot.com/ (HOST)

Debbie from Deb’s Eclectic Thoughts http://www.debseclecticthoughts.blogspot.com/

Cindy from In Love With Paper http://www.inlovewithpaper.blogspot.com/

Amy from Amy’s Digi-Scraps http://scrap-pix.blogspot.com/

Cindy from Scrap Obsessed http://www.scrap-obsessed.blogspot.com/

TX Scrapper Mom http://www.txscrappermom.blogspot.com/

Scrapalette from Around the Block with Scrapalette http://scrapalette.blogspot.com/

Suzelle from www.craftsandmorebysuzelle.blogspot.com

Confessions of a Scrapoholic http://scrapaholicjen.blogspot.com/

Stephanie from onceuponapaper http://onceuponapaper.blogspot.com/

Brenda from Random Thoughts of a Scrapbooker http://happyscrapper64.blogspot.com/

Maria from Stamp Cut Create http://stampcutcreate.blogspot.com/

Terri from http://scrappinwiththebug.blogspot.com/

Lori Apgar from http://www.scrappinmystressaway.blogspot.com/

I Came, I saw, I Created http://icameisawicreated.blogspot.com/

Anabel aka cricutaddicted from http://scrappingformorefun.blogspot.com/

Michele from Green Girl Scraps www.michelegreen.com

Alicat from http://scrappingwithalicat.blogspot.com/

Everything Digital Scrapbooking http://digipage-blog.everything-digital-scrapbooking.com/

Robin, The Scrappin' Delta Diva http://scrappindeltadiva.blogspot.com/

Gamma's Creative Corner http://gammascreativecorner.blogspot.com/

Paper Crafting Chic: http://www.papercraftingchic.com/

Be Free Layout

2011-07-15T07:10:00.000-07:00

Finally I'm getting something posted. This is a layout I started at the Rocklin Circle Crop back in June. I had put everything away when I got home and forgot it. I finished it up last night by adding the photo mats and some Viva Decor Pearl Pen drops to the butterflies. I actually had to do them twice because right after I got them done my dear sweet little kitty decided to lay right on them! Ugh! So I had to usher Ms Starlet out of the room and re-apply the Pearl Pen.

I hope you will all be able to join us tomorrow for the It's a Wrap Blog Hop. I will be posting a project and give out some blog candy. You'll have to come back to check it out.

It's A Wrap Blog Hop this Saturday!

2011-07-12T08:25:00.000-07:00

Happy Tuesday everyone. Sorry no post yesterday. It was a Monday and REALLY felt like a Monday. The weather has changed all of a sudden from 100 degrees to somewhere in the 70's. I feel more like hibernating than crafting right now and I seem to have lost all creativity for the moment. I did get started on my project for this Saturday's Blog Hop. I hope you'll be here to join us in all the fun. I'm still getting my blog candy ready. I want to see how much stuff I can pack into one of those "if it fits, it ships" small or medium boxes. I need to go to the post office to check them out.
So far no project for today. After work I'll try to get something posted. For now I'll leave you with a picture of my Grand-daughter.

It's summer time and what goes better with summer than watermelon! She is just learning to eat different foods and this was her first taste of watermelon. She loved it. I wish I had a video of this moment because it was so adorable. She wasn't trying to bite the watermelon at all. She was happy to just slurp the juice out. Nothing was moving except her little nose - like a little rabbit. Hope you're having a happy summer. Cindy

May Fair Layout

2011-07-07T07:30:00.000-07:00

I'm getting more done. I'm up to pictures from May of last year. That's just 14 months ago. My goal is to be less than a year behind on my scrapbooking. It's time to step up my game and powerscrap. In my rush to get things done I forgot to take a before picture of my layout. I used the PageMaps 2 page 74 sketch. It's a single page, so for my right side I flipped the sketch and made it work for a double layout.

I also used a goat instead of a bird to go with my pictures. Heeheeeheee. I also used larger pictures in my layout because I didn't want to cut them down.

For the cute goat I used Nate's ABCs at 3". The Circle behind the goat and behind the scallop on the right hand side were cut using George and Basic Shapes. The scallop circle is from Storybook.

The stamp on the scallop cut is from My Pink Stamper, More Punny-Licious stamp set.

I like visiting the animals when I go to the fair. They have such soulful eyes.

Wednesday Layout

2011-07-06T07:10:00.000-07:00

Some new colors for you today. I don't have pictures picked out for this one yet, but I'm thinking it will be for a birthday.

I was looking for birthday pictures before posting and realized I didn't have any printed. I used to get my pictures printed as soon as I took them, but I've gotten so far behind that I made the decision to not print anymore until I'm ready to scrapbook them. Now I wish I hadn't made that decision because I don't have the pictures I need for this layout. I also realized that most of my pictures from the last 7 months are of Baby Khloe. Everyone else has taken a backseat to our first grandbaby. Now I really like this layout, but it's definitely not a baby layout. I guess I'll have to start taking some pictures of the rest of the family! LOL

I used another single page sketch (page 81) and made it into a double 12x12 layout. Now I have to get back to work. (This job thing sure gets in the way of my crafting) Cindy

Cards with Scraps

2011-07-05T14:49:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. We were very busy. We were in 3 different cities in 3 days and it was great. We got to visit with family and spent the day with Grandbaby Khloe for her first 4th of July.

She's getting so big and her eyes are still blue.
Today I was lucky to be able to stay home from work and play in my scraproom. I still have scraps on my desk. Do they ever go away? It seems like I've made so many layouts with the same scraps of paper and I still have more. Today I decided to make some cards for my stash. It seems like I never have enough cards and I'm always rushing to get some made.
The first card I made was using the darker turquoise cardstock.

Then I made a few more with the green cardstock. I was able to use some of my Stampin' Up stamps for the fronts.

It was a lot of fun putting these cards together. I will definitely make more sets of cards in between doing layouts. I'll be back tomorrow with another PageMaps sketch and layout.

Update with Pictures

2011-07-01T16:32:00.000-07:00

I couldn't wait to get home and find pictures to this layout. I wasn't sure how the pink would look, but I like it. What do you think? I still need to do the journaling later.

I used Quarter Note at 2" for the font. The owl, wagon and snuggle bunny were all cut from Sugar and Spice Lite cartridge at 2". I inked everything and added white gel pen for definition.

Happy Friday and a layout

2011-07-01T07:36:00.000-07:00

Yay, Friday is finally here. I have work today, but I get off early and then it's straight to my scraproom. I'll have at least a couple of hours before hubby gets home. I can probably run the washing machine while I scrapbook so it looks like I was doing some house work. LOL. I actually like to wash and dry clothes. I just DO NOT like to put the clothes away. Hehehe.

So, I really like todays layout. (Do I say that with every layout?) I know these are the same colors and same scraps as a few other layouts, but this one seems a little softer. I can see pictures of a new mom and baby in the two larger areas and then a progression of baby as she/he grows in a timeline of photos. Hmmmm, I'll have to find some photos when I get home to add. I'll post an update once I get the photos I'm looking for.

The sketch for this one is from page 108 of PageMaps 2.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone. If I have time I might make it back with some extras. Cindy

PageMaps and Cricut

2011-06-30T08:28:00.000-07:00

Happy Thursday everyone. One day away from Friday! Does everyone have big plans for the holiday weekend? I don't. I think I might be the only one. I would love to go camping and see the fireworks with my family, but my mom and everyone lives about two hours away and hubby has to work the next morning, so it won't work out. We may drive out for a day trip on Saturday, but that's still up in the air. I just hope I get to see fireworks somewhere.
In the mean time I will continue on with my scraps and sketches. Todays layout includes a butterfly cut from the Cricut Picturesque cartridge. It also has a couple of top note cuts from the Cricut Storybook cartridge.

The sketch is from PageMaps page 67. I can't believe I'm still using papers from my SEI paper pack. I guess it was a big pack or I'm just getting a lot of mileage out of them. I guess that could be it since most of the patterned papers are small pieces that I'm using. Once I get all of these pages done with the SEI papers I may have enough to make an entire album with them. Hope you're not getting tired of these colors. I promise to change it up soon. Cindy

Perfect layout for small scraps

2011-06-29T08:07:00.000-07:00

I love the way these pages turned out. If you have a lot of small pieces of scraps this is a great way to use them.

I used two full sheets of paper (white and patterned green) for the background and everything else was from scraps. I got out all of my circle punches and a scallop punch. Then I just randomly punched with all my scrap paper. Then I arranged and glued them all down. I used a little bit of ribbon on the bottom of each page to give a little dimension and that was about it. Super easy and looks good too.

The PageMaps 2 sketch is from page 15. Can you believe all of these great sketches? They are awesome. The book also has pictures color layouts made with the sketches, but I find it easier on my brain to not look at them before hand. If I look at the examples I get hung up on the colors they used or the embellishments, etc. If I stick to the black and white sketch I have to use my own thoughts on the colors and such. That's just what works for me though. Everyone has their own way of creating and there's no wrong way. See you again tomorrow with another sketch and layout. Cindy

Another Shower Layout

2011-06-28T08:59:00.000-07:00

I still need to do a title and some journaling on these pages, but for now I'm calling them done.

Now that I look at it, there aren't any Cricut cuts on these pages. Hmmm, I'll have to fix that by cutting out a title with my Cricut.

Here is the layout without the pictures.

The PageMaps 2 sketch is from page 65. It was a single 12x12 page that I made into a double layout.
Here is a picture of the sketch.

When I first saw it I was thinking of doing a 4th of July layout, but I'm not up to those pictures yet. Maybe I'll use this sketch again when I get to my July photos. LOL.

Bridal Shower layout

2011-06-27T20:53:00.000-07:00

Wow, I am really late at getting this layout posted. I had it finished a couple of days ago, but just got the pictures downloaded to my computer.

I'm taking a little break from my scrap pile to work on some pictures from last year. I am so behind on my scrapbooking. It's nice that I'm getting so many layouts done, but sometimes I have to pick paper to match the photos. In this case I used a cornflower blue, black and white. Those were the colors for my son and daughter in laws wedding. The Pagemaps 2 sketch is from page 28.

The thing that took the most time with this sketch was cutting all the photo mats to the right size. I wanted to use white for the mats, so I inked the edges to make them stand out from eachother. The heart cuts are from the Storybook cartridge. The scallop circle is also from Storybook. The circle inside the scallop circle is from George.

The pictures are from the Bridal Shower for my Daughter in Law. I scrap in chronological order so that means I am almost up to May 2010. Not too bad, right? Well, I'm also trying to go back to my OLD photos (prior to scrapbooking) and get them out of magnetic albums. Those go back about 20 years!

The font on the top of the page is from the Cricut Lite Cartridge Feeling Groovy. The font on the bottom is one of my new favorites. It is from Quarter Note. I actually bought that cartridge because I liked the font so much. You'll be seeing a lot more of this one from me. Cindy

Irrisistibly Sweet Award

2011-06-24T19:32:00.000-07:00

I am so grateful to Karan over at Scrapbooksandpapercrafts.blogspot.com for awarding me the Irrisistibly Sweet Blog Award. Doesn't it look yummy? Thank you Karan.

In order to accept this award I have to list 7 things about myself and then pass the award to 8 other bloggers.

Hmmm, what would you like to hear about me? I'm not all that interesting. I'll have to think about this for a minute. LOL, I'm asking my hubby and son for suggestions and I can't even repeat the crazy things they are saying. I think I will come up with my own answers. Okay, here goes...

1. I work so that I can pay for my Cricut addiction.

2. I love photography, but I'm not very good at it.

3. I think of my baby sister as my daughter.

4. I record HSN Crafts shows so that I can get ideas.

5. I have two sons and my first grandchild is a girl. Yay me.

6. I believe in Dessert first.

7. I adopted a cat for myself, but she prefers my husband :-(

Okay, now I get to pass this award to 8 other bloggers that I enjoy and follow.

1. Scrapinalways.blogspot.com

2. Minialbumcookbook.blogspot.com

3. IcameIsawIcreated.blogspot.com

4. Cricut-scrapbooklayouts-cards-frames.blogspot.com

5. Greengirlscraps.blogspot.com

6. Scrappinsaints.blogspot.com

7. Scrapperdee-rambling.blogspot.com

8. Karen-createdbykaren.blogspot.com

I couldn't wait to post

2011-06-23T17:46:00.000-07:00

I added pictures, a title and some Cricut cuts. I'm really pleased with the way this layout looks. The pictures are from over a year ago when my Nephew was turning 8. (I'm very behind) I still need to add journaling on the bottom of the right hand side, but I'll do that later. For now I'm calling it done.

Okay, now I'm off to do some more layouts. Tomorrow I get off work early and should have more time to play.

Pagemaps 2 Layout #6 and Scraproom Update

2011-06-23T07:00:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited. I bought my airline tickets for the Cricut Circle Meet-Up in Vegas. I can hardly wait to get there and meet as many Circlets as I can.

For todays post I thought I would do a little update in todays post because it has been one week since cleaning my scraproom and starting my challenge to use my scraps. You can see in this first picture my pile of scraps on the corner of my desk.

This is the view looking into my room from the doorway. I have quite a few jetmax cubes and they are all full.

I got the paper holders from a local scrapbook store that went out of business. Actually my sweet husband went into the store and made them an offer for me. He's the best.

I would love to have hardwood floors in my room one of these days. Not sure I'm willing to take everything out of the room to do it though.

This picture below shows some of the scraps I pulled out of the pile to use on my next sketch.

And this is the sketch I used. It is page 30 from PageMaps 2.

Here is my layout. The right side is from the sketch. I left off the title and embellishments so that I can personalize it later. I really like how it came out. I thought it would be too bright and busy, but the solid yellow background and white photo mats calmed it down a bit. I'm thinking this will be a birthday layout.

I'm getting anxious to start putting pictures on my layouts. I may not be able to wait for the scrap pile to be used up before adding them. And trust me, I have a lot of pictures to choose from. I'm a year and a half behind on my scrapbooking. These layouts will definitely help get me caught up though.

See you again soon. Cindy

Summery Scrap pages

2011-06-22T07:00:00.000-07:00

I love the ways this layout ended up. I tried to follow the sketch more closely and use a bird for the left bottom corner, but when I saw this kite on Boys Will Be Boys I had to use it. I really like how summery and cheerful all the cuts are. The sun is from Doodle Charms and the tree is from Just Because Cards. Actually that tree with the tree swing is the reason I bought that cartridge. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it. I have some old pictures of my boys flying kites at my Grandparents house when they were little. I think this layout will be perfect for those. Almost forgot, the clouds are from Stand and Salute. I didn't want big puffy clouds for my summery layout and when I saw these I thought they were perfect. The red paper is from scraps left over on 3/27/11. The striped paper is from 3/14/2011 and the green polka dot paper on the tree is from 3/19/11.

Tomorrow will be one week since I started this challenge to myself. In honor of my progress over the past week I will post another layout and another look at my scraproom. See you there.

S.E.I Scraps

2011-06-21T07:00:00.000-07:00

Are you getting the feeling that I had a lot of scraps on my desk? I was starting to wonder where they all came from. I know I've used pieces of these papers before, but when? How long have they been on my desk? The curiosity got to me and I had to figure it out. For todays layout the scraps dated back to March 14th and 19th when I was making baby pages. Three months ago! Okay, so I don't clean off my desk very often. LOL. I guess a quarterly cleaning is more my speed. I'm not even going to try to kid myself and say that once I have it all cleaned up I'll keep it that way. I know me, and I know I'll end up having anothe pile of scraps quickly. Maybe it's because I love paper so much. I want to see all the pretty colors all the time. Heehee.
Okay, onto my layout.

The green background paper was not scraps, but everything else came from "the pile". All of the patterned papers are from S.E.I. They came in a pack called Chick-a-doo from 8/2003. Yep, I've probably had it that long and hadn't used it. I'm not sure why since I really do like it.
My go-to Cricut cartridge these days seems to be Storybook. All of the cuts on these pages are from that cartridge. The paper tab edges (is that what it's called?) on a few of the papers were done using an EK Success border punch. I also inked just about every edge with my Stampin' Up ink pads and sponges.
The sketch I used is from page 12 of Page Maps 2. It was made for an 8 1/2x11" page, but was easy to adapt to a 12x12" page. Then I added the second page to make a double layout.

Are you following along in my challenge? Do you have your own challenge? I would love to hear about it. Do you sort and file your scraps? Do you save them or toss them? Do you have a tip for scraps? Please share.

Pink and Green Scraps

2011-06-20T07:30:00.000-07:00

Welcome to another week of scraps. I hope everyone had a nice Father's Day yesterday. We had nice weather and spent the day at home with our boys, daughter in law and grandbaby.

For todays layout I decided to pull out my pink scraps from the pile. And what goes better with pink than green? This is my favorite color combo these days.

The 12x12 background papers are the only ones that were not scraps. If you look really close you can see that the strip of pink and the pink Cricut cuts are slightly lighter than the background papers. I didn't have the exact same paper in my scraps to make these cuts, but I think it's okay.

The large scallop circle was cut at 3" from the Storybook cartridge in pink and again at 2 1/2" for the inner white piece. The twig looking things were cut at 2 1/2" and also from the Storybook cartridge. The wavy edges on the green patterned paper was cut using a Creative Memories wavey cutter. The sketch for this layout is just a single 12x12 page, so I was on my own for the right side of my double layout.

These Pagemaps sketches are really helping me out. It's so much easier when I don't have to worry about the layout. I just pick papers and go at it. Once I get my stack of scraps turned into a stack of layouts I will go back and start adding pictures, titles and journaling. I'll be sure to post them when they are complete.

I also want to say Thank You to everyone that has left a message for me along the way. I really enjoy reading your comments. I will have another layout posted tomorrow. Cindy

Another Pagemaps layout

2011-06-18T08:49:00.000-07:00

Happy Saturday. Tomorrow is Father's Day and we'll be spending the day celebrating with a barbeque. My older son will be celebrating his very first Father's Day which means my hubby will not only be celebrating Father's Day, but also his first Grandfather's Day. Little Khloe turned 6 months old today and is starting to crawl. She's getting cuter and cuter everyday. I love watching her grow and learn new things.

Happy Father's Day to all you Dads out there.
As for my layout today I used this sketch and more scraps.

For my layout I used Storybook for the flower/vines on the right side. There are 3 of them at 4" grouped and welded together. For the butterflies I used Storybook and cut them at 1". The smaller flower/vine was cut at 2". The scallop piece on the left side was cut using a border punch by Stampin' Up. All of the papers were scraps from the top of my desk except the white background paper.

More pages to come in a few days. I have a couple in progress, but need to add some Cricut cuts to them.

Progress with my scrap pile

2011-06-17T08:28:00.000-07:00

I'm making progress. I really like this idea of using my scraps. I'm forcing myself to use what I have and that's a good feeling. Using the Pagemaps sketch book is also very helpful. I tend to get scrappers block, so using a sketch will jump start my creativity. It will also remind me to use Cricut cuts and embellishments that I tend to forget about. Here is a picture of my first layout and the sketch I used.

For the Cricut cuts I used Storybook for large scallop rectangle cut at 11" and the scallop circle cut at 4". I used Home Decor for the swirls cut at 3" and George for the circle cut at 3.5".

The sketch is for an 8 1/2 x 11" single page, but I always make 12x12 double page layouts. I really liked the sketch though so I modified it to fit my needs. I really like how it turned out. I left space for a title and journaling. I will add those once I decide which pictures to use. Come by tomorrow for sketch and layout #2.

Cleaning up my Scraproom

2011-06-16T20:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I've been cleaning my scraproom AGAIN! I've done pretty well and I'm left with just a couple of piles of paper.

These papers are all leftovers from projects. Mostly scraps, but some full 12x12 pieces. I have decided as a personal challenge that I will try to use most or all of these scraps instead of putting them away somewhere. My challenge is to not pull out any new paper other than background pages as needed, until these papers are used up.

To help me in my challenge I picked up a copy of Pagemaps 2. It's full of scrapbook sketches to give me lots of ideas. I love using sketches because I think my pages come out so much nicer. I will pick a random sketch and make a layout with it. I will not add a title. That way I can finish the layout at a later time and customize it to my photos.

As I make my layouts I will post them to my blog along with a picture of the sketch I used. If anyone would like to join me in this challenge I would love to hear about your progress and if you also use sketches. Thanks for stopping by. Come back soon to see my progress. Cindy

Cute baby in commercial

2011-06-10T10:32:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if this will work. I'm trying to embed a commercial with the Wendy's Baby. This is my favorite commercial right now and it makes me smile everytime I see this little girl. Not because she has food all over her face or because her parents are a total mess (kinda gross to me), but because I love this little girls personality at the end when she's moving her head around in joy. Too cute. I'm going to attach a picture of her in case the video doesn't work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJE3296jvcM&feature=player_embedded

Let me know what you think? Bad parenting or cute baby?

Northern California Circle Crop

2011-06-06T17:40:00.000-07:00

I had so much fun this past week at the N. California Crop. The weather was beautiful in Rocklin and the friendships made were awesome. We started by meeting for dinner at Chevy's Thursday night. Yummy food and a couple of drinks along with good conversation made for a wonderful evening. The next morning we all met at the Rocklin Ranch House.

We had a Yudu demonstration by Michael at Provo Craft, an eyeglass contest, drawings and a delicious lunch. I know it was supposed to be time for me to get some scrapbooking done, but honestly I was too busy chatting and didn't get anything done.
I had so much fun meeting everyone. So many faces I see on the messageboards and on blogs were right there in front of me. It was so nice to meet these people in person.

I'm hoping to be able to go to the Nevada crop in September. I'm already missing my new friends, so maybe I'll see you there. Cindy

Circle Glasses

2011-06-04T07:59:00.000-07:00

Aren't my puppy dogs cute? I made these Cricut glasses for the swarm and needed a model to see how they looked.

They were such good sports. I did add some pink and some bling to them, but thought my doggys were too manly for the pink version. I'll post pictures of the new version along with the other swarm pictures.

Circle Shirts

2011-06-03T07:53:00.000-07:00

This is the surprise I made for my sister. I made t-shirts for both of us to wear to the Cricut Circle Swarm. I had so much fun with these. I used the Cricut Everyday cartridge for the Circle and Baby Steps for the font.

I think they came out perfect. When I download the pictures from the swarm I'll be sure to add some of us wearing our shirts. I hope my sister is surprised and likes her shirt.

More Calling Cards

2011-06-02T07:48:00.000-07:00

I think these calling cards turned out so super cute. I made them for my sister. She will be joining me at the Circle Swarm . She is going to school to be a nurse so I added the nurses cap to this adorable little frog from Nursery Tails. I printed and cut all of the images on my Imagine and pop dotted everything. The last thing I need to do is add her information on the back of them and they'll be done. They did take a long time to put together, but I think they were so worth it. Aren't they adorable?

Yourstory project

2011-06-01T07:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I actually got out my Yourstory and made something. I think this little brag book turned out so cute. It is full of pictures of my sweet little grand-daughter Khloe. As soon as I finish the decorations on the inside I will give it to my mom (the great-grandma). I used my Expression with the Gypsy for the title. The font is from Hello Kitty. While my Expression was cutting I printed and cut the other images on my Imagine using the Nursery Tails cartridge. The ribbon is from Stampin' Up. The background was cut using Kates ABCs and then I used the Divine Swirls cuttlebug folder to emboss it.

My second layout

2011-05-30T19:40:00.000-07:00

This is my second layout for the make a wish kids. The Circle crop is less than a week away so I've been super busy this holiday weekend. I have been working on layouts, calling cards, Cricut glasses and a surprise for my sister. I can't post that until after the crop in case she checks my blog. For this layout I used the Summer Vacation cartridge again. The font is from Baby Steps.

Iron on Vinyl

2011-05-26T06:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, so my first try at Iron on Vinyl did not go so well. The first time I cut and tried to iron on the vinyl I had it on the wrong side. I went back to my Expression and tried again. Got it to cut correctly, but then I couldn't get it to adhere to the shirt very well. I turned the iron on hotter and then it was too hot. Most of the vinyl was okay, but the "o" got too hot and lost its crisp edge. I think I'll order some other colors of vinyl and try to cover it up with a flower or butterfly. I'll have to give it some thought. Next time I'll definitely be more careful with the iron. I'm going to make myself a matching shirt that says - Khloe's Grandma.

Calling Cards

2011-05-25T06:15:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally made friends with my Imagine. I've had it for awhile now and have only used it a couple of times. I always go back to my trusty ol' Expression. The Imagine just seemed so overwhelming. Not that it was too hard to use. The first time I used it actually went pretty well. I just couldn't seem to have any "imagination" when I thought about using it. I like the images on the cartridges I have. I just couldn't decide what to do with them. So finally I found an image and a use for it. I had to make at least 55 calling cards and the Imagine made it super easy. I didn't have to worry about piecing images together or finding the perfect papers. I just printed and cut the quantity of the image I wanted and added it to my card base. Easy as pie. The best part is that I actually really like how my calling cards turned out. I like the image, the background papers and the sentiment.

I printed and cut the image at 2" from the Better Together Imagine cartridge. I then layered it on top of a scalloped square from Kate's ABCs that was cut at 2.71". The background paper was cut at 3x3" on my paper trimmer. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the image is pop dotted to make it stand out a little more. The stamps used for the top two words are from Stampin' Ups Fabulous Phrases. The "Inspire Me!" is from the Paper Trey Ink Sentiments stamp set. On the back of the cards I have added my personal information to give out to my Circle Friends. Thank you for stopping by to visit me today. Cindy

Supply drive for Crops of Luv

2011-05-24T06:55:00.000-07:00

In June I will be going to the Cricut Circle Swarm in Rocklin, CA. I have so much to do to get ready, but I'm off to a good start. I spent the entire day in my scraproom. I was able to get my calling cards done and one of the layouts for the Crops of Luv. This is what Provo Craft posted on the Message board:

In lieu of a swap Provo Craft will be holding a supply drive for Crops of Luv ™, a certified 501(c) 3 non-profit organization that creates scrapbooks for critically ill children after they have gone on a wish trip. You can help by creating pre-made 12x12 two page layouts. Use your Cricut to make embellishments for use in the albums or donate unused supplies.I think this is such an awesome idea and I'm happy that I'm able to participate. So far I've gotten this double page layout done and have a couple of others ready to cut on my Gypsy. I left off the last number of the year so that it could be used for this year or another year. I will be including additional numbers to complete it.

Edited photo: I decided to change the photo mats on this layout. I like these better because they have more colors. It looks more cheerful.

Come back tomorrow to see my Calling Cards.

Create a Critter cards

2011-05-22T10:27:00.000-07:00

Happy Sunday everyone. It's a lazy day for me today. The house is quiet and the wind is blowing outside. My plan for today is to come up with some calling cards for the Northern California Circle Event next month. I'm having such a hard time finding an image that speaks to me that I can put on a 3x3 square. So here I am on the computer. I'm gonna look for some inspiration on the Cricut messageboard. The problem with that is that I usually end up spending all my time on the message board and don't get anything done.
So, while I work on my calling cards I'll share a couple of cards I made last week. I used Create a Critter for these. I'm not sure what size the cuts are because they were left over from other projects. I had them sitting on my desk for a few months now and finally decided to make some cards with them. Super easy.

This first card will be for one of my nephew's birthdays.

This little skunk card will go to one of my nieces. I have a lot of nieces so I always have to have cards ready. Have a wonderful day and I'll see you back here soon. Cindy

Paisley Cartridge Cards

2011-05-18T04:15:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share some more cards with you that I made using the Paisley cartridge. This cartridge really does have some super cute images. I started by cutting out a few different animals in the colors I wanted and then I looked through my paper piles to find background papers for my cards. It was super easy and I got 8 cards done in one evening. That is a record for me. I usually only get one card done at a time. This first picture with the super cute elephant was cut at 3". This card is for my niece Jasmine. I was late mailing her card, but wanted to let her know I didn't forget. (elephants never forget, lol) I was just out of town at the time.

Isn't this turtle adorable? It was also cut at 3". I left the inside of this card blank so I can personalize it when I need it.

This snail card will also go into my card stash for future use, so the inside is blank. I cut the snail at 3". All of these cards are on card bases that measure 4.25 x 5.5 and then layered with decorative papers. I hope you've enjoyed the cards today. I have a few more I will be posting at a later time. Thanks for stopping by. Cindy

All Sports - Fore!

2011-05-17T01:00:00.000-07:00

I'm back with another All Sports layout. I chose golf this time around because my sweet hubby likes to golf. (I don't really understand hitting a little white ball just so you can chase after it. LOL) I don't mind him golfing because that means craft time for me. So this past weekend while he was golfing I was making a layout about golf.

I was really proud of myself with this one because all of the papers were scraps and leftovers except the blue 12x12 backgrounds. The cream scallop paper is the negative cut from a previous layout using Kates ABCs. The title was cut at 4", the golf cart was cut at 6", the golf bag at 4" and the golfer at 6". This layout came together very easily and I like the outcome. See you next time.

Yay, I won!

2011-05-15T21:59:00.000-07:00

I was so surprised to get an email from Robyn at My Pink Stamper saying I won a cartridge on her facebook page.

I've been following the My Pink Stamper blog for as long as I've known what a blog was. I feel like I've grown so much in my scrapbooking and card making over the past few years because of all the wonderful blogs out there that share their creations and especially videos. I totally appreciate all that the bloggers do and would like to say "Thank You". As soon as I got the Paisley cartridge from Robyn I opened it up and looked for an image to make a thank you card for her. I hope she likes it.

On the inside of the card I used one of her My Pink Stamper stamps. I just got my first set and I must agree that they are great stamps.
Well, that's all for tonight. I will be back with more cards from the Paisley cartridge in the next couple of days.

Play Ball! Layout

2011-05-12T05:28:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I think I'm really going to like the All Sports Cricut cartridge. Both of my boys are grown now and done with baseball, but I really enjoyed our days at the baseball fields. I may pull out some of their old photos to use on this layout. When I looked through the handbook for this cartridge I knew the baseball cuts were the first ones I wanted to use. The layering was super easy and the images come out nice and thick like chipboard. I cut both baseball players at 8". The Play Ball title was also cut at 8". 1st Place was cut at 4.71". I didn't add the faces to the players because they were really small pieces and I don't think they look okay without faces. What do you think?

My next project with this cartridge will be using the golf images. After that maybe some football or swimming. There are a lot of nice cuts that I'm sure I will use in the future.

Can I have S'more?

2011-05-09T16:54:00.000-07:00

For the Mypinkstamper.com challenge #8 the theme had to be about summer. When I think about summer I think about camping and when I think about camping I think about S'mores. I love the Campin' Critters cartridge for this layout. The little porcupine roasting the marshmallow, the hungry bear and the beaver bringing more wood for the fire. I recently tried s'mores made with Rolo's candies. They're the ones that have soft caramel covered in chocolate. They turned out very yummy. I highly recommend them if you like caramel. I'm getting hungry just thinking about them.
Ok, I'm off to see if I can get more of these challenges finished.

Got Sand?

2011-05-09T16:34:00.000-07:00

I did this layout for the Mypinkstamper.com National Scrapbook Day contest #2. The Rule for this one was to use Craft Cardstock on a scrapbook page or card. These were pictures from Easter this year. We went to Sand Mountain in Nevada. It was mine and my husbands first time there so we followed my son in his truck. He was pulling a trailer and as soon as we got there he got stuck. It was not the best way to start our vacation. Luckily everyone was really nice and helped him get out. I used Kate's ABCs for the large scallop square background, Blackletter for the title, Boys will be Boys for the truck and Campin' Critters for the trailer.

My Scrapbook Room

2011-05-08T18:38:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day everyone. I have had a really nice day. My husband made me breakfast, my older son called to wish me a happy day (he and I both have bad allergies and didn't feel up to traveling). Then my younger son brought me Starbucks. I spent most of my day in my scrapbook room and got a couple of layouts finished. I will post those after I take pictures.
Over on the Cricut Circle blog they are asking us to post a picture of ourselves in our scraproom. I wish I had better pictures, but here are a few I've taken in the past few months. This first picture is the right side of my room where I have my paper racks and storage inside the cabinet.

This second picture is the left side. My desk is actually a dining table and I love the big size. Behind me are some of my jetmax storage cubes. Since this picture I have added a few more.

This picture cracks me up because I am really not good at sewing. I've had this sewing machine for probably 15 years and have only used it a handful of times. I want to start using it for my paper crafts though. Hopefully I can figure it out.

This last picture is the reason I haven't had a lot of time in my scraproom lately. My little grand-daughter Khloe gets all the attention she wants from me. Of course I can hardly wait until she's old enough to scrapbook with me. Can you see how messy my room is though? It's a never ending battle for me. I clean and then I mess it up again. I'm a very messy scrapper.

Well, that's it for now. I hope you all had a wonderful day. Cindy

Blog Award

2011-05-05T12:32:00.000-07:00

Oh my gosh, I checked my comments yesterday and found out I have gotten blog awards from 4 different people in the last few days. I have had allergies really bad the last few days so I haven't been crafting (and totally miss it) so I was so excited to see awards and a couple new followers. I promise when I'm able to breath a little easier and get some sleep I'll be back to posting some projects.
The first award I received was the Versatile Blogger Award. This was given to me by Brenda at happyscrapper64.blogspot.com, Maria at http://stampcutcreate.blogspot.com/ and Cassandra at Ctimz3.blogspot.com. I am so honored by this because these girls have fabulous blogs. I enjoy seeing their beautiful creations. Be sure to stop by and check them out.
In order to accept this award I need to list 8 things about myself and then pass the award to 15 other bloggers. Lets see if I can come up with 8 interesting facts about myself.....
1. I have been married for 23 years to my highschool sweetheart.
2. I have two sons (also 2 dogs, 2 cats and 2 corn snakes plus one extra because they had babies!)
3. I am the oldest of 4 girls.
4. I just became a grandmother 4 months ago to the cutest little girl ever.
5. I bought my first Cricut machine on a whim during a black friday sale at Michael's in 2007. Since then I have gotten a new machine each year. 2008 the Expression, 2009 the Gypsy, 2010 the Create and in 2011 I bought the Imagine.
6. I have a whole room for my scrapbook stuff and I still need more storage.
7. I do not like to cook.
8. I have lived in California my entire life.

And now on to the 15 blogs I would like to give this award to. Each of these blogs are ones that are on my daily list to check. They have really cute and creative projects posted and they have given me inspiration to try new things. Here they are:
1. iluvmybugs.blogspot.com
2. techniquesbytrish.blogspot.com
3. onceuponapaper.blogspot.com
4. mx5scrapper.blogspot.com
5. lanancyworkshop.blogspot.com
6. papercreationsbynilda.blogspot.com
7. cricutinspiration.blogspot.com
8. carley-institches.blogspot.com
9. motomomof2.blogspot.com
10. aruplife.blogspot.com
11. pinkpolkadotscrapper.blogspot.com
12. ruelysicreativecards.blogspot.com
13. scrap-n-dance.blogspot.com
14. scrapsticklepop.blogspot.com
15. designsbysharon.blogspot.com