Simply Great!

Here's a very simple Thank You card and the great part comes from the "nesties" like shapes used on it. A very talented Ink Scape/SVG artist designed this font that looks like various Nestabilies shapes that you can cut on your Cricut with SCAL or other software that cuts true type fonts. If you have SCAL or other similar software I recommend you visit Lesleyanne's blog LA's Cricut and SVG Creations. She's super talented, gives excellent tutorials and offers it all for free! I don't own any of the original Nestabilities because I don't have one of those gizmo machines that cut them so this is a great way for me to try out the shapes and decide if it's worth it to purchase said gizmo for all the benefits that the original Nestabilities offer.

The paper is Chatterbox white poppies (it's double sided and I used both sides) the ribbon is cloud nine, the stamp is from TAC and I used studio g ink.

Who Loves Prima?

Well, Prima has something really big coming your way but we can’t reveal it just yet! We know you’re going to love it! And don’t worry-we promise to share the big news with you soon. It’s really hard not to spill the beans, but we are sworn to secrecy. So, in the meantime, we have an exciting opportunity for you to win BIG and it’s open to everyone! There are two fabulous prize baskets worth $100 up for grabs. Prima will choose one winner from the US and one International winner.

Visit the Prima blog for all the details on how you can win. There is also a link in my right side bar :)

Multi-Crafting

Like so many of you I am a multi-crafter. What I mean is paper crafting isn't my only hobby. I've been busy (O.K. not really busy it took me a couple of hours) sewing a couple of tiny little aprons for my daughters (4 and 2 years old). What happened was I got a great deal (I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about) on a pair of "flirty" aprons and my little girls just loved them. However, these were made to fit women of all sizes but definitely not little girls who still wear toddler sizes! So off to Hobby Lobby for some fabric. I let them each pick the pattern for their apron. Marlee chose the Princesses and Lilee picked Strawberry Shortcake (or as she likes to say "Stawberry Cupcake").
Now on to the multi-craft part. I had to scrap a page of them wearing their new aprons.

I used this week's Sketchy Thursdays sketch because it's a great sketch and Your Memories Here is this week's sponsor! I rotated the sketch but kept the proportions pretty much the same. The background paper is DCWV Nana's Kitchen (appropriate for an apron layout?) I cut out the apron on my Cricut using the From My Kitchen cartridge. The purple card stock and the apron are both embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder (though it's hard to see that detail in the photo). Thanks for stopping by to take a look today. I hope you'll head over to Sketchy Thursdays to play along and share your own take on this sketch.

I've Been Given an Award

I was given the Sunshine Blog Award from Melissa at Playing With Paper

I am honored that of all her followers she included me as one of the 6 she passed this along to!

The rules of the award are:

1. You must pass this award on to six (6) other bloggers/followers

2. Link your nominees within your post

3. Let your bloggers/followers know you are passing this award to them by leaving a comment on their blog

4. Add a link to the blog of the person from whom you received this award

I'd like to pass this award onto:

Brenda at Brenda's Joy - even if you can no longer be on my DT you will always be a friend.

Leah at Paper Blossoms - It has been a real blessing to have you as a friend.

Karli at Crafting with Class - I love your humor and your projects always inspire me.

Stephanie at All 4 Sydney - My fabulous blogging friend, your friendship is a blessing.

Eileen at Dropped Stitches - Your comments always brighten my day.

Lesleyanne at LA's Cricut and SCAL Creations - You have a fabulous blog and have taught me so much.

There are so many other wonderful bloggers out there that I wish I could share this with, but I have been limited to only 6.

Got Dirt?

Here'a another look into my hillbilly life style ;)

This layout has been in my "to do" pile for a while now.

In the summer we like to spend out weekends in the woods on our ATVs when we can. I got brave one trip and took my camera along.
I made the cuts on my Cricut using Plantin for the title font and Camp Out solutions for the 4 wheeler. I tried to give the 4 wheeler cut some interest by adding Stickles but I'm not loving it now :( I wrote my journaling on a Chatterbox wood tag and attached it with some glue dots. I felt with all the mud that the page was a little blah, so to give it some "bling" without being "girly" I added 3 sets of Dew Drops by each photo all from the Sunflower mix.

I embossed the title with my Cuttlebug Diamond Plate embossing folder though it's a little hard to see in the photo. There is a second page to this layout but it's going to have to wait for another day to get finished.

Happy Birthday Kevin

Here is the birthday card I made for my hubby (Friday was his 34th birthday).

He's a no frills kind of guy so I kept it clean and simple (but oh how I wanted to add Stickles and flowers) This is a 6"x6" card and the little rounded squares are 1- 3/4" cut on my Cricut with George and basic shapes. I stamped each square with the Imaginisce "Piece of Cake" stamps (there are 3 designs in this set. The middle square is from another set that I threw in to change it up a bit. I inked all the edges with the same color as what I had stamped to help them "pop" of the background. I "borrowed" Karli's idea and added a button to the center of each circular "happy birthday" stamp. I lucked out and just happened to have buttons to match each color , cuz the buttons were an after thought ;)

We're celebrating his birthday today with his family because we spent Friday (his actual birthday) driving to Pittsburgh (where my family is) so we could go to the Monster Truck rally at Mellon Arena *Oh yeah, there's a little hillbilly in me, if it's got 4 wheels and dirt, I'm all about it :)*

Purse Cut

I made this cut for a MB member and thought I'd post it on my blog in case anyone else would like to have it as well.

It is made in DS and only requires the George and Basic shapes cartridge.

Click HERE to down load the .cut file

Sweet Valentine

Here's a Valentine's Day card I made for my niece (it's her first Valentine's Day)

For the card base I used card stock from the Imaginisce Build-a-card Kit. The oval label thingy is chipboard that I painted pink and then stamped the sentiment with a Studio G stamp and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder (though you can't tell in the photo, it is raised and shiny in person) I attached two pink brads and embellished with Prima Sweet and Sassy flowers. I added tiny pink rhinestones to finish it off. The cup cake was cut on my Cricut using the Doodlecharms cartridge. I embossed the icing part of the cupcake with my Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls folder and ran the base through my paper crimper to give it a "cupcake wrapper" look. I added a bit of frosted lace Stickles to the swirls of the embossing.

Poor Arney

I just had to share this:

This is our cat, Arney. Yes, he is a boy. Our girls got some Build-a-Bear critters for Valentine's day from their Aunt Di and they came dressed in cute little Valentine's outfits. Marlee likes to undress all her toys so this one was laying on the floor and I thought *hmm, wonder if it will fit the cat?* He was not at all happy and I quickly removed it, but not before I snapped a couple of pictures :)

On to my real post for today...

I made this page for this week's Sketchy Thursday's sketch and for the YHM Share Your Memories February theme "catch up". Because this is from our vacation to Tennessee last June (yeah, I'm still working on those pages). The story behind this page is while we were on vacation Lilee didn't want to eat anything. We'd order her meal, she'd take a bite or two and then she'd say "I'm done". So by the second or third day, I started taking pictures of the foods Lilee wouldn't eat (what can I say, I'm always planning my scrapbook pages). Sorry the picture quality is poor, I'm fighting my fluorescent lights in my new scrap space. They are great for lighting to work by, but not for taking pictures.

How to Make Handmade Paper Video

I've got another video for you today (my flip finally cooperated with me). This is a tutorial on how to make your own hand made paper and embed wild flower seeds into it so you can plant it! I know, it's so eco-chic and a great project to do with your kids :) We turned our paper into valentines for my daughter's pre-school class. Why don't you have a look-see?

Oh! by the way, I've got another Cricut offer that is going to knock your socks off. You can order the Gypsy from me for only.........$199 and that INCLUDES shipping! This offer is good for the entire month of February so go tell your sweetheart that you want a Gypsy for Valentine's day.

Stickles Holder

Here's the "how to make a my Stickles holder" I promised you.

What you'll need:

• a length of 3/4" plastic electrical conduit (length depends on how many bottles you have)you can find it at any hardware/home improvement store in the electrical isle. *we just happened to have some left over from installing outlets. It's less than a $1 for a 10' piece.
• a 1"x3"x??feet of board or furring strip(furring strips are much cheaper than boards because they aren't pretty) The length depends again on how many bottles you have *again we had left overs, this time from my pegboard frame. Also available at home improvement store for about $1 for an 8' board.
• PVC pipe glue (found in the plumbing department of home improvement stores) I have no idea what this costs, my hubby just always has some around (he's very handy:))
• A few screws at least 2" long (I used 4 leftover drywall screws)

First cut your conduit into 1 1/2" pieces (how many depends on your number of bottles)

Then arrange them like this:

making it as long as you need. Then apply the glue where they touch and re-align them in that same pattern as above. Let it set for a few minutes for the glue to dry.

While you are waiting, cut your length of board slightly longer than your pipe assembly.

Once the glue is dry, place the pipe assembly on top of your cut piece of wood and attach with a few screws (in the triangular shaped middles of where your pipes have connected, not inside the pipes them selves)



Does this make sense?
Just add your Stickles and Tah-Dah!

I made mine with a few extra spots for when I buy more Stickles, because you can never have enough ;)
It was really quick and easy to make, the part that took the longest was waiting on hubby to cut the conduit for me :) (which he used his power miter saw and took no time at all) It actually cost me nothing at all to make because we already had all the stuff just left over from other projects.

Ouch!

Over the weekend my brother-in-law attempted to snowboard and ended up tearing some ligaments in his wrist :( being the thoughtful sister-in-law that I am ;) I couldn't resist making him a get well card.

I used my Cricut and the Wild Card cartridge "band-aid" cut for the card and then made a little snowboarder with my Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge.

You have to understand that my BIL always jokes that I can make a card for any occasion- yep he's right :)!