I'm Still Here, I'm Just Not All There

I'm not saying I've lost my mind ;) just that I've been so busy I may have forgot where I placed it!
Me and my family just got back from another vacation at Disney World last week (and I can definitely say that is my most favorite place on Earth)  If you're a friend of mine on facebook you have already seen many of the pictures.
Here's a couple of my favorites:

 My Cheshire Cat ear hat!

Marlee just loves to pose for the camera!

 Relaxing at the pool

 The really awesome kiddie pool at our resort...really awesome in so many ways. The girls loved it, it had 2 fun water slides just right size for them. The water wasn't deep at all, only like 6" max so they could play all they wanted and mom and dad could play too or just sit back and watch  :)

 Kevin isn't crazy about having his picture taken (hence no smile) But as you can see, I don't care I'm taking his picture dang it!

 Amazing dessert from Tutto Italia in the Italy area of Epcot. I have mentioned that I love food before, right?

 Kevin and the girls right after riding Star Tours...twice (it's a really fun ride)

 Mickey ice cream bars...the perfect snack to cool off with.

We joined Mickey and Minnie for some Halloween fun at Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party, a special event held select nights in the Magic Kingdom. It was so much fun, I recommend if you get the chance to do it, GO! A really magical experience - but I think everything Disney is magical :)
I'm not going to make any promises - because I don't like to break a promise, but I'll try to be back soon with some crafty goodness to share or at the very least, some craft related news!

My Blessings

Whoa, here I am posting a project, I know it's been a while. I really have been making things the truth is I just hate uploading photos from my camera to my computer, then editing and then adding to the blog...
For this post I was able to cheat a little and use my webcam to take the pictures (of my project in progress) and they are automatically uploaded to my photo file so it's a lot less hassle. I know you're thinking "how lazy can she be?" I really am THAT lazy!
Now on to my layout...

(clicking on the photos will make them larger/easier to view)

I used Prima's August build-a-page sketch for my starting point (if you go check out the sketch on Prima's blog you'll see I didn't follow it very closely) The back ground paper is from the Prima Pastche collection and this sheet here is "heart strings". The other papers that my photo is placed upon are also Prima, from the 6x6 inch Backstage paper pad. I chose relatively plain/monochromatic pages from that pad so that I could stamp on them with a couple of my large background stamps (one is a script, the other is from Prima called Hexagon - but I call it chicken wire :) ) I used Saddle Brown Staz-on ink  so that I could use my glimmer mist and glimmer glams over top of the designs and they won't run or smear.

For my page title I used a Prima chipboard font and I painted the letters I needed with "Hayride" Glimmer Glam. I find it easier to paint them while still on the sheet - they stay put and I don't lose any letters before I get them stuck down (don't you hate it when you are trying  to position your letters and one comes up missing, usually one that you didn't have an extra one to begin with?)

So I placed my title on the page using Helmar 450 quick dry. Yes, those alphas are self adhesive, but I don't want them falling off later on down the road. With Helmar backing up the adhesion I know those suckers are there for good!

Next I added the bling. A dress form shape cut out of chipboard with the "body" of it covered in linen fabric that I colored using Santa Baby Glimmer Mist. I dressed it up with some Prima Pearls and Crystals swirls and a little piece of Prima lace trim that I colored with the Hayride Glam. I also glued all that down with the Helmar 450 quick dry - it really is the all-in-one glue. I also added a couple of Prima flowers to the bottom of my daughters' photo.

Lastly, I finished it up with a couple more Prima flowers, a beautiful Prima vine and a couple of Pastiche pebbles that I tucked in beside the flowers on the upper left corner of the photo. All adhered down with - you guessed it Helmar 450.
I also wanted to mention that all the crystal and pearl swirls on this layout came from one package, I just cut them apart to make them go a little further ;)
I get nearly all of my supplies at www.YourMemoriesHere.com because I really like the owner :)
I hope you'll take the time to count some of your blessings today.
HUGS,

Back from Vacation

Hey everyone, I'm back from my trip but still can't get into the swing of things. Is it possible to have jet lag if you've only flown from Florida to Ohio?
While at Disney World we went to Epcot, which was holding their annual Flower and Garden festival and WOW how beautiful it is. All the different plants, flowers and topiaries. It was a treat for the eyes and the nose :) It also gave lots of inspiration for some projects using Prima flowers. While the Epcot Flower and Garden festival will come to an end soon this month, the beauty of Prima's flowers will last forever (and you gotta love that!)
So I'm sharing with you some of my family's vacation pictures until I can get my butt in gear and make a project.

Ladybug Love

Hello and Happy Tuesday everyone! It's a soggy day here, perfect for staying in and working on something crafty.
Today I wanted to share with you a lamp shade that I made for my daughter's bed room. Do you remember Lilee's Ladybug room?
Well she needed a new lamp shade to match because her old one had farm animals on it :)
So I bought a plain white shade and dressed it up using red with black polka dot ribbon.

I glued the strips of the ribbon using Helmar 450 quick dry, covering the entire shade in ribbon.
Then I took a white Prima flower and sprayed it with Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Mist and glued it along with a Prima leaf to the lamp shade.
I finished it off with a yellow button center that I glammed up with some yellow Stickles and a cute ladybug button.

Lilee just loves it and that makes me happy! I love when I can make things for my kids and they appreciate it. I know someday they are going to prefer "store bought" like all their friends have, so I'll enjoy them wanting 'Mom to make it' for as long as I can :)

Custom T Shirts - You Can Do It!

Hey everyone! It's another quick, last minute Tuesday post for me. This project took only 10 minutes to complete - seriously!
I wanted to share with you a couple of T Shirts I made for my girls using my Cricut machine.

How do you use a Cricut to make T Shirts (I know you're thinking)? Well, I used one of the great images from the Wall Decor cartridge, the crown, and cut it out of a piece of freezer paper, yep that stuff you buy in the grocery store next to the aluminum foil and wax paper.
That becomes your stencil. Then you simply iron it onto your shirt - shiny side down and it adheres itself into place (but only temporarily) Using your favorite fabric paint or as I used fabric glue and glitter (Tulip Brand - made to be machine washed) apply it to your design. When you're done, just peel up the paper and voila! A custom T shirt.
Here are my lovely assistant's modeling their new fashions:

We still have some Cricut products left in stock at Your Memories Here, but they are clearance priced and once they are gone that's it!

Lilee's Birthday Button

It's been a crazy busy day here. Lilee started pre-school today and Marlee also goes every day so I get to drive to and from the school 4 times a day every Tuesday and Thursday. Yesterday was Lilee's 3rd birthday, so I made her a birthday button to wear to school too (remember Marlee's from last Tuesday?)

I used my Cricut to cut out the circle base for the button and the number 3. I sprayed the circle with some glimmer mist for extra shimmer then I hot glued some pieces of Pebbles ribbon to it. Next I added a large pink Prima flower from a mini can. I added pink rhinestones to the 3 and glued it on top of the flower.

Here's our little Lilee, ready for her first day of school.

And here she is not really ready for mom to leave her at school.
But don't worry, she was fine as soon as I was out of sight (or at least that's what her teacher told me) Gotta scrap the good and bad memories right?
Thanks for stopping in today.

Happy Birthday Lilee!

Hey everyone! Today is my little girl's 3rd birthday! I know you're probably thinking 'didn't she just write about her daughter's birthday last week?' and if you scrolled down to the last post you'd see you are correct. However I have 2 daughters and their birthdays are only 6 days apart (plus 2 years) So today Lilee is 3. We already had their birthday party (I combine the 2 parties and will continue to do so for as long as they'll let me LOL) this past weekend so today will be pretty much a normal day except we'll take her out for dinner tonight. Tomorrow is going to be her first day of pre-school and we'll have a little celebration with some treats and gift bags for her class mates. I'll be posting a crafty project for that tomorrow.

So here are some photos from the birthday party:


In case you had a few questions about these photos, Yes they both just had to get dresses up in "princess" dresses, the big hairy guy sneaking into the photos is our dog Foster, yes the 'Happy Birthday' banner in the first photo did fall down, the baby in the last photo is my niece :) Hope that covers it LOL.
I'll be back tomorrow with another post.

Lilee's Ladybug Bedroom

This week my little Lilee transitioned from her crib/daybed to a "big girl" bed. She wanted a ladybug room.
So we started with this quilt set as the theme and went from there.

Here is our cat Arney, demanding to be petted.

This wall has a mirror (obviously) with some flowers she picked out at Hobby Lobby and a couple of the vinyl ladybugs I made for her.

Here is her name cut out of vinyl and another ladybug I made her.



Here are her crazy beaded curtains, that also came from Hobby lobby. They were red so I said "why not?" and went with it.
Most of you may not know that her room was already painted blue like the sky with clouds and had a border of blue and yellow vinyl daisies around the bottom. It had been like that since Marlee was a baby and that was her room, but she moved on to another bedroom when I was pregnant and this became Lilee's room. I think the ladybugs worked out good with the "sky" walls.

Lilee's Hair Disaster

I'm sure a lot of you have children, they may be grown now or they might still be babies. Well then you are also aware of the things they can do to make you crazy. Today my nearly 5 year old Marleen, took it upon herself to give her little sister Lilee (almost 3 years old) a new hair style.
I thought the two of them were blissfully playing in Marlee room, making a huge mess like they almost always do when unsupervised and quiet. It wasn't until Marlee brought me a crafty "project" she had constructed out of my address labels that I realized they had gotten into our home office (where they know they are not allowed to go). So when I went to see what else she had gotten into, I found various locks of beautiful curly red on the hallway floor. All I could do was gasp when I spotted Lilee sitting on the floor completely missing her bangs! i asked her why she cut her hair (assuming she had done it to herself) and she replied "Marlee did it". I surveyed the damage and found there wasn't much I could do to make it better because I didn't want to cut anymore of her hair off.

Here she is completely bangs-less

and from the side it's almost a mullet.

There is a nice size chunk missing right at the back crown of her head, there's no hiding that Alfalfa spike.

This was the best solution I could come up with. Here's Lilee and her new hair style that she'll be wearing until it grows back in

Marlee is still sitting in the living room recliner being forced to watch the food network until punishment has been decided.