Watermelon!

I confess. I don't like watermelon. I want to. I really, really do. It just looks so refreshing. But I just don't like the taste. Ah well. I can't eat it, but I can make cute cards with it!

This one is for the Cooking With Cricut & Bitten by The Bug watermelon challenges. I used the PKS Sketch for this week as my base and went from there. I have been dying to use this fruity paper from Me & My Big Ideas, and I finally got to! The yellow swirly paper is from this PP as well. The watermelon is cut from Simply Charmed and I used my PK stamps to give her a cute face. The sentiment is MPS Fruit & Veggie Puns. You're probably all wondering if I have every MPS set out there. I don't, but I'm working on it. ;)

Have a great night! :)

Birthday Card for Grandma

Well, house hunting has been slow-going. It's amazing to me how many people don't clean their houses before they show them. I'm a bit of a neat-nut myself, so when I view a home that is so dirty it SMELLS, it makes it super hard to see the home's potential. *sigh* We still have a few weeks left, so hopefully we'll find something soon.

Anyway, in between house hunting and packing, I've been working on Birthday stuff for my Mom. Her Birthday is still a couple of weeks away, but my Cricut & craft stuff will soon be packed, so I wanted to get everything finished early.

So, here's her card. It may seem a little strange, but I'll explain everything.

One of the things I love about card-making is that you can personalize everything. I made this especially for my Mom, and everything on it will mean something special to her.

If you've been following me for a while, you'll know that my sister and I (and our families) took my Mom to Maui for Christmas. My Mom LOVED it - she's already started asking when we're going back! :) She had never really been on this kind of vacation before, so it was super special for her.

For her Birthday, I wanted to make a card that celebrated everything she loved about Hawaii. The beach (of course) was her favorite place to be. She loved the sun and the sound of the water. We saw whales from the shore on a couple of occasions, which was super-cool. My Mom also loved the greenery in Maui, as well as the ICE CREAM! She collected sea-shells with the grandkids on a number of occasions. Now, the snowman. I know you're all wondering. lol!  One day at the beach we came across a "snowman" made out of sand. Being from Canada, where snow is plentiful, and snowmen are made of, well, SNOW, we thought it was hilarious. My Mom liked it so much she actually made me take a picture of it!

So there it is, memories of Hawaii in a Birthday card. The only things missing are the grandkids! And I just couldn't fit 6 of them on the card! :) The sentiment on the front is actually "Happy Birthday" in Hawaiian.

I'm entering this card in 4 challenges: Die Cuttin' Divas (use a Christmas cut for a non-Christmas card), The Paper Variety (use a summer theme), Celebrate the Occasion (summer theme, use a sun), and GAB (use tearing).

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful day! :)

News and a Birthday Sundaes Card

Whew! Lots going on around my house lately. First of all, we sold our house! Hooray! And with only 10 days on the market! So now we are on the hunt for a new place to live. I know, I know, normal people have the new house picked out BEFORE they sell the old one. But the situation we're in is not a normal one, and we ended up doing things a little bit backwards.The house hunt begins tonight - wish us luck!

When the house sold and we no longer had to clean and disappear for showings, I (of course) sat down to make a quick card. :)  The Birthday Sundaes Challenge for this week is to make a shaped card. Since I STILL don't have my Gypsy (long story that is. I have been assured that it HAS been shipped, but now Canada Post is on strike, so who knows when or even IF it'll arrive), I turned to the card feature button on my carts.

I love the Mini Monster cartridge. It is so cute and so much fun to play with. I am particularly partial to this slimy guy. He just makes me giggle for some reason.

Here's the recipe:
-Card cut at 6 1/4" (fit to page on 8 1/2 x 11 paper),
-Face stamped with my Peachy Keen monster face stamps (some masking here).
-Sentiment is from MPS Boy Crazy and Spooky Puns (some masking here too).
-Spider (1 1/2") is from Paper Doll Dress-Up
-Party hats (1 1/4") and present (1 3/4") are from Doodlecharms.
I also used my Martha Steward Drippy Goo punch on the sign. I love that punch. Just the name of it makes me smile. :)

Thanks so much for checking out my Blog. Have a wonderful day. :)

Creative Sisters Guest Designer

The coolest thing happened to me last week! A while back, Linda, from Lindascreativity asked her followers to suggest a challenge. If she selected your idea, you would get to be a Guest Designer for the week of that challenge. And guess what? She picked my idea!! Woo hoo! And it gets better. The challenge I suggested, and the one Linda chose for this week, is CHRISTMAS!!! YES!!!! Who doesn't love Christmas, right?

I suggested this theme because I am a Christmas NUT. I LOVE Christmas. It is my most favorite time of the year (and I have passed this love on to my children), and I tend to get a little over-excited when I get to break out the Christmas stuff.  My Christmas Cricut cartridges were no exception. :)

I was supposed to make ONE card to show you all, but I got carried away and made two. And then I couldn't choose which one I liked best. So I'm sharing BOTH with you today.

The first is an easel card. I've always wanted to try one of these - I just think they're so pretty.

-Card base is a 4 1/4" square on Kraft paper.
-Mouse: Winter Frolic, cut at 2 1/2"
-Gift: Imaginisce Enchanted paper pad
-Polka dot paper: K&Company Sweet Nectar
-Blue paper (embossed with Cuttlebug Snowflakes) DCWV Shimmer Stack
-Tag (3 layers): Winter Frolic, cut at 1 1/2", 1 3/4", 2"
-Sentiment: My Pink Stamper Christmas Wishes
-Twine: Sew Easy Lollipop

-5" square card on kraft paper
-Green striped paper: DCWV Baby Girl Stack
-Candy canes: Simply Charmed, cut at 2 1/2", DCWV Baby Girl Stack
-Tag: Winter Frolic 1 3/4"
-Ornament hooks: Winter Frolic
-Sentiment: My Pink Stamper Christmas Wishes
-Ribbon: discount Michaels ribbon

Now, hop on over to Linda's site and enter the challenge yourself! You'll get a super head start on Christmas! :)

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful day! :)

Happy Father's Day!

I just wanted to write a quick post today and thank all of you for your sweet comments on my Father's Day projects. My mini "5 Things I Love About You" books were a HUGE hit. Abi and Luke were so proud to present their dad with something they put so much heart into. And the best part? They brought my husband to tears. :)

Father's Day is bittersweet for me. On the one hand I have the most amazing husband who is a incredible father. He is so hands on, and genuinely enjoys everything about being a dad. He never had a problem with diaper changes or baby puke. He's happy to take a day off work to attend recitals or to just have a "fun day". What a wonderful father my children have been blessed with!

On the other hand, the man I call Dad lost his battle with cancer in January, 2010. This is my second Father's Day without him, so it's a sad day for me too. This man was a father by choice, which makes him even more special. He is not my biological father, but he was my Dad in every other sense. I remember and honour him today as well.

I hope you all enjoy your day with the special men in your life. We're crossing our fingers the weather will hold and we can use the grill for some Father's Day BBQ. :)

A Blog Award!!

Just a quick post today. Madison over at Funky Cards gave me this Blog Award! Madison is one of the most talented young ladies I have ever come across. If you haven't visited her Blog, you REALLY need to get over there!

The rules for the award are the following:
1) Send a thank you to the person who nominated you and include their link.
2) To accept this award, tell 7 random facts about yourself.
3) Pass the award on to at least 8 other awesome blog buddies.

7 Things About Me:
1). I love The Muppets.
2). I took my first trip to DisneyWorld when I was a 32-year-old Mom, and my first look at Cinderella's Castle made me cry.
3). I have a female Bichon ShihTzu named Perri, named by my children after Perry the Platypus.
4). My favorite movie is The Princess Bride.
5). I love Jane Austen novels. I read them over and over and over again.
6). I know all the words to the Rubber Ducky song.
7). I am super clumsy. I trip over imaginary objects on a regular basis. I like to tell people it's a genetic trait. :)

I am passing this award on to the following Blogs (in no particular order):
1). Sherry - http://upordowntheyrebeautiful.blogspot.com/
2). Jessica - http://cricutafterdark.blogspot.com/
3). Karen - http://kaleidoscopicsparkles.blogspot.com/
4). Lee Anne - http://motherofonewifeofone.blogspot.com/
5). Amy - http://redheadedcrafter.blogspot.com/
6). Kaitlin - http://cupcakesandcards.blogspot.com/
7). Shelly - http://mypaperlove.blogspot.com/
8). Debbie - http://debbiesdashofthisandthat.blogspot.com/

These ladies are so super creative. You really need to check them out. I'm sure they'll inspire you as much as they inspire me. :)

Thanks so much Madison!

Father's Day Projects!

Whew! Cutting it close with these ones! I wanted to do something special for Father's Day with my kids, and quite awhile back I watched a tutorial (I don't remember where or who or anything - sorry!) on making a toilet paper tube book. I thought it was such a cute idea, and I KNEW I would be making one for my husband for Father's Day.

When I presented the idea to my children, they insisted that they EACH had to make one, so double the work. But also double the pleasure for Dad, because I KNOW he is going to LOVE these!

They are really hard to show in pictures (unless I post a couple dozen photos!), but I've tried my best.

First up is a sample of Abigail's book:

Then Luke's:

So, LOADS to say about these! I saved 10 empty toilet paper tubes (making sure they were all the same size), 5 for each book, and flattened them in my Cuttlebug. My daughter loved doing this - I have no idea why. :) Abi and Luke then selected their paper and we covered each tube, leaving the ends open.

I then asked the kids to each think up 5 reasons (1 reason per tube) they love their Dad. I give them full credit - they really thought about this and came up with the sweetest stuff. My son (he's 5) came up with more than 5 reasons and was nearly in tears because he couldn't choose between them (we ended up combining a couple). How sweet is that?

I took those "5 reasons" from each child, typed them into my computer, and printed them out on white cardstock. I then glued them onto tags that fit inside the covered toilet paper tubes. The ribbon on the end gives them a "handle" to pull the tags out. The tags were cut from the Sweet Treats cartridge; I did have to play a little to find the right size/style so that it fit snugly, but not too snugly, into the tube.

I then found some of my favorite pictures of the kids and added those, with as few embellishments as possible. Doesn't make sense, right? I'll explain. This is for a man who likes things clean and simple. The less "fluff" the better in his opinion. So we went with it.

However, I also wanted something a little extra special for the pages of the books. So I cut white paper to fit the size of the pages, and had Abi and Luke draw pictures for Dad. I think this is my favorite part, honestly. It just captures "them" right at this moment in time

The title was done on my computer, as was the label on the back page (not pictured) that reads "Made by _____. Father's Day 2011". I then put the whole things together and bound them with my Bind It All. Taa daa! :)

My husband has PROMISED me he'll stay away from my Blog until Sunday, so I'm able to share these with you in advance. I'm also entering them into a few Father's Day challenges: My Craft Spot, Cooking With Cricut, Whimsical Wednesday, Sisterhood of Crafters, Crazy About Cricut, and the Scrappin With Cricut No Cards No Layouts Challenge (thanks to Deanne for suggesting this one!).

I just previewed this and it is loooong. Sorry about that. Probably it would have been better in a video. But since I haven't graduated to videos yet, this will have to do. :)

Thanks for looking!

Hoppy Birthday

Well, our house hasn't sold yet, but we had a lull in showings yesterday, so I took the opportunity to make a quick card just for fun.

The Cooking With Cricut challenge this week is to use your favorite cartridge and your favorite colour. My favorite colour is easy - blue. The tricky part was picking my favorite cartridge. It sort of changes on a daily basis. :) It was a tough choice between Sweet Treats and Create a Critter, but in the end, CAC won out.

I used the Sketch from the Die Cuttin' Divas challenge 18, and I took a cue from the Birthday Sundaes embossing challenge and used my Seeing Spots Cuttlebug folder on the dark blue strip. The sentiment is from MPS.

You can never have too many Birthday Cards on hand, right? You just never know when you might need one in a pinch.

Thanks so much for looking and have a wonderful day! :)

Funny Conversations With My Children: Episode 4

Abigail (my 8-year-old) is getting a little over-excited about something.

Dad: Abigail, relax.
Abigail: No, dad. You have to say "chill-ax".
Dad: Okay then. Abigail, chill-ax.
Abigail: I can't. That's not even a word.

:)

My Crazy Life (at the moment)

Our house is now "officially" on the market. We actually had a couple view it a couple of days ago (before it was even listed) and they loved it. So maybe they'll be happy with the asking price, buy it, and I won't have to go through the hassel of keeping it SPOTLESS for days and days and days. A girl can dream, right?

So, I don't have anything new to show you today, but I have been working on some pretty special Father's Day projects with my kids, and I hope to have those posted soon. I still have some work to do on them, and my craft space is a corner in the basement that needs to be kept TIDY, so my craft time is sporadic at best.

Some good news this morning. My Super Birthday Card was featured on Birthday Sundaes!! Hooray! You can see my entry here. I shipped that card, along with some fabulous presents, off to my nephew Logan yesterday. :)

My Followers are missing (again!). And I can't see anyone else's Followers (again!). And I can't follow anyone because I can't see the little "follow" button (again!). Has anyone esle had this problem? It's been on and off for me over the past few weeks.

Ah well. We're off to take the kids to see Kung Fu Panda 2 this afteroon. They are super excited - my daughter has been asking if it's time to go since 8 this morning!

I hope you all have a wonderful day! :)

A "Super" Birthday

My nephew Logan turns 4 next week (I can't believe it. Wasn't he just an infant last month?).  Now, Logan is something special. For one thing, he is SUPER smart. He can out-debate any adult he encounters (which often results in him getting his way. I mean, if you win your case, you win your case, right?). He also has a SUPER sense of humor. Honestly, you get him and my Luke together and it is side-splitting comedy. Logan also has a SUPER imagination. He is always a super-hero. Sometimes he's Spiderman; sometimes he's Batman; sometimes he's Buzz Lightyear; sometimes he's all three at once. But most of all, Logan is SUPER sweet. He really is. Maybe I'm a little biased, but...nah. I'm not. ;)

So, for Logan's Birthday I wanted to make him a SUPER card. I love the designs Kim over at Paper Punch Addiction comes up with, and from the minute I saw this one, I KNEW I had to try it. It's a stage pop-up card, and you can find the tutorial over at Kim's site. It's my very first try at one of these babies, and you can see where improvements can be made. But I think Logan is going to FLIP over it!

It starts out like this. Then you slide the sleeve off and...

It opens up to reveal this!

I knew I wanted Logan to be transformed into Super Logan for this card, so I did that using Paper Doll Dress-Up (I also cut the cityline with this cartridge). And I have these Peachy Keen monster face stamps that I have been DYING to use, so I pulled out my Mini-Monsters cartridge to create the villians. I do not have my Gypsy yet (when will it get here??? Arrrrgh!), so I had to be a little creative to get the monsters to cut without faces. The sentiments on the front are MPS Spooky Puns (the "Zap" is from something else - I can't remember what), and the one inside is MPS Boy Crazy.

The hardest part was getting the sizing right for the stand-up figures. If they're too long they peek out the front when the card is closed. Plus I don't have ScorTape, so I was fighting with Mono-Adhesive and my ATG gun, neither of which is ideal for this card.

All in all, though, I'm really pleased with how this one came out. I have LOADS of ideas for different scenes I can do.

Along with shipping it off to my sweet nephew, I'm also entering this card in 4 challenges: the PKS Let's Face it Friday challenge (Designer's choice), the Birthday Sundaes Anything Goes challenge, the Cricut Cartridge Chaos Challenge (use Paper Doll Dress-Up), and the Crazy About Cricut Thankful Thursday challenge (man/boy theme).

Thanks for looking! Have a great day!

Caught a Bug?

What a gorgeous Sunday we had here in Calgary! They tell us we're in for more rain for the rest of the week, so I'm so glad we enjoyed the outdoors today.

While the kids were winding down, I had a chance to put together a quick get well card. I used Sassy L'il Card Sketches May 28 sketch as my starting point and combined it with the Die Cuttin' Divas Creepy Crawly challenge, and my brand new My Pink Stamper Buggy Punnies stamps (woot! woot!). Cooking with Cricut's challenge this week is a colour challenge (use at least 2 of orange, yellow, cream, brown, or green). Mix them all together and you get this:

Jar & Bug: Doodlecharms

Sentiment: MPS Buggy Punnies

Green paper: Echo Park - Summer Days

Plaid paper: Making Memories - Just Chillin'

The inside just says "Get Well Soon". I didn't get a picture of that - sorry.

So here's something cool I learned from Mary over at Cardz TV. You know that clear film that covers your brand new Cricut mat? You can CUT that with your Circut! It's hard to see in the picture, but there is a clear layer over the jar. It looks totally cool in real life - you'll just have to trust me on that. ;)

If you check out my last post, you'll see my first try at sponging. I liked it so much, I've done it all over this card too. I was like a sponging maniac. I just love the look of it - makes everything just "pop".

The brand new thing I did with this card is I used twine instead of ribbon. Every time I tried twine before, I thought it looked so cheesy. But on this card, I kinda like it. 

So, our house goes on the market on Thursday (AAACK!), so I may be MIA for a few days. Hopefully it sells quickly, and I'll be back at crafting in no time.

Thanks so much for looking and have a fabulous day! :)

Father's Day Card

Still no Gypsy. I've been waiting two whole weeks, and it's still not here. And now Canada Post is on strike so who knows when it will arrive. *sigh* Funny how God uses stuff like this to teach us things like patience, right? ;)

One more thing to cross off my to-do list - my Father's Day card for my husband. He doesn't like a lot of mushy gushy stuff, so I kept it super simple. I used the Peachy Keen Tuesday Sketch as a starting point and went from there. I did leave the swirlies out - just to preserve the masculine integrity of the card. :)

Seahorses: Create a Critter

Sentiment (inside & out): MPS (did a little masking for the inside)

Paper: Just plan old Michaels cardstock and Kraft paper

The challenge at PKS this week was not only to use the sketch, but also to use a sponging technique. I'll be honest, I almost skipped this challenge - I am not a stamper or an inker or a sponger. But I figured, what the heck? I'll try it and if it doesn't work, I'll call it a do-over ("Mulligan!" is what my kids yell in that situation. They're so funny.). And it WORKED. And I LIKE it! It's hard to see in the picture, but I found I could give the Kraft paper a sandy look, so I have texture without patterned paper or embossing. Neato! So glad I gave it a try - I can see myself doing it more often on my cards.

I'm entering this card in 3 challenges: the PKS Tuesday Sketch Challenge #53, the Paper Cutz Challenge (use a beach theme), and the Frosted Designs Friendship challenge.

Thanks so much for looking and have a wonderful day! :)

New Babies!

Whew! What a week! We are getting our house ready to sell (and for those of you with children, you KNOW how hard this is!), so I have been super busy with that. I also have some "projects with a purpose" I've been working on, and there's a time limit on those, so they've been my focus over the past week. I am super excited to share some of them with you as I complete them.

We have some new babies arriving in our family over the next few weeks! :) Oh, how I love new babies! I always imagined I would have at least four children running around my house, but after two difficult pregnancies and two scary deliveries, we decided that I would to live my dream vicariously through other people. I know, I know, there is adoption, and in fact, we have been waiting on a China adoption for the past 3 years (and we've been told it could be at LEAST 2 more), so you never know. My dream may come true after all. :)

But I digress. Today I have a new baby card to share with you. My husband's cousin is expecting her second baby soon (it's a boy!), and this card was made specifically for her.

The sentiment on the front is one of my favorite quotes. It was my motto when I taught Preschoolers in Sunday School and our church's F.R.O.G. Squad program. It really helped me deal with the occasional "difficult" child. :)

The card itself was based on the Mojo Monday Sketch #193. This is such a cool sketch; I stepped out of my usual style with this one! The baby carriage is from Simply Charmed, and I stamped the face with PKS. And since this card is remembering a special occasion (a baby is ALWAYS a special occasion in my book!), I'm entering it into the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Me Monday "Remember This" Challenge.

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful day! :)