Swing Card

This is so my favorite.. My daughter who is 4 was completely the inspiration for this. She loves to swing outside.

Time for an update

So, I have struggled with why it looked like two backgrounds overlapping my blog. Guess what... That was the problem. So I have not ever had a lot of time to really learn how to set up a great blog site. Shame on me. My backgroung of having my degree in graphic design. But I have to blame it on the fact that web site building was not a course for my class now did blogs exist then. Amazing where technology has taken us. Anyway. I will have some new cards up soon. I finished up a few last week. Also found some amazing deals on brand new carts. They are solutions but it was a deal that I could not pass up. I am hoping to make a few halloween cards and a welcome back to the states card for my parents. They just returned from a month long vacation in Italy, Spain, Turkey, Greece just to name a few. Would have loved to gone with them!!! Anyway, along with the halloween cards, I have already started my Christmas cards from my family. A total first for me. So Watch what is to come! Keep Crafting!

Have you seen these new punches

EK Success launched new punches this summer. I finally purchased one even though I have flowers I can make on my cricut. I wanted to see how easy this way might be.

After many tries, I found it hard to make the petals align without over lapping petals as I was wrapping. Yet it can be done especially with practice. But if you don't have a cricut then this is the next best thing to get the look of paper flowers hand made. I think this may be the only one I will be purchasing though. But that's my personal opinion and since I don't have a need for them then the room in my craft storage might be available for other tools. But I do love tools.

I am trying to get back in the grove, it seems hard with the kids back at school, mainly since summer hasn't decided to leave Texas yet. We so badly need so much rain here. And for the last three weeks my allergies have just exploded due to all the dried grasses and no rain. Everytime the wind stirs up, I start sneezing. I was out the other night with my kids getting the bikes aired up and the ride had to be postponed. I just could not be outside without sneezing. Miserable. I take daily claritin, but it may be time to switch it up since I have been taking that for a few years now. Maybe its lost its effectiveness.

Okay on to other things. I know I have more pictures to post of all the lastest and greatest items that I am now seeing at my local Joanns, Michael's and Hobby Lobby. Sadly our best scrapbook store that has been here for over 13 years is going out of business. Sad to see that happen. So I guess I am going to be giving more of my purchases to the online retailers to find that perfect items.

Head on over to www.aboverubiesstudio.com if you have not yet. Megan has come out with more dvds and her own line of paper for the cricut. Her dvds are what I used to finally understand the in's and out's of my cricut...

Have a great week and keep crafting!

Add a bounce to someone's mood!

I had someone special to me going thru a rough time and so I decided to send her a pick me up card. And even timed it so that the chances it would arrive on that no so happy date for her. She loved it and it was exactly what she needed. You know there are many friends we don't seem to pay attention to and see when something as a little card might be the perfect thing they need to get that mood lift. So look closer and find that friend. Keep some cards around just for that occasion. Keep Crafting!

Happy Birthday card, with flavors

Found this card and its layout information in the Cricut Cards Magazine by Northridge. I was looking to make a birthday card and needed a little help with inspiration. These magazines are perfect for a inspiration boost or even to follow exactly, and they have all the details listed in them. I made several to keep in my box for when I need them. Keep Crafting..

Another Humorous Card

I direct an adult Handbell choir along with a highschool. But my adults are mainly ladies, yet we have three men as members. It never seems that my ladies can behave themselves. But that is what makes our fellowship. I look forward to being with them. I like and try to have birthday cards for my ringers and always on thee on the look out for funny ideas.

I trimmed with an xacto knife along with using my copics to color in. This was pretty detailed but well worth the time. Now I just need to make a few more to put in my card box.

Hope you enjoyed a little laugh. Happy Crafting!

Graduation Card for my niece

Now here is yet a card style I have been wanting to make and try out. Had to find it on youtube. But that was the easy part.
This is for my niece, who was Valvictorian of her class. I absolutely had to be there for her. And thanks to my hubby, we made it happen!

I made the back part a pocket to put a check in for her dorm fund.

Okay so I am a proud aunt. This is the Valvictorian in the family.
I think I am getting caught up here. I had all these cards and hadn't gotten them up until now. I know these are all cards. I will be getting back to some scrapbook page layout soon. I am working on a layout that I purchased from Monique Griffith. And all I have to say is WOW. So much detail that I spent a long time a my groups crop working on it, but still haven't finished it. Mainly I think due to using the new Expression 2. I think I will finish it out on my my old expression. I still have to really figure out this new machine.

Anyway, hope to get a few more posts up.

Happy Crafting!

This was one of the Father's Day Cards for my hubby!

We made several Dad's Day Cards. My boys selected the monster truck off the Father's Day Cartridge, since he took them to their first monster truck ralley this year.

Now my hubby is a Captain at the City's Police Department, so I felt this was my choice. With the concept of a badge.

Happy Crafting!

Here we go! A humorous card

I was at the Great American Scrapbooking Convention last June in Arlington, Texas. There I found a great selection of humorous stamps to use for some great cards for lady friends. This one was one I sent my mother-in-law for her birthday. Yes she has a great sense of humor!

If your interested in the stamp company, just let me know and I will post it. I am sure you can purchase them online. Happy Crafting!

Update

Here is the scoop, remember me posting about the E2s that showed up at my door with no explanation. I never opened the packages to look inside for a letter. But still no one could tell me why they had been sent at customer services.

So ready for this? July 8th, I am panning thru photos on Jinger Adams Facebook. She had posted a photo with Megan Gravner, Teresa Collins and herself with some other ladies. I started flipping thru the photos and found myself looking at one of my layouts.

This was the photo she had posted from HSN again, which I was watching.

This was the layout. And below it, it read that I had been one of 5 more selected to win the anniversary E2. Boy did my husband roll his eyes at me. We were laughing about the whole situation. So after I emailed my story to the email address contact listed. Feeling like a goof! But hey, I didn't know. So I got the word on the situation yesterday. They looked into it and are sending the machine that was won back again.

Anyway, hope your having fun crafting. I have been working on a project which is now finished and will have to photograph. Chore cards with the Chore cartridge. Goal, to keep up with required chores for my older two children and allow them extra to do for a little extra to go with their allowance. And I have a few humorous cards that I did that will be posted soon. Time to get caught up!

Keep Crafting!

New addition to our family!

So my family began after my husband proposed. I moved into my own apartment with no roommates after we got engaged and realized that living alone was not going to be easy. So while he had asked about getting a dog it wasn't until he went out of town that I went looking. We got a minature schnauzer, named her Georgia since Bush was running for president at the time. Anyway, she was born with a hole in her heart and three years ago she just couldn't live a full life anymore. Luckily about a year or more before her time, we had added a second schnauzer. Jasper is his name, he came into my heart at a time that I did not know if I would ever heal from a miscarriage, even though we just barely expecting again. Jasper was the fury love that helped me heal. Georgia trained him and some how passed on her great attributes to him. And yet he has a unique soul and he loves to talk to us. So we have been talking about adding another dog for Jasper to have someone to play with. However since my other minature schnauzers never stayed true and averaged a weight of 27 lbs. I wanted something smaller and more of a lap dog. Hubby didn't like what I was wanting. But Saturday, the right information found me and I went to check it out. Then got the family to go with me and take a look at two litters of true akc minature schnauzers. I was happy to get another salt and pepper, but my husband wanted to do something a little more unique. So we came home with the runt of the champagne schnauzer's litter. So this is Einstein, 7 wks old, weighing in at 2.3 lbs, and he will be eventually be white.

So this is Einstein!

This is our youngest of three. Lauren is four and calls him, her "little Einstein"

As you can tell, he is adapting and we have survived two nights with being woken up every two hours to potty. Yes much like a baby all over again.
Although, my hubby has promoted to Captain with the Police department, he has been moved to the midnight shift, so it looks like I will be taking on puppy shifts at night here. Last night he came home at about 4 am for his lunch break which was great timing. Einstein wanted to play and not sleep. So I handed him over and went back to sleep. Jasper is loving the pup, just wishes he was bigger now so they could really play together.

So the next post will be a project that I am working on. I am making chore card for my boys who are 10 and 8. A few chores that are required and others that can be done to earn extra allowances, but with a limit so not to drain my wallet. I will finish that project up and post it.

Take care, stay cool, and have fun crafting!

Update on the E2 return

Okay, so much for the wordy posts. But had to tell you how my second phone call went with Provocraft about the second extra machine. They found it amusing with what was happening. Apologized, emailed a paid packing label. And to compensate me, I was able to pick one cartridge that I have been wanting. Well, I was so excited. So Everyday Pop Up was the choice and now I am so intimidated by this cartridge. Anyway, I also had to talk to them about a cartridge for my imagine that would now work and since the ebay store would not return my email regarding to it no working. They said they take care of that and would be sending out a new Kate's Kitchen. Advice, check all cartridges as soon as you get them to make sure they are working. This was a first for me. The story continues, so the box shows up with the cartridges and open it up and find Nursery tails and everyday pop up. Yet the packing slip reads Kate's Kitchen. So another phone call. I felt silly for having to call once a week here. Yet again, they were wonderful and are sending the correct cartridge this time and allowing me to keep the Nursery Tails, which I am now looking for someone who wants it. So I am waiting again for Kate's Kitchen. For all the times I have had to call Provocraft, they have been more then wonderful everytime. I know some people have complaints but I think everyone has to remember that they are human too. So a Big thanks to Ashley and Ben at Provocraft customer service. Great JOB!

Something Strange that happened, Happened again!

First up, yes I am getting ready to get crafty again. Things have somewhat settled and just having to get ready for hubby working the midnight shift again.

Yes that something strange happened again. Somehow, on the same day they received the one I shipped back to Provocraft. Another was shipped to me again. And since I was out of town, I was reviewing the caller id and apparently Provocraft even called here while I was gone. So come Monday, I will be calling Provocraft again, trying to trace this machine. But I also encountered another problem recently with an Imagine Cartridge. Kate's Kitchen could not be read on either my imagine or my E2, bummer. But I have faith that it will get fixed. Just sadly I didn't check it out when I purchased it since I have never had that happen before. So warning,check to make sure your cartridges work.

Also discovered something interesting. I was linking up my imagine cartridges to my gypsy by way of the E2, yes you can. I gave it a try while packing to go out of town with hopes that I wouldn't have to drag my imagine out of the closet. Yes, its in a closet, I don't trust a little 4 year old girl.

Another update, I made it to the Greatest Scrapbooking Convention in Arlington, bad news was my classes were sold out so I sat in line to go into the exhibit hall. I saw a few from the Stampede. Walked around the hall at least 5 times making up my mind what I had to have. Found some hilarious stamps for upcoming cards! So hang in there and stay cool.

Something Strange happened to me..

Last week, I opened my door to find a package on my door step. What was it? Another cricut expression 2. I got mine on hsn, and this one had me really scratching my head. I looked at all my accounts and there was no strange purchase or charge for this machine. So I called Cricut customer help to track it down. I was hoping that maybe I won it and never got the notice on it. Which could happen, my spam box is over protective.

Anyway, it took this nice girl on the other end named Ashley some work to figure out where this machine came from. She finally came up with an explaination. It was sent out of their replacement warehouse... But yet I never requested a replacement. Last time I ever called was in September with my imagine arrived missing a cartridge from a box. Anyway, she thanked me over and over for being an honest person and calling. So now I have to print out a prepaid fed ex label and attach it to the cricut then drop off at a fed ex location. So that's on my to do list this week. You know I would have really liked to hear that I won it off of one of the many blogs I entered. But I had to know for sure, I didn't want to be charged for a second machine. I had a person in mind that I was thinking I could sell it to at a great deal. She thought that was a cool plan too. Oh well, so I will say goodbye to this cricut expression 2, that found it's way from Utah to Texas for some odd reason. I love winning things, drives my hubby crazy, he tells me I need to play the lottery more.

Thanks for reading...

My daughter's birthday cake..

Okay, have to show this one off. I tried using that prepackaged fondant last year with no success and besides that the taste was ... I can't say anything nice. So I don't have the cricut cake, but kept reading about others making their fondants from marshmellows. And so I googled and found one to work. I used strawberry marshmellows in the pink fondant and with a touch of food coloring gel to pop the color.

And I made white marshmellow fondant as well. I wish I had taken a picture of the cake after we had cut into it, because I made a checker board cake. One that you use two batters and a insert in the pan, alternating. It turned out great. Strawberry and Vanilla cake on the inside. My inspiration was her theme, Minnie's bow. I think the parents were the ones that really ate up the cake. After the party was over, my daughter took a fork directly to the cake and really enjoyed it. This is the first cake in my house that didn't make it thru the weekend. We are not big cake eaters, especially with three birthdays in June just in my family. But you know, the cricut cake might have to go on my list to have someday. I don't need the big one, but maybe the mini would be perfect.

Love when the cricut helps with those big assignments!

So for busy work, my fourth grader had a book report due two weeks before school ends. He has to make a poster of his favorite book he read this school year, along with a summary that would make his classmates want to ready the book.

Okay, so here is where mommmy gets into trouble. I truly realize that I won't be able to do this much longer. I drew the characters and my son colored them in. We worked out thoughts of how we thought each character might look.

But we used the cricut for the lettering. Taught my son how to remove the letters from the sticky mat. We used one font fromt Happy Hauntings and I believe the other font is the cricut alphabet font built into the Cricut expression 2.

After all was done, my son had a poster to be very excited about. And no I don't know what grade he made on it yet.

Bowling Belated Birthday Card

So my oldest has been invited to a "I got good grades/Belated Birthday Bowling Party." Whew, that was a overload. So we are down to the last two half days of school. This party is great timing. Keeps my son occupied for an afternoon after school gets out at noon. Did you catch all that? Anyway, that have requested no presents. But hey I have to at least send a card.

So I knew it had to be bowling theme. Which means I used Nifty Fifty cartridge. I pulled paper from the Celebration stack from DCWV. And some accent color paper that was in my stack. I actually cut the pin's bands out of white and just colored it a color with my bic markers to match the paper. The card measures 5.25" x 7.25" Since this is for a girl in his class, can't go over board with it.

The inside still from the same cartridge. And again just cut the phrase out of black and white. Where you see color, well you guess it, I colored it in. What a time saver it is, especially for small details. And with the bic 36 colors, its easy to find something that cordinates.

Hope you enjoyed it! I am ready for summer in a few ways, like time to craft, but other ways I am not ready to play referee all summer... Ever feel like that?

Spirit lifter for my father

So, I had to do something with a sense of humor for my dad. He is having his third eye surgery in the last 30 days. He had a cornea transplant that didn't take and now having to go for a second cornea transplant. So I thought a little laugh and a card might lift his spirits, letting him know he is in my thoughts! I truly believe that laughter is the best medicine, really I do.

I believe I found this creature on the Mini monsters cartridge, but I could be wrong. I made this card at a crop on National Scrapbooking weekend. So I have slept since then. I wish I was better about writing down where I used my images from. The stamp is from My Pink Stamper. What can I say?
Have a creative day!

National Scrapbook Day Giveaway, at Cricut Circle Blog

Photo taken by my nine year old.

My craft space for now, the rest is shared with the washer and dryer room.
Thanks!

Challenge #5 for My Pink Stamper, Its National Scrapbooking Day!

Simply yet Elegant, Exploding box.

Alright, Second project with E2

First thing, IT'S NATIONAL SCRAPBOOKING DAY!!!

Okay, so after the first disaster of a card. Naw, not really. I can't tell you how many times I accidentally turned off the E2 when making selections on the screen. I would rest my hand and hit the power button. Oh and better yet, first advice about the E2, you have to load the mat before you cut!! Ha, yes you get confused with the Imgaine and expect the E2 to take the mat from you, NOT! Yes, a few adjustments.

Okay onto the card
Yes, these are my mother's day cards this year. My darling daughter, whom is almost 4, loves loves loves monkeys. So Monkey Business it is with the Just a Note preloaded cartridge. And inside, signed "your five lil monkeys!"

Here, I am using the tip I found on another blog. Instead of pulling out a little piece of yellow paper, use white paper and then bic or copic markers to color it! Fabulous!

Okay, So I was trying to conquer the shawdow issue. And now matter every trick I tried. It would not happen in any exact form. But it would close enough and to those that really don't understand my craft form, they won't notice!

However, here I did take on a challenge of changing up the monkey. Here's the deal, cut the card-write down the size. Then hit the monkey on the card layer. Look at the sizing under relative then select the true size. Now once you know the true size. I went back for the layers I wanted of the monkey in the non card feature. Taking that true size measurement and imputing it into the relative size. YEAH, I had the layers I wanted at the right size. One challenge accomplished. I hope that made sense. If not, let me know and I will put a step by step explanation up.

And the Inside of the card...

Creatively Yours!
Denise

My first project with the E2

Okay, this first card. Well not counting the lack of color choice here. I have already discovered some challenges with one of the preinstalled just a note. I love the cards but I have found challenges with this which I will explain. Not real happy with the phrase feature for the cards. It really can't be done to create a blackout or shadow to pop the phrases. And I even tried. I could see more layers that could have been offered to perk this first attempt of a card up. And by the way, this is the only place this card will be seen. It will not be making it out of my house.

Ultimate thrill for me!

Okay, if you really know me. I try not to miss "My Pink Stamper". I love her stamps and her spunk. She inspires me in my creative outlet.
So excited when I saw her when she was scoping out the crop room at the Stampede.

Live Ustream with My Pink Stamper. How cool. I loved the energy from everyone. Here is Monique Griffth, Robyn Cardon, and Karlee!!

Also, hoping today it arrives but will depend on Robyn checking her box. There was a certain item mentioned in this live ustream that I by chance saw in the store with all the Easter candy. Had to pick it up and mail it for the National Scrapbooking Day event with Robyn and Karlee. I think Tammy will also be there too. So, I guess I just have to wait and see if they receive it in time, depending on if she checks her box regularly.

Oh yes, if you don't know. May 7th, Saturday is National Scrapbooking Day. A friend of mine has reserved the community room at her property. So with a bunch of her friends invited, there should be a lot of scrapbooking going on starting Friday night going thru Saturday night. I hope to be there for some amount of time. Just have to figure out if I want to take the new E2.

Exploding boxes for party favors at a Senior Luncheon!

Okay so alot of pictures to view here. Anyway, so this is more of the graduation project I have been swamped with for my niece. Happy to do it but also happy to have mailed off the box with everything in it. I am hoping the girls will like the boxes. We are setting them up with a tape runner in each, with a writing pen, and I included a few embellishments. The concept was to have the girls exchange their senior pictures and I thought the exploding box would be a unique way to display and treasure. So I guess I will have to wait and see in another two weeks. Too bad I can't fly in to help my mother with hosting the luncheon.
Have a great laugh today!
Creatively yours!

Something Arrived this Monday

Okay so my daughter was also escited to help me open it up. She wanted at it first, the box that is. She could care less what was in the box unlike me. She wanted the box for her baby dolls. So the new toy is here. It took a little while to update the firmware. Not sure if the sight was overloaded or my computer was just in a funk.

So I finally got the opportunity to try it out tonight. Only 24 hours later! Watch for next few postings as I am exploring the new E2!

Mother's Day Gift

I have admired these scrapbooked drawers and when I realized that my plan A for mother's day gift was just not going to be finished in time, I moved on to plan b. And the only thing that took awhile on this was waiting for pictures from my in laws so that I could add the cousins.

Really quick concept and yet I used the cricut to make chipboard letters since I didn't own any big enough and it was after store hours. Even my husband commented on how neat it turned out and that his mother will really love it. I am working on something different for my mom and need to finish it so it can also get mailed.