Spongebob Play Mat

I have been M.I.A. for awhile and it is good to be back! When I was little my mom made a car play mat that we rode our hotwheels cars on. I put many miles on it! I read about the new contest at Cricut for a chance to win a Swarm with the "Cricut Stars" (aka the Provo Craft executive team who brings prizes!!!) and I started to hyperventilate. That is the most amazing prize I could ever hope to win and so I made this Spongebob Play Mat for my nephew who loves Hotwheels! It is about 36 inches by 40 inches. It is made of Periwinkle canvas and then assorted cottons for all of the houses and their layers.

It was my first time cutting fabric and it was so easy!!!!!! There was a lot of layering and I ended up painting some of the details because some of the smaller layers kept snagging. It was also my first time trying the Reynolds Freezer Paper to make stencils so I could paint the flowers on the background and the words "Jellyfish Fields" and that was SOOOOOO EASY. I want to paint everything now!!!!!

I love the way it turned out and I hope Ty will love it too!

Core'dinations Cardstock

I love the Core'dination Color Core Cardstock. There is so many things you can do with it. On this layout I tried ripping the Black Magic Collection cardstock so that it is black but when I ripped it the green shows. I also used my Cuttlebug and embossed the same paper to make the alien. Once I embossed it I gently go over it with sandpaper and the dots turn green. I think it is magical paper! The yellow and white paper that I used for the sun and the clouds is from the Gemstone Collection. It is shiny on one side and matte on the other so when you tear it it gives it a cool effect.

I used the Every Day Paper Doll cartridge for the alien and the spaceship. I used Indie Art for the flame coming out of the spaceship. I also used the Pooh Font for all of the words. Then highlighted all of it with my FAVORITE white pen from Signo. (Everyone should own this pen!)

This week is Core Cardstock challenge at Practical Scrappers. You should buzz by and see the really cool things that the designers came up with! Click HERE to get there quick! You can enter your own cardstock project and win a prize! This week's prize is a $10 gift certificate to Heart & Soul Rubber Stamp Company.

Life is Good!

I am sorry it has been so long since I have been able to post. Life sometimes throws a curve ball at you! My son got very sick and then was getting better and then had complications from his antibiotic. It was scary but I am so grateful that he is doing GREAT now! He went back to school this week and so I am going to get back to creating! I have really missed it!

It is a little overwhelming trying to figure out what I want to do so I started surfing blogs for inspiration! That is my favorite thing to do! I went to Stephanie Castro's blog and besides some amazing cards, she is doing blog candy! Go check it out http://stephaniecastrodesigns.blogspot.com/2009/10/its-my-1-year-blogiversary.html and wish her a happy birthday too!

I will start posting some creations as soon as I start making them! Off to surf more blogs!

LIFE IS GOOD!

Baby Girl Word Book

I LOVE making these word books for baby shower gifts. I have made 3 in the last couple of weeks and I have 3 more to go! It has been a busy baby month!!!! This is the only one that I got a picture of before I gave them away!

Decorative Scissors

Our challenge this week at Practical Scrappers was to use decorative scissors. Now I haven't even thought of my scissors in at least 2 years if not longer. They sit in a drawer and my kids get them out every once in awhile. This was truly a use your stash project. I picked my favorite scissors for this card. They are like giant pinking shears. I can remember how excited I was to get these scissors and I think I used them a lot for a few months and then never again. It was fun to get these out for my thank you card.

We had a Guitar Hero/Wii Family Night at our school. We decided last minute to add a few gaming systems and put them on projectors on the stage. One of our teacher's husband came and set it all up for us and so I made him this "YOU ROCK" card to thank him. It was a SUPER FUN night and I would recommend it to anyone! We paired up with Best Buy and they came and brought TV's, Systems, people to man the stations and then gave us a "TAG TEAM" award of 1000.00!!!!! It was awesome!

Transparency Halloween Layout

My challenge at Practical Scrappers was to use my Cricut and a transparency to create a layout. I cut out a tombstone from the Cricut Cartridge Paper Doll Dress Up. I then used Staz-On Black Ink and stamped the skull and the swirls. I then used red stickles to outline the tombstone. I also used a transparency on top of the picture to stamp Trick or Treat on the 4 sides.

I am working on a whole album for when we went to Little Monsters on Main Street at Disney's California Adventure. The kids got to dress up and go trick or treating in the park! IT WAS AWESOME!!!!! We are going this year too! I can't wait!!!!!

Join us for the Blog Hop going on at Practical Scrappers!

Transparency Hands Soap Dispenser? BLOG HOP

Practical Scrappers is part of a fun, fabulous, PRIZE FILLED BLOG HOP! PS has teamed up with several Challenge Blogs to go and get inspired and win fun prizes! The first blog on the hop is Scrapsketch. They have an awesome sketch to try out and you can win a Michaels Gift Card!!! But don't stop there! Don't forget to hop to the next blog and see all of the fun and goodies that are out there! HAPPY HOPPIN'!

**Just a reminder, the blog hop goes from September 25 until midnight on October 1**

Our first challenge for the blog hop is to use Transparencies. I saw this soap dispenser at my Aunt Wendy's house and I LOVED IT!!! It is a transparency inside a soap dispenser that has descriptive words about hands. It is soooo cute in person. I wanted to say thank you to Janet Holdaway who gave me the instructions on how to do this! I print on transparencies all the time when I make my own rub-ons but then I wipe it off so I can use it again. Janet told me that you have to make a copy of the words so that they will be burned into the transparency and the soap won't rub it off! Then cut the transparency and roll to slide in the dispenser. Then when it gets in it will flip open and you can pour the soap into the dispenser. I found that it is easier to have the straw from the pump in a little ways before you put the transparency in to help make sure that the pump is BEHIND the transparency instead of blocking it!!!!

These are adorable and I am giving them as Christmas gifts this year. Click HERE to check out Practical Scrappers for tons of ideas for using Transparencies!!!!

Halloween Decor

Our Challenge at Practical Scrappers this week was to use felt. I LOVE the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge for the Cricut. It has some of the cutest Halloween images! I cut out the tombstone, the pumpkin, the ghost (I love him!), and the bat. Then I traced those images on felt and cut them out. Then I hand sewed on the borders and details. I bought the orange swag at my favorite thrift store (go DI) and wrapped it around my curtain rod in my dining room, which is also our den, and my scrapbooking room. We know how to multipurpose at our house! ;)

I love Halloween and I am so excited for Halloween this year! We are going to go and visit my mom Halloween weekend! She lives about 6 1/2 hours south of us and we haven't seen my family for awhile! It is going to be great! Thanks for coming by!

Baby Girl Framed Art

Our challenge this week at Practical Scrappers was to use stickers. I made the border with some stickers that I have had for YEARS and then used black chipboard Heidi Swap stickers for Girl. I used doodle charms for the duck that I cut out of Co'ordination cardstock. I love that stuff! I embossed it and then lightly sand and the pink shines through! It is so much fun!

If you have time go pop over to the PS blog! There are some wicked talented ladies there!

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Another CONTEST for 4 CARTS!!!!!!! or a CRICUT

This is contest entry for those crazy folks at TodaysMama and Cricut. Be sure to check out Cricut's cool new cartridges and the chance at $30,000 in travel for you and your friends at the Great Gypsy Escape site!

Great Escape Meme

1. If you could escape to anywhere in the world where would it be?

Italy (I have just always wanted to go there!)

2. What song do you play when you are by yourself in the car?

Defying Gravity from Wicked (but it has to be LOUD!)

3. If you had a night to yourself, and money was no object, what would you do?

Go to an all night crop with my Cricut, paper trimmer, and pictures and then buy everything else I needed to complete some projects!!!

4. What is your guilty pleasure?

SODA

5. What is the farthest place you have traveled away from your home?

Mexico City, Mexico

6. Last book that you couldn't put down?

Breaking Dawn (I know, big shock a Twilight saga book!)

7. When you want to escape into another time, what movie do you watch?

Pride and Predjudice (the long ENGLISH version!)

8. What is your favorite local escape?

Green Tangerine ( I love to just go and crop there when I have a few extra hours!)

9. How do you escape on a budget?

Invite friends to come and scrapbook at my house!

Best food you've ever had while on vacation. Tacos al Pastor in Mexico...YUMMY

This is such an amazing contest! Thanks Todaysmama.com and Cricut for this super fun contest!

Cricut has reached 100 cartridges!

Cricut.com is giving away 100 cartridges over the next 5 weeks! Be sure to go to Cricut.com and enter to win!!!!! Here is a link to the 100th cartridge Winter Woodland http://www.cricut.com/shopping/ProductDetails.aspx?id=361&s=1&sc=2

GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!

FALL

I need to go back to Kindergarten and learn how to follow directions. Our challenge at Practical Scrappers was to use simple shape punches. I thought that a leaf was a simple shape but now I see that it was more like circles, squares, etc. OOPS! I will learn to follow directions one day!

Here is my not so simple shaped punch page. I used pooh font for the letters in FALL. I also used the new EveryDay Paper Dolls to make the pumpkin. It is a super cute cartridge!

I am going to make sure I pay closer attention to my next assignments! :) Go and check out the other projects that can follow directions there are some amazing projects!

Newly discovered blog! and CANDY!

At Practical Scrappers I learned about a fabulous blog! It is called Bits of Paper. Jamie has only had her blog for a month but she is very talented and shares her how to's! It is a fun place to spend a little time! Go check it out and enter her blog candy! http://jamielanedesigns.blogspot.com/

4th Grade LO

I have a new assignment for the Practical Scrappers blog. I am the Cricut specialist so that no matter what we are challenged to use I also have to incorporate the Cricut into the challenge too! HOW COOL IS THAT?

This months challenge was to use stamps. I admit that I am stamped challenged. I have stamps but RARELY use them. I am just not that great at it. So when I thought about mixing the Cricut with stamps I decided to use my roller stamps from Stampin' Up and stamp across images I cut out from Graphically Speaking. I also used a journaling stamp.

My oldest daughter (2nd child) just started 4th Grade this year. She is such a cutie. The paper really reminds me of her. It is from Me and My Big Ideas specialty paper pack.

I also sewed a on it just because I have missed sewing on layouts! Thanks for stopping by and I would love to hear from you!

Shamelessly scraplifted Teacher Gifts

This is 100% scraplifted from the Cricut Message board http://www.cricut.com/messageboard/tm.aspx?m=4633525 I wanted to make sure that she got credit for my shameful scraplift of even her font!!!!! I did put different things in the bottle but that is about the only difference! I loved these when I first saw them and the teachers loved them!

I filled them with post-its, paper clips, hand santizer, chocolate kisses, floss sticks, and mints. These would make any gift giving very fun! Go and check out the link to see how it all fits in!!!!

First Day of school Treats

I love my paper crimper and I got it at a thrift store for .25!!!! YEAH thrift stores!!!!

I made these for the kids with 2 mini twix bars in them. They were super easy and a last minute thing that I thought would be fun for their lunches. I should have made a cute tag and attach it but I didn't even start thinking about making those until after 11 pm and I just wasn't up for it! I think they liked it anyway!

Catch a Wave~ Vellum Challenge

This week at Pratical Scrappers we were challenged to use vellum. I have a ton of vellum and I knew that I wanted to use this picture of my son Trevor at the beach this summer. (I know it is kind of hard to tell but I posted a close up of his head so you could see him...) My awesome sister Tracie took this picture! She rocks!

I had many ideas of how I wanted this layout to look and I went through a few sheets of vellum before I gave up the crazy idea I had and went simple. I used the George cartridge from the Cricut for the oval journaling. (I made the words in Microsoft word with word art). I also used Lifes A Beach for the waves on the top of the picture cut 3 times and then stickled. I used Graphically Speaking for the "Catch a wave"also cut several times and then layered. Then the big wave was cut in vellum. I LOVE how the Cricut cuts vellum by the way! If you haven't tried it you should!

The paper is from last years Summer Stack. I am sad that summer is over (my kids go back to school in a few hours!) but I am excited for the new school year! Hope your summer was fabulous!

"50 sucks"

We went to a surprise 50th Birthday Party today and I made him this sucker boquet. I saw this idea on the Cricut Message board awhile ago and I LOVED IT! It was super easy to make but turned out really cute! I used the Mickey Font with my Design Studio so I could weld the words and only use 1 skewer.

The message board also had a "75 blows" made with bubble gum... cute, cute ideas is why I LOVE the message board!

Thinking of You

I saw a card on aplaceformycards made by Jeannie Phillips and I fell in love with her card. Mine is a super simplified version of her amazing card.

I made this for a friend who was just in an accident and is now in the burn unit. This just totally reminds me of her! I used the cuttlebug for all of the music notes. The paper is a pack from Costco and it has beautiful, thick, DOUBLESIDED cardstock. I really like using it! I also used lots of Chestnut Roan ink. The thinking of you stamp is a 1.oo stamp that I think I got at JoAnns. I used Storybook Cartridge for the name plate. Hope she knows that I am thinking of her!

~BLOG CANDY ALERT~

~BLOG CANDY ALERT~

Steph is giving away $150.00 gift certificate to a store of your choice!!!!! You have until Friday 28th to enter!!!! While you are there check out her creations...pretty amazing!She is a designer for the CuttleBug Spot! Also another super cute blog! here is stephanies blog: http://stephaniecastrodesigns.blogspot.com/2009/08/some-thank-you-blog-candy.html

Good Luck!

Also http://keepsakesbymelissa.blogspot.com/2009/08/lets-give-somethings-awayjust-because.html has a ton of blog candy and one of them is the Zutter Dreamkutz! I love that thing!!!! go check it out! You have until the end of the month!

So Tweet

Out side
Inside...

I found this super cute stamp from Imaginisce and I knew that I wanted to pair it with the super cute birds from the cricut cartridge Home Decor. The branch is also from Home Decor. I made this when I was on vacation and so I think I am going to try to make this again with different paper so it is not so simple... maybe I'll try it this weekend. Looks like I am REALLY into pink and green right now!!! Several of my last projects are in that color scheme!!!! I am working on a layout right now that is NOT pink and green! I know it is a miracle!

Summer in the Park

This is my oldest daughter when she was 5. I loved this picture of her at the park. I used stickers by Provo Craft for the title and the journaling.

Tutu Cute

I have been trying to get these pictures done for 5 years! I just was worried I would never do them justice because they were just too cute, but our challenge at Practical Scrappers was to use at least 3 stickers. I some pictures in mind for what I wanted to do but my computer is having major problems and so I wasn't able to download them. That forced me to use pictures that I already had printed out. I picked up Samantha's dance recital pics and decided that it was time. I am still sure that they deserve a better layout but at least they aren't getting dusty sitting in a box like they were!

The paper is Basic Grey. I used Alphalicious (Short Stack feature) for the title. The stickers (I love the 5...6...7...8...) are from Creative Imaginations. The rhinestones swirls are from Prima. The pearls are also from Basic Grey.

You should go and check out what the other ladies at PS did! Pretty amazing stuff! Click HERE!

Sadie Bug~ Practical Scrappers

This is my first submission for the new Design Team I am on from Practical Scrappers. We had to use at least 5 eyelets. Pretty simple task, but that left a lot of room for anything I wanted to do! I had a ton of ideas but I settled on a trail of eyelets going from a cute pink ladybug. We have always called my daughter "Sadie Bug" so this lay out was fitting for her! Go and check out the other designers! There are great ideas on how to use all of those eyelets you have in your stash!

I used Doodle Charms Cartridge for the lady bugs and Alphalicious for the font. The paper is all from Stampin' Up. Thanks for stopping by!

GYPSY!!!!

Provo craft has announced the new AWESOME product called the Gypsy. Go to www.provocraft.com/gypsy/testdrive to actually "test drive" one of these amazing new gadgets!!! I know what I want for Christmas!!!!!!

Practical Scrappers Design Team!!!!

I am so excited! I just found out that I made the Practical Scrappers Design Team! It is a blog that I so need! It challenges us to be creative with THE THINGS WE ALREADY HAVE... OUR STASH!!!! My stash has grown "slightly" out of control... This will be a very good thing for me!

I have been blog hopping to the other DT members and WOW!!!! There are some amazing women that have been chosen! Congrats to all and go check it out! Our first assignment is due soon so you can see what everyone has created next week but until then Go BLOG HOPPING. You won't be disappointed!

http://practicalscrappers.blogspot.com/

1st Day of 1st Grade

I am catching up on some layouts. This is my son on the 1st day of 1st grade last year. Time goes sooooo fast and I can't believe I am 1 month away from the 1st day of school again!

I used a lot of different carts for all of the fonts. I thought it would be fun for 1st grade because that is when they really take off with reading! Enjoy your summer!

MILLER word book

I made a word book for my Dad. I filled it with pictures of our family. I am the oldest and I have 3 Brothers and 2 Sisters. There were plenty of pictures to fill it all in! I will post pictures of the inside soon!