Blog Candy from Penny

Penny from Light Whimsy A Light Look at Life is celebrating having 100+ followers.  The drawing will be on July 4.  She is giving away a fabulous gift certificate to Custom Crops.  Stop by and check out her blog today.

"Creative Writer" Blogger Award

Lori over at Scrappin' My Stress Away honored me with this award.  Make sure you stop by her blog to check out some of her great creations.

 

The rule for accepting this award is to tell you six truths about myself and one lie or vice versa.  Here we go...

1. My mom was a home economics teacher, so I grew up learning to cook and sew.
2. I am completely caught up on my scrapbooking for my son.
3. I am a dance mom and a wrestling mom and, surprisingly, both roles have similarities.
4. This year I will be celebrating my 17th wedding anniversary.
5. I am counting down the days until Toy Story 3 comes out.
6. Scouting has been a big part of my family life - I've been a Girl Scout leader for six years, my daughter has earned her Bronze award, and my son is an Eagle scout.
7. I am preparing for a trip to Disney World soon where I can watch my son wrestle and my daughter and niece visit Mickey Mouse.

So, can you guess which one isn't true????  Now the fun part.  I get to pass this award on to five other bloggers.  I am passing this award to:

• Cheryl at Cheryl's Window
• Deanna  at Deanna's Papercrafts
• Sienna at Hon, what's for dinner?
• Nanne at Nanne's Creations
• Emily at Not So Idle Hands

Stop by and check them out.   Have a great Sunday.

Sunday Showcase Party & Giveaway

Check out Under the Table and Dreaming's Sunday Showcase Party.  You have a chance to win a $50 gift certificate to One9Design's Etsy shop.  She makes gorgeous personalized jewelry and keychains.

Blog Hop

 
 




Let's blog hop.

Come check out some of these great projects!

Father's Day Card for Grandpa

When I was growing up, my maternal grandparents were often my "babysitters".  My mom is the oldest of six, so there were always plenty of cousins around to play with.  My grandmother was a homemaker, and my grandfather retired when I was still in elementary school.  He was always active outdoors ~ raising sheep, gardening, fishing, camping, hunting mushrooms, and just tinkering around in the toolshed.

This card is to celebrate all that "outdoorsiness" even though, at the age of 89, he doesn't get to do much of that anymore.

Supplies used:

• Cricut Expression
• Camp Out solutions cartridge
• Cuttlebug
• Houndstooth embossing folder
• Houndstooth cardstock from The Guy Stack by DCWV
• Bamboo cardstock from Close To My Heart
• Cocoa cardstock from Close To My Heart
• Ponderosa Pine cardstock from Close To My Heart
• Goldrush dye ink from Close To My Heart
• Vineyard Berry dye ink from Close To My Heart
• Wonderful Friend stamp set from Close To My Heart (only available during June)
• Say It In Style stamp set from Close To My Heart
• A Little Everything stamp set from Close To My Heart
• Peeled Paint stickles by Ranger

Hope you're having a wonderful, crafty weekend.  We're dodging raindrops here, which leaves plenty of craft time for me.

New Friend Friday

It's a rainy Friday night here.  Too tired to feel crafty.  A good blog hop is just what I need.  Come join me!

Another Father's Day Card

Here is another Father's Day card I created.  This is an A2 sized card.  The best part is that I used up some more of "my stash" - you know, those really old supplies I have hoarded way too long.

The "DAD" is cut on with the Cricut at 2-1/2" using the "DAD" shape, shadow and shadow blackout creative features.

The supplies used:

• Paper from the Serendipity Heart of Winter Project Pack by Close To My Heart
• Cricut Expression
• Cricut Beyond Birthdays cartridge
• Wonderful Friend My Acrylix stamp set by Close To My Heart
• Foam tape
• Acrylic block
• Pens (for swirl doodles on the inside)

Have a wonderful week.  School's out here now, so summer - here we come!

Father's Day Card

With Father's Day and vacation quickly approaching, I thought I'd better get started on my Father's Day cards.  Here's the first card I have made which will most likely be for my dad.

Supplies used:

• Paper from The Guy Stack by DCWV
• White scrap cardstock
• Wonderful Friend My Acrylix stamp set by Close To My Heart
• Say It in Style My Acrylix stamp set by Close To My Heart
• Bamboo Exclusive Inks stamp pad by Close To My Heart
• Juniper Exclusive Inks stamp pad by Close To My Heart
• Foam tape
• Acylic Block

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you have a great week.

Just Something I Whipped Up Monday

Come join the fun!

Close To My Heart's Jackpot June is Here

Daily deals are back at Close To My Heart during June. Just visit My CTMH Website between June 1 - July 1 to take advantage of this offer.

On goodie box days...you can purchase one box filled with popular products at 50% or more off retail value! Each goodie box day will feature different surprise items, so you can score a wide variety of current and recently retired products.

On jackpot days...5 products will be offered for sale at discounted prices. One of the 5 products is the mystery jackpot item for that day. If you happen to order the mystery jackpot item, we'll reward you with one or more FREE Close To My Heart products, with shipping included on the free items!

These special offers include discounted shipping/handling and are only available on My CTMH Website. New deals are posted at 11 a.m. EST daily.  These offers are available daily while supplies last.

Still Here....

Yes, I'm still here.  Life has gotten in the way of blogging and crafting lately.  My mom had surgery and needed some help both at home and at work (my day job is with my family's business).  The last few days of school are upon us with all the "extras" that go along with it - my high schooler has strange hours during final exams, my fifth grader has lots of special things going on as they graduate to middle school, and I'm winding up my Girl Scout year.

Here is what I have been working on lately.  I don't even want to tell you how long I've been working on this project.  I pull it out occasionally to work on.  My goal it to get this completed by the time school comes around in the fall.  My daughter picked out the material for this herself and even helped me sew the top together on the machine.  She hasn't been nearly as interested in quilting though.

Yes, I am hand-quilting.  I used the machine to sew the squares together, but the quilting is all being done by hand - just like my grandmother's many quilts.

I am quilting in a flower pattern to tie in with the flannel backing of the quilt pictured below.  I enlarged the flower used in the backing to use as my patterns for quilting.

Congratulations Sign

We were asked to make "secret locker signs" to congratulate our fifth graders for completing elementary school.  The signs will be hung during the last week of school.

My daughter has a very bright and sparkly personality, so I knew I wanted to incorporate that in her sign.

The colors are not nearly as bright and vibrant in the photos.  The background is a neon green mounted on black and the graduation cap is hot pink with black flocked zebra stripes.

Materials:

• Cardstock (neon green and black)
• Glitter chipboard letters (DCWV)
• Assorted adhesive "bling" (The Paper Studio)
• Paper flowers with gem centers (Flora Doodles by Petaloo)
• Embroidery floss (tassle)
• Large rhinestone brad (The Paper Studio)
• Flocked cardstock (The Paper Studio)
• Cricut
• Wild Card cartridge
• Sparkle Sheer Shimmer Spritz
• Foam squares (under graduation cap)

Art in 3-D Girl Scout Badge

As promised....

Here is the only crafting I accomplished this week.  These are some of the 3-D art projects (in various states of completion) my Girl Scout troop made to put in their shadowboxes.

Some used items cut from the Cricut, others used items the art teacher had left for us.  They all turned out great and very unique.

Have a great weekend!

New Friend Friday

Check it out!  It's New Friend Friday over at The Girl Creative.  You can check out her blog for the details and go make some new friends and find some great new blogs.

I'm Still Here - With a New Winner (see bottom of post)

Have you ever had one of those weeks????  Mine started last Friday evening - I chaired an event for 300 six - nine year old Girl Scouts in our school district.  I made my daughter come help me pull it off. :-)  I was so exhausted by the time it was over, but they seemed to have a good time, learned something, and I pulled it off in less than a month (the previous chairs backed out at the last minute, so I stepped in so the event wouldn't be cancelled).

When I got home, I was babysitting my niece the rest of the evening and next day.  I forgot how much energy it took to keep up with a two-year old.  Luckily it was bedtime when she got there, so her parents put her down before they left.

Sunday was Mother's Day.  I had a fabulous day.  I made "noodle lasagna" in my slow cooker to take up to my mom's house.  We spent most of the afternoon visiting with her and then my grandmother.  My kids gave me just what I asked for (of all things, I wanted a whisk and a potato masher - don't ask), and hubby ordered Chinese take-out for dinner.  I got to relax in my PJ's the rest of the evening.

My daughter came home Monday with the bridge of her violin broken, and, of course, her final concert was this week.  I spent Monday trying to find an instrument shop that could repair it "in house", so she would have her violin back before the concert on Thursday.  I did find one, and the concert (and her trio) was wonderful last night.

My Girl Scout troop had a meeting on Wednesday.  We are finishing up some badges that we had started and not ever finished before we move up to the next level.  Our art teacher was going to work with the girls to make 3-D paper art (to be placed in shadowboxes), but she cancelled Tuesday afternoon.  CRICUT TO THE RESCUE!!!  My co-leader and I are both pretty crafty.  I brought my Cricut and she brought some items, and we pulled it off.  My troop was being honored in the evening for earning their Bronze Award this year, so we took the girls out for pizza and then headed to the ceremony.  Whew - what were we thinking???

I will post some pictures of some of the girls' creations this weekend.  It's the only crafting time I've had this week, and I spent all of it cutting things out for the girls.  I do have some projects I need to "get hopping on" though, so I'll be back to posting soon.

I hopped online this morning and found out that I was the winner of a Cricut Expression from Joy and Melanie at Everyday Cricut!  A big thanks goes out to both of these talented ladies, as well as ProvoCraft for the great prize.

FINALLY, I still have some blog candy looking for a new home.  I chose a new winner this morning.  The winner of my blog candy from this post, chosen by random.org is:

paperscissors said...

i became a follower after checking out your creations! i love the cleaness of the designs and how you decorate the envelopes and the inside of the cards!

I will try e-mailing you.  You have 2 weeks to contact me with your mailing information, so I can get the blog candy out to you.  Congratulations!

Hopefully, life will start to calm down a little ~ not likely though until school's out.  It seems like the end of school is a "see how much we can pack in" time of year.  Hope life is treating you well and you have time to enjoy all the fun things going on around.

And the winner (still) is....

I'm still waiting to hear from the winner.  Check THIS POST to see if you won.

You have until May 13 to claim your prize by e-mailing me your mailing address.  I will choose a new winner on the 14th if I haven't heard from you.

Cherry-O Workshops on the Go

I have to say this is one of my favorite papers in the new Idea Book.  I will get "my versions" of this month's workshop once I get them completed (sorry, new consultant here and couldn't purchase everything I wanted all at once).

While you wait, here are the marketing materials for this workshop.   You can order this kit from me directly, or you can set up a gathering/workshop if you would like me to walk you through creating either the cards or scrapbook pages.

Here are the cards you are given instructions to create:

Here is the layout you can create with this kit.

If you are interested in purchasing this kit from me, here are the links:

G1008 Cherry-O Workshop Basic Kit ($29.95)

If you really want to make your projects shine, consider adding the following items:
Z1088 Chocolate Waxy Flax ($3.95)
Z1274 Colonial White Designer Brads ($3.95)

Here are the inkpads/colors used in creating these projects:
Z2111 Chocolate
Z2153 Sweet Leaf
Z2166 Tulip

Hope you are having a great week!  I'll be back with another post soon.

Birthday Card

I don't know who will be the lucky recipient of this birthday card.  I'll put it in my card stash for the summer; there are a lot of birthdays during the summer months in my family.  This card qualifies for My Pink Stamper's NSD challenge #12 to create something with a "critter".

Front

Inside

Supplies used:

Cardstock from my stash

Say it with Bling from Want 2 Scrap

Black Diamond Stickles from Ranger (for the pupils)

Turquoise ribbonFX from Hobby Lobby

Paisley Cricut cartridge (the frog is cut at 3" with shadow and layers)

3D Foam Square (adhesive)

Black pen

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday Card

This card is for my husband's birthday later this week, so hopefully he's not checking in my blog this week. :-)  This card is also for My Pink Stamper's NSD challenge #7 to make something masculine.

This project also showcases Close To My Heart's stamp of the month for May.  Check it out on My CTMH website.

Front

Inside

Now, I am a self-confessed paper addict.  I love to purchase, hoard, and never use paper.  I am trying to get better.  I raided my stash and ended up using paper from a set I purchased in 2007 (gasp!) and hadn't used at all.

Supplies used:

CTMH Serendipity Heart of Winter Project Pack (papers and "dot" die-cuts)

Z280 Natural Hemp

D1421 Cherish the Moment ~ May stamp of the month

Z2140 Outdoor Denim Exclusive Inks

Thanks for stopping by!  E-mail me or stop by my website if you are interested in purchasing the May Stamp of the Month.

Teacher Appreciation Card

This was on my list of things to make this weekend.  It just happened to end up being part of My Pink Stamper's NSD challenge.  This is for challenge #5.

Front

Inside

Supplies used:

Cardstock from my stash

Paisley Cricut cartridge (the cat is cut at 4-1/2" with shadow and layers)

Cuttlebug machine

Spellbinders Labels Eight

Jet Black StazOn Ink

Yellow Stickles by Ranger

Frosted Lace Stickles by Ranger

Computer and printer for inside sentiment

Dashes, Dots and Checks ribbon from Michael's

Thanks for stopping by!