Have not Been Scrapping Lately BUT.....

Lately I have been crocheting...It seems that I tend to do that this time of year....last year I made a bunch of little kid hats....so far this year I'm on a baby blanket kick....I have two Niece's that are expecting babies in the Spring. When I started making the blankets we had not found out what the babies are so I started with the "boy" colors, mostly because I found these colors that I fell in love with.

This one is a 5 Point Star...the pattern is one of those free pages that you find hanging by the yarn in JoAnns...you can find it on Bernat.com put in Star Blanket in the search.  It is really easy to do.

This one is a 12 Point Star Blanket...It was a free pattern from Ravelry.com. It is called Rainbow Ripple Baby Blanket by Celeste Young. Again this one was an easy one to do.

This one is called Ripples of Joy....It is from a book called Circular Baby Afgans by Leisure Arts. Another easy one.

One BIG Mistake I Felt I Made As A Mom...

The only post I have ever made so far on my blog have been about my crafting, mostly the cards that I have made and my scrapbook pages. Lately I've been reading a few of my crafting buddies blogs where they have posted some personal "insights" or other personal details Reading them made me think about some things and go "Ummmmmm". 

One was this one where she talked about her Momma...Nothin' Fancy. This one where a good friend talked about the challenges her daughter faced the first day of kindergarten being she is a special needs child...Leah's First  Day Of Kindergarten...

So this story about a tragic end to a young girl's life has been on my mind for the last few days...so I thought I would share it with my blogging buddies. People that know me know I'm a news junkie. I love to watch the news...I watch the morning news, the evening news and if I'm still up the late news. So on Thursday I am watching the evening news and there was a story about a young girl that was found unresponsive in her college dorm room then was pronounced dead at the hospital a short time later. It was just another tragic story until about an hour later when I read on Facebook that she had just graduated from the same high school that my Step-daughter had attended, she had been friends with my Step-daughter and had even came to our house for one of her birthday parties...that put a face to the story. Reading more about it I found she was a Freshman at the college that my youngest son attends. Classes had just started on Monday so in her hurry to "live the college life" she did not even make it through the first week. Results are still pending on how she died but it is suspected that alcohol was involved. She had attended a party at a fraternity house earlier that night and it is thought alcohol was there. Another twist to this story is the fraternity house that the party was at was the same one that my middle son had applied for and gotten the job of house dad but after some soul searching turned it down.

I'm rambling but now to one reason it has been on my mind. The one regret I have looking back on raising my sons is I allowed them to drink before they were 21. I felt that what was the harm? I think I wanted them to feel grown-up. I regret  that now. I wish I  had instead explained the law to them and the reason the law was there and made my expectation known to them that I expected them to follow the law. I count myself lucky that nothing happened to my sons because of my mistake in parenting. Again people who know me might find this a bit strange because it is not my habit to drink. I'm not against it, I just never has been a part of my life. I don't keep it in the house and as a regular habit I don't order a drink when I go out.

My heart goes out to her family. I look back to the days of getting my sons ready to go off to college and how that whole summer I was consumed on getting the stuff he need to set up his dorm room. I can't imagine helping your daughter set up her first dorm room only to have something like this happen before the first week of school is even over.

I feel that if we don't send a clear message to our children about how easy it is to drink too much then it is easy for them to feel it is okay to break this law (as long as they can get away with it what's the harm, right?). Do we spend too much time talking about the dangers of drinking and driving that they think it's okay as long as I'm not driving.

While children are resilient and seems to do okay even though we make mistakes, in my opinion I think this is one can really do some long lasting harm. I count my blessing that despite my mistake in this area my sons have turned out the be fine young men.

GymnastiCadence

I don't often remake a layout, but after I made this one of my Great-Niece Cadence it just did not "set" well with me. It just kept bugging me. 

So today I made a second one and I have to say I'm glad that I did. I LOVE how this one came out.
The plain cardstock is Coredinations. The pattern paper is from a pack that I got from the dollar store when I first started scrapping * I thought it was awesome paper....little did I know back then*...the butterflies are K&Company the gemstones are Martha Stewart.  The title is cut using my cuttlebug an alphabet (curls and swirls) that I bought a few years ago and this is the first time I used it. I like how it came out, I think this layout called for a "pretty" "clean" alphabet.

First Day of High School

Say it ain't so!!! My Beautiful Niece Sarina that turned 14 yesterday, started High School this last Tuesday. Seems like it was just yesterday that we were all standing at the glass hospital window looking at that "little" 10 pound newborn  baby girl. NOW HIGH SCHOOL????

The LO was inspired by one in the September 2011 issue of Creating Keepsakes on page 62. The yellow plain cardstock is coredinations. The blue pattern paper is from the starry night collection from Karen Foster. The paper that looks like notebook paper is from my stash and I have no idea where it came from. The ruler ribbon and stickers I've had forever. The brads that look like apples are Recollections from Michaels.

In just 4 short years I need to have her album(s) ready for her Graduation party so Mamma you better start looking through her pictures now because before you know it it will be here!

Summer Fun...For Sean's Album

I'm back to working on my Nephew Sean's Graduation Alum...

Daydream....

Cardstock: Core-dinations

Pattern Paper: DCWV Summer Stack (Value Pack I've had for about 3 years)

Big Brads

Cricut Carts Used: Life's A Beach

Summer 2000

Cardstock: Core-dinations

Pattern Paper: DCWV Summer Stack (Value Pack)

Cricut Cartridge Used: Graphically Speaking and Elegant Edges

Cardstock: Core-dinations

Pattern Paper: DCWV Summer Stack (Value Pack)

Cricut Cartridge Used: Life's A Beach

BLOG CANDY ALERT!!!

One of my All Time Favorite Blogs to Follow is by a very sweet lady that I have had to privilege of meeting...this is her blog and her name is Enfys. I admire her work and she inspires me all the time. She sprinkles her blog with her stories of her everyday life....wish my everyday life was as "fun" as hers.....

She has an awesome give away right now....go check it out....

I'm keeping my fingers crossed and whoever I send over will win a set of the Promarkers and I ;) will win the other set...LOL...

Baby Gift-Card Card

I made this card for my second cousin that just had a baby girl. I started with a green cardstock base. The next layer of paper is the pink and green paisley print paper, it is made by Making Memories from the Simply Fabulous line called Brooke Paisley. I then printed the background outdoor-scape from the Cricut Imagine Nursery Tails Cart bonus content paper...I sized it at 6". The baby buggy is a Target Gift Card pop dotted on the paper. The extra embilishments are ribbon, a heart brand and a sun gromment.

"Make A Wish"

I've been busy lately and not been scrapping like I should have been. Today I finally found my mojo and some time and got this LO done.

More pages for my Nephew's Scrapbook. These pictures are from his 12th birthday...the background paper that I used was really "busy" and normally I would have used it but I think it went so well with the theme of his birthday decorations. Page 1 is done from a sketch from Sketch Inspirations sketch #217. I fussy cut one of the fish and pop dotted it. The "Make A Wish" is the font from A Child's Year Cart. I used the Cricut Craftroom to weld the letters. It was the first time I used the Cricut Craftroom and thought it went well. The candle is from a birthday kit I bought from Creative Memories several years back. Page 2 is all done by fussy cutting the background paper. That paper was from a stack I bought years ago....I want to say it is a DCWV but I could not tell you for sure or even which one. All the plain colored cardstock is from DCWV.

Swoosh!!!

THREE POINTS it is!!! This picture of Sean was taken at my brother's house. I don't know the story behind it yet but I think it's the cutest picture.

This was a very easy page using the Sports Mania Cartridge. This is the first time I've used the "page feature" from this cartridge. I really like how it turned out. I used my gypsy to size the basketball hoop so it would fit on the cut out on the page.

The paper is all DCWV plain cardstock.



MORE Layouts for Sean's Album

I was able to accomplish 10 pages this weekend!!! That's a good thing since I'm under such a time crunch...he graduates the end of May and my goal is to have 50 pages done for him!!! That works out to abut 5 pages a week. These are all from a family vacation that we took in June of 2000 to BEAUTIFUL Destin FL. Here is a supply list that I used on them...most of the plain colored cardstock is either DCWV or Core'dinations. The pattern paper on the first 2 pages I just got this week from Michaels (did not write down who makes it) I usually don't buy paper like this anymore but I knew my LO was going to be simple and I thought that this paper was perfect for it. The other pattern paper is some I bought when I first started scrapping and thought I needed to buy all the "pretty" paper out there (especially beach paper since we live in Florida) , there are brad buddies on 2 of the pages. The cuts are from Life's a Beach cartridge. I think that just about covers it...if not and you REALLY want to know who makes it leave a comment and I'll let you know :)

Birthday Card for My Sister-In-Law

Happy Birthday to my wonderful sister-in-law Janie. My middle brother Gerald started dating Janie when he was 15. They dated through high school and college and then got married right after college... I have known Janie longer than I've not known her and she is such a wonderful sister.

Now on to the card details...The cat is Loralie fabric that I rough cut out the figure then glue it to white cardstock with regular white glue, after it is dried I detail cut it out. The plain card stock is Coredinations Black Magic.  The gate cut is from "Ornamental Iron" cartridge, I got this cartridge from my BFF for my birthday. She said she bought it because she knew it would be one that I would use but would not buy for myself she is probably right!!! I love it and can see lots of uses for it....the flowers and the BIG Brads I got from Paper Wishes. The "celebrate" is a rub-on that I've had forever!

More Sean

I've been busy working on Sean's Album this weekend. I made two quick pages using paper I had in my stash....The one with the crosse net is made by wubie prints I double matted the photos and cut the ball out of a second pages and pop dotted it to give the page some dimension.

This one I don't know who makes the paper...again some paper I've had FOREVER....all I did for this page is double mat the photo

"Batter Up" Page Solid cardstock DCWV, pattern paper...the brown with the words is Scrappin Sports & More..the one with the baseballs is Francis Meyer.  The batter up was cut using the Sports Mania cart. the stickers on the tickets are an assortment from my stash. The Tickets were formed using my Stampin'Up ticket punch. The stamp on the first ticket was from a set of stamps sent to my from my BFF in Australia :) by Kaiser Craft called memory boxes.

"Play Ball"

Plain Cardstock is DCWV, the pattern paper is from a pack I got AGES ago at a $1 store. The Play Ball and the equipment is from a Jolee Boutique Sticker pack that I've had (again for ages).

A Living Doll???

I am making a scrapbook for my Nephew Sean. As the family scrapbooker it has become a tradition that I make each of my Nieces and Nephews  a Scrapbook when they graduate from High School. My Nephew Sean graduates from High School this year so now it is his turn. I'm under a bit of a deadline so you will be seeing a lot of Sean in the coming weeks.

This a picture of him dressed in his sister's tutu. His sister is 4 years older than him and is like his second mommy. She was playing dress-up one day and decided he would be cute to dress up also.

The black cardstock is DCWV, the pattern paper is from a stack from Scrapworks called "Formal Affair". The Tutu is cut from the "Once Upon A Princess Cartridge". The journaling is computer generated, the font is a Free Font from Creating Keepsakes from the Free Font Fridays this is the font for this week. The font I used is called CK Stylish Black. The ribbon is some I had.



Birthday Card for a 5 Year Old Boy

I made this card for a little friend of mine that turned 5 last week. The card is a "Stair-Step" card. The Instructions for it can be found here....The Dinosaur is cut from the Create a Critter Cart at 6" .  The "5" and "Reese" is cut from Mickey Font. The plain card stock is DCWV...the pattern paper is some I've had forever and I don't know who makes it. On the center step is a gift card box that I had crafted.

How Would You Like To Win ProMarkers?

How would you like to win a set of Promarkers? I know I would that is why I'm making this post. It is very easy to win go here to find the Answer to the question asked then go here to enter the competition. EASY as that! Now if you want to know how to use the Promarkers go here. Enfys is always doing tutorials on how to  use them. I LOVE her work and she inspires me in my card making.  GOOD LUCK!

Winter Park Art Festival 2011

Today I went to the Winter Park  Art Festival, you can read about the festival here. It is the 52nd Festival and I have probably been to half of them. It is one of my favorite things to do in my hometown of Winter Park. I LOVE going to see the different kinds of art, browse the sidewalk sales, and grab a funnel cake. This year I was able to go on a Friday, which was wonderful as it was less crowded and I was able to see more of the booths. The Florida weather was awesome today. We had a beautiful spring day with a sunny sky and temps in the low 80's. My festival buddies were my Great-Niece Cadence and my mom. I'm usually NOT this good about getting a LO done the same day that I took the pictures, in fact this might be a first. This LO was super easy as I used a program that I picked up at the festival. Every year an artist is chosen to make a poster to advertise the show. They then sell T-Shirts of the poster art. The poster was on the front page of the program so I used it on the first page along with the pictures of Cadence wearing her new WPSAF T-shirt. On page two the 52 Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival title and the "Hey Kids" was also cut from the program. The journaling is computer generated. The plain colored cardstock is Core'dantions, the pattern paper is Kay&CO Wild Raspberry stack.
 

Page One

Page Two

So Many March Birthdays

March has so many birthdays in it for me.  I have 1 sister and 3 brothers and there are 3 of our birthdays in one week in March. My middle brother Gerald's (Ger) birthday comes first on the 8th. He is very active and just this last year competed in an Iron Man. I got this free download from Persnickety Prints for digi scrapping. I have not figured out digi scrapping but I'm grabbing all the free downloads that I can so I'm ready to roll when I do learn. I was able to print it out one of the elements to make this spinner card. The cardstock is Corediantions. The "track" that the spinner spins in, is punched using a Stamping Up Punch. I first drew a line where I wanted the track to be then I punched it out one whole length then went back and punched it a second time so it would be wider.  The inside I did a computer generated sentiment that reads...Happy Birthday and Happy Trails to you.....



Birthday Card for a Friend

March has a lot of birthdays in it for me so got started today making cards. This one is for a special friend whose birthday is on the first of March. Those birthdays in the first few days of the month always seem to sneak up on me, I seem to think I have more time to make the card and get it sent off.

I used my Imagine and the Best Friends cart for most of this card. I LOVE LOVE being able to match my paper with my die cut and the best thing about the imagine is that it resizes the design in the paper to fit the size of the paper as you can see in the 2x2 squares. The plain cardstock is from Core'dinations and the sentiments are stickers *I'm using up the stickers I bought when I first got into scrapping* called stickeroos from Penny Black. This is a waterfall card that I got the instructions on how to make it here.....



Cadence Doing Her Valentines

This is my Great-Niece Cadence *my regular visitors know she is the love of my life*...she was working on her Valentines for her friends. She was "signing" her name to them.

The background paper is Bazzil cardstock in a pale pink. The pattern paper is from Me& M Big Ideas, the Modern Malin collection. The  middle heart is cut from the stock image on the Cricut Imagine and filled in with a pattern from Nursery Tails Cartridge. The Valentines are her actual Valentines. The small hearts on the left side are stickers from her Valentines and the circles that have the princesses on them are magnets that came with her Valentines. The LO was done from a sketch from Sketch Inspiration #208. I have been using sketches from them lately to jump start my LOs.



M&M's For Mrs. Wirth

My Niece just got married and her husband was deployed a few days after they got married. For their first Valentine's Day as husband and wife he sent her custom M&M's. Betty from over at Betty Bee's Buzz sent me some of these little 1x8" plastic tubes...so I thought I would play around with them and use one to do this LO. The LO is done from a sketch from Sketch Inspiration. I've been using their sketches lately, they seem to get me jump started on a LO. The plain background paper is Core'dinations it is a pale yellow. The pattern paper is Me&My Big Ideas, Modern Milan. The heart is cut at 4"& 5" from the stock shapes on the Cricut Imagine. The Be My Valentine is from "Wild Card" cartridge and then filled with a pattern from the "Nursery Tails" Imagine cartridge.



Best Friends

This is my Niece Rebecca and her BFF Rox. They were in a wedding this last weekend. From this picture you would almost think that they were sisters. My Niece is the one on the left. The plain cardstock is Bazzill, the printed paper is from Kay& Co. The "Best Friends and rose embellishments are cut on the Iagine with the Imagine and More Cart. The lace is some from my stash. The LO is done from a sketch from Sketch Inspirations it is sketch #206.

Rebecca and Rox



Blog Award!

I received this blog award from my Aussie Friend Alli! Go Check out her blog to see her awesome work and also learn about her. I "met' Alli through the Cricut Message board. I started out by checking out Layouts that were posted in their weekly online newsletter "The Cricut Chirp". In August of 2006 I signed into their community, I had never been on ANY type of message board before and found some awesome friends. I have had the opportunity, mainly because I live near a famous mouse, to meet many of these friends. Although I have never met Alli face to face I can say she is one of my dear friends.

So now to "qualify" to receive this award I was told I need to post 8 things about me and then also post 8 blogs for you to check out.

Here are the 8 things about me.

1. I am a mom to 3 wonderful "grown" sons. My youngest will turn 21 next month, where did the time go? My oldest Matthew is getting married next month, Jonathan is a recent graduate from UF and now works for Pepsi, my youngest Benjamin is in his 3rd year at UCF and also works at BabiesR Us.

2. I have been crafting as long as I can remember. I sew, crochet, scrapbook and many others. My favorite by far is my scrapbooking. I'm the family scrapbooker and I love to preserve the memories for my sons, my many Nieces and Nephews and now my Great-Niece.

3. I have lived in the Central Florida area since 1969,before that my father was in the Navy and we lived in Hawaii, Spain, Charleston and I was born in Oregon.

4. I am the oldest daughter, I have an older brother, 2 younger brothers and a younger sister.

5. I have a milestone :) birthday this year, AGAIN where has the time gone?????

6. I used to work for 7-Eleven as a manager for 12 years, until my inner ear canal ruptured causing me to have ongoing uncontrolled vertigo. I am no longer able to drive due to this. BIG life change but you learn to live life with a new normal.

7. I guess you can say I'm an Internet "junkie". I love keeping up with my friends and family through face book, their blogs, and emails.

8. I LOVE MY LIFE!

Here are 6 blogs that I follow:

1. Alli Crafty Creations

2. Scrapping Spirit

3. Going Buggy

4. Kath's Blog

5. Okielady Bugs

6. Betty Bee's Buzz

 to claim your award click on it and save it to your desktop then post 8 things about yourself and 8 blogs.

MOM!!!!

That is what I think this picture SCREAMS! Another LO of my Great-Niece Cadence. I used a sketch from Sketch Inspiration for this LO. The Background cardstock is Bazzill, the pattern paper is Kay & Co. The Flowers are Primas, the hearts brads are Recollections, the the crystal accents are Prima, the bottom border is tulle that I sewed then gathered, the tin heart embellishment is something I had in my stash.

I Hope You Dance

This LO is one that I have been wanting to do for a while..I LOVE this picture of my Great-Niece Cadence and when I saw it I thought of the words from LeeAnn Womack's song "I Hope You Dance" ...I Hope you still feel small when you stand beside the Ocean.... Cadence LOVES the beach and LOVES to run in and out of the water...my sister took this picture of her as she was running back out one day...I think it just shows her joy...I LOVE how her hair is blowing in the wind as she was running....

I used Photoshop Eelements to add the words to the photo and then "wave" them....

The pink background paper is Bazzill Cardstock, the blue water paper that is the mat behind the 8X10 picture is from Paper House Productions the pink beach paper i have no idea who makes it. The  glitter wire and flower embellishments are from  Recollections. The metal flower embellishments are from Adorn-It and the gemstone brads are just some I have had forever.

Page One

Page Two



SMILE

This is my Great-Niece Cadence. She found a these glasses that a friend of her mommy had left at their house. This picture was taken 1 month before she turns 3. She is such a ham and loves to make faces when she is getting her picture taken.

All the paper and embellishments are from Adorn-it. They were in the May "Busy Women" Scrapbook kit. The red print paper is from the Love Bug Collection, the Stripes and Daisy is from the Whoopys Daisy Collection. The Flowers are cut from the paper and pop-dotted. The background paper is really a light yellow that is bazzill cardstock.



Page One

Page Two



Wooden Valentine's Day Wreath

My Sister-In-Law loves the wooden scalloped wreaths...being that they are on the pricey side...the fact that she has double doors so she would need 2 and that she married into a crafty family... I ended up helping her make them.  She first had my brother cut the wreaths out of ply wood, then they were painted red on both sides (the flip side has Christmas on it)... then she turned to me to see if I could do the letters with "My Machine" (my Expression by ProvoCraft).

She wanted the quote "Love Wins" which is the slogan for their teen youth group at church. I cut the hearts from Accent Essentials  and Dreams Come True (JasAln1 Icon feature) at 3" and 3.5". The LOVE is cut from Storybook at 4" and the WINS is from Opposites Attract welded on my Design Studio at about  1.15" "pulling" and "stretching"  the letters as necessary . The paper is all Bazzile plain cardstock. I put down a layer of Modge Podge then laid down the hearts and letters...3 more coats of Modge Podge and then 3 coats of sealer and they are done!

Both of Them On the Doors

One of them Close up

New Sliding Pop-Up Card For Valentine's Day

This is a new card technique that I learned from Splitcoaststampers tutorial. The card base is Bazzill cardstock, the printed paper is Cloud9 Design by Fiskars called "Head over Heels in Love" the doll is from a Paperkins kit.

Card Standing up Front View

 

Side View



Disneyland 1963

Over at Betty Bee's Buzz they are doing a challenge called "What a Character" go check it out....This is a LO of my older brother and I on our first trip to Disneyland in 1963. Yes I'm the little girl in the stroller. The paper, flower brads and Laugh paperclip is from Adornit Busy Woman Scrapbooking kit. This kit is about 2 years old that I'm just getting around to using. The Mickey Ears that reads Disneyland I made on my SCAL by welding 3 circles together then using "Waltograph" font from Dafont.com I did the Disneyland.



Snow White Princess & Cinderella Cards

These are two cards I made for two two year olds...One of them is just really getting into talking and her "favorite" princess is Snow White...there are not too many words that she says clearly enough that you can understand what she is saying but  says "No White" Clear as day. The Princess Dresses are Jolee's Boutique from Ek Success that I bought about 5 years ago. The background paper is Sandylion again that I have had in my stash for several years. The flowers are primas...the number 2 is cut from DCWV glitter stack paper and cut with my cuttlebug. The Jewels, basket, and animals are all from the dress package. The sentiment is computer generated and printed on a Nestabilites Classic Scalloped Oval. The "crowns" are made from sticker jewels.

Snow White Card Front

Card Inside

Cinderella Card Front