Happy Belated Birthday Betty

Have you ever made a mistake that there is just no way to fix? Let me tell you about my recent blunder { I warn you its a doozie } * deep breath* OK here it is, I forgot my sisters birthday!!!! Wait, let me explain!!! I did not actually forget her special day, I just lost a day and thought her birthday was a day later.... and that I had a whole extra day to plan my surprise gift to her....I realized all too late that I was mistaken. *sigh*  Can you imagine the sinking feeling of knowing I had let her day go by without any fanfare or confetti?  Gulp...I told you it was a doozie!

My sister lives a very green lifestyle, she goes above and beyond to do her part to both clean up and save our planet. With that in mind I pondered for weeks what to give her that she would appreciate and enjoy, a handbag may be my idea of the perfect birthday gift, but that would not be hers! So I had a tree planted in her name, her new married name!  Of course I still had to make a card to accompany her certificate, and the Olive tree on the New Testament Cricut cartridge seemed like the most perfect image I could ever think of for her card!

I used Echo Park's Summer Days paper collection and the Mojo Monday sketch 217 to use as my starting point. I did take a few detours with the sketch, but that is always fun! An oval tag with the sentiment "grow" is a nod to the future of the tree, as well as her growth as a person. I always reflect back on the year when my birthday rolls around. I hope all of her wishes come true, I hope she celebrates her day all week long, and I hope she knows that I love her! Happy birthday little sister!

Fall Wreath

Its always nice to greet your guests with a welcome even before you open the door! We still have a few more days until Thanksgiving is here and this quick fall wreath can be done in an afternoon!

Get started with a grapevine wreath and strips of pretty fall fabric, I have used the Stampin'Up! Spice cake fabric. Cut a circle of double sided sticky paper or try Cosmo Crickets glubers. To create flowers simply gather fabric and stick down in a circular ruffle. The round yoyo's are strips of twisted fabric, just twist and adhere starting from the center working outward.

Add buttons, raffia, and a stamped image, hang it up and enjoy!

*NOTE* Use hot glue to adhere flowers to wreath, and use a cardstock circle as a base for your sticky page adhesive! Happy creating, Happy fall!

Fall Felt and Fabric

There are many things I enjoy, but there are few things that thrill me as much as decorating ....well everything! I absolutely swoon over tables capes and relish the opportunity to set the dinner table during each Holiday! I have an extensive linen collection in all shades, shapes, and textures, mmmmm love hunting for vintage linens....ahem...sorry you lost me there for a minute! OK OK back to this table..... These crisp white napkins were trimmed with the GORGEOUS spice cake fabric from Stampin' Up! The napkin ring is fashioned from a combination of kraft cardstock, spice cake paper, and those yummy spice cake buttons. A thick felt leaf, and my favorite fall "ribbon" raffia.

I think is nice to make each family member and guest feel welcome, so quick and easy to make a place card with a warm felt leaf, and a button accent! To get a multicolor stamped image like this one, simply stamp image in lighter color ink, and color in darker color with a marker and stamp. Be sure to clean stamp between uses so you do not get brown ink on your lighter ink pad.On the inside of card add a little gift or sincere message telling your guest why you are thankful for them.

Rustic wood charger plates are perfect for a relaxed Thanksgiving table, less formal than gold and just as pretty when the dishes are piled up with the comforting fare of a traditional Thanksgiving. In our line of work we do not get many Holidays off, and Thanksgiving is no exception, we work until around 5PM so dinner must be simple, delicious and planned ahead of time. Each year I ask each family member what they really want and make each one of those items. The one thing I always make just for me is a big bowl of brandied cranberries! What is your must have?

Happy creating!{ no mustaches were harmed in the making of this photo!}

Fringe Flower 50th Birthday!

Today in my craft group { The hen house crafters} we are celebrating our sweet friend Simone's 50th Birthday!!! I know these girls, and trust me there will be plenty of the typical "over the hill" gag gifts and lots of teasing today, and usually I would be the leader of the pack when it comes to cornball fun at the expense of someone else . But I wanted to make a beautiful card for her, after all she has been alive for 50 years!! :) hee hee!!!!

The flowers were made with the new {and oh so fabulous} fringe flower cuttlebug die. The cards layout inspiration is from this weeks Mojo Monday sketch!{ Mojo 215 }The papers are My Minds eye Stella and Rose, and the stamp is Stampin'Up!

These flowers have lots of dimension, and are easy to make. I even snipped the pink one a little shorter to create a smaller flower. OK time to go....I'm headed to meet the girls and have a little {probably a lot} of Birthday fun, some cheesecake, and maybe even a little crafting will get done today.....maybe!

Happy Birthday Simone!!!!

Pocket and Tag Advent Calendar

Advent Calendar With a Twist

We all love to countdown the days to Christmas, and with this special advent calendar you can check off the days in a whole new way! You can see the Calendar and all 25 unique tags and pockets on The official Cricut blog! Learn what makes this Advent calendar different from any other and download the gypsy file to make your own! I hope you love it as much as I do!

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Happy creating!

Altered Sled Ornament

 This past weekend at my annual Holiday Hoopla crop we had a handmade ornament exchange, this altered sled was my offering! I love the way it turned out, and the hardest part was painting the sled because the dimensional flower was created with my Cricut Imagine!!!!

So let me give you the rundown so you can make them for yourself, or if you are looking for a gift to make, these would be gorgeous as a package tie...kind of a gift with a gift!!!  The sled was picked up at Michael's, then painted red and brown with craft paint.

To create the flower with Snow Angel Imagine art cartridge and the Cricut Imagine, print and cut the flower at 2.7" and cut the layers separately at 2.7" on white card stock. Ink edges with red and green ink, and curl with a bone folder. Layer with foam tape, and add a few little micro beads with a glue dot in the flower center. Add seam binding {Stampin' Up!} in a big crinkly bow and cut label with cuttlebug, stamp sentiment, adhere to sled, and you are ready to decorate!!!

Happy creating!!!

Exciting News to share!

Well its exciting to me anyways, and I hope you will do a little happy dance with me! *wink* I have been holding my breath for a while with such jump up and down for joy news, and finally I can tell you all about it! I have joined Northridge publishing Cricut magazine as part of their design team! { click on the link to meet the rest of this super talented team}

Now I have to tell you when I got that invitation, I did scream......and jump for joy...and then had wonder if it was real! 

I am beyond being shocked that I ever learned to craft my way out of a paper bag!  Hello seriously!  I have middle school art projects that just about squashed any hopes and dreams I ever had about having a creative bone in my body....but life is funny that way and when you really love something, you just keep trying no matter how much your dad laughs at your sad sorry kitty sculpture! {yes it was bad...very very funny...and oh so bad} LOL ......To be in this moment, is just amazing! I can't claim to be an artist, but there is happiness in all that I do!

Thank you for your support, for your friendship, and for the inspiration you provide me, and the future crafty souls out there! Thank you for doing a happy dance with me, and letting me gush in my little moment is the sun!  Much love, and as always happy creating!

Paper Pieced Pumpkins

Setting a fall table for company or just a family meal, is one of the joys of the Autumn season. These paper pumpkins are as easy as pie to make, with rich papers and felt leaves they will bring a cozy feeling to any room!

This table was one of our vignettes at Stampcation back in September, I will be sharing each of the elements as the week goes by! To make a patch of these pumpkins cut strips of paper 1" wide by 6" or 8" or even 10" depending how big you want your patch to be! Cut about 10 pieces per pumpkin. To add dimension you can emboss the strips with your favorite folder.

  Try mixing up the patterns you have on hand...this is a great way to use up some of your scrappy leftovers! Pierce a hole in the top center and bottom center of each strip, now insert a brad in the first strip adding all 10 and close the brad, now add a brad to the top and fan out the strips, and "squash" the paper gently to create a squatted circle. cut leaves from felt using your cricut or cuttlebug, add rolled strips of cardstock for stems, and curled strips of thin paper make beautiful tendrils!

Place your pumpkin harvest on the table, on a dresser or with a bowl of scented potpourri. Hang them with fishing line along your drapes, ore use them as place settings, with a little chocolate turkey or pumpkin inside each one! Happy creating~

Happy Blessings

Fall is such a wonderful time of year, I think that other than Pumpkin spice flavored coffee, and the earthy scent of cinnamon that fills your lungs every time you walk into the grocery store, my favorite thing about Fall is the abundance of rich color. Oranges creams, and reds, and my all time favorites greens,curries, and browns are gracing the storefronts and landscapes all around us! I welcome the Holiday season with open arms, and have visions of Pumpkins pies dancing in my head! {yum}

This card was made with lots of layers, stitching, and rich fall color. I used my Cricut to create this pumpkin, and leaves. The tendrils are twine, and bitty strips of paper curled up with a quilling pen { I'm sure that is not the correct name for that tool} but you get the idea! Dig out those Autumn papers, dust off your best china and trusty family cookbooks, its finally time.....fall is here!

Happy Creating~

Cricut Couture

During CHA last January we were introduced to the plush Cricut, there is s little plush, and a big gorgeous green huggable size. Provocraft had a fun game where people tool pictures of their Cricit all around LA and uploaded them to win prizes and share stories. But you know we love our bugs so much, that many Cricut fans kept up with the fun! Dressing Cricut up and taking him {her} out to scrappy events, field trips and....well just about anyplace!

This is my Cricut in his natural habitat.....the craft room! Now he hangs out and munches on paper scraps and keeps watch over my ribbon, and keeps me company all day long. This diet coke bottle flew home with him from LA and has a fun and memorable meaning for me. While at CHA the DT leaders and a few of us DT girls went out for dinner and chatted for hours, munching on yummy food, wine and diet cokes. When our bill came we were shocked that our diet cokes cost more than a glass of wine! Racking up 7.00 per little bottle....and yikes we each had several! LOL we still giggle {in a painful but funny recollection} about breaking the bank with diet cokes!

This is my bitty baby Cricut snuggling up with my Stampin'Up! Build a bear, they are best friends, and get along perfectly just like my Stampin'Up! stamps go together with my Crciut cuts like "peas and carrots"!

These little cuties were also introduced at CHA and are now available on Crciut.com! Aren't they adorable! I want the whole series!!

This is one of the charms that you could buy at the Cricut Circle meet ups, I wear mine with all of my Circle meet up charms, and this one is by far my favorite! I love my Cricut!

I recently met these two fabulously fun ladies at the Scrapbook Expo in West Palm Beach, they have their bug-a-boos all decked out! This is Janna, and Seanna, they have been friends for a long time, and scrapping is the glue that binds them, like so many friendships forged in the paper craft community! They love to dress up their Cricut babies and have even started a blog about the adventures they and their companions enjoy! {Is that fun or what?} Check out some of these tooooo cute ensembles! And be sure to visit the adventures of Cricut Babies blog
 As a thank you to Janna and Seanna for sharing their story and all of these fun photos with us, I will be sending them some fabulous cuttlebug folders! {thanks girls}

Every Girl needs satin jammies! Especially in hot pink, for an all night crop!

 Trick or treat!

Way tutu adorable!

We all know you have to bring snacks and chocolate to a crop! I love that Cricut is wearing a seat belt! *giggle* Always smiling, Cricut lends a hand and gives scrappy advice! 

Just hanging around at the Cricut Circle Orlando crop back in April...looking a little naked and in need of some Cricut Couture! If you need a Cricut of your own click here to order one!

I want to see your Cricut antics! Do you dress up Cricut, take your bug on outings, have a cute story to share? Add your photo to the linky tool below, or leave a comment with your story! I cant wait to see what adventures you have had!  I will choose one winner to receive a Holiday goodies kit, filled with scrappy supplies!