HAPPY BIRTHDAY - CARD

Happy Monday everyone. Just stopping by to make a quick post with a birthday card I completed last week. I swear my "to do" lists are spiraling out of control between all of the birthdays and the holidays coming up. I am in awe of those that make blog posts daily of their projects. How do you do it? Please let me in on your secret. :)

I received this image from a image swap last year. It's a Penny Black image from the Critter Party set. Hope everyone has a great week. I am currently working on 20 Christmas Party invites and am hoping to finish them up this week to share with you all.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Just a quick post to wish all my blogland friends a fun and safe Halloween!! Here are a few photos taken from our Halloween Party this weekend.

Here is our youngest daughter Caitlin as a fortune teller. We set up a fortune telling table for her complete with a Magic Eight Ball that we spray painted white and dumped a bunch of glitter on for her crystal ball. She was fantastic and everyone got a kick out of it.

Our oldest daughter Brittany was just gorgeous as a Greek Goddess!!

Hubby and I as a caveman and a cave woman. Our youngest designed and sewed our costumes for us. We loved them!! Oh and yes, this is exactly how hubby got me to date him 22 years ago. I have been hooked since. LOL

Happy Halloween Everyone!!

SUPER SIZE IT - SOCCER STYLE!

This weekend we had the pleasure of attending our niece's soccer game. She is only 6, but she is the best little soccer player I have ever seen! We wanted to make a sign to bring with us to show our support and how proud we are of her and well, you know how obsessed I am with the Greeting Farm Stamps so, this is what I came up with.

I just printed my Soccer Anya digi stamp onto flesh, white, black, yellow and green pieces of 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock and then paper pieced her together. The result? Well I think she is adorable and Alyssa loved her.

Here is a a close up of my super sized Soccer Anya. Here is our cutie patootie niece, Alyssa. LOVE that smile!!

Here she is again, hard at work, the next great soccer star.

TIME TO BRAG

Today I am taking a break from craft blogging and am taking the opportunity to brag a little bit about my oldest daughter and her baking abilities.

I asked Brittany to make me some cookies to give to a friend for her birthday and this is the end result. Aren't they just gorgeous?!?! I absolutely love them, they are so pretty!

Here they are all packaged up and ready to deliver to my friend, who loved them!! You can check out Britt's blog here.

GOT CANDY CORN? PLUS FREE DIGI HALLOWEEN STAMPS!

Just how stinking cute are these little milk cartons?? I used the Mini Milk Carton die from Stampin' Up to make about 2 dozen of these little guys for our Halloween Bash coming up next week.

I borrowed this die from a friend to complete these and now it is on my soon to purchase list. ;) I can see it being used for so many different holidays and occasions. I don't own the Big Shot but I do own the Cuttlebug and I had no problem getting this die to work with it. I would recommend purchasing the newer Cuttlebug plates that are a bit longer though. It's not necessary to own them to use this die with the Cuttlebug, but it would have made the process of cutting them out a little quicker and easier. The digi images used on these came from this blog. The best thing about these images is that they are free!! So make sure to hop on over to her blog to grab these cuties. They are adorable and perfect for a project like this.

I plan on filling them with candy corn for all of the kids, and young at heart with a sweet tooth, that attend our bash.

YOU'RE A CLASSIC - CARD

Have you ever struggled with a card or a LO? I mean REALLY struggled? Spent way too much time on it, made way too much of a mess creating it, changed your mind about different elements of it many times, and still not happy with it when it's completed? This card was a challenge for me.

This card is SO out of my comfort zone. I don't make many manly cards or even serious cards. I make cutesy and fun cards. I needed to make a man's birthday card for someone I really don't know well and have only met a few times. I found this idea in a Papercrafts magazine and scrapjacked it. I loved the card in the magazine but am not thrilled with my version of it. The biggest challenge I think was coloring the car. I must have colored the silly thing 4 or 5 times and still hate it. I thought throwing a bunch of Glossy Accents on it would make the coloring look better. Hmm, don't think it worked. Copics didn't give me the weathered/older look I wanted, my Prisma's failed me miserably so I ended up using chalk. Well chalk and Glossy Accents.

Next year, the recipient is getting a card made with a Greeting Farm Anya. ;o)

CELEBRATE - CARD

My Bella stamps have been sadly neglected ever since I branched out and purchased some of the Whimsie Doodles digi stamps and some of The Greeting Farm Anya stamps. Poor things

actually whimpered with joy when I brought them out into the light.

Here is a quick birthday card that I made for a dear friend that celebrated a birthday over the weekend. The stamp is Giftabella from Stamping Bella, the paper is from the SEI Black Orchid pack and the border punch is Gothic Arches from Martha Stewart. It's another new punch for me that I have yet to use.

Thanks for stopping by, hope everyone is having an excellent Monday!!

BEWITCHING HOUR - INVITE

The minute I saw this bewitching cutie digital stamp from The Greeting Farm I knew she would make her debut on our Halloween party invites for this year.

The invite is pretty simple and plain as I had so many to make and I take FOREVER to color but I did get to use this adorable image and my new Martha Stewart border punch so I am a happy gal.

MONKEYING AROUND

I just had to share these adorable cookies that my oldest daughter, Brittany, made for a friend's baby shower. Aren't they just the cutest?!! She made them to match the invitations. She loves all things that have to do with baking; cakes, cupcakes, and now cookies. I know I may be a little biased but I do think she has a flair for it. :o) You can check out her little blog here. It's not very big yet, but she has great plans for it, so if you have a sweet tooth stay tuned!

MAKE A WISH - CARD

One of my favorite blogs to stalk is StampOwl's Studio. Her blog is amazing. Her cards are always adorable and her projects are too cute for words. Check out this cute zig zag style card she created here. As Frances was kind enough to share the template I knew I had to try my hand at making one. So here it is and is one more birthday card down and several more to go. :)

The paper is from Doodlebug and the image is a digi stamp from Whimsie Doodles. I used a little Glossy Accents on the candle and some miscellaneous flowers I had in my stash.

Goes quite well with the little gift bag I had made earlier to hold a gift card and a few scrapbooking embellies. Thank you Frances for the template and inspiration!

HELLO KITTY BIRTHDAY - CARD

Have I mentioned that we have like a million birthdays coming up in the next several weeks? Okay maybe a million is a little bit of a exaggeration, but you know what I mean. This birthday card is for Miss Hailey who is turning 5 and just loves everything and anything Hello Kitty.

I do not own this cart (yet) but it is a really cute one. I do have a question though for those of you that own it. How do you use the shaped card feature on this cart? I tried making a shape card and the left side of my card was flat and cut off the design and the rest of the cuts didn't fit right. How do I fix this for next time? Do you cut out the card base, then cut out a separate base and then glue it on top of the card base?

As you can see I opted not to give her the funky looking shaped card and instead just used a different cut. Hello Kitty was cut at 6". I added TONS of Stickles (Ruby Slippers) to her bow and a rub on sentiment in the heart. Any suggestions on how to use the card feature for this cart or others would be greatly appreciated.

UNDER THE SEA BIRTHDAY - CARD

I swear this is the most used and abused stamp I have. Every time I tell myself to go with something different I still go ahead and reach for this one. I do have a valid excuse, beside it being one of my favorites, one of the many parties that we are attending in a few weeks is a mermaid themed party. So how could I not use Mermaid Anya for the birthday card? I used my Paper Doll Dress Up Cricut cartridge for the coral and shell. I always forget how versatile that cart is with the many accessories on it. I added a little bling to Anya's hair, a few fishy brads from Recollections and a pearl from an old costume necklace. I just love this stamp. :)

BIRTHDAY ROBOT - CARD

I can not believe how many birthday cards I have to make in the next several weeks. In just a few short weeks my family is attending 4 birthday parties in one weekend. Let the craziness begin!

I have been dying to use this Rockets & Sprockets paper from Recollections and the Tim Holtz Sprocket Gears since I purchased them last month. Unfortunately I did not have a stamp or a Cricut cart that would work with my newly bought goodies, so they have had to sit in my scrapbook room untouched......until I found this really cute Dustin Pike robot digi image. I think it is perfect! I colored him with my Copics and used a little Glossy Accents on his belly. Do robots have bellies? Anyways, the circle sentiment is from Stampin' Up.

One down and several more to go. Did I mention I am also attending a Cricut SWARM in 3 weeks? When am I going to find time to get ready and pack for that?

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU

How terrific are these cookies?!?! My oldest daughter Brittany made these for her dad's birthday. He's a big Star Wars fan and she thought these would be perfect for his birthday celebration dinner that we had last night. Not only do they look good but they tasted good too.

Way to go sweetie, you did a great job and Happy Birthday Scott!!

SCHOOL ROCKS!!

Right now there are two things that I am addicted to. #1) is The Greeting Farm stamps (I love love love them) and #2) is altering composition notebooks for all of my little school age friends. I figure they can never have too many notebooks. ;)

I made this one for a friend of mine who's daughter recently started school. I just had to use Rock Star Anya from The Greeting Farm. She has just the right amount of spunk. The guitar is paper pieced with help from a clip art picture that I found and altered a bit.

I still have a stack of naked composition notebooks BEGGING to be made over. Hmmmm, I see a Christmas notebook/organizer in my future.

SAIL ME AWAY - LO

I had never heard of a "Raingutter Regatta" until Caitlin and I joined Girl Scouts. This was such a fun event! Caitlin and Scott took part in the "Me & My Guy Raingutter Regatta Race" that our Girl Scout Service Unit put on. They had to put a boat together and then blow it across a raingutter filled with water that was propped up on two saw horses. It was fun to watch the two of them work on their boat together and then have to race it. They didn't win any prizes that day but the two of them certainly had a great time!!

ZOO - LO

This LO used something that I have not used in quite some time......STICKERS. I am not a big fan of using stickers on my LO's as most of them are flat and have no dimension or texture. I am sad to say that I have a huge binder full of stickers that have not seen the light of day unless I break them out for the daycare babes to play with.

To complete this LO I actually took the sticky out of my stickers. I brushed the back of the stickers with baby powder and added them to my page with pop dots to give them dimension. They are more like die cuts here than stickers. I may have to take a second look at my stickers for future LO's.