Cricut Challenge 20: Forever Young and FCCB Challenge 71...You Gotta Have Friends!

Remember the song "Friends" by Bette Midler...(showing my age here)...it was popular when I was in college in the 70s.  We used to sing it in our dorm.  "You gotta have friends."

I'm fortunate....I have some wonderfully close friends and am grateful for each one.   

I made this card tonight celebrating friendship with the Forever Young cartridge (another knocked off in my personal challenge...Yay Me!) which is a cartridge I've had for some time and never used.  I am also entering it in the FCCB #71 "Let's Be Friends" Challenge.

I made this card which is a scraplift of a card in the June/July issue of Cricut Magazine.  I used printed papers from My Minds Eye (Grand Vignettes) and some paper scraps of red and white.  The ribbon is Offray...the printed black and white ribbon is wider but I folded it and secured it...I like the way the folded ribbon looked.  I also used a lacy punch from Martha Stewart and a Friends sentiment from Paper Trey Ink.  Fast card...  (the ladies were all cut out at 3.25 inches).  I added just a touch of bling...a besides friends...a girl's gotta have bling, too!

The Forever Young cartridge also has a purse feature.  There are at least 3 dozen shaped purses on the cartridge.  I made this one very quickly with one piece of 12 x 12 cardstock and a small piece for an insert.  I used my Gypsy and made the purse as large as I could (which was about 5.25 inches).  I didn't do any embellishing...but I think the purses are so cute and would make such cute gift card holders or a holder for small things like BLING!

Here it is:

It was so fast and easy...very cute with lots of possibilities... a few extra touches like some ribbon, flowers, etc. would make this so cute!

Happy Crafting!

Cherished Time Together

I didn't get a chance to get in my creation mode on Monday.  We took the Little Guy to the pool and the heat just wiped me out!  We had fun, though...and that little 22 1/2 month old does not have any fear!  I think he will be swimming by next summer if not sooner!

I did manage to get in my craft room last night and played around with alcohol inks for a while but all I ended up with was a muddy mess.  But I had fun playing...one thing I learned is that glossy paper does not do well with an embossing gun.  LOL!  It warped my paper and created a bubble.  It was pretty funny looking!

So...I decided to pull out some of my Unity Stamps that I haven't used yet and came up with this card:

Sometimes you just make something and it works!  A lot of times I make something and it doesn't! HAHA!  But the process is what I do this for...not the end result...I just like making...you know?

I used DCWV Linen Closet cardstock and papers.  The stamps I used were all Unity and were from Cherish the Time, Throughout All, Roots and Wings, and Togetherness Generations cons.  I used Close to My Heart Desert Sand and Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip inks.   The flower was made with the Spellbinders Carnation die (I just double cut each layer, but didn't do the largest layers).  The ribbon is from Wright and the pearls are from my stash and I don't know where I got them but they could be from Michael's.  I used the Tim Holtz distress tool to scuff up the edges of the mat and my CM corner rounder to round one corner of the mat and card.

The picture doesn't do it justice...the colors are really nice and subtle.

I also made another Cars character from the Cricut Cars cartridge...this time I did the inimitable Mater!  I think he turned out cute, too. He sure did have a lot of pieces!!!

Happy Crafting!!!

Cricut Challenge 19: Disney Pixar Cars and Bonus!

Continuing onward with my personal Cricut Challenge of making something with each cartridge I own meant that today I would work with the Disney Pixar Cars cartridge.  I never was interested much in Disney characters...especially as related to the Cricut...but of course that's before I had a grandson.  My grandson is not quite 2 years old...but he is into CARS!  It's so funny.  I didn't know kids would be "into" something at this age but I guess with all the bombarding of media...well, it's bound to happen.  He had gotten a Cars book...then we got him the Cars video...and he loves it!  He also has quite an assortment of little cars now and can name them.  His first real sentence was "Ido wahwah" which of course, meant "Guido is in your glass of water, Mommy.  I accidentally on purpose put it in there and now I can't get it out.  I need your help, Mommy". 

See?  You can also see Lightening McQueen peeking out in dismay from behind the cup of water!

So I bought the Cars Cricut Cartridge because I thought I could make something for David with it.  I finally pulled it out today to work with it.  Let me say I am royally ticked at Cricut for not including better photos and instructions for these images!  There are so many layers and you have to hunt to see where they go!  
I first decided to do Lightning McQueen...the star and I did complete it but boy oh boy was it tough!  Lots of teensy pieces that don't make any sense!  The second one I did...Guido was a bit easier.

Here they are:

They are cute....I think I'm going to put them all in a book after I laminate them and use my Cinch to bind it.  I'm hoping I get it done before David is "into" something else!

My bonus is a little treat I picked up for myself at Joann's today.  Pretty much all their paper crafting stuff is 40% off and I bought a Spellbinders die that was new to my Joann's.  It is the Donna Salazar carnation...and creates 3 dimensional flowers that are so easy and fast to do.  I tried it out and used some old Marcella paper I had...here they are:

You just stack all the flower pieces from small to large on a brad and then sort of mold the layers into a 3 dimensional flower.  Very easy and I love the look.  So many possibilities!!!

Cricut Challenge 17 AND 18 and CAS-Fridays Challenge CFC 13

Well, aren't I rocking???....I knocked off two cartridges in my own personal Cricut challenge to use each cartridge I own.  I thought that was pretty awesome.  I didn't plan it that way....it just happened!  Like I said...I rock! :)

I also did this card for the CAS-Fridays Challenge CFC 13 which is "the long and short" of it...making a card 4x9 inches.  I tell you what...I struggle with Clean and Simple.  I like stuff...I like lots of stuff...I like lots of layers...it is hard for me to leave parts of my cards NAKED (or as we say in the heart of Dixie..."NEKKID!!!)!!!  So this card which I should have gotten done in about 15 minutes took me 2 hours.  It is a very complicated process to be clean and simple, I think.  Simple does not mean EASY!...or fast, for that matter!

So this is what I came up with:

I actually like the way this card came out (sort of)...but it needs stuff! HAHA!
The bird house was cut from April Showers and the bracketed mat was cut from Elegant Edges.  I changed the proportions of the mat as I wanted it to be a little more rectangular than the square way the cut is set up to be.  That's where the Gypsy sure comes in handy!  The scalloped circle is actually a piece of felt...thanks, Judie of Cards by Judie, for reminding me to use fabric! I used a Nestabilities and my Cuttlebug and the felt cut beautifully.  I tied a bit of hemp at the base of the little bird house.  The sentiment was stamped with Stampin' Up Real Red (Craft) and embossed with clear embossing powder.  I found a little heart button I had and cut off the shanks and stuck that baby down with a glue dot. The papers are Cosmo Cricket except for the base cardstock and the Kraft paper. And I tried to de-naked-fy my card by adding some inking to the edges.  My card thanked me.

And that's it for today!

Happy Sunday and Happy Crafting!

Onwards: The Birth of a Baby....

And below are a couple of additional pages I did for my granddaughter's scrapbook.  The layouts are here but if some of you are squeamish about icky, gooey newborns you may want to skip this post.

As some of you know...I WAS THERE when she was born.

Now I had one child "naturally" (the mother of my AG and NBG) and I pushed for 4 1/2 hours and she still had to be delivered by forceps.  That was quite a few years ago!  My baby #2 was born by scheduled section so that was a whole different experience.  You know what they say about C-section babies, though?  They "are a cut above".  HAHA!  OK...I digress....

Anyway, so after this incredible day which included a wonderful win on the tennis court followed by a massive dehydration headache...I got to the hospital about 5pm.  I had gone to my daughter's house because at first it looked like I was going to take her to the hospital because my SIL was on a sales call and then stuck in traffic.  Thankfully he got to their house about 5 minutes after I did so he whisked her off to the hospital which was a good 40 minutes away...maybe more like 50 minutes...and I stayed at their house to try and get rid of my headache and to take care of AG.  I told them I'd be 15 minutes behind them but I put my head down on the couch and couldn't move.  I drank a lot of water and tried to rehydrate and then I ate a pickle (yes, pickles and pickle juice has lots of electrolytes in them) and finally started to feel better.

Like I said.... I made it to the hospital at about 5pm.

I thought I would have plenty of time and planned to take tons of pictures because I was going to be in the delivery room.  I've watched a lot of Baby Center and it usually takes a while to have a baby, doesn't it?

Well, when it was time...at about 6:30 pm the doctor told Amanda to give a little push...well, that head just popped out...and another push and NBG was HERE!  I didn't even have time to focus my camera!!! It all happened so fast.  I wanted to say "PUT HER BACK...I'M NOT READY!!!"

So the pictures are a bit blurry...but let's face it...you get what you get...you can't recreate the scene now, can you???

And it was the most magical 22 and 1/2 seconds I ever experienced!!!

These were the first photos ever taken of NBG (Taylor Aemelia).  The doctor is the same one who delivered my grandson...she was wonderful, calming and funny....

The layouts were completed with Bazzil paper, Making Memories printed paper, some chipboard stickers from K & Company, ribbon from Michael's. I did the journaling on my computer but decided against a fancy font...using Arial Narrow because it was simple.  I wanted this layout to be simple and basically unadorned...I think the pictures are powerful enough....even if they are blurry....

Precious Baby Girl

I've been working on a few scrapbooking layouts recently including some of NBG (New Baby Girl).  I am already way behind in my scrapbooking .... the other day I actually ordered a couple of photo books just to get the pictures organized and printed (plus My Publisher and Shutterfly were having great sales). Doing that sort of frees me up to really scrap the photos I really love.

And this is a photo I love...
Many of you have seen this photo before.  This is NBG in her dad's hand....she was about 2 weeks old here.  We have a similar photo of AG (Adorable Grandson) when he was a newborn so my daughter wanted the same pose with her.  I took this photo and this was actually one I had leftover.  I had put different filters over the photo and this was not our favorite but I just couldn't bear to dispose of it.  I wish her eyes had a little more catch light to them but I didn't edit it that way and decided this will be good for her scrapbook.

I used some My Mind's Eye paper as well as some ribbon I'd gotten at Michaels (the black is satin...the pink is grosgrain) and I just ruffled it up a bit.
The label is from the Creative Memories Stork's Delivery Cartridge.  I've actually used it several times now (Yay for me!).


We took AG to the train (tootoo tain) at Stone Mountain Park today and here is a photo I took of him on the train.

I know you'll agree he is ADORABLE! :)

Happy Crafting!

Cricut Lovers...You Gotta See This!

Check out all the new cartridges and wonderful projects on the Cricut blog HERE,  I am LOVING the card feature on SOPHIE!!!
My friend, Christine, is a CTMH consultant and so I'm hoping to pick up the package from her....the way I understand it is the CTMH cartridge comes with stamps that coordinate with the cuts.  Way cool...
I'll post again later....I have a layout I worked on...just need to take a better picture of it!