My Pink Stamper Design Team Call

Yikes, I can't believe I'm doing this but I decided to just go for it and enter a submission to be on a design team over at My Pink Stamper!!!  I came across the design team call only this morning and thought it'd be fun to try out for a design team and then looked at the deadline and saw that it was TONIGHT, oh no!!!  I almost gave up right then and there because I knew I wouldn't have much time at all to design and execute a project.  Actually I have to admit that I had decided against it but then I had an inkling of an idea and I can't resist a good idea so I went ahead and scribbled out a design on a scrap of paper (literally scribbles).  I had to wait for the kids to go down for a nap before I could head downstairs and start cutting and putting papers together for it.  I had a couple of hours to get most of the cutting done before the kids were up again and then I had to wait a few more hours before I could head down again to finish it up.
Robyn over at My Pink Stamper is picking a handful of people to be on her design team for the next 6 months.  When I saw the call this morning there were over 150 entries already!  I have no idea if my work is up to design team par but if I don't give it a shot there's no way I'll ever be on a design team so here goes!!!  There are so many talented crafters trying out and I would be so extremely honored and excited if I were chosen (like jumping up and down and screaming excited)!  If I'm not chosen, oh well, I absolutely love designing cards and scrapbook pages for myself and my family and friends and I'll at least have a wonderful page of memories added to my scrapbook to show for it.  Here are the requirements for the challenge:


*You will need to have a blog that you regularly post on for at least 3 months.*You cannot already be serving on a DT that has product that is a conflict of interest (most DTs are just fine as long as they do not sell product that is similar to My Pink Stamper Original Cricut Stamps idea)*Your project must be made just for this challenge*Post a pic on your blog with a full recipe along with what the challenge is about*This needs to be a new project that you make just for this challenge*Only one entry per person, please*You do not need to be a professional but you must have a love for the craft!  :)
Challenge:  Make a card, scrapbook page, or other Cricut project with your favorite Cricut cartridge using the following colors......
OrangeTurquoise GreenBrown(other optional color of your choice)Here is my submission.  

Here is the "recipe."
The layout is 12x12.
The background patterned paper is Imaginisce's Happy Camper line (Tree Hugger to be exact).
All of the cardstock is from Core'dinations.
The orange paper for the moon and fox is from Basic Grey's Romani line.
I used Chestnut Colorbox ink to distress all of the edges.
The tent was my "lightbulb" idea that got the ball rolling.  I used Camping Critters to cut it.  It's from a badge feature so I had to guess at sizing to get the size I wanted.  I originally had the pic printed at 5x7 but after my first attempt to get the tent big enough realized that I'd have to print the picture smaller.  It's a 4x6 pic under the tent and I still had to trim the picture to get it to fit perfectly.  I ended up cutting the tent at 10 1/2" (badge setting).  I did some fussy cutting to make the entire tent flap up to reveal my picture.  I plan to add some journaling to the underside of the tent flap.
The tree stand is also cut from Camping Critters at 6".
I embossed the background with Tim Holtz's Woodgrain embossing folder.
I used Cuttlebug's Tiny Dots for the trees in front.
The fox and layers (I LOVE this sleeping fox image) are cut from Give A Hoot at 1 3/4".
The moon is cut at 3 1/2" from Camping Critters and flipped.
The title is cut from Camping Critters using the sign feature and flips up to reveal 2 more photos.  I cut the sign and all layers at 4".
The woodgrain paper on the inside of the sign is from Cosmo Cricket's Mr Campy collection.
The cloud border at the top is just cut freestyle by hand.
The starry night paper strip is also from Imaginisce's Happy Camper line.
The little stars are cut from A Child's Year at 3/4".
I used glitter star brads from Recollections in the center of the cut stars.
The phrase on the tent is from Fundamentals Petite Letter Stickers.
I used twine by American Crafts to hang the sign from a star.

My 2 year old daughter is currently obsessed with flip books so I did all of the flip ups on this layout with her in mind.  She loves looking at my layouts, especially is she is in them!  The pics are from our recent camping trip.  She doesn't look too happy in the pictures but she had fun!  She just doesn't like sitting still for pics right now (toddlers!?!).

Whew, I'm exhausted now!  Time to sit back and relax and check out all of the other amazingly talented entries!  Happy crafting all!

Jacob's scrapbook (Months 2 thru 4)

I finished 3 scrapbook pages in the past day and a half and there are a couple more in the making which brings me almost to my goal of 1 page per month plus special occasions for my baby!  Of course I still have about a year of catch up to do for my daughter but that shouldn't take me too much time, LOL!
The first one is my boy at 2 months old.  I love the look on his face here.  He really is such a little flirt, today he was smiling at me and raising his eyebrows, beyond adorable!

As I was scrapping this page I remembered that Unity Stamp Co has a challenge going on right now to use circles so I flipped through my Unity stamps searching for some circular stamps to fit my page and found 3 different stamps to use all from different KOM's.  The dandelion circle is from April 2010, the flower circle is from May 2011 and the heart sentiment if from June 2011.  The patterned paper is from Bobunny's Adlib line.  The title stickers are from Fancy Pants.

The next layout is Jacob at 3 months old.  The papers, epoxy owls and tree ribbon are from TPC Studio's Woodland Whimsy line.  The title is cut from Give A Hoot.  I am entering this one in a challenge going on over at Paper Cutz called The skies the limit.  All your project has to have in it is something found in the sky...OWLS!!!

The last layout is Jacob at almost 4 months old (he'll be 4 months this Friday).  I love this pic of him, he's got such a sweet smile!  The paper is from KI Memories, the frame is patterned paper by Heidi Grace that I cut into strips to make a frame.  The banner is from My Mind's Eye except for the green scalloped pennants, they are cut from Birthday Bash.  The paper line I had was browns, blues, yellows and oranges and I really wanted some green pennants to tie in with the colors of the layout and the Cricut comes to the rescue!  I cut them real size at 1 1/4" and they blend right in with the stickers.  I popped up the banner with dimensional tape and strung some twine behind it.

And now off to work on some more pages!!!

Twinkling Star

Two days ago I had an opportunity to visit with an old friend who I hadn't seen since junior high and to meet one of her beautiful daughters.  Sadly the reason we were able to visit with one another was that her daughter was at Mott Children's Hospital (about 30 minutes from my home) recovering from her 2nd open heart surgery (she's only 11 months old).  This little gal is truly a miracle and I am very blessed to have met her!  She has a very rare genetic disease (Toriello Carey) and she has already overcome so many obstacles and has surprised her doctors with her amazing accomplishments to date!  She is living proof that God works miracles and I am inspired by her bravery and strength and that of her mother as well.  After a couple of rough days post-surgery I am happy to say that she is doing much better and they hope to move her from the ICU to her own room soon!
I made this card for Little Miss Gabby.  The sentiment is from Unity Stamp Co and says:  Everyone is a star and deserves the right to twinkle - Marilyn Monroe.  I loved this sentiment for her because I believe that she shines and twinkles and that her light reaches far and wide and touches the hearts of so many people who have never even met her, she is just amazing!  The card and owl were cut with my Cricut.  Card from Wild Card and owl from Kate's ABC's.  The papers are from My Mind's Eye.  I used some sparkly star brads and used a sparkly gel pen on the little cloud outline above the sentiment.

Thank you for stopping by my blog and if you could say a little prayer for Miss Gabby's recovery I know her family truly appreciates all prayers that come their way.  Thank you

I have entered this card into the Quote That challenge at Frosted Designs.

Blog Awards!!!

I logged into my blog the other day and I found that I had a new follower and that she had passed on 2 awards to me!  My first awards!!!  Thank you Pam @ Crafty Cards 4U2  it was very sweet of you to think of me, you made my day!  She's very crafty, stop by her blog and leave some love on her projects!  I feel very honored that she thought to pass these award on to me, Thanks Pam!

The first award is called A Thing of Beauty Award and here are the rules for it:

I must share 5 things about myself ( 1 of the listed items must be something about crafting) and then pass the award to 5 other blogs.

The second award is:  The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award.  

Here are the rules for the Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award:

1. Send a thank you to the one that nominated you include their link.

2. To accept this award, answer 7 random questions about yourself.

3. Pass the award on to at least 8 other awesome blog buddies.

I 'm going to do as she did and consolidate my answers to fulfill both awards rules.

1) Thank you Pam @ Crafty Cards 4U2 you are very sweet!

2) 1. I love adventure and the great outdoors.

    2. I used to have a 14 foot Burmese python, she was a sweetie!

    3. I love dressing up for Renaissance Festivals!

    4. My favorite color is green.

    5. I have been a vegetarian for 14 years.

    6. I am a stamp addict, I have WAY too many even to count!

    7. I ALWAYS have my I-pod playing some tunes while crafting.

 

3) I wish to pass this on to the following blog friends in no particular order.

    1. Karen @ Crafted With Love by Karen

    2. Jasmine @ Jazzy Pantz Cardz

    3. Maribel @ I Love Scrapping

    4. Chriss @ Scrappin' With Chriss and Lou

    5. Lisa @ A Mermaid's Crafts

    6. Nancy @ Scrap Happens

    7. Lynn @ Miller's Ink

    8. Shelly @ My Paper Love

I am relatively new to the blogging scene but have always loved the friendliness, generosity and camraderie of the papercrafting community!  It's what I miss most about not working in the industry anymore but raising 2 little ones is a full-time job and what I'm devoting all of my time to these days!  It's nice to have that feeling again through my blogging friends, thank you again Pam for these wonderful awards!

Classy and Fabulous Birthday!

It's Friday again and time for another Friends with Flair!  You can find some fabulous creations by gals who love inking up their Unity Stamps here every Friday!
This past weekend we celebrated my hubby's grandma's 93rd birthday!  This is the card I made for her.  I just know that back in the day she was a fashionista and thought this card was perfect for her.  I LOOOOVE this sentiment (that's the main reason I bought this set plus it was on sale ;)).  For the inside of the card I wrote Happy Birthday to a woman who is both!

I don't love the way this turned out but I was in a time crunch (finished it about an hour before her party).  I knew I wanted to use this stamp and sentiment but was having a hard time finding papers to match the classy and fabulous feel that I wanted the card to have.  Don't you just hate it when you know you have the perfect papers for a project but can't seem to find them!?!  Oh well, she loved it so that's really all that matters right? 
The pretty frame is cut with my Cricut Elegant Edges cartridge out of Echo Park paper at 4 1/2".  The striped PP is old Bobunny.  I was looking for a paper with pretty and elegant swirls to it but couldn't find the one I had in mind.  I also think the pearls on here clash with the polka-dot frame but it needed some bling and I was just really rushed to finish it.  Hate it when I don't plan ahead for special cards.
Happy Friday everyone, wishing you all a fabulous weekend!!!

Camp Sweet Camp

After 4 months I still consider myself a Cricut novice and am trying to find my Cricut style.  I figure what better way to do that than to play with it and use it as much as possible, right?  Well it certainly got some use on this layout!  Everything was cut using the Camping Critters cart and it took me a little while to put together (3 days worth of the kids napping and after they went to bed too)!
I really love stamping too and I try to incorporate that on my layouts as well but didn't succeed too well here.  The only stamping I did was the quote on the tent that I had to cut the sentiment apart to get to fit on.  I also like to add a lot of journaling on my layouts and I couldn't really find a good space on here to do that so I used the badge feature on the cartridge and the title flips up to showcase another photo and hidden journaling.  The photo of my kids together in the camping chair also was cut with the badge feature and flips up for 2 more photos as well.  This one I feel is a primarily Cricut LO and I don't really feel that it represents my style very well.  I like it though and I know that the more I play around the closer I will come to finding a style that is uniquely me.  The patterned paper is Imaginisce.  I used the Cuttlebug tiny dots and Tim Holtz's woodgrain embossing folder for the trees.  I added some doodling and googly eyes to the animals and some glitter glue to the fire. 
The pictures are from our camping trip at the beginning of June.  We love camping so much that we decided spur of the moment to get up north and enjoy some nice weather and camping with the kids (almost 2 years and 2 months old at the time)!  It was a fun trip and actually very successful, we're going again in 2 weeks!

I am entering this LO into the Let's Go Camping challenge over at Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog and for the Summer Fun challenge over at Die Cutting Divas.  Thanks for stopping by and happy camping to you all!

B-day cards for 2 sweet kids.

This past weekend we went to a birthday party for 2 of my daughters friends from her playgroup.  My daughter has the best playgroup ever!  She and I have met so many wonderful kids and moms through this group and it's been a lifesaver to have such a great support group of moms who live in my area.  The majority of us moms met when our 1st babies were little and then had the joy of going through our second pregnancies together and now have babies close to the same age as well.  It's great seeing all these sweet kids growing up and we went to a party on Sunday for a sweet little guy turning 3 and his little sister born a week apart who will be turning 1.  These are the cards I made for them.
The first is for 3 year old C who is a lover of all things locomotive.  I thought he'd get a kick out of seeing his initial, age and a train of course!  The paper and embellies are all from Crate Paper.

The second card is for 1 year old J.  Love this silhouette from A Child's Year and it's perfect for a 1st birthday card!

 I cut the highchair at 4 1/4" and tried to add some detail with my gel pen.  I'm still a novice when it comes to detailing silhouettes and don't really love how that part turned out.  The epoxy sentiment sticker is Creative Imaginations and I layered it on a scalloped circle and pop-dotted it for dimension.  The pp is from a DCWV stack and the ribbon and flowers are just old stuff laying around in my stash.
It's just so fun to make cards for little ones!

Thanks a Bunch

I made this card last night for a couple of challenges.  The first is going on over at Cricut 360.  The challenge was to make a thank you circle card using any cricut cartridge.  The second challenge is going on over at More Than Favors and that was to use the Wild Card Cartridge.  How perfect since that was just the cartridge I had in mind for the circle card!!!  It has the cutest circle doily card on it.  I cut it at 5 1/2".  I then cut the circle at 5".  The cute watering can flower pot is from Kate's ABC's and cut at 4 1/2".  The patterned paper is Echo Park's For the Record.  The cute frog stamp is from Hero Arts.

 I finished it off with some doodling, water droplets, a button and baker's twine.  The little frog is popped up with some dimensional tape.

Carefree Summer

Woohoo, it's Friday again!  Thankfully it seems to have come early this week because I really needed another weekend!  I've been able to spend all my free time this week (when the kids are napping or in bed for the night) crafting in my cool corner of the world (my craft space is in the basement where I can beat the summer heat)!  I've gotten a lot done too.  Here is what I accomplished yesterday.  The first is my fun little summer card for Friends with Flair using the June KOM.

The paper is some Scenic Route from scraps I had laying around from a LO a couple of weeks ago.  I paper pieced a couple of the items on the clothesline.  The sentiment is heat embossed and I cut the labels out with Spellbinders.

The second project that I made yesterday is a layout of my daughter at 1 year old.  I was going through my photo pile (pics I have printed that I want to scrap eventually) and was inspired by this one.  It's such a bright and summery photo and I just adore the silly, sassy look she's giving the camera.

The PP is from October Afternoon's Fly a Kite collection.  The chipboard is old Bobunny.  I used my Dymo label for the journaling.  The sun was cut from Cricut's Give A Hoot at 3 1/4".  The clouds were cut from Create A Critter at 2" and 2 1/2".  I stamped the clouds with Unity's distressed dots.
Thanks for stopping by, hope you all have a fantastic carefree summer weekend!

Camping Anyone?

At the beginning of June my husband and I decided to take a spur of the moment camping trip (tent camping with a not quite 2 year old and a 2 month old)!!!  All of my friends said we were brave but the truth is we're just crazy!  It turned out to be a FANTASTIC weekend though!  Both kids were 100% amazing and did great!

I have so many photos from the weekend that I still need to scrap but here is one of the only pics of the 4 of us the entire weekend.  The papers are Bobunny, the journaling block is Cosmo Cricket, the stickers are Bobunny (campfire), Adornit (love) and Sandylion (camping anyone).  The brads are Bobunny.  Happy campers is a rub-on from Cosmo Cricket.

Jacob's scrapbook (birth and 1 month).

I made the mistake of getting behind on my daughters scrapbook and don't want to make the same mistake with my son.  I've got so much catch up to do as it is when it comes to layouts!  I really only have a goal to do one page a month for each child as well as holidays and birthdays.  Anything else I'm inspired to create I consider a bonus!  You wouldn't think 3 layouts a month would be hard but I often get a creative block when it comes to scrapbooking which is why I make so many cards.  I think I just want my layouts to be absolutely perfect (which is a ridiculous ideal).
Last night I was in a mood to do some scrapbooking and got 2 layouts done for my son.  HOORAY, now he's finally representing some space on my living room wall hanging!
The first layout is my favorite picture of me and him at the hospital when he's just a couple of hours old.  I have another pic I want to scrap of him when he was first placed in my arms which I'll use to write his birth story out with.

The cute scalloped paper with the baby buggy is from KaiserCraft.  I cut the title from the Baby Steps cartridge on my Cricut.  Mommy is cut at 1 3/4" and Little man is cut at 2 1/4.  The stamps are Unity (love you to the moon and back and the moon with star), Stampendous (star strip) and Autumn Leaves (journaling strip).

The next layout for my guy is him at one month old.  The paper is from DCWV's Rocktar stack.  The title was cut with my cricut cart Rock Princess (or rock prince in this case!).  Rockstar and layers cut at 3 1/4" and baby was cut at 2 1/4.

OWH Fourth of July Card Challenge Party!

There is a virtual cardmaking party going on over at Operation Write Home this weekend.  Every 2 hours they have another blog posting a challenge and since we have no plans today and it's almost 95 degrees outside I thought it'd be a great day to spend some time in the cool (actually very chilly) basement at my craft table and get some cards made for OWH!

This was the 2nd challenge posted today by Sheila over at 2 Paw Prints.  Her challenge was to make a card using a fishbowl.  How fun!!!  I cut the fishbowl out from my cricut using the Create A Critter cart at 3 3/4".  Aren't the fish just adorable, they are from Unity Stamp Company and I colored them with my copics and cut them out (just a wee bit of time).  The sentiment is from Hero Arts.  You can't tell from the photo but I used some transparent packaging to cover the fishbowl to make it look shiny like a glass fishbowl would be.

The second card I made today was actually for the 1st challenge posted.  Brenda at Brenda's Stamping Corner posted a challenge to use camouflage creatively.  Here is my take on creative camouflage!  All Stamps are Unity Stamps.  I used a white gel pen to accent the cake because it was hard to see the details of the stamp on the dark paper (camouflage at work for ya).  :)

Stay tuned for more cards from the challenge and have a Happy 4th of July weekend everyone!

Alrighty, here is my 3rd card made for the 3rd challenge!  This challenge was posted by Tanya at Tinkerin In Ink and is a color challenge.  The challenge is called Tie a Yellow Ribbon and the colors to be used are yellow, white, peach and espresso (yellow ribbon not required).  I sat at my craft table stumped for a few minutes on this one.  Color challenges are usually tough for me, weird huh?  Well thankfully my craft block cleared up after just a couple of minutes (they can often last for days or even weeks).  I simply looked down at my pile of Unity stamps that I hadn't cleaned up from the last challenge and saw a kit on the top that had yet to be inked up and thought that I really should set a personal challenge to myself to use a yet unused stampset.  I just happened to pull out this particular stamp and "play" around with it to see if it could be a contender for this challenge.  I honestly thought while I was "inking" (used brush markers to color the stamp) the stamp up that it would probably turn out to be horrible and I'd have to scrap it.  Turned out I liked it, so yay, an idea was born!

The stamp is Unity (Just be you), the scalloped square is a Spellbinders die, the embossing folder is Cuttlebug.  I know there is a tiny bit of green in the card as well but otherwise I think it sticks to the color challenge very well!
Here is my card for challenge #16 All About Animals over at Mouse Print Creations.  I'm so not going in order here!  I do have the intention of playing along with all of the challenges and making a card for each but I know there is no way with all we've got going on this weekend that I'll get them done by tomorrow night.  Oh well, the important thing is that they all get sent to OWH for the soldiers!

This cute little stamp and sentiment are by Stampendous.  I colored it in with my copics and used glossy accents on the bubbles.

I only got 2 cards made today for the challenge but it was a beautiful 4th of July and we went out on the boat with my husbands family and then back to the in-laws for a BBQ.  Lots of fun!  It was my daughters first time out on the boat and she had a blast, especially when we dropped anchor and just played in the water!  But I diverge, back to the cards!
The first card is for the bears and hearts challenge #13 over at Scrappinbear's Studio.  I used my Cricut to cut the bear at 3 1/2" from the Baby Steps cart.  The heart is a stamp from Unity and I used some alphabet stamps to make the sentiment.  The paper is Sassafras Lass.

The second card I made today was for the 4th challenge What does Freedom mean to you? over at Our Little Inspirations.  All stamps are from Unity.

I've had a lot of fun with these challenges and will get them all done within the next few days (the house really doesn't need to be cleaned, right?)!  I know there's less than an hour left to link up to the challengers blogs to have them count but oh, well, it's been a great weekend!  Happy Birthday America!!!