Finally - some crafting time!

I have been so busy with a son returning from a mission, school, 5 other kids, etc., etc., that I haven't had much time for playing with paper. Yesterday I got the chance to go and work on projects that I missed at the "Got Ink Girlz" Stamp Camp and they are so stinkin' cute I had to share:


There were 12 projects and each one was so cute. The girls were so nice to those of us who just purchased kits - they cut out and stamped EVERYTHING - all we had to do was put them together. It was fun to go to Mary Lynn's house and visit, assemble and enjoy!

Here are some individual photos:

I love them all! The little bird card makes me giggle, the spider full of m&m's is adorable and the Build-a-Bear tin with the magnet dress ups inside is so dang cute! As you can see, they are a talented bunch of stampers! It was nice to be able to refill my stash a bit.

Thanks Mary Lynn and all of the "girls" for such cute projects!!!!

Crafting Crossover

I love my hobby! I have been in love with paper and stickers for, well, FOREVER! When I stumbled upon the scrapbooking/paper crafting hobby, my life became perfect (well - from a hobby standpoint anyway).

As I have acquired more and more "stuff", I have found that when I can use it for more than just a card or scrapbook page I'm very happy.

Case in point: My Cricut. At first I said I would never want one (too expensive, too bulky, etc. etc.). When I finally caved in and got one I thought I would use it occasionally. Now that I have had it for awhile I find I use it for many things. It's great for crafting scrapbook pages and cards, but I have also made home decor, gifts, helped my nephew with a school project and helped my own kiddos with projects too. It really helps justify the cost (are you listening Stan? tee hee)

This month my Cricut "project" was some posters for Marcus. We are having "mom and Marcus school" three days a week. He really wanted to go to school like the big kids.

Here he is on our first day of school with his posters (he loves them and so do I). They were quick and easy.................thanks to papercrafting.



I love crafting crossovers!!! (and I love that cute kid in the photos too)

UGGS!!

This post has nothing to do with cards or cakes. It's all about Boots!

I love boots! It really is too bad that I live in the desert and only have a short window of time to wear them. While school shopping at the mall this week, I made my kids stop and look at every boot display I saw. Short ones, tall ones, leather and suede! I also think UGGs are totally cute. If you love them too head over here for a chance to win a pair. (and you can even get that cute little button I have added to the sidebar).

Cupcakes!

I had my first "jumbo" cupcake experience this month. I was asked to make 3 dozen for a bridal shower. The cute bride (who was one of my Mia Maids from church - 13 years ago!) loves cupcakes. She is getting married in a tropical paradise so they wanted hot colors.

I decided to try and fill the cupcakes since they are so huge. It worked! I made Chocolate with Chocolate mousse filling, iced with chocolate butter cream *YUM*, Vanilla with strawberries and cream filling, iced with whipped cream icing, and Pina Colada cupcakes (a family recipe that has coconut, pineapple and pecans in it), no filling in this one, iced with coconut cream whipped icing.

I spent a couple of days making accents for each one too. I used fondant to make flowers, leaves and strawberries. The funnest part was embossing the fondant. I decided to try and use my Cuttlebug embossing folders (one craft spilling over into another), and it worked. I put the fondant in the folder and just rolled over it with my rolling pin. Too cute!!

All in all, I was pleased with the way they turned out.


At the shower, we displayed them on my 3 tier stand.


And here is the cute bride to be - totally thrilled that she had cupcakes at her shower.


The only thing that didn't go as I thought it would was which cupcake was most popular. I really thought the chocolate would go first, but actually everyone went ga-ga for the Pina Colada - go figure!

It was a fun project and now I feel confident doing them again.

Get the creative juices flowing.......

I love to blog hop! It's fun to look at other crafter's work and admire their creativity, plus, it often gets my ideas flowing (especially when I'm stuck in a creative rut). While I was looking around the internet the other day I came across a Design Team call for Die Cuts R Us. They sell the things I love.........paper and cutting tools! I love my Cricut and Cuttlebug and love how they help me "scrap on a budget" - who doesn't need some extra pennies these days.

Anyway, I decided that it would be fun to submit my projects and see what happens. Here is what I sent:


Just Because Card: Cardstock (Stampin' Up), Pattern Paper (Making Memories), Ribbon (Club Wed - Target), Cricut Cartridge (Don Juan), Gem (source unknown).


Christmas Joy Card: Cardstock and Ribbon(Stampin' Up), Pattern Paper (SEI), Cuttlebug Embossing Folders (Swirl and Swiss Dot), Star Template (Coluzzle), Ink (Stampin' Up) Button and Twine (source unknown).



Birthday Celebration 12x12 page: Pattern Paper (Cosmo Cricket - Cogsmo line), Cardstock and Ribbon (Stampin' Up), Cricut Cartridge (Celebrations)

Thanks for looking!

Learning to Love Photoshop

I have had a love/hate relationship with Photoshop. I know most people LOVE it, but I felt like an idiot when I couldn't learn how to use it.

Well, my opinion is starting to change. I am taking a free online class at JessicaSprague.com called "Photo Editing: Frame-ups and Special Effects". What a fun class! It is covering what I always wanted to learn in Photoshop and I think I'm actually "getting it". Today we learned how to put type on the photo..................something I think is so much fun. Here is what I did:




This was Elder Jennings' first major snow storm in Iowa. Love the photo and now I love it more with the added texture, frame and text! I can't wait to print this one out! Thanks for looking :)

God Bless America!

I usually post all of our family pictures on our family blog, but this one was too cute to resist!
Happy 4th of July!!