It's Rodeo Day!

I just dropped three very handsome little cowboys off at school for their rodeo day. They each had their cowboy duds, hats, and great big grins on as this is one of their favorite school days each year. It's one of mine as well since I get to go watch them perform the line and square dances they each have been learning in P.E. this past month or so. And since the first graders are up in just a few minutes I'll have to make this post short, but I wanted to share another Cricut Circle Blog project from last fall. I made this layout with the Creative Memories Cheerful Seasons Cartridge which in one of my favorite cartridge as it has a little bit of something for each time of year. 

I used several of the fall cuts on this cartridge along with the Apple Cheddar Soup line from Jillibean Soup. They were a perfect math for this layout about making caramel apples for Family Night!

Thanks for visiting and have a great weekend!

Faking the Letterpress Look

Much of the designing I do for Cricut is shown on the Cricut Circle blog, which is an exclusive members only blog (information on becoming a member here) and therefore I can't show those projects on my own personal blog  until three months has passed. Thankfully I've been designing with Cricut now about 4 months so that means I have a few projects to share! 

The first project I did for the Cricut Circle blog was a challenge to make something to giveaway, so I made this little treat box for a friend of mine at church. I had some leftover supplies from the treat box so I made a matching card as well. 

My favorite part of this project was the embossed background. I used white cardstock, my Cuttlebug, and some green ink. I inked the Cuttlebug folder as completely as I could (I used American Craft pigment ink) and then added my white cardstock and ran it through the Cuttlebug. The first result is on the treat box, although pretty, it didn't quite give me full coverage of the ink, so I repeated the process again using a thin cardstock sham to add additional pressure. This time I got perfect full coverage of the green ink on the flat portions of the cardstock. The raised embossed portions stayed white to create a perfect letterbox effect.  

This project also uses pumpkins cut with the Mini Monsters Cartridge and tags cut with the Elegant Edges Cartridge. The treat box is cut from the Sweet Treats cartridge. 

The papers and stickers are by Bella Blvd, ribbon by Chatterbox, and the clear sentiment stickers are by SRM Stickers.

Thanks for letting me share and have a great day!

Yeah For A Fixed Window and More Halloween

Thanks to a good friend of ours the van is back in great shape and I'm counting my blessings that if the window had to break, I'm very glad it picked one of the few days this week without rain. Now I'm all set for the rather wet and wild weather they say we are going to be having this weekend. Perfect timing! 

So as I mentioned in my last post, today I'm showing my other Halloween layout that there just wasn't time for me to add yesterday. It again uses the Bella Blvd "Too Cute To Spook" line and is about a very fun little Halloween party the boys had with some of their cousins last October.

The journaling reads: "What a great time we had meeting up with your cousins in Dallas for a mini Halloween party in the hotel room. We dressed up, played games, and ate lots of candy. Some of my favorite moments included watching you boys “mummy wrap” your cousins in toilet paper and watching the eruption of giggles while we played “Don’t Eat Jack!” I’m so glad we live close enough to see your cousins often as we always have a great time together! October 2011"

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Well It's Not October or Any Time Near Halloween

But I have some Halloween layouts to share. I was going to do all three today and write a much longer post, but I'm a little bit shorter on time than I thought I would be. While driving my 5 year old to school a rock hit my back window and shattered it --so I'll just go with posting the two that are here and save the third for tomorrow since my day will now be filled with getting the van fixed. Bummer :(

Anyhow, here are two layouts of last Halloween. Spencer loved being Thomas and Blake was very excited to have his first "scary" costume--a vampire. Both layouts use my favorite Halloween line from 2011--Bella Blvd's "Too Cute To Spook" line.

Little Engineer

Scary Little Count

I'm off to go price auto-glass! I hope your day gets off to a better start than mine--and thanks for visiting!

A Little Picadilly

One of my recent favorite collections from Basic Grey is Picadilly! I love the colors and fun country patterns included in this line--very fun stuff! I used it here on this layout about Spencer enjoying some fall leaves in his grandparents backyard last November.

Finally Fall

The journaling reads: "Spencer, you had so much fun playing in all the fall leaves at Grandma and Grandpa Williams' home. We don't see fall leaves in Houston much, so it was a special treat to have a few spare hours to romp through them! November 2011"

Also I want to thank my sweet sister-in-law Becky, for passing a blogging award on to me last Friday! If you haven't checked out her blog you are really missing out! She is a super talented scrapbooker and does amazing things scrapbooking her four sweet girls! I love visiting her blog and seeing her beautiful work--check it out if you have a moment.

As part of the award I get to highlight 5 other bloggers that I love--so head on over and check these talented ladies out!

1. Charity Hassel  Love what my fellow Cricut team member does with her Cricut!

2. Kathy Martin. Great little details on her scrapbooks and cards--and lots of great color!

3. Liz Birnel A sweet friend of mine who just started an Esty shop and blog featuring her beautiful and fun crocheted items!

4. Alicia Giess --One of the nicest and kindest scrapbookers I've ever had the pleasure of designing with! And she scrapbooks awesome too!

5.  Michelle St. Clair--I adore her slightly simple graphic style! Her pages are always clean and lovely and she can rock two page layouts! 

Have fun checking out these talented ladies--and as always, thanks for visiting!

They Like To Be Together

Happy Friday Morning! I love Fridays, I just wish today wasn't quite so rainy--otherwise it would be a perfect day! I have another layout for Scrapbook.com full of various Pink Paislee lines to share today. It's about my silly boys who  frequently like to sleep in the same room or even the same bed. Silly boys! I have no idea how they can sleep like that!

The Journaling reads: " All three of you have your own beds and two different rooms to sleep in, yet most nights you prefer to sleep together. This night you were all sleeping in Ty’s room when I checked on you and found this funny scene. All three of you on top of each other and yet still sleeping so soundly! I had to take a picture! June 14th 2011"

And as I mentioned yesterday I had a project go up on the Cricut blog yesterday using their new Cricut Craft Room Exclusive: Zombies. Here is a little preview and you can see the entire project by clicking over to the Cricut Blog here. While you are there be sure and check out all the new Craft Room Exclusives Released yesterday--there are lots of fun ones!

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a great weekend!

Cricut Valentine's Day Projects

Good Morning! I'm happy to be sharing some Cricut work with you today! In the midst of being sick and really not feeling like myself I've missed out on the chance to share a little bit more about what I have been up to as a designer for Cricut. This really is a dream design gig! Not only do I have an ever growing library of cartridges to play with, but I also get to design example projects with the newest releases before they even come out! Recently I had the chance to play with two new Cartridges: Elmo and Friends Holiday and Ole`! Both were really fun cartridges with tons of images! Having so many great images to choose from sometimes makes it hard to pick just a few to cut--but that is a happy problem! Here is what I came up with:

Valentine Treat Bags

The title letters were embossed using my Cuttlebug.

The papers used on these treat bags come from the Creative Memories Cheerful Valentines Day Addition.

Recipe Book

This project uses paper printed on my Imagine from the Kate's Kitchen Cartridge.

More about these projects (including cut info etc, can be found on this Cricut blog post.

I also thought I'd share a recent blog post I did for the Cricut blog with this little Valentine's Day card:

Those cute little Owls are cut from the Hoot N' Holler Lite Cartridge (A big favorite of mine!) and they were printed on my Imagine using the papers from the Imagine More Cards Cartridge. 

Information, cut sizes, etc. can be found on thew Cricut blog here.

Lastly I just wanted to mention that a little later today I'll have a new project go up on the Cricut blog, showing one of the new Cricut Craft Room Exclusive Cartridges--so if you have a moment head over there and take a peek!

Thanks again for visiting!

Twist and Shout

I promise I have a good excuse for not blogging these past few months!

(Photo from little while back)

In case you didn't hear or missed the announcement on Facebook, we are indeed expecting a new addition this summer. I've been much sicker this time around and much, much more tired, so things like blogging have fallen to the back burner. I still have been scrapbooking--in fact I've been doing quite a bit of scrapbooking so I have a rather large backlog of projects to show here on my blog now that I'm feeling up to posting things again. I wanted to start by showing this layout I did for Scrapbook.com recently.

Twist and Shout

I mixed up a bunch of different Pink Paislee lines for this layout. There is a bit of Hometown Summer, Vintage Vogue, Nantucket, and Snow Day on this layout. I think they all combined together fairly well! 

The journaling reads: "All three of you boys LOVE the tire swing! You love it most when Dad gives you a great big push and swings you around super fast. It makes me dizzy just to watch, but you boys scream and giggle in delight every time! November 2011"

Thanks for visiting!

Layout a Day--Day 5 and 6

Opps! Well yesterday was crazy busy so I never did get a blog post up--so today you get two projects instead of one.

In honor of the season I actually have some Christmas layouts to share today. Both feature Echo Park's new line: Season's Greetings. 

First up "The Clone Trooper Christmas."

The journaling reads: "About two weeks after Halloween you Blake started to get really excited about the Clone Troopers from Star Wars. It was all you talked about for weeks and the only thing you wanted for Christmas was to have a Clone Trooper costume. It was really cute to see you find the costume hanging up and waiting for you on Christmas morning. You put it on right away and even wore it while you learned to ride your new Bike—which you were excited about, but not anywhere near as excited as you were about this costume! December 25th 2008"

 And here is my extra layout, "Sitting on Santa's Lap."

The journaling on this one reads: "Last year you older boys were very eager to talk to Santa! For months the two of you had been plotting on what you wanted to ask him for and working hard to be extra good and worthy of receiving it. You Blake asked for a Lego Minotaurus game. You had seen it online and had been wishing for it ever since. Ty, you wanted a Pogo stick. I'm not sure where you got the idea, but you were really hoping for one! You boys must have been good because Santa did bring the items on your wish list. Spencer you still don't really care much for Santa, but you warmed up to him a little once he handed you a toy and candy cane. --Dec. 2010 "

Thanks for coming by!

Layout a Day--Day 4

Soccer season wrapped up just before Thanksgiving this year, and was a really good activity for Ty to be in this fall. He learned a lot, and for a first time player, he really was pretty good as a defender. I think he had a good time playing and was happy that they won many of their games. He also loved that he was on the same team as his best friend. This layout is about their 4th game day and features the very fun Bella Blvd Making the Team line.

The Journaling reads: "I am so glad that we put you in soccer this fall Ty! It has been so much fun to watch you learn and progress as a player and have a blast at the same time. One of my favorite moments from this year was in your 4th game. You were playing defense and doing a great job of it. You stopped many of the opposing teams’ drives by stealing the ball away. On this drive you blocked the approaching player and stole the ball by kicking it right through his legs. Not bad at all for someone so new to the game! 10/2011"

Thanks for visiting!

Layout A Day--Day 3

Happy Friday everyone! I still can't believe it's December 2nd already! Thank goodness we did finally get the tree up last night and start opening our advent calendars. We have been late getting started with these before and it was my goal not to be late with those this year! We still have plenty of decorating to do, but hopefully this weekend will give us a little time to finish that up. 

Today I have a simple share of a page I did for Scrapbook.com in October using some lovely Studio Calico Memoir. I also got to use my new Cricut Expression 2 (Locker Talk Cartridge) to make the little camera at the bottom.

4 Year Old Spotlight Stealer

The Journaling reads: "For years Spencer you ignored the camera, you didn't understand what it did and I had to jump through lots of hoops to get a smile out of you. No more though! You have become a bit of a camera hog lately! In fact you love to have me take your picture and you immediately want to see the back of the camera to see how you look. Now when I'm taking pictures of things or other people it's a sure bet that you are going to notice and insist that I take your photo instead. I love that you now understand what a camera does and will willingly pose for me (less hoop jumping for me). I also LOVE that you have so much fun participating and in seeing the results! September 2011"

Thanks for visiting!

Layout A Day--Day 2

Quick share today, this time of some beautiful Bela Blvd--Finally Fall line. I adore this line and have already used up a bunch of it!

The journaling reads: " You constantly amaze me Blake! You are always one to do things in a creative and unique way. You think outside the box and have a very active imagination. I guess then that it should not have been a big surprise when you decided to pick not one of the hundreds of big orange pumpkins at the pumpkin patch, but this white pumpkin. You loved the fact that was unique from the others—just like you Blake! October 2011"

Thanks for visiting!