Saturday, April 30, 2011

Rollercoaster Card


I think this may have been one of the first cards I ever made. I found it when I was packing for my weekend away scrapping (that is where I am right now and I planned this post ahead of time).  A whole weekend of scrapping...something I have never done.

I remember getting the Summer Vacation cartridge and seeing this roller coaster and wanting to use it right away. It has been a long time and I have no idea what font I used to create this card, but the roller coaster and ticket are both from the Summer Vacation seasonal cart.                                                                     
I hope you are enjoying your weekend. Next weekend I will be in my first blog hop. I hope you will join the hop all 3 days. More details coming Monday!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Packing for Scrap Weekend Mania

I am one lucky girl. This weekend I am going on a scrapbooking weekend. I have never been away for a weekend like this, but have heard so many wonderful and exciting stories that when the opportunity came up I just had to go, plus it is an early birthday present from my family. I am going to a place called The Scrap Inn in Rockford, Illinois. It is just a small group of us and none of us have ever been before, but it is cute little bed and breakfast place with a scrap room! Oh - did I mention they are going to cook for us for the the whole weekend? I mean seriously what could be bad about it...a place to scrap, be social, have time away from the hustle and bustle of home and I do not have to cook?  Sounds like a little piece of heaven.

Now there is only one problem..what do I bring with me? I have been thinking of possible projects and organizing the photos and supplies I think I will need.
I am bringing along my Expression even though they have one at the Scrap Inn, I feel I have to have mine with me. I wasn't planning on bringing all my carts because I have my wonderful Gypsy, but I still look at my handbooks all the time so I am not sure and paper well...


 Well you see the problems I am facing...


Wish me luck as I head into this grand adventure. I have a project to share with you on Saturday (a card I created awhile back and never posted) but other than that I will be away from the internet until Sunday evening as I have decided to keep the laptop at home so i can focus on scrapping. I promise to share my projects next week!!

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Track Wall

The school year is approaching an end very soon. That means only one more sports wall for the year. I have decorated the main wall in our entryway for every sport this year and the play. I have had so much fun and many teachers and students have comment on how great it looks. My principal says I just keep getting better and she loves that it is a place people see on a regular basis. What a great compliment for doing something I love to do anyways!

Varsity Letter for the words and Sports Mania for the runners.
The wall has basically been the same for every sport, but for Track I wanted to added a little more. They often get overlooked because the season is so short and at the end of the year so I did my best to make the track wall stick out just a little bit. 

I  want to say that our athletes are really hard workers and even when they do not win or come out on top they try really hard so congrats to all the athletes at my school for an entire year of great effort and sportsmanship.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

E2!!!!

YES!!!!  I bought it.  I caved and ordered it last night before the launch. I was on the Circle message board waiting for the launch and just seeing everyone already ordering it made me want to as well. I stayed up to watch the launch and I am super excited that many of the layouts I know my Circle sisters created won fun prizes.

I look forward to my new machine arriving next week right in time to use for my first blog hop weekend. I hope you will join me and 20 other bloggers for the Three's A Charm Blog Hop next weekend: May 6,7 and 8. More specific details will be posted on my blog on Monday and the hop begins next week Friday!

Alice Albums, Part 3

I have gotten all the rehearsal photo pages done in each of the 40 books that I am making for the cast of my play. I got a little lucky and the cast party has been moved to another week because of bus conflicts and track meets (love how involved my students are). That is good because there is no way I was going to finish these albums in the manner that I wanted to by tomorrow afternoon.

Here are some of my favorite rehearsal pages with small touches of Cricut included. The rehearsal cut is off of Quarter Note and the letters for "memorize" are from Jubilee.
I also fixed up some of the covers to add a little more detail to them. Below are one a made for the Mad Hatter and another for one of my two Alice actresses. They key is large part of this script so i wanted to make sure I included it. (The key is from Indie Art and the tea cups are off of the Disney Classics cartridge)
I am having so much fun making the albums for the students and I love being able to share these samples with you.   

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Teapot Birthday Bag

First off a Great Big "HAPPY EASTER" to everyone out there. I hope you all spend your day doing what you love, being with those you love and honoring what you love and believe in.
Now onto my project of the day. My daughter was invited to a Tea Party birthday. Can you picture this: "0 little girls all getting their hair and nails done (with fun butterfly clips) and than sitting around a large table under a colored umbrella eating cheese sandwiches and cupcakes? Super cute right? 
I am in a major gift bag making phase so I fired up the Expression to make a fun bag for the birthday girl. 
I used Once Upon A Princess for this great teapot and I added the birthday girl's name in the center on my Gypsy using Alphalicious lettering. The flowers are a simple cut from Cindy Loo and I used my brand new Stickles to add some sparkle to the middle of each one.
The cute little gift tag that got torn off before we made it to the party!
I hope everyone has a wonderful day. We did our big Easter celebration yesterday so I am going to be working on the albums for my cast and getting ready for my big scrapping weekend coming up next Friday. Also, May 6,7, & 8 I am going to be part of my very first blog hop, Three's a Charm. Be looking here for more info on that.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Uncle David's Memorial Board

Last week my Mom's brother passed away after living 78 wonderful, happy years. He was pretty much the happiest person I have ever known and will be missed. He had been sick as a young child and developed some mental and physical disabilities that required him to live in nursing home most of his life. We had a quiet memorial at the home he had lived in for over 20 years. My Mom and I put this photo board together to celebrate his life.
As you can see my Uncle wanted to be a cowboy more than anything else. He loved Roy Rogers so we included the phrase, "Happy Trails to You!" as a way of reminding us he will be in a special place now.
With the exception of the pigs, which are from Animal Kingdom, all the other cuts are from the Old West Cartridge that my husband went on Amazon and had shipped overnight so I could have a cowboy and lettering that was just right for this project (bless his heart!).

Friday, April 22, 2011

Paint Bucket Take 2

About two weeks ago I worked on a project with one of those super fun plastic paint buckets you can get at most craft stores now. I was not totally happy with the first paint bucket that I made and wanted to try again using printable vinyl and my Imagine machine. I was getting ready for a swap with another Circle member so I made this back when my Imagine was working.
This time worked much much better than my first attempt in which the paper I used to cover the bucket would not stay on well and the letters were peeling off on the curves of the bucket.

I picked my cut from Cricut Everyday on my Imagine and colored it in with the green from the basic menu. Than I used the same crown as before off Nursery Rhymes and colored it in as well.  I used the cut and print feature on the Imagine and put a sheet of Adhesive Backed printable vinyl on the mat to cut with. I made sure to change the settings on my Imagine for this in the setup menu.  The cuts went on the bucket so much better and looked great. I added some little gems and a matching ribbon to hold the opener for the container.


I am much happier with these results and I think Greengirl will be as well as I sent her this better bucket as part of our spring swap.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Easter Swap Day!!!

Okay I waited and waited. The box for the Easter Swap on the Circle message board has sat in my house for a week and even though it was a hard week for me with the school play, visiting in-laws, crying at swim lessons and a dance recital success...I still did not open this box....

Okay I am going to admit the total truth. I opened the box on Wednesday last week when it arrived. Sadly, my uncle passed away that morning and I was stressed out for my Mom and for the play, plus the weekend to come, so my  husband suggested I open the box and get a pick-me-up to help me out.  I am sorry I did not wait, but I just needed to smile and smile I did.
THANK YOU GREENGIRL!!!! You made my day much brighter when I opened the box and found these fabulous treats for our Easter Swap. My daughter Sophie was excited to see her name on some of the fun packages as well (sticker you can color...are you spying on us?). We love wrapping paper in my house and now wish we had thought to wrap up each little gift we sent to you.
We (I say we because my daughter was the official unwrapper and likes to squeal when she does.) Loved getting such fun treats. Stamps, and ribbon and Stickles (my first and I already used them) OH MY!
 For this swap we had to include a storage item and Greengirl made me an awesome idea binder. You can go tell her how cool it is on her website as well...Greengirl Scraps. I find it funny that we both used Cricut Everyday on projects we made for each other. 
The binder has 5 tabs to help me store ideas and instructions and sketches
On a final note...I love Peeps and when Greengirl emailed to ask what kind of candy I liked I told her I like Peeps at Easter time and she sent some yellow and green ones. My daughter had never had one but now asks if she can have another one everyday!!! Thanks again swap partner!!!!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Alice in Wonderland Albums, Part 2

I am continuing working on the books that I am making for the cast of Alice in Wonderland which had a successful run last week. I showed off my starting points a few weeks back so today I thought I would show off some of the covers for the albums. These are for some of the playing card characters that were in the show. I cut all the suite pieces using Indie Art.
The artwork was drawn by one of the students who was in the play. She is pretty talented. The font, Tingle Institute is from kevinandamanda.com one of my favorite places to find fonts to use on my personal projects. The album below is for one of the 10 giggling flowers that I cast in the show. 
yellow paper embossed with
Once Upon a Princess companion folder
I have printed out all the rehearsal shots already using the wonderful deal at Ritz pix: 6 cent 3x5 prints all day Tuesdays and Wednesdays. You can order online and even pay with Pay pal!  When you are making 40 mini albums this price helps keep the cost down and gives you space in the album to add backing paper for a decorative touch. I have been taking pictures since auditions and during the Friday night show my brother-in-law took over 300 more for me to use on these albums. Soon I will have more of the completed inside pages to show off.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

A Special checkbook Cover...for me??

I recently won the honor (I say honor because this things is so beautiful) of having a checkbook cover made for me by Quilt Frog at Just Call Me a Crafty Frog. She was celebrating her birthday and had some wonderful blog candy giveaways...I won 3 times!!! There are some wonderful projects on her blog and I  hope you will go check them out and become a follower because she has great ideas. Make sure you check out her Garden Wordbook (look in her labels under wordbook) and her classroom projects and treats. Sometimes I am amazed at what us teachers fin time to do, but often some of our best work is for our classrooms which inspire creativity like you can not believe!!
Inside (even with plastic for carbon)
She asked me what colors and patterns I liked and I told her: green, blue, purple and polka dots. Did she deliver or what? I mean talk about an awesome blog candy gift. My husband says we will never loose the checkbook again because the colors are so fun. PLUS..she put the Cricut on the cover!!!  So fun.
Back with pen holder and her unique tag (frog included!!)

Monday, April 18, 2011

Ballerina Bag

Yesterday was my daughter's dance recital. She was so excited about the final performance with her classmates and I wanted to get her a special treat to celebrate. She is  currently on a major Barbi kick. Everything she is asking for for her birthday is Barbi related it seems. I fund two of the Barbies she is asking for on a major sale and decided to get them to celebrate her hard work in dance class.

I had to make her a special bag to put the dolls in and decided to pull out my Shall We Dance cartridge (a no brainer as it was for her dance recital) to create the bag. I altered the dress so it would look like the one my daughter wore. I also used Everyday Paperdolls for the bows on the dress and hair and Billionaire for the lettering.

I got a small bottle of Stickles to try out (finally) and I used it on the dress to make the bag match her costume. The whole recital was a big hit...hard not to smile as 3 to 6-year-olds dance in adorable costumes while trying to see their teacher on the sidelines or their parents in the audience.
Sophie in her costume before the recital!!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Link Up Party (LOVE & a question)

So I have seen this link up party all over the blogs and I have been falling in love visiting many other blogs ad seeing great stuff, plus a lot of love being shared....

BUT?? I do not know how to add those Mr. Linky things to my blog and need to learn..SO I am just going to send you right over the the starter of the whole thing as I have seen. Hopefully someone Will send me the tools I need (tips and links etc) so I too can celebrate the great blog out there with you all.)

GO here and see what I am talking about: Getting Cricky. I am behind but just wanted to share this fun blog post with you as it has led me to a lot of great blogs.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Twin Baby Banner

Two of my co-workers are expecting babies at the end of the school year so we are doing some fun baby showers at work to help them get ready for the big event. I wanted to make banners to put up as part of the celebrations. Matt, my co-worker, and his wife are expecting twin girls very soon so I wanted a cute banner that had something to do with the number 2 or stayed within the twins theme. I had a hard time trying to be cute, but not cheesy. I ended up with "Twice the Love!"
The banner in full. Not the best picture, but wanted to show the whole banner.
(The Monkey bag I made is on the table!)
I spent a lot of time on this banner and it is one of my most favorite projects EVER!!  I planned ahead for this one and even made a test square before I went out looking for just the right paper to use on this project.
Every cut on this banner is from Kate's ABC's a cart I am now in love with. I used Baby Girl Font 1 for each letter because I love the scalloped edges. I cut the letters at one size than used empty squares in two larger sizes or the backing squares. The largest is about 5 inches in width. The polka dot print lead perfectly to the polka dot embossing on the top layer. When I had gotten the whole banner put together with ribbon I actually glue the ribbon in place on the back of each square to help secure the ribbon and have less worries about the ribbon holes breaking.


Next came the flowers. I have admired people who make these flowers and curl them up to add dimension and I thought to myself, "I can do that." I did it. I made some simple flowers using a flower from Kate's ABC's. I cut the bottom layer twice and one inner pink layer and than selected some leaves to cut as well. I curled up the edges after gluing all the layers together and added fun sparkle gems in the center of each. I stuck these on with glue dots to add even more pop.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Simple Vinyl Door & Wall Cuts

My daughter liked the little sign I made for her using the Cricut Markers (see it here), but she wanted more for the door so I decided to cut some simple things using basic black Cricut Vinyl that I had leftover from some other projects.
I cut these letters using Hello Kitty Font (still on of my favorites) and the butterfly is from Lyrical Letters. I always forget to use a kiss cut on my vinyl and I had to peel the backing off of these to hang them up on her door. To do a KISS CUT and only cut the vinyl the package says to set blade depth to 6 and pressure to 2. This has always worked for me, but I have also heard  people who use a blade depth 4, pressure 3, speed 3 and get the same results. If your forget it isn't so bad you just have to peel the back layer away.

My daughter has decided she likes this better than the other sign so it has moved inside the room and the door lettering is all alone. I am guessing sometime next week she will ask for something else (or something purple) so stay tuned.

It is a very busy weekend for us, with very little time for crafting. I will wrap up a great week of directing the school play and celebrating the success of the show. Sunday my daughter has a dance recital and the whole family is going to be on hand, plus swim lessons tomorrow and a wedding shower stop-in. I am super tired from the week, but I know being surrounded by family and all these fun events is going to be great!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Alice in Wonderland...Can you see the Cricut cuts?

Someone once asked me why I like to direct the plays so much and the answer is an easy one for me...I love watching a group of students (from all different cliques and backgrounds) come together and take a show from start to finish. The start is always so raw and open to possibilities and in the end they just shine so bright.  Whatever problems we have had a long the way, (this year costumes ripped last night, set pieces were not completed on time, I lost two actors and had to replace them last minute) we overcome and in the end bring it all together. I hope you will say a silent, "break a leg" for my cast as we had into our
first 2 performances of Alice in Wonderland. We started working on the how back in December with auditions and now it is time for them to shine.

The costumes are ready...

Block decor is cut from Disney Classics
The sets are all in place...
Indie Art pieces that Velcro onto the door.
 The props organized...
Tea party items are cut from Disney Classics and Wall Decor and More
Now, on with the show!
BREAK A LEG!!!