Already August!

The months sure are flying by... especially these Summer months!  Can't believe it is already the beginning of August, but I'm not complaining of course because that only means my favorite time and season of the year is almost in sight!  I'm already starting to enjoy the Fall scents in the house... I can't resist, lol.  Over the weekend I was in Wal-Mart and ended up in the candle aisle (no surprise there).  They had a new item from their Better Homes collection, Scented Wax Cubes... their version of the Scentsy warmer bars! I guess they had them in the stores last Christmas season, but I missed them some how, and other Wal-Mart stores have carried them for months now, but it's the first I've seen them here at our closest WM. Let me just say they smell just as great and are much cheaper at $2.00 each! I got the Vanilla Caramel Spice to try and I'm in scent heaven because it makes the house smell just like Cinnabon!  Seriously, I keep getting cravings for sticky buns now :)  Yep, I will be stocking up on these, and they (Wal-Mart) better not go and discontinue these anytime soon like they did when I was in love with buying their wall plug-in scents they used to have that were like the Bath and Body Wall Flowers!

Since it is August now, I thought today I would show some of my past publications that were in the June/July issue of Cricut magazine.

 You know I love my Cricut and I love to share what I do with it... and I also can not say enough about the Cricut magazine!  It is my favorite publication and I can happily relay that I've had and will have some of my work featured in every single issue (regular and special issues) since the magazine has been in publication up to and through the January 2012 issue.  That's very exciting for me! 

Anyway, here's a look at what all I had featured in this particular issue (their final bimonthly, because starting with the August issue they are now MONTHLY)...

My "Lazy Days" card featured the Life is a Beach Cricut cart and the Echo Park's Sweet Summertime collection.

This next layout, I used BoBunny papers and cardstock along with a combination of the Don Juan,Stand and Salute and Wild Card cartridges to create the layered title words and stars...

(Don't forget you may click on the images to view them larger!)

And here's a layout where I got creative with embossing the diecuts... aren't those cute crabbies?

The Life is a Beach and From My Kitchen carts were used for this along with Kaiser papers.  The bottom border was created by using the negative cuts of the crab border to mask and mist with Glimmer Mist spray.

I do also have 2 more cards and another 1 page layout that were published in this issue as well, but I have seemed to lost my images on the computer, so I can't share those, but maybe later. 

For now though, I am about to go get busy in the kitchen.  I have been wanting to try to make those super yummy looking cake ball truffles that are all the rage now in the world of sugary confections!  Have you seen them?  If not, this is what I am talkin' about...

And, here's a recipe! They are really dense and truffle-like because you actually fold the frosting into the already baked cake pieces, making it both dense and moist.  You really can use your imagination and do any flavors or combination of flavors you'd like!  I just went and bought some candy melts today and I'm going to first try making some lemon cake truffles with cream cheese frosting, because that's all I have here at home right now.  I'm going to coat them with both white and dark chocolate though.  Ohh, you all... I just can't wait anymore, so I'm off... but I'll be sure to let you all know how they look and taste! :)   Good day everyone!

Chalk it Up to Lovin' Me Some Vintage!

Yes, I am a lover of antiques and vintage stuff!  Although I don't neccessarily have a lot of valuable items in my own collection, I do love to pick up an occasional piece here and there to sit around and pretty up the house!  And, I do love to go to the flea-markets and antique malls and such whenever I get a chance.  Absolutely love browsing.  So as I was up in my gram's attic helping my mom put some things away one day, I came across a very cool shabbily chic white ornate frame lying in a bag.

Of course my gram told me to take it, and so I did... wasn't going to pass that offer up, lol! At first I was thinking I'd use it to frame a mirror, but then I was looking through either an issue of Country Living or Better Homes magazine, and saw that they took similar frames and turned them into chalk boards.  What a novel and cool idea, so that's what I did with it.  First I had my brother cut me an oval shaped wood board  to fit the frame.

Then all I had to do was paint the board with some black chalk board spray paint and glue the piece into the frame opening and now I instantly have a very chic framed chalk board for my room.

Think I need to soon make another trip up to my gram's attic!  I'm sure there are plenty more hidden treasures! 

As for scrapping/crafting... I had myself a very productive extra-long weekend at Ellen's for our scrappy girls's retreat!  Gosh, did we ever have so much fun.  If it's something we girls can do to the best of our abilities, it's scrap, laugh and eat, lol! We sure didn't go hungry!  Anyway, already looking so forward to our next gathering in November.  But this past weekend I was concentrating on designing a lot of projects with Core'dinations Cardstock, as they have a new Design Team call in the works right now, and I'm planning on submitting for it.  I would totally LOVE to join the Core team and create til my hearts content with their yummy cardstock! Ellen is a part of the current team, and I'm always so amazed by the magic she creates with Core... definitely would be a thrill to join her ;)

I'm not going to show you any of those projects with the Core right now... that will be in a post coming soon!  However, I'll share with you a little gift bag I made for a Baby Shower gift-card.  I was so excited with this one because it was actually the first time I used my Tags, Bags, Boxes and More Cricut cartridge!  I believe I've had this cart for a year or more already and never broke it out til this weekend, but I can tell ya it's not going to take me that long to put it to use again...

Oh, I also used my new Sew Easy tool on here from WRMK.  It got a little wonky in areas, but I'll practice with it some more.  Those cool wood stars on there are new wood veneer stars from Studio Calico (thanks, Ellen)... love them!  The papers are from Echo Park's For the Record line, and I used a Papertrey Ink label die with an SRM sticker.  The wee lil' duckie is was cut using the Wild Card cart from Cricut.  And the buttons... again, chalk it up to vintage.  Love my stash of vintage buttons, and I even found a yellow gingham one to match the paper here! And before I head out, also wanted to share a previous card publication.  This one is a Thanksgiving card that was in the Nov. 2010 CARDS issue...

Lots of American Crafts paper there and the turkey was cut with the Cricut Doodlecharms cart. 

Okay.. I'm headed out.  Mornings come way to early and I've got to work so I must find my bed.  But please visit me again soon... I'll be back in a few days to reveal my creations for the Core'dinations DT call!  C-ya! 

One Last Hoorah For 2010!

With it being so close to 2011, thought I'd make one last blog post for 2010 today.  I must admit I am for the most part happy to say good-bye to this past year and do just that... put it all in the past!  In some big aspects, this wasn't a very good year for us and I am really looking forward to starting off with a clean slate and hoping and praying for some uplifting and positive blessings for us all in 2011!  I still have faith so that's a good thing!

Anyway, today is a lazy day... hubby is off work and I made us a nice brunch today and now we are keeping warm and cozy fireside.  Tomorrow is New Year's Eve.  We never really have much planned in the lines of partying... we usually save that for Super Bowl time, lol!  No really, we tend to stay put safe at home for NYE... order in Chinese take-out and make a few drinks of our own... watch the ball drop in NYC and that's about it.  I believe my niece and her boyfriend will be here so we may get to playing some card games too.

As for Christmas... hard to believe another one had come and gone so quickly... but as usual, it was a very nice one!  Always nice to relax and enjoy the company of family and good food.  Of course my personal Santa was very generous... and he always is!  This year he spoiled me with not one, but two very beautiful rings!  :D  Guess I was nice this year, lol!  I surprised my hubby with a Keurig coffee machine so he's been really enjoying that! He loves his coffee!
 

Not much else going on here these days... but of course I can not make a post here without showing something crafty or scrappy!  I know a lot of scrappy bloggers are closing out their year end posts with a Top Ten of sorts... a review of photos of their top ten favorite scrappy projects they've accomplished throughout the past year.  I'm not going to do a top ten and I did want to share my favorite layout with you all, but then I realized I can't because my very favorite is currently out being published with Cricut magazine!  For now though I'll show you another of my favorite projects I did for the year... this one being a home decor piece that I created...

I made this large hanging snowflake ornament with some gorgeous Webster's Pages goodies... their beautiful teal and gold netting, some of their paper and alpha stickers and a heart shaped Whimsy.  The wood snowflake base I bought from Michaels, as well as the sweet vintage- like resin frame used for the center portion.  The frame was gold but I painted both the frame and the snowflake base with lots of white Tim Holtz crackle paint.  The tips of the snowflake also got embellished with a good amount of Diamond Dust glass glitter.  I'm glad I'll be able to display and enjoy this piece all throughout the Winter months!  And speaking of Webster's Pages... did you know that they are having their first ever "open Design Team call"?  Ohh my word... all I can say is WOW!  Such a fabulous opportunity that would be because I hear absolutley nothing but good things about this company and being able to be apart of their creative team!  The call ends December 31st, so you still have the chance to get in your entries for this fab opportunity!  I did enter... sent in my submission a few days okay, so now I patiently (or impatiently) wait with all the others!  What an honor it would be! 

Now how 'bout a looksie at some of the Christmas card designs I put together this year to send out to family and friends?  I usually do one card design and then make them all alike, but this year I decided to make a few different variations... thought maybe I wouldn't easily tire of doing them this way, and I really did enjoy making them much more!  This first set uses some "Everybody Loves Christmas" papers from Echo Park.

For the Joy card design here I used the "Joys of the Season" Cricut cartridge... my favorite for holiday designs!

I also did a card variation using some Lily Bee "Christmas Town" paper and the Peace card design from Joys of the Season...

AND... I also did a variation using both the Peace and Joy cards and Webster's Pages...

I also made a few others... these all different...

This one used some of the K&Company papers and accents for Christmas.  I also cut the partridge and pear tree from Joys of the Season. 

For the card I used more Echo Park paper, only I used their Sweet Summertime line, and yet again, Joys of the Season...

This one I used some American Crafts stuff with snowflake designs cut from Winter Woodland Cricut cart...

Yet another using Winter Woodland...

I had made this one with the "Deer Wishes" for a neighbor lady of mine who wanted a Christmas card with a deer on it to give to her grandson! 

And one last card... I also made this one for my neighbor lady.  She wanted another card for another grandson who likes to fish, so I came up with this card thanks to my very crafty friend, Wendy!  I happened to be perusing Wendy's blog looking for ideas because I know she always has cute "fishy" stamping designs for her son who loves everything and anything fishing!  I came across this fun set of stamped card designs that she did HERE and knew I could translate THIS idea with the help of Cricut!!  This is what I came up with...

I just love how the ornaments upside down can look like fishing lures!  Again, Joys of the Season and Life is A Beach for the fish image!  Okay, I am sorry that this card sharing went a bit over board... I didn't mean to draw out this post!  But alas, it is the last one for the year from me!  I hope that everyone has a prosperous, joyous and healthy New Year this coming 2011!  Enjoy and Blessings to all! :D