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!

Friday To-Do list!

Yess, it is finally Friday!  And since I was supposed to work today but they called me and told me not to come in due to a low count kid day, well, that means I have more time to do other things here at home!  I just need to decide what all I should tackle first... there are many things I could easily put at the top of my to-do list! Painting for one!  Oh gosh, there are so many rooms in this house that we want to paint and the problem is, it's a big game of procrastination.  So I am thinking that removing the wall paper border down in our basement would be a perfect place for me to start this afternoon perhaps.  And I also believe it's a good day to start cleaning out some cupboards, closets and the hutch in our living room.  Then in between all that I guess I might as well do a few loads of laundry too!  I think that's a good start.  When the dh is home on vacation two weeks from now we plan to do some more painting, primarily the front door and the window shutters.  The door is white and the shutters are currently hunter green and we plan to re-paint them all a black/gray color.  Can't wait to see what it'll look like!

Before I move on to the to-do list though, I will share with you some of my latest cards that I made with Core'dinations cardstock.  They are all Summer related themes, so I hope you'll enjoy them!

This first card I used "A Child's Year" Cricut cartridge.  I love the nostalgic and silhouette imagery on this cart! 

For the sand and accenting on the starfish, I used Tim Holtz's Distressing powder in Frayed Burlap to give the perfect grainy effect with the Vintage and Core Essentials cardstock!

 

And this card was a fun and easy one to put together with coordinating products from SEI's "a FAIR day" collection.  I love the glittery accenting in this line paired up with Core Couture glitter cardstock.  I also used some Core Essentials spritzed with Glimmer Mist. 

And last... a card with some Core Essentials in the Pastels range.  Mmmm,some cotton candy would taste sooo good right now!  I cut the banners and cotton candy with the Cricut Carousel cartridge. 

And speaking of Core'dinations... I just had a great box delivered to me yesterday containing all the new releases of Core!  Girls, it all looks sooo wonderful... esp. that dreamy looking Tim Holtz Kraft Core line!  Ohh my, I can't wait to create with it all, so I guess I'd better write that down on my to-do list as well!    Think that's it for now.  But, I will be a busy girl for the rest of the day.  Time for me to crack the whip on myself!  Have a great weekend everyone :)

My Pink Stamper Design Team Submission {You Give Your Heart To Make a Difference!}

Good evening all my crafty bloggy friends!  Hope everyone is having a good week and that you all aren't melting away into puddles!  It's been very HOT here today and I believe I'm soon going to head on down to the basement and hide out in my craft room because it's sooo much cooler there!  But first, I needed to post about a card that I put together that I think is my new favorite.  Don't you love it when you create something that you yourself totally dig?  I love when that happens!  So, this card also happens to be my submission for the My Pink Stamper design team call which comes to a close tonight.  Yes, I am squeezing it in during the last lap, but I just had to give this one a go!  Afterall, if Cricut is involved I'm weak... I love my Cricut wayy too much, lol! 

To submit for this dt selection, we all had to follow the challenge to create a project using a favorite Cricut cartridge, and to incorporate the colors of brown, orange, green and turquoise, and other optional color of choice. The only other color in my card is white accenting of the sanded cardstock core and in the mini alpha sticker lettering.  Have to say, I like that combination of colors... earthy, yet cool. 

Guess maybe that's why I went with an Earth motif and woodgrain for my card's theme.  Give a Hoot is one of my very favorite Cricut cartridges and that's where I found the image for the heart shaped world diecut used on here.  I used a variety of Core'dinations cardstock, including the Glitter Core Couture in a turquoise shade for representing the Earth's water.  I tied some vintage crinkled seam binding in orange around the heart shape and attached the piece to my card base with dimensional foam squares.  Sticker alphas completed the card's sentiment.  Ohhh, that woodgrain piece... that is actually packaging (backing) from a set of alpha stickers that I bought from Target awhile back!  Yes, I even recycled on my earthy card! 

Card Supplies and Recipe:

•  Give a Hoot Cricut cartridge - Heart Earth - cut @ 4" from green Core Essentials cs), Heart Earth layer - cut @ 4" from turquoise glitter Core Couture cs).
•  Other cardstock, all by Core'dinations (Green Core Impressions BasicGrey Whimsy dot-line cs, orange Vintage Core cs, brown Core Impressions Cosmo Cricket criss-cross cs).
•  Woodgrain sticker packaging from Target.
•  My Little ShoeBox Mini Alphabet stickers in Sunrise orange.
•  Pink Paislee cardstock alphabets Whimsies in Pumpkin.
•  Trimtex vintage seam binding in orange.
•  Stampin' Up small scallop border punch.
•  Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Spiced Marmalade.
•  Recollections foam dimensional squares. 

Okay, that's my card!  Now I'll cross my fingers and hope for good news!  Thanks for stopping by! :)

Peachy Keen!!

Howdy!  If you haven’t seen the July Challenge at Core'dinations  make sure you check it out here. You have until July 27th to enter for the chance to win some fabulous Core goodies! Make sure you link us up on that post or link us on Facebook.

All you need to do is use this color palette as your inspiration. Again, there are more deets on the original post….

Anyway, here is the awesome inspiration photo for this fantastic color challenge which came from Pinterest!

Isn't it the perfect, delectable Summery feast for the eyes? 

And take a look at the colour combo that dt member Lydia Jackson devised through Colour Lovers to match up to the inpiration...

Such a terrific palette!  Anyway, I was inspired to create a card for this challenge, and I was happy to use these turquoise, peacock blue, and peachy colors together.  And the peaches in the photo looked soo yummy and fresh that I even decided to use a peach as my card's theme,

"You Are Sweet As A Peach"!

I used a variety of Core'dinations Core Essentials and Vintage cardstock and my peach image came from the Cricut "Just Because Cards" cartridge.  To make the peach more realistic, I inked the edges of the cuts with some Ranger inks and also did some light sanding to the outside edge.  The leaves were embossed with the Cuttlebug Herringbone folder and I used patterned paper and stickers from the "a FAIR day" sei line!

So now I hope that you too will be inspired to take on this fun colour challenge!  Remember, you have until July 27th, so hurry up and play along with us to win some delicious Core!

In other news, I was very saddened to learn of some heartbreaking news this morning that a fellow scrapbooking friend in our communities has passed away rather suddenly after her battle with breast cancer.  Her name was Chris Hertel and she was such a dear sweet soul who gave so much of herself.  She lived right here in PA, and although I've never met her in person (and we used to live rather close to one another, her in Greensburg, and I in Altoona)... we did communicate via message boards, emails and our blogs.  Chris also created some of her own digital designs and was kind enough to share them.  Her houndstooth print has been one of my favorites for quite sometime and I have downloaded and printed it so often for many of my projects.  In fact, earlier last week, I was pleasantly surprised to have one of my card designs using her houndstooth print, picked up for publication in the upcoming December issue of CARDS magazine!  I was so thrilled that it was a card using her design and I was eager to email her to tell her to be on the watch for it later, but I never got the chance.   Here's a link to another blog post of mine with another page that I created not too long ago.  I tell ya, I've used it a lot!  I will certainly miss her spunky spirit and friendship in our scrappy community!  She fought a good fight and all I can say is that the world was only a happier place with her in it!  I pray that her beautiful family will lean on one another and find much comfort, strength and peace!

My Core'dinations DT Into...

it's up today on the Core blog!  You can see it HERE!

For our first assignment/challenge we were to create an "all about me" page to go along with our dt profile introduction, so here is what I did...

For this I used some beautiful Teresa Collins Core Amour cardstock, "Posh Flowers" from the Prince and Princess collection. The photo itself, I printed out onto a sheet of Vanilla Cream Core Essentials cardstock.  I also did some sanding of the photo and spritzed on some Mister Huey's Calico Cream mist. The Large circle area of roses on the corner I painted on some sparkles with some Glimmer Glam paint in Chandelier and I painted the gray leaves green with Glimmer Mist spray. Those other roses are cut from Sassafras paper and I added pink glitter foam paint from DecoArt to those.  And there's also some pink Vintage Core used on here too for matting the photo.   I've also been playing around with one of my new favorite punches lately... the Plaid border punch from EK Success.  I used it here along the bottom edge of my photo because I thought it worked well with the look of the  woven texturing in the Teresa Collins Core Amour. 

I guess that's really all I have to share with you today.  It's Monday, so I've been doing a lot of catch-up chores from the weekend... got the laundry hanging on the line, and I am finishing up a DIY paint job that I started on our fireplace front this weekend.  It's coming along pretty good, so I'm satisfied.  I'll probably share pictures of all that sometime soon.  I've got so many rooms that I want to paint here at our house but I just hate the thought of actually putting it all into play.  DH has a week of vacation coming up in August so hopefully we can both kick it into full gear! Enjoy your week, everyone! 

Soooo Hot!

I feel like I am wilting, it is so humid and icky!  I've had a bad headache all day and this heat just isn't helping, argh!! Where is my favorite time of the year already?  I'm ready for October, lol!

So I know I haven't blogged again in over a week, and my buddy Ellen had to give me the nudge to let me know.  What can I say, this summer heat really slows me down, and also since I've been working at the preschool these past months, I require more naps too.  I really do, and I did just that today!  I came home and settled down on the couch for a snooze for a good two hours :)

Did you happen to visit the Core'dinations blog or facebook page recently?  Well, if you haven't you really should because there is always a lot of inspiring work being posted that you really don't want to miss out on.  Fun challenges and giveaways happening too... like this one...

It’s June 1st. Let’s kick of this month with a fun CHALLENGE!

What do you think?

We just loved this technique that Melissa Oliveira shared with us yesterday on the blog that we wanted to extend the invitation to try it to YOU!

Journaling is such an important part of a scrapbookers journey to preserve memories and tell stories.

SO for this challenge….we want to see your Journaling. It doesn’t have to be this specific technique…you can journal any way you choose.

But for this challenge there are a few things you must do:

1) JOURNAL

2.) Use Core’dinations Cardstock (it must be a visible component of the layout).

3.) Link your project to THIS blog post or post it on our Facebook page. Make sure you “like” us, too!

4.) Show off a cool Core technique and we will throw in an additional chance to win!

The rest is up to you!

And how could I forget??? Of Course a random Winner will win some CORE’DINATIONS CARDSTOCK!

                     Deadline for this challenge is two weeks…June 15th by midnight PST.

Some fun news!  This past weekend I was pleasantly surprised to open my email inbox and have it full of publication requests.  I got a total of 11 projects requested... 7 things for the Cricut Holidays Idea Book, 2 for Cricut Nov. 2011, 1 card for CARDS Nov. 2011 and my first project with Simply Handmade! 

And before I leave ya, I'll share with you a

birthday card that I submited for publication which didn't get selected.  I love this one, and I created it for a little girls birthday...

Of course I used my Cricut!  Here I used the Straight From the Nest cart (again, one of my faves) to cut the cupcake border and party hat. 

The paper collection is Cosmo Cricket's Togetherness. 

And here's another card I made not too long ago also with the Togetherness collection...

I just love the lil' bead accents from Recollections that I added as rain droplets coming from the clouds!

Thanks for checking in with me, and please don't forget about the challenge over at Core'dinations... you still have until the 15th to get yours submitted!   Have a great weekend!

Just Call me Lazy!

Yep, that's why I haven't been updating my blog these past days.  I am just plain lazy.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it, lol! That, and I'm tired and right now I'm sticky hot on this Memorial Day Weekend.  Today I went to a family picnic and now I'm at home catching up on laundry and prepping my 2 rocking chairs on my front porch to be repainted.  That's what I love about these extended holiday weekends... gives me the opportunity to do extra household chores and home projects that have been on hold for so long!  Ohh, and of course, being lazy and chowing down ice cream AND all the other favorite picnic foods ! ;)

So  this week I had a very heavy box delivered to my front door.  We are talking about 35 lbs. of heaviness... 35 lbs. of pure LOVE!  My first Core'dinations dt box arrived and it was overflowing with  cardstock.  I just couldn't believe my eyes, and tearing into that box, I felt just like a little kid on Christmas Day!  I've started creating some things with it too this week, mostly card designs. 

Most of them I can't really show just yet, but I'll share one card that I made using the Vintage Core collection, which is one of my favorite lines. 

This card also uses some yummy Sassafras papers and one of their chipboard flower accents.  And to you see the denim strip on there?  I rubbed some cute Studio Calico button rub-ons over it and added them to an old Creative Cafe diecut frame as well!  The sentiment is a Papertrey Ink stamp.

I also participated in a fun card kit swap this week at the Nook and here's a card that I put together to send along to my swap partner...

For this card I used up the remains of my Pink Paislee (House of Three) Daily Junque paper scraps, and the darling flower I created using the Cricut Give a Hoot cartridge.

So that's all I have for this time, but I hope everyone is having a great weekend!  We don't have much at all planned for tomorrow but we'll probably hang out with some friends at their camp-site... and maybe I'll even have some more ice cream!  ;)  Perfect plan!

A Sketch At Nikki Sivils!

Howdy!  Hope everyone's had an enjoyable weekend.  Hard to believe it's about wrapped up... those Sunday evenings sure do come around quickly when you don't want them to, lol! 

I had big intentions of doing a lot of scrapping this weekend, but somehow those intentions didn't amount to much at all between catching up on the loads of laundry, sweeping the floors and cleaning out closets.  The Nook was having their May virtual crop all weekend long and they had 29 challenges listed.  I really had hoped to do many of them... I wrote them all down too and was thinking about which challenges to attack first.  In reality though, I was only able to produce one layout for the #12 challenge to "Go Wild About Animals".  At least I did finally get these pix scrapped from last summer when we had a little thief amongst us... a sneaky groundhog who kept burrowing it's way into our garden to feast upon our veggies.  For this page, I used some of the adorable Beatrice papers from Nikki Sivils and also used the sketch from the Nikki Sivils blog to try to earn a Guest Design Team spot. 

And here's the sketch...

I also used a variety of Core'dinations cardstock here and the Paper Lace and Sweethearts Cricut cartridges. 

Okay, that's it... that's all I got done, so it's all I've got to share for this time.  Ohh, I almost forgot though, I also wanted to share that I had some fun scrappy happy emails this past week as well... I had one card requested for the Oct. CARDS issue as well as four other projects picked up for the Oct. issue of Cricut, so of course those really made my week super exciting!  And did you know that the Cricut magazine has gone monthly now instead of bi-monthly?!  I'm really stoked about that! 

Well, I do need to be on my way... Monday morning will be here before I want it to and I've got to go to work.  It is nice to be working outside of the home part-time again, but I don't think I can ever get used to and enjoy the Monday morning routines!  Hope everyone has a great week :)

I'm Shocked to the Core!

This is what I woke up to find this morning...

HAPPY NATIONAL SCRAPBOOKING DAY!

We wanted thank each and every person for applying for the Design Team Call.

It was not easy and the Core’dinations Team spent endless hours going through the entries. There were so many amazing entries and narrowing things down was extremely difficult.

Without further ado, here is the new Core’dinations Cardstock Design Team (in alphabetical order).

 Andrea Amu 
April Derrick
Char Dobson
Leica Forrest
Lydia Jackson
Kim Jeffress
Brianne Nevill
Melissa Oliveira
Debbie Standard
Shaunte Wadley

Sarah Hodgkinson, DT Core’dinator

Ellen Sosnoski, Blog Core’dinator

Core Teachers:
Vicki Boutin
Cari Locken
Kimber McGray

Again, thank you to all of the applicants!!! We thank you for

the amazing entries and for your love of Core’dinations Cardstock. It

means so much to see that.

I was floored!  Still am.  But I can not hardly wait to get started in my venture with them.  I also want to give my congratulations to all the other designers!  Well done, and I look forward to working with you all this term!

Now onto other scrappy news on this wonderful National Scrapbooking Day...

as I am also hosting a fun last minute Mother's Day layout challenge for NSD at For The Luv of Art.com.  Would love to see you all pop in over at FTLOA and play along.  Here is the thread LINK to my challenge.  All you need to do is complete a page which includes:

* Fussy cutting with some patterned paper.

* Using either the word "Mom", "Daughter", "Son" or "Family" as part of your title/sub-title.

* Using butterflies as some sort of embellishing.

Here's my example which I am framing and giving to my mom for Mother's Day tomorrow...

I used lots of Core'dinations (Cosmo Cricket Neutrals collection in Weathered Tin Mixed Dot and Jenni Bowlin Studio Vintage Brights collection in Aquarium Butterfly), Pink Paislee/House of Three Daily Junque papers ("Tickets" and "News") and some Maya Road embellishments.  All my diecutting accents were created with the Cricut, monograms from A Child's Year cartridge and the postcard design and Always & Forever phrase from the Sentimentals cartridge. 

Your challenge page should be completed and uploaded to my thread my Monday, noon (EST). This is the RAK that is up for grabs for one random participant...

Hope you'll play along and join in with all the other fun challenges happening over at FTLOA today and throughout the rest of the weekend!   I am going to get going so I can finish getting my scrap on ... it's been a very fast paced day and unfortunately, I've gotten very little done.  How does time fly so quickly when you are doing things you love to do?  Anyway, I hope everyone else is enjoying their day too.  Happy NSD and best wishes to all for a very special Mother's Day tomorrow as well!

 

My Layout at GingerScrapStreet Magazine!

Good afternoon all! 

Just wanted to do a quick post for today, as I'll be back Saturday to post some stuff for NSD (National Scrapbook Day)! 

I have a layout featured in the May 2011 issue of GingerScrapStreet's digital publication which can be seen HERE!  And here's my page as well with some extra detail shots too...

This layout was based on the following wonderful sketch by the uber talented, Allison Davis, featured on her Sketch Support site...

For this page I used the heart, medallion and cupid accents cut from the Cricut Sweethearts cart and the font, XOXO and fabulous heart border which I cut using the Cricut Paper Lace cart.

That wonderful houndstooth is a digital paper design by Chris Hertel.  I've used that print of hers numerous times, but I love it and it's so fun to use on layouts and cards.  If you'd like to download some of your own, you can HERE!  Just be sure to give Chris some well deserved credit! ;) 

Thanks for stopping by! I'll be seeing you all around on Saturday for NSD!  Can't wait!