Stylish blogger award

I need to begin this post by appoligizing to a few wonderful women and their blogs.  I have had the honor to recieve this award several times recently, but I have never gotten around to reposting.  So, thank you to Liza, Cassandra, Charlotte,  Janice, and anyone else I may have missed THANK YOU!  I wish I had a good reason for not reposting this sooner, but I really don't.  I am so honored that you ladies feel that I am worthy of such an honor.

In order to accept this award, I need to link back to the person who awarded it to me, share 8 things about myself,  pay it forward to 8 bloggers that I love visiting, and contact those bloggers and let them know I have given them the Stylish Blogger award also.

So 8 things about me:

• I am a suburban house wife and I'm not even 30 yet- how did that happen???
• Ok, I am about to be 30 in about one month, and I plan to celebrate in Dallas the the circle swarm!
• I live in IL, but will never consider it home.  It has been 10 years since I moved here, but WV will always be home.   
• I have been working towards a 2 year degree for 4 years and I'm not even half way there yet.
• My husband travels a lot for work and I feel like a single mom most of the time.
• I have a sister who is 20 years younger than me and she is only 5 years older than my oldest son. 
• I am a momma to two spoiled rotten little boys.
• I dream of travel all the time.  I wish I had the budget to support my wish list. 

Now this is the difficult part, passing on the award.  There are so many deserving blogs out there and it is so hard to choose. 

Jan

The Crafty Mermaid

Pam

The bug bytes

Crystal

Creations by Crystal

Lindsay

Lindsay's craft lounge

Mary

Mare bear scraps

LB

Cool beans by LB

Alina

Addicted to scrapbooking

Melissa

Disney Dreamer Designs

banners- monthly challenge

OK, go ahead and say it!  I have a sick and twisted sense of humor today.  I'll make a few excuses: my kids are sick, and I am going crazy over cleaning up thing that come out of both ends of them, my husband has been out of town for 12 days, I have had a crazy week at school, and I just need to laugh.  So, here is my entry for this month's blog challenge.  It is just another little treat for my trip to Dallas. 

Banners are everywhere! We love their versatility and the way they can be customized for any occasion. For this challenge, we want you to create a banner with any theme you would like. You may use THIS POST as inspiration, or feel free to create something completely new. Project must be newly created for this challenge.
This challenge is open to Cricut Circle Members only. Your entry must include 3 or more Cricut Cuts and meet the requirements above in order for your name to be entered into a random drawing for the PRIZE. You must submit a project to be entered into the drawing. Submit your entry using the InLinkz tool found at the bottom of this post and include your first and last name in the title. Entries are due by 11:59 pm MST on Sunday, February 27th, 2011. Winner will be announced on March 1st, 2011. Prize will be delivered to winner within 4 to 6 weeks of announcement.








Close ups here and here

It all started with a joke in UTAH

So, a few months ago I traveled to Utah for the Cricut Circle Swarm.  A friend saw a t-shirt in a window that read "SL,UT" and then in small print read Salt Lake Utah.  Well, Jan and I thought that was awesome and set off on a quest to find said store.  When we arrived we were lucky enough to not only find the t-shirt, but some matching panties.

 For those of you who have met me, you know I'm just a girl that likes to have a good time.  I am happily married with two small boys living the American dream.  I'm a stay at home mom, have a beautiful home, a wonderful husband, and enjoy my life.  But, in a former life I was a bit of a party girl, and that side of me isn't seen often these days.  In Utah, I definately got to bring out my fun side.  I was kid free, responsibility free, and just wanted to have fun.  So, I bought the forementioned panties as more of a joke than anything.  Of course, when I got the opportunity to do a little dance later at the swarm I certainly wasn't to shy to incorporate the panties into the dance.

When I began planning for Dallas I knew I had to do something with the panties agian- just for fun.  When I got the new cricut circle cartridge, cricut everyday, I knew just what I needed to make.  ENJOY- Oh, and I made a few pairs for my roomies in Dallas too.  It really isn't easy to ask other women their panty sizes :)  I found the perfect panties at Target in the clearance isle!  Mock denim with pink trip.  I used HTV for the cuts, and my Irock to add some bling. 

Table setting and scrapbook page

In just a few short weeks I will be traveling to Dallas for the first Cricut Circle Stampede!  I am so excited to go and feel very fortunate to have the opportunity.  If you would like to know more about the event you can find it here.  I have quite a few projects in the works for the trip.  The first one I have ready to show you is the scrapbook page I will be placing on my table.  I have used my cricut messageboard photo on the page to help those who know me from that site recognize who I am. 

As I do most of my scrapbooking in 8x8 I choose to make my table tag 8x8 as well that way when I am done with it, I can use it in my albums.


I used the cake basic's card to cut the 8x8 page- this is the same cut that I use for my calling cards so I wanted to keep it in the same line.  The barn and girl are from the country life cartridge, and the cows are from create a critter.  I used vinyl to cut my name- I love using vinyl! 

Sending some love

As many of you know, after the October Cricut Circle Swarm in Utah, I collected calling cards to sent to Admin Becky.  I was really hoping that Becky would be joining us for the upcomming swarm in Dallas in March, but she will not be able to attend.  I have offered to collect calling cards for her again and will be sending them to her after the swarm is over.  I wanted a fun way to collect the cards for her.  Well, last night while shopping at walmart I came across a cute valentine's day mail box in the clearance for $0.75, and bought it to decorate for the collection progess.  I plan to keep the mail box to collect for her at every swarm I attend.  I will be placing this box on my table in Dallas so be sure to drop by and leave your card.  And if you are not attending Dallas and would like to get your calling card to Becky please leave your email address and I will send you my contact information.



The flowers were created using the Mother's Day Floral cart and the tower is from French Manor. I found the post card image on the internet and printed it on cardstock.




I used Irock gems on this side to give it some extra sparkle.

Calling Cards from Utah- OCTOBER 2010

I have been meaning to post this for a while, but managed to forget until someone started asking for calling card inspiration on the MB today.  Here are a few photos of the calling cards I collected in Utah.  I will be doing a seperate post for the cards from CHA in Chicago.

Calling Cards from summer CHA- CHICAGO 2010

Here is the second half of the calling cards.  These were from CHA in Chicago, summer 2010.

flower pin

I was inspired to create these pins because of all the beautiful flowers I have been seeing in the blog world lately.  More spacifically Linda over at The Paper Boutique posted a lovely tutorial on how to make glubers last week.  After trying it, I decided that while the glubers were a great idea they just wouldn't work for what I wanted to accomplish.  So, I got out my trusty needle and thread and got to work.  As Linda has created such a lovely tutorial I don't see a need to go through all of the details, but you might want to know that I simply ran a gathering stich along the edge of each piece of fabric or tulle and the tied it into a circle.  If anyone really wants specifics leave me a message and I'll get to work on it.

Tulle 2 inches wide, 16 inches long.  I played with the lenght and found any size really works.  As I was using some leftover scraps from another project this is the size I had the most of.

Printed Fabric- 1 inch wide, 17 inches long, again the length didn't really seem to matter.

After I made the circles out to the fabric I stitched the two layers together, added a button and a pin!  It really is a quick and simple project, but I love the way it turned out.  I liked it so much I used the basis of the flower for a card...be sure to check it out here


The pin on an apron


Close up of the pin


A second pin where I doubled the amount of tulle (length)


Two layers of fabric, no tulle

Weekly Cricut Circle Blog Challenge

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to try to participate in the Cricut Circle Blog Challenges more frequently.  Well, I am failing miserably.  It is mid-February now and I believe this is only my second entry for the year.  Oh well, there is always next week.  I did come up with a quick card for this weeks entry.  Let me know what you think.

Weekly Challenge #20: Love Notes Challenge!

Valentine’s Day is just a few days away and we thought it would be fun to challenge you to put your scrappy skills to use by creating an extra special note for someone you adore. It can be a friend, your mom, a lover, your child, a neighbor . . . anyone! Your project must include a heart and embossing (we want to see you incorporate those Cuttlebug embossing folders). Project must also contain atleast 2 Cricut cuts to qualify.
This challenge is open to cricut circle members only. 


To create this card I used the cuttlebug folder with hearts (can't remember the name), a punch for the heart border on the front, a couple of stamps with embossing powder, glitter tulle and a button for the flower, a small piece of satin ribbon for the flower stem,  and the Cricut Cartridge for the two hearts on the inside of the card.

Function over creativity

I will be the first to admit that todays project post is not the most creative project.  I have been meaning to post this for a couple of weeks, but was waiting until the toy room was clean to take photos.  Well, guess what!?!?!  The play room still isn't clean.  HA!  I decided it may never be clean, so I just took the photos anyway. 

I was inspired to do this when I saw a post on the cricutMB a LONG time ago with something similar.  I can't remember who the original poster was, and I can't seem to find it either- but I do want to let you know that I did have some inspiration for this and it is not truely mine.

My boys need to start helping me with the toy room pick up.  So, I have organized the toy bins by theme, created labels, and it seems to be helping.  I used my cricut and a variety of cartridges to create the tags, laminated them with my yourstory, punched holes with my big bite, and added some rings.  ENJOY!

Here is the whole bank of bins


The label for toy story toys- we have a ton! - toy story cartridge


The bin for Dinosaur toys- dinosaur tracks


The bin for hotwheels and other cars- used Jubilee for the font and everyday paperdolls for the car



The bin for the kitchen toys, food, pot pans- From my kitchen cartridge


The bin for random balls- Sports Mania Cartridge, and I used a sizzix font


The bin for Mr Potato Head pieces- Toy Story Cartridge


The bin for Happy Meal Toys- Simply charmed (can't remember what font)



On a side note, I used so many carts on this project that I can't add enough lables HUMM- I guess I will just have to settle for labeling them in the post!