Waiting for you!

Hello everyone, hope you are all doing well.  I've been keeping myself busy and haven't had much time to scrap but lucky for me once a year I join a great group of women that get together for a fantastic weekend of scrapping. I have to tell you these ladies do some awesome stuff. I'm still on the amateur level but I always come back full of ideas and inspiration!  I did some basic things for work, like cutting tags and stuff but Saturday afternoon I started some generic double 12 x12 layouts that are intended for some pregnancy pictures.

This is not the best picture but it gives you a basic idea of what I started.  There are 6 layouts, 5 intended for boys and one for my granddaughter.  I still have to add a pregnant lady to each of these.

I'll be using my New Arrival cricut cartridge for that and the title will be "Waiting for you". I'll be using my Silhouette cameo for that.  Once it's complete, I'll add the pictures and give them to the appropriate Mommy. 3 of the boy theme layouts will go to my eldest daughter who has 3 boys, my other daughter will receive 1 boy theme layout and the girl layout, the last boy layout will be for my friend's daughter who just had a baby boy. 

Can't wait to see the final product....I'll make sure to come back and share!

Thanks for stopping by!

Some oldies....

Just stopping by to post pics of some old projects.  These were all done way back when I only had the original cricut and expression machines.  No gypsy & no CCR....

These first three projects I believe were done with Plantin Schoolbook

I think the number 18 was done using George Basic Shapes as well as the flowers attached to the bags in the background.  The bags were done with Plantin Schoolbook.  I made the tall and roly poly bags. These were party favors for my daughters' 18th birthday.

These favors were done for a Cub Scouts Blue & Gold event.  

These favors were for my cousin's baby shower. I made them using the Potpourri Cartridge.  I believe the Baby Boy topper on the diaper cake was done with  A Child's Year. 

Here are a few more close-ups of all the table decor...

This is a 1-page layout I did of my husband and I.  The inspiration came from out there in blogland and I don't have the person's name....

Using Indie Art cartridge

and the last project, cake toppers for my daughter's 20th bday cake....I have twins but only one was around at the time to celebrate the day with...

Disney Pooh font cartridge, her favorite.

Well this is all for now...back to household responsibilities, laundry & cooking.  I will be working on bday invites for my grandson's 1st bday and will post them after everything is completed.

Thanks for stopping by...have a blessed Sunday!!

Sending you crafting wishes,

Jeanette

My Creative Time....Again!

Hello, my dear readers....just popping in to share my submission for the latest challenge at My Creative Time.  The latest Throwback Thursday challenge calls for using a Font cartridge.  Emma's suggestion is that we not only use the fonts on the cart but also check out the shapes/images that can be found on alot of  the Font cartridges.  I know I have quite a bit of font carts and I don't use nearly half of them.  For this challenge I resorted to one of my favorite font cartridges and one of the first ones I bought when I got my original cricut machine.  In fact for this project, I even dusted off my original baby bug and put her to use. It was great.  For the challenge I decided to make another two page layout for my grandson's baby album. As I've mentioned before, the theme for this book is Winnie the Pooh.

I love this cart because not only does it have great fonts but it also has some wonderful images of Winnie and all his friends.  I don't recall where I got the base mat..sorry... The banner is my favorite part because it's not a shape but a font.  I used the wood shadow feature on the cart and selected capital "B", shift.

When you turn it sideways, it looks like a banner.  So I cut this a few times, punched some holes and put in some grommets with my crop a dile, ran some ribbon through the holes to give it more life.  I love my little banner because it was so unexpected.  

I cut some swirls from another font cart, Don Juan.  Another one of my favorites...I put swirls on each top corner because it looked a little empty.  The last font cart I used was Songbird.  It's one of my newer carts and like so many, one I haven't used often.  

I used the perch feature, and cut this little bird on a sign.  On the sign, I stamped my grandson's name using $1 stamps by Studio G. I can't wait to add the pics.  

Well my dearies, this is all for now. Time to get to bed and get some rest.

Don't forget to check out My Creative Time, spend some time with Emma and join the fun. She always has great challenges.

Thanks for visiting...

Sending you crafting wishes,

Jeanette

Old West

Hello crafty friends, just stopping by to post my entry for this week challenge at Cricut 360.  It's challenge #7 and it calls for using the Old West cart.  I put this quick 8x8 layout of my cousin's son who just celebrated his 3rd bday.  She's an old Texan girl living in NYC and missing her home state!

Nothing too exciting....especially since I waited until the last minute to get this done.  Oh well, at least I finally got around to using this cart.

Nighty, Nighty all.....thanks for visiting!!

Sending you crafting wishes,
Jeanette

Another challenge entry

I'm back today with another challenge entry.  I only have a couple of weeks left before it's time to get back to the reality of work so I'm trying to get some scrapping done. My entry is a layout I did about a year ago but never took pics of or posted.  When I read the theme for this week's challenge over at Cricut 360 I knew it was the perfect project.  The theme this week is Refresh Yourself and after the sweltering summer we've had, it's the ideal theme.

A visit to the spa is a great way for refreshing yourself, combine that with a great massage, great company and a delicious dinner afterward and you have the PERFECT day.

My cousin planned this wonderful get together and we had a wonderful time.  It was a great way to catch up, just the ladies, no husbands, no children, no interruptions. Just a lot of laughing, relaxing and lots of bonding.

Here's a close up of each side:

I actually went out and bought the Opposites Attract cart for this layout.  At the time, I couldn't figure out how to make the scripted letters look connected and since I didn't have a gypsy at the time, I gave up and just cut everything out in the same style.

There wasn't any room for shadow layering and I didn't know about inking the edges.  It's pretty simple but I love it.  I used Opposites Attract for the title and the swirls were cut from Home Accents.  

Well, must get back to my scrapping, I'm hoping to finish another project today and to get it posted.

Here's a sneak peek:

Thanks for stopping by, don't forget to visit the Cricut 360 Challenge Blog and join the fun, you have until Wednesday to join in.  The DT has put together some great projects....lots of inspiration!!

Sending you crafting wishes, 

Jeanette

Friends & Lovers

I just finished my layout for this week's challenge over at Fantabulous Cricut.  The challenge for this week was all about Friends in honor of Friendship Day (July 30th).  As soon as I saw what the theme was, I knew what I was going to do.  I love doing layouts of my husband and I and since it's our 17th anniversary on the 11th of this month this was the perfect time.  I think the basis of a solid marriage is friendship.  My best friend is my husband.  I love talking to him and just sharing the small things in life with him.  17 years after we got together and we both feel that our relationship, our marriage, our friendship is stronger than ever.  Hence, the title of this post....

and the layout

Left side

Right side

I added black stickles to the center of the flower.

I cut "friends" and the border using Gypsy Wandering and for the word "lovers" I used Gypsy Font.  I think it's the first time I use that font.  I used my Swiss Dot cuttlebug folder on the title and borders. Overall I'm happy with how it turned out, I probably should've added some ribbon to the photo mats but you know, when you don't have a crafting space with everything in sight, some things just get left out.  I tend to use only what's right in front of me at the moment and my ribbon was in a container in another room. Let's face it, I'm too lazy to get up.  Anyway, let me wrap this up because I want to make the deadline at Fantabulous Cricut.  Can't wait to see what the new challenge will be.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sending you crafting wishes,

Jeanette

*Just noticed I left the ampersand symbol (&) out. Oh well.....

Not so happy beach baby

Here's a layout for my grandson's first trip to the beach.  He's 11 mos and I'm glad we had the opportunity to share this moment with him.  He absolutely hated the water, probably because it was a bit cold for him.  He did enjoy sitting around in the sand but I'll scrap those pics at a later date.

It's a 8x8 layout meant for his mother's album.  

Here's a close up of each side

Left side

Right side

I cut the frames from the George & Basic shapes cart and popped them to make it easier to add pictures later on.  The title was cut using Don Juan. I used these G Studio stamps from the $1 bin at Michaels to make the first part of the title.  

The waves and title were inked with brown chalk.

All the sea creatures were cut using Create a Critter cart.  I like how they look but I was annoyed at the fact that my daughter put the lid to the baby bottle on top of my little octopus.  It was too late in the evening to cut another one, so I made the best of it.  

See the smudges....

Well, this is all for now.  I'm planning out my layout for this week's challenge at Fantabulous Cricut.  The challenge is to celebrate the friendships in our lives.  I can't wait to get it done.  Make sure you stop by their blog and join the fun. The DT has done a great job.

Thanks for stopping by. I appreciate your visit and your comments!

Sending you crafting wishes,

Jeanette

Berry Dirty

Finally, sometime to myself so that I could craft.  I was so happy to find some quite time today and definitely took advantage of it.  I created this layout for my grandson's album.  

  

The strawberries are from the Indie Art cart and the title is from the Printing Press cart that was pre-loaded on my Gypsy. I popped the smaller strawberries, added some red stickles and used my white gel pen to outline the strawberries.

 

 I kept the title simple only using my white gel pen here and there.  It was the first time I used this font and I love it. Must use it more often.

The last thing I did was distress the edges with white craft ink.  I printed the pics on plain paper just to give me a better idea of how I wanted to place the pics but I will replace them with regular pictures.  The layout is 8x8 and is simple.  I think it's my style...I don't usually add alot to my layouts. 

See below for another simple layout that I had intended to submit to M.A.G. Challenge by the Page this week but missed the deadline. The challenged called for Create a Critter, page 59 ~

 Pretty simple, don't you think?  Anyway, this is all for tonight.  I'm hoping to get another layout done by Sunday. Thanks for stopping by.

Sending you crafting wishes,

Jeanette

4th of July Birthday

Hello everyone, hope you are all doing fine and making plans to enjoy the 4th of July weekend.  I absolutely love the 4th of July, not only because it's a day to celebrate our great country but because it's my Dad's birthday.  I'm so glad that I'll be spending the day with him.  Hopefully we can have a small bbq with family and celebrate his day.  I always tease him by telling him that all the fireworks are in his honor.  He's a very quite, humble and hard working guy.  I love him to pieces and couldn't ask for a better Father! My kids definitely are enjoying his company and appreciate having him around, especially because he's the only Grandparent they have left.
It's with this in mind that I planned my layout for this week's challenge at Celebrate the Occasion.  This week's challenge is all about the red, white and blue. After perusing some wonderful blogs, I came across the Pagemaps blog. I clicked on their sketches for June 2011 and immediately found one that I liked:

This is my interpretation:

This layout was created with my father in mind. Perfect for the 4th of July bday boy!!
Here's a close up of the two focal points....

                                             

The '4th of July' was cut from Stand and Salute and the 'hat' was cut from the Independence  Day cart. 

To spell out happy bday, I used these stamps from the G studio collection found in Michael's for $1

and for the sentiment on the top left corner I used these stamps from Hero Arts

  

I'm really enjoying these stamps, see here where I used it on my Memorial Day layout.  All the designer paper is from K&Company, the Americana stack.  I can't wait to add some pics to this layout.

Now onto some venting...initially, I attempted to cut the 4th of July sentiment from the Independence Day cart but no matter what I did this is how it turned out

I tried several sizes, changed the needle, pressure, speed, mat, etc. but nothing worked. Every time the cut broke...it seems some of the letters just cut too thin.   I guess this is why some people are switching over to the Silhouette sole for the use of titles, since apparently it cuts intricate pieces very nicely.  Oh, well that won't be the case for me, I have too much invested in my Bugs.

Well this is all for now, don't forget to head over to the Celebrate the Occasion blog and join the fun, the design team has done some wonderful projects.

Sending you crafting wishes,

Jeanette

Link Up Love Party with K. Andrew

I've decided to participate in Krystal's Link Up Love Party over at Getting Cricky with K Andrew.  I'm excited to see how it goes. The idea is to become a follower of different blogs, have others become your follower and this way everyone can get inspiration and motivation from one another.  I think it's a great idea for us newbies!! One of the things that Krystal asks us to do is post a favorite project and something we are grateful for ~ this is my project:

and the thing I'm most grateful for is the fact that my oldest daughter finished high school.  It was touch and go for a while. Her high school years were very difficult ones. She dealt with issues that were beyond our control, that no one should ever have to deal with but through it all, she stayed true to going to school.  Ring day is the day that Seniors get their rings and it includes a number of activities including a Mass to bless the Seniors and their future as they leave High School.  As the day's events unfolded and I went around taking pictures, I knew immediately how my layout was going to look.  It's also the first double layout I completed.  

Left page

Right page

I used my baby bug, Mickey and Friends, A child's Year and George and Basic Shapes carts.  I could probably do it over and make it look cleaner but it wouldn't be the same.  A lot of love went into this one. 

I'm so proud of her, for being a survivor and not a victim...She's my hero!

Below you'll find the instructions for the Link Up Love Party ~ I hope you join the fun! I'm off now to finish becoming a follower and leaving comments! 

Link Up Love Party: How it Works

*Link Up Party runs from Tuesday 6/21 to Tuesday 6/28. Winners announced 6/29
*Grab my blinkie and post on your blog's sidebar
*Be a follower of this blog
*Create a new blog post that is titled Link Up Love Party with K Andrew. In your post, you must mention that the link up love party is a way to get to know each other and find new blog inspiration, mention my blog, with a link back to my blog .
*Post your favorite project that you've done in your blog post WITH ONE thing you are grateful for!
*Copy and paste the link up code into your blog post so the Inlinkz will show up on your blog
*Spread the word so everyone can join in!
*You must visit, follow, and comment on the 5 people before you AND the 5 people after you in the Inlinkz. It would be fantastic if you would visit as many as you can--maybe everyone? If you are one of the first 5 then you will need to blog the ones before you and a few more after--as long as it's a minimum of 10 near you in the link up tool/gadget)
If you do not do the above your link will be deleted, because it's just not fair to those who work so hard linking up and showing love to the ones on the list. Krystal has two moderators who will be checking this out to keep it awesome and fun!