January 15th???

Sheesh, at the rate time is flying by, I won't have to worry about missing my husband when he leaves for Turkey.  It'll be a snap and he'll be back.....right?  Okay, probably not.  Here is what I've been doing since Christmas and my last long, long ago post!

Flash back to a couple of weekends ago...  I know everyone is WAY passed Christmas but I had this picture and decided to load it.  I got a little melancholy when I was packing away my ornaments.  I keep all the ones I made on the top on my ornament box so they are the first thing I see when I unpack that box.  It just makes me happy.  I have been making ornaments on and off since around 1970-something.  Some were painstakingly cut out of wood and were a labor of love.  There were years my sisters had to help me finish them at our Christmas party so they could take them home for their tree but they usually didn't mind.  The Christmas tree at the bottom is the one that started it all.  :o)

 

My friend Debbie's daughter is getting married so we played with my Cricut and cut out some things she can use on the tables for a vintage/classic theme.  The umbrellas will be glued to a stick for the centerpieces (flowers) and the other smaller cuts will be sprinkled on the table like big ol' chunky confetti.

The landlord where I work was cleaning out the phone room.  I was walking down the hall toward the ladies room and saw this spool in his hands.  I asked him if he was throwing it out and you should've seen the look on his face!  I wish I had my camera.  He said, "Uh, yes, why, do you want it?"  Again with the face, I said "YES!"  One of the girls across from me and Kelley at the craft shows this winter put little eye hooks around the top edge, wrapped the center with jute and displayed her jewelry.  I thought this would be vintage for Kelley to use for any of her stuff....after it gets cleaned up and "modified"!

I went to the sewing machine store and traded in my lemon sewing machine.  I guess I really shouldn't call the old machine a lemon.  It ran okay.  I just never liked the puckery seams.  Lesson learned on getting a machine for all the bells and whistles!!  I just can't seem to tear myself away from the Pfaff IDF (dual feed) that stitches fabric so beautifully!  And this one has a nice deep throat so maybe I can even get some quilting done!!!

I've been doing some cleaning and organizing in the sewing room.  I need to clean out underneath my sewing tables and add some bins to put some things away.  I hope to get that done by the weekend.  It's supposed to be lovely, finally in the 70's, so I think we'll be spending some time cleaning out the garage.  Now doesn't that sound like a blast!  lol

Mic-key M o u s eeeee!

A family friend, Brenda, has the cutest little boy named Mason.  It's Mason's 1st birthday party tomorrow so I offered to help out by doing up some decorations.  I used my daughter's Mickey Mouse Cricut cartridge.  What a great and easy theme for a party.  The colors are great and Mickey is a classic.  We should all hold up so well!!

 

First, I did a banner with the Mickey icon that was about 10" tall.  I ended up using a little punch to attach them together and little black brads.  I just forgot to take a picture after it was done.  I gave my oldest dd specific instructions to take a picture at the party tomorrow.  I've had a cold and I'm not going to go.  :o(

 

I also made little centerpieces for the tables.  These aren't finished either.  lol  Brenda has the shredded paper that goes inside the bucket so they will be put together at the party tomorrow.  This was my prototype.

 

I decided to use the cartridge (while it and all the mess from the projects was out on the table) to make Mason's birthday card.  I've never made cards with layers like Mickey has but they are fairly easy to do.  I like the way the card came out but honestly, Mickey makes the card. 

I'm so bummed I'm missing the party but I'm sure everyone there will appreciate that I kept my cooties to myself.  :o(

Ashley's Wedding, first pics

I know I've been gone a loooong time but I was a little busy with final wedding plans, blog posts just had to wait.  But now, I have pictures from family and friends to share.  Yay!

Ashley's wedding was Saturday and we prayed we could have it outside at the beautiful gazebo but there was a storm coming down from Alaska due to hit Saturday early evening.  Wedding time, 4:00 p.m. (kind of early evening!!)  

The bride and groom to be really wanted to have their ceremony outside since that's why they picked this beautiful venue and all day there had not been a drop of rain so we decided to just go for it.  We barely made it!  In one of the pictures, you can see the raindrops on the collar of my dress.  :o)  During the cocktail/social hour, the rain came down pretty good but we were already inside at the reception celebrating.

First, here's a picture of the program that Kelley made.  She saw something online and put her creative juices to work.  It was adorable and though I'm her "biased" mother, I think it was cuter than the original she saw.  She listed the Bridesmaids and then "Sistermaids".  Our two girls and Dave has sister.  I thought that was cute!

This was the table by the entrance to the wedding area.  We had the bubble basket, the yarmulkes (hats for the Jewish ceremony) and the programs.

Instead of having a sign in book, Ashley wanted to do puzzle pieces.  She had seen this idea and found small 5x7" puzzles at the teacher supply store.  She loves to do puzzles and will glue them on cardboard and bind them in a little book.

This is a picture of the cutest little flower girl, Kylie, with our daughter Kelley (out of the shot) and Richard and Ashley in the background. 

Richard and Kelley bumping elbows before the walk down to the garden.  Actually, Ashley didn't know she was supposed to grab her daddy's arm.  Different generation, you know?  I think it's a cute picture.  :o)

Some of the bridal party waiting to walk........  There were nine bridesmaids and five groomsmen.

Kelley and Kylie........

Here's a shot of the threatening sky but it did make for gorgeous pictures.

All the bridesmaids in a row with cute little Kylie.  Kelley gave her a piece of candy after they walked down the aisle and under her mother's instructions, she was not to eat it until after the ceremony was over.  Kylie held onto that piece of candy with a death grip but she did not eat it until they walked back down the aisle.  So darned cute!  And I was told this is a "technique" that is used by mom quite often.  lol

My daughter Stephanie did the centerpieces and bouquets.  I'll post more inside pictures tomorrow.  I did the floral spray on the gazebo.  It was a little stressful as the ceremony was to start at 4:00 and we did photos prior to the ceremony and weren't done until a little after 3:00.  We were at another location so hubby and I flew over to the site so I could do the spray.  Since it was just wired together and no water source, the grower we bought flowers from suggested I wait until a few hours before the ceremony.  I think we cut that one a little close!!!  I did that spray in about fifteen minutes.  After that, I could finally relax and enjoy the festivities. 

This is the dessert table.  I got the banner idea from a Stampin' Up! website.  A demonstrator had used this term for her daughter's wedding.  I cut them out with my Cricut.  I borrowed some serving pieces from my boss and from Kelley.  I bought a few at Goodwill and the rest were in the cupboards at home.

I bought candy in bulk and baked Texas Sheet Cake, Magic Cookie Bars (Dave's favorites) and white cupcakes with orange frosting (on clearance from Target after Halloween).  We bought apple and pumpkin (Ashley's favorite) pies from Costco.  My friend and former co-worker, Becca, made the devils food cake pops, which were delicious.  She is Becca's Cupboard on facebook.

Kelley printed the names of the baked items and candy names and I cut them out with my Cricut.

Kelley painted the cake toppers (minus the cake lol) as her gift to her sister and new brother-in-law.  She even added the hair flower and made orange paper roses for the bouquet.  Dave and Ashley fed each other their favorite dessert for that portion of the reception. 

These photos are from the flower girls mom and my sister.  As I get more pictures of the family, I will share them too. 

Cricut Cartridge Storage

I signed up for facebook (fb) a while ago but never really cared for the layout. It's taken me some time but I'm coming around. I follow a couple of crafty sites and recently, I saw something that made visiting fb worthwhile.

Below are my Cricut cartridges on a shelf in my 'paper crafting room'. As you can see, I have a few! :o) I recently joined the Cricut Cheat Sheet on fb and a lady, Deanna, shared a great space-saver on a post. She got a storage box and was able to store 22 cartridges and all the 'parts' in one box. So I went online and ordered a box for $6.99 (no shipping or tax) from Gander Mountain. Here is a link to the actual product.

So, I was able to go from this...

To this! 22 cartridges in a nice little space.

I have two leftovers so I just sat them on the shelf by themselves for now. I'm sure I'll acquire one or two more cartridges and have to buy box #2. I just can't help myself.... When I find them during the holidays for $15.00/a piece.....it's just too tempting to add to my collection.

I have been organizing and cleaning in my sewing room too. Things were so messy, I couldn't move around or didn't have a clean place to cut fabric! Got my laundry done yesterday and some cleaning done so I hope to get some sewing done today. Hope you had a great weekend!

My cards

Here are some of my cards that I made at my sister's. My daughter Stephanie found this concept for a Stampin' Up! party where you make ten cards for $10 but to make it worth her wile (is that how that is spelled???) at parties, she had to use minimal amounts of embellishments. Isabel and I did pretty good just using contrasting paper and a minimal amount of ribbon, brads, etc. We laughed that we made so many cards and barely made a dent in our paper stash.

And while Isabel was making some of those 40 cards she made, I played with the Cricut. Since the Cricut has to be plugged in and set up, you have to have room to keep it set up. In my craft room, it isn't. Needless to say, I don't use it quite as much as I would like to. And with quilting, it gets pushed back even farther down the crafty ladder. :o) So I used a few different cartridges to make a birthday card for my boss's daughter; Accent Essentials for the background shape (in light blue and black), Nifty Fifty for the little dress and dress form and Alphalicious for the words.
The Easter cards my sister made and the card below were done with stamps from the Easter Blossoms set in the Occasions catalog. If you'd like to see the catalog, you can visit the link above for Stephanie's site. :o)

Off to go unpack all of my stuff from my trip............. No fun.

Save the Date....Part(s) 1

I didn't realize until recently that paper crafts are very much like quilting. Lots of parts and lots of steps, and it isn't until you have all the pieces prepared, that you get a finished product.

**Acronym alert!** :o)

My youngest daughter Ashley is the B2B (Bride to Be) and when it came to a Save the Date card, she wanted something handmade. She is our former college softball player and not a crafty gal but she "steps up to the plate" (pun intended LOL) when she has to. She searched the Internet and found a Save the Date card she liked. We are making several changes so I guess you could say it was our "inspiration". She found it here if you'd like to see more of the sample.

I used my Cricut to cut the Save the Date words out from the Sweetheart cartridge. The words are all one cut so that made it easy. We cut a Shadow in silver card stock from Stamin' Up! to go behind the words. Ashley ran them through the Xyron machine after they were cut out to put permanent adhesive on the back, then she and Adina, her MOH (maid of honor) glued them down to the silver background. All 90 of them!

Kelley, my artsy daughter, created the cards we will use for the background page and the inserts. Since Ashley and Dave are getting married on 11/12/11, the numbers were too thin to do it like the inspiration card.

I used my middle daughter's Cricut machine to cut out the envelopes. She's got the bigger machine and it was nice to have two going at once.....although a little tiring. :o) Between my Cricut cutting the words and background shapes and Stephanie's Cricut cutting 90 envelopes....the dining room table was hummin'!!

We are waiting on the background sheets with the swirls and the names on them, and a drawing. Once we get those and get them cut, we can start the assembly line. We're shooting for Saturday because Dave's mama, Missy, aka/MOG (Mother of the Groom) will be in town and she can be a part of the action! Stay tuned for Part(s) 2. :o)

BusyLiz, aka/MOB.....Mother of the Bride Okay, I think I got that out of my system. hehe

Yaaaarrrrrd Sale!!!!

Earlier this week my daughter sent me an email link from Craig's List that there was a yard sale happening on Friday (yesterday). They advertised a Cricut machine, scrapbooking stuff and craft items so we had to check it out....even though we have no business buying anything. :o) I asked my boss if I could go in an hour (or so) late. Thankfully she said YES because man, oh, man......what a sale!!

Do you see the Cricut machine? No? It's there. It's just buried under the motherload of stuff we got! I looked at some of the used cutting mats and they have images of the words 'school' and ABC's cut out. I think someone said the woman was a retired teacher. She was in her 80's and her kids were running the sale but they kept having to ask "Mom" for prices. I just wanted supplies but she wouldn't sell anything separate. She was asking $200 for the entire lot. I got there before my daughter, told her what the woman said and she hit the ATM before she met me there. I hadn't gotten paid yet and had $60 my hubby gave me to go. The price included the Cricut personal cutting machine, which neither me or my daughter need. She has the bigger Expression and I have a personal Cricut cutter. We'll go through everything on Sunday and figure out what we will part with and sell, probably to my sister. (We're dragging her down with us. LOL)

So here's what we got...

These are some of the cartridges. I have three of these already so the duplicates will go. :o) Stephanie said she lives close enough to share them so we don't need duplicates.

And there were these mini cartridges. There were two Home Accent cartridges, one to keep, one for sale. That one has some cool accents for vinyl wall art. Yeah!!

There was a tool kit, a brand new Alphalicious cartridge, three packages of replacement blades.....

Four new packages of replacement mats (2 in each), 5 slightly used mats, Cricut Design Studio software, a roll of vinyl covering, a paper cutter and a bag full of 12 x 12 decorative paper.

Before my daughter got to the sale, I bought this box of scrapping stuff which included two circle cutters, four paper stacks, jumbo circle punch, etc., etc. She wanted $10 for it.

I can hardly wait for Sunday to play with our new toys!!

Post-it Note Clipboards

I've mentioned before that my middle daughter, Stephanie, is a Physical Therapist Assistant at a hospital. Her manager asked her if there was something "they" could make for PT Week as a gift for this week. Stephanie looked on Splitcoast Stampers, one of the greatest websites EVER!!! If you go there, click on Galleries in the upper right corner. You don't need to log in but the ideas there are endless.

This is what Stephanie (and her elf helper) made yesterday. Instead of using cardboard coasters, she used chipboard (a knock-off really) from my buddy Carolyn. Carolyn does payroll and the packs of checks have these cardboard sheets. She mailed me a bunch and they saved Stephanie or the hospital actually, a bunch of money.

Stephanie tried to cut the chipboard with her Cricut Expression but it was giving her a bunch of grief. We trimmed them up and made them pretty and glued on decorative paper (on the front or top side only). She found binder clips at WalMart on clearance and also the post-it pads for .17 each! We did the best we could to match up the sets and used ribbon to try and coordinate.

We made 60. Yup, 60! They measured approximately 4 1/2" square. The actual coaster clipboards are a bit smaller. I think around 3 1/2".

Stephanie's manager took the scrap paper from the clipboards, rolled them up and tucked them inside a pen. Each PT and PT Assist. will get a set. It's a usable gift and hopefully they'll appreciate them.

We were busy all last week and into the weekend. I only had Sunday to relax and helping Stephanie took up most of my day. I did get two sets of blocks sewed together in the morning and another two sets cut out after she left. They're simple scrappy blocks for a swap and the deadline is quickly approaching so I better get some done this week. And all those new tv shows are starting this week. Ohhhh, it's going to be rough to balance my evenings! I like House and Castle but would like to catch a few of the new shows.

Wedding Favor prototypes

My friend's daughter, Jessica is getting married next month. My pal Neena and I offered to help with table favors so last night we got our thinking caps (and our paper toys out) and came up with a few prototypes for the bride2be. Before you start looking, remember these are 'rough drafts' and we glued and pulled apart pieces and there are no embellishments. These were just to show the bride and get the thumbs up so we could order supplies.

The popcorn box and little black heart box were cut with the Cricut machine and the Tags, Bags, Boxes and More cartridge. The matchbox was cut using the die from Stampin' Up! The tags were made using either the SU circle or oval scallop punches and the circle or oval punches.

One white popcorn box was rolled with black ink and a jumbo design wheel from SU. The other white popcorn box was dry embossed with a scroll design and the black one we used a dotted embossing folder. The matchbox was embossed with the new SU wallpaper embossing folder.

Here is a close up of the heart box, which you really can't see and the matchbox. Neena used a flower punch and cut two 5 petal flowers and layered them and then added a dark rhinestone. It needed a little something so we embossed it with the dots but we're not sure about that. Maybe a little ink.

This is the other box Neena had the die for. We cut it out and then embossed it with another folder she had. It was getting late so we didn't even add a ribbon but it's enough to show the bride2b the shape and size.

When we get the 'go', we'll order supplies and get an assembly line going. The wedding is mid-October so we want to get going. These were fun to make and having all these toys sure makes doing mass-production things like this a little easier. Sheesh, when I got married you bought things like plastic swans and filled them with butter mints. It's so much easier to be creative nowadays. :o)

9/11 and Hailee's Centerpiece

I keep my American flag flying all the time but today, it had more meaning. Today, it was for all those families who try to live every day after 9/11. It's hard to believe it was nine years ago. Bless all of the friends and family of anyone who was affected that day.

My friend Debbie asked me to make a centerpiece for her daughter's baby shower. I used my Cricut Personal cutter and a couple of different cartridges. It needed a little something after the shapes were cut so I added some glitter glue and curly ribbon and I'm happy how it came out.


Most of the shapes were cut with the New Arrival cartridge. The baby bottle in the back right was from the Doodlecharms cartridge because it was way cuter than the one in the New Arrival cartridge.

The paper was from the Nana's Nursery paper pack that I got at Joann's and the solid paper is from Stampin' Up! I used my Big Shot and the polka dot embossing plate on a few of the solid color pieces to give them a little dimension (like the pink flower).

The "It's a Girl" saying is a one button cut. Those make cutting easy but what's even better is that they are super easy to glue down because these little 'cheater buttons' are usually attached letters. I ran the letters through my xyron machine with permanent adhesive. I love using that for letters. It's easy to run them through the machine and they are ready to position on your project. My sister Isabel tells me I have all the toys. I don't have them 'all' but the ones I have, I like using.

The letters for Hailee's name were cut using the Alphalicious cartridge. And below is a better shot of the cute baby bottle.

This took me all day but it's okay, I was having fun playing with my toys. :o) Now to clean up so I can play with fabric tomorrow!!

Getting ready to go....

I'm getting my goodies ready to go for the weekend. My buddy Neena told me on Monday that she had a gift certificate to her local quilt shop and she was going to go over there and get a door prize for our getaway. I said "A door prize?" She said, "Yeah, it's a retreat isn't it? We have to have prizes." Well......I had been thinking about giving the girls some little "goodies" so when she said that, I told her that "I" thought she should bring something for each of us. Because if Susan, the other girl going, won a prize and I didn't, I would be pouting all weekend. lol So the girls, besides packing, are now on a mission. :o) (Yes, I am always this much of a trouble maker!) Hey, we're not kids anymore. We have to create excitement any chance we get! So this is part of what I came up with......
I got the girls these little button containers. We all do card making too so I figured they'd be good for quilting, crafting and cards. I also got them a little emery board from the quilt shop. Then I hit the dollar store for a little container to put their goodies in. They'll be good for little trash containers on our tables too! I found some bubble gum tubes so I picked those up and a little chap stick.

I got my Cricut out and my card stock and covered the bubble gum "piggy banks". It seemed like it was missing something so I "tried" to embellish them. As the time was ticking away, I thought, okay, this is just going to have to do because I've got more important things to do....like PACK!!!

I have a few more little items I picked up at the dollar spot at Michael's to put in here and maybe some chocolate and I'll be done! :o)

My piggy bank will always be empty! LOL

I'm leaving in the morning and have a ton of stuff to do, bunco tonight and people stopping by my house after work so the night should be interesting to say the least. I'll "see" you all on Sunday.