Happy New Year (Chinese)

I always make a chinese new year card for my niece that was adopted from China. It will be the year of the Dragon on January 23rd. I used the Pagoda cartridge and a pagoda embossing folder.

more graduation pages

graduation scrapbook pages

It felt really good to get back to scrappin pictures this week. I did 4 2 page layouts. A couple of the pages need a little this or that but for the most part they are done. I have to say that after looking at the cricut magazine I have a very simple style that is picture heavy. I look at most of the layouts in the magazine and I feel its about the cricut art and the pictures are lost.. So here are two of my simple pages.

hope to have pictures tomorrow

I have been scrappin.. I haven't worked on layouts in months. This week I put together the pieces to assemble 4 2-page layouts at scrapping tonight. (They may not all make it done) I was in a layout block and I finally decided its about the pictures and to stop worrying about everything being unique or this or that and just started putting it together. Made major headway on my daughters graduation album this week. Sometimes I spend too much time looking at blogs and not enough time just doing it!!!

simple guy b-day card

I really struggle with guy cards.. I made this simple guy card for the twins b-day on January 9th. They are the 2 brothers that are immediately older than me of my 4 brothers.

reindeer food

I have the good fortune of seeing my great nephew everyday. I go into his classroom to work with children that need extra help. I happen to know that at 5 he is super excited about Christmas this year so tonight I made him some reindeer food. I cut the bag on the Imagine using the Santa's Village cartridge. The reindeer was cut from create a critter on the Imagine with customs colors. I used stickles and google eyes.

Woot, woot..

It's finally winter break. 10 days with no school. I love my job but also love to be able to recharge my batteries. I cleaned off my craft table late this afternoon. Time to get back scrapping! I found this flower that my son had made one afternoon playing with my Imagine so I made it up into a card. The sentiment is a little crooked but that's okay. Its an original.

My space is clear and hope to spend some quality time in here after Christmas. Tomorrow is family gift exchange in the afternoon, dinner with my mom, church, more family gift exchange then home to prepare my sticky buns for Christmas morning ( a tradition for so many years I can't count. They bake while we open gifts on Christmas morning.) Christmas day we will eat mid-day then my kiddies are off to see their dad and Nanny.

A friend today told me about the spectrum noir markers. I looked them up. Very interesting and the pricing is amazing.. Here's hoping I get some Christmas cash so I can purchase a few and actually compare them to my very expensive copics whose price is going up, sniff, sniff!

non craft post

I just had to post that my son that has been laid off for sometime got a WONDERFUL job offer today making more money than he made in NYC with great benefits. He is such a kind soul and my heart has ached for him while he has been looking for 2 years. He worked so hard to get his MBA at 23 and this has been breaking my heart. Hugs to him. I have had my Christmas... in the last month. My daughter got a nursing job and now this.. WOW a great ending to a year that has been filled with lots of sadness losing so many people I know.

On the baking front I make toffee bars last night and mixed the cream cheese cookies that go in the freezer. Tonight I made spiced pecans, oatmeal lace cookies and coconut macaroons dipped half way in milk chocolate. Tomorrow when my daughter is off it is the butter cookies with the press. ( She wants to sprinkle them) Still need to roll the cream cheese cookie logs I froze in green and red sugar slice and bake. Probably Thursday night for that. Oh and tonight I printed more labels with the imagine to cover nuggets to toss around the cookie trays.

Probably be MIA at least a week

I am pretty sure there will be no post between now and Christmas but I might get lucky. Coming off not feeling well since Monday. Horse voice, sore throat and congested.... I did a major SAMS run tonight. Tomorrow party, Saturday memorial for my Father in law (Yes I have been divorced 12 years but I was married for 20 and they have always been generous to me.. They have actually supported my cricut habit over the years with their generous Christmas gifts funding my first cricut expression and then it just rolled from there) Saturday night party, Sunday Christmas show at the local theatre with my mother and then next week Monday 3rd meal at my church for the needy and the rest of the week will be devoted to trying to make some Christmas cookies. Busy times but I feel blessed to have the opportunity to have them. So thankful that my daughter started her new job at a local hospital. She worked so hard for her BSN and I am grateful for the opportunity for her to use her degree.

sympathy card

I finally got some solid hours in my scrap room and made 6 of this card tonight. I used the Pagoda cart and the pagoda embossing folders. The stamp was my pink stamper.. lots of layers and the bamboo was a pain to layer at the size I cut it.. LOL!

busy, busy

Busy, busy with holiday things. I did manage to finish up all the not done things in my craft room. Yeah! I added glitter to my elf cocoa things I printed on the Imagine. I used ultra fine MS glitter. To write the names I used a fine point glue pen to adhere the glitter.

Christmas cards ready to go!!

I think I counted 63 Christmas cards when I finished... It was fun opening the box of the cards I made all year to get them ready.. Some I had forgotten I made.. LOL. Dropping them at the post office today.

B-day card

My friend is turning 50 this week and having a big party on Thursday night. These are not the colors I was looking for but as I thumbed through paper stacks these colors jumped out. I used Martha Stewart pattern and coordinating paper. Papertrey ink card base. The 50th was cut with black letter, the happy from I think the pop-up card cart and I can't remember where I found the swirls on the gypsy.

Holiday season is here!

Thursday Barnes & Noble night for my school. Friday out with friends. Saturday WW meeting, hair highlights and cut for the holidays and Toys for Tots Party. Sunday Day trip with my brother, SIL and mom to Cape May.. My brother is really good with the day trips for my mom. My kids and I do all the day to day things to help, doc appointments, groceries, trash out etc.. but my brother Mike thinks of the special things. I am making a New Years resolution after today to stop and smell the roses more.. There are so many free day trips in my area and I never take advantage. I am homebody at heart but when I take these day trips and I see all the people I think why do I hide in my house so much.. fun day. My mom worked in Cape May pre and during WW 2 at a hotel that is still there and operating today. She loves it there. At 90 she needs to see and enjoy things more. My mom, Sil and brother are in the pictures. I am the picture taker..as usual.. :-)

No crafting tonight

Dinner meeting after work. Just got home at 8:15. No crafting tonight. My bed is calling me to it early.

grrrrrr

I made 9 jars of homemade hot cocoa and ran out of Chocolate chips and marshmallows. I still need to make 3 more!.. Adding Martha Stewart Glitter to the cocoa labels I printed yesterday. I will take a picture when they are all complete.

Sana's Village xmas card

I used Santa's Village to cut the patterned background paper and the jack-in-the-box. Plantin schoolbook for the tag. Stampin up stamp.

hot chocolate Jar covers

Every year I make mason jars of homemade hot chocolate mix to give away to friends and family at Christmas. Every year I say this is the last year because it is not cheap to make and every year my kids say but MOM! Any how tonight I worked on making all the labels that will go around the jars. All the pattern paper and labels were printed and cut on the Imagine using Santa's Village. The circles are cut at 2" and fit perfectly in the flat part of the mason jar lid. I plan to start making some of the jars tomorrow. When I get some done I will post what they look like with the labels on.. Takes more than a night to mix 12 batches of hot chocolate mix.

Another scraplift card

I was so in the mood to craft and just relax yesterday but kept staring at my carts with a mental block. When this happens the cricut message boards can be so inspirational.. So with that said this is not an original idea but one from the message boards with minor variations that make it mine. Cart used was Imagine snow angel, spell binders die and cuddle bug embossing folder.

cricut message board inspiration

This is not an original design!!! I got my inspiration from the circut message board. I used the Imagine snow angels cart, stickles, liquid white opal and a stampin up stamp.

Imagine Santa's Village snowman

Super simple card with an action wobble.. hehehe my daughter thinks the snowman's eyes are creepy!

joy on the mantel

I think that now that the blocks are in place the y looks off.. I may recut and reapply the vinyl to the last block.

flowers

I think this flower turned out beautiful and sadly I did not make it. I got florals embellished when ACMoore was having a 4 day sale for cheap!!! My son played with my imagine and Martha Stewart Glitter in various colors created this flower. I think it is beautiful and am going to make it up into a card. hard to believe this started out as white cardstock!

tags

Making tags while the turkey cooks.. I just had to turn the oven down and cover the bird cause it was cooking way to fast!!! I want to eat at 3 not 1 for goodness sakes. Cut these tags from the Imagine Santas village and added stickles and some solid color matting.

glass blocks

These glass blocks will go in small stands and sit on my living room mantel in the garland.

Happy Thanksgiving

Best wishes for a happy and safe Thanksgiving.. My son made this card. Can you believe it?

finally crafted tonight

Pictures to be coming.. Glittered class blocks and cut vinyl letters to go on them to put on one of my mantels for Christmas. I got Christmas Village Imagine cart in the mail and started playing with that before The biggest loser came on.. The only show I faithfully watch right now. I am using it as inspiration on my weight watchers journey... I never really watched the show until 2 years ago. I used to bowl in a singles league every Tuesday night for years after my separation and divorce.. I stopped when I took an intense graduate course.. 2 New years ago I watched the biggest loser marathon on new years day and motivated myself to lose 28 pounds.. Then i had surgery...My son lost his job and moved home.. I had more surgery from a hernia from my original surgery and I gained everything back.... I am determined to lose it one pound at a time now... Expect bad weeks and say that is okay but keep the journey going to good health. I promised Linda I would do it.. We both signed up to win the million from Dr. Oz. I figure since her life was taken from us I can still do this for both of us.

wine bottle tags

I got this wine bottle tag die from papertrey in to dress up bottles of wine that I am giving for Christmas. I used a stamp I got at ckc last summer and used water color markers so the ink would not bleed through to the back. I will be inking the edges but the stickles was still wet when I took this picture.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving place card/treat holders... The turkey was cut at 4" on the Imagine using the enjoy the seasons cart. I layered the wing and head piece with pop-ups. The box behind was cut from tags, bags, boxes and more cart as large as I could make it on the gypsy. I had originally designed it in the cricut craft room and flood filled it with a nice textured box over the plain brown but there is a glitch in the craft room right now with the Imagine . Sometimes it works fine some times it prints and doesn't cut.. I cut one fine but then it just started printing. Since I needed 8 of these I did NOT want to waste lots of ink getting the thing to finally print and cut 8 of these so I went to brown and gold boxes because I didn't have enough of all the same of any one color.. Okay how does that happen when my son says I need a paper intervention.. Problem is I never have enough of the solid colors to go with all of my pattern paper. It's pattern paper I need an intervention for. hehehehe

non-crafting post

I have to say that I have NEVER had a season like this past fall where I had so many people I was connected with pass. It has definitely sapped my energy in all aspects of my life. I no sooner feel like I recover from one loss when I get hit with another. Because of this my crafting has slowed down while I mourn losses and regroup. On top of that I struggle with being a single mom that now has two beautiful children who worked hard to get through school.. my son 26 living home unable to find work for almost 2 years ( layed off from a job in NYC) with an MBA and my daughter a spring graduate with a BSN in nursing looking for work.... Breaks my heart and my bank account. My food bill has tripled, utilities are up in all areas and my 20 somethings don't get that momma doesn't get child support anymore but I am paying for everything I did when I got it. I read the paper and overseas is settling into a recession as well. I don't think that bodes well for us. I have to say that I am eternally thankful for my job so I can support my children and provide for what we need. With that said I have learned that in the crafting life there is a big void between want and need. I need atg tape to compete a project with supplies on hand. I do not need the latest hello Thursday release at top dollar prices.

November is for Thanks.. I am thankful for my God, children, my home, my mother, my MIL, my brothers and their wives and families, my ex and his siblings, My job, my friends, scrapping Friends, church, extended nieces and nephew, supportive colleagues and just life in general. After all these friends and family losses all you can do is be thankful for life and the ones you love.

Easy nugget coverage

I like to cover nuggets and put them into containers for the holidays. Found a way easier way that cutting paper and taping on. I flood fill a rectangle shape the size of the mailing labels with the imagine. The labels are the perfect size to peel and cover the nugget.

sign

We are going to have sneaker/wear purple every Wednesday at work to raise money to plant a nice purple flowering tree along with a bench. I made this sigh to put on the jug where people will drop their money on Wednesdays. I didn't have a cart that had a bench.. the only one I found was on a sports cart I don't have but I thought this would be okay. Several people didn't like calling it a memorial fund so I came up with this name instead.

Thanksgiving card

I colored 4 of this Stamp by Judith the other night. Last night I made them up into 4 thanksgiving cards. The patterned paper is from K&Company fall stack. The solids are recollections and the card base papertrey ink..

Having fun tonight playing in the cricut craft room. I played a few times when it was in beta but had problems with printing and cutting on the Imagine. Tonight it worked slow but beautiful. Making place setting favor boxes for Thanksgiving. Will post a picture when I am done them another night.

sympathy card

A dear high school friend called this morning to tell me that her son had passed away last night. He had struggled with depression and substance abuse for years and they had had him in treatment centers several times. I guess he just gave up. Anyhow, I started going through my carts trying to find the right image to make a sympathy card for her. When I saw this bird soaring upwards on the pagoda cart I knew it was the image to send her. At least now her son is free.

desk banner

We have a secretary being transferred to my school starting Monday.. I wanted to welcome her. I know she collects cows... I made this to put across her desk when she walks in on Monday. The cows are create-a-critter, the blue mats are elegant edges and the lettering is simply sweet.

November Wreath

I used a K&Company fall stack for the floret paper. All the embellishments were done with the Imagine Enjoy the Season.

Happy Halloween

I don't get as excited on Halloween as I used to because at school I host the alternate activity.. meaning those children who do not celebrate and their parents still send them to school.. BTW I don't know if I mentioned that I teach BSI kindergarten which is remedial groups for kindergarten. Anyhow I digress... I have to say that I LOVE giving out the candy. I will not let my kids do it now that they're grown cause I am always hoping to see my school kiddies to say hi,.... PLUS my kids don't pay attention to the "special" neighbors that we give the special treat bags to.. ( the immediate block kiddies). I had a daddy yell from the curb tonight aren't you Mrs. White? I said yes and he said... I'm Isaiah..a former student of mine with his child.. I love it.. As a K teacher I don't get to see many of my kids grown up remembering me.. since I used to teach special ed kindergarten, then BSI.... For these kids school isn't always the best experience.

The glass block story

I was walking through ACMoore and saw these glass blocks on special buy. My son and I pondered them.. Thinking we could glitter them like the balls... Then put vinyl lettering on them with a light inside... I got 3 for my mantel that will spell out joy.. Those are not done yet. I bought one with the stand to make a birthday gift for a friend who's birthday is in December. Anyway, I glittered the block and it sat.. On another trip to ACMoore I got the light bulb that clips into the bottom of the stand to go in the block. In the store I had the brain child to etch the block instead of vinyl it because I had just seen Tammer Skinner post pictures of glass etching. So I toss the etching cream in the cart.. NEVER looking at the price!!! 24.99!!!!!! WOWSER.. So I finally make the stencil.. etch the block and it works great but you can't even see it with the glitter back round with or without the light on.. So I cut the white vinyl and placed it right on top of the etching... I am going to find a project to etch.. I always get my one brother a bottle of Merlot for Christmas.. I think I will get a wine glass to go with it and etch his name on it....

Finally on a roll

Tonight it the first night that I have been really productive in the craft room for some time. I have had meetings, obligations, all while in deep grieving for my good friend. Still really struggling with that. My allergies have been terrible and I waited way to long to go to the doc.. I am asthmatic and just kept doing treatments hoping for the best. Anyhow..on lots of meds now and hope to feel better soon.

I made a friends birthday gift tonight. 8 monogram note cards. I was so happy to get them done I wrapped them up and didn't take a picture. LOL

I finally cut all the vinyl to finish the xmas balls and a glass block that are gifts. I'll post the balls today and the block tomorrow as that has a story. I made about 17 balls.. I used 5 different types of glitter material inside. I think I liked the Martha Stewart tinsel glitter and big glitter. The metallic glass beads were yuck.. They clumped together and look terrible.. Win some lose some.. The iridescent fine glitter and just regular craft glitter look nice also but the first two gave a nicer texture appearance. The vinyl letters were cut using the gypsy font.

High School reunion on Friday night.. First time I am going to one since my divorce 12 years ago.. My ex always goes. We finally get along so it won't be a problem. Gotta clean the house tomorrow.. A friend is sleeping here so she doesn't have to drive home late at night after the reunion.

gypsy

Back in business thanks to cricut.com

Sorry I haven't posted.. I in an ADD phase. I have 5 things started but NOTHING completed to post.

gypsy

My gypsy just died right in the middle of something ;-(

glitter balls

I am making ornaments for Christmas gifts.... This is the first stage. I tried 3 different kinds of glitter. the flaky kind looks really neat... I want to cut vinyl and put 2011 on them as well. The red is regular glitter. The copper and silver are the flaky glitter and the others are ultra fine martha stewart glitter.

copic colored bears

I colored 12 of these last week.. Sunday I made them all up into cards. I used glossy accents on the light bulbs.

Sunday

I have been coloring copics for the last week.. Mourning my friend and I also lost my 93 year old aunt so it has been a difficult time...coloring is calming..

On this card I used LePlumme II markers, copics, jelly roll gold. jelly roll stardust, signo white. and glossy accents.

I colored 6 of these. Another card to come.

Grrrrrr

Trying to upload pictures for a new post and blogger is being temperamental.

imagine Enjoy the seasons

ipad and blogger

I give up on trying to post from my ipad!!!

I want to say that time heals.. memories are never forgotten.. My very good church, personal and work friend will live in my heart forever... My work community has been fab to my school all week and I plan to make over sized thank-you cards for all the buildings and units that have reached out to my staff with goodies and well wishes all week.. Linda was just a special individual that drew people to her.. It didn't matter if you knew her a week or 20 years... you were touched by her loss. We lost someone special but the lord gained another angel.

Another day..t

Sad

One of my best friends, a lady I have known for over 20 years from my church and the person responsible for me taking up scrapbooking and purchasing my first cricut was hit and killed by a drunk driver last night while she and her husband were traveling home from a wedding. Her loving husband was airlifted and is in critical but stable condition. This woman was a light that drew everyone to her.. All my thoughts and prayers go out to her husband, daughter, son in law, and two sons who adored her.

Another Imagine card

This one I like ...unlike the last two.. I literally printed and added some stickles...

The card is 4 X 4.

Imagine cards

These are VERY simple snow angel Imagine cards.. They were printed, stickles and popped up.. They lack something extra but I can't see it right now... I am sure I will add to these before I am happy enough to send them out.. Just a little to plain.

Personal commentary. I have been way over scheduled for the month of September!! Running 7 days a week since Labor Day. The one night I was home I cancelled a meeting to go to bed at 4 PM and sleep until 5 AM because I was sick. I am still coughing and on antibiotic. Been way to busy, I don't like it..

This weekend I am joining WW.. Gotta lose this weight I gained after my hysterectomy!!! Then clean the house and yard work but on my time...not rush time.

another xmas card

I used Winter Frolic cart for this card. I glimmer misted the blue card base with marshmallow. The white strip on the bottom is some white sparkle end pieces I bought in bulk run through the cuddlebug. I added glossy accents to the round circles on the tree to make them look like they were made of glass. I have to say that I do not think my regular expression would have cut this title without tearing. On the Imagine it cut like butter with no tearing.