Junior Bridesmaid Layout & Daisy Tutorial

I hope you all are having a good start to the week. My nephew came up after school again today to play with B. and spent the better part of the late afternoon/early evening with us. This is a big test week at school and I'm glad the school year is almost over. The kids have been preparing for these tests for the past 6 weeks with extra homework and staying after school for 1-1/2 hours twice a week for Intervention (which was not mandatory but encouraged). I went ahead and had B. do the Intervention, not so much for this test (because it doesn't affect her grade), but because we figured it would help with her regular schoolwork. Especially math. Even though she struggles with math sometimes, she (and one other girl) still scored the highest in her grade last year on this big State test in math. We just found that out recently. wow. The teachers have been stressed out since it's the State giving the tests and grading the school. Especially the math teacher. She made them do math for two hours straight one morning last week and had them skip their Art class. B. was not happy to say the least because she loves Art. I'll be glad when it's over and the kids can be kids again. I did pick B. up at her normal time a few times when the weather was beautiful so she could play outside since, like I said, Intervention was optional and I just knew she'd probably have homework to do on top of the Intervention. No fun sitting inside most of the afternoon when it's 80 degrees out. So I made sure she got a break from the Intervention now and then.

Anyway..... I'm back with another wedding layout and a little tutorial to show you how I made the daisies with my Cricut.....

All the junior bridesmaids in A.'s wedding carried a couple of yellow daisies that were tied together with a gray satin bow. I remembered that I had saved the bow from the wedding from B.'s daisies, and decided that I wanted it on the layout as well since it's a keepsake from B. being in her sister's wedding....

I used Beacon Fabri-Tac to adhere it to the layout. I really like the way it turned out and the Fabri-Tac is acid-free and safe for scrapbooking. It's a pain to squeeze out of the bottle though but at least it bonds really well.....

I cut the daisy petals out using my Cricut and some cheap white Colorbok cardstock from WalMart. I colored them with Scattered Straw distress ink and iridescent gold glimmer mist. I really like how they turned out. I have three different sizes of daisies on my layout - 3" (pictured above), 2-3/4" and 2". Then I added some stitched flourishes using the Bazzill In-Stitch'z flourishes templates and light green and white baker's twine from The Twinery ("honeydew") stitched with one strand. I tend to use these flourish stitching templates quite often for layouts.....

Sketch inspiration comes from one of the Scrapbook Generation sketch books (Vol. 8). I inked the edges of all the papers and photos with Frayed Burlap distress ink. The pearlescent gray cardstock comes from the DCWV La Creme stack. And I used the DCWV Lemon Flower stack for all but one of the patterned papers. The one that's like a gray damask on white came from the DCWV Midnight Chic stack which is 8-1/2" x 11" but worked perfect for this layout since the papers were cut down to 10" high by different widths. I like how I can incorporate papers from the smaller stacks into my 12x12 layouts. The Midnight Chic stack is really pretty and has all black, white and gray patterns in it... damask, polka dots, stripes, chevrons, tone-on-tone, florals, houndstooth, etc. but only in those three colors. I love it since it's a nice neutral collection of papers to have on hand and goes well with wedding and other formal pictures. I picked it up recently during JoAnn's Daffodil Dash sale 50% off for only $7.50....

Ok, now on to the daisies tutorial....

Using the Cricut Walk In My Garden cartridge, cut the daisy out 4 times in the largest size that you want, 1 time in a medium size, and 3 times at 1-1/4" for the centers.....

Then with an ink blending tool, add just a bit of color to the petals, but don't color them in solid. I wanted some white to show and I inked the edges and tips of the petals too....

Then stack them together starting with the largest ones, off-setting the petals as you go. Glue the layers together in the centers (I used Scotch Quick Dry adhesive).

Pierce a hole through the middle. I used my WRMK brad setting tool and it was sturdy enough to go through all eight layers. Put a large brad in the center to hold it altogether. I used these black ones I found at Ollie's Bargain Outlet a long time ago. I think they were Making Memories possibly.

Go around the daisy, gently lifting each petal up to give it some dimension. Then spray some glimmer mist on and dry with a heat tool. Lift the petals some more and fluff them out until you're happy with them.....

I really love how these daisies turned out, and although they are dimensional, they aren't real bulky either. And they went perfect with my scrapbook layout....

I hope you all have a good night....

Just Married Scrapbook Layout

 I've been sitting here watching CNN all morning reporting about the Boston bombings. Unbelievable. My thoughts and prayers go out to all the victims and their families.

Needless to say, I have not been to the gym today (yet). But plan to go later. Yesterday was a gorgeous, 80 degree summer-like day. I picked my nephew up so he could come play with B. and the neighbor kids up here for a couple of hours before his soccer practice. And they had a lot of fun playing outside together.  Today, however, the weather is not so nice. It's been raining and windy all day but still warm enough to have some of the windows open.

Here's another wedding layout that I scrapbooked last night.....

Supplies used: DCWV Lemon Flower stack, pearlescent white cardstock background is from the DCWV La Creme cardstock stack, Martha Stewart monarch butterfly punches, diamond Stickles, Jolees half pearls, silver glittered chipboard Thickers, stickers from a Deja Views sticker tablet that I got at Big Lots a long time ago, Making Memories journaling sticker, gray Slick Writer from the Amy Tangerine Slick Writers marker set, corner chomper corner rounder, frayed burlap distress ink, Tim Holtz design ruler and paper piercer for stitching, DMC embroidery floss, various adhesives, sketch inspiration from a Scrapbook Generation sketch book. 

Thanks for taking a look-see and I'll be back with more wedding layouts since I'm on a roll now. lol!

Tutorial - How to use the new 5.5" x 12" Cuttlebug Embossing Folders in the Big Shot

As promised, I am back with pictures of the cool new 5.5" wide x 12" long Cuttlebug embossing folders that I bought on sale yesterday at JoAnn's. I am excited about these new embossing folders and how they can emboss the entire 12" length of a scrapbook page and really hoping that they'll come out with more designs like swirls, snowflakes, hearts, etc. etc.. And while I'm posting pics for you all anyway, I decided to do a little tutorial on how to use them in the Big Shot. I always appreciate when other paper crafters take the time to do a tutorial either on their blog or on YouTube, so here you go.....

Here's what they look like in the packaging (click to make photos larger).....

Out of the package....

To use them in the Big Shot, you need the Sizzix Essentials Platform and two of the extended cutting plates....

These can be a little pricey. I bought mine a couple of years ago (thank goodness). The Essentials Platform was like $25 and the extended cutting plates were $20. I "think" you could probably get the plates at a big box store on sale though. I may have gotten mine for $12. It's been so long ago that I don't remember though.

Anyway, the "sandwich" goes like this from bottom to top: Essentials Platform, cutting plate, embossing folder with paper inside, and another cutting plate on top....

Roll it through your machine and you end up with this.....

This is the "Polka Dot Page" and the next couple of photos show the "Damask Brocade".....

Absolutely beautiful and imagine all the possibilities.

'til next time....

Junior Bridal Party Scrapbook Layout & Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad

After all the cleaning, reorganizing and rearranging I've been doing in my scrapbook room the past couple of weeks, I felt inspired to scrapbook a 5x7 photo from A's wedding from back in October. This is a layout of all the junior bridesmaids and groomsmen in the wedding...

The Thickers that spell out "party" were white foam and I changed them to black using ink and Stickles.

Supplies Used: Patterned paper from the DCWV Lemon Flower stack (black & white polka dot and small floral are Making Memories), Pearlescent cardstock in the background is from the DCWV La Creme stack, Sizzix Tim Holtz Alterations dies: Elegant Flourishes, Styled Labels, and the hearts mover 'n shapers, Martha Stewart Doily Lace Trim and Vintage Doily punches , Fiskars scallop sentiment border punch, Making Memories black & white polka dot brad, Colorbok silk flowers, DCWV glitter cardstock, Thickers alphas, black diamond and silver Stickles, black soot, peeled paint & weathered wood distress inks, black Staz-On ink, Studio G washi/decorative tape, Font: Ariel Narrow done in gray, sketch inspiration from the PageMaps 2 book,  and I think that's it. :)

I stopped by JoAnn's this afternoon so B. could spend her money on some duck tape. I'm excited that they've got new Tim Holtz dies in and new Cuttlebug embossing folders. I got two new ones that are 5.5" wide x 12" long - Damask Brocade and Polka Dot Page which were both on sale for $7.79 each. I tried them out this evening, and OMG - gorgeous! I love how I can take a plain, blah piece of cardstock and turn it into something beautiful for a scrapbook page. I know I'm gonna get a lot of use out of these. (will post pics soon).

I also made a new recipe this past weekend that I found on Pinterest that I wanted to share here that me and my family really like. And that I, of course, modified a little....

BACON RANCH PASTA SALAD

1 lb medium shell pasta
1 pint grape tomatoes 

2 large cucumbers
1 lb. cooked, drained, and crumbled bacon
1 packet Hidden Valley Ranch, dry dressing mix
1 1/2 cups low-fat mayonnaise
1/2 cup reduced fat sour cream

Cook pasta according to package directions.  Rinse with cold water until pasta is cool.  Drain and pour into a large bowl.  Cut the tomatoes in half lengthwise and add to the pasta.  Peel the cucumber and cut it in half lengthwise.  Using a teaspoon, remove all the seeds.  Cut each half of the cucumber in half lengthwise again and give it a small/medium chop.  Add cucumber to pasta.  In a small bowl, mix together dry Ranch mix, bacon, mayonnaise and sour cream together.  Pour over pasta mixture and toss until well combined.  

I'll be making this for family get-togethers this summer. 

Enjoy! and have a good night.....

Oh yeah, remember when I posted about the turkey that crashed through my husband's work truck windshield recently? We found out today that it did $5,200 in damages! :-o Needless to say, they are totalling the truck and my husband will be getting a new one which he was going to be getting anyway. 

My Cardio Workout Playlist

Today's elliptical workout summary...

feet climbed:

Just sitting here in the family room downstairs with my husband and B. waiting for this thunderstorm to roll on through. Yep, spring is officially here. It was about 80 degrees today and yesterday. And we're supposed to get more thunderstorms tomorrow. We celebrated our niece's 13th birthday earlier this evening. Her birthday was actually last week, but they didn't do the family celebration until today. Owls are the new trend with the young girls and she absolutely loves them. And so she got a pair of dangly, sparkly owl earrings from us, along with a pair of Eiffel Tower dangly earrings and an iTunes card. Her other aunt and uncle got her a cute owl necklace. Even B. has started liking owls and wanted earrings of her own when we got her cousin's. So since Claire's has a buy 2 get 1 free deal, B. got blue owls with sparkly blue eyes. I don't mind owls as long as they are the cute kind. And these are cute.

Anyway, I thought I'd post here quickly what's on my cardio workout playlist....The songs that keep me motivated to keep going and make my workouts go by a little quicker... Not in any particular order since I use the Shuffle mode....

Lady Gaga - Poker Face
Lady Gaga - Bad Romance
Lady Gaga - Just Dance
Lady Gaga - The Edge of Glory
Lady Gaga & Beyonce - Telephone

(can you tell I love Lady Gaga?? lol!)

Ke$ha - Crazy Beautiful Life
Rockstarr - Taio Cruz & Ludacris - Break Your Heart
Gretchen Wilson - Here For The Party
Katy Perry - Hot 'n Cold
Maroon 5 - Moves Like Jagger
Katy Perry - Part of Me
LMFAO - Party Rock Anthem
Kelly Clarkson - Stronger
Ke$ha - Tik Tok
Ke$ha - We R Who We R


Carly Rae Jepsen - Call Me Maybe - <3 this song! One of my faves.

Pink - Raise Your Glass

Katy Perry & Snoop Dogg - California Girls

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis (feat. Wanz) - THRIFT SHOP.....  "I’m gonna pop some tags, only got twenty dollars in my pocket / I’m, I’m, I’m hunting, looking for a come up, this is _______ awesome."

.....such a cool song, and I have the "clean" version. lol!

Will.i.am & Britney Spears - SCREAM & SHOUT - great workout song. <3

and then there's a few other slower songs on my playlist, but the ones above are my favorites.

Have a good evening....

A Better Way to Store my Paper Scraps...

Today was the first day that it actually felt like spring for once this season. It was really windy out, but in the mid-60's and sunny. We had the windows open and it was really nice.

Sittin' here watching Rock of Ages with my husband. Tom Cruise and  Alec Baldwin are in it. It's such a corny movie, but yet we can't stop watching.... we can relate to everything in it because it takes place in the 80's. lol! To think that I used to dress like that back in high school... jean jacket with rolled up sleeves, Madonna bracelets, the make-up, the hair, the Aqua Net. Ahhh the memories. lol! I know the words to every. single. song. It's actually a pretty good movie, but, yeah, corny, yet cute & fun at the same time. lol!  If you grew up in the 80's, you have to watch Rock of Ages. It came out last year.

Anyhoo... this is just a quick post to show you how I'm storing my paper scraps now. I "thought" I had broken one of my Sterilite drawer units the other day when I was rearranging my scrapbooking room. I was almost on the verge of throwing it out, in fact. I'm almost certain that they've quit making these drawer units from Sterilite. I say that because someone in a YouTube video said they did and I can't find them around here anymore. Wal-Mart and JoAnn's both quit selling them, but I just so happened to find two of them at a different Wal-Mart 20 minutes away the other day. Turns out, the one that was almost thrown out was fixable, so now I have storage for my paper scraps which I had been storing in a 12x12 Cropper Hopper accordian envelope before......

The top drawer has red, then orange & yellow scraps are in the next one, then green & brown, blue & purple, black & pink, with the last drawer being white, off white, ivory and vellum scraps. I could actually use another drawer unit. But, like I said, I don't think I'm going to find anymore of these around here anytime soon.....

But, uh, maybe that's a good thing though. lol!

A Turkey Flew Through My Husband's Windshield This Morning

Yes, you read that right. My husband was on his way to work early this morning, driving down a well-traveled highway outside of Pittsburgh when a wild turkey crashed THROUGH his windshield at 6:45 a.m.....

It flew through the windshield and then through the back window, denting the cab on the back of his work truck and cracking the top open like a can, then bounced or fell back inside of the truck landing on the seat next to him. I got the call from my husband at 7:30 a.m. telling me what had happened. He was sitting along the highway, outside of the truck up on the hillside for safety reasons, waiting on the police to get there since he needed a police report for his job and also waiting for a tow truck. It was either the 911 dispatcher or the State Police that they put him through to when he called that told him to get out of the truck and wait on the hillside since that is a crazy busy highway. Needless to say, I was quite upset when I found out what had happened and thanking the Lord that he wasn't killed. Thank God it flew through the passenger side of the windshield, and thank God that no one was with him when it happened. Sometimes he and our brother-in-law, R.,  ride to work together and, thankfully, today wasn't one of those days. The cop who did the police report was super nice and told my husband that in his 28 years of being an officer, he has never seen anything like this before. He also told him that he's lucky to be alive...

We always worry about hitting a deer, but I never thought in a million years about the possibility of a turkey dive-bombing and crashing through the windshield.... That is, until this morning......

The back window...

Glass, blood, feathers, urine and feces are everywhere inside of the truck. My husband said that when the turkey came through the windshield, it was like a bomb went off. He saw it swoop down with it's huge wing-span - a silhouette in the morning sunlight coming from the East through the windshield, and thought... (well you can just imagine what was going through his mind. I don't think I need to spell it out here for you).... as he was  trying to drive the truck over in the next lane a bit so it would hopefully go through the middle or passenger side all while trying to not cause an accident - all of this was happening within a matter of seconds. It happened so fast. He said the wingspan of this turkey was every bit as wide as his windshield!  Then once the turkey crashed through the windshield, my husband still had to drive another 3/4 mile or so to find a safe place to pull over to the side of the highway all the while feeling quite shaken and tramatized. He felt something thumping against his thigh and tried to ignore it at first. It was the turkey's talons since it was twitching from being decapitated. My husband said it was very creepy. It was laying on top of the paperwork/phone number he has for reporting an accident to his company. Thank goodness he had on his safety sunglasses, because there was glass everywhere. So once he was pulled over on the side of the road, he got his gloves and threw the turkey out of the truck into the grass. He said it had to have been every bit of 25-30 pounds if not more......

From the inside of the truck....

Needless to say, my husband got a great big hug when he came home this afternoon. I am so very thankful that he's ok. Thank you, thank you, dear Lord, for watching over him this morning. I am so very grateful. Amen......

Scraproom Redo

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter this past weekend. B. and I did our annual tradition of coloring eggs the night before Easter and we spent a relaxing afternoon with family. It was cold and rainy out,  so the kids had to do their Easter egg hunt indoors at our sister & brother-in-law's house. My husband's sister hosted dinner this year and we all made something to go along with the dinner like we've always done for every get-together. I took my broccoli-rice casserole and low-fat brownies. We even managed to take some nice family pictures of everyone together which was actually my sister-in-law's idea. Glad she thought of it because these family gatherings have become more dear to  me as we have lost a few family members during the past year including two of my husband's aunts (one around Christmas - both of which are my father-in-law's sisters)....

Or maybe it's just my middle-agedom kicking in making me all sentimental. Anyway.....


I have been busy the past several days during this wintry spring, rearranging, cleaning, and reorganizing my scrapbooking room. My scrapbook table used to be up against the wall and so I decided the day before yesterday, that I'd like to move it so that I can take advantage of the light coming in from the window. I like this set-up a lot more than how it was before and now I've gained some space there on the end of the table for my sister-in-law to sit at when she comes over to scrapbook with me someday soon...

 I had had a navy and tan checked valance with red embroidered stars on this window for the past 8-1/2 years along with a roller blind that I had custom-ordered to size from Penney's. I wanted something that gave me more privacy but allowed lots of light to still come into the room when the blind is up. But I didn't want to spend a whole lot of money either. So I went on the search for some sheer curtains with hopefully a floral or lace pattern on them. I was also hoping to find something with an attached valance. I found exactly what I was looking for at Sears this afternoon - for cheap. These were only $10.98/panel with embroidered flowers and with an attached valance. They are very pretty and so I'm quite pleased with them. And they look pretty from the outside of the house too...

The night before last, I spent time redoing my Cricut cartridge shelves. I had my cartridges stored upright (like a row of books) before. But because I have so many cartridges, I had to store them two rows deep on the top two shelves making it impossible to see all of my cartridges at a glance. So I decided to store them like this, labeling the ends of the boxes with my handy-dandy Dymo label maker. I went through an entire roll of Dymo label tape and then some but it was totally worth it. Now I can see all of my cartridges at once plus I've gained a spot for my box of embossing folders and Cuttlebug dies....

The three boxes on top hold my everyday general EK Success slimline punches, acrylic paints, distress crackle paint, and ribbon. I organized my ribbon in that box before I started blogging, but basically I just have my ribbons sorted by color, wrapped around pieces of foam core board and held in place with little pins. There's quite a bit of ribbon in that box but I've also used a lot of it since I put it all in there.... these next two photos are from February 2010 when I first organized my ribbon this way...

The bottom shelf holds my little box of seasonal and Solutions cartridges that didn't come with a box of their own and my Jukebox. The two blue Iris cases hold my Martha Stewart snowflake and Christmas punches with my Artbin box of Spellbinders and other wafer-thin dies on top.

This is behind my table. I have my Sizzix dies, scrapbook idea books and Scrapbook Generation sketch books stored in that media tower. The basket on top holds all of my Glimmer Mist. The binders next to the media tower hold sketches that I've either downloaded from Scrapbook Generation, PageMaps or various other sources. My scraps are stored in that Cropper Hopper accordian envelope thing there on the floor. I will come up with a better storage system once I gain more room when the computer desk (not shown) gets torn down (someday soon I hope).

You can see B's craft table there when you first come into the room. Her lastest obsession has been making oven-bake clay creations. She's made some really cute things.  It can be a challenge trying to get her to keep her area neat and tidy at times. I tell B. that I will use her table for my sewing machine if she doesn't clean her area up.  lol! Of course, I want to keep encouraging her to do crafty, creative things with a special spot of her own, plus I like when she's in here crafting with me.

Getting back to my part of the room.... I'd like to come up with some type of nice table skirt to hide all the Artbin and Iris containers underneath my table. I saw a really nice one on Pinterest yesterday where they used a shower curtain with lots of ruffles. Not sure how they did it though. I'll think of something. Anyway.... the small bookcase in front of the window has three small milkcrates on top that hold my Ali Edwards and other phrase-type stamps, journaling stamps or most used stamps and my Thickers and other misc. alphabet stickers.

 The first shelf has all of my Craft Mates containers with small embellishments such as brads, eyelets, small bling, etc., my Tim Holtz box of embellishments, another big container of sorted bling that I bought in bulk a long time ago, and a shoebox-sized box of packaged bling and i-rock stuff. The bottom shelf has a few more books including both of the Tim Holtz Compendium of Curiosities, dictionary/thesaurus, and title idea book, Crop-A-Dile Big Bite,  my container of alphabet and number stamps, a small box of chipboard shapes and another container with organized doodads for making charms and stickpins....
 

I hope to convince my husband to get me an Expedit from Ikea when the computer desk gets taken down. I need a place to store my albums and the tons of pictures and photo boxes that I have no nice place for.

All of my seasonal stuff and certain other themey stuff like birthday and baby is still being stored in the closet in their own boxes. This system is working quite well for me and makes it so I don't have to search in several spots for something since it's altogether in one (or two or so) boxes of whatever subject it is I have in there. So far I have Sterilite boxes for Christmas, Halloween, birthday, baby, Valentines/love, spring/Easter, Girly, summer & vacation/road trips. I not only include embellishments in these boxes, but any dies, embossing folders or punches that I may have that go with that subject or holiday. This has freed up a ton of space on my scrapbooking storage shelves and in the drawers.

General everyday border punches are still being stored in an over-the-door shoe organizer on the outside of the closet door. And my shape punches are on the inside of the door (I showed this quite some time ago on here).

I hope you enjoyed my little tour of my redone scrapbook room.

'til next time....