Winner, Winner......

Ok, so I used Random.org, but I can not figure out how to copy paste the results. Ugh!!! But the site chose comment #5.

Denise G said...


Congratulations! That is wonderful that you have been blogging a year. I so love seeing what you post and find your blog inspirational. CTMH products rock! AND I love your disclosures, you made me laugh as I was reading them.... very fun.

dgroves at gci dot com


So, congrats to Denise G. I'm emailing you next.

Happy Easter to all my blog readers. I hope you have a fabulous family filled day.



Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Blogoversary drawing later today

Today's the day.....last chance to comment here, to be entered for the random drawing. Go, enter. I love reading the kind comments ;)

I will draw later this afternoon, Cali time. Not sure exactly when, but later in the afternoon.

I'm so excited. Can't wait to see who is the lucky winner. Will it be one of my local friends, my long time devotee's or a new friend and follower. I will let you know.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Easter baskets

More of my Easter baskets, these are for some sweet friends. I kept these simple, using SU! card stock and than patterned paper to coordinate.

Here is a close up of the decorative elements. Scalloped edges, decorative paper pieces and some paper flowers with a coordinating brad through the center.

The money shot. Full of chocolatey goodness. Just a little something from me, for my coworkers and friends.

This .cut file for the Cricut with design studio has been offered before on my blog, but in case you missed it, I am happy to share. Please leave a comment here with your email address and I will send the .cut file out to you.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Jake's 16th birthday card

My baby turned 16 yesterday. I can hardly believe how grown up and sweet and handsome he has grown to be, so quickly! I made this card for him, specifically using his favorite color. Green, green, and more green.

I took my inspiration for this card from poppypaperie.typepad.com. She made a darling primary colored young boy card. Mine is a loose interpretation, but it was a great inspiration and jumping off point.

 Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

SU! Earth day projects class

This past Sunday I went to an Earth day inspired class from one of my SU! demonstrator friends, Tanon. You can see some of her fabulous work here. Some, I say because she creates tons of fabulous things and only blogs some of it because she is busy creating with her limited free time. I understand, I really do, but I miss seeing all her creations for my own selfish inspirations. ;) She co hosted this class with Tracy and Kim. They made some fabulous projects. We had a great time.

This adorable card is created using pieces cut from grocery bags. It's hard to see here but it has some textures and edges that make you certain it is a paper bag.

This is an adorable note pad, created using recycled paper cut into squares for the filler and recycled packaging chip board for the covers. Super cute details on the cover. The ruffled ribbon technique and we inked the grosgrain ribbon to match the colors in the designer paper and stamped image.

This is a toilet paper roll for the base of this cute gift card holder.

This is a tiny school lunch sized milk carton wrapped with a belly band of grocery paper bag and tied closed with a ribbon. I loved the pom pom ribbon wrapped close to the edge of the punched circle. Very cute detail.

This is the cute packaging of brads or eyelets from SU!. We covered the bottom and top to dress it up for a pill holder or any cute small accessory can be stored inside this altered cutey. Pom pom ribbon, twine and a monster button for decoration here too.

And finally the Starbucks frappacino bottle decorated for gift giving. Kim had filled it with jelly beans for each of us, but I ate mine. They were the nummy starburst jelly beans. Thanks Kim. YUM!


I loved recycling, upcycling and altering all of these items. Super fun and cute ideas. Thanks ladies!


Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Bunny & Chick tent candy holder

Super cute Easter candy holders. I took my inspiration from kits that Pebbles in my Pocket was selling online. I manually cut them out but if I was to make many of them I would make a cut file on one of my machines. The base shape is 3 x 11 inches, then I scored them at 3.5, 4.5 and 8. Round the 2 inch flap for the chin and then add shapes for the ears, mouth and feet. The eyes are tiny dots of Ranger enamel accents, set at a wonky angle. I totally copied that from the adorable faces on the Pebbles samples.

Here is a side view, you can see the cellophane bag full of Easter wrapped Hershey's kisses. Super simple. Super cute.


Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

It's my blogoversary, but you may get the present.

I'm celebrating!!! I have been blogging for 1 year.


198 posts and 280 very kind comments left in 1 year. 45 followers and 8,838 hits to my little section of the world wide web. So I have pulled together some Close to my heart, usually referred to as CTMH by me, treats to share with a lucky commenter.

These are brand new things from my collection, either duplicates or things I was able to purchase as a consultant that I am pulling from my goody bag to give to 1 lucky winner. They include :

Z2128 Hollyhock exclusive inks ink pad

Z2366 Hollyhock exclusive inks ink pen

W2017, W2018 & W2020 Petite perks stamp sets

D1368 Spring My acrylix stamp set

Z1136 Mini-medley white daisy

W623 Connections club reward sticker sheet

1 CTMH spray pen (this is only 1 from a package of 3, originally)

Please leave one comment on this post, including your email address. (and only this post for entry purposes, all duplicates will be deleted and comments missing email addresses will be disqualified). Feel free to format your email address spelling out the at and dot to protect yourself from spam, I understand.

I will attempt to use the random integer thingy I see everyone else use for these blog giveaways to pick the winner from the comments. (If I fail at figuring that out, I will go old school and write everyone's name on a paper and have my hubby pick a name from the basket). I will draw next week, Saturday April 23rd. I will post the winner here and email them also and mail the package out asap after getting an email reply from the notified winner.

This drawing and shipping is all new to me, so please be gentle and forgiving. I tried to pick items that should arrive intact if I fail to wrap them just perfectly. I will now admit to having cats and dogs in my household and my husband does enjoy the occasional cigar. I do not believe this will in any way affect the performance of this gift, but I know some are highly allergic and I don't want to risk anyone's health, so please enter knowing the full disclosure. Wow, the more I type the more nervous I get. I just want to celebrate my 1 year blogoversary. Please celebrate with me!

 Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Another upcycled Easter basket

Now I don't worry about recycling, I'm just bringing home garbage to turn into cute stuff. Nah, we are still pretty serious recyclers, but this is awesome, making a cutey-pa-tootey Easter basket from plastic containers from my favorite mid morning snack. And I have recruited a bunch of friends at work to save some for me. I shared my purple and green creation from last night and they all wanted some.....so I said eat more yogurt. But only the kind with this package, as I am not at all certain how to cover the old style yogurt cups.

Once again this is the glamour shot. Details of the flower layer and the ruffled ribbon covering the top rim. This is more of my beautiful April ribbon club delivery, from Really Reasonable Ribbons. You can catch a link to their shop on the right side of my blog pages. All my favorite online shopping spots are there.


Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Upcycled Easter basket

I must admit, I squealed just a little when I was finished with this. Than I ran to living room and made my hubby and boys pause their TV show to see it, admire it, lavish it with praises. (They're well trained, they know the sooner they comply the sooner I will go back to my craft room and they can proceed with their show.) Just kidding, but they did all admit it was a cute Easter basket.

I have been planning this type of project for a while. You can ask my friend, Dana, who sits next to me during snacks and lunches as I examine things and say "I know I could use this to make something cute." She just rolls her eyes, but no more my friend. Now you will know.....I CAN MAKE SOMETHING CUTE OUT OF GARBAGE. Really cute, in my humble opinion.

This is the glamour shot. Isn't it cute? And I literally whipped it up in about 30 minutes. The toughest part was the pleated ribbon around the top rim. I laid down the super sticky red tape across the top rim, then I randomly, and only a tiny bit carefully, pleated the ribbon and pressed down into the tape. Repeating all the way around the top.

This is the source of my new found crafty happiness. It started out as a yummy treat, and it ended up as an adorable treat holder. Yahoo! I just love it when a plan comes together like this.


Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Pazzles ice cream cone shaped card

Last post for the weekend. My Pazzles needs a rest, and I have got to get some sleep. My mom mimicked the SU! pedal cone die, to the best of our knowledge from pics and descriptions, as a Pazzles cut file. I have seen this die used for tons of different cutey patootey things but I couldn't wait to make the ice cream cone card my friend Tina posted on her blog here.

Here is the inside card. It pulls free from the cone.

And folds open to this sentiment. So cute. Thanks mom, you amaze me with the speed and accuracy with which you whipped out this adorable cut file.

I know mom would love to share this file also. So if you have a use for the petal cone type cut file, leave a comment here and I will send you the file. Please don't forget your email address, I have had a few lately without it and I am unable to locate it from the blogger accounts to send the files out. That makes me sad.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Pazzles daffodil card

I received a Joann's advertisement in email today and there were daffodils on the heading. It got me to thinking I bet those would be simple to recreate in the Pazzles software. Well I was wrong. My mom had gone home for the afternoon and I was on my own. I finally managed, but it was not easy. I had to text and call her for technical support. This is the finished product.

Here is a detail shot just to show the dimension and more of the details.

If you would like to use this on your spring cards. I am happy to share. As always please leave a comment here including your email address and I will sent the file out to you.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Pazzles lil birdy cards

Ok, I have caught the Pazzles bug....FINALLY!!! I am sure my mom is saying that right now. FIN.A.LY!!!!
With much encouragement, patience and humor she has reformed this Cricut gal after all. We got to play again today. Side by side. It is so fun. I made these simple little birds before she even arrived this morning. I was inspired by the darling card I saw at iamderby.blogspot.com. But the awesome part of this card is that I got over my fear of the pen tool feature. That's right, my Pazzles wrote that cute little sentiment in the upper right corner of both cards. Woo Hoo!!! Love it!

Here is a close up. Isn't that awesome? I just used a cheapo Pentel gel pen from Sam's club. It worked out wonderfully! Now I am not afraid any more.

The inside is blank for now, but I am imagining all kinds of sayings to complete this card:

1. The Easter bunny is on his way to your house.
2. It's your bird-day, time to celebrate.
3. You're feeling under the weather. Get well soon.
4. You have a new lil chick in your nest. How tweet.
5. You have a new nest. Congrats.
6. You two love birds are celebrating an anniversary. Happy anniversary!
7. You could use some cheering up. Hope your singing a happy tune, soon.
8. He/she is thinking of you, and so am I.
I could probably go on and on.......but you get the idea. It will be very versatile. Now I want to go design more cute little birdies.

This shot just shows how I laid out all my colors of cardstock on my mat and cut everything at once. This is new for me, but I think I am going to like it. It's makes up in efficiency what it lacks in paper conservation.

I know the birdy is simple, but once again I am happy to share him with anyone who would like. Leave me a comment, but don't forget your email address, and I will send him out to you.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Pazzles bunny topper card

Yahoo, another Pazzles project. Mom and I set up our Pazzles in my dining room and have been playing. We got this adorable bunny topper cut file from cookingwithcricut.blogspot.com and each made a card.  Isn't he adorable?

And here's my moms little beauty. Isn't she sweet? We had a lot of fun playing with this file. Thanks Cooking with the Cricut team. Your work is awesome! They are offering this file free to everyone through tomorrow, Sunday April 10th. Hurry over and get your download, they support lots of different files and cutters.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Pazzles Easter bunny basket family

I did it, I made a whole family of Easter bunny baskets on my Pazzles.

This is the girly bunny. She has pink cheeks and a little blue eye shadow behind her pretty girly eye lashes.

This is the little boy bunny. He has a little grey chalking and freckles. He's my favorite.

Here they are all full of Easter basket grass and candies.

Hee hee! Bunny butt. I attached a dollar tree pom pom to the rear with Glossy Accents.

This is all the paper crafting I got to do this weekend. It was a busy one. Thanks for stopping by.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!
 

Pazzles anniversary card and gift box for my hubby

I apologize right now for the bad pun and the cheese-y card and gift box....but I'm pretty darned certain my hubby is gonna think this is "cool". He is a guy's guy...I'm pretty sure he does not have a feminine side. I know he does not appreciate a heartfelt poetic love sonnet. So this is my attempt to get the point across in a manly way he will relate to.

So the gift box is shaped like a bullet. It's a re-purposed toilet paper roll. I found some cool foil like paper in my craft stash and then some bronze-ish type paper, so I set out on my new Pazzles to create the shapes to put together an imitation bullet. I'm pretty happy with how it came out. The top lifts out of the tube to reveal the content. The top was challenging! I finally settled....it's not exactly what I envisioned but I was about to get pretty frustrated so I settled.

Another view of the bullet.

This is probably my favorite little detail. I cut 4 layers of the foil paper, ran them through the Xyron and layered them together. One of the foil layers I had cut a circle out of the center and cut another slightly smaller circle from the bronze paper to imitate the firing pin. A detail he had better notice! Also the 22 J&C, not a real brand, its another play on words. That is the years of marriage and our initials....;) aren't I so clever? Like I said HE had better notice.

This is the card I had been envisioning in my lil head. Again, I'm pretty happy with the end result, even the bad pun.

So hopefully my labor was not in vain and he does recognize the cool-ness of it. I dreamed it up and designed it just for him. Happy Anniversary Love! Here's to another 22 years.

If your mans man would appreciate a card or gift box such as this, I would be happy to share my humble Pazzles .wpc file. Just leave me a comment on this post, remembering that it makes my life so much easier if you include your email address also, and I will send it on over to you.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!