"Googlie Eyes"...my Sock Monkey can see now...

I have some birthdays coming up and thought I would continue "practicing" my card making skills...or lack of...lol. I added some "googlie eyes" to this monkey and I'm really liking the new look. I also used my Cuttlebug and the D'vine swirl folder, SU punches, stickles, ribbon and dimensionals.
I've had the Martha Stewart drippy goo punch for quite sometime now and finally got a chance to use it. While surfing the MB, I noticed a post with everyone's creations using this punch...gotta say, the CREATIVITY in this post is amazing! So thanks everyone for showing us your "drippy goo" ideas and giving us tons of inspiration!

Thanks for taking the time to look and hope you all have a wonderful Holiday weekend!

Crafting Cards For Dummies...

Seriously, does anyone know if this book exists? I was so excited to get my goodies and start my card making that I failed to realize I still need MAJOR help! I will definitely be counting down the days to Barb's workshop on Saturday. I need all the help and tips I can get!!

So my plan was to make a set of 3 cards to give my Mom. Then make another sock monkey card for a MB friend. Of course the SM card was the easiest since I pretty much copied my previous one that Barb helped me with. But as you can see, I struggled with the other 3...PLEASE, any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated! :)

Sock Monkey + Snowmanlover = Super Fun Time

I had a fabulous time with Cricut MB member Snowmanlover! I knew there were quite a few MB girls in the area, but today I finally got to meet Barb in person...what a JOY! Barb was kind enough to invite me over to teach me how to make this cute sock monkey card...and I had a BLAST!! Those of you who know me, know I am NOT a card maker, I have attempted to make a few cards here and there but nothing has ever turned out as cute as this. (if I do say so myself...lol) Thank you so much Barb, I enjoyed meeting you and spending the afternoon with you and thanks for letting me play with your stamps! I definitely look forward to attending your next workshop and meeting a few of the other MB girls.

**Be sure to visit Snowmanlover's blog by clicking HERE to check out all of her AMAZING work...you are gonna just LOVE her cards!! =)

Look what I got in the mail...

My wonderfully talented blog-friend Lindsey sent me a fabulous gift. My very own Cricut Head magnet! As if that wasn't enough...she even personalized a magnet with my name on it...what a sweetheart!! She also enclosed this super cute card and as you can see, they are PROUDLY hanging on my refrigerator. Thank you so much Lindsey, your friendship means the world to me! =)

Road Trip 2009

I'm still excited about using my scrapbook convention "stuff" and the Rusty Pickle goody bag was perfect for this layout. The letters for Road Trip were in an Alpha Coupon booklet from Rusty Pickle that I cut out and inked all sides. The background paper is from Cosmo Cricket and called Halfway Cafe: Amarillo. It has a beautiful distressed look about it, that I just love! I also used Lyrical Letters cricut cartridge for Summer and 2009 along with some dimensionals for the 2 photos with the gold border.

We tried to snap a photo of each state we visited, but as you can see, we did not get all 8 states! I think it's still a perfect cover page for the remainder of our vacation pictures.

Thanks so much for looking! =)

The Circle of Friends Award

How exciting to receive this award from such a sweet and talented lady...Sandy. She is 100% encouraging and such an inspiration to us all. I am absolutely honored to have Sandy in my "circle of friends!" Be sure to check out her beautiful work by hopping over to her blog (HERE)...it's definitely AMAZING!!

The 5 people I will pass this forward to, are:

1. Linzie

2. Magoo

3. Meg

4. Melissa

5. Jeannie

Go ahead, check out their blogs and be inspired by their fabulous designs.

Now, for the rules to this award: To pick up the Circle of Friends Blog Award cut and paste the award logo and use it on your own blog. Nominate 5 other bloggers you feel have become part of your circle of friends. Link to your nominees within your blog post. Include these instructions on how to pick up the award in your blog post. Link back to the person who gave you the award in your blog post, to show your appreciation. Comment on their blogs to let them know they've received the award.

8 States in 14 Days...

...and 3,500 miles later...it's great to be back home!! We had a wonderful time on our vacation and the weather was fantastic. White water rafting in Colorado, Kenny Chesney in Cheyenne, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Sturgis in South Dakota, and a detour with family and good friends in Iowa and Kansas.

I have missed all my scrapbooking friends and can't wait to get caught up on everyone's blogs. =)

Slowly But Surely...

With vacation just around the corner, I was able to squeeze in a tiny bit of scrapbook time. This is Irelyn (my youngest niece) with Grandma at her 3rd birthday party. Just a little information, for those interested...Abuela is Spanish for Grandmother and the kiddos call her Buela for short.

The glittery letters are actually chipboard from Melissa Frances, which I purchased at the scrapbook convention last month and the rest is from the Pooh Font Cricut Cartridge. I also used Walk in My Garden for the flowers at the bottom of the page.

Thanks so much for looking! :)

Irelyn's 3rd Birthday

I was able to complete another layout of my niece's 3rd birthday party. It's definitely been a slow going scrapbook summer thus far, as I have not had much time to scrapbook lately. I still have a few more photos from the PARTY that I plan to get done before we go on vacation next month...wish me luck!! (lol)

Used: Lyrical Letters (loop dee loo), Accent Essentials, Doodlecharms, stickles & bling!

Happy Graduation Christian!!

I had a request from one of my best friends to make a "tin" for her niece's graduation. Can you believe it made it to Houston in one piece?!? :) I was definitely happy to hear that she LOVED it!!

Cartridges used: Locker Talk, Hello Kitty Greetings & Pooh Font

SWEET

I was able to use some of the NEW paper I purchased at the Scrapbook Convention along with some stickles. As you can see, I am still in the process of completeing the layouts from Irelyn's 3rd birthday party and hopefully they will be done soon.

Thanks to DH for capturing her SWEET lil face as she opened her presents...priceless!!

Used Lyrical Letters & Accent Essentials...thanks for looking! :)

Great American Scrapbook Convention

What an adventure!! I finally made it to a Scrapbook Convention (in Arlington) and I had a GREAT time! I had no idea what to expect but as you can see, I definitely found some things I just HAD to have...lol. Good thing they only come to town once a year!

Check out this black bag ($29.99). The bag was sealed with zip ties, to conceal what was inside and we were told that each bag contained $125.00 worth of goodies. All these Heidi Swapp items were in the bag...

ScrapN T-shirts

More Goodies From The Scrapbook Convention

BIA w/books & wires, rhinestones & pearls & stickles

Cosmo Cricket Package with 12x12 cardstock & chipboard

2 storage boxes, chipboard & glitter alphabet packs

Purchased 2 packs of 12x12 cardstock (each pack contains 50 sheets of assorted paper)

Rusty Pickle

Was able to purchase this bag filled with all the goodies pictured below...

Rusty Pickle

Cool green bag w/goodies inside

OMG!!

Oh my gosh...I received exciting news and had no one to tell but the doggies! Today was definitely a LONG day (right Mom?!? lol) and so it must have been well after 10:30 pm when I finally got a chance to read my mail. Well, I was definitely surprised to see that I had made the Cricut Newsletter...again...Yippee! (with Meg's Graduation Centerpieces)

Since DH is out of town and the dogs were not as excited as I was, I made an "executive decision" to go ahead and "wake up" my other family members...yes, I phoned their houses after 10:30 pm...lol. Luckily, no one was in bed yet and they shared in the excitement WITH me! My Family...they are such a GREAT support team!

Adore * ABLE

Yes, I know I did NOT spell "Adorable" correctly, but I have an excellent reason...lol. I finally had a chance to use one of my newest cartridges...Home Decor...and I did not have the option to remove the "e." (unless I took the scissors to it and that definitely was not going to happen!) So, I decided that if I added a "jeweled" hyphen in front of "able," my layout of Irelyn would turn out okay. Hmmm...maybe I should have journaled the explanation onto the page so that 20 years from now Irelyn won't think that Tia Yvette can't spell...lol. Thanks for looking! :)

Graduation Centerpieces

For Christian's Graduation

Meg's Graduation Centerpiece - for main table

Ten centerpieces for Meg's Graduation Party

"Girlie" Graduation Cards

We have quite a few Graduates this year within our close circle of friends and relatives...5 total. So, the other day I had this GREAT idea...MAKE cards! Well, as you can see, this was not even a GOOD idea and I am definitely NOT a card maker!! I have absolutely no idea how people can create a beautiful card in such a short amount of time. I struggled with all 3 and am still not happy with either one of them...grrrr!

Maybe the 3 girls I had planned on giving these to, will overlook the quality of the card and be happy with the cash inside! Wishful thinking, huh?! :)

Graduation Centerpieces

Now, only 10 more to go...lol. My oldest niece Meg is graduating high school at the end of this month. We thought these cute tiny tins would be great centerpieces for each table at her Graduation Party and since she had some time to kill between classes today, she and I got busy "Cricuting!" Yes, I put her to work and as you can see, we only finished one! Guess I need to set a new rule in this house...Less Talkin' and More Craftin'! :)

If all goes well, I hope to have these completed before she comes back next week...should be a nice surprise for her when she realizes I won't have to put her to work again!

Oh, and the photo is my niece and youngest nephew.

Hey Robyn...

I suppose it would have been nice of me to have posted what kind of camera Hubby bought me...so thanks, Robyn for inquiring...lol. It is a Fujifilm Fine Pix S1500 with 10.0 mega pixels and 12x optical image. My favorite feature as of now, is that the camera knows and adjusts itself when you take the picture. It even processes and removes the red eye after the picture is taken, where as my Sony cybershot did not. Although I am still trying to figure out how to work everything, I'm having a blast using it!

Oh, and Donny, you can take back FULL control of the camcorder (JVC Everio) you bought me at Christmas! (lol)

Paper Flowers Bouquet

Sorry I had to post this a day late, but I did not want my Mom to see this before I was able to personally deliver it to her yesterday. She loved the bouquet of flowers and I was super happy that Hubby and I were able to spend the day with my parents!