Whoa......

I can't believe it's been since JUNE that I posted last!!! It's been an interesting summer (to say the least) and one with little to no real crafting.  I've been babysitting, working with my tutoring program and working to turn my outbuilding into a craft room of my very own.  Now that school is back in session, I'm subbing and doing the tutoring program thing, so I'm working from 7:30 am - 6 pm most days of the week and can't find the time to make stuff... :(   


Here are some of the things I HAVE managed this summer:

This is the Elfa shelving I bought for the craft room....SOOO in love with this storage system!! Expensive, but worth it. Since this was a display, I got it for 1/2 price! :)

A/C went into the building/craft room.....

Picked out my paint colors (Lime Sorbet and Lilac Bouquet)

We FINALLY got all the walls completed and the Rafters, Ceiling and Lights, OH MY!!!!!  Hahahahahahaha......

And here it is, all painted and ready for floors....now if only I could get the floors bought and in......oh, and I guess the moldings, too....

But wait. I saved the best pix for last:

This is me, all covered in paint! Well, primer. This was just after I finished the primer on the ceiling....as you can tell by the top picture, I even got the primer in my eye! It was stuck to my contacts! LOL

Well, I hope I have given you some laughs for today, but I will also leave you with a few crafts that I have managed to make this summer:

A card for a Christmas in July swap....the tree is a stamp that I cut out and mounted on an Action Wobble :)

This was a monthly card swap who's theme was "fruity". So, I made a waterfall card and stamped fruits on it.  I also used a new technique I learned to make the fruits "scratch n sniff".  All you do is combine Kool-Aid with clear embossing powder. Simple!

And this was for a Patriotic Tag Swap....it is a shaker tag with glitter inside. :)

Well, that's all for now.  Be back soon, I hope!

It's Graduation Time!

It's that time of year again: GRADUATION time!!!  I'm sure many of you have had someone you know with a grad in the family, or maybe YOU have a grad in YOUR family!  At any rate, a great big CONGRATULATIONS goes out to all the grads this year! You've done it; school is out and now it's on with the rest of your lives!!  Enjoy, and the best of luck to you all!!


With that being said, here is a card I made for my Little Buddy, as I call him.  Kyle is my "little brother" by love, not blood, but he's such a good kid and has made his "big sister" VERY proud! Not only is he the ONLY one of 5 grandboys that graduated WITH HONORS, but he's off to college in the fall, first to ABAC and then to Georgia Tech to study mechanical engineering.  Again, I couldn't be more proud of him! :)  OK, OK, enough with the bragging...now the actual card:

The card itself is very simple, but Kyle is a simple kind of guy. :)  The grad cap is from the Everyday Pop-Up Cards Cricut cartridge and it's cut at about 4". I cut the background layer in black, the top and body of the hat in maroon and the tassel in silver metallic.  (The school's colors are maroon and gray.)  I pop-dotted the top of the cap to give it some dimension and then attached it to a plain white card with an Action Wobble. Aren't Action Wobbles the coolest?!?!  They're complete entertainment to me, so....I just HAD to add one. :)  The word "Congrats" was cut at 1" from the Mickey Font cartridge.  I cut the Shadow feature out of the maroon cardstock and then the "regular" letters from the silver metallic cardstock.  And, that's all there is to it.  Again, very simple, but very fitting for the guy it was meant for.  I hope he enjoyed it, and I wish him all the very best in the future!


TFL!
Autumn

Giveaway!!!!! Double Entries TODAY ONLY!!!!

Don't forget to enter Pink By Design's awesome CAMEO giveaway.....and TODAY ONLY, you can get DOUBLE ENTRIES!!!!! Quick, what are you waiting for???? Go enter!!!!!  All you have to do is click the picture above to link straight to the list of ways to enter.... :D

GIVEAWAY!!!!!

Pink By Design has a giveaway going on!!!!  Go check it out!  Entering is so easy; you WON'T want to miss this!  Just click on the picture above; it will take you right to the giveaway!

Party Decor Blog Hop

Welcome to our Party Decor Blog Hop. We have a fantastic group of ladies who love to make party decorations and we are excited to share our projects with you today! If you just happened to find my blog, thank-you so much. However, so you don't miss awesome projects or the chance to win blog candy, you will want to start at the beginning at Laurie's Blog.

Last month was my son's 9th birthday.  His favorite "theme" right now?? ANGRY BIRDS!  Local party supply stores only had plates and napkins - no invites, banners, etc.  So, I had to go on a hunt for Angry Birds images so I could make my own decor.  Here is the invitation I found:

I just found this online via Google Images and saved it as a picture, then inserted it into a Word doc (3.5"x5" so I could get 4 to a page).  Then, I used text boxes to insert my who/what/when/where information, printed on plain white cardstock and, VOILA! Quickie (and cute!) invites.  Easy peasy!

Next, he chose to have cupcakes instead of "regular" cake.  Know what that means, right???  CUPCAKE TOPPERS!!!!  Yikes!! I had NO idea what to do for this, so I wandered Hobby Lobby for ideas.  Cupcake toppers there were nothing more than a cute image pasted on a toothpick/skewer. I could do that! So, I went on a hunt for images with which to make these toppers.  I found some in a girl's etsy shop for $5 that my son and I adored.  Unfortunately, I cannot find the link again. :(  But......later, I found some more that were, get this, FREE!!! Yes, you read that right.  Dealwise Mommy has all sorts of FREE Angry Birds stuff, including the FREE Party Kit by Shery K Designs.  This kit has it all - invites, cupcake wrappers, cupcake toppers, gift bags.....it is just beyond awesome! 

Anyhoo....once I downloaded  - and printed - both sets of toppers, it was time to cut them out.  If you have the time, no punches, and/or just want fancier toppers, you can use your Cricut and the Centerpoint feature to cut out each one of the little toppers.  This way, you can use Elegant Edges or other fancy circle shape, find the center of each topper, set your fancy circle to 2", hit Centerpoint and then cut.  Be warned - time will be consumed by having to do this for each one of the toppers.  Being that we had 108 cupcakes and myself being the procrastinator that I am, though, I had to go the not-so-quick-but-quickER-route of using a 2" circle and a 2" scallop circle punch.  After cutting them all out, I just used my ATG to stick 2 of the circles together over the top of a piece of a skewer. (Cheapo that I am, I bought 100 big skewers for $2.99 and used wire cutters to cut them into 3 topper sticks each. 300 for the price of 100!)

The ones pictured on the desk in the top picture are the ones from Shery K Designs. I used the scallop circle on them.  The others, if you look closely in the picture on the bottom, are the ones I bought from etsy and used the plain circle on.  Here they are, on the cupcakes and PARTY READY:

Then, I began to wonder.....What am I going to put in the CENTER of the table???  I have 2 cupcake stands, so cupcakes were going to go at either end of the table, but what about the MIDDLE???  I had to come up with a centerpiece idea.  Being that I was out of time, I decided that my best option was to modify the cupcake toppers a bit and turn them into a centerpiece.  I punched the circles and scallops out as usual, then I just cut some skewers to different lengths, put the modified toppers in a vase of pebbles and, TA DA!! Instant centerpiece!  Here is a look at how that turned out:

And, as if this post weren't long enough already, I wanted to also share with you guys the card I made for my son for his party/big day:

For directions on how to make the grass, bird, pig and cloudy sky, see my other post HERE as I re-made that card, minus the "Good Luck" sentiment on the inside and adding the slingshot and blocks.  The slingshot itself is just a modified Capital Y cut from Car Decals on brown cardstock that I ran through the Cuttlebug in a woodgrain embossing folder.  The "rubber band" of the slingshot is free-handed from cream cardstock.  The blocks I trimmed out of the leftover brown cardstock and ran through the woodgrain embossing folder as well.  The sentiment on the outside is printed using a free Angry Birds font I downloaded from the internet and just trimmed into a rectangle with the corners rounded and then mounted on a slightly larger rectangle-with-rounded-corners made from black cardstock.

I hope you have enjoyed my projects; I know my son sure did! He had a blast at his Angry Birds party, and REALLY enjoyed telling his friends that his Ta Ta (my mom) made his cupcakes and his Mom made the decorations! :)  (I think he was proud of us!)

Now, on to the good stuff:
BLOG CANDY!!!!!

BLOG CANDY is a $20 gift card to Michaels.

To win, all you have to do is comment on each of the designer's blogs. Following everyone's blog isn't required but we sure do appreciate it when someone new follows our blogs. The winner will be announced on Laurie's Blog on April 27th.

Up Next is Sheila!  

Here is the entire Line-up in case you need it:

Laurie http://mincedpaper.blogspot.com
Michelle www.scrappinwithmybug.com
ClaireR http://threewaterscreations.blogspot.com/
Ashley http://theglamoroussideofscrapping.blogspot.com
Cyndie http://cyndiepaperboutique.wordpress.com/
Sandy S. http://thecraftycreationspot.blogspot.com
Gloria http://craftnthings.blogspot.com
Jessica http://homespunelegance.blogspot.com/
Autumn http://autumnsbuggycreations.blogspot.com/
Sheila http://2pawprints.blogspot.com
Vanessa http://wwwpaperkraftsunlimiteddesings.blogspot.com/
Marji http://www.fstampaholic.blogspot.com/
Sylvia http://www.bellascrapbookdesigns.blogspot.com/
Wandy http://greenapplescrapper.blogspot.com/
Mary http://Mary-fortheloveofart.blogspot.com/
Jenny R http://myimagitivity.blogspot.com

Miracle Blog Hop

Today is a day for miracles! We are celebrating Ethan Pinter's 1-year anniversary of the miracle of Organ Donation and Life!  Thanks to an organ donor, Ethan has been given a second chance at life and that miracle has inspired us all to contribute our own Miracle stories and projects to commemorate this important milestone.

You should have come to me by way of the wonderful and talented Anita.  If not, please begin at the beginning with Melissa.  That way, you won't miss ANY of the wonderful stories and projects!

To be honest, I couldn't pick just one miracle story.  In my family, we have experienced so MANY  miracles that it seemed remiss to leave one out in favor of another....from my Granddaddy's miraculous escape from a German prison camp in WWII, to my uncle surviving a heart attack at the age of 39, to the miracle of my son's birth and on to two of my aunts surviving breast cancer - my family has seen its share of miracles.  The biggest miracle of all (outside of my son) has to be when I was in 7th grade and accepted God into my life and was Saved.  That day showed me how many miracles truly are in each and every day of our lives.  I've learned to not take anything for granted and to try my best to "let go and let God" as much as possible.  He has our backs in EVERYTHING and to Him we should all give thanks as much as possible.  

In His grace and wisdom, though, He's given us all a Family to help us make it through all of life's rough patches, whether that Family be of blood kin or other wonderful people we've surrounded ourselves with and THAT's the Miracle I want to share today.  The Miracle that is my Family.  Without them, I would be nothing, and my son would suffer as well.  So, for my projects, I want to share the Valentine Cards I made for my wonderful family. 

As you can see, there is nothing fancy about these cards; the only Cricut cut I have are the hearts that are on the two (one with the PKS face that was for my niece) cards, but nothing other than a few punches, stamps, embossing folders and my paper trimmer.  I do LOVE the heart embossing folder, though, that I used on most of them....it is by The Paper Studio and can be found at Hobby Lobby.  It is a great way to show someone you love them!

That being said, I used my Valentine's Day cards as my projects because I truly believe that Love and Family are some of the greatest Miracles that we have been given, and we should always show love for them however we can. :)

Thank you for celebrating Miracles with us today. I hope you have had some inspiration from my projects. Now, on to the awesomely talented Audrey.


Here is the entire lineup in case you get lost:

1. Melissa PInter: http://pinkpolkadotscrapping.blogspot.com
2. Lisa T. - http://bitbythecricutbug.blogspot.com
3. Janet R.- http://janetscreativeworld.blogspot.com/
4. Jill - http://craftwithanangel.blogspot.com/
5. Kimberly ~ http://scrappingrookie.blogspot.com
6. Anita ~ http://www.anitaandbugs.blogspot.com
7. Autumn http://autumnsbuggycreations.blogspot.com   You are here
8. Audrey ~ http://scrappyemt.blogspot.com    Next
9. Nicolette- http://beyondscrapin.blogspot.com
10. Lisa ~ http://handmadewithlove-lisa.blogspot.com/
11. Doris -http://mybugandmecreate.blogspot.com
12. Sue Ann~ http://suzyssimplecrafts.blogspot.com

The "Ethan Pinter" Blog Hop!!!

Welcome to Blog Hop for Ethan Pinter. He is a boy that is very sick. Here is a bio from his mom, Melissa Pinter: My name is Melissa Pinter and I have a 2 year old son name Ethan Pinter who was diagnosed with a rare liver disease called Biliary Atresia att the age of two months old. This is a rare disease because he was not born with Bio Ducts. So Dr. Pintinger and the Akron Children's Team reconstructed them and the procedure was called a Kasi. So at the age of 8 months old Ethan and I were Life flighted to Cincinnati Children's because he had Upper GI bleeds. The only thing that woud help him would be a New liver. Feb 18th 2011 he had recieved a half of another babies liver. This baby saved my son's life and we are so ever so greatful. Ethan and I had waited a total of 9 months for this. We have been seperated from my husband and daughter during that time. Ethan is now 2 years old and is having complications and we are currently living at the Ronald Mcdonald House in Cincinnati till we get him better. He has two crucial virus's that he is currently fighting, they are the EBV Virus and CMV Illuminitis (Fatal Virus- it attacks every organ) .

That being said, we are making "Get Well" cards to send to Ethan, and you all are invited to make one, too!  You should have come from the talented Becky; if not, please go back to Jenn's Blog to start at the beginning of the hop!

Here is the card I made for my newest Little Buddy:

This has to be one of my favorite cards I've EVER made!! I LOVE Elmo (though probably not as much as Ethan), and I LOVE these tri-shutter cards!!!  I used absolutely nothing more than my paper trimmer, a pair of scissors, glue, my Cuttlebug and my printer for this card!  For directions on how to make the tri-shutter card, go to this link:  http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/trishuttercard/

So, that's my card for Ethan (Mel, it will be coming your way SOON!!) and I hope you liked it!  If you, too, would like to send Ethan a card, the address to send them to is:

Melissa Pinter
Ronald Mcdonald House Room 17
350 Erkenbrecher Ave
Cincinnati Ohio 45229

Hope you have enjoyed hopping along with us!!!

I am the last stop on the hop, but if you missed anyone, here is the entire lineup so you can go back and look!

Jenn www.memorieswithjen.blogspot.com/
Courtney www.craftingwithcourtney.blogspot.com
Tina C. www.tinasscrapcorner.blogspot.com
Tina K (Crafty and Green) http://craftyangreen.blogspot.com
Michelle Ferris - http://slasewcraftiness.blogspot.com/
Lynne - http://slasewcraftiness.blogspot.com/
Michelle Peak - http://queenofmycraftroom.blogspot.com
Kimberly Pate ~ http://scrappingrookie.blogspot.com
Nicolette- http://beyondscrapin.blogspot.com
Becky - http://beckscricards.blogspot.com
Autumn - http://autumnsbuggycreations.blogspot.com