The past week wasn't a complete loss

So even though this past week has been one of the most hectic in a very long time, I did manage to get a couple of birthday cards done that I needed :)

This first one is for my cousin in Miami. I cut the cake from the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge at 3 inches and used a pop dot to raise it up. And the strip at the bottom was made with a Martha Stewart border punch.

This next one is for my best friend from college. She loves turtles so I know she is going to love this :) I printed up the sentiment on my computer and cut the thought bubble from Plantin Schoolbook (along with the shadow of it) at 1 3/4 inches. The turtle is from Create-A-Critter (cut at two inches), the flowers are from a couple of punches I've got, and I used some bling to dress them up. I also added some stickles on the turtle's spots and flower to give it a bit more sparkle :)



Thanks for stopping by! I hope you like them :)

Why hello there!

Hi everyone!! Man have I missed you guys! I'm so sorry I've been away for so long. My husband and I are in the process of buying another house, I got hit with the stomach flu that's going around, and our lawn maintenance company for our home in Jacksonville decided to shut down so I've been on the phone all week finding a replacement (which I finally did last Friday). On top of all that, I was finishing up my project for our upcoming Sweetheart Hop :) I really really love how it turned out and I can't wait to share it with you guys!! :) I hope to see you all hopping along with us!! There will be lots of blog candy along the way so don't miss it! February 5th! The day after I finished that I came down with what I think was my first migraine...so not fun! I was pretty much stuck in bed for almost 24 hours straight because of it! But, I am happy to report that ((knock on wood)) it is gone and I am feeling much better.

Oh yeah, there's some more good news I've been wanting to share with you!! Jen over at thepurplescrapbooker.com has invited me to be a guest designer for her!!! :) It's a new thing she's starting this year and I am so incredibly honored that she asked me! :) This will be my first time being a guest designer, and I've got to admit I'm nervous, but super excited too!! Please be sure to check out and follow her blog when you get a chance. You won't be disappointed :)

Another super surprise I got this week was the Stylish Blog award from not one, not two, but THREE of my bloggy buddies!! A huge thank you to Erin, Norma, and Karen!! :) All of these ladies are incredibly talented and inspirational to me, so when you get a chance please be sure to check out their blogs as well. You can find Erin at agirlandhercraftbox.blogspot.com, Norma at pinkbligcrafter.blogspot.com, and Karen at karens-kakes-krafts.blogspot.com

 When you receive this award you are suppose to #1, thank and link back to the person (or people) who awarded it to you, #2. Share 8 things about yourself, #3 pay it forward to 8 bloggers that you have recently discovered, and #4, contact those bloggers and tell them about their awards :)

Here are 8 things about me:

1. I am the youngest of three children.

2. I am very short, 5'0 lol but my husband is 6'2.

3. My husband and I met during our Nuclear Medicine Internship at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.

4. My son's name is J.R. which stands for James (my husband's father and brother) Ramon (my father and brother).

5. I love the beach, and living this far away from it is actually depressing to me.

6. Before getting rear-ended by a drunk driver in '06 I was on my way to becoming a solo skydiver.

7. I love jogging, pilates, and dancing. They keep me sane and fit.

8. Growing up I wanted to be a fighter pilot in the Airforce.

Now for 8 blogs I've recently discovered to pass this award along to:

1.paperjunkiemama.blogspot.com

2.onecreativeteen.blogspot.com

3.patsscraps.blogspot.com

4.svioratomora.blogspot.com

5.threebutterflykisses.com

6.starspaperpassion.blogspot.com

7.talesoftayandbay.blogspot.com

8.nadialax13.blogspot.com

Congratulations to you ladies!! And thanks again to Erin, Norma and Karen! :)

Pop Up Heart Card

Hey everyone! It has been a LONG day and man is it late! I was just finally able to take pics of the pop up card I finished last night. It's my first one, and to be honest, I'm not too thrilled with it. I think the lack of sleep was getting to me and I got stuck. That's when I decided to just spruce it up with some Stickles and call it a night. Now I think it needs a cute little critter on it, so I might add one to it tomorrow. I do like the Stickles though!! :) I've only used them once before for one Christmas card, but I think I'm going to be using them a lot more now :)

 Sorry it's so blurry. Our camera is not so great.

 here's a close up of the pretty Stickles :)

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you come back and join us February 5th for the Sweetheart Hop!! It's my very first hop and there will be blog candy along the way! :)

If you'd like a  peak at our fabulous design team, here we are:

Georgiana  http://www.carsonscricutcreations.blogspot.com/
Cheryl  http://cardsbycg.blogspot.com/
Jen  http://www.purplescrapbooker.com/
Carri  http://doubleclickconnections.blogspot.com/
Celeste  http://ccscards.blogspot.com/
Libby  http://beachcreationsforyou.blogspot.com/
Heather  http://housesbuiltofcards.blogspot.com/
Lisa  http://ljsscrapshack.blogspot.com/
Tracy  http://www.craftjunkietoo.com/
Star http://starspaperpassion.blogspot.com/

Sweetheart Blog Hop Practice!!

Hi everyone! I've got great news! I was invited to participate in my very first blog hop by Georgiana over at carsonscreations.blogspot.com!! :) She's got a great group of ladies working together and this hop is going to be a super sweet one! :) And of course, there will be blog candy too! :) I hope to see you all there with us!

Since I got the email from Georgiana I have been so excited about this! It's put me in a very sweet crafty mood. I thought I should probably make a "practice project" for the hop, so I did :)

      I got to use my "Owl always love you stamp" that I got for $1 at Michaels :) which I put on a 2" scallop heart cut from the Sweethearts cartridge.

I cut the owl from Create-A-Critter at 3.5 inches, but I used the eye cutouts from the Cindy Loo cartridge's owl to open her eyes (these had to be cut at 5 inches to fit over).  I originally saw the owl a different color, but this is what I had in my scrap drawer, so I went with it, and I think she came out really cute :)

This is also my first card using brads, (the small sparkley hearts on the corners) and I'm still not sure if I like them or not, but the holes were made so they were staying!lol

I found the ribbon in my scraps bin and thought it'd be a good touch to bring out the brown in the owl.  

Overall I think it's one of my favorites :) I'm entering it into a few different challenges:

Cupcake Craft Challenge ~ Something New. #124

Easy Craft Projects #29 ~ use old stash

Really Reasonable Ribbon #16 ~ a heart and ribbon

More Goodies :)

Hey everyone! I hope your weekends are all off to a great start :) I spent my day driving to (and coming home from) Tampa to pick up some goodies from my mom. Unfortunately she came down with a bad cold and wasn't able to make it here this weekend :( (she didn't want to get any of us, especially J.R. sick). The drive wasn't too bad, but I am glad to be home. I've been meaning to post these pictures of some really cute bargains I found and added to my work space over the past couple of weeks.

I first found the pink shelves on clearance at Target. Since I like keeping all of my cartridges in their original boxes, I thought they'd be perfect to house them :) and thanks to the big $10 cartridge clearance sale at Michael's I've actually been able to fill them up! :)

I also found a simple and cute photo/note holder for $5 at Michaels. I used a 50% off coupon and that brought it down to just $2.50! :) They also had the jewelry organizer for 40% off. I loved it the minute I saw it, but I knew I could never fill it up with jewelry, so I decided to make it the home for all of my extra cut outs :)

As I'm sure you can tell I am a bargain shopper ;) I like to get the most for my (or my husband's) money,  and I do not like to waste anything! :)

By far, my favorite addition so far was found at Ross yesterday for $2.99! Anyone who knows me will tell you that this sign is just perfect for me! I have been known to give this very same advice to quite a few people (yes, men included) lol

More Thank You cards

Hi again. Here are the other two Thank You cards I was able to get done. The first one was made for a deployed soldier, so I chose the colors red, white and blue. I chose not to have a text box added, so I included a hand written letter expressing my gratitude for all that she is doing to help keep our country safe and free.

This one was made for my mom, just to say Thank You for all of her help in getting everything done for my cousins sons b-day party in Miami that we weren't able to make. I don't know why it looks orange in the picture, but it's actually red (my mom's favorite color), and I could have sworn I took a photo of the inside, but it's not on my computer anywhere...whoops.

 I have a couple of Valentines projects that I have been working on these past couple of days, and I am really really hoping to finish them up between today and tomorrow because......my mommy is coming to visit this weekend!! :) Yay! :) I always love it when she comes to visit and so does J.R. :)
I hope you all are having a fabulous week and that everyone up there stuck in the snow is keeping warm and safe! Thanks for stopping by :)

Sympathy card

So, sympathy cards are never particularly fun to make, but sadly, they are sometimes necessary. These two happen to be my first hand made sympathy cards ever, and while I know the card itself isn't much, I do hope their recipients feel the love and prayer that come with each one.

Here is the other one I made with matching envelope. Both were cut from the Wild Card cartridge, the flowers up top are from Pagoda, and the text frame on the left was cut from the Storybook cartridge.

Thank You card

Hey everyone! It's been a while since my last post, but I am back :) I'm happy to report that J.R. (my son) seems to be over the worst of that nasty bug that was going around. It breaks my heart when he's not feeling well, but I must admit I do love all of the extra snuggle time I get. I did get to make a few cards while he was sleeping so I'll be posting all of those today, starting with this Thank You card that I made for my Grandmother-in-law. She is an amazing person who I think doesn't hear it enough :) I used my Cindy Loo cartridge for the layered flower and frame, the stamp and paper are from Michaels, and everything else was cut by hand (well not by hand, with my paper trimmer ;) and I used the Cuttlebug's polka dot folder to emboss the petals :)

Aiden's 1st birthday goodies

Hi all. Ever have one of those days where Murphy's Law seems to be in full effect? Well today was that day for me. I knew something was a little off with my son when he didn't want to eat at all today, but he was happy and playing so I didn't think too much of it. Shortly after my husband got home his real symptoms started :( On top of diarrhea, he's thrown up twice in the past two hours :( Naturally it's never fun to see your baby sick, but the timing couldn't be worse. We were suppose to be leaving tomorrow for our trip to Miami, but unfortunately we've got to cancel :( Of course I am super bummed about that, but to make it worse, I got a call from my mom telling me that my cousin changed her mind and decided to have a cake instead of cupcakes. This is a major bummer for me because I've spent the last two nights staying up 'til almost 1 am cutting about 200  different pieces out on my cricut, and gluing and doodling them to make the cupcake toppers, which are now absolutely useless :( Talk about frustrating! My other job was to make the party bags, which I finished up today. Even though we won't be able to make the party, I'm still going to make the 2.5 hour drive to Tampa tomorrow to drop off everything with my mom who'll still be going, just another reason I feel bad because her and I were suppose to drive down there together and now she'll have to go alone :( I really really hate to complain, as we all know it could always be worse. I just really hope that this bug passes fast and that tomorrow is a better day.

Here are the cupcake toppers. The theme for his party is 1st Birthday All Star
I cut all of the sports balls from the Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge, and the number 1's are from the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge.

 The rectangle tags were cut from the Doodlecharms cartridge, and the #1 charm is from the Lifes A Beach cartridge.



Hi Everyone! Guess what Michaels has got?!

 I just have to tell you all about a fabulous sale going on at Michaels! I popped in there yesterday and tried to buy a Valentine's stamp, but the line was really long and my son was getting very impatient, so I decided to leave it and come back the following day without him.

Well that day was today. I went in there just for that one $1 stamp, and I walked out with FOUR new cartridges! (From My Kitchen, Jubilee Celebration, Pagoda, and Sweethearts!) because they are on clearance for just TEN BUCKS!! :) Truth be told, I tried to buy six of them, but they only had the four in stock. I immediately called my cousin Yvette to let her know, and she said that her Michaels down in Ocala is advertising the sale, but not until Saturday and Sunday. I called the store down there just to see if they started it early like the Gainesville store did, but they said no, not 'til the weekend. So if you are in the market for some seriously discounted cartridges, be sure to check out your local Michaels store this weekend! :) 

My very first chipboard book :)

Hi again :) Just wanted to share with you all my very first chipboard book!! It's a gift for my cousins little boy (the same one we're throwing the party for), Aiden. The theme of his nursery is monkeys, and the main colors are brown and light green, so I made it to match that. I may be being biased here, but I  absolutely LOVE how it turned out!!   I can't wait to make more! :)

 I used the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge and the Cricut Design Studio to cut out the book

 This smiley star is from the Simply Charmed cartridge, and the stamp, "babies are a bit of star dust blown from the hand of God" is from Michaels.

 This monkey and the leafy vines were cut from the Create-A-Critter cartridge....

 ...along with this "so cute" phrase and the smiley leaves. The frame for the photos were cut from the Storybook cartridge.....

...and so were these leaves.

I hope she likes it as much as I do! :)



1st Birthday Banner

Hey everyone! I hope you are all starting your new year off right. I spent the first two days of this year crafting up things for my cousins sons first birthday. She actually was going to cancel the party due to financial reasons, but thanks to the generous volunteering of my mother, aunts, cousin Yvette and myself,  the party will go on! :) The theme she wanted was sports, so that's what we're going with. The party is January 8th in Miami so I will be a very busy girl this week. Here's the banner Yvette and I made yesterday. It's hard to see because they blend in with the wall, but there are baseballs on the sides of "Aiden." The banner is not completely done yet, I still want to add some small sports balls to some of the circles to dress them up, and I'm going to add blue, green, and orange ribbon to the white as well. I will be sure to post some pics from the party when we get back next week :)