Joined the Close to My Heart Family again

After a couple of years hiatus, I decided it was time to rejoin the CTMH Family.  I really do love the way this company takes the guess work out of matching paper for layouts.  Their kits come with everything you need, even the recipe page, to make sevaeral layouts that are beautifully coordinated and sooooo easy to master.  Here is a layout I created using the Stella Kit.  All materials used were included in the CTMH  Stella
kit with the exception of the flourish stamp which was something that I had in my stash, a Martha Stewart border punch and some iridescent gold glimmer mist that I used on the flowers for some added sparkle and shine. The banner was made using the CTMH Art Philosophy Cartridge.  I love using my cricut to cut out intricate shapes and fonts.  I would never be able to cut all of that out myself with the nerve damage in my arm.  The flowers were white cotton and I used my CTMH inks to color them to coordinate with my page.  

More ATCs

Here are the latest ATCs that I created over the past couple of days.  The Who Dat card is for the Winner Takes All Swap that Wendy hosts.  She randomly draws a person once a month and that lucky person is the recipient of ATCs from all the other participants in whatever theme she chooses.  This month Celia wanted owls.  I hope she enjoys her little Who Dat.  The owl was cut our of really thin wood veneer.  I found the cute little owl on Kate's ABCs cartridge.  The background was created with several colors of distress ink and then topped off with Viva Decor's Pearl Pen in Blue.  This paint is very translucent and easy to use.  I smeared a thin layer on top of the distress inks.  I also used the White Pearl Pen to create the moon

Who Dat

Cinderella's Dream was created for the Monthly Swap over at Blissfull ATCs.  This month's theme was dress-forms.  Under all the fluff of the dress is a beautiful gold leaf dress-form.  I decided to dress my form.  The skirt itself is made from glimmer misted cupcake liners.  The top is a small piece of cotton lace that was the perfect fit.  I added a rhinestone necklace and sequin trim.  The background was created using Tim Holtz's crackle paint.  I then added pink colored pearls as a frame. and randomly placed pink iridescent sequins for a bit of sparkle.  When it was all finished, the dress reminded me of the dress the mice made for Cinderella in the Disney Movie. 

So it just seemed fitting that I would entitle my ATC Cinderella's Dream.  

I sure hope that my partners enjoy their cards!!!  

Latest Layouts

 It has been a busy summer.  I attended several 4 day crops and had an absolutely fantabulous time.  My husband and I took several short trips close to home and I tried to do some scrapping at home in between.  Below are several of the layouts that I worked on and completed over the summer break. 

This is my graduation picture.  I can honestly say, its the first time I have scrapped a "vintage" picture of myself.  I just love the colors of this layout.  The picture really doesn't do it justice.  The blues are a smokey color.  The Cameo embellishment comes from Swirlydoos as does the dusty attic clock.  The doily was cut using the Mother's Day cartridge from Cricut.  Both the doily and clock embellishment were colored using several different colors of glimmer mist.  The feather with the rhinestone jewels was purchased at Hobby Lobby, it was a barrette that I destroyed, LOL.... The flowers were cut from material using Tim Holtz's flower Sizzix die.  The lace and buttons are vintage. 

The layout above is one of Matthew's graduation pictures.  It had that old Hollywood feel to it.  Every time I look at it I think Art Deco.  Soooo I did a search online for examples of designs in the Art Deco style and found a leaded glass menorah that I liked and used it has the inspiration for the art deco arches on this layout. 

I still need to add my title and think I will use something like Heart Throb.  You can see in the photo below, that I have used three stick pins and one has a red heart on top.  I also scattered red and black vintage buttons, used a vintage "frog" and button card.  The tux tie was part of a costume that Matt used for one of the Mardi Gras balls he participated in and the journal card reminded me of an old coat check claim ticket, again, thinking old Hollywood glamour, when everyone dressed to the "nine" every evening.  

Torn, so proud yet so very scared.  The layout above was very hard for me to complete.  I started it in July and didn't finish it until Labor Day.  I had the vision in my head but had a heck of a time transferring it to the layout. 

I would like to add that I have had many "difficult" times in my life, just like we all have, but I have to tell you that this was one the most difficult to date.  I had dreaded that day since he had informed us 18 months earlier that he had joined the Marines.  He and his brother are my heart and to watch your child leave for a war torn country knowing full well it could be the last time you see him alive was soooo very hard.  The only thing that got me through the whole ordeal was knowing that it was all in God's plan for Matthew and nothing would happen if it wasn't part of the plan.  I am happy to report that Matt did return from Afghanistan in April and we are now awaiting his second deployment in January of 2011. 

 A class I participated in, taught by Connie, a very talented teacher at our local scrapbook store, Treasured Memories.  The pictures are of some of my hibiscus blooms.  The soft purple flower won a gold ribbon at the Hibiscus Show in 2007.

Another class, this time taught by Melissa, again from Treasured Memories.  Now I need to add the pictures.

That's all for now. 

The Few... The Proud...

I am so happy with this layout. I'm not sure if it's the actual layout or the fact that I'm so proud of my son. This is his boot camp graduation picture. I used the cricut cartridge "Base Camp" for the title. All edged were distressed and inked. The patterned paper is from Graphic 45.

I have only seen him a few time since he graduated from boot camp. After graduation he came home for about 10 days then he was off for additional training in North Carolina. After that he was moved to an airforce base for his MOS. He is now awaiting another transfer to a different MOS. He surprised me this past Saturday with a 3 day visit. I was so excited to see and feel him it was great. Of course, the time flew by. He only had 1 and 1/2 days to visit with me and more importantly all his friends, LOL. I took him back to the airport at 6:30 am on Memorial Day.

It was so nice to see people treat him with such kindness the whole time he was here. The restruant where we took him Saturday night, comped his meal after they found out he was a Marine on leave. Sunday morning he said he wanted donuts for breakfast, when the shop owner overheard us talking about what time he had to report back to base, he asked, what branch he was in AND again, comped our breakfast. When I took him back to the airport for his return flight, everyone who realized he was military, shook his hand and thanked him. It was soooo impressive to see.

Anyway, this layout is my tribute to his courage.

Recent Projects

Life has been really hectic around here. You would think that now that Matt is living away from home and Jake is on his own, I would have all the time in the world to indulge in my paper crafts. But alas, I do not. I work a full time job and during the week after work I'm just too tired. On Saturdays I watch my grandson and on Sundays, I split my time between working in the garden, creating in the sun room, doing laundry and housework.

But I did find some time recently to do a little creating. Here are pictures of some recent projects. Hope you enjoy them.

I entered above layout in a sketch contest and came in second. Not bad for my first layout contest.

The Religious Milestones layout was completed in 2007 as part of an album for my husband.

Wanted was also completed in 2007 and added to my husband's album.

The layout below was done using the Paper Dolls Cartridge only. The initial idea came from a class at a lss. I purchased one of the left over kits and completed it at home with, of course, a few changes. I, like most people can not copy a layout completely. You know we always have to change something, LOL...


This is a little book I created for my Dad. He loved it and displays it on the coffee table for all to see.

Wow, looking back at some of those pictures is a bit scary, especially the last one that says 48. All I can say is "Who ME??"

Results of Cropping in the 60s

I had an absolutely fabulous time at "Croppin in the 60s" last weekend. I had never been to a large mega crop before and loved every minute. I met some wonderful ladies that I can now call friends from Shreveport, New Orleans, Mississippi and East Texas. I was able to get a lot of pages done but now know that I need page kits prepared to get even more done.

Here are a few pages I did....

This page is part of my husband's book. Its a picture of him at the camp in Toledo Bend during the late 80's. I know its hard to see, but I used silver thread for fishing line.







This is another page in his book. Its his first date. The Journaling reads:

Who: Russell and Shirley
What: Russell's First Date
When: April 1964.
Where: Rayne, Louisiana

Funny thing about this layout is he is going on his first date and I'm only 4 years old.



This layout is my favorite, however, Im stuck on what to title it. Its pictures of my husband's hands. I love his hands, so gentle. He is holding hands with the grandbaby and the other he is patting the grandbaby's bottom as he napped.

Someone help me with a title. If your title is chosen, I will send you some scissor jewelry. So, leave me a commend with a title and your email address and I will chose one I like.

You have until next Wednesday, June, 18th to inspire me with a title.

Cricut Creations

I have been busy working on a few recipe swaps that needed to be completed. I decided to use the cricut design studio this time. Here is what I came up with....

The swap could be any recipe but you needed to have a bunny theme going on. I was kinda tired of what I had been doing on my swaps and was trying to come up with something different. So I started playing around with the cricut design studio and my Geroge Cartridge and came up with the little "Mesh" as I call it of flowers and circles, made with the polka dot paper. That was all cut using the cricut. Then I needed to add the bunny theme. When I saw this little guy I knew he was right. Here is a close up shot of him.

Ain't he cute!!

I am also involved in a Recipe Divider Swap. Each participant could choose 2 sections to make dividers for. I chose snacks and desserts, two of my favorites things. After the success of the Mesh I had created, I went back to the design studio for my divider. Here it is, what do you think?

I used the Doodlecharms, Alphalicious and George Cartridges to create this little frame. I am very pleased with the way it turned out. Now I only need to make 10 more.... but not today,

Today I'm off to a specialty cake decorating class. My DIL gave me an all day class on specialty cakes. Last year for her birthday, I gave her lessons for the Wilton Cake Decorating Class, I also bought the lessons for myself. We had a great time, so when this came up, she bought us both a ticket. Tell you more about the class next time.

Lafayette Swarm

Today for the first time in about three weeks, it has not rained. I am soooo tired of the rain. The only good thing about the rain is I have been able to scrap. This weekend I even decided to hold a cricut swarm. I had 4 scrapbuddies come to the house on Friday and again on Saturday. We had a wonderful time. I cooked supper for everyone of Friday and then on Saturday night we ran into town to pick up Indian food. I didn't get as many pages as I would have liked done but playing hostess was fun also. Here is a picture of us at the swarm.

I now need to go to the cricuit site and enter our swarm into the monthly drawing for free cricut merchandise.

Below is one of the projects that I as able to complete during the swarm.

I will post more later.