A Labor of Love

I am working away on Mason's scrapbook but tonight I just got this one page done.  I spent 3 or 4 hours on it but it was a labor of love.  I was scrapping some of my favorite pictures of him.  Jen loved this little out fit and he wore it a lot.  I would call him Racky Racoon when he would wear it and the little shirt says on it, "It wasn't me."  He looks cute as can be in it.  I am sure you will agree!  I am betting that Jen will frame this one and put it in his room, as the colors match his room so well, and it will also be nice to have it out on display for his party.

Last week, I downloaded a whole bunch of scrapbook sketches and this is the sketch that I chose to follow for this layout.  Isn't this picture just a stitch where it looks like he is winking?!?!?  LOL  Absolutely adorable and so perfect with that shirt!

I used a pink scalloped circle of  SU paper as a template to draw my scalloped circle and then I cut it out.  I traced a dinner plate to make the celery circle.  The bracket was cut out with the Cricut cartridge Plantin' School book.  I used a Chocolate Chip marker to do the hand stitching.  The letters were cut out with the Big Shot and the Naturally Serif die.  One of my favorites.  They are a nice small size and I reach for that die a lot!

The center circle was punched with the 1 3/4" Circle punch, and the heart was punched out using the Heart to heart punch.

I am so very thankful to have air conditioning.  This heat is something else!  I plan on holing up in the Stamping Cave all week until the flea market next Saturday.  I do have a few errands to run, and I will venture out to the mail box as I have a few goodies arriving in the mail this week, but other than that....home is where I plan to be!  :-D

I plan on putting in a stamping order, and a Tastefully Simple order, so if you need some things, send me an email or give me a buzz! 


Lots of fun things in the new catalog!  And wait till you see the Holiday mini.....you are going to love it!!!

Stay cool!  Elaine

Love My Onesies

I have been working away on Mason's scrapbook today and I quick took a picture of a couple of pages that I just finished.  I have a whole table set up in my stamping room so that I can leave the Cricut set up and to have room to spread out.  That way, if I want to work on a different project on my stamping desk I can. When you scrapbook, you really need to have a large table to work on.  I moved this layout over to my stamping desk to photograph it as I have a light mounted under the hutch of my desk and it works great for taking pictures at night.  So disregard the mess!  LOL

I used the Plantin School book cartridge for the letters and the New Arrival cartridge to cut out the onesies.  I dug in my designer paper scraps drawer and picked out a bunch of papers to cut out onesies with.  I also have a bunch cut in other colors so you will probably be seeing some more pages with them on in the future.  Jenna always has a onesie on Mason, day and night.  It is rare if he doesn't have one on.

 I talked to Jenna and Mason today and Mason kept answering my questions with YEAH.  It is his favorite word to say.  Jen said Mason was so happy to talk to me.  He was all smiles and he was sitting on the floor in his room spinning around in circles!  LOL  I can just see him doing that.  I sure love that little guy!  Elaine

Crock pot Barbecue Chicken

Hello!  I am back home from a busy week in Milwaukee!  Little Mason is growing up so fast.  He is loosing the baby look a little bit and is beginning to look more like a toddler!  He is into EVERYTHING, so you have to watch him constantly.  He is crawling all over the place, and walks around furniture.  He just turned 11 months and I am sure he will be walking before his first birthday.  He kept Grammie, (and everyone else!) very busy!  Jenna also had me working on other projects.  I worked on designing pages for Mason's scrapbook, made him a birthday banner, four birthday cards that she needed for birthday parties they are attending, and I have 25 of these Elmo tags in process.  My Cricut got a real work out!  These will be attached to treat bags for the kids attending the party.

I also watched Mason one afternoon so Jenna and Diana could go shopping for some birthday gifts, another evening so they could go to the library, stayed up with Mason one whole night as he was running a temp and teething, so he slept in my arms on the couch (Grammie slept some too!), and then watched him last night so Antonio and Jenna could have a date night.  Plus lots of watching in between so Jenna could get a nap or get some cleaning done.  So to say the least, it was a busy week!

Here is a recipe I saw on Money Saving Mom's blog, and I made it tonight and it was very good.  I couldn't find my red pepper flakes so I omitted that.  If I make it again, I will make the whole bag of chicken breasts from Aldi's which has 12 in it as there is a lot of sauce with this recipe and I think it would work fine with 12 breasts.  The Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce at Aldi's has 50% more free in it.  I am not sure if this is the correct amount of sauce to use, but that is what I used and it tasted delicious.  I also think this recipe would be good to make pulled chicken sandwiches with.  Just shred the chicken up and mix it into the sauce.  If you try this recipe out, let me know what you think of it.  A good thing to make in this heat!!!

Crock pot Barbecue Chicken

4-6 pieces boneless skinless chicken breasts (i threw them in frozen... even easier!)
1 bottle BBQ sauce (sweet baby ray's all the way!)
1/4 c vinegar
1 tsp. red pepper flakes
1/4 c brown sugar
1/2 - 1 tsp. garlic powder
Mix BBQ sauce with all ingredients listed under it. Place chicken in crockpot. Pour sauce over it and cook on LOW for 4-6 hours.

My Pink Stamper 2011 2 Design Team Call

My entry for the design team challenge!

Cricut Create Machine cutting the card base.

Cut 2 pieces 4 1/4" for the Card Base.  I chose this size so it will fit in a standard size envelope.

Score back panel of Card Base at 1" across the top.  Put adhesive on the top portion and attach Card Front as shown below.

Front and back pieces of card stock adhered together with card front flipped up.  Number one candle cut with Cricut to decorate the inside of the card.

I added little knots on each pendant.  It is REALLY strung with Baker's Twine and it dangles.  It is the little details that make a project special!

I love Pendants!  I used this same cartridge on the Pendant Banner I made on the "Family" frame last weekend.  I love that with a Cricut you can change the size and make things big or small, whatever size you need!  A great value for your money!!!

Hello readers!  Today is a special post.  I am entering a contest to be considered on the My Pink Stamper Design Team.  My Pink Stamper is a very popular blog that features Cricut cartridges.  Robyn does lots of video's that show how to make cards and other projects with Cricut cartridges.  She does lots of "giveaways" of Cricut cartridges and other things. If you are a Cricut owner, this blog is a must read.  It will really help you to learn how to use your machine to it's maximum potential.   Robyn recently developed a stamp line of her own called My Pink Stamper with lots of sayings that go great with images from Cricut Cartridges.  If select to be on the design team, it will be a 6 month term from August to January.  You must have a blog that you post on regularly and that you have been posting on for at least 3 months.  You can submit and link a project that you make using your favorite Cricut cartridge, and you must use the following colors: Green, Brown, Orange, and Turquoise, plus one other color which is optional.  I chose to use the Cricut Cartridge Celebrations.  Everything on this card, and the card itself, was cut with the Cricut except for the dotted pattern paper.  That I cut with a paper cutter.  You can see by this card that it is a very versatile cartridge, as it cut a large scalloped square, pendants to make the banner with, the candy that is on the pendants, circles, a dog, and a party hat.  There are many more images on this cartridge.  I used this same cartridge on my Elmo card a few day's ago and made the pendants on my "Family" frame with it last weekend..  I am sure that there will be a lot of people applying for this design team position.  It would be a big honor to get chosen!  Wish me luck!  Elaine

Recipe:
Cricut Cartridge Celebrations
Card Stock and DSP all Stampin' Up!:  Wild Wasabi, Tangerine Tango, Chocolate Chip, Soft Suede, Tempting Turquoise.
Bakers Twine Stampin' UP! Cherry Cobbler.
Needle.
Paper Trey Ink Mixed Messages stamp set, used the words "Celebrate Today".

Elmo

Good Evening!  I packed up my supplies and headed over to my Mom and Dad's house this morning.  Mom had some appointments and Sarah and I stayed with Dad.  He is getting around a little bit better and Sarah is going home tonight.  We worked on making these invitations for Mason's 1st birthday party.  We started around 9:30 in the morning and worked steadily on them till 2:30 this afternoon, except for taking a lunch break and some phone calls.  We made 28 of them, and as Sarah said "She (meaning her sister) better use every last one of them!"  LOL

  The "Elmo" was made with punches and dies, and the square lattice embossing folder to give the nose some texture.  The party hat and "its a party" I cut out with my Cricut.  They were fun to make and it was nice to be working with Sarah!  I made a trip to Pamida for the babies after I left their...as they were out of kitty litter.  I have spent the last 3 hours on the bed with the lap top, and returned some phone calls, as I am having trouble with my feet swelling so had to get them up.  They feel much better now!  Elaine

Hoo Hoo Hoo, who loves you?

Good Afternoon!  I have been getting some good sleep the past few days and it sure feels great!  As most of you know, I usually only sleep a couple of hours and then am up, and back down again.  Not a lot of restful sleep.  I was out before 10 last night which is highly unusual for me.  I fell asleep reading a scrap booking magazine.

I have a quick post for you.  Jenna called this morning and while I was talking to her, I was working on this owl card.  The little owls are from the pile of animals on my desk that I made with the Cricut a couple of days ago.  The tree branch, leaves and flowers are from an owl set I picked up last summer, and the saying is from a different owl set.  I love how it all works together!

Are you cured yet ?!?

One thing that is really fun about having large CD changer's is that you never know what music is going to come up next.  I just got a blast from the past.....Bad, Bad, Le Roy Brown.  Do you remember that one?  An oldie but goody.   Now Time in A Bottle is playing by Jim Crocie sang.  A beautiful song but kind of bitter sweet as he died in a plane crash.  I have quite a wide selection of music and it is not always to every one's taste.  I have been known to hear when I am on the telephone, "What is the heck is playing....!?!?!"  LOL  I think Sarah was the last one that said that.  Hee Hee.  I can't remember what she said it sounded like, but I said it sounded  to me like it was from an African tribal dance or something....LOL

This morning when I was looking at blogs, I saw a stamp with this saying with it on it, and I thought that is perfect for the little pigs I cut out last night!  So I decided that I would make this card up next.  Isn't it fun....!?!?!  Come on guys....leave me a little blog love in the comment section!!!

I am nuts about you.

I am playing in the stamping room this afternoon..  I am having trouble with my lap top so was messing around with that this morning.  My friend Kramer in Michigan is trying to help me with it.  We decided the next step is to bring in his computer expert friend, and he will take over the lap top from there and get the virus out.  I have been messing with this on and off since Thursday night when it happened.  Thankfully my desktop is working fine, so I have a computer to use.  I had some people stopped in for some Tastefully Simple this afternoon.  So it has been a busy day.
I am listening to the new Brooke's and Dunn album #1's and then some.  It is excellent of course.  I am so sad that they are breaking up.  They have some fantastic music and I think I have all of their albums.  It always amazes me how music can affect a person, me anyways.  It can take you right back to a happy place or a sad one, and you feel those same emotions you did at the time.  But I have always loved music.  My mom wrote it in my baby book.  I don't remember what age she wrote it at, but I was young.  Maybe 2 !?!?  I will have to look it up sometime when I am upstairs.

Enough chatter...on to the card.  This little squirrel is one of the animals I made last night.  He is popped up to give it a 3 D look.  I free hand cut the grass.  The tree is from a stamp set that I bought last summer or fall that I hadn't had a chance to play with.  I got it to go with my owl stamps so you will be seeing more of it as I have quite a few owl stamps.  The flower's and butterflies are from the same set and I used stickles on the flower centers to give it a little bling.  The ransom note: "I am nuts about you", was made with a little alphabet set that my friend Colleen rak'd me with. It is a fun way to add your own saying to something.  Well I am going to Boot, scoot, and boogie back to my stamping room and do some more playing....maybe you will hear from me again tonight!  Have a good one.  Me