Class of 2012 Announcements

It's that time of year again, and this year my #4 blessing is graduating from high school.  So I searched around for ideas for his announcements and after talking this is the design he liked best.  His school colors are black, red and white so it was perfect that I had had this graduation cap print paper in my stash already. 

For this clean and simple card I used two cartridges:  George and Happy Graduation.

The circles measure 3 1/2, 3 1/4, and 3 inches.  The diploma was cut at 1 inch and pop dotted to the card.

Told it was simple.......now to get the production line back moving.......

A Nativity in April? Why Not.

Now here's a craft I haven't share in a while simply because it had taken a back seat to my papercrafting and loom knitting.  It's so difficult to divide your time evenly when you love so many crafting styles - or at least it is for me.  So much so that there are days I dream of just staying home from work so I can craft. 

It hit me a couple weeks ago that while I've thought about picking back up my plastic canvas I had not done so.  Then I was over at my mom's house that weekend and she showed me a nativity set that she was crocheting in preparation for our upcoming shows this Fall.  Immediately I knew that I had to get to work and get a couple of nativities made myself and so I pulled out one of my new-to-me patterns and this is what I've completed thus far.

I still have my kings, manager and animals to finish but I'll get there..........

God's Promise

Happy April 18th - or International Juggler's Day.  Now how's that for a bizarre 'holiday'?  Hmmmmm, I think I smell a challenge idea coming on.......

Anyhow, back to the here and now.  It's time for another installment in Cricut Cardz Challenges.  Today's challenge is brought to you by April Showers, where our directive was to make a card using an umbrella, rain boots, clouds, raindrops, puddles, etc. from any cartridge/s we choose.  As you can see I chose to use a couple of the different cuts listed. 

On to the 'recipe'.  For my card I used the following cartridges and cuts:

A Child's Year for the girl silhouette cut at 4 1/4".  I cut away the umbrella from the silhouette so I could replace it with another one in color.

Graphically Speaking for the puddles cut at 1" and 1 1/2" hiding the contour for the flowers.

Everyday Pop-up Cards was used for several cuts including:

• The clouds.  To do this I cut the pop up mechanism at 5 3/4"and 4".  I hid the contours for all the pop up pieces and the slider holes in the clouds.  After cutting and printing the verbiage on the clouds I embossed and lightly inked over them.
• The umbrella on the outside of the card cut at 2 3/4"
• The pop up on the inside of the card cut at 6 1/4"

April Showers for the worm cut at 1" and the butterfly cut at 3/4".

And now that you have seen my card, why don't you hop on over and check the other awesome designs our team came up with for this week's challenge.  Then after you've soaked in all that inspiration create your own card and play along with us.

UPDATE:  I'm excited to have found out that this card made the April 27, 2012 edition of the Cricut Chirp.

Quiche Recipe Page

Yes....it's another recipe page.....can you tell I'm on a roll?  LOL  Today I'd like to share a page that I put together for a quiche recipe that my children loved when they were all growing up.  We haven't had this in a while as most of them seem to have outgrown quiche but it's a great put together, freeze and cook when you need something later recipe.  So since my daughter is so busy with work I thought this would be a great addition to her book.

For this page I used:

Animal Kingdom for the chickens
From my Kitchen for the eggs

To get the recipe to print on the eggs just right I measured the area where I wanted the print and laid it out in MS Word using two different text boxes.  I then print the recipe onto paper, taped the eggs on the paper and print again.  BUT, for the second print I made sure to remove the outlines from the text boxes BEFORE printing.  After all we don't want those pesky boxes on our finished product......

Family Secret Recipe Page

This morning I wanted to share another page from my daughter's recipe book.  Only this time you won't see the recipe because it's one that has been passed down from one generation to another after the recipient promises to never share the recipe.  Yep, it's that good.  lol

For this page I used:

Graphically Speaking for the folder and the words hush, hush (which adhered a little off kilter, but hey isn't that part of homemade things sometimes?  Letting the 'human' element show through?  ;o) )

Paper Pups for the dog

Stand & Salute for the hat

So whaddya think?  Cute way to "guard" the family secret don't 'cha think?

Breakfast Bowl Recipe Page

I absolutely love this little pig face from the Animal Kingdom cartridge.  And what better way to display him than for a recipe page featuring pork? 

The breakfast bowl recipe is one that I just kinda threw together one morning and it was an instant hit with all the children as well as my hubby.  So needless to say when I put together a scrapbooked recipe album for one of my daughter's this recipe had to be included.

To put the piggie's face together I pop dotted the snout to add a little depth to his face and as you can tell I opted for wiggle eyes to give him a more comical look.  This was a quick put together page that was both playful and cute all at the same time.

Girl in Progress - Movie Review

I recently had the pleasure of pre-screeing a wonderful coming of age movie, titled Girl in Progress, starring Eva Mendes and Matthew Modine as well as new-comer Cierra Ramirez.  Eva plays the role of a single mother, Grace, trying to make ends meet while trying to ensure that her daughter, Ansiedad, has the life she never had.  This leads to long hours at work for mom and a "latch key" lifestyle for the daughter.  To complicate things a little more Grace is also struggling with relationships along with her own immaturity.  All of which compounds Ansiedad's need for attention.

The pivotal moment for Ansiedad begins when a coming of age lesson is discussed during English class.  It is this lesson that sparks Ansiedad's own journey into trying to jump start her life of adulthood.  Along the way Ansiedad's plans don't go quite as she had planned and the real life lessons begin - for both Ansiedad and Grace.

Of the several movies I've had the honor to preview I would have to say that this is by far the best.  I strongly urge everyone to go see this movie.  It opens in theaters on May 11th - just in time for Mother's Day - in the following cities:

Phoenix, AZ
Tuscon, AZ
Fresno, CA
Hollywood, CA
Long Beach, CA
Los Angeles, CA
Monterey, CA
Orange, CA
Sacramento, CA
Salinas, CA
San Diego, CA
San Jose, CA
Torrance, CA

Miami, FL

Atlanta, GA

Chicago, IL

Las Vegas, NV

New York, NY

Austion, TX
Brownsville, TX
Dallas, TX
El Paso, TX
Fort Worth, TX
Harlingen, TX
Houston, TX
Laredo, TX
Plano, TX
San Antonio, TX

Seattle, WA

Get Well Flowers

Who remembers when making these flower pot cards were all the rage about two years ago?  I loved these cards then and I still love them now.  I have so much fun making these little guys and whenever I give one away the recipient always smiles upon seeing their card.

With that said, who wouldn't want to put a smile on the face of someone who's under the weather and not feeling well?  Of course we all do and so today I'd like to share one of my "get well" flower arrangements.  For this card I used my trusty little DS cut file I created back in the day using:

George for the 'card' and flower pot
Mickey and Friends for the flowers
Accent Essentials for the leaves
Sesame Street Friends for the worm
TBBM for the flower tag
Pooh Font for the Get Well

To put this together I used pop dots on the flowers and this helps to situate them just right so they slide in and out of the pot properly without hiding the sentiment.  Add some buttons for the center of the flowers and a ribbon around the pot to hold it all together and viola! You have a unique floral arrangement to show that special someone you care.

If you have the cartridges mentioned above and still use DS like I do, you can download my cut file by going here and selecting the flowerpot - friend and get well file.

Happy Creating!

Get Well Card in 3D

Looking for yet another new fold style to try with your card making?  Why not give this one a try?  I found this one a while back over on  Nicole Kowalk's  blog Under the INKfluence.  At the bottom of her post she has a link for the directions which will download in a PDF format.  They're really easy to follow and I love how the card gives you endless possibilities for whatever creation you choose.

For mine I wanted to play around with some of my Sizzix dies......something I don't do often enough.  Guess it's just because I love my Cricut so much.  LOL  But I am going to have to take some time to make one of these using my Cricut so stay tuned to see what I come up with.

In the meantime have fun......