Crawling in the Mud

Happy Tuesday everyone.  Today I have a layout that I'd like to share with you.  This one is another page in my mud run album featuring a picture from the Spartan Sprint I ran with my son last October in Kiln, Mississippi.  I was so excited when I came across this and a couple of other photos that I didn't even realize existed.

 

For this layout I chose to use a couple of different files.  I used the Mud Run file from Little Scraps of Heaven for the wall.  Then I also used the Mud Run file from Marjorie Ann Designs for the boy, girl and splats of mud.  

Initially, the girl was used for crawling through a tire and I thought that would be the perfect cut for crawling out from under a wall like we're doing in the picture.  And since I wanted both a boy and a girl I copy and pasted two of everything except the girl's pony tails.  How perfect is that?

 

After putting my wall together I decided to use one of the Spartan stickers from my stash to 'decorate' the wall similar to what Spartan does.  (Look closed at the picture and you'll see their Spartan painted on the wall.)  Of course mine turned out a bit more oval since my boards are spaced farther apart but that's okay.

 

And there you have it.  Yet another of the many mud run scrapbook pages for filling my album.  Heck I'm almost ready to being a new album.  And not a moment too soon as I currently have two more runs scheduled for May and June........

MS Spartan Layout

 

Happy Tuesday everyone and welcome to another PDE Linky Party challenge.  This week we are creating anything but a card.  As you can tell I chose to create a layout for my project.  This week's challenge was absolutely perfect for me because it gave me that push I needed to get another layout completed.  I have all these pictures printed and sorted just waiting to be committed to a layout and yet I spend more time creating cards and other projects. 

 

So this week I did it.  I created my first layout using pictures from the Spartan Sprint my son Andrew and I ran together this past October in Mississippi.  The pictures on this layout are from the last portion of the race.  We had to trudge through about 150 yards of water.  Of course we could have swam but I don't recall anyone thinking to do so.  After we got from one side of the pond to the other we were met with a slip wall right on the bank.  Thus my scrapping at the bottom of the layout.

 

It's somewhat difficult to scrap pictures from my mud runs/obstacle course races but thank goodness for Little Scraps of Heaven Designs.  I sent an email to Tricia along with a couple of other SVG creators last year asking if they'd ever thought about creating something for this theme and Tricia was the only one to respond.  Needless to say I snatched up this mud run file as soon as it was released!

 

And in a couple of weeks I'll be doing my first race of the season with my oldest daughter Faith.  I can't wait either.....

 

Now that you've seen my take on this week's project, be sure to check out the other great designs our team created for you this week.  Then after you've been amply inspired, create your own project, link up and play along with us.

And now I'm off to enter my layout into the following challenge:

Bimini Moose - Anything Goes - Ends March 2nd

Just Pigcause....

 

I have a fun little card I'd like to share with you today.  Originally the file I chose to use was created for a child's 4th birthday, but I loved this little piggy so much that I had to have him for something else.

 

For this card I used the pig from the Party Animal 4th Birthday file over at Marjorie Ann Designs.  My mud spot is from the Mud Run file by Little Scraps of Heaven Designs, but I suppose you could use anything else that looks like a mud spot.  The two little flies are from the Cricut cartridge Campin' Critters.

 

The stamped sentiment is from the stamp set by Craftin Desert Divas titled Just Pigcause.  I also used this set to stamp a cute little pig on the inside of my card. 

 

Extremely basic I know.  But I don't have markers or anything with which to color.  Even if I did I'm not so sure I'd be brave enough to give it a try though.  Besides this little piggy is cute - colored in or not.  :)

 

Sweets of the Season

Well we've made to hump day everyone!  Today I'd like to share another Christmas in July card with you.  This one I made using an adorable gingerbread man from My Little Scraps of Heaven Designs.  When I cut this little cutie out for whatever reason my machine did not like my paper and kinda chewed up the trim pieces.  Problem was I had already cleared the file before I checked all my cuts and I had no idea what 'size' I had cut my file.  

So what did I do?  I rose to the challenge.  I grabbed my bottle of Tulip glitter dimensional paint and I painted on that trim.  After letting it dry it might not be as white as the original trim would have been but now I think my gingerbread man has a bit more character than he might have originally.

My sentiment that you see up in the top corner is from the Winter Candies stamp set over at Jaded Blossom.  

And now I'm running off to enter this little fella in to the following Christmas in July challenges:

Hiding in my Craft Room - ends July 26th (Laurie also has a blog hop going on this week with her DT showcasing their Christmas in July projects and it's all complete with blog candy)

Craftin' Desert Divas - ends August 3rd (Tara is also in the middle of a stamp release sneak peek 'party' that I promise you don't want to miss.  I know I'm anxious for the full release this Friday because there's some must haves on my list that I'll be grabbing.)


Die Cuttin Divas - ends July 28th

That's When I'm Carrying You

Hello fellow bloggers.  Today is the beginning of another fun PDE Linky Party and this time we are going to the beach!  Of course it's not hard for me to imagine anything about  beaches. After all I live along the Gulf of Mexico in the World's Luckiest Fishing Village where our own beaches were named the best family beach in 2013 by the Travel Channel.  And I guess that's why I decided to do something a little different for my beach project.

When I saw this wonderful SVG file called You Carry Me over at Little Scraps of Heaven Designs I fell in love with it.  And so I decided to use this file and create a card of encouragement.

For this card I used sand paper for my beach sand.  Of course I would have loved to have had white sand paper so my beach would look more like ours here along the Gulf of Mexico, but beggars cannot be choosers.  I will say that using sand paper does create a bit more of a challenge when you have other papers to adhere to it.  At least for me it does since I use a liquid adhesive.  I did however use glue dots for the bottom portion of Jesus and those worked better than the liquid.

Now that you've seen my project be sure that you head on over to the party (if you haven't been there already) and look at the other designs our amazing team has put together for you.  Then after you've been amply inspired, create your own project, link up and play along with us.

I can't wait to see what you create.

Slip Walls Layout

Today I wanted to share another layout I created using pictures from one of my mud runs.  This time though the pictures are from the Emerald Coast Mud Run which is a local mud run I did a couple of weeks ago.  Heart of the Bride started hosting this mud run three years ago as a fun raiser to support their missions work over in Africa.  Not only is this an awesome event but it supports a great cause and I'm glad to be a part of it.

This year they had several new obstacles and what a challenge they were.  This group of pictures is from one of the new obstacles called Warrior Walls.  These walls ranged from 10 to 16 feet high and include rope ladders, tires, slip wall climbs, and wall climbs similar to that of a rock wall.  The walls were slick and steep making the challenges more intense, but I perservered and made it through injury free.  And to think we had to climb those after making our way through the quicksand pit.

All in all it was a great day, and I am so glad that I am now able to scrapbook my pictures from events like this.  Thank you Little Scraps of Heaven Designs for coming out with a much needed mud run die cut file!!!

Over the Walls and Thru the Mud

Yeah I know those aren't words but somehow the line "over the river and through the woods" just doesn't seem to fit this scenario.

This is another layout I put together from the Spartan Sprint I did in Atlanta this past March.  I figured I'd better try to get these pictures scrapbooked so I could move on the ones my husband took of my mud run from this past Saturday.

For this layout I used one of the cuts from the Mud Run file over at Little Scraps of Heaven Designs.  She is the only one I have found that has such a file available.  So if you're like me and crazy enough to run in the mud for fun in your free time and want to scrap about it, you need to go buy this file.  This particular set has the girl climbing the wall - which I used for this layout, a girl in the mud pit, boy climbing the slip wall and a boy climbing through the tunnel.  

I decided to make the cut for this layout large enough to go across both pages for my layout.  I cut the wall at 11 inches wide and by the time I pieced the girl climbing the wall it was probably about as tall.  Even though the wall pieces were that long I embossed them so that they'd have that wood looking texture to them.  

And there you have it.....my wall climbing adventures from the Spartan Sprint all scrapped up.  I think next I'll scrap the slip wall.  Until then I'll go enter this in the embossing challenge over at Hiding in My Craft Room.

Spartan Finisher Layout

There's nothing quite like being able to bring two of your favorite hobbies together and I am excited that I can now do that.  After searching all over to find cutting files that were 'perfect' for scrapbooking my various obstacle course races and mud runs I had all but given up.  That's when I got the idea to approach a couple of the people I buy most of my SVGs from and say hey have you thought about....

I am very happy to announce that Little Scraps of Heaven rose to the challenge and created a mud run file in no time.  I was amazed at how quickly she was able to pull it all together.  Not to mention how cute it all turned out.  The file was just released for sale yesterday and of course I snatched that puppy up and started playing.

This layout features a picture of my oldest daughter and I after we completed our first Spartan Sprint.  We ran this in March and we had a blast.  I was so proud of my daughter.  She'd never done anything like this and for the Spartan to be her introduction to the OCR world was a little intense.  But she hung in there and did a terrific job!  Best of all we did it together!!

Other than the cut from LSHD I also used a Cricut cut.  That medal up in the top corner of the picture - that's from the All Sports cartridge.

And with that I think I'll go do some more playing.  With all this rain we've been getting everything is flooded and that means roads and bridges all over the area are closed which in turn means I can't go to work today......

Be Yourself

I am proud to announce that I have been accepted to rejoin the Pause Dream Enjoy creative design team.  Needless to say I am very excited to be back with the family.  And just in time for a new linky party!  

The challenge for this party is all about flowers.  That's it - create a project that uses flowers, link up and play along.  You have two weeks to create your project and join in on the fun.

As for my project, I used the VW Luv Bug file from Little Scraps of Heaven Designs and swapped out the hearts for some daisies that I found on the Sweet Treats Cricut cartridge.  My sentiment is from the Cardz TV stamp set Simply Said.

Now before you go off and create your project be sure to hop on over to Pause, Dream, Enjoy and check out the rest of the great projects our team has created this week.  You're sure to find a lot more inspiration to really get those creative juices flowing........


Dates to remember :


Link up begins today, April 29th
Link-up Ends: May 10 @ midnight EST
Voting Begins: May 11 @ 12:01 am EST
Voting Ends: May 11 @ Noon EST

Selfie Time

A couple of weeks ago my son asked if I would help him make a scrapbook to surprise his girlfriend for her upcoming birthday.  Needless to say I was more than eager to help - especially since it was such a heartfelt gesture on my son's part.  Who knew one of my boys could be so "romantic"?  LOL

Anyhow, I told him to gather up some pics and get them to me and I'd go from there.  Well since her birthday was this weekend I figured it was now safe to begin sharing some of those layouts I put together.  I'm not sure how well it was received as they are at Disney right now, but I have a feeling that it went over pretty well.

The first layout I'd like to share is a 2 pager (as you can tell) that I created using the Selfie cut file from Little Scraps of Heaven Designs.  I'm still having a slight problem in judging the sizes in which to cut my files and this one had the girl much larger than I intended.  However, I think it worked out perfectly for this layout.

Wizarding World of Harry Potter Layouts

Have I told you lately how much I love the fact that I can now cut SVG files?  I started trying to scrapbook our trip to Universal Studios last year and was beside myself not knowing what to do because of the lack of die cuts out there to fit my themes.  So I put it all aside.  But now that I have the new Cricut Explore and can cut SVG's I'm getting those pictures scrapped.

This weekend I worked on our pictures from the Harry Potter ride.  For these layouts I used files from My Little Scraps of Heaven, Miss Kate Cuttables and Cricut.

On these pages the train is from Miss Kate and the other cuts are from Little Scraps of Heaven  For the sign post and the legs on my table I ran them through my Cuttlebug so as to give them a little bit of a wooden type texture.

The cuts on these pages are part of the Spellbound Wizards collection from Little Scraps of Heaven.

On these pages I used cuts from Little Scraps of Heaven and the castle from one of the Disney Princess cartridges.  I wanted to keep with the black/gray look so I didn't cut the various pieces to complete the castle.

And these cute little dragons are from Miss Kate Cuttables.  And thus completes the Harry Potter portion of our trip to Universal.  Now I can't wait to go back and explore the new sections that they have opened and are getting ready to open this Summer.

My Everyday Hero

The other day I shared a Thor layout that I had created using a picture from our trip to Universal Studios.  When sharing that layout I mentioned that I loved the cut so much I made a card as well.  And here it is.  He kinda looks like he's hovering over the city....

I'm telling you, if you haven't yet purchased an Explore or other die cutting machine that allows you to cut SVG's you are really missing out.  Now don't get me wrong.  I still love my Cricut cartridges, but oh my the SVG files that are out there.  Like this one.  Little Scraps of Heaven is just one of several people I've been buying my files from and I have yet to be disappointed.

But I digress, I created this card to use as a birthday card.  However, it's versatile enough that it could be used for a thank you card, friendship, encouragement, congratulations, etc.  Oh and have I mentioned yet that the sentiment is from the Cardz TV stamps set titled You're the Man? 

You can order this set - and any others I've used - here

Thor Layout

Yesterday was a busy day for my poor Cricut Explore machine.  Cut, design. Cut, design.  Cut, design.  That's about how the day went.  All told I put together three cards and three layouts.  And today I want to share with you one of the layouts I created.

This one was designed using the Thor Bear from the Little Scraps of Heaven My Hero Bears volume 2 set.  I had a small issue cutting this file, but I didn't give up, got it done and I am so glad I did.  I love how this little guy came out.  So much so I have a layout to share with you later this week using the same cut.

In addition to the SVG file used, I used a couple from Cricut:  

• the lightning bolt is from Create a Friend
• the 'boom' is from Crash! Boom! Pow!
• the squiggly is from Crocs Rule

The font used for "Thor" is Showcard Gothic, one of the true type fonts on my computer. This was the first time I've tried cutting a true type font and I was excited with the results.

And now I'm off to get this layout entered in to this week's 'Freestyle' challenge over at Hiding in My Craft Room.

Superstar Parade Layout

The other day I mentioned how much I love the new Cricut Explore and the fact that it allows me to cut SVG files.  Well here is yet another reason why having that capability excites me.  Our trip to Universal Studios has had me dying to scrapbook it, but Cricut just didn't have any cuts that really worked with the characters and features at Universal.  But being able to cut SVGs has left me with a variety of options.

Take today's layout for example.  This cute little girl dressed up like a minion.  I found this adorable cut over at Little Scraps of Heaven Designs.  And she has a few more designs that I'll be using in my pages to come. For this one though, I left the pieces grouped together (I still have to learn the tricks of Design Space) and left that grouping to cut at 8".  The end result was a minion about 5" tall.