Coco and the Nuts!

Hello, this is my last minute down to the wire submission and I promise details of this layout tomorrow! :)

*Update: So, I wish I had more time to work on this since there are definitely things I would add to this layout. But it's done, and that's the best thing of all! I tried to embellish more on this project and challenged myself to try some new things. There is real machine stitching on the edges which you'll see below in my better picture! And some ribbon stapled to my little journaling strips.

Also, the tree and hedgie are larger than most of my diecuts which sees to be the trend. How cute is that hedgie from Create A Critter cricut cartridge? She's cut at 1.6 and the tree from Country Life is cut at 8.6...it's meant to hang more off the page but since the title (also from Country Life) cut larger than I thought....opps :) My original plan was for a few more critters but the cute paper from Imaginesce was already covered more than I liked so there you go...

Masquerade Masks

I have to admit that the glue gun and I typically don't get along well but we seemingly made our peace luckily for one day. My daughters and I designed masks and attended a special Mother and Daughter Masquerade ball! We had fun making these together and even my littlest made her own special mask! Ours were in the black and red theme since we were able to scrounge up all matching red and black dresses on clearance no less!

My middle one had her own ideas too!

My mask, made with leftovers. :)

My pinkie girl B! Made hers all by herself!

A little something for some special kids...

Recently our girl scout troop made goodie bags for a birthday party. It was the 99th birthday of Girl Scouts the week of March 12th. But we made goodie bags for a special charity called "A Birthday Anywhere" that puts together parties for local homeless children. I was so happy to include a simple banner for them as well to help the organizers make things a bit more cheery and special! I plan on doing much more for this group so stay tuned!

B's missing her Daddy.....

I heard that a lot during my DH's last deployment, and my same B is missing her Daddy again. This time she doesn't quite understand it won't be a long trip, so I made this little hanging for her to put a sticker on for each passing day. Sorry for the poor picture but it was taken at the end of the day. :)

Difficult to see but, the days of the week, sun and butterfly are all on pop dots..

I used my cricut Designers Calender cartridge for the lettering at 1.3 on the Imagine, plus the base calender cut at "fit to page." I flipped the circles from the base calendar and used the darker back side for the days of the week and "stickers". They were cut at 1.3 from the same cartridge. The sun is from Simply Charmed cut at 1.8 I believe, the butterfly from Designers calendar again at .7 and the arrow is Don Juan cut at 2.0.

I used my CTMH stamp sets with chocolate ink.for the border and the numbers... The numbers were from "Token Alphabet" and I had to create 10-14 by inking parts of the stamp at a time. The Border is "Togetherness" Thanks for visiting!

*edited to correct the size of the circular calendar and the name of the stitched stamps, sorry! Plus add another calender for my G, and a stamping tip!

If you are using a clear stamp set, you can lay them in place, then pick them up with your block for stamping...this can make stamping faster andhelp when you want to make a word block etc...

Storage and Organization Encore....

Hello everyone, after I posted about my new craft space "organization, I have been asked about my cartridge storage. Plus there is a challenge on the circle blog to show how you've organized your craft items. Well, I have only a few things I have actually sort of organized and this happens to be my cartridges and books, and my Cuttlebug folders. It's all still a work in progress but I hope to share something that I've found to make my life a bit easier.

I love to use the artbin storage drawers for my cartridges and photo storage boxes for my cart books and overlays. Since I have downloaded the cart books to my computer and my iPad it isn't necessary to use them much. I also  hope that the Cricut Craft Room online design program makes things even easier!

It's still not completely organized and almost full, but hey, I can stack another one on top!

These photo boxes are just the right size and much more compact than the original boxes. I have four and they are nearly full too.

I made dividers out of cereal boxes to test this out and plan on nicer ones later...there's a whole 'nother row in the back so each drawer will hold 16 regular carts.

 My Cuttlebug folders are all in a binder using plastic sheets from Staples. I found that the photo sheets for 4X6's and the baseball card storage ones work well for the various smaller sized folders...

These are made for Baseball cards

These are made for 4X6 photos, the top sticks out a bit but two folders will fit in each pocket.

Hope this will help someone out there! I have a few more projects to post soon and I am working on my Imagine video. For some reason it doesn't want to come out of my Flip. :( Stay tuned!

Welcome Spring!

Well as usual, spring here has been swinging from warm(ish) sunny days to cold rainy ones.This year, in addition to vinyl bunnies that hop along the pillars and walls at my house I made this fun "welcome spring" project.  I was inspired by the recent Cricut Circle Blog Challenge to create this banner, and even though I didn't make the deadline but it was fun!  I saw a ribbon flower similar to this in the recent Scrapbook Trends project book and wanted to incorporate it on this project. Hope fully I can keep this for next spring as well!

 The banner was created with a cut from Birthday Bash Cricut cartridge and layered with a letter in frame cut from A Child's Year Cartridge. I  added a few flourishes and flowers cut from the Elegant Cakes cartridge, of all things, and used a few papers on hand from a creative basics kit from Close to my Heart. I love those kits since they give you a good amount of a 2 double sided patterned papers and ribbon to work with for a bigger project. I added some solid card stock, some sandylion Kelli Pannaci stickers, and some Target dollar section brads form my stash for finishing touches! Of course the blue bunnies! :) They were originally supposed to be green so they would hop from right to left but I liked the blue better for an accent. :) Hope your Spring is a great one!!