WooHoo! I finally found a great option for my ribbon storage. They say third times the charm and it certainly holds true here...So here's the history. When my littlest was very little the ribbon rounds were such great entertainment. But as she grew up, she was able to do more damage, and I had added to the collection. I really needed something to get them stored out of the way, and yet easy to see and easy (for me) to get to. I liked the idea of putting them in drawers rather than hanging them, so the CropperHopper embellishment storage boxes seemed like a great solution. I had drooled over others blog posts of neatly organized ribbon and decided to order what I thought I needed. Well, i ended up with a bunch of the small and nearly useless boxes and none of the most useful size. Apparently they don't make them any more. Strike one. So, onto the ribbon storage from Bestcraft. The ribbon spooler and small round cases seemed nice and easy to store even if they offered less flexibility and were more expensive. Well after they arrived I excitedly started to roll ribbon....strike two. With only a very few exceptions the ribbon I had wouldn't fit!! Ugh! So while I was shopping for some ribbon for my teacher appreciation projects (we use a lot) I stumbled o another product at the wholesale site. It seems that their clear favor boxes are just the ticket!!! They come flattened out and with a bow on top that is easily removable but the boxes are cheap, about 34 cents a piece, and they are just about the right size for every roll! So exciting. I happily rolled up a few of the most unraveled ribbon spools and put them in the few trial boxes I ordered...it works! They are 2X2X1 and fit inside the sterlite 12X12 drawers so nicely! As you can see I left some spools that already fit and some adhesive ribbon in boxes in their original containers and I put some ribbon together with a chipboard spacer. I love this new organization and even these few in the drawers have freed up one of my big baskets! :)

I forgot Some-bunnies

My oldest was so proudofthese bunnies that she set up a special photo shootfor them and I fogot to post it to my blog. So, for her, here are the stars of the day! :) And here's a look at the fun!

How Cute is this?!

Meet Cocoa, our newest little girl! She is a vey sweet tempered , 6 month old hedgehog. After a year of watching hedgehog videos and then researching for a few months, we finally decided to jump into the world of exotic pets. Well unless you consider the girls wolly worm pets exotic. :) There willbe more photos of her tom come and lots of scrappy oppurtunities. K already made her first two page lo of her first day with us!

Cricut Easter Eggs

I love all the things I can do with my Cricut. I had to try vinyl on our eggs this year and although we had a few learning experiences they were fun and came out great! The letters were great for mnograms, the half flower from Graphically Speaking (overlapping the petals worked best) was nice as well as simple circles...longer strips like the ric rac from the Easter Cartridge weren't so good but next year we'll make them thinner and try again! I loved the littel bunnies for the eggs but will have to cut them smaller next year and try more with some double dipped eggs. Coloring eggs with a todler doesn't leave much time for experimentation. :) Mostly the girls had a great time and so did I!

Cart Storage Solution

I think I finally hit on the perfect storage system for my Cricut cartridges! This Art Bin set of storage drawers are perfect for me. I cut some cereal boxes to make dividers so that 16 carts will fit easily without sliding around and yet they are easy to to take in and out. Now I have really fast, easy access to my carts. For a Design Studio project that uses four or five on a single project I can easily pull a bunch out and better yet, put them back! And I have room to grow! :) It's really easy to rearrange them when I get a new one....all my books and overlays are already in a photo storage box so I really only needed this. Now if I could only figure out my ribbon storage problem!

Her first layout!

I am so excited to say that my 6 yo daughter might have been bitten by the scrappy bug! My oldest daughter is probably more a crafter and card maker, who draws beautifully. So, I am excited to report this happy accident!

We started with an idea for the 100th day of school and it just so happens we ended up using my scrappy tools to create this....When I stepped back and realized that we used photo safe materials, I decided we could use a picture of her posing with her creation to make a page! She was so excited and had lot's of fun since I let her do the cutting, tearing and punching (except for the arms and scarf) . Now she wants to do more and wants to have a "mommy day" of scrapbooking!

Happy Valentines Day!

One of my goals for this year is to make more items for my girls. Usually I have been caught up with teachers gifts and all kinds of other projects but this year I wanted my girls to come first. No home made Valentines for my children's classmates, handmade special treats for them. I made the mailboxes and treat boxes from the Cricut Lovestruck 2010 seasonal cartridge. My littlest is all about pink but I couldn't help using kraft cardstock for the mailboxes and stampinup's real red ink and last years stamp set, Love You Much, that coordinates with a set of heart punches and their scallop ....Love that! I wrote a special note for each girl with what I love about them in their little mailboxes and I hope they feel loved and special since they are to me! My wish for everyone today is that somehow they feel loved and special. Happy Valentines Day!

The gauntlet is thrown!

Lovestruck 2010, Desi
The challenge is officially on! A friend was chatting recently and commented on how we all have some very unused carts for our Cricuts. One ting led to another and now we officially have a challenge to use all our cricut carts. One a week from our list that hasn't been used over the year(if ever). And so it begins. :) Now I know I will be posting at least once a week. For this weeks challenge I sorta cheated. I used my new seasonal cartridge for Valentines day decorations. Hopefully I can post a list and try to be more diligent with next weeks efforts! This is going to be fun!

Back-up!

Happy New year everyone! Yes, it's a more than little late, but I haven't been on to my blog for quite some time because of a massive computer failure. Thankfully all my pictures are on an external hard drive. Phew! Please everyone, have at least one reliable back-up for your most important things!

But onto much happier things. If you haven't already checked it out, head over to Stampin up's site for their super sale! I picked out more than a few things to start gearing up for teachers appreciation committee projects. I like to bring in samples and I was very excited to try my new toys from the sale and from Christmas! Very handily I also needed a few thank you gifts...So far I have made the bucket from the stampin up/Sizzix Bigz XL die as well as a few other "containers" These dies are so simple to use, I don't even think my Cricut could do better. I know shocking! LOL.

I also made a cute clear box with another Sizzix die in appreciation for a neighbor shoveling my whole driveway. The stamped design is part of a new clear stamp set from Stampin up(Vintage labels), and works perfectly with their scallop punch. I stamped the sentiment inside separately and positioning was a snap since you can use the rubber stamp with your acrylic blocks! The larger scallop is the co-coordinating Real Red paper. Real Nice! It worked even more easily with cardstock which I then embossed with my A2 embossing folder. I have more detailed pictures of that one somewhere if anyone is interested in a "tutorial" :)

For my neighbor who watches my littlest during Daisy meetings, I made a little mini (4X4) notepad using some leftover chipboard and paper with my BIA. It was easy to make a few for samples and it would fit a small post-it notepad as well...Stay tuned for more TAP sample projects! :)

Happy Birthday to someone special!

For a special friend I attempted my first Stair step card! I really hope she liked it..it was a super special birthday, her 80th and I am lucky to have met her.Verna is a joy to know with her wit and wisdom. She is so funny and charming and knows how to say a lot in just a few words...hmmmm something I am trying to learn...LOL

So, this was last years mantle, and I am not sure what to do for this year! It would either be a Nativity or maybe just this one again since I have a cut file all ready to go...any votes? :) I do have the new Winter Woodland cart for some 3-D houses and of course I spruced things up a bit on the mantle but we'll see where creativity and time take me this year! I loved that the moon was glow in the dark vinyl!

All I want for christmas...

Well almost...LOL One of the special things I would love for christmas is the new Gypsy by Provocraft/Cricut! They are giving one away at the Gypsy challenge blog...check them out here at The Gypsy Spot. Good luck to you too!

Christmas has arrived!

I had great fun today finishing up some cards for a friend overseas.....Afghanistan to be exact! Catie, my online scrapping friend, and I used Skype to have a virtual crop and it was a blast. It was so nice that we could share ideas and she was able to help suggest some things for me to try...so how did I do? :) I was able to do 22 cards this afternoon. Probably a record for me. So now I can concentrate on my own christmas cards. :)

Daisy Dolls

I just had to share one more...The girls all made paper dolls for an activity and we then used them for our cookie booth poster!

Post-it trick

Some of you out there already use this trick but it's such a good one I wanted to share ....I use a post-it note to line up tricky cuts and flip it over to apply my adhesive. It makes placement easier if you line up the bottom of the post-it with the bottom of your image/text.

Family Albums

My Daisy troop was learning about family, heritage and culture, so we made some family albums. They are 8X8 with white chipboard covers and five white cardstock pages. I was able to use my Cropodile big bite to make the holes for the book rings. On each page I used a 6X6 patterned paper from a set of Target dollar bin papers. Next I cut some scalloped squares(Accent Essentials) and a scalloped half from 8.5X11 papers and made them up in different combinations for the girls. It was a pretty quick project since it was the same elements throughtout. The girls had a good time sharing stories about their pictures. One of the Moms (thank you Teri!) created titles and phrases as well as a page to put on the inside of the covers with questions to fill in about their families and themselves. I had so much fun watching them create and their personalities all really came through. We had scallops and stickers and paper embellishments and they really came out nice. It was a little hectic, and I was so grateful for all the help I got from the Moms! It's such a good group of girls and Moms!

Some sad news...

So, I know I promised some new projects and I have been busy working on things, but I had a washing machine accident recently. Seriously. My DH was trying to be helpful after several really busy weeks and so he decided to do some laundry. Well, it was very unusual for me, but I had put something in my pocket. Something very precious as a matter of fact....my SD card which was full of fall pictures and projects!!! Since one or two were gifts I am left trying to find things to post, but to no avail. So, I will have to get busy again and show something new! We have been working on fall crafts, and we'll be putting up some vinyl, plus some mini scrapbooks I've been working on for my Daisy troop...due today! :)

Simple gifts

As cool weather starts in our area I always get into a cozy mood, wich generally also means crafting and baking! We've been apple picking, pie and cobbler making, and doing some fun fall activities and one rainy day my oldest daughter came home with an Amish Freindship Bread starter. Can you believe this is the first time we have ever made it ? Well even though I doubt the Amish put vanilla pudding in thier bread, it was yummy and my friends will surely be grateful to get some of their own...I decided to make mine a little more friendly by putting it into a small lunch sack with the directions a small loaf and the starter. Since I was looking for an activity for my Girl Scout troop, I googled the starter. One site has a good recipe for the bread and directions here...but you can also get the directions for starter on the allrecipies.com site.

It also gets me thinking about one of my favorite books I read to my girls. It's called Simple Gifts and it an illustration of the Shaker Hymn. I found it online recently here for a friend, and it keeps running through my mind. It is truley a gift from God to be able to be simply kind.

But Wait there's more!

Hello everyone. I know, I haven't posted much in a while, but with the start of school and Girl Scouts I've had to readjust my schedule! But I have been working on some crafty projects so within a few days I will post! Upcomming projects include a "never-ending card", a new layout and old layout I wanted to share, and a super wonderful set of SCAL projects! I have been playing and learning inkscape so I have some Dora the Explorer and friends files plus an extra special project to share.....a 3-D creation I am working on! :) Can't wait to share, but today it's off to the apple and pumpkin farm. Enjoy your day!

Scrapbox givaway!

I would love to have one of these great storage cases. One of these would allow me to have all my scrap stuff handy but out of reach of little hands! Plus they offer individual storage items like ribbon boxes and etc. Who wouldn't love that! Enter to win your own at the Cristmas with the Cricut blog. Good Luck! Here's a link to the Original Scrapbox store so you can see all the wonderful options. :) Enter this code when you place your order to get $100 off your shipping: 100Writes