Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

I hope you are all doing well on this nice fall holiday!  I thought I would share one last Halloween project with you.  I had planned on posting these on Sunday, but my weekend didn't go as planned.  

As I've mentioned before, our church volunteers to run a concession stand for the OU Football games every year.  We work for free and then our church gets 9% of whatever the stand makes that day.  We had a game this past Saturday and it was a doozie (is that how you spell it?)!  We arrived at 3:00 pm and worked until a little after 10:00 pm.     Then, we had to walk like 100 miles back to our car.  I realized I'm exaggerating a little here, but after standing on your feet, on concrete for that long, a 1 mile walk feels like 100!  Plus it was really cold and I had a blister on my foot.  We arrived at the van around 10:40 pm and proceeded to sit in traffic for approximately 2 hours trying to get home.  We got on the highway and while driving in horrible traffic, our church van was hit from behind by a young lady in a brand spanking new Jeep Cherokee.  She was too busy playing with her radio and GPS to concentrate on driving.  Priorities, right?  She hit us pretty hard and it hurt! Thankfully, no one was seriously injured and finally an hour later we got back on the road and headed home. 

I'd planned on making these goodies on Sunday but my back and neck started screaming louder as time went on.  When I'd sit at my desk and look down to work, it hurt. So I didn't!  I got an appointment with the chiropractor and I feel a little better now and I know I'll get better by the day.  I finally finished them last night, just in time to bring to work to today to my co-workers.  Here are close up shots of some of them...

The picture quality is bad because I just threw them on my desk and took some quick pics before packing them up last night.  

I cut the boxes from Tags, Bags, Boxes and More 2 at 5".  I tied them up with twine and ribbon and added a stamped sentiment to each.  Some of them have stickers and some have cuts done with the Cricut from Simply Charmed.

I filled each one with a Werthers Creamy Caramel, Werthers Caramel Apple and some Peanut Butter Bars.  Have you ever had these?

Oh. My. Goodness.  They are yummy!  I could chomp on them all day.  Which is exactly why I bought a small package so I only had 2 leftover to tempt me!

That's all for today folks!  Be safe if you go out trick or treating tonight and ENJOY!  My Halloween plans include a trip to the chiropractor, coupon shopping, church and then going home to enjoy one of our holiday traditions...

It airs tonight on ABC, so if you're home, you should watch it!  I love celebrating the holidays with Charlie Brown!

Blessings,

Cheryl

Batty!

We're getting closer to Halloween, so I wanted to share another fun project with you.  I haven't bought any Halloween paper this year, so I'm still using up my stash from last year...

This box is from TBBM 2.  I really like this cut.  I think since it's a "french fry" box, it would be fun to make some, line them with wax paper and serve some kind of food out of them (not candy).  I may just have to do that someday...

To match the goofy bat paper, I cut this little fellow from Simply Charmed twice and layered him to make his wings stand out.  I hand cut the fangs and used punches for the eyes to match the paper.  The sentiment is from another piece of paper from that same stack that I cut out.

Recipe:

Box - Tags, Bags, Boxes and More 2 - french fry box from pg 69, cut at 6"

Bat - Simply Charmed - Bat (layer 1 and layer 2) from pg 59, cut at 1.50"

Paper - K & Company

I've noticed a lot of folks in blog land have really gotten a head start on their Christmas cards.  Have you?  I think I might get started as well...

Blessings,

Cheryl

She's Back!!!

Finally, I am back in the land of blogging and crafting! I have really missed you guys and I think I might have actually heard my Cricut & Gypsy sobbing last night from feeling so neglected. It saddened my heart.

The last few weeks have held some stress and busy times for me. Besides the family situation we had, I had orders for almost 200 teacher appreciation items, had a garage sale (Yea for me...made over $400 on my junk!), made 30 paper teacups for our women's tea last night (with help from my good pal, Cassie), had to make what seemed like a gazillion birthday cards for May and a bunch of other little stuff that took up way too much time.

I am officially taking a breath for the first time in 2 weeks.

WOW! That felt good.

Ok, so now for the real reason you're here... My good friend Trudy is the president of PTA at her kid's school. She was kind enough to hire me to make goodies for their teacher appreciation week festivities. Although it's hard work, I really do enjoy it and I certainly enjoy the money!

This is one of the 3 items I made. This hanging treat box was designed on my Gypsy and was actually easier to design than I'd anticipated. I am planning to make several styles and offer them for download in my store in a few weeks, if any of you would like to try them as well.  There were several blogs I saw where they hand cut them all, but if I can use my Gypsy, that's what I do.  It's such a time saver for me. 

The patterned paper is from The Paper Studio and I purchased it at Hobby Lobby. For the crayon, apple and pencil, I used the Gypsy and the cartridges are listed below. The sentiment was printed on my computer, then punched out with a 1.5" punch. I used a 2" scalloped circle punch to cut the bigger circle.

Pencil - Smiley Cards

Apple - Doodlecharms

Crayon - Simply Charmed

I glued everything to the box and then adhered the pencils/apples/crayons with a foam dot. 

Each container held a single serve packet of drink mix (I used Hawaiian Punch Lemon Berry and Strawberry Lime - YUMMMMM) and a pack of either cheese or peanut butter crackers. From what Trudy said, they were hit and that makes my heart happy!

I'll be back soon with the rest of my projects for the school and then will post my Mother's Day projects after I deliver them.

Have a blessed and wonderful Friday!

Cheryl

Christmas Tags

Woo hoo!  I actually got some crafting done this weekend.  My desk and Cricut were certainly feeling neglected.  Being back at my desk crafting surely made for a happy Saturday.  Once a month, we have a Sunday afternoon staff meeting at church.  Since the meeting was today, I wanted to make some Christmas goodies to take to everyone.  Here are some of the tags I made...

My Craft Spot Challenge #32

I haven't participated in a challenge for a while, so I got busy this week.  I made this card for the Monday challenge at My Craft Spot.  The challenge is to create a project with a Thanksgiving theme.  

I created this card using the turkey from Simply Charmed.

The sentiment was printed from my computer and I hand cut the banner shape. (As you can tell if you look closely....the ends aren't even!).  I think my printer is low on ink because the letters don't look too vibrant.  Oh well!  I added a button with some twine spiff up the sentiment.  This was a fun card to make - I like that fancy turkey just sitting there waiting to be eaten!  I'm not a big turkey eater, but it looks cute on a card!  

I cut the oval from George and Basic Shapes to give the turkey a "mat".  I added the turkey using foam dots for some dimension.  I was determined to use this background paper and I still don't love it, honestly.  I think it's good thanksgiving colors, but it was hard to work with.

I inked all the edges using Brown ink by Colorbox and voila!

That's it for today.  

Blessings!

Cheryl

Products Used:

                       

Simply Charmed - Week 4

So today is my last day to explore Simply Charmed, and I must say, I'm relieved.  I had a really hard time with these projects.  As I mentioned before, I've just been hitting a wall when I sit down to work on a project and this was no exception.  Then, of course, I couldn't get a good picture of this card no matter how many I took or how I changed the lighting.  So irritating!!!  Anyway, here's what I have to share with you today.

In person, this paper has soft greens and coral-ish pinks (I know, that's not a real word!).  But in the pics, it just looks harsh.  Oh well!  I used Simply Charmed for the flower and cut it at 3.5".  The paper came from a stack by KI Memories. 

The stamp is from the dollar bin at Walmart - I love this stamp!  I added a flower button with some white twine tied through it.  I purposely frayed the twine, but it's hard to see with the reflection.

Here's what I did for the inside of the card.  I think a card is so much better if the inside matches the outside.  I must admit, I don't always take time to jazz up the inside, but I like them much better when I do.  Do you jazz up the inside of your cards?  If so, how?

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  It was great to share with you all!  I feel like my "crafty mojo" is coming back slowly, so I hope to have alot more to share with you soon.

Blessings,
Cheryl

Back To School!

Don't you love back to school time?  I do!  I have no children, but I love it for the great sales on office and crafting supplies!  =)  As I've mentioned a time or two, I think office supplies are exciting.  I know, I know.  I'm odd, huh?  Anyway, I made little cards of encouragement for the kids in my class at church and thought I'd share them with you today.  Please bear with the sloppy pictures.  I spent most of last week on my couch, on strong medication, with a heating pad on my ear.  I thought I had a toothache, but when I went to the doctor, they said my ear was full of fluid and most likely infected.  This was the worst ear infection I've ever had.  The pain was quite intense, so I did little to nothing for about 4 days, and then only got up because I had to go work after missing 3 days.  So, when I took these pics, I was feeling terrible and took them super fast before my hubby dropped the cards in the mail for me.

For all the cards, I used Simply Charmed.  I have been waiting for back to school time, just to cut this notebook paper.  I just love his little happy face.

 I added some stitching with my white gel pen to help this out.  It still looks a little plain to me.

When cutting the notebook paper, the cricut puts little score lines where the lines should be.  I used a ruler and colored pencils to trace these to make the lines on the paper. 

I mailed these to the kids in my class at church to let them know I hoped their first week of school went well and to tell them I was praying for them to have a blessed and happy school year.  I heard they enjoyed them - I know how kids love to get things in the mail!

Blessings,
Cheryl

Long Time....No Posts!

Happy Friday Everyone!  I feel like I've been away forever.  It's really funny because although I've never met most of you, I really miss you when I don't post.  Isn't that bizarre?  Makes me think of a movie.....

"I pretend that we're the oldest and dearest friends- as opposed to what we actually are- people who don't know each other's names and met in a chat room where we both claimed we'd never been before."

In case you don't recognize it, that's a quote from You've Got Mail.  Best. Movie. Ever. In my humble opinion. =)  Don't know what made me think of that really, except thinking of being friends with all you whom I've never met.  If you haven't seen it, you should watch it.  And if you have, you should watch it again! 

Anyway, I have to apologize because I totally missed posting the project this week from the cartridge of the month for July.  I have it done and saved on my camera, but I've been really busy getting ready for something next week and it totally slipped my mind.  I will get it posted soon, I promise. 

Today I thought I'd share some pictures with you from a long time ago.  I've had these on my thumb drive for a while and am not sure why I've never posted them.  I can't remember which cartridges I used for all of them, but I'll list the ones I do.

These are the sets I made for the order I received for Teacher Appreciation Week back in April.  There were 5 men, so I made the plain, non-glitzy style for them.  This shape is from George and Basic Shapes.

For each one, I covered the binder clip with coordinating paper and then made the bookmark.  You can't really tell from the pics, but the bookmarks are folded in half with a magnet in the middle so they sandwich the page.  I wish I'd taken a picture of the inside.  The tulips are from Simply Charmed.

 I designed the bookmarks using my Gypsy.  It took some tweaking, but it was pretty simple.

 

I believe this flower came from Serenade, but am not 100% sure of it!  If you are interested in knowing the exact cartridge, please email me and I can check my Gypsy when I get home.

 

 I am going to make some of these over the weekend for the booth I'll have at an event on Monday and Tuesday, so I'll try to take pictures of the inside and post those next week. 

 They are really simple to make and make great gifts!  Thanks for stopping by today and have a wonderful day!

Blessings,
Cheryl

Poll!

Yippeeeeeeeeeeee...it's Friday!  Has it been a really long week for anyone else?  I am so ready to leave work that it's pathetic.  I think I've been a pretty worthless employee for the last few minutes (moving at a snail's pace), so I thought I'd take a break! 

I've received several emails over the last few weeks from new Cricut users.  One of the questions I've been asked is "I'm just starting out, what are some cartridges you would suggest?"  Wow - there are so many great ones, that's tough!  But, here are my top 5 (in no particular order) along with a creation from each:

1. Paisley - I can remember the week I bought my Cricut, this cart had just come out.  I saw the box and LOVED it instantly.  It's very versatile and has great cuts.  Only one word of caution - it can have lots of layers!

 

2.  Simply Charmed - When this cart first came out, I wasn't sold on it.  I don't like everything to have smiley faces!  But...I found it on sale really cheap and I am so glad I bought it.  I use it like crazy since I've gotten my Gypsy and can hide the faces, if needed.

3. Just Because Cards - I know alot of folks did scrapbooking and then got into cards.  I have always just been a cardmaking kind of gal!  I love the images and word art on this cartridge.

4. Birthday Bash - This is a newer one for me and I'm really loving the cuts!  There are a lot of really cute card bases to choose from that don't have to be used for birthdays.

5. Live Simply (Lite Cartridge) - This has super cute cuts on it!  I have a bunch more projects I've made with it, but I'm working the tutorials now, so hopefully you'll see them soon!

What's really funny is as soon as I finished uploading all these pics, I started changing my mind about my top 5!!  It's so hard to choose.  And I haven't bought new carts in a while, so there are TONS of new ones I want.  Gotta start a list...

So....now that I've shared, I've love to hear from you?  What are your favorite carts?  What would you recommend to a new Cricut crafter?  Leave me a comment and let me know.  I will choose a couple randomly to receive some cards from me!

Have a great afternoon!

Blessings,
Cheryl