Goodness Gracious GREAT BALLS OF FIRE!!

After such a long hiatus from my blog, I needed an eye-catching title for this post, right? :)

I'm so sorry for my absence, fellow crafters. I have been so sad not to be creating and sharing with you all. I MISS SUMMER!!! Oh how I long for the carefree nights without volleyball games, homework, etc.! My schedule has been especially grueling lately. I've still checked your blogs, got excited about the inspiration, but commented little and just haven't had the time and/or energy to get crafty myself.

This week, however, I was approached by a manager at my work to make a special gift presentation. He knew I enjoyed making things, and since I had been gone from my passion for what felt like an eternity, I decided that this was a good push to get crafty again.

Let me give you a little background for my gift presentation. The gift recipient is Dick Bales, who authored a book a few years back called "The Great Chicago Fire and The Myth of Mrs. O'Leary's Cow." Using our company's very old title records, he did some extensive research that actually admonishes Mrs. O'Leary's cow from being the cause of the Great Chicago Fire! And since a local theater is doing a play on this subject, my manager thought a gift certificate to the theater would be a nice early 60th birthday present for Dick.

Here is the presentation of that gift certificate:

One of the biggest benefits to crafting is making things personalized, don't you think? LOVE IT!

I used 2 Cricut cartridges for this candy bouquet: Birthday Bash (cow and numbers), and Campin' Critters for the flames. The candy, of course, was in the theme: Cow Tales, Atomic Fireballs, and Black Cow bars (the giant chocolate caramel versions of Slow Pokes - yum!). I also copied Dick's book cover to add in. If you need more details, please email me. I so need to go to sleep, though! I'll be dragging tomorrow, but at least I'll feel good about getting a post up, right? Not to mention it's FRIDAY!!!!

Have a wonderful weekend, my fellow bloggy friends!

S'more Birthday Gift Ensemble

WARNING: Pic heavy!!

Here's me 2 years ago with my birthday "cake"

while camping in my real life happy place, Colorado.

And yes, that is a stick lit as my candle!

This week I've been busy making a fun gift for my daughter to bring to a friend's birthday party. I know I went way above and beyond for a kid friend birthday gift, but I was inspired by my new Scrappy Moms Happy Camper stamp set and some of the recent challenges going on. But most importantly I had fun making it (isn't that what it's all about??) and it makes for a fun blog post! :)


Here is the ensemble:

The card/anti-bac holder  - The tutorial

I used can be found HERE. Thank you, Jan!

What anti-bac scent? S'mores of course!

Key Ingredient # 1

I was tempted to get the generic, but these are

America's Favorite after all. It says so on the package.

Must be true.

Key ingredient # 2 - Love that they make

the squares now. Of course the box says Limited Edition,

 but they'd be crazy to discontinue it!

 Key Ingredient # 3 - But let's face it-

If you didn't have 1 or 2, you could live on this one.

 This sweatshirt is the main gift that got my idea engine

going. My pre-teens are obsessed with Aeropostale!

 This was a Wal-Mart find. I figured it

could come in handy for this sporty friend.

Supplies:

• Cricut Campin' Critters cartridge (campfire on bag, s'more on card/anti-bac holder)
• Cricut Gypsy Wanderings cartridge preloaded on Gypsy (water bottle vinyl)
• Cricut A Child's Year cartridge for candle on s'more 
• Cricut Cuttin' Up font cartridge on the gift bag
• Cricut white vinyl
• Stampin Up Kraft and Night of Navy cardstock; orange and brown Recollections cardstock, & tan and white cardstock from my scraps
• Scrappy Moms Happy Camper, Simple Sentiments and Sweet Somethings stamp sets
• Black Versa Color ink, Ranger clear embossing powder and Marvy Uchida heat gun
• Stampin Up Creamy Caramel and Chocolate Chip ink with sponge for card/anti-bac holder edges
• Fiskars deckle edge scissors and Fiskars ribbon punch for all of the tags
• Rafia
• Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder for "graham crackers"
• Hobby Condensed font for tag and card wording that is not stamped
• Velcro dots to close card/anti-bac holder
• Orange Peel Stickles for candle flame

I am entering this ensemble into the following challenges:

1. Cricut Cartridge Chaos Challenge #26: Campin' Critters
2. Celebrate The Occasion # 24: Kid's Birthday!!!
3. Whimsical Wednesday # 16: Fun With Folds! 

Remember that I have my 100 follower challenge going on! I'm just 10 away from mailing out a Christmas stamp set! :)

Enjoy your weekend!

Peeking Bear Wishes BIG!

Ok, so here I am again posting, but still no project photos from my kids' craft camp yet. I know!! I've started to gather the projects and have taken some pics, so it will definitely be my next post. We're going to our county fair tomorrow night, though, so I may not get to it until the weekend. I can smell the cotton candy already! :)

Remember that triple scoop ice cream cone birthday card I made last week? Well, the little girl that will receive that card is a twin, so that means I need another birthday card for her brother - LOL!

Here is that card, which will also be my current Scrappy Moms' Terrific Tuesday challenge entry:

Supplies:

• Cricut Birthday Bash cartridge for cake-shaped card base and cake layers
• Cricut Campin' Critters cartridge for peeking bear
• Recollections blue cardstock for base, scraps from stash for all other cardstock
• "Wish Big!" and "Happy, Happy Birthday! sentiments from Scrappy Moms' Simple Sentiments Stamp set
• Versa Black ink
• Ranger clear embossing powder (may not show well, but the front sentiment is embossed)
• Marvy Uchida embossing gun
• Foam adhesive dots for frosting layers and candle wax layer
• Xmas Red, Lime Green, True Blue, Yellow, Crystal and Cinnamon Stickles

I happen to know that this family likes yellow cake, so I went with yellow for my cake card. And I know that I used Birthday Bash for the majority of this project, but the peeking bear counts, right? My daughters loved the bear the most about this card.

This card will also be entered into Die Cuttin' Divas' Challenge # 25 - Sweet Treats! That is yet another challenge blog that I have been enjoying and playing along lately.

Well, that's all for now. Thanks for visiting my happy place! I am so appreciative for all of my followers - especially the ones I have recently gained! I would love to hit 100! And I'm looking forward to reaching 10,000 hits! Thank you all for your bloggy love!