Little Girls Little Pumpkins, Big Girls Big Pumpkins!

A couple of months ago while cleaning out our playroom and making it my craft supply room ( hee, hee, hee) I found a photo of my girls at ages 2 and 3 holding pumpkins. My heart completely melted. Since finding this photo, I've had it up on my photo board at my desk and just grin ear to ear each time I look at it.

When I saw the pumpkin challenge this past week at Fantabulous Cricut, I decided to update my scrapbook frame in my office with that old photo, but also add a current photo of my girls to display how they've grown. We did our traditional Fall photo shoot at our nearby forest preserve today in this GORGEOUS weather with beautiful color on the trees. So I had them pose similar to that old photo (of course they tried acting like 2 and 3 while doing so - LOL).

Here is my updated scrapbook frame:

I love this Scrappy Moms sentiment!

Such sweet lil' pumpkins holding lil' pumpkins!

Bigger, sweet-yet-sassy pumpkins holding really big pumpkins!

Supplies: 

• Cricut Pumpkin Carvings cartridge
• Pumpkin patterned paper from DCWV Fall Stack purchased many years ago
• Cardstock scraps from Stash
• "Happy Fall Y'all" sentiment from Scrappy Moms' A Charmed Life stamp set
• Fall ribbon spool from target dollar section
• Yellow Stickles on pumpkins
• Tag hand cut

I am entering this in Fantabulous Cricut's Pumpkin challenge just under the wire. Thanks for the inspiration, FFCB!
I'll be back soon with my Halloween party invitation. Happy Columbus Day everyone!

Caramel Apple Kits for the Teachers - 2011 Edition

Happy Fall Y'all!

I hope you are in an area where you are enjoying warm temperatures and beautiful Fall colors on the trees like I am. I've been loving it and will continue to enjoy it through this long weekend - YES!

I can't believe I'm starting a new year of showing my crafty traditions on my blog! WOW! Time surely does fly. So in keeping tradition in my family, last weekend we went on our annual Fall camping trip to our local state park, only this year we let our girls bring a friend each (Yes, 4 preteen girls-Ugh! They were all good, though :)). There is a very nice apple orchard nearby with tons of activities including a really good corn maze, apple launching, hayrides to the pumpkin patch, a silo of corn kernels for kids to play in, etc. - So fun! After picking the apples and enjoying all of the other activities, we always purchase our apple cider before leaving and then head back to our campsite. Last weekend was cold, too, so HOT apple cider was enjoyed around the campfire last Saturday! Then when we come home from the trip, we assemble caramel apple kits to give the girls' teachers.

HERE you can find the post of the caramel apple kits I did last year, but here are this year's edition for a good dose of teacher brown-nosing early in the school year:

 Bird's Eye View!

 My oldest daughter and her friend made signs

that said they love their teacher- Major kiss-ups LOL!

 This is the outside of the photo card.

I had this premade photo card in my scraps stash.

I believe it was made using an Ellison diecut at

my library's die-cutting event. You bring your

own cardstock and are able to use their dies!



Caramel Apple Kit Supplies:

• 5 apples (preferably freshly picked!)
• 5 wooden popsicle sticks wrapped in a snack-sized clear bag
• Bag of Caramels (recipe right on the bag!)
• Apple basket (mine purchased at Michael's)
• Wire ribbon (for handle and to wrap sticks to caramel bag)
• Cricut Country Life Cartridge (apple and apple tree)
• Cute photos from apple-picking
• Cardstock scraps
• FZ Roman Font for Tag wording

 

Enjoy your weekend my fellow crafters! I hope to enjoy some crafting during mine!

You've Been Boo-ed! - Office Edition

I'm actually looking forward to going to work tomorrow. Why do you ask? And you would ask this if you've followed me a while. I'm certainly not one of those "I love my job!" types - LOL!

Tomorrow I'm starting "You've Been Boo-ed" in my office! The idea started when I received my latest Scrappy Moms stamp set, "Bewitched." It's to DIE for, by the way! It has a "You've Been Boo'd" stamp right within the set! And then on some other blog (can't remember "witch" one off hand), I had seen the office version of You've Been Boo'ed.

So, onto www.BeenBooed.com I surfed, and Target dollar section I shopped, and Hocus! Pocus! Poof! This is what came popping out of my cauldron:

Assembled Boo Treat

 Bugs and Hisses=Hershey Kisses

 You'll never guess what's in this bag . . .

Here's all the goods inside!

Boo Treat Contents:

• Target dollar section "boo" pail that glows in the dark (so cool!)
• Target dollar section manicure kit
• Target dollar section sticky notes
• Target dollar section pencils (though these were left from last year)
• Hershey Kisses - Halloween edition bag
• Brach's Candy Corn
• Bath & Body Works Halloween-themed hand sanitizer

Crafty supplies used:

• Cricut Mini Monsters cartridge for candy corn (without monster) and spider
• Scrappy Moms "Bewitched" Stamp Set
• Scrappy Moms "A Haunting We Will Go" Stamp Set
• Stampin' Up Basic Black ink
• Cardstock scraps from Stash
• Ghost ribbon from Joann
• Fiskars fancy edge scissors (for tags)
• Target dollar store treat bags for candy
• Stickles

That's about it. These "boo" treats were really fun to make, and they will definitely be fun to give. Can't wait to start hearing the chatter in the office! And I know I'm just squeaking by, but I'm adding this into Scrappy Mom's Mini Monsters challenge.

Have a good Tuesday fellow crafters!

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!

Kick Up Your Heels!!

Hello,  my crafty friends!

Now that my kids' school year and volleyball season have kicked into high gear, my crafty time has been SOOO limited. And of course there are all of these great challenges going on that I've had to read about but pass on (sniff, sniff), which is just not fun! So this week, even though it's been extremely busy, I made a point to take time for myself and make a card so I can participate in 2 of my favorite challenges . . . JUST FOR FUN!!!

Here's my card:

Supplies:

• Cricut Country Life cartridge for guitar-strumming cowgirl
• Cricut Art Philosophy cartridge for background shape (can't wait to dive more into this fantastic cartridge!!)
• Red, tan, brown, dark brown, black, kraft, flesh & confetti cardstock scraps from my stash
• Bandanna and denim patterned paper found on internet and printed on my home printer
• "Kick up your Heels!" sentiment from Scrappy Moms' Designer's Choice stamp set
• Black Versa Ink, Ranger clear embossing powder & heat gun for sentiment 
• Jute cord plus Terrifically Tacky tape to hold the cord in place around the frame
• Stampin' Up Crystal Effects for guitar and boots
• Red Stickles for lips
• Stampin' Up' black marker for eyes
• Stampin' Up Chocolate Chip ink pad with sponge for card edge

I am entering this in Scrappy Moms' Terrific Tuesday Challenge to use the Country Life Cricut cartridge AND Fantabulous Cricut Challenge # 77's Make Some Music - YES!!

 

This was very therapeutic, I must say, even though I stayed up late to make it last night. It was worth being a zombie at work today-LOL! Well, thanks for being a part of my therapy this week by taking a peek at my card! I appreciate you all!

 

Have a great remainder of your week!