Monday, August 31, 2009

Catch the bus

Allie and I were wandering through Target doing our grocery shopping, she spied this:

It was filled with yellow apples and just waiting for us to come along. Since both of my kids will happily eat 2 apples every single day, it was a no brainer to toss it in the cart. Especially when Allie turned with that gleam in her eye and said, "think of the craft we could do, Mom." I am so raising her right.

We arrived home, emptied the apples into the fruit bowl and dropped the bus off in the scrap office. The very next morning, I pop on to the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog and see a back to school gift/craft challenge. Kismet! I would have raced to my desk to create, but I knew Allie wanted to make one together. She had dolls all picked out to ride in it, after all.

She wanted a "hippie bus" which was not at all surprising as she has been on a peace, love, and trees kick since last Halloween when she first donned her hippy costume. Anything with a peace sign or a recycle theme has been huge in our house this year!

It took us a couple of days (5th grade homework is insane!) but we are proud to debut the Girlfriend Bus:


The paper and pretties are all Cosmo Cricket. We started with the Earth Love line since just it's name excited Allie, but quickly switched to Girl Friday to get the bold colors she was in the mood for. A little pearl action from Kaiser and some Cardstock trim embossed with our newest Cuttlebug plates:


I love how the two different circles play together. So yummy! Time to run. I need to stitch up a few ponchos for the dolls. They need to be stylin' to ride the bus.

smooches!

Monday, August 24, 2009

98, 99, and 100 . . .

I made it! I wanted to finish 100 cards for the Cards For Heroes Drive at ScrapStreet before I head off to fall semester. Last night, I finished up my Showroom items with the absolutely fun Paper Trunk Socialite collection. I had some fun scraps on my table so I zipped out a few more cards.

I am sure that I will be able to make a few more before we finish the drive, but I am so happy to have my goal met. Just in time, too, as I head back into the classroom tomorrow morning to meet my new students. If you have not picked up this Paper Trunk yet, you must! Our entire team embraced mojo the second we spread them out in our spaces.

Happy Monday, friends!

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Cuttlebug and Cards

I blame Jackie. I have long resisted purchasing any machine other than my computer, photo printer, and wide format printer for my scrapping obsession. Oh I have marveled at them all, but still avoided them happily.

Until Jackie. She won our Star contest and a spot on our magazine staff this spring. And I began following her blog marveling at the cards she makes--amazing, really. And then she acquired a Cuttlebug. And her cards somehow managed to get EVEN BETTER! Clearly this machine was magic. I kept stalking her waiting for the moment it got shoved into a closet and forgotten. But instead, Maggie chose her to join the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog Team and she made more and more and more yummy items.

Off we headed to CHA and our entire team was determined to see the Cuttlebug in action certain that we would be able to talk ourselves out of wanting it. But then we met Maggie and were lucky to escape from the booth ordering only the Cuttlebug. She almost had us talked into Yudu's as well (I am still thinking!). Darn wonderful enabling people.

I am now the proud owner of a Cuttlebug and my first 2 folders. And I am still working hard on the Cards For Heroes Drive at ScrapStreet. I bopped on over to the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog in time for the Wednesday Challenge and made this shaped card.


For You by Dora Phillips. Supplies: Cardstock: Bazzill, Paper: October Afternoon, Pearls: Kaiser, Rub Ons: October Afternoon, Kaiser, Tools: Cuttlebug, Scor-it, Other: Ribbon.

I had such fun making my first Cuttle Card! And I am certain some little girl is going to love getting this from her soldier mommy or daddy.

92 cards and counting . . .

Friday, August 21, 2009

CFH Continues

92 cards and counting . . .

I am having a ball making cards for such a great cause! But sometime after card 85 my mojo left me. eeek! I headed back to 2 sketches 4 you for a refill. Honestly, the talented designers there never fail to make me want to scrap cards again. Fabulous team!

Kazan's Sketch 33 inspired this card and got me back on track:


Pretty Please by Dora Phillips. Supplies: Cardstock: Bazzill, Paper, Rub On: October Afternoon, Brad: Eyelets & More, Tools: Scor-it, Sketch: 2S4U, Other: Ribbon.

Cards For Heroes Continues!

This week's special guest is:

Jennifer McGuireis our guest host this week at ScrapStreet.com for our Cards for Heroes Card Drive! She is AMAZINGLY talented and we are so lucky to have her this week! If you get a chance, pop over to our site or her blog and get in on this weeks challenge!

Make sure to keep checking in on the card drive! We have a few more FABULOUS guest hosts that will be gracing us with some really great challenges and prizes!

Now that my mojo is racing I am off to scrap! Smooches!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Winner!

Time to draw a winner from the Cards For Heroes Blog Hop!

Thanks to all of you who commented and who participated in the hop! LetUmom, please send me an email at Dora@scrapstreet.com with your address so I can get your prize right out. Congrats!

Thursday, August 13, 2009

CFH Blog Hopping

I am signing up for my first mini blog hop with other talented crafters in honor of the Cards for Heros program. This amazing organization has sent over 170,000 cards to our military men and women in service to our country.

If you get a chance today, make a small Christmas card and send it in to CFH so that a solider can let his/her family know how much they mean to them from so far away. If you want, you can participate in our CFH Card Drive at ScrapStreet.com too, and not only get the chance to win some great prizes but truly make Christmas special for the "waiting families" at home. The deadline for getting Christmas Cards to CFH is November 1st and right around the corner! Make sure you get those holiday cards in soon!

Here is my first holiday card:



This is a hybrid card. I am crazy in love with shaped cards right now. To make one simply find a digital embellishment that you like (this one is from NitWits), resize it (I went for 4x5), and print on white cardstock. Fold the cardstock in half and trim around the image remembering to skip a piece at the top or side along your fold. Add a bit more embellishments if you like. This one has brads and a rub on.

Time to run! I printed out some darling penguins that are calling my name. Smooches!

A Hop, A Sketch, and A Rak!



It is time for the Cards for Heroes mini hop to begin! Yay!

I am so excited to be a part of this fabulous cause. My younger brother was a Navy man and many of our relatives are proud to serve in the Army. Add to that the wonderful Army wives I count among my closest friends and how could I help but jump in with both feet and scissors in hand.

Not only am I playing in the hop, but I am also working for the ScrapStreet.com CFH card drive. If you have not checked it out, peek here for details: CFH Thread. There are some great prizes to be one for a great cause.

For my part of the hop, I have created a sketch:

It is a simple one allowing for plenty of play!

Here is my own take on it:

And for every person who leaves a comment today on my blog, you will be entered in the drawing for the rak. If you actually use my sketch you can link back each card as many times as you make them in additional comments to up your chances of the random number generator picking YOU!

What is this Rak? It is the Little Sprout Collection Kit from Crate Paper. I will happily mail one to our winner. Please note that since the items are glittered, this will be something for you to play with just for you, but not to make CFH cards with.


One of my personal favorite scrappers, Jackie, scrapped with this cute kit in her Cuttlebug challenge this week. If you want a closer look at the die cuts that come with the kit, peek at her blog Luv 2 Scrappp.

Where do you go next? Your next stop is Diana's blog All the little things that matter! Have a great blog hop and thanks so much for contributing.

Please remember that all Holiday cards need to be on their way by November 1. Thanks!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Card Crazy!


Cards for Heroes is a non-profit organization that supports our nation's Armed Forces by sending blank, hand-made cards overseas for our soldiers to write home on, as well as, cards of gratitude to encourage them.

ScrapStreet is running our second annual card drive. We have a goal of 1000 cards this year to make the lives of our soldiers and their families just a little brighter. At the end of three weeks of challenges, we will all ship our cards into our leader--and military wife--Bri.

Today our first special Wednesday Guest:

Karen Russell, a military wife herself, has recently stepped back from teaching scrapbooking classes and designing scrapbooking products to focus on teaching photography classes full time. She has offered this AMAZING prize to one lucky winner in today’s challenge at ScrapStreet's Cards For Heroes contest:

a seat in her next photography class!!!!!

If you have not read anything about this class or seen the amazing photos that come OUT of this class, you need to check it out here: Snapshots of a Good Life.

So head on over to Karen’s blog and get involved in the challenge!!!! You will have from now until Sunday, August 16th at midnight to submit your cards!!! You may upload your creations to the CFH Gallery here.


So what am I doing for the next few days? I am making cards like mad!!!!!!

My son has a birthday party to attend tonight at the ever popular Chuck E Cheese, so I warmed up with a card for a 7yo boy. To get my mojo started, I headed over to a favorite sketch site 2s4u and used Laura's sketch 32 to make this card:


and now I am off to make a ton of cards! I hope all of you will join in and help us support our troops.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Home again

It is so good to finally be home! I definitely had a ball, but it was time to be home. Over the past month, I have been home only 4 days! Between camping, CHA girls trip, and a week at Disney, it has been fun, but totally crazy.

Of course I have hundreds of pictures that I could share, but since so many will be popping up in layouts now that my mojo is humming overtime, I decided to just share one favorite moment from each of us.

Zack wanted to be chosen for Jedi training--what 7yo boy wouldn't? I crossed my fingers and made sure we were standing right up front. Zack wore his lucky video game tshirt. The force was strong in my boy and he was chosen to be the first Jedi at the first training (saving me an entire day of trying again and again). Here he is defending us all from the evil Darth.


Allie always roots for the underdog and Disney was no different. She noticed that Daisy Duck is "underappreciated" as a character. She has almost no merchandise. Barely a visual anywhere in the park. But on day three, we did manage to find her for a character signing and Allie simply glowed!


Drew has done Disney several times now as Daddy. However, with young kids we spent most of our time in the shows, character lines, and small rides. This year was totally different--with Allie as a courageous 10yo, he had a partner for all his roller coasters. Day one had us all on the Rock-n-roller coaster!


What was my favorite moment? Watching my family is always a joy for me, but the best picture we have is me hugging my beloved coke while it mists water on me. ahhhh perfection!

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