I am not supermom and that's okay!

Okay, so when my daughter  begged me to hand-make each and every invitation for her upcoming birthday party I will admit that I wanted to say no and go out and buy them. But, then the guilt set in. I make handmade cards and gifts for everyone else and even make cards I'm never going to send to anyone just to enter in challenges or what not. So, of course I said YES to her.  Then I went off to work for the evening. When I got home at midnight I found this on my craft table:

It's the Create-A-Critter book with several post it notes outline which animals and which colors she wants on the invitations. (My favorite part is "From Annie" as if there is another Type A/OCD six year old living at my house going through my cricut cartridges to custom order her invitations).

So, I set off to work. I hated this project from the beginning. She wants a jungle theme which I am just not into. She wanted to use Create-A-Critter which I feel burnt out with. But, I went with it and started cutting out sixteen of every animal. I cut trees, vines, etc; It took me hours. I went to assemble them today and looked at the mess on my table and the mere idea of assembling 17 invitations overwhelmed me.

I looked at the mess on my table and decided it was not worth it. (I actually tried justifying to myself saying the cost of glue would be too much, lol) I assembled two invitations and made color photocopies of them on photo paper to mail to her friends. I am actually very pleased at how they turned out and she is not disappointed at all.

My lighting is bad in the photos, but the photo copied one is on the left - I think they look fantastic and it was a lot less work!





So, in the end it's not what I had envisioned or what she had envisioned, but they are done and we both are happy with the outcome. Sometimes I need to step back and realize that I don't need to be super-mom and that if I'm stressing out over things like this it is defeating the entire purpose!

Cooking with Cricut Challenge #81 Card Outreach

Okay, this is seriously the best project I have been a part of! This week the challenge at Cooking with Cricut is to make "Thinking of You" cards for two amazing young girls who are battling with cancer. You make a card for them and mail it to an address listed at Cooking With Cricut; they will then send a package of thoughful cards along to these girls.

My first card is for a 6 year old girl named Emily who apparently loves pink, purple, kittens and horses (what six year old girl doesn't?) Emily is battling Leukemia.

You can read more about Emily on Madison's blog here.

For Emily I decided to go uber-girly and stick to what they said she loves!

This picture shows the folds a bit better. I used a guide at Split Coast Stamper to make the folds.

All cuts are from Kate's ABCs (other than the grass along the bottom which is from Create A Critter).

The next card is for Patty who is 13 and is battling neuroblastoma.

You can see more information about Patty and how to send her a card at the Cooking with Cricut website. In all the photos I saw of Patty I noticed how she loves fashion (make-up, sparkles, cute hats etc;). I also read on her caring bridge page that she sketches and designs dresses. So, I used Forever young to make her this:

The inside says "Be Strong"

I really hope you'll join in for this challenge. What better reason to make uplifting cards? Head on over to Cooking with Cricut and link up your project!

I am entering the Pink/Purple card into two challenges:
Celebrate the Occassion "Just Because" challenge
Cutie Pie Challenge "Favorite Stamp" (I L-O-V-E my "Oh Happy Day" Stamp! Got it in the dollar bin and use it for lots of different projects!

Once Upon a Princess Cartridge Showcase

Once Upon a Princess

I am so excited to be doing my first cartridge showcase for cooking with cricut. I opted to do one of my favorite cartridges, Once Upon a Princess (only with a fun twist!).

Anyone who makes projects for little girls can see what a GREAT cartridge this is: fairies, butterflies, beautiful dresses, cupcakes etc; What isn't to love?? Well, if you ask my son there is a lot not to love about it! He's 4 and always complains that I don't have a cricut cartridge for a prince too. So, this showcase I opted to use the princess cartridge to make projects for my little prince!

First is a castle. The minute he saw it his jaw dropped and he said "way cool mom!"

I used Coredinations paper and embossed it in stone with my big kick. After embossing it I sanded each piece to reveal the brown and gray colors below (seriously, this Coredinations paper is the coolest stuff ever, perfect for a project like this, for sure!) My son said "wow, how'd you do that??". 

I have made the castle before, and the last time I made it it was a lot bigger. I will say, the bigger you make it the easier it is to assemble, however this smaller castle is much more sturdy and he is able to use little lego guys to play in it and it is holding up pretty well even after a couple of weeks.

I am entering the castle into the Throwback Thursday challenge at My Creative Time.

The next project I made was crowns: one for him and one for his teddy bear.

 The crown cuts in two pieces which connect together by slipping the front piece into the slots on the back piece (this way you can adjust for your child's head size). I made each piece 12 inches long for my son and 7 inches for the teddy bear.

My last project is to show one of my favorite cuts on Once Upon a Princess - you could use it for any party. It's a generic card that has "You're Invited" cut on the outer edge.

I made this invite for a Magic Show themed birthday party. I used my gypsy and added the oval cut out on the front of the card (each page of this cartridge has a "gem" feature and there are several cute shapes that would work as cutouts like this.)  The sentiment "Magical" is also from Once Upon a Princess (it had a fairy wand on the end of the word, which I simply cut off for use on this card to make it more boy-ish).

I am entering this card into the Children's Card Challenge at Cuttlebug Spot and 

in the birthday card challenge at My Sheri Crafts.

The bunny and top hat are cut from Create a Critter (top hat is an accessory and I just flipped it over). I accordion folded some paper on the bottom of the card and used foam squares to affix "magical" to it.

I have used this cartridge for lots of other (more girly) things - see the links on the side of my blog and it should pull up everything else I have used this cartridge for! It has a very sweet font, tons of tags and lots of little girly images. I hope you enjoyed my projects and have inspired you to create for you little princes, too!

Addicted to Create a Critter

Seriously, every time I go to make a new project my only criteria is "I will NOT use Create-a-Critter". I feel like I use it way too often and am neglecting all my other beautiful cartridges. Yet, every time I come up with a project and the picture I need to have just isn't on any of my other ones. (Well, usually the image I MUST have I don't own and a new cartridge gets added to my amazon wish list!)

I have a baby shower to attend and wanted to make a card but had "writer's block". So, I decided to check out some ongoing challenges and got some inspiration from those. I've often looked at the Cupcake Inspirations Challenge ,but have never entered it. Today their cupcake was perfect for my project!

I am also entering this project into the following challenges:

 2 Sisters Challenge Blog (use stitching). One day I might try real stitching - not quite that ambitious yet!

Crazy 4 Challenges (use stripes and polka dots). 

Desert Island Crafts Challenge (I used # 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10). At first I thought you had to use all the items on the list, and was relieved when I realized you didn't. I LOVED having a recipe to follow - really helped pull my project together! I was using all browns, but added some green for the challenge and love it!

Where do you all find the challenges you participate it? Do you keep a list? I have just depended on a list my sister (Crafting Misfit) has on her blog. Does anyone else have a good link to different challenges?

Create-A-Critter Valentines

So, I have been MIA for quite some time and have been longing for a reason to use my cricut. However, when my 6 year old asked me to help her make handmade valentines for all the kids in her class I instantly lost motivation or desire to do it. She hates the gypsy and likes to do it the "old fashioned way" of pushing each button. Let me tell you, it takes a lot of patience to make a class-full of valentines with the assistance of a 4-year old and a 6-year old who are sharing a rolling office chair as they assist you. Nevertheless, I got over myself and enjoyed the time with  my kids and came up with cards she chose and I just added my touch too. I have to say, I'm not patient enough yet to let her use the tape runner or glue stick for everything, but I did let her do the corner rounder.  These were all made from create a critter.

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

I am entering these valentines into several diferent challenges:

2 Sisters Challenge  Blog
Card Makin Mamas
Cute Card Thursday
Crafty Catz
CES Challenges
My Sheri Crafts

Baby Name Sign

I haven't been crafting much lately. I think I made so many projects for the craft fair (not nearly all of which made it onto this blog I now realize) that I needed a bit of a break. However, I have had a project in mind for a while now and it's a framed piece to decorate my new, adorable niece's nursery. Her name is Harper (which I think is so cute). However, finding things with the name "Harper" on it will probably prove to be a challenge for her, so I was very excited to make her something. When we did a shower for her I used Create a Critter to make the invites and my sister in law loved the animals so I stuck with what I knew she loved. Here is the finished product (The nursery theme is baby animals and the walls are purple). The printed papers are all from Nana's Nursery.

Happy Easter

So, I've struggled a lot with coming us with a fun Easter card idea and I love what I came up with. Cleaning out the closet this week I found a bag of mini pom-poms and I realized this would be super-cute as bunny tails!
I did by myself an edge puncher this week. I like it, but I need to get better at lining it up. Now I reallllly need something to emboss the paper; I think everything looks too flat/plain without it!

The bunny is from Create a Critter, the patterned paper is American Girl.

 I'me entering this card into the following two challenges:

Fantabulous Cricut "Spring Fling" make a spring card using green, yellow and pink
Celebrate the Occasion make an Easter card and you must use a punch

First project with my Gypsy !!!

So, first I have to admit that the night I got my Gypsy I was having a lot of buyer's remorse. I bought it on a whim and felt guilty about it. Then, I tried to use it and it kept freezing up, wouldn't update etc; After about 5 hours I figured it out and was able to play with it.
It is absolutely going to take some practice as I've come really accustomed to using the books, key pads etc; with the cartridges. However, I LOVED how I could cut so much at one time and being able to weld letters together to make words is awesome.

I made this for the Tacky Tuesday Challenge hosted by septemberninth. The challenge was to use a cow and a sentiment using either "moo" or "udderly". So, this is my cute (and a little cheesy) submission!

 The cow is from Create A  Critter and the moon and stars are from Toy Story.

Another Baby Shower Favor

So, there will be a handful of little girls at the baby shower I'm helping host this weekend so I thought they need little favor bags, too! Using the same umbrella as I used on the party bags last week I came up with these very simple, but adorable, bags of "It's a Girl" Hershey Kisses. I think they'll love them!

New House card

I have some projects I actually NEED to work on but had a little fun making this quick card tonight. The house is from create-a-critter. I'm still playing with getting color combos and layering right. Oh, and using the right adhesive so it doesn't look messy!

 I'll submit this to the contest at Celebrate the Occasion for their "New House" contest.

Baby Shower Favors

I'm putting together a small baby shower for a friend at work and am very excited about the little favors I made for the guests. I used  my sisters "Tags, Bags, Boxes and More" cartridge to make the gift bags. The umbrella is from Create-a-Critter and the bird is from "Straight from the Nest". THe bags were a bit of a pain to put together, but now that they are all done I love them!

For favors inside the bag I did dove chocolates in pink and purple wrappers and a travel-size lotion from Bath and Body works that they had on sale for $1 each.

I have a few other projects planned for the shower and now I can wait to get started on them!

I'll enter this project in the challenge at Paper Variety called "1, 2, 3" (one bag, 2 treats inside, and 3 decorations on the bag).

Springtime is PLAYTIME!

Winter doesn't ever seem to want to end! The weather is blustery, the field is still covered in snow and we haven't been able to break out our spring jackets yet. We are all getting a little cabin fever and are anxiously waiting for weather warm enough to get out to play. In the meantime we have to settle for evening wagon rides with winter hats and with the kids snuggled under a blanket.

I made this card today since it is barely 30 degrees outside and we are inside again this morning. I"m submitting it to the Looks Like Spring at Fantabulous Cricut.

I used Create a Critter for the animals and clouds, Nate's ABCs for the wagon (then realized create a critter had it's own wagon!), Straight From the Nest for the grass, and Playtime for the phrase at the top.

Bring on the babies!

Lots of friends are pregnant or having babies this time of year so I'm working on projects for them. Tonight I made a card for a friend having a baby boy. Despite some issues with my cricut blade which I'll have to solve tomorrow it went much better than my other attempts have gone. I do have to admit that I love my paper cutter with the scoring blade - I used that a lot for this project.

This card will be my first entry into a "challenge" as well. I'll submit it for Create a Critter Page 50 challenge at
M.A.G. Challenge by the page. I'm xcited to do a challenge and more importantly to have some direction in where to start so I don't have to look at my booklets for hours before deciding what to do!!