Be Yourself

Here's a new set from CTMH that I picked up at a local craft fair, it's called BE YOURSELF...it's fun and sassy, just like my teenage daughter! It also perfect for any female, of any age, who has attitude!

I'm giving the set of cards to a co-worker and needed to find something to put the cards in, so I made this quick folder for them. I've never made one before, it was really easy thanks to my trustworthy Scor-Pal! Gotta love it!



Stay safe during the Holidays, and don't get too caught up in the details...what needs to get done will get done, and the rest will be waiting for you after we celebrate the birth of our Savior.

Countdown to Christmas

I found this really cute Christmas Countdown project at Christmas with the Cricut, and thought I'd made a couple of them for my co-workers. Here's a link to see the directions. The site has some great how-to Christmas projects, all are made with your bug!

I used some shapes that I had got in a Christmas Shape Swap last year on SP, I love the reindeer!

Sweet 16

It's my niece's Sweet 16 birthday party tomorrow, I can't believe she's 16 AND she's going to be driving in a couple of months! We all know "they" grow up too fast!!!

Last year, I was in a creative slump and that felt that no one really cared if I made them a card or not, so I gave my niece a store bought card *gasp* for her birthday...well, the disappointment on her face was very apparent! She ran upstairs and brought down a pile of all the handmade cards I have ever made for her and she said, "I keep them all!" YES!!!! VALIDATION!!!

I put a little extra time and love into this! Happy Sweet 16, Michele!












I love, love, love texture! The more the better, and this flower from the Paper Studio has loads of layers on it...soooooo dreamy!

SP Fall Shape Swap

I just loved every shape that I rec'd in the Fall Shape Swap and wanted to use them all, but didn't want to give them away! LOL! So what I decided to do with them was to make place cards for Thanksgiving, and because we usually have the same people over every year, I should be able to keep them for a couple of years! I also made a few blanks cards, just in case we invite some new people to join us.

I just know in 3 or 4 years when I go to set the table for our family feast on Thanksgiving, I'll think of all the wonderful ladies who participated in this swap and will be thankful for all them and their bountiful creativity!

Mini Tear-Off Calendar

Here's a mini tear-off calendar that I made a couple of days ago, I think it turned out really cute! I used my new CTMH set Inspirations and stamped the quote and flowers. I cut and painted some chipboard, then added some paper that I found for $1 at J's in the clearance aisle(a pad of 18 sheets for $1?!! Lucky me!) Added some Glossy Accents, pop-dots, and ribbon. The calendar came from SCS, here's a link to it if you're intersted in making one of these. I think it's a cute idea to make and give to a friend as a way to say you're thinking of them!

A good kind of busy!

I have been busy, but it's been a good kind of busy! I hope the pictures speak for themselves!

The 1st Annual Bartuci Rocking Rib Fest, we had a family "RIB-OFF" and then played Rockband...what a blast! My family didn't win the title or trophey for best ribs, but then....my family wasn't counting votes! Hmmmmm, we all wondered why the judges' family won?!! LOL!

What a great trophy!
While the winning family was playing Rockbank, this is what we (the losers) did to the trophy!


A broken arm at the Rocking Rib Fest! He's on his 2nd cast, and will be recasted again later this week.


Homecoming, yes I agree will all of you, she is beautiful!


And lastly, here are a few of the swaps that I've been working on, some ITT's for CMB and some tags and cards for SP.

Awarded to....(who me?!!!)

Isn't this just the most adorable award?!! Christina sent it my way, and I have to say thank-you to her! She has a wonderful blog that's truely inspiring, AND she updates almost daily!

I have the opportunity to pass it on to 10 people, which is a hard thing to do because I love all my sissers and such...but there are a few who must have this! They are:

Vi
Karrilee
Amy
Michele
Pam
Vanessa
Kay
Margo
Deann
Alicia

Speed Scrap?!!

Speed? How can you call this a speed scrap when it actually took me almost 2 1/2 hours to finish it? There was no speed involved in this one!

We were supposed to complete 7 steps every 6-7 minutes, or something close to that. I hope I wrote these instructions down right, but you would never know for sure because I didn't follow them too closely!

1. Choose 3 pictures
2. Choose 3 papers of your choice
3. Use one as a background and cut the other two into strips
4. Center all three pictures in the middle of your page, angle if you need to
5. Place strips around the picture
6. Add a ribbon at the bottom, along with flowers and buttons
7. Title, journal, and add more embellishments if you want

This was a lot of fun, and thanks to Michele for taking the time to post the instructions. I'll definately be joining in again, and soon!

BTW, the LO is of my two favorite guys!

Over the past weekend...

Last weekend Vanessa, one of my sissers from SparkPeople came to the house and we went to the SB'ing Expo in St. Charles, it was a lot of fun! We checked out all the new and cool things from the vendors and went to a card making class. We finished the day by attending the evening crop. It was a lot of fun....even if we didn't win any of the raffle prizes or if Vanessa didn't get to eat at Portillos (there is always next year!) We met a new friend, Stacy...who's getting married on my anniversary, sending congrats her way! Here's a few pix from the day...


Here's one of the LO's I finished at the crop, personally, I think it turned out really cute! Last month we took the kids to the zoo and my dh sat down on a bench next to the baboon sign and I just had to take a pix! Then my youngest decided he needed to be in the picture too! LOL! Did anyone notice I should have turned the monkey upside down and had him swinging by his tail? I realized it much later too....like an hour ago! Still....it's cute!

Papa Bear

When thinking back I'm guessing it's been since the retreat in June since I actually scrapped a LO....so it was a real treat yesterday to do a page or two at the monthly crop I attend. It was nice being able to sit down and get a page completely finished, making it "done-done," what a great feeling!

We call my dh "Papa Bear" and when we found this resturant with his name sake, of course we had to go. If you're guessing the food was a tad bit "greazy".....you might be right...I probably wouldn't give the resturant 5 stars for it's food, but will for it's name!

Blog Candy

I was over at Popscicle Toes' blog today and came across her link for some blog candy, and WOWZA is it ever great! Hop on over to Where'd All My Money Go To? to take a look. I can guarantee it's a sweet offering!

Baby Girl Card

I joined a card swap club for 6 months over on the CMB, and this is one of the cards I made for my swap partner, she requested a couple of new baby cards this month, one each for a boy and a girl. I thought it would be easy and I'd crank them out in a short amount of time and be done with it, what was I drinking to think that?!! It took me forever, and I ripped apart more cardstock than I have in a very long time....it just wasn't working for me. DOH....I should have gone and looked at a few sketches or websites for inspiration.

I think I need to make a sign for my scrap area that says, "Don't be so stubborn, SEEK INSPIRATION!"

What I'm doing with my ITT's

I'm finally done with all the Inchies, Twinchies, and Trinchies....at least most of them! I thought I'd share some of the cards I made with all the ITT's that I've been working on for the Ultimate Challenges. These, along with a few other cards will be sent out as hostess gifts. I think they turned great!

INCHIES

TWINCHIES

TRINCHIES

I promise that I'll stop subjecting all of you to so many skulls, or at least posting pics of them....because I have a few more projects for pre-teens that HAVE to include at least one "YOU ROCK" skull! LOL!

Thanks for looking!

In Your Face....

I saw the tutorial for this tri-shutter card at SCS and fell in love with it. Here's a link to the instructions with a video tutorial at the bottom. If you get the chance to check it out, you should...it really is helpful! While thinking if I should make the card, I was blog stalking and saw Christina's blog and couldn't believe she made one of these gorgeous cards! Enough said, I had to jump on the bandwagon and try it for myself and I love how this came out! I hope my newphew does too...of course at 13, is he really going to tell me he LOVES a homemade card?!!

I wasn't sure if I would use the Indie Art cartridge very much when I bought it, other than for all the skulls...but everytime I look at it, I can picture another project in the works! It hasn't taken the place of Hello Kitty, but it is running a close second!

Twinchie Mayhem!

Here are a few of the twinchies that I made for the Ultimate Twinchie Challenge over on the CMB, I had to make 3 sets of 500...CrAzY don't you think?!! I seriously started thinking the same thing halfway through the 1st set because it is a whole heck of a lot of twinchies. This is just one of the sets and it's my take on the theme of black and white. You can't tell from the pics, but there are a lot of pop-dots and glitter paper, along with rhinestones for eyes...nothing like a "bling" skull!

Cards with Inchies

Here's a couple of cards I made using some of the inchies I've been working with...the first card was made with inchies I received from from the CMB Quick & Easy Inchie swap. Didn't the ladies that sent them in do a great job?


The second card is the inchie that I'm going to be sending into the second Quick & Easy Inchie swap. Now I know you can't tell from the picture, but I put Glossy Accents over the lips and they look just like lip gloss. I want to mention that the ribbon came all the way from Pennsylvania, I was going to put it back but someone talked me into it and you know who you are! Thanks for reminding me why I needed to make the purchase..."In every color!"


Not only do I love making these little things, I love what everyone else does with them too. Have you tried making any yet? You really should!

1000 Inchie Swap

Call me crazy in-love with inchies! This is the set of 10 inchies I'm duplicating 100 times for the CMB...CrAzY?!! Me and 99 other people are all heading to the looney bin! LOL!

Paint Can Swap on the CMB

I know it doesn't seem like I've been up to much lately, but I really have! I just haven't been able to post pictures until the recipents actually received their swaps. Well, Marlee finally got her paint can and she says she likes it, which means I can finally post pics of it. It was a lot of fun and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I didn't include pics of what I put inside the can, she can do that if she wants.

This is the top of the can, isn't it perfect for a teenager?





These are the ITT's that I made that were included in her can, they were a lot of fun to make too!