Cooking With Cricut Challenge: Snow Fun!

Our challenge this week at Cooking With Cricut was to use any winter time outdoor activity, snowmen, sledding, etc., in our project. 

Now, I have a confession to make . . . I'm a Florida girl -- born and bred.  Heck, I'm a third generation Floridian!  I've only been in real snow once in my life and that resulted in a sprained neck and a concussion (ice and ski lifts don't mix).  I can count on one hand the number of times we've had "snow" in North central Florida in my 45 years of living.  

Having said all of that . . .  I have to admit --I LOVE Snowmen!  But down here in the deep South, we don't see much of that white, cold stuff that they are made from.  So my card for this week's challenge features a Snowman -- Florida-style!

"Mr. Sandman, send me a dream . . ."

Our happy and tanned snowman is wearing a visor and shades, has liberally applied his SPF30 sunscreen and has settled down to enjoy his winter vacation!

The card is a top-fold and measures 8 1/2" wide by 5 1/2" tall.  The base card is by Bazzill and is called "Splash."

Cartridges used:

Doodlecharms - Snowman (cut at 4 1/2" tall).

Create-A-Critter -  Starfish (cut at 3/4" wide); crab (cut at 1 3/4" tall); sun (cut at 2 1/2" tall), "sunny" (cut at 1 3/8" tall), cloud (cut at 1 1/4" tall), and the sand (cut at 8 7/8" wide)

Everyday Paper Dolls - Sunglasses (cut at 1/2" tall), lotion bottle (cut at 1 3/8" tall) and the towel (cut at 1 7/8" tall).

His driftwood nose was cut free-hand.  The alphabet stickers are from making memories ~ Alpha Asphalt and are 7/16" tall.  The sentiment on the front of the card is from Stampin' Up (copyright 2001). 

Thanks for stopping by and make sure to click on over to Cooking With Cricut and see what my fellow Chefs have whipped up for you viewing enjoyment!

2010: Year in Review

2010 . . . what a year!  We started out the year going gangbusters and ended it the same way, it seems.  The other day I was flipping through my photos from this year -- I keep my digital photos stored by the month on my hard drive and on my external drive (can't be too safe!) -- and decided to create a scrapbook layout for my youngest daughter's book.  She has changed so much this past year and there were so many significant events that occurred that I really wanted to document them somehow.

On a recent trip to our local Michael's, I challenged my daughter to find some 12 x 12 paper that had clocks on it.  Score!  She found the best paper and it became the background paper for the layout.  It is by Recollections and is called Time Frame:  Clock Works.  All of the other paper came from my scrap stash and the text boxes were created on my computer using Microsoft Publisher.  (Remember, you can click on the pictures to make them larger.)

Cartridges used:

Calligraphy Collection - text, text shadow, and brackets.  (Text shadow cut at 1 1/2" and the brackets were cut at 3 1/2".  It is actually a frame that I cut apart to make the brackets.)

Tags, Bags, Boxes & More - frame (Cut at 8").  This is the hangr2 cut, on  page 106.  I cut it using the Mirror/ Windows feature and trimmed the hangers off.

Paper Dolls for Everyday - Baby New Year and sleeper outfit.  (Cut at 1 1/4" tall.)

Paper Doll Dress Up - Father New Year, staff, robe, sandals, and top hat.

The ribbon is a 7/8" wide satin edged shear.  I trimmed a small piece and cut the satin edge off for Baby New Year's hat band.

The "bling" in between the photos and text are clear self-adhesive rhinestones purchased at Michael's.

Thanks for taking a look!  

Leave me a comment and let me know you stopped by!

Happy New Year! And my favorite project of 2010 . . .

I hope that each and every one of you had a safe and happy New Year's Eve!  We have a tradition at our house on New Year's Eve . . . my kids call it "Mermaid" Dinner.  If you ever saw the movie "Mermaids" starring Cher you will understand this reference.  For those who don't recall or never saw the movie, Cher's character couldn't cook to save her life and only prepared appetizers instead of meals.  My older daughter loved that movie!  So one New Year's Eve, a zillion years ago, I asked my kiddos what they wanted to eat and Emily chimed in with "A Mermaid dinner, Mom!"  And so began our tradition.  Every year we fix a variety of appetizers, play board games and watch the big ball drop in Times Square.  Demi thinks that this is the best thing ever!  Last night we munched on her favorites -- pigs in the blanket, brie and crackers, chips and dip -- and played Monopoly Jr.  I was the only one this year who made it all the way to seeing the ball drop!  Demi and Dee only made it to about 10:30 p.m.

Over at Cooking with Cricut, Melin asked each of the "Chefs" to tell her our favorite project of 2010 and our favorite cartridge.  I told her, the project I'm currently working on is my favorite, but if I had to pick one from the last year it would have to be . . . . the Winnie the Pooh baby shower we gave our daughter, Emily. 

Here is the original post if you'd like to see the many different things created using one of my favorite cartridges -- Pooh & Friends.

Please take the time to click over to Cooking With Cricut and check out my fellow "Chefs" favorite projects.  These are a very talented group of ladies and I am honored to work on the CWC Design Team alongside them.  Bookmark the Cooking With Cricut blog and check back often -- we've got some GREAT challenges coming up that you won't want to miss!

This has been a year of ups and downs for me personally.  And I, for one, am hoping that 2011 shapes up to be a much better year not only for my family, but for yours too.  We're going to start the new year off right -- we've got two babies scheduled to be born this month -- a nephew and a great-niece.  My baby brother, Andy and his wife, Brooke are adding a little boy to their all-girl line up sometime in the next two weeks and Dee's nephew, Josh and his girlfriend, Crystal are expecting a little girl toward the end of the month.

My Grandmother Hudson had a saying that always resonates with me during tough times, "First things first; think, think, think; and keep on keeping on."  Take care of the important things first; think before you act or speak; and sometimes, when you can't put one foot in front of the other, you just have to keep on going, because it will get better.