Heart decor with the Cricut, a couple of simple ideas and how to~

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!!!

My goal for today was to actually post a little scrappy to my blog and so here it is.

So Valentine's Day brought me this! Jason had noticed that I had been suddenly using my Cricut Create like crazy and so...the big one! I have had a ball with this!! I know, many many people have jumped to the Silhouette but I have so many cartridges already AND I had never really learned to use my Cricut to its full potential. Wow. A few YouTube videos and I was off and running.

 

 I whipped up a quick Valentine's banner using a variety of carts and the Cricut Craft Room.Once I had the TONS of hearts cut out in a manner of minute I simply layered them and then sewed the together right down their little middles. Although the photo shows them all dangling together by thread I did actually cup them apart. Then I punched a hole on each side of each heart and strung some for real using red and white baker's twine from Maya Road. Maya Road's twine is a little thicker than most so it is perfect for hanging a banner.

I used the leftover's to make this sweet little bouquet. Just attached them to a bamboo skewer with some adhesive and another heart on the back! Simple. In just under an hour I had it all done and up!

This took a little longer. More on cupcakes in my next post!

Pumpkin Portraits and Angy Birds Costumes~

Fall fun is in full swing around my house. Yesterday I carved a couple "leg" holes out of the back Jason's Jack-o-Lantern and took these fun shots of my sweet baby girl.

Here is what his Jack-o-Lantern looked like AFTER I was done, ahem, altering it. See, you can hardly see the line in the back where I plugged the pumpkin back up. You might even have to click on the photo to make it larger:)

Remember way back...her very first photo from the womb where it looked just like she was waving?

 

Well, she must have been because she has been waving ever since;)

Of course, the shoot didn't start out so sweet. When I first put her in the pumpkin she looked like this:

Guess I can't blame her. Cold, wet, slimy pumpkin...

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As I try to do every year, I made all the Halloween costumes. Used yards and yards and yards of felt. The kids decided to be Angry Birds. The baby had to be our traditional pumpkin (the little pumpkin costume was the first costume I ever made, way back for Nikolas' first Halloween) and we decided she would look enough like the orange Angry Bird that she'd fit in. Actually I copied my design for the pumpkin costume for all the Angry Birds except the yellow bird. I got in a rhythm and cranked them all out in a day...or so.

Jason even wanted to play along!

 Her very FIRST HALLOWEEN

 

Trick-or-Treat

 

Hope y'all had a fun day too!

Springing back to life~

I AM alive! I am enjoying the new baby soooooo much that I really can't spend a single moment without her. As a matter of fact, I NEVER leave her. I just don't want to. She is so sweet and bubbly, she smiles at everyone and she absolutely loves to be held. She laughs and twinkles her eyes at you until you just HAVE to pick her up. I don't want to spend one minute away from her so I just...don't. 

Spring has sprung around here and so fast that I had to rush out and shoot all kinds of photos! 

Ready for some cuteness?

I had so much fun hauling her all over the yard to take all these cheesy but oh-so-cute photos. Here are just a couple more;)

And then she "said" she'd had enough;)

So I grabbed the older girls:)

Recent photography lessons have me really playing with aperture, which is super FUN!

And then there was EASTER! Egg coloring is always a family favorite! Mr. Multi-Tasker proves I'm not the only baby hog around! He was just lucky to snatch her from daddy, who also tends to sit around with the baby, just because he wants to too:)

Funny story with this little guy...he started coloring his egg OUTSIDE of the dish. He just put the egg right on the table and spooned the dye over the egg! Lucky for me I saw it pretty quick so the mess was minimal;)

And the hunt was on:

 No help needed for these two girlies!!!

Or for this big boy!

But LOTS of help needed for her and plenty of it available;)

HAPPY EASTER

from the whole bunch

As for the scrappy side of life, not much action there but I do have 3 projects in the current issue of Scrapbooking, Cards and Stationary magazine. Mostly I have been sewing baby blankets, altering burp cloths, *thinking* about making a couple little dresses and of course snuggling the day away with my little bundle of joy. Scrapping can definitely wait;)

Happy Spring!

And now there are six...

BLESSINGS~

We are thrilled to have our newest little angel to hold in our arms.  And I do mean OUR arms. The sweet thing is passed around and around and there is usually a LINE to hold her. I have even witnessed my kids FIGHTING over "getting" to change her diaper! 

I can honestly say that I have never been happier having a new baby...maybe it's because I'm old enough to have grandchildren;) I've heard being a grandparent is even better than having children but I doubt that~at least for me...I'm one happy mommy:D

Not that I'm biased, but she is incredibly beautiful ~not a stork bite in sight;). 

AND she is a HUGE smiler, already!!! 

I've taken HUNDREDS of photos of her already. Yes, really. I'm just wrapping up my second photography class in as many months and I'm determined to overcompensate for the remote possibility that the other kiddos could have more baby pictures. These photos were all taken at the hospital without a flash!!! So excited that I know how to do that now!

Next time I'll share some of our "at home" photos~

The Rocket Center and an easy Microbead Embellishment Tutorial!

Last summer we hopped in the minivan and drove south to Huntsville, Alabama to visit the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. It was a day of fun, family and LOTS of photo opportunities.  So when I received my July Scrapbook Circle Kit in the mail {THANKS mom!} and found it filled with October Afternoon Rocket Days, I knew just which photos to print. I used a sketch from Cheri over at Let's Scrap to get me started.

Not too often that I pose for a cheesy photo but every now and then it happens;). I just love all the fun ephemera included in the kit, where else would I find rocket suit trading cards or tickets to the moon?!? 

I misted the Bazzill borders with sunshine Glimmermist and added baker's twine and ric rack to the already full to the brim kit. I also added RED microbeads to the star...more on that below;).

I had lots of fun painting and then distressing the little chipboard rocket. When I started off playing with it, I didn't really intend for it to land on the layout but by the time it was finished I was so happy with it that I just had to find it a spot.

I love flags, especially itty bitty ones flying on toothpicks so I had to add one of those as well.

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Now for the quick and easy microbeads: messy but so much fun...

Grab a glitter tray, your chipboard (or whatever material you'd like) and a vial of microbeads

 Next, cover your chipboard with PLENTY of adhesive. I just used my Xyron- it is quick, easy and relatively mess free. You can use a variety of different adhesives here and lots of people use a wet glue but I find working with a wet glue to be difficult as I always seem to end up with big clumps of microbeads both on and off my chipboard.

 Once you have your chipboard COMPLETELY covered with adhesive, poor the microbeads right over the top. Make sure you cover your chipboard well. Then press down on the beads just to make sure they get good and stuck. This is one of my favorite steps;)

I shake my tray gently to find my chipboard piece and then I carefully remove the chipboard and poor the microbeads right back into the vial. Next I push and poke the microbeads around until they are all exactly where I want them. After all the baeds are in place it is really important to seal the microbeads onto your surface. For this I use Glossy Accents. LET IT DRY completely, you all know what happens if you don't...

Happy Scrapping,