Happy New Year, Welcome 2012

This Christmas was tough.  Christmas morning at 8:00, my husband's baby brother died suddenly of a massive heart attack.  He was only 47 years old.  It's taken a toll on my joy.  The week after Christmas was filed with funeral plans and tears.  That same week, my siblings and I have been planning a 50th anniversary party for my parents.... FOR TWO YEARS.  My husband's family and support was of utmost importance to me so the party took a  backburner and my siblings took over.  The party was beautiful and so well done.  So many people came and congratulated them. I was so happy for my parents, so glad to see so many people celebrate them.  To see they're faces filled with smiles and joy.  Tom and I moved through the evening with automation, exhausted and trying to take it all in.

I have walked in my craft room over and over.  Looked at it and turned around and walked out. But, I'm starting to come out of it and want to craft again.  I thought of this gross humor tonight and so I made this thank you card.  I'm making some nicer ones, but I just thought this was funny.

Hope you chuckle. because that's what I needed to do. :0)  

I love it when people really put thought into something YOU needed or wanted.  If I were a cat, that's what I'd want. :0)

Sorry the picture is not better. 

Happy New Year, All!

50th Anniversary Party

My Parents will be married 50 years in December.  We plan to have some fun at their party.  Music was always big in our lives.  So I made these food trays out of records.

Saw the idea on Pinterest.  Went down to the thrift store, picked up some old records.  Put them in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes.  For the bowl, I used a stainless steel mixing bowl and let it melt down over the curve.  For the lipped trays I used the same stainless steel bowl and let the record melt over the opposite side of the bowl so that only a small amount of the record melted.   This was SO FUN and easy that I can see myself doing a lot of fun things with these.

Working

The campus center I work at has Coffee House on select Mondays.  I made this sign for our sign post in the front of the building.

On the 24th we will have a Student Art Show and Coffee House.  To promote it, several of us had to do art pieces that we could use in promotional advertising (not to be judged).  This is my Cricut Picasso.  I don't care for his cubism work, but let me tell ya folks - it's HARDER than it looks.

This is my face, fragmented with personality.  You can't see but I used the cuttlebug folder with writing on it. Because my face is older with lines in it.  I always wear my hair behind one ear, so only one ear is showing.  My  name is penny, so I used the cent sign for my ear.  I chose the shapes I wanted to use and put them all over the mat then cut the mat several times with different colors of papers on them. I used foam tape and zots to give it some depth and pop which can't be seen on this picture.   I'm glad this project is done! 

Okay, yeah, it's been awhile, but I have been CRICUTing, just not posting.  I have a new job and the learning curve has been steep.

Here we go. First, Ellis, turned 2 and had a cookie monster birthday.  The best part of this is that my husband, dressed up like the cookie monster.  My husband has dressed up for halloween about twice in our 30 years of marriage.  He just doesn't do stuff like that, but for Ellis.... anything.

The little cookie monster head on a tongue depressor is a bookmark and I stamped

"E is for Ellis" on it.

I did a HUGE cookie monster on a Pizza Pan that I made little cookies for.  The cookies had magnets on the back so you could throw the cookies at the cookie monster and try to get them in his mouth.  I forgot to get a picture of it and it was the best thing I did for that day.

 

I made the banner and the hat.  Beth made the food along with some of her friends.  The table was spectacularly filled with wonderful colors and good things to eat besides cookies. 

Happy 2nd Birthday Ellis

Family Tree

Practical Scrappers Challenge Me Tuesday 

is to use a tree.

 

 My family tree is full of "nuts."  I couldn't decide what the sentiment would be........ :Glad you're part of mine."  Or "Glad our tree has forks in it."  Which made me think of making a tree with little forks in it.  This card is a little more serious than funny though.  So, for now, the sentiment is blank. 

.  The tree is from Stretch Your Imagination. Grass and Acorns from Create A Critter.  The leaves are a punch.   "Family" is an acrylic tag from my stash, I've had it forever but never saw it when the project presented itself.  Three layers of DCWV Self-Adhesive Mat Stacks and Cat's Eye chalks.

Practical Scrappers Turns 2

Practical Scrappers turned 2 this week!  Congratulations.  One of my favorite all time blogs!  The charge was to create a 2 page layout, or 2 go-together cards.   My layout is a 2 page layout, with 2 pictures.  Each picture has 2 brads.  The number 2 is on the lower fence with 2-gether.  All the flowers can be divided by two.  There are 2 heart charms and 2 initials (L & M). 2 clouds have silver linings.

This picture is from Lindsey and Michael's wedding that I did in Austin, Texas. My hope is that they continue 2 Grow 2 Gether. :0)

Lyrical Letters, My Community, Creative Critters, Martha Stewart Stickers. 

Practical Scrappers is one of the best blogs ever for encouraging you to use the things you have already in your stash.  I love that!  Congratulations Practical Scrappers on turning 2!

Joanne's Blog Candy for Lime Light

This is a nice sampling of blog candy available from Joanne over at Tropic Luv for a very good cause.  She is a design team member for Lime Light.  They make cards for charitable organizations. 


Give her and them a visit and sign up for some fun blog candy, competition and a very good cause!

Purr-fect Palm tree

Two cards today.  The first day since being back, that I've actually had an idea for a card.  I've visited some of my favorite people's blogs, but I'm not fully back in the blogosphere yet.  I haven't visited the Cricut Circle in six months despite that I renewed my charter membership (or my husband did for me).

These are really basic as I delve back into my crafts and try to get them sorted and unpacked.... and put away the wedding stuff.

Purr-fect

 I was singing a Jason Mraz song when this card came to mind.  "What a beautiful mess."  Aren't we all perfect in our beautiful messes of life?  I think so.

Palm Tree

This card has a movement coil so the hand waves when it is pulled out of the envelope.

Foreign Roads of Micronesia

Hi all,

I have finished my last wedding as a wedding coordinator.  Bittersweet.  Having done Event Coordination for over 20 years now.  I'm ready.  More importantly......... my husband is ready.  He's the one who is glad I'm no longer missing in action on weekends while I "create" corporate retreats, weddings, anniversaries, changes of command, retirement ceremonies, etc....

 All the initials were done using Lyrical Letters or Storybook.  I used the deep cut blade on thick cardboard then covered it with moss.  The L&M at the front of the chapel were cut in paper on Cricut, then I cut them out  on styrofoam.

 The couple this past weekend wanted a several day wedding event.  AND they loved their initials.  We did initials everywhere.  The table cloths were made of burlap and table runners that were pieced together like quilt tops (thanks to my mother in law for sewing so MUCH).  We did Dahlias for flowers which were awful.  They wilted so fast. They were gorgeous and some of them were bigger than my head, but they didn't weather well.

 I forgot to take pictures of the cake which also had their initals on top of them.

Lastly, while in Italy, we bought a GPS unit to help us navigate the roads of Europe.  It came with the maps of Italy, France and some of Germany already programmed on it.  Rather than buy a new one right after we landed back in the U.S.  We reprogrammed it to use the U.S. maps and language.  This weekend while in Austin, TX for the wedding, we used it to get around for all the events of this weekend wedding party.  Texas has lots of FM roads (short for Farm to Market).  However, our foreign GPS interpreted the road FM to mean Foreign roads of Micronesia.  I died laughing...........  sometimes you do wonder what world you are in.

What I've Been Doing

Hi Friends,

I've been busy....  I have two weddings within 3 weeks of each other and I've been swamped unpacking and doing weddings.  Here are some pictures from the work I've done on the first one.  I did all the flowers, the boxes for the candy bar (Tags, Bags, Boxes & More) and the wedding coordination and direction.

 

You can see the black boxes we used here on the brides table.

 

One down, one to go.  Then I'm back to my cricut full-time.  That will be an enjoyable rest.