Reading + Basketball = Bookmark

Happy Sunday!  Just a quick post today.  We're still recovering from 6 basketball games this weekend...and another one later today.  I'm glad my kids are active...they keep me active too! 

Today I'm posting a bookmark I made for my oldest son.  He's 11 and he has been an avid reader since kindergarten.  I'm so happy about that.  I LOVED to read when I was young...and I still do, I just wish I had more time (don't we all?) to sit down with a book.  Lately, he's been reading even more.  He reads while he's brushing his teeth at night, while he's walking to the dinner table, when he's supposed to be changing for a practice.  I can't get upset about it though...there are much worse things he could be doing!  He also made the travel basketball team this year and loves every minute of it.  So I decided to make his a basketball-themed bookmark.  What do you think?

The 'M' is for our town name...and the name of the team he plays for.  The team's colors are green & white.  I figured he'd appreciate the saying 'basketball rocks' ...he's 11 after all!...and I put his name and jersey number on the other side.  When he found it, he immediately put it with his books... :-) ...but his brother saw it and put an order in for himself.  I should have made an extra!

Recipe

 Shadow 'M' from Birthday Bash welded together with rounded rectangle from George & Basic shapes; duplicated, flipped and welded together to make the front and back of bookmark

'RockS!' from Birthday Bash welded onto one half (placed white cardstock behind the cut)

Basketball from Sports Mania

Two 'M's' from Birthday Bash cut in white and layered over shadowed 'M's'

'AJ' and '#21' also from Birthday Bash

Patterned paper - DCWV Holiday stack

Cardstock - Recollections

Green Creative Memories marker, white Gelly Roll pen for stitching

I'm entering this bookmark into 3 challenges:

Celebrate the Occasion: Challenge #3 - Make a project for any occasion using green, white and one optional color.

The Paper Variety: Let's See Your Green - Create a project using mostly (at least 50%) green.

Cricut Cardz Challenge #64 - Create a bookmark using any Cricut cartridge and any colors.

Enjoy the weekend!

~Sharon C.

handsome boy - scrapbook page

There's a fun challenge going on right now at These Are a Few of My Favorite Things called "These Are a Few of My Favorite Features".  They'd like to see a project showing your favorite features...could be one of your own, some of your children's, that of your pet...any take on the theme.  The DT's creations are just fantastic...take a look if you have a minute.  I combined this challenge with the sketch challenge at Get Your Sketch On  and the "double take" challenge at Cooking With Cricut to create my scrapbook page.  Another one for my books...yea!! 

These pictures of my middle son were taken in March, 2004 when he was 2 1/2 years old.  It was late in the month and we had a few nice, warm days.  My older two boys couldn't wait to play on the swingset, so out we went.  (I think we'll still have 6 inches of snow on the ground later this March....just sayin'!!)  My little guy was (and still is) very rough and tumble, curious, gregarious, sweet, generous and loving.  And, I can say this because I'm his mom and COMPLETELY biased, very handsome.  My opinion...just sayin'!  :-)  So my favorite features that I'm highlighting on this page are his eyes (big, ol' brown m&m's), eyelashes (today they're so long that they push up against his glasses) and his curly hair (which gets way out of control if it's not cut every 2 weeks!).  I won't say anything about those chunky cheeks!!  OK, I'm done.  I wouldn't dare say any of this to him today...talk about embarrassment...I'd be in trouble!! 

Recipe

Patterned paper - My Mind's Eye everyday tango paper stack

Kraft, white cardstock - Recollections

Chipboard frame, journaling spot - My Mind's Eye Home collection

'handsome' from Cricut Birthday Bash; welded with my Gypsy; cut from cereal box, inked and popped up

Cuttlebug herringbone embossing folder

Martha Stewart border punch & corner rounder

Chestnut Roan Cat's Eye chalk ink

Brown Creative Memories marker for stitching, journaling

EK Success dimensionals

I'm entering this page into 3 challenges:

Cooking With Cricut: Double Take - Create a new project using these elements (at a minimum):  2 pieces of cardstock, 2 pieces of patterned paper, 2 embellishments and a Cricut die-cut.

Get Your Sketch On: Challenge #9 - Use this sketch:

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things: These Are a Few of My Favorite Features - Create a project which shows some of your favorite features.

Enjoy the day!  TGIF!

~Sharon C.

Happy Birthday to Ewe! - Shaped Card for a 7th Birthday

Hello!  Drip, drip, drip...what's that sound??  It's heaven!  Well, not really, but close enough!  It's the sound of snow on our roof melting and dripping to the ground....yea!  I can't tell you how good it feels to see the sun...it's so bright right now...even though it's only 38 degrees outside.  My mood is much brighter too!  :-)  Hope everyone is enjoying their day!

Today I'm sharing a shaped (yes, another!!) birthday card I made for a classmate of my twins.  I thought I'd use my Birthday Bash cartridge for the occasion...imagine that!  :-)  I got a kick out of this sheep...blowing a noisemaker...how funny!  And it's really a perfect match since the birthday girl is a really funny child too....I think she'll like this.  The image in the handbook has the number '2', but I hid that cut with my Gypsy and pop dotted up the '7' instead.  I thought the striped paper and googly eyes would liven her up a bit...what do you think?...good choice?

Recipe

Sheep from Cricut Birthday Bash; welded into a shaped card with my Gypsy; cut all layers

'7' and shadow from Birthday Bash font

Striped paper - Basic Grey Gypsy paper pad

Textured cardstock - DCWV Brights stack

All other cardstock - Recollections

EK Success dimensionals to pop up the '7'

Cat's Eye chalk ink

Black Creative Memories marker for stitching

White Gelly Roll pen for doodling

Googly eyes



I'm entering this card into three challenges:

Crazy for Cricut - It's Dina's 1st challenge...check it out....make any kind of card as long as it includes a Cricut cut.

Fantabulous Cricut: Challenge Me Monday #49 - Shaped Card - Create a shaped card; something other than a square or rectangle.

More Than Favors: Wacky Wednesday #27 - Farm Theme - Make anything farm-themed.

Have a great day!

~Sharon C.

Snow Tubing Fun - Scrapbook Layout

Hi everyone!  Well, school winter vacation is coming to an end and my kids are pretty much exhausted.  We've had a week full of activities and now they're doing all the homework and projects they've put off for the last 7 days.  And I'm tackling the laundry!  :-) 

Today I'm sharing a scrapbook page I made of some pictures I took of my kids and their Nana snow tubing this past week in New Hampshire.  The kids LOVED that Nana went tubing with them...and loved EVEN MORE that she screamed all the way down the hill...every time!  I squeezed quite a few pictures onto this page.  In hindsight, I should have done 2 pages.  But I'm very excited that I finally had a chance to use my new Peachy Keen stamps...the Critter Faces...to make four penguins, one for each of my kids.  Aren't they cute?  I was thrilled to find a PK stamp with glasses since my middle son wears them...isn't his penguin just adorable?  Oh, I'm going to have fun playing with these!

Recipe

Penguins from Cricut Create A Critter, stamped with Peachy Keen Critter Faces stamps

Snow tubes from Cricut Every Day Paper Dolls

Snow "hills" from Cricut Create A Critter; combination of various shapes welded with my Gypsy

Scalloped square background shape from Cricut Mini Monograms

"tubing fun" from Cricut Mickey Font

Used Cuttlebug Spots and Dots on penguins; D'Vine Swirls on snowy hill

Patterned paper - My Mind's Eye everyday tango

White glittered cardstock - DCWV

Cardstock - Recollections; Bazzill textured

Black Creative Memories marker for doodling/stitching

White Gelly Roll pen for stitching

EK Success dimensionals for popping up penguins

I'm entering this page into six challenges:

Cooking with Cricut: Swirls and Twirls Challenge - Create a project using swirls, flourishes, twirly embellishments and such.
Creative Sisters Monday Challenge - Embossing - Use any cartridge to make a project, but make sure it has some sort of embossing on it.

Fantabulous Cricut: Challenge #48 - Emboss It! - Make a project and incorporate some type of embossing.

Get Your Sketch On #8 - Follow this sketch: 

Scrappy Moms Stamps: Terrific Tuesday Challenge - Create A Critter - Use this cartridge to create a project.

The Paper Variety: Challenge #22 - Sew Much Fun! - Include machine, hand or faux stitching on your project.

Enjoy your weekend!

~Sharon C.

Four at Christmas - Holiday Layout

Good Monday morning!  Did you all survive the weekend?  We had a busy, but fun one.  Aren't they all?  :-)  Just a quick post today...the kids are on winter vacation and our schedule is booked.  Need to keep them busy!

I'm posting a layout I put together over the weekend for this week's challenge at The Paper Variety.   Here's the sketch...it's really a card sketch, but the rules allowed us to use it to create a layout if we'd like.  Well, it wasn't easy, but you know me....I'm determined to make more pages for my scrapbooks.

This picture I scrapped was taken in December, 2003...a few weeks before Christmas.  My twins had come home from the hospital at Thanksgiving and were about 6 weeks old here.  Their older brothers were 4 and 2.  It was a super busy time...we had no idea how crazy life would become!  :-)  This is the first holiday photo we have of our four kids together.  And it wasn't that difficult to stage...as you can see, the babies slept right through it all.  :-)

Recipe

Striped paper; light green cardstock - 3 bugs in a rug

Patterned paper on tree - DCWV Holiday stack

Other cardstock - Recollections

"four", "at" - from Cricut Birthday Bash font; with shadow layer

"Christmas" - from Cricut Gypsy Font; welded and sized with my Gypsy

Christmas Tree, mouse - from Cricut Winter Frolic

"Present" journaling box - from Cricut Mini Monograms

Bow - from Cricut Birthday Bash

Wired ribbon, paper flowers and button from stash

Cat's Eye chalk ink

White Gelly Roll pen for stitching

Black Creative Memories marker for journaling

EK Success dimensionals for popping up mouse, journaling box

I'm entering this scrapbook page into 2 challenges:

The Paper Variety: TPV Card Sketch Challenge - Use the sketch provided to create a card, layout or other paper project.

Scrappy Saturdays with the Bug: Challenge #2 - Something Lovey - Create a layout using something lovey...the word "love", a lovey sentiment/title, hearts, cupids, lips, pictures of someone you love, etc.  I chose to scrap a picture of my 4 little chicks...couldn't love them more!  :-)

Have a terrific Monday!

~Sharon C.



Sugar & Spice - Baby Girl Layout

Good afternoon!  Oh, the sun is shining brightly today...and it's 55 degrees outside...yahoo!  I just came in from outdoors and the sheet of ice that was formerly our driveway is slowing disappearing.  I have a feeling we'll see the pavement tomorrow...the forecast is a whopping 60 degrees.  Oh, spring might just come after all!!

Speaking of warmer times, today I'm posting a scrapbook page of my daughter at 8 months.  Yes, another one!  I'm so happy to have completed quite a few pages this year.  Those albums are filling up.  Anyway, my daughter was a very patient (she had to be...her twin brother was incredibly vocal when things weren't going his way), happy, sweet and funny baby.  We called her 'wild thing' because of the way her whole body would wiggle and bounce when she was happy.  Which was quite often!  :-)  She also had an early fascination with shoes...as these pictures show.  She LOVED to check out what people had on their feet...and always chose the brightest, shiniest, prettiest shoes for herself.  My sister bought her these sandals...hot pink...perfect.  She was (and still is) very sweet...we are so lucky to have her....one girl among three boys. 

Recipe

Patterned papers - My Mind's Eye everyday tango

Textured cardstock - DCWV brights

"Sugar & Spice" title from Cricut Alphalicious; letters and heart welded together using my Gypsy; cut from SEI Claire patterned paper and popped up for dimension

Martha Stewart border punch

Journaling tag from SEI Claire chiplet pack

Pearls - Recollections

Baby shoes die-cuts - Recollections

Buttons - WalMart

EK Success dimensionals

Black Creative Memories marker for journaling, stitching

I'm entering this page into 3 challenges:

Get Your Sketch On: Sketch #7 - Create a project using the following sketch as inspiration:



More Than Favors: Cricut Cartridge Chaos Challenge #6 - Rock Princess - Create a project using the Cricut Rock Princess cartridge, chosen as this week's challenge cartridge by the blog's followers.  If you don't have this cartridge (I don't), you can use a similar cut from a different one.  While browsing thru the images in the online Rock Princess handbook, I noticed the "Sugar & Spice" word art on page 41.  I attempted to create similar word art by using the Alphalicious font cartridge and the heart from George and Basic Shapes.  I sized and welded these with my Gypsy...I love the versatility that little gadget gives me!

Scrapaholic by Abby: SEI Challenge with Abby #3 - Use Pink - Create anything, but make sure you use the color pink. 

Enjoy the day!

~Sharon C.

Winter Bunny Shaped Card - "Pure and Simple"

This week's challenge at the CropStop Challenge Blog is called "Pure and Simple".  The challenge is to use only white or off-white with either black or brown only for stamping.  Yikes!  I love color and I've never made a card using just white.  So I pondered this for a day or so and finally came up with an idea (it came to me in the shower...ideas often do...this is strange, isn't it?).  Since winter and snow have been on my mind lately (my house is buried in white stuff!), I thought a winter white bunny might be appropriate...so here he is.

The bunny is from the Cricut Winter Woodland cartridge, a real gem.  So many pretty images on this one.  I welded two of the bunny's shadows together with my Gypsy to form the shaped card.  Another shadow layer cut in gemstone cardstock (can you see the sheen?) was placed on top.  Then the head/ears and leg layers were cut, embossed and popped up on top of that.  It was certainly simple....I spent much more time thinking about this card than I did making it!  "Warm Wishes" is stamped inside....I could use many of these!!

Recipe

Bunny from Cricut Winter Woodland cartridge

Top layers embossed with Cuttlebug D'vine Swirls folder

Recollections off-white gemstone cardstock

White Recollections cardstock

"Warm Wishes" stamp from Inkadinkadoo

Brad from my stash

EK Success dimensionals to pop up layers

I'm also entering this card into this week's  Challenge Me Monday #47 at Fantabulous Cricut: Weather Forecast - make a project featuring your favorite seasonal weather.  I've been complaining incessantly about the weather lately because this winter has been unusually difficult.  I acually love the winter...watching the snow fall (in small doses!), ice skating, sledding, building snowmen with my kids, watching them get rosy cheeks, drinking hot cocoa and snuggling together under a warm blanket...just can't beat it!  :-)

Enjoy the day!

~Sharon C.