Check back soon...

I will be working all next week on gifts for Mother's Day and Teacher Appreciation Week! Check back soon to see the final products. They can't be posted until after they have been given ;)

Cowboy Party Decorations

Howdy folks! For my son's 3rd bday, he wanted a cowboy party. I was thrilled this was his pick since I had a few Cricut cartridges with adorable cowboy themed designs! For the sign on the front door, I used the Old West cartridge to cut out a large sherrif badge and then the Howdy shadow and word. First, I was going to just put it on a solid background, but I found that to be too plain. As I was working on the banner (see below) I had some scrap patterned paper so I used that to create a "patchwork" quilt look behind the sherrif badge. I LOVE the way it turned out. (NOTE: please excuse the bubbling of the Mod Podge! I was in a BIG hurry trying to get all the decorations done so there was some bubbling and lifting)
This is my favorite banner I have created so far. I used 2 shades of brown and cut out (using the Old West cartrdge) a rustic, western poster. Then found several papers that looked western to add some color. The font is also from the Old West cartridge. On the ends, I took a left over barn and sun and cowboy from the invitations to embellish the banner a bit more.
At Michael's they have wooden unfinished frames for $1. I purchased two and created menus for the food and drink. These can be reused for a Old West BBQ by just changing out the paper in the frame.
For goodie bags, each child had a brown lunch sack with their initial on a sherrif badge. I tied it with some rustic rope and that was it! So simple. Inside was a water gun, a foam sherrif badge the kids made when they arrived, and some gummie worms. The children also received a bandana (red for boy and pink for girls) as they entered so they looked the part! So easy and yet so wonderful!

Recent Card Creations

My Cricut machine has paid for itself several times over already! I have owned a Cricut for about a year and a half and I don't think I have bought a card since then. I make my own now!!!

As soon as I saw the Everyday Paper Dolls and Paper Doll Dress-Up cartridges, I knew I needed them and would use them for so many different things! In my mind I envisioned cute birthday cards for the little ones in my life, birthday card invitations, and scrapbook embellishments.

This is a card I made for two sweet friends that have little girls that are turning 2 in the next few months. There are so many cute outfits and backgrounds I can't wait to make more!
I was looking through the book that comes with the cartridge and I discovered a Mom-To-Be outfit for the paper doll! So cute. I have a few pregnant friends with showers coming up, so I made two of these and have them stashed away for the right mom.

Girlie Creations

I finally have the chance to make some girlie items for a few friends with events coming up. The elation of getting to use various shades of purples and pinks and ribbon is almost more than I can bear! I have no daughters, no nieces, and haven't had any real reason here lately to make something for a little girl.

One of my friends is having a sweet baby girl very soon and her shower is this weekend. I cannot yet post pictures of what I made / am making for her little one since I don't want her to sneak a peek, so you will have to just wait until AFTER the weekend so see what I have been busy working on. Tomorrow I will have to pull out my Cricut and whip up a card to go along with the gift. My hot glue gun will also be heating up to finish the second part(s) of the gift that will make it complete.

Another friend has a daughter with a 2nd birthday that is fast approaching. I am also making her what I am making for the shower this weekend but I have some time to get that one finished (plus I need another Michael's coupon to make the project a bit more in my budget).

So check back soon... I have been busy crafting, just can't let you see what I have been busy making quite yet!

Craft Room - Reorganized!

You might be thinking to yourself, "Didn't Allison just redo her craft room?" Well, yes, you are correct. It wasn't that long ago that I purchased several cabinets, spent a few days putting them together, and totally overhauled our home office to make it into an office / crafting space.

So why am I organizing it again you ask? Lots of time recently has been spent in the craft room as I worked on Christmas presents and various other things. I quickly realized that 1) I still had lots of organizing to do - the mess was driving me crazy & 2) Some of the cabinets were not arranged in a functional way. I found myself having to stand up each time I needed something out of the drawers since they were stacked on top of the cabinets. Plus, with the 6 foot table in the middle of the room, it was feeling a bit cramped!

Most of my Saturday was spent moving cabinets, organizing the closet so all office supplies were in there thus making more room for my craft supplies in my cabinets, and then getting settled in. You can find pictures of what the previous "redo" looked like here.

Rearranged and Reorganized

My half of the office

A view of the newly arranged cabinets

View from in front of my craft table

My Cricut, how I love thee!

With it on the rolling cart I can wheel it over to the table easily.

I so wish I had a wall full of ribbon! For now, this will have to do.

Next year, this will become the office / craft room / school room.

In order to prepare for homeschooling CB, I made him a little desk area of his own. The pocket chart was hung so I can post sight word for him to practice or words he wants to use to write notes. I gave him the organizer on the desk and CB put in all his "stuff". Too cute, but OH SO VERY like his mommy!!!

The left side of the closet

Rolling cart full of MORE craft supplies and wooden crates with art supplies for the kids.

Right side of the closet

Office supplies, no longer taking up my craft space in the cabinets!

We will see how this works out. I am sure it will need some tweaking, but I am planning on trying to get some scrapbooking done over the next few weeks, so I will be in here a lot.

Christmas Creations, completed

I was busy all throughout December working on Christmas presents for my family and friends. I didn't get pictures of the sugar scrubs I created, but they were a huge hit. Not to mention they were super easy and inexpensive!

Sugar Scrub

16 oz plastic jar container (ordered from here)

1 1/2 cups white granulated sugar

3/4 cup olive oil (EVOO was used since it had less of a color than regular)

1 mL Essential Oil - I used grapefruit scent! (ordered from here)

For the brother in laws, we made movie night coupons complete with $1.10 taped inside for a Redbox movie! They also received a popcorn container from Target, 2 packages of microwave popcorn, and a king size pack of Red Vines!

For my new nephew, Joshua who was born on November 22nd, I made a picture frame. I got the idea from this blog, but since I never got over to Lowe's to get the wooden blocks cut, I used this MDF picture frame instead. I got the frame at Michael's, covered it with Mod Podge and some paper from a paper pad I already had. I then used my Cutting Up Cricut cartridge and cut out his name, birthdate, time and weight for the frame. To make his name stick out I cut a shadow of the letters about 1/2 an inch larger than the name.

For my mother in law, I wanted to make a family tree. With Bryan having 5 sisters, he has a large family that will only continue to grow. Only 2 of the 6 siblings have children so our number will significantly grow from the 18 people we have now. I had just gotten the Stretch Your Imagination Cricut cartridge for my birthday and it had an adorable tree on it with leaves that could be cut in a layer (a different color). I knew it would be perfect for making a family tree! I cut out the tree to be 11 inches and mounted it on a tan piece of 12x12 cardstock. I then dressed it up some with a bit of patterned paper. Using my Gypsy and the Opposites Attract Cricut cartridge I designed the word family and welded it together (made it cut out as one piece instead of individual letters).
To finish it off, I placed each of the leaves on the branches adhering them with glue dots. On the leave with names, I used foam mounting square to make them "pop" off the page a bit more. I wrote on each of the names of the family members, clustering the leaves by the families. I put Bryan's parents in the center and from there, you will find 6 other clusters of leaves (our cluster of leaves was the biggest with 5 family members).

For my mom, I made another set of seasonal word blocks like I had made for my mother in law for Mother's Day (seen here). Here is a link to the post where I got the idea. Unfortunately, I didn't take pics - they got finished literally hours before I had to give them to her on Christmas Eve - so I will have to try to sneak a pic of them on day while I am at her house. Hers are a burgandy wine color with patterned paper behind the letters. She like them a lot and immediately displayed them on her table as you walk into her house. They currently say "blessed" since she said that is how she feels!

Still working on a set of paper dolls for some precious little girls (we haven't yet done our Christmas celebration with their family yet). I will take photos of those when I am done. The Paper Doll Dress Up Cricut cartridge is stinkin' adorable!

Christmas Creations

I have made some really cute things for Christmas presents. The bad news... I can't post pictures because they are gifts and I can't ruin the surprise (should a recipient read the blog). You will have to wait until after Christmas to see what I have been up to.