My Pink Stamper Color Challenge

I spent most of the day (after church that is) out in the back yard.  I got some gardening tasks completed, watched Aaron tinker with his new boat, and even soaked up a few sun rays.  My back is a bit pink....hopefully it won't hurt too bad tomorrow.  :0)

Robyn, aka My Pink Stamper, posted a challenge yesterday.  The challenge was to create a project using pink, green & black.  Here is my submission.  Those of us posting projects have the opportunity to win a Creat-A-Critter Cricut Cartridge (my new fav!) and also to be featured in Robyn's pink gallery.  Yeah!  Wish me luck!  :0)

My new cartridge!

Recently, Provo Craft launched four new Cricut cartridges.  (You can view them HERE.)  Three of the four cartridges will be available at all major craft stores, online scrapbook stores, and even soon enough on eBay.  One cartridge, however, is exculsive to HSN (Home Shopping Network).  Well, of course, the one cartridge of the four that I absolutely LOVED was the one exclusive to HSN.  I had never ordered anything from HSN, but last week I ordered the "Straight From the Nest" cartridge.  It was an easy purchase and arrived very quickly.  I got it yesterday and made a couple of cards with it.  Here they are....let me know what you think!  :0)

I heart girly things!

I don't know if I've mentioned my love of second hand shopping.  It was inbred in me.  For as long as I can remember, my parents have shopped at thrift stores - Goodwill, Salvation Army, St. Vincent Depaul, Value Village, etc.  At some point in our family history, these second hand stores were given the name "holes".  Yesterday I took my children to the local Goodwill "hole" and here is what I found.  It was 99 cents and super cute & girly.  The second I saw it, I imagined it sitting on my craft table full of ribbon.  Isn't it cute?

It has an Estee Lauder stamp on the bottom inside, so I'm guessing it was a gift with purchase at some point for their makeup or perfume line.  I just love it!  I thought about spray painting it, but I think with all of the pretty ribbon inside, I will leave it just as it is.  :0)

Odd Inspiration

Okay, so I was looking through my pantry the other day and saw a couple things that caught my eye.  I'm always on the lookout for cool design ideas, but I never thought to open my pantry doors for inspiration!  I first saw a cake mix and thought that it would make a cute card.  Here's the cake mix box:

Notice the red spoon on the top of the box....I thought that would be a great place for a ribbon.  Also notice the "White" word on a small strip of blue....I thought that would be a good place for a small sentiment.  Now, here is the card I made.  I replaced the yummy cake for a pretty flower cut from my Cricut.  I know it's not an exact match, but can you see the similarities?  I hope so!

Next up, I saw the label on my bread flour bag.  Here's a snapshot of it:

I liked the big medallion-looking part at the top of the bag and decided to transfer the idea to a card.  In the following card, I used embossed paper, aqua ribbon and another flower style cut from my Cricut for the centerpiece.

Be sure to always keep your eyes open for ideas - you never know where your next inspiration may come from.  :0)  I hope you enjoyed this post!  Please leave a comment if you'd like - I love to read them!  :0)

Sweet Treats

Yesterday I bought my very first Cricut cartridge.  It was so hard to decide which one to get!  I had shopped on Cricut.com before I went to the store so I had a good idea of what I wanted to get.  (Did you know that you can view the whole handbook of each cartridge so you can see exactly what it will cut?  You can view them if you click here!  It's awesome!) 

Anyway, they only had two of the ones on my list:  Sweet Treats and From My Kitchen.  The cartridges were advertised in JoAnn's flyer for $34.99 but our local Michael's store will honor competetor's ads and take 10% off, so I bought mine from Michaels.  I want to go back this week and get the "From My Kitchen" cartridge, but I don't know if I have the extra cash.  :0)

Here are the first few cards I made with the Sweet Treats cartridge.  I hope you enjoy them!  If so, please leave me a comment!  I love to get them!  :0)

Baby Bug

I have been bitten by a bug!  A baby bug, that is!  This is my new friend, the Cricut Create.

I bought it yesterday at Wal-Mart for $99.  (They matched an ad from Big Lots....thank you Wal-Mart!)  I have been playing with it today and wanted to post my first Cricut creations.  I hope you like them!  If so, please leave me a comment!  I'd really appreciate it!

Down FIFTEEN Pounds!!

Hi friends!  Okay, so I am soooo excited!  I weighed in this morning and I am officially down 15 pounds!  I don't want to say that I've "lost" it, because that kinda sounds like I might want to "find" it again.  :0)  And I definitely don't want this weight to ever creep back onto my body!  I feel so much better, healthier and lighter and I don't ever want to give up this way of living!

Okay, I'll back up a bit....a couple of weeks ago, I posted about my "Dollar Diet".  A lot of Facebook friends and some local friends have asked me to show how I am playing the Dollar Diet game.  (By the way, that is a term we gave it....it's not really a diet because no foods are off limits, but we didn't know what to call it.  I'm open for changing the name if any of you can think of something better.)  :0) 

How we play is that every dollar represents one calorie.  (I play with $1,200 each day, or 1200 calories.)  Everytime you eat, you move the amount of calories that you "spend" from the 'available' section to the 'spent' section.  When you've spent all your money, you brush your teeth and stop eating for the night.  (That's a tip from Dr. Phil's book.  I like it because it's a good signal that says "I'm done" for the day.)

Here are a couple of pictures of my food "wallet" that I made last month.  My daughter is playing with me and she has a tri-fold wallet with a spot called 'reserved'.  If she knows she's going out to eat with friends, or has plans for later, she will look up her calorie count of the food she wants to eat later and then put that amount in her 'reserved' spot.  She is doing great too!  I'm so proud of her!