Scraputante.com challenge

So today we are missing out on an ugly sweater party because my son is home sick with an awful virus. So I have been hanging out with my boys, spraying Lysol and organizing my scrap area (see new cricut cart binders - love them!)...

And taking a break, just discovered Scraputante.com is hosting a Saturday Recipe challenge...So you use your current stash and follow what she tells us to do. Fun. If you want to join in, go to FB here.

Well, here is Step 1.

Step 2: Trim to a 6x6:

Step 3: cut 6x6 on diagonal:

Step 4: cut pp 10x10 and save strips:

Step 5: Make pinwheels. Pinwheels? how the heck do you do that? Time to google...

Found a great how-to by Brittany Perry here.

Here is my first pinwheel ever..Wish I had chosen double sided paper for this chall...Sigh...I am hoping that we can put an embellishment in the center to make this look neater...

Finished product:

FavCrafts Fiskars AdvantEdge Punch System Contest

Just spreading the word that FavCrafts is offering a very cool Fiskars AdvantEdge Punch System...I'd love to win this, and tell you all about it! The punch designs are GORGEOUS...and looks so easy to use! In the meantime, here is a how-to from CHA, so check it out:

Enter here to win!

Holiday Round-up

I fired up my cricut all last December -- using it for classroom party crafts to holiday gifts for family...and finally got some thank you cards out! I even squeezed in some layouts -- using some really tough patterned paper that had been sitting in my stash for way too long.

Here is what I did, none of it without my cricut:

For my son's Holiday party  the class mom and I decided on snowflakes...And she thought I was folding and using scissors to precut these snowflakes - lol! Nope, I used Cricut® When It's Cold Outside Seasonal Cartridge...And we gave the children elmers glue, glitter, and bling:

We donated our snowflakes to the Sandy Hook Elementary School, a small thing to do for those who survived such a horrific tragedy, but gave our children a creative outlet to show their support and prayers.

As part of holiday gifts for family, I made a baby book for my husband's aunt and uncle that includes finished lOs (with pictures, but out of respect for not uploading pictures, I have covered the pics with white photomats.:

I borrowed my Christina's cart, Joys of the Season, I used it like it was the only cart I ever had. The challenge for me on these woodsie patterned papers by Prima, is that they were just tough papers to work with - although I love Prima, I didn't love these and got them in a kit last year - or maybe the year before?

These were more fun to work with - Fancy Pants Christmas line from last year. So I am glad to using my stash -- you know that means more shopping :)

And last but not least some thank you cards for Christmas and birthday gifts...I went bac-to-basics with the Cricut® George and Basic Shapes Cartridge:

Patterned Paper Scrap Card Background

At the MOMS group final meeting, we received roses, a great dinner and discovered that we had a prayer sponsor throughout the weeks! My sponsor gave me a beautiful prayer journal. I have never seen one before, and it is gorgeous:

 

So I looked at my scrap table and saw some leftover scraps from the MOMS thank you book -- and decided I might as well use the scraps to create a card for her. My cards aren't fancy or intricate -- I'd like to be able to make cards that are one day.

The idea for using scraps as a card background came from a cool blog post here. I am gonna try to do her more complex background soon, but this was a pretty good baby step, do you think?

MOMS Thank You Scrapbook

I attended a Church MOMS (Ministry of Moms Sharing) workshop - which was really amazing. To say thank you to the leaders, I asked the women who participated if they would like to write something and I'll put it all together in a book. It turned out to be a compilation of beautiful, sentimental thoughts about Christ, faith, motherhood -- and how sharing about these things helped all of us grow.

The book that we created for the four leaders was 8x8 sheets of cardstock, some patterned paper and computer-printed out text and lots of spray glue, bound with O-rings. I had the easy part - making the book. The other women had the hard part: writing from their hearts.

Autumn Bouquet Photo Inspiration

A crafty woman I know posted this photo for inspiration. I dug through my (newly organized) left-over scraps, and here's what I came up with this morning...Love crafting before the day begins :)