I have a blog button!!!!

Thank you so much to the ladies who so generously offered to make me a blog button! Jamie of Bits of Paper designs by Jamie Lane just emailed me with the finished creation she made for my blog!!!  I'm so super excited to finally have my very own blog button!

Jamie I cannot thank you enough for all your creativity and help!  I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart!  A big shout out goes to K. Andrew of Getting Cricky with K. Andrew who is paying her kind offer to me forward to my fellow scrapping and blogging friend Sandy of Sandy from Ukiah so that she can now have a blog button for her blog too!   I love the generosity and kindness of the crafting blog world! 

Here is my new button!  Isn't it beautiful!?!? 

It looks just as beautiful over on my sidebar!  PLEASE grab it and put it on your blog!

Happy Halloween! Boo to You Parade Layout...

Happy Halloween!!!  My little monsters are still fast asleep, so there is that eeeeeeerie sense of quiet, like the calm before the storm in my household...  I'm sure that many of you can relate!  :) 

Here is my layout that I did for the Boo to You Parade from last years Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE (did I mention that I LOVE) this parade and it's music!!!  I was so excited the other day when I was able to find and download the "Boo to YOU!" song to my cell for my new ringtone!!!  It makes me happy to hear my phone ring! The CD has also been playing in our van all month long!  Nothing like Disney music to bring a smile to your face!  Well....at least to faces of my little family!

This is a 2 page LO, so to view larger, just simply click on it. I had wayyyyyy more pictures than even these taken of this parade so I had to figure out a way to incorporate as many of them as I could!  I hope you like it!
...and for those of you who missed my Jib Jab ecard post of my family performing The Monster Mash...I thought I would share it again today for Halloween.  I had a lot of our friends that we sent it to through email ask "Who is Frankenstein?"  Ummmm...that's our puppy Max!  I thought he played a good little monster!  Enjoy! From our family to yours, have a safe and Happy Halloween! The video can be seen at the top of my blog page!

**In order to hear Monster Mash properly, you will need to scroll down to the bottom of my page and pause my playlist music...Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Monster Mash do not harmonize too good together**

Like so totally up my alley...it's an 80's blog hop!

I've had such a busy week that I am just now getting around to doing the 80's blog hop that Raven is hostessing!  (Psst...it was also her birthday on Thursday so be sure to give her a special shout out!)  Go here to start the 80's Blog Hop and enjoy!

Pick of the Patch layout

Here is a quick post and LO for today!  This is another one from the 2009 Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party.  Oh how I wish we could be in Disney World this weekend for one of the parties! 

Today will be filled with fun and school for the boys with their costume parade and classroom parties!  I have 17 more mummy candy bars to finish up.  I finished wrapping the last of them last night around midnight and now all I have left to do is ink them up, put on the googly eyes, add some spiderweb and a bug to each of them!  I will take pictures of the finished project before I had them over to the kids this afternoon! 

Hope everyone has a spooktacular day!  I am hoping to be able to catch up on all the comments that have been left this week on my blog tomorrow!  For those of you who left me blog love, thank you and please keep doing so!



Help! I want a blog button!

Okay...I am not going to sit here and try to play myself off as a computer guru, because that couldn't be further from the truth!  I have tried all kinds of tutorials and looked at others blogs and I just cannot do it!  I want a blog button for my blog so bad so that others can grab it and put it on their sidebar, but I'm admitting it now....

I'M TECHNICALLY CHALLENGED!!!!!!

Phew...I feel better now!  :)  I am not above begging for help. So....is there anyone out there who could help me design a custom blog button for my blog?  Pretty please?  With sugar on top?  LOTS of sugar on top? 

Happy 6th Birthday to our Tanner!!!

Today is a very special day in our house...Tanner is turning 6!  He should be running down the stairs within the next 30 minutes asking to open all the birthday cards that have been arriving at the house during the past couple weeks!

Where does the time go?  I swear that it seems like yesterday that I was at the hospital holding him in my arms for the very first time and now he hardly stands still long enough for me to hold him, let alone talk to him! Our two boys are very different.  Parker is more like Daddy and as much as it makes me cringe to say it....Tanner is most like me.  That's probably why he can push me to the edge so easily and quickly!  lol  He keeps me on my toes every single day and makes me smile with the darndest things he will say. 

I wanted to share a book all about Tanner that was turned into his preschool teacher.  He was so proud the day he took this in.  I look at some of the pictures and it brings tears to my eyes.  My baby is growing up.

 



Speak of the lil' devil!  He's awake and about 15 minutes early!  He's super excited so I need to go get the cards down for him!  Have a magical day everyone!!!

Halloween Wishes from the Allore Family!

One of the teachers at our school made one of these the other day of her family and we couldn't stop laughing when we watched it!  Of course we had to try one out starring our own family including our puppy Max! 

Hope you all have a safe and Happy Halloween from our home to yours!!!!  Enjoy! Gotta love Jib Jab!

** You will need to scroll to the bottom of my page to pause my playlist in order to hear this video properly. For some reason Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious does not harmonize very good with Monster Mash!**

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

While I breathe I hope....

While I breathe, I hope for the very best news to come back for Brenda!  A Cricut Board and blogging friend (not to mention a fellow Michigander!) found out recently that she has breast cancer.  Today Brenda is going in for a full body scan to see if the cancer has spread to any other locations.  On Friday she is having a double mastectomy and could use any extra prayers you can send her way.  For those of you who do not know Brenda (Brenda's blog), you are missing out on knowing a truly wonderful woman.  She is such a strong woman and has endured so much during this last year helping her husband Ron get through his illness, surgeries and recoveries.  I have no doubt in my mind that everything is going to go just as good for Brenda and that her and Ron will be sharing many more wonderful years together making beautiful memories with their family! 

Please take a moment today to send up a special prayer for Brenda and if you think about it on Friday she could certainly use some more!  If you would like to send a card her way to show your support here is her mailing address.  I know that Brenda appeciates all the love and support that she has been receiving. 

Brenda Followell

6425 East H Avenue

Kalamazoo MI 49048

Love you and will be sending up prayers all day long for you Brenda!  Take care my friend!  Praying also for a cure to this horrible disease!  It is October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  Let's beat the crap out of breast cancer!  FIGHT LIKE A GIRL!!!!! 

Go trick or treating !

You are never too old to trick or treat!  Be sure to stop by Georgiana's blog for a special treat! 

Universe of Energy from WDW Epcot Layout

Good Monday morning my crafty friends!  It was a crazy busy weekend around our household!  We celebrated Max's 1st Birthday on Saturday!  Parker had a book report that he finished up that is due tomorrow.  I had to get paperwork ready to take to the school this morning to run copies for our new Spiritwear and bagel orders which took up a good portion of my time yesterday!  Not to mention getting ready for this week's classroom Halloween parties!  Tanner and Parker helped me get all the craft projects separated and into individual baggies while I worked on the Mummy candy bars for their treats! 

It's going to be a fun filled, exciting week with Tanner turning 6 years old on Wednesday and all the Halloween festivies coming up!!!

Here is my layout of the Universe of Energy attraction at Epcot in Walt Disney World.  This has always been one of Parker's favorite attractions!  I like it mostly because with the pre-show and ride through portion of the attraction you get about 45 minutes of air conditioned foot resting time!!!  :)  It also usually ends up being a good napping time for Tanner to refresh and recharge!  I realized that I had never done a LO of this attraction in all our years of Disney trips, which was kind of strange considering how much Parker loves it. So without further ado....here is my 2 page LO of Ellen's Universe of Energy! 

You can click on the image to view it larger if you'd like!  Hope everyone has a fantastic start to their week and as always, thanks for stopping by and taking the time to leave me a comment of two! 

Sharing a Disney project by a fellow blogger...

I was over at Michele's blog Greengirl Scraps last week and she had the most adorable Disney project that she created for her Daughter Ashlyn's 2nd birthday with her Cricut markers!  You must stop by and check it out!  While you are there, be sure to check out the matching crayon boxes she created to go along with the coloring book!

Michele, thank you so much for letting me highlight your projects on my blog!  What a clever, inexpensive party favor for your little Disney lover!  Everyone, be sure to stop by Michele's blog Greengirl Scraps and leave her some blog love!  She has some really cute cards and is a new Imagine owner...and if you scroll down some of her older posts you'll see some Mickey Mouse birthday invites to go along with the party favors! 

Hurry! Today is the last day for a chance to win!

Royal Things blog is giving away a Pink Journey Cricut cartridge today as blog candy!  As a bonus she just posted this morning that if she gets over 200 comments she will give away TWO of them!!!  Head on over to her blog, sign up to be a follower, post on this thread Pink Journey cartridge giveaway and be sure to tell her that I sent you!  :)  Good luck to everyone who enters!  I would LOVE to have this cartridge!

You must comment before midnight EST TONIGHT 10/23/10!!

Trick or Treat buckets using Pumpkin Carving cartridge

I was going make my boys a trick or treat bucket for this year and when I was at Michaels last week standing in the check out line they had these orange (they also had purple and black) buckets in the $1 bins near the cash registers.  I grabbed 6 of them so I could make them for some of our friends kids.  I used the Pumpkin Carving cartridge, but also used the George cartridge to cut a few of the triangles so that I could mix up the face cut I used on the Pumpkin Carving cart so that none of the buckets looked the same. 

I am going to fill Joseph's, Maria's, Jacquelyne's and Carson's buckets with a few treats before I give them to them next week! 

Thanks so much for looking!  Your comments brighten my day!

Yesterday was the Fall Walk fundraiser at my boy's school and it was a wonderfully fun day for the kids!  Mother Nature wasn't the most cooperative, but thankfully she held out until the last group was walking which just so happened to be the older kids, my Parker included.  It was fine at the very beginning of their time slot, but then it started to rain a bit.  THEN it started to HAIL!!!!!  The hail was only about the size of a pencil top eraser, but holy moly it was freaky!  The kids took cover underneath the entrance to the school while we had about a 5 minute delay and then everything stopped and the kids went back to walking!  All in all it was a great day for the kids and our school!

After the Fall Walk, Jim and I had to oversee Cheese Club for the school and on our way home there was the most beautiful rainbow just across our street!!!  Actually for a brief moment a double rainbow was visable!  I was able to capture some pretty nice shots on my camera that I just happened to have because of everything going on at the school that day.  Hopefully I will get a chance to upload those pictures today so I can share them with you!

Hope everyone has a fabulous Friday and a wonderful weekend!!! 

Black cat pumpkin

Isn't this cute?  I am the furthest thing from a cat lover, but when I saw something similar sitting on a porch of a house I drove by a few weeks ago, I knew I had to try making my own version.  Super simple and makes a great outdoor decoration!  The whiskers are pipe cleaners, the ears are leaves hot glued on, obviously I used more of Kristen's blog candy googly eyes and the tail is branch from some type of evergreen tree with the needles removed!

Close up of the ear



Of course my head is working over time trying to come up with ideas for some other painted pumpkin animals!  I was thinking that a spider would be really cool that maybe you could use small mini pumpkins painted black for the legs and somehow put wire through them to attach to the body part.  Although....I think that would take quite a few mini pumpkins with eight legs and all! lol  Then I thought about a turkey!!!  You could make a turkey very easily with real feathers!  Or how about a snowman with the pumpkins all painted white!!!  It's not out of the question for us to have snow here in Michigan on Halloween!  I'm hoping it doesn't happen this year, but I have many memories of trick or treating growing up with my snowsuit covering my costume! 

My boys are loving this addition to our family even though his stay is going to be a limited one.  :)  Hope you all have a magical day!  

HURRY! It's your chance to win a Gypsy!

Lisa is giving away a Gypsy on her blog, but you need to hurry because she's drawing a winner when she reaches 400 comments and she's already at 172 comments!!!  So head over to Lisa's blog Paper Fashions and get your comment posted!  Don't forget to become a follower in case you win! 

Wahooo!!! DCWV 12x14 ADHESIVE paper stacks!!

Is it even possible for my love of paper to grow stronger than it already is???  After seeing the news posted on the DCWV Diary blog if thinking it can!!!  Check out her blog for more information and a chance to win a stack of this awesome paper.  I {{{heart}}} DCWV!!!!

Halloween treat bags!

Here are the trial versions of the treat bags that I'm going to be making for my boys classroom parties coming up in a few weeks.  I was working on these last night when I realized that I didn't have any googly eyes!  Oh the horror!!  I was waiting for my hubby to get home so I could run out to M's or J's to pick up a couple packages.  When he got home he walked in with the mail and in the mail was an envelope full of goodies from Kristen that I had won last week on her blog and guess what was inside?!?!  YEP!  GOOGLY EYES!!!  For once something went right for me! lol  So a big shout out to Kirsten for saving me last night!

Both of these were cut from Mini Monsters.  I love all the cute cuts on this cartridge!  I used the awesome Martha Stewart Glitter Pens which I LOVE for the details!   I am going to submit these for a challenge over on Andrea's blog Love is in the Details . 

Thank you for stopping by and hope you all have a magical day!

Happy Fall plaque with vinyl

Hello everybody!  I created something today that is going to be entered into a few challenges.  I purchased a slate plaque at Joanns the other day in the clearance aisle.  I ended up paying just a little over $3 for it!  I brought it home and painted it with some Krylon paint and then used some of my brown Cricut vinyl to make this Happy Fall hanging for our front door! 

I started designing my cuts on my Gypsy and I couldn't find just the right tree.  It needed to be a tree with at least one leaf to qualify for one of the challenges.  I know that you can search on your Gypsy, but I hardly ever use that feature now because of Cricut Search .  For those of you who haven't checked out this amazing website yet, please make sure you do!  I had a tree picked out for my plaque, but then when I searched for a tree on Cricut Search I found what I thought was the perfect tree!  The perfect tree that I would have never found otherwise, because I wouldn't have ever thought about looking on the ZooBalloo cartridge for a fall looking tree, but that is exactly where I found my tree!!!  Then I decided to add a little something to my design and was looking for a basket of leaves.  Nothing came up when I searched for that so then I just typed in "leaves".  That's when I found the little girl and boy cut from the A Child's Year cartridge and I thought they were the perfect compliment to my tree!  I'm very pleased how this turned out!

This is what my clearance plaque looked like to begin with

Then with just a few coats of this....

I ended up with this!

Then after a little vinyl magic this is my finished project!

Sorry about the glare on the bottom left hand corner!  It was actually a beautiful sunny day here today!  I will take all of those that Mother Nature is willing to give us!  I am going to be submitting this for the following challenges:



At least one leaf with Cricut cut used @ http://www.fantabulouscricut.blogspot.com/

Altered item challenge @ http://www.inkingitupcrazy.blogspot.com/

Fall creation NOT Halloween @ http://www.kandrewdesigns.blogspot.com/

Thank you so much for stopping by!  I feel like I'm finally starting to get my crafting mojo back and I cannot tell you how much all of your kind words and support has meant to me during this past month!  {{{HUGS}}} to all of my friends, family and faithful followers!  

Husband Cricut & Gypsy Training 101

As most of you know I was on bedrest at the end of last month and I had committed to making alot of cuts on my Cricut for our Homecoming parade float.  My wonderful husband jumped right in and learned how to use my Cricut AND my Gypsy and saved the day(s)!  I can't remember how many 12X12 sheets of each he had to cut, but he ended up cutting a total of 120 cattlehead and 120 small stars along with 30 full 12X12 stars all by himself!  When he first started he was actually having a good time and made the comment that it was "kinda fun"  but after about 2 hours of continuous cutting he was looking at me saying "I don't understand why you find this enjoyable!"  lol  God love him!  He was so relieved when my bedrest was over and I was able to do the welding and cutting of the words and the city scape myself, although he made a wonderful assistant putting the paper on the mats and removing the cuts after they were finished!  There is no way that I would have been able to complete the things that were needed for the kids cowboy vests or the float itself without him.  I have the best hubby in the world!  I love you Jim!!!

The theme for Homecoming this year was City Nights and our elementary school was given Dallas.  I was less than thrilled with our assignment, but we ran with it and I think that our float turned out really nice after a wonderful group effort!  We had two wonderful parents who are very handy at the art of paper mache' and made an awesome bull head for us!  The kids had a blast making the grocery paper bag vests, which were the perfect project for them to work on while the parents were putting together the big parts of the float. 

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect week weather wise here while making the float as well as the night of the parade.  Last year we were battling 30 MPH winds with rain and temps in the low 30's!  I'll take what we got this year anytime! 

Here are some pictures of the cowboy vest creating, float building and the parade night.  Thanks so much for taking the time to look.  I'm very proud of my husband being willing and able to jump in when I needed him!

Our Parker making his vest

another student's creation

Our Tanner's finished creation that he is still wearing and very proud of!



Me along with my wonderful husband and boys!

Parker looking mean like the bull!  lol



Homecoming parade night!

One of our awesome moms as our rodeo clown!

Tanner by the time we reached the end of the parade route!  I see a future in the dramatic arts in his future!

One last thing that I would love for you to check out if you have a few spare minutes...  One of the amazing teachers at our HS (that just happens to be realted to our amazingly talented paper mache' parents!!!) put together and produced a fantastic music video of the kids performing their own version of the song Live Your Life by TI and Rihanna.  It's fantastic!  It's a You Tube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XJhQywSmfc

Have a terrific Tuesday my friends!!!