Life at the Beach

With Tomorrow being August 1st I need to get my "Explore the Bug Zone" Projects announced. So here we go. We will be creating with "Life's a Beach" this month. The first one is a mesh I created with the circle tag feature and the Design Studio program.


I wanted to do a scene layout for my next one. All these images are straight off the cartridge.

A little more detailed shot for you. I love the swimmer and his fish. I pop dotted the fishes fin for more detail.After looking at this photo for a bit now I've decided it needs more coral and things at the bottom of my sea. So don't be surprised if this LO gets more detailed before the first class.


The last one is my canvas tote with fabric cut images. Yes you will learn how to cut fabric in this months class. It was such a good time.


Tonight at work I'm going to take pictures of Katie's projects and I'll post them tomorrow. So be watching for part 2.

You can take our "Explore the Bug Zone" class at the Scrapbook Zone on Saturday August 8 at 11 am and the on Wednesday August 12th at 6pm, and Monday August 31st at 6pm. Come check us out and join the fun in the "Bug Zone".

A book about Me.

So my buddies over on the AMR message board have started a new challenge. Every week to 10 days, Abby posts a prompt and/or scrapliftable layout to encourage us to scrap about ourselves. So I've done 2 of the 3 and thought I'd share them with everyone.

The first one was to share things that bring you Joy or make you smile. Here's mine:


The second one was a "To do" list. You can't see it in the picture well but basically it's a run down of typical day. I started with waking up and moved on in to letting the dog out 50 times a day. It reads let Spencer out~ a couple more items and then lets Spencer in~ yep a million times a day. I'll look back on it and laugh.

I've even found a couple recent pictures of me to use. Amazing pictures of me. More to follow as they are produced.

Be sure to check in tomorrow and I'll be posting a bunch of "Life's a Beach" items that were made for the Scrapbook Zones "Explore the Bug Zone" class.

Almost done.

Well yesterday we moved one step closer to finishing our living room remodel. The furniture was delivered. I'm in love with it. I actually feel we have fruniture that fits the room. We need to finish the windows and get draperies, buy the flat screen and bookcases for the fireplace and figure out the lighting situation. But over all it's progressing nicely.


The sectional is just awesome isn't it? it gives us so much more seating and better viewing of the tv.


Spencer is adjusting and so is Rob. He settled into his new recliner with ease. Kicked back and clicker in hand.


How nice it is to sit in the living room again.

Cupcake ATC's

I finally got my but in gear and finished my cupcake ATC's for the AMR swap. Here's what it looks like when you stamp and cut out 23 cupcake tops and bottoms and the pile of debris. I used the new Basic Gray line Lemonade for my cupcake parts. Yummy!


I had a great stamp set and love the saying. Sometimes simple is best.


Ah my collection of 23 ATC's just before packaging them up for the US postal service.



I just hope everyone else likes them and doesn't mind too much that I was so late. Sorry girls.

Fabric and the Cricut!

Today was a Cricut project day and I explored cutting fabric with my Cricut. I've been reading up and it and was told to use Heat and Bond Ultra so off to JoAnn's I went. I picked up the Heat and Bond Ultra with a 40% off coupon and bought enough to last a good long while (5 yards). I also picked up a cute brown canvas tote bag to use in my sample. The fabrics I already had at home, but they are just "Fat Quarter" pieces I've collected.


Next I laid out my cuts on the Cricut DS so I knew how big to cut my fabric pieces. I then cut pieces of the Heat and Bond and ironed them on to the wrong side of my fabric.


(Note to self: place something under the fabric like wax paper. Then if the heat and bond is bigger you won't get it onto your ironing board.) Hold it in place for about 6-10 seconds, moving the iron around but making sure to cover everything well.


My first cut was with the paper backing on.


I got good results. The fabric stayed in place and cut all the way thru. I do want to say I used a brand new mat and blade. I felt maximum stickiness and sharpness were a must.


My second cut I didn't have the same results. The fabric moved off the backing and resulted in some bad cut spots. I fixed those with my scissors. Time to try removing the paperbacking.


Great results. Just make sure your placing the fabric down carefully on the mat. You DO NOT want air bubbles under the fabric.


GREAT results. Perfect cut images.


I placed the pieces on the canvas bag where I wanted them. I covered the whole project carefully with the piece of backing I removed from my last cut and ironed the pieces in place. Double check to make sure everything is adhered well and touch up any places you might have missed.


The finished project!


Would you take a class to learn how to cut fabric with your Cricut and make this super cute bag?

I'm Home!

Well we started our adventure in Traverse City. And when in TC in July you must attend the Cherry Festival. So we did. It was "Heroes Day" and they were honoring all the people who protect us, Armed services to Police and Fire. Uncle Pat and Aunt Mikie both registered as heroes so we took our picture with Uncle Pat. He keeps us safe as the Fire Chief of Grand Traverse County.


We enjoyed our visit there but moved on to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and stayed at Muskallonge Lake State Park, right on the shores of Lake Superior. Very chilly lake especially when it's only in the upper 60's. Didn't stop Kaiti from collecting some awesome rocks.


We all had a good time "Rock Hounding" even Spencer. He likes the beach and taking walks in the woods. It even better if Mom lets him off his leash.


Tahquamenom Falls was beautiful and we got some great pictures.


But Oswald's Bear Ranch might have been the coolest place we went. We got to have our picture taken with a bear cub. He ate fruitloops right out of my hand. They have over 30 rescued bears on the ranch. They live in wonderful large, natural habitats and are well taken care of. We spent a couple hours roaming around watching the bears.


And finally the highlight of the trip. Patsy and Virgil 50th wedding anniversary party. Aren't they a cute couple?


We had over 40 people for dinner at Audie's restaurant in Mackinac City. We got our picture taken a million times, including this one with my cousins: (L to R)Debbie, Keith, Veronica, Mikie, Cindy and Scott.



We had a wonderful vacation and it is nice to be home. We did have two extra children this year, Kaiti and Derek. My sister is so lucky to have me as her sister. I took her kids for 2 weeks. And I enjoyed it.

Color me ATC's

First I have to apologize to Cliff. "Sorry" I missed the deadline on these little beauties. But I'm sending them on Monday. I did these for a Color ATC swap over on the AMR message board. I chose the color RED. Them I bought this cute stamp and just had to use it. So I paired it with a cute little birdie from Quickutz.


I had to make 16 of these to swap. Not sure why I procrastinated cause really they took me about 2 hrs to make. And I just love them. Hopefully everyone else will too.


These babies are headed to the post office.

OH look it's my blog...

No I really didn't forget I had this blog. I've just been terribly busy. I've almost finished my living room remodel and I've packed to go on vacation. But I also found time to help Katie finish up our "Explore the Bug Zone" class for the Scrapbook Zone. Each month we will be taking a look at a different Cricut cartridge and finding out some of the interesting things you can create while using them.

First up "Walk in my Garden". Example one: a really cute card and envelope.


Example two: a gorgeous layout using large (6") flowers, their layers embellished with ink and markers.


Example three: Using the "Fit to page" option. Here I picked a flower and pushed the "fit to page" button. Look how cool it turned out. And yes I did use a piece of the new Basic Gray "June Bug" paper.


Example four: using the Design Studio program to creat mesh and a welded border.


And finally our chipboard mini book. Again we used the DS program and embellished it to the nines. I've showed this off before but it wasn't complete.


This class will be offered at the Scrapbook Zone 3 times this month. Once on a Saturday morning. We'll show you a whole group of things we created and you'll get to make a couple things and take home directions for the others. I hope you can join us.