Circle Weekly Challenge Entry!

Well I'm taking the plunge and entering the weekly challenge at the Cricut Circle Blog. It was to do a Halloween project and use some type of transparent element. Well I've been making these recycled pumpkins with old sweaters and I tried a new idea using denim. I just LOVE Denim, and love to recycle fabrics (remember my Aprons HERE.) I originally found the idea of the sweaters from a great blog I just love called 612 Riverside and her name is Theresa too (that's probably another reason I like her so much, lol!) Well I thought I would do a home decor project with the pumpkins and figured I would add a Paper Leaf so I could add it into the challenge. Anyway I was looking for a leaf and came across this one from the Tinkerbell Cartridge and the Flower is from Tags, Bags, Boxes and More and the Clear Plastic piece is from one of the clamshells from a cart and the I embossed it with the Devine Swirls CB Folder. The Flower actually opens up as a tag. I will be giving these as gifts this year for the family when we go to Ohio for Thanksgiving and definitely McCades teachers will be getting these also. If everyone likes them let me know and I will try and do a tutorial on them but I just want to make sure with Theresa over at 612 Riverside if she doesn't mind. I've added a few of my own elements but I want to give credit where credit is due. I'm sure all of you know where I'm coming from on that note.

Well wish me luck on the challenge, there is alot of really great things there and this isn't your typical Halloween decor and colors so I hope it isn't disqualified for that but I like to different once in awhile and this is different sooooooooooo........................................

I'll keep you all posted, so Take Care and Chat with you all later!

((Hugs)) Theresa

Country Life Banner and Blog Hop at BBTB2

Hi Everyone and It's the last week of the month and you know what that means..............................

BLOG HOP TIME at Bitten By The Bug 2!

You probably hopped here from the Amazingly Talented Donna's Blog. Boy I hope I can live up to Donna, she's amazingly awesome and makes the best layered cards, I call her "The Queen Of POP", LOL! 

Beth picked the Country Life Cartridge to use this week and we are to use the Banner Feature on the cart and I made a banner to put in my Laundry Room. I actually used my Imagine for this one and used Kraft paper instead of the normal white paper to give it a more rustic look to it and I'm not sure I'm liking it 100%. I like the whole idea of not having to pick out papers, I just printed them and then used the Kraft paper for the shadow behind it and added some glitter to the letter's. I used the packing tape method to apply the glitter where you add the tape to the back side of the image, sticky side up, and add the glitter to the sticky side. I used a copper glitter and I think I should have used a darker color, maybe Red or Blue (??????) but it's done now so too late and it looks better in person then in the pic so............!!!!!  

I inked Every thing with Tim Holtz Distress Inks using Vintage Photo. I also added some twine to tie the banners together and added the little Mini Clothes Pins, aren't they the cutest! I've had them for along time and finally got to use them, lol!

And to tie all the banners together and take it one step further I added the wash basin and scrub board, perfect for the occasion! Added some glittery stickles for the bubbles and some shiny diamond glaze for the shine on the bubbles in the tub. I also did alot of faux stitching, on the banners and the washtub and scrub board.

Now for your next stop on the Hop you are going to Penny's Blog, How exciting to see what my wonderful Design Sister has in store for you next and if you get lost along the way remember to start at the BBTB2 Blog homepage where you can see all the amazing projects for all the Design Team Gals on one page.

Now for the fun part, Blog Candy.....................

To win my Candy all you have to do is to be a follower and leave a comment with what your impression of the Imagine is. It's not going back to anyone just for me being curious as to what everyone thinks. If you have one or if your planning on getting one and what your opinions are of it are. I haven't been using mine a whole lot and just did the update and didn't have any problems other then keeping my fingers and toes crossed because there wasn't any real step by step directions from the Provo Craft site. I think that would have been a lot easier and faster for alot of people, including myself. I'm going to try and make a few other things this week so I may have a few more of my opinions, (and yes I have a few) and a few suggestions for any new updates. But for now it is Blog Hop Time and Blog Candy Time so follow and leave your comments, Hop off to my fellow Design Team Gals and Good Luck! Have a Great week and remember please play along and if you don't have the Country Life Cartridge use any Cart that has a banner feature and enter the challenge with Mr. Linky on the BBTB2 Blog for your chance at a special winners Blinkie! Hope you see you there!

I'm also adding this to the challenge over at Frosted Design, their challenge this week is to use Die Cuts. Well everything I used other then the string was a Die Cut so I guess that qualifies, lol. I already entered my Old West Layout but since I don't post a whole lot and I Love their blog (if you haven't checked them out you really should) I will enter this also! Hope to see you over there also!

((Hugs)) and Take Care, Theresa  

I Finally Made The Cricut Chirp!!!

Well I Finally made the Cricut Chirp, I've hit the big time, LOL! The Layout that got Highlighted was My Heritage Sewing Layout Here One of my favorite Vintage Layouts, I do have to say so myself! I always wonder how they pick and was always told they just pick from the pictures that are posted so I figured if I don't post I won't get picked so I've been posting some of my layouts and I guess they liked that one. Thanks Provo Craft, You made my day! If your interested and your not  familiar with the Cricut message board just click HERE and it will take you to the post. Thanks for all the great comments everyone left, I love it! And Thanks for all my wonderful followers Old and New for all the encouraging and sweet things you all say, your all the best! Thanks Again!

((Hugs)) Theresa

Old West Layout and BBTB2 Challenge! (PIC Heavy!)

(I want to give you heads up warning this post is Picture Heavy)

Hi Y'all! How was your weekend? Mine was very nice! Love this weather, no more hot humid days hopefully (and nights, lol) We went to the Foothills Festival in the next county over with the neighbors and had alot of fun, then came home and BBQ'd some burgers. I was a nice peaceful weekend. McCade goes back to school after being off for the week. They had Fall break and boy I'm glad he goes back, I need to get some work done around here, lol!

Well Monday's always bring new challenges and the new challenge this week over at BBTB2 was my week to pick and I chose the Barn on The Old West Cartridge. Most of you know I'm a newbie Country Girl, moved here from Las Vegas a couple of years ago and now live out in the country. I love Old Westerns and I really do think I lived in the Old West in another life, lol! I love everything about it. When we used to live in Las Vegas we would go to the old Ghost Towns and go exploring, it was so much fun. I was trying to find all the pictures I've taken over the years we were there but it seems all those pics are in storage so I didn't get to add any pics to my Layout. (Boo Hoo, they were perfect!)

Well as you can see I did a layout for this week. I've been working on this for awhile in Design Studio and I had so so so much fun doing it! I absolutely LOVE to do little scenes when I do a layout and I really wanted to add pictures to this one because I have some great ones from a Ghost Town we had went to years ago.

(Here's from Left to Right)

(Here's from Right to Left)

Now the challenge was to use the Barn and I wanted the doors to open so I made myself some hinges and attached them with some tiny brads and that's where my journaling will be. Added the Steer horns on the Barn above the doors and a Steer skull on the fence. The old fashioned milk container is all ready to be filled when the cows get milked and the wheelbarrow is full of hay to feed the livestock.  

I love how the stagecoach turned out also, I popped it for dimension and added "Velvet" curtains in the windows. All the Old Westerns I've seen usually have curtains on the fancy stagecoach's that haul people so I had to add them also and added a brass brad for my doorknob and axles to hold the wagon wheels on. I also made the luggage that I added to the top of the stagecoach and did you see the little lantern on the seat for the driver?

The General Store has a few layers also, I added the shutters for the doors and some ribbon for window coverings (don't think you can see it that well in the pictures) And of course the General Store always has things for sale, like Feed and Hay and the ever famous Moonshine, lol!  

The stagecoach driver is all decked out with his Chaps and Leather Vest. He's tending his trusty horse and getting him all ready for the trek out west.

(Here's a closeup of the stagecoach, driver and horse)

I did alot of shading with my chalks and inks. On the wooden picture frames they are tied with some twine and added the jute for the wanted picture mats. Lots of doodling and I even did some stamping. I stamped with a dark red stamp from Fancy Pants in the corners and distressed the rest of the papers. As you have heard me say before I always have a hard time picking out pattern paper (even thought I have Tons of it, lol) but since there is so many different things going on and I didn't want to take away from the western scene I used some pretty subtle papers. Kraft paper and a small striped paper and did chalking and inking.

Well here's also a couple of pictures of the Wild West title. Added a bit of faux stitching and some shading, almost looks like real denim doesn't it! That's it for all the pictures, if you've made it this far I thank you for sticking it out till the end, believe me I truly appreciate you!

Well I sure hope you like the Layout, I can surely tell you I had a Blast making it! It took me a few days, I would work on it for awhile through out the day when I had some extra time. I love all the little details and I have to say this is probably one of my favorite layouts at the moment, lol! Hopefully you will enter the challenge over at BBTB2 and remember if you don't have the Old West Cartridge you can use ANY cartridge that has a barn on it (Create A Critter, Country Life and Paper Doll Dress Up have Barns on them) so please join in the challenge, I get to pick the person to receive the Project of the Week Blinkie that you may win for entering the challenge and then you get to display it on your blog, along with bragging rights that you won! 

I'm also adding this Layout to the challenge over at Frosted Design. There challenge this week is to use Die Cuts and I'm sure all these are considered Die Cuts and there sure are ALOT of them! Wish me luck, lol!

    Well Take Care and have a Great Day!

((Hugs)) Theresa

BBTB2 Weekly Challenge-Haunted House!!!!!!

Hi everyone and Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. McCade had to sing again this weekend for a March of Dimes walk at the park, it turned out really well and it was a beautiful day for a walk in the park for a good cause!

Now today is challenge day over at Bitten By The Bug 2 and this week we are to use the 3-D Haunted House from the Happy Hauntings cartridge. I just got the cartridge last week and was all ready to make the house then I realized that when I make it what do I do with it after Halloween? We have a VERY small house and not a ton of storage and even if I put it in a box with just the house in it it would be taking up my precious "space" so I asked Heather if it would be okay if I did a Layout instead of the house and she said "Absolutely" so here is my interpretation of The Haunted House in a Layout!

Now, to me this is a bit "busy" for me, lol, if you can believe that, but what I mean is, the colors are a bit busy! I think it looks more complicated then it was to do. And of course again I had a hard time with the pattern papers. The Halloween papers I had were too busy so I used a light purple (you can't really tell in the picture) and a lighter burst pattern paper and a bit of Black Ric Rak.

I did a bunch of embossing and popping again and used a Martha Stewart spiderweb punch around the page, added some stickles and of course some bling! Gotta have the glitter and the bling, lol! I also used a shimmer rub on paint to highlight some of the embossing and of course used my trusty chalks again. 

I just love how this embossed chandelier turned out and I accented it also with a silver and gold jelly roll pen (I used the gold on the flames of the candles) I had to add it even though it will probably get covered by a picture!  

Now the journaling is going under the tombstone. It lifts up and you can write on the inside. Pretty neat huh!? There is also alot of faux stitching and doodling on both pages. I sure hope you join us over at BBTB2 and remember if you don't have the Happy Haunting Cartridge you are free to use ANY Haunted House from any cartridge and if you want to do a dimensional house and don't have Happy Hauntings feel free to use the dimensional houses on Winter Woodlands and just make them into "Haunted Houses"!

There is also a challenge going on over at Frosted Design and it is to use Doodling/Handwriting on your project, anything goes but it has to be doodling on your project, go and check it out HERE.

Graphically Speaking BBTB2 Monday Challenge!

Good Morning everyone and Happy Monday to you! I had a fun weekend and if you read my earlier post from yesterday you can see that I got the deal of the year on my Peacock Chairs, if you missed it just scroll down and take a look at those babies, lol! Anyway Monday's always bring a new challenge over at Bitten By The Bug 2. This week we are using Graphically Speaking and the Hand Icon on page 65. I almost didn't do the challenge because I just couldn't think of anything to do with that hand, it just wasn't my style but I started playing around with it in Design Studio and since I've never used the GS cart I figured I better use it at least once, lol. So once I started playing I was inspired to use it on one of McCades school pictures and I actually had alot of fun with it and really like the way this came out. I will definitely be using GS again, there are alot of really cool things on it and if you get a chance to get it I think it would be a good cart to add to your collection. This was totally not my style but that is one thing I totally LOVE about being on the BBTB2 Design Team. It is a challenge each week for me to think outside my comfort zone and I have learned SO SO MUCH from all my Amazing Design Team Sisters, they are all absolutely amazing!

Can you believe I actually added a picture to my layout, lol! This is McCade's 2008-09 school pic, he was in 2nd grade in this picture (now in 4th) and all the colors/papers look really good with the picture I used. As you all know I just got my craft stuff out of storage and this was some of the papers I found and figured I better use some of the tons of things I've had for awhile. I actually did a few things I haven't did in a long time. I actually used acrylic paint on this layout to give it a distressed look with the paint. You can kind of see it on the pictures below. It was actually pretty fun and I really do love to paint!

I embossed almost everything but the pics don't really show the embossing that good or the distressed paint. I had a heck of a time with the light for the pictures this week, it was just a very overcast couple of days to get a good picture so sorry, but I tried, lol!

All the cuts are from the Graphically Speaking cartridge and all of them are popped (I learned that from Donna, she's the Queen of Pop, lol) and inked and I even added a bit of bling too, with McCades approval of course, lol! He really liked the way it turned out and for me being out of my element I actually really like how it turned out as well! Now remember if you don't have the Graphically Speaking cartridge you can use something similar or even a stamp to enter the challenge this week over at BBTB2. Thanks for stopping by and sure hope you can join us this week, don't forget to stop by over at BBTB2 and see what the ladies have done also, you won't believe what these gals did with the finger (LOL)! Sorry I just couldn't help myself you'll get a good laugh at one of the designer's cards so make sure you go check it out, Hee Hee!

Take Care and have a wonderful week!

((Hugs)) Theresa

I have a Winner! And a (Kinda Long) Silly Story!

So sorry for the delay, I know it was saposta be yesterday but so many things were going on again that I didn't get to it. McCade had to sing at the opening of the street scape project downtown in town, they re-did the circle in the center of town and they had a bit hoopla for it. Living in a small town the littlest things they celebrate, lol!!! Here's a picture of the Dude looking like he's having a Great time.................NOT! LOL There were some Military Vehicles that he was more intrigued in then what the teacher was doing, lol!

Also we hit a few yard sales and I got the deal/steal of the century (at least for me it was!) I have been looking for these chairs since 2006! When I came out here for my Brother's wedding I had seen them and fell in LOVE with them and have been looking all over the place for them and guess what I found at the 1st yard sale I stopped at.............

Yep you guessed it......................

THE LOVESEAT AND A CHAIR!!!!!!! and your not going to believe the price.............................

$50.00 for BOTH!

I didn't see them when we had parked, there was a truck in front of them but I walked up and seen them and asked the lady how much and when she said $50 I was so excited, but I kept my cool and walked around the rest of the things, (not seeing a darn thing because I WANTED those chairs!) Ken was in the car (he just drives and humors me on my yard sale adventures) and he said he could see it on my face that I found something I had to have! Well I had $40 on me and said "GIMME GIMME the cash and we have to go to the bank" all he thought was "OH Good Lord what is it now, and HOW MUCH is this going to cost me!?" I said just get a $20 and knowing he was getting off CHEAP! So I walk up to the lady and said I have $40 and......she said oh I'm sure she wants $50, and I said No I'll give you $50 but I need to go to the bank, here's $40 will you hold it for me till I get back and turn around and Ken was OFF! He left me there, LOL!! The lady started laughing and said well I guess you really want it because he's gone, so I stayed and chatted with the lady and Ken went to the bank for the rest of my cash and when we were loading up the chairs the lady who owned them came back and said she had so many people call her that they wanted them that she was going to bring them back home but was happy that she didn't have to now. I told her I've been looking for them since 2006 and so she said she was very happy that they were going to someone that really wanted them and knew that I would love them. She said they needed a bit of TLC and showed me a few spots that needed welded (which I had seen already) and I said I have just the place to go. So we got them loaded  up and went to the Machine shop that my Brother's Best Friend Josh works at and all it cost me was some Burgers for lunch to have them repaired better than new! Heck I've been looking and seen a few for sale here and there and the cheapest I've found them was $240 for 2 chairs earlier this summer and the Loveseat (which is what I wanted in the first place) was $250 (and it was painted white and all rusted!), so you see I got them for a STEAL! They are Wrought Iron and everyone around here calls them Peacock Chairs (and yes, I can tell why they are called that, don't you!) I kind of like them this color but I may paint them Red since the house is Yellow and Red, (Yes I have a Red metal Roof which I LOVE) and RED is my FAV color ever! But we'll have to wait and see, so what do you think, aren't they the prettiest things you ever did see, LOL!!! Now I have to find me one more chair, and another escapade to tell you all about, lol!!!

But I so sorry I got sooooooooooooo off track here, hee hee! On to the winner now...............

Drumroll please.............................

Glenda said:

Beautiful layout! Love the vintage feel, colors, and all the fantastic cuts you used!

I am now a follower---just getting my own blog started!

Thanks for the chance to win a great prize!

Woo Hoo Glenda, you have a week to contact me at:

mccadesmom at gmail dot com

and I will get your goodies out to you!

Thanks everyone for listening to my crazy story but I just had to share my good fortune with you!

Take Care and Have a wonderrful rest of the weekend!

((Hugs)) Theresa