Who Knew Layout

I stumbled across a toy mouse my Dad gave me for my 40th birthday. My husband had bought me a laptop for my birthday and when my parents asked what I wanted for my birthday, I said a mouse for my laptop. When they came out for cake and ice cream, my dad gave me this silly toy mouse that made me laugh. He was always doing something fun. I remember growing up and opening a coat for Christmas....(if you're old like me, you'll remember that the cool thing at the time was zip off sleeves) well, my dad had zipped off one of the sleeves and wrapped the coat. When I opened it, he pretended that he didn't know that one of the sleeves was missing. Anyway, now that he's gone I wanted to record that memory along with my thoughts of "Who Knew" that we didn't have that much more time with him and that silly toy mice would become a permanent fixture in my scraproom to remind me of him......

I'm going to enter it into these challenges:

http://fantabulouscricut.blogspot.com/2011/08/challenge-me-monday-75.html

http://diecuttindivas.blogspot.com/2011/08/challenge-30-indian-summers.html

Scrapbookaholic By Abby Challenge #12 - http://www.scrapbookaholicbyabby.com/2011/08/last-scrapbookaholic-by-abby-challenge.html

http://thepinkelephantchallenge.blogspot.com/2011/08/pink-elephant-tpe114.html

http://www.patchesofpink.com/2011/08/thursday-favorites-and-link-up-party-8.html

Hello Ladybug Card

Here's another card that I made from scraps and leftover pieces. I'm entering it into a challenge that wanted me to use a splash of yellow on your project. Its for Challenge me Monday #75.

Hanging Monkey Card

Cricut Cards Challenge Number 89 was to create a card using anything you might find in a jungle. This is my cute little monkey. I love how he's hanging out. Once again all the paper except for the monkey is actually scraps. I'm going to get some of them used yet! LOL. If you'd like to participate, jump on over to their blog here.

Just chicken in card

Scrappy Moms Stamps was having a challenge using the cartridge straight from the nest. I don't have this cartridge, but I created this cute little bird to make a card with. I thought it turned out kinda cute and one of a kind. LOL. I'm entering it into their challenge here.

You Rock Layout

My son started guitar lessons last year after a failed attempt at piano lessons. While he was practicing a little while ago, I realized that I didn't have any pictures of him with his "electric guitar." He wanted to play electric, LOL, not accoustic which is what we started with. LOL. He loves it and that's what's important. I decided to enter this in a try something new challenge. I'm always looking for new ways to use scrap/leftover paper. In one of my scrapbooking magazines, they suggested creating borders and stripes using scraps....so..... this is my layout using just small leftover pieces. I scrapbook 8.5 x 11 and so I have tons of 3 inch strips and always have tons of 1 inch strips of tons of paper. So this is my attemp at using some of these. I have to admit, I really like how it turned out. I also find myself stuck in a rut and make cuts using the colors the object is suppose to be...hence a red apple, or a red strawberry so the last couple of projects I've tried to use different colors on something traditional...hence the blue patterned guitar. I also made some apples with paisly paper and they were fun too. Any, here is my entry. I think I like the idea of the various colors on the border. I know....most people already do this, but I have TONS of paper that I never know quite what to do with. LOL. So I've been trying to make cards and find other uses to get it used up because a lot of it is really pretty. Anyway... nothing to exciting but I do like how the strips turned out. :-)

http://kcclayoutchallenges.blogspot.com/2011/08/challenge-51-try-something-new.html

3D Apple Gift

Ok...so I couldn't resist. I was online and found a couple of challenges...one was for a picnic and so I was surfing and found this tutorial on how to make these cute 3D pumpkins and thought to myself...."That would be such a cute apple and fun gift for my son's new teacher this year." So I set off to make an apple instead of a pumpkin and thought I've often taken apples on a picnic so.... If you want to see the tutorial, it's really simple, and you can watch it here. Anyway, I think this turned out so cute. I think I'll wait about a week before I send it with my son so that his teacher has a few days to figure out who the kids are and he will have less stuff in his backpack and it will be less likely to get smooshed. LOL. This is such a cute simple project. Several of these in a bowl would look adorable for fall decor too. The tag says, "We look forward to a fun year with you."

Challenges:

http://www.cookingwithcricut.com/2011/08/challenge-47-picnic.html Picnic

http://crazyaboutcricut.blogspot.com/2011/08/thankful-thursday-just-note-challenge.html Back to School Note

http://craftspotbykimberly.blogspot.com/2011/08/monday-challenge-21-gift-bags-and-boxes.html Gift Box Challenge

http://scrapalicioususa.blogspot.com/2011/08/its-challenge-time.html Anything other than a card

Chair redo

Want to see my latest project? LOL. I needed some new chairs for our family cabin as the ones we had were metal, old, and squeeky and drove my husband nuts. Well, not wanting to spend a fortune, I found a different old table and chair set that I bought off of our local want ads for only $60.00 and decided to give my hand a try at refinishing some furniture. The set has 6 chairs and a table but I just started with the one that was in the worst condition. I forgot to get a picture, but the back of this chair originally had wicker in it which was all busted out and hanging in pieces. I took it down to my father-in-law and asked him if it were possible to do something with it. We removed the wicker and he added these slats! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them so much better now. Now I'm trying to decide if it's worth the effort to rip the other 5 chairs apart and add the slats too! LOL. I don't know what kind of wood these chairs are, but they are really dense wood and he had a heck of a time drilling through the side of the chair to countersink the screws for the slats. Now we are talking about a man who has an entire woodshop and playing with wood is a hobby and side business he's been in for many years so that fact that he had trouble drilling the counterholes made me wonder if it was worth it for the other 5 chairs. However, I love it! I wasn't crazy about the medallion on the top of the chairs either and so a little wood filler took care of that. Anyway, here is almost the finished project. I haven't attached the seat or the fabric yet and I still have to add the bears to the top of the chair where the medallion was, but this is a pretty good idea of what they will look like. I love the distressed look that I got by sanding these chairs after I had primed and painted them and I then added some stain over the top of the paint to give it a distressed aged look since I didn't have any glaze. I really like how they turned out and can't wait until I'm done with this one and the rest of them. What do you think?

Camp Gift Basket

I made this cute little gift basket for my daughter as a going away gift for her as she left for camp for the first time. She was so excited to go to camp and I just couldn't resist giving her a little something to send her off. She loved it and said I was the "Best Mom Ever!" Gotta love that. I love you sweetie and hope camp is great!

I won, I won!

I have been having so much fun entering these contests lately and to make it better, I actually won some blog candy! How fun is that! Thank you so much to More than Favors for their fun contests and the chance to win such awesome prizes. I can't wait for mine to arrive! I even get a cute little badge to add to my blog. How fun huh! And as my daughter would say, "I know, right" LOL. You should go check them out. It's such a fun blog with great ideas (I have always said that I copy well...LOL) and wonderful challenges. It doesn't get much better than that! Thank you so much for the challenges and the chance to win! Woo hoo!

I also realized as I was typing this that I forgot to publish that I owe a great big Thank You to The Beary Scrap Design Team and Challenge Blog. I won some awesome blog candy from them...$20.00 worth of shopping goodies of my choice. How cool is that? I spent some time looking at their blog and also their products and was so excited. I have only recently found them. They had some of the cutest tear bears on their site that I had ever seen. So needless to say, I chose some tear bear paper and thought I'd have to give them a try! I got my little metal brushes, now I just need to do it! LOL. I also got a super cute set of sentiment stamps. How fun. If you follow my blog, you know that I don't own very many stamps and so I was super excited to get some that actually have cute sayings. I know I'm going to love these. I cut them apart and have them ready to use, now I just need to make time to get scrappin! LOL. So a HUGE, HUGE, thank you to The Beary Scrap. Just follow the link above for great products, great prices, wonderful ideas and inspiration...a store and idea stop all in one! Gotta love that!

So a huge thank you goes out to these wonderful blogs. Go visit them and see for yourself! I appreciate the inspiration, the challenges to get me motivated to actually use my supplies, and the opportunity to win such amazing prizes. Thank you, thank you, thank you!