Just wanted to stop in and share one of my design team submissions for this months challenge on scrapourstash.com. I forgot to upload this one also so I wanted to quickly come and show you all what I made for my Grandma Jessie.

Most people who have been followers know that my Grandma raised me and she often is the only Grandparent that my kiddos have contact with consistently. She calls them, sings to them on the phone, reads/tells stories to them both fairy tales and bible stories. She is often on the phone with them for hours at a time and since we moved to AZ which on the other side of the world from her (which she reminds me often) we try to send her special surprises.

So this Valentines day instead of a card and some candy, we all decided to write her a letter, and for those who couldn't write letters, we recorded what they had to say on cassette tape. The girls loved just being able to talk into the machine and hearing their voices. I decided to do a cassette tape because Grandma doesn't have a DVD player that plays recorded DVDs but I knew that she has a cassette recorder because she listens to sermons from church when she is unable to attend.

So here is just some of the care package that we made. The mini album has a coin envelope that I cut with my cricut using MTC in the size that is a little larger than a normal coin envelope but it fits perfectly into the book which fits inside of the mailbox.Each envelope has a photo of the kids and on the back, their current favorites. Grandma often asks me about what they like right now so that she can grab them stickers or talk to them about it so this was nice to include so that she could have a permanent place for that information.

So here is the actual gift

I had other photos but just realized that I don't have any way to upload them because they are on our old computer. We just got a new computer and put the other old one in storage with everything else that we recently packed for our move.

Family update...Nya is out of the hospital and back home. She is doing somewhat better, she still isn't eating but at least she able to drink and keep something down. Please call if you have any questions but I think Vele put this on facebook yesterday. I am not 100% sure cause I am now starting to have symptoms too.

Good morning all,

I am sitting here thinking about all the things that I just want to happen today and thought that I should show you the design team project that I completed for this month on http://www.scrapourstash.blogspot.com/. The theme this month was love and so that is why I came up with this card for my hubby.

This the card that I gave him in his gift bag that I made using my cricut and MTC. I am not going to rave about that program again but I wanted to say that the bag is was so cute. Love the scalloped bag handle.

insert photos here of card and bag

I have another project that I completed for Valentines' day also that I believe may be used for this month's challenge. Hopefully I will know soon and I can share it with you all. Smiles, Tracy

Happy Valentine's Day

Hello everyone and happy Valentine's day. Today I have only a few things to share, mostly because I have bitten off much more than I can chew but darn it I am going to try! LaTrele and I finished is Valentine's cards this past weekend. He loved how they turned out. Here is a little peek of those...

I so wanted to do much more like make a little card, but we have never been in a class of 27 students and so this is something that I had to think about when deciding to do his cards this year.

The girls and I are going to be making heart shaped sugar cookies that we are going to decorate with white buttercream icing and red and pink sprinkles. LeiLani has been talking about all during bedtime stories. I couldn't believe how much she had planned out for us...lol lol 4yr olds are really cute when they are excited! I am only sharing that photo today because I have gotta make 3 gift bags and 4 Valentines day cards for the kids from me. Hubby is going to be getting the kids cards too, we usually do these cards seperately because we both like to tell them why we love them. I hope everyone has a love filled Valentines day...I sure plan to!

It is a very bright and shinny morning this am. I am so excited to share some fun things that I have been working on. Nothing really important just fun stuff. Well these are the cards that I made this last past weekend while making a draft Valentines treat bag topper for my son. I just have one child this year that is planning on taking Valentine's day treats and cards to school. I guess that should have been expected since my son is in the 8th grade and all.

Since I am really typing this just minutes before I have to head out to get the girls to doctors appointments I don't have the supply list information...but most of it is stuff that I used on the cards are scraps except for the ribbons which the first card is MM and the second one is from Cosmo cricket.

I have actually created 4 cards to send to family and one really cute mailbox/card/treat for my Grandma and I can't wait for it to be posted on scrapourstash's blog so that I can share it on here.

Also I couldn't sleep (yet another night of sinus pressure) so I got on the computer (and off of the internet) and played around in MTC. I can't believe how easy it was to do a print and cut from a clipart/graphic that I purchased from lettering delights. I haven't used them on a project yet, but I plan on doing something with them as soon as I can (maybe this weekend...oh never mind it's our anniversary this weekend). But here are the print and cuts on my notes sheet that I made with details about what I did, mostly so that I can recreate it again when I find out things that I might want to print and cut. Some notes have been deleted because I was noting just some details about the program and images and my steps. But I challenge anyone who has a machine that can print and to print and cut something. Especially if you have never tried it before...which is exactly why I did it.

What an awesome day yesterday was...I just realized that I have been up all night lol. I just wanted to stop in really quick and some cards that I made using my cricut expression and MTC.

I originally started creating this card to make for hubby for Valentines' day but then I thought it was too cute and it would be perfect to send to a female in the family instead. Plus I always try to use his favorite colors when making his cards cause then he really likes them more.

I have made his card, but I can't share that one yet but it should be posting on the scrapourstash.com blog sometime this month.

Well here is the card that I created...

Supplies

Papers- K& Co-Terri Conrad paper pad

Green cardstock-misc from stash

Pink-Bazzill

Digital Diecuts-Lettering delights

Grass, frame-Cricut with the gypsy

Google eyes- Dollar Tree

Ribbon- Target hot spot

I also wanted to add that I printed the greeting from PSE from the PDF of the image's SVG file. This is was another way to get graphics from the same image folder without going through a ton of new things to learn how to do it through MTC. I am going to be working on leaning that asap. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day. Smiles, Tracy

OH MY GOODNESS!!!

I just had to post again today! I can't believe sometimes how things work out! I recently contacted a company that I love working with (although our relationship is new). There were no issues on their part, just plain old everyday issues with me and understanding some things with the product that they offered. And honestly my expectation was whatever happens I still want to use and have this company's product. Because #1 the product is amazing and #2 there are so many awesome scrapbookers on their site that I just love the fact that they share so much. And so when the company's owner responded and helped me with the product, it made me so thankful and impressed. There are people who do things because they are awesome people! And that is what I encountered today! So you want to know the company right...well if you have MTC then you do. I am talking about Andy and Ann, I am not sure which one responded to my email? But I am so very thankful that he/she did. Good customer service and helpful people are truly the only things that I look for in any company and I have found them both (not to mention an awesome product). So I want to offically say that if you have an electronic cutter and you want more from it...MTC is the only way to go! And I am not paid to say that at all.

So now that I got some new information to work with, I can do so much more than just use cricut carts...oh I am so excited! I now have way too many ideas running through my head and not enough time to do them all, but I plan on working on some cards and something special for scrapourstash.com this week. So stay tuned... and once again Andy and Ann you rock! And thanks so much!

Good early morning blog readers...it is really early here. I just had to get some things done this morning on the blog that I have been wanting to share these last few days.

First up, I made some cards. Not many but I made a car using a Papertreyink.com stamp that I have. I know that I have made cards with this one before but I wanted to make this one for the baby version of that card. I made it both in girl (only made one) and boy versions (made 2).

I like the boy version better, mostly because the patterned paper makes the cards theme of exploration or a journey into parenthood work much better.

So here is the card

Supplies

Paper

K&Co-Sweet Nector paper pad

Coordinations-cardstock

Embellishments

American Crafts- ribbon

Heidi Swap-photo corners

Studio 18-Rhinestones

Ink & stamps

Colorbox Chalk ink-blackbird, wild honey
Copic Markers-YR04, BG34, YG13

Fiskars-New arrival stamp

Paper Trey ink-enjoy the ride

The sketch that I used for the card was from a stamptv.com sketch#10 (I believe) but I didn't post it for the challenge. My only intention was to make some cards with the sketch that I could use for family and friends. But I am thinking that maybe in the future I will enter the challenge.

Did you notice that I mentioned a paper pad for my supplies?? it is the first that I have purchased in years. I haven't bought a paper pad from any chain or lss for at least 5yrs, I usually purchase paper by the sheet (getting only the ones that I absolutely have to have) but I went into M's to grab another set of mats because I had a member reward of $5 off my next purchase, and so I headed there to get my mats. I walked right by the paper section there and headed towards the mats, but on the way back I took a wrong turn while looking at some stamps on the end cap and bam! there was this paper pad. I have no idea if it's new or old, but it is so my style...bright but not kiddie and it works so good with so many card ideas that I am planning. I haven't found sheet in it that I wouldn't use either the front or the back of the sheet. And that is why I grabbed it. I also grabbed a valentines pad too that was awesome but now I wish I would have gotten the mat stack for this paper pad. There are actually two Sweet Nectar sets but one of them had some papers in it that I didn't like at all but the map paper made me jump all over this set! And I honestly don't regret getting a paper pad! I don't know if I will be getting more but to not have gotten one in so long it was so worth getting this one.

Also I am not going to say that someone should do this but I was looking high and low for the actual die that I have of this stamp, and couldn't find it at all. And I am still not sure where it is, but I needed to cut out the car image, and I didn't feel like hand cutting them so I stamped the image and created a template on my expression. I am in no way saying that you should do this, or steal images, but because I have the actual die (which I do have on an invoice) I figured it would be ok. And honestly I love that it worked out but it took a little time to do, and I hope that I find my die, cause I really wanted to cut some of those cars in felt...and I haven't even thought of trying that out on my expression. I only mentioned it all because #1 it was an accomplishment for me because I did it on my machine and #2 it was a great idea if you are in a bind and you need something that you own but can't find it anywhere!

I am going to be making more cards the next couple of days and I hope to get them done before we start Valentine's day projects here this weekend. Especially because I have made it my goal (because I obviously don't have enough to do) to send all the woman in my family Valentines cards along with some little gift and a card or two from the kids. And so I started the search for digital images that I could purchase and cut...well the search kind of fell into my lap. I was checking out my lettering delights newsletter and saw some of the cutest my fun and lovable designs...and of course since they cost way less than a cricut cart, I surely got them. And since it was from my birthday money it felt good to spend it on something fun. I didn't get nearly what I wanted (I put those on my wishlist) because someone on MTC's site said something about dollar days on letter delights site coming soon...and I don't know when soon is but you better believe I am going to be there so fast to get more images.

So here is the image I got cut all out and added to the bottom of our family calendar. I redid the calendar this month. Mostly because I wanted the writing to be flexible but not the dates and what I learned from last month is that since I have a ton of those calendar grids, I should probably put the dates on the calendar behind the glass because it all got accidentally wiped off last month.

Isn't the little froggie sitting on the mushroom the cutest ever! Love it! I wanna first say, I am not paid by lettering delights but I wanted to share this site because it could be a great alternative to your cart issue if you have SCAL or MTC. You can check it their site out here

http://www.letteringdelights.com/searchprod.php?showingonly=SVGs-4-18

I like carts from my cricut but honestly I haven't seen an image that was cute but nice enough to be used on an adult project that I didn't have to edit to make it not look so diecut-ish...ya know! LOL but I am now going to be searching the internet to find more digital images and more everything else that I can...so if you have some suggestions please share them. I could surely use a fellow crafters resource information...