Sorry for the extended absence.  Things have been somewhat difficult around here.  I have managed to get a few things done in my craft room though.  I have been working on my Zentangled Christmas ornament for the Twistedtangler's club meeting.  I will share that next week after our meeting.  Hopefully, I will have it completed by then.
Madison turned 6 yesterday.   Happy Birthday Maddie!  I have been working on several things for her Pirate Party on Saturday.  Big change there, from princess to pirate!   Here is this years special Birthday card for her.

I decorated cotton-candy containers with the same skull and crossbones.  I will upload pictures of the treasure chest cake and the cake balls tomorrow. 

Another project I made was for my collection of Zentangles and swaps.  This book measures 13 1/2" X 4" and will hold 90, 3 1/2" sq. Zentangles.

I played around with some mixtures of stamps, tangles, and color. Here are some of the results.

I hope everyone has had a great summer.  I will upload a picture of Maddie's treasure chest cake tomorrow. 

LeCircut Bank

This is a wooden coin bank that I bought at Hobby Lobby.  I used the new Graphic 45 "Le Cirque Collection", purchased at Priceless Scrapbooks in Ocala.  My graddaughter picked out the papers that she wanted on her bank. I used ModPodge to stick the paper to the wood.

This is my second Birthday card organizer.  This one was made using K & Co, "Lemon Drop", and Stampin'Up's "Time Well Spent" stamp set.

I created this Birthday card organizer with K & Co., Faded China paper.  I used Stampin'Up's Birthday Greetings, Very Versatile and Baroque Motifs stamp sets. The butterflies are Sizzix Beautiful Wings embosslits from Stampin'up.

Organizer and Matching Card

Inside pages of the organizer

Matching Birthday Card

Close-up of Birthday Card Organizer

 Warning! This is a long post.  This is a scrapbook that I made for Madison's birthday back in August.  I didn't get any pictures of it at the time, so here they are now.  I took a child's 8" x 8", board book that had windows cut into it, I separated the pages, covered them and decorated it.  Then I used the Zutter Bind-it-All to create the book you see here.  I planned each set of pages so you could get a peek of her on the next page to come. 

The Cover: After viewing this Celebration of Madison, you will see why I Love my Cricut.  I used the Create-A-Critter cartridge to decorate this book.

Pg. 2-3,  Mermaid Halloween costumes for Madison and Cousin Catherine! (That's a container of buttons holding the cover up while I was taking pictures, pretend you don't see it.  lol)

Pg. 4-5, Madison helping Grandma bake a cake, or rather clean up afterward!

Pg. 6-7, Beach Baby . . . Jacksonville Beach

Pg. 8-9, Her first encounter with real baby chicks.

Pg. 10-11, Stamping with Bamboo the Panda

Pg. 12-13, Taking pictures with Grandma's sleepover bear.

Pg. 14-15, Maddie's first dog Dixie

Pg. 16-17, Madison's 3rd birthday, the Princess one!

Pg. 18-19, First trip to Daytona, Beach, she had the best time.

Pg. 20-21, Thanksgiving at Great Grandpa's house

Pg. 22-23, Getting ready for Christmas, 2009.  What a great cookie baker!

I hope you enjoyed Madison's special book, it will be cherished forever by all who know her. She is a sweetheart. Psst: she loves to craft too!  She is already making her own books.

Have a great week, sorry this is such a long post.

I had stamped and colored a second image while working on yesterdays challenge card.  So, hating to waste a good image I created a second card.  I used the same colors and image as Katie's card, but I changed the tri-fold card to a basic card design.

This little sticky note holder was created with Stampin' Up's owl punch.  This was one of Lynnor's club projects.  You may know Lynnor better by "just add glitter".  Visit her site, she is awesome.  http://justaddglitter.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-release-blog-hop.html

These calendars take a little time, but they are worth it.

Have a wonderful week!

Happy New Year!

I'm sending each of you best wishes for a happy, successful, dream come true New Year ever.  2010 is behind us and I have resolved that I will take my life back, and share my love for stamping and paper crafting with the people I love.  I will post on my blog, but probable not everyday. 
I wanted to share the calendars that I made this weekend for my wonderful sisters.  I am still working on the last one, so I'll be back in a day or two to share it with you.

I'll get these to each of you ASAP.  They turned out so good.... (Sharing that love!)

I  made these fun little journals from discarded food boxes. Talk about going GREEN! They turned out so cute. They would make fun gifts for kids of all ages. What's your kids favorite food? Create a journal for them with the empty box........ I see Endless possibilities!

I used my Cricut to design this picture for Zack's girlfriend, Jamie.  I am trying to get back in the zone.  Right now, my stamping ability really sucks!  It's hard to believe that stress can cause you to lose the ability to function like this.  I have been using my Cricut so much more and have really learned to love it....  It seems to be my only creative outlet at this time.

I took this picture out on the front porch. You can see the reflection of the trees on the glass. The background mat is actually plain black layered on celery cardstock.

My niece was participating in a craft sale. So, I helped her out with a few of my hand-crafted wares. lol   I created a few things and finished up some others. Here are just a few of them. The first one is a funky animal print and purple grocery list, for the cook that wants to stand out in a crowd. 

The next project would make a great teacher gift.  It's a sweet peppermint treat bag.  

This one is a note card set with a holder. 

I picked up the new Herringbone embossing folder at Priceless and just had to put it to use in one of my projects. I used the Sizzix bag w/scallops from Stampin' Up to create the small treat box. The stamp set is Stampin' Up's new set called Gifts of the Earth.