Here are the pictures of Maddie's birthday.  When I baked the cake I had so much extra batter that I also baked a dozen cupcakes.  This was not planned. I used a Paula Dean recipe for chocolate cake and the chocolate cream cheese frosting.  The cake is a treasure chest full of gold coins, candy rings, rock candy, Rollo's and gold wrapped kisses.  A true child's treasure!

I also made cake balls.  If you have not had any of these you are really missing a treat! 

Zack created a real treasure hunt for her.  He went to the bank and bought $20 in gold and silver dollars.  He put them in a felt bag and buried them in her front yard. He has already created a treasure map from her back door to the treasure at the front of their 1 1/2 acre yard.  She was so excited when she finally dug it up. 

Here are the two gift bags that I made for her gifts.

I had so much fun creating for her party.  I am kinda princess-ed out!  I never thought I'd get to do a pirate theme.  I hope she picks a fun theme next year too!  My luck, it will be Justin Beibers........

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. 

This is a quick little birthday card. I used Stampin' Up's On a Pedestal stamp set.  The paper is called Sunny Garden by SU.  This one opens in the middle and is kept closed with a belly band.

 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.

This is a special request for a friends grandson's first birthday.  This was the only dump truck stamp that I had.  It's from Stampin' Up's retired set called, CONSTRUCTION.

January SFYTT2011 Sketch

SFYTT2011 sketch challenge for January.

Stamps:  Stampin' Up (King of the Grill) and (Voila), Hampton Art (Living the Sweet Life)
Paper: Stampin' Up (crushed curry), daisy d's (French Market)
Punches (1 3/4" circle, and 2" scallop circle)

Happy 10th Birthday Catherine!

I guess you noticed that my granddaughter just turned 10.  We celebrated her birthday at my house on Sunday.  It was really nice to have all three of my sons and thier families here for the day.  I know Catherine had a great time.

I used Stampin' Up's new Christmas Scrapbook Kit, Decor Elements Blocks, and Decor Elements Holiday Mix rub-ons to create these. 

I saw this cupcake take along, by Nichole Heady on the Internet and just had to make one. I really don't know why, because it would be much easier to just buy or make the cake yourself. But, I thought it was cute, so here is my version. The Cupcake Take Along Kit: