Good morning, just a quick post before heading off to work.  My son brought me these lovely cigar boxes from Tampa.  I will spruce them up a little before using them.  I will try not to put any 3-D effects on them, so that they will still stack on the shelves.

Here is the first one that I did.  I will use this one to house all my Zentangle supplies.

I love my boxes.  Matt I want more!!! lol

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. 

Last night was my first Zentangle Club meeting at Priceless Scrapbooks.  I recently took the beginners and advanced classes and quickly fell for this relaxing style of drawing.  Check out zentangle.com or tanglepatterns.com if you are not familiar with this art style.  We had a wonderful time at the club.   Here is the tile I created for the club swap:

I won this fantastic basket full of goodies from Priceless Scrapbooks.  This was a great surprise, because I never win anything.  The basket is slap full of just about anything your heart desires. I got 12 X 12 papers, designer papers, stickers, stamps, jewels, trinkets chalk ink, chipboard stickers, ribbons, tag scrapbook, matchbook album kit, Word Book, chipboard letters, and even a Canvas Kit.  Whoa! My head is spinning!

I sat down and created my first project from the items in my basket.  Everything on this layout came out of the basket.  All I had to add was double stick tape. 

I have been working on this card all week.  I just did not like anything about it when I finished, so I have redone different parts.  For some reason I redid the front three times.  I think I am just extremely self-critical right now.  I used Hey Birdie paper by Kaiser Craft. The stamps are CTMH, Sensational Season.  The pop-up tree is by Sizzix, as well as the Embossing folder used on the front. 

My water iris' are in bloom, they are just beautiful.  I can't believe how big it has gotten and how many blooms are on it this year.

Here is an egg shaped card using the same bunny.