Wrapping Paper Inspiration

     Wow it's been a while since I posted! Have no fear I have an exciting project to share! We have several weddings this summer/fall and that means Bridal Showers. I refuse to pay a lot for wrapping paper (I'd rather put the money into the gift) but I am still picky about something I can dress up.
     This paper was so cute with the wedding dresses and had cute sayings like "big hair", big dress" and "big day". I thought this was adorable to use for one of the showers I am attending. Sooo I decided to make a cute gift tag.

     I have been using a lot of shipping tags to alter lately. (I think I am hooked, lol). First I distressed the edges with Zutters Distrezz It All and added both blue and white spritz. While this dried I printed the phrases: big hair, big dress and big day. After inking the edges of the tag I embossed this dress from My Sentiments Exactly using a white opaque embossing powder.
     I wanted to add some dimension to the dress so I gathered up some sheer netting and after gluing it to the waist I added a satin bow. The bodice needed something so I added some imaginisce rhinestones and finished the tag off with a nice fluffy satin bow. (Big of course!!).
     One other thing I love to do is wrap the present with tulle rather than ribbon. I find it cheaper and gives a soft look and is appropriate for wedding, shower, birthday or baby gift and it is so economical!

I'm Still Here

Just thought I'd pop in here for a minute. So many projects going on, lol. Mainly I was making some wedding invitations for my friends daughters upcoming wedding. There were only 100 to do (said with tongue in cheek, lol) and in the mists of it all my Imagine acted up so had to wait for the replacement to arrive. I can't wait to show them to you but have to wait until she mails them since I don't want to spoil the surprise! I'll just share with you that they have a nautical theme, ships, anchors and ships wheel.
I also love making homemade gifts and I have a few occasions coming up where I wanted to give something as a thank you. The weather here has been so awful. We have rain and temps in the low 60's (after being in the 90's) last week so it seemed like the perfect time to make my cyber friend Audrey's homemade liquid soap. She was kind enough to share the recipe on her blog Cute and Some so I just had to try it. My kitchen smells wonderful! I have been decorating the bottles and will share the pics with you tomorrow.
Lastly, I have been taking a class on copic markers and have really fallen behind on my assignments ( this is not good) so I have some catch up to do.
Hopefully I will get some pics up tomorrow until then I hope you all are having a productive time as well. Thanks for stopping by.

We're Not In Kansas!

Just a quick note to let you know we are fine in this part of Massachusetts. Wild weather here though. Multiple warnings that lasted all afternoon and into the evening. A tornado actually hit one town over.

This is the hail that fell on our deck around 6pm. I thought I saw a funnel cloud while I was cooking supper when I heard the local forecasters say a tornado was spotted in Oxford (one town over and where I work).
We actually were celebrating my oldest daughters' birthday and had planned to go in the hot tub. Guess that didn't happen, lol. I am in shock we didn't lose power.
Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of the four people who lost their lives in these storms today.

Best Camera Ever!

     I usually am a very spontaneous and impulsive person. If I like it, I buy it. However, that being said, when my husband told me I could finally get a new camera for Mothers' Day I was stumped. I like the looks of the SLR's but my brain can only learn so much at once. The idea of changing lenses and switching settings was more than I could handle. (For now anyways, lol).
     We went to Best Buy, Walmart (I heard they have good prices) and then I searched the internet. I am so glad I did. Two of the cameras I was trying to decide between got terrible reviews. The batteries wear out fast, not great pics, awful on action shots. One was a Canon 130 IS and the other a Nikon. Both were point and shoots.
     I finally contacted a friend who is a photographer and she recommended the Canon G12. I searched the reviews on line and found them very favorable (easy to use, different settings to play with if you want to without being too complicated). The only draw back was for rapid action photos but that can be remedied with a separate flash attachment so it does not pull from camera body. You can even get an optional lens for greater zoom.
     Ok so now I have to try this camera. No one close buy has it in stock or even one to try! Guess what, the canon factory was located in the area of the Japanese earthquake so stock is difficult to find. Great! I went back to the internet and thought I hate to buy it without even trying it first but a girls gotta do what a girls gotta do right? You'll never guess. I went to the Best Buy website and saw it was on sale, $100.00 off! What is even better is I called the store located about 40 minutes from us and they had 3 in stock. How sweet is that? Needless to say we got back in the car and, after a quick lesson on how to use this, we came home with the G12! I love this camera. Check out these pics.

Mia's dance class. This was taken thru the glass!

If the weather doesn't warm up soon this is as close as the kids will get to swimming this year!

My favorite page in the class I just took. Love embossing!!!

Little Miss Cecilia and her first ever pig tails.

My First Ever Award!

    Thank You Audrey!!!  I love my virtual friends. I love how easy it is to share a common love (crafting) and be able to share it with people (new friends) who have the same passion about what they do! What a wonderful world this internet thing is, lol.
     Anyways, my new friend Audrey just passed on this award to me. She does fabulous craft projects, not just paper crafting but sewing, soap making etc. and is so willing to share all her talents. I love reading her blog and seeing all her creative endeavors. You can find her here:http://cuteandsome.blogspot.com/ In order to accept this award you have to write 5 things about about yourself and cricut. So here goes:
     1. I have always done some sort of crafting or hobby from painting, to sewing all sorts of things, stenciling, and flower arranging.
     2. Two of my daughters gave me my first cricut for Christmas 2009. What an addict they have enabled their mother to become, lol.
     3. I currently own the baby bug, expression, Imagine, gypsy, design studio, Yudu (which these same 2 daughters bought me this past Christmas!), Your Story(small version), cuttlebug and the Yudu Cardshop which I won thru the ProvoCraft/HSN launch with my winning card design. I can't even begin to count the numbers of cartridges and embossing folders I have. Now i am adding imagine carts to the list, lol.
     4. I love taking on line classes to expand my creative knowledge and keep my work fresh and new ( at least new to me).
     5. I have 5 children and 8 grandchildren who all seem to enjoy being creative. they LOVE to go into my craft room and go through the Cricut carts and books. I hope they are inspired by what I do as well as they inspire me. My only wish is that there would be more hours in the day to complete all the projects in my head!!!
     I also must pass this award along to 5 other people. These people have been such an inspiration to me. If you do not follow these talented people then please do, they are well worth following.
     1.Elizabeth @ 217 creations who has great tutorials http://www.217creations.com/
     2. Diane Campbell Payne @ Capadia Designs who has fabulous tutorials on Design Studio and gypsy projects http://www.capadiadesign.com/2011/05/take-idea-and-run-with-it.html
     3.Enfys @ Going Buggy. Her work is fantastic and her sense of humor is unmatched. You never know what life is like until you hear her prospective!http://going-buggy.blogspot.com/
     4.Laurie @ Hiding In My Craft Room. Amazing woman with a bunch of kids and a husband who dedicates his life to serving our country. Really cute cricut projects http://www.hidinginmycraftroom.com/2011/05/im-here-for-color-dare-challenge.html
     5.The inspirational Monique @ Monkey Doodle Cricut. She is an inspiration personally as well as creatively. Monique designs the most fabulous layouts I've ever seen. She also has great guest designers. If I ever get past making cards I hope to do some lay outs half as good as hers. She also sells kits for these LO's.   http://monkeydoodlecricut.blogspot.com/
     I have been working on a Nautical wedding invitation but I can't share just yet. First, my Imagine acted up so I am awaiting my replacement machine to be shipped. Secondly, I am going on vacation for the Memorial Day holiday and thirdly I cannot give you even a sneak peek until they are mailed out. I don't think it would be fair to debut them before the guests receive theirs. Just saying!!!