Chipboard Name Plaque & Cards

Happy Monday to all.... if there is such a thing!  My weekend was pretty busy with my daughter's dance competition rehearsals and all.  But during all of that I was able to slip in a few cricut projects that I did for my son's teacher's birthday and also for a gift exchange that my daughter had with her 'lil sis' for dance.  I love it when I have an excuse to sit at my crafting table and craft away!  The plaque that I created for the gift exchange was a bit challenging, considering that all of our hobby shops here were out of chipboard.  Instead, I had to settle for a shoe box and a couple of cereal boxes!  After trying it this way and that way, the project was finally complete and I was satisfied with it!  Here are the projects I completed this past weekend:

This is the plaque with the name 'Gracie' on it. 

I used the 'Storybook' Cricut Cartridge to complete this project.

I just LOVE to use rhinestones to bling things up!

This card was created for my son's 2nd grade teacher!  Happy 50th Bday to her!

This one went with the plaque to give during my daughter's dance competition gift exchange.

First Vinyl Creations!

I was up fairly late last night (2 a.m.!) creating some vinyl creations.  I feel that I am becoming more and more comfortable with my Cricut everyday and this is mainly due to everyone's blogs and creations.  You have all truly been an inspiration and I feel as if I am finally branching out a bit!  Thank you all for sharing your wonderful projects for everyone to see! 

This is my 'before' photo of my not so spiffed up Cricut Expression!

Now here she is all purtied up!

I also used some vinyl as a stencil for this quick etching project.  Not a great picture of it, but looks lovely in person and will now be RETURNED when brought to get-togethers!  :)

So yesterday I celebrated my birthday by playing with my Cricut most of the day!  I also went out and had lunch with my fabulous mother and husband.  Oh, how the years have flown on by....always makes you wonder why time flies so fast as you get older?!?!  And of course the most wonderful part of my birthday was receiving my new yorkie, Remington!  In just a few short days I have grown to love this dog and have already become so attached!  He is just absolutely amazing!  Well, I am still working on a few projects that I hope to have up and posted by the end of tomorrow.  Getting this blog up and running has taken me a little longer than I had anticipated!  To all..... have a fAbUlOus Wednesday!!!

Valentine Creations

I realize that these have been put up a bit late, but better now than never!  The card was created for my DH (once again) and the cute little Valentine baskets were for my little boys 2nd grade class.  I got the idea for the baskets from Robin C. @ My Pink Stamper.  While they were great fun to make, they were also quite time consuming for a newbie such as myself. :)  Nevertheless, I absolutely love the way they turned out and my little man enjoyed stamping the little faces on the hearts!  Enjoy and thanks for looking!

Very first Cricut creation!

 This was my very first Cricut creation that I made for my DH's birthday back in January.  Because it was one of my very first cards it did take me quite a while to perfect it!  I must say.... I am ExTrEmeLy pleased with it!  Though, I did come to the realization that it is much tougher to create 'man-ly' cards! lol!  Hope you all enjoy!

❤¸.•*¨*•♫♪Happy Birthday Ivan♪♫•*¨*•.¸❤

Here a a pretty simple card that I created under an hour for my younger brother, Ivan. 

Recipe for this card:

• Cricut Expression
• Cupcake Wrappers Cartridge (party hat)
• Cuttlebug (swiss dots folder)
• all paper from Hobby Lobby (The Paper Studio)
• buttons are from Michael's... dollar bin :-)
• gray brads
• clear stamps for sentiment
• and of course.... STICKLES to bling it up a bit!!! :-)

Very 1st Post!

     Well, here I am posting my very FIRST post on my extremely new blog.... soooo exciting!  I've never been much of a crafter or had a hobby really, until this past Christmas when my WONDERFUL husband of 12 years and my two bEaUtiFuL children got me a CRICUT!  Right away I have been hooked.... absolutely obsessed with watching every demo online, ordering dvds and learning as much as I possibly can about my Cricut Expression.  It took me about a week to even power it on because I was so intimidated and afraid that I would break it! :)  So far I have made a few greeting cards, Valentine goody baskets for my son's class, and I am currently working on an etching project.  I just wish there was more time in the day to explore and play with my cricut.