Fun in the sun double page layout

I use to only do 1 page layouts because I never really took THAT many pictures that I needed more than one page, but this past year I have started to really enjoy how double page layouts look in my albums so I've resorted to them and I LOVE them! I sat down to play last night after the kids all went to bed and didn't have anything in mind so I figured I might as well start with some of my most recent pictures. I have A TON of loose paper from Hobby Lobby and Joanns that I have never used and I remembered that I had some cool water drop background paper and thought it'd be perfect for this layout!

I cut the light blue cardstock down to 11 1/2" x 11 1/2" and the water drop paper is 8 1/4" x 10 3/4". The sun is from Doodle charms cut at 4" and the shorts and beach ball are from Life is a Beach cut at 3". The title is from the All Mixed Up cartridge (LOVE!) and the letters are 3" each. I doodled around the cuts, embossed the shorts and added some twine as the string on the shorts and added some glossy accents and some of the beads in a bottle for the top of the beach ball to give it that glossy, slippery look.

Enjoy! :)

EC Shape Studio Tool Review

Hey guys! Well, it seems like lately all I've done is shop instead of actually scrap but tonight I was giddy because my new EC Shape Studio tool came in and I LOVE it! Basically, it lets you design your own custom shape round "Bubble Caps" to embellish your pages and cards or whatever you wanna make (they even make a really cool charm bracelet size which is on my wish list next!). It cost me a whole $19 on HSN but it was so worth it :)

Size- Round 25
Shape- Cricle
It can cut paper and pictures :)





Best part- it cuts out pictures! Here is a close up of one I cut of my son.

Cars- Canvas wall hangings

I don't know about all of you guys, but my family is Cars crazy! My son Jacob has been obsessed with Lightning McQueen since he was about 3 1/2 years old (just around the time when the first movie had come out) and to this day, he is a fan and now his little brother and sister are fans too! So as most of you know, the new Cars 2 movie comes out next week and of course, it has been non stop talk about it at my house so in honor of that (and per Jacob's request) we decided to just add some small details to their room and to finally, after 2 years, get some wall hangings up.

I caught a video on Youtube (i'm sorry, I can't remember who!) and she had made a quick wall hanging with art canvas (I believe she made hers Hello Kitty) and I thought it was so cute so of course I had to try it out! I bought a 2 pack of the 8x10 canvas (they were on sale for $3.89 for the pack!) and since I already had modge podge and papers I didn't have to buy anything else. I applied modge podge to the canvas, then layed my background cardstock (adding an inch to the sides to fold down), layed another coat of modge podge, characters on top and applied another coat of modge podge over it. I glued 1/2" ribbon around the edges to give it a finished look and about 12" of ribbon to use to hang. That's it! Super easy and all in all, it cost me $1.94 per hanging! Can't beat that!

The characters are a PAIN.IN.THE.BOOTY. to cut and i'll be honest with you, this is the first time i've been successful in cutting them out. Trick I've learned is that you have to lower your pressure to High, and speed to 3 and cut them at bigger sizes. These are cut at 7 1/2". Oh and if you can, try to use a new blade for better cuts.

Side View:

Product Comparison- Liquid Pearl Pens

Hi guys! If any of you are in the market to buy some of these cool new Pearl Pens that are out there, here are some tips and my own personal review on two products! I purchased 2 Viva Decor Pearl pens in Ice White and Black last week from my LSS and I was so excited to try them out and yesterday I purchased a pack of Tulip's Beads in a Bottle and decided to compate the two! Here is a list of each products information and price.

Viva Decor
Price- $5.99 a bottle
Availability- Currently online, but some LSS are starting to carry them
Bottle size- 25 ml (what the bottle says)
Colors- LSS only carried neutral colors but you can purchase all kinds online

Tulip Beads in a Bottle
Price- $8.99 for a pack of 4 colors
Availability- Michaels stores (and possibly wherever Tulip products are sold)
Bottle size -4.9 fluid oz per bottle
Colors- neutrals, neons, glitter
Pro- You can use your 40% coupon to purchase! :)

I explain the difference between the two more in dephth in the video but I've included a few pics here as well! ENJOY! :)





Tulip Beads in a bottle

Layout and Update

Hi everyone! So my kids have been out on summer break for the last week and yesterday I could tell they were extremely bored so I thought I would make some cake pops and have them "help" me decorate them. Well, they LOVED it! My youngest son Bradley just could not contain his excitement and it was nice to do an activity with just my boys while Julianne napped. Sometimes they just want that extra attention :)

So I made a quick layout last night of the pictures I took and I used a sketch I found online and the From My Kitchen cartridge. I love this cart! I don't use it often enough but now that the kids are wanting to be in the kitchen more often, i'm just going to have to!



I also got to use my new Viva Decor Pearl Pens...LOVE LOVE LOVE THEM!! :)



Oh and the cake pops, have been my BEST batch yet! Yippee! :D



On to my update...I decided that I for real have to start on this Weight loss journey again. I am 5 weeks away from my California trip and I managed to gain back 7 of the 10 pounds I lost on weight watchers (I'm sure the Cake pops don't help!) so I will DEFINITELY be using my blog to keep me motivated to start counting my points, working out and losing weight. My goal is to lose 10 pounds by July 15 (which is when we leave) so wish me luck!

Little girl Paperdoll

Just wanted to quickly share a quick paper doll I made for Julianne's single page layout i'm working on. The doll is cut out at 8" from Everyday Paper Dolls, her hair is from Paper Doll Dress Up and the bathing suit is from Life's a Beach. The suit isn't technically "meant" for a paper doll so I just used the Cricut Craft Room and figured out the size by placing it on top of the doll. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE CCR?! LOL I can't believe I never got Design Studio! I haven't touched my Gypsy in a few days cause I'm loving the bigger screen on my laptop. LOL but I do still love my G if for no other reason than I don't need to change cartridges every time I wanna cut! But more on that later ;)



If you notice the little pink zebra print bow I made her matches the pink zebra print bow she is wearing in the picture. All I did for that was use the Minnie Mouse bow from "Mickey and Friends" (you can find this under "icons"), cut it at 1" using light pink cardstock (again, used CCR to figure out sizing) then took my zebra print background rubber cling stamp from Hobby Lobby (which I got for $3.50!) and inked it up with black Memento ink and stamped on top of the bow. PERFECT!! :) and of course, had to use some gems for a little bling :D

I will post the final layout as soon as I finish!

Kindergarten Graduation!

Hi everyone! Sorry, this post is not Cricut or craft related but I wanted to share with you all my son's graduation! It's been a hectic year but we made it and now he has a certificate to show off for his hard work! As many of you know, he has Asperger's but he always manages to overcome his fears and achieve his goals already at such a young age and I couldn't be any more proud! These are some pictures of him at his ceremony and of course, his official graduation pic!








He got so scared when he saw the crowd and we had a hard time convincing him to go up with his class but he was the first one to accept his certificate and he marched proudly as his teacher called his name across the stage and accepted it and stood there for a good 3 minutes before he decides he would rather have the teacher carry him! My poor little guy, I think all the stimulation, noise and crowds overwhelmed him but he pulled through!