Mexican Paper Doll- Ole Cartridge

Wow! It feels like FOREVER since i've been on here :) It's been so incredibly busy and crazy with us moving into our new home and getting settled in,etc. Now we are kinda getting back into a routine so hopefully I get more time to craft :)

I was so excited when PC announced the Ole cartridge, not only because of my Mexicanness (haha!) but because my kids had to make paperdolls showcasing their heritage and this was perfect! Well, I received it on Saturday and I got right to work making Jacob his paperdoll. I wanted it to look like him in his regular day clothes but wearing some traditional "accessories" so I made him a sombrero and maraccas. Of course, used my Peachy Keen face stamps and inked him. He came out sooooo cute!

New Year Resolutions!

Wow, it's been a month since I last posted! Sorry- we've just had a crazy past few weeks with the holidays, moving to a bigger house, my husband trying to find another job, a few health tests (luckily everything came back normal!) and a princess turning 2 it's just been sooooo insanely busy! Today I want to write about New Years Resolutions and give you a bit of mine :) I have actually always done pretty good with keeping them but this time I'm going to use my blog to once again, update it with my progress so if I don't always post about "crafty" stuff, sorry! :D

After I had my daughter in January of 2010 I decided to go on a diet and of course, lost the 75+ pounds I had gained. By January of '11 I had lost 70 of those pounds and life was great, then my husband lost his job and I just couldn't fit off the stress and the weight started creeping back up. This entire past year I have been fighting this battle, everyday saying "today is the day" and then falling off the wagon time and time again. Well now that we are in the new year and I have managed to gain back 30 pounds, I have restarted counting my WW points and rejoined a gym so wish me luck! I hope to be able to celebrate my birthday in my size 6 dress that I last wore 3 years ago! :) I have downloaded Fitness Pal on my iphone and iTrackBites so i'm hoping that will help with my calories :) I plan on updating my blog weekly with progress notes along the way.

Resolution #2- LEARN HOW TO COOK! We've been blessed with being able to move into a much bigger house and with that comes more kitchen space! For the time being, we have to really cut back so I really want to learn how to cook to be able to save money,etc. I have been Pinning different ideas on Pinterest that i can't wait to try out! :)

I hope you all had a great Holiday and are getting back to regular life! :)


STATS-
Current Weight- 175
Goal Weight- 125
2lb weight loss a week

New Testament cart

I have had my eye on this particular cartridge since it was first released but had absolutely NO luck finding it anywhere! So on Black Friday I asked my husband (who is a Michaels manager) to keep an eye out for one. They didn't get any in but the Joanns did and they were selling theirs for $26! :) yippeee! I was so excited to score one and couldn't wait to make a project (cause you know I just had to absolutely have it!) and it's been 3 weeks and just barely broke it out :/ lol.

A little bit of back story here- I grew up being a P.K. (or for those who don't know, Preacher's Kid). My father was a spanish minister for our local Church of Christ since I was about 5 years old until I turned 17 so I grew up with biblical values and teachings. Now, being the rebellious teen I was, I went down a bad path for a bit until finally growing up and realizing that I needed God and church back in my life (and to also raise my own children). So now my family is back in church, (we are still members of the Church of Christ, that'll never change!) and life is gooood. Have i ever told you guys how blessed I truly am? I might bicker and whine but God always sees us through, we've had a VERY challenging year and now it looks like i'm finishing off the year with what the doctor believes to be a kidney stone but I KNOW that God is in control (I do have to keep reminding myself, i'm only human!). He truly is good and he is LOVE! :)

Anyways, so obviously totally not ashamed to proclaim my love of the Lord and if you were to ever walk through my house you will be constantly reminded :) So I thought that cutting out this bible verse on my Cricut Mini would go GREAT under my Jesus Christ wall hanging :)) I love this cart, I cannot wait to cut out more verses and just scatter them throughout my house!



Also, thought I would put some pics of my kiddos anxiously awaiting under the Christmas tree...they are my GREATEST blessings!

Sophie Blog Hop!

Hey guys! Welcome to the Sophie Blog Hop! This hop will feature projects made using the Cricut Circle Exclusive cartridge Sophie. This is the first cartridge of the Circle's second year! All of the bloggers today are Cricut Circle members. Interesting in learning more about the Circle? Click HERE.

If you are starting from my blog make sure you head on over to Michelle over HERE, where the blog hop starts! There is quite a bit of inspiration so make sure you check everyone out :)

First I wanted to share a picture of my little girl, people say she is my mini me :)She loves pink, glitter, Disney Princesses and as you can see, she LOVES the Cricut. (Don't worry, she didn't touch anywhere near the blade!)




I'll be honest with you. I wasn't a fan of this cartridge in the beginning. I'm very "cutesy", I like child like characters mainly because most of my scrapbooking is of my kids and I make the occassional card that is usually intended for children as well (LOTS of nieces and nephews!). But once I really started to look at the booklet, I fell in love with the butterflies and thought this doily backgruond would be perfect for a scrapbook page! Very simple page but you can see that teh design makes it look like some effort was put into it :) The awesome thing about this design is that I was able to use my extra butterflies (the negatives) and offset a few to make it really pop. Did some faux stitching and that's it! :D

**You could also use the extras for a card or something!**


That's me and my honey :) I love him for him, but I also love him because he supports my scrapbooking obsession ;)


Thank you for stopping by! :)) Your next stop is Rexann over HERE!

Silhouette Cameo!

Disclaimer- this is MY personal opinion based on day 1 with my Silhouette Cameo.

So all day today I was impatiently waiting for my Silhouette Cameo to arrive. Finally at around 7pm (after hubby came home with my new Mini Van!) =) it came! I was so infatuated with my new car that I didn't start playing with my Cameo until later this evening and boy was I in for a rude awakening.

I'm a Cricut girl. You all know it. I hoard cartridges and machines, so much so that I could barely muster the strength to sell my Pink Expression even though I have an E2, Imagine and Cricut Mini. The Silhouette Cameo is definitely made for those who are not use to Cricut. With Cricut, yes, you are limited to the cartridges but that is what makes it so awesome, it's literally out of the box ready to use. The hardest thing to figure out are the keypad overlay keys. But not with the Cameo. And I thought I was prepared. I am still trying to figure out exact placement on the mat, I almost broke a nail trying to insert the blade housing and I wasted a bunch of paper. (Not good paper, but nevertheless, paper). After finally deciding that the settings the software was telling me was not actually working (the image would cut half way and the rest would just barely scrape the paper) I finally figured out to change the blade depth and it cut beautifully! Granted, I have only tried to cut fonts right now after I changed the blade but it was able to cut a font I've tried to cut on my Cricut using SCAL that I never could. At 1"!

So my opinion? If you are a true beginner (like most of my friends) definitely start with the Cricut. I am pretty computer savvy but if I would have gonethrough what I did 3 years back when I first bought my Cricut, I would have never scrapped again. But if you are up for a challenge, like I am, then this machine has totally endless possibilities. :) I love being able to cut true type fonts from my computer. I know there are other software for it for Cricut but believe me, this thing definitely cuts AMAZING. Like I said, JUST my opinion! :D

Birthday Decor

I was so excited last week when I walked into Michaels and saw they still had a few Ribbons and Rosette carts available so I quickly snatched one up! The cashier said that it was the hottest selling cart that day and now I can see why! I'm so obsessed with it! I know how to make rosettes without the Cricut but this is just so freakin adorable :))

Last night I was just looking at my craft space and decided that I had not taken out my E to play for awhile. I was originally going to sell her off but I decided now I just couldn't. It seriously is so hard! So I went old school, pulled out the handbook and overlay and cut out my rosettes at 5". I then used my Mini to cut out the crowns at 2.5" from Life's a Party as the centerpiece. Super easy! This is gonna go great in my banner for Julianne's princess party! :)

This is what I meant going "old school". hahaha :) I love my E!

Cricut Mini and 3D Bow

I am so excited! My new Cricut Mini came in today and I can tell you that I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE it! :)) It's so cute and small and it cuts perfectly! In the picture, the green patterned paper is REALLY thin and it cut it with no tears :) This is quickly becoming my fave!

So with the HSN bundle, I also got a $25 credit and used some of it to download "3D Bows". This is my first attempt at the single loop bow, so cute and so so so simple :) This mini bag measure 5 1/2 x 4 so perfect for tiny gifts for the holidays and the bow was cut out at 4".