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5.16.2011

Mickey Mouse Birthday Invitations

I've had several inquiries on the Mickey invites I posted HERE.  So here are the sizes/cartridges I used to create these:

1. Black invitation base: Mickey Font Cartridge
-Cut the Mickey Tag at 5 1/4"

2. Red "Shorts": Plant. Schoolbook Cartridge
-Cut the circle with shadow feature at 4"
-Cut circle in half with paper trimmer...this provides the front half circle where you adhere the buttons, and the back pocket where you include the party info.

3. Buttons: Wild Card Cartridge
-Cut the button (icon feature) at 9" (sounds huge, but they obviously come out small!)

4. Letter "K": Mickey Font Cartridge
-Cut the white using the "shadow" feature at 1 1/2"
-Cut the yellow in regular mode at 1 1/2"

I glued the front red half-circle on with tape runner and then added the buttons with foam dots to make them look dimensional.  On the back, I used Scotch Quick Dry to put a small strip of glue along the bottom edge of the half-circle, leaving the middle and top open to slide in the party details:
(I used the Mickey and Mouse Deco fonts, downloaded from dafont.com)

At this size, the invitations will fit into a standard invitation-size envelope.  There will be room on each side in the envelope, but the size was needed to acommodate the height of the ears.  You could make your own square envelopes, but who wants to pay the additional shipping???  :)

5.14.2011

My Little Astros...

The Mess Maker and the Noise Maker were invited to a birthday party today...at Minute Maid Park!  What a fun time they had...
They both sported their new Astros gear!
We got a tour of the facility (WOW!) and even got to go down to the field, where the kiddos were able to say hi to some of the players...
Such a fun time...the Mess Maker is super-excited about going to see a real ball game now!  She might just be a softball player in the making...

5.09.2011

Famiyl Game Night!

We recently started "Game Night" at our house and the kids (all three of them... J/K Honey!) love it...can you tell?

About 10 years ago I was working in the San Diego public schools as a speech pathologist.  I was staffed at one of the schools by an outside therapy staffing agency and was given NO materials.  So, I went to Goodwill and picked up anything I could find that might keep the kids' interest, including this game:
I've never seen it on a store shelf, so I don't know if it's still available...but it's awesome!  The kids can play over and over and over and never get tired of it.  I don't have the directions, but when we play, we just try and place all the food cards down on the board before the ants pop out of the picnic basket...
Once the ants pop out, it's hysterical laughing from both of them!!!
One of my friends told me the first photo looked like a Milton Bradley ad...um, MB if you're listening, I'm totally up for being paid!!!  :)

5.04.2011

Teacher Appreciation: Thank You For Helping Us Bloom!

It's National Teacher Appreciation Week, and although the Mess Maker's preschool doesn't really "celebrate" the occasion (which I think is a travesty!), I wanted to do something for the teachers to let them know how appreciated they are!

The idea for this plant stake came from an original design by "Dimple Prints" HERE.  I designed a similar sentiment in Word, and then punched it out with a circle punch.  I added a green and white circle mat (Cricut: George cartridge), and then a yellow scalloped circle (Cricut: Storybook cartridge) for the flower. 
I attached the flower to a wooden skewer.  But I wanted to make sure the teachers knew it was from the entire class, so I decided to add each child's name to a leaf (Cricut: Doodlecharms cartridge).  The leaves were cut at 3/4", and then I ran them through my printer to print the names on them.  I have a tutorial HERE on how to do this if you're interested!
I hot glued the leaves to the skewer and added a narrow green ribbon.  Mrs. S gets a green Hydrangea plant because green is her favorite color, and Mrs. T gets a Gardenia plant because that's her favorite flower.  :)

To all of the wonderful teachers out there who educate, nuture, entertain, shape and encourage our children...
THANK YOU!!!

5.03.2011

My Cut Search...Cricut Cut Search!!!

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Ever heard of "My Cut Search"???  I hadn't until Kate over at Fantabulous Cricut shared it with us today for her FCCB Quick Tip Tuesday.  It's an amazing time saver!

If you need to cut a specific Cricut cut/image, but can't remember what cartridges that cut might be on...this is your new best friend!  It happens to me ALL the time, especially now that my cartridge stash is growing.  Rather than pulling out reference sheets or searching in DS, My Cut Search allows you to type in the cut you want and a super-quick search engine pulls up any cartridge containing the cut searched for, along with page number and button/key on the overlay!

Cool, huh?  Go check it out...you won't be sorry!

Kate is providing another tip regarding My Cut Search next Tuesday, so head over to FCCB next Tuesday to check it out.  Thanks for this awesome tip, Kate!!!  :)

4.28.2011

Photo TV Choice Board

I'll admit it...my kids watch entirely too much TV.  Until today, that is!

When I was a practicing speech pathologist, I made choice boards and picture communication boards for many of my students.  Since these devices work for children who can't verbally express themselves, I figured, "why not use one with The Noise Maker?" (who screams in frustration when I don't understand which show he wants to watch)...

How would this help cut back on TV-watching you might ask?  Because each kiddo will get to choose ONE show to watch in the morning, instead of me just turning on the TV and letting it play.  When their two shows are over, so is TV time.

Choice boards are very visual things...and my kids (as are most at this age) are VERY visual!  These can work for almost anything...snack time, play time/toys, television, and even basic wants/needs for the non-verbal child.

Supplies needed:

1. Old cookie sheet or other magnetic surface
2. Magnetic Tape (I got mine at Hobby Lobby)
3. Photos of desired shows (or foods, toys, etc.)
I printed these photos from Google Images, adhered them to carstock for durability, and then laminated them.

All you have to do is tear a piece of magnetic tape and adhere it to the back of each photo:

Then place the photos on a cookie sheet and either attach to refrigerator with heavy duty magnets, or place in a drawer to store.

I plan to keep mine in a drawer so that I can use the back of it to store photos of more shows:

To use, ask the child which show they want to watch and allow them to pull off the photo of the show, eliminating the need for a verbal response to communicate the need/want.  The words will eventually come, but until then...no more screaming when I don't understand the Noise Maker's requests....AND I can easily teach moderation of TV viewing at the same time!

TA-DA!!!  :)

4.25.2011

Happy Birthday Banner Card

The inspiration for this card came from one in Paper Crafts Magazine (Jan/Feb 2011) HERE.
I used my Cricut and the George and Basic Shapes cartridge to make the banner, and the Accent Essentials cartridge to make the frame for the sentiment.  The sentiment is a stamp set from CTMH (Card Chatter-Birthday).

Thanks for looking!

Lollipop Card...How "Sweet"!

Isn't this is sweetest card you've ever seen???  My sweet friend Robin over at Robin's Creative Cottage sent this to me and I just LOVE it...THANK YOU Robin!  If you want details on how Robin make this adorable card, you can check out the info and video tutorial on her blog HERE.

Robin is the creator of Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog (FCCB)...if you haven't already, please stop by and take a look at the amazing talent and inspiration over there!  From weekly challenges, tips and tutorials to cartridge highlights and scrapbooking articles, you're sure to find something new and exciting to fuel your creative juices!

THANK YOU Robin...you're the "sweetest"!!!!  :)

Amazing Bluebirds...

Growing up, we called Blue Jays "bluebirds".  It wasn't until I moved to Texas that I actually saw a true Blue Bird.  How amazingly gorgeous they are!  My dad told me to put up a special "Blue Bird box" (got ours at Lowe's) and they'd nest in our yard.  And they did.  They eat bugs which I LOVE, so we now have three boxes spread out over the yard. 

This year, we added one over the back patio, mounted to the house.  I wasn't sure they'd nest in it, but they did...we've been patiently waiting and we now have baby Blue Birds to enjoy...
Truly amazing, aren't they?  Can't wait to see the little ones start flying and eating up those Texas-sized bugs!  :)

Easter 2011

Oh, how I love Easter!  For the obvious reasons...but also because I get to watch my children participate in the same traditions I did as a kid, and it's fun remembering back to when I was a kid!  I think the kids are a little young to fully understand the true meaning of Easter, but The Mess Maker is starting to grasp a little.

The highlight this year was getting to dye Easter eggs!  This was the first year we dyed eggs...we'd done the plastic ones before.  But I wanted to start the tradition we had as kids and dye real eggs, so we did!
The Mess Maker had a ball!  We waited until the Noise Maker went to bed, so that we could let Katie have her first dying experience without any drama.  :) 

The "Easter Bunny" hid the eggs and the kiddos found them in recod time!
The "Easter Bunny" carefully accounted for all eggs upon hiding and we still managed to lose one!  Oh well...hopefully it fed some little critter in the middle of the night last night!

Happy Easter everyone!

4.18.2011

Lots O' Layouts!

I've been to two weekend-long scrapbooking retreats in the past several months and I actually almost completed the Noise Maker's baby scrapbook during those two weekends (only two pages away!). 

Here are the one-page layouts I've done:

"Laugh...It's Contagious"
"Bumbo Buddies"
"Splish Splash"
"Learning To Walk"
"1st Hair Cut"
"So Happy"
"My Little Monkey"
"All Boy"
"8 Months"
"Gone Bananas"
"Siesta Key Beach"
"Happy New Year"
"Dino Baby"
"First Trip"
"Summertime"
"The Poop Face"
"Happy Father's Day...NOT!"
"Daddy...You Hung The Stars"
"Great Expectations"
"Baby Cakes"
"Sweet Dreams"
" I (heart) You"
A few of these have been inspired by some I've seen in magazines and online ("Happy New Year", "8 Months", "So Happy"), but most are my own!  :)

Here are my 2-page layouts:

"Who Loves You...Sissy Does"
"Happy Birthday Monkey"
"Grandparents"
"Family"

And here is my "Flip Flap" layout:

"Baptism"
The bottom photo is actually the front "page" of a series of photos, attached to page with CTMH's Flip Flaps...
Journaling is hidden behind!  All I have to do is cut a slit in my page protector, and you can flip through the photos while it's in the album...cool, huh?

Thanks for looking!  :)