Official First Day of Summer!

So.....I love the summer!  As teachers, we look forward to this time of year to rejuvenate our minds and bodies after a long year!  I love teaching, but I love the summers off too!  Today is the first official day of summer and to honor that here is a layout of my favorite summer pastime!

Surfboard transparency paper:  Fancy Pants Design.  Yellow Cardstock:  DCWV.  Glitter title:  DCWV.  Songbird Cartridge.  Flowers and rhinestones:  Queen and Co.  Glitter mesh:  bought at scrapbook convention, not sure of company.

This was last summer when my dear nieces came to visit.  They love spending time in the pool!

Thanks for taking a look and will see ya soon!!!!

I'm Baaaaaccccckkkkkk!!!!!

Summer time is here!  Thank goodness!  It has been a busy and stressful year and looking at the last time I posted (Sept. 19th!) I am glad to be back!  Today is my and my husband's anniversary!  We have been married 9 years.  It has flown by!  I recently scrapped this layout of our anniversary from last year.

Fancy Pants Design transparency.  Labels from dollar scrapbooking.com (not sure the company).  Cardstock from DCWV. Ribbon from a gift and washi tape from Queens and Co.

I recently came back from a retreat in Bowie, TX and am going to another retreat soon in Mansfield, TX.  Will have lots to post from these two retreats!  I am always productive at these.  The Bowie trip I got 25 layouts done!  Not my best, but I went with my mom and we spent a lot of time visiting, eating, relaxing in the hot tub and watching movies!  That is more important to me!  I'll be super productive at the next one!!!!

Thanks for looking and I'll post more soon!

hello!

Hello!  So it has been 4 weeks since I've been on here!  Wow!  How time flies!  School is in full swing and keeping me super busy!  I have barely had anytime to scrap or sew or anything!  I'm ready for a slow down!  I did get to my friend Kim's house and did some cute Halloween crafting!  I will post those next week!

This week I have 2 layouts to show!  My precious cousin and precious niece's birthdays are in September.  I had to spotlight them in honor!

Patterned paper from hobby lobby. cardstock from DCWV.  Buttons from walmart. Cartridge songbird for title.

background and title cardstock DCWV,  patterned paper from DCWV. Ribbon from scrapbook convention. Flowers and rhinestones from Queen and Co.

. 

2 fun layouts for 2 fun people in my life!  Love them!  Thanks for taking the time to look!

It ends...

Well this week officially ended my summer break.  We were busy working in our classrooms and in meetings all week.  Loved working in the classroom, but not a fan of the meetings.  Sometimes I think they just make stuff up for us to do.  Oh well, that part is done and the kids come in Monday!  I met a lot of my students last night at our meet the teacher night.  They seem excited for school to start and I am anxious to get them in my room!

I have spent most of my crafting time doing things in my classroom, so I am ready for the dust to settle so I can get back to my crafting for me!  I thought I would post a couple of pics of my room so you can see what I worked on!  I did change the desk arrangement at the end, but pretty much it all looks the same!

I crafted the cute Kayaks on my desk and printed out some inspirational sayings to put on the wall behind my desk. I did they Kayaks using my cricut and Just Because cartridge.  The sayings were printed and cut using my Imagine and Word of Mouth Imagine cartridge.

I sewed my own crate covers using a pattern from Pinterest. They turned out so cute!!!!!!!! I cut the checkers title out using vinyl and Cuttin Up cartridge and my cricut.  I covered my clipboards using paper, modpodge and duct tape.

I really am excited how my room turned out this year!  I learned a lot from Pinterest and used a lot of it my room.  If you have not joined Pinterest, you should!  It is the mecca of all crafting things!  It has inspired my classroom, inspired me to learn sewing, given me tons of ideas to scrap and card make and it just a great place to learn new things!

Hope you enjoyed this post.  It's a little different than normal....but you get a glimpse into my other world!  Thanks for for looking!

It's been a couple of weeks....

Well it's been a couple of weeks since I updated.  It is that time of year again...the start of school!  I have been busy getting my classroom ready and teaching our new teachers in our district about the math curriculum we are using this year.  Those things have totally ended my summer, but it is official Monday.  Teachers start back up.  I am having mixed emotions.  I love staying at home.  I do not get bored!  I scrap, I clean, I craft.  I keep myself busy and I love it!  Even my husband loves it when I am home (why can't I stay home you say?  Well, money for one and we don't have kids so it seems kind of silly to not work.)  On the other hand, I do love teaching.  I love the planning, the prepping and the kids faces as they learn what I planned and prepped and having fun with it to boot!  I think what I hate though is the getting up at the butt crack of dawn!  I am a sleeper, always have been, and I will miss not staying in bed till 9 (ok, maybe 10).

I do have a Cricut machine update....my Imagine is fixed!  I had to be on with Technical Support for 4 days though!  The man was really nice though, and did everything he could to make sure I was a happy customer!  We had to do a screen share and he had to do a force upload/update to my machine.  Not sure what I will have to do if I have to update it again!  He also got me digital access for my cartridges so I can use them on the Cricut Craft room!  Yay!  I have used it, and I love it!  It is like having my Gypsy, but on my laptop.  I love the portability of the Gypsy though, so if they go on a huge sale I will probably buy a new one.  But I am talking a cheap sale!!!!

I wanted to give you a little scrapping pic today too.  Not just be complaining!  I used this on a layout for a birthday.  I loved how it turned out!  I will be honest though...I forgot which cartridge I used!

Cartridge:  unknown.  Blue and yellow cardstock.  Rhinestones from dollar bin at Joann's. Flower : unknown. Patterned paper from DCWV.

Thanks for taking the time to look today!  With school starting, I may get a little behind on blogging, but it is my goal to not to do that!  We will see how long it lasts!  Happy Scrapping!

Could it get worse?

Last week I talked about my Gypsy breaking.  Well....if it couldn't get any worse....my Imagine broke too!  I am beyond devastated and upset!  I love, love, love my Imagine!  I have been on the phone with Provo Craft, gotten a forced upgrade to my machine, and it still won't work.  Something about the ink cartridges.  So, Provo Craft is sending me new cartridges and if that doesn't fix it, well I get a replacement since that is still under warranty.  Thank goodness!!!!  I did get a little good news though....last week I talked about having to send off my cartridges, well, I won't have to do that now.  They granted me digital access to my carts so I can use them on Cricut Craft Room since I have had so much trouble this week!  That made me feel a little better.  Luckily I still have my old machine, so I used that to finally finish the 2011 book!  I am so glad that is done!  Now I can focus on this year!  

I decided to post a card I made in honor of no Imagine.  I made this card for my husband on our anniversary.

Brown cardstock for card.  Red cardstock for mat.  Yellow cardstock embossed with Sizzix Texture Boutique,  Owls and text stamped with Stamps of Life stamp set and red stamp pad.  Twine from Queen and Co. and heart brad from eyelet outlet.

I really enjoyed making this card and my husband loved it!  He thought the Owls were too cute!  I love a simple card!  And embossing definitely adds something to this card doesn't it?

I hope you enjoyed the card.  I'll let you know what the Imagine outcome is.....again, I am just devastated!  Hopefully your week has been better than mine!  Thanks for looking!

Paris?

Today I come to you from Paris....well....I wish Paris!  No, just me in Texas still.  But I live vicariously through my sister though!  Last summer she got the opportunity to go to France for a festival with her Bassoon playing.  She had these 2 great photos of her in a really cute dress she bought in France.  I added her postcard she sent us and had to do a layout of it!

Brown cardstock.  Journey/Eiffel tower design, Imagine More Cart for the Cricut Imagine, light brown cardstock for matting photos, Eiffel tower brads from eyelet outlet.

I did have a little snafu this week though and I am truly devastated!  My Gypsy (which is a software device for Cricut machines) broke.  The USB port came out and I can no longer use it to cut with.  I called Provo Craft and there is nothing they can really do except allow me to buy a new one and then ship it back to them with the old one to switch over my cartridges since they are connected to the broken machine.  I however, am not going this route.  I am getting my Carts flashed and re-serialized so I can use them on the Cricut Craft Room instead.  We will see how this journey goes.  I must admit, I am not too pleased with Provo Craft at this moment.  They were nice on the phone, and were understanding, but hey, they have to make money right?  We'll see how I feel about them once I get all this cartridge thing sorted out.  Stay tuned....

I hope you did enjoy the layout.  I will still say I love my machine, but it is technology.  As one of my students said one year, "Technology is awesome....when it works!"  Thanks for looking and listening!