HIMCR #104--Freestyle

Sometimes I have trouble with freestyle weeks.  There are just too many options!  This week was the perfect week for a freestyle.  My cousin had a baby in May.  My grandparents were going to visit their newest great-granddaughter (they have 5 great-granddaughters and 3 great-grandsons!) and my mom wanted to send a gift to her new niece.  She told me that she was going to go to the dollar store and buy a card.  HA!  Fat chance!  I came up with, what I believe, is my favorite card I have ever made.  Seriously.  

You can't see it well from this photo, but I sanded down the paper and sprayed it with Gunmetal Maya Mist.  It's my favorite.  I haven't found a good way to photograph and make that shimmer show.  I "borrowed" that feather from Dad's fly tying stash.  SHHH!  I don't think he's noticed yet!

Make something, anything!, and Join us this week at Hiding in My Craft Room!

HIMCR #102--Wedding

It's Wedding season!  I'd bet the majority of my readers and the readers over at HIMCR have been to at least one wedding in the last 60 days.  As usual, this card is not what I started out making, but what I start out doing is never the actual end result.

I forgot my material list.  I'll post it in the next few days!

Now, I need your help!  This photo is taken head on, with me directly in front of the card.  Why are my cards and layouts constantly looking crooked?

Join us at Hiding in My Craft Room this week and enter the contest by linking up!

HIMCR #102--Die Cuts

It's Die Cut week at Hiding in My Craft Room!  I'm so happy about this challenge.  I have not had my cricut out since...maybe March?  It was covered in fabric and half finished layouts just waiting for me to put the final touches on them.  In fact, most of them were sitting there because they need cricut work.

Have you ever felt that you are inadvertently become the softball mom everyone hates because she brings handmade snacks?  Yeah.  That's me this week.  Typically I would buy snacks at Walmart like every other person, but I had time and needed to do a project for the challenge.  So we arrive at Chocolate Chip Cookies!  Each child has 2 tied up with a ribbon and tag.

Materials:
Bazzil brown and white textured cardstocks
Ditto purple inks
Creative Memories red fine tip pen, purple chiseled tip pen, and tag maker (I love my tag maker!)
Cricut Every Day Paper Dolls Cartridge (My favorite!)
Close to My Heart My Acrylix solo "A" stamps

Dust off your cricut and join us!  Make sure to upload and show off your work!

Wisconsin!

I want to thank everyone who is reading and leaving comments!  I quite a few from the HIMCR blog hop.  I love reading them and it helps me to find you and connect with your blog too!  Please, please, please subscribe or let me know you are reading and share my blog!

We are finally back and hopefully, completely caught up with laundry from our Wisconsin trip.  We went for my sister-in-law, Lindsey's, wedding.  Our next trip up will be for Christmas.  That trip will be our last trip to stay on the farm, as my sister-in-law Kayla, her husband Tim, and daughter Avery will be taking over the farm in early 2014.  We had an amazing time.  Lindsey, Nick (her now husband), Tony (my husband) and I all went geocaching early on in our trip.  We visited a 1960's era fallout shelter.  Best geocache we've ever done!  The rest of the trip was full of wedding craziness.  My brother-in-law Matt, his girlfriend Liz, and their daughters (2 more nieces!), Charlie and Ellie were there too.  We get to see them less often than the rest since they live in Ohio.  I got to spend a bunch of "Aunt Di and Charlie time" on Friday night.  I love my nieces so much!  Maybe that's because I can spend time with them, love on them, then get to hand them off when they cry.  lol!

Lindsey and Nick got married in a beautiful ceremony on June 1st.  Word of advice...if you are in a wedding, make sure to wear your spanx.  You never know when you'll be asked to climb the jungle gym in a short dress just to get the perfect photo.  At least when you have to get up and down, ungracefully, no one can see anything!  lol!

On our way home, we stopped to see my best friend, Jen in STL.  Forest Park is certainly busy during the weekend!

Here are a few snapshots from our trip.

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Gift table from the wedding.  

Cate and Charlie

Nanny and her grandkids (minus 2)

Look what I bought!

I'm back from a wonderful trip to Wisconsin and i bought something great there!  You might be thinking "What could be so wonderful?!"  Well, I'll tell you!

50 sheets of Core'dnations cardstock!  Joann had them on sale on Memorial Day.  It was awesome!  This means I can catch up on projects.  Wait until you see the one I started last Friday.  Someday, friends. Someday you will be able to see that one.

HIMCR #101--Super Scraps Saturday

It's Super Scraps Saturday!  This means you should pull out those scraps you've saved for the last 5 years (yes...I'm looking at you Jen!) and participate!  I have wanted to use this piece from the Simple Stories Fabulous line for quite awhile and this gave me the perfect chance.  It's a "girly" version of the father's day layout from a few weeks ago.  

Anna was 9 months old when Julie from New Edge Studio did our family portraits.  She has grown so much in the last 6 months!  When I started, I only had the 6x12 top ten page and 2 other large scraps.  I used my Creative Memories tape runner (not the new one...I still have 6 refills for my old favorite one left!)  to tape them together.  Did it go great together?  I do think it needs some other embellishments, but I'm stuck! Suggestions anyone?

Don't forget to visit Hiding in My Craft Room and join us for this week's challenge!

HIMCR #100!!!!!!!!

Yay for Challenge #100! Congrats Laurie!  Laurie is our fantastic "leader" at Hiding in My Craft Room.  She comes up with all of our fantastic challenges and works to get prizes for you all!

For today's first challenge, to celebrate the HIMCR 100th challenge, it is a color challenge but with a twist! Each of the Design Team has chosen a combination of colors and you are to visit each blog, leave a comment, check out their color combos and choose one that you want to use to participate in the color challenge! Please be sure and let us know who combo you decided to use! Is that as clear as mud? If you have any questions we (or at least a couple of us) are going to be available over on the HIMCR Facebook page to answer questions or to just chat!

There are two giveaways up to win for this challenge! One for participating in the blog hop and the other for creating an entry using one of the team's color combos!

My colors are green, pink, and blue.  I have to tell you that this card is not what it started out to be, but that's what's great about being able to dictate where you end up with these things.

This was the last graduation card I had to make!  YAY!  I have to say it is my favorite out of the 5 I made.

Well, I won't be around for the challenges today.  My sister-in-law is getting married today!  I'm so excited for Lindsey and Nick.  I'll see you next week to share our Wisconsin adventures.  By the time we get done up here, I'll be able to write a book!  LOL!

Here's the blog hop list:

Laurie - Hiding in My Craft Room

Jennie - Jenscrapstoo

Nana - My Crafting Challenge

Adrienne - PaperDivaScraps

Diana - My Creativity Exploded!<-------You are here!

Kelli - Scraps & photoGRAFFS<--------Visit Kelli next!

Melanie - Afternoon Scrapper

Kim - Stamping with Kim

Amber - Momma Scraps

Laurie - Hiding in My Craft Room <----- Come back here to leave the final comment to get entered into the Blog Hop giveaway! Easy Peasy!

Don't forget to visit the Hiding In My Craft Room blog often today!  Laurie and the girls will be celebrating with tons of awesome projects!

Now I'm off!  Bridesmaid duty calls!  Oh yeah...and I have to get the cutest ring bearer and 5 flower girls EVER ready.