Bird Challenge

Happy Monday!  Ok, maybe that's a stretch...are Mondays ever really that happy when you have to go back to work? lol  Weekends are WAY too short!  I created this project for this week's challenge at BBTB2.  The designer's challenge for this week was to use a bird cut.  I cut the bird from the Serenade cartridge, added glitter and swirly rub-ons, inked the edge in brown ink, and added rhinestones to the edge of the wings.  I attached it to the card with foam dots and bent the wings up for added dimension.  The background pennant paper is Heidi Grace.  I border punched the top and bottom edges and inked all the edges.  I added a row of buttons to one of the pennant lines in the paper.  Finally I added a foil flower, bending up the petals, layered with a pink fabric flower then an adhesive button to the center. Please check out the other designer's creations at BBTB2.  Those girls are the most talented!  Have a wonderful week!  A four day week for me, then a four day holiday weekend!  Woot-woot!!!

Miles of Smiles,

Dancing With a Star

Here I am Dancing With a Star....Cookie Monster! LOL  I was walking through a store and saw this Cookie Monster pillow, and really, I had no choice but to pick him up and start twirling him around...or rather he twirled me around (I let him lead.)  Yes, this is just one of the many kooky things I will do throughout my day.  My hub took the pic and we were laughing hysterically.  Looks like Cookie was having a good time too, by the look on his face.  LOL

Miles of Smiles,

Sweet Birthday

I created this cute birthday set for a friend's teenage daughter.  I am totally crushin' on the color scheme.  This is more paper from the pack I bought at Tuesday Morning (see last post).  I cut the triangle box on the Cricut from the citrus cardstock, traced each side onto the candy patterned paper and cut it out slightly smaller.  I used cupcake patterned ribbon to keep the box closed.  The envelope in the background was created from ice cream cone patterned paper.  Ca-uuuuuute!

Miles of Smiles, 

Take the Cake

I made this card for my MIL's birthday recently.  I found a really sweet pack of patterned paper at Tuesday Morning a few weeks ago.  It was a company I am not familiar with, but the paper is adorable!  I got the Sweets & Treats (?) pack which had papers with cakes, candies, presents, cupcakes etc...  I cut the cake backround on the Cricut, added the pink layer cake with foam dots to a blue dotted/brown matted rectangle.  Inside I cut out the phrase "You take the cake."

Easter Cards

I guess this would be a case of "Better Late Than Never."  I apologize for the bad photos in this post.  I literally snapped pics of the Easter cards as they were headed out the door to the mailbox.  Not the best.  They are very simple cards that I created quickly and sent to my family.  And if you are wondering about the upside down photo, I have no earthly clue why it is upside down.  I tried to upload that photo to Blogger several times and it just kept flipping it.  Grrrr...Blogger is having issues lately!  I really liked the spring/Easter papers that I used.  I also used some non-traditional colors, not too pastel but brighter and livelier.  Thanks for having a peek!

Miles of Smiles,

I Am My Own Worst Heroine...

If you’d like to hear a harrowing tale of a chickens--t heroine (I use the term loosely) and an evil monster, then by all means, please continue reading…



There I was in the pre-dawn darkness, nearly at the end of my wake-up-and-get-moving morning shower. Ben had already left for work, puppy was still asleep. The dim light of my closet was the only light that shone in the room. I looked out the glass shower door and noticed a dark mass on the carpet. “Hmmm…I don’t remember that…what could it be? Well, it’s not moving, so maybe it’s a clump of my hair on the floor or some sort of fuzz.” Obviously I didn’t have my glasses on. Then, guess what….it moved about a foot to the right! I vaguely remember some sort of profanity escaping my lips. I opened the shower door, grabbed my towel and wrapped it around me and stood there, drenched and dripping, searching the near darkness for something…ANYTHING to pretend to be my weapon. I would have much liked to have a Knight in Shining Armor appear instantly *poof* out of thin air, but chances of that were looking slim to none. “Ok, Melissa, you are on your own with this one…” I timidly approached the creature, and to my dismay it was exactly as I feared...it was a ginormous spider. “Of course it is…” {sigh} I jumped back onto my safe island, the bath mat. From there it was about 4 feet away, which was still too close for comfort. “Why don’t we own a weighted fly swatter on a 10 foot pole?” I needed to stop waiting for back-up, and start formulating a plan, because I’m sure monster spider would not sit still for much longer. Worse than that it was heading right into Ben’s closet. I had to protect my sweet Ben! Plus, even if I had considered letting it escape into Ben’s closet, I couldn’t live there knowing it was still alive somewhere in the house…ugh! My eyes landed on a pretty box under my vanity. Should I try to trap it? No! It had to be eradicated immediately. Ben’s shoe? (His shoes are bigger than mine). No! I don’t want a mere sole of a shoe to be the only thing between me and monster spider. How about the lid from the box? Better. That had potential. It was pretty sturdy and had a large footprint. I grabbed my weapon of choice. Still drenched and flailing water all over the room, I adjusted my towel and very slowly approached monster spider. I think I may have cussed again wishing my glasses were nearby, but alas, they were inconveniently placed in the bedroom and I would have to pass the monster spider to reach them. I couldn’t take the chance of tipping off the monster. More cuss words. Then a screech from me as it moved again, another foot to the right. “Dammit, it’s on to me!” Now it was in the closet. More cussing. I think I hovered there for like 10 minutes, box lid in one hand, other hand grasping my towel, not ever getting enough gumption to actually make a move. “Why am I such a chicken--t? Just do it! One quick motion!” I don’t know how many times I thought I would make myself move, but never did. Finally…{swat!} It started to move, as I feared as the lid came down, but thankfully the lid was large enough to land on the monster. I kept my eyes on it as I grabbed my sneakers and threw them on, then I hopped up and down on the box lid. After about 100 hops, I slowly slid the lid to the side. There it was, looking a little flattened. I wasn’t taking any chances. I put the lid back over and jumped on it many more times. I was then able to grab my glasses and the Dust Buster. I moved the lid, and aimed the Dust Buster at it. Unbelievable, I was still a chicken! I had to get up the nerve to put the stupid Dust Buster over the squashed arachnid. “Come on, Melissa, don’t give up now!” Whrrrrrrrr went the Dust Buster and *poof* went the monster. I threw on my night shirt and ran the Dust Buster out the front door. Ben can empty THAT when he gets home! That was just way too much scary for that hour of the day. Whew!  My only solace is making myself believe it was the same spider that was hiding in the water closet.  I have to believe that, cuz there's no way there could be another monster like this in our house...

BBTB2 Strawberry Challenge

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms, whether you're a mom of children or furry critters, I hope you had a wonderful day yesterday.

This week's BBTB2 Challenge was to use a strawberry cut.  Strawberries always make me think of Mother's Day because my mom always made strawberry shortcake for my grammies on that day.  The strawberry I used was cut from Hello Kitty Greetings. I used a black cardstock for the base card, and fruity patterned papers for the background. I really liked the strawberry and lime patterned paper.  I added felt leaves to the top of the strawberry, a paper flower, bling flower brad, chipboard tag, and finally some black Stickles to bling up the seeds.  I punched the corners of the card and layer, then threaded baker's twine around creating a border.  Yummy!  Check out the other designer's creations at BBTB2!

Miles of Smiles,