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,

BBTB2 Challenge: Pineapple

What a fabulous challenge for this week over at BBTB2!  We had to use a pineapple cut so I cut my pineapple from the Paper Dolls cartridge.  Living in Florida now, I wanted to create wall decor for our home.  I cut the pineapple twice, one from yellow patterned cardstock and another from green patterned cardstock.  I traced it onto brown cardstock and hand cut a shadow for it (the cartridge doesn't have a shadow, or layers for the image).  I also traced and cut the straw from a red striped paper, just like the old time soda fountain straws!  I embossed the yellow cardstock and inked it in brown.  I took gift ribbon, and curled it in different directions then attached it to the leaves of the pineapple, adding a green flower and rhinestone to the center.  I wrapped the entire pineapple with bakers twine and attached it with pop dots to the wall hanging.  The background for the wall art is an 8.5 x 11 piece of corrugated cardboard, covered with melon colored paper and topped with a border punched glitter stripe cardstock.  It made me think of a beach towel!  I then added alpha letters to spell "Welcome", and paper flowers with sea shell centers.  Go see the other designer's creations at BBTB2!  Have a wonderful week!

Miles of Smiles,

BBTB2 Challenge: Egg

Yay! Spring is here!  I love seeing all the trees and grass get greener, flower buds bursting into full bloom, sunshine, blue skies, and a soft breeze. What a wonderful season! Our challenge for BBTB2 this week was to use an egg.  I cut a large 11.5" cardstock egg from Doodlecharms.  I covered the entire egg with printed tape from Making Memories, Martha Stewart, and Anna Griffin. I then trimmed the tape to the shape of the cardstock egg. I attached chipboard letters to spell "Easter." I tied a plastic twine ribbon around it, and created a handmade flower from the plastic twine as well, and added Stickles to the center and to the edge of the petals. I then added metal foil flowers randomly, and finally outlined the entire egg with Stickles.  I then attached a hanger to the back of it to hang on my wall.  Go see the other fabulous creations from the other designers on BBTB2!

 Miles of Smiles,

Secret Sister Swap: Wall Art

The final item for the Secret Sister Swap was to make an item for my secret sister to hang in her scrap room. I used a thick piece of corrugated cardboard as the base for this project. I covered it with patterned paper, created a pocket for a photo or journal tags, added a photo sleeve to hold a photo, affixed letter stickers to spell "moments", some paper and silk flowers, and finally a few pretty brads to complete the ensemble.  The cool thing about this wall decor is that it can be hung as pictured to hold a portrait photo, or turned 90* counter clockwise to hold a landscape photo.

Miles of Smiles,

Secret Sister Swap: Easter/Spring

Here is the second item I made for my Secret Sister Swap. I covered a paper mache' egg with patterned paper that has purses,  lipstick, shoes, a compact, etc.. on it. I thought this was appropriate as my secret sister sells Mary Kay cosmetics. I added a double layer of lavender and purple ribbons, with a ribbon bow on the top attached with a fabric brad. I cut off the legs of several purple pearl brads and attached them to the egg with foam dots. I then created the base for the egg from two cardboard rings glued together and covered with pleated satin ribbon. I added a tulle circle below the egg for a little more "frou-frouiness", then stood the egg in the base.

Miles of Smiles,

Secret Sister Swap: Altered Container

Back in December at our Merry Christmas Crop, we decided to have a Secret Sister Swap. This weekend we finally got to swap our creations and find out who our secret sister was. It was really fun, and ohmygoodness, those girls just make the coolest stuff! We had to make three items: an altered container, a spring/Easter item, and something to hang in your scrap room.  This is the altered container I made. I took one of those plastic photo boxes and jazzed it up. I added a coordinating ribbon handle, patterned paper cover, embellished with acetate swirlies, paper flowers, felt flowers, a felt bird, rhinestones, and alphabet stickers.  I also added a coordinating strip to the edge. I thought it would be good to use to hold photos (duh!), or maybe store and transport other embellies for a project my swap sister would be working on.

Miles of Smiles,