Best Birthday Ever! thank you everyone!!

I wanted to spotlight one of the BEST BIRTHDAYS ever!! But I wasn't sure "where" to start in highlighting the BEST birthday ever...so I thought I'd start with the newest. Today I came home from work to find this fun gift sitting on my table. It's from my very talented friend Tya Smith. And like Tya, I'm a huge GLEE fan and I love homemade gifts. Seriously how cute is this...it combines my total addiction of CHOCOLATE, Dr. Pepper and Glee all in one darling package. 

Check out the cute GLEE BUTTONS on the black pinwheels! 

 Tya, this was my favorite part of the entire gift....mouthwash! LOVE IT!

The Britney Quote: "I don't brush my teeth, I rinse my mouth out
with soda after I eat. I was pretty sure DR. PEPPER was a dentist." How
stinking cute is that...and it has two bottles of Dr. Pepper with it! 

One other gift I had to share, it's this very beautiful Polish Cookware set that my cute sis, Trisha sent me. I was so envious of the one she had when we visited in Seattle, that I couldn't resist hinting that I'd love one. She told me I can bake in it, microwave and wash it in the dishwasher...now if it had come with food it and a person to clean it, it would be perfect. Thanks Trish!! 

GREAT Friends, GOOD Food and FUN Times 

I tell all my friends that the gift of their time is worth so much more to me then anything they could buy me. Although I do love handmade gifts too LOL! I regretfully didn't get pictures of all the GREAT DINNERS I had with all my friends, but here's a quick snap shot of the girls that hung out with me ON my birthday (thanks girls). And thanks to Bridget, Andrea and Amy for all the other nights of fun!! 

Dru, me and Jen partying it up at CK

This gift really touched my heart. First off the film reels are the perfect homage to my obsession with going to the movies! Yes, I love going to the movie theater and seeing just about anything on the big screen...anyway, that's not what touched my heart. It is the darling card with pop-up camera on it that did the job. This gift is from my wonderful BFF Jen. This card was her first homemade card she's ever made for anyone and she made it for ME!! 

The Day of My Birthday....

I decided that I didn't want to work on my birthday and my dear friend Emily from CK had been asking me if I would like to come down and test out a couple of their new 2011 classes. So we combined my day off with her need to have me try out the new classes (which were fabulous)! Emily has been a close friend for years and I love any time I can spend with her (even if it is a little like work). But scrapbooking at CK for the day, with Cafe Rio lunch and great people...couldn't have asked for a better day! 

Look how yummy these little treats are...they're called Bundtinis and oh so yummy. They're from a fun place called Nothing Bundt Cakes. I've never had anything from there before, but I'm addicted, I want more. These were Red Velvet with chocolate chips in them...could have eaten them all. 

Emily brought in this cute town of bundtini goodness, the event team sang Happy Birthday to me and we enjoyed our treats...oh you should note that the are RED!!  

The Day After My Birthday....

Remember I took the day off, so I had to wait until the next day to find this surprise waiting for me at work. I walked in and my friend Bridget handed me all these fun packages. They were all from my AWESOME group of friends and design team girls. They'd all sent me the sweetest handmade cards and small gifts and it was such a sweet surprise. 

Here's most of the cards... a few more came in after I took this picture. Thank you girls...you really made this birthday so awesome!!

One More Memorable Gift

My very handsome and sweet friend Madison from Echo Park, posted this on the Echo Park Facebook page. It took me a little back tracking to figure out why I was getting hundreds and hundreds of people wishing me a happy birthday on the Imaginisce Facebook Wall. Although there was some bribery involved, I was still very touched by the thought. Especially coming from a guy, I'm not even sure most guys would remember someone's birthday that they weren't related to. Thanks Echo Park!! 

I posted this on both the Imaginisce and Echo Park Facebook Walls as a thank you! 

Seriously this is one of the best birthdays ever!! 

Creating Birthday Cards with my Cricut

I don't know if it was because of my birthday last week or not, but I have been making all sort of Birthday Cards with my Cricut (via my Gypsy). I especially love cards with clever sayings and love the challenge of trying to figure out ways to make those fun sayings come to life. Here's a few of my favorites I made this past week.

Not Over the Hill, Reaching Your Peak
This fun card was created with the Country Life cartridge and some fun Echo Park papers (I would love to stock up on that yummy cloud paper for sure).

 

You're Not Old, You're Ripe

I combined the new For the Record collection by Echo Park, with some fuzzy paper I've had forever and my Just Because Cards cartridge. 

 

 

Happy Belated Birthday....from Your Slower Friend
I'm always forgetting birthdays so this sentiment was perfect. My son actually told me about this idea after shopping for a my birthday card and he thought it was so cool that I recreated it from what he told me. This card was created with some fun Bella Blvd & Echo Park papers and my new Four Legged Friends cartridge.

Journey Around the Sun
I couldn't pass up this fun sentiment and with the help of my Simply Charmed cartridge and the bright American Crafts papers to create this fun card.

 

I love creating birthday cards with my Cricut! And I hope you enjoyed my take on these fun cards. I still have a few more in the works that I hope to post later this week

Cricut Circle E-Magazine Project: Gather Together Fall Centerpiece

I was doing a little cleaning up of my computer files and came across one of my most favorite projects I did last year. This Gather Together Fall Centerpiece was created for the November issue of the Cricut Circle E-Magazine. It was created from a wood plate I picked up at Hobby Lobby and the very popular Apple Cider Collection by Imaginisce....and of course my Cricut machine! 

Here's a close up of the paper flowers I create with the help of my Cricut and quilling tool...and my totally awesome i-bond cordless glue gun. The light on the front of the i-bond really helped out a lot so I could see where the glue needed to go.

Learn more about the benefits of being a Cricut Circle member!

Love Card created from my Cricut scraps

I have a confession to make...when I'm crafting with my Cricut I like to precut everything out with white cardstock so I can see sizing and play around with placement on my projects. Once I determine the correct sizing, etc I then cut it from the desired paper to finish my project.

However, I'm also a horder and cannot seem to throw all those extra die cuts away. Sometimes I save them in baggies thinking I "might need" them again, but typically they do just get in the way and eventually end up in the trash. But I decided to challenge myself to actually use some of these cuts and this was what came from a bunch of "love" titles...a fun tone on tone LOVE CARD. And I like how it turned out...however, white on white is very hard to photograph.

Trust me, this card turned out great and who ever receives it this coming Valentines is sure to be amazed by my creativity LOL.

 

I hope you like my Love Card created from my Cricut scraps, but now I'm curious...what do you do with the unused die cuts you cut out from your Cricut and then don't end up needing??