My Top 5 Viewed Posts of Home

It is amazing how fast a year can go by and I think 2010, by far, has gone by the quickest of all!  Of course, my dad tells me the older I get the faster it will go, which is somewhat concerning! :-)

As a little recap of my blog, I figured I would share my 5 most viewed posts for the this year.

#5 Family Room Renovation is Complete! Pierre and I are lucky to have my dad, our personal handy man, living just 2 miles away!

#4 Warm Apple Crisp For a Cold, Crisp Fall Day There are so many amazing cookbooks and food shows out there that when I find a recipe my family likes, I just have to share it.  This recipe not only is delicious, but I love that my kids love to help make it too!

New Disney Cricut Cartridges!

Did Santa deliver early this year???  I am so excited!  I just saw over at Obsessed with Scrapbooking that there are two new Disney cartridges being released for the Cricut this December!  The first one is Cricut Best of Pixar cartridge.  It includes images from the movies Finding Nemo, Monster's Inc., The Incredibles, A Bug's Life and Wall-E.  The second cartridge is Cricut Disney Classics cartridge.  This one includes images from Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Pinocchio and Bambi.  Just when I thought I had all the Disney cartridges, there are two more I must have.  I am quite excited to get my hands on these two cartridges.  If you want to see images from them, make sure you check out Obsessed with Scrapbooking to see them, as well as the other Hello Thursday releases for December.

By the way Robyn, over at My Pink Stamper, will also be dispaying projects from these cartridges! Can't wait to see what she has created!

Added 12/29:
Here's a link to Robyn's Disney Classics Cartridge 2-Page Layout
Here's a link to Robyn's Cricut Best of Pixar - Nemo Card

My Pink Stamper Challenge ~ Something Cute

After completing two other challenges without using my paper doll cartridge, I decided for the "Something Cute" challenge, I would fall back on my old favorite.  I am always looking for cute cards to send out from my kids, but most cards in stores having sayings my kids would never say, or the content of the card actually has no meaning.  So for each of the grandparents this year we are creating "cute" Halloween cards that have plenty of room on the inside for my kids to draw special pictures and I can write in what they want to say.  So with that said, here is a cute Halloween card I created this afternoon with my daughter Hayley. 

I used the Paper Doll Dress Up and Martha Stewart Spiderweb Corner Punch.

If you submit a project and you are randomly chosen as the winner of the "Something Cute" challenge, you will win the Cricut cartridge Simply Charmed, which has a lot of cute images!  Good luck!

My Pink Stamper - Random Act of Kindness Challenge

My son started kindergarten this year and has been blessed to have a wonderful teacher, who has made him a kid who loves school.  He was stressed about it all summer and told us everyday he was not going to kindergarten, he staying in preschool forever.  It made for a long summer.  But I am happy to report everyday when he comes home from school and I ask him how it was, his response is "It was very good today!" or "Great!"  As a parent, I couldn't ask for anything more.

We decided this week to make her some special leaf candies using Wilton candy melts and the leaf candy molds.  Here is the gift bag that we created together.  We'll put the candies in Monday morning and Joey will deliver it to her when he gets to school.  I know a teacher can make or break a child's year, and I have to say Mrs. Towle has gotten us off to a great start!

To create the gift bag, I used Tags, Bags, Boxes and More and Doodlecharms.

Have you completed a random act of kindness today? I'd love to hear what it is!

If you'd like to be entered in My Pink Stamper's Random Act of Kindness Challenge, click here and enter a comment or a project.  You could randomly be chosen to win a set  of My Pink Stamper Stamp Set: Everyday Life.  Good luck!

My Pink Stamper Challenge ~ Something Winter

Robyn over at My Pink Stamper (great person to follow!) has posted a challenge to create something winter related.  I've decided for this challenge to actually challenge myself, meaning I could not use either of the Paper Doll cartridges.  These two cartridges, the Everyday Paper Dolls and Paper Doll Dress Up, are by far my most used cartridges.  Because of this I never branch out and try anything new.  So to challenge myself, I made myself create this using a cartridge I have but rarely used - Christmas Cheer.  I actually purchased this off ebay for on $18, which I am considering a steal since it is a retired cartridge. 

I created the house using Christmas Cheer, the saying "Thinking of You" from Alphalicious and I just couldn't stay away, I gave in and used the Everyday Paper Doll cartridge for the snow.  So, though I failed my own challenge in a way, at least this project didn't include a paper doll!  :-)

Do you have a project to submit?  Here's the My Pink Stamper Saturday Challenge.

My Pink Stamper "Spooky" Challenge

It is hard to believe that Halloween is just around the corner.  Where did this year go? 

As you may have read in my previous post, My Pink Stamper Website ~ I Love It!, that I am fairly new to using my Cricut and have gotten a lot of inspiration from Robyn to do more with it.  This week she has posed a "Spooky" Challenge.  If you would like to be in the drawing to win her "Spooky Puns Stamp Set," all you need to do is submit a Halloween or Fall themed project.  To see the full details, you can go directly to My Pink Stamper (by the way, if you are not already a follower, I would highly recommend it!).  Anyways, here is my project I am adding to the list of already incredible entries.  My three "helpers" helped pick out the paper dolls for the card - there's one for each of them!  Just so you know, the drawings are random, which is great for someone like me.  I know my cards are still pretty basic, but having random drawings gives me an opportunity (or the confidence!) to participate.  Plus, it is a nice opportunity for me to see what this Cricut can actually do and take inspiration from other people's creations!

By the way, when you read the details of the challenge, you can scroll down to see the entries.  As I was looking through, there is one that I just thought was amazing - entry #31 or you can check it out at Court's Crafts. 

In case you missed them, here are some previous posts about some Cricut Halloween crafts I've made (yes, they are all similar - I need to branch out a little and try to be more creative!):
Halloween Card for my 6 month old nephew's 1st Halloween
Halloween Card for my 3 year old nephew
Halloween Gift Bag

My Pink Stamper Winter Challenge

As you may have noticed from previous posts, I am a huge fan of Robyn's work at My Pink Stamper.  I have learned a lot from her site and have been very inspired by her creations.  This week, she is having a Winter Challenge (check out her site to see the details).  I've decided to create a Winter card using my favorite Cricut cartridge ~ Everyday Paper Dolls, as well as the Tags, Bags, Boxes & More and Lyrical Letters cartridges.  It is hard to believe that summer has past so quickly and here in NH we are heading toward fall and winter!  Here's my creation, enjoy!

By the way, did you enter a project in the challenge?  If you didn't, you should!  You can win a set of Robyn's new stamps called "Winter Punnies."

My Pink Stamper Website ~ I Love It!

One of my hobbies is paper crafting.  I say paper crafting because I love making cards, scrapbooking, and pretty much anything else you can make with paper!  I own a Cricut machine, which I love and have gotten much more use out of it than I thought I would.  The thing with my Cricut is the more I use it, the more I want to use it!  I recently created Little Mermaid birthday invitations for Hayley's birthday using the Disney Dreams Come True cartridge, thank you cards for Hayley to send out after her party using the Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge (you can see my previous blog to see these) and just before our last trip to Walt Disney World, I created a countdown to Disney chart using the Disney Mickey Font cartridge.

Countdown to Disney Chart

One of the sites I take most inspiration from is My Pink Stamper.  Robyn creates many different projects to showcase some of the different Cricut cartridges and posts videos of how to recreate these yourself.  Her most recent project uses the Cricut Sweet Treats cartridge, which by the way is one I look forward to adding to my collection one of these days!  The great thing about her videos, since I am fairly new at using my Cricut, is that I get some very creative inspiration on exactly what I can create.  But also, Robyn gives great descriptions on what each cartridge can actually do.  The Sweet Treats cartridge is a perfect example.  This wasn't a cartridge that caught my eye at first, but after seeing her most recent project, I went to the Cricut website and checked it out.  Now, I can't wait to get it!  Plus, I am not familiar with a lot of the card making and scrabooking tools, which she describes all the things she uses in each of her videos.

Another great thing about Robyn is that she is always having giveaways.  Her most recent one is a Cricut Expression . . . I've already done what I need to do to enter, but to make sure you get your name in there, go to My Pink Stamper and read about the giveaway!  When you get to the site, don't forget to check out her amazing stamp sets, which coordinate with some of the Cricut cartridges.

Do you own a Cricut machine?  Which cartridge is your favorite?