FREE Silhouette Birthday Banner Template

Hi Everyone, In honor of my wonderful husband's birthday, I'm giving away a free Silhouette banner template. I'm a circle girl. I like dots, dot patterns... circles. I wanted to make my hubby a sign for when he came downstairs on his birthday so I decided to make them in circles. My poor husband is color blind and I torture him about it all the time; "What color is that? Do you see that color next to that color?" and on and on. What better than to make a crazy mixed up color banner? The credits will be longer than this post, I'm sure. I needed to explain all of that so that you'd know why its all such a hot mess. It was intentional. :) This template uses an 8.5 x 11 sheet of card or regular paper stock. I strung them up with baker's twine from his cake. (yes, I know... how lame is that??) lol. Please click here or on the image below to download the free Silouette cutting template: Credits for Crazy Colorful Banner: Boy Oh Boy by Heather T, Camden's Buddies by Wimpy Chompers Creations, Happy Go Lucky by Sherry Ferguson Design

Clearance Sale

There is a huge clearance sale at ScrapMatters this week and Wimpy Chompers is having a HUGE 60% sale then the kits and alphas are retiring - for-evah! If you're just starting out or have those photos you've been meaning to scrap, now is the time to shop and buy! You can click below to go to her store.

The Letter O - for Oreos

Yum. Oh wait... I mean YUM!

If you've been reading my blog lately, you'll see why I'm no skinny minnie. I love to cook and bake. And I love my discovery: The Picky Palate. She has an awesome website and she just loves to concoct her own treats. She made these things that she called Cookies and Cream Squares.

Like Oreos? yum. Like marshmallows? yum. Here is a twist on rice krispie treats that's sure to send the kids and grown-ups back for more. I made these into tiny 1 1/2 inch squares for the letter O day at Pre-K. I tried to convince my son to bring in an onion but he wasn't going for that. I just thought it woulda been hysterical for a kid to show up with an onion. I dunno why. lol

He decided to bring in his Thomas train because Thomas is the #1 engine. Get it? One - starts with an O. We're just so darned clever. ha.

Anyway... here they are. They look like dark brownies, but they are something else entirely. Try it, its easy and yummy.



It only takes like 10 mins and 3 ingredients.

1 bag Oreos
1 bag Jet puff marshmallows
2 T butter

Melt the marshmallows and butter in a bowl - about 45 seconds in the microwave.
Crush the oreos in a food processor.

Mix together.

pour into buttered pan to cool and set.

I added the extra touch of the drizzled glaze and candy pearls.

Movies Under the Stars

OMGosh,I feel like I haven't blogged in eons! I've been so tired and post-vacation run down - not to mention catching up with work.

So, here is what I've been up to: Friday night, we did a really fun thing: Movie under the Stars. None of the photos came out so I probably won't be scrapping about it. We were trying to come up with what to do for Tyler's bday party since we already took him to Disney as his big treat. My friend suggested projecting a movie outside, which we'd all been talking about for ages. So my DH and I went to Lowes and bought a plain painter's canvas dropcloth, draped it over an old conference exhibit that my company threw out, set out some cushions, fired up an old Sony projector that my DH's company threw out (which he fixed) and voila! Outdoor movie night.

It was awesome and so much fun. This is the only pic that really depicts it but its kinda lame. :)

March Freebie

You can take a guess at what's inspired me - VACATION!

Who doesn't love vacation? Time off, eating out, playing instead of working... ahhhh. So, to keep that feeling going and spread the love, I wanted to extend my vacation bliss by giving you something, too.

Here are some border/frame masks that pay homage to the larger than life characters we met along the way last week.

Click here to DOWNLOAD


And here are some layouts I did using them.

Kit Color Your World - Red by The Design Girl







And here is a preview of the kit I used:


and my previous blog post has links to the pig-ish layout's kit.

Weekly Blog Challenge

Heather from Haynay Designs posted a weekly blog challenge on ScrapMatter's forum that I thought I'd play along with. Here is the list of topics

Monday's Moment: on Monday, blog about a wonderful, unique awesome moment. It can be from the past week, or from 20 years ago. Just share it!



Tactile Tuesday: a bit of a play on words...you can chose to blog about how you FEEL about something, anything....or how something feels (like through touch)...your choice!


Wacky Wednesday: Share a funny or wacky or silly moment or picture!


Thoughtful Thursday: be thoughtful...this is the time for a deep post about a topic of your choice


Photo Friday: Share a favorite photo


Sit-around Saturday: this is a time to blog about the every day things...things that are sitting around your house, car, your life.


Surprise Sunday: Blog about anything you want! Surprise us


Since today is Sunday, my "surprise" is that I'm starting the challenge and this is my list of prompts. C'mon, follow along if you'd like... :)

The Design Girl - guesting spot

I got a spot on The Design Girl's CT as a guest but she got a bit under the weather for the past few weeks, so I hadn't been able to start any projects for her. I checked my CT forums, and she posted new kit and a slew of others that she wanted to re-promote. Here are some layouts I did with my Disney photos. :)

P is for Piglet was created with her latest kit: A Little Love

Grab her kit now ... on SALE at ScrapMatters for $4.40 - so cute.


For my Buzz page, I used an older kit: Jolly St. Nick where I played with the snowflake and made it look like alien antaenna. lol



Here is her full kit. Its adorable and I can see many uses for it later. :)

Post vacation posting

Well, Disney was AWESOME. Many LOs and postings will follow but I'm, frankly, still recouping from it. I'm beyond exhausted. Except for the energizer bunny that is masquerading as my son, the rest of us have been going to sleep hours earlier. This is an extremely late night for me, but I had to get all my postings up so I thought I'd get one up on my blog as well.

Here is a hybrid project I completed before my vacation. One of the 'young 'uns' in my office told me that when he went to Disney as a kid, one of his goals was to get the autograph of every character. I thought, 'autographs? people still did that?' So, the a couple of nights before I left, I had to look for an autograph book, just in case. Well, lo and behold, we went to a Kids Eat Free night at a local restaurant (Park East), and they had both Spiderman AND Superman there, and Tyler wanted their autographs.

Guess what Mommy did the next day? I made a Disney autograph book for my little guy. Then I put it in a little card bag that I made using Krisi's Kreation's template: Card purse-Tall.





Here is a link to Krisi's template in case you wanna grab it over at ScrapMatters

Post 25 - First 10 Shuffled Songs on My iPod

Well, when I set my iPod to shuffle (I never use that setting) it plays everything, podcasts, music, audio books, videos... whatever can play- will shuffle. That said, here is my list:

Sisters are doin it for themselves - Aretha Franklin
I think I love you - Partridge Family
I'm gonna Make You Love Me - Diana Ross
Since You Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson
Never Find a Love Like This - Natasha Beddingfield
Disturbia - Rhianna
Lovely Day - Bill Withers
Everyday I love you - Boyzone
Forever and Ever, Amen - Randy Travis
Toby Feels Left Out - Thomas and Friends Audio Book

Post 24a - addendum

lol

I learned that you can't do 'lesser than' 3 for a heart because Blogger thinks I'm trying to write code! lol lol lol

Post 24 - Something I've Learned

Wow, there aren't enough bytes for a post like this, so I'll try to jot down some and try to make it interesting:

Something I've Learned about:

Parenting: That I can do it, that I love it and everything about it is something I've learned because it was all new to me!

Scrapbooking: EVERYTHING - since its also new to me, everything I'm doing is a newly learned skill - or lack of skill - depends on the moment. lol

Dieting: I suck at it. I've always been ok with my 'built for comfort' body and I excercised because it was something novel or something I enjoyed. Since my DS, I realized I have to work harder to not expande the 'comfort level' and wow... that's hard. blech, moving on to a different topic!

Friends: I amazed by my friends everyday. Some just break out and show me what you can do with life if you step out of your comfort zone. Some show me how giving and selfless they are everyday. Some exasperate me but are still awesome people. Some I never knew I'd miss, until they were gone. All of them touch me in some ways, even the ones I never met. :::raising a glass::: cheers to you all!

You know what? I could write more, but I'll end with that warm and fuzzy now.

Post 23 - Favorite Vacation

We are going to Disney in less than 2 weeks. I can't wait. Let me come back to this one, and I'm sure there will be pics and LOs.

Post 22 - Whats in your makeup bag?

Ha ha ha ha. I literally laughed out loud when I read this. So, I'm a bit behind on the actual days, but I'm catching up!

I looked inside my make-bag and was horrified to see that (along with my list of cosmetics) there was a big old mess. The broken poweders, discarded applicator heads, gum wrappers, bits of not dirty q-tips. blechh. So, that is what is REALLY in my bag.

As for the makc-up, I have a Nars blush, Bare Minerals powder and bronzer, brown eye shadow for my brows, some cover-up cream from Sephora, and eye shadow combos - Studio, I think the brand was - and eye lash curler and some maybelline mascara.

Do they help? probably not, but they can't hurt either! lol

DSA

My friend pointed out to me that if your layout is featured, highlighted or otherwise hosted on a scrapping newsletter, that means your work has been 'published'. Coming from the world of print publishing, I'd never thought of that. So... guess what? I've been published! lol

This week, Sherry Ferguson is a featured designer at DSA, and also featured on the January issue of their online magazine: The Fix. They did some weird thing to her photo - it got all stretched out, but (as she says) at least they made her face longer and not wider, right? lol

One of the 2-pger layout I did with her Snow Fun kit was used as the example to help showcase her awesome kit. This kit is one of my favorites of the season.





Addendum note: I guess I officially got published when I got Project of the Week (POTW) over at ScrapMatters.

Bake Off Goodies

I swear, I'm not trying to kill your diets. Just bloggin' lol

My contributions were the Cinnamon Roll Sugar cookies and Double Chocoloate Hazelnut biscotti - with pistachios

And the winner was: Lemon Square Bars

'Taster's Choice' Awards: Devil's Food Cake

I don't recall the other winners but I got a ribbon for Best Texture for my Biscotti. :)

  

And how cute is this award trophy she found?