Off Topic - Cooking is another of favorite activities

Due to our varied schedules, I've been doing a lot of cook-ahead things for the freezer.  One of our favorites so far is a recipe I found at Taste of Home for Bacon Cheeseburger Buns:

Today, I used the yeast dough portion of this recipe and made them into pizza style rolls - I just combined a can of pizza sauce, one pound of mozzarella cheese, diced ham, pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, and green peppers for the filling.  After baking, I brushed the rolls with butter and sprinkled with some parmesan cheese. YUM!

Since I was doing the whole waiting on the dough to rise thing, I decided I would also try out a recipe that Melissa found for Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls - these are outstanding!

I've made a lot of soups and meals for the freezer - if anyone is interested, check out the blog:  Once  A Month Mom.  There are some awesome recipes and they all include instructions for make ahead cooking.  As we try some of them, I'll share results if anyone is interested.

That's it for today - closing tonight so have to head to work now.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

My favorite crafty things!

I am working on cleaning my disaster of a scrapbook area this morning and as I was putting things back in their proper places - I noticed that I keep my FAVORITE crafty items right next to me.  I'm sure you can guess what they are:

1.  Black Cat Lynx! (if you are wondering about the tape on the Lynx - that is the mark to align my Cricut mat against for perfect positioning.)
2.  SVGCUTS Binder containing .pdf printouts of all the kits and collections I own - for easy reference!
3.  Scotch Spray Mount .- the absolute best solution I've found for keeping my mats sticky!
4.  Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive - the best glue I've ever used for paper crafting!

Here's a picture of the inside of my svgcuts binder - I printed all of the .pdf sheets 2 to a page and then used the half size sheet protectors.  The binder is my old stamp binder that I outgrew.  I now store my stamps in a file box.

These 4 items are ones that I use every single time I sit down at my scrapping desk.  What about you - what are your favorite crafty items?

Thanks for stopping by!

Epilepsy Awareness Blog Hop

Thank you for joining for our Epilepsy Awareness Blog Hop. You will see great projects and read about some of our personal experiences. There will also be blog candy along the way, so be sure to visit all the stops.

Epilepsy is a medical condition that produces different types of seizures. It affects 50 million people worldwide. If you would like to read more information about Epilepsy you can go to the Epilepsy foundation online at : http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/

Neither I or any of my immediate family members suffer from epilepsy. When my oldest daughter was younger she was evaluated for some seizures she experienced but they did not turn out to be epilepsy. My husband's step-mother has a nephew who has epilepsy and as a result, I've tried to become more active in promoting awareness. I have spent quite a bit of time reading on-line about the disease and I made that the focus of my layout for this blog hop - sites to visit and tidbits of info about events to raise awareness.

I apologize in advance for the quality of this layout - my paper trimmer desperately needs a new blade and I could not get a straight cut no matter how I tried. (On a side note - anyone have a recommendation for a new trimmer? Can't find blades for mine anymore - it's an OLD model.)  If you want to read the captions and such - you should be able to click and enlarge the image.

Please begin this hop at Holley's blog: http://www.holleybarnhartsblog.com/

Holley- http://holleybarnhartsblog.blogspot.com/(start hop here)

Ashley - http://www.especiallymade.blogspot.com/

Jessica- http://www.canyoupixelthis.com/

Lora - http://scrpbooklady.blogspot.com/ YOU ARE HERE

Michelle- http://www.craftychelle.blogspot.com/

Rexann- http://ibecircled.blogspot.com/

Lisa - http://handmadewithlove-lisa.blogspot.com/

Zenita- http://www.scrappinwithz.blogspot.com/

Sher- http://www.patternsbysher.blogspot.com/ (end of hop)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Costume . . . Check

I was motivated to make myself a costume this year in order to participate in the dress-up activities at work.  If you aren't aware, I work at Michaels Arts & Crafts......so here is my costume:

I may feel silly wearing it - but I think it turned out kinda cool! 

Can anyone help?????

Okay my crafty friends - I'm wondering if someone might be able to help me out? To complete my costume, I need some information off of a bottle of BURGUNDY Craft Smart acrylic from Michaels. We are out at work so I can't get the info I need.

What I am looking for is the paint names at the top - it's in English/French/Spanish. I tried a translator but it didn't work for the orange that I have on hand so don't want to trust it for Burgundy. If anyone has this color of craft smart, could you post the french and spanish names for me?

Thanks!!!!!

Halloween Treats were a Hit!

Just wanted to share this picture with everyone - this is Natalie dressed for her preschool Halloween party, showing off the treats Grandma made for her class.  Jennifer said she had a lot of fun passing them out!

A couple of Halloween Cards

Getting ready to ship the grandkids their Halloween box so I finished up their cards this morning - these are from the Haunted Hemlock Cards set at svgcuts.com!

For Daniel, the Moody Maple Avenue Card - I used glitter glue from the Michaels dollar bin on the moon, inked edges and used a ball point pen on the reverse side of the tree to give it a little texture.  Tree and ghost are mounted with foam dots.  Paper for the envelope is from K&Co.

Natalie's card is the Elegant Witches Hat - I used some glitter cardstock for the hat band, embossed the brim and flowers with the cuttlebug, added a couple of buttons and some rhinestone stars. Patterned paper for the envelope is K&Co.

Time to get ready for work.  Thanks for stopping by -  hope you have a great weekend!

Preschool Halloween Goodies

Living so far from my grandkids is especially hard when it comes to certain times of the year - Easter, Halloween, Christmas, their birthdays, etc.  This year, I was sad to miss Natalie's first day of school - so to be  part of it, I made her a "first day of school" card and sent it to her.

Her first school party is coming up - Halloween!  I asked if it was okay for Grandma to send something for the party and they told Jennifer that anything was welcome.  I played around with some different ideas, but I decided that since they had to be shipped that some of the cuter, shaped type of containers wouldn't ship as well as the basic "cracker" style tube.

Remembering that I had the free svg from svgcuts (12.01.09), I cut a bunch of them with various Halloween papers form K&Co., filled them and tied them with some ribbons.  I cut a few different shapes to embellish the tubes - embossed, inked and embellished them .....and voila.....20 treats ready to mail.

Been waiting all summer to take this pic!

This ramshackle barn sits a couple of miles down the road from where I live.  Ever since I've lived here in the middle of cotton country, I've envisioned a photo of this barn surrounded by the white fields of cotton. This is the first year since we've lived here that they actually planted cotton near the barn so I have been waiting all year for the perfect moment.

This morning, on my way to work, I noticed the fields were perfect - but I didn't have my DSLR.  I snapped this photo sitting in my car right smack in the middle of the road - I promise, I was watching both ways for traffic but on Sunday morning, it was pretty deserted. 

I took the photo in color, cropped it and converted it to black and white - and only then did I notice the hawk on the peak of the barn!

Check out this Breast Cancer Awareness activity!

My daughter lives in Fort Wayne, IN and she shared this on facebook - since I've been involved in the LUFP blog hop I thought it would be a neat thing to share here:

Bras Across the Bridge

 

Here's the link to the website with the story: WMEE

Epilepsy Awareness Blog Hop

Sherry Brown, from Patterns by Sher, is hosting an Epilepsy Awareness Blog Hop on November 11 and I am excited to be able to participate.

I've posted before about the Think Purple Store run by nieces of my step-mom-in-law - a shop they've set up to sell hand made purple items with proceeds going to cureepilepsy.org.

This blog hop is another chance for me to help champion epilepsy awareness - and maybe even send a few more customers to ThinkPurplE  Becky and Sammy even have a "stories" page where you can share your epilepsy story - diagnosis, treatment, etc.

I've got a couple of projects in mind for this hop - of course, you'll have to stop back November 11 to see what I come up with!  See you then!!!

Lora

Race for the Cure .... another LUFP entry

 

 Many areas sponsor a Race for the Cure as part of October's Breast Cancer Awareness activities. I decided to adapt one of my earlier runner's cards into a "race for the cure" card.  This would be a great card for someone who is participating in one of these events.

 

Background and border cut are some shimmery specialty papers I bought at HL a few years ago.  The runner is one of my own files cut from a scrap of pink cardstock.  The ribbon, race, and cure are files traced from the official race for the cure logo.  I mounted those items on a piece of clear vinyl packaging, added a couple of rhinestones for accent and mounted the whole piece using scrap pieces from my foam dots.  This card didn't photograph very well - I think due to the shimmer of the paper and the monochromatic color scheme - it's really much prettier in person.

I'm off to go look at some of the other great projects from LUFP - thanks for stopping by to see my entry!

Link Up For Pink Entry

Well, it's taken me a few days - had to wait for a day off - but I've finally completed my LUFP project.

I created a paper lantern using the following:

SVGCUTS.com - Crisp Days of Fall - I used the extra lantern that did not have the leaf pattern.
SVGCUTS.com - Supporter Ribbon - free file from 4/5/2010

and the digital papers - the pink diamond pattern and the pink butterfly (sorry you can only see a corner of this paper in the closeup) are freebies from Yolie's blog - Just Yolie.

I cut the lantern and supporter ribbons in pink cardstock, cut the vellum panes from a rose patterned vellum I've had in my stash for close to 10 years and then just added some ric-rac trim, a couple of large pink rhinestones, a sheer bow and a purchased butterfly accent.

Thanks for stopping by to take a look at my LUFP project - be sure to check out some of the fabulous entries linked on Yolie, Gaby and Celeste's blogs - you will be inspired!

A little late - but going to try to put together a project for the Link Up For Pink event sponsored by Celeste, Yolie & Gaby.

This is a great cause - check out the details and the great giveaways at Touched By A Butterfly.

Then, check back in a day or two to see what I come up with!

We Will Never Forget

In announcing my challenge a couple of weeks ago, I planned to share a few of the entries here this morning - but I did not receive a single completed project to share.

I did receive one email from Jeanette - she shared the following:

A couple of years ago we took our granddaughter to NYC to visit relatives.  While there we took the subway down to the ground zero sight.  Olivia was just a very little girl on 9/11/01 but we were able to tell her the story and show her the site as a teenager.  It was a very moving prayerful experience.

I found an image on a woodworking yard art site and created an scut file to use on the scrapbook page of our visit, unfortunately I still don't have the page done.  But I have retired now so I hope it will be soon.

The file that Jeanette shared with me was created from this picture that she found on a woodworking craft site:

The only other completed project that I can share with you this morning, is the t-shirt that my daughter made by creating an iron-on transfer of the file that I created.  She made and wore this shirt for the 5K Defender's Dash that she ran yesterday (she set a personal record and came in first in her age category - you can see more on her blog, Running For My Life).

My personal thoughts on this day of remembrance:

I will always remember exactly when I first heard of the attack - before anyone realized that it was an attack.  I was sitting in my doctor's waiting room when the receptionist stood up and announced that a small plane had just flown into the side of the World Trade Center.  By the time I came out of the doctor's appointment, the second plane had struck and our world had changed. I still had not seen any images but as I drove towards work, I was listening to the news on the radio.  I stopped at home to turn on the television and like most Americans, sat there staring at the horrific destruction.  I called my oldest daughter and woke her to announce that "America is under attack".  Then, because of the uncertainty of the day, I called my youngest daughter who was away at college in Michigan.  She was at class so I just told her room-mate to tell Jenn that we were safe.  I watched as the attack on the Pentagon was reported and then as reports of the crash of Flight 93 came in.  I watched in disbelief as the first tower fell.

I went to work after the first tower fell - I worked as an admin at a large call center where we provided customer service for AT&T.  The management team had brought out the large screen television and set it up in our command center so that everyone could remain aware of what was going on.  Many of the reps were fielding calls from family members frantic to reach their loved ones in NY. 

America UNITED and there were great displays of patriotism throughout our country following the events of 9/11/01 - not unexpected but absolutely amazing to witness.

The American Flag pulled from the rubble of the World Trade Center - proudly carried and displayed at the opening ceremony.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, 
and to the republic for which it stands, 
one nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty, and justice for all.

While I was searching for pictures of the American flag, I came across a blog post that sums up exactly how i feel today:

In the days, weeks and months following 9/11, our country was bathed in American flags as citizens mourned the incredible losses and stood shoulder-to-shoulder against terrorism. Sadly, those flags have all but disappeared. Our patriotism pulled us through some tough times and it shouldn’t take another attack to galvanize us in solidarity. Our American flag is the fabric of our country and together we can prevail over terrorism of all kinds.

This blog post was a call to action for the 8th anniversary of 9/11 - trying to get all Americans to fly the flag on that day.  You can read the full blog post here: Life is Like a Box of Chocolates.

If you read through this entire post (sorry I rambled and got wordy) - thank you for stopping by today.

Lora

First Experience with Heat Transfer Vinyl

I admit it, I'm a little behind on trying heat transfer vinyl.  I've been meaning to buy some for a while now to make shirts for work but I kept putting it off. 

If you follow my blog, you know my youngest daughter, Jennifer has been on a weight loss journey and as a part of her exercise routine, she took up running.  On September 24, she will run her first half-marathon and the family will be there to show our support.  She always makes herself some sort of motivational shirt for her races so I decided to design a "Team Jennifer" shirt for all of us to wear that day.

I designed and printed the round badge type logo onto a dark t-shirt transfer and ironed it on.  Then cut the letters using Siser Easy Weed Stretch vinyl.  We chose that type because it is recommended for use on athletic apparel so Jenn can also use it to make her shirts.  It cuts beautifully and is truly "easy weed".

What do you think?  

Do you need to make Grandparents Day Cards?

Grandparents day falls on 9/11/11 so it's not too late to make a card or two. If you are making cards, perhaps this greeting will be helpful. 

Simply click on the image to download this FREE .svg file.

Thanks for stopping by to visit my blog. Comments are greatly appreciated - and remember, if you use my files, I'd love pictures of your projects to share on my blog!

Lora

Don't Miss Out on this Deal!

It's no secret - I'm a HUGE fan of SVGCUTS.com!  I just have to share with all of you - their last 25% off sale for this year started today.  That's right - you can buy as many files as you want, and save 25% off.  You can even shop multiple times and reuse the coupon code.  The coupon code is good until Monday, Sept. 5, 2011.

I have to grab my notebook and go through the store to see what I want to get this time around.

If you want to join me in saving 25% off of your purchase, just click on the coupon image below and it will take you to the store!

Announcing: Notes from the Scrapbooklady Challenge #1

Earlier this morning, I posted my 9/11 memorial file that I created to make a window cling for my car.  9/11 is a date that I am sure is forever in all our hearts and minds.  This year will mark 10 years since that horrific day.  What are you, your family or your community doing to mark this date?

My challenge is this: share some type of paper craft memory or tribute to 9/11 - a card, scrapbook page, window decoration, etc. (and, NO, you do not have to use the memorial file).  It does not even have to be a new project - if you created something 10 years ago, feel free to enter that as well. Please - ONLY ONE project per person.  1-3 projects will be selected to prominently feature on my blog as a memorial tribute on 9/11/11. 

To enter your project, please email the following:

photo of your memorial paper craft project
a short personal reflection on 9/11 (will be published below your project if selected for the 9/11 post)
source credit for any digital or .svg files used
your name and blog address (if applicable)

EMAIL

In order to be considered for my 9/11 blog tribute, entries must be received NLT midnight CDT 09/09/11.

I will upload all entries to a Photobucket album as they are received and you will be able to see them in the slideshow that I have set up below:

I look forward to seeing all of your touching tributes.

New SVGs

Here are the latest svgs that I have created - all have been uploaded to my mediafire account and are available for free download - you can click on the picture to download a particular file or go to the SVG tab of my blog to access all available files..  Comments are greatly appreciated - and remember, if you use any of the svgs that I have shared, I'd love to see your work and feature it on my blog!

The silhouettes and Happy Birthday files below are the add-ons I used to make the birthday train card for my grandson - I used these in conjunction with the Santa Train from svgcuts.com.

And the files below are to create the runner cards that I am doing for my daughter - I don't know how many of you might have a use for these - but sharing just in case.  (ETA: the "are better off in" and "st. louis 10.23.11" are text and will not cut - these are meant to be printed onto the cardstock.  I normally print it onto a piece of white paper and then position the cut piece over top using temporary adhesive and run it through the printer again.  I haven't gotten brave enough to try calibrating my Lynx for PNC yet.)

Supporting Epilepsy Research

About a month ago, I was contacted by my husband's step-mom to help her nieces.  They were working to launch a store that they will stock with handmade "think purple" items with all proceeds going to benefit Epilepsy Research.  Becky's son Eli has epilepsy and they want to do what they can to help raise money for research.  The girls had a design idea and asked me to execute it in the form of a svg file that they could use to create products and also as a digital image for their store logo.

They have launched their website and are beginning to stock their store - currently they have handmade soaps but I know that there are many other products in the works and they will be added soon.

If you would like to check it out and support this very worthwhile cause, please visit them at:  ThinkPurplE

Are you Ready for some Football?

Mary over at svgcuts.com has created the cutest football/cheerleader collection - if only I had something to use these for.  My girls are grown and the grandkids aren't old enough yet.  We are big football fans though so may have to buy this one just to have on hand.

Remember, it's a free gift this week if you purchase $9.98 or more in other kits (and I never have a problem finding collections to purchase at svgcuts.com).  Click the picture below to purchase:

I am off work today and plan to try to do some crafting - let's see if I can get anything done!

Pondering the future of this blog......

Not sure what to do with my blog at this point - as much as I enjoy creating new files, etc.....the internet is full of such sites, many much more established than mine.  Notes from the Scrapbooklady is just a little fish in a great big ocean.  I don't have any corporate connections or sponsors so I can't offer great giveaways like some other blogs are able to do.

So, with these thoughts in my head, I am wondering what, if anything, I should add or change.  I am turning to the people who matter most in this matter - you, the reader.  Please leave me comments if you have any thoughts on the matter - positive and/or constructive comments are most appreciated.

Thanks,

Lora

I got my free gift!

I stayed up late last night and was still awake when Leo posted this sneak preview of the new kit at svgcuts.com:



I absolutely LOVE this and bought it as soon as I got up this morning - I have so many ideas on ways to use the elements in this kit. I wish I didn't have to work today so I could get started - but better go work so I can afford to buy some more paper - I'm burning through a lot of paper since I got my new Black Cat Lynx!

If you watched the video and would like to own this wonderful kit - click on the picture below! The kit is a bargain at $6.99 - but if you spend $9.98 on other kits you can get this kit free!

Have a wonderful day!

A special project.....

.....I'm working on creating several different cards that are suitable for ...... runners.  As I've mentioned, my daughter has taken up running and I believe is seriously addicted.  She was mentioning that she would like to get some cards to give to her runner friends before races - a good luck, support type of thing.

The crafter in me decided I could probably come up with something.  I did some browsing on sites with runner's gear just to get ideas for slogans and such and today I started playing.  I've made a couple of different designs so far and have ideas for several more.

I wish the glitter cardstock photographed better because I really LOVE how the card on the right turned out.  The rust colored one is not bad - but I realized I should have made the printed text a little larger/bolder.

The next two are the same except for the distance plaque in the middle - I did one for half-marathons and one for marathons.

It's almost Friday - hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

ETA:  One more for the night - had some ink on my fingers that transferred to the cardstock around the word "running" but other than that, I really like this one too!  The ink is platinum dew drops even though it looks almost white in this picture.

Birthday Train

I mentioned a week or so ago about making my grandson a birthday train for his party - well, I made it last Thursday night after work so that my husband could deliver it on Friday when he went north to visit his family.  I didn't take any pictures as it was after midnight when I finished it.

I decided I also wanted to make him a train themed card.  I played around with a few different files and ended up going back to the Santa's Train svg kit from svgcuts.com.  I made some modifications to the file to create a tri-fold card.  I also changed the wheels so that they were just circular instead of the peppermint candy shapes.  I did profile cuts of kids for the window inserts - I even included a profile of my granddaughter with her pigtails.  And, of course, Daniel is the engineer in his cap!  As this card is for a 2 year old, I used only one 3D embellishment - a button.  I also created the Happy Birthday cut to fit on the engine. The one thing you can't see very well in this picture is how dimensional it is - all of the wheels are raised, some of the trim pieces, and all of the train components themselves are raised from the background - lots of Zots and foam strips used on this.

Not sure yet if I will do any type of greeting or just sign the back and call it good.

What do you think? 

This card is just another example of how versatile the kits from svgcuts are. You can click on the Santa's Train image below to get your own kit from svgcuts.com:

Before I go, just want to let everyone know that there is a family medical situation that could result in my absence for a while - I will try to post and let everyone know but if you don't see or hear from me, please keep my family in your prayers. 

First Day of School Card

My granddaughter starts preschool in a couple of weeks and I thought this card would be perfect for her:

I made this using the School Days Kit from svgcuts.com - click on the picture below to buy yours!

Revised File

I've been playing around with the 9-11 cut file that I created yesterday and I finally was able to get the bottom text right side up - no time to cut it right now as I have to get ready for work - but here is the image from Inkscape:

Looks better, don't you think?

We Will Never Forget

We have a window decal at work for the 10 year anniversary of 9/11. I liked the basic idea of it, but I did not like that they made all of this merchandise as 9.11.11 - seems to me that it should still read 9.11.01 - that is the date we need to remember.  So, I took the idea and changed it up to make a file I can cut as a window cling. I don't have any white vinyl so I did a test cut on paper and it cut beautifully. 






What do you think?  Would you be interested in this file?

Have a great weekend everyone!

FUN?????

As you may know, my daughter, Jennifer, has been on an incredible weight loss journey.  She started running after Christmas last year and is now training to run her first half-marathon next month.  Today she did something a little different - "just for fun" - the Warrior Dash.  Here's her before and after pics:

The Warrior Dash is a 5K trail run complete with several military style obstacles. I'm not sure this would be my idea of fun but when she called she sounded like she really had fun with it! 

Congratulations Jennifer - you are an inspiration to us all!