I'm glad He has plans for me!

Well Christmas is here and amidst all the craziness in this world, the holidays have seemed a little less joyful just recently.  I don't know what my Heavenly Father has planned for my life but I know I can trust Him.  He gives us all free will to make our own choices and I am choosing to listen and follow Him.  It seems so unfair that evil has to even exist in this world but it does and some use their free will for evil.  As the horror unfolded in CT and the fiscal cliff looms, this is what God has laid on my heart.  I created this piece out of trust and faith.  It felt good to be reminded that God is ever watching over us and if we will just trust Him and live within His will, we will be fine. I made it back right after Thanksgiving but decided that passing this message along to someone for Christmas would bring back some joy.  I hope you and your loved ones have a blessed Christmas and that God is who you turn to when times are hard.
Blessings,
Jana

WhooHooo! Blog Award!

What a great week it has been.  I have been chosen by two wonderful blogger friends for the Liebster Blog Award. First by my sweet design team sister Amanda from Crick'tn Crafts and then from Misty at Sevens... I feel very blessed to have been chosen for this award.  I hope you will visit their blogs and see what great things they have to offer you in the way of great deals and great inspiration.

"Liebster" is German for "Dearest" and the award is given to an inspirational blogger with 200 followers or less.  So thank you Amanda and Misty!  I try to inspire and I see that you appreciate it :)

I am supposed to now pass on the love by doing the following:


1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.
2. Link back to the blogger who presented you the award .
3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers.
5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment on their blog.
So here are my 5 bloggers... 
1. Letilla at http://divaof5.blogspot.com
2. http://upstairsinthescraproom.blogspot.com
3.  http://thecraftydream.blogspot.com

I am currently working on finding others that I think are deserving of this award.  I'll update soon! :) I am having too much fun visiting all the blogs I follow since I have not had time to do so in a long time!


4.
5.

Cricut Cartridge Challenge Day Five!

Hello everyone!
Welcome to the last day of the Cricut Cartridge Challenge week.  I have had a blast making projects this week with one of my many seldom used cartridges along with the great stamps from K. Andrew Designs.  I hope you have been able to click on the link ups below and visit some of the other bloggers and designers participating this week.  Leave em' some bloggy love, it will make their day!
Today I decided to create a layout I have been thinking about for a long time.  Who says Kristal's stamps are just for cards, right???  The cartridge usage was minimal but I got so excited about the fabric strip flowers that I didn't have much room left for cuts.  I think it adds just the right touch though.

This is a terrible photography job, I apologize.  I usually end up taking my pics at night and the lighting is really hard to deal with.  The glare makes it look like I used a flash but I didn't.  Oh well, I wanted you to get to see the entire layout.  I printed the paper and filled all the cuts with the Blossom Imagine pattern cartridge.  It's a really pretty cartridge.  I embossed the blue swirls in the bottom corner using a fun stamp that I have no recollection of where I got it :)

 This is my sweet daughter at her first dance ever.  She was in 6th grade and the boy she was with, yes that is a boy, was a nice kid but a real goober.  They had fun, but the pre-dance primping that occurred was somethin' else.  It was sad and fun watching her be so excited.  This was the picture that they had taken at the dance.  Notice the fold lines.  She pulled it out of her pocket when she came home from school one day!  She had no idea the plans I had for it.

 She had her first pair of heels that she was determined to wear even though it made her taller than her "date".  She is 14 and still doesn't date.  She met him at the dance.  This is the perfect sentiment stamp for this picture.  It is from K. Andrew's set called Fashionable Friends.  I have used it in all my projects this week and LOVE it!

 These fabric strip and ribbon flowers are so fun to make, I might have to teach you some day if you don't already know how to make them.  They are SUPER easy!

Here is the pretty girl from the Forever Young cartridge.  I just love these silhouette girls on this cartridge.  Thanks a ton to those of you that have stopped by each day this week.  I hope you have been inspired to be creative in some way or another.  Please stop in at K. Andrew Designs and check out the wonderful stamps.  With each purchase Kristal donates money to various charities.  Also, don't forget to visit some of the awesome blogs that are linked up below!
Thanks for stopping in,
Blessings,
Jana

Cricut Cartridge Challenge Day Two!

Ok, I am so sorry my post is so late tonight.  I just finished helping the 5th grader in my house make her valentine box, it is a large blue guitar???  What ever happened to pink and red hearts????  Then the 8th grader had to have paper mustaches for the lollipops she is giving to her friends.  Of course that meant an hour in the Cricut Craftroom figuring out how t o purchase a digital cartridge.  Which I ended up buying twice?  Some where in there we had tryouts for little dribbler basketball which I ended up getting volunteered to coach again this year.  Cookies baked, laundry only half done, kitchen cleaned, what else....oh yea!  Cricut projects!!!!
I have had so much fun with this weeks challenge of using a Cricut cartridge I have had for a while but not used much to make a project each day.  I have chosen to use Forever Young, it is the perfect match to the K. Andrew stamp set Fashionable Friends.  It has been a lot of fun and thanks to YouTube for great inspiration. This card idea came from StampTV on YouTube.  I hadn't made a "gate card" before so I thought I would give it a try and given the kind of day I've had, it looked simple enough :)

This card is 5 x 7 finished so I cut the cardstock 10 x 7 and scored it 2 1/2 inches from each side so that it folded and met in the middle.  I used blue paper from my stash and then colored the cuts from Forever Young with colors built into my imagine.  I love the sentiment from Fashionable Friends.  Kristal Andrew is such a great stamp designer.  Go HERE to check out her great stamps.  The best thing is that you get a great set of stamps but even better is she donates to a charity for every purchase made from her.  She is so generous!

 So the lady on Stamp TV said it was a gate card "with a twist" and at first I couldn't figure that out but then as she put the two panels on the front I saw what she meant.  She attached the top one on the right and the bottom one on the left so that they kind of interlock when you open and close it.  Cute and simple!

I just love these shoe cuts.  These are cut at like 1 1/2 inches and the Imagine makes a perfect cut.  Love it!!!!  Here is the stamp set that I used.  Feel free to hop over to K. Andrew Designs and pick one up for yourself!

Also don't forget you can link up your Cricut and K. Andrew design below.  Share your talent, get more hits on your blog, have fun and play with us!  :)

Owly Preview Week Day 5 - Last Day!

Hey Everyone!
I hope you have had as much fun this week as I have.  Today is the last day of the preview then the "U R So Sweet Blog Hop" will start tomorrow night at 8pm CST.  So make sure you scroll to the bottom of this post to see the many ways you can enter to win a K. Andrew Stamp set of your choice! This is the last day to comment on this weeks posts, visit Facebook, become a follower and the rest listed below!  Now get on it people!!!!  You NEED  some K. Andrew Stamps!!!!!  (Sorry, got a little passionate there for a bit :)
On to my project...

Today's project is a layout that I made using the Cricut Imagine cartridge Blast Off.  I love everything about this cartridge.  It's bright colors, fun fonts, ability to layer the fonts, even though I chose not to on this project.

The flowers or rosettes were made by cutting two scalloped circles, scoring them, folding them and putting them together.  One of these days I will get some tutorials going and show you how I made them.  I'm not quite ready for that yet :)
I love the buttons, who doesn't like buttons but what I really like is the puff ball ribbon I came across in my stash!  Cute eh!

Of course the sentiment is from the Owly Hoo  set and was absolutely perfect for this.  My daughter is truly a hoot!  Or maybe better said, a goober!  She is so fun and the stamp was so fitting.  So, below you can see the whole set and you can click on it to head over to K. Andrew Designs to get one of your own.  If you enter JANAFREESHIP upon checkout, you will get free shipping, what a deal!

Want to win a K. Andrew stamp set of your choice? At the end of the week I will be totaling up the number of times you do one of the following and entering your name into a drawing.  You can only comment on my blog once a day but there are other ways to enter.   Here are ways that you can enter to win:

1.  Be a follower of my blog, if you are not already

2.  Leave a new comment on each new post this week (Sunday through Thursday)

3.  Add my button to your blog, then comment to say you did

4.  Visit the Getting Cricky with K. Andrew Facebook page, "like" it and say that I sent you

5.  Follow me by email (enter your email address at the top right of this blog and comment that you did so I will know!

Each time you do this I will enter your name into a good old fashion random drawing.  I will pick 5 names and each person will get to choose a K. Andrew stamp set of your choice!  Woohoo!

Winners will be on Sunday, January 22 so check back to see if you are a winner!
BTW, you can NOW see the new Valentine sets from K. Andrew...You can also pre-order them!  Go HERE to check them out.  When you purchase during preview week, just enter JANAFREESHIP and you will get free shipping!  Go to her BLOG to see the very latest release, you will love them!

And for MORE inspiration during Preview week, check out my participating design team sisters below to see their projects featuring the stamps sets listed by their names.

Thanks for stopping by and blessings to you!

Jana

Freebie Friday a Day Late :0)

Well, last week was a wild one and I thought for once I was gonna have my act together but apparently not!  I am just now getting my post done for yesterday!  Oh well, at least it is done.

It's Freebie Friday at Jen's Digi Stamps Blog and it is a cutie!  I used the stamp to make an ornament.  I printed it two times, one I flipped then colored them both.  Then I just added a bow, wire for the antennae and a string to hang it.  When I glued them back-to-back I made sure not to glue the wings together so that I could separate them so it looked like he was flying.

 I have a little tip for projects that you color then cut out.  Try to cut right on the black out line then after you are finished cutting, take your black marker and lay it on the side of the cut and run it along side the cut edge.  That will make the white edges black and it helps cover up your cutting mistakes!  I do this with all my cuts.
I hope you enjoy the little critter.

I wanted to also remind you that the image is still available on the blog.  All you have to do is right click on it and choose "save image..." and choose where you will store it on your computer then you can insert it into a blank document and print it out any size you want!

I thought it would be neat for teachers to add it onto notes home or on worksheets or even make cute little Christmas cards for their students.  Just a few of many ideas I am sure you can come up with!
I hope you are enjoying a relaxing Saturday.
Blessings,
Jana

Polka Dot Challenge

Today is challenge day at Jen's Digi Stamps.  If you go to her blog then you can read about the challenge, link up your project for a chance to win a prize and see what the other design team members have created.  This is my project for the Polka Dot Challenge.  now I have to say, I am disappointed in myself.  I LOVE polka dots.  Polka Dots on anything and everything!!!  And LOTS of them!  But I fell a little flat on this one because I was trying to create a different type of card.  It is a spinner card.

 I bought a new book at Michael's that was on clearance called Interactive Cards by Tanya Fox.  It is an "Annie's Attic" book.  If you google spinner card, you can find directions to make them.  It is really quite easy and fun. The sentiment was stamped with one of K. Andrew Designs stamp sets called "Winter Wishes".  It is a mix-n-match set so there are a ton of uses for it.  Plus I really like buying from her because she donates to great charities with every single stamp set purchased.  Great girl!

 I used one of Jen's Digi Stamps and after coloring it, I cut it out and apart so there were two pieces, the puppy and the snowman.  Since the puppy has swiped the snowman's arm, I thought it would be funny if her were to "grab it and run!"  So the slider come in to play.

BTW, the inspiration for the coloring on the puppy was my dog Tiki.  Cutie pie!!!

Anyway, back to the project.....The puppy is attached to a penny that is stacked on a foam pop dot and then stuck to another penny.  When you tilt the card, the puppy spins across it with the snowman's arm trying to "get away"!  It cracked me up.  I need to make videos so I can show you how these work.  Maybe I will try one some day.  There are so many out there, not sure why I would want to compete but it might be kind of fun.

So how is this a challenge you ask?  You are challenged to create a project using polka dots!  Easy peesy!  Then just head over to Jen's blog and link it up for a chance to win.  It's very simple indeed!  I hope you will choose to play along.  If not, at least check out the other projects that our design team has posted on Jen's blog, they are very cute!

I have entered my card in a number of other challenges also - check out these challenge blogs:
foreverfriendschallengeblog.blogspot.com
4craftychicks.blogspot.com
ppp-makeitmonday.blogspot.com
ooh-la-la-creationschallenges.blogspot.com
Have fun!
Blessings,
Jana

Colorful Colorado

Hi Everyone and welcome to all of my new followers that joined during the Doggie Walk.  Thanks so much to all that participated, it was so much fun and there were so many kind comments left, thanks for all of the encouraging words! And a BIG thanks to Wendy and Gilby of Gilby's Crafster blog  for inviting us to play along.  Thanks Wendy!  BTW, you can check Wendy's blog for a list of the winners of the "Doggie Treats".

This summer my family went to my husband's old stompin' grounds in Colorado.  My daughters had never been out of state and were so excited and they were just in awe of the beauty God has created there.  The next few days I will be sharing some of the layouts that I am creating for our Colorado scrapbook.  The girls are dying to go back in the winter so I will have more to add.

Here is the page that will start the album.  I was kinda bummed that I didn't get a picture of the "Welcome to Colorful Colorado" sign that you see when going over Raton pass.  We got caught in a hail storm!  It was actually a nice surprise (not dangerous, though) because we hadn't gotten any rain in Texas ALL summer so rain was welcomed in any form :)

So I made my own "Colorful Colorado" sign using my Gypsy on the trip home.  It is similar to the graphics on the real sign.  I used Don Juan for the font and Enjoy the Seasons Imagine cartridge to fill in the letters.  not necessarily my favorite patterned paper but I like the way it turned out.  We took a TON of pictures so I tried to include some of the ones that wouldn't necessarily "star" in a page of their own across the bottom.  Although, those darling chipmunks will be seen again!

The little mountain scene came from Campin' Critters, which I bought JUST for this project.  It has so much in it that fits, LOVE IT!

The flowers were cut from Mother's Day Bouquet and filled with Enjoy the Seasons also.  I decided, or it was my mood at the time, that I want to keep the layouts pretty simple so the beautiful scenery can be the focus, so I am using white for most of the background papers.  I'll use some patterns but I want to keep it clean and simple.

In addition to focusing on the pictures, I am also choosing a scripture to go with each layout.  For this page I chose Isaiah 40:12 - "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, or with the breadth of His hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?"  Sometimes I find it hard to understand the power that God really has on this earth, but the earth itself is proof of His power to create.  I loved the scripture and about how He made this earth with His hands, so I decided to put my hand to the layout.  I hand painted the  branches and tendrils coming out from the flowers.  I am pleased with it.  To Him the glory I give.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,

Jana

Oh to Be 13...

Ok, so this is one of my favorite layout kits EVER!!!  A big shout out to Monique Griffith!!  Woop woop!!!  Sorry, I know...a little carried away but this kit was so fun to put together.  Sometimes when I am not feeling very creative I pull out a page kit that I have purchased either online or at the Great American Scrapbook Convention.  Page kits are one of the reasons I LOVE to go to convention.  You get to see them in person to be able to check out the quality and even meet the inspiring person that designed them. 
Today I am sharing with you a kit that I bought online after it was posted on the Cricut.com message board by Monique herself.  This woman is talented and better yet, she uses the Cricut in her kits.  Love it!!!  You can find her fabulous kits at www.MoniqueGriffithDesigns.com. 
On to the layout.  It was fun using pictures that my daughter and her friends had taken with their iPods and then altered in their "CamWow" app.  I thought they fit the layout well.  I wouldn't call my daughter a "tough girl" but she likes to pretend...don't all 13 year olds. :)

 As you can see, there are 9 different images used from the Rock Princess Cricut cartridge.  That comes up to 63 different cuts! (14 of them were the little stars)  Don't panic though, Monique makes it much easier by listing them on a cutting chart by color.  So all the cuts from white paper were listed first, all black cuts listed etc. She gives the page number from the handbook, blade depth and pressure if you need it.  She also gives the size.  I made it even easier and arranged all my cuts in my Gypsy, so I only had to send it to cut about 7 times because I would arrange up to 3 colors of papers on my mat and the matching cuts on the Gypsy screen and then send them all to cut at once.  With out the Gypsy, I could see this layout taking DAYS!  I used the regular Gypsy app but cut it with my Imagine!

 I popped the images up with pop dots and inked all the edges with black Color Box pigment brush pad and Monique suggested using a silver Gelly Roll pen to add the dot accents all over the page and it really added great detail to the overall layout.

 I just loved this girl.  She is the reason I bought the kit.  Doesn't she just look so smooth and cool?  Oh and the girl in the pic is pretty cool too, right?  hehe!

 The crown was fun too. I added the silver gel dots and then used my Glossy Accents by Inkssentials to give it a little more shine and then dotted them again with the silver after it dried.

This project was tedious but fun.  Sometimes I like a challenge.  It wasn't hard by any means though, just plain fun, but then again I like really hard puzzles too :)

I also learned that my daughters goofy iPod pictures are actually pretty cool sometimes. So after I finished this layout, I plugged her iPod into my computer and "borrowed" some more fun pics that I will post in my next favorite page kit.  That will come a little later this week. 

Thanks for stopping by!
Blessings,
Jana

Snow Day Creations

These are layouts that I made during my last trip to the Covered Bridge Inn. That is one of my favorite places. It is a bed and breakfast just for scrapbookers! Scrapbooking heaven on earth. Good food, comfy beds, great friends and a very inspiring atmosphere. Hope you like what you see.

This was created with my new Imagine Cricut machine that my wonderful husband got for me for Christmas. The retreat in February was the first time I got to use it. Everything you see in these layouts was printed and cut with my Imagine.

Oh, and did I mention, I also fell in love with Stickles this weekend. It was the icing on these layouts since they were snow pictures. But I have since decided that there is no need for snow to use Stickles. Bling! Bling!

Kyrah was being so silly that day. She had no idea I would be scrapbooking these pics. Silly girl! Doesn't she know I scrapbook everything! :)
I really love this snow angel. She turned out really cute. I used the Snow Angel Imagine cartridge. It is by far one of my favorites!

Ok, so today was so much fun. I went on a very LONG but inspiring blog hop today. It was Bonnie's 39 and Glamorous Blog Hop. Happy Birthday Bonnie! You can check out her blog here. There are so many creative people participating. After you did all the hopping then you had to complete a challenge that included 13 key items in it. Some of them were vintage, grunge, glamorous, bling, pink, white, black, purple, skull, bow, key but I can't remeber them all. So here is what I came up with. I hope you like it, it was a fun challenge!

I printed the background paper on my Imagine from the Audrey cartridge and then all of the die cuts were also cut on the imagine using my Rock Princess cartridge. Love that cartridge! Let me know what you think by leaving a comment. I am so new at this blogging thing everything I do is a new thing to learn. BUT...I have 2 whole followers :) Yay! me! Thanks for stopping by!