Happy Halloween!

Hi Everyone!!! This one is going to be short, but I did complete two Halloween cards using the Happy Hauntings Cartridge! I have been working on rearranging the craft space and seem to have tossed the sticky that had the sizes of my cuts. Sorry. :(

Here are my two Halloween cards. I hope to have some more cards SOON!! (not Halloween). I have the Cricut Lite Meow Cartridge that I got on clearance at Wal Mart yesterday.  I also still need to make cuts with the Campin Critters and Cars cartridges. So much to do so little time....

 I LOVE how this mouse turned out.  I am pretty sure I will be cutting out a bunch of these! I used Stickles on his pumpkin.

I used the gypsy to weld two of the 'shift shapes' together for the card. The inside has the same sentiment as the mouse.  I used Glossy Accents for the first time (crazy I know!) on the door.
I'm thinking about cutting out some little ghosts for the balconies.

I am wanting to try the 3D haunted house sometime soon. Is anyone else thinking about Halloween yet?

Thanks for stopping by!!!!
~Jen

Another FREEBIE!!

Happy Almost Friday!!!! Guess what Jim came home with today (for me)? The floral department at our grocery store apparently received new organizational tools/gadgets etc. That meant "out with the old!" He came walking through the door knowing he had scored something good!  Here it is...

Are you as excited as me? I am sure you would be much more excited had you been the recipient of the freebie!  Ready to see what I did with it?  I had plans to make a couple cards tonight and do a couple things around the house, but.....first things first!!!!

 WELL NOW!!!! Whatever will I do now that all of that ribbon isn't stuffed in a drawer. I'm pretty sure I don't need to purchase any for awhile. Well, there wasn't really any Christmas related ribbon on there (and there is still room for more).
Taking the ribbon out of the drawer and some of it off the spools took up my evening. We watched Wheel of Fortune, Jeopardy and Jen playing with her ribbon and the freebie! LOVE IT!!!! (Thank you <3)

Of course there were some things that were displaced to make room for the freebie.  Some were given homes already, the others, well tomorrow is another day.

Thanks for stopping by.  Keep your eyes open for those freebies!!!!!!

~Jen

May Your 30's RIP -- Paper flower bouquet

Hi Everyone! Thanks for stopping by!

It was our friend's 40th birthday and I was looking for something different to give/make her. I decided to make her a paper flower bouquet! Of course knowing everyone else had plans to make sure she didn't forget this one was #40, I couldn't make it alllllllll pretty. My reminder came in the shape of tombstones the whole way around the pot.  The tombstones say "30-39 RIP"  I think it turned out really well and it was definitely a hit around the office today.
Happy Birthday Dallas!!!

The flowers were cut at 3.5, 2.5, and 1.5 using the Walk In My Garden cartridge.
The flowers with the 4 and the 0 were cut using the Songbird Cartridge.
The tombstones were designed on my Gypsy and cut using the Happy Hauntings Cartridge.
The brads and tombstone papers were from my stash.
The paper on all flowers (except the 40 flowers) is Chatterbox Scrapbook Walls and Pixie Press Ensemble.
The flower pot is made  by Jim and is made from pallet wood!

I did put a piece of floral foam inside the pot and then covered it with moss. The stems are made from a wire material I had sitting here.

It was a lot of fun to make. I am entering it into two challenges.
1. The Fantabulous Cricut Challenge #74 . The challenge is to enter a birthday themed project.
2. The Paper Playtime Challenge #53. This challenge is an anything goes challenge.
Please stop by both websites, especially if you are in a creative rut! There is plenty of inspiration out there!!!

Thanks so much for stopping by. Please leave a comment so we know you were here!
Happy Middle of the Week ~Jen

Welcome Fall! Part 2

Hello Blogger Friends! I have found the dining room!!! I sure hope I am not the only one that makes such a message when redecorating the house. The bathroom needs some finishing touches, or maybe it has the finishing touches and needs the big stuff, either way it isn't finished, but the couple pieces left to go in there don't make too much of a mess! I have my ladder in the living room left to decorate and then I think that is it. Then it will be time to take the totes back upstairs until October when it will be time to do it all over again for Halloween.

Remember the drawers? The free ones? Here is how one of them got put to use!

There use to be a couple crates on this dresser.  The cycle begins.  They were displaced to make room for the drawer.  The crates now sit here!

 YEP! I was serious, I had the big ladder out!!!! I am way too short to reach on top of those cupboards!

On to the dining room. This is my favorite time of year for our dining room. The colors of fall go perfectly with the light!

 Yep! That is a victrola in the corner! Between both our families we have been given some pretty cool treasures that have been around for quite some time and have pretty neat stories to go along with them!

 I must confess that for some reason I was amazed by myself with how this turned out!

Patches wanted to be in another picture so he made his way into the dining room!

This is how we are welcoming fall! It has been too many days since I've played with paper so maybe the next post will have a paper creation.

As always, Thanks for stopping  by. Let us know you were here. Have a good week!!
~Jim and Jen

I LOVE free stuff!!!!!

Hi Everyone! This post is going to be short. When I got home from work on Friday my neighbors had some stuff set out to the curb.  They must have known the stuff wasn't quite ready for the landfill yet because garbage day isn't until Monday night/Tuesday morning. I walked down and checked it out and then....I walked the stuff three houses up the street to our house! I chuckled at myself the whole way.
The brain started thinking. That is probably why it took so long to find the dining room.  I would work on decorating the dining room and cleaning up that mess and then I would have to sit down and try to bond with my new found FREE treasures.  Of course they were pictured here doing this and pictured there doing that. I would get back up and go back to the fall decorating and then I would get the "I wonder..." and I would sit and look some more or do some measuring. Well, here are the free treasures!

 Two drawers and a table! These drawers are pretty serious business. I have put one to use (will see in a later post) and the other will make the trip upstairs until its use comes to one of us. The table is a cute little table. I think it's life as a table has come to an end. I am pretty sure the legs will go down to the spindle stash in Jim's shop and there is a good chance the table top will become a sign!

 Doesn't this have a nice sign shape to it? Turn your computer monitor upside down if you can't see it. *he he he* When these items meet their new purpose there will be a post. I will be sure to repost some of these befores to compare to the afters.

Now I just need to see my neighbors to thank them for my new treasures! Have a great day everyone!!!!
:) Jen

Welcome Fall!

 Hey Everyone! I thought it was time to get the sunflower stuff out. Well, some things just didn't look right and I didn't have solutions for others. So, one thing led to another and all the "fall totes" came downstairs. The mantel is done! I wish I could say the same for the rest of the house, but it is a process for me. I don't mind too much that it takes a couple days to get it all done. Those couple days are the couple days a month you hope your Mom doesn't stop by because the house is trashed a creative mess. Still working out the details for what will go IN the fireplace, but the mantel is now welcoming fall. I am pretty pleased with it. I will share pictures of the progress in other parts of the house as it happens.

Here's the 'blank canvas!' WOW! It looks so weird this way!

 I asked Jim to build me a couple cubes. Before he could get them all built I changed what I wanted them for. Production is stopped at one for now, but I'm pretty sure we'll be getting some more of these cubes, boxes, crates, whatever you want to call them, in the future.  The best part? FREE!! Made from pallet wood!

 I'm calling this side the top. Pretty cute huh? Maybe I'm just weird in what I find cute.

Check out this bear!!!! Isn't he sweet? My friend Geri over at Sister #5 Designs picked this guy up for my birthday! She got him at a yard sale. Yard sales are perfect for treasure hunting. I love him! He's made out of someone's old quilt. How sweet! I hope Patches can be a boy's name because I think that is what I am going to call him.  Thanks so much Geri! He's perfect!!!!

 Here's the end result! Isn't the scarecrow cute sitting on that box? Kinda like a hay bale??? I'm going with it!


The star on a stick in the middle of the mantel and the crow on a stick to the right of the mirror are both things Jim made. Both were made out of things already in the shop! I'm pretty sure more stars and crows will be popping up around the house!!!



The whole picture! I'm quite happy with it!!! 

 A different angle. The barrel is something I purchased from Geri at the consignment shop where she has a space! Until yesterday, this was is in the dining room. I love being able to change our look just by moving pieces around. A new look doesn't require shopping, just shuffle things around. I do it often and love how just a couple changes can change the look of the piece and of the room.
The wheel is a family heirloom and the rocking chair was given to me by Mom!


A couple more pics!

Thanks for stopping by! Please leave a comment and let me know you were here. Follow the different links above and give Geri a shout out too! Happy Fall Ya'll!!!!!  ~Jen

I am also linking up at

Memories from the beach!

Hey everyone! Another weekend is almost over. Why do they go by so quickly?
We went to the beach a couple weeks ago. We came home with some beach glass, a sea gull feather, and some driftwood, and of course pictures!! We used all of those things, plus some scrapbook paper, glue, nails, and a frame from the local hobby store to make a frame of our own! Here is how it turned out.  We each played a part in the end result!

Of course the "J" shaped rock had to be included! I think it turned out pretty cute! How do you preserve your memories?  Thanks for stopping by! Please leave us a comment and have a good week!
~The J's

My first Gypsy Creation and it is for Cricut Cardz Challenge #87!

Hi Everyone! I finally created my first project using my gypsy. The challenge over at the Cricut Cardz Challenge blog are having challenge #87 this week and the challenge is to make a thank you card using hearts any cartridge(s) of your choice. The only thing that can't be used? Red and pink!
My project is a long ways from red or pink or even Valentine's Day for that matter.  I used my Gypsy to weld together the heart from Plantin Schoolbook and the dracula from Happy Hauntings. There are some things I will tweak before making another one, but I'm pretty pleased with my first ever Gypsy project.

 I was having some camera issues, but really wanted you to be able to see the whole inside of the card!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see you again soon! (maybe even over on the right in the followers column)

Have a good night! ~jen

Home is Where your Honey is!!!!!!

Over at the Fantabulous Cricut blog this week they are having a challenge to make a project with a bug on it. Here is what I have made! We were out and about a week or so ago and saw a sign hanging on a wall with the saying "Home is where your honey is." Yep, we all know where this is going. I had to come home and at least sketch the project out so I wouldn't forget. Here is what I came up with. It was the first run at the concept, but I am pretty pleased! I will definitely be making a smaller version and putting it on cards.

The bee hive and the bees were cut from the Walk in My Garden cartridge. The bee hive was cut using the fit to page for a 12 x 12 sheet. I put magnets on the back of this and it is currently hanging on the fridge!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!! ~Jen

Saturday's yard sale treasures...

Yesterday's yard sale adventures turned out to be really good for the craft room! It was like the birthday fairy scheduled this yard sale just for ME! The ad in the paper listed some of the things that would be at the sale and in that list was "scrapbooking (cricut)." That address was now the FIRST stop of the day.

We pull up and there is someone going through the scrapbook supplies. Yes! My heart sank a little. I walk towards the same table and there sits this Gypsy! I have it in my hand looking at it, it was still wearing the original plastic that covered the display. I asked the girl how much. I hadn't figured out how much was too much but figured we would cross that bridge when we got there. She says "Fifty dollars." and I say "SOLD!" She shows me all the different cords and tells me she has used it THREE times. Happy Birthday to Me!!!!!

She was selling her carts for $20 each. I picked up the Nursery Rhymes cart. There was also a huge stack of paper for $5. Lots of embellishments and a BRAND NEW, still in all of the packaging,  Your Story. Amazing price of $35. Came home with some other odds and ends too. Jim got a new tool box. It is very cool! I told him I was taking it for my craft desk. :) I didn't and I won't.

The Gypsy! I know you've all seen one before, but this one is now MINE!

There were other yard sale treasures as well! The tall Santa was only 50 cents!!!! I figured that since it was later in the morning his price was too high ~ imagine my surprise when the sticker said .50. Everything in this picture... $1.25.

We finished the day off by going to the beach. Lake Erie, Conneaut Ohio. A day at the beach is good for the soul! The Conneaut Lighthouse can be seen in the distance.

Our lake rocks we brought home. I was going to share the beach glass with you, but that picture apparently doesn't want to be seen.

Hope you are having great weekend too! Thanks for stopping by!

~Jen