What A Character! (Disney World)

Our challenge for you this week at Betty Bee's Buzz is to feature a character (Disney or other theme) on your card, layout, or project. You may use a photo, die cut, sticker...use your creativity and share with us!
I chose Mickey Mouse and our first family trip to Disney World in 2008. These are our first pictures from that trip and what the magic we saw when walking down Main Street USA. I am on the left, the two princesses are my twin girls, and my in-laws.

How fun to finally get started on this scrapbook from 3 years ago! I hope this inspires you to start (or complete) a project of your own :)

Light at the end of the tunnel...

Happy Friday! This has been a super bizzy week in the Houck house. 8 days ago dh & I moved our entire bedroom and closet belongings into our girls' bedroom and the spare bedroom. Last Friday the workers arrived and pulled up our wall-to-wall carpet upstairs and put down wood laminate. I am so pleased! It looks better than I imagined judging from the small store sample I chose. Friday night dh & I had to move all our master furniture and the other bedrooms' furniture into our bedroom. Saturday the workers finished the entire upstairs. We spent Sunday putting the upstairs back together and moving everything in the basement (including closets) into one corner of the basement. Monday the workers pulled up the basement berber carpet and put down wood laminate in half of the basement. That night we had to move it all to the finished portion. Tuesday I had to clear the living room, Wednesday the dining room (they put in hardwood steps on the stairs that day), Thursday the kitchen. Yep, I'm a little achy and sore.

You may recall I am moving my entire craft room to the basement. My parents came on Tuesday to help. I could not have survived without their help that day! My mom packed my china cabinet while my dad and I moved all of my craft room stuff to the basement. We worked from 8:30am-2:30pm. Then they went home before the snow storm started.

Today we have to vacate the main level of our house for 4 days while they sand and re-stain our existing hardwood floors in the kitchen/foyer and stain the new hardwood floors in the living room and dining room to match. We are moving into our basement for the next four days (don't worry...we have a small shower down there). That should give me time to get my craft room in working order and dh to set up the computer; but I honestly think those boxes are multiplying every time I go down there :)

Faux embossing technique

We challenge you to faux emboss on your card, LO, or other paper craft project at Betty Bee's Buzz. Link your creation to be eligible for our monthly blog candy....yum!

I made this card due to triple inspiration from Creating Keepsakes, Paper Crafts, and Betty Bee. The front covers of the current issues of CK magazine and Paper Crafts magazine enabled me :) I love the faux embossing on the cover of CK magazine and the card on the cover of Paper Crafts magazine. It was our Queen Bee herself, Mizz Betty, who inspired me to create "stripes" (faux embossing technique).

I found this sheet of double-sided paper and I knew it would become my wall paper. The border is flocked ribbon from the dollar bins at Michael's. I mentioned last week that I am in love with my cricut...the chair and chandelier are from the French Manor cartridge. My sentiment is created from an SU punch and American Crafts rub-on alphas (Katie font.) I popped up the chair with foam tape and added Heidi Swapp gems to the chandelier. Should this be my valentine for my dh?

Sketch Inspiration at Artful Delight!

Trisha from Sketch Inspiration is inviting Artful Delight to play along with their sketch this week!  And a good one it is...wanna see?

  I knew I wanted to use the papers in my January Artful Delight Card kit to create a valentine.

That cool pink jute is included in the card kit as well as the hand-made button & flower embellishment.

Other supplies:
embossing folders:  Cuttlebug "Bloom Dots" and Cuttlebug "Heart Blocks"
white rub-on words:  Making Memories "Remember"

Artful Delight is sponsoring Sketch Inspiration this week.  Create your card or LO using the sketch above and link to Sketch Inspiration.  See you there!

Sweet Treats Cupcake Shape Card

I made this card on Wednesday using my new Cricut Sweet Treats cartridge that dh gave me for Christmas. (I just got my cricut in November and this is my 3rd time using it.) It took some trial and error learning how to get the different die cuts and what settings to use on various papers. I learned a lot and I am in love with my cricut!

What I learned: Multi Cut button and set blade on 4 to cut through textured card stock or 80 lb. card stock...at least this worked well for me. This did not mar my mat nor did I have bits of paper tears.
The next time I use my cricut will be much quicker and no mis-cuts :)

Happy Friday!!!

Coaster Calendar

This week at Betty Bee's Buzz our theme is "calendar." I made this coaster calendar just for ME to put in my craft room. This is a picture of me and my dd Julia snuggling last January. I love Julia snuggles :)
Pictured above are February (me & my sweet sweet sister), March (K&J), April (Kathryn) and May (Julia).
June (my dad &with K&J), July (Julia @ beach), August (K, me, J, and my Grandma), and September (Kathryn).
October (Kathryn), November (my family), and December (dh shoveling snow).

What does your new calendar look like? I hope YOUR New Year's resolution is to make something for yourself :) For more calendar ideas, head over to Betty Bee's Buzz!

We are moving...sort of...

Doug and I have spent the past couple of weeks purging closets. Beginning this Friday we are having our wall-to-wall carpeting removed on all three floors. It is so badly worn and stained from our children that it will not get clean any longer. The entire upstairs (bedrooms) and basement will have pergo (medium oak) hardwood laminate. The main floor (kitchen, foyer, living room, and dining room) and both staircases will be hard wood (medium oak). By Friday I have to have everything off of the walls and furniture moved out of the upstairs, including closets. When that is finished I have to move everything out of the basement, including closets. When all the pergo is in, I have to pack up the main floor (china cabinet...ugh) the workers will begin installing the hard woods on the main floor and we will have to move out of the house for 4 days! I am excited about these big changes. I am also moving my craft room from the small upstairs bedroom to a larger room in the basement. Right now my living room and dining room is full of crafty stuff...it is kind of embarrassing how much there is...the first step is to admit I have a problem, right? :)

I will try to post craft projects whenever possible...I do have a treat for you tomorrow! I hope you will bear with me and understand why I will not be able to craft or blog much for the next 3 weeks or so. If you come by my house, I may put you to work. If all goes well, I hope to be organizing my new craft room over MLK weekend. Any volunteers?