Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Invitations

     Sometimes Mother Nature is laughing at us.   I feel for all my friends and family up north as I believe anything under 70 F is freezing. I think snow is really pretty... to see on TV. Here in Florida she cant make up her mind on sunny 70's or 40's and 50's with rain. Despite my best plans I am sure she was laughing at me with the Valentine's I made for Gremlin.  I will tell you about that next Monday, now on to Turtles.

  As I said Gremlin did not like any of the invites we looked at in various stores. There for I got to improvise.  I took a free shape of the week from the Silhouette Store The Boo Pop Up Card.

I started with a green outer card adding thought bubbles in colors from the turtles masks.  

Each has the TMNT catchphrase past and present.

I wanted the outside to be fairly plain as the inside was the real show stopper.

I created a checkerboard pattern frame in photo shop and used the Print and Cut function on my Cameo to print then cut out the bases. Taking a free vector art picture of the TMNT eating pizza I also printed and cut them out for the pop up. I added a thought bubble and Ta-Da!

  Gremlin loved them and had complete input on the design.  I would have used a different picture but he loved that they were eating pizza, and as we had a pizza party... I caught his drift.

Something I did different this year from past parties, was to put a handwritten note in each invite for the parents. Through various circumstances my Gremlin has 7 grandparents, we don't differentiate between step or otherwise. They all have names he calls them unique to each so he knows who we are talking about. Anyway with that said we didn't feel that he needed any more than what his doting grandparents and ourselves were giving him. Also Gremlin only wanted his friends to come play he didn't care about presents.   So I asked that they just bring themselves in play clothes as we were having a "Ninja Academy" and too come and have fun.  

Well that is all for today, hopefully on Monday I can get my first Pinterest post up because it was 2 separate things I found on Pinterest and combined :)

Tootles,

Crickitt

CRAZY!

     Things are crazy this week!  Guess who forgot that Friday is Valentine's Day?  Yes, this Mom.  Thank goodness Gremlins teacher sent home a list of the kids names in the class, or I would have totally spaced.  So Wednesday's post will be up sometime tomorrow, as I spent the day searching Pinterest and the web for ideas.   I am also thinking about Monday's or Friday's doing a special blog on things I have actually made that I found on Pinterest. Anyway off to print out Valentines they may be my first "As Found on Pinterest" post.
Tootles
Crickitt

I'm Back Again with an Awesome Shredder Piñata!

Hello there Blog Land! Yes I am still alive!
     Life is full of craziness and I am neck deep and rising!  I switched from PC to Mac and that has hindered my blogging as well as my writing.  Trying to keep up with Mr Wonderful and Boo or Gremlin as I now call him, has been exhausting. Then chuck in peri menopause if you get my drift. I have lots of projects to post, but no idea how to get them out of my "Cloud", I have technology issues. After having broken the last 2 PC's and more phones than I want to talk about (I Never dropped one! I think I went through 6 in a year and a half with various issues. ) Bare with me as I learn this new system.
     This past year as he always does Gremlin chose a theme "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"  For once I was ecstatic, something I can go to the party store and buy!!!!!!  Yeah No... He didn't like the invites at the store, the decorations were ok but he insisted on a Shredder piñata.  They had Ninja Turtle piñatas at the store but; "No mommy we want to beat up the bad guy." I looked online and at several party stores and only found one Shredder piñata, I hated it!  So by a stroke of luck we had just gotten  new phone books and I got to work. I admit I did draw this out before by hand with lot's of reference pictures of the "New" Shredder.

     I started with the standard balloon, after 2 layers of paper maché, I used a cereal box taped into a tube and notched for the neck. I taped it to the head with masking tape as it stayed stuck better than packing tape with the damp paper.

For his shoulders I connected 2 small balloons with another tube of cereal box cardboard and masking tape.

 Attaching it to the neck with the notches in the cardboard and masking tape.  I then covered the entire armature with a single layer of paper maché on the head and neck and 2 layers on the shoulders and chest.

 As it dried I used scraps of the cereal box to fashion the armor spikes and samurai head piece.  

 I covered them with aluminum ducting tape.

 I forgot to take a picture of his helmet, basicly I covered a balloon halfway with paper maché then after it dried covered it with rows of non shiny grey duct tape to look like a leather samurai helmet.

 I sprayed all but the eye section with black gloss spray paint (only kind I had), painted the eye area with a pale flesh toned acrylic paint.

 I drew his eyes out with pencil the darkened everything with sharpies.

 This is what the cardboard side of a cereal box looks like when sprayed with chrome paint.  It wasn't shiny enough so I tried the printed side and it worked like a charm.

Face mask above and shoulder armor below.  After contemplating spraying the shoulders of the body silver I chose to make another paper maché ball and cut it in half  affixing the shoulder spikes within the layers and then spraying the pieces with the chrome spray paint. 

 I assembled everything with hot glue and here is the final product!  I cut a small hole under the face mask to fill the center bottom with candy, there is also a string that goes through the head to hang it from.

 I was thinking of making a chest plate with duct tape folded in triangles but Gremlin said it was perfect and not to touch it! LOL he had it hanging in his room the last month before his birthday.
Next Wednesday I will post the invitations, and the following Wednesday the treat boxes.
See you next week,
Toodles
Crickitt.

Who knew?

Hello there Blogland!,

I am finding that being a SAHM is way busier than working! I only have the one little chick but my goodness it never stops! I just uploaded the pictures from my camera to my computer and found I hadn't cleared the card since July!  I have been trying to carve out time to craft but am finding the only crafting I am doing is for decorating his classroom and the school's office.  Well I signed up for PSL over at Club Scrap and I am hoping this gets me out of my funk with crafting.  I only signed up for scrap booking  as all the cards that I have planned are not going to be made with my precious CS paper.  I will leave you with some of my favorite tags that I made for Christmas presents...

 Images: Elizabeth Dulemba (Santa on bottom left) and  Dustin Pike

I don't have access to my digi files currently  so I am unsure of the artists for the bells and reindeer.  (My computer crashed the hubby is fixing it) any way that's all for now

Tootles, 

Crickitt

One of those years....

So it's been one of those years where I COMPLETELY lost all crafting mojo. (I even bought a card on a store!)  Well with the fall and my sweet Boo starting a new school everything has been up in the air as well.  But with a new school came new inspiration! Boo is going to a completely new school so they have no decorations! I made a banner for fall for the office and some rocket ships and book marks for his class, and that is all it took to get things slowly started. No pictures today but  Wednesday look for a post on what I did with some lovely snowflake cut files from Bird's Cards.
Tootles
Crickitt

A new style.

Hello there blog land,
     I have been following Becca over at Amazing Paper Grace for some time now. She makes the most amazing intricate cards, go check her out she is awesome. Anyway I find that my style tends to be more clean and simple, and in an effort to step out of my comfort zone I took inspiration from this post and created this;

Not as refined as I would like, but not too shabby for a huge leap outside my comfort zone.  If I had to do it over, (trust me this took hours of agonizing to finish) I would make the flowers smaller and the flourish on the left bigger. I am slowly teaching myself balance and proportion by trial and error.
Paper, ink, and stencil are Club Scrap. Flowers are made with the rolled roses cut file by Bird
Thanks for looking
Tootles
Crickitt 

Grad Centerpiece

     I just realized how long it's been since I posted, where does the time go?  I really have to get better at this posting thing!
     I have been busy with several projects, my favorite of which is a center piece for my niece's graduation open house.  I was inspired by this post on Split coast Stampers.  I used my Cameo to cut files from Birds Cards for everything except the letters. I used a floral foam base and card board canister I got at the dollar store then matched her school colors with card stock.

  I had to mail this to Michigan... Next time I will find a mailing box FIRST then make the center piece to fit inside!  I also really need to get a scorpal if I am going to continue pleating paper it was a serious pain to do all the scoring for the base on my trimmer with just my bone folder.
Well that's it for now hope to post more this week it's the last week of school for my little Boo then we are free for the summer!
Tootles
Crickitt

Even More ATC's

How about 4 more?

Paper is Club Scrap as is the flower stamp and tag.  I stamped and heat embossed the flower. The other flowers are scraps from a previous project cut on my Cameo. I used metallic gellatos for the background.

Paper once again Club Scrap the card on the left is stamped with a CS unmounted border stamp and phrase. I stamped the woman then colored her with a water brush and the metallic gellatos.  I used the same technique on the card on the right to color the leaves and flowers after stamping.
That's all for now
Tootles
Crickitt

More ATC Fun

     Here is another installment of my foray into ATC's.
The first time I saw this stamp from Club Scrap I thought of how much fun I could have making balloon animals with it. Here is a set of balloon bunnies, it's hard to tell but I added glimmer mists so they were sparkly to fit my theme.

After I stamped and cut out the balloons I drew the balloon string by hand, as trying to glue and  loop thread was beyond me that particular day.
All inks papers and stamps by Club Scrap with the exception of the Glimmer mists.
Tootles for now
Crickitt

My name is Crickitt and ...

     I have a wreath obsession. I change  the wreath on my door for every season. It's the same grapevine wreath just redecorated  every few months. Now enter my Pinterest obsession, so many ideas so much eye candy! I found this cool wreath and had to try it.  I couldn't find the larger umbrellas she used but I still love how it came out!

Then up close

I just popped the umbrellas in no glue needed! This only took about 10 minutes.
That"s it for now,
Tootles!
Crickitt

First try at ATC's

      A few months ago I joined an ATC swap over on the Club Scrap board.  I have never tried making them before so this was great fun.  I needed to make 10 for the swap and was told they don't all have to be the same (I guess usually they are?).  I decided on the theme of "Sparkly" as I hardly ever use glitter, seriously dislike the stuff it gets everywhere... Any way I used metallic gellatos which gave the right amount of shine with out getting EVERYWHERE like glitter does.

click on picture for detail.

     For this first set I used Papillon paper stamped with Club Scrap's Jr unmounted stamp from Aurora Borealis.  I then used a water brush and painted on the metallic gellatos. I also inked the edges with a soft lavender and denim blue. Both cards are 3.5" x 2.5".
More to come as I said I made 10 cards in set's of 2's plus more greeting cards and a cool wreath I just completed.
Tootles for now


Crickitt

Pinterest is eating my life!

     I had every intention of posting at least weekly.  Then my friend (enabler) Kris introduced me to Pinterest...  She calls it digital hoarding, I tend to agree. So many pretty things, it's been eating loads of my free time. I have however bee able to get some crafting done YAY!
I have recently taken up quilling.  I love fussy intricate work so this has been right up my alley.  The only problem is that I have a little boy who has no use for anything frilly or girly.  So I made these 2 projects for a friend of mines little girls.
My inspiration came from these wonderful letters I found on Pinterest.  I made one for each girl with her first initial and plan on framing them to hang in their room.  I used Cream, pale pink, and neon pink for the A.  The E has the same colors with the addition of dark purple.

Sorry about the picture quality I had trouble keeping my shadow out of it.
I have more projects to post over the coming days .  I made a foray into ATC's that I think came out great. Also several cards and mini scenes on tickets to share as well.
Tootles!
Crickitt

PSL Cards

Much sunnier here in Florida today I feel so much better!  Let's jump into cards shall we?
All except for the last card are Club Scrap papers
This was a preprinted card face that I added butterflies to;

I stamped an 8.5 x 11 sheet with these flowers and cut it up using OSW directions I found on SCS.

 This one is a CASE of a card by Bird I used her cut files and made an easel card with a pocket for a gift card. You cant tell in the picture but the turquoise paper has silver sparkles through out.

My last card had me giggling the entire time I made it. It was for a friends bachelorette party.  I used flesh toned CS with paper from DCWV Rock Star stack. I ruffled wire edged ribbon and stitched it to the card.

FRONT

 BACK

The person this was for refers to tattoos as "Tramp stamps" so I HAD to add some including one with her fiance's name on it.
That's it for now
Tootles
Crickitt

Dreary Mondays get me down.

I am not a morning person. I am especially not a Monday morning person. Add to that a dreary rainy day and laundry and you'll see what kind of day it is.  I have however gotten some layouts and cards done that I would like to share.
If you remember I mad a mini album for Boo of Monster Jam 2011 in this post. I just made the pages to go in his "big" album last week.

All papers are from Club Scrap the kit is called Comics. I cut the letters and trucks on my Cameo from the inner part of the photo mats, and scraps. I thought adding truck tires as "O's" looked super cute.

I also made layouts of Boo's first piano recital on Club Scrap's kit  All that Jazz

The last 2 are from a performance Boo did with his school also on All that Jazz.  That's all for now I will post the cards I made tomorrow when I am feeling a bit less down.

Tootles

Crickitt

Hello there Blog land!

HI just looked and it's been way too long since I posted.  I am going to try and do better this year and post at least once a week.
Jumping right in,

Monster Jam was last month and I made a new autograph album for my Boo. Can I say I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, my Cameo! I altered this pattern to look more like Grave Digger Boo's favorite truck.  His chassis is green with a black purple and green truck hence the colors. The background paper is DCWV from the rock star stack. the skull and crossbones on the side are for looping the elastic closure around. 

PSL just started over at Club Scrap and I am on both card and a scrapbook teams.  I had a slow start and 

these are my cards for the week;

This card was inspired by a card I found on Pinterest from here. I don't have a brayer or position it so I had to wing it and the card didn't quite come out how I planned but I still think its nice. All paper, ink, and stamps on all cards from Club Scrap.

This card I colored the stamp with pencils and, used paper as a ribbon.

I was only able to squeak out one layout this week once again Club Scrap papers;

Love my Cameo I used it to cut out the title. 

That's all for now
Toodles
Crickitt