Five Scrappy Cats

Friday’s Recipe Scrapbook Page – Campin’ Critters

bakinbit — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:44:24 +0000

It’s friday so I thought I would post another recipe page that I’ve completed. This one I used one of my newer Cricut cartridges…”Campin Critters”. That cartridge had some really cute critters in it and what is one of the fun things to do when campin….cooking! I thought the bean pot would be perfect to highlight my mom’s Sausage Bean Chowder.

I’ve been under the weather for the last couple of weeks. Fighting a cold or sinus issues so I have not been motivated to do many things. I have a scrapbook retreat coming up in a little over a month and I have not printed out any pictures to scrap nor figured out why my new printer will not print with our wireless network. Makes it very frustrating when you are trying to print pictures or journals for your scrapbook pages. I did have a chance to play with the blog as you can see by the new blog header. I don’t like to read instructions so I just kinda wing it when figuring out that kind of stuff. As I play with it more I will be adding things to the blog to maybe jazz it up and make it more interesting.

Valentine’s Day Card

bakinbit — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 23:06:24 +0000

One of my favorite things to do is search for scrapbook bargains. Yes it’s good to buy the “good stuff” so you can get a good quality product ( and your scrapbooks last longer) but I don’t see anything wrong with hitting a few “dollar bins” especially for beginning card making. One of my favorite places to find this bargain paper is Target. Their dollar bins usually have some really cute paper etc especially holiday papers. I usually pick up a couple different packs every holiday. This month’s they are featuring Valentine’s and St. Patricks Day scrapbook supplies for $1.00 each. The paper packs usually have about 6 papers so that’s a pretty good deal when you are still learning new techniques.

Now let’s talk about the “good stuff”. This month I decided to join the Stamp of the Month Club on PeachkeenStamps.com. The subscription is for 6-months and my first stamp is Valentines Day. I love Peachy Keen Stamps and they are really good quality. My first stamps where for the cute little faces which I used on my EveryDay Paper Doll people I cut out with my Cricut. I’m now really liking their other stamps too.

This card is made using one of the Valentine’s Day cupid stamps and the rest is all Target bargain paper. It’s one of my first cards using stamps but I think with practice I will get better.

Outside:

Inside

Flowers Flowers Flowers

bakinbit — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:46:55 +0000

I must be ready for spring because the Cricut Mother’s Day Bouquet cartridge has been calling to me and although I have not been inspired yet I’ve been playing with the cartridge for the past day or so. But of course leave it to me to have hundreds of dollars worth of supplies and don’t have what I think I need….a tool to distress my work. Here’s what I was working on over the weekend:

I got inspired to make flowers after seeing the cover of the magazine Hobby Lobby puts out every few months. Then I saw a video on You Tube of a lady making Black Eyed Susan’s with the “Walking in My Garden” Cricut cartridge. I got the “Mother’s Day Bouquet” cartridge when it first came out in a cartridge bundle but didn’t think I’d use it. Then at one of my scrapbook retreats one of the gals tried it out and made some beautiful flowers for cards and I’ve loved this cartridge ever since. Like I said I’m not really inspired yet on what to do with the flowers so stay tuned to my little scrapbook blog and see what I can come up with. I bought this really nice big red watering can for my mom for mother’s day so my first thought if I can get it to look right is making a bouquet of Black Eyed Susan’s and arranging them in the watering can….oh well we’ll see.

Flowers are not the only thing I made this weekend. I actually was in and out of my scrapbook room a few times. Never could really decide what I wanted to work on. I kinda need to be by myself and well with a child at home with you who bless his heart wants to do crafts with you….it’s kinda hard to do that. The weather was beautiful over the holiday weekend but my little boy was a little snotty so he didn’t get to go outside and play much. He did however play in his room a lot which he doesn’t always do when he’s home. He usually drags everything to our room so he can be with us as he plays. But Friday I re-arranged his bedroom and bed and all of sudden he wanted to sleep in there and play in there. He’s been sleeping with us for well over a year but move his bed and he’s been sleeping in there since Friday night! Big step in our house and soon my shadows (the boy and the cat) will let me have some craft time!

Everyday Paperdoll Pastry Chef

bakinbit — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 01:41:22 +0000

Pink Toaster

bakinbit — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 03:27:02 +0000

I’ll admit I’m fairly new at the whole blog thing. I have read that when you first start out blogging about a specific topic…it can be slow starting out but to keep on posting new stuff and visiting blogs with similar interests. I love to visit other blogs and am inspired by all the ideas I see out there. One day I heard some ladies at work talking about Pinterest so thought I would check it out especially when I saw some of the pictures people were “pinning”. I signed up and got invited to join. I still have not figured it all out but have done some searches on scrapbooking and crafty projects and have found some really cute things. It’s funny that as soon as I joined..I started getting emails that people were “following me”. Kinda freaky but okay…..Like I said I am still trying to figure it out but there are some beautiful things out there “pinned” by people with similar interests as me.

You can type in the word “scrapbook” and there are thousands of sites with products, ideas, and blogs like this where people can talk about and post their projects and ideas. I’m still an amateur in scrapbooking and blogging about it but I hopefully one day I can share in my blog something that you might want to use. I do work full time and want to spent time with my family but I do enjoy this hobby..talking about it and creating crafty things.

Okay this brings me to today Recipe scrapbook page. Although it’s not hand written (because my hand writing is horrible) I used this cursive font and tried to make it look like a recipe card you might have in your recipe box. I used the “From My Kitchen” Cricut Cartridge to cut out the cute little retro toaster. The toaster I’ll admit was an after thought but really stands out on that page and was just what it needed. This was one of the first pages I did for the book.

Cricut’s “Freshly Picked” Parsley

bakinbit — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 01:51:36 +0000

“Freshly Picked” is the Cricut cartridge I used on this Beef Cheeseball recipe page. The recipe calls for parsley so I used some of the elements in the recipe to come up with the layout. I also used some of the font effects in Word to add something different to the recipe instead of just plain typing it out.

Chip Board Recipe Scrapbook

bakinbit — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 04:28:17 +0000

I currently have four recipe scrapbook volumes in the works. The “Sweets and Breads” is the closest to being finished. I used medium weight chipboard to make this 9×9 album and one of my new favorite tools, “The Cinch” to punch and holes and help bind the album. I know this look is different than a lot of the recipe scrapbooks I’ve seen out there and that’s probably why it is taking longer to complete since it’s being made from scratch. Here is what they look like.

The “From My Kitchen” and “Nifty Fifties” Cricut cartridges have some of the best cuts for these scrapbooks.

Recipe scrapbooking is a great way to highlight old recipes or family favorites. This “Orange Julius” recipe was one I got in a Home Economics class in 9th grade.

Crunchy Slaw Recipe Scrapbook Page

bakinbit — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 19:42:41 +0000

I’ve been working on my recipe scrapbook for a couple of years now. Trying new things, styles, tools etc and of course trying new recipes and finding recipes from my childhood that my family always made to preserve in this scrapbook. Here is an example of one of the latest pages. I used one of the recipes from our bi-annual scrapbook retreat to make this recipe page. I made the cute little panda from “Create a Critter” Cricut cartridge and used my Sizzix Texture Boutique to add texture to the pages. It’s a simple page but turned out cute I think.

Goal for the new year…..

bakinbit — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:30:14 +0000

With a much calmer me, my goal for 2012 is to do more of the things I love. Scrapbooking….and blogging. I think I can do this without jeopardizing time with my family and friends. Afterall when it comes down to it….I’d almost rather be with my family doing nothing than doing anything much else at all.
Wordpress sent me a nice summary of my blog activity which leads me to focus on what kinds of things are of most interest to folks searching the blog world…..one thing that gets the most hits is scrapbooking. It has been a dream of mine to focus my blog on scrapbooking and eventually turn this into a business even if only part -time. I still will use my blog to talk about my favorite things…my son, my cats and my world but will focus mainly on my favorite craft. For those who follow my blog….please keep at it. I promise to post (or try) more often and even if you don’t scrapbook or craft I will still continue on with the topics I usually do (whether interesting or not..ha ha)

Our New Year’s eve was very uneventful. We ordered pizza and watched videos. Little boy stayed up till maybe 9:30, I stayed up till 11:00 and kissed my husband at exactly 11:00 central which was midnight somewhere and then went to bed. Woke up to a cloudy day and not in a good mood. Not only did I blow a fuse (really blew one..not me blew up) but went downstairs to find our new betta fish Jack had passed away. Little boy and I had bought a fish tank and stuff the week before Christmas on one of our outings. School was out for two weeks so I stayed home. I thought that would kill me staying home with boy but surprisingly we did fine despite being indoors mostly due to rain and storms. Boy was very excited about his new fish. I bought a Betta because a friend said they were easy to care for and cleaner than a goldfish. First day we bought the tank. Second day we went to PetSmart and bought a fish. Boy named him Jack Sparrow since evidently he had Jack Sparrow on his mind after our other stop to Target where he bought a lego set from the movie. Day three we went and bought a tank heater since evidently betta like warmer water. Who would have thought since you always see them in a bowl without a pump, light or heater but Betta enthusiasts claim they prefer warm water so that’s what we did.

Boy lost interest in about a day since I did not let him feed the fish (I did). When I told him this morning that Jack was dead I got no reaction other than “Jack who?” Whether we will replace the fish is up in the air. He was not an exciting fish and didn’t do much plus I was reminded why I got rid of fish years ago…it’s messy to clean out the tank and the water gets stinky!

The sun came out today after a morning rain but I decided not to do much but the things I have put off. I can’t believe my two week vacation is almost over. It would be so nice to just stay home and not go back to work. I’ve already been running work stuff through my mind and treading the drama that I will have to deal with when I return. But it too will pass and things will be okay.

And so 2012 begins…despite PMS I will be in a good mood today..LOL Happy New Year!

Old dog – Old Self

bakinbit — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 19:49:54 +0000

I have not blogged in awhile. I just have not been myself, nothing to say and frankly I’ve been depending on my iphone and not my laptop to do just about everything (needless to say it’s hard to blog on your iphone). But I think I am starting to feel like me again. Don’t know what it is but I think it is I am finally back to a comfortable place in my life. My job is going well. Got promoted and am doing something I like. It’s not even bothering me to be the flavor of the month in gossip row. Don’t bother me none (and that’s a good feeling). My knee is feeling good and the arthritis in my knees and thumbs is still there but manageable. Just overall feeling okay. I must be feeling myself again because I have started to get back involved with my professional club – even volunteering to put together another fund raiser cookbook, club t-shirts and create a club facebook page. Even excited about the prospects of becoming club president again next year which me a while back might have just turned down claiming I have too much going on. I’m reorganizing my scrapbook room again and hoping to start another blog which focuses on scrapbooking and maybe making a side business out of that. Creating would be my career of choice but doesn’t pay as well. I’ve even decided the heck with trying to finish my downstairs bathroom that has been gutted for two years because we can’t find the time to do anything with it. I’m going to call a contractor. It feels good to make a decision to be done with it. I am praying 2012 is a good year. Don’t want to get too big a head with 2011 ending on a good note but I can be optimistic.

But 2011 did bring some sad things as well and since I talk alot about my animals I guess I will share. A couple of months ago my little dog Tina had to be put sleep. Me and little boy came home one afternoon and she was laying near the other dogs pen and you could tell she couldn’t move and her breathing was labored. I was thinking she had been doing well after I separated her from the other dogs. Penny my youngest dog who is a little over active had been pestering her and the other dog Rusty hogs the food. Tina had appeared to have gained weight and she was happy. Turns out it was not weight gain but fluid had built up in her chest with congestive heart failure. She was a barrel chested dog anyways but it happened fast. I felt stupid when I told the doctor I thought she had gained weight though. We immediately took her to the closest vet. He wasn’t my usual vet but I had been to him before and he was near by. I had never sat with an animal as the doctor gave them that final shot but I stayed with her and watch her go to doggie heaven. It was really hard but I felt I had too. My husband stopped by there on his way home after I texted him. He took little boy home and then I brought Tina home and then took her to my mom’s the next day to bury her. The vet sent me flowers the next day too which was a nice touch.

We also lost my Scooby dog who lived at my mom’s. I adopted Scooby from the local Humane Society several years ago when she was between 2 and 4 years old. Don’t even really know how old she was but she was a very old dog. She went down hill pretty fast and my brother had planned to take her to vet on Monday since no vets where they live are open on weekends but she died Sunday night. She was a very good dog although silly at times. She used to dig holes in the yard then try and bite at the dirt she was flipping out of the holes. I had forgotten about that. It was funny. RIP my pups.