No Training Wheels!

May has been a big month of accomplishments for 2 of my boys. Alex kicked it off mid-May by learning how to ride his bicycle without training wheels! Aiden mastered coming back down the stairs (he'd been flying up them for two months, and then yelling until someone went to get him) and started walking unassisted last week! 

We had been talking to Alex since the end of April about learning how to ride his bike without the training wheels and we knew he was ready because of the way he flew on his scooter, but he's our cautious one and wasn't ready. We took off the training wheels and my husband attempted to get him on, but Alex wasn't having any of it. We just kept talking it up and told him to let us know when he was ready to try, and on a Tuesday mid-morning, out of the blue, he came tearing into the house, shouting and cheering! He had picked up his bike, got on, and started riding it all by himself. I grabbed the baby and the camera and we went out to record him and take some pictures. Then, of course, we had to call dad and grandma and grandpa to let them know! He was grinning from ear to ear and was so proud of himself!

Alex's amazing accomplishments is perfect for the Cricut Circle Monthly Challenge, which was: Milestones & Memories. 

The Challenge: Create a layout about a recent milestone in your family. Whether it is graduation, a birthday, moving into a new house, losing a tooth, or whatever it may be. Be sure to include at least 2 Cricut cuts and use 2 Cricut fonts in your page title.

Rules and Guidelines: Circle Blog Challenges are open to Cricut Circle Members only. Your project must be newly created for this challenge and include atleast 2 Cricut Image Cuts. You must submit a project to be entered into the Challenge Prize Drawing.

Paper: Fancy Pants, American Crafts, and scraps. Brads and Twine: Doodlebug. Buttons: Craft supply. Ink: CTMH. Cartridges: Everyday Paper Dolls, Create a Critter, Baby Steps and Art Philosophy. Cuttlebug and Distressed Stripes folder. CCR and E2.

Thank you for looking!

Wedding Coin

What a week! I had been playing around with the Cricut Circle Weekly Challenge in my mind all week, but we've been so busy that just got the chance to work on it today. The challenge was:

Weekly Challenge #58: Family Mementos Challenge!

The Challenge: Scrapbook a page with a photograph of a special family memento. In your journaling, tell the story behind your special object.

Here is my take: my mother's family has a tradition of putting an old coin in the bride's shoe before she walks down the aisle. My father is putting the coin in my shoe. The coin is from Europe and was passed down from my Great-Grandmother to my Grandmother to my Mother and then to me. I only hope that I will have a girl someday to pass this onto.

Paper: Bazzill and scraps. Doily flowers: CTMH. Brad: Doodlebug. Cartridges: Hey Diddle Diddle, Imagine More, Jasmine and Mother's Day Bouquet. CCR, Imagine and E2.
I am also entering this in the Creative Color Challenge at I Came, I Saw, I Created.

Very Vanilla RGB: 255, 250, 226

More Mustard RGB:  212, 161, 80

Basic Grey:  118, 122, 121

Thanks for looking!

Flowers for Teachers

My middle son's last day of school was on Friday and I didn't know what to do for the teacher, aide and parent educator. I gave the teachers crayon wreaths for Christmas, and that, at least right now, was too hard for me to top. It doesn't help that I was in a funk this week - or burned out from NSD and all of the challenges.

Anyway, I was planting my flowers and decided to get each of the teachers a plant: the boys picked out Dahlia's. I also let them each pick out the three pots they both needed (the oldest is done June 7th, so we need to get more plants, but we got the pots.)

After I got the vinyl on and took a picture of the pots themselves, we put the dahlia's in and brought outside to the bench for another picture. The flowers looked much happier before the boys got a hold of them with the hose. They were all asking questions about how I did it and surprised that the vinyl was so versatile.

Pots: Menards. Dahlia's: Home Depot. Vinyl: Oh My Crafts!. Cartridges: Letter Envy and Cuttin' Up. CCR and E2.

Float My Boat

I have had a really hard time this week getting myself into any crafting. I have to make two separate postings today because, while I finished DS#2's teacher presents, I didn't get the pictures posted on Friday.
I made this card for the Creative Color Challenge at I came, I saw, I created. This week's colors are:

Baja Breeze RGB: 141, 189, 193

Not Quite Navy RGB: 52, 103, 120

Calypso Coral: 245, 116, 97

Last week was crazy and this week hasn't been much better, so I did this quickly last night. I am not sure if I will just put it aside for something later, keep for DH and our anniversary or give it to one of the boys. Nothing fancy, but I got to use my new Wild Card 2 cartridge!

Paper: Bazzill. White gel pen. Gems and ink: CTMH. Cartridge: Wild Card 2. CCR and Imagine.

Color Challenge #2

It was not my intention to submit this but I figured I might as well finish since I had all the pieces cut and the flowers rolled. It turned out okay, I just shy away from orange.

Paper: American Crafts and CTMH. Ribbon: American Crafts. Brads: craft supply. Cuttlebug machine and Simply Charmed companion folder. Cartridges: Flower Shoppe and Art Philosophy. CCR and E2.

Scraps Only - #2

I was playing on the CCR and decided to try for a second scraps only layout - its not like I don't have plenty of scraps - too bad I need to get up super early tomorrow for a class, or I'd stay up and continue creating.

Cartidges used: Mothers Day Bouquet, Pretty Pennants and Art Philosophy. I'm not sure about the paper, since its scraps and even the full sheet was in my color bins and I'm not sure whose it is. Brads; crafty supply. Adhesives: Scotch double sided strips and Terrifically Tacky Tape. Cuttlebug machine and Devine Swirls and Simply Charmed folders. CCR and E2.

Something Old / Something New Challenge

I made a "Thank You" card for my middle son's teacher. He is done next week and I need to run to Home Depot or Fleet Farm and buy flowers, pots and get decorating! Luckily, this time I only have the teacher, the aide and the parent educator to do (last semester, I also had 3 sibling care aides to buy/create for). More on the present later, for now I made the card.

I used Pretty Pennants, Simply Charmed and All Mixed Up, so technically I used two older cartridges and one new cartridge. Paper is Fancy Pants. Sakura Gelly Roll pen, white. CCR (I got it working) and E2.