Weekend of Family Fun


Hello everyone!  Today I have no project to share with you - just news of the weekend and a public service announcement:  Bitten By The Bug 2 is on holiday break this week so there will not be a weekly challenge.  I think the design team is recovering from too much weekend fun - I know I am.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.  I had an absolutely fabulous weekend - a quiet Thanksgiving day with Doug and Bethany (and Duncan the wonder dog!), which lead to a fun Friday.  Ian as well as Aaron & Crissie (and their two dogs!!) came home on Friday.  Aaron & Crissie spent Wednesday, Thursday, and part of Friday with Crissie's mom, then we had them until Sunday late afternoon.  Friday night we played card games late into the night while teasing one another and having a great time.


Saturday brought Ferrando's pizza for lunch, an afternoon photo shoot for Aaron and Crissie, and bowling.  Saturday evening was spent with finger foods, football, music, an outdoor fire, and more fun card games.... And of course lots more teasing.


The couple photos featured here are Crissie's favorite of the 20 or so photos I took of she and Aaron.  In my usual style, I just followed them around the yard with my camera.  I really like the photo at the top of the page, and the others too, including the floating heads above!

Now for the next two photos:



As Doug and I were wearing down on Saturday night, the younger generation was ready to go find Karaoke or other fun in downtown Aiken.  As they started to leave, Bethany and Aaron compared hats.  Bethany then realized she had a second furry hat that Crissie could borrow.  Now why Crissie would want to borrow this hat is beyond me - clearly not a fashion statement that I appreciated.... Though they assured me that they were a hit in downtown Aiken!

As they were departing Ian came in wearing his Cubs hat.  He earned extra points for a normal hat!!  But the hat assortment required documenting!!  Anyway, now you understand why I have no project to share with you today... Too much family fun!!




Count Your Blessings Gratitude Challenge with BBTB2


Hello everyone.  Happy Bitten by the Bug 2 Monday - and happy Thanksgiving week here in the States.  This week's BBTB2 challenge is perfect for this week - Gratitude.  The assignment was to craft a project about something for which you are grateful, or in some way features gratitude.

For me this was such an easy assignment.  As most of you have gathered, I adore my family.  I am thankful for them every single day.  My husband (of 31 years this week!) is a wonderful warm and loving man with whom I feel blessed to be sharing my life.  My adult children are each so unique in personality and so unique in their expressions of love.  I am so blessed to have had these three children!  And I am so grateful for my future daughter-in-law (though I do not think of her as "future" but as my d-i-l).  Crissie is smart, funny, kind-hearted, and most of all, she adores my son!  How could I not be grateful for Aaron's brilliant choice in a life mate?   And even though Crissie is missing from the family photo above, she is very much a part of our family.



I mixed several elements and ideas in creating this layout.  I began with a family photo - one I hope to replace with a Thanksgiving FULL family photo later this week - and I built around the idea of Gratitude.  I began by selecting background and matting cardstock.  Once I had gathered all of my cardstock layers,using the Thanksgiving cartridge, I cut the phrase Count your Blessings in dark brown cardstock.  I set that aside.




I used the small phrase "A Grateful Heart" and stamped the edges of the orange matting.  I added ribbon to the corner of the photo and to the upper right corner of the layout. 


Two cartridges were used to create my floral displays - Art Philosophy (still my favorite cartridge) and Something To Remember - A Cricut Circle cartridge.  I cut two leaf arcs from Something to Remember and positioned them at opposite corners of the photo.  Using Art Philosophy, six flowers were cut in three different sizes. 






Thank you for stopping by Busy with the Cricky today.  I hope you will join us in the weekly challenge at Bitten by the Bug 2.  Please add your photo into the Mr. Linky space under this week's post!


Wedding Gift and Card with Silhouette Cameo



Hello everyone!  A couple of weekends ago my family attended the wedding of family friends - The wedding of Dane and Megan.  Dane has been friends with my older son since 3rd grade!  I took the traditional gifting method and shopped from Dane and Megan's Williams Sonoma registry.  However, for my son Aaron, I created another vinyl home decor project!

I used an 11x11 square matte platter and black vinyl.  With my Silhouette Cameo I cut the split W and their names - Dane & Megan - as well their wedding date.  I felt horrid because I forgot to include the plate stand that I had purchased for the platter.




I also used my Cameo to create a wedding card.  I welded a wedding dress, tux jacket and a rectangle together to create this very pretty card.  After sizing and welding the pieces together, I cut the base card in white cardstock.  I then trimmed away the excess wedding dress (the bottom of the dress). 


Next I cut the dinner jacket, shirt & tie, and the wedding dress again.  I also cut the wedding dress highlights in vellum.  I used an embossing folder on the wedding dress before adding the vellum highlights.  I finished the dress with liquid pearl accents at the neckline and small dots of stickles in the embossed flowers.  On the tux, I used gray liquid pearls on the buttons. 




On the inside of the card where the back is visible over the top of the dress, I stamped Congratulations Mr. & Mrs.  I also added a small flourish stamp in the lower right inside of the card.   I really liked this elegant wedding card and hope to make it again.


Thanks for stopping by Busy with the Cricky today and viewing my wedding gift/wedding card projects. I will be back tomorrow with another new project to share!