Circle Mania II

I'm so excited!  I won the lottery!  The Circle Mania II lottery that is.  I have a spot at the table and am so happy to be going to meet all the wonderful Circlets that I see on the message board.  I saw on the Circle Mania blog that I need to bring calling cards.  I wasn't exactly sure what to do so of course the fine Circlets on the board advised me.

I retired last year from the FAA where I was an air traffic controller/front line manager for over 20 years.  I loved my job but had some medical issues come up and the Flight Surgeon just won't let us work airplanes while taking drugs.  That's a good thing!  So I retired and now my DH and I are going to travel a little.  We are going to China and Europe this year.  I decided to combine the two and this is what I came up with.  All the cuts were made using Creative Memories Travel cartridge, CCR, and my E.  Hope you like it!

Valentine Book

I decided after watching Clare Jones on youtube to try my hand at making a book.  It is very labor intensive but I like how it turned out.  Lots of pics to share and I haven't finished the front because the inspiration just hasn't hit me yet.  I used my Cricut Expression, Cricut Craft Room, and the Close To My Heart Art Philosophy cartridge to cut the tags and most of the holders.  I apologize that the pics are dark.  If I didn't darken them up, the red was way too bright and didn't reflect the true color.  And yes the book is tied together with a big red bow.  I hope you like it.

This picture is the tags from the first page.  I made a holder for the tags by welding together a rectangle and three hearts.

This is the inside of the front cover.  It has two tags.

This is the second and third page of the book.  The holder was made by using a corner cut.

The largest tag is folded.

Pages four and five are tags and a waterfall for pictures.

These are the tags from page four.

Pages six and seven.

Page six opens to a photo holder on the left and a tag in the middle.

Page seven has magnets to hold the two journaling spots over the tag.

Page seven opened to reveal the tag and journaling spots.

This is the front of the book for now.

Page eight is just decorated and page nine has two tags.

Page ten has a tag under the bi-fold doors and three tags behind the bi-fold doors.  The back cover has another corner cut holding two tags.

These are the tags from page nine.

These are the tags from the back cover.

This is the big red bow to keep the book closed.

This is the tags behind the bi-fold doors on page ten.

Sympathy Card

I made this sympathy card for one of the Cricut Messageboard Ladies who lost her Grandmother.  I used Stampin' Up Watercolors to color in the morning glory stamp that is also from Stampin' Up.  I used my computer to do the words in script and printed them out.

Baby book

I had an anterior cervical discectomy with fusion in December.  I have been going to physical therapy to help with the recovery.  One of my techs is James.  He is going to be a new Dad in April.  He is so excited.  I asked him the normal questions, what, when, name, theme, etc.  He told me that they were having a girl and not going to name her until they meet her.  They have no specific theme but the colors are teal, black, and a touch of pink.

I love to make mini books so I decided to make a book for his baby girl.  I found it hard not to include more pink but I do like the way the book turned out.  I even made a box to match.  I sure hope he and his wife like it.

Update:  James loved it and said he couldn't wait to take it home to his wife.  He said the colors were exactly what they wanted.  I'm happy!

I'm new to the blog thing but thought I would give it a try.  I chose lovebugtimme as my blog addy because of the little boy in my profile pic.  Well he wasn't really little, he topped out at 100 pounds.  He was my german boxer who passed.  He was born in my living room and immediately became my little love bug.  We named him Wolf but his nickname "Bug" stuck.  He was a mamma's boy and I miss him dearly.  I keep his memories in my heart and use the name lovebugtimme a lot in his memory.

We have three beautiful fur babies now, Jacques, a Dogue de Bordeaux; Aurore, a Dogue de Bordeaux; and Gabi, who is a half american, half german boxer.

They are very spoiled, which I believe they should be.  I will try not to bore anyone and keep my posts to a minimum.  I plan on sharing my travel adventures and my creations.  I hope to inspire someone but will just be happy to get this blogging thing figured out.