Gypsy giveaway!

I've been intrigued by the Gypsy by Cricut since I heard about it. I've waffled back and forth about getting one. Custom Crops had it on sale during their Pink Tuesday sale. BUT, the Cricut Expression was also on sale. I have the original bug, the getting of which gave both my friend Jill and me anxiety issues. But, I'd like to be able to cut bigger things especially now that I teach fifth grade. Plus, I had a bad day last Wednesday and needed some retail therapy at 4am Thanksgiving day. Hence the purchase of the E and the Gypsy staying in the Custom Crops inventory. So, where am I going with this post?!?!?

There's a new blog in town... The Gypsy Spot! They're giving away a brand spankin' new Gypsy donated by Custom Crops. I know it's a long shot, but it doesn't hurt to try! Here's the verbiage from their blog:

Yes we are giving away a Gypsy here at The Gypsy Spot. I want to thank Custom Crops for donating a brand new Gypsy (retail value 299.99)..wow. I cant say enough about everyone at Custom Crops. Everyone is always so supportive and helpful. If you have never shopped at their store, you really should give them a visit. Not only will you find everything you need for scrapbooking or card making, but also some wonderful articles for fantastic projects. They also have a Youtube channel where you can enjoy some wonderful videos for awesome projects. There is even new video for husbands or loved ones to guide them with holiday shopping... what an awesome idea. Click on the links to visit : Custom Crops and Custom Crops Videos.

Now for the giveaway. Please spread the word. This is a new blog so we are trying to get the word out so that more can come and participate in the challenges. We love to see everyones Gypsy creations.

The rules :

1) Become a follower of The Gypsy Spot. (If you are already a follower you met the first step).

2) Post a link about this contest on your blog. If you don't have a blog you can start one at blogspot.com. Its very easy and a great way to share your projects with family and friends.

3) Use Mr. Linky box to give us the link to your blog post. (this becomes our entry list and the winner is chosen from here )


Random winner will be selected December 1st. Good luck to everyone.

Excuses, Excuses and some layouts

I. HATE. BEING. SICK. I came down with bronchitis two weeks ago. It's incapacitated me. No gym. No shopping. No nothing. Just in the last couple of days have I been able to teach and talk for longer periods of time without losing my breath. Seven days of Amoxicillin brought the only good thing about being sick...losing 5 pounds. That being said, I can now look forward to Thanksgiving next week and the upcoming holiday season!

I have managed to keep up with the November two a week challenge at Willow Traders. It helps that it's only two layouts a week. *Smile*

Challenge 1--let someone else do the talking. I seriously had trouble coming up with this one, but I was fortunate enough to have Lucas and Jacob here with me one day when we were off.

Kit from Studio Calico.

Challenge2--honor a parent or grandparent. Since I just done a layout of my grandparents for October's challenges, I decided to do one of my mom.

Kit from Studio Calico.

Challenge 3--Leaves. With Autumn happening all around the mainland, I thought I wouldn't be able to pull this off! Luckily we took a "field" trip to the land where the boys will be having their house built.

Kit from The Scrapping Spot.

Challenge 4--Thankful. I figured being "Grateful" meant the same thing!

Kit from Studio Calico.

Challenge 5-gifts. This is a layout of me as a baby circa 1974. I figured it was some time in 1974 because I spent the first few weeks of life in the hospital. No pictures of that!

Kit from Studio Calico.

Challenge 6-beautiful day. I chose to create a layout of some scenery in Kauai from my summer vacation this year.

Kit from Studio Calico.

I've also started putting together my December Daily album for this year. Excited to begin doing that again this year. I'm going to see if there are some things I can use from Jessica Sprague's Holidays in Hand class.

Christmas is...around the corner?!?!?

I've been seeing Christmas stuff out at our local Kmart for the last few weeks. Halloween stuff on one side of the aisle; Christmas on the other side. Sigh.... pretty soon we'll be seeing Christmas stuff out during the SUMMER. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE CHRISTMAS. Maybe it's because I celebrate my birthday a mere four days before Jesus does, but Christmas is my favorite holiday.

All this holiday stuff is seeping into my skin. I signed up for a free class at jessicasprague.com. I've taken two other free classes there and they were worth the time and effort. I have no idea what this upcoming class at the spraground entails, but I signed up nonetheless. Ali Edwards does a yearly December Daily album. I put one together last year and have hopes for completing another this year. I found a link on Work in Progress' blog for a handmade holiday guide at Skip to my Lou. Sometimes I wish I could quit my job and just hang out in cyber land all day while playing with paper.

Finishing up THAW at Willow Traders

I made it through another month of scrapping challenges at Willow Traders! Here are the last 6 layouts for the month.

THAW #7--Evaluate your life.

Yearbook kit from Studio Calico!

THAW #8--Celebrate your favorite nut. I have two!

Pep Rally Add-on from Studio Calico.

THAW #9--magazine "lift". I lifted one of the "Made in Minutes" layouts in the October 2009 issue of Scrapbooks Etc.

Soda Fountain kit from Studio Calico.

THAW #10--National Denim Day

Combination of past kits from Scarlet Lime and The Scrapping Spot.

THAW #11--spin the color wheel

Yearbook kit from Studio Calico.

THAW #12--National Candy Corn Day

October kit from The Scrapping Spot.

Bad Blogger

I have no legitimate excuse for not blogging lately. I wish had a good excuse like I was saving the world from doom or feeding the hungry. I've done none of those. I've been consumed by Bejeweled Blitz, Farmville and Cafe World on Facebook. It should be renamed "Crackbook". I don't even check the home page most days...peoples' status is of no consequence to the goings on of the above mentioned addictions.

My students are fully immersed in reading The Clay Marble. They clamor for more reading time instead of GASP! Social Studies or Science. Oh the horror! But, I am secretly thrilled that they want to read as opposed to being forced.

Our fourth and fifth graders had the privilege of being visited by the local fire station. It isn't often that we get visitors. Clifford and Smokey visit Headstart and we usually get "a rock". They weren't the only ones to have some fun.



I was the ONLY teacher that this fire fighter asked to try the jacket on. Go me.

On to THAW at Willow Traders! THAW stands for THree A Week. We get three challenges posted the Friday before and each layout is due Monday, Wednesday and Friday of the following week. I do mine during the weekend.

THAW 1: scrap something sweet.


THAW 2: use the entire alphabet.

This one took TWO DAYS to do. All the letters were different colors so I got it in my head to paint them white. I needed two coats to get them white and then had to paint the entire background as well. I am nuts.

THAW 3: was due on National Moldy Cheese Day so we needed circles or triangles, yellow or white and something green.


THAW 4: use a dozen of something. I used those pink and orange thingies.


THAW 5: use your favorite dessert as inspiration for a layout. My fave dessert is tiramisu and used the brown/cream color for inspiration. Plus, we had to use lowercase letters. In all honesty, I chose that color scheme because I had The Scrapping Spot's October kit out and I wanted to scrap Kim's wedding pictures since her colors were...pink and brown.


THAW 6: scraplift a sponsor. I lifted Emelyn's "Sweet sixty-five" layout.

I WON!!!!

When I participated in the sketchfest challenges at Caardvarks, I never expected to get anything out of it except 7 card sketches and 7 cards to use in the future. Imagine my surprise when I checked my messages on my blackberry and saw a feedblitz email for Caardvarks. I went to my beloved MacBook to check if it was for real! Sure enough, when I clicked on my name, my blog came up!!! Thanks CAARDVARKS! You made my day!

LEO 15 and a card

I made it through all 15 challenges for LEO at Willow Traders! Go me!!! The assignment: Use ink or paint on a layout. I used black ink and charcoal Maya Mist on this layout.


Cardstock: Bazzill Lava; Papers: Studio Calico, Sassafras Lass (border strip); Ink: misc. black ink, charcoal and red maya mist; Rub-ons: Basic Grey; Alphabet: Sassafras Lass Vintage Yummy Monogram Alphabet Stickers and Adorn It by Carolee's; Misc. items: Tim Holtz mini mask, Studio Calico journal card, Maya Road turns.

This moment had to be documented. The title is what JB said when we were dressing him up for pictures on his 2nd birthday. Grandma got him the outfit and wanted to have pictures of him all decked out.

Here's a card for the Studio Calico blog challenge!


Cardstock: Bazzill Kraft; Paper: Making Memories snowflake (b side); Stamp: Studio Calico botanical; Misc.: red baker's twine from Michael's. Studio Calico items: bag sticker punched with a circle punch and "packed with love" card covered with kraft cardstock for sentiment.