Is it Back-to-School time again already????? Ha! I wish!! Well, this is actually for a class at Green Tangerines. It's a 2 page layout (click on the layout picture to see it bigger) using only the Locker Talk cartridge. We'll also get to play with the Cricut markers, which are super fun. This is a jam-packed cartridge with TONS of school stuff on it for young kids up through High School. In fact, I will later be doing another class making a High School layout. So get this cartridge!!! Green Tangerines will be ordering a bunch, so you can always call them and get on the list for one. You can see a link to the Green T blog off to the right hand side of my blog. Or just go to www.mygreentangerines.com for their contact info. This first Locker Talk class will be held Saturday, August 16th at 9:30am. I will likely do this class only 1 time, and these Cricut classes usually sell out. (But I may have extra kits that Green T will sell after the class day - maybe!) I hope to see all my favorite ladies there!!!!

The 2 best Dads in all the world - my own Dad, and my little girl's Dad. They're showing off the cards they got for Father's Day. I made the dolphin card for my Dad, and the cute little skull card for Jared. Doesn't every man want a skull card? I think so. My mom-in-law, Lucy, made the canoe card, and the car card. She's quite the card crafter, ya know. Can you say "car card crafter" 3 times really fast? It was a lovely - uh, I mean manly day, and we showered the men with sushi gift certificates. You can never have too much sushi. So says my dear hubby.

Summer is almost officially here!!! I'm teaching a class this Saturday at Green Tangerines, based on this layout and card I designed with the Doodlecharms cartridge. I wanted to do something fun and cheery, and these papers were so inspiring and juicy that I just wanted to eat them!!! The class is full with 25 people signed up. Very exciting for me, and it is going to be SO fun to teach this. I get such a rush out of teaching - I'm amazed at how much I love it. Ok, now I wanna go eat some watermelon. Mmmmmm.

Here it is! If you know me very well, you know that I just LIVE to plan out Emily's birthday each year, especially when it comes to making her invitations. So, yes, the kiddo wants a cowgirl party for her 4th birthday this September. I used the Paper Dolls cartridge for the cowgirl, horse and mountain range. The cloud paper for the sky is super gorgeous in person - the sky is shimmery, and the clouds are flocked (aka fuzzy). Too fun! Originally, Miss Emily wanted to have the party at Chuck E. Cheese (to which I was going to begrudgingly give in), but a Cricut friend from Green Tangerines who takes some of my classes has offered to round up a horse or two for us. How COOL is that???? So it's looking like the cheesy rodent is out on his ear, and my little girl will get to have a "real" cowgirl party. I can't wait!!!! Well, I probably should get to work, as I have about 30 of these invites to make first. Giddee-Up!!!

Teacher let the monkeys out! One jumped in, one jumped out, one jumped in the teacher's snout!
Is that how that goes????? Writing it out now, it just looks wrong. Oh well, I was probably 7 when I sang that, so it didn't need to make sense.
Today is Emily's last day of school. Her teachers this year have been soooooo amazing! Emily is just in love with them, and they have done an incredible job in every way. So in an hour, I will be giving them each a monkey card like this (with a little gift card in it just for fun). Isn't this monkey paper the cutest you've ever seen???? I got it from (where else?) Green Tangerines. I have such a weakness for monkeys! Oh, and the cute little Cricut monkeys are from the New Arrival cart. Thanks a Million is from Cuttin Up.

Ahhh, the ocean. What could be more inspiring? Maybe chocolate, but that's beside the point. Here's a couple of simple cards I made yesterday that will work for anything. I vowed in April of 2007 that I would no longer buy cards from the store. So far, so good. But there are many times that I need to just grab a card that I can use for any occassion, so these will come in handy for such times. The cuts are from the Word Builder - Ocean of Words cartridge.

This is Emily's "I know I'm cute" look. What a punkin, huh? They took this picture of her at preschool recently, and she got to give it to her Daddy for Father's Day. I promptly stole it.

Emily is such a fun kid. She's an only child, and incredibly outgoing and expressive. We've always taken her everywhere possible to hang out with other kids, and nothing makes her happier. Ok, maybe playing with Mom makes her happier. Emily is a very observant and in-tune with us, and is always cracking us up. She loves to ditch her pants, and run around the house yelling "underpants!!!!!!" And she calls us scrappin' ladies "scrapboogers".

Here's a few Disney cards I've made. Miss Emily is a Disney nut, so I had to get all the Disney cartridges, which are super fun.




This one was Claudia & Deo's wedding card. Love you guys!




Mickey, of course, is good for any occassion!




I made this last year for Kainoa's 4th birthday. Sniff, sniff.



Personally, I find it's easiest to make the characters at least 4 inches tall. Much smaller, and they get a little tough to work with. And I tend to like a nice, clean look on my Disney cards. I tend to just let the cuteness come from the character itself, and not add too much. Oh, and those Princess eyes are WAY easier to do by hand. I don't like the way that the Cricut cuts out the whites of their eyes - they just don't look right. So I use a Uni-ball Signo white gel pen for the eyes and teeth. Gotta have some pretty good up-close vision for this little task!

Don't mind me - I'm just messing around with different ways to post pics. I like being able to have some text between pictures.

Here's a picture of me and my cousin Angela at the recent swarm. That was the BEST day!!!!


This is my little cutie-patootie, Emily. She was about to throw a snowball at me. The nerve!!


Yes!!!!!!!!!! Direct hit!!!!


Alrighty - I think I'm getting the hang of this blog world! Woohoo!!!

Ok, I'm trying out this whole picture posting thing. I'll be pretty stoked if it actually works. I'd love to keep posting pics of some of my work. These pics were all class projects that I designed and taught at Green Tangerines.

Welcome to my blog!!! It's about freakin' time!! I thought it would be handy to have a place to spew thoughts, post pictures, summon ideas, and ignore complaints.

I can't wait to start posting some pictures and talk a little bit about upcoming classes and projects that I'll be teaching. For those of you who don't know, I teach Cricut classes at the best scrapbook store ever (drumroll please...) - Green Tangerines!!! Man, I love that store. Do NOT go in there if you don't want to learn something new, or fall madly in love with a new paper line or two.

If you want some juicy details about my secret personal life, you're either bored or nosey, and I'm happy to oblige either way. My name is Monique (does it say that somewhere on this thing already?), and I live in Rocklin, California. It's about 20 miles north-east of Sacramento. I have been married to Jared for 8 years, and have a wild and crazy 3 1/2 year old daughter, Emily. Speaking of wild and crazy, we also have 2 boxers, Chewy and Stella. You'll have to check back later to see if I've divulged more about my fascinating life in the suburbs.

How'd I do for my first blog? Oooooh, the pressure!!!