Does it seem like this year is just flying by to you?  I can't believe October is half way over and Halloween is just around the corner.  Before you know it, Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here and gone.  You'd think that Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas all happened in the same month the way the stores have everything out all at the same time.  It kind of makes the time seem like it is even going by at warp speed.

I don't know how I managed to find the time, but last night I went to JoAnn's and picked up some of those little pouches that they put jewelry in.  They were perfect for the do-it-yourself kits.  I had so many extra die cuts lying around waiting to be used, I just decided to make them into do-it-yourself kits instead.  I found a cute little scarecrow that is holding a basket and I'm just going to put all of these little pouches in it.  People can look through this basket to find embellishments for their own scrapbook pages or they can use them to make their own cards.  I am truly amazed at how much stuff I had just lying around here waiting to be used.  I could probably start my own scrapbook store with all of my supplies, but I still go out and buy more paper and stickers and ribbon.  I think I'm addicted to finding cute things at JoAnn's, Michael's, Big Lots, The 99 Cent store, and Dollar tree.  I didn't realize how often I shopped at these stores until yesterday.  I went into the Big Lots in San Diego and the cashier greeted me and made a comment like she hadn't seen me in awhile.  Even in a city of over a thousand people, they recognized me because I'm in there so much.  I guess this is just my one cheap thrill in life!!!  Enjoy the rest of your week and remeber to craft to your heart's content!!! Enjoy the pictures.

All is right with the world again.  The weebly support people fixed the blog. Now you can read it without using the RSS feed.  But I guess if you want to subsribe to my blog, then you can just keep using it.

So here's what I've been doing while this was getting repaired.  I went down and got a ficticious business license, a seller's permit, and today I dropped off the paperwork for the State board of Equalization.  I didn't know there was this much paperwork involved in starting up a business.  I also had to run an ad in the newspaper for 4 weeks by law.  This whole business start up thing has been a learning experience for me.  If you ever need any information how to start your own business, I can probably tell you now.  I think I'm just in the waiting stage now. 

So while we are waiting, I'll let you know what I've been working on.  In October, I've been invited by my sister-in-law to sell some of my crafts at her house.  I guess they have a bunch of business women (vendors) go over to her house 3-4 times a year and they sell their goods to all the family and friends that they invite over to her house that day.  Laura gives massages for a $1/minute, someone else sells designer purses, another lady sells jewlry, and I'm not sure how many other people come over to sell stuff.  In July is when she first asked me to do this, after she saw everything I made for my mom's birthday party.  So since July, I just started making most of the stuff you see on this website.  I still can't believe I've made this much stuff already.  This is also why I've been working on so much Halloween and Christmas stuff.

Since July I've made 183 greeting cards, 5 box sets with 8 cards each, 31 gift bags, 31 8x8 pre-made scrapbook pages, 43 12x12 pre-made scrapbook pages, and 10 picture frames, in addition to making this website and creating my own business cards and labels and helping my cousin with some bridal shower favors.    After about the second sale, I kinda got scared that the IRS was going to come and get me---so I did some research on how to make this a legitimate and legal business.  Last Sunday was the first time I put something on Ebay....I'm just kinda experimenting with it to see if that's what I want to do.

I'm not sure if anyone's interested in that business kinda stuff or not, but that's what has been keeping me away from my crafting room.  However, I must confess that today I went to Michael's.  My husband won't go into Michael's or Joann's with me.  He says I take too long.  I can't help it there's just too much cool stuff to look at and to buy.  It is probably a good thing I never worked at either of those stores because I'd be broke all the time---hey wait, I'm not sure how different that would be for the way it is now!!! LOL!!!  But I did get some good ideas, and I picked up some stuff so I can keep on making more crafts.  You know what the best part about this business thing is....I can justify all the money I spend on crafts to my husband....I hope he doesn't catch on to that. J/K :)  No he is a really great guy.  The other day my car battery died.  He woke up early to take me to work, bought a new battery, and installed it before he went to work.  When I came home from work the car was fixed and all was well with the world again. 

I think my camera's battery should be charged by now, so I'm going to go take a few pictures of my latest and greatest projects and upload them here for your viewing pleasure, because I know that's what you came for...not all my rambling non-sense.  I made them with the cricut design studio software.  It's been fun to use the computer to make my crafts.  All of these diecuts are on gift bags.  The blue paper on the last angel is mulberry paper.  I'm not sure if I like that bag or not now that I look at it...it seems more patriotic instead of christmasy to me.  Let me know if you like it.

I had the day off, so I decided to play with my Cricut Design studio Software.  I worked hard all week, so I deserved some much needed R & R.  I am having so much fun with the CDS....it's like I've expanded my whole cartridge collection 10 times.  I've been making so many christmas bags and cards.  I love all the angel designs on the Christmas solutions cartridge.  I also like how you can flip the images and weld them together.  You never know what you can come up with until you try.  I am 95% done loading up all my scrapbook pages to the store.  Check it out if you have a chance. 

The first card is an agel that I aligned along the midline of the CDS mat.  I welded together 2 angels (I copied one angel and then flipped it and welded the wings together).  When it was ust out, I folded it in half and it looked like a really cool card, so I wrote Merry Christmas in it.  I made the other angels using the angel body on the Christmas solutions cartridge and some swirly looking thing on the Storybook cartridge and welded the 2 images together along with the merry christmas phrase I found in the wild card cartridge.  I glued the images on a gift bag.  It was pretty much the same for the rest of the stuff I made today.  The last picture I had to make into a 12x12 scrapbook page because it was a lot bigger than my gift bag.  I think it worked out ok, even though it wasn't what I was orginally going for.  Sometimes a lot of my projects start off one way and end up as something else, because I hate wasting the paper.   Enjoy and go be creative.

I am so excited...today I finally recieved my cricut design studio (CDS) software.  This is what my DH gave me for my anniversary...actually I ordered it and I let him give it to me...it works out well because then I get what I want.  For those of you that don't know CDS allows you to weld together images from different cricut cartridges to form a unique design.  I had created some files using the trial version and I finally broke down and bought the software on EBAY.

After I called and activated the software, I have been happily creating some really cool designs.  Check them out:

These were all made with George Basic Shapes.  You can personalize anything to what you need.  It is awesome!!!

I got wild and crazy with the CDS and made this cool title.  As I was experimenting with the CDS I figured out that you can copy the image from the 1st pg, open up a new page and copy it in there and when you run it through the machine with the 2nd color it will print out the next color (This one had 4 colors and cuts). 

It was fun making my own designs.  Watch out when you start using this software.  It is addicting and you lose track of time quickly.  But the results are amazing.  And the best thing is that since I saved the file, I will never have to re-do the design...all I have to do is put in my paper and start cutting away.

Before I got CDS, I hated all the disney character cartridges.  It would frustrate me to keep switching paper and then I'd lose 1/2 the little pieces.  I was able to make several winnie the pooh designs at the same time, with CDS which saved me a ton of time and paper.  How cool is that!  (Tip:  You can get the right size shirt by moving it over image on the 1st page and sizing it up the right way, then you copy it and paste it on a new page.  I labeled my pages by color so when I saved it I'd know exactly what colors I'd need for future projects...I'm going to do the same for the rest of my pooh cartridges.)

With the jos of the season and the Christmas solutions cartridge I was all to make some unique Christmas die cuts to put on future cards.  I love the way they came out.

I made these unique Christmas designs and I'm going to be putting them on Christmas Gift Bags.  I'm blown away by what the Cricut can do.  Below are 2 more.