LIVE SIMPLY - SCRAPLIFTED LAYOUT

I simply love everything Monique Griffith! I've been collecting the pieces to make this layout and although I didn't have the reddish Bazzill paper, I used my imagine to try and replicate it and the paper for the leaves.

I admit that I scraplifted every single piece of this layout. There were very few deviations from the original layout on www.monkeydoodlecricut.blogspot.com. But I loved this layout so much that I just had to try and reproduce it down to the last detail.

It took me 5 hours just to make the color combinations I needed for the paper and then cut each die cut for this layout but it was so worth the effort.

I used a different ribbon than Monique did. I pop dotted the ladybugs and I gave my little skunk a green eye, but those were my only creative elements to the layout. I'll admit that I have no imagination or creativity of my own so I must create based on someone elses talent.

I hope that Monique at www.monkeydoodlecricut.blogspot.com will know that my scraplifting was because of her wonderful talent and creativity and my grand-daughters photos will be absolutely beautiful on here.

On a personal note to Monique, I hope your surgery this week has gone well. I appreciate your work even more during the struggles you've gone through this summer. You are in my thoughts and prayers and I wish you a speedy recovery.

OCTOBER MAGGIE VALLEY SWARM

This weekend was our last swarm for 2010....we won't be having another one until the early spring of 2011. What a great time we had again this month.

Originally there were only 3 people in the group coming so I brought my hubby to cook for us! The food was wonderful and the company was fabulous. Below is a photo of me and my husband (pardon my bad hair, this photo was taken around 10pm!).

On Friday night we had a pasta dish my husband made in his pressure cooker! It was fabulous. On Saturday morning we had waffles and a breakfast casserole. And Saturday night we had Roast with potatoes and carrots, again made in my husbands pressure cooker! There was lots of candy, cupcakes and homemade bread too.


This is a group photo of everyone that came. From left to right is Brenda, Trish, me, Laura & Shyra. Brenda also brought her mom but she was already in bed and didn't come down for the photo. My husband took the picture for us. It is a little bit blurry, sorry!

This is a photo of the main room with the fireplace and tables. I had just received my new Imagine the day before I came and I didn't even open the box until I got to the cabin on Friday! I haven't attempted the upgrade yet but will work on that when I'm confident the bugs are out.

There was another table upstairs in the loft and even though we can't all see each other we can talk to anyone that may be in the loft area still. It has been a wonderful place to get together and oh so relaxing!

This will be our last swarm until the spring because the weather up here is too unpredictable and with the holidays coming we decided to wait until March for our next swarm. So if any of you are interested in joining our group, there is room to spare, so come join us! The fee includes room and board. You can email me at coggie4556@bellsouth.net if you are interested.

HALLOWEEN GOODY TABLE

This is the candy bar that we created for my grand-daughters 3rd birthday party. I made the "BOO" banner to put on the front of the table and then decorated the table with a black candelabra, little black coffins and tootsie roll pops covered to look like pumpkin faced ghosts. The childrend loved it and had a great time filling their bags with candy, plastic vampire teeth, spider rings and halloween themed pencils.

This is the candelabra I got at Michaels for $14.99.

This is another photo of the table with all the goodies and the banner. I made the banner with my Imagine. It was very easy and I used 2 different halloween packs I bought at Michaels.

This is a spider tee light holder I got at Michaels as well with a fake tee light in it.

These are the pumpkin face ghost suckers I made. At the Maggie Valley Swarm in September, the hostess, Laura showed me how to make these. They were a huge hit with the kids and extremely easy to make. You use a coffee filter, a stamp for the face and twine to tie it on.