It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

Happy Monday, all! Things are going well here in New Mexico and yesterday was a great day full of fun and directionless quality time with my mom. We went to church, hit Michael's Arts and Crafts Store, Borders, and grubbed on some McDonald's chicken nuggets (they are a weakness of mine).
While at Michael's I found that the Making Memories $50 "grab bags" of goodies they've had around for the last month or so were marked down to $10 each. I love me some MM, and the embellishments in the bags were pretty recent and very fabulous so I had to pick out three. :)
My mom and I stayed up until 2:30 am chatting, me working on the card below and her coloring in a new coloring book I bought her for Mother's Day. I had to bust out some of my new embellishments and other goodies for this card:

I used some of my new Echo Park papers (Life is Good, line) from Hobby Lobby, along with some MM embellishments like the button brads and mini metal-rimmed tag to show off this too stinkin' cute stamp by Hero Arts. The adorable toad stool and lady bugs were an idea from my mom and are by DoodleBug...PERFECT!

I really adore everything about this card and it will be tough to give it to my mom's neighbor! On Saturday I was walking my little brother (age 10) to the park and we passed a garage sale where the gal gave my brother a bunch of Barney VHS tapes and a talking Barney stuffed animal. The woman's 19 year old son has Downs Syndrome like my little brother, which sparked her generosity; I wanted to be sure and thank her properly...the way us crafters do best!
Have a fab start to your week and maybe involve yourself in a RAK of your own! ;)
Hugs and HOOTS,
<3 Alicia

I'm Back: A Welcome Celebration

Hello dear friends! It has been far too long since I have blogged my crafty endeavors, but it has been quite a full year! I am so glad to have my mojo back!
I am in New Mexico this month visiting my mom who is going through chemo and a bilateral mastectomy for breast cancer. She is being such a trooper and I know her positive attitude will be what gets her through. <3
I flew out from California this week and made sure I took every bit of luggage allowable without having to pay extra, which meant taking along a small scrapbook tote and my Cricut! :) My clothing bag was 7 pounds over the 50 pound limit, so I did have to leave all my patterned paper behind...it clocked right in at 7 POUNDS! I won't pretend I'm embarrassed, a girl needs her supplies!
In light of this torture, I *had* to head out to Hobby Lobby yesterday and happend to come home with some echo park papers, new copics, and tons of Dear Lizzie ribbon. <3 WOOT!
Here's the resulting card after my fun shopping trip with my sister:

I used Dress up Anya by The Greeting Farm and altered her hairstyle by cutting her long locks off and adding the hairbuns from the Flutter Anya instead. Altering this image was SO fun and I foresee many more in the coming days.
If you haven't tried this yet with your TGF stamps, DO IT! You can't tell the image has been cut or altered once it's colored up, see:

I paper pieced Anya's T-shirt from the Dress Me Up set using the new Echo Park papers I bought at Hobby Lobby. The paper pack came as a scrapbooking kit, so I used some stickers from the set as well as some of the banners from the papers to embellish my card. A little Cricut work on that scallop, and I was all set!
I'm so glad you stopped by to see what was new and I look forward to checking in quite a bit while I am here because I have lots of time to craft!
Hugs and HOOTS,
<3 Alicia