Tax Day BLUES Blog HOP

Hello and Welcome to the Tax Day BLUES Blog Hop!

The hop will be hopping today (Friday), April 15th, through Sunday, April 17th.

In my family, Tax Day was always stressful...My dad used to (actually still does) spend months going through paperwork to prepare for taxes.  As an adult now, I just plain hate doing them...so while I was working on this year's taxes, I thought, why not have a blog hop to add some fun and creativity to the otherwise dreadful time of year?!  So here we are....

I am extremely honored to present a group of amazing, awesome, and creative bloggers.  Their mission was simple:  Create something blue and cheerful.  There are 15 bloggers...If you get lost along the way, come back here for this list: (Please don't leave me yet...my projects and blog candy are below....)

1. Angie, TuttleTime, http://atuttletime.blogspot.com/  (That's me)
2. Ellen, Craft Monkey, http://cardmonkey-business.blogspot.com/ 

3. Tristan, Tristan’s Time4Craftin, http://tristans-time-4-craftin.blogspot.com/
4. Tammy, Nesting Pretty, http://nestingpretty.blogspot.com/
5. Elaine, Expressions by Elaine, http://expressionsbyelaine.blogspot.com/
6. Angelia, Angelia's Paper Crafts, http://angeliaspapercrafts.blogspot.com/  
7. Belinda, Bee’s Hive of Drama, http://www.beeshiveofdrama.blogspot.com/
8. Mary, Mare Bears Scraps http://marebearscraps.blogspot.com/
9. Wendy, Gilby's Craftster, http://gilbyscraftster.blogspot.com/
10. Jackie, My Basket of Scraps, http://mybasketofscraps.blogspot.com/

11. Jill, Jill the Scrap-o-Holic, http://thescrapoholic.blogspot.com

12.  Leah, Leah's Card Designs, http://www.leahscarddesigns.com/

13.  Mary J., http://maryjaminski.blogspot.com/

14.  Tiffany, My Sweet Lemonade Dreams, http://mysweetlemonadedreams.blogspot.com/  

15.  Monica, Scraps to Treasure, http://scraps2treasure.blogspot.com/

SCRAPBOOK PAGES

I love taking photos and putting them into fun scrapbooks...

Here are a few pages I recently created:

"Sunshine and Smiles" was created using light sky blue cardstock and fun ribbon.  I matted the pictures on a striped paper that had a stripe with a matching shade of blue.

The bottom of the page is lined with fun yellow ribbon with smiley-faced flowers....Using the Cricut, I made some white flowers with the "Walk in My Garden" cartridge.   I drew smiley faces in the center of yellow to match the ribbon and added pop dots.  The Title was cut using the "Cuttin' Up!" Cartridge.

 Besides the pictures of the children, my favorite part of the page is the sun.  The "Simply Charmed" cartridge has my favorite SUN! To make his shades sparkle, I added Stickles.

"Best Buds" was created with the same page colors and continued the "Walk in the Garden" for the BUDS and "Cuttin' Up!" for the title.

"Silly Goose" is a turquoise page with 1 inch borders of matching circle pattern paper.  The letters were cut using the George and Basic Shapes.  To add a whimsical feel to the page, I used different size letters in the word, "GOOSE," put googly eyes in the middle of the "O's," and drew on a smiley face, nose, and brow.

 The Goose was cut using the Animal Kingdom cartridge.

I turned the dot of the "i" into a smiley face, using a Stampin Up punch.

CARDS

"Crabby Card" - The card has two shades of blue to separate the sky from the ocean.  The crab and palm tree are cut from the Create a Critter cartridge. (The palm tree is on the page with the dinosaur).  The sand is a glittery tan paper.  I tore the paper for the sand to give it a layered and natural look....using the Creative Memories tearing tool: (It works great!)

 The inside of the card is quick and simple...Whale is also from Create a Critter.  Letters are Creative Memory alpha stickers.

 BLOG CANDY

Now the moment you've been waiting for....Prizes:

1st Prize

$25 Gift Card/Certificate to: (Winner picks one)

Michael's ~ Hobby Lobby ~ Joann's

Creative Memories ~ Stampin Up

2nd Prize

$15 Gift Card/Certificate to:  (Winner picks one)

Michael's ~ Hobby Lobby ~ Joann's

Creative Memories ~ Stampin Up

3rd Prize

Creative Memory Tearing Tool

(Featured above)

To win, you must: 

1.  Become a follower of my blog (click link to the right)...if not already;

2.  Leave me a comment, describe your latest project, and include a way to reach you (either by email or leave your blog address);

3.  Leave a comment on all the blog in the hop.

A winner will be chosen and announced on my blog on Monday, April 18th, using Random.org.  Be sure to stop by on Monday to see if you've won!  Good Luck! 

Your next stop is my sweet, crafty blog friend, Ellen.

Enjoy hopping!!!!