Itty Bitty Ladybugs

Baby Blog Hop

2012-02-25T08:00:00.000-06:00

WELCOME

to my blog and the

BABY BLOG HOP

If you're here from Evila's blog, you're on the right track. If you would like to join us from the beginning head over to www.bellascrapbookdesigns.blogspot.com

I kept my card pretty simple but elegant by using Pink Paislee and October Afternoon papers. The thread is We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy Brown. I just used a maker for his eyes and the buttons and bead have been floating around my craft room for years!

This duck comes from Sesame Street Friends Cricut cartridge. I used my gypsy to weld together two bases. I was originally going to use the backs of each of these papers until I turned the top duck over to add glue and decided I really liked how the pattern ended up on that side. So in a sense he's backwards, but he's beautiful. The images were cut at 4.06".

Thank you so much for stopping by today. I'd love if you became a follower (and if you're a Cricut lover you'll definitely want to follow me as I have a birthday giveaway coming up real soon).

Your next stop is Zenita.

1. Sylvia- http://www.bellascrapbookdesigns.blogspot.com/
2. Sandra- http://365daysofcricut.blogspot.com/
3. Sandy- http://thecraftycreationspot.blogspot.com/
4. Patricia- http://creativediva98.blogspot.com/
5. Gaby-  http://www.gabycreates.com/
6. Anita -  http://www.anitaandbugs.blogspot.com/
7. Eva -  http://evasscrapsncards.blogspot.com/
8. Veronica - http://mommyscraftycreations.blogspot.com/
9. Diana - http://www.daisylovecreations.blogspot.com/
10. Esther- http://forthejoyofcreating.blogspot.com/
11. Pam ~ http://mzlavr2.blogspot.com/
12.Evila - http://www.frenchconnectiondesigns.blogspot.com/
13.Tonya - http://www.ittybittyladybugs.blogspot.com/ <YOU ARE HERE
14.Zenita - http://www.scrappinwithz.blogspot.com/ <<<YOUR NEXT STOP
15. Jearise - http://lorbysworld.blogspot.com/
16.Jamie - http://myamusinglife.blogspot.com/
17. Vicki - http://mawmawsthoughts.blogspot.com/
18.Alina - http://www.neverstopscrapping.blogspot.com/

Creative Cutter Room - Shape Card

2012-02-23T03:00:00.000-06:00

Thank you for joining us for our new challenge! We loved looking at all the wonderful Valentine's Day projects! We appreciate you joining us and hope you will join us for this next challenge!

Theme: Shape Card!

Create a new card using a shape no squares no rectangles!

Here is my project.

I kept is pretty simple but elegant by using Pink Paislee and October Afternoon paper. The thread is We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy Brown. I just used a maker for his eyes and the buttons and bead have been floating around my craft room for years!

This duck comes from Sesame Street Friends. I used my gypsy to weld together two bases. I was originally going to use the backs of each of these papers until I turned the top duck over to add glue and decided I really liked how the pattern ended up on that side. So in a sense he's backwards, but he's beautiful. The images were cut at 4.06".

Submit your new project for a chance to win a prize!

THE PRIZE

Two Acrylic Stamp Sets....One pictured above and the other a Surprise!

Challenge Starts today February 22 and runs until March 7, 2012.

Follow the rules then submit your new project over at the

Creative Cutter Room!

Looking forward to seeing your creations!

Only entries that fit the challenge guidelines will be entered to win the prize!

Some Rules to keep in mind while playing along:

Project submissions must be new, no back linking

CCR must be mentioned in the description with a link back to here

Entry must fit theme to be qualified for the prize

Prize must be claimed within 2 weeks

Please link your project posting not just your blog

You have until March 7, 2012 to enter your project.

Here is the Line Up for some great inspiration:

Carri

Georgiana
Diana
Elaine

Jessica

Tonya (that's me!)

Challenges:

More Than Favors - Wacky Wednesday #65 - Circles

My Craft Spot - Monday Challenge #45 - Birthday Shape Card

Shopping Our Stash - Challenge #40 - Inspiration Prompt - flowing colors and yellow

Die Cuttin' Divas - Challenge #53 - Favorite Pet - I don't have a pet, never have, but the farm down the road had ducks that wandered anywhere they pleased

Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog - Challenge Me Monday #99 - Fancy Trims

My Cricut Craft Room - Action Cards

2012-02-21T00:00:00.001-06:00

I LOVE action cards so I was super excited to see the design team asked to create some. Whenever I'm looking for a fun fold or interactive card I always turn to YouTube and that's where I found the inspiration for most of these cards.

The first card I have to share with you today is a telescoping card. It starts out as three layered circles and then swings out into a line.

To make this card you'll need three circles (6", 5" and 4") and three scallops (5.5", 4.5" and 3.5"). I cut mine from Gypsy Wanderings. "Friends" is also cut from Wanderings. The butterflies and clouds are from Everyday Paper Dolls. The stamp is from My Creative Time, the Wow! So Many Candles set. The flourish is a random stamp I had floating around in the drawer. I stamped the sentiment once with chalk ink and then again with distress ink. (I encourage you to click on the pictures to get a better look at the cards.)

This second card is a pop-up slider. There is a slider inside that pops up your image, or in my case, chipboard. I used the October Afternoon Sidewalks line to decorate this card.

I'm not going to go into specific directions on this card because I tried to wing it from a couple of videos I watched. It works, but it's not very pretty. You can find great directions that will give you a more finished look by searching YouTube. I used Everyday Paper Dolls for the butterflies here too, but I modified them.

Here are three other cards that I've featured previously on my blog.

This card is a double slider that doubles as a hot cocoa slider. When you pull on the ribbon slides come out on both sides, one containing a hot cocoa packet.

Here we have a stand-alone pop-up card. It lays flat so you can mail it without any extra postage, but when you pull on the ribbon and push down on the base it stands up.

This is a spinner card. The track that you see is lifted off the page by a pair of foam squares. The bee spins because it is mounted on a sandwich of a penny, two round pop-dots and another penny. The weight of the pennies is what makes the die cut spin.

Be sure to head back over to Erica's blog and check out the other action cards as well as the Mari Gras cards.

Challenges:
Celebrate The Occasion - Challenge #51 - Thinking of you
Frosted Designs - Fabulous Friday Challenge - Brad/Eyelets

Candy Has Candy, Again!

2012-02-20T22:44:00.003-06:00

If you are not a follower of Candy from Candy's Craft Corner, you are missing out! She is incredibly talented and always coming up with fresh, new ideas. Right now she's getting close to 400 followers. To celebrate she has some very generous candy to share.

To find out what and how you can enter to win, head over to Candy's Craft Corner.

Crafty Friends Give Blog Hop

2012-02-17T01:21:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the Crafty Friends Give Blog Hop. We are so glad you could join us for Day 1 of this very special hop. The mission of this blog hop is to raise awareness about bone marrow donations to help Leukemia patients.

Bone marrow donation technology has come a long way, and is now as simple as giving blood. So we are trying to raise awareness and get people to register at http://marrow.org to be a bone marrow donor. And why are we doing this your might ask? To help a friend and fellow crafter, Liz Decade. Liz is battling 2 different forms of acute Leukemia and needs a bone marrow transplant. We are hoping that this hop will help her to find a match. You can see her story at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Va6RNwYj4BE&list=UUz-JkPSKRldHJNbbEotv8DQ&feature=plcp.

Even if you are not a match for Liz, you can still help her. You see bone marrow registrations drives are expensive, you have to pay for each person who is registered, and Liz is trying to raise money for bone marrow drives and medical expenses (it costs a lot of money to get a transplant). You can donate to Liz at lizquesada.leukemia@gmail.com. All of the money donated will go to bone marrow drives or medical expenses.

And we have some wonderful sponsors who have donated prizes for our hop.Sweet Stamping Treats Digital Stamps, Trendy Twine, MB Treasurista, Paper Piecings by Nikki, Inspired Stamps, My Pink Stamper and Peachy Keen Stamps have all donated prizes to this hop. In order to be eligible for one of these prizes you must comment on every blog in this hop! There are other requirements for the sponsors so please see Liz's blog post for more details.

If you are coming from Jamie, you are right on track. If you just came across my blog and would like to hop along, please start over with Liz.

Here is my project.

The milk carton came from the Sweet Tooth Boxes Cricut cartridge. I used the sweets shop cut and hid the windows and folded the top tab under.

Recipe:
Cricut Cartridges
   Sweet Tooth Boxes
   Nate's ABCs
   Sesame Street Friends
   Gypsy Wanderings
Peachy Keen Wide Eyed Kids
Memento Alpha Stickers
Recollections Stamp Markers
Recollections White Pen
ColorBox Wicked Black Ink
Scrap Paper
Straw

Thank you for stopping by and don’t forget to go to http://www.marrow.org and find out how to become a marrow donor.

Your next stop is Angie.

Here is the entire hop list for day one in case you get lost:
Liz - http://decadeofscrap.blogspot.com
Amber - http://pixiperfectcreations.blogspot.com
Ashley - http://theglamoroussideofscrapping.blogspot.com
Tiffany - http://creativeconfessionsoftiffanyleola.blogspot.com
Leslie- http://ScrapOfArtDesigns.blogspot.com
Liz C. - http://tryin2craft.blogspot.com
Lina- http://sweetnothingspaperco.blogspot.com
Jamie- http://jamiek711designs.blogspot.com
Tonya - http://ittybittyladybugs.blogspot.com
Angie - http://atuttletime.blogspot.com
Doris - http://mybugandmecreate.blogspot.com
Michelle - http://scrappinforkenzie.blogspot.com

Challenges:
I Came. I Saw. I Created. - Color Challenge

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Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T01:49:00.001-06:00

I have a quick, clean and simple Valentine for my husband to share with you today.

Recipe:
White CS
Black CS
Smash Tape
Winter Woodland Cricut Cart
White Ribbon
Brads
Seeing Spot Embossing Folder

Challenges:
Cooking With Cricut - #72 Grown Up Valentine
Frosted Designs - use the word love
Made Especially For You - card sketch
Whimsical Wednesday - colors of love
The Glamorous Side of Scraping - embossing
Die Cuttin' Divas - color challenge
Shopping Our Stash - use metal

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My Cricut Craft Room - Birthday Layout

2012-02-10T00:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to another scrapbook Friday! Today I have a birthday layout to share with you.

Now I'm guessing it looks a little off to you, that's because this is page one of a two page layout. On page two I'll extend the banner and finish the word "birthday".
Let me also explain the words and bugs. We held our daughter's third birthday at the local gymnastics gym so I had the theme be Tumble Bugs.

Recipe:
Cricut Cartridges
Elmo's Party - cake - 4"
Kate's ABCs - word art made on gypsy - 2"
Create A Critter - bugs - unknown size, I took these off of buffet table cards I made of the party
Paper
Doodlebug Designs - cake & ice cream - hip hip hooray (bright), gift wrapped (bright)
Scraps
Sew Stamper - purchased for an incredibly low price in Erica's Store - Use code 15 to get 15% off your order

Be sure to head back over to Erica's blog and check out the other layouts created by the design team.

Challenges:
LIttle Scrap Pieces - Anything Your Heart Desire
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Creative Cutter Room - Valentine

2012-02-09T03:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to my first post as a Creative Cutter Room (CCR) Design Team member. For our first challenge of the year we are asking you to create a NEW project using Valentine's Day as your inspiration!
Keeping our theme in mind the Design Team is showcasing We R Memory Keepers. We each received a stamp, piece of ribbon and 4x6 Albums Made Easy paper pad. I used my supplies to create this take-out box.

I thought the closure looked like lips so I outlined it with my white pen and used stickers to make the phrase "sealed with a kiss".

Now it's your turn. Head over to Creative Cutter Room and submit your new project for a chance to win this

A Cricut Tool Kit!

(I personally have one of these and LOVE it!

I use at least three of these tools on EVERY project I create.)

Need more inspiration on what to create?
Visit the rest of the design team

Carri

Georgiana
Diana
Elaine

Jessica

Tonya (That's me!)

I can't wait to come to your blog

and see what you create

so link up to the Creative Cutter Room today!

Some Rules to keep in mind while playing along:

Project submissions must be new, no back linking

CCR must be mentioned in the description with a link

Entry must fit theme to be qualified for the prize

Prize must be claimed within 2 weeks

Please link your project posting not just your blog

You have until February 22, 2012 to enter your project.

Recipe:
Sweet Tooth Boxes Cricut Cartridge
Paper
AC Cardstock - Taffy
Bazzill - Razzleberry Light
We R Memory Keepers - Love Struck
Oriental Traders Flower Eyelet
We R Memory Keepers Stamp - Cupid
Ribbon
October Afternoon
Sidewalks Buttons
Alpha Stickers - Boardwalk Lime
Color Box Chalk Ink
Yellow Citrus
Rouge
Recollections White Pen

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Distressed Birthday Card

2012-02-09T00:54:00.001-06:00

I have something a little different to share with you today.

I made this distressed birthday card using Graphic 45 and distress inks. This is very different from what I typically create but I had a lot of fun with this and I think it turned out well. Besides trying something new a getting a little dirty is always fun!
It's a little hard to see in the photo but the sentiment is from My Creative Time's Wow! So Many Candles stamp set and says "so sorry these birthday wishes are a little late". I thought the sentiment went well with the Scarecrow - he is looking of a brain after all!
One fun technique I used was to color my sheer ribbon with distress ink. I just wet the ribbon a little bit and ran the ink pad over the ribbon.

Recipe:
Recollections Gold CS
My Creative Time - Wow! So Many Candles
Graphic 45 Chipboard Tags - The Magic Of Oz Tags 1
Cloud 9 Designs - Olive Green Wood Title Stickers
Tim Holtz Distress Ink
Fired Brick
Tea Dye
Peeled Paint
Frayed Burlap
Misc
Sheer Ribbon
Ticket

Challenges:
Celebrate The Occasion - #49 Anything Goes Birthday
Birthday Sundaes- #42 Birthday Card W/ Sentiment

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Valentine Door Hanger

2012-02-08T18:07:00.001-06:00

Today I have a couple of Valentine door hangers to share with you.

I followed the folding directions on the Doodlebug blog. Gypsy Wanderings was used for the matting and Target dollar spot items were used to embellish. I used both 1.5" grosgrain and 1/2" sheer ribbon.

Challenges:
Frosted Designs - Ribbon and/or Twine
FCCB - #97 Love Is In The Air
Ribbon Carousel - #39 Anything Goes
Shopping Our Stash - #38 Hearts, Valentines or Lace
My Craft Spot - #43 Valentine's Day
Little Scrap Pieces - Use Pink

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My Circut Craft Room - 100 Cartridge Blog Hop

2012-02-04T22:00:00.000-06:00

WELCOME TO THE 100 CRICUT CARTRIDGE BLOG HOP WITH MY CRICUT CRAFT ROOM!

If you're here from Marji's blog, you're in the right place. If you're just stopping by please join us from Erica's blog and be sure to follow her so you will know when she has contests, prizes, challenges, swaps & special online coupons.

Currently she is running a Scrapbook & Card challenge over on her challenge blog and you can win a gift certificate to her webstore!

This Friday she will announce February's Scrapbook swap.... She has a swap each week and you have two weeks to make your project each month. There will be a card, scrapbook, tag, die cut and embellishment swap each month on the swap blog.

Don't forget to comment along the way on all of the blogs today and yesterday to be entered to win the Cricut cartridge or K. Andrew Its Valentine stamp set that Erica is giving away today. Winners will be announced on her blog on Tuesday!

If you get a chance please visit Erica's Webstore and enjoy 15% off your total purchase this weekend. Enter the code 15 during the third step of check out to see the discount.

She has everything crafty.... Cricut cartridges, adhesive, papers, stamps and so much more.....

www.Shop.EricasCraftRoom.com

This month I'm using Mickey and Friends, Happily Ever After, Wild Card and Create A Critter to make my project. With those cartridges you're probably thinking I made some kind of Disney card, but you'd be wrong. Let me start by showing you the cuts I made from each cart before I share the whole project.

Mickey & Friends - 2.5", 2.29", 1.94", 1.47"

Happily Ever After - 3", 2.53", 2.18", 1.94"

Wild Card - 15.24"

Create A Critter - 20.92", 18.8", 15.97", 14.56"

Create A Critter - 2.41", 1.94"

Create A Critter - 2.41"

All of these cuts came together, along with some ribbon; wire; fishing line and pop dots, to create this Valentine Wreath.

Thank you for stopping by today! Your next stop is KATHY.

Here is the entire line up in case you get lost:

My Cricut Craft Room http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

Amber http://pixiperfectcreations.blogspot.com/

Connie http://conniecancrop.blogspot.com/

Jenn lorist http://jennspapercrafts.blogspot.com

Sheila http://squeakyscrapper.blogspot.com/

Marji http://fstampaholic.blogspot.com/

Tonya http://ittybittyladybugs.blogspot.com/

NEXT >>>Kathy http://3spoileddogs.blogspot.com/<<< NEXT

Sabrina http://sabrinabellabeautiful.blogspot.com/

Dana http://danascraftycorner.blogspot.com/

Christina http://cema1cema.blogspot.com/

Mary http://mary-fortheloveofart.blogspot.com/

Erica’s Projects http://ericasprojects.blogspot.com

Vicki O http://luvmygypsy.blogspot.com/

Claire http://www.ThreeWatersCreations.com

Cori www.createdbycori.blogspot.com

Vicki’s http://stayathomemomof2inohio.blogspot.com/

Teresa http://createenjoyshare.blogspot.com/

Gloria C http://craftnthings.blogspot.com/

Tiffany http://angel4everthecraftyteacher.blogspot.com/

Miranda http://www.nanasscrapspot.com/

Jessica K http://homespunelegance.blogspot.com/

Heather m http://digipage-blog.everything-digital-scrapbooking.com/

Blog Candy http://ericasblogcandy.blogspot.com

Inspiration for this project came from Mandy Leahy.

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Mini Tree Valentine

2012-02-03T15:24:00.002-06:00

I have another 3x3 Valentine to share with you today (that's the way it works when you have two kids!). This time I used my Cricut and Gypsy!

The card base is cut from Gypsy Wanderings and the tree is from Create A Critter. I used chalk ink in olive, burnt sienna and rouge to ink all my edges.
The little hearts on the tree came from a boarder punch by Martha Stewart and I used glimmer mist on the inside of the card. I used this weeks tip on FCCB to make my banner.

Recipe:
Cricut Cartridges
Gypsy Wanderings
Create A Critter
MS Boarder Punch
Glimmer Mist
ColorBox Chalk Ink
Paper
Recollections
Bazzill
We R Twine

Challenge:
Little Scrap Pieces - Use Red
FCCB - #96 - Valentiny Cards
Cooking With Cricut - #71 - Kids Valentine
Simply Crafts - February Challenge - Tree
More Than Favors - #64 - Love
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Mini CAS Valentine

2012-01-31T18:00:00.001-06:00

Yup, another post today; I'm on a roll!! For this card I used the sketch at CAS-ual Fridays. I decided to make it 3x3 because I was going to enter this in an additional challenge where that was a requirement but didn't end up using my Cricut. Oh well, I really like how it turned out.

Recipe:
We R Memory Keepers PP
Sheer Ribbon
Recollections CS
We R Memory Keepers Stamp

Challenges:
CAS-ual Fridays - CFC37 - sketch
The Glamorous Side Of Scrapping - CAS Sunday
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Cake Box

2012-01-31T15:49:00.002-06:00

Frosted Designs is having a recipe challenge this week. They are asking you to create a project with 3 patterned papers, 2 buttons and a 1 word title. So I took those elements and made this cake box!

I used Sweet Tooth Boxes to cut my cake and Bloom to cut my flowers.

Recipe:

Sweet Tooth Boxes

Bloom

OA Sidewalks Buttons (center of flowers)

We R Paper

AC Cardstock

Bazzill Cardstock

OA Boardwalk Lime Stickers

Seeing Spots Embossing Folder

We R Twine

Color Box Chalk Ink

Challenges:

Frosted Designs - Fabulous Friday - Recipe Challenge

Cooking With Cricut - Challenge #70 - Anything but a card w/ yellow and polka dots

My Craft Spot - Anything Goes

Die Cuttin' Divas - Challenge #50 - Anything Goes

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Check This Out

2012-01-31T13:06:00.003-06:00

I don't normally share these things but this candy is too wonderful to not share with everyone!

You have until 2/27 to enter at Livas Crafts.

My Cricut Craft Room - Letter E

2012-01-30T00:00:00.000-06:00

We are up to the letter E at My Cricut Craft Room and this week I have an elephant card for you.

I used a stamp pen to ink the edges of my image. The brush tip makes it easier to get in those tight spots. "Congratulations!" is stamped in watermark ink. It's the same ink I use for embossing. My bow is a faux-bow. I made a loop of ribbon and slipped it under the ribbon band. Then I added tails and glued them on the inside. This way the bow lays flat, it looks the way I want and when I mail it it should stay together.

Recipe:
Nate's ABCs
Elephant - 3"
Circle - 5 1/4", 4 1/2"
Card Base - 5 1/4" x 11 1/2"
1" Maise Grosgrain
Paper
DCWV
Ki Memories
Recollections
Bazzill
Versa Mark Ink
Hero Arts Stamp
Recollections Stamp Pen

Be sure to check out all the other project like mine on Erica's blog.

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My Cricut Craft Room - embossing powders

2012-01-24T00:00:00.000-06:00

This is the first project I designed on the Gypsy I got for Christmas. I had a lot of fun playing around with my new toy and after watching a couple of YouTube videos I felt confident in my skills.

For this project I only used Gypsy Wanderings. I started by welding two 5" postage stamp tag bases together. I hid the cut lines for the inside square on left side, this will be the back of the card when folded.

To create the silhouette of the reindeer I took the image, increased it size to fit inside the small square on the right with just a small amount of overlap. I then grouped and welded the images. I hid the decorative cuts on the reindeer's hind quarters. The paper behind the reindeer is DCWV.

To dress up the reindeer I tied a green ribbon around his neck and added a Tim Holtz charm that I colored with watermelon alcohol ink. I also added a Bo Bunny red gem to his nose. The blue gems in the lower left are also Bo Bunny.

For my embossing I used an Inkadinkadoo stamp with Versa Mark embossing ink. The embossing powder that I used is Stampendous in antique gold. The granules are large and the stamp was small so the embossing isn't perfect but I'm okay with that. I like for people to know that I made these cards.

Please stop by My Cricut Craft Room to see more projects like mine.

Challenges:

Die Cutting Divas - Challenge #49 - Buttons, Bling and/or Bows

Shopping Our Stash - Challenge #36 - Winter Blues

Ribbon Carousel - Challenge #37 - Non-Traditional Colors

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Clean And Simple B/W Card

2012-01-23T15:34:00.000-06:00

The challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays this week to create and clean and simple card (as always) using only black and white.
When I first read the challenge I thought it would be easy. I mean, come on, they already picked the style and colors I was going to use how hard could it be?!? Well my friends, this was INCREDIBLY difficult for me. The card I ended up with is my third attempt. The first two are horrible memories I never wish to relive.

Recipe:
Echo Park Victoria's Garden
Recollections Cardstock
Michael's Ribbon
Inkadinkadoo Stamps
Color Box Alabaster Chalk Ink

Additional Challenges:
Birthday Sundaes - Challenge #40

Snowflake Pocket Card

2012-01-22T22:19:00.001-06:00

Today's card is based on the sketch provided by Artful Delight. It's set up as a scrapbook layout but I took the basic elements and made card from it.

The fun part is that it's a pocket card

with an insert that comes all the way out.

Recipe:
Winter Frolic - 3"
Pattern Paper - Recollections Bright and Jolly
Cardstock - Recollections Jolly and Bright
Peachy Keen Wide Eyed Kids
Color Box Wicked Black Dye Ink
Bazzill Chipboard Snowflake
Making Memories Light Blue Pen

Challenges:
Artful Delight - January Sketch Challenge - ASC #16
My Craft Space - Monday Challenge #41 - Snow Much Fun
Whimsical Wednesdays - Anything Goes
Peachy Keen - Peachy Challenge 01 - Pockets
FCCB - Challenge Me Monday #94 - Snow Fun
Little Scrap Pieces - Use Blue

Big News!!

2012-01-21T04:00:00.000-06:00

I have great news to share with all of you today! I made the Creative Cutter Room Design Team!!

I'm so excited to be part of this incredibly talented team and I encourage you to check out the blogs of my team members.

DT Coordinator
Carri

Team 1:

Georgiana
Amy
Elaine

Jessica

Tonya

Team 2:

Diana
Brenda

Beckie

Tracy

So what's an announcement like this without a fun project to share!

I used the ever popular, and super cute Create A Critter for my monkey, banana and vines. All of the paper is DCWV with the blue being embossed with the Seeing Spots cuttlebug folder. The ribbon comes from my favorite spot in Michael's, the dollar bin!

This adorable, and fitting sentiment comes from the Crafty Sprouts stamp set Smile On. I used chalk ink and my trusty Recollections white pen so add the finishing touches.

If you have never been to the Creative Cutter Room blog or participated in their challenges check them out and join us every other Thursday, starting February 9.

Challenges:
Celebrate The Occasion - #46 - Any occasion must have polka dots

My Cricut Craft Room - Card Sketch

2012-01-17T00:00:00.000-06:00

Friday was our scrapbook sketch challenge over at My Cricut Craft Room and today we're showing the cards some sketchy love.

This is the sketch

and this is what I did with it.

Can you see the sketch in there? I replaced the rectangles with flourishes from the Playtime cart. I also added some ribbon. The oval is now a heart that is found on Gypsy Wanderings and the 3 little circles are now 5 rhinestones. I used Wild Card to cut the card base at 6".

Recipe:

Cricut Carts

Wild Card

Playtime - I used my gypsy to stretch these cuts

Gypsy Wanderings - 3"

Paper

Recollections
DCWV
Bazzill

Ribbon - from Michael's
Rhinestones

Make sure you head over to Erica's Blog to see what the rest of the design team did with this sketch and take part yourself. Click on the challenge tab at the top of Erica's blog and join in the fun. One lucky winner will get a $10 gift certificate to Erica's online store!

Trifold Farm Card

2012-01-15T20:46:00.003-06:00

Every time I saw a tri-fold card on Everyday Cricut I wanted to make one but didn't have a Gypsy and CCR was still in testing. So once I got my Gypsy I just had to start designing this card!

All edges are inked in Chestnut chalk ink.

The cuts are from Pooh & Friends and Create A Critter.

The base is made by welding 3 different sized rectangles together.

Recipe:
Pooh and Friends
Fence
Create A Critter
Cow
Barn
Howdy
Paper
DCWV
Bazzill
Recollections
Chestnut Chalk Ink
Recollections Stamp Pen

Challenges:
Celebrate The Occasion - Challenge #45 - Child's Birthday
FCCB - Challenge #93 - Man Time

My Cricut Craft Room - Scrapbook Challenge

2012-01-13T00:00:00.000-06:00

I turned to Disney again for the first every scrapbook sketch challenge at My Cricut Craft Room. Here is the sketch to work with,

and here is my take.

The papers are from Pinecone Press. They are actually all leftovers from a mini-album kit that I made as a Christmas gift. I did some fussy cutting for the flowers and used Mickey Font for the heads (4.41" and 4.88") the chef hat comes from Pooh and Friends (3.12"). I used a white Recollections pen for my journaling and a rub-on for the title.
So what do you think? Are you inspired to take part in Erica's first sketch challenge? If you are head over to her blog and click on the "
Challenge" tab. One lucky winner will get a $10 gift certificate to her online store! Don't forget to stop over at My Cricut Craft Room to see more inspiration for this weeks sketch.

Snowman Shape Card

2012-01-12T12:11:00.001-06:00

It's finally snowed here in Minnesota. Tuesday it was 50 degrees. People were golfing, rooftop patios were open and shorts were a common sight.
Yesterday, as I watched the tiny flakes slowly cover the grass, I was reminded that I still live in Minnesota and we have at least 2-3 more months of this. So I'm embracing it, in my crafting at least.

I used my Gypsy to weld two snowmen from the Winter Frolic cartridge together. I used Peachy Keen's Wide Eyed Kids for his face. The banner he's holding is from April Showers.
I used a lot of a favorite technique of mine (glossy accents+glitter). I used it on the ear muffs and for the work thanks. For his buttons I used my Zig pen and MS glitter.

Challenges:
Die Cuttin' Divas - Challenge #47 Blue, Silver, White
DL.ART - Thankful Thursday - Thank You Card
Shopping Our Stash - Challenge 34 - All That Glitters, Sparkles or Shines
Cooking With Cricut - #68 - Photo Inspiration

OA Sidewalks Layout - 2 Page

2012-01-08T17:57:00.000-06:00

Way back in September I took an OA class at Scrapfest. I was able to finish the card in class but I never got around to completing the layouts, until now. It just so happens that this kit fufills all the requirements of the My Scraps and More blog hop challenge. It also fits nicely into the Shopping Our Stash challenge this week which is rewind. We could re-do any challenge from last year. My layout could fall into so many of their past challenges but I decided to go with the most obvious #3 - UFO (unfinished objects). Last but not east Whimiscal Wednesdays challenge is to use a boarder. Those strips at the top and bottom are something I've never done before.

Winter Wishes Card

2012-01-08T17:21:00.000-06:00

I made a should-have-been simple card to share with you today. I'm sure it would have been super easy and quick to make had my paper decided to cooperate with me. Either way it's still a pretty card made with NO patterned paper! I glittered the skates and used glimmer glaze on the title.

Recipe:
Winter Woodland
   ice skate - 1"
   snowflakes - 1 1/4", 1 1/2", 2"
Gypsy Wanderings
   font - 1"
Glitter
Glimmer Glaze
Paper
   DCWV
   Bazzill

Challenges:
My Craft Spot - Winter Wonderland
BBTB2 - Winter Woodland Ice Skate
My Creative Time - Sports
Frosted Designs - Cardstock Only

Erica's Craft Room - 100 Cricut Cartridge Blog Hop

2012-01-07T00:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to

My Cricut Craft Room's

100 Cartridge Blog Hop!

If you're here from Amber's blog (http://pixiperfectcreations.blogspot.com/) you're in the right place, if you just stopped by come join us from the beginning.

I used Pooh and Friends, Elmo's Party and Wild Card to make this fun personalized party hat! The hat was cut from Elmo's Party (6.65"), Piglet and his shadow are from Pooh and Friends (4.09") and Ashleigh is cut using the font on Wild Card (2.02"). I used my gypsy to weld the letters together.

To create the fringe on the hat I took a sheet or tissue paper and folded it accordion style (like you would if you're making a paper fan or rosette). Then I stapled it along one edge and used my scissors to fringe it on the other.

Before assembling the hat I used my ATG to apply a line of adhesive on the inside of the hat. I stuck the tissue paper along the edge doing my best to keep it even all around. For the fringe at the top I cut off a small piece from my line of fringe (about 1" long) and rolled it up. After cutting a little off the top of the hat I glued the rolled up fringe in place.

I used my paper piercer to make two holes on the sides of the hat, after it was assembled, and strung some stretchy cord through. Make sure to measure this with your child's head. I just guessed and when I put it on my daughter it was a little tight!

Thank you for stopping by I'd love the hear what you think of my project and have you become a follower. You're next, and last stop for today, is Erica's Blog Candy.

Http://MyCricutcraftroom.blogspot.com
Heather F http://www.papercrafteranonymous.com/
Tammy S http://thepurplemuse.blogspot.com
Suzy http://suzyscrafts.blogspot.com
Yvette http://gammascreativecorner.blogspot.com/
Jen Lundy http://mybusycraftylife.blogspot.com/

Karey http://www.creativecraftcorner.com
Jenny R http://myimagitivity.blogspot.com/.
Erica http://ericasprojects.blogspot.com
Rosa http://kleymanr.blogspot.com
Samantha http://samanthascricutcreations.blogspot.com/
Enjoli http://mississippihippycrafts.blogspot.com/
Pattie http://sweetpsscrapbooks.blogspot.com/
Dana http://danascraftycorner.blogspot.com/

Amber http://pixiperfectcreations.blogspot.com/

You Are Here >>> Tonya http://ittybittyladybugs.blogspot.com

Your Next Stop >>> http://ericasblogcandy.blogspot.com

Erica's Craft Room - Disney Scrapbook

2012-01-06T00:00:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone! Thanks for stopping by today. I have my very first Design Team project for Erica's Craft Room to share with you!

Friday is now scrapbook day and this weeks theme is Disney. My family and I had the opportunity to go to Disney World this summer. We all had a great time. My three year old is still talking about it and asking to go back. Even my 1 year old has come away with an obsession for Micky Mouse.

I designed this layout on my Gypsy first. That little device takes all the guess work out of how big I should cut each piece. I just love it. Thank you Mom for the wonderful Christmas gift.

Mickey is strategically placed here to cover up the kid who sat down by my kids right as I got both of them to look at me at the same time

You can kind of tell in the first picture that I used foam squares but this photo lets you really see how much dimension this layout has. I used a couple different thicknesses of foam to really vary the heights and give it lots of visual interest.

Recipe:

Mickey and Friends

Fence - 1.8" (3)

Tree - 7"

Sun - 4"

Clouds - 1.5" (2), 2" (1)

Mickey - 2.8"

American Crafts This & That Foam Squares

Pop Dots

American Crafts Sky Blue Pen

Jillibean Soup - Background

Would you believe all the other paper is scraps I had lying around!

I hope you enjoyed my project, I'd love to hear what you think and have you become a follower! Be sure to pop on over to Erica's Craft Room to see more projects like mine.

Birthday Cupcake Card

2012-01-04T00:22:00.000-06:00

I'm back to my normal posting after a month as a guest designer at Erica's Craft Room. I had a lot of fun making Christmas crafts and now the fun doesn't have to end; I've been asked by Erica to join her full time design team!! I'm very excited and can't wait to share my first project with you; it's coming on Friday.

Until then I have a birthday card that I made for Diana's blogaversary (DL Art). She had a blog hop where ingredients for my card were collected. There is still time to complete the hop and participate in the challenge. You have until January 6 and Diana is giving away the Sweet Tooth Boxes Cricut cartridge.

I embossed the flame, added a little glitter and topped it off with glossy accents.

In honor of all the glittering Diana did this past month I added glitter to all the dots on the frosting. My glittering was done with a pen, however.

To finish the card off I added a thin ribbon around the liner and a rhinestone.

Recipe:
Wild Card - 5"
Recollections Horizon Dye Ink
My Creative Time - Wow! So Many Candles Stamp Set
Offray Spool O' Ribbon
Gelly Roll Glitter Pen
Glossy Accents
Swiss Dots Cuttlebug Folder
Studio 18 Rhinestones
Scrap Paper

I'll also be entering this card in the following challenges:
FCCB - #92 Warming Up With Hot Chocolate (you could also use brown)
Simply Crafts - January Challenge

Gingerbread Cart Winner

2011-12-27T00:59:00.000-06:00

Thank you to everyone who stopped by my blog this month and left wonderful comments. I have enjoyed reading all of them.

Random.org chose day 13 - Penguins to choose the winner from. Out of the comments left that day number 1 was chosen by Random.org as the winner. This means that

LISAM

you are the lucky winner!! Congratulations Lisa!!

Please contact me by Thursday with your address. You can PM me on the My Scraps and More boards.

25 Days of Christmas - Last Day to Enter to win the Gingerbread Cart

2011-12-25T00:00:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas to each and everyone of you. I hope you all are having a fabulous Christmas and spending some quality time with the ones you love.

I would like to take a moment to thank Erica for having me as part of her seasonal design team. I had a great time creating all of my projects for the 25 Days of Christmas.

I was going to share with you all a couple of gifts that I made my brother and his girlfriend but I completely forgot to take pictures before wrapping them up. Instead I'll leave you with one last

MERRY CHRISTMAS

and I'll see you back here Tuesday when I announce the winner of the Gingerbread Cricut cartridge. To enter to win simply become a follower and leave me a comment on this and every other 25 Days of Christmas post. I will use Random.org to first select the day that the winner will be chosen from. I will then select the winner from all comments from followers left on that day. Good luck.

25 Days of Christmas - Santa

2011-12-24T00:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas,

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog to see 24 more projects today....

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

I made a Santa key to share with you today.

I started with a shadowbox and a white Bazzill Bling mat. I used foam tape to mount the green frame that is 1 1/2" wide. Then I used foam tape again to mount the striped frame which is 1" wide.

I colored the Tim Holtz key using watermelon alcohol ink. All I had to do was drop the ink directly on the metal. It took about 24 hours for the ink to fully dry. I used Pop Dots to mount the key to the white mat.

The trees are cut from Winter Frolic at 4".

I told my daughter that this is a special key, that only Santa can get out of the box, and use to get inside our house. She cannot wait for him to come to our house tonight!

Make sure to become a follower and leave a comment on this and all of my other 25 Days of Christmas posts to be eligible to win my blog candy - the Gingerbread Cricut Cartridge! You can find all the details here (scroll all the way down).

25 Days of Christmas - Snowman

2011-12-23T00:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas,

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog to see 24 more projects today....

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

For today's project I have a framed 3D snowman for you.

I used Doodlecharms to cut the bottom of my snowman at 2" with the real size dial on. The head of my snowman is cut using a 1" punch. I cut 8 of each size circle.

I used my Martha Stewart Scoreboard (LOVE this thing) to score down the middle of each circle. I then used a glue stick to adhere half of each circle to another half. I used my ATG to glue the completed sphere to the patterned paper.

The hat a scarf are cut from Winter Frolic at 3" and glued under the snowman. I used a stylus to curl the ends of the scarf.

"Frosty Wish" are Basic Grey stickers. The gem snowflake is Studio G. The frame is IKEA (love that store). The pattern paper is Recollections and the solid cardstock is DCWV.

Make sure to become a follower and leave a comment on this and all of my other 25 Days of Christmas posts to be eligible to win my blog candy - the Gingerbread Cricut Cartridge! You can find all the details here (scroll all the way down).

25 Days of Christmas - Gingerbread

2011-12-22T00:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas,

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog to see 24 more projects today....

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

I made a sweet little gingerbread card to share with you today. He's very easy to make and looks so yummy.

I used the shadow of the gingerbread man found on page 61 of the Winter Frolic Cricut cartridge. I cut him out at 5" on both white cardstock and a textured light brown card.

To make my card look more like a real cookie I sponged on brown chalk ink. My little guys face is Peachy Keen Stamps wide eyed kids 1 1/8". To give him some rosey cheeks I used Inkadinkado blending chalks. His wavy icing bands are rik-rac ribbon with glossy accents. I used my Recollections opaque pen to drawn the white frosting line around him and his buttons are Bo Bunny Blitzen jewels.

Since I don't have a gypsy to weld a card together I scored my white gingerbread layer near the top, applied a line of glue and adhered the two layers together. I also inked the white layer with brown chalk ink. The sentiment is from the Inkadinkado Pattern Play Holiday stamp set and is stamped in Recollections ruby ink.

25 Days of Christmas - Kids

2011-12-21T00:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas,

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog to see 24 more projects today....

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

Today's theme was supposed to be kids but I couldn't come up with a good project and then life got in the way and . . . well to be honest I forgot! So here is a revisit of the North Pole Breakfast I made for my kids the day after Thanksgiving. You can find all of the details here.

Because this is a repeat I'm going to give you an extra entry into my blog candy giveaway for leaving a comment. If Random.org picks today or the day this project originally appeared I'll draw the winner from both days comments.

25 Days of Christmas - Flowers

2011-12-20T00:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas,

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog to see 24 more projects today....

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

Poinsettias and candles say Christmas time to me so for my project today I combined the two.

I used alcohol ink to make the candle. It was a fun process that didn't take any time at all.
Supplies:
Candle - mine was light pink to start with so color doesn't matter
Alcohol Ink - I used citrus
Plastic - this needs to be bigger than your candle - I used the plastic from an old Cricut mat but you could use plastic warp, a grocery bag, acetate, anything that the ink will sit on top of

Start by placing enough ink on the plastic to cover you candle. My candle was a 3" pillar and it took less than a teaspoon of ink. Roll you candle in the ink giving it a solid base coat. Let dry.

Once dry drip 1-2 drops of ink down the side of the candle. I only used one color but you could use as many as you want. Let dry.

To adorn the candle I used Winter Woodland and cut the poinsettia at 1 1/4", 1 3/4" and 2 1/4" twice each. I used the spoon-like tool from my Cricut tool kit and the foam to curl the petals. I then used my paper piercer to poke a hole in the center of each flower and threaded a flower shaped brad through. I also poked a hole in both ribbons and threaded the brad through those too. I used Glue Dots to secure my ribbons to my candle.

25 Days of Christmas - Hot Chocolate/Coffee/Tea

2011-12-19T00:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas,

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog to see 24 more projects today....

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

Today's project is a food item/gift.

Is this not a super cute box?! The best part is that it is SO easy to make.

Start with a 12x12 sheet of cardstock.

Score at 3" and 9".

Turn the paper.

Score at 5" and 7".

Make your creases.

Here comes the one tricky part.

Fold at your 3" score.

Place your finger nail on the 5" score line. This is going to be one of the corners of your box.

Bring the end of that 5" score line/edge of the page to the 3" score line. You'll have made a diagonal fold on the inside of your box. Crease. (if you have any questions on this let me know and I'll try and get a good tutorial)

Repeat to create all four corners.

You can add glue if you would like but it's not necessary (I did glue mine).

Cut a piece of cardstock 4x6 for your roof.

Decorate your roof if you wish. I used glossy accents and course glitter.

Use April Showers to cut the door and windows at 6".

Punch holes through both the roof and the flap in the front and back.

Fill with hot chocolate packets (or gift of your choice).

Tie close with a piece of ribbon.

25 Days of Christmas - Elf

2011-12-18T00:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas,

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog to see 24 more projects today....

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

For my made with kids project today I created a paper plate elf for my daughter to decorate.

First I painted the paper plate ivory. You could let your child do this step. The paint dries quickly if you apply it with a foam brush. I also had all of my cuts assembled for her but here again you could let your child glue them together.

I don't have a cart with an elf cut on it so I used a lot of strange cuts to get my elf pieces. Here's the breakdown

Hat - Pooh and Friends - 4" - page 60 icon
Face - Create a Critter - 13" - page 68 layer 1
Collar - Create a Critter - 4" - page 38 accessory<s>
Ears - Winter Frolic - 11" - page 63 layer<s> - make this cut twice, use the large bird and flip him upside down

So you can see a little creativity on my part and artistic license of my daughter and you get this lovely piece of art.

Make sure to become a follower and leave a comment on this and all of my other 25 Days of Christmas posts to be eligible to win my blog candy - the Gingerbread Cricut Cartridge! You can find all the details here (scroll all the way down).

25 Days of Christmas - Baking

2011-12-17T00:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas,

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog to see 24 more projects today....

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

To make the box you need:

Boxed brownies/cake mix

2 pieces of cardstock large enough to cover the front, top and bottom of your box - mine are 10 3/4" x 5 3/8"

Score both pieces at 1 1/2" and 9 1/4"

Glue your flaps together creating a box around your mix - don't glue onto the mix just around

For the handles I cut a 55" piece of 1" wide ribbon and glued it to the bottom and sides of the holder.

Now it's time to decorate. I used the Winter Frolic cart for my cuts. Sweet Holiday Wishes can be found on page 57. I made this cut at 2". The peppermint boarder is on the same page and I cut that three times at 1 1/4". I used a very light coating of glossy accents on the peppermints and used foam tape on the middle section. Then I took my white pen and created a dot boarder around all of the edges and highlights on the red letters in sweet.

25 Days of Christmas - Candy

2011-12-16T00:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas,

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog to see 24 more projects today....

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

For today's project I made this cute little treat holder.

I used Winter Frolic to cut the stocking at 4". I made the cut twice, once with the flip feature on. I cut the items in the stocking off and embossed the trim pieces with the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder. I took candy stripe twine from We R Memory Keepers and stitched the two pieces together. I used irridescent paper for both the red and silver.

This little stocking can hold a surprising amount of candy.

25 Days of Christmas - Trees

2011-12-15T00:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog for 24 more projects

today . . .

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

Here is my project . . .

It's a canvas painting using contact paper and the Winter Frolic cartridge.

This project is incredibly easy and looks amazing (I actually made two).

To start with cut a piece of 12x12 contact paper. Leave the backing on and place on your circut mat.

Your cuts are as follows:
Trees page 40 - boarder - 4" - 2
Stars page 71 - boarder<s> - 1 1/4" - 5
Circles page 48 - layer - 3" - 3

Place on canvas.

Spray paint.

Peel off.

Display your work proudly.

It's that simple! I hope you'll give this a try. As an FYI I tried this with vinyl and it didn't keep the paint out as well as the contact paper.

Make sure to become a follower and leave a comment on this and all of my other 25 Days of Christmas posts to be eligible to win my blog candy - the Gingerbread Cricut Cartridge! You can find all the details here (scroll all the way down).

25 Days of Christmas - Ornaments

2011-12-14T00:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas,

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog to see 24 more projects today....

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

I've made another Made With Kids project today that both my 3 year old and 18 month old love!

The tree is cut from felt and held on the wall with sticky tack.

I used my Winter Frolic cart to cut both shapes of ornaments out of patterned paper at 4". Then I simply glued a scrap of felt to the back of each one.

Now my kids can decorate and undecorate their own Christmas tree whenever they want and leave the family tree alone (in theory any way).

Make sure to become a follower and leave a comment on this and all of my other 25 Days of Christmas posts to be eligible to win my blog candy - the Gingerbread Cricut Cartridge! You can find all the details here (scroll all the way down).

25 Days of Christmas - Penguins

2011-12-13T11:09:00.001-06:00

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas,

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog to see 24 more projects today....

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

My project is a Hot Cocoa Slider but it's a bit different from the ones I've been seeing around the web lately. Watch my very first video to see how it works.

Sorry the video randomly cut off. What you want to do to finish is place the glue on the opposite side of where you say me starting to place my glue and the line that edge up with the front lip of your card and you're ready to go! I hope you enjoyed my little video, I know it wasn't the best but it was kind of fun to make.

Blog Hop Winner

2011-12-12T09:00:00.003-06:00

*If you're looking for my 25 Days of Christmas post scroll down*

Thank you, everyone, for joining me this weekend on the Christmas Decorations Blog Hop hosted by Creations With Becka.

I also wanted to say thank you to Becka for including me in this hop. I had a lot of fun making my centerpiece and getting to meet so many new crafters.

Now on to the winner of the Recollections stamp set.

Random.org chose lucky number 11 and that person is . . .
SHERSL84BED

Congratulations Sher! Since you left me you email address I'll send an email out to you now and you'll have 48 hours to reply.

Thank you again to everyone who stopped by! Remember you still have a chance to win the Gingerbread Cricut Cartridge (details at the bottom of this post)! Also Becka is VERY close to reaching 850 followers and is having a BIG giveaway to celebrate. Jump on over to her blog for all the details.

25 Days of Christmas - Snow

2011-12-12T00:03:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas,

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog to see 24 more projects today....

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

I've been wanting to do this project since last year but didn't think I had the time. When I finally took the time to sit down with my popsicle sticks and glue gun it took me no time at all. The longest part was deciding what pattern to use. You can do a quick Google search to find different shapes, copy mine or make up your own.

I left my snowflakes natural but you could paint them with either acrylic paint or spray paint (this may be the easier, quicker option).

For my sign I used page 68 of the Winter Woodland cart. I cut the words and snowflakes twice to get two different colors. The base layer is cut out of glitter paper. I used glossy accents and course glitter on the snowflakes for texture and dimension. All pieces are cut at 7". All of my cardstock is Recollections.

25 Days of Christmas - Day 11

2011-12-11T00:00:00.000-06:00

If you're looking for my Christmas Decorations Blog Hop post click here or scroll down.

Today I have a cute little tag for you. This is simple to make and takes very little time.

The tag measures 3x3. I used Recollections cardstock so it has a slight texture to it. I started with the blue piece and stamped the Inkadinkadoo snowflake all over. Then I took a piece of white cardstock and tore it to create my mounds of snow. I applied the taller layer first, stamped my Me & My Big Ideas tree and then applied the second layer of white and stamped my two other trees. I used Recollections ink for the blue and light green. The darker green is distress ink.

Christmas Decorations Blog Hop

2011-12-10T01:59:00.000-06:00

WELCOME

to the Christmas Decorations Blog Hop hosted by Creations With Becka.

If you're here from Susan's blog, great! you're in the right place. If you happen to have just stopped by to say hi, then please join us for the whole hop (you can start here). Please be sure to leave a comment at each stop on the hop to be eligible to win the grand prize - a Cricut cartridge!

For my decoration today I made a centerpiece for my dining room. This was a lot of fun to make because
1) I got to do a lot of experimenting with a new-to-me product (alcohol ink) and
2) I got to sample three yummy wines (the sacrifices we make for our crafts)

See that picture in the background, I made that too! Follow my blog to find out how.

To start I cleaned the bottles and removed the labels. After they were dried I poured some epsom salt in (found in the first aid isle at Target). The branches were found in my backyard and I spray painted them with silver glitter paint. I used two cans, this is a good use for those Michael's coupons.

I used a few different techniques on the ornaments.

A) I dropped a few drops of alcohol ink down the inside of the ornament immediately followed by a quick burst of canned air. I continued doing this until I got an effect I liked.

B) I used my felt ink applicator and randomly placed a number of drops of ink on the applicator. All you have to do now is tap all over the ornament.

C) I squirted a small amount of ink in an ornament and swirled it around, coating the inside. I could have stopped here but I wasn't happy with the effect so I poured course glitter inside and shook it around. I could have stopped here too but decided to try option B as well (this was really unnecessary as you really can't tell).

I only had one shade of each color (watermelon, sail boat blue and citrus) but if you have multiple shades of ink you could really get some nice dimension.

I'm giving one lucky winner this stamp set from Recollections. To qualify you simply need to
1) Be a follower
2) Leave me a comment on this post

I will draw a winner on Monday (12/12) and that person will have 48 hours to contact me and claim their prize.

Your next stop is Dana.

Here are all the stops on the hop (in case you get lost)
Remember you must comment on every stop to be eligible for the grand prize.
may I suggest you keep reading *wink* *wink*

Becka http://creationswithbecka.blogspot.com
Oma Gloira http://omascrafts.blogspot.com
Julie K http://jk-littlebitofbling.blogspot.com/
Beckie Woodal lhttp://justbcreativecrazy.blogspot.com
Jamie Larson http://babyjaydensmommy.blogspot.com/
Lisa Grave http://lisa-scrappingspot.blogspot.com/
Anna Bee http://annabeedesigns.blogspot.com/
Crystal Kovach http://crystal-kovach.blogspot.com
Susan http://cricutandgrasshopper.blogspot.com/
Tonya Morgan http://ittybittyladybugs.blogspot.com
Dana Tarchala http://Danascraftycorner.blogspot.com

FYI the lineup has changed slightly but there are still 11 of us to stop at. Please be sure you've commented on 11 blogs so you can be eligible for the grand prize.

I'm glad you stayed with me, and I think you'll be glad too! Since it's Christmas I thought it would be nice to give a little gift to one of you! This Gingerbread Cricut Cartridge!!!

For the first 25 days of December I will be posting at least one Christmas project. All you have to do to be eligible is 1) Become a follower 2) Leave me a comment on each post during the 25 days of Christmas 3) Have a US mailing address. I will use Random.org to choose the day that I will draw the winner from and then the winner. I will draw and post the winner on December 27. That person will then have 48 hours to contact me and claim their prize. Good luck!

25 Days of Christmas - Animals

2011-12-09T08:36:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas,

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog to see 24 more projects today....

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

I am in love with this cute little project!

I used Create a Critter to cut the base of my label at 4". This cut can be found on page 33 on the phrase button. I inked the edges with Tim Holtz distress ink in peeled paint.

That super adorable reindeer is on the Doodlecharms cart. He's hiding on page 126 and I cut him at 3". He's inked with brown chalk ink. His little nose is glossy accents with Martha Stewart glitter.

For the font I used Mickey Font and cut it at 3/4".

Inside the bag are pretzel M&Ms.

Please be sure to stop by my blog this weekend for a chance to win some blog candy! I also have a big announcement to make!

25 Days of Christmas - Calendar

2011-12-07T23:01:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas,

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog to see 24 more projects today....

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

Today's project took me awhile to come up with but not long to put together, even with my mistakes!

Here are the steps in the order I should have made my countdown clock tower in.

1) Using Winter Woodland cut all layers of 3D Building 7 (clock tower) at 10" (this is as big as you can make it with a 12x12 sheet of paper. I used Recollections cardstock for the inner layer of my clock and Recollections patterned paper for the outside. The roof is cut out of Bazzil textured cardstock.

2) I used my Martha Stewart score board to make sure my folds would be straight. Before you fold anything though mark on your CS where the clock face hole will be and write your numbers. Also mark the center of clock face and use your paper piercer to make a hole. This is a good time to make a hole at the base of the longest clock hand too.

3) Now pick out a brad and put your clock hand on your clock face. Make sure you can move the hand freely but still have it stay on the number you want.

4) Make all of your folds. Go ahead and glue the inside and outside layers of the tower but NOT the roof. Place glue on the glue tabs of the tower that will hold the roof and also the glue tab of the roof but don't glue the roof together. Now place glue tabs of the tower on the roof and glue the roof together. (This is much easier than trying to get the glue tabs of the tower to stick to an already assembled roof . . . trust me.)

5) I added a little glue to the inside tower to hold the outside tower on and make it more like one piece.

Now you're ready to count down to Christmas.

25 Days of Christmas - Warm Clothes

2011-12-07T00:34:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas,

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog to see 24 more projects today....

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

For my project I made a clothes line to hang all of my families hats and mittens on. This has been a wonderful project. I no longer have to hunt down the missing glove or hat. It's also a great fine motor skill project for my daughter.

I used eye hooks screwed into the bottom of my kitchen counter. I found the cute silver cord at Michael's for $0.99!

For my Brrrr sign I used Winter Woodland and cut layer 1, layer 2 and shadow features at 5 1/4". All of the paper is Recollections. I also covered my clothes pins. The small scrap of paper between the edge of the page and the straight side of the B cut is the perfect size!

Be sure to become a follower. I have a big announcement coming up on Saturday. As a fellow Cricut lover you'll not want to miss it!

25 Days of Christmas - Sports

2011-12-06T00:01:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas,

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog to see 24 more projects today....

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

I have a quick and easy ornament for you today.

I used the Winter Woodland cartridge for both the snowflake and ice skate. The snowflake is the layer cut on page 35. I cut it at 4" with the Real Size Dial on. I used Recollections glitter cardstock for this cut.

The skate is from page 51. I used Rocollections cardstock here as well and cut the image at 2 1/2" (real size dial off).

The rosette is made from a stripe of paper 1"x8 3/4" and scored every 1/4".

25 Days of Christmas - Cookies

2011-12-05T00:01:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas,

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog to see 24 more projects today....

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

For today's project I made a very yummy gift. It's sugar cookie sugar scrub! (feel free to ooh and aah here)

The recipe is simple and by no means exact. Start with around a cup of sugar. Add just enough olive oil to moisten the sugar - around 4 tablespoons. Throw in a splash of vanilla extract. You don't want to add too much because extract can be irritating. Mix it up, put it in a container and store it in a cool, dry place.

I used the From My Kitchen cart to cut the tab on page 28 at 3". The cookies are from page 65 and are cut at 2 1/2". The white piece of paper measures 2 1/2" x 4 1/4".

25 Days of Christmas - Day 4

2011-12-04T18:37:00.000-06:00

Today (alright tonight, I'm a little late) I have a cute little tree for you.

After Christmas last year I picked up 4 pick of these little balls. I took my wire cutter and clipped them off as close to the stem as possible. Then I applied them to a small, styrofoam tree form. I did add a little dab of hot glue just to make sure the balls would stay in place.

25 Days of Christmas - Day 3

2011-12-03T15:25:00.000-06:00

I'm on my own today but still wanted to share a Christmas project I've made. I did not use my Cricut on this one. Just lots of hot glue and ornaments.

If you've made an ornament wreath you know how important it is to glue the tops on the ornaments after you've placed them on your wreath form. I tried to skip this step and it worked for awhile, then I got to the point where I was really filling in my wreath and ornaments were popping off left and right. Save your fingers and the frustration and get the hot glue out right away.

I'm so happy with this wreath. It took awhile to make, mainly because of the misstep I mentioned above, but it was well worth it.

25 Days of Christmas - Snow Play

2011-12-02T01:19:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog for 24 more projects

today . . .

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

For my Made With Kids project today I created a snow stencil.

Supplies:
2 sheets 12x12 contact paper or vinyl
1 sheet 12x12 cardstock
Winter Frolic Cricut Cartridge

Step 1
Place sheet of contact paper on both sides of cardstock. Start by lining up one corner and slowly taking the backing off while smooth out any bubbles. Don't worry if it's not perfect.

Step 2
Cut the ice skaters from the boarder function (shift) on page 40 at fit to page (7 1/4 inches). You'll want to use your multi cut function too.

You'll be left with this. The contact paper peels off of the cardstock nicely so if you wanted to you could use the cut for another project.

Step 3
Take a spray bottle and fill with water. Add food coloring until you reach your desired color. I used 5-6 drops of blue.

Step 4
Place your stencil on the snow and let your kid spray away. The contact paper acts as a water barrier making your stencil last longer.

Next time I might try adding more food coloring because it seemed to take a lot of sprays to start coloring the snow.

My daughter is three and had a hard time with the spray bottle that I used so she lost interest quickly. She was mildly impressed with the end result but much more impressed with the fact that we finally had snow. My 18 month old thought it was cool and wanted to eat it and my husband was very impressed and played with it a number of times himself.

If you happen to have missed day 1 keep scrolling and be sure to become a follower so you don't miss any of my Christmas creations. You never know when there may be candy up for grabs!

25 Days of Christmas - Christmas

2011-12-02T00:28:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas,

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog for 24 more projects

today . . .

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

I have two projects for you today. First up is this 6x6 card.

The supplies you need are:
colored cardstock for the background/sky
patterned paper/cardstock for the frame
white cardstock to cut your deer and trees from
silver and red glitter (I used Martha's)
mod podge/glitter glue
foam adhesive
Winter Frolic and Winter Woodland Cricut Cartridge
craft knife
paper trimmer
foam brush
Bo Bunny rub-on

1) Cut both the cardstock and patterned paper to 6x6.

2) On the back of your patterned paper draw a 5x5 square in the middle and cut it out with your craft knife.

3) On the front of your frame, in the lower right corner, apply your rub-on.

4) Cricut time! Using Winter Frolic cut the boarder on page 44 at 4" then cut in half with scissors. Using Winter Woodland cut Deer2 out at 4 1/2" with the FLIP button on.

5) Get ready to glitter. I used mod podge applied with a foam brush and Martha Stewart glitter.

6) Let's get layering. I used one layer of foam tape on half the boarder and two layers on the other half to give lots of dimension. Arrange these two pieces how you like. Apply 2-3 layers of tape to the frame depending on your preference. Apply 2-3 layers of tape to the body of your deer depending on how high your frame is and your preferences. Stick everything down (your deer will be applied to your tree boarder).

7) Admire your work and decide who gets your lovely card.

The post below is my second project for the day. I made a North Pole Breakfast for my kids!

25 Days of Christmas - Christmas

2011-12-01T16:22:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Erica's Craft Room

25 Days of Christmas,

with 25 Cricut projects a day.

Don't forget to stop by Erica's blog for 24 more projects

today . . .

and every day in December.

http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com

For my second project today, Made With Kids, I want to share with you the North Pole Breakfast I created for my children. I saw this idea on Pinterest and immediately started to think of what I would do for my kids.

For decorations I used my Winter Woodland cartridge to cut the 3D trees I used for the centerpiece. Tree1 was cut using the fit to page feature and Tree2 was cut at 9" and 7". I added glossy accents and course glitter to the blue tree.

The welcome sign is cut using font 2 on Nate's ABCs at 3 1/2". The red and green papers measure 4 1/2 x 6 1/2 and are simply glued together.

For the food signs I went back to my Winter Woodland cart and cut Snowflake 2, 3 and 4 at 3". I layered snowflakes 2 and 4 with a pop dot and added bling to both flakes.

The banners are simply hand cut and written.

I called the powdered sugar doughnuts snowballs and for the chocolate covered ones I added a red M&M to the center and broken mini pretzel twists for antlers and called them reindeer bites.
We also had hot chocolate with marshmallows and candy cane stir sticks.

In the cupcake liners are 1 peppermint kiss (from Santa), 8 chocolate chips (from the reindeer) and 1 red M&M from Rudolph.

I found the pattern for the mailbox here. Inside was a personal note from Santa and a pair of socks for each of them.

We held our breakfast the day after Thanksgiving and had so much fun. My 3 year old lit up when I told her Santa had left us a surprise in the dining room. This will definitely be a family tradition!

Magnetic Paper Dolls

2011-11-13T16:32:00.001-06:00

As soon as I saw Emma's Throwback Thursday Challenge at My Creative Time I knew exactly what I was going to do. Our family took a trip to Disney World in July. In preparation for that trip I made and bought a number of toys/activities to keep my (then) 2 year old daughter busy on the plane. One of my brilliant ideas was to make magnetic paper dolls using the Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge. So I bought the cartridge and a cute little lunch box tin to store them in. I cut out a doll from flesh colored paper and magnetic sheet glued them together and totally forgot about the project!

Here we are 5 months later and it's time to FINALLY finish this fun project for my now 3 year old.

As you can see I just stuck the doll to the outside of the tin and all of her clothes/hair/accessories are inside.

Peachy Keen Sketch Challenge 64

2011-11-13T02:01:00.001-06:00

This is my first time entering a Peachy Keen challenge. I've always admired other bloggers projects that use Peachy Keen's stamps but have yet to own any of my own.

For this challenge I decided to take the sketch and turn it into an 8x8 layout. I started an album for my daughter before she was even born. I was all excited about it and that was when I got into scrapbooking. Unfortunately I only got three pages done before playing and cuddling and teaching took over all of my time. Fast forward three years when I came across the album while cleaning out my scrap space. Here is page number four.

Shopping Our Stash Challenge 25

2011-11-12T12:16:00.001-06:00

This weeks challenge at Shopping Our Stash is stickers, rub-ons or chipboard. For my layout I used the Blitzen collection from BoBunny and a sketch from My Scraps and More.

I didn't have the shade for brown paper that I wanted to back my photos and center square with so I created it. I took white cardstock and chestnut chalk ink from chatterbox and simply sponged on the ink to create my textured mats.

I used chipboard, stickers and die cuts all from the same Blitzen line.

Cookie Monster Birthday Card

2011-11-05T21:25:00.000-05:00

I'm so happy to be back to blogging. I took most of October off to get my daughter's birthday party planned and all the bits and bobs made.

The card I made today is based on the Frosted Designs card sketch.

Cookie is cut at 3" from the Sesame Street Friends cart. The sheriff badge is cut at 4" from Create a Critter and Cookie's cowboy hat is cut from Pooh and Friends at 1/2".

The lasso is made using brown floss from We R Memory Keepers and Mod Podge. The sentiment is stamped in Chestnut chalk ink from Color Box using the Just Saying set by Inkadinkado.

Challenges:
Frosted Design - Card Sketch Challenge #4
Birthday Sundaes - Birthday Card Challenge #33
Cooking With Cricut - Challenge #58 Cookies, Clocks and/or Cookie Monster
Shopping Our Stash - Challenge #24 Cowboys/Country/Western/Sports

You could win!

2011-11-05T17:48:00.000-05:00

Over at Candy's Craft Corner you could win not 1, not 2 but 3 Christmas Cricut cartridges!!

That's right! All you have to do is head over to her blog and follow three simple steps. It's that easy!

My Creative Time Design Team Call

2011-10-29T23:52:00.000-05:00

Have you heard?

My Creative Time is having their first ever design team call!!

The fabulously talented Emma is searching for a select few to showcase her wonderful stamps. Unfortunately I don't own any of Emma's stamps at this time so I had to use a set that I already own. If I was making this card with Emma's stamps I would have used the Pain Pain Go Away! set and the "No more tears . . . everything will be fine" stamp.

For my project I created a get well card for my husband's grandma who is in hospital back in England. The overall effect of the card is to look like a tissue box.

This card is a standard A2 with the background paper cut 1/4" smaller. The base layer of the tissue box is popped with Pop Dots as thick as I could find. The top layer is also popped but with dots as thin as I could find. The tissue is your typical kleenex cut to size.

I used my Wild Card cart to cut the pink frame from page 81 at 4". I cut the circles on both sides off and backed it with plain paper that I stamped my sentiment on.

If you would like to enter Emma's design team call head over to My Creative Time for all the details. You have until midnight Saturday.

The Details:
DCWV Cardstock Stack Brights
ki Memories Enchanting Paper Pack
Puffs Plus Tissues
Martha Stewart Cherish Punch
Wild Card Cartridge page 81 frame feature cut at 4"
Inkadinkadoo "Just Saying" stamp set
Color Box Chalk Ink Chestnut
Pop Dots

Thank You Card

2011-10-08T18:37:00.000-05:00

This card is super simple to make so I'll just highlight the fun parts.

First the stamping.
I used distress ink, simple enough, then wiped off the flowers with finger and colored them with a marker. Now for the interesting part, I sprayed the stamp with water and stamped on water color paper.

Now the sliver stripe.
This is super simple but very cool. Simple run a line of adhesive, this one was dotted as opposed to solid. Lay a sheet of silver transfer film over it and rip off like a band-aid.

As promised

2011-10-07T10:34:00.000-05:00

As promised here are the details of one of the cards I posted about during the K. Andrews, Getting Cricky, link up party.

This card is made with Graphic 45 paper.

Start with a double sided piece of 3.5" x 9" cardstock
Score (or fold roughly) at 1/2, 2 1/2 and 6 1/4
Fold the 1/2" score up exposing the back side of your paper and glue
Fold at the 6 1/4" score to create a pocket
Take a 3 1/2" x 1/2" piece of paper and place it about a 1/2" from the bottom of your pocket
Using the Tim Holtz tiny attacher, staple your strip in place while also securing your pocket
Staple at the top of your pocket also
Take a piece of cardstock roughly 3" long by however wide you would like (mine is 2 3/8")
Apply a strip of glue on the very top edge of your card only and, with the card closed, position so the bottom of your card will be behind the strip.
Close the card and round the corners
Now that your pocket is done, stamp on a tag, add some ribbon/tulle/twine/etc, round the bottom corners and ink the edges.

Simple and beautiful. This would be great for gifting gift cards.

I'll have the details of the other card for you tomorrow. Until then I'm off to continue participating in the MyScrapsAndMore.com October Sketch-a-thon. Every week day this month Tammi and her DT are posting sketches and challenges in the forum with a chance to win some beautiful collections of paper including BoBunny "Forever Fall", Fancy Pants "Oct 31", MME Lost and Found 2 "Rosy", Bella Blvd "Too Cute To Spook" and October Afternoon "Sidewalk". Individual challenges may have prizes associated with them too along with some fun games. Make sure to check out the blog too. Every Thursday Tammi posts a sketch. You have all month to finish them. The first sketch of the following month a winner will be drawn for a fabulous paper collection. My Scraps and More is a smaller community that's very welcoming and fun. I invite you to join us.

Challenges:
Frosted Designs - Fabulous Friday - Recipe Challenge (yellow (my shade is very muted), ribbon, ink, flowers)
Ribbon Carousel - Anything Goes
Wee Memories - Fav Technique (inking or fun fold cards could be considered my fav technique (love both))

Pop Up Treat Box

2011-09-30T12:59:00.000-05:00

One of the challenges this weekend at the My Scraps and More Wonder"FALL" crop was to create a treat container. Many months before I had seen a pop up treat box/bag on YouTube. I wasn't able to find the video again (I didn't look very hard either) so I just decided to go off of what I remembered.

When you open the flap a small treat is lifted up out of the box.

Challenges:
Getting Cricky - Simply Sunday - Fall Treats

Nature Walk Layout

2011-09-30T11:44:00.000-05:00

I used Creative Scrappers sketch #172 for this layout. I also used a recipe challenge from My Scraps and More. My recipe included journal strips, brads, black and white photo, 2 patterned papers and sewing.

Challenges:
Creative Scrappers - Sketch 172

Apple of My Eye Layout

2011-09-30T11:29:00.000-05:00

My Scraps and More held their Wonder"FALL" crop with weekend. One of their challenges was a BINGO challenge. I chose to use brads, stitching, buttons and glitter. This is the layout I came up with.

Challenges:
Wee Memories - Challenge #69 - Patterned Paper
Whimsical Wednesdays - Anything Goes

Owl Birthday Card

2011-09-30T08:18:00.000-05:00

I used my new favorite cartridge, Create A Critter, and scraps for all of the cuts on this card. To make the branch I took grosgrain ribbon, rolled it into a circle and glued it to the paper. I didn't have any tacky glue or anything like that so I used Mighty Mend-It (yup the infomercial stuff) that my husband's grandmother gave to us years ago.

Challenges:
My Craft Spot - Monday Challenge #26 - Ribbon
Fantabulous Cricut - Challenge Me Monday #79 - Leaves are Falling
Celebrate the Occasion - Challenge #32
Ribbon Carousel - RCC 22 - Alter It
Cricut Cardz Challenge - #92 - Owls

Doodlebug Birthday Card

2011-09-25T10:11:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post today. I need to beat a deadline all while participating in an online crop over at the forums of My Scraps and More. It's been a lot of fun and there are a lot of great prizes to be won!

I used Doodlebug for everything but the balloon. I cut the balloon from Elmo's Party and used We R Memory Keepers candy stripe twine for the string.

Challenges:
Celebrate the Occasion - Challenge #31

Pirate Monster Card

2011-09-22T18:25:00.000-05:00

What little monster wouldn't want to be a pirate for Halloween? This little guy sure does. He was supposed to be a bag but I didn't realize I had the card button pressed (oops!).

I used Mini Monsters to cut my card at 11" (fit to page). His pirate hat is cut from Pooh and Friends at 5" and outlined in black glitter glue.

The Details:
Bazzill Lemonlime
Stash/scrap Papers
Violet Zig Pen
Snow Recollections Pen
Tiny Bubbles Cuttlebug Embossing Folder
Black and Silver Glitter Glue
Mini Monsters - Treat Bag 1 - Card - 11"
Pooh and Friends - 100 Acre - Icon - 5"

Challenges:
Wee Memories - No Pattern Paper
Getting Cricky - Halloween
Fantabulous Cricut - It's A Pirate's Life
Shopping Our Stash - No Coloring Allowed

*added 12/28/11* Cooking With Cricut - Year in Review - 2011 Favorite

Link Up Love Party With K Andrew

2011-09-21T17:39:00.000-05:00

It's the third Tuesday of the month and that means it's Link Up Love Party time over at Getting Cricky.

This month we are showcasing our favorite Fall/Halloween project. This card is my favorite so far (click here for details). I have lots of other projects in mind however.

These are a couple of other Fall cards I like. I've not posted the details of these cards yet. So if you like them too become a follower and be the first to know when I do.

You can find additional Fall/Halloween projects here, here and here. Thanks for checking out my blog! Now hop over to Getting Cricky, join the link up party and start meeting some new and talented crafters all while showing off your stuff.

Fall Card With Stitching

2011-09-21T17:34:00.000-05:00

I love the idea of Fall. I've mentioned before that I live in Minnesota so we have beautiful Falls. You may have noticed that I said "idea" of fall. That's because I live in Minnesota and Fall means feet of snow and bitter cold are just around the corner. But the next few weeks are wonderful. The temps are crisp and the colors are vibrant. With that pleasant thought in mind I created this card.

The basic layout and materials were all provided in a We R Memory Keepers class that I took last weekend at Scrapfest. I added the leaves (the sample was too plain for my taste) and used aqua brads. The class was learning to use We R's new stitching tool. I like the effect on the card but I'm not so sure about the tool.

Challenges:
My Craft Spot
Whimsical Wednesdays

Halloween Layout 1

2011-09-21T16:03:00.000-05:00

Since having kids I LOVE Halloween. It's so much fun to dress them up in cute little costumes. In 2009 my daughter had just turned 1 and I dressed her as a Koala. It was so cute. Last year my 2 year old was a monkey and my 5 month old son was a banana! It was so cute (I'll be using my create a critter cart to do a layout of that so stay tuned). This year my son will be a dragon and my daughter has yet to decide. She'll either be a princess, a pirate, Minnie or a combination of the three. When she decides (or I find a cute, inexpensive costume that I like) I'll come up with a title for this layout. This is how it looks for now.

EVERYTHING (and so much more) came from a $1.99 kit that I bought at Scrapfest. I have no idea how old this line is or who the manufacturer is.

Challenges:
My Scraps and More - layout
Getting Cricky - Halloween

Gramma Layout

2011-09-20T14:34:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I created a Grampa layout. I really liked the way it turned out. Since then I've been meaning to make a similar Gramma layout but have not gotten around to it. I knew it was finally time to do it this week when Cooking With Cricut posted their grandparents challenge.

You can see that it's basically a mirror image of my Grampa layout. Everything from the papers, punch, font and title placement are the same. For this layout, however, I used a metal brad and flowers that I was lucky enough to win from Graphic 45 at Scrapfest this past weekend. I used the tool with a scoop-like end from my Cricut tool kit (I have no idea what it's actually for) to curl the petals of my flower.

The Details:
All printed paper is Recollections Elegance
Martha Stewart's Cherish punch-around-the-page
Cricut Classic Font at 1"
Graphic 45 metal brad, metal flower
Pop-Dots

Challenges:
Cooking With Cricut
Frosted Designs

My First Create A Critter Layout

2011-09-15T10:43:00.000-05:00

During my adventures in the crafty blog world I've found myself drawn to projects made with the create a critter cartridge. The fun, whimsical animals always seem to be able to create an eye catching scene. Unfortunately I didn't have create a critter. That is until Michael's ran their sale this week! I am now a proud owner, I also picked up Winter Frolic.

This is my first project with my new cartridge. All of the paper is scraps from my stash except the background piece. That's some Bazzill Blank Check I had lying around.

I popped the gator and photos and added the monkeys to take the place of the butterflies in the sketch. One of the monkeys was cut out with the flip button on. I only cut out two layers of the tree and three of the gator (I colored the eye and nose holes with a pen instead of cutting the base layer).

The Details:
Cricut Create a Critter
   Tree 10 3/4"
   Pond 3"
   Gator 1 3/4"
   Monkeys 1"
Bazzill Blank Check
Stash/Scrap Paper
Pop Dots

Challenges:
Die Cuttin' Divas - Zoo Crazy
Frosted Designs - Sketch Along Tuesdays Layout Sketch #23

Harry Potter

2011-09-14T18:33:00.000-05:00

I'm a big Harry Potter fan. I loved the books. When I heard they were opening a Harry Potter theme park I was excited. I wanted to drop everything and be the first in line. That didn't happen but I was able to visit the park this summer with my husband. It was AMAZING. The details were impecable. The atmosphere was magical and the ride was beyond words. We had so much fun.

To document our trip I used Sketchy Thursdays' current sketch. Everything I used is from the Creative Imaginations Harry Potter line.

I'll also be entering this layout at Shopping Our Stash and their vintage/distressed/shabby chic challenge.

Aurora Layout

2011-09-13T13:45:00.000-05:00

It's time again to play along with the Blog Sketch Challenge over at My Scraps and More. If you do not follow Tammi's blog you really should. She's full of wonderful ideas. Every Thursday she posts a new layout sketch. Monday, she has a giveaway and other days she features new paper lines.

I was lucky enough to win challenge 4 with my Grampa layout (which I also won with at Celebrate the Occasion - I'm so excited and giddy)!

On to the current sketch . . .
I started out sifting through my stash and came across the circle die cut paper (sorry I can't remember the company). This lead to my color scheme which lead to the photos of my daughter and Aurora.

Because I'm (cheap/resourceful/environmentally friendly) I cut "Aurora" out of the background paper making sure it would be covered by the circle.

The Details:
Cricut Happily Ever After - white/extra layer shift 2"
Bazzill - Ballet, Diamond, LemonLime
Martha Stewart Punch
Creative Imaginations Magic Designs rub-ons - crown
Little Yellow Bicycle Free Spirit journal circle
Die Cut Circle paper stash

Back to School 2011 Layout

2011-09-11T15:33:00.000-05:00

My little girl starts school on Tuesday. Practice Preschool to be exact. I'm excited for her. She's been asking to go to school every day since her last day of ECFE (early childhood family education) last fall. I'm also more nervous than I ever thought I would be. I just keep reminding myself that practice preschool is just about getting used to a structured learning environment and having fun.

To preserve her big day I made this layout.

The patterned paper, from Creative imaginations, came as a 12x12 sheet with all these rectangles individually decorated. So my first idea was to cut them apart and add some photo mats. To add visual interest I inked all the edges, popped four of the pieces and added doodling.

The Details:
ki Memories School Days hip chip
Creative Imaginations Preschool paper and cardstock stickers
Bazzill classic blue
Recollections red
Zig Millennium pure black pen
Marcella by K black dye ink
Pop Dots
Cricut Jubilee cartridge (runt feature, 1/2")

Challenges:
Whimsical Wednesdays - Scrapping School Memories
Cooking With Cricut - School Days

Friends Rose Card

2011-09-08T16:20:00.000-05:00

"A friendship can weather most things and thrive in thin soil; but it needs a little mulch of letters and phone calls and small, silly presents every so often - just to save it from drying out completely." -Pam Brown

With that in mind I created this simple, eye-catching card for one of my friends.

I stamped "friends" on the ribbon with StazOn.

The Details:
Recollections Elegance Cardstock
DCWV Love and Wedding Patterned Paper
Schiff Ribbon Cranberry
Spool o' Ribbon Black
Martha Stewart Cherish Punch
Inkadinkadoo Round Frames Stamp Set

Challenges:
Die Cuttin' Divas - sketch
My Craft Spot - friends

Cookie Monster Stand-up Pop-up Card

2011-09-08T00:02:00.000-05:00

My husband works with a man who's 4 month old daughter needs surgery soon. Since there is little else we can do for the family I made this get well card.

One way that I try to expand my knowledge and skills of paper crafting is perusing YouTube and one of my favorite things to research is different card folds. I've made a LONG list of different folds I want to try and this free standing pop-up card is on it.

My base measures 5" x 11" and is scored at 1", 2 3/4", 3 3/4", 5 1/2", 7 1/4", 8 1/4" and 10". At the 5 1/2" score I cut a slot large enough for my tag and leaving around 1/2" on the sides. My tag measures 3" x 5".

To assemble the card place adhesive on both 1" end flaps on the side facing up. Slid your tag through the slot and line up the bottom edge with the crease. Now take the other side of your base and line it up. It's really very easy.

The card folds flat to easily fit inside an envelope.

The Details:
Cricut Sesame Street Friends
Cookie Monster 4"
Cookies 1"
Cricut Mickey Font 1"
American Crafts Hello Sunshine Jovial (base)
American Crafts Caramel
Bazzill Pinecone, Yellow, Blue
The Paper Company Kraft
Recollections Red
Inkadinkado Round Frames Stamp Set
Marcella by K black dye ink
Michael's Ribbon

Challenges:
Shopping Our Stash - Bugs, Birds, Beasts

Grampa Monochrome Layout

2011-09-06T16:37:00.000-05:00

I love black and white photos. There's something timeless and nostalgic about them, regardless of when they were taken. With that love in mind I created this Grampa layout using the sketch at My Scraps and More.

The Details:
All printed paper is Recollections Elegance
Martha Stewart's Cherish punch-around-the-page
Cricut Classic Font at 1"
Tim Holtz keys
Schiff Ribbons black grosgrain
Spool o' Ribbon black
Pop Dots - photo matting, "grampa", bow

Other Challenges:
Cricut 360 - Grandparents
Ribbon Carousel - Anything Goes
Celebrate the Occasion - Grandparents

Jingle Belles

2011-09-04T23:53:00.000-05:00

For the Jingle Belles CASE challenge I chose Kathe's card seen here.

I used glitter and a sparkly gell pen to get my bulbs to glow. The non-shining bulb is covered in tiny black balls.

A Little Dirt Never Hurt

2011-09-04T18:52:00.000-05:00

I had THE MOST FUN making this card! It was great to just toss things around and rip and tear and get dirty.

The Scrappy Saturday challenge at Wee Memories is Simply Sentiment. The sentiment is too be the focus of your creation.

I didn't really know what I was going to do for this one so I followed along on the hop and got some inspiration to make a thank you card with all the thank you stamps I have. As I was digging in my stamp drawer my Unity Stamp Company Little Boy set caught my eye. Then I saw the sentiment "A Little Dirt Never Hurt" and a stack of brown scraps. That's when my creative light bulb when off and I started tearing and distressing and inking and this is what I ended up with (along with brown fingers).

Most of this card is made with scraps. The stripe came from DCWV Baby Boy stack and the dots came from ki Memories pack. I used Distress Ink in tea dye and Color Box chalk ink in chocolate.

Bath Time

2011-09-04T18:48:00.000-05:00

I feel sorry for these pictures. I really do. The poor things have been pasted onto and then torn away from at least two layouts. I love these pictures and I only want the best for them. Now, finally, they have found a home they, and I, can be proud of.

For this accomplishment I must thank Sketchy Thursdays. I took my cues from their recent sketch. I increased the scale and shifted it to the right and down. Instead of using two pieces of accent paper I used one and a photo.

The Details:
BasicBasic Ribbon
ki Memories Teal Lace Cardstock
Recollections Glitter Paper - Powder
Stash Paper - silver, blue, teal
Sugar and Spice Cartridge
   Bath Time 2"
   Pins 1 1/2"
   Frame 5 1/2"
American Crafts Stamp Marker - Denim

I'll also be entering my layout at Design Time Thursday over at Creative Cutter Room. The theme is Splish! Splash!
Frosted Designs' Fabulous Friday Challenge is Flourish. Be sure to stop by and meet the new team.

Crayon Background

2011-09-01T15:51:00.000-05:00

When I came across this video by Split Coast Stampers on how to use an iron and crayons to create a background I knew I had to try it. The only thing is I don't have a craft iron or a travel iron so I used a flat iron (you know, the ones for your hair) that I don't use any more. I love how it turned out and I can't wait to play around with it some more. I may even buy a craft iron!

The grass is three shades of green and the sky is yellow, orange and cerulean. I used a sheer/satin combo orange ribbon by Michael's along with brown grosgrain near the bottom. The tree is cut from Bloom Lite and mounted with pop dots. The brown paper is Bazzill and the orange is DCWV.

Challenges:
Die Cuttin Divas - Fall Colors
Fantabulous Cricut - Yellow
Ribbon Carousel - All Tied Up

Tree Card

2011-08-31T14:34:00.000-05:00

Bitten by the Bug 2 is having their Heritage Curly Tree and Blog Hop. You need to make a project using the tree specified on the Heritage cart. Now if you don't have the Heritage cart you can use any tree. I used the tree from Pooh and Friends.

I used the blackout feature to cut my tree. My card base is cut from Wild Card and I used icicle glimmer glaze on the eyes and mouth of the pumpkin to give it a "glow".

I'll also be linking up at More Than Favors and My Craft Spot.

Beautiful Skeleton

2011-08-31T09:28:00.000-05:00

Could you use a good laugh? Then you'll want to head over to Shopping Our Stash and check out all the sassy, snarky and laugh out loud fun created for challenge 15.

I'm so excited for fall because it means Halloween is coming and I can finally use my Mini Monsters cartridge!

For my project I used the card feature and fit to page to cut out my skeleton. I went over the writing multiple time to try and make it look like the monster wrote it himself.

The outside reads You're Beautiful! and the inside says On the inside!

I'll also be linking this card up at Cricut Cardz Challenge. Challenge 90 is Card Crazy. Use the card feature on any cart to make a card for any occasion.

Little Artist

2011-08-31T09:24:00.000-05:00

For sketch #53 at Sketches in Thyme I started by finding a vertical picture I wanted to use. When I came to this photo of my daughter painting I new right away what I was going to do. The background paper is one of the first paintings my little girl every did. I figured I could keep it in a box somewhere or I could cut it, put it in a scrapbook and actually look at it.

I used Jubilee to cut the title. All other paper is from my stash.

Disney Favorites

2011-08-31T09:22:00.000-05:00

I love the sketch this week at Sketchy Thursdays. I had a number of ideas for what I wanted to create. What I've ended up with is not one of them but when I saw Heather's take on the sketch I was drawn in a different direction.

Everything is from Disney except the light blue which is Archiver's and cut with Mickey Font.

Cousins

2011-08-31T09:17:00.000-05:00

My layout using Creative Scrappers sketch #171 came together faster than any layout I've ever created. AND I'm happy with it! My original intention was to cut down the layered pieces of paper but when I tossed them on the page to see if I liked the color combination I liked where they fell!

Background: Deja Views Color POP line Flower Power
Layered Pieces: Archiver's free 6x6 paper pack from years ago

Clean and Simple Card

2011-08-30T18:29:00.000-05:00

Happy Tuesday everyone. I hope you're having a better day than me. I woke up sick this morning. :( But I'm feeling better now. Well enough to create at least. So here is a card I came up with.

The blue patterned paper is Recollections and the brown is Bazzill. The brown rub-on is Bo-Bunny and the white one I found floating around in a drawer. I used the Bloom Lite cart to cut the flower. The center is colored with chalk and the brad is from Oriental Traders.

I'll be linking this project here:
Celebrate the Occasion Challenge 28 is a sketch challenge. I used the rub-on instead of ribbon.
Cricut 360 Challenge 9 is Relax. Being still, at peace and free sounds very relaxing to me.
CAS-uals Fridays Challenge 17 is Stuck on You. I used rub-ons in place of stickers.
Whimsical Wednesday Inspiring Words I choose the word peace.

Chef Mickey's

2011-08-28T14:51:00.000-05:00

Creative Scrappers sketch #168 had me thinking of our dinner at Chef Mickey's as soon as I saw it.

The Mickey silhouettes, letters and Mickey head came from Mickey Font cart. The chef hat is from Pooh and Friends. The background paper is Disney (purchased at Disney World). The dots and checks are Recollections. The other papers are from my stash. I used Martha Stewart's Punch Around The Page in Cherish for the vertical border.

Chef Mickey and his friends will also be entered at Shopping Our Stash in their red (my category) or roses or ribbon challenge.

Pumpkin Card

2011-08-28T14:23:00.000-05:00

For this card I combined challenges from Celebrate The Occasion and Whimsical Wednesdays. The challenge at CTO was to create a round card. Over at Whimsical Wednesdays the challenge was to use 3 colors, 3 cuts and 3 embellishments.

I used Mini Monsters for my three cuts (pumpkin, message, candy). My three colors are orange, green and black. The three embellishments are gems on the candy.

The paper is DCWV Brights and Recollections.

Frozen Waterfalls

2011-08-28T14:11:00.000-05:00

For Sketches in Thyme's open challenge this month I used sketch #3 from Sketch Support.

I used the Stella and Roses line by My Minds Eye for the patterned paper. The solid paper is by Bazzill.

Tumble Bugs

2011-08-28T09:46:00.000-05:00

For the Fantabulous Cricut birthday bash challenge I started working on my daughter's birthday party. I made and invitation and centerpiece. My designs happen to also meet Getting Cricky's challenge of winged things. Click the photos below for more information.

What I used:
White card stock
TPC Studio Woodland Whimsy collect: little bird clouds, green leaves, mini dot
Bazzill Bling: sparkle, blank check, in the pink, petty cash
4 Square thick pop dots
3 Round pop dots
2 pennys
glue dots
Chip board
Pooh and Friends cartridge
Sugar and Spice cartridge

Tumble Bugs - Centerpiece

2011-08-28T09:35:00.000-05:00

I decided to do a simple but fun and high impact centerpiece for Kaitlyn's party.

I used Pooh and Friends and Sugar and Spice to cut the images.

The caterpillar is cut at 4 inches. All the others are cut at 6 inches.

I used Bazzill Bling paper for everything.
In The Pink
Petty Cash
Blank Check
Sparkle

Be sure to stop by Decorate to Celebrate. Their theme this week is wedding, engagement or bridal shower, but you can link any new party projects.

Tumble Bugs - Invitation

2011-08-28T09:28:00.000-05:00

My daughter's birthday isn't until October, but I've designed her invitations already. We'll be having her party at the local gymnastics facility so I came up with the theme of Tumble Bugs. To carry the theme into her invitations I made spinner cards.

The little bug spins down the track as you tip the card from side to side.

The inside reads
Come and "bee" a tumble bug with me!

White card stock base
TPC Studio Woodland Whimsy collect: little bird clouds, green leaves, mini dot
Bazzill Bling: sparkle, blank check
4 Square thick pop dots for the track
3 Round pop dots, 2 pennys, glue dots for the bug
Chip board
Pooh and Friends cartridge

Be sure to stop by Decorate to Celebrate. Their theme this week is wedding, engagement or bridal shower, but you can link any new party projects.

Honk! Honk!

2011-08-28T09:04:00.000-05:00

For Creative Scrappers sketch #167 I decided to tackle a few more pictures of my little boy.

I've been finding it difficult to create layouts for him because every time I venture to Archiver's I'm drawn to the girly papers. So when I saw the Little Boy paper line by echo park I was excited. I just happen to own the Unity stamp set that matches. So I snatched up Vroom!, Cool Stripe and Road Map. The papers are double sided so I had lots of patterns and colors to work with.

I used my stamp set and black ink on pattern paper for my title. Then I popped it up for some interest.

Teacher Diorama Card

2011-08-27T02:56:00.000-05:00

My daughter starts practice preschool soon and I wanted to make something for her teacher. I came up with this multi-dimensional diorama card.

The blue paper is My Mind's Eye Lime Twist Happy Go Lucky. The ledger and manila papers are from my stash.

The keys are Tim Holtz.

The font is Cricut Classic Font cut at 3/4".

I'll be entering this project into the following challenges:
Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday Challenge - School Papers
Die Cuttin Divas Challenge 29 - For a Special Teacher
Ribbon Carousel - Back to School
Wee Memories - Challenge 65