BBTB2 September Blog Hop

Welcome to the September Bitten by the Bug 2 blog hop!   If you are following the blog hop you probably arrived here from the blog of our very talented Penny, PennieAnnies.

If you are a follower who is stopping by my blog, when you finish here be sure to go to the BBTB2 blog and start the hop as you will not want to miss a thing!
 

Our BBTB2 challenge cut of the week was selected by my awesome fellow Michigan State Alumni, Donna of Popsicle Toes.  Donna selected the wheelbarrow cut from Walk in my Garden cartridge.  I do own the WIMG cartridge, but I wanted to be different so I chose to use the wheelbarrow image with the little girl from A Child's Year.

I used three cartridges to create this card:  A Child's Year, Art Philosophy, and Cheerful Seasons.  I designed the card in Cricut Design Studio.  The base card and front matting were cut using Art Philosophy.  I used Cheerful Seasons to cut extra maple leaves to fill my wheelbarrow and to scatter around.

So now on to the blog hop:  Yes, yes, I do have blog candy for the blog hop!  Custom Crops is generously sponsoring my blog for this monthly blog hop, and they will be awarding one blog hopper with a $20 gift voucher to spend at their site!  How cool is that?  All you have to do to be registered for the blog hop is leave a comment under this post and be a follower of this blog. 

If you have not been by Custom Crops in the last few days you are going to be overwhelmed with quantity of new products they have in stock.  There are over 1,000 new products on the Custom Crops web site.  Additionally, there is a special Halloween/Autumn category for all of your fall and Halloween decorating and scrapping. If you love fall as much as I do, you will want to head right over and check out all of the cute autumn crafting products!!!

I am the last stop on the BBTB2 blog hop.  We hope you decided to create your own wheelbarrow project and play along with us this week.  Just post your project at the BBTB2 site to enter.
Thanks for hopping by today - I will be back tomorrow with a new project to share - along with a few photos of a weekend event!

Preschool Flash Cards for BBTB2

Happy Monday!  Today is going to be a day filled with news reports and waving American flags.  The President's late night announcement that U.S. Special Forces took out Osama Bin Laden in his headquarters in Pakistan is going to be headlining every news show today.  And well it should.   Normally I try to avoid politics on my blog, but I feel like this is an American moment/a westernized world moment/a tribute to freedom moment, not so much a political moment. 

Wow - how do I follow up this news with a normally Monday blog post?  I guess I just jump in!  Our wonderful Bitten by the Bug 2 blog and design team leader, Heather, selected this week's challenge cut.  Heather chose the eaten apple from the Preserves cartridge.  I will admit that this was a true challenge for me.  Finally I decided to work on some preschool flash cards.  My daughter is majoring in Early Childhood Education so these cut cards will be wonderful for her.

In addition to Preserves, I also used Kate's ABC's for the "A" cut above as well as the phrase "is for apple".  I used the A Child's Year to cut the basic card shape as well as the two matting pieces.  

Before I close, I want to share how I made this cute little corner embellishment.  I took a cardstock sticker and attached it to the corner of my "A" cut.  I used a 1/4 inch hole punch to enlarge the existing hole in the sticker as well as create a hole though the "A" cardstock.  I then took a four inch strip of apple ribbon, tied a simple knot in the middle of the ribbon, and then I pulled the ends through the hole.  I pulled the ends until the knot reached the hole, then I spread the ribbon out to be visible under the leaves. 

I am actually a bit ahead of schedule in crafting this week.  My next several projects are ready to share with you so be sure to drop by again tomorrow!!  I promise more paper crafting, less news!!

Over the Moon with Nursery Rhymes

Hey Diddle Diddle, the cat and the fiddle, the cow jumped over the moon.  The dog laughed to see such a sight and the dish ran away with the spoon!   I always liked that nursery rhyme - the laughing dog and the dish and spoon running away always made smile.  Imagine my excitement when I discovered the Over the Moon cut on the Nursery Rhyme cartridge.

I discovered the images back when I first purchased the cartridge but I waited until I needed a baby card to finally cut this image.  My friend Pat has a new baby granddaughter - in fact Pat is spending time with her right now.  But I still want to send Pat a card to be there when she arrives home. 

The cow over the moon image contains two layers - the top and shadow layers.  I cut the shadow in pink, but I cut the top layer in two colors, yellow and chocolate brown.  I trimmed the cow off of the brown moon and glued him over the yellow moon.  Easy, easy to add extra color to the image.

I used a lot of pink and brown on this card - and I love that large dot background on the front of the card.  Though I have to tell you, on a creepy scale of 1 - 10, I may have to give the spoon a 7!  Seriously, this spoon just bothers me a bit - that is why I stuck him inside the card, LOL.

Here is one last look at the card front.  I just love the moon cut.   I also really like the stars on the phrase cut, Over the Moon.  And let's be honest, my friend Pat is probably over the moon with her new granddaughter!!

Ms. March Guest Designer at the Cricutolics Forum

 Top of the mornin' to you!

I am this month's guest designer at the Cricutolics Forum over in the UK. If you have not previously visited the Cricutolics Forum please do follow the link and pop on over.  It is a fun site.

Given that I am guest designing on an International forum, I decided to skip right past Presidents' Day (because really, the UK doesn't care about our silly colonial celebration!) and jump ahead to a fun holiday we can all sink out teeth into.... St. Patrick's Day!!!  I feel certain that my Irish ancestors are all cheering this choice, just as surely as I know the Scottish and English ancestors are rolling their eyes in my direction!

I used three cartridges to create this card, George and Basic Shapes for the base card and the printed sections, Designer's Calendar for the large and the single shamrocks as well as the hat, and A Child's Year for the shamrock border.   My design calls for a white base card, green and white solid cardstock, and three to four Celtic or green print papers.

 The cut file for this card is available for free download in the left column of the blog, under the title Shuttered Tri-Fold St. Patrick's Day Card.     Even if you do not want to create a St. Patty's card, the cut file does contain the base card pattern.

Fence Challenge using Heritage

Projects, Where Oh Where are the Projects

I have missed my blog... It has been a tough week.  For some crazy reason I went into super-mom/Susie-homemaker mode last week.  My youngest son is home from college on fall break (he is on a crazy school schedule).  Ian asked me to make one or two of his favorite meals last week.  Of course this guy's favorite meals are not burgers and pizza.... oh no.... He wanted Greek Chicken Pie (i.e. chicken, feta, spring onions, spices, in a fabulous sauce wrapped in flaky phyllo) and Beef Bourguignonne with Egg Noodles.  Seriously.  The simpler of the meals he requested was homemade tacos and homemade beef BBQ. 

I think I have gained four pounds in the last week.  Did I forget to mention the homemade apple pie? Yes I did.  I made from scratch apple pie and pie crust on Sunday.  That pie was awesome.  And the crust was fabulous.  I also used the Cricut Cake machine to cut extra pie dough to decorate the top of the pie. The apples were from A Child's Year and the flourish is from French Manor.

Ian goes back to Atlanta on Friday and I think Doug, Bethany and I will going on a diet starting Saturday!  I will be making a round trip to Atlanta and back in one day, so there will be no crafting on Friday either.   But this weekend THERE WILL BE CRAFTING!! 

I have three projects planned for the weekend.  My next two BBTB2 projects as well as my fall Yudu napkins. 

I will be back tomorrow to select a winner of the Custom Crops gift voucher/blog candy.  Sorry to be so worthless in the craft world this week.  I will improve....

Everyday Cricut Sneak Peek

Hi there!  I hope your weekend is off to a great start.  Today is my regular Saturday as a Designer at Everyday Cricut.  Joy and Melanie have graciously allowed me to do a bit of self-promotion via their blog.  Today I am sharing one page of my two page layout, July 4th.  The second page is just as cute as the first, but I am only sneak peeking one of the two pages.

The DVD set is on schedule to release this week, at which time the pre-order price will be removed and the price will increase a bit.  I hope you have already ordered your copy!!

Please do drop by Everyday Cricut and leave a comment so that you will be in the drawing for the great Cricut Cartridges Joy and Melanie are giving away this week.  Also check their personal blogs (Melanie's Blog and Joy's Blog) for a chance to win a set of the new Martha Stewart cartridges!!

Now go have some fun!!!

Tea & Sweet Shoppe Card AND BBTB2 Blog Hop

Hello and happy Monday.  Welcome to my Tea and Sweet Shoppe!  This week's challenge cut at BBTB2 is the Genie Lamp from the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge.  I ALMOST went with a cute oasis scene on my card but then I decided to take the road less traveled and add my lamp to a line of assorted teapots.

I have to tell you that I do not think I have ever used this many cartridges on a single card.  I used Paper Doll Dress Up, Just Because Cards, Sweet Treats, Tie the Knot, George, A Child's Year, Dreams Come True, Once Upon A Princess, and Cindy Loo.  Each of the teapots is from a different cartridge, as are the cakes. 

I like the store window effect I created by welding two shapes from George in Design Studio and then adding layers.  And of course I had to add pearls and gems to my sweets and shelving.  I used copic markers and my Ranger white gel pen to embellish the teapots, cups, and sweets.

I kept trying to find a way to add large flowers and ribbon, but the additions distracted from my main store window effect so I did not use them.    Instead, I finished the card by adding a swiss dot cardstock mat inside the card and cutting a "sweet" phrase with the Cindy Loo font.

I believe I mentioned a BBTB2 BLOG HOP!!  Yes it is our blog hop week.  I have some sweet blog candy up for grabs - just leave a message below and you will be in the drawing for a CUSTOM CROPS GIFT VOUCHER!!!  That's right!  Free shopping!!

After you leave your comment below and become a follower if you'd like, you should hope on over to the blog of the VERY TALENTED THERESA!  I cannot wait to see what Theresa made this week; she is such an amazing artist- quickly - go!!

Happy hopping!

Thinking Of You

Happy Monday! Now that the Oscar's have all been awarded (and I did not see the catagory Best Scrap Page in a Film.... That's just wrong!!), it is time to get back to what is important ... Paper Crafting!   I love this week's BBTB2 challenge cut(s) from A Child’s Year. We had a choice of using either the boy with flower or girl with flower cuts. I chose the boy with flower because he is just so sweet looking.

With the exception of the two nesties cuts, this entire card was made using only A Child’s Year cartridge. I like that there are so many cartridges which contain such a variety of cuts that they can literally stand alone to create a project. A Child’s Year is definitely one of those cartridges.

I cut my base card in the awesome Alissa Twirls paper by Bo Bunny. I love this paper!! In fact, I love this paper so much I accidentally ordered it from two different companies. Oops. The good news is that gave me more of the paper to use. In addition to the base card, I cut two tags/mats in black and pink Bazzill cardstock and layered them under the challenge cut. I also cut two layers of the challenge cut – the boy with flower – one in black Bazzill and one in blue Bazzill. I added a Prima flower and a Melissa Frances pearl to complete the cut.

I used PowerPoint to design my “Thinking of You” tag. I then used my nesties to cut both layers of the tag.

Inside the card I added a white cardstock insert and a border of the Bo Bunny paper.

I finished my card off with a blue organza ribbon and three layers of blue bow with a Melissa Frances pearl center.

Valentine Layout and Cut File - New Custom Crops Project

My l-o-n-g holiday break (December and January) officially ended last week.  I am back to submitting projects to both design teams AND to Custom Crops.  My latest Custom Crops project, complete with cut file, is titled Valentine Love Layout.  I truly like this layout and cannot wait to use it!!! 

For complete assembly directions and the cut file, please visit my page at Custom Crops.  In addition to the directions and the cut file, I also added links to the paper used in the project.  I just love this new line of SEI paper -  Juliette!!!

Gypsy Spot Tuesday - Black & Gold Challenge

It's Tuesday and that means the challenges are up at the Gypsy Spot blog. This week Nilda challenged the team to use the colors black and gold to create any project of our choice. Since I had missed the BBTB2 challenge last week where they used the boy and girl Valentine cuts from A Child's Year, I decided to use that cut.

I used three cartridges, A Child's Year, Sweethearts and Winter Woodlands to make this vintage looking Valentine card. I cut the hearts from Sweethearts, including welding two shadow hearts together to form the base card. The base card was cut in a cranberry colored Swiss dot Bazzill cardstock. I cut the top layer of heart, with the eyelet scallops, in a lacey gold paper that my friend Kathy shared with me.

The two layers of silhouettes from ACY were cut in cranberry cardstock for the shadow and texturized core'dination cardstock for the top layer silhouettes. I enhanced the Valentine couple with white gel pen dots and doodles.

I glued ecru vintage looking lace around the inner edges of the scalloped heart and added Prima flowers to the top edge of the heart. I also added a double layer of the word love from Winter Woodlands cartridge to the upper left front of the card. I again used the black cardstock and gold lacey paper to create the two word layers.

I added an additional lacey heart inside the card so it is all set for me to stamp my St. Valentine's message.

Buried in Cookies, Gift Wrap, Ribbon & Bows, and Other Signs of the Season

I have been missing from my blog for several days now.  I just popped out from under the gift wrap, with flour on my face, to wish you all a Merry Christmas!!!  I did manage to complete one last project before closing up my scraproom for the holidays. 

My lovely next door neighbor is creating a cookbook for her son.  She purchased a one inch ring bound notebook at a local office supply store which fits 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inch paper to use as the recipe book.  This is the type of notebook she purchased.  She plans to print two recipes per page, using the landscape view, then cut the sheet in half and place in the notebook with divider tabs.  She wisely purchased a presentation style notebook with an plastic cover for sliding in a cover sheet and spine label.



This is where I came in.  My neighbor graciously allowed me to create the cover for her cookbook.  I had such fun with this.  I actually designed two covers, but went with a more traditional look, which my neighbor loved!  The file required only two cartridges, A Child's Year and Winter Woodlands.  I will add the cut file to the downloadable cut files on the left side of the blog, just in case anyone else is interested.  Though I will say that this is a very basic cut file. The cut file title is Mom's Recipes for Chris.

Once again, I wish each of you a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!