Greetings from the Seashore

Happy July 4th - American Independence Day!  And, a bit late, happy Canada day to our neighbors to the north!  I am back with another Bitten by the Bug 2 weekly challenge.  Our design team leader, Heather, chose the cut of the week, the STARFISH from the Life's a Beach cartridge. 

Before I discuss today's BBTB2 layout I want to share my "vacation" week with you.  As I previously shared, Doug, Ian and I were planning a few days in Chattanooga to visit with Doug's family.  His sister  and brother-in-law were in from NM and we were excited to see them.  Well, the day before we planned to leave I woke up early in the morning ill.  I had a yucky tummy, headache, fever, body aches, etc.  At first I thought that I had one of those 24 hour viral deals that we have all had.  But no.... My virus turned out to be a three day ordeal...  In the meantime I had sent Doug and Ian on their way, promising to go the doctor is I did not feel better by the third day.  Thankfully the afternoon of the third day I realized that I was on the road to wellness!

I missed seeing everyone, and as heavenly as being home alone can be, this was not one of those times.  I was bored and was missing my family!  So I had a bit of pity party and then I got over it!!  Oh, and I did read three books last week so that was good!

As I stated above, today's BBTB2  challenge cut is the starfish from Life's a Beach.  I decided to create a girlie beach layout because I have TONS of photos from Bethany's years at the College of Charleston - I think she spent a lot of time on the beach!!!  I normally use blues and sand colors for the beach, but this time I went with topical pinks, salmon, etc.

I used five cartridges to create this layout - Life's a Beach for the sea life, Kate's ABC's for the title cut - Seashore, Billionaire for the cursive phrase, George for the rectangles and French Manor for the stamp shaped cuts.

I used Cricut Design Studio to design my layered title and multi-layered bottom edge border. 

Please stop by Bitten by the Bug 2 and check out all of the great Starfish projects.  Also, please consider playing along with us this week - you could be our weekly winner!!!

I have a three day project to share with you Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday - a Patriotic picnic enhanced with Cricut!!!

Wootin' Cute Card Box with Forever Young & Kate's ABC's

Hey there!  This is one of my favorite Saturdays of each month - it is my day as the Saturday Designer at  Everyday Cricut.  I created a card box by altering a purse from Forever Young.  I cut tags to use as mats from Sentimentals. I cute this cute owl scene from Kate's ABC's.  And the flowers were from Forever Young. 

For more information on how I made this box and the decorative cuts please head over to Everyday Cricut.  You will also find out a little something about MFK (my friend Kathy).... I just hope that she is okay with me sharing this story. 

I will be back on Monday with another BBTB2 project to share with you!!  I hope you have a great weekend!

Sweet Strawberry - Celebrate with Flourish & Lacey Labels

Happy Bitten by the Bug 2 Monday!  This week's challenge cut was selected by our sweet Design Team sister, Jeri.   Jeri chose the strawberry cut from the Simply Charmed cartridge.  I do not have Simply Charmed so I chose a different strawberry; I selected the strawberry from Celebrate with Flourish.  If you decide to play along and participate in the weekly challenge, you too can use any strawberry cut.  Just be sure to link your strawberry project to the BBTB2 blog!

And before we get into today's card, I have one more thing to share.  I liked Jeri's idea of a strawberry cut so much that I have decided to go with a berry theme for the week.  This card is the first of six berry themed projects that I plan to share this week.

I used all four layers of the Celebrate with Flourish strawberry and actually created a fifth layer for the leaves and stem.  I cut the icon image - the main strawberry - a second time in green cardstock.   I used micro-tipped scissors and trimmed the top of the strawberry adding the bottom layer of leaves.

I finished the strawberry with a ribbon, a flower charm, and assorted pink buttons.  I also added a few black doodles to the berry.

My main card pieces were cut using the Lacy Labels cartridge.  I welded the base card pieces together in Design Studio, then cut the same shape a second time a bit smaller.  I then cut two ovals on which to mat my berry and words.

Do you ever hate using quick dry glue?  I did when I used it on the word "Sweet", which was cut using Kate's ABC's. My word was not placed onto the matting correctly and then I could not move the word without ripping the paper.  Grrrr. 

As I stated above, this is the first of six berry themed projects I will be sharing this week.   Come back tomorrow for another berry flavored project!  In the meantime, you can head over to BBTB2 and check out the design teams strawberries!

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!!