Hugs

It's challenge day again at Pause, Dream, Enjoy Challenges!  This week's challenge is:

Question: Do you smile often?

Theme: Create any type of project with FACES.

(Drawn faces, cut faces, stamped faces, etc.)

What a fun subject!  I think that my default face is kind of serious, because sometimes my husband will say "what's wrong?"  when I'm just typing a blog post or reading something online.  I always try to be conscious of smiling, especially when I'm out in public.  The day I made this card, I was having a kind of stressful day, and it felt really good to make a smiley card!

Speaking of Smiley Cards, that's where this entire card is made from!  I cut the hexagon card base in bright blue from Smiley Cards and then put the patterned paper over top of it.  Then I cut the hugs emoticon from a different button on Smiley Cards.  I am so happy that the Cricut Craft Room has allowed me to buy this cartridge.  I love it!  I used Cotton Candy stickles on his cheeks, and then stamped from my new My Creative Time "Gift Card Sentiments."  I love the font on this stamp set!  I'm excited to use it more.

How can you make us smile?  Join us at Pause, Dream, Enjoy challenges and play along!  There's plenty of inspiration from our other Design Team members over at the blog to get you started.  :)

Bear Birthday

You know when you get a new cartridge and suddenly it's the first cartridge you want to go to for everything?  Yeah, I just bought Teddy Bear Parade. (btw, I had to trek to 3 different Walmarts to find it, and it was the very last copy at the location I finally bought it from...who knew it would be THIS popular?) 

When I saw that Fantabulous Cricut was having a challenge to use a candle on a birthday project, I was like "that bear has a cake with a candle!  woohooo!"

I cut the bear and accessories out at 3.75 inches.  As you can see, although he's short enough, his balloons stick a little bit over the edge.  I used all of the same colors as the handbook, since I'm still getting to know these cuts.  Because his shirt was just plain white, I used some teal ink and stamped three small candles on using Stampendous' Everything Happy stamp set. 

The patterned paper is from the Basics stack by Paper Studio.  I stamped a sentiment in the top corner with My Craft Spot's Birthday Wishes stamp set.  I just got this stamp set, and I am loving it!  So many of the cards I make in real life are for birthdays, so it's great to have a whole set devoted to sayings for those cards.  

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Fantabulous Cricut- Birthday Celebration (with a candle)

Another great giveaway!

Tara and April at Craftin' Desert Divas have a new goal- 500 followers!  When they reach their goal, they'll choose one lucky person to win a $100 gift card to Joann's.  That's a great prize!

Head over to the link above to check out the contest rules.  While you're there, look around at all of their great projects.  I've been a follower of theirs for awhile, and Tara is on the Pause, Dream, Enjoy Challenges design team with me, so I know for a fact that their projects are super cute!

Santa's sleigh

I've been on kind of a Christmas kick recently.  I'm trying out a bunch of different ideas and still haven't quite settled on what I want to do for my Christmas cards this year.  Last year, they were done in August!  

This is one that I'd had floating around in my head since the Create a Critter 2 handbook was released online.  I just got Create a Critter 2 last week, so this is one of the first cards I've made with it!  The sleigh was cut at 3 inches and all the reindeer were at 2.25 inches.  The two standing reindeer are from CAC2 and the Rudolph is from the original CAC cartridge.  I put a piece of string from the sleigh to the back reindeer to show that they're hooked up and ready to fly.  It's hard to see in the picture, but Rudolph has Glossy Acccents on his nose.  After all, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer had a VERY shiny nose.  :)

The sentiment is a leftover sticker that I had from some projects I made a few years ago.  The background paper is from All Seasons 2 by Paper Studio.

This card will be entered into the following challenges:

Exploring Cricut- Trains, Planes, and Automobiles (aka transportation)

A noteworthy giveaway

Hi friends!

I just wanted to point you in the direction of a great giveaway at Candy's Craft Corner.  She's celebrating having over 600 followers.  Check out what she's giving away:

If it looks like something you'd be interested in, head over to her blog at Candy's Craft Corner and see what you have to do to enter!

A life update

Good news: After almost 6 months on the market, we finally have accepted an offer on our house!  If it goes smoothly, we'll be moving in about 5 weeks, right around Halloween.

Bad news: This means that my craft room will have to be packed up at some point.  It will be one of the last rooms I pack up, but I'll also be the person mainly in charge of packing the rest of the house, so I won't get to spend the time creating that I usually can.  I will continue to craft, it just might be only a couple of cards a week rather than new cards for almost every challenge out there like it's sometimes been in the past.

Good news: At the future house, I get a new craft room!  What crafter doesn't love the chance to set up a new space every so often?

Bad news: We don't know what the future house will be yet.  We're going to rent an apartment for a few months between moving out of this house and when we find a new house/do any renovations we have to do.  I've already insisted that it be a two bedroom apartment, so I can at least have a mini-craft space, but still.

Good news:  I've known that this day was an inevitability for awhile, and have stored up many projects that I've worked on over the months to publish during the few weeks that I'm not crafting.  My Pause, Dream, Enjoy DT posts will also continue uninterrupted.  I'm nothing if not a good planner.


So, although you will notice my posting frequency go down slightly for a few weeks, please stick with me.  Once I'm all unpacked, I'll be back to full speed again!

A tale of crafting

Once upon a time, there was a sweet, young crafter with slightly obsessive-compulsive tendencies.   She was so excited when a "sequel" to her favorite Cricut cartridge, Create a Critter was released.  It was with great joy that she anticipated all of the cards she would be able to make with two cartridges full of critters!  When it arrived in her mailbox, her heart leapt with joy!

She pulled it out of it's clamshell, tried it out on her Cricut and lo, it cut so well!  Then she turned to place it upon her Cricut cartridge shelf.  But alas!  The makers of Cricut had changed the design on the box since the last time a cartridge was released that she wanted.  When placed upon her shelf beside the original Create a Critter, the box looked quite out of place.  This made her slightly obsessive-compulsive tendencies quite uneasy.

The young crafter decided that she did not like seeing one green box amongst a sea of blue.  She moved the box for Create a Critter 2 to the end of her "shapes" cartridges shelves.  But alas again!  Now the cartridge was not beside it's predecessor, and her slightly obsessive-compulsive tendencies again were ill at ease.

The young crafter sighed mightily and decided to think about which battle she would rather fight.  She knows no good answer, besides creating her own blue cover on the computer and slipping it over the green one, which is not entirely out of the realm of possibility.

And thus ends our tale of woe.

Bird card

I love the way that the animals from Four Legged Friends come out.  I don't know why I don't use them more often.  This one is, obviously, the bird.  I cut it at 3 inches, except for the eyes.  I had originally planned to draw in the eyes, but they looked super creepy, so then I decided to go ahead and cut them with the Cricut.  But I had drawn one too big for the eyes that were 3 inches, so I ended up cutting them for 3.5 inches and they look just as good.  

The background paper is from KI Memories "The Classics" pad.  I thought it looked really good with the Kraft card base.  On the side, I punched it with Martha Stewart's loops punch.

I stamped the sentiment on the top with my brand new Pink by Design "Big Thoughts" stamp set and then put three buttons underneath for definition.

This card is going to be entered in the following challenges:
Paper Playtime- a punch and a sentiment
Bitten by the Bug 2- Things that fly in nature

Playtime

It's Friday, so it's time for another challenge from Pause, Dream, Enjoy Challenges!  This week's challenge is:

Question: What was your favorite thing to play at school RECESS?

Theme: Create a project with a PLAY theme

 (jumping rope, bike riding, chasing butterflies, swings, slides, hopscotch, kickball, anything you PLAYED as a kid)

I loved the swingset when I was in school. The feeling of the wind in your hair, the freedom to belt out Disney songs while you soar over the other kids...magic. It was even better in the spring, the first time your mom would let you go to school without a jacket. That was the best feeling.

For my card, I used a set of jacks from Sugar and Spice. I used some old patterned paper from my stash, I think from Doodlebug Design, sandwiched between a yellow card base and another layer of yellow on top. I popped each of the jacks up on different thicknesses of foam squares. I stamped the sentiment with Pink by Design's Big Thoughts.

Now it's your turn!  Go to Pause, Dream, Enjoy Challenges, check out all of the inspiration from the DT, and play along with us!

End of Summer

It's the end of summer, and I can't say I'm too sad.  It's no secret that fall is my favorite.  I wanted to make a goodbye project for summer.  I grew up in Michigan (and hope to be living there again soon) and one of their major summer imports is cherries.  So here's to summer:

This A2 card has corners that were rounded with one of my corner rounders.  I used a light blue card base and a piece of patterned paper from the DCWV All Girl stack.  The sentiment and cherries are from Lyrical Letters.  Aren't they great?  I love the little gems hidden on some of the font cartridges.

This card is going to be entered in Fantabulous Cricut's End of Summer challenge.

Best Witches

It's amazing to me how sometimes card challenges will really push me to things that I wouldn't have thought of on my own.  Last night, I had three challenges that I wanted to work on but I knew I needed to get them all into one card because I didn't have a lot of time.  Combining them made something so cute and unexpected!

I started with the basics: an A2 kraft base and a piece of orange cardstock embossed with a QuicKutz embossing folder (Retro Squares).  Texture requirement met.  Next, I knew I needed to add an Elephant, so I looked on MyCutSearch and decided to use the Elephant from New Arrival.  I cut her at 2 inches.  Elephant requirement met.

With one challenge to go, I knew I had to make it Halloween themed.  I decided to use the witches hat and broom from 3 Birds on Parade.  I cut them at 4 inches to make them the right size for Ms. Elephant.  I saw that her broom was blending in too much with the orange background, so I put a piece of purple behind her. Then I put the twine on the other side and cut a tag from Elegant Edges.  I stamped the word "best" from Everyday Expressions by Stampabilities and "witches" is from Jessie's ABCs by Lawn Fawn.  It's on foam dots, because of the twine behind it.

This card is being entered into the following challenges:
Die Cuttin Divas- Elephant
Cooking with Cricut- Texture
Scrappy Mom's Stamps- Halloween

Vrooom

When I think of transportation cards, the first thing that comes to mind are masculine kinds of cards.  So I wanted to flip that on it's head and do a super girly transportation card.  I used the driving zebra cut from Paisley as the main image.  I used buttons for the centers of the wheels and Cotton Candy stickles in the center of the flower.  The background paper is embossed with the Paper Studio Quatrefoil embossing folder.  I am on a big embossing folder kick right now.  

I also used purple and pink washi tape from WRMK on the top and bottom corners.  In person they look more defined, but I couldn't get a good picture of them for some reason.  The flower that I stamped on is actually just the flower from the car, cut at a bigger size.  I stamped with Jaded Blossom's Simple Sayings stamp in a wine colored ink on it.  

I'm entering this into the Trains, Planes, and Automobiles challenge at Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog.

Red and Yellow

Before I get to my project, I am super excited to announce that I'll be joining the Design Team at Pause, Dream, Enjoy challenges beginning October 1st!  This will be my first Design Team and I'm glad it's with a blog that I already enjoyed so much before joining.

This week, the challenge is:

 What does the word "SCHOOL" make you think of? 

Yellow School Buses? Red Apples?

Ch #37 Theme: Yellow & Red

Create any type of project using YELLOWS and REDS .

Here is my take on the challenge:

Of all of the schools I've been in (elementary, middle school, high school, college, graduate school), I by far have the most school spirit for the elementary.  It's probably because I volunteered there all through high school and my mom works there still. I'll always be an owl!

My owl is from Sugar and Spice.  I cut a crayon from the crayon patterned paper from the All Seasons 2 stack from Hobby Lobby and put it in it's hand, because elementary students color in school.  The background paper is from Recollections.  I think it was the Brights and Basics paper pad- the 6x6 version.   It's on a white card base, if you can't tell.  I added some yellow ribbon from my stash and stamped the sentiment in the bottom corner in brown ink.  The sentiment is from my brand-new-in-my-mail-yesterday Scrappy Mom's stamp set called Raining Cats and Dogs.  

I'll continue to play along with Pause, Dream, Enjoy until my term begins, but because I know I'll be joining the Design Team soon, I won't be entering my cards into the challenges any more for prizes.  But YOU CAN!  Hop on over to this week's challenge here.  

Shopper

I thought I would make a cute, girly card about one of my favorite past-times...shopping!  Since this is from 9 months, I suspect that technically this woman is supposed to be pregnant and shopping for baby things.  However, I imagine she's just got kind of big hips and is shopping for whatever!  I cut her out at 4 inches and she's on popdots. 

The card is regular A2 size, and the patterned paper is from my stash.  It's sparkly and has a lot of things that women might shop for like makeup and shoes and jewelry.  Then I put the yellow paper on with some matching American Crafts ribbon as an accent.  I rounded all of the corners before adhering them using my medium sized corner rounder.  Now to send it to one of my favorite shopping buddies...who will be the lucky recipient?

I'm entering this in the following challenges:
Exploring Cricut- Cricut Choice (using a person)
Cut it up- Anything Goes
DL.Art- 1000 posts linky party

Stinker

As soon as Create a Critter 2 was announced, I fell straight into the frenzy that swept across the internet.  Create a Critter is my most used cartridge, so it was definitely one that I wanted more of.  I made this card with the first Create a Critter.  The skunk was cut at 3.5 inches and then I gave him some googly eyes.  I love how well these guys take googly eyes without looking weird.

The patterned paper is from my brand new All Girls mat stack from DCWV.  Remember when I said that Julie from Cricut Chirp had sent me some mats that I loved and was looking all over for?  This was the stack!  When I saw it at Joann's, I snatched it right up!  I was so excited.  It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but it's a green gingham pattern.  Then I added some pink polka dot washi tape from Target to compliment the little guy's facial features.

The phrase is stamped with Jessie's ABCs from Lawn Fawn.  The other day I bought a non-Lawn Fawn alphabet set from a garage sale because it was cheap.  Bad choice. I tested it out on scrap paper and it looked so bad compared to this set.  I think I need to just save up for another Lawn Fawn alphabet if I want some variety in my alphabet stamps.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
Cricut Chirp- Create a Critter Craft
Paper Playtime- Gingham + Die Cut

Singing bird

One of my very favorite challenge blogs is Pause, Dream, Enjoy.  I love that each challenge comes with a question that I can think about.  I came into the challenges half way through the year when I started doing challenges, but I'm hoping they continue in 2013 so I can do a full years worth of questions in some sort of mini book or something.  

This week's question is about whether we play any instruments.  I actually do/did play the piano.  I took lessons for a whopping 10 years in my youth, although I haven't touched even my keyboard since it got moved to the basement to make room for more craft supplies in my craft room.  However, a quick look at MyCutSearch told me that I don't have any of the cartridges that have pianos represented on them, so I had to go with my second favorite musical past time, singing.  I especially love to sing showtunes and Disney songs, much to the chagrin of my husband.  He shudders everytime I'm turning the TV around and see Aladdin on cable, let me tell you (not that it matters, because I own every Disney princess movie on DVD anyway.  And no, I have no children...they are mine).

I chose the singing bird from Stretch your Imagination.  I think it looks so cheerful, which is generally how I'm feeling when I'm busting out a showtune or two. I used hot pink cardstock for the card and this spunky blue and pink patterned paper that I have no idea who makes it because I won it from a prize pack.  I used the music notes that were cut both with the yellow and orange layers of the bird and colored them black with a Sharpie, to save paper.  Then I covered them with Black Diamond stickles to give them a little shine.  

I'm entering this into the following challenge:
Pause, Dream, Enjoy- music

Some scrapbook pages

This past weekend, I finished Sophie's second 8x8 scrapbook.  Don't worry, I have two more empty 8x8 albums waiting for her!  I decided to try scanning the pages instead of photographing them, so we'll see which I like better.  The first one came out kind of crooked, but I already turned off the printer so I'm not going to re-scan it...it's a learning curve.  I'm a pretty simple scrapbooker, usually I don't put a lot of embellishment on a page.  It shocked me when I started writing down all of the different companies and products that I used per page.

Here's the first one. It's the one that I scanned crooked.  It's an Instagram picture that I took of my husband and Sophie both passed out on a Sunday afternoon after we'd gone for a walk in the park.  All of my background cardstock is Bazzill.  I bought it in 8.5x11 and cut it down to 8x8.  I use the leftovers as embellishments on other pages.  The green patterned paper, vellum, and diecuts are from Deja Views Dog Days pack.  The journalling card and date card are from Max and Whiskers by Basic Grey.   Along the bottom, you might spot my Ek Success paw print border punch being used on a piece of kraft cardstock!

My second page is about a day when I came into my scrapbook room and caught Sophie gnawing on some scraps of cardstock that I had left on the floor.   This page is full of different companies!  The photo mat is from DCWV Pets mat stack.  The die cut that I used as a title is from a garage sale, so I don't know what company it is.  The bone that says Yum was cut from cardstock with my Cricut and Paper Pups.  Down in the bottom corner are two diecuts from the Dog Days pack and the little dog is from that Max and Whiskers set.  The brad that is the middle of the two flowers is from WRMK.  The strip of paper that I used along the bottom is from the old DCWV Scrapbook kit in a stack- Dog.  

This is the page that faces the previous one.  I always use the same color of cardstock on facing pages in Sophie's scrapbook, even if they are a one page layout.  It's just something I chose to do and have followed up on.  Here I used a chipboard die cut as the title again.  I can't remember the brand, because I got it at Hobby Lobby before I cared about brands and took it out of the packaging.  The same with the 3D bone at the bottom of the page.  The washi tape strips on the top and the bottom are from the Target brand washi tape.  I took that little design tip from my very favorite scrapbooking superhero, Glitter Girl.  :)  I again used some of the die cuts from the Dog Days stack here and there.  I also used a strip of paper that had been embossed with the Crafts Too "Bone and Paw Print" embossing folder.

Here's the last page in Sophie's second scrapbook.  It's another Instagram sized photo.  I took pictures of her in the morning before she went to the groomer and then again in the afternoon when I got her home from the groomer.  I used an app on my phone to do a photogrid of the pictures.  I used some patterned paper from the same DCWV stack as above and the strip of blue paper is a scrap from making another page into an 8x8.  The title was cut with Plantin Schoolbook and Baby Steps and used a couple of parentheses from the Dog Days stack.  I also used a piece of vellum from the Dog days stack at the bottom.  There's a strip of ribbon along the page that I got from Joann's and a little dog from Paper Pups in the bottom corner.  I thought the cute dog with the bow fit on a page about being groomed.  See the journaling right on the page?  That's another Glitter Girl influence.  It was scary, but I did it anyway.

Happy Grandparents' Day!

Did you know that today is Grandparents' Day?  That's what my calendar tells me.  I have only one Grandparent left, and she lives across the country, so I don't see her very often.  I thought I'd make her a card to say hi.

I cut this card from Elegant Edges.  The card was cut at 5 inches using kraft for the Shadow feature and pink for the actual cut.  I adhered two of the shadow together to make the card.  The little bird that was cut out of the bottom corner shows up again in the inside.  :)

The branch and the little blue birds are from Wild Card.  The branch was cut at about 1.5 inches, and the birds were cut at about 2 and 2.25 (I think, I have to start writing these things down!)  

Here's the inside of the card.  I stamped the "happy" with Joy's Life Everyday Occasions and the "Grandparents day" with Lawn Fawn Jessie's ABCs.

Postal bird

This is a little 4x4 card that I made with 3 Birds on Parade.  I cut the mailman bird using the same colors as in the manual, because I thought they looked perfect.  The graph patterned paper is from my Recollections Brights and Basics 6x6 pad.  I used the Darice Clouds embossing folder in my Cuttlebug on the white cardstock.  I just got it in the mail today, and I LOVE IT!  

I'm entering this in the following challenge:
Fantabulous Cricut- On the Job

Snail Mail

This is a 4x4 card.  One of the major things that made me start looking at the Birthday Bash cartridge was this cut.  I love the cute little snail and the card shaped like a postage stamp.  All of the cardstock was from my scraps.  

I stamped it in dark blue with Jessie's ABCs from Lawn Fawn.  I think this will be a cute card to stash away for someone.  

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Bitten by the Bug 2- All Shaped Up

Scrappy Moms Stamps- Shape Up!

Buzzing by

I was at a garage sale last weekend, and they had an unopened 6x6 pad of Echo Park's Country Drive.  I was so excited, and snatched it right up (while trying to explain to my husband why I was so excited).  I knew as soon as I looked through it that the first paper that I was going to use was the honeycomb/bees paper.  So I did.

This card is on black cardstock (for some reason it looks green to me in the picture).  The paper is of course, Echo Park.  The honeycomb pattern is one side and the blue strip with the two bees is from the other side.  I cut the Create a Critter bee at 3.5 inches and used foam adhesive squares to pop him up.  

See the tag?  It's from the dollar section at Target.  It's supposed to be one of those little sticky notes that you put in the page of a book to mark something important, but I just inked up the edges and glued it down.  I liked that it had a flower pattern, because bees love flowers!  I stamped it with a sentiment from Jaded Blossom's "Simply Sentiments" stamp set.  I just bought two stamp sets from them and really like them both.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
Jaded Blossom: Crafter's Choice
Celebrate the Occasion: Hey Honey!

Sympathy Card

This is my first attempt at a sympathy card.  I wanted it to be kind of simple, because I didn't think it would be appropriate for it to be flashy.  I made the butterfly from Wall Decor and More and put it over an embossed paper that I had embossed with D'Vine Swirls Cuttlebug folder.  I added some fabric ribbon from American Crafts for a little pop of color.

The inside has the sentiment With Sympathy from Calligraphy Collection.  I spent so much time and paper trying to find a size sentiment that wasn't too huge but also wouldn't rip when I took it off the mat.  It's still a little bigger than I wanted, but that's ok.  I may stick with more stamped sentiments on sympathy cards from here on out.

I'm entering this into the following challenges:
My Craft Spot- Hope is Rising
Krafty Girls- Anything Goes

Fall Birdie

I was so, so excited when ProvoCraft released a few sneak peeks for the Create a Critter 2 cartridge!  It's going to take all of my strength to not run out and buy this cartridge as soon as it's released, but I have to remember that Christmas is right around the corner!  

This A2 card is on kraft cardstock.  There is a dark brown piece of cardstock cut at 4 x 5.25 and then a piece of yellow cardstock cut at 3.75 x 5.  I used some American Crafts ribbon with fall leaves.  The bird (cut at 3 inches) is actually found on a winter themed page, but I cut him in more fall like colors to fit with the theme.  His eyes and beak are just taped to the back of his head.  Cheating, but it gets the job done.  The word "Fall" and the hat are from the squirrel cut from the same cartridge.  

I'm entering this into the following challenge:

Pause, Dream, Enjoy- Chicks or Birdies

Working bird

My husband recently started a new job, and I wanted to make him a card to tell him I'm proud of him.  I picked this little suitcase bird from 3 Birds on Parade, and imagined it was actually a briefcase.  Then I cut a teeny tiny little tie from Simply Charmed.  In addition to popping the bird up off the card, I also popped up his wing and tie.  I added some twine and a button on the side. 

The patterned paper is from Paper Studio The Basics (8x8 pad).

I'm entering this into the following challenges:
Cricut Chirp- Labor of Love
Die Cuttin Divas- Recipe (Twine, Popdots, and Buttons)

Hugs and kisses

Another elephant card!  This time the elephant is from Zooballoo.  I cut her at 3.5 inches.  I added her googly eyes, and then decided to make her a "her" and gave her red lips and some pink cheeks.  Now that I'm looking at her on the card, I notice that her trunk has a crease in it.  I guess it gives her character.  :)  I gave her a hair flower from some Dollar Tree puffy stickers.  I love these for hair flowers, because they give just a pop of depth.

Her flowers and the butterfly are cut from Sugar and Spice.  I can't remember if these are the ones cut at 2 inches or 1.5 inches.  I tried both.  I used a stripe of purple WRMK washi tape to ground the card, and then I stamped the sentiment from Everyday Expressions (Hobby Lobby stamp) in dark purple ink.  

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
DL.Art- Use a flower
Creative Cutter Room- Googly eyes