Mojo Monday sketch challenge

Finally, I managed a productive day in my design studio.  It has been a good long time since I've actually made a card for a challenge.  Between traveling for the month of October, house guests here since the day after we returned and all my design teams' responsibilities I haven't accomplished anything extra.  But today I got to spend the whole day creating.  I even got to go to massage therapy this morning.  I think I undid all my massage therapist's work though, hunched over the work table all day.  I made this card following the sketch from Mojo Monday.  I just love circular cards and couldn't resist.  My stack of Christmas cards has grown by leaps and bounds today.  I managed to get six cards made and two major projects finished, which I'll share in the next few days.  I used Cutting Cafe digital sets to complete this card.  The wonderful Night Before Christmas background paper and the Not a Creature was Stirring made completing this card a cinch.  I also used my Cricut Wild Card cartridge for my base card, Mini Monograms cartridge for the circle and scalloped circles and My Community for the little mouse.

BBTB2 Winter Frolic Deck the Halls

Good morning everyone.  It was my turn to pick the challenge this week at BBTB2.  Since we are heading into December and the holiday season I had to make this a Christmas challenge.  I chose the new Winter Frolic cartridge and asked the Design Team to use either of the ornament cuts from pages 64 or 65 and include the sentiment Deck the Halls from page 65.  I decided to make a shaped card using my Gypsy.  I used the shadow cuts from the sentiment and welded the shadow from the ornament so it would be hanging from the letter T of the sentiment.  I made my base card from black cardstock and cut it at 5.75.  Then I cut the shadow again slightly smaller from red cardstock.  I used My Mind's Eye patterned paper for my top layer and cut it twice for more dimension.  Then I added some bling with red rhinestones, glittered star brads and red glitter.  Hope you can play along with our challenge. Don't forget you can use any ornament cut and any font cut from any cartridge for the Deck the Halls sentiment but you must have both elements on your card.  I'm really excited because this will be my first opportunity to choose the weekly winner.  I can't wait to see your designs.

Paper Cutz Anything Goes

Happy Day after Thanksgiving.  At Paper Cutz today it's Anything Goes.  This is the card I made for my granddaughter Payton's birthday on Saturday.  I used my Cricut to cut the crown from the Once Upon A Princess cartridge.  The number 4 and the sentiment Happy Birthday Princess are from The Cutting Cafe.

Speaking of The Cutting Cafe, Regina is having a great Black Friday sale it's buy one get one free on her digital stamp sets. Click on the link and hurry on over for this one day sale. 

Cricut Cardz Challenge #52

I'm very excited for this week's challenge at Cricut Cardz Challenge.  This is my first week as the Design Coordinator for Cricut Cardz Challenge Design Team #1.  I'm so happy to be working with Mary to help her on her fantastic blog.  I will be setting the challenges now for Design Team #1 and helping Mary in any other way I can.  For my first challenge I've chosen a Christmas theme but only using words cut from your Cricut and no image.  I used the Winter Woodlands cartridge and my Gypsy to design this card.  I welded two of the greetings shadow features together to form the base of my card and cut it from green cardstock at 5.75" for the width.  At this size it fits on a piece of 12 x 12" cardstock.  Season's Greetings is cut at 4.72" width to fit on the base.  I cut it twice from black cardstock and then from a DCWV Christmas stack (last year's) so I could offset for a shadow effect.  The holly is cut with the layer feature on using a scrap I had.  I used some glitter on the berries for a little sparkle.  I can say I am ahead of last year's handmade Christmas card production, but just barely.  It's been so hard to get anything done with my son still home on leave from the Marine's with his wife.  But, we've had a fantastic time being with them and that's much more important.  Kyle will have left for his new duty station in Chantilly, VA by the time this posts.  Nicole will be staying behind with their two kitties until their new house is ready for them on December 1.  Tonight my husband's brother will be arriving to spend Thanksgiving with us.  I have no clue where I'm going to put them because our one guest bedroom is already occupied.  I suppose I should figure that out real soon now.  I'll probably send my husband to the store to get an air mattress we can throw on the floor in the family room.  It's going to be a wild few days.  I hope that you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families.  For those of you heading out for shopping on Friday...May the force be with you!!!

Christmas Daily Days 21-25

Here's the last installment of my Christmas Daily album.  I gave the album to my granddaughter Payton at her birthday party yesterday.  She is only four and I wasn't sure if she would get it or not.  Not too long ago she was over and wanted to go into my studio.  I told her we couldn't go in that day because I was working on a big project (this album) and had it layed out all over.  She asked what I was working on and I told her it was a project for her.  So yesterday I reminded her of that day and told her this was the project.  We sat down on the floor and I went through all the pages with her.  She was completely mesmorized while I explained it to her.  I told her she had to take very good care of it and couldn't play with it so it would be around when she got to be a big girl.  She said "Okay Nana".  Even after this conversation I wasn't sure if she got it.  But then my daughter called me today.  She told me that she was looking at it with Payton and that Payton told her what every single page was for almost exactly as I had told it to her.  She is very excited to get started on it when it gets to be "cember, in a few days".  Well, wonders never cease, maybe she did get it.

It was a big tradition in our house on Christmas Eve for the kids to all get to open one present.  It was always a pair of pajamas.  Then we would gather them around in their new jammies and my husband would read the Night Before Christmas to them and they would toddle off to bed.  We had the same routine from my oldest daughter's first Christmas to the Christmas before my youngest son graduated high school.  That was from 1974 until 2004, thirty years.  Gosh, that's a long time. 

When it was Payton's first Christmas we bought her the book 'Twas the Night Before Christmas so my daughter could begin the tradition with her children.  This year we went to Hallmark and bought the recordable version so my husband could read it for them.  We haven't given it to her yet, but will soon.

When I did the Sugar Plums page I knew I had to make the bed with a pink pillow and purple blanket.  Those are Payton's favorite colors and what her room is done in.  I'm not sure if my daughter will be able to get a picture of her sleeping on Christmas Eve.  You've never seen a kid who sleeps less.  I'm glad I'm not going to be at her house trying to get her to go to sleep.

I'm really proud of myself for finishing this album.  I have to admit, I would rather make cards than scrapbook.  This did give me the inspiration to get busy on some of my old pictures.  I'm hoping to finish albums for each of my five children and give them to each of them next Christmas.  Plus I will try to get one more album done for my son.  A Marine scrapbook.   Thanks so much for following along with my Christmas Daily album.  I hope I've inspired someone to give it a go.  It really was so easy using Regina's digital stamp sets from The Cutting Cafe.  I used both her December Daily set from last year and this year's December Daily 2.

Project Tuesday Reindeer Bags

Every year I try to make up some small Holiday gifts to have on hand.  You never know when you might need them. I was really excited when I saw this week's Project Tuesday challenge because I knew it would be perfect for my little gifts.  I bought these hand gels from Bath and Body Works a couple weeks ago when they were on sale.  They are so cute with those reindeer on them I knew I could make up something with a reindeer using my Cricut.  I used the Doodlcharms cartridge for my reindeer and they're cut at 2".  I used darkbrown cardstock for the base layer, kraft cardstock for the face and red cardstock for the noses and shadows.  I added some glitter to the noses.  The stamp is from Inkadinkado. Here is the link for the bag directions.

Christmas Daily Days 17-20

This installment of my Christmas Daily album includes days 17 -20.  All the digital elements are from The Cutting Cafe, either December Daily or December Daily 2.  Just click on the set for the link to The Cutting Cafe.  I made pages 17 and 18 a little more interactive for my 4 year old granddaughter Payton.  I included an easy to put together foam Christmas ornament I purchased at JoAnn's for $1.  For day 18 I included a packet of hot chocolate.

If you aren't from the east side of the state of Michigan you probably have no idea what the significance of day 19 is.  Here in this area we have the most fantastic Christmas store ever.  They are open year round and you have never seen so much Christmas stuff in your life.  They do sell online so if you are looking for an ornament with a particular theme in mind, check out Bronners.  My husband and I started a tradition for our children as each of them were born.  Every year we went to Bronners and picked out an ornament for them.  It went on the tree that year and then went into a box with their name on it.  When they grew up and got their first home they had a box of ornaments for their tree.  Now we do the same thing for our grandchildren.  This year, for the first time ever, we are going to take a grandchild with us (Payton) and let her pick out her own ornament.  It will be a day just for us to spend with her.  It is about a two hour drive to get there.  We will shop through the store and let her find the perfect ornament then we will go out for lunch.  Days 18 and 19 will document this little trip.

I can't wait to see what Payton will pick out.  Whatever theme it is, I have the feeling it will be a pink ornament.  Preferably, pink and purple, her two favorite colors.  I think she will pick something with a Disney Princess on it.  She's at that princess age.

Thanks for stopping by.  I will be posting the final installment of my Christmas Daily album Monday or Tuesday. 

Paper Cutz Christmas with Lots of Bling

This week at Paper Cutz Mary asked the DT to make a Christmas card with lots of bling.  I made a shaped ornament card using my Gypsy and the Joys of the Season cartridge.  I used red cardstock for my base card.   The top layer design paper is from TPC Studio called Deck the Halls Holly Jolly Stripe.  As you can see it has stripes of green glitter running through it.  For the layers of the card I used a shiny gold cardstock from The Paper Company.  I added glittery red brads from Creative Imaginations.  The bow is ribbon from Offray and the cord is Holiday Time that I got at Walmart the day after Christmas.  Thanks for stopping by today and make sure you check out the great designs from the rest of the design team.  You can find their links on the Paper Cutz blog.

The Cutting Cafe Christmas Mini Colored Set/Christmas Frames

Honest to goodness, it doesn't get any easier to whip up a Christmas card than this.  Print, cut and assemble.  If you haven't been to The Cutting Cafe recently and need to get started or finish up your handmade Christmas cards Regina has tons of new digital stamp sets.  I literally, made this card in 10 minutes.  I used two different sets to put this card together, the Christmas Frames set and the Christmas Mini Colored Set.  The frames set comes with frames for both 4.25 x 5.5" cards and 4 x 6" cards.  The Christmas Mini Colored set comes with 46 images (yes, you read that correctly 46) including the December 25th background and the circular sentiment on this card.  Some quickly cut mats to back the images, a little ribbon, cording and stick on pearls for embellishment and I was done.

Christmas Daily Days 13-16

Time for another installment of my Christmas Daily album that I made for my granddaughters Paige and Payton.. Today I have pages 13-16. As with all previous pages I used digital stamps from The Cutting Cafe. All pages used either last year's December Daily set or this year's December Daily 2 set. Just click on the set to take you directly to the links. The patterned paper around this page is a negative shape leftover from my Baking Cookies page I did previously.  Quick and easy.  The shape was cut using my Cricut Imagine Best Friends cartridge. All my scalloped circles were cut with my Mini Monograms cartridge.

I added a premade present to the center of the day 14 stamp and DCWV paper from a Christmas stack I got last year. Using a paper with a common feature to the stamp makes each page easy to put together.

My Mistletoe on page 15 came from the new seasonal Cricut cartridge Christmas Cards.  I will purchase a piece of real mistletoe so that my daughter can hang it up in their house for a picture.  Can't you just imagine my granddaughter standing under the mistletoe giving Daddy a kiss?  Too cute, huh?

 Anyone who knows Payton knows she's very capable of being naughty and pouting when she gets in trouble.  Just like most 4 year olds, I imagine.  The other day her daddy told her she could have a treat if her dinner was all gone.  My daughter was off to work so daddy was home with the kids alone.  He went to check on the baby and came back to find Payton's dinner all gone and her plate in the sink.  Suspicious because she's not a very good eater he checked the garbage can.  Sure enough, there was Payton's dinner.  She went to bed early for that, without a treat.  LOL

Thanks for stopping by today and make sure to come back later in the week to see pages 17-20.  Payton's 4th birthday party is Saturday and that's when I plan on giving it to her.  I can't wait.  I hope she'll have fun and be able to look back at it for many years.  In fact, I hope it's still around when she has her own children.

Give Thanks

For this week's BBTB2 challenge the incredibly talented Donna asked us to use the phrase Give Thanks from the new Thanksgiving cartridge.  I don't have this cartridge but I did have the Give Thanks phrase on my Designer's Calendar cartridge, so that's what I used.  I decided to make a little home decor project to sit on my fireplace mantle.  I was real happy with how this turned out.  I used cardboard from empty cereal boxes to make this a little more sturdy.  Starting from my back layer I used Mini Monograms to cut a scalloped square at 8.5" from both black cardstock and the cardboard and adhered them together.  Then I added a layer of cream cardstock to place the sentiment on.  Over that I placed a brown frame I cut from kraft cardstock and the cardboard at 7.5" using Don Juan.  I used Doodlecharms for the leaves and acorns cutting two of each leaf for layering.  Then using two thicknesses (1/8" and 1/16") of Pop Dots I began placing the elements layering each leaf a little higher than the last ending with the acorns on two of the thickest Pop Dots.  My sentiment is cut at 3.75" from black and a burnt orange cardstock then I offset the black cardstock to give a shadowed effect.

Looking at this reminds me of all the bountiful things I have to be thankful for.  It's a wonderful time of year for reflections of all the blessings I have been given, most of all a wonderful family.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you can join our challenge at BBTB2 this week.  Don't forget if you don't have the Thanksgiving cartridge you can use any other cartridge with Thanks on it.

Christmas Daily Album Days 9-12

Today I am posting Days 9-12 of my Christmas Daily album that I made for my granddaughters Paige and Payton.  For day 9 my sentiment Baking Cookies is from The Cutting Cafe's set December Daily and the day sentiment is from December Daily 2.  I used a pre-made embellishment of a gingerbread man that I got last year on sale the day after Christmas at Walmart.  I always try to find stuff I can use for my cards and scrapbooks in the wrapping paper section and put them away for the next year.

On the Day 10 page both the circular Singing Christmas Carols and the day sentiment are from December Daily 2.   I used my Cricut Imagine to print the musical paper from the Imagine More cartridge and then cut the shape from the Best Friends cartridge.  The Christmas Carolers were cut from Winter Frolic and all the scalloped circles were cut from Mini Monograms.  The musical notes came from Gypsy Wanderings.

 For Day 11, I used my Imagine machine to cut the Top Five list.  The circular sentiment is from last year's December Daily set and the small words are from The Cutting Cafe's Christmas Mini Words set.

For Day 12 I used a piece of lined paper that has been in my stash and mounted it on a border paper also from my stash. I printed the sentiment from the December Daily set right onto the lined paper.  The telephone is cut with my Cricut using the From My Kitchen cartridge.

Thanks so much for peeking in and I hope you're getting ideas for your own Christmas/December Daily album.  It couldn't be easier to make using digital stamp sets from The Cutting Cafe.

Paper Cutz #67 Thanksgiving with buttons and bows

Good morning and Happy Friday. Time for the weekend...hopefully, you can snatch a few minutes for yourself to create and join the challenge this week at Paper Cutz.  Mary asked the DT to make a THANKSGIVING CARD USING BUTTONS AND BOWS.  I was so excited to finally get to use my new Cricut Imagine for an entire card.  I had to leave it behind right after it arrived when we left on our month long RV trip last month.  Things have been so hectic here since returning home, with my son home on leave for the month of November, that I've hardly had time to even play with it.  But I got it out for this card.  I used the Imagine More, Wild Card and Create A Critter cartridges to put this card together.  I first made a base card using the circle card off the Wild Card cartridge.  Then I used the print and cut feature for all the layers of the card.  This was the first time I used the FILL feature with an image from a regular cartridge.  I used the turkey from CAC and chose papers from the Imagine More cartridge to fill him in with patterned papers that would match the card layers.  I think this came out so cute.  I have to say I do love the new machine and the second mat I bought seems to have more sticky on it than the one that came with the machine.  Could that be a way for ProvoCraft to get us to buy more?  LOL  Since the main feature of this week's card was to be bows and buttons I added a twill bow and another hemp bow before adding my big button on top of them.  I did add a little stitching on this card and my doodling that seems to make a card complete.  I also added some dimension with pop dots on one of the card layers and under the turkey.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a super weekend.  Check back during the weekend as I'll be posting my next series of pages from my Christmas Daily album.

Christmas Daily Days 5-8

Here is the next installment in my Christmas Daily album for my granddaughters, Paige and Payton.  Today I'm showing pages five through eight.  As with all the pages in this album I used digital stamp sets from The Cutting Cafe and my Cricut Expression and Imagine machines.  For page five I used both last year's December Daily set (Decorating the fireplace sentiment) and this year's December Daily 2 (Day 5) set.  Just click on the set for the link.  I used my Cricut Joys of the Season cartridge to cut the fireplace and the holly on the fireplace.  The bow came from the Gypsy Wanderings cartridge.  The scalloped circle behind the day sentiment is from Mini Monograms and the background frame is from the Imagine More cartridge.

I used Doodlecharms for the Christmas stockings on the Day 6 page and cut them with my Imagine so I could use the fill feature for patterned papers from the Imagine More cartridge.  I really like the Imagine machine for being able to use this feature with any of the regular cartridges that I have.  I hung the stockings from hemp cord and added the names by hand using a MS sepia marker.  I used Winter Frolic to cut The Stockings were hung. 

The Designer paper makes the page for day seven.  This paper is from 3 Bugs In a Rug North Pole collection.  I simply cut it to 8 x 8".  Then I added a scroll that I cut from Cricut's Heritage cartridge.  I'm sure it's not nearly big enough for all the things that Payton will have on her Christmas list.  LOL  The title was made using Gypsy Font.

Day eight uses the Santa that was the right edge of the piece of paper above.  I just trimmed around it, added it to a piece of blue cardstock and added the title I cut using Gypsy font.  Do You Believe In Santa is from last year's December Daily set.  I have to tell you that I made most of my album pages so my daughter could just add pictures.  As a busy working mom, I didn't think she would have the time for journaling but she is pretty good about taking pictures.  I will let her use my Canon Selphy printer so she doesn't have to even take the pictures anywhere to have them made up.

Check back in a few days for my next four pages.  I can't wait to give this album to my daughter so she can start filling the pages.  I just hope it gets taken care of so my granddaughters will have it long after I'm gone.    If you missed the first four pages of my album click here for the link.

Cricut Cardz Challenge #50

Wow, I can't believe it's midweek already.  Wednesday is Cricut Cardz Challenge day.  This week Mary asked DT #1 to create a CHRISTMAS CARD using any cartridge and any color.  I decided to use the Joys of the Seaston cartridge with this old fashioned Santa image and make a shaped card.  This is another card that I created while we were vacationing with our RV last month using my Gypsy.  Once again I say I love my Gypsy.  I used paper from last year's SEI Christmas stack.  My base card is made from red cardstock with the shadow feature on.  I added lots of layers with pop dots to this card.  Santa's beard and fur trim on his suit are done with Fun Flock.  For the inside of the card I placed the original cut with the features taken off with the Hide Contour feature on my Gypsy.  The sentiment is a Studio G stamp.



 

BBTB2 Create A Critter Dog

 I've often used my dog Trueman (a rare breed Mountain Cur) for inspiration for cards, but this one was really fun and was made for a special little boy I recently met.  Tanner, this card is for you and you should be getting it in the mail today or tomorrow.  This week's challenge cut at BBTB2 was chosen by my wonderful design team friend, Carole. She chose the dog from Create A Critter.  I made a shaped card this week using my Gypsy.  I found my Gypsy to be invaluable while I spent the month of October traveling in my RV through the south. Though we have returned home I have many wonderful memories of our time spent with family, many of which we hadn't seen in over 15 years.  One of my favorite memories from our trip came while visiting our daughter in North Carolina.  Our daughter has a wonderful friend who is a single father, she oftens helps out by taking care of his six year old son.  What a wonderful little guy who is well-behaved and has fantastic manners.  Little Tanner was so excited to meet us, but I think that was secondary to our dog.  Tanner fell in love with Trueman and Trueman had a great time playing with Tanner.  They were inseparable for the five days we were there.  Tanner was really sad when Trueman had to leave to go home so I thought I would make him a card that would remind him of his new furry friend.  If you have the Create A Critter cartridge make sure you join us in this challenge.  If you don't have this cartridge feel free to use any dog cut from another cartridge. 

There are a couple of changes that I made to my dog cut.  First off, as you can see I did not make my dog a dalmation as the booklet suggests and my cut has no tail.  If you look closely you can see a little nub instead.  That is the distinguishing feature about Mountain Curs.  They are actually born with no tail.   I was able to make my top layer using the hide contours feature on my gypsy to make the face features cut on the full body.  I made my dog 5".  I hadn't originally planned to put the fire hat on my dog, but he looked a little bare without it.  You'll see a picture of Tanner and Trueman below.  Aren't they cute?  I actually made a frame for this picture and embellished it with a dog I cut to look exactly like the card. I sent it off to Tanner and forgot to take a picture of it, but I know he'll love it.

Christmas Daily Album Day 1-4

Today I am posting my first four days of my Christmas Daily Album.  This is an album that I've made for my granddaughters, Paige and Payton, to record holiday memories for the month of December.  To make this album I have used digital stamp sets from The Cutting Cafe and my Cricut Expression and Imagine.  I used a bunch of different digital sets and will let you know what they are by linking directly to the set so you will be able to find it easily.  I used a purchased album because I thought it would endure the test of time, as opposed to making my own from chipboard.

 For Day One I made a Countdown to Christmas calendar.  It was always a big deal when our children were small to count the days 'til Christmas and we used a wonderful macrame tree that my in-laws made for our kids.  Each of our five children rotated turns putting an ornament on the tree.  I thought it would be fun for Payton (she's 4 yrs. old) to be able to fill in this calendar every day.  To make it I used my Cricut Designer's Calendar cartridge for the cicle template.  Then using various cartridges I cut out Christmas related images and added Zots to the back of each one.  Every day she can pick one, peel off the back and stick it onto the calendar.  This was the most labor intensive page I made in the album.  I just placed a few of the images onto the calendar for my photo so you could get the idea. The Cutting Cafe sentiment that says Day 1 is from the December Daily 2 set. Here is the link.  All of the day sentiments on each album page will be from this set.

For Day 2, I again used the December Daily set and I used a set called Christmas in a Square. Here is the link for that Cutting Cafe set.  I also used a mini word set for the tag on my journaling block.  Here is the link for that set.  My journaling block was made using my Cricut Imagine More cartridge.  I used my Mini Monograms cartridge for the scalloped circle and scalloped square.

My sentiment for Day 3 is from last year's Cutting Cafe set called Christmas Daily. Here is the link for that set.  The Christmas tree is a die cut that has been in my stash for years.  No idea where it came from but I was glad to use it up.  On this page and the Day 4 page my daughter can add pictures of the kids decorating the tree.  The Decorating the Tree sentiment on the Day 4 page is also from last year's Christmas Daily set at the above link.  I used an EK Success border punch for the Christmas tree edge above the sentiment.

I hope you'll check back later in the week to look for days 5-8.  I've really had fun making this album and hope that it will become a cherished family heirloom for my granddaughters.  I'd love it if you'd leave a comment on my album posts and become a follower.  After my final album blog post I will use random.org to choose one lucky person to win this year's December Daily 2 digital stamp set from The Cutting Cafe.  I will make arrangements for Regina to email the set to the winner.

Paper Cutz Challenge #66

It's Friday and time for this week's Paper Cutz challenge.  This week Mary asked the DT for a Get Well card with something that flies on it.  I used a cut from Lacy Labels with butterflies.  I cut an extra layer of butterflies so I could pop dot and add dimension.  I used a piece of DCWV Glitter stack to cut the frame and the Get Well sentiment which came from Lyrical Letters.  This picture sure doesn't show the glitter at all.  My patterned papers are from DCWV Linen Closet stack.  This is a 5 x 6 1/2" card and I cut my label at 3" and my sentiment at 2 1/2".

I want to take this opportunity to invite everyone to come back and check out my blog on Sunday, November 7th when I will be posting Day 1 of my Christmas Daily album.  If you don't know what a Christmas Daily album is, this is your chance to see one.  It's an album with one page devoted to each day of December from the 1st to the 25th.  I had a great time making this album for my two granddaughters Paige and Payton to record holiday memories.  I did post my opening page of the album already and you can see it here. 



The Cutting Cafe-Not A Creature Was Stirring

So, I don't know when Miss Regina from The Cutting Cafe sleeps, but she is just pumping out the most adorable stamps sets in the past few days.  This is her new set she sent out to the DT today called Not A Creature Was Stirring (it's the circular sentiment).  I used my new Cricut Winter Frolic and Cricut Imagine More cartridges to make this card.  The green scalloped background is from the Imagine More cartridge and the mouse is from the Winter Frolic cartridge.  My base card is a 4" circle card I made with the Wild Card cartridge.  I cut the green background scallope at 4 1/2".  I used Mini Monograms for the scalloped circle and used the fill feature from the Imagine to get the red coloring.  That's the best part of the new Imagine machine, being able to take a plain piece of white paper and print a pattern or solid paper from it.  Then I added the sentiment circle.  The mouse is cut from textured Bazzill cardstock at 1 1/2".  I used the fill feature again to print the paper for the present the mouse is holding.  I added a black rhinestone for his eye.  I embellished with beige twill ribbon and green buttons with hemp cord. 

The Cutting Cafe Hot Chocolate Holder

If you're looking for a quick gift idea for coworkers, teachers or maybe a secret santa a Hot Chocolate Holder template from The Cutting Cafe would be a great idea.  This set comes with the folder and nine sentiments. It holds two packets of hot cocoa.  It's quick and easy to put together using another great set
Fun with Frosty the Snowman to decorate the front.  This set features 31 images.  To make this project I cut the hot chocolate holder template from light blue cardstock. My patterned paper is from SEI and I placed it on top of a piece of red cardstock and used an EK Success snowflake border punch on white cardstock for an edging. After printing and cutting the Frosty the Snowman sentiment I used my Magic Matter and some red cardstock to cut a shadow to place it on.  I used my COPICS to color the image then added some Fun Flock to the hat brim and a white pom pom to the end. 

 Below is a picture of the inside that I decorated with a few of the leftover snowflakes from the border punch and a little sentiment that came with the holder template.  I know you'll want to head over to The Cutting Cafe to pick up both of these sets and make a few to have on hand.  It's always nice to have a little something you can grab "just in case".  Just click on the links above and they'll take you right there.

The Cutting Cafe-Christmas Bingo

Look at this!  It's another fantastic BINGO set from Regina at THE CUTTING CAFE.  I was so excited to see it after making the Halloween Bingo set.  Of course, this one is for Christmas and is called the Christmas Bingo Stamp Set.  I made both sets for a six year old and I'm telling you they are a huge hit.  There was a little sadness that I didn't make one for Thanksgiving. (You hear that, Regina. LOL)  This set includes eight bingo cards and the words for playing the game that are punched out with a one inch punch.  For markers I used my Cricut and cut circles at 3/4"  from red and green cardstock.  The box to put the set in is also from The Cutting Cafe and here's the link for that.  It's 8 x 5" with dividers.   I used Debbie Mumm paper for my box lid.  I did use cardboard from a cereal box to make this box stronger.  After seeing how much the Halloween Bingo got used I thought I should make this set a little sturdier than just cardstock.  So I glued each piece of the cardstock pattern to a piece of cardboard for the box before cutting it out.

Thanks for stopping by today. I want to remind everyone that Regina is still offering a free set called December Daily 2 until November 6th.  Beginning Sunday, November 7th I will be highlighting this set by showing you each page I made for an album I did for my granddaughters, Paige and Payton.  You can see the first page of my album here.

   

The Cutting Cafe Free Christmas Daily Stamp Set

Some exciting news over at THE CUTTING CAFE.  The always kind and generous, Regina, is offering a free digital stamp set called December Daily 2...this new DECEMBER DAILY 2 printable stamp set features 142 black & white and colored images (approx. 70 different images)....and it is free for a limited time.  This set makes an album that you use to journal or place photos for each day from December 1st to Christmas day.  If you missed the first set Regina featured last year you can view it here.  This file will be availabe for free until 11:59PM (PACIFIC TIME) NOVEMBER 6TH 2010. Here is the link so you can get your set and start your album before Christmas.
I didn't find out about last year's fabulous set until it was too late to make it last year.  But I knew I wanted to do one for my two granddaughter's, Payton and Paige, this year.  So I started on it in September right before we left for our month long trip in our RV.  I planned on working on it while we were traveling but we were just so busy it didn't leave much time for playing around.  It is not complete but will be soon.  Here is the picture of my first page of the album.  I will be posting a page a day on my blog beginning in early November.

I used my new Cricut Imagine for the scalloped background and the Christmas tree.  That was the only time I was able to use my new machine before we left on our trip.  We just returned on Wednesday and I still haven't had time to get it out and play with it.  We found out the day we returned that our son (the Marine) would be coming home for a three week leave today (Friday).  So we no sooner unpacked the camper when we started preparing for house guests.  Kyle and his wife, Nicole, will be here within the next few hours and we are so excited to see them.  Our household should be in an uproar for awhile since they are arriving with two cats.  I'm not sure how they will be after traveling all the way from Hawaii and coming into a house with a dog.  Should be interesting.

BBTB2 Cindy Loo Swirl

Good Grief!!!  Can you believe it's the first day of November?  Christmas will be here before you know it.  After I finished this card I thought I should have done a Christmas card because I'm way behind schedule on them.  All this traveling we've done is messing up my creativity.  I'm glad to be back home in my craft room with no more trips planned until after the holidays.  For this week's Reader's Choice challenge at BBTB2 the DT was asked to use the swirl 3 from the Cindy Loo cartridge.  I don't have this cartridge so I used a swirl from Cricut Lite Lovely Floral.  I also used a digital stamp set called Thanksgiving Day from The Cutting Cafe.  I printed the Happy Thanksgiving Day background on kraft cardstock and the sentiment on gold cardstock.  I layered my flower on my swirl with foam tape as well as the sentiment.  I used my nesties to cut out the sentiment.  Finished it off with some doodling and some gold colored rhinestones. I hope you'll find a swirl you can use for the challenge on a cartridge you have and join us this week.