BBTB2 Birdhouse/Birdcage Challenge and Monthly Blog Hop

Another month gone...can you believe it?  It's the last Monday of the month so time for our monthly blog hop at BBTB2.  You should have arrived here from Maria's blog.  If not you'll want to start at the beginning on the BBTB2 blog here.  Our assignment this week was to use a birdcage or birdhouse.  I haven't used my French Manor cartridge very much so that's where I got my birdcage cut.  It's cut at 4" from brown cardstock and the dp is Heidi Grace.  My base card is A2 size cut from kraft cardstock.  I used a doily behind my birdcage because I like the intricate lacy look.  The strip of pink cardstock is punched with a Fiskar's punch.  Hello is cut (at 1") from my new Cindy Loo cartridge that I found on discount at a local store.  I made a ribbon rose to embellish the top of the birdcage then added some doodling with a white 3-D Sakura gel pen and a MS marker in Sepia. 

If my bird card doesn't get you in the mood for Spring, perhaps my blog candy will.  I've got an assortment of Spring embellishments and some pastel colored paper up for grabs.  Make sure you're a follower and leave a comment to be entered into the drawing.  I will draw my winner on Saturday, March 5th. 

Now you'll want to head over to Lori's blog.  Wait until you see her design.  It's super fantastic.  Have fun hopping, have a great week and thanks for stopping by.

The Cutting Cafe Baby Shower Favor

It's so nice to work on a project with real substance to it.  This is the first of 65 pillow box favors I'll be making for my son and daughter-in-law's baby shower.  Thanks to Regina at The Cutting Cafe this project just became a whole lot easier.  I used two sets from The Cutting Cafe--Assorted Pillow Boxes (SVG file) and a brand new set of customized BABY SHOWER CIRCLES PRINTABLE  STAMPS.  Regina recently came out with the fabulous Baby Shower Thank You Set after doing a baby shower herself.  I mentioned to her that if she had a set that was blank in the middle, people could customize them for their own themes and colors.  She thought it was a fabulous idea and my creation was born.  (No Pun Intended).  I'm sure you can tell the theme of my shower favors is Dr. Seuss.  I used SCAL to cut the pillow box svg file on my Cricut.  It's cut at a width of 5" that allowed me to get four on a sheet of 12 x 12" paper.  The red polka dot paper is from October Afternoon.  As you can see, I was able to give Regina my daughter-in-law's name to personalize the sentiment circle.  The center of the circle is perfect for a one inch circle punch.  This is one way you can bring the color theme into the project.  I punched a blue circle and then topped it with a Dr. Seuss sticker.  I was able to order a big stack of Dr. Seuss stickers from Seussland.  Now I need to go and make some more.

Paper Cutz Challenge #80 Spring

Can you tell I have the "wishful thinking" going with this card?  I just can't bring myself to look out the window this morning.  We were under a Winter Storm Warning again last night.  Actually, for the first time this month the storm went a little south of us so we didn't get the heaviest snow.  But alas, we still got some and hubby had to go out and shovel.  Anyway, onto the particulars of my card.  This week at Paper Cutz, Mary asked the DT to make a Spring card.  (She's got some wishful thinking going, too).  I used my Cricut Pagoda cartridge to make the mat with the word Spring cut into it.  I used the Kanji Word feature and cut it at 6 1/4" so it would make the perfect background mat for an A6 card using Bazzill dotted cardstock.  Then I went to my Home Accents cartridge for the welcome sign and cut it at 2 3/4" from the same dotted cardstock.  After that I just added the layered flower in white and green with a gorgeous button in the center.  I don't really know where that button came from but it has a pattern carved into it and it's sure pretty, wish I had more.  Simple, easy card today, the Cricut cuts did all the work on this one.

Pop Up Card

Well, I decided to try my hand at a free standing pop up card today.  I've been wanting to design one and The Cuttlebug Spot is having a pop up card challenge.  I needed to start making some birthday cards for all the family birthdays we have in April.  All four of my daughters were born in the month of April.  Don't know how that happened...well I do know how it happened...but, nevermind!!!  I found the directions on how to make the card here on Split Coast Stampers.  They have an enormous resource library if you're ever looking for a specific design, it's the place to go.  I used black cardstock for my base and ran it through my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder.  My dp is from Stemma, called Asian Cherry.  I actually picked it up from a scrapbooking store in Hawaii on a trip last year.  I love pink and black together.  This card folds flat and fits in an A2 card size envelope.

I cut a few of the blossoms from the paper, matted them on pink and added them to the stand of the card along with a pink ribbon.  The photo above shows what the card looks like folded down.  I used a 1" and 1 1/4" circle punch to make the little tab at the top for the brad and the ribbons to go on.  I just cut each circle in half, glued them together, added a flower from the dp and punched a small whole for the brad to go through.  This brad has a little loop attached to it so I could run the rick rack and the ribbon through it.  This card was much easier to put together than I anticipated so I will definitely make more.  My sentiment is Penny Black stamped with pink chalk ink.  I added Stickles to the center of each flower but it sure doesn't show up in this photo.  If we could ever get a sunny day around here I sure could get better pics.  I'm going to enter this card into the following challenges:

• Cuttlebug Spot - Pop Up Card
• Top Tip Tuesday - Inserts and Bling It On

17th Birthday Card

I used to sit down and do challenges all the time, but since I started designing for so many wonderful blogs I don't do it much anymore.  Today I decided to look a few up and enter a card since I needed to make a birthday card for my granddaughter's 17th birthday coming up in March.  Here are the challenges that I'll enter:

• Jitterbuggin-Birthday with Rick Rack
• For Fun-Birthday
• Fantabulous Cricut-Embossing
• Digi Doodle Shop - Anything Goes
• Paper Crafting Journey - Anything Goes
• Totally Paper Crafts - Do It With Digi
• Party Time Tuesdays - Anything Goes
• Crazy 4 Challenges - Use A Die Cut
• Delicious Doodles - Glitz and Glam
• Cute Card Thursday - Shiny, Happy Cards
• Paper Play - Add Shine
• Res Q - A Happy, Bright card
• Simply Create - Bright
• Mojo Monday- Sketck

I made an A6 card, used the sketch from Mojo Monday and used my new DCWV Celebration stack for glitz, glam and shine.  My circle sentiment is a digi from The Cutting Cafe.  I used my Cricut Mini Monograms cartridge for my scalloped circle and my Cuttlebug Birthday embossing folder.  I added red rick rack and stickles to the birthday candles.  Notice there are seventeen of them.  The shiny PARTY letters that I added to the banner have been in my stash forever.  I think it turned out bright, happy and FUN.

BBTB2 A Child's Year Fishing Boy

Happy Monday!  It's a new week and a new challenge at BBTB2.  Design Team member extraordinaire Miss Shelly picked our challenge this week and asked us to use the Fishing Boy from A Child's Year cartridge.  I had some fishing pictures that I wanted to scrap of my grandkids that I just came across the other day.  So I put them aside just for this challenge.  The funny part is, I finished my LO and went to get the pics and couldn't find them.  So much for keeping them in a safe place until I need them.  I guess I should write down where that safe place is so I don't forget.  I know there here somewhere!!!  I used a few cuts from the Camp Out cartridge to make this little scene.  The cabin is cut at 4", the trees at 4", the frames for my photos at 5" and the water for the fishing hole at 2".  The cuts I used from the Child's Year cartridge are the grass (cut at 2"), the fish (cut at 1") and the boys are cut at 4".  I used the flip function key to get the boys facing in the opposite direction.  My title was cut from the Old West cartridge at 2".  I used this title because that is what my grandson was screaming when he caught the fish. Now I do have to tell you that the fish I cut at 1" isn't much smaller than the fish my grandson caught.  It looked more like a minnow, but he was excited.   I'm excited to see what kind of design's our players can come up with for this cut.  If I hadn't had those fishing pictures I'm not sure what I would have come up with.  It would have been a real "challenge".

Wedding Anniversary card

After enjoying a few gorgeous weather days with the hope of Spring lurking closely we have a Winter Storm Warning for snow and ice.  Not to be deterred from my Spring state of mind I made a bright, cheerful card. (I'm trying hard not to look out the window).  I decided to make a card for a few challenges today.  I had a new design I wanted to try out with a scalloped gate fold so I looked around for a few challenges this would work for.

The Challenges:

• 365 Cards-Sketch
• Our Creative Corner-Getting Wordy
• Saturday Challenge-Fancy Fold
• Cuttlebug Spot-Gate Fold
• Stamptacular Sunday-Someone Special

This card is for a really good friend and special person in my life---I can't say who because she follows my blog and will see this post.  Of course, now she'll probably know who it's for anyway because I only have one friend with an anniversary coming up.  I used my Cricut to cut this base card from SVG Cuts in yellow.  I embossed each end with the Cuttlebug Plum Blossoms folder.  This is going to sound really odd, but I wanted the embossing to be very subtle.  So after I embossed it I ran it back through the Cuttlebug with a shim to make it tighter and it crushed the embossing down a little.  For the inside I took a small yellow check and stamped congratulations all over it with a yellow chalk ink.  The band around the card is made from the same yellow check which was just a scrap from my bin.  After attaching the two ends of the band around the card I topped it with a doily, a scalloped circle and my stamp from Paper Trey Ink.  Then I just added a few roses for embellishment.

Simple Square Flower Card

Creative Craft World is having a challenge for a square card, so I thought I'd give it a whirl.  I don't make them very often anymore because I'm too cheap to pay the extra postage for them.  I wanted to try out my new Stampin' Up stamp set I got, my first one ever.  I went to a Stampin' Up demo a few weeks ago and got a set of stamps free after spending $50 on gorgeous ribbon.  I don't buy very many stamps because I have a hard time justifying the cost and I don't really have space to store them.  I prefer to work with digi stamps that I can store on my computer.  Anyway, I used my Cricut Graphically Speaking cartridge to cut out this flower from a scrap of blue cardstock and a scrap of print paper.  I used the stamp on the center.  The card is a 5" square cut from white cardstock with a blue mat and a yellow mat under the flower.  I stitched on the yellow cardstock and then zigzag stitched the white trim onto it.  Pop dots on the flower center of blue and the stamped circle for a little dimension.  Just a quick and simple card.

Headstart on Easter cards

I got the Simply Charmed cartridge a few days ago and fell in love with this little chick in the egg.  So I thought I'd start on my Easter cards for my grandkids using this image.  I made a side stair step card so the chick would be the prominent image.  Isn't she so darn cute with that little bit of fluff on the top?  My granddaughter was over visiting one day and she brought this feather boa with her.  By the time she left I had feathers all over the place.  I gathered them up and put them with my supplies thinking one day I might need a feather for something.  See, I knew I could find a use for them!  This is a standard A2 size card when it is folded down.  My chick is cut at 3".  The blue and green dp that I used are from last year's DCWV Spring stack.  I used the Easter 2010 cartridge to cut the Happy Easter at 2".  For the middle step of the card I used the grass cut from the Easter cartridge cut at 1 3/4".  The assorted Easter eggs are hand cut from a dp that has been in my stash for a long time.  I'd love to give credit where credit is due, but there was no brand name on the backside of the paper for me to tell who made it.  This card will probably go to my youngest granddaughter, Paige.

The Cutting Cafe Time Set

Lots of fun stuff going on over at The Cutting Cafe.  It's Monthly Inspiration time with a GREEN theme and a super giveaway.  Head over and leave a comment and you'll be eligible to win three free sets of your choice until February 20th.  You'll also want to check out the DT blogs because everyone on the DT is giving away the set they used to make their project. FUN, FUN, FUN!!!  Here's the link for my green project. 

Now onto my project for today....

I made this card using the new Cutting Cafe set called It's About That Time.  This set has so many images and sentiments (77 to be exact).  It was the Cuckoo clock that spoke to me.  When I was a kid there was one at my house and at my grandparents house.  I just loved when that little bird would pop out.  So I decided a little tiny bird popping out of the door would be a good addition.  I cut him with my Cricut Create A Critter cartridge at 1/2" and slipped him into a little slit I cut in the door and added a little pop dot behind him so he would stick out.  I paper pieced my clock with DCWV Linen Closet stack.  I love this stack because the papers are so vintage looking. My base card is kraft cardstock and this card measures 4 x 8 1/4" and fits in a legal size envelope. My mat is Bazzill dotted cardstock.

I was so excited to be able to use my new Stampin' Up ribbon on this card. In fact I made my paper choices to go along with the ribbon. I had my first exposure to a Stampin' Up demo a few weeks ago. Oh my, this could be dangerous. I ordered three spools of ribbon and I wish I could have afforded one in every color. Gorgeous ribbon. My inside sentiment is also from the It's About Time printable stamp set.

The Cutting Cafe Baby Cap and Give Away prize

 As the mother of four daughters and grandmother to three granddaughters I consider myself somewhat of an expert on dressing little girls.  This card looks just like a cap I would have set on one of their little heads.  This adorable card is from a new set at The Cutting Cafe.  It's the Cap Shaped Card Cutting File and Template.  You can win this cutting file/template and I'll tell you how at the end of the post.  I used a beautiful piece of K & Company patterned and embossed paper for the top layer of this card and I cut the base card from cream colored cardstock.  I gathered a piece of cream colored lace by weaving cream ribbon through and then used a little lace under the peach colored Prima flower.  The sentiment is also part of the set.  I used another Cutting Cafe set called Baby Inside Greetings Printable Stamp Set for the inside sentiment.  Making this card brought back memories of sewing my girls clothes when they were young.  I used to make them all matching dresses with hand smocking for Easter and Christmas.  Those were the good old days.  I don't really miss them.  It's been years since I've used my sewing machine for anything besides stitching on paper. 

Now for the part you've all been waiting for.  Regina over at The Cutting Cafe is doing a fun give away  this month.  One person will win three Cutting Cafe files.  All of the Designer's will be giving away the set they used to design their creation.  All you need to do is leave a comment on this post to be eligible to win this fabulous cap set.  It is so versatile.  Besides being a great card for welcoming a new baby you could make the cap in green and use it for St. Patrick's Day or you can use it for an adorable winter cap.  The set comes with the cap, topper, curved strip sentiments for the hat brim and straight sentiments you can use inside or outside on the card plus a shamrock, flower and a little puff for the top of the cap. You have until February 19 (my hubby's birthday) to leave a comment to win.  I'll draw a winner on the 20th.  Now head over to The Cutting Cafe for links to the other Designer's projects.  Visit their blogs and leave a comment to win the sets they have used, too. Thanks for stopping by today.  I love visitors.

Paper Cutz Challenge #79 Child's Birthday Western Theme

Happy Friday!  Are you all looking forward to the weekend?  I hope you get to enjoy some crafting time. Today I'm showcasing a Western themed scrapbook page for Paper Cutz Challenge.  Mary asked us for a card, layout or project for a boy's birthday using a western theme.  Let me start off by saying I don't even want you to know how long this photo has been sitting around waiting to get a scrapbook page. I'll just say this is a photo of my son (who is now married with a baby boy on the way) taken on a vacation to the west that included Yellowstone, the Badlands and Mt. Rushmore.  This particular picture was taken at the tourist attraction called Wall Drugs, outside of the Badlands National Park.  It was quite the interesting place.  I used Cricut's Old West cartridge to design this page.  All of the elements on this page were made with Old West except for the journaling box.  I made that with an old stamp that I've had since I first started scrapping about fifteen years ago.  This page will go in the scrapbook that I'm making for my son for Christmas.  I still have a long way to go to get it finished.

Birthday Card

Tomorrow is hubby's birthday and this is the birthday card I made him.  It's basically a tri-fold card with the ends cut into triangular points that fold in to make an envelope for the card to fit in.  I used a piece of yellow cardstock for the envelope and it's cut at 5 1/2" x 12" then scored at 4" and 8".  Then placing each end in my trimmer I cut from the score to the corner on each end section then folded them over each other.  My patterned papers are from the new DCWV Celebrations stack.  I just found it at the store the other day and fell in love with it.  I haven't bought a big 12 x 12 stack in a long time because I feel like it's a waste of paper when I'm mostly making cards.  I find the mat stacks to be much better for card making.  They didn't have this stack in the mat size at the store, but I loved the papers so much I went ahead and bought it.  It has some glitter and foil on some of the papers which I really liked.  The mat on the front of the card is 3 3/4" x 3".  The circle sentiment is from The Cutting Cafe and I placed it on a scalloped circle I cut from my Cricut Mini Monograms cartridge.  It's placed on foam tape in the center. 

Cricut Cardz Challenge #62

When it gets to be this time of year in Michigan you could use some cheering up.  At least, I could.  I'm soooo not a fan of winter.  It's so cold and dreary.  When I chose this week's challenge for the Cricut Cardz Design Team #1, it was thinking about this time of year that made me choose the theme A Cup of Cheer.  For this week's challenge we had to use any cup image from any Cricut cartridge.  My cup came from Joys of the Season.  As you can see I made a shaped card (using my Gypsy).  My patterned paper is from the Graphic 45 Domestic Goddess collection.  I thought it looked like a pattern you might find on dishes.  Inside is a hidden surprise, this is actually a gift card holder.  Since this cut has a built in cut out it was the perfect size for a slot to slip a gift card into. As you can see in the photo below.

I made the inside cut from Bazzill Basics dotted paper (my favorite cardstock).  The sentiment is from the Winter Frolic cartridge.  It's cut at 2.5".  I added a gift card for a coffee shop.  I'm really happy with the way this little project turned out.  Sometimes when you invision a design it just doesn't work when you translate it to paper. But, I think this turned out just perfect and exactly like I invisioned, for a change. LOL  Thanks for stopping by today and I hope I've inspired you to come up with your own creation for the challenge.  Though it doesn't show well in the first photo, there is a cute little present charm hanging from the red ribbon I tied around the card. This is a gift for one of my aunts.

Just Sitting Here Thinking of You

I've had the idea for this card in my head for quite some time.  I had a few spare minutes last night and put it together using my Cricut French Manor cartridge.  It was simply a matter of cutting the pieces and putting them onto the card.  The base card is A2 kraft cardstock and the top mat is a beige herringbone DP from DCWV Linen mat stack.  The chair is cut at 3.5" and the table and chandelier are cut at 2" all from black cardstock.  I did a little paper piecing with the chair using another floral print from the same DCWV stack.  My sentiment was done on my computer.

BBTB2 Heart Border Challenge/ Goody Bag Topper

Happy Valentine's Day!  I made some goody bags to give out for Valentine's Day and incorporated this week's challenge cut at BBTB2. The super talented Susan asked the DT to design something using the heart border from the Martha Stewart Seasonal Art cartridge this week.  I don't have this cartridge, but was pleasantly surprised to find this fantastic border cut on the Stamping cartridge.  I'm ashamed to say I have had this cartridge sitting around since ordering it with my Cricut rewards points quite some time ago.  It has some great cuts on it and I'm not sure why I've never used it but I'm sure glad I had it for this challenge.  For the yummy treat I used Hershey nuggets and covered them with my DP from Little Yellow Bicycle.  The candy wrappers are strips cut 1 x 3".  I placed them in a cellophane bag from Wilton.  I used my Gypsy to layout this design.  The bag topper is cut from the Wrap It Up cartridge.  It's the card cut on page 22 and it's cut at 4" for the width.  I placed a round doily over the topper.  For the heart border I cut the shadow from red cardstock and top layer from silver cardstock at 3.75" width.  The conversation hearts with the words are from a Hero Arts stamp.  Hope your Valentine's Day is great and your sweetie brings you flowers, chocolates or whatever else you like.  Me...I'd be really happy with a new Cricut cartridge.  LOL

Favorite Friend Sentiment Card

I needed a really quick card for a friend today.  Not long ago I went through some of my scraps and picked out a few of the nicer designer papers that were big enough to be mats for cards and cut a bunch of them to have on hand.  I always have base cards made and handy.  So today I was able to grab the elements to this card fast and just put them together.

Here is my supply list:

• A2 base card from white cardstock
• Black mat (4 1/8" x 5 3/8")
• Design paper mat (4" x 5 1/4")
• White cardstock punched strip (2" x 5 1/4")-Fiskars scallop punch
• Black cardstock flourish (cut from Cricut Cindy Loo cartridge @ 2")
• Hampton Art sentiment stamp
• White cardstock (2 1/4" x 3") for sentiment
• Black mat for sentiment (2" x 2 3/4")
• Cuttlebug-Divine Swirls Embossing folder
• Pop Dots

Having all the pre-cut pieces ready to go helped me put this card together in under five minutes.  All I had to do was emboss the pre-punched white strip, stamp and mat the sentiment and adhere all the pieces.  This worked so well I'll go through some more of my scraps to cut some more mats.  From now on I'll look at my scraps differently, too. 

The Cutting Cafe St. Patricks Day

I can't believe it isn't Valentine's Day yet and here I am looking forward to St. Patrick's Day.  That's because...it makes me think of spring.  There's a fabulous new set at The Cutting Cafe if you want to get ahead on your designing too.  I made this fabulous shaped card with the 4-LEAF CLOVER SHAPED CARD TEMPLATE/CUTTING FILE.  I'm so excited that Regina is offering SVG files now at The Cutting Cafe.  It let's me put my SCAL software hubby got me for Christmas to good use.  This card went together quickly.  I cut the base from a dark green cardstock and the topper from a gingham check.  I added the sentiment which was a pre-made die cut from Best Creation, Inc. A simple green silk ribbon bow and a little faux-stitching with a white gel pen finished it off.

Paper Cutz Challenge #78

It's another Friday challenge at Paper Cutz.  This week Mary asked the DT to make a project, card or layout using  ladybugs, bees, or butterflies.  I found the ladybug on the Cricut Create A Critter cartridge (Pg. 66) to be exactly what I needed to make a LO of my granddaughter with one of her favorite books called You're My Little Love Bug.  This is really a sweet book that I bought for Payton for Valentine's Day when she was two.  When you open it up it plays a catchy little tune.  Payton was addicted to the book for awhile and made me read it over and over.  I picked my colors for this LO right from the book and using Payton's two favorite colors pink and purple.  The background stripe came from a paper pack I bought years ago from Current before they had their scrapbooking division.  I also used a 12" decorative edge circle that I cut in half to use on each page and it's from Deja Views.  On the straight edge of the half circle I added some zigzag stitching with my sewing machine.  I cut the title using Cricut's Lyrical letters font which matched really well with the title font on the book.  The Love Bug part of the title is found on the same page of the manual as the ladybug.  Of course, I had to make my ladybugs with pink and purple.  I used my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder to emboss the ladybug's face and wings.

For the right hand page I printed out the words of the book into a strip for the right hand edge using my computer and printed it in purple ink to go with the layout.  I took a picture of the book to add to this page.  Then I cut a butterfly and the flowers from Create A Critter.  They're on page 69.  I cut the flowers at 4" and the butterfly at 2".  It wouldn't be a page for Payton if I didn't include some glitter, which she just loves.  I used pink and purple glitter on the wings of the butterfly and the tulips then used Stickles for the body of the butterfly and the stems of the flowers.

Papertrey Ink challenge

Papertrey Ink is celebrating their Anniversary this week with challenges and prizes.  I'm pretty sure I live in the dark ages because I had no Papertrey Ink products.  I do now.  I was so excited to see they were offering some free digital stamps as part of their Anniversary celebration.  I hopped on those really quick and whipped up a "go to" card.  You can read about the challenge and download the digis here.  I made a simple portrait style card in an A2 size from white cardstock and topped it with an orange mat embossed with a Cuttlebug Japanese Scales embossing folder.  On top of that I placed a scalloped white mat cut with my Cricut Just Because Cards cartridge.  Another piece of blue embossed cardstock went on top of the scallop.  I pleated a medallion from orange striped cardstock with my MS score board and placed the PTI digi on top. I colored the stamp with my Copics.  A sheer polka dot orange ribbon bow and orange button finished it off.  There are nine tags in this PTI download and they're all adorable.  You can enter the challenge a total of nine times using each stamp once.  So I'm off to create another card.  Glad you stopped by.

Valentine cards

Aren't these great sparkly lips.?  This is just a simple card I put together using stickers at a recent Archiver's class.  No Cricut, no Copics...I can't believe I did that.  It's a 4" square card made from red cardstock.  It's topped with a square that has the corners trimmed with a Corner Chomper Deco setting. I believe the glittery lips are a Jolee's stamp from EK Success  The next card was also made at the same Archiver's workshop.  Just a few hearts punched with a Fiskar's punch from two different patterned papers.  A punched border, also Fiskars and a Hero Arts stamp.

Even though these cards were made at a workshop from a prepared kit, they would be easy to reproduce with a package of Stickers, punches and die cut machine.

BBTB2 Bloom Cartridge Challenge

Happy Monday to you all.  This week's challenge at BBTB2 was chosen by our extremely talented Design Team member Theresa.  She asked us to use the fence/gate from the Bloom Cricut Lite cartridge.  I don't have this cartridge, but as always, we can choose another cartridge with a similar cut.  I recently picked up a discounted Freshly Picked cartridge and it had a great gate cut on it.  I decided to make a shaped card using my Gypsy.  I welded the shadow cut to make the card base and cut it at 4 inches.  I made a single cut of the gate shadow from a light gray cardstock for the front of the card and then cut the top layer in white.  This gate cut had the cute little flower vine and I did some layering with it for dimension.  I cut the vine from green cardstock twice and the flower is cut with three layers, two of them cut at 4" and the top flower layer is 3" with a pink rhinestone in the center.  I added a little grass at the base of the gate that I cut from the new Wrap It Up cartridge.  My Happy Spring sentiment is a Stampendous stamp.  It seems that so many are looking forward to Spring, especially those of us buried in snow.  It is no secret that I hate winter, so at this point I'm keeping my focus on the joys of my favorite season.  I love to see the leaves appear on the trees and the grass turn from ugly brown to green, the first flowers breaking through the dirt.  I can hardly wait.  In the meantime I'll keep trying to bring the season into my designs.  I'm going to share my Spring card over at My Pink Stamper.  Robyn has a challenge going that is perfect for my card.

Treat Bag

I was making a few Valentine treat bags (you'll see in a future post) and needed to do something with the left over Hershey nugget candies to keep from eating them.  I have a little package I'm putting in the mail tomorrow for a little buddy of mine.  He loves dinosaurs so I decided to put a few candies in a goody bag to go along with the game I'm sending.  I wrapped the nuggets in orange textured cardstock.  If you'd like to make a similar project you'll cut the wrappers at 1 x 3".  The little dinosaur bands and the tag are from a sheet of punch out die cuts made by Three Bugs in a Rug. 

The Cutting Cafe Beautiful Flowers

I arrived back in town late last night after spending the week at my Aunt's house.  I was suffering major computer and craft room withdrawals.  There was no high speed internet there...hard to believe in this day and age.  So the first thing I did today after unpacking and tending to matters around the house was head to the craft room.  I thought another Spring card was in order after that major snowstorm we dealt with and The Cutting Cafe's Beautiful Flowers colored printable stamp set was just what I needed.  Wow---this new set includes 77 images.  It was hard to choose which one to use, they are all so fantastic, but this little flower in the pot was my favorite.  I started with an A2 black cardstock card and added Bazzill Basics dotted paper in Honey behind the image which just required printing and cutting.  The sentiment is part of the printable set.  I cut it out, mounted it onto the Bazzill paper and added the little scallop, also part of the set.  I added a little bit of doodling with a black pen and a white bow to the flower pot.  This is what I love about Regina's images at The Cutting Cafe...they are so quick and easy to use and produce such wonderful results. This particular set would be fantastic to use for so many occasions.....Easter, Mother's Day, Get Well, Spring, Thinking of you.  The possibilities are almost endless.    

Paper Cutz Challenge #77

Now here's a challenge for you!  Mary asked the Paper Cutz Design Team to make a Valentine's card with NO HEARTS.  Gasp and shudder...can you believe it?  When I was making another Valentine's card I came across this cut on the Cricut Sweethearts cartridge.  I thought it was just adorable and perfect for this challenge.  I started out with white for the base card which is 6.5 x 5".  I added a layer of black cardstock cut at 6.25 x 4.75" and then a light blue dp scrap cut at 6 x 4.5".  I wanted to have lots of layers on this card so I cut each piece of the monkey two times at 2.5".  I did decide not to layer the lettering because it was too small, but I did layer the number 4.  The shadow layer is black cardstock, the leaves are cut with a scrap of Heidi Grace, all the other layers are cut from a matstack called Mirabelle that I got from Hobby Lobby.  I thought the monkey needed a banana (since he couldn't have a heart) and I cut that from the Create A Critter cartridge.  I just love the way this card turned out.  Sad thing is I have no one to give it to at the moment.  I've made so many Valentine cards this year already that I don't need another one.  So I'll save this and maybe give it to my husband for our anniversary.  It will be fun to see the entries for this challenge so I hope you can join us with your take on a Valentine card with no heart.

Cricut Cardz Challenge #60

This week's challenge at Cricut Cardz is for a Valentine's card for a man using any cartridge and any colors.  I used Doodlecharms for my card cutting three hearts at 1 3/4" and placing them on 2" squares of the same color.  I embossed the hearts with Cuttlebug's Divine Swirls and the squares with Swiss Dots.  I simply added a piece of hemp cord and a love charm for embellishment.