Cricut Cardz Challenge #81 Cookout Theme

Since I'm the Design Coordinator for Design Team #1 at Cricut Cardz, Mary and I try to coordinate our design challenges so we don't overlap. When Mary sent out the Team #2 DT challenges and I saw her challenge choice for this week at Cricut Cardz I knew I had to play along and use my new 3 Birds on Parade cartridge.  This is the free cartridge I got from the Michael's/ProvoCraft promo that was going on in May.  It's just the sweetest cartridge and I love the little bird getting ready for a cookout with his grill.  He's cut at 3" from Bazzill Basics dotted paper. I used all scraps to put this card together. I keep using those scraps and it never looks like I've made a dent in them.  LOL  The sentiment is from the same cartridge and it's cut at 1.75".

It's a good thing I had the chance to make this card before we got well into the house moving project.  My craft room is all packed up and moved to our rented storage unit.  I haven't had time to miss it since we've been so busy packing and moving things, but it kind of hit me today when my granddaughter came over for one last look at the house.  She wanted to go to the craft room where we've spent lots of fun time creating together.  She didn't believe me when I told her it was all gone and empty.  Tears came to my eyes when she said, "Nana how are we going to make things?"  I had to explain that we weren't going to live in this house anymore and she said, "forever".  That's when it really hit me.  The home that we've lived in for over 20 years and raised our five kids in is not going to be ours in just a few more hours.  Don't get me wrong, my husband and I are thrilled that we sold it and will be living out our dream of traveling around the country in our RV, but it's a little bittersweet too.  One day we will buy another house and I will, hopefully, have another craft room.  Until then we will be experiencing quite the adventure.

Paper Cutz Challenge #97

Happy Friday, Everyone!  For this week's Paper Cutz Challenge #97, Mary asked the DT to use the colors Pink, Orange and White.  Immediately, a flamingo came to mind so that's what I went with for my card.  This is officially the last card I made before packing up my craft room to prepare for our move.  The house is sold, almost packed and belongings headed for storage.  Our closing date is next week.  I'm truly exhausted from packing and preparing for a garage sale.  In fact, as you read this my garage sale is open and hopefully going strong.  We have so much to get rid of after 38 years of marriage, raising five kids and downsizing from a five bedroom, 3000 sq. ft. home.  We will spend at least the next year living and traveling in our RV.  It will be quite an adventure, I hope.

I have to admit, this is not my best effort at a card.  Everything that could go wrong, went wrong with this card.  I had trouble cutting my flamingo on my Cricut Imagine.  I packed up my Expression and took it to the camper and planned on using my Imagine which is going into storage.  I haven't used my Imagine that much and for some reason it was giving me fits.  It kept cutting the flamingo's legs and beak off on the orange paper I was using.  I finally decided to cut the whole thing in pink after ruining all my orange paper.  The poor thing has her beak glued on in three pieces.  I planned on putting a ribbon around her neck, but then realized I'd packed it all up already.  So I cut the bow on my Cricut, but I didn't have anymore orange paper left so I had to use white.  Then I planned on putting a button in the center of the bow.  You guessed it--packed those babies up, too.  LOL  So this is what I was left with.  What can I say?  My sentiment was done on my computer.

I wanted to let everyone know that there will be a fun blog hop next week at Paper Cutz.  I'm really sad because I will have to miss it due to closing on the house and moving.  I hope I get a chance at some point to check in and see the rest of the DT designs.  I know they'll have some fabulous creations and you'll enjoy looking at them.  Mary will be offering blog candy so don't forget to check back next week.

Cricut Cardz Challenge #80

This week at Cricut Cardz Challenge I asked Design Team #1 to create a card using a flag image from any Cricut Cartridge.  This seemed like a fitting challenge with the Fourth of July approaching.  For my card I used the Stand and Salute cartridge to make the flag underneath my image.  This fabulous image is my son who is a U.S. Marine.  This picture was taken about eight years ago on the day he graduated from basic training at Parris Island.  I used a stamp feature in Photoshop to print it onto vellum.  My base card is a standard A2 card from white cardstock.  I added a navy blue mat to go under the flag then added the vellum print on top of the flag.  I was really happy with the results.  The inside of the card has a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I hope this Fourth of July as you're celebrating you'll take a moment to reflect on the freedoms you enjoy thanks to our nations military personnel past and present.  They are all very brave in defending our freedom.

BBTB2 Sunny Days Challenge

Happy Monday!  I hope everyone had a marvelous weekend.  They go by so quickly, don't they.  Everyone should be into enjoying some nice long, warm, sunny days now.  I'm sure with that thought in mind, our very talented BBTB2 team member Susan, asked us to use the Sunny Days cut from the Celebrate With A Flourish Cricut Lite Cartridge.  The Lite cartridges can be purchased only from Walmart or Cricut.com and I have to say I'm in love with many of them, though I haven't been able to find any of the new realeases from May yet.  I wanted my layout to look bright and cheerful to go along with the title.  I used papers from DCWV Spring Stack in sunny yellow, blue and red.  I also used one of my new "favorite" cartridges Elegant Edges for many of the elements on this layout.  I really didn't think I would want this cartridge when I first saw the images online when it premiered.  Boy, was I wrong.  When I found it at the store and saw that it had a border feature that's what really sold me.  I don't have many border edge punches because they're heavy and take up so much room.  Since my husband and I are downsizing and moving into our luxury fifth wheel I couldn't bring all my craft supplies with me and most of them are going into storage for now.  I thought I would be able to utilize this cartridge to fill that gap along with the frames and shapes for scrapbook pages.  I seriously love this cartridge and highly recommend it for cardmakers and scrapbookers alike. 

I used the scalloped oblong frame found on page 48 for all my photo mats.  I also used the butterfly on page 57 and the small butterflies are the cutouts leftover from the butterfly border on page 30.  I ran the butterflies through my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder for a little texture.  The scalloped edge border is found on page 23 and the other border under the large photo mat is on page 28. 

When I first got the Elegant Edges cartridge I used my Gypsy to layout out a mat filled with my favorites of the borders in a size that would fit standard A2 cards.  It's really convenient to just be able to cut a whole sheet of borders at once to have on hand.  I did the same thing with some of the frames and mats that are staples on cards scrapbook pages.  You can see the mat from my Gypsy screen below.

This is a much longer post than I usually do, but there were so many details I wanted to add about this page. I added a close up photo of the flower rosette I made on the first page.  This was made by punching nine 1.5" circles, folding the edges in on each side (about a third of the circle) and then attaching them next to each other on a 2" circle base. 

The last close up is the title and the butterfly so you can see the detail of each.  I cut the butterfly twice, once from red and once from the print.  They are only attached in the middle so I could bend the wings up for a little dimension.   I cut my title at 3" and the butterfly at 2" and added pearls to the center for embellishment.

 

Sorry for the super long post, but I thank you for hanging in to the end.  I hope this inspires you to join our BBTB2 challenge this week using the Sunny Days cut from Celebrate with a Flourish.  If you don't have this cartridge I encourage you to use a font from any other cartridge to create the Sunny Days phrase.  Last but not least, I would like to thank all my followers and visitors.  I will probably be MIA (missing in action) for awhile.  Our house is sold and the closing date is approaching quickly at the end of the month.  I'm super busy packing all our belongings to go in long term storage while we take at least a year to travel the country in our fifth wheel RV.  We are very excited to start our adventure.  I'll be back to my blog as soon as possible. 

Paper Cutz Challenge #96 Father's Day

This week's challenge #96 at Paper Cutz is for a Father's Day card.  I used my Cricut Imagine to make this card.  All of the printed papers were done with the Imagine making this quick and easy to put together.  I used the layer function so I could add the clothes and get a little dimension.  The brown frame and journaling card come from the Imagine More cartridge and the dog is cut from the Best Friends cartridge.  I printed the sentiment right from my computer printer onto the journaling card.  I simply added three small blue buttons for embellishment since this is a guy card.

BBTB2 Freshly Picked Gnome

I was so excited when our wonderful DT sister Theresa picked the gnome from the Freshly Picked cartridge for us to work with for this week's BBTB2 challenge.  I knew exactly what I was going to do for this week's challenge.  As some of you may know from following my blog, my husband and I are about to embark on full time living and travel in our RV.  I must start off with the story of my own personal little gnome.  Many years ago when my son was still in high school he painted this ceramic gnome for me.  He has been a fixture in our garden for awhile now.

 Since he is a reminder of my son and of our home for many years I decided that he should travel with us in our RV.  So from time to time you will see photos of my gnome in pictures from our travels.  I decided I needed a place to put my gnome photos and to journal about the places we will travel to so I made this camp journal.  I used the Campin' Critters cartridge to make the journal book. It was so easy to put together.  I cut the journal cover and inside pages at 8".  The inside pages are perfectly sized to be slightly smaller than the cover.  They cut with hole placement for attachment.  I used thick twine to hold my journal together. I made my paper gnome wearing the colors of my real life gnome and he's cut at 3".  I placed him on a mound of grass also cut from the Freshly Picked cartridge.  The arrow sign was cut from the Campin' Critters cartridge at 3".  I cut the conversation box from the Plantin' Schoolbook cartridge and my sentiment was done on my computer.

Cricut Cardz Challenge #78

For this week's Cricut Cardz Challenge #78 I asked the DT to make a wedding card using any cartridge and colors.  For my card I used the bride cut from the Wrap It Up cartridge.  My frame around the bride was a premade element that I've had sitting in my stash for years.  I thought it was just the perfect thing to frame and highlight my bride.  She's cut at 3.75".  I embossed the dress with my Cuttlebug Japanese Scales embossing folder.  I hand gathered a piece of tulle to add to her veil and added some pearls to her neck.  The sentiment is a sticker from my stash.

I have a few challenges for this card, too:

The Pink Elephant-Here comes the Bride

Pollycraft Monday Challenge-Love and Marriage

Our Creative Corner-Wedding Beauty

BBTB2 Cloud Challenge

 This week at BBTB2 my good friend, teammate and designer extraordinaire Shelly, asked us to use the cloud featured on the Pooh and Friends cartridge.  I don't have this cartridge, so as usual with our BBTB2 challenges you are able to substitute another cloud image from any other cartridge.  I used the Simply Charmed cartridge.  This is really a good all around cartridge that I find myself using a lot.  I cut my cloud at 3.5".  I used black cardstock for the shadow, gray cardstock for the cloud and blue cardstock for the raindrops.  My background gray polka dot paper is from Canvas Corp.  I printed my sentiment with my computer right onto the cloud cut before attaching the layers.  I added a little doodling with a white gel pen around the edges.

For the inside of the card I cut a black cardstock mat and topped it with a yellow cloud paper from DCWV Spring Stack.  Again I printed the sentiment with my computer before attaching to the black mat.  I added a little smiley face into the corner that I cut from the Wild Card cartridge.  I hope you can join our cloud challenge at BBTB2 this week.  Remember you can use a cloud cut from any Cricut cartridge.

Paper Cutz Challenge #94 Travel Theme

It's pretty much the end of the school year and families are getting ready to head off on vacations.  This week at Paper Cutz Mary asked the DT to use a beach or travel theme.  I went with the travel theme, being the traveling fool.  My husband and I used to take our five kids on trips every year.  The only way we could afford to travel with that many kids was to camp.  We had some wonderful family trips and adventures.  The one the adult kids still talk about now is the year we drove cross-country from Michigan to Yellowstone National Park.  It was a grand adventure and if you've never been to Yellowstone, it's one of the places I think every American should see in their lifetime.  There's no place like it.  It was always an ordeal to keep that many kids happy in the car and I became quite the expert at it.  So for those of you planning on heading out for car trips here's an idea for something to take along to keep the kids occupied.  I made this folder and filled it with paper games from my stash.  Using a 12x12" piece of white cardstock I scored it at 6" and then turned it once and scored at 4" to make a flap to fold up on the inside.  I used scraps to cover the front of the folder then added a United States diecut I made with my Cricut Going Places cartridge, as well as the circular sentiment and the motorhome.  I cut the word travel with my Plantin' Schoolbook cartridge.  Here is a picture of the inside of the folder.  I covered the flap with paper and added another Going Places sentiment. 

This came together in a flash and would be easy enough to make for a whole car full of kids so that each child had their own.  I would suggest personalizing each packet with diecut letters to make their names.  (That way there's no fighting over who's is who's).  I filled it with bingo cards, mad libs, pen the pig, fortune tellers (cootie catchers when I was a kid), word searches, sudoku puzzles, word pyramids, picture searches, dot to dots, crossword puzzles, drawing games, mazes, battleship grids, and coloring pages.  It would also be fun to add an intinerary and map so each child could follow along the trail and make sure you give them a mechanical pencil and colored pencils to have on hand.  You don't want crayons in an enclosed hot car.  Ask me how I know that???  LOL   Here are a couple online resources for car games :

• momsminivan.com
• travelwithkids.about.com
• family-travel-made-easy.com

I encourage you to make happy family memories traveling with your kids.  I survived car travel with five kids and I know you could too.  Trust me, your kids will recall the memories when they're adults and will want to do the same with their own children.  Mine do.  HAPPY CAMPING!!!

Cricut Cardz Challenge #77 Card Feature

I just thought I'd whip up a quick card today to play along with Cricut Cardz Challenge #77 using a card feature from any Cricut cartridge.  I have a couple cartridges that are my standby cartridges with a card feature.  They're Stretch Your Imagination and A Child's Year.  Two oldies but goodies.  For this card I used A Child's Year.  The cut is on page 36 of the manual.  This was super simple and quick to make.  I used my Gypsy to get the sizing at 5.25".  I cut the card from white cardstock and ran it through my Cuttlebug Swiss Dot embossing folder.  I backed the cut out flowers with 1.5" circles I punched from yellow scraps from DCWV Lemon Flower stack and glued them behind the flowers and then backed it with a piece of green cardstock.  My sentiment banner is a printable stamp from The Cutting Cafe's Ribbon Banner set.  I added some small yellow buttons to the center of each flower and that was it.  Less than 10 minutes from start to finish.  I'll also be entering this card into two other challenges:

• A Spoonful of Sugar-Floral
• Saturday challenge-Clean and Simple w/white space.