Bitten By The Bug2 Ghost challenge

Happy Halloween!!!  Not only is it Halloween but it's Monday and time for a new BBTB2 challenge.  Not only is it challenge day but it's the last Monday of the month so it's time for our monthly blog hop.  You should have arrived here from Carri's blog.  If not, you'll probably want to start at the beginning of the hop so click here to go to the BBTB2 site for the hop list.  What's better than a ghost for a Halloween challenge.  My fabulous friend and design team sister, Shelly, asked us to use the ghost from Paper Doll Dress Up for our challenge this week.  If you don't have PDDU you can use a ghost from any other cartridge.  I made a standard A2 base card from black cardstock and topped that with a patterned paper from My Mind's Eye.  On top of that I used a bingo card from The Cutting Cafe's Halloween Bingo printable stamp set.  I cut my ghost at 3.5 inches.  A little doodling and embellishing with twine and buttons wrapped this card up.  Hope you all have a safe and happy night of trick or treating, if you do that sort of thing.  I've never been a big fan of the ritual myself.  I think it's because I had to come up with costumes for five children for so many years.  Glad I don't have to do that anymore.   From here you'll be heading over to the Krista's fabulous blog.  I'll be giving one lucky commentor/follower a printable BINGO stamp set from The Cutting Cafe.  You can have your choice of the Halloween Bingo set or the Christmas Bingo set.  Thanks so much for coming by today.

Exciting News at The Cutting Cafe

I know that everyone is consumed with Halloween activities, projects and fun right now, but I want you to think ahead a little with your thoughts for a moment.  As Halloween ends it will be time to start on those Christmas holiday projects.  I'd like to share what has become a tradition with my two granddaughters, thanks to Regina at The Cutting Cafe.  This will be the third year that Regina has offered a fantastic set of freebies for a Christmas Daily album.  A what--you say!  A Christmas or December Album or Journal is a way to document the thoughts and pictures of the twenty five days leading to Christmas.  You make a page for everyday in the month of December from the 1st to the 25th.  Each day you record thoughts, things your kids say or pictures of holiday activities such as putting up the tree, decorating the house, visiting with Santa, etc.  If you would like to get this free set to start your own tradition all you need to do is go to The Cutting Cafe at this link.  Regina will be offering this year's set free until November 2nd at midnight. 

To give you an idea of some of the pages you can create, I've added photos of the 8x8 album I made for my granddaughters last year.  You'll want to make sure you mark your calendars to visit The Cutting Cafe blog the week of November 20th.  The design team will be featuring projects using the December/Christmas Daily sets.  I promise you'll be seeing some fabulous and inspirational creations.

I made a title page to go first so I could add a personal note and date.

For the first page I used my Cricut Designer's Calendar cartridge to make a circular grid of 25 circles. Then I cut small images using assorted cartridges and added glue dots to the back of each one so Payton could add an image each day of the month like a countdown calendar. She enjoyed this page very much.

For day 2 I used my Cricut Imagine More cartridge for the frame and journaling paper along with The Cutting Cafe Christmas in a Square set. 

The tree on day 3 is a die cut that I've had in my stash forever.

Day 4 a simple Christmas tree border punch from Fiskars, some fussy cut Christmas lights and the sentiment. 

Day 5 has the fireplace cut from Cricut's Joys of the Season cartridge.

 For Day 6, I used a piece of jute to hang my Christmas stockings cut from the Cricut Christmas Cheer cartridge.  The sentiment is cut from Winter Frolic cartridge.

Day 7 title is cut using my Gypsy font and the list is cut from Christmas Cheer.  I'm sorry I don't remember who made the adorable paper with the Santa's Workshop and elves on it.

Again for day 8 I used Gypsy Font for the title using another piece of paper with the Santa and tree already printed on it. The sentiment is from the Christmas Daily set.

I forgot to say that my fancy background cuts were done with my Imagine More cartridge. For day 9 I used a background paper with cooking words. Sorry, again I don't know who made it since these are last years pics. The gingerbread man is actually made of dough and is an item I picked up at the day after Christmas sale at Target.

Day 10 musical background was a freebie I got from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff at My Grafico. Here is the link for that. My cute little carolers are cut from the Winter Frolic cartridge. The circle sentiment is from the Christmas daily set and the musical notes are from the Gypsy Wanderings cartridge.

Day 11's top five list was cut and printed from the Cricut Imagine More cartridge. Circle sentiment is from the Christmas Daily set and I used The Cutting Cafe Christmas Mini Words set printed on green striped paper.

This was one of my favorite pages to add to the album. It's always fun to give a call to Payton and find out about her day. I printed the sentiment right onto the lined Cosmo Cricket paper then mounted it on a fancy edge paper. The telephone is cut using the From My Kitchen cartridge.

Who doesn't love to go Christmas shopping? It will really be different for us this year. All of our presents will have to be sent through the mail because we will be away from our family. I think I will do mostly gift cards this year. I'm sure I'll have to make at least one trip to the toy store for my really small grandchildren, though. This was just a quick and easy page using the Christmas Daily set along with a fancy background cut with the Cricut.

Of course, after you buy the presents you have to wrap them. The background paper on this page is from a DCWV Christmas stack. I used a premade package embellisment in the center of the sentiment circle.

My mistletoe was cut from the Christmas Cards cartridge that came out last year. Mistletoe has been a tradition in the family since I was a baby and one that I did with my children. Now my grandkids are standing under the mistletoe for a kiss. Gosh, where does the time go?

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Now here's the question of the season...Naughty or nice. My daughter got a great picture of Payton last year pouting as she was sitting in Time Out. When you make one of these albums you'll want to make sure that you don't miss the everyday moments.

My granddaughter, Payton, loves to do crafts.  She takes after her Nana.  So when I made this page I included an inexpensive foam decoration kit I picked up at JoAnns for only a $1 for her to put together.

With this page I included a couple packages of hot cocoa for Payton and Paige to enjoy. Just another everyday occurance that you wouldn't even think to photograph or write about, but then you see that chocolate moustache and hear the words "that was the best hot chocolate ever" you'll want a photo to remember.

I'm a little sad as I see this page for I know I won't be taking the annual trek to the world's best Christmas store in Frankenmuth, Michigan. Last year we were able to take Payton there for the first time and the look of delight on her face as she took in all the lights and decorations was priceless. I console myself as I know this year her annual Christmas ornament from Nana & Pop will be bought while we are vacationing together in a couple weeks at the destination of all destinations---DisneyWorld. I can't wait to see the look on Payton's face when she sees the Princess Castle---because she's certain she'll be a princess when she grows up.

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Of course, this page was used for the photo of the ornament that Payton picked out while we were at Bronner's.  Can you guess what kind of ornament she picked---an ornament with Cinderella on it.  Again, I think of how excited she's going to be when she meets Cinderella in person in a couple of weeks

There will be no playing in the snow for me this year. Nope, for the first time in my life I'm going to be snow free enjoying the warmth of Florida. WooHoo!!!!

This is the perfect page for a picture of that annual Christmas photo.  I remember that we had several challenging years of trying to get  all five of our kids to smile and look at the camera at the same time.

It's nice to reflect back on family traditions. In our house my husband had an annual tradition of reading the story The Night Before Christmas. The kids would gather in front of the fireplace with a bedtime snack as my husband read the story. Last year we went to a Hallmark store and bought the recordable edition of the book so my husband could read and record it for Payton and Paige. Now it will be a tradition at their house.

For this page I used the Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge. I made my little bed with the colors of Payton's bedroom. This is another photo opportunity that you probably wouldn't think of getting. There's nothing like a picture of a child sleeping. Especially after a day when they've tried your patience to the very limits.

And last but not least, the most important page of all to every single child. The delight of the moment when they see that tree with all the wonderful presents wrapped and waiting to be opened on Christmas morning.

If you've made it to the end of this very long post I thank you for sticking with it.  I hope that I've inspired you to create your own version of a December/Christmas Daily album or journal.  It will be a treasured family momento for your children, grandchildren, neices, nephews or friends.  If I can offer one piece of advice if your contemplating this project...start NOW.  You don't want to be rushed to create this family remembrance and have it done by December 1st.

Lastly, I'd like to thank Regina for her talent, forethought and generosity to provide these sets each year for her customers.  She is truly a magnificent lady and a treasured friend. I'm so very blessed to be a part of her Design Team and I'm so grateful for the opportunity she's allowed me.  Don't forget, you have until midnight on November 2nd to pick up this year's free set here which includes a fabulous word book this year.

Cricut Cardz Challenge #94

For this week's Cricut Cardz Challenge on Cardz TV Mary asked the DT to make a project using Spooks, Monsters, Ghouls or Goblins.  I didn't need one more Halloween card (sorry Mary) but I wanted to send out a package to my two granddaughters for Halloween with a little treat.  This will be the first Halloween that I won't be trick or treating with Payton.  Since she is back in Michigan and my husband and I are in Florida for the winter it would be a little difficult.  I can't help thinking about the difference in the weather for Halloween between the two places.  Poor little Payton and her sister Paige will probably be freezing if this Halloween is anything like last year.  Meanwhile, my husband and I are wishing it would cool down a little here in Florida.  The mid-80s in October is sure a change for us.  I'm not complaining at all, mind you! 

Anyway, for my project this week I used my new Sweet Tooth Boxes cartridge to make these take out boxes.  They were easy to put together and I didn't use all the layers that you can cut.  I simply cut the box from black cardstock.  Then I punched a border using a Fiskars punch and used a printable stamp set from The Cutting Cafe called Halloween Goodies Borders.  I used twine from We R Memory Keepers to tie on a tag I cut from Tags, Bags, Boxes and More at 1.25".  I used another Cutting Cafe printable stamp set called Halloween Mini Words on the tag.  The little spiders in the web are from The Cutting Cafe's Mini Halloween Colored Printable Stamp set. 

I hope you'll have the chance to join us for this week's Cricut Cardz Challenge.  Make sure you check out the rest of the DT's projects.  They'll inspire you for sure and put you in the mood for trick or treating.

The Cutting Cafe Weekly Inspiration-Breast Cancer Awareness

It's time for another weekly inpsiration project at The Cutting Cafe.  Regina asked the DT to make projects for Breast Cancer Awareness this week.  This is a cause dear to my heart since I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008.  I'm here to tell you that early detection saves lives.  I hope that you have had a mammogram this year.  If not, don't waste another minute scheduling that appointment. 

For my card this week I've used the Think Pink Breast Cancer Printable Stamp Set.  I made my shaped card using Cricut's Elegant Edges cartridge.  I cut a pink cardstock mat and a second mat using the hope background from the stamp set.  Then I fussy cut the pink ribbon to place on top.  I embellished the flowers on the ribbon with a few black pearls as a final touch.  Now I know you'll want to head over to the rest of the Design Team's blogs to see there breast cancer awareness inspiration.  Your can link up to their blogs from The Cutting Cafe Blog here.

Bitten By The Bug 2 Happy Hauntings Witch

For this week's BBTB2 challenge our talented Design Team Sister Susan asked us to use the witch from the Happy Hauntings cartridge.  I made a quick and easy card this week because I'm busy getting to know our new area of Lakeland, FL.  We have spent a lot of time wandering around trying to find things.  Does anyone know how annoying it is to try and find products in new grocery stores all the time?  I've lost track of how many different grocery stores we've been in since leaving Michigan on Sept. 7th.  I swear it takes me forever to find things when I don't know the layout of the store.  I was looking for a jar of jam.  I've never been in a store that put their jams and jellies by the bread, but now I have.  LOL   The bad thing is I picked up a loaf of bread from that aisle and never saw the jelly. 

Anyway, I digress, sorry.  I used the new My Mind's Eye 6x6 paper pad that I found at a scrapbook store in Virginia Beach.  I was very excited to see all the 6x6 paper pads they had in stock there.  They have become a staple in my limited storage space in the RV.  My base card is black cardstock topped with a background of banner paper from my paper stack.  Then I printed two mini bingo cards that had the headings of SCARY and WITCH from The Cutting Cafe's Halloween Bingo Card printable stamp set and matted them with black cardstock.  I cut my witch from black cardstock at 2.75".  That's all there was to it.  I didn't add any embellishments wanting the images to stand on their own.  I hope you can join our challenge this week.  If you don't have the Happy Hauntings cartridge you can use a witch from any other Cricut cartridge.  But remember, it must be a new creation that you post.

The Cutting Cafe Book Box

This week at The Cutting Cafe the Design Team is highlighting some of Regina's box files and templates.  One of my all time favorites in this category is the Book Box.  I love to give books as gifts and have lots of friends and family members that read.  This box is the perfect size for a paperback book.  I cut the box using Bazzill Basics Dotted paper in a light sage green.  I added a scrap from my bin on the top of the box.  I loved the black swirls on it against the green background.  I used gorgeous striped Stampin' Up ribbon and a little tag that is part of the printable stamp set.  This set also comes with some bookmarks so I whipped up one of those to go along with the book and decorated it with a flower of punched petals.

You can see how nicely the book fits into the box.  I searched my photos high and low but couldn't find the picture of the cute baby keepsake box I made using the template.  I gave it to my son and daughter-in-law to keep my newest granson's baby bracelet and memotos from his birth in.  I made it in a Dr. Seuss theme to go along with his nursery.  Make sure you head over to The Cutting Cafe Blog to see what kind of boxes the rest of the DT made.  I'm sure you'll find some ideas and inspiration that you can use for projects of your own.

Bitten By The Bug2 Hello Kitty Halloween challenge

I"m very happy to be posting for the first time from our winter campground in Florida.  After traveling for the last month and a half we've finally made it to Florida.  We got tired of so much travel and cut out a portion of the trip that was going to take us to Alabama.  We decided we'll hit it on the way back north in the spring.  The warmth and sunshine are fantastic.  In fact, it's a little too hot.  We evidently arrived a few weeks too early for a "snowbird".  It's our first time and we didn't know that it would still be so hot.  Next year we'll plan on arriving in November.  Another week and another new challenge at BBTB2.  Another week and another cartridge I don't have.  Darn!  Well as with all the challenges at BBTB2, if you don't have a cartridge you can substitute with a cartridge you do have.  No Hello Kitty cartridge in my library but I used a cat on my card from the Cricut Lite Meow cartridge.  This is another cartridge that I picked up at a Walmart store clearanced to $10.  That was an exciting day for me.  LOL 

Our design team sister, Theresa, asked for the Halloween Kitty from the Hello Kitty cartridge.  So I made my kitty look Halloweenish with a witch hat from the Happy Hauntings cartridge.  My papers are from  Pink Paislee and DCWV.  This little kitty witch has some colorful socks, don't you think?

I thought I'd share a couple photos we've taken since arriving in Lakeland, Florida.  There are signs here by all the ponds that say no swimming and watch your pets because there are alligators. 

Well they weren't kidding. We saw the biggest alligator our first day here. It was bigger than my husband. Believe me, I won't be walking by any of the ponds with my dog. That thing was big enough to eat me, no less my dog. LOL

Every morning these Sandhill Cranes (I think that's what they are) are across the road from our camper eating.  Yesterday my husband took our dog out for his morning walk and Trueman evidently scared them when he barked at them.  They started hopping up in the air, flapping their wings and screeching.  It was hilarious.  These birds are as tall as I am.  Granted I'm short, not quite five feet, but they looked me right in the eye when I walked by them.

Thanks so much for stopping by and I thank you for the sweet comments you leave.  I appreciate them so much.  I hope you'll stop by the rest of the design team's blogs and see their creations and join us this week in our kitty challange.

Cricut Cardz Challenge Pink for Breast Cancer

For this week's Cricut Cardz Challenge Mary asked the DT to think pink and make a breast cancer awareness card.  This is a cause dear to my heart.  I was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer in August of 2008.  I'm sill on the journey of survivorship with things going pretty well.  I want to take this opportunity to ask each and every woman who reads this post to get in for a mammogram.  I'm living proof that early detection saves lives.

For my card this week I used the Elegant Edges cartridge for my card base and the Home Decor cartridge for the beautiful HOPE word.  My background mat is from a printable stamp set from The Cutting Cafe called You Gotta Have Hope.  If you know someone in your life that is going through breast cancer I can personally tell you that cards offer encouragement and support.  I encourage you to make a card and help someone through their journey with a note of hope.  It is a long and difficult road that does not end when the surgery and treatments are over.  Believe me, hardly a day goes by that I don't worry that it could come back.  I'm very grateful for the second chance I've been given and look forward to making the most of every day that Heavenly Father gives me.  I'm very blessed and life is good!

The Cutting Cafe Halloween

This week at The Cutting Cafe Regina asked the DT to highlight any Halloween set.  I used the Spooky Square Sentiments Printable Set.  When I saw the image with the BOO words I knew it would be perfect for a design idea I've had floating around in my head for awhile.  I printed the image twice on some orange polka dot cardstock from Studio G.  The first image I cut the center out of the last O in the word.  I wanted to have a ghost peeking out of the center.  With the second image I cut out the letter O and attached it with an orange brad on top of the other O so it would swing open and the ghost would peek out. 

On the insidc of the card I attached the sentiment that I cut off the edge of the original square image and added a second ghost.  I almost forgot to tell you that the little ghost came from the set Halloween Mini Colored Set.  The stamped sentiment is Studio G and I used white chalk ink to stamp it.  I hope you have the chance to stop by The Cutting Cafe Blog to check out the rest of the DT Halloween designs.  They're fabulous.

Bitten By The Bug2 Vulture challenge

Happy Monday!  It's time for a new challenge at Bitten By The Bug2.  Our dear and newest design team member, Agnes, asked us to use the vulture from Life's A Party or any other "ugly" bird.  I don't have Life's A Party so I found this "ugly" bird on Paper Doll Dress Up.  I'm not really sure what kind of bird it is because I don't have my manuals traveling with me in the camper.  I figured if I cut it in black it would look a little ugly, at least.  I made a little treat holder using the Happy Hauntings cartridge. I simply cut the box at 7" from gray cardstock and added the letters RIP, cut the bird at 2.5" and attached him at the top of the grave stone.  I thought a red rhinestone would add a little sparkle to his eye and highlighted with a white gel pen.

The Cutting Cafe Monster Set

Hello, my fellow happy crafters.  This week at The Cutting Cafe the DT is featuring projects using Regina's A Bunch of Monsters printable stamp set.  This is a monster of a set, no pun intended.  Here's the link you'll need to check out everyone's amazing monster creations. It comes with 9 different little cutie monsters in three sizes, ten sentiments (in straight form and circle form for a total of 20), and it has two balloon images.  At this time of year when you think of monsters you probably think of Halloween, but I wanted to show that this set is not just for Halloween.  I made this cute little birthday card for one of my little granddaughters.  You don't think that her Mom and Dad will think I'm implying the dear child is a monster, do you?  I sure hope not, because that's definitely not my intention (though I do think it on occasion).  I paper pieced the monster and then placed it onto the circular sentiment. Thanks so much for stopping by and for the sweet comments you leave.  I truly do appreciate them.

Bitten By The Bug2 Frog Challenge

Before I show my card for this week I'd like to take care of a little business from last week's BBTB2 blog hop.  I have a winner to announce for my blog candy.  I was giving away a fantastic set of digital stamps from The Cutting Cafe called Welcome Fall that features over 40 images to one lucky commentor.

  The winner is...................

Georgia Ehrmann from Paper Possibilities Toadily Handmade

Georgia if you'll email me @ thomasjeri55atyahoodotcom I'll see that you get your digital stamp set.

This week's BBTB2 challenge was the choice of our talented design sister, Carri.  She asked us to work with the frog from the Create A Critter cartridge.  As with all our challenges at BBTB2 if you don't have this cartridge you may use a frog from another Cricut cartridge.  So I admit, I cheated.  I do have the Create A Critter cartridge, but I recently stumbled upon a real bargain in my travels.  I found a Walmart that had clearanced a bunch of their Cricut Lite cartridges to $10.  I scooped up as many as I could find that I didn't have.  One of those cartridges was the Live Simpy cartridge and that's where this frog came from.  I recently missed a family member's birthday and needed to send a belated birthday card so that's the theme I went with.  I created my shaped base card using my Gypsy and the Elegant Edges cartridge.  I welded two shapes together at the top.  With my Gypsy, I then put a single image of the same cut on my mat and used the arrow plus or minus key to make it a little bit smaller to mount on the card.  My patterned paper is from a 6x6 Dots and Stripes paper pad from Echo Park.  Before I placed it on the card I used my computer to print my little play on words sentiment.   I cut my frog at 3.5" using two colors of green dotted paper from Bazzill Basics.  I love this paper because it's already embossed with the dots.  I'm so terrible at remembering to use my Cuttlebug to emboss, using this paper allows me to forget without the guilt.  LOL  I embellished with a little twine and a button.  Now remember if you want to join in with this frog challenge and you don't have Create A Critter use a frog from another cartridge.  Please remember that you must make a new creation.  I'd also like to thank you for leaving your sweet comments. They mean so much to me.