Cricut Cardz Challenge #115 Color Me Happy

This week's Cricut Cardz Challenge is such a fun one.  Mary asked the DT to design with the theme Color Me Happy using the colors Red, Blue and Yellow.  You could also have small amounts, for accent, of white and black.  I jumped at the chance to use my new Simple Stories Summer 6x6 paper pad that I recently purchased from Archiver's.  Lots of red, yellow and blue going on in this pad.  I just love the Simple Stories paper pads.  They come with different design elements not just paper.  This makes them really great for putting together journaling/photo books (such as Smash or Fancy Pants Brag Books).  I've been working on a book since last year when hubby and I sold our home and moved into our fifth wheel for the full time RV lifestyle.  We left Michigan last September and spent some time traveling until we landed in Florida for the winter so I've been trying to document our journey.  Right now we're back in northern Michigan enjoying all that the state offers in summer fun.  That's what I originally bought this paper pad for, but it also works great for cardmaking.  Here I combined some Cricut cuts with the papers and elements for a bright, cheerful card.  The elements that I cut from the pad are the ticket stub to the left of the star and the words to the right of the star.  You can find the rest of my list of ingredients at the end of this post.  I hope you can join our challenge this week and create something that makes you happy using the colors RED, YELLOW AND BLUE and link up your creation on the Cardz TV blog.

I'd also like to take a minute to tell you about the Cardz TV Stamps Blog Hop coming up on Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 1st & 2nd.  (Holy cow, can you believe it's September and Labor Day weekend.  I sure can't.)  The Design Team will be featuring the new stamp set Brew HaHa!   In case you missed the little sneak peak I gave a couple weeks ago on Cardz TV Stamps here is a pic of my creation using the set. 

This set is going to be a hot seller, especially for those of you who love coffee or a wee spot of tea.  Well, now you'll be able to see the whole design team's creations using the set. So make sure you stop back at Cardz TV on Friday to take part in this fun blog hop for a chance to win two sets of Cardz TV Stamps. There will be some member's of the DT giving away blog candy, too, (hint hint) so you won't want to miss anyone's post.  Thanks for coming by today and I hope you'll visit again on Friday.  My creation for the blog hop will feature a project using the Brew HaHa! set with a theme other than what it's meant for (coffee or tea).  I think it's always fun to know that you can take a whole other meaning than what's expected when using a stamp.

• A2 size card (4.25" x 5.5") 
• Yellow mat (4 1/8" x 5 5/8") 
• Red patterned mat (3 7/8" x 5 1/8") 
• Plantin' Schoolbook cartridge- Star 4", Lettering 1"
• Carousel cartridge-banner 1.25" (note, I cut one of the pennants off to make it five)
• Simple Stories Summer 6x6 paper pad
• Cardz TV Stamps A Day at the Beach set- "Relax"
• Studio G-Alphabet Stamp set (lettering on the banner)
• Versacolor Pigment ink-23 Rose Red
• Uniball Signo white gel pen

BBTB2 Back to School challenge

This week at BBTB2 we're having a Back to School theme for our weekly challenge chosen by our talented designer, Brenda.  I decided to do a layout for my granddaughter Payton's scrapbook album.  I was inspired to get an early start on Payton's album after recently completing an album for my oldest granddaugter's high school graduation.  I struggled to make her album that included layouts from birth to graduation in a three week time period.  I didn't want to have to go through that again so I decided I better keep up with the two younger granddaughter's by starting now when they're only 3 and 5 years old.  When I was gathering supplies to do my oldest granddaughter's album I came across a school themed scrapbook album set on clearance at Walmart for only $2.  It had paper, die cuts and embellishments in it.  I thought it would be a great start for this layout.  Everything on this layout came from that set except for the lettering, pleated paper and the apple cut.  The lettering came from the Locker talk cartridge and the apple came from the Doodlecharms cartridge and it's cut at 2.5".  Oh yeah, the banners were cut from the Pretty Pennants cartridge.  I hope you'll have a chance to play along in this week's Back to School challenge.  Remember, we've changed our challenges to run for only one week now instead of two.  So get busy creating and have fun!  Just a little heads up, if you are doing a back to school theme you can also play along with the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge (I'll be putting my layout in as it meets the criteria with my pink ruler tape placed above my green pleated paper). They are having a back to school theme, also (along with a hop).  Thanks for stopping by.

BBTB2 Vacation challenge

Happy Monday! I am so behind right now with all my creative endeavors.  My daughter and two granddaughters were here at our camper on a little mini vacation.  I adore my granddaughters, but I'm completely exhausted.  They're 3 and 5 3/4 yrs. (Hubby told the older one she was 3/4 along to her next birthday and now she proudly says it when you ask how old she is.  The other granddaughter celebrated her third birthday while they were here.  When you ask her how old she is she insists she's one.  No idea why.  I guess she's practicing for when she gets as old as I am and doesn't want to admit her age.  She's getting a head start).  Anyway, at BBTB2 this week we're using a vacation theme so I got the idea to make a very basic and simple little mini album for my granddaughters to document their little trip here.  I haven't had time to add the photos since they just left yesterday afternoon, but I'm working on them as you're reading this.  I planned on doing it before they left so they could take it home with them, but they kept me too busy.  For the title page I used the Pack Your Bags cartridge.  The stamped sentiments on the banners and sailboat are from the Cardz TV Stamps set A Day at the Beach.

The title for the second and third page layout is also from the Pack Your Bags cartridge, as well as the little girl in the floating tube.  The bird in the tube is from 3 Birds on Parade and the alligator in the tube is from Crocs Rule.  Again, I used the Cardz TV Stamps set A Day at the Beach to stamp the sentiments along the sand on the bottom of the page.

I was so excited that the girl's trip here coincided with the county fair.  Oh my gosh, I had a blast there with them.  It cost us a fortune, but you can't put a price on memories, right?  My husband was the hero of the day when he won a stuffed animal for Payton throwing darts at balloons.  I won't tell you how much it cost for that opportunity.  I'm sure the big hug she gave him and the smile on her face was enough for him.  Let me just say it would have been cheaper to take her to the store and let her pick an animal out.  LOL  I think he was grateful Paige was asleep in the stroller, otherwise, it would have cost twice as much.  For this layout I used the Cricut Lite cartridge Carousel.  The tickets and sentiment stamped on them are another Cardz TV Stamps set called Ticket Talk 2.

As I said earlier, Paige celebrated her 3rd birthday while they were here.  She loves Elmo so I specifically bought the Elmo's Party cartridge to make birthday party decorations for her.  I can't believe I didn't remember to take a picture of the decorations, cupcakes and cupcake wrappers with Elmo toppers.  

It wouldn't be a camping trip without a campfire layout.  Let me tell you, I was a nervous wreck having those two by a campfire, but they sure enjoyed the S'mores.  I used Campin' Critters for everything on this page except the bird roasting the marshmallow.  Of course, it came from the 3 Birds cartridge.

For the last page of the album I used my new Pretty Pennants cartridge to make my banner.  I wish I had time to sit back and relax now that they've gone home, but I have to restore order in my camper and we have a ton of stuff on the agenda this week.  Two seconds after they arrived it looked like a tornado went through.  Of course, it would have helped if Payton hadn't brought 17 stuffed animals with her.  I swear, there was not one spare inch of empty space to move around.  You should have seen us every night when we blew up the queen size air mattress for them to sleep on in the middle of the floor.  My poor dog didn't know what was going on or where he was supposed to lay down since his entire floor was taken up.  He tried to get on the air mattress with them, but that didn't go over so well with my daughter since she was already sleeping with the two girls.  Poor dog was relegated to the little bit of floor space next to my bed.  Sorry for the long post today, but thanks for stopping by.  If you'd like to play along in this week's BBTB2 challenge, please remember to follow the simple rules of having a Cricut cut on the creation with some kind of vacation theme, linking it to your blog with a shout out for BBTB2 and turning off word verification so the Design Team can leave you some love on your blog.



Cardz TV Stamps Color Challenge

It's time for another challenge at Cardz TV stamps.  This is your chance to win some Cardz TV Stamps by taking part in this weekend's challenge running from today (Friday) until Sunday.  It's a color challenge and we're calling it "Color Me Happy" and we're using the colors--Marigold Yellow, Royal Blue, Rich Purple and Gray (you may use a touch of black or white, also).  The true meaning of a challenge for me is when it's a color challenge.  I don't do color challenges very well.  I even go into a wee bit of a panic over the thought.  I have a very limited supply of paper because I live in an RV.  I don't have room for a lot of paper and I have to say these colors aren't the norm for me.  Lucky for me I just had the opportunity to make a pilgrimage to Archiver's.  I love Archiver's.  Each and every time I go I feel so special because the gals that work there always strike up a conversation and ask if I'm looking for anything in particular.  This trip I was looking for 6x6 paper pads.  The gals were so excited to share the new shipment that had just arrived.  It wasn't even out on the floor yet and they brought it from the back just for me.  There were some hot off the press Bo Bunny Double Dot 6x6 stacks.  I picked up the Bold and Bright stack (along with 2 other Fallish stacks).  My yellow and purple papers came from that stack and my royal blue is a scrap I found in my stash.  My base card is a pale gray even though it looks white in the photo, I promise it's gray.  It's cut at 8x7".  I scored it and folded in half at 4".  Then topped it with a mat cut at 3 7/8 x 6 7/8".  My yellow strip is 2.5x7".  Before attaching the yellow strip I punched a border and added it to the top and bottom.  Now I'm not sure if anyone noticed that I said I was using paper from a 6x6 stack.  How did I get my yellow strip 7 inches wide?  I had to piece it, of course.  I covered the pieced edges with my yellow polka dot ribbon.  Next using my Cricut and the Plantin' Schoolbook cartridge I cut three squares from purple paper at 2.5" and I cut three squares from light gray at 2.25" next.  I'm featuring one of Mary's newest stamps sets called Brew Ha Ha.  What a fun set this is!  I chose to use this set because a good cup of coffee makes me very happy (especially if it's Kona coffee from Hawaii).  Included in this set is the cute little coffee cup I used on my card.  I stamped the coffee cup on the 2.25" squares.  Last I added the sentiment-What's BREW with you?  I hope my card made you think happy and you can spread the happiness by joining the Cardz TV challenge this weekend.  Have fun creating!

Cricut Cardz Challenge #114 Critter Cuties

For today's Cricut Cardz Challenge on Cardz TV  Mary asked the Design Team to create with the theme Critter Cuties.  This is my attempt at critter humor.  I thought it would be funny to add a big pair of lips to a cow to go along with my sMOOches sentiment.  Can you imagine a big smooch from a cow?  My granddaughters love to get homemade cards from Nana.  They will be coming to visit us for the next few days at our camper and we will be taking them to our local county fair tomorrow. I thought they would get a kick out of a cow card and will send it to them at home after their visit.  I cut my cow from the Paper Doll Dress Ups cartridge at 4".  The lips came from the Don Juan cartridge and I cut them at .5".  Of course, I had to add some googly eyes to go along with my lips.  Since this is a girlie type cow I added a little bow to the top of her head from red jute.  Isn't she just the most glamorous cow you've ever seen?  LOL  My sentiment is computer generated and placed on a tag I cut from Fabulous Finds.  I hope you can play along with us at Cricut Cardz this week.

BBTB2 Elephant challenge

Happy Monday!  Time for a new challenge at BBTB2.  This week our talented DT sister, Shelly, asked us to use an elephant image on our creations.  I used the Holiday Cakes cartridge for my sweet little elephant.  I chose this elephant because of the heart balancing on her trunk.  I thought it was perfect to go along with my sentiment from the Cardz TV Stamps Critter Captions stamp set.  I cut my elephant at 3" and placed it on my background paper from one of my new 6x6 paper stacks, My Mind's Eye Fine and Dandy Girl.  Oh yeah, I almost forget, I added the elephant to an Action Wobble.  This card is for my granddaughter and she loves it when the images "jiggle".  My scalloped border was also cut from the Holiday Cakes cartridge.  There was a little notch on this border at each end making it perfect to nestle my twine into.  Three little pink buttons for embellishment and that wrapped it up.  I'd love to see you enter our BBTB2 challenge this week.  Remember to follow the simple rules listed on the challenge blog, namely, you must use the featured image (elephant) cut with your Cricut machine.  Please remove word verification from your blog if you'd like the DT to visit and leave a comment on your entry.  Thanks so very much for stopping by.

BBTB2 Hot Air Balloon

I'm the hostess for this week's BBTB2 challenge and as such, it was my turn to pick a cut to highlight.  Throughout the country at this time of year there are hot air balloon festivals going on.  That's why I decided to feature a Cricut hot air balloon cut.  Just in case some of my design team sisters didn't have a cartridge with a hot air balloon on it, I told them to use an airplane.  So if you want to join in the challenge this week you can use either cut from any Cricut cartridge.  I used Wild Card 2 for my balloon cut.  It's cut at 2.5" and placed on a background of my favorite sky paper from My Mind's Eye Goodday Sunshine collection.  I added a banner made from punched circles of paper from my scrap bin at I cut in half.  I saved the other half to use on another card coming in a future post.  I added some red mini rick rack across the top of the banner.  I thought it would be a fun addition to put my sentiment on a cloud.  The sentiment is from Cardz TV Stamps Ticket Talk 2 stamp set.

Cricut Cardz Challenge #113 School's Cool

WooHoo--two posts in one week.  It's tough to get the mojo going when you're on a permanent vacation.  Since starting the full time RV living life style, I've gotten lazy.  It's a lot different when you don't have a craft room to go to and everything you have to create with is in a cupboard and you have to use the small dining table to work on.  I used to play in challenges everyday, but now I just do my Design Team responsibilities and the occasional family or friend card.  Anyway, today is Cricut Cardz Challenge day over on Cardz TV and Mary asked the design team to make a card with a back to school theme.  When we arrived in Michigan back in May I made a trip to the local Walmart where they were redoing their craft department.  I found lots of clearanced stuff in the craft department (including some Cricut cartridges).  I was preparing to make a scrapbook for my granddaughter that was graduating from high school so when I came across a school scrapbooking kit that was clearanced to $2 I thought I might be able to use it.  All my elements on this card came from the kit except for my Cricut cut school bus.  It's cut from the Going Places cartridge at 3.5".  I added an Action Wobble to the back of the bus for some movement.  Like it's going down the road on it's way for the first day of school.  The paper did all the work on this card.  I added a couple stickers from the pack--the dimensional stars and the apples in the back window of the bus.  I'm not usually a sticker kind of person so that was hard for me.  LOL  Easy, peasy--all done!  Hope you can play along this week with your own back to school creation.  I'll be adding this card to the challenge going on at the Action Wobble blog for a back to school card. Thanks for stopping by today.