Cricut Craftin' Friends Blog Hop - Day 1

We're so happy you could join us for this hop celebrating the one year blogiversary of Cricut Craftin Grammy (Suzanne).  Suzanne has asked a few of her Cricut message board friends, as well as her design team friends (Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog, Lasting Memories and Sweet Sassy Diva), to join her in this two day blog hop. The participants are allowed to share anything creative they wish to share using a Cricut (or other die cut machine if they do not have a Cricut).

Suzanne has some blog candy to share.  In order to be eligible to win her candy, you need to leave comments along each blog each day.  If you leave a comment on all the blogs both days, your name will be entered into the random drawing twice. The random winner will receive a $25 gift card from their choice of Michaels or Joanns.

This is a TWO-DAY hop.  Be sure to check out both days so you don't miss any creativeness. As there is a large number of participants, Suzanne will give you until January 30th to post your comments.  Thanks for joining us!

Let's get hopping!! If you've hopped over from Faith Abigail at Faith Abigail Designs, then you are in the right place!! If you've just popped in to visit my blog or are reading this via email and you'd like to join our fun, then please click HERE to start at the beginning with Suzanne's blog.

For the hop today, I've created a birthday card.  I actually saw a card like this ages ago but I'm afraid that I no longer know to whom I should give credit.  (Please tell me if you know, so I can add the information here.)  I created the card based with window using George and Basic Shapes.  The scalloped frame is from Mini Monograms.  I used Doodlecharms for the bear (and added paws) and Pooh Font for the swing.  The vine and leaves are from ZooBalloo.  The sentiment is from My Craft Spot's Inside & Out Set #2. 

Blog Candy!

Here at Small Bits of Paper, I am giving away a $10US gift certificate to My Craft Spot!! To be eligible to win this prize, you need to be a follower of my blog and leave a comment on this post.  Come back and leave a comment on tomorrow's post for a second chance to win!  (I am also giving away another $10 gift certificate for My Craft Spot HERE.)  Both winners will be announced February 2.

Now it's time to hop over to visit Stacia of Happy and Scrappy.

List of Blog Hop Participants:

Suzanne http://cricutcraftingrammy.blogspot.com/

Also posting for Cindy who does not have a blog

Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog Friends

Charlotte http://alittlebitofdetail.blogspot.com/

Melanie http://melaniemakes.blogspot.com/

Beckie http://justbcreativecrazy.blogspot.com/

Faith Abigal http://www.faithabigaildesigns.com/

Kate http://smallbitsofpaper.blogspot.com/

Lasting Memories

Stacia http://happyandscrappytoo.blogspot.com/

Michele F http://fishmememoriesandmore.blogspot.com/

Elizabeth http://visionsofpaper.blogspot.com/

Karen http://creationsbykw.blogspot.com/

Denise http://thruthelookingglass-glassgraffitix2.blogspot.com/

Michelle http://scrappinforkenzie.blogspot.com/

Jennasa http://findtimetocreate.blogspot.com/

Kimberly http://leokc34.blogspot.com/

Amy http://www.lovetocrop.com/

Message Board Friends

Terri http://craftmeaway.blogspot.com/

Brenda http:// friendscraftinwithfriends.blogspot.com/

Rachelle http://creationsbyrachelle.blogspot.com/

Shawnee http://quiverofangels.blogspot.com/

Sweet Sassy Diva Blog Friends

Lori http://www.scrappinmystressaway.blogspot.com/

Mindy http://grammiescraftroom.blogspot.com/

Tina http://tiggersscrapplace.blogspot.com/

Jen http://3catsandabug.blogspot.com/

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Car Decal

The challenge this week at Decorate to Celebrate is 4th of July but we have been invited to add our decorations for any celebration.  I created a car decal to decorate our vehicles for Canada Day (July 1).  I created this decal with my Gypsy using Car Decals (for the "Proud to be"), Pooh Font Set (for "Canadian") and Create a Critter (for the leaves).  I also added little leaves in the middle of the As.  Once I created the cut file, this was easy to cut out multiple times for the vehicles.

And here's a close up.  (The second, darker image is actually a shadow.)  I cut the decal with Cricut vinyl.

Don't forget about the Canada Day Blog Hop this Friday!  Everybody is invited - Canadians and friends of Canadians!  Tara and Jacqueline have found a number of sponsors and there are lots of great prizes up for grabs!

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Canada Day Card

This week's challenge at Fantabulous Cricut is "July 4th" - use red, white, and blue on your project.  As Canada Day is on July 1st - and because I am a proud Canadian - I made a fun card to celebrate our nation's birthday.  

I was so excited to use my new Campin' Critters cartridge on this card!  (My husband bought it for me.  How I love that man!)  Campin' Critters was used to cut the beaver and tree.  I wasn't keen on the teeth so I cut the piece in two.  I'm also really not keen on the mismatched eyes, so I punched a set myself.  I manipulated a Plantin SchoolBook number sign for the tail and also added a maple leaf from Create a Critter on the cap.  The little tuft of grass is also from Create a Critter.  The dirt path is actually the sweet pea from New Arrival!  The red sign is cut from George and Basic Shapes, as is the heart, and the letters are from Pooh Font Set.  I added some doodling, lots of ink and also some Glossy Accents to the nose and eyes.  The log was run through the Cuttlebug using Distressed Stripes.   (The beaver and maple leaf are national symbols of Canada.)

Now it's your turn!  Head over to Fantabulous Cricut to check out the rest of the design team inspiration.  There are wonderful creations full of national pride!  Then link up your own red, white and blue project - and feel free to celebrate your country, wherever you are!

*I am linking this card at Sentimental Sundays where this week's challenge is to be patriotic and use the colours of your nation's flag and at My Sheri Cards for the Canada Day/Independence Day challenge. I am also going to enter this in the Cricut Circle's Patriotic Pride challenge.

Also, EVERYBODY is invited to celebrate Canada Day with me this Friday.  I've been asked to join a very talented group of Canadian bloggers and we've got an amazing Canada Day blog hop lined up, starting bright and early on the east coast.  There is a fantastic list of prizes being offered too - just for joining the fun!  I'll be offering my own prize here at Small Bits of Paper as well!

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Mother's Day Bag

I hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend!  We have today off as well and are loving the long weekend!  It seems that the crafting world is quickly switching gears to Mother's Day and "Mom's the Word" at Fantabulous Cricut!

I've seen a few people creating with the bag from Life's a Party and love the look of it. Unfortunately, I don't have that cartridge - but I do have a Gypsy and Design Studio so I got to work creating the bag myself, using George and Basic Shapes. The flap on my bag is a bit more narrow than the one of Life's a Party, but otherwise I managed to reproduce it quite well.

I created the medallion with Home Decor, and ran the white center through my Cuttlebug. The little tulip is from Create a Critter and I glittered the bloom. I used Pooh Font for "Mum". I also faux stitched all around the front of the bag. To finish things off, I added an eyelet and ribbon.

I will also enter this bag at Creative Cutter Room (where the theme is a Mother's Day gift with pink, ribbon, faux stitching and two different flowers) and at My Sheri Crafts, where we have been challenged to create a 3-D gift item. 

Now it's your turn!  Head over to Fantabulous Cricut and link up your Mother's Day project.  Just make sure it contains a Cricut cut as well as Mum, Mom, Mother, etc.

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"For You" - An Easter Card

If you are looking for the Fantabulous Cricut Spring Fling (Blog Hop), you will find it HERE.

If you are looking for the "It's a Basket Case" Blog Hop (Day 1), you will find it HERE.

On Sunday, I read a wonderfully inspiring post that touched the core of me and moved me deeply.  The post was written by K Andrew of Getting Cricky and you can read the post HERE.   (I left her blog feeling like a million dollars!)  She also posted about a challenge to create a project that portrays what inspires our hearts.  I really didn't think I would have time to complete this challenge by tomorrow's deadline, but I simply could not get the challenge out of my mind.  All week, I've been thinking deeply about what really inspires me.  I thought of my husband, and how he is my rock, my world, the air that I breathe.  I thought of my children and how I am incomplete without them and how they fill my heart so much that I think it's going to explode. I thought of my mum, for she has had an amazing influence on me and is somebody who loves and supports me through thick and thin.  I thought of the world of academia, and how my life holds a constant yearning to learn as much as I can.  I thought of various people in my life who have had and continue to have a significant impact on the person that I am.  With each thought I would have, I felt a tugging inside that I needed to keep digging to discover what it really is that truly inspires me.  And then I knew.  It came to me last night and although I didn't have time to make a project, the idea for a card came to mind and I knew exactly what to do.  I was up far too late, but I am so glad that I followed this through to completion.

I have a very personal and quiet faith, but it's very real all the same and it makes me who I am.  I would not be the person I am today if it was not for the joy granted to me through knowing that there is a God who loves me and who has his hand on me.  In the busyness of this Easter season, I made this card to remember the cross, what it means and the life-changing impact it has had on my life.

As a very young child, one of my favourite songs was:

Jesus is the shepherd

Guess who I am

Such a lovely secret

I'm his little lamb.

It was the words of this song that led me to choose the lamb for my card.  I suppose the lamb still represents me, looking to the cross and remembering the depth of its meaning.  And the "For You" is a reminder that Easter was and is for me - and for you.

When making this card, I was thrilled with the middle section but felt the top and bottom portions were lacking.  I knew I'd seen a card with a very pretty border and after a bit of a search, I remembered that it was Kimberly's Easter card at My Craft Spot.  Not only did I add a nice border to my card, but Kimberly's post also reminded me of the challenge at Celebrate the Occasion, which is to use a punch somewhere on the card.  The punched corners were just what I needed to finish things off!

Recipe:

Lamb - Paper Doll Dress Up, Cuttlebug D'Vine Swirls embossing folder

Cross - Pooh Font, Cuttlebug Distressed Stripes embossing folder

Grass - Zooballoo

Little hill - Wrap it Up

White border - Holiday Cakes

Corners - EK Success

Flowers - Michaels $1.50 bin punch

Butterfly embossing - Crafts Too

Sentiment - Stampin' Up

Linked at:

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Fantabulous Cricut Challenge #18

This week, the challenge at FCCB is to create something with a cool treat (as an optional shape card).  I decided to go for a lemonade stand!  This card took me a bit more time than usual, but I am so pleased with the results that I say it was worth it!

I started by welding some shadows of the lower case letter "l" from Pooh Font Set.  (In case you haven't seen this cartridge, one of the fonts looks like bits of wood.  That's the font I used for this project.)  I resized the letters to get the look I was after.  I also welded a shape from George and Basic Shapes to be used as the back of the card.  I then cut the wood three times - twice on regular cardstock and once on some woodgrain pattern paper that I found. I was really trying to make the card look like it was made from planks, so the combined layers make the "wood" thicker than usual.  I ran the woodgrain layer through my Cuttlebug and also inked it.  I then assembled all the bits in the shape of a lemonade stand and added brads for nails. 

I then cut two layers of grass from Zooballoo (one was flipped in Design Studio).  I cut some little flowers (also from Zooballoo) and created centers for the flowers with a little punch.  I drew in the middle of the flowers with a Gelly Roll pen.

The little butterfly was cut from Paper Pups.  For the back layer, I used Design Studio to hide the inner contours before cutting.  I also used my Gelly Roll pen to draw a few spots on the butterfly's body, and turned up the top layer of wings for added dimension.  The tips of the butterfly's wings are glued to the window frame of the lemonade stand.

I used the creamer from Everyday Paper Dolls for a pitcher.  The little glass was made by welding the sleeping bag (!) from Everyday Paper Dolls to a little square with rounded corners from George and Basic Shapes.  I cut these images twice - once using transparency and once using a light yellow cardstock.  I recently purchased some vellum adhesive, and used this to adhere the cardstock to the transparency.  I very carefully adhered the bottoms of the pitcher and glass to the window frame.

On the inside of the card, I used a piece of sky patterned paper.  I also used Jasmine to cut some photo corners just to give the inside of the card a more polished look.

After all this, I remembered that I'm really not a huge fan of lemonade!  I do, however, love to stop at the stands set up by young entrepreneurs in the neighbourhood on the hottest of summer days.  The price of the lemonade is well worth the big smiles that come from serving a paying customer!

I will also enter this card at Cute Card Thursday where this week's theme is summer, at Aud Sentiments where the challenge is to use no sentiment, and at Cupcake Craft where the challenge is to use acetate somewhere on the project.

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Canada Day Bog Hop and Giveaway!

Happy Canada Day!

Joyeuse Fête du Canada!
Welcome to my part of the Canada Day Blog Hop. If you have just arrived from Holly's Scrappily Ever After blog, you've landed in the right spot!  At the end of this post, I'll let you know where to go (and provide a list of all blogs involved).

I decided to make a banner to showcase for our blog hop.  I've seen a number of banners created by Sammye Jo at 62 Cards and felt that they were such a bright and cheerful way to decorate for any festivity.   With Canada Day in mind, I attempted one of my own!  I'm so pleased with how it turned out and plan to hang it outside today as we share celebrate our country's birthday with family.

To create my banner, I used the scalloped squares from Mini Monograms and added circles in the upper corners using Design Studio.  The circles were added for the ribbon used to tie everything together.  (I have noticed that the Celebrations cartridge has very similar squares with little circles in all four corners.  Those could also be used.)  I arranged the scalloped squares so that four could cut on a mat, so they are just shy of 6" each.  I used Pooh Font Set for the letters and hid the contour of the middle of the A letters in order to replace the centres with little maple leaves.  The maple leaves were cut from Create a Critter.  I also cut a larger leaf to go on one of the scalloped squares.  For the first square, I cut the sweet little beaver from Create a Critter.  I also cut a little red leaf for his front.  I used one of the leaves leftover from an A to go on that square as well. 

After gluing all the letters and images down, I turned the cards over.  I used a bit of tape to hold the ribbon in place at the back of each card so that they would remain 1" apart from each other.  I then alternated red and white tulle between each of the scalloped squares.  Voilà!  My banner was ready to go.  Now all I need is food, family and fun and we're good to celebrate!

Your next stop on the blog hop is Kerry's blog at MommaK Crafts.  Hop on over and see what she's got to show you!!

Now for my giveaway:  I am offering a brand new Stampin' Up Picture This acrylic stamp set to a random winner.  All you need to do is comment on this post.  If you are a follower of my blog, leave me a SECOND comment indicating as such in order to get a second entry.  Although this is a Canada Day, I am inviting my friends from all over the world to join our celebration!  Please leave a way for me to contact you should you be my lucky winner.  I will draw one name on Monday, July 5 from all entries received by Sunday, July 4 at midnight EST. 

(If you are in Canada and need a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, Mandy Reedyk is a fantastic creator who can sell to anybody across Canada.  She's full of wonderful advice and ideas - and makes a delicious chocolate chip cookie to boot!!  She's an expert on all things SU.  You can contact her through her website: Kids' Collage.)

Here is a list of the blog hop participants, in order, should you have missed one:
1. Heather at Princess' Paper Projects
2. Nicole at Canadian Nickel Scrapn
3. Tracey at The Cropping Canuck
4. Holly at Scrappily Ever After
5. Kate at Small Bits of Paper - That's me, so you are already here!
6. Kerri at MommaK Crafts
7. Amanda at Bella's Crafty Creations

If you have not yet had a chance to enter my CSN Giveaway, head to this post and enter now!

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Teacher Appreciation Cards

I can hardly believe that the school year has almost finished!  I made these cards for my children to give their teachers.

A few months ago, I bought the patterned TPC Papers at Michaels.   The solids are cardstock from my stash, with the exception of the red which is on the back of some Gartner's patterned paper.  I also used metallic cardstock for the apple stem and letters.

The apple was cut at 2.5 from Doodlecharms.  It is popped.  The inchies were cut from George and Basic Shapes (with a shadow) and I used Pooh Font Set for the letters.  I had to resize them in Design Studio in order to fit the inchies.  I embossed the top layer of the inchies with the centre of one of the flowers in my Cuttlebug Floral Fantasy folder.  I inked everything!

I will enter this card in this week's Cuttlebug Challenge ~ Inchie Projects

Don't forget about the Canada Day Blog Hop on July 1. 

Everybody is invited and there are some giveaways too!

And here's an outtake.  I was taking photos of the cards when our new little kitten jumped up on my table.  I couldn't resist posting the photo!

11

Graduation Card

I made this card for a friend of mine who will graduate from a Biotechnology Forensics program next week (BTF for short). I'm so proud of her. She worked for years as an electrician, but injury disabled her with respect to her profession so she decided to go back to school.

The "Congrats" with hat is a word art image from Tear Drop.  I used Pooh Font for BTF, but stretched the letters in Design Studio.  The corners were done with Jasmine.  I used Cuttlebug folders to emboss the letters for BTF and the corners.  If I made this card again, I would have chosen embossing folders that complemented each other a bit better than the ones I chose here.  I'm not happy with that aspect of the card.  I also added a brad and some threads for the tassel, and some gems on the corners.

This week at Cricut Cardz Challenge we were asked to use brads or eyelets on our creations.  Dads and Grads is the theme at The Cuttlebug Spot.  I'll post this card at both of those challenges.

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