A great new card challenge site has arrived. 
I can't stay out of my design studio, even on a holiday. So I have a real quick card today for Papertake Weekly (http://papertakeweekly.blogspot.com ) and Charisma Cardz (http://www.charismacardz.blogspot.com/) challenges for Christmas cards. I actually used last week's sketch from Stamps and Smiles. This little house came from Cricut's Joys of the Season cartridge. I cut it at 4" three times, once each from yellow, green and kraft brown cardstock. Then I just layered the pieces together. The wreath on the house is a Quick Kutz die. I computer generated my sentiment with Word Art and placed it on a banner cut from Cricut's Christmas Cheer cartridge. Quick, easy and fast. The only embellishment I added were two red pearls on the banner.
What image reflects the bounties of the season more than a cornucopia? This cornucopia cut comes from Cricut's Paper Doll Dress Up. The pie is also from PDDU. I continue to see the versatility of this cartridge. There are so many images other than paper dolls. I also used A Child's Year cartridge for the table. I trimmed the table from the whole image which has a child sitting at a table for tea. Then I used a paper doily to get the lace tablecloth look I wanted. I used some light brown ColorBox chalk ink to distress the edges of the doily just a little. My background dp is from K&Company's Tim Coffey Designer mat pad. I just love K&Company papers and the mat pads are great to use on cards. The paper in this pad is double-sided. 
I cut all the fruit for the cornucopia from white paper then used my Copics to color the fruit in appropriate colors. I added a little glitter onto the fruit for a little sparkle. I used foam dots to pop both the pie and the cornucopia for a little dimension. My sentiment came from 
The Cricut Cardz Challenge this week was to make a Christmas card with the colors pink, green and white. I knew that I would use my Imaginisce two-sided paper called Santa's Secret Garden. One side is green with pink poinsettias and the other side is white with pink poinsettias, making it the PERFECT paper for this challenge. I used white for my base card and topped it with a solid shimmery green. Then I cut two strips from the patterned paper at 1 1'2"using the light side for the top strip and the green side for the bottom strip. I found a piece of pink textured cardstock with a white core from my stash and cut two squares at 2 1/2" using my Plantin' Schoolbook cartridge. I embossed them with the Divine Swirls Cuttlebug embossing folder then sanded them lightly to expose the white core. I cut a 2 1/2" square of white cardstock and embossed it with the Swiss Dot embossing folder. I ran Colorbox Chalk Ink in Rose Coral over the top to make the dots stand out. My poinsettia in the middle of the white square is from the Joys of the Season cartridge. I cut it from the pink cardstock twice at 2" and once from green cardstock so I could layer. Then I cut another pink layer at 1 1/2".
I layered with foam dots for dimension. I added MS fine crystal glitter to the edges of the pink flowers and used pearls for the center of the flower. I used a simple sheer green ribbon for a bow. 
With Thanksgiving just days away so many challenge sites are looking for Thanks cards. This card fits the bill for the following:My image is from Squigglefly, one of my favorite digital image sources. (I think this image is called My Cart Runneth Over). Instead of using my Copics, I used colored pencils to color my turkey. The sketch I used was this week's from Lord Have Mercy. I used light brown, dark brown and white cardstock. My pumpkin colored print paper with leaves is from Recollections Autumn stack. I printed the word Thankful on my computer with Word Art. I embellished with an orange flower and button from my stash.
This is the first chance I've had in awhile to participate in the Crafts 4 Eternity sketch challenge. (http://crafts4eternity.blogspot.com) Between design commitments and teaching papercraft and Cricut classes life has been busy. The sketch this week really called out to me so I whipped this card up. Not only did you have to follow the sketch, you had to have a snowman and use cotton/or wool. The print papers on this card are DCWV scraps from my stash. If I don't start using some of my scraps I'm going to need another paper rack in my design studio. Is it just me or does anyone else save all their scraps?
This little snowman and the sentiment are Studio G stamps. He needed a little sparkle so I added MS onyx glitter to his scarf. I colored the litte stars he's holding with a gold MS glitter pen. My "snow" is just part of a cotton ball, but it's real cotton and not the synthetic balls. My poor skin can't take those synthetic ones. I just added three white snowflake brads for embellishments. 
I knew when I saw the sketch challenge at The Pink Elephant this week that I had to play along. It's been awhile since I made a round card and I had the urge. I cut my card to be 5 1/4" from my Cricut Wild Card cartridge. My patterned paper is from Pebbles Inc. It is double-sided and called Snow Fun Tiny Flakes/Stripe. My digital image is from Sweet n' Sassy and is called Sweet Cocoa/ Sweet Cocoa Sentiments. I used Copics to color him in.
I punched the digi stamp out with a 3" circle punch. I used a blue cardstock circle cut from Cricut Plantin' Schoolbook at 3 3/4" to back my image. That left enough room on the blue cardstock for placement of my snowflakes. These darling little snowflakes are the leftovers from using an EK Success Snowflake border punch. I couldn't bring myself to throw them away because they were so perfect. I knew I would find a way to use them somewhere. I placed a clear rhinestone in the center of each snowflake to add a little sparkle. I will also enter this card in three other challenges:
I just love all the great gift container ideas I get from Project Tuesday's site. This little peekaboo box is just darling. They always have a link to get the tutorial for the featured project and they're always easy to follow and understand. I'm such a visual person, I couldn't do it without the pictures. This went together in about 20 minutes (and I don't even have a Scor-Pal). The paper that I used for these boxes is from Me & my big ideas called Venice and it's double-sided. 
I used a scalloped circle punch for my peekaboo opening because it was the closest I had to the needed size(1 3/8"). My sentiment is from The Cutting Cafe's Kitchen set (http://www.thecuttingcafe.typepad.com/). I backed it with a scalloped circle I cut from my Cricut Mini Monograms cartridge at 2" with real size on. This box was just the perfect size for five Hershey Miniatures. I put silver and gold bars in this box but I will make some boxes in Christmas colors to use up the red and green bars from the bag. If I don't make them up right away I will sit and eat the rest of the bag myself. What can I say, chocolate is my one vice.
Cricut's A Child's Year is becoming one of my favorite cartridges. I used it last week for my Christmas Tea card and went to it again this week. I don't know about anyone else but I can't remember all the cuts that are on each cartridge I have. Every once in awhile I discover cuts I didn't know were there. While looking through the entries this week for CCC's challenge I came across Sarah's housewarming card she made for a friend using the Don Juan cartridge. I had no clue there was a house on that cartridge. I had to get it out to look--and sure enough--there it was. So my discovery from A Child's Year this week was my card cut. Sometimes you get so used to making rectangular or square cards you don't think of any other shape. While looking for a turkey to put on my Thanksgiving card I found my card shape right next to the turkey image on page 54 of the cartridge booklet. I cut my card from brown kraft paper Fit to Length 10" so when I folded it I would have a height of 5". I used the same cut for the little turkey poem to go on. It's cut at 2 1/2". I used my computer to generate the poem then printed it onto my shape and did a little doodling around the edge. It's hanging from a brown check ribbon with a brown button tied with hemp cord for the center.
My turkey on this card came from Stretch Your Imagination. He is cut at 3 1/2" from a scrap of brown print paper and shadowed with dark brown cardstock. My background turkey print paper is from Reminisce and called Turkey Trot. I fancied this turkey up for the holiday with some rhinestones. My turkey poem is something I picked up while working in elementary education and always thought was cute. It goes along with those handprint turkeys little ones always like to make.
When I saw the Bitten By The Bug challenge this week I thought, how can I possibly think of a card design using a grass cut when I'm sitting in Michigan a breath away from the falling of snow and winter. Sorry Regina, what can I say, I don't live in California with the warm sunshine and the green grass right now. I neverrrrrr toot my own horn, I'm a pretty modest person and not very confident or braggy (I don't think that's a word). But I'm thinking I'm quite the genius this week turning my grass cuts into hanging icicles. And my igloo--do you know what it is? It's the turtle's shell from Walk In My Garden. The funny thing about this grass cut from WIMG, I couldn't find it. I looked through that cartridge booklet five times before I found it. I glittered my card silly for the Cute Card Thursday challenge. I'm also entering this card in the Allsorts challenge for a kid's card since it's going to my good friend's little daughter. For the Saturday Challenge my card is obviously the season of winter. I cut my grass icicles at 1/2" and 1" outlined in a cool grey Copic then glittered. My background paper is from last year's DCWV holiday stack.
As I said the igloo is the turtle shell cut from Cricut's WIMG. I cut it at 2 1/2" from white cardstock then cut it again on blackout from blue cardstock to put under the white. I used a cool grey Copic marker to define each block then put glue on top of it then glittered with MS fine crystal glitter. The door is the same turtle shell cut at 1" on blackout. I used a dark grey Copic to outline. This little polar bear is from the Joys of the Season cartridge cut at 1". I outlined again with grey copic. Instead of putting glitter on the little guy I used Fun Flock, though it doesn't show up well in the photo. For his eye I used a small black rhinestone. I used foam dots to pop both the igloo and the polar bear. The last great touch for this card is my version of Flower Soft that I learned to make courtesy of Holly at Squigglefly. By grating two pieces of styrofoam together and adding some course glitter for sparkle this is what you get, fake snow. Pretty cool, huh! The sentiment is a Studio G stamp, I used Colorbox Chalk Ink in Blue Iris. I love how this card turned out and I hope you all enjoy it, too.
This is the first easel card I have made. It was super simple, nothing to it. My base card is a 5" square of kraft cardstock. I scored the front at 2 1/2" then added a 5" square of kraft paper and attached it to the bottom 2 1/2" section on the card front. It folds at that score line to make the "easel" effect. You have to add something on the inside of the card for the front to stop at when it's folded. I just used two yellow brads at the corners of the design paper (DCWV) I attached to a piece of 5" square white cardstock on the inside. 
For the front of the card I used Cricut's Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge for my pilgrim children. My little people are cut at 2 1/2". Then I just layered all their clothes and accessories from the cartridge. I haven't had this cartridge very long. It's been out for quite some time but I just didn't think it was one I would use very much. Boy, was I wrong. There is so much stuff on this cartridge besides the dolls. I just realized when I was making this card that you can add tabs to all the doll clothes then you would have paper dolls. My 3 year old granddaughter is a little young for paper dolls but it won't be long before she'll think they're a lot of fun. My sentiment for this card is part of the Autumn Days digital stamp set from The Cutting Cafe (http://thecuttingcafe.typepad.com/). I printed it on the kraft paper at 100%. Then I printed it again at 90% on white paper. I cut the white to fit on top of the kraft paper for an instant border. The border at the top of the card is a Fiskars punch topped with a self-adhesive strip of brown ribbon. I added two gold leaves at each corner. 
This cute little triangle box is perfect for miniature candy canes or peppermints. This week's challenge at Project Tuesday provided the directions. I used this cute candy cane print from Me & My Big Ideas Christmas stack. Then I cut a stocking with my Cricut Christmas Cheer cartridge at 4". I used Fun Flock for the "fur" trim at the top of the stocking. The candy cane sticking out of the top is something I found at the day after Christmas sale last year at Target. Yes, I'm one of those people out bright and early the day after Christmas just so I can get goodies like this. The ribbon was another goody I found at Walmart. How perfect that I had candy cane ribbon to go with my candy cane paper. Couldn't have planned it better if I tried.
This was a really fun and easy project. It took me about twenty minutes to put it together. So it wouldn't be a bad project to do for a classroom of kids. Of course, I'm not in the classroom anymore because I retired. But I'm sure some teacher or mom is going to find this a great idea.
This, oh so cute, image was a freebie from Peggy Loves Vintage. I just fell in love with it when I saw it. I followed the Friday Sketchers sketch for this 5" square card. I added bling and lots of sparkle for the Allsorts challenge. I have the recipe from Stamp Something--one ribbon, two papers, and three embellishments (rhinestones, ribbon, sparkle button). And last, my sparkly ribbon and gems for the Creative Card Crew challenge. My background paper is Winter Blue Words from The Paper Studio and my sparkly scalloped circle is DCWV. The background snowflake is cut from Cricut's Joys of the Season at 4". I added lots of Martha Stewart clear coarse glitter for sparkle.
On the image itself I added some MS Fine crystal glitter, used a MS glitter pen in red to highlight the red stripes of the candy cane and the bow around the dogs neck, added 5 small clear rhinestones, and some dimensional glaze 3-D ink on a few of the snowflakes. My sentiment is from The Cutting Cafe.
This little penguin from the Cricut Joys of the Season cartridge is soooo adorable. I was really glad when I saw the Bitten By The Bug challenge this week was to use it. When I saw the sketch this week from Sketch Saturday I knew I wanted to put these two challenges together. The cute little penguins that I made inchies with are from last year's Debbie Mumm holiday stack. The printed background paper is from that same stack. I sure am making headway on my Christmas cards this year by incorporating challenges into the process. Yes, I admit, I'm hooked on them. My penguin is cut at 3" and I cut him twice. Once out of white and once out of black so I could layer. I shadowed the penguin with brown craft paper. I chalked the white layer a little to give some definition. I used a punch to cut the inchie penguins and put them on scalloped square cut from Cricut's Mini Monogram cartridge.
Can you guess what cartridge the Santa hat came from? If you guessed Paper Doll Dress Up you're right. I just broke down and bought this cartridge a couple weeks ago. I can't believe how versatile it is. There are so many other things on this cartridge besides dolls, though they are the main attraction. I cut the hat twice, from red and white then layered them. I apologize for the poor lighting on this photo. I waited too late in the day to take the pics so my room is dark. As a result, the fun flock I added on the hat doesn't show up very well. But it's really cute in real life. My sentiment on this card is a stamp from Hampton Art. A little ribbon and rick rack for embellishment. The penguin eyes are black pearl dots and I added a little bow with a black button center.
