MY SINCERE APOLOGIES

I have been having problems with Blogger and I'm unable to load any photos.  I have paid to upgrade my photo storage and I'm still unable to add photos to my blog.  After the holidays I will be starting a new blog to alleviate this problem.  I hope you'll see my creations on Cardz TV Stamps and The Cutting Cafe Blog. 

Cricut Cardz Challenge #121 Speaking of Christmas

It's time for a new challenge at Cricut Cardz on Cardz TV.  Mary asked the Design Team to create a card with the theme Speaking of Christmas.  We had to use a Christmas word or phrase from any cartridge.  I used my go to, favorite font cartridge, Plantin' Schoolbook to make my word.  I also used the Joys of the Season cartridge for my snowflake and my Christmas ornament (letter O).  I decided that I wanted to make a long, narrow card so I cut my base card from white cardstock at 7.5"x8.5" and scored in half on the 7.5" side.  This card fits in a business size envelope.  I cut a mat of red and topped it with a beautiful patterned glitter SEI paper with blue and red dots  This is from a winter stack from two years ago.  I love the blue and red theme for Christmas.  I recently went to a local store and saw a Christmas tree all done up in blues and reds.  It was so gorgeous.  Next I cut three rounded corner squares from the Mini Monograms cartridge at 2.25" and ran them through my Cuttlebug using a Sizzix folder.  I cut the snowflake from a coordinating blue cardstock at 2" and added a clear rhinestone to the center.  My letters (J and Y) are cut at 1.75" from Plantin' Schoolbook with the Roly Poly feature button on.  The ornament is also cut at 1.75" from a coordinating red patterned paper.  I added some clear rhinestones around the edges on the ornament and embellished with a bow.  I added a small tag onto the letter Y that I cut from Tags, Bags, Boxes and More at .75" then I printed the word JOY on it.  This word is from The Cutting Cafe Christmas Mini Words printable stamp set.  I think this card came out so elegant and can't wait to send it out to one of my friends back in Michigan.  I suddenly realize how many Christmas cards I still need to get made.  So much to do, so little time.  I hope you'll be able to find some time to create a card with a word or phrase and join our challenge this week.  You can link your card up using Mr. Linky on the Cardz TV blog.

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday weekend.  Will you shop 'til you drop on Friday?  I'm planning a trip to Michael's on Thanksgiving evening to look for some Cricut cartridges.  I'm hoping to pick up Create a Critter2.  I've been there a couple times and haven't found it yet.  Maybe they're holding them back for the holiday shoppers.  I can always order it online if I don't find it.  Blessings to you and your family and be safe if you're traveling.

Cardz TV Stamps Scene It

Our theme for this week's Cardz TV Stamps challenge is Scene It.  Mary asked the DT to create a project for Thanksgiving or Christmas with a scene on it.  I've wanted to make this card since buying the Cricut Christmas Card cartridge when it first came out.  Not sure how long it's been, definitely long enough to have made this card before now.  But alas, I'm just getting to it.  I put my own little touch to it by embossing a piece of white cardstock, inking with a little creamy brown chalk ink and adding it for the snow.  I used one of Mary's newest sets, Fall Fun for my sentiment.  I thought "over the river and through the woods" was the perfect sentiment to go with my scene.  I hope you'll play along with our challenge by creating your own scene.  This challenge will run from today, Friday, through next Thursday, November 22nd and you can share your project with us using Mr. Linky on the Cardz TV blog.

The Cutting Cafe Snowflake Huge Circle-Fun with Frosty

This week at The Cutting Cafe Blog the Design Team is featuring projects made with several Cutting Cafe files to inspire your winter designs.  Regina asked the Team to use the Fun with Snowflakes , Snowflake Kisses Treat Box or Snowflake Huge Circle sets.  I used the Snowflake Huge Circle Set and an older Cafe set called Fun with Frosty.  My base card is a scalloped circle card shape that I cut with my Cricut Birthday Bash cartridge.  I added a dark red circle then printed the snowflake frame circle from the Snowflake Huge Circle set on a pretty blue paper from last year's SEI winter paper collection.  Next I printed my snowman from the Fun with Frosty set.  I paper pieced his hat and scarf using scraps of SEI glittered paper.  I colored Frosty's nose and heart with my Copics then added some crystal Stickles to the hat for some added sparkle.  I embellished each snowflake on the huge circle with a small clear rhinestone for a little more bling.  I printed the sentiment from the Huge Circle set and matted it with another piece of the blue.  I used pop dots on the back of the sentiment for some dimension.  I know you'll get lots of inspiration on The Cutting Cafe Blog from the rest of the Design Team so head on over and take a look.

Cricut Cardz Challenge #120 An Attitude of Gratitude

I have two projects to share with you today. This week at Cricut Cardz Challenge on Cardz TV the theme is An Attitude of Gratitude.  Mary asked the DT to make a card for Thanksgiving expressing gratitude.  I made this card to send to one of my aunts.  It's a very simple and basic card.  I used the Plantin' Schoolbook cartridge for my sentiment.  This tends to be my go to cartridge for a font.  I don't really have many font cartridges (they always seem like a bit of a waste of money to me).  I usually use PS or I'll use Gypsy Font if I want more of a handwriting look.  My letters were cut at 1" from white cardstock.  I used a plaid strip of scrap which came from a Simple Stories stack.  I love Simple Stories 6x6 paper pads.  I use them a lot in a scrapping/journaling brag book (below) because they have lots of little elements that are great additions, like the little heart I added.  Adding the strip at the bottom made it easier to line up the letters straight.  Nothing to this card, quick and easy. 

My second project I'm sharing today is the cover of my gratitude journal.  I started this journal last year when my husband and I sold our home and started to live full time in our RV and travel.  We have so much to be thankful for.  Not many people get the opportunity to travel as we've done for the last year and a half so I wanted to document our journey.  I found this Fancy Pants Designs Brag Book when we were in North Carolina last year visiting our daughter in Raleigh.  It was just the perfect book with 50 scrapping/journaling pages, 15 two slot photo sleeves (to hold 60 pictures) and 15 pocket pages for memorabilia from our travels.  The front cover came blank to decorate.  I used my Cricut Imagine for this project and the Imagine More cartridge.  The background paper, border strips on the left, banner, and the two frames were all printed and cut from this cartridge.  The word Gratitude was a cut from the Sophisticated cartridge.  I added some button embellishments to the flags on the banner and a small stickpin with a picture of a camper on it.

 

I hope you'll have the opportunity to play along with our Cricut Cardz Challenge on Cardz TV expressing an Attitude of Gratitude.  This is a great opportunity for you to get some of your Thanksgiving cards made.  You'll see lots of inspiration from the Design Team this week to get you started.  Thanks for coming by today.

BBTB2 Circle Creation

This week at BBTB2 we are designing projects with the simplest of shapes, the circle.  Do you have any idea all the things you can create with the basic circle shape?  If not, you must check out the amazing designs from the DT.  All I have to say is, thank goodness I took a picture of my creation as soon as I finished making it, because this card no longer exists.  My dog, Trueman, ate it.  Yes, you read that correctly, my dog ate it.  All that was left when he was done was two tiny buttons, the gingham ribbon and larger button.  My normally all around good dog has one nasty habit.  He gets mad when we leave him alone and to punish us he looks for paper to eat.  He has eaten $20, a Netflix movie (he was just trying to eat the paper envelope, the movie was a bonus), scrapbook layouts, newspaper, bills.  We always try to look around for anything he can get before we go out.  My card must have fallen off the counter I had it sitting on and gone under the dining table where it was camouflaged against the wood floor.  We came home from shopping and there in the middle of the living room rug was something obviously chewed up.  At first I thought it might be a leaf from my plant sitting by the patio doorwall.  Nope, not a leaf, but my snowman card.  Dang dog.

At least it was a card that was easy to replace and not something too fancy.  I started with a circle cut from Plantin' Schoolbook.  Since I can't measure it, as it's not here, I'm going to go from memory and say it's cut around 2.5".  The tophat is cut from the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge.  It was a considerably larger cut, maybe 5".  I nipped a little corner off a piece of orange cardstock for his nose.  Then added small black buttons for his eyes and mouth.  I cut a small piece of red gingham ribbon and frayed the edges and placed it under the snowman's head with a larger button on top of it.  My sentiment is from Cardz TV Stamps Snow Day stamp set. 

The Cutting Cafe Turkey Shaped Card

Isn't this just the most adorable turkey ever?  At The Cutting Cafe Blog this week the entire DT is creating with this fun file called Turkey Shaped Card from The Cutting Cafe store.  It comes with the folded turkey shaped base card, top shape and all the body pieces (head, body, feathers, gobbler and hat) as well as sentiments.  It comes in PDF, SVG and WPC forms for cutting.  As you can see I paper pieced my turkey.  I started with a base card from white cardstock.  On top of that I added the card top out of kraft cardstock then added my orange patterned feather layer.  This paper is from the Bo Bunny Apple Cider collection.  Next I added his body piece that is a Simple Stories Harvest Lane paper.  His gobbler (I know there is a more specific name for that piece that hangs by the neck, but I like calling it the gobbler) is a scrap from the Simple Stories stack, also.  I cut the face from kraft cardstock and added a Peachy Keen face.  I thought that expression was saying "no not me, I don't want to be Thanksgiving dinner".  I colored in the mouth with a Copic marker and added some white to his eyes with a white gel pen.  His hat is cut from a scrap of My Mind's Eye Halloween stack from last year called Mischievous.  As the finishing touch I added a little flag on a stick pin to his hat and used the Eat Ham sentiment from the set.  I just love how he turned out.  Thanks for stopping by here today.  I hope you'll visit The Cutting Cafe Blog on Wednesday to see the fabulous turkeys from the rest of the DT.

Cardz TV Stamps I'm so Thankful

This week at Cardz TV Stamps Mary asked the DT to create a Thanksgiving card with the theme I'm so Thanksful.  There is really no way to say how blessed I am and all the things I'm thankful for--So Thankful!  I could probably fill a whole ream of paper listing all the things I'm grateful for. One of the things I am most grateful for is my friendship with Mary and the privilege of designing with her Cardz TV Stamps.  For my card today I used the Thankful for You Stamp Set.  Sometimes when I'm making cards I think nothing should be more prominent than the sentiment.  A lot of times the embellishments kind of take over.  Sometimes less is more as the saying goes.  My base card is a 4" square of kraft cardstock topped with a 3.75" square of patterned paper from the Simple Stories 6x6 Harvest Lane stack.  I used a scrap from the same stack for the dark strip behind the sentiment frame.  The frame was cut and printed with my Cricut Imagine using the Imagine More cartridge.  Then I centered the So Thankful sentiment and stamped it with Momento Rich Cocoa ink.