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.