Cricut Cardz Challenge #123 Banner Year

It's time for the first Cricut Cardz Challenge of 2013.  The challenge that Mary asked the Design Team to create around is A Banner Year.  Banners are hot in the design world right now and you can find them in all shapes and sizes.  In searching through my Cricut cartridges I found this adorable heart banner on the Jubilee cartridge.  One of my goals for this year (notice I didn't say resolution because I don't believe in the word, puts too much pressure on me) is to try to use some of my neglected cartridges.  I'm not even sure where or when I picked up the Jubilee cartridge.  It must have been on clearance somewhere because I don't typically buy font cartridges.  Anyway, I was surprised to see that it has some banners on it under the flag function key.  I just think this is an adorable cut and would be the perfect element to draw the eye into a clean and simple card.  I started with a base card of red Core'dinations premium smooth textured cardstock from Jo-Ann's.  Then I used my Cuttlebug hearts embossing folder on a piece of white cardstock and cut it to fit on the base card.  I wrapped some red and white twine around it before attaching it to the base card, tied a small bow and added a cute red heart button (Recollections from Michael's).  The banner is cut at 0.8".  I added the sentiment from the Cardz TV Stamps Happy Days set.  Voila, this card was complete in about 15 minutes.  

Cardz TV Stamps Baby Card

Happy New Year and welcome to my first blog post of 2013.  It was wonderful to have a little break from designing over the holidays.  Now it's time to get back to work.  For our first Cardz TV Stamps challenge of the year, Mary asked the Design Team to make a project with a new baby theme.  This couldn't have been more perfect for me.  We are going to be having a new baby join our family this year.  No, not me having a baby.  Too old for that.  LOL  We just found out at Christmas time that we will become great-grandparents this year.  Our oldest granddaughter is expecting a baby.  So with that in mind I created my "New Arrival" card.  Since we don't know the sex of the baby yet, I made the card gender neutral.  I found this adorable image of the sweet little bird ready to deliver a "special" package on the 3 Birds on Parade cartridge.  My papers are from My Mind's Eye Fine and Dandy 6x6 paper stack.  My image is cut at 3.25".  For my sentiment I cut a label from the pre-loaded images on my Cricut Imagine.  The label is cut at 1.2".  I used the Cardz TV Stamps Sweet Talk set for the Sweet Baby sentiment.  Before I placed the elements on the card I added a piece of self-adhesive lace from Recollections to the front of the card.  The elements are popped up with one layer of dimensional foam.  For a finishing touch I added two peach colored bow buttons that I found in my stash.  On the inside of the card I used the sentiment I Wish You Love! from the Cardz TV Stamps More Encouraging Thoughts set.

Come play along at Cardz TV and link your card up there for a chance to win a set of Cardz TV Stamps.

The Cutting Cafe Front Door Shaped Card

This is my favorite Christmas card I made this year from The Cutting Cafe Front Door Shaped Card set.  This is the featured set the Design Team is using this week at The Cutting Cafe Blog.  This set features a shaped card that fits in a business size envelope, 22 sentiments and lots of assorted accessories for the door from wreaths to bows.  I modeled my door after the door of our house that we sold last year.  It was this same dark rich red color with a brass kickplate at the bottom.  I decked my door out for the Christmas holiday with a wreath and topiary cut from a dark green polka dot paper from my current favorite 6x6 paper pad from Recollections called Holly Day Wishes.  I used kraft cardstock for the bows and kickplate.  I inked around all the edges of my pieces with Colorbox Charcoal Chalk Ink.  This card will go to my BFF back in Michigan.  I wanted to make a special card for her so she would know how important she is to me.  even though we are many miles apart for the holidays.  I think this card fits the bill perfectly.  The circular sentiment around the wreath says Happy Holidays From Our Home to Yours.  I hope you'll find the time to visit The Cutting Cafe blog on Wednesday to see the rest of the Design Team's projects.

Cardz TV Stamps I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Holy cow, can you believe it's only two weeks until Christmas?  Where, oh where, has this year gone?  All the presents are bought, wrapped and in the mail.  Sadly we won't be with our family this year because they are all in other states than we are.   Lest you think, I worked my fingers to the bone shopping for five kids and nine grandkids, I'll tell you they all got gift cards.  Well, not all.  I insist on buying gifts for the three youngest (1 1/2, 3 and 6 yrs. old).  They want to see the box under the tree and unwrap it.  All the others in the family are teens and adults.  Believe me, the teens just want cash.  I know it's a huge disappointment to get a gift card.  I still feel like I should have some control.  LOL

Not long ago I was in Target checking all the end caps for clearanced items (big bargain hunter that I am) and found a bunch of red bags with blue handles.  Immediately I knew I could use them for Christmas with my two Christmas paper pads (s-e-i and My Mind's Eye) which both have lots of blue and red in them.  The exciting part was the bags were clearanced to 17 cents.  I bought a stack of them to alter and this is one of them.  For our Cardz TV Stamps assignment this week Mary has the theme I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas and we had to use snow, snowflakes or a snowman.  I combined all three elements on the giftbag.  I used my Cricut Imagine and the Mr. Frosty paper printing cartridge along with the Winter Frolic cartridge.  I started with a background stripe from My Mind's Eye sized to fit the bag with a small bit of red border showing around the edges.  Then I cut a scalloped oval at 7"--the shadow in white and the top with one of the patterned papers from the Mr. Frosty cartridge that has ribbons of blue and white with snowflakes on it.  Next I cut the trees at 3.5" and the snowman and his layers at 4".  I added a few black buttons on the front as well as a small pompom for the top of his hat.  Last but not least I added the little mouse with the gift to my scene.  He's cut at 2".  Every giftbag needs a tag so I used the tag feature on the Winter Frolic cartridge to make a matching mouse tag.  I used the Cardz TV Stamps Christmas Joy stamp set to add the To and From that are stamped on it and tied it on with a big red gingham bow.

The Cutting Cafe-Winter Bingo

This week for The Cutting Cafe the Design Team is featuring projects using the Winter Bingo Printable Stamp Set.  With Christmas only days away I decided to use the set to make some holiday tags for gifts.  These were so quick and easy to make using two tags I cut from white cardstock and one cut from a scrap of patterned paper with my Cricut Tags, Bags Boxes and More cartridge.  I simply cut off the bottom inch of the patterned paper and attached the top portion to the white cardstock tag. The patterned paper is double sided so a took a narrow strip of red from the back side and attached it to separate the print from the white.   I printed the mini bingo card onto a scrap of blue cardstock and attached it to the tag.  Using a Cardz TV Stamps set I stamped the To: and From: on the tag and then added a stamped star from the same stamp set for a little embellishment.  For the snowman tag I simply printed the snowman from the Winter Bingo set right onto the tag.  I printed it a second time onto a scrap of red paper and then I paper pieced the scarf.  I colored in the nose with an orange Copic marker.  Then I ran the tag through my printer again to add the Happy Holidays sentiment included in the Bingo set to the bottom of the tag.  Finally, I added three small black buttons to the front of the snowman.  I especially like how the snowman tag came out.  Of course, I'm a snowmanaholic, so I'm a little partial.  LOL  It took me only minutes to make both tags.  Thanks for stopping by today and make sure you head over to The Cutting Cafe Blog on Wednesdays for more ideas on how to put the Winter Bingo set to use.

Cricut Cardz Challenge # 122 'Tis the Season

For this week's Cricut Cardz Challenge on Cardz TV Mary asked the design team to make a card using the CARD FEATURE from any cartridge for a Christmas card.  I used the Christmas Cheer cartridge and used the placecard function.  Are you wondering how I ended up with a square card when it's a rectangular cut on the cartridge?  Simple I cut it at 8" and then cut it in half.  This gave me two 4x4" cards, the one with the Christmas tree cutout and the other is just a square to use for another card (Nov. 1st Cardz TV I'm so Thankful post).  I added a green polka dot print behind the tree cut out which is from a Simple Stories 6x6 Christmas stack from last year.  The star on top of the tree is from Cardz TV Stamp Set Christmas Joy.  I stamped it onto a scrap of gold paper and cut it out to place atop the tree.  Then I cut a strip of multi patterned paper (also from the Simple Stories stack) and trimmed the edges of each pattern differently with my scissors.  I took another element from the stack to stamp my sentiment on and attached the two pieces together on the left side of the card after adding a little twine and a button.  The sentiment came from the Cardz TV Stamps Home For Christmas Stamp Set.  Another quick and easy Christmas card.

The Cutting Cafe Word Shaped Card

This week at The Cutting Cafe we're featuring word shaped Christmas cards.  Obviously, I've used the word NOEL Shaped Card.  During the Black Friday sales and a trip to Michael's I was so excited to find some new 6x6" paper pads by Recollections.  I fell in love with the Holly Day Wishes pad which features reds, greens, browns, adorable prints and some darling tag elements to add to cards.  The stack is perfect to use with kraft cardstock so that's what I used for my base card.  Then I cut the individual letters from patterned papers in the stack.  I fussy cut the little Christmas presents from one of the prints in the stack and added them to the bottom corner.  The cute little polka dot paper that I used for the holly leaves came from a second stack in the Recollections set called Sugar Plums.  I hope you'll have the chance to check out the rest of the word shaped cards from the Design Team this week at The Cutting Cafe Blog.  I'm saying an extra special prayer of thanks today for being able to post my photo.  I've been having problems with Blogger for two weeks and I have no clue what made it work today, but I'll take whatever I get at this point.  I'm hoping to have a new blog going by the first of the year to solve my posting issues.  Thanks so much for coming by today.