Cricut Cardz Challenge We're So Thankful

It's time for a new Cricut Cardz Challenge on Cardz TV.  This week Mary asked the DT to show "We're So Thankful" cards and use a card feature from any cartridge.  I used the Thanksgiving solution cartridge from last year.  This scalloped edge card is actually supposed to be a placecard I think.  I adjusted the size using my Gypsy and turned it into a 4x6.5" card.  I used patterned papers from Recollection.  My base card is kraft cardstock.  I cut the Give Thanks at 3.5".  I embellished with two leaf buttons and an acorn button.  We'd love for you to join the challenge and show us how you're thankful using any cartridge with a card feature.  Remember to make a new creation to enter the challenge.

The Cutting Cafe Jot It Down

This week at The Cutting Cafe the Design Team is highlighting Regina's  Jot It Down printable stamp set.  This set features 43 images that are perfect for scrapbook pages and cards.  There are some great images for journaling.  Now that we're settled in our RV at our winter destination I've had time to start several projects that I've had brewing around in my little brain.  I've started a journal that will highlight our lives while living full time in our RV.  Of course, I had to start the journal with the picture of my husband and I on the last day of our life in our home where we raised our five children and lived for over twenty years.  We wouldn't be living our dream if we hadn't sold our house so it seemed the fitting place to start.  I'm using a really great scrapbook/journal that I found at an Archver's store in Raleigh, North Carolina while we were there visiting our daughter.  It's called a Brag Book by Fancy Pants Designs. It has a customizable cover, 50 kraft paper scrapbook/journaling pages, 15-2 slot photo protectors (holds up to 60 4x6 photos), and 5 pocket folder pages for storing memorabilia.  Fantastic!  I used recollections patterned paper for my background.  My title word block and large black arrow were cut from Cricut's Graphically Speaking cartridge.  I printed the two Jot It Down journaling pieces on yellow polka dot paper.  It took me about 30 minutes to complete this page. 

I'll be adding pages to this journal from our travels, visits with family along the way and time spent in our winter destination of Lakeland, Florida.  We've been here two weeks now and we're loving everything about it so far.  Thanks so much for stopping by today and thank you for your sweet comments.  They mean so much to me.

Amazing News

My life is so truly blessed!  Today I got the news that I will be a member of Mary's Cardz TV first ever Design Team.  If you haven't had the chance to check out Mary's new line of high quality photopolymer stamps you can see them here.  I'm so excited to be chosen to help Mary show off her stamps.  I've had the opportunity to work with Mary now for a few years.  She gave me my very first DT job and then I went on to be her Cricut Cardz Team #1 Design Coordinator.  I can't wait to start creating with her fabulous stamp sets.  Fun, fun fun!  Head on over to Cardz TV so you can check out the rest of my talented teammates.

BBTB2 Heritage Accent 9

This week's challenge at BBTB2 is to use Accent 9 from the Heritage cartridge.  I decided to use it along with the lampost and lantern from the same cartridge.  I simply cut off the hook that the lantern was on, replaced it with the accent and then added the lantern on the end.  I cut the candle from the Sweet Treats cartridge and colored it with Copics.  I added a little sparkle to the flame with an orange Spica pen.  My background is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder called Snowflake Flourish.  This folder was part of a Christmas set offered on HSN a couple years ago.  To give it a little sparkle I highlighted the embossing with a glue pen and then added Martha Stewart Crystal Fine glitter.  Each snowflake has a pearl in the center.  My circle sentiment is from The Cutting Cafe.  This photo does not do the card justice, you can't see the glitter and sparkle.  We had a rare cloudy, rainy day here in Florida and I just could not get a decent picture, so I apologize for that.  But, I'll take a warm, rainy day in Florida rather than the cold, raw rain I'd be getting if I was still in Michigan.  It seems strange that it's November.  We left Michigan at the beginning of September when it was still warm so I feel like it's still summer time.  We have discovered that it cools off nicely at night and then warms up nicely during the day.  We're sure loving it here and are starting to think about getting a place that's a little more permanent.  Not a house, mind you.  I'm still not missing my house at all and I like living in my beautiful RV.  We're thinking about a second RV that would just stay in Florida and the one we have now we'll take back up to Michigan in the spring and leave it there.  Just a thought, nothing firm yet.  We are getting very excited because we have children and grandchildren arriving on Thursday.  We will be taking our camper over to DisneyWorld and staying right on the Disney property at Fort Wilderness.  I can't wait to see my two little granddaughters and take them to the Magic Kingdom.  Yippee, a whole ten days to visit with them.  I'm a kid at heart when it comes to DisneyWorld.  I love it there.

The Cutting Cafe-Huge Circle Words

This week at The Cutting Cafe Regina asked the Design Team to create with any of her huge circle printable stamps.  I used the So Thankful Circle Word Printable Stamp Set to make some placecards for Thanksgiving.  This set comes with 20 images--10 huge circle words and 10 straight sentiments.  In just a couple weeks my daughter, son-in-law and two granddaughters Paige and Payton will be coming to Florida to celebrate Payton's 5th birthday at DisneyWorld.  We are so very excited to meet up with them there.  We haven't seen the kids since mid-August when we left Michigan.  We are going to take our camper and stay right on the Disney property at Fort Wilderness.  I'm a kid at heart and I just love DisneyWorld.  I can't wait.  Anyway, we are going to celebrate an impromptu Thanksgiving with them while they are here, mostly to appease my husband.  This will be the first time ever that we aren't with family over the holidays and it is really bothering him.  Me, not so much.  I made these little placecards for the table.  I thought Payton would get a big kick out of them.  I cut 4" squares from kraft cardstock for the base and scored them in the middle.  Then I used my Cricut Mini Monograms cartridge to cut a scalloped circle from Bazzill Dotted orange cardstock.  I cut the circle in half and used one on each placecard.  Then I printed the huge Give Thanks circle words onto kraft cardstock and cut it in half and placed each half on the scalloped circle.  I used these cute turkeys on mini clothespins to clip on each corner.  I found them at World Market when I was visiting my daughter in Raleigh, NC.  Aren't they fun?  They came in a package of six which is just the exact amount I needed for our family Thanksgiving dinner.  I finished the placecards off with a little doodling using a white gel pen.  I hope this little project shows you another way to use the huge circle words.  I think they turned out so darn cute!

Thanks so very much for stopping by today.  Make sure you head over to The Cutting Cafe Blog on Wednesday so you can see the fabulous creations from the rest of the DT.  Good stuff, I tell ya!

Bitten By The Bug2 Ghost challenge

Happy Halloween!!!  Not only is it Halloween but it's Monday and time for a new BBTB2 challenge.  Not only is it challenge day but it's the last Monday of the month so it's time for our monthly blog hop.  You should have arrived here from Carri's blog.  If not, you'll probably want to start at the beginning of the hop so click here to go to the BBTB2 site for the hop list.  What's better than a ghost for a Halloween challenge.  My fabulous friend and design team sister, Shelly, asked us to use the ghost from Paper Doll Dress Up for our challenge this week.  If you don't have PDDU you can use a ghost from any other cartridge.  I made a standard A2 base card from black cardstock and topped that with a patterned paper from My Mind's Eye.  On top of that I used a bingo card from The Cutting Cafe's Halloween Bingo printable stamp set.  I cut my ghost at 3.5 inches.  A little doodling and embellishing with twine and buttons wrapped this card up.  Hope you all have a safe and happy night of trick or treating, if you do that sort of thing.  I've never been a big fan of the ritual myself.  I think it's because I had to come up with costumes for five children for so many years.  Glad I don't have to do that anymore.   From here you'll be heading over to the Krista's fabulous blog.  I'll be giving one lucky commentor/follower a printable BINGO stamp set from The Cutting Cafe.  You can have your choice of the Halloween Bingo set or the Christmas Bingo set.  Thanks so much for coming by today.

Exciting News at The Cutting Cafe

I know that everyone is consumed with Halloween activities, projects and fun right now, but I want you to think ahead a little with your thoughts for a moment.  As Halloween ends it will be time to start on those Christmas holiday projects.  I'd like to share what has become a tradition with my two granddaughters, thanks to Regina at The Cutting Cafe.  This will be the third year that Regina has offered a fantastic set of freebies for a Christmas Daily album.  A what--you say!  A Christmas or December Album or Journal is a way to document the thoughts and pictures of the twenty five days leading to Christmas.  You make a page for everyday in the month of December from the 1st to the 25th.  Each day you record thoughts, things your kids say or pictures of holiday activities such as putting up the tree, decorating the house, visiting with Santa, etc.  If you would like to get this free set to start your own tradition all you need to do is go to The Cutting Cafe at this link.  Regina will be offering this year's set free until November 2nd at midnight. 

To give you an idea of some of the pages you can create, I've added photos of the 8x8 album I made for my granddaughters last year.  You'll want to make sure you mark your calendars to visit The Cutting Cafe blog the week of November 20th.  The design team will be featuring projects using the December/Christmas Daily sets.  I promise you'll be seeing some fabulous and inspirational creations.

I made a title page to go first so I could add a personal note and date.

For the first page I used my Cricut Designer's Calendar cartridge to make a circular grid of 25 circles. Then I cut small images using assorted cartridges and added glue dots to the back of each one so Payton could add an image each day of the month like a countdown calendar. She enjoyed this page very much.

For day 2 I used my Cricut Imagine More cartridge for the frame and journaling paper along with The Cutting Cafe Christmas in a Square set. 

The tree on day 3 is a die cut that I've had in my stash forever.

Day 4 a simple Christmas tree border punch from Fiskars, some fussy cut Christmas lights and the sentiment. 

Day 5 has the fireplace cut from Cricut's Joys of the Season cartridge.

 For Day 6, I used a piece of jute to hang my Christmas stockings cut from the Cricut Christmas Cheer cartridge.  The sentiment is cut from Winter Frolic cartridge.

Day 7 title is cut using my Gypsy font and the list is cut from Christmas Cheer.  I'm sorry I don't remember who made the adorable paper with the Santa's Workshop and elves on it.

Again for day 8 I used Gypsy Font for the title using another piece of paper with the Santa and tree already printed on it. The sentiment is from the Christmas Daily set.

I forgot to say that my fancy background cuts were done with my Imagine More cartridge. For day 9 I used a background paper with cooking words. Sorry, again I don't know who made it since these are last years pics. The gingerbread man is actually made of dough and is an item I picked up at the day after Christmas sale at Target.

Day 10 musical background was a freebie I got from Lindsay's Stamp Stuff at My Grafico. Here is the link for that. My cute little carolers are cut from the Winter Frolic cartridge. The circle sentiment is from the Christmas daily set and the musical notes are from the Gypsy Wanderings cartridge.

Day 11's top five list was cut and printed from the Cricut Imagine More cartridge. Circle sentiment is from the Christmas Daily set and I used The Cutting Cafe Christmas Mini Words set printed on green striped paper.

This was one of my favorite pages to add to the album. It's always fun to give a call to Payton and find out about her day. I printed the sentiment right onto the lined Cosmo Cricket paper then mounted it on a fancy edge paper. The telephone is cut using the From My Kitchen cartridge.

Who doesn't love to go Christmas shopping? It will really be different for us this year. All of our presents will have to be sent through the mail because we will be away from our family. I think I will do mostly gift cards this year. I'm sure I'll have to make at least one trip to the toy store for my really small grandchildren, though. This was just a quick and easy page using the Christmas Daily set along with a fancy background cut with the Cricut.

Of course, after you buy the presents you have to wrap them. The background paper on this page is from a DCWV Christmas stack. I used a premade package embellisment in the center of the sentiment circle.

My mistletoe was cut from the Christmas Cards cartridge that came out last year. Mistletoe has been a tradition in the family since I was a baby and one that I did with my children. Now my grandkids are standing under the mistletoe for a kiss. Gosh, where does the time go?

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Now here's the question of the season...Naughty or nice. My daughter got a great picture of Payton last year pouting as she was sitting in Time Out. When you make one of these albums you'll want to make sure that you don't miss the everyday moments.

My granddaughter, Payton, loves to do crafts.  She takes after her Nana.  So when I made this page I included an inexpensive foam decoration kit I picked up at JoAnns for only a $1 for her to put together.

With this page I included a couple packages of hot cocoa for Payton and Paige to enjoy. Just another everyday occurance that you wouldn't even think to photograph or write about, but then you see that chocolate moustache and hear the words "that was the best hot chocolate ever" you'll want a photo to remember.

I'm a little sad as I see this page for I know I won't be taking the annual trek to the world's best Christmas store in Frankenmuth, Michigan. Last year we were able to take Payton there for the first time and the look of delight on her face as she took in all the lights and decorations was priceless. I console myself as I know this year her annual Christmas ornament from Nana & Pop will be bought while we are vacationing together in a couple weeks at the destination of all destinations---DisneyWorld. I can't wait to see the look on Payton's face when she sees the Princess Castle---because she's certain she'll be a princess when she grows up.

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Of course, this page was used for the photo of the ornament that Payton picked out while we were at Bronner's.  Can you guess what kind of ornament she picked---an ornament with Cinderella on it.  Again, I think of how excited she's going to be when she meets Cinderella in person in a couple of weeks

There will be no playing in the snow for me this year. Nope, for the first time in my life I'm going to be snow free enjoying the warmth of Florida. WooHoo!!!!

This is the perfect page for a picture of that annual Christmas photo.  I remember that we had several challenging years of trying to get  all five of our kids to smile and look at the camera at the same time.

It's nice to reflect back on family traditions. In our house my husband had an annual tradition of reading the story The Night Before Christmas. The kids would gather in front of the fireplace with a bedtime snack as my husband read the story. Last year we went to a Hallmark store and bought the recordable edition of the book so my husband could read and record it for Payton and Paige. Now it will be a tradition at their house.

For this page I used the Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge. I made my little bed with the colors of Payton's bedroom. This is another photo opportunity that you probably wouldn't think of getting. There's nothing like a picture of a child sleeping. Especially after a day when they've tried your patience to the very limits.

And last but not least, the most important page of all to every single child. The delight of the moment when they see that tree with all the wonderful presents wrapped and waiting to be opened on Christmas morning.

If you've made it to the end of this very long post I thank you for sticking with it.  I hope that I've inspired you to create your own version of a December/Christmas Daily album or journal.  It will be a treasured family momento for your children, grandchildren, neices, nephews or friends.  If I can offer one piece of advice if your contemplating this project...start NOW.  You don't want to be rushed to create this family remembrance and have it done by December 1st.

Lastly, I'd like to thank Regina for her talent, forethought and generosity to provide these sets each year for her customers.  She is truly a magnificent lady and a treasured friend. I'm so very blessed to be a part of her Design Team and I'm so grateful for the opportunity she's allowed me.  Don't forget, you have until midnight on November 2nd to pick up this year's free set here which includes a fabulous word book this year.