Latest Circle Challenge

Weekly Challenge #26: Just Because Challenge!

The Challenge: Create a layout featuring an everyday topic or create a “Just Because” card.

Rules and Guidelines: Circle Blog Challenges are open to Cricut Circle Members only. You can create any type of project you would like (layout, card, tag, altered project, mini album, etc.) but your project must be newly created for this challenge and include atleast 2 Cricut Image Cuts. You must submit a project to be entered into the Challenge Prize Drawing.
How to Enter: Submit your entry using the InLinkz tool found at the bottom of this post. Please post your full name along with your entry. Entries are due by 9:00 pm MST on Thursday, March 31st, 2011. **Please note the new time.**
Prize: This week the winner may choose to have $25 added to their Cricut.com account OR choose one of the following cartridges: TBA. Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery from winner announcement. 

Mine is a layout of Drew just being his normal goofy self, he loves to play make believe and loves to imitate those around him.

I used up some of that blasted loose printed paper I had laying around for the upper background and the mountains.  Cardstock is DCWV.  

The mountains are from PAPER DOLL DRESS UP and were stretched to fit the full 12x12 mat and then rotated to fit within the cutting area.

The wanted type signs are from OLD WEST and again they were just stretched to fit my pictures and one just guessed at that would be a bit smaller for the tag.

The cactus was cut from OLD WEST at 6 inches and then I used the SWISS DOTS folder in the Cuttlebug to give it some "spines".

Lil' Cowpoke is also from OLD WEST and yet again it was just stretched to look sized with my photo mat.

The sun is from George at 1.5 inches and inked just a bit.


I used to small brown satin rope and some twine I found in Craig's garage (shhhh)

New goal before I can complete my other one

Ok so before I can get back to completing my goal of using the first cut of every cartridge I own, I must insert a new goal to make it possible

Clean and organize this mess................word has it that Okie is willing to come and help (oh heck who am I kidding I will gladly be out in the kitchen keeping the kids busy and cooking for her as she does it all on her own)

and this does not include the mess I still have out in the kitchen EEKKKKKKKKKKKK

Baby love

Today is my day to design for Pam over on Tuesday Treats

I am making for you a wonderful gift or home decor item for yourself.

How many of you love the new trend of shadow boxes or painters trays?  Sometimes finding them can be hard, other times trying to fit what you want in them can be difficult due to the pre-made sizes of the boxes, and then of course you have the cost.  The following item that I have made is one that I think a parent would love to put in a nursery, but what do you do once the child is a little older?  Put it in a box and store it?  For how long?  You don't want to throw it away because of the cost but it just doesn't fit in a childs room any longer.

Problem solved!!!!!!!!!!!!!  An awesomely cute nursery item, low cost (total supplies $3.50) and very lightweight so you have no fears of hanging it above a crib, because if it falls it will not injure an infant.

Now what makes this so cheap?  it is made entirely of paper and foam board that is 2 large sheets for a dollar.

Start by deciding what Cricut cuts you want in the box, the lay it out on your Gypsy or DS and getting a rough measurement of the size box you will need.  Cut the bottom and sides from foam board.

I cut mine at 9x20 and 1 inch for the sides.  Glue together with a strong glue, Beacon's 3n1 works great as it is very strong but does not eat the exposed foam.

Then you will need to pick out papers for your background and cuts.  Make and assemble all your Cricut cuts, mine  were all from the BABY STEPS cartridge and almost all were cut at 3 inches to keep it simple.  The banner was cut from MS All Occ. cart at 1 inch.  Once you have them all cut, you can layout them out for placement and cut background papers to size

you will notice that the background papers do not line up touching, this was because I had intended to add foam pieces as dividers in the sections (but one lovely child decided to grab the last of my foam board and make drumsticks out of them) not to be doomed though I came up with another idea.

I cut a piece of heavy cardstock, at 1 1/4 inch wide, and scored at 1 inch the placed alternating cuts,  I used this to slide under the background pieces and adhere to the foam board and then adhered the background paper in place starting with the 3 horizontal lines, then moved onto to placing the smaller ones between the vertical openings.  Finally placing the cuts in with large glue dots.

Finally finishing it off by cutting strips of coordinating colorstock at 2.25 inches and scoring at 1 inch, 1.25 inch and 1.5 inch to cover the rough edges of the side walls.

Then I added a few ribbons at the top, some cute buttons on the bottom corners to cover where the corners were a bit "messy" looking.

You can see in this picture how light it is as it is just sitting on top of this picture frame, and in the second picture it is holding (after 4 days so far) by just two glue dots

You will notice the large empty box in the lower left, this will be used for a banner with the birthdate, once we are SURE of that date.

What it means to Love you Blog Hop

WE HAVE OUR WINNER:   CONGRATS TO 

patricia said...

its refeshing to see a couple working together. thats what love is all about.very nice

March 21, 2011 8:50 AM

Please contact me for your prize.

Good morning and welcome to the Hop.  Most of you know that we are trying to adopt some of our grandchildren and we have a hearing coming Monday.   To help keep my mind busy and stress levels low, I put together a hop to show just what it means to love that special someone in your life.  I hope you enjoy all the layouts the wonderfully talented ladies will share with you today.

I will start by sharing one that I made of me and my husband.  This picture kind of symbolizes how we live our live, we do everything together as a team.  Even those simple mundane tasks that would only require the work of one is always better shared.

All the paper is from DCWV and cut with my Baby bug.

 

I used lots of flowers in my favorite colors, primas, $ store flowers and even part of a cheap lei.

The title was cut from Jasmine in the blue and green with a white shadow, all cut from Cricut vinyl since Jasmine is such a thin cut it cuts much better in vinyl.  I cut the letters at 1" after welding them together.  Since I couldn't just do an auto shadow to my weld I had to eyeball it by laying the shadow letters on top of my welded word and "nudging" them into place and then welding.

this is how all the lettering looked prior to placing it on my background page

and see how nice the vinyl goes down.  Love it.

The hummingbird was cut from Pagoda at 3".  I choose this bird as it is also a symbol to me of our relationship how I can be free to flap my wings all the time yet stay safely in my place.

The bird cage is from french Manor cut at 3 inches and again I used the white vinyl for the background and blue paper for the top layer, but I only glued down the 3 horizontal lines so that the others would cast a shadow, giving it some depth.  And again, another symbol, you will notice there is no door on the cage, meaning I am free to come and go at anytime, yet always have my safe haven to return to.

Below is a list of the bloggers taking part of the hop, if at anytime you get lost along the way, just click on the blog button (which will be appearing later) to bring you back to here and you can find your way back to where you were headed :)

Me <------------------you are here
Roberta  http://somethingformee.blogspot.com/
Liza  http://www.hooscrafty.blogspot.com/
Vicky  http://sassysscrapinblogin.blogspot.com/
Kymberlee  http://papermidwife.blogspot.com/
Sue  http://www.lifesgr8whnbugged.blogspot.com/
Bobbi Jo  http://sweetsassydiva-gspot.blogspot.com/
Michelle  http://paperaffair.blogspot.com/
Sara  http://www.snugasabugdesigns.blogspot.com/
Misty  http://www.abusyplace.blogspot.com/
Kate  http://www.sassyandscrappykate.blogspot.com/
Liz  http://liz-lavendarandroses.blogspot.com/
Laura  http://lauras--piece--of--paradise.blogspot.com/
Michele  http://greengirlscraps.blogspot.com/
Shawn  http://shawnsfiresidecraftingroom.blogspot.com/
Mary  http://www.marebearscraps.blogspot.com/
Cindy  http://www.scrap-obsessed.blogspot.com/


On Monday afternoon I will be drawing one random winner from those that leave comments on this post to win a $25.00 Joann's gift certificate.

Have a great day all, and make sure you leave some love for the ladies.

Getting ready for the hop

Just finishing things up for the Blog hop tomorrow and also a special item I am making for Pam's blog thebugbytes

So nothing really to share with you all today, but for those with a little bit of country in you, I thought I might show you the next up and coming COUNTRY STAR

Dashing Drew, however, just like a real cowboy, always walking off into the the sunset and leaving you with a broken heart

And with the snow starting to melt, someone got to go out and inspect the winter damage to the cottage, looking like we might be needing some roof repair this weekend.

See ya all back here tomorrow for the HOP

NOT Irish card

Over on the Cricut Circle we having various weekend challenges for those that did not get to go to the Stampede.  Our first one was using a sketch for either a layout or card, or even both.  Given that any scrapping time is a premium here, I only had time to make up this quick card using this sketch

I used some old parchment printer paper I had laying around to print out the sentiment on my printer
the printed paper is some loose DCWV that I got at Joann's
I used CREATE A CRITTER cartridge to cut that cute little crab at 3 inches in white, then the layer in green
some old ribbon I had laying around and some google eyes.

Adding on the 3rd Challenge here so the blog hop can stay at the top, I will move these later

Scrapbox giveaway

Oh no you silly geese, not by me, but by Scrapbox themselves.  Just visit their Facebook page, like and read the entry rules.

Now scoot, you know you want it.

Thank you Caroline

Stylish Blogger Award

 I was so honored when I received a comment from Caroline and it also said that she had something special for me on her blog. So I wandered over there to check it out and she had this wonderful blog award for me. You can check out her fantastic work at Caroline's Craftography

So the rules of this award are that I tell you 8 things about myself and share this award with 8 fellow bloggers.

1. I love papercrafting for therapy
2. I love being outside with my grandkids and taking 9 million pictures of them
3. I an RN that is currently a SAH(grandmother, hopefully soon mother again)
4. I've been married to my best friend and babysitter for 26 years.
5. We have one very bossy and independent fur baby - Little Fat Stupid Grey Cat, or Cat for short.
6. I really love living so close to Lake MI, but long for the day I can move to AZ.
7.I have a ton of pictures to catch up on, so it looks like I will be scrapping until I die.
8. I am only quiet when I am really really mad.

I am now passing this fabulous and stylish award to the following (in no particular order):

Kymberlee - http://papermidwife.blogspot.com/
Michelle - http://paperaffair.blogspot.com/
Sara - http://www.snugasabugdesigns.blogspot.com/
Carrie - http://thegreenbeanscrafterole.blogspot.com/
Liza - http://www.hooscrafty.blogspot.com/
Missie - http://createdbymissie.blogspot.com/
Amber - http://stayingcrafty.blogspot.com/
The CricutCouple - http://cricutcouple.blogspot.com/

I hope you all can take some time to check out these blogs and leave them some blog love.

I even got Accent Essentials out of the way

This week the Circle challenge was

Weekly Challenge!

Each week join us for “Challenge Friday” where we will announce a new creative challenge. We want you to feel inspired to use your supplies in new ways. Have fun with it! Check back often to see the beautiful entries from your Circle Friends . . . you are sure to leave with a desire to get cutting!

Weekly Challenge #24: St. Paddy’s Challenge!

The Challenge: Use rainbow colors OR a monochromatic green color scheme on your project. We also want to see you add a touch of gold somewhere on your project.

Rules and Guidelines: Circle Blog Challenges are open to Cricut Circle Members only. You can create any type of project you would like (layout, card, tag, altered project, mini album, etc.) but your project must be newly created for this challenge and include atleast 2 Cricut Image Cuts. You must submit a project to be entered into the Challenge Prize Drawing.
How to Enter: Submit your entry using the InLinkz tool found at the bottom of this post. Please post your full name along with your entry. Entries are due by 9:00 pm MST on Thursday, March 3rd, 2011. **Please note the time change this week.**
Prize: This week the winner may choose to have $25 added to their Cricut.com account OR choose one of the following cartridges: TBA. Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery from winner announcement.

So I used the rainbow and gold.  

Since I am doing my "human" loved ones in one form or another this weekend for my blog hop, I thought I would do one showing my kitty that she is indeed My Gold at the end of the Rainbow.  Just have to convince her to let me get a good face shot so I can add it to my "gold coin" (that gold coin also allowed me to use the first cut on ACCENT ESSENTIALS LOL)

The background paper is from DCWV Crafty stack, the other papers are all from Stampin Up (don't even ask me the colors, I am not careful with my purchases) the glitter gold on the Gold Coin is from DCWV glitter stack.

The tree is from STRETCH YOUR IMAGINATION and cut at 7 inches (had to flip it sideways to make it work in the baby bug)

The little guy (2.5 inches), pot (3 inches) and rain cloud (3 inches) are all from SIMPLY CHARMED

The other clouds (2 inches) and sun (3 inches) are from POOH AND FRIENDS

and finally that giant gold coin in the pot, from ACCENT ESSENTIALS at 3.5 inches, only using the outer ring.  You will notice it is not really held in place yet as I am waiting for a kitty pic to put in there.

The rainbow is the shift feature on HELLO KITTY GREETINGS, I really don't know the size I just made it nice and thin and really long, I have included a screen shot of how I did that, and then just layered the colors.

The shamrocks are from the $ bins at Joann's.