Purrfect Time to Cut Felt

When we began fostering Fluffy, he was such a sleepy head. All day long he napped and cuddled. We had no idea that he would come down with pneumonia, and the Animal Shelter took him back for about 6 weeks. He was on intravenous antibiotics, and I think he used up his first few lives. He's back now with us, and never stops running around, getting into to trouble...but that means he is healthy, we we are all happy.

BBTB2 hosted an animal themed challenge - Cats or Dogs -- Which is Your Favorite? and this was an opportunity to finally get some of his nap-time photos scrapped with the Meow Lite cart. Also, a perfect time to force myself into the unknown: cutting felt on my cricut. I goggled and utubed a few how-tos. Decided that I don't want to use fabric stiffener (because I don't want to leave the house and buy it), so I grabbed my pre-stiffened felt that I bought a year ago. Yes, I have been planning this since last year. I have a deep cut blade, but I was too eager to just cut -- so figured let's try multicut with a regular blade on it. And I saw NOTHING happen. Do you see a cut? Me neither. I do think that the deep cut blade is needed. Next time. I made the best of things with my scissors...

  

So while working on BBTB2's current weekly challenge, I found out that I made Design Team for them! Very excited to create with the women over there! So I needed to switch gears and work on the BBTB2 upcoming weekly challenge (using overlays), and decided to combine challs. The Elegant Edges cart has some really great overlays - I used one for a photo mat, and one for the top border. These are not easy cuts to make. I realized that my Basic Grey patterned paper needed to cut on a 3 blade depth to prevent tearing. The cart images also cut nicely on my American Crafts Cardstock, using a 5 depth on the blade.

I think that Mr Fluffy Jr approves, nosy little guy:

The Apple Doesn't Fall Far

How do you like them apples? We have apples that grow in our yard -- not just plain old crab apples, but real apples...We let the deer eat the ones that fall, and this past weekend my son took a bite from a good one way up high, and said it was sweet.

So when BBTB2 gave a new challenge: anything fall, I was inspired by Sharon's Lay Out. I knew that I wanted to cut an oversized tree like she did, but finding the right tree -- with leaves -- was a challenge. Then while searching for tree images, I came across a Country Life apple tree -- and then frantically dug up one of my favorite apple pictures: two generations of men in our family. So this is a lay out that I made for my mother in law, featuring her sons and grandsons. Not sure if it is frame-worthy, or if it should be slipped into a scrapbook that I made for her a while back.

The other carts that I used were Freshly Picked ("apple" and the apple on the ground) and Speaking of Fall. Yes that cart is tough, that is why the title is large! I do wish that I used letter stickers instead of handwriting some of the title. I planned to do that -- use stickers -- and just forgot. I think I got too excited that project was nearly finished.

Making the Most of my Favorite View

Well, I tried Prima's September BAP for fun:

I was pretty intimidated by the sketch and unsure which photo to use...until I came across one of our vacation pictures -- a window-framed view of the Long Island sound...

And this is my minimalist, bare bones take on it...I used a paper hexagon overlay as a misting template. I practiced on a few sheets of white cardstock to try to get the feel of the sketch. I finally got to use my Heidi Swap "Make Pretty Stuff" spray arrow stencil...Was surprise to see the same arrow in the Prima sketch, I just don't like the way that my arrow bled (I did use a paintbrush so that was my mistake #1). I also cricut-cut the title from my practice stencil sprays, using the Stamped font cart.

I figured out how to do the light, incomplete journaling lines that reflected the Prima sketch, and I was pretty happy that my Tim Holtz distressed ink did the trick. I applied ink to only a part of my round full bleed stamp.

Even though I feel that I went a little crazy with the flowers (mostly Prima), I still didn't use enough to say that I used 90% of Prima on my LO (in order to submit for a Prima prize). There are some "mistakes" in it, and I am trying hard to overlook them. Scrapbooking isn't for perfectionists, right?

Pink Chocolate Sweet Baby Card

A good friend of mine is attending a baby shower this weekend, and she needed a card to go with her fab gift. The colors of the shower are chocolate brown and pink, so I used that for the card. I used Country Life cricut cartridge for the banner, which I just love. Such a cute cartridge that I haven't used much....I must change that :)

The flowers are from Flower Shoppe, another one of my favorite cartridges.

Fall is in the Air

Fall is in the air, the boys are at school, and I can steal some time away to scrap one of my favorite seasons: fall! My inspiration? The Design Team Call from Bitten By the Bug2, asking for a fall themed project using two cricut cuts. Have you seen their work? I would love to create more crafts with them!

Fall layouts don't always have to include fall-themed diecuts. Here, I used Cricut's Home Accents cartridge for "faith" and "family" diecuts; Home Decor for "forever;" Serenade for the leaves on a branch-looking diecuts. I love using my good patterned paper on simple cricut cuts because it gives the cuts more dimension. I also love being able to stretch a favorite leftover piece of scrap paper to fit a two-page layout, even using leftover uncut cricut strips with a piece that only seems to look like it runs across both pages.

Sample Mini Book

I am working on a craft workshop proposal for my local Parks and Rec, and my suggested theme is Halloween. The program director suggested a make-and-take in one night to showcase fun Halloween pictures. So I opened up my new Cricut Mini Books cartridge and began working on a sample book.

Here is the fun part, bare bones, not embellished. (The final, which I am tweaking is above.)

I plan to make my own embellishments using Teresa Collins's Halloween cart. I love her modern, clean cut designs! Check out the cart at cricut.com:

http://www.cricut.com/Shopping/detail--Cricut-Teresa-Collins-Chic--Scary-Seasonal-Cartridge-291-1419.aspx

Now it is time for Part 2, pricing! Since my Halloween paper pack that used above is depleted, I need to price out new patterned paper designs, and this is a challenge -- I am creative not mathematical! My efforts up to this point seem to be futile. If I order what I want, I blow my budget completely, and still have to cover baby sitter costs!

Double Slide Santa Card

Every year I love to start my Christmas cards in July. This way I am not stressed in November and December about my cards. This year's card is double slider card, featuring Santa coming out of his chimney.

Creating this Year's Crafty Christmas List

Thinking about the projects from my Christmas past...Teacher Treat Gifts; Christmas Card Keepsake Book; Thank You cards...My list seems to get longer each year, I have to start early so I don;t have that crafty-induced stress. I'd rather spend December shopping for gifts, decorating, and baking cookies!

One year, I joined in on Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of Christmas Challenge, where improvising was the name of the game, as I don't have a vagabond or his dies...So using my cricut and a lot of substituting, I created some Tags for special presents.

I want to recreate some more for this Christmas, so I am creating my Crafty Christmas to-do list now.

1. Christmas Gift Tags
2. Teacher Treat Gifts
3. Scrapbook Gifts for Family
4. Scrapbook Calendar
5. Christmas Card Keepsake Book
6. Handmade Christmas Cards (this will be a first!)
7. Christmas Thank You Cards

What are you planning on creating this Christmas?

Christina's Creative Cricut Party Decor

I created party decor for a good friend of mine and wanted to share!
Here is the banner:

Invite (sorry about the lighting):

And thank you treat box filled with pink, white, and grey M&Ms:

Home is Where the Heart is...

This was a mixed media challenge in a private group. I am new to mixed media, so this was a big experiment.

Grungeboard Mistakes
I began with Tim Holtz Grungeboard stripes elements...and tried to "alter" them with Picket Fence and Weathered Wood Distress Stain. I didn't love blue hearts, so I went searching for red in my stash. No red stain, but found Luminarte Radiant Rain in Poppy Red. I wanted to finish it off with crackle medium, but I couldn't find it! (Must have used it up.) So I improvised with Stickles Rock Candy - BAD idea! It made my red BRIGHT red and run awful. After it dried, I tried adding white acrylic and that bombed too - the white turned an odd red, so I added drops of white ink and blended away.

The Challenge
We were required to have a house, scrapbook paper, a heart; then additional 3-5 elements and I chose: paint (distress on houses, title and pic), markers (on title), more hearts, metal element (keys) and chipboard (the hearts). The perfectly matching seaming is from Scraputante.com (it matched my Prima patterned papers perfectly)!

Cricut Houses

The houses are cricut cut from Home Improvement Lite cart. I used transparency for the windows and cut the house layers on Tim Holtz Kraft Resist. Using more Distress Stains, I colored the houses, roofs and fences. My favorite part of the houses is the brass looking door knobs: brads from my stash.

Scraputante.com challenge

So today we are missing out on an ugly sweater party because my son is home sick with an awful virus. So I have been hanging out with my boys, spraying Lysol and organizing my scrap area (see new cricut cart binders - love them!)...

And taking a break, just discovered Scraputante.com is hosting a Saturday Recipe challenge...So you use your current stash and follow what she tells us to do. Fun. If you want to join in, go to FB here.

Well, here is Step 1.

Step 2: Trim to a 6x6:

Step 3: cut 6x6 on diagonal:

Step 4: cut pp 10x10 and save strips:

Step 5: Make pinwheels. Pinwheels? how the heck do you do that? Time to google...

Found a great how-to by Brittany Perry here.

Here is my first pinwheel ever..Wish I had chosen double sided paper for this chall...Sigh...I am hoping that we can put an embellishment in the center to make this look neater...

Finished product:

FavCrafts Fiskars AdvantEdge Punch System Contest

Just spreading the word that FavCrafts is offering a very cool Fiskars AdvantEdge Punch System...I'd love to win this, and tell you all about it! The punch designs are GORGEOUS...and looks so easy to use! In the meantime, here is a how-to from CHA, so check it out:

Enter here to win!