Bella Bug Creations

A Woman's Right to Shoes

2012-02-16T09:07:00.000-05:00

LOL! Don't ya love it? I've had this stamp for a couple of years and never used it. It's a wood-mounted stamp by Inkadinkado. When I saw the challenge at Fantabulous Cricut, I knew exactly what I was going to make. The cake stand is from Sweet Treats and the shoe is from Forever Young. I added some lace trim, pearls, pearl pen, Stickles and a big Fancy Pants button with a kraft ribbon bow. I'm also entering this card in the Creative Belli challenge, where you need to follow a recipe. I'm pretty sure I've got all of the ingredients on my card. The pretty DP papers are from the DCWV Linen Closet mat stack. It's hard to see in the photo, but the bottom half of the card is a patterned paper....it has a very subtle weave print.

The New WHIMSICAL DESIGNS TEAM!

2012-02-15T09:29:00.002-05:00

A new term has started at Whimsical Designs and I am so excited to share the great news that not only am I remaining on the team, but Stephanie has added a few more Whimsies to the team and I'm telling you, their work is going to WOW you! I'm thrilled to be a part of this amazing team! There's always something creative happening over at the Whimsical Designs blog. We'd love to have you stop by and leave some warm welcome wishes for the new designers.

Without further ado, here are the fabulous Whimsical Designers:

1. Esther: www.forthejoyofcreating.blogspot.com
2. GiGi: http://thecricutbug.blogspot.com/
3. Heather: http://heather-p.blogspot.com/
4. Margie: http://bellabugcreations.blogspot.com/
5. Michelle: http://mumoftwoblog.blogspot.com/
6. Monica: http://scraps2treasure.blogspot.com/
7. Nanne: http://nannes-creations.blogspot.com/ (Me)
8. Shelly: http://cardsbyshelly.blogspot.com/
9. Sue: http://heartandsoulcrafting.blogspot.com/
10. Theresa: http://binkyblossoms.blogspot.com/

There's no Whimsical Wednesday challenge this week, but the "Colors of Love" challenge will remain open until February 29th.

I do have a cute card to share today. I'm still playing around with the Cricut Craft Room software, mixing regular Cricut cartridges with Cricut Imagine colors and patterns. The bird is from 3 Birds on Parade and the colors/patterns are from the Nursery Tails Imagine cartridge. The background card stock is from a DCWV mat stack. I inked up most of the edges on the cuts and added Stickles to the trees. I embossed the bird with the large polka dot folder and rather than fuss around with the tiny eye cut, I just added a wiggly eye instead. I hand cut the "ground" piece and I specifically chose this bird cut to go along with the Whimsical Designs sentiment from the With Love set. Just perfect together!

Happy Birthday Frog

2012-02-12T13:29:00.001-05:00

I'm playing around in Cricut Craft Room, mixing regular cartridges with Imagine colors and patterns. I think this turned out pretty cute, but I'm wishing I hadn't added the Stickles to the hat. I also added blue Liquid Applique to the hat fringes. The frog is from Mini Monsters and the hat is from A Child's Year. The colors and patterns are from the Imagine Blast Off cartridge. I did some inking to the edges and added some foam dots between the layers. The sentiment is from the Everyday Sentiments set by Whimsical Designs. I originally wanted to make it a shaped card, but when I welded the hat to the frog, it changed the hat color from blue to green. In a nutshell....I have no idea what I'm doing yet! LOL!

Challenges:

Robyn's Fetish ~ Square card

You're a Peach

2012-02-10T11:20:00.001-05:00

A sweet friend gave me a set of Peachy Keen stamps, and I've had them laying out for weeks now, so I thought I'd put them to good use. The Peachy Keen Challenge this week is a photo inspiration and since my mojo has gone south for the winter, I let my Imagine do most of the work for me here. The cuts are from the Better Together cartridge. I wanted a shadow behind the sentiment, so for the solid layer, I made the cut a little bit bigger and used the "cut only" feature. Not the best shadow layer, but it will do. I used a leaf from a different image and just cut it several times at different sizes until I got the size I wanted so I could pop just the leaf. The peach cut that I used didn't have the leaf as a separate layer. The background is embossed with a folder from the Cricut Companions Cuttlebug set Preserves. It doesn't have peaches on it, but it has strawberries and cherries, which works with the inspirational photo ;) The Peachy Keen face is from the Winter Wonderland Face Assortment set. Pretty darn cute, I must say! I added some Lime Ice Stickles to the leaf and I think the pretty bow is so stink in' adorable! I did some machine stitching around the edges and added a piece of rik-rak with a peachy button and a lime/rasperry twine bow.

Challenges:

Peachy Keen ~ #4 Photo Inspiration

Craft Us Crazy ~ Anything Goes

Drop Me a Line

2012-02-09T08:55:00.000-05:00

My daughter, Melissa, came over last night and we had a mini crop. It was the most fun we've had in weeks! We both made a few cards so I will have lots of posts coming up over the next few days. I'm not sure when Melissa will get around to posting hers, but she does have a recent card, so please visit her blog, No Bees, Please, HERE.

I send cards to my BFF in Florida quite often, and I'm going to add this one to the bunch. I think the Whimsical Designs sentiment and the cut from Country Life were just made for each other. I cut the clothes line and popped most of the items, except for the itty-bitty socks and lingerie. I added a piece of hemp for the twine and a few buttons from my stash, and ta-da! Card #1 was done!

Here's the set I used from Stephanie's Whimsical Designs stamps:

This set is available for purchase, along with three other fabulous stamp sets. They are jam packed with a great variety of sentiments for all occasions. You'll find yourself making great use of the little accents stamps too! Visit the Whimsical Designs Shop, HERE!

Colors of Love ~ Whimsical Wednesday

2012-02-08T08:53:00.001-05:00

Happy Wednesday! It's time for another Whimsical Wednesday Challenge and this week, the Whimsies are working with the Colors of Love! The challenge is to use RED, WHITE and any other color of your choice. I chose Pink. My first and only idea was to make something to celebrate the NY Giants winning the Super Bowl. I struggled for two days trying to cut the logo on several machines and I finally had to throw in the towel. I'm no quitter, so this weakend, I will pick up where I left off.

I thought I would make some little pillow box Valentine's Day treats for the grandkids to bring to school, but my daughters informed me they had it covered. What??? That's always been MY job! I ordered enough pillow boxes to last a lifetime, so they came and picked some up and off they went. I can't wait to see what they come up with! So, I decided to go ahead and make some for my friends. I can carry these little treats around in my bag and surprise people with a V-Day treat. I made about 6 of the little bags. Each one holds two Ferrero Rocher chocolates. The sentiment is from the Whimsical Designs Everyday Sentiments set. I added itsy-bitsy heart stickers to the bottom and the pink heart is from the With Love set. Added a pretty pink ribbon (American Crafts) and there you have it...a pretty little presentation.

The pillow boxes (I get mine from www.clearbags.com) are filled with Red, White & Pink, M&M's. I stamped directly on the ribbon using a stamp from the With Love set by Whimsical Designs. I embossed some of the boxes using the folder from the Cuttlebug Love Language set. On the larger pillow boxes, I used the Conversation Hearts folder, which was part of a Romance bundle from HSN. I had to really crank puppies through the Cuttlebug, since the pillow boxes are much thicker than card stock. I think next time I will use the Big Kick.

Here's a couple of close-ups:

And here's the fabulous Whimsical Designs stamp sets that I used:

Now get your Cupid wings on and head on over to Whimsical Designs to see the LOVE that the other Whimsical Designers have dreamed up! We would love it if you played along in this fun challenge! Remember, the challenges are open for TWO weeks.

Bringing Out the Old ~ Whimsical Wednesday

2012-02-01T10:00:00.001-05:00

3 Things I Love -- James, Bella and Domenic -- my three oldest grandchildren

It's Whimsical Wednesday time! And am I ever login' how my layout turned out. I must say it's a good thing (for me, at least) that the first challenge of each month encourages the Design Team to create a layout. It's probably the only way I'd ever get mine done. The challenge this week is to use something old that you've had for some time and haven't used in quite a while, or perhaps, haven't used it at all. A tool, cartridge, stamp, paper, embellishment....you get the idea.

Now let me tell you...I have an entire room full of stuff that has never been used and quite a bit of stuff that hasn't seen the work table in a lonngggg time. The first old product is the 12x12 paper from the DCWV Doodlin' Around stack. I've had this stack for at least two years and I'm pretty sure this is the first time using it. I thought for sure I would finally get some layouts done when I purchased this stack, but that's what I think about everything I purchase. The number 3 and "love" are from the Cuttin' Up cartridge, which is old as dirt, but I only bought it last year and this is the first time using it. Now how's that for old? I cut the love on shadow and base and embossed the top layer with a mini stars Cuttlebug folder and since I used Core'dinations paper, I sanded it. I used the negative cut from the 3 as a stencil and using a small heart stamp, created the 3. Before removing the stencil, I traced an outline. And then took on the tedious task of hand stitched using a Martha Stewart twine that I've also had for a couple of years and haven't used in some time. The word things are glitter chipboard, but those are fairly new. the "i" is a big clear stamp from an alpha set. I used Tim Holtz Distress Embossing powder on it and looks really cool IRL. The acrylic ring is also brand new, BUT I used some silver chunky glitter on it -- that I've had for at least 3 years and never used. I put a 1/8" border of score tape around the perimeter and sprinkled on the glitter. Static cling is hold lots of stray glitter on the inner part of the ring and so I just left it like that. I added dots of Stickles all around the top and right hand side of the page and then added clear gems to each one. I've had this tube of clear gems for at least a couple of years but never used them, since I have buckets of the self-adhesive type. But I think these little ones have a more vibrant bling to them. I used the little heart stamps from the Whimsical Designs With Love set and stamped the smaller one inside the larger one and then added some Stickles. The sentiment underneath the photo is also from the With Love set as is the xoxoxo little stamp on the heart that the monster is holding. I added Glossy Accents to the monster's eyes and some Stickles here, there and everywhere. All of my Stickles, by the way, are about 4 years old! I really must start using them more often. The flower was a last minute addition and it's sole purpose was to hide the ink that I accidentally dropped on the photo.

Here's the adorable stamp set that I used on my project. Just click on the link and it will take you to Stephanie's store, where you can find all four sets of the Whimsical Designs stamps.

WHIMSICAL DESIGNS STAMPS

I hope my project inspires you to dig out some of that old stuff you've got stashed and play along with us. You don't have to create a layout...it can be any project, just be sure to let us know what you used and we'd love to hear about your plans for the product when you purchased it. Did you think you would be using this product all the time? It's fun to hear other crafters stories about their products and ideas. I know the other Whimsical Designers have come up with some fabulous projects and I can't wait to hop on over to Whimsical Designs to see what they've used.
OH MY GOODNESS! If you've been dying to get your hands on one of those fabulous Smash Books, you'll have to play along for a chance to win! Check out all the details on the Whimsical Designs Blog.

I am entering my layout in the following challenges:

Oldies But A Goodie ~ Have a Heart

My Time To Craft ~ A is for Adorable

Tuesday Throwdown ~ Use Hearts

So Super Sweet ~ Baby Buggy

2012-01-31T18:07:00.000-05:00

Finally managed to get another card done. It's been nothing buy chaos this past week. When I saw all of the adorable baby buggy cards that the DT made over at Bitten By The Bug 2, I just had to jump in and play along. Keeping it real clean and simple here, and I think it turned out really sweet. The challenge calls for the the baby buggy from the New Arrival cartridge, but if you don't have that one, any baby buggy cut will do. I have a couple of layers and snipped off the bottom of the buggy from an extra cut, so I could emboss it with the Tiny Bubbles Cuttlebug folder. The background is also embossed with a Cuttlebug folder, but of course I have no idea what it's called. It was laying on the floor, under a pile of paper rubble, so I used it. I added some pretty bling....the larger ones are green and the smaller ones are clear. The sentiment is a Whimsical Designs stamp from the Whimsical Fun, Vol. 1 set. Seems I've finally found a use for those tiny little Nesties....the sentiment fit perfectly on the itsy bitsy Deckled Edge Nestabilities.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Bitten By The Bug 2 ~ Baby Buggy (New Arrival)

Die Cuttin' Divas ~ Anything Goes

Party Time Tuesdays ~ Anything Goes

4 Sweet cards

2012-01-22T10:31:00.002-05:00

The sentiment is a Whimsical Designs stamp from the Everday Sentiments set

Happy Sunny Sunday! The ground here is under a plush blanket of snow, but the sun is shining. I made FOUR cards last night! I'm not quite sure how I pulled it off. I can tell you, I put very little design effort into it and just let them come together as I went along. I used my Imagine for most of the cuts. The dragonflies are from a Cricut cart and I used an Imagine pattern on them. I can't even remember which cart they are from. All of the other cuts are from the Nursery Tails Imagine cartridge. I did some machine stitching. I attempted to do faux stitching with a template but didn't like the way it looked, so I went over it with the machine stitching. I used some glitter stickers and added Stickles.

The hubby was whining that I don't make cards for him anymore, so I slapped this one together for him. Got a bit sloppy but it was getting late and I was exhausted. He usually buys me mushy cards that make me cry, but he prefers my cute, whimsical cards when he's on the receiving end. Go figure.

The brown background is craft foam. Just noticing the little mishap at the top. Note to self: Do not craft when exhaustion kicks in.

Puppy Love

2012-01-21T10:36:00.000-05:00

Happy snowy Saturday! The white stuff is finally falling here in New York. I don't do snow, so I'll be holed up inside until it retreats. I have a cute card to share but my post will be short and sweet. Angelo is not doing well and Melissa could use my help today.

Nesties for the shaped mat, embossed with tiny hearts Cuttlebug folder. I sanded the Core'dinations paper at edges and on embossing.

Image is from A Child's Year and I used a pretty pearl paper for the top layer. The image and mat are popped for dimension. Added a ribbon from Crop Stop and tied it off with some twine and a button. The sweet sentiment is from the With Love set by Whimsical Designs.

Gotta love my sideways sentiment on the inside. I swear, sometimes I'm such a ditz! LOL! Guess I'll have to fix this, unless I just mail it to myself. hahahahaha

Sweet Friend

2012-01-20T09:37:00.002-05:00

I'm trying to organize all of my clear stamps and I have sooooooo many of those little sets from the dollar bins, which I've never used. Heck, I don't even remember buying most of them! These little flowers came with a different sentiment, but with this simple layout, I opted for the simplicity of this Whimsical Designs stamp "sweet friend" from the Everyday Senitments set. Perfect for this cute little card! The white circles were cut with my Nesties on a textured card stock. Look how nice and clean the stamps appear. I used the 12x12 Colorbok card stock pad from Walmart and let me tell you, this stuff works amazingly with the Imagine! Adds some great texture to your cuts. And at 5 bucks for a 12x12 pad, you can't go wrong. The gems also came with the stamp set. I think there were 12 altogether. The background is embossed with the QuicKutz polka dots embossing folder. The ribbon is American Crafts and I added a button and charm from my stash, tied together with bakers twine.

Couple of close-ups:

Here is the Whimsical Design stamp set that I used. Cute, huh? Click on image and it will take you to Stephanie's shop, where you will find all four sets.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Charisma Cardz - Clean and Simple

Paper Crafting Journey - Floral

Anything Goes ~ Whimsical Wednesday

2012-01-18T08:13:00.002-05:00

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that it is Wednesday already! And if it's Wednesday, that can only mean one thing. It's time for another Whimsical Wednesday challenge! This week, the theme is Anything Goes. Fun, fun, fun and a great opportunity to catch up on whatever it is that needs catching up on. For me, it's Valentine's Day cards and projects!

I decided to do a little glass etching on an empty pickle jar. NO, it doesn't smell like pickles! I soaked it overnight in lots of dish detergent. I used a stencil heart cut from the Love Struck Solutions cartridge and cut it out at 3.5" on vinyl. Applied the vinyl to the jar and applied the etching cream with an old paint brush. I brushed the cream out over the edges of the heart with feather-like strokes to make the heart shape more obvious. After 15-20 minutes, wash off the cream, remove the vinyl and voila! I added some pretty heart shaped ribbon around the top of the jar and more heart printed ribbon to the lid. I cut a circle using a die and glued that to the top of the lid and stamped it using a small heart from the With Love set by Whimsical Designs. Having those little accent stamps included on the sentiment sets really makes it easy to get a project done quickly and adds lots more interest. I hand cut the heart shaped tag and tied it up with some baker's twine. The sentiment reads sealed with a kiss and is also from the With Love stamp set. Get it? SEALED with a kiss? LOL! I added a ring of bling to the the outer edge of the top of the lid. I decided to keep the jar on my desk at work. See those yummy Ferrero Rocher chocolates? By the time you read this post, they are no longer there. They have been relocated to my tummy! HAHAHAHA!!!
This photo shows the etching a little bit better. It looks silver because of the carpet and flash, but it's just an opaque glass etch.

Here's the adorable stamp set that I used

BREAKING NEWS!!!!

Whimsical Designs is having a design team call for the upcoming term. Anyone who is interested in becoming a designer should click on the contact button at the Whimsical Designs Blog, and e-mail Stephanie for more information.

While you're over there, have a peek at what the other Whimsical Designers have whipped up and hopefully be inspired to play along with us. And you may just want to stop in the Shop to pick up some of Stephanie's fabulous stamps! There's just so much to do and see over at Whimsical Designs! :)

Winter Fun ~ SOUS

2012-01-15T06:21:00.002-05:00

I'm feeling a bit spoiled, having completed three projects in three days, and they are all for one challenge or another. This latest one is for the SOUS die cut challenge, with the theme being "winter fun" and how we enjoy it. Well, my interpretation shows how I like to sit indoors, with the heat pumping, and from the warmth of my fleece p.j.s I can admire the beautiful scene from the safety of my sofa. So, my card is a view from the inside looking out. We've had an extremely mild winter so far and not much white fluff to be found, so my card might not look like much fun, but for me it's perfect. The less snow, the better!

I made the shaped card by using a Grand Nestabalities. To do this, you simply fold the card stock in half and place the Nestie on top of the folded card, allowing just enough of the die to extend over the fold, so rather than cut at the fold, the card stock remains attached. The rest of it will cut out. Make sense? The tree and blue mat are some funky handmade papers that Ive had for a couple of years now. For the tree, which is a Sizzix die, I added double sided tape to hold it together before running through the Cuttlebug and then adhered the other side to a lime green card stock. Same technique for the blue one, except I didn't back it with paper. The card base and white background are the same Grand Nestabilities that I used to make the shaped card base. I should mention that these were cut using my Grand Calibur. The bird is also a Nestabilities die. I added brown glittery flock to the bird and couldn't leave well enough alone. Even though I had run it through the Cuttlebug to "press" the flock into the adhesive, I thought the flocking looked to thin and it wasn't all staying in place and, besides, it needed more dimension. So... I opted to add some glossy accents to keep it in place. BIG mistake!!! I globbed in on too thick, didn't get it to the outer edges of the bird and then while it was drying (took all day) I just had to fiddle around with it and CRACKED it! I will never learn to leave well enough alone. I used double sided tape for the snowflakes die cuts and removed one side of the sticky paper to add the glitter, which is a very fine, iridescent white. The sentiment is from the Whimsical Designs Snow Much Fun set. I was a little nervous stamping directly on the textured white paper, but as you can see, it stamped perfectly. And speaking of Whimsical Designs, Stephanie is sponsoring the Stuck On You Sketches (SOUS) this month and one lucky winner will be getting ALL FOUR sets of her new Whimsical Designs stamps! Woo Hoo! Now, since I'm a Whimsical Designer, or Whimsy, as I like to refer to us designers, I already have the stamps, but just had to play along with the Winter Fun challenge. I've had the tree sitting around for weeks and wanted to use it before I managed to ruin it.

Hubby and I are off to our daughter Melissa's house today to watch the Giants take on the Packers and whoop their butts! And of course we will get to enjoy some fun time with Angelo and Domenic.
I am also entering this card in the challenge at
The Cuttlebug Spot ~ Winter Time & use texture

Caterpillar Bag

2012-01-14T06:00:00.001-05:00

It's been way too long since I last played along with the Bitten By The Bug 2 challenge and I had this bag laying aournd so I thought I'd dress it up with the caterpillar cut which is the current BBTB2 challenge. My granddaughter, Bella, will be having a sleepover and I thought I'd put some crafting goodies in here for her. The rest of the design was inspired by a challenge over at The Outlawz. It's a color challenge with a twist, you need to add feathers. I think I may have stretch my design a bit, but Bella will love it. The caterpillar is from the Walk in My Garden cartridge, which initially put me into panic mode. My daughter has my cartridge, but then I remembered it's on my Gypsy, so no more worries. I added some green Pearl pen to his body and just had to give him wiggly eyes. The sun is from the Doodlecharms cartridge and I added a cute Peachy Keen face. The grass is a punch. Ladybug is a sticker. The sentiment is from the Whimsical Designs set called Whimsical Fun Vol. 1. I think it's the perfect sentiment for this adorable little bag. The black pearl paper was cut with a Nestabilities. I added some rhinestone bling, a couple of white feathers and a pretty tangerine flower with button center, and the end result...one adorable little bag! Oh, I forgot to mention the bag! It's from the Tags, Bags, Boxes and More cartridge. I made it a couple of weeks ago for a project but then decided not to use it.

EK Success Flower punch

2012-01-13T12:08:00.004-05:00

Happy Friday the Thirteenth! I've had this new punch for several weeks and I've been playing around with it, trying to perfect my flower. Crop Stop has a video on YouTube where Peggy will show you how to use these punches to make beautiful dimensional flowers. I really enjoy watching Peggy's tutorials. Speaking of Crop Stop, their challenge this week is "You Can Quote Me on That" and all you have to do is use a quote on your project. I found this one on the internet, and thought it was perfect with my flower. There are a few more lines to this little poem, author unknown, but I opted for just the first line. Printed it out, cut it with a deckled edge Nestabilities and finished it off with seam binding. The background is embossed using the Ornate Frame folder by Sizzix. The flower center is a button by The Girls Paperie and I used my hot glue gun to secure it in place. I used a strip of vellum when punching the flower to add a little bit more interest.

Like the flower punch? Well, guess what....Whimsical Designs is giving one away! With Crop Stop as the sponsor for last week's Whimsical Wednesday's challenge, someone will be the lucky winner of this punch! The challenge is open until 12:01 a.m. Jan. 18th. Check out all the details on my post HERE
I am entering this card in the following challenges:
Crop Stop - #53 You Can Quote Me on That
Made Especially for You - Technique: Machine Embossing

Let's Get Sketchy ~ Whimsical Wednesdays

2012-01-11T09:16:00.004-05:00

It's Wednesday, and you know what that means! Time for a new Whimsical Wednesdays challenge! I'm a bit annoyed with myself right now. I just realized I haven't posted anything since last Wednesday's challenge. Where does the time go? Guess I'll just have to make up for it this week. We have a doubly delightful challenge this week...first of all, we have a fabulous sponsor, Stamp Fairy, and secondly, we have a sketch designed by our very own Whimsical Designer, Nanne. I thought I would struggle with the sketch...the snowman was throwing me off, but this card came together with such ease. I chose the Monsters Under My Bed 2 digi image from Stamp Fairy, with my husband in mind. LOL!!! I wanted to try something new and thought it would be fun to color him up -- the monster, not my hubby (although that could be fun, I suppose) in a childlike coloring technique. I think I like the way it turned out.

Here is Nanne's sketch:

The heart is from the Cricut Beyond Birthdays cartridge (I think) and I painted it with Crackle Paint. I took these photos on Monday night just after I finished the card and the paint hadn't dried yet. I haven't been home since, so when i get home tonight I will take new photos to show the actual crackle in the paint. The hearts are several different punches (Marvy, I believe) and I added Crackle Accents to them. Again, new photos will be posted tonight. I used Core'dinations paper for the background and embossed it with a folder from the Cuttlebug Mini Monsters set, I think? Sorry for all of the uncertainty. I'm not home and can't remember which set I used. The brain cells are fizzing out as I get older. Then I sanded it to expose the core paper. I used my Nesties to mat the image and added some green bling. The sentiment is one of my favorites. I wasn't familiar with this quote until Stephanie told me about it and I think I will be using it a lot. You're My Person is from the Whimsical Fun Vol. 1 set. Don't ya just love it?

You can find all four sets of Stephanie's new Whimsical Designs stamps HERE

Stamp Fairy is offering a $10.00 gift certificate to this week's random winner. If you're not familiar with the Stamp Fairy digital images, just click HERE to check them out. There is a huge selection of sweet and adorable images! Thank you Stamp Fairy!

For more details on the Whimsical Wednesday challenge and to see the other Whimsie's take on the sketch challenge, head on over to Whimsical Designs! I can't wait to see which images they used!

UPDATE: The embossed background is from a 5x7 folder from the Cuttlebug Boys Will Be Boys Cricut Companion set. Thanks for the nudge, Donna!
I am entering this in the Greeting Cards challenge at The Outlawz

On The Edge layout ~Whimsical Wednesdays~

2012-01-06T22:31:00.002-05:00

I don't even know how I was able to finish this layout. I had to work 3 days this week (as opposed to the usual two days) and spent another day in Manhattan with Melissa and Angelo for his oncology check-up. In any event, I just finished putting it together and I'm still on the fence. You know me, I either love it or I hate it, but not quite sure about this one.

The two darlings are my granddaughter, Bella, on the right and her BFF Abby on the left. I snatched the photo off of my daughter's Facebook page and printed it out. The papers are from a Scenic Route scrapbooking set. The flowers are Petaloo and the two stamped sentiments are from the Whimsical Designs set Whimsical Fun Vol. 1

The green lacy border has been laying around in my craft room for a couple of years. Not sure of the brand. It's glittery and self adhesive but I had a hard time getting all of the intricate pieces to release from the design, so I just let them be. The title is from the Cricut cartridge A Child's Year and I embossed it with the Cuttlebug tiny mosaic folder. I wrapped some funky yarn around the edge of the picture to hide some REALLY BAD stitching that I had attempted but failed at it.

I added some green gems here and there and tied a rik-rak ribbon to the tag and called it done.

Oh, guess I should mention the two border punches. One is Martha Stewart ??? and the other is EK Success scallop dots.

And there you have it. My second project for the Whimsical Wednesday challenge! Please see my previous post for the awesome prize sponsored by Crop Stop, the challenge details and all that good stuff!

Here's the Whimsical Designs stamp set that I used on the tags. You can find all 4 stamp sets HERE

On The Edge ~ Whimsical Wednesdays

2012-01-04T10:00:00.002-05:00

Happy Wednesday and Happy New Year! I am so behind on everything. Today is Wednesday and that can only mean one thing..... we've got a new Whimsical Wednesday challenge for you and a fabulous prize by a fabulous sponsor (one of my most fabulous shopping sites, too, I might add)! So let me get right down to business. This week, the challenge at Whimsical Wednesdays is to use a creative border/edge on your project. Being the first Wednesday of the month, some of the oh-so-creative Whimsical Designers will be showcasing scrapbook layouts. I took the meek and humble (read 'lazy') approach and made a card. Like I said, I am SO behind on everything. The Whimsies -- my secret nickname for the Whimsical Designers -- are just amazing when it comes to layouts. Heck, they're amazing when it comes to any type of project!

Here's my card, using a Martha Stewart punch-around-the-page duo...FAMILY...the corner punch and edge punch are sold separately. I don't believe these are sold as a set. CropStop has a tutorial on YouTube where Peggy will show you how to use these punch around the page punches. She doesn't cover the slight difference in technique that I used to get those left hand corners, but the instructions that come with the punches will show you how. Basically, all you need to do is line up a notch on the punch with the fold/crease of your card, and punch. That's it! You punch directly on your card base.

I started off with a 5x5 card. when you want to use the punches completely around the page, you will have to use certain sizes. They are listed on the instruction sheet that comes with each punch. For the floral panel, I just used my paper trimmer to cut a square, I think at 3.75 inches and simply chomped away the corners with my Corner Chomper (We R Memory Keepers). The pretty dancer silhouette is from the Shall We Dance Cricut cartridge. I'm pretty sure this is the first time I'm using that cart. I added dots of silver using a Liquid Pearl Pen...LOVE this product! The tag is a Cuttlebug die. I added a small eyelet using my Cropodile and added a piece of died seam binding. A few gems from my stash and the sentiment stamp which inspired the card...Take life by the hand and dance...just one of the many beautiful sentiments from the Whimsical Fun Vol. 1 set, available now at Whimsical Designs. If you haven't seen any of Stephanie's new stamps, you really are missing out! The first 4 sets are on my craft table all the time.

Our sponsor this week is Crop Stop and lookie what you could win....

An EK Success doily petals punch, to make these gorgeous flowers! SWEET! Thanks CropStop!

Head on over to Whimsical Designs to see the amazing projects by the design team, get all the details on the challenge, and have some fun and play along with us for a chance to win!

Love Bug & Wish

2011-12-29T20:56:00.000-05:00

Two quick cards to share today. Please scroll down to previous post for Whimsical Wednesday.

The papers are from the DCWV Lemon Flower mat stack. I used Nesties to cut the flower shapes. The fancy frame is a stamp from Unity Stamp, the set is called Moxie. I used Ranger silver embossing tinsel and heat set it. I did a little bit of machine stitching and the background is embossed with a Sizzix folder. The top edge of the black cs is punched with EK Success daisy scallop. The sentiment is from the Whimsical Designs set called Whimsical Fun, Vol. 1 and I think it's just perfect on this card.

For this card, I used another of the Whimsical Designs stamps. Love Bug is from the With Love set and with Valentine's Day just around the corner, you may want to hop on over to Whimsical Designs and see this set up close and personal. Stephanie is also offering free shipping! I used a couple of Nesties for the mat and embossed the center with a Cuttlebug folder. The dragonfly was cut on my Sizzix Eclips machine using the All Occasions cartridge. I am still learning this machine so I kept it fairly simple. I added some gems and used my Silver Pearl Pen to give it some bling. The flowers are Prima and I've had them for about 4 years now. One of my New Year's resolutions is to start using up some of the old stuff.

And that's it for now. I am working on a FABULOUS banner and I cannot wait to share it with you!

Whimsical Wednesday ~ Happy New Year

2011-12-28T08:53:00.006-05:00

Happy Wednesday! Hope everyone hasn't run out of steam yet after Christmas, because we still have to get through New Year's Eve! This week at Whimsical Wednesdays, Stephanie gave the design team the option of creating a New Year's project or sharing their favorite projects from 2011. I'm planning a last minute New Year's Eve party at my house, so I haven't quite finished my New Year's project but hope to post it by Friday. So let's revisit my favorite 2-page layout from 2011 (since I only did a few layouts, it wasn't hard to choose. HA!)

I made this one back in March. I just love the colors and glitter and bright yellows and greens. I'll add the link to my original post under each picture, just in case you'd like to see some close-ups and get more details. My granddaughter, Bella, is such a pip! As you can see, she loves posing for the camera. These photos were taken at the Vanderbilt Mansion in Hyde Park, NY. If you live in the area, or ever come to visit, the grounds are just beautiful and make for such gorgeous backdrops for your photos. They have a magical rose garden...very peaceful.

http://bellabugcreations.blogspot.com/2011/03/beautiful-bella-part-ii.html

http://bellabugcreations.blogspot.com/2011/03/beautiful-bella.html

Prancing Deer

2011-12-22T06:45:00.001-05:00

(Please scroll down to previous post to see my Whimsical Wednesday project -- an adorable altered frame!)

I will be seeing my mother-in-law today and needed to make a Christmas card for her. She is my number 1 fan and always adores my cards. While that IS a good thing, it sort of puts the pressure on when making a last minute card for her. I always feel like I've got to make it better than the last. I'm all Christmas'd out at this point and short on mojo, so I opened the December Cricut Magazine and fell in love with the card by Melyssa Connolly (page 24 & 25). It has just a couple of cuts, all single layer and I knew I could crank one out fairly quickly. For the most part, I scrap lifted Melyssa's card. I used Diamond Dust on the deer and she used a clear, chunky glitter which I'm sure is very similar to Diamond Dust. She used paint on her trees, I used Liquid Applique. I even mimicked the stitching around the border. Our papers are different, as are the lace, twine and sentiment, but if you hold the cards side by side, you can clearly see the resemblance, so I must give Melyssa most of the credit here. I didn't think ahead while putting this card together and forgot to consider the sentiment when choosing my papers. The bottom panel wasn't going to work.....much too busy. So I inked up It's a Wonderful Life from the Snow Much Fun set by Whimsical Designs, and stamped it in the upper right corner. I normally wouldn't stamp directly on a patterned paper but I like the subtle look this has. I stamped a sentiment on the inside and called it done. This will be the last of my Christmas card posts but I do have one more post for tomorrow with all of the tags I made for my grandchildren's gifts. Then I will put away all of the Christmas supplies and move on to some Valentine's Day projects.
Here's a tip: I often refer to my card magazines for ideas and inspiration. Often times, when I find a card I really like, I set out to make the exact same card. But that never happens. I always change it up a bit, to make it my own. Sometimes I'll flip the sketch, add or remove elements, try different embellishments, or use different die cuts. I find it a great way to get actually get a card done, rather than wasting time thinking about what it is I want to make. Don't be afraid to take inspiration from others and make it your own!

Close up:

Inside:

I am entering my card in the following challenges:
Bearly Mine - anything goes
Top Tip Tuesday ~ Anything Christmas
Ribbon Carousel ~ Twisted Twine

~ Home For The Holidays ~ Whimsical Wednesday

2011-12-21T08:01:00.005-05:00

Happy Wednesday my friends! I am so excited to share my Whimsical Wednesday project with you today. I have the biggest fear of venturing too far out of my comfort zone -- card making. But I put on my big girl panties and entered unchartered territory and decided to alter a frame. I absolutely love the way it turned out! I bought 3 of these frames at a local dollar store. They were in a discount bin (hahaha....a discount bin at a dollar store!) I got them for 20 cents each! I thought for sure they would sit in a corner of the craft room and collect dust but for 20 cents, I couldn't pass it up.

The Whimsical Designers have crafted up a storm for you this week making home decor projects for the holiday. I haven't seen any of them yet, but I just know I am going to be "wow'd" off my feet when I see them!

I started off with some yummy double-sided paper and decided to leave some of the original frame showing....such a pretty gold, I didn't want to cover it all up. I placed the paper in the center of my Cricut mat and cut the center square using George & Basic Shapes. I trimmed the outer edges down to size using a paper trimmer. I used ATG tape to adhere paper to frame. The 'wonderful winter' cut is from the Creative Memories Cheerful Seasons cartridge. I used the shadow feature and the base cut. Pop dots were used for the word 'winter' and the entire piece itself is adhered tot he frame with pop dots. I added Crackle Accents to the word 'wonderful' and Stickles are dotted in the centers of the tiny snowflakes on the word 'winter'.

The deer, house and birds are from the Imagine Snow Angel cartridge. I used the layers feature for all of the images and then used pop dots to give them lots of dimension. I then selected just the bird layer and cut a bunch out at several different sizes. Some of them I flipped so they wouldn't all be facing the same direction. I didn't use all of the birds that I cut. My grandson actually ATE one of them! That kid will eat anything! I added some Distress Stickles to the belly of the birds and they are all adhered with pop dots. I also added a bit of Glossy Accents to the pink of the ears on the deer.

Here's my poor attempt at trying to take a photo showing the dimension. I think my next step will be a photography class so I can learn how to use this fancy camera!

The snowflakes are Martha Stewart punches and I used glitter paper to add some sparkle to the design. The label for my stamped sentiment is a Cuttlebug Plus Embossing folder, fanciful labels. I inked it up with distress ink before removing the card stock from the die. My lovely sentiment is a stamp from Stephanie's new line of Whimsical Designs stamps. I am amazed at how many project ideas I have, all inspired by these versatile stamps! This one is 'warm winter wishes' and it's from the Snow Much Fun set. All four of the Whimsical Designs stamp sets are available for immediate shipping (FREE shipping, I might add!). You can find them HERE

Now, if you need some inspiration and ideas for those last minute holiday gifts and home decor, you really should head on over to Whimsical Designs to see what the rest of the creative team has to share. Play along and link up your project for a chance to win. Stephanie always has a fabulous prize!
I am entering this in the following challenges:
Die Cuttin' Divas ~ Holiday Decor
Shopping Our Stash ~ Use a snowflake
Try It On Tuesday ~ Anything Goes

You Make Me Smile

2011-12-19T07:13:00.000-05:00

LOL! Don't ya just love it? I think that this Framed Disturbed Snowman image (#275) from Dilly Beans was just screaming to be paired up with the "you make me smile all over my face" stamp from the Whimsical Fun set by Whimsical Designs. In addition to the Whimsical Fun set, Stephanie has 3 other sets that are also available. Really, really cute stuff! You can see all four sets HERE. P.S.... FREE SHIPPING! I'm not quite sure if that's a smile on Disturbed Snowman's face, but it sure is ALL OVER his face! hahahahah! I crack myself up! I goofed when printing out the digi snowman image and he printed on a full 8.5 x 11 sheet, so I'm going to give that one to my granddaughter to color when she comes over on Christmas Eve. She's 7 yrs. old but I think she can handle it. In fact, that gives me an idea! I think I' will print out a whole bunch of images from Dilly Beans and make coloring books for all of the grandkids. Something to keep them busy until it's time to tear open all the presents. I resized and reprinted the image at approximately 3.5 x 2.5.

Pretty simple card here. I colored the image with my Prisma markers. I think the bolder colors of my Prismas would work well with this guy and besides, the markers haven't been touched in months. The little dots on the background were made with two itsy bitsy clear stamps from a Technique Tuesday princess set. I used Distressed in for that....shabby shutters and tattered rose. I cut it out using a deckled edge Nestie. I tore a piece of paper from the Core'dinations Vintage Collection stack and embossed it with the Cuttlebug tiny bubbles folder and then sanded using a Tim Holtz sander. The image hides most of the fabulous texture and I'm wishing I had printed this frazzled guy just a little bit smaller. Oh well, next time. The other 2 background papers are from the ProvoCraft Holiday Slab V, which I've had forever. I really need to start using up some of my older papers. The tag is a Spellbinders Shapeabilities die from the Ribbon Tag Trio Two set. I inked up the corners using the Distress tattered rose and then stamped the sentiment. I added some sparkle embossing powder by Recollections to the stamped sentiment. And the powder also took a liking to the distress ink in the corners and so it all turned out pretty cool after applying the heat gun. I added some Pebbles ribbon to the tag and secured it using the Tim Holtz tiny attacher. I used a fat glue dot to secure the tag to the card and I cut some craft foam to layer between the image and the card front.

And there it is, another quick and easy card!

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

Crafting When We Can - #8 Friendship

Silver Snow Flakes

2011-12-18T09:22:00.000-05:00

Here's a really quick and easy card I put together in about 15 minutes. I usually add a separate card panel to the front of my cards, but this is a very heavy white card stock so all I did was score it in half to create the card. I usually write the names of my embossing folders right on them with a Sharpie, but looks like I missed this one. I want to say that it came with my new Cuttlebug? Not sure. If anyone knows the name of it, do tell! I cut a small tag using Nestabilties Labels Eight and punched a hole in the top for my ribbon. The paper is one of my favorites this holiday season....Glitter Cardstock Metallic stack by DCWV. There's a coating over the glitter, so it's mess-free. I used the snow flakes are winter's butterflies stamp from the Snow Much Fun set by Whimsical Designs. I can't tell you how invaluable this set has been when making my holiday cards! There's a stamp for every winter/Christmas theme! I used a black Staz-on pad to ensure my sentiment was nice and bold. And it is! I was sure to quickly wipe my stamp clean right after I stamped the sentiment. The snow flakes are from the Martha Stewart punch around the page set - Aspen Snowflakes. I adhered them using tiny little pop dots. The ribbon is by Pebbles and the gems are from my stash.

If you still haven't seen the new stamps that Stephanie has recently released, just visit the store at Whimsical Designs. There's 4 fabulous sets in all and right now, there is FREE SHIPPING! I'm a huge advocate of free shipping! : )

Reindeer Crossing

2011-12-17T15:11:00.001-05:00

I just love the deer on the Christmas Cheer cartridge and I thought this Reindeer Crossing stamp from the Whimsical Designs "Snow Much Fun" set was just perfect for my Cuttlebug Plus embossed tag, which I inked up before removing from the folder. I curved the clear stamp on the acrylic block to fit the contour of the tag. I used Nestabilities inverted scalloped circles to mat the deer. Each layer has foam adhesives for dimension. I embossed the red circle with the Cuttlebug dots and spots folder and inked the edges with Stampin' Up chocolate chip ink. Stephanie, the owner of Whimsical Designs, is also a Stampin' Up demonstrator and you can find a link to her Stampin' Up store on the Whimsical Designs blog. The white background is embossed with the Cuttlebug mistletoe kisses from a winter bundle. I added a red eyelet to the tag and tied it all up with some cappuccino twine. I added Distress Embossing Powder in tea dye to the deer's antlers, some black Stickles to the nose and hooves and a few little adhesive pearls for the collar. I used a fine point marker and traced over the facial cuts. I used kraft paper for the card base.

All four sets of Stephanie's Whimsical Designs stamps are now available AND there's FREE SHIPPING! Click HERE to go directly to her shop.
I am entering this card in the following challenges:
CHNC #51 - Anything Goes

2 Sisters Challenge #70 - Kids Christmas
Hiding in My Craft Room #25 - Embossing Technique (I used Distress emb. powder & Cuttlebug)
Just Us Girls - Color Challenge
She's A Sassy Lady - Anything Christmas

Twelve Tags of Christmas ~ Tag #1

2011-12-14T10:20:00.000-05:00

Okay, okay, so I missed the boat. What else is knew? But I'm not going to let that stop me from playing along with Tim Holtz's Twelve Tags of Christmas. If you're wondering where my Whimsical Wednesdays project is, NO, I didn't miss that boat either! Stephanie has given her Whimsical Designers the week off so we can catch up on all of our holiday shopping and preparations. Phew! I have been inundated with grandkids and things are getting done at a very slow pace here at Grandma's house. But I did manage this quick tag. So here is my Tag #1:

The tag itself is from a Cuttlebug Embossing Plus folder. This set is simply called Embossed Tags. I inked it up before removing it from the cutting plate using Tim Holtz Distress Ink in worn lipstick. Using a teeny tiny wood mounted snowflake stamp and a Versa Mark ink pad, I stamped the snowflakes and sprinkled with Ranger holographic embossing powder and then set it with a heat gun. The houses are from a Tim Holtz Alterations die called townscape. I only used a portion of the strip of houses. I have some fabulous adhesive backed felt that I've been itching to use and it cut like butter using the die in my Cuttlebug. Just sandwich the die between 2 B plates. I added some Stickles in golden rod to the bottom and spread it out over the felt using a very sophisticated tool..... my FINGER! LOL! I added a pretty glass bead and a strand of Martha Stewart red twine.

For the back I just used a wood mounted stamp. See my glob of glue at the top? Messy messy!

I've got just about 30 minutes before my youngest grandson, Danny, gets dropped off to ~~torture and torment~~ spend some quality time with Grandma. He is one mischievous little elf. The name tag is part of the shirt... it reads "Hello my name is Little Helper". NOT!

One more bit of exciting news....ANGELO IS HOME from the hospital! He will have to be readmitted the day after Christmas, but we are overjoyed that he is home for Christmas! Here he is with big brother Domenic

Snowman/Snowflake ~ Scraptastic Monday Challenge

2011-12-09T06:00:00.001-05:00

I can't seem to get enough of the winter wonderland theme! I really had a lot of fun making this card but I gotta tell ya...my snowman went MIA for a good hour while I was picking out Nesties and embossing folders. He was right there on the table one minute and I turned my back for a second and *poof* he was gone. I was seriously beginning to think he had melted away! I eventually found him in one of my embossing folder containers. I'm still scratching my head over that.

Ooopps, got a little sidetracked. So this handsome fella is one of Cindy's Scraptastic digis and I thought since I was playing along with her challenge, it would be double fun if I used one of her images. The challenge this week is to use a snowman and/or snowflake in a winter wonderland theme. Think I got it all covered here! I sized him just perfectly so that his sign would fit one of Stephanie's stamps from her new Whimsical Designs stamp sets. This sentiment stamp has lots of festive fun with the little snowflakes right in there with the sentiment. And don't your just love the font? To view all four sets of the Whimsical Designs stamps, visit Whimsical Designs HERE. Stephanie is offering FREE SHIPPING! What could be better than that?

Now let me tell you all about my card. I colored the image with Copics. For some reason, I had some bleeding on the darker blue. I think the paper wasn't smooth enough. I tried to blend it, but the more I tried, the worse it got, so I let it be. I'm still having fun with my Liquid Applique and glitter. I apply the Liquid Applique and while it's still wet, I sprinkled on some Martha Stewart coarse crystal glitter and then "puffed up" the liquid applique with a heat gun. I used blue on the hat and scarf and white on the snow at the bottom. Then I just stamped the sentiment. I used a glitter pen on the pom pom of his hat.

The oval was cut with a Nestabilities oval die and embossed with a Sizzix "Frost" embossing folder using my Cuttlebug. I added some metal snowflake brads by Spare Parts. I cut another oval out of white craft foam using the same oval Nestie and used that to pop the embossed oval. Some of these embossing folders tend to make your cardstock flimsy, so the foam makes it nice and sturdy. I cut up some of the white foam and used it to pop up the snowman as well.

Here you can see some of the glitter on the Liquid Applique. (Yes, I'm still waiting on that battery charger for the good camera!)

And to really knock your socks off, I did the inside too! The sentiment is a wood mounted stamp. It's not marked so I don't know who makes it, but I bought it from Susie B. when she was having one of her sales.

If you're going to play along with Cindy's challenge -- and I hope you do -- you might want to also check out the Whimsical Wednesday challenge. Both challenges have winter wonderland themes and you can probably create one card for both. I know you can! Lots of yummy prizes too!
Oh, I almost forgot to mention that I'm also entering this in the Card Patterns Sketch 144 challenge.

Angelo Update

2011-12-08T22:07:00.000-05:00

Hello my friends. I thought I'd squeeze in a quick update and recent photo of Angelo before my next post goes live tomorrow morning. I've had some emails asking about my super gorgeous and incredibly lovable grandson, Angelo, and here he is....showing off his latest accomplishments. This picture was taken a day after receiving a very strong dose of chemo. His smile cannot be held down! Angelo has taken some little leaps in his developmental abilities. After two months of laying in a hospital bed, he is now sitting up on his own and holding his toys. Rolling the ball and today he gave us "high fives"! Angelo has never had any real words, but we think today we may have heard the word "ball". We couldn't be more excited. For an average 20-month-old this is no great feat, but for Angelo, who's developmental progress was basically brought to a halt by that ugly tumor, this is a huge milestone. His constant smile through the hell he's been through, well, it's just amazing. We can all learn something from this little boy.

Angelo has a very rough road he still needs to travel. 72 weeks of chemo and blood transfusions, endless medications and possible stem cell replacement. His mommy and daddy are the strongest people I know. After Angelo, that is.

I'd just like to say thank you to all of you who continue to ask about Angelo and for your constant prayers and comforting words. I am optimistic that the next time I post about Angelo, he will be showing you all some new tricks! We have adopted the nickname Super Angelo and we created his very own logo. Let me tell you....this little boy is something special!

Whimsical Wednesday ~ WINTER FUN

2011-12-07T10:49:00.004-05:00

Happy Whimsical Wednesday! We are getting into the fun of the Winter season at Whimsical Designs with a shivering challenge to gear up for what's ahead....SNOW!!!! Aaaggghhhh! Me no like! You'll hear me complaining about it all too often as we get further into the season. Anyway, let me get back on track. This week at Whimsical Wednesday, Challenge #34 is WINTER FUN! Create a Christmas or winter themed project and include something sparkly on it. You can do this by adding stickles, glimmer mist, glitter etc., or you can include a premade glittery embellishment.

I am still apologizing for such lousy pictures. They were taken with my iPhone while I wait for my new camera battery charger to arrive in the mail.

I am trying to use some of the rubber stamps that I've purchased (some years ago) and never used. I need to start using the things I already have and stop ordering more of the things I won't use. So this is Oliver from Kraftin' Kimmie. I colored him up with Copics and then did something I tend to do and sometimes regret...experimented on my colored image. Luckily, it worked out well this time. I added white Liquid Applique to the fur trim of his hat and while it was still wet, I sprinkled on some Martha Stewart glitter and then applied the heat gun to puff it up. It looks so much prettier in real life and as soon as that charger comes, I will take new photos and post them so you can see the detail and sparkle up close. I added some Stickles to the bottom of the mug he's holding and to his feet.

The sentiment is from one of the brand new stamp sets that Stephanie has just released....this one is from the Snow Much Fun set and you can find it HERE, along with the other 3 new sets. Just look at the pretty fonts on this stamp! I used a smaller Nestie from the same Labels Fourteen set and then stamped my sentiment. One thing I really like about these clear stamps is that you can see exactly where you are placing it on your paper. In keeping with the challenge, I added more Stickles as a border and then simply punched a small hole using a Martha Stewart hole punch, and tied a bow with some twine. I popped up the sentiment with thin foam adhesives.

We have two fabulous sponsors this week for the challenge:

Nanne, a Whimsical Designer herself, is offering up a prize package of Webster Pages scrapping supplies and Cindy from Cindy's Scraptastic Designs is offering up three of her digital stamps. WOO HOO! Thanks ladies!

So head on over to Whimsical Designs! You can find all the details for playing along with the challenge and then link up your project for a chance to win. Plus, if you scroll down through the past week, you will see lots of inspiring projects from the Whimsical Designers, showcasing the new Whimsical Designs stamps which were just released this weekend. There's a tab at the top of the page for Stephanie's SHOP where you can view/purchase all four sets. P.S.....FREE SHIPPING!

And the WINNER is...

2011-12-05T08:10:00.000-05:00

A big thank you to all that hopped around with us this weekend for the Whimsical Designs Stamp Release Blog Hop! As always, your comments make my day and are much appreciated. If you liked the stamps that I used on my projects, be sure to stop by the Whimsical Designs shop to see all 4 stamp sets that Stephanie just released this weekend. The stamps are top quality and the fonts are fun and really unique, which really makes them stand out in the crowd. I think I have a project idea in my head for every single one of the stamps!

AND there's FREE SHIPPING!!! Doesn't get any better than that!

And now let's get down to business! The winner from my blog, chosen randomly from the comments on the Blog Hop post, is......

Sandy from Ukiah! Here's what she said...

Well you had better be happy with that penguin card, that is just way too cute, it couldn't be any cuter. Hugs

Sandy, you are always such a sweet heart! I already have your email address, so I will forward the Gift Certificate code to you this morning. Happy Shopping at Crop Stop!

I will be back today with a cute little card!

Whimsical Designs ~~ Stamp Release Blog Hop!

2011-12-03T07:00:00.013-05:00

Today's the Big Day! We've got a fantastic blog hop lined up for you to celebrate the release of the Whimsical Designs Stamps! After two days of sneak peeks, you can now see the first four sets in their entirety and I'm willing to bet that you're all hoping to be that lucky winner of all 4 sets! If you arrived here from Star's blog then you are right on track. The next stop is Sabrina. If you want to start at the beginning of the hop then head on over to Stephanie's blog and you can start the hop from there. You have until midnight on Sunday to leave your comments and be eligible to win blog candy.

I have two great projects to share with you today. All of the stamps I used are from the Snow Much Fun set, which you can find HERE in the Whimsical Designs store. The other three sets can be found there as well.

My first project is a card which started out as a shaped card but Cricut Craftroom was acting up and I had problems trying to get it to cut, so I opted to make a square card. I believe the igloo is from the Create A Critter cartridge. I embossed it and added mica flakes to the top edge. I also pop dotted the top layer to the shadow lair. The penguins are from Zooballo and I used Peachy Keen stamps for the faces. The stamps came with a Penguin die from Scrapping Cottage. I used grey card stock for the all of the penguin cuts and then shaded the black part with chalk.The sign is from a QuicKutz set and it comes with quite a few dies so you can layer the sign to your liking. I used vellum for the bottom layer and red and white card stock for the rectangular piece. The sentiment is the Baby It's Cold Outside stamp from the Snow Much Fun set. This font makes me think of snowballs! :) The arrow is also from the QK sign set. I added some glue and red glitter. For a finishing touch, I adhered a ribbon down the side and tied a couple of twine bows around it. I just love how this turned out! Imagine that....I have no complaints on this card.

Close up:

For my second project I used a small kraft shopping bag and the adorable snowflake stamp from the Snow Much Fun set. This stamp set has a great assortment of wintry sentiments and several cute images as well. I used Perfect Medium stamp pad and then added Zing embossing powder and set with a heat gun. I instantly created the design for almost the entire bag front. I found some metallic paper that was almost an exact color match to the embossing powder so I punched a border trim using a Martha Stewart snowflake punch. Then I added a thin grosgrain ribbon along the crease. The tag is a Size Originals die. I used the metallic paper and stamped the sentiment all my friends are flakes on a piece of kraft paper and cut it to fit as a banner across the stamp. I again stamped two more snowflakes, added the Zing and heat set. Tied the tag to the handle using some twine and tada! Just for the record, not ALL of my friends are flakes, just the very near and dear ones are! LOL!

Here's a close up. Don't ya love the cute little faces on the snowflakes?

I apologize for the dark photos. As soon as I find the battery charger for my good camera, I will put up better pictures.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for! Introducing..........

WHIMSICAL DESIGNS STAMPS!

They are available TODAY in the store at Whimsical Designs. Just click HERE

I hope you're still with me, because it's BLOG CANDY time!

I will be offering a $20.00 gift certificate to Crop Stop, an online crafting supply store. You will LOVE this store! And they are very quick with shipping! Just leave me a comment and I will pick a random winner at 9:00 a.m. on Monday. You do not need to be a follower of mine, but I'd be happy as a pig-in-you-know-what if you did!

GRAND PRIZE

One random winner will get a prize pack that will include:

* choice of one Whimsical Designs stamp set

* two Stampin' Up ink pads (Black and Chocolate Chip)

* one medium sized acrylic stamp block from Stampin' Up

* one pack of Stampin' Up White Card Stock

In order to be eligible for the grand prize you must become a follower of the Whimsical Designs blog and leave a comment on all the Whimsical Designers blogs under their hop post.
For extra chances to win the grand prize
1. Advertise the Whimsical Designs Blog Hop Stamp release on Facebook and go to the Whimsical Designs blog and leave a comment that you did
2. Blog about the Whimsical Designs Stamp Release Blog Hop and leave a comment at the Whimsical Designs Blog saying that you did.
You must include the links to the post in your comment.

You have until midnight on Sunday to leave your comments and be eligible to win blog candy

YOUR NEXT STOP ON THE HOP IS SABRINA

WHIMSICAL DESIGNS Sneak Peek Day 2

2011-12-02T07:04:00.001-05:00

In order to give everyone more time to leave comments under the post for the two day stamp sneak peeks the blog hop will start tomorrow, December 3 at 7:00am EST. You have until 12:00am EST tonight to leave comments under all of the designers post for the sneak peeks from yesterday and today. All of the winners of the stamps will be announced, along with the winner of the entire stamp release, tomorrow morning on the Whimsical Designs Blog.

Here we are at Day 2 of the Whimsical Designs Sneak Peeks! I hope you have had a chance to visit the Whimsical Designs blog and see what the rest of the Design Team has cooked up using these versatile stamps. Yesterday, we were showcasing the Whimsical Fun Vol. 1 and the With Love sets and today we will be showing off our projects using stamps from the Snow Much Fun and and Everyday Sentiments sets. I am using the Snow Much Fun set.

Each of the Whimsical Designers will be giving away a set of these amazing stamps! I am giving away the Whimsical Fun Volume 1 set. It is full of a great assortment of sentiments that you will be able to use on so many different projects.
* * * * * * * * * *
Here's a really pretty card I made using the Got Snow? stamp from the Snow Much Fun set. This set really is SNOW MUCH FUN! Now remember...I am not giving away this set, but some of the other design team girls will be.
I used a pearl card stock for the base and embossed it with a Tim Holtz snowflake folder. Then I used a snowflake from the Spellbinders Shapeabilities Pendants set 2010 and stamped the sentiment using a blue ink. Then decided after removing the card stock from the die, that I wanted to ink it up, so I just placed the snowflake back in the die, lightly pressed it in, flipped it over and inked it up. This is how I craft....I don't think things through and just make it up as I go along. I decided the snowflake was rather boring and this card was in desperate need of bling, so I cut another snowflake...I should mention I used my Grand Calibur with the snowflake die, and using a wide Zig glue pen, brushed the entire surface with glue and added Martha Stewart tinsel glitter. YIKES! Way too blingy!!! But when I placed the white snowflake on top...BEAUTIFUL! I glued the blinged-out snowflake to the card stock and decided to pop-dot the white one to allow just a little bit more of the tinsel glitter to be visible. You have got to see this card in real life...it's gorgeous!

Close up:

And now it's BLOG CANDY time! As I mentioned, each of the Whimsical Designers will be giving away one stamp set for the Sneak Peek week. I am giving away the Whimsical Fun Volume 1 set. AND, in addition to that, Stephanie is giving away the ENTIRE RELEASE -- that's 4 sets -- to one lucky person. So there is a total of 11 prizes to be won!

In order to be eligible for the prizes mentioned above, you must leave a comment on all of the designers blogs on both Sneak Peek days.

Want Two Extra Chances to Win? Post about the two day Sneak Peek and the Stamp Release on

1. Facebook - come back and leave a comment under the sneak peek post on the Whimsical Designs blog, saying that you did.

2. Your Blog - come back and leave a comment on the Whimsical Designs blog saying that you did.

You will have until Friday, December 2nd at 12:00 AM (EST) to leave a comment on the blogs. All winners will be announced tomorrow morning on the Whimsical Designs blog.

So head on over to the Whimsical Designs Blog and check out the Designers amazing projects using these Fun and Fabulous new stamps!

WHIMSICAL DESIGNS Sneak Peek Day 1

2011-12-01T07:20:00.003-05:00

WOO HOO! It's finally here!!! The Whimsical Designs Sneak Peek Day 1. In case you haven't heard, Stephanie of Whimsical Designs has a new line of stamps coming out! Today all of the Whimsical Designers will be giving you sneak peeks of two sets and tomorrow peeks of the other two sets. Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m. (EST) is the Stamp Reveal Blog Hop. All stamp sets will be available for purchase on Stephanie's blog, in her new shop.

Here is a card I made using the sentiment "Wishing you a Beautiful Day" from the Whimsical Fun Volume 1 Set. I love the way my Nestabilities are going to work so well with these stamps! The card and floral cuts are from the Cricut Sophie cartridge. I embossed the background with a Cuttlebug folder and added a piece of American Crafts ribbon.

In order to be eligible for the prizes mentioned above, you must leave a comment on all of the designers blogs on both Sneak Peek days.

Want Two Extra Chances to Win? Post about the two day Sneak Peek and the Stamp Release on

1. Facebook - come back and leave a comment under the sneak peek post on the Whimsical Designs blog, saying that you did.

2. Your Blog - come back and leave a comment on the Whimsical Designs blog saying that you did.

You will have until 12:00 a.m. (EST) on Friday, December 2nd, to leave a comment on the blogs. All winners will be announced on the Whimsical Designs blog Saturday morning.

So head on over to the Whimsical Designs Blog and check out the Designers amazing projects using these Fun and Fabulous new stamps!

Whimsical Wednesday ~ LAYERS

2011-11-30T08:24:00.001-05:00

I have lots to talk about with this post so I apologize in advance for all the chatter.

First of all, let me tell you about my card and this week's Whimsical Wednesday challenge, which is to add layers to your project and it must be a Christmas or Winter theme. Well, I had such a fun card laid out in my head, using Cricut Craft Room to create a shaped card with all kinds of layers and welding and all that good stuff. I had the card partially designed but when I tried to cut, CCR wasn't cooperating. Unfortunately, it was giving me issues (again). I thought about redesigning in Design Studio, but one of the cartridges I was using -- CTMH Art Philosophy -- wasn't in the list, so I had to do an update. At this point, I just wanted to get the card done, so I did the update and using Art Philosophy and George, created the top panel with the cut-out trees. My intention was to have the cut-out trees on the card base as well, and then have the "Joy" sentiment stamped on the inside of the card, so it would show through when closed. With my 4-year-old grandson hanging out in the craft room with me, I was a bit distracted. Take that back...I was BIG TIME distracted. We won't be doing that again. So, it is what it is. That pretty background was done using a stamp and emboss set by Sizzix. I love how it looks on the kraft paper. The tree, label and sentiment stamps are from the Close To My Heart Art Philosophy set. The cartridge comes with coordinating stamps for many of the cuts and it tell you right on the stamp sheet what size to cut out each image. I did some inking to the top panel and since this is a LAYERS challenge, added to layers of pop dots to the tree, one to the sentiment and the entire top panel has a layer of pop dots as well.

Not enough inspiration for ya? Well then, head on over to to Whimsical Wednesday to see what the rest of the Whimsical Designers have created using this fun technique. Tons of inspiration to be found over there!

Here's a few close-ups of my card before I continue on with my important babbling:

Our very own and extremely creative Nanne is our sponsor this week with a prize pack filled with Webster Pages scrapping supplies. Who doesn't want to get their crafty little hands on that! Also, just a reminder -- the "Add Texture" challenge is still open and one random winner of that challenge will get all four stamp sets in the new Whimsical Designs stamp release. (more info on that below).

Please remember that if you are playing along with the Whimsical Wednesday challenge, you must follow the guidelines, which can be found at the Whimsical Designs blog.

The much anticipated Whimsical Designs stamps release is almost here! The Whimsical Designers will be showcasing the new stamp sets on Thursday Dec. 1st & Friday Dec. 2nd, so you will have the opportunity to see many of these fun stamps before they are released for sale for the first time on Friday night during the Whimsical Designs Stamp Release Blog Hop. The excitement starts at 7:00 pm (EST) and I hope to see all of you there!

Stamp & Emboss by Sizzix

2011-11-25T21:27:00.001-05:00

It's hard to see the embossing on the top card, but on the second photo where I tilted slightly, you can see how the flowers are raised. Looks real pretty IRL

I just received a few of these stamp & emboss sets from Crop Stop and just had to try one out. The set I used is called Floral Wreath set w/stamp by Hero Arts. Pretty impressive if I do say so myself. This is a fun, easy way to get those cards done that you need in a hurry. I cut my white card stock down to 4"x 5.25" and then stamped it using the large stamp that comes with the set. I used Chocolate Chip ink by Stampin' Up. You can find all of the Stampin' Up products through a link on Stephanie's blog. After stamping, I placed the paper in the embossing folder and lined up the small flowers. Ran it through the Cuttlebug and instantly you have little embossed flowers. I used a light colored Copic marker to quickly add color to the flowers and gave them a holographic sticker center. The sentiment is from the Cuttlebug With Gratitude cut 'n emboss set. Then I just adhered the card front to the bright yellow card base and called it a day! I am entering this card into the Crop Stop challenge "Be Thankful". Oh, if you're interested in purchasing this stamp/emboss set, and to see others like it, visit CROP STOP.'

Please scroll down to see my previous post about the upcoming release of Stephanie's new stamp sets. We will have sneak peeks next Thursday and Friday with a blog hop on Friday, when the new Whimsical Design stamps will be available! My post contains information about how you can will all FOUR of the first sets! Check it out!

I also want to give a huge shout out to my dear friend, Donna, who had not one, not two, but THREE cards published in the December issue of Cricut Magazine! I'm sure most of you are familiar with Donna's work, but if not, you have got to visit her blog. You won't be disappointed. Her work is amazing...so full of detail and the designs are incredible. Congratulations, Chickie! Very well deserved!

Whimsical Wednesday & EXCITING Announcement!

2011-11-23T11:36:00.001-05:00

Well here I am with my first Whimsical Wednesday project! This week the design team is adding texture to their projects. I wanted to do something different and since I've got piles of small fabric cuts, I thought that would be the perfect texture for my card. The square fabric is pre-cut so all I had to do was sew it to the card stock. I ironed on a piece of interfacing to the back of the fabric to keep it flat when I sewed it and to be able to use my tape gun to hold it in place. Even with these precautionary measures, I still managed to bunch it up a little.

The pirate is from the Buccaneer Imagine cartridge. I LOVE this cartridge! Very colorful. I used an EK Success border punch and some kraft raffia ribbon, which also serves as "texture". My DT sisters have cooked up lots of fun ideas using texture so head on over to Whimsical Designs for some great ideas and inspiration and play along with us!

And now on to some very exciting news....
Stephanie's new stamp line, Whimsical Designs, is about to makes it's debut!!! We will have sneak peeks next Thursday December 1, and Friday December 2. Sneak Peeks will start each at day at 7:00am EST. The release will be during the release blog hop on Friday night December 2 at 7:00pm EST. Just wait till you see these stamps...you are going to LOVE them!

One random winner of this weeks challenge will win all four stamp sets in the new release. Since the winner will be announced next Friday night in the blog hop post, you will have until Friday December 2 at 12:00pm EST to enter the challenge. Here is a sneak peek of one of the stamp sets:

Three Challenge Turkey card

2011-11-20T08:55:00.000-05:00

Well, I said I was back and how's this for a start -- THREE challenges! First off, I wanted to use one of Cindy's Thanksgiving images before the holiday passes us by and I also wanted to play along at The Cuttlebug Spot, which recently re-launched after a 6 month hiatus. Running short on ideas (since I feel like I haven't crafted in years), I relied on a sketch from Card Patterns, and voila, I have a card!

The turkey image is from Cindy's Scraptastic Designs. You can find him along with the cutest Thanksgiving characters HERE. I sized the image in PhotoShop, printed, cut it out with a Nestie and colored him up with Copics. Cindy's current Scraptastic Monday Challenge (an all new and exciting challenge on her blog!) is to use your favorite color with embossing and twine. Easy peasy. My favorite color is red (obviously) and I added some twine through a punch leaf border (Falling Leaves by EK Success). I used the Cuttlebug folder from the cut & emboss set Persia to emboss the two smaller squares.

The challenge at The Cuttlebug Spot is to include a turkey on your project, so I got that challenge covered as well!

Finally, here's the third challenge...the sketch from Card Patterns.

As you can see, I really stuck to the sketch. Need to get some mojo back!

Thanks for stopping by!

I'm back and have a HUGE Announcement!

2011-11-16T12:02:00.002-05:00

I've been missing in action, busy working on an enormous commissioned project and I couldn't be happier that it is finally completed and I can get back to my usual crafting. And the timing couldn't be any more perfect....I am thrilled and honored to announce that I am now a Whimsical Designer!!!! Stephanie and I met over a year and we have become great blogging buddies and dear friends. I am beside myself with excitement! I've always admired the creative work of the Whimsical Wednesday design team and it is a privilege to be a part of this fantastic team. I am just so happy for Stephanie on her latest endeavor and I feel like a child waiting for Santa to arrive. I can't wait to jump right in and start creating!

I also just want to say that you still have time to enter the current Whimsical Wednesday challenge "Happy Turkey Day". Just click HERE and it will take you to the challenge.

Whimsical Wednesday

2011-11-11T22:05:00.000-05:00

HAPPY TURKEY DAY! That's the theme this week over at Whimsical Designs. I just so happened to have purchased this cute Little Pilgrim Girl last week from Cindy's Scraptastic Designs and she was the perfect subject for my Whimsical Wednesday challenge card. I colored her up with Copic and added some Tim Holtz distressed stickles to her hat. The laquered leaf I found on clearance in Michael's. Twisted the stem and added a pretty ribbon. The border punch is an EK Success punch and I did some stitching around the pp mat. The word bubble is an EK Success punch and I used a rotary stamp to creat the "Pie Anyone?" sentiment.

I've been extremely busy working on a commissioned project for 110 Sweet Sixteen invites and as soon as I receive permission to post them, I will. Just about done with it and all I can say was it was quite an experience which I do not look forward to repeating any time soon. I'd much rather product cards and projects for my blog on a regular basis. This adorable card is a good start, I think.

My precious grandson, Angelo is still in the hospital since the end of September. He is making slow progress and the doctors are trying to get him home, even if its just for a few days. We'll know more this weekend. He's had 4 surgeries since September and one of them was to attempt to remove more of the tumor that is pressing on his brain stem and causing hydrocephalus. He then had to have another procedure to put a shunt in below his scalp which will drain fluid to his stomach. He's been through so much. He has started the aggressive chemo and with it comes all kinds of issues and setbacks. He's a very strong little boy and seems to be tolerating it as best as we can hope for. Thanks to all of you who email me and ask about Angelo and continue to pray for him. Our wish is for him to be home for Thanksgiving.

For those of you who are actually here visiting my blog even after my long absence, I thank you very much! I shall return the gesture as quickly as I can keep up.

Baptism Favors

2011-10-18T18:00:00.001-04:00

I'm finally getting around to posting this. I made the favors for my grandson's Baptism back in September. All 50 of them! I bought the plain kraft mini shopping bags from Hobby Lobby. The lacy trim is a Martha Stewart punch and the labels are Nestabilities. Sentiment is computer-generated. In order to speed up the process of cutting ALL of those Nesties, I printed out the text on the cardstock -- as many as I could fit on one sheet, leaving enough space for the Nestie. Then, I put one sheet on top of the other and used a couple of glue dots around the edges to hold the two sheets together. I have a Spellbinder Grand Calibur, which almost fits an entire sheet of cardstock. I trimmed about 1/2 inch from the side. Run it through, remove the die and two cut out pieces of cardstock, place the die over the next block of text and repeat. Then I placed the little glass favor in tissue paper and tied a bow around each handle using light blue and white curling ribbon. Don't they make such a pretty presentation?

Here's a close-up You can see that even though I doubled up on the cardstock while running through the Grand Calibur, I didn't have to sacrifice the quality of the embossing. Oooops...I just realized I picked the photo that has no ribbon on the bag handle!

Two Cute Halloween Cards

2011-10-17T09:29:00.000-04:00

My daughter asked me to make a Halloween card for her nephew's first Halloween. I am a bit preoccupied these days and I don't think this is what she is expecting, but it is what it is.

The cute alien is from Mini Monsters. I added some Doodlebug chunky glitter to the bottom of his shoes and Martha Stewart gems to the eyes and antennae. I used my Dymo label maker for the sentiment and added strips of Pebbles ribbon. The buttons are Cosmo Cricut with embroidery thread. I cut the smaller pieces of the alien on white card stock and colored with Copics.

The inside sentiment is computer-generated and then cut out and matted on beaded square Nestabilities. The orange dotted background paper on both front and back are My Mind's Eye ~ Boo to You.

Just in case she doesn't like that first one, I put together this quickie using cut-outs from the My Mind's Eye ~ Boo to You kit. Added alpha beads to the tag, tied it to a sheer ribbon, a couple of buttons and black hemp and there ya have it!
I am entering these cards in the following challenge(s):
Shopping Our Stash
Quirky Crafts

Simple Tree Card

2011-10-16T16:09:00.000-04:00

I am putting together a small basket of cards as a raffle prize for a fundraiser that my daughter's friend is organizing. I'll have to keep them fairly simple because I was commissioned to make 90 (yes, NINETY!) Sweet Sixteen invitations and I just finished the design and will start on the cutting and assembly.

I used a pretty swirly tree stamp by Inkadinkado (Fall Season set). I used Stampin' Up chocolate chip ink...part of a winning over at Whimsical Wednesday... and I think I am now hooked on their ink pads! I used Nestabilities circle and scalloped circle for the mat. The ribbon is from Jo-Ann's and the metal leaf is a Spare Parts brad. I added a touch of Smooch to several leaves.

The challenge over at Cute Card Thursday is Tree-mendous, so I'm linking up and playing along!

Best Friends for Eternity

2011-10-13T09:02:00.000-04:00

Had time for a quick card last night! I really wanted to play along with the challenge at Crop Stop which is Dainty Doily. I'm not sure how dainty mine is, it's just one of those inexpensive paper things, but a doily all the same! I also used a sketch from Card Patterns #136 .

I inked up the doily with Tim Holtz mustard seed and spiced marmalade Distress Ink and then cut a hole out using a nestie. It's my artistic take on a glowing moon! The ghosts are from Happy Hauntings and I used both layers. The top layer was cut using Sizzix permanent adhesive sheets...I stick one side to plain card stock, cut in Cricut, peel top layer and sprinkle with glitter....easy peasy. They are so much more glittery irl....Martha Stewart crystal fine glitter. Used pop dots in between layers. The sentiment is a Joy's Life stamp from the Halloween Puns set. The pp is Theresa Collins and My Mind's Eye. I think I kinda like my quick card!

Challenges:
Crop Stop - Dainty Doily
Card Patterns - Sketch #136

All Hallows Eve layout

2011-10-09T20:08:00.001-04:00

Remember me? The dead beat blogger? To all of my blogging friends, I apologize for not visiting your blogs. Been very hectic with my grandson still in the hospital. I hope to jump back in to my crafting and blogging this week. In order to keep my sanity in check, I did make some time for myself today to get this layout done for the Whimsical Wednesday challenge. I always have such good intentions of playing along and it's a great feeling when I actually manage to get the job done every once in a while. The challenge is to make a Halloween layout and there's a twist....include a technique from one of the Design Team's projects. One of my all time favorite things to do is heat embossing, and while I would have liked to try something new, craft time is limited for me right now and I wanted to do something that I was familiar with. I chose to use heat embossing, and if you visit Star's blog, she'll show you just how it's done!

My background paper is The Spider's Web by My Mind's Eye. I used a Tim Holtz Grungeboard bird and first sprayed it with Glimmer Mist black magic and then jack o'lantern. Then I sprinkled on some Ranger holographic embossing powder and heat set. Way cool! The felt bird and text bird are from a boxed embellishment kit and it seems I lost the label so I have no idea what the brand is. I inked up the paper text bird with spiced marmalade Distress Ink. I used gold spray paint on the Grungeboard hinges and added green gems in lieu of brads. EK Success border punch on the photo mats. The clock is acetate and I'm not sure of the brand. Again, the label is gone. I applied some marmalade Distress Ink to the edges and it didn't show up, but once I laid the clock on the paper, I could see the orange tint. The gold hand is by Spare Parts. I only added one because they're all the same size (aarrgghhh), but you get the idea....it's midnight! The two smaller trees are a Tim Holtz Sizzix Bigz die (branch tree) and I cut them from some wide organza ribbon. Pretty cool!

The small "all hallows" at the top of the page are Tiny Type stickers by Cosmo Cricket. I used Tim Holtz masking letters for the "eve" down in the lower left corner and dabbed around the clear letters with the marmalade Distress Ink.

And that's all she wrote. Try not to miss me too much! : )

And the WINNER is...

2011-10-03T09:38:00.001-04:00

MELISSA!

<br>The numbers generated by this widget come from RANDOM.ORG's true random number generator.<br>
Totally MY BAD! I deleted the original Random.org box, but I promise you, it was #20 - Melissa. Think I finally got this Random.org thing figured out, so the next time it should work. Sorry 'bout that.

Melissa is the winner of the $20.00 gift certificate to Crop Stop!
Thank you to everyone who visited my blog during the World Card Making Day Blog Hop and a big thanks to Joy for inviting me to be a part of the fun!

Melissa, please email me and I'll send you the gift certificate info.

World Card-making Day Blog Hop!

2011-10-01T07:00:00.012-04:00

Happy World Card Making Day everyone! Isn't it exciting that there is a day dedicated to the art of card making? I am thrilled to once again be part of an amazing blog hop put together by Joy. I was hoping to have more than just one card to share but I've had a tremendously stressful week and just couldn't get it done. My card is fairly simple but I think it turned out so cute.

If you arrived from Kyle's blog, then younger in the right place. If you'd like to start at the beginning, just click HERE for Joy's blog.

The silly mummy is from the Cricut Mini Monsters cartridge. The tree, owl and bat are a Cuttlebug cut & emboss set. The stamp on the tree is from the Halloween Puns clear stamp set by Joy's Life. I embossed the "ground" with the Cuttlebug mesh folder. Then I had the bright idea of adding the shiny, tinsel ribbon to the border and immediately hated it, but it was firmly attached, so there it is!

I think this special occasion calls for a little blog candy, don't you? How about a $20 gift certificate to Crop Stop?! Just leave me a comment and I'll pick a winner on Monday morning.

Your next stop on the hop is Martha

Blog Hop Line Up

Joy - http://www.joyslife.com/
Amanda -http://amandascraftsandmore.blogspot.com/
Jin - http://underacherrytree.com/
Jovan - http://www.cardsbyjovan.com/
Julie- http://www.cricutchick.blogspot.com/
Kyle - http://thegreencricut.blogspot.com/
Margie - http://bellabugcreations.blogspot.com/
Martha -http://pattisscrapingtime.blogspot.com/
Melissa -http://melissa-moecreations.blogspot.com/
Tammy - http://tammyjennings.blogspot.com/
Theresa - http://www.thescrapbookingqueen.com/

Fall Scarecrow

2011-09-30T05:50:00.000-04:00

I couldn't sleep, so this is what I was doing at 2:00 a.m. The scarecrow is from the Creative Memories Cheerful Seasons cartridge. I popped most of the layers and added Tim Holtz brads for the buttons on the overalls and did a little doodling with white gel pen. I used two different EK Success punches at the bottom and embossed a strip of green cardstock with the Cuttlebug Autumn Type folder. I then added a narrow ribbon to hide the seam between my papers. The leaf is a Cuttlebug die embossed with the woodgrain folder. The little tags are a QuicKutz die. I first stamped them with a leafy background stamp using dried marigold Distress Ink. I added small eyelets using the Cropadile Big Bite and then strung them on a strand of colored hemp cord. The bottlecaps are by Spare Parts. I did lots of inking on almost all of the pieces.

Dimension of scarecrow:

Here's the inside:

I am entering this in the challenge at Fantabulous Criuct ~ # 79 Leaves are Falling and
the World Card-Making Day contest on the Cricut Blog.

Fall Colors

2011-09-26T06:52:00.000-04:00

The challenge this week at Whimsical Wednesday is to create a project using Fall colors, and there's a twist...include a handmade embellishment. Well clearly, I didn't follow the directions. What else is new? But I did get lots of fall colors on here and I'm counting my little twisted fun wire stems as my handmade embellishment. Yes, it's a stretch, but I'm going for it! And besides, I used the cutest little stamp from a Stampin' Up set that Stephanie included in the blog candy I won, way back when, so I'm hoping to score some points for that! *wink-wink* As soon as I find the case I'll come back and edit my post to include the name of the set.

The leaves are a Cuttlebug cut/emboss set. I stamped the gold colored leaf with the SU stamp and embossed the other two. The background is embossed using the mesh CB embossing folder. The witch hat is a Close to My Heart stamp. I used some Tim Holtz Distress embossing powder on it. I added some funky fibers and a metal leaf brad and called it done.

For the inside I used an EK Success border punch.
I'm also entering this in the Crafting for All Seasons challenge blog, where the theme is Fall Colors.

Just had to share these pictures of my hubby and grandson Angelo. Don't you just want to bite him?! ...Angelo, NOT my hubby! LOL!

Fairy Poof Mother

2011-09-18T18:51:00.001-04:00

Here's my simple, but fun card for the challenge at Whimsicial Wednesday, where the theme is Just Because. I hope this qualifies as a Just Because card. I've had this image in my file for a couple of years and finally decided to use her. She looks like she's ready to grant a wish, although I'm somehow feeling reluctant to be at the receiving end! LOL! I'm afraid of what I might get. I colored her with Copics and cut it out with a Nestie die. Added a bit of Stickles and Crackle Accents to her glasses and that's about it. Embossed some scrap pieces for a little added fun and dimension.

I apologize for any typos or things in general that don't make sense. Extremely hectic weekend it was for me. I am posting and going to lay down and veg in front of the television. I'll probably be giving more details tormorr.l

Happy Birthday Matey card & box

2011-09-16T09:21:00.001-04:00

Aaaarrrrggghhhhh!!! Shiver Me Timbers, it's Friday! Ahoy, Mateys! I've been doing battle with my Imagine and the Cricut Craft Room software for days and I am not going down without a fight! Luckily, I've got Dread Pirate Dylan here to defend me! It's just been one little glitch after another and I am so happy to finally be done with this card and treasure chest box. Originally I was only going to make the card, but then I saw the challenge at Crazy About Cricut and decided to step it up a notch and make a matching box. The inspiration behind the card was this adorable digi, Dread Pirate Dylan, which is available from the Tiddly Inks Basement (which means he's been marked down, ladies!) Woo hoo! Who doesn't like a basement bargain?! I colored him up with Copics and a wee little bit of Spica markers, and then fussy cut him out. A couple of week ago, I started working on a welded card in Cricut Craft Room using the Imagine and the totally awesome Buccaneer cartridge. But after experiencing problems between the new software (it's still in Beta version) and the Imagine, I scaled the project down to include only the welded treasure chests to form the base card. I continued to have problems cutting the sentiment, so I did it directly through the Imagine, rather than have my frustration build to an uncontrollable level trying to get it to work on CCR. I used the layer feature so I could pop dot a couple of the layers. Then I decided to make the treasure chest box. The printed portion is a bit off but that is due to my own carelessness. I printed and cut and realized it didn't cut all the way through on the thick paper I was using...should have done multiple cuts. So I put the mat back in and cut again, turning off the print option. Of course the cutting was off by a hair, so I decided to scrap that entire cut and start from scratch. BUT.... I forgot to turn the print option back on. Do you see where this is going? Make a long story short...it's my own fault the treasure chest looks like that. There are no score lines for folding, and my folds are a little off. I think I'm just going to re-do this entire treasure chest.

It's a simple shaped card but I think it's so stinkin' cute! Don't ya just love that Dylan? I snipped off the loop from some coin buttons and adhered with a glue dot. What good is a treasure chest without the booty, right? The pirate and sentiment are pop dotted as is just the word "birthday"

I was trying to show the layers. Not the best photo.

Best Fishes

2011-09-14T07:20:00.000-04:00

I planned on spending the evening in my craft room until my daughter decided to invite herself over for dinner with the kids. Not that I'm complaining or anything, but..... so, by the time I made it into the craft room, I barely had enough time to make a quick card. After chatting with Carole about the Cricut Imagine, it put me in the mood to want to use mine. I do have a really nice card designed in Cricut Craft Room but it needs some tweaking, so I did this quick one for now. The fish is from the Buccaneer cartridge and it has some really cool, colorful images on it. I cut the fish out twice and used the layers feature on one of them so I could pop a few of the pieces. The cute "sea fern" are from the Spellbinders Shapeabilities Foliage set that I've been having so much fun with. I cut several of them in my Grand Calibur using vellum. Looks way cool in real life. The backdrop for the fern is a strip of yellow scrap paper and I used an EK Success swiss cheese punch to create a "bubble" effect. I finished it off with a couple of pieces of thin white rik-rak. The corner punch is Paper Shapers Corner Adorner Slot Punch - Bubbles (phew, that's a mouthful!) and it's one of the very first punches that I ever owned. I used some of the punched out dots from the EK Success punch to create bubbles from the fish's mouth. I also added some Crackle Accents to it, although I seem to have made quite a mess of it all.

I apologize for the lousy pictures. I used my iPhone because I was too lazy to go upstairs and grab the camera and then upload to the computer. Pure laziness!

Here you can better see the vellum seaweed. The sentiment is a clear stamp from Pink Stamper More Punny-licious set.

Here you can see the layers of the fish.

Crop Stop challenge

2011-09-13T08:00:00.014-04:00

Playing along with the Crop Stop challenge, which is Spellbinders! Woo hoo! I just received a new Shapeabilities set (by Spellbinders) that I received in record time from Crop Stop and I was eager to play along. So I made TWO cards.

The fern looking thing is from the Shapeabilities foliage set. I also bought the coordinating stamp set which comes with two different patterns for this largest die of the set. The marquis shaped mat is a Nestabilities Labels 8 and the small yellow piece is a Nestabilies beaded circle, inked before removing from die. The background is embossed with a wood grain folder by Paper Studio. The butterfly is a K & Company layered sticker. Sentiment is a wood mounted stamp. I added just a bit of Copic to the flowers and gave them bling centers.

Here's my second card
Technical difficulties. My pictures are not showing up. I'll have to fix this tonight when I get home. I think I need to adjust some settings on my camera. It's new and I'm still getting used to it.

Kraftin Kimmie meets Fall colors

2011-09-12T12:08:00.001-04:00

Yes, my sense of humor is a bit warped this morning, but it's been one heck of a weekend! The darling image is Drucilla by Annie Rodrigue for Kraftin' Kimmie Stamps. The challenge at Kraftin' Kimmie this week is A Blast From The Past, where you are asked to use one of your very first Kraftin' Kimmie stamps. Well, Drucilla happens to be part of a trio that I purchased back in December of '09 and they are my very first stamps from KK. LOVE THEM ALL! I colored her up with Copics and fussy cut her out. I cut out a bunch of deckled edge Nestabilities and they were the perfect backdrop for dear sweet Drucilla. I embossed the brown panel with the Cuttlebug mesh folder. The sentiment is a wood-mounted stamp by Inkadinkado.

My color choices were totally inspired by the challenge over at Crazy 4 Challenges, (C4C104) where the theme is Fall, and you are asked to use Orange, Olive Green, Yellow and Brown. I pulled papers from the DCWV Fall Stack Indian Summer and I was able to get this card done rather quickly, having the colors already decided for me. I could waste hours sometimes just trying to pick out papers.

Here's the inside. I've been busy setting up my online store and I need to start getting into the habit of taking pictures of the inside of the cards. This one I decided to leave blank for a personal note.

Put Your Best Foot Forward

2011-09-07T18:20:00.001-04:00

Another quick Halloween card. I'm still having fun with the Happy Hauntings cartridge and my Close To My Heart stamps. I found this cool vellum paper laying around in a drawer and thought it's high time I use it. I sprayed the shoe with Goosebumps...love that stuff and it dries rather quickly. I used an EK Success ribbon punch and threaded a piece of rik rak through it.

One Lone Ghost

2011-09-06T13:03:00.012-04:00

I'm trying to get some Halloween cards done but so far, this is the only one I like. The ghost is a Sizzix die, cut on chipboard. I used clear UTEE on it, and love the way it turned out. The papers are My Mind's Eye.

I printed a little poem, penned by the infamous author, Margie Calenda, and cut it out with a Nesties Label Three.

Here's the first card I call, Hate It #1. The gate is from the Happy Hauntings cartridge.

Here's the card I call Hate It But It's Growing On Me #2. All of the stamps are Close To My Heart. I used Martha Stewart glitter on the witch and embossing powder on the broom. The mat that the witch is on is from the Happy Hauntings cartridge. I used "hide selected contour" feature in Cricut Craft Room to allow some of the black mat to show through.

And finally, here's "Okay, Maybe I Don't Hate It As Much As I Thought I Did". Again, stamps, cardstock and ink are Close To My Heart. I love how all of the products are color coordinated...makes it easy for a nincompoop like me to make put a card together. I can sometimes sit for hours just trying to pick papers. I used a couple of swirly flourish stickers too.

You can find the Close To My Heart products that I used HERE

And the WINNER is...

2011-09-05T10:20:00.003-04:00

#7 - Carole! WOO HOO! Hey, Chickie, I already have your addy and it's going to the Post Office tomorrow.

Thanks again to all of my fabulous blogging friends. More candy to come tomorrow!

Sizzix Spooky House & Ghost and MORE BLOG CANDY!

2011-09-03T08:47:00.000-04:00

It has been a very busy and stressful summer for me and I must say I am really looking forward to Fall. Hubby and I took the two oldest grandkids to the Jersey shore for a few days and I had lots of fun taking pictures with my new camera and I'm hoping to squeeze in some time this weekend to work on a couple of layouts. In the meantime, I am finally getting around to posting this card that I made several days ago.

I used scalloped circle Grand Nestabilities to form the base of the card. The Spooky House is a Sizzix Bigz die and the ghost (Ghosts #2) is a Sizzix Originals. They both work in the Cuttlebug sandwiched between two "B" plates. They are both cut from chipboard. Then I cut the house in a black glossy paper and glued it to the chipboard house. For the ghost, I used a Sizzix permanent adhesive sheet. I cut a piece of chipboard and a piece of the adhesive, big enough to fit the ghost and then peeled one side of the adhesive sheet and adhered to the chipboard. Then I ran it through the Cuttlebug. Peeled off the top layer of the adhesive and sprinkled Bedazzles -- color is Calypso -- over it and lightly pressed on it. Then I ran it through the Cuttlebug to ensure they remain firmly attached.

The "BOO" is also a Sizzix die...it's from the Ransom Alphabars set, which also works with two "B" plates. The moon was cut using a Nesties circle die. I used glitter paper, which doesn't show up very well in these pictures.

I have more goodies to give away! Just leave me a comment and I'll pick a random winner on Monday morning.

Blog Candy WINNER!

2011-08-29T10:51:00.001-04:00

Just a quick post to announce the winner of my blog candy. I'm posting from my iPad and I hope this all goes through correctly.

Congratulations, Jess! (http://sparksgal-craft-place.blogspot.com/)
Jess, please email me with your address and I'll get the Cuttlebug embossing folders out in the mail to you.

Thanks again to everyone for the very sweet comments! Hubby and I will be taking a couple of the grandiose to the Jersey Shore for some end of summer fun and I hope to be back with more blog candy by the weekend.

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Love Birds Wedding Card and a little BLOG CANDY

2011-08-26T06:09:00.001-04:00

I received the new cartridge which is exclusive to all all Cricut Circle members. FINALLY, a cart I like! The shaped card and the cage/birds are from the Sophie cart. Hubby and I are attending a wedding on Saturday and thought I'd make a quick card, rather that buy one at the last minute (which is usually what happens). Cut the card base out twice and then just cut one in half so I could emboss the background, with that tiny hearts folder from one of the cut/emboss sets (With Love???). I used a piece of textured silver foil cardstock and embossed it with Swiss Dots. The cage/birds is cut on a semi-glossy black cardstock...looks so much prettier IRL. Added a silver-trimmed white satin ribbon and called it done!

BLOG CANDY!!!

Just leave me a comment and I'll pick a winner on Monday at 9:00 am.

Here's what you'll get:

Cuttlebug Seasons Greetings & Winter Trees embossing folder

Blog Candy WINNER!

2011-08-24T10:22:00.001-04:00

And the winner is.....

#3 - Stephanie

Congratulations, Stephanie! Send me an email with your address and I'll get the Sizzix die set out to you tomorrow.
I have the best blogging friends and I wish I could give something to everyone, but come back often because there's lots more to come! I will be posting more blog candy tonight, and with any luck, maybe a card too!

Hey Ghoulfriend! And some more Blog Candy!

2011-08-22T12:05:00.001-04:00

My favorite thing about this card is that I photographed it with my new DSLR camera! I've been playing around with all the different settings and lenses and I got some great shots of my grandkids over the weekend that I hope to scrapbook soon. As usual, I'm in a huge rush this morning, so I'll make this short and sweet. I'm playing along with the Kraftin' Kimmie challenge, which is SPOOKY! I used the lovely Hattie and colored her up with my Copics and cut out with a deckled edge Nestie. The fence is a MS punch and the tag is a Spellbinders (I think). The sentiment is also Kraftin' Kimmie. I used the Tim Holtz swirls foder to emboss the background. Smudged some ink on the image, hence the ugly mess. I used a sketch that I found on Split Coast Stampers.

I'm still reorganizing the craft room and didn't really get too much done this weekend. At any given point, there was at least 2 grandkids here. But, I am finding lots of goodies to give away as I go along. Just leave me a comment and I will pick a winner on Wednesday at 9:00 a.m.

This is a 3 die set of Sizzlets. They work in most die cutting machines.

And the winner is....

2011-08-21T07:24:00.001-04:00

The random.org winner from the Altered Composition Book Blog Hop is....
#15 - Peggy Sue

Peggy Sue is the lucky winner of the Kate's ABC's Cricut cartridge!

Peggy, please contact me by email by next Saturday, Aug. 27th to claim your prize. bellabugcreations at gmail dot com

I'd like to thank each and every one who stopped by and left me such sweet comments during the blog hop. I wish I had a prize for all of you. I am still in the midst of purging and reorganizing the craft room and I have quite a bit of goodies that I will be giving away sometime this week, so be sure to stop by.

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Altered Composition Book Blog Hop!

2011-08-19T01:00:00.005-04:00

BRIGHT IDEAS
This is probably the longest post I've ever done, so if you want to keep hopping and not listen to my blabbering, scroll alllllllllll the way down to the bottom of this post. If you arrived here from Lynda's blog then you are in the right place. If you want to start at the beginning of the hop, click HERE to go to Joy's blog.

WOO HOO! It's blog hop time! I was so excited and honored when Joy asked me if I would like to participate in the Altered Composition Book Blog Hop. Of course I said YES and then immediately started freaking out because altered projects are not my thing. I always think I won't be able to pull it off. I've been stressing over this project for the past week, but I DID IT! I had no design planned out, I just started piling stuff on and I'm pretty happy with final product. There's a lot going on here....I've got some Imagine cuts, a Cricut cut, chipboard, Cuttlebug embossing, a bit of Tim Holtz hardware, funky fibers and yes....even some machine stitching!!!

To get started, I just grabbed up two large pieces of cardstock and a piece of Core'dinations cardstock. I embossed the cardstock with a new Sizzix folder (Winter set) and sanded to reveal the lighter core. Then machine stitched the three pieces of cs together. I covered the front of the notebook with Mod Podge and slapped the paper on. I used my corner chomper to round the corners of the cs to match the shape of the notebook cover.

Still working without a plan, I thought some Imagine cuts would be a neat idea, so I looked for a cart that had colors that would coordinate with the card stock. This is how I do most of my projects, including cards. I rarely pick everything out first. I usually just wing it and make it up as I go along. At this point I knew I needed some kind of a theme or title, so I decided to make this note book for ME and I was going to call it BRIGHT IDEAS. You know how that perfect idea for a project always comes to mind but you don't write it down? As quick as mine pop up, I forget them. So now I have a place to store all of my bright ideas! Now I was on a roll! Definitely needs a light bulb, right? This one was cut using some very pretty Glitz and Glam paper from Core'dinations. SO pretty irl. I colored the metal stem (what do you call that thingy anyway?) with a silver glitter marker. The light bulb is from the Learning Curve cart. Funny....there's a sentiment that goes with this cart and it's called bright ideas! LOL!

BEE-UTIFUL, the bee and NOTES are from the Imagine More cart. I used the layers feature to give it some dimension. There's some glittered chipboard and glitter stickers for my title and a fun Tim Holtz metal thingy (sorry, the craft room is being overhauled and I can't find the package).

I knew I wanted some ribbons or fiber on here somewhere, so I punched some holes with my Big Bite and added some delicious hand-dyed ribbon from My Craft Spot as well as a funky tinsel type thread from Prairie Bird Bouique.

Stamped down the right side of the cover using a clear alpha stamp, is the word CRAFT. I used Perfect Medium to stamp and Tim Holtz embossing powders. I can't find them right now, but I think I used the Antiquities line.

and....

...don't ya just love my awful machine stitching?!

You really can't see the yummy glitz and glam of the yellow paper, but it's there!

I wanted to keep a little bit of the original composition book feel, so I added some bling'd out black glitter paper to the binding.

What good is a blog hop without BLOG CANDY? Leave me a comment and I'll pick a random winner on Sunday and that lucky person will receive the Kate's ABC's Cricut cartridge!

Wait till you see what the rest of the girls have done!!!

HERE'S THE BLOG HOP LINE UP
The next stop from here is Martha

Joy - http://www.joyslife.com/
Abbey -http://www.2ndhandstamps.com/
Amanda -http://amandascraftsandmore.blogspot.com/
Jin - http://underacherrytree.com/
Julie- http://www.cricutchick.blogspot.com/
Kyle - http://thegreencricut.blogspot.com/
Lynda - http://memoriesintyme.blogspot.com/
Margie - http://bellabugcreations.blogspot.com/ (that's ME!)
Martha -http://pattisscrapingtime.blogspot.com/
Melissa -http://melissa-moecreations.blogspot.com/
Tammy - http://tammyjennings.blogspot.com/
Theresa - http://www.thescrapbookingqueen.com/

Any Ocassion card

2011-08-18T10:57:00.002-04:00

My craft room is in shambles right now... I am purging once again.

I kept it clean and simple since I can't find anything at the moment and had limited "stuff" to work with. I wanted to play along with the new challenge over at Crop Stop, which is Pearls.....Pearls....and more Pearls. I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder and Core'dinations paper for the background and then lightly sanded to let the lighter color show through. The bird is a Nestabilities die and I first cut it with a piece of chipboard. The printed paper is from an envelope that I've been hanging on to for years. I think it's packaging from something Tim Holtz. The bottom border is a Heartfelt Creations die Spellbinders. I used the negative piece for the top border. Added some mango Kaiser Pearls and a itsy bitsy ribbon and called it done!

I found a challenge at Paper Secrets which is a sketch and you have to use chipboard, bling/pearls and ribbon. Got 'em all on there!

Breaking out the SILHOUETTE

2011-08-15T11:40:00.001-04:00

I've noticed more people using their Silhouette cutting machines and then I realized there's a new software program that's available, so I quickly downloaded the program and purchased these two cutie pies, at 99 cents each, and whipped up a quick card. I bought my Silhouette years ago and was worried about it working with the new software, and luckily I had no problems. My machine even came with a gift card with $200.00.... YES! TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS, on it, and can be at the online store to purchase designs. Four years later, I still have money left on it, so I'm still buying these designs for FREE! I cut Chubby Frankenstein and Chubby Witch on white card stock and colored them with my Copics. Wishing I had made Frankie just a little bit smaller. I thought they'd look so much cuter with wacky wiggly eyes. LOL!

The tags were cut on the Cricut Expression using Tags, Bags, Boxes and More cart. I used my Gypsy to stretch them a bit.

The gorgeous ribbons are from My Craft Spot. I won these several weeks ago and I definitely need to buy some more. I used my Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher on the tag ribbons. The BOO! sentiment is a Pink By Design clear stamp from the A Haunting We Will Go set. I used a circle die to cut it out and glued it to the inside of a bottle cap.

I am entering this into the My Mind's Eye challenge #26. The printed papers are My Mind's Eye from the Boo to You set.

Art Philosophy cartridge

2011-08-14T13:00:00.013-04:00

I just receives the Art Philosophy circuit cartridge with coordinating stamps set by Close to my Heart. LOVE IT! Here's a real quick card o put together. I ordered mine from Melanie after finding the link and seeing the beautiful card that Susan made. Shipping only took a couple of days!

The shaped card and branch as well as the tag with the sentiment are all from the Art Philosophy cart. It tells you right on the stamp package what size to set your Cricut at in order to cut the coordinating shape for each stamp. Easy peasy!

I'll leave the boxes unchecked until I decide when I'll use this card. Very convenient for when you need a card at the last minute. You can almost use this for any ocassion.

Learning in Progress

2011-08-12T06:29:00.000-04:00

I'm back with yet another project! I'm amazed at how much I was able to accomplish this week. Unfortunately I'm at work today and have a long night ahead, so no crafting for me today.
I try to play along as often as possible with the lovely design team over at Whimsical Wednesday and last night I managed to squeeze in some time to get this done for the current challenge which is "Back to School". Create any type of project, other than a card, with a school theme. I will also be making a bookmark to go with this and will get pix up this weekend.
The book is from Learning Curve. The stenciled letters are part of the cut. The red bottom layer is a very heavy Martha Stewart card stock, so the door hanger is pretty sturdy. The worm is from Create A Critter. I laid out the cuts using the Cricut Craft Room software, just to visualize how big the door hanger would be. Then I added the worm and sized it accordingly. When I went to cut everything out, I realized my daughter has my Create A Critter cart! UGH! Now what? AHA!!! My Gypsy! I gotta tell you, there's a reason why I am the Queen of Gadgets! I added some silver peelies along the border, a cute American Crafts ribbon to hang it from and called it done! I think this cute door hanger would make a great gift for a teacher or a student, don't you?
Check out all the great Back to School projects at Whimsical Wednesday HERE!
There's always something fun going on over there (and they have really cool prizes too!)
I am also entering this in the CREATIVE CUTTER ROOM challenge for Back to School.
And of course I'm entering this into the challenge at one of my all time favorites, CROP STOP blog challenge! where the theme is Back To School.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Ahoy Matey

2011-08-11T10:08:00.001-04:00

So I was over on the Cricut Message Board and I saw a card by Nana Donna that she made as a DT member for Crafty Creations. Something about it made me want to play along. I am so easily distracted and have been jumping from one project to another. Serious ADD in motion! But then I got distracted again and somehow ended up at the brand spanking new Kraftin' Kimmie blog and now I wanted to use a Kraftin' Kimmie Stamp! But THEN I ended up shopping for more Kraftin' Kimmie stamps. And THEN I got sidetracked and started blog hopping! Eventually, I remembered what it was I had originally set out to do and got to satisfy my Kimmie craving AND play along at Crafty Creations. The challenge at Crafty Creations is a sketch challenge and you need to make a male birthday card.

The stamp is called Billy Blyth. I colored him with Copics and cut it out with a deckled edge Nestabilties die. The sentiment is Joy's Life stamp from the You're So Punny set. The words were side-by-side but I cut them apart so I could fit them on the small tag. I used my Big Bite to punch the holes along the bottom and then used up some of my bazillion little eyelets, that I've had since dinosaurs roamed the earth. I also added one to the top of the card and using twine, I hung the sign. I just tied a knot behind the eyelet to anchor it.

The inside sentiment is computer generated. I used a deckled edge Nestie to cut it out.

Fantabulous Cricut - Buggy Challenge

2011-08-10T21:13:00.000-04:00

Here I am, cranking out yet another challenge card. I could get used to this life! The challenge over at Fantabulous Cricut is to create something using a bug. I don't think my lady bugs are exactly what they had in mind, but I couldn't resist. I used foil cardstock for most of the top layer cuts. The card was designed using Cricut Craft Room and I have most of the cuts welded on one layer or another. The ladybugs are from Nursery Rhymes and the flowers are from good ol' George. I added a couple of dragonfly stickers and a small flower sticker. Not too much embellishing...I let the festive foil paper stand on it's own.

This card looks so much prettier in real life.

Bookmarks & a Card

2011-08-10T09:21:00.000-04:00

One of the first things I came across this morning while still laying in bed with my iphone (lazy morning) were some cute bookmarks that Carole Beath had just posted. I hopped over to her blog and thought it would be the perfect project to jump start my day of crafting. Carole has a way of making everything sound so darn easy! Well, I have to admit, these bookmarks really are easy to make and it's a great way to use up your scraps.

I cut some Nestie ovals to hold the flaps together and my personalized stamp just happened to fit perfectly!

Carole is always sending me all kinds of fun, handmade goodies for the grandkids (and sometimes there's a little something special just for ME!) I just received this totally adorable Zoo book from her and Bella was visiting yesterday and really enjoyed reading it.

I wish I had taken more pictures of the actual pages. Each page showcases a different zoo animal and there's a gorgeous photograph of each animal, that Carole had taken at the zoo.

The vivid colors and brilliant design of the book are just SO Carole! You can see so much more of her work HERE

And now to bore you with a card I made the other day but didn't have the guts to post. This is probably one of my least favorite cards ever. I have no idea where I was going with this. LOL!

Cutie PIE

2011-08-09T12:54:00.001-04:00

When I am able to make more than one or two cards a week, it can only mean one thing....my kids are not here with the grandkids! I feel like this is the calm before the storm.

After seeing all of the gorgeous pie cards by the Bitten By The Bug 2 design team, I knew I wanted to play along. My shaped card is an oven. Looking at it now, I'm not sure it's that obvious. Does it look like an oven? It's the one on From My Kitchen. The pie is from the Block Party Lite cart and the apples are from My World. There's so many choices when it comes to fruit cuts and I decided I was going to use the first one that caught my eye (as long as it had a shadow cut) and so I did a search using the Cricut Craft Room and here ya go!

I was checking out the challenge over at Cricut Carz Challenge and was thrilled when I read that the challenge is Tuitti Fruitti so I included some apples on my card and played along.
I sprayed the apples with Goosebumps spray and added some Distressed Stickles to the leaves. I added some Glossy Accents to the holes in the pie crust. Oh and I embossed the pie crust.

Things I Love

2011-08-07T18:38:00.005-04:00

My card was inspired by my exhausting weekend. Today was supposed to be the last day of my vacation, yet I spent it waking up to not one, but two fresh little grandsons. Last night, Domenic, the almost 4 year old, was extremely wound up and just wasn't listening to me. I thought it would be smooth sailing for the rest of the night. That worked for 10 minutes. I'm used to these kind of evenings, but I was just in the mood to relax. The fun didn't stop there, Domenic wet the bed and my hubby was up with little Danny at 4-something in the morning. Both boys were a handful all morning. Melissa picked up Domenic around noon and my son took Danny home shortly thereafter. So, when I finally got into the craft room, I had babies on the brain and then felt a little guilty about being so eager for them to go home.

So, here is Charlotte, by Kraftin' Kimmie. This was ME this morning...I haven't been to the hairdresser in months and my roots are desparately needing some attention. I've been hiding them with headbands and ponytails.

I am entering this in the Kraftin' Kimmie Distressed! challenge. I butchered the edges with my Zutter Distrezz-it-All and then inked them up with Tim Holtz Distress Inks. The image was cut out using Nesties Labels Eight and colored with Copics. The papers are Cosmo Cricket UPcycle mini deck. I added some Prima flowers with buttons from my stash. The large button is Cosmo Cricket. The sentiment is Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type stickers.

I am also entering this into the Crop Stop challenge, using Gloria Stengel's sketch:

Don't let these faces fool you! I call them The Conspiracy Cousins. LOL!

Bah! Humbug! White on White

2011-08-05T20:57:00.000-04:00

I recently received this adorable embossing folder and thought the challenge at Bah! Humbug! would be the perfect opportunity to use it. The folder is by Sizzix and I believe it's called Dearly. I framed one of the deer with a frame that I made using an oval Nestie and a crown oval Nestie for the opening. I pop dotted the frame and added lots of lavender gems. I'm not crazy about how I hung the tag from the snowflake, but oh well. The snowflake is a Martha Stewart punch and the tag is a QuicKutz die. I think the sentiment is a Pink by Design stamp.

This card is SO MUCH whiter in real life.

Ballerina Frog

2011-08-04T09:54:00.001-04:00

Ta-Da! Here she is! Ballerina Frog...what a hoot! She is a rubber stamp from I Brake For Stamps, and let me tell ya, the quality of this rubber stamp is amazing. Deeply etched and gives such a crisp, clean stamped image every time. I colored her with Copics and added some twinkle with my atyou Spica pens, although I'm not sure how well it shows up in these pictures. I layered her on circles which were cut using a set of circle dies I received with my Epic Six machine. The smaller scalloped circle is a Nestie using my favorite Little Sizzles Textures paper by Sizzix. I used the Cuttlebug for that and it does smoosh the paper down a little bit, but you can still see the awesome texture. The larger scallop die, which I used to make the shaped card, is a Grand Nestabilities, and I used my Grand Calibur for that (as well as the circles). I punched two holes at the top of the card and added some gorgeous crinkle ribbon from Prairie Bird Boutique. The sentiment is computer generated and the tag is a QuicKutz die, with a scrap piece of American Crafts ribbon, attached with the Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher. I added pink a green gems all over the place and...Ta Da! It's Done!
I am entering this in the Whimsical Wednesday challenge -- Fun With Folds. I used the Nestabilties die on a folded piece of cardstock to create the shaped, folded card.

SNEAK PEEK at my next card

2011-07-30T21:56:00.002-04:00

I leave for vacation in the morning and haven't had a chance to finish this card, so I will leave you all with a sneak peek, lest you all forget about me ! LOL! I will be doing a little bit of blog hopping while on vacation and hope to catch up with many that have been neglected by me. I will have this card completed and posted by Friday, August 5th. Hope everyone has a fabulous week!

Oogie Boogie's Song

2011-07-28T08:29:00.001-04:00

I just love this card! There's a couple of challenges that I wanted to play along with and I managed them all with one card. I don't have much time to craft this week and I'm leaving for vacation this weekend, so this will probably be showing up on sidebars for quite some time. LOL!

The first challenge is The Burtonesque Dolls, where the challenge is Muscial Interlude -- choose any song from Tim Burton's A Nightmare Before Christmas. So many cool songs to choose from and I went with Oogie Boogie's Song. I found a free clip art image (as soon as I figure out where from, I'll post) and just printed and cut him out. Santa digi is from Octopode Factory and I colored him with Copics and added black and white Enamel Accents to beard, fur trim and boots. I have him all tied up, just like in the movie, using twine from Kraft Outlet.

The sentiment is computer generated.

The challenge over at My Craft Spot is to use embossing. I chose heat embossing, one of my favorite messy things! I used a musical notes clear stamp by Glitz and inked it up with Perfect Medium. I used Tim Holtz Antiquities and Distress powders in several different colors. Love how it came out.

The die are from the Cricut Indie Art cartridge cut at about 1 inch. I dirtied them up a bit first and then added a thin layer of Antiquities embossing poweder (frosted crystal). Then I inked up the die again and added a layer of UTEE.

I Made This For You

2011-07-24T11:28:00.001-04:00

Playing along with THREE challenges! GO ME! First, at Whimsical Wednesday where the challenge is to use yourSCRAPS. Now, All of the papers I used, with the exception of the small handmade roses that Stephanie made for me, are from my scrap bin. Even the white paper that I stamped the image on, so I'm taking the liberty of saying this card qualifies. The second challenge is at Crop Stop where the challenge is ROSETTES. Perfect timing on this one because I just received the Tim Holtz Rosette die. I sprayed the die with Goosebumps texture spray and then accidentally shook glitter all over it. I didn't realize the bottle was open and of all the places for it to fall, it landed on the wet rosette! I was able to blow some of it off, and too lazy to re-cut the rosette, so I now have a bling'd out rosette. I guess, given the grungy nature of the card, it sort of blends right in. The third challenge is at Stampotique Designer's Blog, where the challenge is use flowers. My stamp is The Crafter. Isn't she inspiring with her scissors and artwork? LOL! You can find her HERE. I tied some Wraphia,Ribbon from the Kraft Outlet, around the green background, which was cut with a Grand Nestie. The sentiment was made using an old school Dymo labelmaker. It uses the same tape as my pink Dymo but it's big, black and old looking. And I kept getting my fingers pinched in it. But still....I like the look of the larger font and the wheel is a tad too big to interchange with my pretty pink one.

Penguin Joy

2011-07-23T10:50:00.001-04:00

I'm not sure where I found the time to make this card, but here it is! I wanted to play along with the challenge at Bitten By The Bug 2, which is to use the penguin cut from Jolly Holidays. I decided that rather than waste hours trying to pick out just the right papers, I'd do things the easy way and use the Imagine. The large circle was done with a pattern from the Mr. Frosty cart and I stamped it with a clear stamp by Glitz design, from the "Save the Date" set. I used Glossy Accents to highlight December and 25. All of the other cuts, including the background were done using Jolly Holidays for the cuts and the Imagine Snow Angel for the patterns. I added some pink adhesive gems to the umbrella and gave the penguin wiggly eyes. Pop dotted a few layers and added the Tinsel & Twig flower (the girl's paperie by Margie) and the flocked chipboard letters (Lush, by My Mind's Eye).
I am also entering this in the Christmas in July challenge at My Craft Spot.

I hope everyone is staying cool in this ridiculous weather. We were at 103 yesterday but with the heat index I believe they said it feels like 120. Personally, I love this kind of weather. Today is my granddaughter, Bella's, big birthday bash. We bought her a HUGE water slide and the kids are going to have a wet and wild time, while the adults chill out in air conditioned house!

ANGELO!

2011-07-20T11:27:00.003-04:00

Angelo had a little setback and was Hospitalized for a few days but he's back on track now and happier than ever! Seems to be handling the chemo very well. Please scroll down for my funny Superman card!

Single and Looking

2011-07-19T19:56:00.001-04:00

LOL! Let me quickly explain the sentiment. It came to me after putting the card together. I was stumped for a sentiment. Naturally, I was thinking, "what would a guy say?" and I immediately thought of my hubby. I recently convinced him to get a Facebook account and he asked me to set it up. He kept joking around, saying to list his status as "single and looking". What a clown, huh? I'm going to surprise him with this card tomorrow. He'll get a kick out of it.

The corrugated cardboard is from a salvaged shipping box and I sprayed the heck out of it with about 5 or 6 Glimmer Mist colors. Superman obviously is from the Cricut Superman cartridge and the skyline is from Plantin Schoolbook. I had the hardest time cutting this guy. The red and blue cuts were cut on the same paper as his face and hands and I colored them with Copics...gives the pieces a little bit more shading. You will not be getting a close up of my poor, butchered Superman. I'm pretty sure he's missing some hair! I used a Craft Concepts sun rays embossing folder. The sentiment was done using the Dymo label maker.

I was blog hopping and came upon the Paper Cutz Challenge and was instantly motivated to play along. The challenge is "Sky's the Limit" using anything you would find in the sky. "Look, up in the sky...it's a bird, it's a plane, it's SUPERMAN!" LOL!

Monkeys for Angelo

2011-07-16T21:19:00.002-04:00

Well I'm about two weeks late amd a dollar short with this one. Stephanie had her Whimsical Wednesday Design Team dedicate a challenge to making cards for Angelo, my little grandson who is fighting a big battle right now. I of course had to play along, but between running back and forth to the hospial and taking care of grandchildren, I had no time to focus on my card. Then I misplaced my Gypsy cord to like up my new carts and had to wait for a new one to arrive. In a nutshell, it's been a nighmare. So I have decided to keep my sanity and use some dimensional monkey stickers in lieu of Cricut cuts. All in All, I think it turned out rather cute. And now before my face falls flat on the keyboard, I bid you all goodnight. I can't link my card up at this point, but I can suggest you head over to Whimsical Wednesday and take part in whichever fun challenge is going on this week. I'll spare you the details of my card and just share some pictures. Pretty self-explanatory. Angelo is really liking his little stuffed monkeys these days so I though the card would be appropriate.

UPDATE ON ANGELO

2011-07-04T18:36:00.002-04:00

Happy July 4th everyone! Gloomy weather here in NY, but lots of reasons to celebrate! Angelo is home from the hospital and has his first chemo treatment on Friday. I am happy to report that he is thriving better than expected and he doesn't seem to be showing any signs of I'll effects from the chemo. His big smile is back and he even crawled across the room the other day. A huge feat...he had stopped crawling prior to being diagnosed with the brain tumor. A very big thanks to all of you who have been making cards for Angelo for the challenge over at Whimsical Wednesday and thank you all for keeping him in your prayers! I am so deeply touched by all of you who have taken the time, especially with the big holiday, to stop and make a card for Angelo. An extra special thank you to Stephanie for putting Angelo at the center of the challenge. What a great friend she has been!

I am past the point of frustration with my card, as I designed a card for Angelo on my Gypsy but I forgot to link up one of the carts and now I can't find the darn cord that I need to link it up. So I tried converting the file to a .cut file so I could cut it using Design Studio, but when I open it in DS, there's nothing there! I've spent hours with updates and tried everything, so now I am starting from scratch are redesigning the whole thing on the computer in DS. Hopefully I will get it done before the challenge ends, but I'm beginning to feel like it may be Christmas by the time I get my act together!
Thought I'd share this most recent picture of Angelo, just 2 days after his first chemo treatment. Prior to diagnosis, Angelo had started to regress and refused to eat. The only thing he would eat was PediaSure from a bottle. Sometimes my daughter was able to get him to eat a yogurt. He had lost so much weight. Here he is today, looking a few pounds heavier and much, much happier!

Moo-chas Gracias

2011-06-27T21:04:00.004-04:00

I received the Barnyard Puns stamp set by Joys Life and this is the first card that just popped into my mind. I had the hardest time cutting the sombrero, switching from one machine to the next, but finally got it done. The cow is from From My Kitchen and the sombrero is from Graphically Speaking. I had to use the hide selected contour feature to get the shadow cut. The tag is a Spellbinders die and i used a Martha Stewart hole punch to tie some twine throu the tag and card. It's a farily simple card but I haven't crafted in weeks and I needed to make something easy to get started.

Circles Grand Nestabilities CLICK HERE
Scalloped Circles Grand Nestabilities CLICK HERE
Smile Twine by My Mind's Eye CLICK HERE

HUGE SALE AT TWO PEAS IN A BUCKET!!!...Prima Flowers, Cling Stamps, Ribbon, Paper Collections and LOTS MORE!

ANGELO

2011-06-21T21:23:00.003-04:00

This is my 15 month old grandson, Angelo. He just had surgery to remove a large tumor from his brain and is recuperating at the hospital. The surgeons were unable to remove all of the tumor, but they did get most of it. The tumor is not cancerous, but will be treated with chemotherapy. Please keep my precious angel in your thoughts and prayers. He is such a sweet, delightful little boy, who always has a smile for everyone.

And please keep his parent, Melissa and Frank in your prayers as well. Big Brother Domenic needs special prayers to help keep him strong.. he's missing is baby brother.

Stomping Grounds

2011-06-07T20:19:00.000-04:00

I just love how this turned out! I've been really trying to not give up on making layouts even though I am usually less than pleased with the way they turn out. But what I'm thrilled about is this is the first true two-page layout I have ever done. Go me! The papers, border, stickers, chipboard, ribbon and rub-on are from a super-cool line by Imaginisce... the Dino Roar collection. Some of it is on sale right now at Two Peas in a Bucket. I'll post the links to the items and the bottom of this post.

I used Nate's ABC's for the word 'stomping' and welded the shadow cuts in Cricut CraftRoom (bless my heart for having such patience!). The word 'grounds' is from the Cuttin' Up cart, and believe it or not, I think this is the first time I am ever using this cartridge!

The palm tree was cut on my Imagine using the Cricut cartridge Dinosaur Tracks and patterns/colors from Imagine More Cards. I added some Tim Holtz Antiquities embossing powder to the center of the leaves and tried out some Mudd Puddles sand. I had the hardest time getting the sand to adhere, and ended up using a spray paper sealer over it, hoping that would help keep it in place. I let it dry overnight, but some of it was still loose so I glued it down with Zip Dry glue. Journaling sticker, dino sticker, chipboard arrow, ribbon and adhesive border strip are from the Dino Roar collection.

This dino is also from the Dinosaur Tracks cartridge and again I used the Imagine More Cards cartridge for the patterns/colors.

Dino Roar Sticker Stacker

Dino Roar Chipboard Sticker

Dino Roar Tracks Borders

Best wishes...

2011-06-03T10:11:00.002-04:00

I have been working on very limited craft time so I think you will be seeing more of these simple cards from me for a while. My dentist's office is right next door to Jo-Ann's so after suffering in the chair I usually treat myself to a little shopping afterwards. I've been to the dentist so much these past couple of months that there's nothing left in Jo-Ann's that I need! LOL! Now that's A LOT of dental work!

When I first started making cards back in 2006, I used to buy the Quick Cards magazine, a U.K. publication that I usually picked up at Barnes & Noble. What I liked about the magazine was it always came with a free little gift...ribbon, paper, embellies, etc. I stopped buying these magazines years ago but when I was in J's yesterday, the May issue grabbed my attention. The freebie was a cute little clear stamp set and I just had to have it. Plus, with the slump I've been in lately, I thought I'd just scraplift a bunch of cards from the mag and at least be somewhat productive.

The papers are from the DCWV Lemon Flower mat stack. The adorable image is one of the stamps from the set that came with the magazine. I stamped it on an ATC-format heavy cardstock by Stampinback that I purchased at I Brake For Stamps. The paper has a smooth, glossy-like finish and the Copics seem to sit more on the surface rather than absorb into the cardstock. I think it makes for quicker coloring. I don't know if I would use it for larger images, but for this small stamp it worked just fine.

I'm trying to start using the truckloads of embellies that I've had for years and years...remember when Skittles were all the rage? I swear I have every color they ever made! Two down, a million to go.

I'm also pushing myself to finish the inside of my cards so I can actually use them and not just collect them. LOL! I often leave the inside blank so I can write in my own personal message. The gifts are a Martha Stewart punch.
I am going to spend the rest of the morning visiting blogs and catching up. Life is extremely busy for me right now and I apologize if I haven't stopped by your blog lately.

Here's a picture of the magazine and the free stamp set that comes with it

Two Quick Cards

2011-05-30T13:16:00.000-04:00

Haven't had a minute to call my own this weekend. I don't even know how I managed to get these two cards done this morning. I have some new 6x6 paper pads and threw these together. Forever Young cartridge on the first one and Paper Pups for the second one. I used Cosmo Cricket UPcycle Mini Deck Papers for the chickadee card and Crate Paper Neighborhood for the puppy card.

Hope everyone's enjoying the tail end of the summer kick-off weekend! Our pool is open and the weather is cooperating. So far, so good!

Beautiful Day ~ BBTB2

2011-05-24T07:45:00.000-04:00

I'm in a rush, as usual. Yesterday, after seeing some of the beautiful cards by some of my amazingly talented friends, I just had to play along with this week's Bitten By The Bug 2 challenge. It was Donna's choice this week and you'll just have to see with your own two eyes the gorgeous card she made! Then I saw Carole's card and stopped what I was doing and starting creating one of my own. Not half as exciting as theirs, but I think it turned out really pretty. Carole's card is the cutest thing evah! No wonder they are both on the design team!

I used 6x6 Graphic 45 paper Love this paper...it creates an instant background!

The bird, which is the cut for this week's challenge, is from Florals Embellished (pg. 61). I spent most of last night and this morning trying to cut it using the Silhouette feature, but the cuts are so delicate, I was having the hardest time with it. Finally threw in the towel and opted for just the base and shadow cuts.

I used deckled edge Nestabilities die to cut the ovals, using the Spellbinders Grand Calibur. I really like how the Nesties work in the Grand Calibur...I find the cut to be more clean and the embossing is much more defined. You can also fit more than one die on the cutting plate, which speeds things up when you're making multiple cuts.

Maya Road satin pleated ribbon and a lace trim from my stash. I used 1/4" double sided tape to adhere the ribbons. Added some mini Prima roses and a Martha Stewart rose leaf punch.

Snappin' Good Job

2011-05-20T08:17:00.002-04:00

I'm hosting a party tonight and The Two Grandmas (myself and my son-in-law's mom) are taking Bella to the American Girl store in NYC on Sunday, so I'm squeezing in as much crafting as I can this morning. Of course, I should be upstairs cleaning the house and preparing for tonight's party, but I'll procrastinate a little bit longer.
I wanted to use my Imagine and I recalled doing a previous challenge for Creative Critterz Imaginations, so I headed over there and the current challenge is to make something for a graduate. My grandson, Domenic, is in preschool and they are having a little ceremony but we've been referring to it as "graduation". LOL! He'll graduate 2 times before he even enters Kindergarten!
Now, this card looks simple enough, but I finally decided to try the option where you can cache up to 3 colors/patterns from one Imagine cart and use them with cuts from other carts. The alligator (or is it a croc?) is from the Imagine More Cards cartridge. The sentiment that goes along with it says Snappin' Good Time. I wanted it to say Snappin' Good JOB, so I used the font from Country Carnival and cached a couple of the patterns from Imagine More Cards and was sure I must still be dreaming when it all worked! I love that the letters are just one layer, but with the separate colors, it looks like I slaved over piecing it together.
The graduation cap is from Locker Talk and I used one of the colors from Imagine More Cards to color it.
I embossed the alligator/croc with a Sizzix folder (maybe Tim Holtz?) and the background with Cuttlebug Spots & Dots. A little bit of inking on the reptile and cap. Lots of pop dotting. I think I like the way this turned out. I know Domenic will love it!
P.S...the purples are looking a bit pink in the photo, but in real life they are much more purple. Just had to clarify that in case 3 year old Domenic is reading this. Wouldn't want him to think I made him a girly card. LMBO!

Bella Bug Creations

A Woman's Right to Shoes

The New WHIMSICAL DESIGNS TEAM!

Happy Birthday Frog

You're a Peach

Drop Me a Line

Colors of Love ~ Whimsical Wednesday

Bringing Out the Old ~ Whimsical Wednesday

So Super Sweet ~ Baby Buggy

4 Sweet cards

Puppy Love

Sweet Friend

Anything Goes ~ Whimsical Wednesday

Winter Fun ~ SOUS

Caterpillar Bag

EK Success Flower punch

Let's Get Sketchy ~ Whimsical Wednesdays

On The Edge layout ~Whimsical Wednesdays~

On The Edge ~ Whimsical Wednesdays

Love Bug & Wish

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Prancing Deer

~~~ Home For The Holidays ~~~ ~~Whimsical Wednesday~~

You Make Me Smile

Silver Snow Flakes

Reindeer Crossing

Twelve Tags of Christmas ~ Tag #1

Snowman/Snowflake ~ Scraptastic Monday Challenge

Angelo Update

Whimsical Wednesday ~ WINTER FUN

And the WINNER is...

Whimsical Designs ~~ Stamp Release Blog Hop!

WHIMSICAL DESIGNS Sneak Peek Day 2

WHIMSICAL DESIGNS Sneak Peek Day 1

Whimsical Wednesday ~ LAYERS

Stamp & Emboss by Sizzix

Whimsical Wednesday & EXCITING Announcement!

Three Challenge Turkey card

I'm back and have a HUGE Announcement!

Whimsical Wednesday

Baptism Favors

Two Cute Halloween Cards

Simple Tree Card

Best Friends for Eternity

All Hallows Eve layout

And the WINNER is...

World Card-making Day Blog Hop!

Fall Scarecrow

Fall Colors

Fairy Poof Mother

Happy Birthday Matey card & box

Best Fishes

Crop Stop challenge

Kraftin Kimmie meets Fall colors

Put Your Best Foot Forward

One Lone Ghost

And the WINNER is...

Sizzix Spooky House & Ghost and MORE BLOG CANDY!

Blog Candy WINNER!

Love Birds Wedding Card and a little BLOG CANDY

Blog Candy WINNER!

Hey Ghoulfriend! And some more Blog Candy!

And the winner is....

Random Integer Generator

Altered Composition Book Blog Hop!

Any Ocassion card

Breaking out the SILHOUETTE

Art Philosophy cartridge

Learning in Progress

Ahoy Matey

Fantabulous Cricut - Buggy Challenge

Bookmarks & a Card

Cutie PIE

Things I Love

Bah! Humbug! White on White

Ballerina Frog

SNEAK PEEK at my next card

Oogie Boogie's Song

I Made This For You

Penguin Joy

~ Home For The Holidays ~ Whimsical Wednesday