Bah!Humbug! Fabric Challenge

This week the lovely ladies of Bah! Humbug! have challenged us to use fabric. Normally this would be daunting for me, but I came across some Loralie fabric I'd purchased in 2009 that I had bought from J&O Fabrics. They don't have much of a selection any more, but Loralie Designs in the meantime not only has it's own website, but makes all sorts of stamps and stuff, embroidery designs, you name it, with not only some kitties, but her signature sassy ladies, so if you're interested, check them out HERE. OOps! Off the track a bit here. I'd bought this fabric because of the adorable cards Enfys was making with them but I never got around to trying any myself. 'Bout time, eh? Basically all you do is glue the fabric to card stock using a glue stick, wait for it to dry and fussy cut it out. Make sure you've glued your design completely and it really resists fraying and cuts easily with sharp scissors. The background DP is from an 8x8 pad by Making Memories I got on clearance last year and the little Bingo card is Jennie Bowlin. WooHoo! Couldn't be simpler.

As you can see, I've lots more fabric and Jezzie was eyeing the kitties in the foreground thinkin' they would make fab cards for her to send. I think this would be a great idea for those who sew as well. Make something cute using fabric and save a bit for a matching card. The possibilities are endless. For once I've not waited until the very last minute to complete this challenge, so I suggest you pop by Bah!Humbug! and be inspired by the lovely examples by the DT and join the challenge too. It's almost December. YIKES!

A Freebie for Snowman Lovers!

We're all so excited about the new Dilly Beans Challenge Blog that we just couldn't wait until Friday so Megan has provided you with this adorable Snow Family Freebie with which to create a project and a chance to win some fabulous prizes. WooHoo! I had so much fun coloring and glittering them up and even used some puff paint for their hats. (Note to self, do NOT lay your heat gun on the carpet until it's cooled off or you'll melt it, OOPS!) The group is cut with Nesties Labels 10 and mounted on glittered snowflake borders from the Tim Holtz Snow Flurries On The Edge Die. The cute snowman DP is from (well gosh, I've got so much crap laying on my floor, I don't know who it's by, sorry).

I printed my image 3 times so I could get the dimension I crave and it came together in no time since it was so easy to color with my Copics. For a little extra pizazz I threw in some epoxy stickers from Recollections and some cool tinselly stuff from my LSS. Hurry over to grab your Freebie HERE and while you're there, take a gander at the inspiration by the DT to get your mojo flowing. You have 3 weeks to complete the challenge ('til Dec 19th) and there will be 4 (yes, COUNT 'EM 4!!!!) winners. What are you waiting for????? I'm also entering this in the Paper Sundaes Winter Wonderland Challenge, the Cardmadfairies (also Winter Wonderland) Challenge , the 4 Crafty Chicks Snowflake Challenge and the Crafty Catz Snowman Challenge.

Whimsicle Wednesday Texture Challenge and Some Big News!

Yes, I'm sorry, I've been taking time off. One of the things I sort of promised was that I would attempt to make the holidays stress free. (Notice, I said attempt, LOL) We had a lovely Thanksgiving with stuff done at a reasonable time and a quiet day yesterday. However, I've been itchin' to craft and finally managed a cute little card for the current Whimsical Wednesday Add Texture challenge. I used the Heartfelt Creations Decorative Layered Basket die and made a shaped card by folding the card stock and placing the handle of the base die just above the crease. It's tiny, but oh so cute. I ran it through the Cuttlebug Plaid folder to give it more of a woven appearance, and hey, that is the challenge after all.

The adorable little Snowman tag is from Dilly Beans. I was able to print it small enough for the little basket and then colored it with Copics, backed it with card stock and embossed it with Swiss Dots (inspired by my dear friend Carole, the embossing queen!) I love the added interest the texture adds to the stamped image. This brings me to my exciting news!

I'm honored to be a part of the new Dilly Beans Design Team! The first challenge will be Friday December 2nd, but there just may be a little something before that that everyone will be able to participate in, so stay tuned. In the meantime, Megan has been drawing up a storm so you just might want to check out the Dilly Beans Shop to see all of her new designs (and check out the super sale only through midnight tomorrow!) and visit the Challenge Blog to take a peek at my fabulous DT sisters.

Here's one more pic of my little basket card. Maybe you can see the texture a little better here. I've added a few punched snowflakes and pearls and there ya go. Stephanie has some exciting news as well. The sneak peeks for her fabulous new stamps will be next Thursday and Friday Dec 1 & 2) with the release on Friday, December 2nd at 7:00pm EST. I'm sure you all are as excited as I am for Stephanie and can't wait to see what she has in store. There will even be a blog hop with her fabulous DT where you have a chance to win ALL 4 SETS! I KNOW I'll be seeing you there! I'm also entering this in the Simon Says Stamp Tag You're It Challenge. Have a wonderful rest of your weekend!

BBTB2 Mouse from Meow

Eiyiyi! You have no idea how close I came to not having anything for you this morning but TADA! Guilt triumphs over exhaustion and here ya go. LOL Sweet Melissa chose the mouse from the Meow Lite cartridge for our BBTB2 Challenge this week. Generally this would be right up my alley, especially considering Goliath and Jezzie's habit of bringing them in to play (Jezzie) or for a snack (Goliath). Guess the prob this time was I had too many ideas, some being way more elaborate than my mojo would allow, so I settled on a sort of "Meet me under the mouseltoe" idea. Mice, from Meow, (obviously) welded togther with the "Kiss Kiss" sentiment from Tie the Knot and mistletoe from Christmas Solutions cartridge. I'm sorry I rarely (if ever) have my sizes. Often I experiment with a bunch of them or just stretch or compress things to fit, and I'm usually scrambling to complete, photograph, upload and post whatever I'm making so going back and figuring it out takes more time than I'm willing to spend (especially these days). I am pretty sure that the heart from George is 5 1/2" but the scalloped behind was the shadow of that heart with a bunch of little (less than 1") circles welded to it to make it scalloped because I'd already cut the plain heart out of the pretty striped DP (and didn't have any more of it) and decided the plain shadow was too plain. I know there are other scalloped hearts around, but none seemed to be the right shape. I embossed it with the 5x7" Polka Dots Cuttlebug folder (in sections) with my Grand Caliber which was the only machine that was large enough to accomodate the larger folder with the cut partially hanging out of it. (PITA! I was obviously not thinking things through in advance with this project.)

To be honest, I'm not quite sure what this thing is, a tag, a door hanger? It's not a card (yet, anyway) because I really needed to quit (near midnight). Normally, I don't craft in the evening unless hubby is not home and our bedtime is embarrassingly early (although we're often up at 4:00am) so it is what it is at the moment. A bit of dimension and thank God I found the adorable K&Co chipboard stocking in my stash or I'd probably STILL be up scratching my head about how to jazz it up. I still think the little mice need some attention, but that will be another day since I'm off to get beautified at the salon for Thanksgiving. My fabulous DT sisters have knocked this one out of the park, so be sure to stop by for inspiration and we hope to see your new creations featuring mice from any Cricut cartridge. Remember, you have two weeks and your creations must be linked in your blog post to BBTB2. Thanks so much for playing along. We really love seeing what you come up with each week. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

An ATC for Wicked Wednesday

Okay, so instead of working on my DT project for this week I've been messing around with an ATC. Have you seen the new(ish) Wicked Wednesday ATC Blog? Jenn has some fun challenges for ATC's only and this week it's being sponsored by Dilly Beans. Since ATC's are only 2.5" x 3.5" I figured I could slip one in today quickly but got pretty involved trying to come up with something a bit different. The challenge is Flowerful and I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to use another of my adorable Dilly Beans stamps. This one is #186 Framed Flower girl. After coloring her with Copics, I used my craft knife to cut out the frame and background. I tried a number of Dp's behind it, but in my stash was an old laser cut sheet. Cool! Then I came across some really heavy acetate from the now defunct Short Cuts and wondered if anyone ever makes transparent ATC's. Well, they do now! LOL Not the greatest background here, but I wanted you to see that you could see through it.

Whenever I print a digi stamp. I always print it at least twice (more likely 3 times) just in case I screw up the coloring or decide to layer the image. Big surprise, the flower is layered and I've used a tiny button for the flower center. Often ATC's are traded and the back is used to write the artist's name, blog, and whatever other pertinent info you want to include, a bit of a prob for a transparent one. LOL However, on the back I added a Scalloped Nestie Oval behind her head ( and not visible from the front) for a place to write if need be. This was a really fun challenge for me since my mojo has really needed a shot in the arm. I know I'll be playing again soon. If you want to try something new, why not pop over to the Wicked Wednesday Challenge Blog and be inspired. There's still a couple of days left for this challenge and there's an adorable Dilly Beans Stamp up for grabs. I'm also entering this in the ATC Challenge Blog #15 Anything Goes or Lace Challenge, the Squiggles Saturday Anything But a Card Challenge, and the Speedy's Friends Black, White and One Other Color Challenge (I'm assuming eye and skin color doesn't count here). Now I better get my butt in gear, or there'll be no BBTB2 for tomorrow. YIKES!

CDAC Progressive Challenge

Clearly, I'm having a problem crafting. Seems like I can only concentrate fully on one thing at a time, and lately it's been eating healthy and exercising my butt off (I wish!) which takes a major chunk out of my day and my mojo has suffered (BIG TIME!) When I finally actually have time to craft, I'm scurrying from blog to blog and challenge to challenge and although there are a million I WANT to participate in, it seems I can't make up my mind WHICH to do first (so I end up doing nothing). I've been talking about balance in my life, but I certainly haven't found it yet and I'm feeling terribly guilty now about my lack of posting.

So anyway, I got an email from CDAC talking about their Progressive Freebie Challenge Series 2, which is just starting now and decided to give it a try. Not a member of CDAC? No problem, just ASK to join. Then join the Progressive challenge Group and WooHoo! You're provided with a bunch of free images from a number of fab digi artists and all you have to do is use one to make a project and you have 2 weeks to do it. As long as you participate during each round, you continue to get the images for free (and if for some reason you just don't make it one round, you can buy in the round you missed for just $1.00). The payoff? Complete all 6 rounds and you will be entered in the fabulous grand prize drawing. Fun, huh? Since crab season started yesterday in CA, I just HAD to use the cute crab from Tiffany Doodles along with the birthday sentiment from Sending Treasures (that I modified a bit to go with the crab theme). HeeHee! These qualify me to enter the My Partner in Crafting Crime Freebie Challenge.

That crab just begged to be paper pieced so I'm entering it in the 4 Crafty Chicks Challenge this week and I added some lidded google eyes as well. The sentiment was cut with my Nesties labels One and the DP's are from an ancient DCWV stack. The shell border is a Martha Stewart punch.

I've popped parts of the crab as well as the mats and done a number on some of them with my Distrezz-it-All to make it more masculine. The twine holding the shell charms are looped through eyelets done with my Cropadile. These 3 different embellishments, along with the 2 patterned papers ( the large nauticul mat and the barely visible diagonal striped mat behind the small blue one) and one image qualifies for the Crazy Challenge Recipe this week. So yea! I'm set for round one, (although I just might make some more cards using the other adorable stamps I received in this round) and although this took me far longer than I ever anticipated, at least I finished something. If you've never played at CDAC, you must check it out. Lots of good stuff going on there all the time and it's a very supportive community.

BBTB2 Winter Woodland Joy Challenge

Morning! This week at BBTB2, our lovely Mona chose the "Joy" cut from Winter Woodland. This is just the kind of cut I love to design with because there's plenty of room to be creative. I've sort of been skating with some really simple cards this past week so I decided to make a nice fat juicy one. These are the kind I really feel a sense of accomplishment after assembling and although they're a royal PITA to make an envie for and to send, I think the recipient appreciates all the work that was involved. I've added snowflakes from Winter Lace and a swirl from Ashlyn's Alphabet and welded it all to my fave rounded rectangle from George (stretched to fit) in DS.

It is a shaped front card with just a few contours hidden (like the center of the "O" in Joy) so there would be room for at least a small sentiment without it showing through to the front. The inside mat is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder on each side. It's especially important to add texture to cards with such a simple color scheme. I've also embossed the Joy and swirl with Swiss Dots and glittered the snowflakes and "O" for more pizazz.

That "O" is not a separate cut on the cartridge, but I thought Joy looked a bit flat so I made one more cut of the Joy (and the shadow) and hand trimmed it out so I could pop one more layer. Adhesive beads are a bit difficult to stick to glitter so I tried a Viva Pearl Pen in red for the first time. I was happy with the way it worked, except for the fact that there was a tiny bit of bleeding (not really noticeable except to me and if you're really, REALLY looking for it). Upon closer observation, I think it's because as the liquid was settling, it wanted to absorb somewhat into the paper but the glitter sort of dispersed it. Had it not been as much of a contrast as bright as red, I don't think it would be noticeable at all, but it did prevent me from trying it on the flocking on my previous project because I think that may have done the same thing, only worse.

Here you can really see just how FAT the card really is. You'll also notice that I stickled the swirls on the embossed portions of the inside mat (because it looked so pretty on DY Sister Jeri's card last week). Thanks, Jeri! So, after making it through all of this, I'll bet you're more than ready to pop over to BBTB2 and see the fabulous inspiration from the rest of our team. Don't forget, you have 2 weeks to play, new creations only, you may substitute a similar Cricut cart if you don't have the one chosen, and please link back to BBTB2 so others can join in the fun. There's also still time to enter our "Boy Crazy" contest so be sure and check it out.

ADFD for Bah!Humbug! and a Few More Challenges

Okay, don't faint ladies! Yes, it's Saturday and I've done my Bah!Humbug! challenge ALREADY this week. YEEHAW! I knew immediately what image (or at least which group of images) I was gonna use for the Baby's First Christmas challenge. 4 Crafty Chicks is also asking for a baby theme, as is Designed to Delight, WooHoo! I have the whole Santa's Nice List set from ADFD and chose this cutie in the stocking cap. The current ADFD challenge is "Flock Together" so I printed the image (flipped) 3 times so I could cut it apart and flock the pieces individually by running them face down through my Xyron and then reassembling them on the base image. (Does that make sense?)

Tell me this isn't the sweetest baby EVER! Well actually there are 3 other singles, a set of triplets, and a stocking just filled with a teddy and sweets in this set, but the stocking cap really did it for me because I could add a mini pompom. What little coloring there is is done with my Copics. The red part of the stocking is colored as well, before running through the Xyron and flocking, so the coverage is deep and even. The little dots on the toe and heel are mini adhesive beads I applied AFTER running through the Xyron but before adding the flock. The flock would have obscured the dots had I just colored them, and I was afraid of bleeding if I tried to touch them up after. The adhesive on the beads doesn't stick well to the flock, either, but applying glue after the fact is pretty messy so this solution worked well for me.

Besides the flocking, I wanted to add some additional texture for the Cardmadfairy's Texture Challenge and the Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday Challenge which is Embossing. I chose a Sizzix folder because the scallops echoed the Nestie scalloped mat but look what happened when I ran it through my Cuttlebug. I've had this happen with quite a few of the Sizzix folders, including those by Tim Holtz, and I was really bummed at how it actually cracked and ripped my cardstock because of the deep embossing.

Lucy McGoo's Wonder Goo to the rescue! Honestly, this stuff has been on my crafting table for MONTHS! I bought it at a Scrap Expo (I think) because it's supposed to help get a better impression when using those old embossing plates (rather than the folders) so I thought I'd give it a go and WOOHOO! A little spritz on the card stock, in the folder, and through the Cuttlebug and VOILA! No more cracking! I do, however suggest you leave it in the folder until the thing dries because it does have a tendency to curl more, but hey, small price to pay. I'd been getting kind of discouraged with these folders lately so I'm happy as a clam to find a solution. That link is the only place I found this stuff online, but I hate to mention a product with no link to where you can get it sooo... I also apologize for such a long post for such a simple card, but I finally seem to be coming out of my funk so I'm back to my old wordy self. LOL Anyway, I'm off to get boofy for the first holiday party of the season at my BFF's. Have a great rest of the weekend and go check out all of these fab challenges, if for no other reason than to oooohh and aaaahh at the DT inspiration.

Dilly Beans for the Bah! Humbug! Snowman Challenge

This week at Bah! Humbug! the challenge is snowmen. I LOVE snowmen! The problem was choosing which snowman to use. I really love the framed snowmen in the Dilly Beans shop. They're as cute as can be, easy to color and the framing pretty much finishes the card for you so I decided to use Framed Snowman #2 because of his sweet stocking cap. He's colored with Copics to match the Peppermint Forest DP from J's last year and I added some Star Dust Stickles for a little bling. I think pastel Christmas cards are just YUMMY, don't you?

To add a little dimension, I printed my snowman 3 times and fussy cut his nose, the end of his cap and the little heart (twice) and popped them. All I needed were a few mats, a sheer ribbon and some adhesive pears and Voila! Really simple, but cute enough that I may just make a whole set with the rest of the framed snowmen from Dilly Beans. BTW, the Dilly Beans Designer and Challenge Blog is coming in December! WooHoo! And remember, there are only a few more challenges left at Bah!Humbug! before the Humbuggers take their holiday break so be sure to stop by and thank them for helping you get your holiday cards under control. I'm also adding this to the Whimsical Wednesdays Anything Goes Challenge because I seem to be running a bit behind there. There's still some time left for that challenge, and the new one from this past Wednesday is Thanksgiving. See ya there!

BBTB2 Heritage Fancy Corner Challenge

It's Monday and time for another BBTB2 challenge. This week our fabulous fearless leader (and new Grandma!) Heather chose the decorative corner (Accent9) from the Heritage cartridge on page 62 of the manual. Because I couldn't come up with anything more creative, I decided to make a little you note card by welding 2 of the corners to the Marquee from Storybook for the front. Speaking of Storybook, it is a fabulous source of other fancy corners if you don't happen to have Heritage. The gorgeous monogram is from the new(ish) Art Nouveau cartridge. The top Marquee is embossed with the Cuttlebug Birds and Swirls folder that I thought looked lovely with the corners.

This is also a shaped front card, but because the corners were delicate (and I chose not to use the shadow on them for an more filigree look) I backed it with acetate. For that reason, when welding, I made the back of my card base 4 1/2" inches rather than the standard 4 1/4" (but I still scored at 4 1/4") so I would have an extra 1/4" to attach my acetate to. It is attached only at the top from the inside. I added a tiny decorative strip and beads on the front to embellish. There was no need to attach the rest of the front because it was heavy enough with the layers and popping to lie flat without and gave me the option of not having to add anything further to the back side of the acetate to hide the adhesive.

However, when I got around to the inside and realized just how limited the writing space actually was, I added another Marquee shape to the acetate with a computer generated sentiment, directly behind the one on the front. The tiny cream strip at the fold hides the adhesive where the acetate is attached but I didn't add the beads so it would lay flat. The dotted paper is from the DCWV La Creme stack and the matte metallic is from Recollections. Now, if you haven't already, please scroll down to see if you're the winner of either the BBTB2 or Dia De Los Muertos Blog Hops. I'd hate to see the prizes go to waste. And check out the creations by the rest of the BBTB2 team and put your thinking caps on. We'd love to see what you come up with for this challenge. Remember, you have 2 weeks to complete it, new creations only, and please link it back to BBTB2 so others have a chance to play along.

The Altered Alice Fall Colors

"`Off with her head!' the Queen shouted at the top of her voice.
Nobody moved. `Who cares for you?' said Alice, (she had grown to her full size by this time.) `You're nothing but a pack of cards!'
At this the whole pack rose up into the air, and came flying down upon her: she gave a little scream, half of fright and half of anger, and tried to beat them off, and found herself lying on the bank, with her head in the lap of her sister, who was gently brushing away some dead leaves that had fluttered down from the trees upon her face."

-- Chapter 12, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Perhaps the Wonderland story took place in the Fall. It's the time of year when the days grow shorter, there's a nip in the air and the trees are giving up their green for the vibrant hues of burgundy, scarlet, orange, chartruese and gold. This month your challenge at The Altered Alice is to create a project drenched in the colors of Autumn.

My teapot is hand cut from a template from Gem's cottage using DP from K&Co over a card stock base. The window in the front was cut with my Nesties to reveal the tea party scene.

Our prize again this month is an A5 sized unmounted stamp set from IndigoBlu (a £13 value), or an equivalent amount of A6 stamps. IndigoBlu is a fantastic new British stamp company that makes "Quintessential English Rubber Stamps" right there in England.

In fact IndigoBlu is sponsoring The Altered Alice for October AND November, and the design team will be working with these two fantastic Alice stamp sets, titled appropriately "Alice I" and "Alice II". Most Americans don't know what A5 and A6 mean so I'll just tell you, these sets are huge!

I encourage you to go visit IndigoBlu.com. All stamps are on sale right now with their introductory pricing, but that won't last forever, and the designs are all wonderful! In addition, the Head Honcho Alfie says The Altered Alice readers can take 10% OFF during the challenge; just use coupon code Altered Alice in the voucher code box at checkout! Thanks Alfie!

This stamp is from the "Alice II" set and is colored with Copic and inked with Distress. It's recessed from the frame, but there is still plenty of room to fill the pot with tea or other goodies.

I've cut a tea tray using my Nesties Grand Labels One and added autumn leaves to both the tray and the teapot lid. The leaves were either punched or cut with the Cuttlebug Maple leaf and stamped with the crackle stamp from the "Alice I "set before embossing. Please visit The Altered Alice to see our first week's inspiration pieces and we invite you to play along. Our challenges begin the first Sunday of the month, with new inspiration each week and run through the Friday before the last Sunday when the winner and honorable mentions are announced. Hope to see you down the rabbit hole.

Smeared and Smudged Guest Designer Challenge and BOTH Blog Hop Winners

I'm thrilled to be Guest Designer this month Smeared and Smudged Forum. Not famliar with Smeared and Smudged? Well, it's a fun, supportive group of "alternative" stampers, hosted by the fab owners of Smeared Ink Stamps. Each month there are a number of different challenges and I was lucky enough to be asked to host the November GDT Challenge. I've used an image from the Smeared Ink Smitten digi set, also available as a single HERE. I chose the image because I'm trying to convince myself that a butt the size of Cleveland can be a GOOD thing since my diet and exercise regimen is not yielding the rapid results I'd hoped for and I'm about ready to eat the furniture. LOL I've added dimension using the pyramage technique with my Nesties. Have you guessed the challenge yet? Well, check it out HERE. I'd love to have you join the forum (just ask) and my challenge this month. And BTW, you get a free digi just for entering. WooHoo!

Now on to the Blog Hop Winners! First, the winner of the BBTB2 Blog Hop and the $40 Gift Certificate from Custom Crops is LUCKY NUMBER 13! Thank you so much Custom Crops for your generous sponsorship!

WOOHOO! Congratulations RO, who wrote:

Now on to the Dia De Los Muertos Blog Hop and the winner of the Cuttlebug With Gratitude Card Making Combo is #15

Congratulations to Ruthie Lopez who wrote:

I want to thank all of you for partcipating in both hops. There are an awful lot of blog hops these days and I really appreciate that you took the time to visit and comment. Winners, please email me at dlmundinger(at)yahoo(dot)com to arrange for your prizes

Bah!Humbug! Die Cut Challenge and the Return of The Cuttlebug Spot

Well, I'm afraid to say I've missed the last two Bah!Humbug! challenges but I couldn't let another go by. I've been trying the last few weeks to balance my life a bit which has been tough on me and my crafting. This week the ladies of Humbug Hall chose Die Cuts as the challenge. Now normally I'd do a Cricut project, but in honor of the return of The Cuttlebug Spot I opted to use my new Tim Holtz Festive Greenery die and make a tag. These dies to work in the Cuttlebug, but you need to have the Sizzix extended platform and cutting plates to use them (in the Big Shot as well, BTW). Although I have decided to retire from the Cuttlebug Spot DT, I hope to participate in challenges whenever possible. I want to thank Nilda for all of her hard work and the fabulous opportunity to be on such a wonderful team and say "Hey!" to the talented teamies who chose to stay on. The challenge this time is Anything Goes. They will be bi-weekly now and will not necessarily require embossing, but I have so many folders (many that I've acquired since we went on hiatus in April and have yet to use) that I'm pretty sure I'll be embossing anyway. I've used the Tim Holtz Sheet Music folder on my project today. All of my die cuts were actually cut in a medium green card stock and I've used Copics and Distress Inks to color and shade them. The pine cone is also embossed with the Cuttlebug Tiny Mosaic folder. The adesive metal letters are from M's and I've added a few beads for holly berries and a ribbon tie for my stash. As I'm just squeeking in for Bah!Humbug! again (sorry ladies) you'll probably have to wait for Friday's new challenge, but you have nearly two full weeks to join in at The Cuttlebug Spot so I hope to see you there.

Dia de los Muertos Blog Hop

WooHoo! It's Abby's Second Annual Dia De Los Muertos Blog Hop. If you've come from Monica's Blog, you're on the right track, but if you've happened here by chance click HERE because I know you'd just hate to miss a thing. This is a big celebration at my house and my entire dining room becomes a giant ofrenda (altar) honoring those important people who are no longer with me. Remember, it is a celebration of life and a very festive and happy occasion. Traditionally in Mexico fiestas include brightly colored cut paper banners (papel picados)and this year I decided to create my own with the help of my Cricut.

I used the Autumn Celebrations cart for the base and added and subtracted elements using Design Studio. The flowers are from the Paper Lace cartridge. Traditional banners are usually cut from tissue paper, but these are quite delicate enough just using card stock.

Besides the sugar skull motif, skeletons are often depicted doing the things they loved to do in life such as dancing. Again, the design began with Autumn Celebrations with flowers from Paper Lace. The most difficult aspect here was that when flipping the image, the words were also flipped so I had to hide the letters on the flipped image and then hide all of the contours of an unflipped image BUT the lettering and move it into place to cut this banner correctly.

I have many keepsakes from my relatives that I cherish and include in my ofrenda. This shelf is honoring my maternal grandparents who both died before I was born. It includes their wedding picture and portraits. If you'll notice, in both pix my grandma is in profile. I have never seen a picture of her head on. Apparently, when she was a very young child, she had an eye infection and the Dr. put the wrong drops in her eye causing it to shrivel. I still think she's beautiful. The embroidered satin slippers are those Grandma wore on her wedding day. I have her wedding gown as well. The pocket watch is my Grandfather's and is engraved with his initials. I also include my little Novios (wedding couple) sculpture which signifies Amor Eterno (eternal love). My last year's post includes many more stories and pix of my family artifacts, so if you're interested, please click HERE. Many of you asked last year how I could possibly have so many family heirlooms. I am an only child with no living aunts or uncles on either side of my family and only have 3 living first cousins, one on my Mom's side (who is 16 years older than I) and two on my Dad's. My parents seemed to have been the caretakers of many treasures which have been passed down to me. I so enjoy reliving the stories that were told to me by my parents and I'm thrilled to be able to share them with you, because we have no children to pass them down to and Goliath and Jezzie pretty much couldn't care less. LOL

I try to add to my collection each year and would love to show you my recent acquisitons. First, a 12x12 original canvas by Megan Suarez inspired by Frida Kahlo. Megan is not only a fab painter, but she also sells her adorable Dilly Beans digi stamps.

Second, a gorgeous Mexican folk art piece that I had hoped to make a decorated shadow box for but time got away from me. (Maybe next year)

And finally (because you can never have too many skulls) 3 handpainted bottles of TEQUILA! Time to party!

But before you go, please be sure to leave a comment to be eligible for my blog candy. November is also a month to give thanks so I'm offering this Cuttlebug With Gratitude Card Making combo. Just leave a comment and stop back on Saturday, November 5th when I announce the winner. BTW, I'll also be announcing the winner of the BBTB2 Blog Hop that day, so if you haven't entered my giveaway there, please scroll down. Now you're off to Michelle's Blog. Happy hopping!