You're a star!

I don't know about you, but the CAS style is really a struggle for me (although my last card HERE turned out to be that way too.  LOL)  I'm kind of a "more is never enough" kind of gal which really poses a problem, so I've been trying to play in the CAS challenge at the Outlawz each week.  I was excited about the Stars theme because it was a chance to use my new Stitched Stars dies from Gina Marie.  Stitched dies in every shape have really become popular but I just got a bunch.  Seems I'm a little late to the party.  I found they coordinated  with my old Spellbinders Stars 5 dies so I ended up using both, the stitched ones to emboss (using the embossing mat and plate so they wouldn't cut through) and the regular ones to cut. The gold one is popped with foam, then I added some tiny sticker stars and sentiment and called it done.  This was made for a congratulations on a new job and inside says "You're a STAR!"

I'm adding this to the DL.Art January Linky challenge, Crafty Calender Something New (stitched star dies),Crafty Friends New Beginnings, Less is More New Beginnings, Come and Get it No Designer Paper and My Time to Craft Something New.

BBTB2 Life's a Beach Lizard Cut

This is my second post of the day, so if you're looking for Macabre Monday, please scroll down. I'm trying hard to get back in the swing of things, but I had to get up at 3:00 am to do it. Just couldn't make this one all come together yesterday. For this week's BBTB2 challenge our dear DT sister Lori has chosen the lizard from Life's a Beach. I knew I wanted a sun (also from Life's a Beach) but the sentiment took awhile. I finally decided that "Bask in it" would be a good sentiment for a variety of occasions like birthday or some sort of congratulatory thing (the inside will some day read "It's Your Day!") and also thought it would be good for a guy, so I resisted the urge to put blingy toenails on the lizard. :D He's embossed with the Mesh Texture Cuttlebug folder (reversed) and inked with Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint. Okay so he does have long lashes on those lidded peepers (and yikes the eyeballs sort of rolled back in this pic, enjoying the sun, I guess) but I do know a few guys who were blessed with bedroom eyes. (Are you reading this? LOL)

With all of that texture goin' on on the lizard, the sun looked pretty plain so I took the wavy embossing folder from the Cuttlebug Just My Type border set and embossed each ray. To do that, I positioned the border as shown and used my A plate, Spellbinder's tan mat, B plate, folder with sun inside and 1/8th inch plumber's gasket cut to the size of the border folder and ran each ray through the Cuttlebug individually. There was a little smooshing of the texture where they met, but I was covering that up anyway. The center of the sun is embossed with Swiss Dots.

I really wanted to make one of my shaped front cards here but the design was really too open for that so I created the base by welding two rounded rectangles from George and cutting 2 smaller mats as well. No shadows on Life's a Beach, either so I welded the entire front mess together and cut additional sun and lizard layers to do my offsetting trick. The font is from Don Juan which actually DOES have a shadow but it's so close to the regular cut that I cut extra of those as well. (Oh yea! There are his little eyeballs.)

That cool "sand" paper is from an old DCWV Summer Glitter Stack. I will be heartbroken when I use that up! As you can see, there's quite a bit of dimension here. Glad I started making my own pop dots using fun foam and double stick tape. And no, that isn't lizard poop, I just need something to balance the design, Marlene. Obviously getting up that early didn't leave me at a loss for words,but one last thing. be sure to stop by BBTB2 to see the fabulous creations from the rest of the DT and we sure love it when you play along.

A Toast 2U-.Cut File Available, BBTB Blog Hop Winner, and a Crop Stop Hop.

Happy World Card Making Day! Guess what I'll be doing? You too? Let's all celebrate together. WooHoo! (As if I'm not making cards EVERY day. LOL) Here's yet ANOTHER card for Custom Crops from the new From My Kitchen. I told you I LOVE that cart! I'm also lovin' the Nana's Kitchen stack from DCWV. So perfectly retro for these cuts. The only other cart I used was a bit of Plantin Schoolbook. I love the font From My Kitchen uses for their welded words. The free .cut file and full instructions are available HERE.

I'm running out of things to say about these cards but I can't stop making them. Hope you get a kick out of the play on words. Could be cute for an anniversary, congrats, or even a birthday. BTW, if you're up for some world Card Making Day Festivities, my dear friend Margie is on the DT at CropStop and they're having a blog hop. Lots of fun so if you'd like to hop click HERE. And speaking of Blog Hops, the winner of my BBTB Blog Hop Candy is Brandy, comment #65 chosen randomly by my DH. Well how about that, she's a buddy from the Cricut mb. Congrats Brandy!

BBTB Paper Pups Ribbon Challenge and Blog Hop

WooHoo! It's that time of the month again for the BBTB Blog Hop. Hope you're all having a fun time. With any luck you have landed here from Carole's blog. If you happened here by chance you can follow along or start at the beginning HERE. This week our challenge was to use the ribbon from Paper Pups.

I chose to do one of my usual shaped front cards welding a number of elements in Cricut Design Studio to a rectangular base from George and Basic Shapes. The star cluster is from Wildcard and the sentiment is from Lyrical Letters. By strategically welding the elements I was able to eliminate the bird that is part of that sentiment and only had to trim it off on the top layer. #1 is the Roly poly feature in Plantin Schoolbook and the 2 right hand single stars are also from George.

I used several layers and popped them using foam dimensionals. It's hard to see in the pic, but I added texture to the stars using the new Stars Cuttlebug folder as well as the all time favorite Swiss Dots. I also used Swiss dots to add interest to the blue ribbon.

Well you know it wouldn't be mine unless I used a few adhesive beads for embellishment. No, I don't own stock in the company but I wish I did. LOL I also wish I had better glasses for this closeup work. Time for another eye exam!

Now just for leaving a comment on this post you can win this fun mix and match book kit from K &Co and these extra adorable dimensional animal stickers (hard to give up but I LOVE you guys). The winner will be chosen by Random DH (Sorry, I'm technologically challenged but he has no idea what's going on so there's no possibility of cheating) on Sat. Sept 5. Next up is by fabulously talented DT sister DeeDee. Hop right on over HERE and enjoy her sure to be wonderful take on this challenge. Have fun and win big! And don't forget to play along. Thanks so much for joining the BBTB Blog Hop! Hugs! D

Life is Good BBTB Challenge

Happy Monday! Yea! That means a new BBTB challenge. This week Regina chose the "Life is Good" cut from Graphically Speaking. I kept thinking "lucky " so I went with a bit of a St. Paddy's theme and kept the color palette green. I welded a horseshoe from Paper Doll Dress UP to a rounded square from George using Cricut Design Studio. The 4 leaf clover (both shadow and regular) was made from George with an Opposites Attract stem. For the top layer I cut each heart individually, cuttled each petal, scored it down the middle and attached each heart on one side only for dimension. The pot of gold from PDDU is at the end of a Hello Kitty rainbow. "Life is Good" is cut 3 times for emphasis and embellished with gold adhesive beads. The green flower and butterfly are from J's. Be sure to stop by Bitten by the Bug to see all of the fabulous contributions by the other design team members and please come play along.

You Did It!

Here's my first Pop-up card. I found the tutorial on UTube. I made this as an 8th grade graduation card but it would be great for any accomplishment. It folds flat so it can be put in an envelope. This was the first time I used the Beyond Birthdays cart. The tag pocket on the back was for a gift card. I loved the bright colors I used and all of the little Favorite Findings stars. It's not very easy to impress a teenage boy, but when he opened it he said "Whoa!" That made my day.