I'm Ms. May at Everyday Cricut!

Well the cat is out of the bag so to speak. I'm Ms. May at Everyday Cricut and I'm so excited to have this fabulous opportunity! Thank you soooo much Melanie and Joy for inviting me to contribute. I'm starting my week in the spirit of simple card Monday with a shaped card from Hello Kitty Greetings. You all know how much I LOVE shaped cards but this one require no DS. (Well, almost, go read the explanation HERE and be sure to leave me some love.) This week's giveaways include Straight from the Nest and Create a Critter and a comment a day on Everyday Cricut this week means more chances to WIN!

Cutting Cafe Giveaway! "Just Because"

Don't you love having a stash of beautiful but quick cards when you just want to keep in touch? Well Regina at The Cutting Cafe has designed a perfect set for those "Just Because" times. The Just Because Background Printable stamp set contains 4 frames, 4 sentiments, and the printable background that you can see HERE and you can win it just by leaving a comment. The frames are sized to fit a standard A2 card. For the background I sized the stamp down to fit within the frame with an additional mat and I love how cute it looks with the font tiny like this. The border and corner punches are EK success and the chipboard flower is from the DCWV La Crema embellies. Then just some ribbon and a couple of pearls and voila! Be sure to stop by The Cutting Cafe on Monday to see the list of the other Design Team members participating in this great giveaway, and while you're there, take a look at all of the fabulous new sets Regina has to offer. Be sure to come back on Friday morning to see if you're the winner! And Happy Mother's Day to all!

Stampotique Challenge Think Outside the Box

I told you I was REALLY excited to get my Stampotique order. Do you believe this is my second post today? And notice they're BOTH using Stampotique stamps. (Breathe deep Sandy! LOL) On the Stampotique Designer's Challenge Blog we're to "think out of the box" which I took to mean "do something other than a card" so I looked at the stuff I've been collecting to alter and came across this paper mache frame I got on clearance after Valentine's Day and figured if I screwed it up, no big deal. (It was WAY cheap!) My worries were, of course, that I would screw up the stamping since I planned to stamp directly on the frame and it was curved, and you know my stamping woes, etc., etc. Well miraculously I stamped Marci cleanly and I was so excited that I was almost afraid to do anything else. LOL I decided not to add any color because I intended to put a particularly unattractive kindergarten pic of me in it (which is black and white) but unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) I couldn't find it. "Cute" is a rub on and "as a" is done with Studio K Epoxy stickers. Then I added buttons and inked a tiny bit around the edges and that was it. Not nearly as creative or elaborate as the other entries, but I figured I better quit while I was ahead.

Macabre Monday "Ode to the Bruise"

Okay, I really should be doing other stuff right now, but when I got my mega order of Stampotique stamps (watch out Sandy LOL Hope you don't mind me teasing you like this, girlfriend!) I had to immediately play along with this week's Macabre Monday Challenge at the Haunted Design House. The "Ode to the Bruise" challenge calls for the lovely colors purple, teal, yellow and black; you know, bruise colors. I was so hoping my stamps would come for this challenge because I wanted to use Heads by Daniel Torrente. I stamped it using StazOn on acetate (mainly because I thought I could wipe it off if I screwed up. That's one big image and you know my stamping ability is limited). Then I smeared and sprayed and sponged Distress Inks in Wild Honey, Broken China, Dusty Concord, and Black Soot over my background paper, blew it dry and ground the crap out of it with my Distrezz it all. Did the same for the card base (the grinding, I mean). The acetate is attached with skull and guitar brads (which I changed from red to black with my Bic permanent marker) and added some crumpled silver mesh. "Mosh pit" is done on the computer. Can you think of a better place to get bruised? Creepy enough, Agnes? Who knew under that sweet exterior you were one twisted chick? Just kidding hon, you know I love you! I know these aren't everybody's cup of tea, but I love, love, LOVE these challenges. You oughta try one, you'll LIKE it! For the rest of you don't worry. Next week you'll have cute Cricut up the ying yang. I'd like to think I can keep everybody happy while stretching my creative wings, so to speak.

Oh Alice! and the Burtonesque Dolls

Oh I can't believe it's Friday! The week is going by sooo fast and I've still got loads to do for next week. Couldn't miss this week's Oh Alice! challenge though, entitled "Little People, Big Wonderland" (which translates into make a card or project for a child.) I thought these adorable Wonderland digi images from The Greeting Farm would be perfect...so sweet! They're colored with Copics (before daylight so excuse that please) and popped on "Baby Boy" DP from Heidi Grace. The sentiments Sassy Studio Designs cut and mounted on petite oval Nesties. The punch is EK Success which I would love a whole lot more if the little embossed dots on the scallops showed up better but I tried to enhance them with my stylus.

I'm also entering this in The Burtonesque Dolls FIRST challenge (WooHoo!) which is stripes. Now normally I'd be trying to do something a bit more edgey for that, but with limited time and figuring at least it's an Alice theme which is currently my FAVE Tim Burton movie, I thought it would be okay. Several of my BBB's (Best Blogging Buddies) are on the DT there so I wanted to show my support for this FABULOUS new challenge blog. New Burtonesque challenges come out every Tuesday there so you still have time to play along.

Bah!Humbug! Snowflake Challenge

Wow, wasn't sure this one was gonna happen. You'd think the Bah! Humbug! Snowflakes challenge would be an easy one but I wanted to do something different. I was having a bit of a mojo issue and then finally decided I would try that swing card again; you know, the one I screwed up on even though followed Connie's tut on the Sweet Pea Stamps blog. I was determined to get it right this time. I used SEI Wintersong papers and the snowflakes down the side were cut with my Cricut using the Doodlecharms snowflake border feature. The center snowflake is a Spellbinders Shapeabilities die cut in my Cuttlebug.

The only real embellishments are the silver adhesive beads. The inside sentiment is as peelie from Stampendous. The whole thing has sort of a modern feel, but I kind of like it.

Not Just for Mother's Day Doily Card and Free .Cut File

I really love the feminine lacy feel of doilies and when I spotted one on the Mother's Day 2010 Seasonal Cartridge I knew I wanted to make a shaped card, however there was no shadow...GRRR. Fortunately the pattern was even enough to enlarge it slightly and by hiding the selected contours of ALL of the detail I was able to make this card. Once the work was done, the card goes together in a snap and I think the base would be great for a number of different things. I put the Happy Mother's Day sentiment on the front so it could be sent to anyone you'd like to send those wishes to. I kept the embellies simple, but you could really go to town if you wish. If you like, the FREE .cut file and instructions can be found HERE on the Custom Crops site. Just a quickie post, because I'm celebrating my birthday with my neighbor today (I'm all for prolonging the birthday experience as long as I can. LOL) and we're out to lunch and shopping. Woohoo!

Reader's Choice Life's a Beach Cut at BBTB2

We've added a new feature this month at BBTB2; Reader's Choice. That's right, once a month YOU will be picking the challenge so if there's a cartridge you'd like us to explore or a special cut you'd like to see, let us know. There were alot of calls for something from Life's a Beach so this week we're featuring the Leaf1 cut. I went for the simple, making a shaped card (big surprise, LOL) but because the cut has no shadow and is quite open I had to do a bit of tweaking. For the base I welded the hibiscus to the end and hid selected contours of the leaf so the holes would fill in (and there'd be someplace to write inside). The leaf layers are cut in 2 coordinating pattern papers and run through the Cuttlebug using Tiny Bubbles and Tiny Mosaic and popped. For the rest of the cuts I cut them first in black, then in colored card stock and popped them slightly offset to give some semblence of a shadow. The top layer of the hibiscus is embossed with Swiss Dots and inked. I trimmed the stamen off of the hibiscus base layers and just added the 2 individual stamen layers at the end. The top is glittered with Doodlebug glitter, both chunky and fine.

"Aloha" is welded using the Life's a Beach font and I used my Copics to shade and make them look like bamboo. Of course the finishing touches were adhesive gems. Now if you haven't been there already, RUN to BBTB2 to see the fabulously creative things my DT sisters have done with this cut. I promise you won't be disappointed. P.S. It's safe to come back today, Sandy!

Macabre Monday Music Mayhem

Well I made it! Wasn't sure I was gonna but I was thinking about this challenge all week. It's Music Mayhem for the Macabre Monday Challenge #036. Your project should reflect words or images inspired by a song (preferably a sort of creepy one). I knew right off I wanted to do the Beatles "Eleanor Rigby". When that song first was popular I'd gotten a clock radio with a sleep timer for Christmas and started to try to go to sleep to music. (I'm pretty sure I was in Jr. High)I swear, every time I was drifting off I'd hear those manic strings start and I'd be snapped awake. Then I couldn't get the words out of my head...particularly...

"waits at the window, wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door. Who is it for?"

It creeped me right out, enough so, that I'd have to get up for awhile and go watch tv with my parents to calm down. So here's my jar. I made a shaped card with Cricut Design Studio using the jar from Doodlecharms. The shadow cut I did in some K@Co paper that reminded me of old wallpaper that you'd see through the jar on the table. I'm thinking this would have been an old jar so I cut the layers out of frosted acrylic I got from the now defunct Short Cuts. I stamped Clover from Stampotique again (gotta get more heads) in Staz-On on the back piece of acrylic. The lid is done in matte metallic paper, distressed and some Distress Stickles added to sort of look like rust. I'm figuring old lonely Eleanor would have kept a rose from a long departed suitor near her jar so I glued on one of my dried "black" roses from the garden and sort of picked it apart a bit to make it look creepier. Then I tattered a faded fiber ribbon and tied it around the jar as a finishing touch. Yeah, this is definitely in the "who will I be sending this card to?" catagory. LOL

Sweet Little Girls from Peggy Loves Vintage and Sale at The Cutting Cafe

WooHoo! Peggy will soon be adding a number of new Cut-Outs to her Vintage Collection at Peggy Loves Vintage and here's a sneak peek. These are perfect for those of us who want more immediate gratification; 6 fun images per sheet in a variety of different subjects. This darling little girl in the apple tree is from Sweet Little Girls 4 which will available soon at Peggy Loves Vintage. I saw this cute swing card on The Sweet Pea Stamps Blog and followed Connie's tutorial. So much fun!

I printed the little girl twice and cut her out with my circle Nesties so that when you opened the card she was still visible in the tree. OOPS! I JUST REALIZED IF I HAD DONE THIS CARD CORRECTLY I WOULD HAVE CUT THE HALF CIRCLE OUT OF THE MIDDLE HALF OF THE CARD AND I WOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO PRINT TWO IMAGES. GUESS I DIDN'T FOLLOW THE TUT TOO WELL AFTER ALL. (In my defense, I was in a hurry because are having a WINE festival in town and I surely didn't want to miss an of THAT, LOL) The front and middle panels are embossed with the Leafy Tree folder from Crafts Too, available at Custom Crops, and cut in half with the Nestie scalloped circle used for the swing part cut out.

When the card is fully opened it reveals the computer generated sentiment. I got the little apple charm on clearance a Michael's awhile back, (there were 2 on a card that were originallly $19.99 and were reduced to I think a buck) and it has a lobster claw clip so it can be unhooked to put on a bracelet if desired. Be sure to check out Peggy Loves Vintage Blog to preview the great new stuff that will be available SOON!

Also, there is still time left for the fabulous 2 for 1 special at The Cutting Cafe in honor of National Scrapbooking Day. Regina has added tons of fabulous new templates, background stamps, sentiments and more. Hurry though, it ends tonight (May 1) at midnight PDT.

BBTB2 Blog Hop Winner!

TGIF! Been working on DT stuff so I'm not sure I'll have a card to post today but I didn't want to keep you hanging. The winner of the $30 gift certificate to Custom Crops is...

#25 Gloria Westerman ! who wrote:

This is my favorite.....I love it.....will have to case this for sure....Thank you for sharing...

Congratulations Gloria! Please email me at dlmundinger(at) yahoo(dot) com to make arrangements for your prize. And thank you everyone for participating.

Oh Alice! Challenge 10 Queen of Tarts

Wow this week is flying by! I sort of took some days off from crafting because of the gorgeous weekend and my birthday and I feel like I'm playing "catch up". This week at Oh Alice! they are celebrating the Queen's tarts and asked for food on our cards. I made the Mad Hatter's Cake using my Cottage Cutz die, available at The Scrapping Cottage. Doesn't it look YUMMY!? I've always wanted a REAL cake like this for some occasion but for now a paper one will have to do. I loved the colors on the packaging for this die so I just mostly copied those. I cut the whole thing out of white card stock and colored the pieces with my Copics (except for the little roses where I used a textured pink card stock wth gel pen for detail.) The layers and roses are popped for dimension. Because of the strong colors I decided to use black and white for the rest of the card. the background embossing is the Diamonds in the Rough Cuttlebug folder. (I thought it had an "Alicey" kind of feel to it). The sentiment is from the Cuttlebug Happy Birthday card making combo. Hope you like.