BBTB2 Create a Critter Frog Challenge

Finally, eh? This week the BBTB2 challenge was chosen by our DT sister Carri, who picked the frog from Create a Critter. I have Halloween on the brain so I did a themed wall hanging. The witch's hat and cauldron are from Mini Monsters. All shadows were welded in DS and the layers were popped with enough foam that a chipboard base wasn't required.

The frog is embossed with the Cuttlebug Tiny Bubbles and the cauldron with Swiss Dots. I cut the cauldron multiple times and trimmed them so I could layer the rim. I also resized the cauldron bottom to create a sort of decoupage effect.

The rosette is done with a Tim Holtz die. Not to self: avoid glittered paper as it doesn't want to crease and has a tendency to tear. I reinforced a few of the folds with tape and copy paper and popped a cute little Sandylion spider on top. the star is actually a charm from Making Memories that I've cut the loop off of.

Open the ribbon and there's a surprise. I've layered the cauldron with the card feature so it opens. The sentiment is from Mini Monsters as well. I know this froggie doesn't look wicked, but I just couldn't resist. This particular sentiment is part of the witch's hat family of cuts. I just trimmed off the hat so it would fit. The entire hanger measures 11 1/2 inches, not counting the ribbon so it's pretty substantial. My teamies at BBTB2 have outdone themselves on this challenge so hop on by and take a peek. As always, the challenges run for 2 weeks. We want to see "new" projects only and please link back to BBTB2 so others can join in the fun.. If you haven't the particular cartridge featured, you may use another similar cut. You know the drill. Can't wait to see what YOU come up with.

Macabre Monday Inner Workings and a Mini Cricut Tut

Morning, my pretties! I'm running a little late today, so If you were expecting my BBTB2 project, be sure to come back. I DO have a Cricut creation, however, so I hope that will do until I get my act together. LOL This week our Macabre Monday challenge is Inner Workings. Create a dark,Gothic, or Halloween based project that is either quite literal (clockwork or guts) or just simply decorate the inside of your project as well as the outside. My first inclination was to find something really EEEEWWWW!!!! on the net, but then I remembered my heart stamp from the Quoth the Raven set from Smeared Ink.

I decided to create a gate fold rib cage card to hold my heart, using my Cricut. There's a bit of a lesson here, so if you're not interested, skip this part. (I'm feeling a bit chatty today, though so here goes.) I sized the skelton torso from the Oct 31st cartridge quite large in DS. In order to make a gate fold, the maximum my torso could be is 6 inches at the widest point because my card stock for the base is only 12 inches wide. The base, which measured 12"x7" (yeah, it's a BIG card!) was scored at 3" and 9" and folded towards the center. The skeleton torso was partially off the mat in DS, but since I only wanted the rib cage, it didn't really matter. Remember when doing this, however, that although the cutting will look complete on your screen, your Cricut will think there's still more to cut (because actually, there is, but you've run out of mat). You will have to delete that little cutting progress screen and unload your mat, but when you go to re cut, the program will be confused. It won't cut. You'll have to not only exit your file, but actually close out and restart DS in order for you to be able to continue. A GIANT PITA, but it was worth it to get the size I needed.

Next problem, there are no shadows on the Oct. 31st cart, so after cutting and trimming my rib cage, I sliced it down the center and used removable tape to secure it to my gate fold and traced around it. Make sure you leave plenty of area at the the folds so your base is stable and cut carefully through both thicknesses. Et voila! a shaped gate fold.

For the inside mat, I hid the contours of the rib cage and cut and trimmed it as previously mentioned. I used Copics and Distress ink for a bit of shading. My heart is also colored with Copics, but looked a bit lonesome without any other organs so I cut the zombie hand (also from October 31st) and positioned it to look like it was ripping it out (or at least squeezing the life out of it :D ) Who says Cricut has to be cutesy? (However, if this doesn't float your boat, come back later today to see a REALLY cute Halloween project for BBTB2. Please ignore that, Minions!) Anyway, the sentiment is computer generated and the front closure thingy was cut with the Cuttlebug Embossing Plus Fanciful Labels folder. Now, after all that for a mediocre project, I hope you still have the strength and inclination to visit HDH to see what the rest of the Minions have been up to, and don't forget Wretched Wednesday when Creepy Glo posts. We love it when you participate too, and it is October, after all. Time to get your creep on. I'm also entering this in the Forever Night Anything Goes challenge.

Celebrating The Mad Hatter with Twinkles

The Hatter shook his head mournfully. `Not I!' he replied. `We quarrelled last March--just before HE went mad, you know--' (pointing with his tea spoon at the March Hare,)
`--it was at the great concert given by the Queen of Hearts, and I had to sing

"Twinkle, twinkle, little bat!
How I wonder what you're at!"
You know the song, perhaps?'
`I've heard something like it,' said Alice.
`It goes on, you know,' the Hatter continued, `in this way:--
"Up above the world you fly,
Like a tea-tray in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle--"'
-- Chapter 7, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

At The Altered Alice we celebrate Mad Hatter's Day twice a year as the date is taken from the price on his hat - ten schillings and a sixpence or 10/6. That means it is on October 6 here in the United States, and on June 10 in the United Kingdom. But mainly it is just a great reason to party with the Mad Hatter twice a year! Your challenge is to celebrate the Mad Hatter, and as OPTIONS you can use something that twinkles or shines AND/OR you can bring some spookiness into it since we are all having a "Twinkle twinkle little bat" sing-along around our mad tea table!

My project this month is the Hatter's tea cup made from a Sizzix Bigz die run through my Big Shot. Because there were no layering features, I cut the cup several times and added layers of DP from the Graphic 45 Halloween in Wonderland stack and also popped the rims and handle. Instead of using the saucer from the die, I substituted my Oval Nesties to more easily layer that as well. The Hatter Stamp is on the Alice II set from our fabulous sponsor this month, IndigoBlu. I've added a small bat brad and gem to the center of the clock and a black rosette made from a Tim Holtz die and Stickled around the edges for some "twinkle".

Our prize 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 AlteredAlice in the voucher code box at checkout! Thanks Alfie!

On the tea bag tag I've added a glittered bat cut from a large EK Success border punch and another gem for more sparkle.

The frame was cut twice using my Nesties Fleur di Lis Squares from adhesive Fun Foam and stuck together to hold the wire for my purple glittered flying bats. These were also trimmed from the border punch, run through my Xyron and sprinkled with Doodlebug Sugar Coating.

They were backed in black for a shadow effect and WooHoo, more gems! "Twinkle, twinkle" little bats..." Be sure to stop by The Altered Alice for more inspiration from the DT and welcome Retta as a permanent member. She, Tracy and I make up the first week's offerings. We have new ones every week so don't forget to pop in every to The Altered Alice every Sunday. October is a long month with five Sundays, so you'll have no excuse not to join us in our Mad Tea Party celebrating Mad Hatter Day, US style! Enter by Friday, October 28; our randomly drawn winner and the honorable mentions will be announced on the last Sunday, October 30. Just make sure YOUR watch is not two days slow! Go get your "Alice" on!

I also entering this in The Corrosive Challenge Blog Purple Passion challenge, the Forever Night anything Goes Challenge, and the new ABC Anything Goes Challenge where my dear friend, Leah, is a new Design Team member. WooHoo, Leah and the newly relaunched ABC Challenges!

And the Winner IS...

Happy World Card Making Day! Although I certainly will be making cards today (heck, I do EVERY day) I'm not sure I'll have anything to post being the weekend when I'm ALWAYS trying to crank out my DT projects. But I don't want to keep you all in suspense like I usually do. LOL the WINNER of the

$40.00 Gift Certificate to the FABULOUS CUSTOM CROPS is...

Number 56!!!!!! Margie! who wrote...

Congratulations MARGIE! Please email me to arrange for your prize and thank you all who participated in the BBTB2 Blog Hop. We still have two challenges going on at BBTB2. The Time 4 Fun challenge ends tomorrow night and you still have more than a week to go for the Wheelbarrow challenge.

Fabulous Inky Friday at Tiddly Inks

TGIF! Really! Not that the weekend is gonna be all that great either but... Obviously I'm still in a bit of a funk. Sorry, guys. I did manage a card though, for my Sweetie who does so much for me, even when I'm a crab cake. LOL The lovely image is Will You? from Tiddly Inks Victorian Gothic/Steampunk Release. Sooo romantic, no? I've colored them up with Copics in shades of brown for a vintage feel (except for the red hair, but I just HAD to make her red).

My original plan was to use one of the ADORABLE NEW SUGAR AND SPICE GIRLS but this sentiment was very timely this week so those cuties will be for another day. OOhh, I'm getting sort of misty here. Lotsa love goin' around.

The gorgeous papers are from DCWV Tattered Time stack and Tim Holtz Lost and Found. The mats are cut with Nesties Labels Seventeen and popped for dimension. The pearls are Recollections. Now pop on over to the Tiddly Inks Challenge Blog to see Some fab inspiration by our Tiddly fans and more of the Tiddly Inkers. If you're featured, you may grab bragging rights and a fab badge for your blog. Also, our current Acrylic Challenge is still going on and the projects there are AMAZING. And if you'd like to see a whle bunch of inspiration for the fab Sugar 'n Spice gals take a look at Christy's blog HERE. I'm also adding this to the Whimsical Wednesdays Anything Goes Challenge, the Delightful Pearls and Swirls Challenge and the For Fun Warmth Challenge. That's all for now.

New Sugar 'n Spice for Tiddly Inks Sale!

I'm feeling really bad that I don't have a sample of the new Sugar 'n Spice Girls from Tiddly Inks but you MUST have a look HERE at the GORGEOUS samples from my teamies. Then take a read HERE. You can get them at 40% 0ff if you HURRY! They wil be available at 40% off for all orders over $7.oo with the code SUGARNSPICE at checkout until 7:00am Central Time tomorrow morning. I'll have a love Tiddly card to show tomorrow morning, but I didn't want you to miss this SALE! xxD

Bah! Humbug! Rudolph/Reindeer Challenge

This week at Bah!Humbug! it's all about reindeer, Rudolph or otherwise. I was poking around in my printed but not colored digi images and a came across Deer Mae from SOG. Oh, I just ADORE her and she was printed on kraft so I decided to give her a go. She's colored with Copics with some white pencil accents. After that, the card practically made itself. The mat was cut from the DCWV Homespun Christmas stack with the lovely space for the computer generated sentiment right there. WooHoo! (It was about all I could handle 'cause I'm having a rough week.) I added a few tiny buttons that I threaded with jute (the hardest part of the whole card. LOL) punched a few corners out of kraft and colored them with Copics to match Mae and added a few small adhesive beads. Done! I'm also entering it in the Christmas Stampin' All Year Long Clean and Simple challenge, The Paper Shelter For the Girls challenge and the Simon Says Stamp Anything Goes challenge.

BBTB2 WIMG Wheelbarrow Challenge and Blog Hop

Welcome to the BBTB2 Blog Hop! If you have arrived from Lori's Blog, you're on the right track. If not, you might want to start at BBTB2 so you don't miss a thing. I'm hosting the challenge this week and chose the wheelbarrow from Walk In My Garden. Although it's an oldie, it's still one of my faves. I've welded the shadow of the wheelbarrow to a big full moon from George and pumpkins from Holiday Cakes. The sentiment is from Holiday Cakes as well.

Yes, it's a shaped front card. You know that's my favorite kind to make. I've re sized the rounded rectangle from George for the back. The background DP is from Memory Box. I've embossed the wheelbarrow with the Cuttlebug Distressed Stripes folder and the full moon with Polka Dots.

In some cases, I've cut the image more than once and done some trimming to add more layers, like the middle pumpkin and the green vines. The wheelbarrow was also cut in several colors and hand trimmed to add more detail to the cut.

Isn't this jack-o-lantern a hoot? I stickled the yellow layers of the pumpkins so they looked like they were lit from within, and embossed several with Swiss Dots.

Here's the dimension shot. I couldn't resist adding some non-Cricut embellies, like the leaves and Rain Dot bats. I sprinkled in a few adhesive beads, as well. Now hop on over to sweet Krista's Blog but before you do, please leave a comment for a chance to win a $40.00 gift certificate to Custom Crops. They have a Spooktacular BooTique, chock full of Halloween goodies, as well as new Holiday items and plenty of Tim Holtz, so be sure to start a wish list in case you're the winner! I'll be drawing the name (with any luck, LOL) on Saturday, so be sure to check back because I won't be hunting you down. Now remember, you have two weeks to complete each challenge and we'd like to see a "new" project and please link back to BBTB2 so others can join in the fun. If you don't have the cartridge, you may use a similar cut. In this case, I'm not sure there are any other wheelbarrows, so a wagon would be a fine substitute.

A Haunting We Will Go (Making a Scene for Macabre Monday)

This week at Haunted Design House we're "making a scene" with the help of some fabulous images from this week's sponsor, Make it Crafty. Here's an opportunity to do some serious coloring! Mine was with Copics, of course. I had a ball making a shadow box card using the Haunted Halloween House as the back drop. The window frames were cut with my Nesties Grand Labels One.

Looking on is the adorable Mini Frankenstein. He's available on his own, or part of the MonztaBoyz collection. Trust me, you'll want them ALL! He was a bit of a challenge to fussy cut, but I managed with my trusty Exacto knife.

The little diva is Mini Morticia. And yup, she's got some gal pals too in the MonztaGalz collection. Don't they make a cute couple?

I've completed the scene by using a variety of MS punches including Spooky Fence, Spider Web, Graveyard and Drippy Goo, and popped them from the window frames for added depth. I've used Alpha Beads to spell out my title and some music note brads so you can all be singing this little song all day. HeeHee! If you'd love to sin some Make It Crafty images of your own, bop by Haunted Design House and grab some additional mojo from the Minions and come on and play along. I'm also entering this in the Corrosive Challenge Blog Punches and Dies challengeand the Paper Sundaes Anything Goes challenge

Tiddly Inks Fabulous Inky Friday and Special NEWS about a Contest at BBTB2!

TGIF!!!!! That means it's time for another Fabulous Inky Friday at the Tiddly Inks Challenge Blog where we highlight fabby creations by our fans found all over the net, as well as creations by the DT that may or may not feature the current challenge, and announce the previous challenge winners. BTW, that current challenge is Art Journaling, and because it is perhaps a bit unfamiliar, we've extended our challenge to two weeks so have a gander HERE and get inspired. I honestly did try to do another journal page, but I never got further than a half done background, so I decided to pull out an old favorite, Poppy, as well as Poppy Accents, for my card this week. I realize the popular sentiment is "Take time to smell the flowers", but my dream has always been a garden that would provide cut flowers for at least 3/4 of the year, but now that I have it, I've been so busy, the majority of them have just died on the vine. Bummer!

Poppy provides an excellent opportunity for practicing your Copic coloring skills. This time I opted to attempt a sort of wavy look and I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. The DP is K&Co and the sentiment is computer generated.

I've also chosen to print the images twice to decoupage. The centers of the flowers are highlighted with Glossy Accents. Each word of the sentiment is cut and glued separately and partially outlined with Copics as well.

Now don't faint. I actually finished the inside as well. I used the flowers from Poppy Accents, colored them with Copics and doodled a similar frame around the space to write a personal message. WooHoo! I might actually send this one. Now why not pop by Tiddly Inks and check out the beautiful featured cards, and it one of them is yours, feel free to grab the badge for your blog. There will also be some adorable new images this coming Tuesday. There's a bit of a sneak peek on Christy's BLOG I'm sure you won't want to miss.

On another note, I hope everyone has heard about the FABULOUS CONTEST going on at BBTB2. Our sponsor is My Creative Classroom. THIS IS HUGE! My Creative Classroom offers classes in just about anything you'd want to explore. Die Cutting (Cricut and others) of course, but also Stamping, Mixed Media, YOU NAME IT! Click HERE to see the list. You have through Monday to enter so HURRY! CLICK HERE to read all about the contest, (wish I could enter!), and good luck!

Happy Belated Birthday, Teri!

When we Minions party, we party HEARTY! Although it's no excuse, a few of use were still reeling from Creepy Glo's birthday and we totally missed our fabulously talented sister Minion Teri's big day on Monday. So sorry hon, but I'm sure you didn't miss the Birthday song. LOL Anyway, here's your card, as late as it may be.

I've used Teri's fab image, Skeletal Candle Holder from Teri's Delicious Doodles Store (BTW, they aren't ALL creepy for you of faint heart) and printed it out 3 times and decoupaged it. No need to color, the fab shading is all there, however I did use some Copics and stickles on the flame. The gorgeous DP is from Our own Susan's Crafty Chaos Designs. The collection is Jezebel's Remains Paper Set (How could I resist? LOL)

Here's the dimension shot. I actually cut the frame out of adhesive fun foam using my new Nesties Fleur De Lis Squares. The flowers and gems are Recollections. Hope your day was just FAB, hon, and please, please, forgive. xx

Bah! Humbug! Flourishes/Swirls Challenge

This week the Bah! Humbug! challenge is Flourishes and Swirls and because I skipped out on BBTB2 this week, I thought I'd better do a Cricut card. Happier now? My very first thought was the Trim a Tree cartridge with the intricate swirling images. I chose the ice skate this time because I was a figure skater as a kid and also because it was a natural to add a flourish to. Ever go to MyCutSearch.com and type in flourish? HA! There are so many carts with flourishes these days that I got an error message. Left to my own devices I decided to use another of those carts I just "had to have" and have hardly used, Picturesque. (Phonetic spelling pik-che-'resk, according to Merriam-Webster, except the "e" in che is upside down in their phonetic spelling and I can't figure out how to do that. LOL But honestly, I've heard this cart called some very hilarious things, even in a VIDEO!)

Fortunately, I didn't have to look very far to find a suitable flourish, so I welded the skate and shadow of the flourish to a rounded rectangle from George to make a shaped front card. I'm hoping this counts as a shaped card for the ABC Christmas Challenge this week which also requires Swirls, Spots or Stripes. I chose the gray glitter DP from M&MBI to join in on the CHNC Glitter Challenge and added glitter snowflakes from JoLee's as well.

The swirly top skate is done in matte metallic with the regular flourish in mirri which is why the pix are so bad, sorry. It really is prettier IRL. There's a bit of dimension and a few silver adhesive beads and a peelie sentiment and there ya go. The Shopping Our Stash challenge this week is No Coloring Allowed so I'm popping it in there as well. For once I'm a bit ahead for all of these challenges so go have a look. There's still time to play long and the DT examples are lovely.