I've Got CANDY!

WooHoo! I finally got my shopping done and am thrilled to offer this YUMMY BLOG CANDY in honor of my 100 (+now 14!) Blog Followers. I'm thrilled that so many of you find my blog inspiring and I hope you visit often. You don't need to jump through any hoops here. Just leave my a comment by March 31 and your name will go into a hat for the drawing. If you'd like to put a link on your blog that would be great, but it's not a requirement. I'll announce on April 1 (no fooling! LOL) This candy is open to EVERYONE (meaning International friends as well) so if you've got a sweet tooth be sure to drop me a line.

The Cuttlebug Spot Challenge...Serendipity

This week's challenge at The Cuttlebug Spot is to use a technique called Serendipity which involves glueing torn pieces of cardstock to a background sheet and running it through the Cuttlebug to emboss. There is a terrific tutorial by Brigitta on The Cuttlebug Spot, or you can view it HERE. At first I wasn't so sure about this because it sort of looks like a mess with the random bits all over the paper but it truly is magically transformed when embossed. "Serendipity" means "a happy accident", but I have to admit I cheated a bit and looked at the Cuttlebug Birthday folder I planned to use for my paper placement. I chose primary colors and rather large bits because I wanted to make a child's birthday card using my new Boo for You die from Go Kreate. When I saw Nilda's adorable card on The Cuttlebug Spot the week before last I rushed right over to The Scrapping Cottage and snapped him right up! Just tell me he's not the CUTEST! The 4x4 die comes with the balloons and works right in the Cuttlebug with nothing extra needed. You just substitute a C plate for one of your B plates. The balloons and Boo's nose are glazed with Glossy Accents. I cut the window with my Nesties and thought I'd messed up because I cut it after embossing but it didn't seem to flatten out a bit. I also used a scalloped oval Nestie embossed with Swiss Dots to add some texture behind Boo. The vertical sentiment is part of the Cuttlebug cut/emboss Birthday set which I cut twice to give it some depth and of course I popped the serendipity piece, Boo's head, and the balloons for dimension. Be sure to stop over to The Cuttlebug Spot to see what the other talented designers have come up with. It's amazing the different effects you can get with this technique so have some fun and play along, there's a prize to be won!

Get Your Kicks on Route 66

Morning all! Have to say I had a ball with this week's BBTB challenge. Regina chose the highway sign from Going Places (thank you Leah) and that old song "Get Your Kicks on Route 66" popped immediately into my head. On summer Sunday afternoons DH and I love to drive down to The Wharf restaurant at the end of the Capitola pier and have lunch (and drinkies) on the rooftop. All summer long a band called "Warmth" plays oldies (and boy some of them ARE oldies and have been playing together for over 40 years). "Get Your Kicks" (complete with physical ones) is one of their favorites to play. We really get "a kick" out of it.

This shape card was welded in Cricut Design Studio using the highway sign, both Illinois (where I'm originally from) and California (where we live now) from 50 States, and several rounded rectangles from George for strength and stability. "Get Your Kicks" was welded separately using Mickey font and cut 4 times for extra pop. The winding highway is also a cut from Going Places and was stretched using Design Studio to reach from Chicago to LA. (Are the words coming back to you? You know you'll be singin' this all day. LOL) I printed maps of both states out on the computer and punched out the cities and attached them in the appropriate places. The musical notes are a Cuttlebug die and a terrific suggestion from DH. The little VW convertable is a cut on Paper Dolls and the surfboard in the back was trimmed from last year's DCWV Glitter Mat Stack. It looked silly going down the highway with no driver so I printed out the tiny pic of DH and I, cut us out and there we are cruisin'. (I thought he'd die when he saw this but he really got a "kick" out of it. Isn't he a great sport? LOL) Please be sure to cruise on over to Bitten by the Bug to see what fabulously creative ideas the other Designers came up with and we invite you to play along. Oh and breaking news, Regina just announced a new contest so check it out!

Pinch Proof and I've Been Tagged!

I remember when I worked on St. Pat's Day I had a struggle getting dressed because without something green on some people really couldn't resist the opportunity to pinch. One of my BFF's is a teacher so I decided to make her something that would assure she would be "pinch proof" for the day. I used the St. Patrick's Day printable stamp set from The Cutting Cafe for the center of the little pin I fashioned by making a rosette from ribbon and glued it atop a Nestie scalloped circle. It was the perfect size to punch using my 1 1/2" circle punch and I colored in the little shamrock with a Bic marker and added some Crystal Effects and an adhesive bead. I glued a pin to the back of the rosette so no matter what she wore she'd still have a little green.

The accompanying card has a base cut with my Cricut using the Wildcard cartridge and DCWV's Green Stack. The March Calendar is from the 2009 Calendar set from The Cutting Cafe. I know I'll be using this set alot because each month is offered in several sizes in both a circle and square design. The shamrock and "pinch proof" also came from the St. Patrick's Day set and I was really proud that I managed to resize the shamrock all by myself using the instructions Regina has on The Cutting Cafe site. I have to say I'm really pleased that these downloadable stamps are so easy to use because the my computer skills leave alot to be desired. LOL

Are you wondering about the 5th pic? Well DeeDee, my sweet friend and DT sister for both BBTB and The Cutting Cafe has tagged me. I was to find the 4th pic in one of my files and explain it. This is my adorable Jezebel asleep on the dining room chair. I couldn't resist snapping her snoozing because that's about the only time I can capture her on film she's such a wild girl. since this is my first post as a DT member of The Cutting Cafe I'm going to tag Teri, Tracy, Enfys, and Nikki, a few or my fellow designers. Please click on the names of each of these ladies to view their fabulous blogs. And be sure not to forget DeeDee!

Fun with a new Go Kreate die

As a Design Team member for The Cuttlebug Spot I've had the opportunity to work with a new die from Go Kreate, a UK company that has just begun marketing in the U.S. This little Scotti dog is a 4x4 die I got from The Scrapping Cottage. You don't need any extra mat to use them in the Cuttlebug. Just use the sandwich A plate, B plate, die foam side up (that they send you and you just adhere to the cut side so it looks like a CB die), cardstock, and C plate. I thought it would be fun to use a different card size for a change so this one fits in a legal size envie. I cut each Scotti twice to shadow him a bit and popped them on a black background cuttled with the houndstooth folder. The tiny collar is also part of the die and I embellished them with tiny adhesive beads. The red border is a MS punch. The white center strip behind the ribbon is cuttled with the CB ZigZag border folder. The round tag is a circle Nestie attached with a jump ring to a bone paper clip from WalMart. The sentiment is cut with the CB Friends Forever set. Fast and fun! Please check out The Cuttlebug Spot and play along with this week's bow challenge. The prize this week will be a cute VW van die from Go Kreate from The Scrapping Cottage and if you feel all thumbs when trying to tie a decent bow, Nilda has added a cool bow tying tutorial.

The Cuttlebug Spot Bows Challenge

I'm so excited about my first challenge as a Design Team member at The Cuttlebug Spot. This week Nilda chose bows. I tried to stretch myself and make the entire card using the Cuttlebug since I've been investing in lots of new folders and dies so I'm proud to say that with the exception of cutting the mat layers that's what I did. The style is a tent topper that I learned from my friend and BBTB DT sister DeeDee (be sure to check out her BLOG, she's awesome) and both the scalloped and regular ovals for that were done with my Nesties, the top one cuttled with my Swiss dots folder. The green background is cuttled with flower folder from the With Gratitude Cuttlebug set and the Thanks and small pink flowers are cuts from that set as well. The larger flowers and leaves are from the Shapeabilities Sunflower 2 set. Besides cutting and embossing you can use these dies as stencils. Before embossing I used my metallic gel pens to give them some detail and bling. I added small button centers to the pink flowers (because I missed last week's challenge and I thought they were cute) and popped the entire bouquet for dimension. Finally, the DMC floss stems are tied up with a big bow that inspired my entire color scheme. I hope you'll visit The Cuttlebug Spot to view the fabulous creations the other designers came up with and invite you to play along.

Laugh Often BBTB DT Challenge

WooHoo! It's Monday, I feel about 85% better and I finally have something to post! For this week's challenge at Bitten by the Bug Regina chose the "Laugh Often" cut from Beyond Birthdays. The inspiration for the design actually came when I was leafing through my Stampin'Up catalogue and saw a cute little duck stamp with the sentiment "You Quack me up". It really got the wheels turning so I designed a shaped card using the duck from New Arrival as a base. First I welded some waves from Zooballoo because the card needed something flat to stand on. The top layer was cuttled using D'Vine Swirls. I originally was gonna use the sentiment inside, but there wasn't enough of an attachment at the top of the duck's head (without giving him a flattop LOL) so I added a word bubble from Paper Pups to increase the area for the top fold. "Quack is cut from Animal Kingdom and the tiny clear bubble letters are from J's attached to punched circles to give them color. I decided the NA ducky wasn't whimsical enough so I cut off that bill and added Daisy's laughing one from Mickey font. The wings were trimmed from the winged heart from Hello Kitty Greetings and her little curl is the swirl cut from the second wing. with some lidded google eyes (also from J's) and a little bow I think she turned out pretty cute. Be sure to stop over to Bitten by the Bug and see what my fabulous Design Team sisters have done with this fun challenge and please come and play along.

P.S. I was shocked and delighted to wake up this morning and see that I have reached 100 blogs followers! I want to thank each and every one of you and will be celebrating soon with some yummy BLOG CANDY so stay tuned. HUGS! D

I'm Back with Some Exciting News!

Sorry I've been gone all week with no explanation. I've been so sick that not only have I not done a thing craftwise, but haven't even been up to much blogging or visiting the Cricut message board either. (now that's SICK!) Thank you to those of you who've inquired where I've been. Today Im feeling a bit better and hope to have things to show you tomorrow.

And now for the EXCITING NEWS! Regina has asked me to join the fabulous Design Team at The Cutting Cafe! For those of you unfamiliar with The Cutting Cafe, it is a site where you can buy darling AFFORDABLE downloadable stamps and templates (and for those of you lucky enough to have a Pazzles machine you can cut her fun boxes and bags right out with that) designed by the awesome and talented Regina herself. There are all sorts of fun images as well as cool word backgrounds and circle words, calendars and more! I'm particularly thrilled because I would love to do more stamping projects but my stamping skills leave alot to be desired. Now I don't have to worry about stamping a dozen times to get one clean image, I can go right to the fun part...Yea! Better yet, I'm joining the fabulous team with my dear friend Lillie! Wow, now we have even more to talk about. LOL This news has been the best medicine EVER! Be sure to stop over to The Cutting Cafe and check out the adorable projects the design team has done. They're conveniently listed under each set so you can get your mojo flowing right off the bat.

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.

"Happy Tails" Hallmark Scrapbook Challenge

Well, I'm kinda late on this one but I couldn't let it go by. Fortunately there really are no hard and fast deadlines at Hallmark Scrapbook. LOL This card is for the happy wagging dog tail on the Paper Pups cartridge. The very first think I thought of was the old "Happy Trails" song from Roy Rogers. He was my first tv love and I used to go up and kiss the tv screen when he was on (I was 5). anyway, when I saw a cute card posted on the Cricut mb with the same idea I tried to think of another one but to no avail. Unfortunately I didn't write the name of that person down to give her credit but I'm pretty sure our cards aren't that similar.

It really bothers me not to have a shadow version of a cut because I think it adds so much more depth to a project so in those cases I generally cut it twice and off set one of the cuts slightly. Actually I had to do that for all of the cuts on this card. The wagging tail is from Paper Pups, the cowboy hat, neckerchief, the horseshoe from Paper Dolls and the 2 from Mickey font. I layered up a storm on the mats offsetting them all for some interest. I sure wish I could remember where I got that denim paper because I just love it! Even though the tail cut was pretty thin I managed to pop it slightly as I did the hat, 2 and horseshoe. I originally had planned to use the rope cut also from Paper dolls but then I remembered I had some thin leather twine so I tied a lasso and looped it over the doggie and horseshoe. (It's my favorite part!) Of course hindsite (no pun intended) is 20/20. Had I realized I would need some additional embellishment I would have fastened the eyelets appropriately through the corrugated cardstock but it was already totally assembled and I was afraid to screw up my card if I tried so I just smooshed them with my Cropadile and glued them on with Zip glue. If you haven't already, you should check out the challenges at Hallmark Scrapbook. They're just for fun but you can always take a little detour and go shopping while you're at it. LOL

More Cuttlebug Bling

I don't usually craft when I'm up in the middle of the night, just blog hop or hang out on the Cricut mb but as I told you I've gotten alot of new Cuttlebug stuff lately so I figured I could manage a simple card. This is the second one I've done for The Cuttlebug Spot "bling" challenge because I have so many pretty bling colors and embellies one was not enough. I cuttled a basic white card face twice with my new Floral Fantasy folder and then cut select circles out with my new Nesties. I then cut scalloped circles in Best Occasions glitter paper and trimmed the edges of the various circles and popped them on the card face. The mats are foil cardstock also from Best Occasions (WalMart). The sentiment is a peelie framed with long Nestie rectangles to match the matting. Then just added some gems. Simple, quick, and something to post. Thought while I was at it I'd redecorate too. LOL Hope to get back to my Cricut today.

Happy "B" Day

Sorry guys, I hope you don't feel too neglected. I've been working furiously on my BBTB DT card for next week and it's proving to be quite the challenge. Unfortunately I won't be able to post that 'til Mon. so I managed a quickie cuttlebug card inspired by the letter "B". (Sounds like Sesame Street. LOL) Besides, since finding out I'll be joining The Cuttlebug Spot DT as well I've been stocking up on all things that will help me there. I really want to try to use as many CB folders and techniques when doing those cards because that's really the point, don't you think?(Good excuse, huh?)

I cuttled the DCWV background paper with the birthday folder which isn't that easy to see in the pix but I kinda like the look. The B is cut from Plantin Schoolbook and I used the Spots and Dots folder on it because it reminded me of the pattern in the paper. I took a few scraps that matched and cuttled a few words again from the Birthday folder and cut them out with my new Nesties long rectangles, backed the "happy" with a coordinating scallop and attached the "day" to the present. That die/emboss combo is new to me too. I cut and cuttled the bow a second time and layered it with a button. Did a bit of popping as well. I think this card is pretty gender neutral even though the button is a flower, don't ya' think? Anyway, I'm pleased it went together so quickly. Gotta love that Cuttlebug! BTW, this week's challenge at The Cuttlebug Spot is to use some bling. There's still time to play along. Hope to see you soon.