Mix it Up - .cut file available

OOps, the weather was sooo nice yesterday that I just couldn't stand being inside so off we went to lunch. Sorry about no post 'cause I've got lots to share. (One at a time though, LOL) I'm still in love with From My Kitchen so here's another shaped card for Custom Crops. I'm the appliance queen at home so I'm having a ball with these cuts. Here I'm only using From My Kitchen and a bit of Plantin Schoolbook. Had a bit of a time figuring out what I wanted to do with the cord (besides cut it off completely) but I like how this turned out. For full instructions and the free .cut file click HERE.

Here's a shot of the dimension and of course adhesive beads. This was another fun one and I hope you like it. Any feedback you have (especially on the Custom Crops site) will be greatly appreciated and if you have any special requests I'd love to hear your ideas.

We're Falling at The Cuttlebug Spot

This week at The Cuttlebug Spot we're featuring a Fall theme. WooHoo, now we even have some cooler weather here in CA for some inspiration! I was also inspired by SusieB on the Cricut message board and decided to do a little treat bag like those she did for Halloween. Click HERE for her post and instructions. I decided to use my new Nesties Maple leaf for the flap and the autumn Cuttlebug folder which I inked a bit and shimmered up with Perfect Pearls. The other leaf is the Cuttlebug cut and emboss die. I used a piece of packaging from one of my Cricut cartridges and ran it back and forth until it pretty much cut through (about 4 or 5 times and it still needed a little punching but not too bad) and then used alcohol inks to color (on the back side). Then used my cropadile to punch two holes through all of the layers and tied it up with raffia.

I know the first pic doesn't really show it's a treat bag, but it did show the glimmer a bit better. Hmmm... this pic doesn't really show it much either but you get the idea. I always make spiced pecans at Thanksgiving and thought these would be nice for favors. So fun and easy! Thanks SusieB! Now drop on by The Cuttlebug Spot to be inspired to join us with your own Fall themed project.

Priceless BBTB Blog Hop

Wow, where has the month gone? It's the last Monday in Sept and time for another BBTB Blog Hop. Hopefully you've arrived from my uber talented DT sister DeeDee's blog, but if not and you want to start the hop from the beginning, click HERE. This week Regina chose the Priceless cut from the Wildcard cartridge. This was a perfect cut for me this week because yesterday was my BFF Lisa's birthday and she's taking off from work today so we can celebrate with lunch and shopping. Her friendship and our time together is truly precious to me. This is her birthday card. With work and kids and all we don't get to spend nearly enough time together. We LOVE our shoes and accessories so I made a shape card of a handbag fom Everyday Paper Dolls. The bag is flocked to resemble suede with shiny black card stock handles and trim to resemble patent leather. The shoe (which resembles a Christian Louboutin we covet, note the red sole) is from Wedding solutions. We be big on animal prints, and red and black are fave colors.

The sentiment is from DonJuan, my fave font of the moment. It's a bit easier to read than it appears in the first pic. Of course I used my beloved adhesive beads.

Lots of popping for dimension too.

I was excited to finally have a personalized stamp for the back of my card. Regina now offers personalized downloadable "Handmade Stamps" from The Cutting Cafe and this is just one of the styles there are in the set. I punched this one out with a 1 1/2 " circle punch, but you could also choose the style you want and position it to print directly on your card back. OOps, you can see my less than perfect coloring with my Copics but it doesn't look nearly as bad from further away. LOL Click HERE to see all of the options in the set.

Now on to the blog candy. I'm offering some Christmas candy in the form of a K&Co. matstack and some coordinating dimensional stickers. All you have to do to win is leave a comment in this post. Now on to your next stop in the HOP, my fabulously talented DT sister Heather's BLOG. You're in for a major treat! Thanks for participating. Hope your'e having fun.

SWARM Pix!

Sorry it took so long. Here it is already a week since we Cricuteers got together and I'm just now getting around to posting the pix. We sure had a great time. Thanks so much to Leah's (BeeCherry Lady on the Cricut mb) parents for letting us invade their house again. Here's the whole crowd. Row 1: Laura, CiCi, Too Buggy, Row 2: Me, Jen, Kira (holding Cody), Leah and Anita Row 3: SandyE and Lakisha. I didn't get diddley done, but boy did we have fun!

Lakisha, Laura and Sandy.

Sandy and I. Finally we meet!

Cody and I. Couldn't you just eat him up with a spoon!?! Now we're planning an overnighter in Oct. WooHoo! SLUMBER PARTY!

Whatcha Got Cookin?-.Cut File Available

Happy Saturday! For some reason it seems more like Sunday to me but I'm glad I have 2 more days to finish my DT projects instead of one. I'm kinda dragging because I seemed to have caught a cold. Blah! Hope I feel better for Monday when my BFF and I will be celebrating her B-day with lunch and shopping. I promise to post my Swarm pix tomorrow but for today I have another little simple shaped card using From My Kitchen. Now I can't keep the song "Hey Good Lookin'" out of my mind. It is designed for Custom Crops so as usual the .cut file is available for free HERE. My sample uses DonJuan but I did design the sentiment using Plantin Schoolbook as well. After the QVC gypsy broadcast there will be tons more people with DonJuan so WooHoo! It's one of my favorite fonts. Did I buy one? No, not yet. It doesn't have all of the features I need so until they update to add them I'm waiting. My craft bill this month was over the top so I just couldn't justify it when I would just put it aside for a few months. It was a super deal though,

congrats to all who took the plunge.

I kept telling myself this card was way too simple but I get requests for unintimidating designs using fewer cartridges so this is it. I really love the paper from Nana's kitchen though. Finally it became my own when I decided to hang the oversized question mark over the handle. My dear friend Margie (be sure to check out her blog HERE) was teasing me about my adhesive pearls (or the lack there of) on my Perk Up card. Well you've got to go read the article HERE to see what happened to the majority of them on this card. They are NOT always the right choice. LOL

Spooky Chandelier Card- .Cut File Available

Okay, this one I have to say I'm REALLY proud of. I've been dying to use the chandelier cut from Home Decor and couldn't think of a better way to use it than an elegant Halloween card. Also used the web from Paper Doll Dress Up, "Spooky" welded from Black letter, and those delicate spiders are from Lyrical Letters. Who knew? I designed this for Custom Crops so the instructions and .cut file are FREE. Just click HERE.

I glittered the chandelier using Doodlebug glitter. The colors are gorgeous and have sort of a mixture so they really glow. (That's why it looked a bit blue in the pic Sandy.) Here's a dimension shot. I'm gonna have to come up with something else for another DT project using this cut in a few weeks (wink), but I couldn't wait to post this one. Hope you like this as much as I do. Thanks for commenting! xxD

Perk Up .Cut File Available

I absolutely LOVE the new From My Kitchen cartridge. The retro feel of it makes me think of my Auntie Lee's kitchen Up in Ishpeming MI when I was a little girl. We Swede's are big time coffee drinkers so my first card had to be something about coffee. I did this for the Custom Crops Design Team so the .cut file and complete instructions are available HERE. I love the DonJuan font thanks to all of the super cards my sweet friend and super talented Cuttlebug Spot Design Team Sister Julie has done with it but I realized that cart wasn't so easy to come by so I did an alternative sentiment using Plantin Schoolbook too, as well as a little tag for those of you who would prefer a stamped sentiment. I used papers from DCWV Nana's Kitchen and Nana's Nursery Baby Boy mat stack. I thought it would be cute for a friend who wasn't feeling 100%.

BTW, my little Scarecrow Treat Box is now available at Custom Crops too. Just click HERE. And as always, reviews (good ones anyway LOL) are always appreciated.

Happy Anniversary Cuttlebug Spot!

Have you heard? It's The Cuttlebug Spot's first Anniversary and we're celebrating all week long! Stop by The Cuttlebug Spot each day to win a fabulous prize! The Design Team is revisiting the very first challenge which was inking the folder. I have to say I wasn't all that crazy about doing this because I hate making a mess. I told myself I had one chance to do this right and lo and behold it worked (and wasn't nearly as messy as I had feared). Using dye ink is the key to this. I used the new harlequin folder because it's a fave of mine (I've got lots of harlequin pattern in my living room.) and chose Halloween colors. My Bazzill card stock had quite a bit of texture and I love how it showed through the inking. Then I went into my Halloween stash from last year. The scrolly paper and circle tag are elements from a card kit from Dream Designs. I don't usually purchase kits, but Bety has such a knack for putting things together. I so love her style! The pumpkin is a Cuttlebug cut and emboss die and the cat is a Martha Stewart punch. Spooky is a shadow cut using the Blackletter Cricut cartridge which I welded in Design Studio and dirtied up a bit. Although it's not exactly my normal style I kinda like it.

I used a bit of dimension, some sheer dotty ribbon, leaves and adhesive beads for embellishment. It went together so quickly that I may do a few more things like this. Now hop on over to The Cuttlebug Spot and see the marvelous creations from my Design Team sisters and stop by each day for a chance to win a prize.

BBTB Camp Out Dragonfly (with a twist)

Happy Monday everyone! I sure had a great time at the SWARM and will post pix later in the week. As usual, I didn't cut a single thing but I did some designing and had a ball meeting loads of friends from the Cricut message board. How fun it is to put faces to names and really get to know others who share in your passion. Now on to BBTB where this week Regina chose the dragonfly cut from the Camp Out cartridge. The twist is the wings had to be polka dot. I had misplaced Regina's original email and knew something had to be polka dot, but when I went to our DT blog the post said it said the body so I made the wings transparent. Fortunately you could see through them to the dots on the sunflower so they looked polka dot after all. LOL I've had this cart months thinking I would do something for DH since he loves to backpack and all but of course hadn't touched it so I was happy to finally break it in a bit. The sunflower was an inspiration from the beautiful cards on the Cricut message board using sunflowers by Dawne Wilcox and Jeannie Phillips. I chose the cut that Dawne used from Stretch Your Imagination and made a shaped card using Design Studio. The multiple layers were inspired by Jeannie (although I didn't do nearly as many as she did.) The leaves are from Accent Essentials and the color of the dragonfly is like the ones that live in our backyard. I cut the wings twice in acetate and colored them with Copics but they didn't want to dry. They were still sticky when I went to assemble the card so I turned them colored side down to make sure I didn't get red all over everything and I'm actually not sure they're even dry now. I guess that's okay because it worked for the challenge but I probably won't be sending it to anyone anyway. this card is ENORMOUS! I designed it without leaves first and it just didn't look right so it got bigger and bigger.

The final touch was a bit of bling and a bit of popping for dimension. My DT sisters did a fabulous job with this challenge so be sure to stop by Bitten by the Bug to check things out. It's an easy one to play along with too so we'd love to see what you come up with. Also there's a new contest sponsored by Peggy Loves Vintage so be sure to check it out HERE. Peggy has so graciously provided adorable vintage images to use on your contest project so it's there's no excuse not to join in on the fun. And now she is offering both downloadable images for those of you who just can't wait (like me!) as well as her CD's which are chock full of adorable images for loads of occasions. There's not an easier or more adorable way to make a quick card!

Am I the only one?

Happy Sunday! I'm so excited to be going to the SWARM (a gathering of Cricuteers for those of you scratching your head) that I couldn't sleep and have been up since 3:00 a.m. Instead of shoveling out my craft room to figure out what I'm gonna take I've been messing with my new MS border punches, particularly those with the matching corners. Am I the only one so mechanically challenged that I can't for the life of me make a complete square or rectangle. Seriously, I can't do it. I KNOW you're supposed to cut your paper in 1 3/4 inch increments and all that baloney but I CAN'T DO IT. I think I used up an entire piece of 12x12 black cardstock messing with the spider web. My whole table (and floor) is littered with tiny shreds and I didn't get ONE USABLE PIECE! So I moved on to the maple leaf and had a bit better luck. Still didn't get a complete piece but I trimmed the unusable part, found a scrap and made this quick card. I hope I do a little better at the Swarm. It took me 15 minutes before I had to go get the instructions for my corner chomper too. Couldn't figure out where to put the paper in. LOL I hope that was due to the early hour and not any indication of how productive I'm gonna be today. I promise lots of good stuff next week though. See you then and thanks for stopping by.

Sorry No Card but A Request

So sorry guys, no new card to post but I haven't been slacking. All week I've been working on Design Team projects that can't be revealed until next week. I wanted everything to be done because I'm attending a SWARM tomorrow and didn't want to have things hanging over my head. My dear friend Leah is hosting this get together and I'll have the opportunity to meet lots of new friends, including SandyE who I feel I already know. I'm really excited for tomorrow.

Now for the request. Many of you know I'm a Design Team member for Custom Crops where I design projects and offer .cut files for the Cricut. I'm having a ball doing this, but I'd love to have some feedback as to what those of you who find inspiration from my designs would like to see. Do you like my more complicated designs where you can stretch yourself a bit when putting them together or would you prefer something easy and quick? Are there particular cuts or cartridges you'd like to see? Would you like birthday, wedding, holiday or whatever? My mind is reeling with ideas but I want to make sure I'm offering what you would like to download and enjoy. I appreciate any feedback you can give me and will try hard to accomodate any requests. I've done an elegant adult Halloween card and some new designs using From My Kitchen so stay tuned. Thanks so much for responding. xxD

Doodlecharms Treat Bags .Cut file available

I guess I've been on a bit of a Halloween kick and had been asked to do a few simpler projects using fewer carts for Custom Crops so I made these treat bags using Doodlesharms and the round bag from Plantin Schoolbook. Technically Design Studio isn't a must for these but I did tweak the sizes of the Doodlecharms cuts to fit a bit better on the bags (and make sure they'd fit). These babies are a pretty good size to fill with a bunches of treats and the spider (my FAVE) stands pretty tall. Because of that he was cut with multiple layers and his legs are reinforced with wire. There are more pix on the Custom Crops site and you can view the article and download the .cut file HERE. Thanks for dropping by! xxD