Happy 4th of July, BBTB Blog Hop Winner and Let Freedom Ring .cut file Available

Well sorry folks, I've been scurrying around trying to get ready for our annual 4TH of July party, so again I've been slow on the crafting front. There is good news, however. The winner of the BBTB Blog Hop is Piali! Congratulations and thank you for participating! Please email me and I'll be happy to send your candy right out to you.

Also, for those of you who liked my Let Freedom Ring card, the . cut file is now available HERE at Custom Crops, with more detailed instructions on how it was created. HAPPY 4TH OF JULY EVERYONE! Hugs! D

Let's Hear it for the Red White and Blue!

This week we're celebrating our country at The Cuttlebug Spot. I was trying to make a sort of rustic looking flag using white core paper and sanding the Distressed Stripes embossing and framing a large star (embossed by running chipboard through the Cuttlebug under a plumber's gasket ) using my Nesties. I thought the frame was a perfect place for Tilda to perch holding her toothpick flags.

This adorable Patch Tilda image is from Simon Says Stamp, a previous sponsor for The Cuttlebug Spot. They have just TONS of adorable Magnolia stamps as well as all sorts of other scrapping goodies so be sure to check them out. I really enjoy coloring these images with my Copics but of course am too new to it to remember to photograph the colors I used.

The patriotic sentiment is from the 4th of July printable stamp set 1 available at The Cutting Cafe. These downloadable stamps are easy to resize for any of your projects and until midnight PST on July 4th if you purchase either of the 4th of July stamp sets you get the coordinating background stamp ABSOLUTELY FREE! No waiting for shipping either, so there's still time to make fabulous goodies for the upcoming holiday.

The papers are from DCWV and Creative imaginations and the dimensional star embellishments from EK Success. The small stars adorning The Cutting Cafe sentiment are from Darice. and of course it wouldn't be MY card unless I used a pop dot or two for dimension. My fabulously creative Design Team sisters have outdone themselves this week so be sure to stop by The Cuttlebug Spot and see their work. And if you're feeling patriotic, please come and play along. Happy 4th!

Let Freedom Ring BBTB Challenge and Blog Hop

This week at Bitten By the Bug Regina chose the Freedom jumble from Graphically Speaking. I immediately thought of "Let Freedom Ring" and set out to find a bell. The best I could do was the double Bells on the Wedding Cartridge and lo and behold when I cut them at 9" on shadow and scored them where they met I ended up with an almost perfect shaped card. It wasn't exact so I did a little trimming but no welding or nothing. Cool! I of course wanted layers though so I did use Design Studio to position the bells so one was nearly off the mat to get a single bell and trimmed a bit again. Then I repeated that step with a smaller shadow and finally the printed regular cut.


Then I thought wouldn't it be cool if they would ring? (Not audibly of course, but move back and forth). Notice the top layer in this picture has moved.

I punched a hole in the 1st layer, popped it with dimensionals then made a penny sandwich like you do for a spinner card and attached it to the blue layer so it would swing back and forth. Then popped the printed bell on top of that. I welded "let" and "ring" to the Freedom cut and layered it several times as well. (This is a really thick card. LOL) No surprise there, eh?

Embellishments included gold adhesive beads, gingham ribbon and some cool dimensional stars by EK Success. Be sure to stop by BBTB to see what all of my amazingly talented Design Team Sisters have done with this cut and we invite you to play along. As you may know we are also doing our monthly Blog Hop and below is the candy I'm offering this time. It's a mini album complete with embellies and a set of neat epoxy stickers. Please leave a comment and I will pick a random winner on Friday July 3. Now get hopping to my dear and SUPER TALENTED friend SHELLY'S BLOG and prepare to be blown away by her fabulous style and creativity. (She's got goodies too) . Have fun and thanks for participating!

Fun with Cricut Markers

I was asked to do an article on Cricut Markers by the folks at Custom Crops. I did a couple of simple cards including recreating the very first marker card from my first attempt. (the snowflakes). These certainly aren't rocket science, but I do like the effect and love how they bring out the details in many of the Cricut cuts. They really are simple to use but there are a few things you MUST drum into your brain to use them successfully. LOL

Certainly you can use the markers without Design Studio, but by playing with them a bit more I discovered some distinct advantages and also the ability to design some coloring pages or cards that would be lots of fun for a child. Because I didn't include any .cut files it is listed under Cricut, not Design Studio. The direct link is HERE. I'd love you to take a look at the article and leave a comment if you have the chance. I know it's a pain to sign in to do that but it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

The Cuttlebug Spot School's Out /Celebrate Summer Challenge

This week at The Cuttlebug Spot we're celebrating the end of school and beginning of summer. With some finally great weather my company and I have been having lots of fun but I did manage to complete the challenge. I used an EK Success punch to make the blackboard and cuttled black magic paper with the Numbers folder and sanded it, used Graphically Speaking Cricut cartridge for the "no" symbol and my new pinking circles for the "sun" behind it all. The background paper is from last year's DCWV Summer Glitter Stack cuttled with Swiss Dots.

The corner papers are also from that stack and I used the Forest Branches for the texture on the "sand". School's Out was welded in Design Studio using Mickey Font (and I forgot to add the apostrophe and exclamation point before I took the pic, OOPS) and the little flip flops are also a punch from EK Success.

I did do a little popping with dimensionals as well. Be sure to stop by The Cuttlebug Spot to see all of the fabulous things my Design Team sisters have come up with and come and play along.

I case you wonder why I haven't been crafting here's my BFF's sister Allison, my BFF Becky, myself, and Allison's daughter Leslie (who will be studying with the San Francisco Ballet this summer) shopping on Union Square. She's all moved into her dorm and all my company will be gone tomorrow. I don't know what I'll do with a quiet house. LOL (Hopefully do LOTS of crafting) but I sure will miss them. We've had so much fun staying up late, eating and drinking WAY too much, and doing all sorts of girly things for the past 5 days.

Wow, Look What Enfys Has!

Sorry for the lack of posts. I'm having so much fun with my company that crafting and blogging have gone by the wayside. I just managed to sneek a peek at Enfys' Blog (they're still asleep) and she has the YUMMIEST CANDY EVER! And to think I almost missed it! Her blog is always a super treat in itself so this is almost too good to be true! You MUST go visit and HURRY! (It ends TUES JUNE 30.) Thanks for the chance Enfys!

Hoppy Frogs Thank You- Cut File Available

I designed this card for dear and fabulously talented Carol Beath (check out her blog HERE) who sent me a lovely applique tee shirt and some scrapping goodies "just because". Then I thought of all of the other frog lovers out there so I cleaned up my .cut file and submitted as a Design Team project for Custom Crops . The .cut file and instructions are available HERE. I used Paper Doll for the frogs, Plantin Schoolbook for the rectangle, and Thanks from Beyond Birthdays welded in Cricut Design Studio. The front flower is also from PS.

I'm on a bit of a lime green kick recently and love how it looks with the pink. Had fun mixing the patterns and couldn't resist google eyes.

As usual there's plenty of dimension but it certainly can be made flat. (But that's no fun! LOL) The card is basically an A2, but with the off set flower and popped layers it needed a larger envie so I included that in the .cut file too. Comments (especially on the Custom Crops site) are greatly appreciated. MIL left this morning. Now I'm off to clean house for the next round of company. Sorry so few posts but at least this is one more than last week. LOL

The Cuttlebug Spot Meets The Cutting Cafe

This week At The Cuttlebug Spot we were asked to do a Father's Day card. Bummer! I had done one for the color challenge a few week's back and was plumb out of ideas. In fact I'd done quite a few Father's Day cards and I REALLY REALLY was out of ideas. Then WOOHOO! I came across this fun shirt and tie downloadable template from The Cutting Cafe. Problem solved. So easy and quick. Of course I added quite a bit of Cuttlebug texture. Houndstooth on the collar and pocket, Argyle on the tie and Distressed Stripes to the shirt itself. (Thought it would make it look like seersucker but decided it just looked like a poor ironing job so I flattened that a bit. LOL)

I cut the circle sentiment out with my Nesties (also a part of the downloadable design and there's a birthday sentiment too) and added my own little touch by cutting a tie bar out of foil card stock with my Spellbinders Shapeabilities Charms and Rod die (it's the rod trimmed down a bit) and a couple of collar buttons. I really think it turned out cute so if you're still hunting for Father's Day ideas you should rush right over to The Cutting Cafe. There's also a darling tie shaped card and envelopes for both as part of the set and because they're downloadable you don't have to wait for any shipping. Father's Day solutions just a few clicks away, printable as templates or for you lucky SCAL or Pazzles users you can let your machine do the work for you. For more inspiration stop by The Cuttlebug Spot and check out the amazing cards done by my Design Team sisters and we'd love to see YOUR Father's Day projects so come and play along with us.

BBTB PDDU Car Challenge

Sorry it's been so long since I posted. My MIL is here for 10 day's so my crafting time has been a bit limited. This week at BBTB Regina chose the car from The Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge and threw in a twist. It was to be lime green (or at least some kind of green.) Happy to oblige. Of course I thought a "bug" should be riding in the "Bug" so I designed the Cricut using George and all Mixed Up.

The trees inside are from Zooballoo.

The sentiment "Um Buggin" is for my dear friend Lillie. You can see if you visit her blog HERE that she uses that for her signature. She's an amazing crafter and is celebrating her blogaversary with some terrific blog candy so be sure to stop by to see her fabulous work and leave her a comment for a chance to win.

Here's another view on the dimension. You know it wouldn't be mine without a full package of pop dots on it. LOL This was such a fun challenge, we hope you can play along. And be sure to stop by BBTB and see what my amazingly talented Design Team sisters came up with this week.

The Cuttlebug Spot Anniversary Challenge

In honor of Nilda's impending 15th anniversay (Congrats, Sweetie!) this week's challenge at The Cuttlebug Spot is Anniversary cards. I had this design in my mind, but when I went to make it it really turned out looking more like a wedding card. I probably shouldn't have done it in all white. Oh well. I still like it though and enjoyed making is all with my Cuttlebug and Nesties with the MS dove punch thrown in for good measure. You can't really see it from the pic, but the panels cuttled with Birds and Swirls are actually raised panels and the peelie border is on the card base. The Nestie Heart Scallop frame is also popped up.

The inside heart is a Cuttlebug folder cut out with a smaller Nestie heart and as I said, the doves are an MS punch. I was so happy to use the peelies my dear friend Isabella Wheadon from the Cricut message board sent me. They added just the right elegant touch. Thanks so much Izzy! Be sure to check out the fabulous cards created by my DT sisters and please come play along with The Cuttlebug Spot. There's a prize this week from our wonderful sponsor The Craft Barn so don't miss out.

BBTB Short Cuts George Flower Sketch Challenge

This week at BBTB we have a fabulous sponsor, Short Cuts, and I was one of the lucky designers to receive some of their products to work with. Besides a cool gift card folder I got some really nice vinyl both clear and frosted. I'd never worked with frosted before so I was anxious to play. I tried embossing it with the Cuttlebug Paisley folder because I wanted to use some of K&Co. Wild Raspberry paper and although you can't tell from the pic it turned out kinda neat. I really love how the frosting toned down the bright paper. We also were to use the George flower and follow a sketch. This was difficult for me at best so what did I do? What any self respecting card maker would do, added a bunch of bling and a huge bow! LOL When I look at it I don't even recognize it as my own but I guess that is what a challenge is for. Be sure to check out BBTB to see what my fabulous DT sisters did with this challenge. None of them seemed to have any trouble coming up with gorgeous projects. And be sure to enter the contest, because 2 lucky winners will receive $20 gift certificate to Short Cuts. You may do up to 2 entries based on the sketch and the contest runs through June 22. They are also offering a 15% discount through June so check out BBTB for the code.

BBTB Blog Hop Winner and Going Dotty!

Finally what you've all been waiting for. I am pleased to announce that the BBTB Blog Hop winner is #77 (chosen by my DH using the old "pick a number between 1 and 129" method because I just can't figure out the random org thing.) CONGRATULATIONS MARGIE! and thank you to all who participated in the hop.

This card was created for the Cricut Message Board MCPT (magic colored pencil technique using Pisma pencils and Gamsol or odorless mineral spirits to blend) challenge for the month of April. Yeah, I know it's June but better late than never don't you think? Dear Aprile (ChirpinIsFun) on the mb was so sweet to send me the images so I could participate in the challenges even though I've been so busy I hadn't sent her an envie to send them in for months! I got the biggest kick out of these Changito monkeys that I HAD to do this one first. Then I went on the nut! I'm so thrilled to finally have found a local supplier of raindots that I used nearly an entire package on this card.

I forced myself to finish the inside because I find when I don't the card just lays around until I've used up or misplaced coordinating paper so it never gets sent. Besides, it gave me the opportunity to use MORE raindots! Between the polka dot paper, the Nestie and punched circles and the raindots I've officially gone DOTTY. This card weighs a ton but it was loads of fun to do.