BBTB2 Happy Hauntings Witch Challenge

Happy Monday! Just one week to go until the big day and I've LOTS to do still. (Make that EVERYTHING to do still, I'm such a procrastinator and I've been a bit preoccupied! LOL) This week my dear friend and MSU alumni sister Susan has chosen the witch from Happy Hauntings for our BBTB2 challenge. I wasn't quite sure what to do with her until I was shopping in Target and saw some honeycomb tabletop decorations that reminded me of something I had as a child. That, combined with the Whimsical Wednesday challenge of Halloween Home Decor, led to this project.

Nothing fancy here. I just cut the witch and layers at 5 1/2 inches twice (once flipped) so it would be two sided. I kept the colors to a minimum to hopefully capture more of a vintage feel and embossed the cape and broom. The black layer is popped on both sides, as is the broom. Athough the orange base is also 2 layers, I should have cut it in chipboard for strength as she is adhered to the honeycomb by her foot and just the bottom of her dress. I wanted to be able to close the honeycomb for storage so I glued one side together (with the witch in place) and used some removeable tape and a paper clip underneath for the other. "Happy Halloween" is also from Happy Hauntings and I added tabs to it so it would just fit in the slots of the honeycomb for display instead of gluing it permanently.

I dug out the original hanging decoration to show you. (Couldn't get a pic so it's hanging from the cat pole but won't be staying there. LOL) This is truly vintage from the 50's and is a little worse for wear. Wish I'd been a bit more creative with my cut and I will probably try again as I'm not so pleased with it. I was trying to follow the challenge exactly, but I think I could have found a more vintage looking witch. My FAVE decor item I've made using a witch is HERE. I have trouble doing a second project when I've made one I love and I'm in a bit of a creative slump as I'm trying to get back on track with healthy eating and exercise (and no WINE!) to make up for the year and a half (or more) of crafting 24/7 and I'm sort of a crabby BI---, I mean WITCH! Sorry! My DT siters have done a much better job than I, so be sure to check out the rest of the DT at BBTB2 and we'd love it if you'd play along. Yo uhave 2 weeks to complete the challenge, please make it a new project and link back to BBTB2 and you may use any witch from any cart. I'm also entering it in the Getting Cricky Orange and Black (and only one other color) challenge.

BBTB2 Pineapple Challenge

Eiyiyi! I'm running behind again. This week our dear sis, Karen, chose the pineapple from Wall Decor and More for our BBTB2 challenge. I have to apologize, because although I have the cart, I didn't use the image. I love it and all, but I needed to do something really dimensional for an upcoming Guest DT spot so this one on SpongeBob won out. Just trying to keep afloat, killing two birds... I know, pineapples and lemons? What gives? Well DH is in one of his "get healthy" juicing phases with a new machine that allows him to juice all sorts of crap (like wheatgrass...blah!) but he also has been doing some great stuff with fruit, pineapple to be exact. To cut the sweetness a bit, he's adding some lemon which is, (as the card reads) MMMmmm delicious! That wheatgrass juice is beyond nasty, with a foamy head that looks like pondscum, so yesterday he added pineapple to it. Uhh...minimal improvement, so I decided to leave the grass off the card.

It is a shaped front card with the back from George, the pineapple from SpongeBob, the lemons from Simply Charmed, and the sentiment from Graphically Speaking. I'm gonna leave this post short because you'll have more than you ever wanted to know about it in my Guest Designer Spot and I'll be issuing a challenge with a fab prize, so stay tuned. In the meantime be sure to stop by BBTB2 and see all of the gorgeous pineapples going on there. Looks like the gals are in a party mood!

Flashback Friday 3.0 - First Challenge Card

Thanks to my dear friend Smita, I found a fun challenge on the fabulously creative Amy Tsuruta's Blog. Flashback Friday let's you take a walk down memory lane and the previous winner get's to pick the next challenge. I was happy to see that another blogging buddy (and cat lover), Rose was GD and had chosen the challenge so I just HAD to play along. (Besides, the work was already done, WooHoo!) Rose asked for our very first challenge card. I KNEW mine had been for the original BBTB challenge blog because it was the reason I made a blog in the first place. I SOOOO admired the DT and wanted to be just like them when I grew up. :D Although I had been inspred by a few of the previous BBTB challenges, this was the first one I actually did on time and posted to their blog: the car cut from Mickey and friends from November 12, 2008. My dear friend Leah loaned me the cartridge so I could play along (and to this day I still don't own it!). Notice I've been doing my shape cards a LONG time and I'm still taking my pix on the same tablecloth on my washer/dryer in the laundry room. LOL If you're interested in my original post with details you can find it HERE.

All Creatures Great and Small

Happy Monday everyone! I don't even want to think how close we are to Christmas because I'm sooo far behind. This however, is our final BBTB challenge for the year but we'll be back bright and early in January. The cut this week is the branch from Winter Woodland that I turned into antlers. The deer head is from Doodlecharms which was embossed with the D'vine Swirls Cuttlebug folder. All the birds are cut from the Winter Woodlands cartridge as well. I had a different design in mind, but while blog hopping I came across the current challenge at Moxie Fab World called All Creatures Great and Small. I just loved the theme so I kept the birds, but decided to transform the branch to include a "great" creature as well.

Not a shaped card this time, the cuts were too delicate, but I'm still happy with it. I kept the color scheme simple using my fave creme and black paper from K&Co for the background. Unusual perhaps for Christmas, but the red makes it pop. (Just can't resist those adhesive beads.) The deer's crown of branches (thank you Martha Stewart) is a welcoming nest for the birdies. Peace seemed the appropriate sentiment and was cut from Joys of the Season.

Here's a dimensional shot. Not quite as detailed as usual but I've been fighting a cold and this was the best I could do. All in all I'm quite pleased and I thank my BBTB DT sister Heather (who chose this week's challenge but unfortunately is experiencing some computer problems) AND Moxie Fab World for the inspiration. Please be sure to visit BBTB to see the fabulous contributions from the rest of the Design Team. We'd love to see your take on the challenge and we wish you all a magical Christmas and a fabulous New Year.

BBTB Joys of the Season Ribbon Frame

Woo Hoo! Thanks you Enfys for picking such a great cut this week for BBTB! I've had this idea in mind for awhile for my Christmas card for DH and Enfys picked the PERFECT cut so I was able to finish it BEFORE Christmas Eve for a change. LOL BTW, I can't imagine that you don't already know En and her FABULOUS creations, but in case you don't, click HERE to view her blog and prepare to be amazed! I stretched the frame a bit in order to make it the shape I needed and welded the shadow cuts along with the banner from Wedding solutions to form a shaped card.

OMG! I interrupt this blog post to bring you an unbelieveable development! It just got light enough to look out the window and what did I see on the neighbor's roof???? SNOW!!!!!!!! That's right, the big white stuff, not only on the roof but on the lawn as well! Hey Margie, you got nothin' on us here in CA. LOL I was so excited I flung open the front door and took this pic, worried that it might melt immediately. The pic stinks, I was WAY to excited to set the camera appropriately, but you get the idea. How sweet of the neighbors to have their trees lit for me. Then the phone rings (it's 7:00 am mind you) and it's my dear friend Leah who lives about 5 blocks away, and we're screaming like little kids about it all. She's rushing to get her kids bundled up so she can get some pix to scrap. Okay, I've calmed down a bit and will proceed with the BBTB post. :D

I left the front of the frame open so you can see the lovey dovey couple inside. I used adhesive pearls for the mistletoe berries. I was a little worried the card wouldn't stand up on those little ribbon ends but WooHoo, it does! The sentiments are computer generated.

On the inside I substituted little punched hearts for the berries. I was thrilled that my 6x6 pad of Basic Grey Wassail paper had the perfect print in just the right tiny scale for the background. The couple silhouette is from the Sweethearts cartridge. I cut the ponytail off to make it her look a little more like me. :D

I must say it was a PITA to pop this frame due to the tiny cuts but I was afraid if I didn't DH would be disappointed. (Yeah, right, do you want to take bets on whether or not he'll actually notice? LOL) Well let's say I would have been disappointed that I didn't take as much time to make a very special card because I love him soooo MUCH!!!! Oh dear, I'm getting all teary eyed and sentimental here. Must be the SNOW!!!!! Be sure to stop by BBTB and check out the fab projects from my DT sisters and if you haven't already, leave a comment one post down to enter my Blog candy giveaway! Now I've got to go out and take a pic of snow on the windshield of DH's truck and wake him up so he doesn't miss this!

BBTB Telephone Challenge and Blog Hop

Well it's the last Monday of the month which means it's Blog Hop time for Bitten by the Bug. If you just happened upon this post and you'd like to start at the beginning of the hop click HERE. And if you've arrived from the sweet and wonderfully talented Sharon's blog you' re on the right track. This week Regina has chosen the telephone cut on the From My Kitchen cartridge. All I could think of was a child worrying about being on the "naughty" list and trying to call Santa to explain.

I made a shaped front card using the telephone, holly from Joys of the Season, and the font from Winter Woodland welded to a rectangle from George. The cord is wired ribbon I got at M's.

Here are the dimensional views of the popped layers.

I'm offering some of my favorite embellies from K & Co. as well as some holiday Raindots as blog candy. (OOPS!, guess you have to turn your head sideways to see it, huh? Sorry about that, but I'm too tired to fix it right now.) All you have to do to be eligible is leave a comment on this post. My DH will draw a name on Saturday morning. Now you're off to view the fabulous Michelle's blog. Her work is awesome so you are in for a real treat. Enjoy the rest of the hop!

BBTB Cornucopia Challenge

Well how about this! Kinda early for me to be posting this week's BBTB challenge but they're up, and I'm kind of excited because the cut was chosen by ME! I thought the cornucopia from Paper Doll Dress Up would be fitting for Thanksgiving week but instead of filling it with fruit I filled it with flowers as if it were a decoration for the Thanksgiving table. I made a shaped card using Design Studio and then because there are no shadow cuts on this cartridge I cut several more slightly smaller and embossed it with the Cuttlebug. I've been collecting all sorts of beautiful Prima flowers and thought this would be a great place to use them. The leaves were cut in gold foil board using a die from Stampin'Up and embossed on the Cuttlebug with one of the embossing folders that came with the butterfly set.

For the dimension I stacked foam so the cut got progressively thicker towards the opening of the cornucopia.

Then I trimmed the rim and popped that as well so the flowers would look like they were really coming from within. My Design Team sisters did a fabulous job with this this challenge so be sure to stop by BBTB and have a look and next week Regina will be choosing the challenge cut because it will be blog hop time again.

Snow Bird

This week at BBTB my dear and fabulously talented friend Carole hosted the challenge and chose the little bird from the Storybook cartridge. For some reason this cut made me think of the old Anne Murray song "Snowbird". Back in the very early 70's (before I knew him) my DH hitch hiked from Michigan to Vancouver Island, built a log cabin on Wreck Beach and lived off the land for 9 months. (How we ever got together beats me. My idea of camping is when room service is late. LOL) I've heard lots of stories about his experiences including how often this song was playing on the radio when someone picked him up. He has fond memories of his time there, and we have even traveled to the area and found the site where his cabin had been although it had long since washed away with the tides. I made this card for him.

This view shows the shaped front a bit better. The snowflakes are from Accent Essentials, Winter Woodland and When It's Cold Outside. The two smaller ones show through the front from the inside. The branch. the word "Snow" and the shaped back are also from Winter Woodland and the word "Bird" is from Opposites Attract. All is welded using Design Studio. I am not a gypsy convert yet and probably won't be in the near future. Besides some of the capabilities issues which I know they're hard at work fixing, the screen is just too small for my poor old eyeballs. LOL I'm not sure you can tell, but the snowflakes are all glittered using my Xyron and the bird is embossed with D'vine swirls.

Oops! I guess Carole was thinking Spring when she chose this cut. that's the beuty of these challenges. They are open to so many beautiful interpretations. In any case this was loads of fun. You must stop by Bitten By The Bug to see the beautiful examples from my Design Team Sisters. Then why not have a go at it yourself? BTW, BBTB is also hosting another CONTEST sponsored by Dream Designs by Iralamija (one of my favorite places to shop). There's still time!

Penguin Pyramid for BBTB

Happy Monday everyone! Have you all recovered from the sugar rush? After all of that work decorating we only had about 50 Trick or Treaters but I was smart (or maybe not so) and bought a bag with ALL CHOCOLATE so the leftovers won't be going to waste. LOL This week kicks off a new phase for BBTB where the designers will be hosting the challenges (except for our monthly Blog Hop) and choosing the cartridge/cut. This week the fabulously talented CARLA has chosen the penguin cut from Joys of the Season. I can't believe I had never cut this little guy because he's the cutest EVER! I loved him sooo much I had to design a penguin pyramid shaped card so I could cut him over and over. They are all decked out hats from Pooh and Friends.

The shadow cuts are welded in DS to a sort of tree shape behind using the rounded triangles from George. I love the snowy paper from Me&My Big Ideas I used on the inside. Where it shows from the front it looks like a blizzard.

I'm afraid you can't really tell that the white part of the penguins is flocked and the black part is cut in glitter card stock. The hats are also cut in glitter and I colored the green, purple and orange pompoms with my Copics to get them to match. The eyes, beaks and feet are adhesive beads.

Here's the dimensional view. Now I'm sure you want to rush right over to BBTB to see the absolutely ADORABLE creations from my DT sisters this week. They have truly outdone themselves. Thanks Carla for choosing such a fun challenge. Please come and play long. I sure would love to see your take on it too!

BBTB Tag Challenge and Blog Hop!

It's the last Monday of the month and you know that means it's Blog Hop time on Bitten by the Bug! Hopefully you're on the hop and have arrived from my sweet and talented sister Heather's blog. If not, and you'd like to start at the beginning, hop back to BBTB. This week we all decorated the pointed tag from Stretch Your Imagination for Halloween. I also added the frame for that cut and designed a shadow for it in DS. Surprisingly enough I was playing with some Sizzix dies in my Cuttlebug and by cutting them several times (for a shadow effect) they ended up looking quite a bit like Cricut cuts so I decided to use them on my tag.

I added a little bit of texture to the candy corn with my Swiss dots Cuttlebug folder. There was a bit of doodling as well.

Of course I used alot of pop dots to add dimension. Hope you like. Now you're off to Michelle's blog. Prepare to be amazed at her fabulous creations, but before you go...

Take a minute to leave a comment for a chance to win this blog candy from K & Co. I'll be announcing the winner on Friday, October 30. Thanks so much for stopping by!

BTTB Christmas Solutions Sign Post Challenge (with a twist)

Happy Monday! We had a fun one at BBTB this week (don't we ALWAYS?) Well, this week we used the sign post from The Christmas Solutions cartridge but had to make it in a Halloween or Fall theme. The style to me suggests old England which brought to mind Edgar Allan Poe. I made a shaped front card and my raven is actually the bird from A Child's Year with it's tail feathers altered in Design Studio. I ran the top layer through my Xyron and and sprinkled on some Doodlebug glitter. I realize the poem says Nevermore, not Never More, but it didn't fit as one word so I thought it looked sort of like a pub name this way. LOL The sign itself was cuttled with my weathered wood folder and inked a bit. Wish the pic came out better. Quite glare on the moon inside.

Here you can see that the front is shaped a bit better and I used one of my fave Halloween papers from last year that actually is text from Sleepy Hollow inside. Hey, maybe that was what Edgar was reading when the raven came knocking at his chamber door. The moon is a circle from George and I inked it a bit to look like clouds on the inside.

Here are a couple of dimensional views. You know I wouldn't be happy without a whole lot of popping going on. LOL Now go have a peek over at BBTB what my fabulous DT sisters did with this challenge and why don't you take a stab this one yourself? I'd love to see what you come up with.

Celebrate ITT's Halloween!

This week at BBTB Regina chose the monster cut from Paper Doll Dress Up. All I could see when looking at this guy (besides a haystack and believe me I thought about it, LOL) is Cousin Itt from the Addams Family. Oh how I LOVED that show when I was a kid! I tried to be as authentic as possible so I googled "Cousin It" and found out his name is spelled with 2 "T's, his hat was a bowler (which I remembered but had to fashion on my own in DS) but there were no pictures of him from the front. I had a bit of a debate with my friends Margie and Lillie as to glasses type and Lillie remembered shades which made sense because I don't remember seeing his eyes and I had this perfectly sized button so there you go. For hair texture I wanted to use my Forest Branches folder but the branches ran the wrong way so I scored a bunch of lines at different angles and inked them a tiny bit.

Even with the shades and hat band he looked a little bland so I added a sentiment from Celebrations and a sign cut with my Nesties and computer generated. His bat friend is a Cuttlebug cut and emboss die combo.

I'm always extremely frustrated when an Cricut cut doesn't have a shadow but this one resized fairly well so I was able to get a little of the dimension I so dearly love. Now wait until you see all of the spooks assembled on BBTB. My DT sisters obvious had a ball with this challenge so check it out, and join us for some Halloween fun!

BBTB Home Decor Chandelier

Imagine my dismay after doing my Spooky Chandelier card for Custom Crops that I would have to come up with ANOTHER project using that cut for BBTB! (Actually dear Regina offered to let me submit that for the BBTB challenge too, but I didn't quite think that was fair so I put my thinking cap on.) Since I'd already had Halloween covered I decided to do Christmas in the form of an ornament. No Design Studio needed here, (although I did use it to figure out size). I just cut the chandelier out 4 times at 4 1/2 inches and scored each down the middle. I used my Cricut cutter with the scoring blade for this, the scorepal would have been too wide a score. Then I folded each one and then ran them through my Xyron. I thought this would be easier than trying to glue each section. Once I had it all together I sprayed it with adhesive spray and sprinkled on the glitter. I used MS super fine because I didn't want to lose detail, but I'd wish I'd used something more sparkly because you can barely see it in the pic.

I was going for the Dr. Zhivago look (you know what scene I'm talking about) and wanted to pile on a little snow. I used Stardust Stickles and MS mica flakes on the appropriate areas and then added some embellies including some gorgeous mirror brads (I cut off the prongs) and crystal snowflakes from my LSS along with my fave adhesive gems. The bad news is they don't stay stuck very well on the glitter so I have to go back and glue them on so they'll stay. Sorry about the pix. Had a really hard time getting decent ones. Now I know you want to play along with this challenge, this cut is sooo gorgeous and to get some inspiration click HERE to see what my fabulous Design Team sisters have done.

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.

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!

BBTB Locker Talk Desk Challenge

This week at BBTB we were to use the desk from Locker Talk. Boy did this bring back memories. What do kids desks look like these days? As usual I made a shaped card using Cricut Design Studio and also welded the apple from Locker Talk to the base design. I thought it would be fun to make it a bit oversized and added it bit of texture with my Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder.

The sentiment is a resized downloadable stamp from The Cutting Cafe. Better yet, it's a .99 special. (Check it out HERE.) I thought it was perfect for the card and so easy to just make it just the size I needed. Regina has full instructions for doing this on the Cafe site HERE. Then I cut it and the scallop with my Nesties. BTW, if you haven't been to The Cutting Cafe recently YOU MUST GO! Regina has been sooo busy and there are a bazillion fun new sets available. In fact, she just finished a new kitchen set that is PERFECT for the new From My Kitchen Cricut cartridge and she has a special running where you get templates for two adorable apron cards FOR FREE when you purchase the In My Kitchen sentiments.

I cut the desk on the regular feature several times and snipped certain parts to give it dimension and did my usual popping with foam. In hindsite I wish I had also embossed the desk but I'd already stuck it all together and although I tried to take it apart it was not in the cards. Had to settle with the little bit of chalking and doodling I'd done. (Why is hindsite always 20/20?) Oh well, kinda plain, but let's just say it was from a simpler time. Love the little ribbon though. Be sure to check out BBTB to see how my fabulously creative Design Team sisters interpreted this challenge and please do come and play along. We'd love to see what you come up with.