More from CHA

Wow, I think my MM card did me in so I'll have to post a few more CHA pix that have been sent by some friends. Maria and I had a ball running around the trade show. She is also a Custom Crops Designer and she and Natalie have just completed a fabulous Cricut video. There will be more on that later and it will be available for preorder on the Custom Crops website SOON! In the meantime you can view the trailer Here. WooHoo! Here we are with Tim Holtz and our autographed Texture fades. Stay tuned. These may just be coming up at blog candy one of these days since I already own them ALL!

I'm sure you all have seen tons of pix by now of the ProvoCraft Gala. What an amazing time and how excited was I to be receiving one of the new Cricut Imagine machines! Here I am with the whole Custom Crops Crew (Susan, Amy, Patty, Maria, Me, Kelly and Libby). (How embarrassing to be in front like that but honestly, they made me move because we didn't all fit. Yikes! Now I remember why I'm sooo glad we don't have humidity. Sure does a number on the hair!)

Here's a group of us at the Cricut Cricle Breakfast. Maria, Susan, Melanie, myself and Diane. Thanks Joy for taking the pic! I was also especially excited to meet my dear blogging friend Audrey in person! Wish my camera had been in commission so I could have had a pic. HeeHee, she's a midget like me!

Friday and Saturday was the Super Show. Here's the retail portion of the Custom Crops Booth. Didn't it turn ou fabulous? We also had a demo area, a DVD preview area, Robyn (My Pink Stamper) and her BFF Carly , and the Make and Take area which was my home for the 2 days.

I really think I had the best job because I was able to meet so many wonderful crafters and even some friends from the Cricut mb and the sweetest gal who had made my purse card from the Custom Crops website. So sorry I don't exactly remember your name hon, I'm having a senior moment. LOL I know it begins with a "T" and it was so sweet of you to come back on Sunday to take a pic with me since I'd missed you on Saturday. Had to laugh because Aprile (Chirpin'Is Fun) sat there for a long time without realizing I was there. Lots of big hugs when she recognized me! And Rheba (DazyCutr) drove all the way from Tennessee to attend. I was so happy I was able to take a break with her and spend some time. This is Susan Edwards (also a Custom Crops Designer as well as BBTB2 sister) and I helping with the Make and Takes. (We're way back in the corner.)

Wow were Susan and I thrilled to meet fellow BBTB2 Designers Krista Norman and Penny Shuberg in person. They are the sweetest Mom and Daughter EVER! BTW, Susan also has a fabulous DVD called It's a Kid's life with 18 fabulous layouts begining with Back to School. You can have a sneak peek HERE and order it right on her blog just in time to start your child's school year off right. So that's about it for today unless you want to pop over to Haunted Design House for Fiendishly Fun Friday to see the faux tattoo I got at the Cricut gala and the seriously KILLER shoes my DH bought me. Let's just say we're keeping the THRILL alive! HeeHee!

Macabre Monday Foul Flutterings Challenge

I'm hoping not to offend with this one. (Don't faint, Sandy.) It actually scares the bejeebies out of me too. I know it's Wednesday, but thankfully Barb our Masterful Mistress of the Macabre allows us a little wiggle room at times and I sure needed it this week. So here is my Macabre Monday Foul Flutterings offering for Haunted Design House. (And who thought the Cricut was all cutesy? LOL) Can't get enough of that Oct 31st cart! I cut the winged demon twice using Design Studio to slightly enlarge it the second time and hid most of the contours for the red shadow effect (Nope, no real shadows-bummer!) The flames are from Indy Art both shadow and regular welded in DS to a rectangle from George. Those fabulously scary gates are also from Oct 31st. The poor burning souls are Heads by Daniel Torrente from Stampotique and they were inked, sprayed, distressed, cut out and brushed with Perfect Pearls. Unfortunately I'm still awaiting a new battery for my camera so these were taken with my Bloggie and I can't seem to get closeups in focus so the details are lost for now. (Well, I guess you can click on the pic.)

To add to the dimension I made this a stair step card. I ground up the edges of everything with my Distrezz-it-All. The fabulous embossed tag is from another of those new Cuttlebug Embossing Plus folders called Fanciful Labels (love them now that I've figured them out. LOL). The black was inked while in the folder and then I distressed it with Tea Dye. The sentiment was computer generated before running it through the Cuttlebug. I seem to recall from a very scary movie "The Sentinel" perhaps?, that "Abandon hope all ye who enter here" was above the door that led to hell. Seemed appropriate. Don't worry, I'll be back soon with something cutesy for Bah!Humbug! so you don't have to delete me off your sidebar. And please forgive if I haven't made it to your blogs yet. Seriously, I'm still recovering from CHA. xxD Oops! Maybe not so soon. Didn't finish and I have a hair appt. tomorrow morning so I think I'm gonna be late with it. Sorry!

Finally the BBTB2 Blog Hop Winner and some CHA Pix

Sorry for the delay, folks. I didn't get home until 5:00pm (Ca time) on Sunday night and CHA took more out of me than I thought. Although I was hot to craft yesterday I was a bit overwhelmed with my goodies and poor DH ( and the kitties) needed some attention. I managed to get some pix off my camera and also some sent by friends. The Trade Show opens each year with a parade of Bagpipers winding their way through the aisles. I happen to love bagpipes so this really adds to the excitement for me.

ProvoCraft always dominates both the Trade and Consumer Shows with a huge space and demos and make and takes for their products. Plenty of giveaways throughout the day as well. There was lots of excitement! Of course you all know by now that the new machine that both cuts and prints is called the Imagine.

Besides working with the regular Cricut cartridges there will be separate Imagine cartridges with images but also with colors and prints that can be applied to your cut selections with very professional looking results. It is my understanding that ProvoCraft has gone into partnership with Cosmo Cricket for both the cut and print designs for some of these first carts and they are ADORABLE! I think they will be working with other paper manufacturers as well.

For those of you worrying about the designs being too flat, (including me!), you also have the option of cutting and printing each layer of an image individually. Above are some of the examples scattered around the booth. This will be quite an investment with the new machine MSRP at $599 and the ink cartridges running at $34.99 for black and $39.99 for the color array. They did assure us that they would last from 50 to 100 full sheets of printed paper (which I really don't think anyone will do) so hopefully they will last a goood long time when printing just the images you select. There will also be new mats with better stick which will work in both the regular Expression and the Imagine and retail the same as the current mats. The difference besides the improved adhesive will be black lines that the Imagine will use for orientation for the printing/cutting feature.

I have more pix and will post throughout the week, but I wanted to do my long awaited drawing for the BBTB2 Blog Hop. (Finally, huh?)

AND THE WINNER of the $30.00 Custom Crops gift voucher IS

# 4 Jessica Wekenman. WOOHOO JESSICA!

Please email me at dlmundinger (at) yahoo (dot)com to arrange for your prize. Thanks so much to everyone for participating and for hanging in there. I hope to get some crafting done today, perhaps using some of the goodies I picked up at CHA.

The Cuttlebug Spot Mini Album Challenge

Looks like I lucked out here. I'm hoping when I get home I'll be able to retrieve my CHA pix from my ailing camera, but in the meantime I realized I'd uploaded my Cuttlebug Spot challenge project to my blog before I'd left. This week we're embossing on mini albums or books and I decided to do a TP roll (or for you germaphobes, a paper towel roll) album. I've never done one of these before, but one thing I learned immediately is your Cuttlebug is a great way to flatten the rolls before covering or embellishing them. They are covered in creme card stock embossed with Morrocan Screen, Ironworks, Victoria, and Textile Texture Cuttlebug folders and the new Tim Holtz Damask folder. The black borders are Stampin'Up and EK Success border punches and borders from the Cuttlebug Ironworks Card Making combo. The motif's are Spellbinder's for the lock and key and Fleur de Lis pendant, MS punches for the heart and butterfly, and again the Ironworks combo for the square with the scrolls.

I had a set of clear stamp words that impressed me as the keys to happiness. They were cut with Nesties Mega Ovals and layered with my fave K&CO paper again. This was a really fun challenge and my DT sisters did amazing things with it so be sure to stop by The Cuttlebug Spot to see their creations as well.

It's another late night and there's a Cricut Circle breakfast tomorrow before the CHA Super Show opens at noon. Hope to see many of you there and I apologize for missing your projects this week as my blog hopping time is non existant. (I also have 180 unread emails that aren't going to be opened any time soon. So sorry, but I promise to catch up next week.

I'm Here at CHA

Hi guys! Been very busy with no time to blog, and sorry, but I'm having technical difficulties here at CHA. The show is amazing but I've found that my camera isn't working. I thought it was the battery, but I find now it isn't. Therefor, the pix I've taken so far aren't available at the moment. This is the last day of the trade show and tomorrow I'm hoping to meet up with many message board and blogging friends. I'll be doing the make and takes at the Custom Crops booth both Friday and Saturday so please stop by and say "Hi!"

Of course the Provo Craft event was amazing and yes, those attending will be receiving the new Imagine machine. WooHoo!

BBTB2 SYI Ice Cream Cone Cut and Blog Hop

Happy Monday everyone! I'm winging my way to Chicago for CHA as we speak but I managed to do a couple of DT things before I left. If you've arrived from Joanna's Blog, you're on the right track. If not, you may wish to start at BBTB2 so you don't miss a thing. This week dear Krista chose the ice cream cone cut from Stretch Your Imagination. I chose the silhouette feature and decided to turn it upside down and make a clown. I actually cut the whole thing in white card stock and colored it with my Copics. I welded a bowtie shadow cut from Paper Dolls to the bottom where the cherry is and cut off the stem. I also cut another bowtie in shadow and regular, glued them together and cut it in half for ears. I drew the eyes and smile and added a pom pom nose, another tiny one on the hat, and a big ribbon bow. The sentiment is a metal adhesive one from the $ bins at M's, colored black with a permanent marker.

The circle easel card is actually done with my Nesties. I saw a cute one on Kellie's Blog with a tutorial on Debbie's Blog, my Aussie friends from Tickled Pink Stamps. Thanks guys! I added mats done with Nesties Pinking Circles and embossed the yellow ones with the Spots and Dots Cuttlebug folder. This makes a fairly tiny card, but I thought it would be cute to brighten someone's day for a birthday or even a child's get well card. A larger one could certainly be done using Design Studio. Now on to hop to my dear friend Carole's Blog (it's her birthday week so be sure to leave her some love!), but before you go, please be sure to leave a comment for a chance to win a $30.00 gift certficate from Custom Crops. The winner will be announced Friday (if I don't forget since I'll still be away) so keep on checking back. And all of you attending CHA, please stop by the Custom Crops booth at the Super Show and say "hi"! I'll be doing Make and Takes there both Saturday ad Sunday and would love to meet you in person.

Bah! Humbug! Meets Peggy Loves Vintage and a New Embossing Plus Cuttlebug Folder

I'm frantically trying to get ready for CHA (I leave tomorrow morning) and fulfill at least SOME of my DT work but I had to sneak in a card for this week's Bah!Humbug Challenge which is to create a Christmas scene (from scratch). Oops, sort of missed the "from scratch" part. LOL I immediately thought of the beautiful Christmas Scenes to be found on my Peggy Loves Vintage Christmas CD Volume 7. I guess Peggy did all of the work for the scene, but I so enjoy all of the lovely vintage images and I thought it would be perfect for this card. It was hard to choose just one, but I'd just gotten one of the new Cuttlebug Embossing Plus Brocade Window folder, and although it isn't Christmas themed, I thought it would work. I measured the cut out and resized the image to fit the frame and printed it out. That's what's so wonderful about using the CD images and Peggy had LOADS to choose from HERE. She also has downloadable Cut Outs for those of you who prefer more IMMEDIATE gratification and no shipping!

First of all, I felt like an idiot because these new folders basically come with no instructions except some pictures on the back, and the packaging is unlike any I'd ever seen. No big blister pack like the regular folders. The whole layered folder is attached to the packaging with some little green button thingys that didn't look to me like they were supposed to come off so I thought the WHOLE thing was supposed to go through the Cuttlebug. Not the case. No matter what sandwich I used, it either didn't cut or wouldn't make it through. Hmmm... I was talking to my friend Lillie on the phone and she suggested Googling it and fortunately there were videos on how to use the darn thing or I would still be there scratching my head, or would have broken my dear Cuttlebug by now. Thanks Lillie. The little green buttons are supposed to be pried off to release the folder. (Well who knew? They looked pretty permanent to me. And there is still a cardboard piece attached to the whole shebang after you've remove the "packaging", sooo...) You can see they had been pried off here. The mini tut about this was an afterthought because I can't be the ONLY one who couldn't automatically figure this out, am I?

Anyway, the card stock is put between the 2 metal plates and run through the bug with the A Plate, B Plate, Folder dealie, and B Plate. It cut and embossed beautifully but is really BIG. It's a full 5x7 so with matting the card is a bit larger. I'm pretty sure there are smaller ones available, but I liked this one best to try.

On other cool thing that I would NEVER have figured out without watching the video is that the top acetate piece lifts up so you can ink it while it's right in the folder, which I tried immediately. It worked quite well, but the acetate is attached very close to the top so depending on the pad you use or whatever, it's difficult to get it completely inked. I took my piece out a couple of times and saw where I'd missed and reinserted it to add more which made the inking less than perfect, but I did like the effect over all and will probably buy more of these although they're kinda big bucks.

Once I positioned the image and popped the frame, all I added were some embellies that looked sort of vintage to me (Prima poinsettias and leaves with some adhesive beads and some kinda weird, sort of sparkly ribbon I'd gotten in the $1 bin at M's before Easter. I bought loads of colors of this because I thought it had a kinda fun texture and that it looked like Easter grass but didn't really used much of it. Finally the sentiment is a peelie that shows up a heck of a lot better in person. So I'm 28 for 28 in the Bah! Humbug! Challenges and feeling quite smug about all of the cards I have in my stash so far. How about you? There's still time to join in at Bah!Humbug!, and with the help of Peggy Loves Vintage you could quickly come up to speed and not spend your December all stressed about making cards.

Halloween is Hoppin' at Tiddly Inks!

The day is finally here! Beginning at 6:00 pm Central Time the Halloween Blog Hop is happening at the Tiddly Inks Challenge Blog. The Design Team will have their gorgeous inspirations up at noon today, and if you wish to participate, you can link your own Tiddly Inks Halloween card on the linky thing anytime after noon to be on the hop list. How fun that customers can participate in this way! Christy has fun new Halloween images at Tiddly Inks in honor of the hop and you can bet I was right there! (And P.S., they're on sale!) This is Betty Belfry. Isn't she lovely? I colored her with Copics and followed the weekly challenge sketch for this card to do double duty. I'm leaving for CHA on Monday and have loads of things to do before I go. The DP is a combo of Stampin'Up and Basic Grey. The glitter transparency is Fancy Pants. I used MS Bat and Drippy Goo border punches, some gems and Cloud9 bats and stars. The sentiment is also Stampin'Up.

The hop will run until 6:00pm Central time on Sat. and there are prizes to be won. Click HERE for details. Following the hop on Sat, July 24th there will be a party on the Tiddly Inks PCP group with more fun and festivities. This is a great group to join, because besides being just an all around fun group of people, there are FREEBIES on Tuesdays! WooHoo! See why I'm hooked?

Bah! Humbug! Christmas Stocking Challenge

Ready for some more Christmas? This week at Bah! Humbug! it's all about Christmas stockings. I know my card has a bit of a weird color sheme. It didn't start out that way. I planned on doing brights against the black background but I just didn't have the right paper. Honestly, I cut that stocking 3 diffrent times and this turned out the best. It's inspired by my living room and the designs of MacKenzie-Childs. I have quite a bit of their furniture and LOADs of Christmas stuff with a harlequin and jester theme so there you go. The harlequin background cut is from Wildcard and the stocking from Christmas Cheer. I'm sure you recognize the DP as coming from my fave K&Co stack. I added tiny jingle bells and a wired ribbon like one of my MacKenzie-Childs stockings and the sentiment is the same metal letters as I used in my Macabre Monday Sleepy Hollow card. (They're from M's).

Then just a bit of popping. Not exactly traditional, but I do like how it came out.

The Cuttlebug Spot- Christmas in July

It's Christmas in July over at The Cuttlebug Spot. Well, you'd think with all of the Christmas cards I've been doing, this would be a no brainer, but BECAUSE I've been doing so many, it was hard to think of something new. I did try and keep it all Cuttlebug, and utilize some of the things I've hardly, or NEVER used. It was fun work with non traditional colors as well. I cut and embossed several of the Christmas trees and Santa from a Cuttlebug Cut and emboss combo in foil card stock and did Santa again in white and hand cut the face and suit details.

Both of the embossing folders are from the Exclusive Oh My Crafts Holiday bundle from last year. I cut the bottom of the snowflake frame to make it look like a snow drift and then cut an oval in the leftover top piece with my Nesties and popped both pieces to give it some depth. Behind is the tree folder. I felt it had a bit of a modern feel so I used a peelie from Stampendous for the sentiment. So now it's time YOU get your Christmas on! Have a look and The Cuttlebug Spot to view the great inspiration from the rest of the DT and come on and play along. There's a $20 gift certificate from Custom Crops up for grabs but remember to please include some dry embossing and make it a NEW card. Back posts aren't fair to the rest of the participants!

BBTB2 Fabulous Finds Hinge and Shelly's Images

This week at BBTB2 the Design Team has the pleasure of working with Shelly's Images digital stamps in conjunction with any of the hinges on Fabulous Finds. All of the images are hand drawn by Shelly herself and it's no surprise that I chose the Wine Basket. My DH and I love to picnic at the local wineries or bring picnics on our hikes (of course complete with wine, I need some reward for tromping around in the wilderness!) LOL I decided to make a little notebook to jot down picnic recipes. The base is cut in Kraft and I used my Nestie Petite Ovals to cut the window in the mat. The image is colored with Copics. The frame is also cut with my Nesties Oval and Lables 10 out of corrigated cardboard. The title is computer generated on the banner from the Wedding cart. The metal corners are Tim Holtz. Please stop by BBTB2 and check out the fabulous creation from my DT sisters and take a look at the wide variety of stamps available at Shelly's Images.

New Macabre Monday Challenge- Wayward Words

Surprise, surprise! Much to my delight I am now one of the Macabre Minions at the Haunted Design House. I'm so happy and proud to be part of the Sisterhood of the Sinister. (Don't faint now, Sandy! LOL) Anyway, the new Macabre Monday challenge starting today is Wayward Words, focussing on text (preferably spooky). Some of you may have seen this card before. It so perfectly fit the challenge (and as you can see I was just under the wire from LAST week) that I thought it would be appropriate to bring it up again.

The card was inspired by an old root I found on a walk. It reminded me of the scary tree in Seepy Hollow so I took it home and made this card. The background paper is actually text from the book which I distressed and highlighted some of the words. The full moon is cut twice and popped using Accent Essentials. I used Storybook to cut the window for the diorama and sprayed the card stock with black gold glimmer mist. The side panels were embossed with the Distressed Stripes Cuttlebug folder to make it look like bark and the antique gold metallic letters are from M's. I added a scary pumpkin brad and the off cuts from the Martha Stewart bat border punch.

Because they were too small to pop, I fashioned a wire in a sort of flight pattern and adhered them back to back. Be sure to bop on over to Haunted Design House to see what else is brewing and come on and play along. Barb will be introducing us this week and the bios should be fun! Remember, it's NEVER to early for Halloween!