holly Christmas card

I love holly and always make at least one Christmas card design that has a holly leaf on it.  So here is this year's holly, from the CM Cheerful Seasons cartridge.  The background paper is from Simple Stories (isn't is so awesome?) and the holly paper is from the Theresa Collins Christmas Cottage collection, using all the layers and shadow.  I added some twine from my stash and the inside sentiment is from SU.

Cricut:
CM Cheerful Seasons-holly
Paper-Simple Stories, Theresa Collins, and CTMH solid cardstock
twine, brown chalk ink
stamp-SU

I'm going to link this to the Fantabulous Cricut Holiday cards challenge.

"The Stockings were hung for You" layout

I am SO excited about this layout!!!!  I love how it turned out-I was going for a kind of vintage feel and I LOVE the woodgrain photo mats.   This Echo Park Christmas paper is the bomb!  The titles and cute little gift borders are from Winter Frolic, popped up with pop dots.  I used lots of brown chalk ink for the edges of everything.  My goal is to do more with the  borders and tags on this cartridge this year-they are really cute and I've kind of overlooked them.   I've got some great pictures of my kids getting into their stockings in their PJs on Christmas morning last year ready for this layout.

Cricut:
Winter Frolic-titles cut at 2 1/2 in., gift borders at 1 3/4 in.
Paper/Stickers-Echo Park This & That Christmas collection
brown chalk ink

I'm going to link this to the Pause Dream Enjoy challenge anything goes-it's open til Thursday, so put in your project!

Party Time layout

It's a birthday layout, using only solid card stock.    I used the CM This and That cartridge for this one, except for the title, which I think is from the new CAC2 cart.  The rest of the font is one of the fonts on the CM cartridge.   I used scraps for all the cuts, which made me feel very thrifty!

Cricut:
CM This and That-all cuts except:
CAC2-title
Paper-CM and CTMH cardstock
I'm going to link this to the Paper Playtime "Anything Goes" challenge.

Fa la la Christmas card

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  We are celebrating today, as I had to work at the hospital yesterday.  The turkey is in the smoker now and my pies are baking!!!!

This gorgeous music paper was part of the Theresa Collins christmas paper that I got, which inspired my card.  I made it at our Christmas card making party.  The fa la las just started running through my head and wouldn't leave.  The hilarious part is that then a phrase from another Christmas carol also got stuck in my head, and none of us could remember which carol it was from until my friend arrived and looked it up on google!  I was SO relieved because otherwise it would have come to me in the middle of the night and woken me up.  My goofy brain is annoying like that!  On to the cricut info:  the fa la la and flakes are all from one cut on the  CM Tis the Season cartridge.  I'm going to link this to the CardzTV challenge "Speaking of Christmas".

Cricut:
CM Tis the Season-fa la la and snowflakes
Paper-Theresa Collins Christmas Cottage print
Stamps-Stampin Up
brown chalk ink

Owl christmas cheer card

The little owl from Create A Critter 2 is the star of the Christmas card!  The Christmas ornament is also from CAC2.  Echo Park has a great collection called This & That Christmas and the plaid paper is from that line (I LOVE it!!!).  I always like to finish off the inside of a card as well as the outside, so there is a double mat with red and cream and a scrap of the plaid paper.  I also inked the edges of all the photo mats and the card edges with brown chalk ink because it really adds that little extra something.  The inside sentiment stamp is an older one from SU and the outside sentiment is from an Ali Edwards set.

Cricut:
CAC2-all cuts
Paper-Echo Park This and That Christmas plaid
solid paper-CM and CTMH
Stamp-SU for inside sentiment, Ali Edwards set Jingle All the Way for "christmas cheer"
brown chalk ink-Versamark jumbo java for the edges
sentiments stamped in SU Early Espresso and Close to Cocoa ink
button and twine from the stash

I'm going to link this to the fun SOUS challenge to use an owl on a project.  They have some great owl projects to look at!

Be Merry layout

Such fun my little critters from CAC2 are having as they decorate for Christmas!  A stack of penguins are getting the star and ornaments on the tree (do penguins come in flocks??  gaggles? no wait, that's geese) and my friendly mouse and cat are hanging the stockings on the fireplace.  Imagine the carols playing in the background.  And of course my sweet little pup is putting a bone under the tree.  All being properly supervised by the senior penguin of course, to make sure no one decides to get into the presents!

Cricut:
CAC2-all cuts except candle, fireplace pieced by hand
JOTS-candle on fireplace
Paper-CM and CTMH solids, Echo Park print from This & That Christmas collection
brown chalk ink

This layout is for the Cardz TV "scene challenge" and I had so much fun making it with CAC2 (except for the candle, which is from Joys of the Season).  I've got lots of Christmas pictures from last year to scrap, so some are going on this layout ASAP!

Giving Thanks layout (with CAC2)

I made one more layout for some thanksgiving pictures of the kids, with Create A Critter 2.  I am in love with this cartridge!  The beautiful pumpkin is part of the Bo Bunny paper, from the Apple Cider collection.  The adorable little Indian bear and Pilgrim squirrel are from CAC2, and turned out just too cute!  The title is also from CAC2 (it has lots of great titles).

Cricut:
Create A Critter 2-all cuts
Paper-Bo Bunny Apple Cider prints

I'm going to link this to the Fantabulous Cricut challenge this week to use a pilgrim/Indian or something from the first Thanksgiving.

Thankful card

While I don't typically send thanksgiving cards (since most of our family and friends will be getting a Christmas card from us soon), I do send a very few cards each year to people that I am especially thankful are in our lives.  It varies who they are from year to year and it's just kind of random who I select.  I think it's good for people to know they are appreciated!  Don't we all need a little more random kindness and appreciation in our lives?  But enough philosophy and on to the card!

The turkey from Create A Critter 2 is the centerpiece and he is on an action wobble that I received from  Janis at the Pause Dream Enjoy challenge blog when my project was picked as the winner that week.  It was donated by The Scrapbooking Queen at www.thescrapbookingqueen.com -where you can buy these nifty wobbles!  I've got to say the action wobbles are REALLY fun!!!!!  You've kind of got to see in action to understand-photos can't show the fun!  The cornucopia is also from CAC2.  The sentiment is from Lyrical Letters, using the Jack Sprat font.

Cricut:
Create A Critter 2-turkey, cornucopia
Lyrical Letters-font (Jack Sprat)
Paper-CTMH solid cardstock, DCWV All Seasons thanksgiving print
action wobble
brown chalk ink

I'm going to link this to the Cardz TV challenge "attitude of gratitude". 

Hey Cupcake birthday card

Well, I started to work on making a birthday card, as we have birthday parties coming up for two of my sons.  But the card just went somewhere girly while I was working on it and turned into a completely different card!!!!  Ever have that happen?  Where the card you end up making is NOT what you planned?  The basic card design was scrap lifted from Mary at Cardz TV, who has made a couple of adorable cards from the Teddy Bear Parade cartridge with this basic layering design.  The cupcake is from Create A Critter and was inspired by the cute cupcake paper from my DCWV Sweet stack.

Cricut:
Create A Critter-cupcake, cut at 2 1/2 in.
Paper-DCWV Sweet stack prints, CTMH chocolate solid cardstock
Stamps-Happy Birthday is SU Happiest Birthday Wishes set
Hey cupcake, Your the sweetest, and cupcake are Fiskars The Sweetest Life set
Ink-SU Close to Cocoa
brown chalk ink

I'm going to link this to the Celebrate the Occasion challenge to make a birthday card with a cupcake!

I'm also going to add this to the cake challenge at The Crafty Pad.

Give Thanks layout

Thanksgiving is just around the corner-well almost!  Are you a turkey or ham family?  We go back and forth, but last year my husband smoked a turkey and it was the absolute best turkey I've ever had!  So it is definitely turkey again this year.   So when I saw the BBTB2 challenge to use a turkey, it was time to make my Thanksgiving scrapbook page.   I used the stretched turkey from Stretch Your Imagination, and he turned out looking mighty fine.   I also cut some leaves from SYI.   Two use the Silhouette feature over the blackout leaf cut, which I thought looked pretty.  The layered"Give Thanks" title is from the Phrases cart.

And the story behind the pie, which is from Simply Charmed (without the smiley face part) is that my extended family LOVES pie, so all family gatherings and holidays include lots of pie.  We even have birthday pies instead of cake sometimes!   When I saw the Pause Dream Enjoy challenge to do a food/beverage project, I added my cricut pie to represent all the delicious pie we will be eating over Thanksgiving.

Cricut:
Phrases-title
Simply Charmed-pie
Stretch Your Imagination-turkey, leaves
Paper-DCWV All Seasons print, CTMH solid card stock
brown chalk ink

Stocking Christmas card

Here's another Christmas card from our card-making weekend, using the stocking from  the CM Tis the Season cart, along with some embossing.  The paper is from the Simple Stories line and the card base is CTMH card stock.  The very merry stamp and punch are Stampin Up.  I have no idea where I got the Joy stamp on the inside-I think from the bargain bin at Michael's a few years ago.

Cricut:
CM Tis the Season-stocking
Paper-Simple Stories, solid scraps, base is CTMH card stock
embossing folders
brown chalk ink

Wild by Nature layout

Another autumn layout today-for more of my fall zoo pictures.  I used the Give a Hoot cartridge for this-it is actually a really interesting cart if you've never looked at it, with great borders, tags, and phrases.  I love my little leaf border and the swirl things (whatever they might be called...).   The leaf border was inspired by the picture of the wild deer (it's not a deer, but some African deer-like animal) standing in the leaves grazing.   The printed papers are from my DCWV All Seasons stack.

Edited to add:  This is getting featured on Scrappin' Saturday at Fantabulous Cricut on 11/10/12-I'm very excited about that!!!  If you came from there, I'm glad you stopped by my blog!

Here it is without the pictures on:

And here we have the photos added:

(oops, apparently one of them didn't get stuck down)

Cricut:
Give a Hoot-all cuts
Paper-DCWV prints and CTMH solid cardstock
brown chalk ink

I'm going to link this to the Fantabulous cricut challenge to do a project using fall leaves and to the Paper Playtime challenge to use autumn colors.

I'm also going to link this to the fall inspiration challenge at cricutfanatics.

It's time to start the Christmas cards!!!

I made 27 Christmas cards this weekend!  My mom, nieces, BFF, and I got together Friday night and Saturday to make Christmas cards and projects-I think we made over 100 cards between us!  So you will be seeing some more of them over the next few weeks.  Today's card was made with the bird from Winter Woodland and holly from the CM Cheerful Seasons cart.  I saw a similar card on pinterest and changed it just a bit up to work with my supplies.  The background is embossed with a snowflake folder.

Cricut:
Winter Woodland-bird
CM Cheerful Seasons-holly
Accent Essentials-scallop circle, circles
Sizzix snowflake embossing folder
Paper- CTMH gray and brown card stock, Theresa Collins Christmas Cottage prints
twine, pop dots, button
scallop border-Stampin Up punch

Autumn at the zoo layout

All the cuts on this layout are from an oldie but goodie cartridge, Stretch Your Imagination.  It was one of the first carts I got when I got my cricut.  I had some fantastic fall pictures from a trip to the zoo with the kids recently, so when I found this amazing leaf paper (by the Paper Studio) at Hobby Lobby I knew I wanted to use SYI.

Cricut:
Stretch Your Imagination-all cuts
Paper-leaf print is the Paper studio, solids are CTMH card stock
leaf punch

I'm going to add this to the following challenge:
Die Cuttin' Divas-anything goes