Roar birthday card

I'd roar if it was my birthday-how about you?  The lion from Create A Critter 2 is ready to party for someone's birthday!  This is another card for my Create a Critters collection (the rest can be found under the CAC and CAC2 tags on the sidebar).  The paper is from the American Crafts Hip Hip Hooray collection.  I'm going to link this to the Cut it Up challenge to use a lion or lamb on a project.

Cricut:
Create A Critter 2-all cuts
Paper-American Crafts Hip Hip Hooray collection
brown chalk ink/Stampin Up Close to Cocoa ink for the sentiment
stamp-My Pink Stamper set
button-Stampin Up

Happy Birthday card

This is just quick birthday card with the bee from Birthday Bash!  (I had to whip one up in a hurry for someone!)  I'm linking him to the Paper Playtime challenge this week to use a bee.  I used my American Crafts Hip Hip Hooray 6x6 paper for the prints.  (I'll write the recipient's name in tiny letters on the tag to personalize it.)

Cricut:
Birthday Bash-all cuts
Paper-American Crafts Hip Hip Hooray collection prints, solids CTMH
brown chalk ink
Stamp-Stampin Up

"Music, Hear the music" layout (for Exploring Cricut)

I get to do the daily project at Exploring Cricut today!  I don't know if this is true for any of you, but I am constantly looking for ideas for scrapping photos of school music events, so that's what my project is about.  I've made a layout for photos of Son#1's middle school orchestra performing at several schools and having a picnic together (where they broke out guitars and harmonicas and played even more music at the park!).

 I used the Quarter Note cartridge for the titles and a block format for the photos.  I love Quarter Note, and highly recommend it if you have kids doing music.  So often these type of photos are taken in a gym with bad lighting, which can be even more of a challenge to scrap!  I had to do some heavy duty photo editing to lighten the pics in the gym on the right hand page.  The paper is from Echo Park's This and That Charming collection.

Cricut:

Quarter Note-all cuts

Paper-Echo Park This and That collection

brown chalk ink

I have two posts going up today:

If you are looking for the BBTB2 card feature challenge, scroll down one post.  My Easter themed post for Exploring Cricut is just below.  Have an excellent crafting Monday :)

Easter layout (for Exploring Cricut)

The Exploring Cricut challenge theme this week is "Easter", and we'd love to have you play along and share a project!  I chose to do a layout.  One of our family traditions is taking a photo after church of all of us dressed up in our nice clothes.

I have a spot for a family photo on the left page and a place for a picture of each of my sons on the right page.  The cursive title font is from the Baby Steps cartridge (I don't use the rest of that cart much, but I do really like the font!).  All the rest of the cuts are from Kate's ABCs and make me feel like spring (although I would feel more like spring if we hadn't gotten several inches of snow yesterday)!  The lovely print papers and stickers are from American Crafts, as are the buttons I added to the big flower centers.

Cricut:
Kate's ABCs-all cuts
Paper/Stickers-American Crafts prints, solids are CTMH
brown chalk ink
buttons-American Crafts

We'd love to see your Easter projects at Exploring Cricut :)

I'm going to link this also to the Fantabulous Cricut Easter challenge this week.

You're the Bomb card (for the BBTB2)

Using the card feature from any cartridge was the challenge this week at the BBTB2.  I went with Wild Card 2 and made this ticking time bomb card for my teen son, who will find it hilarious (aren't all teenage boys ticking time bombs anyway?)!  I cut it at 4 1/2 inches and it is smaller inside than I expected, but should work just fine for a short funny message and some candy in his lunchbox.  I cut the "You're the Bomb" sentiment at 4 1/2 also, thinking it would be proportional, but it was too large, so I put it on the envelope instead.  This is only the second card I've made from this cart and I'm still figuring out it's quirks.

Cricut:
Wild Card 2-card and envelope
Paper-CTMH solids
brown chalk ink
Swiss dots embossing folder

I can't wait to see what creative cards people make this week!  The BBTB2 DT members have some very cool cards to look at for inspiration.  So have some fun making a card this week and link it up!

Dino-mite! card

This cute little dino card is another in my collection of Create A Critter cards.  I used Elegant Edges for the background shape.  He's all fun in blue prints for a boy birthday.  He's got a mix of papers, from Echo Park, American Crafts, and CTMH, and Stampin Up.  The sentiment is from a My Pink Stamper set.

Cricut:
Create A Critter-dino
Elegant Edges-background shapes
Paper-dots are Echo Park, solids CTMH, American Crafts, Stampin Up
Stamp-My Pink Stamper set
Ribbon-American Crafts
punches-Stampin Up
bling-found in the bottom of the stash!

I'm going to link this to the Crafty Ribbons challenge-One for the Boys.

I have two posts going up today!

For the BBTB2 challenge Egg-ceptional Easter Eggs, scroll down one post!  My post for the Pause Dream Enjoy anything goes challenge is just below.  Have a great crafty Monday!!

Sky's the Limit layout-Disney project (for PDE challenge)

It's time for an Anything Goes challenge at Pause Dream Enjoy Challenges!  (Those are my favorite!)

Ch# 6 ANYTHING GOES

Begins: Monday, Mar 18

Ends: Sunday, Mar 31

Winner announced in the WINNERS Page Tab
Prize sponsored by Lucy of CTMH
(must have a USA address)

As I'm slowly working through lots of Disney pictures, I decided to do a layout from one our character meals at the Crystal Palace at Disney World, where we got to eat lots of ice cream and meet Piglet and the other Pooh characters.  I used Pooh and Friends for the Piglet title, cake, and kite and the CM Cheerful Seasons cart for the ice cream cone.  I love that ice cream cone on Cheerful Seasons!

Edited to add:  My layout is going to be on the Fantabulous Cricut Scrappin Saturday on 3/23!  So if you've come over from Fantabulous Cricut, thanks for stopping  by!

The great background papers are from an older line from Basic Grey called Life of the Party that I've been saving just for this project!  I chose the "Sky's the limit" stamp for a laugh, because one of the kids asked the waiter how tall he was allowed to make his cone:  answer-very tall!  Apparently Piglet likes ice cream too, because he pointed at the bowl and rubbed his tummy :)

Cricut:
Pooh and Friends-title, kite
CM Cheerful Seasons-ice cream cone
Paper-Basic Grey Life of the party collection, CM solids
brown chalk ink
Stamp-K Andrews set

So come and play at Pause Dream Enjoy with us over this next two weeks with anything you can dream up!  We'd love to see it!

I'm also going to link this to the Fantabulous Cricut "Spring is in the Air" challenge to use a balloon or kite on a project this week.

Dyeing Eggs layout (for BBTB2)

Egg-ceptional Easter Eggs is the challenge theme for BBTB2 this week!  (Those yummy-licious chocolate eggs....definitely egg-ceptional)  We have a family tradition of spending an evening dyeing Easter eggs, which my kids love!  It's messy, but SOOO fun!  Last year I got 2 dozen ready for dyeing and they begged for more-we ended up dyeing almost 4 dozen eggs!!!!!!   So join us at the BBTB2 this week with an egg project.

So, on to my layout!  I always take lots of pictures of the dyeing process so I made a layout, using Stretch Your Imagination for the cute little bunnies with the paintbrushes working on some eggs.  I especially like the bunny on the tall stack of eggs, hard at work!   My beloved Doodlecharms cartridge gave me the basket and eggs (it is my favorite cricut basket on all my carts) and the title is from the Mickey Font-love the big fun chunky letters on that font!

The background papers are from from The Paper Studio and that Easter Egg paper inspired the whole layout.  Note:  For the Stretch Your Imagination cuts, I cut the main image/layers and then put the silhouette cut on top of it, and backed the whole thing with the shadow cut.

the whole layout:

my favorite stretched bunny who's been hard at work:

and my other cute little bunny:

Cricut:
Mickey Font-title
Doodlecharms-basket and eggs
Stretch Your Imagination-bunnies
Paper-background papers from The Paper Studio, solids are CTMH and CM, glitter paper is Target
brown chalk ink
ribbon-Stampin Up bashful blue
stickers-Echo Park, leftovers from an old collection

Literature Festival layout (for Exploring Cricut)

I get to share a project today at Exploring Cricut!  It's all about books (we are BIG readers at my house).    This layout could be for any pics of reading with kids or for a book club, although I will be using it for pics of the kids at a literature festival.  I used the CM This and That cartridge for the stack of books, arrow, and the cool journal box.  Isn't that arrow just super fun with all the stripes?  The title uses my favorite font, the Mickey Font.  The paper line is an old but fun one from Bo Bunny called Ad Lib-one of my favorite paper lines ever!  Sadly, I only have a few scraps left :(  Hope you liked this project and check at Exploring Cricut tomorrow for another great daily project!

Cricut:
Mickey Font-title
CM This and That-all other cuts
Paper/stickers-Bo Bunny Ad Lib collection for prints, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink
brad-Bo Bunny Ad Lib collection

Luck of the Irish card

St. Pats day is almost here!  Hope you are all having a lovely week!  It's spring break for my kids, so we are enjoying staying in our PJs and hanging out at home.  It's bliss, I tell you, not to have to go anywhere!!!!  One of my friends is starting a new job very soon, so I'm sending her a good luck card with an Irish theme for this time of year.   I used the caterpillar on Create A Critter 2 with his awesome hat and bow tie-he's dressed to start a new job, don't you think?  (Maybe serving green beer and popcorn on Snake Saturday, anyway, lol!)   I found the background print paper in my scrap box of all places, but I think it is from a DCWV stack.

Cricut:
Create A Critter 2-caterpillar, inside sentiment
Paper-DCWV print, CM solids
Spellbinders dies
black ribbon-Stampin Up
buttons-American Crafts

I'm linking this to the Fantabulous Cricut Luck O' the Irish challenge and the Cardz TV challenge Erin Go Braugh, to use green, black, and white only.   I'm also going to link this to the Whimsical Designs St. Patrick's Day challenge.

I have two posts going up today! If you're looking for my post for the Exploring Cricut challenge "Luck of the Irish", just scroll down one post. My first post for the BBTB2 challenge "Bring on the Bunnies" is just below. Have a wonderful crafty Monday!

Egg Hunt (for the BBTB2)

I'm super excited that I've been asked to join the Bitten By the Bug 2 Design Team!  This will be my first post for them!  The challenge is "Bring on the Bunnies".  I made a layout for our upcoming Easter Egg Hunt pictures, using my favorite newer cartridge, Create A Critter 2.

My bunny is hopping through the yard looking for eggs among the flowers and grass.  The other bunnies are also looking here and there, peeking under things, for some yummy eggs!  The flowers, butterflies, and eggs are cut from sparkly paper, but it didn't photograph well.  ALL the paper is from the Target dollar bin where I snagged it after last Easter!  That makes me ridiculously happy :) to have used my bargain buy!  OK, I can't resist saying it-hop to it and join us in the bunny fun!

Cricut:

Create A Critter 2-all cuts

Paper-all from the Target dollar bin last year!
brown chalk ink

Luck of the Irish (for Exploring Cricut)

It's the Luck of the Irish challenge at Exploring Cricut, to celebrate St. Patrick's Day!  The project challenge is to include a shamrock.  There was no mention of leprechauns, but I decided to include one of those too!  Or rather, a leprechaun teddy bear from the Teddy Bear Parade cartridge, with his pot of gold!  My shamrock is from A Child's Year and the title is from Graphically Speaking.

I picked my title because I just feel lucky that life IS good most of the time-St. Patrick's day is just extra-lucky!  (Of course I'm sure it would all be even better with a pot of gold....what wouldn't?  Do you think Archiever's could work a deal for scrapbook supplies in exchange for gold if I won a leprechaun lottery?)  So come on over to Exploring Cricut and join us with a lucky shamrock this week!

Cricut:

Teddy Bear Parade-leprechaun bear, cut at 4 1/2 in.

A Child's Year-shamrock, cut at 1 1/2 in.

Graphically Speaking-title, cut at 4 1/2 in.

Paper-DCWV All Seasons pack prints, solids CM and Bo Bunny

brown chalk ink/white gel pen/stickle
Ribbon-Stampin Up

You're tweet! card

The big piles of snow have melted a bit today and I am wanting it to be spring!  I made a card for the Fantabulous Cricut challenge to use a bird that is making me feel spring-like at least (Hard to feel too much like spring when there is still a 2 foot tall pile of snow around my mailbox...but I digress.)  My card uses a cute little bird from Create A Critter and the sentiment is from a My Pink Stamper set.  The bird print paper is from an American Crafts 6x6 pad called Color Crush, full of soft pretty colors.  The fabric stickers on the inside are also from American Crafts.  The background paper with the birds just makes me happy :) today!

Cricut:
Create a Critter-bird cut at 3 inches
Paper-American Crafts prints, solids are CTMH
brown chalk ink
punches/ink-Stampin Up, Stampin Up Island Indigo ink for sentiment
buttons/fabric stickers-American Crafts

I am also going to link this to my Pause Dream Enjoy DT sister Tara's  Craftin Desert Diva's Craft it up Linky Party, where anything goes this week!  And there are cool prizes!

For the Boys layout (for PDE challenges)

It's time for a new Pause Dream Enjoy challenge!  This one is perfect for me-since I've got boy action going on all the time with my three sons!!!!

Pause Dream Enjoy (PDE) Ch# 5 For the BOYS

Begins: Monday, Mar 4

Ends: Sunday, Mar 17

Winner announced in the WINNERS Page Tab

Guess which cartridge I used for this challenge?  Boys Will Be Boys!  (I know, you're shocked...lol!)  My layout is titled "100% Boy, Built Tough".   I cut some tennis shoes, a robot, and spaceship to represent boys and their toys.  I have pictures of my guys playing with lego blocks that will go on here (hence the "Under Construction" stamp on the journal box).  The photo corners were made using my square punch and cut in half for super quick accent.

Cricut:

Boys Will Be Boys-all cuts

Paper-The Paper Studio for the prints, solids CTMH and CM

brown chalk ink

Stamp-My Pink Stamper set

This is a two week challenge, so join us and put up a project!  (Perfect for moms and grandmas of boys!!!!!)

Snow Day layout (for Exploring Cricut)

Today is my day for the daily project for Exploring Cricut!  I have a Snow Day layout for today.  After having two very large snow storms in the last week, I had many more pictures of the kids playing in the snow!  (I am really ready to be DONE with snow now, but the weather does not seem to be cooperating!)  I used more of the wonderful Winter Wishes collection from Echo Park for my layout, along with the Winter Woodlands cartridge.  I absolutely love the paper from this Echo Park collection and the mittens and stocking cap from WW just seemed made for it! The stickers and journal box are also from the collection.   Hope it is slightly less cold and snowy for all of you!

Cricut:
Winter Woodland-title cut at 3 1/2 in., mittens and hat cut at 2 1/2 in.
Paper-Echo Park prints, solids are CTMH and CM
brown chalk ink

Note:  The Winter Woodands font with the cutouts is beautiful, but I find it prone to snagging and tearing while cutting.  I've found it best to use a slow cutting speed and reasonably sturdy paper for the best results. I've had bad outcomes when using thin paper.