Book mark tags for the new year (for Exploring Cricut)

2014 is almost upon us and Diane has challenged us to make some kind of project related to the New Year at Exploring Cricut.  I belong to two book clubs, so I made some tags to use as bookmarks.  We have just finished planning all the books to read for this upcoming year, so on the back of my tags is room to write the list of titles for 2014.  I used Plaintain Schoolbook to cut the basic tag and it's shadow.  I then added the silhouette of the child reading from one of my favorite cartridges, A Child's Year, and used the font to add the year.

Cricut:
Plaintain Schoolbook-tags, cut at 4 inches
A Child's Year-child cut at 2 1/2 inches, font at 1 inch
Paper-kraft, CTMH for the blue paper
brown chalk ink
ribbon/twine from the stash

Link up your project with us at Exploring Cricut and we hope you will join us for lots of crafty fun in 2014!

More Christmas tags (for BBTB2)

Christmas is almost here!  We are having an inspiration only post this week at BBTB2, featuring more Christmas gift tags.  These are so quick and easy to make and just give a package that extra bit of special!  I made a whole stack, using the basic tag and shadow from Plaintain Schoolbook that matched the colors on some of my wrapping paper.  I added the clef and holly leaf from the CM Tis the Season cartridge to two of them, but the rest are simple and sweet.  (Son #2 is getting a little mini keyboard, so the tag with the clef is special for him!)

Cricut:
Plaintain Schoolbook-tags, cut at 3 1/2 inches
CM Tis the Season-clef and holly, cut at 2 1/2 inches
Paper-variety of scraps for the prints, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink

Tis the Season Christmas layout

It's my day for the daily project at Exploring Cricut!  Are you all ready for Christmas?  I'm not!!!!  So much to do!  And we are hosting the big family party!  Yikes!  I have a Christmas layout for you for some of those upcoming pictures.  I used the CM Tis the Season cartridge for all the cuts and the bg papers are from Bo Bunny.

Cricut:
CM Tis the Season-all cuts
Paper-Bo Bunny

We have a new daily project every day to inspire you to use your cricut, so keep checking out all the great ideas at Exploring Cricut each day!

I have two posts today...

Happy Monday!  Christmas is speeding towards us (maybe a little faster than I'm ready for…) and I have two Christmas posts for you.  Just below is my post for my Christmas tag project for BBTB2, using the Winter Frolic snowman.  Scroll down one post for my December 25th layout for Exploring Cricut, using the CM Tis the Season cartridge.   Have a great week getting all your final Christmas shopping done!

Christmas tags (for BBTB2)

We have a fun Christmas gift tag challenge for you at BBTB2 this week.   You are probably starting to wrap some packages, right?  I love to make a few of the gift tags (for those super special gifts) and the ladies at BBTB2 have some beautiful ones to show you!  I used Plaintain Schoolbook to cut my tag-that cartridge has some great tags and this one is my favorite!  The hip and cool snowman on the front of my tag is cut from the Winter Frolic cartridge.  On the back of the tag, I added the to/from with room to write names.  I finished off the whole thing with some ribbon and twine and added it to my package-all done!

Cricut:
Plaintain Schoolbook-tag and shadow tag cut at 3 1/2 inches
Winter Frolic-snowman, cut at 2 1/2 inches
Paper-The Paper Studio prints, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink
ribbon/twine-Stampin Up Old Olive, CTMH

Jazz up some of your packages with a cute tag-we'd love to see it over at BBTB2!

December 25th layout (for Exploring Cricut)

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  That is our Exploring Cricut challenge for this week-to make a Christmas project of some sort with a cricut cut.  As I'm in the midst of all things Christmas related at the moment, this was the PERFECT challenge!   The fun whimsical cuts are from the CM Tis the Season cartridge, including my journal box.  I added Santa's belt buckle for a cute little addition on the journal box, along with a stamped title.

Cricut:
CM Tis the Season-all cuts
Paper-Bazzill basics prints, solids CTMH
Stamp-

We'd love to see you join our challenge with any kind of Christmas project…maybe that homemade paper crafting gift you are making for a special someone on your list?  Or a card or layout?  It's wide-open, so have some fun with it!

Did you know Bazzill has started making some print papers?  I didn't until I saw this Christmas background paper at Archievers, which is always well stocked with the Bazzill solid paper.   Then I saw this gorgeous heavy weight Christmas paper and was surprised to discover it was from Bazzill!  I had to have some to make Christmas layouts, even though that wasn't what I was there to buy!  (I know, I know...I'm easily distracted by shiny objects, er paper, lol!  Especially when I'm supposed to be shopping for boring things like adhesive.)

I'm also going to link this to the Fantabulous Cricut Anything But a Card Challenge this week.

Noel Christmas card

It's a Christmas card challenge at Fantabulous Cricut, so I made this card using the Create A Critter 2 cartridge for the NOEL.   The background papers are from the fresh and fun Doodlebug North Pole collection and the olive ribbon is from my stash of Stampin Up ribbon.  Super quick and easy for mass production!

Cricut:
CAC2-Noel
Paper-Doodlebug North Pole collection print, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink

Walking in a Winter Wonderland layout (for BBTB2)

Is it getting cold and wintery yet where you live?  We have snow falling as I write this, with minus zero wind chill!  Brrrr!  Our challenge at BBTB2 this week is to make a winter project, so I made a layout for some snowy pictures.  I used the Artbooking cartridge for all my cuts.  The paper is from the  Echo Park Tis the Season collection that I recently picked up at Archievers.  In real life, you can see the sparkly white elements on this layout, but it's been cloudy and dark this week, which did NOT result in a good photograph of my layout (my camera with the bigger flash died-I'm really hoping Santa is bringing me a new camera for Christmas…I've been really nice this year!).

Cricut:
Artbooking-all cuts
Paper-Echo Park Tis the Season collection prints, CTMH gray solids, American Crafts white glitter paper

We'd love for you to join our challenge at BBTB2 with a winter project of your own!

Candy Cane Merry Christmas layout (for Exploring Cricut)

It's my day for the daily project at Exploring Cricut and I've got a yummilicious peppermint and candy cane layout for Christmas, all inspired by this Echo Park Tis the Season striped paper.  It just made me think of eating bits of the stolen candy canes from the Christmas tree (there usually aren't any left on our tree by Christmas…hence the stolen part!).   I love this cute little candy cane and peppermint from the Simply Charmed cartridge!   The title is from Simply Charmed also.  The stickers on the journal box are from the Echo Park paper pack.

Cricut:
Simply Charmed-all cuts
Paper-Echo Park Tis the Season collection prints and stickers, solids CTMH
brown chalk ink

Check Exploring Cricut every day for more cricut goodness and have some fun joining our biweekly challenges!

North Pole Christmas card

I've been having fun making Christmas cards, so I'll be sharing a few more of them over the next week or two.  This one uses the CM Tis the Season cartridge for the cute little North Pole sign and the paper is from the (appropriately named) Doodlebug North Pole collection!

Cricut:
CM Tis the Season-sign
Paper-Doodlebug North Pole collection prints, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink
stamp-Ali Edwards Jingle All the Way stamp set  

I have two posts today:

Happy Monday!  I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving and are full (maybe overfull, lol?) of food and enjoyed some family fun!  And possibly shopping adventures.  While I did have to work at the hospital on Thanksgiving day, I got to enjoy turkey and pie TWICE-once at work (we managed to fit in a little feasting for the staff between patient care duties) and then the family saved me some too!  At home we've been eating all the fabulous leftovers in our PJs all weekend, so life is good.  Now we're on the countdown to Christmas and I have two Christmas posts for you today.  Just below is my Christmas gift basket from Sweet Treats for BBTB2.  If you scroll down one post, I have a Christmas card using the Winter Frolic cartridge for Exploring Cricut!

Peppermint gift basket (for BBTB2)

Our marvelous DT leader Susan has challenged us to make a holiday gift container for our BBTB2 challenge this week.  I don't have many cartridges that make 3D items, but I found this cute little gift basket on the Sweet Treats cartridge.  I decorated it with peppermint cuts from the Simply Charmed cartridge and I've filled it up with real peppermints for a sweet holiday treat!   Can't you imagine leaving this on a co-workers desk for a delicious surprise?  I decided to make the handle from ribbon instead of paper so I could jam lots of peppermints in there.  I also added some stickle to my peppermint, mostly because it's just so darn fun and sparkly!

Cricut:
Sweet Treats-gift basket
Simply Charmed-all other cuts
Paper-CTMH
ribbon-Stampin Up bashful blue

You will be amazed at all the cool projects the design team has made at BBTB2, so take a look and then play along with your own project!

Christmas Cheer snowman card (for Exploring Cricut)

We have a great challenge to help you get ready for the holidays- it's a Christmas card challenge!  All you have to do is make a Christmas card with a cut from your cricut on it somewhere.  My card was inspired by the fun Doodlebug snowman background paper (from the North Pole collection), which clearly needed a big snowman accent!  My snowman is from the Winter Frolic cartridge, although I had a hard time making up my mind which cricut snowman to use (there are so many cute ones…).   The red polka dot strip at the bottom is not ribbon, but a scrap of paper from the collection!

Cricut:
Winter Frolic-snowman cut at 3 1/2 inches
Paper-Doodlebug North Pole collection prints, CTMH solids
Stamp-Ali Edwards Christmas collection
Ink-Memento Tuxedo black
jewels-from the stash
Punches for the sentiment-Stampin Up

Check out all the cards that the Exploring Cricut team has put together and then link yours up too!