April showers bring May flowers layout (for BBTB2)

Happy Monday!  Do you have any spring flowers yet?  I do, as my daffodils are all in bloom and it makes me happy every day to see these signs of spring!  Our BBTB2 challenge this week is perfect for this:  April showers-which make spring flowers, but you can also go with baby or wedding related showers.  It's pretty wide open for your creativity.  I went with april showers make may flowers for my layout, which uses one of my favorite cartridges, A Child's Year, for all the images.  I love the silhouettes on this cartridge, plus it has so many other terrific images!  I was struggling with the lighting (since I didn't get this photographed until after dark), so you can't really read the title, which is "april showers bring may flowers".

Cricut:
A Child's Year-all cuts
Paper-Fancy Pants prints, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink

I hope you'll link up a shower project with us at BBTB2 and check out all the marvelous design team projects!

Wedding Reception layout (for Exploring Cricut)

It's Friday!  TGIF!  I get to show the daily project for Exploring Cricut today and I have a layout using the Suburbia cartridge for you.  Wedding season is coming up…do you take lots of pictures at weddings?  I do and I needed to scrap some candid photos of family and friends taken at a wedding reception, so I cut my very sharp dressed couple in their finery and also added the little camera to the journaling spot.  The pretty font is also from Suburbia.

Cricut:
Suburbia-all cuts
Paper-Simple Stories Vintage Bliss collection prints, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink

You can check out a new daily project every day at Exploring Cricut or on the Exploring Cricut FB page!  Have a great weekend!

I have two projects today...

Happy Monday!  It was a busy weekend at work, with lots of traumas and general mayhem, so I can say with all truthfulness that I'm actually really happy it's Monday instead of Friday and Saturday night!    I have two posts for you today.  Just below is a Disney themed layout using the Best of Pixar cartridge, about Monster's Inc for Exploring Cricut.  Scroll down one post for my BBTB2 spring flowers themed layout, using the CM Be Young and CM Cheerful Seasons cartridge.  Unfortunately the weather did NOT get the message about spring flowers, as it's supposed to snow today!  Hope all of you have a wonderful week and maybe some warmer sunnier weather!!

Monsters Inc. Disney layout

I've got another Disney themed project for you!  Our Exploring Cricut challenge this week is a cricut choice:  use any cartridge and include at least one color card stock and one patterned paper.  So, I went all Disney and used the Best of Pixar cartridge to make a Monster's Inc. themed layout.  We hugely enjoyed the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor show at DisneyWorld recently (and recently watched Monster's University for movie night at home) and I took a bunch of pictures while we waited.  I had SO much fun cutting out Roz, Mike, and the rest for this.  All the cuts are from Best of Pixar except the title font, which is Nate's ABCs.  Don't you like all the extra eyes?  I couldn't resist and just kept adding more!

Cricut:
Nate's ABCs-title font
Best of Pixar-all other cuts
Paper-purple paper and purple print are CM, all other paper is CTMH
brown chalk ink
Stamp-My Pink Stamper set
white gel pen for the eyes-I don't even try to mess around with the tiny eye pieces any more!

Play along with the challenge-remember, you can use SVGs now or any cricut die cut for our Exploring Cricut challenges!  The design team has some great projects to get you inspired!

Spring layout (for BBTB2)

Spring flowers are the theme this week for the BBTB2 challenge.  I'm feeling all springy and my daffodils and grape hyacinths are starting to pop their stalks up out of the ground, so this was a fun layout to make!  I was in the mood for soft spring colors, so when I found the soft green striped background paper in my stash I knew it was just the thing!  Love it when I am surprised by finding something in my stash (although I think my husband feels that means the stash is too big…..lol!).  I used my CM Be Young cartridge for most of the cuts and CM Cheerful Seasons for the title.

the whole layout

isn't Mr. Sun cool with his shades?

pretty spring flowers

even the tree is feeling springy and full of leaves!

Cricut:
CM Cheerful Seasons-title
CM Be Young-all other cuts
Paper-green stripe from Echo Park dots and stripes collection, spring print ?, solids CTMH
brown chalk ink

I hope you are having some lovely spring weather soon and can enjoy the flowers!  In the meantime, we'd love to see your flower projects at BBTB2, so link up your projects!  And, check out the fresh fun projects from the rest of the design team!

Hear the Music layout (for BBTB2)

I am hosting the challenge at BBTB2 this week!  I chose a musical theme, so you must use a musical note or clef cricut cut on your project somewhere.  As all my boys have turned out to be musical (rather than athletic), I always have pictures from recitals and concerts to scrapbook.  My layout uses the Quarter Note cartridge for all the cuts.  If you have musicians, this cartridge is a MUST have, as it has both band and orchestra instruments and all kinds of music phrases and words.

so here's the layout:

Cricut:
Quarter Note-clef cut at 3 in., notes cut at 11/2 in., instrumentalists cut at 3 in., perform cut at 1 in., hear the music cut at 21/2 in., encore cut at 2 in.
Paper-base paper is from the Echo Park Everyday Eclectic collection, photo mat music print is from a DCWV music stack
stamp-My Pink Stamper Music Speaks set
ink-Memento tuxedo black

I would love to see what musical goodness you have to share, so link up your new project over at BBTB2 for us all to see!

PS:  Long before Pinterest (or I totally would have pinned it for future reference), I saw a card with the musicians on the musical score like I did on my layout, so I can't take credit for the cool idea.  I've always wanted to try to do something like it, so this layout was the perfect opportunity.

Enjoy Life layout (for Exploring Cricut)

Today is my day for the daily project at Exploring Cricut!  My "Enjoy Life" layout is for pics of the boys, using paper from Echo Park's All About a Boy collection from last year.  The "Enjoy Life" theme is pretty multipurpose, so this title would work for a variety of pictures.

I used the CM This and That cricut cart and the CM Traveler cart. The star border and the Enjoy Life title are from the This and That cartridge.  The font is from Traveler.  (You could change the star border to anything that suited your layout theme.)   To make the little accent bar at the left bottom of the layout, I cut a 1 3/4 by 4 inch rectangle.  I used a 1 1/2 inch square punch to punch a square out of the corner.  I used a 1 1/4 inch square punch to cut the three orange squares.  You can see how I layered the squares over the rectangle and added some stickers plus one square is accenting my journaling box.  (I was shown this in a CM workshop long ago-it's a good way to use small stickers on a big layout where they might get overwhelmed alone.)

Cricut:
CM This and That-title and star border
CM Traveler-font
Paper/stickers-Echo Park It's All About a Boy collection
brown chalk ink
CM square punches

There is a new daily project every day at Exploring Cricut, so check back there tomorrow to see what is in store for inspiration!  Diane has lots of excellent projects and challenges planned!

St. Patrick's Day wall hanging (for BBTB2 and Exploring Cricut)

Happy Monday!  It's supposed to feel warm and springy here today, which will be nice for a change since it snowed last weekend!  St. Patrick's Day was the theme for both the Exploring Cricut and BBTB2 challenges this week, so my project is dual purpose.  I like to change the little decorating accents monthly in my house by switching up the candles, wreaths, and wall hangings to fit the seasons and holidays, so I made a a St. Pats wall hanging for my foyer, using A Child's Year and the Phrases cartridges.

So for March, I've got my green candles in the living room, shamrock towels in the hall bath,  along with my project below.  (Sorry about the glare from the glass-I forgot to take the picture BEFORE I put it in the frame!  And it was such a pain to get it hung up that I wasn't taking it down!)  I love this silhouette of the boy with the shamrock on A Child's Year.  I was super-pleased to find the Lucky Day cut with the shamrock on the Phrases cartridge when I searched for "shamrock" on mycutsearch!

Cricut:
A Child's Year-silhouette cut at 6 inches
Phrases-lucky cut at 2 1/2 inches
Paper-St. Pat's print paper is from the DCWV All-Seasons stack, solids are CTMH
brown chalk ink

Show us your projects at BBTB2 and Exploring Cricut and see the festive projects from my awesome design team sisters!  You'll be all in the mood for some green beer and festivities on Snake Saturday!

Snow layout (for BBTB2)

Our BBTB2 challenge this week is to use our favorite cricut cartridge.  Oh, this caused so much angst-WHICH cartridge is really my favorite?  I narrowed it down to about five before I became paralyzed by the decision making.  I did a version of rock paper scissors to come to the final pick, LOL!  This turned out to be my CM Cheerful Seasons cricut cartridge, which I've made 27 projects with that are shown on my blog (plus many more at home)-it's truly been a very versatile cartridge.

My project is a winter layout, since there is still plenty of winter going on-we got 5 inches of snow yesterday!  I have lots of pics of the kids playing outside in the snow with their friends to scrap.  All the cuts are from Cheerful Seasons and the paper is from the Fancy Pants Timbergrove collection (love the soft colors of this collection).  The beautiful layered snowflake on the Cheerful Seasons cart is one of my absolute favorites from any cartridge!

Cricut:
CM Cheerful Seasons-all cuts
Paper-Fancy Pants Timber Grove prints, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink

In case inquiring minds want to know, the five carts I was trying to decide between were Doodlecharms, A Child's Year, Create A Critter, Winter Frolic, and Cheerful Seasons.  I've made A LOT of projects with all of them!  Check out all the favorites of the DT at BBTB2 and we would LOVE to see your favorite cart!