Big City layout

 Happy Monday!  The challenge for the next two weeks over at BBTB2 is to use patterned paper with your cricut cut.  As I was thinking about what to make while tidying my craft room, I found a half-finished layout on the bottom of a stack from a few years ago that had....wait for it....patterned paper!  I think it got lost under stuff (does that happen to anyone else or just me?) and never completed.  It was very satisfying to finally get it all put together and in the appropriate album!  The pictures are from downtown San Francisco when we traveled there a few years ago.  The city buildings are cut with some old CTMH coordinating pattern and solid paper, I think.  Can't wait to see what everyone does with this challenge!  Have a great week!

You Are Here-buildings

Small Talk and Frames-sun

Artiste-clouds

CM Stork's Delivery-Frogs and Snails font

3D baby diaper

Happy Monday!  Hope you are all having a good week!  Our BBTB2 challenge for the next two weeks is to make a 3D project.  While I rarely make anything 3D (between my boys and crazy cat, things don't survive), I made this cute little diaper, complete with pins, from the Artiste cartridge for an upcoming baby shower.  It will probably have to be a drive-through and drop off kind of baby shower due to the pandemic, so I wanted something extra cute to jazz up the gift.  I'll write a message on the removable scalloped insert.  I sponged a little pink ink around all the edges for a little extra pizazz.  You can see the rest of the design team projects over at BBTB2 and link up a new project cut with a cricut there.

Cricut:

Artiste-all cuts

Paper-Doodlebug

Ink-Stampin Up Pretty in Pink for edging

Memorial Day flowers layout

Happy Monday!  I hope your quarantine is going alright.  All the kids in my household seem to be getting used to this new normal, although we seem to be operating on the college schedule of up til 3:00 AM and start the day at noon.  But since no one has to be up early for online class and I work the night shift, it's all good.  My husband already worked from home, so his daily routine hasn't been disrupted at all.  We are all missing seeing family and friends, but are doing our social distancing to stay safe.

Our BBTB2 challenge for the next two weeks is a flower theme.  Mother's Day and Memorial Day are all around the corner and spring flowers are already here, so there are a lot of possibilities with this challenge.  While my scrapbook layout incorporates flowers, it is for some pictures related to Memorial Day so I used very neutral colors.  I have some photos of items from my grandparents' funerals and gravesite that I have always wanted to preserve.  I used several of the CTMH cricut cartridges that I own to make all the accents and the Botanicals cartridge for the font.  You can see the design team projects and link up one of your own over at BBTB2.

Cricut:
Art Philosophy-flowers
Artbooking-background shape, border
Artiste-banner shapes
Botanicals-font

Gable Box with coffee/tea theme

Happy Monday!  I'm in a great mood because my hubby and I are going on a quick trip to Disney World this coming weekend for our 23rd wedding anniversary....with no kids!  It's also the Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot, and I can't get enough of flowers after this long winter.  May is going to be a very busy month for us with tons of school activities and other family events.  So my hubby and I are going to go frolic with Mickey and eat Dole Whips to get ready while counting all our steps with our Fitbits!!!!!

Our BBTB2 challenge this week is to make a 3D box and you can choose your own theme.   I made a cute little box for a caffeine care kit (some tea bags, coffee beans, and a Starbucks card) for my kids, as finals weeks are coming up, so stress levels will be climbing and late nights will be spent studying.  I cut the gable box from the cricut Artiste cartridge and then stamped coffee and tea images on a strip of cardstock I put around it, plus I cut out and stamped the tag.  I used several coffee/tea themed photopolymer stamp sets, but the labels have worn off, so I've got no idea what companies they are from (note to self: write company name with a Sharpie for new sets going forward).  The design team over at the BBTB2 blog has some amazing 3D projects to see and you can link up a new cricut 3D box project there for the next two weeks.  Hope your week is a good one-I will report back on our Dole Whip fueled Mickey adventures next week!  I guarantee there will be some upcoming Disney themed scrapbook layouts!

Cricut:
Artiste-gable box
Stamps:  a mix of old photopolymer sets that have no identifying labels....
Ink:  CTMH crystal blue
Paper-CTMH Kraft

Ice cream cone birthday card

Happy Monday!  Our BBTB2 challenge this week is to jazz up whatever die cut you use in some way.  I was making a birthday card, so I used the ice cream cone from Sweet Treats and added some embossing and liquid glass to the ice cream cone.  I also made it extra big to fit in a business size envelope, because with ice cream more scoops are always better, right?  (At least until the Weight Watcher's weighin, lol!).  I stamped happy birthday on a banner I cut from the Artiste cartridge using one of the coordinating CTMH stamps.  The design team has some inspiration to share over at BBTB2 and you can link up a project too.

Cricut:
Sweet Treats-ice cream cone
Artiste-happy birthday banner
Stamps-CTMH Artiste birthday collection for sentiment, CTMH Balloon Wishes banner stamp (coordinates with Artiste), Paper Smooches for ice cream cone stamp
Ink-Stampin Up Rose Romance
Paper-CTMH solids, The Paper Studio for ice cream paper
Embossing folders-cuttlebug Swiss dots, Sixzzix swirls, Sizzix cross hatched pattern
Liquid Glass on cherry and sprinkles

xmas gifts boxes treats

Happy Monday!  We have "survived" a week of multiple school concerts and events, plus a birthday. Finals week for the college kid starts today and the highschoolers next week.  Family stress levels are at Defcon 2 and rising.  I think I need some eggnog stat!  And maybe a quiet dark room.  Definitely some diet coke!!!!  My goal for this week is to provide as much comfort as possible for the stressed out teens and recover my own holiday spirit by wrapping some gifts in my PJs.  Thank goodness for Amazon prime delivery to the door of all the Christmas gifts!  I'm sure some of Santa's Elves are working for Amazon, lol.  While I would like to do some local shopping, there just isn't any time!

In the spirit of wrapping gifts, our BBTB2 challenge this week is Christmas gifts, boxes, or embellished treats.  Along with all the bows, boxes, and wrapping paper, my gift wrap area has this little cutie of a Christmas tree box waiting for some goodies!  I made it using the Cricut Artiste cartridge and it was super simple to fold and put together.  Like, you can make this thing lickety split and look like a rock star in the gift wrapping department!  It's the perfect size for that secret Santa gift of candy or tiny treat at work....not saying that's what I'm doing with or anything, so if you are one of my workmates reading this, it's totally not from me!  The design team over at BBTB2 has some festive projects for you to see to get inspired and you can link up your holiday project.  I wish you all a not too stressful week that holds a Christmas treat or two!

Glam Artiste gift card holder

Happy Monday!  Our BBTB2 challenge this week is to make a 3D project.  I am generally not much for 3D decorative items because with 3 teenage boys and a crazy cat, rapid destruction is pretty much  guaranteed.  With that in mind,  I decided to make one of the gift card holders from the Artiste cartridge for a niece's birthday for my 3D project.  My birthday plan is to get her a Sephora gift card (she can have fun at what we call the make-up candy store), so I cut the cute nail polish bottle and lipstick from the Forever Young cartridge to "glam" up my gift card holder.  I love the gift card holder on Artiste and have cut often-it was actually the reason I bought the cartridge!!!  (Because with teens, you get them gift cards or cash....that's what they want!). There are lots of darling 3D projects over at BBTB2 to see that hopefully won't be destroyed immediately,  unlike at my house, so please go check them out and you can link up one of your own.

Cricut:
Artiste-gift card holder
Forever Young-nail polish, lipstick, glam title
Paper-CTMH solids, green Echo Park

birthday layouts

Happy Monday!  It's a birthday theme at BBTB2 this week and I have a whole bunch of birthday ideas to share!  You can see more birthday goodness over at BBTB2 from the designers.  So let's get started....

 Project #1

This was for pics of Son#1's birthday this fall.  I wanted the picture in the star frame to be the focus.

Cricut:
Sweet Treats-happy birthday
Artbooking-photo frame with star
Artistry-numbers
Elegant Edges-scallop circle
Plaintain Schoolbook-circle
Paper-Doodlebug print, CTMH solids

Project #2

I was having some fun with the CTMH watercolors and made the cupcake paper on the right myself! I stamped the cupcakes and then watercolored them!  I also watercolored the Happy Birthday banner that I cut from the Artiste cartridge...probably would have just kept watercoloring if there was anything else left, lol!  My inner kindergartner was out to play.  The balloons are stamped from a CTMH set that corresponds to the Art Philosophy cartridge, so I cut them out with my cricut, then stamped the ballon image.  We were celebrating the November birthdays in the family (Son#3 and Grandma).  

Cricut:
Artiste-banner, balloons
Sweet Treats-make a wish
Stamp set-CTMH Artiste cartridge birthday set


The next few layouts go together as a set.  The Party Animals birthday layout from a few weeks ago is one of them.  The rest do not have any cricut cuts, but I decided to put them together with the other birthday layouts for one big birthday bonanza of layout ideas.

Project #3

Project #4

Project #5

The arrow is a cricut cut from the Artiste cartridge that has a matching CTMH stamp.

Project #6

I showed this layout a few weeks ago, but wanted to include it with the birthday theme as well.

Thanksgiving layout

Happy Monday!  I think we can all heave a sigh of relief that last week is over and think about happier things like....the holidays!  I am hosting our BBTB2 challenge this week and have selected a Thanksgiving theme for the week.  For my Thanksgiving layout,  I used a CTMH paper pack called Swan Lake for the print papers and several different cartridges, including Artbooking and Artiste.  I had to add a pie (from the Flower Market cartridge), since Thanksgiving is all about the turkey and pie for my family!  Hope you will be able to have some fun this week and be creative.  You can link up a project over at BBTB2 and see the design team's creations.

Cricut:
Artiste-Thanksgiving title
Artbooking-polaroid photo mats, arrow
Flower Market-pie, With Love phrase
Plaintain Schoolbook-circle
Paper-CTMH Swan Lake prints, CTMH solids

Movie night layout

Happy Monday!  Fall is here with falling leaves and crisp, cool evenings.  What is more fun than having a movie night at home with some popcorn and apple cider?  Our BBTB2 challenge this week is movie night (or a movie themed project).  We do movie night fairly regularly around my house, bringing out the popcorn and root beer floats, so I made a layout for some movie night pics of the fam.  There's nothing better than being snuggled up on the couch in front of a roaring fire with my favorite peeps to watch something blow up (not a lot of chick flicks allowed with all my fellas around)!  I used a whole bunch of cartridges, but I love how it turned out!  I even hand-made my movie reel using circles from Plaintain Schoolbook!  Go see the projects from the design team and link up a movie project over at BBTB2 this week.

Cricut:
Family Album-row of stars
Artiste-Movie Night title
Locker Talk-ticket and clapper
County Fair-popcorn and soda
Artistry-filmstrip
Plaintain Schoolbook-film reel hand made using different size circles

3D treat container from Artiste

Our BBTB2 challenge this week is to make a 3D project.  I don't typically make many 3D items since between 3 teenage boys and a crazy cat, paper decorative items have a ridiculously short life around here before disaster strikes!  But I made a cute little treat container from the Artiste cartridge that was super quick to put together.  Like…. I whipped out the whole thing (including stamping some decorations in about 15 minutes!  Go me!  My treat container was for chocolate Hershey kisses, so I stamped a few decorations from the CTMH A Chocolate Affair stamp set.  Because chocolate really DOES understand.  And makes almost any problem seem a tiny bit better while it melts in your mouth.  See what else the design team has come up with for 3D goodness over at BBTB2 and link up your 3D project this week!

Cricut:
Artiste-3D treat box with scallop edge (p. 35) cut at 3 inches
Stamps-CTMH stamp set A Chocolate Affair
Ink-Stampin Up Early Espresso, Versamark Jumbo Java for edges
Paper-scraps
black pen
Hershey kisses!!!!

Give Thanks layout

Happy Monday!  I hope you had a great fall weekend!  At BBTB2 this week, we have a color challenge using the fall colors of brown, gold, orange, and red.  I made a layout for some of the Thanksgiving pictures I plan to take, using the CTMH Artiste cartridge for the title and leaves.  Since the leaves were kind of plain by themselves, I added some scoring and doodling and crumpled them up  before adhering them onto my page.  I scrap lifted my basic page design from a layout by the fabulous Michelle Snyder that I saw on Pinterest (can I just say I LOVE Pinterest?) and changed it to fit the cuts from this cartridge and add some space for journaling.  Hope you will go check out the many varieties of fall colors from the design team over at BBTB2 and link up your own fall project.  It's a good time to make Thanksgiving decorations and projects…just sayin'.

Cricut:
Artiste-leaves, title
Paper-CTMH solids, Doodlebug Kraft in color polka dot
brown chalk ink, square punch (for photo corners)