banners everywhere

Happy Monday!  It's been REALLY REALLY hot here in KC, like much of the country this last few days, with heat indexes of 110.  Although it feels really good to be in the pool, I'm not a fan!  I'm grateful the weather is supposed to be more moderate today, as it's just been too hot to do anything.  That's a good excuse to be holed in up in my crafty space where it's air conditioned though!

Our BBTB2 challenge for the next two weeks is banners, either making a banner or using banners as an element on a project.  I scrapped some pictures of Son#2 in a parade and used banners as a decorative element on the page.  Since the parade pictures were pretty bright and colorful, I wanted a colorful accent.  You can see the design team projects over at BBTB2 and link up a project too.



Cricut:
Birthday Bash-banners and font for "parade"
Learning Curve-homecoming font
Paper-CTMH prints and solids
raspberry twine

Wish big birthday card

Happy Monday!  We were supposed to have a very busy weekend of fall festival performances by all the kids....but the weather had other ideas.  We got in the Friday night football game and band performance by Son#2, who is a drum major for the marching band, and then the rain came.  And still hasn't stopped!  It has rained pretty much nonstop all weekend!  We still got to attend a symphony concert by Son#1 Saturday night, but all the fall festival events and band competitions got cancelled.  It actually was kind of nice to have some unexpected time at home with the fam.  

While this is not a BBTB2 challenge week, I am sharing a birthday card that I made with the Birthday Bash cartridge.  We have a bunch of birthday events coming up....so I've been making a bunch of cards!  I've always wanted to make this cute little guy with his stack of presents.  It took a few tries to get my colors sorted out on the presents, but I finally got it all put together and I think my nephew will like this Wish Big card!  On to find a big birthday gift!  I hope you all have a wonderful week, whether full of sunshine or rain!

Cricut:
Birthday Bash-animal with presents
Stamps-Paper Smooches
Ribbon-Stamping Up pool party ruffled ribbon
Ink-Memento tuxedo black
Paper-CTMH solids, prints from the scrap stash :)

You're EARresistible Easter card

Happy Monday!  It's spring break for my high schoolers, so we are having a very chill pajama day and just cozying up at home since it's rainy and cold.  I'm planning a little crafty time too!  Our BBTB2 challenge this week is an Easter theme.  My Easter card below uses a square shaped card base from the Birthday Bash cartridge and the most adorable Easter bunny bear from the Teddy Bear Parade cartridge.  Who wouldn't want to go Easter egg hunting with him?  And I had the perfect stamp from the CTMH Animal Greetings set to go with him!  The rest of the design team has some cute Easter projects to share over at BBTB2 and you can link up a project there too this week.

Cricut:
Teddy Bear Parade-bunny bear
Birthday Bash-shaped card
Paper-Doodlebug Hello Sunshine 6x6 prints, CTMH solids
Stamp-CTMH Animal Greetings
VersaMagic Jumbo Java chalk ink for edging
Ink-Stampin Up Rose Romance for sentiment

St Pats parade layout

Happy Monday!  I am hosting the challenge over at BBTB2 this week and instead of a specific cricut cut, I selected a color challenge to use green to celebrate the upcoming St. Patrick's Day.  You still need to use a cricut cut on your project, but it does NOT have to be related to St. Patrick's Day at all.  St. Patrick's Day is big here in KC, and Son#2 will be marching in a parade with his high school band.  Knowing there will be some parade pics taken, I made a layout.  I know the parade pics will be very colorful and busy, so I was trying to keep my layout relatively simple.  I hope you will go over and see the design team projects at BBTB2 and link up one of your own this week!

Cricut:

Birthday Bash-font
Artistry-horseshoe and clover

Plaintain Schoolbook-circles

Paper-Doodlebug Happy Go Lucky prints, CTMH solids

Happy Birthday layout

Happy Monday!  It's birthday time over at BBTB2 this week and I have several fun birthday layouts to share.  My extended family is big and we celebrate lots of birthdays together each year, so I make lots of birthday spreads.  The first one uses Birthday Bash for the title and Doodlecharms for the present and journal box.  I love a bright, colorful birthday page and the Doodlebug print paper was just the thing!

Cricut:
Birthday Bash-title
Doodlecharms-present, journal box
Paper-Doodlebug prints, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink, square punch for photo corners

This layout uses the Artistry cartridge for the Celebrate title block, decal to which I added the birthday boy's age, and the Happy Birthday font.

Cricut:
Artistry-all cuts
Paper-Bo Bunny prints Surprise collection prints, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink, square punch for photo corners

This next layout uses the Artbooking cartridge for the title and stack of presents with softer, more pastel colors.  (It was not for one of the boys' birthdays, lol!)

Cricut:
Artbooking-Happy Birthday and stack of presents
Paper-CTMH Kaleidescope prints, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink

Last, I have another layout using the Artbooking cartridge-I'll show it to you with the picture added of my Dad and the grandkids all blowing out the birthday candles for his 75th.  I did a little stamping for the stars on this one.

Cricut:
Artbooking-make a wish title
Paper-CTMH Magical print paper, CTMH solids
Stamp/Ink-star from the CTMH The Authentic Everyday Life set, Stampin Up poppy parade ink

Go see all the birthday goodness over at BBTB2 and link up your project this week!
SaveSave

Ice Cream projects

Happy Monday!  Did you know it's National Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast day?  I fully support this holiday-in fact I could probably support it every day!  It needs more publicity.  I'm pretty sure it's not on the Weight Watchers plan though….unfortunately.  Our BBTB2 challenge this week, as you might have guessed, is to use an ice cream cut.  I have a few ice cream projects…..although not a full 31 flavors worth, LOL!  Check out the delicious projects from the design team over at BBTB2 and link up a project of your own!

Project #1

This layout was for some fun ice cream pictures on our cruise this summer, using Simply Charmed for the title, ice cream cone, and popsicle and Elegant Edges for the scalloped journal box.

Cricut:
Simply Charmed-title, ice cream cone, popsicle
Elegant Edges-jounal box
Paper/Stickers-Echo Park prints, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink

Project #2

 close up of my ice cream float

This layout  uses the Suburbia cartridge for all the cuts, including the font.  My picture came out a little dark-it's easier to see the font in better lighting (it's a really pretty cursive).  I LOVE the jukebox cut!  My husband and I are big fans of root beer floats and I thought the ice cream cut looked like a float.

Cricut:
Suburbia-all cuts
Paper-Echo Park bg paper, Catrta Bella ice cream print, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink, white gel pen

Project #3

This is scrap lifted from this card I saw on Pintererest.  I used Birthday Bash to cut the ice cream sundae and some Diamond Glaze on the orange layer and stickle to make it look super yummy.

Cricut:
Birthday Bash-sundae
Paper-stripe is TLC, CTMH solids
stamp-Stampin Up
stickle, diamond glaze, brown chalk ink for edging, Stampin Up Peach Parfait ink for sentiment
Stampin Up scallop border punch

thank U card

I'm still feeling under the weather, but looking forward to some Thanksgiving goodness this week!  Our BBTB2 challenge this week is to use the word thanks on a thanksgiving themed project.  There are several people in our lives who deserve some special thanks at this Thanksgiving time of year, and I send a little note of appreciation each year at Thanksgiving.  My basic card design was sparked by something I saw on Pinterest, but in my Nyquil haze, I cannot find it to put a link (I'll try to find it later this week).  I used the Birthday Bash cartridge to cut out the card shape in kraft paper and also for the font for the big letter U.  For the thank part, I used the Sweetheart cartridge phrase thank you (using just the thank part).  The inside, which I forgot to photograph (I'm very very medicated) says "for all that you do".  The yellow candies are from Doodlebug.  Over at BBTB2, the designers have some ideas for you and you can play along and link up a project.  I hope you are able to enjoy the holiday and spend some time with those you love this week!  Happy Thanksgiving!

Cricut:
Birthday Bash-shape card, letter U
Sweethearts-thank
Paper-CTMH Kraft cardstock base, print is Simple Stories (I think)
brown chalk ink
Doodlebug candies

Happy Bird-day card

Happy Monday!  I am still recovering from returning home last night from our cruise vacation…a little sunburned and sore, back to the real world, sigh.  Where no one comes in and tidies up the room every time you leave or brings diet Coke right to the deck chair looking out over the ocean.  I wanted to take our room steward home with me, lol!  So we all know pictures are worth a thousand words, so here's a couple before we get to the scrappy portion of this post...

this is the life

Labadee, Haiti is truly tropical paradise

my boys climbing up Dunn's River Falls in Jamaica

my fellas ready to zipline

swimming with the stingrays in Grand Cayman

snorkeling on the reef in Grand Cayman, where the water is crystal clear

Now to the crafty stuff!  Our weekly challenge at BBTB2 is to make a shaped birthday card.  It's always good for me to have birthday cards in the stash, because I am just not very creative at the last minute.  I used the Birthday Bash cartridge to cut the scalloped card base and my cute chick wishing a happy bird-day is from Create A Critter (which I think might be my all-time favorite cartridge).  This card was SUPER fast to make.  Although in case you're wondering, I made it before the vacation!

Cricut:
Birthday Bash-card base, cut at 4 1/4 inches
Create A Critter-chick cut at 3 inches
Stamps-My Pink Stamper set
Paper-Bo Bunny prints, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink

Whoooo loves you card (for BBTB2)

Happy Monday!  Did you have a good Valentine's Day weekend?  I had to work all weekend but I did get ice cream, BBQ, and flowers which cheered me up, even though it's cold and snowy here.  So our BBTB2 challenge this week is to make a shaped card of some sort.  I used Birthday Bash to cut the scallop circle card base and mat.  The rest of the card uses Create A Critter for all the cuts.  I had an owl from CAC left over from a Valentine project and I just started adding things from CAC and got maybe a little carried away with the tulips, lol!  (I think my longing for spring and temperatures higher than 32 degrees are showing with the tulips…)  There is a whole variety of shaped cards to be seen over at BBTB2, so check out what the rest of the design team has done and I hope you have a marvelous week!

Cricut:
Birthday Bash-card cut at 4 1/4 inches
Create A Critter-all other cuts
Paper-CTMH solids
brown chalk ink
Stamp-My Pink Stamper set

Happy bird-day card (for Exploring Cricut)

Happy Tuesday!  I get the fun of sharing a project for Exploring Cricut's 4th birthday!  Since we are celebrating birthdays,  I used the Birthday Bash and Create A Critter 2 cartridges to make this b-day card for my niece.  It's a perfect little card when you want something "punny"!

I used the Birthday Bash cartridge to cut the shaped card base at 4 1/4 inches.  I cut two of the scallop mats (also from Birthday Bash) in two different prints and cut each in half, with some ribbon across the center to visually connect them.  The cute little party bird is from Create A Critter 2, cut at 3 inches.  I added a little bling to his party hat…because what is a birthday without some bling?  I stamped my Happy bird-day sentiment and hand cut the little banners.  I did a little more quick stamping inside to finish it all off.  Quick, easy, and cute!

Shedd Aquarium layout

I've got an aquarium layout for you today that I'm going to link to the Fantabulous Cricut Wet and Wild challenge this week.  We went to the Shedd aquarium in Chicago last summer and I took lots of cool fishy pictures that need a home!

The background paper is from the Colorbok Beach House collection and I layered different strips on the bottom (cut using a wave template I've had forever).  All the fish (including shark, octopus, crab) and coral are from the Life As A Beach cartridge.  I did add a teeny piece of black under the eyes of all the fish.  The title uses two different fonts- the big font is from Birthday Bash and the smaller font is the Lyrical Letters Jack Sprat.  The coral and seaweed are from Life As A Beach also.

Cricut:

Birthday Bash-big font

Lyrical Letters-small font

Life as a Beach-all fish and coral

Paper-BG print papers Colorbok Beach House, solids CTMH

brown chalk ink

I hope you guys are all having a relaxing weekend and getting some sunshine and fun!

Stack of Presents tag (for BBTB2)

The challenge this week at BBTB2 is gift packaging:  bag, tag, box, etc.  I found some cute tags from the Birthday Bash cartridge that look like a stack of presents for my project.  They are cut at 4 inches.  I made a couple to match some of my gift wrap colors and I plan to tie these tags onto the package.  Super fast and simple!

Cricut:
Birthday Bash-tags cut at 4 inches
Paper-all from the scrap bin-mostly CTMH
brown chalk ink

The DT members have a variety of gift packaging ideas to share-check them out and get inspired to make something and link it up to share with us at BBTB2!

Happy Birthday Cool Dude layout (for BBTB2)

Happy Monday!  Yesterday was full of gray skies and violent thunderstorms with the weather radio sounding alerts all day, so I'm looking forward to a little sunshine today!  I am extremely grateful that the tornadoes that hit parts of the midwest did not hit in our area.  The sky looked scary, so I was uneasy all day Sunday.  So I'm really glad it's Monday!!!

Our BBTB2 challenge this week is to use a cricut birthday cake on a project, so I have a birthday layout for you.  I've got a couple of birthdays needing to get in the scrapbook, so this was a great challenge for me!  I used two cartridges, Boys Will Be Boys for the title and Birthday Bash for the cake.  The print papers are from the Echo Park Scoot collection.

Cricut:
Boys Will Be Boys-title cut at 3 1/2 inches
Birthday Bash-cake cut at 4 1/2 inches
Paper-Echo Park Scoot collection print papers/stickers, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink

Go check out all the DT birthday cake projects at BBTB2 and link up with a project-perfect chance to get that birthday card you'll need soon made or get some b-day party pics scrapbooked!

Hello 15 birthday card (for BBTB2)

Our challenge for BBTB2 this week is to make a birthday card with a number on it, which was very timely for me, since my niece is having a birthday this month!  I used the Birthday Bash cartridge to cut my postage stamp shaped card and also for the number 15 on the front.  The print paper and stickers are from one of my favorite paper lines ever, the Bo Bunny Surprise collection.

The tag I made for last week's BBTB2 challenge will go with it also.  Since my niece is a scrapper too with her baby bug, she is getting scrapbooking supplies as her gift!

Here are the card and tag together (I've got a green gift bag for all the goodies!):

Cricut:
Birthday Bash-card cut at 4 1/4 inches, numbers cut at 2 1/2 inches
Paper/Stickers-Bo Bunny Surprise collection prints, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink

Can't wait to see all the awesome birthday cards you guys make!  The BBTB2 design team has made some wonderful ones to for you to see, so be sure to check them all out!

Birthday Bash card (for BBTB2)

Shape Up (make a shaped card) is the challenge my cool DT sister Jayne has put before us this week.  As Son#1 has an upcoming birthday, I decided to try out one of the many shape card options on the Birthday Bash cartridge and make his card.  This shaped card actually has the birthday bash sentiment as part of the card shape, along with the cute scalloped edge!  I added circles from Plaintain Schoolbook and used the Birthday Bash font to put the age on there too.  The inside happy birthday sentiment is also from Birthday Bash.

Cricut:
Plaintain Schoolbook-circles
Birthday Bash-all other cuts, card cut out at 5 1/4 in.
Paper-solids CTMH, print is from Basic Grey Life of the Party collection
brown chalk ink

This is a great design for a fast card-I cut and put the whole thing together in about 20 minutes!   (That does NOT include the 20 minutes I spent deciding WHICH of the shaped card options on Birthday Bash I wanted to cut out, lol!)  Go check out the huge variety of shaped cards at BBTB2 for ideas, and play along with with us!

Sweet Treats layout (for Exploring Cricut)

Who screams for ice cream?  Everyone at my house, that's for sure!  Our Exploring Cricut challenge this week is celebrating National Ice Cream month, with the challenge being to use ice cream or a popsicle on a project.  I went with ice cream-we make a lot of homemade ice cream at our house.  We've worn out the ice cream freezer, in fact, and I'm shopping for a new one!  Homemade double dutch chocolate, strawberry with chunks of strawberries, or sweet delicious vanilla- it's all SO yummy!

My layout (for some birthday pics of us eating ice cream) uses the Birthday Bash cartridge for the title, ice cream sundae, and banners.  I added some Diamond Glaze here and there for extra shine.  The paper is from the Carta Bella Cool Summer collection.

the whole layout:

doesn't the pink paper look yummy with the Diamond Glaze?

a little more Diamond Glaze on the cherry and the strawberry ice cream:

Cricut:
Birthday Bash-all cuts
Paper-Carta Bella Cool Summer
brown chalk ink
Diamond Glaze
Swiss Dots embossing folder

Join us over at Exploring Cricut in this yummy challenge with your ice cream or popsicle project!  The design team has some delicious projects to look at for inspiration.

Happy Birthday layout (for PDE challenges)

It's a Happy fill in the blank challenge (meaning you get to pick) at Pause Dream Enjoy Challenges this week (see bottom for challenge details).   I have a LOT of birthday pictures from last year to scrap, so Happy Birthday was an easy choice for me!  This layout has a quite a few things going on, as the Birthday Bash critters are helping out with the party fun!  The font is  also from Birthday bash.  I strung a little twine for the mouse to walk on and added some stickle for the bling.  The print papers and stickers are all from the Simple Stories Vintage Bliss collection.

Cricut:
Birthday Bash-all cuts
Paper/Stickers-Simple Stories Vintage Bliss collection prints, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink/stickle of various colors
twine-My Mind's Eye

Here are the challenge details:

Pause Dream Enjoy (PDE) Ch# 10 Happy _____ (fill in the blank)

Begins: Monday, May 13

Ends: Sunday, May 26

Sponsor: CTMH - Lucy Kelleher http://lucyk.ctmh.com/

Prize: (prize to be announced)

(must have USA address)

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 Show layout

Last summer while on vacation, we went to see a country music show in Branson with the grandparents and an aunt and uncle.  Although we are not really country music fans, the show was fantastic and the kids loved it-this was the first big live music show they've seen!  The guitar and ticket cuts are from the County Fair cartridge.  I LOVE the ticket!  The tag tucked behind a picture for journaling is from Plaintain Schoolbook (and I also tucked in one of our admission tickets).  The background shapes are from Accent Essentials.  The title font is from Birthday Bash.

Cricut:
Birthday Bash-font
Accent Essentials-background shapes
County Fair-guitar and ticket
Plaintain Schoolbook-tag
Paper-My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline collection

I'm linking this to the BBTB2 "fontastic" challenge this week, to use any cricut font on a project.