Forest Hiking layout (tree challenge)

Happy Monday!  One more week of school….I am SO ready for the finals stress to be over for the teenagers!  They've been a little cranky and stressed out!  (Studying for pre-calc, french, and spanish finals will do that to a kid…)  We are all going to be celebrating Thursday night when school's out!

Our BBTB2 challenge this week is to use a cricut tree on a project.  There is such a multitude of trees to choose from on many different cartridges that I was stuck on which tree to use.  I was making this layout for some hiking pictures, so I finally decided to use some of the cute animal cuts on the Give A Hoot cartridge and guess what?  It had trees too.  Problem solved!  Since Give A Hoot doesn't have a font, I went with one of the fonts on the Stork's Delivery cartridge for the title.  Hope you enjoy this hiking layout and take a look at the design team projects over at BBTB2!  The linky at BBTB2 will be open for you to show off a project too.

Cricut:
CM Stork's Delivery-Frogs and Snails font
Give a Hoot-all other cuts
Paper-Bella Blvd Campout collection prints, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink

Natural Beauty layout (for BBTB2)

So are you enjoying any cooler fall temperatures yet where you live?  It finally cooled slightly here just this weekend, after weeks of miserable heat and humidity.  My lovely DT sister Sharon has selected our challenge this week for BBTB2 and the theme is autumn.  This would be my favorite time of year, were it not for the pollen!  (I must remain heavily medicated at all times to be functional!)  But I love it when the leaves start to turn and it's a little cooler after the hot summer!

My layout is for some pictures taken on a fall hike last year, which I have yet to print (the kids keep using up all my printer ink on ridiculous things!!!).  I used the Give A Hoot cartridge for all the cuts, including the charms.  (I love this cartridge and think it is overlooked-it's full of animal and nature cuts.)  The paper is is from the fun and fresh Doodlebug Happy Harvest collection.

Cricut:
Give A Hoot-all cuts
Paper-Doodlebug Happy Harvest collection prints, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink

You can play along with us easily-just make a new fall themed project with a cricut cut, and link it up at BBTB2!  My DT sisters have some great projects to look at to get you started!

Explore layout

I've got an animal layout today for my Exploring Cricut daily project!  Our zoo has some areas that are open, where some of the animals are out walking around where you can be up close to them.   I used the Nate's ABCs cartridge for my scene with the goat in the grass and the titles.  (Don't you just love the don't eat the grass sign on the goat diecut?)  The butterflies are from Give a Hoot.  We are looking forward to a trip to the zoo as soon as school is out-these pics are from last summer.

Cricut:
Nate's ABCs-all cuts except butterflies
Give a Hoot-butterflies
Paper-CTMH and CM solids, Bo Bunny double dot print
brown chalk ink

There is a new project every day at Exploring Cricut (also linked to the Exploring Cricut FB page), so something fun for you to check out every day!  (I like to surf and see what's new in my scrappy blogs while I'm eating my breakfast cereal after I get the kiddos all off to school and before I have to dive into the rest of the day.)

Love the Earth layout (for PDE Challenges)

Janis has a great challenge to play along with at Pause Dream Enjoy Challenges- Outdoor Critters!  This could be ANY kind of critter, so should be a fun easy one to join in with a project!  Here's the challenge details:

Ch# 9 Outdoor Critters

Begins: Monday, Apr 29

Ends: Sunday, May 12

Prize MFPS "Tweet That"
(must have a USA address)

Winner announced in the WINNERS Page Tab

So, on to MY project.  This gorgeous woodgrain paper from the Simple Stories Vintage Bliss collection made the perfect background for some scenic pictures from the zoo.  I wanted a simple background, so the focus would remain on the pictures.  The title and foxes are from the Give a Hoot cartridge.  The other font and background circles are from Plaintain Schoolbook.  The little strip of accent paper is from a scrap leftover from another project (I believe it is Echo Park paper).  

Cricut:
Give A Hoot-title, foxes
Plaintain Schoolbook-letters, circles
Paper/sticker-Simple Stories Vintage Bliss wood grain paper, solids CTMH and CM
brown chalk ink, pop dots

Wild by Nature layout

Another autumn layout today-for more of my fall zoo pictures.  I used the Give a Hoot cartridge for this-it is actually a really interesting cart if you've never looked at it, with great borders, tags, and phrases.  I love my little leaf border and the swirl things (whatever they might be called...).   The leaf border was inspired by the picture of the wild deer (it's not a deer, but some African deer-like animal) standing in the leaves grazing.   The printed papers are from my DCWV All Seasons stack.

Edited to add:  This is getting featured on Scrappin' Saturday at Fantabulous Cricut on 11/10/12-I'm very excited about that!!!  If you came from there, I'm glad you stopped by my blog!

Here it is without the pictures on:

And here we have the photos added:

(oops, apparently one of them didn't get stuck down)

Cricut:
Give a Hoot-all cuts
Paper-DCWV prints and CTMH solid cardstock
brown chalk ink

I'm going to link this to the Fantabulous cricut challenge to do a project using fall leaves and to the Paper Playtime challenge to use autumn colors.

I'm also going to link this to the fall inspiration challenge at cricutfanatics.

Keep It Wild layout

We went to the zoo twice this summer and I found the most fantastic paper for the pictures-the Bo Bunny Zoology collection!  I made my first layout with it (after a brief period of paralysis because I couldn't bear to cut any of the paper...), using the Give a Hoot cartridge for the Keep It Wild title.  All the leaves are from Life as A Beach.  The beautiful button and silver leaf charm were both in the little button kit from the collection.

Cricut:
Give a Hoot-title
Life as A Beach-leaves
Paper/Stickers/button/charm-Bo Bunny Zoology collection

Mother's Day card

It's taken a few days for this card to come together, but I am so pleased with how it turned out!  (STOP looking, Mom-this one's for you.)  I've always wanted to try one of the frames from Lyrical Letters, and this one seemed to lend itself to adding some flowers (which are from Give a Hoot).   I combined some different words by inking only part of the stamp from some My Pink Stamper stamps to make my sentiment.

Cricut:
Lyrical Letters-frame
Give a Hoot-added flowers and leaves
Paper-Echo Park
Stamps-My Pink Stamper (front), unknown (inside)
 I'm linking it to the My Pink Stamper challenge to make a Mother's Day project and to the My Craft Spot challenge to use pop dots. 

Easter egg fun layout

This layout uses some of my favorite paper ever, the Bo Bunny Ad lib collection from last year. It's just so happy! I'm hoarding, as I only have a bit left :( . I mainly used Doodlecharms, which is one of my go-to cartridges, although a rabbit from Give a Hoot snuck on there too. I'm linking this to the challenge at Exploring Cricut this week, which is to use a cricut flower on a project (April showers bring flowers).

Cricut:
Doodlecharms-sun, flowers, basket and eggs, jar with dragonflies and stick
Give a Hoot-rabbit
Paper-Bo Bunny Ad lib collection

Fall-Walk to School Day

I made a fall layout for Walk to School Day, using Imaginescence Happy Harvest paper and some critters from Give a Hoot (the school mascot is a bear, so I HAD to cut the bear).  It was a beautiful early fall morning and I've been eager to do some fall themed layouts!  I'm also going to put this in the TPV challenge to use a "forest friend" in the project somewhere. 

Edited to add:  This layout got spotlighted on the TPV challenge!

Cricut:
Give A Hoot-tree, bear, squirrel, leaves
Plaintain Schoolbook-circles
CM Traveler-font
Cuttlebug folders-embossing, made button
Paper-Imaginescence Happy Harvest
jumbo java chalk ink
ribbon and twine

mini-album 100% Boy (pic heavy)

My sons had each requested their own mini album, so this is what I came up with for son#1.  The album pages are chipboard I saved from packages of my scrapbook pages and page protectors.  I cut each 12 by 12 chipboard into four 6x6 pieces for the pages.  Free is the best, right?

Cricut:

Robotz-title

Plaintain Schoolbook-circles

Paisley-words chillin, jammin, wonderful, huh?, seriously,music notes

Everyday Paperdolls-kitten, pumpkins

Give a Hoot-tree, squirrel

Doodlecharms-sun

lots of brown chalk ink for the edges of everything

acorns from my stash

The transparency page with the fall scene is actually a cricut mat cover that I cut down to 6x6 and punched holes in for the rings to go through.  I adhered my "scene" to one side of it.    My son wanted places to write, so I included several places he can journal.  The small pages with tags are business envelopes cut in half and covered with paper, which made nice tag spots.  The rest of the decorations are stickers that came with the paper pack.