Horsin' Around card for Exploring Cricut

I'm going to be on the design team for the Exploring Cricut challenge blog for awhile!  Should be lots of fun!  The challenge theme this time is "Love your pet" (or any animal project-obviously I don't really have a horse...).   So link up and show off your pet project at Exploring Cricut!

My adorable pony is from the Create A Critter cartridge.  (I have been dying to use this Horsin' Around stamp for a year!)  This card is another in my card set using the Create A Critter cartridges, and I wanted it to be kind of flexible-usable for a birthday, hello, congrats, or whatever.  So the Yee Haw inside sentiment seemed like the thing.  I thought the red check paper and twine added to the western feel.  You can see the other cards I've made for this set under the Create A Critter and Create A Critter2 indexes on the right.

Cricut:
Create A Critter-horse, horseshoe
Paper-Kraft base card, solid red CM, print is American Craft Hip Hip Hooray collection
brown chalk ink
stamps-My Pink Stamper sets
twine from the stash

Polar Boys layout

Spring is not coming anytime soon to my part of the country-we got almost a foot of snow last week and more is coming tomorrow!  I have lots more pictures of snowy kids who have been thrilled to miss some school!  Remember back to the joys of a day with no responsibilities except sledding and drinking hot chocolate?  (We could probably ALL use a snow day every now and then!)  So my layout, Polar Boys, is for some of these pics of my cold snowy boys.  I used the Cricut Lite Children Around the World cartridge for the polar bear and igloo/kid.  I just got this cartridge and can't wait to use it more!  .  Sorry the pictures are dark-the weather is not cooperating with my picture taking efforts!

Edited to add:  I made a mistake on the paper line-it is actually from the Bo Bunny Powder Mountain collection, not Echo Park.  A reader searched and let me know she couldn't find it, and I had a big oops moment!  I had mingled part of the stacks together on my crafting table and mistakenly thought this was from the Echo Park set.   (Thanks for letting me know, Brianna!!!)   Possibly I should actually clean my craft table a bit, but....that is no fun at all, lol!

Cricut:
Children Around the World-polar bear, igloo, and kid
Paper/Stickers-edited to add:  Bo Bunny Powder Mountain collection, solids CTMH and CM
Embossing folders

I'm going to link this to the Die Cuttin' Divas challenge this week to use a polar bear on a project.

What's up? card

I've got the coolest giraffe (complete with shades) hanging out on my card today!  He is making me feel springy, despite the 8 inches of snow that landed on the ground yesterday.)  I must admit I feel much less springy after shoveling snow this morning!!!!)  This is part of my card set from Create A Critter that I've been working on-you can see the others I've posted so far under the CAC or CAC2 tabs on the index.  The awesome paper is from the American Crafts Hip Hip Hooray collection.    I did not put a sentiment on the inside, as I wanted this one to be able to be used for about anything.

Cricut:
Create A Critter-all cuts
Paper-American Crafts Hip Hip Hooray collection
Stamp-My Pink Stamper set

I'm going to link this to the Paper Playtime challenge this week to use a sentiment.

Alice and Mad Hatter layout (Disney project)

I have TWO posts going up today-kinda fun and crazy!  So if you're looking for the Pause Dream Enjoy Challenge for this week, it is the post just below this!  (Even if you're not looking for it, I really like my layout for it too, so give it a peek :)

I was so excited to be asked to be the guest designer today at Exploring Cricut!  I decided to do a Disney project, as we recently got back from Disney World (and I took approximately a million pictures, give or take a few).  I've been scouring the web for Disney layout inspiration!  Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter were at one of our character breakfasts (we also saw Alice at Epcot), so I decided to go all Alice in Wonderland for my layout.   (Also, I've always secretly wanted to have a reason to have the Cheshire cat on a layout!)  So Alice, the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire cat and the Dormouse are having some tea and breakfast.  I used the Disney Classics cartridges for all the cuts except the Mad Hatter/breakfast titles, which use the Mickey Font.

Cricut:
Mickey Font-character breakfast font
Disney Classics-all other cuts
Paper-prints are from the Echo Park Everyday Eclectic collection, CTMH solids
brown chalk ink
stamp-Fiskars set

This layout could easily be adapted for a fun tea party layout by eliminating the Alice and Mad Hatter titles and adding another 4x6 photo.  All the photo mats are for 4x6 pics. 

"Chilling Out in Vail" layout

The Pause Dream Enjoy challenge this week is "Hats".  Being as it's cold and wintery, I feel like stocking caps when I think of hats this time of year!

I dug out some old old pictures from a snow skiing trip (before kids) for this winter layout.  (The kids barely recognized us in the pictures!  They have trouble imagining life before they came along...)  The font is from the CM Traveler cartridge and the cute stocking cap is from the CM Cheerful Seasons cartridge.  I LOVE this stocking cap!  All the paper and accent stickers are from the beautiful Echo Park Winter Wishes paper collection.

Cricut:
CM Cheerful Seasons-stocking cap
CM Traveler-Road Trip font
Plaintain Schoobook-big circle
Paper-Echo Park Winter Wishes collection, CTMH solid cardstock

Have fun and play along-lots of possibilities with this one!  I'm thinking crazy hats, baseball hats at the game, party hats, ....whatever you can come up with!  And there is an awesome prize with this one :)

Pause Dream Enjoy (PDE) Ch#4 Use a HAT

Begins: Monday, Feb 18

Ends: Sunday, Mar 3

Winner announced in the WINNERS Page Tab
Prize: 1 set of CARDZ TV STAMPS

(must have a USA address)

Hand Over the Toys layout (Disney project)

The Lego store at Downtown Disney had the most amazing lego sculptures of Woody and Buzz Lightyear-making you wonder JUST how long did it take to make that?  Of course the fellas had to get pictures with them and then shop for legos.  (Many many legos...)  But on to the layout!  I used the Toy Story cartridge for Woody and Buzz and the Hand Over the Toys title.  Nate's ABCs was the font for Lego Store.  I will admit to possibly saying a bad word while trying to assemble Woody-let's just say the pieces were tiny and not cooperating and I had to bring out the tweezers!  But he finally was put together!

Cricut:
Toy Story-Woody cut at 7 1/2 in., Buzz cut at 2 1/2 in., and title cut at 4 1/2 in.
Nate's ABCs-lego title
Paper-background print is from The Paper Studio, solids are CM and CTMH
brown chalk ink/pop dots
Stamp-My Pink Stamper set

I'm going to link this to the Cut It Up challenge "Animation Domination" this week, making a project that showcases an animated character.

Wild Card valentine

Happy Valentine's Day!   We are going to an orchestra concert tonight that Son#1 is performing in, so it will not be very romantic, but that's life with kids!  At least my honey will get this card.

This is my first time trying out Wild Card.  I've had this cartridge for awhile but was somewhat puzzled by figuring out the sizing, so I never used it.  This my first time trying to make an envelope with the cricut too and it is SO pretty with it's scalloped edge!  I cut the envelope liner out also, and it looks very cool with big polka dots!  The heart with the arrow and the sentiment inside are also in the Wild Card handbook, although on other pages.

Envelope with scallop edge and scallop circle card:

Inside sentiment:

So you can see the polka dot envelope liner:

Cricut:
Wild Card-all cuts
Paper- prints are from DCWV All Seasons stack, solid red CTMH

This cartridge is a little tricky on the sizing and figuring out what pieces go where.  I cut the envelope first, using fit to page, which gave me a 5 inch size, so that's what I used for the card and all it's parts.

I'm going to link this to the Celebrate the Occasion valentine challenge this week.