CWTC Crafty Girl Saturday - Guest Designer

I am dreaming of a white Christmas, with every cupcake that I bite!!!!  It is Crafty Girl Saturday at Christmas with the Cricut and I have been busy in the kitchen AND in the scrap room!!!  Here in South Carolina the only snow we will see at Christmas will be cut with my cricut and wrapped around snowy white frosted cupcakes. 

These cupcake wrappers were so easy to make; I was disappointed that I had never thought of this before.  To create wrapper number one I placed a two inch circle from the From My Kitchen cartridge on the Design Studio mat and added evenly spaced  (1.9 inches wide and 2.3 inches high) snowflakes from the Winter Woodlands cartridge at evenly spaced intervals around the circle. 

To create snowflake number two I placed a two inch circle from the From My Kitchen cartridge and added five evenly spaced snowflakes (1.75 inches wide and 1.5 inches high) from Winter Woodlands.  I cut both of the snowflake cupcake wrappers in Bazzill Bling cardstock.

Assembling the cupcake wrappers is super-easy.  I affixed a tiny glue dot to one side of each snowflake and after folding the snowflakes toward the center, I overlapped the edges to seal. 

To create the embellishing sticks I cut scalloped circles from the FMK cartridge (two per stick).  I embellished the scalloped circles with snowflakes from the WW cartridge and cupcakes from FMK.  I chose chocolate brown cardstock to cut the cupcakes and white cardstock to cut the frosting - this could be especially useful if you are serving several flavors of cupcakes.  The sticks can be personalized to match the cupcake flavors.

I affixed the embellished circles to long plastic party sticks (near the toothpicks at your local store).  I made the ebellishment sticks double sided to ensure that the buffet table looks great from all angles.  Each cupcake was speared with two sticks, a flavor stick and a snowflake stick.

Have you been by Jeannie's blog, A Place For My Cards, yet today?  I can't wait to see Jeannie's Crafy Girl project - she is so amazing. I have to say that sharing our week as Guest Designers has been wonderful.  Jeannie is an amazing artist and a truly kind and caring woman.  I have so enjoyed having her as a team mate.  If you are not already a fan of her blog this would be a great time to sign up!

The cut file for the cupcake wrappers and embellishments has been added to the downloadable cut files section of my blog under the title of Snowflake Cupcake Set.  I hope that you enjoy these easy cupcake wrappers and that they look fabulous on your holiday buffet!

CWTC Fancy Card Friday - Guest Designer

It is Fancy Card Friday at Christmas With The Cricut!  I have to admit that I am not a fancy card maker... my cards are normally more in-line with Simple Card Monday.  But here goes:  today's card features multiple layers and multiple embossing techniques while showcasing cricut stamping and this week's two featured cartridges at CWTC, Winter Woodlands and From My Kitchen.

The A2 base card was cut in white cardstock with a light pink snowflake print cardstock topper.  An A2 frame was dry embossed with the Wizard and a Cuttlebug folder and then was attached to the card with pop dots.

The print layer cup shadow was attached to the light pink snowflake topper and layered with two additional light pink cardstock layers.  I hand trimmed the steam off of the top layer cup and then stamped the cup with a cricut cut stamp using Cricut's starter stamping kit.  A hint for using the cricut stamps - use a new mat on which to cut the stamp material.  Also, a simple design will cut better, hence my use of the holly cut.  I used Stampin' Up ink and hand edged the stamped images with Copic Markers.  I then applied Glossy Accents to the top layer of the cut to create a glass/china look.

The two pink snowflakes were cut at 2.25 inches in Core'dination cardstock.  I lightly sanded the cardstock and heat embossed.  First I applied embossing ink to the top of the snowflakes and added holographic embossing powder.  I then used the "melt and move" technique with the embossing gun to heat embossed the snowflakes.  I used pop dots to apply the snowflakes to the card.

The final cricut cut element was the round message tag.  I used red and pink cardstock to cut the scalloped circle and plain circle as well as the Warm Winter Wishes sentiment.  The cuts were assembled in layers and topped with white gel pen and Stickles.  I appled red Stickles to the words and icicle Stickles to the tag edges.  I also applied icicle Stickles to the steam coming from the cup.

If you have not already done so, be sure to head over to Jeannie Phillip's blog, A Place For My Cards, and check out her amazing Fancy Friday Card. Jeannie makes THE MOST beautiful cards so be prepared to be totally awed!!! 

The cut file for this card has been added to the Downloadable Cut Files list on the left of the blog under the title "Warm Winter Wishes - Fancy Card Friday".  Enjoy!

Cut Files Added

The cut files for Gift Packaging Wednesday (Gift Tags & Vellum Bag Sets) and for Layout Thursday (Christmas Cookie Layout) have been added to the list of available downloadable cut files.

Enjoy!

Three Clovers Designs Thursday challenge

Happy Friday Eve everyone! And it's especially nice this week, cause I am on vacation next week! NINE glorious days off in a row (including weekends of course)! I can NOT wait to turn off my alarm Friday morning when I get up! LOL! Thursday also means a new challenge from Kerry at Three Clovers Designs. This week, she is requesting a Christmas card that has no red or green. I used this adorable digi image by CC Designs. Isn't she cute??? She's colored with Copic markers and then cut out with oval Nestabilities. See that flower? I made it myself with the Blossom Nestabilities. What do you think? I think I need a lot of practice, but I also think it's not too awful bad considering it's my first attempt. :) I didn't notice until now that the snowflake charm was twisted in the pic. Dang!!!

The snowflakes and fronds are from Martha Stewart punches and the paper is Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses. I also used some Stickles on her wings and hat. The pink pearls are by Kaiser.

That's it for today. Please be sure and visit Three Clovers Designs to check out all the other fabulous projects from the rest of the team. And we'd love it if you would join in the fun and create your own card and link it to Kerry! Thanks so much for visiting me today, and please pop by tomorrow. I've got a bit of really exciting news to share with you, but can't reveal it til then!!! HUGS!

OOPS! Almost forgot to say this card fits into Danni's Flutter by Wednesday challenge!

CWTC Layout Thursday - Guest Designer

Happy Layout Thursday at CWTC!   There is a bit of a story behind my Christmas Cookies layout.  A couple of Christmas's ago my older son helped my mom and I frost cut out snowman and Christmas tree cookies. The cookies that were created were some of the funniest, most imaginative, unothodox Christmas cookies in the history of cut out cookies... And it became an annual event!!!  Now there is a bit of an underlying contest as to who can create the best crazy cookie!

So yes, using Winter Woodlands and From My Kitchen was a perfect fit for my Christmas cookie layout.  I love all of the cuts on From My Kitchen and look how great the recipe cards work as photo mats, and how the mixer just fits right into the layout... and those oval label words!!!  Okay, I will calm down - but I do like this cartridge.  And not to be out done, Winter Woodlands has those great layered snowflakes that with a bit of Stickles became cut out cookie frosting!  I used scalloped squares and circles for the cookie layer. 

In my over the top enthusiasm I failed to mention that I used an assortment of printed cardstock, Bazzill cardstock, Silver metallic paper, and assorted ribbons.  One creative adjustment you may want to note is the word phrase from Winter Woodlands.  I changed the phrase and actually combined two different phrases together.  The two phrases on the cartridge are "the magic of WINTER" and "Family FUN".  I welded the two shadow pieces together and removed the word WINTER from the cut, creating "the magic of FAMILY fun."

In my usual  "too much pen" style, I finished the layout with lots and lots of white pen doodles.  I really like drawing on my layouts.  I feel it adds a personal touch and provides a finished look to the layout.  I cannot wait for crazy cookie night this year not only to see what is created, but also to add photos to this layout.

If you have not already done so, be sure to head over to Jeannie Phillip's blog, A Place For My Cards, and check out her amazing layout.  I do so wish Jeannie lived close enough to be in my regular scrapbook girlfriends group!!!

CWTC Gift Packaging Wednesday - Guest Designer

It's Gift Packaging Wednesday at CWTC!!!  In addition to the two required cartridges, Winter Woodlands and From My Kitchen, I also used Tags, Bags, Boxes, and More to create vellum gift bags with layered label and mini card sets. 

I have always struggled with cutting vellum on my Cricut but I believe I have solved my previous issues:  I needed to use a very, very sticky mat!!!  That was all it took to cut these adorable boxes using the inch box cut on TBBM. 

To create the mini cards and labels I used tag shapes from WW and added ovals as cut outs from FMK.  I welded two of the tags together to create the base mini card.  I used additonal cuts from each of the two cartridges and finished by adding touches of Stickles. 

I finished the gift package sets off by running ribbon through holes at the top of the boxes and tied them closed with matching Christmas Ribbons. My gift bags and mini cards are all set to go under the tree or be delivered to friends!

If you have not already done so, be sure to visit Jeannie's blog, A Place for my Cards and check out her Gift Packaging Wednesday project ....  Note to self - ask Jeannie to help me with all of my holiday packaging as she is amazingly talented!!!

CWTC Home Decor Tuesday - Guest Designer Spot

Happy Home Decor Tuesday!  Over at the Christmas With The Cricut the ladies are celebrating Home Deco Tuesday so I made this adorable recipe box complete with section dividers and matching recipe cards.

The box is made by Bare Elements and is actually a chest.  Bare Elements does produce a rectangular recipe box but is lacks the cute curved top of the treasure chest.  To get started on the recipe box, I painted all of the edges with red ink.  I wanted any "white" that might peek through to be red to match the trim.  I then used Inaginisece Polar Bear Expressions cardstock to cover the chest (with careful measuring and placement it took a little less than two 12 x 12 inch sheets).

I used a combination of Core'dination cardstock, Bazzill cardstock, and additional Inaginisece Polar Bear Expressions cardstock to cut the mittens, shadows, and Recipe label and shadow.  I chose the mitten cut from Winter Woodlands to embellish the top of the box because of the mitten sets in the background of the polar bear paper.

The band around the edge of the lid was created using a snowflake from Winter Woodland welded together over and over to create a decorative band.  I will admit that I worried if the flakes would cut cleanly since they were so timy.  But never fear, they came out perfect.  Oh my Cricut makes me so happy sometimes!!!

I used From My Kitchen to create labels and food images as well as the basic cards for my section dividers.  I used more of the lovely tags from Winter Woodlands as backgrounds for the food cuts, which were, of course, cut with the FMY cartridge.

And finally a rear view!  Oh to look that good from the rear!!! LOL.

If you have not already done so, be sure to visit Jeannie's blog, A Place for my Cards and check out her Home Decor Tuesday project.  She is sure to knock your socks off so you'd better be sitting down!!!

Colonel Mustard

Since I'm still swooning over the mustard color so prevalent in the photos from the Fly Girl post, I thought I'd indulge my craving by scouting out some current apparel choices in the same shade.

L: J.Crew. R: J.Crew.

L: ModCloth. R: Ettika.

L: BB Dakota. R: Forever21.

Matt & Nat

L: Charles by Charles David. R: Dirty Laundry.

Although I have already have a skirt in nearly this exact hue, I can't help but crave more of this rich yellow; it's warm tone is perfectly suited for fall, while it's cheerfulness makes it the perfect companion for any cold, grey day.

Magnolia-licious Design Team Sketch for November featuring Witch Tilda with pumpkins

Happy Saturday, everyone!! Hope you're enjoying your weekend! This month for the Magnolia Design Team Sketch Challenge, the "oh so awesomely talented" Kerry, designed our sketch for us! Thank you Kerry! This was a great sketch! I turned it around for my card. I used #395, Witch Tilda with pumkins that I received from Magnolia-licious. As soon as I laid eyes on her, I thought she was a Pilgrim Tilda, not a witch. I think it's because the tip of her hat is blunt instead of pointed. She's colored with Copics.

I have always admired the pumpkins I've seen my friend DeeDee make with her Nestabilities. But I wanted an oval that was a bit wider than the Nesties that I have. So I used my Expression machine with the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge and cut ot three ovals. I used some chalk ink on the edges and popped up the middle oval from the other two. Added a bit of jute for the stem, and voila! A cute pumpkin! The paper I used is Basic Grey Ambrosia, and the ribbon is Offray. Please be sure and visit Magnolia-licious Highlites blog to play along with the Design Team challenge! Link your project up to the blog and you will have a chance to win a FREE stamp from Diana at Magnolia-licoius! Thanks for stopping by to see me today and hope to see you back again soon! HUGS!

Fresh Brewed Designs Blog Hop is today!

Happy Friday everyone, and welcome to a blog hop for Fresh Brewed Designs! I was fortunate enough to meet Heather this month while she was a guest designer for Papertake Weekly. I found out that Heather creates some awesome digi stamps, and purchased one. (remember the candy corn bat?) Heather asked me if I'd participate in a blog hop she was having today to release these new adorable stamps. Aren't they soooooo precious??!!! I was honored she asked, and ever so happy to play along! I had a hard time choosing which angel to use from the four that Heather sent me, so I ended up having to make two! LOL! I love them all.

Now if you arrived here from the talented Carolyn's blog, then you're on the right track! Be sure you visit all the blogs along the hop (there are six of us) and leave a comment on each blog. Heather will pick a winner from each blog to receive a free digi stamp, and there will also be a grand prize winner! So to maximize your chances of winning, be sure and leave a comment on each blog.

From here, you want to go to Mary's blog to see what fabulous creation she came up with for the hop. Again, please make sure you visit all six blogs! Thanks so much for stopping by to see me today, and hope to see you back again soon! Have a wonderful day! HUGS!

card recipe: circle card

Papers - Bazzill digi, and cryogen white; ink - memento, copic, atyou spica; ribbon -Offray; Tools - Nestabilities Stamps : angel - Fresh Brewed Designs sentimento - Studio G

card recipe for 6" square card

Papers - Bazzil, Basic Grey, Cryogen White; inks: Memento, Copic; Flowers: unknown and Prima rose; ribbon - stash; Tools: Fiskars border punch, Martha Stewart frond punch; Misc: safety pin

Busy, Busy Week of Designs

I have a busy week with designs posted in different places.  Today I am a guest designer at the FABULOUS Christmas With The Cricut site.  I love CWTC.  These ladies inspire me every single day!  And in addition to being great designers and awesomely creative, they are three of the nicest women you would EVER want to meet.

There are two other guest designer projects at CWTC also - when you go by, and you should go by CWTC, be sure to look at Teri's and Christina's holiday home decor ideas.

Now Boarding

I am completely taken with these vintage airplane boarding passes and luggage tags found at Great Scott Vintage. I love the colors, the fonts, and that they appear to be interesting and unique reminders of the companies they represented, indications of a different era in passenger flight and a stark contrast to the often bland bar-coded or print-at-home boarding passes of today.

Here, here, and here.

Guest Designer for Hallmark Scrapbook!

I'm excited to announce I am this weeks Guest Designer for Hallmark Srapbook! Jody challenged me to make some Paper Dolls and color them with Copic markers instead of using colored or printed cardstock. I'd love it if you would visit the Hallmark Ladybugs Blog and let me know if you feel like I rose to her challenge. Thanks so much to both Jody and Brad! You guys are the BEST!

Thanks so much for stopping by to see me today, and I'd love it if you would check back with me tomorrow to see the new Bitten By The Bug challenge! HUGS!

Thankful Layout - Gypsy & DS hybrid

My latest layout, Thankful, is yet another design for Thanksgiving. I have four scrapbooks that require pages for every family event/holiday - a page for each child's book and one for my book. I use similar photos for each layout, but I mix up the layouts to keep the scrapping fresh.

This layout is going into my book - because I am thankful for each of the people who will be featured on this layout!!! Also, I really like how this layout looks.

The layout was created using both DS and Gypsy. I cut the fabulous double layer leaves using the Gypsy's Gypsy Wanderings cartridge. The remaining elements were cut using DS. I used DS because I had already designed the title and squares in DS. I added the leaves to complete the layout.