A Witch's Work....

....is never done.  Especially at Halloween.  That's the sentiment inside this card I created to play along in this week's Apron challenge over at bittenbythebug2.

For this one I used:

Mini Monsters for the witch cut at 5"
Happy Hauntings for the cauldron cut at 3 1/2" and embossed the kettle with one of the folders from my Sizzix Halloween set.  The bubbling over 'goo' was created with my Snow Writers pen which I painted over with two coats of Shimmerz paint in Evergreen.
And of course there's the apron cut from the From My Kitchen cart.  For this cut I worked with skewing the width to height ratio on my Gypsy so that it would fit my witch.

My background papers are from My Mind's Eye Halloween {Scary Sparkles} mat stack.  The top (orange) paper was inked using Distressed inks and then punched with the Martha Stewart Drippy Goo punch.

Beware - All Hallows Night

I was inspired to try my hand at using a zipper in my card by one that I saw on another site quite some time ago.  (sorry I don't remember where) And while I've thought about creating this card often I'd never done so - until yesterday.  Now that it's complete though I'm still undecided as to whether or not I even like it because it looked SOOOOO much better in my head than it does on paper.  Nonetheless, it's complete and that's all there is to that. 

For this card I used the Happy Hauntings cartridge for all my cuts.  I don't know if you can see it or not but there's a fence at the bottom of the zipper and then of course the ghosts flying around above that.  To add a little texture to the card I flocked my ghosts and embossed the fence.  However since the fence is at the bottom of the zipper you can't see it all that well and I love how it turned out so I'll have to make another card that I can use the fence on where it's visible.

Dairy Cow Altered Clock

I have had this clock envisioned for some time now but finally had an opportunity to put it together yesterday.  All cuts are from the Create a Critter cartridge.  The milk bottles were cut at 1 1/2" and the cow was cut at 3 1/2".  Oh I forgot, I did use George to cut the background paper which I then punched on the corners with a corner punch.

Very easy clock to alter.

Back to School

It's Wednesday and you know what that means.  Yep, it's time for this week's Cricut Cardz Challenge where this week's challenge was to create a back to school themed card using any cartridge and colors we desired.  I knew that I didn't want to use an apple or a stack of books for this one but wasn't sure what I was going to use.  I started looking through Locker Talk - just flipping pages and then I came across the cut for the school building.....I've looked at and thought about using this particular cut before but never took the time to tackle it.......until now. 

For this card I used Locker Talk for the school.  The building pieces were also embossed using the Cuttlebug folder tiny mosaic texture and I then inked it over with Distress ink in fire brick red.  The tree top was embossed using the d'vine swirls folder and then inked over using Colorbox green and olive inks.

The children "playing" in the school yard were cut from A Child's Year.

Now that you've seen my card for this week's challenge why don't you create one and come play along with us?  You can find other cards created by our Design Team and a link to enter your card here.

Boo Poem Tags

After watching one of Tim Holtz's videos on using distress inks I had to get a blending tool so that I could try it out on the boo poem tags that I was in process of creating.  Then after the first tag I was hooked and decided to create more.  When all was said and done I created two dozen tags in all even though my original intent was to do six. 

For all sets of tags I used the Happy Hauntings cartridge.  The embossing folders used were a combination of Cuttlebug (skulls and swiss dots) and Sizzix (haunted house scene - embossed using a different section of the folder for each tag).

The poem reads:

The air is cool, the season fall,

Soon Halloween will come to all.
Ghosts and goblins, spooks galore...
Tricky witches at your door.
The spooks are after things to do,
In fact a spook brought this "Boo" to you!
The excitement comes when friends like you, copy this note and make it two.
We'll all have smiles upon our faces,
No one will know who "BOO"ed who's places!
Just two short days to work your spell,
Keep it secret, hide it well.
Please join the fun, the seasons here.
Just spread these "BOO's" and Halloween cheer.

Secret Agent Birthday Card

This week was anything goes week for Cricut Cardz Challenge #38 and since I had a close friend who is celebrating a birthday this week I chose to use her card as my DT challenge.  I wanted to create something that was fun and humorous to try to match my girlfriend's personality.  Hopefully when she receives her card in the mail she'll love it. 

Late last week I received my new Happy Hauntings cartridge in the mail and when I started looking at the various cuts I was drawn to this little mouse in his cape.  My first thought was that he looked like a Sherlock Holmes wanna be and thus my card was born.  The little spy glass in his hands was created using the butterfly net outline from Pooh and Friends to which I adhered a piece of acetate to make it look a little more realistic. 

The shape of the card and the "shhh" are from Graphically Speaking.  I haven't used this cartridge much lately but was glad to be able to dig it back out because I almost forgot how much I like it.

Not shown in the pics is that there is a second page to the "file" that includes our birthday greetings.  Both of the file pages were cut using one of the shapes from George and were then stapled to the file.

2011 CD Calendar - November & December

Yeah!  I finally completed this project and must say that I love the way that it all turned out.  With all the wonderful cartridges that have come out over the last year or so there's no end to the possibilities of what can be created.  And yet for these last two months of November and December I chose to use the following cartridges and cuts:

Designer's Calendar for the names of the months

Designer's Calendar for turkey and leaves
A Child's Year for the silhouette of the girl creeping down the stairs
Christmas Noel for the window

Speaking of window, when I created the window I used acetate to place between the frame and the silhouette so as to give the illusion of a real window.

And since this completes the entire 2011 calendar year I thought I'd give you a shot of all the pages in one picture.

2011 CD Calendar - September & October

Yeah!  I am almost done with my current calendar project.  I just wish that our home remodeling was going as well.  It rained on us all weekend and because of that it left us in a holding pattern because we are at the point where we need to get the front door replaced but in order to do that we need to get the new deck built and even though we got the deck up we only managed to get four of the boards nailed down before the heaven's broke open.  Oh well, such is life and we'll get it done this evening I'm sure.  :o)

In the meantime though I was able to complete two more months of my calendar pages.  For these two I used:

Designer's Calendar for the names of the months
Graphically Speaking for the 'couple' reading the book
SYI for the tree
Punch for the leaves
A Child's Year for the trick or treaters
Mini Monsters for the fence which I also embossed with the script folder from cuttlebug and inked
Paper Dolls for the moon and stars

And I love the background papers I used for both of these but I am so sad because I'm almost out of them and can't find them anymore......

CD Calendar - July & August

Here are the next two months in my calendar "installment".

For these months I used:

Graphically Speaking for the flag & independence day

Designer's Calendar for the names of the months

Locker Talk for the school bus and bus stop

2011 CD Calendar - March through June

I was so elated that I was able to complete four months of my calendar project yesterday.  Especially since I wasn't sure I'd even be able to get two of them done.  We were finally at a point in our remodel where I could buy the sealant for our walls (we're leaving the wood au'natural) so that I could get them done.  So off to Home Depot I went and then returned home to spend a few hours "painting".  But I did it!

For these pages I used:

A Child's Year (March)

Pooh & Friends for clouds (March)

Sizzix dies (April)

Accent Essentials (May)

Sweethearts for flowers (May)

Christmas for the bear (June)

Life's a Beach for the chair (June)

Designer's Calendar for the tie (June)

Designer's Calendar for the names of the months

2011 CD Calendar Pages

I decided yesterday that it was time to begin working on some 2011 CD calendars because if I waited too long they just wouldn't get done.  (Kinda like what happened for 2010)  So I pulled up my old templates from 2009 and started to rework some of them to include the cartridges I've purchased since then.

By the time all was said and done I was only able to finish January and February for two calendars.

I used:

Designer's Calendar for the names of the months
Stand & Salute for the fireworks on Jan.
SYI for the wine glasses
Sweethearts for the girl on her scooter

Today I'm working on March and April and will be incorporating some of my Sizzix dies as well.  Not sure how far I'll get since I also have to get some "painting" done in our living room that we are in process of remodeling.

Happy Halloween & CCC #37

This week's Cricut Cardz Challenge was to create a card using only the colors blue, black, white, orange and yellow.  Try as I did I could not get myself away from Halloween mode - I mean really think about those colors.  What theme could be more perfect?

For this card I broke out a pack of mat paper I purchased on clearance last year at Michael's that was too cute to resist.  It's Halloween from Recollections - now this was only used for the outside of the card.  The inside paper was single sheet paper I found at either Michael's or AC Moore.

Since both papers had spider webs I decided to use that as my main focus and cut the spider webs from the Mini Monster's cart.  The web was then painted with a black metallic paint and covered with black glittery fibers.  I also painted the web on the inside of the card with black metallic paint but chose not to use the fibers.

My spiders are from Designer's Calendar.  The larger spiders I dabbed onto a light sandy colored ink pad and the smaller ones I painted with the black metallic paint.  I then used a red paint (the blue just didn't show up too well) for their eyes.

Sympathy Card

This is a re-creation of a card that I made a year or so ago.  Not that I was in need of a sympathy card but I realized that I didn't have any completed and thought it would be a good idea to have one or two done.  Especially since I'm considering signing up for our local Oktoberfest next month.

For this card I used:

Graphically Speaking for the sign and the butterfly

Zooballoo for the grass

The inside sentiment says, "The memory becomes a treasure. Treasure the memories and let them lift you up."

Woman on Caffeine

Before I get to work demolishing more of my house (we're remodeling our living room - Yeah!  I'll finally be able to put the Handy Man cart to use :o) ) I thought I'd finish putting together a card that I had printed a sentiment on months ago.  Back then I thought I knew what I was going to do with it but as quick as I printed the card I lost my train of thought.

Well today I pulled out a couple of my older carts that I haven't used in a while along with one of my Sizzix dies and went to work.  Another easy card but I think that it turned out nicely.

For this one I used:

Accent Essentials - scallop cut at 3 1/2"

From My Kitchen - coffee pot cut at 1 1/4"

A Child's Year - coffee cup cut at 1"
Sizzix Die for the coffee beans on the inside

Batman Teen Birthday

Our challenge for this week's Cricut Cardz Challenge was to create a birthday card for a teenager.  Talk about the perfect time to own Forever Young, Rock Princess or Dude!  But I have none of them and I didn't really want to do the whole "rocks" thing so I wasn't really sure just what I was going to do.......until yesterday morning.

I was looking at my cartridges and kept thinking what are my kids into (all but two are teenagers - one just turned 20 this year and the other will be 13 in a couple months).  Then it hit me, Batman!  Teenage boys still read the comics and watch the movies - even my husband still gets into some of that stuff so why not?

Plus this was the perfect opportunity to use some of those comic strip papers I found on clearance at Michael's for .14 cents not to mention using the cartridge for the first time.  And thus my card was born.  I will say that for smaller cuts this cartridge did much better than the Cars or Tinkerbell ones did.  The only cuts I had issues with were the eyes and teeth but even then they cut perfect - they just didn't seem to fit right so I painted in those parts. 

And now it's your turn to play along with us.  Just click on the link above for more information and to post a link to your teenage birthday card.

Elephants on Parade

Here's a quick one I put together using my Circus Elephant die from Sizzix and luckily enough I just so happened to have the perfect background paper to go with it.  This particular card was created as a thank you card and the inside sentiment says, "Thanks, your help was enormous."

Of course when I first started buying Sizzix products I thought I'd just grab a couple pieces.  You know, just in case the power goes out and I can't use my Cricut.  Heaven forbid I not be able to create a card or other project because of a little thing like power.  :o)  But over the past year I have found myself purchasing more and more dies and texture plates, and I've even got my mother hooked so what I don't have she does and vice versa.....doesn't hurt that she lives right in front of me and I can walk over to her place to borrow a die or two when needed.

So while not all Sizzix dies are as intricate as the cuts from my Cricut I still enjoy crafting with them and have found that they're perfect when I want something simple.