Birthday Cupcake

It's time again for another installment in our bi-weekly Cricut Cardz Challenge.  This week is challenge #103 and our directive this week was to create a birthday card using any cupcake or cake cut we desired from any cartridge we desired.

For my card I  used Just Because Cards for the scrolled type frame.

And I used Doodlecharms for the cupcake.  To add some flair to the card I decided to try a technique I learned a while back using puffy paint to give the frosting a more realistic look.  However, I quickly discovered that this works best with the Tulip brand paints (which I was out of at the time).  For this technique you apply enough paint to cover the desired cut.  Then using a heat embossing tool you gently heat the paint so that it bubbles up and then lays back down.  Be careful though because it is easy to burn the paint.  Just turn the heat embosser in circles as if swirling the paint and hold it only close enough to the project to heat it.

Once the paint dried and I could put the cupcake together I adhered an action wobble to the back.  And so that the cupcake would not become 'unbalanced' on the card, I pop-dotted the candle flame.

Now I would like to encourage you to take a look at all the other beautiful cards created by our Design Team.  Then once you're overflowing with inspiration create your own card, link up and play along with us.

Camden Scarf

Got another scarf finished last night.  This one is called the Camden Scarf.  The pattern for this scarf can be found in the How to Knit Fashionable Scarves on Circle Looms book.

I used the green knifty knitter loom and Loops & Threads Country Loom yarn in a snapdragon color.  I made my scarf 57" so it took just one and a portion of a second skein to complete.  This was a very easy pattern to follow and I love the final product.

Feel Better

I have a friend from work that is having surgery this week and I wanted to make a special card for her.  Since I haven't used my E2 much I decided today was as good a day as any to 'dust' it off and give CCR another try.  It wasn't as frustrating today, but I still prefer DS right now.  I guess the more I learn the more I'll like it, but I will always hate that you have to have internet to use it.  So that said, I hope that even when DS is obsolete it will continue to work with what it does now - that way if I lose the 'net I still papercraft........then again, that is why I have my Sizzix stash too.  lol

Anyhoo, for this card I used one cartridge and that is the Just a Note that's pre-loaded on the E2.  I mean why not if I'm going to use my E2?   I decided to use one of the card features which I have not done before.  It all cut very well and the layers matched up almost perfectly as you can see.

The cute little wink-y face on my flower is from one of my Sizzix face stamps.  This was my first time using them and I really like how it turned out.

I admit, the sentiment is one that I took a portion of from a name brand greeting card, but tailored to fit my needs.

And now that my playing is done, I guess it's time to move on to some work.  I have a little bit of mending and ironing to finish before the work week begins tomorrow......

From This to That - Diaper Cake

My girlfriend Kari called me last week asking for help with some die cuts she needed to embellish a diaper cake she was making for another one of her girlfriends.  Well after talking about what images, sizes, colors, and fonts she wanted we came up with all the pieces you see here.

That's over 40 leaves - about a dozen of which I embossed and stamped for some added texture; 20 bananas, 2 palm trees and the name Ayden cut twice and 'shadowed'.  The leaves and banana are from Create a Critter, the font is Life's a Beach and the trees are from Stretch Your Imagination.

Kari was happy with the cuts and I asked her to please share pics of the finished cake so that I could blog about it.  Well she shared as asked and I'm glad she did because it turned out beautifully....

Review: Deadline

So I just finished watching this wonderful movie titled Deadline based on a true story set in the South about a young man that was murdered but even so justice would not be found for almost 20 years.  Sadly, it takes a second murder in the racially divided town to spark enough interest for the journey for the truth to begin.

Hearing about the death of a policeman in this racially divided town, reporter Matt Harper moves in hoping to find a story. What he finds instead is a one way ticket out of town, but soon thereafter is confronted by a resident of the town who asks him to help her find the truth about the murder of the young, black man that was murdered so many years ago.  Somewhat reluctant Matt decides to investigate and thus begins his search for the truth.

Partnering with Matt is Bullock (played by Eric Roberts) a more "seasoned" reporter and together these two find themselves in situations that can only happen in a small town.  Some of the scenes will leave you laughing like the one when Matt and Bullock are in the Amos police station because of a speeding ticket that led to finding concealed weapons.  During their time in the station they mention that there was no sign indicating the speed limit had dropped to which the receptionist mentions it had been shot up a couple years back and was too expensive to replace.  Bullock quickly asks how much it could possibly cost to replace the sign and the receptionist tells him that the replacement isn't the expensive part it's the loss of revenue from the sign being up.

And then there are scenes scattered throughout the film that will grab your heart and bring you to tears.  It's amazing how quickly you find yourself identifying and connecting with the characters.  I didn't even realize it had happened with me until the first tear fell.  And from there it was over.  Now I'm not going to tell you what happened in those scenes because I don't want to ruin the movie for you.

The only "issue" I had with the movie was that there were a couple of times that I personally felt like some of the music used just didn't fit right.  Other than that though this is a definite must see.  It's not every day that one gets to see a movie based on a true story that is also clean with Christian tones running throughout it.  My favorite thing about this movie is that the young man's family was finally able to have justice - and let me tell you it's an ending that you will not see coming.............

Crafting Spaces

Are you like me in that you enjoy seeing how others have set up and organized their craft rooms?  Well this morning I thought what the heck, I'll bite the bullet and share what my space looks like.  It's come a long way over the years.  When my husband bought me my first Cricut I shared a space with him and the kids in their game/computer room.  I was given a 6 foot folding table on the wall and that was my space.  Of course that quickly grew to adding a paper tower and a peg board on the wall.  Then the kids started graduating and moving  so I moved around from one room to another in the house.  I went from a 10 x 10 room to a 9 by something and last year I landed in my permanent room which is a 10 x 13 space.

So without further adieu, I give you my humble crafting space......Our first stop is my sewing corner.

I love this cabinet!  My mother-in-law gave this to me a couple years ago and it has been such a life saver.  Underneath the table are a couple doors that hide my meager fabric stash.  The ties on the door and the sweaters on top are eventually going to be turned into "upcycled" crafts.  And behind the door......

....are my knifty knitters and a small portion of paper stash along with my "upcycled" craft books.

Next stop, my Sizzix corner.

I must admit that I had my Cricut first but one day I found the Big Shot for such a ridiculously low price that I had to buy one.  From there I was hooked.  I admit; however, that I do not buy these dies at regular prices.  I wait until they are in the outlet or I have a 40% or 50% coupon to use in the store.  And the best part is that if I ever lose electricity again like I did for 3 days after Hurricane Ivan hit, I can still craft.

And all those books on the two bottom shelves.....the top one houses all my magazines that I go to when I paper crafting block and the bottom shelf houses all my plastic canvas and knifty knitter patterns.  And those cute little popcorn tins that you can kinda see on the floor house some of my plastic canvas supplies.

Just how are my Sizzix dies organized you ask?  Well if you move in close you'll see that I have them filed away in their handy dandy little storage organizers which I purchased from the Sizzix website during one of their Tuesday Teaser deals.  Each die has the color picture from the package adhered to it so that I'll know what it looks like.  For this I just cut out the pic, ran it through my Xyron Creative station and then popped it on.

Next you might have noticed that my work tables are next to this corner..........

I love that I have plenty of room to spread out now. Not to mention that I'm surrounded by two decent sized windows allowing for plenty of natural light.  Although, there have been times when I feel like it's still not enough.  It just depends on what I'm working on.










Yep, that's the Anniversary Cricut sitting in the back corner behind my jukeboxes.  I have another admission to make here......I still use my E2 and Design Studio over the Anniversary and CCR.  Oh I've used CCR a time or two but I love DS better.  Does that make me a bad person?  lol

So that leads me to the our next stop.......my cartridge stash corner....

Okay, first things first here - yes I am a Law and Order addict.  Any time that it's on TV you can rest assured that it will be on in my room.  I don't care how many times I've see the episode.

After I started getting into my knitting loom obsession I started buying yarn at every turn.  Now don't get me wrong I had a small lot of it to begin with because of my plastic canvas crafting, but it got worse after the first of this year thanks to all the sales that Michael's had going on.  So I had to find spaces for it all and I started by cleaning up and consolidating this bookshelf and then I bought new cubes which are on my other wall.......

Of course my stash is nowhere near as bad as my mom's.  Her entire guest room is lined with bookcases of yarn and still hers overflows to boxes and totes.  At least I know where I get it from.

Now all those drawers you see house different things.  Some hold plastic canvas supplies such as Christmas minis and PC shapes.  Others hold paper punches and other paper crafting tools such as my heat embosser.  Some hold my card blanks and clear paper envelopes for storage/use at craft shows.  And then there's my stash of embossing folders, glitter and flocking powder.

Well I hope you've enjoyed my pictorial walk around my crafting space this morning.  I've enjoyed sharing and look forward to seeing others ideas and spaces.  Who knows I just might have to space lift some ideas along the way........

Ahoy Matey - Stitch in Time Challenge

Happy Wednesday everyone.  I hope that you all had a delightful Valentine's day with your families and loved ones.

Today I'd like to share with a birthday card I made for the Cardz TV Challenge 102.  This week our directive was to make a card for any occasion of our liking and to either use real or faux stitching.  I had several ideas running through my head, but as I kept pulling this cartridge or that off the shelf I found myself uninspired.  For whatever reason my mojo has been off and nothing peaked my interest.  Not even the 'newer' carts I bought a while back and have still yet to use.  But then, I pulled down.............

Life's a Party.  I cut the treasure map at 4" and stitched over the 'X' - thus my stitch in time.

For the inside of the card I used the card feature for the treasure chest, cut at 2 1/2".  I cut and printed a rectangle to adhere inside the chest and added a couple of glue dots (not pictured) for keeping a gift card in place.  And to keep the chest closed I added a couple of brads and a piece of string so that I could wrap it around and viola it's closed.

To tie the card together I used paper from the DCWV mat stack All About Boys.

So now that you've seen my card be sure to pop on over to Cardz TV to check out all the other fabulous designs created by our team.  And then once you've been filled with inspiration create your own card and link up to play along with us.

Child's Woven Top Hat

Before I head off to our local Mardi Gras parade I wanted to share with you a quick woven top hat that I finished last night.  I was amazed at how easy and quickly this works up.  Especially since I was intimidated just looking at the pics.

I made this one using the green loom (pattern said to use green or yellow) and it's VERY tight on my head so definitely not for adults.  lol  Now I'll have to pull out my yellow loom and get one made that will fit my head.

The pattern for this hat can be found in the pattern book Learn New Stitches on Circle Looms by Anne Bipes.

Nottinghill Tube Scarf

Good morning everyone.  I know it's been a week full of getting ready for Valentine's day and since my wonderful hubby and I had our Valentine's date last night when we went to see Jeff Dunham I decided to switch gears today and share a new scarf that I completed.

I had a lot of fun making this one and while it took a little longer to get it done it was well worth it.  And in case anyone is curious the pattern for this scarf is from the "How to Knit Fashionable Scarves on Circle Looms" book by Denise Layman.

Valentine Goodie Bags

I found these Valentine cards like the kids use in school and thought to myself - "self, you have the Mickey cartridge at home and can do something with these".  So I snatched them up, came home and went to work.

I used Tags, Bags, Boxes and More for the goodie bag, cutting each bag at 6" so that I could cut two per piece of cardstock.  My Mickey and Minnie characters were cut at 1 1/2".  Now all I have to do is fill my bags (I made more than what's pictured) with the goodies and they're all done.

Valentine News

I have finally finished the Valentine card for my oldest daughter.  She's a huge coffee addict so I thought that the Love You A Latte cartridge was the perfect choice for this one.  The newspaper cut from this particular cartridge is my absolute favorite because of its versatility.  Admittedly I've only used it a couple times but c'mon you have to admit that there are a vast array of options for this cut.

Oh and this new mat stack from K& Company is to die for.  Well, not literally but it is gorgeous.

And of course I thought this cut was perfect for the inside.  I guess I should have doctored up the inside a tad bit more but my pounding head just couldn't go there right now.  Either way though I'm sure that my daughter will love it.

Teen Rocker Valentine

This is the week of trying to get valentine's made for my daughters and co-workers and today I want to share with you the card I've put together for my youngest (19 yr old) daughter.  As she was growing up we always called her our biker babe but now she's a little more subdued and is more like my musical, hippie chick babe.  So I decided to go with the Rock Princess as the theme for her card.

I used Rock Princess for the cut but didn't want the "makeup" and stockings as those are things that my daughter  doesn't wear and I was trying to to make this cut look kinda like her.  ::wink, wink::  I cut the girl out at 5 1/2" then used the Sweethearts cartridge for my hears which were cut at about 3/4".

This was a very easy card to put together but I think that my daughter will really like it.

Be My Valentine Fairy Tale

Happy Wednesday and February 1st everyone.  Boy January just flew right by us and before we know it it'll be springtime again.  I for one cannot wait.

Until then I have a Valentine's card to share with you that was created for Cricut Cardz Challenge 101.  Our directive for this challenge was to create a valentine themed card using any colors and cartridges we desired.  Of course I designed my card a little backwards in that I chose my sentiment first and then scoured through my booklets and My Cut Search until I found what I thought was the perfect cut/s for displaying the sentiment.

Using the Sweethearts cartridge, I cut the heart couple seen on page 40.  The heart was cut from regular cardstock and embossed using the script folder.  The couple was cut from black aluminum.  For my sentiment  I used the cartoche cut seen on page 74 - cutting one larger than the other for layering.  The top layer was cut from an off white cardstock that I went back and inked over with antique linen distressed ink.

So now that you've seen my card pop on over to Cardz TV and take a look at all of the other fabulous designs our team created for this challenge.  Then once you've been filled with inspiration create your own Valentine and link up to play along with us.