Summer's Here and the Beach is Open.....

.....now that TS Debby has passed us by.  LOL 

Seriously though, it's time for another Cricut Cardz Challenge and the theme this week is Summer.  Use any cartridge/s and color/s you want so long as you create a summer theme.  And for those of us in Destin this time of year what says summer more than the beach and lifeguards?

I love that this particular challenge came along when it did because it gave me the perfect opportunity to break out a cartridge that I've had for some time but yet never used.  Can you guess what it is?  No?  Well....

For this card I used:

H2O for the lifeguard and the girl in the water

Life's A Beach for the lifeguard stand

Mickey and Friends for the sun and the clouds

My 'sand' was made using sand paper.  Of course I wish that I had some white sand paper so that I could make the sand as beautiful as it is on our beaches along the Gulf of Mexico.

So now that you've seen my design for this week's challenge take a look at all the other great designs our team created for your viewing pleasure this week.  You can find them over at Cardz TV.  Then once you've been amply inspired, create your own take on this week's challenge, link up and play along with us. 

Knitted Ruffle Scarf

Hello everyone, it's that time of the week when I take a time out to share a non-paper crafted item with you.  Today I want to share my first ever loom knitted ruffle scarf.  These things are all the rage right now so I had to jump on this bandwagon and create my own.

I admit it was a bit of a pain, but it was worth the effort.  This scarf actually measures 64" in length but for photo purposes I had to fold it over.

I used just under one skein of the Red Heart Boutique Sashay "yarn" in Rumba and the pink knifty knitter long loom.  If you'd like to view a tutorial on how to loom knit this scarf Isela Phelps has a great video on youtube that will walk you through everything you need to know.

Happy Loom Knitting.

A Clean House.....

I saw this great robot shaped card recently that used brads for the little nuts and bolts.  Of course I thought this was a great idea and so I had to create my variation. 

Not only that but I also found another great quote that I wanted to use. 

AND to top it all off there's this fun little challenge going on over at Pause Dream Enjoy Challenges so I figured why not combine all THREE ideas into one card......

I haven't broken out my Robotz cartridge in quite a while and I forgot about some of the really cute cuts on this cartridge.  But for the quote in mind only this cut would do.  As you can see I used 3 small metallic brads under the 'clean meter' as well as a screw brad in the tire.  I love the way that the brads added a little texture and oomph to the robot.

My background paper is called Floor Plan and it's from Creative Imaginations.  Oh and let's not forget about that quote I wanted to use...........

"A clean house is the sign of a boring person".  (Truth be told I did a little housework today.  lol)

Toadily Awesome

Happy Thursday everyone!  I am happy to announce that I (along with several other ladies) have been chosen to be a part of the Just A Scrappin Design Team.  There are two teams, each of which will bring you a new challenge to play along with every week beginning today.

For our first challenge - Anything Goes.  That's right - Anything.  But, you have to use green and then any other color/s you choose. 

Keeping in theme with my create a card around a quote this week I give you my "toadily" awesome card.  Now I will say that I took numerous pictures of this card because it honestly looks so much better in real life that it has turned out in any of pics.  And out of all of them this one was the best; however, my poor frog looks like he's gone way over the cuckoo's nest.  LOL  But I digress.....

For this card I used:

Pooh Font for the "U"
Sesame Street Friends for the frog
Create a Critter for the lily pads

The lily pad flower is a brad that I had in my stash.

Now that you have seen my creation why don't you hop (no pun intended) on over to Just a Scrappin to check out the other designs created by our wonderful.  Then create an Anything Goes design of your own, link up and play along with us.  (You have one week before the next team shares their design.)

You Blow Me Away

Here's my next card that was made to fit the quote.  Although I can't take full credit for this one because I saw a card in one of the many paper crafting magazines that had a stamped card like this in it.  Of course the light bulb went off when I saw it and I knew it had to be done.

As you can tell this was also another easy card to put together and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.  For this card I used:

Girl's Make-up Party for the blow dryer
Accent Essentials for the scalloped circle

My background paper on this one is from the mat stack All About Girls by DCWV.  I wanted this to be a bright, fun card and thus my shades of orange, blue and green.

Be sure to stay tuned for my next quote constructed card.  It's sure to be a 'toad-il' hit.

As Soon As I Saw You....

....I knew an adventure was going to happen.  Winnie the Pooh couldn't have said it any better.  And thus begins my week of creating cards around a quote instead of the other way around.  Funny thing is I have found that starting with the quote can tend to make creating the card simpler.

For example, you could do quite a few things with this quote, but I chose to go with a single die cut found on the Rock Princess cartridge.  I wanted to shine it up a bit so I cut the bike out of a red metallic paper and the chrome pieces were cut from a gray metallic paper. My background paper is from the mat stack Rock on Love by Prima Marketing.

This little princess has herself all decked out and raring to go and thus I thought it was the perfect cut for an adventure.  Just to show you how perfect it is I'm going to borrow another "adventure" quote, this time by George Thorogood.....

Get your motor running

Head out on the highway

Looking for adventure

And whatever comes our way

 

Deep Woods Slouchy Tam

Happy Thursday everyone.  I couldn't let the week go by without sharing a loom knitted project with you. 

This is a little bit of a rework of a pattern that I purchased from Jeannie Thompson Phillips a while back.  I wanted to see what it would look like with a different style brim and now I know.  Not only did I change up the brim of the hat though, I also decided to add a little bit of flair to it. 

I had some camouflage ribbon in my stash that I thought would be perfect with the color scheme of my yarn so I wove it around the hat and then added a zipper flower that I found on clearance at Walmart.  The flower is removable as it pins in place.

So what do you think?

First Father's Day

It's time for another Cricut Cardz Challenge and with Father's Day just a couple days away prepare to be inspired by all the great cards our Design Team created this week.  But first I'd like to share my quick and easy card for a First Father's Day.

For my card I used:

Father's Day for the recliner
Baby Steps for the baby - of course you can interchange the baby from a boy to a girl (probably need to do that myself)

That's it, two simple cuts and you have a great card to give daddy on his special day.  Now that you've seen my card be sure to stop by and check out all the other great cards from our team.  Then after you've been amply inspired create your own, link up and play along with us.

Birthday Snap

As I was thumbing through the pages of the current issue of Paper Crafts Magazine I saw a crab shaped card that had the phrase "oh snap" on it.  Immediately this card caught my eye and I knew that it was going to be inspiration for a card to come.

Today just happens to be that day.  One of my girlfriends is celebrating her birthday this week and given her 'snappy' personality - not crabby but fun and quirky - I wanted to use that phrase for her card.  At the same time I'm also creating a card for the Bitten By The Bug 2's Water Theme Challenge.

For this card I used:

Life's a Beach for the font, birds and the little mound upon which my palm tree sits
Create a Critter for the crab
Doodlecharms for the palm tree

My beach was created using sand paper and my little mound was also cut from sand paper.  I also embossed my water to help give it a bit of a wavy look.

Slouchy Tam and Scarf Set

I am so grateful that today is Friday.  It's been a long week for me and I'm very ready for some rest.  And since it's Friday I'm going to take a break from posting a card today and instead share with you another of my loom knitted projects that I completed this week.

The slouchy tam was completed on my Martha Stewart loom which I picked up with my handy dandy 40% off coupon at one of my local craft stores.  The scarf was completed on my 10" Knifty Knitter long loom.

Both projects were made from Red Heart soft yarn in Waterscape.  For the scarf I added in a single strand of Joann's Sensations brand of eyelash yarn in Chincilla.

Vested Dad

I have another Father's Day card that I'd like to share with you today.  This was an easy one to create - three cuts and you're done.  How easy is that?

I used the Billionaire cartridge yet again.  So far this has been a great cartridge for me when it comes to making masculine cards.

Taking it one step further I wanted to dress up the vest so I went through my button stash until I found three matching and coordinating buttons.  I also used some ribbon from my stash to make a mock hankerchief for the pocket.

Add a moustache on top just for the heck of it and viola.

Easy Peasy.

Dressed up Dad

Happy Wednesday everyone.  Today I have another Father's Day card to share with you, and once again this card was inspired by one in the pages of the May/June issue of Paper Crafts magazine.  Only this time the inspiration was in the form of a digital card.  I wish I could show you the original card, but you'll have to check out the magazine instead.....

For my card though I used:

Pooh Font Set for the font
Billionaire for the moustaches and tie
Everyday Paper Dolls for the hat (cut twice so I could have a different colored hat band)

Quick, easy and I do believe one of my favorite cards yet.

Father's Day Pocket Card

With Father's Day only 12 days away I figured I best get a move on and start making my cards.  So far I have two of the three I need done and this is the first one I'd like to share with you. 

My inspiration for this card was found in the pages of the May/June edition of Paper Crafts Magazine. (Check out their blog.)  The original version used dies from papertrey  ink and quickutz but I used my trusty 'ol Cricut:

Old West was used for the pocket.  I hid the little design on the pocket and I also cut a small rectangle to adhere to the top edge of the pocket as my 'flap'.

Graphically Speaking was used for the paper which I also embossed using the argyle cuttlebug folder.

Life's a Party was used for the glasses.  After cutting out the pieces I ran the face piece through my Xyron and adhered a frosted type acrylic to the die cut.

Knitted Washcloth and Scrubbie

I just had to share with you a couple of washcloth and scrubbie sets that I finally finished making over the weekend.  These were both made on my blue knifty knitter loom using Lily Peaches and Creme 100% cotton yarn.

The pattern for the washcloth is Erin Lowmaster's Bakset and Weave pattern and the scrubbie is part of Bethany Dailey's Loom Knitted Spa Set.  Both were very easy to make and I was able to finish them in two days.

Now I just need to get some soap made and package them up for gifts.

Pocket Birthday Card

Last week I saw several cards in my reading list that was called pocket cards.  Well of course I got curious and had to take a look.  Seems there's this new stamp and die set (can't remember by who) that's come out and it's all about pockets.  Great idea, but I thought well heck there's got to be a pocket cut somewhere on one of my Cricut cartridges so I went to My Cut Search and sure enough there was one.

Since I needed a birthday card for my mom I decided to use this newly found pocket cut and incorporate it into my card.  I used:

Old West for the pocket
Create a Critter for the worm, happy birthday sentiment on the pocket and the balloons

The heart shaped balloon was adhered to an action wobble.