Have a Beary Christmas

Hey everyone!  I have another cute as can be Christmas card to share with you today. 

 

This ever so cute as can be fella is from the Christmas Dress Up Bears file over at Too Cute by Jessica.  I absolutely love her files because they are so stinking easy to piece together.  I'll be honest and tell you, some of the SVG files out there are more than I want to deal with.  But these are perfect!

 

So there's nothing fancy going on with my card.  I wanted to keep it simple so that the cuteness didn't get lost in a bunch of bling or fan fare. 

 

The stamped sentiment is from the recently released Christmas Critter Captions stamp set over at Cardz TV Stamps.  I love the way that it lined up perfectly to fit in between the paper's dots.

 

The skittles are Frosty Kisses from the Black Friday 2013 release over at DoubleClick Connections.

 

See - quick, simply and oh so cute.  Just the way I like it. 

 

And now I'll be entering my card in to the following challenges:

 

DL Art - Anything Goes - Ends October 31

 

Hiding in My Craft Room - Any Holiday - Ends November 1st

 

 

Snow Adorable

Here in Florida we don't see much snow but when we do you can bet it's not enough for a good ol' snowball fight.  I think the only place I've lived where we were able to do that was in Newton North Carolina just outside of Asheville.  The kids were all much younger with our oldest being around 5 or 6 so they loved the snow that year.  So as I reminisce about that time I have a card to share with you.

 

I used the recently released Snow Day Boys file from Too Cute by Jessica to create my card.  After cutting out the pieces I ran my snow balls and tree through my Xyron machine and covered the snow in carrara marble glitter from Martha Stewart and my tree in green flocking.  As I put the card together I pop dotted the snowballs to help add some dimension.  All of this I felt really made these elements stand out and bring it all together.

 

For my sentiment I used the Holly Day Punnys set from Craftin Desert Divas.

I'm going to enter this into the following challenge:

DL Art - Anything Goes - Ends October 31

Jack Skellington Tag

Okay, okay.  I could not resist when I saw this new, awesome Nightmare Pals file over at Too Cute By Jessica.  Admittedly I have yet to see the movie (actually bought a copy last night so I can watch it sometime this week hopefully) but still this guy is as cute as they come.  Plus I thought this tag would go great with my Jack Skellington hat I made.

 

To create my project I cut Jack out at 3.97 inches high.  The moon and hill I cut out at 2.78 (I decided not to use the hill).  I ran the moon through my cuttlebug using one of the circles and dots folders in my stash.

 

 

 

I then used a scrap of Halloween striped paper which I adhered to a shipping tag and then layered the moon and Jack to the tag.  At the bottom of the tag I added a couple of Rudolph Red Skittles from the 2013 Black Friday release over at DoubleClick Connections.

 

And there you have a quick, simple Halloween tag.

I'm entering my tag in the following challenges:

DL Art Thankful Thursdays - Ends November 5th

Haunted Wishes at Jo's Scrap Shack - ends on October 31st

Haunted Mansion - Red Carpet Studios - Ends November 1st

 

You Put a Spell on Me

It is officially one week until Halloween and today the cards design team at Cardz TV has one last Halloween project to share with you.  This week's challenge is to create a Halloween scene. That's it - now imagine the possibilities..........

 

To create my Halloween scene, I used the Cricut cartridges Mini Monsters for the street light and sign and Autumn Celebration for my trick or treaters. 

 

For whatever reason my machine did not cut out the trick or treaters cleanly.  However, I didn't realize just how bad they cut until after I pieced my card together and took the picture.  When I was cropping and straightening the picture was when I noticed it and about cried.  Fortunately the idea popped in my head to use the street sign for my focal point and just blur the rest - and that is what I did.

 

The stamped sentiment on my sign I used one of the older stamp sets, Trick or Treat.  Since each plank of the sign was individually cut it was easy to stamp just one line of the stamp at a time in order to get the final result.

 

And there you have my take on this week's challenge.  Now be sure to check out the other great designs our team has for you this week.  Then create your own Halloween scene, link up and play along with us for your chance to win one of Mary's great stamp sets.

 

Challenge ends November 6th.

I'm also entering this into the following challenges:

Haunted Wishes at Jo's Scrap Shack - ends on October 31st

Thankful Thursdays at DL Art - ends November 5th

Haunted Mansion - Red Carpet Studios - ends November 1st

Happy Sweet 16

Exploring Cricut and More is celebrating their 4th birthday this week.  To celebrate they are hosting a birthday challenge and also sharing birthday projects all week to get our creative juices flowing.  But the fun ends on the 26th.  Fortunately I'm getting a little play time in while I'm finishing preparations for my craft show this weekend. 

I have this Forever Young cartridge that I've never really played with much and thought this  girl would be perfect to use for a Sweet 16 birthday card.  Her stance made it the perfect choice to combine with the "16" candles I cut using the Sweet Treats cartridge. 

 

The background 'paper' I used for this card isn't really paper but rather  a sheet of aluminum foil from Walnut Hollow.  I loved the way it turned out so much that I went back to Michael's this weekend and bought a pack of every color available.

My inside sentiment on this one says, "Say goodbye to dolls and toys.  Say hello to makeup and boys!  Happy Sweet 16"

 

And now I'm off to enter my card into their challenge.

Merry Freakin' Christmas

I realize we have not yet finished celebrating Halloween; however, Christmas is my favorite holiday and I'm way past ready to let the Christmas crafting begin.  Sure I've made a card or two here and there, but now it's time to really get them going.

 

So today I have this Grinch-y card to share with you.  This one is for all the Bah-Humbuggers out there.  I had some of this great paper leftover from a Grinch mat stack I picked up a couple years ago that was perfect for this cute Grinch caricature cut file titled Grumpy Christmas over at Too Cute by Jessica.

 

After putting the card together I decided to add some Grinch Green skittles from the black Friday 2013 release over at DoubleClick Connections.  And the great sentiment is from the recently released Bah-Humbug stamp set by Jaded Blossom.

 

And lest I forget, the inside of my card....I found this great file over at Papercrafts Connection.  They have some great sentiment downloads that correspond to each month's magazine.  This one is from the Holiday Cards & More edition from 2014.

 

Now I will say that I did not print this to cover the entire inside of the card.  Rather I centered it to the side and printed it to cover a large portion of the area.  I wanted to be sure to leave some kind of a border simply because I thought it looked better that way.

 

And there you have it.   My first funny card for the season.

I'm going to enter this into the Anything Goes challenge over at DL Art.

 

 

Eat, Drink and Be Scary

Today begins another fun challenge over at PDE Linky Party and this week the challenge is Halloween Decorations.  That means the sky is the limit so long as you're decorating for Halloween.....

 

For my Halloween decoration I made a treat box that was inspired by this one I found on Pintrest.  It was made using two different files from My Scrap Chick (pumpkin box and Halloween treat bag toppers).  As you can see I embossed his hair, brows and mustache to add a bit of texture.

 

I then used several of the stamps from Peachy Keen set PKSC-32 which was part of the August release this year. 

 

Now that you've seen my take on this week's challenge be sure to check all of the other wonderful designs our team has created for you.  Then create your own decorations, link up and play along with us.  I can't wait to see what you create.

 

Remember, the challenge ends Monday, October 27th.

 

 

And now I am off to enter this in to the following challenge:

 

Embossing - Hiding in My Craft Room - Ends Saturday, October 25th

 

Harvest and Halloween - My Scrap Chick

 

Haunted Mansion - Red Carpet Studios - Ends November 1st

 

 

 

 

 



Jack Skellington Hat

 

Today I have a loom knitted hat that I wanted to share with you.  I've seen pictures of these hats on the net and decided that I wanted to try my hand at making one.  Thing is that I'm still trying to learn how to crochet so I broke out my looms and this is what I came up with.

 

To create this hat (for those of you that loom knit):

 

Row one: e-wrap knit

Row two:  Purl

Row three:  e-wrap knit

Row four: Purl

This completes the brim of the hat.

 

E-wrap knit for 20 rows.

 

To finish the hat do the flat drawstring bind off method that Jeannie Phillips introduced a while back.  This is for the last three rows of the hat and you can watch the video here.

 

For the eyes I chained 5 then crocheted in the circle with 10 single crochet stitches.

The next row I crocheted around using the half double stitch

For the last row I crocheted around using the single stitch

 

Then it was time to stitch the eyes, nose and mouth and viola.

Terror-ific

So before I begin my post I'm going to admit that I did not create a handmade card or gift for Boss's Day today.  It had actually slipped my mind that that was this week so I ended up purchasing my card and gift.  However, I will be giving my boss one of the treat holders that I have created and shared with you this week.

 

Speaking of treats, I have one last one to share with  you for this week.  Although it's actually a treat topper and not a holder.  I found these cute little baggies of vampire teeth and 'blood' at the dollar store and thought they would be cute with this Dracula treat bag topper from My Scrap Chick.

 

I took one of the baggies apart and re-packaged it so that you could better see the teeth and 'blood' bag.  As you can see with the other two packages the manufacturer sealed them in the packages backward.  Who cares, right?  Well of course we do when we're crafting with them.  lol

 

I painted up Dracula's fangs with some red smooch.  You can probably tell that I was not precise with the coloring and that was on purpose.  After all if you have blood on your fangs it's not like it's going to be neat and in the lines.  I also used a bit of black enamel accents for the knot on the bow ties.

 

After putting it all together I pondered how I could add a sentiment to the topper and this is what I came up with.  I just stamped this wonderful sentiment from Craftin Desert Divas Ghostly Greetings stamp set. I then hand cut my flag and adhered it to the corner of Dracula's head.

 

Now I'm going to go enter this in the following challenges:

 

Harvest and Halloween challenge - My Scrap Chick - ends October 27th

 

Halloween - Craftin Desert Divas - ends October 26th

 

I've Got My Eyes On You

Welcome to another Skittles design team challenge.  As we drawer closer to Halloween our challenge for the next two weeks is to use "spooky" colors:  Orange, Purple, Green and/or Black.  Pick at least two of the colors mentioned and create a project. 

 

For my project I used all of the colors mentioned.  This week I've been on a treat holder kick so instead of designing a card I chose to create a treat holder for these great eyeball candies I found at the dollar store. 

 

The cutting files are from SVG Cutting Files.  I used the Eye There Candy Tube for the holder and One Eyed Harry for my cute little monster.

 

My stamped sentiment is from Cardz TV Stamps recently released stamp set titled Frankly Frightly.

 

And my skittles - which you can purchase here - are from two different releases.  The black eye is from the Back to School set and the Petrified Purple is from the Spooky Fun set.

 

Now that you've seen my take on this period's challenge be sure to check out the other wonderful designs our team has created for you.  Then after you've been amply spooked with all the fun be sure to create your own spooky color project, link up and play along with us for your chance to win some skittles. 

 

Challenge Begins: October 15th

Challenge Ends: October 28th

Announce Winner: November 1st

Prize: Skittles

 

 

Ooh, and I'm entering this into the Let's Make a Treat Challenge over at SVG Cutting Files  

 

Spooky Secret Pal Treat Bags

 

Today I have some spooky fun treat bags that I would like to share you with you.  I created these for all of my co-workers who are playing along in our secret pal swap.  This way to get to have some crafty fun and MY secret pal is none the wiser.

 

For these treat bags I used the Cute Costume Kids file from Too Cute by Jessica.  I only used four of the six cuties and found that these guys were all easy to put together.  After piecing the cuties together I took some shipping tags that I picked up at Office Depot and embossed them using different Cuttlebug and Sizzix folders.  I then inked them with my Tim Holtz Distressed Ink and used sentiments from the Cardz TV Stamps set "Frankly Frightful" and Craftin Desert Divas stamp set "Ghostly Greetings".  On two of my cuties I decided to break out my Peachy Keen stamps and stamp their faces using the PK-490 Everyday Faces set.

 

Inside the treat bags is either a pouch of Zombie Juice or Blood Energy drinks.  After being inspired by a member of the Jaded Blossom design team I found these at Harcos Labs and was able to pick them up at half price.  For these I used Happy Hauntings for the potion bottles which were then stamped using sentiments from the Jaded Blossom set "Spooky Labels".  Other than the pouches there is also a small amount of candy - some of which was stamped using the Halloween Candies 2 set from Jaded Blossom.

 

I then put it all together and added a mini plastic skull that I found at Michaels to add a bit of spooky to the packaging.  I gave these out yesterday and the reviews were very favorable.

 

And now I am going to go enter this into the following challenge:

 

Halloween - Craftin Desert Divas - Ends October 26th

 

Anything Halloween - Jaded Blossom - Ends October 25th

 

Pun Fun - Fantabulous Cricut Challenge (Happy Owl-oween!) - Ends October 19th

Say Boo

Hello my fellow crafty bloggers.   I have several treat holder projects that I'll be sharing with you over this next week.  Today's treat holder was made using the Boo to You file from Too Cute by Jessica and the Alien tube holder (minus the alien) from SVG Cutting Files. 

 

The treat tube holder is a square tube that can be purchased at Jaded Blossom.  It holds three of the mini Hershey candy bars.  I thought it would be fun to use a candy corn printed paper to wrap the bars since my cute ghost was holding a couple of candy corns himself.

 

My stamped sentiments on both the treat box and the candy bars are from the recently released Ghostly Greetings stamp set from Craftin Desert Divas.  The "sign" sentiment was a last minute addition that I stamped, cut and rounded corners on then adhered off to the side of the box.  I think it ended up fitting in there perfectly.

 

And there you have it - a fun, quick and easy treat holder to put together.  Needless to say, I'll be putting together similar treat holders for other occasions.

Scaredy Cat

Happy Friday everyone and welcome to our second Cardz TV Card Challenge for this 'season'.  Our challenge this week is To Die For.  Create a card for Halloween using Die Cuts from your Die Cut Machine (Cricut, Silhouette, Big Shot, Cuttlebug, etc.)

 

For my card I used:

 

Pumpkin from Cricut Craft Room Basics

Square from George

 

Using these two shapes I flipped one pumpkin and then used George as my center and welded all shapes together to create a pumpkin shaped card.

 

I then used this cute little scaredy cat hiding in his pumpkin from the Don't be a Scaredy Cat file by Too Cute by Jessica.  I also cut a second set of leaves at a larger size to use on the card base.

 

After putting the card together I stamped my sentiment using the new Cardz TV Stamps set called Frankly Frightful.  After doing that I cur a piece of my memory wire and wrapped it around the stem of my pumpkin to create the vine.

 

Now that you've seen my project for this week's challenge be sure to check out the other great designs our team created for you.  Then play along with us.  Link up your Halloween card for a chance to win a stamp set.  I can't wait to see what you create.

For Your Piggy Bank

 

Monday was my youngest daughter's birthday so I put this card together for her using the For Your Piggy Bank file from Too Cute by Jessica.  This is another one of those files that I've been hoarding for a while and finally broke out of my stash to use.  It was super easy to put together and I love how cute this turned out.

 

I decided that instead of using the money that was included with the file that I wanted to use money from one of the board games we used to play all the time.  But then as I went to grab one or two of the bills from the game I thought - No, I don't want to do that......So off I went to the internet where I found a good image that I printed, folded and placed in the piggy bank.

 

The stamped sentiment is from the Just Pigcause stamp set by Craftin Desert Diva's.

My Little Monkey Gift Bag

Hey everyone.  Today I'd like to share a quick, easy, fun gift bag I put together using the adorable My Little Monkey Man file from Too Cute By Jessica.  I've been hanging on to this file for a while trying to decide just how I wanted to use it and yesterday I decided I'd start with a little gift bag.  Since this little fella had a mustache I thought this mustache printed paper would be perfect to use as a backdrop on the bag.

 

One of the things that I love about this file is that Jessica gives you the "shadow" of the monkey too.  That means you can put it all together and know where to put the pieces much like you would when putting together a puzzle.  When cutting SVG files I find that this is sometimes a huge help and I wish more SVG creators would do this.  So while this file would be easy enough to piece together without the shadow it was definitely a welcome addition.

 

And there you have it.  A quick and easy gift bag that's versatile enough to use for a variety of gift giving moments from new babies to birthdays......

Friends Through Thick and Thin

I have finally managed to reach the end of my owl card series that I have been creating using the Autumn Owls file from Too Cute By Jessica.  And now I'm kinda sad because I had so much fun choosing layout designs, styles, papers, colors, etc. for these guys.  You know what they say though........all good things must come to an end.  That's okay though because it just means I get to move on to another great file. 

 

For this card though I chose to make my first ever center step card.  I've seen these floating around but admit I was intimidated at the thought of creating one.  That is until I found a file for it over at Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbon.  Yeah!  Someone else did all the guess work for me.  LOL

 

To spotlight my owl I used the scalloped oval from the Cricut cartridge Baby Steps.

 

For my sentiment, I used the Jaded Blossom stamp set Best Friends.

 

And now I'm off to enter this into the following challenges:

 

Anything Goes - Die Cuttin Divas - ends Monday October 6th

 

Shape Up - Fantabulous Cricut Challenge - Ends Sunday October 5th

Fight Like a Girl

Welcome to another DoubleClick Connections Skittles Challenge.  For the next two weeks our challenge will focus on the color pink in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness.  Create any kind of project but use the color pink.  I don't personally know anyone who is fighting breast cancer but I have a family member that is battling three forms of cancer.  That's right THREE.  And let me tell you what he's not going down without a fight and so far he's winning!!

 

For my project  I used the bear from Create a Critter - cut at 3".  For my awareness ribbon I used Stand and Salute.  I cut the ribbon at 1" then ran it through my Xyron and applied some MS glitter in cotton candy pink.

 

At the bottom corner of my card I used Caramel skittles from the Summer release to tie in with the browns on my bear.  Finally, the sentiment was actually printed using my printer.

 

And now be sure to check out the other wonderful designs our team has put together for you this week.  Then create your own project, link up and play along with us for your chance to win a fun prize.

 

In the meantime don't forget that you can always replenish your Skittles stock here.