Autumn Owl

 

I was browsing through the files over at Too Cute by Jessica the other day and fell in love with this Autumn Owls set.  So much so that this is the only file set I've been playing with for the past couple of days.  I thought the owls were perfect for creating a card 'series' so that's what I've been doing.....creating a series of friendship cards featuring these cute owls. 

 

Over the next few days I'll be sharing my cards with you and today I wanted to start with the sunflower owl.  I cut this owl out at 5.92 inches high which gave me a finished size of 3 1/4".  The backdrop for my owl was cut from the Cricut cartridge Winter Woodland.

 

To add a bit of texture I embossed the wings on my owl with one of the font folders I have.  The stamped sentiment is from the Craftin Desert Divas set Say it Big.

 

On the inside of my card I decided to use a little pun....

 

 

 

And now I'm going to enter this card in to the following challenges:

 

Craftin Desert Divas - Fall - Ends September 28th

 

Bitten by the Bug 2 - Use any Cricut Cut - Ends September 21st

 

Exploring Cricut - Fall using any die cut machine - Ends September 20th

 

 

 

Sending Love at Christmas

I'm a little behind the 8 ball with a challenge that I was supposed to do for posting on Friday so to all of my DT sisters I apologize profusely.  The last two weeks have been so chaotic for our family with traveling for the holidays, getting sick while on vacation and coming home to even more sickness.  It's all been a whirlwind and we are ready for our lives to get back to their normal routines.

 

With all of that said, I'd like to share with you the card that I created for the Cardz TV Go to Galz Linky Party Challenge - Winter Wonderland.  I absolutely love these little penguins!

 

To create this card I used the following cartridges:

 

Zooballoo for the penguins and Winter Woodland for the hats.  The north sign is a Sizzix die.

 

The shimmering snow was created with a mixture of MS glitters:  Carabba Marble and Crystal Coarse.  After tearing my papers to create the layered ground I inked with a blue ink and then ran them through my Xyron, sprinkled the glitters on the paper and used my fingers to spread it around.

 

The stamped sentiment is from the Cardz TV "Very Merry" stamp set. 

 

 

 

This set has been a life saver for a couple of different projects this weekend.  Stay tuned for more details....

 

In the meantime, hop on over to Cardz TV, check out the other designs the Go To Galz created for you and while you're there be sure to purchase this wonderful stamp set.

 

Coffee Smells Like......

....freshly ground heaven.....and so today, while I sit at my crafting table enjoying a cup of Donut House coffee, I bring you my entry for this week's Cricut Cardz Challenge.  This week our direction was to make a card using a monogram from any cartridge and in any color we desired.  So I sat down this weekend and thought about what I would do but nothing really came to mind.  After all I didn't want a card that just had a monogram on the front. 

Then I decided to reach for some of my old magazines for inspiration.  And so there in the pages of Paper Crafts special edition, Go to Sketches I found what I needed on page 124...........

Armed with my new found inspiration I began creating my card.  For this one I used:

George for my square tiles cut at 1 1/2"

Winter Woodland for my monogram cut at 1" (C is for coffee after all - lol)

Love You a Latte for my couple having coffee cut at 3"

So now that you've seen my creation, why don't come play along with us and create your own monogrammed card.  We'd love to see what you come up with.

Snow Day Appeture Card

This week the Cricut Cardz Challenge Design Team #2 was presented with the challenge to create a Christmas card using something beginning with the letter 'S'.  Even though I'm not on this particular design team I wanted to play along and this is my take on this week's challenge.

For this card I used Winter Woodland for the following cuts:

Tree branch cut at 1 1/2".  Glossy accents was used to add dimension to the berries and flower soft for the snow.

Bird cut at 1 1/2" and pop dotted

Snow Day (blackout) cut at 1"

And for the final touch I added more flower soft to the globe.

Frolicking Reindeer

There are so many fun challenges going on this week that I'm staying busy trying to keep up with them all.  Today I found one posted on the Cricut MB titled the Santa Slackers challenge.  For this one we were given a specific card sketch and were told to make a 5 1/4" square card using Winter Woodland.  And this is what I came up with......

The reindeer were cut at 2" and I painted the antlers with white distressed paint then inked lightly with distressed ink in tea color.  I then pop-dotted them to the card to add some dimension.

The trees were cut at 4" and flocked for texture.  I also tried my hand at using flowersoft for the snow and I think I have some learning to do there. 

The cardinal was cut at 1"

I don't know that it shows up all that great but the "snow" on the ground was painted with Shimmerz in Pixie Dust to give a little bling.

Christmas Decor House Project

This year I made a few of my Christmas presents and this is one that I did for my mom. Growing up I can only remember one time that we ever had a family picture taken and I wanted to capture that in a unique way for my mom.

My house was created off directions found at Scrapbooks, etc. but enlarged to suit my needs. By that I mean that my house stands over a foot tall and about 7 inches wide and it's made from foam core board.

For the inside of my house I used a 4x6 picture which was framed using Accent Essentials.

The word "memories" is from Home Decor and cut at 1" tall

My fireplace was cut from Joys of the Season at 4.25". I then traced the outline on a piece of foam core board, cut it out, adhered the fireplace layers and then adhered that to the back wall of the house.

My stockings are cut from Christmas Noel, Joys of the Season and Christmas Cheer - all at 1".

The candle on the fireplace is from Christmas Noel - cut at 1"

My puppy is from Sweethearts and is cut at 2"

My Christmas tree is my first attempt ever at creating a ribbon tree. Howeve, I cut the styrofoam cone in half so that I could set the tree flush on the wall so as not to take up all the floor space.

Pahl is my maiden name and is cut from Winter Woodland.

The snowy eaves are from Winter Woodland and were cut to fit the roof size needed. I then ran them through my Xyron and applied MS snow glitters.

Snowflake Pop Up

This week's Cricut Cardz Challenge was to make a card using one or more things that begin with the letter S. I chose a snowman and snowflakes. And I used a combination of Cricut and Sizzix this week.

A couple weeks ago I purchased one of the new snowflake pop up dies from Sizzix when they were on sale at 40% off. And this card was inspired by the picture that was included with that die.

For the outside of the card I used Winter Woodland.

For the inside I used

Doodlecharms for the snowman,

George for the window frame

and Speaking of Winter for the snowman's hat

Season's Greetings Stair Step Card

This week's challenge for Cricut Cardz Challenge was to make a Christmas themed stair step card using any cartridge we wanted. When I heard this I thought "Great, I've been wanting to try one of those". And then I chose my base paper......For me it was a little more difficult than I thought it would be, but not as much as last week's tunnel card. Why? you ask. Because I'm more of a scenery type designer and using the techniques we have for the past couple weeks don't really allow for that.

I did it though. I made my card and I'm pleased with the end result.

For this card I used:

Joys of the Season for the reindeer cut at 4 1/2"

Winter Woodland for the season's greetings cut at 1 1/4"

And my little elf is a sticker that I found last season at Hobby Lobby on clearance.

Winter Wishes & Snow Kisses - Pedestal Card

I finally set my Cricut free today. This is one of the designs that I've had sitting on my Gypsy just waiting to come to life and today it all happened.

For this card I used Winter Wonderland for all the cuts except for the tree which was cut from the Christmas Noel cartridge.

Penguins Due North - Cricut Cardz DT Challenge

Today is the day! The day for what you ask? Today is the day that I get to officially post one of my cards as a Design Team Challenge member. That's right. There was a call for members awhile back and I decided why not apply. Little did I know that I would actually be accept as a team member for the Cricut Cardz Challenge.

Today is the revealing of the first of our weekly challenges and for this week's challenge anything went. So for my first design I chose the following carts and cuts:

Zooballoo for the penguins

Winter Woodland for the hats

And the north sign is a Sizzix die

If you would like to play along or see the other wonderful designs created by the team hop on over to http://www.cricutcardzchallenge.blogspot.com/

Snowballs - Gypsy Design

I am so loving the fact that I have my new Gypsy. Yesterday word came down from corporate that they wanted dh to stay on-site (we work for a 500+ unit Condominium site and dh is the Director of Engineering) due to what was then Hurricane Ida. Needless to say we were less than prepared since we live an hour from site. BUT, I had my Gypsy. So after a trip to Wal-mart and dinner we settled in our room and away I went.

This card was created using:

Gypsy font for the verbiage,

Gypsy Wanderings for the snowman,

Winter Woodland for the snowflakes,

George for the snowball stand

Gypsy Christmas Reindeer

I designed this card on my Gypsy earlier this week and finally had the chance to cut and put it together last night.

Gypsy Wanderings was used for:

Reindeer cut at 2.5"

Trees cut at 4" and 3.75"

Winter Woodland was used for:

Snowflakes cut at 1"

The background was created by running a piece of cardstock through my Xyron and then applying Martha Stewart glitters in blue, snow and white.

Ice Skating Snowglobe - Card Challenge #18

How ironic.....Barbara's ****ignment for me was:

Cart: Christmas Cheer OR Christmas Noel OR Joys of the Season

Cut: any

Theme: Christmas You may use cuttlebug; but do not use Design Studio.

For this card I chose to use the snowglobe from Christmas Cheer and the skater and words are from Winter Wonderland. I have to admit that I was so excited about this idea that I completely forgot about using the cuttlebug.

The snowglobe was filled using Martha Stewart mica flakes, crystal coarse and snow for the texture variety.

Once again my camera and scanner do not wish to cooperate in providing a picture with the vibrant colors that are actually used on the card......I have really got to invest in a better camera soon.

Winter Wonderland Altered Clock

I love the new Winter Wonderland cartridge and when I saw the ice skater on this cartridge I knew that I had to use it with this background paper I had purchased a while back.

I've been wanting to make a clock for a little while now so I finally bought a couple from Walmart and sat down and made this one a few days ago.

And since I've been asked about how I know where to place my numbers/images on the clock face so that it will tell the correct time I created a tutorial.

If you would like a copy of the tutorial please see the tutorials tab.





UPDATED: Wow! This is the third time that one of my creations has made the Cricut Chirp! and I am excited beyond words. Check it out: http://www.cricut.com/newsletters/volume.aspx?ID=202

Christmas Magic - Card Challenge #14

rstuck2003's homework assignment for me was:

Cart: Christmas Noel

Cut/s: Any you want to use!

Theme: Christmas Card

Perfect timing on this one because I had a couple ideas for creating my own embossing folders and after a couple of attempts I finally created one that worked. So here's my first card made with the folder.

The "magic" tag was cut from the new Winter Woodland cart.

I'm not sure that I like the way it all turned out but I still love the concept.