Blog Hop Starts Tomorrow

Happy Friday the 13th everyone.  Just wanted to pop in really quick to remind everyone that the blog hop I'm participating in with the Just A Scrappin' Design Team will start tomorrow and go through the weekend.

You won't want to miss this as several of our designers will be showcasing their talented take on the Summer Fun theme.  And let's not forget that along the hop you will have chances to win blog candy - including some that will be given away here on my blog.

So get ready for the fun and come join us this weekend.  I know I'm looking forward to seeing all the fabulous projects!

Drawstring Cowl

Now I'm not much of one for cowls. I'm more of a scarf kinda girl.  But, I saw this pattern and had to give it a whirl.  The pattern was designed by Samantha Pestana over at Once Upon a Loom.  If you love loom knitting you should really check out her blog as she's got a lot of beautiful designs over there.

For this cowl I used some of my favorite yarn to work with - Loops and Thread Charisma in Toadstool color.  I know, kinda funny name huh?  This project took just over one skein of yarn to complete so now I have enough left over to make a child's woven top hat.  Yippee.

In the meantime, I need to go do some reading on blocking projects because I have a mobius shrug (another item I'm not much into - but I can't always knit what I want right?) that is in need of some blocking.

Summer Blog Hop - Coming Soon

As the temperatures continue to rise I find myself yearning to be outdoors more and more.  After all it is summer time and that means I just spent months sitting inside because it was too cold outside for me to do anything.  But now I can get out, run around, go to the beach, go cycling, have BBQ's, garden and all kinds of other things. 

There are so many fun things to do in the summer and so we over at Just A Scrappin' have decided to have a blog hop on July 14th and 15th to showcase something that we each like to do during the summer.  I hop that you'll check in with me and all the other ladies participating in this event.   Rumor has it that there will even be some blog candy scattered along the trail.

So mark your calendars - you won't want to miss this!

Christmas in July?.....

....Why not.  Mary over at Cardz TV is doing a Christmas in July challenge and I just happened to have a card that I put together recently but had not yet published.  Who says timing isn't everything?  Now mind you this is a very quick put together but I had these Christmas themed bingo cards sitting in my stash begging to be used.

So what's the challenge you ask?  Why it's to "Make a Christmas card using a hand stamped, digital stamped or Cricut cut image of an animal, and any colors you'd like!"



One little cut from one great cartridge - Jolly Holidays - yep that's it.  I absolutely love the little critters on this cartridge.  They're so fun and festive and let's not forget versatile.

Now grab that Christmas cartridge you've been dying to pull out and make your own creation for this challenge and link up to play along too.

Sunsets

Happy Friday everyone.  I am excited to announce that I have been chose to participate with yet another great Design Team.  This one is the Pause Dream Enjoy Team, and just as with the other two teams that I am a part of you won't want to miss any of the upcoming challenges.

This week our challenge over at PDE was to create a project with Sunset as the theme using either the colors of a sunset or a sunset itself as the focal point.  So when was the last time you watched the sun set (or rise for that matter)?  I used to watch it rise every morning on the drive in to work but now that I work closer to home I have not watched it rise in a while.  Watching it set though is another story and seeing the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico (or even the bay) is a breathtaking moment with all the beauty and splendor that is displayed before your eyes.

So all of that said, I wanted to try to capture at least some of that awe in my card.  So I created layers of sunset colors as my background. 

To do this I cut 1" scalloped borders from Accent Essentials.  I think inked along the scallops and laid them out in what I felt was the best color pattern for a sunset scheme.  I then used A Child's Year and Campin Critters to create my silhouette shapes.

And now that you've seen my creation hop on over to Pause Dream Enjoy and check out the other fabulous designs that our team created.  Then after you have been amply inspired, create your own sunset project and link up for your chance to win a $5 gift certificate to Ginger Snap Scraps.  You have until Thursday, July 12th to submit your project - I look forward to see what you come up with.

Happy 4th of July

I hope that today's post finds everyone of you doing well and enjoying some fun time with your friends/family.  Being in the hospitality industry (and this being one of the busiest weeks at the over three dozen communities my company manages) I will be one of the many who have to work.....but that's okay because I'll only be working for half of it. 

In the meantime, I wanted to encourage all of you to join us over at Just a Scrappin for our July 4th challenge.  The rules for this particular challenge are to create a July 4th project (card, layout, etc) using the colors red, white, blue and two others. 

For whatever reason I missed the color blue as one of the given colors and chose it as one of my 2nd colors.  Sorry about that.  Nonetheless I trust that everyone will approve of my creation. 

This was a rather easy card to create and required only two cartridges:

Accent Essentials and A Child's Year

I created a flag for my background using the scallop border from Accent Essentials and then as you can see chose a July 4th silhouette for my focal point.

Let's not forget the sentiment!  For this card I needed something special.  So I chose:

"How important it is

for us to recognize and celebrate

our heroes and she-roes!

~ Maya Angelou"

And now that you've seen my project be sure to hop over to Just A Scrappin to see all the other fabulous projects created by Team One of Design Team group.  Then after you have been amply inspired create your own project, link up, and play along with us.

Summer's Here

I didn't have time to play in my craft room this weekend since we spent a good bit of our weekend getting some many needed errands ran along with some gym and cycling time.  So since I wasn't able to create a new card to share with you I wanted to re-share one I made a couple of years ago.  Hope that's okay.

I love the Summer season because it means I get to spend more time outdoors and I am such an outdoors person.  I could lay on the yard swing and just sleep in the sun for hours if allowed.  Unfortunately though I don't go to the beach much because I live in a highly touristed area and just don't think it's worth "fighting" for a spot.  So I wait until it's off season and go then.  lol

But I digress.........

To create this great little pop up card I used a combination of my Sizzix dies and Cricut cartridges.  The pop-up chair is a Sizzix die.  Then I used:

Mickey & Friends for the Sun

Life's a Beach for the Seagull, lizard and flip flops

The beach towel is a piece of fabric I cut using my Sizzix "dress up bath clothes" die.
 
On the inside of the card I used sand paper for my beach "sand" - although it's not white like our beaches here in Florida.  One of these days I'm going to have to see if I can find some white sand paper.  In the meantime this will do tho.  And I love the look that the sandpaper gives when using it this way.
 
Do you have a summer card you'd like to share with me?  If so leave me a comment sharing a link to your card.  I'd love to see them.....