Cricut Celebrates Cartridge #100 - Week 2

It is week two of the 100 cartridge giveaway on the Cricut message board. The 100th cartridge is "Winter Woodland" and it is very nice :) You can check it out here. 

Don't forget to hop on over to the Cricut message board and post in the thread for week two here. You could be one of twenty lucky winners of a cartridge this week :)

Economic Stimulus Challenge Week 1

My dear friend Kim at the Scrapping Turtle has started an Economic Stimulus challenge. The idea is to encourage us to use up some of the wonderful goodies we have been hoarding. She gives us a list of items to use, and for each item we use on that list we will get a ballot for something wonderful. This week she gave us a list of five things, then challenged us to make a card with the scraps.

Our challenge list this week included:

1. Fancy Pants paper

2. Dream Street paper

3. two different kinds of ribbon

4. alphabet stickers (Thickers count)

5. chalk

In searching through my stash I discovered that I had several sheets of the Fancy Pants The Daily Grind Break Time. I used one for my background and handcut flowers from the other one. The hand cut flowers are pop dotted onto the background paper. I also used the reverse side of that paper to mat the small photo, which is also pop dotted. I then found a Dream Street Birdie Bits Square Die Cuts paper so I used one of the squares to mat the bigger photo. I threaded one of my ribbons through the holes along the side of it. All of the paper edges were chalked. I pleated the butterfly ribbon before adding it to my layout. I added some yummy Thickers for my title.

Journaling reads: Sara wanted a butterfly to land on her finger more than anything else. So we were all extremely excited when one did. Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden, Strong National Museum of Play September 10, 2009

I created the card from the scraps that were left over. There was enough of the Fancy Pants paper left to create the background for my card, as well as to cut out some of the pretty flowers for the front of the card. I used another square from the Dream Street paper and cut off the scalloped piece. I then cut the remaining part of the square down to a smaller size to fit the card front. The scalloped piece is pop dotted as well as chalked. I used a piece of the American Crafts ribbon as well as some Thickers to finish off the card.

Thanks for a great week 1 challenge Kim!!!! Looking forward to what you have in store for us next week :)

Summerfest Week 12

Being away for a week on vacation meant that I was behind on the challenges for week 12. Actually, it meant that I hadn't even started the challenges for week 12. I honestly didn't think I would get them done. However, by working furiously I managed to complete all five of the challenges posted for Summerfest at The Scrapping Nook.

The Triple Crown challenge required us to use three groupings of three to create a project. I was inspired by the fabulous sketch that my friend Dee posted on the Scrapping Turtle for her challenge this week. Thanks Dee!!!!! My first grouping was 3 pieces of cardstock. My second grouping was three differents stamps (the background on the red piece, the sentiment, and the border). My third grouping was three flowers - created with Prima petals, Doodlebug brads and American Crafts ribbon). 

For the "S" challenge we had to use at least six things that started with S. I wasn't really sure how I was going to manage this one, since we could ONLY use things that started with S. Then I got looking around at the Turtle on Saturday. I found a piece of Sunshine cardstock (by Bazzill) and two Soup Staple papers from Jillibean (Green Pea Pod and White Macaroni). When I finally got to work on it today I pulled out some StazOn ink, a stamp, stickers (of butterflies) and my Stickles to finish it off.

The Cut It Out challenge was one of my favourites. I love hand cutting things from the patterned papers. I put this one together while watching Stargate on DVD with the family. I used two different shades of green cardstock for the background (one is Coredinations). I stamped the Coredinations piece and distressed the edges. I cut the rose from a Pink Paislee paper and cut the butterflies from a Graphic 45 paper. I'm not sure what I will use it for, but I really like this card.

In the Just Like Jillian challenge we were required to scraplift something created by the current Guest Design Team member at the Nook. I selected her cute Deer Christmas card to scraplift. I used my adorable Quickutz deer die, some American Crafts paper, Making Memories stickers, and some Stickles. Thanks Jillian for the inspiration.

The sketch challenge this week was another wonderful one from PageMaps. I had purchased some new Kaiser Craft papers from the Turtle on Saturday, so I chose one of those to be the background for this adorable photo of Sara and Samuel trying out the checkers game outside the Cracker Barrel in Ohio on our vacation last week. They looked so cute in those little rocking chairs. I actually turned the paper sideways so that the design in the corner worked with the sketch. I then took the other Kaiser Craft paper and cut a strip for matting the photo. I added a piece of American Crafts paper at the top and two pieces of American Crafts ribbon. The title uses my newest (and possibly most favourite) Thickers from American Crafts --- love them!!!!! I then handcut a couple of the flowery designs from the leftover piece of Kaiser paper and added them to the design. I finished it off with a few swirly lines and dotted lines above and below the photo mat, along with my journaling.

So amazingly I finished all five challenges just in time. This coming week will be the final week for Summerfest. I wonder what challenges they will have in store for us now.

Cricut Giveaway

Provo Craft is celebrating the 100th cartridge for the Cricut machine with a giveaway. Each week they will post a thread on the message board at Cricut.com. If you post on that thread you are entered for a chance to win one of 100 cartridges (20 per week for five weeks) that they are giving away. 

As well, if you post about the contest on your blog you will receive another chance to win. 

What is the 100th cartridge? It is the brand new and fabulous "Winter Wonderland" cartridge. You can find out more details about the cartridge here. This is definitely one I hope to add to my collection very soon.

The thread for week one of the giveaways can be found here. Good luck to all those who enter :)

Summerfest Week 11

I finished up all  of the challenges for week eleven of Summerfest at The Scrapping Nook last night.

Flower Power required us to use five different flowers. I used a metal one, a felt one, a Quickutz one, a chipboard one, and a puffy fabric one, as well as lots of American Crafts ribbon.

The Stash Stew challenge required us to use textured cardstock, die cut patterned paper, bling, dimensional alphas, 7 brads, 2 different ribbon, something metal, and something at least five years old. The ribbon slide is actually something I bought ten or so years ago to make a dream catcher -- I think it is called a conch, but I could be wrong. Oh, and something had to be pop dotted, so I pop dotted the Autumn ribbon. I love these new American Crafts Thickers --- I think they are my favourite ones to date.

An Ode-i to Jodi was a scraplift challenge. I lifted Jodi's very pretty "Thinking of You" card and used my Technique Tuesday stamp. I used up some old paper from my stash that I really didn't like, but I like how it looks on this card. I think this is one of my most favourite cards. Recognize the Treading Water Fiskars punch on this one? I used it to make the mat for the butterfly as well as the base of the card. Thanks for the inspiration Jodi!!!!

The photo challenge this week was "Love". Here's a photo of Gary and Sara :)

Enjoy the rest of your week!!!

Top 10 Challenge

As part of Summerfest at The Scrapping Nook I was challenged to create a project using my top 10 manufacturers. That was a tough one --- I have so many manufacturers that I love (which is part of my problem LOL). I managed to narrow it down to ten and created a card.

The manufacturers?

Bazzill - cardstock

Quickutz - butterflies

Provo Craft - Cuttlebug embossing folder

Ranger - Stickles

Doodlebug - brads

Colorbox - ink

Heidi Swapp - edge distressor

Prima - flowers

Fancy Pants - paper

Coredinations - cardstock

Feel The Difference

I've been very busy recently getting some projects ready that I am unable to reveal at this time, but since those are now done I have been able to tackle the Summerfest challenges for week 11 at The Scrapping Nook. The first one I have completed is for the "Feel The Difference" challenge. We were shown an advertisement and required to use at least three of the colours and take whatever other inspiration we wanted from it. The ad was in a variety of colours and showed some buildings splashed with colour.

I immediately thought of the Dream Street Urban Ink Reflections paper and a suggestion that my friend Lori made while we were looking at the paper at the Scrapping Turtle. She thought it would be a good paper to use the Quickutz Skyline border dies with. I'm not sure this is what she pictured, but here is my creation.

I cut the City Skyline Quickutz border in eight colours (all taken from the ad), then layered them across the bottom of the paper. I actually cut the border in half so that I could change the order of the skyline buildings. I then cut the Suburban Skyline Quickutz border in the same eight colours. I used the black as the base and cut houses out in the other seven colours. The photo was taken at my friend Mellissa's house at her grandchildren's birthday party. Since it had several colours in it I felt it fit my theme perfectly. The alphabet stickers for the top part of the title are unknown stickers from my stash. The coloured stickers are from Piggy Tales.

The journaling reads: Whatever you do, wherever you go, I hope you will always live your life to the fullest and enjoy every moment.

Thanks for the idea Lori -- I hope you like it. Marissa, now you know what I was planning to do with all those skylines I cut out on Monday :)