Cricut Circle Monthly Challenge May

MAY MONTHLY CHALLENGE: Milestones & Memories Challenge!

The WINNER of this challenge will receive:

The Challenge: Create a layout about a recent milestone in your family. Whether it is graduation, a birthday, moving into a new house, losing a tooth, or whatever it may be. Be sure to include at least 2 Cricut cuts and use 2 Cricut fonts in your page title.

Rules and Guidelines: Circle Blog Challenges are open to Cricut Circle Members only. Your project must be newly created for this challenge and include atleast 2 Cricut Image Cuts. You must submit a project to be entered into the Challenge Prize Drawing.

How to Enter: Submit your entry using the InLinkz tool found at the bottom of this post. Please post your full name along with your entry. Entries are due by 9:00 pm MST on Thursday, May 31st, 2012.

Prize: This month the winner will receive $150.00 in credit to Cricut.com.

Winner: The winner will be selected randomly from qualifying entries using www.random.org and will be announced on the Cricut Circle Blog on Friday, June 1st, 2012.

Hi Friends and Fellow Crafters! I'm back again with a new challenge. This is for the Circle Blog's Monthly Challenge. We were challenged to scrap a milestone in our lives. I decided to go back 20 years and scrapbook some favorite pictures from my son's 1st birthday. How I wish I was into paper crafting back then! Scrapbook pages are really out of my comfort zone. Lucky for me, I have many, many Northridge Publishing Cricut magazines to fall back on. LOL! This is inspired by Lynn Ghahary's Birthday Bash layout in the Cricut Birthday's Book. It's on page 16 of the magazine.

Here are the details:

Cricut Expression 2

Gypsy

Cartridges:

Birthday Bash

Art Philosophy

Papers:

CTMH: Dotty For You

DCWV: Glitter Paper

We R Memory Keepers: Hippity Hoppity

Other Good Stuff

Viva Decor Pearl Pen: Anthracite

Twine

Pop Dots

Birthday Bash has the cutest cuts. I used the Squirrel, Dog and Juggling Beaver for the layout. I used Art Philosophy for the banner and stars. It was a sweet layout that came together nicely.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today.

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

Best Fishes! Cricut Circle Challenge #59 - Birthday Challenge

Every other week join us for “Challenge Friday” where we will announce a new creative challenge. We want you to feel inspired to use your supplies in new ways. Have fun with it! Check back often to see the beautiful entries from your Circle Friends . . . you are sure to leave with a desire to get cutting!

Weekly Challenge #59: Birthday Challenge

Using a bouquet of birthday balloons as your inspiration, create a project of your choice using string in a creative way on your project somewhere . . . you could use it to create your own bouquet of balloons, dangle a set of Chinese lanterns across the top of your page, hang a series of Cricut cut charms from a tag or journaling spot, use it to anchor a banner strung across your page, or swirl it on a lollipop shape. Whatever it is, show us how to use string in a fun way on your project.

 

Twine. Who doesn't love twine? Look at those colors! I believe my love for twine most likely started with the bakery box! :D

I can still remember walking home from Church on Sunday morning and stopping in the bakery for some fresh donuts or on some special days, a delicious cake. Being small, all the yummy items were always at eye level. When we'd get home, I would try not to cut the twine, but untie it carefully so that I would have some string to play with. Most of the time, the cat would eventually get it, but sometimes it would end up on an art project, or if the box was big enough as a cat's cradle. Do kids even still play that anymore? I'm showing my age. LOL!

Due to some enabling at the Cricut Message Boards, I have a nice variety of twine sitting in my craft room. It was a fun opportunity to use it. Here is my entry. It's a birthday card for my neighbor's son who loves all things fish.

Here are the details:

Cricut Expression 2

Gypsy

Cricut Carts:

Life Is A Beach

CTMH Art Philosophy

Cuttin' Up

Papers:

CTMH Dotty For You

 K&Company

 DCWV Glitter Paper

Other:

Twine

Pearls

Googly Eyes

Whiff Of Joy Gems

Stampin' Up Ink - Tempting Turquoise

Copic Markers

Ranger Glossy Accents

Scor Tape

This is one of those projects that was just fun to create. Life Is A Beach is one of my favorite carts ever! There are so many cute images that it can be hard to choose which ones to use. The easel card ended up being big, almost 6 inches for the topper. It just gave me more room to work. First I cut the turtle and twined him up. He is slightly bigger than the other cuts because I wanted him to be the focal point of the card. The twine is where the layers would have been on the turtle. I used Glossy Accents to adhere the twine on all my cuts. A pair of googly eyes added some extra cuteness to him.

One more thing about the turtle. The paper was from my stash, but when I was adding the twine, he was looking to light. Copics solved that problem. So here is the color that he started out as.

Another reason to love Copics!

The seahorses were cut at different sizes. I used the CTMH Dotty For You paper on them, except for the orange layer on the little seahorse, that's K&Co paper. Don't forget the Dotty For You Paper is on special until tomorrow for 5.00 a package with any order from CTMH. My awesome crafting friend Belinda is the best rep for CTMH, so if you want to order some of this paper, stop off to visit her here.

I took a brief vacation from my paper ban, and this paper is one of the best purchases I made. I added some Whiff Of Joy Gems to them for eyes.

The fish are a mixture of K&Co cardstock and Dotty For You papers. I took the twine and added it to the layers, then trimmed it and adhered the layers to the fish. I also gave them googly eyes.

Here is the process of how I used the twine on the layers. The yellow fish was cut too big for the card, but since I didn't take pictures of my other fish in the process of making them, I used him for instructional purposes. :0



I added Ranger Glossy Accents to the layer.



Here is the back side with the twine added.



This is what it looks like on the top side.

Trim the twine off.

Added to the fish.

Finished Fish

The Coral Boarder from Life Is A Beach. I cut it at two sizes. The yellow is Dotty For You and the Orange is K&Co. I used my copics to add some highlights on the coral. The coral, fish, seahorses and the turtle all have glossy accents on them to give the wet look.

I cut a base for the sentiment using the DCWV Glitter paper and my go to cart, Close To My Heart Art Philosophy. I have to add here that the DCWV Glitter paper is the most fabulous glitter paper I have ever used. It inks so nicely. I wanted to give a watery look to the glitter, so I used Stampin' Up Turquoise Ink on it, and while you may not be able to see it in the pictures, it came out so cool looking.

I cut out Best Wishes from Cuttin' Up and used Ranger Glossy accents for some shine. Since this was a twine challenge, I outlined the shape with more twine.

After all the excitement of NSD, it was nice to slow the pace down to create this card. I really enjoyed this challenge. It was fun to think of different ways to use my twine. It's not just for bakery boxes anymore!

Thank you for stopping by my blog today!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

Michele Kovack is having a giveaway!

Hi everyone!

It's been very crazy here for the past month. I was in the hospital for a couple of days due to a reaction to shingles medications. Once I got home, it was less than a week later and my son developed Chicken Pox! During all this fun, I was trying to work on a swap that I will be posting later.

In the meantime, how about some fabulous blog candy? Stop by Michele's Kovack's blog for an awesome giveaway! I'll be back to post later!

Happy Memorial Day to all of you and your families! Please don't forget the true reason for this Holiday, our veterans. We have our freedom's protected by these heroes each and everyday. So many of them and their families have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country, our families and our freedom. Thank you to all our Veterans.

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

NSD Something Old Something New Challenge

Hi Friends and Fellow Crafters! Here is my entry for one last challenge at the Cricut Circle Blog. It's the Something Old, Something New Challenge.

I was very lucky to receive the new Over The Hill Cricut Cartridge as a present from my sweet Husband as an early Mother's Day present. Since he was kind enough to give it to me before Mother's Day, I used it for this challenge. I went to link it to my Gypsy but discovered it wasn't able to be linked yet, so I used the CCR and my E-2 to make the lantern. It's cut at just under 6 inches. For my something old part of the challenge, I chose the Mary, Mary Quite Contrary cut from Nursery Rhymes and the Hummingbird from Cricut Lite Botanicals. The butterflies are leftovers from the birdcage I made a few weeks ago. I think they were from Martha Stewart's Elegant Cakes or CTMH Art Philosophy.

When I was designing the silhouettes for the lantern, I used my Gypsy. I copied and flipped the images so that they would mirror each other on the opposite sides.

I used Tim Holtz Distress inks in Faded Jeans on the lantern and Antique Linen on the images to add some interest. The butterflies have Making Memories Curled Wire for their antennae and Viva Decor Pearl Pen for the pearls. The flowers are from my stash, they are Primas. The Leaves are from a Martha Stewart punch. I wrapped some ribbon around the top and then used Ranger Glossy Accents to attach pearl skittles on it. I used a flameless candle inside for light. Here it is lit. Sorry the pictures aren't so great.

Here's one more look at the lantern.

I really like this cartridge and with a few more friends having 50th Birthdays this year, I know it's going to get a lot of use.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Happy Mother's Day to all my crafting friends! I hope you all have a beautiful, happy, blessed day!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

NSD Circle Blog Challenge and Creative Color Challenge

Hi Friends and Fellow Crafters! This was one busy crafting weekend for me! I don't think I have produced so many crafts in this past year as I have these past 2 days! Nothing like the hope of winning a Cricut Cartridge to motivate me! LOL!

If you can bear another card, I have a special one to share tonight. This card will be going to a beautiful boy who is turning 9 this month. He is so special because he will be undergoing full body radiation on his birthday and a fellow Circle member asked if we could send him a card. I wanted to make him a cheerful card and I went with lots of bright colors.

I decided to enter this into 2 challenges. The Circle Recipe Challenge and the Creative Color Challenge at Rockin' Renee's Blog. Here are the color's we had to use.

I used my Imagine to print the colors and my Gypsy to design the card. Most of the cuts are from the Cricut Lite Cartridge Hoot n' Holler. I just had to have this cart when it came out, yet this is the first time I have ever used it! Blogger really needs a laughing hysterically smiley face, it would be inserted right here! Austin's name is from Street Sign and the party hat is from Yummy, I think, It was in my Cricut cut stash box.

Following the recipe challenge, I added faux stitching. The yellow background paper is a pattern paper, there are white stars on it that are hard to see. The other two pattern papers are the hat and the polka dot paper. The bird is the owl. There are 6 Cricut cuts: the owl, the party hat, the balloons, the sentiment and the letters on the inside of the card.

I will be mailing this out 1st thing tomorrow. I am praying for him and his family. As I do that, I also give thanks that I have been so blessed in my life.

Thanks for stopping by the blog today.

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

Crafting in my room

This is for a contest at the Cricut blog. They want you to take a picture of you working in your craftroom.

One last mess on my desk

Here's a tag with my leftovers

One last card

Here's one last card using the mess on my desk!

If you look real close, you can see all the cuts laying around!

Thanks for stopping by again!

More from my mess

Here's another Mess On My Desk Challenge. I have a ton of leftover Graduation Caps that I saved from my nephew's graduation party. All the cuts are from my Cricut or Imagine. Even the paper was on my desk. I had to dig around in a few containers on my desk for skittles, but I found some!

This will come in handy in June when my son is graduating from his school program. I think there are 3 other guys from his class graduating too. I have a head start now on their cards!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

The Mess On Your Desk Challenge

Here I am again! This is the perfect challenge for me. I am going to share something really scary with you all. My craft table! LOL!

What a disaster! I'm just glad this isn't called the mess on the floor! You wouldn't want to see that right now! So here's a tag I made. I took this challenge seriously and didn't even break out my distress inks to color my tag. I used the inks on the sponge and spritzed it with water, then used the heat gun to dry the tag.

I just may try another project before this challenge ends! I certainly have enough stuff on my table!

Thanks for looking!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen