Why won't this paper pack ever end!!!!

Hi Friends and fellow crafters! I wanted to share a new easel card/tissue holder that I made using  K&Company Berry Special Paper, one of my favorite Lili Of the Valley Stamps, my circut machine and my copic markers.
I followed the same pattern that I did for my Frog Tissue Holder from KarelJ's last blog hop. My poor mother almost had a fit when she saw me pack it up to mail to my BFF! I'm not quite sure, but she seems to think that each card I make is for her to keep! She adores all the Lili Of The Valley stamps I have so I went with this one because she loves dogs. I colored her with my Copics and added some sparkle to her swing with my I-Rock and Jolees Crystals. I used Stickles on her pony tail bows for some shiny goodness!  I cut two branches from my Cricut Cindy Loo Cartridge for the swing's anchor. The ribbons and embellies were on the craft table, so I just grabbed them! The stick pins are from Chloe's Closet, they were also found on the craft table!

On a final note, about the title of this post. If anyone remembers back a few posts ago, I said I am on a paper ban. I have way too much paper and I really need to use up what I have before buying anymore. I challenged myself to use an entire paper pack up. Well, I chose  K&Company Berry Special Paper mostly because I was planning on making a couple of cards using my Kraftin Kimmie stamps featuring Lily Lemon and Stella Strawberry. I thought, it's bright and pretty. I obviously had many plans for this paper and that was why I bought it last year, or maybe it was the year before?  ;-)
Big Mistake....this paper pack NEVER ends! Seriously, I think my DH is playing tricks on me, as soon as I think I am a couple pages away from finishing it, I find more paper from the collection. Not just little scraps that I can discard, claiming they are too small, either. These are over the 3 inch limit I set for what I should throw out. Yes, I have size limits. I used to save all the smaller scraps, then one day realized I had a jar filled with curled up scraps, not to mention the basket filled with pieces that were too small for me use with my Cricut or even use punches with. So I set the size limit. So far it has worked on keeping the scrap factor down to a minimum. Anyway, I am glad that I didn't choose one of the monster paper stacks, you know, the ones with 100 or more pages of paper that I had to have for that one design...
Stay tuned for at least another project, maybe even two featuring the lovely Berry Special Paper! I still have that page left that has the sock monkeys on it!!!!!!

Thanks for coming by today!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

Cricut Circle Blog Monthly Challenge

MAY Monthly Challenge: Tic Tac Toe Challenge!

MAY MONTHLY CHALLENGE: Tic Tac Toe Challenge!

Tic Tac Toe . . . Three X’s in a Row! That’s the goal in this challenge. Look at the tic tac toe board below and choose three squares in a row. Use the challenge prompts from all three squares to create your project! In Juliana’s sample project below she used the bottom row of the Tic Tac Toe Board; Flower Image Cut, Cuttlebug Folder, and Imagine Papers. We can’t wait to see what you do! This month, in honor of National Scrapbooking Day (May 7th) we will be giving away a Brand NEW Cricut Expression 2: 5th Anniversary Edition to FIVE WINNERS!!!! Yep! You heard me right! FIVE WINNERS!!!!!



The Challenge: Create a project of your choice using the Tic Tac Toe board above to choose THREE challenge prompts in a row. Project must include at least 2 different Cricut Image Cuts.
Rules and Guidelines: Circle Blog Challenges are open to Cricut Circle Members only. You can create any type of project you would like (tag, altered project, mini album, etc.) but your project must be newly created for this challenge and include at least 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 Monday, May 30th, 2011.
Prize: This month FIVE winners will be selected from the entries to win a Brand NEW Cricut Expression 2: 5th Anniversary Edition. Yep! FIVE WINNERS!!!! Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for delivery from winner announcement.
Winner: The winner will be selected randomly from qualifying entries using www.random.org and will be announced on the Cricut Circle Blog on Wednesday, June 1st, 2011.

Dream A Little Dream...

Here is my submission for the monthly challenge. I was obsessed with using the twinkle girl image from Cricut's Nursery Rhymes Cartridge after seeing this layout that  MamaC  from the Cricut Boards did for the E-2 Birthday Contest. I just loved that layout. So I had this idea in my head for a month, but just couldn't find the time to actually create it. I used the side step card instructions from Splitcoast Stampers for this card. All of the cuts are from my Cricut Cartridges. These are the carts I used:

Nursery Rhyme - Twinkle cut at 3.5

Hannah Montana - Pegasus cut at 2.5

Paisley - Unicorn cut at 2.6 ( no shadow used)

Stand and Salute - Stars assorted sizes

Kate's ABCs - Mushrooms cut at 1.77

Life Is A Beach - Sun cut at 1.25 and 1.60

Martha Stewart All Occasions Cakes - Grass cut at 5.5, 2.5 and 2.5

Straight From The Nest - Grass cut at 1.45

Gypsy Wanderings - Dream cut at 2.00

Cindy Loo - Trees cut at 2.75

I decided to use the top row of the Tic Tac Toe Board

The first box is to use a sun shape. I cut two suns from Life Is A Beach and layered them. I used K&Company Specialty paper and inked it with Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink. I put some stickles on my finger and ran it on the smaller layer of the sun. It's hard to see in the pictures, but it's there!

The second box in the row says to use your Gypsy and add a welded image to your project. I welded 4 stars of assorted sizes together, cut them with white Bazzill cardstock and added Stickles Diamond Dust to sparkle them up.

The final box is to use buttons to my project. I used them as apples on the tree.

I used SEI white velvet paper for the Pegasus and the Unicorn. I used American Crafts Silver cardstock for the manes, tails, and the wings on Pegasus. I added a dot of Viva Decor for the eyes. I used Gold Stickles on the Unicorn's horn, and silver for the Pegasus' mane.

I also cut the Twinkle girl with the same papers. Since stars were a running theme on the card, I decided to use little stars instead of flowers on the patch of grass the she is standing in.  I added some mushrooms that I cut with K&Company's Berry Sweet papers. I am still on my paper ban until I finish this stack. I like how the mushrooms turned out! Very colorful! It seems that no matter what I do, I can't finish this stack of papers. I thought I was down to a couple of pages when I did the frog tissue holder post, so imagine my horror when I found 3 more papers tucked inside a cubby! The cuts I used for this card were so small, they didn't even make a dent in the papers I have left! :-)

The background papers are DCWV glitter cardstock and the grass is from We R Memory Keepers Hippity Hoppity collection. Here is one more look at the card.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen