Cricut FANatics September Challenge Winner!

I just found out that I won the September Challenge for the Cricut FANatics!  WAHOO WAHOO!!  I won a $35 StampinUp Gift Certificate from http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/robingoens/ !! WOOP WOOP!!!!  I love SU products and their paper cuts so well in my Cricut!!   I love this blog...so many great ideas and challenges to encourage our creativity.

Please come join the challenge...the October challenge will post on October 5th and I can't wait to see what the challenge will be!
http://cricutfanatics.blogspot.com/2012/09/cricut-crafty-challenge-1-winner.html

Cricut Fanatics Challenge #1

I did this card for the Cricut Fanatics Challenge at http://cricutfanatics.blogspot.com/2012/09/cricut-crafty-challenge-1-back-to-school.html and it was fun to do.  The background paper was from the DCWV "The Grade School Stack", ribbon around the inner mat was from WalMart, buttons from Michael's, memory thread in the buttons from Michael's.  The schoolgirl was cut from the Cricut Teddy Bear Parade cartridge but I used a ribbon bow in her hair instead of the one on the cut, the book in her hand is from Cricut Campin' Critters, the easel chalkboard is from Cricut Old West and the "Way to Go" on the blackboard is from George.  I just had to glitter up those cute glasses by running the cut through the little Xyron and using some Martha Stewart red glitter.  The apple on the easel is from the schoolgirl cut and is topped with Glossy Accents.

"End of Summer"

I had so much fun doing this card .   I love riding my scooter in the summer or at least until it gets over 100 degrees—then it’s like riding around in a convection oven!   I used Cricut Create  A Critter for the sun and clouds, Cricut Heritage for the fence, Cricut Paper Pups for the dog and balloon, Cricut Walk in My Garden for the bigger flowers and Cricut My Community for the road.  The stems for both the smaller flowers and larger flowers are from Cricut Plantin Schoolbook.  That cut had flower heads on it, so I just put the WIMG flowers on top of those.  The smaller flowers and the centers of the bigger flowers are a punch I bought at WalMart years ago that looks just like a regular hand-held hole punch but it punches little flowers instead of a round hole.  Used stickles for the centers of all the flowers and twine for the balloon string.  The stamp is from the company  Stampers Best and I became familiar with them when I started doing cards for soldiers and found out they were a big supporter of this cause.  I just love this lady on the scooter and anybody who knows me will recognize me—even tho my scooter doesn’t quite look like this and my hair is shorter.  Hahahahaha.  This card just makes me smile.

 

The sentiment for the inside of the card was found on the internet, just in passing somewhere, can’t remember where, but this saying is just tooooo true!!!

 

I won a cartridge!!

I recently won a cartridge--I chose "Over the Hill"-- from the wonderful Cricut FANatics blog...check it out at http://cricutfanatics.blogspot.com/ . Scroll down to the September 8th entry to see where I won. I didn't have to do anything but comment on the blog posts to be entered. Try it...maybe you'll win next!! Plus they have some fantastic ideas and tips for having fun with your Cricut.

Guest Designer Entry for the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge using Cricut Campin' Critters

This is my entry for the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog for September 10 as Guest Designer at http://fantabulouscricut.blogspot.com/2012/09/challenge-me-monday-128.html .  The theme is transportation, any mode.  I recently got Cricut "Campin Critters" and just adore that cartridge!  I wanted to use the car in it and since we'd recently gone on a great camping trip with some friends, I did a little tie-in to that trip (See blog entry on 09/05/2012).  Sorry this is so long but I did some tweaking to some of the cuts and need to explain so that nobody goes looking for cuts that aren't actually in the handbook.

The background of the card was done using the "Enjoy the Seasons" Imagine cartridge.  I printed and cut the design a bit bigger than the A2 size card, trimmed it and put it on a green mat before attaching it to the kraft-colored card base.  The road was from Cricut "My Community".  The label used for the sentiment is from Cricut "Storybook" and since it didn't have a shadow, I just cut the label again just a tad bit bigger in black to use as a shadow.  The sentiment is computer generated.  The chair and umbrella hanging out the back window were from Cricut "Everyday Paper Dolls" and all other cuts were from that dang cute "Campin Critters".  I used little tiny googly-eyes on the deer and a black pen for detailing on the car.  I also put little pieces of yellow scrap paper for the headlight and tail light, and grey for the tire hubcaps and then put the layers on the beige shadow cut.  I had to make some of the cuts several times to get the different colors/patterns but think it was worth the effort.

The inside of the card uses the same Imagine cartridge background as the front of the card only cut a bit smaller.  I did the "layers" option so that the background would cut and print without the trees.  I loved how it printed "curly cues" in the middle because it worked exactly right for the placement of the porcupine from "Campin' Critters" and the fire which was from Cricut "Create A Critter".  The porcupine has googly eyes that were a little bit bigger than the ones on the deer and the marshmallow was done with liquid applique puffed up by a heat gun to make it look real and to add some depth.  I did a little tinkering with the outhouse sign as the arrow pointed left and I needed it to point right.  So I cut off the pointy part of the left side of the sign and hand cut a pointed end on the right.  Added a small strip of white paper to the back of the sign to highlight the cut out words, then put that on some black paper to hand cut a shadow.  The part of the sign sticking into the ground was hand cut also.  The sentiment is computer generated.  The sign looks like it says 'nuthouse' instead of outhouse but either way, it just makes me giggle!

I also usually like to do a card liner so I used a paper from the Imagine Cartridge "Good Old Days"

And lastly, for the seal on the envelope, I used the sign on Page 38 of "Campin Critters".  I cut the first layer that says 'camper' in dark green and the other layer that says 'happy' in lighter green.  Then I used DS to do another first layer in yellow but used the hide contour feature to eliminate cutting out the word 'camper'.  I then put the dark green layer on the yellow, then the light green layer on the very top to make the tri-colored seal.

 

SO ....  THANKS FOR CHECKING OUT MY CARD AND SPECIAL THANKS TO THE FANTABULOUS CRICUT CHALLENGE BLOG FOR ALLOWING ME TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS WONDERFUL CHALLENGE !!!!!!!! 

Fantabulous Cricut Spotlight Guest for Sunday September 9, 2012 and Guest Designer for Challenge Me Monday, September 10

I am so jazzed right now...I am walking on cloud nine.  The wonderful Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog has asked me to be a Spotlight Guest for Sunday September 9, 2012 and to be a Guest Designer for Challenge Me Monday, September 10.   This is such a honor to be asked to participate with such wonderfully talented crafters.  Please tune in...I will post the blog links when available. 

Here's the blog link:  http://fantabulouscricut.blogspot.com/2012/09/spotlight-sunday_9.html

Recent Camping Trip

Hubs and I have become friends in the past years with a group of friends who we have had so much fun with.  On the weekend before the fourth of July we went camping with them and had a blast.  We loaded up our camping stuff on their boat and headed off to an island--totally deserted.  No electricity, no running water.  No cable.  Just heat and sun and water and fishing and boating and cooking out.  We do bring a lot of the comforts of home with us...like air mattresses, smores,  lots of adult beverages and a duck blind with a self-contained potty and shower.  I mean roughing it is one thing but we gotta be civilized about it!  We called our little piece of the island the "Redneck Riviera"

Redneck Riviera at night with our homemade redneck tiki torches

Sunset

Fishing at dusk

 

Deer that DH was able to capture on pics...how the heck did a deer get to this island?????  It looks kinda weired because he had to zoom in to the max on my little camera to be able to capture this.

 

 

Light Box

I feel almost like Paul Revere...my lightbox is coming, my lightbox is coming!  DH is a fan of online sales and gets all kinds of daily emails on them.  He had heard me grinching plenty of times about how I needed one and knew I had been doing a little research on prices on Ebay.  So...he ordered one for me!  It should be here tomorrow!  WAHOO!!!!

Card with no Cricut

I am a natural born Texan but had missed out on a right-of-passage experience....tubing down the Guadalupe River...until I was in my later 50s.  A friend who is called our "social commander" organized a trip for about 11 of us and we had a blast.  I did this as a thank you card for her back in 2010.  The background image was a free teacher's template on the internet (I have since lost the link).  The sentiment is computer generated and the stamped image is called "Blanche" from Art Impressions (http://www.artimpressions.com/Product.asp?Sku=K1605) .  I love their stamps and have about 20 of them on my "wish list".  After stamping and coloring with Prismacolor pencils, I cut out the image, attached it to a piece of blue paper and then trimmed around the blue, to create my own "shadow" of the stamped image and pop dotted it onto the card.

Pre-Kindergarten Treats

I made these for my youngest grandson's pre-k graduation.  They were so easy to do, using scraps of paper for the bag toppers, a computer generated sentiment and the cute Owl from Campin' Critters.

Cricut Imagine Thank you Card

I did this thank you card using the Cricut Imagine cartridge "Greeting Cards Inside and Out".  It printed out in a kind of brownish-grey, not a pretty blue or red-grey.  So I decided to use a new product (new to  me) called Glitter Dust.  It comes in an aerosol can and in different shades...this is "Iridescent".  It says to use in a well ventilated area as it leaves a sort of shellac finish over everything.  I loved the way it jazzed up this card.  I made the cut just a tiny bit too small for the gift card to fit in the slot so I had to use my scissors to lengthen one end...it doesn't look great in the photo but looks much better with the gift card in it!

Modified cut for Gift Bag

I did this cut from Rock Princess for a friend of mine who loves her Harley Softail.  The bike in this cut isn't a Harley but I don't have any cartridge with a Harley-looking motorcycle (guess I need to get the Father's Day cartridge!).  She loved it anyway.

I modified the haircut because she has short hair...I just cut off the longer hair and that part of the shadow.  Also, I have only seen one picture of her in a dress (at her daughter's wedding) so I did a little bit of modifying...gave her a belt and used a scrap piece of denim paper to do "jeans"