BBTB2 Challenge: Ornament or Holiday Symbol

Hi all!

Is everyone buried in holiday shenanigans like me???  We have 8 birthdays and our anniversary in our immediate families all within a month (or much closer) to Christmas so it is extra insanity around here!  My oldest grandson will be 2 next week so I am making his some Thomas the Tank Engine cookies on top of the usual slew of Christmas cookies - if I make it to New Years it will be a miracle!  Hahaha!

This week's challenge on Bitten By the Bug 2 is to use a Christmas or other winter holiday symbol on a project.

I hand out Starbucks gift cards at my daughter's school so I make little gift card holders using a cut called Card Holder with insert from Fabulous Finds.  If you want to make one the width of the Holder is 5.75" and the insert is 3.1"  She really liked this little happy face ornament from Simply Charmed.  I have 6 more to make.  Glad I can cut them out so quickly thanks to my Cricut!

Head over to BBTB2 and see the other amazing projects from the design team and then make something to enter in our challenge!

Something new - Chainmaille!

Hi all!

Did everyone have a good Thanksgiving and stuff yourselves full of good food?  I know we did!  I have a different sort of post for you today.  I have a ridiculous amount of hobbies/interests other than paper crafts so today I wanted to share one of my latest ones - Chainmaille jewelry.

Here are the pieces that started it - Christmas items I am making as gifts.

First up - Christmas trees.  I had initially thought I would make these and the wreath below as pendants but Once I made them both I decided they are too big so they will be ornaments.  The tree to the left I made to see how a smaller version would look and may still make a few of them as pendants.

And the wreath....

To the right is my attempt at a smaller version of the wreath that could work as a pendant but it is too small to add the little gold bow.  I also used the same pattern of rings to make a slightly larger pendant to see how I liked it.

This is the same pattern as the wreath but is a bracelet.

Pezza recently got a very fancy white and blue dress for the holidays and wanted jewelry to go with it so I made these - a bracelet and a pendant.

I had not finished her bracelet yet...

This is a bracelet I will be giving my mom for Christmas.

And finally - matching pendants for me and Pez.  I have been having quite a bit of fun working on these.  It makes for a nice project to do sitting in front of the TV in the evenings.  What do y'all think?

BBTB Challenge - Thanks!

Hi all!

Are y'all as ready for some Thanksgiving feasting as I am?  We will actually be doing two dinners - one at my in-laws on Thursday and then a second one at my house Saturday with our traditional family fare for my son, daughter in law and grandbabies.

Our challenge this week on Bitten By the Bug 2 is to make a Thanksgiving themed item using the word Thanks or Thankful.  One of my closest friends is heading up our Teacher Appreciation committee at school so I have been helping her each month with different things for our teachers and staff.  This month we are giving them all a pumpkin pie so I made the tags that will go on them:

I needed to cut 65 of them so I needed to keep it fairly simple!  I think it turned out pretty cute!  Stop by the BBTB2 blog to see what the other team members created and then post your own project to our linky!  Have a great holiday!

BBTB - Holiday Nature

Hi all!

Well, Halloween is done so onward we go - and yes I am skipping Thanksgiving and going straight to Christmas!  I don't really need any Thanksgiving stuff but I do need Christmas cards!  I have 3 for this week's challenge on Bitten By the Bug 2 - holiday images from nature.

I LOVE Christmas stuff mostly because it's the only time of the year (except Mardi Gras of course) where the more sparkle you have the better!  In light of that I began this set of cards by mixing up some super sparkly mist using Splash of Color Primary Elements powder, gum arabic and water.  I misted lightly over a stencil - a combination of green and gold for 2 and blue and gold for the center one.

I wanted to keep these clean and simple so the only thing I added were Cricut cuts and a simple stamped sentiment.  You can really see the sparkle!

I only used 2 of the layers for this snowflake - again to keep it simple.

I just love that shimmer!

Be sure to head over to the BBTB2 blog to check out the awesome projects from the other designers and then make something yourself to link to our challenge!

BBTB - Flourishes!

Hi all!

A super quick drive by posting as I am knee deep in finishing making Pezza's Halloween costume AND in charge of her school's Original Works artwork ordering program (which means sorting through, preparing and organizing several hundred orders ACK!)

I am the host this week over on the Bitten By the Bug 2 Challenge and I chose flourishes.  I never get tired of them and there are oodles to choose from in the Cricut Library.  I made a sympathy card for my aunt:

Head over to the BBTB blog, see the other designers' projects and then add one of your own to our linky!

BBTB Challenge - Football

Hi all!

I am feeling the whirlwind of the holiday season - anyone else?  Seems once school starts I don't find time to breath until sometime in January!

This week's challenge on Bitten By the Bug is football.  I figured this was the perfect opportunity to scrap some cheerleading pics of Pezza:

I chose to concentrate on page 1 - I had a lot of pictures and it can often be tough to fit them all in a layout and still have room for the fun part of designing elements to go with them.  I picked her best pics and focused on some fun die cuts for page 1 and then put the rest in a grid on page 2.

The adorable little cheer leader and the matching title piece came from Kadoodle Bug Designs.

The cool football themed tiles came from the Sports Mania Cricut Cartridge.

I hope you can join in our challenge.  Jump over to the main BBTB Blog and see the other neat things done by the design team!

BBTB - Halloween

Hi all!

I have another project for the weekly Bitten By the Bug Challenge - this week is Halloween!  There is a mountain of Halloween images to choose from just in the Cricut images alone!  I have another card today:

So quick and easy to put together!  Are you making any Halloween cards this year?  Head over to the BBTB blog to see the other designers' projects and get inspired and then post your project to the challenge!

BBTB Challenge - Frames

Hi all!

This week's Bitten By the Bug Challenge is to use a frame on your project.  Since we are officially in October I thought I better get started on some Halloween cards!

There are TONS of frames in the Cricut library and ALOT of options for Halloween ones.

This Spiderweb frame came from Photo Fun - Holiday Memories.  You could put ANY of the Halloween images in it - I have two more already cut and ready for me to finish.  The Boo is from Phrases.

This framed ghosty came from Happy Hauntings and there is a whole bunch of different ones to pick from.

With all the frame options Cricut has this is an easy challenge!  I hope you can join in.  Be sure to head over to the BBTB Blog and check out the other great projects by the Design Team!

BBTB - Retro Challenge

Hi all!

This post is going to be super quick!  I am packing up to leave early in the morning to go to my oldest son's house for my grandbaby's first birthday!

The challenge on Bitten By the Bug this week is retro.  I went way retro on this anniversary card for my in-laws:

I used the Art Nouveau cartridge for the fancy flowers - I just love the images on that cartridge - so elegant!

The font is Cricut Alphabet - I like my fonts to have a shadow.  i also prefer them welded so they are easier to place!

Join us on the challenge or just head over to BBTB to check out the other fun projects the rest of the DT girls made!

Sympathy Card by Pezza

Hi all!

Quick post today for Pezza.  Her teacher missed the 2nd & 3rd week of school because her father died.  Pezza was very excited about her finally coming back and asked if she could make her a card so of course I agreed.

Pezza went through card sketches with me until she found one she liked.  Then she picked out the colors and the embossing folder she wanted to use.  I cut the papers for her but she did the rest, including drawing the picture herself!  I think she did a great job!

BBTB: Apples

Hi all!

I've got another layout down thanks to the Bitten By the Bug Challenge!  This week the challenge is to use an apple on a project.  I thought it was the perfect time to scrap Pezza's first set of first day of school pics - this is kindergarten.  

Unfortunately somewhere along the way (it has been FOUR years) I managed to delete the original pics and was stuck with these super small ones but if nothing else it sure gets her little spunky attitude across!

I used quite a few cartridges to get all the shapes I wanted - this is my favorite apple cut.  I still have a bit of trouble finding what I want - the dotted piece for example, I found searching for "banners".

The blue base is a Cricut image but the title piece is an SVG from Little Scraps of Heaven.  I did change the wording of the title in MTC.

I hope you can join in the challenge.  Even if you can't, head over to the BBTB blog and check out the great projects the other girls made!

BBTB - Monsters or arrows

Hi all!

How was your weekend?  We are getting cooler weather here thank goodness and spent the weekend camping south of us.  We took Pez hiking to see a waterfall up close and personal.  It was a 3.4 mile trek and the first half to the top was pretty dang steep but we made it!    

First I have pics of this week's Bitten By the Bug challenge - you can use either monsters or arrows for a male-focused project.  I LOVE monsters and chose to use one on a layout of my son and his first baby - my first grandson!

Brennan is already over a year and a half - time flies!  This is a collection of my fave pics from the first 2 months when he lived with us.

I had a hard time narrowing down which cuts to use as usual - SO many to choose from!  I love having the Cricut Explore so I can pick and choose individual cuts without buying the entire cartridge.

Monsters are one of my favorite "themes" and there were lots to choose from.  I thought he went perfectly with the pic of Brennan making quite a dastardly face as well as the pic of Auntie Pez holding him all dressed up in his little monster suit we got him.

Wednesday I get to go pick him up along with his teeny new brother and momma to spend the day together.  Poor mom is outnumbered now and exhausted so I am hoping I can give her a hand.  I remember those days all too well!

Head over to the BBTB blog and check out the awesome projects made by the rest of the design team!  Then add your own to our linky!

BBTB - Glasses

Hi all!

We have had a whirlwind of a time around here getting back into the swing of school.  Hard to believe Pezza is in 4th grade!  How on earth did that happen?!?!  I did, however, manage to get a layout done!

We have a new challenge on the Bitten By the Bug blog this week of course - Glasses.  

Now I stretched it a little so I could scrap this great picture of Pezza and her daddy in the pool when we were camping a few weeks ago - instead of glasses I actually used goggles from the H2) cartridge - close right???  I hung them off my little bucket.

The majority of my cuts are from sets I got at Treasure Box Designs - she has really amazing SVGs and great prices.  (This is seriously the BEST sun right???)  I designed the whole layout in Design Space as usual so that I knew everything was sized correctly and I only had to cut once.

Also from Treasure Box Designs - this little bucket of pool goodies and suntan lotion.  I gave 1 towel and the bucket a little embossing to set them apart a bit.

I hope you can join in our challenge on BBTB.  Even if you can't, click on the link and check out what the other Design Team Members made for this challenge!

Have a great week everyone!

BBTB - Summer Flowers

Hi all!

One more week of summer vacation here so we have a busy week ahead of us.  The challenge this week on Bitten By the Bug is Summer Flowers.  There are so many choices in the Cricut library it was hard to narrow it down.  I chose to scrapbook some pictures from several years ago when we were visiting with my mom:

I used cuts from a variety of cartridges: Kate's ABCs, Forever Young, Florals Embellished, Elegant Edges, Lacy Labels, Live Simply

There are some great projects by the design team on the BBTB blog - head over and check them out! I hope you can join in the challenge!