BBTB2 Challenge - Friends

Hi all!

I hope everyone has been enjoying the long weekend.  Last week at work was quite crazy so I needed the break.  I have spent most of this weekend with 2 of my grandbabies who stayed the night so mom and dad could attend a wedding.

A new challenge kicks off today over on the Bitten By the Bug 2 blog - friends.  As soon as I saw it I knew just the pictures I wanted to scrap.

These are random pics I took of Hollyn and some of her closest (and longest) friends that I had taken over the past year - no special event just everyday life but these kids!  The group on the trampoline have all known each other since birth.  The others have been friends since kindergarten.  How special is that?  And how lucky are we to have been able to stay in our one house in our small town for so long so she can develop these long-time connections?  It just so happens that I love these parents tremendously and am so grateful for the "Village" they create.

I used quite a few cartridges creating the layout I envisioned in my mind.  The title was a bit tricky.  My only real complaint about Cricut and Design Space is the lack of a shadow feature like Make the Cut software has.  But I managed to pull it off anyway for this one.  The font is Cricut Alphabet - Regular, the hearts are from Birthday Cakes and the flowers are from Mother's Day Bouquet.  The font and hearts all had a shadow layer so I moved everything close together so the top layer of the letters was touching, welded that, then moved the hearts in and selected all of the shadows for the letters and hearts and welded those - ta da!

I REALLY wanted to create this cluster - I love the look of these but have little experience pulling them off.  I am QUITE pleased with the way this one turned out!  I used quite a few cartridges searching for just the right items - Mother's Day Bouquet, Birthday Cakes, Anna's Elegant Embellishments, Bits and Pieces, & Garden Soup.  Once it was put together I sprinkled it with a bunch of self-adhesive pearls & rhinestones I have had laying around FOREVER (used them around the title piece too).  I really had a lot of fun playing with the different flower bits on the Mother's Day Bouquet cartridge - I had forgotten about them.  A little quirk in Design Space - when I type flowers (with an S) in the search box they don't come up.  When I type it without the S they do.

Repeated the hearts, flowers and embellishments along the bottom for fun.

Now what can YOU create with your Cricut using Friends as your theme?  Hop on over to the BBTB2 blog, check out the other projects from the Design Team and then link up a project of your own!

I was inspired by the following other challenges:

• Fussy & Fancy - flowers
• Double D Challenges - Flowers Galore

BBTB2 - Birthday Challenge

Hi all!

Birthdays birthdays birthdays!  I am hosting the challenge this week over on the Bitten By the Bug 2 Challenge and I chose birthdays as the theme.  I am always in need of birthday cards/tags/gift card holders plus bday party pictures that I need to scrap.  I ALSO threw Pezza's birthday party this past weekend - yes 6 months late.  We couldn't make it happen in November so we promised a "half-birthday" party.  She wanted a spa theme so that's what we did.  I will put some pics at the end of this post.

For this challenge I chose to make a couple gift card holders to add to my stash.  I usually try to make 2 at a time when I do this - 1 boy and 1 girl:

Making gift card holders is SO EASY with your Cricut!  The cartridge Bags, Tags, Boxes and More has quite a selection of cuts that fold to form little pockets.

You can size them to fit a gift card and then decorate the fronts like a tag or card.  A birthday Cricut cut, embossing, a few glittered skittles, and some pretty ribbons tied off with embroidery floss makes for a sweet little gift card holder.

 Turn it over and you can see the gift card peeking out of the pocket.  This cut is called Card Holder Tag - #M33F69 if you want to look for it and I cut it at 3.5" wide.  I put them together with Scor-Tape so I know they will hold up to handling and not come apart.

This is a cut I have used many many times for gift card holder.  This is a cut from the Fabulous Finds cartridge called Uniqueness - #M37D21 and I cut it at 5.75" wide.  The pull out piece is on the same cartridge and is called Note Card - #M3708A and is cut at 3.08" wide.  The little green tab pulls out and you can attach a gift card to it and slide it back in.

Sizing whatever pocket cut you choose is easy in Design Space - gift cards measure 3.5" x 2.25" so determine what portion of the design has to be slightly larger than the gift card and drag until your cut is large enough.

I hope y'all join our challenge over at BBTB2 - head on over there and check out the other DT designs for some inspiration and then link up your project!

I was inspired by the following other challenges:

• Color Throwdown - blue, green, yellow & white
• Freshly Made Sketches

Now a few pics from Pezza's Spa Party:

BBTB2 - Graduation

Hi all!

As I mentioned in a previous post - we have 6 brand new baby kittens!  We foster kittens so we have kittens running through here from early spring until late fall - this is just the first batch for this year.  Anyway, I have pics!

This is Momma, Wendy.  She is a bit timid but once she is comfortable there are not enough pets in the world!  She is an easy going, relaxed Momma.  The vet was pretty sure she had done this before.....

And here's a pile of squirmy babies!  Not the greatest pics but it's hard to get good shots at this point.  Everyone is doing well and gaining weight.  had a bit of an eye infection issue but I have seen it before and knew what to do - I'll spare you the gory details.  It's all taken care of and babies are doing quite well.  We have been socializing them and doing important training in loves and pets and kisses and belly rubs.

I don't know about you but we are ready for the school year to wind down and come to an end over here.  In light of that our challenge this week at Bitten By the Bug 2 is graduation.  I have been skipping around doing my albums but I really need to go back and actually finish each year and move ahead.  In light of that, it was the perfect time to make a page for her measly pre-school graduation pics.  I have vague memories of this age where she was wearing me out like nothing her brothers ever did so it's probably lucky I have pics at all - even bad ones!

A simple layout with soft colors.  Allergies are still kicking my butt so I went with simplicity this week.  I hope you can join our challenge and even if you can't, please head over and see the projects created by the other DT members! Click here - BBTB2

BBTB2 Challenge - Bugs!

Hi all!

Anyone else dying of spring allergies?  OMGosh all 3 of us are officially miserable!  However, I am excited this morning because I also woke up to spring babies!  If you have read my blog for awhile you know we foster rescue cats - specializing in pregnant ones and sick kittens.  I got this momma 6 weeks ago and she has been getting huge so I knew it was going to be a big litter and this morning she came strolling up for her breakfast looking considerably trimmer.  It took a bit of searching but I discovered SIX new teeny babies!  SO HAPPY!

In honor of the arrival of spring the challenge on Bitten By the Bug 2 this week is bugs/insects of all kinds.  I found these cute pics of Pez making faces from about 3 1/2 years ago and thought they would be perfect for a cute as a bug layout.

I used a ton of cartridges on this one and had lots of fun designing each little component - Serenade, Sweet Treats, 3D Floral Home Decor, Garden Soup, Elegant Edges, Sentimentals, Just Because Cards, Paper Lace 2, Create A Critter, 

Here are a few up close shots.  Even been remembering to add some cuttlebug embossing!

Once I had all the pieces glued I sort of scattered a few pearls and rhinestones around a bit.  These flowers from Sweet Treats are my all time favorite - I just love them!

And now I am off to inspect each new little baby closely to make sure they are healthy!  I hope you join us at BBTB2 for our challenge this week!  We would love to see your projects!

I was inspired by the following challenges:

• Glitter and Sparkle - Flowers
• Crafty Calendar - Spring
• Die Cuttin' Divas - Chevron or Polka Dots
• Tuesday Throwdown - Embossing