BBTB - Birthday Challenge

Hi all!

We are gearing up for another exciting trip - Canada/Niagara Falls with 2 of my oldest and dearest blogland/Cricut friends Ann and Catherine (Silly Skittles if anyone is still here from back in the day.)  The shenanigans are pretty extreme when Cat and I get together - Can. Not. Wait!

This week's challenge at Bitten By the Bug is birthdays.  Hollyn had a birthday party to go to so I made a little tag for the gift:

The Phrases cartridge has some great double layer tags - I use them quite a bit.  To get the little border across the bottom I made a duplicate of the top layer of the tag and positioned it on the border I chose and then used the Slice feature to get just what I wanted - so easy!  The cute little balloons are "Balloon Bouquet" from Miss Kate Cuttables.  It originally had 4 balloons but I used Make The Cut and cut it down to 2, took away the string and bow and then re-made a shadow that fit just the balloons.  A little embossing folder on the tag base and she had a cute little tag for her friend's gift!

Head over to the BBTB blog and see the other great projects and then make one to add to the blog!

BBTB: Tree challenge

Hi all!

We finally went on our first camper outing this year last weekend.  We were a little late getting started but finally made it out for a quick trip up to Twin Grove Resort in PA - our first time there and we will definitely be going back!  Our goal for this trip was to do a little coal mine touring/learning.  Hubby's dad's family worked in coal mines in that area until they were closed in the 30s.  They lived in a small town called Centralia which is the site of an underground coal fire that has been burning for more than 50 years!  The town is completely gone now - razed by the government after they forced everyone out due to the fire.  Hollyn's favorite part of the trip was playing in the stream that ran through the campground with a couple friends she made:

Which is funny since my project for Bitten By The Bug is a layout of another camping trip in which her favorite part was a hike along a stream:

The challenge this week is to use trees on a project so I thought it would be a perfect time to pull out some camping/hiking pictures.

This is my tree cut from the Zoobaloo cartridge.  I decided to give several of the trees a little embossing to jazz them up (I don't use my embossing folders nearly enough!)

I thought this hiking boot from the Campin' Critters cartridge would make a perfect little embellishment.

The best thing about the Cricut Explore versus the previous machines is the ability to use SVG cuts and I added cuts from Miss Kate Cuttables and built up several little scenes.  (Right now her entire store is 20% off - you have until the 14th!)

I added some embossing to my rocks too!  I just love the versatility I get with my Cricut Explore - one machine that can do it all now.

Please join us at the Bitten By the Bug Challenge these week and show us some trees!