CIU is Counting down!

Hi all!

Today marks the start of the next challenge on the Cut It Up Challenge Blog!  The challenge is to make some sort of Advent or countdown project - I must say the design team really out did themselves!  Once you reach the end of this post I encourage you to go to the Challenge Blog and check out what the rest of the ladies made!

I decided to make a countdown calendar Pez could mark off as each day passsed:

 

Kadoodle Bug Designs is one of our sponsors for this challenge ($10 Gift Certificate) and she has a fantastic photo tag set cut file (along with LOTS of other wonderful cut files!)  I cut it out extra large - it's about 8 inches high or so!  Then I made the countdown box in Word.  All of my edges are inked with my go-to inks - Tsukineko Brilliance dew drops.

I wanted to give his hat a little pizzazz so I added some embellies - the other sponsor for this challenge is ME!  Yep - a $25 dollar gift certificate to shop on my website Pezadoodle Designs.  It is STILL up and running and has the last of my inventory ALL at 40% OFF - including the extremely versatile Pezabling sparkling squares like I used here on his hat.  You really can't beat that!  I also gave him a little clay poinsettia embellishment - these are super easy to make and you can watch Pezza show you how in this video:

Now head on over to the CIU challenge blog and see what the rest of the team has created and then enter a creation of your own!!!  I would also love it if you head on over to my website and do some shopping!  Pezadoodle Designs has great original rubber stamps as well as a variety of other things!

Giving thanks....new Cut It Up challenge

Hi all!

I hope y'all all had a scary night of trick or treating!  We had some friends over for pizza and then headed out.  Each year Pezza covers a little more ground.  Eventually we'll be doing the whole neighborhood!

She had a blast but she was tired this morning!  She usually gets up on her own but today I had to go in and wake her up.  When I went in to her room I said Pezza....and she said NO!  But we managed to get ready in time and then we went to the door to leave and it was pitch black outside!  I had to check the clock 3 times to make sure we had the time right!

Today kicks off a new challenge over on Cut It Up - the challenge is to do a Thanksgiving project and of course you must use a die cut.  The prize up for grabs - Stampin' Up! goodies from Norma Pimentel.  I have been using this design team position to do some scrapbooking - it's been a great motivator for me but I paused on this challenge - you can only have so many layouts of a turkey dinner KWIM?  And then I had an idea and came up with this instead:

I decided to do a snapshot of what we are all thankful for right now.  I had Pezza write hers out and the rest of us typed ours up.  It's so cute to look back on little kid hand writing and how they lay things out!

I got my cut files from Designs on Cloud Nine - they are part of a set that includes some ADORABLE owls I am hoping to have time for soon!  I cut it all out on my Black Cat using Make the Cut software.

 I gave my acorns some texture with an embossing folder and ink.  Then I wanted to give my leaves some pizzazz and I knew the new Silks Acrylic Glaze colors would be perfect!  Especially if I applied it using Saran Wrap.

You can see the shimmer here - the orange leaves have Chestnut Brown, the yellow leaves have one of my all time FAVE Luminarte colors, Golden Monarch, and the burgandy leaves have one of the amazing new Iridescents, Copper. 

I hope y'all can join us for the challenge on Cut It Up!  Head over to the blog and check out the rest of the Design Team's projects!

I Believe...Cut It Up Challenge

Hi all!

Well, my dreams of blissful, empty, stress free days with Pezza off at school full day are NOT materializing.  I envisioned a clean neat house where everything is scrubbed and gleaming, nothing out of place and hours of crafting in the afternoon - NOT happenin'!  What's up with that????  I am runnin' all over creation like a chicken with my head cut off, my house looks like a bomb went off, and I haven't had a moment to breathe - not that I could anyway with the allergies I am STILL fighting (and losing against.)  On Sunday when I looked at my calendar for this week I thought I was going to cry.  Tomorrow I will wake up and bake cupcakes for a school event, get Pezza on the bus, head to my 2 hour allergy appt. to get poked a thousand times, run by the vet to pick up Momma kitty Licorice and her 6 Baby "Bits", head to lunch with some great girls I don't see often enough, drop off aforementioned cupcakes and grab Pezza and a friend off their respective buses to come home and clear my house a bit before hubby comes back in to town.  EGADS!

What I really want to do is CREATE!  Ah well.  I DID sneak into the studio for a bit to create my layout for the wonderful Cut It Up Challenge Blog - the new challenge is up and it's PINK in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month.  I decided to scrap Pezza's first lost tooth. (Yea I am not even pretending to scrap in order anymore!)

I used a sketch from the Sept. 2013 PageMaps Sketches as a starting point (or I'd be here all day re-arranging things!)  I got a stack of new papers in June since I had not bought any new paper in YEARS and I pulled these cute ones out of the stack.  Then I found this adorable Tooth Fairy cut file set at Treasure Box Design - perfect!  While I was working on this layout Pezza lost tooth number 2!

Loaded them into Make the Cut and cut them out using my Black Cat in nothing flat - love it!  Pulled out my trusty (and beloved) Tsukineko Dew Drop Inks and inked all the edges up - makes ALL the difference in how good your paper piecings look trust me!

The pink toothpaste has some sparkle to it courtesy of a little Luminarte Primary Elements as does the fairy wings below.

Used a Peachy Keen face stamp for her face - cute and much easier to work with than the tiny eye and nose pieces of paper!

Even had a helper in the studio with me!  This is my Tiger - she is an old Maine Coon we have had since birth.  She is 14 now and has terrible arthritis and feline breast cancer.  She rarely climbs the stairs as it is too difficult for her but today she decided she wanted to see what I was up to.  At the moment she is lounging on the front porch refusing to some in for the night - brat!  She is the only one allowed outside because she walks about 4 steps out the door and lays down.  The others do too much wandering or, in Bubba's case, too much ditzy headed dancing in the road.

I hope y'all when join us over on the Cut It Up blog and play in the challenge with us.  You can make anything as long as it has pink AND a die cut of some sort.  You can win two great prizes:  $20 coupon code to  As Cute as a Button and a $10.00 Gift Certificate for My Scrap Chick

Now I am setting this to post in the morning and I am off to get some sleep!  Have a great weekend everyone!

Going In Circles with Cut It Up!

Hi all!

This is Graham

He is a foster cat staying with us and he is a mess....

Graham says love me pet me love me pet me love me pet me love me pet me ALL DAY LONG!  He needs a home with an old woman who sits and watches TV all day and wants a cat to sit on her lap for petting.....ALL DAY....Hahahhaha!

So today is kicking off another great Cut It Up challenge!

This time we are "Going in Circles." You must use circles on your project in addition to a die cut!  

I LOVE the picture on the left - the look on Pezza's face is perfect!  I used an old sketch from Basic Grey I found online as my kick off point:

I didn't follow it exactly but without sketches I would be lost!

This Itty Bitty stamp by Unity was perfect for this summertime layout!  I colored it up using colored pencils - I love adding flavored syrups to my lemonade so that is the way I colored it.

To give it a touch of realism I coated the jar portion with Glossy Accents - Love that stuff!

 

For my circle elements I used a cut from the Lacy Labels Cricut Cartridge - I cut one at 3.5" and one at 4.5".  I added some bits of Waterfall Stickles to give it a little bling!

We have two wonderful sponsors for the challenge - you could win 5 Itty Bittys from Unity StampCompany as well as a $20.00 Coupon from As Cute as a Button!

Come join in on the challenge and see what the rest of the DT girls came up with at Cut It Up!

In addition to the Cut It Up challenge I was also inspired by the following challenges for this layout:

• Splitcoast Stampers - IC406 Inspiration Challenge (colors), WT444 Designer Paper, SIC Crazy Month
• Tammy's Scrappin Corner - Anything Goes
•  Creative Cutting Challenge - Anything Goes
• Our Creative Corner - Forgotten Things (Stickles)

Labor Day challenge at Cut It Up!

Happy Friday!

We have made it through the first week of school here in the Wills house.

I would like to know HOW it is that I spent 6 years and 10 months trying to get this kid to sleep past 4:30 am and now that she has to be up for school by 6:30 I am dragging her out of bed - REALLY????  Luckily things have gone quite smoothly and I am thoroughly enjoying the routine and the peace and quiet during the day.  I get much more done when I am on a schedule!

I am excited about today's post - it is my first post for the Cut It Up challenge blog!  Our challenge this time is Labor Day - make a project celebrating pregnancy or new babies and remember to use a die cut!  I was unsure what I was going to do at first but then it occurred to me that I have LOADS of pictures of new babies - baby kittens!  So here is my layout of the Candy kittens:

This was our second litter of rescue kittens - Mom, Candy, 1 boy, Twizzler and 3 girls, Peppermint, Skittles and Taffy.

I used this cute cut from the Cricut cartridge Kate's ABCs - there are several really cute kitty images on it.  Pezza picked this one out.

The scalloped borders are cut using the Elegant Edges Cricut Cartridge and I did the title in Make the Cut - I love the shadow feature it has now!  Makes things SO easy.  I cut it using my Black Cat Cutter.

I hope all of you who also like using die cuts will join in on our challenge!  

Our prize sponsor is Too Cute by Jessica - she has a great selection of cutting files so go check her out and then enter the challenge for a chance to win!

Now I am off to run some errands and hopefully play a bit in my studio!

I have a big announcement!

BOO for rain!

It's raining today.  I am not necessarily against rain BUT me and one of the other first grade moms put a lot of effort into getting all the first grade moms into a group on FB and planning an outing at the park for all of the rising first graders at Pezza's school today.  Then we were going to head to Sweet Frog as a group and attend the school's Meet the new Asst. Principal event - also to take place OUTSIDE!  I was SO looking forward to this and I think it really helps Pezza to do this kind of thing to since she is a worrier.  She has somehow decided there is the distinct possibility that she will not know ANYONE.  Umm we live in a tiny town with ONE elementary school and know tons of people.  And we have such a wonderful and unique group for her grade.  A lot of the moms are SAHM, active in school stuff as well as outside activities, friendly and a lot of us started getting together last year throughout the year thanks to ONE awesome lady who I have become so thankful to know.  I have really missed everyone myself with our busy summer lives and few get togethers!  I like that we are all getting to know each other since, if we stay put, these will likely be the kids she will be wanting to hang out with on her own when she's older and I like that by then I will know all of these parents!  And they will know us!  Not to mention if someone ever sees her hanging out behind the 7-11 they need to know 1. who she is and 2. who to call!  Just Kidding - my kid better not EVER be hanging out behind the 7-11 - NOTHING good going on back there!

I had a little moment of back to school sadness yesterday.  For the most part I am ALL over the full school day gig and getting some time to myself again after being full time with Pezza for nearly 7 years now - and she brings new meaning to full time - there was no nap time for this kid from infancy, no sleeping in no break.  As many of y'all long time readers might remember I had to get up at 3:30am if I wanted any crafty time or time to myself.  My body finally gave out and I could no longer keep that up so it's been all Pezza all the time.  BUT as we walked in to Target yesterday while running errands and we headed over for our usual treat at at the Starbucks - she gets Iced Lemon pound cake and I get coffee and we sit at a table and just hang out - I realized that this was it.  I would no longer have my little buddy with me all the time (ALL the time!)

SO what's my big announcement?  I am a new design team member for the Cut It Up Challenge blog!  I have REALLY been taking a back seat lately but with Pez going back to school AND for a FULL DAY now - I am itching to get back into the swing of things the way I once was.  So what is the Cut It Up challenge?  You must use a die cut on your challenge entry and they pick a random winner each time for prizes from some great sponsors!  I have been doing a lot more with my Cricut and Black Cat lately and plan to continue that so I was thrilled when I was selected for the team!

In honor of the occasion I am bringing back an oldy but goodie - this is a project I did for my magazine Through the Craft Room Door which is now run by my friend Colleen (and she is AMAZING with it!)  This is a Back to School set for a teacher:

I used 2 different sized clear paint cans from Michaels - the large one is filled with all sorts of goodies the teacher can use as treats for the kids.  

The small one has goodies for the teacher like Expo markers.  The metal tin holds the little memo cards I made for sending notes home to parents.

I used an oldie but goodie on this one - the apple and school bus are cut using my Cricut and the Doodlecharms cartridge.  I ran the top layers of both of them through a Xyron machine to get the front nice and covered with adhesive and then put red microbeads on the apple and yellow flock on the school bus.  I used the Printing 101 cartridge for the lettering - be sure to use your shadows!  It always makes your die cuts look better!

Electronic cutters aren't the only way to make die cuts!  On the lids I have some felt die cuts I made using a large (think old school) Sizzix die and a Spellbinders die and my Cuttlebug.  Incorporating pipe cleaners, pom poms and buttons give them some great dimension and since my set is geared towards an early elementary teacher they seemed like the perfect thing to incorporate!

For the felt I really prefer using a good quality felt  - my go to for good felt has been Felt On the Fly on Etsy.  I have been using her for YEARS. (Be sure to tell her I sent you!)  Pom poms and pipe cleaners are from Micahels.  To make the flowers you need a hot glue gun.  


Pom pom flowers - These look best on a felt foundation but it is not necessary.  You need one for a center and five for the “petals” and a hot glue gun.  I wrapped a layer of hot glue around the center pom pom, put it down on my craft sheet and then quickly smooshed the five petal pom poms into the glue.  There are lots of other things you can make with these too – I actually found a book with ideas!


Pipe Cleaners flowers – These are quite easy too.  Take a pipe cleaner and cut it into five pieces – they should range from 1” – 2” depending on the final size you want.  Now bend them in half into a tear drop shape.  Make a puddle of hot glue on your craft sheet and put the points of all five pipe cleaner tear drops into it to form your flower petals.  Put more hot glue on top and add a center – a button, a pom pom, a spiraled pipe cleaner, etc.

      Notecards: You will want to make these simple so they are easy to use, fit in the tin, and you can make a lot of them easily.  Mine are simply colored cardstock bases, a patterned strip across the top, a white piece to hold the writing and a small stamped image in the corner.  These are from one of the TONS of Studio G $1 stamps I have been collecting over the years.  I stamped them with the Studio G $1 pigment ink pads which are really super quality ink pads and work so well with the little stamps!  As you can see I get a great crisp clear image with these little guys and I am guaranteed to always have a few stamps for EVERY occasion!

     The current challenge over on Cut It Up is a Back to School altered notebook so head on over there, welcome all of the new team members and then join in the challenge!