Happy Day After Christmas To All

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas. Now we head toward the new year. Here's a little story chuckle. When I was about 22 I worked at a bank and my duties included typing Notes and Mortgages on new loans. That was 1959. The loans were for 30 years, and I would look at that maturity date of 1989 and could not even begin to advance my young mind so far ahead. Here we are heading into 2011. . I have been blessed in my life, I have lost many beloved family members and cherished friends. As I head toward my 74th year, I am so thankful. I pray that each of you have a wonderful new year, that you will be graced with health, happiness, that you will not endure struggles and strife. That is my wish for you.

Happy New Year dear bloggy friends. I am thankful for your visits.

BBTB2/JustBecause/Gingerbread Man

It's just a few days before Christmas. It seems like just yesterday it was August. This week at BBTB2 Julie is the hostess. She selected the Just Because Cricut cartridge and asked that we design something with the Gingerbread Man die cut. I tried. I honestly tried to make a Gingerbread Man but I just couldn't seem to get past the Gingerbear idea so here is my take on the challenge.

Recipe:

Cricut: Just Because (Gingerbread cut)

Paper: ScrapBin snippets

Cuttlebug: Swiss Dots Embossing Folder

Edging: EK Success Scallop

Sentiment: Cutting Cafe

Embellishments: Buttons

Now a wee bit of news of the future few weeks. BBTB2 Design Team will be taking a little break so there will be no challenges for December 27, 2010 or January 3, 2011. We'll be back on January 10 so please don't forget us. We love our visitors and friends.

Cutting Cafe Gifties

It's December and Regina has a wonderful opportunity for visitors to the Cutting Cafe site.

Regina does a "monthly inspiration" and she features the cards done by the designers. I am so pleased and honored to be on this design team. You can see the posting at Cutting Cafe here. Here is the excerpt from Cutting Cafe. Quote unquote, as they say:

Hello everyone, welcome to another Cutting Cafe MONTHLY INSPIRATION....This month we are showcasing CHRISTMAS PROJECTS from the design team...We are also going to be doing something a little different with each MONTHLY INSPIRATION...Leave a comment on how much you like the designer projects and I will use random org. and select 1 person to win ANY 2 sets from The Cutting Cafe...Please only 1 comment per person..I will choose a name Wednesday morning Dec. 15th..be sure to leave an email address so that I can contact you if you win...

BBTB2/JOTS/Wreath

Happy Monday one and all... Julia is our BBTB2 hostess and she asked us to design from Joys Of The Season and to use the Wreath die cut. I love this cartridge. And I love this cut as well. Here is my take on the challenge. Please join in. You don't have to have JOTS, you can make a card or any project using any wreath. So please.... show us your take on our challenge by linking up on the BBTB2 site with Mr. Linky.

I fancied up the edge, I added several layers of leaves, added some berries with gems. Everything has been embossed. And a ribbon to finish it all off.

Recipe:

Cricut: Joys of the Season (Wreath)

Sizzix: Embossing folder: Christmas & Thin Ice set

Nestabilities

Ribbon, Jewels

Edging: EK Success Punch

BBTB2/Winter Frolic/Santa

Joanna is our hostess at BBTB2 this week and she asked us to design from Winter Frolic. We were to use the Santa cut. I don't have WF but I do have a darling Santa cut on my Christmas Cheer cartridge. The background trees are from Christmas/Noel, the packages are from Christmas Cheer that Santa is displaying in his "ta da" fashion. I've added some bling just cuz. Just as a tickling note, I recently did this cute Santa cut on a Cutting Cafe card and somehow poor Santa was topless. I just forgot to keep that part of the red outfit. Thank heaven his pretty white beard covered his nakedness. Our Santa herewith is fully clothed.

Recipe:

Cricut: Christmas Cheer-Santa, Presents

Christmas Noel-Trees

Embossing Folder (Swiss Dots)

Stickles, Jewels

BBTB2/Winter Frolic

Jeri hosts our BBTB2 weekly challenge which also happens to be our last challenge for the month of November. Jeri asked the designers to use Winter Frolic and to design with the ornament and the phrase "Deck The Halls". I don't have that cartridge but as you know, we can use any cartridge to design our project. I selected Christmas Noel and from that I cut not only the ornament but the holly as well. The sentiment is from my Opposites Attract cart because I wanted to show both block and script text. I used the brightest colors I could find.

Some ribbons and jewels have been added for bling. Perhaps my design will end up as a hanging Christmas greeting.

Remember, you don't have to have the Winter Frolic cart to enter our challenge. Pick a cart that has an ornament and be sure to add "Deck The Halls" with whatever font cartridge you have. Post your card on BBTB2 under Mr. Linky so we can all see. Have a wonderful week.

Cutting Cafe SALE SALE SALE

Here is a really wonderful Black Friday gift to you. Check this out at Cutting Cafe. Visit here for all the fine deets. Cutting Cafe is having a sale. Regina's printables are among the finest and I just know you will find something you will want.

Poinsettia Christmas

Back in July I received from my friends Forrest and Jan a most wonderful book by Leslie Carola called Cut it-Fold it-Use it. I have poured over the pages in admiration of the lovely creations. This card was inspired from this book although I have made a few adjustments, The poinsettia is cut from Winter Woodland. I cut the base flower at 4 inches and then cut the remaining flowers at a 1/2 reduction. Each layer of the flower was distressed, embossed, and popdotted ... The flower center is from a punch that I use often. Each petal has been turned upward. I love the effect. The edges are a Ek Success punch.

The base card (6x5) is white, the poinsettia presents itself upon a white embossed mount, then a black and finally red. The white cardstock was embossed with the prettiest Merry Christmas script. And for good measure I put a dotted red ribbon beneath the flower. TFL...

. and for my American friends, may tomorrow be a wonderful Thanksgiving Day for each of you.

BBTB2/HelloKitty

Heather is our hostess for BBTB2 this week and she asked us to design from that darling little cartridge, Hello Kitty. Kitty is delightful, and she wears many different costumes but for this challenge we are using Kitty in her Christmas outfit. That's on Page 74 if you have the cartridge.

Here is my take on the challenge. I cut Kitty big, about 5-1/34 inches as I recall, I embossed her and added two red ribbons. I also altered my rubber stamp a wee bit.

Recipe:

Cricut: Hello Kitty

Christmas cardstock/Patterned

EKSuccess: Edge punches

Cuttlebug Embossing Folders

Red Ribbons

Star Punch

Rubber Stamp

We'd love for you to enter a card of your own. Remember, you don't have to use this cut, and if you don't have Hello Kitty, use any cat/kitty. Just link your card up on BBTB2 blog under Mr. Linky and be sure to mention that you are entering your card for the BBTB2 challenge.

Cutting Cafe/Twas The Night...

Regina has just designed a darling printable for "Twas The Night Before Christmas". I love the background printables so I printed it off post haste and created this little card.

The Santa Clause and all three little Christmas trees are from Christmas Cheer cartridge (I love this cart). The printable has been embossed with a lovely folder that says "Merry Christmas". The edging is from a Martha punch ... Santa has been embossed as well with Swiss Dot.
Santa has 3 red jewels on his hat and there is a gold jewel topping one of the trees.
Thanks for visiting and I always love it when you leave me some love.

Cutting Cafe/Little Girls

I needed a little girl card....and lucky me, I had already printed off one of the darling printables from Regina's Cutting Cafe "That's What Little Girls are Made Of" round sentiments. You can see her set here. Here is my card.

Recipe:

Cutting Cafe Sentiment: "That's What Little Girls Are Made of"

Card Base: Cuttlebug embossing folder

Cricut: New Arrival (little girl outfit)

Pink Ribbon

BBTB2/Give Thanks

Gobble Gobble Gobble
This week's challenge is hosted by that talented design team sister, Donna Mundinger. I love Donna's creations, she always has layers of delightful details on her designs and always awesome results.
This week Donna selected the Thanksgiving cartridge, and she asked us to "give thanks". Of course if we don't have that cartridge (which I don't), we can use any cartridge that offers the "thanks" cut. I selected several cartridges for my design. I gave a wee bit of humor to my design because surely any Turkey would love being at a Turkey Sanctuary this time of year. I hope you have come to visit me from the Bitten By The Bug2 blog so you can enjoy all of the designer's projects. We all are thankful all year long but especially at this time of year when families gather to enjoy the holiday, it is especially wonderful. My wonderful son and darling daughter in law and their sweet dog Daisy come to visit and it is the highlight of my whole year. Thanks for visiting. I always enjoy when you stop by and leave me some love.

Recipe:

Cricut: Calligraphy - Give Thanks

Animal Kingdom - Turkey, Gobble

Doodlecharms - House

Sizzix - Sun, Clouds (This is a backdrop)

Jewels, rubber stamps, embossing folders, ribbon (this is a hanging card)

Be sure to join in our challenge by presenting your card to BBTB2 blog under Mr. Linky.

Cutting Cafe/Pastel Christmas

I love it when I can do a card out of the traditional arena. Regina's newest Cutting Cafe printables are just the ticket for making Christmas cards using pastels. I LOVE this set. I made the red and green traditional cards for my son and DIL, and I made some more for the gals at my dentist office, and now I was down to making some for my Christmas card needs. I grabbed this Cutting Cafe set up instantly and began the easy design process. The cards just fall together. I don't make glitzy cards or spend a lot of time on my Christmas cards which I shouldn't admit. However I am taking into consideration mailing costs when my cards are created with easy designs. And when you have these wonderful Cutting Cafe printables all ready to use, making a bunch of cards truly is a simple process. Take a look at this set here and I know you will want these darling designs.

I printed off a sentiment for inside and used

one of the cute cute cute printables for additional

joy. I also added the cut JOY from Opposites

Attract.

Cutting Cafe Christmas Stuff OH MY

Thanksgiving time my son and sweet daughter in law, and their dog Daisy, come to visit me. It's the highlight of my year. I always make them a set of Christmas cards and this year I grabbed up one of Regina's wonderful Christmas sets .

The inside of each card has a printable from Cutting Cafe "Christmas Card Inside Greetings". Each printable is perfect.

This is the darling Bingo set. You can see it here. On each card I have added a die cut that has some sort of match to the cute Bingo card. I (heart) this set.



TFL... and check out Cutting Cafe for all of your needs. Regina shares something for every single occasion possible... and she is like the Energizer Bunny, she just keeps on creating so check back often here.

BBTB2/CreateACritter/Dog

Happy Monday to each of you. It's my turn at BBTB2 to select a cartridge and a cut. I am a big fan of all things Cricut and I love the Create A Critter cartridge. I have selected CAC for the challenge, and I have asked that the designers use the dog die from page 35. As you know we can use any cartridge that has any dog and I hope that you will take this challenge and run with it. Post your card on BBTB2 by using Mr. Linky.

Here is my card....

Recipe: Cricut Cartridge: Create A Critter (Dog with firehat, and doghouse

Papers: Grab-up snippets from my scrapbin.

Punch: Heart

Embossing Folders

Cutting Cafe/Rejoice

Rejoice In The Lord Always is an absolutely beautiful set from Regina's Cutting Cafe. I made up a set of 8 cards for my friend Judi. She can use each card as a simple "thinking of you" or she can mail them at Easter time. The card front is very simple, and I've added the printable stamp of Bible verses which she can slip into the card. She will love them and I loved creating them for her. The beautiful cross is cut from the Easter Cricut cartridge, and I've added a small punch cross as well... the cross and mount have been embossed and the verses are mounted on Nestie shapes.

Thanks for your visit. And do take time to look at this wonderful set from Cutting Cafe here.

BBTB2/CindyLoo/Flourish

This week's BBTB2 challenge is Reader's Choice and Heather elected to select Cindy Loo for the Cricut cartridge and we were to design with the flourish. I don't have Cindy Loo but there are a gazillion carts that have some sort of flourish. I cut mine from Home Decor. It's a delicate flourish and I placed it under one of the flower dies on the same cartridge. I had some snippets of paper in my scrapbin, I set the flower upon two Nestie mounts and I added a rubber stamp sentiment. This "just a note" sentiment is among my faved because we can't have too many cards for just a sweet note, can't we? I had a leaf in the tray and before I could think about it, I glued it down under the flower. I chided myself for doing this because the green leaf and the green scroll are not compatible color ranges. Too late.... it was securely glued onto the card and there was no going back. The flower has about 4 layers but they don't really show up. The center of the flower has 4 red jewels.

Don't forget.... you can join in on our BBTB2 challenges. You can use any cartridge that has a flourish, just add your card to Mr. Linky so we can enjoy seeing it. Thanks for visiting. Always love to see you.

Cutting Cafe December Greats

For your Christimas Projects

Regina is offering up a set free free free and if you are familiar with Regina's Cutting Cafe printables, you will scurry over here to see what it is all about. Here is some info on this great offer.

In appreciation of all of my wonderful customers, this new December Daily 2 printable

stamp set features 142 black and white and colored images (approximately 70 different

images)...free for a limited time. The file will be available free until 11:59PM Pacific

Time November 6, 2010.

So rush right over and download this wonderful set.

BBTB2/Banner/BlogHop

Announcing the winner: The name drawn to win the little Kitty Pouch is Heather. Congrats to you, Heather, please email me quickly and I will mail the little pouch your way. Thanks to all for playing along with my BBTB2 blog hop. I appreciate each of you when you visit me.

It's Monday and it's month end. Can you believe that October is almost over and we are heading into November? I hope that you started out at Bitten By The Bug2 to see all of the wonderful design team projects, and I assume you came my way from Lori's blog. ... Beth, our talented design team sister, asked us to use the Country Life cartridge and to cut with the banner. I don't have Country Life. I've looked at it and eventually I will probably buy it but in the meantime I checked out the trusty and oh so wonderful Cricut Search and found that a banner cut is available on a lot of the cartridges.

I selected Give A Hoot for the banner cut, I used Doodlecharms to cut the spider, the ghosties and bat came from my Sizzix Originals collection, and the BOO came from Mickey Font.

I would love to be able to display my banner on a fireplace mantle but since I don't have a fireplace, I had to just hang it on a boring wall.

Month end always brings forth some neat blog candy along with our creations. Mine is a simple little embroidery pouch. The front of the pouch is a darling little kitty cat wearing a sweet little hat. The Cat In The Hat, so to speak. When you lift the front, a nice pouch is revealed. It's a great little do-dah to place jewelry or something special inside and tuck it away in your dresser drawers. Or, you could make it a gift bag. Leave a comment and I will put your name in the draw. The drawing will be on October 29th so check back after 2PM. If you see your name as the winner, please email me quickly and I will mail the little blog candy pouch to you. If I do not hear from the winner by November 3, I will select another name.
Now, in the tradition of our blog hop, please hop on over to Susan's blog and see her wonders. Thanks for visiting.

Cutting Cafe/Thanksgiving/Turkey

Regina has the cutest set all about Thanksgiving...any little image, any little sentiment to chose from. You can see this cute set at Cutting cafe here. Here's my card. So so easy to put together using Cutting Cafe printables and then embossing for texture. The coloring is with Copics and I added an orange and white polka dotted ribbon for a little extra. TFL...

Just had to do a little close up of the darling turkey.

BBTB2/OldWest/Barn

It's A Cow's Life...

Theresa is our hostess for this week's challenge at Bitten By The Bug2 and she asked us to design from Old West cartridge and to use the barn as our die cut. I do not have that cartridge, but I was able to find a cute little ole' barn on page 60 of my Create A Critter cartridge. I not only used the barn on my card but I cut out the simply darling cow (page 60). I cut two cows so that I could have a black cow with white spots and a white cow with black spots. One tree is connected to the card, but the second tree, clouds and sun are applied to a free standing background paper.

Recipe:

Cricut Cartridge: Create A Critter (barn, cows, trees, grass)

Mickey Font (sentiment)

Sizzix: Clouds and Sun

TFL, always smile when I see you have visited me. Perhaps you came here by way of BBTB2 so you could see all of the wonderful cards.

Dog Rescue

I love to share any little talent that I might have. I love to donate my time to several so-worthwhile-organizations. As you know I often do handmade journals for Banner for the Cancer Support Groups and that always pleases me so. Now I have an opportunity to support those darling little dogs and cats who will be saved from kill lists. Kathleen is my son's friend from way back then days and she is very involved in RESCUE. Each week on her Facebook she posts the photos of sweet dogs that have been saved from that horrid horrid kill list and my heart breaks and laughs all at the same time. To think they came "so close", and to be joyful they now have a chance to find a forever home, to be loved and cherished like they should be. If you would like, you can check RESCUE right here. I asked Kathleen to pick up 77 cards, and some embroidery work last week that will become part of a Fund Raiser in November. I pulled some cards I had on hand but I had great fun in creating some cards from Paper Pups, Doodlecharms and a few other Cricut cartridges that have darling little dogs and cats available. Here are just a few of the cards.

Thanks for looking and sharing this heart smile with me. My own Heidi-Sweetface is from the Springer Spaniel Rescue (ESRA) and I love her so much. Heidi lived from being a wee puppy to age 6 with a bedridden gentlemen and when he passed away, she was put into the local rescue home. My Brigette, a sweet Springer Spaniel, was with me for many years and when she went to Rainbow Bridge, I had to wait a while to grieve. And then I found Heidi. She and I are blessed to share each other's lives.

BBTB2/Happy Hauntings/House

Hello Monday and hello sweet visitors. Time for our BBTB2 challenge of the week. This was without a doubt one of the most difficult challenges I've done. Susan is our hostess and she selected one of the Haunted Houses from the Happy Hauntings cart. I don't have that cartridge but I found some 3D houses on Winter Woodland. Oh wow, said I, and I tackled the first one. Flop. Threw it away. Tackled 2 more and they were bigger disappointments so I almost just gave up. Dedication is the key to creating one of these 3D houses, and of course dexterity. I hate to cop out but I have arthritis in both hands and fingers and those tiny little score requirements for windows and shutters and doors just were a big challenge. But generally I am like a Junk Yard Dog on a big quest and I decided not to give up and keep on scoring, folding, gluing and hoping for some sort of decent end to it all. And this is it...! It's simple, and after I had taken the photographs (about 5 attempts just for that) I thought I should have added a witch or bat to the moon, and I should have added a darker sky, some lurking dark clouds........life is full of shoulda shoulda stuff and I just left it as is. I have seen some of the absolutely fantastic designs from the gals on this house and mine needs to be in the far back maybe as a haunted garage or something. (grin).... Anyway, thanks for taking a peek. I so appreciate your visit. I hope you have stopped by via the BBTB2 site here.

Recipe:

Cricut: Winter Woodland (house)

PDDU (Cat, Tree, Bat, Moon)

Sizzix: Ghosties, Bat

BBTB/Hand

This week's challenge at BBTB2 is Reader's Choice. The cartridge selected is Graphically Speaking and the cut is the pointing finger. I don't have that cartridge but I was able to find the pointing finger cut on page 46 of Don Juan so here's my card

It's a congrats card that says "Way to go" on the inside. The outside sentiment of "cheer" is a small portion of a rubber stamp that has just about every sentiment available. The entire card was cut from Don Juan except for the inside sentiment which is page 67 of Basic George.

Here's an FYI just cuz....! Did you know that you can do a search of all cuts on Cricut Search?

I do my cards ahead of time and if I don't keep them laying around with a note on the card where the cuts came from, I am always dashing back to my studio to hunt down the cartridge I used.

Cricut Search is fantastic. I put in the keyword and up comes all of the cartridges that have that cut on it. I love this site. If you don't know about it, you can see it here.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you have an absolutely fantastic week.

Cutting Cafe Gifties

You must make a hop over to Regina's Cutting Cafe here. Here is her announcement, and just wait til you see her printables. Absolutely awesome creations.

In appreciation for World Card Making day, the Cutting Cafe is having a 2 for 1 special from today until 11:59pm Saturday the 2nd of October.....PST

For every set you purchase you can get another of equal or lessor value for free...

Cutting Cafe Delights

Scroll down if you are looking for the Sewing Machine Cricut challenge blog hop.

I wanted to post these cards. Regina just released a most wonderful set for Breast Cancer Awareness called THINK PINK and here are just 3 of the cards I made from the set. I have many friends who have battled this horrid disease. I printed off the pink ribbons, added the mount to some white Nestie mounts and then I embossed the two layers. I've added MS punch flowers, a few pink gems for the flower centers. The scripted "hope" is from Opposites Attract cartridge and the fancy "hope" is from Storybook cartridge. I simply love these easy to create cards. You must take a look here for the set.

Another Cutting Cafe printable only this is from the Sentiments-Stems and flower tops printables. I found this darling little strip that says I Love You many times just laying in my trays of things to do...and the sentiment LOVE YOU (I think from Stamping cart) and the little punched heart sitting in a different tray. I used my MS decorative edge punch, and brought the elements all together for this cute easy to make card. You can see this set at Cutting Cafe here.
TFL.... I always love it when you visit and leave some love.

BBTB2/Heritage/Sewing Machine

Congratulations to Cass (paperroyalty.blogspot.com) who is the winner of the draw for the tote blog candy. Cass, please email me and I will get the tote mailed to you. Thanks to each of you for stopping by the leave a comment and playing along with the blog hop. I appreciate each one of you.

Happy Monday to all....I am so glad you have stopped by. I hope you have happened here from the Bitten By The Bug2 Monday blog hop challenge here. I am first up this day and happy to present my take on the challenge to use the sewing machine die cut from the Heritage cartridge. It's a cartridge I do not have but our talented leader, Heather, shared some cuts with me. She sent two sizes in 3 colors and I opted to use them all. I am an avid sewing-gal and I love my sewing machines. I have so many friends who love to sew and I suspect one of them will eventually receive this card in the mail that basically says "so YOU" but in a slightly artsy form. I cut some black and red papers in squares and stitched them with red thread, I used my Martha edge punches and some ribbon for decorative edges, and I added a few bling-bling red jewels to the black machine. The title letters are cut from Blackletter cartridge.

In the tradition of the month end blog hop, here is my little bit of blog candy to offer up. It's a felt bag that I made, with a pretty red flower and green leaf stitched to the bag. A button is sewn for the flower center and two white buttons adorn the handle ends. It's a cute little bag for a little girl who wants to carry some of her treasures. The little tote is 8-1/2x8 inches in size... Leave me a comment and I will do a random draw on September 30. Please check back after 2PM that day and if you are the winner, please email me before October 3 with the details and I will mail the blog candy to you. If I do not hear from the winner by October 3, I will draw a new name on October 4.
Now I will lead the way to the marvelous blog and talent and creations of Donna who will sew you up something wonderful with her take on this challenge.

More Fwoggies...

More froggies.... just can't help myself. This frog was cut from Live Simply, a darling cartridge. My friend Jean loves frogs as much as I do so when I knew she was coming for a visit, I made her some note cards. Still using the papers I got from Die Cuts R Us store. And my Nesties.

Halloween From Cutting Cafe

I love making Halloween cards. I love the images, the sentiments but most of all I love all those bright colors brought together to make a bright and cheery card. Regina's new printables with the Halloween theme are absolutely fantastic and fun fun fun. I printed from the various sets she offers.

First up:.....the Halloween Bingo Card Set. These two cards were just so simple to put together because all I had to do was print off the Bingo Card, add a few die cuts from Doodlecharms Cricut cartridges, and draw a nice big arrow. The decorative borders showing are MS and EK Success border punches. You can see this set here.

I love this set. It's from Assorted Halloween Word Circles printable stamp set and these cards just make themselves with a few little die cuts added. The spider and pumpkin dies are from Doodlecharms, the bat is a Sizzix Original die, and that cute little Candy Corn is a printable from Cutting Cafe that was colored with my Copics. Everything has been loaded onto those wonderful Nestie shapes. More border punches too.
This particular set is wonderful. It has spiffy Halloween images and spiffy Halloween sentiments and I love how the cards fell together. You can see this set right here.


Thanks for peeking in on my Halloween fun. Do pop over to Cutting Cafe and take a peek at the wonderful images and printables Regina offers up.