BBTB2/Celebrations/Cake

The Blog Candy winner is.........JESSICA. I will get the necessary info and get the little red book tote mailed out this week. Congrats, Jessica, and to each one of you who left a sweet comment, thank you so much. I appreciate everyone ....

Happy Monday....can you believe May is just a few days from being over and we will be in the month of June.

Welcome to the end of month BBTB2 blog hop. I am the hostess for this blog hop and I selected Celebrations cartridge for the die cut, and I asked the gals to design with the birthday cake. I love this little cake. I cut the candles from Celebration cart as well but I hand colored them with my Copics just to give 'em a wee bit of oomph. I used some MS edge punches for scallops, I embossed almost everything, and the sentiment is a rubber stamp. A sweet little blue bow has been added for a final embellishment. I believe I am the first stop on the blog hop and from my blog please hop over to Donna's wowzer blog to see her take on our birthday cake challenge. Click right here for Donna.

Please join us in our cake challenge. You can use any cake from any cartridge. When you link your blog with the challenge entry, be sure to tell everyone that you are joining the BBTB2 challenge.

Now...here is my blog candy. It's one of my little totes I make with some left over fabrics. This tote is about 7-1/2 long and 9-1/2 inches wide. Not big but this would be a cute little tote for a little girl who likes bright red and colorful flowers. Leave a comment and on June 3rd I will do a random draw. I will post the winner after 2:00PM that day so check back for the name.

Please contact me no later than June 5 so I can make arrangements to mail the tote ....if I don't hear from the winner by June 6, I will do another draw.

Thanks so much for visiting. Hope you have a splendiferous week. I plan to.

Cutting Cafe/Tooth Fairy

I don't think there is enough time in the day to do everything that I want with the Cutting Cafe printables. Oh that Regina, she gives us so many wonderful images and sentiments to create with. One of the new printables is Tooth Fairy Box. How cute an idea is THAT?.... You can see this set right here.

Anyway in one of my dresser drawers there is a plastic container with all of my son's baby teeth. I've looked at the little container many times over the years when I have had need to rummage around in my old old jewelry box and I always say aloud, to no one in particular, "I gotta do something better with these". I can remember each time he lost a tooth so this little plastic do-dah holds some mighty wonderful memories. Along comes Regina with a great printable. Here are two boxes, one girly, one boy...and of course the boy Tooth Fairy Box will replace that silly plastic container.

And just cuzzzz I loved making these, I made a few more. I used a very simple box cut ....cut the cardstock 6x6 and scored all four sides at 1-1/2 for the box, and 1-1/8 for the lid. I love the little Cutting Cafe sentiments and images so they are here and there on the boxes... I cut some 2-1/2 inch envies from Calligraphy cart, applied one of the circular toothy sentiments on the front and each box will have about 5 envelopes like these.

TFL.... I think this printable is just the cutest thing evahhhhhhh.

Cutting Cafe/All About baby

I am in the Box Lid Card Frenzy mood again. I MUST get that studio tidied up. I keep everything...every little tidbit of paper and each die cut that I hadn't use for something....and then suddenly I am aware that I am surrounded by stacks. When that happens, you see these posts of cards that I put together in nothing short of a record ... I found the Cutting Cafe pile of the darling little round sentiments. "Cute As A Button" can be used on so many cards...babies, pets, children growing up. I had one sentiment that I did myself on the computer.... I cut some faces from New Arrival. I used the blackout cut and drew in my own face, and I added a MS bow punch ... then I grabbed up the chipboard button designs, added a wee bit of tied twine and the cards were done. You can see the set from Cutting Cafe right here. It's a cute one. Go see....

BBTB2/Florals Embellished/Flying Bird

Donna, oh that super talented gal, is our hostess for BBTB2 this week. She has chosen the Florals Embellished cartridge, and the flying bird on page 61. I don't have that cartridge...and in fact somehow the existance of it escaped my scrutiny. At any rate, I found a flying bird on Indie Art. I cut three bright and colorful birdies, cut a moon, some stars a cloud, added some jewels to the stars and cloud, a few on the blue bird and called this creation "girls night out". ... Little Blue Bird with all her bling seems to be the leader and I am sure this flying trio will have a great night in the sky.

Hope that you all have been able to visit all of the design team blogs and see the wonderful project they offered in this challenge. And I hope that you will join in on the challenge. You don't have to have the cartridge selected...just pick a bird, flying or not. And be sure to mention on your blog that you are entering the BBTB2 challenge.

Cutting Cafe/Belated Birthday Wishes

Whenever I have a card idea rattling around in my head, I automatically hover over Cutting Cafe printables to close the deal. These two cards are a result of finding 2 little unfinished elephant die cuts .... I believe these darlings were cut from Sugar N' Spice. Elephants are supposed to remember everything but these little cuties forgot birthdays. You can see the set right here.

Recipe:

Cricut: Sugar N' Spice

Sentiment: The Cutting Cafe

Cuttlebug Embossing Folders

Pattern Papers

Cutting Cafe/Calendar Set...

I LOVE this set and I have made a lot for friends who delight in receiving them. You can be sure that when January 2012 arrives, I will be Susie-On-The-Spot with a new year's set for all my friends. This is the second post for this particular Cutting Cafe printable. Everytime I repeat a project, they just seem to turn out all brand new because of different papers and embellies.

You can see the set here....

BBTB2/ForeverYoung/Sunglasses

Heather is the hostess this week for our BBTB2 challenge. She asked us to design with the sunglasses on the Forever Young cartridge. I really have a lot of fun when I pull up the FY delight....it has great cuts and among them the wonderful sunglass diecut.

I used FY for all of the the cuts on my card. The sentiment "chic" is artfully shaped, and I love the cute little silhouette girlie with the red jewel on her belt. My sunglasses were set upon with a wee bit of red jewel bling. I've added ribbons and most of the card has been embossed. Thanks to Martha for the edge punch.

Where were these sunglasses in the fifties when I wore wild and crazy sunglasses?
Here's a close up of chickie girl with the blingy belt.
TFL. Do join in our challenge. You don't have to have Forever Young.... any sunglasses will do. Link your card up to BBTB2, and be sure to mention that you are joining in the BBTB2 challenge.

Cutting Cafe/Cupcakes.

Woot Woot..... another wonderful giftie from Regina and The Cutting Cafe is being offered. A while back I posted a card I did using one of her new cupcake files. You can see my blog card right here. Here's the cupcake scoop! Regina is having the Monthly Inspiration with darling projects and cards done by the designers. This month you can win ay 3 sets from The Cutting Cafe by leaving a comment and you can also buy one get one free of equal or lessor value on all of the sets offer. Not kidding...what a deal because The Cutting Cafe rocks when it comes to darling printable images and sentiments. The offer is good until Wednesday May 18 at midnight. See the fine details at The Cutting Cafe here.

Spring Cards

Many of us got emails from one of the companies that sell Cricut carts and this offer had a free Your Story if you bought a cartridge. I have a Your Story and I love it, but I have a friend who pays big money for little digital scrapbooks so I thought how great it would be if she had a machine that could do a few for her.

I bought Cindy Loo and April Showers. Once everything arrived I could not wait to get those carts into play. I had some 12x12 sheets of printed cardstock that had the words "spring" across the center. I cut the pages down so that I could fold them in such a way that the panel of words would end up on the edge. I was able to make 4 cards....and since I used the printed papers for the cards, the inside is a lovely robin's egg blue.

Cindy Loo has darling images and so does April Showers....and on the AS cart I went right to that sweet little birdie in a cage. I thought about making a blue bird but the birdie just sort of disappeared into the paper. I did the first cut at 2 inches, using green paper. The second cut was yellow. The overlay for the bird was yellow and I did some distressing with yellow chalk inks for a little definition. I added a little punch daisy and leaf, and on one card I added a sentiment from April Showers. I had already cut some garden boots in blue with a pink overlay so I added those on two of the cards. Quick and easy cards and they will make a cute gift pack.

I LOVE the alphabet section of Cindy Loo.. I have most of the alpha carts and I really like each one ...I find that I mostly use Mickey Mouse Font or Don Juan for my letterings but now I have a new fave.... Cindy Loo. I had extra sets of photos from the County Fair and my blue ribbon quilt as well as a set of photos taken of the Porch Cat, Tabby... Just for giggles I got my Your Story up and running. I bound the two sets in the little 4x6 binders. The titles are the darling Cindy Loo cuts. Thanks for taking a peek at my fun little last minute projects.

I

Cutting Cafe/Cars

Regina has a cute cute printable set featuring cars and quips. There are so many instances the printables can be used. I selected this red car and out of the numerous sentiments, I selected "You're Going Places"....I added a rubber stamp that says "Adventure" and I shall use this for a graduation card. Take a peek at Regina's car printables right here.

BBTB2/Simply Charmed/Strawberry

Oh so talented Jeri is our hostess at BBTB2 this week and she chose Simply Charmed as the cartridge. We were asked to design with the strawberry. We would love to have you join in on our challenge, and remember...you don't have to have Simply Charmed. Use any cartridge that has a strawberry. Please remember to mention on your blog that you have entered your card in the BBTB2 challenge.

For my base card, I used a 5x7 size. I cut away half of the front fold so that the main design could "hang" from a sturdy upper card strip. I strengthened this upper "flap" by adding a red scallop strip, a white scalloped strip and some pattern paper. I cut 4 strawberries; 3 small, and one larger for the focal point. The title is also from Simply Charmed. Everything has been embossed with the Cuttlebug. Finally, I added a green jewel on the leafy stem.

I hope you have viewed all of the cards from the design team. If you haven't as yet, just click here and you can see the cards. The team is so so talented, and I love how each of us on the team has their own take on the challenge.

Making Pretty Boxes

You've heard me speak of and show my "box lid frenzy" creations which is where I attempt to empty out the lids of extra small papers, die cuts and sentiments. I also have a "box frenzy". I love making little boxes and fortunately I have a friend who loves getting them to gift out.

Here is a stash that she will pick up tomorrow, along with a big sack full of little totes and handsewn items she will give to the Open Arms Orphanage in Africa. Like anything I dive into, once I am making these boxes, I find it hard to stop... With each paper change, it is like making a new box all over again. I add flowers, stars, sentiments...ribbons, brads.

Here is how I do this: You can use any size of paper you like but for purposes of this tutorial, I am using paper cut 8x8. In this instance I selected a wonderful pink pearl 8-1/2x11 cardstock and this makes a sturdy gift box. I cut two 8x8 bases. On the first I score on all four sides at 2 inches. This is the box itself....The score lines will make the flaps on the box. The second box base I score at 2-1/8th inches. This will make the lid.

Fold up at all score lines. Use a bone folder to make a nice crisp fold.
On the box and box lid you will make cuts on the two sides opposite each other. Cut up to the score line. This will create flaps that you will fold up and glue inside to form the box. Do not cut on all four sides of each as this will cut away the part of the flap you need to glue inside the bases. (However, if you should cut away that small flap, fear not. You can save the project by creating an outside decorative flap to glue each panel and create the necessary flaps.
I fold down all 4 of the smaller flaps and swirl some glue. I find it is easier to glue everything so that when you start to fold the box together, it is uniform.
Pull up the flaps, place the smaller cut flap inside, line it up all edges and hold to secure the glue. I have also used double sided tape but I feel glue is a wee bit more secure.
Here is a finished box and a tag to accompany. The tag comes from the extra paper I cut away from the 8-1/2x11 cardstock. The flower is a simple punch in several layers, and two buttons for the center. I added some Nestie corners just cuzzzzzzz.
I am always thrilled to give my box creations to Patty and I had a lot of fun making them.

TFL

Cupcake At The Cutting Cafe

Who doesn't love a cupcake?.... I certainly do. Paper cupcakes are fantastic. They are not only so pretty to behold but they are wonderfully calorie free. This cute card shaped cupcake is from The Cutting Cafe. I love the larger cuts, and instead of creating an entire card with the printable, I mounted it on a card base. The decorative edging is from an EK Success Edge Punch. That big fat ribbon was in my Big Ribbon Jar. (I love ribbon, ...I have two big big trays of ribbons, and I had a huge jar of smaller bows and made up ribbon styles and I have a big jar of ribbons that came from packages.) I put the cupcake wrapper through one of my Cuttlebug embossing folders, and of course everything else has been embossed as well. The sentiment is a clear stamp. TFL.... and if you want to see more of the darling cupcake printables, check out The Cutting Cafe right here.

Last week I was absolutely thrilled to be able to visit with my friend Carol Sheetz, her two darling daughters and her mother in law. I was happy that Carol could wedge in a visit during their busy trip to AZ. This is the second time Carol and her family have come to see me and let me tell you, to have a bloggy friend face to face is pretty exciting. Here is the pix of Carol and I.

Now if I can just visit face to face with my many other cherished bloggy friends.

BBTB2/Preserves/Apple

Our talented and loved BBTB2 leader, Heather, is our week's hostess. She asked us to design from the Preserves cartridge and to use the apple core die cut. I do not have that cartridge so I went to my much loved Doodlecharms cartridge and cut the apple. I love this cartridge...it has everything.
Here is my card.

I cut a Nestie opening in the front of the base card and placed the apple mid-center. I found some cute red with white polka dot paper, cut the sentiment from Blackletter and created the card.
We love it when you join in our challenges. We can use any apple so find a cartridge, make a card and do enter our challenge. Please be sure to mention that you are joining in on the BBTB2 challenge. Thanks for stopping by.
Recipe:
Cricut: Doodlecharms, Blackletter
Nestie (card front opening)

Doodling

Rubber Stamp