A wonderful visit with my Bloggy Friend

I had a most wonderful and special Sunday because at long last the plans Mona and I had been talking about came to be. The oh so absolutely talented Mona and her sister Tina came to my house for a visit. I was so excited to meet Mona because I have long long been a total fan of her wonderful work. You can see her blog here. Here is a photograph of Mona and me.

I had a little giftie bag for Mona and her sister and wow oh wow did they have a giftie bag for ME. Tina crochets and just look at the doily she made for me. And you will also see the two little crochet flowers that she did for me while we sat and talked. On the doily is a most cherished Mona Card. I am so pleased to have these special and precious gifts.
I look forward to more visits with Mona and her sister and we are talking about doing a monthly crafty get together. Now won't that be just about the livin' end?

BBTB2/FMK/Apron/BlogHop

Congratulations to Bobbi of Bobbi's Hobbies. She is the winner in the draw for the handtowel. Bobbi, please email me so I can get the details to mail the blog candy your way. Thanks to each one of you who visited my blog and left a sweet comment. I appreciate each of you.

It's Monday, it's month-end and it's reveal time for the design team cards and projects from Bitten By The Bug2,and a fun fun blog hop to boot. Penny, our beautiful talented Penny, is our hostess and she asked us to design with the Apron cut in the From My Kitchen cartridge. I hope that you have stopped my way from the wonderful blog of Julie Huxter.

My card was designed totally from the FMK cartridge. I struggle when I pull out this cartridge and I can't even begin to tell you how many refrigerator cuts I tried and tossed, and I pretty much feel the same about the little blue oven cut but at least it made it onto the paper. I cut out 3 cupcakes and the sentiment "Sweets". This scene reminds me of growing up with a Mother who loved to cook and bake. And she always wore a sweet apron. I still have her aprons folded neatly in tissue in my dresser... they are cherished, but not used.

The papers I used are scrapbin grab-ups, and I used an EK Success scallop edge punch. The apron and the sentiment were embossed with my Cuttlebug.

For the blog candy portion of this post, I am offering up a white hand towel that has a cute little brown embroidery bear, a halo on her head and a sweet red bow around her neck. Leave a comment and I will put your name in the draw on Friday September 3. Check back after 2:00PM to see if your name appears as the winner. Email me with your details and I will mail the candy out to you. If I do not hear from the winner by Tuesday, September 7 I will draw another name.
Now, in the tradition of the blog hop, please hop over to the talented site of Karen who will have something wonderful to view and she will then lead you to yet another design team sister. Thanks for visiting me. I appreciate you so much.

Search for Congratulations to Bobbi of Bobbi's Hobbies. She is the winn ... Search for a map Translate

Source: Attribution goes here

About Bing Highlights

Bing Highlights

Version 1.0.0 (12)

Copyright © 2010 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Support

Source: Attribution goes here

About Bing Highlights

Cutting Cafe/All About School

With school just starting in many areas, cards for that theme are very popular right now..

Regina's printables catch any sentiment and design for school. I literally tossed this simple card together in seconds and although it wasn't much work, I think the finished card is really neat for a student to give to a fave teacher. You can see the Cutting Cafe set here. Everything on this card is Cutting Cafe but I did put a cute little yellow gem on the bee.

Cutting Cafe/Welcome Home

Regina has a darling new set that is filled with wonderful printables I had a wee strip of trees and I wanted to use it on a card. When I saw this set, I knew I was going to make a card using some of the designs from Cutting Cafe. You can see the set here. I used my Copics on the two cute colorful houses and I mounted them on one of the circle CC sentiments. That was cut out with a round scalloped Nestie, Everything has been embossed. That tall house has been popdotted. TFL...

BBTB2/LAB/Flamingo

Happy Monday to all. Thank you for stopping by to view my take on the week's BBTB2 challenge. Our talented design team sister Melissa is the host and she selected Life Is A Beach cartridge and when she selected the flamingo, she asked us to make the cut in anything but pink. Here is my card.

I cut 6 Flamingos. I cut two scalloped mounts, embossed them and lined 3 Flamingos up on each. This is my version of a Flamingo Chorus Line.

Recipe:

Cricut: Life Is A Beach (Flamingo)

Calligraphy (Sentiment)

Scalloped Mount: EK Success Edge Punch

Cuttlebug Embossing Folder: Swiss Dot

Felt Flowers

White Paint dots

Thanks for stopping by. I always appreciate your visits and comments because they surely inspire me onward. Do take a peek at the cards the design team presented here.

BBTB2/JOTS/Cup

Marina is our hostess on BBTB2 this week and she has asked us to design with the cup on page 51 from Joys Of the Season cart. I love this cartridge because it has so many wonderful holiday designs..... ( I think it's time for me to start doing the batches of Christmas Cards I do for people each year as gifties.) I took this design, however, and moved it away from holiday atmosphere and I leaned toward Japanese tea sets with the 3 cups. The paper I used on the 3 cups is from a mat stack called "Hippie Chic" and it was a gift from Kris Lancaster. I have used this paper several times with the Pagoda cartridge and I think it has an oriental feel to it as well as "hippie". Here is my card.

Card Recipe:

Cricut: Joys of the Season (cup)

Blackletter (title)

Paper: Hippie Chic Mat Stack (cups)

Scrapbin papers

Ribbon and Jewels

Cuttlebug Embossing Folder (Swiss Dots)

TFL and please visit Bitten By The Bug2 to see the cards from the other designers.

Cutting Cafe/Teacher Tags

Regina has released some more wonderful printables...this time the printables cover a lot of school activities, teacher messages, words of wisdom, grades of all schools... I could go on.

I loved everything in this set. I did grab up the circles in "From The Teacher" and I made some tags which I am going to add to my Etsy shop. When I look at these tags, I can see a teacher giving some to the students for inspiration and support. You can see the set at Cutting Cafe here.

TFL....and take a peek at this set, along with everything that Regina does in the Cutting Cafe because there are so many wonderful printables.

BBTB2/LAB/Lizard

Lori is our BBTB2 hostess this week and she selected Life Is A Beach for our cartridge and the die cut selected is the lizard. I couldn't help but bring my home state of Arizona into my design, I can sit on my porch and watch the block wall fence full of scurrying lizards. My Springer Spaniel dog Brigette used to love to chase the lizards because she felt they were on HER fence. My Springer Spaniel Heidi could care less..... she just wants to come back in the house and beg for a cookie.

My card has a variety of paper dies.

Recipe:

Punch Out Letters (Arizona)

Cricut cartridges: Life Is A Beach (Lizard)

Don Juan (Wild Life)

Sizzix: Orange Frame, Cactus

Sun: Punch (Jewel)
Cuttlebug Embossing: Swiss Dots

Thanks for stopping by...and I hope you take a peek at the designer's cards on Bitten By The Bug2.

Cutting Cafe Giveaway

A winner: Crystal aka Crafting for Caitlyn is the winner of the I Scream You Scream We All scream for Ice Cream set from the Cutting Cafe. Crystal, please email me quickly so I can have Regina get that set to you. Please email me no later than August 18. If I do not hear from Crystal, I will do another draw.
That sweet Regina is offering up another wonderful giveaway for some of her Cutting Cafe sets. I have chosen to offer the I Scream You Scream We All Scream For Ice Cream set here. Regina will announce the giveaway on Cutting Cafe on August 10th, and we will select a winner on our blogs on August 14th. If you would like to be in the draw to win this darling printable, leave a comment on my blog and I will put you in the draw early August 14th. Here is my card. I printed off the 8-1/2x11 page for the printable, I folded it sideways, cut it in half which gave me two cards to work with. The front and back are printed with the sentiment which is really neat. I added two Nestie mounts, the Ice Cream Cone dies came from Indie Art, and the Happy Birthday sentiment is cut from Stamping. I embossed the ice cream part of the die. I love this little card. Please check out the set on Cutting Cafe....and take a peek at the other printables Regina offers.

BBTB2/Paper Dolls Dress Up/Dinosaur

Monday is here and here am I posting the week's BBTB2 challenge. The assignment was to design with the dinosaur on Paper Dolls Dress Up. This cartridge has a big selection of dinos to chose from. Here is my card for the design challenge:

Recipe: Paper Dolls Dress Up (Dinosaur)
Hand cut stems and punched flowers

Jewels and ribbons

Cuttlebug Embossing -Swiss Dots

EKSuccess Scallop Edge Punch

Scrapbin papers

Punch Out Sentiment

I hope you will check out the wonderful design team creations here.

Published Me..

Ready Set Create has been released for the August/September issue and I am happy to say I have 11 cards and 2 Artist Trading Cards published. I love this little eZine, it has some great designers and it is full of inspiration.

BBTB2/Stretch Your Imagination/Ice Cream Cone

A Winner: I have processed the draw for the Cat Tote blog candy and I am pleased to announce that JenBlue is the winner. I have notified her and as soon as she emails me, I will mail the tote. Congrats to the winner, and I thank each of you for playing along with the blog hop. I appreciated every comment and every visit.

This is month end and that means blog hop for the design team. I love participating each month. Krista is the hostess and for our design assignment, she selected Stretch Your Imagination for the Cricut cartridge and we were to design using the ice cream cone. This ice cream cone is one of my faves of all the cartridge choices and there are plenty of cone designs available.

If you started out with the BBTB2 blog, you will have been directed to me from that oh so fantastically creative blog of Donna. Her designs are always just perfect, with layers of design, bling, and a perfect result.

Here is my card. I made this for a little gal, just leaving the single digit years to those double digits of 10 years old. When you turn 10, you think you've surely "arrived". It's a milestone birthday.

Recipe: Cricut: Stretch Your Imagination/ice cream cone

Cuttlebug Embossing Folder/Happy Birthday and Swiss Dots

Martha Stewart Edge Punch

Red Jewel for the Cherry On Top

Sentiment: Computer

In the tradition of my blog hops, I am offering up a cute little tote I made. It's sewn with a bright green fabric and decorated with a darling applique/embroidery grinning-cat. If you wish to be in the draw to win this tote, please leave a comment on my blog. On August 2 I will do the draw. Please check back after 2:00PM to see the announcement of the winner's name. If you see your name, please email me quickly. If I do not hear from the winner by August 5, I will do a second draw.
Thanks for visiting me, I love your visits and comments. Now, blog hop over to Heather's blog to see what she has done with this cute ice cream cone assignment.

Birthday Birthday Me..!

My birthday is coming up on the 28th of July and here comes a wonderful Sandi Made Gift Box...these are always a delight to receive because so much love goes into whatever Sandi creates.... You can see her blog here.

This is a grand view of the box contents. First, one of Sandi's wonderful greeting cards, filled with images, airbrushing, and lovely little blings like the patterned ribbon and the hat pin loaded with lovely beads. A gift in itself is the handmade box that contained a most wonderful beaded Meditation necklace with charms. The box was airbrushed with butterflies and then to add to the wonderment a big embellished butterfly sits atop the card, and then there are my initials, stacked and stacked to make a wonderful depth.

This is one of Sandi's handmade journals.... airbrushed, beset with dimentional butterflies, and of course containing Sandi's signature corners. Inside this lovely little journal are pages describing the meaning of the beads on the Meditation Necklace.
This is the Meditation Necklace. Is this not the most unique and loveliest of gifts?
Thank you, Sandi. You never fail to brighten my day just with your wonderful friendship.

Cutting Cafe/Word Book LOVE

You might have seen Cutting Cafe Word Book for "Summer" that I did a few weeks back. I love word books and Regina has come to my rescue. This Love book is new in a series of Cousins, Family and Love. I knew that I was going to use the Love book and make that for a new baby boy. Here is a photo of the full book. I used New Arrival Cricut cartridge for my die cuts along with some punch hearts and rubber stamped sentiments. The binding is done with my Zutter BIA and I've tied blue, green and white ribbons on the wire.

This shows the O page... a little Onsie sits on the edge of the O so that it hangs in the opening. I've added a cute little diaper pin as well.
This photograph shows the V page. The paper is K&Co for Boys, and I couldn't help but cut this page using the quilted pattern with cute little critters like this elephant. I added a Onsie and some punched MS hearts.
This is the E page...and I've added a blue checkered strip across the top to present the cute bootie with a ribbon. Punched hearts and buttons sit on the E.
TFL, and if you want to see this darling set, please visit Cutting Cafe here.

Cutting Cafe/Birthday Sentiments

Here I am again....I wanted to post a little birthday card I made for my son who will turn 41 on July 31st.... I used one of Regina's Celebration Word circle birthday sentiments (I love these) and I added a Base Camp cut number, and some Sizzix candles. Of course the backgrounds are embossed with my darling Cuttlebug. TFL....and if you want to see a wonderful array of birthday sentiments visit Cutting Cafe here.

Cutting Cafe/TeaPotCard

I love anything Cutting Cafe because Regina just knows the best designs to offer, the best sentiments to print and add to a card or even a scrapbook page. I do admit that I don't do justice to her delightful shaped cards because I have such a time of it cutting the image out.

My hands often work against me. But look what I just did with her delightful teapot shaped card. I am thinking of getting Sure Cuts A Lot so I can have the computer do the work but until then...... here is my creation, all hand cut and fussed over. I added jewels along the rim of the lid, I added a burgundy ribbon, one of CC sentiments and a punch MS flower with another jewel. I embossed the teapot with my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots. Inside I used another sentiment that says "Having tea with my girlfriend is tea-rific".

TFL...and you can see this Cutting Cafe set right here.

Um Buggin's First Challenge

That dear Lillie of Um Buggin blog (Dzyner's Showcase) has started her first challenge blog .... I just had to get in the fray. She wanted us to design with Paisley cartridge and to use Mushroom #1. I haven't done too much with Paisley but what I have done I've found there are a lot of layer options. I had fun putting this almost psychedelic mushroom together. In the dictionary it describes that as "denoting intense, vivid color or a swirling abstract pattern. Yup! Why don't YOU visit Lillie's challenge blot and join in the fun? You can see that right here.

BBTB2/Storybook/Owl

Monday Monday you arrive so quickly in the grand scheme of things!....but one bright spot on Monday mornings is the posting on the Bitten By The Bug2 design team blog. This week's challenge was held by Karen, one of our new designers. Karen selected the Storybook cartridge and asked us to design with the owl cut. I love owls and although I did not collect them, I had many friends who did. I also used to paint and sell brick bookends that had a cute little owl that I designed. I hope you will visit BBTB2 here and enjoy the designer's cards.

Recipe: Cricut Cartridge: Storybook

Martha Stewart Edge Punches

Nestabilities Rectangle Scalloped Die

Gold Jewels for Owl eyes

Cutting Cafe/LadyBugs

I love ladybugs. I think everyone loves them. This is a circle sentiment from Regina's Cutting Cafe set called Cute Critters Printable set. You can view the set here. I cut a cute cross eyed ladybug from Doodlecharms and placed her on the circle. the background print is a bright pink checkered print, and the ribbon is a pink polka dotted delight with a sweet little curling tag added that I received from Heather (the BBTB2 boss gal) when we all gathered in Tucson for fun card making. Hope you like my card. I do... TFL.

BBTB2/GoingPlaces/Dog

Happy Monday. Our challenge this week is a Reader's Choice to use the dog or cat cut from Going Places as the subject of our projects. I don't have Going Places cartridge but since we can select a dog or cat die from any other cartridge, I picked the cute little scottie dog from Just Because cartridge. Here is my card. The card just sort of fell together because the tree, the house and the sentiment were laying in a scrapbin lid.. Thanks for your visit, I always appreciate when you drop by. Be sure to visit BBTB2 here to enjoy the designer's cards and projects.

Happy July 4th

.

Cutting Cafe/Summertime

I am not so fond of summers in Arizona but I am fond of anything that brings a wee bit of coolness in any form. This coolness happens to be a printable from Regina's Cutting Cafe. It's a summertime background printable here which offers a wonderful landing for decorations. This is a beach bum scene.... and the die cuts come from the Life Is A Beach cartridge. Regina has printables that offer all of the cute die cuts for a beach scene but my hands are working against me right now that will allow me to do any decent cutting out so I relied on my Cricut cartridges to finish the scene.
TFL...and take a peek a Cutting Cafe ... you'll find some delights.

Tucson Card Frenzy

Last year when I went to Tucson for the 2-1/2 day "Card Over", I made 84 cards. Actually I cheat because before I even leave, I have a tray of folded cardstock, pattern papers cut to size and some die cuts and a sentiment slipped inside. It's only a matter of slamming them together and once I get started, it is so easy to whip out a multitude of cards. This year I made 48 cards. Talk about a flip flopped number! The last day I sat and cut dies from carts that I don't own and that was enormous fun. At any rate, here are some of my cards from my wonderful Tucson visit.

I love making Easel cards....





TFL...at my slammed together buncha cards....

BBTB2/PDDU/Genie Lamp

ANNOUNCING A WINNER: I am pleased to announce the winner of my felt flowers blog candy. Congrats to CelesteB ... Please email me with your addie, Celeste, and I will mail the flowers.

Happy Monday.... This is month end and we are always so pleased to say "it's BLOG HOP time"... I hope the visitors to BBTB2 take that blog hop tour to visit all of the designer's sites. There are wonderfully designed cards to inspire you, and even some blog candies offered too.

I hope that you have come my way by the blog of Theresa here. Our challenge for this week was to use the Paper Dolls Dress Up cartridge, and we are to design using the Genie Lamp. I turned my little card into a Arabian Nights scene with the big wonderful castle, the lamp and the titles of DREAM and WISH. The lamp and the castle are from PDDU, and the sentiment titles are cut from Stamping (one of my faves). I set the Genie Lamp upon some layers of Nestie shapes.

Do visit BBTB2 and enjoy the designer's cards. In the tradition of our wonderful blog hop, I am now sending you that awesome wonderful designer Donna.

Now....for my blog candy I am offering up five colorful layered felt flowers, with a button to retain the layers. I use these for scrapbooking, greeting cards, gift wrap, and even on my sewing projects of purses and totes, a cute little floppy brimmed hat, on a belt. If you would like to be in the draw, please leave a comment on my blog and I will draw the winning name on July 2 after 2:00. If you see your name as the winner, please email me quickly and I will mail the flowers to you. If I do not hear from the winner by July 5th, I will draw another name. Thanks for visiting... I truly appreciate you and I treasure your comments.

Cards&Cards&Fun

For those who visit me, in the past you have seen some fun photos that entail friends getting together for 2-1/2 days to create cards, share knowledge, techniques and inspirations. In February my Tucson friends drove to my house. It was my turn to drive to Tucson so on Friday I left with a packed car full of papers, tools, plans and excitment. Sandy was our hostess, and we had the best time. And I am so so pleased to say that I met Heather Binnie who heads up our Bitten By The Bug2 Team. Here we are...gathered on Sandy's stairway to post for this fun photo. I made cute little white hats with an embroidery dragonfly for each of the gals. I gave mine away when someone complimented it. Sandy and Deb do not have blogs (yet) but I'd love it if you visited Kris and Heather.

TFL.... see you tomorrow when our BBTB2 posts appears magically at 8AM Arizona time.

Cutting Cafe/Best Wishes

I needed to make a quick card for a friend who has some exciting news in her life. What easier way than to grab up one of Regina's printables from Cutting Cafe here.
I had a negative square that was left from cutting a pretty flower, I placed some pretty pattern paper behind it, mounted the white embossed flower square on a black Nestability scalloped square...I added a cute red checkered ribbon, and I used my EK Success border punch for the scallop and a strip that I used to make a hinged card. Regina's framed sentiment was placed on red cardstock for the card base. All in all, I love how this turned out. TFL...

BBTB2/Rainbow

Good morning and happy Monday. Joanna is our hostess and she has selected the Once Upon A Princess cartridge for our challenge. We are to design with the rainbow. I do not have that cartridge but since we can alternate the cartridge, I used my Hello Kitty cart for the rainbow.

I made a door hanger. After a rain shower, I love to see a beautiful rainbow radiating across the sky and this door hanger is a little reminder that to get that rainbow, we have to have a little rain in our days now and then.

I cut the die 5-1/2 inches and added some Stickles and jewels... I punched a hole in one of my Nestie shapes to feed ribbons through for the hanging needs. From the cloudy sky I attached a little message from 3 ribbons. The little message says "Just remember, Life is like a rainbow. You need both the sun and the rain to make the colors appear"

To see some delightful takes on the rainbow challenge, visit BBTB2 and enjoy the cards the designers presented.

Cutting Cafe/Word Book

I have always wanted to do a "word book" but I never settled down long enough to use the Design Studio program to do the various pages. I figured it would be a battle to get them sized correctly. Well, Regina has solved my little problem by releasing a new Word Book printable here. This is the book in total... I actually added a little backdrop to each page by cutting black cardstock. I used my various Cricut cartridges to add critters, words, and die cuts. I opted to use the Bind It All for my binding technique but Regina has implemented 3 round holes for other binding options. I added red, yellow and orange ribbons to the Zutter wire.

Page two... the U for Summer.
Page 3, the first M. Hmmmm, ice cream. Mmmmm.
Page Four...the second M. Have a marvelous little pool party.
Page Five.... picnic fun for the E page.
Page 6, the final page for the R.
Thanks for taking a peek. I always enjoy visitors and I love it when you leave a comment.

Hope you like my very first Word Book. My next one will have a little better planning but I was so excited to get started, I created this in a bit of a hurry.