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

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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.

Cutting Cafe/Arrows

I love this card. I like the papers that fell into my hand, I love the arrow that points the way,

I adore the little Cuttlebug embossed elephant who peeks over the hat all to say Happy Birthday.

TFL...and take a peek at the arrow set at Cutting Cafe here.

BBTB2/CampOut/Fish

Happy Monday to all.... Today is the day we post our weekly challenge. This challenge was to use the fish from CAMP OUT. I do not have that cartridge and thankfully we can substitute the die cut for a similar image. I love the fishies on Life Is a Beach so here is my design. I love the little pucker-up on the fishies so what could I do but cite a song. "Gimme A Little Kiss" is a song of yesteryear (I am old so I am certainly a yesterday kinda gal) so I printed off a background sheet with the entire song on it. I play piano so I just sorted thru my stack of old old music books. I added the two fishes (flipped one so they would be facing) and I cut the wave from LAB as well, and added some sparkly blue jewels. Fishies have been embossed to add texture... The sentiment (song title) is cut from Jasmine.

Thanks for looking, and please pop over to BBTB2 and dunk yourself into the fishy waters.

Giftie Cards

Most of us can sit by the hours and make greeting cards of our own designs and creativity... What a wonderful feeling when we receive a handmade card from a friend, a messageboard friend, a design team sister. I recently was given two cards from two special friends. I cherish the friends and I shall treasure these cards.

Vicki Purdham is a friend from the Cricut Messageboard. Last year Vicki won a few of my froggy blog candies and because she loved frogs so much, I sent her a few more hand sewn items with darling little froggies on them. When Vicki posted this cute card on the messageboard, she said it was a monkey called Gene who was dancing in the rain. I commented that I had just watched Gene Kelly in "Dancing In The Rain". Vicki knows I will hold her card in a special place so she sent it to me. Isn't this the cutest???

Recently, I sent my friend and design team sister a white tee shirt upon which I had embroidered a butterfly. We had quite a laugh because I actually had to do 3 shirts to get one, and even that one had those surprise flaws. I told her "here's the shirt, but you can only wear it at home".

Sandi has that unique designer mind that never stops. The little butterfly had some puckers between the wings and Sandi saw the potential to create a little painting on the shirt that would hide the flaws. In the package I tossed in one of my wonderful little wristlet camera cases that I sew, and she saw a cute packaging for her iPod. Here is the card and little bookmark that I received from Sandi.
I feel so so so very special.

BBTB2/Doodlecharms/Sweet&Sassy

This week at BBTB2 Sweet & Sassy Stamps sponsors our challenge. We were given some printables to work with and I selected the little mouse reading under a giant flower and the sun peeking overhead. Heather added the Doodlecharms Cricut cartridge to the mix and asked us to add the cute sun on the project. Here is my card. There are three layers for the mounts and each have been scalloped with the EK Success scallop punch. I added a pretty ribbon just cuzzzzz..... and the sun has some Stickles glitter. The printable has been colored with my Copics. TFL...and do visit BBTB2 and see the designer's concepts on this challenge.

Cutting Cafe/Gift Tags

I love this new set from Regina's Cutting Cafe. I have a friend who is celebrating her birthday and I have added 3 of these great little tags into her gifts. One is a tag to hang on a gift for a birthday, another is just one of those "just because" gifts, and then of course one always needs a gift to say congratulations. I think she will enjoy using these cute tags. I printed off the tag on a soft yellow paper, trimmed them to their shape shown, I added a black square with a square Nestie scalloped goldish plaid paper, then I popdotted a star and added a gold jewel. I took a small round Nestie scallop and cut them in half, punched a hole and glued the half circle on the back of the tag. This allows the tag to open freely instead of having a hole punch through both layers with the ribbon. TFL....

Ready Set Create Pub'd card

Toot, Toot....I'm published.

Well, first off, let me toot my horn. Once again I am so pleased to announce that 11 of my cards are published in the June/July 2010 issue of the eZone, Ready Set Create. I try to get at least one card in for each issue. In 30 days, I can show those to you.... meantime, since thirty days have passed since the prior issue, I can toss in a set of cards that were in the April/May issue.
I love these delicate little pink cards. Each one is embossed with the script embossing folder from Cuttlebug, The card shape is from Wildcart Cricut cartridge, the sentiments are from the same, and the little die cuts on each card is a punch to match the sentiment. TFL...

BBTB2.Sweethearts/Nest/Blog Hop

The winner of the School Themed Quiltie is: StephanieD2. Stephanie, Please email me quickly so I can mail the quiltie to you. Thanks for playing along, and to each of you who visited and left your name, I truly appreciate your visits.

It's Monday and it's month end...and I am always so excited to post my challenge card, and in the mix toss in some blog candy. Perhaps you started at the beginning of our challenge at BBTB2, perhaps you are visiting from my design team sister and so so talented Donna and her blog. I am glad you are here. All of us at BBTB2 are just so appreciative of our followers, and those who visit us on a regular basis or now and then.

This week the talented Jeri is our hostess and she asked us to design from Sweetheart cartridge and to use the Bless This Nest cut. This is a really wonderful cartridge and so much to choose from. I had fun making this little card and it's most made up of papers just laying around.
I embossed the sentiment, the nest and some of the mounts. There are 3 metal charms that say HOME, HEART and ABODE. I added a little blue flower because any smart blue bird would build a nest near the pretty blossoms.


Now, since this is a blog candy kinda day, I am once again digging around in my sewing projects and I am offering up a little 27-1/2 x 20-1/2 wall hanging or quiltie that is sewn in red and green fabrics and the embroidery work is of a school theme. There is a sweet teddy bear holding a pencil, two sets of books, and a tote.

Perhaps this would make a sweet little quilt for a favored teddy bear friend, or even make a nice wall hanging in some classroom. If you want to be in the draw for this quiltie, please leave your comment and on June 4 I will put your name in the draw. The winner will be announced at the very top of this post. If you see your name, please email me quickly. If I do not hear from the winner by June 8, I will select another name. Thanks so much for visiting me and now in the tradition of the blog hop, please hop over to the oh so talented Marina to enjoy her challenge.

Cutting Cafe/Long Sentiment Tags

Another card using one of Regina's long sentiment tags from her line at Cutting Cafe here.

These tags are just so awesome to use for any little sentiment you would want to convey in a card to a friend or someone in the family. For me...it's sending a card inviting up a coffee date.

A cup of coffee with a neighbor or a friend long long ago was just pouring some java in a pretty cup, sipping and gabbing. Now I drive past the coffee haunts of today, the tables and chairs are full of friends taking a break in life, they are cherishing a visit, and although the coffee is mostlikely in a cardboard cup, the coffee somehow seems so much better. But then again, in those long ago years, I never put in chocolate and whipped cream, a dab of this and a dribble of that in my coffee.

Here's my card.

BBTB2/ForeverYoung/DressForm

Our challenge at BBTB2 this week was to use Forever Young as the cartridge, and to design with the dress form. I had this grand idea of dressing the dress form but it didn't work out...so it's just standing there looking pretty. I added another cut with one of the silhouette chickies and dress and she seems to be reading the titles which say "glitz, trendy, couture and glamour". I added a little purse from the same cart just to bring in another subject. The edges are from MS and EKSuccess edge punches. And I also added a ribbon and some gold jewels.

The dress form, cute little girl and purse have been popdotted, and they all have been embossed for added texture.
Thanks for looking and do visit BBTB2 to see what the designers have presented for this challenge.

I thought I would add the little card I did initially. I kept looking at it and wasn't happy so I put it aside and did a second card. Nonetheless, here it is...in all its purpleness.

Cutting Cafe/So Tweet

I love working with Regina's Cutting Cafe background printable stamps ... no matter what kind of card you need, she has a background printable that fits your needs. This background "So Tweet" is from this set here. The set also includes some round sentiments and I have added one to the card which has been mounted on two Nestie round scallops.

The decoration punch is a MS, and that darling bird is from my Give A Hoot cart. Both the sentiment circle and birdie have been embossed to add texture. TFL...and check out Regina's Cutting Cafe because I know you will find something you need.

BBTB2/HannahMontana/Ready2Rock

Our hostess for this week at BBTB2 is that most talented Enfys. She selected Hannah Montana as the cartridge, and the "ready 2 rock" sentiment as the die cut. I don't have Hannah Montana so I used Stamping cart for my guitar, and the Ready 2 Rock sentiment came from myBlackletter calligraphy cartridge. My papers are from a wonderful paper pack that has no designer name cover because I used it to make a card. (Waste not, I always say.) Be sure to hop over to BBTB2 and take a peek at the wonderful creations from the designers. I created an Easel Card to display the design. I love making this design. Actually Margie confirmed for me that the paper is from K&Co. pack. Love this pack ...the papers are so beautiful.

This is a sideview of the Easel design.
I really love this guitar die cut from Stamping cartridge. I got this cartridge from Cricut using my Cricut Reward points. I had a stack of different colored ribbons trying to decide which color would decorate the guitar and I finally decided on this dark red ribbon.
The number 2 sits nice and high. I cut out 5, and used pop dots under two of the cuts. The flower has been enhanced with a fabric brad.