bloom

This is my second entry into this week's Off The Wall Craftiness challenge.

Here is her inspiration photo again:

This is another of my favorite cards that will be hard to part with! I used my Cricut again to cut the word bloom with the Just Because Cards cartridge and the pink frame using the Accent Essentials cartridge. The patterned paper is  from the American Crafts Play collection. I love that pack of paper - it is so fun! I double cut the pink flower from the same paper and popped it with foam dots. The green flower is from a pack that I can't remember the name for (from K&Company maybe?)!

hi

Off The Wall Craftiness Challenge #22

This week's inspiration photo from OTWC:

So at first I was so excited about these! I love working with black and couldn't wait to do it. But then it became hard to incorporate the other two colors. Initially, I wanted to make a shaped card and thoughtI'd do a circle and make colored dots on it. But it didn't quite work out the way I wanted. I ended up mounting the black circle card to the front of a rectangle.

Then, I used my Cricut to cut the dots using the Accent Essentials cartridge. I also added a few more dots with my hole punch too. The ribbon originally had an orange stripe in the middle. I cut a strip of black cardstock and glued it onto the ribbon to make it match. I attached everything to the card and then stamped a very simple sentiment. That's it.

Notice that this card was made only for the Off The Wall Craftiness challenge? I feel bad always doubling up cards I make for her challenges with other challenges. So I told myself this week her cards would be just for her challenge. : )

Happiness Always

This is for my first challenge over at Color Throwdown! I have been following that blog for almost two months now and have finally just been able to finish a challenge for them.

 

This is for Color Throwdown #107 which is to use the following colors:

The green background cardstock is SU pear pizzazz, the pink patterned paper is from the SU Welcome Neighbor paper pad, the yellow is probably not So Saffron, but I'm not sure what it is and the light green and rose are some scrap paper. I ran the yellow through the Big Shot using the Perfect Polka Dots textured impressions folder I cut the light geen border using some craft scissors. The stamps are also SU and are from the Eastern Blooms and Whimsical Words sets.

I went over the branch with a green Glaze pen and stamped the sentiment with Cameo Coral ink from SU. The blooms are punched with one of SU's itty bitty punches and then I put a dot of Glaze pen in the centers. Then I just added two strips of pale pink ribbon on the left side.

I really am not drawn to these soft colors naturally but it seems as though I have been using them fairly frequently with these challenges and I think they are growing on me! I'm not sure I can part with this card; it is so pretty. Just know that if you get it you must be pretty special for me to have parted with it!!

Boo!

So I started this card with Mojo Monday's sketch 153:

The four squares reminded me of a window. So I thought I would create a window as though I was looking out and there would be blue skies and clouds and trees and pretty stuff. But when I cut the squares, they weren't quite square with each other and I thought they looked like a haunted house. Soooo, I thought I'd turn it into a Halloween card since I needed one anyway for Erin Lee Creative's Halloween challenge. Score! Another twofer card!

So I then tried  to cut the other squares crooked and they kinda came out straight. Go figure. I punched them with SU's 1 3'8" square punch on cardstock that I texturized with a Sizzix Distressed Texturz plate on my Big Shot to make it look like wood. The green grass is cut from the Cricut cartridge Plantin Schoolbook. The pumpkins, web, spider, cat and inside skull paper are cut from My Mind's Eye The Spider's Web collection. I made the broom and witch hat and stamped the word "boo!". You can't really tell in the photos but there is a clear sheet over the squares to make it look like a glass window. The one time I want to get a glare off a photo and I can't. : (

On the inside I tore the skull paper with a tearing edge:

I'm so excited to have made my first Autummn/Halloween craft! This is one of my favorite times of the year!!

Sweetie Pie

My second entry into both Off The Wall Caftiness and Wee Memories challenges:

OTWC's inspiration photo:

This was also made with the Cricut Just Because Cards cartridge.

Goody Gumdrops

This week I told myself I would use my Cricut for all my challenges. It will help me learn how to use the darn thing after all! So here is my first project.

Off the Wall Craftiness Challenge #21

-and-

Wee Memories Challenge #19

Inspiration photo and colors for Off the Wall Craftiness:

Wee Memories challenge this week is Sweet Treats with Ribbon on Top! Doesn't that sound fun?

So when I saw the OTWC colors I thought of candy. And then, of course, her inspiration photo is filled with candy too. And Wee Memories has sweets as well. So I had to do these cute gumdrops.

They are from the Cricut cartridge Just Because cards.

We like to play with our food

So sometimes just to make lunch or snack time more fun I'll let the kids play with their food. This really helps if there is something new (or boring) I'm trying to get them to eat! I wish I had more photos to share but I just don't usually have the camera in the kitchen. I'll try to photograph these more often because they are fun.

On this particular day I found some popcorn chicken in the freezer (yes, I know it's not the healthiest, but I bought it when I was pregnant and didn't have much energy to cook!) and wanted to use it up. And the only veggies I had to serve were bell peppers. So I cut everything up and arranged it into this:

The sun is a sliced up cheese stick, the peppers are a flower, some Ranch dressing for a cloud and the chicken became the dirt. They had so much fun eating this and they used the other slices (not shown) to create their own masterpieces.

This next one is not so creative. But they loved it too. My kids love to eat quesadillas. And on this day they also wanted a hot dog (these are either turkey dogs or the nitrate-free ones, so they are not sooo bad!). So we turned them into butterflies!

And speaking of hot dogs, that reminds me of one we used to make awhile back. Here is the link to the original post.

This is always a fun one to make. Just cut slits in the bottom two-thirds of the hot dog and boil it with the ramen noodles. When the noodles are done just "fish" : ) out the octopus and add some food coloring to the noodles (along with the flavor pouch of course). The boiling water will curl the legs making it look like an octopus. For even more fun I drew faces with some food safe markers and placed it back into the noodles. You could just use ketchup or mustard to make faces or stick some veggie pieces on it too.

This octopus backfired on me though. Because my then 2-year-old just wanted to play with his new octopus friend instead of eat him!

He really carried this thing around for hours playing with it! One of the legs inevitably broke off and he was so distraught about it. I remember that he even wanted to take this thing with him to the store as his toy. But he eventually set it down and I threw it away without him knowing. =D

It's a Girl...

This card is for Wee Memories Challenge #18. The challenge is to use buttons, brads or embellishments.  I had these colors out for the last challenge I did at Off the Wall Craftiness and I couldn't help but think of babies. And I have a friend who is due with a baby girl in a couple months so I thought I would go ahead and make her card. Then I saw the challenge at Wee Memories and thought I'd embellish to make it fit over there.

I used a double lattice border at the bottom using a Martha Stewart punch. The green and yellow panels are chalked on the edges. I double stamped and popped the stroller, then added buttons for wheels and a brad on the hinge.

Okay, now seeing this close up I see that I need to clean up my cutting on the stroller!

Let me add that my husband asked if I meant to make the scallop on the bottom different. I hadn't even realized that it was punched weird. It's the green scallop on the left side. I guess maybe I double punched it or something. Thanks for pointing it out honey : \

Crafty giveaway!!

Jenny over at Wee Memories is having a giveaway to celebrate reaching 400 followers. Congrats Jenny! Click here to see what she is giving away. While you're there check out her Scrappy Saturday challenge to win some more goodies.

Baby stuff giveaways!!

Baby Half Off (one of those deal a day baby sites) is celebrating their first birthday by giving away cool baby stuff. I think there is a different item(s) to be given each day. Just go to their blog to enter to win. I think you have until August 23rd at 10 am (not sure what zone) to enter.

Here is a cute little button-up onesie I want to win!!!

Happy Birthday yumminess!

Today's card is yet another birthday card. I have a lot of birthdays this month!!

My inspiration/challenge came from 3 different places this time.

1. Crazy 4 Challenges: Their challenge this week is to use cupcakes!!

2. Stamping with Stacey: The Curtain Call 42 challenge is to use the following colors:

Peach Parfait, Pear Pizzazz, Early espresso, and Very Vanilla. Don't they just sound delicious!!

Here is Stacey's inspiration photo:

3. Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge 80 over at The Sweetest Thing has us using this sketch:

You can see that I turned the sketch on it's side. I just couldn't make it work the other way!

The cardstock is from Stampin' Up. The

Happy Birthday stamp and ribbon is something I picked up from Michael's. The and many more stamp is from an old retired Stampin Up set I have. The cupcakes are from a Martha Stewart punch.

I heat embossed both stamps using Martha's embossing powder. I love that green color and the way it pops off the brown paper.