Summer Sunshine

One of my coworkers lost her brother unexpectedly a few weeks ago.  We passed around a calendar signing up to bring a meal to her family.  Tomorrow is my turn.  I knew that in addition to a meal, I wanted to bring some cookies.  So, the blog hop and challenge at Baking up Crafts was perfect timing.  Actually, I had been planning on making chocolate chip cookies, but on the blog hop, I came across a recipe for easy lemon cookies on The Joyful Stamper's blog and decided to try those instead.  Of course, I had to taste test one first to make sure they were good enough to give away :)

Then, I wanted to make a card to cheer her up.  A smiling summer sun came to mind.  I used My Cut Search to search through the carts to find a good one.  (This site seems faster than using the Gypsy search, and I like that you can see the whole handbook page rather than just the keypad overlay.)  I used the sun from Smiley Cards.  His sunglasses are from EDPD.  The tags on the top of the card and the base of the pedestal are form Tags, Bags, Boxes and More.  The turquoise background was run through the D'Vine Swirls Cuttlebug folder and the white square was run through Spots and Dots.     I also used an Action Wobble for the first time.  I had signed up months ago for a free sample on Momo's blog and was saving them for the perfect occasion.  I thought it would add some extra cheer to this card.

This card will be entered in the following challenges:

Whimsical Wednesdays--Fun with color challenge #11--I used the required red and yellow and also pulled the colors turquoise and white from the provided photo.

Baking up Crafts--project involving baking and crafts

Fantabulous Cricut Challenge #65--summer sun

Cute Card Thursday #170--sketch challenge

More Thank Favors Wacky Wednesday #32--tags

More Than Favors CCCC #22--Tags, Bags, Boxes and More

Celebrate the Occasion #19--Celebrating Summer (must have a sun)

After posting this, I got an e-mail from the Joyful Stamper suggesting I link up my project to her Inspire Me Friday, so that perhaps I can inspire others to do something similar for someone in need.

"Fishing" you a Happy Father's Day!

I wasn't sure what to put on a Father's Day card for my dad.  Then the challenge at Cardztv gave me an idea.  The challenge there is to make a Father's Day card with a beach theme.  Now, my dad isn't exactly a beach goer.  However, he is a fisherman--in fact, he told me to bring a cooler when I visit for Father's Day because he's going to send me home with some fish he caught!  So, here is my fishy Father's Day card:

The fish is from Create a Critter.  The tag he is on and the tag inside the card are from Accent Essentials. The turquoise card base was run through the Cuttlebug Spots and Dots folder.  The white tag the fish is on was run through the Swiss Dots folder.

This card will be entered in the following challenges:
Cardztv--Father's Day with a beach theme
Cricut Cardz Challenge #79--Father's Day theme
Paper Playtime #48--Z-fold card
More than Favors Wacky Wednesday #41--Let's emboss
More than Favors Cricut Cartridge Chaos Challenge #21--Accent Essentials
Really Reasonable Ribbon #26--Handwritten sentiment and use ribbon
Craft Spot by Kimberly #12--We love you dad!
Scrapalicious USA #7--Smile (smiling fish)
Paper Cutz #96--Father's Day using a tag
Whimsical Wednesday #10--Father's Day
Crazy About Cricut's Thankful Thursday--Father's Day

Scrapbook page re-do

Four years ago, when school was out for summer, my then-boyfriend of 3 months and I embarked on a road trip to New York City--to get married!  When we returned, of course I wanted to scrap the pictures of all of our adventures.  My new husband even helped me.  There were two pages that always bothered me though.  They were soooo simple.  One of them was the first page of the book:

The apple die cuts are from the Ellison machine at my school!


Four more years of scrapping and cardmaking experience and a couple of challenges I saw this week inspired me to redo that first page.  Here is version 2:

The map in the background is a road map that was being thrown out at school.  The letters are from Opposites Attract.  The apple is from Doodlecharms.  The buildings are from Plantin Schoolbook.  I plan to use the leaf of the apple to recreate the journaling from the original page.  I tried cutting out the gray top layer of the buildings from silver glitter paper.  I increased the blade depth and the pressure and even did multi-cut, but wasn't able to cut through that paper.  So, it is plain gray for now.  I have to admit, I haven't adhered everything down yet, because I want to see if I can find some kind of spray shimmer/glitter for those buildings.  Does anyone out there have any advice for cutting glitter paper or for any type of glitter that you can apply evenly over a large surface?

This page will be entered in the following challenges:
Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog #62--Remember this: special person, time or anniversary
Paper Cutz challenge #94--beach or travel
Totally Papercrafts #69--get fruity (The Big Apple!)
Celebrate The Occasion #16--School's out!  must include an apple

Music note birthday card

My husband's birthday is in one month and he is a musician, so the challenge at M.A.G. Challenge by the Page, using the music note from Gypsy Wanderings, was perfect for a card for him.

The only cartridge used was Gypsy Wanderings.  I ran the burgundy paper through the Happy Birthday Cuttlebug folder.  The black tag under the music note was run through the Swiss Dots folder.

This card will be entered in the following challenges:
M.A.G. Challenge by the Page #29--Gypsy Wanderings page 68
More Than Favors, Wacky Wednesday #40--manly birthday card

Tall grasshopper card

I was inspired by several challenge blogs to create this card.  I don't have a sentiment on it yet.  It could be a "Hoppy Birthday" card, or just a general cheery summer card.

The only cart I used was Stretch Your Imagination.  I used the card feature, and opted for the "stretched" card.  I used my Gypsy to stretch it a little more so it would be the size of a tall card to fit in a business envelope.  I also used my Gypsy to create layering, as the card feature on this cart does not allow for layering.

Here is a view of the whole card:

Here is a close-up of the grasshopper.  I gave him googly eyes.

This card will be entered in the following challenges:

Cricut Cardz Challenge #77--use the card feature from any cart, using any colors

My Creative Time Throwback Thursday episode 195--use any older cart (Stretch your Imagination was one of the very first carts I bought) and the colors green and yellow

Die Cuttin' Divas challenge #17--creepy crawly

My Craft Spot Monday challenge #10--cute critters

Bug Bites Grillin' n Chillin' blog hop party part 2--create a project with one of the hidden critters from the blog hop