Cooking with Cricut Challenge #88: May Flowers

Hello crafty friends and welcome to another fun challenge over at Cooking with Cricut! This week we are celebrating those May flowers!! I decided to take a slightly non-traditional take to the spring flowers, but there are still flowers in several different places on my layout. Here it is:

I don't have as hard of a time as some people doing layouts of myself (assuming I have a decent pic, lol!), but this one was a bit of a struggle as I just wasn't sure what I was conveying about myself. I finally settled on the straightforward -This is me- right now, today. Simple, right?? The wood grain border was cut from Ribbons and Rosettes and also has a flower pattern on it. You can see it better below:

I printed my background paper and the newsprint on the Imagine Vintage Papers cart. I only recently acquired this cart and wondered why I didn't purchase it much much sooner, lol! Sometimes you discover a cart is just one of those hidden gems. I misted and dripped some blue/green ink on the background paper for a little pop of color. Also, I used my Gypsy for this cart. I purchased my Gypsy several months ago, and lets just say there has been a bit of a learning curve. Everyone raves about it, but it has taken me a while to figure out the ins and outs. I think I am finally getting the hang of it a little bit! So long story short- I used Gypsy Font for the 'me' and (FINALLY!) mastered the weld, lol!

I added some May flowers by way of a fun little banner. I printed out the newsprint pattern from the Vintage Papers cart, then cut out some flower shapes from the Mother's Day Bouquet cart. Then I inked the edges a bit, punches a hole and threaded them on some baker's twine. I threw in a few little flag stickers for fun.

Lastly I made a couple flags with some more stickers and done! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and please be sure to check out the Cooking with Cricut blog to see what the rest of the DT cooked up for you and join in the fun!!

Supply List:
Cardstock: ColorBok
Patterned Paper: Echo Park (This & That-Graceful), Imagine Vintage Papers
Cartridges: Mother's Day Bouquet, Ribbons and Rosettes, Gypsy Font, Imagine Vintage Papers
Stickers: Echo Park (This & That-Graceful)
Buttons: Dear Lizzy for American Crafts (Neapolitan), Pink Paislee (spool)
Brads: Basic Grey, SEI
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink, Sprinklers

Cooking with Cricut Blogaversary Celebration Week Day 4

Hello and welcome back to Day 4 of Cooking with Cricut's weeklong blogaversary celebration!! Today we have a fun theme- Tiaras! For all those girlie-girl projects tiaras are such a fun embellishment. I had the perfect idea for a layout with my beautiful niece Emma who is about as girly-girl as you can get, lol!! Here is her layout:

I'm not usually a big bling-y girl, but it was appropriate for this layout so I brought out the bling! Here are some close-ups:

This image is cut from the Hannah Montana cart, and of course I had to bling it up a bit, lol! I think this is just a darling cut! Also added some fun polka dotted washi tape!

The font from Ribbons and Rosettes has holes cut in the letters that are just asking for a little bling to be added! Also, you can't see it really well here, but the 3" strip across the layout has a bunch of little tiaras! Thought it was too perfect not to use! All the paper is from American Crafts Ever After line.

One last bit of bling with the flower centers! Thanks so much for stopping by today, and be sure to come visit the Cooking with Cricut blog to see all the other amazing projects our Design Team has cooked up for you!!

Supply List:

Cardstock: Colorbok

Patterned Paper: American Crafts (Ever After)

Gems: recollections, Close to my Heart

Cartridges: Hannah Montana (princess), Ribbons and Rosettes (in, borders) Gypsy Font (training), Elegant Edges (Scalloped squares)

Flowers: Prima

Washi Tape: Queen & co.

Cooking with Cricut Blogaversary Celebration Week: Day 1

Hello friends and welcome back to our continuing celebration of the 2 year Blogaversary at Cooking with Cricut! We are having a week long celebration with lots of inspiration, giveaways and freebies! Today's theme is All things Girlie! We want to see pink, and add some satin- either flowers, ribbon or fabric!! I decided to do a layout of one of my adorable girlie-girl nieces Evie. Here it is:

I decided not to go real heavy handed with the pink, but there is definitely plenty of pink in there! And the little music note ribbon is my satin. All of the papers are from the Dear Lizzy Neapolitan line. I was a little late to the party on this line, but so glad I discovered it because I am now in LOVE. Wish I had some more, lol!! Here are some details:

The title is cut from Rock Princess, and is so appropriate for this sweet girl! I layered some border strips underneath the title for some added interest.

The clouds are cut with Serenade. I loved the flourishes that are cut into them. I also cut a circular swirl from Paper Lace (don't have a better way to describe that, lol!). I layered that under the photos.

I honestly did not even realize I had this adorable loopy border on my Ribbon's and Rosettes cart, but I am so glad I discovered it as there are tons of cute border images. Who needs border punches now, lol! Here is also a better look at the cute satin ribbon.

This jar is the reason I bought the Dear Lizzy papers, could they be any cuter?! Also, a new fave embellishment: spool buttons! Yay!
Thanks so much for joining in our celebration, and be sure to check back at the Cooking with Cricut blog throughout the week as there is PLENTY of inspiration to go around!!

Supply List:

Cardstock: DCWV

Patterned Paper: Dear Lizzy for American Crafts (Neapolitan)

Cartridges: Serenade (clouds) Rock Princess (title), Ribbons & Rosettes (loop border) Paper Lace (swirl)

Spool Buttons: Pink Paislee

Banner Flags: American Crafts

Cooking with Cricut 2nd Blogaversary Blog Hop!

Hello my friends and welcome to Day 1 of the Paper Crafting World and Cooking with Cricut's Blogaversary Blog hop! Our Design Teams are so excited to bring you a two-day hop that focuses on projects honoring a second anniversary: cloth, crystal or glass.

We think you will be blown away by some of the super creative inspiration and interpretation of our designers. So be sure to come back both days as each day will be a different set of designers and projects!

PLUS, this hop is the kick off of our week long celebration! Each day for a whole week we will be bringing you fabulous projects made by our designers and each day we will be giving away free vintage graphics, digital printables and/or electronic cutting files! So you will want to make CWC-PCW a daily stop for the next week!

You should have arrived here from the lovely and talented Natt from Awesomeness of Crafting. If you've joined us in mid-hop and would like to check out all the other fantastic projects head on over to PCW-CWC and start at the beginning. There are several prizes to be won so be sure to head over and join the fun at CWC-PCW. There is also a "cloth, crystal or glass" challenge you can enter to win as well as other super blog candy just for being a follower and commenting, so don't miss out!

For my project I decided to make a card, and add some glossy accents for a crystal like look. I apologize that it is a little hard to see the crystal in the picture, so you will just have to trust me ;)

For the card I used scraps from the beautiful My Mind's Eye Follow Your Dreams collection. It was a very quick and easy card (I'm a big fan of CAS). I used an MS lace border punch, and the butterfly is from the Hannah Montana cart. Here is a close-up of the butterfly:

If you can't see the glossy accents very well, you can probably at least see where I went outside the lines with it, lol!

I also have a little bit of blog candy to give away today. My one year blogaversery is August 3rd, and I made a goal to reach 200 followers by then. I am just 32 away! So if you could help me out and become a follower and leave me a message that you did, or that you already are, I will pick one random person to win a Cricut Imagine cartridge: Vintage Papers!! I am simply in LOVE with this cart and so I wanted to share it with one of you! Here is what you could get:

Thanks for stopping by! Head on over to Marji at Tiggerscraps to see what she has cooked up for you!

Cooking with Cricut # 83: Bling it On!

Hello friends! It is time for another Cooking with Cricut challenge- this week we want you to bling it up! This week I created a fun layout of my beautiful niece Evie when she was a baby. I love her cute little floral dress, and had a fun time finding coordinating papers!

My sketch was inspired by the April sketch over at Artful Delight. I replaced the circle shape with a slew of fun brads (my BLING). I cut a circle at 8" from George and Basic Shapes and used it as a template to place my brads. I scattered them a bit, so it's not a perfect circle. The cute heart font in the title is from Rock Princess.

Here is a close up of some of those brads- I used several different manufacturers.

I added a pre-made rosette embellishment and done! Other than putting in all those brads this layout was really quick and easy! I hope you enjoyed it and will come join us with your own bling-y projects! Thanks for coming by!

Supply List:
Kraft paper: Bazzill
Patterned Paper: American Crafts
Cartridge: Rock Princess, George and Basic Shapes (for template)
Brads: Basic Grey, SEI, Doodlebug Designs, Eyelet Outlet, Crate Paper
Rosette embellishment: American Crafts

I am also entering the following challenges:

The Kraft Journal - Anything Goes
Party Time Tuesdays - Anything goes (w/Kraft)
Shopping our Stash - Starts with 'B' (Bling, brads, baby)
Top Tip Tuesday - Anything but a card

Cooking with Cricut # 81: Girl/Teen Girl Thinking of You

Hello my friends and welcome to another Wednesday challenge at Cooking with Cricut. We have a special theme this week. We are making cards to send to two very special girls who are going through a pretty rough time. Patty is the daughter of a friend of one of our designers. She is 13 and fighting a rare form of cancer. Emily is a 6 year old fighting leukemia, and is this month's recipient for Madison's Feel the Love project. We are making cards/projects to send them a little cheer. Here are my cards:

 

When I saw this theme I immediately wanted to pull out my Rock Princess cart. I think it is so girlie and fun, but still has that rocker edge. I kept with a pink and black color scheme as it fits so perfectly with the images. Here are the individual cards:

 

For the most part they are the same, but I did change one image so they had a little difference. On this one I used the cute skullie with the big bow, and the kitty rocking the headphones in the other:

 

I inked the edges of the card and the patterned paper mat with black ink for a little definition and edge. I wanted to add a little 'you rock' sentiment to the interior, so I used a stamp from Whimsical Designs:

I hope you will join us in sending a HUGE crafty hug to these two very deserving little girls. You can find all the info on the Cooking with Cricut blog.

Supply List:
Patterned Paper: DCWV
Cardstock: Bazzil
Cartridge: Rock Princess
Sentiment Stamp: Whimsical Designs
Rik Rak Ribbon: American Crafts

Cooking with Cricut #79: Make us laugh

Hi everybody and welcome back to another fun challenge at Cooking with Cricut! This week we are celebrating April Fool's Day by making projects that will make you laugh.  I hope you find my project funny- I don't do funny very well, but I saw this sentiment and thought it was pretty funny! So here is my card:

The crab is cut from Life's a Beach. Create a Critter also has a cute one, but this one won out! I used a white galaxy pen to draw in his cute smile and placed some additional black cardstock behind his eyes to give them some more definition. I printed the sentiment on my computer. Here is the interior of the card:

The sentiment stamp is from Whimsical Designs. I thought this would be a cute design for a belated birthday card as well! I hope I made you chuckle a bit today, and can't wait to see all the funny and inspiring things you all come up with! Please come join us!

Supply List:
Cardstock: ColorBok
Patterned Paper: Pebbles
Cartridge: Life's a Beach
Ink: Cat's eye

Cooking with Cricut Cartridge Showcase

Hi everyone! Today I am posting the Cartridge Showcase for Cooking with Cricut. The Cartridge I chose to highlight this week is Sophisticated. For those of you who aren't familiar, this cartridge was designed by Teresa Collins. She has a very distinctive style that really comes through on her cartridge. There are 2 fonts, (both of which are AWESOME for monogram projects) as well as images, borders  and phrases. Although I didn't include one in this showcase, I think the phrases would be awesome for vinyl lettering projects. For my first project I have an altered notebook. I am a list person and cannot live without a notebook to jot ideas and lists down in! This notebook is a traditional composition book and cost about $1.

I covered the entire front with patterned paper and added some ribbon to cover the seam on the notebook binding. The "Dream" title is one of the phrases on Sophisticated.

The banner flags are cut with the border function. I love the flourishes at the top.

The key is one of several key images, as well as crowns, chandeliers, and different flourishes. I added some liquid pearls to the key and banner cuts for some extra decoration. These images look great with a little bling.

The flowers were fussy cut from patterned paper.
Here are some additional projects I have made with this cart:

The title is cut from one of the fonts on the cartridge. I love the flourishes that are part of the letters, so pretty and elegant. Original post about this layout HERE.

The title is a phrase from the cartridge. There are some AWESOME phrases on this cart that work great as layout titles, card sentiments or altered projects/wall art. Original post HERE.

All the cuts on this layout are from Sophisticated. The title is another phrase. The chandelier and Fleur de Lis armchair are image cuts. There are several different chandeliers and chairs on the cart. Original post HERE.

On this layout the title is cut with both fonts from Sophisticated. Backing the letters with a different colored cardstock makes those flourishes really pop. The second '1' in the title is the other font. Every letter has a fancy frame surrounding it. You can see how pretty this would be in a monogrammed project. Original post HERE.
I hope you have enjoyed my showcase today! Sophisticated is an elegant cartridge with so many uses for all kinds of different projects. I hope I have inspired you to check it out! Please make sure and check back with Cooking with Cricut throughout the week for wonderful design team inspiration and our Wednesday challenge!

Cooking with Cricut # 77: St. Patricks Day

I am simply thrilled to be continuing on with Cooking with Cricut!  This group is an amazing bunch of talented crafters, and we are welcoming in some talented new members. I hope you take the time to check out all of their fantastic projects. This week we are celebrating St. Patrick's Day with a rainbow theme! I have to admit I was a little at a loss with what to do with my project until I realized all the different ways you could utilize a 'rainbow' on your card. In this particular card I was inspired by one I found on Pinterest here. Here it is:

I used some patterned paper for some of the butterflies, and added some embossing and ribbon. I REALLY love clean and simple (CAS) cards. I think less is more sometimes! For the butterflies I cut them from the Storybook cart and used the 'flip' feature on my Cricut to get the butterflies to 'fly' in opposite directions. I popped them up on foam dots so they could stand out a bit more. The sentiment stamp is from Whimsical Designs.
I hope you enjoy my card and can't wait to see the colorful creations you all come up with! Please come join us!

Supply List:
Cardstock: ColorBok
Patterned Paper from Stash
Embossing folder: Cuttlebug
Ribbon: Michaels
Sentiment Stamp: Whimsical Designs Everyday Sentiments

Cooking with Cricut Challenge # 75: Carnival Birthday

Hello and welcome to another Cooking with Cricut challenge! This week our theme is Carnival Birthday. So many fun things you can do with this, and you should definitely check out what the rest of the design team came up with- some amazing creations to inspire you this week! I debating doing a birthday card, but ultimately decided to go with a layout (I know, BIG surprise! lol) ;) I just had an inspiration for how fun it would be to make a little boy's (in this case my nephew) birthday page with all the animals you would see at a carnival or circus. So I broke out my Create a Critter and put it to work!!

All the animals and accessories, including the tent are from Create a Critter.

I added some balloons and party hats to incorporate the 'birthday' theme

I used an American Crafts Galaxy marker in white to add the highlights to the balloons.

I used some 'thickers' for the first part of the title, and Simply Sweet for the second half. Usually I reserve that font for 'girlie' pages, but it works for a little boy page too!

This page was very time consuming, but so much fun. I can't wait to see what you all come up with for this fun and unique theme, please come join us!! On a related note, this is the last week for our current design team term, but we have a new batch of talented and creative ladies to inspire you starting next week. Make sure you stop by to meet all the new faces! :)

Supply list:
Cardstock: Colorbok, DCWV, Coredinations
Patterned Paper: Paper Fever, Reminisce
Cartridges: Create a Critter, Simply Sweet
Letter Stickers: Thickers by American Crafts
Marker: Galaxy Marker by American Crafts

Cooking with Cricut Challenge # 73 - Sketch plus Pick 3

Hello and welcome to another Wednesday Challenge with Cooking with Cricut! This week our theme includes a sketch, plus pick any three: Ribbon, brads or eyelets, glitter or stickles, border punch, flowers and ink or chalk. Here is the sketch:

For my project I made a card and my three were ribbon, stickles and border punch:

I used a PCW image called King of My Heart, and the sentiment is one of several that are included with the stamp. I printed it out and used my new nestabilities dies with my Cuttlebug machine to cut it out in a round shape. I also embossed the background with a Cuttlebug folder.

I hope you enjoyed my card. and please come and join us- I love to see your inspirational creations!
Supply List:
Kraft paper- Oriental Trading Co.
Patterned Paper - Basic Grey
Ribbon - SEI
Border Punch - American Crafts
Dies- Nestabilities by Spellbinders
Embossing folder - Cuttlebug

I am also entering this guy in the following challenges:

Fantabulous Cricut - Fun with Puns
The Kraft Journal - Color me Red