Something to Crow About.

Hello Crafters!

Faith here from ScrapbookerPhD with some more inspiration for our Challenge #16. Get the details Here.

The challenge is to create something based on fall and use a die cut and a stamp.

For this project, I wanted to make this shaped crow card from SVGcuts.com. Instead of cutting circles for her eyes, I went straight to my goggly eye bag. I think it adds playfulness to this card. I also wanted her to have some dimension and bling, so I stitched around her feet and beak, added the paper flower and some gems. 

Inside, I use a sentiment from CardzTV, the Just Saying set. I plan to give this card to a friend of mine for Thanksgiving. 

This was a joy to do. I didn't have time for a big project today. It is amazing how a few cuts and goggly eyes made a great project. 

Challenges Entered

Get Creative: AG + stitching
Path of Positivity: Gratitude
Perfectly Rustic: Stitching
Papertake Weekly: AG
Tuesday Throwdown: Shaped Cards
Crafty Little Fairies: Not a Square
Crafter's Challenge: Thank You

You're Appreciated...

Hello Crafters!

Faith here from ScrapbookerPhD with some more inspiration for our Challenge #16. Get the details Here.

The challenge is to create something based on fall and use a die cut and a stamp.

For this card, I decided to check out the Make It Now projects on my new Cricut Explore. If you haven't purchased the Cricut Explore, you may want to put it on your holiday wish list. There are so many new and fabulous ways to be creative using your Explore, and here is just one example. 

Since the template was all ready for me for this card, all I had to do was pick colors and patterns, add my stamp and boom! Done. I chose a subtle pattern for the background (from my stash). I used CardzTV stamp set Many Thanks for the sentiment inside the card. 

I Want My Mummy!

Hello Crafters!

Faith here from ScrapbookerPhD with some more inspiration for our Challenge #15. Get the details Here.

The challenge is to use a Halloween sentiment besides Happy Halloween.

This card started with this adorable Owl Mummy, and SVG file from Miss Kate Cuttables. I love the whimsy nature of Miss Kate Cuttables images, and those SVG files are great because all of the pieces upload at once. I added just a bit of inking in black to the mummy wraps. Otherwise, the owl followed the SVG recipe completely.

I found this fun black chevron paper and matched it with the black and red ribbon, and then stamped the sentiment using Cardz TV set Spooky Sayings. 

Get involved and join our challenge!

Challenges Entered

Papertake Weekly: Cute
Through the Craft Room Door: Anything Goes
Creative Cutting Challenge: Fall
Jellypark Challenge: All abut animals
Send a smile for Kids: Fall

Fall Holiday

Hello Crafters!

Faith here from ScrapbookerPhD with some more inspiration for our Challenge #14. Get the details Here.

The challenge is to use THREE die cuts and add some sparkle.

Well, it's fall holiday time, and I'm down to the wire creating Jewish New Year cards for the holiday called Rosh Hashanah. I was looking over my previous Rosh Hashanah cards - often CAS with little more than a Jewish Star and a sentiment, also I used mostly blue and white. This year, I decided to go big and bold. 

The background paper is the very first thing that I chose here. All of the shades of green took me far from blue, but I knew that a red apple die cut would be perfect. A traditional saying is to have a sweet new year, and we eat apples and honey to represent that sentiment. Next, I used my Sizzix nested circles to have a base for the sentiment mat. I wanted enough space between the white and the orange-gold so that you could see the small circular pattern.This sentiment is from the Hebrew Holiday set by Stampin' Up - and I believe I purchased that in 2006. The green smaller apple I just bought, and I loved how it tied in together. Gold glitter tape added the sparkle. 

Challenges Entered

Stampin' Royalty: Color Challenge

Craft-Room Challenge: Something old & something new

Papertake Weekly: Repeat, Repeat (circles in both patterns of paper and two more circle die cuts)

Craft Your Passion: Circles

Cupcake Inspirations: Photo inspiration *Apples

Have a Souper Day!

Hello Crafters!

Faith here from ScrapbookerPhD with some more inspiration for our Challenge #14. Get the details Here.

The challenge is to use THREE die cuts and add some sparkle.

This card started with the chef frame. I absolutely fell in love with this, and I wanted it to be black and white. It is a new cut file from Designs on Cloud 9. For the next two die cuts, I use vegetables from the Cricut cartridge, Garden Soup. I have had this cartridge for years and just never use it.

To add some sparkle and shine, I added glitter to the stems of the vegetables, black appliqué to the chef hat, and DoubleClick Skittles on the sentiment stamp by Cardz TV set Food Punnies. 

Challenges Entered

Mod Squad Challenge: Fruit

Crafty Creations: Old/New

Aud Sentiments Challenge: Sentiment other than Birthday

4 Crafty Chicks: Old/New 

Yappy Easter

It's time for a challenge at Exploring Cricut. This week's challenge is Easter with a fame and an embellishment. 

As I thought about what I might do for this project, I decided that I wanted to go nontraditional. In the very, very back of my mind, I remembered that the Cricut cartridge, Paper Pups, had some holiday sayings. Yappy Easter was perfect. The cartridge Nate's ABCs also has several images with dogs. I loved this image of the puppy in the red wagon, and immediately, my card came together. I love the way the red just pops off of the card. 

Here you can see a close up of this sweet puppy and the flower jewels I added to the paper. The patterned paper is from Fancy Pants, the Park Bench stack.

Challenges Entered:

Aud Sentiments Challenge: Easter Sentiment

Simply Create Too: Easter

Craft for Craic: Easter

Eclectic Ellapu: Easter

Dream Valley Challenge: Easter

Don't Blink!

This week's Exploring Cricut (and More) Design Team Inspiration: 

This is the second in a series of Doctor Who themed cards. Doctor Who is a science fiction British television show - lately it's lost some of it's science for some fairytale flair, but I don't care. To me, anything Doctor Who is OK.

This card was created entirely based on the episode, Blink, from season 3. Fans of the show, will pick out the carefully planned elements. For example, the background fence to represent the Wester Drumlins, a expanse of land with a large Victorian home and a wrought iron fence around it where the episode takes place. It is here that we first meet the Weeping Angels (the very scary monster from the episode). The familiar Doctor Who police box - his disguised time machine (TARDIS) cut from a .jpg in blue vinyl stands behind the lonely Weeping Angel cut from a .svg file (from Pretty Papers, Pretty Ribbons), finally, I added the TARDIS key and an Easter Egg - both crucial in the episode.

The background paper is from The Paper Studio: Blanco.

Challenges Entered:
The Male Room: Science Fiction
Scrapping 4 Fun: Anything Goes
Jo's Scrap Shack: Anything Goes
Alphabet Challenge: D is for Die cut
Crafty Calendar: Things with Wings

Hello, Sweetie

I must finally come clean. I am a huge Doctor Who fan, so much so that I consider myself a Whovian. When I want to make projects that are Doctor Who themed, I sometimes have to stretch my imagination to find the right embellishments.

The most important part is the spaceship - well, the transport ship that travels through time and space. That's the phone box you see in the card. It's in disguise. It's bigger on the inside, and it is called a TARDIS. I found a .jpg of a basic TARDIS, uploaded it to my Cricut Explore, and cut in blue Vinyl. TARDIS blue is the actual name of the color. It is my favorite color... and the doctor and his red bow tie or fez are the best color combinations.

All of the other elements such as the fez (cut from an SVG file from Pretty Papers, Pretty Ribbon) and the shoe (cut from Cricut Bridal Shower) are references to characters in the show. The Jim Holtz embossing folder, Blueprints, really finished the look.

Watch the video to learn more about how this card came together. And learn some Doctor Who trivia as well.

Challenges Entered:
Craft-Room Challenge: Transport
Through the Craft Room Door: Anything Goes
Creative Cutting Challenge: Anything Goes + SVG file
The Pink Elephant: Color Combination
Artistic Inspirations: Anything Goes

Superhero Card

This is for the special little superhero in your life.

I used the Cricut cartridge Artbooking for the overlay and Create a Friend for the sentiment. Most importantly, I used this fantastic Superhero Badge (svg cut) from Pretty Papers, Pretty Ribbons. Watch the video for tips on putting this card together and using Cricut Explore Design Space.

Challenges Entered:

Allsorts Challenge: About a Boy
4 Crafty Chicks: No patterned paper
Crafting for all Seasons: No DP
Fab 'n' Funky: Boys to Men
Brown Sugar: Anything Goes
Cut it Up: Anything Goes
Pretty Papers, Pretty Ribbons: About Kids

Sweet Music

I have had my Cricut Explore for a couple of weeks now, and while there is definitely a learning curve, I think I have a handle on the basics. I'm documenting my journey of learning and creating with the Cricut Explore, and I hope these videos help someone else.

In this tutorial, I talk about the difference between searching using the "all image" function vs. the "my image" function.

Final Product:

I wanted this card to be loud with color to remind me of my childhood memories of making music mix tapes, and that reminded me of the movie, Say Anything, with John Cusack. I remember the scene where he holds his boom box underneath the window of the bedroom of a girl he loves. The song that is playing at the time is In Your Eyes. A sweet and touching song. Hence, my sentiment.

The best part about this card is that I finally got to use the Groovy Times die cuts. I have been wanting to use the music images (especially the disco images) for so long, but I didn't have the cartridge. Now that I have the Explore, I have access to Groovy Times. Yeah!

The card is mostly basic cardstock (the bottom layer of blue is embossed with circles), and the yellow dot paper is from The Paper Studio. The ribbon and brads are from my stash.

Cricut Cuts:
The cassette tape is cut from Groovy Times, and the sentiment is cut from Quarter Note.

Challenges Entered:
LEJ Designs: Die Cut
Crafting From the Heart: Inspired by a Movie
Bitten by the Bug 2: Music
Crafting for All Seasons: No DP
Try it on a Tuesday: Music

Spring

I have to say that this entire card started with the color challenge at Dynamic Duos, and thanks to my new Cricut Explore, the card built itself. 

The Dynamic Duos cards were black and mustard (and white). 

First, I created the background - black mat, chevron with a brighter mustard. Then, I search through the Cricut library and found these beautiful flowers from Botanicals. I complete the look with the layered circles that say spring. 

Challenges Entered: 

Dynamic Duos: Colors
2 Sisters Challenge: Black, White, and one other color.
Catered Crop: Spring, Flowers
Lexi's Creations: Die Cuts

Little Shark

This card was just so much fun to make because it is my first project using the new Cricut Explore. My membership gave me access to all cartridges - yes, pretty much every cartridge, and I took that opportunity to search for a shark, a cute little shark to be exact (from Zoo Day). It is the perfect birthday card for one of my five nephews. (The little tag at the top says, Happy Birthday.)

Challenges Entered:

Simply Create Too: Animals

Splendiferous Creations: Happy Birthday

Crafty Creations: Happy Birthday

Fab 'n' Funky: Animals
Crafty Calendar Challenge: Animal Antics

Say Hello to the Cricut Explore

Just a few short weeks ago, my Cricut Explore arrived, and I have spent that time learning the ins and outs of this incredible new machine. 

Stay tuned as I will start posting tutorials very soon. 

Happy crafting.