Tropical cards

One thing that I love about making cards is that you can add so many different things to embellish them. My son is turning 12 this week. I made him this Survivor card because he loves that show!

I made this card with the Life's A Beach and Aloha Cricut cartridges. I tore, inked and distressed just about everything. I wrapped the torch in jute and added raffia as well.

I am entering my card for the challenge at Fantabulous Cricut.

Here is another birthday card that I wanted to look fun and "summery". Sooo, I added an umbrella meant for a beverage.

Thanks for looking!

Teacher Appreciation Week

It is staff appreciation week at my daughter's school. I love making these bulletin boards for the staff to show how much we appreciate their hard work!

I am entering this project at Cooking with Cricut. Their challenge this week is to make a teacher appreciation project with your Cricut.
I had trouble this year thinking of ideas but I did find this title and jungle idea online at Artsy Fartsy Mama.

Most of these wild animals are from The Create A Critter Cricut cartridge. The toucan is from Life is a Beach. The font is Birthday Bash. I picked up large google eyes and tried to make this board fun and bright. (This school is Kindergarten to Grade Four.) I braided jute as my "vines". The paw prints are from Mickey and Friends and they have the name of each school staff member. While I had a desk covered in this paper, I whipped up a matching card for the staff with scraps. Yay!

I hope they like it!

Beach layout

The picture in this layout is of my daughter and her cousin hamming up on the beach at the cottage. They are wearing their Moms' matching sun hats to make us laugh.

This paper is by We R Memory Keepers. It is called the White Out Collection and I bought when it was on clearance a long time ago.I feel "summery" just looking at this paper.
Thanks for looking. Have a great day!

Crazy about Cricut Birthday challenge

Omgoodness I could not pass up this challenge at Crazy about Cricut! The prize is a Cricut Everyday cartridge (exclusive to circle members). This challenge is perfect for this week as a very good friend is celebrating a birthday.



My friend loves the beach and the color orange. I knew I needed to incorporate both of these things in her card. Most of these cuts are from the Life's a Beach cartridge. The sentiment is from the Birthday Bash cartridge. The sand is inked and the palm tree is embossed using my bone folder.



I used my Gypsy to weld the palm tree to a rectangle and that way the card could fold over 2 ways.

I need to add a shout out to Carri. I made this card and then could not remember the blog with the challenge. She kindly gave me the address.

Fabulous Friday Challenge layout

Frosted Designs' challenge this week is to use brads on your project. This layout is from our family's visit last week to a traveling Titanic Museum. When you enter the exhibit, you are given a boarding pass featuring the bio of a real passenger on the Titanic, 99 years ago. When you depart the museum, you can find out if your passenger survived or not.



I decided that I wanted to include our boarding passes in the layout. I wanted them to not be glued down in case the kids wanted to reread their passenger's story. Brads seemed like the solution for this dilemma. I also used a brad for the steering wheel. The ship is cut from the Going Places cartridge and the wheel is from Life is a Beach. The waves are scraps from my Goggles layout from last week! I used Glossy Accents on the portholes so they looked more window-like.

Classroom valentines designed by my kids

My daughter loves her Paisley cartridge and knew exactly what she wanted to give to her friends this Valentines Day.



My son opted for this one eyeball look. The puppy is from the Sweethearts cartridge.



My son wanted "cool" cards for the boys in his class. The skull is from the Life is a Beach cartridge.



Whew! They are done. Next year, I'm buying the cards...

Not tropical enough

... says DH for the Fantabulous Cricut challenge this week. What do you think?



The card is cut from the card feature on Life is a Beach. The water skier is from Going Places with some embroidery floss as the rope. The awesome sun is from H20 (my favorite cartridge this week). The sun and skier are pop-dotted.

My son needed this card right away for a birthday party so I can't change it to make it more tropical. (His friend loves all water sports.)

Flip flop invitation - complete scraplift

I made these with the Gypsy so I could hide contour the flip flips. All the party info is printed on the inside which I ran through the printer. A flower eyelet holds the card together.



Now that I have an ATG, I love making my own envelopes to go with my cards!

Flip flop birthday theme

I had so much fun with this theme! On Tuesday, we hosted my DD's 8th birthday pool party. The weather was beautiful and our DD had a great time with all her friends.



This banner was inspired by the "Queen" of beautiful banners Sammye Jo





I still have some free vinyl from a local sign maker so I thought why not add flip flops?




I guess I just couldn't stop decorating...




I was thrilled to find flip flop lollipops.




I picked up Old Navy flip flops in the spring when they had a lot of stock (and when they were $1).

Lake layout

This is a layout that I loosely based (very loosely) on a scrapbook page kit by Monique Griffith.

I am proud of my little tube that I created with the Gypsy and the George cartridge. It really looks like the actual tube! I used embroidery floss for the tow rope. The paper is Core'dinations, put through the Cuttlebug and sanded. It is ripped and pieced together so I could have 12 inches of "lake".

I took these pictures outside so please ignore the leaf that blew into the shot...





Monique has been recently diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. I made this card (of course, a shape card) to mail to her. If you are interested in mailing a card of support, you can get more info here.

Fantabulous Cricut challenge #18

This week at Fantabulous Cricut, the challenge is to make a "cool treat". This is my card!



I used the life is a Beach cartridge and my Gypsy to weld the 2 pineapples together and also to hide the cuts in the bottom layer. I cut the pineapple again a tiny bit smaller to make the green layer and then inked the cut lines.

I have never had a drink in a pineapple before but would love to so I think it would be a super-cool treat!!!

Another new challenge site - Sketches in Thyme

I found yet another challenge site yesterday and LOVED the sketch. They can be found here.The sketch is beautiful.

Here is my version. I turned the sketch sideways.

I am also entering this layout for Canadian Nickel Scrapn's summer vacation challenge. The prize for this challenge is the Summer Vacation Seasonal cartridge!!!!



The pictures I have for this layout are from a camping trip last summer. I tried to add all of my children's favorite things including the roasted marshmallows, the Jiffy Pop (Can you tell that's what that is?) and of course the friendly squirrel.

Most cuts are from Create a Critter. The font is from Life is a Beach. The marshmallow stick is from Gypsy Wanderings and the "Jiffy Pop" is a pan and a pie welded together from From my Kitchen.

Everything is inked in brown. This was a lot of inking for me!

Such a fun camping trip and such a fun layout!

Fantabulous Cricut Challenge

This week I decided to try a challenge set by Fantabulous Cricut. The challenge was to make a project having to do with rain or water. This is my entry. The pictures are from a wonderful trip that included a visit to an aquarium.



I tried to make the effect of underwater by adding bubbles. The make the bubbles, I cut circles out on my Cricut and then placed them under a sheet of blue Core'dinations paper. I then lightly sanded the paper until a "bubble" appeared. I made the ocean floor by tearing beige cardstock and then inking it.


All the cuts are from the Life is a Beach cartridge except for the circles which are from George.

The Pink Stamper Gallery

I'm a big fan of the my pink stamper website. She is sweet and funny and loves the Cricut almost as much as I do. lol She had asked for submissions last month to have some designers join her each month in featuring Cricut projects. I submitted a beach layout. Unfortunately, I wasn't chosen for her design team but my layout is featured in her Gallery.



I used the Life is a Beach cartridge for all the cuts. My blue waves are layered upon layer upon layer because I didn't have my Expression at the time and couldn't just press fit to length. The beach items are all pop dotted and inked. To make the effect of sand I sanded beige Core'dinations paper. I l-o-v-e Core'dinations! I had trouble sanding the DoubleMates paper last month and ended up ripping my paper. Let's just say my die cuts were placed very strategically over the holes.

I can't wait to add my photos taken at a local beach last summer!

Life's a Beach

I used my Life is a Beach Cricut cartridge today for the first time to make a layout. I can already imagine so many different summer and vacation layouts with this cartridge. I will add three pictures of my kids swimming on the photo mats.