Back in the Craft Room

Oh Boy! I was on hiatus for a while, but am now back in the craft room. I stopped looking at blogs and everything for a month, don't know why, maybe just needed a little bit of a break. Now it's May and Mother's Day is this week, so I think that's what got me motivated again. I was excited about making cards for my mom and mother-in-law, and knew that there would be some challenges that would help me with some ideas. I will be giving this card to my mom (hopefully she won't be looking at my blog before Sunday), and it also fulfills the challenge Fantabulous Cricut Challenge issued of using 3 flowers on your project. The flowers are from April Showers.

Smiley Spring Card

Cricut Cardz Challenge had a challenge to create a spring card using the colors pink, green, and white only. Also, Scrappy Moms issued a challenge to use the Smiley Card cartridge. I don't have that cart, but I do have Simply Charmed, and all the images have smiley faces, so I used that instead. I really like the mushroom cut and wanted to play around with that so this is what I came up with for both challenges. I went to Michael's and found the flower stickers which was the final touch for the card. I used the Bloom Dots Cuttlebug folder for the embossed background. It was fun to make and when I showed it to my husband, all he could see was the 1up mushrooms from Super Mario Brothers...typical!

Happy Birthday Challenge - FCCB

Fantabulous Cricut Challenge http://www.fantabulouscricut.blogspot.com/ issued a challenge for a Birthday themed card. There are two Birthday's going on over there Robin and the actual blog. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY to them!!! Anyway, this challenge came at a great time, I needed to make a birthday card for my brother-in-law. I really liked how it turned out, I think the colors are complimentary of each other. I hope that my brother-in-law likes the card, (but maybe I am more concerned with if my sister is going to like it).

Bitten By The Bug 2 Challenge

Here is another card I put together for Bitten By The Bug 2. We were supposed to use a chick image. I like how this card turned out so much better than the last one I did. I really like the dot pattern in this card. I don't know if my cards are too simple, but I sometimes feel like they are so boring. I would love any advice on what to do to help them out!

My Pink Stamper Spring Blog Hop

For this challenge I used colors I would never have put together. It is a very simple card and a pattern/layout I have used before. This isn't one of my favorites, but I wanted to see how it would turn out. I love the stamp, it was included in a set I got for $1.00 at Robert's. The flower was cut from George.

On a different note, if anyone has any tips on how to make sure your mat corners don't start lifting from the card, I would greatly appreciate it!!!

My Pink Stamper "Feathered Friend" Challenge

I can't believe it has been a week since I last posted anything. This week has been interesting to say the least, with feelings of what's the point to my crafting, am I just wasting time and money...things like that, but I resolved those feelings and figured, if this is something that I get excited about and enjoy doing, that's the most important point right there. So when I got back in my craft room with some AWESOME paper that I bought at Hobby Lobby, I got all excited about crafting again. Enough of me rambling and onto the challenge...Robyn (The Pink Stamper) is off on her cruise, poor thing, and issued the challenge to use a "Feathered Friend" in our projects. This bird came from Simply Charmed and to be honest, I am getting addicted to birds in my crafts. There are so many cute bird cuts out there, I just love and NEED them all! Too bad I don't have millions to spend on all the things I "need". Hope you enjoy!

Scrappy Moms Create A Critter

This week http://www.scrappymoms-stamps.blogspot.com/ issued the challenge to use Create-A-Critter cartridge. This is probably the next cart I will buy - everything I have seen from this cart is awesome. So instead of using that cart, I used Simply Charmed. There is an adorable little bird that I hadn't tried out yet, so I thought it was close enough to participate in the challenge. I embossed the "grass" with Swiss Dots. I have a new little "hello" stamp that I absolutely love that finished off the card for me. Simple, but sweet.

Always Crafting Whimsical Wednesday Distress It

So this week our challenge from http://www.alwayscrafting.com was to distress our craft. I have to admit, I had to google what that entailed because I had never done it, nor had I really ever heard of it. But once I saw some tutorials on youtube and other blogs, I figured it out. I was amazed at some of the looks that were out there on distressed projects, it really is a cool aspect to crafting. There are a lot of fun distressing tools out there too, none of which I own at this point. So I basically tore my cardstock and used my fingernails on the edges of the actual card. I did use the D'vine Swirls Cuddlebug folder to add a bit more to the mat, it is a pretty simple card. The "thanks" is cut from Mini Monograms.

Always Crafting Challenge

The Whimsical Wednesday Challenge from Always Crafting http://www.alwayscrafting.com is a color challenge. The colors were picked from a picture posted on the blog. The colors that spoke to me were the green, yellow, and red/orange colors. It was a very cozy picture, featuring a room you could just cuddle up in a blanket and read for hours. Anyway, this card is what I thought up based on the colors. It's a cute little card and the birds/branch are from Home Decor.

Creative Time For Me Challenge

I think this is the first time I have done a challenge from Creative Time For Me. We were supposed to use the Walk in My Garden cart, but unfortunately that is another cart I do not own...yet. If we didn't have that cart we were just supposed to use a flower image of some sort. I used April Showers for the flower pot and ran it through the Cuttlebug with Swiss Dots. The flowers are from George. I absolutely love these flowers - they make me happy!

FCCB - Weather Forecast

So, another challenge. I love them, I admit. Our challenge was to create a project featuring any season of our choice. Well, I love Spring, and am excited for the warmer weather. We actually got a taste of high 50's these last couple of days, but now another storm in on it's way and will be dropping to the 30's again. Boo Hoo. Anyway, I not only love Spring because of the warmer weather, I love it because of the beauty. The flowers and tree blossoms, I love it. So I thought I would create a "beautiful" scene with an appropriate sentiment at the top. All the images are from April Showers and the tree I put through the Cuttlebug with D'vine Swirls.

My Pink Stamper Challenge

Robyn, the Pink Stamper, issued a challenge to use black and your favorite color/colors. This was a fun challenge for me because I received the Cuttlebug for Valentine's Day and I was able to use it for the first time on this challenge. I LOVE the Cuttlebug!!! Now I can start on my collection of embossing folders. YEAH!!! Anyway, I love pink, all shades, and I love flowers so this just kind of came together. Since I am fairly new to the Cricut, I have made a bunch of cuts that either didn't fit, or weren't exactly what I was going for, so I have a basket full of mis-cuts. I decided to go through it and see if I could use anything for this challenge and lo and behold, I did. These flowers are all from George, if I remember correctly, and the green paper was embossed with Swiss Dots. This was a fun card for me because it is totally my style - everything about it!

Scrappy Moms and Cricut Cardz Challenges

Here is another card I put together for a couple challenges. Scrappy Moms challenged us to use Simply Charmed and Cricut Cardz challenged us to create a Valentine using blue, green, and white only. This is what I came up with. I have only had Simply Charmed for a couple of weeks and there are so many different cuts on that cart, but I liked the fish for these challenges. It turned out pretty cute.

Three Challenges with One Card

Okay, so this card applies to three separate challenges:

Paper Playtime - Use Hearts
FCCB - Use "Love"
More Than Favors - Make a Valentine

I used Home Accents for the hearts and "love"

I have to admit, Valentine's Day is one of my least favorite holidays, I have never really gotten into it, so these types of cards aren't too exciting for me. However, I love any excuse to use my cricut, so I put this together. The hearts are cut out of glitter paper and are really pretty, you can't really tell in the photo. Hope you like!

My First Blog Award

Okay, so I finally figured out what to do with this award. I want to thank Amber over at http://my3escrapbooking.blogspot.com for this award and the help to get it posted to my blog. However, I also have to thank Diana at http://dianamlarson.blogspot.com because she awarded this to me in January when I was so new to blogging, I had absolutely no idea what it was. So much thanks to both of you!

Anyway, upon recieving this award I need to pay it forward to 8 others and they are

Pam - http://pamspaperpassion.blogspot.com
Melanie - http://melaniemakes.blogspot.com
Brandi - http://scrappybrandi.blogspot.com
Deborah - http://scrappybeads.blogspot.com
Jillian - http://jillianbeancrafts.com
Anita - http://anitaandbugs.blogspot.com
Jess - http://basicjess.blogspot.com
and http://housesbuiltofcards.blogspot.com (I don't know her name - sorry!)

I have been impressed by all of the work I have seen on these blogs, so please check them out if you haven't already.

I also need to share 8 things about me, so here it goes...

1. I am a wife and mother
2. I am a member of the LDS church
3. I have a Bachelor's Degree in Business and Marketing
4. I am in a bowling league and love it
5. I just discovered crafting and love it
6. I am a movie buff and know random bits of useless trivia
7. I love Diet Coke w/Lime and last but not least
8. I LOVE DisneyLand!!!

Again, I want to thank Amber and Diana for there support and hope that you check out their blogs along with the 8 others that I really enjoy visiting.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Cuttlebug on Sale

Oh, I had to exercise so much self control to NOT buy the Cuttlebug last night. I was at Robert's Craft and it is on sale for $49.99!!! I couldn't believe it. I soooooo want the Cuttlebug, but I am sure it will be on sale again at some point :(

My Pink Stamper Challenge

I was happy to see a new video and challenge on My Pink Stamper. Robyn challenged us to create something that makes us happy or something springy. I am excited for spring, I love the spring flowers and the fun colors - it all makes me happy. So I created a card that represents that. I used Simply Charmed for the flower and April Showers for the "Spring Fever".

Paper Cutz Challenge

Okay, so I tooootalllly improvised for this challenge. We were to make a valentine card without using any hearts. I have two new cartridges, April Showers and Simply Charmed, and I love both of them. I think the squirrel is absolutely adorable from April Showers, so I wanted to use him and then the phrase "Nuts for You" came to mind. So I went through my carts to see if I had anything resembling acorns that I could work with, and I found the strawberry from Simply Charmed. It looked close enough, so I played around with how to make it look the most like a nut. I think it turned out okay. I was hesitant to show this card to my husband because I wasn't sure if I wanted to give it to him, but I wanted his opinion - he thought it was pretty great. I hope you like it!

Anything Goes Butterfly Challenge

I was able to use my new April Showers cartridge again for this challenge. I am really having fun with the different layering on that cart. Anyway, the challenge was to use butterflies and I thought I would make a fun "Thank You" card. If you would like to participate in the challenge go to http://anythingchallenge.blogspot.com/. Have a great day!

Almost a whole week!

Wow, it's been almost a full week since I last posted. I have been busy with life and family, but have been making some cards. I am working on some challenges and will hopefully have some pics uploaded later this evening. I was happy to see that I picked up a couple more followers, I was pretty happy to reach 27 and I was there for a while, which was fine with me because 27 is a pretty significant number in my family. Anyway, I do get excited when more followers come aboard my blog. The more involved I get with blogging and crafting, I sometimes get overwhelmed and discouraged, but I am definitely not going to give up - it is such a great "out" for me. I am just in the beginning stages and know that everyone else was at this point once too. The important thing is to have fun with it, which I am.

More Than Favors Color Challenge

Okay, so this card is for the More Than Favors Wacky Wednesday Challenge. I liked this challenge because it was a challenge for me. We needed to use the colors Yellow, Blue, and White and I rarely use those colors. But when I thought of blue and yellow a bird immediately popped into my head. I was super excited to use my new cartridge April Showers too. Please visit the More Than Favors blog, there are some fun things going on over there http://morethanfavors.blogspot.com/ .

Bitten By The Bug 2 Butterfly Challenge

I came across yet another blog with a challenge - you would think that this is all I do, search for blogs and challenges - and for the past week you would be right. (Today I finally did some laundry!) The Bitten By The Bug 2 challenge was to use a butterfly image. The Home Accents cart has a couple of fun butterflies and I played around for a while with different colors and paper, not knowing for sure which I liked better. As this one came together, it looked like a sympathy card, which I am unfortunately going to be using in the next few months. It breaks my heart to think that my neighbor is losing his battle with cancer, he is such a good man. His wife is amazing and this card will go to her. I need to find a stamp set with an appropriate sentiment and that will go in the upper right hand corner. I think it turned out really nice.

More Than Favors Color Challenge

It's really scary how much crafting I have been doing - I guess I am officially addicted. I have been finding so many fun blogs and challenges too! And you guessed it, here is another post for another challenge! More Than Favors had a color challenge to use brown, pink and green. I had some fun bright paper that had the pink and green, but also orange, so I added an extra color to the mix. Anyway, the flowers are from George and I used stickles for the centers, I can't believe how much just a dab of glitter can make the biggest difference with crafting. I also love the pop dots, they give such great dimension. Fun Fun!!!

Scrappy Mom's Sweethearts Challenge

This challenge was to use an image from the Sweetheart's cart. Unfortunately, that is another cart I do not own yet, but is on my wish list. Instead I used the Home Decor cart for the heart and "love". If I had the cuttlebug (also on the wish list), I would have embossed something fun on the black mat. My wish list is quite long as you can imagine, I know that as time goes on I will acquire things here and there, but until then, I will definitely try and "make it work" (as Tim Gunn would say).

Paper Playtime "Party" Creation

Here is my creation for the Paper Playtime challenge to make anything party related. I used one of the cakes from the Celebrations cart.

My Pink Stamper "Yummy" Creation

Robyn over at My Pink Stamper is going to be releasing a new stamp set this coming weekend and my guess is it is going to have something to do with cupcakes. She left a clue relating to her daughter, and I know from watching her videos that her daughter loves cupcakes, so that's my guess - we will see if I am right. Anyway, she wanted creations made of something "Yummy". I have made a few cupcakes already, so I decided to try the cake from the Celebrations cart.

Fantabulous Cricut "Neglected" Challenge

Now I have participated in two challenges that I technically don't qualify for. The Neglected Challenge was to use a cart that you haven't used in 6 months. Well, since I have only had my cricut for a month, I thought I would improvise and use an image from one of my carts that I have never used. This "LOVE" was cut using the Home Accents cart and since V-Day is coming up, I thought I would play around with it. You can't really tell, but the white heart and strip are actually out of a tissue-like paper with metallic flecks and threads throughout. It looks really cool in the light! Hope you enjoy - I love comments!!!

The Busy Bug

I am following a new blog called The Busy Bug and she is giving away a cartridge. Please head over to her blog and check it out! She has some really cute things going on over there!http://thebusybug.blogspot.com

Cricut Cardz Snowman Challenge

Okay, so the challenge was to make a project using a snowman image. Well, as you can see there is no snowman on my card. Because I am so new to the cricut and crafting, I have not yet acquired a cartridge with a snowman. But I did find on my Home Accents cart an image that I think can pass off as a snowflake. So even though I technically don't qualify for this challenge, I still wanted to participate. I don't have any winter type stamps either, but if I did have a winter saying, I would stamp it next to the snowflake on the pink stripe.

My Pink Stamper Birthday Challenge

So for The Pink Stamper's Birthday today, she issued a birthday challenge. This is what I came up with using the Celebrations cart. Happy Birthday Robyn!!!

Paper Cutz Challenge

Here is my creation for yet another challenge! I love these challenges, they really help me to be more creative than I normally would be. The challenge was to use any colors/theme of your choice. I used some colors that I normally don't work with. It's a different style for me too. I used Mini Monograms for the little scallops. Hope you like it!

cardztv cupcake challenge

So I found another fun blog with challenges! It's cardztv.blogspot.com. This challenge was to use any sort of cupcake image. I chose to use one of the cupcakes from the Celebrations cart. I also just bought a cupcake stamp set from Roberts and I was able to use the "Yummy" stamp from that. How fun!!!

Fantabulous Cricut Challenge

I came across another blog that does challenges, which I find to be a lot of fun. Anyway, it is fantabulouscricut.blogspot.com and the challenge was to create something with a "sweet" theme. This is what I came up with. I LOVE this cupcake from the Home Decor cart.

So I was playing around with my new Mini Monograms cart and thought that I would try and put together a 4 card gift set for a friend. This is what I came up with, but I am wondering if some of the monograms are a little too big? Any comments/suggestions would be much appreciated!

Trying to figure out the subscribe option

Boy, I have spent most of the morning trying to figure out how to add the subscribe link on my blog. I hope I have figured it out!

Here are a couple of cards I put together. Like I have said before, I am just using scraps and playing around with the cartridges I have. I used George for the flowers and Mini Monograms for the scallops. The stamps are from a stamp set I bought at Robert's Crafts.

I finished this card up today, it turned out better that I thought. It took me a while to decide what I was doing with it. I used the Home Decor cart for the flowery scallop.

Here are a couple more cards I put together. I think they turned out pretty cute. I know that they are super simple, but sometimes less is more - right?

My First "My Pink Stamper" Challenge

So I have been following the My Pink Stamper blog since before Christmas because I knew that I was going to be getting a Cricut. I wanted to see what I was in for and found some different blogs, but holy cow, Robyn is AMAZING!!! Anyway, I am now trying to become a crafter. This is my card for the Blog Hop Challenge. I am just starting out and don't have near the inventory of crafting products as I would like, but I am making do. I used the George cart for the flower and the Home Accents for the word "grow". I am loving the pop dimensionals - they are so fun and I am excited about getting more stamps - working with tiny letters and glue - not really my thing :P All in all, I think it turned out pretty cute.

I needed to make a card for a friend who just had a baby and a friend who has helped me out a bunch the last few months. These cards turned out great too. The images are from the Home Decor cartridge.

These are a couple of cards that I put together just with some scraps. My mom let me have her supply of paper from when she was on a scrapbooking kick. She will never scrapbook again, it's part of the OCD that runs in the fam. Anyway, I think these turned out cute too. I have already given one of them to a friend who was sick. I made her some cookies and wrote her a note. I think the tall one needs something else to finish it off, maybe a stamp!!!

This is another Birthday card I put together. It took me a while to figure out the cupcake from the Celebrations cart, but I did it and it turned out cute. I didn't really have a stamp to add to it, I think it could use one, but it still is cute.

These are the first two cards I did. They are really simple. I used my cricut for the words "faith" and "inspire". They turned out nice.

So, I have made a handful of cards and am going to upload them. I am just starting out, but some of them are really cute. I think my favorite is the Celebrate Birthday Card. It is so super cute!!!