Thunderbirdlindy by Design

Love is in the Air Blog Hop and Giveaway.

2012-01-28T00:01:00.038-05:00

Welcome to the Love is in the Air blog hop hosted by Paulette from Around the Block with Scrapalette! You should have arrived here from Danas Crafty Corner. If you didn't, you can go back to Scrapalette's blog and start at the beginning.

Today I wanted to share with you a cute little snowman I created just for the hop.

I discovered the idea when I was surfing the internet and ran across the Glue Arts Blog and an awesome designer Linda Albrecht. I fell in love with her little snowman. When I finished my little guy, I showed him to my husband and he looked at me funny because I paired a snowman with Valentines day. I said when you think of Valentines day, don't you think of Snowmen? He shook his head no with a scared look on his face, and I said in my world, snowmen and Valentines day go together.

Ok, so started with a 2,3, and 4 inch stryofoam balls, I mashed both the tops and bottoms slightly so when I fit them together, the would look like they were sitting on top of each other instead of just some balls stuck together. I also followed Linda's instructions and used my fingers to slightly indent the balls all over so they would look natural.

I then cut a piece of coat hanger slightly shorter than the balls stacked on top of each other.

I then fed the balls on the wire and hot glued them together.

Notice the indents I made with my fingers above.

After his glue dried, I painted him white and then took TH vintage photo ink and went lighlty over the whole snowman after the paint was dry.

I took a piece of soft wooden dowel and widdled it down to be the nose, which I then inked with persimmon TH ink.

I used pink chalk for his cheeks.

For the eyes I used brads. They weren't the right color so I took black acrylic paint and colored them.

Below is before and after.

After coloring

I used Black stickles for the mouth and gave him a smile.

After everything dried, I coated the whole snowman with dimensional adhesive and sprinkled coarse glitter all over him. My top was glued shut on the adhesive so I cut the tip off and gave it a big squeeze, Big mistake. It shot up like a volcano all over my craft room. You would think I would learn not to do things like that.

I used a paper mache box I bought at M's and covered it with paper.

I added a hat, pompom, and silver tinsel.

My husband cut me some arms which I coated in places with Snowtex.

I also added pink buttons and twine to his front. My daughter was playing around cutting pop cans with my big shot and thin die and she cut me some teeny tiny hearts that I glued all over his body and his hat.

I cut the rosette from Ribbons and Rosettes Cart and added snowtex to it and the box. It looks like he is melting. I cut the heart from Victorian Romance, and added a key so the box looked like it had a lock on it.

The snowman is just hot glued to the top of the Rosette. Hot glue is my friend.

The banner was cut from Victorian Romance and one of the font carts.

Here are the hearts my daughter cut.

Inside the box I added a mini album. I used Tim Holtz instructions on how to make a mini out of one 12x12 sheet of paper. Really fun stuff.

I hope you are enjoying the Hop and the next stop is Papercraftscissors. Before you go, I am giving away Nursery Rhymes Cricut Cart to one person who is a follower of my blog and leaves a comment on this post.

Here is the list in case you get lost.

Paulette from http://scrapalette.blogspot.com/

Dana from http://danascraftycorner.blogspot.com/

Beth from http://thunderbirdlindybydesign.blogspot.com/

Sis from http://papercraftscissors.wordpress.com/

Doreen from http://polkadotpaperprincess.blogspot.com/

Cindy from http://www.inlovewithpaper.blogspot.com/

Deb from http://www.queenmommy.com/

Meg from http://peacockpaperie.blogspot.com/

Michele from http://www.michelegreen.com/

Carolyn from http://cccscraproom.blogspot.com/

Colleen from http://scrappycol.blogspot.com/

Elizabeth from http://www.217creations.com/

Sukie from http://www.scrappindhilly.blogspot.com/

Sharon from http://designsbysharon.blogspot.com/

Renee from http://icameisawicreated.blogspot.com/

Tammy from http://www.scrapcavecreations.com/

Brenda from http://happyscrapper64.blogspot.com/

Amy from http://scrap-pix.blogspot.com/

Jami from http://thepaperfarm.blogspot.com/

Terri from http://scrappinwiththebug.blogspot.com/

Until next time, Beth.

2012-01-26T19:01:00.001-05:00

This Saturday is the Love is in the Air blog Hop. Can't wait to show you what I have created. There will be 20 blogs participating, and I will have a little incentive to hop. Hope to see you Saturday.

Beth

2012-01-25T00:01:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone, today I am a guest designer on shesassylady, and I wanted to share with you a quick card I made using Victorian Romance, Sugar and Spice, and Martha Stewart Seasonal cartridges.

I started with pink cardstock that I cut 10x6 and then folded to make a card 6" wide x 5" tall. I then took Lost and Found paper and cut the scalloped rectangle sized to 5.5"x4.5" using Sugar and Spice. Using pink glitter paper, I cut the rosette part of the ribbon from Martha Stewart Seasonal sizing it to 3.75".

Finally, I used the new Victorian Romance cart, and chose the scallop hearts and sized 10 to approx 1.5" and cut them from another piece of Lost and Found paper. I took 5 and stacked together and sewed down the middle, and did the same with the other 5. The pic above shows a 3rd heart that I did not end up using in the card.

I had some Valentine themed die cuts that I got from K&Co last year and cut the cherubs legs off below the ribbon so she would fit on my card..

I layered everthing together, placing a heart shaped doily, and pop dotting the cherub on the scallop glitter cut. Added some ribbon, and fanned out the hearts.

Here is another pic of the finished card.

Thanks Sheila for having me as a guest designer, I love being a sassy lady.

Beth

Winner of the Victorian Romance Cart

2012-01-23T00:01:00.003-05:00

I had 55 posts, but 3 were duplicates people, so I subtracted 3 and got 52, renumbered the posts leaving out the duplicate ones. Random came up with number 21. So Brenda won

Brenda said...

I am going to be working on valentines for my daughters preschool class. Nice giveaway. Thank you for the chance to win!!
brz352 at yahoo dot com
January 14, 2012 2:20 AM

I have emailed you for your address,

I wished I had more of these carts to give away, everyone left such lovely comments.

Thanks for participating.

I am doing the LOVE is IN THE AIR Bloghop next Saturday 1-28. I have an awesome project I want to share, and hopefully a little incentive for participating in the blog hop.

Beth

Valentines Mini Envelope Album

2012-01-22T01:01:00.004-05:00

Hi Everyone, today I am a guest designer on thebugbytes. Today I wanted to share with you a mini album I made out of envelopes. Supplies you will need will be 6 a2 envelopes, cardstock, any embellishements you want to add, I used K&Co valentine die cuts, my E2, and my Gypsy, and ribbon. Start with the first envelope and leave the flap unsealed. Cut a 4.5"x5" piece of cardstock and adhere to first envelope, under the flap.

Then using Victorian Romance Cartridge, I cut the heart and it's layer at approx 3 3/8". I added that to the flap. I also cut Be Mine from the Martha Stewart Seasonal cake and added to the top of the heart.

For the other 5 envelopes, I sealed the flap, and then cut a small strip off of one side. This creates a pocket on the other 5 envelopes. I then cut 11 remaining pieces of cardstock, 4 x 5.5" and attached them to the back of the first envelope, and the front and back of the remaining 5 envelopes.

On each page I pop dotted the K&Co. die cuts. For 3 of the pockets, I cut from Sophie cart 2 doilies at 5.10" tall, and from Mother's Day 2010, I cut another doily at 5.10" tall. I then hid contours on all the doilies except for the main cut around the outside, so I would have something to adhere the doilies to, to make them more stable.

Here is the finished album. When all the pages were done, I bound it using a Bind It All, and added ribbon to the cover.

It's pretty simple, I left it that way because I am not sure what pics I want to use on the opposite pages.

Until next time, and thanks Pam for having me as a guest designer on The Bug Bytes.

Beth.

Butterflies in my Stomach.

2012-01-14T18:09:00.002-05:00

Carts used:

Nifty Fifties,French Manor,Flower Shop,Fancy Frames

Paper K&Co.,Poster Board

K&Co Nature Die cut

Krinkle Ribbon from Corissa on Etsy(thanks Sheila from Shesasassylady, I love this stuff)

Cut dress form from Nifty Fifties on a 12x24 mat sizing image to 30" tall with base positioned off mat so only dress form portion cuts. Cut 3 of these out of heavy cardstock for back. Adhere all 3 together. Add a frame from Fancy Frames in the middle of the dress form sizing the frame to 5.5 high. Hide contour on the inside frame cut. Cut 3 of these forms with the window cut out of the stomach. Glue together. this makes the front and back.

Cut strips of paper 3 x 12". Score the long side .5" away from the edge on both sides. These are what makes up the sides of the dress form and makes the form 3-d. I cut into each strip almost to the .5" score line so when I started to glue these strips around the edge, I could contour them to the edge of the dress form. I did the back first, then added the box that had been embelished,

Next make a box that will fit inside the dress form, but make it large enough so that the edges extend past the frame cut out of the dress form. I made my box 2.5" deep. Line the box with paper, and add elements inside the box. I added another mannequin, and a chair from French Manor. I dressed up the mannequin, and the walls of the box.

I then glued a piece of acetate behind the window on the front of the dress from. Add the front of the dress form to the back section with the edges glued on, make sure you line it up with the box inside, and the edge back of the dress form.

Next add a wooden dowel and base to the dress form. I embelished it with paint and ink before I attached. Dress the form any way you want. I used 72 double layered flowers cut from flower shop for the back of the dress. The bodice elements are K and Co. Nature die cuts.

I really, really like how this turned out, but I have no Idea what I am going to do with it.

Thanks so much for visiting, and remeber to leave a comment on the post below for your chance to win Victorian Romance.

Beth

ANOTHER Giveaway. WOO HOO

2012-01-13T19:26:00.001-05:00

This time it's a brand spankin new Victorian Romance Cart NIP. Just leave a comment on this post telling me what kind of Valentines project's you are working on by next Saturday at 11:59 pm EST, and I will pick one person using Random.org to win this cart. This is the new cart PC just came out with. GOOD LUCK.

Beth.

Winner, Winner, Winner

2012-01-11T20:20:00.000-05:00

I have picked a winner using Random.org. The Winner is post #3 RockinRenee. Congrats Renee, Please email me with your addy so I can get your inks to you.

It's Giveaway time!!!

2012-01-06T22:57:00.000-05:00

Leave a post on this message by Tuesday night at 11:59pm EST, and I will pick on person using Random.org to Win a set of the TIM HOLTZ Winter 2011 set of seasonal series inks. Let's make it interesting and tell me what your favorite part from a book you read is, also leave a way for me to contact you. I will try and announce the winner by Wednesday PM.

Btw, mine is when Scarlet was hugging Ashley as a friend in the corner of her lumber store, and she was reminiscing about all the friends they lost.

Good Luck, Beth.

You can almost hear the Wurlitzer Playing.

2012-01-03T22:28:00.004-05:00

I had 2 titles for this post. The first one is above, the second one is "Really, what was I thinking?". Hi everybody, today I want to share with you a project I made for the Circle Blog Magazine Challenge. You needed to use the new Cricut Craft Room for your project. I tried using it with my Imagine, but didn't have much luck. It kept freezing on me, so I gave up, and connected it wirelessly to me Expression 2, and had much better luck. In fact is was really easy.

I love Carousels, probably because all of the beautiful horses on them in various state of tossing their heads , they seem so wild and untamed. Actually every chance I get, I ride the Carousel. Silly I know, but it's one of my guilty pleasures. I am probably the only woman in my 40's that still rides them. It has to be a really cool one though before I will ride. The smaller ones with lame horses on them just don't do it for me. My husband just rolls his eyes, but my daughter will always ride. I wonder how old she will be when it's just not cool anymore. Hopefully, never.

Anyway. I have always wanted to make a Carousel out of paper. When I saw Noah's ABC Animals, I knew it would be perfect.

I started with George and welded a Triangle with a rectangle on both sides for tabs. I cut 15 of these at 6.014". I glued them all together to create the roof of the Carousel. I then measured the roof on the underside across the bottom and cut the largest circle I could on my E2 which was 11.25". I glued this to the underside of the roof.

Next, I cut out the horses. I used the 3-D horse on Noah's Abc's. I cut 5 at 5", each one from different colored cardstock. I wanted a palomino, black, bay, white and of course pinto. Below are the photo's of how I made the saddles. I used Old West for the Western Saddles, and a scrap of matching cardstock for the seat.

When these were all done. I added bridles out of ribbon and jump rings, and bling. Several of the horses have breast collars. Here they are all blinged out.

The pic above shows the "Mirrors" on the center pole. I researched pics of Carousels on line, and all most all of them had Mirrors all over the place. I put 2 on the Centerpole. I used Fancy Frames and George.

The Centerpole is just rolled up cardsock., I needed to make the base out of something sturdy, so I cut another circle out of thin cardstock and traced on heavy chipboard and cut out with my scissors.

There is a piece under the horses hoofs, and at the very bottom of the carousel. The one on the bottom is .25" smaller then the top. I will tell you the reason later.

Here is a close up of the roof.

This pic shows where I covered the wooden dowel rods with "silver pieces"

I did the same with the top of the Carousel.

The reason I wanted the bottom slightly smaller than the top, is because I wanted to hide a mini album in the base.

I have made these star albums before(see this post Star Album), but I googled Carousel Mini, and found a really cool blog where this person added a top to her star album. I didn't use her pdf file, but just eyeballed it and created the album with my cricut using my dimensions. Her blog is Andthereweretwobears.

Well I hope you like my project. I really do. So what should the post be titled? Can you hear the Wurlitzer, or What was I thinking?

No Shirt, No Shoes, No Ink, No Glitter, No Craftroom....

2011-12-28T01:00:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone, today I am a guest designer on Shesasassy Lady. This quick banner was not made in my craft room. We are traveling for the Holidays, and I had the bright idea that I would have time to make something while I was gone. I packed my Cricut, Gypsy, White, and red cardstock and a paper pad from GCD studios called Home for the Holidays. I also packed my ATG, and nothing else. What was I thinking? And with the help of my inlaws, they provided a hole punch and some double sided foam tape that you use for putting down carpeting, and white ribbon, this is what I came up with.

I used Tis the Season for the Mittens and Cardinal, Jolly Holiday's for Winter Wishes, and Christmas for the Snowflakes. The Mittens were cut with their layers at 6.11 tall using the Gypsy. Winter Wishes was cut at 3.12 tall along with it's layers, the cardinal was cut at 2.29 tall along with it's layers, and the snowflakes were cut at 2.5 tall.

It sure is hard making something without all of your supplies at your finger tips. It needs ink and glitter, and my craftroom!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, Thanks Sheila for allowing me to be a guest designer, until next time, Beth.

Ornament for the Circle Weekly Challenge. Printing Fabric on my Imagine.

2011-12-21T10:07:00.001-05:00

Only 3 more days until Christmas. I can't believe it's almost here. It's my favorite time of year. I love all the crafting and baking surrounding it. Anyway, I want to share my project I made for the Weekly Challenge. I started out by Ironing Heat and Bond to the back of a 12x12 piece of fabric. I used canvas, but after the Imagine only cut once, I had to go over it with my scissors. If I would have used plain white cotton fabric, it would have cut it out completely. Plus I don't think I had my blade set right. Anyway I used the mittens off of Snow Angel and printed and cut them on the fabric, then I removed the paper back from the heat and bond. I used silver thread to sew together the edges. To dress it up, I cut the poinsettia off of Winter Woodland 2x along with the leave layer. I cut those at 1.5". Layered them with pop dots, and ribbon and attached to the mitten. Iadded a ribbon hanger with hot glue, and glued on the bells. I then stuffed with tissue paper to add fullness and tucked in some peppermint stick. Hope you like it, Beth.

Gift Box for the Cricut Circle Monthly Challenge.

2011-12-20T11:26:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone, I hope this post finds everyone well and ready for Christmas. I was able to take several days off of work this week to get ready for the holidays. Baking, and final paper crafting projects are on the top of my todo list. I wanted to show you a gift box and ornament I made for the Cricut Circle monthly challenge.

Supplies:
12x12 .007 Grafix Acetate sheet. I got it at Hobby Lobby awhile back, but haven't been able to find it since. Grafix sells it in packages and I also found it at Custom Crops. The .007 mil scores nicely.
Sweet Tooth Boxes Cube box and Lidreg fit to page
Ribbons and Rosettes for the rosette on the top of the box
Red twine
Sticker from K&Co

I cut the box itself from the acetate, and the lid from red carstock.

Then I scored on my MS scoreboard where the little slit were on the cuts. It made folding the edges a lot easier. I assembled the lid and box by just using my Pink ATG runner. I added foil shred in the box and put in my ornament. Tied the lid on with the twine. Added the rosette and the 3-d sticker from K&Co.

Here is the finished box. Super Easy.

For the ornament, I stamped Stazon Ink on Acetate. I used a piece of printable acetate that you can get at the office supply store for overhead projectors. It's flimsy and when you put it down inside the ornament, it rolls up nicely to stuff down inside.

When I cut the acetate out, I cut a circle from typing paper on my cricut that I could use as a template to cut the acetate out with. I cut this at 2.5". I then laid the template on my acetate and cut around the acetate. When I got to the top of the circle, I left a tab that would fit up inside the neck of the ornament so the piece would stay in place inside the clear ornament. Make sure you make this acetate just a hair smaller than the ornament. You want this piece to stay in place and not shift around in the ornament.

I then stamped my image on the acetate with Staz On ink. You can use what ever color you like. Make sure your Staz On pad is well inked. I couldn't figure out why I wasn't getting a clear crisp image until I reinked my pad. Duh!

At this point if you want, you could color the back of the image with any alcohol based marker. sharpies, etc. You want to use something that is permanent. I used some old Galaxy Markers I had.

After the image dried, I rolled it around a pencil that fit inside the neck of the ornament. Making sure the tab was at the top. I then poked the whole thing down inside. Make sure the tab is up inside the neck of the ornament when you are done. The stamped acetate should pop open nicely once inside the ornament. I poured micro beads in the bottom of the ornament. You could used mica flakes, glitter, fake snow, or whatever you want. I added a seam binding ribbon to finish it off.

Finally I tucked the whole thing inside the box and finished packaging it. This one is going to my daughter's bus driver.

They make really nice gifts.

The ornament I made is not a new technique. If you surf the web, you will find all kinds of ideas. I found a lot on splitcoast stampers website.

thanks for visiting today, Beth

Circle Magazine Challenge using Sophie

2011-12-09T23:01:00.002-05:00

I made this for the Monthly Circle Magazine Challenge on the Circle Blog. This month's challenge requires you to use Sophie the Exclusive Circle cart. It has some really pretty images on it. I used the snowflake and the birdhouse for some of the ornaments, I also used JOTS for the Christmas Bulb. I made gift bags using Tags, Bags, Boxes and More. I got the snowman and tree from Hobby Lobby. I just love this color combination. Hope you do too. Beth

Winners of the Aluminum Duct Tape Giveaway.

2011-11-28T19:40:00.000-05:00

I decided to do 3 winners not 2:

And the winners are BunnyFreak, Weezie 13, and SherriB. Congrats Ladies.
I either emailed you or sent you a PM on the messageboard for your address.

Thanks to all of those who left such nice comments.

Beth.

Christmas Mini using Jolly Holidays

2011-11-27T12:56:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone, today I am a guest designer on Thebugbytes. I haven't posted on The Bug Bytes since early spring. Pam allowed me to take the summer off to get some things done around the house. I had every intention of having this done by 6 am this morning, but it just didn't work out. I wanted to make a mini with acrylic windows in is like a house. I started by using my gypsy and searching for houses. Jolly Holidays came up and it had 5 different house shapes on it. I used all 5 sizing each to be 7.90 tall. I used bits and pieces out of their layers also. I put one house on the mat and then using George, I used the rectangle and fit it inside the house sizing the rectangle until I was happy with the size. I hid contours on the house except for the outline of the house, and cut them out. 1 from chipboard, and 2 from cardstock, flipping the image on one of the cardstock cuts.

I attached the a piece of acrylic to the front of the chipboard and then layered the front piece of cardstock to that.

Here is what the piece looks like with the cardstock,chipboard, and acrylic. Unfortunately you can't see the acrylic in this pic.

On the flip side I attached another piece of acrylic to the flipped cardstock. I didn't have any photo paper, so I couldn't print out last years Christmas pics and put inside the layers, so when I attached to back of the back side of the house to the front side, I left the top unglued so I could slip the pics inside after I get them printed.

I then cut the rest of the houses and their layers. I had to cut some of the snow for the roof so the pics would show and the snow would not overlap the acrylic.

Here is the finished album.

I used Eskimo Kisses cardstock for this project that I had left over from last year. On one of the sheets was tiny colorful deer. So one of my carts had the deer cut on it and I added that to the back page. I also punched snowflakes that I glittered. My daughter walked in at that point so I asked her to add the snowflakes to the album how she wanted. She insisted on adding the pearl rhinestones to each snowflake.

Thanks Pam for allowing me to be a guest designer, until next time, Beth.

Autumn Picture Frame using Autumn Embossing Folder and Cricut and Giveaway.

2011-11-25T20:38:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone, I made this project for the Monthly Cricut Circle challenge project going on on the Cricut Circle Blog. The project needs to have a Fall Theme and texture and cricut cuts.. I started with Aluminum Duct tape which my husband had squirreled away in his never ending stash, ran it thru my cuttlebug, and applied to a wooden cheapie picture frame I got from Michaels. After it was applied to the frame(the duct tape has adhesive on the back.) I used alcohol inks and created the colors on the tape. I then cut out some leaves from one of my carts along with their shadows and attached with some ribbon and hot glue. Unfortunately, I accidently broke the glass in the frame, so until I get more glass, I can't put in pics in it. I hope you like the project.

My husband gave me his roll of tape, so if you leave a message on this post with a way to contact you by this coming Sunday night at 9pm est, I will have a drawing and GIVE AWAY to 2 people, 2 yards of this duct tape. You can also get it online, or at the hardware store. So leave a message if you want the tape.

2011-11-23T06:00:00.002-05:00

Hi Everyone, today I am a guest designer on shesasassylady. Today I wanted to share with you a project I have been working on since Friday. It's a 3-D Snowglobe. I started with JOS and chose the snowglobe. I just wanted the base of the snowglobe, but had to pick the whole image. I hid contours on the globe and added slits. Using double sided cardstock, I cut 2 large and 4 medium. I took them off the mat and cut the round part of the globe off.

The meduim cuts, I cut the round part off straight across, and the 2 large images, I cut them off with a slight curve.

I assembled the base putting the 4 medium together and then adding the 2 largest middle cuts.

This is what the base looks like assembled.

I used acetate(grafix sells the thin stuff in 12x12 sheets) and cut the 2 large middle globes, 4 medium globes, and 4 small globes. Here is a pic of the 2 large and 4 small.

I used stazon ink in opaque and stamped various images on the clear acetate. Two things, if you stamp images that have an up and down side, the very out side slits need to be at the top of the 2 large and the 4 medium.if you don't the 4 small globe cuts slide right off when you assemble. Also, assemble the 4 medium globes first, this will create a "box". Put one of the large globes in the middle next, and the other large globe in the middle 3rd. Then on the outside slide the 4 smallest globes on.

Here it is again finished.

Because I am engineering challenged, I went thru several sheets of cheap cardstock and acetate before I got the design how I wanted it. If you don't want to cut the base, the globe itself could be hung with string and hung from the ceiling. It would look pretty great if you had several hanging in a room.

Also use a very clean sticky mat when you cut acetate, I didn't and there was some residue on the acetate after I pulled it off the mat.

I have offered up the cut file HERE in case you want to try making your own.

Thanks Sheila for having me as a guest designer, and everyone have a great Thanksgiving, but don't eat too much turkey.

Beth.

Halloween Castle with Mini Album

2011-11-22T11:13:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone, long time no post. I have been here, just busy. We were in Florida at Disney World the last time I posted. We had an awesome time. We visited all of the parks, took in the Not so Scary Halloween party at MK one evening, and went to the Black Stallion dinner show the last night we were there. We all trick or treated during the Not so Scary Halloween party and came home with 10 lbs of candy. I never seen so many people in costumes in one place before. Everyone was dressed up, I don't even know how many people were at MK that night. But it was so cool. We did not take any costumes with us, so I had to throw something together for my daughter. We got her face painted at Hollywood studios, and she already picked out a sundress for a souvenir. So this is what we came up with.

There were a lot of characters doing signings that night, and when we walked up to Buzz Light Year, he made a gesture like a cat and had her do the same so I could get a picture. I thought it was pretty cool of him to do that. The Pic turned out cute.

Anyhoo, I have been creating off and on and wanted to share with you a castle I made that holds a mini album. I got the pattern off of Laura Denison from Following the Paper Trail. I used her pattern for the castle, but decided to use my Gypsy and cricut for the mini. It was going to save a lot of measuring and cutting.

Here is the finished project

The Mini fits inside the castle.

Here is the mini, it has 5 pages all with the same format. On the back of each page is a pocket for holding a tag.

On each page the sides flip open to reveal a spot for 3 pic, or journaling. I created this file on my gypsy using George, and Ribbons and Rosettes(this was used for the fence across the top, but you could substitute any

edge cut for the fence.

This project was super fun to do, and if you would like the pattern could be purchased here. I do not get any monetary gain from this, I just love her patterns.

Until next time, Beth

Quick Halloween Sign.

2011-10-26T00:01:00.007-04:00

Hi everyone, today is my day to be a guest designer on Shesasassy Lady. I wanted to show you a quick Halloween sign I made. I got the idea from a wooden sign I saw at Hobby Lobby.

You will need:
Ribbon
Circuit Expression
Cardstock(I used regular, glittered, and shimmer)
Happy Hauntings Cart
Oct 31
Heritage
George, or any cart with an oval
Glue
I also used my Gypsy, but after I got it done, I realized you did't need one

I started with Heritage and cut the scroll sign at 11.39 high using glittered black cardstock.

I started with the oval from George at 7.24, using shimmery cardstock and placing the following cuts inside of the oval, I cut the house from Oct 31 at 3.39

The Bats from Happy Hauntings at .30

The moon from Oct 31 at 1.12.

In hindsight, I could have just cut the oval by itself, and then in black cardstock cut the House, Bats and Moon, and glued them on top of the shimmery instead of trying to place the cuts within the oval. After I got it all together, I realized I made this harder than it needed to be.

Using Happy Hauntings, I cut both of the above pumpkins with their layers in various sizes.

The owl and it's layers is from Happy Hautings cut at 4.18.

Like I said, you really didn't need your Gypsy, I just started placing the items I wanted to cut on the screens and sized them to each previous layer.

Here is the completed project.

When I put the above pumpkin together with his layers, the whole time I kept thinking of the line from the movie Toy Story, when Mrs. Potato Head was packing Mr. Potato Head's butt, and said he needed his "Angry Eyes". Boy this pumpkin sure has Angry Eyes.

I wished I would have cut the scary top layer in black instead of grey. I am not liking this too much.

Thanks Sheila for having me as a guest designer today, Beth.

Trick or EEK!

2011-10-16T22:04:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone, today I wanted to share with you a Halloween decorating project I did for the Cricut Circle Blog magazine Challenge. I used Happy Hauntings, Lacy Labels, and Wall Decor and More.

I bought some cheap picture frames and M's and using my Gypsy and my Expression, cut the frame for the large picture. I had to piece it together. Using Happy Hauntings, I cut the skeleton heads to fill in the blanks around the frame.

I saw the idea for the glow in the dark eyes on the Martha Stewart website. I used my expression and cut the eyes, traced around them on the glass with glue and added glitter. After that dried, I added glow in the dark glitter for the whites. I repeated this for the smaller frame

I bought some cheap nested paper mache coffins at M's and covered the largest with Hocus Pocus from Pink Paislee. I cut the bats and skeleton using my expression. I glittered the little bat bodies and the skeleton.

The rat is a dollar store find, and what a find it was. It Squeeks, an added bonus. It drives the dog wild.

I cut the bats in various sizes and used pink rhinestones for their little beady eyes.

Lacy labes was used for the banner for the circle and the green scalloped backing. I used Happy Hauntings for the font. I love this font, this is the first time I used it.

The spidey cut was great.

Here is an up close of the coffin

Thanks so much for stopping by today, Beth.

Final Project for the Blogiversary Challenge

2011-10-14T00:01:00.000-04:00

This is my last post for the projects for the blogiversary challenge going on on the Cricut Circle Blog. The challenge is monochromatic. I used Bags Tags and Boxes, CTMHAP and a cricut cake cart for the snowflakes. The bag is cut to 6.5 tall, which takes up a whole 12x12 mat wide. I stamped the reindeer on CS and cut him out. Everything is pop dotted to the bag.

Thanks for riding along with me this week during the Cricut Circle Blogiversary, I had fun.

Beth

Card for Blogiversary Cuttlebug Challenge

2011-10-13T00:01:00.001-04:00

Hi Everyone, this is my 2nd to the last challenge project for the Blogiversary Challange. I am not sure I liked the way this one turned out. The challenge was to use your cuttlebug and at least 2 cricut cuts. I used CTMHAP for the cart(Love it), and 2 different cuttlebug folders. The Card is a trifold cut at 5.5 inches tall and 12" wide, and scored at 2,4,8,and 10" inches and then folded.

Thanks for Visiting me today. Beth

Quilts, Quilts, and More Quilts.

2011-10-12T18:46:00.001-04:00

Hi Everyone, this has nothing to do with my paper crafting abilities(which I question most days). It's all about quilts. I made these quilts over the past several years, and they each have a story. So travel along with me while I share their story with you.

The below quilt is my first full size quilt I made several years ago. I was out shopping in a very quant country town and saw the completed quilt hanging in a store. I had never tried quilting a full size quilt and fell in love with this pattern. I came from a book by Cathy Wierzbicki called Take time to Quilt. I believe it's out of print now, but you might still be able to find a copy. I used colors that I see when I look out across our hay field in September. I sent the top out to be quilted by a professional.

It's still my favorite.

The next quilt was inspired by our neighbors who are old order Mennonite and quilt quite heavily in the winter. They were making one similar. I am not sure what it is called, but it's made up of log cabin blocks, and grandmother's fan blocks. I did not have a pattern, but I do have a program called electric quilt. I designed it on that, and made templates out of wood so I would cut the fan pattern with my rotary cutter. For the colors, I went to Lowes paint section and picked out several combinations that appealed to me. I had grandeous plans of quilting this one by hand, and I had every intention of completing it, but 2 month's later I only had the very edge quilted. So I contacted my neighbors, and made a deal, I would trade them a finished top, if they would finish quilting my quilt by hand. What a deal. So a little piece of the wonderful neighbor ladies is in this quilt. I never took a picture of the top I made for them, and regret it.

This last quilt was inspired by a 1.00 calendar I got at Micheals 3 years ago. It was quilts in a calendar painted by Diane Phalen. One month showed a quilt hanging over a porch railing. I loved that quilt and with a little research, I found that the pattern was called Corn and Peas(I think). Anyway I dyed the fabric except for the red, cut it out a put it back together. By now I was really interested in machine quilting free hand. So I drew the pattern on, not sure really what I wanted and started quilting. I had to roll up the quilt to get it to fit under the arm of the sewing machine. It took 80 hours to quilt and 5 spools of thread, but that includes the time it took to tear out stitches becasue I wasn't satisfied with the way it was turning out. The quilting has an Urn, Peacock, Feathers, Flames and meandering.

I really am missing quilting, and I have at least 6 full size quilts in various states of being finished, not unlike my paper crafting. Maybe this winter I can get a few done.

Thanks for listening to my quilt stories.

Beth.

Cricut Everyday Cart

2011-10-12T00:01:00.001-04:00

Hi Everyone, Day 4 of the Circle Blog Challenge Entries. I need to come up with 7 projects, and this is #4. For this challenge you have to use a cart exclusive to the circle, so I picked Cricut Everyday for the Cricut cut, Happy Hauntings for the hat and layers, and Mother's Day Bouquet for the flowers. The card is 5x5, and the paper, button, and canvas strip is from the Hocus Pocus Collection from Pink Paislee.

Thanks for stopping by, Beth.

"Spooky" Card

2011-10-11T00:01:00.000-04:00

Here is another card I made for the Blogiversary Challenge going on at the Cricut Circle Blog. For this challenge, you need to use the above sketch, and it can be any project. Card, Layout, Home Decor. I choose a card. I used my Imagine and Enjoy the Seasons to print the house and it's layers at 4". I used Happy Hauntings and my Imagine to print Spooky at 1.5". I flood filled the layers. After I got it on the card, because the cut is so small, it looks like SPANKY, not Spooky, oh well, maybe I will give this card to my husband too. And finally, I used the circle already installed on the Imagine for the moon and flood filled it in yellow. It's cut at 2". I am really, really starting to like my Imagine. I am using if for almost every project now.

The Bats and Canvas strip are from the Hocus Pocus collection from Pink Paislee.

Every year Pink Paislee has an annual warehouse sale, and for a set amount of money, they send you a whole box full of stuff. This is the first year I tried it and I was not disappointed. I will probably order it again next year, I just hope they send me an email so I don't forget.

Thanks for stopping by today, Beth.

I only have Eye for you!

2011-10-10T00:01:00.001-04:00

Here is a card I made to give to my husband, I think he may get a small chuckle out of it. He is pretty serious most of the time. I used Mini Monsters. I am going to enter it in the Blogiversary challenge going on on the Circle Blog. You need to use 2 cricut cuts, a title, and at least 3 buttons. Hope you like it, and thanks for visiting today!

Beth.

Layout using my Imagine and Enjoy the Seasons

2011-10-09T06:00:00.002-04:00

I got the Enjoy the Seasons Imagine cart off of Ebay the other day, and I am really liking it. It has so many cute cuts on it. Here is a layout I made for the Blogiversary going on at the Circle Blog.

Thanks for stopping by today, Beth

Every Birdie Welcome

2011-10-08T14:01:00.000-04:00

For the Cricut Circle blog monthly challange, you have to use Echo Park paper and 4 cuts from you favorite cartridge. I used Sophie, and Sophisticated, and Echo Park A Walk In the Park page kit to created this bird house. I started with a wooden bird house from Hobby Lobby and covered it with Echo Park paper. The fence, bird, butterfly, flower, and banner was cut on my Imagine. I made the roof by cutting strips of cardstock and folding them over to create a tear shape and then gluing them to the roof with hot glue.

Thanks for stopping by today, Beth.

Quick Little Ghostie Card

2011-09-30T21:37:00.000-04:00

I think I have mentioned before that I like Halloween. When I was little I used to draw pics of grave yards with fences, and full moons, and cats on the fence and of course, ghosties floating around. I drew these every Halloween. This year is no different, except now I use my Cricut.

I made this quick little card using Happy Hauntings, and Oct 31. The card is 5x7. The vine is about 7" long, the window is 4.5 wide.

Thanks for visiting, Beth.

2nd Banner for Contest

2011-09-28T07:00:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone, today I am a guest designer on shesasassylady I wanted to show you my entry for the new HSN Banner Contest that Provocraft had for another launch of the E2 Last Monday 9-26. You need to make a banner that spells CRICUT. I made 2 banners and this is the second one. I started with my Imagine and using a fall paperstack I got last year, and flower shoppe cricut cart, I cut 5 sets of flowers that were 3 inches for the bottom layer and then all the corresponding layers. I layered them and set them aside.

I then took Straight from the Nest and did Layer Shadow on the Leaves, sized them to 5.15 real dial size and cut 4, I ran them thru my Sizzix with a Tim Holtz embossing folder. I set these aside. I used the same cut and cut out of cream and gold cardstock smaller leaves. I cut a whole 12x12 page of these and set them
aside.

I used Country Life to create the Banner Base, Glittered the edges of white crepe paper and pleated them into Rosettes using a needle and thread. Using CTMH Art Philosophy I cut 6 labels sized to 2.67 wide x 1.66. I ran these thru my Sizzix. I cut the words Cricut out of shimmer cardstock from the same stack using CTMH Art Philosophy. I attached all this to each banner. I strung the banner on thin ribbon and then cut addnl leaves that I ran thru my Sizzix to the top of the banner using hot glue. I set this aside.

Using Sweet tooth Boxes, I cut the ice cream cone in 3 different sizes and put them together to look like pumpkins. I took the cone part of the ice cream cone and sized it much smaller then the scoop cuts, I assembled it and used as the stems on the pumpkins. After the "pumpkins" were assembled. I inked all of the sticky out edges. When the pumpkins were all done, I tied raffia in bows and glued to each stem. I set these aside.

After I had all the pieces cut, it was time to assemble my wreath. I took ribbon and made the bow at the top. Wired and hot glued it to the wreath. Then the pumpkins were glued to the bottom to resemble a pumpkin patch. I started adding flowers and the small leaves to cover the gaps the pumpkins made. I attached 2 of the larger leaves to each side of the pumpkin/flower patch. I finally added the banner last. I felt it was missing something at this point, so I gathered more rafia and glued in bunches at each end of the "patch".

I hope you like my entry. Please disregard the paper towel that is stuck in the bow, I took the pics of the wreath in the car on the way to the post office. I did not want the bow to get crushed on the way to Utah.

I was please how it turned out, and would like to have kept if for my house. Thanks Sheila for having me as a guest designer today. Until next time, Beth.

I was floored yesterday!

2011-09-27T12:18:00.000-04:00

You know in the previous post, I showed my banner that I made for the E2 Launch on HSN yesterday? Well I stayed up until 12:40 am Monday morning watching HSN, and I was on facebook and the Provocraft Message boards to enjoy some of the Hoopla surrounding the launch, but then I got sleepy and had to go to bed because I need to get up in the morning and get to work. When I signed on to facebook first thing Monday am before I left for work I discovered my banner was chosen as one of the WINNERS, WOO HOO!!! I couldn't believe it that out of all the entries, they chose mine as one of the winners. I was beyond happy. I yelled for my daughter and DH to come and look. My daughter was thrilled for me and wondered what she was going to get out of it, but my DH just looked at me and said what are you going to do with ANOTHER machine. Ya know some days. I told him he was missing the point of my whole excitement. Men, I will never understand them. Anyway, as a circle member, I also get a credit on Cricut.com to spend as well as the new machine. Once again, Woo Hoo. I am beyond blessed. Thanks for sharing some of my excitement with me, and stay tuned tomorrow, I am a guest designer on Shesasassylady and I will have the other "Banner" I made for the contest as a post there and here. Until next time,

Beth

Banner for The World Launch on the New E2 on HSN

2011-09-21T12:29:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone, I entered this banner in the Provocraft contest for the launch of the E2 on HSN next Monday. If it is picked, it maybe shown during Jinger Adam's segment on HSN. I used the following carts:

Lori's Garden for the Imagine
CTMH Art Philosophy
French Manor
and a few more that I can't remember.

I printed some papers from the imagine for my background that I cut the banners from. I cut 2 6x8 banners using CTMHAP cart, one for the front and one for the back. I then resized the cut to make it smaller and from fabric I got from SU(the blue floral fabric), I cut another banner on my Imagine. I made 6 sets of these. I used Heat and Bond ultra on the back of the fabric before I cut it. I then ironed the fabric to the larger banner. I took ribbon that I got from SU(I love, love, love this ribbon) and I took the back banner, ribbon, and front banner with the fabric attached and sewed it all together using silver metallic thread. I also cut with the same fabric a scallop circle the one of the letters is attached to. I used the same scallop circle cut for the rest of the circles behind the letters. Some of the papers I printed with my imagine and some were from the Blossom stack from DCWV.

I used my Lori's garden cart and my imagine for most of the elements, except for the dress form. I cut that from French Manor cart. I glittered all of the elements and inked the edges of some of them. I really like how this turned out, and I hope PC will too.

Thanks for stopping by today. Have a great day. Beth!

Birthday and the Cricut

2011-09-11T22:31:00.000-04:00

My daughter celebrated her 12th birthday yesterday with a sleepover and spa party for her friends. We got the cricut out(not that I ever put it away) and made the decorations for her cupcakes and birthday sign. I used Girl's Makeup Party for the cuts. We cut the lip gloss, perfume bottle, and nail polish for the tops of the cup cakes, and I cut the words that come with this cart for the sign. I baked the cupcakes and made the frosting from scratch, and also made the marshmallow fondant and cut out the daisies. I dusted the daisies with luster dust. I really like the way her Birthday treat tower turned out. Here are some pics of the occasion. I think she really liked it.

I almost have my craft room done. As soon as I get it done, I will post pics.

Beth.

Spa Birthday Invites

2011-08-24T07:00:00.005-04:00

Hi everyone, today I am a guest designer on Shesasassylady. My daughter's birthday is in a few weeks and she wants to have a slumber/spa/birthday party for her celebration. She doesn't want much does she? Anyway I saw these invites in the front of the cartridge handbook for the Imagine cartridge Best Friend's a couple of month's ago and wanted to make them for her party. I started with the Best Friend's cart and selected the girl with the robe and all the layers and cut her at 4.5 inches.

I needed to make six invites so I selected project quantity of 6 on the Imagine screen and it tells you how many times you need to load the mat for that quantity.

I then printed 2 of the pattern papers that are included with this cart. I cut a piece of black cardstock 4"x9.5", I cut the striped paper 3.75"x9.25", and the green paper 3.5"x9". The Girl and her layers are 4.5" which includes the cat in the robe.

I cut the Slumber Party sign at 2", because I made my actual invite in Word with that amount of space between you're invited and the details.

Here are all the pieced to the invite.

Here is the invite assembled.

I thought I would make the soda bottle accessories like is shown in the front of the Cartridge handbook, and my daughter is giving away gift bags to all the attendees and I thought the premade scrapbook page that comes in the cart that you can print would be cute on the front of the bags. I could add pics of each guest for a keepsake.

Until next time, Beth.

It's just about finished!

2011-08-12T23:01:00.000-04:00

Last Monday my new barn was started. We purchased addnl land adjacent to our property last year, and decided to build our own barn instead of having the horses at my Mom and Dad's house, right next door. So, last Monday, a crew of 2 very talented men started my barn and as of yesterday, it was complete. These are pics taken last Friday and this Monday, my they worked fast. We still have to put in the stalls, and run electric and water to it, but for the most part the contractors are done. I think it looks great. We had an overhang put on the back so the horses could stand under it during the hottest part of the afternoon so their coats won't fade. I will try and get another pic taken tomorrow now that the siding is on to show everyone.

Also, the week before fair our local paper ran an coloring contest for 3 different age groups with a picture of a fair. They were giving away bikes for the winners. I cut the pic out of the paper and showed it to my daughter. I thought she would pooh pooh the idea, but she snatched up the picture, came back to the house, got out my colored pencils and went to work. It took her over 2.5 hours to color this little picture, but she did a splendid job. We needed to turn it in the week of fair to the booth they had at the fair, and I left it at home, but my DH was coming to the fair so I asked him to find it and bring it with him. He turned it in, and low and behold, last week we got a phone call that she had won her division, it was 11-12 age group. We were thrilled. So below is the pic of a very happy girl and her new bike.

And finally I am actually making myself a craft room. Instead of crafting on the table or in the corner of the living room, I am actually going to have a pretty nice area to work in. Boy is it a monumental job. I decided I have too much STUFF, and I don't want to get rid of anything. Once I get it done, I will post pictures.

Thanks for stopping by and checking up on me. I love visitors, they mean a lot.

Until next time, Beth.

Cricut at the Fair.

2011-07-31T12:19:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone, it has been super busy around here this week. Our County fair has been going on and my daughter shows her dog in Dog Club. We showed last Friday, Saturday, she rode on the Dog club float on Sunday, she showed Wednesday and then had 2 classes yesterday. One of the classes was Dog Costume Class. The theme this year was book characters, she chose Charlotte's Web. She was responsible for making her costume, and with a little of mommy's help, this is what we came up with.

She is Wilbur and Gavin the dog is Charlotte. We pulled out the Expression and using Old West, Happy Halloween, and A Country Life, she cut the boards, feed sack, ribbon, spider's web, the words SOME PIG, and the vegetables for the feed trough hanging on the back of the wagon.

To get the web that big, it had to be cut at 28" wide and manipulated using the Gypsy. The boards were cut at 24" long and we did 3 full mat's worth.

There were some very cute costumes in class, including,

Lucy and the Lion from Narnia

The Daschund was Lucy, it was too too cute.

There were also 2 sets of Thing one and Thing two from the Cat in the Hat, and a Princess and the Frog.

There was about 10 entries in the whole class. My Daughter took first. Once again, thanks Cricut for coming to the rescue. You can't beat if for costume classes.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Beth

2011-07-27T07:00:00.006-04:00

Hi everyone, today I am a guest designer on Shesasassylady. If you haven't stopped by Sheila's blog in awhile, check it out. She has updated her look and it is wonderful.

Today I wanted to show you a project I have been working on, off and on for several month's. I started it awhile ago and decided to finish it so I could post it today as my project. I can't really show you how I made the gazebo or the mini album because I used a pattern I purchased from Laura Denison from Follow the Paper Trail. The pattern is called Hexagon Box Mini Album and can be purchased here if you so desire. I wanted to add that I am in no way associated with Laura, and do not get any monetary gain from this. I just love her patterns. Anyway. I used only one Cricut cartridge on this project and that was Serenade for the flowers, ivy and butterflies on the roof of the Gazebo. I also used the Once Upon a Springtime paper from Graphic 45. Most of the other elements I either hand cut or used paper punches on.

The walls of the gazebo are acetate and the fairy images peek through.

Here is the roof with all the cuts I did using Seranade.

The Roof lifts off to reveal the mini album/albums inside.

There is enough room in the album for 42 pictures, 14 per Gazebo side.

Here is the roof off.

Several Pics of the pages.

Cut outs using the Paper pad.

The Album has 9 pockets.

Here is a close up of the images behind the acetate.

To be truthful, I loved the way this turned out, but was not to keen on the colors once they came together, not enough contrast. I am maybe, possibly, perhaps thinking that I might try this again with bolder colors, or not:)

A big Thank You to Sheila for allowing me to be a guest designer today. Until next month,

Beth

Cricut Circle Road to Ohio Pennant Contest.

2011-07-15T18:18:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone, long time no post. Things have been super super crazy around here. My Daughter is in Dog Club again this year for 4-H and every week from April 1 to July 22 we go once a week for training on her dog. From the middle of June until fair, it seems we have been going twice a week. She does agility, obedience, showmanship, trick and costume with him. He is a very smart pup, and has done quite well the last 2 years. This year we are planning on going to State with him. And then with work, gardens, horses, etc. I have not had a chance to post anything. I have been shopping though, love to shop for craft/paper crafting supplies. I just bought 5 of the new carts from Hello Thursday and just had a second to play a little bit. I am in love with Flower Shoppe. Not very many cuts on the cart, but they are awesome. The carts I bought have fewer images then the lite carts, but they have lots of potential. Anyway, the Cricut Circle is having another contest and I decided at the last minute to enter. The rules are as follows.

The pennant should be your representation of the state, providence or country of your choosing.
The pennant shape is from the BIRTHDAY BASH CARTRIDGE. The ‘pennants’ that can be used are in the section on pages 58-70. Please use a ‘fit to page’ for a 12×12 inch piece of paper. Pennants larger than 12×12 will be disqualified.
All pennants must be received at the Provo Craft Offices by end of day on Monday, July 18th.
Pennants will not be returned.

I started this last night, and here is what I came up with. I live in rural Indiana and when I go down the road, look out my window, go shopping, here is what I see. Lots of Barns and cornfields. I am quite partial to this area really. I love the rolling hills and the crops growing. I love the barns, animals, all things rural. I finished it this am and got it in the mail to ProvoCraft. I sent it express, so supposedly they will get it by 3 pm on Monday. I hope so.

You had to use one of the banners from Birthday Bash for the base, so that is where I started. I used Country life for the barn, scarecrow, and corn, A Child's year for the girl with cat, and Flower shoppe for all the flowers. I seriously can't remember what I used for the tree and I just did this last night.

Anyway, hope you like it.

Beth.

Printing note cards with your Cricut Imagine.

2011-06-22T06:00:00.003-04:00

Hi everyone, today I am a guest designer on Shesasassylady.blogspot.com. I wanted to show you how to print easy note cards with your imagine. Now printing in a certain spot on a piece of paper on the imagine is not my idea, I originally saw the idea from LindaK on the Provocraft Message board from paperboutique.blogspot.com, she printed sentiments inside her cards. I wanted to use this technique to print my own notecards. Once I started, I saw that the possibilites are as endless as the carts you own. I used Damask Decor for the design, and All wrapped up for the color, but you can use the standard colors the Imagine comes with.

I started with an 8.5 x 5.5 piece of paper on my Imagine mat. I placed in on the top left hand corner of the mat. I took the picture correctly, but when I downloaded the image from my camera, it got rotated so the top of the mat is on the left of the pic.
I selected the image I wanted to print, sized to 3" high and then pressed next on my imagine.

I set my page size to 5.5 wide and 8.5 tall.

Here is what is looks like so far. Since you can't manipulate the images on the Imagine mat like you can the Gypsy, Expression, etc. I had to get my image down to the bottom of the paper and in the middle. When CCR(Cricut Craft Room) is finalized, you should be able to manipulate the images on the imagine mat, just like you can the Expression.

Pressing the back key I added plain squares from the standard images that come with the imagine. the first square I sized to 3x3, and then I added 7 more squares sized to .5" tall. I did not color these images, and these squares were added in front of the damask decor image I already added to my Q. The above pic is what it looks like when I was done. The image is right about where I want it.

I then selected my damask decor image and chose a color to flood fill it. The sqaures I left colorless. The Imagine will ignore these and just print the Damask Decor Image.

before you hit next after you have everything the way you want it, you need to select settings and chose print only, so the imagine will print but not cut.

Here is what it looked like after I printed it. The top of the card is to the left.

I trimmed one of the prints to be approx 4.25x5.25, punched the edges, added some bling, and adhered it to a clear plastic note card box I ordered off of Papertrey ink.

Here is a sample of my finished note cards, they are 5.5 wide by 4.25 tall. I punched the corners, added bling and ribbon.

I put them all in the clear box. Wouldn't these make a great gift for someone? You can write or stamp any sentiment you want in them.
If you look through you carts, I bet you could find all kinds of images to use on these cards. Who needs fancy stamps(even though I just love fancy stamps), when you have your Imagine.

Thanks Sheila for having me today on your blog. I really have fun trying to come up with projects.

Until next time, Beth.

"Can ya Sell it?"

2011-05-25T07:00:00.003-04:00

Those were the words out of my husband's mouth when he saw my completed projected. Hi everyone, today I am a guest designer on shesasassylady. Today I wanted to share with you a project I have been working on for several week's now. This project serves many purposes. First of all I was inspired to make it when I ran across something similar when I was perusing the Graphic 45 Blog and discovered a very talented artist by the name of Jenny Svensson. She created a paper Mansion using Graphic 45 Steam Punk Paper. It really struck a cord with me and I wanted to make my own. Second, when I first saw the French Manor exclusive Circle Cartridge, I knew I needed to make furniture with it, and this was the perfect outlet for my furniture making using this cartridge, and finally 3rd, I needed to enter something for the Circle blog Monthly Tic Tac Toe Challenge. My project needed to have cuts welded with the Gypsy, a Sun Cut(I used the Gypsy wandering cart already installed), and buttons. This project had all 3 and many more.

I had loads of fun making this project. It has paper printed from the Imagine covering the front, numerous cricut cuts, and it took just about all of the imagination I had. It's about 21" tall and 24" wide. It also took almost all of the glue I had on hand, and almost 2 full paper stacks as well as my imagine paper. I used paper from the DCWV collection, but I can't remember the name of them. If I could have a house in the country somewhere, this is what I would want it to look like. Come along with me while I take you on a tour of my own "Mansion".

Bay Window with Picket Fence.

Front door.

Porch Swing with Picket Fence.

Bathroom Balcony

Kitchen with farmhouse sink.

Living Room with Grandfather clock

Cabinet in the Bedroom.

My favorite room, bath with old fashioned pull toilet.

Attic/Craft/Inspiration Room

Desk
Top of Desk with "glass" top and collectibles inside.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of my house, and to answer my husband's question, NO I can't sell, what in the world would someone do with it:)

Until next time, and thanks Sheila for once again having me as a guest.

Beth!

Me and my messy Craft Room!

2011-05-14T21:18:00.000-04:00

On the Circle Blog this week is a contest with lots of cool prizes. All you have to do is post a pic of yourself in your craftroom. It's a random drawing so I have a 1 in about 210 chance of winning something. Here I am in my very messy Craft Room. Unfortunately no matter how many times I clean it up, after one project it looks a mess again. I have come to the conclusion that I have too much STUFF, and I keep buying more. Do not ever turn me loose in a Scrapbook store, or a Plant Nursery. I just can't seem to help myself, once I see all the colors and possibilities, it's all downhill from there. I really need to sit down and develop an organizational strategy. I have ever come up with one that works for me, I will let you know:)

Wish me luck!

Beth

Going to try and Go to the Michigan Mega Meet this Weekend.

2011-05-04T22:33:00.000-04:00

The Great Lakes Mega meet is the weekend in Novi Michigan. My daughter and I are going to try and go up on Saturday. It's about a 3 hour drive from here. Maybe I can get some inspiration, because right now I am having a crafting block. I can't make it to the Cricut Circle meet up tomorrow night, I am very sad about that, and I won't get off work in time to go to the Circle Crop Friday night. I am still hoping to run into some of my Circle Sisters at the Mega Meet. So hopefully I will see some of you there. Also, my BD is next week and combined with Mother's Day, I talked my Wonderful husband into buying me the new Expression 2 from the HSN launch on April 26. It came last Friday and is sitting here unopened until my Birthday. He says I have to wait, but then he recanted and said I could open it anytime, but my daughter still says I have to wait. So there it sits. As soon as I open, I will post pics of my new toy. Like I said, I need inspiration. I have 3 projects started that I really need to finish including my "totally useless project, that was really fun to make". As soon as I get my crafting mojo back. I will finish and post. Thanks for hanging around, Beth.

Welcome to the Blog Hop

2011-04-22T03:01:00.004-04:00

Welcome everyone to the It's my Birthday, It's Earth Day Blog Hop. I hope everyone is enjoying the hop, and you are almost to the end. There is some amazing stuff, huh? If you came here from Thescrapbookingqueen.com, then you are on the right path. If not, please start here http://www.gabycreates.com/ so you don't miss all of the fabulous ideas and inspiration. Also in order to be eligible to win the great prize on Gaby Creates, please leave a comment on each blog.

The theme for the blog hop is either "Green" because of Earthday, or a Birthday theme. I opted for the "Green".

The whole time I was doing my post for the blog hop I kept thinking of the John Candy movie The Great Outdoors. It was one of the funniest movie I've ever seen. Actually a classic really. The part where the raccoons were talking about what was in hot dogs, too funny! And then there was the part where he ate the old 96er. So the whole time I am chuckling to myself while crafting away. I bought the Campin Critters Cricut cartridge awhile back and this is the first time I used it. I really was drawn to this cart, especially with the 3-D images. Love the backpack and the Tent. Here is a simple layout I did with it. Hope you like it.

After I took these pics, I realized the bunny was creeping me out with his blank stare. I really need to get some of those googly eyes everyone is using for just such an emergency.

While I am posting, I also thought I would share my entries for the Provocraft E2 Challenge contest they are having for the launch of the E2 on HSN on Tuesday 4-26 You could enter up to 3 layouts and they needed to have a Birthday theme in honor of the 5 Year Anniversary of the Cricut. Here are my 3 entries.

For this one I used Graphic 45 Once upon a Spring paper.

This one I used my Imagine to print some papers to match the Webster Pages I used from Life is Beautiful.

The next blog on the hop is http://www.youhadmeatcraft.blogspot.com/.

Glad you could visit me today, and if you get a chance rent The Great Outdoors with John Candy, Funny Stuff.

Beth

Sneak Peek and an Intro to our newest members of our family!

2011-04-12T22:44:00.000-04:00

Here is the sneak peek I promised. Hopefully by the weekend I will have it complete and can post the whole thing. After taking the pic, and I can see I need to make some modifications.

And here are the newest members of our family, Meet Yucky and Afflack. My daughter has been hounding me for some baby animals this spring(and she can hound better then anyone else I know.) So against my better judgement I had my DH pick her up some baby ducks from the local farm center. She made them a taj mahal type room out of cardboard and some of my good fabric, and for the past week when I would go to soak in a hot tub, I would encounter ducks swimming in my bath tub. Thankfully they are out in the garage now until they get big enough to go to the barn, and the tub has been scoured clean.

Beth.

Just Checking in!

2011-04-11T12:27:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone, I haven't posted in awhile because I have been working on a pretty large project that is taking me over 2 weeks to create. I ran across the idea while blog hopping the other day, and silly me thought it would be really cool to make something similar. I have been wanting to do something with the French Manor exclusive Cricut Circle cartridge since I got it, and this project was just the opprotunity. I will post a sneak peek hopefully by tonight. In the meantime, while working on this project, I started another one, even though I told myself I couldn't start anything else until the big project was complete. And while all this is going on, the weather got nice, so it's horse riding time and lawn and garden time. So it's no wonder I haven't posted Thanks everyone for the super comments on the Frame project. Hopefully you will be able to use the file to create your own frame. If you don't have all the carts I used, at least use the file to give you an idea on how to create your own file. Stay tuned for pics of my rather large project that totally has no use except it was fun to create.

Beth

Frame Gypsy file has been added under cut files!!

2011-03-31T17:37:00.000-04:00

or by clicking here! Thank you for all of your interest.

Happy Saturday!

2011-03-26T07:31:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone, I hope everyone is enjoying their Saturday. I know I am. Today I am a guest designer on shesasassylady. Saturday is not my usual day to post on Shesasassylady, I was due to post on Wednesday of this week, but the project I was working on Monday night ended up going into the trash. So Sheila covered for me on Weds and let me have Saturday. Thank you Sheila for helping me out.

Today I wanted to share with you a project I made, inspired by the Accucut Craft website. Gasp I know, not a Cricut/Gypsy Product to be found there, or is there?? I love Accucut's dies they have, but I don't have any of their stuff, but I do have my Gypsy, so............, once again I used George, Plantin, and 2 other cartridges to create my own Shadow Box Portrait die cut.

You will need several sheets of 12x12 pattern paper that coordinates(I used DCWV Mademoiselle)
fedex envelopes or similar chipboard
Assorted embelishments, I used Basic Grey Curio chipboard adhesive backed pieces
Glue/tape runner/double sided tape(you choice)
Tim Holtz Distress ink Vintage Photo

This is the back of the picture frame, cut one from thin chipboard, I used Fed Ex envelopes. one from black cardstock(this is attached to the back to cover the ugly chipboard), and one from a piece of pattern paper for the front(Not shown yet).

chipboard

black cardstock

Glue all 3 piece together making a chipboard sandwich. Black on back, chipboard in between, and Patterned Cardstock on the front. I held it together with Tim Holtz binder clips until dry. Make sure you glue edges and in the middle of the chipboard because you will score and fold slightly and you don't want your chipboard to pull away from either piece of cardstock(like mine did). After the glue has dried, I scored the piece as shown in the above pic. You can also see the score lines by looking at the Gypsy Screen.

The below screen is the cut file for the front that pops out. You will see what I mean later in the post.

(this pic shows side already scored and folded in, and the large double scalloped piece with the bottom cut off)

Cut one from Chipboard, one from black cardstock,and one from a coordinating pattern paper that goes with the one you glued on the front of the back part of the frame. Make a chipboard sandwich using lots of adhesive and score the sides. You can see the lines by looking at the screen you just cut with your Gypsy.

Here it is assembled. You can see what I mean by the facing of the frame that pops out at you.

This pic is just of some addnl cuts I did of coordinating pattern paper to embelish my frame with.
And here is the finished project. Don't forget to ink your edges of all of the pieces while you are assembling them.

The picture in the frame is a scanned copy of my dad when he was 11 and his little brother Matthew. Matthew passed away within a year after this pic was taken. My dad told me he had one of the first diagnosed cases of Luekemia in Indiana, the doctors didn't know what it was. This pic is special to my dad so I am giving him this as a small gift.

Thanks everyone for sharing their Saturday with me, and thanks Sheila for having me as a guest designer.

Beth

Just a quick note,

2011-03-16T13:41:00.002-04:00

I added the filmstrip gypsy file that I used in the project below under the cut file tab above if anyone is interested.

2011-03-14T22:24:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone today I am a guest designer on The Bug Bytes. I thought I was due to be the guest designer on the Bug Bytes TOMORROW, but when I looked at the Google calendar today at work, it was uh oh, I was supposed to post today, my apologies to Pam. I have been working on this project off and on for 2 weeks. I have been working on an album from following Laura Denison and her blog Following the Paper trail. She used the really cool Punky Sprouts album to make a Victorian album with lots of pockets. She does a Ustream ever Friday night and Sat morning and I have been following along. The problem is, is that I did not have the Punky Sprouts album, nor did I have any of the supplies she used. So I used my Gypsy, cricut and the supplies I did have to make this project. I started with George and and created an oval that was 11x8.5.

I cut this as a template from paper, cut it in half and then cut a piece of canvas from half of the oval.

I used this as the cover for the album.

I then used From my Kitchen and created the tabbed pages that were 8.5 x 5.

I cut 4 each from thin chipboard and glued 2 of them together to create the base for each page.

Using the paper stack I did have (K&Co. Life's Journey), I also cut cardstock to cover the chipboard. At this point my album consist of 6 pages, 2 canvas, 1 for the cover and 1 for inside, and 4 tabbed pages.

Here it is decorated.

I followed her instructions to create the special page pockets and acrylic tag. I didn't have any of the envelopes she used for the special pockets, so those were made from scratch using my Martha Stewart score board.

Acrylic Tag below.

I did not have the Tim Holtz filmstrip die that Laura Denison used, so I created one with my Gypsy.

Here is the page decorated with it.

The post card was created by stamping my Penny Black postcard stamp on a piece of printed cardstock.
This album isn't quite finished yet, but I am having so much fun making it. I was really apprehensive using this as my project this week, because it wasn't my own idea, but since I came up with the cut file for the album, the film strip cut, and basically made all of the other embellishments including the flowers on my own, I am hoping everyone won't mind me posting it.

Thanks Pam for having me as a guest designer. I am really sorry this is late. I was sure it wasn't due until tomorrow, and if you get a chance, check out the USTREAM Video's Laura Denison does every week. They are very very Inspiring.

Beth.

Long time no post.

2011-03-13T22:08:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone, I thought I would check in and let everyone know that I did not fall off the face of the earth. I am here and crafting away, but unfortunately the project I am working on is a rather involved project. I will be posting it later this week as I am going to be a guest designer on the Bug Bytes. I did want to share with you today a couple of cards made with my Imagine. I used Nursery Tails to embellish the cards. They would be perfect for someone with a new baby, and they are super easy to make. For the first card I took some of the animal elements off of the cuts and flood filed them with one of the patterns. I cut them out and layered them on a card.

For the next card, I used the cartridge hand book and created the card that was shown in the handbook. Like I said super easy and fast.

Thanks for stopping by today. And hopefully once I get this rather involved project done, I can post more frequently.

Beth.

Welcome Baby!

2011-02-27T18:25:00.003-05:00

I wanted to share with you a banner I made for the Cricut Circle blog Monthly Challange for February. The theme is Banners and I wanted to use my Imagine to make the project. I also wanted to use Nursery Tails. I don't know of anyone that is expecting in the family, but this is what I came up with.

Carts, Nursery tails, Country Carnival.

All Papers were either printed or cut with my Imagine.

I started by caching 3 patterns off of Nursery tails that I wanted to use on Country Carnival to print the letters. I put in Country Carnival and Spelled Welcome Baby at 3" substituting the Nursery Tails Pattern for the original Courtry Carnvival pattern. I also cut at 3.25" the same letters but I got rid of the pattern all together so the Imagine would cut only and not print.

For the rosettes, I printed 1 12x12 in blue, cut 4 pieces 3x12, scored at .5" glued 2 together so I ended up with 2 3x12 long strips scored. Glued the ends together and pressed into rosettes. I stickled the edges with silver stickles.

For the rosettes below, I cut 2 of the pink scallops from Nursery Tails deleting all of the other images that came with the scallops. I cut the lamb by itself and printed more paper for the scored rosettes

I finally think I like my imagine, once in awhile it does nutty things, but for the most part, it does what it's supposed to.

Beth

Oh Baby!

2011-02-23T07:00:00.002-05:00

Today I am a guest designer on Shesasassylady. Since this has been a long bleak winter, and I am getting tired of the grey dark skies, I thought I would make my post today bright and cheery. Today I am going to show you how to make a star photo album. This type of album has been around for a long time, and I had always wanted to try one. If you google it on youtube, you can find videos of it.

I started with cardstock cut to the following sizes:

6 @ 12x4 of one color
6@ 12x4 of a coordinating color to the above
6 @ 10x4
6 @ 10x4 of a coordinating color to the above
6 @ 8 x 4
6 @ 8x4 of a coordinating color to the above

So when you are done cutting cardstock you will have 12 @ 12x4, 12 @ 10x4, and 12 @ 8x4. Glue all of the above back to back. So 6 of the 12" long adhered to the other 6. 6 of the 10" long adhered to the other 6, and 6 of the 8" long adhered the other 6. You will then have 18 sets of cardstock. Score these in the middle.

Next cut stiff chipboard(I used the back of a note pad that I got from work). Cut 2 pieces 6.25 x 4.25

Cover these with cardstock that coordinates with the pages you just made.

These become the front and back cover of the album.

Glue ribbon on the inside of the covers on the bare chipboard. Cut 2 pieces of cardstock, 6x4 and glue on top of the ribbon. This is shown as the green cardstock below. The ribbon holds the album open or closed.

Take the scored pages you created and glue them together layering the longest, the next to the longest and the shortest. Only glue the outer edges of the album, making the edges even.

After you have created 6 sets of glued packets, start gluing all of the longest ones together, outside back to outside front, and then glue the front covers on so when you are done it looks like this.

Here is the outside decorated. I used the carts Bloom, Home Accents, and Picturesque. I did weld the bird from Picturesque to the branch from Bloom with my Gypsy. I also created a welded shadow with the bird and the branch. The flower is from Bloom cut in 3 different sizes. All cuts were inked and the flower has stickles applied.

The reason I titled this post "Oh Baby" is because I pulled out 12 pictures of my daughter when she was anywhere from 1 to 3 and put them in the album.

Here she is prior to 15 month's old. I had a cupboard that was full of tupperware lids and she would spend everyday pulling them out and I would spend everyday putting them back in. She couldn't hurt herself, and she had so much fun, I thought what harm is this. She would crawl so far in that only her diapered butt was sticking out. 10 minutes later she would get bored and move on to something else, leaving me with lids to put away.

This pic was on her 2nd birthday.

She had a head of hair from the day she was born.

Here is the album finished, it can be displayed open on a library shelf or coffee table.

Well, I hope you can understand my garbled directions, and like I said, if you need help with the instructions you can find them on youtube under Star Album.

Thanks Sheila for allowing my to be a guest designer today, it always challenges me.

Beth....

WINNER WINNER WINNER

2011-02-19T14:10:00.000-05:00

I have a Winner from last weekend's For the Love of Everyone Blog Hop.

COOLNANA72

coolnana72 said...
Cute wreath--Thanks for sharing
February 13, 2011 12:50 PM

Please email at rwhite58@maplenetbroadband.com with your name and address so I can get your prize out to you. The Nursery Rhymes Cartridge.

Congrats.

Thanks everyone for visiting my blog last weekend during the hop. I loved reading all of your comments.

Day 2 of For The Love Everyone Blog Hop aka A Sea of Monkey's and Bunnies looking at you.

2011-02-13T07:00:00.003-05:00

Hello Hello, Welcome back. I hope everyone is enjoying the Hop. My daughter had her Valentines party at school on Friday and I whipped up these little treat bags using my Cricut and Gypsy. Ok "whipped" up is a little misleading because it took a good bit of time to cut and assemble everything.(actually about 2 1/2 hours.)

Recipe
Cricut
Tags Bags Boxes and More(TBBM) cart
Create A Critter(CAC) cart
Cardstock
I used my Gypsy, but you can make these without one.
Cellophane Treat Bags
Adhesive(I used my Xyron 5" sticker maker and it went pretty fast)
ribbon

I started with the treat boxes themselves and using TBBM, I sized them so I could get 2 on a sheet of 12x12 paper. I cut 25 of these. I assembled, filled with candy and then tucked into the bags.

Using CAC, I cut the monkeys and the bunnies at 4.18" along with their layers and shadows and attached them with ribbon to the bags. I love the little critters on this cart and plan on using more in the future.

While this Blog Hop is going on, I am at a Cricut Swarm in Michigan on Friday and Saturday, and I wanted to share with you my Valentines I made for exchanging at the Swarm. I also wanted to show you the calling cards I made to pass out.

The Valentine's were made using the Cricut to cut the cartstock with the scalloped heart cut into it. I ran that piece through my cuttlebug. I stamped the image on a folded card, colored with markers, and then pop dotted the scalloped heart piece over the top. I then added paper flowers and bling.

The Calling Cards are 3x3 and made almost entirely using my Imagine, except for the W.

Well thanks for joining me on my first blog hop. Don't forget about the blog candy, see post below for instructions on how to win a Nursery Rhymes cartridge and also the tote bag that Thirty One Gifts has generously donated.

Here is a list of blogs participating this weekend, and also a next blog button to hop to Nana Donna's Blog.

She's A Sassy Lady
Thunderbirdlindy by Design
Nana Donna's Card Dreams
Okielady's Scrap N'More_bug
MelissaMade
Just Yolie, Just Create
Gaby Creates
Daily Grace Creations
The Cricut Diaries
The Cricut Couple

FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYONE BLOG HOP, with Blog Candy!!!

2011-02-12T07:00:00.047-05:00

Hi Everyone, I can't believe I am doing my first blog hop. This is very exciting for me, and I have been very busy making sure I didn't forget anything. Blog List, Check. Next Blog button, Check. Blog Candy, Check. Lets see do I have everything..........Wait Oh Yeah, my project. Silly me, I almost forgot.

I would like to share with you today a wreath I made for my Daughter's teacher. Since our theme for the blog hop is Red Hot, I thought this quailified.

Recipe:
Wreath approx 10"
Ribbon for bow and tails
French Manor
Home Decor
Gyspy Wanderings
Summer in Paris cricut cartridges
Assorted Paper to match Ribbon
addnl glittered ribbon or ribbon ofyour choice approx 3/8" wide
twine to hang heart in center
I also used K&Co Valentines embelishments

And now on to the Blog Candy, Just sign up to be a follower and leave a comment on this post by next Friday (2-18) at 11:59 PM and I will draw one person using random.org to win. Please only one comment per person. Oh, and the candy is a brand spanking new Nursery Rhymes cart.

I also want to mention that our Sponser is Thirty One Gifts, and they have generously donated a wonderful tote. All you have to do is leave a comment on all of the blogs participating. The winner will be drawn randomly from one of the Blogs.

Here is the list of blogs participating in the hop in case you get lost. Also to go to the next blog, just click on the button below.

My Babies

2011-02-06T19:15:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone, this post has nothing to do with crafting or the Cricut. I just wanted to introduce you to some of the members of our Family. These are my beautiful babies, Ony, Tsyphonie and Prayer. I got Ony(Reg. name Pets Perfect Onyx) in 2004 when he was 3. He is a Registered Arabian.

Don't let his beautiful, innocent face fool you. His nickname is Distructo. If it is unattached in his stall or pasture, it is fair game. He has destroyed several water buckets, and can untie any rope. He opens and shuts gates that are tied back all of the time. I came home one day and the 12 foot metal gate that was on hinges and tied open, was laying in the middle of the indoor arena. Somehow he got it untied and lifted it off it's hinges and put it in the middle of the arena. Another time I came home and he had fiddled with the arena gate that goes to the outside of the barn where there are no fences, I was standing in the barn and heard a gate slam shut and turned around to see his butt disappear thru the gate to the outside. But before the other horses could follow him, he came tearing backing into the barn with his tail over his back. He must have scared himself. Luckily no one else got out and I got the gate shut. Now all the gates that he has access to are either chained shut or chained open. He follows me around the barn like a puppy dog when I am cleaning the stalls. I walk, he walks, I stop, he stops. I have to watch him though, because if my wheelbarrow is anywhere near by full of manure, he turns it over before I can stop him, and I have to pick it up all over again. Here is another picture of him at our last show.

Below is my TSymphonie(pronounced Symphony). Don't let her pretty face fool you either. She may look all sweet and good, but her nickname is B*%!ch Face. I got her when she was 2 and she could flatten her ears back so far it didn't look like she had any. She made the meanest face I have ever seen on any animal, human or otherwise. Since I have been working with her, she almost likes me now, and I hardly ever get to see her mean face anymore. We still have our battle of the wills and usually it's a tie and we both end up giving a little. She is Saddlebred/Half Arab.

Finally there is Prayer(Afternoon Prayer BFA). I got her on an internet/ebay style auction last September. I bought her for my daughter who has been taking riding lessons for a couple of year now. When you are growing up,a horse can be your best friend and keep you out of a lot of trouble. I had one that was my best friend and she needed one too. I did not see her in person before I bought her, just a video on the internet. A little 5 year old girl was riding her around, so I thought she might be perfect. She came to Indiana all the way from southern North Carolina,and you guys think shipping is high on carts on Cricut.com, try paying for shipping on a horse!! She is 4 years old and just the sweetest thing, except when she is eating her supper, then she makes mean Tsymphonie faces. I am starting to think it's a mare thing. She is only 4 and has a lot to learn to be an upstanding horse citizen, but then I have lot's of patience.

Pics are not very good, I took them and it's the middle of winter. Hopefully next year I will get some from a professional photographer.

(the dog in the background is our duffusy dog Maddy, I will save that post for another day.)

Thanks for joining me today as I talk about my Horse family. To me there is no more calming influence in the world then the time I spend with them..... most days:)

Yudu Card Shop

2011-02-02T06:00:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone, it's pretty snowy here in Indiana. We are all huddled down and waiting out the storm. On HSN a couple of weeks ago, Provo Craft launched their Yudu Card Shop. Since I have every major tool Provo Craft has made, I thought I better add this to my stash also. It's pretty simple to use with the premade screens, albeit kind of limiting. I am hoping they will have more screens available and not just through HSN. You can buy blank screens and burn your own if you have the big Yudu, also you can make screens using vinyl, but I haven't done that yet. Anyway, it was not very messy and my first couple of pulls turned out the first time. I had used my large Yudu already, so I knew what to expect and how much ink to apply. I plan on making more cards with this, I also plan to print on wider ribbon for my other projects.

Quick Card

2011-02-01T19:11:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone, I wanted to share with you a quick card I made using a couple of stamps from Hero Arts(my favorite stamp co.), a Martha Stewart punch, Assort cardstock, Promarkers, and some ribbon I made using Glimmer mist and rayon seam binding.

I stamped a white piece of cartstock using a background stamp and distress ink in vintage photo. I inked the edges, punched the bottom with a MS punch and adhered to a blue piece of carstock that I also punched with the same punch. I then stamped the flower on top. I also stamped the flower on a white piece of cardstock, colored with promarkers and cut out the flower and the leaves. I pop dotted that over the stamped flower. I adhered that to a printed piece of blue cardstock. Off to the side I adhered another piece of plain blue cardstock that I stamped a swirl on, punched with the MS punch. I tied the ribbon around it I made. To make the ribbon, I started with a white piece of 1/2" seam binding made out of rayon, about 3 feet long. I put in a plastic bowl and sprayed with glimmer mist. I scrunched up the ribbon and left to dry in the bowl over night. To finish the card I took 3 addnl Hero arts stamps, stamped on white, colored, cut out, and pop dotted to the lower edge of the card.

Altered Printer's Tray.

2011-01-26T06:00:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone, today I am a guest designer on Shesasassylady. Today I wanted to share my altered Printer's tray that I got at Hobby Lobby for $5.00. I was at Archivers over Christmas and noticed the 7 Gypsies Printer's trays. It was the first time I was privey to one, and I was immediately hooked. They had one decorated up, and I knew I needed to make one. Theirs was 19.99, but I couldn't bring myself to spend that much on one when they had so many other things I wanted to spend my money on, so back on the shelf it went. On the way out, I was thinking if I talked real nice to DH, he could make me a knock off. Anyway, a week later I was shopping at HL and they had the Paper Studio's printer's trays for half off their normal price of $10.00, so I grabbed 2. A white one and a black one. Here is the black one. I started with 3 pics that I printed in b&w so they would not clash with my color scheme. I had bought some Lost and Found paper while I was at Archivers that had a valentine's theme to it with red glitter accents. I love, love, love this paper, double sided and thick. I used it as accents in the cubbies that did not have any pics in them, it was already pre-decorated.
For the cuts, I used the following carts:
Cake Basics
Gypsy Wanderings
and MS Season Cake Art(my new go to cartridge besides George)

I got the idea for the ribbon off of the Circle Blog, I ordered the seam binding off of ebay(white), took some glimmer mist and colored my own ribbon. I sprayed the ribbon in a bowl and let it set overnight until it was dry.

I then placed this ribbon between the scalloped heart and the regular heart.

I inked the edges, applied stickles, cut the banner off of the MS cart, stamped letters on it and attached the banner to some string, and finished decorating the heart.

The flowers above came next. I saw the idea from the flowers on HSN the other night. I started with luscious tissue paper I got from Micheals in a large quantity.

Took out the red, which already had 8 layers to it, folded it in half and ran it thru my big shot(sizzix). So I was working with about 16 layers of tissue paper. (It cut like butter).

I stapled these in the middle and took each layer and crumpled it one by one.

I ended up with these really cool peony looking flowers. Remember, this will work with any symetrical flower die, circle die, or scalloped circle die.

Here is the finished project.

added more stickles here and there, a ticket, doilies, etc. and I was finished.
Thanks Sheila for having me as a guest designer.
Beth

For the Love of Everyone Blog Hop!

2011-01-21T12:32:00.000-05:00

Exciting News, February 12 thru the 13th, I am participating in my very first Blog Hop! I have never done one before and I am very excited to be participating. Below is a list of al the fabtabulous blogs that are participating in the hop. If you get a minute, check them out. Thirty-One Gifts has graciously sponsored an organizational tote which will be given away to one person that leaves a comment on each blog, and I will be giving away one Cricut Nursery Rhymes Cartridge on my blog to a lucky winner, if you sign up to follow, or are already a follower, and leave a comment on both posts during that weekend.

She's A Sassy Lady - yup that's right - Sheila - Don't know Sheila?? OH my, you must stop by her blog - she has tutorials just about everyday on every project imaginable and how to use that Gypsy - check it out! Each design team member creates a project and shares with you all the juicy details. Sheila has dedicated her blog to teaching others!

My Blog, Thunderbirdlindybydesign

Nana Donna's Card Dreams - Donna's cards can make anyone's jaw drop. Her talent is just amazing - she has techniques that she often shares too and she's quickly becoming a blogging pro! She has recently been asked to be a guest designer at Crafty Creations and is blowing everyone away with creations like this. Stop by and check out all her wonderful creations.
MelissaMade - If you never outgrew your passion for coloring, but wish you knew more, you have to spend some quality time at Melissa's Blog. She has not only never outgrown coloring, she has taken it to the newest level using the latest techniques and creating her own trends with copics and digistamps! In addition she loves to combine her Cricut with her stamps!

Love, Laughter, and Creations - Sherri is a very talented card maker and can be found weekly hosting her very own challenge blog at Jitterbuggin'. The challenges are a blast and typically include three elements: a sketch, a cricut cut, and another fun piece. Each month she gives out a cartridge - so make sure to stop by and participate! In addition she runs her own blog that is fantastic!

Just Yolie, Just Create - Yolie just recently joined our crew - but my oh my - she has a number of awesome freebie cuts for your Cricut and they are just amazing! Look at this ever so cute card with a Thank You sentiment! So not only is she creative she is so nice to share!!
Gaby Creates - Gaby is amazingly talented - her creations are just stunning. She's only been doing scrapbook layouts for the last year and she looks like she's been doing it for years - check this out - and what a fabulous idea to reuse those Christmas photos!
Daily Grace Creations - Peggy and Donna are a mom and daughter team. These gals are so lovable - their closeness shows in each post with such inspiring work. I mean look at how sweet of a post this is. Each card contains a sweetness that is literally visible!
The Cricut Diaries - Summer and Jennifer will also be hopping - Their blog consists of the sweetest cards. They know how to work that Cricut/Imagine, and the iRock for that matter. Their styles are really different I think and you can tell the difference between Jennifer and Summer's creations - both equally beautiful. You should stop by and see what they are up to with the Imagine!
The Cricut Couple - Bobby and Jill are amazingly talented. Did you see they both won for the Provocraft handmade card contest hosted by Jinger? Holy Smokes their creations belong in a museum. The Cricut Couple does fantastic things with paper - their attention to detail is stunning and breathtaking - you won't be disappointed.

Pinwheel Quilt Layout

2011-01-19T13:57:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone, today I am a guest designer on The Bug Bytes. As some of you know I love quilts, all kinds of quilts. I love making them, seeing them in quilt shows, etc. I love the intricate stitching of hand quilted quilts, and the beautiful designs of machine quilted quilts. One of my favorite quilt patterns is the pinwheel. I picked a quilt up at an auction several years ago that had a white background and colorful pinwheels all over it. I used this quilt as my inspiration for a scrapbook layout I made of my daughter's first day of school.

I started with a triangle on my gypsy, and skewed it so the length was more then the height. I then copied it and placed it in a pinwheel pattern, grouped that and copied it 8 more times. The original pinwheel itself was a little less the 3 1/4" when it was grouped, so I ended up with 9 3 1/4" pinwheels on my gypsy. I then cut it out of a off white piece of cardstock. I then chose 9 different brightly colored pieces of card stock cut to 3 1/4" x 3 1/4", and glued them behind the pinwheel cut outs.

Using the Wall Decor and More Cart I cut the clothes line by approx 7 1/4 x 1 1/2 both the shadow and the clothes, inked them, and layered it with pop dots.

Using the Bloom lite cart I cut the Gate and the fences at approx 4" tall along with the shadow and the flowers, inked the images, and pop dotted it to the background.

Here is the finished Layout. I layered my 4x6 pic on a 4 1/4 x 6 1/4" cardstock, and then layered that onto another one.

Thanks Pam for having me as a guest designer this week.

Beth

Weekly Circle Challenge Project

2011-01-18T19:16:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone, I hope you are all good today. I wanted to share with you my project for the Cricut Circle Blog Weekly Challenge. This week's challenge is to create a layout or project using a specified sketch. Here is the the sketch, and the rules are as follows:

Babies are definitely “cute as a button” with their sweet little faces and tiny features. In honor of our Baby Theme, this week we challenge you to create a SCRAPBOOK PAGE or CARD using the sketch below. Your project doesn’t need to follow the sketch exactly, but it should be apparent that you used it as inspiration. Feel free to turn it on it’s side or move elements to fit what you are doing. In addition to using the sketch, we also want you to incorporate STAMPING and BUTTONS (of course!).

Project must be newly created for this challenge and must include atleast 2 different cuts from any Cricut cartridge to qualify.

Here is what I came up with. I printed full sheets of paper on my Imagine using Elise cart so my theme would all tie together. I didn't have any baby pics so I used photos from our trip to South Carolina 2 years ago when we took a carriage ride thru Charleston. I pulled the bird off of 50 state cartridge. And the flower was also cut using the cricut, along with the green scalloped border at the top and bottom of the layout. All I need to do is add my journaling to the post cart area.

Tomorrow I am guest Designer on The Bug Bytes, so stop by for another project.

Beth.

Cricut Circle Blog Monthly Challenge.

2011-01-16T14:59:00.001-05:00

Today I wanted to share with you a project I made for the Circle Blog Monthly Challenge. This month you are supposed to Scraplift an idea off of the blog for your inspiration. Michele Kovack made this card for the blog back in November, and I just loved it and had been wanting to make the card. Michele has some really great projects on her blog, and I visit it often.

I used Bazzill cardstock for the card, and Glimmer Mist for the ribbon as the product from the sponsors. Below are the rules.

JANUARY MONTHLY CHALLENGE: SCRAPLIFT A CIRCLE BLOG PROJECT!

•Use 2 or more Cricut Cuts on the project.

•Use a project you have seen on the Cricut Circle Blog as inspiration for your project.

•Use products from atleast two of our Sponsors (click on the “Sponsors” along the top of the page to see a list of manufacturers).

The card was cut from Christmas cards and is 4"x4", and the skates are from Winter Woodland and 2.25". I love these little skates and can see so many uses for them.

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and remember comments mean the world to me.

Beth.

Quick Card and Valentine's Blog Hop

2011-01-15T13:46:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone, I made this Quick Card using DCWV paper stack The Whimsy. I started with a card, 4.25 x 5.5 and layered the Whimsy cardstock. I used Martha Stewart edge punches for added interest. For the cartridges, I used Hannah Montana for the doves, and Four Legged Friends for the birdcage. I added some bling and ribbon. Wouldn't this make a cute card for a very special Lady?

I wanted to share with all of you that I am participating in a Valentine's Blog Hop Feb 12 and 13, so stop by. I will be posting a new project each of those days.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Beth

Card I created for Jinger's HSN Card Contest

2011-01-12T18:06:00.000-05:00

Jinger Adams from Provo Craft is having a card contest for the launch of PC's new product on HSN on Jan 20th. I mailed this card today. The rules are you have to use either Don Juan, Wall Decor, or Winter lace carts and some Anna Griffin Product. I just happen to have a scrapbook album kit I bought off of HSN many years ago that I never finished, so I had lots of her paper. I used Wall Decor for the butterfly cut. I cut the butterfly 2 x for the background and pop dotted it, and then once in Pink glitter paper. I found this very hard only being limited to 3 carts to chose from. I have a bazillion and wanted to pull them all out to pick and chose from. The pic is very dark, I took it at work before I took the card to the Post Office. Wish me luck, if my card is chosen, it might be with all of the samples during the showings on HSN. That would be awesome.

Beth

I finished my Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas Tags, FINALLY!

2011-01-10T14:47:00.001-05:00

I have been working on these off and on since before Christmas and just finished them today. I had some of his products, but had to improvise on the ones I didn't. I used SCALand my Cricut Carts for the majority of it. I explained further under each picture. Hope you like them.

I started cutting the tags in manilla cardstock on my cricut using TBBM and the hide contour on my Gypsy to get rid of the hole in the tag. But eventually purchased the Tim Holtz die to cut the rest of the tags out. So even though they are the same height, they are not the same shape. On the tag above, I did not have the bird die from TH, so I used the bird off of Gypsy Wanderings and cut out of grunge paper. I also did not have any of his tissue paper tape, so I cut regular tissue paper into strips, stamped an image on them and grunged them up a bit using Vintage Photo distress ink. I used this under the rosette above. I did not have his tree stamp, so I just used another branch stamp that I had for under the bird.

I used Christmas Cards cartridge to cut the mask for the horse and sleigh and followed his directions for the masking technique. I didn't have the house die, so I welded houses on my gypsy from the Christmas cartridge and made them about 1.5" tall and cut them out of grunge paper, then I followed his steps for decorating the houses. I did end up purchasing the corner metal pieces because I could not find a suitable likeness in anything I had. I didn't have a lot of Tim Holtz bling so I created my own. I got some findings from Hobby Lobby that were perfect for die cutting small shapes and putting the shapes in these findings and with Glossy Accents made a glossy dome over the die cut. The findings are in the jewelry isle and are from The Jewelry Shop. I also purchased some beads, 26 gauge wire, jump rings, etc and made my own baubles. All I needed was a pair of jewelry cutters and needle nose pliers to make these, plus I could make more sets then what it costs to purchase them already made.

Purchased

Handmade

This tag is one of my favorites because of the color. I used the Seasonal paper from TH Idea-ology collection, that my Micheals now has on the shelf. Surprise, Surprise. Also used handmade bling.

I didn't have any of the dies I needed for this tag, so I used SCAL and printed the images out that I wanted, traced them, colored them black with a sharpie and scanned them into my computer. Opened them in SCAL and was able to create a scut file from them. I cut them on grungepaper and then follow his directions for distressing them. The ticket was cut from one of the carts I had, but I can't remember which one. It worked perfect cut out of Kraft paper. The tissue along the bottom was made using the directions above.

I created the green label using my gypsy and some shapes that I welded together off of carts because I did not have this die from his collection. I cut it from grunge paper. The 25 was cut from Blackletter or another cart from grunge paper and distressed. The santa stamp was one I had laying around.

This tag has homemade bling on it and the bird was cut from Gypsy Wanderings, grunge paper and distressed using his rusty distress technique.

Snowman was created using George and a couple other carts and the cut file can be gotten under my cut file tab above.(Enjoy)

Joyful and the swirls was cut using my cricut carts, the poinsettia was made using his flower dies, following his directions on his blog.

The House and the tree were cut from the cricut carts, along with the ticket.

Rosette was cut using a cut file I made under the file tab above. Peace on earth was cut from Blackletter on grunge paper.

Tree was cut using SCAL. I took dictionary paper and stamped a stamp on it using versa mark and embossing in clear embossing power. I inked the rest of the tag, but where I had stamped and embossed, it resisted the ink. I really like this technique and I am planning on using a lot in the future.

The Ornament and Joy was cut using scal.

To see the original Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags click HERE. I hope I have inspired you to try these even if you don't have all of his product.

Beth

Weekly Circle Blog Challenge

2011-01-06T23:07:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone, I made this for the Weekly Circle Blog Challenge. It came together very quick, and I needed to get it posted for the challenge tonight. Sorry the pics are so dark, It was late and I couldn't find my picture light. It does use the milk carton Gypsy file that you can get under my cut file tab above.

Here are the rules of the challenge:

Weekly Challenge #14: Getting In Shape!

According to polls, “getting in shape” is among the Top Ten Resolutions people make each New Year’s Eve. Let’s do it! Let’s start the New Year off right by getting in shape . . . a shape other than a rectangle. We challenge you to create a project in a shape other than a square or rectangle. Your project must also include a number somewhere and bling of some kind (to go along with this week’s theme of “Blinging in the New Year”!
Project must be newly created for this challenge and must include atleast 2 different cuts from any Cricut cartridge to qualify.

The numbers are one the tissue paper that I stamped with a ruler stamp on the front door in case you can't see them.

Beth

My Pink Stamper Design Team Challenge

2011-01-02T23:01:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone, I hope everyone had a great New Years. It's almost time for me to go back to work after 13 days off in a row. It was awesome. After getting back from West Virginia, I got to scrap/craft everyday. They had to pry me out of my craft room. I was surfing the craft/cricut sites yesterday and I saw that My Pink Stamper was having a design team challenge for 2 openings in her Design team. I discovered Robyn about a year ago on the Message Board for Provocraft and have been checking in on her from time to time. She does a lot of fun give aways and Hosts live Web shows, and has an awesome blog with lots of followers. Anyway, I thought I would throw my name in to the fray for the challenge. I saw this gable box while looking thru the Paper Crafts magazine the other day and didn't think that any of my carts had anything similar on them, so once again I created my own using George, TBBM, and my Gypsy. I used the rectangle and a circle off of George, and some tags from TBBM. I sized them, welded them and created the box that is approx 8" tall x 4" wide x 2" deep. I cut it on my cricut and then turned the blade over and scored it using the 2nd tab I created with just the rectangles, so all I had to do was glue and fold on the score marks. After the box was complete, I cut 1 piece of brown cardstock 3 and 5/8's x 5 1/2 for the front of the box, 1 piece of cream cardstock 4 and 7/8 x 3 1/4 inked the edges and adhered to the 1st piece of cardstock. I then cut 1 piece of pink cardstock 2 3/4 x 4 1/2 and layered with a piece of cream cardstock that I cut 2 1/2 x4 1/8, ran thru my embosser using Cuttlebug dot embossing folder. I inked the edges and then sewed a zig zag stitch around the whole thing. I tied a Green ribbon around this package, and adhered to the cream and brown cardstock. I stamped the flower image on a piece of cream cardstock using the watercolor technique, trimmed, inked and adhered to the front of the Cuttlebugged(is this a word?) cream cardstock with pop dots. Finally I cut 4 butterflies at 1" tall using EveryDayPaper Doll. I hid contour on 2 of them and cut the other 2 as is. I layered these together, added pink pearls and glued to the front. I stamped the word Sweet on a tag I cut with Gypsy Wanderings at 2" long, inked the edges and glue under the ribbon. Here are addl pics of the project.

The rules for the Challenge are below:

You will need to have a blog

*You cannot already be serving on a DT that has product that is a conflict of interest (most DTs are just fine as long as they do not sell product that is similar to My Pink Stamper Original Cricut Stamps idea)

*Your project must be made just for this challenge

*Post a pic on your blog with a full recipe along with what the challenge is about

*This needs to be a new project that you make just for this challenge

*Only one entry per person, please

*You must have either a Cricut or Imagine to serve on the team

*No experience necessary but you must have a love for the craft! :)

Challenge: Make a card, scrapbook page, or other Cricut project with your favorite cartridge using my favorite colors......

Pink

Green

Brown

(other optional color of your choice).

If you get a chance hop on over to Robyn's blog and check it out!

Hope you enjoyed my project today, I liked how it turned out. I will see you later,

Beth.

Circle Blog Weekly Challenge

2010-12-29T23:29:00.001-05:00

Hi Everyone, I hope everyone had a wonderful and uneventful Christmas. I was able to spend the whole day scrapping, something I never get to do. It was awesome. I even did a little shopping online, well maybe not a little. I really must rein myself in. This week alone, I sent in an order to Sizzix, Papercrafting Pro, and a2z scrapbooking. We also went to WV over Christmas and on the way back, I talked DH into stopping at Archivers in Columbus. I could spend hours in there. So, today I got to play with some of my new toys. I was working on the Tim Holtz 12 days of Christmas tags, when I suddenly realized, that the Weekly Circle Blog Challenge deadline was coming up, I thought tonight, and then I realized it was only Wednesday, and that I had until Thursday, AFTER I got the project done. I started on it at 7 pm and finished at 11 with pics. Here is my project:

I started with a 5.5 x 4.5 red tin that I painted with Pink acrylic paint.
I used my Cricut Imagine and the following carts:
Blossom(Pink Background Paper)
Better Together(Child, Dog, Fox, Bunny, BackGround, Houses)
Nursery Tails(trees)
Hopscotch(Cloud Background Paper)
I added a porcelain knob at the top, and ribbon around the top edge.

Happy Christmas Eve Everyone.

2010-12-24T20:04:00.002-05:00

For the last several days I have been wistfully looking at my craft room. I purchased some Tim Holtz product a week ago, and have not had a chance to use it yet. With the Holidays and all, we have been pretty busy here. So maybe after things settle down a bit, I can get back to creating. I still want to finish my 12 days of Christmas tags from his series. It's quiet in our house tonight, I am getting ready to settle down and watch A Christmas Story with my family, something we do every Christmas Eve. For the last 2 days I have been baking. Every year for the past 19 years, I bake cookies for our neighbors. 8 trays of cookies go out. I took some pictures this year to share. I make my favorites, Sugar, Gingerbread, and Date pinwheels, and then I always do something different that I have never tried before. This year it was Wilton's chocolates with a creme center. Here are the trays finished.

I want to wish all of you a Very Merry Chirstmas, and A Happy New Year. I hope you get everything you wish for Christmas.

Beth.