Lake Fun!

Hi!!  Lori here from ScrappinMyStressAway!!

This week at Sweet Sassy Diva's Blog our theme is Vacation Anyone?  I took these pictures at my brother's cabin in May.  The kids were fishing and riding in the paddle boat and having a great time!!

I started out with my Gypsy:

I saw a layout on Pinterest that had some paper waves and wanted to make some.  I found this border from Martha Stewart Elegant Cake Art and sized it to 4.8w x 1.58h and welded two together.  I hid the inside cuts with Hide Contour.

I cut out LAKE FUN from Martha Stewart Birthday Cake Art sized to .88 inches.  

I cut out three waves and trimmed 1/4" off of one and 1/2" of a second wave in order to stack them.

I used this bright paper from Quick Quotes to layer my photos with!

I inked the waves with Opaque ink.

Next, I added some fish and fishing poles from the accessories on Everyday Paper Dolls.  I sized the fish to 2.41 inches and 2.18 inches.  I sized the fishing poles to 2.06 inches.

I added the sun and chair from Life is a Beach.  The sun is sized to 1.82 inches.  I copied another sun and hid all of the cuts except for the circle pieces to create a circle layer.  The chair is sized to 1.82.

I cut out the pieces from my cardstock scrap stash.

I inked the fish with a little pink and put them in between the waves.  I tied a knot in orange and blue twine and tucked it behind the waves.

I added the title on the water and put the chair in the corner.  The fishing pole is just above the fish.  I adhered one to the layout and pop-dotted the second one on top.

I changed the background paper to something more subdued and added a touch of orange twine.

I hope you enjoyed my layout from our mini vacation.  We usually all go to the Ozarks together every August, but this year (after 13 years) we are not able to all go.  It makes me a little sad, but I look forward to future family vacations!!!

Thanks Bobbi Jo for having me over today!!!

Yummy Creations!

To celebrate National Candy Month, this weeks challenge is to make anything that involves something sweet.
Well, my youngest daughter has developed quite a passion for cake decorating. She bought the Cricut Cake Mini about a month ago and has been learning how to cut out fondant. When she made this cake for a coworker, I knew I wanted to use it for this challenge.

She started by rolling the fondant out on a pastry mat to a thickness of about 1/8th of an inch and cutting it to a rectangle to fit on the 12" x 6" mat. The speed is low the pressure is low - medium. The hair is from Everyday Paperdolls, the rest of the cowgirl is from Paper Doll Dressup, all layers cut at 4". The cake is a 2 layer, 10" frosted with white butter cream and piped with yellow butter cream. This is only her second attempt using the Cricut, but I see lots more cakes in her ( our ) future!

I was impressed with how easily she found the fondant to work with and the Cricut cut it beautifully. If you have ever thought about trying your hand at this yummy pastime I would say wholeheartedly - Go For It!!

Mindy

Design Team Challenge: Scene Layout!

Good Morning! This is Jen from 3 Cats and a Bug. This week at SweetSassyDiva's the challenge is to do a scene LO. When I started this project, the LO I did is not what I had in mind. lol It just kind of worked out that way. My youngest son will probably not be real happy with me over posting this, poor kid.



To make a long story short (er), he was having a ton of problems with his car. We decided it was best to get rid of his old car and buy something with less problems. He certainly needs a reliable car with the baby on the way. So my son and husband went car shopping and he came home with a "Competition Orange" Ford Focus SVT. He was happy and it was reliable, so I was happy. Three weeks into owning this car, he was coming home one night about 8:30 after class and hit a deer. Didn't seem to be a lot of damage, so he continues on his way home. 15 minutes later, about 10 miles from home, he hits a huge Raccoon! In the space of 20 minutes two animals totaled his car! It wasn't actually a tow truck who hauled his car away, it was a flatbed, but the meaning is the same. Ok, so on with my LO.



I used Everyday paper dolls for the roads. I cut them out at 5 and instead of using yellow paper for the stripes in the road, I used yellow stickles. The paper is from an old DCWV paper pack.

I used Nates ABC's for the car and cut that at 5. I used Gypsy Wanderings for deer and cut that at 5 also.

The tow truck, from Nates ABC's was cut at 3.

The Raccoon came from Animal Kingdom and was cut at 5.

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Monster Beauty Treatment!

Hello. My name is Nadia Herbst-McConnell. Bobbi Jo, the SweetSassyDiva herself, has asked me to share a project with you.



I am a paper crafter whose first love is fabrics! A bookkeeper and business owner by trade, I have an arts degree in fiber. For a time, I created juried art dolls that sold in galleries.




Until recently, my Cricut and work with paper have largely been for package decoration or simple cards. It is only recently that I realized that I could really diverge from the art on the cartridges to get the image I wanted. I do so primarily by manually cutting away or adding to the paper die cut form. Each project that I complete helps me to learn a bit more. By adding detail, even when they are not altered and simply cut as rendered, the scene is so much more interesting to me.




The wonderful thing about crafting with paper and glue (as opposed to fabric and stitches) is the time frame. I can complete a vignette from conception to completion in two to four hours. Compared to working in cloth, this is amazing! Working in paper has also proven to be so much less expensive. I can purchase a $300 Alencon lace to sew, or I can create, photocopy, or stamp a similar image for next to nothing to use for paper crafting.




My primary interest in using my Cricut is to have fun! I get the biggest kick out of creating little vignettes, and have so enjoyed the reaction from other Cricut enthusiasts! The ease and speed of using die cut forms keeps it fun for me!

This vignette features a figure that is created by using the legs on the Rock Princess cartridge and the head and shoulder of the Mrs. Frankenstein on the Happy Haunting cartridge. I cut down the monster’s hairdo and added some little curlers I made from rolling paper.

I just discovered Liquid Appliqué. This creates the bubbly bathwater. Glued-on beads make the floating bubbles in the air.







The window is from the October 31st cart. I cut away the shutters and sill and added a hand-cut window treatment, using brads for sconces. I love putting home decorating miniatures in my scenes. I have made window treatments for so many years that making them in paper, and in a matter of minutes, is just the most fun for me!




The spider webs are also from October 31st. The one coming from the ceiling was cut away to fit. Woodwork and towel rack were hand cut to accommodate the potion bottles (cut from Splish Splash) and towel (from Everyday Paper Dolls).




This finishes 6-3/4” x 8” and has been adhered to a mat.




You are invited to visit to see my other vignettes and projects.

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Falling in Love with Autumn!

I have to tell you, this is a VERY exciting day for me. This is my first project as a Design Team Member for Sweetsassydiva !

My name is Mindy Dickinson. My blog is called Grammies Craft Room ( I share my craft room with my 6 yr old granddaughter when she comes to visit )

I have only just been asked to join my first design team for Crafting When We Can Challenge ~ .
I am a Cricut Circle member and my message board name is NJGrammie.
I am mother to 3 grown kids and grandmother to 2 little ones. I have been crafting since I was 7 and my grandmother taught me to crochet. Since then I have tried just about everything out there. Paper Crafting and Counted Cross Stitch are my all time favorites.
I work as a ‘lunch lady’ to allow me to buy and play with all my crafting toys.
My husband bought my Expression for me 3 years ago and I haven’t looked back since. I now also own the E2 Anniversary edition ( bought at launch), the Imagine(bought at launch) and Gypsy (my favorite!). I have been playing around with the Craftroom and have been able to cut with the E2, but haven’t tried with the Imagine yet.

I have approximately 75 cartridges and use about 20 of them regularly. My most used cartridge has to be Kate’s ABCs. My summer project was to make a cut book with all the images from each cartridge in it... hahaha not finished !! maybe next year ! I have gotten more selective with my cartridge purchases, choosing ones that have a wider range of images.

I like to make cards, but I love to make ‘other’ projects the best.

My crafting style is definitely on the simple side. I know I am drawn to projects that seem to be on my crafting level. I love to look at the fancy, sophisticated ones, but I go back to the simple ones time and time again.

I hope you will visit my blog and see all the other things I have done in the past year.

This weeks challenge is to make a wreath. Since fall is my favorite time of year, of coarse I would be using warm, fall colors.

I started by using my Gypsy to make the wreath form. I put 2 circles from George and Basic shapes on my mat and sized them at 9.5" and 6.25"

and cut out using a 12x12 sheet of brown card stock.

Next came the leaves... lots of leaves...that are from Everyday Paper Dolls, cut at 2" in 3 colors. I used metalic gel pens to bring out the cut lines and sponged the edges in Close to Cocoa from Stampin Up. Then I embossed them using the Forest Branches Cuttlebug folder.

The acorn image is from Holiday Cakes. I cut the shadow, base and shift layer all at 2". For the base and shadow I used the auto fill feature on the Expression 2 . I set the paper size to 11" x8.5", chose the image, sized to 2", then hit the auto fill.

I did the same thing with the shadow and shift layer. After I had the 3 layers cut out I decided that I wanted more than the 2 basic colors, so I got the Gypsy out again and pulled up the shift layer. I did the hide contour thing so I could cut the berries in one color then the leaves in another color.

I inked all the edges and put them together. I have some spare parts to use in future projects :)

Some feather yarn for the hanger, a few rhinestones and some of the extra small leaves were added and I called it done.


One thing I want to mention is I used my hot glue gun to assemble this project. I have found that things that have been embossed are hard to attach with double stick tape or regular paper crafting glue.


My supply list:
Cricut Cartridges : Holiday Cakes, Everyday Paper Dolls, George and Basic Shapes
Cards stock - Stampin Up -More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Really Rust, Early Espresso, Mellow Moss, Tangerine Tango, Crumb Cake
Ink - Stampin Up Close to Cocoa
Patterned paper - old Stampin Up Designer paper
Sakura Gel Pens - Lime Star and Gold
Feather Yarn
Rhinestones

Melinda

Hilton Head!

Hi this is Bekah from shalomcrafts.blogspot.com!  This week's challenge was
a 'how i spent my summer vacation' project.  Being that school just started
back up and I'm a busy mom on a budget; I decided that the only whole sheet of
paper I would use would be my background.  The rest of this layout was made
using my scraps.

In my mom needs to get this scrapbook caught up frenzy, I made this entire page
in 20 minutes.  From layout to cut-out to glued down, 20 minutes.  You
moms know how it is.  So now all I need to do is print up my photo, and add
some journaling and done!

We love Hilton Head.  It's a relaxing, quiet vacation spot.  

I made the sand dunes by tearing the light tan colored paper along one edge.

 Super quick!

To save time piecing together the lighthouse.  I cut it twice, once in

maroon on 'blackout' function and then the regular cut in white, layered and
done.

Recipe:

DCWV paper stacks, Brights and Neutrals.  (Green is the only one from the

brights stack)

The photo mat is cut at 4"by 5 1/2" to fit a 3 1/2 x 5" photo.

Grass was cut using the Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge;  cut at  2",

cut 2.

The lighthouse was cut from Life's a Beach cartridge, cut at  11 1/2" once

in blackout (maroon) and once main cut (white).

The lettering was cut at 2".  

Thanks for revisiting my all to quick summer vacation.  Shalom!

Family Reunion!

Good Morning! This is Jen from 3 Cats and a Bug

The theme this week for SweetSassyDiva's; DT is Picnic, which comes at a great time for me! Every year my family has a reunion at the end of July at Fox Lake. My Grandparents bought a place there about 40 years ago, so my family has been going there for a long time. My parents bought my Grandparents place just before they died and my husband and I bought a place two doors down about 5 years ago. It's on a small island, so not only is there fishing, but there's also a lot of wildlife to see, hence the animals in my LO. (I wasn't trying to "say" anything about my family! LOL)



I used 11 different carts for this project. The background paper is My Mind's Eye, the Penny Lane collection. The photo mats were left overs, so I'm not sure what collection they are from. I always use Core'dination paper, I think it cuts the best in my expression. I added glossy accents to the firefly's wings, black enamel accents to the watermelon and the grill, white enamel accents to the frogs and liquid pearls to the deer. All the cuts were just regular cuts, so I didn't take pictures of each step.

Country Life: the banner cut @ 3, the white letters were also the banner, but I used hide contour on the banner to get just the letters in the correct size without too much work. The "July 2011" was cut @ 2.



George and Basic Shapes: the photo mats in different sizes



MS Seasonal: the grass was cut @ 1 and welded together in Design Studio



Walk in my Garden: the caterpillar was cut @ 1



Animal Kingdom: the frogs (3) were cut @ 1



Kates ABC's: the bunny was cut @ 2.5 and flipped in DS



Doodlecharms: the fireflies were cut @ 1.5



Paper Dolls for Everyday: the grill was cut @ 8.25. The utensils were cut @ 4



Indie Art: the birds were cut @ 2



A Childs Year: the watermelon was cut @ 1



Cindy Loo: the deer was cut @ 4 and the squirrel was cut @ 3

Let's EAT!

Hi all.  Bekah from Shalomcrafts.blogspot.com here!

This time, for SweetSassyDiva's design team, I've done a mix-it-up.  It's a
BBQ theme using at least 3 different Cricut Cartridges.

I cut the body of the paper doll on 'blackout' feature.  That way, you can

use a Peachy Keen stamp to do his face.  I colored in the whites of his eye
with a white gel pen.  Peachy Keen stamps really are my favorite; they
stamp so well and they make the Cricut Paper Dolls so much cuter!

I used Everyday Paper Dolls to make the little chef and his grill.  The
banner at the top of the page is from Wild Card.  The title of "Let's Eat!"
and the soda and burger came from the Locker Talk cart.  I then matted some
4 1/4" yellow backed with 4 1/2" green for 4x4 photos and make a little mat for
journaling.

Hope you're enjoying your summer grilling!

Shalom

Guess what carts were used to make this BBQ layout!

Lori here from ScrappinMyStressAway with this week's Mix-It-Up project for SweetSassyDiva.  Our theme was to use several cartridges (check) BBQ theme (check) and a Bold Color (check).  I do not have either of the BBQ themed cricut cartridges, so my Gypsy and I got to work!

The tree is from Just Because Cards sized to 6.23w x 14.93h (real size is 5.78 x 6.92).  The sun is from H20 sized at 2.56w x 2.54h.  The grill shape is from Creative Memories Cheerful Seasons ~ it is the watermelon at 3.79w x 1.59h (minus the slice) and the oval is from George 0.99w x 2.68h rotated 90 degrees.

For the legs of the grill, I used 2 "A"s from Cherry Limeade at 1.52w x 1.94h.  I put another oval on my mat for the grill top.  Again I used George and sized the oval to 0.99w x 2.68h, rotated 90 degrees.  I cut these out in black.

On the 3rd Layer, I put some grass from Everyday Paper Dolls at 12.0w x 2.73h.  I copied a second grass on the mat.  I put the banner from Birthday Bash on the mat at 6.01w x 4.06h.  I put BBQ from Cherry Limeade at .80 inches and the watermelon from Creative Memories at .73 inches.  I copied the watermelon and layer and then hid the watermelon half from each as I only needed the slice. 

I put four skinny balloons (aka hotdogs) on my mat from George and Basic Shapes sized at 0.21w x 0.57h.  I put four circles (hamburgers) on my mat from George at 0.36w x 0.33h.  I put three clouds from Create A Critter on my mat at 2.49w x 2.06, 1.92w x 1.59h and 2.63w x 2.18h.  I hid the inner cut on all three.

Here are the pieces all cut out.

Here is my grill all assembled.

Some hamburgers complete with grill marks! 

Some hot dogs with grill marks!

 

I used some stickles to create the grill top and the smoke.

I put orange stickles on the bottom layer of the sun (under the swirl) and some waterfall stickles on the cloud.

I added some journaling and twine to my layout.

I cut the bird off my banner and added BBQ and the watermelon slice.  I did change my paper for the banner to match the photo mats.

I put some gold stickles on the swing rope.

Here are a couple of photos from our 4th of July BBQ.  I can almost smell the grill!!