Feastive Wreath Card with Joys of the Season & Heirloom Ornaments Nesties

Oops!  I *just* checked my blog and discovered that it never posted this morning.  So sorry.  

I was wrapped up in Christmas cards and had not anticipated that blogger would mess with  my post!

It's a festive Christmas BBTB2 Monday and I have a new project to share.  The challenge cut of the week at the Bitten by the Bug 2 blog is the wreath from the Joys of the Season cartridge.  My confession is I had never cut this wreath before.  But after this weekend it just may be one of my favorite cuts from JOTS.  Isn't it funny how we can be introduced to new cuts even when we are part of a design team?  That is one of the best parts of a design team; well that and the wonderful design team sisters!

Do I even need to tell you that I used Cricut Design Studio to design my card?  The Gypsy would have worked just as well, but I am addicted to using my laptop.  I placed two of the wreath shadow cuts onto the mat, flipping the second wreath so that it was a mirror image of the first.  I used the Hide Select Contour feature and removed the open centers from both shadow cuts.    I nudged the two shadows together and welded each so that they would cut as my base card.

I cut the top layer of wreath in a light green Core'dination cardstock, and the accent leaves in a medium Core'dination cardstock.  I added highlights with Copic markers.

For the center of my card I used the two smallest sizes of Heirloom Ornament Nestabilities.  I used a decorative stamp on a piece of smooth white cardstock and stamped in red and cut out one of each size ornament from the image.  I then cut out the center part only of the second from smallest ornament and stamped it with an ornament stamp and a Merry Christmas sentiment.  I added the three ornaments to the card using pop dots.  Pen accents were added on the ornaments and on the card to represent the ornament hangers.

From the side you can see that I used deeper pop dots for the ornaments and smaller dots forth accent leaves.  For the berries, I used a 1/4 inch hole punch and glued the dots to the wreath. As a final touch I added the fun red and white striped ribbon to the card. 

Inside the card I cut a four inch circle and stamped a Christmas greeting in black Staz-On ink.   Below is a final look at the card.  While I love the heirloom ornaments, this card would be cute with a Cricut cut sentiment in the middle of the wreath. One last comment, this card goes together quickly so if you still need to create a few cards, this card would be perfect for last minute Christmas Cards. 

warm holiday wishes

Happy BBTB2 Monday.  This week the challenge cut at BBTB2 is the cup from the Joys of the Season cartridge.  The design team could use the cup in any project that we wanted.  I jumped ahead and made a Christmas card.  I am SOOOO far behind on my Christmas cards this year!

If that last sentence sound silly, since after all it is only August(!), last year I made six card each month and I was all set to mail cards by December.  I have not been nearly so productive this year.  However, while at CKC this last weekend I did purchase quite a bit of Christmas card making goodies.  Hopefully I will get rolling on them soon.

I used SEI paper to and Core'dinations cardstock to create this card, along with a Technique Tuesday Scalloped tile.  The tiles take ink so much better than chipboard; I just may have a new favorite to add to my long list of favorites!  All of my cuts, except the two background rectangles (Plantin) came from Joys of the Season.  It is such a great cartridge and offers so many wonderful holiday cuts.

If you have not been by BBTB2 and viewed the other fabulous projects you owe it to yourself to do so!

Have a great day.

Bitten By The Bug Winter Woodland Branch

Happy Monday - It's a Bitten by the Bug challenge day.  This is the last BBTB challenge of the year as the team will take a holiday until Monday, January 4th.  The challenge cut was to use the branch cut on the Winter Woodlands cartridge.

I cut the branch in Core'dination White Washed blue cardstock.  I lightly sanded the branch to reveal more of the blue base.  I used red metallic to cut the berries.  I used Core'dination White Washed white cardstock for the snow on the branch and added icicle Stickles for a frosty look.

I cut the bird in red Core'dination cardstock (shadow), followed by red Bazzill cardstock for the icon cut.  I used the red metallic paper to cut the bird's body and gold metallic to cut the bird face.  Poor little cold bird; I hope he enjoys the berries.

The tag on which the bird and branch are mounted was cut in SEI Winter Song paper (I love this line of paper).  Under the SEI tag is a tag shaped card cut in navy Bazzill cardstock.  Inside is a smaller white cardstock tag on which a greeting has been stamped.

Below the tag is a red silk ribbon and bow, accented with a smear of icicle Stickles.  The word Peace was from the Joys of the Season cartridge.  I used the red White Washed Core'dination cardstock to cut the word. 

Busy, Busy Week of Designs

I have a busy week with designs posted in different places.  Today I am a guest designer at the FABULOUS Christmas With The Cricut site.  I love CWTC.  These ladies inspire me every single day!  And in addition to being great designers and awesomely creative, they are three of the nicest women you would EVER want to meet.

There are two other guest designer projects at CWTC also - when you go by, and you should go by CWTC, be sure to look at Teri's and Christina's holiday home decor ideas.

Brrrrr - Poor Little Cold Penguin

Happy Monday readers!  It is a Bitten By The Bug Monday where the featured cut is the adorable little Penguin on the Joys of the Season cartridge.  If you have not been by BBTB you have to go check out all of the fabulous penguin projects.

My penguin is shivering in the cold... He is so cold he is blue!   The penguin rests on a large snowflake, also cut from Joys of the Season.  The word Brrrr is from Winter Woodlands and I thought it was a perfect addition.

I used icicle Stickles over the word Brrrr to enhance the frosty effect.  I also used Glossy Accents on the top layer of blue skin on the penguin.  He looks smooth and sleek, ready for a quick swim.

In addition ot BBTB, I have two other projects posting today.  Be sure to click the blinkies and visit Custom Crops for a fun project to make for the guys, and click the Gypsy Spot blinkie for the premier of the new design team.

BBTB Pooh Gift Box

Happy Labor Day! I hope all of you (at least in the US) are enjoying a day with your families and friends and not missing work at all!

This week's challenge cut at BBTB is the gift box on the Pooh and Friends cartridge. I have been in a Holiday mood, focusing a lot on Halloween and Christmas projects this week. So... I decided to use JOTS and make a Christmas card. Probably not too original, but as I said I have been rather single-minded in my Holiday themes of late.

Also while I have you here let me encourage you to stop back later in the week. I will have four new projects release this week at Custom Crops (which I will preview here) and also I have been working on a couple of projects just for me (which I will also preview here). I look forward to sharing those projects with you this week.

Two New Christmas Cards

There are so many amazing Christmas card ideas posted onboth the Cricut message board and assorted blogs (especially Christmas with the Cricut) that I have been inspired this week.

First, I scraplifted a card that Joy made at the Christmas with the Cricut using the Joys of the Season cartridge. I changed the sizes a bit, but otherwise this was Joy's design.

My second card was my design. I used a new spellbinders embossing snowflake sheet on white cored blue cardstock. After I embossed the design into the cardstock I used a sanding block to remove the blue layer of paper from the embossed design.

I used Accents Essentials and cut three snowflakes, one at 2 inches and two at 1.5 inches. I attached the snowflakes over top of the embossed layer on my card. I added a Season's Greetings tag made using nesties long and scalloped long rectangles and a Stampin' Up stamp. Finally I finished the card off with a piece of navy ribbon and a little bow.

I set a goal back in January to create six cards Christmas cards per month. So far I am still on target with only four months to go. I should have 72 cards in time to mail for Christmas!!

Window Shopping Card

Have you been by the Christmas with the Cricut blog yet? I continue to find daily inspiration there. These three ladies are multi-talented! Last week there was an amazing Santa's village scrap page that I adored. That layout inspired this card: Window Shopping.

I used the Dreams Come True cartridge along with Joys of the Season and Lyrical Letters for this design. The window layers and the dress came from Dreams Come True. Joys of the Season was used for the base card and for the dress stand inside the card. The word Boutique was cut using Lyrical Letters. The message inside the card was stamped using a Stampin' Up word stamp.

I have added the cut file to the cut files on the left; the title is Window Shopping Card.

A couple of quick notes if you should decided to download the and make the card:

1. You will need to cut the shutters twice, once for the outside of the shutters and once for the middle panels. The shutters have been added to the cut file two times.
2. You will need to trim the top of the window cut and shadow with scissors to fit on the card.
3. The word Boutique was cut straight but I curved it when attaching it to the front of the card.
4. The window opening was cut by hand.
5. Finally, an acetate sheet was cut to fit in the window.

Christmas In July at Custom Crops

Have you been by Custom Crops and viewed the new projects (with cut files and directions) that were released on Monday? I have Christmas in July Package Tags!!!

I used brads on the Snowman to represent the coal buttons.


The Ornament is accented with silver paper trim - isn't it nice on the topper and the scrolling detail?


The Christmas Tree was accented with different colors of the stickles. I thought the stickles represented the tree lights.


And finally the Joy tag; I love the joy tag! I just love the word JOY!


To view the directions and download the cut file, follow this link to my page at Custom Crops and click on the project title. I would appreciate it if you would leave a comment at CC, they really do track the comments!
http://www.customcrops.com/articles.php?authors_id=3