Maureen's Garden Plaque

Here is my sister with her garden plaque:

Hi Everyone, today is my first time hosting the weekly challenge at BBTB2.  This one will be a little challenging, that's for sure; Use a Cricut cut as a stencil on a card or project.   I had to think about this one for a while, as I didn't really have an idea for a project when I came up with the idea.   I made two of these plaques, one for me and one for my sister.

They were actually pretty easy to make.  I took a board and put stain on all sides, letting it sit overnight.   In CCR, I typed the text "Maureen's Garden" using the Artbooking cartridge, and cut them out on heavy cardstock.  I made another cut using the shadow icon of a hummingbird with a flower from Give a Hoot.   Lining up the stencil, I used acrylic paints to stencil on the wood, letting each stencil dry before laying down the next stencil.  I handpainted a shadow on the lettering and layered paints on the bird and flower.   It's a little rough, but I like how it turned out.  The next day I covered all sides with polyurethane to protect the plaque as it will go outside.  A hanger on the back and it's ready to go.   I think I might make a few more of these as gifts.

Take a look and see what my design team sisters have come up with this week, here's the link:  BBTB2

My Hero, My Dad

This week at BBTB2, we honor President's Day with a "Patriotic" theme.   I couldn't pass up the opportunity to scrap a picture of my son-in-law when he was a Marine and a recent picture of my granddaughter waving a flag.  The two pictures just seemed to go together in my mind.  I was searching for some dark green paper and ran across this U.S. Marines paper that I got at Scrapbook Expo a few years ago.   I had already wanted to put My Hero as the title, and found it as a Phrase on the Artbooking cartridge, and then added lettering of "My Dad" and the two frames from the same cart.   USA and the stripe with stars was also from Artbooking. I find this is one of my most used cartridges since I got it a few months back.   It has a little bit of everything on it. I used the Base Camp cartridge to cut out the Wallace as dog tags.   I used my new Brother label maker to add the black writing.   Take a look at the other posts this week at BBTB2.

First fleece rag style quilt

My mother had this kit and never started it.   When we cleaned out her house I took it, and it sat in my closet for 4 years.  I took it out and in 2 days it was done.   It came out great!   I had not tried this rag technique before, the con is that you have to be sure not to catch the fringe in your stitches.  My mom probably would have donated it to St. Anthony's in SF where she volunteered.   I decided to donate it also, my sister will give it to a women's and children's shelter in Northern CA for me that she knows could use it.  I've already started another quilt using smaller squares for a baby.  Stay tuned!

Partially Organized Craft Room

It's true, most of the time my scrap and sewing room combo is a mess.  I never seem to get it totally organized and looking sleek and clean like the ones I see on Pinterest.   It's never going to happen.  A few of my design sisters over at BBTB2 sometimes have this same issue.   So we decided to bond together and organize and clean our scraprooms and present them to you this week.     Thus, my title "Partially Organized Craft Room".   I took two areas of my room and am ready to show them to you.   The Cricut area is a built in desk that was there when we moved in.  I have this old wooden mail cabinet and green spice rack that used to be my dads that I use to hold my cartridges.  They are in alphabetical order.  I have a plastic case for cartridges for ones that don't have a box.  My Cuttlebug and a lunchbox of folders complete the desktop.  Inside the desk I keep my Cricut mats, pens, vinyl and my hot glue guns.

The 2nd area I would like to show you is part of my storage.  This IKEA shelving unit holds my plastic cases of die cuts, stickers, paper collections, stamps, projects, etc.   I have labeled most of them.   The big plastic box on the right holds all my ink pads.  Lower shelves hold flowers and buttons along with a shelf for Stampin Up/Amuse/CTMH/misc unmounted stamp sets and a container of ribbons.  I like to display a project or two as space allows.

Maybe in the next month or so I will attack the rest of the area and share that with you.  Until then, please be sure to enjoy the scraproom makeovers of my design sisters over at BBTB2.  Enjoy!

ATC Swap - made into V-day cards

I participated in an ATC (artist trading card) swap on the Cricut Message Board.  They came back this week, and were so pretty I just had to use them.  One person puts them in an ATC sized tray that displays 12 cards.  I decided to make some easy Valentines Day cards with 3 of them.   I added another contrasting mat frame, and then made them into A2 sized cards, adorning the bottom with Red/white ribbons.  I inked them and added scraps inside for some color.   Ready to send out tomorrow - Happy Valentine's Day.

Valentines Heart - Puzzle and Holder

This week at BBTB2, we are challenged to create a Valentines project with a heart.   Today, I have two hearts to share with you.  Both cuts are done from the Cricut Artiste cartridge.   I took a 4x6 picture of my daughter and her then to be husband and glued it to pink cardstock.  I sized the heart puzzle cut from Artiste at just under 4" using the CCR, and cut it out.   The folded red heart is really an envelope and it will hold the puzzle pieces along with some little cuts of the word LOVE.  I stuck in a heart so that my daughter can write a personal note to go along with the puzzle.  I inked the edges of the envelope and the 'my valentine' cut, which are from Artbooking.

Happy Valentines Day. I'm looking forward to see your Heart creations using the Cricut on BBTB2.