BBTB2: Cricut - Patriotic Wreath Decor

Completing this project was in two phases.  I cut, and cut, and cut out rosettes, 9 rosettes to a 12x12" page.  That was a lot of cutting, and it still wasn't enough.  I didn't know how many I needed until I glued most of them on the wreath.  I quit the project for a few months and it just sat there until I decided it was close enough to July 4th and I didn't want to miss putting out this wreath.  So I cut some more red and white rosettes and finished up the project in about an hour.   I love how it turned out.  It was quite an easy project - one cut, lots of rolling of rosettes, and hot gluing them onto a painted Styrofoam wreath.  It looks lovely on my front door. 

Come join our hostess Amy and share your Patriotic 4th of July artwork at Bitten by the Bug2  Use the Linky on the blog and link up from your blog, Pinterest, or Instagram account.  Look what our designers have done this week, HERE.  ---Maureen

BBTB2: Cricut - School Days - Smile It's Picture Day

It's my turn to host the challenge at Bitten by the Bug2 this week.  If it's not near a holiday, I like to think of a theme or cut from Cricut that hasn't been used before.  I think I came up with a good theme this week - "Use a facial feature, face, smiley face, or the word 'smile' on your card or project".

I scanned the Cricut Access files to find an idea or two and decided to create a scrapbook layout of my granddaughter's kindergarten picture.  There is a Smiley face and an apple with a face that fit the bill.  I will fill in the blank journal tags with responses from my granddaughter.  

Cartridges used:  Artiste, Phrases, When I was a Kid, Create a Critter, Feeling Groovy.

Link up a card or layout or project to Bitten by the Bug2 using a face or smiles HERE.

BBTB2: Cricut Santa's Coming to Town

Our spirit was renewed at Christmas once the grandkids came along.  The innocence of believing in Santa, the marveling at sparkly decorations, and learning to sing Jingle Bells just melts my heart.  My layout today includes a picture of my granddaughter from a few years ago.  She came over to help decorate my tree.  She was wearing a dress that her mother wore when she was young, and the stuffed Santa was made by my mother.  Thus, this picture deserves a layout of it's own.

You can join in the Christmas fun by linking up your Christmas cards and layouts/projects that include a Santa Cricut cut to our Bitten By the Bug2 Blog HERE:

My vintage feel has lots of cuts on it:

Tree, Santa, Banner, and Title:  Winter Frolic
Snowflakes:  Artbooking, Don Juan, and A Child's Year
Deer: Wildlife
Presents:  Artbooking
Background Frame:  Artiste

BBTB2: Cricut Autumn Leaves

I haven't had much time to craft lately, as we are helping with family matters and I am doing a lot of babysitting.  Thus, a very simple card for you today.  On Bitten by the Bug2 our challenge for the week is "Autumn Leaves".  I used the negative side of the leaf cut from Designer's Calendar and wrapped a square around it.  The leaf background is done with Distress Oxide Inks to give the design fall colors.  A simple tag from Artise and a 'friend' stamp and it was done in about 1/2 hour.

Join in our weekly challenge once in a while or weekly, we love seeing your designs and creativity.  Here is the link to the Bitten by the Bug2 blog HERE.    Caroline, our sweet designer from http://cardcreationsbycaroline.blogspot.com/ is our hostess for the week.  

BBTB2: Cricut - Day at the Fair

Thanks to L.B. from http://coolbeansbylb.blogspot.com/ for selecting our theme for the challenge this week at BBTB2.  The theme is travel,  whether it be near or far, we would love to see what you come up with.  I decided to highlight our trip to the county fair with our granddaughter.  She was in heaven riding the kiddie rides, licking ice cream, and grooming animals at the petting zoo!  What a fun day.

I used a large cut for the Ferris Wheel, using most of the pieces, from the Artiste cartridge, and lettering from the Carousel cartridge.

Join our challenge at BBTB2, here is the web address:  http://heather-bittenbythebug2.blogspot.com/

BBTB2: Cricut Heart Bouquet Mother's Day

With Mother's Day approaching, our leader at BBTB2 for this week, Emily, from Mollie's Motif has selected our challenge which is to use a bouquet of flowers, or flowers in a vase.  Wow - perfect as there is lots of choices from the Cricut Access I found a great cut of a heart decorated with flowers from the Love Struck cartridge and thought I could do something with it.   Thanks to Emily, I am getting my Mother's Day cards done ahead of time.  I made several of these cards - a few I may even leave off the sentiment and use for another occasion.   I used Artiste for the 'Happy Mother's Day" sentiment and Flower Shoppe for the small flowers.  I inked the edges in a light beige/brown of the base and the white flowers, used gems in the centers, and Stickles on the background flowers.  I popped up the flowers by curving the petals and popdotted the heart off the background.  Overall, I love how it turned out.  

My 4 year old granddaughter wanted to craft today so I let her make a Mother's Day cards for her mommy and other grandma using the same heart.   I let her pick out 2 colors of pink and she helped cut out the heart/background heart and picked a base for the cards.  She likes to press the buttons on the Explore and thinks she is creating all on her own.   She glued on pre-made paper flowers onto her hearts and used a 'little too generous' supply of Stickles on the project.  When the glue bottle was glued shut she said "wait, I know what to do" and went and got a corncob holder from the kitchen drawer and brought it over.  How smart is that = I have never used a corncob holder, only needles and pins.  And I think the Tape Gun is heavier than her hand can handle but she wants to do it all on her own.  On the inside she stamped flowers all over and then wrote I Love Mom.  The cards were really pretty and I am sure they will be loved forever.  Sadly, I did not take a picture before they were sealed in an envelope.  I'll have to post later.

Join us for our 'bouquet of flowers/flowers in a vase'  challenge this week at Bitten By the Bug2 by linking up your project.   Happy Mother's Day to all mums, moms, mommy's, grandmothers, etc.!!!

 

BBTB2 Watch the Road - Cricut Sign challenge

Hi All - It's my turn to select the challenge at BBTB2 this week and I selected a Sign, as in a banner or a informational sign (stop sign).  Head on over and see the wonderful signage at BBTB2 from all the designers and link up your Cricut inspired project.  The people sign is from Autumn Celebrations, the Curve sign is from Artiste, the Stop sign is from Nates ABCs, and the GO sign is from Going Places. Kite is from Classroom -April and May.   The titles - Let's Go and Beep-Beep and the motorcycle cut are from the Beep Beep cartridge.   I added an octagon as a background, but most of it is covered.  I cut these during the free subscription back in April.

This is my granddaughter when she turned two.  Her parents and her uncle gave her an electric motorcycle (both dad and uncle are Harley riders).  She called it her 'room-room'.   At first she wasn't too sure and later on you couldn't get her off.  It plays music and has a couple of speeds, I so wish they had them when I was little.

Link to BBTB2 is http://heather-bittenbythebug2.blogspot.com/

Hand Made Ornaments

Oh My Gosh, so little time, and so much to do before Christmas arrives.   A few weeks ago we had a dishwasher fire.  We are okay, but the cabinet is not and there was a lot of smoke damage, so everything from floor to ceiling had to be cleaned in the kitchen/family room.  My lesson learned is to not run your washer, dryer, or dishwasher while you are not home.  I was about to go to bed when I smelled the dishwasher smoking; our damage would have been much worse if I had not been so close.

This weekend I was trying to get caught up with my crafts/presents and still attend a few Christmas parties.  I have a few ornaments that I made to share with you today.  I am hosting the Bitten By the Bug (BBTB2) challenge this week, which happens to be to use your Cricut to create an ornament or use an ornament cut on your project.  I would love to see your hand made ornaments, just use the link to go to our BBTB2 blog, and link up your project.

This first one has a Dollar Store glittered snowflake as the background.    I used the Artiste cartridge to create 6 layers and a bow, stacking each layer and adding dimension.  It's hard to tell, but the paper is holiday music and red/green holly.  I finished off the bow with a gem and Stickles.

Also linked up to:
Fantabulous Cricut challenge -Anything goes

My 2nd ornament is one that goes to a dear friend who had breast cancer this year.  I am also giving one to her daughter and daughter-in-law for their trees.  I used the Cricut Artbooking cartridge for the pink ribbon and words:   Love, Hope, Strength, 2014.  I finished off the top by hot gluing on a piece of pink boa and a ribbon for hanging.   It really was quite easy to make, it just took some time to get the letters on straight.  I think she'll love it.



6x6 Recipe Swap

This is the third year I have participated in JeanP's recipe swap.  We were to make 17 6x6" recipe cards, decorating them and sending them to Jean to swap back to us.   17 of one thing is a lot of work!!  However, I am pleased with the final card, there is not a lot of room to decorate when that small.  Here is my recipe card.  I found the recipe on Pintrest and it's a good one.  Poinsettia from Joys of the Season cart, and swirls from Artiste.

I'm Dying to Meet You

I have one more Halloween themed 3D item to show off this week.  It's a coffin from the Cricut CTMH Artiste cartridge.  That cart also has all the other items as well (except the bat).  The 'Spooky' was cut twice and glued and Stickled.  The RIP and the clock seemed to match the paper so were added as well.  The skeleton was cut twice, once he ripped, so parts went under the coffin to look like another one was below.  I hand cut a black shadow around the skeleton as there is no shadow cut.

We were challenged to create a box using our Cricut machine for our weekly challenge.  Jayne, from Jane Designs is our lovely host and encourages all of us to link up a 'box' project to BBTB2.  Come join us, this is a fun one.

Witches and Zombies

Susan, from Busy with the Cricky, is hosting our challenge this week at Bitten by the Bug.  She challenged us to use a witches hat in our project.   I happened to stumble across some inspiration from the CTMH blog, where they gave some basic instructions and Cricut cuts.  This project took quite some time to make, and I am pretty happy how it turned out. (and quite different from my original inspiration)  The zombies are from A Frightful Affair and all other cuts (flowers, web, RIP, cat, and leaves) are from the Artiste cartridge. The witch and the word Spooky are from a package of K and Co. die cuts.  I used a lot of ink and glitter along with some Stickles on just about every cut.  I just purchased a multi-pack of autumn colored glitter and I wanted to see how many of the colors I could use.  I hot glued most of the cuts onto the hat.  Bet you didn't guess that the trim of spider webs on the bottom of the hat are the cupcake liner cut from Artiste, pretty cleaver!

I invite you to view the fantastic projects made by my design sisters.  Come on over and take a look and post your Witches Hat project this week at BBTB2.

 

 

 

Fall Decoration - Flower Ball

Yes - Fall is in the air.  I just came back from a trip to New England, visiting 3 new states.  We started in Boston, MA, and made a big circle through New Hampshire and Vermont with a small visit to Maine, ending back in Boston.  We were a little early for the foliage in Boston, but NH and VT were ablaze with color and the weather was in the 70's.  This is the first time we took a tour bus, and I loved it.  No getting lost, no hoping we find a gas station soon, check-in at the hotels was done for us, and some meals provided.  The highlight for me besides the fall colors was touring Martha's Vineyard, oh, how I would love to vacation there.

I'm glad I put out my fall decorations before I left, as I am now in the mood for pumpkins, mums, and cornstalks.  Pam, from http://stamperatheart.blogspot.com/ is our hostess at BBTB this week, and she selected Fall Leaves as our theme.  I don't have many leaves on my project this week, but have lots of Fall color to show.  I used several Cricut cartridges on this one, (Pooh and Friends, Artiste, Forever Young, and maybe others).  I used the hot glue gun to attach the flowers to a Styrofoam ball that I painted brown, and filled in with sprigs of berries.   The flower ball sits on fall leaves that are also Cricut.   Come on over to BBTB2 and link up your Fall Leaf project or card.

Also linking up to http://myshericrafts.blogspot.com

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.

BBTB2 - Christmas Tag You're It

This week's challenge at BBTB2 is a Christmas tag - our hostess is calling this "Tag You're It".

I made this using the Cricut Artiste cartridge, cutting the ornament at 5", using white cardstock as the base and gold glitter paper for the detail.  The poinsetta was cut at 4 different sizes, creased and layered to give it a 3D effect.  Gold gemstones were added in the middle.  The name tag was also cut from Artiste, and the white name is cut using Don Juan, that cut can be done at 1/2" very easily, so I use it a lot.  The beads and ribbon were from my stash, I know I wanted to add a spring or a bow at the top, and this just jumped out at me.

Hop on over to to see all the Christmas tags the team has created.   TAG - YOU ARE IT!

BBTB2 Design Team Post: Halloween

Happy Halloween Everyone!   This is my post for the BBTB2 Design Team Challenge.  Since Halloween is still a few days away, I am posting a layout I finally completed from last year's pictures.  My granddaughter received a riding horsey for her birthday, so it was only fit she get a cowgirl outfit to go with it.    The title is my favorite aspect of the layout, with the word Halloween, skull, and spider from the Artiste cart.   The October 31st cart was used to accent the title, the spider, tree, haunted house, and scarecrow/pumpkin cuts.    The signs read "Whoa and  lil' Cowpoke" from the Old West cart.   This was a really fun layout to put together.   Enjoy!

Wedding and Shower Banner - BBTB Designer Team Call

My daughter is getting married soon.  Here is a banner that I put together for her shower and for use at the wedding.  Her colors/theme are rustic, natural and moss/dark green.  Perfect for a fall wedding.   I found it is really hard to make romantic items in green, but I got it to work.   Most of the cuts were done using the new Artiste cartridge.   The W is for there new last name and I used Tie the Knot cartridge.   Lots of embellishments, including flowers cut from Artiste.

Entering this in the BBTB2 Designer call.  Their blog is http://heather-bittenbythebug2.blogspot.com/   Pictures are not the greatest, but it is impossible to capture the entire banner and be able to see details.  See my next post for the flower girl basket.

Flower Girl Basket using Artiste BBTB Designer Team CAll

Hi - Here with a project that is related to my daughters fall wedding.  This is the basket for the flower girl, which just happens to be my granddaughter.  I cut flowers from the Artiste cartridge and inked and rolled them.   Set with hot glue onto a styroform ball inserted into the basket.  Ivy, dried baby's breath, and ribbon/netting finish off the project.  I am really happy with the vintage look and it will surely be a keepsake in the family for a long time. 

All together the project only took about 45 minues to make.  Having made these flowers previously helped in being able to put them together quickly.

Submitting this for the BBTB Designer Team Call http://heather-bittenbythebug2.blogspot.com/

Valentines Spool Swap

OK I GIVE UP - IT'S GOING IN SIDEWAYS

Had this one all ready to go for 2 weeks waiting for the challenges for Valentines Day projects.

I have tried 10 times to get this picture to post the right direction, I give up.   This was a spool swap that I did on the Cricut message board.  I used 3 spools.   Yes those are cupcake liners, also used lace, paper, and a heart on a stick from the $1 store.  The Cricut cut is Celebrate with Flourish.  Added lots of bling in the way of stickles, roses, stick pin, and ribbon/rickrack.  I really like how it turned out.

Linking this up to http://heather-bittenbythebug2.blogspot.com/   for a Love is in the Air challenge.

Linking this up to http://exploringcricut.blogspot.com/  for a Be My Valentine challenge.

3D Snowflake Ornament - Version 2

Here is version 2 of the snowflake ornaments.   This one is definitely a lot more 'girly' and 'showy'.  I like both versions.    This one uses flowers from the Artiste Cartridge.

3D Christmas Snowflake Ornament

I made this snowflake ornament by starting with the plastic snowflake from the $1 store (3 for $1).    The boy and snowman was cut layer 1 and shadow from A Child's Year.  The PEACE banner, upper snowflake, flowers, and leaves were cut from Artiste.   Used Stickles to decorate, and hot glue gun to put it all together, popping up the cut-out with foam squares.   

I have another version that I'll post later this week.   These are going to be gifts to relatives and/or gift tags on larger gifts.  I would like to make some in a blue palatte as well.   

Entering this in the Bitten By the Bug 2 challenge which is Baubles/ornament.  http://heather-bittenbythebug2.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/baubles.html

Entering this in the http://heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com/ challenge