Fred, She Said!

What a fun week this has been over at BettyBee's Buzz! What??!!?? You haven't been there yet? Well, you'd better hurry! Fred, She Said is our sponsor this week, and we have had a lot of fun with her digital images for Christmas, and she is offering a $20 Gift Certificate!! All you need to do is create a card, layout, or other project using an image of Fred's {and she even has Freebies!!!} and post it on BettyBee's Buzz, and you could win!!! The piece I did is using Christmas Ornament #1, and the background is one of her Paper Piercing Patterns. So easy to do, and yet so elegant. I colored my image with Copics, but if you aren't into coloring, she does have THE MOST gorgeous pre-colored images you can just download, cut and paste!

This little lady is Emma, the Caroler, and she comes in a set with these darling little birds. Fred has a sample of several different ways of coloring the birds on her blog, so they can be blue birds, robins, or whatever suits your project! They come with your download separate as well as here with Emma! So cute!

My personal thanks to Fred for sponsoring us at BettyBee's Buzz. I ask you to come and join us in the challenge, and show her some great support! I'd really appreciate it! We are having some wonderful blog candy coming up... and you would be in the running for that, too :) Double winnings, besides the pleasure of using one of these great images!

Have a wonderful day, and I'll be back tomorrow!

Happy creating ~

BettyBee

New Challenge Site

The Cute Daisy May and WhoopsiDaisy studio is a new sponsor of the Cuttlebug Challenge - watch for upcoming features in September - so I wanted to try out Linnie's precious digital images. This darling little lady is the first that I colored with my Copics and Smooches, and it's for a challenge on their blog, calling for Blue and Green...

There are four images on a sheet when you download them, so I have three more of these cuties waiting to come to life. I cut the oval and the scallop with Nestabilities, and the blue paper is the brand new Glitter Core'dinations - OH, MY how yummy!!! The label behind is the ALL GIRL cut from LACY LABELS Cricut Cartridge, distressed in green, and dressed up with three different sized pearls. The ribbon is from Offray, and it all sits on velvety flocked paper from DCWV.

I hope you will check out their site, and watch for futher images from WhoopsiDaisy!....

Until tomorrow...

Happy crafting ~

BettyBee

Be Inspired #93 Christmas Sketch

Diane Campbell Payne, aka Capadia, created a great sketch for us over at Cuttlebug Challenge for this week's challenge. It was really fun to work with, and here is my take on it ....

Here's the sketch, with suggested measurements....

...and this is my completed card. I used a luscious background paper from DCWV.

for my circle, I cut and embossed the wreath from a Cuttlebug die cut and embossing set. I used Core'dinations paper, which has the two toned feature, and when lightly sanded gives a lovely distressed finish. Adding a few red Stickles berries, and Elmer's gold leaf on the ribbon, dresses the wreath for the holidays.

The window itself is a fun stamp from Heartfelt Creations. The curtains are part of the stamp, and I chose to stamp that part twice, scoring and flaring the top and bottom parts, so the curtains appear to be fluffy. Adding some liquid pearl dots gives a lacy look.

Finishing up with some gems on the red rotated piece, and gold embossed message, gives this card just the right touches.

I hope you will head over to Cuttlebug Challenge Blog to see the other designers' work, and then check out their blogs, too. Be sure to leave some love for Diane, as this is her great sketch, and you get to use it as well, because this is Challenge Week!! C'mon....you can do it, and have a beautiful Christmas card ready to inspire you all through the rest of the summer!!

Besides, we have a TON of good things for you during the Christmas Festival this week! There are 24 Christmas Challenges on Sunday!! That's right....one every hour!!! SO MUCH FUN!! Grab your girfriends, your supplies, and be there. It will be one goodie after another popping up!

Happy crafting ~

Big, Big Birthday Wishes!

As part of the SCS Virtual Stamp Night challenge, we were to choose a set of stamps that we weren't sure "why we had them" and become in love with them :) This set of darling little construction guys were really fun to color, and put together, but what was the perfect sentiment? "Construction Complete....baby announcement" would work really well, but no babies here right now... On the road to recovery would be good, too.... Remember we only had 45 minutes for this challenge, so I used my Mickey Font cartridge and made a fun birthday card that will be perfect for some little Handy Mandy fellow. What would you say with this construction set? Leave me a comment!!

SCS New Love Challenge

This was my second card for the VSN, and it involved all new supplies...Rosemary had gorgeous new paper and flowers with her, which she encouraged me to use...and get out of my comfort zone! Thanks, Roe!! I even used my new MS cathedral punch for the borders. This paper actually had a lot more color on the edges, but it didn't show up on this card...watch for it to show up on another piece one of these days :)

Sketch a Little Love!

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On Friday VellumX and I attempted our very first SCS Virtual Stamp Night, and WOW did we have fun! One must be ready for a wild and crazy create-a-thon to keep up with a new challenge every hour!! This is my first card, which was to have a circle, a heart, and to show something that you love.... We all know that Rusty and Dusty leave pawprints on my heart, as do all of our furbabies, so this was my entry.

Be sure to check out Rosemary's blog to see her gorgeous cards! (She did more, and was better at it than I was!!) LOL

Saturday Sketch Hour

Today is the first edition of the Cuttlebug Challenge Saturday Sketch Hour!! Today's hostess is designer Aymee Grandy, and she gave us this sketch:

I chose chocolate and pink as my colors, and a brand new Indadinkadoo stamp as my central feature. The background is embossed with D'Vine Swirls. The flourishes are cut from Stretch Your Imagination Cricut cartridge, and the little white flowers are Doodle-somethings (I took them out of the package, and I forget their exact name, sorry!) The tiny little pink gems are from the dollar store in the fingernail section! I hope you enjoy the card, and give the challenge a try yourself!!!

Cuttlebug Challenge #8

Be sure to check out the website to see what Eva has for us this week!!

Cuttlebug Camp Challenge #2

This handled box was a great project, which I made some modifications to. I don't have nestabilities, so I made mine with one sheet of 12x12 paper, cut to 6x12, scored at 4" panels, and the 4th side was cut at 4 1/2". The 1/4 inch sides were scored. A 1/2 inch bottom was scored on all 4 panels. All 4" panels were embossed with the Swirls and Birds folder. Then I used Tacky Strip to attach the 4th side to create the box. Snip the score lines, and fold up the bottom edge, add tacky strip and attach a 4" square to the bottom to complete the box. Easy!! Next I added a 12" handle with tiny brads, and accented with fall ribbon and a leather button. I learned a few tricks along the way....1) it is easier to color the embossed design BEFORE you tape it together (learned the hard way!) 2) thanks to Barb Rose for telling me about using my Xyron to adhere aluminum foil to cardstock to create mirror paper!!! That's how I did the bird and limb decor on the side of the basket, and colored it with alcohol inks. The front panel is a CTMH stamp. All edges are inked in MS brown. It was fun! check out the Cuttlebug Challenge, and give it a try!!

Cuttlebug Camp Challenge #1

These pumpkins were great fun for autumn tablescapes! I did them in two different styles. One was by inking the Bubbles cuttlebug folder before I embossed the paper, which gave it the awesome two toned look. The second one alternated Swiss Dot panels with plain ones, so the patterend paper was more noticeable. I don't have a crimper, so I hand pleated the leaves, giving each a unique look. My pumpkins have a grosgrain ribbon stem through the center. I learned a great trick with the challenge ~ to use a brad to hold it closed at the bottom!

Well, I couldn't leave it with the Fall.....Christmas is coming, and what a pretty ornament the same style makes! I embossed with the D'vine Swirls folder, then used MS gold glitter to accent the swirls, and red Stickles to give the dots. Top it off with a gold and red bow, and Voila! Easy and fun!!

Cuttlebug Spot Challenge #4

The Cuttlebug Spot Challenge this week is to use two different designs on the same card. I think this is a great combination! Both are jazzed up with some stickles for bling, and add gold glitter, and it's a winner!

My Birthday Swap to Ann-Marie

This swap to exchange Birthday challenges with another Cricuteer was one of the most fun things I have ever done! Over 40 of us signed up, and we were paired up with one another across the country. I was paired with Ann-Marie Trammell from Ft. Worth, TX, and we began to know one another. How much fun was this!!! We found we had so much in common - both of share education as a career: her husband is a firefighter - my son is; her son just traveled to Africa - my daugher did; and lots of other interests in common. We forged a very special friendship.

Above are the cards I made for our first challenge - a collection of Birthday cards.



Three gift bags - the Hoppy Birthday frog one, that has been on here as a teaser for a couple of days, is also hers :-)
These next two pictures are some of the extra goodies that I found that just seemed right to send to her! Pencils with birthday, baseball cupcake holders, because Michael, her son LOVES baseball, and we talked a lot about the Rays winning season this year... embellishments, chipboard, paper, numbers, stickles, a pH pen, etc. My personal favorite was the crazy birthday hat with the birthday candle that stands straight up on top!





This is the centerpiece that I did for her. I found this great satin table runner first, then made the rest to match. I loved making the dimensional balloons with the cricut, and then I made all of the numbers 1-0 which she can use all of, or just the appropriate ones for the occasion. Cool!

This is my version of a paper bag album-my first!

Thank you cards.
One of the altered items for her. A chalkboard to hang in her scrap room. I remembered that she and I both love shoes ;-)

This is her Stickle Stacker, but the colors are off in this picture - it is really green and pink... She had Stickles to fill it up with, too! FUN!!!

This can full of fun goodies is for Michael, but apparently he wasn't home because her photo didn't show it opened yet. This is one of my favorite crafts for kids. Remove the bottom from a pop-top fruit can with one of those special can openers. After washing the can, fill it with goodies for a child (of any age;-) and use super glue to put the bottom back on. Decorate the can. Then when they receive it, they don't understand what it is, or how you got something into it. They open the regular pop-top to get the goodies out of it. Fun for all. Enjoy, Michael!

I will have to sit out the Summer Challenge Swap, but for sure will be doing the one for the fall and the one for Christmas. This was a great experience. Thanks to Dina and Debbie for hosting!

Ann-Marie's Birthday Swap Package Came!

Our swap was such a wonderful success! Ann-Marie is a wondeful friend, and I really look forward to meeting her face to face one day.
The yellow buckets above were just loaded with buttons and brads, tags and other little things to embellish with. What could be more perfect for a Queen Bee!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH, Ann-Marie!

This is the centerpiece she made. I love the colors! It came at the perfect time, as we were celebrating (a little late) Mom's birthday! So much fun. She even included a really cool bag of "beans" to help the dowels stand up. They were so light, they were really deceiving.


These are the very creative cards she made. The first ones are very tiny little cards for all occasions. Very cute. The ones on the bottom are birthday cards, and the one in the center is gorgeous black glittery paper. Very chic. All are lovely!

Ann-Marie was very generous and added a LOT of extra goodies in her package! These are some of the embellishements, stickers, stamps, rub-ons, ribbons, and goodies for baby Porter that she included. So very sweet. I love them all.

Below are not one, not two, but THREE altered books that she decorated!

The paper bag album was a big challenge, and she did a great job! Every page is a work of art, ready for photos, and each pocket has a tag or small detail in it. Again, I love pink and green :-)

The Birthday Challenge Swap has happened!!! After weeks of working on our challenges Ann-Marie and I have completed all of them, and have exchanged our boxes of Birthday themed goodies, and WOW was it great!!! These are a few pictures of some of the goodies :-)