A New Year - A Fun Challenge!

Hi everyone! Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season! For me, it is back to normal today, I have a couple of kids back in school and preschool and a hubby back at work. Now I can get back to crafting! I've been spending the last day or so organizing in my scrap room so stay tuned for pictures of that!

As I was filing some of my newer cartridges, I was noticing how many of the cartridges I have not actually used yet - it's crazy really. Soooooo, I have decided that this year I will use ALL of them on at least one project each. I had no idea how many cartridges I have, but I knew it was over 100. I decided to count all of the cartridges on my Gypsy because I will be using the digital downloads as well. I was pretty surprised at the total. I have 152 cartridges - so far. Yikes! I better get started!

This may seem extreme to some, but I know there are also a lot of you out there in the same situation as me! Let's get some use out of these cartridges! Please note: I am not challenging myself to not to buy anymore cartridges - that is pretty much a lost cause :-) If I buy more, I will have to add them in and use them too! And I will be throwing some Imagine projects into the mix as well! Can't neglect the newest addition to my Cricut family!

If you decide to challenge yourself in a way similar to this please leave me a comment with a link to your blog so I can come follow your progress!

Happy New Year everyone and thanks for stopping by my blog!

Winners!

Hi everyone! Hope you are having a wonderful a holiday season and your Christmas was fabulous! I had a great time with my family but just like every year, I can't believe how quickly it flew by!
Anyway, the winners from my 250+ followers giveaway are:

Home Decor cartridge
Elaine
Animal Print Cuttlebug folder set
Carren&Scott

I will be emailing both of you shortly to get your mailing address! Congratulations! And thank you so much to everyone who has been following my blog - can't wait to show you more creations!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!
Jen

Dancer card

Hi everyone! Today I created this card for the weekly challenge at the Cricut Circle Blog. We were asked to create a project using our Circle Exclusive cartridge "Shall We Dance". We also needed to use at least two cuts and nine of something.

On my card, both the ballet dancer and the flowers are cut from Shall We Dance. I used nine I-Rock gems (six pink on the flowers and three clear on the neckline). Then I added tulle and a ribbon bow to the dancer's skirt. There is also some pink crochet trim in the background.

Hope you like it! Don't forget to enter my giveaway! Click here or scroll down a couple posts! The winner will be randomly chosen on December 27th.

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you have a fabulous time with family and friends! And hope you get lots of scrappin' goodies too :-)

Christmas Candy Jar

Hi everyone! Here is a project I made for the monthly challenge on the Cricut Circle Blog for December. We were asked to create a holiday gift using our Cricut. These were the elements needed:

Use at least 2 Cricut Cuts
Use a tag made with a cartridge (there are so many great tags on so many cartridges!)
Use the color red somewhere.
Use ribbon.
Use a phrase from one of the cartridges

I used the phrase "JOY" from the Create a Critter cartridge for the etching on the side of the glass jar. I made a stencil from Cricut Vinyl, placed it on the jar and put the etching cream over.

The tag with the candy cut out is from the Joys of the Season cartridge from Stampin Up Crumb Cake cardstock. I cut out a plain white tag from the same cartridge and adhered it underneath. I then added detail with a fine tip red marker.

The ribbon is Real Red Polka Dot by Stampin Up.

Hope you like it! Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Wreath Card

Hi everyone! Here is a card I created for the challenge this week at the Cricut Circle Blog. Our challenge was to create a card or tag using this sketch:


We also were asked to use at least two Cricut cuts on our project.

The wreath is from Celebrate with a Flourish.

The fancy border is from Paper Lace.

The poinsettias are from Joys of the Season.

For the background I used the Season's Greetings cuttlebug embossing folder and ran a green ink pad over the embossed image.

I added some white I-Rock metal accents to the border, itty bitty brads to the poinsettias and some red tinsel glitter to the bow knot on the wreath.

Hope you like it!

Blog Hop Winners! AND Another Giveaway!

Hi everyone! I just wanted to thank everyone for your wonderful comments on the projects I posted for the two blog hops. I love creating and it just makes it so worth-while to see the wonderful support and encouragement I receive from crafters! It's so great to see all the new followers too! Welcome!

Now on to the winners from the blog hops! Random. Org chose them and here we go:

Holiday Wishes Blog Hop:
Honeybearz Designs

Thank You Gifts Blog Hop:
Jo Ann V

Congratulations ladies! Please send your mailing info to qtme2003@yahoo.ca so I can get your goodies sent out to you!

My goal over the weekend was to reach 250 followers and I did it! Yay! I am so excited! I promised a giveaway if I reached that goal but I have decided that I will be choosing TWO winners instead of one!

One winner will receive the Home Decor Cricut Cartridge:

And the other will receive the Cuttlebug Animal Prints Embossing Folders:
How to win:

Please follow my blog if you are not already and leave a comment on this post!

For a second chance to win, post this giveaway to the sidebar on your blog with a link back to this post. Then come back and leave a second comment with a link to your blog!

I will draw the winners on Monday December 27th so there is lots of time to enter and tell your friends about it!

Thanks everyone and have a safe and happy holiday season!

Thank You Gifts Blog Hop!

Hi everyone! I am sooooo excited to be taking part in this blog hop. I am in the company of so many amazingly talented ladies! If you have arrived here from Pause Dream Enjoy, you are at the right place! If you've just happened upon my blog please head to Joy's Life to start at the beginning! You don't want to miss anything!

For my project, I chose to do a couple of things but my main project was post-it notebooks to give to my childrens' teachers.

They are so simple to put together!

Here are my instructions:

1. Use a cereal box as the base to give the cover more stability. Cut 5 pieces in total: Two at 4 1/2" X 6 1/2" and Three at 6 1/2" X 3/4"

2. Choose two pieces of patterned paper and cut to 6 1/2"X 11 5/8"
3. Score and fold each paper piece at 4 1/2", 5 3/8", 9 7/8" and 10 3/4"
4. Adhere each chipcoard piece between the score lines of one sheet then cover with the other paper piece.

5. Decorate the cover as desired.

6. Punch two holes in the back for ribbon and attach eyelets. Run a piece of elastic through the holes forming loops for the pen to fit into. Tie on the outside into a bow.

7. Adhere the Post-It notes to the inside of the book.

8. Attach three small sticky velcro circles along one short edge, with the other part on the other edge so they match up to close.

For my books, I used the Live Simply cartridge for the butterfly and circle. I used the Mini Monograms cartridge for the scalloped circle. I used the Paisley cartridge for the buttons.

I used letter stickers for the word "NOTES"

My next project was a Sudoku puzzle book that I created with my Imagine using the JT cartridge (sorry about the blurry photos, my good camera broke:-().

I found some printable Sudoku puzzles on the internet and cut them to fit in my notebook which is 3 1/2" X3 1/2". Once again, I used cereal boxes covered in patterned paper for the covers. I bound everything together with the Bind-It-All. The "SUDOKU" was stamped using the Tiny Typwriter Alphabet by Close to My Heart and I added a button in the corner. Pretty simple!

I just love how easy it is to coordinate everything using your Imagine - I am continually amazed by that machine!

Hope you liked my projects!

Now I have some blog candy up for grabs!

To enter to win these goodies, if you like my work please become a follower of my blog and leave a comment on this post! Random.org will choose a winner Monday night!

I have more blog candy as part of the Holiday Wishes hop - click here to see that post, or scroll down! Also, on Monday night, if I have reached 250 followers I will be posting another giveaway so be sure to check back to see if I made it!

Next, you should head over to visit the talented Jenny at Crazy About Cricut to see what she has created!

Here is the complete blog list in case you get lost along the way:

Joy http://joyslife.com/
Ruthie http://septemberninth.blogspot.com/
Angela http://creativecraftin.blogspot.com/
Carrie http://thegreenbeanscrafterole.blogspot.com/
Denise http://cricutmyway.blogspot.com/
Gale http://www.thehappystamper.com/
Janis http://pausedreamenjoy.blogspot.com/
Jen http://scrapaholicjen.blogspot.com/ (that's me!)
Jenny http://crazyaboutcricut.blogspot.com/
Jin http://underacherrytree.blogspot.com/
Julie http://cricutchick.blogspot.com/
Lori http://scrappinmystressaway.blogspot.com/
Mari (Momo) http://madebymomo.blogspot.com/
Misty http://abusyplace.blogspot.com/
Natalie http://timelesslegacydesigns.blogspot.com/
Raven http://love4stamps.blogspot.com/
Theresa http://www.thescrapbookingqueen.com/
Tracy http://www.craftjunkietoo.com/
Yolanda http://yoliebean.blogspot.com/

So many great things to see! Have fun!