Paper flowers to bring in spring...

I joined the May challenge on the Cricut Community message board again this month. The theme is Cricut cut flowers and we have taken on the name Bloomin Bugs. Amy a fellow team member came up with a wonderful signature for this month. Flowers and sparkles, what could be better to head into the spring months. I was getting so weary of winter this year. Bring on the flowers even if they are just made of pretty paper. Well when I sat down to start this project two weeks ago I really couldn't decide what I wanted to do. When you think of Cricut cartridges and flowers it really brings up a vast amount of choices to choose from. For mothers day my daughters brought me over baskets of flowers so I thought that just may be a good base idea to build on. The flowers were cut using the Wedding and Walk in my garden carts. I chalked the edges, ran them through the Cuddlebug and layered them using bronze brads and pop dots. All the green foliage was cut with Storybook. My pot was done making two cuts using WIMG then cross cutting them, chalking the edges and weaving the pieces into a basket. Lattice was from the cart with the endless possibilities, Wildcard. I find that cart has so much on it that can be used for details in layouts. Of course my favorite butterfly comes from Indie (the small ones are from Pooh). I was in the dollar store this week and found a great deal on chipboard journaling pieces, 36 in each box. Most of the time the colors they offer are to bright but a little distressing and they are perfect. So the chipboard journaling piece completes my project. I haven't found the picture I want to use for this project yet but I'm sure before the summer is over it will be filled.

Embelishment Heaven...

How do you know when you over do it on the embellishments you use on a layout? Can one over do the amount of embellishments as long as it ties in with your page? My life has always been a 'collection of things' and that theme seems to carry over into everything I do. I think that is why vintage is my favorite style. Vintage invites collection and always gives me a homey feel, a sense of treasures. I am partaking is a team challenge on the Cricut message board where we need to use a card cut as part of our project. That idea inspired this layout. This is a photo of my baby boy who turns twenty in two months, how quickly the years pass. I used so many different bits and pieces putting this one together. The paper base has four layers and my thanks goes out to ScrappedLives' Nestie look alike cut file. I used it making an oversize version for my matting. The title is done with Ranger distress stickles and I must say I really love these, they are a perfect amount of glitz without the glaring sparkle. In place of Ranger Perfect Pearl I used metallic Scribbles to get the same effect. The flowers are from the Prima Nursery Tale collection. By the time I was done loading my selection of files into my DS I had used five different carts to get what I needed. I love how you can take a cut file and skew the proportions to fit your picture. Embossing always adds just a little extra so part of the title and photo frame were done using the A2 Swiss dots folder. I think I ended up pleased with the overall effect of this one. I know I love the little boy it is all centered around.

Sugary Sweet & The Color Is Pink...

I was checking in and reading the new posts over at the Cricut messageboards. I came across the new blog Cheryll (Memory Keeper) put together to host her new design team. It's called Sugar Sweet Paper Treats and it's off to a wonderful start with a great blog layout. I am excited to see the new inspirations they come up with. The first challenge is from Jason (the only guy on the team) and the requirements are a sweet treat, the word sweet and lots of pink. What scrapper couldn't resist that combination, it lends itself to getting those creative juices flowing (not to mention mouth watering) right off the bat. I recently picked up the Studio G, dollars cupcake stamps from Michael's. They immediately came to mind with this challenge. My granddaughter has a birthday coming up in a couple weeks so I thought I would give this challenge a try at my scrap table as well. This is the sweet pink treat I came up with. Thanks Jason for the motivation to help me get my birthday card finished.

It's been far to long...

Well it's been over thirty days since my last post, a long thirty days I might add. Seems like after my desktop decided to play dead my printer wanted to get in on the game as well. My desktop had been revived but my printer is still printing a lovely shade of green, it was like an eternal Saint Patrick's day! All mechanical difficulties aside I have had some flair ups with an ongoing medical problem as well. I wish fixing those were as simple as buying a new laptop and replacing a printer. Oh well, I guess all things have a shelf life, computers, printers and people. The trick is to make the most of it, enjoyed it all and scrap the memories for the next generation to remember. Now that everything seems to be reasonably back in working order again I decided I need to just relax and scrap. I love the way scraping brings an inner peace and gets those mental juices flowing again. This layout is of a photo of my grand kids (Angelica, Alyssa and Jacob) that I don't get to see very ofter as they live out of state. I love fall colors and plaids. I embossed my title on plain card stock and used the argyle pattern to give is a little punch. By the time I was done making my layout in Design Studio I think I had ended up using 5 or 6 cartridges, but I was pleased with the way it turned out. It's good to be back.