~4th Annual Canadian Swarm - Tag, You're It!

Over on the Cricut  Message board, our Canadian sisters are hosting their 4th annual swarm.  That means Challenges!!!  And Prizes!!!  I missed the first challenge (which I think was 6 cards), but did get in on the next one, hosted by the lovely Susan.  Her challenge was to make a tag, any tag.  She suggested fall themes, but did not restrict us.  We could also use any medium we wished.  I created two tags for this challenge.  One for fall and one for Christmas.  And of course, my tags would not be complete without inviting Tim Holtz and his inks along for the ride.  I used a tree from Spring Seasonal for the fall tag, along with a bit of lace and wooden heart.  The tag is a #8 Craft tag from Ranger, but when I did the Christmas tag, I remembered I had these really cool inventory tags that were the same size, so I used one of those.  I wish I could remember what kit I got them with, but the bag they are in has no markings.  Bummer.  Anyway, the tree on this one came from Joy of the Season, but I cut three, cut them apart and then re-layered them with pop dots.  I also added tinsel glitter to the edges. Making tags is fun because I get to play with my inks and stencils.  The hard part is deciding what to do with them when I'm finished!  Thanks for stopping by!

~Halloween Treat Bags + Banner

Wrapping up the Halloween crafting with some treat bags & a Halloween banner for Tacoah's 2nd grade classroom.  They have a parade each year, followed by a party in the classroom, so I thought a little decoration was in order (along with the treats!)   The treat bags were very similar to the ones I made for Mania.  I used the same cut from Autumn Celebration, but of course there was different candy inside and different washi tape outside.  I also added name tags for the kids using the Circle cart Charmed.

For the banner, I used Pretty Pennants and cut each at 5.5" high.  This way, I could get 4 pennants out of one sheet of 12x12 paper.  I cut the base pennants in black cardstock and then cut the overlay for each using pattern paper from 3 different Recollections stacks  The circles behind the letters were cut at 2.25" from the DCWV burlap stack.  The purple glitter paper was a summer clearance item from Joann's at 10 cents  a sheet and I used the new Lyrical Letters 2 for the font. :-)  I inked the edges of EVERYTHING!  Since I didn't want to punch holes in the pennants and really wanted it sturdy, I cut strips of chipboard the width of each banner and about 3/4" high.  Using my tiny attacher, I stapled the ribbon in between each piece and then glued them to to back upper edge of the pennants.  I covered the exposed chipboard/staple with black cardstock.  Its hard to tell in the pics, but I tied a small strip of alternating black and orange tulle between each pennant.

Here is the full banner.  Wish I had a wide angle lens.

Each pennant got an embellishment.  Some were cricut cuts, some were Recollections.  The spider in the center piece was made using a technique that Rockin Renee taught us an Mania.  Here are a few close ups and thanks for stopping by!

Hard to tell but the web was cut with black glitter paper.  Love the spider~he's made from beads!

~World Cardmaking Day Challenge

We had a challenge recently on the cricut message board by Sara to make a card.  For any occasion.  Any size.  Whatever you want.  Well of course being so close to Halloween, I (and many others) made Halloween cards!

Here are some of the cards I made for the challenge.  I confess I went a little overboard, but I have TONS of Halloween paper and in my defense, every one of these was mailed out!  I used Mini Monsters & Bump in the Night for most of these. 

This last one wasn't made for the challenge, but I posted it here because it fits.  This is  a box card I made for Jenny who is hosting our CC swap.  Of course by the time I had mailed it, I changed the black tulle to orange and swapped the green crinkle paper for black & orange.  Maybe this is why my cards are never really done!  Thanks for stopping by!

~Circle Mania 2014

Well summer is officially over, but I had the chance to enjoy a few more nice days by heading SOUTH to Alpharetta, GA in late September for the annual gathering of Cricut Lovers from everywhere hosted by Paulette from Around the Block with scrapalette.  It was an exciting weekend with over 50+ like-minded ladies and we also had a special guest in the form of the CEO of Cricut - Ashish Arora.  To prepare for the big event, I needed to make calling cards, treat bags, and of course a little hostess gift for Paulette!  That was my first time using G45 paper. I wish I had taken pictures of the sides, but if I did, I can't find them!  I also made a Thinking of You/Get Well card and suncatcher for the daughter of one of Paulette's friends. 

The franken-owl for my calling cards was one of the first svg purchases I made from MissKatesCuttables.  Halloween/Fall was the theme for the weekend.

Over the weekend, I had a chance to take a bunch of classes, but I think my favorite was to decorate a Christmas ornament with vinyl and transparencies.  This was taught by Susan at Croatian Crafter.  Check out my Photobucket Album of Circle Mania 2014.  That's it for now.  Next up will be Halloween cards I made for a World Cardmaking Day challenge on the message board.  Thanks for stopping by!