"Birdie" Greetings

I have to admit, two of my very favorite cartridges of late are Lacy Labels and Cindy Loo.

Today's feature is from Cindy Loo. It would make a great full page mat or, in this case, a pretty birthday card.

I cut this shape at 4.75" and cut it twice. The first layer, I cut from ivory paper, and used my Copics to color in the leaves, branches and bird. Then, the second layer, I cut using the brown cardstock, and cut out the design so I have a frame for the design.

The background is also ivory cardstock, embossed with Sizzix embossing folder (using my Cuttlebug) and the edges were inked. Stamped greeting completes the card.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day.

Koala-t hugs,

Cathy

Balloons to Celebrate

Hope you all had a great weekend. The weather was true summer like and now its storming. The flowers needed the rain, so I'm not complaining!

Here are a few cards I made featuring balloons. I love to cut them out of plain white cardstock and color them with Copic markers. Both can be used either for a birthday or a new baby.

This first one features a happy elephant (cut from Cricut Everyday PaperDolls) and the balloons are cut from Celebrations. The balloons are colored in using Copic markers and white Gelly Roll pen for the white highlights. I use black button cord for the strings tied to the balloons and to the trunk of the elephant.

The background paper is from the Color Kaleidoscope stack from Hobby Lobby's Paper Studio line. (this has some great bright, primary color papers)

This next card is fairly simple. The background paper is Bazzill Swiss Dots. The koala was cut from Cricut Create A Critter, I sketched in highlights with Copics. I used Black Glaze' pen to shine up the eyes and nose and white Gelly Roll pen for highlights in the eyes, nose and balloons. The balloons were also colored in with Copic markers. Used black button cord for the strings.

The grass was cut from Zoo Balloo cartridge. I know I cut that row of flowers and colored them too with Copics, but I can't for the life of me find what cartridge the cut is from. I will search my Gypsy and see if I can find it.

Thanks for stopping by to see my work. I hope you are having a great summer so far. This week, I should be receiving my Cricut Circle package and the Circle message board should be up and running. I'm looking forward to what the Circle is all about.

Enjoy!

Koala-t hugs,

Cathy

This weeks Cricut Mini Album DESIGN TEAM Project

The theme for this week's project was Vacation or Summer. I thought of vacation and the one thing I know I take on a vacation is a Camera. There is a cut on the Create a Critter Cricut cartridge that is the shape of a camera and I thought that would be great for a shape book. I cut the shape from chipboard and coverd with swiss dots Bazzill cardstock.

Title was cut using Robotz Font and details inked in.

The inside pages, I made photo mats using the frames from the Cricut cartridge Cindy Loo (LOVE this cartridge!) Using my Gypsy, I was able to delete the inside cutting lines so the frames are mats. On these, I used the flourishes for those particular frames.

Another Cindy Loo frame photo mat, and on the right, I placed an accordian folder to hold 4 photos.

More frame photo mats, and I used an EK Success border punch that cuts out a row of flowers. I used this as a trim that the photo can be inserted into. On the right, I used ribbon as photo corners.

The right sided page has 2 folders that hold 3 photos each and the right side is a photo mat that is a pocket that holds 2 tags that can be used for photos or journalling.

I'm hoping that with future themed mini books, I'll be able to use more graphics to match the theme. I'm getting better with these books and I love making them.

Thanks for stopping by. Another summer weekend coming up. Have a great weekend.

Koala-t hugs,

Cathy

Cricut Lite - Lacy Labels

The new Lite Cricut cartridges are wonderful! WIth 24 different cartridges, there is something for everyone. Although I won't be getting all 24, there are a few that are great. One of the two I purchased is Lacy Labels. In seeing the content of this cartridge, I thought they would be great for cards....but I know I'll be using it for mini books and scrapbook layouts.

Today, I'm featuring a card I made with Lacy Labels. Again, I had to reach back in the memory bank to use the Cricut on its own, no Design Studio and no Gypsy!

When I finally figured out the sizes, I created this card.

The background paper is K & Company embossed papers, inked. The oval layers, oval flourish and butterflies is a set from Lacy Labels. Happy Birthday was cut using Gypsy Wanderings and this was all made into a 5 x 7" card.

There are many different shapes on this cartridge and I can't wait to try them for cards and for layouts. Now that it has been added to the Gypsy software, I can get a better idea for sizes and I want to try to make one of these labels for a frame for a photo.

If you are considering getting a few or more of the Lite Cartridges, I highly recommend Lacy Labels! I think its going to be used quite a bit!

Have a great day!

Koala-t hugs,

Cathy

Cricut LITE - Celebrate with Flourish

For about a month now, there has been the buzz about the 24 Cricut LITE cartridges, an exclusive to WalMart. They were to have them on display for sale by July 1. I was able to find a couple of these cartridges and couldn't wait to try out some of the cuts. Funny thing, though, I had to cut "the old fashioned way" as they were not added to the Gypsy software until this week. I'm such a creature of habit, I really had to work to cut just using my Cricut without any form of software.

Since this cartridge has lots of holiday shapes and titles, I picked the birthday cake, one I could use every day.

For the base of the card, I used Core'dinations White Wash paper, embossed with Tim Holtz embossing folder, sanded to reveal the teal color. Used a pumpkin color for the cake and the side borders, cut with Martha Stewart Scallop border punch. Peach colored scalloped oval was cut using Gypsy Wanderings.

Its a simple card, but I tend to lean towards simple, that's just my style!

Thanks for stopping by to check out today's feature. Its beginning to cool down here in the Chicago area, and we are in for a stretch of beautiful, summer weather! Enjoy the summer where ever you may be!

Koala-t hugs,

Cathy

Keeping Busy-New Project!

Well, last week, I finished my second large project within a month's time. This last project was a book for my sister's 50th birthday. We had a surprise party for her on July 4th. The book was 12 x 12, had 14 pages (both sides, so 28 sides). I had plenty of photos to put in it for her....it was photos of her I had taken over the years, either by herself or with family members. I am happy to report that she loves the book! I took pictures at the party and told her I would add them to the book. My next big project will really be two projects and I need to finish them by the beginning of August, but I don't want to say who it is for....just incase they stop by!

So, now, I will post some cards that I've made. I have plenty of cards to show. And, I have to admit, I've purchased several Cricut cartridges in the past month (the most I've ever purchased in the past 4 years since first getting the Cricut!) I have lots of ideas whirling around in my brain!

Without further delay, here is today's project.

This card was created using the Wild Cards Cricut cartridge. I cut it at 5 x 7", using an ivory cardstock, brown cardstock for the dial and wire. Kinda makes me laugh to see this phone and to think how many years ago, phones like this were all we had. Now there are wireless phones, cordless phones....some small enough to fit inside the mouthpiece of the old time phone!

I chalked the phone for definition. Used Happy Birthday stamp for the front and on the inside the verse reads "Consider your age unlisted!" This card will be perfect for an upcoming family birthday!

Thanks for stopping by...hope you enjoyed today's entry. Please come by again and see what I've created with all my new cartridges!

Koala-t hugs,

Cathy

Gate Fold Mini Book

This is another project I created as Design Team Member of the Cricut Mini Albums blog.

I had seen a gatefold book and thought how cool it was, so I decided to create my own.

Using my Gypsy, George for the page shapes. I used Gypsy Wanderings for the title. I used binder rings for the bindings (instead of the Bind It All) because these type books get quite bulky when photos are added. The paper is DCWV Once Upon a Time Stack.

I used the entire of paper ( I used the 8 x 8 size so the design wouldn't be too big for the book) so the design would flow across the two pages.

On the individual pages, I used border punches for the tops of pockets to hold tags for photos and even journalling. I also used border punches to create narrow borders and to be used to hold photos in place. Tags were cut using Tags Bags, Boxes and More cartridge.

I also did the facing pages to match.
I also used border punches to create photo corners. I love photo corners - and I tried to create areas so the owner of the book can just add photos without any adhesives or glue.

Ribbon are also great to use to hold photos in the book.

The photo corner on this page was actually cut from one of the designs in this particular stack.

I took the liberty to post photos of my family to show how they fit nicely into the pockets. These lovelies are my granddaughters (that love to pose by the way!)
This is a photo from the day my son and wife's twins were born. Yep, that's me in the upper right corner of the photo.

Hope you liked today's project. I have many more ideas to create mini books and I've has so much fun being a member of the Design Team.

Now, back to the project I'm working on. Its for my sister's birthday, so I have lots of work to complete!

Thanks for stopping by, Have a great weekend.

Koala-t hugs,

Cathy