Monday, September 30, 2013

Fall in the Air

The fall feelings are all over and this week Fantabulous Cricut Challenges is getting in on the fun. This week the challenge is all about Fall colors.
I started with selecting my papers and found these great Gatefold Cards & Envelopes in my stash.
I layered my patterned paper on top of two solid layers and then selected this bare tree to put in the middle. Everything cut really well except when I cut my tree apart I messed up in the middle a bit. That is when inspiration hit me and this card turned into an Anniversary card for my hubby.
I covered up the cutting flaw with a small heart and added our initial right on top. The final touch to add some loving wishes to the card was a Pink By Design Stamp
I had a good time making this fall colors card for my hubby. I hope you will play along with us at Fantabulous Cricut this week and show us your fall colors as well.

Supplies
- Bloom Cricut Cartridge - tree
- Designer's Calendar Cricut Cartridge - heart
- Pink By Design - Day in the Life stamp set
- Recollections Night & Fall paper pad - circle pattern
- Recollections Gatefold Cards and Envelopes

Thursday, September 26, 2013

No Cricut Thursday - Quick Summer Page

It has been awhile since I shared a No Cricut Thursday project and it has also been a little bit since I shared a Project Life page. So today I am sharing both with this quick summer spread:
I have been working on my Project Life pages -getting photos printed and in place with the cards I want, but I still have to go back and finish them off with journaling and embellishments in my free time. This one was a quick one showing some of our summer fun.
I love how you can keep your pages as simple as you want or add a bunch of embellishments to make them unique and fun. For this page I just added some fun stickers and a star punch along with my small journal touches. Thanks so much for stopping by today.

Supplies:
- Project Life Kraft Edition
- Creative Memories Star punch
- Sn@p! Studio Label stickers
- Tim Holtz Chitchat stickers

Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Fall Colors Everywhere

The weather has started to shifted and Fall has officially begun so this week at Die Cuttin' Divas we are celebrating fall colors. I decided to play with this great Fall Owl cut I just got from Miss Kate Cuttables.
I love how these files cut so easy on my Cameo. I used almost the exact colors as the file showcases and it all cut and layered with ease. I just added some foam squares to give this owl a boost.
This new paper was also fun to work with. It is from the Recollections Night & Fall paper pad. A little inside touch and all set.
I hope you will join in our fall colors celebration this week at Die Cuttin' Divas and remember to stop over at some of the other Design Team members pages and leave them some love as well.

Going to link this up to the Fall Link Up Party with Craftin Desert Divas!

Supplies:
- Miss Kate Cuttables -Fall Owl
- Recollections Night & Fall Paper Pad (both brown patterned papers)
- Sticky Doos by The Paper Studio - foam stick on squares

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Brain Fart - Vinyl Challenge Winner

OH MY! OH MY!  I have been super busy with the new school year and forgot to select a winner for the Vinyl Challenge Blog Hop on the 9th.  Super super sorry.

The winner is.....
Kay Miracle!!
I will be contacting you about the fun prize.  Thanks all for joining us for the FCCB Vinyl challenge!

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Have a Sweet Day!

Good day and welcome to apple goodness. This week at Die Cuttin' Divas we are all about the apples.  I decide to go with a yummy fall treat made with an apple for my card!
Loving this caramel apple cut from Create A Critter 2.  It makes the perfect happy treat. The layers cut so easy and with a touch of glossy accents it was shiny like the one I bought and ate last night.
I layered this fun apple on top of an embossed background and added a sweet message off the Birthday Cakes cartridge.
Hope you can join in the fun with us this week. Make sure to check out more inspiration at Die Cuttin' Divas.

Small quinky dink - Paper Playtime is having an Apple Challenge right now as well. Make sure you link up to both fun challenges

Supplies:
- Create A Critter 2 Cricut Cart - Caramel apple
- Birthday Cakes Cricut Cart - Have a sweet day cut
- Glossy Accents
- Mesh Texture Embossing folder - The Paper Studio


Monday, September 16, 2013

Gators in Space

Welcome to a brand new challenge with Fantabulous Cricut. This week it is all about letters and number cuts. We call it the ABC & 123 challenge.  So go into those Cricut Cartridges and play with the amazing fonts you can find. One of my favorite fonts is on Boys Will Be Boys.
I love the fun shape of the letters and for this layout I decided to use the left over space instead of the cut out letters on my layout.
This kind of title is great and if you do not have too many little pieces to add (insides of p's, a's etc) it is really quick to do especially if you are using your Gypsy or Cricut Craft Room.

Now this layout if from my daughter's school album. Each year the school's major fund raiser is a Fun Fair. In Kindergarten the theme was all about space and her teachers were dressed up in costume.  It was her first fun fair and she had blast.
Alien from Space Party Cart
Hope you will join in at Fantabulous Cricut this week and play with the great fonts out there.

Supplies:
- Space Party Cricut Cartirdge - alien
- Boy Will Be Boys Cricut Cartirdge - lettering
- Simply Sweet Cricut Cartirdge - circle and circle frame
- EKsuccess star punch (American Girl Doll collection)

Paper Playtime Apple Challenge

Today Paper Playtime is starting a new challenge and it is all about Apples. This is going to be my last project for the Design Team at Paper Playtime for now. I hope to return again soon. I really enjoy playing along and being part of a great team
I made this card with some fun DCWV paper as my base and guide. I cut a bunch of apples off the Give A Hoot Cricut Cartridge and  loaded them into a fun Doodlecharms basket. A small touch of Stickles made it all just right.
 The final touch was this sweet message from Pink By Design Stamps.
I really hope you will join in the apple fun during the next two weeks. Please hop over to Paper Playtime and see what the other Design Team members have created.

Supplies
- Doodlecharms Cricut cart - basket
- Give a Hoot Cricut Cart - apples
- Cinnamon Stickles
- DCWV My Sunshine Stack- apple paper
- Pink By Design - Fresh Goodies Stamp set

Friday, September 13, 2013

Cool Beans By L.B. Vinyl Showcase

It is Vinyl University Week at Fantabulous Cricut. All week we are sharing projects, tips, tricks and fun using vinyl. Even more exciting is that if we get 100 participants in our challenge this week our sponsor, Cricket Vinyl Supplies.com will be giving away a Cricut Machine. YOU CAN BACK LINK A PROJECT FOR THIS CHALLENGE!

I really enjoy working with vinyl and thought I would take some time and share a few of my favorite vinyl projects with you today as inspiration.
First up is this large ice bucket I made for my cousin as part of her wedding shower gift.  The first post is HERE. 

Can you tell I love using Vinyl to decorate? It works great on these large tubs to make toy bins. OLIVIA bucket. CHARLIE bucket.

I also used print and cut vinyl on my scrapbook supply drawers. 
Find them HERE.

One last project great for vinyl - Holdiay ornaments. These glitter ornaments were a big hit  few years back. Check out these posts for more examples: POST 1  POST 2  POST 3

Thanks for checking out some of my biggest vinyl hits!  What will you create?

Thursday, September 12, 2013

Vinyl Redo

This week is Vinyl University at Fantabulous Cricut. All week long you can find great tips and tricks and ideas for cutting and using vinyl on your projects and join in our vinyl challenge..
 MY VINYL TIP: Redo
One of the things I love about vinyl is that while it sticks really good, you can also scrape it off and create something brand new. This is my daughter's school supply box from last year...
And this is what it looks like now...
First of all, only one part of the letter "S" came off the box from last year.  In a first graders desk the vinyl stayed on all year!!!! SERIOUSLY!! All I had to do was scrape it off and I was ready to start from scratch.
Using a kiss cut (for me I find that Blade depth 4, Pressure and Speed 3 works best, but do a test cut before cutting your full image) I was able to cut out some new shapes and letters to decorate her box with for this year. I love that with a kiss cut you are basically creating stickers.
Not much has changed about my daughter's likes and dislikes over the last year. She still wanted peace symbols and hearts on her box, but she also wanted to celebrate the school's mascot, a gator! Layering with vinyl is also very easy. If you do not get it stuck on right the first time, slowly peel it back and fix it.

We added her name to the top and the school initials on the sides to finish it off. She feels like it is brand new and I did not have to buy a new box.

Vinyl is a lot of fun to work with.  Remember if we get 100 people to take part in the challenge at Fantabulous Cricut our sponsor, Cricket Vinyl Supplies.com is going to giveaway a Cricut machine. What are you waiting for? Try creating with vinyl today! Challenge ends Sunday! Have you already created with Vinyl?  BACKLINKING FOR THIS CHALLENGE IS ALLOWED!

Thanks for visiting. Tomorrow I am going to share some of my favorite vinyl projects from the past.

Supplies:
- Create A Critter Cricut Cartridge - gator
- Charmed Cricut Cartridge - letters and peace symbols
- Designer's Calendar Cricut Cartridge - hearts
- Outdoor adhesive vinyl from Cricket Vinyl Supplies.com

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Beary Birthday Bag

This week the challenge at Die Cuttin' Divas is to celebrate Teddy Bear Day! Projects should have one of these lovable cuties.
I made this fun gift bag for one of my daughter's friends. I started with an upcycled bag (Love when I can reuse) and the Teddy Bear Parade cartridge. I used the sailor themed outfit without the collar to make her dress.
The party was a tea party theme so I added a simple tea cup to her one paw. My daughter felt she looked plain and suggested the balloons.  They were cut from the Birthday Bash cartridge minus the polka dot layers and I added Glossy Accents to make them shine.
My daughter was happy, I was happy and from what I was told the birthday girl was happy as well. Hope you can join in the Teddy Bear fun with us this week.Make sure to check out the rest of the Design Teams projects at Die Cuttin Divas.

Supplies:
- Teddy Bear Parade Cricut Cartridge - bear and outfit
- Smiley Cards Cricut Cartridge - tea cup
- Birthday Bash Cricut Cartridge - balloons
- Glossy Accents 

Monday, September 9, 2013

Vinyl University Cricut Crawl

Welcome to Cool Beans by L.B. It is time for a Cricut Crawl (Fantaulous Cricut's version of a Blog Hop) and today we are celebrating VINYL!!
It is the kick off to Vinyl University Week at Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog and boy do we have some fun planned for the week. If you need tips and ideas for using Vinyl you are going to get it this week.


Hopefully you have made it here from  Jackie at Luv 2 Scrapp. If you just stumbled onto this hop please make your way to the beginning HERE. Each stop on the crawl will be sharing a fall themed project that was made using vinyl cut on a Cricut machine.
For my Fall themed vinyl project I created a fun bucket to store things in. This bucket was part of a gift basket my daughter won and after she took all the goodies out she gave it to me to use.
I wasn't sure what I wanted to put on it, but when I went looking I found this cute scarecrow on the Celebrate With Flourish cartridge.
Layering with vinyl can be a little tricky as you have to be very careful to get the layers all in the right places and smooth out your bubbles, BUT if you make a mistake it peels off pretty easy and you can fix it. Can't do that with glue.
Once I got my scarecrow in place, I cut some letters from the Cindy Loo cart to fit around him.  When all was said and done I stuck all the extra vinyl I had leftover right in my bin.

The sponsor for this week's vinyl challenge at Fantabulous Cricut is Cricket Vinyl Supplies.com. They sent me this great outdoor vinyl to work with.  It cut like a dream with a kiss cut (Blade depth 4, Pressure 3, Speed 3). Did you know that if we have at least 100 entries into this challenge our sponsor will be giving away a Cricut Expression package???  Don't wait. When you finish this crawl go get creative.

One more thing before you go...Blog Candy!!! How about a fun 6x6 paper pad and matching chipboard words from Studio G?
All you need to do to win mine is be a follower of my blog and leave a comment on this post. (Sorry, but US winners only). I will announce the random winner next week Monday!

Thanks so much & enjoy the crawl. Your next stop is:
 Connie at Connie Can Crop!!

Supplies:
- Celebrate With Flourish Cricut Cartridge - scarecrow
- Cindy Loo Cricut Cartridge - lettering
- Outdoor Vinyl from Cricket Vinyl Supplies.com

Thursday, September 5, 2013

He Popped the Question - Shower invites

This past weekend I helped my sister out with some invites she needed. She is going to be hosting a Bridal shower for a co-worker with a love of pink and champagne. Here is what I helped her create.
For the most part this invite was all about printing. I used a great patterned paper file I already owned and changed it to this light pink color in Photo Shop Elements. My sister gave me the cute words for the card and I printed them right onto this "bubble" paper.
Next, I used this great champagne bottle image from Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbons. I added to new circles on top of the dark ones in the file so it would match my backing paper and then I added the couple's names to the bottle.  I used the print and cut feature on my Cameo to create one for each invite.
I sent them off to my sister to put together with some great gold paper she bought. Loved the cute theme and had a fun time helping her out with these.

Supplies:
- Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbons - champagne bottle file.
- Janda Cheerful Girl Font
- Cambria font - italics
- Gold paper - from The Paper Source