Sometimes You Feel Like A Nut

Morning Friends,
Have been busy making altered Starbucks frappuccino bottles (thank you, Tanya!) for my off to college kid.  I was planning on altering the cardboard container, but someone threw it away before I could save its life, so I've done two bottles now, and will send her two bottles later.

First up is a bottle of sunflower seeds.  I used microbeads adhered in glossy accents for the flower center and found a smiling sun charm in my button stash.  There is a tag on the back that says "Ranch Covered Seeds of Wisdom."  Maybe they'll work if I label them that way. ;)

Next up is a bottle of pistachios.  The heart is from Love Struck and the peanut is from Create A Critter.  I love this lacy heart cut - and the little mulberry paper flower tucked into the top hat.  He is one dashing nut.

And in case she gets tired of nuts, I covered this chocolate bar for her.  I stamped the "You're So Special" onto white cardstock and inked it up a little.  Then I used Love Struck again for the heart border the lips.  The SWAK is from Jubilee.  

Tucked all this stuff into a box along with a few other goodies and sent it  off yesterday.  She misses her weekly mail call since I have fallen off the craft wagon.

SpongeBob Comes to Visit

Lately it seems like I am in the Sponge Zone.  I made SpongeBob journal for my daughter's friend yesterday.  I  will be posting that soon.  And this card for a friend's daughter today.  I saw a cute idea for a Spongebob that sits on this website.  I decided I wanted my SpongeBob to not only sit, but open.  My engineer hubby would be proud of me for figuring out how to do this.  Thanks to Cricut Craft Room, it was relatively simple, and my card opens in a unique way.  Lots of welding on this, as well as lots of carts and paper piecing, but I love the result.  I hope my little 10 year old pal likes it too!

This is my card closed and lying on the floor....note the score  marks where his pants legs meet his pants...these allow him to sit

This is my card open....just the sponge head swings out...his collar and tie are adhered between the layers of white and yellow

This is my base..I wrote "tape this side to back of card" so it was easy to identify...I also weighted the base by taping two quarters to the inside of it...Bob has a big head and is rather heavy for a sponge

Here he is sitting against his stand....I have to mail him and I didn't think it would hold up well to attach these two pieces now.  I also wanted to give my little friend the option to keep it flat as a card or be able to stand it up for a while on her dresser if she chooses.  

My family will think I am nuts for making a card that  needs directions, so I think I'll leave that part out when I show 'em. ;)  

Thanks for visiting us here in Binki Bottom.  We are having quite the rain storms.  I am glad it's not snow.  I know many of you can't say that today.  Stay safe....and dry!

Stuffed Mushrooms Recipe Card

Thanks for all the love on my cookbook!  You all made my day!  It was a labor of love for sure...and I only have to do it two more times....ugh.  I have finished a recipe page for it.  It is 6x6 and was done in Cricut Craftroom.  I put the recipe under the mushroom cap, but did make a separate rectangular recipe card.  I love the "cuteness" of where the recipe is, but it's not practical.  The separate card can be glued to the back of the page or left loose for easy removal and use when cooking.

The mushroom is from Create a Critter.  I used patterns (mostly from Ancestry) to flood fill the mushroom layers and cut everything on the Imagine.  I am in a recipe swap group with 9 fabulous ladies from the Cricut MB.  This card is the first in a series of 6 recipe cards for the swap.  It will fill my requirements for the "appetizer" category.  I hope they like it.  Thanks for visiting me today!  

A Kate's Kitchen Cookbook

Wow....it feels like forever since I've posted anything.  Life hasn't figured out the holiday bustle is supposed to have passed, I guess.  I altered this cookbook before Christmas for my daughter, Kate.  It was one of her gifts.  It was supposed to have some cookie recipes in it from a swap, but the swap was late shipping, so it was full of empty page protectors....and no, I don't have the pages yet, but they are on the way.  ;)

I did find myself really hooked on wanting to make an entire cookbook after completing the only 6x6 recipe page I ever did.  So, I rounded up 9 Cricut MB friends, and we are in a 10 month long recipe swap.  We will be doing multiple swaps over time in order to build a 60 page cookbook.  I'm really excited about it.

I will have the first recipe page to post for you soon.  In the meantime, here is Kate's empty cookbook.  I saw a two page scrapbook layout from Bug Junkie in the Cricut Chirp a while back that I absolutely loved.  You can see her layout here.  I thought it would be the perfect theme for a recipe book, so I completely lifted it.

The cookbook came from here and was very reasonable if you are interested in info on that.  I purchased three of them.  One for me, one for my daughter Kate, and one for my daughter, Maddie.  I may be getting a fourth for my son who didn't appreciate being left out.  I am taking recipe requests from my kids so I am sure to include their favorites....if I can get them to ask for anything besides cookie recipes, we'll be in good shape.

Hope your holidays were happy, and if you read all that, well, thank you, and I owe you a cup of tea and a few home made cookies for reading my mini-novel.

I've decided to link up to Pink Cricut's link up party with this project.  You can link up too.  Visit here.

Corrugated Cardboard and Felt Cutting Adventures

Well, here is that third snowman, Tanya.  He represents new territory for me.  I cut corrugated cardboard for his body and painted it with watered down fabric paint and sprinkled MS coarse glitter on him while he dried.  Then I ironed heat and bond onto felt squares and cut the felt in my cricut.  Finished up by cutting some sticks from a bush in my backyard for his arms.  He was sure a learning experience.  Lots of fun in spite of the paint and glitter mess waiting for me.  The corrugated cardboard did not cut all the way through.  I placed it on the mat with the ridges down and the solid cardboard up.  It did cut through the solid layer great with a multicut of two and I was easily able to follow this cut with my scissors and finish him up.  The felt cut beautifully.  Beginners luck maybe?.....

I am entering this in the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger which can be found here at this link.  The colors and circular shape were my "triggers" as well as that whitewashed wood floor...so fun eh?  http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2011/12/tuesday-trigger-deck-halls.html  

A Couple of Snowman Cards

The challenge for the Santa Slacker's thread on the cricut message board this week (here) was to use any snowman cut to make a Christmas card.  I can't resist these cold, chubby guys, so I made two.  My first card was made using Elegant Edges for the scallop shape card and Winter Woodland for the Snowman.  I used some vintage seam binding from my friend Joy (thank you, dear), a paper lace doily, and the pink felt under the bow and the snowman's bottom is a flower I performed some surgery on.  I love the peaceful look of this snowman.

The second card I made for the challenge used a Snow Friends snowman.  I purchased the Snow Friends cart as a digital download in CCR.  The lamp post is from Heritage, and the beautiful lace that I used on this one is from Tatiana (thank you too, my other dear).  My friends spoil me, and I like it!  Hope you get a chance to play along this week.  My Christmas cards are just about where they need to be.  A few more, and I will be done with those and can move on to conquer the rest of my list (yeah, right!).  Thanks for visiting today.  I am loving all those comments you are leaving me.  They sure make my day.  I have the best blogger friends ever.  

Free Snowmen

I love Craft Room and my E2.  They are a powerful combination.  I made this card in CCR by combining the girl from Snow Day, who arrived via my cart delivery from cricut.com yesterday, the house from Winter Woodland, and some basic shapes from George.  I have to tell ya, I loved DS, but I love Craft Room even more.  I can't even see myself opening DS anymore.....sad, but true.  I'm picture heavy here so you get the idea of the card.  I plan to write "Some Assembly Required" and then "Happy Holidays from Our Home to Yours" inside and use it as a Christmas card...if I can bear to part with it.  TFL!