Guest Designer Today!

Hi Everyone!

Sorry I've been MIA... I have moved twice in the last month - once for work, and then my home - it has been crazy doing that on top of the Holidays!  I am meticulously unpacking my new craft room, so I hope to start posting again real soon!

In the meantime, I am a guest designer on Crop Chocolate today - please visit and come back and let me know how you like my project!  Be forewarned... this was the first video I ever made... and I was so nervous!

Crop Chocolate - Guest Designer Julie

Enjoy - And Happy Holidays to you all!

Happy Birthday Dad!

Tomorrow is my Dad's birthday!  I know he has enjoyed all of the handmade cards I've made him in the past, so I couldn't let this occasion go by without making him another one:

I still think guy cards are tough, but as long as you can pick your own colors for cricut cuts, you have options!  All my Dad wants for his birthday is for the whole family to go out to dinner - I wouldn't miss it for the world :)  Have a great day!

About this card:
DCWV Light Blue Card Base
Mats - White CS (stash) & Blue Glitter Paper is from DCWV 'Doodling Around" (Corner Chompers around both edges)
Presents - Cricut Cut from Birthday Bash cut at 3.5" using Bazzill Bling CS
Stickles - Lime Green, Waterfall, True Blue, Cinnamon & Platinum
Sentiment - The Paper Company

Stitching Challenge

Wow... It's been a while since I've posted!  It's been tough to craft lately - we are in the process of trying to see our house, and my realtor told me that I had to pack all of my crafting stuff away to make the room look less cluttered.  It is a lot of work pulling it all out and setting things back up again, so I've been taking a bit of a break.  That said, I was assigned a challenge to make something with stitching on it.  The stitching doesn't have to be real, which is the only reason I was able to participate:)  Here's what I came up with:

It's a simple 4x4 card, and it helped me get my stuff all set up again, so hopefully more good stuff will be coming soon!

About This Card:
Papertrey Ink Brown Cardstock Base
Patterned Paper - MME Laundry Line
Solid Cardstock - Papertrey Ink Ocean Tides
Ribbon & Pearls - Stash
Butterfly - Making Memories Paper Reverie
Sentiment - My Pink Stamper Summer Vacation
Stickles - Cinnamon 

The Babies are Here!

Hi everyone!  It has been a literal Baby Shower around me lately... in the last 3 weeks, 4 babies have been born to close acquaintances - 3 girls, and one boy.  As I prepare to make my rounds and visit these little bundles of joy, I have some cards to make.  I only got one done tonight, and here it is:

This is for my boss who had a baby girl.  My boss isn't the real cute/babyish type, so I wanted to make her a card that was a little more elegant.  I've been itching to make another shaped card, so I got that out of my system with this one.  I used the Florals Embellished Cricut cartridge and welded2 of the shadow features together to make this card.  I hope she likes it!


About this card:
All Cardstock - Bazzill Bling
Florals Embellished Cricut Cartridge - Cut at 4"
Burgundy Stickles
Bling/Pearls, Ribbon & Sentiment - Stash

Challenge Time!

Hi Everyone!  I have some good news :)  I was accepted into the Focus Group for Crop Chocolate, the one I told you about in my previous post!  I am very excited to be a part of this group!  We were already given a challenge to participate in, so I wanted to share my entry with you, and wanted to show you how YOU can play too!  We were given this photo:

We were asked to design a project using this photo collage for inspiration, that contained 75% of materials purchased from Crop Chocolate (see sidebar).  Here's what I came up with:

As you can see, I focused on layout and basic elements for this card I entered.  Here's what I used:

All of the cardstock came from a Crop Chocolate (CC) grab bag (with the exception of the white base & the white tag I stamped/colored).  Here's what I used:

1.) Upper left corner - Bo Bunny a gift of Love/Coral Dot mounted on Basic Grey Indian Summer plum wine.  I used Gina K luxury white for the tag/stamp base - the stamps (inkadinkado & KI & Co.) and copics I used to color were mine. I cut the tag from Spellbinders Labels 4.

2.) Upper right corner - American Crafts City Park/Hyde Park mounted on Echo Park Be Mine/Lipgloss Stone. I ran the top layer through my cuttlebug using my swiss dots folder.  I mounted on them a Sassafras Paper Whimsy/Flower Child and put glossy accents on all of the petals & stem.  The button in the center is a Making Memories paperie button from the poolside collection. - All CC :)

3.) Lower left corner American Crafts City Park/Lakeside park mounted on the reverse side of itself.  The twine was from my stash, and the brad is from Making Memories Paper Reverie Noir collection.

4.) Lower right corner - American Crafts City Park Fairmont Gardens mounted on the reverse side of itself.  I ran the top layer through my cuttlebug using the d'vine swirls folder, then mounted Making Memories Metal Butterflies to it. - All CC again :)

NOW - Here's how you can play along... My friend Paula at Scrap Addict's Attic is using the same photo collage as inspiration for a challenge on her blog - please click through to her blog and play along... you'll be amazed what you come up with!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Focus Group Entry

Hello everyone!  This week I decided to enter to become a member of a focus group for Crop Chocolate (CC).  CC is a website that offers 1 deal at a time, multiple times throughout the day.  What makes them extra special, is that you can hold numerous items in your cart and have them shipped all together to save on shipping.  I stumbled upon them 2 months ago, and it has become my favorite site for deals - click the link in my sidebar to check them out - tell them 'Crazy4Cocoa' sent you (yep... that's me)!

Back to the topic here - CC is forming a focus group and asked people to enter by creating a project using 4 elements from crop chocolate.  Here's my entry:

The 4 elements I used from CC were the patterned paper (Echo Park Splash), the whale's eye is a Basic Grey brad from Oliver, the aqua trim is from the Fine and Dandy line and the Blue button is from Making Memories.  I'll let you know if I make the cut!  If I don't, there will be a new focus group forming in 6 months, so there's always next time :)

Additionally about this card:
Navy Cardstock Base - Papertrey Ink Enchanted Evening
Whale - Cricut Cut from Splish Splash Lite Cartridge cut at 3" using Bazzill Bling Cardstock
Sentiment - My Pink Stamper Punny-licious Set
Stickles - Turquoise & Waterfall
Twine & White CS - Stash

Thanks for looking!

Happy Nesting!

So this is the first time I ever entered something I made into a challenge.  It was actually a challenge that I hosted on the Cricut Message Board, so I HAD to enter, right?  The challenge was to make something that had a Bird, a Button and Blue on it, and here's what I came up with:

I'm going to send this card to a friend of mine who just got married and moved into her new house - Hope she likes it!

About this card:

Kraft Cardstock 5x5 base
Patterned Cardstock - My Minds Eye Laundry Line Collection
Cricut Cuts - Straight from the Nest Cut at 2"
Solid Cardstock Chocolate Brown & Ocean Tides - Papertrey Inc.
Spellbinders - Lacey Ovals
Crystal Flourish - Recollections
Sentiment - Hampton Ink
Stickles - Turquoise & Cinnamon
Border Punch - Martha Stewart
Buttons - Stash