Tea & Sweet Shoppe Card AND BBTB2 Blog Hop

Hello and happy Monday.  Welcome to my Tea and Sweet Shoppe!  This week's challenge cut at BBTB2 is the Genie Lamp from the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge.  I ALMOST went with a cute oasis scene on my card but then I decided to take the road less traveled and add my lamp to a line of assorted teapots.

I have to tell you that I do not think I have ever used this many cartridges on a single card.  I used Paper Doll Dress Up, Just Because Cards, Sweet Treats, Tie the Knot, George, A Child's Year, Dreams Come True, Once Upon A Princess, and Cindy Loo.  Each of the teapots is from a different cartridge, as are the cakes. 

I like the store window effect I created by welding two shapes from George in Design Studio and then adding layers.  And of course I had to add pearls and gems to my sweets and shelving.  I used copic markers and my Ranger white gel pen to embellish the teapots, cups, and sweets.

I kept trying to find a way to add large flowers and ribbon, but the additions distracted from my main store window effect so I did not use them.    Instead, I finished the card by adding a swiss dot cardstock mat inside the card and cutting a "sweet" phrase with the Cindy Loo font.

I believe I mentioned a BBTB2 BLOG HOP!!  Yes it is our blog hop week.  I have some sweet blog candy up for grabs - just leave a message below and you will be in the drawing for a CUSTOM CROPS GIFT VOUCHER!!!  That's right!  Free shopping!!

After you leave your comment below and become a follower if you'd like, you should hope on over to the blog of the VERY TALENTED THERESA!  I cannot wait to see what Theresa made this week; she is such an amazing artist- quickly - go!!

Happy hopping!

Window Shopping Card

Have you been by the Christmas with the Cricut blog yet? I continue to find daily inspiration there. These three ladies are multi-talented! Last week there was an amazing Santa's village scrap page that I adored. That layout inspired this card: Window Shopping.

I used the Dreams Come True cartridge along with Joys of the Season and Lyrical Letters for this design. The window layers and the dress came from Dreams Come True. Joys of the Season was used for the base card and for the dress stand inside the card. The word Boutique was cut using Lyrical Letters. The message inside the card was stamped using a Stampin' Up word stamp.

I have added the cut file to the cut files on the left; the title is Window Shopping Card.

A couple of quick notes if you should decided to download the and make the card:

1. You will need to cut the shutters twice, once for the outside of the shutters and once for the middle panels. The shutters have been added to the cut file two times.
2. You will need to trim the top of the window cut and shadow with scissors to fit on the card.
3. The word Boutique was cut straight but I curved it when attaching it to the front of the card.
4. The window opening was cut by hand.
5. Finally, an acetate sheet was cut to fit in the window.

Woo-Hoo! It's Finally Official....

I can FINALLY share in details: TODAY is the official kick-off of the Custom Crops design team. There are 8-9 of us who were hired to design cut files, write articles (or combine the two in my case), or create instructional videos for Custom Crops. There has been a "soft" opening going on for the last week or so, but the official kick off is today.

Please go by Custom Crops today, scroll down the menu until you "Articles" and click any of the links for great articles, videos, and FREE CUT FILES. I currently have eight free cut files on the site. Donna, Margie, and others also have free cut files. Please, please DO leave feedback... I would LOVE to know what you think.

My cut files have instructions with each, as well as a list of cartridges needed to complete the project. I have given sneak peeks below of two of the files. The photos in this post also are from my Custom Crops projects. And best of all.... I have another four almost finished so they should be up next week. This will be an on-going venture so do check back!!!

Two days of Cricutting and a trip to Hobby Lobby

I have enjoyed the last two days SO MUCH!!! Not only did I finish the BBTB challenge early, I made two gift card holders (see the photos of the Teapot) for a swap, and I cut titles and embellishments to take to a crop at the lake next weekend. One of my friends (well two friends really) and her mom host several of us at their lake house for a non-stop crop every few months. It is so wonderful! Anyway, I spent some time organizing my photos and I cut some page titles, etc. to go with some of the photos.

This evening I went to Hobby Lobby seeking markers. I really wanted Copic markers, but I just could not justify the $5.00 per maker price! So I looked around and found that all maker sets were on sale. I ended up with a really nice set of Faber-Castell (24 set) markers. Again, I was happy with the sale as even my second choice markers were normally priced at $60.00. The thing is, with Hobby Lobby there is NO REASON to ever pay full price. Everything goes on sale regularly. Anyway, now that I have exposed my cheap side (!!) I will move on.

I had one last Christmas gift arrive today. Dh gave me the Making Memories Large Embellishment center. I am very pleased with it as my main desk (and hutches) were over flowing. So a lot of the flower, the stickles, and the cirlce punches now have a new home (along with Michelle and Barack - just for Jen to enjoy).

While I was rearranging things in scrap-land, I also put away (sorted by color) the 100 sheets of assorted bazzil card stock that ds gave me for Christmas.

I hate that my break will end on Monday..... I love having this much time to spend with my toys!!