Canadian Online Swarm ~ Challenge 3 of 4

The Challenge:
Sunday Oct 2, 2011.  Silly pet or animal scrapbook layout ,
A favorite stuffed toy is okay too.
Using all 3 criteria:
1. Use texture: fuzz, fibre, ribbon, string, thick paint, emboss/deboss…
2.  lumps/bumps: lace, buttons, folding, popdots, pop-ups…
3.  Use at least one cricut cut, your choice of image.

I intend to do the rest of the challenges, but I am running out of time, the deadline is October 10, 2011.  Some of you know I have been in slow motion from a bad cold for September so its very nice to be doing a little more now that I'm feeling better.

 Using the cricut, gypsy, and "French Mannor" cartridge, I cut out the scalloped sheet from "coordinations" paper.  It is 2 sided, but it has a coloured core so the paper can be manipulated different ways to allow the core colour to show through.  I started off doodle embossing on the 12x12 rubber sheet I got with the embossing tips from Amy Chomas Creations product line.  Check out my posts labeled "cricut tricks" if you are interested.  I used my old Fiskars dry Embossing table kit, aka "Scrap Boss" as the base surface.  I couldn't find my distress tool kit so I improvised with the cricut tool kit, the little spoon tool has a very sharp tip, perfect for doodle scraping the paper.  I will definitely try that again.

 I used the gypsy to cut the kitty from "four legged friends" cartridge at 6.4" x 3.55"   See the grey star paper, it was a nice surprise to see it made the perfect accent for Boomer colour.  I used some of the trendy twine I won from the last swarm, "blueberry" colour, some thread for whiskers, and foam dots to lift it off the page for some dimension.  I doodled the checkerboard pajamas with cricut markers after running the tip of the marker around the cut to dull the bright white borders of the cutout.   I'd never used cricut markers this way and highly recommend it.  The stubby end and thick plastic holding the nib makes it almost impossible to scribble the marker off the edge. 

 Boomer is modeling some cool socks that I made by running some dollar store socks through the serger to make narrow tubes 2 years ago.  I saw them blogged as an April fools joke a few years ago & thought it was so funny!  He did not prefer the closed toe socks and became adept at pulling them off very quickly.  Conversely, he didn't mind the leg warmers since he could still walk and climb, however hysterical his gait was initially, hee hee!  He's such a good sport, he really doesn't mind.

 "The cat's Pajamas" was from "meow" cartridge, but I reduced the right & left border manually with scissors.  

It took the whole afternoon puttering along but it was so relaxing to make this fun layout.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Getting ready for Halloween

 Aren't these great?  I used my Gypsy to make the hand as big as I could to cut out on my little cricut for the 6x12" mat.  I cut 4 hands out of posterboard.  I glue-gunned them onto used chopsticks, both sides for stiffness.  I used Plaid brand glow in the dark acrylic paint, & while it was wet I sprinkled it with Martha Stewart glow in the dark glitter.  

 The Glitter seems to glow brighter.  eeeerie & spooky, just the look I was going for!

Sorry, another sideways picture.  Don't they look great sticking out of my planters?  

Canadian Online Swarm ~ challenge 4 of 4

I'm so far behind I could be starting to circle...  Well, life does this, I've been sick for about a month and am slowly getting on my feet again.  Sept 30th I started an online Canadian Swarm in the Canadian Chat on the Cricut Circle message-board.  The only real thing Canadian about it is that members have to visit the Canadian Chat to see what has been posted.  I had big plans to have examples all ready to show, nope, cough cough cough, life got in the way.  I'll be posting what I finally made while showing what the challenges were.  Completely backwards from how I'd planned, but oh well, that's life.


Monday Oct 3 2011. Challenge for Canadian Circle Online Swarm 

Create a 3D haunted house: 
It can be spooky or cute, but not autumn or Thanksgiving. 
Use any bag you like as long as it can stand on its own.  
It must be embellished with cricut cuts, stamps, etc however you like. This could be a luminary, a gift bag, an ornament, part of a Halloween village…

My entry is very basic, I had lots of ideas but very little energy so here is one entry I completed.  

 I used the little tote bag from "wrap it up" cartridge, cut "fit to page" which is 9.5"  I somehow folded it up wrong side out, but you can't see that until you're really looking so I will just proudly ignore that detail, LOL!  I "cut" the matching pumpkin layer first with a cricut red marker to outline, then with the blade to cut.  I rough trimmed a scrap of yellow vellum to put under the face and used foam dots to raise the layer up so it looks like its glowing.  I finally used some "goosebumps clear texture spray" from my stash just begging to be used.  The picture below shows the pebbly texture it gives to the face.  Unfortunately it warps vellum, and despite masking off the background I got a bit on the bag above the stem. Oh well.  I tried.

It will make a cute candy treat bag for an unsuspecting neighbor soon enough...