Spring Stretch #2 ~ Gypsy Challenge

My favorite flower of all time is the tulip. I get so mad when the bunnies eat my tulips ~ so I just had to share this little story!! I am having Easter at my house and my yard looks so yucky after such a long snowy winter. I went to Michaels and bought some silk tulips and daffodils. I stuck the flowers in my pots out in my front landscape. Well, the other morning a bunny was trying to eat my silk tulips. The bunny was very confused ~ I got a good laugh!!

I decided to make a LO using stretched tulips for Easter. I took the tulips from Walk In My Garden and stretched them on my gypsy. I put all three pieces on the mat and grouped them together and then stretched them. I copied two more. On the third set I reduced the size a little bit.

I embossed the tulip flowers in my cuttlebug using dots and paisleys.


The grass is from Everyday Paper Dolls. I welded two images together and cut it out in three different shades of green. I inked the grass and tulip stems with a green stamp pad.

Spring Stretch ~ Gypsy challenge

This week's Gypsy Challenge is called Spring Stretch. It is a spring theme using the stretch and flatten technique on the Gypsy. In my family, spring means baseball season so I did a small baseball embellishment for my first project.

I used the Baseball Cartridge and Base Camp. I put all three layers of the baseball player on my mat and grouped them. Then I stretched them to the size I wanted. I then put the letters and the shadows on the mat, grouped them and stretched them. I welded the shadow letters together and then welded them to the blackout shadow of the baseball player. I did not weld the letters (that I cut out in blue) because there was no overlap.

I used blue for the uniform and letters because it matches my son's uniform color.

Autism Challenge

Cynthia from the Consider a Challenge Message Board organizes a weekly challenge around a certain cartridge. The idea is to share ideas made with certain carts (some oldies but goodies) and also post the projects on the cricut messageboard under the cartridge categories. Most people just post their cards and layouts in one place (cricut projects, design studio projects or gyspy projects). When people are looking to purchase a cartridge, they look at projects on the cartridge site ~ but not much is over there!!

This challenge is a little different. April is Autism Awareness Month and not only are we challenged to make a project with a puzzle piece (the symbol for Autism) but we are encouraged to mail them to a girl named Danielle who belongs to a group of teens with Autism. One of their regular activities is to scrapbook. Here is the link to the MB if you want additional information:

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I used the puzzle piece from Don Juan. I used my Bind-It-All to make the note pads.

Making Titles with the Gypsy

I use the Gypsy to help me make my titles on my layouts. I size and center my words on the Gypsy mat and cut them out. I use the negative to place the letters on my page.

I have found this method very helpful since I naturally don't make straight lines when I write, let alone stick down letters.

Hush Little Baby ~ Gypsy Challenge

This week's Gypsy challenge was using a Nursery Rhyme theme and stretching and flattening your images by un-highlighting the aspect ratio button (looks like a chain and is located right under the width and height on the basic menu). This was challenging because I wanted to be able to use my creation. I was originally thinking about using the grandfather clock from Heritage and make a Hickory Dickory Dock page, but my youngest is probably too old for that LO!

So, I decided on this one ~ Hush Little Baby and turned it into a scrapbook page for a friend who is having a baby girl any day now. I made her the zebra diaper cake as a shower gift shown in an earlier post here.

I stretched and flattened rectangles from George to make the border around the page and the title. I used the font from A Child's Year for the title and stretched that as well. The stroller is from Designer's Calendar and the Rattle is from Stamping. Both were stretched to fit the space.

I used a little ribbon and some clear gems to finish the look. Now, we just need baby!!

3 + 1 Gypsy Challenge (My Pets)

This week's Gypsy challenge is 3 + 1 = SUCCESS. You use at least 3 shapes and at least 1 weld in a project. I am working on my album from my childhood and I thought this would work well for my pets.


I submitted Fraidy LO as my first project. I used Opposites Attract and the cat from Designers Calendar for the title which is my welded piece. The cat is the letter "I". I used A Child's Year for the other cat images. I included the cat and bird because the birds tormented poor Fraidy. I added all of the stories I could remember about him.




I also submitted this page about Mittens. I had fun with this LO. I found paper that matches the horrid wallpaper in our main bathroom and had to include it!! I created my own Mittens by cutting out the cats in black and white and trimming the black parts away to show the mittens and white face. I added crystals for the eyes.




I finished my pet theme with the rest of my childhood pets. This cat Sammy was my favorite. We had him the shortest time, but he was the snuggliest. I wanted the photos to show the story here. I included the title from OA and some images from ACY. I used the crystal on the title for the i ~ I lost the original dot. I do this a lot with lower case i's so I have learned to get creative!



Misty was the cat we got shortly after Sammy died. She was a farm cat and really didn't like being indoors. I had the most photos of Misty, so I kept the pages simple.



Hugo was our one and only dog. We had him before we added any of the cats ~ that is me he is laying on in the photo. I welded the dogs from Animal Kingdoom to the title. I also cut out a dog head from AK. I wanted to separate the photos because the copy of the photo at the lake had rounded corners, so I needed to fill up the page. I added some ribbon collars as well as a ribbon border. I gave the smaller dogs stickle eyes and the larger dog gems.

Lint Roller Ate Cricut Mat

I have several mats and I re-stick them by cleaning them with soap and water first. Once dry, I re-stick them with Zig 2-way glue with the 1" chisel tip. I let the mat sit uncovered overnight then it is good as new.

This will void your warranty (which is 1 year) so I recommend that you wait until your Cricut has her first birthday to do this.

I will also sometimes use a lint roller to pick up the paper fuzzies in between baths. Well, I got this new lint roller and the label does not lie -


I have never had a lint roller eat a chunk out of my mat before. I have to say honestly that I giggled and grabbed my camera!! I got my moneys worth out of my mat. I now use baby wipes instead of lint rollers for in between clean ups!!

Cousins ~ Gyspy circle challenge

This is a layout of me and my cousin/best friend taken when we were in high school in the 80's. We were the only girls (as of yet) in our families and we were very close. We still keep in touch today, but we live in different states and our lives are very different.

Our challenge was to use circles in our project. I welded these circles from the George Cartridge ~ one inside the other. Hint: I made one double circle first, then I copied it 6 times so they were all the same size. I welded them together. I added the letters from Ashlyn's Alphabet inside the circles in a fun pattern.

I finished the circle theme with a circle flower, some buttons and some larger circles to mat behind the photo. I wrote my journal around the edge of the larger circle. I added the red circle because I hate too much empty space!! I will add more journal notes here or a smaller picture.

Baseball Season is Here ~ 2 backdrops

Backdrop ~ I came up with this term because this is not really a layout yet. It is not a page, but something you create a page on. So here goes...I saw something similar at a LSS and I just had to create my own!

My son made the HS baseball team, so I created these to use in his scrapbook. For both, I used George for the square, Plantin Schoolbook for the letters and Baseball for the glove and catcher. I welded them with my gypsy. I made the catcher blue to match his team colors.

Now we just need the field to dry out...that is if all the snow has melted off of it!!

I am a Guest Designer!

I am a Guest Designer on SassyLady's blog. Please go check out her blog and to the the details of my Sassy Inspired project!!

Diaper Cake

I made my first diaper cake for a baby shower this Sunday. Mom likes zebra stripes, so I had to incorporate those into the cake. I bought the cake topper at a local store (Gordmans) it is a photo holder in just the right colros!! I cut out the card from Stretch Your Imagination. Sweet Baby is from Gypsy Wandering. I cut out the hearts in two different sizes from good old George.

I found the ribbon at Hobby Lobby (zebra print) and Michaels (shear zebra print). I bought the "It's a girl" charms at Michaels.

Girl Fun ~ Practical Scrappers

Here is my take on the Practical Scrappers challenge this week. The challenge is to use ink or chalk on your project. This is me and my friend Suzi and her daughter (my little scrapbooking buddy and the owner of my original baby bug)Danielle. Our families spent a week together in the Ozarks(in Missouri) and we stopped by KC on the way home to catch a baseball game. I love how we are all in blue. Thanks girls for making me look so tan (he he)!!

I used Color Blocks fluid chalk around the edges of my shapes. From my cricut, I used Ashlyn's Alphabet for the scalloped ovals and Accent Essentials for the flowers. I used A Child's Year for the title. This was my first time making the paper flowers ~ somehow I pictured in my mind pink or purple for my first flowers, but I just had to match the paper!!!