Mee Chelle (at Cards by Mee Chelle) is having a great giveaway in honor of her blog's remodeling.  Win a $25 gift card to the craft store of your choice.  Go to her blog here to enter.  Time's running out - go today.
Rae Ann

Come and Get It Challenge - Playing in the Water

I had just finished coloring this image the night before the challenge was posted.  I had wondered what kind of challenge it would fit in.  Surprise!

What better way to 'play in water' than in a relaxing bubble bath.  The image is from Sherri Baldy, watercolored with distress markers. The black and white phony tile floor is actually the only decorative duct tape I have.  It works great for things like this.  All the embellishments are bargain bin items from my stash.  I printed "ooh" from cricut's Forever Young.
I hope you like it; it was fun to do.

Make sure to stop by at Come and Get It Challenges to see all the entries in the Playing in the Water challenge.

Happy Creating.
Rae Ann O.

Crafts with Cutters Challenge - Love your Pet

This card kind of came together by accident.  Don't you love when that happens.  The cat was made for another purpose, which didn't work, and the circle was intended for another card, but was too big.  Everything worked out well here.The circle is cut from the Graphically Speaking cartridge, everything else is from Create a Critter.  My wonderful cat is pictured in my other post for Exploring Cricut's Challenge.  This card is being entered in  Crafts with Cutters, Love your Pet challenge, at My Papercrafting, go take a look and gather some inspiration.
Happy Creating.
Rae Ann O.
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Love Your Pet Challenge at Exploring Cricut

Hello, everyone!  Today exploring cricut invites you to create a card, layout, or papercraft containing your favorite pet or any animal of your choice.  I'll describe my project first before getting carried away telling you about my wonderful cat.

I've been slowly adding to a mini-album I made for family photos.  I saved the inside of the back cover for my guy.  The letters for his name were cut with my new cricut cartridge, Suburbia.  The mouse and the phrase "let's play" were cut from the Create a Critter cartridge.

DeeJay was found and rescued by my doctor's family.  They named him butterscotch.  Since they already had several cats, when my cat died they asked if I would take him.  I quickly found out that he's a 'talker' and I wanted a name that reflected that so he became DeeJay.  His favorite toy is a tiny mouse that he tosses and chases all over the apartment.  When the mice are lost under furniture he does the same with scraps of paper that fell on the floor.  He is very loving and I'm so lucky to have him.

Please, enter you creations and share about your pet in our Love Your Pet challenge at Exploring Cricut.  See you there.
Rae Ann

 

My Craft Spot - Flowers

I belong to a papercrafting swap group.  One of the categories this month is a polka-dot card.  Flowers came to mind because I'm so tired of the dreary weather.  My Craft Spot has the same idea so I am entering the card in their challenge.

The flowers were all cut with cricut's Flower Shoppe cartridge.  Only the center of the flower and the thinking of you tag are without dots.  'Thinking of you' is a Papertrey stamp.

Click here to see all the entries at My Craft Spot.

Happy Creating.
Rae Ann

A Blue Angel

Hello, everyone.  I'm having fun learning (by trial and error) how to color digis.  This Sherri Baldy angel is so cute.  I made the background and embellishments more simple because I thought she should be the focus.  This seems to be my style - somewhere in-between 'clean and simple' and 'chunky'.  Here she is:

Her wings were edged with a light blue and then Diamond stickles were added.  They look great.  On the edge of her skirt I used a yellow glitter pen.  The patterned papers are from from current favorite pack from Recollections, Paisley and Damask.  The decorative corner for the inside is from cricut's picturesque.  The stamp was purchased at Michaels (I think).

I'm entering this in the following challenges.  Click on the name of the challenge to see all the entries.
Besties Challenge (Sherri Baldy)- 2 Shades of Blue
Created with Love Challenges - Things that Fly
Digi Makeover Challenge at the Paper Makeup Stamps Blog - Anything Goes
Alphabet Challenge Blog - Anything with Wings

Happy Creating.
Rae Ann

Goin' Fishin'

Hello everyone.  I won this Paper Crafting World digi at My Paper Crafting and I'm so glad I have a chance to use it so soon.

I just got this watermark from Digital Delights by loobylou.  I really like it but I struggle to put it in the phote each time; I'll get the hang of it soon.
I colored in the digi with distress markers used like watercolors on watercolor paper.  The cattails and grass, and the fish, were cut out from the cricut Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge.  The oval behind the fish was cut from the George and Basic Shapes cartridge.  I just used my Brother labelmaker for the words.
I am entering this in 2 challenges: Digi Desserts Fridaze at My Paper Crafting and My Sheri Crafts where the theme is Time to Go Fishing.

Thank you for stopping by.  Please click on the challenge name to see all the entries in these great challenges.

Happy Creating
Rae Ann

A Mermaid's Birthday Wish

Wow, this is my 3rd post for today.  That's what I get for working on several things at the same time.

As I mentioned in my other post, I've been experimenting with distress markers as watercolors. That was fun to do with this mermaid from Sherri Baldy. The little Happy Birthday stamp I got at our annual stamp show here last year.

I just bought some Cottonelle toilet paper and it has this interesting texture and I wondered if it would look good as seaweed.  It's not what I hoped for (the cricut couldn't cut it for one thing) and my cutting could have been better.  But, I slid a distress ink pad over it and got an interesting look.  I used the same thing in the shell outline.  Then, I found pieces in my 'bits of flowers' stash and some pearls from my beading supplies and added them. Talk about shopping your stash - this was fun!

I'm entering this in Shopping Our Stash (They say it's your birthday) and Try it on Tuesday (It's all in the eyes) because of these big, beautiful eyes.

Please visit both blogs to see all the challenge entries.
Happy Creating.
Rae Ann

Here's Cupid

At Bitten by the Bug 2 the challenge is to include a cupid or a heart.  This gave me a reason to use the Cupid Bear in Teddy Bear Parade.  These bears are so cute!

A little bit of vintage photo distress ink helps to accent the cuts.  I used the Phrases cartridge to create the hearts.  I used the same one, 1/2 inch difference, on floral paper and white, then added the word 'love' from the same cartridge.  I'm using these corners a lot lately; I like their design and they make a nice filler.  They come from the Picturesque cartridge.  A couple of rhinestones from my stash and it was done.  I like the delicate look it has.

I am entering this card in Bitten by the Bug 2 (include a cupid or heart) and My Craft Spot (For your sweetheart).

Be sure to visit both challenges to see all the entries.

Happy Creating.
Rae Ann

Be My Valentine at Digi Darla's Challenges

As soon as I saw the theme I knew this little guy would be perfect.  Doesn't he look like he's going a-courtin'?



 

I've been experimenting with using distress markers as water colors.  I think I'm getting pretty good at it.  I used the cricut cartridge Create a Critter for the triple hearts and the cartridge Picturesque for my favorite corner shape.

To see all the entries at Digi Darla's Be My Valentine Challenge, click here..

 

 

Happy Creating,

Rae Ann















Be My Valentine Challenge at Exploring Cricut

Welcome.  Come join our challenge at  Exploring Cricut.  Make a card, layout, or any paper craft with the theme "Be My Valentine".  Here's my contribution as a design team member.

This is an easel card.  I'm in love with this little Queen of Hearts from Teddy Bear Parade.  I used the Picturesque cartridge for the decorative corners and a circle from the same cartridge for the message backing.  By accident, I found a description of how to write words in a circle on Microsoft Word - it's so easy and I never knew you could do it.  Click here for instructions.
On the circle I added a small, gathered piece of toulle,(if that's how you spell it, LOL) a glitter sticker heart, and 2 stickpins that I made.  Overall, I had a lot of fun with this.

Have some fun of your own and enter it in the challenge at Exploring Cricut .  I looking forward to seeing you there.

Rae Ann

Thank You

I saw a Saturated Canary digi on another blog site and it really caught my eye.  I ended up getting 2 of their images and this little miss Thank You is one.

 



I haven't been coloring digi people for long.  I used colored pencils to have a bit more control and I'm very happy with how she turned out.

This is an easel card.  The patterned paper on the base is from a Recollections pack called Paisley and Damask.  The curly corner was cut with the cricut Picturesque cartridge (I use that one a lot).  The oval came from that cart, too.  A Martha Stewart punch was used on both sides of a strip of paper for the band across the base.  The 'thank you' was a $1 stamp I found at one of my local craft shops and the flower stickers are Special Moments I got on a lucky day at the Dollar Tree.  A bit of leftover lace runs down the left side of the front.

I had trouble getting the free digi at My Paper Crafting and, although all the samples have hearts, I didn't see that the digi had to be a valentine.  (I am over-valentined at this point) soooooooo
I am entering this card in Digi Desserts Fridaze at My Paper Crafting.   Click here  to see all the entries.

I hope you like her, too.
Happy creating.
Rae Ann

Cupcake Inspirations Challenge 196

The inspiration photo for this challenge is a beautiful pink cupcake with the icing shaped as a rose.  The color plan is pink, cream, and kraft.  I wanted to try the triple stamped project from splitcoaststampers and this was a great opportunity.

 

 

It's an interesting technique; I wish my stamp had been a little bigger.  I'll be playing with this technique more to see what it can do.  The corner swirls are from the Cricut Picturesque cartridge.

 

Please visit the Cupcakes Inspiration Challenge Blog to see all the entries by clicking here.

 

Happy Creating.

Rae Ann



My Day at Exploring Cricut

My plan for this card had 2 goals.  The first was to try an old sketch from Mojo Monday that is different from the kind of card I usually do.  The second was to use a cut I've never used before.  Here is the result.

 



 

The cartridge I used was Art Nouveau.  Since I decided to make a Sympathy card I wanted something general and dignified and I thought this vase would do the trick.  The patterned papers are from a Recollections pack called Paisley and Damask.  The stamp is from a Papertrey set.

 

Please, continue to visit Exploriing Cricut, check out our challenges, and visit out design team members for more inspiration.

 

Thanks for stopping by.  Happy creating.

Rae Ann