August Cut Swap

I'm on the ball this month.
I started my August cuts already...

Robot is from the B is for Boy Cricut Lite cartridge.
The body is made from a shiny irredescent paper I got from Target.
I pop dotted the yellow rectangle around his eyes.
Use green gel pen for the mouth (but looks more yellow on the black paper).
Used a pen to create the dial on his tummy.

Get well soon sentiment, pills, and pill bottle are all from the Simply Sweet
Font cartridge. This is a super simple cut to create... perfect for get well cards.

~ Shell ~

KC Croppers CUT SWAP Group

Here are pics of my past cuts that I have
sent out to the KC Croppers Cut Swap group!

The group consists of a small number of scrapbookers
who send TWO cuts to everyone on their list.

We never have more than 6 people in a group (so
everyone makes a total of TEN cuts - 5 of each
different cut) and mail them out to those in their group!

This has been so much fun!!
It's exciting to receive cuts in the mail...
not knowing exactly what you will get next!

I have met many very sweet and talented
ladies by being a part of this Cut Swap group.

If you would like to join us, please let me know by August 1st.
It's on a month to month basis... so you would not be committed
to participate each month. Next swap begins August 1st!!

~ SHELL ~

Wacky Wednesday #45 Cricutless Challenge

(Thank you card for the Vet for taking such great care of my furbabies)

This is my first time participating over at
Paula's blog (More Than Favors)

This challenge is to create something WITHOUT
your cricut... going old school!

I had a lot of fun with this one!!

I used DCWV Pets Stack paper, Cream and
brown colored cardstock, and pop dots.

This was a very simple card... I cut out pcs. of the paper
and pop dotted them onto another to create this card.

~ SHELL ~

Canning Layout

(Click on photo for larger view)

Here is a layout I created using "From My Kitchen" cartridge.
I also used textured cardstock, plain teal colored cardstock, the
Gingham and Polkadot papers are from Karen Foster Designs.
I pop dotted the jars of cherry and peaches
and the tomato and peach on the 2nd page.
A couple of my friends are in to canning this year, so I
thought I would create this layout for the fun canning pics!
They have canned tomatoes, peaches, and strawberry jam! YUM!!
My inspiration from this layout came from Emma over at
My Creative Time.

~ SHELL ~

Cards

Here are some cards I made in the past couple of weeks....
thought I would share them all with you.

Thank You card to the Vet for taking such great care of my lil' furbabies!
I used DCWV's Pet Stack paper for this card.

A card to my Mother.

A card for a dear friend and ex-coworker.

This is not one of my faves but another card created for my Mom.

~ SHELL ~

Canning Party Banner

Last week, a friend of mine had a home canning party. I helped her make a little banner for the event with my From My Kitchen cart. I just love the art on that cart- the retro kitchen stuff is so fun. One thing I can definitely say about it is bigger is better. All of the cute details are sooo much easier to cut at "banner size" than "card size". The jars are 5 inches, and the lettering is 4 3/4 inches. Per usual, the sizing is screwy, so you really have to play around to find the right size for your projects. I also have to say the layering SUCKS on this cart- they put things together that you would never cut the same color, so you have to recut the same elements again and again if you don't have a Gypsy.

July Cut Swap

My July cut swap cuts. Both are simple accesory cuts from licensed cartridges- Happily Ever After and Hello Kitty Greetings. I often find the accessories more fun than the main cuts!

Check out Pink Paislee's new Halloween Collection....
it's fabulous!
And you can have a chance at winning the collection
HERE.

Fourth of July

Well, the Fourth is over, and for me (a teacher), that means I have hit the halfway mark for my summer. I went to a friend's house for the Fourth, and enjoyed some amazing ribs with her family. I made this little banner for her to hang up; then I promptly forgot and left it sitting on her counter. Oh well- there's always next year!

My effort is pretty modest, just using some cuts from my Simply Charmed cart. I used the "celebrate" cut and the "all American" cut, which I modified to say "America", along with the watermelon slice. When Shell posts her Fourth of July projects, you'll see some really awesome (and involved) work using a collection of SVG's from SVG Cuts.com.

Free Digital Stamps

I hope this post finds you enjoying your weekend. What better way to enjoy a weekend than with... free stuff? I heart freebies, so when I stumbled across the Free Digital Stamps blog, I did a little happy dance! It continues to amaze me how many generous people are out there on the interwebs. The artists who are putting out free content are to be commended, as well as the kind folks like Alison and company who compile all of this free goodness into one easy-to-access blog so the rest of us can simply browse through and collect to our heart's content. So, thanks to all- your generosity is appreciated (^-^)

The content here runs the gamut- multiple styles are represented in the artwork. I haven't had a chance to check out every single link, but here are some faves from what I have managed to look at thus far:

Sliekje -If you read my earlier blog post about this site,you know how much I love all of the kawaii-meets-vintage embroidery pattern artwork here.

Digi My World- This is an online store that offers digital art for sale, as well as a Friday Freebie. The artwork is very chibi kawaii, and this week's Friday Freebie -a smiling peach- is super cute. if you want it, though, act fast, as freebies are only posted for a week; then they become dollar stamps.

Pink Gem - Janet over at Pink Gem has some adorable freebies as well as designs for sale. I would describe the style as "vintage kawaii"- think early Sanrio, Joan Walsh Anglund, etc.

A Day for Daisies- This site has both designs for sale and occasional freebies. The designs seem to predominantly be flower fairies- very clean, sweet flower fairies, reminiscent of Flavia.

Elizabeth O. Dulemba- Elizabeth is a children's book illustrator who has a wealth of cute coloring pages that would be great for the preschool/elementary school teachers out there, and the images would easily lend themselves to papercrafting applications as well. Elizabeth's style really reminds me of textbooks/worksheets I had as a child- sweet and timeless!

Not from the Free Digital Stamps site, but cute nonetheless- I found Shery K. Designs via a pin on Pinterest. She has free digi stamps and SVG borders to download. Be forewarned- the digi stamps download from Hotfile.com, which in addition to doing the annoying wait time thing to try to force you into their pay service, also only lets you download one file every 30 minutes.