Try It Tuesday: Stuck Sketch Blog

I love a challenge to motivate me to scrap a memory and if you follow my blog or my Pinterest account, you know I love any scrapbook page with a circle!  In fact I have a whole board on Pinterest called Scrapbook Pages:  Circle in a Square.  So, I am all in for this Stuck?! Sketch challenge   And Fantabulous Cricut Challenge this week is for Back to School, so I will enter this challenge too.  I used my Cricut Explore to cut a circular maze I found on the Internet, as well as the birdy sign, the Cabin sign, the star and the Field Trip circle.  Cartridges used are:  Cabin, Songbird, Designers Calendar, Store Front, K-12, Close To My Heart Art Philosophy.  I used the Explore's print and cut for the Cabin, birdy and Field Trip signs and just cut the rest and glued the layers.

Above you can see the inspiration sketch.  I played with the circle portion, and left the title and embellishment placements similar.  I dropped the mat pattern paper because my circle was bigger and I wanted to highlight the maze.
The American Pickers would be proud of me, because I even used a button from a local estate sale to embellish this page.  So, a page about the oldest build in the county also have some local ephemera.

UFO Challenge #28: Anything Goes Again

This week I am continuing with my Finish Your Unfinished Objects Challenge.  It turns out there is no traditional 28th wedding anniversary gift.  So, this weeks challenge is open to any un finished object project.  To enter the challenge, just leave me a comment or post your project to the Facebook Group.  Work on any project and get two entries this week.  
Lately, I am finding a bit of creative time to work on two UFO's.  I have always wanted to make a "Quotes to Live By"  scrapbook and I LOVE planners.  This year, I was able to find a planner by one of my favorite paper crafting brands:  Anna Griffin.  So, it occurred to me that I can scrap both at once and save the pages for my Quotes scrapbook!  This page says, "Don't get irritated, because it's 50% self pity!  Instead, give, thanks for everything."  I am a big Anna Griffin fan and cannot get over her card kits and how well they are priced!  I just shopped her HSN event and ordered the planner embellishments, some border dies, and another card kit!
The image is cut with Cricut Anna Griffin Lace Cards and Embellishments cartridge.  I stamped the Thanks for Everything with CTMH Artbooking stamp set.  All other 

UFO Challenge 25: Silver

This week I am continuing with my Finish Your Unfinished Objects Challenge.  And working with the Anniversary theme, the 25th anniversary, this weeks extra entry is for using a silver in your unfinished object, or a musical instrument themed project.   Remember you get an entry for working on any unfinished project and leave a comment on your project for an entry or post a comment to our Facebook group.  And the prize for May and June is listed two post below.
My Father's Day card is made with Anna Griffin Card kit, Anna Griffin die, and Cricut Explore.   I am a scrap hoarder and love to use my metallic cardstock scraps on Anna's Cards!  If you don't have enough to cut an entire die, just treat the die like a border die and cut a portion.

UFO Challenge #22: Copper

This week I am continuing with my Finish Your Unfinished Objects Challenge.  And working with the Anniversary theme, the 22th anniversary, this weeks extra entry is for using copper in your unfinished object.  Remember you get an entry for working on any unfinished project and leave a comment on your project for an entry or post a comment to our Facebook group. 
For my project pictured above, I used copper sheeting, with my Cricut Explore to make this Happy Birthday Card.  I used Anna Griffin's Sentiment with an Iron Ornamental Frame cartridge frame and embossed them both with the embossing tip.  I found a tutorial on how to here.   I then sprayed it with Dylusions Ink Spray in London Blue.  This was so much easier than using the Stazon and alcohol in the tutorial and I wanted to use blue instead of black.  Once I sprayed it, I just wiped off the excess with a tissue.  The die cut cuts are all Anna Griffin too!

Supplementing Anna Griffin's Card Kit with Cricut

I am making Mother's Day Cards from HSN with Anna Griffin's Card kit today and ran out of Happy Mother's Day sentiments.  I love her card kits and they are so generous with plenty of left overs, but Anna needs to add more Mother's Day sentiments because some of us have step parents on both sides of the family!  I needed sets for Mothers, Grandmothers, Step Mothers and Step Grandmothers.  So, I got on my Design Space and made my own! 

I used Cricut Elegant Edges for the oval frames, added the cream ovals in the center and the sentiment is from Cricut Mother's Day 2010 Cartridge.  I sent the cream oval to the back and then flattened the images.  After I printed and cut them, I embellished with a gold pen by hand.  Now I can make all my cards with professional looking sentiments.  Thanks Anna Griffin and Cricut!

And here is a photo of the outside of the cards by Anna.

Cricut Explore Has Me Scrap Booking Again

Now that I have a Cricut Explore, I am enjoying scrap booking again.  I love using the print and cut feature to make my own titles, like this Jingle Bell title made with my Imagine cartridges and Holly and Ivy cartridge.  The photo is not out of focus, I have blurred the face on purpose as it is not my child to share.  The circular font is made with the Cameo, as I don't know how to do this with the Explore.  Paper is by My Minds Eye (red polka dot back ground), American Crafts (candy cane stripe), K & Company (green papers). 
I always use my families photo Christmas cards to make pages for our Christmas album.  It's a wonderful way to see how each child grows and it's another way to decorate for the holiday's that tells my family how important they are when they visit.  We can look through the scrapbooks and ooh and aah over how they've grown.  I have also been known to display these pages in my Creative Memories framed box.