Cooking With Cricut Challenge: It's HOT Outside!

Happy Wednesday and welcome to challenge day at Cooking With Cricut.  Our Design Team was challenged to create a project that celebrated water and all of the fun things to do in and around it.  Being a third generation native Floridian, I have been in and around water all my life!  Currently we have a bit more water than we know what to do with thanks to Tropical Storm Debby.  

Here is what I created for this week's challenge:

(Don't forget -- you can click on the image to enlarge it!)

This double 12" x 12" layout will go in my youngest daughter's scrapbook.  It commemorates her very first trip to the beach when she was 14 months old.  Here's the recipe:

Cricut Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge --

• Sand cut @ 11 1/2" wide (Bazzill card stock - Iced Cocoa)

Cricut Every Day Paper Dolls cartridge --

• Sand Castle cut @ 4 1/2" wide (scrap stash)
• Bucket and Shovel cut @ 2 1/8" high (scraps)

Cricut Create-A-Critter cartridge --

• Crab cut @ 2 1/4" wide (scraps)

Cricut ZooBalloo cartridge --

• Waves cut @ 8" wide (Bazzill card stock - Evening Surf)

Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) --

• Text - Ravie font cut @ 1 1/4" high (We R Memory Keepers, White Out Collection)
• Starfish from the Summer image library cut @ 1" wide (scraps)

Ribbon scraps, rhinestones, ink, chalk and pen doodling completed this fun layout featuring my little beach baby.

Now it's your turn!  Link up your water-themed project at Cooking With Cricut this week for a chance at being our next Top Chef!  Head on over and check out all of the wonderful things the other Design Team members created.  Thanks for stopping by!

~ Jen


P.S.  I'm linking up to:

1. K. Andrew's Simply Sunday Challenge
2. Jaihart's Sundays Are Lovely Link-Up

Paper Crafting World: Color Challenge

Happy Tuesday and welcome to PaperCraftingWorld.com's weekly challenge!  I'm hanging out with the Design Team girls from Paper Crafting World today  -- their challenge this week was this beautiful color palette that must be used in some way in their project along with a digi or cutting file from PCW.  You could also use small amounts of white, black or Kraft -- but they could not be a main color.

Here is what I came up with . . .

inside reads:  ". . . like a Popsicle on the Fourth of July!"

I used the PCW Popsicle cutting file along with cuts from the Cricut Create-A-Critter cartridge.  All of the papers are from my scrap stash.  I also used some rhinestones, chalk and ink to jazz up this fun card.  The faces were drawn by hand and the text is my handwriting -- I used a black Zig Writer and a white Gelly Roll pen.

Here's the recipe:

• PCW Popsicle cut at 4 1/2" high. (The Popsicle cutting file has three different shaped Popsicles and its only $1.00 to download it!)
• Create-A-Critter  -- Sun cut at 4 1/2" high; Puddle cut at 1" high; and rain drops cut at 5/8" high.
• The card is made from plain white card stock and folded measures 5 1/2" x 4 1/4".

Now it's your turn . . . head on over to PaperCraftingWorld.com and link up your color-inspired project!  And make sure you check out what the Design Team was inspired to created using these fresh and fun summer colors!

~ Jen

P.S.  I'm linking up to:

1. K. Andrew's Simply Sunday Challenge
2. Jaihart's Sundays Are Lovely link-up party

Cooking With Cricut Birthday Blog Hop: Day 2

Welcome back to day two of CookingWithCricut.com and PaperCraftingWorld.com Design Teams' June Blog Hop. It's another day full of great birthday inspiration with different set of designers and projects. If you have come from visiting my dear friend Charlotte at A Little Bit of Detail then you are in the right place! If you would like to start at the beginning of the party, please head over to CookingWithCricut.com.

This month our hop theme is all about Birthdays!  And when Melin discovered that my birthday fell on our scheduled Blog Hop she decided to drag me out from behind the scenes at CWC-PCW and put me in the spotlight (not a place I am too comfortable being).  She then challenged our Designers to make birthday inspired projects with a “Jen” theme in mind. Here is what she said:  Our go-to-gal is a die-hard Florida Gator Fan. So we decided to use elements on our projects that reflected our GATOR FOR LIFE Gal’s FANCY -- Florida, The Florida Gators and anything that would make you think of the Sunshine State. 

So yesterday was my actual birthday and we had 11 adults and 6 children (5 of whom are four years of age and under) over to swim and for a cook-out.  Needless to say, I did not get the project finished that I wanted to share with you today.  However, here are the tags I made for our ice cream sundae bar:

I used the Cricut Tags, Bags, Boxes & More cartridge.  The brownie "flags" were cut at 11 1/4" wide (orange paper) and 9 1/4" wide (white paper) -- then I cut them in half to create the two flags.  The jar labels were cut at 3" high (orange) and 2 3/4" high (white).

Here are the cute little rascals that kept me so busy that I was just too tired to finish my project . . .

8 year old daughter, Demi.

2 year old grandson, Dylan

6 month old nephew, Everett (Rett)

17 month old nephew, Evan

4 1/2 year old niece, Layla

3 year old niece, Lexie

They all LOVED the make-your-own-ice cream sundae bar (so did the adults)!!  It was a wonderful afternoon filled with family, friends and lots of yummy food!

I want to say a HUGE thank you my dear friend Melin and all of the CWC & PCW Design Team members -- thank you, ladies, for being such wonderful friends.  I am truly honored that you all chose to celebrate my birthday and I love all of the beautiful things you made.  I am one lucky gal to have you all in my life -- you have been such a blessing to me!!

I'm the caboose on this party train, but make sure you head over to CWC and leave a comment for a chance to win some great blog candy!  

~ Jen

Cooking With Cricut Birthday Blog Hop: Day 1

Welcome to the CookingWithCricut.com and PaperCraftingWorld.com Design Teams' June Blog Hop. Get ready for two days of great projects with each day showcasing different designers and projects. If you have come from visiting Mindy at Scrappy & Piggy then you are in the right place! If you would like to start at the beginning of the party, please head over to CookingWithCricut.com.

This month our hop theme is all about Birthdays!  And when Melin discovered that my birthday fell on our scheduled Blog Hop she decided to drag me out from behind the scenes at CWC-PCW and put me in the spotlight (not a place I am too comfortable being).  She then challenged our Designers to make birthday inspired projects with a “Jen” theme in mind. Here is what she said:  Our go-to-gal is a die-hard Florida Gator Fan. So we decided to use elements on our projects that reflected our GATOR FOR LIFE Gal’s FANCY -- Florida, The Florida Gators and anything that would make you think of the Sunshine State. 

When my 8 year old daughter, Demi, heard that the Design Teams were celebrating her Momma's birthday she decided she wanted to join the fun.  After cruising all of the wonderful digi stamps at PaperCraftingWorld.com this is what she created:

The front of the card features the Princess Bear Standing digi and a digi Melin gave away in 2010 called Happy Birthday Circle.  Demi decided to cut the heart off of the stick and add the birthday circle after she colored and blinged it up.  The blue mat is cut at 5" wide by 8" tall using Cricut's "Just Because" Cards cartridge.  The blue card stock and the orange-white polka dot papers are from my scrap stash.

On the inside we printed out the Happy Birthday Word Art digi and she added the heart from the Princess Bear.  I think she did an awesome job and I love my orange and blue birthday card!

I made myself a birthday banner for our BBQ this afternoon . . . well, I make them for everyone else's birthday and I wanted one for mine, too!  I also finished up the menu signs for the party (here is the one I shared on Wednesday).

Here's the banner recipe:

• Cupcakes -- cut at 5" high using the Cricut Create-A-Critter cartridge.
• Pennant and mat -- cut at 5 1/2" square (orange) and 4 1/2" square (white) using the Cricut "Just Because" Cards cartridge.
• Party Hat -- cut at 6" high using the Cricut Doodlecharms cartridge. 
• The text was cut using Sure Cuts A Lot -- the font is Ravie and was cut at 3" tall.
• Orange card stock is from a 12" x 12" Recollections paper pack.
• The orange and blue patterned papers are from The Basics Paper Stack by The Paper Studio.  The cherry is cut from a scrap from DCWV Cherry Limeade stack.
• I used some yellow stickles on the party hat to give it some glitter.
• The ribbon is 1/4" satin ribbon by Offray.

And here are the last two menu signs for today's party . . .

Here's the recipe:

• Text for both signs cut using Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) -- the font is AR Christy and was cut at 1 1/2" tall.
• The glass of Lemonade and the Ice Cream Sundae were cut using "Just Because" Cards.  They both measures 4 1/2" tall.
• All of the papers are from my scrap stash.
• I inked the edges and did some doodling.

Thanks so much for joining the birthday fun and helping me celebrate my special day! And a HUGE thank you to to my dear friend, Melin, and the awesome CWC and PCW Design Teams -- I am truly blessed by your love, encouragement and friendship.

I'm the caboose on this party train, but make sure you head over to CWC and leave a comment for a chance to win some great blog candy!  And you'll want to come back and join us tomorrow for a second set of Designers and lots more birthday fun!!

~ Jen

Cooking With Cricut Challenge: BBQ or Picnic Theme

Happy "official" first day of Summer!  (Of course, here in North Central Florida it has felt like summer for months now!)  Today is challenge day at Cooking With Cricut and our Design Team was asked to salute the 1st day of summer and two of our favorite summertime activities . . . Picnics and Barbecuing!

We're having a BBQ this Saturday for my birthday -- swimming, tons of family and friends, and lots of good food!  I decided we needed a menu card for the buffet table to help alleviate those "what's for dinner" questions.  Here's what I came up with . . .

Here's the recipe (unless otherwise indicated all papers came from my scrap stash):

• My base piece of card stock measures 9 1/2" x 12" and is by Recollections.  
• The white is plain card stock and is 8 1/2" x 11".  
• The paper "me" measures 7 1/2" tall (And yes, I wear orange Crocs at home)  and the grill measures 4 3/4" tall -- they are from Cricut's Paper Doll Dress Up and Every Day Paper Doll cartridges.
• The text was cut using Sure Cuts A Lot.  The font name is AR Christy and was cut at 1 1/2" tall.

I used some black ink to shade the edges of the Chef's toque so it would stand out from the white background.  The face was drawn by hand using Zig Writers and a white Gelly Roll pen.  I also used some chalk to give my mini-me some rosy cheeks!

I had intended to have the beverage menu and the ice cream sundae menu completed to share with you . . . but three precious little nieces and nephew have needed Aunt Jen a lot here lately (and so has my 8 year old) and with Father's Day on Sunday, I just didn't get them completed.

Head on over to Cooking With Cricut and see what the other Design Team members came up with!  Then I hope you'll link up your own BBQ or Picnic-themed project . . . you could be our next Top Chef!

Don't forget to join us this weekend for a Birthday Blog Hop!  We have two sets of Designers with tons of birthday cards and project for you to see -- we kick off at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 23rd and Sunday, June 24th . . . come hop with us!

~ Jen

Cooking With Cricut Challenge: End of the School Year/Graduation

Happy Wednesday and welcome to Cooking With Cricut Challenge Day!  Our Design Team  studied hard for the test task at hand!  We were challenged this week to come up with a project that celebrated the end of school or a graduate.  Since I have no one in my life that is graduating this year, I chose to do a layout for my 8 year old daughter.  An end-of-the-year recap, so to speak, of her time in second grade.

Here is what I came up with:

Demi and I sat down and I did an "interview" about her favorite things in 2nd grade.  I used the picture I took of her on the first day of school last August because, quite frankly, the professional school photo was awful!  All of the papers used in the die cuts were from my scrap stash.  The deep red 12" x 12" card stock is by Recollections.  The black patterned strips are from my stash.  The other two patterned papers are by Recollections -- "A is for Apple" and "Plain Notebook Paper."

Here's the recipe:

Locker Talk cartridge -

• School Bus cut @ 3 1/2" tall by 3" wide.
• Globe cut @ 2 1/2" tall by 1 3/4" wide.
• Paint brush cut @ 3 1/4" wide.
• Apple cut @ 2 1/2" tall by 1 1/2" wide.
• A+ cut @ 1 1/4" tall by 1 5/8" wide.
• Book cut @ 1 3/4" tall by 1 3/8" wide.
• "Recess" cut @ 1" tall by 4" wide.
• Laptop Computer cut @ 1 3/4" tall by 2 1/2" wide.

My World cartridge -

• Schoolhouse cut @ 3" tall by 2 1/8" wide.

Mickey Font cartridge -

• Text cut @ 1" tall.

"Just Because" Cards cartridge -

• Tabbed Folder cut @ 7" tall by 5 1/2" wide.

Cricut Design Studio was a huge help in creating all of these cuts!  Most of the cuts in Locker Talk and My World are not multi-layer cuts - they only have the base and one additional layer.  I wanted my die-cuts to be truer to life.  So I laid out numerous images on CDS and hid the layers I didn't want.  Here's a screen shot to better explain what I did . . .

Now it is your turn!  Link up your "End of the School Year" or "Graduation" project at Cooking With Cricut and you just might be our next Top Chef!  Head on over to CWC and check out what the rest of the Design Team whipped up.  Thanks so much for stopping by!

~ Jen