Starting today through May 10 Bitten by the Bug 2 the challenge is flowers.  What a perfect start for May.

My project is a tissue box cover.  I know this doesn’t sound glamorous, but since I have allergies, these are all around my house and dressing them up has been fun.  SVG Cuts has these cut files that go together quickly.  I decided to use some of my beautiful Graphic 45 paper so that I could look at it every day.  The kit I used is called French Country.  I decided to dress it up even more by adding a dimensional Sunflower to match the paper. This also came from svgcuts.com in a set called Harvest Sunset and can be found here.  The Sunflower on the bag is the one I used, but I downsized it to fit on the side of the box.  This meant that the pieces for the center were fairly small and I wouldn’t try it any smaller.  I inked the petals and leaves with a blending brush and Distress Oxide Inks.  I shaped them The center was covered in glue and then rolled in glass micro beads.  I picked those up at Hobby Lobby sometime and have used them for some fun things.   They really made the center look great.  I made another with plain cardstock and added the decorative panels from another Graphic 45 kit and will probably fill my house with them.

Have fun making any kind of project with flowers using your Cricut machine, then add your link to the challenge at Bitten by the Bug 2 here.  – Denise

I am home because of the Pandemic shut down and decided to try and use some of the ginormous stash of 6 x 6 paper pads that I have.  I also had received my April 2020 KOM and March 2020 SMAK kits from Unity Stamp Company in the last couple of weeks, so I incorporated stamps from both of those in these cards.  I found a template on Pinterest by Dawn Lewis and it can be found here.  I printed her template which includes measurements. She actually uses a whole pad and made 66 cards, but used the template to make 11 at a time using 6 pieces of the paper.  I liked it because it didn’t have any waste and the layouts were straight forward enough to add things if I wanted to.  The paper pad is from Crate Paper called Bloom.  I picked it up sometime at Tuesday Morning.  I love going there because these pads are so inexpensive and I end up with tons of them.  Anyway the cards went together easily and I was able to use a lot of the stamps and did just a little fussy cutting for the butterflies and rabbit. The leaves on the big flower card were also fussy cut and were used to cover up a boo-boo I made.  I am glad I was able to salvage it.  Have fun and try the template. – Denise

Join the challenge at Bitten By The Bug. This challenge is perfect because my grown children and their families love the outdoors so I have lots of papers and accents in this theme.  While they camp out all the time, I prefer ending my hikes at the cabin where there is a hot shower and a soft bed, lol.

Here is my card open (the card holders on the sides are just to hold it open).  I searched Pinterest for ideas on a pop-up tent card.  The item that came up the most was a die set by Karen Burniston with lots of little details.  Since I have my Cricut, I don’t tend to buy shaped dies like this because they are expensive and limited in their use.  I looked at it and also some other sites that gave basic information on designing a pop-up element in both cards and books and came up with a design that works using only basic shapes.  It should be in the Cricut Community in Design Space under 3d tent.  I always like a challenge to see if I can translate what I am thinking into Design Space.  I also used the cartridge Camp Out for the fire and logs.  The paper for the tent and card base is from paper by Parkland called Wilderness.  I used several different brads from Eyelet Outlet as decoration as well as some buttons from my stash.  The sentiments and front of the card were from a Photoplay collection called Campfire.

     Here is the front of the card.

    And a top view.

Here are my prototypes. Practice cards are a good way to use the ugly paper you have and won’t use, lol.  These brown roses just don’t get it for me.

Here is a second card I made using the same paper packs as the first plus Photoplay’s Lakeside. I used eyelets on the top of the tent instead of brads because I actually thought about doing it before gluing the tent together.

Join us for the challenge and add your own outdoor themed project made using your Cricut machine here.  I hope you are all able to get outdoors and stay safe as we get through this time of COVID 19. – Denise