I have a lot of fun being one of the design team for Bitten by the Bug 2 and the challenge for the next two weeks is anything birthday.  How perfect is that because you always need ideas for birthdays.  I mentioned before that every year I do special birthday cards for my family which has been growing with marriages and children.  I now do 17 cards and choose a different technique each year, so that while they are the same kind of card, they are personalized to the people’s interests.  This year the technique is a pop-up wiper card and this is the card for my son-in-law’s birthday.

Front of Card

This is the card open with the hand popped up.  Since I am making so many of the wiper cards, I designed the base pieces on Design Space using rectangles and score lines.  I also put panels in the design, but when using patterned cardstock as the main pieces, you don’t need those decorative panels.  I have also started using more print, then cut elements.  In this card those are the hand and whiskey bottle which came from Designbundles.net.  After printing and cutting them, I added Glossy accents to the glass and bottle.  I actually did two sets, so that after the Glossy Accents dried, I could choose the best one. The front image is a stamp from Unity Stamp Company called Not Always…But and It is so nice to incorporate my stamps into my Cricut projects. The front sentiment is cut and written on the Cricut.  The “whiskey” and “cheers to you” are cut out of vinyl using Signature Scripts.  I like vinyl because it cuts well for small items and it lays really flat.  Since the hand sweeps up as it opens, you have to really watch what goes on the back of the of the card or it will catch.

Here is a video showing the action of the card which is the best part.

Make sure to go over to Bitten by the Bug 2 to add your own birthday project made with your Cricut by September 12. – Denise

It is time for another challenge at Bitten by the Bug 2.  Under the Sea is the theme which can be fun with the Cricut and I came up with a shaker card.

With the stress of starting a new job some of my mojo has left me, but I was going through my Pinterest card board and saw alcohol ink techniques which are always fun.  I always think blending blue alcohol inks looks like underwater so that started my inspiration.  Life is a Beach is a really fun Cricut cartridge for ocean/beach theme items.  I found a seahorse card and decided to make it into a shaker card.  

To start I colored a couple of Ranger gloss paper with various inks that I thought would look good for both the ocean as well as the sea horse, fish and seaweed.  This is how they looked when done.  You can see how big the images you want to cut out are and make sure your colored area is that big and add some to make sure.

After making these, I decided to cut the front out first so that I could try and color the seahorse and seaweed as well as the border.  I also cut out those items to place over the shapes in case the coloring didn’t work out as is sometimes the way with alcohol inks.  In the end they looked great, so I only used a couple of cutouts (the fish and some seaweed) to put on the back part of the shaker which was cut out of the blue background above.  I love how images cut out of these types of alcohol backgrounds turn out and they are never the same. In order to make the base card a shaker, I sliced off half of the card so that the front cut out as a square.  I added a border of sea fans to the bottom of the card cut from the brown portion of the sheet.

Here is the card with the sequins showing when you shake it.

Adding in the images I had cut out made the front too busy but I did like the way they turned out, so I added them to the inside of the card.  I wrapped the tail around the seaweed before gluing it on.

There isn’t a sentiment inside because I haven’t decided how I will use it.  It is always great to have some blank cards on hand that you can use for various occasions. In the end, it was fun to play with alcohol inks again.  Make your own Under the Sea fun with the Cricut and link it over at Bitten by the Bug 2 by August 29.  There are some really great projects by the design team to give you some inspiration. – Denise

This challenge by Bitten by the Bug 2 is all about the Great Outdoors.  It is ironic because I ran out of time to complete this challenge before we headed up to our cabin in the U.P. of Michigan for vacation.  So I took some supplies with me and completed it there.

A few years ago at the Mega Meet in Novi Michigan, I purchased this chip board album from Clear Scraps.  The front is a vest shape with a few cut outs and the rest of the pages are solid.  Gluing a solid piece of paper over the entire front (covering up the slits and holes representing buttons) gave me a clean slate make a fishing vest out of it.  I trimmed closely around it and then used a piece of sandpaper to clean up the edges.  Distress Ink was blended all around the edges and the pockets. The pockets were done by using a pocket cut from Make-up Bag box card from SVG Cuts and resizing them to be both big and little.  Plain rectangles were cut the same width as the pockets and guessing on the height.  The lures and bobbers came from Cricut’s Outdoor Man and the Tacklebox Box Card from SVG Cuts.  The back of the vest is actually the second page of the album that shows through. That paper is from an Echo Park collection called The Great Outdoors.  Cutting out the pieces at home and taking them with me, worked out well and you can see our own lake peeking out in the back.  I did forget the rings to attach the album together, but will do it at home.

I also cut out a tissue box cover from the same paper collection and decorated it with panels to leave at the cabin.  I have made several of these from SVG Cuts. You can see my view while crafting in this picture.

Make sure to link your great outdoor project using your Cricut over at Bitten by the Bug 2 by August 15.  You can get some great inspiration by all the designers there. Now off to go hiking. – Denise