For the next two weeks Bitten by the Bug 2 is collaborating with Double Trouble to do a challenge called Oh Baby.  This mood board is our inspiration.

I decided to do an older, but classic technique called a waterfall card. The blocks on the image were my inspiration.

The real fun comes with the action when you pull the tab.

Sorry the video is sideways, but I was having trouble uploading it, so this is the best I could do.

In the past I had just done the mechanism portion by hand, but decided it would be a good idea to have it as a project on Design Space so that I could make them quickly if needed in the future.  Using basic shapes and score lines, it was pretty quick to do.  The blocks that flip were made using a square frame from the Going Places.  I made the frame and also a duplicate with the center contour taken out to make the back of the block from the patterned paper.  Kate’s ABC’s were used for the letters and I attached each of them in the middle of the frame.  Originally I did that to save paper, but was then later able to use the negative cut in a bonus card. The patterned paper was from a really old stack I had by DCWV called Baby Girl.  The size of the stack is 4 1/2 x 6 1/2 which makes it great for cards.  The button brads were attached to the background paper before the whole thing was glued to the card base.

Here is the bonus card using the negative cuts.

Be sure to visit Bitten by the Bug 2 to add your own project for this challenge.  Since we are collaborating with Double Trouble, we are not requiring you use the Cricut, but you do have to use a die cut in your project.  Have fun – Denise

For the next two weeks Bitten by the Bug 2 will have a masculine theme.  I made these favors to hand out to the fathers in our church (and the other church that shares our building) on Father’s Day.

Since I was making 20 of them, I needed something fairly easy, but also something that they could use.  I happened to need a keychain flashlight to replace mine that had broken and came across these on Amazon.  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07SGDLD3J/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I thought they would make a nice useful present for the men.  Searching Pinterest, I came across the sentiment and it clicked that I could use the key chain somehow with a lighthouse.  I searched Design Space and the lighthouse from the Life is a Beach cartridge.  It seemed perfect.  I sized it to be 5 1/2 ” tall and to fill in the white stripes (which were just open in the original cut) I took the yellow layer, made a duplicate, changed the color and hid most of the contours so that it looked like this.

By putting the solid image behind the main one and grouping them, I was able to flatten the image with solid stripes.  Flattening the image and making a print, then cut saved a lot of time when putting them together.  The poem was done on Word and printed on my printer.  Distress Ink was applied around the edges.  The lighthouse was glued in place and my Crop-a-dile was used to punch a hole in the open space of the lighthouse top.  Washi tape held the keychain in place and allowed it to be squeezed to let the light shine.

It really looks great when lighting it up.

Here is the back with the keychain flashlight taped in place.

Make sure to add your own masculine project using your Cricut and link it up at Bitten by the Bug 2 by July 4. – Denise

The challenge at Bitten by the Bug 2 for the next two weeks is Country Fair.  I am in the midst of getting projects done for my daughter’s wedding, which is less than two weeks away and I am only four days away from flying out to her house in Washington state. Yikes!

However I was able to get a quick card done for a couple of great-nieces who show goats at the fair.  

The goat is from Nate’s ABC’s.  It is two layers and I colored the nose, hooves, and eye with a black marker.  The sentiment is the font is Signature Script Fonts with the “fair” coming from Country Fair.  A good way to add to a simple card is to emboss the background.  I used the Cuttlebug embossing folder called Bandana with white cardstock and then used a blending brush with Distress Oxide ink over the whole thing.  Another way to make things go a little quicker was to use an adhesive backed cardstock from DCWV for the letters.  

Get your own inspiration for a country fair theme by going to Bitten by the Bug 2 and seeing what the other projects the the designers came up with.  Then go ahead and link up your own project using your Cricut by June 20th.  – Denise

The challenge for the next two weeks at BItten by the Bug 2 https://heather-bittenbythebug2.blogspot.com/2021/05/may-flowers.html is called May Flowers. While my project does not have flowers as the main emphasis, it does incorporate them.

My daughter’s wedding is in June and I am busy making various projects for it. She lives in Washington State and is getting married there, so her tables are going with various themes of the area. One of the tables is going to be done in the theme of the rainforest. I thought a couple of mushroom fairy houses would be a whimsical addition to it. The design is from Dreaming Tree and can be found at this link. https://3dsvg.com/shop/luminaries/marigolds-and-mushrooms-svg-bundle/ The original design has a lot more frills and is over 10 inches high. I wanted them to blend in a little more on the table so after downloading the files into Design Space, I sized everything at once by selecting all and in the edit mode made one of the dimensions about half of the original (and making sure the little lock between the h and w shows as locked). That keeps everything in proportion. The hide contour feature let me take away some of the details that made it a little too cutesy for me. I had some cardstock with these raised dots that made a perfect top. The flowered paper is from a Simple Stories collection called Cabin Fever. The rest is from my stash including gold velum and the little pieces come from scraps. I used Distress Oxide inks around the edges. The smaller size makes it a little harder to put together, but still doable.

Here is the other mushroom fairy house from the set made in the same manner as above and pictured together.

The neat thing about these is that they lift off their bases so that you can put a battery operated tea light inside. Here they are lit up.

Make your own project incorporating flowers and using your Cricut, then link them at Bitten By the Bug 2 found here https://3dsvg.com/shop/luminaries/marigolds-and-mushrooms-svg-bundle/ by June 6. More wedding projects posted after the wedding including a really big macrame project. – Denise

A new challenge is up on Bitten by the Bug 2 just in time for graduations.  It is that season and there are all kinds of graduations from kindergarten to college and beyond.  My son is in the Air Force and was selected to go into the Air Force Weapons School.  He will graduate this June and I wanted to make a card for him.

I looked it up on the internet and found the patch that they will wear after graduation on their uniforms.  I downloaded the image and uploaded it to Design Space as print, then cut.  I have been doing this more because It certainly is easier with some designs that are unique and harder to find.  After I sized it to be about 5 inches tall, I used the new offset feature to make a shadow of the image that was about a 1/4 inch.  I then duplicated that shadow and flipped it.  Bringing the two tops together and welding them made a great card base.  It is helpful to use the center alignment tool to make sure they are centered with each other before welding.  Adding a score line in the middle made it easy to fold (once again using the center alignment).  One thing I didn’t realize until I went to cut, is that because I had used the offset feature using a print, then cut, it made the new solid offset image print, then cut too.  I changed it to cut and used a red cardstock to cut the base.  On the inside I used another downloaded image for the school logo as  print, then cut and put that inside.  The sentiment is from a Close to my Heart stamp.

If you have a graduation project using your Cricut, make sure to link it up by May 23 at Bitten by the Bug 2.  Check out what the design team has done if you need some inspiration. – Densie

A Star Wars challenge is up on Bitten by the Bug 2 in honor of May 4 (May the fourth be with you).  I chose to do a birthday card for my husband as he and the kids used to watch the Star Wars movies on videos (and later DVDs) together all the time.

This year my special family birthday cards are wiper cards.  You can find ways to do them online and Lori Whitlock has some cute ones too.  In the end, I made my own using basic shapes and score lines.  I downloaded a font from DaFont.com called Star Jedi and used it to make the front of the card which was cut out of yellow vinyl and black vinyl.  I did use the new offset feature on Design Space to do the “you” on the front.  After making an offset of the original word, I sliced the two which created this nice outline.  I downloaded an image of this old Yoda from the internet and used the print, then cut feature.  I tried to find an image on Design Space, but they all seem to be the new baby Yoda, which didn’t work with the message I wanted to make about being old. It is attached to a strip of acetate so that it pops up as you open the card.  The papers came from a Paper House pad called Hunting Paper and Park Lane’s Celestial.

Here is the wiper card in action.

Make your own Star Wars (or any project with stars) on your Circut and link it on the Bitten by the Bug 2 by May 9th.  The designers really have some cute projects there, so check it out.  May the Force be with you. – Denise

The challenge over at Bitten by the Bug 2 for the next two weeks is Fairy Tales.  I was in a different kind of mood when I thought about this challenge and did a more grown-up take on the challenge.

Last year my niece had me do several wine glasses for her and her friends with different punny sayings relating to different Disney characters.  I didn’t have pictures of those glasses, but decided it would make a fun tag for a bottle of wine (or other spirits).  This fairy godmother is from Disney – Princess Happily Ever After.  I flattened the image which makes the image into a print, then cut and is really helpful for these detailed images.  The tag itself was easy to make from basic shapes – a rectangle 2 1/2 inches x 8 inches with a score line 2 1/4 inches from the top and a 1 3/8 inch circle centered in the top.  The font is from DaFont and called Waltograph.  A few solid sequins and it was done.  Quick and easy. Now that song will be running through your head, lol.

Make sure to join us at Bitten by the Bug 2 to see what other great projects the designers have and link up your own Fairy Tale project using your Cricut.    – Denise

The challenge for the next two weeks over at Bitten by the Bug 2 is Easter or bunnies and I have a project that incorporates both.

SVG Cuts is one of my favorite sites for some amazing 3D projects. The owner Mary had a baby last year, so new projects have slowed down, but she released a new group of projects called Hoppy Easter a few weeks ago that included this adorable Chocolate Bunny Bag. (it is also available as a separate file). I knew it would be perfect to send to my two children and their families.  The patterned cardstock was from Authentique’s Best of Springtime pack. The solid cardstock was from my stash to match – one blue and one yellow.  It took three sheets of 12 x 12 solid color for each bag. I used a Fiskars Texture plate (Grass) for the textured parts of the rabbit. I purchased these plates when I was first getting started in paper crafting and before I knew about about embossing folders.  I still like some of the patterns they have, so I use them occasionally. Some ribbon for the handles and I was done.  The second bag went together more quickly than the first, but Mary makes awesome videos for each of her projects, so you know exactly what to do.

Here are a couple of other views to see the dimension and the two colors.

I purchased a bigger egg at the Dollar Tree and put all of the candy for each person in each one.  I also personalized these eggs with their names.  The fonts were Library and Plantin Schoolbook.  I was able to fit two eggs in one bag and three in the other along with some extra candy so that I could send one bag to each family.

Make sure to head over to Bitten by the Bug 2 to link up your own project using your Cricut by April 12 and see all the wonderful inspiration by the design team.

May everyone have a blessed time during this special time of year. – Denise

Our challenge over on Bitten by the Bug 2 for the next two weeks is Music or Dance.  This thank you note will be perfect for our church organist.  It was pretty quick to do.

The Hannah Montana cartridge is one that I have for quite a while and sometimes gets overlooked.  That is because even though it is a font cartridge (there are several included) it does not show on the list of fonts when you use text.  Instead you have to insert images for each letter. The easiest way to do this is to to search images and choose Hannah Montana as the image sets under highlighted categories.  This is a little annoying to me because if I am putting in text, I forget about this cartridge unless I specifically want to do this note type writing.  The other annoying thing is that the rest of the images on the cartridge do not show under the image set.  If you search guitars, the ones on the set will pop up, but if you only look at the set, they don’t show, only the letters and numbers.  Luckily I still have the booklet, so I know what all is on the cartridge set.  I also pulled the Treble and Bass clefs from the cartridge Quarter Note.  Once I put all the letters and blank lines close enough to touch each other, I welded everything and then cut it out of vinyl.  I might try it in cardstock next time since I made it a little bigger and I don’t have to worry about small details.

Make sure to put your own project using your Circut with a music or dance theme and link it up at Bitten by the Bug 2 . – Denise

We are starting a new challenge today over on Bitten by the Bug 2 called Anything Goes.  This is one of the easiest to do since you can do any kind of project on your Cricut to link up on their site for the next two weeks.  I chose to do a wedding card for my niece and future nephew.

I love cards that move and this is called a sliding triple tier card.  There are several tutorials on this kind of card if you search the internet or Pinterest.  Since I was going to use this to look like a cake, I wanted the tiers to be more rectangular than square and I ended up making my own pattern on Design Space.  To make it big enough to put on a 5 x 7 card base, the bottom tier ended up being 13.5″ x 3 “. I used some 11 x 17 card stock that I had on hand and used my 12 x 24 mat.  I don’t know about you, but I rarely use that size mat, then am always glad I have the option when I do. The three pieces are just rectangles with score lines and slits cut in them, which means anyone can do it with the basic shapes.  If anyone would like the link to my pattern, I will make it shareable and send you the link.  To dress it up, I used swoops from Wedding Cake Pop-up (this is a Close to My Heart cartridge).  I saw a sketch of her cake and this design will be somewhat like it.  I also used a monogram “H” that a friend of the bride designed and sent to me as a svg file.  The decorations were cut with gold vinyl and that is my go-to for such thin designs. The font for the “forever” is one that was on my system and isn’t a Cricut font.  The cake plate was cut in a gold foil paper and is from Create a Critter 2.  I cut a slit in it so that the cake would fit down into it and look like an actual cake plate.  I used a Cuttlebug embossing folder called Art Deco to emboss the front of the card base.  The dusty blue color and Art Deco style are a part of her wedding. The trio of flowers at the top serve as a topper for the cake and a pull tab to pull out the layers.  I feel like it still needs something, but I am not sure what yet, However I do have just under two weeks to fix it.

Make sure to dive into a Cricut project and add your link to the challenge here. – Denise