Penguin Challenge

The challenge for the week on the Bitten by the Bug blog is to create a project using the penguin from the Joys of the Season cartridge. I love this blog, but rarely play along. I think I'm intimidated by how good their cards are. Anyway, I decided to give it a try this week. This is my card. I cut 2 penguins from the cartridge and decided to dress them up with some of the cuteoutfits that come with the newly released Snow Friends cartridge. I widened the skirt a little so it would fit on the penguin and then gave her some earmuffs. For the little guy, I used the scarf. The paper used on the skirt, scarf, and ear muffs is from the new Basic Grey line Eskimo Kisses. The background paper is from another Christmas Basic Grey line I think Figgy Pudding. I cut some hills from the Everday Paper Dolls cartridge and embossed them with my cuttlebug.

I used the new Core'dinations white wash paper with a blue core and then sanded the embossing to bring the blue out. To finish the card off, I cut some snowflakes (also from Joys of the Season) and stamped a sentiment on a tag. I colored white embroidery floss with a blue copic marker to make it blend with the rest of the card.

Ainsleigh's swap pages

I love doing swaps- layouts, cards, ATC's you name it. My swap group decided to change things up a bit last month and let our kids make some pages for each other. They were each assigned a partner and they made 2 double page layouts for their partner from the list of interests the kids provided. Ainsleigh's partner was a 6 year old boy. This was hard. I have never made a boy page. In fact, I have never looked for boy scrapbooking items at all. Her partner wanted a Christmas layout and one for Guitar Hero. This is what she came up with.

She used the cricut cartridges Joys of the Season, Christmas Cheer, and Cursive 101. This is her Guitar Hero layout. We scanned the lid to a Guitar Hero tin that my mom bought for some reason and cut that out. We found some rock and roll stickers and made a little boy to look like Ozzy. She had a lot of fun and it was an experience for us both. I think she did an excellent job and Ozzy liked his pages, so the experiment was a success! When she gets her pages back, I will post those pictures also.

She also made a cheerleading page for another seven year old. She used Hello Kitty to make this one.

More cards

I decided to get a head start on the some of the cards I need for my Cuttlebug card exchange group. Here are a few I came up with for some of our upcoming card exchanges. This is the same owl card I made down below, but I made it a little more girly. I used this one for our get in shape swap where we had to make a card in any shape other than a rectangle. The tree is the matching envelope that Wild Card cuts to go along with the owl card. I cheated a little on this one- not much cuttlebug, just the little border at the top to be the owl's tiara.

This next card is my favorite. I'm not sure which exchange I'm going to use if for or if I can even part with it. I just love it! The tree is from Wild Card and the little birds are from Home Decor. I have no idea what to use this card for, I just wanted to make it because I thought it would turn out cute.

This next card is one I am using for the fun with ink swap where we needed to use ink with our Cuttlebug folders. I inked the large houndstooth folder as well as the smaller folder with a brayer, put the paper in, and ran it through the Cuttlebug. I think it worked really well with the houndstooth folder and made the pattern stand out a little more. As you can see, I've made several cards with birds on them. There are so many cute bird items around right now, I decided to have a For the Birds swap to see what everyone could come up with. I thougth it would be fun to use the birds from Joys of the Season and make a few non Christmas cards with them. For this one, I used the 2 Turtle Doves to make a valentine's themed card. You would never know the birds came from a Chrismas cartridge, they work perfectly for Valentine's Day. I also used the partridge in a pear tree for another card. I cut the pear off the end, so I guess it's just a partridge in a tree. I used the coredinations chocolate box cardstock for the background of this card. The paper is chocolate brown, but when you sand the embossing, the light blue core shows through. Well, this is officially becoming my longest post ever, so I will finish up with one last card. This is the one I am using for the Valentine's Day swap. It features the chandelier from Home Decor. I think I will put something cheesy on the inside like You light up my life Valentine. I mounted the chandelier on a label nestabilitie die and sanded the embossing to make it stand out. The paper and ribbon are from Close to My Heart. I messed up when I cut the card base, so it opens from the side.