FCCB Challenge Me Monday's #101 - Luck of the Irish

Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog - FCCB

Hello Fantabulous Friends!

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  I'm spending today catching up with things that I didn't get done on the weekend, which unfortunately is pretty much EVERYTHING!!!  AAAAAAhhhhh it's going to be one of those Mondays!  The good news is, I actually have a new project to show you! :0)  [Side note:  The reason I didn't get anything done this weekend is I was too busy on Yardsellr & EBay... Friends, if you don't know what Yardsellr is, please let me know B4 going there so I can link you through me.  When you link people, you get $ to spend on stuff!  I would so appreciate it!  It's free & it's just like a huge yard sale!!!  Leave me a comment & I'll get you hooked up, but you must have a Facebook account to really utilize all the features!  :0)  I ordered a ton of new cartridges this weekend, and my sweetest, awesomest, amazing hubby bought me one too (Kate's ABCs)!!!  I ordered Just Because (Cards), Straight From The Nest, Formal Occasion, Hey Diddle Diddle (Imagine cart), Hopscotch (Imagine cart), & three others that I can't even remember the names of!  Will update later...] Anyways...

Today at Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog (FCCB) is the beginning of the Luck of the Irish challenge!  For this challenge we are supposed to use a shamrock or the color green somewhere on our projects, along with at least one (1) Cricut cut.  Naturally, shamrocks & green go together so I decided to do both!  I hope you enjoy it!  The awesome prize up for grabs to one lucky winner picked by random.org is the cutest stamp set from Jaded Blossom.  Up until this point, I had never heard of them!  Boy was I in for a pleasant surprise when I checked out their store!  First off, followers of FCCB get a special treat when they place their order!  I can't tell you what it is so you'll have to check out FCCB to enjoy that gift. ;)  Next I discovered they have awesome stamps!  I will be placing an order right away!

For this project I used the most ADORABLE SVG set from another DT I participate in, Paper Piecings by Nikki (PPBN).  Please go check out her site!  I have linked you to her blog, but you'll want to click on her store and her Facebook group because that is where most of the action occurs.  Ladies who love paper piecing or those who have never tried it, Nikki's sets are awesome and she is very, very reasonable with her prices!  She always has lots of sales and discounts going on!  The set I used is called Luck-o-the-Irish!!! How convenient is that?  I knew it was serendipity when I saw the challenge on FCCB and took a look at my patterns from Nikki (the filename is the same as the challenge name - in case you didn't catch that)!  ;)

I used my Cricut Expression to cut it, of course b/c FCCB's challenges require you to use your Cricut machine!  I actually used several Cricut cartridges and designed my card in the Cricut Craftroom software available for free!  Friends, if you haven't tried this out yet, I encourage you to do so.  It's just like using the Gypsy, except you use it on your PC and obviously can see what you are doing, much, much easier!!!  Not to mention, the WELD feature is awesome on the software. Love it!  The only thing is, for this project, I accidentally welded my rectangle to connect the front & back of the card, backwards!  Aaak!  On the screen it looked right, but I forgot that when you close it, it's going to be BACKWARDS!!!  Oh well, let's just call it unique. ;0) LOL

Alright, so the cartridges I used are George & Basic Shapes, Designer's Calender, and Everyday Cake Sampler...Yes, you CAN use cake cartridges on the regular Cricut, and let me tell you, the cake ones are some of my very favorite cartridges!!!

Let's get to the photos!  I always take a bunch of pics because certain angles capture parts of the creation a bit better.  I also do one with a flash and one without.  Please click the pics to enlarge them for better detail.

 This pic is a bit confusing...the shamrock paper you see in the background is actually the same paper I used for the inside.  See below for better pics.

 With flash.

 Inside of card... The shape of the card is actually the scalloped circle.  I used a Stampin' Up greeting inside and some paper I had in my stash.

 How cute is the bear??? Don't forget to check out Nikki's Store!

I used two layers for the shamrock circle.  I pop dotted the top layer up about 1/8" or maybe even 1/4".  I decided to put some awesome purple tulle behind the bottom circle because all the little areas around the shamrock show through, so we have top layer - shamrock circle, then pop dots, then bottom layer, then behind that is the tulle and that shows through to the inside of the card which has the shamrock paper background.  Hope that makes sense!

When welding this card I added a rectangle with round corners so the circles wouldn't be compromised.  I love the way that worked, but next time, I'll make sure to not do it backwards! LOL  - The reason I did two shamrock circles is not only for dimension, but to make the card stronger.  I am going to add one more layer to the circles to cover up where the tulle is adhered.  

Thank you all for stopping by today.  If you have any questions let me know & since you're here, please do leave a comment.  I LOVE reading your comments! :0)

I will be entering this into the following challenges:
Sweetstamps.com Blog #55- St. Patrick's Day
Craft Your Passion Challenges 100th Challenge - Anything Goes

XO ~ Amy Jo