Save the Earth Fantabulous Cricut Crawl

Welcome to and the SEVENTH Fantabulous Cricut Crawl...Fantabulous Cricut's version of a Blog Hop!

In honor of our Home Planet, Mother Earth, we're having a "Save the Earth" Crawl...each Design Team member will be featuring an original Upcycled-Themed Project that includes at least one Reuseable/Recycled Item along with at least ONE Cricut Cut.

I'm the  first designer on the hop today and want to thank you all for joining us today!!!  If you came here from  FCCB, you're in the right place! If you've just happened across my blog and would like to play along with our Fantabulous Cricut Crawl, start with FCCB so you can catch a sneak peek of all the projects as well as to see how to win some great prizes along the way!!!

Make sure to check out each DT member's blog for some awesome inspiration! There will be PRIZES along the way at our DT members' blogs, AND there will be a Grand Prize up for grabs at FCCB for one participant that submits a "Save the Earth" project at FCCB!

How fun is that?

For my project I decided to finally make the dog treat holder that I've been saving this plastic beef jerky bin for, forever!  I have lots of pics and I'm sorry to bore you with them, but I couldn't find an easy way to photograph a cylinder! ;) LOL  I have pics from start to finish so I will post them here and list the details below for anyone who's interested.  If you want to get on over to the next stop on the hop, I don't mind, but be sure to read about how to win some blog candy from me! ;)

 Top of Jerky Bin to be converted to Dog Treat Holder

 Yep, been meaning to make this project for about a year now LOL 

 Karen Foster paper, cut down to size

 Closeup of label - Tim Holtz Coredinations Cardstock w/Kraft Core from Nostalgic Collection, Quickutz Embossing Folder, sanded down with emery board to show the polka dots (notice the Kraft core peeking through?)

Full shot of label with paw prints from This & That Cricut Cartridge, Font from Martha Stewart BDay Cake Cartridge 

 Notice the cute texture behind the "Doggy Treats", used A2 Quickutz Polka Dots embossing folder

 Added a couple of paw prints

I left a space in the back to see how full the treat bin is at all times so we don't run out! ;) 

I just had to add ribbon to the top and then I thought this adorable dog collar sticker from Karen Foster went perfectly with it!  The "newsletter" stickers for my dogs names are also from Karen Foster.

Full Deets:  I used Karen Foster Designs Dog Scrapbook Kit for the background doggy treat paper, and all of the stickers (dog names (Oso, Lexi, and Bella) and collar).  For the first time in a long time I did NOT use pop dots because I wanted this to be pretty, but practical and pop dots would cause hangups.  I did decide to add some nice deep red ribbon from Stampin' Up to finish off the sides of the lid as well as using Offray ribbon in black for the top and bottom of the 3 1/2" x 12" label that has the paw prints and "Doggy Treats" on it.  I loved distressing the Tim Holtz Kraft-Core Coordinations card stock with my emery board from Basic Grey.  The Kraft core came through so nicely!  Sorry for the dark photos there... It's 2:00 AM and I couldn't find the right lighting. :p  I inked the edges of everything with Cat's Eye ink from ColorBox in Dark Brown and/or Blackbird.  I used red tape, ATG, Craft Essentials Glue (Joann's), and Adhesive Tech for my adhesives.  I was really wanting to use my glue gun (for the first time), but I was too lazy to get it out and mess with it.   For the paw prints, I didn't cut them deep enough on my Cricut, which worked out well because it gave me a guideline instead to color in the paw prints and add some details with my black Zig pen and white gelly roller.  I also used my black Zig pen to outline the "Doggy Treats" letters because they just weren't popping against that red background.  I used the other side of the Tim Holtz paper for the letters themselves and I used Cricut Craft Room to design them, moved them til they were touching and welded them.  Much easier than adding letter by letter, right? ;)  Ok, now that I've bored you with all the details, on to the good stuff! :)

Blog Candy:  I will be offering some blog candy today and all you have to do to win is please become a follower and leave a comment.  In your comment please note if you are an old or new follower and leave a way for me to contact you please in case you are the lucky winner!  I only give candy away to people who take the time to become a follower and hopefully a friend!!! ;)  Winner will be randomly drawn.  I will give everyone a full week to enter so I will post the winner next Tuesday!

You will get these five stamps if you are the winner! :)  Aren't they cute?  Of course, I got a set for myself too! ;) LOL  

Now it's your turn! Let's see your Upcycled-Themed projects! Make sure to include a Cricut Cut somewhere on your project and please note what cartridge(s) you used  so we can count you in for the prizes!

Next stop... Amy's blog, Redheaded Crafter. Go see what she has in store for you today... And when you're done, make sure to link up your project to FCCB's Fantabulous Cricut Crawl post to be entered into the contest!

Happy Crawling!


P.S.  I will be drawing winners from my St. Patty's Day hops this week.  So sorry for the delay, my friends!!! I just got some new goodies in to share with you so i hope it was worth the wait!!! ;)

Dilly Beans Friday Challenge - Pastel Palette (A Little Late)

Hi Sweet Friends,

It's time for another Friday challenge from the awesome Dilly Beans Challenge Blog!  I'm sorry I'm so  late in my posting.  I am going to put the projects I've made here as I finish them up.  I have one to share with you right now and will have either one or two more later today!  Since I am late in my posting, Megan might not have these up yet on the challenge blog, but I would encourage you to go there anyways and see the amazing projects the DT has created.  They are seriously pretty!  (I've already peeked.) ;0)  I would also highly suggest visiting the STORE as Megan has lots of darling new images for sale and  a great SALE going on until May 1st!!!  OMG, I can't wait to get all the new ones!  Wish me luck on becoming a DT member!  I'm still pushing for it. ;)

The first project I have is one that I had given you a sneak peek of during the Easter challenge for Dilly Beans.  I have it all finished up finally and it fits our Pastel Palette challenge perfectly! :)

#392 Amalia Easter Bunny

For this project I used the Amalia Easter Bunny from Dilly Beans, an egg cut from Doodlecharms (Cricut Cartridge), butterfly brads, an adhesive pearl gem, and purple polka dot ribbon from Creative Charms, paper from Stampin' Up and my stash, twine from My Craft Spot.  I colored my image with colored pencils and finished off the project by inking the edges with dark brown Cat's Eye ink.  

Thank you all for stopping by today!  I hope you enjoy my project.  It was super fun to create, now I'm off to the next one! ;)

XO ~ Amy Jo

P.S.  Since you're here, leave a comment! ;)

FCCB Challenge Me Monday's #107 - April Showers (LATE POST)

Hello my sweet and wonderful friends!  Thank you all so much for hanging in there with me and leaving such nice comments for me.  :)  Sorry I've been so out of touch!  Same ol' Fibro stuff going on and just hanging on over here by a thread, but your support truly keeps me going!  I appreciate all my new followers too and thank you for following!  I apologize to my friends for not keeping up with responding to your comments and emails.  Please know, I do receive and read every single one and I will be getting back to everyone slowly, but surely. ;O)  It is super important that you know how much I love you all!

I have a fun, albeit late little project for you today that was actually supposed to be for last week's FCCB challenge, April Showers.  I got it done a few days after it was due and just decided to post it on the Wednesday Winner's post instead.  I am going to go ahead and enter it into a few challenges since I've posted it now. :)  I hope you enjoy it and I apologize for the crummy photos.  Without the flash it looked too dull and with the flash it looks too glossy, but I will post all the pics anyways, but keep in mind, it's much cuter in person. ;)  I actually made this for a friend of mine who is going through a very rough time.  I'll post the deets below for those that are interested. ;)

 Cricut Cartridges:  April Showers, A Child's Year, and 3 Birds on Parade

 Sentiment stamp is from CTMH and punched out with a Creative Memories double-punch.

 With Flash

Glossy Accents and Stickles

DEETS:   I was super excited to use A Child's Year for the first time, for the background shape of this card. There's some great shapes on that cartridge!  I used 3 Birds on Parade for the bird/umbrella/raindrops and April Showers for the clouds that I welded.  I designed it all in Cricut Craft Room.

All cardstock used was from my stash and most were from scraps!  For the background I really wanted it to look like rain coming down and found an awesome stamp in my collection that was perfect for this!  Notice all the white swirls in the background?  I don't know the stamp set off-hand, but if anyone wants to know what it is just leave a comment and I'll look it up for you. ;)  I also used a CTMH stamp set that I bought online and I am in love with this set!!!  I'm in bed at the moment and can't remember the name of it either, but again, am happy to look it up. ;)

I did a lot of little doodles and extras on this card with gelly rollers, ink, Glossy Accents, and Stickles.  I decided the bird looked too plain so I gave him a funky little 'do and some eyelashes too. ;)  I popped things up with foam dots to add some depth and there ya have it!  

Thanks so much for stopping in today and since you're here, why don't ya leave a comment?  I'd love to hear from you! :)

XO ~ Amy Jo

Challenges I'm entering:

Victorine Stamps - #32 Anything Goes
Papertake Weekly - April Showers

Teacher Thank You Gifts Blog Hop - April 15th

***For my latest Guest Design post for Dilly Beans please click HERE.***

Hello my lovely friends!  Thanks so much for stopping by today and joining us for the Teacher Thank You Gifts Blog Hop hosted by the talented and lovely Dena of The Unknown, Entertaining Mind of Miss Dena Jones.  If you've arrived here from Jamie's Blog, then you are in the right spot!  If you just happened upon my blog today please start at the beginning with Dena so you don't miss out on any of the fun and prizes!

Teacher Appreciation Week this year begins on May 7th and ends on May 11th.  If you're looking for some teacher thank you gift ideas, you've come to the right place!  Each of the designers in today's hop is sharing a wonderful gift idea for a teacher.  We hope you have fun hopping with us while picking up some great ideas!

For my project today I decided to make an altered composition notebook to go with a card that I had posted last year (shown below) so I can sell them as a set!  I have no kids and no teachers so I have no need for these items, but nonetheless I had so much fun creating them!  If you are interested in purchasing them, please let me know.  They will be added to my STORE if I don't hear from anyone. ;)

 Card from last year's FCCB post.

Inside of card.

For details of the card please go to THIS POST.

For the notebook, I thought the background of the notebook could actually look pretty cool without having to cover it with paper so I just added to it rather than covering it up completely. Please click the pics for enlargement.  I used the Makin' the Grade Cricut cartridge as well as the Imagine More Cards cartridge (for the notebook paper).  I was stoked to find out that Imagine More Cards had a perfect notebook paper print because it comes in handy for so many projects!  I will post further details below the pics if you are interested.

 Full Cover

 Vellum tag in bottom right corner

Details:  Wow, I used a lot of little elements here.  Let's see if I can remember where they all came from! ;0) LOL  - I used several elements from this package I won from Julie at A Little Bit of Bling (note the stickers on the left.

From my stash I used, an apple & class notes sticker from Sandylion, a scrap of ribbon, shiny red brads and blue and red cardstock.  I used Lime Green Stickles for the leaf and stem of the apple, Colorbox Blackbird ink for the edges, Bo Bunny buttons and Doodlebug twine.

Thanks so much for joining us today!  Now you are off to Cely's Blog to see what she has created for us today.

XO ~ Amy Jo

P.S.  If you're here, please leave a comment!  I love to hear from you all!

Kristin's $100 Giveaway

Since you're here, I'd love it if you would scroll down one post for my latest Guest Design creations for Dilly Beans. Thanks!!!

$100 giveaway??? I know, right!!!  OMGoodness,  well this is what drew me to Kristin's Blog, but once I was there I was AMAZED at her work!  She has some major talent and wicked skills!  ;0)  Seriously friends, check out her blog, become a follower and post about this giveaway to be entered to win.  While you're there scroll over some of her previous posts.  Trust me, you'll be happy you did!  I know I'm inspired!  Thanks Kristin for the chance to win and for sharing your amazing creations with us!!!

XO ~ Amy Jo

P.S.  Tell her who sent ya! ;)

Dilly Beans Friday Challenge - Shades of Pink and Black

Hi Friends,

I am so sorry I haven't been able to do a whole lot of anything this past week.  I have had a migraine since Easter and it is just not letting up!!!

I'm super excited about my 2nd Guest Design post for Dilly Beans Challenge Blog and actually got two cards created late last night!!! Just in time for the challenge. ;)  Our challenge this week is "Shades of Pink & Black".  For this challenge I have used the #352 Heart-Flowers Border, #348 - Amalia's Daisy, #374 Flowers & Love, and #263 Zombie Girl with Bow.  I hope you enjoy my cards and will join us on the Challenge Blog!

Click on any of the links above to go to the Dilly Beans Store!

 Zombie Girl with Bow

3 different digis used here - Amalia with Daisy, Hearts & Flowers Border and Flowers & Love (the words)

For my projects today I used a few different mediums; Copics, colored pencils, Zig pens, Stickles glitter glue,  Creative Memories pens and my white gelly roller .  The first project is made with two different zebra print cardstocks from Recollections.  I used the black/white zebra print for the background to frame Zombie Girl and the pink on pink zebra print for the main part of the card.  It's nice because when it opens, it's a solid pink inside so you don't have to put another layer on the inside of the card if you don't want to!  I used two strips of ribbon from my stash to put behind the framed digi stamp and then added some Making Memories gunmetal brads for a little "rock 'n' roll" bling. ;)  I also added some black rhinestones to polish it off.  For the image itself, I used several shades of pink, along with silver, black, gray tones.  I drew the little spirals with my zig pen and added a little shading to the bow with a silver Creative Memories gelly pen. I added some more eyelashes to her upper lids and added some doodles to the heart hanging down from her.  

For Dilly Beans images I don't like to clutter up the card with lots of embellishments and additions because the images are so great that I don't want anything to detract from them.  That's why these cards seem more simple than some of my other creations.  The images are so much fun to color and for a while I was trying to be so perfect with it, then I decided to just PLAY!!!  That's one thing we should all remember from time to time. ;)  I've decided that my imperfections make it my own, you know?

If you haven't been to see the team's projects yet, OMGoodness you are in for a special treat.  These ladies are so talented and I always get inspiration from their projects. I would also like to say a quick thank you to the teammates who stopped by to say "hi" last week.  I really appreciate it. ;)

For my second project I used a hot pink cardstock from Recollections as the card base and added a polka dotted background from Echo Park.  I inked my edges with Blackbird Cat's Eye ink.  I had colored my Hearts/Flowers border with Copics and my white gelly roller and placed it next, using a Zig 2-way Glue Pen.  Then I decided to use Stickles on the Amalia's Daisy image rather than coloring the flower traditionally.  I used Fruit Punch and Silver Stickles for her flower and used a combo of Copics/Zig Pens for coloring her hair, face and adding polka dots to  her dress.  I decided to pop her up off the border and added the sentiment "Love Grows in my Garden" with pop dots as well.  I'm very pleased with the combination of these digis.  I thought they were perfect together! ;)  Hope you enjoy them as much as I have. :0)

Thank you all so very much for stopping by today!  Since you're here, please leave a comment.  I'd love to hear from you!

Thanks again to the lovely ladies of Dilly Beans for letting me join in on their fun!  Don't forget to check out the challenge and link up your projects too!!!

XO ~ Amy Jo

Challenges I'm entering:

TPE - #143 - Flowers (Card #2)
Use It Tuesday - #29 - Anything Goes - Everything listed in the details (body of the post) is from my stash!
Forever Night - Freaky Friday Wicked Challenge (Card #1)

Hippity Hoppity Easter's On Its Way! - Blog Hop April 7 & 8th

*PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR THE "ALL SPORTS BLOG HOP"*

*PLEASE CLICK HERE FOR MY GUEST DESIGN POST & CHALLENGE FOR DILLY BEANS*

Happy Easter everybody and welcome to Day 2 of the Hippity Hoppity Blog Hop by Lisa of HoneyBearz Designs!  You should have arrived here from Cindy, but if you just happened upon my blog today be sure to go back and start at the beginning, as this is a 'HOP' after all! ;0)  We are so happy you could join us today!

I'm super egg-cited to show you some of the Easter projects I have been working on.  Everyone that knows me, knows how much I love a great holiday just for the excuse to make some more cards or crafts. I found some great inspiration on the hop yesterday and decided to try out my very first side-step card.  OMGosh, I had soooo much fun making this!  I wasn't feeling well and almost didn't do it, but I had an image in my head and just had to go through with it.  I'm so very happy I did! :0)

Details for this project are below the pictures.  (Click the pics for enlarged images.)

Fort this card I used the Cricut Craft Room software.  I love that program when it works! ;)  I have no problem on my Expression, but my Imagine is another story. ;p  I used Create-A-Critter, Doodlecharms, Ultimate Series Creative Sampler, and Kate's ABCs (for the first time!).  I think I need to get a Jukebox for the Cricut because switching out four cartridges and waiting for them to load takes a while.  Not all of them can link to the Cricut Craft Room for some odd reason.  Does anyone out there own a Jukebox and if so do you like it?

All the papers and cardstock are from my stash so I don't know the paper lines, unfortunately.  I used several layers for everything and I'm so pleased with the effect.  I decided to try out a bit more doodling than usual too and I think it turned out well.  I used a brown Marvy Memories pen.  I inked the papers with my Cat's Eye ink in Dark Brown and stamped the "Hoppy Easter" sentiment (Making Memories) with Basic Black by Stampin' Up.  Of course I added lots of pop dots and some blue/white twine from My Craft Spot.  I cannot  believe how quickly this card came together!  Normally it takes me forever to make a simple card and with this being my first side-step, I was amazed!  I hope you all like it as much as I do. ;)

Thanks so much for joining us today, sweet friends and be sure to head over to Shelly Lynn - KC Croppers as she is the next stop on this bunny hop!  If you get lost, I have posted the entire lineup below.

1. Lisa Pontious ~ http://honeybearzdesigns2011.blogspot.com/

2. Kristy - http://scraptasticalkreations.blogspot.com

3. Scrappin Madge - http://www.scrappinmadge.blogspot.com/

4. Ashley - http://theglamoroussideofscrapping.blogspot.com

5. Haidee- http://created2bunique.blogspot.com/

6.Cindy - http://www.cindys-greencricut.blogspot.com/

7. Amy Jo - http://lv2scrapandfibrofacts.blogspot.com - Me

8. Shelly Lynn - http://kccroppers.blogspot.com - Next

9. Liz - http://scrapiliciouslife.blogspot.com

10.Jamie - http://thesassyprincess.blogspot.com

11. Diana - http://daisylovecreations.blogspot.com

Happy Easter Everybody!!!
Amy Jo

P.S.  I will add the challenges I am entering later...