Scrappin' Saturday: Featured Cricut Designer Carla Lozano

Happy Saturday to you!

Today, I'd like you to meet Carla from The Avid Scrapper, a truly talented Cricut scrapbooker who makes some really amazing layouts and mini albums... Check out a few examples of her stunning pages:

Now these are just the Halloween/Fall pages she has...she also has a ton of others...baby, Disney, Strawberry Shortcake, and more! Carla's pages are available for purchase...just add photos! Carla is a wife, stay-at-home-mom and "Avid" scrapbooker (who is addicted to her Cricut!) and has been scrappin' since she was 12!!! Here is a little more about Carla... Q: What is your favorite type of papercrafting project to make?
A: To be honest, I haven't met a paper-crafting project I didn't love! But, if I have to choose a favorite, I would say that I love creating brag books and mini albums. I love coordinating the papers and planning the embellishments using a particular Cricut cartridge.

Q: Where do you find the most inspiration?
A: I am inspired by life. My ideas come from everyday experiences. I can't tell you how many times in a day I say, "That's a great idea for a page" or "That would make a great album" because I see paper-crafting possibilities everywhere! I have had ideas come from movies, playing at the park, T-Shirts my girls will wear, even watching the Olympics. My mind is constantly planning my next project. I even dream about projects. How crazy is that? °Ü°

Q: What is your number one, most favorite Cricut cartridge and why?
A: I'd have to say that Storybook is my favorite cartridge. I love the beautiful fonts and fun shapes... it has it all! It is the cartridge that never leaves my Jukebox! I love the whimsy it offers. Whenever I get stuck, Storybook always has what I need. I'd have to say that you can probably find at least one of it's images in just about everything I create. Everyone should own Storybook!

Thanks for sharing, Carla! Go visit Carla's blog The Avid Scrapper for more information and more great projects!

New Fantabulous Cricut Design Team

I'm so excited to announce the New Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog Design Team!

It's because of these amazing design team members that Fantabulous Cricut has become such a wonderful resource for paper crafters and Cricut users.

Each member will continue to do what our motto states...
"Share, Create and Inspire" each of you.

Meet the new design team
Click on their names and check visit each of their personal blogs!

NEW Design Team Members:
Andrea
Angela
Cathy
Elsa
Erin
Helen
Jean
Jennifer
Jill
Leinad
Saundra

Returning DT members:
Angji P
Brenda
Candace (Sr. DT)
Jamie
Joyce
Kate (Sr. DT)
Leigh
Lori (Sr. DT)
Melin (Sr. DT)
Michelle
Penny (Sr. DT)
Robin (FCCB Creator)
Sharon
Sherri
Valerie

Wowza... amazingly talented group of ladies!!!

Fantabulous Friday #33

Good morning Cricut-licous Friends!
So glad to have you pop over for another Fantabulous Friday.
So with all the “treats” and “sweets” going around, I thought Sweet Treats would be the perfect cartridge to showcase.  As you can see, it has some wonderful die-cut options. But instead of just a die cut, I chose to create a couple of “treat” boxes for a couple of extra special little people who will be stopping by this weekend!

Here is a shot of the two treat boxes I made. I used one of the specialty features this cartridge has: Favor boxes.

Here is a close-up of the “pumpkin” treat box. Instead of a cherry, I just created a pumpkin face to go over where the cherry should be.

Here is a close-up of the other treat box.  There were such a snap to make! I hope you will “explore” your cartridge and make a few “favors” or some treat boxes for your up-coming Thanksgiving feast.
Well that’s it for today! Thanks for stopping by. Please be sure to go to our weekly challenge here on FCCB and enter to win!  Have a safe and wonderful weekend!
Melin

Thursday's Tutorials: Spooky Halloween Banner!

Hope you're having a super-spooky fun week so far! For today's Thursday's Tutorial, I want to share this adorable "Spooky" Halloween banner made by Jill at Controlling My Chaos:

Jill provides a step-by-step tutorial on how to make your own "Spooky" Halloween banner on her blog HERE. Hope you'll check it out and tell her you found her here at FCCB!

Happy a Happy Halloween!



Wednesday Winners #32

We loved all the beautiful entries for our #32 "Falling Leaves" challenge. I hope you had a chance to view each of our participants, it's such wonderful inspiration! If not view them -HERE (at the bottom of the post). Thank you to all who joined this past week.

~This weeks Winner~
A $20 Gift Certificate from Paper Wishes
#39 Glenda -Glenda's Cards
Congratulations Glenda!!!

To claim your prize please contact Robin at...
fantabulous cricut @ yahoo .com (remove spaces)

You have two weeks to claim your prize. If anyone knows the winners of our challenge this week, please let them know they're a winner at FCCB.

Remember to grab your "FCCB Winner" blinky to display on your blog! You can find the blinky code on our right-hand sidebar.

Design Team Top 5

#3 Erika -Cricut Love
#10 Kathy -Kathy and Kids
#13 Tammy -Addicted to Paper
#17 Charlotte -A Little Bit of Detail
#26 Jenn -MyImaJENNation

Congratulations Ladies!!!

Remember to grab your "FCCB Top 5" blinky to display on your blog! You can find the blinky code on our right-hand sidebar.

Thank you to all those who played with us this week!

Come join us for this weeks "Frighten Me... or Not" challenge -HERE
Create a project using a Halloween idea... scary or not so scary it's all up to you.

Quick Tip Tuesday: Adhesives

Welcome to Quick Tip Tuesday!  I am quite certain that we all use a variety of adhesives, but I thought I would take the time to describe some of my favourites to you this week.

I absolutely LOVE my Zig 2 Way Glue fine ballpoint pen.  The tip is small and is perfect for adhering little cuts.  However, I also use it for some of my larger cuts as paper can pull off with a little bit of force if I realize I have not positioned the items straight enough for my liking (which happens more often than I care to admit).

Another adhesive that I use all the time is Scotch Quick-Dry Adhesive.  This glue dries very quickly and works with paper, metal and plastic.  The glue safe for photos and the tip is fairly fine.  I do find that this glue has no forgiveness though, so be sure you are absolutely certain on the positioning of your papers before adhering them with this glue.

For large bits of paper, I often use Staples' permanent glue tape runner.  The small dispenser fits easily in my hand - and my purse!  When using the glue tape, I can position my paper before pressing it down, and in able to make sure it is in just the right spot before pressing firmly.

I use Zots glue dots for adhering items such as buttons, plastic embellishments, etc. Zots are incredibly adhesive and hold items in place securely.  They also offer a touch of dimension.

I could not live without my Pop Dots.  I have a variety of sizes and love to use Pop Dots on the majority of my cards to raise certain images or letters higher than other elements of my project.

I also use Scotch Matte Finish Magic Tape for adhering ribbon to the backs of my projects.  This way, ribbon can be held in place but the tape is behind the project (I usually taped to the back of the mat which is then adhered to the card base) and unseen.

What adhesives do you use?  I would love to read your recommendations too.

Happy crafting!

Challenge Me Monday #33

What a wonderful October month we've had here at Fantabulous Cricut, and of course the inspiration and ideas continue. Are you ready to be frightened... well, many of our ideas are not so frightening, but very inspiring with Halloween ideas?

Challenge #33
"Frighten me"... or Not
Create a project using a Halloween idea... scary or not so scary it's all up to you.

As always there needs to be an image cut using your Cricut on your project to be eligible for the prize.

Design Team Projects

Angji
Designer Calendar, George and Basic Shapes, Pumpkin Carvings cartridges
Brenda
Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge
Jamie
Happy Hauntings cartridge
Michelle
Mini Monsters cartridge
Melin
Alphalicious, October 31st cartridges
Lori
Mini Monsters cartridge

Penny
Create A Critter, Paper Doll Dress up cartridges
Robin

Doodlecharms cartridge
Sharon
Happy Hauntings, Mini Monsters cartridges

Valerie
Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge

~This Weeks Sponsor~

$25 Gift Certificate - JoAnn's

Scrappin' Saturday: Design Your Own Background Paper!

Happy Saturday to you!

Today, I want to share with you another FANTABULOUS idea from our friend Amy Chomas with Chomas Creations...

Design your own background paper!!!
Amy used Cricut Design Studio and the George & Basic Shapes cartridge to make her own graph paper for this school-themed layout:

Instead of "cutting" the grid design, she used one of the Chomas Mini Gel Pen Holders with a blue gel pen and achieved the look of real graph paper with her Cricut!  Here's a close-up:

Amy is sharing her graph paper file for free HERE!

You could use this tecnique with any design and customize the color of the design based on your other papers and cardstock for a completely coordinated look!  Genius!!!  Head over to Amy's blog for more inspiration and ideas on how to use the gel pen and marker holders with the Cricut.

Happy Scrappin'!

Fantabulous Friday #32

Good morning my Fantabulous Friday Friends!!!,

Welcome to another Fantabulous Friday! Today I am changing gears just a bit. For the last two weeks we have been focusing on a particular cartridge.  But today, I am going to post on a particular “image” or cut. I was working on a project with a Fall-Halloween theme. I was looking for a Crow. So of course I went to my Gypsy to do a search of what cuts were available.

So here is what I came up with.

Here is a cut from October 31st Cartridge

Here is a cut from the Cupcake Wrappers Cartridge

While both of these are fine, neither was what I was looking for…so the hunt was on! I began doing a search on the net. I was looking for an SVG file that I could use to cut with my Cricut. For those of you that are unfamiliar with what an SVG is: it is a file format that allows you to use your Cricut along with a third party software to cut the file-die cut. I found a couple of freebies.

This project which features a FREE set from Deena Rutter has a couple of crows in it.

You can go HERE to download this set.  While this was also really nice, it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for.

Here is another one I found from Little Scraps of Heaven.
You can go HERE to download this.




And then one of my fellow CWC DT members designed this cute little set.

Here is a project she made using them.

You can check it out HERE.

I then decided to work on making some up: I made this cute little Crow:

You can download the FREE file HERE. 

And then I made this set, I called Crows Silly Crows.

Having the flexibility of cutting files you create or purchase along with the option of using your cartridges, makes having the Cricut a FANTABULOUS option.

Last but not least, I made this little crow using my Cricut and some of the Cricut cuts (don’t have a pattern for him…yet).

 
Sorry my project isn’t done yet…but hopefully I will get to share it with you soon . Well, I guess that’s it for today. I hope you have a wonderfully crafty weekend and now you can make some Crowliciously, Fantabulous Projects.

Melin