Challenge Me Monday #84

Fantabulous Cricut has come to the end of another great design team term and it is with sadness that we say farewell to a few of our design team members:
Amy A, Barb, Dana, Jamie T, Jenae, Lisa C, Maquel, Saundra, and Tanya
Thank you so much for the time you’ve shared with us here at FCCB

We welcome our returning design team members:
Amy Jo, Carissa, Glenda, Jennie, Jessica, Jewels, Kate, Larelyn, Marlene, Sabrina, Sarah, and Suzanne.

We are so pleased to introduce to you our newest design team members here at FCCB:
Becky –Just B Creative Crazy
Cathie –Creative Cutter Room
Charlotte –A Little Bit of Detail
Crystal –Little Creations
Faith –Faith Abigail Designs
Jamie A –Scrap Queen
Lisa F –A Mermaids Crafts
Melanie –Melanie Makes
Melissa –Create with the CricutKateer
Peggy –Daily Grace Creations
Sherrie –Sherrie Scraps with Passion

Click on our Design Team link at the top to see photos of these talented gals and Please give them a warm welcome.

This week, you can say that our challenge is “For the birds” and we won’t take offense! It really is all about birds and we want to see your projects showcasing our feathered friends.

#84 – For the birds
Create a project with a bird (or anything to do with birds, such as a birdcage) on it

~ Design Team Inspiration ~

~This Week's Guest Designer~

Melody

October 31st, Lacy Labels, Mini Monsters, Happy Hauntings cartridges

View Melody's Spotlight Sunday Post HERE

Amy

Mini Monsters cartridge

Carissa

Create a Critter cartridge

Dana

3 Birds on Parade cartridge

Helen

Kate's ABCs cartridge

Jessica

Simply Charmed, Creative Memories Cheerful Seasons cartridges

Lisa C

Life's a Party cartridge

Maquel

Birthday Bash cartridge

Marlene
Create a Critter, Freshly Picked cartridges

Sabrina

Create a Critter, Paper Doll Dress Up cartridges

Sarah

3 Birds on Parade cartridge

~This Week's Sponsor~





Paper Crafter's Library has generously donated a 3 month subsription!

To link your project for this week's "For the Birds" challenge, click on the blue "add your link" button below!

This challenge ends at Midnight, November 6th (Mountain Time).

Spotlight Sunday

Hello Fantabulous Friends! Happy Halloween Eve! This has been a big weekend for Halloween parties and I hope you are enjoying some of the fun festivities. Halloween is such a fun "holiday" that really is all about just having fun!Today we are spotlighting one of our FCCB friends, Melody, over at
A Splash Here and There. Melody was a Wednesday Winner back in September with this project:



Let's find out more about Melody's paper crafting!
1. When did you start scrapbooking/paper crafting and why?
I started scrapbooking in highschool as a way of preserving some pictures and newspaper clippings of my favorite football team, the 49ers! I was OBSESSED - I mean every picture I could find I clipped and preserved, even running back Roger Craig's towel ad (anybody remember that? LOL!). But then college happened and I had to downsize so I had to give my 49ers albums away :(

2. What is your favorite type of project to make (i.e., cards, layouts, mini-albums, etc....)?
Lately I have been making more cards than scrapbooks pages - sadly I am 3 years behind on LOs. I like the instant gratification of making a card but I do hope that one year from now I won't be saying I'm 4 years behind on scrapping my family's memories.

3. What is your favorite product to use on your projects?
My Cricut of course! I own way too many cartridges and there are ones that I HAD to have but never used. I also like using cuttlebug folders to enhance the cricut cuts.

4. What is your favorite Cricut cartridge?
Oh, wow! Let's see....I seem to be leaning towards the Cricut Circle exclusive cartridge Sophie at the moment - love the card features on this one.

5. What do you do in your spare time, when you are not paper crafting?
I'm busy being a taxi driver to my 2 kids! I'm putting a lot of milleage in my minivan driving them after school to taekwondo, basketball, swimming and piano classes. Other times you can probably find me in the Cricut Message Boards chatting away when I should be doing housework :)

Any other information you would like us to know about you?
I'd like to thank the FCCB for choosing me to be spotlighted today - it's an honor. I have been a gawker of the many talented DT members on here for quite some time and I hope to enter more of the challenges on here. Thanks so much Melody for playing along with us on FCCB! And here are some of Melody's projects you will find on her blog over at A Splash Here and There.

I love how Melody ran ribbon through the left side of these cards. She has a detailed explanation on her blog of how she did this using her Gypsy.
This beautiful card opens with the tea kettle as the front of the card. So pretty! I love the embossing and the flower and tag on the tea kettle.
This layout jumped out at me because I live about an hour north of San Francisco and it's such a beautiful city! I love how Melody created a scene with the Golden Gate Bridge, clouds, dolphins, and seals.
Melody will be our Guest Designer tomorrow, so make sure to come back for our Challenge Me Monday to see what she and the Design Team Members have created! Thanks so much for stopping by today and Happy Crafting! SabrinaFCCB Spotlight Sunday Hostess

Scrappin' Saturday - Halloween Mini Albums

Welcome to Scrappin' Saturday! If you're anything like me, you end up with tons of photos for Halloween -- and, sadly, only a few make it to scrapbook albums. One way to make the most of all your awesome photos -- without having to commit to a 12x12 double-page spread -- is a mini-album.

I haven't made a mini-album yet, but I'm planning to give it a try after finding some super inspiration around the Cricut blogsphere this week. A mini-album makes a great coffee table book or showpiece to stick in your purse. So many times I've been out-and-about and run into friends asking about my son's costume or what our family did for Halloween. Instead of waiting for Facebook to load on the phone, pull out a gorgeous mini-album!

Here's some wonderful inspiration and tutorials:

Mary of CardzTV shows how to make a Halloween mini-album with Tags, Bags, Boxes & More. It has wonderful pull-out tags for journaling, and her Cricut cuts are so stinkin' cute...!! Love the paper choices, too. This album is bound with two binder rings threaded through hole punches. Fun ribbons dress up the binding and add to this adorable book.

Mila of Mila Memories combined CUTE and BLING to craft this "spooktacular" mini-album. It has tons of pockets, pull-outs, and even a mini-within-a-mini! She used October 31st and Happy Hauntings and has an excellent page-by-page description of her project. The binding appears to be done with a binding machine, giving it a very polished and professional look.

If you like shaped minis, Special Craft Mom features a gorgeous pumpkin book she created with Doodlecharms. The pumpkins are actually two cuts of the Border function, held together with a simple brad and folded between each two pumpkins. I love this idea because it's accessible to those of us wanting to give minis a try without investing in binding equipment. What a wonderful idea!

Jackie and Michelle of A Creative Operation show off another neat binding technique with their accordion-fold album. (Check out that neat clip closure!) This method would be a great "gateway" fold for cardmakers to jump to albums. Also utilizing October 31st and Happy Hauntings, these gals make Halloween super-sophisticated. A complete tutorial is featured in a later blog entry.

Well, I'm definitely inspired now -- how 'bout you? Have you made a mini-album for Halloween or another holiday? Please share with us in the comments below -- we'd love to see your creations!

Have a happy, scrappy weekend,
Jessica

Fantabulous Friday

Hello everyone! So sorry this post is late today. It has been the busiest week at work and I just went home everyday so tired!

I thought I would show you Happy Hauntings today. I have this cartridge so went to my blog list to see what I have made with it. Do you know what I found? Absolutely nothing!! I can't believe it--I love Halloween and haven't even played with this cartridge. I guess I need to fix that this weekend!! In my defense, I think I own all the Halloween cartridges out there (not sure if that really is a good reason).

This cartridge includes: Layer 1, Layer 2, Phrase, Spooky Font, Vampire Font, and Vampire Shadow creative features. I found the great projects linked in the Cricut Chirp--this is great for resources for your cartridges!!

Here's a peek at some of the figures you can make ObiwanJane from the Cricut Message board cut them bigger to hang on a wall! You can see the post HERE.

The 3D items on this cartridge are amazing!! Chiddy on the Cricut Message board cut out the pumpkin and coffin boxes. I have been wanting to cut that coffin out myself. I just might need to to that this weekend! You can click HERE to see the post and link to the details.

Look at this amazing 3D House and tree you can make from this cartridge!! Maria Guevara posted this on the Cricut Message Board last year. You can see the post HERE.

I don't know about you, but I really want to play with this cartridge right now!! Be sure to make time to enter the challenge this week if you haven't. It's a ghostly good time :)

Thursday Tutorial 10/2611 Masking Techniques

Hi everyone. It is time for the Thursday Tutorial here at FCCB. This week the challenge is Spooky Time and you are to use a ghost in your project. Well there were so many wonderful projects and one caught my eye by Sheila our Guest Designer this week.
She Loves Shoes

This is a wonderful project and also a similar technique as the one I wanted to share with you this week. Sheila used Tim Holtz Ink.

For my Halloween Spooky ghost layout I used Glimmer Mist and made my own mask for the ghosts using Happy Hauntings. I used my Gypsy to weld and cut out the ghosts on a transparency. You can use any kind of plastic just tape it to mat for cutting. I have used plastic on Cricut carts and on Cricut mats too. Doesn't matter if it is scratched as its just a mask.

The first picture shows the patterned paper by Creative Imaginations with the masks.

The second picture I sprayed over the paper with Glimmer Mist. I used Raven, Pomegranate and Pumpkin Spice. After spraying I gently dabbed with paper towel being careful not to move the ghost mask. For the third picture I moved the mask down so you could see what it looks like.

These pictures show the masked portion for the ghost. I like the design that shows through from the paper. I then added monster faces from Peachy Keen and added Stickles to the eyes.

Here is a pumpkin that I stamped and colored with Glimmer Mist Meadow Green and Paprika Glam. It also has Stickles on it. The next pic is another closeup.

The last picture shows Tattered Angel Masks and stamps that go together that you can buy. I used one of these mask for cobweb in right lower corner.

Hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Come join us this week for the Spooky Challenge. We would love to see your work. Happy Craftin!

So for more Masking Techniques check out these links.
Theresa using Memento and Tim Holtz ink
Crafting the Web

Adora at Blog Quick Quotes using Quick Quotes powder puff chalk inks

You Tube Video using Glimmer Mist

Wednesday Winners #82

Good Morning Fantabulous Friends!  

So sorry  I'm late with posting this morning...  

With Halloween fast approaching, we decided to get in as many projects as possible before it's all said and done.  Can you believe Christmas ads are already on TV??? I've seen several already and I'm just in awe. Sorry for getting off topic there... Anyways, back to our challenge...  We (the DT) were lucky enough to be provided some Fantabulous SVG files from SVG Attic (who also happens to be our sponsor this week) to work with (for those who had the software) so that was super fun!  Thank you SVG Attic.  We enjoyed using those Funtastic files very much!  The gals that didn't have the software were able to use any of their Cricut cartridges for this project and I think they all were certainly a "treat" to look at. ;)  Thank you also, to our amazing guest designer, Amanda! Oh, did I mention our challenge participants? I must say, these are some of my absolute favorites that I've seen on FCCB! (Of course, I'm very partial to Halloween.) :0)  It looks like everyone's in a ghoul mood and wants to play along...  Helen, who has been assigning our challenges for us, came up with the super fun "Purple People Eater" theme.  For those of you who missed out on the fun, please go back and check out last week's challenge -HERE.  Thanks to all those who participated.  I hope you had as much fun with it as we did. :0) Now onto our lucky winner of the week (picked randomly) and our Top 5 (picked by our DT members)...

~This Weeks Winner~
$15 gift certificate from SVG Attic
#33 Kimberly C. - Munch

Congratulations Kimberly!!!
To claim your prize please contact Marlene at... hearts0314 @ msn .com (remove spaces)
You have two weeks to claim your prize
Remember to grab your "FCCB Winner" blinky to display on your blog, you can find the blinky code in the right hand side bar.

~Design Team Top 5~


#18 Cheryl - CardCrazeeMe53



#30 Gigi - The Cricut Bug


#28 Peggy T. - Daily Grace Creations


#32 Melissa H. - Doxie Mel Designs


#37 Chelsea - Chelsea Can Cut

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 participated in our challenge (aren't the projects just Fantabulous?)!

Come join us for this week's "Spooky Time" challenge - Here.

Create a project with a ghost.

(Be sure to use at least ONE Cricut cut on your project.)

XO ~ Amy Jo

Quick Tip Tuesday: Ribbon with a Flat Knot

Hello Quick Tip Friends.  I'm so glad you stopped by.  If you love adding ribbon to your cards as much as I do, then today's tip is for you.  I send a lot of cards through the mail and I hate it when I'm charged extra postage because the knot in the ribbon sticks up too much.  I found a video at Jewels Paper Jewels in which she shows a quick, easy way to add ribbon with a flat knot.

Start out with two lengths of ribbon.  One will wrap behind your mat; the other will be your "bow".

Tie a loose knot in the longer piece.

Slip the short piece under the knot.

Pull the ends of the long piece until it's tied the way you like.  You can move the short piece so that the ends are even on each side of the knot.

Tape the ends behind your mat (Robin of My Pink Stamper calls this the "cheater" method).

There it is - a nice flat knot.

Thanks for stopping by today.

Hugs and Happy Crafting,

Larelyn