Spotlight Sunday

Welcome to Spotlight Sunday!Today we have a “fantabulously” talented lady and tomorrow’s Challenge Me Monday Guest Designer! Let me introduce to you to Faith Abigail from Faith Abigail Designs:

You may recognize this Eifel Tower that Faith Abigail created for Challenge #58 Flower Shower. It was a top 5 pick chosen by the FCCB designers:

It is just gorgeous!!

Before we show you some of Faith Abigail’s incredible creations we thought you would like to get to know her a little better. We asked her a few crafty questions.

1. When did you start scrapbooking/paper crafting? Why?

I come from a very crafty family and have always been involved in various forms of fine arts and crafts. Last year, I began designing invitations for my sister's baby shower and quickly discovered a passion for paper crafting.

2. What is your favorite type of project to make?

Definitely scrapbook layouts!

3. What is your favorite product to use on your projects?

I love embellishing my cuts with gemstones, pearls and doodle-stitching. I also love to add texture with embossing folders.

4. What is your favorite Cricut cartridge?

New Arrival; it was the first cartridge I ever purchased and the images are so adorable. Lacy Labels is probably my most used cartridge and I also love the elegant images found on Sentimentals and Summer in Paris.

5. What do you do in your spare time, when you are not paper crafting?

I work as a freelance makeup artist and I'm an accomplished photographer. I enjoy dancing and theatre and I'll read anything that I can get my hands on.

6. Any other info you would like us to know about you.

I have been very happily married for five years; I have an amazing husband who supports me in everything I do and makes me laugh every single day. We have a beautiful Pomeranian who's our little princess.

Here are a few things that you will find on Faith Abigail’s blog:

Make sure you visit Faith Abigail’s blog to discover all the wonderful things she has to share with you.

Guest designers are chosen from our Winners and Top 5 picks. If you would like to be a guest designer all you have to do is play along in our Challenge Me Monday challenges! You never know when you could be asked.

We also use “Spotlight Sunday” to feature sponsors from time to time. If you are interested in being a Sponsor for Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog and being featured on “Spotlight Sunday,” please contact us via the Contact Me tab.

Now come back tomorrow to see what our Fantabulous Design Team along with Faith Abigail, our guest designer, has designed for you for Challenge Me Monday. I can tell you now, you will not be disappointed!

Happy Crafting!

Saundra

FCCB Spotlight Sunday Hostess

Scrappin Saturday

Happy Scrappin Saturday everyone!

I don't know about you but my life is BUSY, hectic and sometimes squeezing in a moment to scrap is difficult! Can you relate? Well I learned a long time ago that having a wonderful sketch to follow can help with my inspiration and with my time management! I have been following Becky Fleck Pagemaps for years and she provides beautiful one of a kind sketches on her site. She also hosts contests that provide awesome prizes! Please go visit Becky's blog and when your out in the stores go look for her Sketch books! She is a fantastic sketch artist!

Some of our Fantabulous design Team members created some cards and lay outs using Becky's sketches! Please go visit their blogs and leave them some love!

Barb

Larelyn

Maquel

Saundra

Lisa

Helen

Evanna

Kate

Thanks so much!
Sandee

Fantabulous Friday Elegant Edges

Hello everyone!! It's Fantabulous Friday time :) I am so glad it's weekend--it's been a bit crazy at work this week and now I'll be able to play!

This week, I decided to review a new cartridge -- Elegant Edges. I LOVE this cartridge! It will be used so much in all my projects. In fact, I used it in last week's Fantabulous Friday post for my Locker Talk scrapbook page.

Elegant Edges has the following creative features:

Frame

Border

Oblong

Oblong Frame

Book

Shadow

I have found some beautiful projects around the blog world with this cartridge.

First up, I found some very beautiful cards at Enfsy's blog : Going Buggy. Make sure to visit her and see all her wonderful work. These show how great the cuts from the cartridge are for cards. Plus, she used the border feature. You might not need those border punches anymore :)

I really want to make a book with the book feature and was pleasantly surprise to find this post from

Aik'n to Scrap. She made this stunning book from the cartridge and has other too. Make sure to stop by to see how she created it and see her other amazing work. Plus, she has other pictures of the inside pages.

Here's one more card from Raechel at Raechel's Cards. She has several posts with this cardtridge but isn't this one so cute? Make sure to visit and see her details.

Every post I found has said pretty much the same thing: This is a must have cartridge :) If you have made some things with this cartridge, leave a link--I'd love to check them out! Have fun and don't forget there's still time to join our Challenge Me Monday!

Have a Fantabulous weekend!!

Thursday's Tutorial: Scrap Stuff Mini Book

Happy Thursday!

I have been searching the Internet for the perfect tutorial for you today and to be honest, I wasn't finding what I was looking for. I wanted to find a tutorial on maybe Imagine or Gypsy tips, but nothing that I was finding was quite right.

I did not find anything featuring Cricut techniques or even a project using a particular Cricut cut, but what I did find is a very useful little book that can hold all of your Cricut and crafting information! I'm going to get started making one of these as soon as I can! I think this idea is just brilliant and I'm very excited to show it to you today! This awesome idea comes from Jamie Lane over at Bits of Paper. She has a great blog and I've visited many, many times. Be sure and swing by to check out her other amazing creations.

Now, this is not necessarily a "tutorial", but more of a good idea and pictures showing you what to include in your "Scrap Stuff" book. Obviously, the book can be completely personalized and you can use your Cricut to decorate and cut the pages if you would like. That's what I'll be doing because to me, a mini album wouldn't be complete with out some Cricut die cuts!

This is the front of her album. You can use your Cricut to cut out the cardstock front and back cover. For exact sizes, please refer to Jamie's site (link is above).

First off she created an index page. When I create one, I am going to make an index page and then I'm going to add tabs to easier sort through the album. I have some really cute chipboard tabs from Colorbok that I'm thinking of using, but you can use whatever you find. I assume you can cut these from chipboard on the Cricut too if you have the deep blade housing.

You can take regular notebook paper and round the corners as shown here, but to jazz it up a little bit, there are some awesome lists and note type frames on the Imagine More cartridge (if you own an Imagine) that I plan on using.

Here, Jamie took info from the Net and put it into document form (I assume) and printed it off her computer. I think this idea is brilliant! You can do this for all the punches you own. If you have trouble finding images of anything that you own and want to put in your book, Google Images is great for finding them. I use it all the time.

Again, computer generated list. Don't forget to number your pages!

This page and the next are my two favorite ideas. I just love this Copic print out. I am just starting my Copic collection, so I will definitely be putting one of these in my album. It's great to see which colors you own and which ones you need. I will be doing this with my other brands of markers as well.

I think this page and idea is completely amazing! My only concern is that I have probably a thousand stamps and I want to catalog them all, but that would make for a super thick book! Maybe I'll create separate volumes for the stamps. I think that will work better for me personally. I will be putting them in the book according to brand. One final thing I will be adding to the book is a wish list that way when I shop I can highlight what I get and incorporate it into the main part of the book when I have time.

Finally Jamie has wrapped a rubber band around the book to keep it closed in her purse. I will be using ribbon and two brads to wrap the ribbon around as a closure for mine because I just LOVE ribbon!

I hope you have enjoyed today's tutorial as much as I have. Please feel free to ask questions and leave comments. We love hearing from you!

XO ~ Amy Jo

Wednesday Winners #59

It's another Fantabulous Wednesday Winner day! And we loved the "Teacher Feature" projects that you made for the challenge, if you missed all amazing projects click -HERE.

~This Weeks Winner~
American Crafts "Dear Lizzy" Collection
gift from FCCB DT member Marlene

#25 Krysta -KLM Designs

Congratulations Krysta !!!

To claim your prize please contact Robin at...
fantabulous cricut @ yahoo .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 sidebar.

~Design Team Top 5~

#10 Elaine -Scrappin' on a Dime
#29 Jeanne - The Cricut Corner
#34 Amber -My 3 E Scrapbooking

#35 Kristy -Craftin' on my Door

#37 Jen -Jen's Happy Place

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!

Come join us for this weeks "Try This Angle" challenge -HERE

Create a card or other item and include a rectangle and a triangle on your project.

Quick Tip Tuesday: Card and Envelope Sizes

Woohoo! It's Tuesday - are you ready for another Quick Tip? I'm Larelyn and I'll be your hostess for the next few months.
Do you have those moments when you read someone's blog, a craft magazine, or view a video and you think, "Why didn't I think of that?" I love it when I come across ideas that make crafting or organizing a little simpler. I plan to share some of things that have made my crafting life easier and more organized.

Today I'll share a chart I made that references card and envelope sizes. I usually stick with cards that fit the standard invitation-sized envelope (A2), but there are times when I find a great deal on other size envelopes or I just want a larger or smaller card. Some envelopes are listed by the letter (A2, A6, etc.) and others by the dimensions. The trick is to figure out what size card fits each envelope.

This chart provides you with the finished card size, the paper size you need before folding, where to fold (including GATEFOLD cards), and the envelope size and dimensions. If you have the Martha Stewart Score Board, this information can be found on the chart that fits in the bone folder section. However, that chart is way too small for my old eyes and I have to tilt the Score Board to even read it. So, I hope you find this chart a little handier. Just click on the chart to make it larger.

I hope you'll join me next Tuesday for another Quick Tip.

Hugs and Happy Crafting,

Larelyn