Apple Wall Decor

While searching for 'apple' in DS, I was intrigued by just how many ways one could die cut a simple apple! Each one seemed to have been designed either for a specific purpose or within the parameters of a certain style.  This apple variety made me smile and I wanted to capture their whimsy to add to my September home decor.

It WAS fun choosing each apple, selecting the right shad of red, and arranging them in a pattern that pleased my eye.  It WAS fun making a project just for the pleasure of making it!

I am am also linking this apple project to the current challenge at BBTB2.   I was totally fascinated with how the DT's apple choices flavor their projects.   Go take a look!    Thanks for visiting on this lovely Fall day.  : )  Christine

Beautiful Bugs

Last year I used the Cricut cart "Art Nouveau" to create a summer time canvas wall decor piece.  (Love, love, love this cart!)  Browsing the blogs that I follow, I came across a post by Paula at Craft with Bee in which she created a gorgeous piece of wall art for her bathroom featuring the heron from "Art Nouveau."  This inspired me to make smaller pieces to complement the canvas I made last year.

I planned to make a series of birds from the cart, including the heron and the humming bird and a series of bugs including my favorite Cricut bee.  Since the challenge at BBTB2 this week is to include a bee on a project, I started with the bugs! 

Since I only had ONE piece of weathered barn cardstock, I pulled out my Imagine and printed this grey birch looking pattern from the "Snapshot: Nature" cart.   I used the base shadow box cut that came with the alphabet cuts from 3D Cuts and lined it with grey paper from the DCWV Shimmer stack.

I mounted my bugs on a doily cut from Artiste inked with TH Antique Linen.  I also used some TH rub ons in an attempt to make the pieces look more like specimens rather than art nouveau.  Hmmm.  Not sure that worked!

Here are the pieces:-

And mounted on the wall:-

Here's a close up of the moth:-

Thanks for visiting with me today.  Time to get some yard work done before it gets too hot.  : ) Christine

USA!

Have you tried the 3D letters from http://www.3dcuts.com/ ?  As soon as I saw them,  I wanted to make the letters USA to add to my July 4th decor.  Well, they did not turn out the way they looked in my head!  Does that happen to you?  Grrr.

Yesterday, I had time to play with them again and added another layer to the letters, some rosette embellies and a washi tape banner.  I am a bit happier with them now.  LOL!

The svg files were cut with my Explore and the rosettes are from Independence Day and Ribbons and Rosettes.   The Explore score tool makes rosette making a lot easier!  The fun papers come from Pebbles.

I am linking my decor piece with the Independence Day challenge at BBTB.   Pop over and have a look at the variety of projects that the DT came up with! 

Mary at CARDZ TV is having a Fourth of July challenge and I am also linking my project there.

Thanks for visiting with me today.  Enjoy the sunshine!  : )   Christine

At the Beach

Several years ago my sister visited the lovely city of White Rock, and decided that she was going to live there.  Since she is quite persistent and determined, her dream came true!  White Rock is a sea side community and my sister regularly walks her dog on the beach. It is a great place for vacationing relatives too!

When I saw the phrase, "Life is better at the beach" in the Silhouette - on - line store, I naturally thought of her.  Here is the wall decor my DH and I made to celebrate her time in White Rock.  DH contributed the 'white' rock and the sand purloined from the local golf club!  Attaching that sand to the bottom of the frame took considerable ingenuity, I can tell you.  LOL!

The dog walker cut in vinyl comes from A Child's Year and was cut with the Explore.  The background beach is by DCWV.

Thanks for visiting today.  It's a rainy day and we are off to IKEA.  : )  Christine

Spring Wall decor with the Explore!

A year or so ago, I pinned a Spring wall hanging from Cricut Crazy Scrapper.  It had been entered in a BBTB 2 challenge and I loved it!   Unfortunately, I don't have the cart Nate's ABC although I do have Kate's ABC. 

Fast forward to this week and I was delighted to find that Nate's ABC was part of the HSN Design Space subscription.  I placed the images from both Nate and Kate on a 12 x 12 canvas and was able to arrange them to my liking.   It's much easier to do this when the images are colored!  (Sorry, Gypsy girl!)  The software grouped the images on the virtual mats and I went to cutting.  

Kate's ABC is one of my favorite carts because the images are cute without being cartoonish.  KWIM?  I have cut this little lady and her dog a couple of times before and have never made a satisfactory scalloped layer under her hat.  Look what the Explore achieved!  

  

Here's the finished cut: -

I am linking my Wall Art with the BBTB2 Favorite Cartridge challenge here.

It's interesting to see which carts are favorites.     Here's the finished project although I'm not sure if I'll remove the flowers or not.  Guess I'll wait for Spring!  

                      Thanks for visiting with me today. : )  Christine

And one last picture of my DGS who was sitting on my lap throughout the photography process and determined to get some part of himself in the picture!

Winter Fun

It's happened again!  The Christmas wall decor is packed away in the attic,  it's too early to get out the Valentine stuff, and there's a great expanse of nothingness above my mantel!

Fortunately, this wonderfully shiny foil paper jumped into my cart at J's and an idea was born for the challenges over at FCCB and Exploring Cricut that would help fill the void.

Here it is!  I used Heritage for the little village of houses covered in snow, and Winter Lace for the snowflakes.  The phrase 'Winter Fun' comes from Winter Woodland.  

This was SO difficult to photograph because of the shiny paper!  (It didn't help that I have Master J. here today and he wanted to be in all the pictures!)

Pop over to FCCB here to see all the wonderful projects in the Challenge Me Monday #193 Winter Fun challenge.

Don't forget to visit Exploring Cricut here for the Winter Wonderland challenge.

Thanks for visiting with me today!  Gotta run!   Someone is demanding that I take him down to feed the chickens.  He ADORES the rooster, Barney!  : ) Christine

Scrapping Your Hobbies...

is the subject of last week's BBTB2 challenge.  I had a couple of pieces of wall art that I wanted to complete and here was my chance. 

The first piece was inspired by Charmaine Stack here and I added a further layer of vinyl on the front of the glass for dimension.

For the second project; I have always wanted to create a piece of subway art from scratch.  It was a little harder than I anticipated!  However, after 5 attempts, here it is!

Then realization set in - both projects were created with the Silhouette, NOT the Cricut!   Duh!  LOL!   So much for THAT challenge and on to the next!  

Thanks for visiting with me today.   : ) Christine

Birthday Cupcakes

We are just back from a lovely weekend camping with friends at Offut Lake.  While the fishing crowd fished off the dock and from boats, I glued together cupcakes and arranged and rearranged and rearranged them trying to find a pleasing effect.  The idea came from something I saw on Pinterest

(http://www.patchesofpink.com/2011/02/cupcake-picture-frame-what-to-do-with.html)

and I knew it would solve a little problem.

So... one of the things I miss is sending cards to our parents now that they are no longer with us.  I always feel the need to celebrate their birthdays in some visible way.  Hence the Cupcake Wall Decor.  
 I made two "Happy Birthday" tags, one pink and one blue, that can be attached with the butterfly clothes pin.  I can't wait to put it over my mantel for the first time on November 5th.  Look closely to find the cupcake that reflects one of my MIL's favorite activities!    LOL!
                         
                                  Thanks for visiting with me today.  :) Christine

A Silhouette Project

I am still learning the intricacies of my Silhouette Cameo and am often surprised at how the cut turns out!  This subway wall art piece is much 'blockier' than I had imagined and to soften the overall look, I went with this very curvy tree - which turned out far 'curvier' than I anticipated. But... I like it!  (Sorry about that window reflection on the glass over the piece!) 

Can you tell that I am missing decorating my Kindergarten classroom according to the season?  LOL!

Thanks for visiting with me today.  : ) Christine

Now that Summer is almost over...

We've had a busy few weeks chez nous with a camping trip to Fort Langley in B.C. and all the beans, peas and zucchini in the garden deciding to ripen at once!  I am not freezing another bean until next year - the deer can have whatever's left!

I have made many of the holiday subway art collages from the Cricut 'Word Collage' cartridge but there are chunks of time when I have nothing appropriate to hang in the spot over the mantle.  So I set out to make something for Fall, but got sidetracked by the floral images on 'Art Nouveau.'  (This is what happens when I leave 'stuff' out instead of putting it away!)

So although Summer is almost over (!!!!) I have this wall art to remind me of it's glory!  Thanks for visiting today.  : )    Christine