Have a Ghostly Halloween

Happy Halloween!  It's not just Halloween, it's a Bitten by the Bug 2 Halloween!  My very talented Design Team sister Shelly (from Shelly's Card Blog) selected the perfect challenge cut for Halloween - a GHOST from the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge.  And so that we may share the ghoulish fun, this is our monthly blog hop Monday!  I am the first stop on the blog hop and from here you can trick or treat at each of the participating blogs for Blog Candy!

I used several different sized ghosts welded together to create a ghost mesh for my card front.  I welded the four ghosts at the top of the card to a rectangle which is the card back.  I cut a couple of the small ghosts as unwelded individuals so that I could "pop" them on the front of the card.

Using A Child's Year cartridge, I cut three welded trick or treater three times.  I layered the cuts with pop dots and attached them over top of the ghostly mesh.  A rectangle of Halloween orange stamped with stars was glued behind the ghosts.   I finished the card by adding Spooky BOO ribbon to the bottom of the card.

I have wonderful Blog Candy to share - A $20.00 gift voucher from Custom Crops!  Custom Crops is truly a "go to" on-line merchant for all of your paper crafting needs!  I am especially fond of their selection of Cricut cartridge products; they always have a great selection with great prices.  Today, in honor of Halloween, you can purchase Teresa Collins' Chic and Scary cartridge for $20!!!  Which means if you are my blog candy winner you would only pay shipping for Chic and Scary!!

To register for my blog candy leave a comment below and be follower of my blog.  I will announce the winner on Thursday!

After registering for the Custom Crops gift voucher blog candy you will move on to the next stop on our Halloween blog hop.  You will be visiting the blog of my friend, fellow Michigan State Alumni, design team sister, and a true inspiration - Donna Mundinger of Popsicle Toes!!!  Be prepared - Donna will blow you away!

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Today is the final day to order Close to My Heart's October Stamp of the Month, Holiday Magic. This great stamp set retails for $17.95 and after today it will no longer be available.  If you order $50.00 of merchandise, this stamp set can be your for $5.00!!

If you have not already done so, today would be a great day to order your copy of the Art Philosophy cartridge & stamp set.  For more information on the Art Philosophy set, visit my Close to My Heart store HERE.

I will be back tomorrow with a new project as well as stories of my weekend adventure to share.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Witchy Pillow with Happy Hauntings & BBTB2

Hello everyone, it is another Bitten by the Bug 2 Monday!  I had the pleasure of selecting this week's challenge cut and I chose the FLYING WITCH from the HAPPY HAUNTINGS cartridge!  I love the intensity of this witch's posture - she has "purpose" written all over her.  She must have some Halloween spells to cast or witch's brew to create!

I decided to create home decor project with the witch cut - best of all a reusable project that I can pull out year after year!   I used home decor fabric leftovers from my crafting closet along with Silhouette's FLOCKED HEAT TRANSFER MATERIAL to craft my pillow. 

I placed a 9 x 9 inch square of the flocked heat transfer material onto my cutting mat and cut the witch image at 8 inches.  Following the instructions on the package, using a pressing cloth I ironed the flocked cut onto a square of home decor fabric.   I will add that it took me a few tries to get the hang of how hot the iron had to be and how long the iron had to sit in the same position for the bonding to occur. 

Next I took out my I-Rock tool and assorted color I-Rock gems and bedazzled my witch cut.  I used the hot I-Rock tool edge to outline the cape edges so that gem placement would be easier.  The heated line also defined the areas more clearly.  For those who did not know, I-Rock is great for setting gems onto fabric as well as cardstock/paper. 

Using the leftover home decor fabric from my office window treatments, I was able to sew together this great Halloween home decor pillow.  I photographed the pillow on my bed, simply because it photographed well in that location.  In reality the witch pillow has a spot of honor in an occasional chair in the great room.

Be sure to take time to visit the BBTB2 blog and check out all of the great witchy projects the design team put together!  Also, you may want think about joining the Bitten by the Bug 2 team in this week's challenge and create your own great Witchy project.  If you do not own the Happy Hauntings cartridge, feel free to use a witch from another cartridge in order to join the fun. 

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I will be back later in the week with some fun projects to share.  In the mean time, please remember that I am now a Close to My Heart consultant and would love to help you learn to use the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge and stamp sets. 

Also please remember that the deadline for ordering your Stamp of the Month, Holiday Magic set is fast approaching.  The stamp set retails for $17.95 but you can order it for $5.00 with any $50 order, but only it is only available until October 31st!!!

Hello Kitty Trick or Treat Card

Do you know how much I love Hello Kitty?  My Bitten by the Bug 2 design team sister, the lovely Theresa, actually had no idea that Kitty is one of my favorite characters - and character cartridges - when she selected this Halloween outfitted Kitty as our challenge cut of the week.  But how can you not love a trick or treat Hello Kitty?   

I used Cricut Design Studio and two cartridges to create this card:  Hello Kitty Greetings and Happy Hauntings.  All of the character cuts were from HKG, with only the spiderweb card coming from the Happy Hauntings cartridge.   The spiderweb card was created by welding to spiderwebs together.  I used CDS's Hide Select Contour feature (right click the cut, see the bottom item on the list) to hide the inside cuts on one of the spiderwebs.  The "blacked out" spiderweb became the back of the card.

I cut Kitty at just under four inches tall.  Her costume was cut in cardstock printed on the Imagine machine using Teresa Collin's Black & White cartridge!   Kitty was finished with black micro tipped doodles and a "trick or treat" stamp on her tummy.

Also on the front of the card are two other Halloween cuts from the Hello Kitty Greetings cartridge.  I cut the pumpkin at 1.5 inches.  I used Smoochies to highlight the pumpkin cardstock and green Smoochies on the stem area.

The bat was cut at nearly two inches tall.  I used a grey textured striped cardstock for the bat body.  I used copper Smoochies over the grey area to color the bat brown.

I welded the base cuts of each of the three images together and completed the cut in a single piece.  I built the characters on this single cut, then carefully traced the spider lines with glue and glued the Kitty image scene to the spiderweb.    I cut the base cut a second time and glued it to the back side of the spiderweb.

The final additions to the card were orange Smoochies on Kitty's sucker and hairbow.  I also cut the blacked out spiderweb again, one-half inch smaller, in orange cardstock.  I attached the smaller orange cardstock to the inside of the card and stamped a Happy Halloween message in the center.

Thanks for stopping by Busy with the Cricky today.  If you have not already done so, please visit BBTB2 and check out all of the great Kitty designs the design team created this week.  Also, consider playing along with us and entering your own Halloween Hello Kitty project in the weekly challenge.

I will be back tomorrow with an exciting announcement.  I hope you will drop back by.

Halloween Centerpiece a Creepy Vulture

It is Monday and that means it is time for the Bitten by the Bug 2 weekly post.  This week's challenge cut, the Vulture from Cricut's Life's a Party cartridge, was selected by Agnes, my fun design team sister.   I have to admit that I found the vulture to be quite a challenge!  I did not want to do the expected birthday project, so had to put a great deal of thought into this week's project.  I designed a Halloween card that I felt rather indifferent about, but finally Sunday afternoon I had an inspiring thought! 

I remembered that I had this fabulously huge centerpiece vase, with the beads and the candle, that a friend had decorated for my 50th birthday last year.  I took the centerpiece apart, removing black ribbon and flowers, pulling the beads out of the inside, and completely disassembling the birthday vase. 

Using chalkboard vinyl, I cut the vulture from Life's a Party at 3.5 inches tall.  I then cut the graveyard fence from Happy Hauntings at 5.5 inches tall.  I peeled the backing from the vinyl and applied the vinyl to the vase.  Using rusty metallic orange vinyl, I cut the word BOO!, also from the Happy Hauntings cartridge. 

I applied adhesive runner around the top edge of the vase and about one inch from the bottom of the vase. Using black and silver beads, the top of the vase was decorated in a random draping design.  I was pleased that the adhesive held the beads in place.  I trimmed the length of a strand of silver beads and pushed them into the adhesive on the bottom of the vase.   I finished the project by wrapping silver beads around the candle in a criss-cross pattern.

I photographed the centerpiece in two different areas of my house.  I really liked it sitting on the baker's rack (pictured below) but the lighting was not good and I kept getting glare in the photos.  I found the photos above, on the coffee table, showed the details of the cuts far better. 

If you have not already done so, head over to the Bitten by the Bug 2 blog and checkout the design team's great projects.  Also, please consider playing along with us this week and post your project in the Mr. Linky area under this week's post at BBTB2.

Thanks for stopping by today, I will be back with more projects to share this week. 

She Turned Me Into A WHAT????

Happy Monday!  Today I am sharing this week's Bitten by the Bug 2 weekly challenge project.  The Cricut cartridge challenge cut of the week was selected by my design team sister, Carrie from DoubleClick Connections - AKA Abusybee Blog, who chose the cute frog from Cricut's Create a Critter cartridge. 

Given that today is the third day of October and OCTOBER brings constant thoughts of Halloween, I chose to go with a Halloween themed card. My theory is that every witch has a story that involves a frog. Perhaps the frog was a prince or perhaps he was a two legged human toad. Either way, the witch had a plan when she turned him into a frog. In my card, the frog was neither prince nor toad, but a nice man. And he is incredulous that he has been turned into a frog!  And yet, he is smiling because he is trying to make the best of the situation.

The crazy little witch (from Mini Monsters) is doing a happy dance with her arms and legs flying out, so thrilled is she that her frog spell worked.  Since she had planned to stay in and work today, the witch is not wearing her usual black outfit that she wears in public.  She is wearing her witch's "lounge at home" wear, hoping the color is becoming with her green complexion. 

In front of the background moon, I added the Have a Wicked Halloween tag.  I cut the tag using the Close to My Heart Art Philosophy cartridge and stamped the phrase with a stamp from the Close to my Heart September stamp of the month.  For more information on the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge, click on the name to go to Melanie's CTMH site. 

I used the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge and cut a cauldron for my witch's use.  I added a bit of white foam to the top of the cauldron.  The pumpkins are from a chipboard sticker set. 

Inside the gate fold card (built with George and Basic Shapes) I added a grey journaling rectangle along with a line of pumpkins and a phrase strip.

I designed this project as a gate fold card with the Halloween scene on the front of the card.  I welded a circle, the witch, cauldron, and the frog shadow images together to create a scene background.  I attached the scene to the right side of the gate fold card. 

Before I close I want to share with you the cute decoration I purchased last Friday.  I found these eyeballs while waiting to have dinner at a Cracker Barrel in Conyers, Georgia.  I was on my way home from returning Ian to Atlanta.  I thought these eyeballs were just too cute.  They are actually salt and pepper shakers, but they were not sold in sets, but individually.  I grabbed a few (at $1.00 each!) and was quite pleased with my purchase!!

I will be back tomorrow to share a Man Card - a fall man card!!  Thanks for stopping by today!