Slow Poke!

Good Morning and welcome to Handmade from My Heart. 

If you're looking for Cooking with Cricut's Love Song Blog Hop, click HERE. Today's hop features a different group of designers.  If you'd like to visit the designers participating in yesterday's hop, just scroll down to my blog hop post.  Remember, I will announce my blog candy winner on Valentine's Day so there's still time to leave a comment.

Today begins a week of ideas featuring the Paisley cartridge and stamps from K Andrew Designs.  Getting Cricky's 3rd Friday Blog Hop begins this Friday at 6:00 PST.  The designers thought it would be fun to have a Pre-Hop during which time we'd each select a favorite cartridge and bring you a different project each day leading up to the Hop.

My first project uses the first image on the Paisley cartridge.  I added several layers of grass cut from  Plantin Schoolbook.  The flowers are also from PS.  I sized them to match the grass and cut them out in white so I could color the stems and flowers with Copics.  The sun is from Gypsy Wanderings.  I thought this a perfect sentiment for a belated thank you or birthday card.  "SlowPoke" is from All About Animals.   "I'm" is from Winged Things, and "a" is from Winter Wishes.  See how easy it is to create your own custom sentiment using the stamps from K Andrew Designs?

Be sure to stop by Getting Cricky to see a new Simply Sunday Challenge and also visit the design team members who are participating in this week's Pre Hop.

Tomorrow is my FCCB design team day.  I hope you'll come back to see my Challenge Me Monday project which features also the Paisley cartridge and a K Andrew Designs stamp. 

Hugs and Happy Crafting,

Larelyn

Decor and More

That's the theme for Challenge Me Monday at Fantabulous Cricut.  For challenge #80, we were asked to design something that could hang on a wall.  Wow!  I haven't done very many home decor projects.  So, I picked up this wood plaque at Walmart and painted it with acrylic paint.  I've been wanting to use my new Art Nouveau cartridge so this was the perfect opportunity.  I cut the butterfly ( key D2) and all of its layers at 3.64 on the Gypsy.  I decided the the plaque needed a little something extra so I chose the brackets from Plantin Schoolbook cut at 3 inches.  All the papers were from my scrapdrawers.  I added some Stickles here and there, added a satin ribbon and called it done. 

I hope you'll join our challenge by linking your home decor project to the Challenge Me Monday post at Fantabulous Cricut.

Please come back Wednesday for some exciting news (at least for me).  There's a hint on my sidebar.  Can you find it?  And don't forget to Link Up for Pink at Just Yolie, Just Create.

Hugs and Happy Crafting,

Larelyn

It's the Grillin' & Chillin" Bug Hop!

To celebrate the beginning of summer, Barb over at BugBites, is hosting two consecutive weekends of

 "Bug Hops".  How fun is that?

This weekend we're all about Grillin'.  Each designer along the bug trail is featuring a project based on the

Grillin' and Chillin' theme.

If you've come from Kerie's blog, you're buggin right along.  If you just dropped in to visit my blog and think you'd like to hop along, you can click HERE to start from the beginning.

OK, here's the exciting news - you, too, can participate by creating a project and linking it up to BugBites for a chance to win a Big Prize.  But, there's a twist.  Your project must include at least one Cricut cut and at least one of the critters that have been hidden within some of the bug stop blogs.  Be sure to visit all the bug stops to find your critter choices.  And, be sure to check out the blog candy being offered along the way.

For my Grillin' project I made my very first side step card!! 

I just love this little bird with all its layers from Three Birds on Parade.  I used Accent Essentials to create the frame for the sentiment.  The sun is from A Child's Year and the grass from Plantin.  The picnic goodies are from an embellishment pack. 

Now for the blog candy.  If you're kind enough to leave a comment, your name will go into a drawing to win 2 chipboard 6 x 6 album kits. Just a little thank you for stopping by.  If you'd care to become a follower, that would be wonderful.  Do you see how close to 200 followers I am?

 Be sure to let me know how to contact you.

 The winner's name will be posted on Tuesday, May 31.

Your next stop is Saundra at  http://luvscrappingtogether.blogspot.com.  Hop on over to see what she has for you today.

If you get lost along the way, you can return to Bug Bites for a list and the links to all the bug stops.

Remember, once you have hopped to all the bug stops, it's your turn to show us your Grillin' and Chillin' project.  Make sure to include a Cricut cut and one of the hidden critters.  Link up your project at

BugBites by Midnight CST May 30 to be eligible for the big prize.

Hugs and Happy Crafting,

Larelyn

And the Winner is . . .

Congratulations, Glenda, you are the winner!  I used Random.org (which I can't seem to get a print screen shot in order to post the box - grrrrrr) and entered the numbers 1-79.  Number 51 was generated.  Then, going to my list of followers on my dashboard and beginning at the bottom (first who joined), moving right to left up the names, you were number 51 (wish I was still 51!).  Please leave a comment which includes your email address and I will email you a gift certificate to MySheriCrafts.  Hope you enjoy it.

For the rest of you, here is my thank you for joining my blog and keeping me encouraged to continue this journey. 

This tag card was welded in Design Studio.  The tag is from Plantin Schoolbook.  The flower branch and layers were cut from Storybook, and the humming bird (cut 3 times and popped) and sentiment are from Lyrical Letters.  I used Perfect Pearls on the bird feathers, beak, and flower centers.

I love cardmaking and papercrafting and am so thrilled that you've taken the time to visit and leave comments.  I learn from each of you as I visit your blogs or admire your work on the messageboards. Once again, thank you, thank you!

Hugs and Happy Crafting,

Larelyn

Jitterbuggin' Card Challenge

This will be a short post today (it's housework day!!!).  Sherri over at Jitterbuggin' Challenge has a weekly sketch challenge.  She creates the sketches herself - such talent.  This week's theme is "Going Old School." We were asked to use the sketch for inspiration and include the primary colors red, yellow, and blue.
I used A Child's Year and Plantin Schoolbook for this 5 x 7 card.  I pop dotted the child and the heart and added a little doodling.

Hugs and Happy Crafting,

Larelyn

More album pages

I just finished more pages for my daughter's Marathon Album.  I'm sharing this two page layout because I can use it for My Shei Crafts Blog weekly challenge, which is FRIENDS.   This is such a simple layout, I'm letting the paper do the work! 

Birthday Cards and a Great Book

I'm new enough to papercrafting that I love to buy books and magagzines which show me new ideas and techniques.  While at my LSS, I came across "Card Making With Cricut" published by Annie's Attic.  I love this book, probably because I have all the cartridges that are used in the designs and because the directions are easy to follow with great results.
The first card is a birthday card for a very special boy in our lives.  When I saw him the other day, he was wearing a rockstar t-shirt, and he also loves hunting and the outdoors.  This card (from Card Making With Cricut) seemed perfect.  The inside says U rock and I added a money pocket since he's leaving today for a week's vacation and some spending-money seems like a great idea.  I used Indie Art, Tags, Bags, Boxes, and Plantin.  The background was distressed using very coarse sandpaper.  The second card is for his mother, whose birthday is today.  She's a country girl at heart and her home is decorated in a western theme.  This simple layout is my own.  I used DCWV All About Boys and Doodlebug papers, Just Because Cards, a Hero Arts stamp and scalloped and round punches.
I hope you enjoy my creations.  I love making special cards for special people.