Jen's Sketch Challenge 10-16-10

For Jen's sketch challenge this week, I had a little more fun with my Cricut. In fact, I've been having so much fun with it that I had to change the blade for the first time. I was starting to get tears in my paper when cutting and still had some tearing even after I changed the blade, but after I slowed down the cutting speed and changed the blade depth the problem was solved. I also had my paper slip a little bit so it might be time to start using a new cutting mat. I didn't realize just how much I've been enjoying that machine!

My dear friend Nancy just announced she is pregnant (with baby #3!) and I wanted to make a congratulations card for her and her husband. This isn't there first, but I believe EVERY baby (both the born and the unborn) are worth celebrating and since I can't be in California to celebrate with her, I made a card to mail off to her.

Since she's newly pregnant, we don't know the baby's gender yet, so I used a lot of different pastels on the card. For whatever reason, I feel like this one might be a girl, but I don't trust myself anymore. Up until my friend Kim's first pregnancy I had NEVER been wrong - not once on guessing a baby's gender but I seem to have lost my mojo. Whether a girl or a boy, we will love this baby....still since I have announced my guess here on this blog, I am not so secretly hoping it's a girl. I just like to be right :).

Oh! I used the Fun Flock again on the pom-pom on the night cap. I got a little more to stick this time than the last, but it's still not very much. I am still trying to figure out what the trick is ther, but I love the texture of that stuff so I am going to continue to try.

Anyway, enjoy....

Supplies
Patterned Paper - Little Yellow Bicycle

Cardstock - Yellow (Unknown), Green, Blue, Pink, White (Stampin' Up!)

Stamps - Verve Stamps

Ink - Stampin' Up!

Embossing Folder - Provo Craft

Cricut Cartridges - Storybook, Potpourri Basket

Buttons - Basic Grey

Pearls - Kaiser Crafts

Ribbon - Portafolia

Fun Flock

Flower - Prima Marketing

Glimmer Mist - Tattered Angels

Baby Bib

I got this brilliant idea from my friend Donna over at Butternut Sage Designs to make a card cut out like a baby bib. Donna made her bib using very traditional colors (white, pastels) and displayed it with some adorable blocks and I just fell in love with the idea.

My friend Leslie is having a baby shower in a couple of weeks, which I will be unable to attend because I will be on my way to CA that afternoon, but I wanted to make her a card to go along with her gift and drop it off at the shower location so that she'll have something from us to open even though I can't be there in person. Leslie is very non-traditional, very modern, and does not like pastels. She even sent an exasperated status update to Facebook to this effect....something like, "Isn't there any bedding that is not pastel?" For this reason, I thought it best to steer clear of pastels in her card and instead went for a very modern vibe.

I cute the "bib" out of Chocolate Chip cs using my scalloped circle template in my Cuttlebug. Then, I cut a half-circle out of both the front and the back panels using my Marvy Circle punch. Next, I stamped the front in Versamark ink using my Distressed Hearts background stamp from Unity and embossed the hearts using some Zing embossing powder from American Crafts in Leaf. I just purchased a few bottles of this new embossing powder and the colors are so vibrant!!!!

I added a small strip of patterned paper from Basic Grey, along with a small circle out of the same pattern. Then, I stamped the "L" using some Distress Ink in Peeled Paint and sponged around the edges in Chocolate Chip ink.

I cut the pink flowers out of some Bazzil cs with my Cuttlebug and added a little bling from Kaiser and then finally added the sentiment from SU that I stamped in Chocolate Chip and cut using my word punch, also from SU.

The tops of the panels are secured with some pink brads and I added some green ribbon from Classic Traditions for the bib's straps.