Happy Birthday Dear Trees...

Suprise, surprise, another holiday is here! I never realized how many holidays there are on the calendar until I started my card making adventure.

Today is Tu B’Shevat, the 15th of Shevat on the Jewish calendar.  This holiday is known as the “New Year for Trees." The literal significance of this holiday has to do with a seven year growing cycle and helps to determine in which year a tree is ready to be harvested for fruit. To celebrate, many people eat fruits that grow on trees, particularly in Israel, including grapes, figs, pomegranates, olives and dates. Many Hebrew schools hold what is referred to as a Tu B'Shevat seder, in which the children enjoy many different fruits.

My holiday card adventure gave me a chance to take a break from making Valentines, so I thought I would try something creative. The card I made for Tu B'Shevat is simple, but I think it properly celebrates trees. It is my first stair step card, so I am still getting the hang of it, but my son loved it and that is all the encouragement I need to keep trying!

Recipe

Stair Step Card Base

1. Start with a piece of card stock cut to 5 1/2" X 10 1/2"

2. Score at 1 1/4", 2 1/2", 4 1/4", 6" and 8 1/4"

3. Fold up and down for alternating score lines (mountain/valley style)

4. Decorate each step

5. The the first step is 1 1/4" x 5 1/2" - I used green recollections card stock for the border. It is cut from the Cricut Holiday Cakes cartridge, pg. 51 <Baby3> at 1 1/4".

6. The second step is 1 3/4" x 5 1/2" - I used brown recollections card stock, the same cut for the border as step one, but this one was cut at 1 1/2". I used my paper trimmer to cut it to 5 1/2" in length.

7. The third step is 2 1/4" x 5 1/2" - I used green recollections card stock for the border. It is also cut from the Cricut Holiday Cakes cartridge, pg. 51 <Baby3>, but this one was cut on the plain base function at 1 1/2".  I trimmed this to 5 1/2" as well. Next, I added some LACE stretch ribbon on top of the border.

Scallop Doily

The embellishment for the first step is a doily from the Cricut Cindy Loo cartridge <Doily4> cut at 2 1/2".  The top is cut from DCWV Mariposa Matstack glitter paper and the shadow is cut from brown recollections card stock.

Tree

The tree for the third step is the <tree> image from the Cricut Best of 2010 cartridge cut on the regular button and the shift. I attached it using dimensionals so it stands out too.

I am entering my card into the following challenges:
FYI Challenge #23 - The levels of the church reminded me of the stair step card & they both have a religious component
Shopping our Stash Weekly Challenge 38: Hearts, Valentines and/or Lace

Crazy Fantabulous Purple People Eater

Hello everybody! Today's post will be a quick one because I am hard at work grading papers, however, I wanted to participate in the Fantabulous Cricut Monday Design Challenge #82 and the Crazy About Cricut Monster Mash Challenge, SO...I went literal this one (based on the Fantabulous description), but blinged him up a bit...here is my recipe for this cute little guy:

• Monster - cut at 6" from the Best of 2010 Cartridge, but originally on Mini Monsters (4th monster on the top row)
• For the medium and dark Purple paper I used Canvas Home Basics 3 lb scrap pack
• I flipped the monster over to the side without all of the scoring and cut off one horn
• Instead of using both eyes, I used one to match the song!
• I cut the eyes and fangs using the scraps I had left over from the apple goodie bag I made the other day. 
• For the hand in his mouth - Forever Young Cricut Cartridge - Gloves cut at 2" on Shadow feature
• I used the notch for the glove design to fold the hand under the monster's mouth layer - this made it look like he has the hand sticking out of his mouth! Love that part :)
• I thought it would be funny to write delicious on here - I used Graphically Speaking and cut it from the yellow paper in the scrap pack at 1"- Image28 using the Type feature
• Finally, I glittered him up using Stickles in Stardust for the word delicious and in lavender for his cute little wings

I hope you like my one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple people eater! He will make an excellent lunch bag for my son tomorrow!!!

Other contests I have entered with this project include:
The One Stop Craft Challenge
Cupcake Inspirations