Link Up Love Party With K Andrew

Since I am new to the world of crafting AND blogging, one of the best ways to connect to others is through challenges, blog hops and link up parties. This Link Up Love Party with K Andrew is the perfect way to get to know each other and find new blog inspiration. I am so happy that this Link Up is Valentine's themed, because I just finished my adorable Valentine's card and am so excited to share it. To get the recipe for this card, check out my previous post! Also, please check out the other fantastic submissions on the Getting Cricky with K Andrews Blog.  Then, join in the fun by linking up your project too!

Let it Snow!

Happy New Year! I am so excited for 2012. The new year always brings with it an opportunity to start anew. I love the idea of a clean slate and am hoping for a fantastic year!

My card for today is a celebration of winter. It has been a snow-free winter for us so far, but that didn't stop me from creating this card for some good snow karma. Everybody needs a snow day once in a while and this card says...bring it on! I chose this dot embossed card because it reminds me of snow, and I added a little extra bling with the jewels to make it "Glitter Panda" worthy too!!

Recipe

Cricut Holiday Cakes Cartridge - Plain phrase feature - Winter5 - Shift (p. 77) - Let it snow - cut at 2" - Dark blue color from The Paper Co. - Snow Day pack

Cricut Holiday Cakes Cartridge - Mittens - Winter2-S & Winter2 (pg. 47) - cut at 3" - Dark blue color from The Paper Co. - Snow Day pack

Jewels - Assortment pack

Ribbon - leftover scraps- added under each mitten, just before gluing, for 3D effect

Card and envelope - Die Cuts With a View Embossed Cards Boxed Set - Dots design

Die cuts added using Zip 2 way pen

I am entering this card into the following challenges:
Getting Cricky "It's A Celebration" - celebrating snow!
Shopping our stash Challenge 34 - All that Glitters, Sparkles or Shines Challenge
Little Scrap Pieces - Copy Cat Challenge - Winter 
Simon Says Stamp - Spots &/or Stripes Challenge

Love you a Latte Card - Just Because

I made sure to vote on my way home from school today. It was very late, but I think every vote counts! When I got home, I had a wonderful treat waiting for me! The Just Because Cards cartridge was sitting on the counter, all wrapped up in the shipping packaging, just begging to be opened!!

There were two challenges I have been thinking about since the weekend and, after I put bunny to bed, I had a few moments of free time to craft! I told someone today that crafting is my therapy. I am able to focus on my creativity, not because someone NEEDS me to, but because I WANT to! So, I treated myself to a therapy session courtesy of Just Because cards and this is what I came up with. The two challenges are the Getting Cricky Simply Sunday Tea Time Challenge and the PDCC106 based on the colors pink, yellow and gray. The result was a gray, pink and yellow card featuring, my hot beverage of choice, a latte!

I combined the "Love you a Latte" sentiment (#11) with the Milk card (#9) base in yellow. I cut the envelope first on the fit to page button (4 1/4").  The houndstooth print envelope is cut from a BEAUTIFUL 12x12 pad I have from DCWV called Bella Armoire. I cut the card at 4" to make sure it would fit nicely into the envelope. The shift for the card is the strip of houndstooth paper that matches the envelope.

The sentiment was too small at 4" so I recut it at 5" out of the pink paper and then cut the shift with silver paper (both from the Recollections packages). The teacup and teacup steam (teacup layer) were both from Once Upon a Princess and were cut at 1". I attached the teacup using dimensionals to give it a pop and then applied a TINY bit of Star Dust Stickles to give the coffee mug a shimmery finish.

Link Up Love Party with K Andrew

Today's post is not a new project. I have decided to try something new to explore more of the members of the Cricut crafting community! The Link Up Love Party with K Andrew seems to be a fantastic way to do just that! I sent my son to school today with his snack for lunch in this adorable bag and he came home so excited that everyone started singing the "Purple People Eater" song when they saw it. I even had a good friend tell me her son and another boy were talking about how cool my son's bag was at lunch today!! I thought this Halloween inspired project would be great for the Link Up, so I am sharing him again. The hand sticking out of his mouth just cracks me up!! If you'd like to know how I made him, just click back to my previous post and all of the info is waiting for you.

Now, it is your turn to join in the fun! Join the Link Up and meet some new crafters along the way. Maybe you will get an idea or two also! Here's how you participate:

• Link Up Party runs from Tuesday 10/18 to Tuesday 10/25. Winners announced 10/31 *Grab my blinkie and post on your blog's sidebar
• You must be a follower of the Getting Cricky blog
• Create a new blog post that is titled Link Up Love Party with K Andrew. In your post, you must mention that the link up love party is a way to get to know each other and find new blog inspiration, mention Getting Cricky with a link back to it
• Post your favorite project that you've done in your blog post THAT HAS TO DO WITH HALLOWEEN!!  That could be a card, layout, treat holder or decoration, anything halloween related.
• Copy and paste the link up code from Getting Cricky into your blog post so the Inlinkz will show up on your blog
• Place the Getting Cricky blinkie on your page
• Spread the word so everyone can join in!
• You must visit, follow, and comment on the 5 people before you AND the 5 people after you in the Inlinkz. It would be fantastic if you would visit as many as you can--maybe everyone? If you are one of the first 5 then you will need to blog the ones before you and a few more after--as long as it's a minimum of 10 near you in the link up tool/gadget
• If you do not do the above your link will be deleted, because it's just not fair to those who work so hard linking up and showing love to the ones on the list.