I Preordered a Gypsy!!

I am so excited tonight because I just preordered a Gypsy!! If you haven't heard of the Gypsy, it is an amazing hand-held portable design studio that works with the Cricut. You don't even need a computer, although the Gypsy is Mac compatible, which was another selling feature for me, as the older Design Studio is not Mac compatible. The Gypsy will also store all of your Cricut cartridges! Also, you use a stylus rather than a mouse which I think will be much easier when designing.

You can also customize your Gypsy with a cute sleeve! I picked the Cherry Blossom cover (see first picture).

Unfortunately, the Gypsy isn't available until mid-November so waiting for it will be the hard part.

I ordered mine from www.memorymakingcrafts.com and they have one of the best prices I've seen online. You can also preorder with just a deposit, rather than paying the whole amount at once, which is great.

If you haven't already seen what all the Gypsy can do, check out the ProvoCraft website and take the 'test drive'.

Twilight Cards

Here are a couple cards I made as part of the Twilight swap I'm in on the Cricut mb. I used Tim Holtz crackle paint on a chipboard heart on the one card. That was the first time I've used this crackle paint and it gives a pretty cool effect and is very easy to use. I used my heat tool to speed up the drying process. The photos of Edward & Bella, and The Cullens came from images off the Internet.

Halloween Paint Can Swap

I am hosting a Halloween Paint Can Swap on the Cricut message board. This swap will be lots of fun! For more details, please visit my Halloween Paint Can Swap thread.

"Discover" Beach Card - A Child's Year & Graphically Speaking

I was so excited to try out my new Cricut cartridge, 'A Child's Year' since I got it a few days ago, and tonight I tried it out for the first time. I love this cartridge! There are so many beautiful silhouette images to choose from. I'm sure I will be using it a lot for scrapbooking layouts of the kids, but for now I thought I would make a card. The word 'discover' is from the Graphically Speaking cartridge. All patterned paper is from Close To My Heart's Caprice collection and the cardstock is also CTMH.

Scuba Diver Birthday Card - Life Is A Beach

I made this scuba diver birthday card for my dh's birthday. I am giving him scuba lessons for his birthday, so I thought this card would be perfect! I used the Life Is A Beach Cricut cartridge and used the square card feature to cut this card. I cut the card at 5 1/2 but I think it would have looked better if I had cut at 5 (I think it would have matched up better with the layers that I cut at 3 1/2). I also used K&Co paper ribbon for the shell border at the bottom of the card and the Happy Birthday stamp is from CTMH's Fringed Phrases set. I added some stickles to give a little bling to the bubbles. This is the first time I used the Life Is A Beach cartridge. There are some really cute images on this cart!

Fairy Card / Flower Stand Card

Here are two more cards I made tonight.  The fairy card is made with a stamp from CC Designs and is coloured using Copic markers.  The girl at the flower stand card is made with stamps from High Hopes and is also coloured using Copic markers.  The flower stand card is the one that I didn't get finished at a card class at my LSS last week, so I brought it home to finish, and changed it up a bit.  

Copic Card Class

Tonight I went to my first Copics class at my local scrapbook store. The focus of the class was on colouring in stamped images with Copic markers. I didn't learn too many new techniques, but I did learn about drawing around the outside of your stamped image to make your image 'pop'. I did this on the bookworm bookmark. Of course I also ended up buying more Copics! I am just loving these markers!! All of the cards we completed tonight were made with High Hopes stamps. Their images are just adorable! Here are three of the cards I finished. I have one more that still needs to be completed. I didn't find there was quite enough time to finish all cards in the class. I would go to another class though.... the cute card ideas make the classes totally worthwhile!

One Lovely Blog Award

I just received a blog award from Scrappydew at The Crooked Cutter! Thank you so much!! Please be sure to visit The Crooked Cutter blog and check out her wonderful creations!

Summer / Beach Card

Here is the last card I made using this great little kit I picked up from my LSS. The stamps are by CC Designs and I used Copic markers to colour the stamped image. The little crab is from an EK Success punch which I just picked up today from Michael's. It was on clearance for less than $3!

Another Copic Card

I am lovin' these Copic markers! I made this card tonight, again with the kit from the LSS. The stamps are from CC Designs.

I'm afraid these markers are going to be my newest addiction!!

First Cards Made with Copics

I just coloured my first two stamped images with Copic markers. I just picked up my first set of Copics yesterday and so far, I love them! I'm not very good with them yet though. I have been colouring out of the lines a lot!! I tried to do some shading on the one image, but it didn't go so well! Oh well, I guess I'll learn. I am actually going to take a Copics class this Thursday, so I'm looking forward to it, and hopefully I'll learn some techniques that will make my images look a lot better. Both of these cards were made from kits from my favourite scrapbook store, Scrapping Great Deals. Both stamps are CC Designs.

Blog Candy at Crissy's Art & Heart

Crissy's Art & Heart blog is having a great contest on right now where you can win a fabulous prize including adorable High Hopes stamps! Crissy is an extremely talented artist and designer for High Hopes stamps. You must check out her gorgeous designs on her blog!

Kid's Paint Can Swap

Here is the beautiful paint can I received in the mail today from my partner, M&KGrandma from the Cricut mb. This was for a kid's paint can swap, so she made this adorable can for my daughter Paige and filled it with a ton of cute kid's goodies. I think the characters on this paint can are just adorable! She put so much detail into the prince and princess, the castle and even the dragon and frog. I just love it and so does Paige!

Twilight Bookmark

Here's a Twilight themed bookmark I made for a swap. I used the Tags, Bags & More Cricut cartridge for the bookmark, Storybook for the heart and Wild Card for the 'XOXO'. I also used the Martha Stewart Drippy Goo Punch for this project. I printed a quote from Twilight that I found on the internet and inked the edges with Tim Holtz distressing ink (Fired Brick). I also used Stickles (Black Diamond) to add a little bling!

The Cuttlebug Spot's Drive for 500

The Cuttlebug Spot (blog sponsored by Custom Crops) is aiming to reach 500 followers by the end of the month. Check out this post for more information: Drive for 500: Sponsored by Custom Crops.

And the winner is....

KweenScrapper69!! Congrats! I will be mailing out the package of goodies tomorrow. :)

Thank you so much to everyone for participating! I am so happy to have a bunch of new followers of my blog too!

This was the first blog RAK I've done, but it won't be the last! It was a lot of fun so I plan on doing this again soon!

My Blog Goodie Giveaway

Here is a picture of the goodies that someone will be winning! To win, all you need to do is 'Follow' my blog and post a message in the thread I started on the Cricut message board: http://www.cricut.com/messageboard/tm.aspx?m=4850951. I will randomly pick a winner tomorrow evening. Thanks for following my blog and good luck!

'Pot of Gold' Altered Paint Can

Here is the paint can I made for my NSSS, Chantal for our final month of the swap. It was a 'Pot of Gold' as it was filled with lots of scrapbooking goodies! I also made the matching flower card. The rainbow, sun, butterfly and flowers were all made from the Hello Kitty cricut cartridge. This is my new favourite cartridge! Not only are there adorable Hello Kitty cuts, but there are also a ton of cutesy extras that are great for all sorts of craft projects. This can was just so much fun to make! The patterned paper is Basic Grey, and I used various ribbon to decorate the handle of the can. I also added Fancy Pants buttons for the centre of the flowers and the butterfly's head, plus some stickles to add a little sparkle.

Scraproom Slideshow