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So today the hubby and I got all of the Christmas back into the attic. I hate January because of the weather and the un-decking of the halls. In Western PA January typically means very cold and the biggest snow fall. We were threatened with a terrible storm this weekend but seem to have just missed it. A little north of us got 8.5 inches. We got Slush all day Saturday. The dogs loved it. Me not so much. So anyway I always do my "Spring" Cleaning when we put that stuff away because we are in the groove. We throw out stuff reorganize … you get the picture. The garage is the only beast to tame. We’re saving for another January weekend. January is always our least busy month so we get a lot of house stuff done. Now for the fun stuff ……

It’s that time of the week! Lauren’s Saturday Sketch Challenge. I can ALWAYS use thank you cards so I decided to make a thank you card for the challenge.

  To the left you can see the sketch. For my take, I started with a piece of paper from a scrapbooking calendar that I got for Christmas last year. It has a lot of nice stuff for paper crafting. So I dug through my papers and found a brown and orangish shade to match and threw together this card. It felt a little naked on the bottom so I added my favorite embellishment – a butterfly punched from my Martha Stewart punch decorated with a few rhinestones. It turned out cute. Cant complain.

Speaking of not complaining I found out this week that I get to go to an international conference for work March 25th thru 27th. How exciting. Its at the Buena Vista Palace in Orlando Florida – its in the middle of the Disney parks  The end of March is usually another crappy time here weather wise. The big Blizzard of ’93 struck during that week and having a March 23rd birthday I remember many snowy birthdays.  So I will be ready for some sunny Florida weather right about then.

This is my second entry for Regina’s BBTB contest. See my previous post here for more details concerning the challenge. I was thinking spring with this one and decided to modify a card that I made for a Sketch challenge for my second entry. I thought the lay out and idea of the card would suit the BBTB challenge well. The Circle, star and squares were cut with my Cricut machine and the George and Basic shapes cartridge. I think the vellum butterfly is a nice touch. 

You can see the Official Contest announcement and rules here. 

Today was my first day back to work after having been off for 13 days in a row so I’m short winded today. 

Paper: Black Card stock for the card base, stripped paper from DCWV Glitter Stack, Yellow Card Stock, Blue Card Stock, Pink Card stock, Linen Card stock and Vellum for the butterfly
Embellishments:  Butterfly made with Butterfly Punch from Martha Stewart, Adhesive Rhinestones from K&Company
Stamps: Live Well Laugh Often Love Much from StampinUp! two step Stampin Spring Garden and flowers from Paper Try Inks Flower garden

Today’s high in Western PA is in the low 30′s. It’s cold … cold enough that the dogs wont stay outside. Now that the Holidays are over I am ready for Spring so here I sit in my craft room feet freezing because I am too lazy to go next door to my bedroom and grab socks, I decided to think spring thoughts for Lauren Meaders Saturday Sketch.  To the left you can see the sketch and to the lower right; my take.  I changed my cards orientation and made my middle square with my sentiment a little bigger than the side squares. I liked this sketch. I made 2 cards and posted the best of the 2. Maybe sometime this week when I go back too work (YUCK) and have less time, I’ll post the other creation. I have been on vacation since December 23rd. Its amazing to me how fast 2 weeks goes when you don’t have to go to work!   Ok so back to the card. I embossed the yellow circle with my Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder (my favorite),cut the little squares and their shadows with my Cricut George and Basic Shapes Cartridge and used a sliver of DCWV paper from the Glitter stack.  Oh and I almost forgot I added a tiny butterfly adorned with a few Yellow rhinestones. I love my Martha Stewart Butterfly punch. This put me in a Springy mood despite the calendars glaring reminder that we’re only in the first weekend of January.

Paper: Kraft card Stock from paper Trey Ink, stripped paper from DCWV Glitter Stack, Yellow Card Stock, Orange Card Stock Purple Card stock, Linen Card stock and Vellum for the butterfly
Embellishments:  Butterfly made with Butterfly Punch from Martha Stewart, Adhesive Rhinestones from K&Company
Stamps: Live Well Laugh Often Love Much from StampinUp! two step Stampin Spring Garden and flowers from Paper Try Inks Flower garden

I recently discovered this really great blog "Bitten By The Bug" (BBTB). The bug being the Cricut die cutting machine from Provo Craft. Blog Creator Regina started the blog specifically for Cricut designers. She often hosts contests sponsored by Internet supply companies that provide awesome prize packages. My first BBTB contest is as follows: (this is copied directly from the blog post)

using the colors in this STAR PROJECT, you need to create a CARD using these colors AND there needs to be a star on your project somewhere…..Simple huh!
1. Create a card using these colors (all or at least 80% of)
YELLOW, GREEN, PINK, BLUE
2. Add a STAR to the card.
3. The card can be ANY occasion.
4. Everyone is welcome to enter….
5. Only 2 entries per person.
6. Previous bbtb winners are welcome to enter.
7. You must link in the comment section of this thread where I can find your project….A DIRECT LINK….(please don’t put my card is on my blog….I have a hard time finding it that way).
8. Contest will run from today through the 10Th of THE NEW YEAR, JANUARY 10, 2009……(yes this date is AFTER CHRISTMAS, just in time to have a yummy kit coming to you to scrap those Christmas photos).
9. YOU MUST USE AT LEAST ONE CUT FROM ANY OF THE CRICUT CARTRIDGES…

So now that you are in the know, here is my submission. I used all 4 colors and when I first read the challenge, I thought unisex baby card but I wasn’t really in the mood to design  a baby card so my next thought was New Years.   The Stars and "2009" were cut using Cricut’s George cartridge. I ribbon bound the card and embossed "Enjoy" in black. It’s hard to see, but the 2009 is covered in Black Diamond stickles. I glittered a few of the stars on the card and outlined the others in Diamond stickles.

I hope you had a Merry Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year. I am. I have big plans for my "Hobbies" but I’ll share those for a later post. Thanks for reading.

Paper: Blue and Pink Card stock, stripped paper  from DCWV Summer Glitter matstack Embellishments:  Stickles, wet embossing with Black embossing powder by Ranger and white organza ribbon
Stamps: Enjoy from the Spiral Bouquet set by Papertrey Ink