Cricut Circle Blog Weekly Challenge #19 - Whatevah!

Have I mentioned how much I love my Cricut Expression?  Well, as if I didn't already love it, I was recently clued in to their membership based blog that has weekly and monthly challenges!!!!!

So I decided to take a gander and enter this week's weekly challenge...it's theme is Whatevah!

Basically, I had to cut a shape from one of the cricut cartridges three times and use it in whatevah way I wanted, so I decided to take advantage of some extra photos I had from an album I just finished.  I used three images from three different cartridges and made sure to use triple versions of each.

Welcome the cuteness of Aasha!

What I used to make this adorable page:

• Karen Foster paper - Sugar Sweet
• Bo Bunny paper - Archivers limited edition pack (included pages from Flutter Butter, Delilah & Alissa)\
• Flower cutouts - Stamping cartridge
• Butterfly cutouts - Storybook cartridge
• Leaf cutouts - Ashlyn's Alphabet cartridge
• Tim Holtz distress inks - Dusty Concord, Tattered Rose, Peeled Paint, Pumice Stone
• Tsukineko Shimmer - Copper Sheer
• Alphabet stickers (no longer had the brand for either the green or purple letters)

I also took a stab at doodling on this layout a bit more than my last attempt.  I added some contrast to the butterflies, a flight path, and highlighting on the polka dots.  I also made sure to journal on the page which is a habit I'm trying to ingrain in my scrapbooking (you should always try to add some journalling to your pages).

A Kitchen Makeover

I'll spare you all from my silly Chicago blizzard nicknames...I think I've used all the ones I like by now. Ha!

We were once again "banned" from coming to work due to the parking situation (3 days now) so I had to work remotely.  Totally cool, of course.  I'm blessed to have the ability to access all my files and emails from home.  So it was a normally productive day

with a twist!

While I worked, I also had the chance to access all my art supplies and start on a project I've been meaning to start forever.  It's kind of fun to have both items at my full disposal - work and fun.

Awhile ago, I update the rug, hand towels and oven mitts in my kitchen which are more of a mod feel.

But my wall art was more French Art Nouveau (which I mistakenly called art deco). I'd like to publicly apologize to all my true artist friends - I will never mix the two up again as they are so clearly different.  This is one of the posters currently in my kitchen.

Obviously, there was a major mismatch of styles in my kitchen, and it was driving me crazy!  So I told myself that I needed to take advantage of my time at home and do something about it.

So I took out all my cricut cartridges and frantically looked through them for items that might work.  Thankfully, I had SEVERAL options to choose from, but in the end used flowers, leaves and birds from the following cartridges:

• Storybook
• Ashlyn's Alphabet
• Winter Wonderland
• Serenade
• Graphically Speaking

I layered all the cutouts over freehanded branches and then distressed the whole thing with Tim Holtz inks (Pumice Stone and Vintage Photo colors).

Lastly, I crudely painted the frame with old acrylic paint.  It was a bit clumpy, but it didn't matter too much as I knew that I would be sanding some off to give it a distressed look.  I tried to paint as evenly as possible.

Final result?