Have a Crab-u-lous Fourth! (BBTB2 Starfish Challenge)

Well, it's finally here! The Fourth of July is a big deal at our house so I took the opportunity to do one last patriotic project. When our fabulous team leader Heather chose the starfish from Life's a Beach for this week's BBTB2 challenge, all I could see was more red, white and blue. My red is the addition of the adorable crab from Create a Critter. Because all 3 starfish are one cut, I had to use alot of hiding contours in DS to get them positioned to weld, and of course they didn't include shadows on Life's a Beach (Grrrr!!!) so I did a little manipulating there as well. The starfish and crab are done with Bo Bunny card stock and the inside mat is a really old DCWV Summer stack.

Yes, it's a shaped front card and I couldn't resist adding a little toothpick flag in his little claw.

I had planned to make this really simple because of all the stuff I had to get done for our party this week, but in the end it did get pretty dimensional. Woohoo! Now grab some inspiration from the rest of my DT sisters and come and play along. Remember, you have two weeks to complete the challenge and new projects only, please. and be sure to mention and link to BBTB2 so others can join in the fun. Have a Crab-u-lous 4th and stay safe! I'm also entering this in the Fantabulous Cricut Pool Time (or Water-Themed) Challenge this week.

Macabre Monday Xtremely Xhaustive

Or should I say Xtremely Xhausted! Still gearing up for my July 4th party, but of course I couldn't miss Macabre Monday at Haunted Design House. This week your project must be LONG with some type of long embellie, like string, or ribbon, or twine; a noose, perhaps? Anyway, I've made a birthday card with Batboy by Torrente/Penney for Stampotique. Note the party hat? He's colored with Copics, and standing on a chair cut with the French Manor Cricut cartridge. The DP is K&Co and the letter stickers are??? Sorry , too tired to look them up.

More of the no name sticker letters for the sentiment on a die cut using Nesties Labels Seventeen. DH didn't get it. (Okay, the "jJs" are kinda hard to read, but still...) I think it's fairly amusing, but what do I know? LOL Check out the fab projects by the rest of the Minions and hope to see you play along.

1948 Re-Opening / London Store

Last week saw the re-opening of Nike Sportswear's London store, 1948. One of our favourite hangouts in London, Champfest was excited to see the transformation that had occurred inside. 

The renovations have transformed the previous space into something completely new, making use of their high ceilings and large area. 

There is a seating/meeting split'level room above the main area, where a great magazine and book selection is available for reading amongst Apple Ipads available for use. 

You can surely find Champfest Issue 003 there...

The entire Nike Sportwear range is on display and available for purchase, with much more room to view and try on. The whole Gyakusou range is there too, amongst some Honeycomb Air Max's I really couldn't decide on. Ah, dilemma.

The launch saw a flood of East London's inhabitants, plus some great cocktails. But do head down there early when it's quiet and have a look around - even spend some time reading the magazines and enjoying the space. There are sure to be some great events held there, so keep watch out for those.

See you there!

Location: 

1948
Arches 477-478
Batemans Row EC2A 3HH
 +44 (0) 20 7729 7688

Opening Hours:

...have been extended. See their FB for more.

We want to find out more on the design of the new space, so keep your eyes out for more info on that one.

For now, here are some images from Emanuele at website LIVIN COOL.

 

Happy Fourth Using the New Word Collage Cart

Okay, so I said I wouldn't be crafting. And I'm really not. I'm cleaning my craft room. Normally I wouldn't bother (LOL), but the door to my craft room is right across the hall from our guest room and although I'm inclined to just close the door, don't you secretly wonder, when you visit someone, WHAT exactly they could be hiding behind closed doors? (Unless it's a teenager's bedroom, of course), but really, aren't you curious? Oh, come on, fess up. There will be no secrets here, so while I'm organizing (meaning throwing crap in any box available to be shoved in a closet until they leave), I let my Cricut do some work cutting the Fourth of July Word Collage. It's a really simple one. I didn't even bother to open DS (OMG!). It did, however, take me about 10 minutes to figure out how to change the size of the cut using just the machine. LOL Isn't that pitiful? Seriously how embarrassing!

I did find that these cuts take awhile and it's best to turn down your pressure (to 3) and do a multi-cut, but I'm fairly pleased with the way it turned out. It's a bite to get off the mat, however, and for most of the insides of the letters I just didn't bother, especially because I intended to pop it. Now what? While visiting my friend Joy's blog, I saw her sweet vintage God Bless America card and was reminded of the silhouettes from A Child's Year. I loved the cuts she used so that's what I did too.

I glued strips of blue behind some of the words and popped the mat, then popped the kids on top, doodled a teeny bit, and stuck on a star and a few gems at the bottom. DONE! I'm entering this in the Craft Us Crazy Red, White and Blue (or Summertime) Challenge. But I'm not done shoveling this mess out or about a zillion other things so...later!

Definitely get yourself over to -

Barry McGee

New Work

1 July - 13 August

at Stuart Shave / Modern Art

23/25 East Castle Street

London W1W 8DF

FIND US EVEN EASIER NOW!

We have more premium stores and bookstores alike stocking us now.

Alongside stocking our Issue 003, each store holds a unique collection of their own apparel or books.

- The reason why we carefully select each of our stockists -

NEW LOCATIONS >>>

TATE MODERN

Bankside,

London SE1 9TG

++

DONLON BOOKS

77 Broadway Market

London E8 4PH

Blog Hop Winner and Tons of Announcements

TGIF, everyone! I dare say I wish it were still earlier in the week as I've still got tons of things to do to get ready for the 4th. However, it's a very exciting day for me because I've been PUBLISHED in the July issue of GingerScrapStreet Digital Magazine. Click HERE for the Table of Contents and HERE for the Alice in Wonderland Article. WooHoo! Thank you so much Jess for including me in this fab publication. I'm honored to be featured among such fabulously talented designers.

And BTW, Jess has a little incentive to view the article. She has a little game going for some fab Blog Candy so Click HERE to see what that's all about.

Just so happens that most of the images from my published card came from The Octopode Factory. It is also the day that The Octopode Factory Friday challenges begin and you KNOW I'm excited about that! I can't wait to participate in the challenges. You needn't use Octopode images to join the challenges but you do need to use them to WIN so I'm sure you want to shop HERE.

Then, on July 14th there will be a fabulous joint venture between Tiddly Inks and Make it Crafty. Read all about this exciting collaboration HERE! Just wait 'til you see the gorgeous new mix and match stamps from both stores.

Now I'm hopin' you guys didn't just skip to this part 'cause there was lots of cool info about upcoming events (as well as a little horn tooting of my own, but) FINALLY, the winner of the BBTB2 Blog Hop prize, a $40 gift certificate from CUSTOM CROPS is......

#35, Cathy!!!!! who wrote:

Congratulations Cathy!

please email me at dlmundinger(at)yahoo(dot)com to arrange for your prize.