Sunday 31 July 2011

After the Hiatus...

Hi Everyone! I feel so bad that my blog has been neglected for the past couple of weeks, but it really couldn't be helped. Shortly after my last post, I found out that my contract was ending a week earlier than expected, so I lost a number of days that I thought I had to finish up all the work I had to do. Add in a wedding, job interviews, and a sudden illness in the family resulting in a death, and I just didn't have time to stop and think, let alone blog! Now, it's all over, and I am unemployed for the foreseeable future, but I remain hopeful. And it means I have more time to craft over the next little while (though hopefully not too long!).

I made these couple of cards just the other day for two other coworkers of mine who will be greatly missed. I recently purchased a bunch of new cartridges at a wonderful sale - here in Canada, cartridges just don't come cheap, so when they go on a firesale, one must act immediately! I obtained: Freshly Picked, Forever Young, Wall Decor and More, Everyday Paper Dolls, Everyday Pop Up Cards, Create a Critter, All Sports, Songbird and Winter Woodland. I'm sure these ones in particular will be featured prominently in my upcoming projects as I explore their capabilities! I made this card with Create a Critter and Everyday Pop Up Cards:


I made this one using Simply Charmed and Everyday Pop Up Cards:


I apologize again for the unexplained hiatus! I'm sure I'll be back soon with something new to display!

Monday 11 July 2011

Mojo Monday

For my next little project, I thought I would try out the challenge at Mojo Mondays. I wasn't sure if I would fare well following a design - I just did not like the idea of being constrained. Then I was trying out digital stamps for the first time and seeing if I could actually create something that I could use (colouring is not my forte!). I found this little freebie one on McMahon Five Designs and tested it out. As I was colouring it, I thought that it might work well in this week's Mojo Monday challenge. I'm not thrilled with the result, but I am satisfied:


Thanks for checking it out! :)

Happy Monday!

After spending a day with my hubby yesterday, I was back at the table tonite for some new challenges! This week, for the Cricut Cartridge Chaos Challenge, hosted this week by Tattered Time, the challenge was to make something using the Don Juan cartridge. I love the letters on this cartridge, but I wanted to stretch my creative side a little more to see if I could come up with something using the images instead. Although it is very simple, I like the sentiment on this, and I think it works:


It's still early, so I'll probably be back with another challenge entry! :)

Saturday 9 July 2011

See? A perfect day!

And the crafting continues! Here is a card that I made for the challenges on Paper Cutz Challenge, which needed to have ice cream on it. It was totally perfect because over at Sentimental Sundays this past week, they had freebie digital sentiments, one of which was ice cream! So, thanks to my Stretch Your Imagination cartridge for the ice cream cones and my Storybook cartridge for the marquee and the scalloped green background, I came up with this:


I think that's it for me for the day. This one took me much longer than I anticipated and my hubby should be home in an hour, and he'll probably want dinner! :) Happy Saturday everyone!

A perfect day to craft

The weekends are always bitter sweet for me. My hubby does shift work, which means that he's gone to work for most of the weekend. However, after a hard week's work, I love a day or two where I can kick back, pop in a movie, and craft away to my heart's content without feeling like I'm neglecting him.

So, while watching "Company Men" and "Barney's Version", I was surfing the blogosphere. I came across what looks to be a fun new challenge blog, Cricut 360˚. Their challenge was to make a thank-you card that had to be round. After a bit of thought, I came up with this one:


I used the lady bug from Walk in My Garden, which is essentially round, apart from the head! :) The Don Juan cartridge provided me with the letters. I'm sure I'll be back later with some more creations to share!

Friday 8 July 2011

TGIF!!

I cannot explain how happy I am that it is Friday. What a crazy week! Tonite, I'm headed to a party. At work, my contract and the contracts of some of my colleagues are ending in a month. So, tonite is our last hurrah! I have one friend who is leaving today, so I made her this to tell her how much her company at work has meant to me:


I just love the Simply Charmed cartridge! Everything it makes looks so adorable!

Well, I'm on my way out! Have a great Friday! 

Thursday 7 July 2011

Christmas Cheer

What a bummer of a day! My plan was to go into work, finish up a document that I've been working on all week, and then go out to a Pampered Chef party. My plans were dashed when the internet died at work and I couldn't do any of my research. So, lucky me, I got to bring my work home with me and had to miss the PC Party! How frustrating! So, as a little break this evening, I took about an hour and whipped up this cheerful little holiday card for a couple challenges: Sentimental Sundays (anything goes), Aud Sentiments (use a sentiment with at least two words) and the Cricut Cartridge Chaos Challenge, hosted this week by More Than Favors. Sadly, for the CCCC, one was supposed to use the Wildcard cartridge, but I don't have that one. Instead, I used the card feature on Stretch Your Imagination.


Well, I suppose I should get back to work. Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday!

Wednesday 6 July 2011

Wednesday Redux

Wow, blogging really is addicting!

I did what I set out to do - finished another card tonite! This one I made for the challenge on Fantabulous Cricut, which was to create a water themed project. As you can see, my "starfish" ideas spilled over into this one! I'm also submitting this to this week's challenge on Cooking with Cricut, which is "anything goes" and to Getting Cricky's Sunday Challenge.  Hope you like it!


Now I actually do have to get some work done. :)

Hooray for Wednesday

So glad that today is Wednesday! The week is over half finished, and I am looking forward to the weekend for sure...more time on the Cricut!

Does anyone else find that they sometimes get "overstimulated"? It happens to me every so often, and it happened again today. I was thinking of ideas for the challenge at Bitten by the Bug 2 which required you to use the starfish image on the Life's a Beach cartridge. After thinking about it for a little bit, I suddenly was flooded with three or four ideas of things that I could do. I couldn't focus on my work!! FINALLY the end of the day arrived, and even though I will probably end up doing some work later tonite, I had to scratch that idea itch as soon as I got home. I will probably be making another one for a different challenge later tonite, but let's take it one at a time!

Here is one that I am submitting to Bitten by the Bug 2:


Nothing too fancy, but I like this one's simplicity. The one I hope and plan to make later tonite will be much more complicated!

Dinner now, more Cricut later!

Tuesday 5 July 2011

Challenge #21 on Celebrate the Occasion/Tuesday Throwdown #56

Ironically, I was recently thinking that I should start making some Christmas cards now in order to make sure that they were done by Christmas, and lo and behold, both Celebrate the Occasion and Tuesday Throwdown presented Cricut challenges called "Christmas in July". For Celebrate the Occasion, the goal was to make a Christmas card with no red, which pretty much eliminated all ideas I had for Christmas cards at this point! However, I did not let that get me down. Using my favourite cartridge, Simply Charmed, and Stretch Your Imagination, I came up with this:


Now, back to work!

My most recent knitting project!

Other than the large number of unfinished knitted projects floating around my house, which I hear is a common occurrence with knitters, the most recent knitted project that I finished only a month or two ago was a sweater for my friend's chihuahua. We recently adopted our chihuahua, Inuk, from friend of mine. She still has another chihuahua, Cashmere, and she LOVES to dress him. Personally, I can't bring myself to do it, but she wanted a sweater for him in case he had to go outside in the cold winter months. So, I knit her one! This was a crowning achievement for me - I was finally able to get the mattress stitch on the seams to look half decent!


As you can see, Inuk wasn't all that thrilled to be the model!


I was also surprised at how FAST I knit this up! I did the whole thing in one afternoon, when normally it should have taken me at least a full day. Now Cashmere can go outside in the winter!

Monday 4 July 2011

My first post!

Welcome to the Legal Crafter! I am a lawyer/crafter living in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. I live with my husband and our chihuahua, Inuk. I have always looked for creative ways to exercise my more artistic side, since law does not seem to be an appropriate outlet! I have been scrapbooking for a number of years, and I picked up knitting a couple years ago. I have also always loved to bake and I have been attempting to teach myself to decorate cakes. I recently got a Cricut, which has inadvertantly pushed me towards card-making! Since I rarely have large chunks of time anymore to work on large projects, I have found that card-making is a great way to scratch that artistic itch and harness that sense of accomplishment that comes from finishing a project without spending a ton of time on it!

For my first post, I decided to enter my first Cricut Challenge on Cricut Cardz Challenge. The challenge was to make a card with a cook-out or picnic theme using any colours or cartridges I wished. Since it is July 4th, it seemed only appropriate that I make a card for Independence Day, even though I am not American! So, to all my American friends and family out there, Happy July 4th!


I used the Simply Charmed Cricut Cartridge for the hamburger and hot dog and I used the Don Juan cartridge for the lettering. Happy Independence Day!