It's a Banner-arrrgh Day! (and International Talk Like a Pirate Day too).

Just in time for the last bit of International Talk Like a Pirate Day, I finished my banner for the Cricut Contest using my Imagine and the Buccaneer cartridge. I used Stone Script cartridge with the ship's wheel pattern for the letters  (with gold Stickles) and Art Nouveau for the mat (edged with Tea Dye Distress Ink). The cheese cloth was tea-dyed and the doubloons were made with circles of gold foil paper run through the Clockworks Cuttlebug folder three times. The pearls were made with clear decorative accents (sold in the candle section at Michael's) also called "skittles" with a drop of Ranger Pearl Alcohol Ink. Beacon's 3 in 1 Glue held all the "booty" on the fabric. And the ever-trusty Papertrey Ink Rustic twine : D.

Steam Punk Mad Plaid Love

Today is my day to be the Guest Designer at TheBugBytes which is always exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time lol.

This started out with the last image from Love Struck 2010. I'm not the typical Valentine's Day Person, so I chose a black and plaid combination. A couple of tips about box making I've learned over the past couple of weeks: it's much easier to decorate a flat box, so decorate before assembling, and use the edge of a craft table to fold score lines rather than a ruler.

I decorated the heart with the Viva Decor Hematite Glitter Line. With the height set at 9.04" on the Gypsy, the box dimensions are 4" x 1" x 6.5". I used the Your Story (the Your Story Photo would also work for this) to make a mini book that will go in the box with a candy bar.

The mini book cover 3.5" (the front cover is 3.25" to show some of the pages) x 5" with a 0.5" spine that I scored in the middle so the spine had a little dimension. I used Black Magic Core'dinations cardstock and ran the front through my Cuttlebug Clockworks folder (which is a whopping 5" x 7" btw). It's the perfect size for those Tim Holtz message stamps I've been collecting lol.