Fantabulous Cricut Guest Designer!

Happy Monday, my crafty friends! I hope your week is off to a sparkly start. :o)

I am thrilled to have been invited to be a Guest Designer for Fantabulous Cricut this week, one of my absolute favorite challenge blogs! Their designers are extremely talented (and sweet!), so it is an honor to be designing with them this week. :o) I'm pretty sure you sensed my excitement in yesterday's post. ;)

FCCB Challenge #116 is to make a project with a bell, church, or cross and to include the color blue. (It does not need to be religious.) The first thing that sparkled in my sappy heart is a beautiful winter wedding. So I made my first wedding card. :o)

"Today, Tomorrow, Always..."

This was such fun and quickly became one of my personal favorite cards I've made. I wanted it to be a heart-shaped card that would stand without the requirement of an easel, so I turned to my Gypsy. Using cuts from the Art Philosophy cartridge to create the base, I welded together the heart doily and several flowers. The white lacy heart is a representation of pure love and two hearts and lives being woven together. The flowers are like the sweet petals that flutter to the aisle from the excited hand of a flower girl. In this wintry scene, I like that these particular blooms are also reminiscent of snowflakes.

Upon completion, the wedding bells made my heart flutter. I didn't have a cartridge that contained any of the three challenge options, so after the initial panic I settled myself down and cut out some bells with scissors. ;) I used pearlescent cardstock for extra elegance and embossed them with the Swiss Dots folder. I extra-pleated some shimmery, lightly pleated white ribbon to line the bottoms, as if it's ruffling in the romantic air. (It also made me think of a cascading veil.) Nestled between rows of pearls are Wild Orchid Crafts blue roses. The bells are secured with a Snow White crinkle ribbon bow and a chain of pearly love.

The heart atop the doily is cut out with a snowy Basic Grey paper, which I accented with small and medium pearls as snowflakes. The sentiment is from the Whimsical Designs~ With Love stamp set, which I cut out with a Spellbinders Picot Edge Circle. To me, it's a jumbo-sized snowflake... a divine wedding wish for a heavenly life together. I trimmed it in my smallest pearls and practically cleared out my pearl stash making snow-covered flowers at the bottom. :o)

Challenges entered:

 * Crafty Catz~ Embossing

 * Paper Playtime~ Anything Goes, plus a sentiment

 * Wild Orchid Crafts~ Anything Goes

Heartfelt thanks to FCCB for having me along this week! It is such a pleasure and an honor. Thank you all for visiting me today and be sure to check out the inspiring creations by the fantabulous designers! I hope your day sparkles with sunbeams and blessings. :o)

Key Recipe Components:

 * Cricut cartridge: Art Philosophy

 * Cuttlebug embossing folder: Swiss Dots

 * Spellbinders Nestabilities: Picot Edge Circles

 * Paper: Basic Grey, Cloud 9 (solid blue), Core'dinations

 * Sentiment: Whimsical Designs~ With Love

 * Flowers: Wild Orchid Crafts

 * Ribbon: Crinkle ribbon~ My Craft Spot; Sheer ribbon~ stash

 * Pearls: Recollections