I Tried Stamping Today...

And I must be pretty darn rusty as I had the dickens of a time trying to create what is supposed to be a simple card. LOL I was inspired by this one from clean & simple.

Here's the card:

Would you believe it took me at least four tries to get this? Sheesh. The reason it's not finished is because after I finally got it lined up right, etc, I moved the card to think on the sentiment I wanted to use and it fell or hit the edge of an open stamp pad! It's not real dark, but I know it's there and so I quit stamping for the day. We just weren't getting along too well. 

On to the next!

This card was inspired by this one I saw on Just Dandy. I am loving all the doilies I am seeing on cards these days. Well, I was pretty sure I had some doilies in my stash in the garage room. But, could I find them? NO! Remember when I moved stuff into the house? I set up the rest of my stash for storage in the garage room. And after the weight bench and treadmill were moved into the same room, someone decided to rearrange what I had set up. In rearranging, my whole storage system went...poof...Sigh. If I want something in particular, I have to go digging and moving and possibly saying some not so very nice words. (who me??) Yeah, so I was pawing through stuff and I couldn't find the darn doilies. This was right after the stamping fiasco, so I was just about to cut my losses and quit for the day, but I looked through my cartridge stash and decided to try a doily on the Cindy Loo cartridge. Well, the image is called a doily anyway. I guess that's as close as I'm going to get until I can pick up some more (at the dollar store, hopefully). The butterflies are from Paper Lace. I adhered two different ribbons together and they coordinate better than the photo show. The flower is one from a package of three bunches I picked up at Michaels several months (possibly almost a year) ago. I think they are Prima brand, but the packaging is long gone, so I can't say for sure. I like the idea of what I created, but not so much the execution. Ah well, such is life.

And here's an idea (not mine, I saw it here) for those of you who are collecting cartridges....

I tried putting the keypads in that notebook awhile back, but didn't keep the booklets in the house. It was a bit of a pain to pull out and reinsert the keypads. Then I started worrying that the cartridges themselves might get messed up being out in the open and subject to dust. When I started playing with Paper Lace, I noticed I need the booklet to show me what each cut can do. That got me to thinking having the booklets handy would be a good idea. So, I picked up a photo storage box and put all my carts in it. I was able to fit the basket right in there for now. I still need to put some dividers with labeled tabs in, so I can see at a glance what the carts are. I like this much better (at least for now).

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope your weekend is off to a great start. It's supposed to be gorgeous and warm here (almost 80 tomorrow!). Ooooohhhh, I keep thinking at some point we will be paying for this lovely fall weather. And I won't be able to complain at all. LOL

Can You Stand A Few More Paper Lace Cards?

I think I got super lucky in finding this cartridge. The Cricut website says it's coming soon. I was at Hobby Lobby and they had a card hanging for it as well as finding it at Michaels. My friend, Kari, who lives in the midwest, went to her Michaels and they don't have it, not even a card for it. Perhaps my area is putting them out a smidge early? I don't know. But I do know I haven't been this excited about a product in a very long time. I hope you don't mind seeing a couple of more cards I made today. I wanted to use a color other than black. LOL My Amber Autumn stack isn't getting put away, so it's being put to good use. *Ü*

Oooooh, can I say that I love, love, love these colors together? Again, super simple, but I think it has a vintage feel to it. I keep thinking if I add to it, it'll be too busy.

And here's another quilt type card. This image is call mod, but it looked very quilt like to me.

Do you like that baker's twine?

Go ahead and enlarge the picture to see it better.

Wanna know where I got it?

From my craft room.

Seriously!

I love the look of baker's twine but I can't find it around here. Wait. I take that back. I can find it at Archiver's,  but I think it costs too much for what you get. They have a pack there for $4. I think you get two colors, maybe about 10 yards. They had Martha Stewart's but I passed it up the first time, and then I got a coupon, went back and it's been sold out. Sometimes when you snooze you lose. 

I took a good look at the stuff they had in stock.

Guess what it is?

DMC floss.

No joke.

Two colors of DMC floss. 

4 strands per color.

DMC costs somewhere around 35 cents for a skein of, I believe, 5 yards. 

The frugal side of me couldn't pay what they wanted.

I have a lot of DMC floss 

and I also have cotton thread floss.

You can find it in the same area as embroidery floss, the skeins are usually hanging up and there's a texture to them. You can also buy them in packs.

Anyway, I thought for sure I could twist the stuff at home.

Today I tried it. And it worked!

What I did was take two colors of an undetermined length. I didn't measure, maybe 24 inches? 

I tied one end in a knot and taped it to my desk. I took a strand in each hand and crossed over and over again. I kind of pulled the strands apart after I crossed them to tighten it. I also used some tension, so the strands were straight and not droopy. It's hard to explain, but easy to do.

Anyway, that faux baker's twine in the second card is make with that cotton thread twisted together.

Neat, huh?

Even if you don't think so, nod your head okay? 

Because I thought it was sort of clever. 

I can try to match my "twine" to my project. 

Whoohooo!

Thanks for stopping by!

I hope you are having a great day.

Now I gotta go clean up the mess I've made in my craft space.

toodles

How About Three More Paper Lace Cards?

Hi There!

I knew I wanted more than just a few minutes to play today and after doing some housework, I felt ready to sit down guilt free. I am so excited to see what the cuts look like in real life. I know I am using a lot of black, but right now, that contrasted against white looks very cool to me. I know I will need to stretch my imagination and try more colors. But for now, I'm mainly playing with black. 

These cards are all 4 1/4 by 5 1/2.

I really like the look of this cut. My use of it isn't all that imaginative, but when I tried to put something on top, it took too much away from the design. What's neat is there is a border with this same cut. I tried it out, but since I only have the original Cricut, I can't cut smaller than 1 inch. I think if I was able to go smaller, having the same design as a border would be very striking. I cut the design first and then tried the border. I don't want to waste the cut, so maybe another time I'll see if I can get them to match in size.

I had my DCWV Amber Autumn stack out, so that iswhere the papers I used came from.

Here's a nod to quilting.

I cut this image out at 1 inch and then selected some papers to back the cut. The mat is actually the shadow for the design, which I cut at 2 inches. I initially was going to use black, but decided not to. I think it looks kind of neat on that angle. I was really tickled to look in a button jar and find the button that coordinated so wonderfully right away. It is tied with some linen DMC floss I got on clearance over the summer. I did some pen stitching with a ruler. I almost did it on the block, but was afraid I'd mess it up. 

I have got to tell you that this card looks way better in real life. I used hot pink rhinestones and they really pop. Unfortunately, the camera didn't really do it justice. Ah well. Isn't that a fabulous cut anyway? I have ideas on how to dress is up even more, but at this point I only had a couple of minutes before my creative time ended. Simple, yet striking, I hope, is what comes across.

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

As you can see I can't get enough of this cartridge.

Maybe I'll get some time to play again tomorrow...

Two Simple Paper Lace Cards...

I didn't have very much time to play today, but managed to create two very simple cards! I think you'll understand my giddiness when I saw these in the booklet.

 I've been seeing images with the line around the edge in the blogosphere. I think they are actually stamps, and I like the look.  Initially I thought I'd use a Nestability die to trace, but it was too small as this card is 5x7. So, I took a piece of the Amber Autumn paper, turned it upside down and carefully traced it. With a Micro Pen. Because I did go out to my room and find one today. No need to repeat a previous goof.

Look at all those lovely butterflies!

When cutting the second one, it takes a bit of time as these are pretty intricate cuts. While it was cutting I did a few prep things for the card. On both cards I used textured cardstock from Hobby Lobby, mainly because it's not a white core cardstock. The texture might not be the best for the details, though. I may have to look into finding more solid core smooth cardstock, that isn't too thick. With the detail in the cut, you need to select a larger size to get that detail, without it messing up. I cut the shadow for the second one, but didn't like how it looked, so I opted instead to adhere it to some Amber Autumn pattern paper. Oh and I have a Xyron 900 (a purchase from many years ago and it's been waiting patiently for me to use it again-I'm glad I never donated or tried to sell it), which makes adding adhesive easy peasy. Unfortunately I cannot find my medium sized stylus, so there's glue snot sticking out. 

I'm glad I was able to play for a little bit again today. There are so many cuts I want to try!

Thanks for stopping by!