Cascading Card

Jessica and I had a great day today. She had the day off from school, but Amy didn't. So we got to have a mommy daughter day. She was so excited. :) We went shopping for a birthday gift for a friend whose birthday party is tomorrow. I showed her a Lego Friends kit that I had seen, but she hadn't. She decided to get it as she had money from birthday and Christmas. When we got home I eventually ended up in my craft space and she joined me putting together her new kit while I finished making a card. It was quite enjoyable.

I recently picked up the Spring 2013 issue of Cardmaker magazine. If you click on the link you will see the reason I picked it up. I was instantly smitten with the cover project. My friend and I had a crafty playdate yesterday, the first for us in a very long time. I have to admit to not completing any particular project, but we enjoyed chatting about all things crafty. I brought along the magazine to show her and we decided to follow the tutorial to make the card base. Then we looked up the Spellbinder's products needed to complete the project as shown. Now, I don't own the products used, but I decided to go through the CTMH Artiste Cricut cartridge and see if there were any cuts I could use in place of Spellbinders.

This is what I created: (click on photo to enlarge)

I used Kraft paper for the base and American Crafts cardstock in white and yellow. The Breeze (blue) cardstock is from Close to My Heart. 

All the cuts are from Artiste.

The flower is on page 54, I cut two for each flower. The white flower is 2 inches, yellow is 1 3/4.

The butterfly is on page 58 and is cut at 1 inch (I think, forgot to write it down)

The leaves are on p 54 and cut at 1 inch

The swirls are on page 43,  1 is cut at 1 3/4 and the others at 1 inch.

The buttons are from my stash, the twine is Doodlebug from the Halloween collection.

The blue pieces are punched with a Martha Stewart border punch

The chipboard piece and Oh Happy Day stamp came with the Artiste collection.

Jessica was done with her Lego kit and wanted to help, so she stamped the sentiment on the banner. 

*Ü*

The idea is that you can flatten the card and it would be a standard A2 size. Well, it would have worked except the banner makes it too big now, but there was no other place to put it, so I will keep this card on display.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have a fabulous weekend!

Valentine Goodies...sharing a few days late...

I hope you had a sweet Valentine's Day. I made up a few more of the treat tubes and also some gable boxes and have been wanting to share before now, but haven't had the chance. So forgive the posting of Valentine's stuff after the fact. 

I tried a little something different with this one and added a "back" as you can see.

 I wanted to see how it would look if I included the sentiment on the back and I liked the look, so I kept it.

Forgive the blurry shot, but I thought it would also be fun to give the owls glittery beaks. I stamped the image on the back side of the glitter paper and cut it out. That way I knew it would fit. 

I've been wanting to make some treats using Doodlebug Lovebirds paper. I like it!

And while I had the paper out, I decided to make some gable boxes from Tags, Bags, Boxes 2. I thought the cut suggested would be too big, so I cut one an inch smaller than the other. So, these are cut at 5 1/2 and 6 1/2 inches. 

There you have my last few Valentine treats. As I was cleaning up my craft space yesterday, I found a lot more ideas I'd hoped to create, but simply ran out of time. Sigh. Oh well, there's always next year!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Happy Friday!

Treat Tubes for Valentine's Day Gifts

I recently got the January special from Close To My Heart (which is no longer available) and had some time today to play with the kit. The treat tubes are neat and, using the ideas on the packaging as inspiration, I decorated two this afternoon and thought I'd share. (Click on a photo to enlarge) I have used the stamp set that comes with the kit previously, but today I put together the boxes for the treat jars and the jars themselves.

 On the red box, I stamped the chevron stamp in Garnet, which I thought was a great dark color for the Cranberry read. The kit comes with a sheet of glitter paper and I thought I'd go ahead and use it, too.  For the white box, I stamped in Cotton Candy, a new to me color of ink. I used a Martha Stewart border punch to keep the heart them going.  All the stamps used are from the kit.

 I decorated the lid of the treat jar, too. 

Close up of the front of the boxes. 

These were fun to play with and I've got at least 10 more I can decorate. Wheeeee!

Thanks for stopping by. 

I hope you are having a great weekend.

*Ü*

Casing a Card I Saw on Pinterest...

Before I show the card I cased (copy and steal everything), I have to ask about just how to link a project I see on Pinterest. I'm never sure. I usually click on the pin and have it take me to the blog post where the pin originates. But this completely bypasses the Pinterest site and the pin I saw. But if I copy the url for the pin itself, wouldn't that take you to my board and give you access to my account? I dunno, but it's on my mind as I start this post so I thought I'd ask and see if any Pinterest savvy folks know what I am talking about and if I am going about linking correctly. I always give credit to the post/person from where I get the inspiration, so I think I am covered. Right? (shakes head to get rid of any cobwebs)

Okay, so, as I said I saw this on Pinterest and I just loved the card and after I smacked myself on the forehead asking myself why I couldn't think of this pretty card, I got to work copying it. Well, maybe there is a small tweak or two, but mainly, it's copied.

Aren't the colors so springlike? This paper is from Pebbles, Inc and it's that new Family Ties 6x6 paper pad. I didn't have the exact butterfly, but I searched my cartridges for my Cricut and found this butterfly cut on Elegant Edges (the shadow feature). I cut the polka dot one at 2 1/4 inches and the smaller one at 1 3/4. And what I've been doing that I didn't do before, is I am using the Real Dial size. I never thought to do that before. Duh. And this time, because I wasn't sure what size I wanted the butterfly, I did some test cuts at different sizes using scrap paper. (taps forehead) Occasionally, I have flashes of being a little bit smart. Yes, I've been known to guesstimate and use the pattern paper and not get the size I want and say grrrrr.  The yellow mat is cut using Artiste and I forgot to note the size, I want to say 2 1/2 inches.  Instead of ribbon, I chose to use Heavenly Blue cardstock, cut at 1 1/2 inches wide and I used a Martha Stewart border punch on both sides of the strip to get that lace-esque look. You can't really see it in this shot, but I did bend the wings on the top butterfly up just a tad. The pearls are from my stash. I probably got them at Hobby Lobby.

In other news...I just watched a pretty good beginner video on using colored pencils and odorless mineral spirits. You can see it here. Fair warning, it's pretty long, so watch when you have some time, or just watch the supplies portion. I liked it because she gives a good lesson on products to use to color with pencils and odorless mineral spirits. I haven't watched her videos before and I have to say I liked her common sense approach to his technique. You can find the supplies pretty much at Michaels or Hobby Lobby. I personally use Walmart's Georgia Pacific white cardstock with no problems at all. 

Okay, that's it from me for now. Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a great day!

Paper Punch Art-Giraffe

Oh my goodness, I came across the most adorable giraffe card the other day on Pinterest and I immediately knew that I had to make my own version of this card. My daughter loves giraffes and she would love this!
Here is the blog post where the pin originally came from (there's a link in that post to the tutorial on how to make the giraffe).

I'm pretty pleased with the final result. *Ü*

I didn't have all the punches in my stash, but I found a flower cut in the Artiste Cricut cartridge that worked to make the ears and the mouth. I used Plantin Schoolbook to cut some zeros and I used the piece that is cut out to make the center of the zero for the muzzle. Other than those, I had the other punches needed in my stash.

I inked the edges of the pieces with Tim Holtz Wild Honey and Victorian Velvet ink and also CTMH Desert Sand and Autumn Terracotta. The pattern paper is DCWV Baby Boy Nursery. The Buttercup cardstock is from Close to My Heart, as is the Congratulations stamp (from an older very versatile set called For Every Occasion).

Amy did a great job in her first semester in middle school and she has received some wonderful recognition from her teachers. I thought this card would be a perfect way to let her know how proud I am of her efforts.

(The rest of the family is at the Father Daughter Dance this evening, which gave me the time to finish this up)

That's it for now. Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you are having a great weekend so far!

Doodlebug Lovebirds Card

Not the most original of titles for a blog post, but I can’t think of anything else to call it.

As you know, I really like Doodlebug papers. Their designs are so crisp and sweet. I came across this post on a blog hop for Doodlebug and decided to make my own interpretation of the card.

Here’s the final result:

While I like the 6x6 paper pads, I don’t often buy the accessories because, well, to be honest they get kind of pricey for just a few embellies and I’m definitely on a low spend budget. I usually just use the paper and call it good.  Oh and I buy the baker’s twine because it’s a good value, I think, especially when I have a coupon. Well, this time I wanted to challenge myself to mimic the items the designer used on her card. I’m pretty happy with what I came up with.

First of all, the red “doily” is cut using CTMH’s Artiste cartridge on my Cricut. I want to say I cut it at 3 inches, but that’s just a guess. I actually cut this a week or so ago and have let the pieces percolate until the other day.

Quick hijack of my own post. I’ve been on the look out for some good solid color cardstock that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg and came across some feedback in the Cricut forum about Michael’s Recollection brand cardstock. The ladies just raved about how well it cut. These packs of cardstock have been on sale off an on recently and I picked up some reds/pinks and finally decided to try it on this doily. I have to say I am very pleased with how well it seems to cut. Yay!

I do believe that most of the items used are self explanatory. Scallop Nestabilities, Martha Stewart heart punch and heart border punch, Fiskars scallop border punch and Cuttlebug embossing folder, Doodlebug’s Valentine Baker’s twine.

And there you have it.

Thanks so much for stopping by to visit. Til next time…

MelJen’s Designs Challenge #145-Inchies

My friend Barb is hostess of the current challenge on the MelJen’s Designs Challenge Blog and I thought I’d surprise her a bit and participate for a change. *Ü* And I got to wander around the store and find an image I thought might work well for the challenge of using inchies on the card.

Here’s what I came up with:

I really like this button flower that I found. It’s called Little Layered Flowers Button Daisy. There is a whole set you can buy, or you can pick and chose the items that most appeal to you. For now, I just picked up this flower. It was fun to color with Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits. I like the Spring time colors in the Doodlebug 6x6 paper stack. And I tried to do something a little different by angling the larger square like a diamond. It’s a little big, though. Sigh. Still I think it looks okay. I like the clean and simple lines. The inchie squares are popped up with foam dots. I like the texture of the polka dots, too. It was fun playing along, if nothing else. You might want to try it, too. Who knows…maybe you could win a digital image!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a SUPER start to your weekend.