~A Masculine Birthday Card

My older brother turned 60 on Thanksgiving Day!!  Woo Hoo!  Masculine cards are NOT my favorite, but this one came together pretty easily.  I got the idea to use a top hat because a) he wore one at his wedding, and b) I've always thought older gentlemen who wore top hats looked pretty dapper.  ;-)

The top hat came from Weddings and I cut it twice. It's hard to tell in the picture but the 2nd cut was using a kind of suede paper and I layered the top, brim and bow of the hat using that. The banner was also suede and I used the honeycomb border embossing folder on it. Over the Hill was used for the 60 on the inside. The brad on the front came from an MME Lost and Found set.  I think the combination of the gray card base and the white and silver cardstock combination give it an air of sophistication.

The sentiment inside is perfect from Mr. Schultz and added that necessary touch of whimsy.   My brother loved the card (along with the electronic toy we gave him as a gift).   Thanks for stopping by!

~Halloween Layout - Hey No Zombies!

Ok, so we managed to avoid the zombies this year, but it was a close call.  I just brought home a boo-tiful princess gown and all thoughts of blood and guts vanished!  I used the Recollections Haunted Manor stack, lots of stitching and some burlap. The title was cut from Storybook at 2.5".  Thanks for stopping by!

 

These pics were all about the pumpkins.  This one was plastic and lit up and was adorned with a glittery hat that Tacoah and I made.  But of course, she did carve one too.  The title was cut with Hello Kitty Font at 1" and 1.25".

 

 

 

~A little Spring in the Fall

So what do you do when the vibrant colors of fall are starting to depress you?  When everything around you is turning brown?  I'll tell ya what.  You do a SPRING project!  I actually started this canvas back in the early summer and then life got busy and then you know.  LOL  But I dug it back out to finish because my SAD is starting to kick in and I recently lost my beloved canine companion of 11 years and needed something bright and cheery to boost my mood.

I used Folk Art Festival for the birdhouse, Live Simply for the birds, flowers and bunny, and Library Font for the sentiment.  The tiny rolled roses were made using Elegant Edges (and taught to me by my friend Paulette!) with the leaves made from Heritage.

Add some TH distress inks, Folk Art Acrylics, some modeling paste, a stick, some floral wire and various rub-ons and you get a pretty little canvas like this to make you smile.  Thanks for stopping by!

And a few close ups.

~Circle weekend challenge - Get sketchy!

This weekend's challenge on the Circle message board is to follow this sketch.  Cards or layouts, doesn't matter.  Since I'm still in a Halloween mood but don't have any pictures to scrap yet, I chose a loose interpretation of the sketch to come up with the following card.

The papers for the card are from the Recollections Haunted Manor and DCWV Timeless Textures stacks.  The moon was cut once from cream Bazzill cardstock and once from a silver card blank at 3" from Celebrate with Flourish and layered.  The witch was also cut at 3" from A Child's Year.  I wrapped the broom in orange baker's twine and pop dotted her off the card.  I curled and inked the border banner edges for a little extra dimension.  Now I just have to decide who to send it to.  Thanks for stopping by!

~Pumpkin witch and purple hands

Let me start off by saying that Dylusions spray ink is neither water nor solvent soluable.  ;-(

Tacoah and I set out to make a witches hat for the outdoor plastic light up Pumpkin that I got her at Walmart.  The Cricut Design Team creates and makes available for free from time to time some pretty cool projects.  I downloaded this one last week that creates a witches hat using images from Baby Shower (cone) and Cricut Craft Room Basics (stars, hat buckle).

I had recently bought some Colorbok glitter paper (really glittery) and thought this might be the perfect time to use it.  There were other elements in the project (like a mask) that we really didn't need, so we just created the hat.  I wanted to use purple ribbon around the brim but didn't have anything wide enough to cover the base of the wires holding the starts, so I decided to use white tulle and dye it with purple spray ink.  This is where the purple hands come in.  Let's just say I should have used gloves.  But, it's slowly wearing off.  Oh, and I burnt my middle finger on my hot glue gun too. ;-(

The finished project (and my purple hands after 3 washings).  Thanks for stopping by!

~Halloween Canvas

I haven't done a canvas in awhile and recently got a very cool Recollections Halloween stack that I wanted to use.  The base of the canvas is perhaps my favorite page in the stack.  I dressed it up a little with some black stickles on some of the birds and owls.  The banner across the top came from the same stack.  There are jeweled brads and paint and ink and rub-ons on here too.  I added the purple fiber yarn with a few beads down the side just because I LOVE purple and orange together.  The pumpkins were cut from Stretch Your Imagination at 2.5" and Autumn at 4".  I had some left overs that were cut too small, so I also made the card to use those up.  Thanks for stopping by!

 

I used the leftover pumpkins that I cut too small and the banner strip from the same stack to make this card.  The base papers were from my new 6x6 DCWV stack called Pumpkin Patch.  I didn't have a Halloween stamp, so I broke out my cricut gel pens and added the Happy Halloween in purple ink (at .875) using Tags Bags, Boxes and More 2.  Finally, I added a little stitching down the side for the finishing touch.  

 

~Paper pumpkin

This was an easy one since the Cricut Design Team did all the work.  All I had to do was pick out some paper.  And I just happen to have some really cool Recollections Halloween paper.  The CCR file for this is in the project center.   You will need Tags Bags Boxes & More 2 and Autumn Celebrations to complete this.  I also added a stem and some leaves to the original design.
Super simple Halloween decorations!  Thanks for stopping by!

~Follow your dreams

A very sweet friend of mine is getting ready to move back to Atlanta, GA.  It was a tough decision for her as she has many friends here, but the pull of her family, especially her niece and nephew were pretty strong.  I will miss her tremendously.  This is the "going-away" card that I made for her using A Child's Year, cut at 4" for the fairy and the banner, cut at 4.5 inches wide for the sentiment.  I used royal blue and cream DCWV shimmer paper for the base and MME Simply Cut patterned paper.  I also tucked  a little gift inside.  ;-)  She is a big Mumford and Sons fan, so I cut her a 6" wide mustache from vinyl for her car.  Hopefully she will think of me everytime she sees it.  Thanks for stopping by!

~Flower Power

This week's message board challenge is all about FLOWERS!  Flowers are easier than bling ;-)
I had two cards in mind and couldn't choose, so I did them both.  One is spring inspired, the other fall.

For the spring card,  I started with green and peach colors (hard to tell here).  I cut a frame from peach and overlayed it on a green dotted pattern paper and stamped the sentiment at the bottom.  The wheelbarrow was cut twice from two different shades of brown and inked to give it some depth.  It was cut at 1.8" from Walk in My Garden.  The flower were cut using deep green cardstock, the same peach as the frame and  a touch of yellow for the flower centers.  The flowers were also inked and the whole thing pop dotted over the frame.

For the fall card, I chose a simple sunflower from Stretch Your Imagination, cut at 4.5".  I chopped up some Raffia and hot glued it to the bottom of the card.  A simple stamp on a piece of washi tape layered under the flower completed this card.  I hand trimmed the raffia after the glue cooled.  The pattern paper background is from the new DCWV 6x6 Pumpkin Patch.  Love the papers in this pack!
Thanks for stopping by!

~Bling Challenge

Those of you who know me well, know that I am definitely not a girly girl, so naturally that carries over into my craft life.  I'm not much on bling.  I LOVE looking at other people's sparkly projects, but even though I have TONS of stickles and glitter and gems, I rarely use them.   Last week's message board challenge forced me outside my box.  This is NOT a fancy card, but I used some gems for Christmas lights on my tree and silver shimmer paper for by card base.  There is also white stickles on the edges of the tree.

The tree is cut from Paper Doll Dress Up at 4", the star from Joys of the Season at 2" and the sentiment from Hannah Montana at .5"  Thanks for stopping by!

~Vinyl Car Decal

While running errands over the weekend, David and I saw a really cool car decal that I decided I just HAD to try to replicate with my Cricut.  I mean really, I collect all these cartridges for what?? LOL
Anyway I worked on this over a couple of evenings piecing things together from different cartridges.  My first design actually used a horse's head with skewed ovals to make longer ears, but then I remembered I had Pooh & Friends!  Eeyore to the rescue!

This was also one of my first serious attempts at using the Cricut Craftroom. I needed the bigger screen for this. 

I started with a horseshoe from County Fair at 5" and flipped it upside down.  To this I welded  a leaf that I found on Sophie, stretching it just a bit.  I next stretched and skewed and flipped a capital "S" from Art Nouveau for the tail.  These 3 pieces were welded together.  I tried to weld the base head of Eeyore to this, but I lost all the detail (even grouped), so I ended up laying the head manually when I applied it to the car.  Eeyore's head is cut at 3.5" from Pooh and Friends and I reversed the image.  I used the base image, hiding most of the inner lines, the face mask, muzzle, ear lining and mouth from this cut.  The text was cut from Sesame Street Font at .708". 

Vinyl color used
Black - base head cut, tail layer
Grey - Body, face mask
White printable - muzzle - colored peach with copics
White - eyes
Pink - ear lining and mouth
Lime Green - text

Once I had everything cut, I assembled all the head pieces.  For the tail layer, I trimmed the top of the backward S before applying over the base body tail.  I trimmed the bottom of the horseshoe into "hooves" , trimmed the neck off a little and then layered the head over the body. Finally I added the text to the donkey butt!  I lifted this all as a solid piece and adhered to my back windshield.  Now David wants one too, but I've got to wait for my vinyl order to get here.  If anyone would like the CCR file, let me know and thanks for stopping by!

~Happy Harvest - A color challenge

The weekend challenge on the Circle message board this weekend is to use any two or more of the following colors in a project.  I didn't have a specific idea to work on so I just started browsing through my papers looking for fall colors and then decided on  a theme.

Not sure who would actually SEND a Happy Harvest card, but I do like the way it looks.  ;-)
I used Autumn Celebrations for the pumpkins at 1.25 and 1" .  The Happy Harvest phrase was cut from Simply Scarecrows at 1.5".  The hay cart is an accessory on Pop Up Neighborhood, so I had to do a little hand trimming on this because I wanted full wheels.  Actually what I wanted was a hay stack and I could not find one on any of the cartridges.  I also didn't feel like hand cutting one, so when my search found the hay wagon, I decided to go with it.  It is cut at 2.6"  I added a scrap of burlap to the card front that I had left over from a Welcome Back to School wreath.   

I hope you enjoyed my little piece of fall and agree I met the challenge.  Thanks for stopping by!

~Man cards are tough!

My husband's dear old country doctor is retiring.  He's almost 85 and has worked part time for years, but I really don't think he wanted to retire.  He even still did hospital rounds.

Anyway, hubby wanted to give his Dr. a handmade Thank You card for all those wonderful years he was under his care.  It's simple, but effective I think.  I always have a tough time with "Man Cards".  The EKG is from Dr. Checkup cut at 2".  The Thank You phrase is from Cindy Loo at 1".  Thanks for stopping by!

~Happy Grandparent's Day!

And what a perfect opportunity to break out my brand new Create a Friend cartridge!  I knew I could get a grandma out of one of those characters, and I DID!  This card was for my granddaughter to give to her great-grandma.

I started with the teacher cut and made the dress a little longer, added a color and added the hair from the Princess, but layered it and modified the bun.  Then I added a purse and a parasol and set her over a starburst, which I hand cut..  I think she looks cool!  I did a lot of hand cutting and doodling and sewing on this and I had fun making it.

Besides Create a Friend, I used 6 other cartridges as follows:

Art Philosophy - the half oval at the bottom of the card.
Create a Critter - #1
3 Birds on Parade - parasol
Cricut Everyday - glasses, hand trimmed
Cricut Alphabet - grandma
Kate's ABC - purse

Thanks for stopping by!

~Flower Child

You really have to watch her.  Even though she has her own kid-size scissors, she kept taking my utility scissors out of the kitchen drawer for "crafting".  Then they would disappear.  So I hid them.  Then I catch her out in my front flower bed snipping off all my white flowers with her Uncle's LEFT handed scissors!  When asked WHY she wanted to cut all my flowers, she replied (quite seriously), "Don't worry Nana.  It's just like clipping your nails."   This child!

I used papers & embellies from Teresa Collins, MME & Heidi Swapp on this LO.  The title was cut at 1.5" from Lyrical Letters (Loopdeloo font).

Thanks for stopping by!

~Back to School Challenge

Last post for today!  I promise!  I will be caught up after this.  The weekend challenge this weekend was to create a back to school project.  Well, since I hadn't yet done the layout for Tacoah's first day of Kindergarten from LAST year, I figured I would do TWO layouts.  These weekend challenges are really kicking my butt into gear, and that's a GOOD thing!

Ok, for the Kindergarten layout, I used the Lite Recess cart to create the layered apple embellishment at 2.5" for the base layer.  I adjusted each of the upper layers down a little bit and used book paper to create the "inside" of the apple.  The School phrase was also cut from Recess at 1.5".   The First Day of School cut was in my stash, but pretty sure I cut this from Imagine More.  It was from one of the Imagine carts anyway.  Here, I hid the School in the phase with some patterned paper, so that I could add the School phrase to the bottom.  The little eyeballs in the O's were waste I found in my hole punch.

And here is Back to School for Grade 1.  Here the cricut cuts are the School Bus tag from Autumn Celebrations cut at 3" and the Back to School phrase from Simply Charmed at 2".   I really like the colors and patterns on this one.  For both of these layouts, the focal pictures were taken while waiting for the school bus to arrive.  Incidentally, that t-shirt she is wearing for her first day of Grade 1 is a vinyl kitty from Brooklyn Iron-On that I made over the summer.  ;-)  Thanks for stopping by!

~Staying Neutral - like Switzerland

There is an on-going conflict on the Cricut Circle message board.  When we received our new Circle cartridge - CHARMED - the gauntlet was thrown down.  Teddy Bears on one side and Piggies on the other.  Everyone was challenged  to make a project using one of these cuts from Charmed, or any other cut you liked.  I decided to play it safe and stay neutral with this one.  Besides, with Halloween coming up and Tacoah already bugging me about decorations, I decided that I really liked and wanted to use the SPOOKY cuts.  So instead of teddies and piggies, I have spiders, ghosts and pumpkins!

Tacoah's Halloween banner:

 

 

The letters in the banner were cut at 4.5" using a 5x7 Martha Stewart Holiday's paper back.   I did two cuts of each "critter" reversing one so they look the same on both sides.  The spider was cut at 2.1" and google eyes were added. The ghost was cut at 3"  and coated with white glitter glue and glossy accents.  The pumpkin was cut at 1.5" using an orange patterned paper.  After I took the original pictures, I went back and added a little black cat the the B and the E that I cut from Chic & Scary at 1.5" and added red gems for the eyes.  I strung the letters using back tulle.  The two outside spiders are suspended from the banner using coiled black pipe cleaners.  The rest of the characters are suspended using a boa-like black yarn.  Right now this is hanging across the stair rails in my front hallway.  I think I will be sick of looking at it by the time Halloween gets here. The things we do for our grandchildren.  ;-)  Thanks for stopping by!

~How many nuts are you?

The weekend challenge that inspired this card was to create a project, card, etc. for a celebration or party.  For some reason, I had squirrels on the brain that day.  I think it was because they were irritating me by eating all the seed out of the bird feeder.  ;-)

Anyway, I digress.  The card is really not a card, but an oversized tag for a birthday.  I used the acorn tag from Close to My Heart - Art Philosophy at 6".  I then cut two solid tags at 6.25 and 6.5 to layer it.  The squirrel was cut from Folk Art Festival at 3".   I pieced together the phrase from many different carts as follows:

How - Lyrical letters at just over 1"
many - Opposites Attract at 1"
Nuts/You - Just Because Cards at 1.5"
Are - Just Because Cards at .5"
? - Chalkboard Fonts at 1"

A little ink, a little ribbons and voila!  I will save this birthday card for a special someone having a special day who may or may not be driving me "nuts".  Haha!  Thanks for stopping by!

~Smile

The weekend challenge that produced this card was a picture that was posted of a poppy field that we were to use as inspiration for a project.  David saw the Wizard of Oz when he looked at the picture and while I could "see" that I really wasn't interested in doing a Wizard project, although I've seen some really cute Dorothy's done with the Teddy Bears on Parade cartridge.

I focused on the poppies themselves and some of the colors on the picture.  I wanted to try to use the negative space from a cut and I also wanted to use my new Home Décor Vinyl Wall Art cartridge.  Although I have yet to make anything vinyl with it, these poppies sure make a great card!  Another one for my card stash!  The poppy group was cut at 4".  The Smile phrase was cut from Create a Critter at .75".  I curled the inside of the poppies for a little dimension and instead of dealing with the teeny tiny pistals, I used glitter glue for the center of the flowers.  Thanks for stopping by!

~A summer mini album - or - Sun Part II

This is another project that was already in the works when the "use the Sun" challenge was posted.  I had this fabulous paper and knew that I wanted to try making a mini album using the Close to my Heart - Artiste cartridge.  I cut all the pieces at 4.25" tall.  The inside pages were each cut twice to give me more surface for MORE pictures.  I love to make these mini's of Tacoah so I can give them to my mother-in-law.  They don't get to see each other often, so she really enjoys having these little albums and showing them to visitors who stop by.

The sun on the front of the album was printed and cut using my Imagine and the Imagine More cartridge at 2.5".  I cut the face twice and pop dotted the face off the main sun and also pop dotted the sun off the page.  I have been trying to use my Imagine more, so I take every opportunity to use those wonderful cartridges.

Once I finish this, I will post some of the interior pages.  Thanks for stopping by!

~Ok - who stole my summer?

Seriously!  If you know where it is, please bring it back!

I've also noticed there hasn't been much activity here since July.  I have been crafty, I've just not taken the time to post anything on my blog.  There have been a bunch of challenges on the Cricut message board that I've participated in.  Some are weekend challenges with different themes and then there is a running pig vs. teddy bear challenge (don't ask) for our new Circle cart - Charmed.

So without further adieu, here is the first of the weekend challenges. The challenge was to do a project (card, layout, décor) that used the sun somewhere in it.  I made the following card.

The background card with the soak up the sun phrase is one of those Project Life type cards.  This batch was made by Recollections (I think).   The sunbathing beauty was cut at 2.5" inches from Fun in the Sun light and I used actual sandpaper for the sand.  I added a little bit of washi tape just because.  I'll put this in my card stash and send it to someone who is "blue" over the winter.   Thanks for stopping by!

~A Special Thank You Card

I really, really like this card.  And not just because I made it either.  :-)  I love the colors and the sturdiness (it has tons of layers) and the simplicity. 

I made this card to thank a very special someone who gifted my Church's CCD program with an Inspired Heart cartridge when I could not find one to purchase anywhere.  I just <heart> my crafting community and I hope when she gets this card, she will feel the love.

The card base was created from Close to My Heart Artiste (love, love, love this cart!) at 4.25".  I cut it twice and adhered the pieces creating a sturdy base.  On the front I layered several more patterned papers (all from MME) and then added the hummingbird cut at 3" from Art Nouveau.  I inked all the edges of EVERYTHING and on the inside of the card, I added the flowering vine cut at 4", also from Art Nouveau. 

I have never before made a card this heavy.  It was costly to mail, but oh well, I think it was worth it.  I will definitely use this card base again.  Thanks for stopping by!

~A Birthday Card for Mom-in-Law

My mother in law is one of those rare people that still hand write letters and mails them.  So, she genuinely appreciates a hand made card.  It's also tough finding a gift for a 90 year old who has everything, so I made her a little Angel pin to go with her birthday blessings.  This was the first time EVER that I have used my Cricut Pens too!

Recipe for the card below.

I started with a French patterned paper from MME Lost and Found and cut the center circle out from Paper Trimmings at 4.2 inches.  I backed this piece with white cardstock.  Next I cut the vines for around the center from Create a Critter at .875.  The Birthday Blessings was "cut" onto the white cardstock backing using my Cricut Gel pens and George and Basic Shape at 1.5 inches.  I hand colored the inside of the letters.  I love the glittered look of this.  The butterfly was hand made using a template from Simply Sweet @ 2.1 inches.  I hand colored this and added wire antennae.  He is foam dotted from the page.  The little flowers placed here and there were fussy cut from a 6x6 MME pad called Indie Chic - Saffron.  Some were pop dotted from the page.  All had pink highlighting added by marker.  The green leaves were hand cut and inked and I added seam binding colored with TH Distress ink and burlap twine.  I topped this with a coordinating Recollections brad. 

Inside, I embossed a piece of white cardstock with Cane Back Chair and hand made the little Angel pin and the pin holder.   She is referenced in the birthday wishes I eventually put on the other side of the card.

This was one of my more labor intensive cards, but I really like the way it turned out.  Thanks for stopping by!

~Congrats and Best Wishes

I don't know about you all, but I have a really tough time with masculine cards. This is for a coworker who has retired from my company to move on to greener pastures (not true retirement) and will be signed by everyone in his former workgroup.

I made the card by welding two 5" images from Cricut Essentials and cutting it twice.  The base paper wasn't double sided, so I adhered these two back to back to form the card base.  I then cut 3 more at 4.5"; two in yellow (for the inside mats) and 1 in plaid (for the outside front).  Finally I cut one more at 4" in the yellow for the outside front.  All pieces were inked.  The Congrats phrase was cut from Twinkles Toes and sized to fit the 4" mat using CCR (yes I've used it a couple of times).   The inside phrase was cut from Cricut Alphabet (&) and Birthday Bash (Best Wishes).  I used hide contour to hide the heart in the postage stamp.  The finishing touch was a bit of twine tied around the fold of the card and I made a matching envelope from the same paper as the base of the card.  Thanks for stopping by!

~Feel Better Soon

One of my BFFs took a tumble a couple of weeks ago and I was so busy working on my kitchen at the time that I didn't have time to make a card until now.  She loves all things nature, so I thought this card (inspired by one in an old issue of Paper Creations) would cheer her up as her bruises heal.  The little bird was cut from Artiste at 1.5" in red polka dot, blue and yellow.  I hand cut the blue overlay and the yellow wing from those pieces and layered and stitched over the red polka dot.  The eye was hand drawn.  I machine stitched the branch and also stitched on the leaves created from Sophie at .5".  I inked the edges with dark green ink and crinkled them up a bit.  I added some trim from my stash which I threaded a burlap thread (left over from a wreath I made) through and tied a bow.  The papers came from 6x6 WRMK Anthologie & AC Celebrations.  Thanks for stopping by!

~Welcome Wreath

Provocraft gave us a free Cricut Craft Room project this week for Welcoming students back to school.  While I am not a teacher, I did download this project and modify it for our Vacation Bible School students.  I removed the "to School" phrase from the original project and added "to VBS" using Hello Kitty font as 1.25".  I'm sure the VBS teachers will enjoy this.  This is the first wreath that I have made and I had no idea how much material it takes to wrap those foam forms!  Egads!  It was a fun project though, especially inking all those leaves (and there are bunches!).  Thanks for stopping by!