~Lots of Hearts

What would February be without hearts?   There is a challenge on the Cricut message board right now to make or share previous projects - with Hearts!  Makes sense since Valentine's day is fast approaching.  I have several projects in progress, but thought I would share the first two that I've completed.

I've been looking for this photo of Tacoah - taken at around 9 months for awhile.  It wasn't on my computer, but when I got the new issue of CKC magazine in December and saw this layout by Kayleigh Wiles, I just knew this Red Hat picture would be perfect!  Fortunately David has brought pictures along through 3 laptops he's owned since Tacoah was born.  Yeah!  By using a pretty much black and white layout, the pictures really stand out.  The hearts lend another touch of red and of course the title is silver glittered.  Gotta have some BLING.  The background is white acrylic paint and white dye ink that I stenciled on.  I made the rest of the embellishments with my Cricut and tried to stay pretty true to the original.  I used Hanna Montana for the big heart behind the pics, Artiste, Art Philosophy, Create a Critter to make tags and the other hearts and the Ace of Hearts playing card.  There is only a little pattern paper on here and it's from a 6x6 MME pack called Love Me.  I also used a couple of Becky Higgins Project Line 3x4 grid cards to make the tabs behind the 2nd picture.  The $2 stamp is from Stella Rose and Recorded is from CTMH.  The pussy willow branch was cut from a bunch that I got at Michaels.

 

Next, I set out to decorate her Valentine Mailbox.  Target has these in the $1 bin every year but I missed out on them last year.  Tacoah likes getting little notes  all the time, so we will use this even after Valentine's day.  I put her Monogram on the front and used images from Storybook, Create a Critter,  Stamping, Beyond Birthdays and Pretty Pennants to decorate all sides.  Then I added some bling that I got as a gift for ordering from ScrapbookPals.com.  I just love working with Vinyl!

Anyway, I hope the be back later in the week with her class valentines and some cards.  In the meantime, 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!

~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 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!

Tacoah's Treasure Box!

A month or so ago I had picked up 3 of these chipboard boxes at Ms fairly cheaply.  Don't remember exactly how much, but they were on sale and I think I had a 25% off everything coupon as well.  Needless to say, the first box was a disaster, so I tossed the lid and keep some odds and ends in the box.  The second one became Paulette's gift for Circle Mania and the third one has been eyeballed by my granddaughter Tacoah for the past several weeks.  Since she's away right now, I thought it would be cool to decorate the box and have it waiting for her in her room as a surprise when she returns.

I picked some lovely little papers from the MME cowboy ministack to cover the box and for the letters and turtle. (who knew a cowboy pack would be good for little girls???)   The letters were cut at .75 on my E1 from Pooh Font.  The turtle was cut at 1.5 from Create a Critter.  I inked them all with Ranger Bundled Sage.   Once attached, the letters were also shaded with a Faber Castell india ink pitt pen Chromium Green Opaque.  The turtle was attached with an Action Wobble.  A few Sew easy doodle stamps and a little pink acrylic paint were added for visual interest.

Tacoah likes to collect little odds and ends and she really wanted the box to stash her stuff.  I hope she likes the way Nana decorated it for her.  Thanks for stopping box.

Last Birthday Card until November!!!

This is the last birthday card I need to make until November.  My entire immediate family all have birthdays in January through July, except for one!

This one is for my mother-in-law who will turn 89 this week.  She loves pink and she loves all flowers, so combining the two along with a couple of simple images from Elegant Edges and Create a Critter along with some pearls, this is what I came up with.  I confess that it took me a week to do this card, primarily because version #1 got tossed in the trash when it was just about finished.  I didn't like it.  Version #2 turned out so much better.

The card base is 5.75w x 5.75h.  Using the frame from Elegant Edges at 5.5w x 5.5h and a Scallop (also from EE)  at 4.5w and 4.29h, I welded the Scallop inside the frame.  Saving the circle cut from inside the scallop, I used that as a template for placing the pearls.  The leaves were cut from Create a Critter at 1.9w x 3.0h.  I stamped the birthday sentiment on off-white shimmer paper and cut to fit inside the pearls, then added the leaves and some Recollection flowers I had in my stash..

With the birthday cards out of the way for awhile, now I can focus on some other projects churning around in my head.  Thanks for stopping by!