Superhero

Today's the big day: the movers are coming to take our furniture to the house, and then we will be officially out of the "summer home" apartment!  Woohoo!  Soon I'll be back to crafting new projects!

 

I like to keep some cards on hand that remind me of my husband, so that when the opportunity arises I can slip a card into his work bag.  This one uses a bright blue card base and some star patterned paper that I had in my stash.  I had two clouds on hand from Paper Pups, so I put them in the sky also.  

I cut the bird from 3 Birds on Parade.  I had to use the Fit to Length function on my Expression, because when I tried to cut him at 3.5 inches, which is a pretty standard size for me to use, it came out waaaaay too long for a card. I used the white shadow to help him stand out from the background.

The inside is stamped with my Alphabet Soup stamps from The Alley Way Stamps.  It says "You are my HERO."

Two peas in a pod

Hello out there!  Today is the day that I have to start packing my craft room up into boxes, so the next week's worth of posts will be pre-scheduled posts of projects I made awhile ago.  Enjoy!


I cut this image that I bought from the Silhouette Online Store the very day I opened my Cameo, and then I just had to make a card with it! I had the good luck of getting my Cameo- and the $10 gift card for images- right when the store was having their half off everything sale, so I got a lot of cute images to play with right away. I put it on some paper from a MME six by six paper pad with a little strip of paper from a Recollections paper pad I won.  Then I added a little button in the top corner and voila!  A quick and easy (and cute!) card that I can put into my stash and actually use, which has been one of my biggest crafting goals of 2013. 

Silhouette Challenges CH#5 "Welding Letters"

It's the first of the month again and time 

for another Challenge here at

A blog dedicated to the Silhouette Cutting Machines.
You MUST use a Silhouette somehow in your project.

Ch# 5 Welding Letters

Begins: Sunday, September 1
Ends: Monday, September 30

Sponsors this month are:

My Scrap Chick
Prize: $10.00 Gift Card

My Crafting Channel
Prize: $15.00 Amazon Gift Card

Little Scraps of Heaven Designs
$15..00 Gift Card

My project this month is an altered mini book that I've been working on for quite awhile.  I've been slowly collecting recipes for various types of mug desserts and single serving desserts that can be made quickly.  Of the ones I tried, I compiled a recipe book of my favorites so that I can quickly glance through and decide what I'm in the mood for that night. 

I bought a little cardboard book at the dollar store, and covered it with paper from Recollections using Mod Podge.  I used Washi Tape to cover up the binding, and also to cover up where the pages met on each inside page. 

For the cover, I used a font from my computer and cut them with my Cameo.  I welded the letters together on the words Dessert and Cup. I just love the way welded letters look, and I love that on the Cameo you can choose to weld any letters from any font that is on your computer.  If you don't know how to weld letters, Silhouette has posted a welding tutorial here. I cut them on dark blue cardstock, and then used a paintbrush to cover them with some glitter glue that I got at Hobby Lobby. The cup is from the Lettering Delights set called "Kanasai," and I cut it without the face or whipped cream on top.  I wanted it to be simple.

I only took a quick side picture of the inside of the book so you could see that each page has a different paper.  I didn't create these recipes and didn't feel right posting other people's recipes on my blog.  If you're interested in finding some recipes for mug desserts, search Pinterest and you'll find tons!

I hope you'll have some fun welding letters this month and play along with us at Silhouette Challenges.  There's still plenty of time!

Boys and their Toys

I always love the challenges over at SVG Cutting Files.  This month's challenge is "Boys and their Toys."  This was really a challenge for me, because I don't have any kids and I'm not particularly interested in boy types of topics, so all of the files I've bought from SVG Cutting Files tend to be cute holiday things or dogs.  :)  Luckily, I signed up for the freebies from their newsletter and Facebook group long ago, so I had some goodies to work with.

This card is 5 1/2 inches square.  The background paper is from MME and the button is from the new button set I bought from Making Memories.  I've been keeping them right on my craft table to make sure they get used.  It's working well!

I used two files from SVG Cutting Files on this card, both of which I believe were freebies.  The boy was actually from Earth day, but I cut the globe out of patterned paper and turned it into a ball! 

I also used a piece of trendy twin in the button and some ribbon from....somewhere...along the bottom behind the boy and his toys!

Caramel apple of my eye

Fall is in the air here in the Midwest and I couldn't be happier about it!  Fall is my favorite season by far.  I just love everything about it- the clothes are more comfy, the smells are more 'spicey', it's just my time of year.  For today's card, I was definitely thinking fall!

The background paper I used here is from a DCWV 6x6 pad.  I was in Joann's recently and had to pick up their Autumn and Halloween 6x6 pads, because they were just too cute.  Over that is a piece of cardstock that I embossed with a Cuttlebug Argyle folder.  Argyle reminds me of fall, because that's when I start to pull out the sweaters.

My caramel apple is from the Smiley Cards Cricut cartridge.  I think it was supposed to be a candy apple, but caramel apples are more autumny to me so I cut it from these colors instead.  I put glossy accents all over the caramel part to make it shine.  Random tangent- when I was spreading the glossy accents, I had a total flashback to an old episode of Reading Rainbow when they were making a claymation movie about some pigs swimming in mud and showed how they use vegetable oil to make the mud shiny.  I had to use some black enamel accents to fix his eyes, because the Cricut cut them kind of weird shapes.  This way they match better.

For a final touch, I added a little cardboard button that I got on clearance a few weeks ago at Archivers.  I think the pack was from Making Memories.  There were a lot that were Halloween themed, but also a lot that were just pretty colors.  I used a little Trendy Twine in the button.

 

This card is being entered into the following challenges: 
Simon Says Stamp- Emboss it
Bitten by the Bug 2- Anything Fall 
Craftin' Desert Divas- Autumn/Fall
Paper Playtime- Apples

Sophie scrapbook pages

Time for another installment of "Sophie's Scrapbook!"  Remember, all of my Sophie pages are 8x8.

This first page is a layout about Sophie discovering a love of fast food (like mommy, like puppy!)  I cut the photo down a little and matted it on paper from the DCWV Pet Stack.  I put a sticker from Reminisce's "It's a Dog's Life" sticker sheet on (the one that says "lucky") and next to it put a dog bowl that I had in my stash.  In the bottom right corner are two embellishments from the Imaginisce "Good Dog" collection.  All three bowls on the page have Cinnamon Stickles over the food.

For the title, I cut the words "are these" and the question mark from Lyrical Letters.  The "Dog Treats" sticker is from a Paper Studio sticker sheet, I think.

This second page uses an Instagram photo, so it's square.  The light blue paper with bones is actually a piece of backing from some of the packaging from the Imaginisce Good Dog line.  I like to repurpose.  :)  The title is from the die cuts from the same line, and the orange paw is from one of the chipboard sticker sets.  I used a chipboard word sticker from a Paper Studio set in the bottom left corner and the green pieces of cardstock are also from Paper Studio.  The green paper that I used as a journal block has been punched around the edge with an EK Success punch.  I finished it off with a heart from the Deja Views Dog Days stack.

There you go, two more pages of Sophie's memories!

Princesses

Hi friends!  I'm back to crafting after taking a break from last week's full time home improvements.  I've had a busy few days, and the rest of the week doesn't look to be much less busy, taking care of all of the stuff that I neglected while we were working on the house!  But luckily, I've been able to work on this project here and there for the last few days, and it finally came together.

I've written before about how much I love princesses and especially love the princesses from Lettering Delights' Happy Ever After sets.  Well, last weekend while we were watching This Old House (not my choice, to be sure) I cut the card bases and patterned paper for 10 cards, and then cut and embossed strips of paper for the cards.  Then this week, I've been cutting, assembling, and decorating 10 princesses for the cards.  I did it in batches- first I cut all the black pieces, then yellow, etc. 

I gave each princess a little sparkle, but don't worry it was all done with Stickles, so that they'll pass the sweater test for Operation Write Home.  For those who don't know- glitter on cards can't be able to rub off when you rub it on your sweater, because then it might rub off onto a soldier and give away their location if it sparkles.  I thought some little girls would love to get a sparkly princess card from their dad or mom or older sibling who is serving overseas.  :) 

On the inside, which I didn't take a picture of, I stamped the sentiment "Once Upon a Time" from the Stamps of Life's List2Write set.

Ok, so here are the cards, two at a time. 

My craft room is painted!

Hello again from my new craft room! After a week of painting, touching up, and more painting, I thought I would share a quick pic of my room at the end of phase one. I love the color! It came out just how I wanted it.

Phase two, which won't happen for a couple of weeks, will be having the carpets cleaned and putting in shelving in the closet.

Phase three will be moving in and putting in the cupboards. After that we'll have to focus on other rooms for awhile.

At some point, my husband is going to put in hardwood floors for me, and I want to do something I saw on Pinterest to dress up the windows. Also, you can't tell from this picture, but there's a door from the upstairs bathroom into the craft room that we will be ripping out and closing up. Plenty of changes in the future!

Next week my husband goes back to work, so I should be better able to plan my days to include a little more crafting and a little less home renovations. ;)

My new craft room (the "Before" picture)

Hello everyone! I'm coming to you today amid our house painting extravaganza week. Sadly, not a lot of crafting is likely to get done this week. But I guess painting is creative in a way, right?

I thought I would just pop in and show you a picture of my new craft room the day we took possession of the house. This was taken standing in the laundry room doorway. Yeah, you read that right. The only entrance to the laundry room is through the craft room. I don't mind though, because that means I can decorate the laundry room to coordinate with my craft room, and when I get a sewing machine I can put it in the laundry room but still have it handy for crafting!

So here's my before shot. Right now, the room is pink.  It has pink blinds and scuff marks all over in the closet, and it kinda smells.  But I have big plans for it.

Sorry for the cruddy picture.  It was taken with my cell phone in very low light.

Onward and upward!