Monday, December 1, 2014

Happy December!

Last year, I bought this Silhouette Advent Calendar when I saw it on sale (this year I bought the Advent Shadow Box...I'm still anxiously awaiting its arrival).  I've been so excited to get a chance to use it!  I decided to make a fun advent calendar full of delicious dog treats for Sophie- one treat each day of December until Christmas!

I started out with the gift bags that I used in this post without the pieces that made the heads, shrunk it down, and cut off the edges where the face would be attached.  I had a lot of fun picking out Christmas papers that would go well with each other and placing them so that there weren't two next to each other.  I made it a few weeks before Thanksgiving, and the treats aren't making grease spots on the paper like I was afraid of, so I'm very happy.  I taped on some numbers from a die cut pack I got from Michaels last year.

I'm keeping this in the craft room, so hopefully I at least stop in each day to give Sophie her treat.  Shhh...don't tell her- her Christmas present this year is the rest of the box of treats.



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Wednesday, November 26, 2014

I made cards!

Whaaaaat?  I know, it seems like forever.  But suddenly, we had gift cards to go to our nephews (one for his birthday, the other as a Christmas present) and I was like "I need cards!"

The first card, I made for our older nephew's birthday in January.  We'll be seeing them at Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd pass it along to his mom to take home with her, taking the usps out of the equation.  He's into Monsters Inc right now, so I used these freebies from SVG Cutting Files.  The paper is all from my scraps file, believe it or not!  Way to use up those scraps of paper!  And the sentiment is from an old Pink by Design stamp set called Guess Who?  I'll be entering my Monsters, Inc card into the Simon Says Stamp, Wednesday Challenge- Anything Goes.


The second card is for our younger nephew, who is too young to appreciate toys for presents (4 months!) and whose parents said that he already had everything he ever needed.  We figured a gift card for Christmas would help them out with anything they might need to buy him.  For his card I pulled out the Cricut and used Create a Critter 2.  Again, all of my paper was from the scraps file.  I used a sentiment from Jaded Blossom's Puppy Love stamp set.




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Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Life is good with Sophie

I'm still here!  I've been spending a lot of my crafty time lately doing pocket page scrapbooking.  Unfortunately, due to my career, it's important for me to keep a lot of my private life private, so I can't really share those pages here.  Instead, here's a cute picture of Sophie and a scrapbook page I made using some Simple Stories cards, a flair and paw from (I think) Queen and Co, a sticker from...somewhere...and a button from BasicGrey.

I like the simplicity of this page both in the design and the colors.  It wasn't really a page about a story I wanted to tell, just a picture I liked and wanted to capture.






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Saturday, October 25, 2014

Kraft card

Long time, no see, right?  I've come to the conclusion that my life is in a place right now where I have to forgive myself if I sometimes go a week and a half without a blog post.  Sometimes other things have to come first, and if those things are making me feel overwhelmed, I find my time in my craft room being more like "organize and stare at your supplies" than "create something amazing."  And that's ok.

Anyway, I was able to make this card during some free time last week.  Since I've been spending more time organizing than creating, I've found a few things tucked away that I'd like to get used.  One of those was a pack of die cuts that I bought from Michaels once upon a time.

I started with a white background and a kraft mat.  I found a few pieces of washi tape (another supply that needs to start getting used more) that matched the die cut, and wrapped them onto the mat in a pattern.  Then I just adhered the die cut.  Super simple, but the detail in the die cut doesn't need a big fancy background, which was the thought process when I was buying them.



I'll be entering this card into the Simon Says Stamp, Wednesday Challenge Blog challenge called Get Crafty and Use Kraft.
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Friday, October 10, 2014

Watercolor background

I don't know about you, but I've caught the artsy bug lately.  I'm spending a lot of time playing around with art supplies and various mediums.  When I saw the challenge at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday blog this week- to use watercolors- I was excited for an excuse to pull out the new water brushes I got a few months ago and get messy.

I recently bought a sketch book at Michaels to help me with my Project Life planning, and part of their deal was that a whole pad of sketch paper was included free.  I decided to test that paper out to see how it held up to watercoloring.  I'm sure I could have googled it and found some tests from people more experienced than I am, but part of the fun is the experimenting, right?

I used a whole bunch of blues and purples to watercolor this background, and tried out different amounts of water to blend it together.

I stamped the penguin from Jaded Blossom and the sentiment is from My Craft Spot.  Then I added some washi tape and jewels for embellishments.

This was a fun card for me to make here and there over the last few days.  On one break from work, I was able to do the watercoloring.  The next day, I colored the penguin and stamped the sentiment.  Then, I used the stickles on the snowflake and let it dry...etc etc.


Side note:  Why is it that my coloring mistake on his face looks so hidden on the card and stands out so well on the photo?  Ugh.
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Friday, October 3, 2014

A Sophie scrapbook page

Hi friends!  You know those weeks when your car decides it's going to roll the dice to decide whether or not it's going to start, so in addition to your planned errands/work/cleaning and cooking to prepare for guests over the next few days you suddenly have to find the time to also go to car dealerships and try to find a new car?

I do!

In all seriousness, I realized that there's very little chance I'm going to spend any significant time in the craft room over the next few days, and if I do there's even less chance I'll be able to photograph whatever I make and blog about it, so I thought I'd just treat you to a recent Sophie layout, so you know I didn't forget about you.  Isn't it stinky when life gets in the way of crafting?  At least I'll probably get a new car out of the whole deal.  ;)

I really enjoyed making this layout.  It's artsy-er than I usually do.  First, I cut this Studio Calico paper to 8x8 and matted it on some leftover cardstock for sturdiness.  Then I used white acrylic paint to paint over it.  After that dried, I layered some scraps that I had that went together, and put the photo on top with the little Smash clip.

I made the title with some tile stickers that I had in my stash (I'm really bad at cutting apart letter stickers and then forgetting who made them.  It's either Simple Stories or Fancy Pants) and some of my very favorite Thickers ever.  I added the wood veneer arrows, and then the little washi tape/sticker combo at the bottom.


Bonus points if you "get" the title of the layout.  Sophie doesn't like to play fetch outside for some reason, despite me throwing the ball for her, and I thought it was hilarious that she looked so exasperated, like "give it up already!"

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Thursday, September 25, 2014

Boxer birthday card

Is it Thursday already?  This week seems to be flying by (not that I'm complaining!)  I really like the card I have to share today, so let's get to it.

Since the end of the year is looming and I'm trying to make a real effort to only make cards I'm really going to use, I decided to start using some of the challenges going on to get a head start on next year's family birthdays.  First up in January is the oldest of my husband's sisters, who has a boxer-bulldog mix that is her baby.  When I saw this file from SVG Cutting Files, I knew she would love it, so I bought it and I've been saving it for her birthday card. Luckily, none of my family members follow my blog, so I can go ahead and share it here and she'll still be surprised come January.

The papers are from a MME 6x6 pad that I picked up on sale at Michaels one time.  I like using pads, because you know your colors are going to coordinate.  I stamped the sentiment from Jaded Blossom's Puppy Love stamp set.  I also used that set for the inside sentiment (it says "in dog years, you're still a pup.")

So there it is.  One 2015 family birthday card down...8 million to go.  ;)




I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
SVG Cutting Files- Birthday card
Simon Says Stamp, Wednesday Challenge- Anything Goes
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Friday, September 19, 2014

Birthday tag

I love when there are tag challenges, like this one at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge blog.  It gives me something a little different to try, which is always fun.

Usually I start with a white tag, but this time I thought I'd try something different and I used blue cardstock.  I inked the background on with different colors of Distress Ink and a mask that I cut using my Cameo.  

Next, I stamped the sentiment on using the Stamps of Life's birthday4Cookie stamp set.  I cut the birthday hat using the Doodlecharms Cricut Cartridge and put a gold asterisk from a set of Thickers on top.  Next, I glued on some of the awesome etsy enamel dots that I talked about in my last post, and the popped the whole thing up on foam adhesive.  Too bad the next family birthday isn't until November!  ;)



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Friday, September 12, 2014

Shop til you drop

I hope you're all having a happy Friday in your neck of the woods!  I had a chance to get into the craft room and make a card yesterday, when three of my four appointments for the day cancelled, leaving me not having to go to work until 4!

Although this card looks A2, it's actually a couple of inches smaller.  It's a card base I got from the Target dollar spot a long time ago.  I'm trying to work on using up my stash a little.  :)  I stamped the background myself, using Distress Inks on a craft mat that I sprayed with water and a Heidi Swapp arrow stamp.  Next, I stamped the image of the girl holding gifts onto another piece of white cardstock and colored it with my Bic pens.  The image and sentiment that I stamped are both from a Pink by Design stamp set called Black Friday.

See that cute little purple enamel dot up in the corner? It's a homemade enamel dot that I bought from a shop on Etsy.  For only $1.20, you can order a pack of 50 of any color.  I got blues, greens, and pinks, and the owner of the shop threw in a small sample of other colors for me to try- thus the cute purple!  I'd really been wanting to try homemade enamel dots, but with a *very* sensitive smoke detector and a dog that goes bonkers when the smoke detector goes off, this was a wonderful alternative.


I'll be entering this card into the following challenge:
Simon Says Stamp, Wednesday Challenge- Make your own background
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Thursday, September 4, 2014

First attempt at vinyl!

One of the things I've been saying I was going to try for a long time now was cutting vinyl, but it always seemed kind of complicated and I was afraid to try it. I even got a bunch of vinyl for Christmas and let it sit around in my craft room for months.  Finally, I worked up the nerve to try it- and it was super easy!

I made this in the Silhouette Studio.  The font is just from my computer, and the dog paws are ones that came from another file but I altered to fit my needs here.  We keep all of Sophie's dog food in an air tight container, and it was so plain and boring.  Not any more!

Here's a picture of Sophie's food holder now:



Here's a close-up of the vinyl:


And for your viewing pleasure:


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Friday, August 29, 2014

Stamp storage (mini binders)

Hello blog friends!  This week was...shall we say..hectic at work, so instead of a fun project to share I thought I'd pop in an organization post, just so you don't think I've forgotten you.  I hope to get up to the craft room to spend a bit more time creating this weekend if it rains, but if it's nice I'll be outside enjoying the last weekend of summer.


This is a storage idea that I've been trying for almost a year now, and I really like it so I thought I'd share.  I don't have a ton of clear stamps- I mean, I have a lot, don't get me wrong, but not as many as I could have, so this storage seems to be just right for my medium sized stamp collection.   I also have a regular sized binder that I keep an inventory of all of my stamps by theme (I just stamped them onto paper that I labelled with themes like "Christmas, birthday, misc") so if I'm looking for something specific I know where to find it.

I went to Office Max and bought some of the 2 inch 8.5x5.5 binders and the page protectors that go in them.  I also already had one of the 1 inch ones, but it doesn't quite match.  It bothers my compulsive tendencies, but not enough to do anything about it.  

First I pulled stamps by the two companies that I have the most stamps from and gave each of them their own binder.  The third binder is stamps that I think of by manufacturer, but only have a few sets of each.  I made one binder for miscellaneous stamps that I use mainly for cardmaking, and one for miscellaneous stamps that I mainly use for scrapbooking.  The 1 inch binder I use for my alphabet stamps.

They're all labelled with stickers from Simple Stories.


Stamp binders, sitting on my shelf

A peek into my Jaded Blossom stamp binder

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Friday, August 22, 2014

Back to School

This card might be a little late in most parts of the country, but here in my neck of the woods we have one more week before school starts.  I was inspired to make a clean & simple card by some cards I saw on Pinterest.  There's no die cutting involved in this card at all, which is kind of unusual for me!

The card base is regular black cardstock.  For the patterned paper, I knew I wanted it to look like a composition book, but I couldn't find any free digital papers, so I made my own paper by making a copy of a composition book I happened to have in the house and cutting it down to the size of a card mat.  I got the chalkboard tags a long time ago in the Target dollar bin, and then stamped the sentiment from Joy's Life with some white ink.  Super quick, and just the way it looked in my head.  :)


I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
Craftin' Desert Divas- Back to School
Simon Says Stamp, Wednesday Challenge- Back to School
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Saturday, August 16, 2014

Fortune Cookie

Here a little fact you may not know about me: I'm a comic book movie nerd.  You'll never see me at a romantic comedy, but you better believe I'll be sitting all the way through the credits for even the tiniest morsel of goodness at the end of a comic book movie.  So, when I saw on Facebook that SVG Cutting Files was giving away a set of Rocket and Groot freebies just for entering this month's Fall Colors challenge, well...I just entered faster.  Because let's be honest, I love them and I just about always enter their monthly challenges anyway.

Anyway, here's my card for this month's challenge.  In the past, I've made fall themed cards and although I like them, I never send them because "fall" just doesn't seem like a card sending occasion.  So I used my fall colors (all from my scraps file, just the way I like it) to go along with a fortune cookie.  I popped him up on glue dots, which is hard to tell on the photo.

I used the second half of a sentiment from Pink by Design that I thought sounded kind of like a fortune to stamp on the paper.  I thought it might be a kind of neat non-traditional card for an engagement or when someone announces they're having a baby or something.


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Thursday, August 14, 2014

Sunshine and Smiles

Hi everyone!  I hope your summer is wrapping up nicely!  The weather has been so nice here overall lately- I don't love super hot temperatures, so this mild summer has been great for me.

Even though I don't love the heat, I do love the sun.  It's just such a staple of summer!  For my project, I went kind of clean and simple to highlight the sun.  Plus, I don't like to make bags overly decorated because they might get destroyed.  Of course, I had to use my very favorite Doodlecharms sun.  I used a scrap pieces of paper behind it to highlight it and some gems in either corner as an embellishment.

The sentiment is from Jaded Blossom's Simple Sayings 2.  I used a gel pen to highlight the word "Sunshine" so it would really stand out.  Now I just have to find someone to give a present to.  :)



I'll be entering this gift bag into the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp, Wednesday Challenge- Summer
Jaded Blossom- Crafter's Choice
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Saturday, August 9, 2014

Root beer float

Happy weekend!  At my house, my husband is spending the day working on the floor in our family room which means that I am spending the day in my craft room.  I decided to look through some of the challenges that were open right now and make a fun card!

I started with this super cute Root Beer Float file from Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbons.  Instead of sprinkles, I put some gems on the whipped cream part and I used some Stickles on the red straw.  Then I made the background, following the sketch provided by Die Cuttin Divas (see the link below if you want to see the sketch) and following the color scheme of the float.  I stamped the sentiment from Jaded Blossom's Simple Sayings 3 and then added the buttons on the bottom for an embellishment.

It's been awhile since I made a card that incorporated a few challenges, because most of my crafting has been focused more on the memory-keeping side lately, and it felt good to stretch these creative muscles again. I'll have to remember to do it more often.  :)



I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbons- Yummy
Simon Says Stamp, Wednesday Challenge- Make it Sparkle
Die Cuttin' Divas- Sketch Challenge
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Friday, August 1, 2014

"Silhouette Challenges #16 "Create a Shadow using the Offset Feature"

It's the time for another challenge over at

Ch# 16 "Create a Shadow using the Offset Feature"
Begins: Friday, August 1
Ends: Sunday, August 31

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

Sponsor this month is:


Silhouette 25-Pack Chipboard

Hello everyone!  For this month's challenge, I decided to incorporate one of the things that really means summer to me- fireflies!  The background of this card is pretty simple- it's two scraps from my scraps bin that I thought looked cool together, with some orange ribbon between them. I put them on an orange card base- it's not often I get to use orange outside of Halloween! If you're wondering why my picture's at a slight angle, it's because the blue paper has a shine to it and my super bright craft room lights were not cooperating with the shiny paper, so I had to put it at an angle to photograph it.

I bought this cute firefly from the Silhouette Online Store, and created a shadow to go around it to make it really stand out from the background paper.  I added some gems to its' antennae and a TON of glitter glue to its' bottom. It's kind of hard to tell, but he's adhered down with foam squares.

To finish it off, I cut a banner by hand from another scrap of paper I had, and stamped my sentiment.  It's actually from a Pink by Design stamp set, and it's only part of a saying, but I just masked off the rest.



Head in over to see what the DT has created for you inspiration and link up today.
Click HERE

On a sadder note, this will be my last post as a Design Team member at Silhouette Challenges.  I hope you'll all continue to play along with the challenges and get to know your Silhouette machines better. I know I will!
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Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Peeking pet cards

I have been dying to get the Art Impressions mini front and backs set (cat and dog, of course) for a long time.  I finally got them in the mail, and of course that night I had to play with them!  They were a little more mini than I had expected, but still so cute!

I stamped the front and back of each pet on white cardstock, colored them with my Bic markers, and cut them out.  Then I went ahead and glued the faces to their backs so they'd be ready when I was able to make a card with them.

The cards here are 4x4, and I rounded the corners.  I cut the circles with my Nestabilities.  I'm not going to lie, I went through a lot of paper trying to get the circles to line up.  Spacial reasoning is not one of my strong suits.  But I finally figured out a method and got the patterned paper (it's from Recollections) just right. I did glue the pets onto the cards, but made sure there was no glue on their feet so it looks a little more like they're hanging there.  If you look closely in the second picture, you can see the shadow from their feet.

I stamped the sentiments on the card front in navy blue.  They're from the Scrappy Mom's Stamps "Raining Cats and Dogs" stamp set.  The Art Impressions set did come with two sentiments, but I wanted something a little different for these cards.  I think they turned out really cute!

I'll be entering this card set into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge Anything Goes challenge.


The front of the cards 
The inside of the cards


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Saturday, July 26, 2014

Heart card

Everybody brace yourselves...for today's card I used my Cricut instead of my Cameo!  I know, right?  With the year halfway over, I've been trying to evaluate my crafty goals and how they will be able to fit in with my new hectic back to work lifestyle.  One thing I want to do is get back to using my Cricut more.  So, here I go.

I needed to make an anniversary card for my brother and sister in law, and I decided instead of the typical reds or black and whites of anniversary cards, I would go with their wedding colors- blue and green.  I cut this heart from the Sweethearts cartridge and inked it up with some Distress Inks.  I used mostly Peacock Feathers and Peeled Paint, with a touch of Broken China to add a little blue in.  I cut the shadow in white as a contrast.

Because of the swirls on the heart, I thought the D'vine Swirls embossing folder would be a good match. I embossed it on vellum, which is one of my favorite things to emboss on. I adhered the heart down really well to the vellum, and put adhesive on the vellum behind the heart to adhere it down to the card.  I have some vellum adhesive, so I'm going to give it a few days and if it really seems too flimsy without the edges adhered, I can use a little of that in the corners.




I'm entering this card into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, Emboss it challenge.
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Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Silhouette Challenges #15 "Print N Cut"

It's the time for another challenge over at

Ch# 15 Print N Cut
Begins: Tuesday, July 1
Ends: Thursday, July 31

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

Sponsor this month is:


Silhouette Printable Cotton Canvas

One of the things I love about using the Print and Cut feature is how totally simple it is to put together a card.  I designed this card in my Silhouette studio using files from the Lettering Delights Love Rocks set, printed it on two pieces of cardstock (on my new photo quality printer, so the images are so crisp and clear!) and cut them each on the Cameo.


Once they were cut, I folded the card base so the sentiment would be inside.  I adhered the cassette tape to the front and used a corner rounder to make the corners of the card match the corners of the cassette tape.  It now looks like one card, and it’s done!  Like I said, easy peasy, for a super cute retro card.




Head in over to see what the DT has created for you inspiration and link up today.
Click HERE
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Thursday, July 17, 2014

S'more love

I'm still here!  I feel like I haven't posted in ages.  I've still been crafting, but I've been focusing more on memory keeping lately, which often isn't represented in my blog posts.  But today my work schedule randomly cleared up for the afternoon, and I'd had this idea in my head since this stamp set came in the mail a few weeks ago, so I grabbed the opportunity to make it.

I've been really inspired by smaller, 4x4 cards lately.  This one has a kraft base, and I used some Wild Honey Distress Ink and a Crafter's Workshop mask to make the polka dots on light yellow cardstock.  I used a scrap of light orange ribbon on the bottom of the card.

The sentiment (on a banner I hand cut) and the s'more are from the Jaded Blossom stamp set "Got S'mores?" and I colored the s'more with my Bic markers.



I'm entering this card into the following challenge:
Simon Says Stamp, Wednesday Challenge- Spots and Dots
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Monday, July 7, 2014

Dog card

Are you surprised?  No, because dogs are my favorite subject to craft about.  ;)  Sometimes I just have a little bit of free time and no real reason to make a card, and this was one of those times.  I had been wanting to make this cut that I got from the Silhouette Store for awhile, so I cut it out and glittered the heart.  Then I decided it would look really cute on a plain-ish card.

I used a pre-made card base that I got a gazillondy years ago at the Target dollar spot, put some of my dog paw washi tape down the side, and then used three black gems to balance it out.  I went back and forth with other papers and things, but it always came back down to this.




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Friday, June 27, 2014

Sunshine and Happiness

This sunny card just reflects how the weather's been lately for us.  Sunny and not-too-hot...just the way I like it!

The image on the card is cut from a file by Pretty Paper, Pretty Ribbons.  I popped one of the clouds on foam squares to give it a little dimension.  The patterned paper I used was from my scraps bin, which is always a plus, and the stamp is actually from one of the dollar stamps that I impulse buy from time to time when I'm in line at Michaels or Joanns.  I thought it was a pretty accurate sentiment for this happy sunshine.




I'll be entering this card into the Anything Goes challenge at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge blog.
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Sunday, June 22, 2014

"Silhouette Challenges #14 "Create your own Shaped Card"

It's the time for another challenge over at

Ch# 14 Create your own Shaped Card 
(No pre designed shaped card files)
Begins: Sunday, June 1
Ends: Monday, June 30

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

Sponsor this month is:

(3) Silhouette Replacement Blades

One of the things I love about challenges is that it, well, challenges me to think outside of the box!  When I saw this cut in the Silhouette Online store of a deer head, I knew it would be fun to use for our Father’s Day cards this year.  Normally, I would have cut a couple of A2 card bases, picked some patterned paper, and put the cuts on there.  But instead, I used this challenge as an incentive to make them into shaped cards!


In the Silhouette Studio, I layered the cuts up how I was going to have them look once they were cut.  Then I made an offset, chose how big I wanted it to be, and mirrored it above.  I moved them until they were touching and then welded them together.  This gave me my very own, one of a kind, shaped card!

I picked "Dad-ish" kind of patterned papers- plaid and woodgrain- for this card.  The woodgrain is actually two layers, so I used pop dots in between them for some dimension.




Head in over to see what the DT has created for you inspiration and link up today.
Click HERE

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Thursday, June 19, 2014

Furry friends

Hi friends!

Today I've got a pair of cards to show.  They're 4x4 cards, which I cut down from premade card bases that I had lying in a drawer.  The background paper was made by me by rubbing distress ink all over my craft mat, spraying it down with water (and a little stamp cleaner- oops, grabbed the wrong bottle!) and then using it as an ink pad and stamping the polka dots on with my very favorite background stamp ever.  Personalized backgrounds!

I cut the circle mats with my nestabilities.  I don't do a ton of manual die cutting, but buying the two sets of circle dies was a really good investment.  Between them and the few circle punches I have, I'm just about always set for the right size circle I need.  The text paper is from an Authentique 6x6 pad.

I stamped the sentiments and images from two Jaded Blossom stamp sets- Puppy Love and Kitty Kitty. Then I colored in the image with my Bic markers.  Now they're a cute little set of furry friends!


I'm entering these cards into the following challenge:  Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, You Gotta Have Friends
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Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Happy birthday!

It's summer time, which means it's time for me to start working on replenishing my birthday card supply while we have a few months without birthdays.

Although I haven't been posting a ton, I've actually been spending a fair amount of time crafting, given how busy work has been.  One thing I've been doing is playing around with techniques and artsy things, since it doesn't really have to look perfect and usually it can be done in short spurts.  I've been buying some stencils, and playing around with using them with various things.  For this card, I used the 6x6 Swiss Dot stencil from Crafter's Workshop.  I also have the 12x12, in case I ever wanted bigger dots.  :)

I used my Distress Inks to make the background pattern- Peeled Paint, Peacock Feathers, Broken China, and Seedless Preserves.  Then I cut the balloon animal on my Cameo from a file I bought from SVG Cutting Files. For a little dimension, I used my Versapen on some of the back layers of the balloon animal.  I don't know about you, but I just don't have a ton of shades of purple cardstock laying around to try to match together.

I wanted the background to be on full display, so I just adhered the balloon animal directly on, and then stamped on a sentiment from the Stamps of Life (birthday4cookie set, if you were wondering).



I'm entering this card into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge, Stencil It challenge.
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Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Graduation cap card

Hi!  Before I start describing today's card, I want to give the disclaimer that I totally got this idea from a similar project I saw at Lettering Delights.  I thought it was cool, but knew I could make something similar myself and wanted to give it a try for a card for my youngest sister-in-law, who graduated from high school this year!

First, I designed the card in my Silhouette Studio software.  I made a rectangle that would be a square when folded in half and then used a font to write "Congratulations" down the bottom of the card.  After I cut it, I lined the inside of the card with white cardstock on each side.  Then I adhered in the insides of the letters.  Next, I made the tassel using a cut from a purse cut file from SVG Cuts.  It worked great!  I adhered it onto the card, and then put a black brad (with the prongs cut off, naturally) and it was done!



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Thursday, May 29, 2014

Travel Journal

Hi everyone!  Today's post is a little different- instead of a project, I have a recommendation.  I was recently on vacation for a week in Florida and Georgia (resulting in a super busy week of catching up at work this week, which is why I have no projects to share) and I decided that while I was there I would keep a travel journal/scrapbook using an old Amy Tangerine daybook that I'd picked up on clearance.  I have a ton of these kind of mini albums in a bin in my craft room for just such an occasion.

Before we left, I put together a little kit in a storage box I found at the dollar tree.  It had some letter stamps from the dollar section at my grocery store, some washi tape, some adhesive, some mini ink pads, and some pre-stamped embellishments.  I also had a CD case full of some other pre-cut tags and things, a small paper trimmer, a smash pen, and the smash scissors (which are wonderful- seriously, my husband used them to cut a tag off of something and he was like "these are so sharp!")  I used the stickers and bits that were from the same collection as the daybook and decorated the pages up a little bit, so it was almost ready to go before we even left.

So each night before bed, I'd spread out on the table in the hotel room with my supplies and whatever brochures I had from the day's activities.  I also put some scrap paper in the album in places where I wanted a photo.  I journaled about things as they happened- not just the big things that will end up in my 12x12 album, but little things like how much I like the beach umbrella we bought or what we ate for breakfast.  It was so fun, and I know I'm going to keep doing it for future vacations.  I'll still do my regular pages, and probably even a few pages in my divided page album, but this is something a little special of its own.  I definitely recommend it.

And, because I am so meta, here's a photo of where I was scrapbooking my vacation while I was on vacation...that will probably end up in the vacation scrapbook.
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Thursday, May 22, 2014

Silhouette Challenges #13 "Gift Bag"

It's the time for another challenge over at

Ch# 13 Gift Bag (No Boxes)
Begins: Thursday, May 1
Ends: Saturday, May 31

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

Sponsor this month is:


Vinyl Ease 30 Sheets of Permanent Adhesive Backed Vinyl for Craft Cutters, 
6 by 12-Inch, Assorted

Here's my Gift Bag project


Last year, my three sister-in-laws were so sad that the Easter bunny had decided they were all too old to get Easter baskets anymore.  I decided that even though they weren't getting Easter baskets, that didn't mean they couldn't get Easter bags!

I made these three cute bags from files I got from the Silhouette Online Store.  Before I cut the bags, I used my sketch pens to write their names at the bottom of the bag.  I love how easy it was, and it personalized each bag for them!

I filled the bags up with candy and an iTunes gift card for each of them.

Head in over to see what the DT has created for you inspiration and link up today.
Click HERE


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Monday, May 19, 2014

Decorated letter

Welcome!  Today's project is not a papercraft!  I know, can you believe it?  I'd been seeing these cool wrapped letters all over Pinterest, and I wanted to give one a try.  When I saw this letter F on clearance at Meijer one day when I was grocery shopping (because every grocery shopping trip ends with a visit to the craft aisle to see what's on clearance, obviously), I picked it right up.  Then I was at Lowe's with my husband and saw a roll of twine, and grabbed it.  It took me a long time to figure out how to wrap it, and I spent a good deal of time reading various tutorials, but I finally got it done!

I had ordered some flowers on Amazon, but they got here and were just slightly too big for this project.  Then one day I was at Michaels, and found these ones that were just right, so I got them and hot glued them on.  It is going to look so cute sitting on our mantel!




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Thursday, May 15, 2014

Bug jar

It's a miracle- I had time to get in my craft room today!  After a near catastrophe when my Silhouette initially wouldn't connect to my computer, I was able to make this cute little jar with a firefly from SVG Cutting Files.

I put the firefly onto the box with an Action Wobble.  It's my first time using one, and it's super fun.  I might get addicted!

I used a ton of my scraps of patterned paper on this, which is always fun for me.  The jar was really easy to put together, too.  I don't have any candy in the house right now (post-Easter purge and all) but I'm planning to go to the store and buy some mini candies of some sort to go with the saying that I picked from Jaded Blossom's "Picture This" stamp set. I stamped the stamp on a hand-cut banner that matched the paper I picked for his cute face and legs.

I also used some stickles- yellow for his bum and grape crush for his antennas.  I finished it off with three little rhinestones on the bottom.


I'm entering this project into the following challenges:
Jaded Blossom- Anything 3D
Pause, Dream, Enjoy- Bugs
Die Cuttin Divas- Wobble it
SVG Cutting Files- 3, 2, 1 Go!  (I used 3 rhinestones, 2 colors of stickles, and 1 Jaded Blossom stamp)
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Saturday, May 10, 2014

Quick note card

I hope you all are having a great weekend!  I'm typing to you today with Sophie on my lap, cowering from the loud noises of my husband cutting the trim for the family room (which is his current renovation project).  A few dog snuggles and I get to hang out in my pajamas for awhile?  I'll take it!

Today's card is one I made when I needed a quick notecard to attach to a gift.  I cut a piece of kraft paper to 4 1/4 square and stamped a sentiment from Pink By Design's "You are my Happy" stamp set.  Then I cut these flowers from Lettering Delight's "Peacocks and Pinwheels"- it was super easy to layer, and since I wanted to use gems instead of the centers that come with the flowers, it went very quickly.  I added the gems from my stash and some stickles to give the leaves something, and it was ready to go!  I love how I can make elaborate cards one day, and something so quick and simple the next, just based on what I need.  No fighting the crowds in the card aisle for me!  ;)

I'll be entering this card into the flowers challenge at Simon Says Stamp, Wednesday Challenges.



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Saturday, May 3, 2014

Silhouette Challenges Blossom Hop Day 1


Bring

So Silhouette Challenges is celebrating .

We are on Day 1!

There are only a few stops on this hop each day, and you are going to love the projects you see.

I am the ninth stop.
To start at the beginning Click HERE

I had a lot of fun making my project for today's hop!  I chose the 3D cherry blossom flower cut from the Silhouette Online Store (ID# 55887, in case you were wondering) as my blossom.  Here's a picture of the two projects together, and then I'll show you each one seperately.


The card was pretty basic, because I wanted the blossom to be the center of attention.  I used a piece of patterned paper from Studio Calico and cut it to the size of an A2 card.  Then I used some white cardstock, but it to the size I wanted for the front of the card, an punched it with a Martha Stewart border punch.  Then I adhered the blossom, which I had cut with my cameo and chalked on the edges for dimension.



The box is also pretty basic, to be honest.  I used another blossom, cut from the cameo and chalked.  I cut the box out from my cameo as well- it's just a basic 3d box, you could use any one you wanted.  I used another sheet of the Studio Calico paper, and adhered the blossom to the top, then used the white cardstock to cut panels for each side (using a ruler and paper trimmer- the panels didn't come with the cameo file) and again punched them with the border punch.


I was really happy with how these came out, and since I went minimalist on the card and box to highlight the flower, they really didn't take very much time.  In fact, after I made these I went back and bought more 3D flowers by the same artist because they were so fun and easy.

Here is the entire list of stops for day 1
Nana @ My Crafting Channel
Pam @ Scrap N Sew Granny
Kim @ Kim's Card Corner
Theresa @ Scrappers Anonymous
Julie @ Muddy Paws & Inky Fingers
Jessi @ My Life in Arts N Crafts
Robin @ The Cricut Scrapper
Kate @ Kate's Paper Creations
Becky @ Becky's Craft Place
LeeAnn @ Snappy Scraps
Becky @ My Paper Craze

Some of the Design Team has Candy.
Please note the ones that have candy set their own requirements for a chance at winning their candy.
Winners will be be announced by each offering candy on
May the 6th at NOON EST
On their blogs.



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