Clean and simple card

Hi crafty friends!  I had a rare morning off yesterday (because I managed to sneak in the grocery shopping on my rare afternoon off the day before!) and was so excited to see a Clean and Simple challenge on the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge blog. Although I finally got my new computer, I haven't had time to get my crafty programs loaded on yet, so clean and simple was right up my alley.

I started out with a navy card base, which I stamped with some copper ink.  I recently bought this background stamp (it's by Hero Arts and it's called Raindrop Background, if you're interested) and I love it.   Then I used some of the copper washi tape from We R Memory Keepers to run across the middle of the card.  This was partly because I'm really trying to use my washi tape, and partly because I didn't do a very good job of getting the ink on the middle of the card and I wanted to cover it up a little.  :)  I really like the look of alternating the think solid tape with the slightly thicker striped one.  I made another card using that pattern with the gold tape for my mom's birthday a while ago.

Since it's a clean and simple card, I knew the only thing left was to put the sentiment on.  I chose a scrap of kraft paper and stamped the frame using Pink by Design's Artisan Tags 2 and some navy ink.  Then I picked a sentiment from Pink by Design's Scripted Year and also stamped it in navy ink.

I'm entering this card into the following challenge(s):
Simon Says Stamp- Wednesday Challenge, Keep it Clean and Simple

Coffee presents

Hi all!  As you may know, yesterday was Administrative Professionals Day.  I've been so thankful for our two admins since I started my new job- not only have they been extremely helpful when I haven't known where something was or how to do things, but since my office is literally about 3 feet from their desk, we also get a chance to chat and keep each other company when I have down time.  So, I felt like I wanted to give them a little something to say thanks.

I found this idea on Pinterest, although the blog that it was said to be from appears to no longer be functional.  But in the sense of honesty, it wasn't my idea.

The tags were both cut with my Cricut.  The plain tag is cut from Doodletype, and the patterned paper is from Studio Calico.  I stamped the "thanks a latte" saying using Lawn Fawn's Milo's ABCs and the little arrow at the bottom is from a Stampendous set I have.  On the back I wrote a little personalized thank you note.

The latte cup tag is from the Love You a Latte Lite cartridge.  I left off the heart and word "cafe" and instead I used the Lovely Letters stamp set from Avery Elle to stamp each of their names.  These stamps are super awesome, because if you stamp carefully they go together and look like all one word.  Love it!

I went to Starbucks and got two empty cups.  Also, I got one cup full of delicious frappuccino for myself.  I thought it would be rude to get empty cups without also ordering something for myself, right?  ;)  Anyway, the Starbucks women were really nice about it when I explained why I wanted the cups and thought it was a super cute idea, and even gave me a bag so I wouldn't have to cart two empty frappuccino cups around the mall.

I stuck Starbucks gift cards down inside, put in the straw, filled it up with caramel Hershey kisses, plopped the gift card down, and put white tissue paper in the lid to look like foam.  The cups are tall sized, and it took about 1.5 bags of Hershey kisses to fill them up this full.

Silhouette Challenges #12 "Faux Stitching Feature"

It's the time for another challenge over at

Ch# 12 Faux Stitching Feature (Using Machine)

Begins: Tuesday, April 1

Ends: Wednesday, April 30

A blog dedicated to the Silhouette Cutting Machines.

You MUST use a Silhouette somehow in your project.

Sponsor this month is:

My Crafting Channel

Silhouette 25-Pack Chipboard

Today I’m showing you a springy card.  I can’t get enough of spring!  This card is on a kraft base, with yellow patterned paper from Recollections.  I used a green Silhouette pen to sketch a border around the patterned paper using the stitching feature.  It’s so nice and easy to add a little something to your cards with the stitching feature!  I love that it's a subtle feature- it almost blends right in- but it really finished off the card to add it.  It would have looked so much more empty without the border.

I added these flowers that I bought from the Silhouette online store.  I didn’t add the little swirl that came with them, because I liked the flower pot on its own.  The nice thing was that I was able to easily make two of them, because *spoiler alert* they’re going to be our Mother’s Day cards for my mom and mother in law this year.

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

Poodle card

It's Friday!  Woohoooo!  For today's card, I decided to start out with the cute, girly poodle from the Create A Critter cartridge.  You can't really tell, but her darker pink hair was made by spraying some of of the same pink as her body with a layer of pink walnut spray followed by a layer of Heidi Swapp white spray.  It gave it a really nice shimmer, and made it a pink that was darker than her body but still matched well.  I put some Flamingo stickles on her bows and added a tiny rhinestone for a little added sparkliness.

After I'd made the poodle, I decided that too much more pink was going to make it look like Pepto Bismol had spilled on the card, so I went with the blue card base and the two scrap pieces of patterned paper from my scraps bin.  I added a little label sticker and stamped the sentiment from Pink by Design's Scripted Year on it using StazOn ink.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge- Animal Antics

Easter treats

It's Friday!  Fridays are my day off (it's a perk of making your own schedule!) so I got a chance to craft a little today.  We're working with a temporary computer until HP ships us a replacement for the one that died a month after we got it, so I don't have access to my Silhouette Studio or Cricut Craft Room right now (the temporary computer is a really old laptop that we just reformated and are hoping will not die on us until we have the new one in our hands, so we're not stressing it out with too many programs loaded on it).  That meant that today I went old school crafting!

I found these carrot shaped candies at our grocery store.  I used some Easter egg paper from Paper Studio as the base, then punched it with a Martha Stewart punch.  The bunny is cut from Doodlecharms and his facial features are colored in with colored pencil for a soft, pastel look.  I had originally cut the bunny from Four Legged Friends, but after I was done I realized he looked kind of scary for some reason.  Like he was more likely to kill me in my sleep than hide eggs in my house.  So I decided to go with Doodlecharms instead.

I cut the purple tag by hand and stamped a sentiment from Jaded Blossom's Simply Blessings stamp set.  It's actually all in one line, but I taped it off with some washi tape because I wanted it to be in two lines instead.

I didn't realize until I was editing the photo that I totally covered up the green part of the wrapper. Doh!

I'm entering this project into the following challenges:
Red Carpet Studios Challenges- Hop
Jaded Blossom- Easter
Craftin' Desert Divas- Anything Goes
Bitten by the Bug 2- Easter
Die Cuttin Divas- Pastel Colors
Simon Says Stamp, Wednesday Challenge- Happy Easter/Sweet Treats

Quick and simple happy birthday card

Since I somehow managed to have my computer die, load all of my crafting stuff onto a new computer, and then have that computer die the next day, the prospect of crafting and/or posting anything new this week is looking bleak. So today, from my phone, I bring you this post from my emergency saved drafts. :/

I just wanted to share an idea with you for when you need a quick and simple (and possibly masculine) card, like say when your husband tells you "we need to send a birthday card today for my grandpa's birthday Wednesday."  Hypothetically.

This is an image from the Silhouette store that I believe was one of the free files that comes with your machine.  It's shaped as a tag, so I released the compound path and deleted the outside edge.  That left it as just the circle and words.  Then I drew myself a rectangle in the size that I would make a mat for an A2 card and put it around the image.  That way, it all cut into one piece!  I used some patterned paper from Recollections and just adhered it straight to the card base and voila!

Sophie Sunday- Christmas edition!

Last week was Halloween, this week it's Christmas!  Also, this is the last week of the batch of scrapbook pages I made when I started Sophie Sundays, so I'll have to decide whether I want to continue it or not.  This layout focuses around a photo I took of Sophie on Christmas morning with her only present (spoiler alert: it was a box of dog treats).

As I often do, I based this layout on a piece of plain cardstock.  I layered a piece of blue polkadot paper from DCWV along one side, then layered a big circle that I'd cut from an embellishment page and a Jenni Bowlin Bingo card.  

Over the bingo card I adhered the word "dog" in vellum- just cause I thought it was funny to have a title about being a good dog but have journaling about what a naughty stinker she must have been to only get one present.

I added a sticker along the bottom from a Paper Studio sticker sheet.

Happy Birthday!

It's Thursday!  Even better, my morning at work got cancelled today, so I had some time to get into my craft room and create.  It felt great to get my hands dirty again.  :)

I'm working right now on finishing up all of the birthday cards for the next two months until our families' birthday seasons are over.  I made this card on a navy card base, with some patterned paper from the Trendsetter 6x6 pad.  I cut this paper airplane from the Silhouette Online Store.  I didn't have any scraps of grey paper, and didn't feel like cutting into a 12x12 for two tiny strips, so I cut all of the pieces in white and colored them in with my Bic markers.  I used my uniball pen to draw lines behind it to show it flying.

I punched two tags from a scrap of red paper, and put the small one at the top of the card and the big one at the bottom.  On the bottom one, I stamped a sentiment from Pink by Design's Scripted Year on the tag.  On the top, I used a white button that I colored navy with another Bic marker and tied with some twine.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
Craftin' Desert Divas-Anything Goes
Simon Says Stamp- Wednesday Challenge, Happy Birthday!