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.

"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:

My Crafting Channel

(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

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

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.

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!