Candy gifts

Happy Valentines Day!

 Today I'm back to show you the presents I made for the secretaries at my office.  I found this post through Pinterest and really wanted to give it a try.  I didn't want to make a traditionally Valentiney gift for the secretaries- that might be kind of weird- so this seemed like something fun I could use.

I cut three pieces of colored cardstock down to 4x6, and three pieces of white cardstock slightly smaller.  I stamped the sentiments on each of the white cardstocks (using Elle's Studio's Cameron font for the Junior Mints and two different fonts from Lawn Fawn on the other two).  The Junior Mints were so big that I had to use the cardstock to cover the whole box, so to make up for it I traced and cut the word "Mint" with my Cameo.  Then I taped the candies on where they belonged.

To store the candies, I bought this bag from the Silhouette Store.  I used white cardstock to make the bag- be prepared, it takes a few sheets- and then used some patterned paper from the KI Memories Classic Prints paper pad to make the decorative panels.

Background stamping

One of the things I've been doing lately is stamping backgrounds onto cards, and then not putting sentiments on them until it's time to use them.  That way, I can use the cards for whatever occasion comes up to use them for.

The first one of these I made using the "Big Star" wood stamp by Hero Arts.  I stamped all over a piece of white cardstock using Distress Ink- I used Broken China and Chipped Sapphire.  Then I cut it down to fit on a piece of navy cardstock.  There's plenty of room on the bottom right corner for me to stamp a sentiment in blue when the time comes.  I'm planning to enter this card at the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge- Anything Goes challenge this week.

The second card I made using the "Bokeh Builder" clear stamp set from Studio L2e.  I used a combination of all of my various yellow, orange, and reddish colored ink pads- mostly they were stamped with Hero Arts "Butter Bar," "Orange Soda," and "Pale Tomato."  I also added in a few stamps here and there with Memento inks, too, though.  Then I cut it down, matted it with a piece of orange cardstock, and put them onto a white cardstock base.  I figure that I can stamp a sentiment in black or another dark color pretty much anywhere on this page.

So there you go- a way to add a few cards to my stash that are more likely to get used and not just sit in there!

I'm still here

Whoa, I just realized it's been a MONTH and an HALF since my last post!  What happened?  Well, Christmas vacation happened- we took a fun trip to Niagara Falls for awhile in there, plus family and friend get togethers, etc.  Also, a bathroom renovation that took a wrong turn and turned into a complete redo of the plumbing for the bathroom AND laundry room (which is directly behind the bathroom)...and still isn't done.  Last, a lot of my crafting has been Project Life and scrapbook pages, which tend to be more personal and aren't things that I necessarily want to share online.

ANYWAY, as a peace offering, here are the official 2014 Christmas cards.  I found a print on Pinterest, traced it into my cameo, and cut it out.    I used some kraft cardstock for the bases, then white cardstock on top of that, and then either red or green for the top layer.  Clean and simple.  The hardest part was all of the tiny pieces inside of the letters like "a" and "e."

I've also made a few card bases with some of the stamps I got for Christmas, but they don't have any sentiments on them yet because that allows me to use them for whatever situation comes up that I want to use them for.  I'll try to get a photo of those and get them up soon.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!"

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

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!  ;)

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

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:

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

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

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.

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

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

"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:

My Crafting Channel

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!

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