Easter card

Since Easter is this Sunday, this is probably my last Easter card for the year.  When I was little, the "Easter bunny" brought me games and toys more than candy, and I had about 3 straight years when my basket had a cute stuffed lamb in it, so lambs are very Easter themed to me.

I started with a card cut from the card feature on Birthday Bash.  I embossed the green layer using a polka dots 5x7 Cuttlebug folder, put some cute polkadotted ribbon around it, and then stuck it to the card.  The lamb I cut from Create a Critter and the basket and eggs are from Doodlecharms. After I had them stuck down I realized that it needed something more, so I hand-cut the banner and traced it with my versamark pen, then stamped on the sentiment from Jaded Blossom's "Simple Sayings."  I finished it off with a few gems. 

This card is being entered into the following challenges: 
Pile It On Challenges- Dots                                                                                          

Exploring Cricut- Happy Easter                                                                                  

Fantabulous Cricut- Easter Greetings                                                                     

Bitten by the Bug 2- Card Feature                                                                            

Cut it up Challenges- Lion or lamb                                                                            

Die Cuttin Divas- Embossing and Ribbon               

Birthday Bird

I felt like making a festive birthday card this week, so I pulled together a few challenges and came up with this birthday bird.  I used a sketch from Die Cuttin Divas for the layout of the card.  I mostly used regular cardstock, with the exception of the Happy Birthday paper and the starburst blue paper, which were from a 6x12 stack I had in my cupboard, which I'm pretty sure was from Paper Studio.

I cut the bird from Birthday Bash and he came out a little bigger than I had planned, but I moved the balloon down a little and made it work.  I think since the bird alone was the main image, it sized it based only on the bird and the balloon was just extra inches.  Live and learn.  :)  The two black rhinestones are from Recollections.

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:
Cardz TV- Make a Wish (Child’s Birthday Card)
Pile it on Challenges- Happy Birthday
DL.Art- Birds
Fantabulous Cricut- Bye, Bye, Birdie
Die Cuttin Divas- Try a sketch

Thanksgiving Banner

This year I hosted Thanksgiving for the very first time!  You've already seen my dessert toppers and placecards, now it's time to see the last piece (which was actually the first that I made, but I wanted to save it for a surprise just in case anyone checks out my blog occasionally.)  To help decorate for the party, I made this little banner for our fireplace.  I cut the banner and shadow from Birthday Bash at 6 inches.  The letters and letter shadow are also from Birthday Bash, but they were cut at 3.75 inches.

The turkey in the middle is from Create a Critter, cut at 5.5 inches.

All of the cardstock is Co'ordinations.  The ribbon is ribbon that I've had in my stash for years.  Sorry for the bad picture, it's hard to get a pic of a banner!

I'm entering this into the following challenge:
DL.Art- Anything Goes/Linky Party

Veteran's Day

Veteran's Day is right around the corner!  I always have a hard time with patriotic types of holidays- I think when the Fourth of July rolls around next year I'll have used up all of my red, white, and blue ideas.  This card is an A2 white base.  The blue polka dot paper is some digital paper that I downloaded for free, but I can't remember from where.  I dumbly saved the file names as the color of the paper but didn't include the source.  If you know where I got it from, let me know so I can give credit where it's due.  

The four pennants are cut at 1.5 inches from Birthday Bash.  I used blue and red ink to stamp "USA" all over them with my Paper Smooches "Alphadots" stamps. 

I used some dark blue We R Memory Keepers brads with home made red/white/blue baker's twine to hang the banners and some red ric-rak from Hobby Lobby.

This card is being entered in the following challenges:
Exploring Cricut- Veteran's Day
Paper Smooches Sparks- Trend Watch: Typography

Happy Birthday!

You can never have enough birthday cards, right?  With fall comes the end of our family's season of no-birthdays.  Winter and Spring are full of birthdays almost every week.  So having a stockpile is going to be very helpful for me.  For my stockpile cards, I tend to go pretty plain, because I don't know exactly who they're going to be for.

This A2 card has some cupcake patterned paper along the bottom.  I believe it's from a Paper Studio stack. Then I cut the cat jumping out of the cake from Birthday Bash at 5 inches.  I stamped the sentiment from My Craft Spot's Birthday Wishes stamp set.  Now I have a cute card to pull out when I have one of those "so-and-so's birthday is TOMORROW" moments...especially if we're in the process of moving whenever that may be.

I plan to enter this card for the Cricut Chirp Challenge Blog's Birthday Bash challenge.

Hope squirrel

I think I've mentioned before that one of the things I love about the Birthday Bash Cricut cartridge is that they have little hands that can be holding anything.  This cute little squirrel is supposed to be holding a number 1.  Instead, I cut a pink ribbon for Breast Cancer Awareness Month and have the squirrel holding that.

I put my squirrel on some patterned paper I had in my scraps.  Then I added some Fruit Punch Stickles to her tail for a little extra sparkle. I stamped the word "Hope" in the bottom corner with My Creative Time's "Inspiring Words" stamp set and then put three little gems underneath that match the color of the squirrel's fur.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Die Cuttin' Divas- Shimmer, Glimmer, Gloss
Cardz TV- Let's hear it for the girls

Snail Mail

This is a 4x4 card.  One of the major things that made me start looking at the Birthday Bash cartridge was this cut.  I love the cute little snail and the card shaped like a postage stamp.  All of the cardstock was from my scraps.  

I stamped it in dark blue with Jessie's ABCs from Lawn Fawn.  I think this will be a cute card to stash away for someone.  

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Bitten by the Bug 2- All Shaped Up

Scrappy Moms Stamps- Shape Up!

I scream

I've got a delicious card for today.  This card was cut at 6 inches, to fit inside an envelope that I have.  It's a shape card cut from Birthday Bash.  I really liked the colors that were used in the handbook, so I made it the same colors, but added another blue to the back to make it a shaped card.  I had to cut the spoon handle off of the back because it opens from the top and the spoons were bumping into each other.  It's hard to tell from the picture (thanks a lot, camera phone) but there are glossy accents on the cherry.  

The sentiment is made from two different stamp sets from different companies.  The "you" and "me" are from the Everyday Occasions set from Joy's Life.  The "make" and "melt" are from Jessie's ABCs from Lawn Fawn.  I inked around the edges of the spoon and cup with blue ink for a little definition.  I am giving this card to my BFF, my husband.  I like to make him surprise cards to leave for him to find when he comes home from work. 

I'm entering this into the following challenges:
Celebrate the Occasion- I scream for ice cream
Tuesday Alchemy- Ice cream social
Krafty girls- Get in shape (shaped cards)
Cooking with Cricut- BFF Bingo (I picked, stamp, ink, and die cuts)

Rock On!

This has been quite a few months for my little sister.  She graduated from college, had a birthday, moved to a new city, and is about to start graduate school.  I couldn't be more proud!  I wanted to send her a card to let her know that I think she is awesome.  I had been eyeing the fox from Birthday Bash ever since I got it- it is so cute- and I thought the matching sentiment went well with this particular occasion.

I already had this blue card that is slightly smaller than A2.  It was given to me from a friend's purge so I don't know what brand it is.  I cut the fox, star, and sentiment to fit on the front of the card, and I popped up the star using Elmer's popup glue dots.  They're really big compared to my foam pop dots, so they work well for bigger surfaces. 

I really like on Birthday Bash how some of the animals have arms that can be holding many different things.  Instead of the guitar, I could have put anything into the fox's hand, and his right arm (the one strumming the strings) has an extra cut that goes over the top of the item he's holding. 

I also have a quick birthday card from Birthday Bash, that I made for my sister's boyfriend.  I used scraps of patterned paper and the Phrase function.  Didn't it come out cute?

Scrapbook pages

You know how people have their first kid and they take a zillion pictures, and then the second kid feels left out because by the time they're born the parents are tired of taking pictures all of the time?  Sophie is my first kid.  I take pictures of her playing, pictures of her sleeping, and pictures of her sitting around.  I get so much inspiration from her for scrapbook pages! 

This first page is of Sophie reading the Yorkie issues of Dog Fancy.  The patterned paper for Sophie's scrapbook is from DCWV Dog Scrapbook kit in a stack.  I can't remember where the bones embellishment came from.  I had to take the foam backing off, because it made the page too puffy.  The title is from Sugar and Spice.  Yes, I buy baby themed cartridges and use them for layouts for my dog. 

This next layout is of Sophie laying on the stairs with her favorite toy, her unstuffed racoon.  I used some stickers from the scrapbook stack at the bottom, and the title is made with the fonts from Birthday Bash and Baby Steps.  I like having two different fonts, and mixing them is something I want to keep working on.

Finally, we have Wet nose, Warm heart.  I'm not really sure what Sophie was doing in this picture, I just liked it.  I used the title from Four Legged Friends, but only cut it in two colors instead of four.  Then I made the dog charm from Paper Pups.  I thought they went together, because the dog in the charm is holding a heart.

March and April birthdays!

It's that time again...birthday cards! First, a piece of housekeeping: I've decided not to continue to list my cardstock on every post. This is for a few reasons. First, I bought a pack of Recollections cardstock and it is mixed in with my Paper Studio because I sort by color. I now have no idea which is which, and I realized that's ok.  This leads to my second reason: I'm finding that cardstock is a personal choice.  Every person already knows what kind of cardstock they like, and what stores they will be going to in order to get it.  I like smooth cardstock in most cases, so I get brands that reflect that.  Others might like textured.  So nobody is likely to care which type I chose for which project, because they are going to use the kind they like best.  So, from here on out know this: unless otherwise stated, my cardstock is either from a value pack of Paper Studio or Recollections.  :)

Now, on to the fun!

Both my husband's and my father have birthdays in these two months, so I made them identical cards.  I figured it would be easier to make them the same cards each year, in order to make sure that I wasn't duplicating in future years.  For this card, I used the Birthday Bash cartridge for the candles.  Behind it is a scrap of patterned paper from my scraps.  I think it might have been Doodlebug?  Or else it is Miss Elizabeth's (the Dollar Tree brand).  I've had it for years.  Regardless, I thought this card was sufficiently masculine.  Since it was pretty busy on the front, I decided to put the sentiment inside.  I cut this from Zooballoo.  It's such a fun font!

Surprisingly, both of our mothers also have March/April birthdays.  So again, they're each getting the same card.  I've just been introduced to the wonderful world of kraft paper as a background (late to the game, I know!) and was really excited for these cards because I had just bought a value pack. 

Anyway, I used my Birthday Bash cartridge again for this card.  I just got it, and was excited to use many of the cuts.  They're so cute!  The piece of ribbon is from American Crafts, and I used my brand new Pink by Design "Scripted Year" stamps for the sentiment.  I don't know if I've mentioned yet that I love Pink by Design stamps, but I do.  I never realized how clear stamping could be until I bought Pink by Design.  Love!

Last, but certainly not least, is the birthday card for one of my sister-in-laws.  (Yes, I have many.)  She turned 19 in April.  This card uses some patterned paper from Paper Studio's The Basics stack.  The cuts are from Four Legged Friends (hamster), Create a Critter (chick) and Life is a Beach (lizard).  A little backstory: this particular sister-in-law has a long history of having had many small pets as a child that she loved but eventually escaped from her (multiple hamsters and the lizard) or turned out to be roosters and had to be given to a farm (chick).  The point of this card is that her previous pets have returned to wish her a happy birthday.  Plus, I had just gotten Four Legged Friends and that hamster is ridiculously cute!

You may notice the baker's twine (aka leash- it's part of the lizard story).  I actually made it myself, based on an awesome tutorial that I found on pinterest.  If you're interested, you can watch the original video here.  Basically, you use plain cotton thread #10 (I found mine in the yarn section at HL on sale for $2.22), wrap it around a ruler that has been covered with masking tape, and then color it in straight lines with some form of permanent marker.  I have a ton of Sharpies that I got in a pack, so with those few supplies I now have a lifetime supply of whatever color of baker's twine I want.  Word to the wise: color the lines kind of thin.  This pink was my first attempt and some of the marker did bleed together and didn't leave as much white as I wanted.  My second attempt (light green) turned out much better.

House Search 2012

Recently, we decided that we want to move.  I'm particularly excited at the possibility of starting from scratch in organizing and decorating a whole new craft room!  However, the prospect of finding a new home has been somewhat daunting.  Trying to balance distance between families, jobs, and friends as well as taking things into account like taxes and school districts has been rough.  Last week, we went for a drive to look at some houses, and I decided that we needed a binder to organize all of our papers. 

I brought home an old three ring binder that I didn't need any more at work and wanted to make a nice paper to insert in the clear cover.  When I do these, I like to use vellum as the main paper.  I have a whole series of cookbooks that I made with a similar idea.  Here I cut the words and letters from Birthday Bash.  I cut the house and the dog from Create a Critter.  The dog is Sophie.  :)  I used Cricut Craft Room to cut the tree from Sweethearts, because I wanted to leave off the hearts carved into the tree and make it a plain tree. 

It was a little hit-or-miss on sizing.  Did you know that when you cut the accessories on Create a Critter (in this case, the house) it cuts in relation to the main cut?  I started out trying to cut the house at 4.5 inches, and it was HUGE!  Live and learn, right?

And here it is in the binder!  Ready to start organizing.