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!  ;)

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

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

Happy Birthday card

Happy Friday!  It's been a hectic week here for me, but I still managed to carve out a little time to spend in my craft room.  I wasn't really feeling in the Christmas card making spirit (don't worry, all of our official cards are already made!) because I'd been working on my Silhouette advent calendar and was all Christmassed out, so I bypassed all of the many Christmas challenges that are around this week and instead decided to give the Make Your Own Background (aka no patterned paper allowed) challenge at Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge blog.

It was really fun for me trying to get creative and decide how to make my background.  First I tried embossing, but wasn't feeling it, then I tried ink splatters and really wasn't feeling it (especially after I splattered green ink on my white chair) and finally settled on Distress Inks.  For the background paper on this card I used Broken China, Peacock Feathers, Old Paper, and Vintage Photo.  I really liked the look of it when I got done- too bad I covered most of it up!  I ran a strip of washi tape across the card and then put on a square of the same color kraft paper that the card base was made of.

I cut the present from Doodlecharms- an oldy but a goodie- and then embossed the bottom part with the Swiss Dots embossing folder.  I put some ribbon on the top and used a gem to hold it together, then I put some Aqua Stickles on the top of the present.  I finished it off with three smaller gems along the bottom and a sentiment by Jaded Blossom (from the Picture This set) on the top.

Just because bird

Good morning!  Today I have a fun summery card to share.  I've been super busy this week working on finishing up my second album of my childhood album series (I'm up through my fifth birthday now) but of course I had time to make a card to enter a few challenges!

I cut the bird using the 3 Birds on Parade Cricut cartridge.  I love that he's wearing flippers that match his inner-tube!  I also cut a sun from the Doodlecharms cartridge.  I think that's my very favorite sun of all of my Cricut cartridges.

I wrapped some ribbon twice around the bottom of the card- I'm loving that look right now- and then tied a little knot on it.  The sentiment is stamped from a Paper Studios sentiment set.

This card is being entered into the following challenges:

Die Cuttin Divas- Just Because 

Exploring Cricut- Cricut Choice

Bitten by the Bug 2- Let’s Get Wet

Fantabulous Cricut- Heat Wave

Red Carpet Studio Challenges- We bought a zoo  
Simon Says Stamp- Anything Goes            

Back to school!

It's almost time for back to school!  Today I've got a very yellow card to share with you.  :)

I cut the school bus from oldie-but-goodie Doodlecharms using a scrap from the Basics pad from Hobby Lobby.  The bus doesn't have circles in the middle of the wheels, so I used a quick hole punch and punched it from the same patterned paper.  I layered it onto a piece of yellow paper from the Snap 6x6 pad and a branding strip from an Amy Tangerine 6x6 pad that looked like a road to me.

In the top corner, I stamped a sentiment from Jaded Blossom's Simple Sayings stamp set and underlined it with a piece of yellow washi tape that I cut into a banner.

This card is being entered into the following challenges: 

2 Creative Chicks- Anything Goes for kids  

Bitten by the Bug 2- School Bus

Craftin Desert Divas- Back to School

Paper Playtime- Lots of Yellow  

Jaded Blossom- Back to School 

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               

Hearts

Today I have a little 4x4 mini clean-and-simple valentine.  The card base is cut from New Arrival.  I liked that it was a square card but had rounded edges.  I inked it up with some Distress Ink.  Then I cut the mat from Elegant Edges at 3.5 inches from some My Mind's Eye patterned paper. The cut has a little heart in the bottom corner, which I put some red cardstock behind and then filled in with Christmas Red Stickles.  They look pretty dark here, but they actually match the red cardstock quite well in real life.

The heart is from Doodlecharms.  I used red cardstock for the shadow and main image, and grey cardstock for the middle layer.  It's popped up on some foam squares.

This card is being entered into the following challenges:
All that Stickles- Anything Goes                                                             

Shop Pumpkin Spice- Hearts                                                                         

CardzTV- Be my valentine (round/square valentine using card feature)                 

More than Favors- Valentine’s Day                                                                                         

Fantabulous Cricut- Queen of Hearts                                                                                     

Lexi's Creations- Valentine/Love              

Reindeer card

I've already sent out my Christmas cards, but the ideas just keep coming!  I've always loved this cute little reindeer face from Doodlecharms, but never had a good reason to use him...until I saw that he was this month's challenge cut at Simply Crafts!

This card is made of white cardstock with some patterned paper from The Paper Studio.  I inked both around the edges with blue ink.  The reindeer is cut from Doodlecharms at 4 inches and I inked him with a little brown around the edges.  His mouth is traced with a gel pen and his nose is...wait for it...a Hershey's kiss wrapper!  I like how shiny they are and it gave me a good reason to eat one....or more.  ;)  I just glued it down over the nose that was cut on the cardstock.  That's why it's a little angled on some sides...it was hard to wrap around the cardstock perfectly rounded.

I used some off-white ribbon as an accent, and stamped it with a sentiment from Jaded Blossom's Winter Wishes stamp set.  The pictures makes it seem like the stamp is kind of hard to see, but it doesn't in real life. I couldn't get a picture that showed it well, because every time I tried to use the flash I would get a horrible glare off of Rudolph's shiny nose.  ;)

I'm entering this card into the following challenges:

Simply Crafts- December/ Doodlecharms reindeer      

Play Date Cafe- Mountaintop . . . Icy Blue . . . Snowflake           

Some Pig

This card was inspired by a childhood favorite of mine.  Remember in Charlotte's Web, when Charlotte spun her web to say "Some Pig" to save Wilbur from being slaughtered by Farmer Zuckerman?  Now THAT'S friendship.

This card has cuts from three different Cricut cartridges.  I wish I had County Fair, because I totally would have put the pig from there on here as Wilbur.  The only pig I have is on Create a Critter, and it didn't fit with the card.  The spiderweb was cut from Wild Card at 4.5 inches.  I cut the words "Some Pig" from Lyrical Letters, using the Jack Sprat font.  They were cut at 1 inch.  I went over them with Frosted Lace Stickles.  I cut Charlotte from Doodlecharms at 2.5 inches.  I put some white cardstock behind her for her eyes and drew her a happy smile with a gel pen.  Then I made the string from the web to the spider by just cutting it out.

The patterned paper at the bottom is from All Seasons 2 by Paper Studio.  I added it at the end for a little bit of extra something.

I plan to enter this in the following challenges:
Creative Cutter Room- Friendship
DL. Art- Friends
Pause, Dream, Enjoy- On the Farm (cause Zuckerman's farm was the only concept I had of farms for a long time as a child)

Young at heart (Happy Birthday!)

For this card, I was jointly inspired by a sketch at Die Cuttin Divas and by the Happy Birthday challenge at DL.Art.  The challenge at DL.Art was to celebrate Diana's birthday, and I learned from following her blog hop that green is her favorite color, so that's the color I picked as the main color for this card.  I used my EK Success corner rounder for the corners of each layer of the cardstock and paper.

This little girl is cut from Sugar and Spice.  I had a horrible time with her face- the nose was too small, the mouth was a weird shape, and the cheeks were gigantic .  I ended up throwing out all of the parts of her face except for her eyes, and just drawing a nose and mouth on with gel pens.  I like it a lot better that way.

Her birthday hat is from Doodlecharms.  I added the polka dots and topper with Turquoise Stickles and three purple buttons. I stamped the sentiment with my Jessie's ABCs from Lawn Fawn.  No matter how many birthdays you have, what matters is how young you feel, right?  At least, that's what I keep telling myself.

Inside, I used a rubber stamp to stamp "Happy Birthday," but I forgot to take a picture of the inside.  Oops!

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

DL.Art- Happy Birthday

Die Cuttin Divas- Sketch

Back to School

Back to school time was always one of my  favorite times when I was a kid.  Weird, right?  I just liked spending the time with my mom and sister, driving all over for school shopping, getting new stuff to start off the year right.  This little card is for my mom, who still works at the elementary school that I'm a proud graduate of.

I cut the card base to A2 size.  The patterned paper is from the All Seasons 2 stack from Paper Studio.  I thought the crayons were perfect.   I cut the apple from Doodlecharms and the worm from Create a Critter.  See how I made a bite out of the apple?  Someone gave me a corner punch that is a kind of a backwards scallopy thing with a design inside.  BUT, if you make it so that the corner doesn't go in all the way, it just cuts a bite mark looking chomp out of it.  I made the twine with white yarn and a blue Sharpie.  I tied it in a bow on the front, which was much harder than it looks.  Then I stamped the sentiment from Holiday Occasions from Joy's Life.  

I'm entering this in the following challenges:
Cardz TV- School is cool
Cricut Chirp- A buzzing bug bow

Snowman Couple

I'm not sure why, but this might just be my favorite card ever.  It looks kind of simple, but it actually took a lot of cutting.  I'll start with the background and go up to give the recipe:

Card is an A2 sized light blue card.  The white part was cut on the top with an EK Success punch and then I used some of the Target washi tape to put across it (it's the two lines of blue dots behind the snowmen).

Both snowmen are cut at 3 inches from Doodlecharms.  I put the snowlady together upside down so she'd be facing the other way and outlined their mouths with gel pen.  I colored the areas of their buttons black and colored their noses orange (so I didn't have to make the entire layer cut again just for the two noses on orange paper).  

The snowman's hat is from the worm page of Create a Critter, cut at 3 inches.  I put Black Diamond Stickles  on the band.  His scarf is cut from Winter Frolic at 3 inches.  It's from Snowman 2.  I assumed that since I cut the snowman at 3 inches, that accessories from other figures cut at 3 inches would also fit.  For him, it fit perfectly!

The snowlady's flowers were cut at various little sizes from Create a Critter's Zebra page.  They've got just a little Glam Pink Stickles. Her hat is from Winter Frolic's Girl 5 at 3 inches.  Her coat did not quite fit at 3 inches because her body is so much wider than the body of the little girl it was made for, so I ended up cutting that at 3.75 inches.  

I popped the snowmen up on popdots so they would stand out a little.  The sentiment is a leftover that I bought at Hobby Lobby a few years ago in a packet for some Christmas presents I was making, so I have no idea who makes it.  It had a clear backing, so it was perfect for this spot.

I plan to enter this card in the following challenges:
Simply Create Too- Use it two times
Cardz TV- Christmas in July
Bitten by the Bug 2- Christmas in July
My Craft Spot- Christmas in July

Happy happy birthday

In my never ending quest to justify to myself buying Cricut cartridges that seem to be limited in scope, I decided to sit down and go through Winter Frolic this week and, coincidentally, found this celebratory little bird that fit a couple of challenges that I was planning to enter!  I cut him in yellow to make him a chick.  He's got a festive little party hat made from patterned paper and a sparkly ball on top that I colored in with some Firefly stickles.  He looked like he was blowing out a candle, so I made a little cupcake from Doodlecharms and used some Tropical Tangerine Stickles on the flame.  

This ribbon was, I thought, a perfect addition based on the colors I had already used.  Surprisingly, I picked it up on a whim from the Target dollar spot when I was there a few weeks ago with my husband.  I'm sure glad I did!

I plan to enter this card in the following challenges:
Cooking with Cricut- Child's birthday
Creative Cutter Room- Chick or chicken

A little sunshine

It's been hot lately, hasn't it?  It makes me want to relax on the beach, in a nice cool breeze- the inspiration for this card.

It's just a regular A2 card.  The cloud was cut from Create a Critter and I stamped it with a sentiment from AmyR stamps.  I think it was from the All Women set.  I just got these on Friday, and and having a great time getting used to stamping with cling rubber stamps.  The setting sun is from Doodlecharms, and has a little Diamond Stickles to give it some sparkle.  The waves were hand cut so that they would be kind of asymmetrical, and the sand was ripped.

The woman on the lounge chair was cut from Pack Your Bags.  She's relaxing on the beach with her lemonade.  ;)  I used some polkadot paper for her bathing suit (but here's a secret- I added the orange dot on her shoulder and enhanced the pink one on her side with marker.)

See the seashells?  They add a bit of dimension because they're puffy stickers from, of all places, the Dollar Tree.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Simply Create Too- Summer Vacation

Pause, Dream, Enjoy- Sunset

Pile it On- It's a Shore Thing
Tuesday Alchemy- No work, just play

It's almost the big day

It's almost here.  The day women dread from the time they turn 25....my 30th birthday is in August!  Aaaaaahhhh!

I've been throwing around whether or not I want to have a birthday party, and since there were a couple of challenges that I wanted to try I thought I'd make a first attempt at an invitation. 

The 30 is cut from Doodletype, and I wanted it to fill up almost the entire page.  It's a big deal, after all!  Then I wanted to add the little grasshopper from Stretch Your Imagination because...well...I think he's cute and I've always wanted to use him for something.  But I wanted to make him festive, so I added the party hat from Doodlecharms, cut with the blackout feature.  He's cut at 1.5 inches, the hat is at .75.  I even used some old Doodlebug paper for the hat- it's a doodle fest in here!

I embossed some white paper with my Cuttlebug Seeing Spots folder, and it looked SO HARSH against the blue.  So I used some blue and purple ink and one of my makeup sponges, and just inked all over the page.  It was still pretty harsh, so I pulled out my Ek Success corner rounder (the medium one) and chomped away.  That helped a lot.  Then I added the little hop marks with a black gel pen, and it was done!

Since it's an invitation, I had to include all of the information!  I used Pink by Design stamps Party Time for the entire page.  It has mix-and-match sentiments for all sorts of invitations.  It's great!  I stamped it in the same purple ink that I used for inking the front of the card. 



I'm not sure why the picture came out so yellow?  It's really a piece of white cardstock
and purple writing in real life.  I think it has to do with the flash being on.

 I plan to enter this card into the following challenges:

Fantabulous Cricut- Don't bug me
My Craft Spot- Birthday- what's your age?

Christmas Countdown

It took me until after Christmas, but I finally finished my advent calendar! It will be all ready for next year.  I have so many Christmas cuts on various Cricut Cartridges, and it seemed like a fun project that could last through the holiday season (and boy, did it!)

The base of the calendar is a cookie sheet (a large size, I can't remember the dimensions exactly).  I used two sheets of paper from the Paper Studio All Seasons 2 pack for the background.  I wanted to make the background look kind of like a present, so I accented it with some burgundy paper, which was from my stash.  It was a slightly lighter color on the other side, which makes me think it may have come from the Provo Craft cardstock that was part of my Cricut Essentials pack, but I could be wrong.  My husband drilled two holes in the top and sanded them down to make them safe, and I strung two pieces of ribbon through to hang it up.  One ribbon is a sturdy, silver ribbon with sparkles.  I'm pretty sure it was left over from my wedding.  The other ribbon was some miscellaneous burgundy ribbon that I thought would add to the effect of it looking like a present.  True story: I originally bought that ribbon to make a bell to hang from our back door so that Sophie can ring it to let us know she needs to go outside.  I probably got it from Hobby Lobby.

Next came the Cricut-ing part.  As I said, I used many cartridges.  I broke the pictures down into two rows at a time so I can go through and tell you where I got them.  My cardstock is almost all from Paper Studio, with some of the Provo Craft thrown in here and there.  I varied the cut size between 2-3 inches, depending on the cartridge.  It took a little trial and error, and unfortunately I didn't think to write down the sizes.  

Days 24-22: Lights cut from Create a Critter

Day 21: Gingerbread house from Stretch Your Imagination, circle from Accent Essentials

Day 20: Sled from Stretch Your Imagination, circle from Accent Essentials

Day 19: Tree from Winter Frolic, circle from Accent Essentials

Day 18: Ornament from Winter Frolic

Day 17: Presents from Winter Frolic

Day 16: Holly from Stretch your Imagination

Day 15: Cup from Winter Frolic

Day 14: Mitten from Simply Charmed

Day 13: Reindeer from Create a Critter

Day 12: Bird (I think it's a partridge in a pear tree) from Winter Frolic, circle from Accent Essentials

Day 11: Snowman and Snowglobe from Doodlecharms

Day 10: Ornament from Winter Frolic

Day 9: Snowflake from Accent Essentials

Day 8: Hat from Simply Charmed

Day 7: Gingerbread man from Smiley Cards

Day 6: Penguin from Winter Frolic

Day 5: Stocking from Winter Frolic

Day 4: Candy cane from Simply Charmed

Day 3: Mouse from Winter Frolic

Day 2: Star from Winter Frolic

Day 1: Jesus from Winter Frolic

Then I wrote the day on them with gel pen, two-sided taped a magnet on the back, and it was done!

Can I take a second to talk about Day 7's Gingerbread Man?  I don't own a gypsy, and I only joined the world of Cricut about half a year ago, so I was sad to find out that I had orignally missed the boat on Smiley Cards.  I love the little images on there and the silly faces, and this Gingerbread Man was one of my favorites.  When Cricut Craft Room was released to the public and the ability to download digital cartridges was announced, I was so excited that I could finally have access to Smiley Cards!  Yeah, $50 (plus tax, FYI) is kind of expensive for a cartridge that you don't physically possess, and I won't be purchasing the digital cartridges willy-nilly, but I'm glad I went ahead and got this one. It's really easy to use- you just design the mat in Craft Room, click "Cut." hold the mat in place, and it loads and cuts in one fluid motion.  You can choose to cut only portions of your mat or the whole thing at once, depending on how you've loaded in your paper.  It was great and I highly recommend it for cartridges like this one, that are only available that way, or for ones that are retired or hard to find in stores.