Anchors away!

The theme of this week's challenge at Simon Says Stamp Challenge was "By the Sea," which seemed really fun to me.  I'm admittedly one of the least watery people you'll ever know.  I know how to swim enough to keep my head above water in case of an emergency, and that's enough for me.  But I still really like the nautical themed things that have been scattered throughout the crafting world lately, I just rarely have a need to use them.  So this was a fun challenge for me.

I decided to make a little set of four 4x4 notecards.  I cut out the black and white cardstock, then picked out two scraps of beach themed patterned paper I had in my stash of scraps- the blue has starfish and the red has crabs on it. 

I cut the anchors and the steering wheels (again- not a water person so I have no idea what those are called) from the Life is a Beach Cricut cartridge.  I liked that they were very simple, which I think works kind of well for smaller notecards like these.

Flamingos

So there's a story behind this card.  Last weekend, I was talking to my husband and I was telling him about the challenges that were out and one of them was a flamingo challenge.  I was kind of blankly talking about different ideas to do and he said "you should make a card about lawn flamingos!"  It's kind of a joke in his family that they talk about the tacky lawn flamingos that people have, so I thought it was a great idea.  So...here it is!

This card is 5x5.  The patterned paper is from Recollections.  I used the Cuttlebug "Just my Type" borders on the blue strip of paper.  The house is cut from Create a Critter at 2 inches- it cuts relative to the size that would match the animal that is the main cut.  The flamingos are from Life is a Beach at 2.5 inches.  I added a couple of buttons to the top and it was ready!  I'm typing this before he gets home from work (but it's publishing just slightly after he gets home) so I hope he likes it!

I plan to enter this in the following challenge:
Pause Dream Enjoy- Flamingos or pink

Summer colors, part 2

Ok, here is the second of my Life is a Beach summer cards for the day!  For this one, I used another piece of scraps for the background paper (if you notice, it's the same pattern as the first card, just more water-y colors).  I repeated the strip of tropical words paper from All Seasons II, but put it at the top this time.  I also repeated the theme of having a small bling in her hair flower.  For this mermaid, not only are her eyes and mouth done in gel pen, but so are the lines on her tail.

I plan to enter this card in the following challenges: 

Cooking with Cricut- It's Hot Outside (Water)

Cardz TV- Summer Fun

Summer colors

With summer in full swing, I've been spending more time with my summer themed cartridges that didn't get much use over the winter months.  I've really liked Life is a Beach lately for summer projects.  For this card, I picked the hula girl from Life is a Beach.  I used some old paper from my scraps that personified summer colors to me.  There's a small strip of the tropical words paper from All Seasons II and a little bling in her hair flower.  I used gel pens to fill in her eyes and mouth too.  Stay tuned later today for the other card for this set!

I plan to enter this challenge in the following challenge:
My Craft Spot- Hot Summer Colors

Aloha

Get ready for a barrage of posts over the next few days!  Last week, my computer got a nasty virus and we had to reformat the hard drive in order to get rid of it, so I haven't been able to use my computer in awhile.  That means I've been sitting on SIX cards that I will be posting over the next couple of days to enter in challenges.

This first card has been bubbling in my head since January.  It was the perfect convergence of me getting "Pack Your Bags" and looking through my Paper Studio "All Seasons II" pack and noticing this awesome tropical print paper.

I'm a bit compulsive about sets of things.  It all began when I was a preschooler and McDonald's had Muppet Babies toys in their Happy Meals.  Whereas most kids might have been happy to just play with their skateboarding Kermit, I vividly remember feeling like I had to have the whole set, or else I would never be able to handle even looking at the other ones.  Compulsive, right?  Anyway, my point is I have a thing about sets, so when I realized that between Life is a Beach and Pack Your Bags I had a set of four tropical drinks, making this card became an inevitability.

This is a 6x6 card.  I used the kraft background and two different patterned papers from All Seasons II- the floral print and the tropical words.  I cut the green squares at 2 inches and inked the sides brown, then cut the off-white squares at 1.5 inches.  The cuts were all made at 2 inches.  I added a little embellishment in the top right corner that looked to me like a citrus slice.  It came from my miscellaneous embellishments drawer.

I plan to enter this card into the following challenges:

Exploring Cricut- Summer Fun (must include at least 3 Cricut cuts, 2 patterned papers, and 1 embellishment)

My Craft Spot- Cool Treats

Krafty Girls- Fun in the Sun

Celebrate the Occasion- Welcome Summer

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.