The official Christmas card

Happy 2013!  While I'm recuperating from being awake after *gasp* 9:00 pm, I thought I'd let you in on what design I picked for our Christmas card this year.  We sat down with many of the Christmas themed cards I made over the course of the year and this is what I came up with:

I cut the card to fit my A2 envelopes on White Bazzill cardstock.  That's right, I buy the heavy duty stuff for the Christmas cards.  :)  Then I cut dark blue Bazzill and wrapped some silver ribbon from Michaels (it's the 360 brand).  I cut the Jesus and star from Winter Frolic with Bazzill cardstock.  The yellow and the silvery/off white color have shimmer to them, which looks very cool.  I drew Jesus' eyes and cheeks on with gel pen and I took his cheeks off using Cricut Craft Room.

The "Merry Christmas" banner is cut from Wild Card and stamped in blue ink with a stamp from My Creative Time's "Gift Card Sentiments."  I forgot to take a picture of the inside of the cards, but you can see the sentiment I used here:  Glory of Christ's Birth Stamp.  I stamped it in the same blue as I used on the front of the card.

Merry Christmas!

Hi bloggy friends!  Happy Friday and happy challenge day at Pause, Dream, Enjoy Challenges!  Today, our challenge is:

Question: Are you celebrating anything this month?

THEME: MAKE ANY TYPE OF CELEBRATION PROJECT

This month, we celebrate Christmas.  When I saw this challenge, I thought that it would be fitting to make a card that didn't have cute little elves or festive animals, but that represented the true meaning of what we celebrate this season: Jesus!

This card is on a kraft base.  I used pastel blue paper for the background, I'm not sure why it came out so bright in all the pictures I took.  I used some off white squiggles that I won in a prize pack from Julie at Cricut Chirp Challenges.  I cut Jesus from Winter Frolic.  His face was too small for me to want to cut his features, so I drew the eyes and mouth on with gel pen and colored in the cheeks with colored pencil.

I stamped the sentiment with My Creative Time's "Gift Card Sentiments."  

What are you celebrating this month?  Come to Pause, Dream, Enjoy Challenges and show us your celebrations!  You can stop by first and check out the inspiration from the rest of the DT ladies, and then get a-craftin'!

Let it snow

Good Friday to you! Are you ready for another challenge at Pause, Dream, Enjoy Challenges?  This week, we're doing a color challenge:

 Question: Are you decorating this month? What colors are you using?

Theme: MAKE A BLUE AND WHITE PROJECT

I love decorating for the holidays.  LOVE.  I love getting out all of my gingerbread decorations and Christmas ornaments.  Sophie gets a little confused- I'm not sure dogs remember well enough to know that this is something that happens temporarily every year- but she usually calms down.  I'm hoping to go out shopping during the after-Christmas sales this year and get myself a beautiful white tree and turquoise ornaments and next year be able to put a special tree in my craft room.  *crossing fingers*

The card I made for today is so simple to make!  I cut an A2 card base from light blue cardstock and put some blue snowflake patterned paper from All Seasons 2 (from Paper Studio) over it.  

The sentiment on the card is cut from Winter Frolic.  It's three layers- the white shadow, the dark blue sentiment, and the light blue accent letters.  I always forget that about the sayings that cartridges have, or I think of them only being for titles on scrapbook pages or something.  But the fact of the matter is that used alone, they can make really nice, simple cards!  

I finished it up with three little gems from Hobby Lobby in the corner and it was done!  I think I may make some more cards using Cricut sentiments.  

Take a break from hanging those holiday lights and go check out Pause, Dream, Enjoy Challenges to see what blue and white creations the rest of the DT has come up with!  Then pull out your blue and white scraps and come join us!

I'll also be entering this card into a few challenges:
My Craft Spot- Merry Christmas
Die Cuttin Divas- Holiday Spirit
Scrappy Moms Stamps- Christmas Time

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

Mother's and Father's day 2012

One of my favorite things about crafting is surfing the internet and seeing the things that others have created, and being inspired by what they have done.  Seriously, many an evening is spent at my house with my husband renting some action movie and me sitting on the floor with the laptop, browsing google images or pinterest for hours.  Both my mother's day and father's day cards for this year were inspired this way.  (Like their birthdays, my parents and in-laws each got the same cards for their respective holidays.)

For Mother's Day, I was inspired by this card.  I love her idea of using Christmas cartridges for non-Christmas events.  Otherwise, my Winter Frolic cartridge will have to be dusted off every year when I make my Christmas cards and then never used for another whole year. 

For my version, I wanted to focus more on the pink.  I used a pink cardstock as the card and a pink patterned paper from KI Memories Classic stack.  I used my Tonic Studios corner chomper on the patterned paper.  The yellow ribbon is, I think, from American Crafts.  All of my ribbon is pretty much in jars and separated by color, and it isn't on it's spools.  But I know I bought a lot of American Crafts ribbon at some point, so it's a good chance.  The cut, like I said, is from Winter Frolic.  I left off the santa hat that the mom bird is supposed to wear, and I drew their eyes on with a Fiskars gel pen instead of using the cut.

I stamped the inside of the card with stamps from Joy's Life.  The "happy" comes from Joy's Everyday Occasions and the "Mothers" and "Day" are from Joy's Holiday Occasions.  I love these stamps because with just two sets, you have sentiments to cover every major event in life.  I LOVE mix and match stamps!

My Father's Day card was inspired by this one.  I have the Wild Card cartridge, and I should be using it all the time.  But I don't.  So I was searching around for ideas of how to use it practically.  Like the inspiration card, I used the Happy Father's Day sentiment from later in the handbook.  I like the cream background with the various colors of blue.

The sentiment on the inside, "Celebrate," is from Pink by Design's Scripted Year.  Perfect!

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. 

Various cards

I made this card for my husband's birthday. The cake is cut from Simply Charmed on Paper Studio cardstock. The patterned paper is from the Paper Studio All Seasons 2.  The ribbon is from American Crafts- I bought it from Hobby Lobby in a whole pack.  It's cut to the regular A2 size dimensions.  Sorry for the junky picture, it's from my phone.

Next, I have this year's Christmas cards.  Again, they were cut to the regular A2 size.  The snowman is from Winter Frolic.  All paper and cardstock is Paper Studio.  I made two versions, varying the green and red.  The inside (picture 2) was covered with regular white printer paper and stamped with black ink.  The stamp was purchased at Hobby Lobby.  I believe it was Stampabilities, but I could be wrong. 

Third up is a Thanksgiving card I made to give to my mom.  The turkey was cut from Create a Critter.  Cardstock was mostly from my stash- probably a lot of Paper Studio and I think some Provo Craft as well.  The background paper was from the KI Memories Classic Prints Paper Pad- I picked it up at Michaels for 40% off and I am so glad I did!  It has so many cute color combinations. As far as I know it doesn't come in 6x6 or 8x8, but if I ever see it you better believe I'll pick it up, because it would be great to have the patterns in a smaller scale, too.

Up last, and possibly my favorite, is a card and bag combo that I made for our nephew's first birthday.  I had been really inspired by reading various blogs that showed these kind of combos, so I thought I would give it a try myself.   We already had the multicolored bag around, and so I pulled out my cardstock (you know, Paper Studio) and my new Cricut Expression (yay Black Friday!!) and went to town.  I love that the little dalmation from Create a Critter had the number 1 on his fireman's hat, so I thought he was perfect for a first birthday present.  My husband seemed very impressed, so I anticipate that this may become a staple craft for me as we go.  That's ok- it was fun!

Nativity

I've been messing around with my Cricut a lot lately.  I plan to make all of our Christmas cards from now until eternity, so I was able to convince my husband that I should buy the Winter Frolic cartridge.  :)  On Saturday he was working on his car, which means I get a free pass to spend the day crafting without having other things to do.  It really took all day, but here is the final result:

It's a nativity!  I used a dark blue 12x12 paper for the background, and a green textured paper that I've had for a million years (and probably got at the dollar tree) for the grass.  I had to freehand the stable, which has a plain brown background and a wood-patterned paper that I got at Hobby Lobby (Paper Studio, I think?).  I looked at pictures of the stable from the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge for inspiration. 

The angels and people were all cut at 3 inches.  The donkey was 2.5 inches, the sheep were 2 inches, and the star was about 4.5 or 5 inches.  The star is covered in diamond Stickles.  All of the paper for the people, animals, and star are from the single paper plain cardstock rack at Hobby Lobby.

This was a really exciting project for me for several reasons.  First, it was the first project I made since buying my stash of new adhesives, like a Glue Glider pro and a Zig pen.  I felt like a real scrapper!  Second, I had been planning it for a long time, so it was great to see it coming to fruition.  And third, after I get a frame for it, I'll put it up every Christmas to remember the beginning of my Cricut fun! 

Also, I watched a childhood classic, Thumbelina, on DVD on the laptop while I was making it (check it out sometime).  All in all, a perfect Saturday morning.