A groovy day!

When I checked on this week's Fantabulous Cricut Challenge, I knew I had to participate because it's a color  challenge, using purple, yellow and gray.  I've been using more purple in my cards lately and the first idea I had was a dinosaur, from Create a Critter:

Actually, all the elements are from that cartridge (except the sentiment):

Purple - Dinosaur

Yellow - Sun

Gray - clouds

I made a second card using the groovy van  from the Silhouette store:

Purple - van

Yellow - sun

Gray - van windows & front bumper

The sun is from Create a Critter and the sentiment is free from Bross Art - here.  (Scroll down to see it)

I love that van - they're now a vintage auto!  Makes me feel old....

Thanks for stopping by!



Bugs & Kisses

Happy Sunday!  The latest challenge over at Fantabulous Cricut is - Spring Cleaning  - create a project with a Cricut cartridge I never used before.  There's only one cartridge in my stash that this applies to - Living Simply.  The images on this cartridge are quirky and I chose the lady bug for my card, using today's OWH sketch - #220

 

This card will also work for this month's ODBD challenge, which is Insects.  I added a bit of Wink of Stella to the hearts and the sentiment is from My Pink Stamper (out of business).

 

My second card uses the same OWH sketch but this is a masculine version.  Today's sketch certainly was a challenge for me without measurements, but I like it and plan to make more cards using it. 

Sentiment is by Fiskars Holiday hoopla and papers are from my stash.

 

Well that's it for me today - hope you enjoy the rest of your day!

 

 

My purple issues

I like all the colors, but I fight with purple the most!  I have trouble matching it with other colors or even with other purples!  This leaves me with a stash of purple that lays waiting for me to use.

 

At the holidays, I find that I can successfully pair purple with silver and white!  Ta da!  Those look great together and I used them on this card:

 

The deer is from the Winter Woodland cartridge, the sentiment is embossed in silver on a white die and I added a bit of silver ribbon.  It was difficult to photograph, but I like all the blingy-silver, which the purple handles just fine!

 

I'm entering this in this week's holiday card challenge at the Fantabulous Cricut blog .

 

Maybe I need to just use purple more?  Perhaps with green?  I'll keep trying....



OWH Sketch #189/FCCB

Hi there!  I've been busy today catching up on challenges and I couldn't pass up the Name that tune challenge at the FCCB blog.  With my musical family, I scrapbook many music pages so I really use the Quarter Note Cricut cartridge a lot!

 

Here's my card, based on OWH Sketch #189:

The eighth notes are from the Quarter Note cartridge; sentiment is Paper Trey Ink.  Paper?  Who knows!  I had it last year and I'm still using it up!

 

I turned the sketch on its side, but I like the original orientation too, so I may try it again that way:

 

Thanks for stopping by!  Have a great Sunday!

 

 

A shape card

It's fun to go back to the beginning when all I had was my Cricut.  One of my first Cricut cartridges was Wild Card, which I've used a lot over the years, however, I do forget it, and when I saw this week's Shape card challenge at FCCB , I thought I'd dust it off for a fun card.

 

This is the doily card on page 52 of the cartridge, cut at 4.5 inches so it will fit into an A2 envelope.  The card sketch design is from this week's Mojo Monday challenge:

Papers are from the Nov 2012 Simon Says Stamp card kit.  Sentiment is Paper Smooches.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

 



Happy Fourth of July!

Hello!  Happy Fourth of July to ya!  I hope you've got plans to relax and enjoy today.  Our fireworks plan may not happen with our rainy weather here, but I'm still enjoying a day off.

 

I made two cards for some challenges today - all patriotic in keeping with our holiday.

 

This card is for the latest Freshly Made Sketches challenge:

 

I white embossed the Hero stamp and then used my Inktense pencils to wash the red/blue over it.  (Kristina Werner showed this technique today and I totally CASE'd it!)  I really really wanted to embellish it more, but just kept it simple.  This card also fits this week's OWH midweek throwdown color challenge of red, white, blue and kraft.

 

My next card will be another AnyHero card for the FCCB Red White and Blue challenge:

The My Hero is cut from the Stand and Salute cartridge, which I placed over a piece of embossed Kraft paper.  The stars are from the same cartridge, placed over a piece of jute.

 

Have a great day and thanks for taking the time to stop by my blog.



Father's Day Card + June Bootcamp

Well, it's Wednesday and here I am putting together a Father's Day card.  It will be a little late, but it's better than not sending one at all!

 

Papers: Simon Says Stamp June card kit

Sentiment: letters cut on cricut 3 times, stacked & stamped with Tsukineko Brilliance gold ink

Truck: Nifty Fifties Cricut cartridge

 

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

OWH June Bootcamp (I used the repetition of color; drawing colors from the pattern piece into the truck, sentiment, and "road")

FCCB #164 - Father's Day

Paper Playtime - Anything Goes

 

My second card for today is for the OWH mid-week throwdown - Things with Wings

:

Sentiment: My Pink Stamper

Owl cut: Lettering Delights

 

Yes, it's a pink owl, but in my imagination, there are pink owls!  Ha ha!

 

Hope you're having a lovely day.

 

 

 



FCCB Challenge #160

At the end of every school year, the band Moms organize a band banquet.  I've made place cards for the Seniors every year to make their table special.  This year, I created a place card that's more like a small stand to display their name and instrument.  This is when my Quarter Note cartridge gets a real work out!

 

 I used shiny black paper for the base and holographic gold/white for the name.  The font is CK Gatsby, which is the theme of the banquet.  This is the front of the placecard:

 

And this is the other side:

Now I've got make 26 more!  I hope my Cricut doesn't burn out!

 

I'm entering my place card into this week's Fantabulous Cricut Challenge, which is #160 - Congratulations Graduate. 

Thanks for looking.

 



Friday posting

It's been a busy week for me - I didn't get a chance to participate in the weekly OWH tutorial or Mid week throwdown, because I got caught up in organizing my craft space....again.  It all started at Staples where I found this wire bin.  It fits my Distress Inks perfectly and the bin fits perfectly into a 12x12 shelving unit I got from Target a few years ago.

 

 

That made me rearrange what I had on my desk and shelves and so I didn't have any time to make cards.  I discovered some paper that would be great for cards - that's always a good thing.

 

I used up the last of the papers from the May SSS card kit for this card:

 

Today's posting on the OWH blog was dedicated to Jane E, who passed away recently.  Her cards are posted on the blog and they're beautiful!  We certainly will miss her creativity and we were challenged to case one of her cards.  I wanted to CASE them all, but chose her watercolor card, because I had the same stamp:

 

I used a Tim Holtz background stamp with Shaded Lilac and then stamped the floral stamp in Crushed Olive over it.  I used a punch for the tiny flowers with Liquid Pearls as the center dots. 

 

I took a trip to Hobby Lobby and bought the new OWH stamps!

Sandy was right - the stamps were put at the bottom of the rack.  These that I found were in the ink section.  Poor little lost stamps....but I found 'em anyway!

 

One of my cards was selected to be in the Top 5 over at the FCCB Challenge #158.  Woo hoo!  It's always a good feeling to get a pat on the back.  Thanks FCCB!

 

Our school's annual band banquet is coming up soon and I'll be busy making decorations.  I hope to post them on my blog.  I discovered that someone pinned the placecards I made a few years ago.  That was a surprise!

 

Hope you have a great weekend.  Thanks for stopping by.

 



His & Hers class - Day 2 and a challenge

Today's class was another fun day full of techniques.  I used a stamp from the Paper Smooches Potpourri set to make a geometric design, using Tsukineko Brilliance ink pads.  I made the feminine version using the pink, purple, and blue inks and stamped the background with a Hero Arts stamp:

I added Liquid Pearls to the center of the images and around the sentiment.

My masculine version used the same Brilliance inks, but this time in metallic silver, bronze, and gold:

Adding the metal brads and brown background stamp keeps it more "guy" looking to me.

I also managed to make a card for this week's FCCB Challenge - Paper Roses.  We can make anything with paper flowers.  I pulled out my Pagoda Cricut cartridge and made the Cherry Blossoms, cut at 2 inches:

I cut a window in the card front using my Spellbinders dies and then added vellum and a border.  The cherry blossoms needed a bit of Liquid Pearls too.  I was inspired by last week's CBS Sunday show on the cherry blossoms in Washington DC - some year I'll actually go when they're in bloom.

Have a lovely day and thanks for looking!

Playing with gelatos ink

I really need to put myself on a craft budget.  After viewing this post at Ellen Hutson's classroom blog, I just had to get some gelatos and try them out.  At least I've learned not to buy the entire line when I'm trying something new - I just bought the orange/yellow set:

 

 

They are very easy to use and different from Distress Inks.  I embossed a white paper with a herringbone stamp, brushed the gelatos over it, then used a water brush to spread the colors together.  I was pleased with it and used it as a background for my simple flower card:

 

Those are silk flowers that sit near my craft table.  I'm glad OWH's tutorial was to use flowers because I never think to pull out those flowers and put them on a card.  And I've got a huge jar of them - I could make 200 cards of flowers and still not use all of those flowers!

 

My next card is for the OWH Mid-week "It's About Time" challenge.  I don't have the OWH Hero Arts Time stamp set, but I did have 12x12 clock paper that I used, based on last week's sketch:

 

I made the sentiments in MS Word. The sketch fit perfectly with the round clocks. 

 

On anothernote, one of my cards was selected as the Design Top 5 over at the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog.  Yippee!  That makes me do a little happy dance!  Thanks FCCB.

 

Take care and thanks for looking!

 



Inspiration from an ad

In this Sunday's paper, we got a Publix ad and I loved the color combination and thought it would be great on a card:

I thought the brown was a great neutral with the teal and bright green and those flowers look so happy.  The weekly challenge at Fantabulous Cricut Challenge is to use an umbrella and I pulled out my April Showers cartridge.  All of the cut elements on my card are from that cartridge - the butterflies, cloud, flowers and umbrella:

 

The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink.  I embossed the umbrella with the Swirls cuttlebug folder and inked around the cloud with a gold pen.  The bottom brown edge is from an EK Success punch.

 

Cutting and putting the flowers together was a bit time-consuming, but I wanted the umbrella full of flowers.  I'm also submitting this card for this week's OWH Mid-week throwdown Bugs Life.

 

Happy Wednesday everyone!

 

 



More card challenges

Here's my card for last Sunday's OWH sketch challenge #161:

 

I needed another sympathy card for my OWH box.  I used the Memory Box "Blooming Vines" die against a blue watercolor-y paper.  The "With Sympathy" sentiment is from the Wild Card cartridge which I placed over the white ribbon.  The Hero Arts paper is pre-embossed with the woodgrain background - just lovely!

 

The next card is for the FCCB's Challenge #150 - Fun with Puns.  I enjoy making punny cards for kids and here's mine, using the puppy from Create A Critter:

The cardstock is from SEI's Dill Blossom pack.  I thought this would be a good card for a father to give to his son.

 

Thanks for checking in and have a great Tuesday!

 

A musical thanks

I needed a thank you card to give to the nice lady who is accompanying my son in an audition and the card fits nicely into two challenges.  Over at the FCCB, their latest challenge to make something musical on a card.  With my musical family, I've really used the Quarter Note cartridge a lot (I think I've cut almost every image on it)! 

 

I cut the piano on page 46 at 2 inches and the phrase "perfectly executed" on page 36 at 1 1/2 inches.  The paper I used is from the Nov 2012 Simon Says Stamp Kit Just a Note and I put a piece of lace tape on the side as well.  Here's my card:

I'm also going to enter this card in Challenge #2 over at Paper Playtime, which is to use some brown.

 

Thanks for looking!



5 happy things

Hello bloggers!  Today I've got five things that make me happy:

 

1. I added another Easter card to my OWH box for the OWH Midweek Throwdown:

2. I made the top 5 winner's circle at the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog:

 

Challenge 144 winners

(Thanks FCCB!)

 

3. I worked out after work!

 

4. Tomorrow we're supposed to get sleet/snow in South Carolina!  When it arrives, we'll be outside snapping pictures like crazy.

 

5. It's almost Friday!

 

Yippee!!!  I hope your week is going well too!



A fun weekend & a few challenges...

I had a great scrap weekend at Scrapbook Creations in Spartanburg SC with a few girlfriends.  The best thing (in addition to seeing my friends) was that everything in the store was 40% off!  Wowee!  I spent too much money on new stamps and I can't wait to try them all out.

 

Since I had very little time to work on a card, I put these together quickly, loosely based on OWH's Sketch #155.  I liked the sketch a lot and want to give it another try doing it exactly as shown, but I changed them up a bit based on the visual element I used.

 

I had the Nifty Fifties cartridge in my Cricut because I've been working on a heritage album and cut out the car on page 46.  The plaid paper is something I've had forever and I was glad to finally use it!  I printed the sentiment on my computer and cut it to fit.  I made two cards - the first with the car cut at 2 inches; the second card with the car at 3 inches:

I'm submitting the above two cards for FCCB's latest challenge - It's a Man's World!

 

This Easter card is also inspired by the OWH sketch.  The paper is glitter, but it DOES NOT come off!  I listen closely to Sandy Allnock's glitter rule - does it rub off with a fabric?  No!  I bought the paper at Hobby Lobby last year in a small paper pack.  The easter egg is from Heather M: Flourish Eggs:

 

My last card is from a card class I took this weekend.  I love the happy little bears, which I colored with Copic markers.  This card is a 5x7 card, so it won't go to OWH, but it was fun to make something a little different.  I think I'll send it on to my mother-in-law:

 

I'm racing to fill my OWH box before the Jan 27 deadline!  I can see so many of my fellow blog friends are busy too! Good work, ladies!

 

 

 

OWH MWT & FCCB challenges

This week's Midweek throwdown at OWH is to make a No-Sentiment card.  I often end up with cards like this when I finish a card and there's no rule that says you HAVE to have a sentiment for every card.

 

I'm packing up for a scrap retreat this weekend and my Distress Inks weren't packed up yet, so that's what I used.  I started out with a Hero Arts diamond background stamp, which I stamped with Versamark ink and then embossed in white.  Next, I sprayed the image with Perfect Pearls mist and dried it with my heat gun.

 

Taking it another step, I used Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink to bring out the diamonds.  I cut a tag from the Cricut Celebrations cartridge and stamped Inkadinkado Fleur-de-Lis stamps, embossing them with Antique Gold embossing powder.  I used Aged Mahogany and Walnut Stain distress inks on my tag.

 

Whew!  What a lot of inking!  I finished my tag off with an antique brad and button paper that I distressed.  I think the card is a bit bulky now, so it will be an Any Hero card instead of one that can be mailed home.

 

Voila!  Here it is:

My fingers are all inky now!  I really enjoyed making this card and I appreciate your kind comments. 

 

This will be in the following challenges:

Fantabulous Cricut  Challenge 143

Stars and Stamps Midweek Throwdown



FCCB #142 - Shaped Card

It's been a while since I played in one of the FCCB's challenges and this week's challenge was to make a shaped card.  This was a real struggle for me because I pulled out my Gypsy and welded a butterfly from Simply Charmed.  I had to re-teach myself the buttons on the Gypsy because it had been soooo long since I used it!

 

I added bling to the card with Imaginesce buttons and used Liquid Pearls on the circles with the yellow strip.  Shaped cards are so unique and I'm glad I pushed myself to make one.  Now that I've got the Gypsy file, it should be easy to make more of these.

 

Here's the link to this week's challenge: FCCB #142.  Hope you're all having a nice holiday weekend!



Paper Bag Mini Albums #2 and FCCB #71

I'm spending most of my crafting time on the mini albums I'm making for my girlfriends (see post below).  I've gotten into a groove making the albums, and now the real challenge is to make a cover for each album that's unique.  So far, I've managed to come up with unique album covers.

Since the latest FCCB challenge is to make a fun project for a friend, I'm entering the album covers I've finished this week.  Here they are:

I used the Bargello technique from SplitCoast Stampers to make this cover (here's the post: Bargello)

This tutorial at Operation Write Home inspired me for this cover: Starburst

I cut this balloon using SCAL and an image from Lettering Delight's Balloon Craze.  Love it.

I made a mini banner and used baker's twine to string it on the cover.  "Memories" was written with my Cri-Kit pens and I cut out the embellishments from DCWV's Citrus paper pack.

This was a simple sailboat, waves and sun I cut out using SCAL. 

Since we scrapbook at the beach, I wanted to use flip flops on one of the covers.  I put some Stickles on them to "bling" them up a bit.

That's all I've got for now, but I'm not done yet!  My girlfriends don't know I've got a blog, so they won't see this ahead of time.  I can't wait to give them their albums in October!

Thanks for looking!



Paper Bag Mini Album - FCCB Challenge #65

Hi everyone!  For many years, I've been going to scrap weekends at Myrtle Beach with my girlfriends and this October will be the 10th anniversary of our getaways.  In honor of this, we're making each other gifts and my gift will be a mini album to give each gal.  I've never made a mini album and so I've been struggling with ideas that are quick, cheap and easy.

Finally, I came upon a video for a Paper Bag Mini Album from Following the Paper Trail blog (here it is: Paper Bag tutorial) and now I made my first mini album!  It was easy to make and I did it in about 3 hours (the housework will just have to wait).  For the album cover, I cut out a sun on my Cricut and used SCAL and my Cri-kit pens to write "Scrappin Memories". 

Here's the front cover of the album:

This shows the paper bag pages of the album:

We always take a group picture from each scrap retreat and I'm going to put them on the tags that I inserted into each envelope.  I added ribbon to each tag:

This shows you the thickness of the album.  I've used chipboard on the front and back to give the album weight and sturdiness:

I'm so pleased with the results!  Now I only have to make 10 more of them before our next retreat.  :-)  I'm entering this in two challenges:
FCCB challenge #65 - use a sun on a project - FCCB #65
Getting Cricky - created a penned project -  Getting Cricky

Thanks for looking!