Gone Fishing - Manly Card for any Occasion

I was thumbing through some of my old magazines the other night and came across a "boys" card in an issue of Your Complete Guide to Cardmaking that I really liked.  So this is my interpretation/remake of that card.

I used:

Campin' Critters for the fishing deer cut at 3 1/2".  His main coat was flocked with a MS brown colored flocking powder.

George was used for the block shapes cut at 1" squares and a 3 1/2" rectangle.

Quick, easy and I like that the end results provide me with the ability to use this card for several different "manly" occasions including birthday, Father's Day, get well, and retirement.

Give Thanks - First Published Work

It has long since been a dream of mine to have one of my "works" published.  For a couple years now I have sent items in to a couple of magazines (like so many of you I'm sure) hoping upon hope that they would pick me to be published.  But month after month it was not meant to be........until one happy day last year when I received word that Cricut Magazine wanted to publish my submission in the November 2011 edition.

And now that the issue is over a month old I am able to share my submission with all of you.  For this projects I used:

A Child's Year for the fonts, cut at 1 1/2"
Accent Essentials for the scalloped shapes cut at 4 1/2", 5" and 6" all layered using pop dots
George for the circle cut at 8"
Thanksgiving for the corn cut at 3 1/2"

Oh, and guess what.  I just received word yesterday that another of my projects has been accepted for publication in the upcoming July issue...............

June in January CCChallenge #100

Happy Wednesday my fellow bloggers!  Today I'd like to share a card that I created for the June in January Cricut Cardz Challenge #100.  Our directive for this week was to make a card with summer as our theme using any cartridges and colors of our choosing.  Since we're talking summer I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to use my Block Party cartridge for the first time.

Using Block Party I cut my grill master at 5 1/2".  To add a bit of texture to the mix I used my mosaic embossing folder for the apron.  Before running the cut through I smear some orange colored ink to the folder.

The grill was cut at 5 1/4" and while you can't really see it in the picture I added some glossy accents to the handles and wheel hubs.

The cartoon bubble (aka call out) was cut from Graphically Speaking and then pop dotted to add some dimension to the card.

So a man thinks he can cook better on an outdoor grill than what you ask?

............than his wife can on an indoor stove.

And now that you've seen my card be sure to check out the other awesome designs created by the team.  Then create your own, link up and play along with us.

Infinity Scarf

Who says timing isn't everything?  Here I am trying to make a nice, warm, cheerful card to get my mind off this silly cold front coming in only to find I have no blades....so now what am I supposed to do?  Yep, finish my infinity scarf.

I really like the way that this one turned out.  It's not only nice and toasty warm but it has a texture that looks good too.  I mean I'm not much of a pink person but this pink with black pattern is just fabulous looking and the pink isn't overpowering so I can wear the scarf with most anything.

The only drawback to this particular scarf is that it's made with a Boucle yarn that's 88% acrylic and 12% nylon which means hand wash only.  Of course I can probably put it in a pillow case with other delicates in my front loader and have at it.

Here's a closer look at it.

Frustrated, With a Touch of Summer Warmth

Okay so I sat down the other day and laid out an idea I have for a summer/Father's Day card and when I cut it my paper tore up leaving me to believe that my blade needs to be replaced because the mat is fine.  So I go to my draw only to discover that there are NO BLADES!!  What in the world?  In the 5 years that I have been papercrafting I have never been without a new blade..........until now.

Well today I stopped by Michael's on the way home from work because I wanted to pick up some of the yarn that's on sale and I knew I'd find my blades too.  Wrong.  They were all sold out!  Seriously?  I had this same problem with I was at AC Moore a couple months ago and we all know that Walmart has quit selling them so now what am I supposed to do?  I gotta tell ya this really stinks.

So instead of sharing my new card I guess I'll just have to share one of the older summertime cards I've made.  Just in time too because the temperatures here in Florida are dipping down low (for us) tonight.  I mean I've been hot flashing lately and I'm cold kind of cold.  LOL

Anyhow, this is a card that I made oh gosh back almost three years ago.  I just loved the idea of sitting under the palm tree enjoying life with a jar of cookies in hand.  Besides who can resist good ol' lovable cookie monster?

Power of Caffeine

I was sitting at my desk drinking my second cup of coffee and going through some old ideas that I had printed out years ago when I came across one that said anything is possible with enough caffeine.  Well that was all it took and off I was to grab my Love You A Latte cartridge.

Now I will say that what I had envisioned in my head is not what turned out on paper because I was dreaming of much grander things.  But given some of the delicate cuts for the size I needed it just wasn't meant to be.  That's okay though because I think the final product still turned out pretty good.

And now that I have this one out of my system I'm thinking of warmer days.  Yep, I'm over this little bit of cold weather in Florida already.  I absolutely hate being cold in any way fashion, shape or form.  So my sights are set on the dog days of summer and all things related..............don't say I didn't warn you...........

My First Pair of "Knitted" Socks

WooHoo I am so excited about the way these socks turned out.  My very first attempt didn't turn out so well because I thought I understood what I was doing when it came to the toe.  However, it was very obvious as soon as I took the sock off the loom that I had no idea.......So off to the internet I went scouring for a more basic pattern.  Oh I watched all the videos to ensure I knew what I was doing.  I even took screen shots and wrote out the directions so I could have them by my side.  But when I sat down with the pattern in the book - forget about it.

Isn't amazing sometimes how two people can talk/write about the very same thing and yet use different words that will cause the listener/reader to interpret it differently?  That's exactly what I found on the internet at Twitchy Fingers Blogspot she wrote out directions for the same type sock I was trying to make only her directions were much easier to understand.

So all of that said, if you've ever thought about trying your hand at making socks take a stroll over to Twitchy Fingers and check out her step by step guide - you'll be glad you did.

Versatile Piglet Card

I needed a thank you card and after looking through my cartridges this morning this cut was the one that ultimately caught my eye.  I love the baby pooh and friend characters on the Pooh font cartridge but admit that I haven't used them much.

Well today I thought that Piglet hugging his little teddy bear was a perfect cut for a thank you card.  Then again this cut would work other occasions including:  new baby, friendship, and love.

Upcycled Sweater Scarf

Over the Thanksgiving holidays I was introduced to a new craft called 'upcycling' and just fell in love with some of the things that I saw being made.  I began searching all over the internet, looking at blogs, etsy and anywhere I could find more on this interesting and not so surprising craft.  The more I looked the more I knew that I had to participate and so it began.....

I bought a couple of new books from Amazon Sweater Surgery and The Sweater Chop Shop.  Both books have some fabulous ideas but before I could play I had to find some sweaters so off I went to the thrift store where I found several for $1 to $3 each.

Now rather than hand stitching some of the projects I wanted to stitch them using a serger because I loved the look it gave to the finished project.  Problem was this I didn't have one......And true to his nature, my wonderful husband bought me one for Christmas!  However, I did not have time to actually sit down and learn how to use it until this weekend when I finally stitched my first (and oh so easy to do) upcycled project.

This scarf was so easy to do.  I snipped the sleeves off of 4 different sweaters.  Cut them along the seam to open them up and then cut as many 6" x 7" squares as I could from each sleeve.  I then laid my squares out into a configuration with which I was happy to create the desired length.  The I stitched the squares together one at a time with the wrong sides facing each other so that when the stitching was done you would see it.

See I told you it was easy.  And what a great idea for using up those unwanted sweaters you have hanging around on your closet shelf.