Dad's Day Card & Blog Candy

I'm not really sure why it is but I seem to find it easier to create cards for Father's Day than I do Mother's Day.  To make that statement even more ironic I find it difficult to make masculine cards in general.  Confused yet?  I know I am.

 

With Father's Day one week away I wanted to share another card with you and I also thought it would be fun to have a blog candy giveaway at the same time.  But more about that in a minute.

This was an easy to put together card.  I used the following cartridges:

 

Christmas Noel for the bear

Designer's Calendar for the tie and "Dad's Day"

 

The paper is from my scrap stash and I hate that I have no more of it because it's just soooo perfect!

 

Now about that giveaway.  I thought it would be fun to give away a set of Father's Day stamps from Fresh Squeezed Stamps. 

 

 

 

To win all you have to do is leave a comment telling me about your fondest dad memory.  Comment by next Friday, June 14th and I will choose a winner on Saturday, June 15th.  All I ask is that you live in the US for postal reasons - sorry.

 

My fondest memory is from when my dad was stationed over in Iceland (I was about 12 or 13) and we used to exchange cassette tape messages back and forth in the mail.  One of those times included a small hand-written note from my daddy telling me he loved and missed me.  Needless to say I still have that note and it is forever in one of my photo albums.

Make A Wish Challenge

Sorry that I'm late getting this one posted up.  Everything has been and eternal blur the last few days especially since my allergies kicked back in to high gear and I was trying to decide if I was getting the crud everyone has been sharing or if it was just my allergies.....

All that aside, I have a card I'd like to share with you for our Make a Wish Crafty Cardz Challenge.  This week we made cards for a child's birthday.

My card is based from one I saw in one of my craft books titled Pop Up Cards.  Now I will admit that my first effort to recreate this card failed so I went back to the drawing board - literally -  and used the body and gloves template included for this particular pop up. 

Other than that I used:

Paper Doll Dress Up for the clown's head

George for my balloons

Christmas Noel for the closed door on the front of the card.

And now that you've seen my card for this week's challenge be sure to check out the other fabulous designs our team created for you this week.  Then create your own card, link up and play along with us.  You have until noon EST, Tuesday, March 12th to link up and play for a chance to win a set of Cardz TV Stamps! 

Christmas Card Holder - Altered Project

I've been working on this project for the past week and half and am now ready to share this fun project with you.  These card holders were inspired from a Holiday Cards & More magazine published by Papercrafts a couple years ago.  I've been searching for the holder so I could make my own and as luck would have it Hobby Lobby delivered a sale email to my inbox that just happened to have them featured!!!  You might be able to find them in the store but since the closest one to me is an hour away ordering them online was well worth the shipping costs.

So I started my project with this........

And after a couple coats of white acyrlic paint, I had this.....

After the inside and sides were dried, I turned the caddy upside down and painted the underneath.  Once that was dry I took them outside and sprayed them down with a sealant to help protect the paint.

The next step was finding the right papers for each of my caddies.  Once selected I measured the rectangular sides, cut the needed sizes and then traced the two ends onto the left over paper.  In all one 12" x 12" sheet of paper was all that was needed.  After inking the edges of the paper I used Scotch quick dry adhesive, I glued my papers in place, carefully trimmed any excess and then lightly sanded all edges.

Now for the fun.  Deciding what cuts I want to use to embellish my caddies!  I wanted to use cuts that would enhance the papers used.  While some were easy choices, others were not as easy as I anticipated.

All caddies of course have the same folder.  I cut these from Grapically Speaking and repurposed an actual manilla folder for the job.  After cutting the folders I ran each one through the printer and used the Christmas card font from dafont.com.

I then used the following cuts between the four caddies:

Teddy Bear Parade - Elf Teddy Bear (pictured above)

Christmas Solutions - Santa (after several attempts to cut his glasses I gave up)

Create a Critter 2 - Snowman

Christmas Cheer - Candies and Stocking

Oh, and that card you see in my caddy - here it is in full view.

I originally cut this little bear out for one of my caddies but with the antlers he was too tall.  So I combined him with this tree cut from one of my Sizzix dies.



I hope you enjoyed seeing my project and if you make some I'd love to see what you did so come back and tell me about it.....

Old Fashion Santa

I love the way that this card turned out and wish that you could see it in real life because I promise that it looks better than the picture.  I made this one using Christmas Solutions/Noel, Accent Essentials and George (for the ribbon holes).

I chose this particular Santa cut because I thought it was perfect for the paper - another Tim Holtz Seasonal mat stack selection.  On the inside of my card I even printed one of the clip art pics of Santa under my sentiment to help finish/compliment the card.  And because I like the look it gave I decided to start doing that on the inside of all my cards that I don't actually scrap.

So what are you doing for your Christmas cards this year?  Are you doing just one design or are you designing a different card for each person on your list?  I'd love to hear how you're doing yours.......

Christmas Light

I was looking through one of my card magazines and saw an advertisement that had this card layout in it.  I loved it so much I just had to scraplift it!

I used:

Christmas Solutions/Noel for the street light cut at 6 1/4" and then stretched to widen just a bit
Accent Essentials for the scalloped oval and oval - both of which were circles that I skewed into the oval shape

The paper is from Tim Holtz's Seasonal mat stack.  Don't you just love all things Tim Holtz?  I know I do.

I Heard Him Exclaim

I first made this card three years ago but had lost the file.  Thank goodness I photograph all my cards (even ones I don't like - lol) because I was able to recreate and add a new twist on this one.

For those who would like to try creating this one themselves I used:

Christmas Noel/Solutions for the window (door cut stretched to look like a window and fit my card size)
Christmas Noel/Solutions for the Santa and his sleigh
George for the moon
PPDU for the hair and hand

I adhered the window frame to a piece of an acrylic sheet and then pop dotted that to the night sky so that I could add a little bit of flower soft and MS mica flakes for the snow on the window sill.

Elf Approved

Hello fellow bloggers.  I hope that today's post finds you and yours doing well.  As I sit in my craft room smelling the wonderful smell of Spruce mixed with Apple Cinnamon thanks to the air fresheners around my doorway I'd like to share another installment in my Christmas card collection this season.

Today's card is another that was inspired by one I saw in a magazine.  I don't remember which one but the card had an elf and a little tag that said "elf approved".  I thought it was a great card and chose to re-create the theme (not the card itself) using:

Jolly Holidays for the elf pulling his wagon
Christmas solutions for the bear and the baby doll
Christmas Cheer for the gift
Accent Essentials for the tag (which is pop dotted for effect)

Count Your Blessings - Altered Charger

Isn't it funny how sometimes you figure out a new "trend" before it even becomes one?  Case in point, I decided about this time last year to try my hand at altering charger plates like the ones you get from Michaels, AC Moore or any other craft store.  And now it seems to be the rage - I even have one that's being published in the November issue of Cricut Magazine.....

Today though I want to share with you a redo of the first one I created last year.  I used the same cuts:

Thanksgiving for my verbiage (Count Your Blessings)
Christmas Noel (Solutions cartridge) for the Christmas tree and the star
George for the Circle cuts
Speaking of Winter for the snowman

So what's different about this plate and the one I did last year you ask?

This time I decided to add a couple of different glitters for added texture on my snow covered ground.
The tree once again has textured snow from my snow writer's pen.  I sprinkled a little snow glitter while damp and once it was dry I came back with a layer of glossy accents.

I also decided to add a sentiment to the backside of the plate.

So now that you've seen my altered plate I'd love to see what ideas you come up with.  In the meantime, I have another idea or two running around in my head.  Fortunately I have several plates that I bought on clearance after the holidays last year......

Merry Christmas Circle Card

This week's challenge for Cricut Cardz Challenge was to create a Christmas card shaped like a circle using any cartridges desired.  Sounds easy right?  It was........until you get to the catch.......red and green are NOT allowed.
I started by looking through my Christmas papers and found the perfect paper.  Then I opened design studio and laid all my cuts out, but then I looked at my paper again and realized it had spots of red.  DRAT!  Back to the drawing board I went and this is what I came up with.

For this card I used:

Wild Card for the card feature cut at 4"
Christmas Noel (Solutions) for the reindeer cut at 1 3/4"

Joys of the Season for the star cut at 1"

To add texture to the card I flocked both reindeer, added glitter to the star, and applied a small amount of MS 'snow' along the top edge of the ground.

Count Your Blessings - Altered Plate

I created this altered plate for a Christmas gift this year.  A while back I had made a card with a similar theme and really loved the way it turned out so this time I decided to add to it and this time make it into a decorator plate.

For this project I used:

Thanksgiving for the font - cut in vinyl

Speaking of Winter for the snowmen and hats

Christmas Noel for the Christmas tree and star

George for the circle background

Clipboard Wall hanging

Tonight's project is the first one created based on suggestions/requests provided by you, the readers.  My recent post for blog candy asked that you leave a comment telling me what kind of projects you would like to see me create.  To date most of the comments have said home decor.  So I decided to try my hand at altering a clipboard and turning it into a wall haning for my first creation.

For this project I cut a piece of paper 9" x 12" for my background.  In order to fit it "around" the clip I cut a notch out of the top center of the paper measuring in 2 1/2" from each edge and 1" down from the top.

The 'title' was created with an 8" x 2" rectangle, the squares are 3 3/4" and the large rectangle is 3 3/4" x 8".  The blue squares and rectangles measure 1/4" smaller and were embossed.  I used:  

Christmas Cheer for Merry Christmas cut at 1 1/2"

Christmas Solutions for the nutcracker cut at 7"; Santa cut at 3 1/2" and the Elf cut at 5"

The clipboard is one of the wood/pressboard type so I sanded and inked the edges.

Glitter & Vinyl Ornaments

I know that making the glitter ornaments is the rage right now, but I decided to add a bit of vinyl to mine and I love the way that they turned out.  Especially since using vinyl is new to me.

And if you're one of the few that haven't heard about these easy to make ornaments I'll share how to do so and you can view the video that Happy Happy Joy Joy made on You Tube.  To make these you'll need:

Pledge Future floor shine
Glass ornaments from your local craft store
FINE glitter (preferrably Martha Stewart)
Ribbon, vinyl or other embellishments
small funnel that will fit into the opening of the ornament

Remove the hanger cap from the ornament, pour a little  of the floor shine into the ornament and gently swish it around so that the entire inside of the ornament is covered.  You can use a small piece of plastic wrap to cover the top so that it doesn't get on  your fingers.

Pour floor shine back into the bottle.  Using the funnel add glitter to the ornament.  Cover top and swirl around to coat the interior surface completely with glitter.

I allow mine to "air/dry" for a bit before re-capping.  Embellish with vinyl cuts, ribbon, etc.

Gift Tag Christmas Card

When I received my new Thanksgiving cart I saw this flourish frame and just had to find a use for it other than as a name tag for a place setting. So I created a gift tag with it and then used the gift tag as the "theme" for my greeting card.


For this card I started by using Broken China distress ink and a cosmetic sponge to ink the entire surface of the tag.  I then adhered the flourish frame cut, the baby doll cut from Christmas Solutions and the words "to" and "from" cut from A Child's Year. 

2011 CD Calendar - November & December

Yeah!  I finally completed this project and must say that I love the way that it all turned out.  With all the wonderful cartridges that have come out over the last year or so there's no end to the possibilities of what can be created.  And yet for these last two months of November and December I chose to use the following cartridges and cuts:

Designer's Calendar for the names of the months

Designer's Calendar for turkey and leaves
A Child's Year for the silhouette of the girl creeping down the stairs
Christmas Noel for the window

Speaking of window, when I created the window I used acetate to place between the frame and the silhouette so as to give the illusion of a real window.

And since this completes the entire 2011 calendar year I thought I'd give you a shot of all the pages in one picture.

2011 CD Calendar - March through June

I was so elated that I was able to complete four months of my calendar project yesterday.  Especially since I wasn't sure I'd even be able to get two of them done.  We were finally at a point in our remodel where I could buy the sealant for our walls (we're leaving the wood au'natural) so that I could get them done.  So off to Home Depot I went and then returned home to spend a few hours "painting".  But I did it!

For these pages I used:

A Child's Year (March)

Pooh & Friends for clouds (March)

Sizzix dies (April)

Accent Essentials (May)

Sweethearts for flowers (May)

Christmas for the bear (June)

Life's a Beach for the chair (June)

Designer's Calendar for the tie (June)

Designer's Calendar for the names of the months

Christmas Decor House Project

This year I made a few of my Christmas presents and this is one that I did for my mom. Growing up I can only remember one time that we ever had a family picture taken and I wanted to capture that in a unique way for my mom.

My house was created off directions found at Scrapbooks, etc. but enlarged to suit my needs. By that I mean that my house stands over a foot tall and about 7 inches wide and it's made from foam core board.

For the inside of my house I used a 4x6 picture which was framed using Accent Essentials.

The word "memories" is from Home Decor and cut at 1" tall

My fireplace was cut from Joys of the Season at 4.25". I then traced the outline on a piece of foam core board, cut it out, adhered the fireplace layers and then adhered that to the back wall of the house.

My stockings are cut from Christmas Noel, Joys of the Season and Christmas Cheer - all at 1".

The candle on the fireplace is from Christmas Noel - cut at 1"

My puppy is from Sweethearts and is cut at 2"

My Christmas tree is my first attempt ever at creating a ribbon tree. Howeve, I cut the styrofoam cone in half so that I could set the tree flush on the wall so as not to take up all the floor space.

Pahl is my maiden name and is cut from Winter Woodland.

The snowy eaves are from Winter Woodland and were cut to fit the roof size needed. I then ran them through my Xyron and applied MS snow glitters.

Winter Wishes & Snow Kisses - Pedestal Card

I finally set my Cricut free today. This is one of the designs that I've had sitting on my Gypsy just waiting to come to life and today it all happened.

For this card I used Winter Wonderland for all the cuts except for the tree which was cut from the Christmas Noel cartridge.

Santa Penguin

This week's challenge over at BBTB as to use the penguin from the Joys of the Season cartridge. After viewing the design team's projects and seeing how fun they looked I decided I'd give it a try too.

This is my take on the challenge.

For this card I used:

Joys of the Season - Penguin cut at 2 1/2"

Christmas Cheer - Santa's List cut at 1 1/2"

Christmas Noel - Lightpost cut at 5"

Christmas Noel - Wreath cut at 1"

Paper Doll Dress Up - Santa's Beard (stretched to fit)

Paper Doll Dress Up - Santa's Hat (stretched to fit)

The white on Santa's hat is 'painted' with my Snow Writer's pen from DecoArt (found at AC Moore last season) and then sprinkled with Diamond Dust.

The beard and list are pop dotted for a little dimension.

Winter Wonderland Altered Clock

I love the new Winter Wonderland cartridge and when I saw the ice skater on this cartridge I knew that I had to use it with this background paper I had purchased a while back.

I've been wanting to make a clock for a little while now so I finally bought a couple from Walmart and sat down and made this one a few days ago.

And since I've been asked about how I know where to place my numbers/images on the clock face so that it will tell the correct time I created a tutorial.

If you would like a copy of the tutorial please see the tutorials tab.





UPDATED: Wow! This is the third time that one of my creations has made the Cricut Chirp! and I am excited beyond words. Check it out: http://www.cricut.com/newsletters/volume.aspx?ID=202

Christmas Magic - Card Challenge #14

rstuck2003's homework assignment for me was:

Cart: Christmas Noel

Cut/s: Any you want to use!

Theme: Christmas Card

Perfect timing on this one because I had a couple ideas for creating my own embossing folders and after a couple of attempts I finally created one that worked. So here's my first card made with the folder.

The "magic" tag was cut from the new Winter Woodland cart.

I'm not sure that I like the way it all turned out but I still love the concept.