Hope

 

Today I have a pop card that I'd like to share with you.  I love to create cards that are uplifting and encouraging.  However, creating a card to encourage someone with cancer is almost as difficult as creating a sympathy card.  Or at least it is for me.

 

For this card I used Everyday pop-up cards for the butterflies.  I don't mind telling you either that I had some difficulty figuring out the pop up for the interior.  I played around with it using scotch tape so I could position and re-position without ruining the card and once I basically had it figured out I permanently adhered it to the card.  It's still not "perfect" but it works.

I also chose to emboss the blue butterfly for the inside of my card.  To emboss it I used the ribbon texture plate from the Sizzix scrap pink kit.

 

 

The word 'hope' is from Home Decor and was coated with "bubblegum" glitter from Martha Stewart.

The ribbon used for the 'body' of the pink butterfly is from Stand and Salute and was also covered in "bubblegum" glitter.

 

The papers used for this card are from Me and My Big ideas.  It's one of their Mambi sheets specialty cardstock pads.

And now I'm off the enter my card into the following challenge:

 

Scrappy Moms Stamps - Cute as a Bug - ends March 7th

Beary Cute Hot Chocolate Holders

 

Today I'm fast forwarding on to another holiday.  This time my absolute favorite holiday - Christmas.  I imagine that in about another month or so I'll be in full swing with my Christmas cards and other projects.  Until then though I have this one project.  After it's still July and I couldn't let it go by without one little Christmas in July project.

 

I love giving away treats and one of the ones that I like to give are hot chocolate packs.  I'll add in a candy cane and create a tag with a poem on it then package it all up and give it away. 

 

So to create my holders I used the following cuts from my Cricut cartridges:

 

• the cup (#M4715A) from Everyday Pop Up Cards.  I scaled the cup to 5.24" in height, copied a second one on to the mat, flipped the image, lined them up and then welded the two shapes together.
• and a circle from George.  For this one I unlocked the shape so that I could scale the shape to .17" high and 3.72" wide.  I then placed this up towards the top right of my design and attached the shape so that when it cuts that portion is cut out thus creating a slit for the packet of hot chocolate.

I also used the Marshmallow Loves Cocoa file from Marjorie Ann Designs.  That's where all my cute bears come from.  Using the print and cut feature I cut out each of the five bears that come with this file and used them to 'decorate' the front of my mugs.

 

The stamped sentiments that are on some of my mugs are from the Jaded Blossom stamp set Hot Cocoa.

Playful Penguin Gift Card Holder

With all the rain and cold weather that moved in yesterday we just might end up having a cold Christmas this year.  Of course the good thing about that is that I've been sitting in my craft room in my jammies, drinking coffee with the space heater going while I get the last of my gifts made.

 

Right now I want to share a gift card holder that I finished this morning.  For this project I cut the mug from the Cricut cartridge Everyday Pop Up Cards and George.  I welded two of the mug shapes together and then used George to create the slit for the gift card tag to slide into. 

 

To create my tag/card holder, I embossed the tag using one of my Christmas folders and then inked over it with some Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Broken China.  To hold the gift card in place I simple adhered glue dots to the back and stuck it on the tag.

 

The penguin is from the Playful Little Penguins file at Too Cute by Jessica.  The stamped sentiment on the mug and the snowman on the tag are from the Simply Christmas set by Craftin Desert Divas.

 

And now I am going to enter this project in to the following challenges:

 

Christmas - Craftin Desert Divas - Ends December 21st

 

December Linky Challenge - DL Art - Ends December 31st

 

Anything Goes - Fantabulous Cricut Challenge - Ends December 21st

 

Blue and White Hot Chocolate Mug

Happy Friday everyone and welcome to this week's Blue and White challenge hosted by Pause, Dream, Enjoy.  As you can tell by the name of our challenge this week's directive was to create a project using the colors blue and white.  And as you can see I cheated a little bit and added a pop of red to mine.  In true fashion with my busy life right now I did it without thinking but the gracious hostess that Janis is she told me I was okay.  lol

 

Now I have to admit that during this time of year I love making these hot chocolate mug holders.  They are such a quick and easy gift to make for teachers, bus drivers, co-workers and whoever else is on your list.  That said, for this mug holder I used:

 

Everyday Pop Up Cards and George for the mug.  I welded two of the mug shapes together and then used George to create the slit for the hot chocolate packet to slide into.

 

Joys of the Season for the polar bear.

 

And now that you've seen my project be sure to create your own card, layout, mini album, gift packaging, etc. using blue and white.  Then link up and play along with us for a chance to win a prize from this week's sponsor.

 

Need some more inspiration first.  Check out the other awesome projects created by our design team.

 

Oh, and this week's sponsor is

 

Mark's Finest Papers & Stamps
Prize: Train Talk Stamp Set

Come play with us!
...

Hot Chocolate Anyone?

I have been busy crafting away this past week trying to get myself ready for my craft show season which starts next month with our local Oktoberfest.  And the one thing that I promised myself I'd have plenty of were the hot chocolate holders that went like crazy last year.  I only made a dozen of them because I wasn't sure how they'd do and let me tell ya, I was sold out in the first hour.  Of course it'll be my luck that I'll be ready for them this year and they won't sell as quickly.  If that should be the case that's okay because they'll still make great gifts!

With that here's my first batch of hot chocolate holders.  I took my pictures in groups by the cartridges I used to help make it easier for everyone to see.

First up in the lead picture above we have the ones that were made using the  Joys of the Season cartridge.

These were all made using Jolly Holidays - one of my favorite Christmas cartridges to date.  Then again, they're all my favorites so who knows what I'm talking about.  (grin)

These were made using Winter Frolic, Doodlecharms and Life's a Beach.....hey I live in Florida so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to use a couple of flamingos this year...........

Oh and lest I forget, I used the mug cut from Everyday Pop Ups and George to create the slit for my packet of hot chocolate to slip into.

Christmas in July Challenge

Hello fellow bloggers and welcome to another Design Team Challenge.  Today's Christmas in July challenge is brought to you by Just a Scrappin.  This week's directive was to make a Christmas project using the colors pink, black, white and one color of our choice.  As you can see I chose the color blue.

Last year I made a dozen or so of these hot chocolate holders and packaged them up (along with a candy cane stick and a little tag with a poem that hung from the 'handle') to sell at one of my local craft shows.  Boy did I underestimate the selling power of this item.  I mean they went QUICK.  So this year I'm going to make up more and thought this challenge would be a good starting point.

To make these I used:

Everyday Pop ups for the mug - lay the cuts out one the mat, weld them together and insert a little oval cut from George at the top so you have an opening in which to insert the packet of hot chocolate

Snow Day for my character cuts - the scarves were embossed using the Tim Holtz Distress embossing powders by Ranger Ink.  I love the way that these powders look after they have settled.

So now that you've seen my take on this week's challenge hop on over to Just A Scrappin to check out all the other designs our team created for you this week.  Then after you've been amply inspired create your own project, link up and play along with us. 

I look forward to seeing what you create.

God's Promise

Happy April 18th - or International Juggler's Day.  Now how's that for a bizarre 'holiday'?  Hmmmmm, I think I smell a challenge idea coming on.......

Anyhow, back to the here and now.  It's time for another installment in Cricut Cardz Challenges.  Today's challenge is brought to you by April Showers, where our directive was to make a card using an umbrella, rain boots, clouds, raindrops, puddles, etc. from any cartridge/s we choose.  As you can see I chose to use a couple of the different cuts listed. 

On to the 'recipe'.  For my card I used the following cartridges and cuts:

A Child's Year for the girl silhouette cut at 4 1/4".  I cut away the umbrella from the silhouette so I could replace it with another one in color.

Graphically Speaking for the puddles cut at 1" and 1 1/2" hiding the contour for the flowers.

Everyday Pop-up Cards was used for several cuts including:

• The clouds.  To do this I cut the pop up mechanism at 5 3/4"and 4".  I hid the contours for all the pop up pieces and the slider holes in the clouds.  After cutting and printing the verbiage on the clouds I embossed and lightly inked over them.
• The umbrella on the outside of the card cut at 2 3/4"
• The pop up on the inside of the card cut at 6 1/4"

April Showers for the worm cut at 1" and the butterfly cut at 3/4".

And now that you have seen my card, why don't you hop on over and check the other awesome designs our team came up with for this week's challenge.  Then after you've soaked in all that inspiration create your own card and play along with us.

UPDATE:  I'm excited to have found out that this card made the April 27, 2012 edition of the Cricut Chirp.

Hot Chocolate Mugs

 

 

I know this was all the rage last year, but sometimes I'm a little behind the eight ball.  For whatever reason though I had the urge to make some and went on a search trying to find how they were done last year.  Once satisfied I opened up my Design Studio and went to work creating my own.

For my mugs I used Everyday Pop-Up Cards.  Oh, and I used George to create the slit for my hot chocolate packet to slip inside.  All my little characters are cut using the Jolly Holidays cartridge.

Now to add some peppermint sticks and marshmallows.......

Did Ya Hear? Did Ya? Huh?

Have an annoucement to make to your friends and/or family?  Here's a great way to do it if you're not able to break the news to them personally.

For the outside of this card I used the newspaper cut from Love You a Latte.

On the inside of the card I used Everyday Pop ups for the pregnant mom and the cloud from Graphically Speaking (cut at various sizes) to create the "call-out".

Hope you enoy this card as much as I did making it.

Pregnancy Congratulations Pop Up

By now you might have noticed that I LOVE pop-up cards.  Well here's another one that I put together this weekend to add to my arsenal.  I used the recently released Everyday Pop-ups cartridge for my cuts:

Bundle of Joy was cut at 3"

Pregnant woman cut at 4 1/2"

 

When I initially put this card together I had forgotten all about the PDF diagram file that Joy had posted on her blog over at Obsessed with Scrapbooking and kinda messed up.  But then I remembered that I had downloaded the file, opened it up, figured what I did wrong and viola.

If you haven't made a pop-up card before I'd love to see you give it a try.  They're a lot of fun......Hmmmm I think I'll have to come up with a challenge for us to all play along in......stay tuned for dets.  lol

Rush Delivery Birthday Pop-Up

I had some free time to sit in my craft room and play around this afternoon so I decided to break out my new Everyday Pop-Ups cartridge.  I've had it for a couple weeks now but didn't want to play with it until I had time in case I had issues figuring out whatever mechanism I chose.

So for my first card I decided to use one of the easier pop-ups and went with the airplane.  For the inside piece I cut the pop-up itself and also cut layers to add color and definition to it.  Before putting it all together I made sure to score and fold all the pieces ensuring that they would lay and work together properly.

The gifts on the front of the card were cut from Sweet Treats.

Now that I've made one of the pop-ups from this cartridge I'm anxious to do some others as I'd really love to see how they turn out.  Hopefully this will be a cartridge that won't let me down!