Valentine Mailbox

I discovered by accident that this great 3D valentine mailbox was the free cut of the week in Cricut Design Space and I just had to play with it.  I wanted it to be large enough to hold little valentine cards (like the ones we used to exchange with our classmates in elementary school) so I had to have a sturdy paper to use.  Fortunately I had enough sheets of this great heart paper from the Rockstar mat stack by DCWV to do the job.

 

To 'decorate' my mailbox I used this adorable Ewe Make Me Happy file from Too Cute by Jessica.  I used both print 'n cut and piecing for my sheep.  The one on the front of the mailbox is pieced and the two on the sides are print 'n cut.  The stamped sentiment is from the Say it Big stamp set by Craftin' Desert Divas.

 

After putting my mailbox together I decided to make a couple of valentine cards to go with it.  For these I used a variety of both Cricut cuts and SVG files: 

• Cupid is from the Cricut cartridge Seasonal Characters
• Ariel a combination of an SVG file that I layered with a heart from Gypsy Wanderings and some text.  After putting it all together in DS I grouped the pieces and flattened them so that it would print as one piece.
• Tigger is an SVG from one of my groups
• Love lamb is a clip art this is included with the Ewe Make Me Happy file that I brought in to DS and turned into a print 'n cut

As for the stamped sentiments - those are from Craftin Desert Divas (Say it Big) and Cardz TV Stamps (Snail Mail).

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.

Rocking Holidays

Yep, I just couldn't resist one more Christmas card.  This time though I decided to make it a little more interactive and added an action wobble to the mix.  I really love the way that this one turned out and this little elf just makes it all so easy with his stinkin' cute face.

So for this one I used Jolly Holidays for the elf and Joys of the Season for my snowflake background.  That's it quick and simple but cute as ever.

Now why don't you create a Christmas card and come play along in my Christmas in July challenge.  There's still a couple days left to join in...

Prayer of Encouragement

Just picked up the Chore Chart lite cartridge the other day and I admit I wanted it specifically for this cut.  However, I waited for Walmart to mark it down because I just couldn't justify paying that much for one cut.

The dove is from Joys of the Season.

Inside Sentiment says:   In those times when I can't seem to find God, I rest in the assurance that He knows where to find me.  - Neva Coyle

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.

Christmas Ornament

I've been on a little bit of a card making spree the past couple of days and now it's time to get some of them uploaded to my blog.  This first one is for the Santa Slackers challenge going on over on the Cricut MB.  And while I didn't follow the sketch to a tee it was the basis for this card's design.

For this one I used Joys of the Season for the ornament and verbiage.
I also used A Child's Year for the silhouette.

On the hanger portion of the ornament I painted with distressed paint and then inked with distressed ink in fire brick red.  I love the way that it added a common thread to the background paper I chose to use.

All in all a simple card, but I like the way that it turned out.

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.

Psalm 149:3 - Dance

Another simplistic card. This one was inspired by a picture I saw in one of the "flea malls" in Birmingham. I used Joys of the Season for the ballerina and George for the oval.

The inside says, "Let them praise his name with dancing"

Season's Greetings Stair Step Card

This week's challenge for Cricut Cardz Challenge was to make a Christmas themed stair step card using any cartridge we wanted. When I heard this I thought "Great, I've been wanting to try one of those". And then I chose my base paper......For me it was a little more difficult than I thought it would be, but not as much as last week's tunnel card. Why? you ask. Because I'm more of a scenery type designer and using the techniques we have for the past couple weeks don't really allow for that.

I did it though. I made my card and I'm pleased with the end result.

For this card I used:

Joys of the Season for the reindeer cut at 4 1/2"

Winter Woodland for the season's greetings cut at 1 1/4"

And my little elf is a sticker that I found last season at Hobby Lobby on clearance.

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.

Ice Skating Snowman

So here you have it - my first Christmas card of the season. Granted it's not very detailed or time consuming compared to others that I have created. But it's been a long day and I am very tired. I still like the way it turned out though, and have ideas for how to improve it next go round.

For this card I used Speaking of Winter, Graphically Speaking, and Joys of the Season.

My snowflakes are actually glittered but didn't show up as such in the picture.

Guitar Hero Layout

For Christmas last year we bought the children the new Guitar Hero World Tour and they fell in love it. Several of my children are either in band, marching band or have formed their own "garage" band with friends so this was right up their alley.

This layout was created using George and Basic Shapes (thanks to a DS file that was shared by another scrapper on the Cricut Boards - don't remember her name) and Joys of the Season.

Blessed Home - Christmas Card

Tonight's a two for one since I have not had time to post the past few days. Life has been crazy getting ready for three Annual Membership Meetings set to occur in the next two weeks. Thank goodness for cardmaking or I'd be in a white jacket by now. :o)

This was also inspired by a card I saw (remember no time to be creative with all the board stuff going on). It didn't turn out quite like I had envisioned but there were a couple items I just couldn't get my Cricut to cut properly because of the small sizes needed.

The house is 2 3/4" from JOTS. I cut four different ones so that I could layer for effect. The snow was drawn with the snow writers pen and then sprinkled with diamond dust.
Fence is 1" from PPDU and cut to create two pieces

The background paper is from Heidi Grace Designs and is Frost Blvd/Snow Blues.

Over the Fields

I saw a picture of a card that was created like this using 3 dimensional stickers for everything. Well of course I just had to try my hand at making my own using my Cricut Expression.

The snowmen are 2.5" from doodlecharms (eyes are mini brads and the scarfs are scraps of fiber strands)

Sled is 1 1/4" from JOTS

Mittens are 3/4" from JOTS

For the hills I tore a couple pieces of white paper and then drew over the torn edges with my snow writers pen and sprinkled with diamond dust. The sled and snowman in the foreground are pop dotted for a dimensional effect.

Let it Snow Globe

I used my Cricut and Cuttlebug to design this card. The globe was created using DS and George. The sled is from the Joys of the Season cartridge to which I stickled the runners. The penguins are stickers I picked up from M's and the snowflakes are cut using the cuttlebug Snowflake #2 die.

For the background paper I "painted" my dots cuttlebug folder with gold glitter ink and then ran it through the machine.

The inside of the card says.....

"It's lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you"

Polar Peace

I created this card using the wonderful cut file that Susan Bluerobot shared on her blog. (Thank you Susie for sharing your talent & hard work)

There is only one cartridge used for this: Joys of the Season

The ornament was cut at 3" using a snowflake patterned paper. To that I inked in gold for the 'hanger' and edges of the bulb.

I cut another ornament from glitter paper using DCWV's winter stack and placed the polar bear inside the ornament. The bear's scarf is cut at 1".

Peace script was also cut at 1" from a gold metallic paper.

Dreaming of a Pooh Christmas

I had this card envisioned for some time but never could put it together because I didn't have the Joys of the Season cart. So imagine how excited I was to find out that my mother bought it last week during the big M's sale.....

Fireplace: cut at 4" from the Joys of the Season cart using the DCWV glittered Winter stack

Stockings: cut at 1" from Christmas Cheer using regular red cardstock and DCWV glittered Winter stack

Baby Pooh: cut at 1 3/4" from Pooh Font using regular cardstock and pop dotted for dimension