Recycled Cassette Holder to Business Card Holder

I have a fun project to share with you today.  As we all know you can walk in to practically any thrift store and find cassette tapes on sale for 25 or 50 cents - heck maybe even less as I bought mine a while back.  Now before you laugh at me, let me tell you I didn't buy them for the tapes but for the case.  That's right, the case.  Just imagine me standing there looking over the cases for cracks, breaks, deep scratches, etc.  And all for a 25 cent plastic case.  LOL

 

But it's what I'm doing with those cases that makes me so darn picky.  You see I'm altering them and using them to hold business cards at my craft shows.  And since I live in the Panhandle of Florida, with the World's Most Beautiful Beaches, along the Gulf of Mexico of course I had to use a beach theme.

 

 

So to cover my cases I used DCWV's Tahiti Beach Stack.  

 

For the cuts I used the Cricut cartridge, Life's a Beach.

 

I cut the hands, (one flipped) at 1" and the sandals on both holders were also cut at 1".

The stamped sentiments are from Cardz TV Stamps set Simply Said.

 

 

To cover the cassette case cut rectangles in the following sizes:

 

1 @ 1 1/2" x 4 1/4" 

 

2 @ 2 5/8" x 4 1/8"

 

1 @ 1 1/8" x 4"

 

 

Simply glue the rectangles to the cassette case, embellish and insert your business cards

 

And now I'm off to enter my project into the Earth Day Challenge at Die Cutting Divas.  The challenge is to use recycled materials. 

U R Amazing - Breast Cancer Awareness Challenge

Happy Friday everyone.  As I begin this post we are keeping a close eye on the weather as our area is currently under a Hurricane Watch AND I just noticed this morning that Jim Cantori is in Pensacola.  Guess there will be at least a little bit of excitement to the weekend after all.

Speaking of excitement we have another installment of Cardz TV Stamps challenges today.  Today our Go to Galz created cards and projects for Breast Cancer Awareness.  With that said if you have not yet had your mammogram this year it's time to get one scheduled.  I know they're no fun but we have to do what we have to do to protect ourselves and I'll be doing mine next week.

Now on to my project,  as you can see I created a card for mine.  For this card I used the following cartridges:

George -  to design the bust from a collection of circles, ovals and some other shape all welded together. 

Life's A Beach - I cut out the bikini top, removed the straps and used ribbon for them instead. I then embossed the cut and viola it's a pretty bra. 

Stand and Salute - for the ribbon.

My sentiment is from the Cardz TV Stamps set titled "This N That".

My printed papers are all from the Me and My Big Ideas Breast Cancer Awareness mat stack. 

And now that you've seen my project for this week - let's see what you create.  After you make your project be sure to link up and play along with us so we can all ooh and aah over your creations too.

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.

Flocking In....

Happy Friday everyone!  Can  you believe it's finally here?  I don't know about you but I didn't think Friday was ever going to come this week.  And since it's here that means it's time for another Pause Dream Enjoy Design Team Challenge.

This week our team put together a bunch of great designs featuring pink flamingos - or spotlighted just the color pink. Using my handy dandy Life's A Beach cartridge I cut out a few flamingos at 2 1/2 and 3 inches.  My bright idea was that I was going to cut off some of the heads and just have them poking in around the card but that just didn't look right.  So back to the drawing board I went and after a few thoughts I decided to focus on the one flamingo and created the oval stage for her.  Then taking a couple of the smaller flamingos I 'decorated' the inside of my card like this......

And now that you have seen my take on this week's challenge be sure to hop on over to Pause Dream Enjoy to check out all the other great designs our team put together.  Then create you own, link up, and play along for your chance to win.

Our Sponsor for this week's challenge is Clear Dollar Stamps!  who is offering a $5 Gift Certificate to their store!  So come on, what are you waiting for?  I can't wait to see what you create.

Summer's Here

I didn't have time to play in my craft room this weekend since we spent a good bit of our weekend getting some many needed errands ran along with some gym and cycling time.  So since I wasn't able to create a new card to share with you I wanted to re-share one I made a couple of years ago.  Hope that's okay.

I love the Summer season because it means I get to spend more time outdoors and I am such an outdoors person.  I could lay on the yard swing and just sleep in the sun for hours if allowed.  Unfortunately though I don't go to the beach much because I live in a highly touristed area and just don't think it's worth "fighting" for a spot.  So I wait until it's off season and go then.  lol

But I digress.........

To create this great little pop up card I used a combination of my Sizzix dies and Cricut cartridges.  The pop-up chair is a Sizzix die.  Then I used:

Mickey & Friends for the Sun

Life's a Beach for the Seagull, lizard and flip flops

The beach towel is a piece of fabric I cut using my Sizzix "dress up bath clothes" die.
 
On the inside of the card I used sand paper for my beach "sand" - although it's not white like our beaches here in Florida.  One of these days I'm going to have to see if I can find some white sand paper.  In the meantime this will do tho.  And I love the look that the sandpaper gives when using it this way.
 
Do you have a summer card you'd like to share with me?  If so leave me a comment sharing a link to your card.  I'd love to see them.....

Summer's Here and the Beach is Open.....

.....now that TS Debby has passed us by.  LOL 

Seriously though, it's time for another Cricut Cardz Challenge and the theme this week is Summer.  Use any cartridge/s and color/s you want so long as you create a summer theme.  And for those of us in Destin this time of year what says summer more than the beach and lifeguards?

I love that this particular challenge came along when it did because it gave me the perfect opportunity to break out a cartridge that I've had for some time but yet never used.  Can you guess what it is?  No?  Well....

For this card I used:

H2O for the lifeguard and the girl in the water

Life's A Beach for the lifeguard stand

Mickey and Friends for the sun and the clouds

My 'sand' was made using sand paper.  Of course I wish that I had some white sand paper so that I could make the sand as beautiful as it is on our beaches along the Gulf of Mexico.

So now that you've seen my design for this week's challenge take a look at all the other great designs our team created for your viewing pleasure this week.  You can find them over at Cardz TV.  Then once you've been amply inspired, create your own take on this week's challenge, link up and play along with us. 

Birthday Snap

As I was thumbing through the pages of the current issue of Paper Crafts Magazine I saw a crab shaped card that had the phrase "oh snap" on it.  Immediately this card caught my eye and I knew that it was going to be inspiration for a card to come.

Today just happens to be that day.  One of my girlfriends is celebrating her birthday this week and given her 'snappy' personality - not crabby but fun and quirky - I wanted to use that phrase for her card.  At the same time I'm also creating a card for the Bitten By The Bug 2's Water Theme Challenge.

For this card I used:

Life's a Beach for the font, birds and the little mound upon which my palm tree sits
Create a Critter for the crab
Doodlecharms for the palm tree

My beach was created using sand paper and my little mound was also cut from sand paper.  I also embossed my water to help give it a bit of a wavy look.

From This to That - Diaper Cake

My girlfriend Kari called me last week asking for help with some die cuts she needed to embellish a diaper cake she was making for another one of her girlfriends.  Well after talking about what images, sizes, colors, and fonts she wanted we came up with all the pieces you see here.

That's over 40 leaves - about a dozen of which I embossed and stamped for some added texture; 20 bananas, 2 palm trees and the name Ayden cut twice and 'shadowed'.  The leaves and banana are from Create a Critter, the font is Life's a Beach and the trees are from Stretch Your Imagination.

Kari was happy with the cuts and I asked her to please share pics of the finished cake so that I could blog about it.  Well she shared as asked and I'm glad she did because it turned out beautifully....

Fun in the Sun

This week's Cricut Cardz Challenge was to use a summer apparel or accessory cut from any cartridge.  I thought, and I thought about this one but I kept drawing a blank as to what I could really do with summer apparel.  Problem was nothing came to mind.  Sooooo, I chose to use "accessories".

For this card I used Life's a Beach for the umbrella and the adirondack chair.  Everyday Paper Dolls was used for the towel and the beach ball is just a sticker I found in my stash.

My 'beach front' was made using sand paper to give it a more textured look and feel.  Being from the Panhandle of Florida where we have some of the World's Most Beautiful Beaches I would have loved it even more if I could find white sandpaper.  Oh well..........

Fishing You A Happy Birthday

I found a set of four sea life charms by Blue Moon at Walmart yesterday and instantly fell in love with them.  As soon as I saw them I knew that they would be perfect to use in tunnel cards and so I bought a set. 

I started designing the card last night and just finished it this afternoon.  For this one I used:

George to cut the inside mat and ovals for creating my tunnel and frame.

Tags, Bags, Boxes and More for the tag on the front of the card.

Sweet Treats for the cake.

Life's a Beach for all other cuts.

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

Summertime Pop-Up

WooHoo!  I was so excited yesterday when the FedEx guy showed up at my house last night with my Sizzix order.  I managed to order three of the pop-up dies that I've been drooling over for months now and couldn't wait to open one up and get crafting.

For this card I used not only Sizzix dies, but also a couple of Cricut cartridges - including:

Mickey & Friends for the Sun

Life's a Beach for the Seagull, lizard and flip flops

The beach towel was cut from fabric using one of my Sizzix "dress up bath clothes" die.  I used sand paper for my beach "sand" - although it's not white like our beaches here in Florida.  (That's right, not all of them have oil.)  And my sentiment is from Quote Garden .

I will say too that the pics are not the best in the world.  Well not the one of the outside of the card at least.  I tried snapping it several times and it kept washing out the colors for some reason.  So then I decided to scan it and the colors are still off, but at least you can see what it looks like......

Shiver Me Timbers - Child's Birthday

I woke up early this morning thanks to our youngest son waking early and in turn the dogs.  So while I waited for the rest of the family stir I decided to begin designing cards.  By lunch time I had three cut out, waiting for me to start and finish housework so I could come back and play some more.

This is one of my three creations.  The octopus is cut at 3" from Create a Critter and the treasure chest is cut at 2 1/2" from Life's a Beach.  I traced what should have been the metal trim with a puffy paint and then applied glitter for the bling.  My jewels are a mixture of rhinestones and a metallic type jewel.  I wish I had some more of my faux pearls but I couldn't find them anywhere.

Finally, my background paper is from DCWV stack All About Boys.  I absolutely LOVE this paper stack - it is some of the best that I have seen in a long time.

What's Up

I made this card a week ago with just the vehicle and surf board and every time I looked at it I knew it was missing something.  So, I set the card on the table in front of me so that whenever I sat at the computer I had to see it.

Today, I was cleaning and organizing the container that has the Sizzix cuts I made over the winter when I came across the girl in the hula skirt.  Of course I had to see if it would work and I believe that it does.  What do you think?

Romans 10:15 - Beautiful Feet

This card was inspired by a picture I saw. Needless to say it's kind of given me a new direction for some of my cardmaking and in the days and weeks ahead you'll start seeing more cards designed around a Scripture.

For this card though I used Life's a Beach.

Cookie Monster - Just Because

It's been a while since I've posted and I really had no idea how long until this evening. Life has just been so crazy lately.....

Last night I created this card and had envisioned it turning out differently. However, when I started to put it all together my original idea wouldn't work so I went for this instead.

For this card I used

Sesame Street Friends - Cookie at 3"

Paper Doll Dress Up - Palm Tree at 5"

Life's a Beach - Crab at 1"

This is only the second time that I have used the new Life's a Beach cartridge and all I can say is that I cannot wait until Design Studio is updated to include this one. I guess I'm just too spoiled with being able to visualize what I'm cutting before I actually do it.