Love Letters

Today I'd like to share with you the project that I made for my husband's Valentine's Day gift.  I found these wonderful little 3 in x 4 in paper bags at Michael's and just knew I had to have them.  Especially since they were on sale 50% off.  I loved the idea that they had the space for journaling on the bag and thought they were the perfect size for making tags and hoped they wouldn't be too big to fit in one of the mailbox tins I had.  After discovering that they weren't too big off to work I went.

I used a variety of cartridges on this project including:

Going Places for the globe

Create a Critter 2 for the owl, phrases and bee

Handyman for the hammer and nails

Paper Dolls for the moon and stars, and the weights

Graphically Speaking for the smiley face

Suburbia for the fan

Indie Art for the dice

Wild Cards 2 for the boat

Mini Monsters for the monster

TBBM2 for the tags

This is a picture of the front of the tags

And this is the back of the tags.  As you can see I printed different sentiments to coincide with the graphic on the front of the tag.

Once they were all put together I matched them up with the paper bag that also had the sentiment written on it.

Then in to the mailbox all but 4 went.  Throughout this week I've left one tag in different hiding spots (truck, lunch bag, bowling shoes, shaker cup) for my husband to find at some point during his day.

For my mailbox - I cut a strip of 4 x 12 paper, wrapped it around the box (cutting out a spot for the flag).  I then traced and cut out the pieces for the front and back.  The stamped sentiment is from Cardz TV Stamps snail mail.

Tomorrow I will place the mailbox - along with a Mine Craft Creeper plush (he's a huge Mine Craft fan) I picked up - in the front seat of his truck.......

Three Rules for A Happy Thanksgiving

You know those Chic fil A commercials where the cows encourage you to eat more chicken?  Well today I want to share a card that I made back when I first got in to paper crafting.  Instead of cows though we have a disguised turkey encouraging us to eat anything but turkey for Thanksgiving. 

 

I had a lot of fun creating this card and since it's been a while I think it's one that I'll need to see about recreating and updating.  Now to find the time to do that.......

 

In the meantime though, here's what I used for this one.

 

Animal Kingdom for the Turkey - cut at 3 3/4"

PPDU for the hat and collar - both scaled to the sizes I needed to fit my turkey

Everyday PPD for the glasses - also scaled to the size needed

George - to create the sign, I used two of the shapes and welded them together

George for the numbers - cut at 3/4"

 

And for a little added fun this Thanksgiving check out the projects the design team made over at Hiding in my Craft Room.  They're cute, cute, cute, and I think I'll play along with them.

Child Friendly Thanksgiving Place Setting

I originally created this project back in 2010 but wanted to share this with you as we draw near to Thanksgiving this week.  Plus I noticed that my original post referenced the instructions being in a newsletter that is no longer available.......

 

Of course I can't take credit for this idea as it was based on inspiration I received from Scrapbooks, etc magazine.  In the article it showed great ideas for setting the table for the holiday and one of those ideas was a paper pieced turkey as a crayon holder.  Immediately the lights went on and I thought what a great idea - now let's expand it and that's just what I did.  So without further delay here are the instructions......

 

Child Friendly Thanksgiving Table Setting

Supplies Needed:

8 count box of crayons

Rubber band & piece of string/ribbon

1 ½ sheets Fall themed paper    

8 ½ x 11” sheet of white or off-white paper

Cricut ink pen

Design Studio or Gypsy

 

Cricut cartridges:  I used Thanksgiving, Create a Critter, A Child’s Year, PPDU and Animal Kingdom, TBBM

To Create Placemat:

1.       Using the guidelines provided in Design Studio or Gypsy place a variety of Thanksgiving related cuts on the mat staying within an 8” x 11” area. 

2.       Replace the Cricut blade with one of the ink pens and print the images.  Ink edges.

3.       Cut a 12” square paper to 9 ½” x 12”.  Adhere the white page to printed page.  Ink edges.

 

To Create Personalized Silverware Pocket:

1.     From TBBM cut one of the tag pockets in blackout (and no hole) at 11 ½”.  See pages 112& 113 of the handbook.

2.     If your paper is not a double print place your paper print down on the mat before cutting.  This will keep your print on the outside of the pocket when folding and putting together.

3.     Create name tag by cutting a pumpkin from Create a Critter at 1 ¾”.  Hide the facial contours to allow for writing the child’s name on the tag.

4.       Adhere tag to pocket.

To Create Crayon Holder:

 

1.       Using Create a Critter cut the turkey and needed layers at 2 ½”.  Ink edges.

2.       Build the layers for your turkey EXCEPT for the very back tail piece.

3.       Prick two small holes in the center of the very back tail piece.  Tie rubber band to the tail.

4.       Adhere tail piece to the turkey to complete build.

5.       Add crayons by wrapping rubber band around them to hold them in place.

 Note: Crayon holder was scraplifted from the December 2010 issue of Scrapbooks, etc.

Test? Who's Got Time For That?

School is quickly approaching (one month to go) and that means it's time to start making all of those back to school projects the kids hate and moms everywhere are anxious to delve into.  Today I wanted to share a card with you.  This one focuses on those pesky tests we all love to hate, but this one is designed to have a little funny encouragement.....

For my project I used:

Locker Talk for:

the Desk cut at 3 1/2"

the Paper cut at 1"

the Pencil scaled down to less than an 1"

 

PPDU for the boy cut at 3"

 

Everyday PPD for the shoes cut at 3"

 

Plantin Schoolbook for the numbers/symbols scaled down to about 3/4" tall and welded together.

 

 

The inside sentiment says:

As long as teachers give tests, there will always be prayer in schools.

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! 

Birthday Circus

Happy Thursday, and two weeks until Thanksgiving everyone.  Today I'd like to share my project for the Just a Scrappin DT challenge.  This week we were directed to make a card using stripes and Autumn colors - only I somehow glossed over the Autumn part so my profuse apologies.  Although I guess some of my colors are autumnal - maybe?  I mean, there are oranges and greens......okay, I tried.  lol

 

Anyhow, for this card I used:

 

Zooballoo for my giraffe, elephant and Happy Birthday

 

Paper Doll Dress Up for the Circus tent

 

This was a quick, easy card and fun to play with since using various printed paper can yield so many spectacular results.

 

Now that you have seen my take on this week's challenge hop on over to Just a Scrappin to check out the other great designs our team has put together for you.  Then create your own, link up and play along with us.  I'd love to see what you come up with.

Cheers on Me

Happy Thursday everyone and welcome to another Just A Scrappin design team challenge where this week's directive was to make a project with a cheerleader.  As I was preparing my post I realized that I had a moment of craziness and submitted the wrong picture to my DT captain thanks to my not paying attention.  So if you've come to my blog via Just a Scrappin I apologize for any confusion.

Now that that is out of the way, for this project I used:

Locker Talk for the lockers and the banner on the 'school wall'

Paper Doll Dress Up for my cheerleader (not sure why I chose orange & blue for the uniform because I am neither a Florida or Auburn fan - Roll Tide Roll)

And now that you've seen my project for this week's challenge be sure to hop on over to Just a Scrappin to check out the rest of the great projects our team created for you this week.  Then create your own cheerleader themed project, link up and play along with us.

I look forward to seeing what you create.

Why Hello...

Happy Thursday everyone.  Today's project comes to you courtesy of the Just A Scrappin' design team challenge.  This week's challenge puts the spotlight on animals, embossing and buttons.  We were allowed to chose any animal we desired so long as we included 3 buttons and some embossing on our project.

For my card I used:

Mickey and Friends for the flower (embossed with swiss dots)

George was used to create the holes on my flower for easier threading of the ribbon

Paper Doll Dress Up for the fox's hat

Zooballoo for the fox dressed up with her little scarf made of eyelash yarn

I had originally designed this card three years ago so I had a lot of fun re-making it.  I don't know about you but I tend to save 99% of the designs I've ever made just so that I can go back and re-create them if I wish.  It can be a lot of fun to see how the styles change over the years as you learn new techniques and add new tools to your arsenal.

But I digress.  Now that you've seen my take on the animal challenge be sure to hop on over to Just A Scrappin to check out the other great designs made by our team.  Then after you've been amply inspired create your own project, link up and play along with us.

Birthday Easel Card

So last week my boss was talking about her birthday and how she's getting old so I decided to have some fun and make her somewhat of an over the hill birthday card.  To make it even more fun I decided to make it an easel card since I haven't made in what seems like forever.

For this card I used:

• Life's a Party for the Buzzard.
• Paper Doll Dress Up for the fence.  After cutting out the fence and drawing over the fence lines I also crinkled it up a bit before adhering it to the paper.
• Zooballoo for the tufts of grass.  After removing the cut from the mat I cut down into individual tufts.

My sentiment was made using MS Word and I cut that out with a pair of scissors and then pop dotted it to the card.

Christmas Squirrels

Now that the Cricut Craft Room is up and running I wanted to play around with my E2 so I broke it out and made this card using:

Just a Note for the squirrels
Cricut Essentials for the scalloped circle
Paper Dolls Dress Up for the Santa hats

I love these little Cosmo Cricket critters on the Just a Note cartridge but I'm saddened that my choice in papers did not help the card pop as I had envisioned.  Guess I'll just have to try a different set of cuts and colors for the upcoming CCC challenge for this Wednesday.

Stay tuned..........

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.

Spooks, Monsters, Ghouls and Goblins Challenge

Happy Wednesday everyone and welcome to another Cricut Cardz Challenge where this week the challenge  is "Spooks, Monsters, Ghouls and Goblins!"   Our directive?  Make a card for Halloween using any Halloween image, from any cartridge(s) and using any colors.


Now, I'm going to admit that I have been super busy preparing for a craft show this Saturday so I chose a 2009 redo that I fell in love with thanks to Papercrafts Magazine.  That was the time that using glitter on cards became all the rage and a particular project had caught my eye.


This card though I did more in a post card fashion so it doesn't open, but flips over for the sentiment.  I used Stretch Your Imagination, A Child's Year, and Paper Dolls Dress Up, and I embossed my trees to add some texture.  My background night sky is made of nothing but glitter.  I used two different colors beginning from the top and the bottom for each and then fading the one into the other.

So now that you've seen my card take a look at the other Design Team entries for this week for more inspiration then create your own and link up to share your design with us.  C'mon it'll be fun.

Last of the Onsies

Finally, finally, finally I have finished the last of all the onsie albums I needed to get made.  For the longest time I had an inspirational block but then I found the Cricut Lite cartridge 9 months and it was game on.  Not all of the pages for these albums used the new cartridge but it at least got me out of my funk.

And with that I wanted to share the new pages I made for these particular albums.

For the covers I used 9 months for the blocks and the heaven sent.

This cute little elephant is also from 9 months.

Now I know that the tubs are nothing new, but I found these great "bubbles" with the cutesy buttons at Michael's this past weekend and just had to redo these pages.

And finally, these cute rubber duckies were perfect for this new baby print I found.  The ducks and the hands are both from A Child's Year.

Halloween Envelope Album

I purchased this wonderful little Halloween envelope album kit from Scrapbook.com a few weeks ago and finally had the opportunity to sit down and put it all together this weekend. I had a lot of fun with this one and even broke out some old and new cartridges as well as some Martha Stewart punches that had not been used in a while - if at all.

So let's break it down..........For the cover of the album I use Happy Hauntings for my cuts.  When adhering my headless horseman I wanted the pumpkin raised so I cut it away from the die cut and then pop dotted for a better effect.

For this page I used Happy Hauntings once again along with some papers from Tim Holtz and DCWV and then used my MS cracks punch around the page set.

Happy Hauntings and Accent Essentials were used for this page along with some stickers from the Booville collection from My Little Yellow Bicycle.  Oh and I used my MS Drippy Goo punch.

On this page I used a cut from the October 31st cartridge and this is one that I just purchased this summer but had not yet found an opportunity to use - until now.

For this page I broke out one of the 'oldies' - Paper Dolls Dress Up for the spider web.  After cutting, I ran it through my Xyron and then sprinkled on some glitter fibers.  The spiders are from a Recollections pack in my stash.

The eyes have it......or so they say.....lol.....these eyes are cut from October 31st.....gotta love that sinister, don't mess with me look they give.

And last, but not least, my ending pages.....nothing fancy - just a couple of rectangles punched and distressed.

Trick or Treat Spooks

Today is the day that our Cricut Cardz challenge moves to Cardz TV and this week we are on challenge #91 - things that go bump in the night.  For this challenge our instructions were to make a card for "Halloween with the spookiest, scariest image you can find on any cartridge(s), and using any colors".


I chose to use:


Autumn Celebrations for my trick or treating spooks
Paper Doll Dress Up for the tree, moon and stars


The spiders are from a Studio G punch that I picked up at Walmart. 


And now that you have seen my card pop on over to Cardz TV and take a look at all the other delightfully spooky creations our DT has in store for you this week.  I promise you won't be disappointed.

You're a Cut Above

I've had this quote running around my head for days and finally got it put into a card today.  I had fun making this card - like I do all of them of course....

For this card I used:

April Showers for the squirrel, butterflies and tree
PPDU for the frog
Plantin Schoolbook for the grass
Chore Chart for the lawnmower

I don't remember which one I used for the clouds as they were leftovers from a previous project.

Mushroom Birthday Card

I saw a card this morning that used a mushroom as the focal point and it caught my eye to such degree that I wanted to make one of my own.  I kept playing around with different papers to use for the background and any patterned paper I chose was far too busy so I stayed with a clean piece of white.  Only problem with that was when I tried to take a picture.  ;o)

For this card I used:

Tinkerbell and Friends for the mushroom cut at 2 1/2"

Paper Doll Dress Up for the fence cut at 1" (I painted over the fence with white distressing paint and then lightly inked over it with a light shade of brown and gently used a distressing tool along the tops of the pickets)

Pooh and Friends for the sun cut at 1" and butterflies cut at 3/4"

Accent Essentials for my background - this piece was skewed to measure 3 3/4" x 5 1/4"

The cloud I had cut some time ago and then never used so it's from my non-used cut stash.  In other words, I have no idea what cart it's from.  lol

Once put together I turned this into a birthday card.  The inside sentiment says, "It's your day and I hope it's as special as you.  Happy Birthday!"

Glitter is Glam Challenge in the Moxie Fab World

Today's card is for a challenge this is going on over on the Moxie Fab World blog where the challenge is to use glitter in an "innovative way".  I'm not entirely sure just how "innovative" this is but it's the card I created as my challenge entry......Now I realize it's not a Christmas or wintery card but that's part of the fun.  You know, break out of the mold of what most everyone else is doing and go for the unexpected.  :o)

For this project I used Doodle Charms for the spiders cut one at 1 1/2" and the other two at 1" - I inked the heads with a blue metallic ink and used a red fabric paint for the eyes and pop dotted to the bodies for dimension.


I also used the spider web from PPDU which was cut at 5", ran through my Xyron and then covered with my black glitter fibers.

To place the spiders to the web I used orange cross stitch thread to mimic the webstring and then pop dotted the spiders to the card.

The font used is called spider bite and was downloaded from dafont.com

Growing Old is Mandatory......Birthday Card

Here's a simple but yet fun birthday card for one of those "over the hill" occasions.  This card was created to join in on the fun for the Card Creations: Favorite Occasions Week Birthday Challenge in the Moxie Fab World .

For this card I used:

Paper Dolls Dress Up for the clown
Create a Critter for Happy Birthday

The inside sentiment says, Growing old is mandatory.  Growing up is optional.  ~ Chili Davis

Child Friendly Thanksgiving Place Setting

Last month I picked up a copy of Scrapbooks, etc and saw an article spotlighting a variety of fun ways to set the dinner table for Thanksgiving.  One of them used a paper pieced turkey as a crayon holder.  Well immediately the lights went on and I thought what a great idea - now let's expand it.  So off I went, dusting off my Cricut markers and pulling out cartridges to find images that would work for creating this project.

And now that the November edition of the Wildly Whimsical Crafing Loft Newsletter has been published I can share it with you. 

For this project I used Thanksgiving, Create a Critter, A Child's Year, PPDU, TBBM and Animal Kingdom.  A list of other supplies used and complete instructions including cut sizes can be found in the newsletter.