A Special Tinkerbell Card

My beautiful, wonderful, rambunctious, sassy, smart, silly niece is turning 2 on Sunday (sniff, sniff) and she is having a Tinkerbell birthday party. Of course, I wanted to make her a special card. I was looking through the Tinkerbell and Friends handbook and I saw the little Tink that looks like she is sitting on something with her legs hanging over. I immediately thought that she should sit on a 2.

Then, in a stroke of pure genius, I decided to do an easel card! I absolutely love, love, love how it turned out. This is my favorite card that I have made so far!

The card is a 4 1/4 inch base and I think I cut the 2 at 3 3/4 from Varsity Letter. I wanted Tink to have a nice ledge to sit on.

Tink is about 4 inches and is fully Stickled so she sparkles and shimmers perfectly! The paper is Poteeka Souffle and I love it!

The sentiment is cut from Lyrical Letters and welded with Design Studio. Ribbon is cheapy ribbon from Walmart.

This card turned out exactly as I dreamed it in my head and I can not wait to give it to my niece...then take it away before she tears it to shreds! ;)

Blog Candy Winner!

 Thank you all so much for the wonderful comments and becoming followers on my blog! I greatly enjoyed the blog hop and hope to participate in more in the future!

I used random.org to generate a number for the winner...the result was #60!

The winner, Sue in CT said: "Great cards. I love the tri-folded shutter the most. I love the colors/paper you used and all them folds are just so wonderful. It is something that I think people who walk by would have to take a second look at. Very pretty."

Watch your email and thanks so much for the great comment!

Masculine Birthday Cards

First of all, thanks soooo much to all of my new followers and all of the comments on my blog hop post from yesterday! I will leave it open today and pick a winner on Monday! I am so, so excited to have so many new followers and I look forward to sharing my crafts and looking at everyone elses blog's as well!

Now for my personal challenge...
I set myself a challenge to complete 25 masculine birthday cards--a HUGE undertaking because I like all types of girly things and don't find a lot of motivation to make stuff for boys. I started sketching and was pretty proud of the designs that I came up with and I ordered Boys Will Be Boys, which has been on my wish list for a while. I was able to grab it from Ebay for a good price/free shipping and I should be getting it in a few days.

Anyway, I have made 7 so far--6 for the Cards for Soldiers group and one for my sister's boyfriend. You can see the first two cards here and here. I thought I would post the others in groups of 5.

Mr. Snake is from Create a Critter, the background paper is Recollections Bright and Basic, embossing is Spots and Dots and the twine is from The Twinery.

The Ipod is from Rock Princess (who knew you could make boy cards with a cartridge named Rock Princess!), background paper is The Paper Studio Classics and the pod is cut from DCWV Shimmer Stack--makes it look so real!

Rex from Toy Story and background paper is DCWV Animal Crackers. Originally I thought Rex would be pretty easy to put together--I DID NOT account for those stinking little teeth. I had to draw some in with the white pen because I couldn't get those teensy-weensy little pieces to cut right!

Not really my favorite (didn't turn out exactly like I pictured in my head), but the presents and hat are from Simply Charmed, embossing is Swiss Dots and Sizzix Birthday Stars and background paper is Recollections Bright and Basic.

Oh, Mr. Hook is last for today! His teeth were a hassle too! I cut his hook from DCWV Shimmer Stack so it looks like real metal. I think the background paper is from Recollections All Girl stack and the sentiment is from S&P Stamps.

All done for now! Should have five more cards shortly...I am making a Tinkerbell cake for my niece's 2nd birthday this weekend so I will be working on that this week as well!

It's Motions and Folds Blog Hop Day!!!!

I am so very excited to be participating in my first blog hop! I really enjoy blog hops and I was pleased to visit Ellen at http://cardmonkey-business.blogspot.com/ (also the first stop of the hop!) and saw that she was looking for people to join her in creating projects that use motions or folds and jumped at the chance to join. I have never even made a card that fit into the category so I considered it a challenge. And I HAD to buy that scored board that I had wanted!

First off, here is the lineup in case you just stumbled on here and want to start at the beginning--you should! Lots of great projects!

1. Ellen at http://www.cardmonkey-business.blogspot.com/
2. Selina at http://www.mudpiereality.blogspot.com/
3. Sarah at http://www.simplyshaddock.blogspot.com/
4. Jessica at http://www.thecreativestamperspot.blogspot.com/
5. Sue at http://www.susanascorner.blogspot.com/
6. Janice at http://www.cricutology.blogspot.com/
7. Wendy at http://www.wendyscreativecraftingcorner.blogspot.com/
8. Kacee at http://www.youhadmeatscrap.blogspot.com/
9. Jennifer at http://www.craftycardgallery.blogspot.com/
10. Amanda at http://www.stellarscraps.blogspot.com/ ---You Are Here!!
11. Kim at http://www.rickettscricuts.blogspot.com/
12. Brynn at http://www.flairandfrillscreativity.blogspot.com/
13. Ashley at http://www.scraptasticideas.blogspot.com/
14. Nikki at http://www.theglamoroussideofscrapping.blogspot.com/
15. Elaine at http://www.expressionsbyelaine.blogspot.com/

Now, here is my card! I have wanted to make a trifold shutter card for a while but I lacked the score board and the confidence. Thanks to a little shopping and some googling for directions, I found a great tutorial HERE. The directions were super easy to follow and I would reccommend it to anyone wanting to try this type of card.

Here is the base of my card after scoring and cutting (I neglected to take any pictures of that--check out that awesome tutorial!).

Next, I did the cuts for the paper to cover each surface and did a dry fit before glueing them on. The hardest part of the entire card was getting the proper cut for the lime zebra paper. Admittedly, I am not very skilled with the paper cutter but it all worked out in the end.

The complicated part is over!!! Now for the fun part--embellishing! I like to keep things pretty simple and I was making this card for my sister's 20th birthday so I kept her in mind as I decorated.

I used Simply Charmed for the cake and Birthday Bash for the balloons and tied them with a little piece of twine. I also used the Happy Birthday Cuttlebug folder for the silver shimmer paper behind the cake. I also added a pretty purple ribbon, a button with some twine and some faux stitching to finish it off.

There you have it! My very first blog hop and my very first fancy card! My sister loved it--she laughed because she couldn't figure out how to open it at first!

Because I was motivated to make cards with interesting folds, I also made my first easel card to give to my mother-in-law on her birthday next week. Here is the tutorial I used and here is the card!

Your next stop is Kim at http://www.rickettscricuts.blogspot.com/. Check out her great project next!

So, if you made it this far, you will be rewarded!!! A chance at some blog candy!!! I don't have a lot but I do have a Sizzix embossing kit that can also be used in your Cuttlebug. I bought one for myself as well and it's really cute!

I'd love you to be a follower, but that isn't required. Just leave me a comment with a way to reach you and I'll randomly pick a winner!

Whew! All done! Hop on over to see Kim's project!

Robot Dog Card

After I made one male birthday card, I challenged myself to make 25 more! I always send 25 cards for the soldiers so I thought I'd try to make them all masculine birthday cards for the next challenge (after the Easter challenge). I used my Cinch and made myself a little book with graph paper to plan my cards. I don't usually sketch out stuff--I just start cutting and pasting. However, the last time I did some sketches I flew through the cards and I really liked how they turned out. I have been flipping through my handbooks and picking out good images. I sketched about 15 and I decided I was ready to make one.

I started with the Robotz cartridge. I haven't used it very much but I think it has some uber cute images on it. I picked the dog and some of the new Recollections paper that I got at Michaels for $7.99/180 page stack!

I embossed the black paper using the Sizzix texturez birthday plates--they are really cute and I got the pack for $6 at Joann's on sale! I love how the blue and orange play off of each other and the buttons pop off of the black.

I made a note of the changes on my sketch that I made and hopefully I can use it in the future. Robot Dog could be used with any sentiment. It's hard for me to make boy cards because I love ribbon and bling--now I know that I can "fancy up" a card with simple buttons, brads and embossing.

I have completed two other masculine cards and I think I will post several of them together when I get more finished!

No More Easter Cards!

It is only February 22 (my baby sister's 20th birthday!!!!) and I am already sick of Easter cards. Because I finished up my last Card for Soldiers challenge early, I started early on my Easter cards. I have to say, I don't really like Easter cards. I don't really like pastel colors and I am not religious so it was extremely hard to think of ideas for Easter. I focused on the duck from Simply Charmed, the bunny from Create a Critter and Doodlecharms, and the Easter images on Celebrate with a Flourish. Speaking of Celebrate with a Flourish--I wasn't quite sure how often I would actually use this cartridge. I bought it quickly from Walmart.com in November when they had the 2/$45 deal and actually had Jolly Holidays in stock! I didn't want to take too long choosing a cartridge so I just threw Celebrate into the cartridge. Although I haven't used it a lot yet, it came into handy for these cards and the images are really nice!

Here are most of the cards that I made for Easter.

Oddly enough, the simplest card is my favorite.

I really like the simple colors and the twine and clear button. If I sent Easter cards to people, this would be the card that I sent. Simple and pretty.

Blog Award

 

Ellen at http://cardmonkey-business.blogspot.com/ honored me with a blog award! Thank you soooo much!

 

The Liebster Love Blog award is designed to recognize bloggers who have fewer than 300 followers but whose work deserves gigantic praise.  To accept the award, I am to spread the love by recognizing up to five blogs whose work I follow and admire -- sort of a chain letter of love!  I'm pleased to pass this honor on to the following:

http://www.jessicashook.blogspot.com/

http://www.sonyaspapertrail.blogspot.com/

http://www.crystalscraftycreations.blogspot.com/

http://www.papertreats.blogspot.com/

http://www.scrappinbutterflies.blogspot.com/

Crafting Weekend!

There is no school today or Monday and I took yesterday off--that means a 5 day crafty weekend! I worked yesterday on a card for my sister's birthday but I will show that off during the Motions and Fold Card Hop! And besides,  I can't let her see it before she gets it in the mail!

Today I worked on a birthday card for my other sister's boyfriend. I struggle with cards for males in general and it takes me forever to come up with an idea for an older guy's card. I do like how this one came out. I kept the color scheme fairly simple with red and black (and a touch of blue and white) and tried my hardest not to make it so girly!

I used Rock Princess for the guitar, S&P stamps for the sentiment and the birthday Cuttlebug folder. I think the different textures work well together and I like how you can see the dimensions on the two black papers. I didn't want anything to take over so I used the black brads and ink so it wouldn't stand out too much.

I really like how it turned out and I'm sure he will like it as well!

Oh, Twine! How I Love Thee!

After seeing a bunch of projects with twine, I knew I had to have some! I ordered both sampler sets from The Twinery and it is gorgeous! It took me a little while for me to decide on a big project to feature the twine. I have used it on some Easter cards that I will post later, but I wanted something that was TWINE!

Here goes.

A few nights ago, right before I went to bed, I thought I would use the green twine to make a stem on a base of kraft paper and then make a big paper flower the next day using my Cricut. However, I then decided that I wanted to make an entire flower with twine! I sketched the flower shape on my base and proceeded to twist and shape the twine into the flower. Naturally, being crazy, I had to finish it right then!

At that point, I liked it, but the flower looked unfinished and you could see a few spots of pencil on the paper...which doesn't erase very well on that paper. I got the bright idea to outline it in the pink twine and I think it was a perfect touch! I used grass and the butterfly from Create a Critter and Recollections All Girl paper.

Few more pictures.

I hope you enjoy my flower! Eventually I am going to put a sentiment on it--as soon as I find someone worthy of my twine flower!



A Blog Award!

Yay! Another blog award. I enjoy getting these because it makes me think that someone is actually looking at my blog!

When you receive this award you are suppose to:

1) thank the person who gave this award to me and link it back to their blog
2) share 8 things about myself
3) pass this award to 8 other individuals that I have recently discovered
4) leave a comment so that they can pass along the recognition!
Thank to Danielle at Chickie's Crafty Nest for the award! It's fun to share idea with new Cricutters, as I consider myself a newbie!

Now, 8 things about myself.

1. I have been with my husband since 1998, when I was a sophomore in high school. We have been married for 6 years!

2. I have a master's degree in elementary education, which I consider my crowning achievement in my life thus far.

3. I am a sports nut; I love to watch football, the Olympics, softball, volleyball, gymnastics and many more. But I absolutely hate basketball!

4. I love to read--I read every night before bed and it lets me escape and relax before sleeping.

5. I love all things girly--pink, glitter, stars.

6. I love flip flops--I would wear them every day of the year if I didn't live in Ohio where it snows often!

7. I dream about a scraproom, but can't imagine not crafting while my hubby watches tv right next to me.

8. I love Taco Bell, like really love it! Last meal will be crunchy tacos and an ice cream sundae!

Now, to the hard part, 8 blogs that I want to pass the award too. I am sure some of these people already have it, but they are new to me.

Ellen Card Monkey
Selina Mud Pie Reality
Sarah Simply Shaddock
Jessica The Creative Stamper Spot
Kacee You Had Me at Scrap
Brynn Flair and Frills Creativity
Jennifer Crafty Card Gallery
Janice Cricutology

I will be participating in a blog hop with of these great crafters on February 26 and hope you can join us! I have loved checking out their blogs!

Thanks again to Danielle!

Easter Card

Since I make cards to send overseas to the soldiers, I have to start making them super early. Today I had the easiest day ever subbing in a classroom that only had 4-5 students and a teachers aide who did most of the work, so I started planning some Easter cards. I don't typically plan out my cards but I had so much time I drew out some sketches to follow.

After a trip around the local hobby stores to pick up all things pastel and time to finish up a layout for a recipe swap, I got to work on the first of my sketches, which was set up to use the chick in an egg from Simply Charmed.

I used paper from The Paper Studio for the plain backgrounds. I wish it was a bit heavier but it will work find when I glue it to the card base. The pretty plaid paper is also by The Paper Studio and is from So-So Sweet stack. It is so cute and I am sure a lot of my Easter cards will use that paper. I cut the chick at 2 inches and used some cheapy ribbon from Walmart. I did forget that I wanted to emboss the yellow paper, but I think it is a really cute card to kick me into Easter mood.



Since I couldn't find a job for tomorrow, I am going to spend some time working on those other sketches. I should try to plan out my cards more often because I was able to do this card really quick!

Sharing a Blog Award

Well, I am new to the world of blogging so I am not always sure what to do. Recently, I was given a blog award and not I am sending it along to Linda at http://lindas-nothinfancy.blogspot.com/! I love to look at her cards and love that she sends tons of cards to the troops!

I do hope this is how I am supposed to do it--someone please, please, please tell me if I did something wrong!

Rocker Chick

I got home from Pittsburgh on Saturday--we had a great two days there, but I was glad to be home. I babysat the adorable little boy of my husband's cousin, spent a lot of time with my sister and niece, did some shopping for Steelers gear, ate at the California Pizza Kitchen for the first time--yum--and visited Heinz Field. They had the stadium merchandise store open so we were actually able to peek inside the stadium. All we can see were yellow seats but we did have tons of fun looking around and bought a few things, including a pink Steelers monkey for my niece!

Heather, Kira and I at Heinz Field

When I got home yesterday, I had new Cricut mats, some amazing twine from The Twinery and Rock Princess cartridge that I won on Ebay. I also had stamps from SP & Company that I won doing a blog hop so I was really excited to get crafting. I was tooooo tired to think yesterday evening, so I made a quick card today before I get ready to watch the Super Bowl.

I used Rock Princess to cut the rocker chick, made the sentiment using the Mix and Match stamp set, ribbon from Michaels and the stars Cuttlebug embossing folder. I really like the effect of black, pink and white and think that this card turned out really cute for a pre-teen/teenager!

Now I am going to get my buffalo chicken nachos and subs ready for the game!

A Few More Cards

Here are a couple more cards that I have made this week. I am leaving my trusty Cricut for a few days so I wanted to get a few things done before I leave. I am going to Pennsylvania for the weekend to snuggle and cuddle with my husband's cousin's baby while his parents enjoy themselves. I am taking my sister and our niece, Kira, with me and I think we are going to have tons of fun! Kira will get to meet Isaac and I'm sure they will have tons of fun--if Isaac isn't crawling yet, I bet he will be chasing her around before we leave on Saturday.

I scraplifted this card while I was looking for new ideas on how to use kraft paper. The bird and the branch is cut from Create a Critter. I just cut a few extra flowers from the bird to put on the branch and blinged them out with some sparkly stickers that I got on clearance at Michael's. The ribbon is also from Michael's--I believe it's called Fit to Be Tied. Of course, I had to faux stitch everything that I got near my white pen! I hope to eventually get the Sew Easy by We R Memory Keepers so I can incorporate some actual stitching!

Nothing says "Smile" like the Cheshire Cat! I cut him from the Disney Classics cartridge at around 4 inches (I think). I embossed the background paper with the Argyle Cuttlebug folder and used ribbon from Michael's. I stamped the sentiment and did some faux stitching.

I am sure I will be planning cards in my head while I am gone and I can't wait to spend a few days with a little baby!

Recipe Swap

I have never done a swap before but I got sucked into one from the messageboard. For this swap, I am required to make 10 8x8 layout of my favorite casserole recipe and send it in. In return, I will get 9 other casserole recipe layouts back, which gives me and my hubby and chance to try new recipes and I get to share a family favorite with others.

The red and navy cardstock is from DCWV and the patterned paper is from a DCWV stack called Summer Dream that I got on clearance at Joann's. The flower paper on the bottom reminded me of painted Mexican tiles and I thought it was appropriate with the recipe. The little chef is cut from Everyday Paper Dolls and the title is from Birthday Bash. I welded together the shadow font with Design Studio and cut them on navy cardstock, then I cut the regular font in white and did faux stitching using a navy marker.

I also created a little pocket with the paper to include a bonus recipe for taco seasoning, which is a staple in my house. My husband never really liked the taco seasoning packs, so he used to beg me to leave it off. I like the seasoning so I found a great recipe to make my own, so it's less strong. The font on that tag is from Lyrical Letters and I welded it together using Design Studio

I had a lot of fun creating this layout and can't wait to share it with others. I have to get more red and blue cardstock to finish the other layouts, but everything else is ready to go!