Happy Opening Day!

Tomorrow is baseball's opening day and my household supports the Cincinnati Reds! A month or so ago I was making a baseball card and my husband asked if I was going to make him an opening day card--I blew off his suggestion, all the while thinking about it! It slipped my mind until today so I whipped one up while we were watching tv together. He is literally an arm's length away from me and I made the card without him knowing! I am going to leave it with his lunch in the morning and I am sure he will be surprised!

I made the Cincinnati logo using a 'c' from Nate's ABCs, which I stretched and welded on a triangle to the back of it. I cut the 'Reds' from Varsity Letter and hide some of the lines so it would cut a block shape. I tweaked the logo using scissors and I think it turned out pretty well. I can notice a little weirdness at the top but I doubt that hubby will notice! I cut everything twice--once white and then black and glued them together to get the shadow. I also handcut the red background to fit around the logo.

I cut the baseball from Sports Mania and used my Sew Easy to make the stitches. I used a pinstripe background paper like some of the uniforms the Reds wear--those are some of my husband's favorites! Double mounting it with the red and black also adds the effect of the trim on the uniform.

I stamped the sentiment "When life throws you a curve ball, SWING!" Yes, of course, it is a 'Thinking of You' type of sentiment but I also think it works for opening day!

My husband is going to be so impressed (everything I do impresses him!) and I hope that he puts it up in his very boring, very tan cubicle at his office!!!

Go Reds!

More Cards

So lately I have been focused on making simple cards, typically with one Cricut cut, some ribbon or a little sparkle and some embossing. I have been using Give a Hoot and the DCWV Green Stack, which has 70% recycled paper and super cute environmental images. The cartridge and paper go hand in hand and make really cute cards!

The first card I am submitting for a challenge at My Craft Spot which is to tie something into a bow! I can not tie very good bows so I had to adjust it. I put the white ribbon down then tied a separate piece of ribbon into a bow and glued it on then tied the button into a bow with crafting cord.

The cut is from Give a Hoot and I had to do some surgery on the butterfly to get the cute swirls right!

I like the simplicity of the card and the basic color palette. 

Here are a bunch of other cards I have been working on lately. I have been using a ton of kraft paper and my white pen to doodle!

I love owl cuts and this one is no exception from Give a Hoot! I tilted the sentiment so it would fit on a branch that I cut from Create a Critter.

The owl is from Create a Critter and I punched the butterfly using a Martha Stewart punch and embossed it with Swiss Dots.

I love this sentiment and I thought it needed a fruit cut to go with it! I cut the strawberries from Preserves.

Another cut from Give a Hoot. I love how the bow and button combo looks and I like the pretty blue flower paper up against the kraft paper.

Last one today from Give a Hoot. I wrapped some twine around the green ribbon to make it look more like a bow. I also cut one of the birds from the scrap paper to put next to the sentiment.

I made this adorable cut from Nate's ABCs, my other new cartridge. I embossed the Shimmer paper with Birthday Stars by Sizzix. I kinked my paper doing that so I covered that with a midnight blue ribbon and used a friend stamp.

When I saw this cut, I though the same sentiment would apply! So cute!

Well, thanks for looking at my massive collection of new cards! I am going to have to post more often so I don't post so many at once!!

Gift Bag and Envelope for Baby Shower

I made an easel card last weekend for a baby shower that I have on Saturday. Here is a little reminder if you didn't see the post...I think it's right before this one if you wanna check out more details.

Yesterday I went to Target to get a gift and I found an adorable hooded towel/regular towel combo and some matching washclothes. The hooded towel has a cute monkey on it and I just feel in love with it! I also found a super cute gift bag that was only 99 cents! Cute gift bags can be so expensive and I hate to spend money on something people are going to trash!

Here is the bag I got:

Perfectly cute, right? Well, the more I looked at it, I decided that it needed something else.

Here is what I came up with:

Monkey is from Create a Critter, of course! The letters are from Lyrical Letters...I love that font and I think I use it all of the time! I cut the hearts in two different sizes from Rock Princess and used some twine to put it all together.

Then I needed to make a custom envelope for the card because it is square and an odd size. I just kind of use my score board and some hope to craft an envelope in matching paper and then a little version of the monkey from the bag!

Here is the bag and envelope together (outside on my chair, which was bathed in 70 degrees of sunshine yesterday and had snowflakes on it this morning):

I love how they turned out. I have no idea if the Mommy-to-Be likes monkeys, but I am sure she will like this one...how could you not? She is simply adorable!

A Baby Shower Card

I am going to a baby shower on Saturday so I worked on the card this weekend since I booked myself to work all week (why do I do that?). I knew I wanted to do something with my Sew Easy since I haven't got to use it much since I got it. It is not as easy to use as the name suggests. I can't seem to get it to puncture holes entirely through the paper so I have to let it perforate the holes, then I hand poke them the rest of the way. In the end, it looks good so I hope it works better with more practice. Anyway, I started by creating a patchwork effect out of paper and then stitching them together.

I then made an easel card base out of pink cardstock and glued the patchwork paper on it. I used Birthday Bash to make a scalloped triangle banner and used Lyrical Letters to do all of the words on the card. I also used some twine to hold the triangles together and pop-dotted them so they would stick off of the patchwork. I also cut two small flowers from Doodlecharms to give the card front something to stick on.

For some reason, it looks really busy in the pictures. I don't think it look that crazy in real life and my hubby agrees (and he is usually honest!). I am fairly happy with the way it turned out and I simply love the stitching!

Boy Challenge Complete!

I have successfully finished my challenge of making 25 boy birthday cards, which I will send to the soldiers.

I have posted several different sets and now I am going to post my final 8 that I finished up last night. I used a bunch of brads, buttons, twine, craft cord, a few with the Sew Easy, a bunch of Cricut cartridges, sentiment stamps and tons of paper and glue!

This cute little dump truck is from Boys Will Be Boys and I think it looks good with the black and red contrasting on the brads, twine and paper.

Another cut from Boys Will Be Boys--that cartridge is so simple to layer and turns out really cute. I accidentally cut him a little too big for his rectangle (which I already had glued on the paper from DCWV All About Boys), but I still like how he turns out. A little cord and buttons finish the look.

This is probably one of my favorite cards and it is so simple. Who would have thought a cupcake and crossbones would be so great together? I love this cut from Rock Princess, with some D'Vine Swirls and red Stickles.

I made these cuts from Simply Charmed and I think it turned out so cute. I embossed the black paper with Traffic Jam and pop dotted the pizza over the hot dog and hamburger. Ssshhh, don't tell but I cut my red squares too big and they wouldn't fit if I didn't overlap them!

I made the cut from Toy Story with the three aliens and split them into two different cards and used the same sentiment, which is from Lyrical Letters.

I was shocked that this little "It's Your Birthday" actually cut out...not only once, but twice! I cut it three times and only one didn't work, which never happens for me!

Another quick card using Toy Story and DCWV All About Boys stack. Add a button and some yellow twine and it's complete!

I made this green and orange dinosaur from Create a Critter and used the DinoMite sentiment in combination with some stamps. I love how the orange, blue and green work together.

And my last button and craft cord of the challenge!

I am so excited how these turned out, but I am soooo glad that it's over! I am ready for some pink, glitter and ribbon!

Buttons, Crafting Cord and Trains! Oh, my!

Yup, more boy cards! I only have a few more to do! I think I have to come up with two more designs and make about 4 or 5 more. Here are a few cards that I finished up tonight.

I have had this gater from Create a Critter cut for about two weeks and I finally remembered to use him on a card! He is all stickled out and looks so super cute. I embossed the blue paper with Cuttlebug Traffic Jam and used pop dots under the clouds.

This base was originally for the gater card but he didn't look right with the buttons so I decided to use one of my newest cartridges, Boys Will Be Boys, to cut the train. A simple stamp for the sentiment and some doodling completed the card.

I threaded the orange buttons with some yellow crafting cord and I love how it turned out!

I like the simplicity and clean lines of this card. The background paper is pretty busy so I like the plain green squares for the bright white letters from Zoo Day. I haven't used that one yet but the font is funky and perfect for a birthday card. Again I used the crafting cord and a button.

Another simple card with the star paper. I embossed the solid blue paper with a Sizzix texture plate Birthday Stars and used some orange twine from The Twinery.

I also used pop dots under the stars. Looking at it now, I am going to add some doodles to the stars to make them stand out a little better.

So, specifically for my boy cards, I bought a mat stack called All About Boys by DCWV and this is the first time I used it! Love the animals and trains on the paper and I think it compliments the train from Create a Critter perfectly! I forgot the present that I was going to put in the train...I'll hafta go back and do that too!

I am simply obsessed with crafting cord and buttons! I love ribbon and this is a great boyish alternative.

With all of the negativity and ugliness on the Cricut messageboard lately, it was nice to ignore it all and do some crafting, which is the reason that everyone gets on the boards in the first place. I love to look for inspiration, but completely dislike the snarkiness and meaness that people show. Enjoy what you have, appreciate your talents and have fun!

Reese's 4th Birthday

Today my nephew had his 4th birthday party and I had the honor of making his cake. His dad and stepmom (which sounds weird to call her that because she is my hubby's sister and I don't think I have ever called her his stepmom before!) bought me a fancy cupcake book for Christmas and I decided I needed to make him the racecar cake because he is a car fanatic! Well, he really wanted a Mario cake. Even before I considered it, I said I could make Mario out of fondant. I have absolutely never made anything out of fondant before but I had a picture and pure determination and was successful at making a Mario head for the racecar.

I worked on that silly Mario for two hours! I had to blend five different colors and sculpt him using the back of a paintbrush and a craft knife! If this is going to be a more common thing, I will have fondant tools and (maybe) a Cricut cake!

Here is the whole racecar cake with the birthday boy.

Reese, who eats NOTHING! but chicken nuggets and french fries, even bit off Mario's nose and ate the white label from his hat!

My husband really wanted to get Reese a good Nerf football for his birthday, so we stuck with the sports theme and got him a tee-ball glove and a Cincinnati Reds squishy bat and ball. Of course, I had to make a sports themed card to match.

I made the glove match the one that we got him, which was black and grey. I used Boys Will Be Boys cartridge for the card. This is the first time I have used it and I really like it. I also used a bit of orange twine and embossed the red paper.

I also used a pop dot under the football to make it stand out from the other ones. This is actually the first time I have used one--I know, I know. Really?

Here are a few more pictures at the party when some of us snuck outside to use the new toys.

It was a great experience to make the little man's cake and I hope to work with more fondant in the future.