Thinking of You - FMS #28 Challenge

This weekend I had the opportunity to make a card for a good friend and boss who suffered a great loss.  These cards are always difficult for me to make, I always want to put my personal sympathy into the card to let them know I care... So without further ado, here is my card:

 Of course I had to use my cricut to help decorate, and one of the techniques was using a "fake" embossing look.  I used the Paper Lace cricut cartridge to cut the same cream shapes to match the background of the card, so it was a subtle look. What do you think?

Supplies Used:
Patterned paper (K & Company); Card stock (Recollections); Die cuts (Cricut cartridges: Paper Lace; Elegant Edges, Damask Decor); adhesive gems (Recollections); Stamps & Ink (Studio G).

Happy Birthday - PDCC 123

Uggghhh! For being March I am NOT please with our weather! Rain, snow, and hail, with the smallest bits of sunshine. It is not optimal... hopefully it goes away soon and begins to cooperate with my need to start a garden and get my fingers in the soil!

I made this card for the Play Date Cafe Challenge 123. One of the reasons I love the color challenge's is because they push me to use colors that I normally don't use of pair together. I am always amazed at the end product and how fun it looks, not something I quite expect at time.  So this challenge had tangerine, teal, jeans, and electric green! This one probably is my biggest stretch to date on a color scheme, way too bright and definately not together, but I pulled it together, what do you think?

First I took this beautiful tangerine patterned paper by Cosmo Cricket and then layered the jeans card stock with the decorative border over it, then adding the electric green sentiments and teal embellishments for the top pop of color.  It is quite appealing, isn't it?

Supplies used:
Patterned paper (Cosmo Cricket); card stock (DCWV); Border punch (Martha Stewart Crafts); Stamp & ink (Studio G); Flowers (Recollections, K & Company); Adhesive gems (Recollections); Brads (Making Memories); Die Cut (Elegant Edges Cricut Cartridge)



Happy Birthday - The Play Date Cafe #122

Happy Wednesday!   I was going to post this yesterday for the challenge deadline, but it just did not work out. This week has been long, and I think it is the hour time change for Day Light Savings. It gets me every time. Who would have thought one hour was so essential to us?  Well, here is my card, which once I  completed I was very pleased with the way it turned out!

The Play Date Cafe had challenge #122 to use the colors, charcoal, ash, and butter together to make a card. I normally would not pair these together, but seeing their inspiration cards and this picture below inspired me.  I decided to craft a birthday card for our project manager with this color combo.  What do you think?

Supplies used:

Card & envelope (Recollections); colored card stock and glitter paper (DCWV); Die cuts (Paper Lace and Paper Lace 2 cricut cartridges); Glitter pen (Gel Writers); Ribbon (Offray); Ink (Studio G)

Freshly Made Sketches #25 - Hi

What a weekend! March really crept up on me. I cannot believe this week we will already hit half of March, considering Friday I still was in denial that we were in March! Oh well, I am sure I will catch up with everything sooner or later!

I made this card for Freshly Made Sketches #25 Challenge. It took me awhile to play with the pieces to make this sketch work.... for some reason it did not want to come together as easily as I wanted. And it wasn't the color scheme, it was more the sizes of all of the pieces. For instance, I cut out the back ornamental piece in three different sizes before settling on this one! I guess it is all about portions! What do you think?

Supplies used:
Patterned paper (Colorbok); Card stock (Recollections); Stamp & Ink (Studio G); Ribbon (Offray); Sticker (Colorbok); Die Cuts (Ornamental Iron 2 Cricut Cartridge); Chalk ink (Studio G);

Mojo Monday 231 - You're My Sweetheart

I am having a case of Spring Fever! It is sunny and rainy, and I have a HUGE list of things I want to do. So much to do, so little time. And the weather is really not cooperating on my schedule either! So since it was rainy this weekend, I scratched working in the garden and riding my bike to craft. Here is one of the cards I crafted:

I made this card for the Mojo Monday 231 Challenge.  I was so excited for this one, as I just purchased a couple of new Cricut Cartridges and had the perfect one to make the half circle shape on the top!  And I think it turned out very lovely! I tried something I never have before on this one as well... I used blue, brown, and black as the colors... not a normal color combination for me, but it worked out nicely. What do you think?

Supplies used:

Kraft, black, and blue paper (Recollections); Ribbon (Offray); Adhesive gems (small - Recollections, large - Darice); Stamp & ink (Studio G); Die Cuts (Ornamental Iron 2 and Damask Decor Cricut Cartridges);

Flower Card

Often times I only get around to posting the challenges I submit to anymore... where has all the time in the day gone... oh yeah... to creating :)

When I am not elbow deep into one of my projects or submitting to a challenge, I love cruising around blogs or reading old craft magazines for inspiration to try something.  This last weekend I decided to try my hand at a card without a sentiment, with stamped images. This picture does no justice to how absolutely beautiful it is in person. Even my husband who normally doesn't oh and aw thought it was pretty spectacular!

The technique I tried on this card was stamping the image twice. Once on the craft which I colored with watercolor pencils for a soft look, and once again on white card stock which I colored with glitter pens and then cut with scissors and layered on top of the kraft images. It really made the flowers pop! I then layered it over a kraft card with a gold stamped texture background. What do you think?

Supplies:

Kraft (Recollections); Stamps (vintage - unknown); Ink (Studio G); Watercolor pencils (Artists Loft); Gel pens (Gel Writers); Die Cut (Cricut - Paper Lace 2); Twine (Baker's Twine); Adhesive pearls (Recollections).

Make A Wish - PDCC#120

Getting back into the swing of things, I started exploring more with my Cricut.  Here I tested out their Flower Shoppe Project cartridge, and I won't lie, it took my awhile to get to where the flowers looked like flowers!  I watched a great tutorial on how to use the machine and assemble the flowers that made it seem quite simple, but it still took quite a bit of practice!  The tutorial did help and gave me lots of cool tricks, but whew!  So here is my shot with the flowers:  

 I made this card for the Play Date Cafe Challenge #120, using light blue, orangsicle, and basil colors together.  What do you think of the flower arrangement? I used an assortment, I was seeing how many I could make once I got the hang of it.

Supplies used:
Flowers (Flower Shoppe - Project - Cricut Cartridge); cardstock (Recollections; Colorbok); patterned paper (Colorbok); stamp & ink (Studio G); adhesive pearls (Recollections);



Delight in the Small Things - FMS#23

So despite having a fun, amazing new die cutting machine, I have been so swamped with the many other things in life, I really have not had too much of a chance to play!  This weekend I spent a couple of days playing around, and seeing what I could do for a couple of challenges, and this is one of my new creations! I created it for the  Freshly Made Sketches challenge #23. What do you think?

The sentiment is a stamp from Studio G - Delight in the Little Things!  It reminds me of my six year old daughter who has been losing her teeth - she is on her fourth lost tooth!  Nothing is cuter than seeing one pop out and her sweet little face as she holds it up in delight. It really is just the little things!

Supplies used:
Kraft paper (Recollections); brown and red patterned paper (Colorbok); other patterned paper (DCWV); border punch (Fiskars), flower punch (Martha Stewart Crafts); die cuts (Paper Lace 2 Cricut Cartridge), adhesive gem (Recollection); stamp & ink (Studio G).

Mojo Monday 226 - Card

Look at the fun card I made for the Mojo Monday #226 Challenge!  Of course I used my new Cricut to help embellish along the way :)  I love my new machine, I honestly do not know what I ever did without it.  It has really opened up a new world of embellishments for me.  However, I have my eye on an embossing machine next, so anyone with feedback on the best way to go, please let me know!

I have not had time lately to craft or craft for challenges, so I was so excited to get back in the swing of things. What do you think of this card?

Supplies used:

Patterned paper - red and black (DCWV); Cardstock (Recollections); Stamp & ink (Studio G); Flower and leave punch (Martha Steward Crafts); Border punch (Fiskars); Die (Cricut with Damask Decor cartridge); Adhesive gem (Recollections); Adhesives (Elmer's and pop dots).

Square Punch Challenge - CREATE:Blog

I spotted this challenge on the Cards CREATE:Blog and was immediately intrigued! to use a square punch when designing a card. I decided to use my punch and make multiple squares to layer on top of my red paper (since I picked zebra print for the squares!). I framed the top and bottom using a border punch and ribbon with white stitching on top, and then added some red gems for flair.  I just had so much fun making and layering this one! Possibly because it has the Tiffany dressed mantra: layers! I dress in multipludes of layers, so my cards should definitely follow suit!

Supplies used:

Red card stock (Recollections); Zebra print paper (Recollections); Square punch (Creative Memories); Border punch (Martha Stewart Crafts); Red adhesive gems (Recollections); Stamp & ink (Studio G); Ribbon (Celebrate It); Adhesive (Elmer's).

Collage Stamping Challenge

Greetings from a very wet, rainy Oregon!  It has been raining constantly for the past couple of days. Accumulating two inches in one day, and another inch is expected today.  I am hoping we get a slight reprieve soon....

Just Us Girls is hosting a challenge this week - #119 that requires a card made by collage stamping.  An example of collage stamping would be where you stamp a background and then stamp over it.  Here I applied that technique.  The cream paper I used is very thin, almost to the point it is like vellum, which I love the texture.  I used some swirl stamps for the background, using silver and gold ink.  Then over that I stamped the sentiment Happy Birthday.

What do you think? I really love the way this one turned out. It seemed to fit really well with the background papers.  And it was really fun to try a technique I have seen quite a bit for myself!

Supplies used:

Green patterned paper (DCWV); creme paper (scrap); border punch (Martha Stewart Crafts); swirl stamps (Inkadinkadoo); gold & silver ink (Studio G); adhesive gems (Recollections); adhesive (Elmer's).

Valentines Day Card - Play Date Cafe #114

Look at the fun Valentine's Day card I made for the Play Date Cafe #114 challenge!  The challenge had my use three different colors: burgundy, gold, and plum combined together on a card of my choice.  Since most of my gold came with this "wedding" pack of papers, it inspired me to do a love card for Valentine's Day!  I used my Cricut George to make the heart shapes including the lettering. It cut a total of three hearts for the layering, and I was very impressed that is cut through the gold glitter card stock, it was quite thick!  I layered the hearts over decorative papers and then added the sentiment. What do you think?

Supplies used:

Die Cuts (Cricut, Hoot n' Holler Cartridge); Stamps & ink (Studio G); Gold patterned paper (Me and My Big Ideas); plum card stock and patterned paper (DCWV); burgundy papers (vintage scraps); Ribbon (Multi Craft Imports); Border punches (Martha Stewart Crafts and EK Success); adhesives (Elmer's and Pop Dots);

Freshly Made Sketches #17 - Celebrate Card

Here in good ol' Oregon it is snowing, which for anyone on the west side of Oregon means something different from the normal rain we have every winter.  Many people are outside playing in it, and I even took my cute lab out to play in it for the first time (he was not sure what to do with it), but I am back inside comfy and warm. 



I made this lovely card for the Freshly Made Sketches #17 challenge, which meant I had to follow their layout for a card. Often the sketches are the harder challenges for me to do... but this one came together.  I used my new die-cutting machine - Cricut, who Becky helped me fondly name George. He is still amazing.  I am having trouble NOT using him. I think I might have an addiction! :)

So what do you think of my card?  I love the tree....  It just spoke to me... vibrant and full of life, and NOT covered in snow!

Supplies used:

Patterned paper (DCWV); Card stock papers (Recollections); Teal ribbon (Offray); Adhesive Gems (Recollections); Die Cuts (Cricut & Hoot n' Holler cartridge); Border Punch (EK Success); Stamps & ink (Studio G), Adhesives (Elmers and Pop Dots);

Mojo Monday #223 - Birthday Card

For Mojo Monday's #223 challenge I made this very girly card! It reminds me of my one of my best buds, Becky.  She loves pink and black. :)

This one is quite busy for a "Tiffany Original" as my sister coined my cards that I make. I normally try to keep mine more simple, but I had fun making it nonetheless. I probably would never have put this together without the neat inspiration of the sketch below, but after making it I really am quite proud! What do you think?

Supplies used:

Patterned paper (DCWV); Black glitter paper (Colorbok); Ribbon (Celebrate it); Brads (Making Memories); Plastic flowers (Making Memories); Stamp & ink (Studio G); Border punch (Fiskars); Adhesives (Elmer's, Pop Dots)

My First Cricut Card!!!

So my wonderful husband finally convinced me to get a Cricut machine.  What I mean by that, since it has came out, it has been too much for me to afford or justify.  I convinced myself that I did not need it and can scrapbook without it.  I refused to even look at them. He tried convincing me a couple of times to get one, and I would not even entertain the idea. I just was dead set on not having one.

Then my favorite scrapbooking accomplice - one of my best friends and cousin - Becky get the Cricut Create for Christmas (we fondly named him Jimminy).  In need of help for a project, I spent the day at her house, and oohed and awwed, and decided I would scrimp and save to buy one.  That I no longer could scrapbook without one and that I might need to live at her house just to use hers all the time.

I told my husband about all the cool things it could do, and then tried to play it down that I didn't need one.  I didn't want him so worried that he cut up my debit card....    Well, he surprised me and gave me and used his Christmas money to get me the original Cricut machine, on sale at Michaels.  I think he has had to pry me every night out of my craft room and back to reality.  I love it so much!  I only have two cartridges right now, so my next step is saving for new ones. 

Well, to make a very long story slightly shorter, I had to tackle two challenges with using the amazing-ness of my new machine! 

This card combines the The Play Date Cafe #113 challenge to use Juniper, Mint, and Vanilla colors, with the CARDS Magazine Create: Blog challenge of using three flowers, two butterflies, and one bird.  What do you think?

Supplies used:

Bird, Birdcage, Butterflies, and Flower die-cuts (Cricut; Bloom Cartridge); Patterned paper (DCWV); Card stock paper (Recollections); Stamp & Ink (Studio G); Adhesive gems (Recollections); Adhesive (Elmer's).