A Couple of Quick Cards

I went upstairs for a few minutes earlier tonight to work on some cards for the St. Jude project. I decided to come up with some simple but cute ones so that I can "mass produce" and get more done. Here, I used Design Studio to create some 4x4 cards and envelopes to fit. Actually, I used Design Studio for the entire project. I have found that I never use the machine by itself anymore. It's just so much easier to get things the desired size when using Design Studio!

The scalloped mats are from Mini Monograms, the butterfly from New Arrivals, the little birdie from Stretch Your Imagination, and the "hi" is from Opposites Attract. I ran the front side of the cards through my Cuttlebug using the Swiss Dots embossing folder. The inside of the cards were left blank so the families who get these cards can use them for any purpose they choose.

Before you go, please check out the following links related to this project:
Press Release About St. Jude Cards for Kids
St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

Thanks for stopping by!

Birthday Card for my Husband

My husband's birthday was yesterday. He loves golf, so I made the card below for him. I used THIS CARD for my inspiration. I got the printed paper at Archiver's Friday (along with a TON of other stuff!) during a shopping spree with my friend Sharon. I used my Cricut Expression, Design Studio, and George and Plantin Schoolbook cartridges for the words.

I wrapped my husband's present in brown craft paper, using twine instead of ribbon. I made the tag by cutting a circle of chipboard out with my Cricut Expression, as well as the white paper that I used for the golf ball and the "grass". The golf ball was run through my Cuttlebug to get embossed and then I inked it. I stole one of my husband's golf tees (hey, he left it lying on the kitchen counter, so it was there for the taking! Heehee!), cut off part of it to the correct length using some wire cutters, and adhered it to the tag using Ranger's Glossy Accents. I CASED THIS CARD for my tag.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoy the long Memorial Day weekend!

One Last Teacher Gift---A Card Set

Here's a set of cards that I made as one more gift for my daugher's teacher. Several of these cards were "CASED" from other blogs....I wish I had 1/4 of the creativity that some of those ladies do!



First is the little box I made for storing the cards. The flowers and butterflies were cut with my Cricut Expressions machine. Flowers were cut out of white cardstock and the edges inked. I used the border feature on Walk In My Garden for these. The butterflies were first cut in shadow out of white cardstock, inked on the edges, and stuck down. The top layer of butterflies were cut out of various Creative Memories Printed Paper. I decorated both sides of the box this way.

This first card uses paper from the Basic Gray Sugared 6x6 pad. I used printed paper as the background and a strip of solid (distressed) paper from the same pack across the middle of the paper. The scalloped circle was cut using my Cricut Expression and Design Studio, as was the the inside circle. Flowers are Primas, fastened to the lighter paper using a clear rhinestone brad. I know, you're thinking to yourself, "that doesn't look like a clear rhinestone brad!". :) It is, but it's topped with a "skittle". These little gems are being raved about all over the Cricut message boards. I found my CLEAR ones at Michael's....Yes, this pink "skittle" started out clear! I just colored the flat bottom using my BIC markers. It was then attached to the top of the brad using Ranger Glossy Accents. I love the dimension it added. (This card was CASED, but I can't find the blog user who first created it.)

This card was created using scraps from my Basic Gray 6x6 pad of Sultry and some scraps of Bazzill. The birds (Stampin' Up "A Little Birdie Told Me") were stamped onto white cardstock and cut out. Then I colored them using my colored pencils and then I went over that using a Goo-Gone Pen....Yes, Goo-Gone is not just for getting rid of goo! I read on Splitcoast Stampers that some ladies were using a Goo-Gone pen for blending their colored pencils instead of Gamsol or Baby Oil Gel. I had tried the Baby Oil Gel before and didn't have much luck with it, even after several tries. I got it the first time with the Goo-Gone pen. I based this design on a card that I saw HERE.

More Sultry paper here. I so love the bright colors from this pack! This is one of the few design I came up with on my on. (shocker!) Prima flowers are secured to the ribbon using a clear rhinestone brad. I used my Cricut Expression machine and the Walk In My Garden cartridge to cut the butterflies in pink and green Bazzil cardstock. See the round accents on the wings of each butterfly? Those are CLEAR Rain Dots that I colored with my BIC markers. You would not believe how excited I was after seeing how good these looked after coloring them.

Here's another of my own designs. I used DCWV cardstock as the base after running it through my cuttlebug to dry emboss it. The printed paper is from DCWV All Dressed Up Mat Stack. The green embem was cut using my Cricut Expression and the Home Accents cartridge. The "W" monogram was cut from the Jasmine cartridge. Everything was then inked with black ink.

Another one of my ideas, using all the same paper as noted in the above paragraph. In this card, I used a corner ticket punch on the green paper and printed paper. White eyelets were then put in all four corners of the black cardstock. Flowers are Prima and attached to the printed paper with a clear rhinestone brad. The black flower in the center started out white! I wanted to use a black flower in the center, but I did not have one in the size I needed. So, I took a white one and colored it black using my BIC markers!

I love this card, too! Check out THIS BLOG for my inspiration for this card. I ran the pink paper through my Cuttlebug. The printed paper is from Imaginisce. The flower petals are ovals cut using my Cricut Expression and the George Cartridge. The green accents in the center of the flower are clear Rain Dots that I once again colored with my BIC markers. The square "button" is chipboard and the Imaginisce paper that I cut out using my Cricut Expression, Design Studio and the George cartridge. Then, I punched two holes using my Crop-o-Dile and tied various ribbons on it for added dimension. The stamped image is a small border from Studio G clear stamps.

THIS BLOG is so full of beautiful ideas, and it's where I found a card to base the one above on. All paper is from the We R Memory Keepers Silver Lining collection. I did not have the stamp used in the original card, so I used my Cricut Expression and the Joys of the Season cartridge.


The card I chose to case for the one above is by The Stamping Addict. Her flower image and stem are stamped, and I did not have anything that I liked to use in this spot, so I used my Cricut Expression to cut out several different sized flowers and a stem. I layered the flowers and attached them using a gold mini brad. The light colored paper at the bottom of the card front was a scrap of Basic Gray that had been stamped using Stampin' Up's French Script backgrounder.

This card was also CASED, but I am unable to find who came up with the original. Design paper is by Basic Gray, all cardstock is Bazzil and DCWV. Flowers are Primas and ribbon came from Michael's dollar bin.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Mother's Day Cards & Link to Some iCandy

I was a busy bee last night. Nothing like waiting till the last minute, but I got my 3 Mother's Day cards done. Well, I already had one but had to make the other two. I'm only going to post two....one because my MIL already has hers & the other because I don't think she'll see it here before she gets it. I'm not posting my mom's because there's a slight chance she might see it here, and I don't want her to see it till I give it to her.

Here's the first:

I started with a base of chocolate colored Bazzil cardstock to create this card. Next is paper from the Basic Gray Infuse 6x6 paper pad. The ribbon is also Basic Gray Infuse. I covered a piece of Maya Road chipboard with more BG and then stamped and embossed the sentiment. The small flower was add there because I got the sentiment off center. :) I used my new Cricut Home Accents Solutions cartridge and design studio to cut the flourish and welded "mom" to it using Jasmine. The flowers were stamped onto more BG Infuse using Stampin' Up Boho Blossoms. I stamped two of the large flowers, cut them apart and did some layering to add some dimension. The small flowers are also from SU Boho Blossoms, but I punched them out using a SU punch.

Inside, I used a pretty green Bazzil cardstock for the letters that I cut out using Cricut Design Studio and Alphalicious (love that cart for fonts!). More Boho flowers stamped and punched out. The tag was cut using Tags, Bags, Boxes, and More....I used another SU stamp on it....ribbon is Basic Gray.

My second card also features stamps from Stampin' Up. The sentiment is from "The Art of Life---I stamped and then embossed it, making it so shiny that getting a good picture was impossible. The main stamped image is Avian Toile by Stampin' Up, colored with my makers. All paper is Creative Memories cardstock. The decorative corners were made using my Cuttlebug.

For the inside sentiment, I used Cricut Design Studio and the Alphalicious cartridge to weld and cut the letters. The tag and it's envelope were cut using TBBM. Ribbon is from Michael's. The flowers were stamped using Stampin' Up's The Art of Life. I stamped the image using VersaMark and the embossed with clear embossing powder. A clear "skittle" was placed in the center of one and clear Stickles in the other.

Since I started card-making, I've found many, many blogs that offer much inspiration and instructions. One that I subscribe to is iSTAMP , and I just love her creativity. Obviously, many others do, too, because she has reached 200,000 hits on her blog!!! To celebrate, she is offering some awesome blog candy. If you're interested in the chance to win some free stampin' stuff, be sure to visit her blog.

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Mother's Day.

Teacher Appreciation Day 3---Snacks!

No project for today's gift....no picture either. I forgot to take a picture---I guess because we didn't make anything to send with this little gift. I found a cute plastic popcorn box at Dollar Tree and added individual bags of popcorn, a bag of Pepperidge Farm Chocolate Chunk Soft-baked Cookies, and a couple of diet cokes (yes, I actually parted with 2 of my own! I know it's very hard to believe for those of you who know of my diet coke addiction. LOL!).
Heehee, here's a picture I found of a similar box for our gift. Ours was a little wider, though.

Teacher Appreciation Day 2---School Supplies

Tuesday was School Supply Day for Teacher Appreciation Week. We got a pop-up sticky note holder, some dry erase markers, some Sharpies, and a notepad. Once again, because "my teacher loooooves purple", Taylor chose this paper....

The Creative Memories Gazebo paper was used to help create this gift box for Taylor's gift. First, I covered a square priority mail box with brown craft paper and added the decorative paper to each side. The white scalloped paper is Creative Memories cardstock and I used my Cricut Expression and Design Studio to cut it to the right size. Both papers were inked on the edges using a Delta pigment ink dauber.

Each purple mat was stamped with the largest swirl from Rhonda Ferrar's Autumn Leaves stamp set and then heat embossed. I added a purple satin ribbon covered by a sheer white ribbon all the way around the box, and tied a bow using a sheer purple ribbon on one side.

The butterflies were all cut out of Creative Memories paper using my Cricut Expression, then inked, and added to each side of our gift box. I also added some small clear bead accents to each side.

I had a couple of extra butterflies, so I attached them to a couple of the gifts inside the box!

I used a metal-rimmed vellum tag from a set I found at Wal-Mart the other day. Using my new Studio G alphabet stamps, I stamped the sentiment and then heat embossed using a clear embossing powder. The tag was then tied to the handle of the box using a sheer purple ribbon. Speaking of the handle, I made it by punching a hole in the box and using a thick gauge wire. It was then covered with purple satin ribbon.

Taylor took this to her teacher on Tuesday. I really hope she likes it!

Teacher Appreciation Day 1---Thank You Card

This week at Taylor's school is Teacher Appreciation Week. The students can bring something for each day (Thank You card day, School Supply Day, Snack Day, Pamper Your Teacher Day, and Gift Card Day) or just pick one day. OF COURSE Taylor wanted to do something every day, so here's her card for Thank You Card day....

She picked this paper from the DCWV Glitter Mat Stack because "my teacher REALLLLLY likes purple". She wanted to use my stamps, so she picked this one by Stampin' Up (A Little Birdie Told Me set). She stamped it onto white cardstock, heat embossed it, and then colored it with my markers. We used my Cricut Expression and Cricut Design Studio to cut the scalloped pink mat, and she mounted it on pop dots for more dimension.

Inside, Taylor used the "you're the best" sentiment stamp from the same Stampin' Up set, as well as the smaller birdie and flower stamp. She also heat embossed all stamped images and then used my markers to color the bird, the flower, and to doodle around each and every sentiment! :)

You'll also see that she decorated the back of the card. I love her creativity!

Creating the envelope was my only contribution to this project! I used my Cricut Expression and Cricut Design Studio to cut out the envie. Because the flap was a little too short, I punched two holes and used ribbon to close it. I also used my Martha Stewart Lace Edge Punch so it wouldn't be so plain.

Thanks for stopping by!

St. Jude Cards for Kids

I haven't gotten to do much work lately on my cards for St. Jude. I plan to do more on that next week. Here is the one I did get to finish last weekend...

I used a new paper from Creative Memories. The blue square postage stamp mat was cut out using my Cricut Expression and Cricut Design Studio, with the help of AMKSCRAP, a fellow Cricut message board member.
The cupcake (stamp by Hero Arts) was stamped on white cardstock and then colored by my daughter. I added Glossy Accents by Ranger Ink and mounted on pop dots to give it more dimension.

Inside, I used my Cuttlebug to cut a small postage stamp out of purple CM paper and then cut another one out of some plastic I saved from one of my Cricut cartridges. After cutting the plastic postage stamp, I embossed it with my Cuttlebug and mounted it over the purple postage stamp. The sentiment is from the same Cupcake stamp set by Hero Arts. After stamping it, I heat embossed it using a clear embossing powder.

Basic Gray Birthday

I know Mother's Day is just a few days away, and I sooooo need to be working on the three cards we'll be giving on that day, but I saw THIS card and wanted to create a birthday card along the same lines.

I didn't have the same paper by K&Co. (love it!) as the original card, but I thought I could make it work using my Basic Gray Two Scoops paper. For my cardstock base, I used a chocolate Bazzil. The rectangle background piece is vellum layered on top of a piece of vanilla cardstock by Creative Memories. I dry embossed the vellum using my Cuttlebug and the Textile Texture embossing folder. Then I ran a Delta pigment ink dauber across the vellum to help the embossing stand out more. I love the way this looks!

I cut the bird out using my Cricut Expressions machine and the Joys of the Season cartridge. After cutting it out, I embossed the swirls using my VersaMark pad. The sentiment was stamped using my new Studio G stamp. Both the bird and the sentiment were then heat embossed using clear embossing powder. I added some Prima flowers and some silk flowers (from Oriental Trading) with gold brads in the center, plus a creamy organdy ribbon for embellishments.

I hope the recipient loves this card as much as I do! Happy Wednesday.