Matt's Birthday Card

This is the birthday card I made for my son, nearly a month ago! See, I have been stamping, I just put off blogging it. I cased (okay, pretty much flat out copied) THIS CARD. The stamps are from Inkadinkadoo and also SU's Extreme Elements and Extreme Guitar. Colors are Tempting Turquoise, Pumpkin Pie, Brilliant Blue, and Chocolate Chip. DP is old Basic Grey, Skate Shoppe I think. This was a really fun card to make. I think he liked it; he didn't really say much. He did, however, tell everyone at church that I made the 4th of July cards they were signing (see post below). I just thought that was so sweet. Thanks for stopping by today!

Fourth of July

This is the card I made for the shut-in and military members of our church. On the inside I stamped a quote from Abraham Lincoln that I love, and "God Bless America". Both are from the ODBD set God Bless America, seen HERE. I used my Cricut and the Stand and Salute cartridge, which my dear friend and stamping buddy Teresa gave me a while back. This is a cool cartridge and more versatile than you might think, but its focus is military. I cut the fireworks at 2" out of glitter paper. It's very sparkly IRL. However, using glitter paper with your Cricut is a bit problematic. It's very heavy, so you need the max pressure. And, it's in two layers. The glitter layer (at least on the white) kind of tends to peel up a little. After gluing several of these babies onto their shadows and getting very gluey fingers, I had the belated bright idea to use my Xyron. Great idea right? Not so much. I think it would be great for more solid shapes, but with these intricate shapes I had webs of adhesive that I had to deal with between the arms of the fireworks. So I went back to gluey fingers. I cut the "4th of July" at 4 inches from some patterned paper with metallic blue stars--very pretty. Stars were cut from the Wild Card Cartridge. There are some on the inside too. These cards weighed just one ounce, so even though they're 8.5 x 5.5", they only needed a regular stamp.

A "berry" fun card

I made this card with some of Lauren Meader's stamps and digital paper. You can find them HERE. These sets are Well Preserved and So Sentimental. My first step was to use the Well Preserved cut file and SCAL and my Cricut to cut out several jars. Then I stamped the image on the cut-out jar and colored it. This set has a separate plaid jar top which is so easy to line up! I also added a strawberry to the label. I printed out one of the patterns from the "Oranges and Strawberries" digi paper--so cute--on SU Whisper White CS. Card base is PTI white, layers are SU Gable Green and Ruby Red. Frame around the sentiment is from So Sentimental and has its own cut file; however, here I just cut it out. Ink colors are Green Galore and Ruby Red. SU border punch, Nesties and Dew Drops finish off this card. Hope you've enjoyed it!

Mojo Monday Sketch 144

So yesterday I had a whole bunch of stamps and digi papers from My Time Made Easy spread out on my desk along with the current Mojo Monday sketch, which I really liked this week. And this card just sort of came together. Yeah, yeah, I know I'm a little late for teacher appreciation--I'll hold on to it till next year. Any way, I used Lauren's School Ruled and Apples and Pears digi papers. The combination of those two sitting on my desk pretty much suggested the theme. And of course I have my new Home Accents Cricut Cartridge, which has the adorable apple in it. The red in the apple paper stumped me at first, until I remembered the small amount of Cranberry Crisp I had left from SU's first year of In Colors. One of their new colors should come pretty close as well. Other colors are Glorious Green and So Saffron (my least fave SU color next to Perfect Plum, so of course they are keeping it!) which is good for apple flesh and matches the digi paper. Ribbon is SU. Stamp set is So Sentimental. Hope you've enjoyed this card--thanks for stopping by!

Card for our pastor

Hi, everyone! Our pastor announced that he is taking a few weeks of renewal time--no one deserves it more than he does--he's the best. Anyway, I made him a card to let him know how much he is appreciated. Stamp set is Our Daily Bread Designs Flourished Christian Symbols. I stenciled the clouds using a very old SU cloud stencil in Bashful Blue on PTI's Stamper's Select White. I sponged some Not Quite Navy Craft Ink onto my stamp (I just have some of the craft re-inkers, not the pads) and stamped the bird and embossed with iridescent ice EP. The sent. is stamped in NQN classic ink. Silver cord is SU. If you haven't tried ODBD I'd encourage you to--their stamps stamp beautifully. Thanks for looking!

Card for a Friend

This is a card for a friend who is going through a rough time right now. Stamp sets are Gina K's Lovely Labels and SU's Thoughts and Prayers. CS is Baja Breeze, Soft Sky, and Whisper White. Ink is Baja Breeze. Butterflies are from an SU Embosslit. I highlighted them and the BG on the stamp with a silver gel pen. DP is ret SU, Urban Garden I think. Ribbon is PTI. Used the SU scallop border punch and Nesties. Thanks for looking!

Camp Scrap Fiendzy 2nd Week Challenge--S'mores!

Well, I know I'm in the minority here, but I HATE Smores! Why would you ruin a perfectly good piece of chocolate with marshmallows and graham crackers? Yuck! Anyway, the challenge over at SF this week was to use tan, brown, and white (the color of smores, get it?) plus a color associated with fire--red, orange, or yellow. All supplies are SU except red twill; I bought that at a fabric store at some point. I used Cricut Cartridge Stone Script for the title and Old West for the rifle. Journaling font is Handwriting Dakota.

Wild Blue Yonder

I made this shirt for the little boy next door, for his birthday. His dad is a pilot for American, but is taking some time off to serve our country in the Air Nat'l Guard. Anyway, he loves airplanes, and so I got busy with my Cricut! The plane is from the My World cartridge, and the cloud is from Home Accent, the same one as in Em's shirt in the post below, but using the blackout feature so it doesn't have the word on it. I sort of made it with THIS CARD in mind, and wound up using this card as his birthday card. Hope he likes it (he is turning 7, so I don't think he'll think it's uncool or anything). Thanks for stopping by today!

Cricut T-Shirts

Yesterday I had so much fun playing with my Cricut and fabric! I've done this before by stamping on fabric, but on Betsy Veldman's blog she had a post about making appliques with a Cricut; you can see it HERE. What you do is iron Heat and Bond onto the back of your fabric, put it on your sticky mat, and cut it just like you would paper. Mike's was having t-shirts 2 for $5 so I bought a whole bunch. I washed and dried all the shirts and fabrics (without fabric softener, per Heat and Bond directions). This first shirt is cut using the Home Accents cartridge--Ems picked out the image. I think it turned out really cute!

This next shirt was meant to be for me. It is an extra large "fitted" T. Well, it is too little. I'm going to have to find someone to give it to. But I love the way it turned out. This cute pear image is also from Home Accents. One thing I learned from this is to go ahead and place all your layers at once and iron them all together. I tried this on a canvas bag (luckily a cheap one!) and ironed each layer separately and I think I killed the adhesive, because it didn't stick. Below is a close up of the pear. Now the real test is the laundry. I'll let you know!

Recycle swap card

Another blurry pic--what is wrong with me? I'm always in a hurry I guess. This is for Jen's swap, the recycle category. The idea is to use up scraps. I did that! Card base is Gina K Heavy Base Weight Kraft. I used scraps of Old Olive and Not Quite Navy for the elements and More Mustard and Real Red the words. I used the Cricut cartridge Give a Hoot. It has all kinds of wonderful earth-friendly images and sentiments. I finished it off with some retired red SU hemp twine. Have I mentioned that I absolutely LOVE my Cricut? In fact I just joined another swap hosted by StampinGoodDeeds, who I met through Jen's swap, where you're supposed to cut elements for a scene. I've already been playing around with some ideas for that. It's an addiction I tell you! Thanks for stopping by today--hope YOU get some paper crafting time in today.

Bird Card Swap

Hi, all, sorry for the blurry pic. This is my entry for the bird portion of Jen's swap. All products are SU, except for the Nestie dies and the paint. I painted the chipboard bird's feet and beak and his wing, and covered the rest of him with (ret. SU) DP. I just love that DP and those little chipboard birds. I used a recent SFYTT from Jen del Muro. Hope everyone likes it, can't wait to see what everyone else came up with. There is no stamping on this card! I know hard to believe right? Card Base is Choc Chip, layers are Summer Sun. I put a white panel on the inside for someone to write on. I used to have a stamp that said "Happy bird-day to you!" which would have been perfect for this card, but I eBayed it. But it would also make a great TY, get well soon, or thinking of you card, so I left it blank. Happy stamping!

Tree Card Swap

This card is for Jen's Tree, Bird, and Recycle swap. She thinks up the most fun themes for these things--I absolutely can't resist her swaps. My problem is reining myself in from signing up for too many spots. Anyway, this card is made with My Favorite Things stamps and digi paper. Tree is paper pieced. It's hard to tell, but the trunk is stamped on woodgrain paper. I printed out the digi paper on regular computer paper, makes for a nice light card. Buttons are from my stash. Card base is Gable Green by SU, ink is Green Galore. Thanks for stopping by, have a great day!

Our Daily Bread Designs Swap

My friend Jen over on SCS is hosting a whole slew of swaps just calculated to suck me in! The first one is an ODBD image, scripture, and card swap. I decided to make a diagonal double pocket card since I have a TON of beautiful DP that needs to be used up. You can see a cool tutorial for this HERE. One tip: when you go to fold your double-sided DP, make sure the side that you want to show the MOST of is facing away from you! This paper is SU, retired for many years. Set is Sing to the Lord, ink colors are Palette Burnt Umber and SU So Saffron. Translucent flower is Maya Road, buttons and jute twine are PTI, all else is SU. I used God Bless America and Keep My Lamp Burning for my image swaps. Thanks for looking--have a great day!