My brother's birthday is tomorrow, so I made this card yesterday and got it into the mail.  Hope it gets there in time!

How I love to make masculine cards.  This one uses SU's In Wilderness (bison) and Inspired by Nature (grass in the background).  Colors are Always Artichoke, River Rock, and Basic Black, with the bison stamped in Early Espresso.  Used twill tape and brads.  Quick, easy, and nice-looking.  

Thanks for taking a look!

TP Roll Mini Album--Picture Heavy Post!!!

I joined a swap on the Cricut MB to make a toilet paper roll mini album.  There are SCADS of tutorials for this on Youtube, so I'm not going to go into the construction too much.  You paint the rolls, including  the inside of one end for about an inch to an inch and a half.  When dry, flatten them with an iron or your Big Shot.  You can either seal the unpainted end with red line tape, but since I used my Bind It All to bind it, I figured that would be sealed enough to keep the tags in.

I used Graphic 45's 8 x 8 French Country paper pad.  Ordinarily I don't care about French Country, but this paper is gorgeous!  I love anything with sunflowers.  My partner likes vintage stuff and I figured this qualifies LOL.  This is the front cover.  I used one of SU's Antique brads for the embellie.

I made a little pocket on the inside of the front cover.  Tags are cut at 2" from the Art Philosophy cart.  Then I die cut the bottoms and embossed.  You can see a better pic at the end.  I used DMC for the fiber, and there is ribbon tied around the other page.  

Here I used torn paper to form little pockets on the corners.  A bottle cap and a photo turn are the embellies used here.  Sorry for the blurry pic.

The left hand page is an accordian page.  On the right I used one of SU's fancy builder brads.  It has a tiny bee stamped in More Mustard.

Close-up of the accordian page and...

all folded out.

Hard to tell in this pic but there are two clips with ribbon in opposite corners.

Another ribbon-tied page and SU's Sizzix scalloped envelope die with two more Antique brads and some linen thread for the closure.

Open.  You can barely see the tag inside.  

Back cover--no embellies.

Tags.  The one on the bottom left is the one that goes in the envelope.  The two above it go in the pocket in the front.  The rest are from the paper pack.  This side mostly has lines, so I figured they can be used for journaling.

The flip side of the French Country tags.  

I mailed these off today.  Hopefully she should get them by Sat.  Thanks for dropping by today, have a good one!

Graduation Cards

I had two nephews graduate this year, one from HS and one from college.  I made these pretty clean and simple--I didn't want to frou-frou them up since they are males LOL!

I used Plantin Schoolbook for the numbers and cut them at 2".  The mortarboard and the sentiment on the inside (hats off to the grad) are from PTI's For the Graduate.

Both cards measure 3 x 6 inches, a handy size when you plan to send $.  Colors are Brilliant Blue, More Mustard, and Basic Black.  Card base is PTI white.

Thanks for looking!  Have a wonderful day!

The other card my partner wanted was a girl's night out card, so of course my mind went straight to alcohol.  After I finished this card, I realized I should have made it a lime instead of a lemon, but maybe her friend REALLY likes iced tea LOL!

This card measures about 4 x 6".  I welded the two base shapes after hiding the interior cuts.  This produced a kind of weird effect on the umbrella points, so I just trimmed the extra ones with my scissors.  I knew it would be covered by the layer.  I used a lot of DCWV glitter CS here.  The pineapple cup is some cheap Kraft I got from HL for some project or other.  I used my Cricut marker to draw the outline before cutting to add some definition and ran it through an embossing folder.  After I got all the layers on there was an AWFUL LOT of empty kraft space at the bottom.  So I added the hibiscus flower with some hemp.  It really improved the card.  The straw is sponged with a little blue ink.  I don't have any sort of "girls' night out" stamps so I put a friend quote on the inside--an old SU one with that John Lennon lyric "I get by with a little help from my friends".  I love that song.

Anyway, hope you've enjoyed this post and have a great day!

Shaped Card Swap on the Cricut MB

I am doing another swap over at the Cricut MB.  This time it was to make 2 shaped cards for your partner--her choice.   This is the baby girl card I made for her.  It's 6" tall and about 3.75" wide.  This shape is from Baby Steps.  I wanted something a little different from a onesie or baby bottle so I chose this stacking toy shape.  Sadly it doesn't stand up on its own--I hope that's not a problem for her.  Colors are Pink Pirouette and Pumpkin Pie.  DSP is retired SU.  Buttons are PTI, as is the card base.  I used the Swiss Dots embossing folder on the antennae, and all the layers are popped up.  The inside is stamped "Welcome Little One" from PTI's Bitty Baby Blessings.

I think it's pretty cute.  I hope she likes it!  Have a happy stamping day everyone.

"Quilted" Butterflies

At my stamp club, one of the other stampers often uses this technique on her cards, and I always ooh and aah and say I'm going to try it and then I never do.  So..I finally did!

It's very simple.  I just punched out a bunch of butterflies from the Tea for Two DP using my new small butterfly punch.  I carefully spaced and adhered them on Very Vanilla and then ran the whole thing through an embossing folder.  It gives the coolest effect, like the butterflies are embedded in the paper.  Then I tied a bow and added a little tag with a sentiment from the original PTI Mixed Messages set which has like these microscopic sentiments on it.  The scalloped edge is cut with an SU Edgelits die.  The green is Lucky Limeade.

I love this method--it geves elegant results very quickly and easily--what more could you ask for?

Have a great day!

Cricut Gift Bag and Tag Swap, part II

So this bag and tag set is for my partner's son, who is a fisherman.  I used some paper from my stash, the new Outdoor Man cartridge, and the Camping Solutions cartridge (for the fish).  The man in the boat is cut at 4".  I embossed the boat, "Born to", and tags with PTI's wood grain plate.  I sponged the boat and water.  

I used red hemp and green buttons to accent the bag and cards.  Hemp is so great for men--not girly like ribbon.  The sentiment on the tag is from Pond Life Sentiments and says "birthday fishes".  

Well, that's it for today!  Hope you enjoyed this project.  I'd forgotten how much I enjoy making gift bags--I should really do more of it!  

Have a fabulous day!

Cricut Gift Bag and Tag Swap

I joined another Cricut partner swap.  This time it was for gift bags/tags.  My partner wanted one for her son and one for her grandson.  Her GS is a Florida Gator fan, so I downloaded the Team Spirit 34 image from cricut.com and cut it from Cricut Craft Room.  Turns out, those single images work differently in CCR than regular Cricut images--I wound up having to call Customer Service not once but twice but learned a lot in the process.  The trick?  Use on the settings set it to Imagine, and then when you go to cut, select cut only, not print and cut.  My DH also bought me a laptop so now I can use CCR down in my craft room--anyone want to buy a Cricut Mini that has been used exactly once?!?  LMK!

I used some of my all-time fave retired SU paper--Jersey Shore.  I hope she appreciates that I used my hoard for her LOL!  The Gator is cut at 4"  I think and most of the layers are popped up.  I used some orange and green baker's twine that I bought around last Halloween from Mike's.

I had to look on line to see what slogans Florida uses.  One was "If you're not a gator, you're gator bait" and the other had something to do with being in "The Swamp".  I liked that one (plus it was shorter!) so I went with it.  Shadow is Pumpkin Pie, letters are Garden Green.  Other colors on the gator are Bashful Blue, Brilliant Blue, Wild Wasabi, and Whisper White.

Here is the tag.  The requirement was a # 8 shipping tag.  I cut two just a bit larger than 3 x 6, ran them through my new Cuttlebug folder--that I got on sale, woo-hoo, and glued them back to back to make it sturdier.  I used Sticky Strip to attach some beads.  The reverse side is identical but with a blank space for writing.  

I'm really pleased with the way this turned out!  I hope you like it too--if so, please leave a comment!  Thanks for dropping by!