Thank You Card

     Good morning my fellow crafters and welcome to all my new followers. I really appreciate your taking the time to follow me and hope that in some way I can inspire you. This year I am challenging myself to use some of my least (or never) used carts and really explore their potential.
     This week Erica @ My Cricut Craft Room asked us to create a Thank You card so I deided to pull my Sophie cart. Here's the cut from page 45 that I used:

     This is just 2 cuts. I love that it is such an easy card to make. I chose and cut  @ 2.50" for the top and the shadow @ 2.75" for a more layered look. the stamp is from Inkadinkadoo's Just Saying set.

     I also used Spellbinders Large Scalloped Ovals to provide another layer. The stamped label was then applied with pop dots. Since the background card had a touch of blue in it, I decided to add some ribbon and blue rhinestones to pull it all together. I had bought a set of premade cards from DCWV, so, when I am in a hurry or just want to focus on my die, I always go to this set.

     I used the blue rhinestones as the flower centers and also carried it over to the image already on the card base.

     Now pull out those less used carts and see what you can create! Thanks for stopping by and be sure to head back over to My Cricut Craft Room and see more inspiration from my DT Sisters.

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A Perky Little Penguin Card

     Welcome to another Post for My Cricut Craft Room. This week Erica asked the Design Team to use a "perky penguin" on our cards. If you have been following my blog, then you know that Decemeber is a HUGE birthday month for us. Last week my grandson Nicholas in Florida turned 6. This week my grandson Benjamin also turns 6. Yup, we are a very close family, lol. Would you like to see the card I made for Ben?

     Since Ben can be a character, I thought he would love this penguin. I used the penguin from Winter frolic. The image is on page 57 and I cut all the layers @ 3 1/4". The beak is still rather small so I used a Quickie glue pen which is perfect for small areas. I also used a white gel pen for the eyes.

     I cut the layer for the hat and pop twice, once in red and once in yellow. The top of the hat has some Fun Flock to add some dimension (and because I couldn't find any small pom poms in my stash!). The background pattern is from DCWV Winter card stack with glitter.

     In order to make sure I had a perky penguin, I placed him on an action wobble. The trees are left over from some tags I had made and thought they went perfect with this project. I even added a few to the inside of the card. The foremost tree is raised with some pop dots.

     The "silly sixes" sentiment is from Pink By Designs "age is only a #.

     Well that's it for today. I hope you are all enjoying the upcoming festivities. Happy Hanukkah to all my Jewish friends. Now please be sure to head back over to My Cricut Craft Room and see what my design team sisters have to share with you. 

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Thank You

     How ya all doin'? If you are able to read this then I guess you survived the effects of Sandy. If you are late in visiting, that's okay I'm just glad to have you stop by. Today Erica asked the Design Team to make a project using either Paper Lace or Ornamental Iron. I chose to make a card using Paper Lace. Let's get to it,lol.

     A while back I bought a card pack from DCWV and am slowly going through them. I love the fall look of this pack so I decided to make some Thank You cards to have on hand. There are several designs for Thank You on this cart. I used the one on page 61 using the main cut and shadow. I cut these @1.25".I inked the edges with the Distress inks Shabby Shutters and Spiced Marmalade. I layered this on some left over scrap pieces that just happened to match my background. I even found this great ribbon in my stash. It was from American crafts Elements: Uptown Orange.

     I found a bunch of flowers that I had previously cut from mothers' day bouquet so I decided to spruce these up and add them to my card. I painted them with Tattered Angels Glam Glitter Paint in copper. This helped to pick up the Stickles I used on my font. I used an orange brad for the center and some leaves. The "leaves" are made by using Martha Stewarts branch punch and I used a green velum for a soft look.

     Remember these that were popular a while back? They are "skittles". These small plastic rounds can be found in Michael's floral department. They are clear but, by placing them in a baggy with a few drops of alcohol inks, you can have a variety of colors to match your distress inks!
     That's it for today ladies. If you are looking for the supplies I used for this project, you can purchase them @ Ericas' Store. Now please be sure to check back over @ My Cricut Craft Room to see the inspiration my Design Team Sisters have to share with you today.

Fathers' Day Cards

       Happy Tuesday and welcome to Erica's Card Creating Tuesday! Today the Design Team is happy to show you some Fathers day cards so you have no excuse not to get a jump start on making some of these for dear old dad. I am going to show you 2 different cards that I have created, so here we go......

     My first card actually was designed around this card stock with the rich brown grasses from the DCWV "Safari Chic" stack. I just love the papers in this pad and this one just begged to be used for a Fathers' Day card. I cut this great frame from Wild Card on page 66 @ 6.5". Don't you just love these cattails?
     I cut the frame from core'dinations Distress collection and inked the edges with walnut stain and tea dye inks from Ranger.I love to add texture to my dies so this time I used brown fun flock on the cattails. This is a great product and adds dimension especially a realistic look to this cut. I decided to add some Tarnished Brass crackle paint to the frame edges to add a little definition from the background paper.
     By the way, if you would like to purchase some of the products like the ones I have used here, you should check out Ericas' Store. She has all the latest products AND, this month she is giving a 33% discount in her store for everything but Provocraft. All you have to do is add the code 33 at checkout. How sweet of her is this!!! Just another reason why you should shop early and get those cards made, lol.

     I added some gold Atou spica markers to the stem of the cattails. (You didn't think I could make a card without a little bling did you?). The greeting is a rub on.

     I also added a rub on sentiment to the inside of the card. I couldn't bear to throw out this scrap of card stock with the touch of grass peeking out so I added that to the inside as well.

     I had bought a pack of Kraft pre made cards and envelopes so these came in so handy for both Fathers' Day cards. I found this tie and collar cut from of all places, Designer Calendar! You can find this on page 44 Events>shift and cut it @ 2.5". This cut is great but now I needed a shirt! I really loved this one that I found on Paper Doll Dress Up on page 32. You will find it on the top row 3rd from the left>shift. In order to get the right size, I made a test cut using computer paper first. I had to cut the shirt @ 8" in order for it to fit the shirt.

     I wanted the tie to stand out a little from the collar so I inked it with Antique Linen ink. The shirt was from another card stock in the Safari Chic pack. I had gotten a surprise from Erica in one of my orders (she loves to do that to all of us, lol). She had sent me some adhesive foam strips by Darice and they came in very useful to pop my tie and collar up.
     I used some Imaginisce silver brad tops for the buttons and a brad for the top "button". The square tags on the sentiment was cut from the Imagine More cart in 1.75" and also 2". I just popped them in my Xyron 2.5 create a sticker and now the tags were done. Once again I used a rub-on for the sentiment and the faux stitching. The cream card stock mat was embossed with a herringbone pattern and my cuttlebug. Does that brown strip look familiar? It should, it is the last piece from the cattail background paper from the other card.
     I hope you all have a wonderful week. Now that your Mothers' day cards are done start those Fathers' Day cards NOW. Be sure to pop back over to Ericas Room and see what the rest of the designers have to share with you today.They are so talented  and their projects are always fabulous!
   

The Three Wisemen Card

     As you can see I am on a roll with my Christmas cards this year. The more I do the more intricate I am getting. This is my new favorite for the week, lol. Fortunately I had cut these out in anticipation of our possibly losing power. It is truly a miracle that THIS time we didn't. However you can still see the snow that is left over and this is 5 days later.
     This time I went with a 5x7" card base. The card stock is a cream with a nice sheen to it. The image was cut using the Inspired Heart image @ 3" and the background is from a pale blue glossy card stock.I really love using embossing of all kinds on my cards and this has both dry and heat embossing.The background is Swiss dots whereas I used heat embossing for the stars in the upper right hand corner as well as the sentiment "Unto us a child is born".  The embossing powder is a detail silver and really makes a statement! Both stamps are from Inkadinkado.

     The flower was cut from Flower Shoppe cart by ProvoCraft.  I cut them @ various sizes: 1 3/4" and 1- 1/2". I used a DCWV stack and Donna Salazar's technique with the tulle and added some of her Pixie Dust Glitter. I assembled the card by using silver thread to sew the image and background together before adhering it to the card base.

     I thought the flower would balance the stars off and the colors just seemed to fit.It gives it a quiet elegance don't ya think?

     I also added a sentiment on the inside and used a rich blue ink. It says: "Peace on earth will come to stay, when we live Christmas everyday." I just love this sentiment. It would be wonderful if we could have that warm feeling year round, don't you agree?

Love Always Album

     Surprise I made something not nautical, beach, ocean or water related, lol! I've been working on this for a while ( I am soooo slow). Anyways here are the details.
     First I started with Spellbinders Creative Pages by Donna Salazar.This is cut out of Corrugated card board by Zutter. I used Donna Salazar's technique with a combo of paint and embossing powder to create this great background.
     I also made this fabric flower out of satin and added some stickles to the petals. The small flowers are premade out of mulberry paper but, of course they needed some bling. I had just got some of Donna Salazars Fairy Dust. Wow, does this ever sparkle!
     I dug into my stash and found this great ribbon and also a roll of this flower ribbon.

     I can't remember which paper stack I used but some of the smaller pieces are from DCWV girls stack. More satin ribbon but this has a nice picot edge. I also have a nice pack of these pearl flowers from Recollections. The circle on the left is Spellbinders Grand Nestabilities scalloped circle.

     Isn't this paper cool? I love the silver foil effect. I had some silver card stock left over from a previous project so I made a pocket to hold my tag.
     The tag is a shipping tag that I spritzed with glimmer Mist and added a quote from Donna's crafty Chronicle: "A journet is best measured in friends rather than miles.I added this by using Liquid laminate by Beacon. The cute butterfly brad is from a Creative Charms value pack. I also had some rub ons that I had hanging around and used them throughout the book. This one says "I am going your way".

    
          I love to add a little interactive play to my albums and this one is no exception. Here you find a pocket that another tag is hidden in. Again I used Creative Charms, this time a felt flower. The tag inside is so cute. It has a shoe, pearls, shopping bag and purse on the left hand corner.

     This is the back side. Love all those girly things! The right hand side has a picture of a tube of lipstick.
     That's it for now guys. As always thanks for stopping by. ( I hope you enjoyed your visit!).
     BTW, this album is currently for sale in my etsy shop.http://www.etsy.com/listing/79254242/love-always-album

Pink Lady And Another Blog award.

     I have completed the beginners' Copics classes @ http://simplyscrapping.ning.com/. So I have become daring and colored my first digi stamp. This stamp is from Pink by Design and she has such cute stamps! I also added this to their copic challenge where the only requirement was to use the color pink. ( I think I have that covered, lol).
     I used the following colors:
Face: E01,E00,E000,R20
Hair: E13, E15, E17
Shoes and Hat Ribbon: C1, C3, C5,C7
Dress and Hat: RV02, RV04, RV06
Boa: R81, R83, R85 Spica hot pink
Star: Y13,Y15, Y19
     I also had some trim left over from a Donna Salazzar class I recently finished so that went on the card as well. The paper is from a stack called "All About Girls" from DCWV. I also added some stickles for her necklace.
     The newly added blog award was from Audrey @ Cute And Some.http://cuteandsome.blogspot.com/2011/06/my-im-steampunkin-project-and-blog.html. Please check her blog out she has some great projects over there.
     Upon receipt of this award I have to let you know 8 more things about my self and pass this on to 8 other blogs. First, the 8 things about me:
     1. I love my husband! We have been married for 38 years and are the exact opposites. He is quiet and reserved, I'm outgoing and social.
     2. I love a good joke and can be quite silly at times.
     3. I love my children. There are 5 of them and they all have very unique personalities which I love. They are all very accomplished and talented in their own fields.
     4. I love my grand children all 8 of them! The are so close in age that I feel like Mema + 8! They are truly God's blessing to us and make us realize how fast time goes by.
     5. I love crafting, all types of crafting: paper, painting, sewing, beading etc.
     6. I love learning new things. Perhaps that is why I love taking on line classes. I can learn at my own pace and practice to my hearts content.
     7. I love to wake up to the smell of coffee ( okay, I'm addicted, lol).
     8. I love the feeling you get when you walk out of church, sort of like life is beginning anew.
     Now for the lucky ladies ( and yes there are 2 guys that I follow, lol) who amaze me with their talent. Please be sure to stop by and give them some love.
     1. http://anothermessycrafter.blogspot.com
     2. http://www.217creations.com/
     3. creativeinspirationspaint.blogspot.com//
     4.  http://momsbeenscrappin.blogspot.com
     5.http://www.creativetimeforme.com/
     6.http://paperinkcolor.blogspot.com/
     7. http://scrapguy.blogspot.comhttp://scrapguy.blogspot.com
     8. http://www.scrappyhappiness.com
     Thanks for following me. Hugs, Mary

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

     We had our St. Patrick's Day meal a day early since I have to work tomorrow. The menu was: corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, a new Irish bread recipe ( it was so good, thanks Trish!) and lime jello for dessert. I love the red brisket rather than the gray. I realized years ago that if you add 5 peppercorns and 2 garlic cloves to the water you never have a salty corned beef and it just pulls apart. Yummm!

     The challenge at Just Us Girls this week was to try a new technique: acrylic smash! There is a great tutorial at Splitcoaststampers.com. I also combined this with a challenge on the circut circle blog where you had to show your green.
     I chose to cut the acrylic piece using my Imagine and the image is one preloaded on the machine. The white card stock is cut with the same 3" image. For my "smash" part I used an adirondack gold dabber and the stamp is from studio G stamped in forest green StazOn ink.
     The plaid background paper is from DCWV Nana's Nursery Baby Boy. I wanted a soft green so the image of the shamrocks would stand out. The gold shamrocks are cut using the Celebrate With A Flourish cartridge @ 1.5".  I love this shiny gold it's a scrap I had left over (I think from a Christmas project).
     The sentiment is also from the studio G stamp set that I backed with green card stock cut using a spellbinders die. Of course I had to use some ribbon and the beautiful gradient jewels from Creative Charms.

     The inside says "Everyone is Irish for a day". Originally I was going to use these shamrocks on the front but I decided to go with the gold instead so I thought, what the heck, I'll put these on the inside, lol. Hope you all enjoy being Irish for the day. Top 'O the Day to ya!!!

Die Cuts With A View Giveaway!!!

     Wow what a great giveaway! Roberts is giving away for DCWV products. This is a great substantial give away with papers, embellishments etc. I love DCWV paper pads. They definitely are my go to product especially for albums.
     Here are the details: follow the link, sign up as a follower to Roberts blog and leave a comment saying you did. If you want extra chances to win this prize pack then post on Fb and/or tweet. Then leave an extra comment each time you share. That's it good luck!
     I'll be back later with some neat projects I've been working on!!! Hint: I just received the Yudu card shop that I won, yeah!!!http://blog.robertscrafts.com/2011/03/altered-books.html

Thanks For Being You

      It always pays to clean your workspace! The challenge @ Just Us Girls (JUGS72) is to use aqua, melon and kraft for your colors. For those of you that follow me, the background paper is a piece I had leftover from the sympathy cards I made last week. Perfect for the challenge. I love when that happens!     All the papers except for the kraft color are scraps. I even used the small pieces of melon and solid blue to cut some dimensional butterflies. I painted a few stickles on the wings and used Creative Charms gradient gems for the body of the butterfly. The white border is a punch from Fiskars and blends so well with the background paper from DCWV. I also added some faux stitching on the Spellbinders label. The stamp is also from my stash.

     I also like to finish off the inside of my cards and I had enough leftover pieces to do just that! Don't be afraid to leave a comment, I won't bite!

Wild Thing

     I'm back with another challenge I decided to do. As a member of the Cricut Circle, we are giving the opportunity to enter into some weekly challenges. This weeks was to do something using animals. This put a fire under me since I have several baby cards to do to welcome 2 beautiful babies Cohen and Collin. No they are not twins but cousins born several weeks apart, lol.

     My niece has a wild animal thing going and she and her husband love raccoons. This was a no brainier to use for the challenge and get a card done! I really LOVE how this came out. The reason is I love this paper for the raccoon. Its from DCWV the Safari Chic stack. Sometimes the die cuts look too "cutesy". This paper actually looks like fur! I cut the image from Animal Kingdom @ 3" and the phrase "wild thing" is from Zooballo @ 3/4". The stamp is one I had but wanted to keep with the "woodsy" feel so I inked it with Tim Holtz distress ink in Vintage Photo and embossed with TH embossing powder. Just added a few white dots for the eyes and some imaginisce gold dots for a little bling!

 

I really am trying to use up my scraps so I just added some scrap strips to the inside. Oh I forgot to mention, the background paper was a sheet I had stashed away. It was perfect for this woodsy look. Don't forget to leave a comment and tell me what you think!

Let Me Count The Ways

     The wonderful people @ Copics Creations have a great challenge #42 going on. It's to use something new, a technique, tool or product, that's it. I REALLY am trying to get more skillful @ using my copics but it's hard because I have a limited number of them.     I stamped my image with tuxedo black Momento inks and then embossed the key with detail gold embossing powders. The image was a stamp by Inkadinkado and colored with the following copic markers: E50, E53, YR00 and E04. Since I don't have a black and coordinating shades I just used my spica copics to add highlights for the hair. I also used the gold spica pen for some of the dots around "Love". The dots around the girl are done with Creative Inspiration paints in burgundy. The background card stock is dry embossed with the cuttlebug folder. My "new" thing was using this paper from DCVW and new gradient gems from creative charms. More importantly was the chance to use my copics. I guess practice makes perfect! This is only the 3rd project I've tried with them. I really hope to get better.

Sometimes People Suck

Hi there! Yesterday I went to get my usual cup of coffee at our local center store. It's a small gas,convenience,deli shop run by a really nice couple. They have made fantastic changes to the shop in this small sleepy town and also work long hours. In other words a truly nice caring couple.
   We recently received about 18" of snow in the last snowstorm. Even though people were advised to stay off the roads, this couple opened as usual at 5am. Our Governor told non essential workers they should stay home. These shop owners ARE essential , to the snow plow drivers, lol.
   Anyways, here we are 4 days out from the storm. The snow is somewhat melting, getting a little slushy. You guessed it. Some woman (not a regular) slips in the parking lot. She goes back in the store and tells them she thinks she has to go to the Emergency Room because she thinks she sprained her ankle! Think lawsuit.
Can anything just be an accident today?

   I have sent these people several cards and they both really enjoy them. When I walked in the store she came over and said "just give me a hug" and then proceeded to tell me what happened. As I was leaving she asked me if I could make her a card that they really cheer her up.
   Voila, this is what I came up with. I used my Spellbinders nestabilities and my Just Rite stamps. I REALLY love these stamps. I can stamp anything I want to say. The background paper is DCWV the All About Girls Stack. I added a few butterfly embellishments to make it a pretty card and to add an element of surprise (you would never expect the inside sentiment, lol).
   Hope you all have a great day!!