Reindeer treats for Granboy's Pre-K class

I used the Pearson's round mints and covered them with scalloped circles cut with the Cricut, flourishes (two different dies) from My Favorite Things (cricut cut could also easily be used) with google eyes, little red noses from Michael's and a hand-drawn smile. Their antlers kept getting tangled so I had to put them in individual little baggies. My sister and I had FITs getting the 45 of them separated when the box they were in got tipped over. She's an Aggie, I am not and I told her if I were an Aggie, that scenario would have been good for at least a joke or two. "How many Aggies does it take to untangle reindeer antlers....?" (ok, maybe that would be funny only in Texas). Sorry for the blurry photo but it was taken with my phone

My Simple Christmas Card

Well, although I call this a simple card, it was made up of elements that took a little time with embossing and pop dotting and coloring but I ended up liking the final results. I put off making cards until this past weekend and without the help of my sister, I never would have been able to complete these. So thank you, my Dear Sister!! I used Cuttlebug's Swiss Dots as the background embossing folder and the Cuttlebug cut and emboss Fanciful Labels for the tag. The poinsettias are a sunflower stamp and die from Paper Trey Ink, the leaves are from the ever-popular Martha Stewart pine branch punch and were glittered with a Sakura clearstar pen (which doesn't show up well in the photo. The sentiment is also Paper Trey Ink. The red cardstock, red ink and red pen (on the inside which I didn't photo) are all Stampin Up's Real Red and flower centers and sentiment are embossed with Stampin Up's

gold embossing powder

Cranberry Hootycreeks

This is a project I did last year and posted on Splitcoast Stampers and on the Cricut message board:

I was so happy with how this small project turned out. The tags are a Stampendous stamp that I first saw on SusieBs blog (thank you, SusieB!) at http://www.heartprints.net/item.php?ItemId=4336 . Image is heat embossed (to help me stay in the lines..lol) and colored with prismacolor pencils. I remembered a tip from SusieB that when using red, the regular old fine tip Bic marker made a prettier red than the pencils, so that's what I used on her shirt. Then I stamped an extra image, cut out the gingerbread men for the pan and used Glossy Accents to make them shine, then pop dotted. I used a Signo Gel Pel--thank you Tara at Personal Scrapbook for recommending this (best white gel pen I have ever used) for the little white icing on the gingerbread men. The gingerbread apron was paperpieced using a free online gingerbread paper and shrunk on WORD so that it would look right on the apron. The mixing and baking directions on the flip side of the tag are computer generated. Paper used was SU Cherry Cobbler and Kraft and tag is from TBBM.

Additional Info on Inspired Heart cocoa box

On the image from Inspired Hearts, I wanted the main image to have a shadow around it so that some gold trimmed it instead of just being in the background. The background for this image is exactly the same size as the image so I used Design Studio to slightly enlarge the background in order to get that gold trim

Another Cocoa Box

Here's another cocoa box done with the Cricut Inspired Heart cartridge, a stamp from HL done with gold embossing powder, a star and snowflakes using Cuttlebug's Snowflake #2 die. The candy cane poem is something I found on the internet and printed with my printer. The candy cane is from the Christmas Cheer cartridge.

Easy, inexpensive Christmas Idea

I did these cocoa boxes from a file from this blog http://www.paperscissorsinc.com/2008/11/hot-cocoa-challenge.html .  Shirley, the cut file creator generously relinked the cut file for everyone to download and the 3 x 6 box is perfect for the cocoa. I cut the box with my cricut and used My Favorite Things "Who's that Girl Gets Cozy with Cocoa" for the image (paper pieced) and sentiment. The paper is from a Martha Stewart Christmas pack that I got a few years ago. I had to fold back the sides of the cocoa packet where it was seamed but it fit and looked great. I used Prismacolor pencils for the mug and cocoa and a "snow writer" from Michael's for the marshmallows. It puffed up just like liquid applique!

Because the MS paper folded a bit wonky where the underside image had glitter, I did one using Stampin Up Real Red (cut and shaped like a dream) and striped paper from my stash for the mats, used the same image but a sentiment from House Mouse stamps (embossed with white embossing powder). Considering the cost of the paper, cocoa (94cents at WalMart), the candy cane, the peppermint squares and paper, I figured these cost less than $2.00

Fun Christmas Card

Creative Belli's had a challenge to use 1-2-3-4 items you already have http://bellichallenge.blogspot.com/2011/10/belli-129-1-2-3-4-challenge.html and this card fits that to a "T". I loved this card http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/gallery/photo/2083856?&limit=last1 but didn't have any of the same product so I used what I have! One Designer Paper, Two Trees, Three rows of snow, Four Snowflakes

 

Card Sentiment

Products:
DP from Crafter's Companion November 2010
Two Trees cut from Cricut "Bloom"
Three rows of snow cut from Cricut "Holiday Cakes"
Four snowflakes cut using Cuttlebug and Snowflake #2 die
My Favorite Things Pure Innocence "Sending you a Little Christmas" Stamp set
Glistening Snow Writer smeared on rows of snow
Little Pearls in middle of Snowflakes
Prisma Color Pencils
Liquid Pearls Ruby Red for ornaments on tree
Scraps for paperpiecing
Liquid Applique for boots and hat

Halloween Treats

I made about 40 of these Halloween treats for youngest grandson's daycare class and for a few friends. They use various cuts from Cricut cartridges and the label was cut from the Storybook cartridge and folded in half. The treats are microwave smores

Two More Halloween Cards

These next two cards were done for the younger grandkids: the first uses the Cricut and Happy Hauntings cartridge for the vampire and the sentiment, the background is a cuttlebug embossing folder sprayed with glimmer mist. The inside has a cut from the HH cartridge saying "Happy Halloween" and is glittered with the Martha Stewart glow in the dark glitter that was so popular last year. The candycorn card has no cricut but uses a Paper Trey Ink jar and label from the "Friendship Jar" set and the candy corn image from the "Friendship Jar Fall Fillers" and label. The inside of the card says "We love candy corn...and you!"

Halloween Card for Grandson

This is the Halloween card I made for my 16 year old grandson. I didn't think the witch cut with my cricut and Happy Hauntings cartridge looked right, so I did a google search and found this website that had some great tips on making the cut stand out http://cema1cema.blogspot.com/2011/10/my-cricut-craftrooms-fall-favorites.html but be advised the link has Halloween music playing. Some people don't like music on the blogs but I really enjoyed it myself, especialy since I was listening to it while doing the card. The witch might have been better at a bigger size but I'll remember that for next year. The sentiment on the inside of the card is computer generated and says "Have you ever wondered if witches get wedgies?"

Halloween Cards

My niece's children had a recent Pirate Party and I just had to get the My Favorite Things stamp set called "Ahoy Matey" for a pirate Halloween card for them. The sentiment is on a layered "label" cut with my Cricut and the Storybook cartridge. The paper was given to me by my sister so I'm not sure who made it but it was perfect for these cards. I liked the first one so much that I had to do a second one!

Christmas Card for My Pink Stamper Challenge

My Pink Stamper is having a Christmas card challenge this week at this link:
http://www.mypinkstamper.com/2011/10/christmas-card-challenge.html

Although I don't have a CLUE as to what to do for this year's card, this is the one I did for last year. The bird is a cut using Circut and the Create A Critter cartridge. I cut the bird, ran it through a xmall Xyron sticker maker and then used red flock. A small black rhinestone was put on the eye. The leaves are from the Martha Stewart pine branch punch. The card base is Stampin Up Real Red, the white mat is Stampin Up Shimmery White (has a nice subtle glitter look to it) and I used a Glistening Snow Writer for the snow and glitter on the branch leaves. The ribbon was from the $1.00 rack at Hobby Lobby. The border punch on the outside and corner punch on the inside are also from Stampin Up. I cannot remember where the stamped sentiments are from and the embossing folder used was Cuttlebug's Divine Swirls.

Inside:

Cricut Halloween Card

I am going to attempt to post a Cricut card at least once a week. This is one I did for Halloween last year. The jar is cut from Sugar and Spice Lite cart that I won from My Pink Stamper. I used acetate for the jar itself and just a scrap of brown for the lid and black for the jar outline, a little piece of orange ribbon and some candy corn scrapbook paper I found at Hobby Lobby. The card mat is from a Martha Stewart Halloween pack from last year. I cannot remember the brand of the stamp.

Inside the card uses the Martha Stewart drippy goo punch. I have since gotten a Cricut cartridge that does the same cut. The sentiment is computer generated and the candy corns are made of concentric circles glued together in candy corn colors and then cut like pizza slices.

Weekly Sketch Challenge - MFTWSC38

It's been a tough week around here and I've found myself just sitting in my scrap room, staring at nothing. Have done some crying, a lot of praying but know all is in God's hands. I finally pulled myself up to do the weekly sketch challenge as I've always found doing something in my little "oasis" is in itself therapeutic. The card ended up reflecting my mood as it's all in blues and I didn't even realize that until I had done the card, taken the photos and downloaded to my computer. I'm not happy with the sentiment on the bottom and after I get new ink for my printer, I'm going to print out "Feeling Under the Weather?", hand cut it, mat it and put on the bottom.

Halloween Treats using Cricut

Well, Halloween is fast approaching and it's never too early to get started on ideas. I have a total blank on what to do for this year, but I did these treats last year for the two youngest Grankids to take to daycare. Both are cut from the Happy Hauntings Cartridge and inside were little packs of Halloween marshmallows.

And here are the treats for their teachers/aides using recycled Starbucks bottles. Some use just paper and raffia, some use cuts from Happy Hauntings and A Child's Year cartridges.

MFTWSC37 - Sunflower Girl

I'm using the MFT Pure Innocence-Sunflower Girl again for this week's sketch challenge. The paper is from Cloud 9 Design's Specialty Photo Mats that I got FREE at JoAnn's (they opened a new one and the first 100 people got a gift card for $10.00 and the mat stack was on sale for $5.99!!!). The dress is a scrap that just happenned to blend well with the background paper. The other mats are various scraps of SU paper in Crushed Curry and Close to Cocoa. I cut a flower out of the background paper for her to hold (so that it better matched the paper) and the 3-D sunflower and leaves are done with MFT's Upsy Daisy Dienamics die. Her shoes are topped with Glossy Accents and small pearls on the shoes. You can click on the picture and it will enlarge.

MFTWSC35 Challenge

And here's last week's challenge card using one of my all time favorite stamp sets. Anybody who knows me knows my love of candy corn (but only during the fall and only from the Halloween candy aisle!!). The rosette was a bugger to do as it kept jumping out at me, just at the point when I was getting it in position to glue it down. Like a paper cobra. hahaha. The candy corns in the wagon were cut out of the same paper I used to paper-piece the little dress.

MFTWSC36 Challenge

Here's my entry for this weeks stamping challenge from My Fine Things Stamps. For the strawberries, I did not use my Prismacolor pencils as I have problems with the red bleeding. I used Stampin Up Real Red Marker with Bic pink and yellow for shading. I cut the flowers out of the paper to put with the bigger strawberries which are from the Paper Trey Ink set called Summer Jar Fillers. I used a SU embossing folder to give texture to the basket and the Prismacolor pencils for the arm and basket handle. Pop dotted the cluster of strawberries and white flowers. Both strawberry and red/white dotted paper are by Cosmo Cricket and ovals are Nestabilities.

Fall Card

I have been posting cards using stamping lately but my real first love is using my Cricut. Here's a card I did last year for cards for soldiers using Walk In My Garden for the wheel barrow and the Martha Stewart Leaf punch for the small leaves and for the trim on the inside of the card. The sentiment is computer generated

One last card

One last card for today that I made for my sister. It also uses a My Favorite Stamps set but it is in the "Who's that Girl" line and is called "How Sweet It Is". My sister is one of the very few people in my life who "get it" when it comes to stamping, card making and crafting. I did this as a thank you to her for her encouragement, support and for all she does for me. I used some patterned paper I got in a pack at Big Lots for the cupcake background and cut out some of the images for the cupcake and the cake which has a little bit of glitter on it. The image was colored with Prismacolor pencils and the chair, ottoman and her dress were paper pieced. I cut the candy bar out of some Halloween paper and only after taking the picture did I realize it has a Dracula face on it. I covered it with a puffy red heart embellie and cut a small sliver of gold metallic paper for the chocolate box (can't tell in the pic) so that it would look like a Godiva Chocolate box. I also used a small chocolate chip stamp that came in the set along with some Versamark ink to make the background paper. This card really is cuter in person. Gotta work on a light box for my cards!

More cards

Here are a few more cards I've recently done for the MFTWSC challenges

Neglected blog

Yes, that's right. I have neglected my poor little blog. Summer has been so busy with work and vacation (a 10 day, 10 state motorcycle trip that was a BLAST!!) and everything else. And the heat...just leaves me exhausted. It's raining a little today but temps are still expected to be around 106 so any relief brought by the rain this morning will just make being outside like being in a sauna this afternoon. But we need the rain!!

I'm just going to post some cards I've done recently with no details other than they use the My Favorite Things Pure Innocence Stamps which I have totally enjoyed using. Everybody around here try to stay cool and to those on the East Coast...my prayers go out for your safety.

Exciting News--New online Crafting Channel

This is such exciting news! There is going to be a new online crafting channel and it can be found at http://mycraftchannelblog.blogspot.com/

I am so jazzed about this and am soooo looking forward to it. Run on over to subscribe and try to win some of the prizes they are giving away!

MFTWSC27 Weekly Challenge

This is the card I did for the weekly MFT challenge. I used their stamp set Pure Innocence-Cart Full of Friends, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite sets. I am giving this card to my daughter to send to a friend of hers. On July 4th, this friend was holding her three year old daughter during a fireworks show when one of the fireworks went off course and slammed into them. The Mom is ok but the little girl has some serious burns. For those of you who are interested in sending a card to her, here is a facebook link (sorry, it's the only info I could find on this as I don't think the Mom has a blog) http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Ruffled-Rebelles/110617265636205 and cards can be sent to her at Izzy c/o Ruffled ReBelles 110 N. Main St. Mansfield, TX. 76063. Please keep this family in your prayers.

My Sister's Challenge Response

Here is my sister's challenge response and I LOVED IT!! Wahoo, what a great card!! Here's the link to her card so I hope you'll go look at it http://piecesofjoyhadden.blogspot.com/2011/07/debs-challenge-and-cha.html but I also wanted to show just a snippet here...to show how she used teeny tiny buttons for the wheels on the cars and rvs. This is just so precious!!

MFT Challenge--- I WON!!

I won the weekly MFT challenge for the card in the post below. Now I KNOW it was a random pick type winner (there are some great cards and great ideas on these challenges) and it was all luck, but I'll take lucky anytime! I am sooo happy to win this challenge and can't wait to do more!! If anybody out there is interested, the weekly sketch challenge is issued under the title "Wednesday Stamp Club" and the blog address is: http://www.mftstamps.com/blog/

My Favorite Things Challenge and Challenge to My sister

I did this card for a challenge by My Favorite Things and as a challenge to my sister. For this card I used a free internet manuscript sample from a teacher's website for the manuscript handwriting, SUs Crushed Curry cardstock for the mat, a scrap of black paper and red ribbon and a small apple stamp covered with Glossy Accents to give it shine. The doily was cut with my Cricut using the Paper Lace cartridge, the circle was also cut with the Cricut and edged in SUs Crushed Curry ink. The skirt and blouse are paper pieced with scraps and the shoes are done with a black Glaze pen. Coloring was done with Prismacolor pencils.

I cut the inside of the chalkboard out and replaced it with ChalkPaper which is just like a chalkboard. I couldn't find a piece of chalk to write on it but after going through some sewing things that my Mom gave me once, I found her old Dressmaker's Pencil which looks like a small Prismacolor Pencil but is actually chalk. She's been gone almost 4 years now, but she's still helping me out! She was a fabulous mom. I'm sending this card to my sister as I gave her some of the chalkpaper and challenged her to find a way to use it and I think knowing where the "chalk" came from will mean a lot to her.

The inside of the card is simply a mat of SU Crushed Curry, layered on top is Whisper White and another piece of the manuscript example.

The Pink Stamper Birthday Challenge

The Pink Stamper is having a Birthday Challenge at http://www.mypinkstamper.com/2011/06/birthday-crazy-card-challenge-giveaway.html and here is my entry. I did this for my sister's birthday last year and she liked it so much that she still has it on display. I used a cut file from the wonderful Denise Hill at PaperPastimes and cuts from the Cricut Cartridge "A Child's Year" and "George".

Grandson's Graduation Card

Well, the last 18 years have blown by so fast that I am amazed. My first-born granboy will be graduating next week and then leaving for Marine BootCamp in 6 weeks. My emotions are running the span of pride, fear, happiness, trepidation, love, loss..and on and on and on. I just have to trust in his good judgment and will keep him in my prayers and I trust in the Lord for his protection and growth. He is a fantastic young man with a very bright future. One thing I discovered last week--the last and final Harry Potter movie will come out four days after he leaves for basic training. We have seen EVERY Harry Potter movie together, read the books together, went to midnight release parties for the books and have even been lucky enough to obtain tickets to pre-screening events for several of the movies. I am sooooo going to miss him and seeing this one just won't be the same.

I made a card similar to this for my great-niece who graduated last year. When they were little, we used to tease that my great-niece and granboy were cosmic twins--although born EXACTLY TO THE MINUTE 24 hours apart, they lost their first tooth on the same day, played for soccer teams of the same name (even though they lived 90 miles apart)--so many different things were alike. So, I made a male version of her graduation card. All cricut cuts are from Everyday Paper Dolls. The face and sentiment are computer generated

New Cricut Blog at http://cricutblog.org/

Cricut has started a new Cricut Blog as of 05/18/2011 at http://cricutblog.org/ and for awhile they will be giving to some lucky crafter a $100.00 credit to cricut.com for becoming a follower and $150.00 for becoming a follower of Royal Things at http://royalthings.blogspot.com/ and for leaving a comment! Wowzah! I sure want to win this one!! Head on over and check it out...Both are great blogs!! I'm not sure how long the contests will last as I was so excited I had to post this info before I read all the entries!

From the Cricut Blog website:

The Official Cricut Blog sponsored by the Cricut Circle will feature the following:

Inspirational projects using your favorite Cricut machines. The Imagine, Expression, Cricut Cake, Cuttlebug, Yudu and more.
Hello Thursday Cartridge announcements.
Educational videos and tutorials directly from Provo Craft.
Occasional sneak peeks into the exclusive Cricut Circle Community.
Access to the latest Cricut.com deals.
And much, much more!

Challenge to my Sister

I issued a challenge to my sister to make something using some really cute little flower stick pins I found at PS Scrapbook in Allen, Texas. They are by My Little Yellow Bicycle and I think they are so cute! I used the stickpins for her antenna, used a ladybug stamp from MFT and cuttlebugged the oval and backgrounds. Flowers are made with the MS Hydragnea punch and a little flower hole punch and the MS pine branch punches.

The sentiment on the inside is also from MFT and the ladybug is from a Tilda ladybug stamp.

Mother's Day Card Box for My Mom's Friend

My Mom passed away almost four years ago and I miss her every single day but especially at Mother's Day. So this year I decided to make a card box for a friend of my Mom's with some cards and stamps for her to send out. The box instructions can be found at http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/drawerbox/ but I did change some of the measurements a little because there was a small "gap" above where the drawer slides in. The flower is from the Mother's Day Bouquet cartridge and sprayed with Smooch Frost Shimmer. I cut the stamen out of a stem of old silk flowers because I just couldn't make one that looked right. The leaves are from Home Accents and the sentiment is from the Martha Stewart Seasonal Cake Art cartridge that I won recently from Creative Critters (thank you PC and Creative Critters!). I used paper from SU Springtime Vintage (I LOVE this paper!!) I didn't use a lot of Cricut cuts on the cards. I am also going to have copies made of pictures of the business her husband and my dad used to own as well as some pictures of when we used to go camping at Possum Kingdom Lake. I think she'll be surprised and maybe it'll make me miss my Mom a little less. And I know my Mom would have been tickled for me to do this for Susie. Everybody out there...have a great Mother's Day!!