Sophie's Spa Day

My mom treated my sister and I to a mini-spa day this summer. We had so much fun and it was a first for all of us together, so I ran right home to create a thank you card for my mom. I used the Riley and Co. Sophie Spa stamp to create this card. I added some glitter to make the water sparkle and added some little pearl earrings to create a more glamorous look for Miss Sophie.

A Stylin' Shower

So when your oldest, dearest friend gets married, it's only natural to throw a shower. My mom and I wanted this shower to be special and for her to know she is loved, so I was careful to create the perfect invitations and favors that were personalized with her wedding colors and style. Her colors are coral and black, which couldn't be more beautiful together, and worked well for paper crafts! Using the "Tie the Knot" Cricut cartridge, I cut a dress out of white glitter cardstock, then pop dotted it to the card. To finish off the seam between the patterned paper and coral cardstock, I used mini-pearls.
I also created a tag using the same papers and a matching zebra print ribbon, as a way to display the bridal registry information. This created a drop-in-your-purse reminder for shopping convenience.

As party favors for the guests, I created these favor boxes, also using the Tie the Knot Cricut cartridge. It was hard to find just the right size, but they turned out well and worked great with a little take home treat inside.

And of course, every good card maker has to go through trial and error to find the invitation that will look the best. Below is one of my favorites, but in the end, it didn't make the cut.

Hobby Trees for Father's Day

For lack of a better term I have dubbed today's entries "Hobby Trees". I have a dad and a step-dad with very different hobbies and interests. 

 My dad is a sucker for do-it-yourself projects and so it goes with out saying he loves TOOLS or maybe its the other way around! Either way, when I saw the tiny tool stamps I knew that putting them in the tree would help to create a great Father's Day card for him!

My step-dad is a sports nut. More specifically he is a KU (University of Kansas) sports FAN-atic! So in honor of him and his interest, I used the various sports balls in the tree to create a card that was perfect for him.

Now you can put about anything in these trees, its all about finding the tiny stamps and the right theme. I shop at Stamper's Ink for my little stamps as they have quite a great selection. The tree and the little stamps I use are by Judith. Again, lots of different options, themes and variety to pick from!

Circles!

Lately I have been playing around with circles! Circles are a fun way to add accents, but can be hard to cut! :-) For a Father's Day card I used a striped paper as a background over a brown mat. I was lucky enough to find a coordinating paper with circles already in the design, so I simply cut around several of the circle designs and overlapped them on the card in a unique eye catching design. Of course the covered chipboard letters finish it off.

Now believe it or not, there is a better way to cut those circles! You guessed it; it's the Cricut! Cutting all these circles did take quite a bit of paper changing to cut them in different coordinating papers. So while I had the machine going, I cut several more from each paper to use for a rainy day. Now I have a cute circle card, and lots of scrap circles ready to use when the need arises!

Word Play!

I had a blast creating these cards with the "Just Because Cards" Cricut cartridge. I love the play on words with these otherwise ordinary thank you sentiments!

Many Thanks!

The new "Just Because Cards" Cricut cartridge has been so much fun! I had a great time playing with this cartridge as a I filled a card order for my mom. I tried to choose colors that came to mind when thinking of traditional 'south of the border' color schemes. The sombrero was cut from craft paper card stock and then decorated with glitter to bring it to life! It was fun seeing this card pop up at my brother's house, as it was a card even a man can enjoy! As you know, sometimes they can be so hard to make cards for! Stay tuned tomorrow to see more creations from the "Just Because Cards" cartridge!

Celebrate with Style

When I finished my wedding scrapbook I thought I was finished with the Wedding Cricut Cartridge. However, when a friend needed a card for a bachelorette party, I found that the panty set from this cartridge worked great when using sassy little papers, and nothing says sexy like a pink and black combo!

And the winner is...

This is the invitation my sister decided on. It is very similar to one of the samples, however, when I went back to get the 3D stickers, they were gone! So we improvised and went with the monkey from the Zooballoo Cricut Cartridge. It was so cute! I did the background on a beige cardstock and then overlayed the brown cardstock for his body. As cute as he was, he was lacking dimension so I distressed him with Tim Holtz brown Corduroy ink. I gave him little glitter eyes, and cut the vine, also from the Zooballoo cartridge to bring him to life. The number one was cut using the Lyrical Letters cartridge, stretched with design studio software.

It's a Jungle Out There

In June, I got the pleasure of creating the birthday invitations for my nephew's first birthday party. The debate was between monkeys or general jungle/safari animals. I created a few sample invites for my sister to choose from. These were all created using different 3D stickers, which I thought added a fun "pop-up" touch to the cards. Stay tuned to find out which one she picked...

Welcome Baby!

This is a baby book I created for an expectant friend at work. I used the Bo Bunny BABY chipboard album and covered it with baby girl papers from The Paper Studio baby collection. On each page I added different embellishments and stickers that coordinated with the papers. On the end of the album, I tied several different ribbons to the 3 rings in coordinating colors and tied a ribbon to the middle of the Y for flair!

Just so Excited, I Had to Share!!!

I am so excited to share what my wonderful, thoughtful, fabulous husband surprised me with last night! My very own personalized stamp for the back of my cards!!! He even designed it himself!  I think he was tired of watching me scribble "MH2010" on the back of all of them!! I am just so excited!!! Look for this on the back of your cards in the near future!!!

Playin' Around

I don't have a childhood (or adult) memory at my grandma and grandpa's house that doesn't involve cards or Dominoes. So when I saw this Domino print paper by Graphic 45, I knew it would be perfect for creating my grandpa's birthday card. I loved the vintage look, and my dear, sweet grandpa, who is in his 80's, is a little vintage himself. :-) For the inside, I loved the idea of distressing the page with Tim Holtz ink in Brushed Corduroy to give it a more vintage feel. This card was a hit with the family, as it spoke perfectly to who my grandpa is and what he loves to do!

Delicious!

Nothing says Happy Birthday like CUPCAKES!

This card was created using the cupcake design from the Wild Card Cricut cartridge. I started with the lime green cardstock base, added the Tiny Multi Dots on Cream background paper from The Paper Studio. I added the green and pink crystals haphazardly to the tops of the cupcakes for "sprinkles". The ribbon is from the Martha Stewart message ribbon collection. The cherries were cut using the Plantain Schoolbook Cricut Cartridge.

For this card, I was attempting something a little more manly. (I find "guy" cards the hardest to create) I started with the hunter green cardstock base. Added the black background piece and again cut the cupcakes from the Wild Card Cricut cartridge and the cherries from the Plantain Schoolbook Cartridge. I used a metallic silver marker to add accent lines to the frosting.

Tool Time

My brother is a tool fanatic, as are my dad and my husband. Around my brother's birthday I started looking for tool embellishments, Cricut cartridges and papers and really couldn't find a whole lot that jumped out at me. Of course, now that I don't need it anymore, I see it all the time and am looking forward to getting the new Cricut Lite cartridge Fix it Up. Anyway, after looking and looking I decided to go it alone.
On a white 5 1/4 x 5 1/4 card I glued a slightly smaller piece of brown cardstock as a base, and then a 5 x 5 piece of wood patterned paper as a background. I made a look-alike Craftsman tool chest using a rectangular piece of red cardstock. For the drawers I cut small rectangles out of black paper in different sizes and glued them down starting with the largest at the bottom. I added the drawer handles with a silver metallic marker, as well as the circle lock and the word Craftsman at the top. I also used black cardstock to create the handle. I added the screw, bolt and wrench embellishment for fun accents. I also included the picture of the inside, which I thought was cute. No stamp on this one, I just typed it up on my PC.
Watch the postage on this one! :-)

Tying the Knot

As Wedding Season started in May, I created some cards for myself and my family to give. The first one I created using the Wildcard Cricut cartridge. I used a paper with an elegant print to cover the card and then added the ribbon and the pearl flourish. This is one of my all-time favorite cards.

The next card was a layout I scrap-lifted from a magazine and LOVED, LOVED, LOVED. I attempted to adapt it as a vintage-type wedding card using elegant gold papers, lace bows with jewels and stamped sentiments using Tim Holtz distressed ink. This was one of the more difficult cards I have attempted as far as the measuring, cutting and folding. I included several pictures hoping to show off the different looks as it is folded and unfolded. Sorry this one is a little hard to see.

The last one is a black-and-white vintage card, simply made using a patterned paper placed on black cardstock.

Mother's Day Cards

As Mother's Day 2010 approached, I had to start thinking ultra-feminine, so for the first time I started to think FLOWERS. Now I am not a flower person by any means. But to me, Mother's Day is all about flowers! I bought the Walk in My Garden Cricut cartridge for this occasion, and had a blast with it. The first card was created using the cartridge, this card was also done with fuchsia flowers, background, and ribbon. The other cards were adapted layouts with my own scraps of floral papers. The last card was created using the Accent Essentials Cricut cartridge.

Fun with Frames

For my sister's birthday I created a frame for her using her son's picture from his first trip to the zoo. Around the center picture, I used pictures of the animals from our trip to the zoo, cut into small squares and incorporated animal print accent papers also cut into small squares. I painted the frame to match her son's outfit in the center picture.

Celebrating New Beginnings

Spring is a time to celebrate the arrival of new life! Last spring there were a few additions among our friends and co-workers and I got my first opportunity to create BABY CARDS! All of the baby's thus far have been boys, so I haven't gotten the chance to create baby girl cards, but we shall see what this year brings!

A New Venture...

After a month and half of scrapbooking and many, many, many trips to Archiver's, I decided to give cards a try. As luck would have it Valentine's Day was just around the corner. Archiver's was bursting with Valentines Day supplies, so I got busy. I started with cards first and then ventured on to a unique Valentine's Day Bingo card for my husband. He had to win at Bingo before he could get his gift. It was silly, but fun. Again, first attempt at cards, so I don't love them, but will share a few of my faves! The Bingo card and pieces were done using various Cricut cartridges.