Cute as a Cupcake

I don't know where I first saw this sock cupcake idea because at the time I didn't really plan on making one.  The idea stuck with me, though, and ultimately the cuteness factor won me over.  It really is adorable and super easy.  I used the deep cut blade on my Cricut to cut the cupcake holder out of glitter cardstock using the Cindy Loo cartridge.  This cupcake is headed to my son's teacher tomorrow.  Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cards

I wanted to come up with a simple Christmas card design this year that wouldn't take too long to make.  But I kept fiddling with it, and I ended up with something more time-consuming than I really wanted.  Punching the edges of the card took a long time.  Making one isn't bad...twenty-five is a little much.  And then I couldn't just stamp and be done with it.  I decided to use clear embossing powder to fancy it up a bit.

You can see the shine and texture a little bit in this photo.

And then the strips of Mistletoe paper on the inside, the cranberry strips on the outside, the bow... so these cards are still a work in progress.  AND I still have to go back and stamp a sentiment on the inside.  My daughter seems to be rearranging the furniture, so off I go...  Merry Christmas!

Fun News

I'm finally able to share the first card I've created which has been published!  My card, "Celebrate Birthday", was included in the 365 Cards Special Issue of Paper Crafts Magazine available November 2011.  It was so exciting to receive the acceptance email all those months ago and it has been a long wait to finally see it in print.

My Card!

H2H - Metal Mania

I'm a little late getting to this challenge from Heart 2 Heart, but I really wanted to play along because I hardly ever use metal in my crafting.  I'm a little intimidated by it, I think because I'm not sure what adhesive to use with it.  I ordered the metal photo hangers from Close To My Heart a long time ago and have been working up the courage to use them.  I crafted this card for my Dad for his birthday.

I used the You & Me Paper Pack and made the tag from a recent Stamp of the Month set...I think it was called Limited Edition?  The photo hanger clipped on easily with the brads included (totally NOT intimidating).

And I did a little bit of stamping on the inside...

Thanks for stopping by to visit!

H2H - Color Challenge

 This week at Heart 2 Heart, they are spotlighting the colors of Autumn Terracotta, Bamboo, and Juniper.  I used this palette to make the circle card here:

Of the three colors, the only one I had an ink for was Juniper, so I switched to using Cocoa to do most of the stamping.  The leaves are from Nature's Vein, the sentiment is from Unscripted (as is the border I created on the band of Juniper), and the swirl border is from Wicked.  I curled the edges of the leaves to add some interest.

H2H - Color Combo

This week we're supposed to share our favorite color combo at Heart 2 Heart.  I've been working on things for my daughter lately and the color combo I've been using the most is Hollyhock, Blush, and Pear...from the Sophia Paper Pack!  Not very original, but I really do like it.  I like how the Pear really stands out.

First, here are a few photos of the invitations I made for my daughter's first birthday party:

I've also done some scrapbooking with the same colors.  The first layout I posted about previously.  Here's the link if you want more details.

And here are a few new pages I've finished recently.  

If you look closely at the layout above, you can see that on the right page I stamped some flower images and used foam tape to put them on top of the patterned paper.  It gives a nice 3D look to the paper.

On this layout I wanted to use a lot of pictures and wanted to minimize the paper I used, to make it last a little longer.  I did mat the photos to give the layout a little extra color.

I've gotten down to the point where I really only have a few scraps of this paper pack left.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to squeeze out one more layout, or if it will be time to switch to something new...stay tuned!

Sympathy Card - A La Card Monkey

I was invited by the kind crafters at A La Card Monkey to be one of their Guest DTs for this week's challenge - a Sympathy Sketch.  It took me awhile to settle on a color scheme.  Originally I was going to do black and white with a splash of color, but the more I played around with the Cocoa brown, the more I liked it.  

I began by heat embossing the patterned background to give it interest and make it a little fancy.  I stamped the birds in blue after rolling the edges in cocoa to give them that two-tone look.  I put them on some foam tape to make them stand out.  The sentiment panel needed something, so I added a strip of blue there.

The bow and ribbon add the final finishing touch.  Sympathy cards aren't ones I usually make, so this was a nice change of pace.  And I really had fun with the different stamping techniques.  All products are CTMH.

H2H - Simple Sun Card

The theme this week at Heart 2 Heart is Hot, Hot, Hot!  In celebration of summer (which has actually taken a cool turn around here, ironically enough) I crafted this simple sun card:

I thought about embellishing it, but ribbon or more stamped images just made that beautiful blue sky look too cluttered.  So this design stayed clean & simple, which also made it relatively quick to put together - a nice bonus!

The sun is made with a 1 1/2" circle center, stamped with images from Dream Big and Connections on Sunny Yellow cardstock.  I then stamped the pennants from the Pennant Alphabet using Sunflower ink on Sunny Yellow and Sunflower cardstock.  The sky is...well, Sky cardstock, of course!  Last, I used the clouds from Around the Block and stamped them in Pacifica ink.  The sun is attached with foam tape.

The colors are more bright and cheerful than I was able to capture on this cloudy day.  Enjoy the rest of your day!

Child's Birthday Card

I combined two challenges in my latest card creation.  Heart 2 Heart is celebrating kid's birthdays this week and the a la Card Monkey Monkey Challenge #67 is a celebration card with pennant.

I made this card using the new Zoology Stamp Set, which I'm having a lot of fun with.  The animals are stamped in Smokey Plum and Sunflower.  The balloons came from a different set.  I used some embroidery floss to stitch the balloon string around each animal.  The star border and the Celebrate Banner came from the July Stamp of the Month.

Next I layered on some cardstock pennant triangles separated by tiny Licorice Opaques.  You can also see the little dabs of glitter glue I added to some of the stars here:

The result is a whimsical little card.  I think it could be done up in a variety of color palettes and look really cute.  The Sunflower cardstock & ink is kind of overpowering in the pictures, but is less obnoxious in person.  The Smokey Plum isn't as dark as it looks here.  Today was not a good picture-taking day for me!

Christmas Layout - Mistletoe Paper Pack

The Lasting Memories Layout Challenge this week is perfect for people who are way behind in their scrapbooking (like me!)  It's a Christmas theme challenge.  I've been finishing up my layouts from last December, so it was easy to grab one to share.  This one features our annual Christmas cookie-making session.

I started with a layout from the CTMH Magic book, and modified it to fit my photos.  I put the journaling right on the center frame.  The strips of Mistletoe paper have edges inked in New England Ivy.  I inked the edges of the whole layout, too.

I did a continuous line of paper strips on the right page, and used two of them to highlight the words "Special Times" cut with my Cricut.  This is a great layout for using up scraps.  All products are CTMH.

New Product Blog Hop

The wonderful Tresa Black at Fabulously Artsy is hosting a CTMH new product blog hop.  I have a small contribution - a set of 3x3 thank you cards I happened to be working on.

I used the new Elemental Paper Pack, as well as the Zoology Stamp Set.  The card bases are made from the Desert Sand cardstock included in the paper pack.  Then I layered on some of the new, heavier-weight B&Ts, flipping over the paper on two of them to get different patterns.  

I love the Zoology Stamp Set, but those little numbers on the tickets are ridiculously hard to work with!  They are SO tiny.  If you use them, plan on going for a fun, random pattern to your numbers instead of trying to get them evenly spaced in a line!  It will save you a lot of heartache (and maybe a headache, too)!  The animals in the set are adorable.  I used sentiments from a different set to complete the tickets since I wanted these to be thank you cards, although the stamp set does come with some cute phrases.

You can continue hopping by using the links below.  Thanks for visiting!

Little Princess Layout - Sophia Paper Pack

I've been slowly chipping away at my daughter's scrapbook, and thought I'd share a layout.  I love the Sophia Paper Pack used here.  The layout is based on Deck of Cards from Magic.

On the left page I used the Magic Tabs Stamp Set with some sentiments from Baby Love to create the tags.  The Pear tabs are also from Magic Tabs.

On the right page, I used Magic Tabs again for the 4 Hollyhock tabs with ribbon attached.  The Pear Cardstock seemed too plain, so I embossed some images from the Playful Flourishes stamp set in white.

H2H - Converse Sneaker Card :)

I needed a birthday card for my nephew and was having trouble thinking up something fun.  When I first saw the H2H Sketch for this week, it didn't seem like it was going to help me out much.  But I kept staring at it, and one thought led to another, and here's where I ended up:

My Converse-inspired birthday card!  My nephew is athletic and this just seemed like a fun idea.  I started googling Converse sneakers and I was inspired by the styling of them, and I knew I could make it fit the sketch.  I did alter the sketch a bit - rotating it, and changing up the square to be the Converse circle.

I started with a piece of Tulip cardstock which (even though you can't really tell from the photo) has been lightly sanded to make it look like canvas.  Next I used white embossing powder to make the stitches (from the You & Me Stamp Set).  The alphabet is Tiny Typewriter.

If I were to do this one over again, I would have used liquid glass on the shoelace grommets just for fun. I really do want to make more of these cards.  There are so many cool Converse out there to be inspired by.

Hello Again!

It's been awhile since I posted and even longer since I've participated in any card challenges...but I'm back!  I got busy with summer happenings, though I have been scrapbooking and card-making.  Just haven't had the time to sit in front of my computer and share.

This week's Heart 2 Heart Challenge is to share a completed project and your inspiration for it.  I needed to make a birthday card for my brother (hi Jeff!) and my inspiration came to me during my shower...from my bathroom tile!  I've always liked the border, and I thought it would be a nice basis for a masculine-type card.

This border became this card...

The paper is from Passages.  I used the You & Me Stamp Set for the ticket and the stitching.  I used a different set for Celebrate, and then discovered that I could have used the You & Me Stamp Set for that too.  Oh well.  All the edges of the "tile" pieces have been inked in Cocoa ink.

Going Digital

I took the plunge and ordered my first set of digital layouts.  I'm working on scanning old family photos and scrapbooking them.  I like that I get the jpegs and can share those with everyone.  Here's one of the layouts I put together.  Overall, I enjoyed using Close To My Heart's Studio J software (which you can play around with for free!).  I just wish someone could making scanning photographs less boring :).

There's a couple of Studio J Love your Layout videos on my Video page if you're curious!

Feelin' Blue - Postage Stamp Thank You Card

This card totally has me feeling blue :(.  I struggled with it start to finish, and I don't know if it's because of that, or what, but I just don't like it.  So why post it?  I'm hoping if I look at it a little more it will grow on me.

I thought the idea of a postage stamp card would be cute, but I just couldn't get it to look how I wanted it to look.  I'm not sure if Fanfare was the paper pack I really wanted to use on this.

The Sunny Yellow paper looks a little sunnier in person.  I wanted to add some ribbon or something, but couldn't work it out.  This one has me feeling like I'd like a "do over".

Oh well. Better luck next time :).

Teacher Gift - Thank You Card Box

I started making a set of Thank You cards to give as a gift for my son's teacher a few weeks ago.  Then I found an awesome template for a card box, and decided to try it out.  I'm going to have my son draw something for his teacher on the white panel on the cover, but for now it's blank.  I made the box from Tulip cardstock and accented it with Clover Meadow and Black cardstock.  It has a ribbon closure.

This is the inside.  There are two compartments.  Each one holds five cards and five envelopes.  I used white embossing powder on the black cardstock to do the letters and numbers.  It looks a little "dusty" up close, because I wasn't super picky about cleaning up the stray embossing powder.  It makes it look a little like a chalkboard, which I thought was cool.

These are the cards.  I made 5 of each and stamped matching envelopes.  I made one set of cards awhile back (there's a post on it), but I decided to add the alphabet border and then I made another set with the reverse color scheme.

This is a side view of the box when closed.