celebrate clean & simple

   

 

I used another great clean and simple layout .  Natasha has created 175 of those layouts- they are all so great and I use them frequently.

I took a prisma marker and drew the dots around the paper layers. The flowers were cut using the CTMH Cricut Cartridge and stamped in honey. I stamped the sentiment in ocean and inked the edges in the pear ink to coordinate with the bottom paper layer. I popped up the flowers and added some bling!

Hope you're having a great week. 

CASE Study 75

I am playing along with this weeks CASE challenge. First up, the beautiful inspiration card.

Here is what I created...I stamped the same border stamp in three different colors (black, pear and lagoon) and then I added some giant crisp rhinestones to the card. The top layer is slightly smaller and mounted. I just love the font used in the sentiment. 

and a close up of the sparkly bling!!

Thanks for stopping by!

inspired by

I happened upon Laurel's new challenge blog. Each challenge, she has a picture for the inspiration. Here's the challenge:

And here is the card I made. Impossible to tell from the photo, but I colored each of the flowers in three layers of glaze pen by Sakura. The bigger, popped up flower is supposed to be the brides bouquet and the others are the bridesmaid bouquets. And the sentiment seemed perfect to me as well. Do you see what I see?

The flower is from Hero Arts (blossom art) and the sentiment is from CTMH

I would love to show you the close up of the flowers but the photo upload component is all kinds of frustrating this evening.

live for the day

I found a stamp to use for this sketch that I love and don't use often enough. 
The sentiment reads....

Live for the day...

Remember all those women who passed 

up dessert on the Titanic

--Erma Bombeck

What a wise (and funny) woman, that Erma Bombeck!  I also used a punch that I haven't touched in ages- the little cupcake punch that I thought worked perfectly with the sentiment. I used the same paper for the cupcake 'wrapper' as I did the for the strip at the bottom of the card. It's a little hard to tell, but the frosting is popped up for a little dimension.

 

a card by accident

This card was made purely by accident. I hit the wrong key on my cricut keypad and got this shape instead of the one I'd intended. I happened to like it so I kept it and added a brad from my brad stash. I also popped up the flower and thought it came together nicely.

Black and White Freshly Made Sketch

I create a card using Freshly Made Sketches (first time playing along) and also the CAS-ual Fridays theme which is Black & White (to celebrate Penguin Day).

See that vertical,bold, black and white image on the left side of the card? That is a piece of scrap paper left over from a project in my front entry way. It's so fun. I cut a circle from the same paper and popped that on top of the sentiment layer. 

TGIF!!

LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED

Valentine's Day is not too far off and if you need some crafty inspiration, Paper Issues is having a LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED theme!

For my card, I used both sides of Echo Park Be Mine for this card. The birds were cut with one side and the branch is the reverse side. I used the CTMH Art Philosophy Cartridge for the card and stamped my sentiment. The little love birds are mounted onto the branch. I personally love the font on the sentiment- I wish I had a whole set of sentiments that were the duo fonts like this one.

 
Thanks for looking! Be sure and head over to Paper Issues to play along!

I DIDN'T FORGET YOUR BIRTHDAY

i should probably have a larger stash of belated birthday stamps than I do because even though i have approximately 1,234 birthday cards laying around my stamp room, I am lucky to get a card out on time....so i used a great sketch as the base for this card. 

Loving the patterned paper by Echo Park (Be Mine)

A BANNER OF A BIRTHDAY

Here is a quick and easy card I created using a banner shape from the CTMH Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge. 

I used some funky Bo bunny (Delilah Promise) paper in alternating sizes to make the banner shapes. I won't even tell you how long it took me to get the twine behind each shape. Add that to the fact that I trimmed one end way to short before tying it off. Other than that little little incident, it came together very easily!

PinFest January 2012

Maybe you've heard of a little website called Pinterest?  Here are some things I've pinned, tried and would recommend you stop what you're doing (after you read through this post) and add to your list of things to do/try...If you'd like to see all of my boards, click HERE

 fettuccini with roasted red pepper and feta sauce. say no more.

 

source 

baked fajitas- super easy

source

cleaned my shower head with vinegar- worked like a charm!

source

I made these with my nieces at a sleepover. 

source

and I've made and drank plenty of these bloody mary's

(but not during the sleepover with my nieces)

 

 source

 

Now, if anybody would like to loan me some money, I'd like to get started on some other projects that I've pinned....

source

a little something for the side of my house (pergola and sidewalk)

source

and if I learn to thread and  fix the tension on my sewing machine, 

I'd like to make this table runner

source

If you'd like to play along or see other Pinteresting boards....

 

CLEAN & SIMPLE 172

Great sketch over at CAS (well really, aren't they all???). This crackle paper is a piece of paper that I have horded for at least 5 years. I don't know why but I love it and I haven't wanted to use it and when I saw this sketch, I knew exactly what I'd do with my card. And that's actually a bold-face lie because it took me about 45 minutes to come up with the design. I even tied a little teeny tiny piece of bakers twine to the left of the double hearts. 

I'm really feeling it in the stamp room so I'm going to make a few more cards before I turn in for the night. I just started reading Starting From Happy by Patricia Marx. HILARIOUS!!! It's a fast read and she is an absolute riot.

P.S. I used the CTMH AP Cartridge for the Cricut and set the double heart image at 2 1/2". The scallop background is also from the AP Cart and was 3 1/3".

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Here's a card I created for the following challenges:

I used the cuttlebug to cut down the patterned paper and then added a kraft button with some twine tied onto it. The Happy Birthday sentiment already had a curve to it, so I manipulated it a bit more to fit the circle shape better.

TOP 10 FOR 2011

Kellie is hosting a fun look back at your favorite crafty creations. In random order, here are my favorite cards for the past year:

1. I have an obvious love for kraft paper. I also think the woodgrain stamp and the flower stamp are among my all-time favorite stamps. 

2. See, more kraft paper. This color combo of red and aqua is my favorite. Faux stitching on this one.

3. More kraft paper. I also like red and brown with kraft paper. I love that the two stamps used on this card are from the $1 bin at Michaels. Cause I'm cheap like that.I also love the thank you sentiment from Anna Griffin. I wish i had an entire set of sentiments in that cute little frame.

 4. Ummm, more kraft paper and again with my favorite color combo. I'm consistent if I'm anything. Also finally hopped on the doily bandwagon. I really like the little banner sentiment as well- Taylored Expressions.

 5. The woodgrain texture plate also ranks pretty high....along with a stamp by Hero Arts (tulip) that I've had for probably 10 years- it's my fave and I pull it out ever now and again.

6. Woodgrain texture plate again. A pretty clean and simple card.

7. A different texture plate and a color combo that I like a lot: aqua and light green. I also love the font of the birthday sentiment. Again, clean and simple, my fave. It looks simple but I spent a lot of time inside and out on this one.

 8. I wasn't lying when I said I like kraft paper. I also like the scallop punch I used here, too.

9. I LOVE to create my own background images, which you can see in this card below. Busy pattern yet still clean and simple. The ribbon is awesome- really flat and nice for cards- got it at Hobby Lobby and I wish it came in my favorite colors.

 10. See, another card with a stamped background. Taylored Expressions again. All of it.

 I had a hard time narrowing down my choices. That was fun! I think you should play along too!

same song second verse

Did you enjoy the holiday weekend? Mine was great. Hard to believe another Christmas has come and gone already. 

I was so pleased with the way THIS card came out, that I made a varation of it for a friend with a birthday this week. The difference was I put it on red paper and added a button. After I took my picture, I realized that I attached the top flower upside down. Oopsy.

Christmas packaging

Dog treats jazzed up with monograms. both shapes (initial and circle) were cut out using the AP Cricut Cartridge.

This idea is inspired by Pinterest, I've done something similar in years past but I just love the red and aqua combo that I used this year.

Hobby Lobby has the best quality of wrapping paper and it's a great value. I wrapped all the presents in the same paper and used a monogram to identify each girls' presents.

 

And some treats that I put in $1 spot clear tins from Target. I covered up the bottoms by putting a circle and a snowflake (cut with the cricut AP cartridge, the same snowflake went on the top. The little washer came on a standard plastic retail tag, I cut that up and used bakers twine to attach the washer. 

For the inside, I took an 8.5 x 11 sheet of aqua paper and stamped on it, then used glitter on the swirls, let dry overnight and filled with hershey kisses. The kids are lucky there are any kisses left over. My hubby and I attacked those the second the package was opened.

And there we have it.  I doubt the kids will care about the details, but it makes the presentation more fun.  That about wraps it up. My sister and in-laws are hosting both our Christmas events this weekend so that makes it easier for us. We don't have to clean for company on top of everything else!

Speaking of pinterest- I pinned  THIS recipe and decided to use it for my work pot luck today- cranberry feta pinwheels...they were so delish and I am adding that to my recipe box for the future. I might be sick of them by the time the weekend is over though, I'm bringing them to both Christmas's this weekend. They are soooo good.

Are you ready for Christmas??

Pinterest Inspired Birthday Card

I pinned a stunning card to my Pinterest board and found the perfect opportunity to CASE the card. 

Here is my version:

 I made this for a friend who celebrated a birthday this week. She's an avid reader, so took this page from a duplicate book I had of The DaVinci Code, stamped my images in red, trimmed them and then crinkled them. I added some bling to the center of the flower.

It's especially fun to make a card for a friend that will "ooooh and ahhhhhh" over all the fun details.

I've been admiring cards where people stamp on book pages and finally tried it myself. I have a feeling I'll be making a series of these cards soon for my Etsy shop!

Moxie Fab: get inspired kitchen contest

Here is the inspiration challenge for Moxie Fab.

I knew immediately the stamps I'd grab for it because it had a similar pattern- Mint Motif and I colored them in similar colors using my Prisma Colored Pencils. Then I added a doily, which sort of looked like a plate charger to me, layered it with coordinating colors and stamped it with an image similar to that in the glasses pictured in the trigger. 

I also used Me & My Big Ideas for the focal image and Taylored Expressions for the banner.