Scrappy and Piggy

Winter Warmth

2012-01-18T08:07:00.004-06:00

This post couldn't have come at a better time. All I was thinking about this morning when I got in my car was keeping warn, it was freezing. The current challenge on Cooking With Cricut is focused on Winter Warmth. I created this page using my Imagine and the Snow Angel cartridge. I printed the full page background papers and then some of then some smaller rectangles to use as mats for my photos. The Snow Day title is from Winter Woodland filled with a pattern from Snow Angel.

I added some extra elements like the sweet little snowman and the mom and popped them up off the page for some added dimension. I hope you have the time to share your winter warmth project with us and don't forget to check out what the rest of the team has come up with at www.cookingwithcricut.com

Create a Girly Frame

2012-01-17T08:00:00.001-06:00

Papercrafting World Challenge Time!!! This time our challenge was to create a frame using black, white, and one other color with a girly theme. I've been dying to use my Theresa Collins Black and White Imagine cartridge and I knew this was the perfect challenge for it.

I printed this black and white rose pattern on pink cardstock and then placed it on the frame to create a template. I attached the paper to the frame and sanded off the excess. I finished it off with some pom pom trim and some tulle rose ribbon. Then I colored my embellishment with copic markers and attached it in the corner. This adorable digital stamp image is called Stinkin Cute and he is just that. I think he adds a great sense of whimsy to the frame.

Something Old, Something New Blog Hop

2012-01-15T06:55:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Day two of PaperCraftingWorld.com and CookingWithCricut.com’s first Blog Hop of 2012! Our theme is: “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue!”

If you have arrived here from Michelle’s blog http://www.michelles-crafty-creations.blogspot.com you’re in the right place! If you’re joining us mid-hop, head on over to see Melin at www.CookingWithCricut.com and start at the beginning so you don’t miss any of the wonderful projects the Designers have created!

Our Designers had to use something old from their craft stash, something new (a recent purchase or new technique), something borrowed (an element from a Cricut cut or from a PaperCraftingWorld.com cutting file or digi stamp) and of course, something blue.

Here is what I came up with . . .

I used my OLD cricut cartridge Nifty Fifties for the title I love the glasses on this cut. I BORROWED the patterns from my Imagine cartridge Bubblegum Stripes and used them to fill the title and for all the papers used in the layout. Another Borrowed element in this layout is the glasses my daughter is wearing. Those were my actual glasses from around 3rd or 4th grade. They’re perfect for nerd day.

Here is a close up of the title.

I think the mixture of colors and patterns screams NERD. The BLUE element of my project is the navy in her sweater, the background paper, and in the title. The NEW element of my project is the pictures. I finally got some printed! Whoo Hooo a layout with current pictures on it. That is definitely something new for me. Here is a close up of my little nerd doing her best nerd pose.

Now head on over and see what Felicia has for you at http://www.scrapperinthemaking.blogspot.com

I hope you enjoy our Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, and Something Blue blog hop.

Something New- Cooking With Cricut

2012-01-04T08:19:00.003-06:00

Today's Cooking With Cricut challenge is to use something new. I used my newest cartridge on my baby project for yesterday, so I looked for my next newest cartridge and found Kate's Kitchen. This cartridge is full of some adorable cooking themed images and the paper patterns are great! I flipped through the book and thought this little egg plate was cute and I knew I had the perfect sentiment stamp to go along with it.

I cut the egg plate and inked around the edges. Then I cut 2 5x7 rectangles and filled them with different patterns. I inked around the edges of the papers and added them to the card. I covered the seam with some turquoise lace. I cut a square with another pattern and cut a photo corner out of it and then printed a red rectangle to stamp my sentiment "egg-specially for you". I hope you have a chance to stop by and join in our challenge at www.cookingwithcricut.com

Welcome Baby

2012-01-02T22:28:00.004-06:00

I hope everyone had a great holiday season and you're ready for a great new year! Today, it's time for another Papercrafting World challenge. The theme this time is Welcome Baby. Melin has created some adorable files for this challenge. She is having some problems with the shopping cart part of the site, so if you don't see the one I used listed (baby set 1) keep checking back.

I made a scrapbook page using the Baby Set 1 file. This file comes with the baby bear holding a bottle, the baby banner, and a really cute butterfly I didn't use on this page. I wanted to try something a little different with this page and use my cricut Imagine with it. You can't use the 3rd party softwares with the Imagine, but you can get them to play nicely together. I combined a couple of elements from the Imagine cartridge Hey Diddle Diddle that I think go perfectly with this theme like the rug, the stacking toy, and the ball.

I printed a square of the brown color that comes on the cartridge to use for my bear. I also printed a square of a couple of different patterns to use for her shirt and her bib. I wanted to make sure my background matched perfectly, so I printed a entire sheet of this pink color and another sheet of the little flower pattern I used for the border. I love how cute this little bear is and it was really easy to put together.

The other element from the Baby Set 1 file I used is the banner. Banners are everywhere now it seems and this one is really cute. It has two layers a background scalloped layer and the top straight layer. I added some faux stitching around the top layer and some white dots to my letters to make them stand out a little more.

I hope you can find some time to stop by and play along with our challenge. You can see the rest of the design team's work and enter your own creation at www.cookingwithcricut.com

25 Days of Christmas Day 22

2011-12-23T07:00:00.000-06:00

Hello and welcome to Day 22 of the 2nd Annual 25 Days of Christmas celebration. There are stil some great prizes to win and some free files to grab, so head on over to Cooking With Cricut to check it out.

Day 22 is a Holiday theme, so I decided to create a Nutcracker gift bag. My niece is a ballerina and every year her studio does a performance of the nutcracker. I thought this would be the perfect bag to use for her gift this year.

The nutcracker and the background paper are from the Santa's Village Imagine cartridge. This cartridge is full of great stuff!

I did things a little differently this time and cut all the layers of the nutcracker and pop dotted them to give him some more dimension. This is a picture of the side view so you can see all the layers and dimension. I love that you can do things either way with the Imagine.

To make the bag a little fancier, I added some stickles to the nutcracker and added a bow and poinsettia to the handle. It's hard to see in this picture, but it's there. I am having some major lighting issues in my scrapbook room and I need to find a new place to take pictures.

I hope you have been enjoying our 25 Days celebration and don't forget to check back for the final 3 days!!! I would also like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

25 Days of Christmas Back to School Time

2011-12-16T07:00:00.000-06:00

Good morning everyone and

welcome to the 16th day of our

2nd Annual 25 Days of Christmas and Crafting Fun Showcase.

EACH DAY:

* Different Designers will be showcasing their projects for your creative inspiration.

* Will have a different theme and the themes will not ALL be Christmas or Holiday related. So be sure to visit everyday for creative inspiration you can use through out the whole year!

* We will be giving away FREE Digital Stamps, FREE Electronic Die Cutting Files and Other Printable graphics. There will be something for everyone. Please note: The freebies will expire at the end of their 24 hours and new ones will be available. You won’t want to miss them!

* We will showcase projects using your Cricut and Cricut tools.

* We will showcase projects using your OTHER electronic cutters too! Tools such as our Pazzles, Silhouettes, Gazelles and other electronic cutters. Along with all types of crafting tools and essentials.

* You will want to leave a comment for your chance to win one of our weekly prizes as well as one of our GRAND PRIZES!!!

* You HAVE to be a follower of the Cooking With Cricut blog in order to win a prize, sorry no exceptions.

Day 16 focuses on Back To School. I have made a couple of different back to school projects. My first project is a door hanger. Back to school means the return of homework. I made this cute little door hanger that my daughter can hang on her door when she needs quiet to work on her homework.

The actual door hanger itself was cut on my Imagine using the Blast Off cartridge. The little bear image is a Paper Crafting World digital stamp I colored with my copic markers. Here is a close up of the bear image.

I’m sure you’ve all heard that it’s a good idea to bring an apple for your teacher on the first day of school, but how many apples does one teacher need? I decided to make an apple the teacher could actually use. I used this apple box cutting file from Paper Crafting World.

Now the teacher has an apple she can leave on her desk all year long without worrying about it turning brown. This box was so easy to put together. The score lines are actually perforated so they almost fold themselves. The little box part holds a lot. I filled it with pencils and pens but it would certainly hold candy or other treats.

I hope you are enjoying our 25 Days of Christmas projects as much as we have enjoyed making them. Don’t forget to grab the free files and leave some comments for a chance to win some of the great prizes!

Gift Tags

2011-12-14T07:00:00.000-06:00

It's time for another Cooking With Cricut Challenge!!! This time our challenge is to create gifts, gift tags, or cards. I thought this would be a great time to use the Imagine so I could make a lot of tags in a short amount of time. Christmas Wish has a page full of tags and they are all cute. I cut the page at 10.6 inches and this is what I got.

All of the tags in the photo were on one sheet of cardstock. I even messed up 2 of them so there were more than this. The only thing not on the same sheet is the little box.

Here is a close up of the little box. It's perfect to fill with Christmas candy or treats.

Here are a few more of the tags. All I had to do is add some ribbon and some stickles.

This pink tag with the ornaments was a little big, but I thought it was perfect for a mini Christmas card.

I loved the patterns and the colors of this cartridge and it was really quick to make some great tags!

Deck the Halls

2011-12-13T07:48:00.003-06:00

It's time for another Paper Crafting World Challenge! This time our theme is Deck the Halls and we were challenged to create an ornament. I saw a great post on one of the cricut blogs about using a mini pillow box as a little shadow box ornament and thought I would give it a try. I cut the pillow box from wrap it up at 7.5 inches and flood filled it with a fun pattern from Christmas Wish on my Imagine. I then cut an opening out of the front with a nestability. I colored these adorable little kitties in winter attire digital stamp with my copic markers. These little guys are just too cute!! I put the kitties on the back of the pillow box with some pop dots. I then added a poinsettia and a handle so I could hang it on the tree. If I had more time I would have made the inside of the box a different pattern so you could see the dimension more, but my Imagine mat was sticky and kept cutting my blue rectangle in half so this was the best solution I could come up with.

We would love for you to play along with us at www.cookingwithcricut.com and don't forget to check out our 25 days of Christmas celebration with new posts every day in December!

Candles, wreaths, and pine cones

2011-11-30T07:00:00.001-06:00

It's time for another a9oking With Cricut challenge. This week the challenge is to create a project with candles, a wreath, or pine cones. I decided to create a wreath. I started with a cheap foam circle I picked up at the dollar store and wrapped it with some Christmas ribbon.

I cut some images from the Santa's Village Imagine cart and added them to the wreath. I finished the wreath off with a poinsettia also from the dollar store and I have a quick simple holiday decoration. Please join us at cooking with cricut to see what the rest of the design team has cooked up.

Holidays with Papercrafting World

2011-11-29T22:20:00.004-06:00

I hope all of you are recovering from the long Thanksgiving weekend. I tend to get caught up in a shopping frenzy on Black Friday and it takes a while to recover. I'm thankful for some design team projects to keep me busy and out of the stores. Our current papercraftng world challenge is to make a holiday themed project.

I used the cutting file Puppy in present to create this holiday card. I switched it up a little bit and added the bow to the puppy's head instead of on top of the present. I finished it off with some ribbon and poinsettia. I think this may be a little foreshadowing of what is going to happen at my house this Christmas with our new puppy.

Please stop by our challenge at www.cookingwithcricut.com and enter your holiday project for a chance towin!

Holidays with Papercrafting World

2011-11-29T22:20:00.003-06:00

Please stop by our challenge at www.cookingwithcricut.com and enter your holiday project for a chance towin!

Giving Thanks Blog Hop

2011-11-19T06:58:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Scrappy and Piggy and the CookingWithCricut.com “Giving Thanks” Blog Hop! If you've come from visiting Holly at http://ribbonsandglue.blogspot.com you're in the right place! If you've just happened across my blog and would like to hop along with us, you can go to CookingWithCricut.com and start at the beginning.

Today’s hop is all about Thanksgiving decorations – for your home and table. I made this crazy looking Turkey Treat Box using the Sweet Treats Boxes cartridge.

I saw a woman that used this box to make the birds from Angry Birds (they looked awesome) and I thought well if you can use it to make birds, you can use it to make a turkey. This box is actually the ice cream cone/cupcake box. I just cut the 2 top pieces and I cut them at 10.5 inches. This is my first time to use this cartridge and the scoring can be a little tricky. Scotch tape came in really handy! After I had my turkey body put together, I cut the feather layer from Create A Critter. I trimmed off the feet and attached them to the bottom of the box, then I kind of folded the feathers around the back of the box. For the face I punched some black circles and added some large wiggly eyes. I cut the beak and the turkey wobbly thingy from Animal Kingdom. I hope you have enjoyed my turkey box.

Now it's your turn! Link up your Thanksgiving project at CookingWithCricut.com. Here are a few guidelines:

Must follow the challenge topic and use one of the free files provided at CWC.
Must be a NEW project for this challenge. No back dated posts please.
Must have a link back to this post on your blog.
Must link your project post through Inlinkz and not just your blog.
Must use your Cricut in some capacity.
Must HAVE FUN!
You may gladly combine challenges . . . we love to pile it on TOO!

The Design Team will pick their three favorites and one lucky person will be chosen randomly to win one of the prizes being offered in this hop. There is also a prize for just leaving us a comment on the CWC blog. One catch, those leaving comments MUST be a CWC follower. Each prize winner will receive a $10 gift voucher-download from PaperCraftingWorld.com.

Now head on over to visit Larelyn at http://handmadefromtheheart-designsbylarelyn.blogspot.com to see what they’ve cooked up for you!
Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Let's Talk Turkey

2011-11-16T09:52:00.000-06:00

The current Cooking With Cricut challenge is Let's Talk Turkey. I have another turkey card to share with you.

For this one I used the Create a Critter cartridge I wanted to make a turkey shaped card this time instead of just another card with a turkey on it. I tried welding 2 of the turkey shapes together on my gypsy but it just didn't work. It was too small, so I came up with another idea. I cut 2 of the turkey shadows the size I wanted them and then cut all the layers. I scored the top of the hat about 1/2 and inch down and then glued it to the back. I have a couple of cartridges with turkeys on them but I have to say I think this create a critter turkey is the cutest one!

Recycle/Use your Stash

2011-11-15T10:01:00.000-06:00

Hello and welcome to the Papercrafting World Recyle/Use your stash challenge. I have to say this was a hard one for me. I'm not good at using what I have. Half the fun of papercrafting is buying the supplies, but I dug deep inside myself to find some willpower and used some supplies I already had to make this cute little card.

This little turkey stared out as an Easter Chick. You can see the cutting file here. All I had to do to turn him into a turkey was to cut another foot to use as his turkey waggle thingy (not sure of technical name for that). To keep in the spirit of using what I have in my stash, I used some artificial leaves I bought a few years ago for his feathers. To finish the card off I used some fall striped paper I have had in my stash forever. I bought a whole pack of it at a discount store and it's going to take a while before I run out.

If I have inspired you to recycle something you already have or to just use what you have in your stash, please join our challenge at www.cookingwithcricut.com

Honeypop Cards

2011-11-13T00:01:00.001-06:00

Honeypop paper is one of my favorite new products. I love pop up cards and this stuff makes some great ones. Honeypop paper is honeycomb tissue paper. There are stamps that are made to coordinate with the honeypop paper and they are adorable. For my first card I chose the stamp set Cupcake Birdy.

The paper for this card is from the Echo Park. I stamped the little bird with the cherry in its mouth and colored it with my copic markers. The Happy Birthday sentiment is also from the Cupcake Birdy set. Here is a picture of the inside of the card.

When you open the card, the cupcake spreads out. The stamp set also comes with a stamp of half a cupcake to stamp on the honeypop paper. The paper has a black arrow on it to show you which direction to stamp your image. You need to make sure the arrows on your stamp are going the same direction as the arrow on the paper. You also need to leave a 1/8 of an inch channel for the honeypop paper to fit into. Since I made a 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 card, I scored mine at the 1/8 of inch mark just to the left and right of the 4 1/4 mark. So find you center point and then score 1/8 on either side of that. The directions said to score at 4 3/16 and 4 5/16 but my scoring boards don't do 16ths so this is the solution I came up with.

I love this technique so much, I wanted to try a Christmas card with it. For the background paper on this card I printed one of the paper patterns from the Santa’s Village imagine cartridge on some kraft cardstock. This gives it a vintage feel which is perfect for the images on this cartridge. I added a poinsettia and an image of Santa checking his list.

I had a pack of green honeypop paper and thought I would try to make my own Christmas tree. I drew half a Christmas tree on the paper and cut it out. It worked!

I had so much fun with these projects. The best tip I have for using the honeypop paper is to have some good scissors. The paper is pretty thick.

Cutters Creek Shopping List

Honeypop clear stamps

Honeypop paper

Echo Park Paper

cricut Imagine

Something to Celebrate

2011-11-07T11:01:00.001-06:00

Hi, it's my turn to host the Cooking With Cricut cartridge showcase. I have chosen to showcase the cartridge Something to Celebrate. This is a newer cartridge and it is adorable. It has a little something for all sorts of events like birthdays, baby showers, graduations and more. The cartridge has several features -- there are shaped cards, a font, font shaped cards, and decor items.

My first project is this adorable cupcake shaped card. I cut the card at 5 1/2 inches and then cut the actual cupcake and it's layers at the same size. This worked great and the card base served as a shadow for the layered image. I finished the card with some googly eyes which are perfect for this cartridge because most of the images have faces on them. If you are not a fan of the faces, you could definitely hide them with your Gypsy, Design Studio or in the Cricut Craft Room.

For my next project I used one of the images by itself. I chose this piece of pie and decided to make it look like pumpkin pie. This makes a great Thanksgiving card. Once again I used googly eyes on the piece of pie and added the image to the card with an action wobble to give it some movement.

Next I decided to make two of the decor items from the cartridge. The hot pink pillow box is the decor item from the pennant cut on page 45. I cut it at "fit to page" which ended up being 5 3/4 inches -- a really nice size. You could fill this box with some candy and a gift card and give it to someone for their birthday. That would be much more exciting than just putting the gift card in an envelope. I decorated my box with a birthday cake, but you could easily change the cake to the graduation cap or the stork and use it for whatever you need.

The other decor item I made is this little pink polka dotted favor box. This is the decor cut from the streamers image on page 40. I also cut this at "fit to page" and it ended up being 2 1/2 inches. This is the perfect size to use as a little candy favor box to put on the table at a shower or birthday party. I have only touched the tip of the iceberg with this cartridge. As I mentioned before it also has a font letters and number with and without a little flame on the top. You can also make a shaped card out of the numbers and letters. The number shaped cards would be perfect for a child's birthday. I hope I have inspired you to take a look at the Something to Celebrate cartridge and see what you can make with it.

Thankful Hearts Blog Hop

2011-11-05T06:55:00.003-05:00

Hello and welcome to the Thankful Hearts blog hop. If you have come here from Evelyn's blog then you are in the right place. If you have ended up here by accident, you can head back to Cooking With Cricut and start from the beginning. Be sure to hit all the blogs along the way, because we all have a free file to give away!

+69For my project, I have used the adorable digital stamp, Bear and Turkey Buddies. I love how they have their arms (or arm and wing) around each other. It reminds be that Thanksgiving should be being thankful for the people you love. I colored the image with my copic markers (I had to blow the dust off them it's been a while LOL) I matted the image and added some fall papers for the background.

The free file I have to give away is called Pumpkin Flourish to receive this file click on the button that says add to cart.

http://www.page-kits.com/item_689/Pumpkin-Flourish-11011-Cutting-File.htm

If the free file link has expired, you can use the direct link above to purchase the file.

Melin- http://www.cookingwithcricut.com

Yolie - http://www.justyolie.com

Celeste - http://www.touchedbyabutterfly.com

Evelyn - http://mylittlecraftblog.wordpress.com/

Mindy http://www.scrappyandpiggy.blogspot.com

Karen~ http://kaleidoscopicsparkles.blogspot.com

Christel- http://www.OneScrappinSista.blogspot.com

Glittery Christmas Ornaments

2011-10-30T11:21:00.001-05:00

Last year I went a little crazy making glittery Christmas ornaments out of the clear glass balls you can get at craft stores. This year I wanted to try something a little bit different. I wanted to find a way to use my Cricut Imagine to print some holiday images on vinyl and add them to the ornaments. I found these square shaped ornaments and they were perfect. This is what I came up with using the Snow Angel cartridge.

To start this project, you need clear glass ornaments which you can find at most any craft store, some floor polish, and glitter. The floor polish I used for this project is

Pledge Future Shine. You won’t use a lot of it, so one bottle will last you quite a while. Pour some of the floor polish into the ornament and carefully swirl it around to coat the inside of the ornament. I cover the opening with a baby wipe. Try not to shake it or you will get bubbles which can be harder to get rid of. Pour the remaining floor polish back into the bottle. Let it dry a little bit and pour your glitter in. Shake the glitter all around making sure the entire ornament is covered. The great thing about these ornaments is that all the messy glitter is on the inside of the ornaments you don’t have to worry about it rubbing off.

Next, I cut come of the adorable designs from Snow Angel on some printable vinyl in my Imagine and then stuck them to the front of the ornament. A little bit of ribbon is the perfect finishing touch.

For this cute little snowman ornament I used green glitter to match the green in her hat. I added a little bit of polar white flower soft to make it look like she’s really sitting in the snow.

I thought this Happy Holidays image would be perfect with some blue glitter. I finished this one off by adding some diamond stickles to the snow on the ground and on the house.

I hope I have inspired you to grab some floor polish and get creating. It’s much more fun than using it to polish the floor!!!!

Cutters Creek Shopping List

Cricut Imagine Snow Angel cartridge

Polar White Flower Soft

Diamond Stickles

Adopt a Shelter Pet Blog Hop

2011-10-21T06:55:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Scrappy and Piggy and the CookingWithCricut.com “Adopt A Shelter Pet” Hop! October is National Adopt a Shelter Dog Month, but we wanted to honor and celebrate all of our furry friends! If you've come from visiting Melin at the Cooking With Cricut blog, you're in the right place! If you've just happened across my blog and would like to hop along with us, you can go to CookingWithCricut.com and start at the beginning.

We recently adopted a new puppy. She is a little mutt, but we love her. I have used my cricut to make this layout and display some of her adorable baby pictures.

For this project I used two different cricut cartridges. For the little Snooki dog I used Paper Pups. I have to say this little dog looks a lot like her. For the rest of the layout, I used the Cricut Imagine cartridge Baby Boutique. This cartridge has some great elements. I printed and cut the frame with the crown and the title. The background paper which is kind of hard to see in the picture was also printed on the Imagine as well as the giraffe print border on the bottom. I added some bling to the crown and the title because you can never have enough bling!

I do have a small blog candy package to give away to one person who leaves a comment on this post.

Now it's your turn! Link up your purr-fectly wonderful pet-themed project at CookingWithCricut.com. Here are a few guidelines:

Must follow the challenge topic.
Must be a NEW project for this challenge. No back dated posts please.
Must have a link back to this post on your blog.
Must link your project post through Inlinkz and not just your blog.
Must use your Cricut in some capacity.
Must HAVE FUN!
You may gladly combine challenges . . . we love to pile it on TOO!

The Design Team will pick their three favorites and one lucky person will be chosen randomly to win one of the prize packages being offered in this hop. There is also a prize package for just leaving us some love (a comment) on the CWC blog. One catch, those leaving comments MUST be a CWC follower. Each prize winner will receive a $20 gift voucher-download from PaperCraftingWorld.com. The Design Team’s top three will each receive $5.00 gift voucher-download from PaperCraftingWorld.com.

Now head on over Adrian’s blog at byadrain4u to see what they’ve cooked up for you!

“Adopt A Pet” Blog Hop Participants:
Melin-CWC http://www.CookingWithCricut.com
Mindy - http://scrappyandpiggy.blogspot.com
Adrian - http://www.byadrian4u.blogspot.com
Charlotte - http://alittlebitofdetail.blogspot.com
Madison - http://funkycards.blogspot.com
Nita - http://www.niftynitanotes.blogspot.com
Jill - http://www.jaihartjustlovelydesigns.blogspot.com
Holly - http://ribbonsandglue.blogspot.com
Maria Elena - http://mariaelenaworld.blogspot.com
Linda - http://www.lindascreativity.blogspot.com
Heather http://www.heather-p.blogspot.com
Felicia - http://scrapperinthemaking.blogspot.com
Court - http://courtscraftcorner.blogspot.com
Elizabeth - http://ejoym.blogspot.com
Debbie - http://workinscrappinmomof4.blogspot.com
Dalis - http://stampergirl.com
Jen - http://gator-4-life.blogspot.com

Holiday Crafts

2011-10-05T21:48:00.000-05:00

This month we are focusing on die cutting machines. My favorite die cutting machines are my cricuts. I thought I would take a little time to show you how your cricut can help you make some Holiday Décor items. Since Halloween is right around the corner, I have a couple of Halloween projects to share with you. These projects were made using the Pumpkin Carving seasonal cartridge.This cartridge has some great designs to help you create the perfect Jack-O-Lantern. First, we picked our design and cut it out on the cricut with vinyl.

We placed the vinyl design on the pumpkin and traced around it. Then we carved it out and Voila- a very scary jack-o-lantern.

If you don’t feel like carving an actual pumpkin, there are other ways to use this cartridge. I used some orange vinyl this time to create a jack-o-lantern out of a glass block.

I cut the design out of vinyl on my cricut and placed it on the front of the glass block. I put an led tealight candle in the bottom and wrapped some tulle around it. Here is what it looks like in the dark.

This would also me a great project to do for Christmas with a snowflake or another Christmas element on the block. Speaking of Christmas, I have one Christmas project to share with you.

I made this wreath with my Hello Kitty Greetings cartridge.

When it’s time to decorate your house for the holidays, don’t forget about your cricut, it can help you make some great décor items.

A Peachy Keen Tutorial Tuesday

2011-10-03T22:02:00.001-05:00

For this Tutorial Tuesday, I wanted to show you how easy it is to your Peachy Keen face stamps with your cricut die cuts. How many times have you struggled with the little tiny pieces your cricut cuts for the eyes, nose, and mouth of your die cuts? With Peachy Keen face stamps,you don’t have to worry about that anymore. Peachy Keen makes some stamp sets that are designed to coordinate with certain cricut cartridges.

For this project I have chosen the Monster Mash face assortment. I love the assortment packs because they give you a variety of sizes to use with different sized die cuts. This set is perfect for the Mini Monsters and Bump in the Night cricut cartridges. To make it easier to use the stamps, you need to either cut your base layer in blackout or hide the cuts it wants to cut for the face. You can do this with Design Studio, the Gypsy, or the new cricut craft room. I did this on my gypsy. Here is a picture of the button you need to do this.

When using the gypsy, the hide contour button is on the advanced menu and looks like 2 right angles. Here is a picture of the Dracula cut when I have told it to hide the face cuts.

It has greyed out the cuts it would make for the eyes and mouth and will not cut them. This gives me enough space to cleanly stamp my face.

With Halloween on the way, I know I will need some treat bags, so I decided to use my Mini Monsters on some goody bags.

For my first little goody bag, I used this little round monster. The paper is a mixture of Echo Park dots and stripes and some random cardstock. The bag is cut from the Spring Holiday cards seasonal cartridge. I outlined the monster with some purple stickles to give her some bling.

For this next box I used a box from the Imagine cartridge All Wrapped Up. This time I cut it on my cricut Expressions 2 since I only wanted to use plain cardstock. I cut the box at 8 inches and it is a really nice size. The box also has a scalloped rectangle you can use for the top. I placed my sea monster on top of that.

For my final goody bag I used the vampire cut I showed you earlier in the tutorial. Once again this box is from Spring Holiday Cards. I ran some orange cardstock through my Cuttlebug using the Spots and Dots folder and then sanded the embossing.

Dracula’s shirt is from Echo Park and I added some more stickles to his bow tie.

Remember, the next time you think you can’t cut paper dolls and animals on your cricut because the facial features cut just too small grab your Peachy Keen stamps and use them. They’re easy and super cute!!!!

Cutters Creek Echo Park Blog Hop

2011-09-23T00:01:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the Cutters Creek Echo Park blog hop. You should have found your way here from Deanna’s Blog. If you are off track, I will post the order again at the end of the post. For my project I have used 2 different Echo Park paper packs. I combined the Essentials dots and stripes packs in Metropolitan and Candy Shoppe to make this Halloween stair step card.

I love this type of card when you want to fit a bunch of die cuts into a small space. The stairs are graduated and the back one is the tallest. I cut the Halloween shapes from the Happy Hauntings cricut cartridge. I alternated between the stripes and the dots in the two paper packs.

To make a stair step card you start with an 5 1/2 x 10 inch piece of paper. You score the paper at 1 1/4, 2 1/2, 4 1/4, 6 , and 8 1/4 inches with a scor-pal and then accordion fold it. Stagger the die cuts so you can see them when the card is both open and closed. Here is a picture of the card when it is closed.

Now from here you need to hop on over to Laura’s Blog. If you have gotten off track, here is the full line up.

Cutters Creek Blog (Chris)
Mandie's Blog
Lori's Blog
Deanna's Blog
Mindy's Blog
Laura's Blog
Melissa's Blog
Kim's Blog

Echo Park Joy Fold Card Tutorial

2011-09-20T00:01:00.000-05:00

It' my turn to host Tutorial Tuesday for the Cutters Creek Design Team. As you know we are featuring Echo Park products this month. I have made a Joy Fold Card using the Echo Park Country Drive Collection.

It’s hard to tell from the picture, but this card has a very unique fold . Here is a picture of what the card looks like when it is open.

The little car on the front opens up to give you lots of room to write a message to your recipient.

To make this card, you will need to gather your supplies. You will need a piece of cardstock 4 1/4 x 8 1/2, a piece of cardstock 3 x 8, 3 pieces of patterned paper 2 3/4 x 4, a piece of patterned paper 4 x 5 1/4, a scor pal and adhesive.

You need to score your larger piece of cardstock at 5 1/2 inches and your smaller piece at 4 inches. Then you can cover the cardstock in the paper of your choice. I matted my paper to give it an extra layer. You only decorate the outside of your smaller card and leave the inside blank for a message.

These are my cardstock pieces after I had them decorated. Then you put adhesive on the back side of the smaller card and stick it in the middle of the larger card.

If you are confused by any of my steps, there is an excellent tutorial on split coast stampers with a video. The main thing I changed from this tutorial is the way I kept the card closed. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to use the new craft velcro I got.

I love this stuff! I cut one of the ovals in half since I only needed a small amount. I stuck it to the inside of the flap with while it was still attached. I pulled off the backing and pushed the card together. This is much easier than trying to make sure you have the pieces lined up perfectly. That’s it a really simple way to make an interesting card. Here is a picture of the finished card again.

I have a couple of friends who have been sick and when I saw this yellow bug the sticker elements that came with this pack, I knew it would be perfect. I had the sentiment caught a bug from a stamp set I got a long time ago. I added a strip of ribbon and this was it. I really just wanted this card to be clean and simple.

Echo Park Country Drive

2011-09-16T22:34:00.001-05:00

We are featuring Echo Park this month at Cutters Creek and it’s my turn to post a project. I have used one of the new collections Country Drive. This pack is full of bright fun colors and great patterns like birds and butterflies. I used the 12 x 12 kit which comes with some great sticker elements.

Here is the card I made with the paper and the included elements.

I used the butterfly pattern for the base of my card. The large butterfly in the center was cut with my cricut. The pink pattern used for the butterfly is actually the reverse side of the butterfly paper. I love when both sides are really cute. I used the new Sophie cartridge which is a circle exclusive, but there are several cartridges with butterflies that would work just as well. I added 2 of the sticker borders that came with the paper pack across the center of the card and then I pop dotted the butterfly oval up off the card with some clear foam tape. I finished the card with some flower stickers in the corners. These were also part of the element sheet included in the pack. I put some green adhesive pearls in the center of the flowers.

I made this card an easel card. It folds flat to be a normal 5x7 card, but when you open it up the strip across the bottom holds the front in place. This border strip is popped up once again and decorated with more flower stickers and pearls. I then added the sentiment which is also a sticker from the element pack.

I hope you have enjoyed my echo park project and that I have encouraged you to take a look at the 12 x 12 packs. The paper is adorable and the included elements work great with cards as well as scrapbook pages.

Cricut Goes Back to School

2011-08-23T21:41:00.001-05:00

Well Summer is over and it’s time to go back to school. My daughter had an assignment over the Summer to read a book and turn in a book report on the first day of school. Part of the book report was to make a scrapbook page featuring characters and events from the story. That sounded like too much to fit on a single page, so we decided to make a mini scrapbook instead and give each character their own little page. Nothing makes a project like this easier than the cricut.

Here is the cover of the book. Nothing fancy, just simple and to the point.

The title was cut using the Pooh Font cartridge. Next, we move on to Stuart’s page. We cut the little mouse from Create a Critter.

Next we move on to Snowbell the cat. For this we used Four Legged Friends.

For Margolo the bird we used one of the birds from 50 states.

We also wanted to include some events from the book, so we cut Stuart’s car from Everyday Paperdolls.

The city skyline was cut from Going Places.

It was so much fun to work with my daughter and use the cricut for her school project. It also gave me a chance to dig out some cartridges I haven’t used in a while and kind of rediscover them.

Here is a picture of my co-creator on her first day of school.

Celebrate!!!!!

2011-07-20T20:29:00.005-05:00

When I saw the cricut lite cartridge Crocs Rule, I knew I had to have it! I love gators and the ones on this cartridge are just too cute!!

I used my cricut Imagine to print the paper patterns I used on this card. I love the bright colors on this cartridge. I inked around the edges of my die cuts and added some faux stitching around the ship. I wasn't sure what to do about adding a sentiment for this card. There didn't seem to be room for it anywhere, but cards need a sentiment. I found this little celebrate sentiment and stamped it directly on the ship in some brown ink. This cute little card will serve as my entry in the Pink Stamper's Design Team Call. Robyn challenged the contestants to make a card using green, orange, turquoise, and brown. Wish me luck! Robyn has some adorable sentiment stamps that are perfect for cricut projects.

A Precious Baby Girl Card

2011-07-11T22:28:00.002-05:00

I wanted to make a precious little baby girl card to show you how I like to use my Irock. Here are a picture of the Imaginesce supplies I used on this card.

In this picture you can see my Irock tool, a compact full of rhinestones, a couple of lip gloss like containers full of gems, and my little tray which lets me keep track of all my gems. In the tray you will see one of the applicators that comes in the lip gloss tubes. When you wet the end of the applicator, it can be used to pick up the gems and place them where you want them to go. This is a lot easier than trying to pick them up, especially if you have long nails.

Here is a picture of the card I made using the Irock gems and my Teresa Collins Baby Boutique Imagine cartridge.

I like to look for obvious places in the die cuts themselves or the pattern that look like a rhinestone would fit. In this case, the middle of the wheels was perfect for a rhinestone, as well as the point of the sentiment, and I also mixed a few into the polka dot pattern on the stroller randomly. To finish the card off, I added a couple of Cutters Creek branded gardenias. The flowers come with stamens in the middle of them. I didn’t think it really went with my bling theme, so I carefully cut them out of the flowers and added an Irock rhinestone to the center of each flower.

Using the Irock is extremely simple. First, you need to place your gems where you want them using the applicator I told you about earlier. Then you place you Irock tool on top of the gem. Here is a link to a video showing you how to use the Irock. You can feel the gem move just a little bit when the glue has melted, that’s the best way for me to know it’s done. It will go a little quicker after the tool is completely warmed up. Your first few may take a little longer. If you are looking for an easy way to bling up your projects, then the Irock is the tool for you.

Cutters Creek Shopping List

Irock Tool

Irock gems

Irock tray

Teresa Collins Baby Boutique (available for special order)

Cutters Creek Branded Flowers

A Christmas in July Snow Day

2011-07-07T22:35:00.002-05:00

I would love to have a little bit of cold weather right now. It’s been over 100 degrees so many days that nothing sounds as good as a little bit of Christmas in July. I decided to make a 2 page layout for my Christmas in July project. It was really simple and quick to do with my cricut Imagine. I used the Snow Angel cartridge to print both pages of my background paper. Snow Angel has some of the sweetest looking images on it I have ever seen. I love printing the patterns on textured cardstock, I think it gives a great look.

After I printed my background pages, I printed and cut a few elements to add to it. I popdotted the mom figure in the coat, but I glued the snow angel child directly to the paper. I love the dimension of the pop dots, but if you were making a snow angel, you would be flat in the snow, so I applied that one directly to the paper. The title is from Winter Woodland and filled with patterns from Snow Angel. I used the same technique on the companion page. I stuck the dear directly to the paper, but pop dotted the adorable little snowman up, so I could tuck the picture underneath it a little bit. All I needed to make this layout was my cricut Imagine, 2 cartridges, and a few sheets of white cardstock, you can’t get much easier than that!utters

Cutter’s Creek Shopping List

Cricut Imagine Snow Angel

Gnome Sweet Gnome

2011-07-03T20:07:00.001-05:00

I love garden gnomes and when I saw the gnomes on the Freshly Picked cartridge, I just knew I had to have it. I decided to use Freshly Picked to make this picture to hang up in the entry way of my house. This is also my entry into the Scrappy Frogs Summer Flowers challenge.

The gnomes and the flower box are from Freshly Picked. The words gnome sweet gnome are from Kate’s ABC’s. All the patterns and paper are from the Hopscotch Imagine cartridge. I love the soft muted colors on this cartridge and I think they look great on the gnomes. For the face on the larger gnome, I used Peachy Keen face stamps (Mrs. Claus)

I think it gives him such a sweet looking little face. I chalked around the edges of the die cuts and added some faux stitching.

Favorite Things

2011-06-25T22:46:00.001-05:00

This month, the Cutters Creek Design Team is showcasing our favorite products. I LOVE stamps and copic markers. Coloring a great stamped image can be very relaxing and I don’t think anything makes a stamped image look as good as copic markers do. For this card, I used one of my favorite stamp companies- House Mouse.

House Mouse has so many adorable stamps it’s hard to pick a favorite, but I think this one called You Snooze You Lose is really sweet. The image is of course colored with copic markers. I chose the background paper I used because it reminds me of ice cream.

Patterned paper is another one of my favorite things. I can’t get enough of it. I especially love this Echo Park paper. The pack is called Dots and Stripes and it is the Candy Shoppe collection. This pack is awesome! It is full of different colors of stripes and polka dots and to make it even better- it’s double sided! I used the front and back sides of these papers to showcase the stripes and the dots.

Another one of my favorite things is Nestabilities. I just can’t get enough of them. I love how easy it is to mat your image and make it look great. This image was actually a little large and if I matted it, it would take up almost the entire card front. I cut the image, embossed it, and then went over the embossing with some pink chalk. This not only highlights the embossing, but it kind of makes the image look matted.

My final favorite thing is embellishments and one of my favorite types of embellishment is flowers. I love flowers and there are so many different types available. The new Cutter Creek Flowers are my current favorite. They come in several different types, sizes, and colors. I never have a problem finding the perfect one. For this card I used one of the gardenias up in the left corner and two of the lillies down on the bottom. I love how these flowers are not flat and add decoration and dimension to your projects.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about the design team’s favorite things as much as we have enjoyed sharing them with you.

Happy Birthday Matey

2011-06-06T21:19:00.003-05:00

It's time for another digital stamp challenge on Papercrafting World. This time our theme is to create a masculine card. This is not my forte. I make a lot of girl cards. I love frilly, but that doesn't work for masculine cards. I chose this cute little pirate bear stamp and colored him with my copic markers.

I would love to say I spent hours coloring the background image with my copics too, but I didn't. I printed the image on my cricut Imagine. It is from the Buccaneer cartridge. The sentiment Happy Birthday Matey is also from Buccaneer. I pop dotted the sentiment and the bear up off the background. Since the background paper had so much detail I decided to leave the card alone and not add any embellishments. I think it's pretty masculine looking. What do you think?

BBQ Time

2011-05-30T19:37:00.004-05:00

I hope everyone had a fantastic Memorial Day. I know I did, except for the mild sunburn. It's time for another Paper Crafting World Challenge. This time the theme is Memorial Day of course.

I used the BBQ Time cut file for my layout. This file is adorable and it is one of my favorites.I love the little chicken on the tray. I cut the piggy out of pink cardstock and inked around all the edges with some brown chalk ink. I cut the apron and chef's hat out of some patterned paper from Die Cuts With a View. To finish off my layout, I cut the title (also included in the cut file) with some red and blue cardstock and added some ribs and a chicken leg. I have to say it took me a while to buy Make the Cut, but I am so glad I did. I love these adorable cut files from Paper Crafting World. I can't believe I waited so long to start playing with them.

One More Birthday Card

2011-05-24T08:03:00.003-05:00

Ok, I have one more birthday card to share with you. This one is for papercrafting world's Birthdays and Glitter challenge. I used the Birthday Turtle digital stamp.

I colored my birthday turtle with copic markers to match the colors in my Echo Park paper. Since the challenge was birthdays and glitter, I added a little bit of crystal stickles to the pom pom and trim of her hat and the hearts on her shell. To finish the card off, I added a flower and put a brad in the center that I made with my Itop out of some of the background paper. If you get a chance, stop by the Papercrafting World blog and join in our birthday glitter challenge!

Inking Cuttlebug Folders

2011-05-18T20:20:00.004-05:00

Today I want to show you a way to use ink with your cuttlebug folders to get a couple of different looks. Here are the cards I made using this technique.

I used the Rock Princess cricut companion set for my cards. I don't think Kim has these in the store right now, but I'm sure she could get them for you if you asked nicely :)

To make these projects, you will need a Cuttlebug, a Cuttlebug folder, some paper, a brayer, 2 shades of ink, and some baby wipes to clean up with later.

For the larger pale pink card, I stared with the side of the cuttlebug folder that has the cuttlebug writing on it. Get you brayer really inked up and run it all over the inside of the folder. Put your paper in and run it through the Cuttlebug. For this I used pale pink ink. This left all of the embossed areas white and the background areas were all pink. Then I took a black ink pad and rubbed it over the card turning all the raised areas black.

For the smaller card I inked the other side of the folder (without the cuttlebug logo) with hot pink ink. This gives you more of a letter press look and puts the ink down into the debossed areas. As you will see in the video, this does not work well on a folder with words because they will be backwards. I will show the opposite of the light pink skull card in the video. I went over the little high top card with my black ink pad and all the background areas that weren't debossed turned black.

The brayer and the folder can easily be cleaned with baby wipes when you are done.

Happy Birthday!!!!!

2011-05-16T10:00:00.000-05:00

It seems like I am keeping with my theme of making Birthday Cards. For the New Papercrafting World Challenge, we are sponsoring a birthday challenge for you.

I used the adorable dog from the Jules and Jack cutting file as my main star. These dogs are so cute and I thought Jules would look great holding some birthday balloons. I cut Jules on Make the Cut. I used textured brown and cream cardstock. I sanded all the cardstock and I embossed the cream parts with my cuttlebug and sanded that a little also. I wanted to choose some paper that had a bright fun birthday party vibe to them.

I think this Echo Park Walk in the Park 6 x 6 paper pad has some great patterns in it. Each piece is double sided giving you even more choices! I cut some balloons out of some of the other patterns and and tied them together with a floss string and put it in Jules' paw. Every well trained dog knows it's proper to bring balloons to a birthday party. This time I have stamped Jules' eyes with a stamp set from Peachy keen. I'm still trying to get the hang of the eyes when I'm paper piecing. My final embellishment was to add a little rhinestone to her collar so she would look fancy at the party.

When it came time to choose files to use for this challenge, it was hard, Melin has so many great ones. I really encourage you to and find a feebie or 2 and join us in the challenge.

Time to Celebrate

2011-05-11T22:23:00.000-05:00

It's always great to have some extra birthday cards on hand for when you need them. I try to make at least 1 out of every 4 cards I make a birthday card. I love this Birthday Anya image from The Greeting Farm.

The little cake on her head reminds me of Alice in Wonderland. I colored Anya with my Copic markers. The price on copics will be going up soon , so grab them now while they're still cheap at Cutters Creek. I matted Anya onto to a labels fifteen nestabilitie and then matted it again with a larger size label 15 nestie in a nice dark brown shade. I took two patterns of paper and sewed them onto a dark brown square to serve as the base for the image. I also used one of the patterns for Anya's skirt.

I wanted to keep this card simple and not get too fussy with it. There are levels of birthday cards. The highest level cards (level 4) are the ones that are so fantastic and you spent so much time and money making them that you don't actually want to give them to just anybody. If your neighbor's birthday was the next day, you know you're not giving her that card. This is why when I make birthday cards, I try to make them level 2- cute, but relatively simple and room for improvement. That way I can give it away and not feel like my heart is being ripped out of my chest. when you find out your BFF's birthday is coming up, you don't want to give her a plain card, but since there is so much unembellished space left on the level 2 card, you can add some flowers and bling and take it from drab to fab (otherwise known as level 3).

Cutters Creek Shopping List

Copic Markers

BG15, BG13, BG11, Y02, Y11, R35, R32 E02, E00, E000, E0000R20,

E35, E33, YR23, YR21, Y11, Y000

Birthday Anya stamp from the Greeting Farm

Spellinbinders labels 15 nestabilitie

Bazzill cardstock

Me and Mom

2011-05-02T09:00:00.000-05:00

It's time for another Papercrafting World challenge! This time our them is Mother's Day.

I have used the file Hogs and Kisses for this challenge . The files are available in many different formats. I have cut mine in Make the Cut.

I cut the stading pig twice once larger(for the mom) and a second time a little smaller to be my little piggy.

We love pink and black at my house. If you throw in some houndstooth and some zebra stripes, even better! The paper I used on this project is from Glitz. I cut the title from the cricut cartirdge Don Juan and added some litte white polka dots for decoration. I can't wait to fill this layout with pictures of Piggy and I.

Fun With My Cricut Imagine

2011-04-26T17:15:00.007-05:00

I LOVE my cricut Imagine. It allows me to make some great looking cards in a realatively short amount of time with one sheet of white paper. These are a couple of cards I have made with my newest Imagine cartridges, All Wrapped Up, Buccaneer, and Lori's Garden.

This first card was made as a challenge for the Cutters Creek Design Team. Kim sent us all a pack of her flowers and we had to make a Mother's Day project with them. I decided to cut this beautifl birdcage image from Lori's Garden and use the micro roses to pop out the flowers on the image. I popdotted the entire image up from the background paper (also from Lori's Garden).

I added some ribbon and bows to one side and some pearls in the corner of the other side. This cartridge was made for pearls. I decided to try something different for the sentiment on this card. I set my Imagine to print only and filled the sentiment Happy Mother's Day from the Calligraphy cartridge and filled it with a pink color. I cut it with a labels 4 nestie and then matted it with a larger nestie cut in the same pink color. Using the Imagine to print sentiments like this is a great way to create some quick and easy sentiments for your cards that match perfectly.

For this next card I used the new cartridge Buccaneer. This cartridge is full of some really cool pirate art work. I couldn't decide which image to cut first, so I let my daughter pick. She picked this scary looking pirate ship and the red striped paper for the background.

I added some black gingham ribbon and voila- a boy card.

Now, it took so much out of me to make a boy card, so I had to go back to something girlie. The new cartridge All Wrapped Up has some great card and box designs. I picked this little Russian doll image and used it to make a birthday card for my niece.

I love all the bright springy colors on this cartridge. I'm making sure I give my Imagine a lot of love this week, because next week it will be expecting a new little sister- the Expression 2!!!!!

Paper Crafting World!!!

2011-04-18T09:00:00.000-05:00

I am thrilled to announce I am now a part of the Papercrafting World deisgn team. Papercrafting World has tons of adorable digital stamps and cut files to use with your digital cutter. We will be hosting challenges on the blog and there will be a free file included for you to use in the challenges. Our first challege has an Easter theme. I have used 2 of Melin's adorable files on this card.

I cut this adorable bunny and chick with Make the Cut. I cut the pieces out of Basic Grey paper and inked around the edges with chalk ink. I placed the chick on top of the bunny before I added his left arm to make it look like he was holding the chick. I stitched around the edges of the card and then added a border punched with a doily punch. I added a beautiful paper gardenia up in the corner and surrounded it with little green branch punches. I love how cute these cutting files are and I can't wait to play with more of them. They are very easy to cut and piece together.

Paper Pieced Tilda

2011-04-11T23:00:00.000-05:00

I thought I would share one of my favorite stamping techniques- paper piecing. I used to see cards that were paper pieced and I loved how they looked but I wasn’t quite sure how they were made. I finally figured it out and I’ve loved it ever since. To start with you need to pick your image and make sure it has a large enough area to paper piece. You don’t want to drive yourself crazy when it’s time to cut it out. Then you need to pick a patterned paper with a pattern that is small enough to repeat inside your area. Papers with small patterns or 6 x 6 papers are great for this. For my card I chose to paper piece the egg part of this Tilda stamp. I started by stamping the image on my white paper.

Then I stamped the same image on my patterned paper. I printed a small rectangle on my Imagine and filled it with a pattern from the Hop Scotch cartridge.

Next I colored the parts of my image that weren’t going to be covered with the paper. I used copic markers to color Tilda. Her shirt is a combination of R24, R22, and R20. Her skin is E02, E00 and E000, and her hair is E37, E35, and YR23. I also added a little R20 to her cheeks.

Then I cut out the egg part of the image stamped on the pattern paper. You need to use some small sharp precision scissors to do this. It is also good good to cut a little bit inside the stamped line or right on it so that it will fit just inside the part of the image it’s intended to replace when you piece it together. For this image I needed to cut the bottom and the top half of the egg. This is what my image looked like when I had the bottom of the egg in place.

Finally I glued the top half of the egg in place and assembled my card. All papers are from the Imagine Hop Scotch cartridge. I hope you have enjoyed my tutorial and that you give paper piecing a try. It is great to cover large areas you don’t want to color or an easy way to add pattern to an image.

Cutters Creek Shopping List

Copic sketch markers

Cricut Imagine Hop Scotch cartridge

Fun Cricut Cards

2011-04-06T17:22:00.005-05:00

I am determined to stop collecting cricut cartridges and start using them. I sat down and went through all the ones I've bought that haven't been used. The list was embarassingly long, so I started on a mission to use them all. I have found that usng the Imgaine app on my Gypsy make it really easy to put a card together. You can choose the background paper(s) you want and then fill the layers of your image from the same Imagine cartridge. This way you're sure everything is color coordinated. I laid out a lot of the new cartridges and had my daughter pick an image she liked off of them. She picked this little giraffe from the Sugar and Spice lite cartridge. I filled the layers of the giraffe with a pattern and a solid color from the Imagine More Cards cartridge. I popped him up from a scallop circle (also from Sugar and Spice and filled with pink from Imagine More Cards). The background paper for the card is the same polka dot pattern I used on the giraffe, but I printed and entire 12 x 12 piece of it. The cool thing about the Imagine is that it scales the pattern to the size of your cut. On the 12 x 12 sheet of paper the dots are much larger than they are in the smaller giraffe. It's nice to be able to cut smaller elements without losing the pattern. I cut the sentiment from the Simply Charmed cartridge and filled it with a darker shade of pink, then I finished the card off with some ribbon and a bow. For this next card, I used the Sweethearts cartridge to cut the large damask shape. I filled the main shape and the shadow with pattern from the Elise Imagine cartridge. I cut a square from another pattern to use as my background paper. I wanted to add something else, but I couldn't decide on a sentiment. I chose this border from the Martha Stewart Elegant Cakes cartridge and filled it with this sand color from Elise. The Martha Steward Elegant Cakes cartridge has a lot of the same designs you find in the Martha Stewart punch around the page punches, but the cartridge takes up less room than all the punches. I still have a lot more cartridges to get through, but it's really been a lot of fun reconnecting with my cricut.

A Pretty Card

2011-03-31T21:23:00.003-05:00

Everywhere you look you see stuff made with the Lori's Garden cricut cartridge. I was never that interested in (or so I thought). I didn't think I would be able to get it so I tried not to obsess over it like I usually do. Well what do you know, they put it up for sale on cricut.com of all places and at an affordable price, so I looked at the handbook and I fell in love. This cartridge is really pretty. Not only is the artwork beautiful, but so are the paper patterns that go with it. I am determined to use my cartridges as I get them and not just collect them. This is the card I made with my new Lori's Garden cartridge.

I love the colors and the patterns of this cartridge. I chose this grey background with the scipt and cut it using the 5x7 rectangle image that is on the Imagine itself. Then I cut this birdcage image. I love how it looks like a birdcage and a chandelier combined. I popped it up off the yellow patterned top not shape and added some pearls. Then I cut a border from the Martha Stewart Elegant Cakes cartridge and filled it with the salmony pink color on the cartridge. I added some sheer brown ribbon and fed it through the sentiment. I added some pearls to the sentiment as well. This a different look for me becuase my style is usally very cutesy, but I just love the look of this cartridge. I know my pal Sheri would love this one. It's got her name written all over it.

Cutters Creek Spring Blog Hop

2011-03-25T23:00:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the Cutters Creek Spring Blog Hop! All of our designers have created some wonderful Spring projects featuring products you can purchase at the Cutters Creek Store! If you would like to start from the beginning head on over the the Cutters Creek Design Team Blog. Each blog along the way will have a link to the next blog in the chain. Don't forget to make sure you are following each of our personal blogs and leaving comments along the way to enter to win a box full of CHA Swag!!!!

If you have arrived here from Kim’s blog, then you are on the right track. If not, don’t worry the full blog hop order will be at the bottom of this post.

For my Spring project, I decided to use a few products I hadn’t used before. I got some of the crafty secrets cotton scraps in Spring designs from Kim and thought these would be great.

I cut out the one I wanted and sewed around the edges. Then I got some threads loose and pulled them to fray the edges a little bit. Then I mounted the little chick on a pale yellow rectangle that was printed on my Cricut Imagine with the Imagine More cartridge. Then I matted that on a larger blue rectangle also from Imagine More and stitched around the edges of that. All the paper used in this project with the exception of the kraft paper was printed with the Imagine from Imagine More. I used the polka dot pattern as the main background for this card. I matted the rectangle on the kraft cardstock and stitched around the edges. I went around twice and kind of went a little freeform with the second border to give it a more playful feel. I printed the olive green checked pattern and then cut it out with the largest die from the Spellbinders floral motifs doily set. I placed the doily down on the polka dot paper and then placed the chick over one side. I put some Kaiser Craft pearls in the little openings of the doily.

One of my new favorite embellishments are these gorgeous gardenia flowers from Cutters Creek. I love the look of them. I used a blue and a yellow one from the pastels set. I love the vintage look of them. I ran my scissors along all the edges of the papers to kind of give them a frayed look like the fabric and inked all the edges with brown ink to make it a little more shabby chic.

I hope you have enjoyed my Spring card and now it’s time for you to hop on over to Laura’s Blog and check out the wonderful project she has for you! Don’t forget to leave a comment on the Design Team blog to be entered in the drawing to win some SWAG!!!

Here's the line up of all the blogs in the hop if you need it:
Cutters Creek Design Team Blog
Mandie's Blog - http://mandiesscrappin.blogspot.com/
Kim's Blog - http://kreativekim.blogspot.com/
Mindy's Blog - http://www.scrappyandpiggy.blogspot.com
Laura's Blog - http://scrapaddict4life.blogspot.com/
Melissa's Blog - http://www.ourmadhouseof4.blogspot.com
Lori's Blog - http://savingmine.blogspot.com/
Vicki's Blog - http://scrappyleopard.blogspot.com/

Time for Spring

2011-03-20T20:35:00.003-05:00

It's almost time for Spring!!! I'm so excited to see the sun shine and see the kids playing outside. My daughter went through a phase a couple of years ago where she loved to jump rope. She was almost obsessed with it. I made this layout for the Scrappy Frogs flowers and lace challenge. I will finish it off with some pictures of Ainsleigh jumping rope.

Almost all of the elements on this layout come from the new April Showers mini seasonal cartridge. This has to be one of my all time favorites of the seasonal cartridges. It's adorable.

The only elements on the layout are the little girl jumping rope which is from Palytime and the sun which is from Doodlecharms. I added the face to the little girl and the sun with a stamp from Peachy Keen. Since this challenge involves flowers and lace, I decieded to add some pink flowers to the tree. We have a tree that is blooming pink in our front yard now and it's so pretty and Springy. I used the lace as a skirt for the little girl's dress and an awning for the house. I used my Martha Stewart fringe scissors to make the grass.

It feels so good to get a layout made even if it doesn't have pictures right now. I have put my scrapbooking on hold and focused on making cards for too long.

Flowersoft Globe Tutorial

2011-03-15T17:22:00.001-05:00

I thought I would show you how you can use the Flowersoft Globes for stuff other than flowersoft. I have made an Easter egg shaker box card using the flowersoft globe and filling it with tiny plastic Easter Eggs.

The first step I took was to lay my card base down on my patterned paper (printed from the Imagine More cartridge) and trace the oval opening.

Then I cut the oval out of the polka dot paper and attached it to the card front.

Next, I traced the outline of the globe onto another piece of paper that would be the back of my globe and cut it out.

The actual opening of the globe is a little smaller than the back and I wanted to make sure my entire bunny was visible in the globe. To do this, I laid the oval I cut out of the pattern paper onto the paper I was using for the back and made little marks as a guide so I would know where to put the bunny. Once I was sure my bunny was inside the marks, I added an egg I cut with my cricut and then ran through my Cuttlebug for her to sit on.

Now it’s time to attach the globe. I laid the globe down and added the little plastic Easter eggs. I put scor tape all around the edge of the globe. It’s best to make your pieces smaller, the scor tape doesn’t like to bend. I laid the piece of paper with my bunny and egg attached to it face down onto the sticky side of the scor tape. Then I put scor tape all over the inside of the piece of the card where the globe was placed and pushed it firmly to make sure the globe was tucked neatly inside. Then it was time to embellish my card.

I have made a short video showing the embellishments and what the finished card looks like in action.

Don’t be afraid to use your flowersoft globes with stuff other than flowersoft- butttons, pearls, confetti, or whatever your heart desires.

Spring Treat Boxes

2011-03-06T10:28:00.001-06:00

Spring is in the air and it's time to start working on your Spring craft projects. I thought it would be a good idea to make some treat boxes using the new Spring Holiday cards seasonal cricut cartridge. This cartridge has really cute (and simple) card designs for Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day,and Easter. The cards can then be layered on card bases or treat boxes like I have done.

I made my boxes at 5.5 inches which is the biggest you can get with a 12x12 sheet of paper for this style of box. I cut a pattern from my Cricut Imagine on white cardstock, then I cut the card design aslo at 5.5 inches.

For the St. Patrick's Day box, I used a green pattern from Audrey cartridge.

I cut the design again out of yellow cardstock so I could layer the horseshoe. I backed the design with some kraft paper and added some wiggly eyes.

The Easter treat box uses 2 different patterns from the Hopscotch Cartridge.

I layered the yellow pattern with the striped pattern and stitched them together. I gave the chick some wiggly eyes with fancy lashes and chalked the beak with some orange chalk. These went together so quickly they would definitely be easy to do for your child's class or sports team.

Supply List

Cricut Imagine

Cricut Spring Holiday Cards mini cartridge

Cricut Imagine Hopscotch pattern cartridge

Cricut Imagine Audrey pattern cartridge

White cardstock

Good Luck!!!

2011-02-27T20:20:00.001-06:00

Scrappy Frog’s is having a Good Luck challenge. Since it’s almost St. Patrick’s Day, I wanted something with a St. Patrick’s Day feel, but that wasn’t really a St. Patrick’s Day card. I also wanted to use my cricut on this project. The poor little guy has been feeling neglected lately. So, this is the card I came up with.

I used the Imagine More Cards cartridge and the Birthday Bash cartridge. I picked the card shape from Birthday Bash and filled it with one of the patterns from Imagine More. Then I cut my main image all as one piece at 3.5 inches. I also cut the shamrock again so that I could pop it up off the image. Then I cut the base shape on more time at 3.8 inches and filled it with one of the brown patterns from the cartridge. I know this isn’t the most elaborate cards I have ever made, but I have to say it is one of the quickest. I didn’t have to look for cardstock that matched, all I needed was white and the Imagine did the rest. So easy, I love it!

Our CHA Adventure

2011-02-07T21:56:00.001-06:00

A few of the Design Team members were fortunate enough to travel with Cindy and Kevin to CHA in California this year. Sheri, Billie, Janine and I had a great time working in the Stamping Scrapping Designs booth, doing make and takes in the Notions and Spellbinders booths, and just walking around and soaking in all the new merchandise.

Here is a picture of the Los Angeles convention center where CHA was held.

All of us at the Stamping Scrapping Designs booth. The Stamping Scrapping Designs display at the Spellbinders booth.

Sheri and Billie doing the make and take at the Notions booth.

Billie and I doing the make and take at the Spellbinders booth.

Tim Holtz

The Teresa Collins booth- I wish this was my bedroom.

A Prima Apron (their booth was to die for)

Now for my favorite new products.

The lucky 8 punches from We R Memory Keepers.

The redesigned Cuttlebug folders (these look great and foolproof) along with it’s buddy the Cricut Expression II.

Some beautiful Making Memories Rosettes.

La La Land Crafts

I hope you have enjoyed seeing pictures of the fun we had and look for these are more exciting new products to show up for pre-order here on Stamping Scrapping.

Countdown to CHA

2011-01-25T10:53:00.002-06:00

I am so excited, I am leaving for CHA in Los Angeles on Friday!!!!!! I can't wait to be surrounded by crafting items and see all the new stuff coming out. I will also be meeting some of my best online friends and fellow design team members while I'm out there. We will be working a make and take in the Notions booth on Saturay and the Spellbinders booth on Sunday. We will also be in the Stamping Scrapping Designs booth with a fun make and take as well. If you are going to be out there, please stop by and say Hello! I love meeting other people that are as obsessed with crafting and craft supplies as I am. I will be taking pictures and video and posting about all the fun things I see while I'm out there.

WHOOO HOOOOO

Happy B-day Cupcake

2011-01-20T21:40:00.001-06:00

Scrappy Frogs is having a cupcake challenge. I love cupcakes, but since I’m on a diet I can’t eat any. All I can do is make cupcake cards and imagine how yummy they taste in real life. I decided to use this cute little pirate cupcake from Rock Princess.

I used some glittery houndstooth paper for the background and the I added some stickles to the frosting. I cut the word balloon and the sentiment from Smiley Cards. This cartridge is full of trendy text language sentiments and a lot of cute images as well. To finish off the card, I added some black lace and chandelier garland. I was going to give this card to one of my daughter’s friends, but my daughter loved it so much she wants me to save it for her birthday.

Grand Nestie Easel Card Tutorial

2011-01-17T22:52:00.001-06:00

Easel cards are very popular and you see them everywhere. Using the Grand Nestabilities, you can make a really good size easel card. For this card I used the Labels 1 Grand Nestabilitie. I cut a piece of cardstock to 6 x 12 and folded it in half, then I laid it on the mat of my Grand Calibur. I made sure that part of the die was above the fold of the card so it would stay in one piece after I cut it. I held my paper down with a couple pieces of eclipse tape so that it would stay put and not move around. This tape is made for masking and it will not damage your paper when you remove it. I ran the paper through the Grand Calibur. It cut 2 layers of thick Bazzil cardstock with no problem. Next I put the top part of the card on my scor pal and scored it so that it would fold in half.

It was easy to do with this die since the point is right in the middle. The next step is to fold the top half of the card in half and put some adhesive on it. Then you need to cut another labels 1 die out of the same cardstock. Line the piece up with the top of the folded part and stick them together. Now your easel card is complete! It’s time to decorate it. I used the 2nd smallest die for the card base, so I used the smallest one for my decorative paper. Then I colored an adorable Boho Gilli stamp and cut it out with a labels 8 nestie.

Here is a picture of the easel card opened up. You need something to stop it and hold the top up when it’s open. I cut a fancy spellbinders tag and popped it up with some pop dots. I stamped a couple of heart swirls and a sentiment from Stamping Scrapping Designs on the tag. I filled the centers of the flowers with some I-rock gems. I also used I-rock gems on Gilli’s earrings. I finished the card off with a nice big flower and a brad I made with the I-top brad maker. Here is a picture of the card when it is flat- perfect for being mailed.

I hope I have inspired you to use your Grand Calibur and nestabilities to make your own easel card.

Sentiment Challenge

2011-01-16T19:01:00.001-06:00

Magnolia Stamp Lovers is hosting a sentiment challenge. Sentiments can sometimes be a forgotten part of card making because the images are the fun part, however, they do play an important role. I have used Japanese Tilda for my sentiment project. I have stamped Tilda on some Cryogen card stock and then colored her with my copic markers to match the colors in the background paper which is Kioshi from Basic Grey. It is so hard to see the shimmer of the cryogen paper in the photo, but is really beautiful in real life. I did something a little different with the sentiment on this card. I used the Pagoda cricut cartridge and cut the kanji tag for the word Prosperity. I think it adds a little bit of zen to the card. I put a giant flower up in the corner that I airbrushed with my copics to match the flowers Tilda is holding. I went a little crazy with this flower and it would have to be removed to mail the card, but I love how the crumpled look of it matches the flowers in her hair.

True Blue

2011-01-10T18:30:00.002-06:00

This is one of my favorite Tildas. I love the flower on her hat. I have colored her in different shades of blue for the Magnolia Stamp Lover Challenge.

I used B95, B93, and B21 for her jeans, scarf and hat.Tilda is matted on a beaded oval nestabilite. I wanted the floral embellishments to match perfectly, so I airbrushed some white roses with my B93 marker, then I added some pearl springs under the flowers. The layout for this card is from Friday Sketchers. I added a sentiment up in the corner from the Stamping Scrapping Designs Beaded Circles set.

Fun with the Cricut Cake

2011-01-05T22:02:00.001-06:00

I finally had a chance to play with the cricut cake mini I had to have so badly that I got up before dawn on Black Friday and stood out in the cold in front of Joanns. While I was waiting to use it, I did a lot of research and watched a lot of videos. I think that helped a lot. I felt like I knew what I was doing by the time I was ready to try it out. We went the easy route this time. I bought some sugar cookies and some icing- no baking involved. Then I got some Wilton fondant. I put it on my cricut mat (which I brushed with crisco) and then rolled it out. I rolled it out thin- really thin. You can see the lines on the mat through the fondant. Then I put the mat with the fondant on it in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Then I put it in the cricut cake and cut my first shape. It worked great!!!! Since I am not an expert at rolling fondant (this was my first time), I cut the pigs one at a time so that I could be sure they would cut where there was enough fondant. Ignore their faces. I couldn’t get the gypsy to work because I hadn’t updated the cricut yet, so I had to try and make faces with black icing and the tip was too thick. After all the shapes were cut, I put the mat back in the freezer for a little less than 10 minutes, then I carefully lifted them off the mat with the spatula that comes in the cricut cake tool kit. Since it worked so well, I wanted to try it again with some yellow fondant. This time I cut the peace sign from rock angel and I used the gypsy so that I could make sure they were all in the middle of the mat where the most fondant was. All in all I have to say this was everything I hoped it would be. I can’t wait to play with it again. This is not good news for my diet, however, the fondant tastes pretty good. Our finished product. You can see how yummy there were since that poor little pig cookie is bitten in half.

Get Sentimental

2011-01-02T21:52:00.004-06:00

Scrappy Frogs is having a sentiment challenge- making a card where the focus is on the sentiment. This is definitely a challenge for me. I never used to put sentiments on my cards. A lot of times I just make a card to make a card, I don't have a purpose in mind for it when I make it. When Cindy designed her new stamps to coordinate with the nestabilities, it forced me to start making cards that included sentiments. At first I started adding sentiment to cards with my favorite stamped images, then I graduated to making cards where the sentiment was the focus of the card. That is what I have done with this card.All the papers on this card were made with my cricut Imagine. I used the Elyse pattern cartridge. I love this one it reminds me of Basic Grey. The stamps I used are from the Beaded Ovals set. I had added some roses that I sprayed with my copic air brush to match the colors in the papers and a little bit of Magnolia chandelier garland.

Happy New Year!!!

2010-12-31T18:01:00.001-06:00

Happy New Year Everyone. I hope 2011 is a great one for everyone. I have made a Happy New Year’s card. I usually don’t make New Year’s cards, but something about these stamps just screamed New Years to me. I used several different supplies for this card. For the card base, I used the new grand nestabilities labels 1. I cut my cardstock to 6 x 12 and folded it in half. Then I placed the nestie so that just a little bit of it was above the fold. This way your fold will stay intact when you run it through the machine. I used my new Grand Calibur machine. This thing cuts great and it’s convenient to be able to cut more than one shape at a time. Here is a picture of the Grand Calibur (ignore the mess on my desk). The stamps on this card are all from Stamping Scrapping Designs. The design stamped on white around the oval is from the Beaded Ovals set. I then stamped the sentiment Happy New Year which is from the Celebrations Set. The martini glasses in the brad are also from the Celebrations set. I colored them with a copic spica marker and then put them into a brad with my chatterbox brad maker. The final stamp set used on this project is the stitching along the labels 9 die which is from the Dash it All set. I finished the card off with some rhinestone bling and a glittery flower. So, Happy New Year everyone!!

BRRRRR

2010-12-14T16:37:00.002-06:00

Magnolia Stamp Lovers is having an ornament challenge. I decided to do something a little bit different with my ornament project- I made an ornament shaped card.

I cut the card on my cricut Imagine. The card base is from Joys of the Season and I filled it with patterns from the Mr. Frosty cartridge. The colors look so vibrant and I love printing them on textured cardstock. I then colored my Tilda to match the papers. This Tilda is called Chilly Tilda, she is an oldy, but a goody!!! I think she looks so cold. I stamped the sentiment (from the Stamping Scrapping Designs Celebrate set) onto mynestabilities label 4 and then sprayed it with my copic air compressor while it was still in the nestie. I love how this leaves such a nice clean white border around the shape.

HO HO HO

2010-12-06T07:22:00.003-06:00

It is time for a new challenge at House Mouse and friends. This time of year, everyone is busy so they have decided to make this one an anything goes challenge. You can create any type of House Mouse and Friends project you would like to.

I have decided to make mine a Christmas card.

I used the stamp St. Nick Mouse. I have colored the image with copic markers. I paper pieced the gifts to make them look more like they had been gift wrapped. I added a little bit of 3 dimensional snow to the bottom with my snow writer. I kept the emebellishments simple just adding a couple of flat snowflakes. This card could actually be mailed with no extra postage required!!! The sentiment is from Stamping Scrapping's Celebrate set. Now, this is the year I am actually going to mail Christmas cards!!!! I still have all the ones I made last year and they need to go out!!!

MSL Punch Challenge

2010-11-29T21:58:00.003-06:00

Magnolia Stamp Lovers is having a challenge to use your punches. Oh, I remember when I bought my cricut and I thought I would never need to use punches again. Sad to say, that's not true. LOL I have used this adorable stamp from Magnolia's collection last Christmas called Santa's Little Helper. I think this stamp is so cute! If you don't have one hurry and grab one, Cindy only has 2 left!!!

I have used 2 different Martha Stewart punches on this project. On the side I used the holly leaf border punch and for the strip Tilda is sitting on, I used the snowflake set. The paper I used is Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses. I put a poinsettia up in the corner and added a sentiment. Yay!!!! 2 Christmas cards done so far this year!!! Better get a move on to get them all finished. I have used the sketch from Friday Sketchers for the layout of this card.

It's Almost Black Friday!!!!!

2010-11-24T13:56:00.002-06:00

If you have decided you would like to get a head start on your Black Friday shopping, you need to stop by StampingScrapping. Cindy is marking down tons of stuff!!!! There will be .99 items, TONS OF 40-70% off items, the whole store is ON SALE at least 10% off (except minimum pricing policy items).

FREE GIFTS WITH ALL PURCHASES OVER 75.00 (these items retail for $19.99) There will be TONS OF FREE MERCHANDISE given away! The more you spend the MORE value they will add into your box! Cindy will be drawing from ALL orders UNDER $75.00 and 4 PEOPLE will WIN THEIR ORDER FOR FREE! When your name is drawn you will be given a couponcode for your entire order total good for 1 full year!

SALE WILL START FOR SURE AT NOON EST ON THANKSGIVING(TOMORROW) Look for the Black Friday category on the top!!!!!

Cricut Imagine Blog Hop

2010-11-22T20:00:00.002-06:00

I recently purchased a cricut Imagine and I love it!!! You can make some great projects in a very little amount of time. When I was given the chance to join in this Imagine blog hop, I jumped at the chance. You should have ended up here from Tisha's blog. If you didn't don't worry, the hope goes in a circle so you will still see everyone's fabulouse creations.

I decided to make some Best Friends t-shirts for my daughter and her BFF. I used this adorable bread and butter image from the Better Together cartridge. I flipped the image and printed it on iron transfer paper. I then laid it on t shirt and ironed it on medium setting for about 3 or 4 minutes. Then I peeled the backing paper off and my t-shirt was complete. I wish I could say it worked perfectly on my first try, but it did take more than once to get it right. My advice is to make sure you have it positioned where you want it and do not put the iron directly on the image to do touch ups. That does not work. Now, if you want to give your BFF a t-shirt, you need a cute bag to put it in. I decorated the gift bag with the same image. This time I split the image up into layers and pop dotted the bread and butter from the background. I used the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge for the borders and filled them in with a pattern from Better Together so they would match the toast image. Here is a picture of the finished project. I have really had a lot of fun with this new machine and I can’t wait to create more with it. Now, hop on over to Sarah’s blog and see what she has to share with you.

A Sketchy House Mouse Card

2010-11-06T22:08:00.004-05:00

The House Mouse and Friends Blog is having a sketch challenge- here is a picture of the sketch

and here is a picture of the card I made using the sketch.

I have used the stamp Bobbing on Apples. The stamp is colored with copic markers and cut out and matted with a plain oval and a beaded oval nestabilitie. This stamp was not an easy one for me to color. I'm not great at coloring things that appear in nature. I was using the R39, R37, and R35 copics for the apple and it looked too pink almost like a strawberry. Then when I added the green and the yellow to the top of the apple, there really wasn't a smooth transition between the colors. I ended up coloring over the entire apple a few times with the Y19 marker I used for the yellow. This helped to blend the colors a little more and change the red of the apple so it wasn't quite as pinky. I love the vintage look of the beaded oval and I thought it would go great with this distressed paper from Cosmo Cricket and some lace. I love adding lace to my cards. The sentiment Just Because is from the label accents set and the little outline around it is from the
stamping scrapping designs set made to coordinate with the beaded oval nestabilities. These stamps are made to fit just inside the embossing of the nestabilities.

Happy Halloween!!!!!

2010-10-31T20:24:00.006-05:00

I hope everyone had a great Halloween!!! It's been a busy weekend. Here are some pictures of the Halloween festivities here at our house.

We used the cricut cartridge Pumpkin Carving to cut our pumpkin design out of vinyl.

We placed the design on the pumpkin, traced around it, and cut. Super simple!!!

Now time for the Halloween Carnival.

As soon as we put the costume on the dog, she ready to trick or treat.

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-10-24T19:03:00.003-05:00

I know it's a little early to be thinking about Thanksgiving, I mean we haven't even made it to Halloween yet, but I've had this little image for so long and haven't used it. I figured this was the perfect time. Scrappy Frogs is having a Thanks challenge. I used the sketch from Friday Sketchers and created this Happy Thanksgiving card.

I used Native American Tilda as my image. I masked her and have her sitting on a bench. She is colored with copic markers and this is one of the first times I have ever colored black hair. I've always been intimidated by it, but it wasn't as hard as I expected. I added a flower up in the corner with some leaves and some fall looking berries that I found at the craft store. The sentiment is from my favorite sentiment set- label accents.

Sparkly Singing Tilda

2010-10-11T22:08:00.004-05:00

Magnolia Stamp Lovers is having a Sparkling Challenge and I wanted this card to sparkle as much as it could, so I grabbed as many sparkling products as I could find. I stamped my image Singing Tilda, and colored her with copic markers to match the colors in this glittery sparkly paper. I went over her dress with some shimmerz paints to make it sparkle.

I then drew on a necklace with some liquid pearls and stuck a real pearl in the center. The flowers have been dabbed with shimmerz paints and sprayed with shimmerz spray to make them more sparkly. I also added some clear sparkly pearls behind the flowers . To finish it off, the sentiment is stamped on paper and colored with shimmery chalk. It's hard to tell but I went over the words For You with a clear glitter pen. And the final sparkling touch was to put an Irock rhinestone in each corner. I have used the sketch from Friday Sketchers for the layout of my card. I am also entering this card in the 7 Kids College Fund Magnolia Challenge to use flowers and layers.

Monday Madness!!!!

2010-10-11T06:39:00.001-05:00

Monday Madness Sales at www.stampingscrapping.comMonday ONLY from 6 a.m. - 12 a.m. EST HALLOWEEN Category is all on CLEARANCEjust in time for Spooky Creating!Including Limited Edition Cricut Carts and lots more!http://www.stampingscrapping.com/category_782/Halloween.htmMany other items are on Sale/Clearance http://www.stampingscrapping.com/category_166/CLEARANCE-.htm

Tim Holtz NEW Distress 12 colors are in stock and shipping here:http://www.stampingscrapping.com/category_131/Tim-Holtz-Distress-Stickles.htm

All orders receive a sample pack of Cryogen paper.

This is the premier preferred paper to use with Copics!

All 100.00+ orders receive a FREE Scent for a cure Scent and a

bonus sample pack of Halloween paper!

DOUBLE STAMP CLUB MONEY CERTIFICATESMonday ONLY from 6 a.m. - 12 p.m. EST you willreceive 2 Stamp Money Certificates for eachBildmalarna, Magnolia, House Mouse or Gilli StampPurchased. This is equal to an additional 20% discountoff our prices.

ORDER $60.00 and its FREE shipping!ORDERS apply for in stock and PRE-Orders stamps.Here is the link to our stamp club (no there is no chargeto be a member just buy a stamp & your in)http://www.stampingscrapping.com/pages/StampClubs.htmNOTE: NO stamp club monies are given on stamps orderedwith Stamp Club Gift Certificate code.

2010-10-09T20:04:00.000-05:00

Well, Halloween is almost here and I'm sure all the little witches, goblins, and ghosts are getting ready. It looks like Mimosa and her little cat are getting ready to go out and do some haunting.

This has to be the sweetest little witch I have ever seen.

The stamps is Mimosa Witch. I have colored her with copics to match the colors in this fun Halloween paper- Lollipop Lizzy from Imaginisce. I stitched around the edges of the layers and then added a few prima flowers up in the corner. I sprayed the roses with my copic airbrush to turn them black and green to match the paper. Then I added some black rose ribbon along the side. I love the way black tulle looks on Halloween projects. The sentiment in the corner is from the Bildmalarna fall kit. I stamped it on textured cardstock to give it kind of a distressed look. Don't forget, this is an anything goes challenge, so please link your projects.

A Batty Bildy Card

2010-10-07T22:46:00.003-05:00

Stamping Scrapping Challenge Central is hosting a Halloween challenge right now. I decided to use Tosse dressed up like a bat from the Fall Bildmalarna stamp kit for my project. I cut the haunted house out on my cricut with the mini monsters cartridge and added some stickles and spica pen for a little bit of bling. Then I colored Bat Tosse to match. I gave him a little bling by adding some copic spica pen along the shadows of his bat cape. I pop dotted a few bats and added them up in the corners for a spooky look. I hope you have enjoyed my Batty Bildy card and I can't wait to see what the rest of the design team comes up with.

2010-10-05T21:25:00.002-05:00

Magnolia Stamp Lovers is having a lace challenge right now. I had the perfect stamp in mind for this challenge- Tilda in Bunny Slippers.

This is one of the cutest stamps I've seen in a long time and the little diaper she is wearing looks like lace. I colored this sweet little Tilda with my copic markers. I used BG10 to shade the white diaper to give it some depth but still appear to be white. I matted the image with one of the new Beaded Oval nestabilities. I used another beaded oval nestie for my sentiment. I added a flower and some Magnolia chandelier garland in the corner for some added excitement. The paper I used is Basic Grey- Olivia. It's adorable and the little bunnies on it are perfect for this image. To finish my card off, I added a little bit of lace of course. I love adding lace to my projects, so this one is right up my alley.

Halloween Treat Bag

2010-10-03T19:31:00.003-05:00

Scrappy Frogs Challenge blog is having a Halloween Treat Bag contest. I decided this was the perfect time to use my new Pumpkin Carving cricut mini cartridge. First I cut a bag from the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge on my cricut. Then, I cut one of the faces from the pumpkin carving cartridge and backed it with a green rectangle. I sewed around the rectangle with a zig zag stitch and added some fringe to the top of the bag.

For the back of the bag, I cut the word Boo also from the pumpkin carving cartridge and mounted it to a lacey square nestabilitie.

This was a really fun and easy treat bag to make. The pumpkin carving cartridge has a ton of cuts on it that would be great for this kind of bag.

My Bildy Bookmark

2010-09-25T21:16:00.001-05:00

I have a 9 year old daughter I am always encouraging to read. So, I thought maybe if she had a cute little bookmark, she might get inspired to read more. The current challenge on Bildmalarna Blog is to make a bookmark- perfect!! For this challenge, used a Bildmalarna stamp, Rose Mimosa, she is just so sweet looking.

I have colored her with copic markers to match the colors in this new Basic Grey pack called Olivia. I can't get enough Basic Grey paper, I love it all. I added a couple of swirls that I made with my irock and the swirls pattern. I love the little bit of bling and elegance it adds to the card.

Tilda the Witch

2010-09-22T17:26:00.003-05:00

I have used the adorable Tilda with spider stamp for my Magnolia Halloween project for the Magnolia Stamp Lovers Challenge. She is just such a cute little witch. I have colored her with my copic markers of course.

It's hard to tell from the picture, but the papers are really blingy. They are from a new Die Cuts with a View pack that is full of glittery Halloween papers. The houndstooth is glittery and the silver spiders are foiled. To match the bling of the paper, I went over parts of my image with my spica pens, which unfortunately doesn't show up well in the picture either but it looks great in real life. . I added a brad made with my chatterbox easy brad maker and some ribbon and then finished the card off with some crystals that I set with my Irock tool.

Trick or Treat

2010-09-17T00:01:00.000-05:00

It is my turn on the big Stamping Scrapping Designs nestability compatible stamps blog hop!!!! ! luck person will win some free stamps at the end of this blog hop!!! You need to leave a comment on every design team members blog each day of the hop and you will be entered in the drawing. I have used some of the stamps from the Holidays Set to make my project.

I cut a treat bag with my cricut out of some black core'dinations cardstock and then covered it with different patterns of paper from the Basic Grey Eerie collection.

Then I stamped and colored my images. I put a little bit of my E50 copic around the edges of the mummy to make him look a little more worn and not so white. Then I cut him out with my labels 4 nestability and inked around the edges with some black soot distress ink. I cut another paper pattern with the larger labels 4 dies and matted the mummy on that. I then air brushed some prima flowers with my copics so that they would fit in with the paper a little bit better. The V99 and V95 copcs go well with the purple in this paper.

I put added the Boo sentiment onto a mega curved rectangle die, embossed it, sanded and distressed it. Now, every treat bag needs some handles. I decided to use black tulle as the handles of this bag because I think it fits in with the whole eerie Halloween them. I hope you have enjoyed my treat bag. Please leave a comment to be entered in the drawing!!!

My Little Candy Corn Witch

2010-09-13T22:18:00.003-05:00

I have had some unexpected time off from crafting due to a family tragedy. I think I am ready to jump back in with both feet and try to get caught up on my challenges. This little card is for the Anything Goes challenge on Stamping Scrapping Challenge Central. I absolutely love this little Mimosa witch stamp. She is a super cute little witch. My daughter was a candy corn witch for Halloween last year, so when I saw the ruffles on her dress, I knew she would make a perfect candy corn witch too. So, here is a picture of my little candy corn witch

and here is the card she inspired.

I colored Mimosa and her little cat with my copics. I cut her out and then put her on a circle that I turned black with my black soot distress ink. I then matted that circle on one of the new beaded circle nestabilities. I added a spider web border that I cut with the new deep edge spider web punch from Martha Stewart. I finished the card off with a bow topped with a candy corn button. I hope you can join our anything goes challenge we would love to see what you make!!!

Blog Hop is Coming!!!

2010-09-12T09:57:00.002-05:00

FROG HOP....I MEAN BLOG HOP

Beginning tomorrow, Monday September 13th, you will see a new project created

with Stamping Scrapping's new Spellbinders™Nestability™ matching stamp sets each day! The Design team has come up with some great projects to demonstrate the versatility of these stamps.

4 Lucky winners will win their choice of one of the new stamp sets!

How cool is that? All you need to do is to leave a comment on EACH blog Each day. You will

have until Midnight EST of the same day to post your comment.

On September 24th we will randomly draw 4 lucky winners to receive their choice of a new stamp set!!! Below is the blog hop order. We start tomorrow with the fabulously talented creator of the stamps- Cindy Echtinaw!!!

Sep 13th Cindy E http://www.stampingscrappingstore.blogspot.com/

Sept 14th Wini http://www.looneybugdesigns.com/
Sept 15th Froggy http://www.froggaritavilleblog.net/

Sept 16th Stephanie http://www.mycardshack.blogspot.com/

Sept 17th Mindy http://www.scrappyandpiggy.blogspot.com/

Sept 18th Leanne http://createdbyleanne.blogspot.com/

Sept 19th Vivi http://handmadebyvivi.blogspot.com/

Sept 20th Billie http://www.billiesscrappetique.blogspot.com/

Sept 21st Sheri http://twitterpatedwithpaper.blogspot.com/

Sept 22nd Cindy 2 http://bluebirdflats.blogspot.com/

Sept 23rd Anary http://www.anaryatelie.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday Piggy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2010-08-29T20:30:00.004-05:00

Today is my little Piggy's birthday!! We had a great day full of piggy birthday fun! Here is a picture of her with the birthday card I made her.

She loves pigs and she loves skulls and crossbones, so I combined the two and made the perfect birthday card for her. Here she is with a little pig she got for her pig collection.

And finally, here are the pig snout cupcakes we are taking to give to the kids in her class tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Piggy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Fun Slider Card

2010-08-23T16:10:00.003-05:00

The current challenge on Scrappy Frogs is to make a slider card. This is a really cool kind of card that I hadn't tried before. You can see the tutorial and video here. I used one of the new Fall Bildmalarna stamps on my project. I think this stamp is adorable!!! The main image I used is called Mimosa Wonderful Day.

When you pull the top layer out of the little notch, the bottom card slides out too. Very cool I have no idea how someone came up with this one.

I masked the image and placed her sitting against the Autumn Tree. I used some paper with some fun fall colors and colored my image with copic markers to match. I have become so conscious of my copic coloring now that it takes me forever to make a card. I added the sentiment I beleaf in you (from House Mouse) because it's perfect for a Fall inspired card. I hope you can join us on Scrappy Frog and make your own slider card.

Turquoise and Brown

2010-08-18T16:47:00.003-05:00

The current challenge on Magnolia Stamp Lovers is to create a project using the color combination of turquoise and brown. This is a great color combination. I waited until the last minute to throw this card together and the pictures are not that great, so I apologize in advance for that.

The bow cast a shadow over the rest of the card, so that throws the colors off a little. I used some scrap paper I had laying around and tried to color Gift Tilda's dress to match the turquoise paper. I believe this Tilda was part of the wedding collection, but she is perfect for birthday cards as well as Christmas cards. This Tilda is a must have!!! The colors I used for her dress were BG15, BG13, and BG11. I used the sketch from Mojo Monday this week and kind of switched it up a little bit. I trimmed the edge with my Martha Stewart doily lace punch. I added some ribbon I have laying around across the card and as the big bow on the top. I finished the bow off with a turquoise rhinestone.

You Rock House Mouse

2010-08-08T17:20:00.004-05:00

House Mouse and Friends blog is having a challenge to use yellow and orange on a house mouse project. I decided to use the House Mouse stamp of the month for June it included both the House Mouse stamp One Mouse Band and the sentiment You Rock.

I embossed some yellow cardstock with my Cuttlebug and then added a piece of Sassafrass Lass decorative paper. It is kind of hard to tell from the picture, but I have sewn around my layers with my sewing machine. I finally got one that I can understand (a Janome Sew Mini). I colored this little guy with my copic markers and added some petaloo flowers also colored with my copic markers. I finished the flowers off with a giant rhinestone that was, you guessed it, colored with my yellow copic marker.

Hang in There with Edwin

2010-08-04T22:28:00.003-05:00

Well it's my turn to post an Edwin creation on the Magnolia Stamp Lovers blog. Only having one daughter, I don't purchase many Edwins. I don't have much use for boy cards and they are really difficult for me to make. I feel like I can't use any of my girlie embellishments on them. I decided to used one of the new nautical Edwins. This little guy will be part of the soon to be released Bon Voyage collection. His official name is Dangling Sea Edwin.

He is colored with copic markers. I used B39, B37, and B34 for the navy of his shorts and socks, some C1 and C00 to shade the white parts, and R29, R27, and R24 for his little tie. I used the warm greys- W5, W3, and W1 for the anchor. Basic Grey June Bug paper is the background and I added some twine colored with an E33 copic for a little decoration. I just knotted it because I thought a bow might be too girlie. I have used the sketch from this week's Friday Sketcher's blog as my layout.

Under the Sea

2010-08-02T15:48:00.004-05:00

Well, I absolutely love the new mermaid Tilda stamp that was part of the Summer kit. I think she is absolutely adorable. I decided to use this image to make a card for a few challenges. Scrappy Frogs is having a stitching challenge, so I combined that with the sketch from Just Magnolia. Here is a picture of the Just Magnolia sketch.

And here is a picture of my card.

I really wanted to sew on this card with my machine, but I could not get the needle to stay threaded to save my life. So, I stitched all the way around the 2 paper pieces without any thread in the needle. Then, I drew in the "stitches" with an aqua copic spica pen. It kind of makes it look like I sewed with aqua thread (which I could never do because I don't know how to wind the bobbin or anything like that so I stick with white). The paper is Basic Grey 2 Scoops. I didn't add the sentiment like in the sketch because honestly, I ran out of time. I had all kind of issues going on yesterday and this is the best I could do LOL. All of the little gems around Tilda which are hard to see in the photo were set with my Irock tool. They are clear crystals and some blue and green metallic studs.

Sail Away With Tilda

2010-07-28T22:25:00.004-05:00

How would you like to come sail away with Tilda? There is a water challenge up on the Stamping Scrapping Challenge Central (SSCC) Blog right now that is perfect for these adorable nautical images which were included in the Magnolia Summer Kit. This adorable little Sailor Tilda is actually called Tilda on a Rope Ladder. She is part of the soon to be released Bon Voyage collection.

My daughter has a tank top that I love- it is navy blue with hot pink anchors all over it. So when I think of nautical, I think of navy blue and hot pink. I took this paper from the Basic Grey June Bug collection and colored all the white polka dots pink with my copic. Yes, this took forever. It didn't take long until I regretted that decision. I paired the navy paper with some pink from the Basic Grey Green and Heart collection. I colored Tilda with my copics in shades of navy and pink to match the papers. On the side of the card I have added a pearl swirl (say that a few times quickly) I made with my new Irock and a template. This little tool is a lot of fun!!!! I finished the card off with some lace, a flower, and a few crystal stars (they started off clear and I colored them with my blue copic).

Bildmalarna Birthday!!!

2010-07-26T22:13:00.002-05:00

I am determined to have birthday cards ready for people when it's someone's birthday. I make cards all the time and I never have one ready to send when it's someone's birthday. So, for my embossing project, I have used my Cuttlebug Happy Birthday folder and made a birthday card.

I call this cute little guy Tosse with gift. He was a part of the Summer kit. I colored him to match the colors in this Basic Grey Cupcake paper pack. The background was done with my copic airbrush system. You have one more day to get the Fall kit and I know it's going to be a great one!!!!

Happy Hopper Birthday

2010-07-18T22:07:00.004-05:00

It seems like I am always making cards, but when I need a birthday card for someone, I can never find. one. So, I decided to use the sketch on the House Mouse and Friends challenge and make a birthday card so that I would have one ready when I need it. I turned the sketch a little bit to make it fit better for the size of my image.

I used Basic Grey's green at heart paper and colored my little bunny in colors to match. The greys that I used to color the bunny are C00, C01, C03, and C05. I used some RV11 on his ears and nose. It looks like this little guy is having a great birthday I know I'd love a handful of strawberry cake!!! I added a couple of petaloo flowers for decoration. The sentiment comes from Label Accents and is cut out in a labels 4 nestabilitie. Stamping Scrapp.com has a huge selection of House Mouse and Friends stamps in stock, however, if you see one you like that is not in stock, don't be afraid to email the store and ask Cindy to order one for you.

Some New Bildmalarna Projects

2010-07-12T22:20:00.004-05:00

I have been playing with my adorable Mimosa stamps from Bildmalarna and created a few projects for some different challenges. This first card I made for theBildmalarna Blog 3 favorite colors challenge and the Friday Sketchers Sketch challenge.

I used one of my favorites for this card- Mimosa Butterfly. She is colored with my 3 favorite colors- pink, green, and brown. I added some lace and ribbon, a sentiment from Label Accents, and some butterfly rhinestones. I airbrushed the label shape while it was still in the nestie after being embossed and I love the look of the white border all the way around. The paper for this card is from Basic Grey.

I made this second card for the Scrappy Frogs Girlie Girl challenge.

I used this sweet looking Mimosa from the Summer kit which I absolutely love!!!! By the way, order quick, there are only a few more days to order the fall kit. I know it will be just as great as the summer one. I used paper from My Mind's Eye for this card along with some silky trim I found in the fabric section, some prima flowers, and Magnolia chandelier garland. What's more girlie than silky lace, flowers, and chandelier garland?

Fun New Challenge Blog!!!!

2010-07-09T16:41:00.004-05:00

Hello everyone, I am pleased to be posting my first project for the exciting new challenge blog- Stamping Scrapping Challenge Central! One reason I am so excited about this new challenge blog is that it allows you to use a variety of stamps and other products, it's not product specific like some challenges (which I love too, don't get me wrong I'm a big fan of all kinds of challenges). The first challenge is to create a wedding project. I decided to mix and match all kinds of stamps in this project. The more the merrier, right?

The background of this stamp is Romantic Sunset from the new Magnolia wedding collection. I did the sunset part with my copic airbrush using y35, y32, and YR 16. After I airbrushed all the colors on, I put my blender pen in the airbrush and sprayed a little of that over it as well. To do the cloud, I just used the blender pen to take the color away. The little couple that I used for the wedding couple is actually Spring Couple from CC Designs. I think this stamp is absolutely adorable! For this card I have dressed Emma up a little bit by adding pearls and stickles to her dress, but they could be made to look more casual as well. The sentiment for the card is from Bildmalarna and is part of their new wedding release. Now, what beach wedding would be complete without the sand? This is one of my favorite new products- Mudpuddles. It comes in a little jar kind of like flock or flowersoft and you spread it on your card or layout and let it dry you don't need any kind of adhesive. It dries and stays on the project perfectly- no chipping or flaking off. I love it!!!!! It's much easier than trying to use glue and real sand-

I know I've tried that before.

I hope you can join us over on the new challenge blog.

I look forward to letting my stamps get out and play with each other!!!

Have A Nice Trip

2010-07-06T20:37:00.000-05:00

I made this card to fit 2 different challenges- the Magnolia Stamp Lovers theme is Have a Nice Trip and the Just Magnolia challenge is to make a criss cross card. I decided to make a criss cross birthday card with a Disney theme.

I used this adroable little Tilda called Summer Pigtail Tilda. I colored her in reds and yellows to match the Disney theme of the papers and gave her a nice big Minnie Mouse bow on top of her head. I added a roller coaster which I cut from my Cricut Summer vacation mini cartridge. On the inside section of the card, I added the sentiment celebrate stamped on a label shape cut from my cricut. I finished the card off with some Disney themed Petaloo flowers and a bright yellow rhinestone. These criss cross cards are a lot of fun to make

More Red, White and Blue

2010-06-28T00:01:00.000-05:00

Here is my second red, white, and blue card. I have made this one for the Magnolia Stamp Lovers red, white, and blue challenge and the Just Magnolia sketch challenge. I used a new Magnolia image that I hadn't used before that I think is absolutely

adorable called Bubbling Tilda.

I colored her in shades of red, white and blue with my copic markers and added some stickles to her wings. I added some dew drops to the bubbles she is blowing to give them a little bit of dimension. The flowers up in the corner were made by cutting out different sized scalloped circles on my cricut. You cut 8 or each size, ink the edges, and spray them with water, well to make it easier, here is a link to the youtube video. They are very easy to make and I think they really add a great look to the card. I finished the card off with a sentiment from the label accents set cut with a labels 4 nestabilitie.

Red, White, and Blue

2010-06-26T14:53:00.003-05:00

Well, at this time of year you see a lot of red, white, and blue around in preparation for July 4th. I have made this little red, white, and blue Mimosa card from Bildmalarna in honor of the upcoming holiday.

I used the sketch from Friday Sketchers and the color challenge from Bildmalarna Blog. This image is the super adorable Little Mimosa. I have colored her with my copic markers. It is kind of hard to tell in the picture, but there are several hints of sparkle that I added with my copic spica pens to her dress and bow. The paper I used is Cupcake from Basic Grey. The red piece on the side was embossed with my Cuttlebug stars embossing folder. I added a little bit of lace and ribbon to the top and some prima roses as well. The roses were actually white and I sprayed them with my copic airbrush so they would match the colors in the card. I placed the flowers on top of some pearl gems I found in the wedding department of the craft store (I'm not sure what the exact name is). The sentiment is from the label accents set from Scent With Love.

Wedding Wednesday

2010-06-22T23:11:00.005-05:00

It is Wedding Wednesday again on Bilmalarna Blog and it was my turn to create a wedding project with these adorable new wedding stamps. I chose to feature Mimo and Mimosa at an outdoor wedding this time and masked them with this arbor stamp. I cut the image out with a nestabilitie, but the wedding couple was actually larger than the arbor, so I cut out Mimosa's dress so that it would hang out of the nestabilitie when I cut it. I can't remember the name of this technique right now or I would post a link to the tutorial. I went over the entire image with shimmer chalk to give it a soft feel and then finished the card off with some lace and prima roses to add to the soft vintage feel of the paper.

Another Sketch Challenge

2010-06-21T10:14:00.000-05:00

Seems like I have been doing a lot of sketch challenges lately. This one is for the challenge at Bildmalarna Blog. I love Bildmalarna stamps, the characters are absolutely adorable!!! So, here is a picture of the sketch we are using.

Here is my card.

I used this absolutely adorable of image of Mimosa in a bath tub that was part of the Bildmalarna Summer kit. Now, this kit is no longer available, but you can still get the Fall version at Bildmalarana.com. My color palette was inspired by different shades from the Cosmo Cricket background paper that I used. I also used a piece of the new Cosmo Cricket core'dinations cardstock which coordinates with the paper and comes pre-embossed. Mimosa is colored with my copic markers. I tried to grunge the image up a little bit by adding some shadows with my W1 marker so that the colors wouldn't be too bright and would go with the distressed vintage look of the papers. I finished it off with a grungy paper flower. This was made with 8 scalloped circles cut with my cricut. I then sprayed them with water, wadded them up, unfolded them, put a brad through all the layers, and then squeezed it into a flower shape. If this sounds confusing, if you look for paper flowers on youtube, you should be able to find the video.

You Rock

2010-06-20T19:09:00.002-05:00

Scrappy Frogs is having a sketch challenge. I found the sketch a little challenging which I guess is the point. Here is a picture of the sketch and then you will see my interpretation.

My daughter had to have this Girls Rock paper and the colors are really fun. When I saw this new Lily Rock Star stamp from Pink Cat Studios, I knew they would go perfectly together. I printed Lily off and colored her with my copic markers. Her hair is a combination of RV02, RV04, and RV06. It is hard to see in the photo, but I used black crystal lacquer on her boots and belt to give them a patent leather look. I had no idea what to do about the shape sticking out from behind the circle, and then I decided I could use a guitar. I cut the guitar from Indie Rock on my cricut out of cardstock to match the one Lily is holding. I then cut the guitar in half and taped each half to the back of the circle so that it would stretch across the card. The sentiment is from a House Mouse stamp and it is perfect for this image. I finished it up with some black and white hounds tooth ribbon. I colored the white with my copics to make it match the card.

One More Father's Day Card

2010-06-08T23:59:00.000-05:00

Well I had such a difficult time making the first father's day card, wouldn't it figure that I would have to make another one? This time the challenge was to make a father's day card for the Magnolia Stamp Lovers blog. I used one of my favorite Tildas- Sweetheart Tilda.

She's an oldy, but a goody! I placed her in an over sized chair to look like she is sitting in her Daddy's chair. I paper pieced the chair with some of the background paper (June Bug from Basic Grey). Tilda is colored with copic markers. The reds in her dress range from R24-R29, the blue in her socks is B39, her hair is a combination of E35, YR23, and Y21. Skin is R20 for her cheeks, E02, YR000, and E000. I also tried a new technique of ribbon pleating with the yellow ribbon. Not very hard and I think it added an interesting touch. I stamped the sentiment from Label Accents in red ink and cut it out with my labels 8 nestabilitie. I wouldn't say this card is exactly masculine, but it's not as girly as my other cards so maybe I'm on the right track.

A New House Mouse Card

2010-06-06T00:36:00.005-05:00

Every month we have a new challenge on House Mouse and Friends. This month, our challenge is to create a card featuring the color pink and flowers. I chose to use this cute little image called Fragrant Friendship. If you hurry, you can grab this one while it's on sale at Stamping Scrapping.com!!

I colored the image with my copic markers. I then cut it out and matted it with my mega curved rectangle nestabilities (also on sale right now). The paper I used is the new Green at Heart pack from Basic Grey. I added a button with a bow made with my bow easy and some prima flowers as my final embellishments. If you love House Mouse as much as I do, please come on over to the House Mouse and Friends blog to join us in the challenge.

Summer Fun with Tossa

2010-06-05T15:55:00.005-05:00

We are having a Summertime Fun challenge on Scrappy Frogs and I thought this little image of Tossa would be perfect for that. First I started with the sketch from Friday Sketchers. I think my sketch printed out a little crazy, so it's a little bit off. Here is the sketch.

Here is my version.

This image is from the Bildmalarna Summer collection. It is called Tossa Frog. I used Basic Grey Lime Rickey paper because it screams Summertime. I colored Tossa and her cute little frog with my copics. Tossa has a slight sunburn on her cheeks, nose, and shoulders. I airbrushed the background with B000 for the sky. I then added some of my blue crystal lacquer for the water. I love this stuff! You can use it with or without color underneath it for different looks. I used a blue pinwheel from the stickers that came in the pack with the paper for the sun.

Wedding Wednesday

2010-06-02T00:01:00.001-05:00

Everyone knows that June is the month for weddings. In honor of this, we will be having Wedding Wednesdays on Bildmalarna Blog every Wednesday during the month of June.
Each Wednesday, you will see projects featuring the adorable new Bildmalarna wedding stamps created by our fabulous design team. Here is my first project featuring the stamp Wedding Couple and Wedding Text.

I colored my wedding couple image with copic markers. I outlined and shadowed her dress with E50 to give it a touch of ivory coloring. I added self adhesive pearls along her hemline and one for Mimo's cuff link as well. I airbrushed the label shape behind the couple as well as the silk flower up in the corner. I found some wedding ring buttons and added them onto the ribbon. I used the Wedding Text stamp as the sentiment and stamped it on a bracket shape I cut out with my cricut. Be sure to check out Stephanie's project for this week also. You can see her project here.

Each Wednesday, you will see projects featuring the adorable new Bildmalarna wedding stamps created by our fabulous design team. We would also like all of you to show us the projects you have created with the Bildmalarna wedding stamps. You don’t have them? Don’t worry, they will be marked down on both www.bildmalarnastamps.com*** and www.stampingscrapping.com during the month of June so that you may purchase them and play along with us. You will be able to link your projects to the Wedding Wednesday post for a chance to win a Bildmalarna stamp of your choice at the end of the month!

In addition to this, ALL ORDERS PLACED for the Wedding Bildmalarna stamps during June will go into a drawing. TWO lucky people

Will win ONE Bildmalarna stamp of their choice.

10% off the 3 wedding stamps on www.bildmalarna.com PLUS*** use 10percent in the coupon code box for an additional

10% off the entire collection on your order ONLY on www.bildmalarna.com

By posting in the comments section all 4 Wednesdays on the Bildmalarna Blog www.bildmalarnablog .blogspot. Com and entering at least one wedding project of your own, you will be eligible to win 3 SURPRISE Bildmalarna stamps!

Father's Day with Mimosa

2010-06-01T00:01:00.000-05:00

Bildmarlarna Blog is having a Father's Day challenge. This was a hard one for me, do you need to use a boy image to make a father's day card? I only have a daughter, so her father is going to be getting a card from a girl, so I went with a girl image. I used the adorable stamp Mimosa Hello. She looks so sweet smelling the flower with the little butterfly on it.

I have colored Mimosa to resemble my own daughter who recently got pink highlights in her blond hair, so I gave some to Mimosa as well. It was a challenge to not make the card too girly. I had one done and I was adding some turquoise lace to it and I thought, this is way too girly, no way it can pass for a father's day card. So, I started over. I picked more masculine looking paper and colored Mimosa's outfit to match. I then cut this adorable Mimosa out with a labels 4 nestabilitie. The Happy Father's Day sentiment is a stamp from the Scent With Love stamp set Label Accents. I added a large grey scalloped border and brad I made with my chatterbox easy brad maker. Now of course those brads are brass, so I had to airbrush it to turn it a deep grey to blend in better with the card. The card looks so bare without ribbon and bows and flowers, but I guess that's what it takes to make a masculine card.

Summery Tilda

2010-05-29T00:01:00.001-05:00

Our current challenge on Magnolia Stamp Lovers is to create a Summer inspired project. Well, it certainly feels like Summer here already, and I know I would love to be holding a delicious ice cream like this cute little Tilda is.

I followed the sketch from Mojo Monday for the layout of this card. The Tilda is from the Lazy Summer Days collection and I have placed her in front of an open gate where she is eating her yummy ice cream to stay cool. I used my new copic ABS 1 airbrush system to do the grass and the sky for this image. I am having so much fun with this thing. I also used it to turn the clear acrylic button under the ribbon yellow and the spellbinders shape with the sentiment stamped on it as well. It's really easy to airbrush with the spellbinders, if you leave the paper in the die when you airbrush it, you will automatically get a white border around the outside like I have done here. I added some crystal lacquer to the ice cream to make it look like a Popsicle.

Fairy Dust Tilda

2010-05-26T21:36:00.003-05:00

I created this card for the Friday sketchers sketch challenge. Here is a picture of the sketch

And here is a picture of my card.

I used Fairydust Tilda from the new Fairytale collection. I have colored her with my copic markers. I used the airbrush system for the blue sky background behind Tilda and then also gave the entire image a spritz with shimmerz spritz for a little bit of sparkle. I added a ribbon flower in the corner for decoration and finished it off with a pink gem. I put some flock on the flower to make it look like she was sitting on a dandelion, but it's hard to see in the photo.