Birthday and Birthday card

Sorry I haven't written a new post in a while. Things have been a bit hectic. My niece was down a few weekends ago and this past weekend was my birthday. I have bunch of birthdays coming up very soon so I will be making quite a few cards in the next little while (I also have to make a wedding card for a friend too!).

I was inspired by this card that I found on pintrest. I'm not sure who made it, but it's so cute. Love the little kites in the clouds.

 I got a cuttlebug and embossing folders for my birthday and I just love it. It`s a black cuttlebug, isn`t that cool? I think you can only get it at walmart, because I've never seen a black cuttlebug anywhere else. I also got the original Create A Critter cartridge too.

I cut the clouds and kites for this card using my new create a critter cartridge. I ran the pattern paper through my cuttlebug using the devine swirls embossing folder. I glue the blue clouds directly to the card and used pop dots on the white clouds and kites. I stamped the sentiment in Close to Cocoa with the fabulous Phrases stamp set from Stampin Up. I cut the pink scalloped piece at the top of the card with my pattern scissors. The bow is actually crochet thread, I'm too cheap to buy that fancy twine stuff.

 I'll be back soon with a post on my husband's birthday card (I'm thinking of making him a never ending card) and a wedding card for a friend of mine. Thanks for reading!

Two Father's Day Cards

Hi again! I've been busy making Father's Day cards for my Dad and my Father-in-law.

 I found this card on Pintrest and I had to make it. I didn't want to copy it exactly, but I liked the layout. This card was created by Cori Garza over at the Bug Lover Cards Blog.

 

Here`s my interpretation of the card:

The papers came from a paper stack that was rather girly with lipsticks, shoes and purses in it, but these ones are sort of masculine. I hand wrote the sentiment using my dip-pen in some black ink (my handwriting needs some work obviously, but oh well). I made the word window using my corner rounder (a neat trick that I learned on Youtube). I distressed the edges of the blue cardstock, the ruler strip, tool shapes and the word window with my discontinued Stampin` Up Close to Cocoa inkpad and my black inkpad (and a makeup sponge). I especially love how the yellow measuring tape paper looks after being distressed. This card is for my dad, he`s an electrician and he uses tools a lot in his job. The tool die cuts are left over cut outs from my second card which is for my father-in-law (I hate throwing those little cut-out pieces away).

 

Cricut`s free cut for this week is a bunch of different Father`s Day cards. With my husband`s help, I chose the Man of the House card and cut it at 4.25 (wide).

 

 The card came out a bit smaller than I was hoping for, but it`s still fine. It has notches for scoring, but I couldn`t get it to line up. It was really late at night when I was making these, I`m such a procrastinator. I scored it completely wrong, but he probably won`t notice. I inked the edges of the card to make it look like it`s a bit dirty from being in a tool shop or something. I attached the brown cardstock to the back of the cut-out and just trimmed around it. I didn`t use my cricut to cut the brown because it tends to mangle that paper when it cuts it (it`s cheap paper and I`ll not be buying it again). I think my father-in-law will like it because it has a bunch of tools on it (he`s a carpenter by trade).

Cards for my Mother-in-Law

Sorry I haven`t posted in a while, spring is always a crazy time for me what with gardening and birthdays and all.

I know a lot of people probably don't like or maybe even get along with their mother-in-law. I happen to like my mother-in-law, she's like a second mom and we're very close. I enjoy making her cards because she likes art and she's sort of into crafts and I know she appreciates handmade cards.

I made her a Mother's Day card using Create-A-Critter 2 (can you tell that's my favourite cartridge? LOL).

(Ignore the blotchy spot on the pink bear. I had a minor issue with some black puffy paint.)

 

I cut out both of these bears and put them together. I just love how they turned out. I didn't have any flesh toned card stock so I improvised with my E000 copic marker and I think it turned out ok. I added a bit of black puffy paint to the eyes. I accidentally got some on the face of the pink bear. I thought I had totally ruined it, but I ended up remembering a trick from water colour painting. So I pulled out my x-acto knife and scrapped the top surface of the card stock away (it's not the greatest, but it does the job). The only problem is it that area is a bit discoloured and textured from the scraping. Oh well I think my mother-in-law will understand.

 

I cut out the sentiment and put it on the inside of the card (I cut it too big to put on the front LOL).  I think the card turned out really cute though.

 

 

My next card is a birthday card that I made entirely from my brand new Preserves cartridge. I have been drooling over this one for a while now, but I couldn't find it in stores so I bought it online. There's lots of fruit, cards, labels, and tags and I think I'll get lots of use out of it. I love labels and tags what can I say.

My mother-in-law and my father-in-law have birthdays 1 day apart from each other so I usually only make one card for the both of them (that might change, but who knows).

Sorry the picture is a little fuzzy, I need to replace my camera

 

The card is 4" by 4" which is a nice size when you just want a few things on the card. I cut out the strawberries and I turned the leaves, stem and dark colour strawberry into stickers with my little X (from Xyron) that I found at Value Village for $2.99. I love that X, it's perfect for those little fiddly bits that I need to glue.

I cut out the scallop circle at 3 inches and the inner circle at 2.75 inches. I inked the white circle  and the strawberry with Close to Cocoa ink pad from Stampin' Up. I just bought it from my cousin, a stampin' up demonstrator, for $8 with 2 refills - what a deal!.

 

I cut some stripped pink paper at 2" tall and trimmed it to fit the card (I don't remember which paper pack sorry I lost the front of the pack). I then cut a piece of darker pink spotted pattern paper and overlapped it on the stripped paper.

 

I think this is my best card yet. I almost wanted to keep if after it was done LOL (that's when you know it's a good one). The card sort of reminds me of an ice cream parlor or a strawberry shortcake. Hm now I want some strawberry shortcake.

 

After doing those two cards, it's become clear to me that I need to buy some more stamps. I have absolutely no everyday sentiment stamps at all (ok except Christmas ones, those don`t count). Mt husband agrees that I need to buy some, so I can`t wait to pick some out! Anyway thanks for reading!





Gift for a friend

I have a lovely goodie basket that I`m going to be sending to my friend in Australia (giant box of pop tarts, candy necklaces and other goodies). I was flipping through the tags, bags, boxes and more 2 booklet with my husband and he picked the mini pizza box for me to make. I'm going to be putting two souvenir coins in the little box.

There’s a couple of steps involved in scoring and cutting a box.

1.      Insert the scoring tip and load the mat. Change the cut settings to scoring tip (my suggested settings are 5 speed, 5 pressure, 1 multi-cut and 6 on the housing).
 

2.      Pick the shift of the box (these are the score lines). Press home.

3.      Press cut (it won’t be cutting, but scoring at this point)

4.      Once the scoring is done, do not unload mat! Carefully remove the scoring tip and don’t move the blade carriage or the cut will be off.

5.      Insert the blade (careful again to not move anything) and adjust the cut settings to cut paper.

6.      Delete the score line ‘cut’ from the cut queue and select the box image.

7.      Press home and press cut.

8.      Assemble the box according to the instructions

 

I also saw the card on page 32 and I just had to make it. So I made it and the corresponding envelope on page 33. I also used the card phrase with my markers. I just love how it turned out. 

 

I'm going to write a little message to her on the blank part. I really think she`ll love it.

Early starts

 I started playing with the cricut markers that I got for christmas and I can`t believe how easy these are to use. They even put the settings on the marker (thanks cricut!). Tags, bags, boxes and more 2 has card phrases for use with the pen (and in my mind perfect for the markers too). Since Valentine`s Day is coming up, I decided I`d pick "Be Mine" to draw. I know Valentine`s is a month away, but I`m a terrible procrastinator if I let myself. I decided I didn`t want to cut the cordinating card and I just used a scrap of paper and then matted it with some dark red. I think it looks great, might turn down the pressure a bit though.

I was so excited that my friend`s birthday was coming up because I had the chance to make a birthday card for the first time. My friend is a guy so I couldn`t do anything too girly, but I think it turned out nicely. This card is made entirely from Create A Critter 2. That cupcake is super cute!



I don`t have any stamps for birthdays yet, so I decided that I`d cut out a sentiment for the inside of the card too. So I cut "Make a wish". Sorry about the fuzzy picture, I tried a bunch of times to take a clear picture. My camera doesn't seem to like the colours.



 

I'll post when I complete the Valentine's Day card and a couple of other cards in my queue.

A New Year's Resolution

Hello and Welcome!

I think I might have the best resolution ever: to use my cricut more and get better at scrapbooking and other papercraft.

I just recently entered the world of cricut when I purchased my cricut expression 2 this past August. I bought the Happy Hauntings cartridge in October and A Quilted Christmas in December. Then my husband gave me two cartridges for christmas and bought one for me on boxing day (I love that man!). So now I also have Create a Critter 2, Mini Books and Tags, Bags, Boxes and More 2.

I can't stop making stuff from the Create a Critter 2 cart, I just love the cute little critters and phrases.

Here's what I've made so far:

This is the Party Monkey (from page 75, CAC2). I cut the clothes in pink instead of blue because it's for my niece (her nickname is monkey). I cut out the Happy Birthday phrase on page 77. I'm going to cut "1st" using CCR because it's for a scrapbook page for her first birthday. (I'm creating an album for my sister to put baby pictures in).

This is the Skeleton Bear and the candy apple (from page 58, CAC2). I just love the candy apple, it's so cute. I'm going to be making a halloween card for my friend in Australia (yes, I love halloween that much). She doesn't have Halloween there and I like to send her goodies ever year (and yes I know that halloween was 2 months ago). The eyes on the bear were a little "off" and I'm not really sure why. I tried my best to put the layered images together straight, but I think the eyes just cut wrong in the first place. I fixed the problem by colouring the offending bits with black gel pen.

For New Year's I cut out "Happy New Year" (from page 29,CAC2) in black bristol board and white card stock and then I laminated it with my new laminator. It turned out decently, although I wish the laminating was a bit better. I love that the bristol board cuts so nicely in my cricut, I'll have buy more of that.

So that's what I've been doing since christmas day. I haven't had a chance to use the mini books or tbbm2 cartridges yet, but I have big plans for those two cards.