Threaded Card Toppers

Over the weekend I worked on some threaded card toppers.  Many, many thanks to my friend Cathy over at Scrappin Cat's Creative Endeavors for the Cricut cut file which she created and showcased here. Her blog title indicates a Pazzles file, but bless her heart she also made a Cricut cut file which she graciously shared.  I am always looking for ways to use up my paper scraps...my mother was raised during the Great Depression where you used and reused everything, what can I say, waste not, want not.

These are my first two attempts which I did horizontally.  The patterned paper is from K&Company, one I have shown before on my blog, I added some bling on the front and the papers have some glitter already so I think they turned out nicely.  I left the insides blank for the recipient to write her own notes.

 

The next one was done vertically.  I added a butterfly to the one on the right and added a swooshie with some dots as accents.  On three of the four cards I did a layered sentiment tag and then mounted that on pop dots.  I added some bling to the bottom of two of them.  I used cream card stock for the backs and used one of the patterned sheets in the paper pad for the background paper.

And finally, I decided to do a couple of these with ribbon.  I had some ribbon I'd picked up in a grab bag over at Stamper's Corner and decided to use it.  I chose white card stock for these and once threaded with the ribbon I mounted it on a lavender card stock and then mounted all of that on a white A2 size card.  I chose the lavender background paper scraps to cut a small sentiment block and made a thank you card.  After stamping the sentiment I inked the edges and mounted it on pop dots before affixing it to the front of the card.  I added a couple of the butterflies from the sizzlet to the top of the front of the card, added a quick sentiment on the inside and called it done. 

The next one used the same ribbons only in reverse order with the darker purple ribbons on the outside and the green one in the middle.  For this one I picked a darker purple to mount the threaded layer on and for the larger tag and mounted a lighter green (to match the ribbon on the front) on top and stamped my image and added some darker green bling above and below the sentiment.  I used my Spellbinders die for these tags.  Again I raised this one with pop dots to give it some dimension.  I left the inside blank.  

These were fun, easy and best of all used up scraps!  See you next time!  Imagine, Create, Enjoy.

 

Baby Shower Cards

As I mentioned in a previous post, busy month for us with celebrations, including a baby shower and a couple of other babies being born to people we know.  I was surfing some blogs recently and saw this cute idea for a baby carriage card at MaggieMadeCards.  (I've tried the website, but it says it's currently not available, sorry.)  I'm trying to utilize my Cricut so I can learn all the wonderful things it is capable of doing.  When I saw this card I figured it would be a good project to hone my Cricut Design Studio skills. When all done, I had created my own little cut file!   

The first card I did was for my son's boss whose wife had delivered a baby boy.  I chose to make it with bright primary colors, blue and red since it was a boy.  I didn't get pictures of it before he gave it to the boss, but I had made a second one so he had a couple of options to pick from.  For this one I chose a burgundy colored paper for the carriage and a gold colored card stock to accent it.  I wanted something a little different than the traditional boy/girl blue/pink options.  I embossed the bottom piece of the carriage insert with a bubbles or circle embossing folder and used a texture plate with squares on it for the smaller piece on the top of the carriage.  I chose three small brown buttons and laced them with some brown and tan bakers twine I had and threaded it through the buttons.  I chose an ivory oval and stamped special delivery on it and used pop dots to give it some dimension.  For the inside I used another half circle of the gold card stock and stamped a lovely baby sentiment on it.

This next one is for a girl...now I've flipped back and forth on the color scheme idea and decided to go with a lavender baby carriage and pink accents.  I've embossed the lower half of the carriage front insert with a small flowers and the carriage cover with Swiss dots.  I added a matching lavender oval to the front with the word baby in blocks stamped on it.  I added white pearls to the inside of the carriage wheels and used my Stampin Up! butterfly sizzlet to punch out some little butterflies for accents.  I dropped two on the carriage cover and one on the carriage handle.  On the inside I stamped my sentiment in a pretty purple ink to stand out on the lavender card stock.

This idea can be done is so many different colors (think pro sports teams) and even some patterned paper for the inserts which would make a wonderful option! 

Go on...Imagine, Create, and Enjoy!

Patriotic Banner -- Remember

I've been seeing banners for some time on different blogs and have been wanting to make one but never getting around to it.  Decided to change that this weekend.  I used my Cricut and my George Basic Shapes cartridge and cut some stars.  This cartridge has one icon that has slots in the image.  I decided to use that one to make the base of the star and then cut smaller shadow stars and silhouette stars in alternating colors.  I used red, white and blue in honor of our Memorial Day holiday and I figure I will flip it and use the other side for the 4th of July holiday in another month.  I decided to alternate the colors of the stars and my constant color was the silhouette star which would always be in white.  I cut the large base in alternating red and blue and then the shadow star that went on top in the alternate color.

I chose the word remember for Memorial Day as that is the reason for this holiday...to remember the sacrifice of those who have served our country, who have gone before, who have bled and died for our freedoms.  I cut the letters for the word from the same cartridge.  The "R" and "B" letters have a solid mat background which I sprayed with some Perfect Pearls in silver.  I also sprayed the solid stars with the Perfect Pearls before I glued the silhouette star over the top of it.  I tried to get a pic of it here to the left so you could see the glitz.  At the points of each of the stars I put some bling, red and blue rhinestones to match the background star and the letter on each star.  Then I found some clear or white star bling and added those as accents to the letters to make them pop a little. 

As you can see from this next photo I picked up some red, white and blue grosgrain ribbon at Jo Ann's to thread through the back of the stars.  There are eight stars on this banner and the largest star is cut at about 7.69 x 7.34 inches.  I then scaled down the inserts so there was a nice border on the base around each smaller star.  In order to have enough ribbon and the ability to tie a bow at each end I bought 3 yards of the ribbon.  I strung each of the base stars onto the ribbon and then spaced them out a little, once I had them on the ribbon I affixed the top stars on with glue dots.  I didn't want to use adhesive as I wanted to be able to slide and adjust the stars location as was necessary.  I may have to add a few more glue dots though as they seem to want to pop off of the background star. 

I plan on hanging ribbons with pics of my sons and my future daughter-in-law who all serve as reservists in the Navy and Army National Guard respectively.  As my oldest serves his country right now in Afghanistan, we pray for the safety of all of our enlisted and retired military personnel and offer our thanks to them and their families for their service to our country, both at home and abroad!

Until next time, Imagine, Create, Enjoy!  Happy Memorial Day! 

Bridal Shower Card

Spring, early summer...the time for Mother's Day, Father's Day, weddings, graduations, babies....it seems like we are experiencing all of them this year.  Last weekend went to my first bridal shower this year.  I wanted to do something special for the card and use my Cricut machine.  I have the Tie the Knot cartridge so figured I could come up with a pretty cute shower card.  Opened up my Cricut Create software and got to work.  The bride to be was registered at two places...Target and Fredrick's of Hollywood!  New, first time bride so this was going to be fun!!!

I decided to go with the lingerie theme for the card and chose the corset for my card.  I chose the outline image and copied it and then flipped it and melded the two pieces together.  That was my card base.  Then I did the layers.  The card is cut to about 5" high.  If you want exact measurements, send me an email!  I had found a You Tube video using this image so I just modified it for the layers and created all of it in a cut file.  The bride's colors are purple and green.  I chose a deep purple for the card base and then a sparkly blue for one layer and finally a piece of scrap from what's left of my Susan Winget Botanical paper pad and cut the overlay.  It is a combination of purples, greens and other floral colors.  I had to play with the corset top layer some to get the exact image size down, but the finished product was definitely worth it. 

After assembling all the pieces together, I added three pearls to the button holes on the front and then added some bling along the top edge of each leg.  The shimmery layer of light blue paper and the little bit of bling made it pop nicely. 

For the inside of the card I used the exact same layer but cut it out of a lighter lavender card stock and layered it on top so I could stamp the sentiment.  I inked up the edges with some purple ink and added the sentiment.  The sentiment says: True love stories never have endings.  Great sentiment for a new bride.  I also added a little stamped duo of hearts on the top right and a little bling on the curly Q at the bottom. 

Turned out quite nicely and the bride was tickled with it too!  That's probably the greatest feeling as a crafter is to have one's work appreciated by the recipient! 

I decided to make a gift tag to match the card.  The Tie the Knot cartridge is set up with a whole tab devoted to tags and they mirror the larger projects.  I could have done a corset tag but decided on the lips cutout.  I cut the tag in the dark purple to match the card base and then layered different colors of purple and even chose a sparkly paper to make the lips look glossy!  This cartridge also has a lovely swirly letter alphabet, so I cut a "T" the bride's new last name and placed it on the bottom of the tag.  I inked up the edges with purple ink and put a grommet in the whole and laced it up with some glittery ribbon.  Sorry the pic is a little blurry.

Thanks for stopping by today...hope you enjoyed today's offering.  I love hearing your comments, so please leave one.  Until next time, Imagine, Create, Enjoy.

Mother's Day -- Part Two

I decided to blog about my craft stuff because I've live(d) with men most of my married life.  While I have a daughter by marriage she lived with her mom while growing up, and all I have delivered are boys.  Three boys to be exact, all born within a five year period.  Surrounded by men..and they have their hobbies, and things they are good at...cooking, wood working, mechanics, and more cooking...but not particularly interested in crafty things that I do...scrap booking, paper crafts, etc.  Blogging was my way of sharing with others my little bit of passion for card making and scrap booking. 

Today, I want to talk about my men...and Mother's Day, and the blessings I'm experiencing as I watch them grow up.  Don't get me wrong...they are grown, my baby is 25 and my oldest will be 29, but they are still growing up, maybe not physically, but emotionally and mentally, and maturing in a good way. While they were little, there were handmade cards, macaroni necklaces, beaded key rings, as a mother you know what I'm talking about, those precious items that are tucked away safely in a keepsake drawer.  As they've grown older, their gifts have matured as they have, small pieces of jewelry, cologne, gift cards to my favorite craft stores, flowers.  These are beautiful items and ones that I have treasured as much as the small handmade gifts.  Not because of the gift necessarily, but because of the sentiment and hearts of the gift givers. 

Today as I arrived home from a friend's bridal shower, I found on my front step the beautiful bouquet you see at the right.  Beautiful red and pale pink roses.  From my oldest son who is currently deployed in Afghanistan. What a surprise.  As I carried them inside I was so tickled!  What woman doesn't like to receive flowers.  Especially when you're not expecting them!  Let me reiterate, I've lived with mostly men the last 25 years...for the most part they don't think about these things cuz you're mom.  They aren't being mean, they don't do it on purpose, they just don't think along those lines.  Please don't think I'm generalizing either, because I think this is probably true for most guys.  They don't think about flowers for mom especially.  They are busy with their own lives, they have girlfriends, they think of it for the girlfriends, but not necessarily for mom. 

The flowers are gorgeous, I know I've said that, but I want you to know I really love the flowers!  What I want to share more is the sentiment that was on the card with the flowers...because as a mom and parent this is what makes the experience and ride of motherhood and parenthood worth it.  These are the things that bless my socks off and bring me to tears because I see the maturity and the appreciation for what is not an easy job, a job that has many layers and nuances and ups and downs.  And I think more importantly, he recognizes that I wasn't perfect and I didn't do everything right all the time, but I tried my hardest to be the best mom I could be.  It's not an epic poem, an ode to mom or fancy words...it is an appreciation for me...for what I've given to him...for being mom!  "If there was a day for everything you have given to me as a mother, it would be Mother's Day every day."  Wow! For everything I've given to him?  How about for everything he's given to me!  For everything they have all given to me!

My younger two sons are taking me to dinner tomorrow, Mother's Day, and I am blessed because they are here to spend time with me.  It will be a fun time of good food, laughter and joy, recognizing me in a different way. I pray that all of you mom's out there are recognized for who you are and what you've done in your child's life, how you've impacted them and influenced them and helped them to become the people you hoped they would become.  Thank you to my mom, although no longer here, I miss you mom, and to my mother-in-law for raising the son I married.

Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day

I have a new Tim Holtz Alterations die, Hanging Sign.  As you can see from the picture, it looks like a quaint country sign at a cute little bed and breakfast inn surrounded by a field of flowers.  There was born my idea for my Mother's Day card. 

I chose to use white card stock for the card base, actually I used the 6 1/2 x 5" pre-made card base in the packets you can get from Michaels.  I decided to make it a landscape orientation card and chose one of the flower papers from the K&Company, Susan Winget Botanical paper packet.  It has a lot of lavenders, blues and other pastels in the color scheme.  I utilized that for my main background and then cut the sign post from brown card stock.  For the sign itself I chose an off-white paper with a lightly speckled background.  I printed Happy Mother's Day on it using Word and cut it out with the die.  I inked around the edges with Tim Holtz' vintage photo ink pad, added some lavender bling under the sentiment and had some butterfly and floral embellishments that went with the papers and used them on the sign. 

I wanted the sign to be free swinging, like a true sign would be, so I grabbed some jump rings I had and used those to hook the sign to the sign post.  Around the top edge of the card I put a pretty lavender ribbon around and tied in a square not.  Inside the card I stamped the sentiment "How dear to the Heart is a Mother like you..." and added one more butterfly to accent the inside. 

That's a wrap...more fun cards to come...wedding showers, baby showers...more projects!  Imagine, Create, Enjoy!

Dates to Remember Card File

I have finally finished my card file.  I first saw this idea over here.  Cathy had been inspired by a Pinterest pin and I just lifted that idea.  For my card file I decided to use some pretty floral papers...it will be a gift for a friend.  I used papers from the K&Company Susan Winget collection.  She has some really great papers.  I pretty much used the original ideas as they were, with a few exceptions.  I chose to use my Cricut to cut the word Celebrate in purple and layered green under it for the backdrop.  I had some small sentiment stamps and decided to stamp them on white paper to indicate different occasions for which cards would be needed.  I mounted them on a larger circle of some of the leftover scraps from these pages.  I then scattered them over the front of the file around the word Celebrate. 

Another thing I did a little different from the original is I cut some reinforcement rings using my Cuttlebug tag die.  For these I also used leftover scraps.  I was really successful in using most of the scraps from the papers I had chosen for the project.  After covering each of the envelopes for the twelve months, I also covered the inside and outside of the envelope flaps as well.  I used the two hole punch to punch the holes and then used the reinforcements on each page to add some substance to the ring holes.  It will help with the wear and tear when the file is opened and closed frequently. 

I chose a font in Word and printed the twelve months of the year on white card stock.  I allowed enough room between the months so I could utilize my other Cuttlebug tags die to cut out the month tags.  This die has some ornamental embossing on it so it spiffed them up just a little.  After centering the months on the die and cutting them all out, I chose to ink up the edges with purple ink to make them pop just a little bit more and affixed them to the envelope flap.  Just a note here:  If you ink the edges of the tags, make sure you blot them or they will bleed onto the lined cards that contain the dates for the month. 

For the dates in the month I used Word again and created a two column table and numbered the lines 1 through 16 for the first half of the month and 17 through 31 for the second half of the month.  I printed the tables and cut them down to size to fit on the inside of each envelope.  Each month of the file is one envelope, and the back of each succeeding envelope is the 2nd half of your month.  The way the file is put together you need to have two sides to put the tables of the dates for the halves of the month on each side, because the last month is the last envelope I needed a back to the card file.  I used an old cereal box and cut two 6 x 9 size pieces and fastened them together with my tape runner, the patterned sides facing the middle.  After that I took the remaining piece of 12 x 12 card stock and backed both sides of the card.  This became the back of the card file. 

I used some green colored rings I had picked up at the Scrapbook Expo back in October.  I added some ribbon to them to match the colors of the papers.  I chose not to add dimensional embellishments to the pages or to the cover as I don't know if the recipient will carry it with her while out and about or if she will leave it at home.

I think it would be a great idea if giving this as a gift I was to include a couple of different cards for the recipient, say a baby card, wedding card, or a birthday card. Hope you enjoyed my take on this great project.  Imagine, Create, and Enjoy!