Not Broken

Hi friends!  I have a whole bunch of layouts I want to share with you but it may take me a day or 2 to  have my head in a better place.  So I'm sharing what I made today as  I had my own little therapy session in my scrap room.  I love my husband dearly, but for the entire 8 1/2 years of our marriage, he has indulged in unacceptable behaviors.  I've stuck with him through many years of therapy, been forgiving of his setbacks, and patiently awaiting progress.  There comes a point in time where staying is more painful than leaving, and so a tough choice had to be made.  And what can a scraper do but scrap those choices?  I hand cut the hearts, then distressed the edges.  The picture on it was done in Photobucket with several cool special effects.  My embellishments of lace and flowers were parts of my bridal bouquet.  I inked them but good to make them look old and wilted.  My words are done with Pooh Font, then put through the cuttlebug and inked.  Not a pretty subject, but life ain't always pretty, right?  Thank goodness for all my wonderful crafting friends who continually brighten my day.  God bless.  And thanks for taking a peek!

My 2nd Tri-fold Shutter card

Here's my 2nd tri-fold shutter card, and this one went a bit quicker than my first.  Well, it would have if I didn't do the base 3 times!  Do NOT use anything with a white core for your base, as the white will show through when you make the folds.  Also do NOT use paper with a heavy texture for your base, as it will crack and look ugly!  Lessons learned!  I used the beautiful Mariposa papers on this and didn't need to add a whole lot else.  I only added some brads to the middle and made a lacy valentine for the front.  Here, I'll show you.

And, AND, I used the scraps to make a valentine for my little granddaughter.  One of my Peeps asked if my scrap box was empty, seeing as I'm digging into all this pretty new paper.  And the answer is, um, well, not really quite--ok, you dragged it out of me-I have a ton left...  I love it you all keep me on track.  But I did make a couple quick cards with my scraps so I'm still plugging away...

Actually, I made this birthday card for my granddaughter today and it was all out of scraps.  That was on accident but it's all still good, right?

                                     

Someone sent me this cute Sarah Kay image and I've never colored one before.  I've seen better for sure, but I had to get this in the mail today and really threw this card together in record time, and will a 9 year old really notice if the coloring isn't perfect? And anyhow, it does look cute with the Blossoms & Butterflies papers so I think it wasn't a bad card for a quickie.

So tomorrow I'm going to be posting some lay outs I've been doing.  I have a daughter who's husband plays Pro hockey overseas, and when they come home next month, we'll be doing a big birthday/Christmas party.  I'm making her 3, yes three, scrapbooks for her daughter, her son, and the family.  So I have to make 60 pages in 30 days.  And let me tell you I am NOT a  fast crafter!  But I've pulled it off for the past 3 days (only 54 LOs left), so root me on, keep me in line, and push me through it when my fingers are too tired to pull that ATG trigger one more time!  Thanks, I knew I could count on you.  And as always, thanks for taking a peek!

A Fairy Thanks

I love this little fairy from A Child's Year and never have a chance to use it.  But I needed a thank you for someone I'm sending a gift to, and she's a Cricut Card Fairy, so this cut just fits the bill perfect!  Isn't she such a cute little gift-giving fairy?  I popped her up on some nesties circles and cut "thanks" from Storybook.  The papers are from the new Mariposa stack from DCWV.  I'll tell ya those papers are so rich with color and sparkly embossing, I almost want to frame them and hang em' up!  I bought 2 stacks just so I wouldn't hoard it and be afraid to use that pretty paper-LOL!  Thanks for taking a peek!

Skull Valentine (or Indie Art meets Doodlecharms)

OK, right off the bat I'll admit this is not the most lovely valentine out there.  Not to us anyhow.  But I bet my nearly 8 year old grandson will think it's a pretty cool one. And that, my friends, makes me a cool grandma.  And the fact that it will enclose a McDonalds gift card is even cooler yet.  Not sweet and cutsey but I think I pulled off gothic glam ok.  Thanks for taking a peek!

A few sweet little Valentines

Apparently, the last few days I've been working on Valentines.  I didn't know this until I looked back at what I was making and saw there was a heart theme going on!  And now that I think of it, they all feature my new Doodlecharms cartridge.  It's such a sweet cart, it's made me let my hair down and for once just do CUTE!  So this one here started as an experiment.  I was playing with my ink blending tool and seeing how it would look with the embossing folders.  It worked well with this folder so I added some Doodlecharms hearts and a punched border.  Now it's a Valentine for one of my grandaughters.

This little puppy from Doodlecharms is a "just because" card for my 2 year old granddaughter.  She loves getting her own mail and thanked me profusedly when I sent her a card this past week.  Nothin' fancy here but a toddler sure can appreciate a puppy and sparkly pink hearts!

                                              

This was a fun one for my chemo buddy.  I'm just letting her know I'm thinking of her, and I think this conveys that.  Doodlecharms for the mailbox, my ever fav A Child's Year for the grass, and envelopes done by hand.  I stamped some hearts and added just a touch of stickles.  This took awhile with all the paper piecing but I enjoyed doing it for her.

And a BIG thank you to all the congrats I had for having some mentions in the "CHIRP".  I had 1 last week, and 2 cards mentioned this week.  Just lucky I had a few new carts and they were featuring those, but it was a fun 5 seconds of fame!  LOL!  Thanks for taking a peek!

Learning something new--tri-fold shutter card

Well, they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks, so I must not be that old after all since I'm learning how to do tri-fold shutter cards.  Now, it did take me the better part of the day to make this, what with looking at tutorials online and getting ideas and deciding on papers.  I took it slow and careful because this is for my chemo buddy and I wanted it to be nice.  So it did take awhile, but it was sooo much fun to do and not nearly as difficult as they look.  Future tri-folds will go much quicker, I'm sure (maybe not--I'm pretty picky!).  Anyhow, it's not perfect but I'm still happy with my first attempt.  First off, I used the prettiest papers I had--Webster's Pages mat stack.  There's no beating Webster's Pages for sheer Victorian/girly/swirly/lush beauty.  (DCWV Mariposa may come close.  I'll find out when those 2 stacks I ordered come in!).  The cameo on the front is from Heritage and I layered that on some nesties.  For the inside, I cut a tag from Sentimentals and stamped with a Studio G stamp.  I inked the edges.  Doesn't that go great in that spot with the flowers and music?  Added a few mini pearls and fibers, and that's all this pretty paper needed.  And there's hardly any scraps left over since these papers are double sided and I used both sides!  How did I do?  Thanks for taking a peek!

A worthy scraplift

I can not take credit for this cards design.  It's a scraplift from one I saw someplace in cyberland last year.  But I really like this layout and I think it works well for more serious cards.  Isn't my new stamp wonderful?  I stamped and heat embossed it, and the words and image are so crisp and clear.  I'll be using this one a lot for Cricut Card Fairies, I think.  Although I've been working at using my scraps, I cut 3 new sheets of paper for this card.  BUT...I then made 2 more cards out of those scraps so had nothing left over and got 2 simpler cards done.  Now that's the way to do it!  Thanks for taking a peek!

A Very Victorian Birthday

Here's a sweet little card I whipped up in just a matter of hours (gotcha--you thought I'd say minutes) for an elderly woman celebrating her birthday.  I love this color combination and was really happy with the way the cameo and frame from Heritage turned out.  The scor-bug made for a great background.  My problem was that annoying, uncooperative little swirly corner cut.  OMGosh!  I'm sure I spent at least an hour or more trying to get just one decent cut!  I tried every thickness of paper with every speed and depth combination on my cricut.  I replaced the needle, I re-stickied my mat.  I blessed the machine and I cursed it.  It just does not like this cut.  I wasted so much time and paper on that corner and developed a few new wrinkles and gray hairs because of it!  So I had to make due with the best I could get.  Thank goodness for pretty Primas!  Thanks for taking a peek!

Postcard-card using Sentimentals

Sentimentals has some cool images on it that kind of intimidate me because I'm afraid I can't do them justice.  But today this postcard cut just caught my eye and I had to give it a shot.  I cut the postcard out at 4", stamp at 1", and the bird at 2".  (The brown, pink, and green pattern paper are all scraps--yah, me!).  The 5 cents was cut from Printing Press.  Once I had the postcard done, I mounted it on a brown card and added a few flowers.  Oh, and the inking--do you love it?  I learned this inking technique from Marti and ordered the supplies from her.  This was my 1st time trying it and I was really happy with how it looks.  You can see her video here:

http://pezadoodle.wordpress.com/2009/12/28/just-buggin-challenge-17-inky-fingers-tutorial/

Excellent tutorial and has changed my way of inking!

And here's a card I made yesterday:

This little card uses Stretch Your Imagination.  This cart is also pretty new to me so I haven't used it much yet.  But I like these funky tall flowers, and my colors from my scrap box just seemed to all line up like the stars.  Very simple card, although those stems are only thick as a hair and can be a bit picky to work with.  So that's what I've been up to lately.  Thanks for taking a peek!

Butterfly cards with new Sentimentals cartridge.

I received a few new cartridges the other day and what better thing to do in the winter than to play with them?  I was immediately drawn to the butterfly.  Very swirly and pretty.  This black and white card was done for a couple celebrating their 75th anniversary.  I can't imagine 75 years of togetherness.  Wow!  So I used my scor-pal on this to emboss it--it's an elegant look with the mini pearls.  The butterfly is made from flocked paper, and of course it's all made from scraps!  But I also did a more colorful one.

                                    

This one is also mostly from scraps.  I did have to cut into a fresh sheet of the green color (and oh, it felt so good!  It's been so long since I've done that, with me trying to use up scraps!).  I scored this one also and added pale green pearls.  I used a ticket punch in the corners for a little something different.  This one is going to my chemo card buddy.  Next I'm going to play with my new Heritage cart!  Good stuff on that one-can't wait!  Thanks for taking a peek!

A couple scrappy cards

As anyone on the cricut message board knows by now, I've made a serious commitment to use up that endless pile of scraps.  I'm really itching to cut into a fresh whole sheet of paper.  Remember those early school days when you had a brand new box of crayons?  All the tips were sharp, the paper was still on, none were broken, that fresh waxy smell--ahhhhhh.  Well, a fresh new sheet of paper is just like that.  But I'm not using any.  I'm trying to be creative with my scraps and make do the best I can.  For this card I used all scraps and also dipped into some unused stash.  I have a lot of unused stash so I think I'll make more cards just like this one.  Not a fancy card but I think it has a cute simplicity about it.  It also was much quicker to make than the next one.

This one is also from scraps.  My objective here was to use pattern paper scraps, which I really have a hard time with.  This card is for a woman who loves green, so I picked papers with green in them and hoped they would somehow blend together.  I shadowed the flower petals and doodled on them.  Not my fav card colorwise, but it did use a ton of scraps and I like the style so will do more of these.  So the scrap pile IS starting to shrink and soon I'm going to reward myself by cutting into a thick, untarnished, glorious 12 x 12 sheet of paper with unbridled glee.  See how easy I am to please?  Thanks for taking a peek!

The Never-Ending Snowstorm--Day 6

On the final day of 2009 we could still see grass (a rarity for Western New York!).  That changed on January 1st when the New Year brought us what will here-on-out be called "The Never Ending Snowstorm".
It has snowed for 6 days and is supposed to continue for all of the forseeable future.  It's so cold the salt isn't melting it off the roads so the roads are coated with a slimy, slippery powder that is not fun to be in.  So how is this craft related, you may be wondering?  It's keeping me home instead of hitting up all those great sales at Michael's and other stores I keep hearing about!  People on the message board (they must live in the Florida Keys) are out buying $3500.00 worth of paper, stamps, and punches for about .30 cents!  And I'm missing it all!!!!  It's a 50 minute drive to M's and not worth getting $3500.00 worth of stuff for .30 cents if I slip in the slush and destroy a $25,000.00 car.  Or......is it?

Bubbles and Swiss Cheese

Do ya like that title?  Bubbles and swiss cheese--I'm not talking wine and cheese here.  I'm talking about this card I made today:

I used the swiss cheese border punch around the edges in the hopes it would look like bubbles.  Everyone on the message board says it does, and they're the experts!   So bubbles it is.  I love it when I can think outside the box.  It doesn't come to  me everyday!  Oh, and of course I used the ever so fantastic A Child's Year to get that cute tub cut.  I really use that cart more than all my others combined.

Speaking of which, here's another card I made today also using A Child's Year.

I love how soft and girly this turned out.  I just bought this great new background stamp and wasn't sure what to do with it.  So I inked it up with pink and blue and created a background and the rest just fell in place without even thinking about it.  And the best part is it's all from scraps!  I'm really working hard on that pile.  I joined a scrap exchange on the message board and we were to send a small baggy of scraps to someone.  Well, I sent this HUGE envelope filled to the brim--it cost me $2.50 to mail it.  Heh, heh, heh--her problem now!  Thanks for taking a peek!

Woo hoo--final update!

With this update I'm all caught up on my blog and I'm never never never going to get behind again.  Well, at least I'm going to try!  So here's a few of the final cards I did in December 2009.

This one is a pretty close copy to one I saw in a card magazine.  I loved the color blocking and decided to give it a go.  Their's had a stamped image but I used a cricut cut for mine.  The papers are some Cosmo Cricket papers I got in a grab bag.  I really wasn't feeling these papers at all and didn't know if I'd use them.  I ended up liking them for this card though and will do some more similar to this. The cut went great with the printed paper, don't ya think?  And next:

This card was for a guy and I love this stamp set for guy cards.  It's rugged yet peaceful.  I also love that tartan folder for the background for men.  It adds so much interest without being girly.  All of the stamps are also heat embossed.  Hope he liked it.  Next:

This was another guy card.  I make a point of buying stamps for guys because they make the job so much easier.  This one was also stamped and heat embossed.  I did it on glossy cardstock so the whole thing is nice and shiny.  It's matted against copper foil paper--a color I seldom use so this gave me a chance to do so.  The corners are from Jasmine.  For those of you who ask about the foil papers, I get some from Walmart, right in the craft section.  Mine carries it but others have said their's doesn't.  I also get American Crafts foil paper in a pack at Michael's.  I use up the gold and silver then have these odd colors that I have to find a way to really make use of.  Ok, one last card:

I made this card today completely from scraps.  I have 6 drawers of paper bits and this year's motto is "use it or lose it".  So everyday I'm trying to make a "scrap" card.  I'm liking this one because I think red is so striking against white.  The flower is hearts cut from George and shadowed.  That white prima was heat embossed with white powder twice.  Love how it looks like ceramic!  I dug out my scor-bug to use on the background.  Love my scor-bug but forget to use it, so I hung it on a little hook next to my scor pal.  Lastly I added some mini pearls.  Why don't you all try doing something just from scraps and see what you can come up with?  And TA-DAAAA, I'm caught up!!!! I've earned a margarita in the hot tub so I'm headed there now.  Happy New Years! And thanks for taking a peek!

Christmas Cards

Todays updates are some of the Christmas cards I made.  I admit to buying way more supplies than I could possibly use, but I just loved all the Christmas stuff I saw.  Cartridges, cuttlebug folders, stamps galor, and piles of paper.  I'm thinking that maybe I'll make Christmas cards throughout the year with this stuff, then give them to the residents at the assisted living place where my father-in-law lives.  Anyhow, on to the cards I did make.

This card is one of my favorites.  It's so sparkly and shiny in real life.  The snowglobe was cut with Joys Of The Season, then embossed with the cuttlebug on both the globe and the base.  The cardinal on Winter Woodland is the same as on this embossing folder, so I cut that out at 2", embossed it in the folder, and layered it on.  Added some sparkly flowers, glittered branches, and rhinestones.  I almost hated to give this one away, but someone else needed it more than I did.  The snowglobe was so much fun to do, that I did another one.

This snowglobe went to my Chemo Card Buddy.  I sent her Christmas cards all month long, but this was her final and fanciest one.  I used the cuttlebug on the globe and base of this one also.  I thought the snowy village scene was perfect for this card.  Next:

This is the card I made for my family members.  I heat embossed all of the stamping with silver glittered powder, and used the new larger sized snowflake cuttlebug folder on the background.  I did tons of matting with light blue, white, and silver foil cardstock.  This card was so heavy and cost so  much to mail, I didn't have to worry about sending gifts.  (tee hee).  Next:

I did a handful of these fun glittery cards.  I just love this embossing folder, and again cut the cardinal out from Winter Woodland and layered it on.  I also added some glittered snowflakes and put red rhinestones in them.  The corners were done with a punch.  Isn't that festive?  Next:

These 3 are some of the ones I did with the new embossing folders, foil cardstock, stamps, and gold glittered embossing powder.  They were pretty quick and easy.  I just LOVE that flurries folder--so elegant looking.  Notice that I didn't use a single sheet of the Christmas print cardstock I bought, or even very many cuts from the cricut.  Bad, bad, bad.  So much stuff and such a short season to use it....  Well, you all have a great New Year and don't forget I will be posting some blog candy shortly after I have this all updated.  I'm almost there!  Thanks for taking a peek!

Back to my updates...

Ok, still working at updating this poor forgotten blog, so here's today updates. Let's see what I have first:

Ok, I don't know how this cutie patootie got in my card file but there she is--my 2 year old granddaughter. She's a tremendous help in my scraproom and is especially adept at unrolling spools of ribbon, dumping jars of buttons, and applying stickers to every surface. Who has time for blogging with a mess like that to clean up? Heh, heh--she's my little buddy. Ok, next:

This is a Thanksgiving card I made for my chemo buddy. It's the first time I used that tartan folder which I really disliked until I used it. Now I use it quite a bit for backgrounds. The pilgrims were cut from A Child's year. I did something cool with the flowers. They were kind of an off-white, which I didn't want. So I dabbed them on my glue pad, dipped them in white embossing powder, and applied heat. They almost look ceramic. Very cool effect I keep meaning to repeat, if only I'd remember. Next:

This card was kind of just thrown together, but I like how I did the background paper on it. After stamping the main image, I just stamped the background several times without re-inking the stamp. Helped add interest and tie it all in together. Next:

I love my Peachy Keen stamps and this little chick is just so sweet. The trick is to find different ways to use the same stamp without making the same card over and over. I layered some nesties and sprinkled on some ladybugs and there we have it. Hmmm, not sure if this my idea or if I scraplifted from someone.....Next:

This is my grandson, the master artist. When my daughter posted this picture, I had to scrap it right away. This is soooo Noah! Noah has red hair, pale skin, ruby lips, and ocean blue eyes. I wanted to capture his colors without the layout interfering, so I put the pic in photobucket and did that thing where you turn the background black and white. The paper is from DCWV The Music Stack and it already had that fabulous swirly circle and the photo strip on it. Made my job much easier! The craft images are from.....you got it, A Child's Year, and the circle is a Fundamentals ring I inked to match his hair. I really like how this turned out. That silly little

guy...Next:

So..., I'm not particularly crafty. I guess I could be but just really am into the cards and layouts right now. But when my little granddaughter (see beginning of post) came down with H1N1 and then got pneumonia, I needed to make her something. This little treat bag was made with Walk In My Garden using glitter and foil papers. The ladybugs' smile is from Stretch Your Imagination, I think. It's actually a watermelon rind cut. How's that for thinking outside of the box? Ok, last one for tonight:

This is a birthday card for my sister. I've always loved this saying and it goes so well with this image from, well, you should know by now. (ACY) Seriously, if you don't have that cart, you NEED it! It's great for everything. My sis is special to me and I wanted this to look really well made so I gave it lots of layers and depth. This thing is heavy! And that's todays update! Phew, I'm exhausted! Feels like I just made all of those all over again. I'll be back soon, and thanks for taking a peek!

My poor neglected blog...

Well, some very keen people over at Cricut have mentioned they can't find anything on my blog after October 4th. So with red face and hanging head I have to fess up that I have been a neglectful blogger! Not sure that I need a 12 step program yet but I'll try to ignore that cricut message board long enough to get stuff done right here. Bear with me as this could take several days as I really have been productive the last (gulp!) 3 months what with Cricut Card Fairies, my Chemo Card Buddy, and doing that Book Of Me. (OK, I admit I'm 2 months behind the Book Of Me too, but I'm getting back to it.)

So here's a card I'll share with you:

I cut these images from Winter Woodland, a fabulous cartridge with lots of great woodsy images. Coincidentally, shortly after making this card, Provo Craft came out with a cuttlebug folder showing this exact scene. Hmmmmm.... Anyhow, I stickled that bird from tail to beak and made him beautiously sparkly. I thought the birds and swirls embossing folder was a good match for this card. TFL! Next:

This card I'm not totally satisfied with. I wish I'd made the sentiment section bigger and had the squirrel part overlap it a bit. But what I like about this card are how nice the leaves turned out. I cut them from A Child's Year then inked them with different shades of yellow, orange, and green. Then I took the negative cut and used that as a stencil to make that leafy background paper. That turned out kind of cool and was fun to do. The squirrel is from Winter Woodland, and the acorns too, if I remember right (but it has been 3 months!). Next:

I love this piano from A Child's Year but wasn't sure what I could use it for. Then I found a stamp that says "Music is what feelings sound like". So I bought that stamp (because I have a stamp addiction) just to pair it with this image for a card for my chemo buddy. I cut the piano out with glossy paper and paired it up with the music cuttlebug folder that I don't often have a reason to use. The corners were done with a punch I had just bought (see, all that shopping is what keeps me away from blogging), and there it is. Really a pretty easy card. Next:

This card was one I had to throw together fast when my husband remembered his cousin was soon to be married in a different state and he wanted to send a card. Apparently, husbands don't understand that the process of thinking up a card and designing the layout and doing that layout, then hating it, throwing it away, and starting all over all takes time! But I didn't have time so I took my inspiration from myself with an anniversary card I'd done before. The image is from Joys Of The Season. Don't ya love it when you can use a Christmas cart year round? I put it on a heart from George and used the script cuttlebug folder for the background. Pearls are always good for a wedding so I threw some on to make it look more, um, wedding-like. Anyhow, the happy couple loved this card enough to frame it! Yup, folks, I've been framed! One more:

This was my husband's birthday card. He plays the violin and I was really wanting to use this great image I found online. I don't know how well you can see here, but it's actually in several layers. I used the script cuttlebug folder to go behind it because it looks rather elegant, and I mounted all that on some awesome paper from DCWV The Music Stack. The edges were inked and distressed to give it an older look (like my hubby, tee hee), and I used a metal happy birthday embellishment.
Well, if you've made it this far--thank you! I'll be adding to this over the next few days till I'm caught up. One of my scrapping New Year's resolutions was to get my blog up to date. It'll feel good to cross that off the list 'cause I don't know how well the others are going to go! And after I'm done, there will be some blog candy so keep checking back! And thanks for taking a peek!

Who I Am

Over on the cricut MB, I've joined a challenge to do A Book Of me. This was actually a goal of mine for 2009 but I wasn't sure how to start. Add that to my naturally procrastinative (is that a word?) nature, and you know I hadn't done a thing. So I jumped at the chance to do this with clear directions and good examples for a LO each week. This is the first page and is a Title/Dedication page. I splurged on the nice Prima flowers and added all my favorite elements-butterflies, flowers, pink, swirls, and bling! I stamped on flourishes around 2 sides of my pic, then painstakingly add tiny micro gems to the swirls. I love the metal butterflies I found. Papers are Totally Girl by My Mind's Eye. Lots of soft pretty papers in that pack. So now that's done and it's on to my baby page. Thanks for taking a peek!

Card with new Persia folder

I just made several cards similar to this, all for different occasions. This one is for my chemo buddy, who, as she gets sicker, I think of more and more. It's such an easy card to do. I used the new cuttlebug Persia combo folder for the embossed background. I love the scalloped frame on it. Haven't used the dies yet, but they are awesome--the scalloped frame, a super cool peacock, a leaf, and a flourishy thing. Can't wait to try them out! Anyhow, I digress. The girl cut of course came from A Child's Year--I just can't get enough of that cartridge! The sentiment is a new stamp and I thought it went great with this cut. Quick and sweet.

On a side note, I put myself on a stamp ban because I have sooo many and I haven't used a lot of them. I'm just so addicted to stamps. Know how long I lasted? 24 hours. 24 hours and someone came on the message board with these gorgeous stamped cards and I rushed to ebay and bought them! I'm so weak.... Thanks for taking a peek!

Mini album & frame

This is my 1st mini album and I was terrified I would totally mess up. The photos are of my granddaughter, and this was a gift for her mother, so of course I wanted it to turn out decent. Once I got into it, I had a lot of fun with it. Now I have abunch more I want to do! What do ya think--did I do ok?

Most of the images came from A Child's Year. A few from Walk In My Garden, Home Decor, and Indie Art. The font is mostly from Alphalicious, and the tags are from George. Oh, and the inner green edges were embossed with the cuttlebug. Thanks for taking a peek!