Saturday, November 27, 2010

Be Merry! Be Bright!

I was looking through a Holiday Card magazine my husband bought me and noticed several cards that were simply stamped or die cut images placed on Kraft card stock with little to know embellishments. I liked the simple look and decided I wanted to create my own. I started of with a 4 1/4" X 5 1/2" card base. I used a VersaMark watermark stamp pad and some snowflake clear stamps to stamp snowflakes all over the card front to give it a little more interest. My cuts are from the Hoot and Holler Cricut Lite Cartridge. I cut the branch at 1 3/4". I used my Gypsy to make the branch 4" wide so it would reach further across the card front. I cut the little owl at it's layers at 2". The little Santa hat was is also from the Hoot and Holler cartridge and was cut at 1 3/4". I added Christmas red stickles to the light bulb and Stardust stickles to the white trim and pompom on the hat. I glued a white snowflake button on top of a green button and added to the card. I also added some Crystal stickles to the snowflake. I then added a red rhinestone to the hat for the Holly Berry in the hat and some lime green stickles to the holly leaves. As a finishing touch I added some white doodle dots and faux stitching to the card. The sentiment is a Studio G dollar stamp.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!





Just wanted to wish everyone a safe and Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you are getting to spend your day with friends and family

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Christmas Home Decor Project

I picked up this frame on clearance at Joann's when I was there yesterday. I have seen some really cute projects done with frames so wanted to give it a try. Here is what I came up with. The frame size is 7" X 7".  I covered the mat on the inside of the frame with some patterned paper from DCWV Christmas stack that I got a few weeks ago also at Joann's.  Mat is 5 1/2" X 5 1/2. I just used my ATG gun to adhere the patterned paper to the mat. The tree was cut at 4" from the Lyrical Letters cartridge. I used some really dark green card stock from Core'denations. This paper has a gold glittery look to it. Because it was pretty thick card stock I did set my blade on 6 and pressure on high. I then used my Gypsy and the George and Basic Shapes cartridge to resize a triangle to fit the shape of the tree since it didn't have a shadow or any layers to it. I cut that out of some lighter olive green card stock.  The word Joy was cut out at 1 1/2" from the Winter Woodland cartridge. I ran the top red layer through my Xyron sticker maker and added some red Martha Stewart fine glitter to each letter. The shadow was cut from the olive green paper I used for the tree layer. To spruce up the tree and help it stand out more, I added some of the heat set rhinestones in a variety of colors. I think it looks like lights on a Christmas tree. The final touch was to add some ribbon along the bottom of the mat. The ribbon is also some I picked up at Joann's yesterday.

I apologize the photo isn't better. I had a hard time taking a picture of it without getting a reflection of some kind. I had to go with the best one I was able to get. I am still debating about adding something to the frame, either trying to stamp snowflakes on the frame, or emboss something with gold embossing powder or even adding some of that gold rub on stuff to jazz it up. Let me know what you think. Thanks for visiting.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Christmas Tree Card

My card is a 4 1/4" X 5 1/2" card made from white card stock. I added a dark olive green mat cut at 4" X 5 1/4" and then a second white mat cut at 3 3/4" X 5". This white mat I run through my Cuttlebug and embossed it with the Swiss Dots folder. For added sparkle and shine I also sprayed the white mat with Pearl Glimmer Mist (available at Cutters Creek). Love the sparkle it added. I adhered the mat layers together with my ATG gun. I added a shimmery sheer olive green ribbon.
 
The trees are cut from the Winter Frolic cartridge at 3 1/4". I cut the base layer in brown and the shift layer in olive green cardstock and layered them. Using the Flower Soft glue I bought from Cutters Creek I drew some zigzag lines across the front of the trees and sprinkled them with the Gold Diamond Range Flower soft. Looks just like gold garland don't you think?  One thing you will notice when you get your Flower Soft is that it is very firmly packed into the container it comes in. To lighten it up and help avoid getting large clumps on your project, you should dump out the flower soft that you will be using into a separate bowl and lightly run your fingers through it and aerate it. This helps separate the pieces of Flower Soft.
 
I attached the trees to my card front with some foam tape. The sentiment was printed out on the computer. I used the Center point feature on my Expression the the Lacy Labels Cricut Lite cartridge to cut out the sentiment. I used the oval scallop from the Thank You label on this cartridge and cut it at 1". I then used my Gypsy to cut the shift of the label to create a shadow and cut it at 1.15" out of the olive green. I inked the edges of the sentiment and shadow. Again for sparkle and shine I lightly misted it with the Pearl Glimmer Mist. You do have to be careful it doesn't smear your ink if you printed your sentiment out on the computer.  I added the sentiment to the card front with foam tape as well.
 
I just love how this turned out. The photo does not do the Gold Flower Soft justice. It is very sparkly. The silver is just as pretty as the gold. Check it out.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Cricut Cardz Challenge


Well, I have had a week this week that I never want to live through again. Things are very slowly turning around. For the first time in a week I felt like I could do some crafting if nothing else to take my mind off of our situation. The challenge this week over at Cricut Cardz Challenge was to make a Christmas card using the card feature from any cartridge and using any colors we want. Given that I wasn't feeling very creative but needed the diversion I decided to keep it simple.

The card I used was from the Winter Woodland cartridge. I cut the card at 5 1/2" and it is a square card. I used ivory card stock for my card base. For the patterned paper I used my Gypsy and the layer for the card, sized it down to about 5 1/4" and added a circle from which I sized just a little bigger than the circle of the card. That patterned paper is from a Cloud 9 multi seasonal paper pack. I also used the actual sleigh cuts from the cartridge and again used my gypsy to resize them as closely as I could to fit the cut on the card. For the snowy look behind the sleigh, I used some clear packing tape that I taped over the hole using some wide packing tape in the card and added some chunky glitter. To finish the inside of the card and to cover the tape I added an ivory mat and a mat of the patterned paper. I also added some red rhinestones to the holly leaves on the sleigh. My sentiment is from a Hero Arts clear stamp set.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Snowflake Card

The challenge this week over at the Cricut Cardz Challenge blog was to make a Christmas card with something that started with the letter "S". Since I just got the new Holiday Mini's which included Winter Lace I of course had to use that. My card base is 4 1/4" X 5 1/2" white card stock. The blue mat is Core'dinations card stock cut at 4" X 5 1/4". I then cut another white piece of card stock at 3 3/4" X 3 3/4" and ran it through my Cuttlebug with the snowflake embossing folder. While it doesn't really show up in the photo I sprayed this white mat with some Pearl Glimmer Mist to give it some sparkle and shine. The snowflake I used was the last one on the first row of the keypad overlay. I cut the base layer out of the same blue as the mat and the top layer out of white card stock. Both layers were cut at 3". I ran the white snowflake layer through my Xyron with the top side down and added some Martha Stewart Sugar Cube glitter. The snowflake was adhered with some foam tape. The ribbon is some I picked up at Michael's. The sentiment was is from a Hero Arts stamp set and was stamped with some Colorbox White Pigment ink and embossed with Stampendous Winter Wonderland embossing powder.  I am really pleased how it turned out. Thanks for visiting.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Snowman Winter Wonderland Card

This card is 4 1/4" X 5 1/2" white card stock base. I added a dark blue layer cut at 4" X 5 1/4". The patterned paper is from DCWV's new seasonal winter paper stack and is cut at 3 3/4" X 3".   I then cut a white piece of card stock to look like a snow drift it is approximately 3 3/4" X 2".  After I attached the mats to the card I used my Polar Fleece White Flower Soft and my Flower Soft glue to add some "snow" to the top of my snow drifts.The snowman is from the Winter Frolic Cricut Cartridge. I ct the snowman and his layers at 3 1/2". I added some cotton candy stickles to his pink cheeks and some Christmas red stickles to his ear muffs and gloves to help them stand out and to add some bling to the card. The ribbon is some I picked up at Michaels this past weekend. For the sentiment, I used a Studio G $1 stamp and stamped it with some Versamark ink. I added some Winter Wonderland Embossing Powder and used my heat gun to emboss it. I love how it stands out on the card. I am really happy how this card turned out. Thanks for visiting.