Chocolate is the Answer!

I made this little treat box for my mom this afternoon. I got my idea from a post Diane at Capadia Designs did Here. I got some Hershey's Dark Chocolate Nugget bars and covered them with some K & Company  valentine paper. Instead of a treat bag I wanted a treat box. I found this box on the Love Struck mini Cricut cartridge that was released in 2010. I don't think you can get the cartridge anywhere now. I started out putting the box on my Gypsy mat and cutting it as large as I could so I could get an idea of the size. It cut at 9.35" which made about a 7" box a little too large for what I wanted. So I cut the box at 7.25" which worked much better. I embossed the front of the box with a Sizzix Valentine embossing folder I got at Michael's.  I used Scor-tape on the side and bottom flaps to secure the box to be sure it didn't pop open after I had it filled with candy. I covered the heart cutout with a piece of acetate then filled the box with my covered nuggets. To finish off the box, I tied a bow with a raspberry covered ribbon. The tag was cut from the Sentimental Cricut cartridge at 2 3/4". I used some Raspberry ink to stamp the tag. One side just says Valentine Wishes and the other side says Chocolate is the answer no matter what the question is. I love that stamp so was happy I could use it on this project.

The box and project went together really quickly and was fun to make. I filled it with my Mom's favorite candy so I know she will like it. I have one more day off before I head back to work so hope to get another project or two done tomorrow. Thanks for visiting.

Post-it Note Cover

I saw these little Post-it Note covers on a video that Mary did on her CardzTV Blog, and thought it would make a perfect little just because gift for my mom so I made one this afternoon. The cover is made out of some Bristol paper. I picked up the tablet of paper from Michaels and was able to use a 40% off coupon for so I think I got the pad for around $4. There are 20 9' X 12" sheets of paper in the pad. To make the covers you cut two squares 3 1/2" X 3 1/2" and cover with some patterned paper. I rounded my corners on the Bristol board and the patterned paper and then adhered them together. Using my Bind-it All and punched one set of holes into the cover and added a 1/2" wire. I then applied some Terrifically Tacky Tape to the bottom of my Post-it Note and adhered it to the inside back cover.

To dress up the cover I cut the hand writing with the feathered fountain pen from the Sentimental cartridge. I cut the shadow and all the layers at 2". I applied it to the outside front cover using some foam tape to give some dimension and added a blue pearl to the sleeve. I am pleased how it turned out. They are super easy and quick to make.  I plan to make a bunch more for quick little gifts. Thanks for visiting.

Aged to Perfection

I made this card for the Jitterbuggin Challenge this week. The recipe was to use a Cricut food cut, use plaid and use some black and to follow the sketch. I had a little harder time with this because of the plaid. My card is a 5 1/2 X 5 1/2" card. I started with a white card from a pack I picked up quite awhile ago at Joann's. I cut a light purple mat to cover the white card front. I then cut a light green mat 5" X 5" and then one with my plaid paper 4 1/2" X 4 1/2". I cut the bottle and glass from the new Summer in Paris mini cartridge at 3 1/2" and the grapes are from the Preserves cartridge cut at 3". My black element is of course the bottle base. I cut all the layers for the grapes out of scraps I had here. The sketch had a flower in each corner but flowers didn't seem to go with this so I opted to cut some corners from the Straight From the Nest cartridge. I used the new hide contour feature added to my gypsy with this latest update, to hide the inner cut on these corners so I got a solid cut and not just a frame. I cut these from the same dark purple I cat the base layer of the grapes. The corners were cut at 1". The sketch also had a tag for the sentiment, so I cut a tag using the Sentimental Cartridge. I used my Gypsy to set the width and height I needed to fit my stamp and cut that in white and again used the hide contour feature to hide the small hole in one end of the tag. I then used my Gypsy again to create a shadow of the tag and cut that from dark purple again, the same color as the corners. I used some ink by Memento in Purple Hydrangea to stamp my sentiment and to ink the edges of the white tag. To adhere the tag, I just used some my tape runner. the bottle and glass are adhered with one layer of foam tape and the grapes have two layers of foam tape to make them pop a little higher. I am please how it turned out. Thanks for looking.

Birthday Card

Here is a birthday card. It is a standard A2 card. The patterned paper is from the DCWV Stack 7.  The salmon and blue paper is from Core'dinations gemstone paper. The butterfly is from the Sentimental Cricut Cartridge and was cut at 2 1/2". I added some colored skittles to the lower corner for a little bling and the ribbon is from American Crafts and some I had on hand. Thanks for looking.

Sentimental Birthday Card

I recently got the Cricut Sentimental cartridge. I wasn't too sure about it at first but once I had a chance to look at the handbook I realized this cartridge had a lot of great cuts on it. It has some great tags on the cartridge as well as cards and envelopes. I decided to make a card and envelope using the cartridge. I cut the envelope from page 66 of the handbook using the Fit to Page feature on my Expression. It cut the envelope at 4 1/2". I also cut the liner for the envelope at 4 1/2". I then cut the card from the same page also at 4 1/2". I used some Bazzill paper for the envelope and paper from the Die Cuts With View Sweets paper pack. I then cut the cupcake from the Doodlecharms cartridge at 3 1/2". I cut the cupcake out using the Blackout feature, and the shadow feature. I also cut the layers. I ran the white frosting through my cuttlebug and embossed it with the swirls folder. I then used some liquid applique in white to give the cupcake a frosted look. I applied the liquid applique and then used my heat embossing gun to plump up the "frosting" and sprinkled it with some pink and turquoise glitter. I want to thank the Bug Junkie for this technique. I saw a video on her blog about the liquid applique. To see her video go here to her blog.

Valentine Bouquet

A couple of weeks ago I made a little thank you bouquet for a co-worker. She liked it so well that she asked me to make another one for her to give to her daughter for her birthday so I did. Then my boss asked me to make a Valentine Day themed one for him to give to his wife. Just finished that this morning. I used a container I found at Michael's on clearance for $1.39, filled it with M & M's and cut lots of daisies from Walk in My Garden and Hearts from the new Love Struck mini cartridge. I cut some of the hearts out of red shiny card stock I had on hand. I also cut one of the hearts out of white and flocked with the red Martha Stewart flocking powder. Kathy Orta from the Cricut Message Board shared the technique of using the flocking powder with the hearts. I really liked the look it gave them so was anxious to give it a try. Everything was cut at 2 1/2". I used some Valentine Themed pencils I found at the dollar store along with some Pixie Sticks for the stems. I adhered everything with the Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive. The ribbon is from Michaels and the tag was cut from the Sentimental Cartridge. I cut both the tag on white card stock and the tag shadow in red both at 2 1/2". I stamped the tag with Valentine Wishes in red and used some red embroidery floss to tie the tag to the larger ribbon.

Key to My Heart

Here is the Valentine's Day card I made for my DH. The card is 4 1/2" X 6. The black mat is X 4 1/4" X 5 3/4" and the white mat is 4" X 5 1/2" . I ran the white mat through my cuttlebug using the Victoria Embossing folder. I lightly inked all the edges in red. The key and lock are cut  from the Cricut Sentimental cartridge and are all cut at 2 1/2". I cut the lock and key in black using the shadow feature and the main layer in red and the top layer in white. I heat embossed the top layer using some silver metallic embossing powder. I love the look it gave the key and lock. The sentiment is also from the Sentimental cartridge cut at 1 1/2" and I cut the two layers. The paper is all paper I had in my stash. To add a little bling to the card without making it tor frilly for my husband I went over the sentiment with red stickles. Thanks for looking.