New Beginnings-Babies die cut challenge

It's time to Cut It Up again, and in keeping with the approaching new year our challenge is "New Beginnings-Babies!"

This was a timely challenge for me, since I am attending a baby shower on January 3rd.  I created some postcard-style thank you notes and a mini book:

This challenge is sponsored by Digital Delights by Louby Loo:

 and the prize:

Supplies:

Onesie cards:

papers:  BasicGrey "Oh Baby Boy"; navy linen card stock by XPEDX; white card stock (back of onesie; not shown)

die cut:  Cricut Cartridge "Wall Decor and More" p.52 cut @ 4.5"

sentiment:  My Pink Stamper "Around the Corner"

ink:  Impress Indigo Blue

Baby Mini book:

mini book:  DaisyD's

die cuts:  3 Birds on Parade p.71 (mail bird); Campin' Critters p.39 (moon); Create A Critter (giraffe); Designer's Calendar (B)

sentiments:  My Pink Stamper: Handle With Care; Sweet Baby

ribbon:  CTMH "Twilight"

I look forward to seeing your baby projects at Cut It Up...make sure to include a die cut...the challenge runs from December 26th-January 7th.

Happy Friday!

Red Alert: Easy gift card holder

I needed a couple of gift card holders for Christmas gifts, and I pulled out my Doodlebug Santa Express papers.  The red polka dot paper caught my eye (I love red and I love polka dots!)

Double-sided papers make creating a holder like this super easy.  Thanks to Shopping Our Stash for inspiring me with their "Red Alert" challenge.  I hope this counts as using red as the primary color in my project.

Happy Thursday!  I hope you get to do something fun amidst the hustle and bustle of the season :)

Buttons and Die Cut Challenge

It's time to Cut It Up again, this fortnight for holiday cards with buttons  (and don't forget a die cut; punches are ineligible to count as a die cut.)  My die was fun to play with and I have the coordinationg sentiments to fill in the spaces.  The holly branches are a punch, not a die.  I used mini buttons for my berries.

I hope you will join in the fun for our challenge:

Enter to win!

This challenge is sponsored by

As Cute as a Button; there is a prize for a $20 coupon code!

Supplies:

die and coordinating sentiment stamps:  PTI

paper:  My Mind'e Eye "Be Merry" 6x6; red linen and navy linen card stock (XPEDX); white card stock SU whisper white

corner ticket punch:  Stampin' Up!

holly branch punch:  Martha Stewart

mini buttons:  Michael's

ink:  Impress Indigo Blue

I made eighteen of these cards, using up a variety of papers in my MME 6x6 pad; all my thank you notes are now made before Christmas for once!  Get out your buttons and dies and join in the holiday fun at Cut It Up.  See you there!

Happy Friday!

Life of the Party - SRM Stickers!

These sweet cupcakes and "Happy Birthday!" sentiment come from just one sheet of SRM Birthday Stickers by the Dozen.  And I've only used six here.  Believe me, I would have used all twelve if I had more of that yummy green/kraft polka dot paper.

I am so happy to be able to craft again these past two weeks!  I was too ill to do much of anything since early September.  I crafted like crazy last summer and I had set my auto-posts through early November, but then my auto-posts ran out.  Bummer.

My goal earlier this year was to work on my daughters' scrapbook.  Last summer I finally finished scrapbooking 2005 and I am nearly finished with 2006!  I would love to finish up 2006 this month, but I have a few gifts yet to make for Christmas presents.  My card stash is also very low, so I am adding another crafty goal:  use it up.

I have a lot of stash.  A lot.  I save pretty papers; e.g. these two BasicGrey "Life of the Party" 12x12 sheets I purchased  few years ago.  The back side of the green polka dot is a polka dot chevron paper that I just had to have.  I have never been able to make it work on a card, but I loved it.  Two days ago I desperately needed two birthday cards.  The cute cupcake sticker looked best with the green polka dot side of the BasicGrey chevron paper.  I was going to just make what I needed, but then told myself I need to just use it up!  The one sheet of 12x12 (green polka dot/chevron) was enough to make six cards, so I made six.

I plan to make USE IT UP my personal goal for 2015.  I am not sure of the details of this goal yet, and I am open to suggestions.  I would like to add "how long can I make it without buying new product"; purchasing adhesive or a new Cricut blade does not count nor any other "necessity" to keep on crafting.  Anyone care to join me in my Use It Up self-challenge?

Happy Thursday!

Autumn/Thanksgiving Teacher Treats

I hope you all enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving with your friends and family.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because I associate it with being with my maternal grandparents.  I still have my grandma, who is now 92 and as pretty as ever.

I made these Cricut cut tags for teacher gifts last week.  I delivered them all the Monday before Thanksgiving; it is technically still autumn even if the temperatures are saying it is time for winter fun.  (Cricut "Create a Critter 2" p.63 cut at 6".  Actual size is 3.5" tall.)

(This is the back of the tag.  I stamped with a Neat and Tangled sentiment from the "Just For You" set; on sale this weekend at $6 off!)

Here are all of the treats, ready to go:

 Supplies:  Doodlebug Designs "Friendly Forest" papers, Doodle twine, and Doodlebug Sprinkles.

I filled each with "acorns":  Nutter Butter minis, Hershey kisses, and Nestle mini chocolate chips held together with edible adhesive:

I hope you had a happy November!

Non-Traditional Holiday card CHALLENGE

It's time to Cut It Up again and this fortnight we challenge you to create a non-traditional holiday card:

No RED, No GREEN, No RECTANGLES, nor SQUARES!

This challenge is sponsored by

As Cute as a Button; there is a prize for a $20 coupon code!

Please include a die cut somewhere on your card; my die cut is my scalloped circle card base (Cricut "Wild Card" cartridge cut @ 5.5") and the purple base (Cricut "Plantin Schoolbook" cut @ 4.5").

Supplies:
card stock:  DCWV
designer papers:  Doodlebug Design "Frosty Friends"
silver doily and sentiment:  SRM Stickers "Happy Holidays"
large flower:  Bazzill Basics
glazed brad:  My Mind's Eye "All Is Bright"

I hope you will join in the fun at Cut It Up for our non-traditional card challenge.  See you there!

Happy Friday!

SRM Stickers sentiments/ Kraft Happy

I am extremely low on my card stash, 

so I decided to return to my roots:

making cards from paper scraps and

a little stamping too.

These first three cards are each made from

scraps in my Echo Park "For the Record" collection:

 (Below) I stamped a crazy background on 

the red linen card stock.

Too busy?

 This last card is simply stamped with

two Denami Design leaf stamps

using Impress Bottle Green and Chartreuse inks

with the last of my blue and green flowers from

an old Artful Delight kit.  I sure miss those kits!

I still need to make a few more thank you cards, then write out and send, so I will continue to peruse my old stash to create some flat cards for easy mailing.  All of the cards used sticker sentiments by SRM Stickers "Thinking of You" sheet.

Happy Wednesday!

Friends Are Life's Nicest Perks

I need several thank you cards, so I perused my SRM Stickers stash and found several of this terrific "Thank You!"  I was able to create four cards like this one in just one hour.  Quick and easy; I like that.  I also had a chance to practice shading with my Copic markers, which have been neglected for a few years.

Supplies:
SRM Stickers:  Stickers By The Dozen/Thank You
tea/coffee cups stamp:  Great Impressions
paper:  Fancy Pants "Time for Spring"
Copic markers:  Y38, YR07; R20, R24

Happy Saturday!

Tags challenge at Cut It Up!

It's time to Cut It Up again...this time our challenge is for you to use tags (more than one!) on your card, layout, or project.  My names tags (above, bottom right) and the date tag (below) are die cut using the tag die by PTI.

These are my twin girls in April 2006.  I am continuing to scrapbook away and catch up.  Here is the layout:

What will you create with tags?  Enter at Cut It Up and you could win $15 worth of Pretty Cute Stamps:

Link your tags project at Cut It Up by November 12th.

Happy Friday!

Color Challenge at Cut It Up

It's time to Cut It Up again and this time we have a color challenge:

PURPLE, ORANGE, LIME GREEN, and BLACK

There are TWO prizes up for grabs:

An Avocado Arts stamp set and a $20 coupon code for As Cute as a Button.  Remember to use a die cut somewhere on your card.  

I cut the window and flowers from Cricut "Creative Cards."  My inspiration came from a Halloween card I spied on Pinterest of a window and the same BasicGrey Eerie "view."  I thought, I have paper like that...I didn't realize it was exactly the same.  My orange and purple papers are Recollections Ravenhead Manor and the spider web is more BasicGrey Eerie paper.  The felt ghost was in my Halloween stash. 

Happy Friday!

The SRM "October Challenge"

 It's time to break out your SRM stickers for another challenge.  Once again The SRM Challenge blog has four challenges to choose from...which one sparks your creativity?  The color challenge, sketch challenge, Halloween theme challenge, or the inspiration challenge?

This card is made almost entirely of SRM stickers!  The large candy corn circular sticker is mounted on white card stock, then again on a circle of orange card stock, then once more on a yellow scalloped circle of card stock.  The large candy corn is from the "Stickers By the Dozen" Halloween sheet.  The "Happy Halloween" black circular sentiment sticker and all of the border stickers that I angled below are from "Stickers by the Dozen, Take 2" Halloween sticker sheet.  I also added charcoal twine at the top and a mini safety pin for interest and dimension.

There are lots of SRM goodies to be won, so please join in the fun and link up your SRM October project at The SRM Challenge.

Happy Friday!

Anything-But-A-Card Halloween challenge

I love the $1 spot at Target.  The black spiral was perfect for transforming this small Transformers spiral notebook into a perpetual calendar for my daughter, Kathryn.  Kathryn's favorite holiday is Halloween, so I thought it would be fun to create a perpetual calendar for her.

I unrolled the spiral to remove the paper, then covered both sides of the cover...bye bye Optimus Prime! I used my crop-a-dile to re-punch the holes for the spiral; that was the most time-consuming part.  After decorating with die cuts and a brad, I die cut my numbers and cut the number tags.  I punched holes for the number tags and then re-fed the spiral.  Voila!

Please join us at Cut It Up and link your die cut Halloween project or layout (anything but a card!)  You could win a $10 gift card to Kadoodle Bug Designs.

I even decorated the back with a large die cut:

Supplies:  My Mind's Eye "Blackbird" papers, dies, chipboard, and brad; glossy accents; Cricut "Plantin SchoolBook" numbers; Xyron; crop-a-dile

Happy Friday!

The SRM "September" Challenge

 There is still time to play along in our September challenge at The SRM Challenge.  I have two dear friends born in September and they both love candy corn!  I purchased two packages at our local grocery store, then covered up the grocery store label with pretty paper and an SRM sentiment sticker, then added ribbon.

Play along in any one, two, three, or all four of our challenges this month for a chance to win a guest designer spot or this terrific prize package:

Here is a close-up of my lid:

(Supplies:  SRM "Happy Birthday"sentiment; Echo Park "Victoria Gardens" paper; various Bazzill card stock; Stickles for the "flame"; ribbon; Cricut "Birthday Bash" cartridge)

Happy Friday!

3D Breast Cancer Awareness challenge at Cut It Up

In order to promote 3D mammography, our challenge this week at Cut It Up is to create a card for breast cancer awareness that has a 3D element.  This owl was printed and die cut using a Silhouette Cameo.

I fussy cut a few layers and popped up on foam tape to create a 3D owl.  I also used glossy accents on his irises for a 3D effect.  Other supplies include:  Echo Park paper "Head Over Heels"; SU card stock; Tim Holtz "worn lipstick" distress ink.

Our sponsor for this challenge is As Cute as a Button.  You could win a $20 coupon code if you win!

Now it's your turn to create a 3D project for breast cancer awareness; you could make a side-step card, an easel card, a card with a pop-up element...use your creativity!  Link your project at Cut It Up challenges.  See you there!

Happy Friday!

Pretty in Pink Layout

Working my way through 2006 and my really old stash.  For this LO I used QuicKutz "Tangerine" font for the initial, Lelly Panacci alpha stickers, and Making Memories "Cosmopolitan" paper collection.  I can't believe how adorable my girls were...I can say that, right?  Here is the right-hand page:

Here is the layout side-by-side:

Fun stuff...these sweet faces are keeping me motivated to catch up.  And using up some really old stash is gratifying too!

Happy Wednesday!

Country Colors challenge at Cut It Up!

 Reminder post:  at Cut It Up we have a color scheme challenge!  We are looking for cards, layouts, or projects using the colors of a country you have visited or would like to visit.  I would love to visit every state in the United States!

If you are a blog follower, you may know that I am diligently working on getting my scrapbook of my girls caught up.  Here is July 2006!

 Here are both pages together:

Enter your color scheme project...remember to also use a die cut somewhere on your creation...and you could win a $10 gift card to Kadoodle Bug Designs:

I am anxious to see your take on this challenge.  Link up at Cut It Up.  You have until September 17th to play along.  I hope you win!

Happy Friday!