Cricut Magazine Card

Another one inspired by the new Cricut magazine.  I used two different cartridges for my cuts and printed the sentiment in Hallmark card making software.

Tiny heart - George
Scalloped border - George, using DS and I punched it with my Crop-o-dile
Cup - Graphically Speaking, I trimmed the rounded edge off the top rim of the cup

Rounded the corners with my Corner Chomper.

Added some doodledots with SU marker and Signo pen.

Super simple, but I like it!

Cards made from new Cricut Magazine

Today I purchased a digital copy of the new Cricut magazine to give it a trial.  The magazine has a lot of things in it that I'm not particularly into but I did find several things I wanted to make.

The first two cards are based on photos from the magazine. 

Heart- cut from Slumber Party at 4"
Love- cut with Cursive 101--I used DS's grouping feature to resize the letters to fit
           the letters are coated with Glossy Accents
Paper is Little Yellow Bicycle

I added a stick on gem, some white doodledots with a Signo pen and stamped some little flowers with SU white ink pad.

On this one I used SU brown cardstock, computer generated the background paper.  I cut out the words and overlayed them on the background paper.  The ice cream cone is from Indie Art, added some Prima flowers with Stickles in the center.  I used a SU scallop edge punch on the side of the card and added some doodledots with my Signo pen.

Thanks again to Karen Y. for the Prima flowers!

This last one is just something I put together.  I saw one similar in a back issue of Cards Magazine.  I printed the cloud sentiment in my Hallmark cardmaking software, cut it out and outlined it with Crystal Stickles.

****EDITED TO ADD***

I decided the little "hello Sunshine" card was just a little too plain and added a Prima flower with a Stickles center to the upper right corner of the cloud.  Now it looks finished.

Valentine's #5

Based on one I saw in Cards magazine.  Computer printed the sentiment. Solid heart cut with George, open heart cut with Lyrical Letters, SU border punch on polka dotted piece, rounded the corners with my Corner Chomper.  All papers from Little Yellow Bicycle.  The crystal looks blue in the photo but is actually more of an iridescent one.

Lyrical letters for the hearts.  I used Capadia's video to group, resize and weld the hearts together.  I'm so glad she posted those instructions! Added some pearls that were purchased at the Arlington convention, and trimmed the edges with some shaped scissors.

SU punch for the hearts, Signo pen for doodledots, crystal in the center.

Valentines #4

More Cards for Soldiers Valentines.

This paper is from Little Yellow Bicycle.  When I picked it up it seemed like the perfect paper to use for a Valentine project but when I started trying to come up with some other papers to go with it I drew a blank.  The grey looking strips of paper are actually a metallic grey, it's the back side of the heart print paper.

I think this one is my favorite out of the batch I've made today.  It's really simple and the black, white, red color combinination is one of my favorites.  I used a SU heart punch and then ran them through my Cuttlebug.

 I made two different color combinations of the coffee cup cards.  The cup is from the Savory
cartridge, steam is from Graphically Speaking.

It's more of the Little Yellow Bicycle paper.

Inside sentiment for the coffee cup cards.

A total cheater print card.  I liked the design but it was definitely made with a 12 x 12 page in mind.  I made myself a template with an opening that measures 5 1/2 x 4 1/4"  that I lay over these large designs to determine whether or not they'll work on a card front.  I just used a couple of SU punches and a tiny stamp to add the sentiment.

Christmas Eve 2010

Well, the packages have been opened and all the debris cleared away for another Christmas.  My son, Melissa, and the kids were here and we had a nice time while the kids opened gifts.

My gift from them this year?  I'm going to be a grandma again in July!

It wasn't a total shock because of a comment Melissa had made several weeks ago.  We were sort of laughing about her having three children and how she really didn't plan on having any more! She accused me of jinxing them! lol!

It occurred to me that since Edie, my oldest grandaughter, is now 17 and a junior in high school that in 5 more years when she should be graduating from college, the new addition to the familiy will just be starting kindergarten!

I'm hoping for a boy so we'd have two boys and two girls but will be happy as long as the baby is healthy.

The summer of 2011 is going to be a fun one!  I'll have another baby to spoil!

Valentine Cards #3

It's a good thing that Cards magazine has online subscriptions.  Having computer access to back issues means I have a lot of examples to look at for inspiration and I don't have to find someplace in my craft room to store all those issues.

Here it is just two days before Christmas and I'm working on Valentine's cards in order to get them shipped out by the first week in January for Cards for Soldiers!

For the past two weeks I've been fighting a horrible cold and my mind just isn't in a creative mode, for sure! These two cards are based on examples I found in the February issues of Cards magazine.

I used Accent Essentials to cut the scalloped rectangle.  Used a SU background stamp to sit the punched heart on.  Added some little leaves I stamped and colored and a Prima flower.  Stickles are in the center of the flower.  The sentiment stamp is one I've had for a long time.  Added some organza ribbon and voila' it was done.  There are tiny black doodledots around the outside of the scalloped rectangle.

Made this one with some more of the Little Yellow Bicycle card that was donated to me at the June scrapbook convention in Dallas.

The color of the card base is like a black cherry.  I used a MS border punch for the white, Tags, Bags, Boxes and More for the tag, a Studio G stamp for the sentiment and the tree.  The ribbon is the absolute last of my SU Bravo Burgandy.  I used every single inch of it!

Christmas is coming!

The weekend was spent getting my baking and other treats done for my goodie sack gifts.

My list includes Bishop's Bread, banana bread, poppyseed cake, cheese logs, seasoned crackers, potato soup mix, spicy Mexican Dip mix as well as some of the cinnamon-vanilla milk mix and pretzel dip I read about on the Cricut message board.

My sacks are decorated using some digital Santa faces that I colored with markers and some computer printed sentiments and homemade gift tags.  They're all lined up in a row with the non-perishable items inside and I'll add the other items on Friday before we go to my sister's house for the evening.

The bags are pretty simple this year.  I went all out doing them last year and we had a blizzard come in Christmas Eve and no one was able to make it to my sister's to exchange gifts.  It was several days before we could even drive the half-mile from our house to the highway.  Fred managed to walk to the neighbor's houses and give them the goodies I'd made so they wouldn't go to waste.  With our unpredicatable Oklahoma weather, this year I'm hedging my bets and keeping things a little more simple.

This year I tried a new dip recipe and I believe it's going to become our new favorite.  The cumin really gives this a good flavor and it's not too hot.

Hot & Spicy Mexican Dip Mix

1 T. minced onion
1 T. chili powder
1 1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp. dried cilantro
1 1/2 tsp. dried parsley
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. salt

Combine all ingredients.  Mix with 1 1/2 cups sour cream and chill for several hours before serving.

Valentine Card #2

Another Cards for Soldiers Valentine.

Last June, Okieladybug, her friend Karen, and I went to Arlington, TX to a scrapbook convention.  There was a booth there selling Little Yellow Bicycle paper by the box.  The sheets were stacked in wire racks and you could fill your box with any of the sheets you wanted and pay a single price for the entire box.

As the racks would sell out, the people that had the booth would refill the racks with different patterns and types of paper, including some paper stacks.

I found a great stack called Love Letters and knew it would work great for CFS Valentines and I put as much of it in my box as I could find.  Then I asked the lady in the booth if there was any chance she had any more of it in her backstock.  She did find more of it, although it was loose sheets rather than packs.

During my conversation with her, I told her the paper would be used for CFS and gave her a brief explanation about what we do for our active military.  She thanked me, told me that she thought that was a really great project and then she gave me a large stack of paper at no charge.  I wish I had gotten her contact information so I could have sent her a thank you for her generosity.

This is the first card I've made with the Little Yellow Bicycle paper.  It's not traditional Valentine red, it's more of a deep rose color.  The card is based on one from an old issue of Cards magazine.

Cartridges used:

Accent Essentials for black and white background
Plantin Schoolbook for the letters- cut at 1 1/8"
Jasmine for the photo corners
George for the heart

Boho Blossoms punch for the little flower
SU scallop border punch for the black strips

Brocade embossing folder used on little flower

I added some black Stickles to the center of the flower and used a white Signo pen for the doodledots.  In the photo it looks like the letters have been embossed with the Swiss Dot folder instead of having black doodledots.

My first blog award!

Angie gave me my first blog award!  Thank you so much! I really appreciate your comment about visiting my blog!

Be sure to check our her creations at http://www.angiespaperpassion.blogspot.com/

My annual cold

Once a year I get a cold.  The rest of the time I'm pretty much healthy as a horse.  But my annual cold knocks me to my knees. This time it's compounded with a sinus infection so bad that I can't stand to even lay my head back in my chair, my entire skull is tender!

I've been in bed for the past two days with tissues, Zicam and aspirins handy.  The misery usually lasts 3-4 days and then I'm down to just hacking and coughing for 2-3 days more.

So, nothing to post until I get over this! 

Pepto Bismol or Pixie Pink?

My first Valentine card to use for Cards for Soldiers. 

I used SU Pixie Pink cardstock, which I found to be an atrociously bright color when it arrived.

Ran the top portion through a CB folder.  Used Swiss Dot CB folder on the white section and a Broacade folder on the white heart.



The pinks don't show up well in the photo.  They actually do coordinate, but appear to clash in the photo.

Clear Stamp Case Note Pad Holders

Angie Juda, a Stampin' Up demonstrator, has these on her blog.  http://www.chicnscratch.typepad.com/

Making note pads is one of my favorite things to do with paper so I had to whip out some of these to take to our card making session tomorrow.

She has specific instructions in her video.  You can make one out of a single sheet of double sided paper and it's super quick to do.  It took some time to find a pen that would fit inside the case.  Okie and I were in Staples and she noticed a pack of mini-gel pens that fit perfectly across the top of the note pad.  There are 12 in the package and were about $6.00.

Of the ones I did today, the bright colored ones are my favorites.  I haven't decided yet what I'll put on the outside of the ones without names on them.

The first one, with Donna's name on it, I made following Angie's instructions.  After the first one, I decided to adhere the two pieces together before I inserted them into the stamp case sleeve.  I also put "Kay" inside the sleeve rather than on the outer plastic.  Lyrical Letters was used for the names.

Inside and embellished note pad

Inside and embellished note pad

SUPPLIES YOU NEED:

Stampin' Up clear stamp case 

1 sheet 12 x 12 double sided paper

note pad- 5 x 6.75"    ***they come in 5 x 8" size at Staples and they will cut them to 6.75" for you***

paper scraps for embellishements

Be sure to watch Angie's video tutorial for all the instructions.

My own design!

I seldom create a card myself.  It's soooo much easier to find one online and copy it or at least use it for inspiration and do my own interpretation.

Well, this one is my own design!  lol!  It took me approximately three hours to sketch it, lay it out in Design Studio, get all the cuts done and four cards assembled.

For some reason, I had a problem cutting the word "Sweetie" once I had welded it inside a rectangle.  My original concept was to use the negative cut of that word and layer it onto a piece of green paper to make it look like the tags.  The first one cut just fine and the other three cut the letter "S" and the openings inside the "e's" and that's all. 

It's been a while since I used four cartridges to make a single card layout, too. 

Cursive 101  -  Sweetie
Block Party - Pie
George - tag
Plantin Schoolbook - hi

The sizes of the images were all adjusted to fit onto an A2 card using Design Studio.  I saved the cut file to share if anyone wants it.  The file will do four cards.

The paper is SU, flowers are Prima, inked the edges with Chestnut Roan and added some gold Stickles inside the flowers.

I made the one with the large green flower first and decided to add the darker shade of pink strip across the right side to break up the background.

This is the first cut I've made from Block Party.  It was one of the cartridges that I got on BF for $20 and it's got a ton of shapes on it that I can hardly wait to play with.

So, tell me what you think!

Had a question about how I cut the letters on this.

To do the "hi"  I used George.  Cut the tag set at 1.44 and .808 and just welded the letters from Plantin Schoolbook set at .816 and .256 to fit inside the tag.

To do the "Sweetie" I used Cursive 101, nudged and welded the letters together to cut as on single cut.   The lower case letters wound up being .836 high to fit onto the card face.

Then I layed the brown cutout onto a 1" wide strip of green and just trimmed it by hand for the shadow.  I wound up leaving the hole in the top of the tag that's there for a string, because I'd copied and pasted the image so I couldn't use the hide countour feature in Design Studio to get rid of it.

Want to win some Promarkers?

Enfys is doing a drawing on her blog , Goin' Buggy, http://going-buggy.blogspot.com/  for ten Promarkers!

All you have to do is leave a comment on her posts she's doing this week, how simple is that?

After using Okie's markers at stamp club, I had to order myself a starter set.  These are absolutely the best markers I've ever used.  Even I can shade images with them and make them look good!  LOL!

I'm going to post every day and keep my fingers crossed that I'll win.  Choosing which ten colors I want will be a problem though because they have 148!  LOL!

Holiday Goodies

I've had some requests for my potato soup mix recipe.  My son and grandkids love this stuff!

Potato Soup Mix

2 1/2 cups instant potato flakes
1 1/4 cups non-dairy coffee creamer
1 package McCormick Chicken Gravy Mix
2 tsp. McCormick All Purpose Seasoning **
2 tsp. dried minced onion
2 tsp. chicken bouillon granules
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

Mix well and store in sealed container.  Use 1/2 cup dry soup mix to 1 cup boiling water for soup.

**this is the only seasoning mix I know to use in this, it's in the spice section of the grocery store.  I believe it's called "salt free" seasoning mix now

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Honey Mustard Pretzel Dip

14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk (Eagle Brand)
8 oz. jar yellow mustard
2 T. grated horseradish **
2 T. Worcestershire sauce

Mix well.  Store in refrigerator.  Makes 3 cups.

**grated horseradish can be found in the refrigerator section of the grocery store in a small jar.

The pretzel dip recipe was shared last year on the old Cricut MB.  It's positively addictive!

Birthday Card

This turned out so cute!  I used a SU stamp for the sentiment.  The cord going between the little flower brads is dental floss!  It's flat and comes out of the dispenser sort of curled up which gives it a little texture.

The rectangle with the brads is pop dotted.  I decided not to use pop dots under the sentiment since it will be going through the mail.

Inside sentiment is just "Happy Birthday".  All the paper SU.

Every time I try a new idea I learn something.  This time I learned that it's much easier if you punch all four holes in the corners for your brads, insert three of them.  Then thread the floss up from the back side of the card and wrap it around the three brads and back down through the empty hole.  Insert your final brad, flip it over and tie the floss into a knot on the back side.

I tried threading it through the holes first and then putting the brads in and had to wrestle the cardstock all over to keep the floss in place.

Tried out using copper colored brads and added some little candles done with a MS punch on this one.

JOY Banner

Very simple to make.  I used Accent Essentials for the scalloped rectangle, cut at 4.439 x 5".

I chose these dimensions so that the finished banner will fit into one of the SU tins I bought on clearance to store until next Christmas.  You could decorate the tin and it would make a nice gift.  It's an idea I saw on a SU demo's blog.

 I cut one scalloped rectangle out of green cardstock using the hide contour feature so the center frame won't cut and one out of striped paper.  The paper needed to be mounted onto cardstock since it was such light weight.

I layered the striped paper over the green and then cut the shape again out of red cardstock.  This time I welded  letters cut at 3 1/2" using my Jasmine cartridge.  I adhered the red cutout over the striped paper and added some doodledots. ***there's that word again! It always makes me laugh!***

Attaching the paper onto the ribbon became my next challenge.  I tried using some really good glue but it wound up bleeding through on the ribbon.  I decided to try red line tape.  Since it's just a simple holiday decoration I hope it will hold together for the next couple of weeks!  LOL!

I added a "D" ring at the top of the ribbon for a hanger and then just tacked the bow on the bottom by hand.

Cute, simple and quick!

This was all whipped together using supplies I had on hand last night. 

I think it would hang better if I'd punched holes in the corners of each square and threaded the ribbon through on both sides.  With a single ribbon down the center, any breeze will cause it to spiral so it will have to be hung flat against the wall.  Oh, well!  Another learning experience!  LOL!

Hot Pink and Orange

Talk about stepping outside my comfort zone!  I struggle each time I make a card trying to come up with an original idea or color combination and generally wind up using a concept that someone else came up with.

Today I challenged myself to pick something and make a card based on one element.  I chose the hot pink baby buttons.  Then had to search through my papers on hand to find something that was sort of bright and cheery to go with them.

Thank goodness the papers had four colors in them to help me out! LOL!  I would never have thought about putting hot pink, orange, brown and light pink together.  The cake image and the sentiment are from SU Bitty Birthday stamp set and the Pumpkin Pie ribbon came from RABOM.  I used my SU punches for the circles and the word window.  I used a Gelly Roll glitter pen on the cake and candles.

After it was finished, I decided the cake frosting should be pink to pick that color out more so I'll probably make a couple more doing that and see if I like it better.

From My Kitchen

I used From My Kitchen to cut the mit, Cuttlebugged it and did a shadow with brown paper.  The cuff was just cut by hand.  Added a Prima flower and a white button, computer generated the sentiment.

More Prima Flower Cards

Cuttlebug used on background. MS leaf punch, Prima flowers, stickles in the centers sort of makes them resemble a pansy. 

 Paper is K & Company Life's Journey
SU sentiment
George cartridge used for ovals, cut at 3" and at 3 3/4"

Paper is GCD Studios Ella Blue

Prima Flowers

Queen and Company pearls in center



Prima Flower Card

This card was designed by Lori Teeler.  When I saw it I knew it would be one that would travel well so it would be a good one to include in my CFS cards.

Thanks to Karen Y. I now have an abundant supply of the Prima flowers.  This is the first card I made using the ones she sent to me.

I used my Cuttlebug for the white background, SU scallop punch for the border strip and the circles are 1 1/2" and 1 3/4", computer generated the sentiment, layered two Primas and added some stickles in the center of the top flower.

Christmas came early at my house!

Okay, so Santa Claus didn't show up early with my 1967 Shelby Mustang, BUT I got something just as nice! LOL!

A few days ago I recieved a message from Karen Y. from Hawaii asking if I'd be interested in some Prima flowers that she wanted to get rid of.  She is in the process of cleaning out her scrapping area and realized that she didn't want them any longer.

Of course I told her I'd love to have them.  While in HL, with my coupon in my hand, I drool over the Primas but never buy them!

I was expecting to receive a baggie with a few flowers inside. Instead, there was a big box full of individual bags of flowers!  They're all really great colors and they are small enough and flat enough for my Cards for Soldiers!

Tucked inside the box was this beautiful card from Karen.  Love it!  Now I have another wonderful card to add to my handmade card collection!  (You guys do know that I save them and use them for inspiration, don't you?)

Thanks a million, Karen!  I will definitely be posting some photos of the cards I make with these!

Lyrical Letters Christmas Card

Even though Lyrical Letters has been out for a while, it's a new cartridge to me.  I needed a better font cartridge than the ones I owned so I picked it up on Ebay.  There's a lot more on there than just the fonts too!

The Celtic Knot Christmas tree on Lyrical Letters was just too cute not to make "one more" Christmas card!

The image is on page 67 in the handbook.  Using Design Studio I modified the image to 3.868 x 4.926 so it would fit better onto an A2 sized card.

I had the pressure set on high on my E and didn't use multi-cut on this one.  The paper is some glossy paper from Okieladybug.  The tiny bow is a premade bow from HL and I added some red stickles for ornaments.
The black background paper was run through the Cuttlebug.

I think it's kind of elegant looking!  Very quick to make multiples of too!

Stamp Club Cards

I sure didn't get much done at Stamp Club last night! LOL!  Three of the ladies surprised us all with a decorated cello bag full of chocolates as a Christmas gift and then we played a game and everyone got a prize.

My package contained a 1.5" Xyron create-a-sticker and a refill for it!  I've wanted to get one of these several times and always talk myself out of it!  Now, when I'm doing my cards and have those tiny pieces to adhere I can use the Xyron.

The game we played was fun.  There was a wrapped package handed to each of us and we were told to start passing them to the person next to us on our right side.  As Sue read a story to us, each time she said the word "left" or "right" we changed the direction.  At the end of the story, you kept whatever package you had in your hand.

It cause some laughs when Okie wound up with two packages at the end of the game!  She wasn't being greedy,  it was that we'd had two switches back to back and the person passing to her got a little confused.  I think she wound up tossing one of her packages across to Carol, who was empty handed.

When Okie opened her package, it was fate.  Inside were sheets of LADYBUG stickers!  LOL!

I had pre-cut some card elements and stamped some images at home yesterday afternoon to take to club since I tend to get distracted and not accomplish anything at all.  Here's one of the five cards I got completed.

The reason I did this particular card is that I have a lot of this awful bright yellow paper to use up.  I'd seen this color combination online and decided it was time to finally do something with this paper.  The background was run through the Cuttlebug, I used George to cut the squares and the stamp is from a retired SU set called Steppin' Style.  The image was colored with Promarkers.  I cut a slit in the card fold and threaded a ribbon through it for the bow.  The inside of the card will be left blank since it's going to Cards For Soldiers.

December 3, 1969

Forty-one years ago today, just about this time (11:30 a.m.) I saw my son for the very first time.  It's difficult for me to believe I have a son that old!  He was a beautiful baby, weighing in at 7lb. 9 1/2 oz. and was 22 1/2" long. 

At the time, you stayed in the hospital for three days after delivery.  On the third day, my doctor came by, checked the baby and me and told me that he was going to dismiss us. That's when it hit me that I'd have to take care of that baby!  I told Dr. Parrish that I didn't think I should take him home yet.  Dr. P wanted to know why.  I told him he was too little and he just laughed and assured me that a baby over seven pounds was a good size and ready to be dismissed.

I asked Dr. P. what I was supposed to DO with him when I got him home and started to cry.  Dr. P. had probably been in practice over 20 years at the time.  He patted my shoulder and told me "When he cries, check and see if he needs to be changed or if he's hungry, feed him.  The rest of the time, leave him alone, he'll be just fine."

My mother insisted that I come to her house for a few days so she could be sure that I wouldn't starve him to death or drop him on his head. So, when Fred came to the hospital that afternoon he didn't take us to our apartment, we went to my mom's.

Those days all babies were bathed at least once a day and sometimes twice, unlike now when the pediatricians tell new mothers not to bathe their babies every day.  The next morning I got up, fed our son, and decided to bathe him for the first time.

Mama's bathroom was pretty small and had no countertop in it so I closed the lid on the commode and put a bath towel on it to lay the baby on while I undressed him.  I was so scared that I'd hurt him!  When I tried to take off his undershirt and it seemed like it was too small for him, I just knew I was going to break or dislocate one of his arms taking it off!  I yelled at my husband to come and help me. 

My husband is one of seven children and being the second oldest, he knew more about babies than I did, for sure!  He picked up our son, turned him over across his forearm, grabbed the tail of the shirt and just pulled it off over his head.  Then HE proceeded to give our son his first bath while I watched.

Two days later, over my mom's protests, we went to our own home.  And, I guess Dr. Parrish's instructions worked out okay.  By the time my son was three weeks old, he slept all night.  He ate like a little pig and thrived.  

Now, here he is already in his 40's with a 17 year old daughter of his own, so I guess we didn't do too bad! LOL!

First Day of Thankfulness

Today I'm most thankful for everything that I've posted over the past thirty days.  I'm thankful that I and DH have reasonably good health, a nice home, plenty of good food, and that we live in the United States with all its opportunities and safety.

December 1, 1993

Seventeen years ago today I was sitting in St. Anthony hospital waiting for my first grandchild to be born.
The ultrasound that was done hadn't revealed the sex of the baby so both of us "grandmas to be" were on pins and needles to see if we had a boy or a girl.

Around 2:00 pm we were presented to a beautiful red headed girl that was named Edie.

How fast the past seventeen years has gone by!  She's a junior in high school now and it seems like just yesterday we were watching her play in dirt piles and begging Grandpa to take "me fidshing".

Happy Seventeenth Birthday, Edie!  And lots of love from Grandma and Grandpa!   We're so very proud of you!

Two Days of Thankfulness

Today I'm most grateful for my and my husband's health; that I can move around freely without pain or assistance and for my beautiful grandaughter who turns 17 today.  It seems like just yesterday that she was born!

Inexpensive Paper Storage

A while back I posted on the Cricut MB how I used some recycled Priority Mail boxes to store my 12 x 12 paper.

Here are a couple of photos of one of the boxes.  The measurements I used are shown on the Post-it notes.

They work just as well as the Cropper Hoppers and they're free!  LOL!

Before Okie bought her Cropper Hoppers she had a lot of paper stored this way.  After I was able to buy my Jetmax cubes this was the cheapest thing I could come up with to hold mine.  I have since purchased several of the Cropper Hoppers but still have eight of these in my cubes.

Three Days of Thankfulness

Today I'm grateful that I slept well last night, made it to exercise class on time and feel much more energized having done the class; that we're having beautiful fall weather and that DH made it home from his hunting trip just fine.

Cards Magazine-December 2010

This butterfly is from a sheet of wall stickers that I found at the Dollar Tree!  I got several sheets of them because I thought the butterflies were so pretty.  When I saw the card in this month's magazine I dragged them out and came up with this.

The butterfly was put onto cardstock and then cut out and pop dotted.

The ledger paper came from a DCWV Farmer's Market stack and I computer printed the sentiment. The background paper is Imaginisce and the card front is SU mellow moss.  The colors in the stripes are actually kind of muted; they show up much brighter in the photo than in person.

The edges were rounded using my new Crop-O-Dile Corner Chomper and inked with Chestnut Roan ink.

The second one is done with some of the double sided cardstock that Okie bought online and split with me.  It's a really nice weight and cuts like butter!

Circle Ornament Card

December issue of Cards magazine has a card like this on page 31.

I measured 1/2" from each edge of the card and drew the lines to within 1/4" of the edge.

Cut 1 1/4" circles from patterned paper and cardstock and adhered them together.  Added some pre-tied bows,  pop-dotted the circles on the card front and then drew the lines for the "strings".

Computer printed the sentiment.

Four Days of Thankfulness

Today I'm most thankful for my good friends.  It's a blessing to look back and remember all the fun times we've shared.

Monkey Birthday Card

I used a Dustin Pike digital image for the monkey, colored it with my Promarkers, Accent Essentials for the scalloped square.  Added some glitter stars on the corners of the digital image and printed the inside sentiment on my computer.

Five Days of Thankfulness

Today I'm thankful that the good Lord has been generous with my family.  We are blessed to live in the United States in a nice home, with plenty of good food to eat.  Our health is okay.  We have the freedom to come and go as we please.

Martha Stewart Christmas Cards

These were done on some Martha Stewart thank you notes that I found on clearance.  I liked the scalloped edge and the weight of the paper and thought they'd look great if I embellished the fronts.

I used the MS branch punch, colored some of the wedding flowers from Michael's, the flower center is one of the pearls from my trip to Arlington,  computer printed the sentiment and just added a bow. 

Six Days of Thankfulness

Today I'm most thankful for having been shown how to manage money by my parents.  It allowed me and my husband to retire early and have sufficient resources to live comfortably.

Recipe Album

Mary at CardzTV has a couple of videos up this week with full instructions on how to make these.  I'm debating turning one of them into a receipt folder to keep handy in my kitchen to tuck my cash register receipts inside when I come in from shopping.  That way if I need a receipt to return an item it will be easy to find.

The pockets are cut large enough to hold standard sized recipe cards.  Each pocket should hold 2-3 cards.

This one is done with Paper Studio Sugar and Spice stack from Hobby Lobby.



This one is done with DCWV Berry Street Farmer's Market stack that came out several months ago. This is the one that I'll probably turn into my receipt holder.



I used light weight cardboard and covered it with cardstock.

Cover is cut at 4 1/4" x 7"

Pocket for cover is cut at 2" x 7"

Inside pages were cut with From My Kitchen cartridge at 4".

Pockets for pages were cut at 2" x 6 3/4"

I used my Bind-it-all to assemble it.  I will be adding Cricut cut embellishments to each page too.

For each album I cut 2 fronts, 2 front pockets, 3 inside pages, 6 pockets for the pages.  I was able to make both albums using 3 sheets of 8 1/2" x 11" cardboard.

It took less than two hours to completely cut and assemble these so they're quick gifts.  It will take me much longer to decide what embellishments to use to finish them up!