Mickey Mouse Card

The Mickey image is from Mickey and Friends cartridge.  He's standing with his hands behind his back and I wanted him to hold a sign so I cut the hands off the M&F cartridge and adhered the sign to the hands.  Then I pop dotted the sign to add some dimension.

Mickey was cut at 4 3/4" and the hands were cut at 1".  I used Design Studio to flip the hand image and make a left hand.

Zombie Bunny Card

My granddaughter likes zombies.  When I saw the card that Jacque Crow posted on the Old Cricut Community page on Facebook, I knew it was one that she'd like.

I used Doodlecharms for the bunny, Billionaire and Printing 101 for the words.  The bunny eyes are a punched out piece of mica paper and a purple skittle. 

Hundred Hearts Card

This card would make a great Valentine!  I found the sentiment in the January issue of Cardmaker magazine and designed the layout using punches.

Spring Flower Card

Isn't this a cheerful, sunny looking card?  I saw one like it on a Stampin' Up blog and adapted it for using Design Studio and Cricut Cartridges since I don't have their layering punch.  Being able to replicate things that I see online using Design Studio makes me appreciate it and my Expression more every day!

The flowers were cut at 1 3/8" using Elegant Edges; the border was cut at 1" using Cindy Loo.  I resized the border in Design Studio to 11" long so I could get two cards from each cut.

The stems are from an old set of Stampin' Up stamps.

These cards will be left blank inside with no sentiment on the front and sent to Operation Write Home.

Coffee Cup Card

This card was inspired by one seen in the January issue of Cards Magazine.  The paper is from DCWV Latte Stack; I computer printed the sentiment and used some Stampin' Up punches for the circle shapes.  The little mug stamps are part of a set I've had for a long time.

My Version of a Stampin' Up Card

Saw this one in a Stampin' Up catalog I was looking through this evening.  Most of the time I don't have all the stamps and punches they use on their examples, but this time I did!

The stamp set is Language of Friendship.  I used a 2 3/8" scalloped circle punch to mount the bird.  There are Stickles in the centers on the flowers.  I used a Cuttlebug folder for the background and added a little ink for dimension.

Sending You Love Card

New Arrival was used to cut the miniature envelope.  The hand image was found online, colored with Promarkers and cut out by hand.  The tiny heart is a Martha Stewart punch.

This is the first card I made using these elements just as a trial.  I'll be changing up the background paper and adding a sentiment now that I see how it's going to go together.  ****edited to add:  I ran the top envelope flap through the Cuttlebug to add some texture to the envelope.  Love it!****

This envelope could be enlarged to hold a gift card.  I think the card itself would work great as a Valentine or even as an invitation for a party or shower.

A Couple More Vintage Cards

Tim Holtz papers and stamps are my favorites.  I keep looking online and seeing all the wonderful ATC's and vintage layouts and cards and try to make something similar but, it does take the eye of an artist to do one.

 I'm afraid to put too many items on the card front.  The arrangement should look random and overcrowded and I just can't get the look I'm after! 

Here are the  vintage cards that I completed this morning.  Of course the papers, stamps and images are Tim Holtz.

I wanted some images that were almost transparent to let the base paper pattern show through so the photographs were copied onto some paper that resembles vellum.   I just put the original onto my scanner bed and made a color copy.

Crock Pot Chicken Parmesan

This is what's for dinner tonight at our house.

CROCK POT CHICKEN PARMESAN

2 Smart Chicken boneless breasts, cut in half horizontally

1 jar of Bertoli Marinara Sauce

3 cloves minced garlic

1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

Grated fresh Parmesan cheese

With a sharp knife, slice the chicken breasts in half horizontally.  Brown on both sides.  (I use my panini sandwich grill to do this).

In a small bowl combine 1/2 of the jar of Marinara sauce, minced garlic and Italian Seasoning.

Place chicken breasts into Crock Pot and pour sauce over them.

Cook on high for 2-3 hours or until chicken is tender.  Top with grated Parmesan cheese and continue cooking until cheese melts.

Although I enjoy cooking from scratch, the convenience and quality of jarred Marinara sauce makes it a pantry staple in my house. 

And, if you've never tried Smart Chicken and it's available in your area, you should!  The only drawback to the Smart Chicken is that the boneless breast portions are huge!  It's the only brand of chicken I will use.  It's hormone and antibiotic free and tastes better than any other brand available in our area.

Sweet Thing Card

I used Lyrical Letters to cut the cherries and Lovely Floral for the banner.  This card was inspired by one seen on Pinterest.

The cherries are mounted on watercolor paper and the edges torn by hand then pop dotted for dimension.

True Blue Heart Card

This card was designed by Betsy Veldman.  I saw it posted on Pinterest and had to give it a try. 

Billionaire cartridge was used to cut the words and George for the hearts.  The sentiment was printed in Hallmark software.  The tiny heart below the cut out letters was done with a Martha Stewart punch.

Very Versatile Card

The idea for this comes from Splitcoast Stampers.  It's a very versatile card and easy to do.  I can see changing the sentiments and colors for a variety of occasions.

It's an A2 card so you only need a 2" wide strip of paper to do the bars.  That's a great use for scraps that you just can't seem to throw away.

The sentiment is from an old set of SU stamps and the butterfly was punched with an EK Success three step punch.  I added some Pearl Pen dots and rounded the corners to finish.

Butterfly Punch Card

Shirley found a great bargain on scrapbook supplies recently and she let me have the only one of these Martha Stewart butterfly punches that she found!  We agreed that I use a lot more butterflies than she does on making cards.

The daisy border MS punch was another of the bargains she scored that day.

I computer printed the sentiment and then partially punched the edge with the border punch.  The inside has a piece of white paper to write a message.

Stitching across the butterflies added some much needed dimension to this one!  You can barely see in the photos that I used some VersaMark ink and a butterfly stamp to add some shadow images on the background.

Mickey BirthdayCard

I'm on a mission!  To use up some of this ton of paper that's in my craft room!  Otherwise, I won't have any room to buy any more and I just saw the latest Graphic 45 designs.  They're on my "must have" list but, honestly, there's no room in my cubes for any new stuff!

For the next couple of days I'm going to be concentrating on making some simple, quick cards to help deplete my "resource center".  LOL!

Old West Card

 

The boot is from Old West, circles from George and text from Sentimentals.

Minnie Mouse Card

Biscuits and Gravy Card

In this part of the US, if you can tell somebody that you love them like biscuits and gravy, that's a good thing! LOL!  This sign was posted on Pinterest the other day and I knew it would make a great sentiment for a card using the Old West Cartridge.

Graphically Speaking was used to cut the scalloped oval background.  Design Studio was used to size the words to fit onto the oval.

The sentiment was printed using card making software and I added a couple of tiny hearts.  This card could be used as a Valentine, birthday or just a "love you" card.

Butterfly Card

I went from this:  a journal book from the Dollar Bin at Michael's

To this:  using copied images from the notebook to make a card

A package of colored, high quality stickers would be at least $4.00.  My notebook cost only $1 and I can copy it and have as many butterflies as I care to use!

The copied images look better, to me, than stickers since most stickers are glossy finished.  They're very simple to cut out using Cutterbee scissors.

The Dollar Bins also had 3 x 3 and A2 sized note cards with different sized butterflies on them so I picked them up also.  That gives me a variety of sizes as well as types of butterflies.

This is a great solution for me since I tend to make anywhere from 4 to 12 of the same card to donate to charity.   

Another idea is to do a Google image search for something you'd like to use.  You'll be amazed at the free clip art and photographs available online.

Bunny Butt Easter Card

The concept of the bunny's butt has been around for a long time.  I did the same idea using pom poms, felt, Easter grass and miniature clay pots back in the late 1970's!  It was cute then, and it's cute now!

I did use my Expression and the George cartridge to cut the openings in the card front but the rest of the bunny is done with punches.  I inked the edges of the punched shapes and pop dotted the tail for dimension.

The sentiment "Hoppy Easter!" was printed in card making software and punched with a SU punch.  I added a couple of pink Stickles dots and the card was complete.

More Clip Art Bird Cards

Just some variations using the clip art bird.

Clip Art Bird Card

The bird image is free clip art I found on Google.  Adding a sentiment to it using card making software was simple to do.  Then I printed the image onto some vintage paper, added some scalloped punch shapes using an EK Success punch, and a short piece using an EK Success border punch, Liquid Pearl dots and a silk flower to finish.  There's a light Chestnut Brown ink used on the edges.

How many times will you use a stamp?

Since my craft room is getting so filled with supplies, I've begun to ask myself before I buy a new stamp set or tool, "How many times will I use this?" before making a purchase.  I do the same thing when I'm buying new clothes, especially if they're more expensive items or just for a special occasion.

At stamp club this month I saw a really cute set of stamps which included an image of a vintage typewriter and six sentiments that you could stamp onto the sheet of paper sticking out of the typewriter.  Immediately, I decided that I'd order them online.  By the time I got home and online I'd forgotten them!  LOL!

Today, I saw the stamp set again in the catalog and I decided it would be simple to duplicate with clip art. Using Google Image search I found a typewriter that I liked, saved it as a jpg. file and imported the file into my card making software.  It was a simple process to resize it and add the text onto the paper in the typewriter.

Now that I have it saved and set up, I can print it any size I choose and easily change the text too.  Not only did I save myself the cost of the stamp set, I now have a lot more options open to me using the images.

The paper I used on these is from a Paper Studio pack named All Seasons II.  It's one of the stacks my friend, Anita, gave me yesterday.

The top hat with the shamrock was cut using A Child's Year cartridge and Design Studio.

Butterfly Card

I used my newest butterfly stamp, Rhubarb Stalk Memento ink and inchies of the new paper my friend, Anita, gave me yesterday.  As soon as I saw the stack, I told her that the colors were perfect for my Papillon cards! 

More Butterfly Cards

Valentine Bookmark

This is totally not my original idea!  It was seen on Pinterest.

Design Studio and the George cartridge were used to cut the hearts out of the paint chip sample.  Then I just punched a hole and added some of the Valentine ribbon I just received from Ribbons and Bows Oh My.

People have made comments about feeling guilty for taking the paint samples from the store.  I figured out a solution....get your husband to pick them up for you!  LOL!  And, he did a good job without even realizing it!  The top paint color name on the bookmark is "Be My Valentine"!

These would make cute gifts for school age kids on Valentine's Day.

Get Well Card

Jennifer McGuire's blog was the inspiration for this card.  I used Indie Art for the bandaid; it was resized in Design Studio; a Martha Stewart punch for the blue border; Hallmark software to print the card front and ta-da!  I got to use some of the blue butterflies left over from my negative space card that I posted earlier this week!  

The card fron has a 1" wide piece cut off with the bandaid cut outs hanging over the cut edge.  I used the scrap piece for a little trim on the inside of the card. Then I rounded the corners with a Corner Chomper.

Owl Punch Card

This card was shown by a Stampin' Up demo named Krista Oldham.  Chocolate Chip cardstock was used for the background; the bamboo printed paper is some I had on hand; the branches and owls were done with SU punches and the sentiment is from a set of SU stamps.

The holes the owls are peeking out of were done with an 1 1/4" round punch and the sentiment was punched with the Word Window punch.

These little owls are cute but sure have a lot of tiny pieces to assemble.  But, I think the finished product was worth the extra work.  I'm doing a dozen of these cards so I've got owls everywhere on my table top!

Cut Out Scraps

The cut out portion of the Eiffel Tower on French Manor, makes a great set of reindeer antlers or feelers for a butterfly!

Negative Space Butterfly Card

This card was inspired by one seen on Two Peas in a Bucket.  The creator, Julie Campbell said,
" Sometimes I like to make several die cuts of the same image and am left with a sheet of patterned paper full of the remaining negative space.  Instead of throwing this paper out....I'll show you how to create a fun card using these remnants.

If you don't have a die cutter, you could also use this same technique with a hand-held punch."

This card appealed to me and gave me an opportunity to try a new technique but it took a long time to make! Since the butterflies are 1", there were 54 of them on the page so that took over 5 minutes just to cut. 

 I had to go out into the garage and (1) find a sewing machine, (2)  clean the dust off the case, (3) service the machine and test it before I could even start to use it.  That machine's been in the garage over a year, just gathering dust so I had to get it to room temperature before it could be used. Last night out temperatures dropped to the lowest we've had this winter and that poor machine was like a block of ice.  So, the quickest way to warm it up was with a blow dryer! Once it was serviced I had no problems stitching on the paper.  Guess I'll leave the machine handy so I can incorporate stitching on more cards.

I used Design Studio and the Indie Art cartridge to lay out a sheet full of butterflies.  Then mounted one of the butterflies on the scalloped ovals.  There's stitching around the outer edges of the card front and I embellished the oval with a Pearl Pen. 

 

I do like the way it turned out, but I'm reserving this technique until I have a need for another entire sheet of butterflies.  There are now fifty-one, one inch high, blue butterflies on my cutting mat.  Hmmm....now I need to go find a project for these too!

Cuttlebug Valentine

I like the red, white and black combination!  The white portion has small hearts embossed on it and the red has large hearts.  The "vellum" under the center heart was embossed with the same large heart folder.  The heart was embossed with Divine Swirls folder.

I used a Stampin' Up punch for the heart and an EK Success corner punch on the black square.

Cat Card

The sentiment is:  One can never have too many hugs or laugh too often.

The cats were colored with Promarkers.  The button was done with a Martha Stewart punch and the bow is some baker's twine.  The sentiment was printed in Hallmark card software and then I added some white pen stitching

Inspired by a card seen online.

Eiffel Tower Card

Tim Holtz paper
Cloud 9 stamp-butterfly
Computer printed sentiment

Vintage Card II

Angel Biscuits

Angel Biscuits

1 pkg yeast
2 T. warm water
5 cups flour
3 tsp. Baking powder
1 tsp. Baking soda
4 T. sugar
1 tsp. Salt
1 cup shortening
2 cups buttermilk

Dissolve yeast in warm water.  Sift
together dry ingredients.  Cut in
shortening with pastry blender.  Add
yeast and buttermilk to dry mixture.
knead dough until it hold together.
Roll out to ½” thick on floured board.
Cut with biscuit cutter and then fold
in half.  Place in buttered pan. Bake at 400°
15-20 minutes or until brown.  Dough
may be chilled or frozen before baking.
Biscuits may be taken directly from
the freezer and baked.




I make these, bake a few and freeze the rest unbaked.  Then I take out what we need for a meal and bake them from frozen.  That makes them as convenient as a can of "whop-ems"!  LOL!

You can cut the amount of sugar down if you prefer it less sweet.  I also do not fold mine in half.  They're sort of a cross between a yeast roll and biscuit and we enjoy them.

Vintage Card

I used some Graphic 45 and Tim Holtz papers on this.  The stamps are from a set found at Hobby Lobby. 

Steampunk and shabby chic cards intrigue me.  I'm trying to learn to make them myself but it's hard to figure out what to use!  LOL!

Plastic Ribbon Holders

This is what I wrapped the ribbon on.

It's cut 3" x 4"

You can put a piece of tape across the narrow end and write the ribbon color on it.

I put 20 yards of 1/4" gross grain ribbon on these.

Patriotic Themed Card

A very simple card inspired by one seen online.  The card front is kraft paper.  Each of the three panels has a star embossed pattern; I added some twine and a computer generated sentiment.