30 Minute Card - Mickey Mouse

I printed the Mickey Mouse image, then measured the opening I'd need to frame it.  Using Make The Cut, it was super fast to cut the frame.

It was left blank inside so it could be used for whatever occasion a card might be needed.

Chocolate Is The Answer Card

30 Minute Card

The sentiment was printed in Hallmark Card Studio.  The glass and grapes were colored with Promarkers.

Butterflies and Circles Card

Making cards became my hobby about five years ago.  Back then, stickers were pretty popular.  I found some sheets of large butterflies, intended to be used on walls, at the Dollar Tree.  I used all the smaller sized ones pretty quickly and was left with sheets of butterflies that are about 5" across. The sheets of stickers got stored on my shelves and covered up with other supplies.  I ran across them today and decided to use them.

It didn't take long to find some inspiration.  I wanted the butterfly to be the main focus on the card front so I opted to mount them on a punched circle.

The card looked too stark with just the sentiment, butterfly and circle so I added some pen work.  There's no way I could do the stitching around a circle and keep it straight so I used my Staedtler circle template.  I have a couple of these with different sized circles and use them a lot.  They're great to lay over an image to determine what size circle you need, etc.

The cardstock circles are 2 1/2" in diameter so I laid the 2 3/4" template over it to use as a guide for the pen work.

This is the template.  You can find them at Hobby Lobby or office supply stores located with the drafting supplies.

Embossed Hearts Card

Since I printed a dozen of the sentiments used on the embossed flowers card, I had plenty left over to play around with.  This card is along the same line, just with hearts.  I actually prefer this one to the one with the flowers. 

Embossed Flowers Card

The flowers were done with my Pansy and Petite Petal punches and embossed with a Swiss Dots folder.  I cut the petals to separate and give some dimension to the flower.  The butterfly is the Bitty Buterfly punch.

Using Hallmark Card Studio, I matched the ink for the sentiment to the background paper.  This was inspired by a card seen on Pinterest.

The flower petals are really standing up from the card base in the photo.  Once I pack it into the box of cards for Operation Write Home, they'll lay closer to the surface and the card will look as I intended.

Owl Always Love You Card

The owl is from Create A Critter 2 cartridge, the branch is from Hoot 'n Holler cartridge.  I eliminated some of the layers of each design to simplify cutting and did some pen work.

Would you believe it took me over 3 hours to get 8 of these done?  It's been so long since I've dealt with Cricut images with multiple layers that it took a long time to decide which ones to cut and which could be eliminated. 

Daisy Card and Sea Shell Card

The flowers were made with Stampin' Up's Blossom punch.   They're punched then cut with scissors.

The sea shell is a clip art image.  The edges of the elements were distressed and inked.

All Star Kid Card

Mary Phipps Grubbs on her Cardz TV blog posted this card today.  She also shared it on Facebook, where I asked her permission to use the layout for some Operation Write Home Cards.  This is my interpretation of her card.

The high top tennis shoe is from the Paisley cartridge, resized, modified, and cut in Make The Cut software on a Cameo.  The stars are built in images in the software.

Thanks, Mary, for sharing your idea!

Birds Of A Feather Card

This one is quite a composite! The original idea is from a catalog.  Of course I saw it and didn't have any of the supplies used.

I found the feathers in Hallmark Card Studio and used Neobulletin Beveled font to print the sentiment.

Now that Stampin' Up has made their punch shapes available to download, I'm using them much more on my cards.  Importing them into Make The Cut to manipulate is super easy.  Not being limited to a single size is a great advantage.  Plus, you can split the pieces that you want to cut, unlike the punch where you wind up with a total mess on your table with all the little pieces that punch all at once.

The hearts are done with a Martha Stewart punch.  I added some pen stitching with a Stampin' Up marker.

Chalkboard Card

I've been using Hallmark Card Studio software since 2008.  Tonight is the first time that it occurred to me that I could use a black background and use white as my text color to make a "chalkboard".

Using a black square chosen from the shapes menu, I typed my text, changed the color to white, then resized the text and used different fonts for variety.  Once I had the words the way I wanted, I added another black rectangle to provide a white border around the black square.

The heart was punched with a Martha Stewart punch and glued on.

Boom Boom Card

 Stampin' Up designer paper was used for the background.  I added the white scallop with a template and gel pen.

The red heart is a Stampin' Up punch.  Since the punch shapes are available in their software, I cut the white shadow as well as the ampersand with my Cameo.

This card was totally inspired by one seen in a stamp catalog.

The words for the front as well as the inside sentiment were printed using Hallmark Card Studio software.

Honeycomb Card

A couple of days ago i saw this card from Crafty Maria's Stamping World on Pinterest.

Crafty Maria's Card

The honeycomb on hers was done with a die, which I do not own, from Stampin' Up .  I came up with several uses for a honeycomb background in my mind.  When I'm ready to do a card, I don't want to wait 10-12 days on something I need to be ordered and delivered.  So, I spent about 2 1/2 hours playing around in Make The Cut.

My objective was to have a frame that measured 4" x 5 1/4 with a honeycomb design inside.  I managed to get one done after multiple attempts of joining, welding, using the eraser tool, knife tool and a Boolean join (I still have no idea what that even accomplishes!).

When I cut my shape out, the honeycomb openings were much smaller than what I wanted so I sent my file to Okieladybug and asked her if she could figure out how to duplicate it with larger openings.  She spent about 5 minutes and had it all figured out and sent me the file back!

The flowers are from the Petite Petals stamp/punch bundle.  The sentiment is an old Stampin' Up stamp, punched with a scalloped oval punch.

This one is more like the original file I designed.  Okieladybug cleaned up the outside edges on this one too.

I have a couple more cards in my mind using this honeycomb!

Embossed Card

This is the folder I used for today's card.The sentiment was printed on my computer and not stamped.

It took me a couple of tries to place the sentiment so it would print exactly inside the flat area.  I used Hallmark Card Studio to print it on card stock, then trimmed it and embossed.

Then I trimmed a narrow strip off the top and bottom of EK Success' real estate sign punch and placed it on either side of the flat area.

Aqua Oval Card

Using my Cameo and Make The Cut software, I cut a template, 5 1/4 x 4" with an oval cut out in the center. The template was placed onto a piece of white cardstock the same size and I sponged inside the oval cut out with Bermuda Bay ink. 

The flowers are part of the Petite Petals stamp set.  It's not visible in the photo, but, I used a metallic gel pen to add some sparkle to the flower centers and outlined the oval.

Layered Hello Card

Inspiration from a card by Amy Kolling seen on Pinterest.  I used  PT Banana Split font and cut multiples of the words to layer, added some pen work and the card was done!

Eyeglasses Birthday Card

Another card with eyeglasses.  This one was seen on Pinterest.

The base was embossed with a Cuttlebug folder.

Totally C.A.S.E.D. Card

This was seen online.  Since it's such a super simple layout, I knew it would be fast to make multiples for OWH and I C.A.S.E.D. it!

Google provided the eye glass frame clip art.  It was traced and cut in Make The Cut.  The hearts are a built in shape in that software. 

The sentiment was printed with Hallmark Card Studio and I added some pen stitching around the outer edge.  The faux screws on the glasses were made with a white gel pen.

Trellis Card

While at this month's stamp club, I saw this paper in the clearance rack.  I'm always on the lookout for realistic background paper for cards.  This one said "trellis" to me as soon as I saw it and I bought all the sheets in the rack.

The banner is a clip art image.  I used Hallmark Card Studio to add the sentiment, cut it out by hand and colored it with Promarkers. It's pop dotted for dimension.

The vine is three pieces of Stampin' Up's little leaves sizzlet die cuts; the flowers are done with Petite Petals stamp and punch set.

Green and Yellow Card

The background is embossed.  The butterflies are clip art images.

I punched the heart border with a Martha Stewart punch and added some iridescent Stickle dots on the dandelions.

 You can see the Stickles a little better in this photo.

Secret Garden Stamps Card

Several different Cuttlebug embossing folders were used for the background pieces.  The flowers were colored with Promarkers.  The leaves are a digital image of the Stampin' Up sizzlet, Little Leaves, cut on my Cameo.

I realized after the photo was taken, that I'd failed to color the center on the large flower!

Daffodil Card

I used some Tim Holtz papers I've had on hand for a long time.   I've been looking through back issues of card making magazines looking for inspiration and probably spent at least 30 minutes looking for some coordinating papers to make my interpretation of a card I saw. 

Believe me, this looks nothing like the card I wanted to make.  I like it, but it's sure different than the idea I had in my mind!

Stamp Club Challenge Card

I hope the page of Graphic 45 punch outs is a part of the papers we got last night at stamp club for a card making challenge.  Graphic 45 is one of my favorite lines of paper but finding a use for punch outs is always a challenge for me!

The card base is a pale pink.  I removed the oval from a frame on the Elegant Edges cartridge, then set the scalloped edge piece inside a rectangle, joined the shapes and used that to cut the green frame.

Hearts With Flowers Card

Inspired by a card seen on a Stampin' Up demo blog.  I used Bo Bunny Stained Texture stamp, cut the hearts with my Cameo, punched the little flowers with the Boho Blossom punch and added brads.

Stamp Club Challenge Card

At stamp club last night, we were offered two sheets of cardstock and some tags along with a challenge to make some cards.  We're supposed to bring them back next month and see what ideas everyone comes up with.

Because I do all my cards with Operation Write Home in mind, when I saw the sheet of Happy Campers cardstock with the roads, I immediately thought of someone going home. 

I printed the sentiment onto the tag that I trimmed to fit onto an A2 card and punched the hearts with a Martha Stewart punch.

Absence ard

These were started at home yesterday and completed at stamp club last night.  I stamped the square sentiment stamp and then layered a butterfly over the corner and colored it with Promarkers.

The sentiment was printed on the red card stock with my computer.  I added a border punched with a Martha Stewart punch and tied on a ribbon.