Halloween Crafts

Today I worked on special treats for Fisher's teachers. They are three wonderful ladies and I enjoy making them little favors to let them know I appreciate what they do. I found these plastic orange containers at Walmart for 4 for $1. I decorated them using black vinyl from Vinyl Expressions. After decorating each side I filled it with candy corn, miniature Hershey bars, and carmels. I also created popcorn wrappers to go around a bag of microwaveable popcorn.

I found clear plastic bags used for storing homemade breads at the grocery store and they have been perfect for packaging these and other goodies I have made. I found the ribbon on sale at AC Moore which I used on the bag and on the popcorn wrapper tag.

These are the four sides to the container. I used the Make the Cut program and images from the gallery to design each side. I cut all of it with my Cricut.

These are a few images of the popcorn wrapper. Each wrapper starts as a 6"x 12" sheet of orange cardstock. I wrapped it around and glued it together. Fisher signed the back of each wrapper and then we decorated the front. I used a tag punch from Creative Memories for the black tag and stapled a piece of the ribbon to the top. Next I cut the yellow tag using a die with my Cuttlebug. The pumpkin is cut from one of my Cricut carts and I used a stamp from Peachy Keen stamps for the face.

Thanks for taking a look and have a Happy Halloween!

Happy Birthday!!

Wow - it has been a long time since I last posted. I thought having finished graduate school I would have more free time. Actually, it turns out I go to bed at a more decent hour (hee hee). I haven't been completely away from crafting. I have gone to a couple of crops with my awesome cousin Kerri and I have already started Christmas cards. (Yeah, I know, I will still be making them the night before.)

For this post I have created a birthday card for a young girl whose costume party we are going to tonight. I used a new program called Make the Cut. I had never used a computer program with my Cricut before. I have always relied on my carts or my Gypsy. This program is really neat and easy to use. I visited the MTC gallery and downloaded the Happy Birthday cut created by user 648. My Cricut did the rest. I embellished with a little ribbon, pattern paper, a border punch, and some paper flowers. Voila - a funky birthday card.

Hope you enjoy and thanks for looking.

Beach Bottles

Heading to the beach with my husband, son, mom, niece and nephew, I thought we could use some personalized drink bottles. I bought plain bottles at Walmart for 99 cents. I cut names and images from vinyl using a variety of carts. I used a fish and a sea lion on Fisher's, a butterfly and heart on Sierra's, a flower and dragonfly on Nana's, a skateboard and water splashes on Hunter's, a sea horse and jellyfish on mine, and a bomb with HARDCORE DAD on Shea's.

I think they turned out great. Thanks for looking.

"DINO"mite

My 4 year old son has the sweetest crush on a senior in high school - Miss Mary. Mary plays basketball for the high school and recently hurt her knee. Fisher wanted to make a card for her. He chose the dinosaur from the Create a Critter cartridge. He chose the colors and the pattern paper. I did the assembly. Inside the card he wanted the following joke -

What do you call a dinosaur that explodes?

DINOmite!

A Great Weekend to Make Cards

This weekend I was inspired to make cards and I have had fun. I thought I would share all of them with you.

Sweet Thoughts of You

I went to visit my Grandmother on Friday. She loves pink and flowers so I made her this card. The flower wreath is cut and embossed using a cuttlebug die that I recently picked up at Big Lots. (Thanks ladies for the heads up on the great sale.) I used my chalks from Stampin'Up to color the roses and greenery. I used an EK Success punch for the bottom border. The papers and ribbon are from my scraps. (I have been trying to use them more often.) Grandma was tickled "pink" with the card.

#1 DAD

Robyn, aka My Pink Stamper, has challenged us to create a Father's Day card. I am usually making this the night before so first a thanks for getting me moving. I made a card for my DH; however, I must confess it may be hard to keep this card from him until Father's Day. It is soooo cute. I used my new Gyspy (WOW!!! I love this thing.) Anyway, I have always liked the shaped cards I saw others do but I didn't have DS so I couldn't weld. So this is my first attempt at welding and making a shaped card. Actually it is the first thing I have made using my Gypsy.

My DH has this huge red Dodge truck so I chose a truck from Everday Paper Dolls. I copied, flipped, and welded two trucks together. I also made it a little taller. The lettering is from Old West. My son started driving it around my craft desk and making truck noises. Now just to keep it a secret until then. (I don't think my DH checks out my blog to often but in case he does - Hope you like it :) )

Heigh Ho...

I am so proud of my big brother. He went back to school and has worked hard the past two years to complete his degree. He graduated a few weeks ago and has found a new job. To celebrate I made him this card inspired by the song from Snow White - Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho... (come on now, you know you want to sing it.)
The lettering is again from Old West and the guy is from Everyday Paper Dolls.

Celebrate Today

I was going through some of my papers and found this beautiful green and black paper from DCWV Girls Night Out pack. No Cricut on this one. I did use my cuttlebug to emboss the black strip and die cut the tag. I also did a Z fold on the card. I like the sentiment and have a good friend that I think would enjoy this card. The butterfly is something I had in my embellishment caddy. (I am awful at remembering where I get everything.) The Celebrate TODAY is a My Pink Stamper stamp.

{HUGS}

Okay, this is the last one. I used another die and embossing set for my cuttlebug for the wooden frame. I then stamped the adorable monkey. I added a little bling to her flower. The paper is from DCWV. Again the stamp is from My Pink Stamper and the ribbon is from my scraps.

Thank you for visiting. I get so much from the blogs and websites I follow that I hope others enjoy mine as well. Have a great week.

Thinking Out of the Box

Back from the wedding and finished the third challenge from MPS. The challenge was to think outside of the box and do something you do not normally do for a project. I decided to complete a scrapbook page. The challenge for me was to use only one picture. I usually load as many pictures as I can on a single page. However, for this picture of Fisher and his Dad I did not want to distract from the picture itself. I used a flourish border from Home Decor and another one of the EK Success punches for the side border. I also found a clear sticker (again something I don't use often) that had the best sentiment:

Between the

innocence of boyhood

and the

dignity of manhood,

we find a

delightful creature

of a boy.

Thanks for looking.

Thinking of You

Second project completed. For this project I decided to play with the MPS challenge #2. Everything I used were scraps. Fisher helped me on this one. The butterfly is from Indie Art cartridge. I am liking this cart more and more everytime I use it. The EK border punch is a new purchase for me from ebay. I really like to use these punches. I hope my friend Connie likes this card. Please keep her in your prayers. Thanks!

Wedding Card

My first project is complete. I fussed with the background paper. The colors of the wedding are purple and orange. I just couldn't find paper with those two colors that I really liked so I went with white and an accent of purple. The children are cut from A Child's Year at 3 3/4". I cut the veil out to make the little girl look more like a bride. The stamp is from the MPS set Simply Sweet Occasions.

Now off to my next project!

National Scrapbooking Day

I can't believe I haven't posted anything since March 2nd. I knew it had been a while but two months? Where has all the time gone? It has been a busy two months and I have made several craft projects. I made goodie bags for my fellow teachers at work for St. Patrick's Day. I had some really pretty cards for Easter. I have also completed a couple of scrapbook pages.

I would love to craft every day but I am just not able. I'll be finished with graduate school in July so maybe that will free up some time. Anyway.... I think I am rambling.

So here are my projects for today...

• Wedding card for a wedding at 3 today (I think I will do this first :). Saw a great idea on MPS that she did for her sister's wedding. I don't have the same cart but I do have ACY which may work. We will see.)
• You Are in My Thoughts card for a lady in our church family who is again battling cancer.
• Fishing Scrapbook for the Relay for Life fishing package
• A scrapbook page or two.

I also plan on following MPS and my other favorite blogs throughout the day. Oh what a busy day planned so I better get to it. Will post pics soon!!

Challenge Cards

I have taken on two challenges with this one card. First is the sketch 47 by Kazan over at 2S4Y . The other is a color challenge #56 from The Pink Elephant. I must also give credit to Maria aka Momo for her video which inspired this peek-a-boo card. Please visit her blog for this and other great videos.

Now for the details on my card. I started with a 4 1/4" x 11" piece of green cardstock (basically a standard 8 1/2" x 11" cut in half portrait style). Next I scored the 11" at 2 3/4" from both the left and the right hand side.

The pattern paper is from DCWV Animal Crackers. I cut two pieces at 2 1/2" x 4" to layer on the front flaps and I cut another piece 5" x 4" to layer on the inside. I used the Doddlecharms cartridge to cut the leaf and shadow at 3 1/4".

The monkey and tree stamps are from Autumn Leaves Mindy's Zoo. The saying is from Inkadinkadoo Just Saying collection. Finally I added the gorgeous ribbon and the flower bauble from my stash of odds and ends.

The front of the card

Opening the card

A closer view at the adorable monkey

The inside of the card

Hope you enjoy the card as much as I enjoyed making it. Now.... who should I send it to? Have a blessed day!

Springy Cards

I am ready for SPRING. We have missed six days of school for snow just this semester. We have two Saturdays we have to go to school. We have lost most of our Spring Break and there is more snow in the forecast.

In a desire to encourage spring to arrive sooner I designed some cards with that theme in mind.

I embossed the bottom half of the yellow layer with the cuttlebug folder Swiss Dots. The little chick I found last year at AC Moore in the $1 bin after Easter last year. Isn't it cute?

I was inspired for this card from one of the many books I have. I used strips of paper to create the basket weave then cut out the center square. I love how the bunny peeks out the window. The pink pearls were a last minute addition that I think accents the window well.

I thought this card would make a good Mother's Day card. I experimented with some paper folding and I really like how it turned out. Hope you enjoyed and have a blessed day.

More Valentine Cards

I have really enjoyed the time to make cards again. There for about 4 months I was swamped with work, school, family, and holidays that I didn't touch my craft area. The past month I have found so much needed time to indulge. As the title of my blog implies - crafting is a retreat for me.

I have made more Valentine cards. I have even addressed and plan to mail tomorrow (especially if I want a Saturday delivery.) I love these cards. In November I went with the ladies from my church (and my DH who graciously provides chauffeur services) to Pigeon Forge, TN. There is a huge Scrapbooking Store and a clearance store. I found this fabulous DCWV stack called All Dressed Up. The papers are marvelous and full of glitter. Those papers were my inspiration for these cards. I hope you enjoy.

I used my punches on this card from the circle, heart, and scalloped edge.
The hearts are cut from the Doodlecharms cart. Don't you just love the pom-pom ribbon I picked up for $1 at AC Moore?
Have you ever made a cut that didn't work for your project but you held on to it for some reason? This boy and girl cut is from A Child's Year and it was too big for the project I was working on. I put it away in a box I have for 'spare' cuts. It was perfect for this card. I used some glitter pens to color the flowers and a pink bow in the little girl's hair. I wrapped black ribbon on the bottom and tied a pink ribbon for accent.

This one is a lot like the first. I really like the simple phrases to add to cards. I find many of them in the $1 bin at Michael's and AC Moore. The clear stamps have certainly made stamping more affordable. (If you ask my DH he may say it made it possible to buy more stuff.)

Well, Happy Valentine's Day everyone.

Love Bird

Today I took on the challenge from 2S4Y: Kazan's Sketch 45.

I made a Valentine card for my Grandmother. I cut the bird from the Indie Art cart and pattern paper from the Bloom and Grow pack from My Mind's Eye. I used some stickles to make the bird shine. I embossed a vellum circle with my cuttlebug and wrapped some feathery type yarn around the outside of the card. I stamped the LOVE phrase on a leaf cut from a cuttlebug die.

Thanks for looking and have a blessed day.

Preschool Valentine Cards

After Fisher and I finished making the Valentine treat bags he took off to play with toys. This gave me some time to work on making the valentine's for his preschool class. I used the Doodlecharms cart and found all the little animals too cute to pass up. These were super simple and I really like how cute they turned out to be.

I created 4-6 of each style. After looking at all of them together, I wish I had made the ladybug with some pattern paper like I did the others. The dragonfly was a little difficult. I sometimes have problems cutting thin patterned paper. I can't seem to get the settings just right. All in all though I am pleased with the results. I really like the faces on the bug and dragonfly. They are from my new PeachyKeen stamps I got for Christmas. Here are close ups of each one.

They have already called a Teacher Workday for tomorrow. Normally I would go in, but I can't get my car out yet. I plan on a few projects so hopefully I will post again soon.

Please leave a comment. I love to read your feedback.

Valentine Treat Bags

Another snowstorm has hit. As I was leaving work on Friday the snow was already coming down. Many were stopping at the grocery store for milk and bread. What did I do? I stopped at the craft store and purchased some adhesive. I knew I was out and did not want to spend days in the house without a way to do some papercrafting. I cleaned house yesterday so I could play today.

Today I planned on helping Fisher make treat bags for his teachers and the ladies in the main office. We cut a tag from the A Child's Year cartridge at 1 1/4". Fisher found one of the Valentine stamps he liked. He stamped it six times and colored them all with colored pencils. I cut them out for him and we assembled the bags - chocolate, Tootsie Pop, Starburst, and Skittles.

When they were completely assembled Fisher wrote his name on the back. He did the F and i on his own and only a little help with the other letters.

We had a blast and he did a great job. I know the ladies at the school will enjoy these.

A Doggie card

As we were going through some of my stamps, Fisher found a stamp set with this dog, phrase, and accessories. He just had to make a card for Papa. Fisher is a determined young boy and knows exactly what he wants. He chose all of the colors, including the ribbon. He even decided where to stamp the images. He will hardly take any advice. I did suggest and tie the little bow but that is about it. I am glad my son likes to make cards with me. It is something we can do together that is just our time. I think he did a fabulous job and I know his Papa is going to love it!

A Simple Card for a Sweet Girl

After watching the newest video on mypinkstamper.com I was inspired to use Robyn's simple design to make a birthday card for a little girl. Fisher watched the video with me and wanted to help me make the card. We used A Child's Year cartridge to cut out the silhouette of a girl with an ice cream cone at 4". We then repeated the cut on pattern paper to make her dress. We trimmed the legs, arm , and head to get just the dress portion.

After piecing the girl together we used the cuttlebug to emboss the layer with spots and dots. Following Robyn's design we left a portion of the top without embossing. We then added the green dotted ribbon and stamped the phrase "You're so sweet".

After putting the whole thing together we felt it needed a little sparkle. We put a few dots of glitter glue on her hair and made a small heart pocket. This card is just perfect for the little princess whose birthday is coming up soon.

Thanks for visiting and have a blessed day!!

A Gift for Mama

The Pink Stamper issued a challenge to make something for someone. My mama loves to receive the cards I make so I thought I would make her a set. I chose to use the Snow Friends cartridge. I added something special to each one. One holds a heart (compliments of a Creative Memories punch) that says "LOVE", another has cute ear muffs with flowers on the shirt, and the last holds a sign saying "LET IT SNOW." (Which truth be known we do not need any more snow. My driveway still has an inch of ice from the snowstorm two weeks ago.) I enjoyed personalizing each one. I also used glitter glue on each one to make them sparkle.

For the background I embossed using my Cuttlebug with the snowflake folder. I also tore some white card stock to create a textured snowbank for each of them stand on. I made two of each type giving her a six card set.

I wanted to package the card set for a nice presentation. I found a clear envelope that was just the right size. I made a topper with a stamp that says "Snowmen melt your heart." I added a few snowflakes on the sides and sealed it all up.

I went into this without much of a plan. I just let the cards develop with each stage. I do hope my mama likes it and that I can surprise her before she reads this (HA HA).

Well, it is back to work tomorrow. They have already called a two-hour delay because it is going to be extremely cold and the buildings are going to need some time to get warm after being vacant for the past two weeks. I'll still have to get up a lot earlier than I have been. Hope I can continue to create a share with everyone. Thanks for taking the time to look and please leave a comment.