My First Explosion Box..............

So sorry I have not been around for the last couple of weeks, but with family visiting, re-arranging my craft room and going out of town craft just did not fit in.

I made this explosion box for my Great Granddaughter's 1st birthday.  I think it came out very cute.  I had seen one that someone did around Christmas time and have wanted to try it since, so I thought it would be perfect for this special event.  Even a little prize of a light up happy birthday in the center.  Lots of sparkle on this one.  Here is an overview of the whole card, so hard to take a picture of this.

The inner pink layer is Core'dinations card stock that I Cuttlebugged with several different folders and sanded it off, then punched the corners with a MS punch.  I used Cricut Craft Room to weld the letters together for the "Emma" using Lyrical Letters cartridge.  The "1" is also from that same cartridge.  They are cut out of purple glitter paper and mounted on white glitter paper ovals I cut using my Spellbinders.  Here is a closer look at the Emma.

I used the Create a Critter cartridge to cut out the monkey again all from glitter paper.  I added googly eyes, a party hat and one of those party blower thingies.

The center "Happy Birthday" is a K & Company stick that has a button that you press and lights flash on it.  Tried to get a picture but hard to capture the flashing lights.

When you fold up all the sides you place a lid on it to hold it together, so here is a picture with the lid next to the card.

I will tie if closed with a white sparkly ribbon/bow.  On the MS Birthday cake cartridge there was a cut for baby's first birthday so I cut it out and glued it to the top of the lid with a couple cupcake stickers.  I got to thinking since it doesn't lay flat it might be kind of hard to keep as a memento.  Oops.

Thanks for stopping in to take a peek, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think of my explosion box card.

Challenges for this box
The Cuttlebug Spot   Box    ends - 2/6
Crimbo Crackers   For a child   ends  - 2/1

Congratulations are in order!

I was so busy during the holidays that I did not get a chance to post this card.  My son-in-law came home on December 22nd for good after spending 24 years in the Air Force.  What an accomplishment!
I wanted to give him something very special to remember his service and I found this place on-line, The Good Wood Store that makes plaques.  I was quite taken aback when I saw it as my Dad has a plaque very very similar from when he was in the Air Force during World War II, so this was that special something I knew I had to order for my SIL.  I removed his last name from the picture for his privacy.

So now I had to move to making him that special retirement card.  I was looking through the book for Stand and Salute an I found a similar image to what is in the center of the plaque.  I used CCR to weld the image into an open circle.

I printed some "wood" paper using my Imagine and the Snapshot Nature cartridge and cut it out from that.  I added some Crackle Accents to the eagle.

The striped background paper I printed using the Buccaneer cartridge and added a strip of blue that I Cuttlebugged with the star folder and sanded off.  The stamped sentiment at the top is a Gina K Design stamp and says "Congratulations are in order".  I can't recall what cartridge I used for the USAF letters, maybe Plantin Schoolbook?
I did the inside a little differently, while I was looking for a sentiment I found this one that was perfect............................

But the occasion was so immense that I thought I should include a serious one also.  So I out my thinking cap on (sometimes it works LOL) and I made the side almost like a joy fold card and used the star in the corner to keep it closed.
Here is the other verse, I hope you can read it.

He was very very happy with his plaque and did notice that the card matched.  Sometimes guys don't notice stuff like this, ha ha, but he did.
I also wanted to share with you what the Air Force gave him for his retirement.

Thanks for stopping in and hope you enjoyed my blog while you were here.

Mirror - Mirror on the wall

Here is a card I made for my brother-in-law whose birthday was January 6th.  He is a very funny person and we joke around a lot.  Later in the post I will explain the "joke".   I wanted to make the front of the card very serious looking so we would be thrown off track.

The frame was cut from Elegant edges and I backed it with silver mirror paper.   The saying was computer generated.  So hard to take a picture of that mirror with my camera showing up in it.  LOL
Then when you open it this is what you see................................

Well now to tell a bit of the story.  One time while we were in Las Vegas, my BIL did a bit too much partying one night and when he got up in the middle of the night to go the bathroom he said he looked in the mirror and there was "an ugly man" in there.   Even though he just turned 71 he still has a lot of hair, (some grays ones so I colored them in) so it was quite a mess when he looked in the mirror.  The image I colored using my Copics, it is an image from Digis with Attitude and thought it fit the theme of this card perfectly, with him proudly holding up his brew.

I even added a piece of rope for his belt.
The grill I cut from glossy black paper and silver for the grate using the From my Kitchen cartridge.  The steak was also cut using From my Kitchen and covered with Glossy Accents.
I printed the grass paper using my Imagine and the Snapshot Nature cartridge, then cut it out using the grass cut from Plantin Schoolbook.

I added cloud paper to the background.  The happy birthday is cut from glitter black paper using MS Birthday Cake Art cartridge.

I want to say thanks for stopping by and I would love to hear what you have to say about this card.  It was so much fun to make and we all got a big laugh out of it.

Challenges for this card
Make it Monday   Always anything goes   ends  1/16

Home of the Free......

......because of the brave.  I made this card to follow a sketch and color challenge on the Cricut message board.  All parts came together great, a while ago I bought a K&Company red, white & blue color stack and that was the challenge colors.  Then last week I got my new stamps from Pink by Design and I had ordered the "Our Troops" set so this all came to mind, with the paper and the stamps.

I am so pleased with how it turned out.  The background (stripes & stars) is all one piece of paper and fit perfectly into my theme and sketch.
The banner across the top if from the Stand & Salute cartridge welded together in Cricut Craft Room.  The stars were also cut from Stand & Salute.  I cut them from white cardstock then colored them with Tim Holtz Distressed inks and heat embossed them with clear embossing powder a few times each, it is almost like covering them with Glossy Accents.  The colors Faded Jeans and Fired Red Brick matched the paper perfectly.
Here is a close up of the stars, I stacked 3 on top of each other.

I also finished the inside very simply.

The reason that I ordered this set up stamps in because I have a Grandson in the Navy and another Grandson going in next month.  Not that I did not support the military before it just brings it a lot close to my heart.
Thanks so much for stopping by and I would love to hear what you have to say about my card.

Challenges for this card
CES Challenges   Anything goes   ends - 1/13
Crazy 4 Challenges  Something New  ends - 1/13
Fund with Shapes  No Black Line   ends - 1/12
My Mums Crafts Something New  ends - 1/14
Make it Monday  Always anything goes  ends - 1/15

Outdoorsy Birthday

Hello everyone, well my younger brother's birthday is coming up so I made him this card.  I had bought this Outdoor Paper stack a while back to use to start making more male cards to build up my stash.  It has some really great papers in it and all kinds of other goodies, tags, embellishments, words, letters etc.

The background papers and the "log" are from the Outdoor paper stack, oh also the center tag where the happy birthday is stamped and heat embossed.
The diamond shapes I made from the Elegant Edges Cricut cartridge using Cricut Craft Room to extend it out.  The original shape was a square but using one of the little design handles I was able to pull out the shape and turn it to make it into a diamond shape.  First time I used this design handle and I really liked it and think it will come in handy designing.  The diamonds were cut from plain white cardstock, then sprayed with Walnut Inks, they are really cool and add a kind of antique texture to the paper.  I only have a 4 color pack and really need to get more colors.  :).

The pine cone I cut from the camp Out cartridge and covered it with Crackle Accents.

The inside I added another of the diamond shapes and then stamped the sentiment.  One of my New Years resolutions is to finish the inside of cards, now this one I had to finish because I will be sending it out to my brother, but hope my resolutions holds up otherwise LOL
Thanks for stopping by, love to read your comments.

Heat it Up!.............

.....................that is the challenge this week at Crafty Creations.  Heat embossing, use heat embossing on your project and enter it in the challenge this week, our sponsor is Pattie's Creations.  You could win some of her digital images.
PATTIES CREATIONS:

This is a great challenge at least for me as I heat emboss 99% of the time I stamp.  But to make it a bit more challenging I wanted to use one of the digital images from Pattie's Creations so I printed it using my home printer on heavy vellum and immediately sprinkled it with black sparkle embossing powder as soon as it came out of the printer, then heat embossed it.  This works with paper that does not absorb the ink right away, but you have to be fast with the embossing powder, best to have it ready with the lid off and sprinkle it on.
Here is my card.

I place the printed butterfly vellum over a pretty piece of flowered paper from the K&Company "Best of Brenda Walton" stack, punched the corners and accented it with a piece of lilac ribbon.  The "with sympathy" was stamped and heat embossed.
Here is a close up of the butterfly, maybe you can see the heat embossing here.

It is always nice to have sympathy cards on hand when the need arises and I thought the butterfly image was perfect for a sympathy card.

The inside was done very simply to write a hand written note or stamp a sentiment later.
So glad you stopped by, be sure and leave me a comment so that I know you were here.  And would love to see you join in the fun at Crafty Creations Challenge this week.