Rope Frame Male Card

Sometimes it is difficult to make male cards, so this week the Ad Color Challenge on the Cricut message board was to use rust, white and chocolate.  The perfect combination for a guy card.  I used a sketch from RAQ Card challenge for the design.  The rope frame is cut from Old West at about 2 1/2 inches and then inked the "rope" cuts, inking adds so much texture or realism to cuts.  Then using my Gypsy I added the dragonfly from Camp Out and placed it in the frame so I knew what size I wanted to cut it to fill the frame.  It ended up being cut at 2 inches.  I added some dots using a brown colored glitter pen he is also mounted with pop dots.  The plaid paper was from an outdoor pack of paper that I had.  Added the Happy Birthday cut from Stamping with a chocolate shadow.  I placed a piece of brown jute and kind of tied a loop knot.  I wanted to keep it male so I stayed away from a bow.  Hope you enjoy this card.

Prickly Pear Cactus Flower

My second favorite thing to do besides making cards is taking pictures, especially of flowers.  I made this card using a picture of a Prickly Pear Cactus flower.  I took this picture out the window of our truck coming into our driveway.  Our driveway is lined with prickly pears.  It is only part of the picture and it is pop dotted for dimension.  When I printed the picture it only printed a corner or it, but I liked it so I decided to use that part of the picture.  The peach and chocolate paper are shimmery paper that I got from Paper and More click there to get some.  There are very pretty and come in a couple different weights, the "Thinking of You: is cut from that same paper.  Thinking of you is from Gypsy Wanderings cut at about 2 3/4 inches with a shadow.  I really like adding a shadow to my sentiments as I think it makes them stand out.  I also added a brown pearl to the center of the flower which is the "o" in of.  And guess what I made a card without using any DCWV paper!!!

Black and Silver with Mulberry Paper

Another card from RAQ Challenge, you will find that most of my cards are from there.  I am getting to the point where it is hard to make a card without a sketch to follow.  But I truly believe that participating in this challenge my cards have improved and evolved, if you ever get stuck or need a push give it a try.  It takes me an hour to pick out my papers alone, can you imagine how long it would take me to make a card if I had to figure out the layout also, :o!

The card is 6  x  5 1/2 and I covered the base with a very pretty shimmery silver paper then scribbled or should I say doodled around the edges so that it would show after I added the black paper.  The black is Mulberry paper, I tear it buy using a paint brush with water and then just paint where I want it to tear, then you pull it apart you get that real feathery edge.   The strips of paper are from DCWV Glitter stack, except for the plain glossy silver one which I wish I would have embossed with the Cuttlebug.  The Celebrate is cut from Gypsy Wanderings and is about 3" long.  Thanks for looking and leaving a comment

Card using i-top Brad Maker

This was a fun card and pretty simple to make.  The background paper is from DCWV Natural Stack, this is such a pretty stack,  It is one of those stacks that you hate to use it "because you might run out", I find myself doing that somethings.  Then I have to give myself a talking to and tell myself now come on you bought it to use it.  LOL

The card is a 5 inch square card, kind of hard to see the edges because of the background that I used.  The scalloped squares are cut at 1 1/2 inches and cut from Sentimentals.  They were tags and had a small circle at the top but I "hid" it in Design Studio so that part would not cut out.  The black piece on the bottom I embossed with my Cuttlebug and the design kind of matches the paper design.  The top 3 circles are brads I made using i-top brad maker and the matching paper.  I love this thing but often forget to use it, I think it worked perfect here.  In case some did not know this but there is a cut on Accent Essentials that is the same cut as buying the i-top punches, it saves you money because then you don't have to buy them.  I find that it works best if I spray the paper lightly with water, that way they form around the brad better and leave a smoother finish. Hope you like it.

Sympathy Card - Blue & Yellow

This card I made for my husband to give to a friend of his from high school that lost his wife to cancer this last week.  The paper is from DCWV "Cafe Mediterranean" stack, what a beautiful stack of paper.  You will find that I am a big fan of DCWV.  It has a very soft look to it that I thought was appropriate.  Not much Cricut just the scalloped edge from Accent Essentials that I had to adjust to fit.  This was also a sketch from RAQ Challenge last week.  I added the yellow pearls and some stamped yellow swirls to match.  "One day at a time" is a stamp.  I added some of the same paper to the inside and stamped the sentiment.  Hope you like it.

And here is a picture of the inside

Simply Tomatoes!

This is a pretty simple card.  The card size is 5 1/2  x  5 1/2.  I covered the base of the card with dark red paper and cut an ivory piece 5 x 5 and cuttlebugged it.  The folder I used was part of the Asian Bundle called Oriental Weave. The leaves are a stamp that I colored using the MCPT (Prisma pencils & Gamsol) on that same ivory paper.  It is some "laid" (whatever that is) paper that I ordered from Paper and More.  They have some beautiful papers and there service and shipping is fantastic.  Try some of there sample packs, you won't be dissapointed.  Then I stitched along the top with some jute cord, suppose to be 5 stitches but I goofed OOPS!  The tomatoes are Martha Stewart stickers I got at Big Lots for a $1 a pack.  Anyway that is about it, like I said it is a simple card.

This is a pretty cool technique.  May years ago I bought this blue moldable form.  I had my husband make me a large wooden block like the ones on your rubber stamps and I mounted a piece of the blue foam on it.   What you do is heat it up with your heating tool and then press your stamp into it while it is still hot, it won't harm your rubber stamp, but I have not tried it yet with the clear stamps but I don't think it would be a problem.  Your image is then embedded into the foam in reverse, any image would work as long as they are not words.  This particular image is from an older Stampin Up set and I thought the details came out great.  After I got the image in the foam I rubbed my inkpad over it till it was all colored, then turn it over and stamped it.  The ink does not go down into the crevices so that part it left uninked.  What is really cool is that all you do it reheat the blue foam and the image comes out and you can use it over and over again!  Here is a link  the "blue stuff" as I call it  click here

I mounted the image on a piece of white card stock that I inked and used a corner punch to slip the corners under.  The rust paper and ribbons is also from Stampin Up.  Let me know if you have any questions.

Crumpled Flower Card

If you know me you know that I love making flowers.  These are called crumpled flowers and they are so so easy to make.  You really can't mess them up.  I cut out a bunch of scalloped circles (can't remember which cartridge) is varying sizes.  I think the larger flowers have 5 layers, you can add as many as you want.  The scalloped circles were cut out of white paper, a lighter weight paper works better for these, then I sprayed them with Glimmer Mist from Tattered Angels.  Spray them till they are good and wet, then crumpled them up into a ball.  Then carefully uncrumple them they will tear if you aren't careful.   Then stack them starting with the large one and build up down to the smaller size.  You can put a dot of glue to hold each layer or you can put them together with a brad in the center.  If I don't use a brad I add a skittle to the center, you can add whatever you like or nothing.  As I put them together I crumple and arrange the paper the way I like it.  Then I spray them again lightly, when they dry the get nice and firm.

Sorry on to the rest of the card.  The pink frame is from Sentimentals, and the white paper is very pretty pearlized paper and is embossed with a Quikutz folder.  Inside the frame is a background stamp.  The frame is pop dotted for dimension.  The card is 5 1/2  x 5 1/2 square.  Lately I like making square cards.

Marine Graduation Card

Just adding some of my past cards to my blog.
My son-in-law that is in the Air Force has a nephew that joined the Marines and my SIL asked me to make a card for when he graduates boot camp.  The label (behind the Marine emblem) I cut twice once, from the red and then a other a bit larger out of gold for a shadow.  The label was cut from Sentimental and then with my Gypsy I added very small rectangles at the top to cut holes to put the ribbon through.  The swirly stars are from Home Accents.  The stars at the top and the bottom of the label are buttons and the Marine emblem is a sticker, I bought at Hobby Lobby.

Lazy Days of Summer

I am pretty proud of this card, I think it came out so cute.  The image is a House Mouse Happy Hopper, it was sent to me by Aprile over at the MCPT Challenge on the Cricut message board.  MCPT stands for "Magic Color Pencil Technique" which is coloring with Prismacolor or any wax based pencil.  Then you use orderless minerals spirits to blend it.  The results you get using this technique are great, if you haven't tried it give it a shot I am sure you will like it.  After I colored it I put Glossy Accents on the inter tube to give it dimension.  I glued a small piece of jute/rope from the inter tube to the duck.  I enjoy adding those special dimensional things to my cards.

The waves I made on acetate paper that I colored with Ranger alcohol inks, stream and silver I believe.  Then I cut the piece of acetate with one of the waves cut on Life's a Beach cartridge.   The lifeguard chair and the sentiment is also cut from Life's a Beach at about 4 inches.  The entire card is 5 x 6 1/2.
I hope you enjoy this card