Blog Award - Cherry on Top

Earlier in the week Stephanie at Cricutmimi blog spot this me this blog award.  THANKS STEPHANIE!  I have to tell you I had no idea what it was and what to so with it but was very excited that she thought I was worthy of receiving it.  So after a few emails back and forth I finally figured out what I was suppose to do, I think.  I may still not get this right LOL but I am going to try.  Since it took me so long to get this done I also got the Award from Melissa at MelissaMade blog.  Here are the rules:

Here are the rules:

1.Thank the person who sent it to you

Thank you,Stephanie

2. Copy award to your blog

3. List 3 things you love about yourself

A. I am happy with who I am.

B. I love to make cards that I think people enjoy.

C. I love that I am a very upbeat person.

4. Post a picture you love. 

5. Send the award to 5 blogs you love.

 The hardest part is picking just 5.

MelissaMade

CricutCouple

Peggy & Donna

My Sheri's Crafts
Capadia Designs

Thanks to all those that inspire me.................I take horrible pictures but here is a picture on Me, my Mom and my two brothers very rare that we all get together.

Black Currant paper again ----Happy Birthday

This one is similar to the thinking of you card, papers are from the DCWV Black Currant stack, although they look the same they are actually slightly different papers. 

I think this one came out very pretty with the pink glitter.

Let me know what you think.  Which one do you like better?

Thinking of you Black Currant paper

Oh I just fell in love with this paper as soon as I seen it.  Actually we were in Joann's one day and my husband found this stack and said "Hey what about this one" and I said OMG yes!  He is real good at helping me find paper. :)
So I made this card using a couple of the papers in the stack.   I actually made this card to send as an entry into the 2010 World Card Making Contest.  Sure hope I win, the prize is over $600 worth of crafting products.

Using my Gypsy I made the frame for the inside of the card by placing a square from George the size of the card and then placing a rounded corner square in the center so that I would have the rounded cut out for the front of the card and not waste either piece.  I should have thought of this years ago, LOL.  The card itself is 6.5" x 5".  The "Thinking of You" is a Stampin Up stamp from the Elegant Greetings set that I bought years ago. 

Now I have seen several people us Terrifically Tacky tape to put a line of glitter on a card but always forgot to do it, but this time I tried it and it came out great and was so easy to do.  I was worried about not getting it straight but it came out pretty good, I used Martha Stewart glitter.  Also below that pink strip is 4 small circles (they are about 1/3 of inch)I cut using my Cricut and then covered them with the same glitter.  They are not very easy to see in the photo.  The little butterfly I got at the fabric remnant store for $1.99 for a pack of 12.  This card is so so pretty in person with just enough shine to it.  Thanks for looking and as always any comments are appreciated.

And here is the inside, the flower is from George, good old George what would we do without it!

What to do with all that loose ribbon!

I don't know about you but I love ribbon and seem I never have enough or the correct color.  Here in Tucson, Arizona we have a store called SAS which is a fabric remnant store, but they have so so much more then just fabric and their prices are fantastic. Many or actually most of the ribbon is 15 cents a yard, that is 10 yards for $1.50 can't beat that, and they have walls of ribbon to chose from.  Well last week me and my two sister-in-laws went to SAS.  I bought A LOT of ribbon, but...........it is not on spools so it is very hard to store and keep untangled so the following is what I came up with.

First here is my pile of ribbon I bought, I think there is about 15-20 different ribbons and 10 yards of each.  YIKES!

What a mess huh?  Well I knew I had to do something or I would not be able to get the piece out that I wanted to use.  I buy plastic wrap (you know like Saran Wrap) from WalMart, their own brand, well the center tube/roll that the plastic wrap comes on is very heavy and sturdy, so I have been keeping them because I knew some day I would think of something to use them for.  Then I had an "ah ha" moment and thought I could use them to make my own ribbon spools.

First thing I did was use my Cricut to cut circles out of chipboard.  I cut them at 2", 2 1/2", and 2 1/4".  I just set my Expression on auto fill and let it cut out however many would fit on the piece of chipboard.   Here is a picture.........

Then since that card board tube from the plastic wrap was so thick I had to have my husband cut it for me with his skill saw.   Sanded off the edges a bit to get rid of the rough pieces.

Then using Scotch Quick-Dry glue, I glued the circles onto the tube pieces.  This is great glue if you have never used it.  It has a very strong hold on most everything and drys very very fast.

I had him cut me several different sizes (sent him with a list to his shop) to fit the different widths of ribbon.

Then I just used a small piece of tape to hold the ribbon on the spool and another small piece to keep it from unwinding.  Here is a picture of one of the ribbons wound up, shh don't tell I only got two done so far.  But it will be so much nicer when I finish them, maybe I can do it while I am watching TV.

Pretty cool and what is even better is that when I get them all done I can put them on my ribbon center that my brother-in-law made me to hang on my closet door.

Thanks for looking and sure hope I did not do too many pictures, but wanted all know in case you want to make yourself some.  If you have any other questions or if I left anything out let me know.

Cherry Blossom - Spotlight Card

I saw a card on the Cricut message board where they made a card using a spotlight technique and I just fell in love with how it looked.  Sorry I can't remember who it was to give them credit.  It is a technique where you stamp an image twice and on one of them only color part of it, cut that part out and put it on top of the other stamped image.  It can easily be done with a digital image as well, which is what I used.

You can also color the second image and then cut out just a circle from it and place that on top.  I chose to color just the flower and then place it on top with pop dots and curled up the petals.  This was such a perfect image for this technique that I wish I knew how to put in a link so you could get the image. It was colored using my Prisma color pencils and gamsol.  I believe I found it by Google-ing flower images.

The background paper is from a paper pack that I bought at Costco a long time ago and it is fabric like.  Doesn't not cut well with your Cricut but sure makes a nice background.   The center of the flower is Martha Stewart tiny glass beads, I love these but man they can get all over the place. 

When I first made this card I thought the image was a poppy so that is why there is poppy brads along the right side.  Oops I love poppies so I guess it was just wishful thinking.

Here is a closer picture of the flower.  I so want to do another one of these with another image but keep getting side tracked.  So many neat things to do and not enough time and I have all day to work on my cards LOL!

Thanks for visiting and I just love to read your comments.

Butterfly swirls birthday card

Hope everyone has had a great weekend, and ready for Monday again.  Here is the third card for RAQs Challenge this week, it also fits the Ad Color challenge which was to use pink, green and brown.  The paper made the colors easy for me ths week.  LOL.  The card is 5 x 6 1/2 and the background paper is from K & Company, which is starting to run a close second to DCWV as my favorite paper.

The circle is from Lacey Labels cut at 2 1/2 inches, the butterfly cut at 2 1/2 and the swirls at 4 3/4 are from Elegant Cakes.  Happy birthday is a stamp and heat embossed in pink.   I doodled around the swirls and butterfly with gel pens.  Also pop dotted the butterfly wings to make them stand up a bit.

Even though it looks simple it still took me hours to finish it.  I guess I am just a very slow card maker........

An Asian Card

I made this card a while back but wanted to share it with you.  The special part of this card is the paper, the gold part.  My son-in-law brings me all kinds of special papers, what more could a gal want!  This gold one is my favorite and is so so pretty, it is linen like with a pearl sheen to it.  As you can see it embosses great very crisp and deep.  I used two of the embossing folders from the Asian pack, the lantern cut is from Pagoda.  I really need to get in a explore this cartridge more.

It is a very simple card but I just wanted to show off the beautiful paper.

Black & White with a splash of Red

This card is so much prettier in person.  I made this card following one of the Sketches at RAQs Challenge, the extra crediy was to do one card with black & white and a splash of color.  I always think red goes well with black & white, and the red I used is a very deep pearl metallic like red.  Paper and More has some great papers check them out, try their sample packs to see the colors and weigh of the papers.  The white is a also a pearl linen white paper that is very pretty.  The flower and border at the top is cut from Elegant Cakes cartridge.  The border across the top was made using a border from Elegant Cakes that I duplicated flip and welded together using my Gypsy, I think it came out pretty cool and elegant looking.  I added some red bling flowers to the center spaces of the border.  Happy birthday is a Stampin Up stamp that I heat embossed with a detailed white embossing powder.  The card size is 5 by 6 1/2 which I think is a great size for a card.  I did kind of mess up on one part, I put the ribbon across the card and meant to tye a piece of clear thread around where I was going to put the bow so that it looks like it was tied there, but I forgot so the bottom of the ribbon shows under the bow, oops!

Overall I think the card came out great, thanks.

Tan and Tangerine card - New Picture

I made this card for RAQ's Card Challenge on the message board this week.  There is just something about it that is just not right...........hmmm may be just a bit to plain or drab.  The larger tangerine colored circle is cut using Plantin Schoolbook from the DCWV Cafe Mediterranean Stack.  The top smaller circle is cut from vellum that I Cuttlebugged and now I think I should have left it plain.  Funny when I am making a card I always forget to Cuttlebug, then this one I remember to do it and I am not happy with it.  The flower and the Happy Birthday is cut from Elegant Cakes cartridge.  The paper on the flower is glittery but you can't tell in the picture, center is a button.  Not a WOW card but tell me what you think. Thanks

 

What do you think, I added brown ribbon and brown pearls, I think it is better.  What just to bland for me.

 

Paper made from Newspaper Print

Who would ever have thought that newspaper could look so pretty.  This card was made using newspaper.  I took newspaper and glued it thoroughly to a plain piece of white card stock.  After it dried I rubbed my Tim Holtz Distressed ink, "worn lipstick" all over it directly from the ink pad.  I put the piece of prepared card stock on my Cricut cutting mat with the newspaper side down.  This way the blade did not grab the newspaper and rip it while it was cutting.  I cut out the flower 5 times each at slightly smaller size each time.  I then rubbed each flower again with the ink and sprinkle clear sparklie embossing powder on them while they were wet.  I heated them up with my heat tool to set the embossing powder.  I rolled each petal under slightly with the handle end of a paint brush to curl them under.  As I was assembling them, I started with the largest one and set it on a foam pad (like a mouse pad) and pressed hard into the center with the end of a pencil, the eraser end to cause a crevice in the center, added a drop of glue and continued that way with each flower/petal.  After they were all glued together I place a skittle in the center.

I cut another piece of the newspaper card stock and used it for the base of my card.  The saying are stamped and embossed. 

I think it made a very nice sympathy card, but there is so much you can do just using your old newspapers.