Scarecrows and Lions and Awards, Oh My

I had a group of kids trick or treating at my house tonight dressed as the characters from the Wizard of Oz.  Dorothy was so cute in her checked pinafore, the littlest one was the lion,  the tin man was made of silver sprayed boxes with a heart painted on, and the scarecrow looked just like my card.

I cut this little guy from Simply Charmed with his denim overalls and red shirt.  He's loving the hay (picture paper stack by DCWV) in the background.  I'm entering him in the challenge at Cooking With Cricut.


Susan at Cricut and Grasshopper sent me two blog awards.  I became a recent follower of hers and you might too, if you check out her blog. She said she was sending the awards to people who have fairly new blogs with few followers.   So thank you, Susan, for thinking of me. 

With the Butterfly award there are no rules attached but with the Versatile Blogger award there are a few rules.

1.) Thank the person who awarded you
2.) Tell 7 things about yourself that your readers may not know
3.) Award 7 other bloggers this award

I checked the other awardees and not one responded to Susan by thanking her or following the rules.  Now I must admit I usually consider these things in the same category as chain letters.  I want no part ot them.  So I'm going to compromise.  I'll thank Susan, which I did earlier in the post and will do on her blog,  and tell 7 things about myself, but I am not going to pass the awards on.  I don't think the Versatile Blogger Fairy will come and take my award away if I don't but if she does, so be it..   

Here are my seven things:

1. I live in the geographical center of the lower peninsula of Michigan. It says so in the park.  lol
2. I have helped side 10 houses, 1 garage and 1 church, in addition to putting on a steel roof.
3. I play FarmTown with my DIL every day.
4. I am a closet interior designer, having redone 4 houses in the last 20 years.
5. I collect owls, over 100 of various sizes, shapes, materials and uses.
6. I play hammered dulcimer.
7. I love old tools.  I have a number of old kitchen ones hanging on my kitchen soffit but the rest are packed away since we "down-sized" and I have no room to hang them.

Okay, I know that was much more than most of you wanted to know, but there you go.  To each his own.

Fresh and Light

I love clean and simple cards and that's just what they ask for at several blog challenges that I like to enter.  One of them is Freshly Made.  This is their latest sketch.

A lot of times I'm inspired by my paper and this was one of those times.  Since it's been so dark and dreary, I wanted light and airy.  For this, I went to an 8 x 8 stack of PTI Hodgepodge paper that I got some time ago.  Here is the result.

 

I used a large flower Cuttlebug embossing folder for the bottom layer, then added a green layer behind the pattern..  The band is actually a stripe from another paper in the stack.  I cut the flower from the Paisley Cricut cartridge, 2 1/4" for the orange and 2" for the white.  I stamped the sentiment with Shabby Shutters.  Yes, I said "stamped."  I don't have many stamps and don't intend to acquire many but sometimes a stamp works best.  I have a fair number of spring birthdays, so I think this one will wait a while before it goes to someone.

Fall Sketch

 I like it when I can combine several challenges in one card.  This card was inspired by the Mojo Monday sketch but has a Fall theme as per Celebrate the Occasion.

Here's the Mojo sketch.

And here's my card.

I loved this leaf paper and thought it was definitely Fall.  The other papers are part of the same DSP.  The sentiment was printed on the computer in dark brown and then I inked the tag to make it look more like the backgroumd.  I just happened to have three red gems and they were meant to go on this card.

Crayon Card

This is the sketch for this week's Sweet Sunday challenge. 

I kept thinking, "What can I repeat five times across a card?"  I had planned to use the box of crayons on another card and said "That's it!"  (Yes, I do talk to myself.  lol)  I didn't do the entire box, just the different colored crayons and they are cut from the Simply Charmed cartridge.

The colorful ABC paper worked great for the background although if I'd paid attention, I would have put the yellow crayon where the red one is and it would have looked like it's actually writing on the paper.  I popped them up on foam and used glossy accents on the ends to make it look like wax.  I had a font just like the background letters and used it for my sentiment, printing it in blue but changing two letters just for fun.     Can you see that the C is red and the R is green?  This would make a cute kid's card.

Easy Challenge

I think this has been one of the easiest sketch challenges that I have done.

I could think of lots of ways to go with this but decided to let some new paper lead the way, plus the fact that I actually had some ribbon that matched the paper.

The cut is from key 38 on the Twinkle Toes cartridge.  It may not look like that image but that's because I manipulated it in Design Studio so half of the design would fit my 3 1/2 by 7 card.  That meant that I could make two cards with one cut.  Not only did I have ribbon the same color but also a button.  That doesn't happen very often because I have a limited supply of both.  I can't remember what cart I cut the flower from but it is the same dark purple as in the paper.  I put some pearls in the button holes and then layered it on the flower and then on the bow.  I may have to make a few more of these since it was so easy.

A Halloween Birthday

A lady from church is celebrating her 85th birthday this Halloween.  I thought it would be fun to surprise her with a special card.

The ghosts are cut from Happy Hauntings.  I love the combination of green and purple so I just layered the colors in 3 rectangles on a black card that measures 3 1/2 by 7.  I wanted the sentiment to speak to the ghosts and the birthday and I like puns so I came up with this.  I was going to put Boo - th day but thought that was rather strange.  I also decided to add a little excitement to the ghosts so I ran them through my Xyron upside down and covered them with diamond dust.  They really sparkle.  You can see it a little better in the close-up below.

This was a fun one and so easy to do.  I even wrote a special verse on the inside but didn't take a picture of that.  It said

A Halloween birthday!  

Isn't it great

when the whole country

helps you celebrate?

Happy 85th Birthday!!

I'm entering this in the following challeneges:
Birthday Sundaes
Sentimental Sundays
Fantabulous Cricut
CardzTV

Folded Card with Band

Remember the beginning of the book that Snoopy was always trying to write?  I started out "It was a dark and stormy night."  Well, it really is a dark and stormy night here.  It's the perfect time for snuggling up with a good book and I have one I want to finish.  But then I have a TV show I want to watch, and a prayer shawl to finish.  I have a feeling I'll knit and watch TV for a while and then read just before heading to bed.  In the meantime, I have to show you my card for today. 

This one is for the challenge at The Friday Mashup!  They wanted a card with a belly band, with or without twine.  Mine is without since my limited supply didn't have any that looked good with my paper.  I wanted to use this big bold print (actually "use it up" is a better statement) so I cut it to fit my folded card, and then added the coordinating piece for the band.  The flourish is cut from Cindy Lou and then I added some pearls.  Here is what it looks like open.

I cut a piece of cardstock 5 1/2 by 12 and then scored it at 4", and 8".  Then I turned it over and scored at 2" and 10" and folded it in so it fits an A2 envelope.  It was easy to do and a great way to use a large print.

Pink and Brown

With so many great ideas on the many, many blogs, how will I ever get my own cards done?  I just spent an hour reading just some of the organizational tips at The Paper Boutique.  I'm glad I got a few made ahead.  This one is for the Freshly Made challenge.

I liked this paper with it's leaf-covered vines, so thought I'd use it for this sketch.  The base card is pink which I inked to give it a softer edge. The pink border and little flowers were punched and the leaf cut by hand. I used a stamp for the sentiment, bending it to fit the curve of the leaf. Some pearls made great centers for the flowers that are popped up on foam.  This is the second card I've made with the pink and brown combination.  I love it!

A Touch of Metal

A lot of bloggers talk about having a problem with masculine cards.  I really like doing them.  Now using metal was another story.  That was the "catch" in the Celebrate the Occasion challenge - make a masculine card using metal.  Does aluminum count?  I say yes.

I had already made a masculine card with this saying inside "Hope your birthday is riveting".  I printed two 5 1/8 x 7 cards at the time and decided to use the second unfinished card for this one.  I covered a piece of cardstock with a double layer of aluminum foil and ran it through my Cuttlebug with the diamond plate folder. Then, just to be sure, I added some metal brads on the corners. The sentiment was stamped with VersaMark on navy cs and heat embossed with silver powder.  Masculine cards are simple because they can be just that - simple.

Purple People Eater

I'm actually old enough to remember when the song "Purple People Eater" came out.  I hadn't thought if it in a while until Fantabulous Cricut made it their challenge for this week - a card with purple and a monster or bug.  For me it had to be a one-eyed, one-horned monster.  If I'd thought about it more, I should have also given him wings.

I don't have the mini-monster cartridge so I had to improvise.  I took the Santa shadow from Simply Charmed and welded on a triangle from George and Basic Shapes in Design Studio.  I trimmed off part of the pom pom from his hat and his ears and this is what resulted.  I punched out the circles for his eye and added glossy accents to make it shine.  A little faux stitching and a crooked mouth and he's the perfect people eater.  I freehand cut the orange behind him to make him pop and then mounted both pieces on foam.  "Sure looks strange to me."  : ) 

Pretty in Pink

I've been adding digital images to my cards this week and having fun going through the ones I have.  I found a set of girlie ones and thought they'd look good on the Mojo Monday sketch.

I turned the sketch on it's side to make my card which is 5 1/8 by 7.

The images are from pcCrafter from a set called "Pretty in Pink" by Carol Halm and come already colored.  I cut the scalloped frames with my Cricut but don't remember what cartridge.  I don't really like to add big bows to my cards so decided to use the glove instead.  It was from the set so the colors matched as did the corner piece.  I inked the edges of all the pieces to fit in with the coloring on the large picture and popped them up with dimensionals, all except the corner piece and brown strip.  I'm really loving this card.

Harvest Time

The Sweet Sunday sketch this week looked like this.

And my card looks like this.

The digital image is from pcCrafter, an online site for what we used to call "clip art."  I have a lot of images that I purchased between 2005 and 2010 but haven't used in a while.  I decided it was time to break them out and add them to my cards.  I tried to hang the pennants from a branch to emulate the sign in the image but they didn't get spaced evenly.  I cut them out by hand and inked them up.  The background is dry embossed with the Tiny Mosaics Cuttlebug folder and the scalloped border with decorative scissors.  How many different things can I use in one card: digital image, Cricut cut, decorative scissor cut, hand cut, embossing, inking.  I guess bling would be the only thing left and this card just wasn't ready for that.

Going Digital

What an "it's yucky, let's take a nap day" it's been.  It wasn't even a good cardmaking day but I did finish up a couple and got ideas for a couple more.  Today's card is for the challenge at Birthday Sundaes.  They asked for a tall card.  Usually when they say that I make a Monarch card, which is 3 1/2 by 7 but I decided to really go big and made this one 4 by 8 1/2.  It is based on the design sketch at Card Patterns.

The image on the card is a digital from pcCrafter.  Back in 2005, or before, I bought a set of Creatables at Michaels and checked out the website of the seller.   pcCrafter started in 1999 to provide clip art  from a variety of designers for sale in what they called "HugWare."  This was how I began my cardmaking.  I had never heard of a Cricut back then.  And didn't really know to call the images "digitals."  But after seeing what some of the bloggers do with their digital collections, I decided to go back and explore what I had.   I thought this pumpkin would make a nice Thanksgiving card and also fit the format of the sketch.

Using center point on my Cricut, I cut the image into a circle, then cut the shadow to fit.  I really wanted an oak leaf to match those on the image and the only thing close was one on "Straight from the Nest" but it had a big slit down the middle.  I used Design Studio to weld a rectangle in the middle and get a whole leaf that was cut from kraft cardstock and inked with distress inks.  I embossed the cream layer with Forest Branches, added an orange print and tied some jute around it.  One more Thanksgiving card under my belt.  Yay!

NO Orange?

The challenge this week at CAS-ual Fridays is "Orange You Ready for Trick or Treat?"   Love the title but it's deceiving because you have to make a card with NO orange.  I have most of my Halloween cards made for this year, but I made this one last year, before blogging,   I had only had my Cricut about 2 months and one of the first cartridges I bought was Pumpkin Carving just so I could do some great Halloween cards.

Now this may disqualify the card from being Clean and Simple (although it is really simple to do) but I just have to show you the inside.

 Isn't this cool?!  It's just a simple pop-up with a hand cut from Pumpkin Carvings.  It really makes the card something special - and scary.

90th Birthday

I needed to make a 90th birthday card for a friend.  Do you know how difficult it is to find 90th birthday cards in the store?  I'm sure glad I make my own.   I had an idea for one and decided that the fancy fold challenge at Sentimenetal Sundays was just what I needed to make this card come to life.

This is a "swing" card.  There are a number of tutorials on the internet to show you how to make them.  I cut it out of burgundy cardstock and then covered portions of it with paper from a Cloud 9 specialty stack.  The XC (which is 90 in Roman numerals for those of you who didn't know) is cut from George and Basic Shapes.  This is what it looks like when it swings.

I think she is going to be really surprised when she gets it. 

Red and Black

Just a quick post tonight to enter Celebrate the Occasion's challenge this week.  The challenge is to use red, black and white in a card and since these are my favorite colors, I didn't want to miss the challenge.  Here is my card.

Our high school colors are red and black so I made this as a graduation card.  It was cut from the Wild Card cartridge, one of the first ones I owned.

I've Been Inspired

This has been a week of inpirations for me.  Last Sunday I went to a hammered dulcimer concert at a nearby assisted living facility.  That inspired me to start practicing mine.  I haven't touched it since I played in church in late August.

I went to a couple of quilt shows this afternoon and got inspired again.  I may have to stop cardmaking for a while and get busy with a quilt.  Well, maybe not yet.  I usually reserve my quilt making for when we go south in the winter.  It's easier to transport my sewing machine and fabric than my Cricut and cartridges and paper and ribbon and glue and, well you get the picture.  I do plan to get enough cards made by then to be able to post while I'm gone, though.

Just like the concert and quilt show inpired me, I also get inspired by all the terrific bloggers out there.  Even if the cards are not my style, I can still be inspired by their creativity and/or beauty.  If only there were more time in a day to check out more blogs but then I'd never get anything done for myself. 

My card inspiration for today is the sketch from Mojo Monday .

Cooking with Cricut asked for a card with a cake, cupcake or teddy bear on it.  I decided the combine the two to make a birthday card.

The three printed papers are from a 6 x 12 stack from Cricut called Celebrations.  I found a matching blue and yellow to make the rest of the card.  The scalloped piece was cut from MS Elegant Cakes and embossed with Swiss Dots,  The cupcake is from Doodlecharms and the frosting is embossed with Divine Swirls.  I also heat embossed the swirls with clear embossing powder.   The lines on the cupcake paper are made with my Score-board.   The "happy" square and the cupcake are mounted at different levels with dimensionals.

Spider Webs

It was a cold and rainy day here today.  We spent part of the morning at an auction and all we came away with was a tin with some vintage quilt fabric in it.  It was mostly little scraps but I can add it to my other pieces and make a scrap quilt from it.  And best of all, it was only $1.

With my Halloween card for today, I have enough made to send to my grandchildren.  Today's card is based on the sketch from Freshly Made.

It also fits the criteria for the My Craft Spot color challenge - black with purple, orange or green. 

As you can see, I chose purple. The purple layer was dry embossed with a Sizzix brick folder and the spider web paper is from a Cloud 9 seasonal stack.  The border edge was cut with decorative scissors and the spider from Doodlecharms.  I gave the spider some rhinestone eyes to made them shine and they do look kind of eerie in the photo.  It took a while to get the lighting right so the picture would show up purple instead of blue.  I finally got it to come out and I think it looks great!

Give Thanks

It looks like everyone is making either Halloween or Thanksgiving cards this time of year.  Today I have a thanks-giving card.  I send holiday and birthday cards to the homebound members of our congregation so I have a number of Thanksgiving cards to make ( I alternate years with Halloween and Thanksgiving).  I usually do the same card for all but because I want to make them for challenges, they'll be getting different cards this year.  This card is for two different challenges and is based on this sketch at Sweet Sunday. 

This is another Cricut-less card.  What is wrong with me?  The papers are from my Amber Autumn stack by DCWV.  The cream strip was cut with decorative scissors and the dark brown is ribbon.  The sentiment was printed on my computer.

I made this a Thanksgiving card to qualify it for the Creative Cutter Room challenge - Time To Give Thanks.

Fall Birthday Blessings

Buying paper in stack collections can have it's good points and it's bad points.  The good point is that a lot of the papers have a common color way, so many of them go together.  The bad point is that some of the papers may be difficult to use if they are bold prints or not your style.  Some time ago, I bought a stack from DCWV called Amber Autumn.  I think it was an after fall sale item and I liked all the reds and oranges in it.  I've used some of the papers in previous cards, I'm using some again today and have another card in the works.  There are a lot of papers I like in the stack and some not so much, but if I can use those more objectionable ones as bits and pieces, maybe I can use up the stack.  

Here is the sketch for the  Card Patterns challenge.

Here is my card for the challenge.

I used kraft cardstock for the card base.  I changed the ribbon to cord and ran it around the card front rather than on the top note so I could make it a shape.  The shape is actually cut using a circle punch on the corners of a rectangular piece of cardstock that was printed on my computer.  I repeated it for the shadow.  No Cricut involved.  I think my Expression is  beginning to think I don't like it anymore. lol 

I'm also entering this card in the Birthday Sundaes challenge #30 - fall colored birthday card
.

A Smile for You

They are having a special card challenge, blog hop and benefit over at CAS-ual Friday.  Please check it out.  They have a smile quote as an inspiration but you can use a quote of your own.  My card is kind a a whimsical one but I love the saying and this image popped into my mind.

Click on the picture to see it close up and be able to read the sentiment.  I printed the eye words on the computer and punched them out.  The "smile" part was printed directly onto the card.  I foam mounted the shapes and added some bling for the twinkle in her eyes.  I tied a ribbon around the top and rounded the bottom corners.  Not much to it - but then it is CAS-ual Friday. :)

Best of luck to Julie.  I hope all these cards bring a smile to your face and to your heart.

It's 'Owl-o-Ween

I love owls.  In fact I have a collection of over 100 of them in various shapes, sizes and material.  If it were legal, I think I'd have one as a pet, they are sooo cute.  The challenge on CardzTV is "Hootie Halloween" - a Halloween card with an owl on it.   I haven't entered this challenge before but I HAD to make an owl card.

This owl is from Happy Hauntings and both the body and chest are cut from Core'dinations cardstock in two shades of tan.  They have been embossed with the Cuttlebug mesh folder and sanded.  Kind of looks like feathers, doesn't it?  The branch was cut from a DCWV stack called textures and finishes and it looks like real tree bark.  The most amazing thing about this is the background.  That picture is a section of a print from a DCWV picture stack.  That's right!  I didn't have to do a thing but fussy cut it so the moon showed behind the owl.  How easy is that! 

Toil and Trouble

I loved the sketch from Mojo Monday this week.  I'm really getting into these sketch challenges.  They ARE a challenge but that's why I like them.  Here's Monday's sketch.

I decided it would be perfect for a Halloween card.  Here's my take on the design.

The papers are from a Cloud 9 stack called Seasonal.  I don't have many border punches and didn't want the lacy kind I have so I made my own.  I took my 1" circle punch and punched the border with it,  Of course it doesn't come out even on a 4 1/2" card but the 1/4" ends looked okay to me.  I cut the cauldron from Happy Hauntings and heat embossed it with UTEE after cutting off the handle and flame.  I used an embossing pen and white powder to put the "bubbles" in the purple liquid.  I didn't want a ribbon and couldn't figure out what to use until I went through the stack again and saw that one of the papers had all these printed sayings on it.  Perfect!  The saying and cauldron are foam mounted.  Something didn't look quite right so I used my white pen and made the stitching along the punched edge.  It brings a little light to that side of the card. 

Once I wrote about my card and looked at it on the blog preview, I saw ways I could improve the card.  If I were to do it again, I would mount the yellow print on another piece of cardstock to set it off.  This happened to me on another card I made this week.  After posting, I decided that some black stitching would improve the design and it did.  Too bad I didn't think of it before I posted.  But I have learned one thing.  Put the card away and then come back and look at it with new eyes.

I'm also going to enter this in the Cooking with Cricut challenge - anything goes.

Birthday Ribbon

I'm so excited!  I just found out that my card for last week's challenge is featured on Birthday Sundaes.  It was a simple card with embossing and unique buttons but I guess it made an impression (no pun intended :-)  You can see that card here.

Today I have another card for Birthday Sundaes.  This week they asked for ribbon on a card and I just happened to have a rather unique ribbon.  I think I got it from my mother's stash and I'm not sure what she used it for but it looks great on the card.

You can't tell from the picture but there are little pearls along the zigzag in the ribbon.  I welded a cut from Storybook to a rectangle from George to make the back and the part that folds to the front.  I printed the sentiment in green on a 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 piece of cardstock.  I adhered the printed paper from a Recollections stack above the sentiment and then attached that piece to the flap.   I love the way it turned out.  I only have a little bit of the ribbon but I will make at least one more card with it.  I also have a person in mind to send it to.

Best Witches to You

Yesterday I said I wasn't into Halloween but after making a couple of cards today for challenges, I'm getting there.  They were fun to do and gave me ideas for more.  Today's card is for the challenge at My Craft Spot - Too Cute to Spook. 

The hat was cut from Happy Hauntings and welded in Design Studio.  I cut off the dangling spider because I was afraid it would get torn off when I sent it.  The spider didn't go to waste, though.  I heat embossed it with UTEE and glue dotted it in the middle of the bow.  I tried to take a close up of it but I couldn't get one to turn out.

Here is another view.  You can just see the purple paper that I printed the sentiment on using the Wizzard font.  It says "Best Witches on Halloween."

Silly me.  One of the reasons I put the ribbon on this card was because I planned to use this for the Birthday Sundaes challenge, too.  Then I remembered it has to be a birthday card.  Duh!!  I even had my post published and when I couldn't find a way to edit it, I had to start all over.  Oh, well, it's done now, and I have another challenge to keep me busy.  lol

Pumpkin Time

I love Halloween and always make my grandchildren cards but I just can't get in the mood yet..  Some of the recent challenges may push me on my way.  Fantabulous Cricut's # 80 challenge is "Pumpkin Time" which could be Halloween.  I liked the viney pumpkins on the Happy Hauntings cartridge and decided to use it on a card.  Then I saw this sketch from Sweet Sunday and thought it would showcase a pumpkin just fine.

Here is the card that the sketch inspired.

I pulled colors from the background print to make the various pieces.  The print is from a Seasonal stack from Cloud 9 that I've had for a while.  I used the light orange for the card base and the scalloped circle that was cut from Happy Hauntings.  The loopy strip is from MS Elegant Cakes and is really purple, although it looks blue in the picture.  The polka dot circle, cut from George and Basic Shapes, is from an Echo Park 8 x 8 stack called "For the Record".  The pumpkin is from an orange scrap as is the green vine.  I used a Sizzix embossing folder called "Cracked" to emboss the pumpkiin and then heat embossed to give it some shine.  The circles and pumpkin are mounted with foam dimensionals.  Whew, that's a lot of "pumpkins" in that sentence.

I think my grandkids will expect something a little scarier but I can still send this to someone.

Feeling Loopy

This card is for the CAS-ual Fridays challenge using ribbon loops or tabs.  It took me a while to figure out what to do with that one.  What hangs from loops?  Well, tags.  Ah ha.  So how will I do those tags?  And what will I use for a background.  Going through my papers, I found one that then inspired the tags I made.  Here it is.

As you can see, the paper had round shapes with letters on them.  I duplicated the look by printing out the different colored letters on my computer and punching them out with a 1" punch.  I put a hole in the top with a small paper punch, looped the black ribbon through and secured each one on the back with tape.  I also secured the ribbon on the front with glue dots to keep them down at the top. I didn't want to glue down the circles because I liked the swinginess (is that a word?) of them.  Otherwise, they were sticking straight up.  That actually was a cool design but I couldn't figure out how to finish it off that way.  I thought this was a neat way to add a little pizzaz to some cute paper.

An Apple a Day

It's been a beautiful day here today.  The sun is shining and the temperature is above average.  Maybe we'll get an Indian summer after all.

My card today is for the Cooking with Cricut challenge.  This is the first time I've entered one of their challenges and I really like the card I came up with - if I do say so myself. ; )  The challenge was to make a card with apples and/or honey.  I had several cartridges with apples on them so that's the way I went.  

This apple is cut from Kate's ABC.  I hid the contours with Design Studio and trimmed off the part that shadowed the worm.   Who wants a wormy apple!  I made a second apple, hiding the seed contours.  I cut the second apple in half and added my own seeds.  Both apples were foam mounted at different heights on tan cardstock.   The sentiment was printed on my computer in brown and I used a brown pen to make the stitching. 

Button, button, who has the button?

Birthday Sundaes' challenge this week was to use buttons.  That is not something I usually use on my cards since I think they can make them difficult to mail.  But. . . I have a huge stash of buttons considering I used to be a seamstress and have collected them over the years.  I went through some of the ones that I picked up just because they were unique and found the perfect ones to use on a card.

Aren't these the greatest buttons?  I had a green paper that matched, although the picture doesn't look very green.  I printed the "celebrate" on my computer, then scored on either side of the word.  Using my cuttlebug and the paisley embossing folder, I embossed above and below the score lines.  I rounded the bottom corners, and mounted the green on a black card.  I didn't want to distract from the button design so I just ran some black crochet thread through the holes and tied in the back to keep from having strings.  I stuck them on with glue dots.  I'm loving the simplicity but elegance of this card.  I may have to look through my button stash again.