Friendship Jar

I have seen several bloggers make the stamped jar cards and thought the idea was cute.  The Less is More challenge is to make a shaped card and since there is a jar cut on the Doodlecharms cartridge, I made my card using that. 

I welded the image together and cut it out of light blue paper.  I cut the top layer from a sandable core-dinations paper in a light teal.  I inked the edges and cuts of the jar portion in Broken China Distress Ink and the lid in Black Soot.  I sanded the lid to lighten it up and added some Glossy Accents in the cut out portion.  Before attaching the top layer, I tied some black and white twine around it to attach the sentiment punched with an EK Success tag punch.  I love the way it turned out.

Since this is not really a friendship sentiment, and I wanted to enter a jar in the Paper Playtime challenge, I made a second card.

This one is cut from gray paper for the card and white top layer.  I inked the edge with Weathered Wood Distress Ink, then embossed a little silver on the lid.  The twine is light blue and white.  I don't like this one quite as well as the other but thought it followed the theme better.   Now I want to try another one, leaving off the cut out and making a label. 

Lest We Forget

The challenge over at Fantabulous Cricut is to make a card for Memorial Day using red and a symbol that reminds you of the day.  My first thought was poppies since our American Legion and VFW Posts both "sell" poppies this time of year. 

This card is 3 1/2" by 7" with the corners rounded.  I didn't have an actual poppy cut so I improvised with this image from Cindy Lou.  I cut the bottom layer in a dark red, the leaf/stem layer in dark green and the outside edges of the flower in a lighter red.  I hid the contours in the big leaf so the red wouldn't show through and cut off the leaves that were under the blossom.  There is a cut for a circle in the middle of the flower but I used onyx liquid pearls and dotted the center in.  I inked the blossom with Fired Brick Distress Ink, bending it in places to accent the petals.

I crinkled the green, inked it with Black Soot Distress Ink, and distressed the edges (poppy leaves are furry).  It doesn't show up that well in the pictures but looks good in real life.

I made this in honor of my Dad who served in World War II.  It wasn't until the 50th anniversary of the end of the war that he would even talk much about it.  We watched "Saving Private Ryan" together and he said that was exactly like it was.  I'm so thankful that he returned safely and pray that all those who are serving now will also return home safe and sound.  God bless you for your service.

You'll be 21

I'm way ahead of myself with this 21st birthday card but it seemed to fit in with the challenge at The Paper Players.

The paper had four squares of different colors all on one sheet and I thought it fit for the sketch.  I stamped and embossed the sentiment, punched the circles, and cut the 21 from Kate's ABC cartridge.  Now if I just don't forget I made it when the August birthday rolls around.

Fleur de Lis

I like sketch challenges.  Sometimes they inspire to use a certain paper.  Sometimes it's the image that I cut.  For this sketch by Freshly Made, I wanted to come up with an image to replace the three squares.

I knew I had a number of different symbols in the Accent Essentials cartridge.  I looked through the handbook and voila', there was the fleur de lis.  Then came the paper pick.  Lost and Found from My Mind's Eye.

I cut the fleur de lis from gold paper, embossed them with the Sizzix Damask folder, placing the pattern in just the right place.  Here is a close up.  I inked the edges and embossing with Black Soot Distress Ink. 

The pictures came out two very different colors.  The entire card is more the color of the background paper.  In order to get the gold without a lot of shine, I turned off the lamp and used the flash.  That washed out the background color but lets you see the embossing.  

For Father's Day

I hadn't thought about making my Father's Day card until the Friday Mashup and CAS-ual Fridays challenges gave me the inspiration to do this one.

Friday Mashup was a sketch challenge.

CAS-ual Fridays' is for a masculine card using designer paper.

I used grey cardstock for this 5" by 7" card.  The woodgrain paper is from My Mind's Eye and the banner paper from Little Yellow Bicycle.  Both of these I picked up at a scrapbook store in Ohio this spring.  I used Lyrical Letters to weld the word "Dad" which is cut from red and mounted on dark grey.  This panel is popped up on foam.   All of it is inked with Black Soot Distress Ink.  Now I just have to come up with an appropriate sentiment inside to tell my dad how much he means to me.



Little Used

One of the first cartridges I ever got was Lyrical Letters.  I can't remember why unless it was for the letters.  Exploring Cricut challenged us to dig out a little used cartridge and make a card from it.  When I saw this challenge photo at Paper Lovin' Gals I knew there was a cut on it that I could use for both challenges.

I had a little trouble cutting this out.  There is supposed to be a frame around the entire image but the paper tore on the right side so I just trimmed it off and rounded the corners of the card.  I kept thinking I should add something more to it but I like it's simplicity. 

Congrats, Graduate

We have a grandson graduating from high school on Thursday with an Open House on Saturday.  We won't make the graduation but I'll be delivering this card with the quilt I made him.  I'll post a picture of the quilt later.

The printed paper is from Moxie and cut at 4 1/4 by 5 1/2.  The gold is cut 4 1/2 by 7 1/4, scored at 5 1/2,  which gives 1 3/4 for the fold over.  The sentiment is cut from Wild Card.  The printed paper was double sided which made a nice finish on the inside.

The sentiment was printed on white cardstock from the computer and trimmed to 4 by 5 1/4.  Clean, simple and masculine.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:
Fabulous Cricut #112 - You Did It!
My Craft Spot #56 - Congratulations
Celebrate the Occasion #63 - Graduation
Cricut Creative Cutter Room - Graduation

Busy Weekend

No time for crafting this weekend.  I took my parents to the doctor and then grocery shopping yesterday afternoon.  Then Mom and I went to a performance of Godspell last night.  My husband and I went to the lake this morning to rake leaves and help put in the dock, then home to help serve a Mexican dinner at church that is a fundraiser for our mission trip to South Dakota.  Tomorrow the bell choir will play in church.  If I'm not too tired I may be able to do something tomorrow afternoon but I'm thinking of taking a nap.

Two Sketch Cards

I love this week's sketch challenge at Freshly Made.

I have a DSP called The Best of Brenda Walton from K and Company and there are some lovely large prints in it.  They were just perfect for this challenge.

This card is 5" by 7".  The color didn't come out quite right.  The purple lace is not quite that dark in real life.  The picture of the lilacs was just one on a single paper.  I used another image to make an A2 card.

There are a number of other images on this same piece of paper so I think I will make a few more from this sketch.  They will make good thinking of you, get well, or just plain note cards. 

A Toast

I just realized yesterday that I haven't labeled my cards since the new blogger made it's appearance.  Ugh.  Now I'll have to go back through them and do it but I think it will be rather easy.  Now if I just remember to do it from now on.  ^_*

Today's card is for the challenge at My Sheri Crafts - Wedding/Anniversary, black and white with a pop of color. 

I combined three cartridges for this card.  The glasses are cut in vellum from Stretch Your Imagination., the background from Elegant Edges and the sentiment tag (my pop of color in purple) from Fabulous Finds.  I used twine purchased from My Craft Spot to attach the sentiment.  I have someone special in mind for this card.

Inch by Inch

The challenge at Paper Playtime is die cut bug cards.  There are so many cute bugs of all kinds on the various Cricut cartridges.  I decided to use the caterpillar from Stretch Your Imagination.

I used only 3 layers of the caterpillar - shadow (dark green), feet and antenna (light green) and body (polka dot).  The card base is white with a layer of black and then another white which has the computer generated sentiment printed on it.  I wrapped the measuring tape ribbon around the top layer before adhering it to the black one.  The eyes are pearls that have been colored with Bic markers.  I hope you all enjoy every inch of your day, too.

Feathered Friends

The minute I saw the challenge at CASual Fridays I knew what bird image I wanted to use.  This one is from the Straight From the Nest cartridge and it's both simple and fancy.

I layered a 4 by 5 1/4 blue paper on my white card base.  Then I cut a layer 3 3/4 by 5 that I embossed with the houndtooth embossing folder, rounded the corners and popped up on dimensionals.  The bird is cut from Straight from the Nest from a DCWV glitter stack.  It's hard to see the shine of the paper in this picture but it does.  The paper is rather thick but it cut like a dream.  I added some bling in several sizes and colors of blue and lilac.  You can see the bling better in this photo. 

It looks a lot better in real life.  I'm sorry I can't seem to get the photos to come out better, even though I made a white box and adjust the exposure in an editing program.   Some things are just better in person.

Down on the Farm

I have just a few minutes before the day begins to post my card for the My Craft Spot challenge - Down on the Farm.

Most of the entries were barns and cows but I wanted to do this little scarecrow from Simply Charmed.  I made him a shaped card, adding the "newly growing corn" to the bottom so he would stand up.  He doesn't have a second set of arms (lol).  That is the back section of the base that was cut from kraft cardstock.  I stamped his face with a Peachy Keen stamp and his hair is from a photo paper of hay.  I cut extra pieces to fill in around his face.  He has denim jeans and hat and an old "flannel" shirt.  I don't think he'll scare any crows but he sure is cute.

Mother's Day

There have been a number of Mother's Day challenges lately and I've been racking my brain trying to decide what I want to do.  Do I start with a sketch?  Or a special paper?  How much sentiment do I want on the front? 

Along came the sketch from Mojo Monday.  I wanted something that would include flowers for the My Sheri Crafts challenge.

Then I went to a DSP from Papertrey Ink, called HodgePodge.  I had some Core-dinations that went with it and a card was born.  The Fantabulous Cricut challenge said to use your mother's favorite color and this is close.  She wears a lot of pink and coral.

The card is 5 1/8 by 7.  I laid out the entire card on Design Studio to get the right sizes.  The large circle and heart are cut from George and the flowers from Sophisticated in 2 sizes, 3 layers.  I printed the sentiment on the computer and cut the banner by hand.  Everything was inked with Tattered Rose Distress Ink.  I used a metallic paper for the "ribbon" but added some sparkle embossing to the heart to give it even more shine.  Pearls were added for flower centers.   I think my mother will love it.

The other challenges I am entering this in are  Exploring Cricut and Celebrate the Occasion.

King for a Day

The sketch my card is based on from Freshly Made.

My card.

My challenges:
Freshly Made #33 - sketch
Celebrate the Occasion #61 - male birthday, must use circle
Paper Playtime #73 - anything goes

The crown is cut from the Sophisticated cartridge with bling added to the top.  The sentiment was printed using Word.  Two of the papers are both sides of a sheet from October Afternoon and the blue is the back side of an Authentique paper.

I'm hoping to have time to work on a Mother's Day card for a couple of other challenges.  I'm going on a Spiritual Retreat this weekend so that takes away Friday and Saturday.  I'd better think of something fast so I can work on it tonight.

Two-fer

The sketch challenge at Die Cuttin Divas this week is an easy one, and one that I've done on  my own before. 

I have used a few of my sympathy cards lately and needed to restock so that's what I made with this sketch.

I printed the sentiment on the computer and then punched the edges with a MS punch.  The butterfly is from the MS Elegant Cake cartridge.  (The colors actually look more compatable in real life.  For some reason the photo makes the border look very orange.)  While I was at it, I made a second card in a different color way.

I used a different MS punch and another image from the MS Elegant cart.

Thanks for visiting.

Tiptoe Thru the Tulips

It's almost past tulip time with all the early warm weather but this week, Paper Lovin' Gals posted this picture inspiration.

At CAS-ual Fridays, they asked for a clean and simple creation with trees or flowers.  I used tulips for this challenge, too.

I didn't have a cartridge with a really good looking tulip but there was one in a vase on the Kate's ABC cart.  I used the blossom from that image and combined it with a cut on another page that looked like tulip stems and leaves.  I cut three stems in two colors of green and put them together in a way that the three tulips would show.  I used the same pink as a border and embossed the white layer with the Forest Branches folder.  I just had to ink the flower edges to add a little dimension.  Looks like spring to me.