The Cutting Cafe Butterfly Shaped Card

 

Wow, I simply can't believe that this is the last day of the month of June.  It's Sunday and the day I post my project for The Cutting Café.  I love making shaped cards and I was so excited when Miss Regina asked The Cutting Cafe Design Team to create a project this week using the Butterfly Shaped Card or the Butterfly Treat Box.  I'm not kidding when I say these Cutting Cafe files are so simple to use.  Even if you don't have a cutting machine Miss Regina always has a PDF version of her files that are easy to print and cut by hand.  I used the SVG file and my Silhouette Cameo, mostly because I feel the need to learn how to use it better.  Quite frankly I would rather cut it by hand than use the Silhouette.  I get enormously frustrated with this machine.  This card went together in mere minutes because there are only a few pieces.  I cut the base card from white cardstock, the top shadow from green printed paper, the top layer from a pretty pink rose print and the center piece from a green polka dot scrap.  All the papers were from my scrap bin.  I simply added some wire I shaped into spirals for the antennae, a cute little button for the head and a fancy pink tulle bow.  Since I haven't decided the occasion I will use this card for I didn't add any sentiment to it yet.  I know you'll find some other great designs when you stop by The Cutting Cafe Blog on Wednesday for the rest of the Design Team projects.

My Creative Time Bling Challenge

Boy, did I have fun with this one.  I made this card for the Designer's Challenge going on over at My Creative Time.  It was Miss Emma's turn to pick the challenge this week and she wants to see bling. I was inspired after watching Miss Emma's video on how she made her card for the challenge.  She was inspired by her Design Team member, Miss Nikki.  A current trend in papercrafting is using sequins.  I wanted to give it a try.  You can't believe how hard it was for me to find some sequins on the spur of the moment.  For those of you that don't know, hubby and I spend our summers in a small summer tourist town in our RV at a campground on the shore of Lake Huron in Michigan.  There are no big ticket craft stores like Hobby Lobby, JoAnns or Michaels and no privately owned scrapbook stores.  There is a Walmart and that's it.  Complicating the process even more, I am legally blind and can't drive.  I thought I was going to have to order online and hope my order arrived in time to take part in the challenge.  I was talking to my campground neighbor today as she and her hubby were getting ready to take a little ride on their scooters around town to check out some local garage sales.  I jokingly told her that I needed some sequins, if she happened to run across any.  A couple hours later my neighbor returned with a bag of sequins in her hand.  I was so excited I couldn't wait to get started. 

For my card I used the banner die from My Creative Times Chocolate Greetings set.  I decided to go with a 4th of July theme.  I cut a 2.75" square of white cardstock.  I placed the die on my square three times and ran it through my Cuttlebug leaving the three openings where my sequins would show through.  I'm sure there are several different methods you could use to attach the sequins, I went with tacky tape because I happened to have some the perfect width for two rows of sequins.   I thought the process of attaching each individual sequin would take some time, but it went very quickly.  I added a 1.25" square of blue cardstock in the corner with a red, white and blue twine bow and a sparkly white star brad I found in my stash.  My sentiment is from the My Creative Time Chunky Jar Accessories set.

The Cutting Cafe Berry Sweet Greetings

It's time for another week of inspiration from The Cutting Cafe.  This week Miss Regina asked the Design Team to create projects using her Berry Sweet Greeting Printable stamp set.  When I saw the sentiment I used I knew it was perfect to put on the berry basket.  I'm not sure how long ago I bought the Cricut Spring Cottage cartridge, but I bought it specifically for this adorable berry basket and 3-D strawberries.  Isn't it the cutest?  I cut the basket at 7" and the berries at 3".  I had to improvise a little on assembling the berries.  I'm constantly find I need supplies that I left back in Florida.  It is incredibly frustrating to me.  I needed some brads to hold the berries together.  Didn't bring a single one with me.  I have a wonderful assortment of brads and I left them all down there.  I'll add them to my list I'm compiling of things I don't want to leave behind next year.  Anyway, I managed to get them together using glue dots.  I added a little wire in spirals to the leaves on the top.  I've had this wire in my stash for years and years and never used it.  When I was packing my supplies I came across it, brought it with me and vowed to use.  This is the second project I've used it on.  I must pat myself on the back.  I embellished the basket with some chevron ribbon, a crocheted flower and a cute wooden button.  Now make sure you stop by The Cutting Cafe Blog on Wednesday to check out the rest of the Design Teams Berry Sweet Greetings.

The Cutting Cafe Humor

Hi friends!  It's Sunday, my day for posting my weekly Cutting Cafe project.  This week Regina asked the Design Team to create a project using the House Shaped Card or the Welcome Home Set.  When I saw the Phyllis Diller quote from the Welcome Home set my design came to mind immediately.  Many of my friends and family make fun of me because I'm such a neat freak.  I know they'll all get a kick out of me using this sentiment, but I'm never going to apologize for liking my surroundings clean and neat.  What can I say?  I actually made this as a home decor project to place in a frame but I had to photograph it out of the frame because of the glare from the glass.  There are quite a few different elements that went into creating this little scene, but it really went together very quickly.  I started with a sky patterned paper and then added the green for the yard.  Next I printed the house from the Welcome Home set on three different papers--white, a beige polka dot and kraft cardstock.  Then I did a little fussy cutting and paper piecing to construct the house.  My next element was the die cut picket fence.  I used a die from Impression Obsession that I picked up at my favorite scrapbook store, Violette's in Lakeland, Florida.  I am so missing that store while we are in Michigan and can't wait to get back to it in the fall.  After placing the fence on my little scene I made the lady in the lounge chair using my Cricut Pack Your Bags cartridge and added it to the scene with a few pop dots along with the sunshine cut from the same cartridge.  The cleaning items (mop and bucket, duster and cleaner) were all cut from the Cricut Lite Chore Chart cartridge.  Last, but not least, I printed out my sentiment and added it alongside the house.  I love how this came out.  It makes me chuckle every time I look at it.  Thanks for coming by today and make sure you check out the rest of the Design Teams projects on Wednesday at The Cutting Cafe Blog.

Cardz TV Stamps Love in a Jar

Hello my crafty friends.  You are in for a real treat today.  The Cardz TV Stamps Design Team is showing projects with Mary's new stamp set Love in a Jar.  This is one of Mary's best stamp sets so far, if I may say so myself.  I love, love, love it.  Here is what the stamp set looks like if you haven't seen it yet.

Isn't it fabulous!!!  For my project today I used the large jar and small label.  First I stamped the jar on a piece of white cardstock and cut it out.  Then I started covering the jar with buttons that I cut from a die set I found at my local scrapbook store.  There are quite a few Cricut cartridges that have buttons and there are some really cute button files in the Silhouette store.  When I had the jar filled up with buttons, I stamped the image again on a piece of acetate and then cut it out and popped it up with dimensionals under where the label would be placed. I cut the lid of the jar from a textured gold cardstock.  To finish my jar up I stamped the label and cut it out then taped it to a piece of copy paper and printed the word Buttons on it from my computer, then added it to the jar.  I tied a piece of jute around the top of the jar and added the little scissors before tying the bow.  You can find scissors on several Cricut cartridges or in the Silhouette store, but mine were cut with a die from My Creative Time.  Now that I had the jar of buttons assembled I started on the card.  It's a standard A2 card cut from kraft cardstock with a black mat and a turquoise mat that came from the DCWV Crafty Stack.  I placed a little burlap on the top mat to go under my jar.  This added some texture and visual interest.  My sentiment is stamped onto a banner then I stuck it under the jar.  The last embellishments I add were a small piece of a ruler and three more die cut buttons.  I know you're going to love the projects from the other DT members.  Check them all out at Cardz TV.  To join the challenge make a card, layout or project using something you'd put in a jar.  Link it up on the Cardz TV blog  for a chance to win a set of Mary's stamps.



MCT Sketch Challenge

There's a sketch challenge going on over at My Creative Time so I decided to use it to help me create a sympathy card for a friend.  I'm sure I'm not alone when I say I find it difficult to make sympathy cards.  I thought that the man with the wings from Miss Emma's We Are Family Stamp Set would convey the message I wanted to send.  I framed it out using the My Creative Time Stitched Mini Frame Die.  I also added a stitched heart from the Stitched Heart Layering Dies.  My patterned paper is Authentique. 
Here's a photo of the sketch for the challenge:

The Cutting Cafe Cruisin' By to Say Hi

Wow, another Sunday has rolled around and it's time for my post highlighting a Cutting Cafe project.  This week Miss Regina asked the Design Team to make a Father's Day project, so I've used the Classic Car Shaped Card and the Cruisin' By to Say Hi Car Set to make this card for my hubby for Father's Day.  I just had to use the "I love riding with you" sentiment because my poor hubby carts me all over kingdom come since I'm legally blind and can't drive.  He's such a good sport about it, too.  He's learned to take a book to read every time I say I need an outing.  I've learned to be the world's fastest shopper and always have a list of what I need so he never has to wait too long for me or make another trip because I forgot something.

I used kraft cardstock for my base card that I cut with the SVG cutting file.  It's topped with a brown polka dot from Colorbok.  I added trim pieces of kraft cardstock around the wheels and for the center of the tires which I embossed with Swiss Dots.  I thought adding the hearts to the center of the tires was perfect to go along with the sentiment.  I printed out the sentiment on some off white cardstock and hand trimmed it into the banner.  For a final touch I added a piece of jute twine and solid brown button with a mini tag.  The tag sentiment is from another the Cutting Cafe Everyday Love Thoughts Mini Words.  Make sure you pop in over at The Cutting Cafe Blog on Wednesday to see the rest of the Design Teams projects.



The Cutting Cafe Bottle Shaped Card

We have a new baby girl coming into our family this July.  Miss Regina asked The Cutting Cafe Design Team to create baby cards this week for our design project using her Diaper Shaped or Bottle Shaped sets.  It was the perfect excuse to make a card to welcome our first great grandchild.  Baby Ella is expected in mid-July and we're so excited that we will be here in Michigan to see her.  As you can see I used the Baby Bottle Shaped cutting file and all pink to create my card.  My paper is from an old DCWV Sweets paper stack.  I simply cut the base card in white using the SVG file and my Silhouette.  Then I added the top piece of pink striped paper, a white piece that I embossed with Swiss Dots and the nipple is made from a blush color that's old Stampin' Up.  A little pink gingham ribbon, pink crocheted flower, white button and a tag printed with a sentiment from The Cutting Cafe's Baby Mini Words.