The Cutting Cafe Christmas in July

Anybody out there ready for Christmas?  I don't know about you but it's too hard for me to think about a cold weather holiday in July.  This week's Cutting Cafe assignment forced me to start thinking about my annual Christmas Card.  I think I'll do the same thing I did last year-mass produce. It made life so much simpler, as opposed to a different card for each person on my list.  I have a few exceptions that I make special cards for.  This will be one of those cards.  I used the Snow Globe Shaped Card and I also used the Frosty and Penguin in Snow Globes Printable Stamps.  I cut the shaped card from white cardstock, printed the outer circle, added a layer of blue cardstock, then printed out Mr. Penguin.  Isn't he so cute?  I used a red polka dot scrap to make the bow and cut the snowglobe base from a medium brown and kraft cardstocks.

Now are you at least ready to start thinking about your handmade Christmas cards?  I sure hope I've inspired you to get started.  December 25th will be here before you know it (less than 150 days).  You know how it just sneaks up on you.  You think you have plenty of time and the next thing you know you're sitting in your craft area on December 21st reprimanding yourself for not getting started earlier.

Cardz TV Stamps Challenge #32 Back to School

Hi Everyone!  The Cardz TV Stamps Design Team is back after a little summer hiatus and we have new names.  Mary has separated the DT into two groups.  It's time for the first group to post their projects as the Cardz TV Stamps Challenge Galz.  Mary has dubbed us all with the moniker Go To Galz.  Isn't that cute?  Anyway, our challenge today is a Back To School project.  For my project I used the Cardz TV Stamps Ticket Talk 2 stamp set for my ENJOY the RIDE sentiment.  I also used the Christmas Joy stamp set for the stars on my card.  I started with a white A2 size cardbase, topped with a blue mat, red mat and yellow background.  I'm sorry to say that my hand stamped background does not show up in my photo.  I stamped tone on tone to get the background and I used sentiments from a whole bunch of different Cardz TV stamp sets.  It was the first time I ever tried the technique and now I know to go a tad darker with the ink when stamping in the same color as the paper.  Oh well, we learn as we go.  Before I attached the yellow mat I did some zigzag stitching with my sewing machine.  My bus came from the Cricut Locker Talk cartridge.  Since this is a back to school themed project I thought it would be cool to give my sentiment the look of writing on the chalkboard so I stamped with Versamark ink and embossed in white on black cardstock.  I embellished with a little red ribbon and tied a small pencil onto the ribbon for a little more visual interest and added some star sequins to the centers of the stars for a tiny bit of bling.  I hope you'll be able to play along with this challenge which will run for two weeks.  You have until noon EST, Thursday August 8th, to post your name and a link to your creation, using Inlinkz on the Cardz TV blog.  I know Mary would love to see your projects using her stamps, but you may enter the challenge even if you don't have any.  You'll have the chance to win a set of Cardz TV stamps. 

The Cutting Cafe Nail Polish Box

Today I'm showcasing a cute little Nail Polish Box Holder Template/Cutting File for The Cutting Cafe.  Miss Regina had great timing when she assigned this file to the Design Team.  My granddaughter recently made a visit for a little one on one time with Nana and Pop.  Since we spend seven months of the year in Florida we don't get to see Payton very often.  This is the first year that she was brave enough to come to our camper in Michigan without her mom.  We had such a fun time. I spent quite a few days in advance making a list of things to do to entertain her.  I decided that we would have a spa day of girly primping.  One of the activities was a manicure.  I bought a few different colors of nail polish and some clear glitter polish for a top coat.  Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of our little adventure.  I just hate it when I do that.

Anyway, on to my project.Nail Polish Box Holder Template.  This set features:

2 assorted boxes, one with a lid and the bottom has a heart cutout and one plain.  The other box is shaped like a bottle of nail polish and holds one bottle.
A nail file holder
Five straight sentiments
Two circle sentiments

I used the heart cutout box with the lid.  Nothing says girly more to me than pink, glitter and tulle so I incorporated all three into my box.  I used some Bazzill dotted paper for the bottom, white glitter paper for the lid and tied it all up with some pretty pink tulle.  The sentiment on the little tag and the box are from another Cutting Cafe file called Nail Polish Shaped Card Invite Set.

The Cutting Cafe Large Gift Bag

This week at The Cutting Cafe Blog the Design Team is featuring projects using the Large Gift Bag Template.  I made my bag with a 4th of July theme to hold a surprise for my granddaughter that was visiting us during the holiday.  I used the SVG file and my Silhouette to cut all the pieces for the bag. This bag cuts out approximately six inches wide, 9 inches tall and has a depth of about 4 inches.  The set comes with:

• Two different size bag fringes
• Seven sentiment tags (plus one blank)
• Six long sentiment phrases
• Six word trimmings

I cut the bag pieces for the bag itself out of a medium blue cardstock.  I used the large fringe on my bag.  Since I was going with a 4th of July theme I wanted to use my tricolor ribbon around the top of the bag and for a bow.  I added three firecrackers that I found in the Silhouette store.  (Note the firecrackers are not a Cutting Cafe file).  The handles for the bag are strips of cardstock cut at 1 x 11". Super simple and of course by varying your papers you could make this bag for any occasion.

My Creative Time Square Card Challenge

It's a rare day indeed.  Our company is gone (for now), all my design assignments are done and hubby is off golfing.  I actually had a day to play.  The first thing I did was get out my storage box with My Creative Time  Stamps and Dies to make a project for Miss Emma's current challenge for a square card.  Once every summer I send cards off to our Florida campground friends.  I needed a design that was simple and could be easily duplicated, without layers because I need to mail a dozen of them.  I started with plain white cardstock cut 4 x 8", scored and folded in half.  Next I went through my stamps and dies and decided to use the It's All About You stamp set.  Using the arrow stamp and my Memento Dew Drop Inks I stamped the arrow in the seven colors of a rainbow.  The colors I used were-Grape Jelly (Purple), Danube Blue (Indigo), Bahama Blue (Blue), Cottage Ivy (Green), Dandelion (Yellow), Tangelo (Orange) and Lady Bug (Red).   Once I decided on my design the process went quickly, starting with the sentiment stamped in the bottom right corner.  Next I cut out the arrow pieces.  This sounds tedious, but it was just of matter of four snips of the scissors for each one and didn't take much time at all.

I decided to draw a light line from the top left corner of the card towards the sentiment so my placement of the arrow strips would be straight.  When I was done placing the arrows I erased the line.  That's it, I had all the cards done in a little over an hour.  

I'm so excited because tomorrow July 10th, is the day to see  Miss Emma's newest release on My Creative Time For Me.  I know they're going to be fabulous and that I'll want them all, but of course I'll have to stay within a bit of a budget.  The best thing about My Creative Time stamps and dies is how well the newer sets will coordinate with the older releases so I know whatever I purchase will go along with the sets I already have.  

The Cutting Cafe Card Organizer Box

Welcome blogging friends.  It's another Sunday and time to post my weekly Cutting Cafe project.  I hope you all enjoyed a fabulous Independence Day celebration here in the U.S.  It was busy and hectic for hubby and I.  We had our six year old granddaughter come stay with us in our camper for the week.  It was her first time staying by herself without mom.  We had such a good time being with her one on one.  She felt really special being with Nana and Pop without having to share time with her little sister.  Everyday was a new adventure and I know we gave her special memories to last a lifetime.  We had lots of beach time, took her to the show to see Monsters University, went to the park, did some shopping, went to the 4th of July parade, fireworks on the beach and even spent time crafting and making cards for some special people in her life.  Her mom and baby sister joined us for the weekend and we are winding down on our last day together as they will all be leaving later today.  It was fun, but exhausting.  Now I'm ready to get back into a routine and get back to my papercrafting.  Here's a picture of Payton working on decorating her bag to take to the parade to collect goodies the parade participants threw from their floats.  (Translation--lots of candy).

This week Miss Regina asked the Design Team to create a project using either the Card Organizer Box or the Dresser Box.  Originally I planned to make the Dresser Box which is totally adorable, but then I decided I wanted to make the Card Organizer Box to put some cards in for my friend.  This cutting file/template also comes with cool divider sheets to separate your cards into desired categories.

I've mentioned that I'm staying in a camper for the summer.  I love our nomadic lifestyle but it tends to bring some definite challenges when it comes to my crafting.  I have very limited storage being in such a small space.  It was an exciting day for me when all the paper companies began making 6 x 6 paper pads.  They're perfect for my little space.  On occasion though I need some larger paper and this box was one of those times.  You need to have several sheets of paper that are at least 8.5 x 11".  I only had one sheet of my gorgeous black and kraft printed paper which wasn't enough to make the box and lid.  My solution was to make the lid out of plain kraft cardstock.  To fancy up the lid a little I used a scallop punch on some black cardstock and added it to the bottom edge of the lid.  Then I used my fantastic burlap ribbon with the black chevron stripe to add a bow to the lid.  Isn't it cool?  I found this at Hobby Lobby before we left Florida and wish I had bought more of it.  It came on a spool in their ribbon department.  I decided to cut the yardage in half and bring half with me to Michigan and leave the rest in Florida keeping in mind my limited storage space in the camper.  That was a bit of a mistake because I love it so much and there is no Hobby Lobby near me.  It would be a two and a half hour drive to get to a big name craft store.  To finish off my embellishments I added a tiny tag with the sentiment For You and a few butterflies cut with a die from My Creative Time using black cardstock.  I cut two for each butterfly so I could give them some dimension by bending the top layer up.  To finish them up I added three black pearls in the center of each one.

I thank you so much for coming by today and want to remind you to visit The Cutting Cafe Blog on Wednesday to see the rest of the amazing Design Team projects.  You're going to love them and really be inspired.