Paper with Pizazz Blog Hop!

Today is the Imaginisce DT i-rock Intensive Paper with Pizazz Blog Hop! We are showing you different ways of using your i-rock on paper! You should have gotten here from the Imaginisce blog. If not start there to join in the fun and find out what the prize is!!!

Hello out there in bloggy world! I find myself just so thankful. Sometimes it's easy to focus on the things that aren't going right in life, but right now I am just looking at all the things that I feel so blessed to be a part of. Being a DT member on the Imaginisce DT is definitely one of them. This group of ladies is SO encouraging and SO kind and my favorite - drama free! :) So thank you so much to Lori for choosing me and thanks to my teammates for making me feel so LUCKY. :) 

I also feel very blessed to be a part of the Cricut Circle. So I thought I would sport some love in my close-up preview. Did any of you know what I was making with this? It was tricky because I turned the photo upside down so that I could get the Circle logo somewhat right side up! Let me know if you have any questions about the Circle. I am happy to answer them to the best of my ability! 

OUT FOR PUBLICATION! :) 

If you guessed a banner, you were right! You can click on the photo to make it bigger.

OUT FOR PUBLICATION! :) 

My tiny lessons: 

• Don't be afraid to mix and match your gems! 
• Also, don't be afraid to mix and match your collection lines. This was made using Cottage Christmas and Apple Cider! :) 
• If your i-rock is not setting the smaller gems in 5 seconds or less, then switch out the batteries. I hold it on the largest ones for about 10-11 seconds each. 
• Sometimes the top gets a little loose after lots of use, so when it is is cold, screw it on tighter again by twisting it with your fingers.

Recipe:

Paper: Imaginisce Cottage Christmas and Apple Cider™

i-rock by Imaginisce™

Imaginisce Hot Rocks Compact in Crystal™

Imaginisce Hot Rocks Compact in Pink, Black, and Clear™ (smallest clear gems)

Imaginisce Hot Rocks Compact in Jewel™

Imaginisce Swirls Stencil that comes with pink and green hot rocks (and flowers)™

Cricut Cartridges: Designer's Calendar™ and Birthday Bash™ 

Cuttlebug Embossing Folders: Argyle™ and Cricut Circle (can only be picked up at Circle crops and swarms)

Crop-a-dile

Copper Eyelets

Ribbon is Offray

Glossy Accents

pop-dots

OUT FOR PUBLICATION! :) 

 Thank you so much for stopping by!


Now head on over to the fabulous Marielle's to see what she has created! 

DIY Christmas Bows, Matching Tag an Card too!

Before I continue, there is a blog hop going on at the Imaginisce blog where you could win a prize valued over $50! Here is a picture of some of the prize! Remember to play along in Pinky's challenge this month to re-purpose something using 75% Imaginisce products and you could win a prize package valued at $75!

I have a few left over "Christmas" projects. So I am going to share a few more! I hope you enjoy this!

These bows actually don't take long at all and you can match them to a card or tag to look super shnazzy.

I originally found this tutorial here. I am going to recreate it for you though.

Instructions: 

Total paper used: 1 6"x12" sheet of double sided paper.

Cut 8 1x6" strips of paper.

Next cut 1 1x4" strip from the top of what is left.

Lastly, cut 4 1x5" strips from what is left. I love it when there is no waste!

This is what you should now have:

Using your Glue Glider Pro or ATG you can put adhesive on one side of the paper so that the other side sticks making remembrance ribbons. It should look like this:

In the original tutorial by Beth, she used brads to hold the pinwheels together. I used my Crop a Dile with eyelets because I don't have any mini-brads or brads that aren't decorative hanging around. I didn't want to hide my nice ones in a bow, so I did this instead and it worked great! 

Lastly, I used my Glue Arts Extreme Adhesive Squares™ (I told you I was addicted to these!) to hold the pinwheels together to create the bow! 

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and maybe if you run out of bows you now know you don't have to go buy a big bag, you can just make your own! :) 

 I made the matching tag with the stickers that come with the Merry Christmas Line™.

 I made this card and envelope to match. The "Winter Wonderland" and the banner on the envelope came from the reverse side of the Tis the Season Card Paper™. 

Who has matching tags, bows, and cards? When you make your own anything is possible! Of course all of this is from the Merry Christmas line from Echo Park Paper!

Snowflake Ornament

I made this ornament for a Cricut Circle challenge. I am really excited about how it came out! :) I hope you like it too an can't wait to put it on a Christmas tree this year. :)

What is exciting is that while I purchased the Christmas Solutions cart because I LOVE it, it is now a promotional instant download if you have a Gypsy! It just comes with it after you register and update it! I'm not sure how long it will be available, but you don't even have to buy this cart if you have a Gypsy! How cool is that! 

I haven't been able to update yet as I have a Mac. Soon, hopefully as I can't wait to download Smiley Cards and Tags, Bags, Boxes and More as well as Indie Art! :) 

Anyway, here is the project! :)

Recipe:
Cartridge: Christmas Solutions™
Embossing: A2 Snowflakes Emboss Folder™
Paper: My Mind's Eye: I Believe Collection™: "Trees" and  "Candy Cane Stripes", and DCWV Glitter Paper
Ribbon: Paper Trey Ink Pure Poppy Saddle Stitch™
Crop-a-Dile™
Glitter Glue: Studio G
Brads: My Mind's Eye: Lost and Found: Union Square Brads™
Adhesive: Glue Arts Perma Tac™ and Martha Stewart Gel Adhesive™

Instructions:
For the Christmas bulb:
Cut the blackout, base, and shift buttons and then flip them and cut them again all at 4.5". Each layer should be cut out of different card stock.
Emboss the blackout layer with the Snowflakes Emboss Folder™
Adhere all layers together.
Punch hole in top using Crop-a-dile™and add eyelet

For the Snowflake:
Cut the blackout and base layers at 3 inches.
Use Studio G red glitter glue to dot on all the polka dots on the pattern paper.
Punch small holes in the middle of the snowflake.
Put brads through on both sides.
Adhere all layers together.

Tie the snowflake to the Christmas bulb using the Paper Trey Ink ribbon!
Hang it on the tree! :)

This qualifies for Cricut Cardz Challenge of "use something with an 's' " - snowflake! :)
This also qualifies for Wee Memories Challenge #29 "Anything Goes"! :)

Pumpkin Tree

This is the last day of the blog hop :(
We've had a wonderful time and I hope you have too!

I often decorate this candelabra tree for the different holidays. This decoration was so easy. You could always add EAD Halloween Face Stickerz or Peachy Keen faces. I was really craving them for this project.  I might still add them afterwards. :)

Recipe: 

Cartridge: Everyday Paper Dolls™

Crop-a-dile

Ribbon

Instructions: 

1. Cut 10 2.5" pumpkins from the Everyday Paper Dolls Cartridge™

2. Glue back to back in whatever patterns you want (if you are not using double sided paper, then you need to flip half of the images and be more careful as to what you want showing ahead of time).

3. Punch holes with Crop-a-dile™

4. Add eyelets

5. Tie ribbon around the top!

EAD Designs has decided to sponsor this giveaway and has provided me with some AWESOME Halloween stickerz. Thank you EAD!!! 

I am giving away:

October 31st Cartridge™

My Pink Stamper's Spooky Puns™ This link will take you to the place where I bought them at Pumpkin Spice. It is a fabulous little shop with the best customer service and the best shipping rates I have found to date! AND she has decided to give us free shipping in honor of this blog hop if you use the coupon code "OCTBLOGHOP"! Thank you SO much Pumpkin Spice! 

Cuttlebug Skeleton Scroll Emboss Folder™

Cuttlebug Boo to You Emboss Folder™

If you get lost in the hop, here is the order:

Jen from Purple Scrapbooker

Georgiana from Carson's Cricut Creations

Dorcas from 4 Crafty Angels

Cheryl from Cards by CG

Carri from A Busy Bee

Star from Star's Paper Passion

Court from Court's Crafts (that's me!)

Yvette from The Little Things

Now head on over to Yvette's blog to end the hop! We hope you had fun today!

Don't forget to leave a comment on this post so that you can be entered into the drawing for these awesome prizes! I will be picking multiple winners so check back to see if you are a winner on Thursday! You will have 48 hours to email me because I need to send off the prizes before going to Europe! :) Don't worry, I will be posting while I am away as well. :)

Become a follower if you would like to and rest assured I've already done my shopping for another giveaway in November and EAD has sent some goodies for that too! :)

Christmas Around the Clock Challenges 4-6, WMC#15

Just a short (written) post today with three projects and recipes. I will tell you that stamping on tile is a LOT harder than it looks! It kept smearing on me! haha.

Challenge #4: Ink an embossing pad, emboss, and then create a scene. (I thought the embossing folder would look like candy canes so that was kind of what I was going for)

Recipe:
Card Stock: white and DCVW™ - size A2
Embossing: A2 Organic Border Emboss Folder™
Corner Punch: Martha Stewart™ rain drops
Stamping: Recollections™ Winter Wonderland set
Coloring: Copic™ makers Ciao set
Shiny things: Glossy Accents™, Memory Box™ pearls, Hero Arts™ Hero Hues Gems
Ribbon
Ink: VersaColor™ - Neptune, Momento™ - Rich Cocoa, ColorBox™ -Black

Challenge#5: Stamping on Ceramic Tiles

Recipe:
Stamps: Recollections™ Winter Wonderland, Martha Stewart Crafts™ (letters for Lee Family)
Ink: StazOn™ Black, Brown, Sharpie™ Markers (lavender, gold, brown)

Challenge #6: Embossed Tag

Recipe:
Stamping: Martha Stewart Crafts™ (letters for "To: From:")
Emossing: A2 Snowflakes Emboss Folder™ (super find at Michaels for $3.59)
Cut: Designer's Calendar™
Eyelets: Crop-a-dile™
Red Ribbon

The first two (technically all three, but just words might not count) qualify for Wee Memories Challenge #15 - Stamping!

Christmas Around the Clock Challenges 1-3

I will try to post these in groupings so as not to bombard you with Christmas challenge updates :)...

Here are challenges 1-3 at The Cuttlebug Challenges.

The first one was to make a Z card. I had never made a Z card before so I followed the tutorial like a cooking recipe you love until you get used to it and then you start adding things! :).


Recipe:
This star cut is the negative piece from challenge number 2 (which I did first). - This is a later challenge, but I am determined to do one for each and not double up.
Card Stock: Core'dinations™, DCWV™, Anna Griffin™
Embossing: Cuttlebug™ D'vine Swirls Emboss Folder™
Eyelets: Crop-a-dile™
Off-white ribbon

Challenge #2 - make a star shaped card

Recipe:
Of course I pulled out my trust Gypsy™ for this one. I made the star shaped card from the liner feature on Wild Card™. I hid the inner lines with the hide contour feature and flipped one of the stars and welded them together. Next, I grabbed another star and cut it at the same size an let the inside get cut out as normal. Lastly, I cut another star (hid the inner lines again) for the raspberry star.
Card Stock: Core'dinations™ and DCWV™
Embossing: Love is in the Air Set™
Off-white small ribbon

Challenge #3 - Snowflake card and (optional) ornament

Recipe:
A2 sized white cardstock
Snowflake: Designers Calendar™
Embossing: A2 Swiss Dots Emboss Folder™
Stamping: Recollections
Ink: VersaColor - 173 - Neptune
Sparkle: Pixie Sparkle (remember this from high school-ish days? Everyone had to have Pixie sparkles for dances! haha)
Adhesive: Martha Stewart Crafts™ All Purpose Gel Adhesive

I got a little sparkle-happy later in the night and I'm not thrilled with all of it (mainly on the embossed snowflake), but like most crafters say, that's what home made cards are all about! :)

Enjoy! Time for me to make more of these Christmas challenge cards/projects.

Hezzy's Wedding Week - His and Her Bookmarks

Yet another home made gift I made for the shower - bookmarks. I'm such a nerd - how do you all put up with me? My husband and I love reading together cuddled up. So, I'd like to think they'll be able to cuddle up the same way we do and remember their wedding, their silly friends, and just enjoy being with each other.

Heather's wedding invitations were craft card stock with brown and blue. Our bridesmaid dresses are blue. So, I stuck with the theme for these as well as for the next project.

The bookmarks were elongated tags from Sentimentals™. Once elongated, I didn't like the one with the heart anymore. So I hid the heart and replaced it with a heart from Gypsy Wanderings™ and hid the inner line of that heart as well.

The other bookmark was the tag that was on the Key2 feature. The Key2 feature was also cut as well as it's shadow and placed on the card stock.

I used the font from Elegant Cakes™ to create all the words. I welded all of it on my Gypsy as well as the shadows. This took a very long time, but I really enjoyed doing it and hope she likes it as much as I hope she does.

I punched holes in the top with my Crop-a-Dile™ and then ran both bookmarks through the YourStory™. Then I re-punched the holes and added eyelets.

Then I just added ribbons and tied them at the top. I painted the ends with clear nail polish so they wouldn't fray and there you have it! My mom used to tell me that I was the key to her heart and wore a necklace that had a tiny key and heart to it. So the special meaning is being passed along.

Cricut Cardz Challenge #26 - Brads or Eyelets

Well, Shelly (thanks for becoming a follower!) pointed me in the direction of The Cricut Cardz Challenges last night in the Wine Glass Thank You Post. She thought I should enter it over at Cricut Cardz Challenge. Little did she know I was creating a new one just for that challenge while she was writing that!

Last night I made three cards with envelopes that I can't wait to share with you! The theme of all three is chandeliers. I just recently got the Embossing Folders Love is in the Air Set™ (which inevitably has me doing the Samba every time I use one of the embossing folders - reference to the movie Dirty Dancing). But I digress. I love the chandelier in this set and since I recently got the Summer in Paris Cartridge™ and there is a 3D chandelier on that too - I just had to try them all.

This card was made with the 3D chandelier. There is one slit on the top of the first piece and another on the bottom of the second piece so that the two pieces can go together - I really should have taken a picture of this - so I simply cut off the top of the piece that had the slit on the top and glued it on top of the piece that had the slit on the bottom thusly hiding both slits and getting one solid chandelier. I hope that makes sense.

The card shape and envelope were cut from the Sentimentals Cartridge™ at 4.5". - I believe it was the lock button. I used scraps from the edge of the paper after I cut out the card for the inside of the envelope. I love using scraps! I used my Crop-a-Dile to take care of the eyelets.

Enjoy and I'll be posting one of my embossed chandelier cards tomorrow!

Wine Glass Thank You

So, this is from the Summer in Paris Cartridge™ that I just got!!! I was so excited to use it. Unfortunately, I haven't updated Design Studio™ (do they ever get the seasonal/limited edition cartridges in?), so I couldn't weld it. I'm glad I didn't now. I really like the way it turned out. I made this card for my Aunt Ann, Uncle Phil, and Cousin John who hosted us when we went back to North Carolina. They are also wine enthusiasts, so this card is right up their ally. It's really simple, but classic. I just did the background and normal cuts and then "flip"ed them and cut them again. I used the Crop-a-Dile™ to take care of the eyelets and some ribbon to close it. The glass is certainly half full today! :)

Jennifer, I'm not quite sure how to get ahold of you privately, but thank you for your inquiry! :) The wine bottle and class are one image and were cut at 5.5" with the Real Dial Size on. Hope this helps! I think I'll be making this one again :).

BBTB2 - Tags Challenge

This card was made for the Bitten By the Bug 2 challenge titled "Peggy Loves Vintage - Tags, Bags, Boxes, & More Challenge".

Well, I don't have the Tags, Bags, Boxes, and More Cartridge™, so I decided to use a tag from the Sentimentals Cartridge™. I punched an extra hole on the bottom, used my Crop-a-Dile to add the black eyelets, and put some organza ribbon around it. It's simple, elegant, and... recycled! The paper for the card is gift wrap that I received on a recent gift from the handsome husband (it was Julia Child's cookbook! Try the Onion Soup - it's amazing!). The white layer is out of scrap paper (not really recycled, just used I guess) and the black vinyl type material is from an old cover of a binder (the kind they use to bind reports in)! :)

Anyway, there it is - simple and classic. Hope you like it!

Other Mother's Day Card 2010

Well, I couldn't just make one card when I have a wonderful mother-in-law as well (we call her my co-mom because she's wonderful and I didn't want the bad connotations to be there). Anyway, so this one is for my co-mom.

I have to say I was tickled pink today when one of my crafting heros Meda decided to "follow" my blog. As icing on the cake (hmm... I was going to make cupcakes today... crafting or cupcakes, crafting or cupcakes, CRAFTING!) Carole, who seems to be the mother of the crafting community that I watch, commented on one my cards.

For the card I used:
Sentimentals Cartridge™
Storybook Cartridge™
Cuttlebug Swiss Dots Embossing Folder™
Flower punch in two sizes
Swarovski™ Crystals

There were four things that I tried for the first time with this card:
I was really excited to use the Scissors from the Sentimentals Cartridge™ so I wanted the card to open up that way (a front opening card).

This was my first attempt using any kind of shadowing feature. I think it really does make a card "pop".

The third element that was new to me was curling the flower edges - an idea that I scraplifted.

And lastly, another new element was making a band that went around the outside.

I used eyelets with my Crop-a-Dile to make the holes because I wanted a very finished look and ribbon to hold the back of it. I'll post a picture of this as I wish more crafters showed the backs of their cards. I often wonder how they get things to wrap around the cards and how they finish them off, so this was my solution to that. Enjoy!

Easter Egg Tree

Well, Easter has come and gone, but I thought I would share this Easter Egg tree that I made for the centerpiece of our Easter table (although I admit I got very sick and we ended up eating at our parents' house, but it was still great decoration for the month or so before!).

I used the Designer's Calendar Cartridge™ to find the egg shape. I cut out 6 at 3.5 inches out of sage colored and pre-embossed with little dots card stock. I then used the eggs as the guide for the size of the white side of the paper. I traced 6 eggs onto the white shiny paper and then cut them out by hand as I didn't want to have the same design (which wouldn't line up) on both sides of the egg. I then glued them together. I cut out flourishes from the Storybook Cartridge™ from the same sage colored cardstock and glued them to the white side of the egg. I embellished with Swarovski™ crystals and used my new Crop-a-Dile™ to punch holes and snaps to create a finished look. I cut white and deep purple ribbon to make loops and then tied the tops of the bows to the tree. Voila! Now they will be packed up for next year and hopefully I'll get to use it in the middle of my own table next year.
Enjoy!