Great Nephew's First Birthday!

So... Felix's First Birthday is today! 
This little guy is my great nephew and is just as cute as a bug! 

 My first and only creation was to be this card below.  Then, after I looked through the Cricut booklet, I saw the sign (shown above) and just had to make it for the party!

This shows just the sign I made, and the card...  we definitely will shower him with many gifts! 

Happy Birthday, Felix!  We love you!

May 2014 Christmas Cards

May!  2014 is flying right by...  With these 6 cards, I have 33 Christmas cards already finished!  A few years ago, that would have been MORE than enough.  This project allows me to send cards to extended family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, and acquaintances.

I CASE'D this design from a card I saw on Pinterest - changed a few details, and here you go.... Ho Ho Ho!

Cherry Cobbler, Fiesta paper stack, Gumball Green (ret.), a snowflake punch I've had for a long time, and regular brads with glitter.

Do they look a little crooked?  Maybe so, but the chevron design in the background doesn't help your eyes either.  Please enjoy!

I've already got June's cards in the planning phase.  SO many ideas! :)

Pinterest WIN! No Solicitors Sign

This is the original sign of the very MANY "No Soliciting" signs I saw on Pinterest...  I thought it was hilarious, and decided I just had to make one of my own!  We don't have many solicitors in our neighborhood, but around election time, and people trying to sell us windows, it gets annoying.

This is my version.  I found "Outdoor" Mod Podge, and tried it here.  Should last through wind, and rain, and dark of night... I hope!  Ice and snow here as well!

I used larger sized letters than the original, so I stopped by Hobby Lobby one afternoon for just a small piece of wood for the last 2 words.  I decided they didn't need a "Please".

I still think it's hilarious!  Now I just need to call my neighbor and tell her it's really OK to stop by for flour, or sugar, or milk!  :D

Teacher and Support Employees of the Year 2013-2014

Little did I know this past October I would start working with wood!  Again, a big THANKS to my upline Kathy who always gives us new projects and challenges at Stamp Camp!  Since working on the monogrammed letters and wooden crosses, I'm no longer afraid of crafting with it... well, not afraid exactly - it's just a new medium.

Our team leader approached me once the school voted on our TOY and Support Employee of the year and asked if I would make a plaque or something we could present to them.

This is what I came up with.

I used the Team Spirit cartridge to cut out the Huskies, and Plantin Schoolbook to cut the letters.

In hindsight, I should have Mod Podged AFTER I took the pictures, but that will have to be for next time. :)

One thing I will say is that after they had more time to dry, some of those still wet looking areas cleared up nicely, and weren't fuzzy looking at all.

Gifts for our Chinese Visitors

Each year at the beginning of October, the school I work at hosts a group of 15 - 20 Chinese school children and their teachers.  We do so many activities with them as a school...  cookouts, lake trips, a trip to the fair, classroom tours... etc.  

Last year I made a booklet for each of the students and teachers - this year the idea was bookmarks.

 Our school mascot is the Husky - Hoover Huskies, and the Team Spirit cartridge has such an awesome image... I made one for each of the tour group.

 This is a close-up of the 2 3/4 inch cut and all its layers - black, 3 shades of gray, and white.  It's approximately 15 pieces for each Husky cut.

This piece I cut larger - for me.... It's a 3 1/2 inch cut (It actually didn't fit on the bookmarks.) and turned out quite large!  I took a little extra time to ink the edges, added silver stickles, and a black glaze pen added dimension and shine to the eyes, nose, and some other areas.

We had them laminated, and I was told our visitors LOVED them!  :)

Father's Day Card

Who knew Father's Day cards would be such a dilemma!  Whew!  There are lots of great masculine cards out there, but I've already used lots of the ideas, and don't want to repeat any.  That's the problem!

I already used the old car in the weeds,  the grill, the shirt and tie....  now what!?

Plus, after retirement, my dad started making personalized cards on the computer with photos and things, so when I present him something he looks for the stamp I use on my creations... and then I get a grunt of approval.  Pressure!!??!!  :)

After spending quite a bit of time thinking, I remembered one of my Cricut carts has tools!  It just so happens that Dad is GREAT with tools and builds all kinds of great stuff... so this is the card I came up with for him this year.

I used lots of dimensionals to raise everything off the page... and used white and silver pens for accents.  The background is a piece of Crumb Cake cardstock embossed with the steel plate folder.


I hope he likes it! :)

Frame for Mom's Birthday **New technique for clay molds.

I've seen many frames similar to these.... Family - Joy -

My friend Melissa did a fantastic one for Mother's day - but she didn't make one, she made 3 of them, and added photographs.  I was going to do that too, and found some great ones from when my sister and I were kids, but I wasn't happy with my photo options - so I took the project in this direction.

 I used my Cricut to cut the letters from the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge - layered with Concord Crush, and Pretty in Pink (ret.) cardstock.  The background paper is simply 2-12 x 12 sheets of the Flirtatious paper cut to fit the Concord Crush 3 inch squares.

There are LOTS of embellishments - the letters, and patterned paper squares are all inked with either Soft Suede, or Crumb Cake.  I used the laser cut sheets to trim out 3 doilies, and inked them with Pretty in Pink.

Lots of the embellishments came from the Artisan's Embellishments Kit that I'm so sad to say didn't return in the new 2013-2014 catalog. :(

On the letter h, you can see a white resin flower from the Artisan Embellishments Kit.  To the left of the h, I used some of the lace, and a clear button in the center.  To the right of the h, I used some of the flowers included in the kit as well as one of the ribbon holder with the hearts at the top.  LOVE LOVE LOVE those! 

One of the very newest products Stampin' Up is coming out with is clay!  I LOVE IT!   The butterfly at the bottom is the new Stampin' Up clay, used in a Martha Stewart mold - on the right hand side, at the top square and 2nd square underneath are molds from MS as well.  LOVE that frame!!!  I'm going to use that one often. Instead of using a water brush on the frame, I used my sponges and colored it that way.  It worked so well!

Cast Molds - are you aware of them?  I taught this to my students - has to do with how some fossils were formed so many millions of years ago.  I used the exact same principle with that white resin flower found on the letter h.  I used some "bake" FIMO clay, pressed the flower into it to make an impression (along with some other pieces) baked it, and then used the Stampin' Up clay to make more of them!  **Confused yet?  I really did try to be clear.

The Stampin' Up clay is soft, and air-dried so it wasn't such a crisp impression, but it is pretty in person!  Sometimes the pictures just don't do justice. :(

SO, here's my take on the framed pieces.  This one definitely gets hand-delivered. 

Post 8 of New "Old" Things - 4th of July 2008

These 4th of July cards were sent to my family.. These were my first foray into Studio G stamps - and I was hooked! They are the perfect small size, and do the job so well!
I cut the star from Plantin Schoolbook, and just layered the paper. I tried heat embossing on the circle, but I wasn't quite sure how to do that yet, so it didn't work as well. I've now got it all figured out, so this year's cards will be MUCH improved!

I still use my Cuttlebug so much! The Divine Swirls folder is one of my favorites.

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Post 7 of New "Old" Things - Anniversary Cards

We just travel SO much... lots of time to the same places, but still travel often, I wanted to make this card for our anniversary.

I highlighted the map with stickles to show all the places we've already traveled, and the entire map to show where we still need to go!

I made this card in June of 2008... I look at it now, and like most of it, but realize how much my skills have improved!

June 2008... I cut all these hearts from Plantin Schoolbook... and just had a good time collage-ing!

The designs on the hearts are made with a template - and glaze gel pens.

Happily Ever After was cut from a Disney cart, and the gem highlighted with diamond stickles.

I made these in June of 2008 to celebrate our 6th anniversary. We always give 2 cards...one cute/funny one, one a little more serious.

I'm very excited to say that this year, 2009 my cards will be of much better quality! Having the Cricut and visiting the messageboard for over a year has greatly improved my skills above this level.

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Stationery Box Set and a Refill for a Dear Friend

This card is a refill to the original set with piano key tape I found in Memphis.

I saw this Stationery Set on our Cricut Message Board and did some investigating to find the link for more specific directions. I loved the idea, and had some paper I found that was perfect for a dear friend. I didn't want to make it too frilly, 'cause he wouldn't appreciate it, but I wanted to make them gorgeous!


I finished the box and first set of cards in July, and the refill cards - I made a whole bunch this time were sent with his Halloween cards. While we were vacationing in Memphis this past summer, I found this piano tape! I'm sorry I bought only one roll, but will search out some more.

Here's the link to the original directions for this Gift Set. It's even got a video tutorial!
http://jackietopa.typepad.com/Stationary.pdf

Enjoy!

4th of July Cards...

I sent these out just a few days ago for the 4th of July.

I used the Cricut to make the Star, my Cuttlebug embossing folder "Divine Swirls", blue and red star paper from Hobby Lobby, and the small notecards from Wal-Mart. Most importantly - I used the Studio G stamps (July) I'd been RAK'd by 2 ladies on the awesome cricut MB!