Merry Tags for Blocks

As promised, here’s a look at my Christmas blocks. 

I made these with the Cricut Alphabet font (love this font!) and Winter Frolic for the snowman and ornament shapes. These were so easy to make I was done in a few of hours. See my original altered blocks post for more information and a video tutorial on making the blocks.
I cut the letters in Real Dial Size to better control the size proportion to the ornament.  I also cut the shadows so that the letters would stand out.  Then I gave them some texture with an embossing folder. 
Here’s a look at a couple of close ups.











I kept it simple this time and only added glitter to the snowman.  
So simple and so cute.  These are the times I love my Cricut and love not having to hunt down images online.
Hopefully, my seasonal blocks inspired you this year.  I’m thinking of making a set for the new year and then cycling through the ones I already made this year come spring.
I have a couple more projects to share this season so stay tuned!

  Cat

Mother’s Day Card and Envelope Faux Pas

Happy Sunday!  Hope you are enjoying the remainder of your weekend.  This weekend I went to two crops. How productive of me, right? Well, so-so productive anyway. I really didn’t plan very well for my crops so I just took some page kits and slapped them together.  I didn’t even have pictures for some of them and they all need some final touchups. (sigh!)

 

I don’t know if I’ll buy page kits ever again.  Don’t get me wrong, they are great designs and make for fast pages, but for me it‘s really hard to conform my pictures to the page kits. So, I usually end up changing the original intended design which really doesn’t save me much time. Maybe I’ll post a couple of them once I get the final touches done. Do you use any page kits? I would love to know how you work with them.

Ok, so now to my original topic – Mother’s Day Cards!  This year I used my Cricut & Gypsy (you don’t need the gypsy to create these cards) to design my card and I have to say I am really pleased with the results. 

Here is the first color way. 

 

The card itself and the flower were from Sentimentals; the topper base and shadow were from Spring Holiday Cards; the label from Tags, Bags, Boxes. Other supplies used were My Minds Eye paper, Stickles glitter, 3Birds letter rubons, Coredinations cardstock which I embossed with the Damask style Cuttlebug folder, misc cardstock, ribbon and pearls. 

Now, here’s a rookie mistake I made and I about kicked myself for it.  If anything else please remember this from this post: When you make a card on the Cricut, always – always cut the envelope (using the fit to page feature) first!! This way you know what size card you need to make. 

I was too busy trying to fit two cards on 12 x 12 mat that I didn’t even consider the envelope. So, now I had a card but the envelope that goes with it won’t work. Ugh!  Well, I had no choice but to make an envelope using the Martha Steward Scoreboard and I loved, loved,loved the results!

My card was approx. 5.12” x 5.5” and I tried the measurements for the 6X6 card listed on the board, but that was just too large.  And after some adjustments I was able to make the perfect envelope. 

Measurements used to create a square envelope for a 5.5 X 5.5 card:

1. Cardstock 10 x 10.
2.   Using the envelope triangle that comes with the board, score at 4 1/4 on all four sides.
3.  Fold and Ta Da! Perfect envelope. Simple right?

I also added holes (see below) to tie a ribbon through the flap. 

Here is the other color way. Card and envelope. The paper used for this one was Colorbok and letter stamps from Memory Makers. Everything else is pretty much the same as above.

I hope these gave you some last minute card ideas for your Mother’s Day Cards and keeps you from making silly mistakes like mine. It’s all good though. For me, it seems every mistake becomes an unexpected new technique.

I will be linking to some Sunday and Monday parties (see my Linky Parties page for a list).



Provo Craft does it again!

My first post for 2010. How exciting! I promise I will try to blog more often. I've been having a bit of crafter's block and trying to get my mojo back. So I've been scouring the web and other blogs and I totally lose track of time. There are sooooo many talented crafters out there. Kudos to you.

Anyway, I wanted to write about the very crafty and clever Provo Craft. They are like the "crack dealer" for the scrapbooking and paper crafts industry. Not only do they create awesome tools like the Cuttlebug, the Cricut and the Gypsy to get you hooked; they keep creating irresistable cartridges, dies and folders to keep you coming back for more.

And now, they are releasing their tools in gorgeous colors and designs. So why did they wait so long to start doing this? Was it planned this way? All I can say is their marketing team is superb and to the level of Apple's marketing. So, did they hold off on these newer designs for their very poplular machines because they know that as women we would trade in our perfectly good tool just to get the prettier style? Ah, they know us women so well. So, here's some pictures I picked up from the Cricut Message boards.

Here's the uber cute red cuttlebug. Photo by Marti(pezadoodle). She got these at CHA last week.

And here's the cute blue cuttlebug and accessories. I can't remember where I got this photo from, sorry.
I love the red one but I think I will give my old green one a good run for a while before I trade it in. So, will you be exchanging yours for any of the great new designs?

http://ohkianex.blogspot.com

Happy Holidays!

Wow! I've been gone for a while. Where does the time go?! I can't believe it's been several months since my last post. I hope you're still out there. Maybe one of my resolutions for next year will be to keep up with my blog. There will be some changes coming so stay tuned.

Anyway, I mailed out my Christmas cards this week. This year I decided to seek inspiration from other bloggers and artists to keep things fairly simple. Thanks to Christmas With the Cricut, the Pink Stamper and My Creative Classroom for these card inspirations. I had fun playing with my Cricut to create them.

I also embossed all the cards but that was hard to capture in the photos. And the envelopes were made by cutting out some cricut snowflakes and laying them on top of the envelope then spraying with Glimmer Mists. Quick and cute.

The other thing I wanted to mention is Simple Stories by MemoryWorks. Remember Project 365? Well that was a bit much for me to keep up with. I am about 3 months behind! So I will not be doing it again.

Now, that won't happen with Simple Stories because you decide what stories to tell and it's quick and easy. I also noticed from the sneak peaks that there's a bit more embellishments so you can still satisfy that need to be creative. I'm excited to see this product line launch. And you can watch their cool video teaser here.

And if you haven't done so visit their website to purchase the latest and greatest scrapbooking products from Fancy Pants, Pink Paislee, MME, Creative Imaginations and many more. Just remember to enter my consultant ID (see side bar) when you register on their site.

Well, I hope everyone has a great holiday season and I'll catch you in 2010!

Hi there! MemoryWorks and Cuttlebug Folders

Wow! Another month is over and we're half way through 2009 already. The last week of June has left us in shock over Michael Jackson's death (RIP). Who would've thought that someone that worked so hard to stay "forever" young would die like this? Such a shame.


Well, I've been trying to catch up with my Project 365. I'm about 2 1/2 months behind now. I hope I can catch up. Here's a picture of that mess.


I also have an announcement to make. I've decided to become a MemoryWorks Consultant. I hope to make new scrap buddies and use this to cover my scrap-shopping addiction. Memory Works carries some of the top lines in scrapbooking such as Fancy Pants Designs, Pink Paislee, Cosmo Cricket, BoBunny, Crate Paper and Sassafras Lass. As a MemoryWorks Consultant I get a discount on the latest supplies which always helps and I signed up for a consultant website. Visit me at http://catscraps.memory-works.com/ for more information.

MemoryWorks also has a fantastic monthly kit with great project ideas for only $29.00 a month. The July kit is called "Destinations" and is all about travel. It includes paper by Little Yellow Bicycle and embellishments by Maya Road, Making Memories & Jenni Bowlin to name a few. Check it out on my consultant page and let me know if you would like to see the project ideas and I will email you a copy.

On to Cuttlebug. Did you know that Cuttlebug will be releasing a bunch of new embossing folders at July's CHA? Well, the ladies at the Cuttlebug Challenge Blog are previewing all the new folders this month. They are also showcasing their projects created with these new folders. And they have a fun new contest to participate in this month. I just recently discovered this blog and am loving all the great ideas. Here's their promo ad:

Well, keep in touch. I love to read your comments. My counter shows almost 1,000 hits on this page, which is pretty good considering the fact that I don't promote it much. I might just have to have another RAK. hmmmm....