Monday, May 2, 2011

Stylish Blogger Award!

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So about a week ago I received this award from three great bloggers and I wanted to take a moment and say Thanks to them.  Thank you so much Tina from Creating with Gypsy, Cheryl from See It Snap It Scrap It and Raven with Feral Scraps!! Your blogs rock so for you to honor me with this award is awesome.  If you get a chance stop by these blogs, these ladies are super talented. 
I’ll come back and post the things about me and who gets this award next in the next few days.  Stay tuned.
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Sunday, May 1, 2011

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. 
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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. 
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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.
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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).

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Wednesday, April 20, 2011

New Baby Card & Etching Pyrex

Hello everyone!  I hope your week has been going well. I was a little under the weather over the past week, but am lots better now.
So now I need to catch up on some blogs, some crafting and on getting back to replying to your wonderful comments. 
Today, I’m sharing a welcome baby card I made for my neighbors who had a new baby girl last week. I made this card with my Cricut using Wrap It Up. I just love that baby carriage image. 
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Here’s a better shot of the glitter.
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So, over the weekend I decided to do some etching on my Pyrex casserole dishes. I’ve seen it done so many times before all over the internet and it didn’t seem that difficult to do. Why not try it?
And here’s my results:
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Pretty cool, huh?  I was totally pleased with the results.  I could’ve gone with a monogram or name but I wanted something more decorative.  This image is from the Cindy Loo cartridge and it also has a border image that I manipulated on my Gypsy to fit my dishes.
So here’s my process for etching these dishes.
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  1. Select image and cut to size on vinyl with your Cricut.
  2. Use transfer tape to remove image from vinyl backing.
  3. Transfer image to glass dish. (Oh, and clean your dish well with alcohol or something)
  4. Weed the parts of the image you want to etch. 
  5. Burnish the image well to remove any air bubbles from the edges.
  6. Carefully, apply etching cream with a brush (I applied it pretty thickly) and let set for 20-30 minutes. (Oops! No Pics for the rest of instructions)
  7. Wipe excess etching cream from image and then rinse well and quickly. You don’t want any etching cream to etch any other part of your dish.
  8. Ta da! Now you have a beautiful etched dish! Make something yummy and enjoy!
Well that’s all the crafty bits I have for you today. 
Now, I need to work on those Mother’s day cards I haven’t had a chance to finish.  I’m also really excited for the new season of Doctor Who on BBC America this Saturday. Yay! Finally!
d11s02_series-generic_01_4x3Photo courtesy of BBC.co.uk




Linking to these parties:







 
 


Craft Goodies


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Monday, April 11, 2011

Hello New Follwers and More Cards to Share

It's been a blast getting to know everyone from the Getting Cricky linky party.  Everyone has such great blogs and creative talent.
I'm still trying to get to everyone so don't fret if you haven't heard from me yet.  Has anyone visted all the links yet?  Congratulations if you have!
And a warm welcome to all my new followers! Yay! I'm going to have to do something special when I hit 100 followers.

So today, I have a couple more cards to share.  These were made with a K&Co card kit I've had for a while now however,I updated them with the doily and some baker's twine.  I think they are adorable and a couple of my favorites from my card making marathon. 

What do you think?  Did I update them enough?


 This picture shows some of the 3D details. 
Right now I'm working on a Mother's day card with my Cricut.  I wasn't too pleased with my first try. Not to happy with the paper color choices. Once I get it tweaked  I'll post both and see what you think. 



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Friday, April 8, 2011

Getting Cricky Linky Challenge

GettingCricky.com is having a linky party challenge. Are you ready to party?
So get ready to visit and follow your fellow linkers.
Link Your Blog Here and visit www.gettingcricky.com for details of the challenge.