Made during my all day online crop

For my online crop we had a bingo card with challenges to complete - this card fulfilled the pop dots challenge. The patterned paper is from DCWV - the one for baby girls {sorry I don't remember the correct name}. The solid papers are SU! barely banana and certainly celery which I ran through the cuttlebug using the swiss dots embossing folder, one of my all time favs.

Not sure of the brand of the ribbon but I know I bought it at Inky Fingers when they were closing! The yellow and pink flat back adhesive pearls were bought at M's - their Recollections brand.

The Stamp is from The Greeting Farm, Hope and Grace Snuggle
The border punch is Fiskars Lace. I used SU! markers to color the image.

The following card fulfilled the "try a new technique" challenge. I used my brand spanking new Martha Stewart Score Board - {on a side note RUN - don't walk to your nearest M's and purchase this tool - it's only $19.99 (cheaper if you use a coupon) and is very user friendly}.

The bunny is a stamp from M's $1 bin (gotta love that place), the paper is from K&Co, the button is PaperTreyInk. I used my Label One Nesties to cut and emboss the base for the bunny which I colored with Crayola pencils. The little Easter egg is from the package I received from sister Vera - M's Recollections.

The only thing I do not like about this card is that I don't think the button is enough to keep the card closed. I tried to reinforce it today and managed to rip the paper. I think the fault lies with the card stock I used; PaperTreyInk card stock is very thick and sturdy which is usually a very good thing but in this case I think a thinner stock would have worked better.

I made this card for my sister in law Mary whose birthday is next week. The usual Bella, random unknown patterned paper {I just know that I have had it for eons}. I finally used some tulle on a card - have seen several gorgeous examples from my MB sister IvaR.

Here is a detailed look at my coloring - all done with SU! markers except for the flesh tone which I used my lone Copic.

Here is a close up the rhinestone-y ribbon slide I used to accent the tulle. This card completed the "BLING" challenge.

This sweet little Easter card was really easy to make - the patterned paper is from an ancient DCWV spring stack, the bunny and the sentiment are both from the $1 bins at M's, American Crafts ribbon and card candy. I used the Label one Nesties. This was made to fulfill the "animal" challenge.

My friend Rachel (hi!!) turned me one to these cute little paper accents - card candy - for some unknown reason they can only be found overseas!??? These I found on EBay and are much smaller than the ones she uses on her beautiful cards but they turned out to be the right size for this spot on the card.

This card completed the challenge to use scallops. I used my Nesties - absolutely love these and can not imagine NOT using them when ever I get the chance. Random sheer ribbon, a Bella (surprise) Basic Grey background and patterned paper from the Lemonade collection.were used. The "Sparkle" sentiment is from SU!

This card was made for a BIG FAT LIAR! One of my clients tried to tell me that she was no longer involved with this person whom had a very bad driving record (I'm in the insurance business) and requested repeatedly that I remove him from her policy (after she found out the extent of his tickets). Long story short- several weeks ago the local Fire Dept (she's a member) put up a huge sign congratulating her on her engagement to him!! Guess they got back together once her policy cancelled. ... (please insert scarasm here).

I am sending her this card with a picture of the sign enclosed ..........

This is the lone Layout that I made during my crop. Friday was a beautiful day but there was a ban on all unnecessary travel for the county that I work in so the regional manager sent us home. I decided to make a snowman - the snow was perfectly packy. I used my gloves and a scarf that I had knit for myself several years ago, Dove chocolate foil wrapped hearts for eyes and buttons, a shriveled carrot for his nose and Chuck's John Deere hat. I think he was pretty cute - he has since gone the way of most snowmen; first he fell backwards and now is part of the lawn.

I used the cutest chocolate colored pom pom trim - I should have uploaded a close up. You certainly can not tell from this picture but I stickled the green snowflakes. The paper is from K&Co and there is a pink striped twill ribbon on top and underneath the pom poms. For the title I used thickers I had purchased from QVC.

It was a long and productive day for me - I was online from 5AM to 9PM with breaks for meals and housework!

All day online crop

My online "sisters" from the Cricut MB had an all day online crop yesterday (2/26/10). As part of our fun we were assigned a sister to send a small gift - mine was to go to Sarah aka Cuttergirl.

I made this "magazine rack" resized to hold greeting cards (5 A2 cards with envelopes fit perfectly) however I had no cards on hand so I sent this on so that she would have it in time for the crop along with some baby girl rub-ons (she had a sweet princess Attleigh Jane earlier this month). I told her that she would be getting another package in the coming weeks as I plan on sending her the cards. This was made from double sided MME paper - I do not know what colllection but I know that I purchased this from QVC in the old days when they actually had craft days. The flower is made out of 2 primas layered with a Making Memories brad. I used little rhinestones from M's $1 spot for accents on the upper rim and in the centers of some of the flowers. I made this card for her as a congratulations on the recent expansion of her family. I am not sure of the origins of the patterned paper or the rosebud ribbon but they really did match much better in real life - the colors are off in this picture. The border punch is Fiskars Apron Lace. The stamped image is a Bella from this summer's image swap.

Recent cards

This is a card I made for my friend Rachel using one of the Bellas I received in an image swap this summer, DCWV patterned paper (both) random ribbon and a handmade crocheted flower.

Here is a close up of the crocheted flower - I need to make more of these - gave away too many! and here is some detail of the inking I did on the edges - green then black.

This card was for Rachel's daughter, Brooklyn - this was extremely easy to throw together as the paper was already printed with all the glittery cupcakes, cute butterflies and the cute critters- the paper was from the Naughty but Nice 6x6 paper stack by Smirk - I was talked into purchasing this paper while on vacation in CT this past summer - imagine that - someone enabling me?? Who'd a thunk it?

I added the chipboard "B" after I inked it an appropriate shade of PINK then distressed and added the little butterfly and the card candy in the corners. TA DA done!

I inked the little butterfly also - it came from the American Girls punch that Rachel enabled me to buy.. thanks Rach!

This card was made for Rachel's little man, Westin who was turning 2 - where has the time gone? He was just a newborn!

I used George cricut cart and cut the 2 three times out of chipboard (was trying out the deep cut blade my niece bought me for Christmas) then covered with orange DCWV glitter paper. The background paper is also DCWV - I think its from Animal Crackers?...

I even broke out the Dyno label maker for this card and some sheer orange ribbon to accent the corner.

trying to catch up on my postings...

This is my first attempt to create with The Greeting Farm stamps - I really like these guys.....this is Hugh NOT Edward as I thought when I made the card. My BFF Karen is a newly converted Twilight fan - so I used a quote from the book for her birthday greeting. I am not a good colorist; only own one Copic which I used for his face; used a combination of Bic, Sharpies and Stampin' Up! markers for the rest.

I used the new Herringbone (I think) cuttlebug folder on the background and some really narrow ribbon from Walmart.

This card I made for my NSSS Jenny for her February package - this image was from an image swap,background paper is from DCWV, Nana's Kids stack (I think),the orange and the lime green are from random DCWV glitter stacks and some purple grosgrain ribbon, hand dyed skittles and some little white baby prima blossoms. I even used my brand new Nesties, label one.

{This is supposed to be me and Jenny}

A simple birthday card

I made this card for my brother in law Dave's birthday using a stamped image I received in a swap, some DCWV paper (from the Green Stack) and some dotted orange ribbon. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Flowers, flowers and more flowers

I'm a sucker for flowers of any kind... real flowers, felt flowers, paper flowers, crocheted flowers....since its the middle of winter I have to wait for spring for the real flowers and I've already shown you the felt flowers I created (posted back on March 15, 2009), so know I will show you my paper flowers.

This is one that is SO easy - I just love it...but I don't think I will use it on any pages as it is very bulky - so it will probably end up on something altered. I added some glimmer mist to this one - I made it from regular ol' copy paper.
Those crazy chicks over at My Little Shoebox have a great (and fun) tutorial that you can watch ... and be patient...its at the very end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UpAKetnM9c&feature=player_embedded

This lovely specimen is something else I found on my online wanderings.... I found this over at the Pink Paislee website... for some reason I can not get the link to post but the website pinkpaislee.com and the post is from October 2009 wacky wednesday ...I'll keep looking until I can get it for you. If you are really dying for it - email me at jewel@twcny.rr.com and I will get it for you!

And here are my creations... using cream colored cotton yarn. I can't follow instructions so I just made my own version. Someday I will post a tutorial I promise!! The bigger one in the center was made using a larger crochet hook.

Then to dress them up a bit I sprayed them with glimmer mist.

This weeks creations

This past week marked my return to work after being out for my gall bladder surgery. I tried to make the most of the Monday that I had off before going back to work on Tuesday.

Chuck's sister Donna had a birthday so I whipped up a card for her - a Bella that I received in am image swap, the blue polka dotted paper is MME I believe, Red Riding Hood SU! paper and grosgrain ribbon. Brads made with the ITop (still loving this tool) and the sentiment was from a set of clear stamps I picked up at M's ages ago on clearance.

One of my 'sisters" on the Cricut message board really liked the pretties I had made last week so I whipped up some to send to her. I made about 10 of them - didn't want to bore anyone with photos of all of them so I picked out a few to show off.

this one I used felt to make a brad - had to do it twice to get all the stray ends under where they belong.

pretties

I made these pretties the other day when I was trying to decide what to do for my next layout.... for this one I used scraps of Stampin' Up! paper - I do not remember the name but I know that I bought about 4 sets of it as I was afraid that I would run out! I threw in a layer of tulle doubled up to soften it up a little. And I finally used my ITOP that my sister Lisa bought me :o) I LOVE THIS TOOL!!

This pretty was made with some old trim that I had sitting around, I threaded it on some floss and gathered it to make a circle, then did the same thing with the pink trim and then used a super duty really big sticky glue dot to hold the two together; then I reinforced it by stitching them together around the glue dot then I added a paper flower from my stash. This will look very pretty on a page.

This one is made with the same collection of the SU paper - I dampened it by spritzing it with water than wadding it up into a ball and basically taking out all my aggression on that paper ball! Then I cut out some circles (if you can call them that) and again used my ITop for the brad in the middle. I love this tool so much I bought a jumbo pack of brad refills from Oh My Crafts!

This one is my favorite - it looks so rumbled and beat up - I really like the effect of the crumbled paper - this paper was what was left over from Jenny's accordion folder. The button is from PaperTreyInk.


I really enjoyed making these and love the results!! Thanks for looking - and fell free to comment!

Cards from Paisley

On Thanksgiving evening I met up with my sisters and Niece and we went to Michael's for their great sale. I bought myself lots of goodies that night including the new Cricut Cartridge, Paisley.
I made this thank you card for my niece Sierra who helped me during my recovery from gall bladder surgery two days before Christmas. She has a wiener dog, Levi Button, so when I saw this image on the cart I knew I that it would be perfect. I used the Swiss cheese border punch from EKSuccess.


This card was also made from the Paisley cart - my new NSSS Jenny loves owls as much as I do so when I found out it was her birthday I had to make her a card with the cutest owl image. The paper for this card is Basic Grey Lemonade collection.

another accordion folder

I made this one for my new NSSS JennyK for our first package - we decided to alter something each month rather than send each other stuff we have no room for. This paper is from K&Co - not sure of what collection but I do know that I've had it for several years.

The ribbon is PaperTreyInk - really love the quality of their products. This flower on the tag was hand colored with cats eye chalk inks.

This is a view of the first two pockets

and this is the rear view

I love these flowers - I got them from Michael's in a little clear paint can in the bridal department - they cost approximately $5 for at least 1000 flowers - I believe that they are supposed to be treated like confetti and tossed on a table.

full of joy

This layout was very labor intensive. I did not have the right shade of paper with the pre-punched holes so I "made" my own - then spent most of the morning doing the stitching and cutting the petals. (click on the pictures to enlarge - sorry).
I then spend about 30 minutes getting this lace ruffled just right.

This lace flower was much quicker - I really like the results

Here is a close up of the stitching.

thanks for looking!

I'm on a roll

For the second day in a row I've completed a layout - but with my sweet subject how could I NOT?? This layout is of my mom and her first great grand baby Leah. The title is a play on words as mom is Leah's great grandmother and she's a GREAT gramma to all of her grandchildren.

The background paper is from Oriental Trading Company, the lettering, both hearts and the heart borders are from the cricut cartridge Lyrical Letters (fast becoming a favorite) the journaling tag and the title tag are from Accent Essentials - that shape is why I wanted this cart so much - Thank you SO much for getting it for me Rachel!!

2 Cute Critters

Here it is - my first layout of the year 2010 - these two cute critters are my nephew Jeffery and his niece Leah. I finally got the excuse to use my Stampin' Up! set, Forest Friends which co-ordinated with this paper really well, matted then inked around the edges with cat's eye dark brown chalk ink.
And there are owls on the paper, my favorite.

A close up on the journaling for which I used the journaling spot stamps (Autumn Leaves) that my new NSSS JennyK sent me the other day. I used 3 (count 'em 1..2..3..) Cricut carts for this layout - A Child's Year for the red scalloped title background which I popped with pop dots to well..pop....

...the title is cut from Lyrical Letters and the heart is from Plantin Schoolbook. I also used American Craft Premium ribbon - Green Ruffles, hand dyed skittles and the paper is "woodland friends" from The Paper Studio.

All in all I am quite proud of my accomplishment - I've had this floating around in my head for a couple days now and finally got the time to put it down on paper.

Happy 2010!

Today is the first day of 2010.

I don't make resolutions as I never keep them. However I do set goals.

Goals for 2010:

Complete at least 52 Layouts - this means making time for ME.

Read at least 52 books - I reached this goal for 2009 and am very proud of myself. I managed this by taking a book with me everywhere I went, many long hours soaking in the tub and actually reading at the beach rather than keeping one eye on all the kids, doing a continual head count (none of them are mine!) and one eye out for surfer boy. ;).

I also would like to keep a running total on the number of cards I make as well as the altered items I create.

And last but not least - I will attempt to update my blog weekly.


Here's to a Happy and Healthy 2010!!