Clearly The Best: Curtains Sew Easy (S02E08)

Artbooking Made Easy: Friendship Layouts (S01E13)

Artbooking Made Easy: Cross-Cartridge Collaboration (S01E11)

Artbooking Made Easy: Christmas Layouts (S01E12)

Clearly the Best: Preserve with Pizazz (S02E02) (+playlist)

Halloween Card

   Hi there, today I'm going to show you the card that I made for my exchange group. I just love this group of ladies! We have so much fun and they are all so talented I can hardly wait for the mail to arrive. I really haven't made very many Halloween cards so I jumped at the opportunity to make some. I think this holiday is my favorite next to Christmas.
 

    So as you can see from the pictures above I made a more of a cute Halloween card. I changed my mind a few times on how I wanted this to look. I used Happy Haunting's cartridge to cut the frame on the front. I embossed the printed paper on the front with skulls and bones and inked the edges with black ink. The stamped image I used for the inside of the frame is from Close to my Heart. I stamped the image on white cardstock with black ink and than I  sponged the sunset with 3 different colours of ink. I decided to add some black glitter to the bats, but you can't really tell in my photo. For the flowers I used Artiste cartridge from Close to my Heart and for the spider webs I used the new Artbooking cratridge from Close to my Heart. I stamped the saying inside with Versa Mark and black embossing powder.
  Tomorrow I'm going to show you my Harvest banner that I made for Thanksgiving. It's only been a work in progress since this time last year. LOL.

Artbooking Made Easy (S01E05): Halloween Mini Albums

Artbooking Made Easy (S01E04): Spooky Halloween Layouts

Gift Tags

  Hi there everyone. I'm sorry for not posting n the last few weeks,with the start of school and scouting I just have't had much time to post let alone craft. Now that I'm back to a normal routine, I plan on posting way more often.
  Dianne and I recently joined a Facebook group that exchanges cards with other fellow Canadians and Americans. The group is called Cricut Card Exchange and they are such an amazing group of ladies. They have different theme's for each month and all you have to do is sent cards to each person in your group. My groups has 7 people in it and Dianne's has 6. Our first theme was 2 gift tags or a gift card holder.  Dianne and I both choose to do tags. I'm going to show you my tags today.
   My first tag uses paper, plastic, the Cricut and the Big Shot. I love how this tag turned out as I changed my mine a few times during the process. First I cut the tag out with the big shot and I also cut the plastic with the big shot. I embossed the plastic tag with the dots folder as it looks like snow falling. It hard to see in the picture but I inked the edges and dots with white stazon ink. The plastic I used for this is just packaging from a new cricut cartridge, but if you don't have any plastic handy you can also buy sheets acetate.

     The snowflake where cut on the cricut using Bags;Tags and More 2 cartridge. I added some silver glitter glue to the center of each snowflake. The blue tag I inked the edges with blue ink and glued 2 snowflakes to it. I also ripped some scrap white paper to fit the tag to look like snow hills in the background. It had to see in this picture. I inked the edge of the snow hills blue and glued Mica Flakes from Stampin-Up on the torn edges. 

   The penguin stamp is from Close to My Heart fall/winter 2013 book and is a hostess reward stamp. I heat embossed the penguin black and because I wanted the hat to be red, I did another one in red and glued the red hat to the penguin. I glued the penguin, snowflakes and snow hills to the blue card and once that was dry I glued the plastic tag over top with double sided tape. I stamped snowflakes and a Christmas saying on the back. As you can see from the picture I added the snowflakes (which I popped up) and the Merry Christmas to the front and used some white satin ribbon to hung it from a gift. I really do love the look of the plastic on this tag. 

   My next tag is a Reindeer tag. I used the Big Shot with this one and a chipboard Reindeer. This is my favorite one.

 
   I cut a tag from cream coloured cardstock and I heat embossed it in red, The stamp I used is a background stamp from Stampin-Up. I inked the edges of the tag in Cashmere ink from Close to My Heart.
For the Reindeer I traced the shape onto cream coloured card stock. Once I cut it out I stamped it the a background stamp from Close to My Heart and heat embossed in gold. I also inked the edges in Cashmere ink. I used small red glass beads that I put on some wire for the wreath around his neck. I hot glued the wreath on as I didn't want it to move. I stamped the back with another Christmas saying ans inked the edges of the back also. I used hot glue to attach the Reindeer to the front of the tag.
   I made the flowers on this one by punching out small flowers and rolling with a little with a stylus tool to give them dimension. Once I glued 3 layers together I decided to add some white embossing powder ti the edges to look like snow. The leaves are also punched out and rolled with the stylus and I also inked the edges of the leaves just for some detail. I hot glued these on also but you could use liquid glass to attach them. Ads I mailed these tags I wanted to make sure they survived the trip. I added some off- white chiffon ribbon and bow to the top.
   I also made this tag in blue and silver which I love too. Not you traditional colours  but seem to work just fine.

 
   Well that's all for today. I hope everyone is having a great week and is enjoying this fine fall weather!

Artboooking Made Easy (S01E02): A+ School Layouts

Artbooking Made Easy (S01E01): Getting Started with Cricut Artbooking

National Stamping Month: September 2013

Birthday Card

   Well Happy Monday!! Monday's are really not my favourite day of the week  but it has to start somewhere. Well today I'm going share a Birthday card that I friend of mine asked me to make. This card was a special request as I was asked to use pictures of the girl's cats. Now I've never used pictures on a card before but, sure I'll give it a try. I must say that I'm very happy with how it turned out. I used different shades of purple card stock as that is here favourite colour. I stamped a cat and some flowers and water coloured them. I printed the pictures of the cats wallet sized and on regular printer paper. 

   The card is 5" 1/2 by 4". Which is standard size for most cards. On the outside of the card a stamped some swirls in purple ink and inked all the edges in purple ink. I added some white satin ribbon to the card.  I then  decided to mat the photo with a light purple and white card stock to make it stand out. I inked the edges of this as well. I used 3D foam tape on the photo to make it pop up. I also used the 3D foam tape for the stamped image. I added 3 white brads to each corner as I felt is was missing something. 

  For the inside of the card I used a picture of her other cat. I stamped the inside of the card the same as the outside of the card. I stamped Happy Birthday in purple and used a small butterfly that I punched out of glitter paper for the dot on the i. I also watercoloured some flowers to add to the inside. I used 3D foam tape to make everything pop up and match the front of the card. 

  Well that's all for today. I be back later with a look at the tags I'm making for a card exchange group I just joined. Happy Monday!!

Halloween Treat Holders

   Well, what weather we have been having here. We go from hot to cold, and I mean October weather cold here. The cooler weather has me thinking of Halloween and fall themed crafts. So since I'm not done working on this years crafts I would share the treat holders I made for my Beaver group last year. I made a french fry box and decided to decorate them for Halloween. I cut the box on my cricut with the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge in kraft card stock. I can't seem to remember what size I cut them at but you can make them to fit whatever you plan on putting in them.

   After I cut out all the boxes from the kraft card stock and than chooses different printed paper for the inside of each box, which I cut at the same size as the first ones. I decided to make a Halloween scene on the outside of each box with an assortment of CTMH stamps. I added glitter glue to the bats to make them pop. I then inked all the outside edges with shades or orange, green, purple and bank. I than added the inside of each box, which I also inked all the edges with the same colours as the outside edges.

    As you can see I decided to  stamp the background of each box to match the theme of each box. Spiders have webs, mummy has a old fence and bats have a scary scene.

   Once a glued the inside of the box in I decorated the outside of each box. I would recommend that you stamp your outside image before you glue the box together. I added some glitter to each box and a Halloween saying somewhere. These boxes are very easy to make and can be used for many different occasions.  

   Well that's all for today. I"ll be back on Monday night with a Birthday card I'm making for a girl who loves kittens. 

Baby shower!!!

   Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in a few days. It was such  busy weekend with everything going on I just lost track of what day it was. LOL. Well as promised today I'm going to share with you the rest of the baby gifts I made. First I will share the picture that I made. For this picture I decided to go with the round theme that I did with card and banner. I knew I wouldn't be able to get a canvas on a round fame so I decided to use an embroidery hoop for the shape. I removed the canvas from the frame and put it in the embroidery hoop. To make sure that the hoop and canvas didn't move, I added some glue to the back. I printed the picture on tissue paper and cut it to the size that I needed. I used Modge Podge to glue the picture to the canvas. I have  posted  a video on these technique on  the blog a while ago if you want to watch how to do this.

Isn't she sooo cute!

   I added white ribbon to the edge of the hoop to start as it was a very bright pink. I than added a light pink flower ribbon to the edge to give it a finished look. I than made a big bow out of white grosgrain to hide the the rest of the hoop. I than used Create a Critter cartridge for the cricut to cut of the leaves, branches and bees. I inked the edges of the leaves and than rolled them with my stylist to give them a 3D look. I also did this technique with the flowers. I glued everything in place with Liquid Glass to make sure it would stick to the Modge Podge. I must say that I was worried on how this one would turn out when I first started but I was very happy with the finished product. 

   Now I will show you the banner that matches.  I decided to go with a circle theme on this one, as I wanted it to be different from all the other banners I've made. I used foam core bored for the middle, which I sanded the edges nice and smooth. I than added the embossed paper to the front and back of each circle. I added a white circle to the front of each panel and I also edged each panel with the light green paper. You can see in the detail of each panel is these close up pictures. 

   These pictures where taken before I glued everything on, as I needed to wait to find out the baby's name. You see, they had 2 names picked out but until the baby was born they didn't know which one they wanted. This meant that I guessed at how many panels I needed and lucky for me I made 2 extra ones. 

   Sorry about this picture as its not a good as I would of liked, but it shows how everything matched.  After I found out the baby's name I was able to finish. As you can see I decided to use the 2 extra panels I made to balance out the middle name. I tied each panel together with white ribbon to finish it off. I love how this banner turned out. I must say that my favourite panel is the one with the owl on it and my cousin's favourite 2 where  the Panda bear and the owl. 

  I was asked to make a diaper cake for another cousin to give as a gift. Now, I've made one or really heard of these before but I though I would give it a try. There are lots of YouTube video's out there on how to make these. I think it turned out pretty good for not really knowing what I was doing.

   Well that's all for today. I be back tomorrow with some more projects to share. 

Brayer Basics

Birthday Card

   Well I must say that I have busy weekend. With the baby shower and a surprise birthday party there won't be much time to craft or anything else. LOL.
    First off today I'm going to show you the birthday card I made for my cousins birthday. I always seem to be making things for girls as of late, so making a masculine card was a nice change. I chose a fishing scene as he really like the outdoors and I just really like this stamp.

   As you can see from the picture I used a brayer to make the sunset. To make the sun, I used a post-it note to make the sun. In order to do that, you punch out the desired size out of a post-it note. Make sure that you have the sticky part of the note in the circle. If you don't have any of the sticky part, the post-it note will not stay in place. To make the sunset, I choose 3 different colours for the sky.You will need to start with the lightest colour first. Start by inking up the brayer with you lightest colour. I used a yellow, and  2 different shades of orange. You will need start at the top of the card and work your way to the middle of the card. You will want  to have the darkest colour at the top of the page and the lightest colour closest to the water. I have posted a you tube video with different ways to brayer. After the sky has dried I went ahead and and did the water. Again I used 3 different shades of blue ink. For the water you want to have the lightest colour in the middle and the darkest at the bottom. 

   While that is drying I water coloured the stamped image. Once everything was dry I glued all the different layers together. I used a chipboard banner from CTMH. I cut the banner from black card stock on the cricut with the Artiste cartridge in 2 different sizes. I stamped the saying in blank in on the smallest banner and inked the edges with black ink. I also inked the edges of the chipboard with black ink. I decided that I wanted to add some brads but it's very difficult to put them in the chipboard, so I just cut the backs off the brads and used Liquid glass to glue them to the banner. I used 3D foam tape to pop-up the banner. 

   I forgot to take a picture of the inside. For the inside of the card a layered the orange and black paper and stamped Happy Birthday in black ink. I love how this card turned out now let's hope he does too. 

   I will be back later today with the a picture of the banner I made for my new cousin. I still trying to find the perfect place to take a picture of it. LOL. 

Baby Shower card

   Well the baby shower is this weekend for my new cousin and I finally finished the everything. I made a card, banner and picture frame all to match. Today I will show you the card. I cut the card on the Cricut with the Art Philosophy cartridge from CTMH. at 5". I embossed the card with the big shot and glued the white circle to the edge. I inked the edges of the card with matching ink.
    For the deer, grass and tree I used the Create A Critter cartridge. I used the CTMH cartridge Artiste to but out the banner. I stamped on the banner and glued it to a chipboard banner. I wanted some bling on it so a added some sparkly brads to the banner. Once I glued everything on the front, I added the banner with pop-up foam tape.

   For the inside I stamped a saying  and added some small butterflies. I really like how this card turned out. 

Well that's all for today. Tomorrow I will post the banner  made for the baby's room. 

Be an Alpha! Contest

Project Inspirations: Ombré Technique

Wow! can you believe its August already and that also means that you can now order from the Fall/Winter 2013 Close to My Heart book! For the month of August you can get this Stamp of the Month for FREE with an order of $50.00 or more.  I  just love this set and you can use it for so many different things, as you can see from the picture below. If anyone would like to order this or anything else from the new book, just click on the shopping card and it will take you start to Dianne's CTMH web site.

Another side step card.

  I hope everyone has been enjoying the beautiful weather here this week. Such a change from the extremely warm weather we had a week ago. I know I have been out  gardening a lot this week and crafting out on my deck. Oh I almost forgot that we had a new addition to our family last night! Our cousin had her baby girl finally and I'm so excited to give her the gift. I will post the pictures of the gift after her shower next weekend.

  Now with the  cooler summer weather put me in the mood for fall and Halloween, so today I'm going to show you another side step card but with a fall theme and a sneak peak of my diorama card. 

   The stamps and paper are from CTMH. I always make fall and Halloween cards but never really know who to give them too. LOL. 

    Here is a sneak peak at my version of a diorama card. I don't have a lot of die cuts so I have to make changes as a go. Can you guess the theme? 

 

     I will post more pictures as I go. Well that's all for today. See everyone tomorrow!

CTMH Artbooking Cricut Cartridge Review

  Today I though I share a look at the new Cricut cartridge from Close to My Heart. Thanks to Mandy! I just love all the things that can be done with this. I can hardly wait to order this!! This can be ordered or anything else from the new book from Dianne starting Aug.1 by clicking on the shopping cart on this page. Which will take you straight to her Close to My Heart page.
   I'll be back later today with another card project that I just finished for fall and a sneak peak of a Halloween card.

Triangular Diorama Card Tutorial by Bibiana

Getting more uses out of a seasonal stamp!

   Hi there, today I'm going to show how a wintry stamp can be used for more than just Christmas and wintry cards. I'm always trying to find ways to get the most out of my stamps and this idea works perfectly. My son wanted Valentine's for his class, but being a boy didn't want to girly. So I decided that the snowman stamp from  CTMH would work with a few changes

   For the base of the card I used my Artiste cartridge from CTMH. I can't remember what size I cut the base out at unfortunately I made a template for the heart so I could have it a different colour. I embossed the heart and the band that goes around the card  in the big shot with the poka-dot  folder from Stampin-up. I inked the edges of the heart and the card base with a ink. 

   This is an up close look at the band that goes around the card. I decided it needed a little sparkle, so I put a piece of scotch tape on the inside ( sticky side facing out) and applied glitter to the tape. You are still able to see through the opening but the glitter just gave it that little something.

   For the inside I decided use the snowman stamp. Now this is not what I would normally use for Valentine's Day but with a few changes it works great. I coloured the snowman with my CTMH watercolour markers, which are no longer available.
    So to make these work for the Valentine's theme I punched out small hearts that I covered in glitter and used them in place of snowballs. I also embossed the white paper with the the same folder that I used on the heart. The words are also from the snowman stamp set. I decided to replace the O in Love with a glitter heart to make it feel like a Valentine's. I think that this card really works well for a boy's Valentine's card. Once  you close this card up we decided that is needed some candy, so we put a sucker inside each one. You could put a small bag of candy inside instead.
  Well that's all for today. I hope everyone has a great weekend and I'll be back on Monday!

A wintry card and snow globes.

  Well today I thought I would share with you my first wintry/Christmas card of the year. I tell myself every year that this will be the year that I start my Christmas cards and projects early but never do. I'm sure most of you have done the same. LOL. I hope that this year that I can make all my cards before December.    

  For this card I used a side step  card. I started of with a card base cut at 6" by 9". I then drew a light pencil line at 4 , 1/2" a across from top to bottom. The using your score pal or ruler and scoring tool. Score at 7", 5", 3 1/2" and 2" up to the 4 1/2" pencil line. I have posted a you tube video with the directions that I used, but this card can be cut in different sizes.

   First thing I did was tare scrap pieces of white card stock to make the snow hills. I used white mica glitter from Stamp-in Up on the edge of the torn card stock. Once dry glue to the card. I than used a snowman stamp from Close to My Heart. The saying is also from the snowman set. I stamped the snowman with black memento ink and coloured them with Spectrum Noir Markers.  I used the Create Critter cartridge for the cricut to cut out the trees. After I glued everything on I added some more mica glitter to the bottom of the snowman with white glue. 

   

  Last year I seen lots of different ways to make snow globes out of small glass jars. For these ones I used Epicure jars and there aren't round and I think they turned out pretty good. For this technique I cut a circle on the big shot from acetate and glued my stamped and coloured image of the snowman on the acetate. I used a glue dot to glue the image to the acetate, which I find is the best. Before you put the snowman in the jar, you can put in fake snow, glitter, mica flake glitter or even mini poms poms would work.  Once you have that done go and put the snowman in the jar. I decorated the jar lid with snowflakes and flowers. These are a cute little gift that a child could make for a teacher or daycare provider. 

Well that's all for today. I will show you tomorrow another use for the snowman stamp that isn't Christmas related. I'm always looking for ways to get more use from my seasonal stamps.  

How to make an A6 Side Step Card

  Well today I'm going to show you a couple birthday cards. The first one  that I made is for a girl who loves horses. I used retired paper from Close to my Heart and Country Born stamp for the spring/summer book. I also used the cricut Art Philosophy to cut out the front of the card and the inside of the card. I made a pocket for the inside of the card to hold money or even a gift card. I water coloured the horse stamp and inked the edges for a distressed look. I decided to add some stitching around the circle in a burgundy colour to match the ribbon on the front.

   Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the inside so you could see the pocket. I also stamp the horses with versa mark ink and covered it black embossing powder on the inside. 

    Here another birthday card that I made for a friend of my son's. I used the Later Skater Sk8r Paper from Close to My Heart and a retired stamp from Stampin-Up. 

   I decided to glue 2 different paper together and ripped a hole in them. I than inked the edges of the ripped area. I embossed a sheet a gray paper and than glued the other papers to the gray paper. I stamped and heat embossed the dirt bike with blue embossing powered. I want the dirt bike to look like it was breaking through the card. I was really happy with how this turned out. 

    I followed with the same techniques on the inside of the card and made a matching envelope. Tomorrow I will something wintery.

   Well that's all for today. I hope everyone is enjoying the much cooler weather we are having this week!!

Cricut® Craft Room

Another baby banner

   Hi everyone! I hope you're all keeping cool during this very hot and humid week.

  Today I thought I would share with you another banner that I made for a friend. This is for a girls room and is jungle themed. 

   I used the cricut Artiste and Art Philosophy cartridge from Close to my Heart and the Create a Critter cartridge for this one.  I used foam core board  on each panel and embossed white card stock for the front and back if each panel. I covered the edges of each panel with white satin ribbon for a finished look.

    I cut out different sizes of rosettes and the animals on the cricut. Cutting the rosettes on the cricut is so easy and time saving and there are lots to choose from. The larger butterflies where cut on the cricut from glitter paper. I used a punch for the tiny butterflies and flowers.

   You can see the detail in this picture of the embossing and the smaller butterflies. I have many other styles of banners that I will be posting over the next several months. As you my have noticed I love making these banners. I might be a little obsessed LOL,.

   Well that's all for today. I hope everyone enjoys their day and is able to keep cool. I'll be back tomorrow.

Project Inspirations: Mini Album

Wedding Cards

   Well it's Monday and a start to a very warm week here. I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend and was able to craft or get out enjoy the weather.
   Today I'm going to show the wedding cards that I made to match the shower cards. I used the same cartridge for these cards as I did the shower cards. I also used paper from Close to my Heart and ink.

   I loved making these cards and the friends I made them for just love them!  Here is another card that I made for my cousin's wedding. 

  This card I stamped the wedding card in purple and the bride and groom I heat embossed it with silver embossing powder. I added some silver and purple glitter to the cake. I used my cricut Artiste cartridge from Close to My Heart to make the flowers.

   Well that's all for today. See you all tomorrow!