Spring and Summer Canvas

Since Spring is finally here, I thought I'd share with you my Spring and Summer canvas art.  Each has a watercolor paint background.  All the images were cut using the Flower Market Cricut Cartridge with lots of various colored cardstock.  Both are 10" x 10", and will brighten any wall.  : )

National Boss's Day Gift

Today, October 16, 2018 was National Boss's Day.  I made these for my boss.  Yes, I'm a kiss up.  : )

I cut the words from vinyl after typing them into Design Space, and put them on the clipboards.  I covered the tops of the pad of paper with B&T paper.  Even though the papers cover the quotes, it's fun to take the pads off and be inspired.

Voila!  Instant gifts!

Modern Wedding Card

This month's challenge was to make a wedding card or baby shower card.  I went to Pinterest for inspiration and found it!

The card on Pinterest was an all white card with the "&" in rainbow colors.

I loved the way the card was constructed, clearly, because I modified it.  : )

On Design Space I sized the square I wanted.  Next, I added the "Mr", "&", and "Mrs" to the system.  I played around with the font and sizes until I liked the look within the square.  In order for the "Mr" to get cut out of the square, the square and the "Mr" need to be attached (with "Mr" where you want it within the square).  "Mrs" and "&" are two separate colors so they each get their own mat for cutting.

Mrs is cut from White Glitter Paper.  The Ampersand (&) was cut from the fundamental basics (retired).

I cut the Blush Satin Ribbon (retired) only long enough to wrap by about 1/2" on each side (I don't want to waste ribbon where you don't see) and taped the ends to the back of the Charcoal square.  A smaller length of ribbon was tied around the taped ribbon to create the knot.

Ampersand was glued directly to the Charcoal cardstock.  Mrs. received  thin 3D foam tape (those non stick micro-tiped scissors - can't say enough good about them!).  Mr. Square was also raised with thin 3D foam tape.  But before Mr. Square was adhered to the base card, Black cardstock was glued to the base so that "Mr" would be backed in black.

Modern and Classy!

Let it Snow

Today I thought I'd share a home decor item that I've proposed to teach at the Poway Adult School in January.  I'm waiting to hear back if they'd like to offer it to the public.

 This has to be big so you can see the glitter paper on the "o".

"Let it" has been cut on the Cricut after being designed and welded on the computer.  The "s" also received a sponging of White Daisy Ink (Z2863) around the letter.

"N" is sporting paper from JoAnn's store.  I really wish we had something like this - it's super fun and fits the project so well!


Like I mentioned already, the "O" is from our White Glitter Paper (Z3237).  I love the sparkle.

"W" has been stamped with Pansy ink (Z2804) on JoAnn paper (clearly I was shopping when I picked the papers out.  I blame the snowflake paper).  The snowflakes are Falling Flakes A1223.

 Let me back up a little bit.
After I chose my colors, I traced each letter on the appropriate paper, making sure the front of the letter kissed the back of the paper.  The line around the letter was as close to the letter as possible.

Next I cut each of the letters out, staying on the drawn line.  If you are going to stamp, now is the time to do it.  I actually stamped the snowflakes before I cut out the "W".

I applied mog pog to the letters (rather than the paper) one at a time.  Then I placed the cut out paper on top of the mog pog.  The mog pog allows you a little bit of time before setting in order to place the letter where it needs to go.

After the letter dries, you can use a craft knife to cut excess paper away.  Although if you traced your letter close to the letter, you shouldn't have to cut.  You can also use sand paper (from the front to the back) to remove excess paper.

After making each letter pretty, I sponged the "S".

"Let" and "it" were welded and cut.  I used my non -stick micro-tip scissors (Z1836) to cut very thin pieces (and small) of thin 3D foam tape (Z2060) to prop up the letters.

This home decor will be going up in my home in January.  It should take a little sting from the empty mantel after my moose/deer collection gets put away.


The answer was, "we're going to pass ... for Winter [quarter]".  Oh, well, I still had fun making and sharing it with you!  : )

October 2018 Workshop - Wall Art Part 1

When you come to the October's Workshop, you'll make the Autumn and Winter wall art displays.  Early next year, you'll make Spring and Summer (all four are pictured below).  Thank you, Holly Valerius for the inspiration!

Each 10" x 10" canvas sports a different painting effect as the base.  We'll start with those, and while the paint dries, you'll put together the layers above.




















Cost is $20 to make these two.  Workshop dates are:

Monday Oct. 8th
Thursday Oct.11th

7 to 9 pm at my house.

Sign up deadline - September 29th

Can't make the workshop and are willing to make this on your own?  I'll be happy to send you the cut file for Design Space after a $20 (pre-tax) purchase from my website.






(For those who saw my samples, those are on a 6" x 6" canvas)

Sweet 16 Birthday Card

What have I been up to? One thing is that my (now) 16 year old asked me to make her birthday party invitations!  No hinting/asking/pleading on my part.  In fact, I think last year we just sent out an evite!  Of course I couldn't say "no".  : )

Even though the paper is gone, I love the feel and colors of Chelsea Gardens, so that's the paper I chose for the invites.  Lindsey wanted some bling, so I pulled out my stash of Sea Glass Glitter Paper and my Cricut Collections.

The pattern came from Make it from Your Heart Vol. 4; pattern #15.  The Heather behind the "Sweet" is actually the zip strip from one of the Chelsea Garden's B&T paper.  I cut it in half and adhered it to the back of the White Daisy paper.  The circle is also Heather cardstock.  The other colored cardstock is Sweet Leaf ("Sweet"), Juniper (between the B&T papers), and Crystal Blue.

This card went together really fast conceptually.  And assembling the 21 cards went quickly too.  Lindsey adhered the two "Sweet"s together, added the "16" to the circles, and added thin foam to the backside of the Heather circles.

Flower Market Cricut Collection - Delphinium Flower

Here's a third card inspired by a fellow consultant - Julie Carriere - with her Canadian floral cards.  She had used the Cricut Hello Canada (Z3391) Collection to create her cards.  I'm still using Flower Market Collection (Z3290 digital or Z3285 physical).  This time I went with the Delphinium flower  because they're supposed to be a fall/winter bloom.  I only made one orientation.  Another  smile on my face.  : )

With this card, I went with the blues.  Crystal Blue (X5977). It's hard to see in the picture, but some of the flowers are the back side of the Crystal Blue cardstock (so it's a different hue).  The center of the flowers is Linen cardstock (X5946), the flower stock and flower centers are Nutmeg cardstock (X5951), and "hello" is my standard Black cardstock (1386).

The flowers were raised with the Thin 3D foam (Z2060).  Have I mentioned how nice it is to cut the foam with our Non-stick Micro-tip scissors (X1836)?  There is no residual tape left on the blades!  I just can't get over how nice that is!

Anyway, the Delphinium flowers  are found on the Flower Market cartridge on page 4!
There are three keys needed the shift key is involved too, so I guess I could say there are 6 keys needed):
<4><flower-1>, <4><flower-1><shift>, <4><flower-2>, <4><flower-2><shift>, <4><icon>, and <4><icon><shift>.

"hello" can be found on page 1, or at <1><title>.  I went with a generic saying, but you could use the font to create whatever you'd like.  You could even weld the letters together to have an easier go at putting the word on your card.

Finally, the background is White Daisy(1385) cardstock dry embossed with the Buffalo Plaid (Z4032) Embossing Folder.  That 4" x 5.25" White Daisy paper sits on top of a 4 1/8" x 5 3/8" piece of Crystal Blue cardstock.

I've got one more card to show you.  Until next time!

Flower Market Cricut Collection Card - Poppy

Here's another card inspired by a fellow consultant - Julie Carriere - with her Canadian floral cards.  She had used the Cricut Hello Canada (Z3391) Collection to create her cards.  Since trying to use my resources wisely (aka, not spending a lot of money), still using Flower Market Collection (Z3290 digital or Z3285 physical).  I love these Poppy cards!  They are so happy  : )

The poppy can be found on page 45.  The images cover <poppy><flower-1>, <flower-2>, <Icon>, and <shift><Background>.

Colors are Nutmeg (dark part)(X5951), Poppy (large part of flower)(X5963), Cranberry (accent of Poppy)(X5975), and Sweet Leaf (stem)(X5980).  And the saying is once again Black (1386).  The base of cards are from Poppy cut to 4" x 5.25" and White Daisy (1385).  Both are dry embossed with the Buffalo Plaid (Z4032) Embossing Folder.

After the flowers were glued together, glue them down to the card front.  "Thanks a Bunch" is also glued down to the White Daisy cardstock.

"hello" has been raised with Thin 3D foam tape (Z2060).  Very small pieces are best cut with our Non-stick Micro-tip Scissors (X1836).















Here they are together:

Flower Market Floral Cards - Iris

I was inspired by a fellow consultant - Julie Carriere - with her Canadian floral cards.  She had used the Cricut Hello Canada (Z3391) Collection to create her cards.  Since I am trying to use my resources wisely (aka, not spending a lot of money), I thought I would try using Flower Market Collection (Z3290 digital or Z3285 physical).  I'm really happy with the results.  : )

This first card is using the Iris flower:

The card on the left was supposed to be oriented in the other direction.  I had glued everything down before I realized my mistake.  Oh, well!

I just love the embossed backgrounds.  They add dimension to the cards without being distracting.

The Iris (pg 37 - <m><flower-1>, <shift><m><flower-1>, <m><flower-2>, and <shift><m><flower-2>is made from the front and the backside of Eggplant cardstock (X5956).  I love how the paper is now two-toned! The stamen is made from Saffron cardstock (X5961), by cutting the background flower a second time.  Then I hand cut the excess off.  I wanted to keep the openness of the flower top.  : )

The stems on the left are both from Fern cardstock (X5930), while the foreground iris on the right utilized New England Ivy cardstock (X5959).

Finally, the words are cut from Black cardstock (1386).  My favorite base for cards is the White Daisy Value Pack (X254).  The flowers and words are popped from the page with the help of using White Daisy cardstock (1385).

I raised the foreground flower with Thin 3D foam (Z2060).  "Thanks" is only the first part of the "Thanks a Bunch" saying (pg. 3 - <3><title>).

For this card, I went with the modern Buffalo Plaid (Z4032) Embossing Envelope - only available through Dec. 31, 2017.

I hand cut off the smaller flower's bud.  I thought it would detract from the overall look.

You could add some Shimmer Brush (clear - Z3293) accent to the flowers or the background.  I took the pictures before I did that - it had been my intention.  But, at the same time, it isn't necessary.
Background: Eggplant cut to 4" x 5.25".  White embossed cut to 3.75" x 5" before embossed.



For this second card, I made the iris' larger.  I popped the foreground iris up with the Thin 3D foam.

This time I used the Leaves (Z4031) Embossing Folder - again, only available through Dec. 31, 2017.  I used the "back" of the embossed leaves.  I thought it had a cooler look that the other side.  : )

The Eggplant cardstock background was cut at 4.25" x 5.5".  The White Daisy cardstock to 4" x 5.25".

"hello" came from pg 1<shift><1><title>.

Hinged Ghirardelli Box Holder

I'm ready for convention... at least my swaps are!  I came across a hinged box by Caroline Helwigh Wright.  I was fascinated, but needed to modify her dimensions to fit my needs (getting more than one box from a 12" x 12" cardstock and fitting something yummy inside).  : )

The most important aspect of this hinged box is that it needs to be square.  If it's not square, it won't close!  Each box measures 5 ¾” x 6 ½” and is cut from cardstock.  You'll be able to make 2 boxes from one 12" x 12" sheet of cardstock.

Along the 5 ¾” side, score at ¾”, 2 7/8", and 5".
Along the 6 ½” side, score at ¾”, 2 7/8", 3 5/8", and 5 ¾”.

Cut along the solid blue lines shown in the picture.  Not shown are the tabs wedged to make it easier to fold (but take a look at the pictures below for how I wedged mine).

After I cut on the lines, I stamped the outside front flap/cover.  I thought it would look cool not to stamp the sides, but it took a little more time to avoid the sides (I masked the sides with paper).  Once the stamping was done, I put Scoretape on the appropriate places (see picture).




To make it super simple, I didn't layer on the outside of the box.  I chose to cut some images out from Artbooking Cricut Collection.  And since I get bored quickly (once I figure things out), I made two different designs.

The first is Hugs found on page 49 under the <icon> and <icon><shift> (2nd column, 2nd row).  Both the heart (in Thistle Cardstock) and "hugs" (in Pansy Cardstock) are 1.82" x 1.82".

I stamped in Cashmere ink on Cashmere cardstock.  The stamp is from the Flower Market Collection.



The second of my swaps are "just BE" cut from Emerald cardstock (found on page 39 - <title><shift> (2nd column, 1st row) and be yourself - at least the banner part - found on page 41 <title> (4th column, 1st row).  Using Design Space, I hid the "be yourself" with the hide contour feature.  Then I made the banner 1.8" wide and 0.35" high.  Originally I was going to keep "yourself", but it didn't look right; and I realized I would have to back the banner with another piece of paper, so I took the word out.  After the banners were cut from Willow cardstock, I stamped "YOU!" with the Pen Pals Alphabet stamp set in Black Ink.

This time I stamped in Bamboo ink on Bamboo cardstock.  I stamped on the wrong piece (the inside) so I had to go back and restamp!  Again, I used paper to mask the ends.

The green dot in the cutting diagram (above) is an optional, although highly recommended, hole for the pull string.  To make the pull string, I used the White Twine, Willow ink and Thistle ink (corresponding to the box in mind) and a sponge dauber to color the white twine.  Hold the end of the twine and pull the twine between the dauber and the ink pad.  Pull the twine several times to get the intensity of color you want.  I fed about a 2" piece of the pull string through the hole, securing it to the inside with regular tape.




The front flap/cover measures about 2".  If you'd like to add a mat or decorate the flap/cover, you'll want your papers to be smaller.

Want to get the dimensions of "HUGS" and "just BE YOU!" just right?  Let me make this simple... Here is the Design Space canvas file: https://us.cricut.com/design/#/canvas/62185737

Ready for the finished products?!

The hinge is on the bottom left.  The easiest way to open the box is to hold the upper left corner with your left hand while pulling the twine with your right.  Then the treats are revealed, removed, and consumed.














Cute, right?!  Now it's your turn!

Item Number	Name
Z2805	Black Ink
Z2803	Bamboo Ink
Z2875	Cashmere Ink
Z2840	Thistle Ink
Z2807	Willow Ink
X5932	Cashmere Cardstock
X5782	Pansy Cardstock
X5769	Thistle Cardstock
1301	Bamboo Cardstock
X5783	Emerald Cardstock
X5784	Willow Cardstock
Z3285 or Z3290	Flower Market Cricut Collection - background stamp sets
Z3169	Artbooking Cricut Collection
B1539	Pen Pal Alphabet stamp set
Z3216	White Twine
Z726 or Z1938	Sponge Daubers
Z1204	Bone Folder - to score and burnish
1512 or Z553	Bonding Memories Glue - to glue the Cut pieces together and to the box
Z1151	3-D Foam Tape (to mount the banner)
Z534 or 1836	Micro-tip Scissors
	Scoring board
	Score Tape / Red Line tape

Home is Where Your Heart is

I really like the Flower Market Cricut Collection.  : )

I have a realtor friend who asks me to make cards for her business.  This is the card I made for her this time around.  The tulips, vase, and saying are from Flower Market.

The outside tulips are made from Blossom and Smoothie cardstock.  The center tulip has added the colors Cotton Candy (retired) and Pixie.  The stems are New England Ivy.  The vase is Sea Glass, as is the heart of the saying (double meaning there!).  The band and saying are cut from Pomegranate cardstock.  The background and texture paper is from Wanderful (retired), but pairs quite nicely because it's Crystal Blue.

The last thing to know about the structure of the card is that it's an 8" x 3.5" card found in the pattern book Wishes.  The title is Top Band which is located on page 100.

After cutting out and gluing the pieces together, I assembled the vase.  Each card is slightly different in the angle of the flowers themselves and how they were glued into the vase.  I tied White Twine around the center of the vase and then Thin Mounted the vase and flowers.

Yes, making 50 cards was labor intensive.  But it's a labor of love and I really like the way they turned out.  On to the next thing... my niece's wedding invitations!

Flower Market 3D Poinsettia Wreath

Flower Market Cricut Collection (Z3285) also has the 3D poinsettia.  The 2D wreath I made was similar to the Artiste wreath from 2015.  Now it was time to go for gold with the 3D poinsettia.

Again on Design Space, I pulled in the poinsettia.  When it comes in, each layer is separate but GROUPed.  I, again, tried making this the same size as the 2D wreath and thought a total width of 5.41" would be the correct size for the bottom leafed layer (I would be mistaken.  This turned out much bigger - the circle it's mounted on is 5" -  than the other one - no worries though!).

The other "improvement" I wanted to make was to have a saying going across the opening of the wreath.  That eventually led me to make a ring without a backing.  It took 9 flowers to complete this wreath.

Because I put a bow on top of the wreath, I didn't want to add a loop like I did with the previous wreaths.  You might be wondering how I will hang this up without a loop.  To achieve it, I cut a piece of extra thick twine and adhered it to the back of the ring with Liquid Glass (Z679) (I love that stuff!).

Because I turned the leaves downwards, I mounted each flower with 3D foam (Z1151).

Colors I used were New England Ivy (1282) for the leaves, Ruby (X5927) for the back layer, two layers of Cranberry (1272), Poppy (X5779) for just behind the yellow centers, Lemon (X5785) for the larger yellow center, and Canary (X5772) for the smallest center.  The Canary helped "calm" down the Lemon.  Once I glued the flowers together, I took my Quilling Tool (Z1795) and turned the ends of each petal up (as I mentioned earlier, the leaves I turned down).

"Noel" is cut from our White Glitter Paper (Z3237) using the Flower Market cartridge.   I adhered "Noel" with Liquid Glass.   Finally, the bow is cut from Pomegranate cardstock (X5780), again from the Flower Market cartridge.  The edges of the bow were sponged with Pomegranate ink ((Z2854), glued together, and then got a coating of Clear Shimmer Brush (Z3293).  Once that dried, the bowed was adhered to the wreath with, none other, Liquid Glass!

Flower Market Wedding Card

I had just made my samples for my watercolor workshop. I had extra watercolor PML cards to explore with.  My friend was getting married.  And I wanted to play with the Flower Market Cricut Collection.  Time to make a wedding card!

A little background on the wedding... It was a rustic wedding.  The bride had made the center pieces from succulents, as was her bouquet.  There was a dash of sparkle, because that's the kind of gal Bren is.  And we wore cowboy boots to the wedding - she had them on.  These were the things in my mind when I set out to make a wedding card.  I hope you like what I came up with:

Let me talk you through the card...

The base goes with the theme - woodgrain from our Rustic paper packet, and bling from the white glitter paper.  The next layer is the watercolor PML card.  I painted this 4" x 6" card with colors #33, #34, #32, then back to #34, and #33.  "Mr." and "Mrs." were cut from Juniper paper and sponged with Smokey Plum (retired) ink.  Those words were mounted with Thin 3D foam.

The flowers are next.  Three different flowers are shown in the below table with the color cardstock from the largest cut to the smallest cut.  The flowers are inserted as a group.  The number after the name of the flower corresponds to the group width (No, I didn't pay attention to the size.  I went with what I thought would look good which is why the widths are odd sized.).

Ranunculus - 4.18"	Succulent (star) - 2.15"	Succulent (tri petal) - 3.47"
Eggplant	Fern	New England Ivy
Smokey Plum	Juniper	Fern
Pansy	Sweet Leaf	Juniper
Pansy	Glacier	Glacier
Thistle	Sea Glass	Sea Glass
Juniper
Sea Glass

All the flowers were glued together in the center and then the edges were curled.  The Gold Sequins finish the card off with a little more bling (that matches the "&") and adds interest to the card.









The star succulent is the top flower.  The tri petal is the lower flower.

This is the Ranunculus flower.  It's a accidentally a little off centered.









This card was definitely outside of my comfort zone.  That being said, I think I did a good job with the colors of the wedding.  I hope Bren and Tim liked it.  The wedding was a blast, basically a jam session of families and friends.  And you couldn't have asked for a better day.  It was a bit warm out, but under the trees of the ceremony and reception, it was the perfect temperature.  May they live happily ever after!

Updated Poinsettia Wreath

On November 13th, I showed you how I made last year's poinsettia wreath.  I made poinsettias from a non-poinsettia flower.  I'm excited to share that the Flower Market Cricut Collection has 2 poinsettia flowers! So I'm re-visiting my wreath.  First, let me show you the 2 dimensional poinsettia.

In Design Space, chose the poinsettia.  All 4 pieces come into the work surface grouped, so you just need to resize the group instead of each piece separately.  These images also come stacked.  I sized the group to be 2.11" wide (height was locked to width).  Why the extra 0.11"?  I wanted to create the same size as last year's Artiste wreath and I thought this was the correct size.  As it turns out, this wreath is larger than last year's.  That's okay though, because I like it!

I sponged around the Cranberry petals with White Daisy Pigment ink.  I put those aside to dry.  You can always speed dry them with the Craft Heater.  While they were drying, I glued the center Lemon on top of the Canary background for the centers.  I also went and curled the New England Ivy leaves downward.  I did this with a large balled stylus.  When the petals were dried, I glued them onto each leaf and the center was added on top of each petal.

A 4" circle was cut from White Daisy cardstock.  The poinsettia flowers were added to the edge with Thin Foam Tape.  I realized afterward that I should have cut a ring of New England Ivy to adhere the flowers to so the white behind them wouldn't show.  Too bad.  The saying was stamped in New England Ivy and is from the October Stamp of the Month, but any nice saying would work.

Finally, the hanging ribbon and bow were from the White and Gold ribbon.  I cut a second 4" circle and sandwiched the hanging ribbon between the two for a finished look.

That's it for this one!!  I've been enjoying the Flower Market Collection.  I'll be posting more samples from it (my Holiday Workshop has several items that used cuts from there) soon.

Artiste Cartridge Poinsettia Wreath

For our November 2015 gathering, my Cardaholics group exchanged ornaments.  Here is the ornament I made and exchanged:

I created the wreath using Design Space and one flower from the Artiste cartridge (retired).  Okay, the circle was a second image from the cartridge.

The flower is from page 80 and is on <Accent1> of the leaf.  There are three layers:
Small flower is 1.43" wide
Medium flower is 1.69" wide
Leaf flower is 2" wide

The easy way to create was to take one flower - the leaf.  I added a hole in each flower (it doesn't exist on the image).  Either ATTACH or WELD the two images together once you place the circle in the middle of the flower.  Copy the image.  Reduce the copied flower a little - that becomes the medium flower.  Paste the image again and reduce the size more to make the small flower layer.  I layered them and sized them until I liked the proportions (which is why I have odd sizes for the medium and small layers).  Then I GROUPed the three flowers together, copied and pasted the group 8 times (for a total of 9 poinsettias).  You can apply  9 on the cutting page, but I prefer to put the number of images within one wreath.  Then I adjust the number of wreaths I was making on the cutting page (hopefully that makes sense), that way I can cut my ring (see below), and white circle, at the same time.  I need 9 poinsettias but only 1 ring and 1 circle per wreath.

Once everything was cut out, I sponged the edges of the Cranberry cardstock (flowers) with White Daisy pigment ink.  Set these aside for some time to allow the pigment ink to dry.

After the ink dried, I used a large balled stylist to curve each petal.  I curved the New England Ivy leaf the opposite direction of the Cranberry flowers.

Assembly of Poinsettias:  I took a yellow chenille and curved the very tip just a little with some needle nosed pliers.  Then I put the flowers on from the smallest to the largest.  I bent the chenille a little underneath to keep the flower in place and clipped the chenille with wire cutters.  Repeat that 8 more times.

Creating the Wreath: I wanted the poinsettias to sit on a New England Ivy ring.  To make a ring, I made a 3.9" circle and a 2.9" circle.  I overlaid the small circle in the middle of the large circle and GROUPED  and then ATTACHED the two circles.  The inner 2.9" circle would be recycled.

The saying was stamped in New England Ivy on a 3.9" White Daisy circle.  Red Striped Twine creating a loop was taped onto the back of the New England Ivy ring so that when the stamped circle was glued to the New England Ivy ring the ends of the twine wouldn't show.

Each poinsettia got a 3D foam piece on the back and placed onto the New England Ivy ring.  And finally, the red striped twine was made into a bow and Liquid Glass adhered under the saying.

Pretty cool, huh?!

Beyond Blessed - September 2016 Stamp of the Month Sample

Here is my latest creations using Beyond Blessed (S1609).  I was making cards for a team meeting swap.  I started with the simplest of the three.  It was okay for me, and for most people.  But, as I looked at it, I thought it was missing something.  I thought I'd add some vines.  That's my second (middle) card.  I was happy with that one!  And that's the card I made for my exchange.

However, while I was assembling those cards, I thought how neat it would be to add some leaves.  I admit that the third card is a bit over the top - and I'm okay with that because I love the way it turned out!

Let me tell you a little more about each one.  The three cards have a few things in common.  First, the card pattern came from Make it From Your Heart volume #2 and is pattern #20.

The card bases background is from the Rustic Home Fundamental pack (Z3262).  You can see two different sheets were used, both equally pretty.  I embossed the saying in Gold embossing powder (Z2066) - VersaMark ink (Z891) to hold the powder - on New England Ivy cardstock (1282).  That was then sponged distressed with New England Ivy ink (Z2835).  The Colonial White(1388) mat was stamped in Saffron ink (Z2751) for the leaves and Goldrush ink (Z2223) for the berries.  The mat was then sponged distressed in Goldrush ink.

The accessories you see once were clear sparkles (Z3274 (middle sized), Z1263 (bitty sized), and retired for the large sparkle).  But I didn't want see through, bright accessories.  So I colored them.  I found that by first coloring them with Marigold ShinHam marker (Z2457) then the  Metallic Gold marker (Z1768), the Gold looked a little more rustic.

Each pumpkin was stamped twice.  The first time I used Saffron ink.  I waited a little bit (maybe 5 minutes) and then applied a rolled Goldrush ink layer.  I can do this because of the awesomely clear stamps and blocks!  I just lined up the image and pressed.  : )  Now, I rolled in Goldrush to give the pumpkin some dimension.  That was good.  I waited about 5 minutes because the Saffron and Goldrush are so close together that when I inked in Saffron and rolled in Goldrush, then stamped, the color difference was lost.  Not good.  By waiting the 5 minutes, it allowed the Saffron to dry and be absorbed into the Colonial White cardstock.

My simple card's pumpkin was cut out from Artbooking Cricut Collection (Z3169).  It's found on page 73 of the booklet or row 4 column 6 (R4C6) on the keypad.  It's also under the ICON key.

I colored the top of the cut out image with Sap Green (Z2463), using both the fine tip and broad tip of the ShinHam marker.

I added some Thin Foam Tape(Z2060) to the back of the pumpkin, and placed it on.

The background mat is Ruby from the Enchantment Fundamental pack (3254).  I love the versatility of the new papers in the Annual Inspirations book.

This card isn't too far off from the simple card.  I just wanted to add a little more to the pumpkin.  I found that inspiration from the page in the Artbooking booklet with the vine and leaves.  Page 72, BORDER, row 4 column 5.  Shift gets the leaves by themselves.

My first attempt, I just cut out the vine in New England Ivy.  My daughter didn't like how it disappeared into the "Thankful" (I had it on the other side originally).  That led me to cutting the vine in Fern cardstock (X5777) and the leaves in New England Ivy cardstock.  Since I cut the images out in Design Space, I removed the hearts from the vine's leaves.  I wanted (and did) to color the centers with Gold Metallic marker to incorporate more of the gold color.  It's hard to see in the picture, but each leaf has a gold heart.

To attach the small New England Ivy leaves, I use bonding memory glue (in this case the small tipped one - Z553) to the leaf and glue it onto the corresponding vine's leaf.

Like I mentioned, while I was putting the vines together, I thought "how cool would that be to have the pumpkin in a bed of fallen leaves?!"  The leaves are also from Artbooking and on page 72.  They are just one leaf, cut out multiple times.  This is the base of the leaf found under ICON.  They were cut from Colonial White cardstock.  I sponged each of the leaves with different colors.  Each got a Saffron base.  Some got just Goldrush.  Others got Goldrush and Ruby (Z2870).  Still others got Eggplant (Z2847).  Two I added Eggplant and a little bit of Sapphire (Z2848).  Then I glued some directly to the paper while others I used Thin Foam Tape to pop a little.

I used two vined leaves for this card too.  I cut one vine off just above the middle leaf as well as the connector from the small leaf to the middle leaf with scissors.


The pumpkin was hand cut.  The stem is New England Ivy ink.  The background mat is Pomegranate.  Honestly, I was going to use Pomegranate for all of my cards, but I accidentally cut the Ruby paper.  It was a nice mistake.  : )  And originally I was going to use Gold Sequins with this card.  But I forgot that.  I like the Gold Metallic colored sparkles though.

So, which is your favorite?!  And don't forget that this stamp set is only available until the end of the month.

Flower Market Friends Banner Card

I received this card from a friend (and consultant) of mine, and fell in love with it.  She made it with the new Flower Market Cricut Collection.  As you look at the details, notice the texture of the flower and leaves.  Those are two stamps from the three stamp sets that come with the collection.


So, I had to lift Candace's card and knew the perfect card to use it for.  My Cardaholic's challenge was to use summer colors - vivid yellow, orange, pink, and green.  I was going to a adopt Candace's card.

This is what mine turned into.  I used Design Space to create it.  Using Design Space allowed me to create the card base as well as the petals and leaves fill in.  Let me explain...

CARD BASE (my picture cut off the bottom - look at the below image to see the points of the card): After importing the image, I copied and pasted it.  I will use the second copy for the "detailed" work. To the first copy, I ungrouped the images and then deleted the top part, leaving the solid banner.  I then sized the banner to my desired size (I kept the size linked/locked) - about 4" x 5.5" - I wanted the card to be able to fit into a standard envelope.  Now that was done, I copied the image, rotated it 180 degrees, butted the straight sides together and welded the two images.  Once that was done, I added a score line at the seam.

DETAIL: Next, I sized the detail to match the card base.  Easy peasy. I made another two copies of this and pasted them.

FLOWER: With one of the copies, I ungrouped the pieces and deleted the solid banner.  I then went into "Hide contour" and hid everything but the five petals.  I then enlarged the petals so that I could glue them to the underside of the flower.  It's hard to tell, but I embossed the leaves with clear embossing powder.  I used the same stamp set Candace did.  Then I used Bonding Memory Glue on the Whisper cardstock flower outline and adhered the petals.  Canary was the color of choice.

LEAVES: The second (really my third) copy of the banner was used for the leaves.  I repeated the FLOWER process for the leaves.  This time I stamped tone on tone (Pear ink on Pear paper).

FRIENDS: This was cut out with Whisper cardstock.

By using the Hide Contour feature, I didn't have to cut the whole top part out in the different colors.  Therefore I had very little waste of paper.  : )

The card was finished off with some bakers twine threaded through a bling button.

Here are the cards side by side...

You can see what a difference colors can make.  : )

To note: Candace uses an Expressions machine and doesn't use Design Space. Design Space isn't needed, but it's nice if I need to make this card in the future, I can just access the file.  You'd be able to replicate this in Craft Room too (for Expressions machines).  Design Space is for Explore or Air machines.  If you haven't purchased a machine yet, I suggest the Explore or Air.  Although the prices of the Expressions have dropped, they are being phased out.  You'll need to start using Craft Room as more cartridges go digital.  Design Space is a much more powerful program.  The disadvantage to the Explore/Air is that the machine is not a stand alone - you need a computer to cut your images.  Using the Craft Room will require your machine be connected to the computer though.

Cardaholics New Technique Challenge - Bokeh

This month's card exchange challenge was to use a new technique.  I've been eyeing the Bokeh technique for quite some time and thought this was the perfect time to pull the trigger.  Bonus was I found a card on Pinterest that I really liked and modified.  I have to say that Pinterest is amazing.  This card post is from August 4, 2014, and it's still circulating.  I can't remember if this is the site I learned the technique or not...

Anyway, here is the card I made.  : )

The technique in a nut shell.  Watercolor Paper (Z3146), Watercolor Paints (Z3132) and Paintbrush Set (Z3188), All-Purpose Mat (Z2045), water, Craft Heater (Z555), White Daisy Pigment Ink (Z2163), Sponge (Z697), stencil (traditionally circles, but I used balloons instead).

Cut your paper 0.5" larger (for both dimensions) than your finished size!  I found out the hard way my first try - I wasted some paper!!.  And I'm going to confess here that it took me some time to purchase the All-Purpose Mat, but am SOOO glad I did!  The mat saves your work surface for a project like this, and cleans quickly and easily.

You are going to tape around all the edges of your paper.  I used Washi tape rather than going to the garage and hunting for painters' tape.  This is why you want your paper 0.5" larger than your finished project (where the tape is will remain white - and it won't blend right if you try to paint after removing the tape - remember, I figured this part out the hard way).

Once you're taped, use your brush and spread water over the project piece.  Be generous. Next are the water colors.  I chose blue (#13) and yellow (#36).  With water, I picked up some yellow and placed it on the water soaked paper.  Some of the paint bled, and some didn't.  I put that on the paper in diagonal streaks.  After cleaning my brush, I picked up the blue and put it down next to the yellow.  If my paper was getting dry, I added more water to the area.  It didn't matter if paint was already down, I added more water so it would blend together.  Where the two colors came together are the green parts in the picture above.  Don't worry if the paper is wavy, it can be corrected (if need be).

Blue #13 (second row) and Yellow #36 (last on the right)

You may need/want to go back and add more yellow or blue to the project.  Or more water.  Once you are happy with the look, you need to let it dry.  You can do this by walking away for at least a half an hour, or you can grab your craft heater and help the process along (this is what I did).

After it is dry, it's time to apply the White Pigment ink over the watercolor background.  What I read was having different sizes was ideal.  My balloons were cut at 1.5" and 1".  How did I do that?!  I used my Cricut Explore to cut them out at different sizes.  : )  The larger stencil, the lighter the pigment was applied.  I made the two sized balloons overlap sometimes too.  Then I finished the effect with a pencil eraser (those are the small circles).  I used my craft heater to set the pigment ink (instead of letting it air dry). And that's Bokeh!

For this card, I cut the finished Bokeh watercolor paper down to 5.5", and then cut 0.5", 0.75", 0.5" for the three strips.  I cut them in that order so that when I'd adhere them to the card front, the pigmented balloons would come back together.  I made several cards for the exchange, being careful to cut in that order and then keeping the strips together.  Remember that if you are mass producing cards and you want to maintain the continuity of the strips.

After I adhered the strips to the front of the card, I stamped Happy Birthday (Finding the Words D1646).

When I cut the balloons for the stencils, I cut some out for the front of the card too.  Using Design Space, I removed the highlight from the balloon image by right clicking the balloon and choosing "Hide Contours".  Click the area you want removed and then click away from the image.  No more highlight.  Those balloons were cut to the specification (1.75") of the coordinating stamp set - ARTISTE COLLECTION (Z3170).  One balloon I cut out from White Daisy cardstock and stamped on it with Crystal Blue (Z2117), while the second balloon I cut out from Pear Paper Fundamental (Adventure packet - Z3125).

The Pear balloon was adhered directly to the card front.  I then placed the Crystal Blue balloon where I wanted it and stamped the balloon string.  I then put 3-D Foam Tape on the balloon and repositioned it to look seamless.

The final step was to add the (retired) blue and green epoxy bubbles.  Current items to use would be the Enamel & Glitter Duos - Blue Dots (Z3122) and Clear Sparkles (Z1752)

Artiste's Cricut Collection - Rectangular Box revisited

Some time ago, I made this rectangular box, and I told you it would look good in Sangria!  I couldn't help but make them with both sides of the paper.  : )

Don't they look very different?  Same paper and same colors!

Let's look a little deeper, shall we?!

The boxes themselves are 11.5" in WIDTH (which in turn makes the height 10.85" by default) and can be found on page 44 in Artiste Collection (Z3170) Booklet.

The speech bubbles are cut at 1.75" (as per the holder) and can be found on page 65.  They are stamped with Cocoa ink (Z2114).  The stamp is one from the Collection, by the way.  And there are other very suitable choices.

The flowers and leaves are from the Art Philosophy Collection (Z3171).  The smaller flower is on page 39 and is cut at 1.5" while the larger flower is on page 29 and is cut at 2".  The leaves are cut at 1", found on page 59, and cut out of Fern cardstock (X5777).  I chose not to stamp them, but there is a leaf stamp in the Pretty Petals set that you can use.

On to assembling the boxes...  All of the leaves and the speech bubble are adhered directly to the box.  The smaller flower is mounted with Thin 3-D Foam tape (Z2060) and the larger flower is mounted with 3-D Foam tape (Z1151).  Having the different heights adds dimension to the project.  I like to adhere the decorations before I fold everything so I have a flat surface to work with, so I did that before moving to the next step.

I like to use our Base and Bling Adhesive Strips (Z1904) for constructing the 3-dimensional projects (in my experience this is the best thing to use).  The double-sided strip adhesive is super strong, and they can be cut to length easily.  There are four places that need this adhesive (you'll understand when you cut it out).

And that's where the two boxes' similarities end.  So let's look at the one on the left first.


 Instead of stamping the flower with Pretty Petals stamp set, I cut the flowers out using our Paper Fundamentals.  It's hard to see that the Eggplant flower has some texture to it (small squares).  I could have used the other side which would have shown the white squares.  Similarly, the smaller flower is cut using Pomegranate paper.  This time I used the back side and the double chevron shows.  The papers are very rich from this Enchantment (Z3126) Paper Packet.  You get 2 sheets of each of 10 colors - in this case, Eggplant, Sapphire, Peacock, New England Ivy, Fern Saffron, Goldrush, Poppy, Pomegranate, and Ruby.

The box is finished with Sequins from the Gold Sequins packet (Z2012).  The flowers got double sized sequins.

The flowers were cut from Colonial White cardstock.  I chose the "darker" of the whites because of the Sangria paper.  The tones within the paper call for the Colonial White.

The Pretty Petals stamp set (C1599 - and only available through July 31, 2016) was used for the flowers.  The larger flower was stamped using Poppy (Z2652) ink while the smaller flower was stamped in Eggplant (Z2647) ink.

This box was finished with the Red Enamel Gems (Z3090) at various places.





And there you have it!  Put a little treat inside, give it away, and brighten someone's day.  : )

Dog Treat Tag

After losing my second pup (Ray) on December 13, 2015 I contemplated time (I lost Belle on July 3, 2015).  I had been wanting to make dog treats to give out for years, but kept putting it off.  This was the year that I wasn't going to put it off again.  The most unfortunate part of the process is I no longer had any taste testers!  But I wanted to honor Belle and Ray with moving forward and celebrating them with the treats.

I wrote a blurb up about time being my enemy because I had procrastinated so long and glued it onto the back of this tag:

The dogs came from the Artistry Cricut Collection (see page 9) as did the paws.  I once again went to Design Space to create the tag.  With the Explore machine, I was able to write the paw prints onto the tag.  I took the paw layer and hid the outside line contour.  That left me just the paw print.  Then I clicked and changed the cut to a drawn image.  I copied and pasted it to put on top of the tag.  Once I had the prints positioned on the tag where I wanted them, I grouped the three images and then attached the paw prints to the tag.  Their orientation and drawing was then fixed.

The black dog is Belle who had a heart of gold.  For Ray, I trimmed the long cut tail to a stubby tail to match him.  Baking and passing out the treats was somewhat therapeutic for me.  Belle and Ray's friends got a tasty treat and I was able to share some joy during a rough time.

Here are my babies!!














Surprisingly, and an added bonus, some of my dog friends used the tag as a tree ornament