Mickey Birthday wish.

     Still haven't finished all of those college cards, but I'm getting closer, ha ha (another one has gone out the door - see I'm getting there.) However, I do have a card for today and a finishing touch on another. I thought it might help for some inspiration on finishing the inside of cards, which can be a stumper at times ;- )

     First up is everyones favorite Mickey Mouse. This card is for my neighbor's grandson, who is turning 3. I used the Mickey image from the Mickey and Friends cartridge (the fourth key) and all it's layers at 3.5 inches. I set it all up on my Gypsy so I could position my pieces precisely, because my mat is currently only sticky in some spots >.< I need to clean and re-stick a few of them, since I do have more than 1 not-very-sticky mat. The Gypsy however lets me decide where I want each piece to cut and place a few of them in those exact spots. Very helpful. I also used the Gypsy to weld the letters for the sentiment from the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge which does have a shadow font for it's main font (nice touch!) The blue card stock was embossed with Sizzix's Texture Plates #2 Square Dancers.

     On the inside I used Lettering Delight's font LD Walt. Using Print Shop, I set up the sentiment first in red and  then in black and laid one over the other to give it a shadow. The signature is in Helvetica, which I thought I'd changed to something else, but evidently not, ha ha on me.  You can find a link to Lettering Delight on my sidebar. I cut out the number 3 from Plantin Schoolbook with the basic font and the shadow at 2 inches and popped it up.

     Over the weekend, it was Parker's grandfather's birthday (he has his pilot's license.) Now I'd made his card back in Nov. for Crafter's Digital Art Center's Challenge at the time, but hadn't totally finished the inside. It is an easel card and here is the card and how it appeared then (this part still looks like this ;- ) You can find the details on this card here.

     Inside, I used LD Chaplin, LD Lively (for Good Times) and LD Wedding (for the signature) from Lettering Delights for the fonts. The plane graphic comes from the Print Shop software. The details for the rest is at the same link as the front, since that was all done in November.

     As always, thanks for dropping by. I love hearing from you so much, so please leave a comment before you go ;- ) have a wonderful week!

A Second Penguin Waddles Out.

     A friend of mine came over t make a card for her niece's 2nd birthday and her niece likes penguins. I had already used the gypsy to make the file for a shaped card of a penguin using the Create a Critter cartridge. She said she thought the penguin would look cute with a hat, so we added a hat from the Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge. It is the headwear for the winter girl. We cut the hat twice in both pink and white and paper pieced it and added Martha Stewart glitter. My friend had brought the paper, so I'm not sure what we used. We added wiggle eyes to the face. We hid all contours on the cuts on the Gypsy.

     By the time we got to the inside, we were really pressed for time if we were going to go to lunch and she was going to make it to school on time to pick up her son (ok we were pressed for time throughout it all ;- ) We had some Church website things to work on before we were able to work on the card to begin with.   Sooo, we cut out the body again as a mat for the sentiment. We used Printshop to create a sentiment using  Calibri and NewWGL4 as the fonts. Then, I test cut another body piece in order to get the placement and lined up the piece with the sentiment on it and put it on the mat and by a wondrous act of God, my sentiment was cut in the cent of the body ;- ) We also cut a balloon from Create a Critter (it's the shift of the snake) and the number 2, because she's advanced and can recognize her numbers according to her dotting Auntie (from Birthday Bash.) 

     I thought of a few things I might change or enhance as we went, but we didn't have time, so I might have to CASE myself soon, ha ha. I think a know a young boy who likes penguins, at least he did last year. You may be seeing the updated version of this card in a month or so ;- ) If you'd like the Gypsy file for this, just let me know (with a way to get in touch with you) and I'd be happy to send it to you.


     Thanks for stopping by. Your comments mean so much to me, so if you have time, please leave me one. Have a great weekend!

2nd Challenge in one day ;- )

     The freebie challenge is from The Outlawz and you can find us here. It looks like I goofed up though. I thought both challenges had given us extra time due to the holidays, but it appears the deadline was Jan. 1st for this image and I missed it. Oh well, here is my card anyway. I used one of the cupcake images that Anne Fenton created and colored it in Photoshop. I paired it with 2 patterned papers from Paper Studio and added ribbon from Michaels. I underlined the Happy Birthday on the one paper with a white gel pen and added an embellishment from Creative Charms (added - It's called Groovy Petals) that Diane from Capedia Designs sent to me. You can find a link to her wonderful blog here or on my side bar. I cut out Judy's name using my Gypsy and the Opposites Attract cartridge. Now, Judy does read my blog and I'm kind of bummed that she is going to see her card, so I'm not going to show the inside. We're not going to question whether or not the inside got finished in time. We are just not going to go there. Let's just say, her birthday is still a ways away and I don't want to spoil the surprise. 'nuf said OK!

     Thanks for dropping by and please leave me some feedback or a kind word ;- ) Have a wonderful weekend!

Still no elves in sight, but here is a card ;- )

     Today's card uses the image for the Progressive Challenge at the Crafter's Digital Art Center. The image is by Doodle Pantry.  I colored it digitally in PhotoShop. I've been thinking I will do a tutorial on coloring images in PhotoShop some time soon. Maybe after the holidays, if people are interested ;- ) The font I used for the sentiment is LD Leaves from Lettering Delights. I have an affiliate link to their site on the side bar to the right. I plan on completing the card as a gift card holder inside, as soon as I decide to whom it is going and have purchased the gift card. The papers are DCWV's Lemon Flower Stack. Love the glittery paper in this stack ;- ) The flower in her hair, is a button I picked up at JoAnn's.

     Well, this is a short one because I, like all of you, am busy with Christmas stuff and am trying to make Christmas cards (a first time for me and... HAPPY DANCE... my son finish his finals tomorrow, so is coming home from college, Yipppeee!

     Thanks for flying by during all you holiday preparations. Please leave a comment before you go, they really mean so much to me. Have a super creative rest of the week!

We're off the Hook

     Today's card is for my friend's, whose birthday card was posted the post before last, her middle daughter's birthday, who was 27 on Sunday. Due to the Veteran's Day holiday there was no mail and the card was going to be late, rats! I decided to go with the telephone card from the Cricut cartridge, Wild Card called Hello ' cuz phones just seemed appropriate (it's so hard for me to stop thinking of her girls as teens, Yikes! though I know they aren't any more.)   All of the cuts are from the the cartridge. except for the little piece that stops the dial, when you are dialing. I free hand cut that from a metallic scrap. The phone itself was cut twice (I used the gypsy so I could position the second image with the card part of the cut hanging off of the mat, so it would just cut the handset - you could have just placed you paper that way basically.) I popped up the handset of the second cut and also the dial. I used a clear glitter pen to write all of the numbers except for the 2 and 7 which I wrote in red glitter pen, since that is her age. There is a sentiment cut that says "Talk of the Town," so I adapted that by writing it in white gel pen on the handset. There is a hole in the center of the dial when it cuts, that goes through to the inside. I lined up my sentiment to have a stamped heart show through (lining this up  in the sentiment was the hardest part.) I used ribbon wrapped around a pencil and stiffened with Mod Podge for the telephone cord.

     The paper on the inside is fro Paper Studio. The shape of the sentiment had to accommodate the shape of the phone. The fonts are LD Typeset and LD Wedding from Lettering Delights. I have an affiliate link on the side bar of my blog that will take you to their site.

     For those of us who are older and curious, the phrase "off the hook" means fresh, new.  I like to be educational ;- ) I'm not sure how I knew that, but it's some of the trivia that fills up my limited brain capacity and keeps me from knowing important things, like what I did last week and important words that I need when I speak.

I also threw together (and that's pretty literally the truth) a few thank-you, for the people that covered for us, with the teens and brought meals, after my husband came home from the hospital. They're so not works of art, but I will show them because I think they will inspire your creativity, in that, you just need scraps and you can do "quickie" Thank-yous, though, you might want to make them a bit nicer than mine. They are about 3 by 3 1/2 or so, though it depended on the scraps I worked with.

This used a piece of punched border that mis-punched, but I kept and trimmed the good part.

This was for our friend first, Pastor second (it's a second career for him and our sons went to school together.) He covered the last hour of my teens (his twin girls are 2 of them) and of course visited at the hospital.

This was the inside. The stamps are from Clear Dollar stamps, Church Chatter.

Again, just simple with tone on tone background stamps, an accent stamp, sentiment and scraps.

Wonderful sentiments from Clear Dollar Stamps. They are having a sale (40% off until the 19th.) I get nothing for this ad ;- ) And why was I rushing so? because I had to get ready for my 11 hours of cookie baking at a friends. Whew! That's a lot of baking. Here's a few photos to make you hungry.

     Hope your week and your creativity is really off the hook ;- ) Thanks for coming by and please leave a comment. They really do make my day or night.

Birthday Wish for a Guy

     This is one of those cards, that looked better in my head, then it did when I was done >.< Probably, because in my head, I haven't chosen the papers, just the idea. Both the card base and the sentiment were cut from Cricut's Birthday Bash cartridge.  I embossed the background with Cuttlebug's Christmas Stars and used My Mind's Eye twine. I popped up the DP, which is from Paper Studio and popped up the sentiment on it. The DP is edged with a gold paint pen. This card is for my son's best friend in middle school, who is at a different college than my son. He has a great (though sometimes quirky) sense of humor and wouldn't be demanding of the looks of the card, fortunately ;- )

     No time for second guessing the front, so moving on.  The font in the multiple choice section and the Happy Birthday is Bevan (all can be found on the internet, try a google search), the one in the parenthesis is Beetle and the one in the salutation is Black Jack. The boxes and the check mark were made in Print Shop. Matt will enjoy the humor.

     I didn't get much done on the next card. First I found out I couldn't get it into the mail tomorrow anyway, because of Veterans' Day (there is no mail.) Then I needed to shop for baking ingredients, because a friend and I are doing MAJOR cookie baking all day Saturday for my Christmas Party and just for the holidays for her. It took longer than I would have thought, as DH and I stopped to eat and I looked for some wire for the next card too. Some of these cookies will probably even find there way into a shipment to the college students. So, I'll need to really move it on that next card and make up some of the doughs that need to chill overnight.

     Thanks for shooting by. Please leave a comment, because they keep me motivated and mean so much to me ;- ) Have a blessed weekend!

Finishing in the past and beginning the new.

     Well, I have a couple of things to cover today. Who'd of thought ;- ) First, you'll recognize this card. It was made for my sister-in-law and the progressive challenge at Crafter's Digital Art Center. You'll find the info on it here.

     However, at the time I hadn't finished the inside.  I thought you'd like it. I found an image by googling woman screaming and vintage.  If you can't find it and are interested, drop me a line and I'll send it to you. I only used a part of it and I used a black gel pen to make a frame. The font is a freebie called Greenfuz and the line element is from Print Shop.

Kind of a fun surprise ;- )

     The next card is for some friends, who have been trying, unsuccessfully for a number of years, to have a baby. Recently, they were out of town at a family wedding when they got a call that they needed to get to the hospital immediately, there was a baby waiting for them. The attended the wedding and drove through the night and are happily, now a family ;- ) This is the card I made for them. I used my Cricut Imagine and the Nursery Tales cart to make the background paper and the layered images. However, I used my Gypsy to make the shaped card from a shape from the Storybook cart with my Expression. I then cut the same shape using the paper I had made with the Imagine, on the Expression 1/4 smaller, to use as the background paper.  (Got all that ? Good! or are you yelling Equipment Overload!) I used glitter pen on the dragonfly wings and gel pens on the frog and grasses. What are the chances of sticking you hand in wet gel pen? In my case 100% I added Martha Stewart Brown Flockingto the cattail and wiggle eyes to the frog, as well. The sentiment is my own. The font is SNF Classy Charm from Scrap N Fonts cut with oval nestabilities.

You can sort of see the details. Will be getting my camera back soon, thankfully.

     In order to do the sentiment, I printed a coordinating 3 in. by 3 in. square of pattern paper. I attached that to a piece of printer paper. Before running it through, I did a test run, to make sure I knew where my sentiment would print and which way to put the paper in. Now, I accept no liability for your printer, if you try this ;- ) I try not to let my husband know that I'm doing this >.< I set it up so it would print in the upper corner and taped the paper in the upper corner so the tape was on the back (securely.)

      I cut a second shape for the inside and using the same SNF Classy Charm font, on plain printer paper,  I added the inside sentiment. I also used DB Frilly Words from Lettering Delights to add the words near the center and the element in the center is from Print Shop. I embellished it with more layer images from the Imagine Nursery Tales cart. On this card, I've obscured the name to protect the innocent ;- )

    

     I also always sign the back of my cards with a matching ink and on some I also add an embellishment.

     I thought I'd give you a sneak peak at the beginning of the cards I'm making for the college students. Do you know what Cricut cartridge I'm using? I'm working on the Gypsy to move the multiple images around to save paper.

     Thanks for stopping by and spending some time with me. It means so much to me ;- ) Hope your week is filled with creative time, new inspirations, and blessings. Please take a moment to leave a comment. Thanks!

Scaredy Cat plus some links to freebies.

     Today's card features an image from the 4th round of the Digi Freebie Progressive Challenge over at Crafter's Digital Art Center. The image is from Design2Delight Digital Stamp by Faith Skrdla. I colored it in PhotoShop. I decided it would be difficult to color the cat black (plus his features would disappear), so I got creative and checked out some free PhotoShop patterns and found some that simulated fur by Obsidian Dawn (find them here). I decided to use Cheetah ;- ) This card is for my husband's sister-in-law's birthday. She really loves halloween and her birthday is near it, so I usually do a halloween themed card. The font on the right is Firecat Medium by David Rakowski. You can get it here as well as a number of other places. The Snoopy is a free dingbat called Snoopy Ding by JBS you can find it here. The final font, at the bottom, is LD Penelope is from Lettering Delights. Just click the affiliate link on my sidebar.
     The sentiment on the right was inked with Black Soot Distress ink. I used a glitter pen on the eyes and mouth of the Snoopy pumpkin (sorry it didn't show up well in the photo >.<) and just had to color Snoopy's ear, eye and nose with a black gel pen. It just offended my Snoopy sensibility to see them orange, hee hee. The bottom sentiment was cut with the small scalloped nestibility. I also added a large black flower from Archiver with 2 buttons in the center tied with twine. Sorry, the photo quality isn't up to par, but my son has my camera. I miss it :-(

Click on photo to enlarge

     There's still time to join the next round of the Progressive Challenge for $1 to get the images. there will be 1 more round after that. Thanks for stopping by and taking a peek. Please leave a comment, because they mean a lot to me. Have a inspired day!

A Painted Garden Using Embossed Resist.

     Today's card is for my dear friend and neighbor.  I had purchased the stamp Flower Bird Garden by Hero Arts a number of months ago and hadn't even opened it yet. I thought it would be perfect for Linda, because she always has beautiful flowers around her house and I often visit while she gardens and I sometimes help pull weeds. We also water each others plants when the other travels ;- ) I was feeling a bit artistic, so I stamped it with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink and clear embossed it. Then I hand painted in the flowers and hummingbirds with Distress Inks. Yes, I did get out my Field Guide to do the painting on the hummingbirds ;- ) I colored in the light color washes first then added the darker details with a fine brush after it dried a bit. I created an embossed border with Cuttlebug's Frills Embossing Borders, then hand cut a pennant shape for the sentiment. The sentiment is from Clear Stamps (stamped with Marvey Brush markers)  and the shape was inked with Tumbled Glass.

     On the inside, I used a PhotoShop brush from Japanese Brush Pack 3 by darkgarden, to stamp the branch with the bird. You can find the brush set free here . The font for the text is LDJ Jilligraphy from Lettering Delights. You can find the link to Lettering Delights on my side bar.

     I zoomed to finish this up before her birthday because I've had a crazy week. I did get it delivered tonight though, phew!

Entered in the Sunday CAS Challenge at The Outlawz. Join us for the 1000 member Party going on this week!


     Many blogs are reminding you to schedule your mammogram, I'd like to remind you to have a colonoscopy, if you have a family history of colon cancer or are over 50. It's a screening test that can prevent cancer, though no one likes to think about the actual procedure >.< I finally had mine done and my husband goes next week, so if the shoe fits... so to speak ;- ) It can save your life or the life of someone you love <3 I have scheduled my mammogram too ;- ) 

Birthday Fun

     Well, I promised I'd post the card today and I will, but first let me explain, ha, got your attention now don't I. Before using this caption, I did get my husbands permission, since it's for a friend of ours, whom he works with. Also, I did not invent this caption, it's on the Sweet Treats cart from Provo craft, I just removed the candle, but it is valid for this image as well. Now you are really interested, if you haven't peeked already ;- ) (My son thought it was objectionable though, again Provo Craft made it up, not me.)

     The image, called favor is from the Sweet Treats cart also and I made it into a shaped card (actually the blackout of the image)  in Design Studio, changing both the length and width. It will fit in a business size envelope. I layered it with the main image and embossed the horn part with Swiss Dots. I used AC Metallic Cardstock and K andCompany Confetti Designer Mat Stack for the layers. I cut the sentiment from some scrap cardstock then I doodled on it with gel pens and a sharpie and inked it with Distress Inks. I attached it with pop dots.

     The inside sentiment was done digitally and the fonts are LDJ Birthday Bash from Lettering Delights (find them on my side bar - great fonts, dings, SVG's, graphics and cut-outs) and NewWGL4Font. Now there are a number of fonts with this name and I'm not sure where I got mine, but if you go to dingbats.font-cat.com here, you can find a number of them including this one and get them free. I had to fussy cut the papers and I added some metallic confetti that I had from Stampendous Class a Peel "Grad you Did It" graduation stickers.

     Actually, John is a very good friend and the card is fine. Thanks for stopping by. Please, leave a comment. they really do mean so much. Have a weekend full of inspirational activities ;- )

The Big Three-0 and window box visitors.

     Well, as promised today's card is for my friend's son's thirtieth birthday, though I still don't see how that is possible, since we were babies 30 years ago. He must be adopted ;- ) Anyway, I embossed and sanded the Core'dinations cardstock using  the Cuttlebug embossing folder. I cut out the "30" from AC metallic cardstock, using the  Cricut Plantin Schoolbook Cart and the Gypsy, so that I could size the width and height separately and popped it up on the card. The sentiment is from Clear Stamps and is embossed with sterling silver embossing powder. I really got creative to make the label. I used the gypsy to resize what was suppose to be the mat from the "Families are Forever" card on the Cricut Just Because Cards cart. It would be button 34, the one with the tree swing in the handbook. I turned off the keep proportions lock and changed the proportions to .6 inches wide by 2.5 inches long. I added a brad and popped it up. The edges are inked with Ranger Distress Fired Brick.

     On the inside, the sentiment is done digitally in Print Shop. The fonts are LD Thankful and LD Dabble both from Lettering Delights. They have great fonts and dingbats, as well as SVG's and graphics. If you sign-up for their e-mails, you get 9 fonts free. You can check them out here, through my affiliate link or by clicking the link in my sidebar. I then added stickers from American Traditional Designs Party Icons, that I get at Hobby Lobby. The Happy Birthday pattern paper is also from Hobby Lobby.

     I think the inside looks kind of like a celebration ;- ) 

The other day I shared some roses, so today I thought I'd share some visitors to my flowers with you.

 Notice the center of it's back. How feathery it is. Click on photo to enlarge.

 Look at that face \. ./

     Thanks for stopping by. Please leave a comment, so that I know that you were here ;- ) Have a blessed day!

Purple Wishes for a birthday

    Well, if it didn't happen again, sheeesh, but after the headache and the holiday, I now have a card to share. So, without any ado, here is a birthday card for a friend I've known since 2nd grade (I won't say how many years that is ;- ) She is also my son's Godmother. You might be able to guess, her favorite color is purple.  I loved the papers from Basic Grey's Wisteria stack for her from the minute I saw the stack and then I ran across some dimensional stickers from K & Company, that went well with some of the papers and also were purple and sparkly (Botanical.) So I took these and cut the sentiment from Cricut's Lyrical Letters cart to make the front.

     In order to attach the sentiment, I used a great product that I first learned about from Diane at Capadiadesigns who does a lot of wonderful creative cards. It's called LetraTac and it's sheets of adhesive dots. The dots are very small and I use them the same way Diane did here, by just putting the item I wish to glue on the sheet, burnishing it, then removing it from the sheet and attaching to the card. The item will pick up the very small dots of glue and the rest of the sheet will retain it's glue and can be used again. I got mine from Dick Blick's Art Supplies. I'm lucky and have one locally, but you can also get it online. I do have a Xyron, but find it works best on solid images. Here is a photo of the sheet showing how little I used for this card (I also used a bit to do the straps of the flip-flops, 5 posts ago.)

You can put the letters where you want to use the paper efficiently. The shiny white parts are the remaining glue dots that I can use next time. The "B" is right side up, the other pieces were done sideways. 

The smallest pack came with 10 sheets. It will last me forever, ha ha.

     The inside of the card was matted with Core'dinations and done digitally in PrintShop. The font used is Chaucer, which is a free font and the closest I could had to the style of the sentiment on the front. I added more of the K & Company embellishments and a strip of the wisteria paper.

     The next card will be for her son. Yikes, he's going to be 30! Can't be. We were babies 30 years ago. 

     Remember, if you haven't checked out http://cutterfreebies.creativebusyhands.com you should. She has freebies from around the web each week and there are some really cute SVG's there this week. Thanks for stopping by and checking out my card. Please leave me a comment. They really mean so much to me - just knowing you were here : - >

Stop and smell the roses.

     The card I have for today, was made for a dear friend's daughter. I prepare you, for when you read the sentiment on the inside ;- ) I'm sure I will be getting a call from her mother, who was the Matron of Honor at my wedding. The image is a Hero Arts stamp and I painted it with water colors. I added and embellishment from Creative Charms. The pattern paper is from Paper Studio, as is the paper strip I used for the sentiment. I used a glitter pen over the blue Happy Birthday words and it darkened the whole look of the sentiment a bit too much, so I added the white dashes with a white Signo Gel pen to the top and bottom of the sentiment.

     I did struggle with what to write on the inside. It is the hardest part of making cards for me. Everything always seems so trite. Maria still has one of the first digital cards I ever made, going back to the Mac II with the first version of Print Shop, on a very dottie, dot matrix printer (maybe 26 years.) She also is the first recipient, of the first cut and pieced card I ever made, which was for her wedding shower (2 1/2 years ago). That's a lot of written sentiments. This sentiment was done digitally with a combination of Print Shop, using LD Penelope from Lettering Delights for the font and Photoshop Elements, using Inobscuro roses brushes to make the rose background. I "stamped" the rose, used the find edges filter with a darker color and then dragged it into Print Shop. I think it gave a very nice and artistic effect. I went over the rose outlines with a clear glitter pen. You can see the glitter better in the second photo of the inside, which has the colors wrong because of the setting sun, but does show the effect of the glitter. Just noticed, while looking at the photo, the font used for "Maria" is Black Rose. It's a free font that you can get from any number of free sites. I also went over the "29" with a gel pen.

 Click to make larger

Click to make larger - then you can see the glitter better, so I don't sound crazy ;- )

     As long as I'm talking about roses, Here are a few photos I took yesterday, of the roses from my new bush that we planted this year. OK, in the vase there is a ringer as well ;- ) I love the ruffled petals on this yellow rose.

     Thanks for coming by and spending some time here today. Please leave a comment. They really mean a lot to me. Have a blessed day!