Easel card for a challenge.

     Hey, long time no see >.< Sorry about that. I have been working on a card for my college students and three have been mailed, but I forgot to take photos of them (hurrying to get those out the door, my son comes home on Friday, Yippeee!) Should have more of them done soon and then I'll post those (only 11 more to go, hee hee.) They are cocoa cards.

     Today's card is for the Progressive Challenge over at Crafter's Digital Art Center (here.) This is the last leg of this group of the Progressive, so you can get in the next round, if you would like to join. We get they greatest images to work with and the next group is free as long as you use one from the current group in a project within the challenge period (usually 2 weeks.) The first group is free and if you missed the first group you can join in for $1 and as I said we will be starting with a new first group on March 1st.

     From the title, you can tell todays' card is also an easel card ;- ) You are a quick group!  I used the image provided by A Day For Daises which is perfect for a card for my best friend from grammar school's daughter. I colored in in PhotoShop Elements. The only thing fancy was a multi-bristle brush you would find in the Assorted Brushes at the bottom left. It kind of looks like half a squiggly doodled spider, LOL. I used that with hair highlights and lowlights and dabbed or stippled with it on a base colored hair to make the hair look more realistic. I just kind of messed around with it until I got something I liked. You have to love that undo button. Only remember with doing this dabbing you can only undo so far (depending on how many levels of undo you have set) and you might dab a lot of times, if you use a small brush which will look better.

     The solid color papers are from Core'dinatiions and the pattern paper is from Paper Studio's Four Seasons paper pack, which is available at Hobby Lobby and has so many great patterns. I cut the scalloped circle with Quick Kutz Nesting Circle Dies, but I cut the circle with the Martha Stewart Circle Cutter, because I didn't want a circle as large as the one that came with the Quick Kutz set. For the oval sentiment I used Nestabilities Large Oval and Large Scalloped Oval. I inked the card edges and the image with Dusty Concord Distress Ink. The image also has some Tumbled Glass Distress Ink on it. I wanted to know back some of the starkness of the white. The sentiment is from Hero Arts Sweet Wonderful You and is stamped with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. The ballet slippers with the bow is a free SVG from SVG Cuts, which I used Sure Cuts A Lot 2 and my Expression to cut. They have lots of free images and the ballet slippers are still available here.  You can check out SVG Cuts here. There is a link to the Sure Cuts A Lot software on my sidebar. I inked the edges of the ballet slippers and the bow with a Copic to give it more dimension and popped up the bow.

     Thanks for fluttering by today. I'm really glad that you were here. I do love reading your comments. Please leave one before you go ;- ) Have a wonderfully creative week!

Progressing on in the Challenge ;- )

     Today's card used the colored digital image provided by Happi Scrappin Doddles for the Progressive Challenge (#12) at Creative Digital Art Center (CDAR) here. This is the last challenge in this round so you can join the next group of challenges for free, so head on over.

     Correction, this is only #11 and it will cost $1 to get in the next round because there is 1 round left before the next group of challenges, but the images are so wonderful, $1 is nothing, for such amazing images. So come and check them out ;- )

     I used the large scalloped oval nestie to cut the image and matted it on blue card stock embossed with Styalized Flowers by Sizzix. The pearlized orange card stock is by Crafter's Companion. The butterfly, flower and leafy element is an SVG from  Images by Heather M. She has many great freebies and you can find her here. I cut it twice to get the butterfly and flowers separate and then added stickles, Pearl Pen and gel ink to the butterfly as well as Me and My Big Ideas gems to the flowers. I also inked the image with Spiced Marmalade distress ink. I plan on sending this card to my aunt in order to just send her a little
cheer ;- )

     I also finished the inside of this card. You may remember, that I was sending it to my friend's daughter and you can find the details on the front here (it's only 2 posts below), but I wanted to share the inside with you.

     I used Print Shop and the border is from that program. The main font is Frazzle and the font in the signature is Black Jack. The doodles are a font called Wendy Doodles which is a freebie and you can find it here. You can check dafont.com for the other two. I've shared a link for Black Jack in a previous post, but dafont should have them both for free. I then colored in the doodles with glitter and gel pens and matted them all and inked with Dusty Concord.

     Thanks for floating by yourselves ;- ) Have a great day and please leave a comment before you go!

Valentine for a Techie

     Well, I surface again <.< Today's card is a valentine for my son. The sentiment was cut from Cricut's Martha Stewart Seasonal Cake Art Cartridge. I learned it's best to size for your width with this cart, because otherwise it goes very wide thinking you're making a cake (I was using the Gypsy, so I could see the size ahead of time), but when you select the size to cut the shadow, be sure to select relative, but use the height number of your cut to get the shadow to match your tip cut. The software is use to expecting things sized to height, so that's the way it computes the relative size. The pattern paper is Paper Studio. I actually made a mistake her and the sentiment and it's shadow are suppose to be reversed. They are suppose to mimic the colors and style of my son's computer as you will see on the inside.

     The SVG on the inside is cut using Sure Cuts A Lot a a file from Designs On Cloud 9 called Tech Toys. The set also includes game controllers and an iPod. You can find the file here and check out some of there other cute files. They also have a free file each week!!! The papers are Bazzill from Archiver's. The sentiment on the computer screen is also welded and cut using Sure Cuts A Lot2 and the font  is Orbitron. If you'd like the cut file,  just let me know. The pattern paper is from Generation Tech by DCWV.

The matted sentiment on the bottom is printed digitally using the same font. I used stickles to re-create the look of his speakers and a white gel pen to  mark the keys on the keyboard that spell, Valentine. We'll see if he gets that code ;- )

     I also added a tab similar to a pop-up card, so that it allows the card to open and close properly and so that my son could set it on his desk in the open position and admire his computer look-alike, without the bottom of the computer flopping loose.

     Well, I also forgot to distress the white a bit, in my rush to get his package of goodies off to him at college. I think he'll like it though ;- ) Thanks for stopping by and giving me some of your precious time. Please, leave a comment before you go, I can use a boost. have a spectacular weekend!

My first step card and a second grandchild for a friend ;- )

     Today's card is my very first step card. I made it for my friend's son and daughter-in law. They just had a new baby girl ;- ) This is their second child and her big brother is very excited too! I've known my friend since second grade and she is the Godmother of my son, so I thought I do something a little extra for her granddaughter. I used an SVG freebie file from Cheryl First at Cafexpressions and Sure Cuts A Lot to cut the base of the card and the trim around the steps on my Expression.  She no longer offers it free, but has it for $1.50 and you can find it here. Her original also has stars and a rocking horse that I didn't use.

      I used my Cricut Imagine to print and cut the scene with the lamb (printed and cut in layers) from the Nursery Tales cartridge. I popped up most of the layers. I also  printed the paper I used for the base from that same cartridge on the Imagine, before cutting it with the Expression and Sure Cuts A Lot. (I only cut it at the size of 6 inches by 9 inches, not a full size sheet, because that was all I'd need.) The paper used for the edging on the steps is from Nursery Tales as well. That's one of the nice things about the Imagine. You can print the coordinating paper you need to go with the images you are using.

     The sentiment is from Hallmark Cards and was given to me by my neighbor. I thought it went well with the card. The rose is by Prima. Now I'd like your help. Do you like the turtle here? Here's a larger one from the lamb scene. I'm having trouble deciding (probably the slight headache I have), so I can use your opinion. Let, me know what you think. He's only attached with re-positional adhesive, so I can take him off ;- ) It could be his size or that I changed the ink cartridge and he's darker than the lamb.

     So there you go. My first step card ;- ) Have a great early weekend. Thanks for stopping by and please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Great freebie ;- )

     Just dropped in to let you know that SVG Cuts has a great freebie available until the 28th.  It is a set of SVG's to make these adorable 1-sheet boxes.

    So, if you have an electronic cutting machine that uses SVG's or if you have Sure Cuts A Lot, head on over there. You can use the affiliate link on my sidebar.  Correction, I remembered when we were out today, that the link on my sidebar is for Sure Cuts A Lot. Here is the link to SVG Cuts. com. The closeness of Christmas is beginning to mess with my mind, ha ha. Mary also has a video showing how to assemble 2 of them.

     Should have my Christmas cards done and ready to post soon, very soon. Thanks for stopping by ;- )

     Phew, all 14 cards for my college students are done ;- ) My sofa is covered in glitter and snippets of paper, ha ha, but 5 made the mail and the others are stamped (1 awaiting a mailbox number.) I believe last year when I originally CASEed the one from Creating in Carolina I did them one at a time on the Expression. This year, I decided to move her SVG file onto separate layers so I could cut multiple of each item at 1 time. Here is the link to Cely's original post with her file. I made the card an A2 which makes the mouthes kind of small, so I thought I'd gotten rid of them all, but it still did the cut outs on the pumpkin. (Last year the pumpkin face was drawn in, no time for correcting mistakes this year. I'm down to the wire!)  I used Diamond Lace sickles on the moon, gel pens on the eyes, Crayola Pip Squeak glitter for the pumpkin mouth and Divine Swirls to emboss the background.

     The poem (which I showed on an earlier post) was one I found and modified. These are mostly students (trying not to call them kids ;- ) from my Church, who also had attended our K-8 Lutheran School, so I took the witch out of the poem. Yes, I know there is a ghost on the card, but he isn't doing sacrifices in the local forest preserves! You have to draw a line somewhere. Fonts are Lucinda Blackletter and LD Typset (the latter from Lettering Delights.)

     The card for my group that got this one last year, is the one that I teased you with. It is from... the Wild Card cartridge. It is cut at 3.75 inches on the Expression. I used my Gypsy, because the way Cricut designed it, the orange layer is the same as the black layer and you cut the square off and just use the pumpkin part of the cut. Too wasteful for me, so I used the Gypsy to overlay the cut, putting the next pumpkin on top of where the square would cut, continually overlapping the cards until the mat was full. This way I didn't waste so much paper. What was I going to do with a bunch of 3 3/4 inch squares of black paper anyway? I used spray glue on the "Boo" elements and then sprinkled Martha Stewart glitter on them. I colored in the eyes and mouth with yellow glitter gel pen.

     On the inside, I wrote with white gel pen. Font, debbie scribble, hee hee.

    
     There was also and envelope available with a liner. At first, not knowing the mailing code I thought I could use it. I made my son's in black however, because it's Family Weekend and I thought I'd just sneak his onto his desk. Later realizing my error (somewhere along the way, when my better judgement kicked in about mail codes) I decided that I would put the cute, small, decorative envelope into a normal A2 size envelope for mailing everyone's cards. On the white ones, I just went over the pumpkin with Marmalade Distress Ink.

     Here is the whole bunch, done, just before I noticed I only had 6 A2 envelopes left in the house and still had to call and get updated addresses for the students from last year and addresses for some of them for this year :- 0

Should have set them up better, would have if there was TIME! ;- )

     Thanks for stopping by and listening to my tale of woe. Hope you have a great weekend. Still so much to do before my husband's surgery and he's out of commission for at least 4 weeks. Please leave a comment, because they mean so much to me. It will be a great weekend, because I'll be seeing my son!

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 : - >

Sale at Lettering Delights.

     Just wanted to let you know that Lettering Delights is having a sale on all things summer, including SVG's and graphics as well as fonts for the month of June. Just click on the link at the top of my blog or the one to the right if you are not a current Lettering Delights subscriber and you will also get 9 free fonts just for signing up for their free newsletter. They have also just introduced some new SVG's that are very girly. Jump on over there and see while the sale is on ;- ) Get out and enjoy the flowers!

SVG freebie

     Just thought I make a quick post to let you know that Svg Cuts has a freebie called My Mom's Attic. You can get it by clicking Here. It has scallop circles and squares, the words "all the girls" our family" and "thanks" as well as 2 other design elements for a total of 13 svg files. They can be used with the Sure Cuts A Lot program or any other program that uses svg files. If you are interested in getting Sure Cuts A Lot there is a link on the right side of my blog. So go and check out these freebies from Svg Cuts and have a great day.

Bunny hopping for the guys.

     Well, I finished the card for the male college students on my list.  I basically just changed the colors on the front and used a different paper on the inside.

   Compare to the card for the gals from last post.

     If you hadn't read the earlier post, the pockets are for packets of Fun Dip. I've known these students since at least kindergarten. Most of them went to grammar school with my son.

     I thought I'd show you the background paper I made,  since you can't really see it with the images on the card. It's a great idea when you need paper and plain colored paper just won't do. Info in previous post (the boy's is gold perfect pearls however.)

     I've finished them all, up to the point of the water coloring. I have to mention that these Bugaboo bunnies are very mischievous. My husband cut out the bunnies (I was tired of cutting out black rectangles myself) and by the time he got upstairs to my craft room, 14 of the bunnies had disappeared. I know I had cut and scored all of the card bases ahead of time, so I could just assemble them all and when the time came, 5 bases were missing. I had the 2 1/2 inches of cardstock that was cut off of them, but they were nowhere to be found. <.< Very suspicious. I wonder were the bunnies put the cardstock and what they plan on doing with it?  Here is a photo of all of the finished cards together.

     Again, a special thanks goes to Creating in Carolina for the original idea. Today she has another cute card on her blog and a free jelly bean svg.  I'd also like to mention that Letraset is having a give-away, where you can win all 3 Promarker blending sets. Check out the details at this  Going Buggy post. Enfys always has some great inspiration on her blog too.

     Thanks for stopping by. Please, leave a comment if you have time. They really mean a lot. Have a week filled with joy and creativity!

Rocking the guy card!

     Before I give in to the call of more flowers, I needed to do another masculine card. This one is for a 22 year old. I can't believe how fast they all grow up. From birth to 22 in a blink or two. Anyway, this friend's son, had played in their Church Praise Band. I decided to use the star shaped-card, from Cricut's Birthday Bash. It's from the card function on the image of the fox playing the guitar (4th image). I used the star and a modified version of the words (just a minor trim), from that page and the font from that cart as well. I decided that a cooler guitar was needed though, so I used the guitar from the Indie Art Solutions free upload to the Gypsy. I hid the inside cuts and then used the Cri-Kits metallic green gel pen to draw the details in.

     On the inside, I used a digital sentiment with the Lettering Delights font SNF Jester Fool.  Don't forget, they are still having their Dollar Days at Lettering Delights. There's a link in my right margin. The pattern papers are DCWV's  Generation Tech. I think I'll find a lot of uses for this paper pack. (I'll probably get a 2nd.) The metallic paper is from AC Cardstock.

     What would I do differently? Looking at it, I'm thinking of adding some bling to the pegs (tuning pegs) at the top of the guitar. I wish I'd come up with a different way to do the sentiment. I was kind of going for an inverted triangle, but it didn't fit. (Only in my mind.) Maybe if I'd used a smaller font size. Then maybe cut that with zig zag scissors? Maybe I'll find an embellishment to go to the left of the star, in the blue area. I really like how the front turned out though.  The bit of bling for more dimension would be about it (the star and the guitar and the letters that need it are already popped up.)

     Now, maybe I can play with flowers ;- ) Penny Duncan, added a tutorial and SVG file to her blog here, on  Easter lilies. I also found  one on roses here. So click on the links if you are interested and make some summer inside. Have a great and blessed rest of the week. Your comments are more appreciated than you could know. Thanks for stopping by.

Flowers... Sort Of.

      Well, we're finally heading into the weekend. Today I don't have a card, though I did have to make one more of those easy Thank-you cards, that are 2 posts earlier, for the Elders to sign, to be sent to the confirmation teachers at our Church. Evidently, my adding skills aren't what they use to be :P So, after that I finished up the daffodil I started yesterday. I had used the SVG that Penny Duncan had created. Hers turned out beautifully.  To view Penny's tutorial and/or get her SVG click here. Here is a photo of her finished flowers.

     Now I have created the Beginner cards cultivar variety of the daffodil. I did not have the correct color of re-inker to get yellow, so mine are orange. Also, I just did the flower part, because I didn't have the right wire or florist tape, but here you have my first try (my Expression needs a new blade, but I knew this was just a first attempt).

     So, not too bad. I had inked the edges, but the color blended in. I meant to try a brown before taking the photo, but I didn't. There is gold perfect pearls on the flower, but it doesn't show up well. I have some time to practice before Easter. 
  
    The other thing I tried today was Cosmo Cricket's Glubers. Now if you don't know what a Gluber is, it's a giant (in this case 2 inches), glue dot. It enables you to more easily make large fabric, ribbon and even paper flowers.  I had some fabric I won in a quilt hop, so I thought I'd try that. It is cream with a small white pattern, which is hard to see after I rolled it, for the flower. I set embellishments on it for the photo, to show a possibility, but I won't decorate it until I know what project I'm going to use it on. I might also be able to dye it with ink. I have a test piece of fabric drying overnight.

     I had made a trip to a different Michaels today, to look for a new quilling board. I found that Michaels is clearancing out what little quilling supplies they have. No boards, but I did pick up some quilling paper. I can't find my board (looking for it has been a major time eater for a few days now) and haven't quilled in years, but I have taken out some books from the library and would like to use it to make some card embellishments. As soon as I get a 40% coupon for Hobby Lobby and some time, you may be seein some of those creations here. The Michaels I was at had a lot of clearance items. They had a bunch of regular ribbon for $1, and I got my favorite guy paper pad from Basic Grey, Granola for $4.99 (12x12). Picked up some $1 stamps and some clearance embellishments and then had to hurry, because I promised DS I'd only be 5-10 minutes and he was waiting in the car. Got a partial save because DH came in to use the bathroom and then he went to the Office Max, so I knew I had a few more minutes, though I still heard that it took me more than 5 min ;- )


     I had planned on doing more this evening, but then the news came on and well, I wasn't much into crafting after watching the video from Japan. My mind was a bit distracted. So please offer up a prayer for the people there and be sure to hug your loved ones..... again. Thanks for sharing your time with me. Your comments keep me going. Have a blessed weekend.