North Pole Express!

I hosted a Polar Express party this past Sunday for our children's church.  We had all sorts of delectables, including a hot chocolate bar.  For the decoration, I completed the North Pole Express by SVG Cuts.  This project was tons of fun, and not too hard to complete, even though it looks complicated.  I made two coal cars--one to hold the candy canes, the other to hold the candy kisses.  The caboose is filled with chocolate kisses.  Oh, I did forget to add the chimney pieces to the locomotive!  As Mary says (she is the designer at SVG Cuts), this train does have a WOW factor.  The paper I used was from Imaginisce.  If you truly want to see WOW factor, look at the original at svgcuts.com.  We had a great party, complete with movie watching, popcorn, gift giving, and lots of fun with our children's church friends.

Time off!

Some of you are wondering why I haven't posted in a while.  Busy!  Life happens!  My sister fell down my stairs and broke her ankle.  So I am taking care of her dogs.  Wow, do those dogs have energy!  Well, yes, they are pretty lazy in the picture above, but they can be very active!  They follow me around the house and are interested in everything I do, especially cooking!  But they also like to smell my craft supplies and creations.  They get into everything!  So I do not even have a Christmas tree (again this year!)  So be patient--your Christmas card may arrive late this year.  But I still think about you--hope you are having a merry holiday season.

Advent Thoughts booklet

I have been making these little envelope booklets lately, and I wanted to do something for Advent.  I thought I could collect/write meditations, prayers, thoughts for the season in the book and keep it to look through when I feel a need for something uplifting as the hectic holidays approach.  Also, if I add to it each day, I would be able to reserve a meditation session each day as I work in the booklet, just to keep focused on what the season is all about.  As you can see in the pictures, the slots in the envelopes will allow a place for my written meditations.  I simply stamped the inside with images that will help me focus on things that might be important in my life, versus "fluff".

Here is the cover of the booklet as it is folded flat.

I used stamping, Cricut cut images, and Accucut alphabet dies to decorate my envelope booklet.  Purple is the traditional color of the advent liturgical season.  I hope that by Christmas day, my booklet will be fat with inspiration!  

Thanks for looking, and may the peacefulness of the season be with you.

Fall blessings

When my neighbor had a garage sale some time ago, I picked up a bunch of frames for a very reasonable (yes, cheap) price.  I cleaned them up and am now filling them with holiday images, like the one pictured above.

The image is a Cricut design, cut from Cricut vinyl.  I made tons of mistakes, but I can live with this because I think it suits the frame nicely.  After seeing how it looked in the photo,  I did use my heat gun on it to sort of minimize some of the mistakes and it does look better.

Some things I learned:

1. Don't reverse weed a design like this.  You keep getting stuck to the vinyl and transfer paper, then it loses its tackiness.
2. Don't clean the glass with Windex right before you apply the design.  I am not sure my glass was completely dry.
3. Use a different vinyl.  I am going to order some 651.

Despite the problems, I still like the finished product.  It looks good in my dining room and reminds me to give thanks for the blessings I have been given, some of which include:

1. The ability and resources to be able to craft.
2. A beautiful house in which to display my creations.
3. A loving and supportive husband who indulges my hobby.
4. An abundant lifestyle that allows time for leisure and play.
5. Good friends and family who graciously receive the creations I make.

Thank you for looking and may you have a blessed Thanksgiving season.

Advent Christmas Tree

This is my little (11.5" tall) Advent Christmas tree I designed with the help of Cricut images.  The base tree was adapted from the Tablescapes cartridge and the numbers were printed with the help of the new Natalie Malan Christmas cartridge I got with my purchase of the November digital bundle Mystery Box.  Behind the numbers in the open squares you can put stickers or scriptures to open up each day of Advent.  Our church was looking for projects for our Advent Workshop and I thought this would be great.  I could cut out the green base ahead of time and the participants could put it together at the workshop.  Of course we would add a topper of a star or ribbon for a finished project.

Stamping Wreath cards

Here is a quick post of some wreath cards I have been working on.  I used Rubber Stamp Tapestry peg stamps paired with some DCWV cardstock and folded cards I have been "hoarding".  Background die shape cut with my Cricut, as was the white wreath background.  These will make ready "get well" or "thinking of you" cards to send spur of the moment.   Thanks for looking!

Autumn Cricut Card

This Cricut Explore Print Then Cut file is in the Make It Now section of Cricut Design Space.  It consists of a printed background of various color leaves and then a black precision cut overlay.   I love it and it was really easy to put together.  Good news, since I had to make 24 of them!  Yep, 24!  They were for the college kids at church this month.  I added a gift card holder to the inside and a stamped greeting.  I hope the kids like their goodies!  If you have a Cricut Explore machine, check out the file:   https://us.cricut.com/design/#/landing/Fall/project-detail/6905

Peg Stamp boot card

This is one of the cards I presented at our Peg Stamp night.  My friend Jan colored this one.  She did a great job!  The boots and grass were colored with Copics and we used Memento inks for the sky and stamping.  The flowers and leaves were from the Watercolor Blooms peg stamp set.  We also added some tiny flowers from another set.  Jan added some little red flowers in her grass which worked great to give a cohesive look to the card.  We got the idea for this card from Lindsay Weirach.  Here is a link to her tutorial:   Lindsay's boot card

The background paper is from Magenta.  Loved doing this card!

New Cricut Cards!

This week I purchased the Cricut November Mystery Digital Box.  The offer includes five digital cartridges:  

1. J Goode Holiday Designs
2. Natalie Malan Christmas Florals
3. Anna's Christmas Greetings
4. Kim Byer's Oh What Fun
5. Kim Byer's Pie Oh My

I have been playing around with what I can do with these images in terms of productive practical application.  Here are a couple of cards I made and some observations on these new "cartridges".  I use the term "cartridge" loosely because they are simply digital sets.  No physical product is involved.

The first card I made, pictured above, is an example of a one-layer image attached to a separate folded card.  I wanted to make some quick Christmas cards that do not take a ton of cutting and assembling.  The digital sets I purchased are ideal for this application.

The one layer consists of a series of images that I attached in turn to my basic white rectangle used for the card front (5 1/4" x  4").  The first image is a rectangle tag that I changed to a "print" option from the default "cut" option in the Christmas Florals cartridge.  I changed the color of the tag to a blush pink to match the blush pink banner offered in the cartridge.  By the way, I had to call Cricut to learn how to use the banner images.  The way the cartridge is designed, you print a whole sheet of various pink banners.  In order to use just one of the banners, you have to change the default "print" option to a "cut".  Then the "contour" button lights up and you can delete all but the banner you want and add it to your card.  You can then add text.  I was only able to get a "write" option for my text but that was no problem.  I used a Precise V5 black Extra Fine pen to allow the Cricut to write the text when it cut the project.  BTW a big shout out Thank You to Julie at Cricut for helping me figure this out!

I also added one of the Christmas Florals scalloped squares images to the center of the pink square, and attached.  I then added the darling Christmas Santa-hatted bear from the Kim Byer's Oh What Fun cartridge to the center of the floral square and attached.  I thought the reds of the Santa hat and banner closely matched the Christmas Florals red flowers.

After cutting out my project with the Cricut I added a white eyelet and a bit of ribbon to the hole in the pink tag image and placed my project onto a pre-made A2 size folded blush card.

If I do this project again, I may add some text to the banner on the center bear first.  It seems a little empty there.

Here is the second card I made:

This time I made a 5 1/4" x 4" rectangle and filled it with one of the 6 pretty patterns that come with the Christmas Florals cartridge.  I also inserted the plain tag image from Christmas Florals, sized it to fit the card front, and filled it with another pattern (hard to see in the photo above--it's a very light pink text pattern).  Remember, I have to attach each step of the project to make it one layer overall.  I added one of the Christmas Floral banners this time, and instead of using one of the default cartridge colors (grey, pink, dark pink, light green, or white) I changed the color of the banner to a maroon.

 Remember I had to change the banner option to cut anyway to manipulate it, so now all the color options of Design Space are available. (The Christmas Florals cartridge has a tag already designed with this saying, but I wanted to be able to manipulate the image so I could vary my text if I wanted to.  Practicing designing my own tag using the cartridge elements allowed me to learn how to do this.)

Since my banner was so dark I wanted to use a white text.  I chose a Watercolor Brush Font I purchased separately from the Mystery Box.  After attaching all and making sure I had a print option chosen I added the cute penguin from the Kim Byer's Oh What Fun cartridge.

Hard to see, but after the Cricut printed and cut the rectangle, I added a ribbon and a jingle bell to the tag and pasted it to a pre-folded A2 white card.  Next time, I am going to add some fuzzy felt or other material to the penguin's muffler.

Thanks for looking!  If there is interest, I will post my Design Space files for these cards so maybe you could make them too!

Peg Stamp Night!

Many of you know I gather with a group of fellow papercrafters and rubber stampers once a week.  We get together and have an early supper and then meet locally for a stamp fest.  I suggested we have "Peg Stamp Night" and last night was the night.  Everyone was encouraged to bring their peg stamps from Rubber Stamp Tapestry and create cards.  I brought 3 projects to share--a wreath card, a flower-filled boot card, and a card filled with patterned papers and a stamped pattern as the focal point.  Here are some pictures from our night:

We had so much fun, and everybody went home with finished cards!

Collecting Peg Stamps!

Many of you know I have a new passion--peg stamps from Rubber Stamp Tapestry.  And with that passion goes a plethora of peg stamps that are rolling around my craft room!  I find the plastic boxes that the stamps come in are hard for me to store--I am storing more packaging than product.  Plus, I like to mix it up with my peg stamps and not be confined to using one set alone.  So I came up with this nifty idea for storage:

I found the box pictured above at my local JoAnn's store.  It is very trendy, having a gold dot cover.  It's about 6" high, 6" deep, and about a foot long.  I thought it would be an attractive and convenient home for my peg stamps.  Here it is opened:

I liked the old style Rubber Stamp Tapestry clear boxes, where I could just remove the lid and place the container into the larger box and have my peg stamps instantly available.  But the newer style boxes are a clam shell top and do not offer that convenient top opening.   But my Cricut Explore came to the rescue!  I modified a box I found in Design Space (I have the monthly subscription so thousands of files are at my fingertips).  You can see one of the boxes on top of the pegs in the picture above.  You can also see I have a few empty boxes ready for my new stamps that have just arrived.  I can still keep my stamps separated by sets and yet have all of them available at a glance.  Also, the individual peg stamps fit in along the sides of the box.  Pretty nifty, huh?!!  I think this method is going to work for me, especially as the box is pretty enough to sit on top of my dresser for easy access.  One small problem, however.  the box is now full, upon the arrival of my new stamps!  Is my collection now "closed"?  Only time will tell!

Here is a new card I just created with the new sets I got--Leaves and Acorns and October Mums.  This card is my take on a recent card posted by Rubber Stamp Tapestry.

I used a 6"x 6" paper pad I have had forever to complement the stamping.  Thanks for looking!  I have to get back to stamping!

Halloween File Folder Flip Book (say that three times fast!)

Above are pictures from my first file folder flip album.  I had so much fun putting this little booklet together!  After making the basic structure from an orange file folder, I simply raided my Halloween supplies and stamps to create the pages.  I have a giant box of Halloween papers and embellishments and unfinished card parts that supplied what I needed to decorate the booklet.  Why do we collect all this stuff?  Because we will need it sooner or later!   I hope you enjoy looking at all the little touches I have incorporated into this booklet--maybe you have gotten a card from me in the past that supplied the leftovers that made this project so fun!  Tomorrow is October!  I'm ready!

Finally finished!

Above is a picture of a card I made years ago, but never felt it was finished.  I finally decided what to do.  I don't have a before picture, but imagine the card with just the backgound papers and the center die cut image.  Very plain surround!

So, after all the playing around with my peg stamps from Rubber Stamp Tapestry and my new Tsukineko Memento inks, I finally have the right idea and right equipment to finish the card.  I used some of my peg stamps and inks in Morocco, Tangelo, and Potter's Clay to stamp tiny images like wallpaper all around the pretty blank yellow surround.  Pretty cool, huh?!

BTW, you probably can't see the center image very well.  It was an early attempt to use glitter with packing tape placed over a stamped Hero Arts flower image.  And after all these years, the glitter is still intact on the packing tape!  Pretty strong stuff!

I think this would now make a perfect all-occasion, thinking of you card.  A few of which I could kind of use right now!

Thanks for looking!

Envelope booklets to make and share!

I found this envelope booklet structure online and am having so much fun with it!  I have made four booklets for friends so far and hope to make each of the children at Children's Church a birthday booklet this coming year.

The above example shows how I've decorated the outside of the attached envelopes.  I made this booklet for a friend who loves feminine vintage imagery.

The image above shows the insides of the attached envelopes.  Lots of pockets to place goodies you want to share with your friend.

I found the idea for these on a site that promotes snail mail via a Facebook group.  I thought, why share with strangers when we all know so many people we rarely see anymore?  I thought these would be a good way to show people we are still thinking of them.  And what fun--to receive such a gift in the mail!  And plus I am tired of hoarding my stash--time to use it up and share the goodies!  I even added a clear stamp set I never use to one of the gifts--maybe someone will finally show it some love!

Will you be getting one of my treasures?  I have four addressed and ready to go!  Such fun!

Thank Ewe!

Many of you will recognize (I hope my picture didn't turn out that bad!) the image above from Cricut. Simple Pop Up Cards.  And trust me, this card is simple!

And it turns out, this card was perfect for our Childrens' Church today!  I pre-cut all the pieces for the card, pre-folded the pop up portion, and even a four year old could put it together!  (I did cheat a little and put the glue onto the sheep's legs from my small glue applicator, so glue wouldn't get everywhere!)

We were examining the story of God going to find the lost sheep, and after we exhausted the ideas in the provided curriculum, I let the girls (yes, all girls today, aged 3-6) have some real fun and make a card they could give someone to let them know how much they care, like God cares for us.

One thing this card does not provide, however, and that is a design for the front of the card.  (You are of course looking at the inside pop up portion in the photo above.)   So with the help of Cricut again, this is what I came up with for a simple front design:

I purchased the BAA from the Animal Kingdom cartridge (yes, I know I could have made it myself, but after several flubbed tries I went with this pre-made image--easy peasy!

We layered the BAA onto a white shipping tag, added some very fun feather-boa like yarn, and layered all onto a red and white background piece.  The kids had some farmyard themed red and white checks.

Whenever I am in a quandry about a craft or project we can do in Children's Church, I often turn to Cricut for ideas.  Booklets, stickers, pictures--all are in easy reach.  Thank Ewe, Cricut!

Stop and Smell the Roses!

Still playing with Rubber Stamp Tapestry!  After reading about using partial diecuts and playing around with this technique with the Aloha set, i decided to turn to my new Roses peg stamp set.  This card uses the same Cricut generated die cut center but I stamped roses all around it before cutting it out by hand.  I used some of my new Memento inks, including Love Letter.  I also used the Spectrum Noir Sparkle pen to add highlights to the roses.  And I had fun choosing the pink sequins for the shaker part of this card.  I wanted it to seem as if the stamped girls in the background, which I colored with Copics, were taking a walk in a rose garden.  I am going to use this card as an all-purpose card--I think it could be birthday, or get well, or just thinking about you.  Bright and colorful!

Button Heart Wreath

I had these printed pattern notecards I got at Hobby Lobby years ago.  They make a super background for this card idea.  I layered up some papers and die cuts than stamped a button heart wreath from my Rubber Stamp Tapestry set.  I heat embossed the button hearts in the wreath with clear powder so they stand out a little from the other stamping.  This wreath was so fun to make!  I jazzed it up with some leftover stickers.
     Thanks for looking!  This wreath's for you!

Candy Box for You!

Above is my cute candy box card I made from Inky Antics "You're Sweet" clear stamp set, which I picked up at Hobby Lobby.

Here is a link to see the set online:

 http://www.hobbylobby.com/Scrapbook-Paper-Crafts/Stamping/c/7-152?q=%3Arelevance%3AclassificationBrand%3AArt+Gone+Wild&text=

I actually got the idea for the 3D box from Yainea.  Here is a link to her wonderful card and video:

http://mypaperjourney.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2016-05-02T15:00:00%2B02:00&max-results=7&start=28&by-date=false

She used the"Donut Worry" stamp set from Lawn Fawn.  (Very yummy--I have purchased this also.)

I decided to make a box for candy.  I used her instructions to make the 3D box and then stamped the candies in shades of pink and brown chalk inks from Clearsnap.  I accented the candies with Stickles and decided to make it a Get Well card.  

This Inky Antics stamp set is part of a series that feature a "scratch-off" motif.  While I didn't use this feature on my card, I think it would be very fun to receive a "scratch-off" card.  

Best of luck to you all, and may you all be well!

 

Tropical Shaker Card

Sometimes you just need a little bit of color in your life!   I made this card (idea from Rubber Stamp Tapestry and Lindsay Weirich) with just that in mind.

First of all, to give credit to Lindsay, here is a link to her card and video:

             http://ideas.pegstamps.com/2016/06/11/aloha-card-selective-die-cutting-technique/

  Here are the details of my card:

1. I used my Cricut Explore to cut a shape that I could use as the window of my card.
2. I traced around the shape with a pencil onto the center of a 5 1/4" x 4" white mat.
3. I stamped the troical flower and foliage images using Memento inks and the Aloha peg set from Rubber Stamp Tapestry, stamping some of the images around the penciled shape and some of the them extending into the penciled shape.
4.  Following Lindsay Weirich's advice, I used color dusters to add in shades of blue and yellow around the penciled shape.
4. I cut out the shape, cutting around the images that extended into the shape opening.
5.I then made my basic shaker card with acetate covering the window.  Sentiment at top is from Hero Arts.  The colorful birds (Inkadinkado) were stamped in the center of the folded white card and colored with Copic markers to match the colors of the Memento inks.  
6. The shaker is filled with some fun tropical confetti I found in the party section of Hobby Lobby.
7.  Lastly, and I don't think you can see it in this photo, I went over the stamped flowers and foliage with Spica glitter pens, matching the colors of the flowers.

The main difference between my card and Lindsay's is that I used my Cricut to cut my shape, rather than using a physical die.  I love using my Cricut whenever I can when I die cut.  I have the Cricut subscription so I have access to thousands of images.  In this way I don't have to purchase lots of expensive physical dies to get variety in my cardmaking.  Here is more information about the Cricut Explore:

http://us.cricut.com/home/

I am sending this card to someone who needs a little cheer in her life.  Wouldn't it be fun to get this card in the mail, along with the bills and junk?!!

Cricut Banner for Church

Today was our Chirstian Education Sunday in church, where we present the new fall offerings for classes.  The pastor wanted me to make a banner showcasing the church's mission, so I used my Cricut to help out.  I uploaded the graphic she provided into Design Space, and with a bit of slicing and copying came up with a fair design I could use to cut a paper pattern.  I cut the pieces from some colorful Patrick Losey prints I still had from my quilting days and then ironed them onto the background.  The lettering was cut from Gold Glitter and White Cricut Iron On.  A bit of gold fringe delineates the bottom border.

Stamp Class!

Tuesday night at our stamping group I presented a little class I had previously done at Hobby Lobby.  The cards are pictured above.  All feature simple coloring with copic markers.  We had lots of fun and probably got one card done but a lot of talking and laughing!  I updated the butterfly card with some Ranger Enamel Accents in various colors.  I am loving this product!   I had of course unmounted the large flower stamp and the butterfly and re-mounted on EZ Mount Thin.  It works OK if you use a stamping mat.  I use either the Bazzill black mat or the pink Sew Easy mat.  Amazed at my organizational skills!  I found all the products to re-make this class, including the washi tape and the ribbon!.

We all Scream for Ice Cream!

I love my new Hero Arts Ice Cream Layering Stamp!  Plus, I am in the mood lately for ice cream.  I have decided to have ice cream rather than cake for the September birthdays at church, and I think I will have the children offer the toppings for the ice cream.  For some reason we haven't had our annual ice cream social so this will be a good substitute.

For the card above, I stamped the cone in Clearsnap Chestnut Roan chalk ink and added the details with Clearsnap Dark Brown chalk ink.  I stamped the ice cream itself in Clearsnap Orchid and Lime chalk inks and added details with Clearsnap Pinkolicious and Grasshopper Archival Dye inks.  I did not purchase the coordinating dies for this stamp set, but the cones and ice creams were easy to cut out by hand.  I must have made about 20 ice cream birthday cards!

The kraft background oval die is from Spellbinders.   I nearly had a heart attack embossing the oval kraft die in my Tim Holtz Vagabond machine--I must have used too thick of a sandwich and nearly got stuck--I only was successful by pressing the Go button every little bit, letting the machine rest between presses, and little by little, inch by inch I did get the sandwich to move until all was clear--close call, that one!  I will have to be really careful of my sandwich in future.

 I stenciled the confetti background from a Hero Arts plastic stencil onto white card with regular Dreamweaver's embossing paste and then added color with Tsukineko pigment ink cubes.   A little bit of Prismaglitter later and a cherry on top completed my Happy Birthday Ice Cream cone card!

You can't see the inside of the card in this photo, but I also filled the inside of the card with ice cream cone, too!

Now, let's have some ice cream!

Quilt Card

Hello Bloggers!  Today I made a project I have been wanting to do for a few weeks, ever since I saw Lindsay Weirach's post/video using Rubber Stamp Tapestry peg stamps to do a quilt-look card.  You can see her original project/post here:    http://ideas.pegstamps.com/2016/07/02/diy-puffy-paper-quilt-card/

First of all, loved several of her techniques to make this look like a real quilt--she embossed all the quilt lines, adding faux stitch lines and then "puffed" it up with a hot glue gun.

I had to make a few tiny changes.  I could not remember where I put my color dusters, which she used to add the background color, but my Tim Holtz Distress Inks were to hand, so used those in the colors of Mandarin, Aged Mahogany, Barn Door, and Wild Honey to add the background color in the blocks.  This worked great, with the exception that my backround was a little wet from the inks, so I had to let it dry before stamping.

I didn't have the actual peg stamps from Rubber Stamp Tapestry that she used, so I combined two different sets to get a look of old fashioned flowered quilt fabrics. Also, I tried at first to use some Tsukineko pigment inks for the stamping, but I think my inks were too dry so I penciled over those with a Poppy Prismacolor and switched to Memento Rhubarb and Potter's Clay dye inks.  These worked much better on my well-inked backgrounds.

I also learned  don't sponge Distress Inks over a Micron Pigma pen--it is not colorfast.  I think a very fine line Sharpie would work much better.

Overall, I am happy with this card and am already at work on a second one in this style.  This will be perfect to send to one of my quilting friends.

Thank you, Lindsay, for always provided a fantastic project idea!

Doing things a little differently

I have always loved wood mounted stamps.  At one point in my stamp collecting life I would buy only wood mounted stamps and eschewed cling mount and especially clear stamps.  But life changes.

Wood stamps are heavy, cumbersome, and difficult to store.  This I found out.  Especially when you have millions of them.

Plus, the quality of the cling mount and clear stamp varieties have really improved in the last couple of years.  Kind of like appliances.  And of  course the invention of the Misti stamping tool is a total game changer.

And now that I have discovered some new products, I am taking the leap and removing my beloved stamps from their wood mounts.  Well, many of them, anyway.  The process is slow and painstaking, but I think the results will be worth it.

First--the products I am using:   EZ Mount Cling Thin--this stuff is fabulous.  Easy to cut, so once the stamp is off the block, converting to Cling Mount is EZ!  But not all stamps are worthy of this process.  My rarely used but still coveted collage stamps are undergoing a different process!

Thus the second new product I am using:  Allene's Tack It Over and Over repositionable glue.  Available only online at JoAnn's.com.  I remove the stamp (not the mount, just the red rubber) and paint on a mayonnaise layer of this glue.  Let it dry until it is clear, then voila--the stamp is easily stickable to a regular acrylic mount or your Misti.  Of course you must use a stamping mat since there is no foam backing, but the Misti makes this really not a problem.

So here is a picture of one of the stamp albums I am making from my collage stamps:

I have inserted 110 lb cardstock into a page protector and "clung" my newly glued-on-the-back-with-Tack-It-Over-and-Over stamps on top of the page protector.  The 110 lb weight gives a little bit of strength to the backing, plus you can stamp your images on the facing side so you have a stamp register.

Here is a picture of the Tack It Over and Over:

Another product I foresee using is Tack and Peel.  I bought it originally to use with the glued Tack It Over and Over stamps, but you don't need it.  But you can use it if you don't want to put glue on the backs of your rubber stamps.

Since starting this process I have emptied drawers of stamps (drawers that can hold other things now!),  What am I doing with my no longer needed blocks?  Of course they are going in boxes in the garage--who knows when I will need them!!!!!!

Stenciling again!

Seriously, July already?  I must have been busy, but it's all a blur!  I have started stenciling again, and today I am sharing a cupcake card I made.  New techniques for me--stenciling on black background first of all and second of all using one of the newer plastic stencils for the background.  Here is the card, and yes, I know it's not perfect, but I like it:

Grrrr--just finding my pictures has suddenly become a gigantic problem!  You think you know a system, and then all the rules change!  But I did find it!

I stenciled the cupcakes using white embossing paste (regular) onto black cardstock using a Dreamweaver stencil.  After the stenciling was dry, I then replaced the  clean stencil on top of it and dabbed on color with stencil brushes and applicators.  I found out that you really need a heavy coat of the white embossing paste on the black paper!  You can see my efforts don't quite measure up!  But hey, I'm just getting started again after a year or so!

Oh, I used pigment inks, so it took days for the ink to dry.  But the color pop is WOW!

The background confetti is stenciled in the same way, but with a plastic stencil from Hero Arts (yes, new!) on white card.  It took forever to replace the clean stencil onto the pasted card because you have to puzzle out which way it goes!  But I like the look and will definitely make some more cards like this one.  But better!  I may stick to white cardstock for a while until I get my groove on.

BTW I ordered several more  Dreamweaver stencils from Stencil with Style.  They are going out of business and you can probably only get these brass stencils in future from Stampendous, and a limited number of images at that.  Stencils are disappearing from the Stencil with Style website at a pretty good clip as inventory is reduced.  I love my stencils!  I now have a dedicated drawer in my craft room for them.  I even have an old timey lightbox!  There are tons of techniques to try!

Thanks for looking!  I'll be in my craft room.......

Valentine Sprinkles

Above is a card I designed to send to the college students from our church for Valentine's day.  We wanted to remind them that they are still loved even though we don't get to see them very often.  Inside the card says  "I hope your day is sprinkled with love".  The inside is signed by all the members of the congregation.
     Here are the details:
          Accucut card base (with three die cut squares along the right border
          Hobby Lobby red paper overlay, also cut with Accucut die
           Cricut designed "print then cut" elephant and heart border.
I also placed extra print then cut hearts in the square openings.

Below is another Valentine project, this time for Tuesday night stampers:

I made SVG Cuts Valentine "crackers" from patterned papers.  I then imported my little raccoon stamp images from Stampendous into Cricut Design Space and print then cut them out with a patterned heart image.  They are colored with Copic markers and then the sentiment stamped on top of the patterned paper hearts. Can you see how intricate the little raccoon fingers are cut out with the Cricut?  I could never cut these by hand so neatly and closely.  I love precision die cutting!  And I will be using my stamped images more now that I have a way of cutting them out so easily!

Happy Valentine's Day to you, too!

Bunco Party!

Aren't these little guys adorable?  My sister hosted a bunco party in January and we thought these cute frosty little penguins would look great on the bunco punch cards.  The penguin is imported from Cricut Design Space and is a Make It Now project.  There is a penguin for every season!  I have designs on the little Valentine penguin next!
     We also imported the pattern for the background and made the background, the featured penguin, and the lettering (from A Child's Year Cricut cartridge) into a Print Then Cut.  Due to technical difficulties, we had to cut the large die separately and paste it onto the front of the card, along with the little sequin snowflake.  The die is altered from an existing Cricut image.
     Here is a picture of the cards on the lanyards used for the party:

It was a fun bunco party, but it was also a party to make the cards!  Thank you Cricut and Design Space!