Thanksgiving Place Cards

I am truly blessed to have my daughters and 3 grandsons coming for Thanksgiving!  My grand babies are 2, 4 and nearly 5 years old.  I wanted
to make some fun place cards for us to enjoy at our Thanksgiving table.
My favorite Cricut cartridge is Create a Critter and it's my usual go to cartridge especially for paper projects for kids.  I created a card base measuring 3 1/2 x 3 inches.  I embossed a background piece in a light cream color.  My turkey measures 3 1/2 inches and I cut the pieces using four different colors, off white,terra cotta,pumpkin and dark brown card stock.  I glued all my pieces together and added small eyes with a black pearl pen.  This gives a nice dimension to the eyes.  I added my turkey and then die cut a small label using my Spellbinders Large Oval dies.  On Thanksgiving Day I will have the older children fill in the names of all our guests.

Supplies used

Cuttlebug embossing folder
Cricut Create of Critter cartridge
Kraft, off white,dark brown,pumpkin,terrace cotta and beige card stock
Spellbinders oval die cuts
Viva black pearl pen
adhesive

Mini Christmas Cards with Handmade Envelopes

I found some darling stickers at my local Joann's in the dollar bins.  I decided to make some small mini cards using my Spellbinders die cuts.  I folded my green and red card stock and let the die cut hang over the folded edge to create a small 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 inch card.  Mine open at the top.  I die cut a smaller label and embossed using the Snowflake embossing folder.  I also added a label inside so I can either stamp a Holiday greeting or hand write whatever I want.  I created square 3 x 3 inch envelopes using paper

I had leftover from my stash.  I added some photos of the steps to create  square cards.  I started with 8 pieces of the metallic card stock cut into 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inch squares.  I used my scoring board and my envelope piece to score at 2 1/2 inches all around.  I folded my scored piece using my bone folder.  

I then clipped the triangle pieces in each corner.  I folded my envelope, making sure everything looked nice.  I glued the edges using my glue stick
I decided to round the back flap using my rounder punch. 

   

Supplies:  Martha Stewart Scoring Board
                Bone Folder
                DCWV Evergreen 12 x 12 paper
                Bazzill Peppermint paper
                Green Card Stock
                Spellbinders Labels 1
                Glue Stick
                Darcie Snowflake Embossing Folder
                Joann's Foam Owl & Sock Monkey Stickers
                Candy Cane foam stickers - from my stash
 

Paper Mache Letter - Personalized Autumn Decor

I know I haven't posted in ages, and I'm hoping to start blogging on a more regular basis.  As you can tell, my blog is not fancy and I am not at all techie.  But I do love to share ideas and new creations in the hopes I can inspire and spark someone's creative light.

I made this personalized Fall piece for my mantel.  Using the last initial of our last name, I purchased a large
paper mache letter from Joann Fabrics and Crafts.  I had some fall paper from a holiday pack I had from last year.  I was also able to pick up some fall picks on sale.  I started by tracing the letter on my paper.  Make sure you have the pattern going in the right direction.  I painted the letter with a coordinating color of acrylic paint.  I covered both sides with paper once my paint was thoroughly dried and then I added strips of paper for the sides.  Using modge podge, I adhered the paper - pressing gently with my fingers to remove any air bubbles .  I distressed the paper edges with ink after everything was dry.  I then added a few layers of modge podge to seal my paper.  Wait until the ink is dried thoroughly.  Finally I chose some of the my fall embellishments and tied them together with ribbon and trim.  I hot glue gunned my flower bundle to my paper mache letter.  Total cost was under $10.00.

Creating Backgrounds

Sometimes I want a background to my cards rather than just a plain white or other color card stock.
I've promised myself I would start using some stamps that haven't been used in awhile.  First I used Impression Obsession's Rolling Waves Mega stamp.  I love I/O background stamps and I love to mix and match them too.  I used 3 different blue distress inks rather than just one color.  I stamped each shell and cut and added dimensional tape.  I had an anchor gold charm and I decided to distress with alcohol ink to tone the bright gold down a bit.

The next card I used a cloud background stamp using distress ink.  I then created a hill using torn
paper and added the colorful hot air balloons.

The last card was a little more whimsical.  I stamped the trees background in dark brown chalk ink.
I then pulled out some bird stamps and found this cute little bird which I stamped and added a scalloped frame.  I had My Pink Stamper set which I used for Super Tweet.

New Baby Cards

I love making cards and baby cards are especially fun.  I was checking out my stash of baby stamps and decided to just use a few sentiments and animals to create a few cards.  Do you like to pick up embellishments and stamping goodies on clearance?  I had these alphabet buttons I got for 97 cents on clearance - they were perfect for my sailboat card.

Distress Inks and Embossing

I just love the Ranger distress inks and I pulled out my inks, white embossing powder and versamark ink to create some cool backgrounds.  For card 1 I used peeled paint, wild honey, and tumbled glass.  Card 2 uses peeled paint,crushed olive and mowed lawn.  The last card I made I added wild honey,spiced marmalade and peeled paint.  I also sprinkled a little bit of water, to give a watercolor look to the card.

Scraps make a Card

Last week I was posting pictures of cards I made using my paper scraps.  This card I not only used some scraps of paper, but I also pulled out some embellishments I hadn't used.  I picked up the thank you embellishments on sale and the package wasn't even open:)  I love finding uses for all those odds and ends I have in my craft boxes.

Bumble Bee Thank you card

I started this card by using the negative piece of the heart punches.  I decided to go with yellow and added a black polka dot paper behind the hearts.  I had a piece of vellum sitting on my craft table and thought I'd add a couple of bumble bees.  After I added the heart panel and the sentiment, the card just needed something extra.  I love the way the bees came out.  I added yellow glitter glue to the bumble bee stripes and a crystal glitter powder to the wings.  A few tiny black pearls for the antennas and voila!

Easter Egg Card

I love to find a good inexpensive stamp and create a card using one stamp.  For this card I wanted to use pastel colors for Spring/Easter.  I stamped and embossed the egg on 4 different pastel colored papers and then hand cut.  I used my circle cutter to create the basket.  I cut the circle in half and used a smaller circle to create the handle.  I then ran the basket thru one of my embossing pads using my Sissix BIG kick.  I had some Easter rub-ons and found one that went perfect with the basket and eggs.

Wednesday Day 3 of Using Paper scraps

I decided to make a card with squares of complimentary brown printed papers.  I measured my card and decided to make the squares 1 1/4 inches.  I cut out a label using my Spellbinders die and then embossed and inked just lightly with Rangers distress ink old paper.  I just ordered some new anniversary stamps from Design Rubber Stamps and this sentiment was perfect.  Tomorrow I'm going to go thru those
odds and ends of pieces I intended to use on card and never did.  I have a box full of little tidbits.

Use Your Scraps part 2

As promised, I have another card using the scraps of paper I have left from card making.  I decided to
grab some scraps that I had left over from embossing projects.  I love bright colors, and I decided to
go with some fresh Spring colors.  I used different embossed papers to give my card some variety of texture.  I recently purchased new stamps on clearance and I loved the sentiment.  My Martha Stewart butterfly punch finished off the card nicely with some tiny pearls.  I punched two butterflies and
glued them together to give the illusion of flying.

What to do with your paper scraps?

I decided to challenge myself to come up with new cards using scraps of paper I have leftover from my card making and scrapbooking.  Because St. Patrick's Day is a few weeks away, I decided to start with a green card with a St. Patty's Day theme.  I went thru my green scraps (I separate my paper scraps by color) and picked out some printed paper that coordinated well together.  I then pulled out some of my Irish stamps.

I love using baker's twine, buttons and rhinestones on my cards.  I plan on posting a new card
every day this week using just scraps from my paper leftovers.

Valentine Frame

I recently purchased some Spellbinders Nestabilities - Classic Scalloped hearts and had fun die cutting and embossing all different sizes of hearts.  I had a small frame with a 4 x 6 opening which I painted a baby pink.  I also picked up a Heidi Grace 12 x 12 paper pad called daydream which was discounted and had some lovely double sided prints.  The one I choose has hearts and is a glitter paper which really makes it pop.  I traced the frame onto the paper and cut out using scissors and my trusty exacto knife.  I love Modge Podge for decoupage projects and it worked real well on this frame.  I layers my hearts and added a pearl on top.  I then attached the heart embellishment to my frame - after first adding a coordinating piece of ribbon.  A few pearls on the ribbon added just the right touch.  This would also be lovely for a wedding picture frame.

Cards For Guys

I love using stamps with flower designs and butterflies.  For a more masculine look I decided to create a card a little outside of my comfort zone.  Geometric shapes aren't something I do very often.  For a card with a more masculine feel, I decided to die cut some circles from some printed paper I had from a 6 x 6 card pad from Basic Grey called Shine On.  I also pulled out some stickers from American Crafts.  For the birthday word I used my Create a Critter cartridge from Cricut.

Using My Craft Tools

Where did 2012 go?  I cannot believe we are already nearly 2 weeks into the New Year.  I got married on December 21, 2012 and traveled to North Carolina for the wedding.  Needless to say, December was one heck of a busy month.  Now I am starting 2013 as a married woman just recuperating from the nasty crud of illness that has hit most of the United States.  If you are like me, you see a new craft tool at your local craft store or maybe a stamping/scrapbooking convention.  You purchase this must have goodie and it sits and sits and sits in your craft room.  I've got a lot of tools I bought and some I've forgotten "what do you do with this thing"?  I had purchased a Martha Stewart punch around the page in 2011.  I used one punch a lot as a border punch, but I hadn't used the set.

                                                      DOUBLE LOOPS SET

I found out that you can only use certain size pieces of paper with these punches, using 1 1/4 inch increments.  I used a 3.25 x 5 inch piece of paper for my card.  I experimented on some scrap
paper to get the hang of the punches.  I punched the corners first, and then used the guide on the
large punch to complete punching around the page.  I really love the romantic look of this punch on a Valentine's card I created.   I think I will try a 5.5 x 5.5 square card next, using a 5 x 5 piece of paper to punch.  I'm hoping to continue opening my must have goodies and actually using them for 2013!!