Fishing boy

Today's card is based on the current sketch at Stella Says Sketch and uses an adorable Bugaboo digital stamp. I coloured him using Copic markers and the background was created using Dylusions ink sprays (aren't the colours gorgeous!). I love the blues on the bottom of the paper (suggests water) coupled with the browns/reds & green on the top (reminds me of the woods in Autumn). I chose an embossing folder from Cuttlebug for the kraft card base - I think the folder is supposed to be a space design but I thought it was suggestive of ripples in water. I plan to use the card as a thank you for my Dad (he recently helped me with a whole bunch of work around my house). He's an avid fisherman so I think he'll like this little guy.

Challenges:

• Little Red Wagon - kraft
• Paper Crafting Journey - kraft
• Pause Dream Enjoy - 3 of something (3 brads)
• Simon Says Stamp & Show - a bit of brown
• Stella Says Sketch - sketch 

I'm the mother of a 9-yr old?

Every once in awhile I'm shocked to realize how time is just flying by ... today is definitely one of those days! My baby boy (and don't tell him I called him that) turns 9 years old today! Where has all the time gone? It seems like he was my precious little baby one day and then suddenly he became this person with attitude, ideas of his own, and interests that are completely separate from me.

Well you're not reading my blog to hear my whining, right? So here is a card to share.

Luke's favourite game right now is an iPod app called "Jetpack Joyride" so I decided to base his birthday card on that game. I searched the internet and found a picture of the "Jetpack Joyride" character. I printed off 2 copies of him, and then cut him out, popped up the head and hands separately (for a 3D effect) as well as part of the jetpack flame and used this for my central embellishment. The sentiment is computer generated using a font, style and colour that matches the game graphics as closely as I could. The card base has been sitting in my drawer for over a year and is embossed using a Cuttlebug folder. The star circle is a brand-new die from Marianne's Designs that I picked up on the weekend. All in all, it worked out pretty well. My one regret is that I didn't lightly ink the edges of the jetpack man so that the white cut edges weren't so clear. But what really matters is that Luke was amazed and thrilled at receiving the card!

Challenges:
Alphabet Challenge - "D" for dry embossing
Crafty Creations - games
Crazy Challenge - add a sentiment
Creative Belli - 3 shapes (circle card, stars in die cut, long ovals on background)
Fussy and Fancy - anything but a square/rectangle
Love to Create - masculine
Simon Says Stamp - anything goes
Shopping Our Stash - circles or dots
Southern Girls - cards with sentiment
Tuesday Throwdown - outside the box (image outside of the frame)

Green Christmas tags

I meant to share these earlier but got hung up with the kids and fighting a cold. So, finally, here are some very simple Christmas tags that I made using a somewhat unusual material.

Can you guess what the embossed silver is? It's the underside of the foil lids for Pringles potato chips! We were supposed to give out Pringles at Halloween but somehow almost all the cans were leftover and so the kids and dear hubby have been eating them. I've saved all the cannisters too although I haven't made anything with them quite yet.

For the tags, I first cut the foil into circles and then embossed using a couple of different Cuttlebug folders. This stuff embossed very easily - it didn't even have to go through the machine. I wanted to keep the tags very simple so I just glued the foil circles onto a scalloped circle of cardstock. Then a scrap of ribbon attached with a brad, and I was pretty much done. I decided that the holly embossed tags looked a bit too plain though so I used Copic markers to add a shadow of colour to the embossed images. I think the addition of the colour really makes those tags pop.
Super simple, and practically free. I just love repurposing in my crafts! I also love that the tags could be hung on the tree too - the silver foil really reflects the lights (in fact, I had a terrible time getting pictures that were clear because of the reflections).

Challenges:
Dutch Dare - Christmas tag or ornament
Fussy and Fancy - anything but a card
Crafty Cardmakers - tags
Critter Sketch - no patterned paper
Cooking it up with Katie - favourite technique (dry embossing), ribbon & brads
Copic Creations - sparkle
Simon Says Stamps - silver, white & blue
Pile it on - gift wrapping & tags

I was in a primary colour mood last night and so created a bright, cheerful birthday card that I can keep handy for my son to use for one of his friends.

The first step was colouring the birthday bear (such a cutie from Doodle Dragon Studios) with Copics, then adding some Glossy Accents to the letters and balloons. I printed off a second image so that I could cut out the box and front balloons and pop them up for extra dimension.

I chose the current sketch challenge from Midnight Madness for my card design:

I challenged myself to use no design paper - instead I took plain cardstock and dug through my (too large) collection of embossing folders. Then I added a border punched with a Martha Stewart border punch. Finally, I created 2 embellishments by cutting one column of loops (cut with the border punch) and adding a brad in the centre. The final result is a bright, fun card with lots of energy.

Challenges:
Midnight Madness - sketch
Creative Belli Blog - numbers (I dug out an embossing folder of numbers for the bottom left panel)
Fab n Funky - use a digi image
Stamp Something - something punchy (border punch used for 2 borders and embellishments)
Create 4 Fun - use a digi image
Doodle Dragon Studio - masculine (birthday card for a boy)
Pile It On - 3 things (used 3 embossing folders)

End of year Teacher gifts

I can't believe it's the end of the school year already. Last day of school is tomorrow so this past weekend was a flurry of trying to finish teacher gifts. Thank goodness for my friend Jacqui who let me crash at her place all weekend. It's so much easier to get stuff done without kids and cats getting in the way. It was also great having someone to bounce ideas off of. I'm really pleased with how both of these gifts worked out and Jacqui definitely deserves part credit.

I purchased a couple of these wooden boxes/bags from Michaels and altered them using paper, chipboard and stickers. This box is covered with Basic Grey "Green at Heart" papers (the red floral on front & back with the dotted on the sides). All of the edges are liberally sanded to smooth the edges and give a worn/shabby chic look. The flowers on the handle are thicker stickers with coloured brads in the centres. The rest of the embellishments, including the tag, are from the "Green at Heart" thicker sticker set. The tag is attached with a scrap of twine from Jacqui's amazing ribbon stash. I will be filling the box with tissue paper and candies.

This box is covered with Basic Grey and Imaginesce "Teacher's Pet" papers. The front & back is covered in the orange/red paper with a strip of a second pattern on the sides. I'm in love with the flowers and very pleased with myself as this was a first attempt at quilling. I used the brand-new Cuttlebug quilling set (carnation). What a cool set - I used the dies to cut 3 quilling strips from the striped Imaginesce paper. I wasn't sure how it would look but I'm quite pleased with the final result. My only mistake was using a white-cored paper for the inner core which meant the flower centres were white. I tried using a yellow Copic marker to colour it in but wasn't impressed so I ended up adding a yellow pearl to each centre. The tag is a recycled tag from a purse that I bought this weekend. I simply covered it with matching paper (the same paper used for the flowers) and re-punched the hole.

One or both of these boxes are being entered into the following challenges:

• 
  
  Everybody Art Challenge - pink & green
• 
  
  ABC Challenge - "X" is for eXtra diminsion
• 
  
  CCEE Challenges - summertime plus flowers
• 
  
  Incy Wincy - things with wings (the owl on the first project)
• 
  
  Corrosive Challenges - lots of flowers (flowers in the paper, quilled flowers)
• 
  
  Pile it on - do something fancy, cool, extravagant with your paper (the quilled flowers)
• 
  
  Practical Scrappers - flowers
• 
  
  Cute Card Thursday - renew, reuse, recycle (recycled tag)
• Totally Gorjuss - gift bag

Pop-up Princess Card

I've recently discovered a British crafting magazine called "Papercraft Essentials" (http://www.papercraftessentials.co.uk). Each issue comes with freebies (papers plus some sort of embellishments). I don't particularly like the style of most of the cards shown but the techniques and explanations are just excellent!

I wanted to make a special birthday card for my son's friend and I found the perfect project in the magazine, issue #43. Not only is the card pretty impressive but it also made use of severl of my favorite things - cricut, cuttlebug, and glitter. The card closes flat and is held shut with a chain, but when opened the castle inside pops up.



So, how to make this fun & impressive card?

Step by step (all measurements metric):

1. Create your card base by scoring a 15x30cm piece of cardstock at 5cm, 9.5cm, 10cm, 20cm, 20.5cm and 25cm.

2. Create a pop-up using cricut Design Studio software and the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge. Select the castle and stretch to 10.472cm by 5.527cm, and cut. I then embossed the castle using the Fiskars stone texture plate and my cuttlebug. Score-fold at 5cm, 7.5cm and 10cm on either side of the centre.

3. Concertina-fold each side so the centre section sticks out to the front, then glue the ends to the card (careful to line up the folds).

4. Decorate as desired. I used the Paper Doll Dress Up cartridge to cut out a paper doll, clothes and accessories. I added some glitter and bling to the crown and dress and stamped a cute little pumpkin carriage (Snag 'Em Stamps) behind the castle.

Make-it-yourself Prima-type Flowers

I had the opportunity to try the ideas from Valita's blog to make some prima-type flowers. I played around for awhile and ended up with the following flower. I think it worked out pretty well!


Supplies:

Cuttlebug
Embossing tool
Embossing pad
Handmade cardstock
Cuttlebug cutting dies - Flowers and/or Asterisks*
*(you could also use flower punches)


Directions:

1. Cut out your flower shape on the Cuttlebug. Use the standard sandwich of A+B+die+paper+B.




2. Score lines down the center of each petal section then fold up in order to give a good crease.



3. Lay your flower on an embossing pad or piece of foam. Move the embossing tool (larger ball end) in a circular motion all around the edges of the petals. You will see the petal edges start to curl inwards.



4. When you are happy with the amount of curling, turn the flower over and press firmly in the center to make the flower “pop up”.

Variations:


If using a thicker cardstock like Bazzil, crumple the paper well, then smooth flat, prior to cutting out your shape (see picture to right).

If using a thicker cardstock you can also try peeling the paper apart into two layers.


Thanks to Valita of “Valitasfreshfolds.blogspot.com” for the initial idea. Check out her website for tonnes of great ideas!

I'm in love with Core'dinations cardstock

I have spent some time using the Core'dinations ColorCore Cardstock with my Cuttlebug and I am sooooo thrilled with the results. After embossing the image on the cardstock, I use my sanding block and voila! I love how the interior of the paper is a lighter shade which really highlights the embossed image.

This first card isn't quite finished - I have to decide on a sentiment. But I love how the image coordinates with the prima flower. I used a paper scrap to create the "ribbon" behind the image.



These are among my favorite Christmas cards. Very simple design but still impactful. I used the Cuttlebug Winter Houses folder for the main image. The "HoHoHo" text was embossed (on the Cuttlebug) using a metal tag. I used the Holly folder to create the accent (after embossing the holly, I cut out a single cluster and gently sanded) and a few spare beads stolen from the kids' stash.

Christmas is coming

My friend Jacqui & I spent a very productive weekend making Christmas cards. Not all of the cards worked out but these 3 are favorites.








And finally, I completed this card in answer to a splitcoaststampers card sketch challenge. I'm not totally happy with it (I can't help but think the flower looks like a sliced apple) but I do like the way the inked embossing looks.

It's going to be a sparkly Christmas

A wonderful side effect of my Cuttlebug is that I've started using a couple of things again that I haven't touched in years. After finding out that my brass stencils work with the Cuttlebug, I decided to do some experimenting. This card worked out absolutely fabulously (if I say so myself).



To get this look, tape down your brass stencil with removable tape. Spread translucent embossing paste over the stencil ensuring you scrape off any extr. Lift stencil straight off. Cover with glitter (shake off excess). Let dry.



This is a fun mixed card using glitter for the stripes and a bit of glitter glue around the edges of the scalloped circle. And no card is complete without Fluffes!

It's a Cuttlebug Christmas

I've been going a bit crazy lately with my Cuttlebug. I've created quite a few Christmas cards using basic embossing as well as some ink resist.

These first cards were done with plain white cardstock embossed with the snowflakes folder. I used a Fluffles stamp (so incredibly cute!) and my scallop circle punch for colour.



This next card is just an embossed circle with a cute penguin sticker I had laying around. Nothing fancy.


I love the way this card worked out. I simply embossed two pieces of white cardstock with the ornaments folder. I used one piece for the main card, and then cut a 2" square and matted it for the accent.



Next I decided to try something a bit more complicated. Here are the basic steps (although there are lots of other "how to's" on the internet) and two of the cards I created.

1. Using plain white cardstock, dab stamping ink all over card. Then smear a lighter colour of stamping ink onto the card to give a two-toned look. Keep dabbing and smearing until you are happy with the look.
2. Wait until the card is completely dry! This is absolutely essential.
3. Run the card through your cuttlebug using the embossing folder of your choice.
4. Use your brayer to add clear embossing ink to the raised areas of your card. Add preferred colour of embossing powder (shake off excess).
5. Use heat gun to emboss the raised areas.
6. Admire your final product!

The colours on this card didn't photograph well - they are much more red than pink in real life.