Spring Birthday Card

Tomorrow is my Aunt's birthday.  I always remember her birthday because it is on April Fools Day!  I made this card for her today.  I am heading to the post office as soon as I post this... I sure hope she gets it tomorrow!  

Products Used

PTI: Tulip - Friendship Jar Spring Fillers set, sentiment - Mega Mixed Messages set

Hampton Art: Border Backround stamp(script background)

Ink:  Tea Dye Distress Ink, Memento Rich Cocoa

Border Punch: Martha Stewart Doily Lace

Colored with Copic Markers, BV00, BV04, YG11, YG63

New Home Card

It is SNOWING... again.  And not just a little.  The ground is covered and it is coming down heavy. I am most definitely not a fan.  The saying is "if you don't like the weather in Ohio, wait five minutes and it will change".  The last two months this has been very true.  We have had weather in the 60's one day and heavy snow the next.  I am whole heartedly ready for Spring!!

 Anyways - My oldest friend and her fiancée just moved into their first home. 

 I am SO incredibly happy for them so I made them this card.   

 I couldn't find a house SVG file that I liked so I created this house in Adobe Illustrator. 

 It was my first real attempt at making my own SVG file, so I'm happy with how it came out.  

Well that's all for today.  Hopefully I will have something better to post tomorrow. 

 I need some sunshine, this snow really dampened my spirits! 

Spring Butterfly Card

Lately it has beautiful and sunny outside... but absolutely frigid! 

So I decided to make a card that looks warm and Springy!  

Challenge: Res-Q Challenge Blog's Scrub it Up challenge

Inspiration: The butterfly scrubs, purple, blue and green

How I made this card: I started with white card stock, freehanded some cloud templates and used Tim Holtz Faded Jeans and Tumbled Glass distress inks to color the sky.  Using SCAL I cut out the butterfly image, which was from the free font aptly called Butterflies.  You can find the font here.  I created the butterfly bodies using the basic shapes in SCAL.  The grass border was a freebie file from Pigtails Paper Trails. I inked up the edges of the grass, added some crystal stickles to the wings and wa-la! A spring card that makes me yearn for warmer temperatures!

The Invitations

My mom helped me make the invitations for my brother's party.  First we printed out the info on the regular inkjet printer, then we stamped and embossed the flower.  We colored the flowers using Prismacolor pencils and then used odorless mineral spirits to blend the colors. The mineral spirits melt the pencil wax.  Here is a video where you can learn more about this technique if you are interested. 

Here is a view of the front and back:

We also printed the driving directions and made our own rsvp postcards.  While my mom and I stamped and colored, my hubby helped by assembling the invitations.  My dad supervised. :P  He was tired (as you can see he is yawning) from all the time he had spent making paper flowers - which you can see in the post below. 

Two posts in two days! I'm on a roll!! I'll be back tomorrow with some cards I made recently.  I'm off to make some centerpieces for the party - which I will share later in the week.  Have a great Monday!

Paper Flowers

I have been super busy working on a party my mom and I are throwing for my brother and his wife.  They got married in California in December, and since our side of the family primarily resides in Ohio, we are giving them a party here in Ohio at the end of April to celebrate.  I have been working like a crazy person on the center pieces, invitations, random decorations, photo albums, etc etc etc.  Since this isn't going to be a "reception" (they had a real reception in California following the wedding) we are having a Spring themed party.  The decorations are Spring flowers and bright spring-y colors.  

We decided to make paper flowers using my digital cutter, so I purchased 27 flower svgs from SVGCuts.  Here is a close up of one of each flower I made.  I think they are beautiful!  

We need a TON of these flowers to be able to decorate all the tables at the party. So, I have enlisted the help of my father, who is very artistic, to help me assemble them all.  I am very lucky to have such a great helper! Thanks Dad! 

Each of the flowers has many parts, with some flowers having more than ten layers each!  Using an upside down mouse pad and stylus, we cupped each of the petals and center pieces.  We also inked the edges, painted and used colored pencils to get the desired effect.  

Here are some of the flowers we were able to make in a weekend.  

They take a long time, but they turned out fantastic and they were actually enjoyable to make.    

I will be posting more decorations and such for this party soon!  It is all consuming at the moment. 

I hope you enjoy the pictures and that they get you in the mood for SPRING!  

Provo Craft Lawsuit against SCAL

When checking in on my favorite blog SVGCuts, I learned that ProvoCraft (makers of the Cricut) has filed a lawsuit against CraftEdge (makers of Sure Cuts a Lot software).  If you love SCAL and want to learn more check out the article on SVGCuts and an article from Scrapbook Update here. I was enraged and wrote ProvoCraft the following email:


"I have just read that you're suing CraftEdge.  If it was not for Sure Cuts A Lot software I would NEVER have purchased my Cricut Expression in the first place... and I am not alone. Imagine how many fewer machines you would have sold if it was not for SCAL. And the sales of mats, cartridges, tools, blades, etc that where made because of SCAL users.

CraftEdge has provided scrappers/crafters the ability to design their own files to be cut. That was the reason for my purchasing the Expression and SCAL.  It appears to me that PC is upset that SCAL allows users the ability to purchase and create cut files that PC does not profit from. I find this insulting. All you can do with a Cricut cartridge is Manipulate, not Create. I love SCAL because it allows me to use my Cricut as a digital cutter for my creations and others that I purchase, instead of a glorified (and ridiculously expensive) die cutting machine.

I am angry that I have purchased the Expression, multiple mats, tons of blades, tools and cartridges from you.  SCAL did not stop me from purchasing PC products.  In fact it was the reason I use my Cricut almost daily for all my crafts.

By purchasing SCAL I was not trying to manipulate the system or get something for free.  I, along with all my fellow SCAL users, was trying to use my own creativity and expand the versatility of my $500 investment.  The most irritating thing is that YOU could have offered these services to your loyal customers.  The machine has more capability then you allow for with your cartridges and Design Studio.

You should have embraced SCAL! Instead you only lost the respect and loyalty of a large part of your market.  I, along with many others, will invest my money elsewhere."

I know that one email from me doesn't mean anything, but if you also love SCAL and are as irritated as me, please email them too.

On a happier note, I have a TON of new stuff to share on my blog.  I didn't mean to stay away for so long.  It has been a whirlwind month!  But I will be posting very soon!