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!

Go-To Sentiment Card

I've been meaning to post this card all week and time has just gotten away from me!  Last Monday was the start of "Make It Mondays" from Papertrey Ink.  The first challenge is to make a Go-To Sentiment card.  I only have five PTI stamp sets right now and four of them are Christmas oriented so my card had to have a winter theme.  Here is what I created!

Paper: DCWV Christmas Combo Stack
Stamps: Big & Bold Holiday Wishes, On Ice, & Friendship Jar Holiday Fillers
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Broken China, Memories Baby Blue & Dew Drop Brilliance Platinum Planet
Shape cut on Cricut

My Final PTI Card Today

This is it! my last card for PTI's anniversary challenge Day #2. 

For this card I used the lovely hearts created by Lisa Johnson.

If you are familiar with my blog you know that I am obsessed with SVG Cuts!  They have great SVGs for free and to purchase for use with your Cricut and Sure Cuts A Lot software.  This fantastic dino image was a free file!  He is supposed to be holding a heart, but I think this image by Lisa Johnson is much better!  I colored the hearts with Copics and used Glossy Accents on the big heart and Stickles on the smaller one.  I also added some perfect pearls to the rest of the circle.

Making these cards with the freebie's was so much fun.  I loved having a challenge to do and only about 24 hours to do it!  I am looking forward to using these tags in future projects.

Another PTI Card

I wanted to make more cards using the free stamps from PTI for their anniversary challenge today.  Here is the card I made using the adorable rainbow and sentiment by Melissa Bickford.

 

I made this card out of random paper I had laying around.  I colored the rainbow with Copics and then used a VersaMarker to wet the image and embossed it with clear embossing powder.  It really added a lot of shine! The sentiment is from a bunch of old stamps my mother-in-law gave me - it says (c) D.O.T.S. on it.  I also inked around the edges of the card with Niagra Mist VersaMagic ink.  

Papertrey Ink Anniversary Challenge #2

I decided to check Nichole Heady's blog before I went to bed... and today's challenge literally got me too excited to sleep!  It is going on 3am and I want to keep crafting.  

Today's challenge is to make a card using one of the great free 4th Anniversary tags created by Papertrey's amazing design team!  I chose to use the tag designed by Dawn McVey.  I love love love her designs!  Here is her tag:

And here is my card:

I embossed the background with the Diamonds Sizzix Texturz plate and used a nail file to buff the raised parts to add more visual dimension.  The shapes around the tag I cut out on the Cricut.   The sentiment stamp is from PTI's Friendship Jar Holiday Fillers stamp set.  You can't tell from the photo but Dawn's circle is raised by foam dimensions and with the blue ring around it the tag really pops!  

You have until 7am tomorrow (2/7/11) to enter this challenge... and you can enter up to 9 times by using all 9 of the tags made by PTI's design team.  If I wasn't so tired I would keep making them tonight.  Maybe I'll be able to fit in another one or so later on in the day!  

Papertrey Ink 4th Anniversary Celebration!

If you haven't been able to tell yet from my previous posts, I LOVE PAPERTREY INK!! They are simply the best place to purchase stamps.  They are celebrating their 4th anniversary right now, and having great festivities along the way.  To follow along check out Nichole Heady's blog.

The first contest is for the world's most AMAZING prize aptly called the "Ultimate Card Kit", which includes: 22 stamp sets, 20 dies/die collections, felt, ribbon, buttons, cardstock and more (over $700 worth of fabulous stuff)!!  I never win anything... but I couldn't pass up this chance!  To enter this contest you have to post your favorite card from 2010 made using Papertrey products.  Here is my favorite creation.

The Papertrey product used in this card are the Candy Canes from Friendship Jar Holiday Fillers and the sentiment from my favorite holiday stamp set On Ice.   The candy canes are colored with Copic R29.  I cut out the trim and banner (created myself!) on my Cricut and the background was embossed in the Sizzix dots folder.  This picture doesn't really do this card justice.  It looks simple on here, but in person the candy canes visually pop right off the card.  I loved the way this card came out... and I love the stamps I used! 

 I made all my Christmas cards this year using Papertrey stamps and dies.  I posted photos of them in an earlier post which you can see here.