OMGosh - My 1st blog award! :)

Melissa at MisCdaisy just gave me my 1st blog award. I feel so honored, thank you so much Melissa! When you have a chance please visit her blog, she is super sweet and very creative. :)

So I have to let you know 10 things about me and pass the award onto 10 blog that I enjoy. Here it goes...

1) My husband and I will be married 11 years this July.
2) Until I was about 13 I had never lived anywhere longer than 1.5 years (and as short as 3 months)! We traveled for my dad's job.
3) I am addicted to Cricut Cartrigdes - Oh, why isn't there a Self-help book for that! :)
4) I have been scrapbooking for 10 years and just started making cards about 6 months ago. I LOVE it!
5) I am addicted to pomagranates - I eat one almost everyday when they are in season!
6) My husband and I love movies - we have about 150 movies in our collection right now.
7) I also love music (I have eclectic taste - everyone from The Beatles to Aerosmith) but I can't carry a tune in a bucket! No American Idol for me! :)
8) I am also an avid reader. In between crafting and my family I still somehow manage to read about 2 books a week.
9) The most famous person I ever met is Davy Jones from the Monkees - yes, the Monkees! LOL
10) I come from a long line of writers on my dad's side and my husband is always asking me why I don't write a book series like JK Rowling or Stephanie Meyers! :)

Now here are some bloggers who I would like to pass this blog onto...

Cindy at Crazy for Crafting - She is a talented designer and has some great .cut files you can download for the Cricut Design Studio or Gypsy!

Jamie at Cute Cards and Crafts by Jaime - The name says it all, they are cute!

Shelley at Sweet Fancy Scrapbooking - Check her out for some great layout ideas!

Crystal at Sweet Teetle - She is super sweet and has some great projects ideas!

Sara at Live Love and Scrap - Her pages and cards are adorable and she is so nice!

Dawn at Flip Flops and Poptarts - She has some absolutely beautiful layouts!

Jenn at Scrappin Phlen - Check her out for cute, cute, cute projects!

Susan at Scrappy Susan - Her projects are so fun and creative!

Nanne at Nanne's Creations- She has gorgeous, intricate layouts!

Sara at Cricut Addicts Anonymnous - She may be a new blogger but she is so creative!

I also want to make a few honorable mentions - these are blog/sites that I frequent but have just recieved this award. :)

Robyn at My Pink Stamper - She has been a huge inspiration to me (and lots of other crafters, I'm sure)! Check her out if you never have visited her site, you won't be sorry! :)

And last but not least, Nicole at Canadian Nickel Scrap'n and Emma at My Creative Time - Check them out for great projects and videos! Thanks ladies for the inspiration!

Design Studio and new layout!

I just purchased the Cricut Design studio - found it on e-bay for $25 and decided to bite the bullet and get it. :)

I still am not sure if I LOVE it, but I was able to get my words welded and shadowed, which was the main reason I bought it. I tried the trial verson of Sure-Cuts-a-Lot and it is easier to shadow (ok, WAY easier) but it scares me that it could mess up my Cricut machine (and it's 3x the price). So after a good amount of fiddling I completed the title for this page with CDS and Plantin Schoolbook and Alphalicious.

Thanks for looking and have a great day!

Card for Bekah :)

A friend of ours has a little girl with Severe Aplastic Anemia. She is now six years old and had a bone marrow transplant in October. She is fighting a hard battle right now and is back in the hospital on continuous dialysis. Poor thing! I made this card to send to her - they have been hanging cards in her room to try to help cheer her up. I wanted the card to be as bright and cheery as possible, I hope she likes it! :)



The stamps are from Paper Tray Ink - Every Day Button Bits.

Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #60

Here is my entry for this weeks challenges over at The Sweetest Thing and The Pink Elephant Challege. Here is the sketch we're working with for this challange (and the theme challenge is "Spring")...



There's still time to play along, the Sweet Sunday Sketch challenge is open until Thursday at midnight and the Pink Elephant challege is open until Sunday at midnight!

The bird was cut from the Songbird Cricut Cartridge at 2" and I used the Plum Blossom embossing folder from Cuttlebug. The sentiment is from Paper Trey Ink.

Candy-Belly Card Tutorial!

I had a request for detailed instructions on how to make a candy-belly card so I figured I would just do a tutorial for the basic card. I didn't make the shape to put on the front of the card - you can decide what to use later. This is just for the card base and slider. :)

*Be prepared - lots of photos!



Step 1 - Cut an 8.5" x 5.5" piece of card stock and fold in half. Cut a piece of the same card stock to just under 4.25" x 5.5" - it needs to fit inside the front side of your folded card. Put a strip of adhesive just inside of the fold line on your card base. (I am using an OLD tape runner because it's white and easier to see - sorry for the sloppiness.) Place the extra sheet of cardstock onto the adhesive like so...



Now onto the next step...




Step 2 - Cut a 1.25" circle in the front of the card where you want the belly to be - this is the side of the card that has 2 pieces of cardstock. I use the Creative Memories Circle Cutter but you can also use your cricut and the multi-cut function. For the CM cutter you will need to cut the first layer, remove the circle and then cut the second layer. Don't move your cutting guide or the circles won't match up and use FIRM pressure to get a clean cut.




Step 3 - I use the Truffle Candy Mold by Wilton, cut one of the molds out of the tray leaving a .25" lip all the way around for adhesive. I like to use tacky-tape for the cup - it is a powerful hold! :) Place adhesive around the lip of the candy mold (the lip that is on the convex part of the mold) and around the sides of the card. Don't put adhesive on the section of the card where the slider goes - see the photo above.



Step 4 - Cut the piece for the slider at about 1.5" x 4.25" - you can trim any excess after you check the fit. Slide it into the card - it should fit flush with the edge. Once it fits well pull it back out and glue a ribbon onto the end for the pull. Once you decided what shape to use on the front of the card you will need to cut the 1.25" circle out of it before you adhere it to the front of the card. Here is the last card I made....



To add the candy or gum just pull the sider open. Hope you enjoyed it! Let me know if you have any questions.

Oh, I just wanted to add - you don't always have to use the same color cardstock for the inside cover and the card base. In my doll card I used blue for the inside cover and the slider because I wanted to use an edge punch and wanted the contrast. :)

Singing in the rain :)

It has been cold and rainy here so it made me feel like using this adorable umbrella and rain boots from my Paisley Cricut cartridge. I still am not crazy about the color of the card base (light lavander) but I didn't like the other colors I tried. I guess you don't have to LOVE everything about every card you make.... :)

For those that are interested, I cut the umbrella at 3" and the boots at 1.5". Thanks for taking a peek.

Tutorial : Blending colored pencils with baby oil

Hello all! I have been experimenting with a new techique for using colored pencils. I was doing research about how to blend them and found lots of info on using Gamsol or Odorless Mineral Spirits (OMS). The one thing that bothered me was that it has toxic fumes - even if you can't smell it as stongly as other thinners like turpintine. So, I was on a hunt to find something non-toxic as possible. I found a few links that said they had used baby oil - hummm... smells good... used on baby's bum... can't be too toxic, right?

I knew that I had some baby oil somewhere so I dug it out and gave it a try... IT IS SO EASY AND WORKS GREAT!! I had also seen recommendations for Goo-Gone (which I had in the garage) so I tried it too just to compare. In my opinion there is no comparison - the baby oil just works better and easier. I am just using regular old Crayola pencils ($5.99 for 50 at Target)- I think they work just fine and you can't beat the price! :)

So, on to the tutorial...

Here are the supplies you will need....



A stamp
Dye-based or permanent/archival ink
Colored pencils
Baby oil
Blending stubs or q-tips

I like q-tips for larger areas but the blending stumps are the best for the small areas. I have tried ones made in China and Taiwan and don't personally see any difference. (I read a couple of place that the ones from Taiwan work better - go figure!)

Step #1 - Stamp your image.



Step #2 - Color your image. I like to laydown a heavy layer just inside the line, then lightly color the center of the area. Some people only color just inside the line and blend toward the center but I thought it left the center without enough color. You can play around until you get it to look right for you.



Step #3 - Baby oil. I recommend you put a small amount of the oil onto a cotton pad or make-up sponge like in the supply photo above. You just need a little bit and if you dip it directly into the oil your blender will be saturated. You can also blot the tip on a dry paper towel if you feel you picked up too much.

Step #4 - Blend. Rub the tip of the blender across the area with the most pencil first to breakdown the wax. Then, using small circles, blend the color toward the center. Continue blending from the areas of high color toward the center until you like the effect.



My advice - play around before you use it for a project! As long as you are not using too much oil you shouldn't see any oil on your finished product. Good luck and happy coloring! :)

How to make a shape card w/o the Design Studio!

One of my fellow crafters on The Pink Stamper's Facebook page was wondering how to make a shape card if you don't have the design studio. So I did a little research and this is what I came up with. I used a pretty complex cut so it would be a little easier to figure out if your shape was solid. :)

Step ONE - Cut your shape and pieces. Then cut 2 shadows of the shape. The black phones piece are the shadows. Assemble the piece on ONE of the shadows...



Step TWO - Use the plain shawdow piece as the back of your card. You want to score and fold about a 1/2 inch section on one side of the shape to glue to the top layer. For this card I only scored the base of the phone - the cord and handset are glued to the top layer... (This picture only shows the inside and back of the card.)



Now you can write or stamp your greeting on the inside of the card - since this is black I would put a layer of white down before I stamp. :) Let me know if you have any questions. Here's the final basic product!

Caterpiller Greetings

Isn't he cute! My friend Tammy and I bought a pack of paper to split and it had this cute garden-theamed paper that I knew would be just perfect for the little caterpiller from the Walk In My Garden Cricut Cartridge. I also love this sentiment from Paper Trey Ink. :)

Another SSSC #58!

I like this sketch so much I decided that I HAD to make another card! LOL Hope you like it! :)

Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #58

This was such a beautiful Sketch I just had join in. Here is the sketch to follow -




If you'd like to play along the deadline is Thurs, so you still have time... Sweet Sunday Sketch Challange #58

Have a wonderful day!

Get well card. :)

I think this stamp - Sick Lily - by Pink Cat Studios is just so cute! I had so much fun coloring her. :) The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink Stamps.