A Second Blogger Award - Can you believe it?! :)

Thanks to Shelly at Heartstring Designs I have been awarded a 2nd Beautiful Blogger Award! She is so sweet and unbelievably creative - please visit her blog for yourself!

Since I just recently bored everyone one with 10 things about me I won't list 10 more and move on to more blogs that I visit - I'm sure you will enjoy them too!

Tammy at Tammy's Place - She has some beautiful work for you to take a peek at!

Karen at The Sweetest Thing - Her cards are adorable and she has a great new sketch for you to try every Sunday!

Marissa at Rosemary Reflections - Her cards are amazing, enjoy!

Megan at Picture Perfect Creations - It's always fun to see her creative takes on different card challages!

Marureen at Buttons and Bling - Her creations are so beautiful!

Annette at My Paper Trail - If you love your Cricut and/or mini albums you'll love her site!

Please leave a comment and/or join these blogs if you enjoy them - It really makes the owners day, I promise! :)

"Just Because" Cards Cartridge and a gate card!

I received the new "Just Because" Cards Cricut Cartridge in the mail a few days ago and was just dying to play with it. I also wanted to try a new card design - gate cards or tri-fold cards. So here is my 1st attempt...



The truck is cut at 3.75" and the words "A little pick up for you" are cut at 3.5". I used my Nestabilities Deckled rectangles for the base of the truck.

For those of you who have never made a gate card her are the dimentions - 8.5" wide x 5.5" tall. Fold each side in 2 1/8" to meet in the middle - there are a couple of ways to do this. I made a prototype that I measured each side, scored it and then folded it and one that I just found the middle at 4.25" and brought each side in to meet at that point. I think that it is easier to mark the middle and fold in - if you have a scorepal or a very accurate measuring guide you might do better than I did with the 1st option (my sides overlapped a little).

Oh, and I found this out by trial and error. With "Just Because" Cards you have to figure all of your cuts by the size of the card. You can't use the real dial size button either - the layers won't be the right size. I start off with around a 4.5" cut for most shapes and then go up or down from there - keep some scrap paper handy. It might be kind of a pain but it's so worth it, don't you agree? :)

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. :)