Paper pieced flowers card

I saw this flower idea on a Scrapbooks Etc. facebook post of a members scrapbook page. I thought it was really cute and wanted to give it a try. I also have been wanting to try this satin ribbon ruffle technique. The really fun lil tidbit about this whole card is the paper is from a Target dollar bin paper set and the satin ribbon is from Dollar tree. Inexpensive but adorable I think, that makes it even more wonderful.

For the flowers I cut 4 circles for one and 3 circles for the other, using my Creative Memories cutters and blades. Then I took my sharp lil Fiskars scissors and cut a totally random wavy pattern around all the circles. Layered them up and added a punched flower from the SU! punch and hold them together with a bright Bo Bunny brad. They are held onto the card with SU! dimensionals.

For the ruffle I adhered some Super Sticky red tape across the top of the card (after I had adhered the bright green paper down first). The red tape does not go all the way to the edges of the card, so the the tails of the ribbon could be loose. Then you just kind of bunch and wiggle the ribbon around haphazard and totally random, and push it down into the tape now and again. For my first attempt I really am happy with how it turned out.

The sentiment stamp is from a Disney princesses stamp set that I got on clearance at Michael's a long time ago. I stamped it in CTMH Hollyhock ink. 

Voila! Bright and beautiful generic card that can be for a get well, a birthday, even a thinking of you and sending happy wishes type card when needed. 

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Valentine treat bag

I told you I would be back with some coordinating treat bags. I used the heart punches from the cards, and my treat bag .cut file originally posted here to make these valentine candy gifts.

Here they are with the coordinating card that I posted earlier.

And the green set. Not loving my doodles on the big hearts, but too late now.

Here is the bag untied, and holding all its chocolaty goodness. It holds a Reese's peanut butter cup, a mini Kit Kat and fun sized Hershey bar and a treat sized Whoppers.

I created this .cut file and offered it to anyone interested. Please leave a comment on this post and I will send it out to you.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Masculine Valentine's cards

Dare I call these masculine cards? Maybe it would be truer to say less feminine cards. Oy! I have such a hard time trying to come up with masculine cards that I truly like. I love my ribbon and stickles and buttons and bows. I do like the non-traditional valentine's colors. I went for my sons favorite colors green and blue and black.

I did a technique I have seen all over the internet but I can not recall one specific spot to give credit, but suffice to say it has been around for a long while, I definitely did not come up with it. The black cardstock is cut to width, punched with a shape and then lined with clear packing tape. Then the chunky glitter (it's got more texture, and I had hoped would be a lil less girly. I think I failed.) is poured over the sticky side of the tape. Voila!
Green is my Jacob's favorite color and the inside of the card says You have my heart! and Happy Valentine's Day.

Here is the same technique with a different punched shapes and color of SU! chunky glitter. The sentiment inside says You make my heart sing and Happy Valentine's Day. For Brandon, who plays piano and loves music.

Stay tuned, I have plans to make some candy gifts to coordinate. After all I have perfectly nice heart shapes and scraps that MUST be used up. ;)

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Valentine's candy and card gift set

This card was inspired by ginghamgirlsadventures.blogspot.com her 01-02-11 post, and the small stack of scraps left from earlier candies and cards sets made with this beautiful BasicGrey bittersweet paper pack. I could not waste a smidgen of this paper. You should have seen me using the SU! trio heart punch to squeeze every last scrap for another heart or circle to use as the scalloped edge. The sentiment is a CTMH stamp and a hot pink button and some bakers twine from my stash and we have a quick and easy Valentine's day gift.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Valentine's heart couple cards

This darling idea came to me via lovetostampandscrap.blogspot.com. But she links up to other blogs and finally to an amazing video tutorial at valitasfreshfolds.blogspot.com, this lady is amazing! I am so envious of creative minds like hers. And extremely thankful for her filming amazing tutorials and sharing them for free on the internet. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
So as is my habit, I went a lil crazy making these adorable couples. I do not have the SU! heart punch and scallop envelope die so I designed the hearts and circles and even the knock off scallop envelope on my Cricut design studio. And my thinking was if I'm going to load up four different colors of cardstock I might as well make multiple cards. Voila! There you have it. Cathy logic in a nut shell.

Couple number 1. Using a Papertrey Ink sentiment stamp and some lovely sheer red with polka dots ribbon.

Here is a view to attempt to show you the layers and pop dot effects. It's really a cool card in person. Very detailed and complex. The background of all four cards is SU! cherry cobbler cardstock stamped with Papertrey Inks background basics texts styles stamp in their fresh snow ink pad. The SU! black cardstock is run through the Cuttlebug with my fave swiss dot embossing folder.

Couple #2. Using SU! sentiment from Three little words set and black polka dot grosgrain ribbon.

Couple #3. Using a Michaels dollar bin sentiment stamp and the same black polka dot grosgrain ribbon.

Couple #4. Using a StampingScrapping.com sentiment stamp and the same ribbon, but an attempt at a tuxedo bow tie effect. I didn't like it so I did not repeat it on the rest.

Three of the cards have Happy Valentine's Day sentiment inside, but this one....this is my favorite. I put the tiny Happy Valentine's Day on the outside and this sweet SU! sentiment on the inside.

I am happy to share my .cut file with anyone who would like it. Please leave a comment on this post (including the obvious, hee hee, but oft forgotten email address please) and I will send it out pronto. I bet you will want to make 1 for your sweetheart, and a few extras to share with less crafty friends or coworkers or strangers on the street if like me you went way overboard. ;)

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Valentine's candies, cards and envelope gift sets

I made 4 Valentine's gift sets here. Using the card inspiration you originally saw me post here. I altered it a bit, making the patterned paper squares larger. Then I made the covered Hershey's nuggets and the gift bag and finally decorated the envelope all with the darling BasicGrey bittersweet paper pack.

Here's a close up. You can see the SU! hearts I punched out of card stock and after layering it on another coordinating cardstock I trimmed it with my scallop scissors and used a pop dot to adhere it to the card. The black and pink pearls used on all are from Want 2 Scrap. The bakers twine bow is the last little embellishment.

Another variation. Also for the nugget baggies I lined the inside back of the bag with a piece of card stock to make the nuggets pop a bit more.  

Variation 3.

And finally variation 4. All similar but just a tiny bit different.

I finished these late last night but didn't have a chance to post. So I am rushing off to my work now. The job that allows me to over indulge in this wonderful hobby. ;)

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Masculine birthday card

I made this card and coordinated envelope for my dear father in law. Tomorrow he turns 89.

I got my design inspiration from this youtube video. Kristina Werner does awesome card videos. I used Making memories 6 x 6 inch paper pad Sydney for the patterned papers here.  It's a great go to guy style since it has almost dress shirt stripes and is masculine without being boring.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Pazzles round top box

This is for you Mom, hope you like it.
This is a simple round top box I saw the tutorial for on scor-pal.com and decided it was an easy enough design I would attempt to design a cut file for it on my new toy. My mom gave me a Pazzles Inspiration for Christmas. It's physically designed so similar to the Cricut Expressions, but improved on a few of the design downfalls. I think it will be awesome. Once I learn the VERY DIFFERENT (read much more difficult) software. It's more difficult because it has so many options and apparently few boundaries. This first design actually went off with no hitches. I was really pleased.

Here is a view of the box from overhead. It's cute, simple but cute. It's about 3 x 4 inches at its base.  

This is a view of the inside after you untie the two pieces of ribbon holding the tabs together.

This was my test cut. I usually test on less expensive white card stock, just to make sure all is well with the design, and then I can't stand to waste it if it does come out right on the first try. So I stamped it with CTMH cranberry red ink in a few different Michaels dollar bin stamps and tied it with pretty ribbon from my Really reasonable ribbon club from last years Valentine's selections.

A close up of the side.

This is the inside of box, another cute dollar bin stamp. Gotta love that. :)

I'm pretty sure I can share Pazzles .wpc files, just like I always share my Cricut .cut files. So if you have a Pazzles and would like to try out this cute lil gift package leave me a comment on this post (don't forget your email address, please) and I will email it out to you. Mom, I wouldn't mind you being my first guinea pig just in case......

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Valentine's treat tote

Whew. I finally finished this lil tote. I have been working on it for a week. After my Christmas vacation craft-a-palooza I think my mojo took a hiatus. It's slow to return.
I have saved this inspiration, from andreawalford.com from her 01-29-09 tutorial video post, for a very long time. I'm so glad I finally got around to making it. Her video is awesome, so easy to follow and create right along with her. Love it!!!

This is just a lil close up of the embellishments on the front. I used the SU! punch and then layered them on coordinating card stock and used my decorative scissors to trim around them with the cutey patooty scalloped edge. I even ran a few hearts through my Cuttlebug with the swiss dot embossing folder.

This is the inside, when the bow is untied the front falls forward for the big reveal. Now Andrea Walford used bottles, but I had seen a tutorial on Split Coast Stamper's I believe, showing how to make your own holders out of scavenged acetate. (Mine came from a few new Cricut cartridge packages that I was lucky enough to get during the Michael's amazing sales, thanks to Brandy!! Thank you, thank you personal shopper extraordinaire.)

I cut the plastic at 3.75 x 6.5 inches and scored at 1.5, 3, 4.5 and 6 inches. Folding at each score and putting some tape along the last tab area you have created a square tube shape. I then cut 4 x 4 inch squares of coordinating card stock, scored it at 1.25 inches on all 4 sides. I used an EK Success border punch along all 4 sides. Then you just assemble the lids with a lil tape and I used ribbon pulls cut at and angle, I lightly singe the edge to keep it from unravelling, and tie a knot in the end and feed it through a tiny hole in the center top of the lid.

Here is a close up of the finished product. It should be full of candy, but I don't have any Valentine's candies yet. So you can use your imagination, or check out Andrea Walfords cute candies.

The papers I used are SU! cherry cobbler and black card stocks, the gingham paper is from DCWV dots, stripes & plaids matstack. All the ribbons are from Really reasonable ribbons. The gorgeous white stitched satin is one of this months ribbon club selections and the black gingham, I loved so much after receiving some in a prior club selection, I bought a whole spool of it.

I'm so glad to be playing with paper again. I hope I will be posting a bit more, soon. One project a week is a lot less then I require for a good therapy replacement regimen. ;)

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Simple scrap thank you cards

I absolutely loved this card design when I first saw it. I still love it now, maybe even more with this gorgeous Basicgrey Wassail patterned paper. I have been hoarding this paper because I love it so much. This way I got to use my favorites in small amounts.

This is a close up of the cards with the green love2scrap.com pearls and CTMH garden green ink.

Here are four more with the red pearls. I paired the Wassail design paper with SU! cherry cobbler cardstock and CTMH cranberry red ink. The stamps are my favorite lil sentiments by Hero arts. I got my bakers twine at a LSS The paper garden, and of course the two snowflake punches are Martha Stewart.

Here is a close up of the cards with the red pearls. This beautiful, simple card design is CASE'd (Copy And Share Everything) from Stopandstamptheroses.blogspot.com her 01-02-11 post, but I encourage you to check out her blog thoroughly because she has fantastic ideas.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!
 

Valentine's card

I can't believe I am making a Valentine's day card already. But I found an adorable card for inspiration and when I started picking my stamps I just gravitated to love themed goodies because of the colors. I found my inspiration at ginghamgirlsadventures.blogspot.com, actually I found tons of inspiration here. Love her style and love her love of black and white and a punch of color. I will be referring back to her blog a lot, I am certain.

This is the inside. I made this card 3.5 x 6.25, my new favorite size for a card. I used CTMH stamps from set D1254 Soul mates in black and holiday red ink.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!

Thank you cards

I am back in my scrappy room, making thank you cards. It's so wonderful to get back in here and play. I had saved a photo of a card from allycatcards.blogspot.com, so I am finally getting around to using it for inspiration for my own cards.

I need 6 cards for friends and coworkers so I decided to somewhat assembly line them, and somewhat personalize them. They are all the same design I just threw in the splash of color to personalize each one.
I dug through my brads and came up with colors that I could have both a larger and 2 smaller brads from. So here you see hot pink, red and yellow.

Here you see a bright green, blue and purple. I made these to fit a different sized envelope, so they are 3.5 x 6.25 inches. Its a fun shape to work with. I first learned of it at a SU! party, my friend Tina (thecrazystamplady.blogspot.com) designed a couple cards to fit this envelope and even advised me I could find the envelopes at Dollar Tree. Score!! Love it. I like the unique shape and getting the envelopes for a deal is awesome.

They are the security type envelopes (you know, with the ugly blue pattern on the inside so that others can not read through the envelope) so I decided to decorate them a bit to make them prettier and coordinating. I think they came out pretty cool.

I think it is awesome to be crafting on the first day of the new year. It's a good start to a fabulous 2011. Happy New Year to you.

Find inspiration everywhere! Go... Create something fun & fabulous. Enjoy!